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diff --git a/40482-8.txt b/40482-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ae14cc7..0000000 --- a/40482-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13009 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Meaning of Faith, by Harry Emerson Fosdick - -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/license - - -Title: The Meaning of Faith - -Author: Harry Emerson Fosdick - -Release Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #40482] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEANING OF FAITH *** - - - - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chris Pinfield and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - -Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Daily quotations from -published prayers, which are italicised here and in the original, have -been indented. - -Bolding is indicated by =equal signs=. Daily quotations from -Scripture, which are bolded here and in the original, have also been -indented. - -Small capitals have been rendered in upper case. - -Inconsistencies in spelling (e.g. "Savior" and "Saviour") and in -hyphenation have been retained. - -In the two chemical formulae in Chapter 4 "^" is followed by a -superscript and "_" by a subscript. - -Minor changes have been made to the format of biblical references; and -corrections made to apparent punctuation errors elsewhere in the text. - - - - -The Meaning of Faith - - - HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK - AUTHOR OF "THE MANHOOD OF THE MASTER," "THE MEANING OF PRAYER," - "THE CHALLENGE OF THE PRESENT CRISIS," ETC. - - ASSOCIATION PRESS - NEW YORK: 347 MADISON AVENUE - 1922 - - - COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY - THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF - YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS - -Printed in the United States of America - -The Bible Text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard -Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, -and is used by permission. - - - TO - MY MOTHER - IN MEMORIAM - - - "_'Tis human fortune's happiest height to be - A spirit melodious, lucid, poised, and whole; - Second in order of felicity - To walk with such a soul._" - - - - -PREFACE - - -A book on faith has been for years my hope and intention. And now it -comes to final form during the most terrific war men ever waged, when -faith is sorely tried and deeply needed. Direct discussion of the war -has been purposely avoided; the issues here presented are not confined -to those which the war suggests; but many streams of thought within -the book flow in channels that the war has worn. Since the conflict -had to come, I am glad for this book's sake that it was not written -until it had Europe's holocaust for a background. - -Against one misunderstanding the reader should be guarded. If anyone -approaches these studies, expecting to find detailed and special views -of Christian doctrine, he will be disappointed. The perplexities of -mind and life and the affirmations of religious faith, with which -these studies deal, lie far beneath sectarian doctrinal controversy. I -have tried to make clear a foundation on which faith might build its -thoughts of Christian truth. And while I have spoken freely of God and -Christ and the Spirit, of the Cross and life eternal, I have not -intended or endeavored a complete theology. I have had in mind that -elemental matter of which Carlyle was thinking when he wrote: "The -thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain -concerning his vital relations to the mysterious Universe, and his -duty and destiny there, _that_ is in all cases the primary thing -for him, and creatively determines all the rest. _That_ is his -religion." - -As in "The Meaning of Prayer," the Scripture has been used for the -basis and interpretation of the daily thought. The Bible is our -supreme record of man's experience with faith; it recounts in terms of -life faith's sources and results, its successes and failures, its -servants and its foes. And because faith is not a _tour de force_ -of intellect alone, but is an act of life, prayers have been used for -the expression of aroused desire and resolution. - -My indebtedness to many helpers is very great. But to my friend and -colleague, Professor George Albert Coe, my gratitude is so definitely -due for his careful reading of the manuscript, that the book should -not go out lacking an acknowledgment. - - H. E. F. - December 15, 1917. - - - - -ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - - -Special acknowledgment is gladly made to the following: to E. P. -Dutton & Company for permission to use prayers from "A Chain of Prayer -Across the Ages" and from "The Temple," by W. E. Orchard, D.D.; to the -Rev. Samuel McComb and the publishers for permission to quote from "A -Book of Prayers," Copyright, 1912, Dodd, Mead & Company; to the -American Unitarian Association for permission to draw upon "Prayers," -by Theodore Parker; to the Pilgrim Press and the author for permission -to use selections from "Prayers of the Social Awakening," by Dr. -Rauschenbusch; to the Missionary Education Movement for permission to -make quotations from "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. Diffendorfer; to -Fleming H. Revell Co., for permission to make use of "A Book of Public -Prayer," by Henry Ward Beecher; and to the publishers of James -Martineau's "Prayers in the Congregation and in College," Longmans, -Green & Co. - -None of the above material should be reprinted without securing -permission. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - PREFACE vii - - I. FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE 1 - - II. FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH 26 - - III. FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD 51 - - IV. BELIEF AND TRUST 77 - - V. FAITH'S INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 103 - - VI. FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE 129 - - VII. FAITH AND SCIENCE 158 - - VIII. FAITH AND MOODS 184 - - IX. FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD 210 - - X. FAITH IN CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS 237 - - XI. FAITH IN CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER 263 - - XII. THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH 289 - - SCRIPTURE PASSAGES USED IN THE DAILY READINGS 316 - - SOURCES OF PRAYERS USED IN THE DAILY READINGS 317 - - - - -PUBLISHERS' NOTE - - -The complex subject of Faith has required an extended treatment, which -has made the present volume much longer than the author's previous -works. Every item of expense connected with publishing has greatly -increased even within the past few months, and, to the regret, alike -of publisher and author, it has been found necessary to charge more -for this volume than for "The Meaning of Prayer" and "The Manhood of -the Master." - - - - -CHAPTER I - -Faith and Life's Adventure - - -DAILY READINGS - -Discussion about faith generally starts with faith's _reasonableness_; -let us begin with faith's _inevitableness_. If it were possible -somehow to live without faith, the whole subject might be treated -merely as an affair of curious interest. But if faith is an -unescapable necessity in every human life, then we must come to terms -with it, understand it, and use it as intelligently as we can. _There -are certain basic elements in man which make it impossible to live -without faith._ Let us consider these, as they are suggested in the -Epistle to the Hebrews, which, better than any other book in the -Bible, presents faith as an unavoidable human attitude. - - -First Week, First Day - - =Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things - not seen.--Heb. 11:1.= - -As Moffatt translates: "Now faith means we are confident of what we -hope for, convinced of what we do not see." When faith is described in -such general terms, its necessity in human life is evident. Man cannot -live without faith, because he deals not only with a past which he may -know and with a present which he can see, but with a _future in whose -possibilities he must believe_. A man can no more avoid looking ahead -when he lives his life than he can when he sails his boat, and in one -case as in the other, his direction is determined by his thought about -what lies before him, his "assurance of things hoped for." Now, this -future into which continually we press our way can never be a matter -of demonstrable knowledge. We know only when we arrive, but meanwhile -we believe; and our knowledge of what is and has been is not more -necessary to our quest than our faith concerning what is yet to come. -As Tennyson sings of faith in "The Ancient Sage": - - "She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst, - She feels the sun is hid but for a night, - She spies the summer thro' the winter bud, - She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, - She hears the lark within the songless egg, - She finds the fountain where they wail'd 'Mirage'!" - -However much a man may plan, therefore, to live without faith, he -cannot do it. When one strips himself of all convictions about the -future he stops living altogether, and active, eager, vigorous manhood -is always proportionate to the scope and power of reasonable faith. -The great spirits of the race have had the aspiring, progressive -quality which the Scripture celebrates: - - =These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but - having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed - that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say - such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of - their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from - which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But - now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God - is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared - for them a city.--Heb. 11:13-16.= - - _Almighty God, let Thy Spirit breathe upon us to quicken in us all - humility, all holy desire, all living faith in Thee. When we meditate - on the Eternal, we dare not think any manner of similitude; yet Thou - art most real to us in the worship of the heart. When in the strife - against sin we receive grace to help us in our time of need, then art - Thou the Eternal Rock of our salvation. When amid our perplexities - and searchings, the way of duty is made clear, then art Thou our - Everlasting Light. When amid the storms of life we find peace and - rest through submission, then art Thou the assured Refuge of our - souls. So do Thou manifest Thyself unto us, O God!_ - - _Our Heavenly Father, we give Thee humble and hearty thanks for all - the sacred traditions which have come down to us from the past--for - the glorious memories of ancient days, concerning that Divine light - in which men have been conscious of Thy presence and assured of Thy - grace. But we would not content ourselves with memories. O Thou who - art not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, manifest - Thyself unto us in a present communion. Reveal Thyself unto us in the - tokens of this passing time. Give us for ourselves to feel the - authority of Thy law: give us for ourselves to realize the exceeding - sinfulness of sin: give us for ourselves to understand the way of - salvation through sacrifice. Teach us, by the Spirit of Christ, the - sacredness of common duties, the holiness of the ties that bind us to - our kind, the divinity of the still small voice within that doth ever - urge us in the way of righteousness. So shall our hearts be renewed - by faith; so shall we ever live in God. Amen._--John Hunter. - - -First Week, Second Day - - =By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place - which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not - knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land - of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac - and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for - the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is - God.--Heb. 11:8-10.= - - =By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son - of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with - the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; - accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures - of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he - forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as - seeing him who is invisible.--Heb. 11:24-27.= - -Man cannot live without faith because his relationship with the future -is an affair not alone of thought but also of action; _life is a -continuous adventure into the unknown_. Abraham and Moses pushing out -into experiences whose issue they could not foresee are typical of all -great lives that have adventured for God. "By faith" is the first word -necessary in every life like Luther's and Wesley's and Carey's. By -faith John Bright, when his reforms were hard bestead, said: "If we -can't win as fast as we wish, we know that our opponents can't in the -long run win at all." By faith Gladstone, when the Liberal cause was -defeated, rose undaunted in Parliament, and said, "I appeal to time!" -and by faith every one of us must undertake each plain day's work, if -we are to do it well. Robert Louis Stevenson said that life is "an -affair of cavalry," "a thing to be dashingly used and cheerfully -hazarded." But so to deal with life demands faith. The more one sees -what venturesome risks he takes every day, what labor and sacrifice he -invests in hope of a worthy outcome, with what great causes he falls -in love until at his best he is willing for their sakes to hazard -fortune and happiness and life itself, the more he sees that the soul -of robust and serviceable character is faith. - - _O God, who hast encompassed us with so much that is dark and - perplexing, and yet hast set within us light enough to walk by; - enable us to trust what Thou hast given as sufficient for us, and - steadfastly refuse to follow aught else; lest the light that is in us - become as darkness and we wander from the way. May we be loyal to all - the truth we know, and seek to discharge those duties which lay their - commission on our conscience; so that we may come at length to - perfect light in Thee, and find our wills in harmony with Thine._ - - _Since Thou hast planted our feet in a world so full of chance and - change that we know not what a day may bring forth, and hast - curtained every day with night and rounded our little lives with - sleep; grant that we may use with diligence our appointed span of - time, working while it is called today, since the night cometh when - no man can work; having our loins girt and our lamps alight, lest the - cry at midnight find us sleeping and the door fast shut._ - - _Since we are so feeble, faint, and foolish, leave us not to our own - devices, not even when we pray Thee to; nor suffer us for any care to - Thee or for any pain to us to walk our own unheeding way. Plant - thorns about our feet, touch our hearts with fear, give us no rest - apart from Thee, lest we lose our way and miss the happy gate. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -First Week, Third Day - -Man cannot live without faith because the prime requisite in life's -adventure is _courage_, and the sustenance of courage is faith. - - =And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of - Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the - prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, - obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of - fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, - waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens. Women - received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not - accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better - resurrection: and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, - moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn - asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went - about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, - ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts - and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth. And these all, - having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not - the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, - that apart from us they should not be made perfect.--Heb. 11:32-40.= - -When in comparison with men and women of such admirable spirit, one -thinks of weak personalities, that ravel out at the first strain, he -sees that the difference lies in courage. _When a man loses heart he -loses everything._ Now to keep one's heart in the midst of life's -stress and to maintain an undiscourageable front in the face of its -difficulties is not an achievement which springs from anything that a -laboratory can demonstrate or that logic can confirm. It is an -achievement of faith, - - "The virtue to exist by faith - As soldiers live by courage." - -Consider this account of Havelock, the great English general: "As he -sat at dinner with his son on the evening of the 17th, his mind -appeared for the first and last time to be affected with gloomy -forebodings, as it dwelt on the probable annihilation of his brave men -in a fruitless attempt to accomplish what was beyond their strength. -After musing long in deep thought, his strong sense of duty and his -confidence in the justice of his cause restored the buoyancy of his -spirit; and he exclaimed, 'If the worst comes to the worst, we can but -die with our swords in our hands!'" No man altogether escapes the -need for such a spirit, and, as with Havelock and the Hebrew heroes, -confidence in someone, faith in something, is that spirit's source. - - _O God, who hast sent us to school in this strange life of ours, and - hast set us tasks which test all our courage, trust, and fidelity; - may we not spend our days complaining at circumstance or fretting at - discipline, but give ourselves to learn of life and to profit by - every experience. Make us strong to endure._ - - _We pray that when trials come upon us we may not shirk the issue or - lose our faith in Thy goodness, but committing our souls unto Thee - who knowest the way that we take, come forth as gold tried in the - fire._ - - _Grant by Thy grace that we may not be found wanting in the hour of - crisis. When the battle is set, may we know on which side we ought to - be, and when the day goes hard, cowards steal from the field, and - heroes fall around the standard, may our place be found where the - fight is fiercest. If we faint, may we not be faithless; if we fall, - may it be while facing the foe. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -First Week, Fourth Day - -Man cannot live without faith, because the adventure of life demands -not only courage to achieve but _patience to endure and wait_, -and all untroubled patience is founded on faith. When the writer to -the Hebrews speaks of those who "through faith and patience inherit -the promises" (Heb. 6:12), he joins two things that in experience no -man successfully can separate. By as much as we need patience, we need -faith. - - =But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were - enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being - made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, - becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had - compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling - of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better - possession and an abiding one. Cast not away therefore your boldness, - which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, - that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.--Heb. - 10:32-36.= - -The most difficult business in the world is _waiting_. There are -times in every life when action, however laborious and sacrificial, -would be an unspeakable relief; but to sit still because necessity -constrains us, endeavoring to live out the admonition of the psalmist, -"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him," is prodigiously -difficult. _No one can do it without some kind of faith._ "In -your patience," said Jesus, "ye shall win your souls" (Luke 21:19), -but such an achievement is no affair of logic or scientific -demonstration; it is a venture of triumphant faith. The great -believers have been the unwearied waiters; faith meant to them not -controversial opinion, but sustaining power. As another has phrased -it, "Our faculties of belief were not primarily given to us to make -orthodoxies and heresies withal; they were given us to _live_ by." - - _We beseech of Thee, O Lord our God, that Thou wilt grant to every - one of us in Thy presence, this morning, the special mercies which he - needs--strength where weakness prevails, and patience where courage - has failed. Grant, we pray Thee, that those who need long-suffering - may find themselves strangely upborne and sustained. Grant that those - who wander in doubt and darkness may feel distilling upon their soul - the sweet influence of faith. Grant that those who are heart-weary, - and sick from hope deferred, may find the God of all salvation. - Confirm goodness in those that are seeking it. Restore, we pray Thee, - those who have wandered from the path of rectitude. Give every one - honesty. May all transgressors of Thy law return to the Shepherd and - Bishop of their souls with confession of sin, and earnest and sincere - repentance. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -First Week, Fifth Day - -Man cannot live without faith because he exists in a universe, the -complete explanation of which is forever beyond his grasp, so that -_whatever he thinks about the total meaning of creation is -fundamentally faith_. - - =By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word - of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which - appear.--Heb. 11:3.= - -Not only is this true, but if we think that there is _no_ God, -that also is faith; and if we hold that the basic reality is physical -atoms, that is faith; and whatever anybody believes about the origin -and destiny of life is faith. When Haeckel says that the creator is -"Cosmic Ether," and when John says that "God is love," they both are -making a leap of faith. This does not mean that faith can dispense -with reason. In these studies we shall set ourselves to marshal the -ample arguments that support man's faith in God. But when the utmost -that argument can do has been achieved, the finite mind, dealing with -the infinite reality, is forced to a sally of faith, a venture of -confidence in Goodness at the heart of the world, not opposed to -reason but surpassing reason. _Faith always sees more with her eye -than logic can reach with her hand._ And especially when men come -to the highest thought of life's meaning and believe in the Christian -God, they face the fact which the writer to the Hebrews presents: - - =And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for - he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a - rewarder of them that seek after him.--Heb. 11:6.= - -Indeed, in all stout conviction about the meaning of life there is a -certain defiant note, refusing to surrender to small objections. Cried -Stevenson, "I believe in an ultimate decency of things; ay, and if I -woke in hell, should still believe it!" - - _O Thou Infinite Spirit, who needest no words for man to hold his - converse with Thee, we would enter into Thy presence, we would - reverence Thy power, we would worship Thy wisdom, we would adore Thy - justice, we would be gladdened by Thy love, and blessed by our - communion with Thee. We know that Thou needest no sacrifice at our - hands, nor any offering at our lips; yet we live in Thy world, we - taste Thy bounty, we breathe Thine air, and Thy power sustains us, - Thy justice guides, Thy goodness preserves, and Thy love blesses us - forever and ever. O Lord, we cannot fail to praise Thee, though we - cannot praise Thee as we would. We bow our faces down before Thee - with humble hearts, and in Thy presence would warm our spirits for a - while, that the better we may be prepared for the duties of life, to - endure its trials, to bear its crosses, and to triumph in its lasting - joys...._ - - _In times of darkness, when men fail before Thee, in days when men of - high degree are a lie, and those of low degree are a vanity, teach - us, O Lord, to be true before Thee, not a vanity, but soberness and - manliness; and may we keep still our faith shining in the midst of - darkness, the beacon-light to guide us over stormy seas to a home and - haven at last. Father, give us strength for our daily duty, patience - for our constant or unaccustomed cross, and in every time of trial - give us the hope that sustains, the faith that wins the victory and - obtains satisfaction and fulness of joy. Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -First Week, Sixth Day - -Man cannot live, lacking faith, because _without it life's richest -experiences go unappropriated_. Opportunities for friendship lie -all about us, but only by trustful self-giving can they be enjoyed; -chances to serve good causes continually beckon us, but one must have -faith to try; superior minds offer us their treasures, but to avail -oneself of instruction from another involves teachable humility. A man -without capacity to let himself go out to other men in friendly trust -or to welcome new illumination on his thought with grateful faith -would be shut out from the priceless treasures of humanity. A certain -trustful openheartedness, a willingness to venture in personal -relationship and in attempts at service is essential to a rich and -fruitful life. And what is true of man's relationship with man is true -of man's relationship with God. So Prof. William James, of Harvard, -states the case: "Just as a man who in a company of gentlemen made no -advances, asked a warrant for every concession, and believed no one's -word without proof, would cut himself off by such churlishness from -all the social rewards that a more trusting spirit would earn--so -here, one who should shut himself up in snarling logicality and try to -make the gods extort his recognition willy-nilly, or not get it at -all, might cut himself off forever from his only opportunity of making -the gods' acquaintance." _Wherever in life great spiritual values -await man's appropriation, only faith can appropriate them._ - - =Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering - into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. - For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also - they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not - united by faith with them that heard!--Heb. 4:1, 2.= - - _O Infinite Source of life and health and joy! the very thought of - Thee is so wonderful that in this thought we would rest and be still. - Thou art Beauty and Grace and Truth and Power. Thou art the light of - every heart that sees Thee, the life of every soul that loves Thee, - the strength of every mind that seeks Thee. From our narrow and - bounded world we would pass into Thy greater world. From our petty - and miserable selves we would escape to Thee, to find in Thee the - power and the freedom of a larger life.... We recognize Thee in all - the deeper experiences of the soul. When the conscience utters its - warning voice, when the heart is tender and we forgive those who have - wronged us in word or deed, when we feel ourselves upborne above time - and place, and know ourselves citizens of Thy everlasting Kingdom, we - realize, O Lord, that these things, while they are in us, are not of - us. They are Thine, the work of Thy Spirit brooding upon our souls._ - - _Spirit of Holiness and Peace! Search all our motives; try the secret - places of our souls; set in the light any evil that may lurk within, - and lead us in the way everlasting. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -First Week, Seventh Day - -Man cannot live without faith, because in life's adventure the central -problem is _building character_. Now, character is not a product of -logic, but of faith in ideals and of sacrificial devotion to them. -What is becomes only the starting point of a campaign for what _ought -to be_, and in the prosecution of that campaign what ought to be must -be believed in with passionate intensity. Faith of some sort, -therefore, is necessarily the dynamic of character; only limp and -ragged living is possible without faith; and the greatest characters -are girded by the most ample faith in God and goodness. The writer to -the Hebrews saw this intimate relationship between quality of faith -and quality of life, and challenged his readers to judge the -Christian faith by its consequence in character. - - =Remember them that had the rule over you, men that spake unto you - the word of God; and considering the issue of their life, imitate - their faith.--Heb. 13:7.= - -Such are the basic elements in human experience that make faith -necessary: we deal with a future, about which we must think, with -reference to which we must act, and adventuring into which we need -courage and patience; this venture of life takes place in a world the -meaning of which can be grasped only by a leap of faith; and in this -venture the best treasures of the spirit are obtainable only through -openheartedness, and character is possible only to men of resolute -conviction. Plainly the subject to whose study we are setting -ourselves is no affair of theoretical interest alone; it affects the -deepest issues of life. No words could better summarize this vital -idea of faith which the Epistle to the Hebrews presents than Hartley -Coleridge's: - - "Think not the faith by which the just shall live - Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, - Far less a feeling, fond and fugitive, - A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. - It is an affirmation and an act - That bids eternal truth be present fact." - - _How great are the mercies, O Lord our God, which Thou hast prepared - for all that put their trust in Thee!... Thou hast comfort for those - that are in affliction; Thou hast strength for those that are weak; - ... Thou hast all blessings that are needed, and standest ready to be - all things to all, and in all. And yet, with bread enough and to - spare, with raiment abundant, and with all medicine, how many are - there that go hungry, and naked, and sick, and destitute of all - things! We desire, O Lord, that Thou wilt, to all Thine other - mercies, add that gift by which we shall trust in Thee--faith that - works by love; faith that abides with us; faith that transforms - material things, and gives them to us in their spiritual meanings; - faith that illumines the world by a light that never sets, that - shines brighter than the day, and that clears the night quite out of - our experience. This is the portion that Thou hast provided for thy - people. We beseech of Thee, grant us this faith, that shall give us - victory over the world and over ourselves; that shall make us valiant - in all temptation and bring us off conquerors and more than - conquerors through Him that loved us. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -When Donald Hankey, who died in the trenches in the Great War, said -that "True religion is betting one's life that there is a God," he not -only gave expression to his own virile Christianity, but he gave a -good description of all effective faith whatsoever. Faith is holding -reasonable convictions, in realms beyond the reach of final -demonstration, and, as well, it is thrusting out one's life upon those -convictions as though they were surely true. _Faith is vision plus -valor._ - -Our study may well begin by recognizing that, as it is exercised in -the religious life, such faith is the supreme use of an attitude which -we are employing in every other realm. No man can live without vision -to see as true what as yet he cannot prove, or without valor to act on -the basis of his insight. Our vocabulary in ordinary relationships, -quite as much as in religion, is full of words involving faith. I -believe, I feel sure, I am confident, I venture--such phrases express -our common attitudes in work and thought. Each day we act on -reasonable probabilities, hold convictions not yet verified, take -risks whose outcome we cannot know, and trust people whom we have -barely met. We may pride ourselves that our twentieth century's life -is being built on scientifically demonstrable knowledge, but a swift -review of any day's experience shows how indispensable is another -attitude, without which our verifiable knowledge would be an unused -instrument. In order to _live_ we must have insight and daring. -It is not alone the just who live by faith; lacking it, there is no -real life anywhere. - -To be sure, we may not leap from this general necessity of faith to -the conclusion that therefore our religious beliefs are justified. -Many men use faith in business and in social life who cannot find -their way to convictions about God. But our desire to understand -faith's meaning is quickened when we see how indispensable a place it -holds, how tremendous an influence it wields, whether it be -religiously applied or not. All sorts of human enterprise bear witness -to its unescapable necessity. Haeckel, the biologist, describing -science's method, says: "Scientific faith fills the gaps in our -knowledge of natural laws with temporary hypotheses." Lincoln, the -statesman, entreating the people, cries: "Let us have faith that right -makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty." -Stevenson, the invalid, trying with fortitude to bear his trial, -writes: "Whether on the first of January or the thirty-first of -December, faith is a good word to end on." And the Master states the -substance of religion in a single phrase: "Have faith in God" (Mark -11:22). Scientific procedure, social welfare, personal quality, -religion--the applications of our subject are as wide as life. Vision -and valor are the dynamic forces in all achievement, intellectual as -well as moral, and as for man's spiritual values and satisfactions, -"It is faith in something," as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, "which -makes life worth living." - - -II - -One major reason for this necessary place of faith in our experience -is clear. _Life is an adventure and adventure always demands insight -and daring._ That "Chinese" Gordon, on his hazardous expedition into -the Soudan, should be thrown back on undiscourageable faith in -himself, in the justice of his cause, in the bravery of his men, and -in God; that he should even speak of praying his boats up the Nile, -seems to us natural; for some kind of faith is obviously necessary to -any great adventure. But men often forget that all ordinary living is -essentially adventurous and that by this fact the need of faith is -woven into the texture of every human life. It is an amazing adventure -to be born upon this wandering island in the sky and it is an -adventure to leave it when death calls. To go to school, to make -friends, to marry, to rear children, to face through life the swift -changes of circumstance that no man can certainly predict an hour -ahead, these are all adventures. Each new day is an hitherto unvisited -country, which we enter, like Abraham leaving Ur for a strange land, -"not knowing whither he went" (Heb. 11:8), and every New Year we begin -a tour of exploration into a twelvemonth where no man's foot has ever -walked before. If we all love tales of pioneers, it is because from -the time we are weaned to the time we die, life is pioneering. Of -course we cannot live by verifiable knowledge only. Imagine men, -equipped with nothing but powers of logical demonstration, starting on -such an enterprise as the title of Sebastian Cabot's joint stock -company suggests: "Merchants Adventurers of England for the discovery -of lands, territories, isles and seignories, unknown." - -Indeed no knowledge of the sort that our scientific inductions can -achieve ever will take from life this adventurous element. Scientific -knowledge in these latter decades has grown incalculably; yet for all -that, every child's life is a hazardous experiment, every boy choosing -a calling takes his chances, every friendship is a risky exploration -in the province of personality, and all devotion to moral causes is -just as much a venturesome staking of life on insight and hope as it -was when Garrison attacked slavery or Livingstone landed in Africa. To -one who had acquired not only all extant but all possible knowledge, -as truly as to any man who ever lived, life would be full of hazard -still. He could not certainly know in advance the outcome of a single -important decision of his life. He could not at any moment tell in -what new, strange, challenging, or terrific situation the next hour -might find him. With all his science, he must face each day, as Paul -faced his journey to Rome, "not knowing the things that shall befall -me there" (Acts 20:22). - -The reason for this is obvious. Our systematized knowledge is the -arrangement under laws of the experiences which we have already had. -It furnishes invaluable aid in guiding the experiments and -explorations which life continuously forces on us. In every -enterprise, however, we must use not only legs to stand on, but -tentacles as well with which to feel our way forward--intuitions, -insights, hopes, unverified convictions, faith. We project our life -forward as we build a cantilever bridge. Part of the structure is -solidly bolted and thoroughly articulated in a system; but ever beyond -this established portion we audaciously thrust out new beginnings in -eager expectation that from the other side something will come to meet -them. Without this no progress ever would be possible. - -Every province of life illustrates this necessity of adventure. In -_science_, the established body of facts and laws is only the -civilized community of knowledge from whose frontiers new guesses and -intuitions start. Says Sir Oliver Lodge about the great Newton: "He -had an extraordinary faculty for guessing correctly, sometimes with no -apparent data--as for instance, his intuition that the mean density of -the earth was probably between five and six times that of water, while -we now know it is really about five and one half." In _personal -character_, our habits are basic, but our ideals in which, despite -ourselves, we must believe, are pioneers that push out into new -territory and call our habits after them to conquer the promised land. -In _social advance_, some Edmund Burke, statesman of the first -magnitude, basing his judgment on the established experience of the -race, can call slavery an incurable evil and say that there is not the -slightest hope that trade in slaves can be stopped; and yet within -eighty-two years the race can feel its way forward to Lincoln's -Emancipation Proclamation. As for _daily business_, adventurous daring -is there the very nerve of enterprise. Says a modern newspaper man: -"There are plenty of people to do the possible; you can hire them at -forty dollars a month. The prizes are for those who perform the -impossible. If a thing can be done, experience and skill can do it; if -a thing cannot be done, only faith can do it." Great in human life is -this adventurous element, and, therefore, great in human life is the -necessity of faith. To chasten and discipline, to make reasonable and -stable the faiths by which we live is a problem unsurpassed in -importance for every man. - - -III - -One result of special interest follows from this truth. It is commonly -suspected that as mankind advances, the function of faith proportionately -shrinks. It is even supposed that the place of faith in human life has -sensibly diminished with our growing knowledge, and that Matthew -Arnold told the truth: - - "The sea of faith - Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore - Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. - But now I only hear - Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, - Retreating, to the breath - Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear - And naked shingles of the world." - -Accordingly by custom we call the mediæval centuries the "Age of -Faith." But even a cursory comparison between the mediæval people and -ourselves reveals that among the many differences that distinguish us -from them, none is more marked than the diversity and range of our -faiths. One considers in surprise the things which they did not -believe. That the world would ever grow much better, that social -abuses like political tyranny and slavery could be radically changed, -that man could ever master nature by his inventions until her mighty -forces were his servants, that the whole race could be reached for -Christ, that war could be abolished and human brotherhood in some fair -degree established, that common men could be trusted with responsibility -for their own government or with freedom to worship God according to -the dictates of their own consciences--none of these things did the -mediæval folk believe. One of the most distinguishing characteristics -of the so-called "Age of Faith" was its lack of faith. It lived in a -static world; it was poor in possibilities except in heaven; it -pitiably lacked those most certain signs of vital faith, the open mind -eager for new truth and the ardent, vigorous life seeking new -conquests. In comparison with such an age our generation's faiths are -rich and manifold. To call our time an "Age of Doubt" because of its -free spirit of critical inquiry, is seriously to misunderstand its -major drift. Bunyan's Pilgrim found Doubting Castle kept by Giant -Despair and his wife Diffidence and in any Doubting Castle these two -always dwell. But who, considering our generation's life as a whole, -would call it diffident or desperate? It is rather robust and -confident; its social faiths, at least, are unprecedented in their -sweep and certainty. Even the Great War is the occasion of such -organized faith in a federated and fraternal world as mankind has -never entertained before. - -The truth is that with the progress of the race the adventure of life -is elevated and enlarged, and in consequence faith grows not less but -more necessary. _The faiths of a savage are meager compared with a -modern man's._ The Australian bushman never dreams of laboring for -social ideals even a few years ahead. What can he know of those superb -faiths in economic justice and international brotherhood, which even -in the face of overwhelming difficulty, master the best of modern men? -The primitive mind was not curious enough to wonder whether the sun -that rises in the morning was the same that set the night before. What -could such a mind understand of modern science's faith in the -universal regularity of law? Put a Moro head hunter beside Mr. Edison, -and see how incalculable the difference between them, not simply in -their knowledge, but in their faith as to what it is possible for -humanity to do with nature! Or put a fetish worshipper from Africa -beside Phillips Brooks and compare the faith of the one in his idol -with the faith of the other in God. Faith does not dwindle as wisdom -grows; vision and valor are not less important. _The difference -between the twentieth century man and the savage is quite as much in -the scope and quality of their faith as in the range and certainty of -their knowledge._ - -Faith, therefore is not a transient element in human life, to be -evicted by growing science. For whatever life may _know_, life -_is_ adventure; and as the adventure widens its horizons, the -demand for faith is correspondingly increased. If one tries to imagine -the world with all faith gone--knowledge supposedly having usurped its -place--he must conceive a world where no conscious life and effort -remain at all. Take trust in testimony away from courts of law, and -unsure experiments from the physician's practice; refuse the teacher -his confidence in growing minds and the business man his right to -ventures that involve uncertainty; abstract from civic reforms all -faith in a better future, from science all unproved postulates, from -society all mutual trust and from religion all belief in the Unseen, -and life would become an "inane sand heap." A man who tries to live -without faith will die of inertia. A society that makes the attempt -will be paralyzed within an hour. The question is not whether or no we -shall live by faith. The question is rather--By what faiths shall we -live? What range and depth and quality shall they have? How reasonable -and how assured shall they be? - - -IV - -Among all the faiths which mankind has cherished and by which it has -been helped in life's adventure, none have been more universally and -more passionately held than those associated with religion. In the -daring experiment of living, men naturally have sought by faith -interpretation not only of life's details but of life itself--its -origin, its meaning, and its destiny. Australian bushmen, unable to -count above four on their fingers, have been heard discussing in their -huts at night whence they came, whither they go, and who the gods are -anyway. And when one turns to modern manhood in its finest exhibitions -of intelligence and character, he sees that Professor Ladd, of Yale, -speaks truly: "The call of the world of men today, which is most -insistent and most intense, if not most loud and clamorous, is the -call for a rehabilitation of religious faith." - -For it does make a prodigious difference to the spirit of our -adventure in this world, whether we think that God is good or on the -other hand see the universe as Carlyle's terrific figure pictures -it--"one huge, dead, immeasurable Steam-engine, rolling on, in its -dead indifference, to grind me limb from limb." It does make a -difference of quite incalculable magnitude whether we think that our -minds and characters are an evanescent product of finely wrought -matter which alone is real and permanent, or on the contrary with John -believe that "Now are we children of God and it is not yet made -manifest what we shall be" (I John 3:2). - -How great a difference in life's adventure religious faith does make -is better set forth by concrete example than by abstract argument. On -the one side, how radiant the spirit of the venture as the New -Testament depicts it! The stern, appealing love of God behind life, -his good purpose through it, his victory ahead of it, and man a fellow -worker, called into an unfinished world to bear a hand with God in its -completion--here is a game that indeed is worth the candle. On the -other side is Bertrand Russell's candid disclosure of the consequences -of his own scepticism: "Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and -all his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good -and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its -relentless way; for Man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow -himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to -cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his -little day--proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate -for a moment his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a -weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have -fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power." - -Man's life, interpreted and motived by religious faith, is glorious, -but shorn of faith's interpretations life loses its highest meaning -and its noblest hopes. Let us make this statement's truth convincing -in detail. - -_When faith in God goes, man the thinker loses his greatest -thought._ Man's mind has ranged the universe, has woven atoms and -stars into a texture of law; his conquering thoughts ride out into -every unknown province of which they hear. But among all the ideas on -which the mind of man has taken hold, incomparably the greatest is the -idea of God. In sheer weight and range no other thought of man -compares with that. Amid the crash of stars, the reign of law, the -vicissitudes of human history, and the griefs that drive their -ploughshares into human hearts, to gather up all existence into -spiritual unity and to believe in God, is the sublimest venture of the -human mind. - -_When faith in God goes, man the worker loses his greatest -motive._ Man masters nature until the forces that used to scare him -now obey; in society he labors tirelessly that his children may have a -better world. Wars come, destroying the achievements of ages; yet when -war is over, man rebuilds his cities, recreates his commerce, dreams -again his human brotherhoods, and toils on. Many motives, deep and -shallow, fine and coarse, have sustained him in this tireless work, -but when one seeks the fountain of profoundest hope in mankind's toil -he finds it in religious faith. To believe that we do not stand alone, -hopelessly pitted against the dead apathy of cosmic forces which in -the end will crush us in some solar wreck and bring our work to -naught; to believe that we are fellow-laborers with God, our human -purposes comprehended in a Purpose, God behind us, within us, ahead of -us--this incomparably has been the master-faith in man's greatest work. - -_When faith in God goes, man the sinner loses his strongest help._ For -man is a sinner. He tears his spiritual heritage to shreds in -licentiousness and drink. He wallows in vice, wins by cruelty, -violates love, is treacherous to trust. His sins clothe the world in -lamentation. Yet in him is a protest that he cannot stifle. He is the -only creature whom we know whose nature is divided against itself. He -hates his sin even while he commits it. He repents, tries again, -falls, rises, stumbles on--and in all his best hours cries out for -saviorhood. No message short of religion has ever met man's need in -this estate. That God himself is pledged to the victory of -righteousness in men and in the world, that he cares, forgives, enters -into man's struggle with transforming power, and crowns the long -endeavor with triumphant character--such faith alone has been great -enough to meet the needs of man the sinner. - -_When faith in God goes, man the sufferer loses his securest -refuge._ One who has walked with families through long illnesses -where desperate prayers rise like a fountain day and night, who has -seen strong men break down in health or lose the fortune of a -lifetime, who has stood at children's graves and heard mothers cry, -"How empty are my arms!" does not need long explication of life's -tragic suffering. The staggering blows shatter the hopes of good and -bad alike. Whether one's house be built on rock or sand, on both, as -Jesus said, the rains descend and the floods come and the winds blow. -In this experience of crushing trouble nothing but religious faith has -been able to save men from despair or from stoical endurance of their -fate. To face the loom of life and hopefully to lay oneself upon it, -as though the dark threads were as necessary in the pattern as the -light ones are, we must believe that there is a purpose running -through the stern, forbidding process. What men have needed most of -all in suffering, is not to know the explanation, but _to know that -there is an explanation_. And religious faith alone gives confidence -that human tragedy is not the meaningless sport of physical forces, -making our life what Voltaire called it, "a bad joke," but is rather a -school of discipline, the explanation of whose mysteries is in the -heart of God. No one who has lived deeply can ever call such faith a -"matter of words and names." To multitudes it is a matter of life and -death. - -_When faith in God goes, man the lover loses his fairest vision._ When -we say our worst about mankind, this redeeming truth remains, that -each of us has some one for whose sake he willingly would die. The -very love lyrics of the race are proof of this human quality, from -homely folk songs like "John Anderson, My Jo, John" to great poetry -like Mrs. Browning's sonnets. We call them secular, but they are -ineffably sacred. And when one seeks the faith that has made these -loves of men radiant with an illumination which man alone cannot -create, he finds it in religion. Love is not a transient fragrance -from matter finely organized--so men have dared believe; love is of -kin with the Eternal, has there its source and ground and destiny; -love is the very substance of reality. "God is love, and he that -abideth in love, abideth in God, and God abideth in him" (I John -4:16). Man the lover is bereft of his finest insight and love's inner -glory has departed, when that faith has gone. - -_When faith in God goes, man the mortal loses his only hope._ -Man's nature, like a lighthouse, combines two elements. At the -foundation of the beacon all is stone; as one lifts his eyes, all is -stone still; but at the top is something new and wonderful. It is the -thing for which the rock was piled. Its laws are not the laws of stone -nor are its ways the same. For while the stolid rock stands fast, this -miracle of light with speed incredible hurls itself out across the -sea. Two worlds are here, the one cold and stationary, the other full -of the marvel and mystery of fire. So man has in him a miracle which -he cannot explain; he "feels that he is greater than he knows"; and he -never has been able to believe that the mystery of spirit was given -him in vain, had no reality from which it came, and no future beyond -death. The finest thing ever said of Columbus is a remark of his own -countryman, "The instinct of an unknown continent burned in him." That -is the secret of Columbus' greatness. All the arguments by which he -attempted to convince the doubters were but afterthoughts of this; all -the labors by which he endeavored to make good his hopes were but its -consequence. And if we ask of man why so universally he has believed -in life to come, the answer leaps not superficially from the mind, but -out of the basic intuitions of man's life. We know that something is -now ours which ought not to die; the instinct of an unknown continent -burns in us. But all the hopes, the motives, the horizons that -immortality has given man must go, if faith in God departs. In a -godless world man dies forever. - -One, therefore, who is facing loss of faith may not regard it as a -light affair. To be sure, some denials of religion, even a Christian -must respect. Huxley, for example, at the death of his little boy, -wanting to believe in immortality as only a father can whose son lies -dead, yet, for all that, disbelieving, wrote to Charles Kingsley, "I -have searched over the grounds of my belief, and if wife and child and -name and fame were all to be lost to me one after another as the -penalty, still I will not lie." One respects _that_. When George John -Romanes turned his back for a while on the Christian faith, he wrote -out of his agnosticism, "When at times I think, as think at times I -must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that -creed which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now -I find it--at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the -sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible." One respects _that_. -But some discard religion from their life's adventure with no such -serious understanding of the import of their denial. They are pert -disbelievers. They toss faith facilely aside in a light mood. Such -frivolous sceptics indict their own intelligence. Whoever discards -religious faith should appoint a day of mourning for his soul, and put -on sackcloth and ashes. He must take from his life the greatest -thought that man the thinker ever had, the finest faith that man the -worker ever leaned upon, the surest help that man the sinner ever -found, the strongest reliance that man the sufferer ever trusted in, -the loftiest vision that man the lover ever saw, and the only hope -that man the mortal ever had. So he must deny his faith in God. Before -one thus leaves himself bereft of the faith that makes life's -adventure most worth while he well may do what Carlyle, under the -figure of Teufelsdröckh, says that he did in his time of doubt: "In -the silent night-watches, still darker in his heart than over sky and -earth, he has cast himself before the All-seeing, and with audible -prayers cried vehemently for Light." - - -V - -If minimizing the importance of religious faith is unintelligent, so -is avoiding some sort of decision about religious faith impossible. -Most of those into whose hands these studies fall will grant readily -faith's incalculable importance. Some, however, will be not helped but -plunged into deeper trouble by their consent. For they feel themselves -unable to decide about a matter which they acknowledge to be the most -important in the world. Asked whether they believe in God, they would -reply with one of Victor Hugo's characters, "Yes--No--Sometimes." They -grant that to be steadily assured of God would be an invaluable boon, -but for themselves, how can they balance the opposing arguments and -find their way to confidence? All our studies are intended for the -help of such, but at the beginning one urgent truth may well be -plainly put. However undecided they may appear, men cannot altogether -avoid decision on the main matters of religion. Life will not let -them. For while the mind may hold itself suspended between -alternatives, the adventure of life goes on, and men inevitably tend -to live either as though the Christian God were real or as though he -were not. - -Some questions allow a complete postponement of decision. As to which -of several theories about the Northern Lights may be true, a man can -hold his judgment in entire suspense. Life does not require from him -any action that depends on what he thinks of the Aurora Borealis; and -whether a man think one thing or another, no conceivable change would -be the consequence in anything he said or did. But there is another -kind of question, where, however much the mind may waver between -opinions and may resolve on indecision, life itself compels decision. -A man cannot really be agnostic and neutral on a question like the -moral law of sexual purity, for, by an irrevocable necessity, he has -to act one way or another. He may stop thinking, but he cannot stop -living. With tremendous urgency the adventure of life insistently goes -on, and it never pauses for any man to make up his mind on any -question. Therefore while a man may theoretically suspend his judgment -as to the requirements of the moral law, his life will be a loud, -convincing advertisement to all who know him that he has vitally -decided. _A man can avoid making up his mind, but he cannot avoid -making up his life._ - -Quite as truly, though, it may be, not quite as obviously, religious -questions belong to this second class. Not all questions that are -called religious belong there. With fatal pettiness religious men have -reduced the great faiths to technicalities and some beliefs called -religious a man may hold or not, with utter indifference to anything -he is or does. But on the basic attitudes of religion such as we have -just rehearsed, a man cannot be completely neutral, no matter how he -tries. Bernard Shaw's remark, "What a man believes may be ascertained -not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually -acts," should be taken to heart by any one trying to remain -religiously neutral. For one cannot by any possibility avoid -"assumptions on which he habitually acts." He tends to undertake -social service either as confident cooperation with God's purpose or -as an endeavor to make one corner of an unpurposed world as decent as -possible. He tends to follow his ideals, either as the voice of God -calling him upward, or as the work of natural selection, adjusting him -to a temporary environment. He tends to face suffering either -hopefully as a school of moral discipline, in a world presided over by -a Father, or grimly as a hardship in which there is no meaning. He -tends to face death either as the supreme adventure, full of boundless -hope, or as a final exit that leads nowhere. He may never consciously -formulate his ideas on any of these matters, he may maintain an -intellectual agnosticism, genuine and complete, but his living subtly -involves the confession of some faith. "A man's action," said Emerson, -"is only the picture-book of his creed." And the more thoughtful he -is, the more he will be aware of that unescapable tendency to confess -in his living an inward faith about life. - -One practical result of this urgent truth is too frequently seen to be -doubtful. _Those who in religion do not decide, thereby decide -against religion._ Religious faith is a positive achievement, and -he who does not deliberately choose it, loses it. A man who, rowing -down Niagara River, debates within himself whether or not he will stop -at Buffalo, and who cannot decide, thereby has decided. His -irresolution has not for a moment interfered with the steady flow of -the river, and if he but debate long enough concerning his stop at -Buffalo, he will awake to discover that he has finally decided not to -stop there. As much beyond the control of man's volition is the steady -flow of life. It pauses for no man's indecision, and if one is -irresolute about any positive, aspiring faith in any realm, his -indecisiveness is decision of a most final sort. - -This, then, is the summary of the matter. Life is a great adventure in -which faith is indispensable; in this adventure faith in God presents -the issues of transcendent import; and on these issues life itself -continuously compels decision. Our obligation is obvious--since -willy-nilly the decision must be made--to make it consciously, to -reach it by reason, not by chance, by thinking, not by drifting. If a -man is to be irreligious, let him at least know why, and not slip into -this estate, as most irreligious men do, by careless living and -frivolous thought. If a man is to be religious, let him have reason -for his choice; let his faith be founded not on credulity and chance, -but on real experience and reasonable thought. So his faith shall be -good not only for domestic consumption, but for export too--clear in -his own mind and convincing to his friends. The forms of thought shift -with the centuries and old situations cannot be repeated in detail, -but one crisis in its essential meaning is perennial: "Elijah came -near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between the -two sides? if Jehovah be God follow him; but if Baal then follow him" -(I Kings 18:21). - - - - -CHAPTER II - -Faith a Road to Truth - - -DAILY READINGS - -Many minds are prevented from even a fair consideration of religious -faith by prejudices which spring, not from reasoned argument, but from -practical experience. They are biased before argument has begun; they -_feel_ that faith means credulity, and that religious faith in -particular is a surrender of reason. Before we positively present -faith as an indispensable means of dealing with reality in any realm, -let us, in the daily readings, consider some of the practical -experiences and attitudes that thus prejudice men against religion. - - -Second Week, First Day - -Many men are biased in advance by the _unwise treatment to which in -their childhood they were subjected_. Paul pictures the home life of -Timothy as ideal: - - =I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience, - how unceasing is my remembrance of thee in my supplications, night - and day longing to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be - filled with joy; having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is - in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother - Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also.--II Tim. 1:3-5.= - -"Unfeigned faith" is often thus a family heritage, handed down by -vital contagion. But in many homes religion is not thus beautifully -presented to the children; it is a hard and rigorous affair of dogma -and restraint. "Oh, why," said a young professional man, whom -Professor Coe quotes, "why did my parents try to equip me with a -doctrinal system in childhood? I supposed that the whole system must -be believed on pain of losing my religion altogether. And so, when I -began to doubt some points, I felt obliged to throw all overboard. I -have found my way back to positive religion, but by what a long and -bitter struggle!" If, however, one has been so unfortunate as to be -hardened in youth by unwise training, is it reasonable on that account -forever to shut himself out from the most glorious experience of man? -This complaint about mistreatment in youth is often an excuse, not a -reason for irreligion. Says Phillips Brooks: "I have grown familiar to -weariness with the self-excuse of men who say, 'Oh, if I had not had -the terrors of the law so preached to me when I was a boy, if I had -not been so confronted with the woes of hell and the awfulness of the -judgment day, I should have been religious long ago.' My friends, I -think I never hear a meaner or a falser speech than that. Men may -believe it when they say it--I suppose they do--but it is not true. It -is unmanly, I think. It is throwing on their teaching and their -teachers, or their fathers and their mothers, the fault which belongs -to their own neglect, because they have never taken up the earnest -fight with sin and sought through every obstacle for truth and God. It -has the essential vice of dogmatism about it, for it claims that a -different _view_ of God would have done for them that which no view of -God can do, that which must be done, _under any system, any teaching_, -by humility and penitence and struggle and self-sacrifice. Without -these no teaching saves the soul. With these, under any teaching, the -soul must find its Father." - - _O Thou, who didst lay the foundations of the earth amid the singing - of the morning stars and the joyful shouts of the sons of God, lift - up our little life into Thy gladness. Out of Thee, as out of an - overflowing fountain of Love, wells forth eternally a stream of - blessing upon every creature Thou hast made. If we have thought that - Thou didst call into being this universe in order to win praise and - honor for Thyself, rebuke the vain fancies of our foolish minds and - show us that Thy glory is the joy of giving. We can give Thee nothing - of our own. All that we have is Thine. Oh, then, help us to glorify - Thee by striving to be like Thee. Make us just and pure and good as - Thou art. May we be partakers of the Divine Nature, so that all that - is truly human in us may be deepened, purified, and strengthened. - And so may we be witnesses for Thee, lights of the world, reflecting - Thy light._ - - _Help us to make religion a thing so beautiful that all men may be - won to surrender to its power. Let us manifest in our lives its - sweetness and excellency, its free and ennobling spirit. Forbid that - we should go up and down the world with melancholy looks and dejected - visage, lest we should repel men from entering Thy Kingdom. Rather, - may we walk in the freedom and joy of faith, and with Thy new song in - our mouths, so that men looking on us may learn to trust and to love - Thee. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Second Week, Second Day - -Many men are prejudiced against religion during their youthful -_period of revolt against authority_. Listen to an ancient father -talking with his sons: - - =Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, - And attend to know understanding: - For I give you good doctrine; - Forsake ye not my law. - For I was a son unto my father, - Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. - And he taught me, and said unto me: - Let thy heart retain my words; - Keep my commandments, and live; - Get wisdom, get understanding; - Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth; - Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee; - Love her, and she will keep thee. - Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; - Yea, with all thy getting get understanding. - Exalt her, and she will promote thee; - She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. - She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace; - A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee.= - - =--Prov. 4:1-9.= - -No father can read this urgent, anxious plea without understanding the -reason for its solicitude. Every boy comes to the time when he breaks -away from parental authority and begins to take his life into his own -hands. It is one of youth's great crises, and the spirit of it is -sometimes harsh and rebellious. So Carlyle describes his own -experience: "Such transitions are ever full of pain: thus the Eagle -when he moults is sickly; and, to attain his new beak, must harshly -dash-off the old one upon rocks." For religious faith this period of -life is always critical. Stevenson in his revolt, when he called -respectability "the deadliest gag and wet-blanket that can be laid on -man," also became, as he said, "a youthful atheist." How many have -traveled that road and stopped in the negation! Stevenson did not -stop, and years afterward wrote of his progress: "Because I have -reached Paris, I am not ashamed of having passed through Newhaven and -Dieppe." Surely if anyone has been "a youthful atheist," it was an -experience to be "passed through." - - _O God, we turn to Thee in the faith that Thou dost understand and - art very merciful. Some of us are not sure concerning Thee; not sure - what Thou art; not sure that Thou art at all. Yet there is something - at work behind our minds, in times of stillness we hear it, like a - distant song; there is something in the sky at evening-time; - something in the face of man. We feel that round our incompleteness - flows Thy greatness, round our restlessness Thy rest. Yet this is not - enough._ - - _We want a heart to speak to, a heart that understands; a friend to - whom we can turn, a breast on which we may lean. O that we could find - Thee! Yet could we ever think these things unless Thou hadst inspired - us, could we ever want these things unless Thou Thyself wert very - near?_ - - _Some of us know full well; but we are sore afraid. We dare not yield - ourselves to Thee, for we fear what that might mean. Our foolish - freedom, our feeble pleasures, our fatal self-indulgence suffice to - hold us back from Thee, though Thou art our very life, and we so sick - and needing Thee. Our freedom has proved false, our pleasures have - long since lost their zest, our sins, oh how we hate them!_ - - _Come and deliver us, for we have lost all hope in ourselves. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Second Week, Third Day - -Some men--often the precocious, clever ones--are biased against -religion because _in youth they accepted an immature philosophy of -life and have never changed it_. The crust forms too soon on some -minds, and if it forms during the period of youthful revolt, they are -definitely prejudiced against religious truth. The difference between -such folk and the great believers is not that the believers had no -doubts, but that they did not fix their final thought of life until -more mature experience had come. They fulfilled the admonition of a -wise father to keep up a tireless search for truth: - - =My son, if thou wilt receive my words, - And lay up my commandments with thee; - So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, - And apply thy heart to understanding; - Yea, if thou cry after discernment, - And lift up thy voice for understanding; - If thou seek her as silver, - And search for her as for hid treasures: - Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, - And find the knowledge of God.= - - =--Prov. 2:1-5.= - -Mrs. Charles Kingsley, for example, says of her husband that at twenty -"He was full of religious doubts; and his face, with its unsatisfied, -hungering, and at times defiant look, bore witness to the state of his -mind." At twenty-one Kingsley himself wrote: "You believe that you -have a sustaining Hand to guide you along that path, an Invisible -Protection and an unerring Guide. I, alas! have no stay for my weary -steps, but that same abused and stupefied reason which has stumbled -and wandered, and betrayed me a thousand times ere now, and is every -moment ready to faint and to give up the unequal struggle." If -Kingsley had framed his final philosophy then, what a loss to the -world of an inspiring life transfigured by Christian faith! He cried -after discernment, lifted up his voice for understanding, and he found -the knowledge of God. Many a man ought to revise in the light of -mature experience and thought a hasty irreligious guess at life's -meaning which he made in youth. - - _O Father, we turn to Thee because we are sore vexed with our own - thoughts. Our minds plague us with questionings we cannot answer; we - are driven to voyage on strange seas of thought alone. Dost Thou - disturb our minds with endless questioning, yet keep the answers - hidden in Thy heart, so that away from Thee we should always be - perplexed, and by thoughts derived from Thee be ever drawn to Thee? - Surely, our God, it must be so._ - - _But still more bitter and humbling, O Father, is our experience of - failure, so frequent, tragic, and unpardonable. We have struggled on - in vain, resolves are broken ere they pass our lips; we can see no - hope of better things, we can never forgive ourselves; and after all - our prayers our need remains and our sense of coming short but - deepens. Yet, at least we know that we have failed, and how, if - something higher than ourselves were not at work within?_ - - _Our desperate desires have driven us at last to Thee, conscious now, - after all vain effort, that it is Thyself alone can satisfy, and now - at peace to know that Thou it is who art desired, because Thou it is - who dost desire within us. Beyond our need reveal Thyself, its cause - and cure; in all desire teach us to discern Thy drawing near. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Second Week, Fourth Day - -Men are often prejudiced against religion because _the churches -which they happened to attend in youth urged on them an irrational -faith_. Some men never recover from the idea that all religion -everywhere must always be the same kind of religion against which in -youth their good sense rose in revolt; they are in perpetual rebellion -against religion as it was when they broke with it a generation ago. -But if one thing more than another grows, expands, becomes in the -intelligent and pure increasingly pure and intelligent, it is religion. - -Consider an early Hebrew idea of God: - - =And it came to pass on the way at the lodging-place, that Jehovah - met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut - off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, - Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me. So he let him alone. - Then she said, A bridegroom of blood art thou, because of the - circumcision.--Exodus 4:24-26.= - -Over against so abhorrent a picture of a deity who would have -committed murder, had not a mother swiftly circumcised her son, -consider a later thought of God: - - =How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be - gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the - mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? And if so be that he - find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over - the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the - will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones - should perish.--Matt. 18:12-14.= - -So religion grows with man's capacity to receive higher, finer -revelations of the divine. And in no age of the world has so great a -change passed over the intellectual framework of faith as in the -generation just gone. To live in protest against forms of belief a -generation old is fighting men of straw; the vanguard of religious -thought and life has pushed ahead many a mile beyond the point of such -attack. Men who threw away the living water of the Gospel because they -disliked the water-buckets in which their boyhood churches presented -it, are living spiritually thirsty lives when there is no reasonable -need of their doing so. There is many an unbeliever with a "God-shaped -blank" in his heart, who could be a confident and joyful believer if -he only knew what religion means to men of faith today. - - _O God, who hast formed all hearts to love Thee, made all ways to - lead to Thy face, created all desire to be unsatisfied save in Thee; - with great compassion look upon us gathered here. Our presence is our - prayer, our need the only plea we dare to claim, Thy purposes the one - assurance we possess._ - - _Some of us are very confused; we do not know why we were ever born, - for what end we should live, which way we should take. But we are - willing to be guided. Take our trembling hands in Thine, and lead us - on._ - - _Some of us are sore within. We long for love and friendship, but we - care for no one and we feel that no one cares for us. We are - misunderstood, we are lonely, we have been disappointed, we have lost - our faith in man and our faith in life. Wilt Thou not let us love - Thee who first loved us?_ - - _Some of us are vexed with passions that affright us; to yield to - them would mean disaster, to restrain them is beyond our power, and - nothing earth contains exhausts their vehemence or satisfies their - fierce desire._ - - _And so because there is no answer, no end or satisfaction in - ourselves; and because we are what we are, and yet long to be so - different; we believe Thou art, and that Thou dost understand us. By - faith we feel after Thee, through love we find the way, in hope we - bring ourselves to Thee. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Second Week, Fifth Day - -Many minds are prejudiced against religion because, having gone so far -as to feel the credulity of religious belief, they have never gone -further and _seen the credulity of religious unbelief_. Irreligion -implies a creed just as surely as religion does; and many a man's -return to faith has begun when his faculties of doubt, which hitherto -had been used only against belief in God, became active against belief -in no-God. Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, with his characteristic vividness -and exaggeration, narrates such an experience: "I never read a line of -Christian apologetics. I read as little as I can of them now. It was -Huxley and Herbert Spencer and Bradlaugh who brought me back to -orthodox theology. They sowed in my mind my first wild doubts of -doubt. Our grandmothers were quite right when they said that Tom Paine -and the free-thinkers unsettled the mind. They do. They unsettled mine -horribly. The rationalist made me question whether reason was of any -use whatever; and when I had finished Herbert Spencer I had got as far -as doubting (for the first time) whether evolution had occurred at -all. As I laid down the last of Colonel Ingersoll's atheistic lectures -the dreadful thought broke across my mind, 'Almost thou persuadest me -to be a Christian.' I was in a desperate way." Lest Mr. Chesterton's -whimsicality may hide the seriousness of such an experience, we may -add that Robert Louis Stevenson's first break with his "youthful -atheism" came when, under the influence of Professor Fleeming Jenkin, -he too began to have his "first wild doubts of doubt." He began -thinking, as he says, that "certainly the church was not right, but -certainly not the anti-church either." Many a man has played unfairly -with his doubts; he has used them against religion, but not against -irreligion. When he is thorough with his doubts he may join the many -who understand what the apostle meant when he wrote to Timothy: - - =O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, turning away - from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is - falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the - faith.= - - =Grace be with you.--1 Tim. 6:20, 21.= - - _O God, too near to be found, too simple to be conceived, too good to - be believed; help us to trust, not in our knowledge of Thee, but in - Thy knowledge of us; to be certain of Thee, not because we feel our - thoughts of Thee are true, but because we know how far Thou dost - transcend them. May we not be anxious to discern Thy will, but - content only with desire to do it; may we not strain our minds to - understand Thy nature, but yield ourselves and live our lives only to - express Thee._ - - _Shew us how foolish it is to doubt Thee, since Thou Thyself dost set - the questions which disturb us; reveal our unbelief to be faith - fretting at its outworn form. Be gracious when we are tempted to - cease from moral strife: reveal what it is that struggles in us. - Before we tire of mental search enable us to see that it was not - ourselves but Thy call which stirred our souls._ - - _Turn us back from our voyages of thought to that which sent us - forth. Teach us to trust not to cleverness or learning, but to that - inward faith which can never be denied. Lead us out of confusion to - simplicity. Call us back from wandering without to find Thee at home - within. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Second Week, Sixth Day - -Many men are biased in favor of their habitual doubt because they do -not see that _positive faith is the only normal estate of man_. -We live not by the things of which we are uncertain, but by the things -which we verily believe. Columbus doubted many of the old views in -geography, but these negations did not make him great; his greatness -sprang from the positive beliefs which he confidently held and on -which he launched his splendid adventure. Goethe is right when he -makes Mephistopheles, his devil, say, "I am the spirit of negation," -for negation, save as it paves the way for positive conviction, always -bedevils life. The psalmist reveals the ideal experience for every -doubter. - -First, _uncertainty_: - - =But as for me, my feet were almost gone; - My steps had well nigh slipped. - For I was envious at the arrogant, - When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.= - - =--Psalm 73:2, 3.= - -Then _vision_: - - =When I thought how I might know this, - It was too painful for me; - Until I went into the sanctuary of God, - And considered their latter end.= - - =--Psalm 73:16, 17.= - -Then, _positive assurance_: - - =Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, - And afterward receive me to glory. - Whom have I in heaven but thee? - And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. - My flesh and my heart faileth; - But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.= - - =--Psalm 73:24-26.= - -Doubt, therefore, does have real value in life; it clears away rubbish -and stimulates search for truth; but it has no value unless it is -finally swallowed up in positive assurance. So Tennyson pictures the -experience of his friend, Arthur Hallam: - - "One indeed I knew - In many a subtle question versed, - Who touch'd a jarring lyre at first, - But ever strove to make it true: - - Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, - At last he beat his music out. - There lives more faith in honest doubt, - Believe me, than in half the creeds. - - He fought his doubts and gather'd strength, - He would not make his judgment blind, - He faced the spectres of the mind - And laid them: thus he came at length - - To find a stronger faith his own." - - _O Most Merciful, whose love to us is mighty, long-suffering, and - infinitely tender; lead us beyond all idols and imaginations of our - minds to contact with Thee the real and abiding; past all barriers of - fear and beyond all paralysis of failure to that furnace of flaming - purity where falsehood, sin, and cowardice are all consumed away. It - may be that we know not what we ask; yet we dare not ask for less._ - - _Our aspirations are hindered because we do not know ourselves. We - have tried to slake our burning thirst at broken cisterns, to comfort - the crying of our spirits with baubles and trinkets, to assuage the - pain of our deep unrest by drugging an accusing conscience, believing - a lie, and veiling the naked flame that burns within. But now we know - Thou makest us never to be content with aught save Thyself, in earth, - or heaven, or hell._ - - _Sometimes we have sought Thee in agony and tears, scanned the clouds - and watched the ways of men, considered the stars and studied the - moral law; and returned from all our search no surer and no nearer. - Yet now we know that the impulse to seek Thee came from Thyself - alone, and what we sought for was the image Thou hadst first planted - in our hearts._ - - _We may not yet hold Thee fast or feel Thee near, but we know Thou - holdest us. All is well. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Second Week, Seventh Day - -Men are often prejudiced against religion or any serious consideration -of it, because they _never have felt any vital need of God_. To study -wireless telegraphy in the safe seclusion of a college laboratory is -one thing; to hear the wireless apparatus on a floundering ship send -out its call for help across a stormy sea is quite a different matter. -Many folk have never thought of faith in God save with a mild, -intellectual curiosity; they do not know those deep experiences of -serious souls with sin and sorrow and anxiety, with burden for -great causes and desire for triumphant righteousness in men and -nations--experiences that throw men back on God as their only -sufficient refuge and hope. _Men never really find God until they need -him_; and some men never feel the need of him until life plunges them -into a shattering experience. Even in scientific research new -discoveries are made because men _want_ them, and Mayer, lighting on a -theory that proved to be of great value, says, "Engaged during a sea -voyage almost exclusively with the study of physiology, I discovered -the new theory, for the sufficient reason that I _vividly felt the -need of it_." How much more must the vital discovery of God depend on -life's conscious demand for him! And how certainly a shallow, -frivolous nature, unstirred by the deep concerns of life, is biased -against any serious interest in religious faith! Great believers have -first of all _thirsted_ for God. - - =Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that - hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk - without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that - which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? - hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let - your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto - me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting - covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.... Seek ye Jehovah - while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: let the - wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let - him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our - God, for he will abundantly pardon.--Isa. 55:1-3, 6, 7.= - - _Grant unto us, we pray Thee, the lost hunger and thirst after - righteousness--the longing for God. Grant unto us that drawing power - by which everything that is in us shall call out for Thee. Become - necessary unto us. With the morning and evening light, at noon and at - midnight, may we feel the need of Thy companionship.... Though Thou - dost not speak as man speaks, yet Thou canst call out to us; and the - soul shall know Thy presence, and shall understand by its own self - what Thou meanest. Grant unto us this witness of the Spirit, this - communion of the soul with Thee--and not only once or twice: may we - abide in the light._ - - _Thou hast come unto Thine own; and even as of old, Thine own know - Thee not, and believe Thee not. How many are there that have learned - Thy name upon their mother's knee, but have forgotten it! How many - are there that grew up into the happiness of a childhood in which - piety presided, but have gone away, and have not come back again to - their first love and to their early faith! How many are there - marching on now in the Sahara of indifference and in the wilderness - of unbelief!... Lord, look upon them; have merciful thoughts toward - them, and issue those gracious influences of power by which what is - best in them shall lift itself up and bear witness against that which - is worst. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -We are to deal in this chapter with one of the most common experiences -of doubt and are to attempt the statement of a truth useful in meeting -it. Many minds are undone at the first symptoms of religious -uncertainty, because they suppose that their doubt is philosophical, -and they feel a paralyzing inability to deal with philosophy at all. -As men have been known to take to their beds at hearing the scientific -names of illnesses which hitherto they had patiently endured, so minds -are sometimes overwhelmed by an unsettlement of faith that takes the -name of philosophic doubt. It is well, then, early in our study, to -note the homely, familiar experience, which in most cases underlies -and helps to explain the problem of theological unrest. - -We all began, as children, with an unlimited ability to believe what -we were told. We were credulous long before we became critical. God -and Santa Claus, fairy stories and life after death--in what -beautiful, unquestioning confusion we received them all! Our thinking -was altogether imitative, as our talking was. From the existence of -Kamchatka to the opinion that it was wrong to lie, we had no -independent knowledge of our own. Reliance on authority was our only -road to truth. One prescription was adequate for every need of -information: ask our parents and be told. - -This situation was the occasion of our first unsettlement of faith: we -discovered the fallibility of our parents. They failed to tell us what -we asked, or we found to be untrue what they had said, or they -themselves confessed how much they did not know. To some this was a -shock, the memory of which has never been forgotten. Edmund Gosse, the -literary critic, tells us that up to his sixth year he thought that -his father knew everything. Then came the fateful crisis when his -father wrongly reported an incident which Edmund himself had -witnessed. "Nothing could possibly have been more trifling to my -parents," he writes, "but to me it meant an epoch. Here was the -appalling discovery never suspected before that my father was not as -God and did not know everything. The shock was not caused by any -suspicion that he was not telling the truth, as it appeared to him, -but by the awful proof that he was not, as I had supposed, -omniscient." By most of us, however, the transfer of our faith from -our parents' authority to some other basis of belief was easily -accomplished. We found ourselves resting back on the priest or the -church or the creed or the Bible. Still our convictions were not -independently our own; we had never fought for them or thought them -through; they were founded on the say-so of authority. What we wished -to know we asked another, and what was told us we implicitly believed. - -The time inevitably comes, however, to a normally developing mind, -when such an attitude of unquestioning credulity becomes impossible. -The curious "Why?" of the growing child, that began in early years to -besiege all statements of fact, now ranges out to call in question the -propositions of religious faith. For long-accepted truths, from the -rotundity of the earth to the existence of God, the enlarging -intellect wants reasons rather than dogmas. So normal is this period -of interrogation that it is regularly slated on the timetables of -psychological development. Starbuck fixes the average age of the doubt -period at about eighteen years for boys and about fifteen for girls. - -At whatever time and in whatever special form this period of doubt -arises, the characteristic quality of its outcome is easily described. -In the end the fully awakened mind is ill content to accept any -authoritative statements that he dare not question or deny. He resents -having a quotation from any source waved like a revolver in his face -with the demand that he throw up his intellectual hands. No more in -religion than in politics does he incline to stand before infallibility, -like the French peasants before Louis XI, saying, "Sire, what are our -opinions?" He claims his right to question everything, to make every -truth advance and give the countersign of reasonableness, to weigh all -propositions in the scales of his own thinking, and if he is to love -the Lord his God at all, to do it, not with all his credulity, but, as -Jesus said, with all his mind. - -Biography reveals how many of the great believers have passed through -this youthful period of rebellion against accepted tradition and have -suffered serious religious unsettlement in the process. Robert -Browning tells us that as a boy he was "passionately religious." When -his period of questioning and revolt arrived, however, it carried him -so far that he was publicly rebuked in church for intentional -misbehavior, and in his sixteenth year, under the influence of -Shelley's "Queen Mab," he declared himself an atheist. But in his -"Pauline," written when he was twenty-one, the direction in which his -quest was leading him was plain: - - "I have always had one lode-star; now - As I look back, I see that I have halted - Or hastened as I looked towards that star-- - A need, a trust, a yearning after God." - -And when he grew to his maturity, had left his early credulousness -with the revolt that followed it far behind and had used his -independent thinking to productive purpose, from what a height of -splendid faith did he look back upon that youthful period of storm and -stress which he called "the passionate, impatient struggles of a boy -toward truth and love"! - -Henry Ward Beecher's intellectual revolution was postponed until he -had entered the theological seminary. "I was then twenty years old," -he writes, "and there came a great revulsion in me from all this -inchoate, unregulated, undirected experience. My mind took one -tremendous spring over into scepticism, and I said: 'I have been a -fool long enough--I will not stir one step further than I can see my -way, and I will not stand a moment where I cannot see the truth. I -will have something that is sure and steadfast.' Having taken that -ground, I was in that state of mind for the larger part of two years." -A wholesome restraint upon the wild perversions, the anarchic denials, -the abysmal despairs of this period of life is the clear recognition -that in some form it is one of the commonest experiences of man. - - -II - -The treatment accorded to a youth who is passing through this -difficult adjustment often determines, in a fine or lamentable way, -his subsequent attitude towards religion. _Negative repression of real -questions is of all methods the most fatal, whether it be practiced on -the youth by others or by the youth upon himself._ "I have not been in -church for twenty years," said a college graduate. "Why?" was the -inquiry. "Because in college I learned from geology through how many -ages this earth was slowly being built. Troubled by the conflict -between this new knowledge and my early training, I went to my -minister. He said that the Bible told us the earth was made in six -days and that I must accept that on faith. That's why." Thousands of -men are religious wrecks today because, when the issue was raised in -their thinking between their desire for a reason and their traditional -beliefs, they were told that to ask a reason is sin. George Eliot's -experience unhappily is not unique. Just when in girlhood her mind was -waking to independent thought, a book now long unread, Hennell's -"Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity," convinced her -immature judgment that her early credulity had been blind. No one was -at hand to state the faith in a reasonable way or to meet, not by -denying but by using her right to think, the attacks of Hennell, which -now are forgotten in their futility. She never came through her -youthful unsettlement. Years after, F. W. H. Myers wrote: "I remember -how at Cambridge I walked with her once in the Fellows' Garden of -Trinity, on an evening of rainy May, and she, stirred somewhat beyond -her wont, and taking as her text the three words which have been used -so often as the inspiring trumpet calls of men--the words God, -Immortality, Duty--pronounced with terrible earnestness, how -inconceivable was the first, how unbelievable was the second, and how -peremptory and absolute the third. Never, perhaps, had sterner accents -affirmed the sovereignty of impersonal and unrecompensing law. I -listened and night fell; her grave, majestic countenance turned toward -me like a Sibyl's in the gloom; it was as though she withdrew from my -grasp one by one the two scrolls of promise, and left me the third -scroll only, awful with inevitable fate." - -In this period of readjustment, whether one is the youth in the midst -of the struggle or the solicitous friend endeavoring to help, one most -needs a clear perception of the ideal outcome of such intellectual -unrest. Let us attempt a picture of that ideal. The youth who long has -taken on his parents' say-so the most important convictions that the -soul can hold, or who, with no care to think or question for himself, -has looked to Book or Church for all that he believed about God, now -feels within him that intellectual awakening that cannot be quieted by -mere authority. He long has taken his truth preserved by others' -hands; now he desires to pick it for himself, fresh from the living -tree of knowledge. His declaration of independence from subjection to -his parents or his Church is not at first irreverent desire to -disbelieve; it is rather desire to enter into the Samaritans' -experience when they said to the woman who first had told them about -Jesus: "Now we believe, not because of _thy_ speaking; for we have -_heard for ourselves_, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the -world" (John 4:41). The youth turns from second-hand rehearsal of the -truth to seek a first-hand, original acquaintance with it. As he began -in utter financial dependence on his father, then made a bit of -spending money of his own, and at last moved out to make his living, -ashamed to be a pensioner and parasite when he should be carrying -himself, so from his old, intellectual dependence the youth passes to -a fine responsibility for his own thinking and belief. He knows that -such transitions, whether financial or intellectual, generally mean -stress and perplexity, but if he is to be a man the youth must -venture. - -In this transition beliefs will certainly be modified. Not only do -forms of religious thinking shift and change with the passing -generations, but individuals differ in their powers to see and -understand. Religious faith, like water, takes shape from the -receptacles into whose unique nooks and crannies it is poured. If the -truth which the youth possesses is to be indeed his own, it will -surely differ from the truth which once he learned, by as much as his -mind and his experience differ from his father's. Even in the New -Testament one can easily distinguish James' thought from Paul's and -John's from Peter's. But change of form need not mean loss of value. -To pass by fine gradations from unquestioning credulity to thoughtful -faith is not impossible. Thus a boy learns to swim with his father's -hands beneath him and passes so gradually from reliance upon another -to independent power to swim alone that he cannot tell when first the -old support was quietly withdrawn. - -Thus ideally pictured, this transition is nothing to be feared; it is -one of life's steps to spiritual power. This period of questioning and -venture we have called the passage from credulity to independence, but -its significance is deeper than those words imply. _It is the passage -from hearsay to reality._ Of all inward intimate experiences, religion -reaches deepest and is least transferable. It is as incommunicable as -friendship. A father may commend a comrade to his son and lay bare his -own deep friendship with the man, but if the son himself does not see -the value there nor for himself in loyalty and love make self -surrender, the father can do nothing more. Friendship cannot be -carried on by proxy. One can as easily breathe for another as in -another's place be loyal to a friend or trust in God. - -When, therefore, the youth moves out from mere dependence on his -father, his Bible, or his Church to see and know God in his own right, -he is fulfilling the end of all religion. _For this his father -taught him, for this the Book was written and the Church was -founded._ As George Macdonald put it, "Each generation must do its -own seeking and finding. The father's having found is only the warrant -for the children's search." Said Goethe: "What you have inherited from -your fathers you must earn for yourself before you can call it yours." -This individual experience makes religion real, and the "awkward age" -of the spirit when the old security of credulous belief has gone and -the new assurance of personal conviction has not yet fully come, is a -small price to pay for the sense of reality that enters into religion -when a man for himself knows God. Such is the ideal transition from -credulity to independence, from hearsay to reality. - - -III - -One fallacy which disastrously affects many endeavors after this ideal -transition is the prejudice that, since faith has hitherto in the -youth's experience meant credulous acceptance of another's say-so, -faith always must mean that. Faith and credulity appear to him -identical. In "Alice through the Looking Glass" the Queen asserts that -she is a hundred and one years, five months, and one day old. "I can't -believe that," said Alice. "Can't you?" said the Queen. "Try again, -draw a long breath and shut your eyes." So blind, irrational, and -wilful does faith seem to many! So far from being an essential part -of all real knowledge, therefore, faith seems to stand in direct -contrast with knowledge, and this impression is deepened by our common -phraseology. Tennyson, for example, sings: - - "We have but faith: we cannot know; - For knowledge is of things we see." - -Before there can be any profitable discussion of religious belief, -therefore, we need to see that faith is one of the chief ways in which -continually we deal with reality; it is a road to truth, without which -some truth never can be reached at all. The reason for its -inevitableness in life is not our lack of knowledge, but rather that -faith is as indispensable as logical demonstration in any real knowing -of the world. Behind all other words to be said about our subject lies -this fundamental matter: _faith is not a substitute for truth, but a -pathway to truth; there are realities which without it never can be -known_. - -For one thing, no one can know _persons_ without faith. The world -of people, without whom if a man could live, he would be, as Aristotle -said, either a brute or a god, is closed in its inner meaning to a -faithless mind. Entrance into another life with insight and -understanding is always a venture of trust. We cry vainly like Cassim -before the magic cave, "Open, Barley," if we try to penetrate the -secrets of a human personality without sympathy, loyalty, faith. These -alone cry "Open, Sesame." - -Surely this knowledge of persons, impossible without faith, is as -important as any which we possess. While the physical universe -furnishes the general background of our existence, the immediate world -in which we really live is personal, made up of people whom we fear or -love, by whom we are cheered, admonished, hurt, and comforted. "The -world is so waste and empty," cried Goethe, "when we figure but towns -and hills and rivers in it, but to know that someone is living on it -with us, even in silence--this makes our earthly ball a peopled -garden." A solitary Robinson Crusoe would give up any other knowledge, -if in return he could know even a benighted savage like Friday. But -even a savage cannot be known by logical demonstration. Crusoe could -so have learned some things, but when he wanted to know Friday, he -came by way of adventures in confidence, personal trust and -self-commitment, growing reliance and appreciative insight, assured -loyalty and faith. He _knew_ whom he had _believed_. - -Moreover, such knowledge of persons is as solid as it is important. -That two plus two make four cannot be gainsaid, and doubtless no other -kinds of information can be quite so absolute as mathematical -theorems. But when one thinks of a comrade, long loved and trusted -until he is known through and through, for practical purposes one can -think of nothing more stable than his knowledge of his friend. The -plain fact is that we _do_ know people, know them well, and that -this knowledge never has been or can be a matter of logical -demonstration. By taking Arthur Hallam to pieces and analyzing him, -the inductive mind might work out all the laws that are involved in -Arthur Hallam's constitution; but that mind with all its knowledge -would not know Arthur Hallam. Tennyson's "In Memoriam," however, makes -clear that knowledge of a friend is not interdicted because scientific -demonstration cannot supply it. Tennyson knew Hallam well, and this -knowledge, far more solid and significant than most other information -he possessed, was not achieved by grinding laws out of facts; it came, -as all such knowledge comes, by faith. - -As one considers what this understanding of the personal world, seen -with the open eyes of trust and loyalty, means to us, how assured it -is, how it enriches and deepens life, he perceives that here at least -faith is something far more than a stop-gap for ignorance, a dream, a -fantasy. It is positively a pathway to truth. - -There is another realm where faith is our only way of dealing with -reality; by it alone can we know _the possibilities of individuals and -of society_. We are well assured now in the United States that the -nation can be economically prosperous without slavery. But sixty years -ago plenty of people were assured of the contrary, were convinced that -if the abolitionists succeeded we could not economically endure. How -did we come by this significant knowledge that the immoral system was -dispensable? Not by logical demonstration. The economists of most of -our universities logically demonstrated that slavery was essential. -_Faith was the pathway to the truth._ Faith that a new order minus -slavery was possible gained adherents, grew in certainty with access -of new believers, fed its followers on hopes unrealized but -passionately believed in, until _faith became experiment, and -experiment became experience, and experience brought forth -knowledge_. The nation trusted and tried. This is the only way to -truth in the realm of moral possibilities. If the world were finished, -its _i's_ all dotted and its _t's_ all crossed, we might exist on that -sort of descriptive science that finds the facts and plots their laws. -But the world is in the making; what is _actual_ is not quite so -important to us as what is _possible_; we live, as Wordsworth sings, -in - - "Hope that can never die, - Effort and expectation and desire, - And something evermore about to be." - -To endeavor to satisfy man, therefore, with descriptions of the actual -is preposterous. The innermost meaning of personal and social life -lies in the contrast between what we are and what we may become. -Beyond the achieved present and the demonstrable future, stands the -ideal, whose possibility we can never know as a truth without faith -enough to try. - -When, therefore, one hears disparagement of faith as a poor makeshift -for knowledge, he may be pardoned a sharp rejoinder. When has man ever -found solid knowledge in this most important realm of human -possibilities, without faith as the pioneer? We do not know first and -then supply by belief what knowledge lacks. _We believe first, as -Columbus did, and then find new continents because what faith first -suggested a great venture has confirmed._ When Stephenson proposed to -run a steam car forty miles an hour, a host of wise-acres proved the -feat impossible on the ground that no one could move through the air -so rapidly and still survive. If now we know that one easily survives -a speed of over a hundred miles an hour in an aeroplane, it is because -a faith that _saw_ and _dared_ introduced us to the information. We -know now that democracy is not a futile dream, nor the conquest of the -air by wireless and of the land by electricity a madman's frenzy; we -know truths of highest import and certainty from the usefulness of -radium to the wisdom of religious liberty, and all this knowledge -existed as belief in possibility before it became truth in fact. Faith -was "assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" -(Hebrews 11:1). Faith is no makeshift. Its power is nowhere felt more -effectively than in the achievement of knowledge. - - -IV - -So far is faith, then, from being blind credulity, that it alone -deserves to be called the Great Discoverer. Everywhere faith goes -before as a pioneer and the more prosaic faculties of the mind come -after to civilize the newly opened territory. In the evolution of the -senses touch developed first. All the knowledge that any creature had, -concerned the tangible. But in time other senses came. Dimly and -uncertainly creatures discerned by hearing and seeing the existence of -distant objects. They became aware of presences which as yet they -could not touch; they were furnished with clues, in following which -they found as real what at first had been intangible. Such a relation -faith bears to knowledge. Faith, said Clement of Alexandria, is the -"ear of the soul." Said Ruskin, faith is "veracity of insight." By it -we hear what as yet we cannot touch and see what the arms of our logic -are not long enough to reach. - -All the elemental, primary facts of life are faith's discoveries; we -have no other means of finding them. By faith we discover our -_selves_. We do not hold back from living until we can prove that -we exist. We never can strictly prove that we exist. The very self -that we are trying to demonstrate would have to be used in the -demonstration. We have no other way of getting at ourselves except to -take ourselves for granted--accepting - - "This main miracle that you are you, - With power on your own act and on the world." - -As Mr. Chesterton remarked, "You cannot call up any wilder vision than -a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves." By faith -all men go out to live as though their selves were real. - -By faith we accept the existence of the _outer world_. We do not -restrain ourselves from acting as though the physical world were -really there, until we can prove it. We never can strictly prove it; -perhaps it is not there at all. When through a microscope an Indian -was shown germs in the Ganges' water, to convince him of the peril of -its use, he broke the instrument with his cane, as though when the -microscope was gone, the facts had vanished too. In his philosophy all -that we see is illusion. Perhaps this is true--the world a phantasm -and our minds fooling us. But none of us believes it. And we do not -believe it because we live by faith--the elemental faith on which all -common sense and science rest and without which man's thought and work -would halt--that our senses and our minds tell us the truth. "It is -idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. _Reason -itself is a matter of faith._ It is an act of faith to assert that -one's thoughts have any relation to reality at all." - -By faith we even discover the _universe_. We cannot think of the -world as a multiverse; we always think of it as having unity, and we -do so whether as scientists we talk about the uniformity of nature, or -as Christians we speak of one Creator. Not only, however, can no one -demonstrate that this is a universe; _it positively does not look as -though it were_. Opposing powers snarl at each other and clash in a -disorder that gives to the casual observer not the slightest -intimation that any unity is there. Thunder storms and little babies, -volcanoes and Easter lilies, immeasurable nebulæ in the heavens and -people getting married on the earth--what indescribable contrasts and -confusions! Still we insist on thinking unity into this seeming -anomaly, and out of it we wrest scientific doctrines about the -uniformity of law. As Professor James, of Harvard, put it, "The -principle of uniformity in nature has to be _sought_ under and in -spite of the most rebellious appearances; and our conviction of its -truth is far more like religious faith than like assent to a -demonstration." - -One might suppose that beliefs so assumed and so incapable of adequate -demonstration would make the knowledge based upon them insecure. _But -the fact is that all our surest knowledge is thus based on assumptions -that we cannot prove._ "As for the strong conviction," Huxley says, -"that the cosmic order is rational, and the faith that throughout all -duration, unbroken order has reigned in the universe, I not only -accept it, but I am disposed to think it the most important of all -truths." Faith then, in Huxley's thought, is not a makeshift when -knowledge fails. Rather by faith we continually are getting at the -most important realities with which we deal. As Prof. Ladd, of Yale, -impatiently exclaims: "The rankest agnostic is shot through and -through with all the same fundamental intellectual beliefs, all the -same unescapable rational faiths, about the reality of the self and -about the validity of its knowledge. You cannot save science and -destroy all faith. You cannot sit on the limb of the tree while you -tear it up by the roots." - - -V - -If faith is thus the pioneer that leads us to knowledge of persons and -of moral possibilities; if by faith we discover our selves, the outer -world's existence and its unity, why should we be surprised that faith -is our road to God? Superficial deniers of religion not infrequently -seek the discredit of a Christian's trust by saying that God is only a -matter of faith. To which the Christian confidently may answer: Of -course God is a matter of faith. Faith is always the Great Discoverer. - -A man finds God as he finds an earthly friend. He does not go apart in -academic solitude to consider the logical rationality of friendship, -until, intellectually convinced, he coolly arms himself with a Q. E. -D. and goes out to hunt a comrade. Friendship is never an adventure of -logic; it is an adventure of life. It is arrived at by what Emerson -called the "untaught sallies of the spirit." We fall in love, it may -be with precipitant emotion; our instincts and our wills are first -engaged; the whole personality rises up in hunger to claim the -affection that it needs and without which life seems unsupportable; -faith, hope, and love engage in a glorious venture, where logic plays -a minor part. But to make friendship rational, to give it poise, to -trace its origins and laws, to clarify, chasten, and direct--this is -the necessary work of thought. Faith discovers and reveals; reason -furnishes criticism, confirmation, and discipline. - -So men find God. They are hungry for him not in intellect alone, but -with all their powers. They feel with Tolstoi: "I remembered that I -only _lived_ at those times when I believed in God." They need him to -put sense and worth and hope into life. As with the reality of -persons, the validity of knowledge, the unity of the world, so in -religion the whole man rises up to claim the truth without which life -is barren, meaningless. His best convictions at the first are all of -them insights of the spirit, affirmations of the _man_. But behind, -around and through them all play clarifying thoughts, and reasons come -to discipline and to confirm. But the reasons by themselves could not -have found God. Faith is the Great Discoverer. - - "Oh! world, thou choosest not the better part, - It is not wisdom to be only wise, - And on the inward vision close the eyes; - But it is wisdom to believe the heart. - Columbus found a world and had no chart - Save one that Faith deciphered in the skies; - To trust the soul's invincible surmise - Was all his science and his only art. - Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine - That lights the pathway but one step ahead - Across the void of mystery and dread. - Bid then the tender light of Faith to shine - By which alone the mortal heart is led - Into the thinking of the thought Divine."[1] - -[1] Professor Santayana, of Harvard. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -Faith in the Personal God - - -DAILY READINGS - -We are to consider this week the Christian faith that God is personal. -Before, however, we deal with the arguments which may confirm our -confidence in such a faith, or even with the explanations that may -clarify our conception of its meaning, let us, in the daily readings, -consider _some of the familiar attitudes in every normal human life, -that require God's personality for their fulfilment_. Men have -believed in a personal God because their own nature demanded it. - - -Third Week, First Day - -Men have believed in a personal God because of a _deep desire to think -of creation as friendly_. F. W. Myers, when asked what question he -would put to the Sphinx, if he were given only one chance, replied -that he would ask, "Is the universe friendly?" Some have tried to -think of creation as an enemy which we must fight, as though in -Greenland we strove to make verdure grow, although the soil and -climate were antagonistic. Some have tried to think creation neutral, -an impersonal system of laws and forces, which we must impose our will -upon as best we can, although in the end the system is sure to outlast -all our efforts and to bring our gains to naught. But at the heart of -man is an irresistible desire to think creation a friend, with whose -good purposes our wills can be aligned, and whose power can carry our -efforts to victorious ends. Says Gilbert Murray, of Oxford University, -"As I see philosophy after philosophy falling into this unproven -belief in the Friend behind phenomena, as I find that I myself cannot, -except for a moment and by an effort, refrain from making the same -assumption, it seems to me that perhaps here too we are under the -spell of a very old ineradicable instinct." _But friends are always -persons, and if creation is friendly then God is in some sense -personal._ This faith is the radiant center of the Gospel. - - =But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and - having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy - Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use - not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they - shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto - them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye - ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in - heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as - in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive - us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not - into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive - men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive - you.--Matt. 6:6-14.= - - _O Lord, we would rest in Thee, for in Thee alone is true rest to be - found. We would forget our disappointed hopes, our fruitless efforts, - our trivial aims, and lean on Thee, our Comfort and our Strength. - When the order of this world bears cruelly upon us; when Nature seems - to us an awful machine, grinding out life and death, without a reason - or a purpose; when our hopes perish in the grave where we lay to rest - our loved dead: O what can we do but turn to Thee, whose law - underlieth all, and whose love, we trust, is the end of all? Thou - fillest all things with Thy presence, and dost press close to our - souls. Still every passion, rebuke every doubt, strengthen every - element of good within us, that nothing may hinder the outflow of Thy - life and power. In Thee, let the weak be full of might, and let the - strong renew their strength. In Thee, let the tempted find succor, - the sorrowing consolation, and the lonely and the neglected their - Supreme Friend, their faithful Companion._ - - _O Lord, we are weary of our old, barren selves. Separate us from our - spiritual past, and quicken within us the seeds of a new future. - Transform us by the breath of Thy regenerating power, that life may - seem supremely beautiful and duty our highest privilege, and the only - real evil a guilty conscience. Let us be no longer sad, or downcast, - or miserable, or despairing, vexed by remorse, or depressed by our - failures. Take from us the old self. Give us a new self, beautiful, - vigorous, and joyous. Let old things pass away and let all things - become new. Kindle within us a flame of heavenly devotion, so that to - us work for Thee shall become a happiness, and rest in Thee shall - become an energy, unchecked by fears within and foes without. Give us - love, and then we shall have more than all we need, for Thou art - Love, Thyself the Giver and the Gift. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Third Week, Second Day - - =Bless Jehovah, O my soul; - And all that is within me, bless his holy name. - Bless Jehovah, O my soul, - And forget not all his benefits: - Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; - Who healeth all thy diseases; - Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; - Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; - Who satisfieth thy desire with good things, - So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.= - - =--Psalm 103:1-5.= - -Such an attitude of thankfulness as this psalm represents is native to -man's heart. When he is glad he feels grateful: he has an irrepressible -impulse to thank somebody. As between a boastful Nebuchadnezzar--"This -great Babylon which I have built ... by the might of my power and for -the glory of my majesty" (Dan. 4:30)--and the Master, grateful for the -dawning success of his cause--"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven -and earth" (Matt. 11:25)--we can have no doubt which is the nobler -attitude. Man at his best always looks upon his blessings as gifts, -his powers as entrustments, his service as a debt which he owes, and -his success as an occasion of gratitude rather than pride. _But we -cannot be really thankful to impersonal power._ Little children blame -chairs for their falls and thank apple trees for their apples, but -maturity outgrows the folly of accusing or blessing impersonal things. -Thankfulness, in any worthy interpretation of the term, can never be -felt except toward friendly persons who _intended the blessing_ for -which we are glad. A thoughtful man, therefore, cannot be grateful to -a godless world-machine, even though it has treated him well, for the -world-machine never purposed to treat him well and his happiness is a -lucky accident, with no good will to thank for it. Haeckel says that -there is no God--only "mobile, cosmic ether." Imagine a congregation -of people, under Haeckel's leadership, rising to pray, "O Mobile -Cosmic Ether, blessed be thy name!" It is absurd. _Unless God is -personal, the deepest meanings of gratitude in human hearts for life -and its benedictions have no proper place in the universe._ - - _O God above all, yet in all; holy beyond all imagination, yet friend - of sinners; who inhabitest the realms of unfading light, yet leadest - us through the shadows of mortal life; how solemn and uplifting it is - even to think upon Thee! Like sight of sea to wearied eyes, like a - walled-in garden to the troubled mind, like home to wanderer, like a - strong tower to a soul pursued; so to us is the sound of Thy name._ - - _But greater still to feel Thee in our heart; like a river glorious, - cleansing, healing, bringing life; like a song victorious, comforting - our sadness, banishing our care; like a voice calling us to battle, - urging us beyond ourselves._ - - _But greater far to know Thee as our Father, as dear as Thou art - near; and ourselves begotten of Thy love, made in Thy image, cared - for through all our days, never beyond Thy sight, never out of Thy - thought._ - - _To think of Thee is rest; to know Thee is eternal life; to see Thee - is the end of all desire; to serve Thee is perfect freedom and - everlasting joy. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Third Week, Third Day - - =Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: - According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my - transgressions. - Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, - And cleanse me from my sin. - For I know my transgressions; - And my sin is ever before me. - Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, - And done that which is evil in thy sight.= - - =--Psalm 51:1-4.= - -Penitence is one of the profoundest impulses in man's heart. And man -at his deepest always feels about his sin as the Psalmist did: he has -wronged not only this individual or that, but he has sinned against -the whole structure of life, against whatever Power and Purpose may be -behind life, and his penitence is not complete until he cries to the -Highest, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." While men, -therefore, have always asked each other for forgiveness, they have as -well asked God for it. _But such an attitude is utterly irrational if -God is not personal._ Persons alone care what we do, have purposes -that our sins thwart, have love that our evil grieves, have compassion -to forgive the penitent; and to confess sin to a world-machine--careless, -purposeless, loveless, and without compassion--is folly. Yesterday we -saw how impossible it was really to feel grateful to a materialist's -god; today imagine congregations of people addressing to the Cosmic -Ether any such penitent confessions as Christians by multitudes -continually address to their Father: "We have erred and strayed from -Thy ways like lost sheep." _Plainly in a world where creative power is -impersonal the deepest meanings of penitence have no place._ Read over -the prayer that follows, considering the futility of addressing such a -penitent aspiration to anything impersonal; and then really pray it to -the God whom Christ revealed: - - _We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favor, folk of many - families and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, - weak men and women subsisting under the covert of thy patience. Be - patient still; suffer us yet awhile longer--with our broken purposes - of good, with our idle endeavors against evil, suffer us awhile - longer to endure and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us - our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, - brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends, be - with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest; if any awake, temper to - them the dark hours of watching; and when the day returns, return to - us, our sun and comforter, and call us up with morning faces and with - morning hearts--eager to labor--eager to be happy, if happiness shall - be our portion--and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure - it._ - - _We thank Thee and praise Thee; and in the words of him to whom this - day is sacred, close our oblation. Amen._--Robert Louis Stevenson.[2] - - -Third Week, Fourth Day - - =Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, - that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.--Rom. - 15:13.= - - =For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for - who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we - see not, then do we with patience wait for it.--Rom. 8:24, 25.= - -Hope is no fringe on the garment of human life; it is part of the -solid texture of our experience; without it men may exist, but they -cannot live. Now some minds live by hope about tomorrow, or at the -most, the day after tomorrow, and do not take long looks ahead. But as -men grow mature in thoughtfulness, such small horizons no longer can -content their minds; they seek a basis for hope about the far issue of -man's struggle and aspiration. They cannot bear to think that creation -lacks a "far-off divine event"; they cannot tolerate a universe that -in the end turns out to be - - "An eddy of purposeless dust, - Effort unmeaning and vain." - -_But it is obvious that if God is not in control of creation, with -personal purpose of good will, directing its course, there is no solid -basis for hope._ If the universe is in the hands of physical -forces, then a long look ahead reveals a world collapsing about a cold -sun, and humanity annihilated in the wreck. Some such finale is the -inevitable end of a godless world. As another pictures it, mankind, -like a polar bear on an ice floe that is drifting into warmer zones, -will watch in growling impotence the steady dwindling of his home, -until he sinks in the abyss. All optimistic philosophies of life have -been founded on faith in a personal God, who purposes good to his -children, and without such faith no hope, with large horizons, is -reasonable. Paul is fair to the facts when he says, "Having no hope -and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). When one asks why men have -believed in a personal God, this clearly is part of the answer: only a -personal God can be "the God of hope." - - _O God of heaven above and earth beneath! Thou art the constant hope - of every age--the reliance of them that seek Thee with - thoughtfulness and love. We own Thee as the guardian of our - pilgrimage; and when our steps are weary we turn to Thee, the mystic - companion of our way, whose mercy will uphold us lest we fall. Thou - layest on us the burden of labor throughout our days; but in this - sacred hour Thou dost lift off our load, and make us partakers of Thy - rest. Thou ever faithful God, our guide by cloud and fire! without - this blest repose our life were but a desert path; here we abide by - the refreshing spring, and pitch our tents with joy around Thy holy - hill. Yet when we seek to draw nigh to Thee, Thou art still above us, - like the heavens. O Thou that remainest in the height, and coverest - Thyself with the cloud thereof! behold, we stand around the mountain - where Thou art; and if Thou wilt commune with us, the thunder from - Thy voice of love shall not make us afraid. Call up a spirit from our - midst to serve Thy will; and take away the veil from all our hearts, - that with the eye of purity we may look on the bright and holy - countenance of life. And when we go hence to resume our way, may it - be with nobler spirits, with more faithful courage, and more generous - will. For life and death we trust ourselves to Thee as disciples of - Jesus Christ. Amen._--James Martineau. - - -Third Week, Fifth Day - - =Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: - Thou maintainest my lot. - The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; - Yea, I have a goodly heritage. - I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel; - Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons. - I have set Jehovah always before me: - Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. - Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: - My flesh also shall dwell in safety. - For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; - Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. - Thou wilt show me the path of life: - In thy presence is fulness of joy; - In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.= - - =--Psalm 16:5-11.= - -Many things in human life bring joy. From the sense of a healthy body -and the exhilaration of a sunshiny day to the deep satisfactions of -home and friends--there are numberless sources of happiness. But man -has always been athirst to find joy in thinking about the total -meaning of life. Lacking that, the details of life lose radiance, for, -in spite of himself, man - - "Hath among least things - An undersense of greatest; sees the parts - As parts, but with a feeling of the whole." - -If when he thinks about God, he can, like this psalmist, rejoice in -the love behind life, the good purpose through it, the glorious future -ahead of it, then all his other blessings are illumined. Not only are -there happy things _in life_, but _life itself_ is fundamentally -blessed. But if when he raises his thought to the Eternal, he has no -joyful thoughts about it, sees no love or purpose there, then a pall -falls on even his ordinary happiness. Alas for that man who does not -like to think about life's origin and destiny and meaning, because he -has no joyful faith about God! Some men have what Epictetus called -"paralysis of the soul" every time they think of creation, for to them -it is a huge physical machine crashing on without reason or good will. -But some men have such a joyful faith in the divine that their -gladness about the whole of life redeems their sorrow about its -details. So Samuel Rutherford in prison said, "Jesus Christ came into -my room last night and every stone flashed like a ruby." For the -thought of God in terms of friendly personality is the most joyful -idea of him that man has ever had. Man's thirst for joy is one of the -sources of his faith in a personal God. He has wanted what Paul called -"joy and peace in believing" (Rom. 15:13). - - _We rejoice, O Lord our God, not in ourselves nor in the firm earth - on which we tread, nor in the household, nor in the church, nor in - all the procession of things where mankind moves with power and - glory. We rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice in Thy strength. A strange - joy it is. Day by day we find ourselves breaking out into gladness - through the ministration of the senses, and by the play of inward - thought; but Thou art never beheld by us.... Thou never speakest to - us, nor do we feel Thy hand, nor do we discern Thy face of love and - glory and power. We break away from all other experiences, and look - up into the emptiness, as it seems to us, which yet is full of life; - into that which seems cold and void, but wherein moves eternal power; - into the voiceless and inscrutable realm where Thou dwellest, God - over all, blessed forever.... O Lord our God, how near Thou art to - us! and we do not know it. How near is the other life! and we do not - feel it. It clothes us as with a garment. It feeds us. It shines down - upon us. It rejoices over us.... Thither, out of narrow and - anguishful ways, out of sorrows, out of regrets, out of bereavements, - we look; and already we are rested before we reach it._ - - _Grant unto us, today, we beseech Thee, this beatific vision. - Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -Third Week, Sixth Day - - =For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are - ye not men? What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through - whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, - Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he - that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth - the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: but - each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we - are God's fellow-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building.--I - Cor. 3:4-9.= - -One of the profoundest motives that can grip man's heart is the -conviction that he is a fellow-worker with the Divine. To feel that -there is a great Cause, on behalf of which God himself is concerned, -and in the furtherance of which we can be God's instruments and -confederates, is the most exhilarating outlook on life conceivable. -Even people who deny God try to get this motive for themselves. One -such man hopes for the success of his favorite causes in "the tendency -of the universe"; another talks about "the nature of things taking -sides." _But nothing save personality has moral tendencies, and only -persons take sides in moral issues._ If the guidance of the world is -personal, then, and then only, can we rejoice with confidence in a -great Ally, who has moral purposes and who has committed to us part of -his work. This was the Master's motive when he said, "My Father -worketh even until now, and I work" (John 5:17). But one clearly sees -that such an inspiring consciousness of cooperation with the Eternal -depended on the certainty with which the Master called the Eternal by -a personal name--Father. When men like Livingstone have gone out in -sacrificial adventure for the saving of men they have not banked on -the "tendency of the universe," nor trusted in any abstract "nature of -things taking sides"; they have been servants of a personal God, under -orders from him, and they have counted on personal guidance in the -service of a cause whose issue was safe in God's hands. - - _O God, we pray Thee for those who come after us, for our children, - and the children of our friends, and for all the young lives that are - marching up from the gates of birth, pure and eager, with the morning - sunshine on their faces. We remember with a pang that these will live - in the world we are making for them. We are wasting the resources of - the earth in our headlong greed, and they will suffer want. We are - building sunless houses and joyless cities for our profit, and they - must dwell therein. We are making the burden heavy and the pace of - work pitiless, and they will fall wan and sobbing by the wayside. We - are poisoning the air of our land by our lies and our uncleanness, - and they will breathe it._ - - _O God, Thou knowest how we have cried out in agony when the sins of - our fathers have been visited upon us, and how we have struggled - vainly against the inexorable fate that coursed in our blood or bound - us in a prison-house of life. Save us from maiming the innocent ones - who come after us by the added cruelty of our sins. Help us to break - the ancient force of evil by a holy and steadfast will and to endow - our children with purer blood and nobler thoughts. Grant us grace to - leave the earth fairer than we found it; to build upon it cities of - God in which the cry of needless pain shall cease; and to put the - yoke of Christ upon our business life that it may serve and not - destroy. Lift the veil of the future and show us the generation to - come as it will be if blighted by our guilt, that our lust may be - cooled and we may walk in the fear of the Eternal. Grant us a vision - of the far-off years as they may be if redeemed by the sons of God, - that we may take heart and do battle for Thy children and ours. - Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Third Week, Seventh Day - - =I will extol thee, my God, O King; - And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. - Every day will I bless thee; - And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. - Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised; - And his greatness is unsearchable. - One generation shall laud thy works to another, - And shall declare thy mighty acts. - Of the glorious majesty of thine honor, - And of thy wondrous works, will I meditate. - And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; - And I will declare thy greatness. - They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, - And shall sing of thy righteousness. - Jehovah is gracious, and merciful; - Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness. - Jehovah is good to all; - And his tender mercies are over all his works. - All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; - And thy saints shall bless thee.= - - =--Psalm 145:1-10.= - -Adoration springs from the deeps of man's spirit. We never can be -content with looking down on things beneath us, nor with looking out -on things that find our level. We always must look up to things above -us. As a mediæval saint said, "_The soul can never rest in things -that are beneath itself._" Worship, therefore, is an undeniable -impulse in man's heart. Poets worship Beauty; scientists worship -Truth; every man of honor worships Right. That is, the good, true, and -beautiful stand above us calling out our adoration, and all the best -in us springs from our worshipful response to their appeal. But this -impulse to adore is never fulfilled until we gather up all life into -spiritual unity and bow down in awe and joy before God. That is -adoration glorified, worship crowned and consummated. And the only God -whom man can adore with awe and joy is personal. No impersonal thing -is worshipful; however great a _thing_ may be it still lies beneath -our soul. No abstract Idea is worshipful; we still are greater than -any _idea_ that we can hold. Only God, thought of in personal terms -but known to be greater than any terms which human life can use, is -adorable. _Men have believed in Him because worship is man's holiest -impulse._ - -Such are the experiences of man, with which faith in a personal God is -inseparably interwoven. Our demand for a friendly creation, our -deepest impulses to thanksgiving, penitence, hope, joy, cooperation -with the Eternal, and adoration of the highest--all require -personality in God. As Professor William James said, "The universe is -no longer a mere _It_ to us, but a _Thou_ if we are religious." - - _O Lord our God, Thy greatness is unsearchable, and the glory of Thy - presence has overwhelmed us. Thou art hidden in excess of light; and - if we were to behold Thee in the great sphere in which Thou art - living, none of us would dare to draw near to Thee. Our - imperfections, our transgressions, our secret thoughts, our wild - impulses, that at times come surging in upon us, are such that we - should be ashamed to stand before the All-searching Eye. Our lives - are before Thee, open as a book, and Thou readest every word and - every letter thereof. Blessed be Thy name, Thou hast taught us to - come to Thee through the Lord Jesus Christ as through a friend, and - thou hast taught us to draw near to Thee in person through the - familiar way of Fatherhood; from our childhood we have said, Our - Father, and in this way we are not afraid; in this way we come - familiarly and boldly: not irreverently, but with the familiarity - which love gives. Thou hast poured the light of Thy love upon the - path which we tread, and Thou hast taught us to come rejoicing before - Thee.... Open Thy hand and Thy heart, and say to every one of us, - Peace be unto you! Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -We have been using freely the most momentous word in human speech as -though we clearly understood its meaning. We have been speaking of God -as though the import of the term were plain. But most of us, asked to -state precisely what we mean by "God," would welcome such a refuge -from our confusion as Joubert sought. "It is not hard to know God," -said he, "provided one will not force oneself to define him." Many -people who stoutly claim to believe in God live in perpetual -vacillation as to what they mean by him. Writes one: "God to my mind -is an impersonal being, but whether for convenience or through sheer -impotence I pray to him as a personal being.... I know I talk on both -sides of the fence, but that is just where I am." - -At times, indeed, some question whether there is any need to think or -say what "God" may signify. They call him by vague names--the All, the -Infinite. In moods of exalted feeling, impatient of definition, they -wish to be left alone with their experience of the Eternal; they -resent the intrusion of theology, as a poet, lost in wonder at a -landscape, might resent the coming of surveyors with their clanking -chains. So Walt Whitman wanted to see the stars rather than hear the -astronomer, and after listening to the learned lecture, with its -charts and diagrams, he says, - - "I became tired and sick, - Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself, - In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time - Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." - -But, for all that, we well may be thankful for astronomers. At times -the "mystical, moist night air" is absent; we do not wish to "look up -in perfect silence at the stars"; and, even though we know in advance -that they are bound to be inadequate, we do want as clear and worthy -ideas as possible about the universe. Moreover, when such ideas are -ours, looking up in perfect silence at the stars is more impressive -than it ever was before. No more can men content themselves with a -vague consciousness of God. Spirits like Wordsworth have raptures of -which they sing, - - "In such access of mind, in such high hour - Of visitation from the living God, - Thought was not--in enjoyment it expired." - -In communion with nature, in love for family, in fellowship with God, -such hours may come, but nature, family, and God must also be the -objects of understanding thought. Days of vital need, if not of mental -doubt, inevitably come when it is impossible any longer to use a term -like "God" without knowing what we mean. - -The special urgency of this is felt by most of us because as children -we were taught to picture the Divine in terms of personality. The God -of the Bible is personal. Little that persons do, save sinning, is -omitted from the catalogue of God's activities as he is pictured for -us in the Scripture. He knows, loves, purposes, warns, rebukes, -allures, rewards, and punishes, as only persons can. And all our -relationships with him are clearly personal. When we pray we say "Our -Father"; when we seek our duty we ask, "What wilt thou have me to do?" -God is _He_ and _Thou_, not _It_, and friendship is the ideal relation -of all souls with him. - -Moreover, in our maturity we are not likely to be interested in a God -who is not personal. Whoever curiously asks why he believes in God, -will find not simply _reasons_ but _causes_ for his faith, -and will perceive that the causes of faith lie back of the reasons for -it. Vital need always precedes the arguments by which we justify its -satisfaction. A man eats one thing and shuns another on principles of -dietetics that can be defended before his intelligence; but behind all -such sophisticated reasons stands the vital cause of eating--hunger. -So back of intellectual arguments for belief in God lies the initial -cause of faith: _men are hungry_. Men believe in God because they -hunger for a world that is not chance and chaos, but that is guided by -a Purpose. They believe in God, because in their struggles after -righteousness they hunger for a Divine Ally in whom righteousness has -its origin, its ground and destiny. They believe in God because they -hunger for confidence that Someone cares about our race in its -conflicts and defeats and because in their individual experience they -want a friend. Without such faith man feels himself to be, in Goethe's -phrase, "a troubled wanderer upon a darkened earth." Plainly this -elemental human hunger for purpose, righteousness, and friendship -calls for something akin to personality in God. _Only persons have -purpose, character, and friendliness._ The vital motives which lead -men to seek God's comfort, forgiveness, guidance, and cooperation -plainly imply his personality. Things do not forgive us, love us, nor -purpose good concerning us, nor can any thing be imagined so subtle -and so powerful as to satisfy the needs on account of which men come -to God. If God is not personal, he can feel no concern for human life -and a God of no concern is of no consequence. - -The philosophers of India, with a well-reasoned pantheistic system and -centuries to make their philosophy effective, have failed to quell -this deathless thirst for a God who counts. Every wayside shrine of -Hinduism incarnates the old faith in gods conceived as friends, not -things; and Buddha, who taught impersonal deity, is now himself adored -as the Personal Lord of Love and Blessedness. Wherever one finds vital -religion one finds that God is no dry impersonal abstraction, but -man's friend. Boscamen, speaking of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and -of the Chaldean Tablets, says: "Six thousand years ago in Egypt and -Chaldea--it is not dread, but the grateful love of a child to his -father, of friend to friend, that meets us in the oldest books of the -world." And when one turns from the oldest to the newest books this -inner demand of man's religious life has not ceased; it has been -refined and confirmed. "The All would not be the All unless it -contained a Personality," said Victor Hugo. "That Personality is God." - -Biography is lavish in illustrations of this need in man's religious -life. The biographer of Theodore Parker, the freelance preacher of -Boston, remarks: "In his _theology_ God was neither personal nor -impersonal, but a reality transcending these distinctions. In his -_devotions_ God was as personal as his own father or mother, and he -prayed to him as such, daringly indifferent to the anthropomorphisms -of his unfettered speech." When one passes from speculation to -religion, he always comes into a realm where only a personal God will -do. On this point even confessed unbelievers furnish confirmation. One -who calls himself an agnostic writes: "At times in the silence of the -night and in rare lonely moments, I experience a sort of communion of -myself with Something Great that is not myself. Then the Universal -Scheme of things has on me the effect of a sympathetic Person, and my -communion therewith takes on a quality of fearless worship. These -moments happen, and they are to me the supreme fact in my religious -life." Always for the purposes of vital religion, God must have on us -the "effect of a sympathetic Person." - - -II - -When one, however, subjects this need of his religious life to -searching thought, what difficulty he encounters! Multitudes, if they -were candid, would confess what a college senior wrote: "When I am -just thinking about God in a speculative or philosophical way, I -generally think of him as impersonal, but for practical purposes I -think of him as personal." Many folks feel thus distraught; at the -heart of their religious life is the paralyzing doubt, that in a -universe like this to think of God as personal is absurd. If a train -moving a mile a minute should leave the earth, it must travel -40,000,000 years before it would reach the nearest star. The Creator -of such a world is not readily reduced to the similitude of human -life. Once men lived on a flat earth, small in compass and cosily -tucked beneath the sky's coverlet, but now the world's vastness -beggars imagination. As an astronomer remarked, coming from a session -with his telescope, "This does away with a six-foot god; you cannot -shake hands with the Creator of _this_." Men used to suppose that -Arcturus was a single star, but now new telescopes reveal Arcturus as -a galaxy of stars, thousands in number, with interstellar spaces so -immense that thought breaks down in spanning them and imagination even -cannot make the leap. Is the God of such a universe to be conceived in -terms of a magnified man? - -So to picture deity seems at first sight a survival of mere -childishness. Professor John Fiske, of Harvard, has told us that when -he was a boy God always conjured up in his imagination the figure of a -venerable bookkeeper, with white flowing beard, standing behind a high -desk and writing down the bad deeds of John Fiske. How many of us can -recall such early crude and childish thoughts of God! A mother asked -her young daughter what she was drawing. "A picture of God," was the -answer. "But no one knows what God looks like," the mother said. "They -will," came the rejoinder, "when I get through." We all began with -some such primitive idea of deity. Indeed, these early conceptions -long persist in many minds, as the following statements, written by -college students, indicate: "I think of God as real, actual skin and -blood and bones, something we shall see with our eyes some day, no -matter what lives we lead on earth." "It may be a remnant of youth, -but anyhow, every time I think of God there appears a vague image of a -man, with all members of the body, just enormously large." "I have -always pictured him according to a description in _Paradise Lost_ as -seated upon a throne, while around are angels playing on harps and -singing hymns." "I think of God as having bodily form and being much -larger than the average man. He has a radiant countenance beaming -with love and compassion. He is erect and upright, fearless and -brave."[3] - -No one of us may be contemptuous of such crude ideas; we all possessed -them once. Indeed the loss of them, with their picture of deity, clear -in feature and distinct in outline, has been to some a shock from -which faith has not recovered. When increasing knowledge discredited -our immature theology, and our world immeasurably widened, the very -human God of our first imaginations was lost among the stars. We -learned that this is a universe where the light that falls upon our -eyes tonight left the far heavens when Abraham was shepherding on -Syrian hills. The Christian Gospel of the personal Father which once -was good news became a serious problem. We still may cling to the old -meanings of our religious faith; still we may pray in hours of need as -though our childhood's God were really there; but at times we suspect -that we are clinging to the beauty of an early memory while -reluctantly we lose conviction of its truth. Many modern men and women -can understand the plight of the famous Dr. Jowett of Oxford, who, so -runs the tradition, inserted "used to" in a muffled voice, when he -recited the creed: "I _used to_ believe in God the Father Almighty." - -With such misgivings, whether as habitual disturbers of our faith or -as occasional moods of unbelief that come and go, most of us must be -familiar. What Charles Darwin is reported to have said about himself, -many if they spoke frankly would say too: "Sometimes I feel a warm -sense of a personal God, and then"--with a shake of his head--"it goes -away." - - -III - -Whatever may be our theology, the fact is plain that the denial of a -personal God solves no problem. For if we may not think of God in -terms of personality, the query still remains, which was there -before--_in what terms shall we conceive of the Eternal_? In a -discussion on the nature of the sky, one boy, denying the idea of a -solid canopy, exclaimed, "There ain't any sky." Said the other, seeing -how little this negation solved the problem, "Well, what _is_ it that -ain't?" Some such inquiry one must put to his doubts about God's -personality. Though we may deny a personal God, nevertheless in the -place where he once stood, creator and sustainer of all existence, is -Something that we do think of somehow. We may have but little of -Carlyle's sublime imagination; may not easily transport ourselves to -stand with him on the far northern cliff, "behind him all Europe and -Africa fast asleep, except the watchmen, and before him the silent -Immensity and Palace of the Eternal, whereof our sun is but the -porch-lamp." Yet who of us, regarding the illimitable universe, on the -far outskirts of which our little earth is whirling, so minute that -through the strongest telescope from the nearest star its conflagration -would be quite invisible, has escaped the sense of a Universal Power? -And the human mind cannot so keep itself at home in little tasks and -pleasures as to evade the question: How shall we think of the Power -that made the universe? In what terms? By what analogies? Hours of -revelation come in every serious life when no desire compares in -urgency with the desire to know the character of the Eternal. It does -make a prodigious difference what hands hold the leash of the -universe. - -This second fact is also clear, that if we are to think of the Eternal -at all, we must think in terms of something drawn from our experience. -When we sing of Paradise we speak of golden streets and gates of -pearl, and Thoreau remarks that, arriving in heaven, he expects to -find pine trees there. Such words we do not take literally, but such -words we cannot utterly avoid, for if we are to speak at all of the -unknown glory, we must use pictures from the known. So we think of God -in human symbols. We cannot catch him in an abstract definition as -though a boy with a butterfly net should capture the sun at noon. Our -minds are not fitted for such enterprise. Of necessity we take -something homely, familiar, close at hand, and lifting it up as far as -we can reach, say _God is most like that_. No one who thinks at -all of the Eternal escapes this necessity. - -By this method the _materialist_ reaches his philosophy. Haeckel -laughs to scorn the opening clause of the "Apostles' Creed." "I -believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth"--for -such faith no words are contemptuous enough. This denial does not mean -however that Haeckel has no faith; he deliberately offers a creedal -substitute which runs in part: I believe in a "chemical substance of a -viscous character, having albuminous matter and water as its chief -constituents." In such terms does Haeckel think of the Eternal. A -professor of medicine has remarked that such a theory reduces all -reality to "phosphorus and glue." When some Psalmist cries, "Bless the -Lord, O my soul," nothing substantial is speaking or is being spoken -to save phosphorus and glue! When an Italian patriot cries, "The time -for dying comes to all, but the time for dishonoring oneself ought -never to come," nothing is real and causal save phosphorus and glue! -And every gracious and redeeming deed in history from the love of -mothers to the cross of Christ has been a complicated working out of -phosphorus and glue! In whatever labored phrases he may state his -case, the materialist's method there is obvious; he has taken physical -energy, of whose presence in his own body he is first assured, and -whose reality he has then read out into the world, and this homely and -familiar experience he has lifted up as far as he can reach to say, -the Eternal is most like that. - -So far as method is concerned, the _theist_ of necessity travels -the same road; only he insists on a nobler symbol than physical energy -in terms of which to think of God. He takes _mind_. He says in -effect: There may be wide stretches of the universe where our -intellects meet no answer and find no meaning. But in much of the -universe we do see meaning; and how can intelligence find sense where -intelligence has not put sense? A few scratches on a cliff's face in -Assyria, after centuries of neglect, rendered up their meaning to the -mind of Rawlinson. They were themselves the work of intelligence, and -intelligence could read them. So, the theist continues, the universe -is in part at least intelligible. Our minds fit into it and are -answered by it. We can trace its laws and predict its movements. Man -first worked out the nature of the ellipse in theoretical geometry, -and then telescopes later showed the gigantic ellipses of planetary -orbits in the heavens. Can it be that this intelligible world, -readable by mind, is itself essentially mindless? As easily believe -that the notes of Wagner's operas were accidentally blown together by -a whirlwind and yet are playable by man! Therefore the theist believes -the universe to be rational; he takes mind as he has known it in -himself, and lifting it as high as he can reach, cries, God is most -like that. - -So far as the general method of approach is concerned, the Christian -travels the same road to his idea of God. Only he cannot believe that -the best he knows is too good or too great to be a symbol in terms of -which to think of the Eternal. Therefore he will not take a byproduct -of experience such as physical energy, nor a section of personality -such as mind; he takes the full orb of personality, _self-conscious -being that knows and purposes and loves_, and he affirms that God is -most like this. Such in its simplest form is the Christian assertion -of God's personality. - -In one of his noblest passages Martineau has put into classic form -this necessity, which we have been discussing, of thinking about God -in terms of human experience: "God, being infinite, can never be fully -comprehended by our minds; whatever thought of him be there, his real -nature must still transcend: there will yet be deep after deep beyond, -within that light ineffable; and what we see, compared with what we do -not see, will be as the raindrop to the firmament. Our conception of -him can never _correspond with the reality_, so as to be without -omission, disproportion, or aberration; but can only _represent the -reality_, and _stand for God_ within our souls, till nobler -thoughts arise and reveal themselves as his interpreters. And this is -precisely what we mean by a symbolical idea. The devotee who -prostrates himself before a black stone,--the Egyptian who in his -prayers was haunted by the ideal form of the graceful ibis or the -monstrous sphinx--the Theist who bends beneath the starry porch that -midnight opens to the temple of the universe--the Christian who sees -in heaven a spirit akin to that which divinely lived in Galilee, and -with glorious pity died on Calvary--all alike assume a representation -of him whose immeasurable nature they can neither compass nor escape. -And the only question is, whether the conception they portray upon the -wall of their ideal temple is an abominable idol, or a true and -sanctifying mediatorial thought." - - -IV - -In their endeavor thus to think of God in terms of personality, some -are perplexed because in their imagination a person is inseparable -from flesh. "I think of God as a personal being," writes a college -student. "A personal being would have a form that you could see or -touch." But this would be true only if the grossest materialism were -accepted, and the spiritual life declared to be the product of brain -as digestive fluids are of salivary glands. On any other basis, -personality is not indissolubly bound to body nor by it necessarily -delimited. A man cannot hear without his ear, but he is not his ear; -he cannot hear without the auditory nerve, but he is not the auditory -nerve; he cannot hear without the temporal lobe of the brain, but he -is not the brain nor any portion of it. These may be the instruments -which he uses; he is free when they are well, hampered when they are -broken, and at last he is separable from them all. John Quincy Adams -at the age of eighty met a friend upon a Boston street. "Good -morning," said the friend, "and how is John Quincy Adams today?" -"Thank you," was the ex-president's reply, "John Quincy Adams himself -is well, quite well, I thank you. But the house in which he lives at -present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon its foundation. -Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well -worn out. Its walls are much shattered and it trembles with every -wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable and I think -John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon. But he himself is -quite well, quite well." Such a conception of man as _being_ a -permanent personality and _having_ a temporary body is essential to -any worthy meaning when we use personal terms about God. - -With such an elevated thought, however, of what personality does mean, -it soon is evident that no other reality with which we deal is so -worthy to be the symbol of an Eternal Spirit. Is one perplexed that -God, who is invisible, should be pictured in the similitude of human -persons? But _we_ are invisible. The outward husks and fleshly -garment of our friends we indeed have seen, but upon the friend -himself--consciousness, love, purpose, ideal, and character--no eye -has looked. No mirror ever has been strong enough to show us to -ourselves. In every homely conversation this ineffable miracle is -wrought: out of the unseen where I dwell, I signal by word and gesture -to you back in the unseen where you dwell. We are inhabitants now of -the intangible and unseen world; we are as invisible as God. - -Indeed, personality is essentially the most unlimited reality with -which we deal; in comparison a solar system is a little thing. -Consider _memory_, by which we can retrace our youthful days, build -our shanties once again at brooksides, replay our games, and -recapitulate the struggles and the joys of the first days at school. -Nothing in all the universe can remember except persons. Were we not -so familiar with this element in human greatness, we would more often -pause to exclaim, as did Augustine, fifteen centuries ago, "Great is -the power of memory. Amazement overcomes me when I think of it. And -yet men go abroad to gaze upon the mountains, the broad rivers, the -wide ocean, the courses of the stars, and pass themselves, the -crowning wonder, by!" Consider _imagination_, by which, sitting still -in body we can project ourselves around the world, can walk down -Princes Street in Edinburgh, or stand in mingled awe and condemnation -before the tomb of Napoleon in Paris, or rise uncovered before the -majesty of the Matterhorn. Nothing in all the universe can do that -except persons. Were full power to act wherever we can _think_ added -to our gifts, we should come so near to incipient omnipresence as to -be in dread of our responsibility. Consider _love_, by which we live -not so much where our bodies are as where our friends and family may -be. Love expands the individual until his real life is independent of -geography. Says one lover to another: - - "The widest land - Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine - With pulses that beat double." - -Many a mother in America has _lived_ in the trenches of France; -many a man has found that what might happen to him where his body was -could not be compared with what might happen to him where his -friendships were; and as we grow in love and loyalty we find ourselves -scattered all over creation. How far such an expansion of life may go -our Lord revealed when he said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of -these, my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." (Matt. -25:40.) Nothing in heaven above or on the earth beneath can so extend -itself in love save persons. - -Finally, consider _creative power_ by which human beings project -themselves into the future, and, with masterful ideals in mind, lay -hold on circumstance and bend it to their will. As if he shared -creative power with the Eternal, an engineer summons nature's forces -to his bidding and lays his will upon them, until where nothing was a -structure stands that mankind may use for centuries. Nothing in all -the universe can so create except persons. In that essentially -creative act where deathless ideas and harmonies are given being by -poets and musicians, so that something out of nothing is brought to -pass by personality, man faces a mystery as abysmal as God's making of -the world. "Paradise Lost" is wonderful; but not half as wonderful as -the creative personality itself who years before projected it. "An -inward prompting," Milton says, "which now grew daily upon me, that by -labor and intense study, joined with the strong propensity of nature, -I might perhaps leave something so written to after times as they -should not willingly let it die." Nothing can so create save -personality. - -Personality is not so limited that we should be ashamed to think of -God in terms of it. Rather, of all realities with which we deal, -personality alone, invisible, reaching back in memory, reaching out in -imagination, expanding itself in love, and laying hold upon the future -with creative power, is a worthy symbol of the Eternal Spirit. - -Even when the meaning of personality has been so enlarged and -elevated, we should not leave our statement of belief in God as though -our experience of personality were a mould into which our thought of -him is poured and so delimited. We are not presumptuous Lilliputians, -running out with verbal stakes and threads, to pin down the tall, -majestic Gulliver of the Eternal and dance in theological exultation -round our capture. We know better than that. We understand how -insufficient is every human name for God. We know that when we have -said our best--"How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past -tracing out!" (Rom. 11:33). - -Nothing more has marred the Christian message and discredited the -Christian faith than the unwise presumption that has forced its -definitions into the secrets of the Infinite. "It is enough to say," -exclaims Leslie Stephen, "that they defined the nature of God Almighty -with an accuracy from which modest naturalists would shrink in -describing the genesis of a black beetle." The antidote to such vain -pride of theology is found in the wholesome modesty of the Bible. -There man enquires, "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou -find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what -canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?" (Job 11:7). -There God replies: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are -my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" -(Isa. 55:9). Scripture bears abundant testimony to the symbolic nature -of our human terms for God. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so -Jehovah pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). "As one whom his -mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:13). "I will -betroth thee unto me" (Hos. 2:20). "Return, ... saith Jehovah, for I -am a husband unto you" (Jer. 3:14). "The Lord spake unto Moses ... as -a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. 33:11). Father, Mother, -Bridegroom, Husband, Friend--these are symbols of God. Men, -endeavoring to frame some worthy thought of the Eternal, lift up their -best in phrases such as these, and in them enshrine their noblest -concepts of the divine. They have no better, truer thing to say of -God, no wiser way in which to say it. But when they think of the -Eternal as he must be, and of their human words, infinitesimal in -comparison, they know that all their best names for God are like small -measures of water dipped from an immeasurable sea. For all that, so -much of God as they can grasp and understand is the most important -truth that mankind knows. Let even a tea-cup of water be taken to a -laboratory and it will tell the truth about the sea; _that one tea-cup -will reveal the quality of the whole ocean_. Yet it will not reveal -all the truth about the ocean. When one considers the reach of the sea -over the rim of the world; thinks of the depths that no eye can -pierce, the distances that no mind can imagine; remembers the currents -that sweep through the sea, the tides that rise there, and the storms -that beat it to its nether wells, he dare not try to put _these_ into -a tea-cup. So God sweeps out beyond the reach of human symbols. At -once so true and so inadequate are all our words for him. - -So we might speak to one who incredulously looks upon our faith, but -for one who whole-heartedly approaches God as Christianity suggests, -no negative and cautionary word is adequate. The Christian method of -conceiving God brings the most exhilarating thought of him that man -has ever had. It says in brief: Take your _best_ and think of God as -most truly symbolized in that. As to what our best is, not even the -agnostics doubt. The physical universe belittles us on one side only; -it makes a pigmy of the body. In our spirits we still tower above the -physical; we are greater than the world we know. Our supreme good, the -divinest reality with which we deal, is personality. Then lift that -up, says Christianity; it is your best, and you dare not think of God -in terms of less; you have Christ's example in arguing from the human -best to the divine: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts -unto your children, _how much more_ ... your Father." (Matt. 7:11.) - -The Christian faith asserts that when a man thus thinks of God in -terms of the best he knows he is on the road toward truth. How many -billion spiritual miles he may have to travel to the end, no man can -tell. Only he will never need to stop, retrace his steps, and start -upon a lower path than personality, a road that lies beneath -righteousness and love. The road leads on and up beyond our -imagination, but it is the same road and not another. _God is -personality plus, or else he alone is completely personal and we are -but in embryo._ - -If God so is personal, then all the deep meanings of religious life -and faith that the saints, our spiritual sires, have known are open to -us modern men and women. Forms of thought indeed have changed, but if -God is thus our Father and our Friend, the essentials of Christian -experience are waiting for us all. Life then is not purposeless; all -creation is bound into spiritual unity by personal Will; and in -sacrificial labor we are serving one who is able to guard that which -we "have committed unto him against that day" (II Tim. 1:12). Old -hymns of confidence in time of trial, we too can sing: - - "Still will we trust, though earth seem dark and dreary, - And the heart faint beneath His chastening rod; - Though steep and hard our pathway, worn and weary, - Still will we trust in God." - -And we can pray, not indeed with clamorous beggary as though the grace -of God were a wayside stall where every greedy hand can pluck what -passing whim may wish, but we can commune with God as the real saints -have always prayed with humility and gratitude and confident desire -for good. Most of all, that priceless privilege is open to us which is -the center and sun of Christian thought and life. For if among all -realities in our experience, we have dared take the best, personality, -as a symbol in terms of which to think of God, how should we not, -among all personalities, take the best we know as the highroad of -approach to him. Therefore our real symbol of God shall be no man -among us, frail and sinful, but our Lord himself "fairest among ten -thousand"--"the one altogether beautiful." We shall think of God in -terms of him. We shall see "the light of the knowledge of the glory of -God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6.) - -[2] Copyright, 1914, Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by permission. - -[3] From a questionnaire, "Belief in God and Immortality," by Prof. -James H. Leuba. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -Belief and Trust - - -DAILY READINGS - -We have tried to explain our faith in the personal God, and to see the -transfiguring influence of that faith on life. But is belief in God -always such a blessing as we have pictured? Rather faith, like every -other experience of man, has its caricatures and burlesques. Many men -are prevented from appreciation of faith in God, with its inestimable -blessings, because they have so continually seen faith's perversions. -The fact is that belief in God may be an utterly negligible matter in -a man's experience or may even become a positively pernicious -influence. Let us, in the daily readings, consider some of the -_familiar travesties on faith_. - - -Fourth Week, First Day - - =Praise ye Jehovah. - Praise Jehovah, O my soul. - While I live will I praise Jehovah: - I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being, - Put not your trust in princes, - Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. - His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; - In that very day his thoughts perish. - Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, - Whose hope is in Jehovah his God.= - - =--Psalm 146:1-5.= - -No one can mistake the note of reality in this psalmist's experience -of God. But every one of us knows people who, if asked whether they -believed in God, would readily assent, yet to whom faith makes no such -difference in life as this psalm expresses. Their faith is nothing but -an opinion about God, lightly held, a formal consent that what church -or family tradition says must be correct. They have what Luther used -to call "the charcoal burner's faith." A man of that occupation, when -asked what he believed, said, "What Holy Church believes"; but, -questioned further, he could not tell what it was that Holy Church did -believe. So formal, vitally unpossessed, and practically unreal is -much of our religious opinion that passes for faith. Dean Swift was a -churchman of high rank, and yet his biographer is compelled to say of -him: "He clung to the doctrines of his church, not because he could -give abstract reasons for his belief, but simply because the church -happened to be his." Vital religious faith is a very different thing -from such dry conventionality. A man may assent to the contents of a -college catalogue and yet never have experience of college life; he -may agree that a menu is dietetically correct and yet never grow -strong from the food; and he may believe in every creed in Christendom -and not know what faith in God really means. Opinions about God are a -roadway to God, but the end of the journey is a personal fellowship -that transfigures life; and to seize opinions as though they were the -object of faith is, to use Tagore's figure, "like a man who tries to -reach his destination by firmly clutching the dust of the road." - - _O Thou great Father of us all, we rejoice that at last we know Thee. - All our soul within us is glad because we need no longer cringe - before Thee as slaves of holy fear, seeking to appease Thine anger by - sacrifice and self-inflicted pain, but may come like little children, - trustful and happy, to the God of love. Thou art the only true - Father, and all the tender beauty of our human loves is the reflected - radiance of Thy loving kindness, like the moonlight from the - sunlight, and testifies to the eternal passion that kindled it._ - - _Grant us growth of spiritual vision, that with the passing years we - may enter into the fulness of this our faith. Since Thou art our - Father, may we not hide our sins from Thee, but overcome them by the - stern comfort of Thy presence. By this knowledge uphold us in our - sorrows and make us patient even amid the unsolved mysteries of the - years. Reveal to us the larger goodness and love that speak through - the unbending laws of Thy world. Through this faith make us the - willing equals of all Thy other children._ - - _As Thou art ever pouring out Thy life in sacrificial father-love, - may we accept the eternal law of the cross and give ourselves to - Thee and to all men. We praise Thee for Jesus Christ, whose life has - revealed to us this faith and law, and we rejoice that he has become - the first-born among many brethren. Grant that in us, too, the faith - in Thy fatherhood may shine through all our life with such persuasive - beauty that some who still creep in the dusk of fear may stand erect - as free sons of God, and that others who now through unbelief are - living as orphans in an empty world may stretch out their hands to - the great Father of their spirits and find Thee near. Amen._--Walter - Rauschenbusch. - - -Fourth Week, Second Day - -Faith is travestied in many lives not so much by the substitution of -opinion for experience, as by making religion consist in certain -devout practices, such as church-going. Ceremonialism, instead of -being an aid in making God real, takes the place of fellowship with -God. How scathing were the attacks of the prophets on this distortion -of religion! - - =Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law - of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. What unto me is the multitude of - your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the - burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not - in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come - to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample - my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination - unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot - away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your - appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am - weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will - hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not - hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put - away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; - learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the - fatherless, plead for the widow.--Isa. 1:10-17.= - -Many young people, watching conventional observances in religious -worship and perceiving no real life active there, come to the -conclusion that religious faith is a decent and negligible formality. -So William Scott Palmer, tracing his progress from agnosticism to -Christianity, describes the religion of his boyhood: "Religion as a -personal matter, religion as a life, did not exist for me or for my -family. The border-land of my native village went to church at eleven -o'clock on fine Sundays, and I went in and with it. There were unlucky -Sundays when the Litany was said, and the service prolonged by its -unmeaning length; the lucky Sundays were wet ones that cleared up -later.... I did not know that there was any vital meaning in -religion." And even Sir Wilfred Grenfell, whose work in Labrador is -one of this generation's outstanding triumphs of Christian faith, says -of his young manhood: "The ordinary exponents of the Christian faith -had never succeeded in interesting me in any way, or even in making me -believe that they were more than professionally concerned themselves. -Religion appeared to be a profession, exceedingly conventional, and -most unattractive in my estimation--the very last I should have -thought of selecting." No travesty on faith is more deadly in its -effects than this substitution of conventional observance for life. - - _O Jesus, we thy ministers bow before Thee to confess the common sins - of our calling. Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that we love - Thee and that our hearts' desire is to serve Thee in faithfulness; - and yet, like Peter, we have so often failed Thee in the hour of Thy - need. If ever we have loved our own leadership and power when we - sought to lead our people to Thee, we pray Thee to forgive. If we - have been engrossed in narrow duties and little questions, when the - vast needs of humanity called aloud for prophetic vision and - apostolic sympathy, we pray Thee to forgive. If in our loyalty to the - Church of the past we have distrusted Thy living voice and have - suffered Thee to pass from our door unheard, we pray Thee to forgive. - If ever we have been more concerned for the strong and the rich than - for the shepherdless throngs of the people for whom Thy soul grieved, - we pray Thee to forgive._ - - _O Master, amidst our failures we cast ourselves upon Thee in - humility and contrition. We need new light and a new message. We need - the ancient spirit of prophecy and the leaping fire and joy of a new - conviction, and Thou alone canst give it. Inspire the ministry of Thy - Church with dauntless courage to face the vast needs of the future. - Free us from all entanglements that have hushed our voice and bound - our action. Grant us grace to look upon the veiled sins of the rich - and the coarse vices of the poor through Thine eyes. Give us Thine - inflexible sternness against sin, and Thine inexhaustible compassion - for the frailty and tragedy of those who do the sin. Make us faithful - shepherds of Thy flock, true seers of God, and true followers of - Jesus. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Fourth Week, Third Day - - =And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in - themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at nought: - Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the - other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, - God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, - unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the - week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing - afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but - smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. I say - unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the - other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he - that humbleth himself shall be exalted.--Luke 18:9-14.= - -The men against whom the Master directed this parable were bigots. -Self-opinionated, self-conceited, dogmatic, and contemptuous--they -wore all the attributes of bigotry. _And bigotry is a very familiar -perversion of faith._ Vital fellowship with God ought to make men -gracious, magnanimous, generous; it ought to make life with God seem -so incomparably important that when anyone has that, his opinions -about God will be tolerantly regarded, however mistaken they may -appear to be. Dr. Pritchett, when President of the Massachusetts -Institute of Technology, passed through a classroom where a young -instructor was conducting a chemical experiment. "The reaction -itself," says Dr. Pritchett, "was going on in a retort on the table, -while on a blackboard was written the conventional formula, which in -the science of chemistry is used to describe the reaction. It so -happened that the instructor had made a mistake in writing the -formula; instead of CO^2 he had written CO_3. But this made not the -slightest difference in the reaction which was going on in the flask." -So, a man may live his life with an admirably Christian spirit, -although he describes it with a mistaken formula. His error is -theoretical, not vital. But a bigot is so sure that he alone knows the -true formula, that a man without that formula is altogether wrong, and -that he must either set him right or condemn him utterly, that he -grows bitter, hard, unlovely. His opinions may be right, but his -spirit is wrong. The faith that should make his life radiant is -perverted to make it narrow, harsh, contemptuous. He renders hateful -the very faith he seeks to commend and ruins the reputation of the God -whom he is zealous to exalt. So the Pharisee of the parable missed all -the beauty of the Publican's life because he thought the Publican's -formula was wrong. No one can estimate the irreparable damage which -zealous bigots have done to true faith. - - _O Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, canst Thou - bear to look on us conscious of our great transgression? Yet hide not - Thy face from us, for in Thy light alone shall we see light._ - - _Forgive us for the sins which crowd into the mind as we realise Thy - presence; our ungovernable tempers, our shuffling insincerities, the - craven fear of our hearts, the pettiness of our spirits, the foul - lusts and fatal leanings of our souls. Not for pardon only, but for - cleansing, Lord, we pray._ - - _Forgive us, we beseech Thee, our unconscious sins; things which must - be awful to Thy sight, of which we yet know nothing. Forgive by - giving us in fuller measure the awakening of Thy presence, that we - may know ourselves, and lose all love of sin in the knowledge of what - Thou art._ - - _Forgive us for the things for which we can never forgive ourselves; - those sad turned pages of our life which some chance wind of memory - blows back again with shame; for the moment of cruel passion, the - hour beyond recall, the word that went forth to poison and defame, - the carelessness that lost our opportunity, the unheeded fading of - bright ideals._ - - _Forgive us for the things that others can never forgive; the idle - tale, the cruel wrong, the uncharitable condemnation, the unfair - judgment, the careless criticism, the irresponsible conduct._ - - _Forgive us for the sins of our holy things; that we have turned the - sacred page without a sigh, read the confessions of holy men and - women and never joined therein, lived in Thy light and never prayed - to be forgiven or rendered Thee thanksgiving; professed to believe in - Thee and love Thee, yet dared to injure and hate._ - - _Naught save being born again, nothing but a miracle of grace, can - ever be to us forgiveness. Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, and - take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Fourth Week, Fourth Day - -Of all perversions of faith none is more fatal than the substitution -of opinions about God for integrity of character and usefulness of -life. With what scathing vehemence does James, as Dr. Moffatt renders -him, attack this travesty on faith. - - ="My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if - he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? Suppose some brother - or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; if any of you says to - them, 'Depart in peace! Get warm, get food,' without supplying their - bodily needs, what use is that? So faith, unless it has deeds, is - dead in itself. Someone will object, 'And you claim to have faith!' - Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith - without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! You - believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they - shudder. But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith - without deeds is dead? When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac - on the altar, was he not justified by what he did?"--James 2:14-21.= - -An American business man not long dead, who hated any word from the -pulpit about social righteousness, used to complain: "Preachers are -talking so everlastingly about this earth. I've done my best to get -them to stick to the Gospel, and not allow 'worldliness' to get into -the teachings of the Church; but the good old preachers have gone to -glory." Yet this pious zealot helped wreck the finances of a great -railroad system, and with part of the proceeds built a theological -seminary. _There was no vital, intelligent connection between his -faith in God and his ideals of character and service._ One verse -should be made to flame in Christian pulpits: "If any provideth not -for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith -and is worse than an unbeliever" (I Tim. 5:8). Domestic fidelity is -here only typical of all basic moral obligations. What this verse says -in principle is clear: theoretical unbelief is not the worst sin in -God's sight; any man who fails in the fundamental duties of rectitude -and service has thereby denied the faith and is worse than an atheist. - - _O thou holy One and just! if alone the pure in heart can see thee, - truly we must stand afar off, and not so much as lift up our eyes - unto heaven. Were it not that thou hast help and pity for the - contrite spirit, we could only cry, "Depart from us, we are sinful - men, O Lord!" For idle words, for proud thoughts and unloving deeds; - for wasted moments and reluctant duties, and too eager rest; for the - wandering desire, the vain fancy, the scornful doubt, the untrustful - care; for impatient murmurs, and unruly passions, and the hardness of - a worldly heart; thou, Lord, canst call us unto judgment, and we have - naught to answer thee. But, O thou Judge of men, thou art witness - that we do not love our guilty ways; make our conscience true and - tender that we may duly hate them, and refuse them any peace as - enemies to thee. Stir up within us a great and effectual repentance - that we may redeem the time which we have lost, and in the hours that - remain may do the work of many days. Thou knowest all our secret - snares; drive from us every root of bitterness: with thy severity - pluck out, O Lord, the thorns of sin from our entangled souls, and - bind them as a crown of contrition around our bleeding brows; and - having made our peace with thee may we henceforth watch and pray that - we enter not again into temptation, but bear our cross with patience - to the close. Amen._--James Martineau. - - -Fourth Week, Fifth Day - -Some of the most lamentable perversions of religious faith arise from -inadequate ideas of God. Consider, for example, the way Manasseh -thought that the Divine ought to be worshiped. - - =For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had - destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as - did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and - served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof - Jehovah said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars - for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. - And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practised augury, - and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, - and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to - provoke him to anger.--II Kings 21:3-6.= - -Then compare the thought of the Master on the same subject. - - =But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall - worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek - to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him - must worship in spirit and truth.--John 4:23, 24.= - -There is no reason to suppose that Manasseh was insincere; he is one -of an innumerable company in whom the religious motive has been -harnessed to warped and ignorant ideas of God. Religious faith, like -any other tremendous power, is terrific in evil consequences when it -goes wrong. Men, under its subtle and prevailing influence, have waged -bloody wars, worshiped with licentious rituals, carried on pitiless -persecutions, and in bigotry, cruelty, and deceit have grown worse -than they would have been with no religion whatsoever. And men, in its -inspiring light, have launched missionary movements, founded great -philanthropies, built schools, hospitals, orphanages, and in -sacrifice, courageous service, and hope of human brotherhood have made -man's history glorious. Religion needs intelligence to save it from -becoming a ruinous curse; like all power of the first magnitude it is -a disaster if ignorantly used. Since religious faith will always be a -major human motive, under what obligations are we to save it from -perversion and to keep it clean and right! - - _Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we are most unworthy to be called - Thy children; for when light and darkness have been set before us, we - have often chosen darkness rather than light. Conscious that within - us are the elements of a nobler and a meaner life, we have yet given - way to the meaner appetites, and have not obeyed the inspiration Thou - hast kindled within us. We entreat Thee now of Thy grace to call us - back from the ways of temptation and sin into that higher life which - Thou dost breathe upon us, and which is manifested in Jesus Christ - our Lord. Give us the self-knowledge, the humility, the repentance, - the aspiration which draw us to the Cross of Christ, that worshiping - there in lowliness, we may see the weakness of falsehood and the - strength of truth, the exceeding sinfulness of selfishness, and the - beauty of love and sacrifice._ - - _O Thou whose secret is with them that fear Thee, inspire us with - that loyalty of soul, that willingness to do Thy will to which all - things are clear. Darkness, we know, cometh upon the proud and - disobedient; confusion is ever attendant upon self-will; while to the - humble, the earnest, and the pure-minded, the way of duty and - spiritual health is made clear. O Spirit of the Eternal, subdue - within us all pride, all vainglory, all self-seeking, and bring every - thought and every desire into obedience to the law of Christ our - Lord._ - - _Almighty Father, to Thee would we consecrate these earthly days from - infancy to age. Thee would we remember in childhood and youth. Thee - would we serve in all the relations and activities of middle age. - Thee would we teach our children to love and serve. Be Thou our stay - and hope when health and strength shall fail. And when we are - summoned hence, do Thou, O Life of our life, illumine the mystery of - the invisible world with Thy presence and love. We ask these - blessings in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--John Hunter. - - -Fourth Week, Sixth Day - -The perversions of religious faith, working pitiable instead of -benevolent consequences, are often seen on mission fields. Consider -Paul's address in Athens: - - =And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said,= - - =Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very - religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your - worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN - GOD. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto - you. The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being - Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; - neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, - seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and - he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the - earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of - their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel - after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: for - in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your - own poets have said,= - - =For we are also his offspring.= - - =--Acts 17:22-28.= - -Paul did not need to plead for religion with the Athenians; they were -already "very religious." Only religion was not doing for them what it -ought; it was a power used "in ignorance"; and Paul, valuing all that -was good there, quoting their own poets with appreciation, -nevertheless longed to take their strong religious motives and so -clarify and direct them that faith might mean unqualified benediction. -Is not this always the right missionary method? The people of India -are intensely religious; no tribe in Africa lacks its gods; and -everywhere the faith-motive is immensely powerful. But often it makes -mothers drown their babies in sacred rivers, it consecrates caste -systems as holy things, it centers man's adoration around unworthy -objects, its powers, gone wrong, are a curse and not a blessing. If in -Jesus Christ religious faith has come to us, through no merit of our -own, as an unspeakable benediction, ought we not, humbly, without -dogmatism or intolerance, and yet with passionate earnestness, to -share our best with all the world? Religious faith may either depress -or lift a people's life; it is forever doing one or the other in every -nation under heaven; and _there is no hope for the world until this -master-motive is lifting everywhere_. - - _Almighty God, our Father in heaven, who hast so greatly loved the - world that Thou hast given Thine only-begotten Son, the Redeemer, - communicate Thy love to the hearts of all believers, and revive Thy - Church to preach the Gospel to every creature._ - - _O Thou who rulest by Thy providence over land and sea, defend and - guide and bless the messengers of Christ; in danger be their shield, - in darkness be their hope; enrich their word and work with wisdom, - joy, and power, and let them gather souls for Thee in far fields - white unto the harvest._ - - _O Thou who by Thy Holy Spirit workest wonders in secret, open the - eyes that dimly look for light to see the day-star in Christ; open - the minds that seek the unknown God to know their Heavenly Father in - Christ; open the hearts that hunger for righteousness to find eternal - peace in Christ. Deliver the poor prisoners of ignorance and captives - of idolatry, break down the bars of error, and dispel the shadows of - the ancient night; lift up the gates, and let the King of glory and - the Prince of Peace come in._ - - _Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom! Strengthen Thy - servants to pray and labor and wait for its appearing; forgive our - little faith and the weakness of our endeavor; hasten the day when - all nations shall be at peace in Thee, and every land and every heart - throughout the world shall bless the name of the Lord Jesus, to the - glory of God the Father. Amen._--Henry van Dyke. - - -Fourth Week, Seventh Day - -The sad perversions of religious faith are not a matter for foreign -missions only. At home, too, we find people who seem to be rather -worse than better because they are religious. Just as power in any -other form may be abused, so may religious faith. Some in the name of -religion become censorious and intolerant, some superstitious, some -slaves to morbid fears; and ignorance, self-conceit, pride, and -worldly ambition when driven and enforced by a religious motive are -infinitely worse than they would have been without it. Toward this -fact two attitudes are possible. One is to throw over religion on -account of its abuses; which is as reasonable as to deny all the -blessings of electricity because in ignorant hands it is a dangerous -power. The other is to take religious faith more seriously than ever, -to see how great a force for weal or woe it always is in human life, -and to strive in ourselves and in others for a high, intelligent, and -worthy understanding and use of it. For religion can mean what Amiel -said of it: "There is but one thing needful--to possess God. Religion -is not a method: it is a life--a higher and supernatural life, -mystical in its root and practical in its fruits; a communion with -God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, a love which radiates, a force which -acts, a happiness which overflows." From our study of the perversions -and travesties of faith, we turn therefore in the weekly comment to -consider faith's vital meanings. So Paul, writing to the Galatians, -rejoices in religion as a gloriously transforming power in life. - - =But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of - the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit - against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that - ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the - Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are - manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, - idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, - divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; - of which I forewarn you even as I did forewarn you, that they who - practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the - fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, - goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is - no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh - with the passions and the lusts thereof.--Gal. 5:16-23.= - - _Thou, O God, hast exalted us so that no longer we walk with prone - head among the animals that perish. Thou hast ordained us as Thine - own children, and hast planted within us that spiritual life which - ever seeks, as the flame, to rise upward and mingle with Thee. Every - exaltation, every pure sentiment, all urgency of true affection, and - all yearning after things higher and nobler, are testimonies of the - divinity that is in us. These are the threads by which Thou art - drawing us away from sense, away from the earth, away from things - coarse and unspiritual, and toward the ineffable. We rejoice that we - have in us the witness of the Spirit, the indwelling of God. For, - although we are temples defiled, though we are unworthy of such a - Guest, and though we perpetually grieve Thee, and drive Thee from us, - so that Thou canst not do the mighty work that Thou wouldst within - us, yet we rejoice to believe that Thou dost linger near us. Even - upon the outside, Thou standest knocking at the door until Thy locks - are wet with the night dews, and dost persuade us with the - everlasting importunity of love, and draw us upward, whether with or - without our own knowledge. Thou art evermore striving to imbue us - with Thyself, and to give us that divine nature which shall triumph - over time and sense and matter; and we pray that we may have an - enlightened understanding of this Thy work in us and upon us, and - work together with Thee. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -One might be tempted by the last chapter to suppose that, if he could -accept the proposition that God is personal, he would be well upon his -way toward Christianity. But in theory at least Plato accepted this -proposition four hundred years before Christ, when he said: "God is -never in any way unrighteous--He is perfect righteousness; and he of -us who is most righteous is most like Him." He, too, used personality -as a symbol of God. When, however, one compares Plato with Jesus, how -incalculably greater is the religious meaning of our Lord! There is -something more in the Master's experience and thought than the belief -that God is personal. Evidently our quest must be followed further -than the last chapter carried us. - -In Scripture two kinds of faith in the personal God are clearly -indicated. On the one side stand verses such as this: "Thou believest -that God is one; thou doest well; the demons also believe and shudder" -(James 2:19). On the other, one finds through both the Testaments -witness and appeal for a kind of faith that plainly differs from the -first: "O my God, in thee have I trusted" (Psalm 25:2). It is not -difficult to guess the terms in which many would describe this -difference. In the first, so the familiar explanation runs, we are -dealing with the _mind's_ faith in God; the man's intellect -assents to the belief that God is and that He is one. In the second we -are dealing with the _heart's_ faith in God; the whole man is -here involved in an adoring trust that finds in reliance upon God -life's stimulus and joy. - -This distinction between the faith of the intellect and of the heart -is valid, but it does not go to the pith of the truth. When a -professor in the class-room, discussing conflicting theories of life's -origin, concludes that theism is the reasonable interpretation of the -universe, the listener understands that the lecturer believes in God's -existence. But if the professor could be followed home and overheard -in a private prayer, like Fénelon's: "Lord, I know not what I ought to -ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what I need; Thou lovest me better than -I know how to love myself. O Father! give to Thy child that which he -himself knows not how to ask," something incalculably more than the -classroom talk disclosed would be revealed about the meaning of the -teacher's faith. And as the classroom lecture and the private prayer -stand so contrasted, the gist of the difference is plain. In the one, -faith was directed toward a _theory_; in the other faith laid hold -upon a _Person_. That the intellect was more involved in the first and -the emotions in the second is incidental to the main matter, that _two -differing objects were in view_. Toward these two objects we -continually are exercising faith--_ideas and people, propositions and -persons_. - -Now faith in a proposition we conveniently may call belief; and faith -in a person, trust. We believe that gravitation and the conservation -of energy universally apply, that democracy will prove better than -absolutism, and that prison systems can be radically reformed; these -and innumerable other propositions that cannot be demonstrated we -confidently believe. But in quite another way we daily are exercising -faith; _we have faith in our friends_. How profound a change -comes over the quality and value of faith when it thus finds its -objective in a person! Our beliefs in propositions are of basic import -and without them we could not well exist, but it is by trust in -persons that we live indeed. Belief in monogamy, for all its -importance, is a cold abstraction, and few could be found to die for -it. Men do not lay down their lives for abstract theories, any more -than they would suffer martyrdom, as Chesterton remarked, for the -Meridian of Greenwich. But when monogamy is translated from theory -into personal experience, when belief in the idea becomes trust in a -life-long comrade of whom one may sing: - - "What I do - And what I dream include thee, as the wine - Must taste of its own grapes," - -faith has taken a form for which men do live and die in glad -surrender. Although the same word, faith, be applied to both, trust in -persons reaches deeper than belief in propositions and supplies a -warmth and power that belief cannot attain. - -In religion these two aspects of faith continually are found and both -are indispensable. Trust in a person, for example, presupposes belief -in his existence and fidelity. "He that cometh to God must believe -that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" -(Heb. 11:6). Trust cannot exist without belief, but when one seeks the -inner glory of the religious life that has overflowed in prayer and -hymn, supplied motive for service and power for character, he finds it -not in belief, but in the vital relationships involved in trusting a -Person. Men often have discussed their particular beliefs with cool -deliberation, have stated them in formal creeds, have changed them -with access of new knowledge and experience. But _trust_, the -inner reliance of the soul on God and glad self-surrender to his will, -has persisted through many changes, clothing itself with beliefs like -garments and casting them aside when old. Trust has made rituals and -churches and unmade them when they were ineffectual, it has been the -life behind the theory, the experience behind the explanation; and its -proper voice has been not creed and controversy, but psalm and song -and sacrifice. Men have felt in describing this inward friendship that -their best words were but the "vocal gestures of the dumb," able to -indicate but unable to express their thoughts. _For while belief is -theology, trust is religion._ - - -II - -This central position of trust in the Christian life is evident when -one considers that in its presence or absence lies the chief point of -difference between a religious and an irreligious man. The peculiarity -of religion is not that it has beliefs; everybody has them. As we have -seen, Huxley, who called himself an agnostic, said that he thoroughly -believed the universe to be rational, than which only a few greater -ventures of faith can be imagined. A man may not want to have beliefs. -He may say that knowledge is wool, warm to clothe oneself withal, that -belief is cotton, and that he will not mingle them. But for all that -he still does have beliefs and he cannot help it. - -When, therefore, a Christian and an atheist converse they can match -belief with belief. "I believe," says one, "in God the Father"; and "I -believe," says the other, "in the eternal physical universe, without -spiritual origin or moral purpose." Says the Christian, "I believe in -the immortality of persons," and the atheist replies, "I believe that -the spirit dies with the body as sound ceases when the bell's swinging -iron grows still." Says the Christian, "I believe in the ultimate -triumph of righteousness"; and the atheist replies, "I believe that -all man's aspiration after good is but the endless sailing of a ship -that never shall arrive." So the two may play battledore and -shuttlecock, but if, so having paired beliefs, they part with no more -said, they have missed the real point of their difference. The -irreligious man can match the Christian's belief with his own, but one -thing he cannot match--the Christian's trust. _He has nothing that -remotely corresponds with that._ - -The Christian always has this case to plead with an unbelieving man: -Do not suppose that the difference between us is exhausted in a -conflict of contrasting propositions. Great indeed is the divergence -there! But the issue of all such difference lies in another realm. -When you face life's abysmal mysteries that your eyes can no more -pierce than mine, you have no one to trust. When misfortunes fall that -send men to their graves, as Sydney Smith said, with souls scarred -like a soldier's body, you have no one to trust. When you face the -last mystery of all and whether going say farewell to those who stay, -or staying bid farewell to those who go, you have no one to trust. You -can match my belief with your belief, but for one thing you have no -counterpart. "Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). -You cannot match that! "My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped" -(Psalm 28:7). You cannot match that! "Shall not the Judge of all the -earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25); "We have our hope set on the living -God" (I Tim. 4:10); "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke -23:46). That trust you cannot match! - - -III - -In the light of this distinction between belief and trust some -mistaken types of faith can be easily described. There, for example, -is the _faith of formal creedalism_. We cannot have trust without -some belief, but we may unhappily have belief without any trust. Now a -man who believes the doctrines that underly the Christian life but who -does not vitally trust the Person whom those doctrines present, has -missed the heart out of faith's meaning. He is like one who cherishes -a letter of introduction to a great personality, but has never used -it; he has the formal credentials, but not the transforming -experience. It follows that we cannot estimate a man merely by knowing -his beliefs. I believe in all the Christian truths, says one; and the -curious question rises, how did these beliefs of his come into his -possession? They may have been handed to him by his forbears like a -set of family jewels, a static and external heritage, which now he -keeps in some ecclesiastical safe-deposit vault and on state days, at -Christmas or at Easter, goes to see. Still he may claim that they are -his beliefs; he may even quarrel about their genuineness, not because -he ever uses them but because they are his. He may repeat the creed -with the same unquestioning assent that he gives to the conventional -cut of his clothes. His beliefs are not the natural utterance and -explanation of his inner life with God and man, but are put on as they -were handed to him, like the fashions of his coats. So easy is it to -be formally orthodox! - -Over against such conventional believers one thinks of other folk whom -he has known. They have no such stereotyped, clear-cut beliefs. They -are very puzzled about life. It seems to them abysmally mysterious. -And when they speak they talk with a modesty the formal creedalist has -never felt: My beliefs are most uncertain. Confused by many voices -shouting conflicting opinions about truths which I once accepted -without thinking, I cannot easily define my thoughts. But I do trust -God. That assent of the mind which I cannot give to propositions, I -can give to him. Life is full of mystery, but I do not really think -that the mystery is darkness at its heart. My faith has yet its -standing ground in this, that the world's activities are not like the -convulsions of an epileptic, unconscious and purposeless. There is a -Mind behind the universe, and a good purpose in it. - - "Yet in the maddening maze of things, - And tossed by storm and flood, - To one fixed trust my spirit clings; - I know that God is good." - -Say as one may that such an attitude is far from adequate, yet as -compared with the merely formal acceptance of inherited opinions how -incomparably superior its religious value is! - -The people of placid, stiff beliefs are not the successors of the real -saints. When one reads George Matheson's books of devotion, for -example, or sings his hymn "O Love, that wilt not let me go," or -learns of his great work in his church in Edinburgh, one might suppose -that he never had a doubt. Yet listen to his own confession: "At one -time with a great thrill of horror, I found myself an absolute -atheist. After being ordained at Innellan, I believed nothing; neither -God nor immortality. I tendered my resignation to the Presbytery, but -to their honor they would not accept it, even though an Highland -Presbytery. They said I was a young man and would change. I have -changed." One need only read such books of his as "Can the Old Faith -Live with the New?" to see through what a searching discipline of -strenuous thought he passed in the regaining of his faith. But if one -would know what held his religious life secure while he was working -out his beliefs from confusion to clarity, one must turn to Matheson's -poem: - - "Couldst thou love _Me_ - When creeds are breaking-- - Old landmarks shaking - With wind and sea? - Couldst thou refrain the earth from quaking - And rest thy heart on _Me_?" - -Many a man has been held fast by his trust in God while in perplexity -he thought out his beliefs about God. - -Indeed, within the Scripture, whatever word is used to describe the -attitude of faith, this vital personal alliance with God is everywhere -intended. For convenience we have called faith in propositions belief, -but that does not mean that when the Scriptures use "believe" they are -urging the acceptance of propositions. Not often in the Bible are we -invited merely to agree with an opinion; we are everywhere called to -trust a Person. "Trust in the Lord" in the Old Testament, "Believe in -the Lord Jesus Christ" in the New, are neither of them the -proclamation of a theory, but the exaltation of a personality. -Wherever in Scripture doctrines are insisted on--the unity of God, -the deathlessness of the spirit, the divinity of Christ--they are -never doctrines for their own sakes; _they are either commendatory -truths about a Friend, that we may not fail to trust him, or they are -ideas about life that have come to men because they did trust him_. -_Trust in a Person is either the source or the goal of every Christian -doctrine._ The Gospel at its center is not a series of propositions, -but a concrete, personal relationship opened between the soul and the -Divine, out of which new powers, joys, possibilities flow gloriously -into human life. When out of this experience of divine fellowship -Paul, for example, speaks of faith he means by it the alliance that -binds him to his friend. He fairly sings of the peace that comes from -such believing (Rom. 15:13), of the love that is its motive power and -chief expression (Gal. 5:6), and of "the sacrifice and service" which -are its issue (Phil. 2:17). He enthusiastically commends to everyone -this divine alliance through which moral defeat is changed to victory -in the "righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:9); and his -prose slips over into poetry when he describes his new transfigured -life as "access by faith into that grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2). -Plainly he is not talking here about a set of propositions; he is -rejoicing in a transforming personal relationship. Some faith is -nothing but an inherited set of opinions and it gives a cold light -like an incandescent bulb; some faith, like sunshine, is brighter for -seeing than any incandescence can ever be, but warm too, so that under -its persuasive touch new worlds of life spring into being. The faith -of the New Testament and of the real saints is not the cold brilliance -of a creed in whose presence one can freeze even while he sees; it is -the warm, life-giving sunshine of a trust in God that makes all -gracious things grow, and puts peace and joy, hope and love into life. -Belief in propositions is there, but the crown and glory of it are -trust in a Person. - - -IV - -In the light of this distinction between belief and trust, the -inadequacy of another type of faith can easily be understood. Many -would protest that they have not accepted their beliefs as an external -heritage from the past, but rather have thought them through, and hold -them now as _reasonable theories to explain the facts of the spiritual -life_. They would say that as a geologist observes the rocks and -constructs an hypothesis to account for their origin and nature, so -the mind, observing man's contacts with invisible powers, constructs -religious beliefs as explanations of experience. They would insist -that their theology is not merely traditional, but in large degree is -independently appropriated and original. They hold it as an hypothesis -to make intelligible man's experiences of the spiritual world. - -There is significant truth in this view of faith. Man's ideals, his -loves, hopes, aspirations, his unescapable sense of moral obligation, -his consciousness of Someone other than himself, are facts, as solidly -present in experience as stars and mountains. To explain these facts -by theology is as rational as to explain the stars by astronomy. Every -believer in religious truth should welcome this confirming word from -Dr. Pritchett, written when he was President of the Massachusetts -Institute of Technology: "Science is grounded in faith just as is -religion, and scientific truth, like religious truth, consists of -hypotheses, never wholly verified, that fit the facts more or less -closely." - -But when one turns from such a statement to inquire what faith has -actually meant to religious men, he does not find that their -experience could easily be defined as belief in an hypothesis. The -prophets, standing their ground through national disaster, -undiscourageable in their conviction of God's good purpose for His -people, would have been surprised to hear their faith so described. -When the Sons of Thunder were swept out into a new life by the -influence of Jesus, or the seer of Patmos was ravished with visions of -eternal victory, or Paul was made conqueror in a fight for character -that had been his despair, they would hardly have spoken of their -experiences as belief in an hypothesis. Real religion has always meant -something more vital than holding a theory about life. When Robert -Louis Stevenson says of his transformation of character, "I came about -like a well-handled ship. There stood at the wheel that unknown -steersman whom we call God"; when Tolstoi cries: "To know God and to -live are one and the same thing"; when Professor William James, of -Harvard, writes of his consciousness of God, "It is most indefinite to -be sure and rather faint, and yet I know that if it should cease, -there would be a great hush, a great void in my life"; one sees what -conversion of character, what increase of life's value, what -spiritual reenforcement religion has meant even to such unconventional -believers. When they speak of it, they are evidently thinking of a -vital power and not a theory. - -The most obscure Christian to whom religion has become a necessity in -living, knows how far short the plummet of hypothetical belief comes -from reaching bottom. In sin, burdened by a sense of guilt that he -could not shake off and unable to forgive himself, he has cried to be -forgiven, and the Gospel that has been his hope was no injunction to -hold hard by his hypothesis! In sorrow, when the blows have fallen -that either hallow or embitter life, he has sought for necessary -fortitude, and the Gospel which established him certainly was not, -Cast thy care on thine hypothesis! And when, more than conqueror, he -faces death, his confidence and hope will rest on no such prayer as -this, O Hypothesis, guide me! The word of religion is of another sort, -"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear -no evil, for _Thou_ art with me." Not belief in propositions, but -trust in a Person has been the heart of the Gospel, and to make any -hypothesis, however true, do duty as religion is to give the soul a -stone when it asks for bread. - -The futility of seeking contentment in faith as an hypothesis alone is -especially manifest in our time. This is an age of swiftly changing -ideas in every realm. As in science, so in religion, today one theory -holds the field to be displaced tomorrow by another. A man in -theology, as much as in politics or psychology, goes to bed supposing -he has settled his opinions, and wakes up to find a new array of -evidence that disturbs his confidence. When, therefore, religious -faith has meant no more to its possessor than theory, there is no -security or rest. Each day the winds of opinion shift and veer, and -minds at the beginning obstinate in their beliefs, at last, dismayed -by the reiterated uncertainties of thought, give up their faith. - -Where, then, have the men of faith found the immovable center of their -confidence? Paul revealed the secret. On the side of his particular -opinions he frankly confessed his limited and uncertain knowledge. -"Now we know in fragments," he wrote, "now we see through a glass -darkly." "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing -out!" But on the side of his trust he is adamant: "I know _him_ whom -I have believed." The certainty of his life was his relationship with -a person, and his beliefs were the best he yet had thought in the -explication and establishment of that trust. - -The great believers of the Church continually have exhibited this dual -aspect of their faith. Even St. Augustine, facing the profound -mysteries involved in his trinitarian belief, complains that human -speech is pitiably futile in trying to explain what "Three persons" -means, and that if he uses the familiar phrase, he does so not because -he likes it, but because he may not be silent and knows no better -thing to say. But when Augustine prays to the God whose nature is so -unfathomable that no man can see it fully or express it adequately, he -reveals no such uncertain thought: "Grant me, even me, my dearest -Lord, to know Thee and love Thee and rejoice in Thee.... Let the love -of Thee grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect -hereafter; that my joy may be great in itself and full in Thee. I -know, O God, that thou art a God of truth; O make good Thy gracious -promises to me!" So children do not fully understand an earthly father -and often hold conceptions grotesquely insufficient to do justice to -his life and work. But they may have for him well-founded trust. Even -in the years of infancy an ennobling personal relationship begins, -despite the inadequacy of their beliefs, and that trust yearly deepens -while mental concepts shift and change with access of new knowledge. -_The abiding core of a child's life with his father is not belief -but trust._ - -Such has always been the secret of faith's stability in men who have -entered into personal fellowship with God. Even of the first disciples -it has been said--"They would have had difficulty sometimes to tell -you _what_ they believed, but they could always have told you in -_whom_ they believed." - - -V - -The truth of which we have been speaking has pertinent bearing on the -main object of our studies. We shall be considering the difficulties -which Christians have with their beliefs, and the arguments which may -clarify and establish our minds' confidence in God. But many problems -in the realm of intellectual belief cannot be solved by any arguments -which the mind devises. The trouble often lies not in our theories -about the religious life, but in our religious life itself. _The -deeper difficulty is not that our thinking is unreasonable, but that -our experience is unreal._ - -To a man who never had seen the stars or felt the wonder of their -distances, astronomy would be a lifeless topic and his endeavors to -think about it a blundering and futile operation. Our theories about -anything depend for their interest and worth upon the vividness with -which we experience the thing itself and care to understand its -meaning. This is true about matters like the stars; how much more true -about the intimate affairs of man's own life! Democracy vs. autocracy -is a crucial problem. But plenty of men are so careless about human -weal, think so little of their country and the world as objects of -solicitude and devotion, that to discuss in their presence democratic -and autocratic theories of state is a waste of time. The trouble is -not with their minds; they may be very clever and acute. The trouble -is with their lives. They need to experience patriotism as a vital -motive; they need to care immensely what happens to mankind. Only then -will the problems of government grow vivid, and the need of a solution -become so critical that thinking will be urgent and productive. We -never think well about anything for which we do not care. - -Plenty of people today discuss theology as an academic pastime. It is -a speculative game at which they play, as they do at golf, for its fun -and lure. They do not really care about God; they feel no crucial need -of him. Of little use is all their ingenuity in argument, clever and -astute though it may be. Blind men might so discuss the color scheme -of an Italian landscape and deaf men debate the harmonies of Handel's -oratorios. What is lacking is experience. For our theories are only -the explanations of experience, and an emptier game cannot be played -than debating explanations of experiences which we have not had. - -Everyone in difficulty with his faith should give due weight to this -important truth. Our intellectual troubles are not all caused by the -bankruptcy of our spiritual lives, but many of them are. Men live with -drained and unreplenished spirits, from which communion with God and -service of high causes have been crowded out. God grows unreal. The -self-evidencing experiences that maintain vital confidence in the -spiritual life grow dim and unimperative. Men pass years without -habitually thinking as though God really were, without making any -great decisions as though God's will were King, without engaging in -any sacrificial work that makes the thought of God a need and a -delight, without the companionship of great ideas or the sustenance of -prayer. Then, when experience is denuded of any sense of God's -reality, some intellectual doubt is suggested by books or friends, or -fearful trouble shatters happiness. What recourse is there in such a -case? The arguments of faith have no experience to get their grip -upon; they can appeal to no solid and sustained fact of living. -Religious confidence goes to pieces and men tell their friends that -modern philosophy has been too much for faith. But the underlying -difficulty was not philosophical; it was vital. The insolvency of -"belief" was due to the bankruptcy of "trust." Personal fellowship -with God failed first; the theory about him lapsed afterward. - -Throughout our endeavor to deal with intellectual perplexity, this -fundamental truth should not be forgotten. _The peril of religion is -that vital experience shall be resolved into a formula of explanation, -and that men, grasping the formula, shall suppose themselves thereby -to possess the experience._ If one inquires what air is, the answer -will probably be a formula stating that oxygen and nitrogen mixed in -proportions of twenty-one to seventy-nine make air. But air in -experience is not a formula. Air is the elixir we breathe and live -thereby. Air is the magician who takes the words that our lips frame -and bears them from friend to friend in daily converse. Air is the -messenger who carries music to our ears and fragrance to our nostrils; -it is the whisperer among the trees in June, and in March the wild -dancer who shakes the bare branches for his castanets. Air is the -giant who piles the surf against the rocky shore, and the nurse who -fans the faces of the sick. One cannot put that into a formula. No -more can God be put into a theology, however true. They who define him -best may understand him least. God is the Unseen Friend, the Spiritual -Presence, who calls us in ideals, warns us in remorse, renews us with -his pardon, and comforts us with power. God is the Spirit of -Righteousness in human life, whose victories we see in every moral -gain, and allied with whom we have solid hopes of moral victory. God -is the One who holds indeed the far stars in his hand, and yet in -fellowship with whom each humblest son of man may find strength to do -and to endure with constancy and fortitude and deathless hope. And -when one lives close to him, so that the inner doors swing easily on -quiet hinges to let him in, he is the One who illumines life with a -radiance that human wills alone cannot attain. That is God--"Blessed -is the man that taketh refuge in him" (Psalm 34:8). - - - - -CHAPTER V - -Faith's Intellectual Difficulties - - -DAILY READINGS - -Most people will readily grant that such a sense of personal -fellowship with God as the last week's study presented is obviously -desirable. Every one who has experienced such filial life with God -will bear witness to its incomparable blessing. Said Tennyson, "I -should be sorely afraid to live my life without God's presence, but to -feel he is by my side just now as much as you are, that is the very -joy of my heart." But many who would admit the desirability of the -experience are troubled about the reasonableness of the beliefs that -underly it. They want intellectual assurance about their faith. Let us -in the daily readings present certain considerations which a mind so -perplexed should take into account. - - -Fifth Week, First Day - -We should let no one deny our right to bring religious belief to the -test of reasonableness. Glanvill was right when in the seventeenth -century he said, "There is not anything I know which hath done more -mischief to Religion than the disparaging of Reason." In the New -Testament Paul says: - - =Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.--I Thess. 5:21.= - -Peter says: - - =Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in - your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge.--II Pet. 1:5.= - -This might be paraphrased to read, Faith should be _worked out_ into -character and _thought through_ into knowledge. As for Jesus: - - =One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and - knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment - is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; - The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy - God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, - and with all thy strength.--Mark 12:28-30.= - -In many a life which has neglected these admonitions Lowell's words -have proved true: "Nothing that keeps thought out is safe from -thought." In our resolute endeavor to think through the mystery of -life, however, and to find a reasonable basis for faith, we need to -remember that _the very desire to know is an indication of the -reality which we seek_. The dim intuition that the world with all -its diverse powers was in some sense a unity, preceded by ages the -statement of nature's uniformity which modern science knows; and man's -tireless desire to reach a reasonable statement of the unity was an -intimation in advance that unity was there. So men do not believe in -God because they have proved him; they rather strive endlessly to -prove him because they cannot help being sure that he must be there. -This in itself is an intimation about reality which no thoughtful man -will lightly set aside. Tennyson rightly describes the reason for -man's quest after proof about God: - - "If e'er when faith had fall'n asleep, - I heard a voice 'believe no more' - And heard an ever-breaking shore - That tumbled in the Godless deep; - - A warmth within the breast would melt - The freezing reason's colder part, - And like a man in wrath the heart - Stood up and answer'd 'I have felt.'" - - _Eternal Father, Quest of ages, long sought, oft doubted or forsook; - can it be that Thou art known to us, the Law within our minds, the - Life of every breath we draw, the Love that yearneth in our hearts? - Art Thou the Spirit who oft hast striven with us, and whom we greatly - feared, lest yielding to His strong embrace we should become more - than we dared to be?_ - - _An impulse toward forgiveness has sometimes stirred within us, we - have felt moved to show mercy, the sacrificial life has touched our - aspiration; but we were unprepared to pay the price. Was this - Thyself, and have we turned from Thee? Something like this we must - have done, so barren, joyless and so dead has life become. Canst Thou - not visit us again?_ - - _We hush our thoughts to silence, we school our spirits in sincerity, - and here we wait. O may we not feel once more the light upon our - straining eyes, the tides of life rise again within our waiting - hearts?_ - - _We never looked to meet Thee in the stress of thought, the toil of - life, or in the call of duty; we only knew that somehow life had lost - for us all meaning, dignity, and beauty. How then shall we turn back - again and see with eyes that fear has filmed? How can we be born - again, now grown so old in fatal habit?_ - - _If we could see this life of ours lived out in Thee, its common days - exalted, its circumstances made a throne, its bitterness, - disappointment, and failure all redeemed, then our hearts might stir - again, and these trembling hands lay hold on life for evermore. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Fifth Week, Second Day - -Not only is man's tireless quest for assurance about God an intimation -that God must be here to be sought after; but _the spiritual nature of -man which insists on the quest is itself a revelation that God -actually is here_. Some men say that our spiritual life is the result -of evolution, and they suppose that by this magic word they have -explained it. But what comes out of a process of growth was somehow -latent in the Original Beginning from which the growth started. -Palm-trees do not grow from acorns; only oaks evolve from acorns and -for the sufficient reason that oaks are somehow _involved in acorns_ -to start with. So a universe with spiritual life in it naturally -presupposes an Original with spiritual life in It. Whatever evolves -must first of all have been involved. The very fact that the seeker -after God has a spiritual life, which is restless and unsatisfied -without faith in the Eternal Spirit, is one of the clearest -indications that, whatever else may be said about the source of life, -it must be spiritual. The Nile for ages was a mystery; it flowed -through Egypt--a blessed necessity to the land, enriching the soil, -and sustaining the people--but nobody knew its source. Long before -Victoria Nyanza was discovered, however, thinkers were sure that a -great lake must be the explanation of the stream; and when at last -they found the sources of the Nile, the lake was even greater than -anyone had dreamed. So is man's spirit a revelation of a spiritual -origin even before that origin is clearly known. As the Bible puts it: - - =Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us - the earnest of the Spirit.--II Cor. 5:5.= - - _O God! mysterious and Infinite, Thou art the first and Thou the - last: as our weeks pass away and our age rises or declines, we still - return to Thee who ever art the same. We seek Thee as the sole - abiding light amid the shadows of perishable things. O Thou most - ancient God! to whom the heavens are but of yesterday, and the life - of worlds but as the shooting star, there is no number of Thy days - and mercies; and what can we do, O Lord, but throw ourselves on Thee - who failest not, and from whom our pathway is not hid? With solemn - and open heart we would meet Thee here. Cover not Thyself with a - cloud, most High, but may our prayer pass through._ - - _O Thou our constant Witness and our awful Judge! When we remember - our thoughtless lives, our low desires, our impatient temper, our - ungoverned wills, we know that Thou hast left us without excuse. For - Thou hast not made us blind, O Lord, as the creatures that have no - sin; nor hast Thou spared the light of holy guidance. Thy still small - voice of warning whispers through our deepest conscience; and Thine - open Word hath dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and called us - to the feet of Christ to choose the better part. We are not our own, - and are ashamed to have lived unto ourselves. Thou hast formed us for - Thy service, and we must hide our face that we have shrunk from the - glorious hardships of our task, and slumbered on our holy watch. Our - daily work has not been wrought as in Thy sight; and we have not made - the outgoings of the morning and the evening to praise Thee. The - trials of our patience we have received as earthly pains of nature, - not as the heavenly discipline of faith; and the fulness of Thy - bounties has come to us as dead comfort, not as the quickening touch - of Thy everlasting love. O our true and only God! we have lived in a - bondage of the world that bringeth no content; and the passions we - serve are as strange idols that cannot deliver. Awake, awake, O Arm - of the Lord! and burst our bonds in sunder; and help the spirit that - struggles within us to turn unto Thee with a pure heart, and serve - Thee in newness of spirit. Amen._--James Martineau. - - -Fifth Week, Third Day - -Many stumble at the very beginning of their quest for God, because -they are sure that finite mind can never know the Infinite. The Bible -itself asserts that God is in one sense unknowable. - - =Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.--Job 37:23.= - - =Man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning - even to the end.--Eccl. 3:11.= - - =O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of - God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing - out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his - counsellor?--Rom. 11:33, 34.= - -But in the same sense in which God is unknowable, all the most -important realities with which we deal are also beyond our -comprehension. We do not know what electricity is, what matter is, -what life is. Ether is utterly beyond the reach of our definitions, -and an English scientist calls it "unknown, impalpable, the necessary -condition of scientific thought." As for the constituent elements of -the material world, we are told that atoms are so infinitesimally -minute as to be indivisible, and yet that an "electron ranges about in -the atom as a mouse might in a cathedral." The plain fact is that in -any realm, human knowledge soon runs off into an unknown region where -it deals with invisible realities, which it cannot define, but on -which life is based. While therefore we do not know what electricity, -ether, electrons, and life itself are, we do know them well _in -their relationship with our needs_. So we may know God. Deep beyond -deep in him will be past our fathoming, but what God means in his -relationships with our lives we may know gloriously. - - _O Thou who transcendest all thought of Thee as the heavens are - higher than the earth; we acknowledge that we cannot search Thee out - to perfection, but we thank Thee that Thou, the Invisible, comest to - us in the things that are seen; that Thy exceeding glory is shadowed - in the flower that blooms for a day, in the light that fades; that - Thine infinite love has been incarnate in lowly human life; and that - Thy presence surrounds all our ignorance, Thy holiness our sin, Thy - peace our unrest._ - - _Give us that lowly heart which is the only temple that can contain - the infinite. Save us from the presumption that prides itself on a - knowledge which is not ours, and from the hypocrisy and carelessness - which professes an ignorance which Thy manifestation has made for - ever impossible. Save us from calling ourselves by a name that Thou - alone canst wear, and from despising the image of Thyself Thou hast - formed us to bear, and grant that knowledge of Thee revealed in Jesus - Christ which is our eternal life. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Fifth Week, Fourth Day - -The assurance of God may come in part from looking outward at his -creation. This universe seems superficially to be material, but really -it is _saturated with the presence of mind_. So a city's streets, -buildings, bridges, subways, and railroads might appear to careless -thought grossly material; but the fact is that in their origin they -all are _mental_. They are not simply iron and steel and stone; they -are thought, plan, purpose materialized and made visible. The basic -fact about them is that mind shaped them and permeates every use to -which they are put. The most important and decisive force in their -origination was not anything that can be seen, but the invisible -thought that dreamed them and moulded them. So when one looks at -creation he finds something more than matter; he finds order, law, -uniformity; his mind is at home in tracing regularities, discovering -laws, and perceiving purposes. Creation is not grossly material; it is -saturated with the evidence of mind. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, walking -in the country with Liebig, his fellow-scientist, asked his companion -if he believed that the grass and flowers grew by mere chemical -forces; and Liebig answered, "No, no more than I could believe that -the books of botany describing them could grow by mere chemical -forces." - - =Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that - bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by - the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not - one is lacking.= - - =Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from - Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God? Hast - thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, - the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; - there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the - faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. Even the - youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly - fall: but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they - shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be - weary; they shall walk, and not faint.--Isa. 40:26-31.= - - _O Thou Infinite Perfection, who art the soul of all things that are - ... we thank Thee for the world of matter whereon we live, wherewith - our hands are occupied, and whereby our bodies are builded up and - filled with food and furnished with all things needful to enjoy. We - thank Thee for the calmness of Night, which folds Thy children in her - arms, and rockest them into peaceful sleep, and when we wake we thank - Thee that we are still with Thee. We bless Thee for the heavens over - our head, arched with loveliness, and starred with beauty, speaking - in the poetry of nature the psalm of life which the spheres chant - before Thee to every listening soul._ - - _We thank Thee for this greater and nobler world of spirit wherein we - live, whereof we are, whereby we are strengthened, upheld, and - blessed. We thank Thee for the wondrous powers which Thou hast given - to man, that Thou hast created him for so great an estate, that thou - hast enriched him with such noble faculties of mind and conscience - and heart and soul, capable of such continual increase of growth and - income of inspiration from Thyself. We thank Thee for the wise mind, - for the just conscience, for the loving heart, and the soul which - knows Thee as Thou art, and enters into communion with Thy spirit, - rejoicing in its blessing from day to day. Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -Fifth Week, Fifth Day - -The vital assurance of faith always comes, not so much from observing -the outer world, as from appreciating the meaning of man's inner life. -Man knows that he is something more than a physical machine. Theorists -may say that our minds are only a series of molecular changes in the -brain; but man turns to ask: _Who is it that is watching these -molecular changes? The very fact that we can discuss them, is proof -that we are something more than they are and of another order._ -Leslie Stephen was an agnostic, but at the thought of man as merely a -physical machine he grew impatient. "I knock down a man and an image," -he said, "and both fall down because both are material. But when the -man gets up and knocks me down, the result is not explicable by any -merely mechanical action." Man denies his own inward consciousness of -self when he refuses to acknowledge the mental and spiritual part of -him as the thing he really is. Man may have a body, but he surely is a -soul. And when man lets this highest part of him speak its own -characteristic word, he always hears a message like this: I am spirit; -to grow into great character is the one worthy end of my existence; -but how came I to be spirit with spiritual purpose unless my Creator -is of like quality? and how can I believe that my existence and my -purpose are not a cruel joke unless I am begotten by a Spiritual Life -that will sustain my strength and crown my effort? To believe that -man's soul is a foundling, laid on the doorstep of a merely physical -universe, crying in vain for any father who begot him or any mother -who conceived him, is to make our highest life a liar. Therefore man -at his best has always believed in God. - - =For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of - God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but - ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The - Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children - of God.--Rom. 8:14-16.= - - _O Thou whom no name can tell, whom all our thoughts cannot fully - comprehend, we rejoice in all Thy goodness.... We thank Thee for our - body, this handful of dust so curiously and wonderfully framed - together. We bless Thee for this sparkle of Thy fire that we call our - soul, which enchants the dust into thoughtful human life, and blesses - us with so rich a gift. We thank Thee for the varied powers Thou hast - given us here on earth. We bless Thee for the far-reaching mind, - which puts all things underneath our feet, rides on the winds and the - waters, and tames the lightning into useful service.... We thank Thee - for this conscience, whereby face to face we commune with Thine - everlasting justice. We thank Thee for the strength of will which can - overpower the weakness of mortal flesh, face danger and endure - hardship, and in all things acquit us like men...._ - - _We thank Thee for this religious sense, whereby we know Thee, and, - amid a world of things that perish, lay fast hold on Thyself, who - alone art steadfast, without beginning of days or end of years, - forever and forever still the same. We thank Thee that amid all the - darkness of time, amid joys that deceive us and pleasures that cheat, - amid the transgressions we commit, we can still lift up our hands to - Thee, and draw near Thee with our heart, and Thou blessest us still - with more than a father's or a mother's never-ending love. - Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -Fifth Week, Sixth Day - -One ground of assurance concerning faith is the way a sincere -fellowship with God affects life. In a delicious passage of his -autobiography, Benjamin Franklin says, "I was scarce fifteen, when, -after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in -the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. -Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the -substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that -they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by -them; for the arguments of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted, -appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short I soon -became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, -particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of them having afterwards -wrong'd me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting -Keith's conduct towards me (who was another free thinker), and my own -towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I -began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not -very useful." Many men, not yet able to see clearly the issue of -conflicting arguments, are practically convinced in favor of faith by -the relative effects on life of faith and unbelief. When one carries -this thought out until he imagines a world where no one any more -believes in God, he feels even more emphatically the negative results -of unbelief. As Sir James Stephen said, "We cannot judge of the -effects of Atheism from the conduct of persons who have been educated -as believers in God, and in the midst of a nation which believes in -God. If we should ever see a generation of men to whom the word God -has no meaning at all, we should get a light on the subject which -might be lurid enough." A practical working conviction is often gained -in religion, as in every other realm, not by argument, but by acting -on a principle until it verifies itself by its results, or, as in -Benjamin Franklin's case, by trying a negation until one is driven -from it by its consequences. - - =Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but - inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do - men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good - tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth - evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a - corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not - forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by - their fruits ye shall know them.--Matt. 7:15-20.= - - _O God, who remainest the same though all else fades, who changest - not with our changing moods, who leavest us not when we leave Thee; - we thank Thee that when we lose faith in Thee, soon or late we come - to faith in something that leads us back again with firmer trust and - more sincerity. Even if we wander into the far country we take - ourselves with us; ourselves who are set towards Thee as rivers to - the sea. If we turn to foolishness, our hearts grow faint and weary, - our path is set with thorns, the night overtakes us, and we find we - have strayed from light and life._ - - _Grant to us clearer vision of the light which knows no shade of - turning, that we stray not in folly away; incline our hearts to love - the truth alone, so that we miss Thee not at last; give us to realise - of what spirit we are, so that we cleave ever to Thee, who alone can - give us rest and joy. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Fifth Week, Seventh Day - -When all is said and done in the matter of intellectual assurance, -many are confused by the seeming lack of finality in the result. After -all these ages of debate, they say, see all the innumerable opinions -of jarring sects about religious truth! Evidently there is no -satisfying conclusion obtainable at all! But look at the innumerable -schools of medicine--shall one on their account decide that health is -a fruitless study? Consider the infinite variety of taste in -food--shall we say that therefore hunger and its satisfaction is a -futile question to discuss? Rather, the very variety of the answers in -man's quest reveals the importance of the quest itself. Of course -proof of God lacks the finality of a scientific demonstration, and -this is true _because it moves in a realm so much more important than -anything that science touches_. Exactness and finality are possible -only in the least important realms. One can measure and analyze and -describe to a minute nicety a table which a carpenter has made, but -when one turns to the carpenter himself and endeavors to analyze his -motives, weigh his thoughts, estimate his quality, and prove his -purposes, one drops minute nicety at once. The carpenter is not to be -put into a column of figures and added with mathematical precision as -his table is. The farther up one moves in the scale the less precise -and undeniable do his conclusions become. So science is exact just -because it deals with measurable things; but religion, by as much as -its realm is more important, can less easily pack its conclusions into -neat parcels finally tied up and sealed. A man who will not believe -anything which is not precisely demonstrable must eliminate from his -life everything except what yardsticks can measure and scales can -weigh. Let no man ever give up the fight for faith because he does not -seem at once to be reaching an answer which he can neatly formulate. -Let him remember Tolstoi, writing on his birthday: "I am twenty-four, -and I have not done a thing yet. But I feel that not in vain have I -been struggling for nearly eight years against doubt and temptation. -For what am I destined? This only the future will disclose." - - =Hear, O Jehovah, when I cry with my voice: - Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. - When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, - Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek. - Hide not thy face from me; - Put not thy servant away in anger: - Thou hast been my help; - Cast me not off, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. - When my father and my mother forsake me, - Then Jehovah will take me up. - Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; - And lead me in a plain path, - Because of mine enemies. - Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: - For false witnesses are risen up against me, - And such as breathe out cruelty. - I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah - In the land of the living. - Wait for Jehovah: - Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; - Yea, wait thou for Jehovah.= - - =--Psalm 27:7-14.= - - _Deliver us, our Father, from all those mists which do arise from the - low places where we dwell, which rise up and hide the sun, and the - stars even, and Thee. Deliver us from the narrowness and the poverty - of our conceptions. Deliver us from the despotism of our senses. And - grant unto us this morning, the effusion of Thy Spirit, which shall - bring us into the realm of spiritual things, so that we may, by the - use of all that which is divine in us, rise into the sphere of Thy - thought, into the realm where Thou dwellest, and whither have trooped - from the ages the spirits of just men now made perfect. Grant, we - pray Thee, that we may not look with time-eyes upon eternal things, - measuring and dwarfing with our imperfectness the fitness and beauty - of things heavenly. So teach us to come into Thy presence and to rise - by sympathy into Thy way of thinking and feeling, that so much as we - can discern of the invisible may come to us aright. Amen._--Henry - Ward Beecher. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -While it is true that in many cases the apparent unreasonableness of -Christian faith springs from the underlying unreality of Christian -life, this is not always a sufficient diagnosis of doubt. Horace G. -Hutchinson, the English golfer, who spent much of his life in -agnosticism and has now come over into Christian faith, thus -interprets the spirit of his long unbelief: "All the while I had the -keenest consciousness of the comfort that one would gain could he but -believe in the truth of the Christian promises. Surely that must -always be the agnostic's mood.... It is not that they wilfully reject -the appeal to the heart; their will is eager to respond to it. But man -has his gift of reason; it cannot be that he is not intended to use -it. Least of all can it be part of the great design that he should -suspend its use in regard to the most important subject to which his -thought can be directed." - -Such sincere intellectual difficulties with faith must be met with -intellectual arguments and not with moral accusations. Plenty of folk -of elevated character and admirable lives grant, sometimes -impatiently, that the Christian faith is beautiful--but is it -_so_? Is not its solacing power a deceptive sleight of hand, by -which our pleasing fancies and desires are made to look like truth? So -a mirage is beautiful to weary travelers, but their temporary comfort -rests on fallacy. McTaggart summed up one of the most wide-spread and -masterful desires of this generation when he said, "What people want -is a religion they can believe to be true." - -As one sets himself to meet faith's intellectual difficulties, the -attitude in which he is to approach the problem is all-important. -Samuel M. Crothers tells us that a young man once left with him a -manuscript for criticism, and remarked in passing, "It is only a -little bit of my work, and it will not take you long to look it over. -In fact it is only the first chapter in which I explain the Universe." -When one outgrows this cocksure presumption of youth and gains a -graver and more seasoned mind, he leaves behind the attempt to pierce -to creation's last secret. He sees that we can no more neatly and -finally demonstrate God than we can demonstrate any of life's -important faiths. - -Moreover proof of God, as a theorem in philosophy, is not a deep human -need. Men often have supposed that they had such demonstration, but -human experience was little affected by the fact. The exhaustless -source of mankind's desire for assurance about God is not theoretical -curiosity but vital need, and until a man feels the need, sees how -urgently man's highest life reaches out toward God, he never will make -much of any arguments. Browning's bishop asks his friend: - - "Like you this Christianity or not? - It may be false, but will you wish it true? - Has it your vote to be so if it can?" - -Until a man gives an affirmative answer to that inquiry, until he -possesses a life that itself suggests God and wants him, he is not -likely to arrive anywhere by argument alone. - -This is not the case with Christianity only. We cannot prove with -theoretical finality that monogamy is the form of family life to which -the universe is best adapted. But mankind, trying many experiments -with family life, has found in the monogamous family values unique and -indispensable. It is because men feel the value of such a love-bond, -that they begin to argue for it. And their argument, when one sees -deeply into it, is framed after this fashion: We know the _worth_ -of this family-life of faithful lovers. We want monogamy and we -propose to have it. We do not pretend that our faith in monogamy, as -the form of marriage best fitted to this universe, is capable of exact -demonstration; but we do see arguments of great weight in favor of it -and we do not see any convincing arguments against it. We are -persuaded that our faith has reasonable right of way; and we propose -to go on believing in monogamy and practicing it and combating its -enemies, until we prove our case in the only way such cases ever can -be finally proved, by the issue of the matter in the end. - -So men come into the sort of personal and social life that Jesus -represents. Apart from any theories, they value the life itself--its -ideals of character, friendship, service, trust. If honesty allows, -they propose to live that life. When a man has gone far enough in -Christian experience, so that he comes up to his intellectual -difficulties by such a road, he is likely to profit by a consideration -of the reasons in favor of faith. He is in the attitude of saying: I -have found great living in Christ. No argument for the Christian -experience can be quite so convincing as the Christian experience -itself. I am bound to have that life if I honestly can, and I will -search to see whether there is any insuperable intellectual difficulty -in the way of it. - - -II - -One of the initial perplexities of faith concerns the sort of -intellectual assurance which we have a right to expect. In a -laboratory of physics, the investigator gathers facts, makes -inductions as to their laws, and then verifies his findings. He uses a -simplicity of procedure and gains a finality of result that makes all -other knowledge seem relatively insecure. To be sure, the scientist -may seek long for his truth and make many ineffectual guesses that -prove false, but, in the end, he reaches a conclusion so demonstrable -that every man of wit enough to investigate the subject must agree -that it is so. How the Christian wishes for such certainty concerning -God! - -Before, however, any one surrenders confidence in God, because -confessedly the affirmations of religious faith cannot be established -by such methods as a physicist employs, there is ample reason for -delay. We are certain that heat expands and cold contracts, and we can -prove the fact and state its laws. But are we not also sure that it is -wrong to lie and right to tell the truth? This conviction about -truthfulness at least equals in theoretical certainty and in practical -right to determine conduct, our confidence in heat's expanding power. -This conviction about truthfulness does actually sway life more than -does any single scientific truth that one can name. Let us then set -ourselves to prove our moral confidence by such methods as the -physical laboratory can supply--with yard sticks, and Troy weight -scales, and test tubes, and meters! At once it is evident that if we -are to hold only such truth as is amenable to the demonstration of a -laboratory, we must bid farewell to every _moral conviction_ that -hitherto has influenced our lives. God, banished because the physicist -cannot prove him, will have good company in exile! - -Moreover, all our _esthetic convictions_ will have to share that -banishment. We know that some things are beautiful. The consensus of -the race's judgment has not so much agreed to accept the new astronomy -as it has agreed to think sunrise glorious and snow-capped mountains -wonderful. Take from our lives our judgments on beauty, so that we may -call no music marvelous, no poetry inspiring, no scenery sublime, and -some of the most intimate and assured convictions we possess will have -to go. A man who has seen the Matterhorn at dawn, when the first shaft -of light reaches its rocky pinnacle and streams down in glory over the -glaciers that cape its shoulders, will not disbelieve the splendor of -the scene, though all the world beside unanimously should cry that it -is not beautiful. But prove it by the methods of a laboratory? When -the geologist has analyzed all the mountain's rocks, the chemist all -its minerals; when the astronomer has traced the earth's orbit that -brings on the dawn, and the physicist has counted and tabulated the -rays of light that make the colors, our conviction of the scene's -beauty will be as little explained or proved as is our confidence in -God. It becomes clear that some convictions which we both do and must -hold are not amenable to the sort of proof which a scientific -laboratory furnishes. - -Moreover, if we will have no truth beyond the reach of a physicist's -demonstration, all our _convictions in the realm of personal -relationship_ will have to go. We _know_ that friendship-love is the -crown of every human fellowship. Father and son, mother and daughter, -brother and sister, wife and husband--these relationships are in -themselves bare branches wanting the foliage and fruit of friendship. -Of no truth is man at his best more sure than he is that "Life is just -our chance o' the price of learning love." But no laboratory ever can -deal with such a truth, much less establish it. For this is the -neglected insight, for the want of which our religious confidence is -needlessly unstable: _Every realm of reality has its own appropriate -kind of proof, and a method of proof available in one realm is seldom, -if ever, usable in another._ That truthfulness is right is in a way -provable, but methods proper to the moral realm must be allowed; that -the Matterhorn is sublime is in a sense provable, but by methods which -the esthetic realm permits; that love is the crown of life can be -soundly established, but one must employ a method appropriate to -personal relationships. If, obsessed by the procedure of a laboratory -as the solitary path to knowledge, one will have no convictions which -cannot meet its tests, then in good logic there must be a great -emigration from his soul. All his convictions about morals and -beauty, all his convictions about personal friendships and about God -must leave together. He will have a depopulated spirit. No man could -live on such terms for a single hour. The most essential and valuable -equipment of our souls is in convictions which the demonstrations of a -physicist can as little reach as an inch worm, clambering up the -Himalayas, can measure the distance to the sun. - - -III - -A man to whom the Christian life has come to be preeminently valuable, -and who is asking whether it is intellectually justifiable, is set -free, by such considerations as we just have noted, to seek assurance -where religious assurance may properly be found. For one thing, he may -find help by _trying out the creed of no-God_. Many a man is a -wavering believer, makes little excursions into doubt and returns -hesitant and unhappy, because he never has dared to see his doubts -through to their logical conclusion and to face the world with God -eliminated. - -One may sense the general atmosphere of the world, under the no-God -hypothesis, by saying, _In all this universe there is no mind -essentially greater than mine._ The import of such a statement -grows weightier the more one ponders it. All human minds are -infinitesimal in knowledge; endless realities must lie beyond our -reach; "our science is a drop, our ignorance a sea." Yet human -knowledge is all that anywhere exists, if the no-God hypothesis is -true. There is no knower who knows more, and the infinite reality -beyond our grasp is not known by any mind at all. No one ever thought -it or will think it through eternity. Then, let a man add, _In all -this universe there is no goodness essentially greater than mine._ -Human goodness is pitiably partial; it is but prophecy of what -goodness ought to mean; "Man is a dwarf of himself," as Emerson said. -But human goodness is all that anywhere exists, if the no-God -hypothesis is true. There never will be any better goodness anywhere, -and when the earth comes to its end in a solar catastrophe, there will -be no goodness left at all. Certainly the hypothesis of no-God raises -more questions than it easily can quell. - -Indeed the Christian, long accused by unbelieving friends of gross -credulity because he holds his creed, may well leave his defense and -"go over the top" in an offensive charge. If it is a question of -holding creeds, unbelief is a creed as certainly as belief is; it -says, I believe that there is no God or that God cannot be known. If -it is a question of credulity, the Christian suspects that of all the -different kinds of credulousness which the world has seen, nothing -ever has surpassed the capacity of modern sceptics to accept -impossible beliefs. He who says, I believe that there is no God, nor -anything which that name might reasonably connote, is saying, I -believe that the fundamental reality everywhere is physical. Long ages -ago atoms, electrons, "mobile cosmic ethers" began their mysterious -organization, whose present issue is planetary orbits, rocks, organic -life, and, highest point of all, the brain of man. Man's mind is but -the moving shadow cast by the activity of brain. Man's character is -the subtle fragrance of his nerves. Everywhere, if the no-God -hypothesis be true, spirit is a _result_, physical energy the _cause_. - -Some startling corollaries follow such a view. _No man can be blamed -for anything._ Molecular action in the brain is responsible alike -for saints and sinners, and we are as powerless to change our quality -of character or action as a planet is to change its course. Judas and -Jesus, Festus and Paul, the Belgian lads and the Prussian officers who -mutilated them, the raper and the raped--why blame the one or praise -the other when all characters alike are ground from a physical -machine, whose action is predetermined by the push of universal energy -behind? One man even says that to condemn an immoral deed is like -Xerxes whipping the Hellespont--punishment visited on physical -necessity which is not to blame. - -The second corollary is not less startling: _every man thinks as he -does because of molecular action in the brain_. A Christian believes -in God because his molecules maneuver so, and his opponent is an -atheist because his molecules maneuver otherwise, and all convictions -of truth, however well debated and reasoned out, are fundamentally the -work of atoms, not of mind. What we call intellect as little causes -anything as steam from a kettle causes the boiling out of which it -comes. Some brains boil Socialism, some do not; some brains boil -Episcopalianism and some Christian Science. A determinist and a -believer in freewill differ as do oaks and elm trees, for physical -reasons only, and folk are Catholic in southern Europe--so we are -informed--because their skulls are narrow, and in northern Europe -Protestants because their skulls are broad. Truth is a nickname for a -neurosis. The standing marvel is that on some matters like the -multiplication table our brains boil so unanimously. - -A third corollary still remains: _we have no creative power of mind -and will_. All that is and is to be was wound up in primeval -matter, and now in our thoughts and actions is ticking like a clock. -"All of our philosophy," says Huxley, "all our poetry, all our -science, and all our art--Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, and Raphael--are -potential in the fires of the sun." That is to say, Plato had nothing -to do with _creating_ his philosophy, nor Shakespeare with -writing plays--they were empty megaphones and the real voice is the -physical machine from which all things come. Professor Bowne of Boston -University, after the publication of his "Metaphysics," received from -a physicist a protest against his emphasis on the reality of mind. The -professor of physics insisted that the only fundamental reality was -physical and that mind is always a result of brain's activity and -never a cause of anything. To this Professor Bowne replied that -according to the writer's own theory, as he understood it, the letter -of protest was the result of certain physical forces issuing in -nervous excitations that made scratches on paper, and that the -writer's mind had nothing effectual to do with its composition. This, -said Professor Bowne, might be a plausible explanation of the letter, -but he was unwilling to apply it to the universe. What wonder that the -physicist acknowledged to a friend that the retort nettled him, for he -did not see just how to answer it? - - -IV - -One's discontent with this reduction of our lives to physical -causation is increased when he studies the _mental process by which -men reach it_. It is as if a man should perceive in the works of -Shakespeare insight and beauty, pathos and laughter, despair and hope, -and should set himself to explain all these as the function of the -type. How plausibly he could do it! If one takes Shakespeare's -sentences full of spiritual meaning he can readily resolve them into -twenty-six constituent letters of the alphabet, and these into certain -hooks and dashes, and these into arithmetical points diffused in -space. Starting with such abstract points, let one suppose that some -fortunate day they arranged themselves into hooks and dashes, and -these into letters of the alphabet, and these by fortuitous concourse -came together into sentences. Reading them we think we see deep -spiritual meaning, but they are all the work of type; the fundamental -reality is arithmetical points diffused in space. Such is the process -by which a man reduces the mental and moral life of man back to its -physical basis; then breaks up the physical basis into atoms; then, -starting with these abstractions, builds up again the whole world -which he just has analyzed, and thinks he has explained the infinitely -significant spiritual life of man. Not for a long time will we accept -such a method of explaining the works of Shakespeare! Nor can man -contentedly be made to follow so inconsequential a process of thought -as that by which the mind and character of Jesus are reduced to a -maneuver of molecules. - -The attractiveness of this explanation of the universe as a huge -physical machine is easily understood. It presents a simple picture, -readily grasped. It packs the whole explanation of the world into a -neat parcel, portable by any mind. In the days of monarchy the -government of the universe was pictured in terms of an absolute -sovereign; in feudal times the divine economy was pictured as a -gigantic feudalism; we always use a dominant factor in the life of man -to help us picture the eternal. So in the age whose builder and maker -is machinery we easily portray the universe as a huge machine. The -process is simple and natural, but to suppose that it is adequate is -preposterous. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, knew thoroughly the -mechanistic idea of the world. He felt the fascination of it, for he -said at Johns Hopkins University, "I never satisfy myself until I make -a mechanical model of a thing. If I can make a mechanical model I can -understand it. As long as I cannot make a mechanical model all the way -through, I cannot understand." But Lord Kelvin knew better than to -suppose that this figure comprehended all of reality. "The atheistic -idea," said he, "is so nonsensical, that I do not know how to put it -into words." - -The rejection of the no-God hypothesis does not necessarily imply that -a man becomes fully Christian in his thought of deity. There are -way-stations between no-God and Jesus' Father. _But it does mean that -to him reality must be fundamentally spiritual, not physical._ What -other hypothesis possibly can fit the facts? For consider the view of -a growing universe which we see from the outlook that modern science -furnishes. Out of a primeval chaos where physical forces snarled at -each other in unrelieved antagonism, where no man had yet arisen to -love truth and serve righteousness, something has brought us to a -time, when for all our evil, there are mothers and music and the -laughter of children at play, men who love honor and for service' sake -lay down their lives, and homes in every obscure street where -fortitude and sacrifice are splendidly exhibited. Out of a chaos, -where a contemporary observer, could there have been one, would have -seen no slightest promise of spirit, something has brought us to the -Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, to great character and -growing achievements in social righteousness, to lofty thoughts of the -Divine and hopes of life eternal. _Something has been at work here -besides matter. No explanation of all this will do, without God._ - - -V - -Another source of confirmation for the man who, valuing Christian -experience, seeks assurance that it is intellectually justifiable, is -to be found in the effect of Christian faith on life itself. The -nautical tables can be proved by an astronomer in his observatory; but -if they are given to a sailor and he beats about the seas with them in -safety, finding that they make adventurous voyages practicable, that -also would be important witness to their truth. So the Christian ideas -of life have not been kept by studious recluses to ponder over and -weave philosophies about; they have been down in the market place, men -have been practically trying them for generations, and _they make -great living_. - -The ultimate ground of practical assurance about anything is that we -have tried it and that it works. A man may have experience that other -persons exist, may draw the inference that friendly relations with -them are not impossible, but only when he launches out and verifies -his thought in an adventure will he really be convinced of -friendship's glory. In no other way has final assurance about God come -home to man. They who have lived as though God _were_ have been -convinced that he _is_; they who have willed to do his will have -known. - -That religious faith does justify itself in life is a fact to which -mankind's experience amply testifies. Men have come to God, not as -chemists to bread curious to analyze it; they have come as hungry men, -needing to eat if they would live. And they have found life glorified -by faith in him. The difference between religion and irreligion here -is plain. _How seldom one finds enthusiastic unbelievers!_ When all -that is fine spirited and resolute in agnostic literature is duly -weighed and credited, the pessimistic undertone is always heard. -Leslie Stephen thus summarizes life--"There is a deep sadness in the -world. Turn and twist the thought as you may there is no escape. -Optimism would be soothing if it were possible; in fact, it is -impossible, and therefore a constant mockery." No gospel burns in the -unbeliever's mind, urgent for utterance; he has no inspiring outlooks -to offer, no glad tidings to declare. The more intelligent he is the -more plainly he sees this. With Clifford he laments that "the spring -sun shines out of an empty heaven to light up a soulless earth" and -feels "with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is dead"; with -Romanes he frankly states, "So far as the ruination of individual -happiness is concerned, no one can have a more lively conception than -myself of the possibly disastrous tendency of my work." An unbeliever -whose admirable life raised the question as to the philosophy by which -he guided it, gave this summary of his creed, "I am making the best of -a bad mess." Unbelievers do not spontaneously utter in song the glory -of a creed like this, and when they do write poetry, it is of a sort -that music will not fit-- - - "The world rolls round forever like a mill, - It grinds out death and life and good and ill, - It has no purpose, heart, or mind or will." - -When from poetry one turns to philosophy, he can see good reasons why -hymnals and unbelief should be uncongenial. There is little to make -life worth while in a creed which holds as Haeckel does that morality -in man, like the tail of a monkey or the shell of a tortoise, is -purely a physiological effect, and that man himself is "an affair of -chance; the froth and fume at the wave-top of a sterile ocean of -matter." Shall the practical unserviceableness of such an idea for the -purpose of life, awaken no suspicion as to its truth? - -Upon the other hand, suppose that by some strange chance the -principles of Jesus should over night take possession of mankind. Even -as it is, when one starts his thought with the Stone Age, the progress -of mankind has obviously been immense. From universal cannibalism -after a battle, to massacre without cannibalism marked one great -advance; from massacre of all prisoners taken in war to enslavement of -them marked another; and when slavery ceased being a philanthropic -improvement, as it was at first, and became a sin and shame, humanity -took another long step forward. With all our present barbarity, a far -look backwards shows a clear ascent. As for the influence of Jesus, -Lecky, the historian, tells us that "The simple record of three short -years of Christ's active life has done more to regenerate and soften -mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the -exhortations of moralists." What if this process were brought to its -fulfilment between sunset and dawn, and the new day came with every -one sure of God's fatherhood and life eternal, of the law of love and -the supremacy of character and with everyone living as though these -were true? Whatever intellectual perplexities of belief a man may -have, he knows that such a world would be divinely great. No war, no -evil lust, no covetous selfishness, no drunkenness! Mankind, relieved -of ancient burdens which have ruined character and crushed endeavor, -confident of faiths that give life infinite horizons and deathless -hopes, in cooperative international fraternity would be making the -earth a decent home for God to rear his children in. One finds it hard -to believe that ideas which, incarnate in life, would so redeem the -world are false. - -As to the effect of the Christian affirmations on individual -character, we do not need to picture an imagined future. A Character -has been here who has lived them out. A jury of philosophers might -analyze the wood-work and the metals of an organ, and guess from form -and material what it is, but we still should need for our assurance a -musician. When he sweeps the keys in harmony we _know_ that it is an -organ. So when the philosophers have debated the pros and cons of -argument concerning faith, Jesus _plays_ the Gospel. His life is the -Christian affirmations done into character. When religious faith, at -its best, is incarnate in a Man, this is the consequence. And -multitudes of folk, living out the implications of the faith, have -found the likeness of the Master growing in them. Weighty confirmation -of the Gospel's _truth_ arrives when its meaning is translated into -life; the world will not soon reject the New Testament in this -edition--bound in a Man. - -To one in perplexity about belief, this proper question therefore -rises: What do we think about the Christlike character? Is it not life -at its sublimest elevation? But to acknowledge that and yet to deny -the central faiths by which such life is lived is to say that those -ideas which, incarnate, make living great are false, and those ideas -which leave life meager of motive and bereft of hope are true. No one -lives on such a basis in any other realm. We always mistrust the -validity of any idea which works poorly or not at all. And so far from -being a practical makeshift, this "negative pragmatism" is a true -principle of knowledge. Says Professor Hocking, of Harvard, "If a -theory has no consequences, or bad ones; if it makes no difference to -men, or else undesirable differences; if it lowers the capacity of men -to meet the stress of existence, or diminishes the worth to them of -what existence they have; such a theory is somehow false, and we have -no peace until it is remedied." The last word against irreligion is -that it makes life unlivable; the last word for faith is that it makes -life glorious. - - -VI - -One who is facing intellectual difficulties in the way of faith may -well consider that the very Christian life for whose possession he is -seeking justification is itself an argument of the first importance. -This life grew up in the universe; it is one expression of the -universe; and it is hard to think that it does not reveal a nature -kindred to itself in the source from which it came. - -Mankind has always experienced a relationship with the Unseen which -has seemed like communion of soul with Soul. When a psychologist like -Professor James, of Harvard, reduces to its most general terms this -religious Fact which has been practically universal in the race, he -puts it thus: "Man becomes conscious that this higher part (his -spiritual life) is coterminous and continuous with a MORE of the same -quality, which is operative in the universe outside of him, and which -he can keep in working touch with, and in a fashion get on board of -and save himself when all his lower being has gone to pieces in the -wreck." No experience of man is more common in occurrence, more -tremendous in result than this. From the mystics whose vivid sense of -God canceled their consciousness that anything else was real, to plain -folk who in the strength of the divine alliance have lived ordinary -lives with extraordinary spirit, mankind as a whole has known that the -best in man is in contact with a MORE. - -One does not need to be of a mystical temperament, given to raptures, -to know what this means. Let him consider his own experience of love -and duty, how he is bound by them to his ideals and woven into a -community of personal life not only with his friends but with all -humanity, until this spiritual life of his becomes the most august and -commanding power he knows. When in our bodies we so discern a physical -nature, whose laws and necessities we did not create, and whose power -binds us into a community of need and labor with our fellows, our -conclusion is confident. This experience is the basis of our assurance -that a _physical universe is really here_. When, likewise in our -inner selves we find a spiritual life, which man did not create, in -obedience to which alone is safety, and peace, and power, what shall -we conclude? That there is a _spiritual universe_ as plainly -evidenced in man's soul as the physical universe is in the body! And -when we note the attributes of this Spiritual Order, how it demands -righteousness, rebukes sin, welcomes obedience and holds out ideals of -endless possibility, it is plain that we are talking about something -close of kin to God. As in summer we beat out through some familiar -bay, naming the headlands as we sail, until if we go far enough, we -cannot prevent our eyes from looking out across the unbounded sea, so -if a man moves out through his own familiar spiritual life far enough, -he comes to the Spiritual Order which is God. Man has not drifted into -his religion by accident or fallen on it merely as superstition; he -has moved out from his inner life to affirm a Spiritual Order as -inevitably as he has moved out from his bodily experiences to affirm a -physical universe. - -When from this general experience we turn to the specific experiences -of religion, which prayer and worship represent, the testimony of the -race is confident. Men have not all these ages been lifting up their -souls to an unreality from which no response has come. The artesian -well of transforming influence in human souls has not flowed from -Nowhere. Some, indeed, hearing confidence in God founded on the -individual experiences of man, derisively cry "Nonsense!" But if one -were to prove that the Sistine Madonna is beautiful, he would have to -offer his experience in evidence. "I went to Dresden," he might say, -"up into the room where the Madonna hangs ... and it _is_ beautiful. I -saw it." Met with derision by a doubter, as though his experience were -no proof at all, how shall he proceed? "I am not the only one," he -might continue, "who has perceived its beauty. All these centuries the -folk best qualified to judge have gone up into that room and have come -down again, sure that Raphael's work is beautiful." Is anyone in a -position to deride that? So through all ages men and women, from -lowest savages to the race's spiritual kings and queens, have gone up -to the Divine, and, at their best, from experiences of prayer, -worship, forgiven sins, transfigured lives, have come down sure that -Reality is there. _One may not call nonsense the most universal and -influential experience of the human race!_ - -The force of this fact is more clearly seen when one considers that -man has grown up in this universe, gradually developing his powers and -functions as responses to his environment. If he has eyes, so the -biologists assure us, it is because the light waves played upon the -skin and eyes came out in answer; if he has ears it is because the air -waves were there first and ears came out to hear. Man never yet, -according to the evolutionist, has developed any power save as a -reality called it into being. There would be no fins if there were no -water, no wings if there were no air, no legs if there were no land. -Always the developing organism has been trying to "catch up with its -environment." Yet some would tell us that man's noblest power of all -has developed in a vacuum. They would say that his capacity to deal -with a Spiritual World, to believe in God, and in prayer to experience -fellowship with him, has all grown up with no Reality to call it into -being. If so, it stands alone in man's experience, the only function -of his life that grew without an originating Fact to call it forth. It -does not seem reasonable to think that. The evidence of man's -experience is overwhelmingly in favor of a Reality to which his spirit -has been trying to answer. Said Max Müller, "To the philosopher the -existence of God may seem to rest on a syllogism; in the eyes of the -historian it rests on the whole evolution of human thought." - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -Faith's Greatest Obstacle - - -DAILY READINGS - -The speculative doubts leave many minds untouched, but one universal -human experience sooner or later faces every serious life with -questions about God's goodness. We all meet trouble, in ourselves or -others, and oftentimes the wonder why in God's world such calamities -should fall, such wretchedness should continually exist, plunges faith -into perplexity. Few folk of mature years can fail to understand Edwin -Booth when he wrote to a friend, "Life is a great big spelling book, -and on every page we turn the words grow harder to understand the -meaning of." Now, the basis of any intelligent explanation of faith's -problem must rest in a _right practical attitude toward trouble_. -To the consideration of that we turn in the daily readings. - - -Sixth Week, First Day - - =Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, - which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing - happened unto you: but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's - sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory also ye may - rejoice with exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of - Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of - God resteth upon you. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a - thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men's matters: but - if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him - glorify God in this name.... Wherefore let them also that suffer - according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a - faithful Creator.--I Pet. 4:12-16, 19.= - -Such an attitude toward trouble as Peter here recommends is the most -wholesome and hopeful possible to man. And it is reasonable too, if -only on the ground that trouble _develops in men the essential -qualities of strong character_. Our highest admiration is always -reserved for men who master difficult crises. If the story of Joseph, -begun beside Bedouin camp fires centuries ago, can easily be -naturalized beside modern radiators; if Robinson Crusoe, translated -into every tongue is understood by all, the reason lies in the depth -of man's heart, where to make the most out of untoward situations is a -daily problem. Not every one can grasp the argument or perceive the -beauty of "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained," but one thing about -them every man appreciates--the blind Milton, sitting down to write -them: - - "I argue not - Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot - Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer - Right onward." - -The full understanding of Ole Bull's playing on the violin was -necessarily restricted to the musical, but no restriction bounds the -admiration of men, learned or simple, when in a Munich concert, his A -string snaps and he finishes the composition on three strings. That is -the human problem in epitome. Getting music out of life's remainders -after the break has come; winning the battle with what is left from a -defeat; going blind, like Milton, and writing sublimest poetry, or -deaf, like Beethoven, and composing superb sonatas; being reared in an -almshouse and buried from Westminster Abbey, like Henry M. Stanley; -or, like Kernahan, born without arms or legs and yet sitting at last -in the British Parliament--all such hardihood and undiscourageable -pluck reach back in a man's bosom beyond the strings that ease and -luxury can touch, and strike there an iron, reverberating chord. -Nothing in human life is so impressive as pluck, "fighting with the -scabbard after the sword is gone." And no one who deeply considers -life can fail to see that our best character comes when, as Peter -says, we "suffer as a Christian." - - _O Lord our God, let our devout approach to Thee be that of the - heart, not of the lips. Let it be in obedience to Thy spiritual law, - not to any outward ritual. Thou desirest not temples nor offerings, - but the sacrifice of a lowly and grateful heart Thou will not - despise. Merciful Father, to all Thy dispensations we would submit - ourselves, not grudgingly, not merely of necessity, but because we - believe in Thy wisdom, Thy universal rule, and Thy goodness. In - bereavement and in sorrow, in death as in life, in joys and in - happiness, we would see Thy Hand. Teach us to see it; increase our - faith where we cannot see; teach us also to love justice, and to do - mercy, and to walk humbly with Thee our God. Make us at peace with - all mankind, gentle to those who offend us, faithful in all duties, - and sincere in sorrow when we fail in duty. Make us loving to one - another, patient in distress, and ever thankful to Thy Divine power, - which keeps, and guides, and blesses us every day. Lord, accept our - humble prayer, accomplish in us Thy holy will. Let Thy peace reign in - our hearts, and enable us to walk with Thee in love; through Jesus - Christ our Lord. Amen._--Francis W. Newman, 1805. - - -Sixth Week, Second Day - - =Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are - naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and we - toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being - persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the - filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.--I - Cor. 4:11-13.= - -If Paul could be questioned about the experience of trouble which -these verses vividly express, would he not say that there had been -qualities of character in him and resources in his relationship with -God which he never would have known about had it not been for the test -of adversity? Trouble not only develops but also _reveals_ character; -we do not know ourselves until we have been tried out in calamity. The -simplest demand of adversity on every man is that he be "game." Henry -Newbolt is not indulging in rhetoric when he tells of a Soudan battle -where a British square made up of Clifton graduates is hard beset by a -charge of fierce enemies, and, in that crisis, makes the cry of a -Clifton football captain, "Play up, boys, play the game!" rally the -men and save the day. At school or in the Soudan the problem is the -same; the sling with which David plays in his youth is his chief -reliance when Goliath comes; a "game" spirit is essential to character -from birth to death. We turn from the story of Nelson at Aboukir, -nailing six flags to his mast so that if even five were shot away no -one would dream that he had surrendered, to find that the spirit there -exemplified is applicable to our most common day. The quality which -made Nelson an Admiral of England, in spite of his lost arm, his lost -eye, his small stature, and his feeble health is one of our elemental -needs. And to a supreme degree this quality was in great Christians -like Paul. Read his letter to the Philippians and see! Adversity -brought his spirit to light, and made it an asset of the cause. In a -real sense, trouble, however forbidding, was one of Paul's best -friends, and there was a good reason why he should "rejoice in -tribulations." - - _O Father of spirits! Thou lovest whom Thou chastenest! Correct us in - our weakness as the children of men, that we may love Thee in our - strength as the sons of God. May the same mind be in us which was - also in Jesus Christ, that we may never shrink, when our hour comes, - from drinking of the cup that he drank of. Wake in us a soul to obey - Thee, not with the weariness of servile spirits, but with the - alacrity of the holy angels. Fill us with a contempt of evil - pleasures and unfaithful ease; sustain us in the strictness of a - devout life. Daily may we crucify every selfish affection, and - delight to bear one another's burdens, to uphold each other's faith - and charity, being tender-hearted and forgiving as we hope to be - forgiven. Hold us to the true humility of the soul that has not yet - attained; and may we be modest in our desire, diligent in our trust, - and content with the disposals of Thy Providence. O Lord of life and - death! Thy counsels are secret; Thy wisdom is infinite: we know not - what a day may bring forth. When our hour arrives, and the veil - between the worlds begins to be lifted before us, may we freely trust - ourselves to Thee, and say, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my - spirit." Amen._--James Martineau. - - -Sixth Week, Third Day - -If adversity, rightly used, so develops and reveals character, we may -expect to find trouble as a background to the most admirable men of -the race. We read the luminous histories of Francis Parkman and do not -perceive, behind the printed page, the original manuscript, covered -with a screen of parallel wires, along which the blind author ran his -pencil that he might write legibly. We think of James Watt as a genius -at invention, and perhaps recall that Wordsworth said of him, "I look -upon him, considering both the magnitude and the universality of his -genius, as perhaps the most extraordinary man that this country ever -produced." But Watt himself we forget--sickly of body, starving on -eight shillings a week, and saying, "Of all things in life there is -nothing more foolish than inventing." Kant's philosophy was a turning -point in human thought, but lauding Kant, how few recall his struggle -with a broken body! Said he, speaking of his incurable illness, "I -have become master of its influence in my thoughts and actions by -turning my attention away from this feeling altogether, just as if it -did not at all concern me." Wilberforce, the liberator of British -slaves, we know, and beside his grave in Westminster Abbey we recall -the superb title that he earned, "the attorney general of the -unprotected and of the friendless," but the Wilberforce who for twenty -years was compelled to use opium to keep himself alive, and had the -resolution never to increase the dose--who knows of him? One of the -chief rewards of reading biography is this introduction that it gives -to handicapped men; the knowledge it imparts of the world's great -saints and scripture makers, conquerors and reformers, who, in the -words of Thucydides, "dared beyond their strength, hazarded against -their judgment, and in extremities were of excellent hope." And when -one turns to the supreme Character, could the dark background be -eliminated and still leave Him? - - =But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold - him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, - because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that - by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. For it - became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, - in bringing many sons unto glory to make the author of their - salvation perfect through sufferings.--Heb. 2:8-10.= - - _O God, who art unsearchable in Thy judgments, and in Thy ways past - finding out, we bow before the mystery of Thy Being, and confess that - we know nothing, and can say nothing worthy of Thee. We cannot - understand Thy dealings with us. We have faith, not sight; when we - cannot see, we may only believe. Sometimes Thou seemest to have no - mercy upon us. Thou dost pierce us through our most tender - affections, quenching the light of our eyes in dreadful darkness. - Death tears from us all that we love, and Thou art seemingly deaf to - all our cries. Our earthly circumstances are reversed and bitter - poverty is appointed us, yet Thou takest no heed, and bringest no - comfort to the sorrow and the barrenness of our life. Still would we - trust in Thee and cling to that deepest of our instincts which tells - us that we come from Thee and return to Thee. Be with us, Father of - Mercies, in love and pity and tenderness unspeakable. Lift our souls - into Thy perfect calm, where all our wills are in harmony with Thine. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Sixth Week, Fourth Day - -To one perplexed and disheartened by adversity, a theoretical -explanation is generally not half as valuable as concrete instances of -courage and fortitude, founded on faith. Whether we be theologians or -scientists or as ignorant of both as Caliban, there is an immediate, -personal call to arms in the brave fight of George Matheson, one of -Scotland's great preachers for all his blindness, or in Louis -Pasteur's indomitable will, making his discoveries despite the -paralytic stroke that in his forty-sixth year crippled his strength. -The qualities which we admire in them are a sort of apotheosis of the -qualities which we need in ourselves. For we all are handicapped, some -by ill-starred heredity, by unhappy environment, or by the -consequences of our own neglect and sin; some by poverty, some by -broken bodies, or by dissevered family ties--and all of us by -unfortunate dispositions. It does us good then to know that Phillips -Brooks failed as a teacher. His biographer tells us that so did his -first ambition to be an educator cling to him, that in the prime of -life, when he was the prince of preachers, he came from President -Eliot's office, pale and trembling, because he had refused a -professorship at Harvard. So Robertson, of Brighton, whose sermons -began a new epoch in British Christianity, was prevented from being a -soldier only by the feebleness of his body, and Sir Walter Scott, who -wanted to be a poet, turned to novel writing, anonymously and -tentatively trying a new role, because, as he frankly put it, "Because -Byron beat me." He is an excellent cook who knows how to make a good -dinner out of the left-overs, and hardly a more invigorating truth is -taught by history than that most of the finest banquets spread for the -delectation of the race have been prepared by men who made them out of -the leavings of disappointed hopes. - - =Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a - cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so - easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set - before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, - who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising - shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For - consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against - himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.--Heb. 12:1-3.= - - _Our Father, we thank Thee that while we are sure of Thy protecting - care, Thy causal providence, which foresees all things, we can bear - the sorrows of this world, and do its duties, and endure its manifold - and heavy cross. We thank Thee that when distress comes upon us, and - our mortal schemes vanish into thin air, we know there is something - solid which we can lay hold of, and not be frustrate in our hopes. - Yea, we thank Thee that when death breaks asunder the slender thread - of life whereon our family jewels are strung, and the precious stones - of our affection fall from our arms or neck, we know Thou takest them - and elsewhere givest them a heavenly setting, wherein they shine - before the light of Thy presence as morning stars, brightening and - brightening to more perfect glory, as they are transfigured by Thine - own almighty power._ - - _We thank Thee for all the truth which the stream of time has brought - to us from many a land and every age. We thank Thee for the noble - examples of human nature which Thou hast raised up, that in times of - darkness there are wise men, in times of doubt there are firm men, - and in every peril there stand up heroes of the soul to teach us - feebler men our duty, and to lead all of Thy children to trust in - Thee. Father, we thank Thee that the seed of righteousness is never - lost, but through many a deluge is carried safe, to make the - wilderness to bloom and blossom with beauty ever fragrant and ever - new, and the desert bear corn for men and sustain the souls of the - feeble when they faint. Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -Sixth Week, Fifth Day - -One distinguishing mark of the men who have won their victories with -the remnants of their defeat is that they refuse to describe their -unideal conditions in negative terms. If they cannot live in southern -California where they would choose to live, but must abide in New -England instead, they do not describe New England in terms of its -deficiencies--no orange groves, no acres of calla lilies, no palm -trees. There are compensations even in New England, if one will -carefully take account of stock and see what positively is there! Or -if a man would choose to live in Boston and must live in Labrador, the -case of Grenfell suggests that a positive attitude toward his -necessity will discover worth, and material for splendid triumphs even -on that inhospitable coast. The mark of the handicapped men who have -made the race's history glorious has always been their patriotism for -the country where they had to live. They do not stop long to pity -themselves, or to envy another's opportunity, or to blame circumstances -for their defeat, or to dream of what might have been, or to bewail -their disappointed hopes. If the soil of their condition will not grow -one crop, they discover what it will grow. They have insight, as did -Moses, to see holy ground where an ordinary man would have seen only -sand and sagebrush and sheep. - - =Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the - priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, - and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah - appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and - he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was - not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this - great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when Jehovah saw that he - turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the - bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, - Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the - place whereon thou standest is holy ground.--Exodus 3:1-5.= - - _Father of life, and God of the living, Fountain of our being and - Light of all our day; we thank Thee for that knowledge of Thyself - which lights our life with eternal splendor, for that giving of - Thyself which has made us partakers of Thy divine nature. We bless - Thee for everything around us which ministers Thee to our minds; for - the greatness and glory of nature, for the history of our race, and - the lives of noble men; for the thoughts of Thee expressed in human - words, in the art of painters and musicians, in the work of builders - and craftsmen. We bless Thee for the constant memories of what we are - that rise within ourselves; for the pressure of duty, the hush of - solemn thoughts, for moments of insight when the veil on the face of - all things falls away, for hours of high resolve when life is - quickened within, for seasons of communion when, earth and sense - forgotten, heaven holds our silent spirits raptured and aflame._ - - _We have learned to praise Thee for the darker days when we had to - walk by faith, for weary hours that strengthened patience and - endeavor, for moments of gloom and times of depression which taught - us to trust, not to changing tides of feeling, but to Thee who - changest not. And now since Christ has won His throne by His cross of - shame, risen from His tomb to reign forever in the hearts of men, we - know that nothing can ever separate us from Thee; that in all - conflicts we may be more than conquerors; that all dark and hostile - things shall be transformed and work for good to those who know the - secret of Thy love._ - - _Glory be to Thee, O Lord. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Sixth Week, Sixth Day - -When folk have seen into human life deeply enough so that they -perceive how adversity can be used to high issues, faith in God -becomes not so much a speculative problem as a practical need. They -want to deal with trouble nobly. They see that faith in God gives the -outlook on life which makes the hopeful facing of adverse situations -reasonable and which supplies power to make it possible. The result is -that the _great sufferers have been the great believers_. The idea -that fortunate circumstances make vital faith in God probable is -utterly unsupported by history. Hardly an outstanding champion of -faith who has left an indelible impress on man's spiritual life can -anywhere be found, who has not won his faith and confirmed it in the -face of trouble. What is true of individuals is true of generations. -The days of Israel's triumphant faith did not come in Solomon's reign, -when wealth was plentiful and national ambitions ran high. The great -prophets and the great psalms stand out against the dark background of -the Exile and its consequences. - - =Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the - days of old, the generations of ancient times. Is it not thou that - didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the monster? Is it not - thou that driedst up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that - madest the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And - the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto - Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall - obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.= - - =I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou art - afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be - made as grass; and hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker, that stretched - forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fearest - continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he - maketh ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? The - captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go - down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. For I am Jehovah thy - God, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah - of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have - covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, - and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my - people.--Isa. 51:9-16.= - -That is a voice out of the Exile. Such great believers, whose faith -shone brightest when the night was darkest, have not pretended to know -the explanation of suffering in God's world. But they have had insight -to see a little and trust for the rest. Stevenson has expressed their -faith: "If I from my spy-hole, looking with purblind eyes upon a least -part of a fraction of the universe, yet perceive in my own destiny -some broken evidences of a plan, and some signals of an overruling -goodness; shall I then be so mad as to complain that all cannot be -deciphered? Shall I not rather wonder, with infinite and grateful -surprise, that in so vast a scheme I seem to have been able to read, -however little, and that little was encouraging to faith?" - - _We thank Thee, O God, that Thou dost ride upon the cloud, and govern - the storm. All that to us is dark is light to Thee. The night shineth - as the day. All that which seems to us irregular and ungoverned, is - held in Thine hand, even as the steed by the rein. From age to age - Thou dost control the long procession of events, discerning the end - from the beginning; and all the wild mixture, all the confusion, all - the sorrow and the suffering, is discerned of Thee. As is the palette - to the color, as is violence to development in strength, as is the - crushing of the grape to the wine, so in Thy sight all things are - beneficent that to us are most confusing and seemingly conflicting - and threatening. Sorrow and pain and disaster are woven in the loom - of God; and in the end we, too, shall be permitted to discern the - fair pattern, and understand how that which brought tears here shall - bring righteousness there._ - - _O, how good it is to trust Thee, and to believe that Thou art wise, - and that Thou art full of compassion, as Thou carriest on Thy great - work of love and benevolence, sympathizing with all that suffer on - the way, and gathering them at last with an exceeding great - salvation! We trust Thee, not because we understand Thee, but because - in many things Thou hast taught us where we should have been afraid - to trust. We have crossed many a gulf and many a roaring stream upon - the bridge of faith, and have exulted to find ourselves safe landed, - and have learned to trust Thee, as a child a parent, as a passenger - the master of a ship, not because we know, but because Thou knowest. - Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. - - -Sixth Week, Seventh Day - - =Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth - them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the - rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds - blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded - upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and - doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his - house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and - the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was - the fall thereof.--Matt. 7:24-27.= - -An important fact is here asserted by the Master, which is commonly -obscured in the commentaries. He says that no matter whether a man's -life be built on sand or on rock, he yet will experience the blasts of -adversity; on both houses alike "the rain descended, and the floods -came, and the winds blew." The Master repeatedly affirmed that trouble -comes without necessary reference to character, that while we may -always argue that sin causes suffering, we never can confidently argue -that suffering comes from sin (Luke 13:4; John 9:1-3). Folks -needlessly and unscripturally harass their souls when they suppose -that some special trouble must have befallen them because of some -special sin. The book of Job was written to disprove that, and as for -the Master, he distinctly says that the man of faith with his house on -a rock faces the same storm that wrecks the faithless man. _The -difference is not in the adversity, but in the adversity's effect._ -No more important question faces any soul than this: seeing that -trouble is an unevadable portion of every life, good or bad, what am I -to do with it? Says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Did you ever happen to see -that most soft-spoken and velvet-handed steam-engine at the Mint? The -smooth piston slides backward and forward as a lady might slip her -delicate finger in and out of a ring. The engine lays one of its -fingers calmly, but firmly, upon a bit of metal; it is a coin now, and -will remember that touch, and tell a new race about it, when the date -upon it is crusted over with twenty centuries. So it is that a great -silent-moving misery puts a new stamp on us in an hour or a moment--as -sharp an impression as if it had taken half a lifetime to engrave it." -The only flaw in that simile is that the coin cannot decide what -impression shall be made. But we can. Rebellion, despair, bitterness, -or triumphant faith--we can say which impression adversity shall leave -upon us. - - _O God of our life, whom we dimly apprehend and never can comprehend, - to whom nevertheless we justly ascribe all goodness as well as all - greatness; as a father teaches his children, so teach us, Lord, truer - thoughts of Thee. Teach us to aspire, so far as man may lawfully - aspire, to a knowledge of Thee. Thou art not only a God to be honored - in times of rest and ease, Thou art also the Refuge of the - distressed, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Healer of the - contrite, and the Support of the unstable. As we sympathize with - those who are sore smitten by calamity, wounded by sudden accident, - wrecked in the midst of security, so must we believe that Thy mighty - all-embracing heart sympathizes. Pitier of the orphan, God of the - widow, cause us to share Thy pity and become Thy messengers of - tenderness in our small measure. Be Thou the Stay of all in life and - death. Teach all to know and trust Thee, give us a portion here and - everywhere with Thy saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Amen._--Francis W. Newman, 1805. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -Few who have sincerely tried to believe in God's goodness and who have -lived long enough to face the harrowing facts of human wretchedness -will doubt what obstacle most hampers faith. The major difficulty -which perplexes many Christians, when they try to reconcile God's love -with their experience, is not belief's irrationality but life's -injustice. According to the Psalmist, "The fool hath said in his -heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). But the fool is not the only -one who has said that. He said it, jeering; he announced it in -derision; he did not want God, and contemptuous denial was a joy. It -was the temper of his negation that made him a fool. But many hearts, -in tones far different from his, have said, "There is no God." Parents -cry it brokenheartedly beside the graves of children; the diseased cry -it, suffering from keener agony than they can bear; fathers cry it -when their battle against poverty has failed and their children plead -in vain for bread; and men who care about their kind say it as they -watch the anguish with which war, drunkenness, lust, disease, and -poverty afflict the race. No man of moral insight will call such folk -fools. The wretchedness and squalor, the misery and sin which rest -upon so much of humankind are a notorious difficulty in the way of -faith. - -In dealing with this problem two short cuts are often tried, and by -them some minds endeavor to evade the issue which faith ought to meet. -Some _minimize the suffering_ which creation cost and which man -and animals are now enduring. We must grant that when we read the -experience of animals in terms of man's own life, we always exaggerate -their pain. Animals never suffer as we do; their misery is not -compounded by our mental agonies of regret and fear; and even their -physical wretchedness is as much lower in intensity as their nerves -are less exquisitely tuned. Darwin, who surely did not underestimate -the struggle for existence, said in a letter, "According to my -judgment, happiness decidedly prevails. All sentient beings have been -formed so as to enjoy, as a general rule, happiness." We must grant -also that man's practical attitude toward life gives the lie to -pessimism. Only the suicides are the logical pessimists, and all the -rest of men, most with good heart and multitudes with jubilant -enthusiasm, do actually cling to life. Indeed, all normal men -discover, that, within limits, their very hardships are a condition of -their happiness and do not so much abate their love of life is they -add zest and tang. We must grant further that suffering should be -measured not by quantity, but by intensity. One sensitive man enduring -bereavement, poverty, or disease represents _all_ the suffering -that ever has been or ever can be felt. To speak of limitless -suffering, therefore, is false. There is no more wretchedness anywhere -nor in all the world together, than each one can know in his own -person. - -When all this, however, has been granted, the facts of the world's -misery are staggering. Modern science has given terrific sweep and -harrowing detail to Paul's assertion, "The whole creation groaneth and -travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22). Let one whose -insight into misery's meanings is quickened by even a little -imagination, try to sum up the agony of drunkards' homes, of bereaved -families, of hospitals, insane asylums, jails, and prisons, of war -with its unmentionable horrors--its blinded, deafened, maddened, -raped--and no small palliatives can solve his problem. Rather he -understands the picture which James Russell Lowell said he saw years -ago in Belgium: an angel holding back the Creator and saying, "If -about to make such a world, stay thine hand." - -Another short cut by which some endeavor to simplify the problem and -content their thought is _to lift responsibility for life's -wretchedness from God's shoulders and to put it upon man's_. Were -man's sin no factor in the world, some say, life's miseries would -cease; all the anguish of our earthly lot stands not to God's -responsibility but to man's shame. But the sufferings of God's -creatures did not begin with man's arrival, and the pain of creation -before man sinned is a longer story than earth's misery since. Let -Romanes picture the scene: "Some hundred of millions of years ago, -some millions of millions of animals must be supposed to have become -sentient. Since that time till the present, there must have been -millions and millions of generations of millions and millions of -individuals. And throughout all this period of incalculable duration, -this inconceivable host of sentient organizations have been in a state -of unceasing battle, dread, ravin, pain. Looking to the outcome, we -find that more than one-half of the species which have survived the -ceaseless struggle are parasitic in their habits, lower and insentient -forms of life, feasting on higher and sentient forms, we find teeth -and talons whetted for slaughter, hooks and suckers molded for -torture--everywhere a reign of terror, hunger, sickness, with oozing -blood and quivering limbs, with gasping breath and eyes of innocence -that dimly close in deaths of cruel torture." Is man responsible for -that? For cold that freezes God's living creatures, for lightning that -kills them, for volcanoes that burn them, for typhoons that crush -them--is man responsible? By no such easy evasion may we escape the -problem which faith must meet. "In sober truth," as John Stuart Mill -exclaimed, "nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned -for doing to one another, are Nature's everyday performances." Who can -avoid seeing the patent contrast between the Father of Jesus and the -Creator of such a world? "The power that launches earthquakes and arms -cuttlefish," said one perplexed believer, "has but a meager -relationship to the power that blesses infants and forgives enemies." - - -II - -Could we hold this problem at arm's length, discussing it in -speculative moods when we grow curious about the makeup of the -universe, our case would be more simple. But of all life's problems, -this most certainly--sometimes creeping, sometimes crashing--invades -our private lives. Every man has a date with adversity which he must -keep and which adversity does not forget. One notes the evidence of -this in every normally maturing life. As children we wanted happiness -and were impatient, lacking it. Our cups of pleasure easily brimmed -and overflowed. A Christmas tree or a birthday party--and our hearts -were like sun-parlors on cloudless days with all the windows open to -the light! But the time comes to all when happiness like this is not -our problem; we recognize that it is gone; our Edens are behind us -with flaming angels at the gate. We have had friends and lost them and -something has gone from our hearts that does not return; we have won -successes which we do not estimate as highly in possession as we did -in dreams, and it may be have lost what little we achieved; we have -sinned, and though forgiven, the scars are still upon us; we have been -weathered by the rains and floods and winds. Happiness in the old -fashion we no longer seek. We want peace, the power to possess our -souls in patience and to do our work. We want joy, which is a profound -and spiritually begotten grace as happiness is not. This maturity -which so has faced the tragic aspects of our human life is not less -desirable than childhood; it may be richer, fuller, steadier. We may -think of it as Wordsworth did about the English landscape--that not -for all the sunny skies of Italy would he give up the mists that -spiritualize the English hills. But when trouble comes, life faces a -new set of problems that childhood little knew. We have joined the -human procession that moves out into the inevitable need of comfort -and fortitude. - -The decisive crisis in many lives concerns the attitude which this -experience evokes. Some are led by it more deeply into the meanings of -religion. The Bible grows in their apprehension with the enlarging of -their life; new passages become radiant as, in a great landscape, -hills and valleys lately unillumined catch the rays of the rising sun. -At first the human friendliness of Jesus is most real, and the Bible's -stories of adventure for God's cause; then knightly calls to character -and service become luminous; but soon or late another kind of passage -grows meaningful: "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, our -Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through -grace, comfort your hearts and establish them" (II Thess. 2:16). -Others, so far from being led by adversity into the deeper meanings -of faith, renounce faith altogether, and fling themselves into open -rebellion against life and any God who may be responsible for its -tragedy. They may not dare to say what James Thomson did, but they -think it-- - - "Who is most wretched in this dolorous place? - I think myself; yet I would rather be - My miserable self than He, than He - Who formed such creatures to his own disgrace. - - The vilest thing must be less vile than Thou - From whom it had its being, God and Lord! - Creator of all woe and sin! abhorred, - Malignant and implacable! I vow - - That not for all Thy power furled and unfurled, - For all the temples to Thy glory built, - Would I assume the ignominious guilt - Of having made such men in such a world!" - -Many, however, are not by adversity made more sure of God, nor are -they driven into rebellion against him. They are perplexed. It had -been so much easier, in the sheltered and innocent idealism of their -youth, to believe in God than it is now. As children they looked on -life as they might have listened to Mozart's music, ravished with -unqualified delight; but now they know that Mozart died in abject -poverty, that the coffin which his wife could not buy was donated by -charity, that as the hearse went to the grave the driver loudly damned -the dead because no drink money had been given him, and that to this -day no one knows where Mozart's body lies. Maturity has to deal with -so much more tragic facts than youth can ever know. With all the -philosophy that man's wit can supply, the wisest find themselves -saying what Emerson did, two years after his son's death: "I have had -no experience, no progress to put me into better intelligence with my -calamity than when it was new." And in this inevitable wrestling with -adversity, the cry of men is not simply for more courage. They might -easily steady their hearts to endure and overcome, were only one -question's answer clear--is there any _sense_ in life's suffering? The -one unsupportable thought is that all life's pain and hardship is -meaningless and futile, that it has no worthy origin, serves no high -purpose, that in misery we are the sport of forces that have no -consciousness of what they do, no meaning in it and no care. Such folk -want to believe in God, but--can they? - - -III - -Two preliminary facts about Christianity's relationship with our -problem may help to clarify our thought. The doubt sometimes obtrudes -itself on minds perplexed about life's tragedies that the Christian's -faith in a God of love is an idealistic dream. Such faiths as the -Fatherhood of God have come to men, they think, in happy hours when -calamity was absent or forgotten; they are the fruition of man's -fortunate days. And born thus of a view of life from which the -miseries of men had been shut out, this happy, ideal faith comes back -to painful realities with a shock which it cannot sustain. But is -Christian faith thus the child of man's happy days? Rather the very -symbol of Christianity is the Cross. Our faith took its rise in one of -history's most appalling tragedies, and the Gospel of a loving God, so -far from being an ideal dream, conceived apart from life's forbidding -facts, has all these centuries been intertwined with the public -brutality of a crucifixion. Every emphasis of the Christian's faith -has the mark of the Cross upon it. Jesus had said in words that God -was love, but it was at Calvary that the words took fire: "God so -loved the world that he gave his only begotten son" (John 3:16). Jesus -had preached the divine forgiveness, but on Golgotha the message grew -imperative: "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we -were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Jesus had put into -parables the individual care of the Father for every child, but it was -the Cross that drove the great faith home: Christ tasted "death for -every man" (Heb. 2:9). Nothing in Christian faith has escaped the -formative influence of the Tragedy. The last thing to be said about -the Gospel is that it is a beautiful child-like dream which has not -faced the facts of suffering. In the New Testament are all the -miseries on which those who deny God's love count for support. We are -at home there with suffering men: "they were stoned, they were sawn -asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went -about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, -ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts -and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth" (Heb. 11:37, 38). -The men with whom Christianity began were not strangers to such -trouble, so that some modern need remind their innocent and dreaming -faith that life is filled with mysterious adversity. _Christianity was -suckled on adversity; it was cradled in pain. At the heart of its Book -and its Gospel is a Good Man crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, -with a spear wound in his side._ - -Nor have the great affirmations of faith in God's fatherhood ever been -associated with men of ease in fortunate circumstance. The voice that -cried "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" spoke in agonizing -pain. And through history one finds those words best spoken with a -cross for a background. Thomas á Becket said them, martyred in his own -cathedral; John Huss said them, going to the stake at Constance; -George Wishart said them, roasted at the foot of the sea-tower of St. -Andrews. Christian faith is not a dream that came in hours when human -trouble had been forgotten; it has furnished from the beginning an -interpretation of human trouble and an attitude in meeting it that has -made men "more than conquerors." - -The second preliminary fact is this: _Christianity has never pretended -to supply a theoretical explanation of why suffering had to be_. This -seeming lack has excellent reason, for such an explanation, if it be -complete, is essentially beyond the reach of any finite mind. The most -comprehensive question ever asked, some philosopher has said, was put -by a child. "Why was there ever anything at all?" No finite mind can -answer that. And next in comprehensiveness, and in penetration to the -very pith of creation's meaning, is this query, "Why, if something had -to be, was it made as it is?" One must be God himself fully to answer -that, or to comprehend the answer, could it be written down. To expect -therefore, from Christianity or from any other source a theoretical -explanation that will plumb the depths of the mystery of suffering is -to cry for the essentially impossible. So Carlyle says with typical -vividness: "To the minnow every cranny and pebble, and quality and -accident of its little native creek may have become familiar; but does -the minnow understand the Ocean Tides and periodic Currents, the -Trade-winds, and Monsoons, and Moon's Eclipses; by all which the -condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, from time to time -(_un_-miraculously enough), be quite overset and reversed? Such a -minnow is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable -All; his Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious Course of -Providence through Aeons of Aeons." - -So little is this inability of ours to know all that we wish about the -world a cause for regret, that it ought to be an occasion of positive -rejoicing. If _we_ could understand the universe through and -through, how small and meager the universe would have to be! The fact -is that we cannot understand anything through and through. If one is -disheartened because he cannot pierce to the heart of Providence and -know all its secrets, let him try his hand upon a pebble and see how -much better he will fare. What is a pebble? If one define it roughly -as granite he must ask what granite is; if that be defined in terms of -chemical properties, he must ask what they are; if they be defined as -ultimate forms of matter, he must inquire what matter is; and then he -will be told that matter is a "mode of motion," or will be assured by -a more candid scientist, like Professor Tait, that "we do not know and -are probably incapable of discovering what matter _is_." No one -ever solves the innermost problems of a stone, but what can be done -with stones our engineering feats are evidence. - -If, therefore, we recognize at the beginning that the question why -suffering had to be is an ultimate problem, essentially insoluble by -finite minds, we need not be dismayed. Two opposing mysteries are in the -world--goodness and evil. If we _deny_ God, then _goodness_ is a -mystery, for no one has ever yet suggested how spiritual life could -rise out of an unspiritual source, how souls could come from dust. If -we _affirm_ God, then _evil_ is a mystery, for why, we ask, should -love create a world with so much pain and sin? Our task is not to -solve insoluble problems; it is to balance these alternatives--no God -and the mystery of man's spiritual life, against God and the mystery -of evil. Such a comparison is not altogether beyond our powers, nor -are weighty considerations lacking to affect our choice. - - -IV - -For one thing, we may well inquire, when we complain of this world's -misery, what sort of world we are seeking in its place. Are we asking -for a perfectly happy world? But happiness, at its deepest and its -best, is not the portion of a cushioned life which never struggled, -overpassed obstacles, bore hardship, or adventured in sacrifice for -costly aims. A heart of joy is never found in luxuriously coddled -lives, but in men and women who achieve and dare, who have tried their -powers against antagonisms, who have met even sickness and bereavement -and have tempered their souls in fire. Joy is begotten not chiefly -from the impression of happy circumstance, but from the expression of -overcoming power. Were we set upon making a happy world, therefore, we -could not leave struggle out nor make adversity impossible. The -unhappiest world conceivable by man would be a world with nothing hard -to do, no conflicts to wage for ends worth while; a world where -courage was not needed and sacrifice was a superfluity. Beside such an -inane lotos-land of tranquil ease this present world with all its -suffering is a paradise. Men in fact find joy where in philosophy we -might not look for it. Said MacMillan, after a terrific twelve-month -with Peary on the Arctic continent: "This has been the greatest year -of my life." - -The impossibility of imagining a worth-while world from which -adversity had all been banished is even more evident when one grows -ill-content to think of happiness as the goal of life. That we should -be merely happy is not an adequate end of the creative purpose for us, -or of our purpose for ourselves. In our best hours we acknowledge this -in the way we handle trouble. _However much in doubt a man may be -about the theory of suffering, he knows infallibly how suffering -practically should be met._ To be rebellious, cursing fate and -hating life; to pity oneself, nursing one's hurts in morbid -self-commiseration--the ignobility of such dealing with calamity we -indubitably know. Even where we fall feebly short of the ideal, we -have no question what the ideal is. When in biography or among our -friends we see folk face crushing trouble, not embittered by it, made -cynical, or thrust into despair, but hallowed, sweetened, illumined, -and empowered, we are aware that noble characters do not alone _bear_ -trouble; they _use_ it. As men at first faced electricity in dread, -conceiving toward it no attitude beyond building lightning-rods to -ward away its stroke, but now with greater understanding harness it to -do their will, so men, as they grow wise and strong, deal with their -suffering. They make it the minister of character; they set it to -build in them what nothing save adversity can ever build--patience, -courage, sympathy, and power. They even choose it in vicarious -sacrifice for the good of others, and by it save the world from evils -that nothing save some one's suffering could cure. They act as though -_character_, not happiness, were the end of life. And when they are at -their best they do this not with stoic intrepidity, as though -trouble's usefulness were but their fancy, but joyfully, as though a -good purpose in the world included trouble, even though not intending -it. So Robert Louis Stevenson, facing death, writes to a friend about -an old woman whose ventriloquism had frightened the natives of -Vailima, "All the old women in the world might talk with their mouths -shut and not frighten you or me, but there are plenty of other things -that frighten us badly. And if we only knew about them, perhaps we -should find them no more worthy to be feared than an old woman talking -with her mouth shut. And the names of some of these things are Death -and Pain and Sorrow." - -Whatever, then, may be our theoretical difficulty about suffering, -this truth is clear: when we are at our best we practically deal with -suffering as though moral quality were the goal of life. We _use_ -adversity, as though discipline were its purpose and good its end. It -is worth noting that the only theory which fully fits this noblest -attitude toward trouble is Christianity. Men may think God a devil, as -James Thomson sang, and yet may be practically brave and cheerful, but -their theory does not fit their life. Men may believe in no God and no -purpose in the world, and yet may face adversity with courage and -hope, but their spirit belies their philosophy. When men are at their -best in hardship _they act as though the Christian faith in God were -true, as though moral quality were the purpose of creation_. - -If now, we really want a world in which character is the end and -aim--and no other world is worth God's making--we obviously may not -demand the abolition of adversity. If one imagines a life from its -beginning lapped in ease and utterly ignorant what words like -hardship, sorrow, and calamity imply, he must imagine a life lacking -every virtue that makes human nature admirable. Character grows on -struggle; without the overcoming of obstacles great quality in -character is unthinkable. Whoever has handled well any calamitous -event possesses resources, insights, wise attitudes, qualities of -sympathy and power that by no other road could have come to him. For -all our complaints against life's misery, therefore, and for all our -inability to understand it in detail, who would not hesitate, -foreseeing the consequence, to take adversity away from men? He who -banishes hardship banishes hardihood; and out of the same door with -Calamity walk Courage, Fortitude, Triumphant Faith, and Sacrificial -Love. If we abolish the cross in the world, we make impossible the -Christ in man. It becomes more clear the more one ponders it, that -while this is often a hard world in which to be happy, to men of -insight and faith it may be a great world in which to build character. - - -V - -Before too confidently, however, we accept this conclusion, there is -one objection to be heard. So far is the world from being absolved -from cruelty, on the plea of moral purpose, one may say, that _its -injustice is the very crux of its offense_. See how negligent of -justice the process of creation is! Its volcanoes and typhoons slay -good and bad alike, its plagues are utterly indifferent to character; -and in the human world which it embosoms some drunken Caesar sits upon -the throne while Christ hangs on the cross. Who for a single day can -watch the gross inequities of life, where good men so often suffer and -bad men go free, and still think that the world has moral purpose in -it? The Bible itself is burdened with complaint against the seeming -senselessness and injustice of God. Moses cries: "Lord, wherefore hast -thou dealt ill with this people? Neither hast thou delivered thy -people at all" (Exodus 5:22, 23); Elijah laments, "O Jehovah, my God, -hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow, with whom I sojourn, by -slaying her son?" (I Kings 17:20); Habakkuk complains, "Wherefore -lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace, -when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he?" -(Hab. 1:13); and Job protests, "Although thou knowest that I am not -wicked, ... yet thou dost destroy me" (Job 10:7, 8). Man's loss of -faith springs often from this utter disparity between desert and -fortune. The time comes to almost every man when he looks on, -indignant, desperate, at some gross horror uninterrupted, some -innocent victim entreated cruelly. He understands Carlyle's impatient -cry, "God sits in heaven and does nothing!" - -Natural as is this attitude, and unjust as many of life's tragic -troubles are, we should at least see this: _man must not demand that -goodness straightway receive its pay and wrong its punishment_. He -may not ask that every virtuous deed be at once rewarded by -proportionate happiness and every sin be immediately punished by -proportionate pain. That, some might suppose, would put justice into -life. But whatever it might put into life, such an arrangement -obviously would take out _character_. The men whose moral quality -we most highly honor were not paid for their goodness on Saturday -night and did not expect to be. They chose their course _for -righteousness' sake alone_, although they knew what crowns of -thorns, what scornful crowds about their cross might end the journey. -They did not drive close bargains with their fate, demanding insurance -against trouble as the price of goodness. They chose the honorable -deed for honor's sake; they chose it the more scrupulously, the more -pleasure was offered for dishonor; their tone in the face of -threatened suffering was like Milne's, Scotland's last martyr: "I will -not recant the truth, for I am corn and no chaff; and I will not be -blown away with the wind nor burst with the flail, but I will abide -both." - -Every man is instinctively aware and by his admiration makes it known, -that the kind of character which chooses right, willing to suffer for -it, is man's noblest quality. The words in which such character has -found utterance are man's spiritual battle cries. Esther, going before -the King, saying, "If I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16); the three -Hebrews, facing the fiery furnace saying, "Our God whom we serve is -able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver -us out of thy hand, O king. But if _not_, be it known unto thee, O -king, that we will not serve thy gods" (Dan. 3:17, 18); Peter and the -apostles, facing the angry Council, saying, "We must obey God rather -than men" (Acts 5:29); Anaxarchus, the martyr, crying, "Beat on at the -case of Anaxarchus; Anaxarchus himself you cannot touch"; Luther, -defying the Emperor, "Here stand I; I can do no other"--most words of -men are easily dispensable, but no words like these can man afford to -spare. They are his best. _And this sort of goodness has been -possible, because God had not made the world as our complaints -sometimes would have it._ For such character, a system where goodness -costs is absolutely necessary. A world where goodness was paid cash in -pleasant circumstance would have no such character to show. Right and -wrong for their own sakes would be impossible; only prudence and -imprudence for happiness' sake could there exist. Out of the same door -with the seeming injustice of life goes the possibility of man's -noblest quality--his goodness "in scorn of consequence." Many special -calamities no one on earth can hope to understand. But when one has -granted that fitness to grow character is the only worthy test of -creation, it evidently is not so simple as at first it seemed to -improve the fundamental structure of the world. - - -VI - -Indeed, when one in imagination assumes the task of omnipotence and -endeavors to construct a universe that shall be fitted for the growth -of character, he cannot long hesitate concerning certain elements -which must be there. _A system of regular law_ would have to be the -basis of that world, for only in a law-abiding universe could -obedience be taught. If the stars and planets behaved "like swarms of -flies" and nothing could be relied upon to act twice in the same way, -character and intelligence alike would be impossible. In this new -world, remolded, "nearer to our heart's desire," _progress_ also would -be a necessity. A stagnant world cannot grow character. There must be -real work to do, aims to achieve; there must be imperfections to -overpass and wrongs to right. Only in a system where the present -situation is a point of departure and a better situation is a -possibility, where ideal and hope, courage and sacrifice are -indispensable can character grow. In this improved world of our -dreams, _free-will_ in some measure must be granted man. If character -is to be real, man must not in his choice between right and wrong be -as Spinoza pictured him, a stone hurled through the air, which thinks -that it is flying; he must have some control of conduct, some genuine, -though limited, power of choice. And in this universe which we are -planning for character's sake, individuals could not stand separate -and unrelated; _they must be woven into a community_. Love which is -the crown of character, lacking this, would be impossible. What -happens to one must happen to all; good and ill alike must be -contagious in a society where we are "members one of another." - -No one of these four elements could be omitted from a world whose test -was its adaptability for character. Men with genuine power of choice, -fused into a fellowship of social life, living in a law-abiding and -progressive world--on no other terms imaginable to man could character -be possible. _Yet these four things contain all the sources of our -misery._ Physical law--what tragic issues its stern, unbending -course brings with terrific incidence on man! Progress--how obviously -it implies conditions imperfect, wrong, through which we have to -struggle toward the best! Free-will--what a nightmare of horror man's -misuse of it has caused since sin began! Social fellowship--how surely -the innocent must suffer with the guilty, how impossible for any man -to bear the consequence of his own sin alone! We may not see why these -general conditions should involve the particular calamities which we -bewail, but even our finite minds can see thus far into the mystery of -suffering: _all our trouble springs from four basic factors in the -universe, without any one of which, great character would be -impossible_. - -While, therefore, if one _deny_ God, the mystery of goodness lacks -both sense and solution; one may _affirm_ God and find the mystery of -evil, mysterious still but suffused with light. God is working out a -spiritual purpose here by means without which no spiritual purpose is -conceivable. Fundamentally creation is good. We misuse it, we fail to -understand its meaning and to appropriate its discipline, and -impatient because the eternal purpose is not timed by our small -clocks, we have to confess with Theodore Parker, "The trouble seems to -be that God is not in a hurry and I am." In hours of insight, however, -we perceive how little our complaints will stand the test of -dispassionate thought. Our miseries are not God's inflictions on us as -individuals, so that we may judge his character and his thought of us -by this special favor or by that particular calamity. The most -careless thinker feels the poor philosophy of Lord Londonderry's -petulant entry in his journal: "Here I learned that Almighty God, for -reasons best known to himself, had been pleased to burn down my house -in the county of Durham." One must escape such narrow egoism if he is -to understand the purposes of God; one must rise to look on a -creation, with character at all costs for its aim, and countless æons -for its settling. In the making of this world God has _limited -himself_; he cannot lightly do what he will. He has limited himself in -creating a law-abiding system where his children must learn obedience -without special exemptions; in ordaining a progressive system where -what _is_ is the frontier from which men seek what _ought to be_; in -giving men the power to choose right, with its inevitable corollary, -the power to choose wrong; in weaving men into a communal fellowship -where none can escape the contagious life of all. What Martineau said -of the first of these is true in spirit of them all: "The universality -of law is God's eternal act of self limitation or abstinence from the -movements of free affection, for the sake of a constancy that shall -never falter or deceive." - -When once a man has risen to the vision of so splendid a purpose in so -great a world, he rejoices in the outlook. Granted that now he sees in -a mirror darkly, that many a cruel event in human life perplexes -still--he has seen enough to give solid standing to his faith. What if -an insect, someone has suggested, were born just after a thunderstorm -began and died just before it stopped--how dark would be its picture -of creation! But we who span a longer period of time, are not so -obsessed by thunderstorms, although we may not like them. They have -their place and serve their purpose; we see them in a broader -perspective than an insect knows and on sultry days we even crave -their coming. A broken doll is to a child a cruel tragedy, but to the -father watching the child's struggle to accept the accident, to make -the best of it and to come off conqueror, the event is not utterly -undesirable. He is not glad at the child's suffering, but with his -horizons he sees in it factors which she does not see. So God's -horizons infinitely overpass our narrow outlooks. There is something -more than whimsy in the theologian's saying, which President King -reports, that an insect crawling up a column of the Parthenon, with -difficulty and pain negotiating passage about a pore in the stone, is -as well qualified to judge of the architecture of the Parthenon, as we -of the infinitude of God's plans. Seeing as much as we have seen of -sense and purpose in the structure of creation, we have seen all that -our finite minds with small horizons could have hoped. We have gained -ample justification for the attitude toward suffering which Dolly -Winthrop in Silas Marner has immortalized: "Eh, there's trouble i' -this world, and there's things as we can niver make out the rights on. -And all as we've got to do is to trusten, Master Marner--to do the -right thing as far as we know and to trusten. For if us, as knows so -little, can see a bit o' good and rights, we may be sure as there's a -good and a rights bigger nor what we can know--I feel it i' my own -inside as it must be so." - - -VII - -We may not truthfully leave our subject in such a case that faith's -concern with human misery will seem to lie merely in giving adversity -an explanation. Faith is concerned not alone to _explain_ misery -but to _heal_ it. For while it is impossible without hardship to -develop character, there are woeful calamities on earth that do not -help man's moral quality; they crush and mutilate it; they are -barbarous intruders on the plan of God and they have no business in -his world. Some ills are such that no theory can reconcile them with -the love of God and no man ought to desire such reconciliation; in the -love of God they ought to be abolished. Slavery must be a possibility -in a world where man is free; but God's goodness was not chiefly -vindicated by such a theory of explanation. It was chiefly vindicated -by slavery's abolishment. The liquor traffic and war, needless poverty -in a world so rich, avoidable diseases that science can overcome--how -long a list of woes there is that faith should not so much explain as -banish! When some ills like drunkenness and war and economic injustice -are thrust against our faith, and men ask that the goodness of God be -reconciled with these, faith's first answer should be not speculation -but action. Such woes, so far from being capable of reconciliation -with God's goodness, are irreconcilable with a decent world. God does -not want to be reconciled with them; he hates them "with a perfect -hatred." We may not make ourselves patient with them by any theory of -their necessity. They are not necessary; they are perversions of man's -life; and _the best defense of faith is their annihilation_. - -Indeed, a man who, rebellious in complaint, has clamorously asked an -explanation of life's ills as the price of faith in God, may well in -shame consider God's real saints. When things were at their worst, -when wrong was conqueror and evils that seemed blatantly to deny the -love of God were in the saddle, these spiritual soldiers went out to -fight. The winds of ill that blow out our flickering faith made their -religion blaze--a pillar of fire in the night. The more evil they -faced, the more religion they produced to answer it. They were the -real believers, who "through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought -righteousness, obtained promises." In comparison with such, it is -obviously paltry business to drive a bargain with God that if all goes -well we will believe in him, but if things look dark, then faith must -go. - -Many a man, therefore, who is no philosopher can be a great defender -of the faith. He may not weave arguments to prove that such a world as -this in its fundamental structure is fitted to a moral purpose. But he -can join the battle to banish from the world those ills that have no -business here and that God hates. He can help produce that final -defense of the Christian faith--a world where it is easier to believe -in God. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -Faith and Science - - -DAILY READINGS - -The intellectual difficulties which trouble many folk involve the -relations of faith with science, but often they do not so much concern -the abstract theories of science as they do the particular attitudes -of scientists. We are continually faced with quotations from -scientific specialists, in which religion is denied or doubted or -treated contemptuously, and even while the merits of the case may be -beyond the ordinary man's power of argument, he nevertheless is shaken -by the general opinion that what ministers say in the pulpit on Sunday -is denied by what scientists say all the rest of the week. In the -daily readings, therefore, we shall deal with the scientists -themselves, as a problem which faith must meet. - - -Seventh Week, First Day - -No one can hope to deal fairly with the scientists, in their -relationship with faith, unless he begins with a warm appreciation of -the splendid integrity and self-denial which the scientific search for -truth has revealed. - - =Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, - Or loose the bands of Orion? - Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? - Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train? - Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? - Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the earth? - Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, - That abundance of waters may cover thee? - Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, - And say unto thee, Here we are? - Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? - Or who hath given understanding to the mind? - Who can number the clouds by wisdom? - Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven, - When the dust runneth into a mass, - And the clods cleave fast together?= - - =--Job 38:31-38.= - -Such is man's ancient wonder before the physical universe; and in the -endeavor to discover the truth about it science has developed saints -and martyrs whose selfless and sacrificial spirit is unsurpassed even -in the annals of the Church. Men have spent lives of obscure and -unrewarded toil to get at a few new facts; they have suffered -persecution, and, even after torture, have reaffirmed the truth of -their discoveries, as did Galileo, when he insisted, "The earth does -move." They have surrendered place and wealth, friends and life itself -in their passion for the sheer truth, and when human service was at -stake have inoculated themselves with deadly diseases that they might -be the means of discovering the cure, or have sacrificed everything -that men hold most dear to destroy an ancient, popular, and hurtful -fallacy. The phrase "pride of science" is often used in depreciation -of the scientists. There is some excuse for the phrase, but in -general, when one finds pride, dogmatism, intolerance, they are the -work of ignorance and not of science. The scientific spirit has been -characteristically humble. Says Huxley: "Science seems to me to teach -in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied -in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. -Sit down before the fact as a little child, be prepared to give up -every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever end -nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.... I have only begun to -learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to -do this." The Christian, above all others, is bound to approach the -study of the controversy between science and theology with a high -estimate of the integrity and disinterested unselfishness of the -scientists. - - _O God, we thank Thee for the world in which Thou hast placed us, for - the universe whose vastness is revealed in the blue depths of the - sky, whose immensities are lit by shining stars beyond the strength - of mind to follow. We thank Thee for every sacrament of beauty; for - the sweetness of flowers, the solemnity of the stars, the sound of - streams and swelling seas; for far-stretching lands and mighty - mountains which rest and satisfy the soul, the purity of dawn which - calls to holy dedication, the peace of evening which speaks of - everlasting rest. May we not fear to make this world for a little - while our home, since it is Thy creation and we ourselves are part of - it. Help us humbly to learn its laws and trust its mighty powers._ - - _We thank Thee for the world within, deeper than we dare to look, - higher than we care to climb; for the great kingdom of the mind and - the silent spaces of the soul. Help us not to be afraid of ourselves, - since we were made in Thy image, loved by Thee before the worlds - began, and fashioned for Thy eternal habitation. May we be brave - enough to bear the truth, strong enough to live in the light, glad to - yield ourselves to Thee._ - - _We thank Thee for that world brighter and better than all, opened - for us in the broken heart of the Saviour; for the universe of love - and purity in Him, for the golden sunshine of His smile, the tender - grace of His forgiveness, the red renewing rain and crimson flood of - His great sacrifice. May we not shrink from its searching and - surpassing glory, nor, when this world fades away, fear to commit - ourselves to that world which shall be our everlasting home. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Seventh Week, Second Day - -The Christian's appreciation of scientists should not stop short of -profound gratitude for their service to religion. If one reads Burns's -"Tam o' Shanter," with its "ghaists," "warlocks and witches," and -"auld Nick," and remembers that these demonic powers were veritable -facts of terror once, he will see in what a world of superstitious -fear mankind has lived. Bells were first put into church steeples, not -to call folk to worship, but to scare the devils out of thunder-clouds, -and the old cathedral bells of Europe are inscribed with declarations -of that purpose. The ancients hardly believed in God so vividly as -they believed in malicious demons everywhere. Now the Gospel removed -the _fear_ of these from the first Christians; it made men aware of a -conquering alliance with God, so that believers no longer shared the -popular dread of unknown demons. But so long as thunderstorms, -pestilences, droughts, and every sort of evil were supposed to be the -work of devils, even the Gospel could not dispel the general dread. -Only new knowledge could do that. While Christianity therefore at its -best has removed the _fear_ of evil spirits, science has removed the -_fact_ of them as an oppressive weight on life. Today we not only do -not dread them, but we do not think of them at all, and we have -science to thank for our freedom. By its clear facing of facts and -tracing of laws, science has lifted from man's soul an intolerable -burden of misbeliefs and has cleansed religion of an oppressive mass -of credulity. _True religion never had a deadlier foe than -superstition and superstition has no deadlier foe than science._ -Little children, brought up in our homes to trust the love of the -Father, with no dark background of malignant devils to harass and -frighten them, owe their liberty to the Gospel of Jesus indeed, but as -well to the illumination of science that has banished the ancient -dreads. - - =These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But - the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my - name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance - all that I said unto you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give - unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your - heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.--John 14:25-27.= - - _To God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, we pour forth most - humble and hearty supplications, that He, remembering the calamities - of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this our life in which we spend our - days, would please to open to us new consolations out of the fountain - of His goodness for the alleviating of our miseries. We humbly and - earnestly ask that human things may not prejudice such as are Divine, - so that from the opening of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a - greater natural light, nothing of incredulity ... may arise in our - minds towards Divine mysteries; but rather, O Lord, that our minds - being thoroughly cleansed and purged from fancy, and yet subject to - the Divine will, there may be given unto faith the things that are - faith's, that so we may continually attain to a deeper knowledge and - love of Thee, Who art the Fountain of Light, and dwellest in the - Light which no man can approach unto; through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Amen._--Francis Bacon, 1561. - - -Seventh Week, Third Day - -If one approach the scientists, as we have suggested, with -appreciation of their devoted spirit and of their beneficent service, -he is likely to be fair and Christian in his judgment. For one thing, -he will readily understand why some of them are not religious men. The -laws of psychology are not suspended when religion is concerned; there -as elsewhere persistent attention is the price of a vivid sense of -reality. When, therefore, a man habitually thinks intensely of nothing -but biological tissue, or chemical reactions, or the diseases of a -special organ, the results are not difficult to forecast. Darwin's -famous confession that in his exacting concentration on biology he -utterly lost his power to appreciate music or poetry is a case in -point. Said Darwin, "My mind seems to have become a kind of machine -for grinding general laws out of a large collection of facts." It is -needless to say that such a mind is not likely to be more vividly -aware of God than it is to feel music's beauty or poetry's truth. The -plain fact is that if any man should persistently restrict himself to -a physical science, should never hear a symphony or an oratorio, -should shut out from his experience any dealing with music or -enjoyment of it, he would in the end lose all musical capacity, and -would become a man whose appreciation of music was nil and whose -opinion on music was worthless. _Just such an atrophy of life is -characteristic of intense specialists._ When one understands this -he becomes capable of intelligent sympathy with scientists, even when -he does not at all agree with their religious opinions. Jude gives us -a remarkable injunction, plainly applicable here. "On some have mercy -who are in doubt." - - =But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, - praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, - looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And - on some have mercy, who are in doubt; and some save, snatching them - out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating even the - garment spotted by the flesh.= - - =Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set - you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding - joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be - glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for - evermore. Amen.--Jude 20-25.= - - _O God, who so fillest all things that they only thinly veil Thy - presence; we adore Thee in the beauty of the world, in the goodness - of human hearts and in Thy thought within the mind. We praise Thee - for the channels through which Thy grace can come to us; sickness and - health, joy and pain, freedom and necessity, sunshine and rain, life - and death._ - - _We thank Thee for all the gentle and healing ministries of life; the - gladness of the morning, the freedom of the wind, the music of the - rain, the joy of the sunshine, and the deep calm of the night; for - trees, and flowers, the clouds, and skies; for the tender ministries - of human love, the unselfishness of parents, the love that binds man - and woman, the confidence of little children; for the patience of - teachers and the encouragement of friends._ - - _We bless Thee for the stirring ministry of the past, for the story - of noble deeds, the memory of holy men, the printed book, the - painter's art, the poet's craft; most of all for the ministry of the - Son of Man, who taught us the eternal beauty of earthly things, who - by His life set us free from fear, and by His death won us from our - sins to Thee; for His cradle, His cross, and His crown._ - - _May His Spirit live within us, conquer all the selfishness of man, - and take away the sin of the world. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Seventh Week, Fourth Day - -The tendency of scientific specialization to shut out the appreciation -of life's other values has one notable result: the opinions of -scientific specialists in the physical realm on matters of religion -are generally not of major importance. There is a popular fallacy that -an expert in one realm must be listened to with reverence on all -subjects. But the fact is that a great physicist is not by his -scientific eminence thereby qualified to talk wisely on politics or -literature or religion; rather, so far as _a priori_ considerations -are concerned, he is thereby disqualified. Mr. Edison cannot say -anything on electricity that is insignificant; but when he gave an -interview on immortality he revealed to everyone who knew the history -of thought on that subject and the issues involved in it, that on -matters outside his specialty he could say things very insignificant. -The more one personally knows great specialists, the more he sees how -human they are, how interest in one thing shuts out interest in -others, how the subject on which the mind centers grows real and all -else unreal, how very valuable their judgment is on their specialties, -and how much less valuable even than ordinary men's is their judgment -on anything beside. This truth does not concern religion only; it -concerns any subject which calls into play appreciative faculties that -their science does not use. For a man, therefore, to surrender -religious faith because a specialist in another realm disowns it is -absurd. If one wishes, outside of those whose vital interest in -religion makes them specialists there, to get confirmation from -another class of men, let him look not to physicists but to judges. -They are accustomed to weigh evidence covering the general field of -human life; and among the great judicial minds of this generation, as -of all others, one finds an overwhelming preponderance of religious -men. - - =But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit - searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men - knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in - him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. - But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is - from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us - of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom - teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things - with spiritual words. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of - the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot - know them, because they are spiritually judged.--I Cor. 2:10-14.= - - _O Eternal and glorious Lord God, since Thy glory and honor is the - great end of all Thy works, we desire that it may be the beginning - and end of all our prayers and services. Let Thy great Name be - glorious, and glorified, and sanctified throughout the world. Let the - knowledge of Thee fill all the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let - that be done in the world that may most advance Thy glory. Let all - Thy works praise Thee. Let Thy wisdom, power, justice, goodness, - mercy, and truth be evident unto all mankind, that they may observe, - acknowledge, and admire it, and magnify the Name of Thee, the Eternal - God. In all the dispensation of Thy Providence, enable us to see - Thee, and to sanctify Thy Name in our hearts with thankfulness, in - our lips with thanksgiving, in our lives with dutifulness and - obedience. Enable us to live to the honor of that great Name of Thine - by which we are called, and that, as we profess ourselves to be Thy - children, so we may study and sincerely endeavor to be like Thee in - all goodness and righteousness, that we may thereby bring glory to - Thee our Father which art in heaven; that we and all mankind may have - high and honorable thoughts concerning Thee, in some measure suitable - to Thy glory, majesty, goodness, wisdom, bounty, and purity, and may - in all our words and actions manifest these inward thoughts touching - Thee with suitable and becoming words and actions; through Jesus - Christ our Lord. Amen._--Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, 1609. - - -Seventh Week, Fifth Day - -So far in our thought we have tacitly consented to the popular -supposition, that the scientists are at odds with religion. Many of -them unquestionably are. But in view of the obsessing nature of -scientific specialties, the wonder is not that some scientists are -non-religious; the wonder is that so many are profoundly men of faith -in God. The idea that scientists as a whole are irreligious is untrue. -Lists of testimonials from eminent specialists in favor of religion -are not particularly useful, for, as we have said, the judgment of -specialists outside their chosen realm is, at the most, no more -valuable than that of ordinary men. But if anyone tries to rest his -case against religion on the adverse opinions of great scientists, he -easily can be driven from his position. Sir William Crookes, one of -the world's greatest chemists, writes: "I cannot imagine the -possibility of anyone with ordinary intelligence entertaining the -least doubt as to the existence of a God--a Law-Giver and a -Life-Giver." Lord Kelvin, called the "Napoleon of Science," said that -he could think of nothing so absurd as atheism; Sir Oliver Lodge, -perhaps the greatest living physicist and certainly an earnest -believer, writes, "The tendency of science, whatever it is, is not in -an irreligious direction at the present time"; Sir George Stokes, the -great physicist (died 1903), affirmed his belief that disbelievers -among men of science "form a very small minority"; and Sir James -Geikie, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Edinburgh University, -impatiently writes, "It is simply an impertinence to say that 'the -leading scientists are irreligious or anti-Christian.' Such a -statement could only be made by some scatter-brained chatterbox or -zealous fanatic." The fact is that, in spite of the tendency of high -specialization to crowd out religious interest and insight, our great -scientists have never thrown the mass of their influence against -religion, and today, in the opinion of one of their chief leaders, are -growing to be increasingly men of religious spirit. Whatever argument -is to be based on the testimony of the scientists is rather for -religion than against it. - - =For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus - which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, - cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my - prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, - may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge - of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know - what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his - inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his - power to us-ward who believe.--Eph. 1:15-19.= - - _O Lord, who by Thy holy Apostle hast taught us to do all things in - the Name of the Lord Jesus and to Thy glory; give Thy blessing, we - pray Thee, to this our work, that we may do it in faith, and - heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. All our powers of body - and mind are Thine, and we would fain devote them to Thy service. - Sanctify them and the work in which we are engaged; let us not be - slothful, but fervent in spirit, and do Thou, O Lord, so bless our - efforts that they may bring forth in us the fruit of true wisdom. - Strengthen the faculties of our minds, and dispose us to exert them - for Thy glory and for the furtherance of Thy Kingdom. Save us from - all pride and vanity and reliance upon our own power or wisdom. Teach - us to seek after truth, and enable us to gain it; while we know - earthly things, may we know Thee, and be known by Thee through and - in Thy Son Jesus Christ, that we may be Thine in body and spirit, in - all our work and undertakings; through Jesus Christ. Amen._--Thomas - Arnold, 1795. - - -Seventh Week, Sixth Day - -Far more important than the opinions of individual scientists for -religion or against it, is the fact that scientists are coming -increasingly to recognize the limitations of their field. The field of -science _is_ limited; its domain is the system of facts and their -laws, which make the immediate environment of man's life; but with the -Origin of all life, with the character of the Power that sustains us -and with the Destiny that lies ahead of us science does not, cannot -deal. The most superficial observance shows how little any great soul -lives within the confines of science's discoveries. Carlyle, after his -great bereavement, writes to his friend Erskine: - -"'Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy will be -done'--what else can we say? The other night in my sleepless tossings -about, which were growing more and more miserable, these words, that -brief and grand Prayer, came strangely to my mind, with an altogether -new emphasis; as if written and shining for me in mild pure splendor, -on the black bosom of the Night there; when I, as it were, read them -word by word--with a sudden check to my imperfect wanderings, with a -sudden softness of composure which was much unexpected. Not for -perhaps thirty or forty years had I once formally repeated that -prayer--nay, I never felt before how intensely the voice of man's soul -it is; the inmost aspiration of all that is high and pious in poor -human nature." But supposing that the facts of science were all of -reality and the laws of science all of truth, what sort of prayer -could Carlyle have offered? Another has suggested the form which the -Lord's Prayer would take in a world that lacked religious faith: "Our -brethren who are upon the earth, hallowed be our name; our Kingdom -come; our will be done on earth; for there is no heaven. We must get -us this day our daily bread; we know we cannot be forgiven, for Law -knows no forgiveness; we fear not temptation, for we deliver ourselves -from evil; for ours is the Kingdom and ours is the power, and there is -no glory and no forever. Amen." In such a barren prayer _the whole of -man's life is not represented_. - - =Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise - among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become - wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is - written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness: and again, The - Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. - Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether - Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or - things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are - Christ's; and Christ is God's.--I Cor. 3:18-23.= - - _O Thou Infinite Spirit, who occupiest all space, who guidest all - motion, thyself unchanged, and art the life of all that lives, we - flee unto thee, in whom we also live and move and have our being, and - would reverence Thee with what is highest and holiest in our soul. We - know that Thou art not to be worshiped as though Thou needest aught, - or askedst the psalm of praise from our lips, or our heart's poor - prayer. O Lord, the ground under our feet, and the seas which whelm - it round, the air which holds them both, and the heavens sparkling - with many a fire--these are a whisper of the psalm of praise which - creation sends forth to Thee, and we know that Thou askest no homage - of bended knee, nor heart bowed down, nor heart uplifted unto Thee. - But in our feebleness and our darkness, dependent on Thee for all - things, we lift up our eyes unto Thee; as a little child to the - father and mother who guide him by their hands, so do our eyes look - up to Thy countenance, O Thou who art our Father and our Mother too, - and bless Thee for all Thy gifts. We look to the infinity of Thy - perfection with awe-touched heart, and we adore the sublimity which - we cannot comprehend. We bow down before Thee, and would renew our - sense of gratitude and quicken still more our certainty of trust, - till we feel Thee a presence close to our heart, and are so strong in - the heavenly confidence that nothing earthly can disturb us or make - us fear. Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -Seventh Week, Seventh Day - -The difficulty which many Christians feel concerning science centers -around their loyalty to the Bible. They still are under the -domination of the thought that the Christian idea of the Bible is the -same as the Mohammedan idea of the Koran or the Mormon idea of Joseph -Smith's sacred plates. The Koran was all written in heaven, word for -word, say orthodox Mohammedans, before ever it came to earth. As for -the Mormon Bible, God buried the plates on which he wrote, said Smith, -and then disclosed their hiding place, and his prophet translated them -verbatim, so that the Mormon book is literally inerrant. But this is -not the Christian idea of the Bible. Inspiration is never represented -in Scripture as verbal dictation where human powers and limitations -are suspended, so that like a phonographic plate the result is a -mechanical reproduction of the words of God. Rather God spoke to men -through their experience as they were able to understand him, and as a -result the great Christian Book, like a true Christian man, represents -alike the inbreathing of the Divine and the limitation of the human. -So the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly states that God did what he -could in revealing partially to partial men what they could -understand: - - =God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by - divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days - spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, - through whom also he made the worlds.--Heb. 1:1, 2.= - -Of all limitations that are entirely obvious in the ancient -Hebrew-Christian world, the current view of the physical universe is -the most unescapable. To suppose that God never can reveal to men -anything about the world, transcending what the ancient Hebrews could -understand, is to deny the principle which Jesus applied even to the -more important realm of spiritual truth: "I have yet many things to -say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). - - _O Thou who hast visited us with the Dayspring from on high, who hast - made light to shine in the darkness, we praise Thy holy name and - proclaim Thy wonderful goodness._ - - _We bless Thee for the dawning of the light in far-off ages as soon - as human eyes could bear its rays. We remember those who bore aloft - the torch of truth when all was false and full of shame; those - far-sighted souls who from the mountain tops of vision heralded the - coming day; those who labored in the darkened valleys to lift men's - eyes to the hills._ - - _We thank Thee that in the fulness of the times Thou didst gather Thy - light into life, so that even simple folk could see; for Jesus the - Star of the morning and the Light of the world._ - - _We commemorate His holy nativity, His lowly toil, His lonely way; - the gracious words of His lips, the deep compassion of His heart, His - friendship for the fallen, His love for the outcast; the crown of - thorns, the cruel cross, the open shame. And we rejoice to know as He - was here on earth, so Thou art eternally. Thou dost not abhor our - flesh, nor shrink from our earthly toil. Thou rememberest our - frailty, bearest with our sin, and tastest even our bitter cup of - death._ - - _And now we rejoice for the light that shines about our daily path - from the cradle to the grave, and for the light that illumines its - circuit beyond these spheres from our conception in Thy mind to the - day when we wake in Thy image; for the breathing of Thy spirit into - ours till we see Thee face to face: in God, from God; to God at last. - Hallelujah. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -The innermost questions which some minds raise about religion cannot -be answered without candid discussion of the obvious contrasts between -faith and science. The conflict between science and theology is one of -the saddest stories ever written. It is a record of mutual -misunderstanding, of bitterness, bigotry, and persecution, and to this -day one is likely to find the devotees of religion suspicious of -science and scientists impatient with the Church. - -If we are to understand the reason for this controversy between -science and theology, we must take a far look back into man's history. -Stephen Leacock remarks that whenever a professor discusses anything, -he has to retreat at least 2,000 years to get a running start. Our -retreat must be farther than that; it carries us to the earliest stage -in which we are able to describe the thoughts of men. _At the -beginning men attributed to superhuman spirits all activities in the -world which they themselves did not perform._ If the wind blew, a -spirit did it; if the sun rose, a spirit moved it; if a storm came, a -spirit drove it. Natural law was non-existent to the primitive man; -every movement in nature was the direct result of somebody's active -will. From the mysterious whispering of a wind-swept field to the -crashing thunder, what man did not cause the gods did. - -If, therefore, a primitive man were asked the cause of rain, he had -but one answer: a god made it rain. That was his _scientific_ -answer, for no other explanation of rain could he conceive. That was -his _religious_ answer, for he worshiped the spirit on whom he -must depend for showers. This significant fact, therefore, stands -clear: _To primitive man a religious answer and a scientific answer -were identical._ Sunrise was explained, not by planetary movements -which were unknown, but by the direct activity of a god, and the Dawn -then was worshipped in the same terms in which it was explained. The -historic reason for the confusion between science and religion at once -grows evident. _At the beginning they were fused and braided into -one; the story of their relationship is the record of their gradual -and difficult disentangling._ - -Wherever peace has come between science and religion, one finds a -realm where the boundaries between the two are acknowledged and -respected. Ask _now_ the question, What makes it rain? There is a -scientific answer in terms of natural laws concerning atmospheric -pressure and condensation. There is also a religious answer, since -behind all laws and through them runs the will of God. These two -replies are distinct, they move in different realms, and are held -together without inconsistency. As Sabatier put it, "Since God is the -final cause of all things, he is not the scientific explanation of any -one thing." In how many realms where once confusion reigned between -the believers in the gods and the seekers after natural laws, is peace -now established! Rain and sunrise, the tides and the eclipses, the -coming of the seasons and the growing of the crops--for all such -events we have our scientific explanations, and at the same time -through them all the man of religion feels the creative power of God. -Peace reigns in these realms because here _no longer do we force -religious answers on scientific questions or scientific answers on -religious questions_. Evidently the old Deuteronomic law is the -solution of the conflict between science and religion: "Cursed be he -that removeth his neighbor's landmark" (Deut. 27:17). - - -II - -Left thus in the negative, however, this might seem to mean that we -are to divide our minds into air-tight compartments, and allow no -influences from one to penetrate another. But science and religion do -tremendously affect each other, and no honest dealing ever can -endeavor to prevent their mutual reaction. Our position is not thus -negative; it affirms a positive and most important truth. Life has -many aspects; science, art, religion, approach it from different -angles, with different interests and purposes; and while they do -_influence_ each other, they are not _identical_ and each has solid -standing in its own right. When science has grown domineering, as -though her approach to reality were the only one and her conclusions -all of truth, the poets have had as much distaste for her as have the -theologians. Shelley, who called himself an atheist, had no interest -in religion's conflict with the extreme claims of science; yet listen -to his aroused and flaming language as he pleads the case for poetry -against her: "Poetry is something divine.... It is the perfect and -consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and -color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it, and -the form and splendor of unfaded beauty to the secrets of anatomy and -corruption. What were virtue, love, patriotism, friendship--what were -the scenery of this beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our -consolations on this side of the grave--and what were our aspirations -beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those -eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not -even soar?" This involves no denial of science's absolute right to her -own field--the "texture of the elements which compose" the rose, and -the "secrets of anatomy." But it is a justified assertion that this -field of science is not all of reality, and that what the "owl-winged -faculty of calculation" can reach is not all of truth. - -What is a sunset? Science sets forth the answer in tables where the -light waves that compose the colors are counted and the planetary -movements that bring on the dusk are all explained. Poetry answers in -a way how different! - - "I've dreamed of sunsets when the sun, supine, - Lay rocking on the ocean like a god, - And threw his weary arms far up the sky, - And with vermilion-tinted fingers, - Toyed with the long tresses of the evening star."[4] - -Is one of these answers more true than the other? Rather it is absurd -to compare their truth; they are not contradictory; they approach the -same fact with diverse interests, and seek in it different aspects of -reality. Each has its rights in its own field. And so far is it from -being true that science has a clear case in favor of its own superior -importance, that Höffding, the philosopher, remarks, "It well may be -that poetry gives more perfect expression to the highest Reality than -any scientific concept can ever do." - -Any great fact is too manifold in its meanings to be exhausted by a -single method of approach. If one would know the Bible thoroughly, he -must understand the rules of grammar. Were one to make grammar his -exclusive specialty, the Bible to him, so far as he held strictly to -his science, would be nouns and verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and -prepositions, and the law-abiding relationships between them. This -mere grammarian would know by such a method one aspect of the Bible, -but how little of the Book would that aspect be! No rules of grammar -can interpret the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians or explain -the story of the Cross. The facts and laws of the Book's language a -grammarian could know, but the beauty and the soul of it, the -innermost transforming truth of it, would be unperceived. - -So life is too rich and various to be exhausted by any one approach. -Science seeks facts and arranges them in systems of cause and effect. -Poetry sees these bare facts adorned with beauty, she suffuses them -with her preferences and her appreciations. Religion sees the whole -gathered up into spiritual unity, filled with moral purpose and good -will, and in this faith finds peace and power. There need be no -conflict between these various approaches; they are complementary, not -antagonistic; and no man sees all the truth by any one of them alone. -So a chemist might come to a spring to analyze it; a painter to -rejoice in its beauties and reproduce them on his canvas; and a man -athirst might come to drink and live. Shall they quarrel because they -do not all come alike? Let them rather see how partial is the -experience of each without the others! - - -III - -In the mutual trespassing which has caused our problem, religion has -had her guilty share, and the reason is not difficult to find. God did -not have to give a modern scientific education to his ancient Hebrew -saints before he could begin to reveal to them something of his will -and character. And they, writing their experience and thought of him, -could not avoid--as no generation's writers can avoid--indicating the -view of the physical world which they and their contemporaries held. -It is easy, therefore, from scores of Scripture passages to -reconstruct the early Hebrew world. Their earth was flat and was -founded on an underlying sea. (Psalm 136:6; Psalm 24:1, 2; Gen. 7:11); -it was stationary (Psalm 93:1; Psalm 104:5); the heavens, like an -upturned bowl, "strong as a molten mirror" (Job 37:18; Gen. 1:6-8; -Isa. 40:22; Psalm 104:2), rested on the earth beneath (Amos 9:6; Job -26:11); the sun, moon, and stars moved within this firmament, of -special purpose to illumine man (Gen. 1:14-19); there was a sea above -the sky, "the waters which were above the firmament" (Gen. 1:7; Psalm -148:4), and through the "windows of heaven" the rain came down (Gen. -7:11; Psalm 78:23); beneath the earth was mysterious Sheol where dwelt -the shadowy dead (Isa. 14:9-11); and all this had been made in six -days, a short and measurable time before (Gen. 1). This was the world -of the Hebrews. - -Because when the Hebrews wrote the Bible their thoughts of God, their -deep experience of him, were interwoven with their early science, -Christians, through the centuries, have thought that faith in God -stood or fell with early Hebrew science and that the Hebrew view of -the physical universe must last forever. In the seventeenth century, -Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, -said: "Heaven and earth, center and circumference, were created all -together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water.... This work -took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B. C., -at nine o'clock in the morning." Of what tragedy has this identification -of science with religion been the cause! - -When _astronomy_ began to revolutionize man's idea of the solar -universe, when for the first time in man's imagination the flat earth -grew round and the stable earth began moving through space -seventy-five times faster than a cannon-ball, Pope Paul V solemnly -rendered a decree, that "the doctrine of the double motion of the -earth about its axis and about the sun is false and entirely contrary -to Holy Scripture." When _geology_ began to show from the rocks' -unimpeachable testimony the long leisureliness of God, laying the -foundations of the world, a Christian leader declared geology "not a -subject of lawful inquiry," "a dark art," "dangerous and disreputable," -"a forbidden province," "an awful evasion of the testimony of -revelation." This tragic record of theology's vain conflict with -science is the most pitiable part of the Church's story. How needless -it was! For now when we face our universe of magnificent distances and -regal laws has religion really suffered? Has a flat and stationary -earth proved essential to Christianity, as Protestants and Catholics -alike declared? Rather the Psalmist could not guess the sweep of our -meaning when now we say, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the -firmament showeth his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). - -In the last generation the idea of _evolution_ was the occasion of a -struggle like that which attended the introduction of the new -astronomy. How was the world made? asked the ancient Hebrew, and he -answered, By the word of God at a stroke. That was his scientific -answer, and his religious answer too. When, therefore, the evolving -universe was disclosed by modern science, when men read in fossil and -in living biological structure the undeniable evidence of a long -history of gradually changing forms of life, until the world was seen -_not made like a box but growing like a tree_, many men of religion -thought the faith destroyed. They identified the Christian Gospel with -early Hebrew science! Today, however, when the general idea of -evolution is taken for granted as gravitation is, how false this -identification obviously appears! Says Professor Bowne, "An Eastern -king was seated in a garden, and one of his counselors was speaking -of the wonderful works of God. 'Show me a sign,' said the king, 'and I -will believe.' 'Here are four acorns,' said the counselor; 'will your -Majesty plant them in the ground, and then stoop down and look into -this clear pool of water?' The king did so. 'Now,' said the other, -'Look up.' The king looked up and saw four oak trees where he had -planted the acorns. 'Wonderful!' he exclaimed; 'this is indeed the -work of God.' 'How long were you looking into the water?' asked the -counselor. 'Only a second,' said the king. 'Eighty years have passed -as a second,' said the other. The king looked at his garments; they -were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the water; he had -become an old man. 'There is no miracle here, then,' he said angrily. -'Yes,' said the other; 'it is God's work whether he do it in one -second or in eighty years.'" - -Such an attitude as this is now a commonplace with Christian folk. A -vast and growing universe through which sweep the purposes of God is -by far the most magnificent outlook for faith that man has ever had. -The Gospel and Hebrew science are _not_ identical; the Gospel is -not indissolubly bound to any science ancient or modern; for science -and religion have separable domains. - - "A fire-mist and a planet, - A crystal and a cell, - A jelly-fish and a saurian, - And caves where cave men dwell. - Then a sense of Love and Duty - And a face turned from the clod, - Some call it Evolution - And others--call it God." - -The same story of needless antagonism is now being written about -religion and _natural law_. When science began plotting nature's laws, -the control of the world seemed to be snatched from the hands of deity -and given over to a system of impersonal rules. God, whose action had -been defined in terms of miracle, was forced from one realm after -another by the discovery of laws, until at last even comets were found -to be not whimsical but as regular in their law-abiding courses as the -planets, and God seemed to be escorted to the edge of the universe and -bowed out. When Newton first formulated the law of gravitation, the -artillery of many an earnest pulpit was let loose against him. One -said that Newton took "from God that direct action on his works so -constantly ascribed to him in Scripture and transferred it to material -mechanism" and that he "substituted gravitation for Providence." But -now, when science has so plainly won her case, in her own proper -field; when we know to our glory and profit so many laws by which the -world is governed, and use our knowledge as the most splendid engine -of personal purpose and freedom which man ever had, we see how great -our gain has been. _Nor is it more a practical than a religious gain._ -God once was thought of chiefly in terms of miraculous action; he came -into his world now and again, like the _deus-ex-machina_ of a Greek -tragedy, to solve a critical dilemma in the plot. Now all the laws we -know and many more are his regular ways of action, and through them -all continuously his purpose is being wrought. As Henry Drummond -exclaimed, "If God appears periodically, he disappears periodically. -If he comes upon the scene at special crises, he is absent from the -scene in the intervals. Whether is all-God or occasional God the -nobler theory?" - -Nothing, therefore, can be more pathetic than the self-styled -"defenders of the faith" who withstand the purpose of reverent -students to give scientific answers to scientific questions. Such men -are not really defending the faith. They are doing exactly what Father -Inchofer did when he said, "The opinion that the earth moves is of all -heresies the most abominable"; what Mr. Gosse did when he maintained, -in explanation of geology's discoveries, that God by the use of -stratified rock and fossils deliberately gave the earth the -_appearance_ of development through long ages, while really he made it -in six days; what Mr. Southall did when, in the face of established -anthropology, he claimed that the "Egyptians had no Stone age and were -born civilized"; what the Dean of Chichester did when he preached that -"those who refuse to accept the history of the creation of our first -parents according to its obvious literal intention, and are for -substituting the modern dream of evolution in its place, cause the -entire scheme of man's salvation to collapse." These were not -defending the faith; they were making it ridiculous in the eyes of -intelligent men and were embroiling religion in controversies where -she did not belong and where, out of her proper realm, she was -foredoomed to defeat. _For scientific problems are not a matter for -faith; they are a matter for investigation._ No one can settle by -faith the movements of the planets, the method of the earth's -formation, the age of mankind, the explanation of comets. These lie in -science's realm, not in religion's, and religious faith demeans -herself when she tries to settle them. Let science be the grammarian -of the world to observe its parts of speech and their relations! -Religion deals with the soul of the world, its deepest source, its -spiritual meaning, its divine purpose. - - -IV - -Science, however, has not always been content with the grammarian's -task. When we have frankly confessed religion's sins in trespassing on -scientific territory, we must note that _science has her guilty -share in the needless conflict_. Today one suspects that the -Church's vain endeavor by ecclesiastical authority to force religious -solutions on scientific problems is almost over. But the attempt of -many scientists to claim the whole field of reality as theirs and to -force their solutions on every sort of problem is not yet finished. -This, too, is a vain endeavor. To suppose that the process of -scientific observation and inference can exhaust the truth of life is -like supposing that there is no more meaning in Westminster Abbey than -is expressed in Baedeker. - -Scientists, for example, sometimes claim domains which are not theirs -by _spelling abstract nouns with capitals, by positing Law or -Evolution as the makers and builders of the world_. But law never -did anything; law is only man's statement of the way, according to his -observation, in which things are done. To explain the universe as the -creation of Law is on a par with explaining homes as the creation of -Matrimony. Abstract nouns do not create anything and the capitalizing -of a process never can explain it. So, too, Evolution does nothing to -the world; it is the way in which whoever makes the world is making -it. As well explain the difference between an acorn and an oak by -saying that Growth did it, as to explain the progress of creation from -stardust to civilization by changing e to E. Science may describe the -process as evolutionary, but its source, its moving power, and its -destiny are utterly beyond her ken. - -For another thing, scientists often invade realms which are not -theirs, _by stretching the working theories of some special science to -the proportions of a complete philosophy of life_. A generation ago, -when geology and biology were in their "green and salad days," the -enthusiasm inspired by the splendid results of their hypotheses went -to strange lengths. One professor of geology seriously explained the -pyramids of Egypt to be the remains of volcanic eruption which had -forced its way upwards by slow and stately motion. The hieroglyphs -were crystalline formations and the shaft of the great pyramid was the -airhole of a volcano. Scientists are human like all men; their -specialties loom large; the ideas that work in their limited areas -seem omnipotent. So a student of the influence of sunlight on life -thinks reactions to the sun explain everything. "Heliotropism," he -says, "doubtless wrote Hamlet." A specialist on the influence of -geography on human nature interprets everything as the reaction of man -to seas, mountains, plains, and deserts, and Lombroso even thinks the -revolutionary temperament especially native to men who live on -limestone formations! Specialists in economic history are sure that -man is little more than an animated nucleus of hunger and that all -life is explicable as a search for food. And psychologists, charmed by -the neatness of description which causal connections introduce into -our inner life, leap to the conclusion, which lies outside their -realm, that personality is an illusion, freedom a myth and our mental -life the rattling of a causal chain forged and set in motion when the -universe began. _All this is not science; it is making hypotheses from -a limited field of facts masquerade as a total philosophy of life._ - -The underlying reason why science, when she regards her province as -covering everything, inevitably clashes with the interests of -religion, is that _she starts her view of the world from the -sub-human side_. The typical sciences are physics, chemistry, -astronomy, geology, biology, and the view of the universe which they -present is the basis on which all other sciences proceed. But this -foundation is sub-human; the master ideas involved in it are all -obtained with the life of man left out of account. Such an approach -presents a world-machine, immense and regular, and when, later, -psychology and sociology arise, how easy it is to call the human life -which they study a by-product of the sub-human world, an exudation -arising from the activities of matter. - -Religion, on the contrary, _starts with human life_. Fall down in -awe, Science cries, before this vast sub-human world! And the -religious man answers: What world is this I am to bow before? Is it -not the universe which my mind knows and whose laws my intellect has -grasped? This universe, so far as it exists at all for me, is -apprehended by my vision, penetrated by my thought, encompassed by my -interpretations. _What is really great and wonderful here, is not -the world which I understand, but the mind that understands it--not -the sub-human but the human._ Man himself is the supreme Fact, and -all the world that man could bow before, man's mind must first of all -contain. The master truth is not that my mind exists within a physical -universe, but that the physical universe is encompassed by my mind. -Therefore, when I interpret life, I will start with man, and not with -what lies below him. - -Romanes, the English scientist, illustrates in his experience the -difference which these two approaches make. When, returning from -agnosticism to Christianity, he explained his lapse, he said, "I did -not sufficiently appreciate the immense importance of _human_ -nature, as distinguished from physical nature, in any inquiry touching -theism.... Human nature is the most important part of nature as a -whole whereby to investigate the theory of theism. This I ought to -have anticipated on merely _a priori_ grounds, had I not been too -much immersed in merely physical research." Of how many now does this -same explanation hold! They segregate man from the rest of the -universe, and endeavor an interpretation of the unhuman remainder. -They forget that man is part and parcel of the universe, bone of its -bone, as imperative an expression of its substantial nature as are -rocks and stars, and that _any philosophy which interprets the world -minus man has not interpreted the world_. - -Here is the difference between a Haeckel and a Phillips Brooks. All -the dominant ideas of the one are drawn from existence minus man; all -the controlling convictions of the other are drawn from the heights -and depths of man's own life. The first approach inevitably leads to -irreligion, for Spirit cannot reveal itself except in spirit and until -one has found God in man he will not find him in nature. The second as -certainly leads to religion, for, as Augustine said, "If you dig deep -enough in every man you find divinity." Over against the testimony of -the sub-human that there is a mechanistic aspect to the world, stands -the unalterable testimony of the human that there is as well an ideal, -purposive, and spiritual aspect to the world. Surely the latter brings -us nearer to the heart of truth. _We never understand anything except -in terms of its highest expression and man is the summit of nature._ - -Could religion find a voice, therefore, she would wish to speak not in -terms of apology but of challenge, when science, assuming all of -reality for its field, grows arrogant. Describe the aspect of the -world that belongs to you, she would say. I have learned my lesson; -your field is yours, and no interference at my hands shall trouble you -again. But remember the limitations of your domain--to observe and -describe phenomena and to plot their laws. That is an immense task and -inexpressibly useful. But when you have completed it, the total result -will be as unlike the real world as a medical manikin with his wire -nerves and painted muscles is unlike a real man. The manikin is -sufficiently correct; everything is truly pictured there--_except -life_. So things are as science sees them, but things are more than -science sees. Plot then the mechanistic aspect of the world, but do -not suppose that you have caught all of truth in that wide-meshed net! -When you have said your last word on facts observed and laws induced, -man rises up to ask imperious questions with which you cannot deal, to -present urgent problems for which no solution ever has been found save -Augustine's, "I seek for God in order that my soul may _live_." - - -V - -Our thought so ended, however, would leave science and religion -jealously guarding their boundaries, not cooperating as allies. _Such -suspicious recognition of each other's realms does not exhaust the -possibilities._ When once the separate functions each by the other -have been granted, we are free to turn our thought to the inestimable -service which each is rendering. Consider the usefulness of science to -the ideal causes of which religion is the chief! Science has given us -the _new universe_, not more marvelous in its vastness than in its -unity. For the spectroscope has shown that everywhere through -immeasurable space the same chemical properties and laws obtain; the -telescope has revealed with what mathematical precision the orbits in -the heavens are traced and how unwaveringly here or among the stars -gravitation maintains its hold. Man never had so immense and various -and yet so single and unified a world before. Polytheism once was -possible, but science has banished it forever. Whatever may be the -source of the universe, it is _one_ Source, and whoever the creator, -he is more glorious in man's imagination than he could ever have been -before. Science also has put at the disposal of the ideal causes _such -instruments as by themselves they would never have possessed_. We are -hoping for a new world-brotherhood, and we pray for it in Christian -churches as the Father's will. But the instruments by which the -inter-racial fellowship must be maintained and without which it would -be unthinkable are science's gift. Railroads, steamships, telegraphs, -telephones, wireless--these are the shuttles by which the ideal faiths -in man's fraternity may be woven into fact. When Christian physicians -heal the sick or stamp out plagues that for ages have been man's curse -and his despair, when social maladjustments are corrected by Christian -philanthropy, and saner, happier ways of living are made possible; -when comforts that once were luxuries are brought within the reach of -all, and man's life is relieved of crushing handicaps; when old -superstitions that had filled man's life with dread for ages are -driven like fogs before science's illumination, and religious faith is -freed of their incumbrance; when great causes of relief have at their -disposal the unimaginable wealth which our modern economic system has -created--can anyone do sufficient justice to man's debt to science? -And once more science has done religion an inestimable service in -establishing as a point of honor the ambition _to see straight and to -report exactly_. The tireless patience, the inexorable honesty, the -sacrificial heroism of scientists, pursuing truth, is a gift of -incalculable magnitude. Huxley is typical of science at its best when -he writes in his journal his ideal--"To smite all humbugs however big; -to give a nobler tone to science; to set an example of abstinence from -petty personal controversies and of toleration for everything but -lying; to be indifferent as to whether the work is recognized as mine -or not, so long as it is done." Countless obscurantisms and bigotries, -shams and sophistries have been driven from the churches by this -scientific spirit and more are yet to go. Science has shown -intellectual dishonesty to be a sin of the first rank. Christianity -never can be thankful enough for science; on our knees we should be -grateful for her as one of God's most indispensable gifts. Nor should -the fact that many a scientist whose contributions we rejoice in was -not certain about God defer our gratitude. Cyrus, the Persian, is not -the only one to whom the Eternal has said, "I will gird thee, though -thou hast not known me" (Isa. 45:5). - -When, however, science has done her necessary work, she needs her -great ally, religion. Without the insight and hope which faith alone -can bring, we learn a little about the world, our minds enclosed in -boundaries beyond which is dark, unfathomable mystery. We rejoice in -nature's beauty and in friendship, suffer much with broken bodies and -more with broken family ties, until we die as we were born--the spawn -of mindless, soulless powers that never purposed us and never cared. -And the whole universe is purposeless, engaged with blind hands, that -have no mind behind them, on tasks that mean nothing and are never -done. Science and religion should not be antagonists; they are -mutually indispensable allies in the understanding and mastery of life. - -[4] J. G. Holland. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -Faith and Moods - - -DAILY READINGS - -The relationship of faith to feeling, rather than faith's relationship -to mind, is with many people the more vital interest. The emotional -results of faith are rightfully of intense concern to everyone, for -our feelings put the sense of value into life. To see a sunset without -being stirred by its beauty is to miss seeing the sunset; to have -friends without feeling love for them is not to have friends; and to -possess life without feeling it to be gloriously worth while is to -miss living. Now, in this regard, the attitude of faith stands sharply -opposed to its direct contrary--the attitude of fear. Faith and fear -are the two emotional climates, in one or the other of which everyone -tends habitually to live. To the comparison of these we set ourselves -in the daily readings. - - -Eighth Week, First Day - - =Give ear to my prayer, O God; - And hide not thyself from my supplication. - Attend unto me, and answer me: - I am restless in my complaint, and moan, - Because of the voice of the enemy, - Because of the oppression of the wicked; - For they cast iniquity upon me, - And in anger they persecute me. - My heart is sore pained within me: - And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. - Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, - And horror hath overwhelmed me. - And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! - Then would I fly away, and be at rest. - Lo, then would I wander far off, - I would lodge in the wilderness.= - - =--Psalm 55:1-7.= - -How many people are slaves to the mood from which this psalmist -suffered! "Fearfulness and trembling" are their habitual attitude -toward life. They fear to die and just as much they fear to live; -before every vexatious problem, before every opposing obstacle, even -before the common tasks and responsibilities of daily living, they -stand in dread; and every piece of work is done by them at least three -times--in previous worry, in anxious performance, and in regretful -retrospect. Such fear _imprisons_ the soul. No two men really -live in the same world; for while the outward geography may be -identical, the real environment of each soul is created by our moods, -tempers, and habits of thought. Fear builds a prison about the man, -and bars him in with dreads, anxieties, and timid doubts. And the man -will live forever in that prison unless faith sets him free. _Faith -is the great liberator._ The psalmist who found himself a prisoner -of "fearfulness and trembling" obtained his liberty and became a "soul -in peace" (v. 18); and the secret of his freedom he revealed in the -closing words of his psalm--"But I will trust in Thee." Faith of some -sort is the only power that ever sets men free from the bondage of -their timidities and dreads. If a man is the slave of fearfulness, -there is no substance in his claim to be a man of faith; a man who has -vital faith is not habitually fearful. And as Emerson said, "He has -not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear." - - _O God, we remember with sadness our want of faith in Thee. What - might have been a garden we have turned into a desert by our sin and - wilfulness. This beautiful life which Thou hast given us we have - wasted in futile worries and vain regrets and empty fears. Instead of - opening our eyes to the joy of life, the joy that shines in the leaf, - the flower, the face of an innocent child, and rejoicing in it as in - a sacrament, we have sunk back into the complainings of our narrow - and blinded souls. O deliver us from the bondage of unchastened - desires and unwholesome thoughts. Help us to conquer hopeless - brooding and faithless reflection, and the impatience of irritable - weakness. To this end, increase our faith, O Lord. Fill us with a - completer trust in Thee, and the desire for a more whole-hearted - surrender to Thy will. Then every sorrow will become a joy. Then - shall we say to the mountains that lie heavy on our souls, "Remove - and be cast hence" and they shall remove, and nothing shall be - impossible unto us. Then shall we renew our strength, and mount up - with wings as eagles; we shall run and not be weary; we shall walk - and not faint. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our - Lord. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Eighth Week, Second Day - -Not only is it true that fear imprisons while faith liberates; fear -_paralyzes_ and faith _empowers_. The only attitude in which -a man has command of his faculties and is at his best, is the attitude -of faith; while fear bewilders the mind and paralyzes the will. The -physical effects of fear are deadly; it positively inhibits any useful -thinking; and in the spiritual life its results are utterly -demoralizing. Fear is the panic of a soul. Consider such an estate as -the author of Deuteronomy presents: - - =And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be - no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a - trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy - life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and - day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou - shalt say, Would it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would it - were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and - for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.--Deut. 28:65-67.= - -Such a situation oppresses every vital power, and the conquest of such -a situation must always be inward before it can be outward; _the man -must pass from fear to faith_. Let even a little faith arise in -him, and power begins to return. Men fear that they cannot overcome -evil habits, that they cannot successfully meet difficult situations, -that they cannot hold out in the Christian life, and that great causes -cannot be fought through to victory--and the weakness which appalls -them is the creation of their own misgiving. - - "Our doubts are traitors, - And make us lose the good we oft might win, - By fearing to attempt." - -But faith is tonic; the results which follow a change of heart from -fear to faith are miraculous; spiritual dwarfs grow to giants and -achieve successes that before would have been unbelievable. No verse -in Scripture has behind it a greater mass of verifiable experience -than: "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our -faith" (I John 5:4). - - _Gracious Father, Thou hast invited us, unworthy as we are, to pray - for all sorts and conditions of men.... We pray for all who are in - bondage to fear, unable to face the tasks of life or bear the thought - of death with peace and dignity. Free them from the tyranny of these - dark dreads. Let the inspiration of a great faith or hope seize their - souls, and lift them above their fruitless worry and idle torments, - into a region of joy and peace and blessedness. We pray for the - victims of evil habits, the slaves of alcohol or morphine, or any - other pretended redeemer of the soul from weariness and pain. Great - is the power of these degrading temptations; but greater still is the - saving energy of Thy Spirit. So let Thy Spirit enter the hearts of - these unhappy children of Thine, that their will may be made strong - to resist, and that the burning heat of high thoughts may consume the - grosser desires of the flesh. We pray for souls bound beneath - self-imposed burdens, vexed by miseries of their own making; for the - children of melancholy, who have lost their way and grope without a - light; for those who do their work with no enthusiasm, and, when - night falls, can find no sleep though they search for it as for - hidden treasure. Let Thy light pierce through their gloom and shine - upon their path...._ - - _Unite us to Jesus Christ, Thy perfect Son, in the bonds of a living - trust, so that sustained by His example, and sanctified by His - Spirit, we may grow more and more into the image of His likeness. - These, and all other blessings, we ask in His name and for His sake. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Eighth Week, Third Day - -There are many situations in life which naturally throw the pall of -dread over man's soul. Life is seldom easy, it is often overwhelmingly -difficult, and if a man has worry in his temperament, circumstances -supply plenty of occasions on which to exercise it. The difference -between men lies here: those in whom the fear-attitude is master hold -the oppressive trouble so close to the eye that it hides everything -else; those whom the faith-attitude dominates hold trouble off and see -it in wide perspectives. A copper cent can hide the sun if we hold it -close enough to the eye, and a transient difficulty can shut out from -a fearful soul all life's large blessings and all the horizons of -divine good will. Fear _disheartens_ men by concentrating their -attention on the unhappy aspects of life; _but faith is the great -encourager_. Whittier lived in a generation full of turmoil and -trouble, and his own life is a story of prolonged struggle against -illness, disappointments, and poverty. But, listen: - - "Yet sometimes glimpses on my sight - Through present wrong, the eternal right; - And, step by step, since time began - I see the steady gain of man." - -That is the attitude of faith; it does not deny the evil, but it sees -around it, refuses to be obsessed or scared by it, and takes heart -from a large view when a small view would be appalling. And history -always confirms the large view. Fear may be right for the moment, but -in the long run it is a liar; only faith tells the truth. - - =Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up: - All the day long he fighting oppresseth me. - Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long; - For they are many that fight proudly against me. - What time I am afraid, - I will put my trust in thee.= - - =--Psalm 56:1-3.= - - _Almighty and ever-living God, we draw near unto Thee, believing that - Thou art, and that Thou wilt reward all those who diligently seek - Thee. We are weak, mortal men, immersed in this world's affairs, - buffeted by its sorrows, flung to and fro by its conflicts of right - and wrong. We cry for some abiding stay, for some sure and steadfast - anchorage. Reveal Thyself to us as the eternal God, as the - unfathomable Love that encompasses every spirit Thou hast made, and - bears it on, through the light and the darkness alike, to the goal of - Thine own perfection. And yet, when Thou speakest to us, we are - covered with confusion, for now we remember all the sadness and evil - disorder of our lives. Thou hast visited our hearts with ideals fair - and beautiful, but alas! we have grown weary in aspiration, and have - declined into the sordid aims of our baser selves. Thou hast given us - the love of parent and of friend, that we might thereby learn - something of Thine own love; yet too often have we despised Thy gift - and shut our hearts to all the wonder and the glory. We make - confession before Thee of our sin and folly and ignorance. Again and - again we have vowed ourselves to Thy service; again and again our - languid wills have failed to do Thy Will. We have been seduced by the - sweet poison of sin, and even against light and knowledge we have - done that which Thou dost abhor, and which in our secret hearts we - loathe. And now we almost fear to repent, lest Thou shouldst call us - into judgment for a repentance that must needs be repented of. O - mighty Saviour of men! be patient with us a little longer. Take us - back to Thyself. Without Thee, we are undone; with Thee, we will take - fresh heart of hope, and bind ourselves with a more effectual vow, - and laying aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset - us, we will follow Thee whithersoever Thou leadest. Amen._--Samuel - McComb. - - -Eighth Week, Fourth Day - -Fear depresses vitality and is a fruitful cause of nervous disorders, -with all their disastrous reactions on man's health. Modern -investigation has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that while illness -comes often by way of the body, it comes also by way of the mind; our -moods and tempers have a physical echo, and of all fatal mental states -none is so ruinous as fear. It is not strange, therefore, that some -people never are well. As Dr. McComb puts it, "Many play at -living--they do not really live. They fear the responsibilities, the -struggles, the adventures, not without risk, which life offers them. -They fear illness. They fear poverty. They fear unhappiness. They fear -danger. They fear the passion of sacrifice. They fear even the -exaltation of a pure and noble love, until the settlements in money -and social prestige have been duly certified. They fear to take a -plunge into life's depths. They fear this world, and they fear still -more the world beyond the grave." In such a mood no man can possibly -be well. Faith, therefore, which drives out fear, has always been a -minister of health. The Master's healings, which to the rationalism of -a previous generation seemed incredible, in the light of the present -knowledge seem inevitable. He had faith and he demanded faith, and -wherever the faith-attitude can be set in motion against the -fear-attitude and all its morbid brood, the consequences will be -physical as well as moral. An outgrown custom of the early Church does -not now seem so strange as it did a generation ago: - - =Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him - sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of - the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the - name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is - sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, - it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your sins one to another, - and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of - a righteous man availeth much in its working.--James 5:13-16.= - - _Eternal God, who art above all change and darkness, whose will begat - us, and whose all present love doth enfold and continually redeem us, - Holy Guest who indwellest, and dost comfort us; we have gathered to - worship Thee, and in communion with Thee to find ourselves raised to - the light of our life, and the Heaven of our desires._ - - _Pour upon our consciousness the sense of Thy wonderful nearness to - us. Reveal to our weakness and distress the power and the grace that - are more than sufficient for us. May we see what we are, Thy - Spirit-born children linked by nature, love, and choice to Thy mighty - being; and may the vision make all fears to fade, and a Divine - strength to pulse within._ - - _Enable us to carry out from this place the peace and strength that - here we gain, to take into our homes a kinder spirit, a new - thoughtfulness; that we may brighten sadness, heal the sick, and make - happiness to abound. May we take into our daily tasks and life of - labor, a sense of righteousness that shall be as salt to every evil - and corrupting influence._ - - _Because we have walked here awhile with Thee, may we be able to walk - more patiently with man. Send us forth with love to the fallen, hope - for the despairing, strength to impart to the weak and wayward; and - carry on through us the work Thou didst commence in Thy Son our - Brother Man and Saviour God. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Eighth Week, Fifth Day - -Fear makes impossible any satisfying joy in life. A man of faith may -be deeply joyful even in disastrous circumstances, but a man of fear -would be unhappy in heaven. Stevenson sings in "the saddest and the -bravest song he ever wrote": - - "God, if this were faith?... - To go on for ever and fail and go on again, - And be mauled to the earth and arise, - And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen - with the eyes: - With half of a broken hope for a pillow at night - That somehow the right is the right, - And the smooth shall bloom from the rough: - Lord, if that were enough?" - -Sad this song may be, but at the heart of it is yet a fierce joy -because faith is there. But put a man of fear in luxury and remove -from him every visible cause of disquiet and he will still be -miserable. The more a man considers these two determinant moods in -life, the more he sees that somehow the faith-attitude must be his, if -life is to be worth living. Without it life dries up into a Sahara; -with it, he comes into a company of the world's glad spirits, who one -way or another have felt what the Psalmist sings: - - =Jehovah is my light and my salvation; - Whom shall I fear? - Jehovah is the strength of my life; - Of whom shall I be afraid? - When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh, - Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. - Though a host should encamp against me, - My heart shall not fear: - Though war should rise against me, - Even then will I be confident. - One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: - That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, - To behold the beauty of Jehovah, - And to inquire in his temple. - For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: - In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; - He will lift me up upon a rock. - And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; - And I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; - I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto Jehovah.= - - =--Psalm 27:1-6.= - - _Gracious Father! We confess the painful riddle of our being, that, - while claiming kinship with Thee, we feel far from Thee. O, what - means this strange bewilderment, this never-ending war between our - worse and better thoughts? We are Thine by right, yet we have not - given ourselves wholly to Thy care. Our hearts know no rest, save in - Thee, yet they have sought it in this world's vainglory, which - passeth away. We seek to quench our thirst at the cisterns of this - earth, but they are broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Lead us - to Thy well of life that springeth up eternally. Give us to drink of - that spiritual water, of which, if any man drink, he shall never - thirst again. We lament our want and poverty before Thee. Open Thou - our eyes to behold the unsearchable riches of Thy grace, and increase - our faith that we may make them ours. Unite us to Thee in the bonds - of will and love and purpose. Out of Thy fulness, which is in Christ, - give to each one of us according to his need. Make us wise with His - Wisdom; pure with His purity; strong with His strength; that we may - rise into the power and glory of the life that is life indeed. Hear - our hearts' weak and wandering cries, and when Thou hearest, forgive - and bless, for His sake. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Eighth Week, Sixth Day - - =No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and - love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. - Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Be not - anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; - nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more - than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the - heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into - barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more - value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit - unto the measure of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning - raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil - not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in - all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.= - - =But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, - and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe - you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What - shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be - clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your - heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But - seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these - things shall be added unto you.--Matt. 6:24-33.= - -The meaning of this passage hinges on the first "therefore." You -cannot serve God and selfish gain at the same time, says Jesus; you -should choose decisively to serve God; and _therefore_ you must not be -anxious about yourself. For _anxious fear so concentrates a man's -thought on himself that he can serve no one else_. That this is the -meaning of this familiar passage is clear also from its conclusion. -The real reason for conquering anxious fear is that a man may give -himself wholeheartedly to the service of the Kingdom. That fear does -spoil usefulness is obvious; a man cannot be fearful for himself and -considerate of his fellows. As Stevenson puts it in "Aes Triplex," -"The man who has least fear for his own carcass has most time to -consider others. That eminent chemist who took his walks abroad in tin -shoes and subsisted wholly upon tepid milk had all his work cut out -for him in considerate dealings with his own digestion. So soon as -prudence has begun to grow up in the brain, like a dismal fungus, it -finds its first expression in a paralysis of generous acts." The shame -of our fearful living is that it circles about self, is narrowed down -to mean solicitudes about our own comfort, and is utterly incapable of -serving God or seeking first his Kingdom. Only faith puts folk at -leisure from their small anxieties so that they can be servants of a -worthy cause. Jesus, therefore, in this passage is not giving us the -impossible injunction not to think about tomorrow; he is stating a -truth of experience, that anxious fear for oneself which so draws in -the thought that God's great causes are forgotten is a deadly peril in -man's life. By faith thrust out the mean and timid solicitudes, is his -injunction, that life may be free to put first things first. - - _We come to Thee, our Father, that we may more deeply enter into Thy - joy. Thou turnest darkness into day, and mourning into praise. Thou - art our Fortress in temptation, our Shield in remorse, our Covert in - calamity, our Star of Hope in every sorrow. O Lord, we would know Thy - peace, deep, abiding, inexhaustible. When we seek Thy peace, our - weariness is gone, the sense of our imperfection ceases to discourage - us, and our tired souls forget their pain. When, strengthened and - refreshed by Thy goodness, we return to the task of life, send us - forth as servants of Jesus Christ in the service and redemption of - the world. Send us to the hearts without love, to men and women - burdened with heavy cares, to the miserable, the sad, the - broken-hearted. Send us to the children whose heritage has been a - curse, to the poor who doubt Thy Providence, to the sick who crave - for healing and cannot find it, to the fallen for whom no man cares. - May we be ministers of Thy mercy, messengers of Thy helpful pity, to - all who need Thee. By our sympathy, our prayers, our kindness, our - gifts, may we make a way for the inflow of Thy love into needy and - loveless lives. And so may we have that love which alone is the - fulfilling of Thy law. Hasten the time when all men shall love Thee - and one another in Thee, when all the barriers that divide us shall - be broken down, and every heart shall be filled with joy and every - tongue with melody. These gracious gifts we ask, in Jesus' name. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Eighth Week, Seventh Day - -Fear does not reveal its disastrous consequences to the full until it -colors one's thoughts about the source and destiny of life. Folk work -joyfully at a picture-puzzle so long as they believe that the puzzle -can be put together, that it was meant, completed, to compose a -picture, and that their labor is an effort made in reasonable hope. -But if they begin to fear that they are being fooled, that the puzzle -is a hoax and never can be pieced together anywhere by anyone, how -swiftly that suspicion will benumb their work! So joyful living -depends on man's conviction that this life is not a hapless accident, -that a good purpose binds it all together, and that our labor for -righteousness is not expended on a futile task without a worthy -outcome. But fear blights all such hope; it whispers what one -pessimist said aloud: "Life is not a tragedy but a farcical melodrama, -which is the worst kind of play." That fear benumbs worthy living, -kills hope, makes cynical disgust with life a reasonable attitude, and -with its frost withers all man's finest aspirations. _Only faith in -God can save men from such fear._ Fear or faith--there is no dilemma -so full of consequence. Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear -paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear -sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable--and, -most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith -rejoices in its God. - - =Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; - For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. - Let Israel now say, - That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. - Let the house of Aaron now say, - That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. - Let them now that fear Jehovah say, - That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. - Out of my distress I called upon Jehovah: - Jehovah answered me and set me in a large place. - Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: - What can man do unto me?= - - =--Psalm 118:1-6.= - - _O God, we invoke Thy blessing upon all who need Thee, and who are - groping after Thee, if haply they may find Thee. Be gracious to those - who bear the sins of others, who are vexed by the wrongdoing and - selfishness of those near and dear to them, and reveal to them the - glory of their fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. Brood in - tenderness over the hearts of the anxious, the miserable, the victims - of phantasmal fear and morbid imaginings. Redeem from slavery the - men and women who have yielded to degrading habits. Put Thy Spirit - within them, that they may rise up in shame and sorrow and make - confession to Thee, "So brutish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast - before Thee." And then let them have the glad assurance that Thou art - with them, the secret of all good, the promise and potency of better - things. Console with Thy large consolation those who mourn for their - loved dead, who count the empty places and long for the sound of a - voice that is still. Inspire them with the firm conviction that the - dead are safe in Thy keeping, nay, that they are not dead, but live - unto Thee. Give to all sorrowing ones a garland for ashes, the oil of - joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of - heaviness. Remember for good all who are perplexed with the mysteries - of existence, and who grieve because the world is so sad and - unintelligible. Teach them that Thy hand is on the helm of affairs, - that Thou dost guide Thine own world, and canst change every dark - cloud into bright sunshine. In this faith let them rest, and by this - faith let them live. These blessings we ask in the name of our Lord - and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -Many people do not find their most perplexing difficulty either in the -realm of trust or of belief, but in a problem which includes both. -They are confused because neither their experience of God nor their -intellectual conviction of the reasonableness of faith is dependable -and steady. Faith comes and goes in them with fluctuating moods that -bring an appalling sense of insecurity. Their religious life is not -stable and consistent; it runs through variant degrees of confidence -and doubt, and its whimsical ups and downs continually baffle them. To -classify some folk as men of faith and some as men of doubt does not, -in the light of this experience, quite tally with the facts. There are -moods of faith and moods of doubt in all of us and rarely does either -kind secure unanimous consent. Were we to decide for irreligion, a -minority protest would be vigorously urged in the interests of faith, -and when most assuredly we choose religion, the prayer, "Lord, I -believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24) is still appropriate. We -often seem to be exchanging, as Browning's bishop says: - - "A life of doubt diversified by faith, - For one of faith diversified by doubt." - -Some hope arises when we observe that this experience which so -perplexes us is fully acknowledged in the Bible. The popular -supposition is that when one opens the Scripture he finds himself in a -world of constant and triumphant faith. No low moods and doubts can -here obscure the trust of men; here God is always real, saints sing in -prison or dying see their Lord enthroned in heaven. When one, however, -really knows the Bible, it obviously is no serene record of untroubled -faith. It is turbulent with moods and doubt. - -Here, to be sure, is the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, on -Immortality, but here too is another cry, burdened with all the doubt -man ever felt about eternal life, "That which befalleth the sons of -men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, -so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; and man hath no -preeminence above the beasts" (Eccl. 3:19). The Scripture has many -exultant passages on divine faithfulness, but Jeremiah's bitter prayer -is not excluded: "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, -which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou indeed be unto me as a -deceitful brook, as waters that fail?" (Jer. 15:18). The confident -texts on prayer are often quoted, but there are cries of another sort: -Job's complaint, "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and -backward, but I cannot perceive him" (Job 23:8); Habakkuk's -bitterness, "O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? -I cry unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save" (Hab. 1:2). The -Bible is no book of tranquil faith. From the time when Gideon, in a -mood like that of multitudes today, cried, "Oh, my Lord, if Jehovah is -with us, why then is all this befallen us?" (Judges 6:13) to the -complaint of the slain saints in the Apocalypse, "How long, O Master, -the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood" (Rev. -6:10), the Bible is acquainted with doubt. It knows the searching, -perplexing, terrifying questions that in all ages vex men's souls. If -the Psalmist, in an exultant mood, sang, "Jehovah is my shepherd," he -also cried, "Jehovah, why casteth thou off my soul? Why hidest thou -thy face from me?" (Psalm 88:14). - -No aspect of the Scripture could bring it more warmly into touch with -man's experience than this confession of fluctuating moods. At least -in this the Bible is our book. Great heights are there, that we know -something of. Psalmists sing in adoration, prophets are sure of God -and of his coming victory; apostles pledge in sacrifice the certainty -of their belief, and the Master on Transfiguration Mountain prays -until his countenance is radiant. And depths are there, that modern -men know well. Saints cry out against unanswered prayer and cannot -understand how such an evil, wretched world is ruled by a good God; in -their bitter griefs they complain that God has cast them off, and -utterly forgotten and, dismayed, doubt even that a man's death differs -from a dog's. This is our book. For the faith of many of us, however -we insist that we are Christians, is not tranquil, steady, and serene. -It is moody, occasional, spasmodic, with hours of great assurance, and -other hours when confidence sags and trust is insecure. - - -II - -Faith so generally is discussed as though it were a creed, accepted -once for all and thereafter statically held, that the influence of our -moods on faith is not often reckoned with. But the moods of faith are -the very pith and marrow of our actual experience. When a Christian -congregation recite together their creedal affirmation, "I believe in -God," it _sounds_ as though they all maintained a solid, constant -faith. But when in imagination, one breaks up the congregation and -interprets from his knowledge of men's lives what the faith of the -individuals actually means, he sees that they believe in God not -evenly and constantly, but more or less, sometimes very much, -sometimes not confidently at all. Our faith in God is not a static -matter such as the recitation of a creed suggests. Some things we do -believe in steadily. That two plus two make four, that the summed -angles of a triangle make two right angles--of such things we are -unwaveringly sure. No moods can shake our confidence; no griefs -confuse us, no moral failures quench our certainty. Though the heavens -fall, two and two make four! But our faith in God belongs in another -realm. It is a vital experience. It involves the whole man, with his -chameleon moods, his glowing insights, his exalted hours, and his -dejected days when life flows sluggishly and no great thing seems -real. - -This experience of variable moods in faith does not belong especially -to feeble folk, whose ups and downs in their life with God would -illustrate their whole irresolute and flimsy living. The great -believers sometimes know best this tidal rise and fall of confidence. -Elijah one day, with absolute belief in God, defied the hosts of Baal -and the next, in desolate reaction, wanted to die. Luther put it with -his rugged candor, "Sometimes I believe and sometimes I doubt." John -Knox, at liberty to preach, "dings the pulpit into blads" in his -confident utterance; but the same Knox recalled that, in the galleys, -his soul knew "anger, wrath, and indignation which it conceived -against God, calling all his promises in doubt." The Master himself -was not a stranger to this experience. He believed in God with -unwavering assurance, as one believes in the shining of the sun. But -the fact that the sun perpetually shines did not imply that every day -was a sunshiny day for him. The clouds came pouring up out of his dark -horizons and hid the sun. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I -say?" (John 12:27). And once the fog drove in, so dense and dark that -one would think there never had been any sun at all. "My God, my God, -why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). - -This experience of fluctuating moods is too familiar to be denied, too -influential to be neglected. There can be no use in hiding it from -candid thought behind the recitation of a creedal formula. There may -be great use in searching out its meaning. For there are ways in which -this common experience, at first vexatious and disquieting, may supply -solid ground for Christian confidence. - - -III - -In dealing with these variant moods of faith we are not left without -an instrument. We have _the sense of value_. We discern not only the -_existence_ of things, but their _worth_ as well. When, therefore, a -man has recognized his moods as facts, he has not said all that he can -say about them. Upon no objects of experience can the sense of value -be used with so much certainty as upon our moods. _We know our best -hours when they come._ The lapidary, with unerring skill, learns to -distinguish a real diamond from a false, but his knowledge is external -and contingent, compared with the inward and authoritative certainty -with which we know our best hours from our worst. Our great moods -carry with them the authentic marks of their superiority. - -Experience readily confirms this truth. We all have, for example, -_cynical and sordid moods_. At such times, only the appetites of -physical life seem much to matter; only the things that minister to -common comfort greatly count. When Sydney Smith, the English cleric, -writes, "I feel an ungovernable interest in my horses, my pigs, and my -plants. But I am forced and always was forced to task myself up to an -interest in any higher objects," most of us can understand his mood. -We grow obtuse at times to all that in our better moods had thrilled -us most. Nature suffers in our eyes; great books seem dull; causes -that once we served with zest lose interest, and personal relationships -grow pale and tame, From such mere dullness we easily drift down to -cynicism. Music once had stirred the depths, but now our spirits tally -with the scoffer's jest, "What are you crying about with your Wagner -and your Brahms? It is only horsehair scraping on catgut." Man's most -holy things may lose their grandeur and become a butt of ridicule. -When the mood of Aristophanes is on, we too may hoist serious Socrates -among the clouds, and set him talking moonshine while the cynical look -on and laugh. The spirit that "sits in the seat of the scornful" is an -ancient malady. - -But every man is thoroughly aware that these are not his best moods. -From such depleted attitudes we come to worthier hours; _real -life_ arrives again. Nature and art become imperatively beautiful; -moral causes seem worth sacrifice, and before man's highest life, -revealed in character, ideal, and faith, we stand in reverence. These -are our great hours, when spiritual values take the throne, when all -else dons livery to serve them, and we find it easy to believe in God. - -Again, we have _crushed and rebellious moods_. We may have been -Christians for many years; yet when disaster, long delayed, at last -descends, and our dreams are wrecked, we _do_ rebel. Complaint rises -hot within us. Joseph Parker, preacher at the City Temple, London, at -the age of sixty-eight could write that he had never had a doubt. -Neither the goodness of God nor the divinity of Christ, nor anything -essential to his Christian faith had he ever questioned. But within a -year an experience had fallen of which he wrote: "In that dark hour I -became almost an atheist. For God had set his foot upon my prayers and -treated my petitions with contempt. If I had seen a dog in such agony -as mine, I would have pitied and helped the dumb beast; yet God spat -upon me and cast me out as an offense--out into the waste wilderness -and the night black and starless." No new philosophy had so shaken the -faith of this long unquestioning believer. But his wife had died and -he was in a heartbroken mood that all his arguments, so often used on -others, could not penetrate. He believed in God as one believes in the -sun when he has lived six months in the polar night and has not seen -it. - -These heartbroken moods, however, are not our best. Out of rebellious -grief we lift our eyes in time to see how other men have borne their -sorrows off and built them into character. We see great lives shine -out from suffering, like Rembrandt's radiant faces from dark -backgrounds. We see that all the virtues which we most admire--constancy, -patience, fortitude--are impossible without stern settings, and that -in time of trouble they find their aptest opportunity, their noblest -chance. We rise into a new mood, grow resolute not to be crushed, but, -as though there were moral purpose in man's trials, to be hallowed, -deepened, purified. The meaning of Samuel Rutherford's old saying -dawns upon us, "When I am in the cellar of affliction, I reach out my -hand for the king's wine." And folk, seeing us, it may be, take heart -and are assured that God is real, since he can make a man bear off his -trial like that and grow the finer for it. These are our great hours -too, when the rains descend, and the winds blow, and the floods come, -and beat upon our house, and it is founded on a rock! - -Once more, we have hours of _discouragement about the world_. The more -we have cared for moral causes and invested life in their advancement, -the more we are desolate when they seem to fail. Some rising tide in -which we trusted turns to ebb again, injustice wins its victories, the -people listen to demagogues and not to statesmen, social causes -essential to human weal are balked, wars come and undo the hopes of -centuries. Who does not sometimes fall into the Slough of Despond? -Cavour, disheartened about Italy, went to his room to kill himself. -John Knox, dismayed about Scotland, in a pathetic prayer entitled, -"John Knox with deliberate mind to his God," wrote, "Now, Lord put an -end to my misery." We generally think of Luther in that intrepid hour -when he faced Charles V at Worms; but he had times as well when he was -sick with disappointment. "Old, decrepit, lazy, worn out, cold, and -now one-eyed," so runs a letter, "I write, my Jacob, I who hoped there -might at length be granted to me, already dead, a well-earned rest." -During the Great War, this mood of discouragement has grown familiar. -Many can understand what Robert Louis Stevenson meant when he wrote, -of the Franco-Prussian war, "In that year, cannon were roaring for -days together on French battlefields, and I would sit in my isle (I -call it mine after the use of lovers) and think upon the war, and the -pain of men's wounds, and the weariness of their marching.... It was -something so distressing, so instant, that I lay in the heather on the -top of the island, with my face hid, kicking my heels for agony." - -But these dismayed hours are not our best. As Bunyan put it, even -Giant Despair has fainting fits on sunshiny days. In moods of clearer -insight we perceive out of how many Egypts, through how many -round-about wilderness journeys, God has led his people to how many -Promised Lands. The Exodus was not a failure, although the Hebrews, -disheartened, thought it was and even Moses had his dubious hours; the -mission of Israel did not come to an ignoble end in the Exile, -although multitudes gave up their faith because of it and only -prophets dared believe the hopeful truth. The crucifixion did not mean -the Gospel's end, as the disciples thought, nor did Paul, imprisoned, -lose his ministry. _Nothing in history is more assured than this, -that only men of faith have known the truth._ And in hours of -vision when this fact shines clear we rise to be our better selves -again. What a clear ascent the race has made when wide horizons are -taken into view! What endless possibilities must lie ahead! What ample -reasons we possess to thrust despair aside, and to go out to play our -part in the forward movement of the plan of God! - - "Dreamer of dreams? we take the taunt with gladness, - Knowing that God beyond the years you see, - Has wrought the dreams that count with you for madness - Into the texture of the world to be." - -These are our better hours. - - -IV - -Such sordid, cynical, crushed, rebellious, and discouraged moods we -suffer, but we have hours of insight, too, when we are at our best. -And as we face this ebb and flow of confidence, which at the first -vexatiously perplexed our faith, an arresting truth is clear. The -creed of irreligion, to which men are tempted to resign their minds, -is simply the _intellectual formulation of what is implied in our -less noble hours_. Take what man's cynical, sordid, crushed, -rebellious, and discouraged moods imply, and set it in a formal -statement of life's meaning, and the result is the creed of -irreligion. But take man's best hours, when the highest seems the -realest, when even sorrows cannot crush his soul, and when the world -is still the battlefield of God for men, and formulate what these -hours imply, and the result is the central affirmations of religious -faith. Even Renan is sure that "man is most religious in his best -moments." Of this high interpretation our variant moods are -susceptible, that _we know our best hours when they come, and the -faith implied in them is essential Christianity_. As Browning sings -it: - - "Faith is my waking life: - One sleeps, indeed, and dreams at intervals, - We know, but waking's the main point with us." - -This fact which we so have come upon is a powerful consideration in -favor of religion's truth. _Are we to trust for our guidance the -testimony of our worse or better hours?_ We have low moods; so, too, -we have cellars in our houses. But we do not _live_ there; we live -upstairs! It is not unnatural to have irreligious moods. There may be -hours when the eternal Energy from which this universe has come seems -to be playing solitaire for fun. It shuffles the stars and planets to -see what may chance from their combinations, and careless of the -consequence, from everlasting to everlasting it shuffles and plays, -and shuffles and plays again. But these are not our best hours. We may -have moods when the universe seems to us, as Carlyle's figure pictures -it, "as if the heavens and the earth were but boundless jaws of a -devouring monster, wherein, I, palpitating, lay waiting to be -devoured," but we are inwardly ashamed of times like that. Man comes -to this brutal universe of irreligion by way of his ignoble moods. -When he lifts up his soul in his great hours of love, of insight, and -of devotion, life never looks to him as irreligion pictures it; it -never has so looked to him and it never will! - -In his best hours man always suspects that the Eternal must be akin to -what is best in us, that our ideals are born from above, have there -their source and destiny, that the Eternal Purpose reigns and yet -shall justify the struggle of the ages, and that in anyone who is the -best we know, we see most clearly what the Eternal is and means. That -goodness is deeper than evil, that spirit is more than flesh, that -life is lord of death, that love is the source of all--such -convictions come naturally to us when we are at our best. When one -examines such affirmations, he perceives that Christianity in its -essential faiths is the expression of our finest hours. This is the -source whence Christianity has come; it is man's best become -articulate. Some used to say that Christian faith had been foisted on -mankind by priests. Christian faith has no more artificially been -foisted upon human life than the full blown rose is foisted on the -bud. Christianity springs up out of man's best life; it is the -utterance of his transcendent moods; _it is man believing in the -validity of his own noblest days_. - -Christianity, therefore, at its heart can never fail. Its theologies -may come and go, its institutions rise and fall, its rituals have -their dawn, their zenith, and their decline, but one persistent force -goes on and will go on. _The Gospel is saying to man what man at his -best is saying to himself._ Christ has a tremendous ally in human -life--our noblest hours. They are all upon his side. What _he_ -says, _they_ rise to cry "Amen" to. When we are most truly -ourselves we are nearest to him. Antagonistic philosophies, therefore, -may spring up to assail the Gospel's influence, and seem to triumph, -and fall at last and be forgotten. Still Christ will go on speaking. -Nothing can tear him from his spiritual influence over men. _In -every generation he has man's noblest hours for his ally._ - - -V - -In the fact to which our study of man's variant moods has brought us -we have not only a confirming consideration in favor of religion's -truth, but an _explanation of some people's unbelief_. They live -habitually in their low moods; they inhabit spiritual cellars. We are -accustomed to say that some friend would be saved from his ignoble -attitudes by a vital religious faith; but it is also true that his -persistent clinging to ignoble attitudes may be the factor that makes -religious faith impossible. According to Dickens's "Tale of Two -Cities" a prisoner in the Bastille, who had lived in a cell and -cobbled shoes for many years, became so enamored of the narrow walls, -the darkness, the task's monotony, that, when liberated, he built a -cell at the center of his English home, and on days when the skies -were clear and birds were singing, the tap of his cobbler's hammer in -the dark could still be heard. So men, by an habitual residence in -imprisoning moods, render themselves incapable of loving the wide -horizons, the great faiths and hopes of religion. They do not merely -make excursions of transient emotion into morose hours and, like men -that find that the road is running into malarial swamps, turn swiftly -to the hills. They dwell in their moroseness; they _choose_ it, and -often obstinately resist deliverance. - -The common moods that thus incapacitate the soul for faith are easily -seen in any man's experience. There are _sullen_ tempers when we are -churlish and want so to be. There are _stupid_ tempers, when our soul -is too negligent to care, too dull to ask for what only aspiring minds -can crave or find. There are _bored_ moods when we feel about all life -what Malachi's people felt about worship, "Behold, what a weariness is -it!" (Mal. 1:13); _rebellious_ moods when, like Jonah, deprived of a -comfort he desired, we cry, "I do well to be angry, even unto death" -(Jonah 4:9); _suspicious_ moods, when we mistrust everyone, and even -of some righteous Job hear Satan's insinuating sneer, "Does Job fear -God for nought?" (Job 1:9). No man is altogether strange to -_frivolous_ hours, when those thoughts are lost which must be handled -seriously if at all, and _wilful_ hours, when some private desire -assumes the center of the stage and angrily resents another voice than -his. To say that one who habitually harbors such moods cannot know God -is only a portion of the truth; such a man cannot know anything worth -knowing. He can know neither fine friends nor great books; he cannot -appreciate beautiful music or sublime scenery; he is lost to the -deepest loves of family and to every noble enthusiasm for human help. -Athwart the knowledge of these most gracious and necessary things -stand our obtuse, ignoble moods. The sullen, stupid, bored, -rebellious, suspicious, frivolous, or wilful tempers, made into a -spiritual residence, are the most deadly prison of the soul. Of course -one who dwells there has no confidence in God. Lord Shaftesbury, the -English philanthropist, made too sweeping a statement about this, but -one can see the basis for his judgment: "Nothing beside ill-humor, -either natural or forced, can bring a man to think seriously that the -world is governed by any devilish or malicious power. I very much -question whether anything beside ill-humor can be the cause of -atheism." At least one may be sure that where ill-humor habitually -reigns, vital faith in God is made impossible. - -After full acknowledgment, therefore, of the momentous intellectual -problems of belief, we must add that there is a _moral qualification -for faith in God_. So great a matter is not achieved by any sort of -person, with any kind of habitual moods and tempers. There are views -which cellar windows do not afford; one must have balconies to see -them. When Jesus said that the pure in heart are blessed because they -see God, he was not thinking merely, perhaps not chiefly, of sexual -impurity as hindering vision. He was pleading for a heart cleansed of -all such perverse, morose, and wayward moods as shut the blinds on the -soul's windows. He knew that men could not easily escape the sense of -God's reality if they kept their vision clear. On elevated days we -naturally think of Spirit as real, and see ourselves as expressions of -spiritual purpose, our lives as servants of a spiritual cause. When -one habitually dwells in these finer moods, he cannot tolerate a world -where his Best is a transient accident. _He must have God, for faith -in God is the supreme assertion of the reality and eternity of man's -Best._ Any man who habitually lives in his finest moods will not -easily escape the penetrating sense of God's reality. - - -VI - -The certainty with which we tend to be most deeply religious in our -best hours is clear when we consider that a man does practically -believe in the things which he counts of highest worth. Lotze, the -philosopher, even says that "Faith _is_ the feeling that is -appreciative of value." It is conceivable that one might be so -constituted that without any sense of value he could study facts, as -a deaf man might observe a symphony. The sound-waves such a man could -mechanically measure; he could analyze the motions of the players and -note the reactions of the crowd, but he would hear no music. He would -not suffuse the whole performance with his musical appreciations; he -would neither like it nor condemn. Man might be so constituted as to -face facts without feeling, but he is not. Facts never stand in our -experience thus barren and unappreciated--mere neutral _things_ that -mean nothing and have no value. The botanist in us may analyze the -flowers, but the poet in us estimates them. The penologist in us may -take the Bertillon measurements of a boy, but the father in us best -can tell how much, in spite of all his sin, that boy is worth. This -power to estimate life's _values_ is the fountain from which spring -our music, painting, and literature, our ideals and loves and -purposes, our morals and religion. Without it no man can live in the -real world at all. - -If we would know, therefore, in what, at our highest altitudes, we -tend to believe, we should ask _what it is that we value most, when -we rise toward our best_. In our lowest hours what sordid, -mercenary, beastly things men may prize each heart knows well. But -ever as we approach our best the things that are worth most to us -become elevated and refined. Our better moods open our eyes to a world -where character is of more worth than all the rest beside, and through -which moral purpose runs, to be served with sacrifice. We become aware -of spiritual values in behalf of which at need physical existence must -be willingly laid down; and words like honor, love, fidelity, and -service in our hours of insight have halos over them that poorer moods -cannot discern. Man at his best, that is to say, _believes in_ an -invisible world of spiritual values, and he furnishes the final proof -of his faith's reality by sacrificing to it all lesser things. The -good, the true, the beautiful command him in his finer hours, and at -their beck and call he lays down wealth and ease and earthly hopes to -be their servant. Men really _do believe_ in the things for which -they sacrifice and die. - -In no more searching way can a man's faith be described than _in terms -of the objects which thus he values most_. Wherever men find some -consuming aim that is for them so supreme in worth that they sacrifice -all else to win it, we speak of their attitude as a religion. The -"religion of science" describes the absolute devotion of investigators -to scientific research as the highest good; the "religion of art" -describes the consuming passion with which some value beauty. When we -say of one that "money is his God" we mean that he estimates it as -life's highest treasure, and when with Paul we speak of others, "whose -god is the belly" (Phil. 3:19), we mean men whose sensual life is to -them the thing worth most. _What men believe in, therefore, is most -deeply seen not by any opinions which they profess, but by the things -they prize._ Faith, as Ruskin said, is "that by which men act while -they live; not that which they talk of when they die." Many a man uses -pious affirmations of Christian faith, but it is easy to observe from -his life that what he really believes in is money. Where a man's -treasure is, as Jesus said, his heart is, and there his faith is, too. - -Is there any doubt, then, what we most believe in when we are at our -best? While in our lower altitudes it may be easy to believe that the -physical is the ultimately real, in our upper altitudes we so value -the spiritual world, that we tend with undeniable conviction to feel -sure that it must be causal and eternal. Materialism is man's -"night-view" of his life; but the "day-view" is religion. Tyndall the -scientist was regarded by the Christians of his generation as the -enemy of almost everything that they held dear. Let him, then, be -witness for the truth which we have stated. "I have noticed," he said, -speaking of materialism, "during years of self-observation, that it is -not in hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine commends itself -to my mind." - -The challenge, therefore, presented to every one of us by Christian -faith is ultimately this: _Shall I believe the testimony of my better -hours or of my worse?_ Many who deny the central affirmations of the -Gospel put the object of their denial far away from them as though it -were an external thing; they say that they deny the creed or the Bible -or the doctrine about God. Such a description of a man's rejection of -religious faith is utterly inadequate--the real object of his denial -is inward. One may, indeed, discredit forms of doctrine and either be -unsure about or altogether disbelieve many things that Christians -hold, but when one makes a clean sweep of religion and banishes the -central faiths of Christianity _he is denying the testimony of his own -finest days_. From such rejection of faith one need not appeal to -creed nor Bible, nor to anything that anybody ever said. Let the -challenge strike inward to the man's own heart. From his denial of -religious faith we may appeal to the hours that he has known and yet -will know again, when the road rose under his feet and from a height -he looked on wide horizons and knew that he was at his best. To those -hours of clear insight, of keen thought, of love and great devotion, -when he knew that the spiritual is the real and the eternal, we may -appeal. They were his best. He _knows_ that they were his best. And as -long as humanity lives upon the earth this conviction must underlie -great living--that _we will not deny the validity of our own best -hours_. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -Faith in the Earnest God - - -DAILY READINGS - -Throughout our studies we have been thinking of the effect of faith on -the one who exercises it. As an introduction to this week's thought on -the earnestness of God, let us approach the effect of faith from -another angle. Faith has enormous influence on the one in whom it is -reposed; not only the believer but the one in whom he believes is -affected by his faith. - - -Ninth Week, First Day - - =I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church - that is at Cenchreæ: that ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the - saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need - of you: for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine - own self.= - - =Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for - my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, - but also all the churches of the Gentiles: and salute the church that - is in their house. Salute Epænetus my beloved, who is the - first-fruits of Asia unto Christ. Salute Mary, who bestowed much - labor on you. Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, and my - fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have - been in Christ before me. Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the - Lord.--Rom. 16:1-8.= - -This series of personal commendations is only the beginning of the -last chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. All the way through one -hears the individual names of Paul's friends and fellow-laborers, with -his discriminating and hearty praise of each. It is clear that he has -faith in these men and women; he believes in them and relies on them. -Consider the effect on them that Paul's confidence in their Christian -fidelity would naturally have. There is no motive much more stirring -than the consciousness that somebody believes in us, is trusting and -counting on us. Whatever is fine and noble in human life responds to -that appeal. Soldiers who feel that their country is relying upon -their fidelity, children who are conscious that their parents believe -in them, friends who are heartened by the assurance that some folk -completely trust them--how much of the best in all of us has come -because we have been the objects of somebody's faith! A Connecticut -volunteer in the American Revolution has written that George -Washington once paused for a moment in front of his company and said -simply, "I am counting on you men from Connecticut." And the recruit -clasped his musket in his arms and wept with the devotion which -Washington's confidence evoked. Would not the sixteenth chapter of -Romans have a similar effect on those who read it? - - _O Thou loving and tender Father in heaven, we confess before Thee, - in sorrow, how hard and unsympathetic are our hearts; how often we - have sinned against our neighbors by want of compassion and - tenderness; how often we have felt no true pity for their trials and - sorrows, and have neglected to comfort, help, and visit them. O - Father, forgive this our sin, and lay it not to our charge. Give us - grace ever to alleviate the crosses and difficulties of those around - us, and never to add to them; teach us to be consolers in sorrow, to - take thought for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan; let our - charity show itself not in words only, but in deed and truth. Teach - us to judge as Thou dost, with forbearance, with much pity and - indulgence; and help us to avoid all unloving judgment of others; for - the sake of Jesus Christ Thy Son, who loved us and gave Himself for - us. Amen._--Johann Arndt, 1555. - - -Ninth Week, Second Day - - =And it came to pass in these days, that he went out into the - mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God. And - when it was day, he called his disciples; and he chose from them - twelve, whom also he named apostles: Simon, whom he also named - Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and - Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James the son of Alphæus, - and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and - Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.--Luke 6:12-16.= - -The power that comes to men when someone believes in them must have -come to these disciples whom Jesus trusted with his work. We often -note the power that was theirs through their faith in Christ; consider -today the inspiration that came from Christ's faith in them. He picked -them out, commissioned them, relied on them, and believed in their -ability with God's help to carry his work to a successful issue. All -that is most distinctive and memorable in their character came from -their response to that divine trust. How they must have encouraged -themselves in times of failure and disheartenment by saying: He -believes in us; even though we are ignorant and sinful, he believes in -us; he has trusted his work to us, and for all our inability he has -faith that we can carry it to triumph! Their faith in themselves and -what they could do with God's help must have been almost altogether a -reflex of his faith in them. Our contention, therefore, that faith is -the dynamic of life has now a new confirmation: _the faith that -lifts and motives life is not simply our faith in the Divine, but the -faith of the Divine in us_. One of the most glorious results of -believing in God is that a man can press on to the further confidence -that God believes in us. If he did not, he would never have made us. -The very fact that we are here means that he does believe in us, in -our possibilities of growth, in our capacities of service, in what he -can do in and for and through us before he is done. Man's faith in God -and God's faith in man together make an unequalled motive for great -living. Yet there is always a sad appendix to every list of trusted -men, with somebody's blighted name: "Judas Iscariot, who became a -traitor." - - _Loving Father, our hearts are moved to gratitude and trust when we - look up to Thee. We rejoice that through our fleeting days there runs - Thy gracious purpose. We praise Thee that we are not the creatures of - chance, nor the victims of iron fate, but that out from Thee we have - come and into Thy bosom we shall return. We would not, even if we - could, escape Thee. Thou alone art good, and to escape from Thee is - to fall into infinite evil. Thy hand is upon us moving us on to some - far-off spiritual event, where the meaning and the mystery of life - shall be made plain and Thy glory shall be revealed. Look in pity - upon our ignorance and childishness. Forgive us our small - understanding of Thy purpose of good concerning us. Be not angry with - us, but draw us from the things of this world which cannot satisfy - our foolish hearts. Fill us with Thyself, that we may no longer be a - burden to ourselves. So glorify the face of goodness that evil shall - have no more dominion over us. Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Ninth Week, Third Day - -The fact that God has faith in us is not alone a source of comfort; it -presents a stirring challenge. It means that he is in earnest about -achieving his great purposes in human life and that he is counting -upon us to help. He has set his heart on aims, about which he cares, -and to whose achievement he is calling us; he is confident that with -him we can work out, if we will, loftier character and a better world. -Let us consider some of the purposes which God is counting on us, in -fellowship with him, to achieve. The prophet Micah, in a brief but -perfect drama, gives one clue. First the Lord summons his people to a -trial, with the eternal mountains for judges: - - =Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the - mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, - Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth; for - Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, and he will contend with - Israel.--Micah 6:1, 2.= - -Then, the Lord presents his case: - - =O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied - thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of - Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent - before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what - Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered - him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the - righteous acts of Jehovah.--Micah 6:3-5.= - -Then the people put in their hesitant, questioning plea. - - =Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the - high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a - year old? will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten - thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my - transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--Micah - 6:6, 7.= - -Then the mountains pronounce judgment: - - =He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah - require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk - humbly with thy God?--Micah 6:8.= - -God, then, is in earnest about _just_, _kind_, _and humble -character_. He believes in it as a possibility; he sees the making -of it now in human hearts; he is pledged to further and establish it -with all his power; and he is counting on us for loyal cooperation -with all our powers of choice. Vital faith means a transforming -partnership with a God who is in earnest about character. - - _O Thou who art the Father of that Son which hast awakened us and yet - urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and exhorteth us that we - become Thine, to Thee, Lord, we pray, who art the supreme Truth, for - all truth that is, is from Thee. Thee we implore, O Lord, who art the - highest Wisdom, through Thee are wise, all those that are so. Thou - art the supreme Joy, and from Thee all have become happy that are so. - Thou art the highest Good and from Thee all beauty springs. Thou art - the intellectual Light, and from Thee man derives his understanding. - To Thee, O God, we call and speak. Hear us, O Lord, for Thou art our - God and our Lord, our Father and our Creator, our Ruler and our Hope, - our Wealth and our Honor, our Home, our Country, our Salvation, and - our Life; hear, hear us, O Lord. Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee, - but at least we love Thee--yea, love Thee above all other things. We - seek Thee, we follow Thee, we are ready to serve Thee; under Thy - power we desire to abide, for Thou art the Sovereign of all. We pray - Thee to command us as Thou wilt; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our - Lord. Amen._--King Alfred, 849. - - -Ninth Week, Fourth Day - -God also is in earnest about _social righteousness_. - - =I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your - solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your burnt-offerings and - meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the - peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise - of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let - justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty - stream.--Amos 5:21-24.= - -Anyone who cares about character must care about social conditions, -for every unfair economic situation, every social evil left to run its -course means ruin to character. And the God of the Bible, because he -cares supremely for personal life at its best, is zealously in earnest -about social justice; his prophets blazed with indignation at all -inequity, and his Son made the coming Kingdom, when God's will would -be done on earth, the center of his message. To fellowship with this -earnest purpose of God we all are summoned; God believes in the -glorious possibilities of life on earth; he is counting on us to put -away the sins that hold the Kingdom back and to fight the abuses that -crush character in men. To believe in God, therefore--the God who is -fighting his way with his children up through ignorance, brutality, -and selfishness to "new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth -righteousness"--is no weakly comfortable blessing. It means joining a -moral war; it means devotion, sacrifice; its spirit is the Cross and -its motive an undiscourageable faith. And our underlying assurance -that this war for a better world can be won is not simply our belief -that it can be done, but _our faith that God is, and that he -believes that it can be done_. When we pray we say, "Thy Kingdom -come," and we are full of hope about the long, sacrificial struggle, -for the purpose behind and through it all is first of all God's. Our -earnestness is but an echo of his. - - _O Thou Eternal One, we adore Thee who in all ages hast been the - great companion and teacher of mankind; for Thou hast lifted our race - from the depths, and hast made us to share in Thy conscious - intelligence and Thy will that makes for righteousness and love. - Thou alone art our Redeemer, for Thy lifting arms were about us and - Thy persistent voice was in our hearts as we slowly climbed up from - savage darkness and cruelty. Thou knowest how often we have resisted - Thee and loved the easy ways of sin rather than the toilsome gain of - self-control and the divine irritation of Thy truth...._ - - _We pray Thee for those who amid all the knowledge of our day are - still without knowledge; for those who hear not the sighs of the - children that toil, nor the sobs of such as are wounded because - others have made haste to be rich; for those who have never felt the - hot tears of the mothers of the poor that struggle vainly against - poverty and vice. Arouse them, we beseech Thee, from their selfish - comfort and grant them the grace of social repentance. Smite us all - with the conviction that for us ignorance is sin, and that we are - indeed our brother's keeper if our own hand has helped to lay him - low. Though increase of knowledge bring increase of sorrow, may we - turn without flinching to the light and offer ourselves as - instruments of Thy spirit in bringing order and beauty out of - disorder and darkness. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Ninth Week, Fifth Day - -The thought which we have been pursuing leads us to a truth of major -importance: if God is thus in earnest, believing in man's possibilities -and laboring for them, then he cannot be known by anyone who does not -share his purpose and his labor. _Action is a road to knowledge and -some things never can be known without it._ If one would know the -business world, he must be an active business man; no amount of -abstract study and speculation can take the place of vital -participation in business struggle. The way to understand any movement -or enterprise is to go into it, share its enthusiasms and hopes, labor -sacrificially for its success, bear its defeats as though they were -our own, and rejoice in its achievements as though nothing so much -mattered to our happiness. Such knowledge is thorough and vital; when -one who so has learned what war is, or the missionary enterprise, or -the fight against the liquor traffic, stands up to speak, a merely -theoretical student of these movements sounds unreal and tame. If -therefore God is earnest Purpose, with aims in which he calls us to -share, no one can thoroughly know him merely by _thinking_; he must -know him by _acting_. - - =But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may - be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.--John 3:21.= - - =Jesus therefore answered them, and said, My teaching is not mine, - but his that sent me. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall - know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from - myself.--John 7:16, 17.= - -Many people endeavor to reach a satisfactory knowledge of God by -clarifying their thought and working out a rational philosophy. But, -by such intellectual means alone, they could not gain satisfactory -knowledge of so familiar a thing as home life. To know home life one -elemental act is essential: get into a home and share its problems, -its satisfactions, and its hopes. So the most adequate philosophy by -itself can bring no satisfactory knowledge of God; only by working -with God, sharing his purposes for the world, sacrificially laboring -for the aims he has at heart can men know him. - - _Eternal God, who hast formed us, and designed us for companionship - with Thee; who hast called us to walk with Thee and be not afraid; - forgive us, we pray Thee, if craven fear, unworthy thought, or hidden - sin has prompted us to hide from Thee. Remove the suspicion which - regards Thy service as an intrusion on our time and an interference - with our daily task. Shew to us the life that serves Thee in the - quiet discharge of each day's duty, that ennobles all our toil by - doing it as unto Thee. We ask for no far-off vision which shall set - us dreaming while opportunities around slip by; for no enchantment - which shall make our hands to slack and our spirits to sleep, but for - the vision of Thyself in common things for every day; that we may - find a Divine calling in the claims of life, and see a heavenly - reward in work well done. We ask Thee not to lift us out of life, but - to prove Thy power within it; not for tasks more suited to our - strength, but for strength more suited to our tasks. Give to us the - vision that moves, the strength that endures, the grace of Jesus - Christ, who wore our flesh like a monarch's robe and walked our - earthly life like a conqueror in triumph. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Ninth Week, Sixth Day - -Because action with God is essential to any satisfying knowledge of -him, action is one of the great resolvers of doubt. Many minds, -endeavoring to think through the mystifying problems of God's -providence, find themselves in a clueless labyrinth. The more they -think the more entangled and confused their minds become. Their -thoughts strike a fatal circle, like wanderers lost in the woods, and -return upon their course, baffled and disheartened. To such perplexed -minds the best advice often is: Cease your futile thinking and go to -work. Let action take the place of speculation. Break the fatal round -of circular thought that never will arrive, and go out to act on the -basis of what little you do believe. Your mind like a dammed stream is -growing stagnant; set it running to some useful purpose, if only to -turn mill-wheels, and trust that activity will bring it cleansing in -due time. Horace Bushnell, the great preacher, while a skeptical tutor -at Yale, was disturbed because so many students were unsettled by his -disbelief. In the midst of a revival he said that like a great snag he -caught and stopped the newly launched boats as fast as they came down. -Unable to think his way out of his intellectual perplexity, he faced -one night this arresting question: "What is the use of my trying to -get further knowledge, so long as I do not cheerfully yield to what I -already know?" And kneeling he prayed after this fashion: "O God, I -believe there is an eternal difference between right and wrong, and I -hereby give myself up to do the right and to refrain from the wrong. I -believe that Thou dost exist, and if Thou canst hear my cry and wilt -reveal Thyself to me, I pledge myself to do Thy will, and I make this -pledge fully, freely, and forever." What wonder that in time the light -broke and that Bushnell became a great prophet of the faith! - -Even Paul, finishing his laborious discussion of God's providence -toward Israel, acknowledges his baffled thought: - - =O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of - God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing - out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his - counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be - recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto - him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.--Rom. - 11:33-36=. - -And then, as if he turned from philosophy to action with gratitude, he -begins the twelfth chapter: - - =I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present - your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is - your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: - but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove - what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.--Rom. 12:1, 2.= - - _O God, we thank Thee for the sweet refreshment of sleep and for the - glory and vigor of the new day. As we set our faces once more toward - our daily work, we pray Thee for the strength sufficient for our - tasks. May Christ's spirit of duty and service ennoble all we do. - Uphold us by the consciousness that our work is useful work and a - blessing to all. If there has been anything in our work harmful to - others and dishonorable to ourselves, reveal it to our inner eye with - such clearness that we shall hate it and put it away, though it be at - a loss to ourselves. When we work with others, help us to regard - them, not as servants to our will, but as brothers equal to us in - human dignity, and equally worthy of their full reward. May there be - nothing in this day's work of which we shall be ashamed when the sun - has set, nor in the eventide of our life when our task is done and we - go to our long home to meet Thy face. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Ninth Week, Seventh Day - - =Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye - blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the - foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I - was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me - in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in - prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, - saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and - gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? - or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, - and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, - Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my - brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.--Matt. 25:34-40.= - -The earnestness of God is not about any diffuse generality; it is -about persons. His purposes concern them, and he believes in them and -in their capacities for fellowship with him, for growing character and -for glorious destiny. If, therefore, one wishes the sense of God's -reality which comes from active co-partnership, let him serve persons, -believe in them, and be in earnest about them. A woman, troubled by -invincible doubts, was given by a wise minister the Gospel of John and -a calling-list of needy families, and was told to use them both. She -came through into a luminous faith, and which helped her more, her -reading or her service, she could never tell. When the Master said -that the good we did to the least of his brethren, we did to him, he -indicated a road to vital knowledge of him; he said in effect that we -can always find him in the lives of people to whom we give love and -help. Many will never find him at all unless they find him there. The -great believers have been the great servants; and the reason for this -is not simply that faith produced service, but also that _service -produced faith_. The life of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, for example, -makes convincingly plain that his faith sent him to Labrador for -service, and that then he drew out of service a compound interest on -his original investment of faith. - - _O God, the Father of the forsaken, the Help of the weak, the - Supplier of the needy, who hast diffused and proportioned Thy gifts - to body and soul, in such sort that all may acknowledge and perform - the joyous duty of mutual service; Who teachest us that love towards - the race of men is the bond of perfectness, and the imitation of Thy - blessed Self; open our eyes and touch our hearts, that we may see and - do, both for this world and for that which is to come, the things - which belong to our peace. Strengthen us in the work we have - undertaken; give us counsel and wisdom, perseverance, faith, and - zeal, and in Thine own good time, and according to Thy pleasure, - prosper the issue. Pour into us a spirit of humility; let nothing be - done but in devout obedience to Thy will, thankfulness for Thine - unspeakable mercies, and love to Thine adorable Son Christ Jesus.... - Amen._--Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -Throughout our studies we have been asserting that faith in God -involves confidence that creation has a purpose. But we shall not see -the breadth and depth of the affirmation, or its significant meaning -for our lives, unless more carefully we face a question, which, as -keenly as any other, pierces to the marrow of religion: _Is God in -earnest?_ - -That the God of the Bible is in earnest is plain. If we open the Book -at the Exodus, we hear him saying, "I have surely seen the affliction -of my people, ... and have heard their cry, ... and I am come down to -deliver them" (Exodus 3:7, 8). If we turn to the prophets, we find -Hosea, interpreting the beating of God's heart: "How am I to give thee -up, O Ephraim? How am I to let thee go, O Israel? How am I to give -thee up? My heart is turned upon me, my compassions begin to boil"[5] -(Hos. 11:8). Everywhere in the Old Testament, God is in earnest: about -personal character--"What doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do -justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah -6:8); about social righteousness--"Let justice roll down as waters, -and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24); about the salvation -of the world--"It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my -servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved -of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that -thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 49:6). -When from the Old Testament one turns to the New, he faces an -assertion of God's earnestness that cannot be surpassed: "God so loved -the world that he gave his only begotten Son." God in the New -Testament is as much in earnest as that, and all the major -affirmations of the Book cluster about the magnetism of this central -faith. God is even like a shepherd with a hundred sheep, who having -lost one, leaves the ninety and nine and goes after that which is -lost, until he finds it (Luke 15:4). From the earliest Hebrew seer -dimly perceiving him, to the last apostle of the New Covenant, the God -of the Bible is tremendously in earnest. - -How profoundly the acceptance of this faith deepens the meaning and -value of life is evident. For a moment some might think that the major -question is not whether _God_ is in earnest but whether _we_ -are; but when a man considers the hidden fountains from which the -streams of his human earnestness must flow, he sees how necessary is -at least the hope that at the heart of it creation is in earnest too. -Von Hartmann, the pessimist, makes one of his characters say, "The -activities of the busy world are only the shudderings of a fever." How -shall a man be seriously in earnest about great causes in a world like -that? The men whose devoted lives have made history great have seen in -creation's busyness more than aimless shuddering. Moses was in -earnest, but behind his consecration was his vision of the Eternal, -saying to Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" The Master was in earnest, but -with a motive that took into its account the purposefulness of God, -"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). - -Indeed, no satisfying meaning, no real unity are conceivable in a -purposeless universe. The plain fact is that _within_ the universe -nobody explains anything without the statement of its purpose. A chair -is something to sit down on; a watch is something to tell time by; a -lamp is something to give illumination in the dark--and lacking this -purposive description, the story of the precedent history of none of -these things, from their original materials to their present shape, -would in the least tell what they really are. One who knows all else -about a telephone, practically knows nothing, unless he is aware of -what it is _for_. Nor is the necessity of such explanation lessened -when scientists endeavor descriptions in their special realms. Huxley, -narrating the growth of a salamander's egg, writes, "Let a moderate -supply of warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter -undergoes changes so rapid, and yet so steady and so purposelike in -their succession, that one can only compare them to those operated by -a skilled modeler upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible -trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller -portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules not too -large to build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. -And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be -occupied by the spinal column and moulded the contour of the body; -pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning -flank and limb into the due salamandrine proportions, in so artistic a -way, that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost -involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to -vision than an achromatic, would show the hidden artist, with his plan -before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his work." -The obvious fact is that salamanders' eggs act as though they were -seriously intent on making salamanders; and lion's cells as though -they were tremendously in earnest about making lions. As Herbert -Spencer said of a begonia leaf, "We have therefore no alternative but -to say, that the living particles composing one of these fragments, -have an innate tendency to arrange themselves into the shape of the -organism to which they belong." _But if this is so, purpose is -essential in the description of every living thing._ All about us is a -world of life with something strikingly like purposeful action rampant -everywhere, so that in describing an elm tree it will not do to say -only that forces from behind pushed it into being; one must say, too, -that from our first observation of its cells they acted as though they -were intent on making nothing else but elm. They went about their -business as though they had a purpose. The tree's cause is not alone -the forces from behind; it is as well the aim that in the cells' -action lay ahead. - -Men can describe nothing in heaven above or on the earth beneath -without the use of purposive terminology. How shall they try otherwise -to describe the universe? _A world in which the minutest particles -and cells all act as though they were eagerly intent on achieving -aims, can only with difficulty be thought of as an aimless whole._ -Man's conviction is insistent and imperious that creation, so -surcharged with purposes, must have Purpose. The greatest scientists -themselves are often our best witnesses here. Charles Darwin and -Alfred Russel Wallace are the twin discoverers of evolution. Said the -former: "If we consider the whole universe the mind refuses to look at -it as the outcome of chance." Said the latter: the world is "a -manifestation of creative power, directive mind, and ultimate purpose." - -What such men have coldly said, the men of devout religion have set -on fire with passionate faith. They have been sure that this world is -not - - "A tale - Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, - Signifying nothing." - -In every cause that makes for man's salvation they have seen the -manifest unveiling of divine intent. _God is in earnest_--this -conviction has possessed them utterly, and to live and die for those -things on behalf of which the Eternal is tremendously concerned has -been the aim, the motive, and the glory of their lives. - - -II - -One need only watch with casual observance the multitudes who say that -they believe in God, to see how few of them believe in this God who is -in earnest. When they confess their faith in deity they have something -else in mind beside the God of the Bible, compassionately purposeful -about his world and calling men to be his fellow-workers. Let us -therefore consider some of the fallacies that enable men to believe in -a God who is _not_ in earnest. - -For one thing, some _put God far away_. Missionaries in Africa's -interior find tribes worshiping stocks, stones, demons, ghosts, but -this does not mean that no idea of a great original god is theirs. -Often they are not strangers to that thought, but, as an old -Africander woman said, "He never concerned himself with me; why should -I concern myself with him?" To such folk a great god exists, but he -does not care; he dwells apart, an indifferent deity, who has left -this world in the hands of lesser gods that really count. The task of -the missionary, therefore, is not to prove the existence of a -creator--"No rain, no mushrooms," said an African chief; "no God, no -world"--but it is to persuade men that the God who seems so far away -is near at hand, that he really cares, and over each soul and all his -world is sacrificially in earnest. - -Such missionary work is not yet needless among Christian people. Said -a Copenhagen preacher in a funeral discourse, "God cannot help us in -our great sorrow, because he is so infinitely far away; we must -therefore look to Jesus." One feels this Siberian exile of God from -all vital meaning for our humanity, when he is called the "Absolute," -the "Great First Cause," the "Energy from which all things proceed." -Like the man, examined by the Civil Service, who, asked the distance -from sun to earth, answered, "I do not know how far the sun is from -the earth; but it is far enough so that it will not interfere with the -proper performance of my duties at the Customs Office," so men with -phrases like "the Great First Cause" put God an immeasurable distance -off. No man has dealings with a "Great First Cause," no "Great First -Cause" ever had vital, personal, constraining meanings for a man. -Rather across infinite distance and time unthinkable, we vaguely -picture a dim Figure, who gave this toboggan of a universe its primal -shove and has not thought seriously of it since. So a wanderer down -the street might put a child upon her sled and giving her a start -down-hill, go on his way. She may have a pleasant slide, but he will -not know; she may fall off, but he will not care; there may be a -tragic accident, but that will not be his concern--he has gone away -off down the street. Multitudes of nominal believers have a god like -that. - -In comparison with such, one thinks of men like Livingstone. His God -was compassionately concerned for Africa, spoke about black folk as -Hosea heard him speak concerning Israel, "How can I give thee up? How -can I let thee go?" until the fire of the divine earnestness lit a -corresponding ardor in Livingstone's heart and he went out to be God's -man in the dark continent. Such men have smitten the listless world as -winds fill flapping sails, crying "Move!" And the God of such has been -tremendously in earnest. - - -III - -Some gain a God lacking serious purpose, not by putting him afar off, -but by endeavoring to bring him so near that they _diffuse him -everywhere_. Writers tell us that God is in every rustling leaf and in -every wave that breaks upon the beach; we are assured that God is in -every gorgeous flower and in every flaming sunset. And the poetry of -this is so alluring that we cannot bear to have God specially -anywhere, because we are so anxious to keep him everywhere. Preachers -delight to illustrate their thought of God with figures drawn from -nature's invisible energies-- - - "Who has seen the wind? - Neither I nor you: - But when the leaves hang trembling - The wind is passing through. - - Who has seen the wind? - Neither you nor I: - But when the trees bow down their heads - The wind is passing by." - -By such comparisons are we taught to see that God invisibly is -everywhere. - -For all the valuable truth that such speech contains, its practical -issue, in many minds today, is to strip God of the last shred of -personality, and with that loss to end the possibility of his being in -earnest about anything. He has become refined Vapor thinly diffused -through space. Folk say they love to meditate on him, and well they -may! For such a god asks nothing of anybody except meditation; he has -no purposes that call for earnestness in them. When little children -are ruined in a city's tenements, when the liquor traffic brutalizes -men, when economic inequity makes many poor that a few may be made -rich, when war clothes the world with unutterable sorrow, such a god -does not care. He is not in earnest about anything. For the only thing -in the universe that can be consciously in earnest is personality, and -when one depersonalizes God, the remainder is a deity who has no love, -no care, no purpose. Thousands do obeisance to such a gaseous idol. - -From this fallacy spring such familiar confessions of faith as this, -"God is not a person; he is spirit." If by this negation one intends -to say that God is not a limited individual, that is obviously true; -but _the contrast between personality and spirit is impossible_. One -may as well speak of dry water as of impersonal spirit. Rays of radium -are unimaginably minute and swift, but they are not spirit. Nothing in -the impersonal realm can be conceived so subtle and refined that it is -spirit. Spirit begins only where love and intelligence and purpose -are, and these all are activities of personality. No one can _really_ -believe what Jesus said, "God is a Spirit," without being ready to -pray as Jesus prayed, "Our Father." - -Between an impersonal, diffused, and gaseous god, and the God of the -Bible, how great the difference! God's pervading omnipresence is -indeed affirmed in Scripture. There, as much as in any modern thought, -the heavens declare his glory, the flowers of the field are -illustrations of his care, and the influences of his spirit are like -the breeze across the hills. To the ancient Hebrew, heaven and sheol -were the highest and the lowest, but of each the Psalmist says to God, -"Thou art there," and as for the uttermost parts of the sea, "even -there shall thy hand lead me" (Psalm 139:7-10). Cries Jeremiah from -the Old Testament, "Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God -afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not -see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:23, -24). And Paul answers from the New Testament, "Not far from every one -of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:27, -28). But the God of the Bible who so pervades and sustains all -existence never degenerates into a Vapor. When Egyptian taskmasters -crack their whips over Hebrew slaves, he cares. When exiles try in -vain to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, he cares. When evil -men build Jerusalem with blood, and rapacious men pant after the dust -on the head of the poor, he cares. He is prodigiously in earnest, and -those who best represent him, from the great prophets to the -sacrificial Son, are like him in this, that they are mastered by -consuming purpose. The God of the Bible is sadly needed by his people. -For lack of him religion grows often listless and churches become -social clubs. - - -IV - -By another road men travel to believe in a God who is not in earnest: -_they think of him as an historic being_. It was said of Carlyle, -shrewdly if unjustly, that his God lived until the death of Oliver -Cromwell. Whatever may be the truth about Carlyle, it is easy to find -folk whose God to all intents and purposes is dead. Long since he -closed his work, spoke his last word, and settled down to inactivity -and silence. He made the world, created man, thundered from Sinai, -established David's kingdom, brought back the exiles, inspired the -prophets and sent his Son. He _once_ was earnest; the record of his -ancient acts is long and glorious, and men find comfort in reading -what he used to do. They would not explicitly confess it, but in fact -they habitually think of God in the past tense. They cannot conceive -the universe as happening by chance, and they posit God as making it; -they cannot believe that the transcendent characters of olden times -were uninspired, so God becomes the explanation of their power. When -such believers wish to assure themselves of God they go to the stern -of humanity's ship and watch the wake far to the rear; but they never -stand on the ship's bridge, and feel it sway and turn at the touch of -a present Captain in control. They have not risen to the meaning of -the Bible's reiterated phrase, "_the living God_." - -Höffding tells us that in a Danish Protestant church, well on into the -nineteenth century, worshipers maintained the custom of bowing, when -they passed a certain spot upon the wall. The reason, which no one -knew, was discovered when removal of the whitewash revealed a Roman -Catholic Madonna. Folk had bowed for three centuries before the place -where the Madonna _used to be_. So some folk worship deity; he is -not a present reality but a tradition; their faith is directed not -toward the living God himself, but toward what some one else has -written about a God who used to be alive. They do not feel now God's -plans afoot, his purposes as certainly in progress now as ever in -man's history. They stand rather like unconverted Gideon, facing -backwards and lamenting, "Where are all his wondrous works which our -fathers told us of?" (Judges 6:13). - -Not by what we say, but by our practical attitudes we most reveal how -little we believe in an earnest, living God whose voice calls _us_, -whose plans need _us_, as much as ever Moses or David or Paul was -summoned and required. If we say that we do believe in this living God -we are belied by our discouragements, deserving as we often do the -rebuke which Luther's wife administered to the Reformer. "From what -you have said," she remarked, standing before him clothed in deep, -mourning black, "and from the way you feel and act I supposed that God -was dead." If we say that we believe in a living, earnest God, we are -belied by our reluctance to expect and welcome new revelations of -God's truth and enlarging visions of his plan. Willing to believe what -the astronomers say, that light from a new star reaches the earth -each year, we act as though God's spiritual universe were smaller than -his physical, and do not eagerly await the new light perpetually -breaking from his heavens. But most of all the little influence which -our faith in God has upon our practical service is a scathing -indictment of its vitality and power. No one who really believes in an -earnest, living God can have an undedicated life. He may not think of -the Divine in the past tense chiefly; the present and the future even -more belong to God; and through each generation runs the earnest -purpose of the Eternal, who has never said his last word on any -subject, nor put the final hammer blow on any task. A faith like this, -deeply received and apprehended, is a masterful experience. It changes -the inner quality of life; it makes the place whereon we stand holy -ground; it urgently impresses us into the service of those causes that -we plainly see have in them the purpose of God. No outlook upon life -compares with this in grandeur; no motive for life is at once so -weighty and so fine. - - -V - -One of the subtlest fallacies by which we miss believing in an earnest -God is not describable as an opinion. Men fall into it, who neither -reduce God to a Great First Cause, nor diffuse him into a vapor, nor -regard him as an historic being. _They rather allow their superstitious -sentiments to take the place of worthy faith._ Plenty of people who -warmly would insist on their religion, reveal in their practical -attitudes how utterly bereft of serious moral purpose their God is. -They think their fortune will be better if they do not sit thirteen at -a table or occupy room thirteen at a hotel; on occasion they throw -salt or look at the moon over their right shoulders and rap on wood to -assure their safety or their luck; and to be quite certain of divine -favor they hang fetishes, like rabbits' feet, about their necks. Their -attitude toward such surviving pagan superstitions is like -Fontenelli's toward ghosts. "I do not believe in them," he said, "but -I am afraid of them." That this is a law-abiding universe with moral -purpose in it, such folk obviously do not believe. Their God is not in -earnest. He spends his time watching for dinner parties of thirteen or -listening for folk who forget to rap on wood when they boast that -they have not been ill all winter. The utter poverty to which great -words may be reduced by meager minds is evident when such folk say -that they believe in God. - -Even when these grosser forms of superstition are not present, others -hardly more respectable may take their place. God is pictured as a -King, surrounded with court ritual, in the complete and proper -observance of which he takes delight, and any rupture in whose -regularity awakes his anger. To go to church, to say our prayers, to -read our Bibles, to be circumspect on Sunday, to help pay the -preacher's salary and to contribute to the missionary cause--such -things as these comprise the court ritual of God. These Christian acts -are not presented as gracious privileges, opportunities, like fresh -air and sunshine and friendship, to make life rich and serviceable; -they are presented as works of merit, by which we gain standing in -God's favor and assure ourselves of his benignity. For with those who -so conform to his ordinances and respect his taboos, he is represented -as well-pleased, and he blesses them with special favors. But any -infraction of these rituals is sure to bring terrific punishment. God -watches those who do not sing his praises or who fail in praying, and -he marks them for his vengeance! Dr. Jowett tells us that in the -Sunday school room of the English chapel where as a child he -worshiped, a picture hung that to his fascinated and frightened -imagination represented the character of God: a huge eye filled the -center of the heavens, and from it rays of vision fell on every sort -of minute happening and small misdeed on earth. As such a monstrous -Detective, jealous of his rights and perquisites, God is how often -pictured to the children! So H. G. Wells indignantly interprets his -experience: "I, who write, was so set against God, thus rendered. He -and his Hell were the nightmare of my childhood; I hated him while I -still believed in him, and who could help but hate? I thought of him -as a fantastic monster, perpetually spying, perpetually listening, -perpetually waiting to condemn and to strike me dead; his flames as -ready as a grill-room fire. He was over me and about my feebleness and -silliness and forgetfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child -drowning in mid-Atlantic. When I was still only a child of thirteen, -by the grace of the true God in me, I flung this lie out of my mind, -and for many years, until I came to see that God himself had done -this thing for me, the name of God meant nothing to me but the hideous -sear in my heart where a fearful demon had been." - -This "bogey God" is in earnest about nothing except the observance of -his little rituals; he is unworthy of a good man's worship, he has no -purpose that can capture the consent and inspire the loyalty of -serious folk. How many so-called unbelievers are in revolt against -this perversion of the idea of God, taught them in childhood! The -deity whom they refuse to credit is not the Father, with "the eternal -purpose which he purposed in Christ" (Eph. 3:11); often they have not -heard of him. Their denial is directed against another sort of God. "I -wish I could recall clearly," writes one, "the conception of God which -I gained as a boy in Sunday school. He was as old as grandfather, I -know, but not so kind. We were told to fear him." Surely the real God -must sympathize with those who hate his caricature. A vindictive -Bogey, querulous about the mint, anise, and cummin of his ritual, in -earnest about nothing save to reward obsequious servants and to have -his vengeance out on the careless and disobedient, is poles asunder -from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with his majestic -purpose for the world's salvation. - - -VI - -Of all the sentiments, however, by which a worthy faith is made -impossible, none is so common, in these recent years, _as the -ascription to God of a weak and flaccid affectionateness_. God's love -is interpreted by love's meaning in hours when we are gentle with our -children or tender with our friends. The soft and cosy aspects of -love, its comforts, its pities, its affections, are made central in -our thought of God. We are taught, as children, that he loves us as -our mothers do; and as from them we look for coddling when we cry for -it, so are our expectations about God. Our religion becomes a selfish -seeking for divine protection from life's ills, a recipe for ease, an -expectant trust, that as we believe in God he in return will nurse us, -unharmed and happy, through our lives. No one intimately acquainted -with the religious life of men and women can be unaware of this -widespread, ingrained belief in a soft, affectionate, grandmotherly -God. What wonder that life brings fearful disillusionment! What -wonder that in a world where all that is valuable has been - - "Battered with the shocks of doom - To shape and use," - -the God of coddling love seems utterly impossible! - -The lack in this fallacious faith is central; there is no place in it -for the movement of God's moral purpose. _To ascribe love to God -without making it a quality of his unalterable purpose, which must -sweep on through costs in suffering however great, is to misread the -Gospel._ Many kinds of love are known in our experience, from a -nursing mother with her babe to a military leader with his men. In -Donald Hankey's picture of "the Beloved Captain" we see affection and -tenderness, as beautiful as they are strong: "It was a wonderful -thing, that smile of his. It was something worth living for, and worth -working for.... It seemed to make one look at things from a different -point of view, a finer point of view, his point of view. There was -nothing feeble or weak about it.... It meant something. It meant that -we were his men and that he was proud of us.... When we failed him, -when he was disappointed in us, he did not smile. He did not rage or -curse. He just looked disappointed, and that made us feel far more -savage with ourselves than any amount of swearing would have done.... -The fact was that he had won his way into our affections. We loved -him. And there isn't anything stronger than love, when all's said and -done." - -Yet, this Captain, loving and beloved, will lead his men in desperate -charges, where death falls in showers, but where the purpose which -their hearts have chosen forces them to go. The love of God must be -like that; it surely is if Jesus' love is its embodiment. His -affection for his followers, his solicitude and tenderness have been -in Christian eyes, how beautiful! They shine in words like John's -seventeenth chapter where love finds transcendent utterance. Yet this -same Master said: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of -wolves" (Matt. 10:16); "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, -and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for -my sake" (Matt. 5:11); "Then shall they deliver you up unto -tribulation, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all the -nations for my name's sake" (Matt. 24:9); "They shall put you out of -the synagogues; yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall -think that he offereth service unto God" (John 16:2); "If any man -cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, -and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, -he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). The love of Jesus was no -coddling affection; it had for its center a moral purpose that balked -at no sacrifice. He took crucifixion for himself, and to his beloved -he cried, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and -take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Such love is God's; -and _preachers who advertise his Fatherhood as a gentle nurse that -shelters us from suffering have sapped the Gospel of its moral power_. -God's love is austere as well as bountiful; he is, as Emerson said, -the "terrific benefactor." - -Indeed, faith in a God of coddling love may be one of the most -pernicious influences in human life. Our trust, so misinterpreted, -becomes a cushion on which to lie, a sedative by which to sleep. When -ills afflict the world that men could cure, such misbelievers merely -trust in God; when tasks await man's strength, they quietly retreat -upon their faith that God is good and will solve all, until religion -becomes a by-word and a hissing on the lips of earnest men. Such -misbelievers have not dimly seen the Scripture's meaning, where faith -is not a pillow but a shield, from behind which plays a sword (Eph. -6:16) and where men do not sleep by faith, but "fight the good fight -of faith" instead (I Tim. 6:12). Or if such misbelievers do rouse -themselves to lay hold on their Divinity, it is to demand God's love -for them and not to offer their lives to God. As Sydney Smith -exclaimed about some people's patriotism, "God save the King! in these -times too often means, God save my pension and my place, God give my -sisters an allowance out of the Privy Purse, let me live upon the -fruits of other men's industry and fatten upon the plunder of the -public." - -Faith in God never is elevated and ennobling until we overpass "_God -for our lives!_" to cry "_Our lives for God!_" Then at the luminous -center of our faith shines the divine purpose, costly but wonderful, -that binds the ages together in spiritual unity. To that we dedicate -our lives; in that we exceedingly rejoice. No longer do we test God's -goodness by our happiness or our ill-fortune; we are _his_ through -fair weather and through foul. No longer do we merely hold beliefs, we -are held by them, captured now and not simply consoled by faith. Only -so are we learning discipleship to Christ and are beginning really to -believe in the Christian God. - - -VII - -From all these common fallacies of thought and sentiment one turns to -the New Testament to find the God of the Gospel. The very crux of the -Good Tidings is that God is so much in earnest that he is the eternal -Sufferer. The ancient Greeks had a god of perfect bliss; he floated on -from age to age in undisturbed tranquillity; no cry of man ever -reached his empyrean calm; his life was an endless stream of liquid -happiness. How different this Greek deity is from ours may be -perceived if one tries to say of him those things which the Scripture -habitually says of God. "In all their affliction he was afflicted" -(Isa. 63:9); "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should -not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet -will not I forget thee" (Isa. 49:15); "God, being rich in mercy, for -his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead through -our trespasses" (Eph 2:4, 5); "God so loved the world that he gave his -only begotten Son" (John 3:16). None of these things that Christians -say about their God can be said of a deity who dwells in tranquil -bliss. - -Indeed let one stand over against a war-torn, unhappy world and try to -think that God does not suffer in man's agony, and he will see how -useless and incredible such a God would be. God looks on Belgium and -he does not care; he looks on Armenia desolate and Poland devastated, -and he does not care; he sits in heaven and sees his children wounded -and alone in No-man's land, watches the deaths, the heart-breaks, the -poverty of war, its ruined childhood and its shattered families, and -he does not care--how impossible it is to believe in such a God! A God -who does not care does not count. - -Christians, therefore, have the God who really meets the needs of men. -He cares indeed, and, with all the modesty that words of human -emotion must put on when they are applied to him, he suffers in the -suffering of men and is crucified in his children's agonies. God -limited himself in making such a world as this; in it he cannot -lightly do what he will; he has a struggle on his heart; he makes his -way upward against obstacles that man's imagination cannot measure. -There is a cross forever at the heart of God. He climbs his -everlasting Calvary toward the triumph that must come, and he is -tremendously in earnest. - -One important consequence follows such faith as this. Confidence in -such an earnest, sacrificial God makes inevitable the Christian faith -in immortality. Our solar system is no permanent theater for God's -eternal purposes; it is doomed to dissolution as certainly as any -human body is doomed to die. In the Lick observatory one reads this -notice under a picture of the sun: "The blue stars are considered to -be in early life, the yellow stars in middle life, the red stars in -old age.... From the quality of its spectrum the sun is classified as -a star in middle age." Those, therefore, who, denying their own -immortality, comfort themselves with prophesying endless progress for -the race upon the earth, have no basis for their hopes. "We must -therefore renounce those brilliant fancies," says Faye the scientist, -"by which we try to deceive ourselves in order to endow man with -unlimited posterity, and to regard the universe as the immense theater -on which is to be developed a spontaneous progress without end. On the -contrary, life must disappear, and the grandest material works of the -human race will have to be effaced by degrees under the action of a -few physical forces which will survive man for a time. Nothing will -remain--'Even the ruins will perish.'" - -If one believes, therefore, in the God who is in earnest, he cannot -content himself with such a universe--lacking any permanent element, -any abiding reality in which the moral gains of man's long struggle -are conserved. God's purpose cannot be so narrow in horizon that it is -satisfied with a few million years of painful experiment, costly -beyond imagination, yet with no issue to crown its sacrifice. In such -a universe as Faye pictures, lacking immortality, generation after -generation of men suffer, aspire, labor, and die, and this shall be -the history of all creation, until at last Shakespeare's prophecy -shall be fulfilled, - - "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, - The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve - And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, - Leave not a rack behind." - -If such is to be the story of creation, there is no purpose in it and -the Christian faith in an earnest God is vain. - -Only one truth is adequate to crown our confidence in a purposeful -universe and to make it reasonable: _personality must persist_. -We believe in immortality, not because we meanly want rewards ahead, -but because in no other way can life, viewed as a whole, find sense -and reason. If personality persists, this transient theater of action -and discipline may serve its purpose in God's time, and disappear. He -is in earnest, but not for rocks and suns and stars, he is in earnest -about persons--the sheep of his pasture are men. They are not mortal; -they carry over into the eternal world the spiritual gains of earth; -and all life's struggle--its vicarious sacrifice, its fearful -punishments, its labor for better circumstance and worthier life--is -justified in its everlasting influence on personality. When we say -that God cares, we mean no vague, diffusive attitude toward a system -that lasts for limited millenniums and then comes to an uneventful end -in a cold sun and a ruined earth. We mean that he cares for -personality which is his child, that he suffers in the travail of his -children's character, and that this divine solicitude has everlasting -issues when the heavens "wax old like a garment." Still Paul's -statement stands, one of the most worthy summaries of God's -earnestness that ever has been written: "The creation waits with eager -longing for the sons of God to be revealed" (Rom. 8:19).[6] - -[5] George Adam Smith's Translation. - -[6] Moffatt's Translation. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -Faith in Christ the Savior: Forgiveness - - -DAILY READINGS - -During the next two weeks we are to consider some of the distinctive -meanings which faith in Christ has had for his disciples. They have -found in that faith unspeakable blessing and have uttered their -gratitude in radiant language. But, just because of this, many folk -find themselves in difficulty. Their expectations concerning the -Christian life have been lifted very high, and in their experience of -it they have been disappointed. Their problem is not theoretical -doubt, but practical disillusionment. Their difficulty lies in their -experience that the Christian life, while it may be theoretically -true, is not practically what it is advertised to be. At this common -problem let us look in the daily readings. - - -Tenth Week, First Day - -Many expect in the Christian experience an emotional life of joy and -quietude which they have not found. They are led to expect this by -many passages of Scripture about "peace in believing," by many hymns -of exultation where a mood of unqualified spiritual triumph finds -voice, and by testimonies of men who speak of living years without any -depressed hours or flagging spirits. Such a wonderful life of elevated -emotion many crave for themselves; they came into the Christian -fellowship expecting it; and they neither have it, nor are likely to -achieve it. Now the beauty of a clear, high emotional life no one can -doubt, _but we must not demand it as a condition of our keeping -faith_. We ought not to seek God simply for the sake of sensational -experiences, no matter how desirable they may be. In all the ages -before Christ, the outstanding example of deep personal religion, -expressing itself in over forty years of splendidly courageous -prophetic ministry, is Jeremiah, and his temperament was never marked -by quietude and joy. His emotional life was profoundly affected by his -faith: _courage was substituted for fear_. But if he had demanded the -mood of the 103rd psalm as a price for continued faith, he would have -lost his faith. He was not temperamentally constructed like the -psalmist--and he was a far greater personality. We must not be too -much concerned about our spiritual sensations. Consider the Master's -parable about the two sons: one had amiable feelings, but his will was -wrong, the other lacked satisfactory emotions, but he did the work. - - =But what think ye? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and - said, Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. And he answered and said, - I will not: but afterward he repented himself, and went. And he came - to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, - sir: and went not. Which of the two did the will of his father? They - say, The first.--Matt. 21:28-31.= - - _Ah, Lord, unto whom all hearts are open; Thou canst govern the - vessel of our souls far better than we can. Arise, O Lord, and - command the stormy wind and the troubled sea of our hearts to be - still, and at peace in Thee, that we may look up to Thee undisturbed, - and abide in union with Thee, our Lord. Let us not be carried hither - and thither by wandering thoughts, but, forgetting all else, let us - see and hear Thee. Renew our spirits; kindle in us Thy light, that it - may shine within us, and our hearts may burn in love and adoration - towards Thee. Let Thy Holy Spirit dwell in us continually, and make - us Thy temples and sanctuary, and fill us with Divine love and light - and life, with devout and heavenly thoughts, with comfort and - strength, with joy and peace. Amen._--Johann Arndt, 1555. - - -Tenth Week, Second Day - -Many came into the Christian life because they needed conquering power -in their struggle against sin. They were told that absolute victory -could be theirs through Christ, and they set their hearts on that in -ardent hope and expectation. But they are disappointed. That they have -been helped they would not deny, but they find that the battle with -besetting sin is a running fight; it has not been concluded by a final -and resounding victory. This seems to them a denial of what Christian -preachers and Christian hymns have promised, and perhaps it is. Hymns -and preachers are not infallible. Christian experience, however, is -plainly aligned against their disappointment. Some men under the power -of Christ are immediately transformed so that an old sin becomes -thenceforth utterly distasteful; even the desire for it is banished -altogether. But a great preacher, only recently deceased, no less -really under the power of Christ, had all his life to fight a taste -for drink which once had mastered him. His battle never ceased. His -victory consisted not in the elimination of his appetite, but in -abiding power to keep up the struggle, to refuse subjugation to it, -and at last gloriously to fall on sleep, admired and loved by his -people who had seen in him steadfast, unconquerable will, sustained by -faith. To have done with a sinful appetite in one conclusive victory -is glorious; but we must not demand it as a price of keeping faith. -Perhaps our victory must come through the kind of patient persistence -which James the Apostle evidently knew. - - =Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold - temptations; knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. - And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and - entire, lacking in nothing.= - - =But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to - all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let - him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the - surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man - think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a double-minded - man, unstable in all his ways.--James 1:2-8.= - - _O Lord God Almighty, who givest power to the faint, and increasest - strength to them that have no might; without Thee we can do nothing, - but by Thy gracious assistance we are enabled for the performance of - every duty laid upon us. Lord of power and love, we come, trusting in - Thine almighty strength, and Thine infinite goodness, to ask from - Thee what is wanting in ourselves; even that grace which shall help - us such to be, and such to do, as Thou wouldst have us. O our God, - let Thy grace be sufficient for us, and ever present with us, that - we may do all things as we ought. We will trust in Thee, in whom is - everlasting strength. Be Thou our Helper, to carry us on beyond our - own strength, and to make all that we think, and speak, and do, - acceptable in Thy sight; through Jesus Christ. Amen._--Benjamin - Jenks, 1646. - - -Tenth Week, Third Day - - =Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. - He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; - He leadeth me beside still waters. - He restoreth my soul: - He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, - I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; - Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.= - - =--Psalm 23:1-4.= - -What expectations are awakened by such a passage! Many have come into -the Christian life because in experience they have found that "it is -not in man that walketh to direct his steps." They wanted a Guide in -the mysterious pilgrimage of life, and in the words of hymns like, "He -leadeth me, O blessed thought!" they saw the promise of a God-conducted -experience. But they are disappointed. They have the same old puzzles -to face about what they ought to do; they have no divine illumination -that clears up in advance their uncertainty as to the wisdom of their -choices; they are not vividly aware of any guidance from above to save -them from the perplexities which their companions face about conduct -and career. Of course part of their difficulty is due to false -expectation. Not even Paul or John was given mechanical guidance, -infallible and unmistakable; they never had a syllabus of all possible -emergencies with clear directions as to what should be done in every -case; they were guided through their normal faculties made sensitive -to divine suggestion, and doubtless they never could clearly -distinguish between their thought and their inspirations. Divine -guidance, did not save them from puzzling perplexities and unsure -decisions. But it did give them certainty that they were in God's -hands; that he had hold of the reins behind their human grasp; that -when they did wisely and prayerfully the best they knew, he would use -it somehow to his service. And so far as the vivid consciousness of -being guided is concerned, that probably came _in retrospect_; when -they saw how the road came out, they agreed that God's hand must have -been in the journey. Such an experience it is reasonable to expect and -possible to have. - - _O God our Lord, the stay of all them that put their trust in Thee, - wherever Thou leadest we would go, for Thy ways are perfect wisdom - and love. Even when we walk through the dark valley, Thy light can - shine into our hearts and guide us safely through the night of - sorrow. Be Thou our Friend, and we need ask no more in heaven or - earth, for Thou art the Comfort of all who trust in Thee, the Help - and Defence of all who hope in Thee. O Lord, we would be Thine; let - us never fall away from Thee. We would accept all things without - murmuring from Thy hand, for whatever Thou dost is right. Blend our - wills with Thine, and then we need fear no evil nor death itself, for - all things must work together for our good. Lord, keep us in Thy love - and truth, comfort us with Thy light, and guide us by Thy Holy - Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--S. Weiss, 1738. - - -Tenth Week, Fourth Day - -Many folk grow up into the Christian life, and so interpret the love -of God that they expect from him affectionate mothering; they look to -him to keep them from trouble. In childhood, sheltered from life's -tragic incidents, this expectation was more or less realized; but now -in maturity they are disappointed. God has not saved them from -trouble; he has not dealt with them in maternal tenderness. Rather -Job's complaint to God is on their lips: - - =I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: - I stand up, and thou gazest at me. - Thou art turned to be cruel to me; - With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me....= - - =Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? - Was not my soul grieved for the needy? - When I looked for good, then evil came; - And when I waited for light, there came darkness. - My heart is troubled, and resteth not; - Days of affliction are come upon me.= - - =--Job 30:20, 21; 25-27.= - -One such disappointed spirit says that in youth, even if she hurt her -finger, she was told to pray to God and he would take away the bruise; -but now life does not seem to be directed by that kind of a God at -all. It isn't! A pregnant source of lost faith is to be found in this -unscriptural presentation of God's love. In Scripture God's love for -his people and their tragic suffering are put side by side, and the -Cross where the well-beloved Son is crucified is typical of the whole -Book's assertion that God does not keep his children from trouble. -Sometimes he leads them into it; and always he lets the operation of -his essential laws sweep on, so that disease and accident and death -are no respecters of character. When Ananias was sent with God's -message to the newly converted Paul, that greeting into the Christian -life concerned "how many things he must suffer" (Acts 9:16). Whatever -else our faith must take into account, this is an unescapable fact: we -are seeking the impossible when we ask that our lives be arranged on -the basis that we shall not face trouble. Faith means a conquering -confidence that good will, a purpose of eternal love, runs through the -whole process. It says, not apart from suffering, but in the face of -it: - - "I'm apt to think the man - That could surround the sum of things, and spy - The heart of God and secrets of his empire, - Would speak but love--with him the bright result - Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, - And make one thing of all Theology." - - _Almighty God to whom all things belong, whose is light and darkness, - whose is good and evil, Master of all things, Lord of all; who hast - so ordered it, that life from the beginning shall be a struggle - throughout the course, and even to the end; so guide and order that - struggle within us, that at last what is good in us may conquer, and - all evil be overcome, that all things may be brought into harmony, - and God may be all in all. So do Thou guide and govern us, that - every day whatsoever betide us, some gain to better things, some - more blessed joy in higher things may be ours, that so we, though but - weaklings, may yet, God-guided, go from strength to strength, until - at last, delivered from that burden of the flesh, through which comes - so much struggling, we may enter into the land of harmony and of - eternal peace. Hear us, of Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Amen._--George Dawson, 1877. - - -Tenth Week, Fifth Day - - =Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge - of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the - stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, - tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by - the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but - speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is - the head, even Christ.--Eph. 4:13-15.= - -Many came into the Christian life familiar with such an idea of -growth. They expected the new life to be an enlarging experience, with -new vistas, deepening satisfactions, increasing certitude. If at the -beginning the Christian way did not content them, they blamed their -immaturity for the unsatisfactory experience; they appealed to the -days ahead for fuller light. But they are disappointed. They have not -grown. The most they can claim is that they are stationary; the -haunting suspicion cannot altogether be avoided that their faith is -dwindling and their fervor burning down. This difficulty is not -strange--with many folk it is inevitable; for they have never grasped -the fact that the Christian life, like all life whatsoever, is -law-abiding, and that to expect effects without cause is vain. That a -Christian experience has begun with promise does not mean that it will -magically continue; that the spirit will naturally drift into an -enlarging life. An emotional conversion, like a flaming meteor, may -plunge into a man's heart, and soon cool off, leaving a dead, encysted -stone. But to have a real life in God, that begins like a small but -vital acorn and grows like an aspiring oak, one must obey the laws -that make such increasing experience possible. To keep fellowship with -God unimpeded by sin, uninterrupted by neglect; to think habitually as -though God were, instead of casually believing that he is; to -practice love continually until love grows real; and to arrange life's -program conscientiously as though the doing of God's will were life's -first business--such things alone make spiritual growth a possibility. - - _We desire to confess, O Lord, that we have not lived according to - our promises, nor according to the thoughts and intents of our - hearts. We have felt the gravitation of things that drew us downward - from things high and holy. We have followed right things how feebly! - Weak are we to resist the attraction of evils that lurk about the way - of goodness; and we are conscious that we walk in a vain show. We - behold and approve Thy law, but find it hard to obey; and our - obedience is of the outside, and not of the soul and of the spirit, - with heartiness and full of certainty. We rejoice that Thou art a - Teacher patient with Thy scholars, and that Thou art a Father patient - with Thy children. Thou art a God of long-suffering goodness, and of - tender mercies, and therefore we are not consumed._ - - _And now we beseech of Thee, O Thou unwearied One, that Thou wilt - inspire us with a heavenly virtue. Lift before us the picture of what - we should be and what we should do, and maintain it in the light, - that we may not rub it out in forgetfulness; that we may be able to - keep before ourselves our high calling in Christ Jesus. And may we - press forward, not as they that have attained or apprehended; may we - press toward the mark, for the prize of our high calling in Christ - Jesus, with new alacrity, with growing confidence, and with more and - more blessedness of joy and peace in the soul. Amen._--Henry Ward - Beecher. - - -Tenth Week, Sixth Day - -The Christian experience which disappoints its possessor by lack of -growth is common, because so many leave the idea of growth vague and -undefined. They expect in general to grow, but in what direction, to -what describable results, they never stop to think. If we ran our -other business as thoughtlessly, with as little determinate planning -and discipline, as we manage our Christian living, any progress would -be impossible. What wonder that as Christians we often resemble the -child who fell from bed at night, and explained the accident by -saying, "I must have gone to sleep too near the place where I got in"! - -Growth is always in definite directions, and folk will do well at -times, without morbid self-examination, to forecast their desired -courses. Becoming Christians from motives of fear, as many do, we -should press on to a fellowship with God in which fear vanishes in -divine friendship and cooperation. Choosing the Christian life for -self-centered reasons, because it can do great things for us, we -should press on to glory in it as a Cause on which the welfare of the -race depends and for which we willingly make sacrifice. Beginning with -narrow ideas of service to our friends and neighborhood, we should -press on to genuine interest in the world-field, in international -fraternity, and in Christ's victory over all mankind. Such definite -lines of progress we well may set before us. And a life that does -grow, so that each new stage of maturing experience finds deeper -levels and greater heights, is never disappointing; it is life become -endlessly interesting and worth while. - - =Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I - press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was - laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to - have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are - behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I - press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in - Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus - minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall - God reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have attained, by that same - rule let us walk.--Phil. 3:12-16.= - - _Our Father, we pray Thee that we may use the blessings Thou hast - given us, and never once abuse them. We would keep our bodies - enchanted still with handsome life, wisely would we cultivate the - intellect which Thou hast throned therein, and we would so live with - conscience active and will so strong that we shall fix our eye on the - right, and, amid all the distress and trouble, the good report and - the evil, of our mortal life, steer straightway there, and bate no - jot of human heart or hope. We pray Thee that we may cultivate still - more these kindly hearts of ours, and faithfully perform our duty to - friend and acquaintance, to lover and beloved, to wife and child, to - neighbor and nation, and to all mankind. May we feel our brotherhood - to the whole human race, remembering that nought human is strange to - our flesh but is kindred to our soul. Our Father, we pray that we may - grow continually in true piety, bringing down everything which would - unduly exalt itself, and lifting up what is lowly within us, till, - though our outward man perish, yet our inward man shall be renewed - day by day, and within us all shall be fair and beautiful to Thee, - and without us our daily lives useful, our whole consciousness - blameless in Thy sight. Amen._--Theodore Parker. - - -Tenth Week, Seventh Day - -While some, for reasons such as we have suggested, have made at least -a partial failure of the Christian life, and are tempted to feel that -their experience is an argument against it, we may turn with -confidence to the multitude who have found life with Christ an -ineffable blessing. - - =There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ - Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free - from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in - that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the - likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: - that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not - after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the - flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the - Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; - but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.--Rom. 8:1-6.= - -Innumerable disciples of Jesus can subscribe to this Pauline -testimony, and the center of their gratitude, as of his, is the -victory over sin which faith in Christ has given them. The farther -they go with him the more wonderful becomes the meaning of his Gospel. -What Thomas Fuller, in the seventeenth century, wrote about the Bible, -they feel about their whole relationship with Christ: "Lord, this -morning I read a chapter in the Bible, and therein observed a -memorable passage, whereof I never took notice before. Why now, and no -sooner, did I see it? Formerly my eyes were as open, and the letters -as legible. Is there not a thin veil laid over Thy Word, which is -more rarified by reading, and at last wholly worn away? I see the oil -of Thy Word will never leave increasing whilst any bring an empty -barrel." As for the consciousness of filial alliance with the God and -Father of Jesus, that has been a deepening benediction. How many can -take over the dual inscription on an ancient Egyptian temple, as an -expression of their own experience! A priest had written, in the name -of the Deity, "I am He who was and is and ever shall be, and my veil -hath no man lifted." But near at hand, some man of growing life and -deepening faith has added: "Veil after veil have we lifted, and ever -the Face is more wonderful." - - _Eternal and Gracious Father, whose presence comforteth like sunshine - after rain; we thank Thee for Thyself and for all Thy revelation to - us. Our hearts are burdened with thanksgiving at the thought of all - Thy mercies; for all the blessings of this mortal life, for health, - for reason, for learning, and for love; but far beyond all thought - and thankfulness, for Thy great redemption. It was no painless - travail that brought us to the birth, it has been no common patience - that has borne with us all this while; long-suffering love, and the - breaking of the eternal heart alone could reconcile us to the life to - which Thou hast ordained us. We have seen the Son of Man sharing our - sickness and shrinking not from our shame, we have beheld the Lamb of - God bearing the sins of the world, we have mourned at the mysterious - passion and stood astonished at the cross of Jesus Christ; and behind - all we have had the vision of an altar-throne and one thereon slain - from the foundation of the world; heard a voice calling us that was - full of tears; seen beyond the veil that was rent, the agony of God._ - - _O for a thousand tongues to sing the love that has redeemed us. O - for a thousand lives that we might yield them all to Thee. Amen._--W. - E. Orchard. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -Hitherto in our studies we have thought of God as the object of our -faith. From the beginning, to be sure, we have been using the Master -as the Way. The God who is in earnest about immortal personalities is -supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. But through Christ's mediation we -have been trying to pierce to the Eternal character and purpose; we -have been taking Jesus at his word, "He that believeth on me, -believeth not on me but on him that sent me" (John 12:44). - -The meaning of faith for the Christian, however, cannot be left as -though Christ were an instrument which God used for his revealing and -then thrust aside, a symbol in terms of whom we may poetically picture -God. Christ has been for his people more than a transparent pane, -itself almost forgettable, through which the divine light shone. His -personality has been central and dominant, and when his disciples have -most vividly expressed the meaning of their faith they have said that -they believed in him. The first Christians whose experience is -enshrined in the New Testament did not deal with faith in God alone. -They adored Jesus; they were illimitably thankful to him; they -rejoiced to call themselves his bondservants and to suffer for him; -they claimed him as a brother, but they acknowledged him their Lord as -well; and they bowed before him with inexpressible devotion. "They all -set him in the same incomparable place. They all acknowledged to him -the same immeasurable debt." - -One need not read far in the New Testament to see why these first -disciples so adored their Lord. He was their Savior. They called him -by many other names--Messiah, _Logos_, Son of Man, and Son of God--in -their endeavor to do justice to his work and character, but one name -shines among all the rest and swings them about it like planets round -a sun. He is the Savior. From the annunciation to Joseph, "Thou shalt -call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from -their sins" (Matt. 1:21), to the New Song of the Apocalypse (Rev. -5:5-13), the New Testament is written around the central theme of -saviorhood. These first disciples were vividly aware of an abysmal -need, which had been met in Christ, a great peril from which through -him they had escaped; and throughout the New Testament one never loses -the accent of astonished gratitude, from folk who were once slaves and -now are free, who from victims have been turned to victors. When -Wilberforce's long campaign for the freeing of British slaves was at -its climax, the population of Jamaica lined the shore for days -awaiting the ship that should bring news of Parliament's decision. And -when from a boat's prow the messenger cried "Freedom," the island -rang with the thanksgiving of the liberated. Such rejoicing one hears -in the New Testament. The disciples speak of the freedom wherewith -Christ has set them free (Gal. 5:1); they say that they were dead and -now are made alive (Rom. 6:11-13); once overwhelmed by sin, they now -cry, "More than conquerors" (Rom. 8:37). Nor have they any doubt who -is the agent or what is the agency of their salvation: Christ is the -Savior and faith the means. "This is the victory that hath overcome -the world," they cry, "even our faith" (I John 5:4). - -If we are to understand this attitude of the first disciples toward -Christ the Savior, _we must appreciate as they did the peril from -which he rescued them_. One cannot understand the meaning of any -character who, like Moses, delivered a people from their bondage, -unless he deeply feels the importance of the problem to whose solution -the man contributed. Moses shines out against the background of a -nation's trouble like a star against the midnight sky. When the -blackness of the night is gone, the star has vanished, too. The race's -deliverers never can retain their brightness in our gratitude unless -we keep alive in our remembrance the evil against which they fought. -If we would know Moses, we must know Pharaoh; if we would know -Wellington, we must know Napoleon. If we are to value truly the great -educators, we must estimate aright the blight that ignorance lays on -human life. John Howard will be nothing to us, if we do not know the -ancient prison system in comparison with which even our modern jails -are paradise; and Florence Nightingale will be an empty name, if we -cannot imagine the terrors of war without a nurse. Always we must see -the stars against the night. - -Nor is there any other way in which a Christian can keep alive a vital -understanding of his Lord. Many modern Christians seem to have lost -vision of the problem that Jesus came to solve, of the human peril to -whose conquest he made the supreme contribution. They think that the -Church has adored Jesus because of a metaphysical theory about him, -but all theories concerning Christ have arisen from a previous -devotion to him. Or they think that Jesus is adored because he was so -uniquely beautiful in character. But while without this his people -never would have called him Lord, not on this account chiefly have -they looked on him with inexpressible devotion. No one can understand -the Christian attitude toward Jesus except in terms of the bondage -from which he came to rescue us. There is a human cry that makes his -advent meaningful; it is like the night behind the star of Bethlehem. -Long ago a Psalmist heard that cry and every age and land and soul has -echoed it, "My sins are mightier than I" (Psalm 65:3).[7] - - -II - -The peril of sin as the innermost problem of human life is in these -days obscure to many minds. For one thing, sin has been so -continuously preached about, that it seems to some an ecclesiastical -question, fit for discussion, it may be, in a church on Sunday, but -otherwise not often emerging in ordinary thought. But sin is no -specialty of preaching. If a man, forgetting churches and sermons, -seriously ponders human life as he knows it actually to be, if he -gathers up in his imagination the deepest heartaches of the race, its -worst diseases, its most hopeless miseries, its ruined childhood, its -dissevered families, its fallen states, its devastated continents, he -soon will see that the major cause of all this can be spelled with -three letters--sin. To make vivid this peril as the very crux of -humanity's problem on the earth, one needs at times to leave behind -the customary thoughts and phrases of religion and to seek testimony -from sources that the Church frequently forgets. When governments try -to build social states where equity and happiness shall reign, their -prison systems, their criminal codes, their courts of law loudly -advertise that their problem lies in sin. When jurists plan leagues of -nations and sign covenants to make the world a more fraternal place, -only to find greed, hate, and cruelty demolishing their well-laid -schemes, their failure uncovers the crucial problem of man's sin. When -philanthropists try to lift from man's bent back the burdens that -oppress him, it becomes plain how infinitely their task would be -lightened, if it were not for sin. As for literature--where the seers, -regardless of religious prejudice, have tried to see into the human -heart and truly to report their insights--its witness is overwhelming -as to what man's problem is. No great book of creative literature was -ever written without sin at the center. Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, -Faust, Les Misérables, Romola, The Scarlet Letter--let the list be -extended in any direction and to any length! Always the insight of the -creative seers reports one inner peril of the race. Sin is no bogey -erected by the theologians, no ghost imagined by minds grown morbid -with the fear of God. Sin to every seeing eye is the one most real and -practical problem of mankind. - -For another reason this crucial problem is dimly seen by many minds: -we do not often use the word about ourselves. The hardest thing that -any man can ever say is "I have sinned." We make mistakes, we have -foibles of character and conduct, we even fall into error--but we do -not often sin. By such devices we avoid the painful consciousness of -our inward malady and even the name of our disease is banished from -decorous speech. But sin does not go into exile with its name. Sin has -many aliases and can swiftly shift its guise to gain a welcome into -any company. - -Sin in the slums is gross and terrible. It staggers down the streets, -blasphemes with oaths that can be heard, wallows in vice unmentionable -by modest lips. Then some day prosperity may visit it. It moves to a -finer residence, seeks the suburbs, or finds domicile on a college -campus. It changes all its clothes. No longer is it indecent and -obscene. Its speech is mild, its civility is irreproachable. It gathers -a company of friends who minister to pleasure and respectability, -and the cry of the world's need dies unheard at its peaceful door. It -presses its face continually through the pickets of social allowance, -like a bad boy who wishes to trespass on forbidden ground but fears -the consequence. Its goodness is superficial seeming; at heart it is -as bad as it dares to be. It has completely changed its garments, but -it is the same sin--indulgent, selfish, and unclean. Sin, as anyone -can easily observe, takes a very high polish. - -Neither by calling sin an ecclesiastical concern nor by covering its -presence in ourselves with pleasant euphemisms can we hide its deadly -bane in human life. The truth and import of this negative statement -become clear and convincing when its positive counterpart is faced. -The world needs _goodness_. The one thing in which mankind is poor and -for the lack of which great causes lag and noble hopes go unfulfilled -is character. With each access of that humanity leaps forward; with -the sag of that all else is failure. And the one name for every loss -and lack and ruin of character is sin. That is our enemy. Upon the -defeat of that all our dearest hopes depend, and in its victory every -dream of good that the race has cherished comes to an end. - - -III - -The urgency of this truth is manifest when we note the consequence of -sin in our own lives. No statement from antiquity has accumulated more -confirming evidence in the course of the centuries than the Psalmist's -cry, "My sins are mightier than I." Let us consider its truth in the -light of our experience. - -Our sins are stronger than we are _in their power to fasten on us a -sense of guilt that we cannot shake off_. Sinful pleasures lure us -only in _anticipation_, dancing before us like Salome before her -uncle, quite irresistible in fascination. Happiness seems altogether -to depend upon an evil deed. But on the day that deed, long held in -alluring expectation, is actually done--how swift and terrible the -alteration in its aspect! It passes from anticipation, through -committal, into memory, and it never will be beautiful again. We lock -it in remembrance, as in the bloody room of Bluebeard's palace, where -the dead things hung; at the thought of it we shrink and yet to it our -reminiscence continually is drawn. Something happens in us as -automatic as the dropping of a loosened apple from a tree; all the -laws of the moral universe conspire to further it and we have no power -to prevent: sin becomes guilt. When on a lonely ocean the floating -bell-buoys toll, no human hands cause them to ring; the waste of an -unpeopled ocean surrounds them everyway. The sea by its own -restlessness is ringing its own bells. So tolls remorse in a man's -heart and no man can stop it. - -Our sins are stronger than we are _in their power to become habitual_. -If one who steps from an upper window had only the single act to -consider, his problem would be simple. He could step or not as he -chose. But when one steps from an upper window he finds himself -dealing with a power over which his will has no control. Master of his -single act, he is not master of the _gravitation_ that succeeds it. -Many a youth blithely plays with sin, supposing that separate -deeds--which he may do or refrain from as he will--make up the -problem. Soon or late he finds that he is dealing with moral laws, -built into the structure of the universe as gravitation is--laws -which he did not create and whose operation he cannot control. By them -with terrific certainty thoughts grow to deeds, deeds to habits, -habits to character, character to destiny. - -At the beginning sin always comes disguised as liberty. Its lure is -the seductive freedom which it promises from the trammels of -conscience and the authority of law. But every man who ever yet -accepted sin's offer of a free, unfettered life, discovered the cheat. -Free to do the evil thing, to indulge the baser moods--so men begin, -but they end _not free to stop_, bound as slaves to the thing -that they were free to do. They have been at liberty to play with a -cuttle-fish, and now that the first long arm with its suckers grasps -them, and the second arm is waving near, they are not at liberty to -get away. - -Our sins are mightier than we are _in their power to make us tempt our -fellows_. When we picture our sinfulness, even to ourselves, we -naturally represent our lives assailed by the allurements of evil and -passively surrendering. We are the tempted; we pity ourselves because -the outward pressure was too strong for the inward braces. We forget -that in sin we are not simply the passive subjects of temptation; sin -always makes us active tempters of our fellows. No drug fiend ever is -content until he wins a comrade in his vice; a thief would have his -friends steal, too; a gossip is not satisfied until other lips are -tearing reputations into shreds; and vindictiveness is happiest when -other hearts as well are lighted with lurid tempers. Sin always is -contagious as disease is; the tempted becomes tempter on the instant -that he falls. Peter weak, lures Jesus to his weakness, and the Master -recognizes the active quality of his disciple's sin; "Get thee behind -me, Satan!" (Matt. 16:23). Sin satanizes men and sends them out to -seduce their fellows. When, therefore, a sensitive man repents of his -evil, he abhors himself--not mildly as a victim, but profoundly as a -victimizer. He repents of the way he has played Satan to others, -sometimes deliberately, sometimes by the unconscious influence of an -unworthy spirit. He remembers the times when his words have poisoned -the atmosphere which others breathed, when his tempers have conjured -up evil spirits in other hearts, when his attitude has made wrongdoing -easy for his friends and family, and well-doing hard. And his -desperate helplessness in the face of sin is made most evident when he -recalls the irrecoverable injury which lives have suffered and are -suffering, hurt, perhaps ruined, by his evil. - -_Our sins are mightier than we are in their power to bring their -natural consequences upon other lives._ The landlord, of whom -President Hyde has told, who without disinfection rented to a new -family an apartment where a perilous disease had been, is typical of -every evil-doer. When the only child of the incoming family fell sick -of the disease and died, and the landlord was faced with his guilt, he -pleaded his unwillingness to spend the money which the disinfection -would have cost. He denied his Lord for ten dollars. Let the law -punish him as it can, the crux of his moral problem lies in the fact -that however much he may be sorry now, he never can bear all the -consequences of his sin. Somewhere there is a childless home bearing -part of the result of his iniquity. One who had done a deed like that -might well crave death and oblivion. But everyone who ever sinned is -in that estate. No man ever succeeded in building around his evil a -wall high and thick enough to contain all evil's consequences. They -always flow over and seep through; they fall in cruel disaster on -those who love us best. One never estimates his sin aright until he -sees that no man ever bears all the results of his own evil. Always -our sins nail somebody else to a cross; they even "crucify ... the Son -of God afresh" (Heb. 6:6). - -Such is the meaning of the peril against whose background the New -Testament believers saw the luminous figure of the Savior. Sin brings -men into the debt of a great guilt which they cannot pay and into the -bondage of tyrannous habits which they cannot break; it makes men -tempting satans to their fellows, and it hurls its results like -vitriol across the faces of their family and friends. And when one -looks on the lamentable evils of the world at large, its sad -inequities, its furious wars, he sees no need to deal delicately with -sin or to speak of it in apologetic tones. Sin is, as the New -Testament saw it, the central problem of mankind. If anyone has ever -come with the supreme contribution to its conquest, the face of the -world may well be turned toward him today. In the Christian's faith, -such a Savior has come. For if the visitor from Mars who so often has -been imagined coming to earth, should come again, and amazed at the -churches built, the anthems sung, the service wrought in Jesus' name, -should curiously inquire what this character had done to awaken such -response, we should have to answer: Jesus of Nazareth made no direct -contribution to science or art or government or law--with none of -these important realms did he concern himself. Only one thing he did: -_he made the indispensable contribution to man's fight for great -character against sin_. And because that is man's crucial problem, all -science, art, government, and law are under an unpayable indebtedness -to him. Because that is man's innermost need, his birthday has become -the hinge of history, until one cannot write a letter to his friend -without dating his familiar act from the advent of him who came to -save us in our struggle for godliness against evil. - - -IV - -Faith in Christ has a double relationship with the problem of man's -sin; it concerns _the basis on which we are to be judged and the -strength by which we are to conquer_. Christ has brought to men a -gospel of forgiveness and power. With regard to the first--and with -the first alone this chapter is concerned--the opinion of many modern -men is swift and summary: folk are to be judged by what they do; the -output of a man, as of a machine, is the test of him. Until this -popular method of judgment is convicted of inadequacy, there is no -hope of understanding what Christians have meant by being "saved -through faith" (Eph. 2:8). We must see that men are worth more than -they _do_. - -A man's deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment, because -_motives for the same act may be low or high_. No one can be -unaware of the Master's meaning when he speaks of those who do their -alms before men to be seen of them (Matt. 6:1ff), or of Paul's when he -says, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor ... but have not -love" (I Cor. 13:3). Some men habitually shine to good advantage by -such means; they have the facile gift of putting their best foot -forward. Like a store at Christmas time, its finest goods in the -window and inferior stock for sale upon the counters, they are -infinitely skilful in gaining more credit than their worth deserves. -One who has dealt with such folk becomes aware that to estimate an -isolated deed is superficial; one must know the motive. A cup of cold -water or a widow's penny may awake the Master's spirited approval, and -millions rung into the temple treasury by showy Pharisees meet only -scorn. - -Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because, while we -are more than body, _our bodies are the instruments of all that -visibly we do_. Many a man in spirit is like a swift mill race, -eager for service, but the flesh, a battered mill wheel, ill sustains -the spirit's vehemence; it breaks before the shock. One must shut the -gates and patch up the wheel, before the spirit, impatient for -utterance, may have its way again; and some mill-wheels never can be -mended. Says one of Robert Louis Stevenson's biographers: "When a -temporary illness lays him on his back, he writes in bed one of his -most careful and thoughtful papers, the discourse on 'The Technical -Elements in Style.' When ophthalmia confines him to a darkened room, -he writes by the diminished light. When after hemorrhage, his right -hand has to be held in a sling, he writes some of his 'Child's Garden' -with his left hand. When the hemorrhage has been so bad that he dare -not speak, he dictates a novel in the deaf and dumb alphabet." When -one has lived with handicapped folk, discerning behind the small -amount of work the infinite willingness for more, and in the work done -a quality that makes quantity seem negligible, he perceives that deeds -are no sufficient measure of spiritual value. Only an eye that pierces -behind the unwrought work to the _man_, willing while the flesh -was weak, can ever estimate how much some spirits are worth. - -Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because _men face -unequal opportunities_. Some start with one talent, some with ten. -The cherished son of a Christian family ought to live a decent life; -how favorable his chance! But if a vagrant wharf-rat by some -mysterious vision of decency and determination of character makes a -man of himself, how much more his credit! The worth of goodness cannot -be estimated without knowledge of the struggle which it cost. When one -considers the smug, conventional respectability of some, possessing -every favorable help to goodness, and the rough but genuine integrity -of others who have fought a great fight against crippling handicaps to -character, he sees why, in any righteous judgment, the last will be -first, as Jesus said, and the first last. Only God, with power to -understand what heredity and circumstance some men have faced, what -enticements they have met, what a fight they have really waged even -when they may have seemed to fail, can tell how much they are worth. - - "What's done we partly may compute, - But know not what's resisted." - -Judgment based on deeds alone can never truly estimate a man, because -in every important decision of our lives an _"unpublished self" -finds no expression in our outward act_. Duty is not always clear; -at times it seems a labyrinth without a clue. Perplexed, we balance in -long deliberation the opposing reasons for this act or that, until, -forced to choose, we obtain only a majority vote for the decision. Yet -that uncertain majority alone is published in our deed; man's eyes -never see the unexpressed protestant minority behind. And when the -choice proves wrong, and friends are grieved and enemies condemn and -what we did is hateful to ourselves, only one who knows how much we -wanted to do right, and who accounts not only the published but the -unpublished self can truly estimate our worth. Peter, who denied his -Lord, it may be because he wanted the privilege of being near him at -the trial, is not the only one who has appealed from the outward -aspect of his deed to the inner intention of his heart: "Lord, thou -knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee" (John 21:17). - -Moreover, even when we choose aright, _no deed can ever gather into -utterance all that is best and deepest in us_. A mother's love is -as much greater than any word she speaks or act she does, as the -sunshine is greater than the focused point where in a burning glass we -gather a ray of it. We are infinitely more than words can utter or -deeds express. No adequate judgment, therefore, can rest on deeds -alone. A machine may be estimated by its output, but a man is too -subtle and profound, his motives and purposes too inexpressible, his -temptations and inward struggles too intimate and unrevealed, his -possibilities too great to be roughly estimated by his acts alone. - - "Not on the vulgar mass - Called 'work' must sentence pass, - Things done, that took the eye and had the price; - O'er which, from level stand, - The low world laid its hand, - Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: - - But all, the world's coarse thumb - And finger failed to plumb, - So passed in making up the main account; - All instincts immature, - All purposes unsure, - That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: - - Thoughts hardly to be packed - Into a narrow act, - Fancies that broke through language and escaped; - All I could never be, - All, men ignored in me, - This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped." - - -V - -If, however, we are to understand the Christian's meaning when he -speaks of being saved by faith (Rom. 3:28; 5:1; Gal. 3:24), we need to -see not only that men are worth more than they _do_, but as well that -they are worth more than they _are_. Some things always start large -and grow small; some things always start small and grow large; but a -man may do either, and his value is determined not so much by the -position he is in, as it is by the direction in which he is moving. -Even of stocks upon the market in their rise and fall this truth is -clear. The figure at which a stock is quoted is important, but the -meaning of that figure cannot be understood unless one knows whether -it was reached on the way up or the way down. How much more is any -static judgment of a man impossible! One starts at the summit, with -endowments and opportunities that elevate him far above his fellows, -and frittering away his chance, drifts down. Another, beginning at the -bottom, by dint of resolute endeavor climbs upward, achieving -character in the face of odds before which ordinary men succumb. -Somewhere these two men will pass, and, statically judged, will be of -equal worth. But one is drifting down; one climbing up. The innermost -secret of their spiritual value lies in that hidden fact. _When, -therefore, one would judge a man, he must pierce behind the deeds that -he can see, behind the present quality that he can estimate, back to -the thing the man has set his heart upon, to the direction of his -life, to the ideal which masters him--that is, to his faith._ There -lies the potential future of the man, his ultimate worth, the seed of -his coming fruit. If one has eyes to see what that faith is, he knows -the man and what the man is bound to be. - -When, therefore, men set their hearts on Christ, lay hold on him by -faith as life's Master and its goal, that faith opens the door to -God's forgiveness. In Augustine's luminous phrase, "The Christian -already has in Christ what he hopes for in himself." He is Christ's -brother in the filial life with God, young, immature, undeveloped--but -the issue of that life is the measure of the stature of Christ's -fulness. God does not demand the end when only the beginning is -possible, does not scorn the dawn because it is not noon. He welcomes -the first movement of man's spirit toward him, not for the fruit which -yet is unmatured, but for the seed which still is in the germ; he -takes the will for the deed, because the will is earnest; he sees the -journey's end in Christlike character, when at the road's beginning -the pilgrim takes the first step by faith. There is no fiction here; -God ought to forgive and welcome such a man. All good parents act so -toward their children. This divine grace corresponds with truth, for a -man is _worth_ the central, dominant faith, that determines -life's direction and decides its goal. And the Gospel that God so -deals with man, announced in the words of Jesus, illustrated in his -life, sealed in his death, has been a boon to the race that puts all -men under an immeasurable debt to Christ. - - -VI - -This method of judgment which all good men use with their friends and -families has been often disbelieved, in its Christian formulations, -because it has been misrepresented and misunderstood. But human life, -far outside religious boundaries, continually illustrates the wisdom -and righteousness of so judging men by faith. Roswell McIntyre -deserted during the Civil War; he was caught, court-martialled, and -condemned to death. He stood with no defense for his deed, no just -complaint against the penalty, and with nothing to plead save shame -for his act, and faith that, with another chance, he could play the -man. On that, the last recourse of the condemned, President Lincoln -pardoned him. - - "EXECUTIVE MANSION, - Oct. 4, 1864. - - Upon condition that Roswell McIntyre of Co. E, 6th Reg't of New York - Cavalry, returns to his Regiment and faithfully serves out his term, - making up for lost time, or until otherwise discharged, he is fully - pardoned for any supposed desertion heretofore committed, and this - paper is his pass to go to his regiment. - - ABRAHAM LINCOLN." - -Was such clemency an occasion for lax character? The answer is written -across the face of Mr. Lincoln's letter in the archives: "Taken from -the body of R. McIntyre at the Battle of Five Forks, Va., 1865." Five -Forks was the last cavalry action of the war; McIntyre went through to -the finish. - -Any one who knows the experience of being forgiven understands the -motives that so remake a pardoned deserter. The relief from the old -crushing condemnation, the joy of being trusted again beyond desert, -the gratitude that makes men rather die than be untrue a second time, -the unpayable indebtedness from which ambition springs, "whether at -home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him" (II Cor. 5:9)--this is -the moral consequence of being pardoned. Goodness so begotten reaches -deep and high, has in it conscious joy and hope, feels vividly the -value of its moral victories, possesses great motives for sacrificial -service in the world. The Apocalypse is right. There is a song in -heaven that angels cannot sing. Only men like McIntyre will know how -to sing it. - -The vital and transforming faith that saves is always better presented -in a story than in an argument, and in the Scripture the best -description of it is Jesus' parable of the Prodigal. As the Master -drew that portrait of life in the far country, all the watching -Pharisees thought that such a boy was lost. The Prodigal himself must -have guessed that his case was hopeless. His friends, his character, -his reputation, his will were gone, and in the inner court-room of his -soul with maddening iteration he heard sentence passed, Guilty. Only -one hope remained. If he was unspoiled enough by the far country's -pitiless brutality to think that at home they might bear no grudge, -might find forgiveness possible, might offer him another chance as a -hired servant, if he could think that perhaps his father even _wanted_ -him to come home, then there was hope. With such slender faith the boy -turned back from the far country. He had the same lack of character, -the same weakened will, the same evil habits. Only one difference had -as yet been wrought. Before, he had been facing toward swine, now he -was facing toward home. The _direction_ of his life was changed by -faith. And when the father saw him, homeward bound, "_while he was yet -afar off,_" forgiveness welcomed him. No pardon could unload from the -lad's life all the fearful consequences of his sin. As long as he -lived, the scars on health, repute, and usefulness were there. But -forgiveness could take the sin away _as a barrier to personal -friendship with the father_; the old relationships of mutual -confidence, helpfulness, and love could be restored; the glorious -chance could be bestowed of fighting through the battle for character, -not hopelessly in the far country, but victoriously at home. - -One of the chief glories of the Gospel is that it has so reclaimed the -waste of humanity, made sons of Prodigals and patriots of McIntyres. -Its Pauls were persecutors, its Augustines the slaves of lust, and its -rank and file men and women to whom Christ's message has meant -forgiveness, reinstatement, a new chance, and boundless hope. -Scientific business conserves its waste and makes invaluable -by-products from what once was slag; but Christ has been the conserver -of mankind. The lost and sick have been returned to sanity and -wholesomeness and service; humanity has been enriched beyond -computation, with Bunyans and Goughs and Jerry McAuleys. Tolstoi's -simple confession in "My Religion" is typical of multitudes: "Five -years ago I came to believe in Christ's teaching, and my life suddenly -became changed: I ceased desiring what I had wished before, and began -to desire what I had not wished before. What formerly had seemed good -to me appeared bad, and what had seemed bad appeared good.... The -direction of my life, my desires became different: what was good and -bad changed places." Tolstoi had indulged, as he acknowledges, in -every form of unmentionable vice practiced in Russia; and yet -forgiven, reinstated, transformed, he was carried to his burial by -innumerable Russian peasants with banners flying. Where Christ's -influence has vitally come, the loss and wreck and flotsam of the -moral world have been so reclaimed to character and power. - -At the beginning of the Christian era, a few desolate sand lagoons lay -off the Paduan coast of Italy. There the wild fowl made their nests; -the lonely skiffs of fishermen threaded the reedy channels; the storms -washed the shifting and uncertain sands. And possibly to this day the -lagoons would have been thus barren and deserted, had not the Huns -swept down on Italy. The Huns made the building of Venice necessary. -They did not intend so fair a consequence of their terrific -onslaughts. Their thoughts were on death and pillage. But because they -came, the Italians fled to the lagoons, built there, behind the -barricade of restless waters, their gleaming city, developed there the -commerce that combed the world, built the Doge's palace as the abode -of justice, and raised St. Mark's in praise of God. Venice was the -city of Salvation; it rose resplendent because the Huns had come. So -Christ turns the ruin of sin to victory, and builds in human life -character, recovered and triumphant. If his Gospel can have its way, a -spiritual Venice will arise to make the onslaught of the moral Huns an -evil with a glorious issue. What wonder that inexpressible devotion -has been felt for him by all his people? - -[7] "Iniquities prevail against me." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -Faith in Christ the Savior: Power - - -DAILY READINGS - -As we saw in the last week's study, Christian faith has always -centered around the person of Jesus himself. This week let us consider -some testimonies from the New Testament as to the meaning and effect -of this definitely Christian faith. - - -Eleventh Week, First Day - -It must be clear to any observing mind that the world does not suffer -from lack of faith. There is faith in plenty; everybody is exercising -it on some object. In the Bible we read of folk who "trust in vanity" -(Isa. 59:4), who "trust in lying words" (Jer. 7:4), or "in the -abundance of riches" (Psalm 52:7); and the Master exclaims over the -difficulty which those who "trust in riches" have when they try to -enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:24). Faith, then, is a necessary -faculty of the soul: the power by which we commit ourselves to any -object that wins our devotion and commands our allegiance. No man -avoids its use, and men differ only in the objects toward which their -faith is directed. Of all the tragedies caused by the misuse of human -powers, none is more frequent and disastrous than the ruin that -follows the misuse of faith. With this necessary and powerful faculty -in our possession, capable of use on things high or low, to what -determination can a man more reasonably set himself than this?--_since -I must and do use faith on something, I will choose the highest_. It -is with such a rational and worthy choice that the Christian turns to -Jesus. He is the best we know; we will direct our faith toward him. -This does not mean that in the end our faith does not rest on God; it -does, for Jesus is the Way, the Door, as he said, and faith in him -moves up through him to the One who sent him. As Paul put it, "Such -confidence have we through Christ to God-ward" (II Cor. 3:4). But -faith in Jesus is the most vivid, true, and compelling way we have of -committing ourselves to the highest and best we know. In the light of -this truth, we can understand why John calls such faith the supreme -"work" which God demands of us. - - =Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which - abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: - for him the Father, even God, hath sealed. They said therefore unto - him, What must we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus - answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe - on him whom he hath sent.--John 6:27-29.= - - _Gracious Father! Thou hast revealed Thyself gloriously in Jesus - Christ, the Son of Thy love. In Him we have found Thee, or rather, - are found of Thee. By His life, by His words and deeds, by His trials - and sufferings, we are cleansed from sin and rise into holiness. For - in Him Thou hast made disclosure of Thine inmost being and art - drawing us into fellowship with Thy life. As we stand beneath His - Cross, or pass with Him into the Garden of His Agony, it is Thy heart - that we see unveiled, it is the passion of Thy love yearning over the - sinful, the wandering, seeking that it may save them. No man hath - seen Thee at any time, but out from the unknown has come the Son of - Man to declare Thee. And now we know Thy name. When we call Thee - Father, the mysteries of existence are not so terrible, our burdens - weigh less heavily upon us, our sorrows are touched with joy. Thy Son - has brought the comfort that we need, the comfort of knowing that in - all our afflictions Thou art afflicted, that in Thy grief our lesser - griefs are all contained. Let the light which shines in His face, - shine into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of Thy glory, to - scatter the darkness of fear, of wrong, of remorse, of foreboding, - and to constrain our lives to finer issues of peace and power and - spiritual service. And this prayer we offer in Christ's name. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Eleventh Week, Second Day - -The New Testament clearly reveals the experience that _forgiveness_ -comes in answer to such self-committing faith in Christ as we spoke of -yesterday. - - =And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at - meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that even - forgiveth sins? And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved - thee; go in peace.--Luke 7:48-50.= - -In popular thought forgiveness is often shallowly conceived. It is -thought to be an easy agreement to forget offense, a good-natured -waving aside of injuries committed as though the evil done were of no -consequence. But forgiveness is really a most profound and searching -experience; and it takes two persons, each sacrificially desirous of -achieving it, before it can be perfected. In the pardoner, the passion -for saviorhood must submerge all disgust at the sin in love for the -sinner; and in the pardoned, desire for a new life must create -sacrificial willingness to hate and forsake the evil and humbly accept -a new chance. It follows, therefore, that no one can forgive another, -no matter how willing he may be to do so, unless the recipient fulfils -the conditions that make pardon possible. Forgiveness is a mutual -operation; no forgetting or good will on the part of one person is -forgiveness at all; and the attitude in the forgiven man that makes -the reception of pardon possible is negatively penitence and -positively faith. Any experience of human forgiveness reveals that the -offender must detest his sin and turn from it in trust and -self-commitment to claim the mercy and choose the ideals of the one -whom he has wronged. That God in Christ is willing to forgive is the -Christian Gospel; and if we go unforgiven it is for lack of faith. -That is the hand which grasps the proffered pardon. - - _Almighty God, whose salvation is ever nigh to them that seek Thee, - we think of our little lives, of their wayward ways, and we remember - Thee and are troubled. Our days pass from us and we are heated with - strifes, and troubled and restless, with mean temptations and - fugitive desires. We spend our years in much carelessness, and too - seldom do we think of the greatness of our trust and the wonder and - mystery of our being. We are vexed with vain dreams and trivial - desires. We live our days immersed in petty passions. We strain after - poor uncertainties. We pursue the shadows of this passing life and - continually are we visited by our own self-contempt and bitterness. - We have known the better and have chosen the worse. We have felt the - glory and power of a higher life and yet have surrendered to ignoble - temptations and to satisfactions that end with the hour._ - - _Almighty Father, of Thy goodness do Thou save our lives, so smitten - with passion, from the failure and misery that else must come to us. - Be with us in our hours of self-communion, and inspire us with good - purpose and service to Thee. Be with us when heart and flesh faint, - and there seems no help or safety near us. Be with us when we are - carried into the dry and lonely places, seeking a rest that is not in - them. Sustain us, we beseech Thee, under the burden of our many - errors and failures. From the confused aims and purposes of our lives - may there be brought forth, by the aid of Thy Spirit, and the - teaching and discipline of life, lives constant and assured in - service and obedience to Thee. Amen._--John Hunter. - - -Eleventh Week, Third Day - -It is clear in the New Testament that all the _free movements of -divine help_ depend on the presence of man's faith. Words like these -are continually on the lips of Jesus: "Be of good cheer; thy faith -hath made thee whole" (Matt. 9:22); "According to your faith be it -done unto you" (Matt. 9:29); "Great is thy faith: be it done unto thee -even as thou wilt" (Matt. 15:28). Human life as a whole confirms the -truth which such words suggest: _Man's faith is always the limit of -his blessing; he never obtains more than he believes in._ Men live in -a world of unappropriated truth and unused power; and the blessings of -truth and power can be reached only by ventures of faith. Even -electricity withholds its service from a man who, like Abdul Hamid, -has not faith enough to try. In personal relationships this fact -becomes even more clear. Whatever gifts of good will may be waiting in -the heart of any man, we are shut out from them forever, unless we -have the grace of faith in the man and open-hearted self-commitment to -him. As the Christian Gospel sees man's case, the central tragedy lies -here: that God in Christ is willing to do so much more in and for and -through us than we have faith enough to let him do. Our unbelief is -not a matter of theoretical concern alone; it practically disables -God, it handicaps his operation in the world, it is an "evil heart of -unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 3:12). The -divine will is forced to wait upon the lagging faith of man. How often -the Master exclaimed, "O ye of little faith!" (Matt. 6:30; 8:26). And -the reason for his lament was eminently practical. - - =And coming into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, - insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man - this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? - is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, - and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? - Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in - him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save - in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty - works there because of their unbelief.--Matt. 13:54-58.= - - _Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we desire to come to Thee in all - humility and sincerity. We are sinful; pardon Thou us. We are - ignorant; enlighten Thou our darkness. We are weak; inspire us with - strength. In these times of doubt, uncertainty, and trial, may we - ever feel conscious of Thine everlasting light. Soul of our soul! - Inmost Light of truth! Manifest Thyself unto us amid all shadows. - Guide us in faith, hope, and love, until the perfect day shall dawn, - and we shall know as we are known._ - - _Almighty God, teach us, we pray Thee, by blessed experience, to - apprehend what was meant of old when Jesus Christ was called the - power of God unto salvation, for we stand in need of salvation from - sin, from doubt, from weakness, from craven fear; we cannot save - ourselves; we are creatures of a day, short-sighted, and too often - driven about by every wind of passion and opinion. We need to be - stayed upon a higher strength. We need to lay hold of Thee. Manifest - Thyself unto us, our Father, as the Saviour of our souls, and deliver - us from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the - children of God. Amen._--John Hunter. - - -Eleventh Week, Fourth Day - -Not only is man's power to appropriate the divine blessing dependent -on faith; in the experience of the New Testament man's power of -achievement has the same source. - - =Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we - cast it out? And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: - for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard - seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; - and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.--Matt. - 17:19, 20.= - -Mountains are symbols of difficulty, and the Master's affirmation here -that faith alone can remove them is clearly confirmed in human -experience. It may seem at times as though faith, compared with the -obstacles, were like a minute mustard seed before the ranges of -Lebanon, but faith can overcome even that disproportion in size. Great -leaders always must have such confidence. Listen to Mazzini: "The -people lack faith ... the faith that arouses the multitudes, faith in -their own destiny, in their own mission, and in the mission of the -epoch; the faith that combats and prays; the faith that enlightens and -bids men advance fearlessly in the ways of God and humanity, with the -sword of the people in their hand, the religion of the people in their -heart, and the future of the people in their soul." In any great -movement for human good, the ultimate and deciding question always is: -How many people can be found who have faith enough to believe in the -cause and its triumph? When enough folk have faith, any campaign for -human welfare can be won. Without faith men "collapse into a yielding -mass of plaintiveness and fear"; with faith they move mountains. And -when men have faith in Christ as God's Revealor--faith, not formal and -abstract, but real and vital--they begin to feel about the word -"impossible" as Mirabeau did, "Never mention to me again that -blockhead of a word!" - - _O God, our Father, our souls are made sick by the sight of hunger - and want and nakedness; of little children bearing on their bent - backs the burden of the world's work; of motherhood drawn under the - grinding wheels of modern industry; and of overburdened manhood, with - empty hands, stumbling and falling._ - - _Help us to understand that it is not Thy purpose to do away with - life's struggle, but that Thou desirest us to make the conditions of - that struggle just and its results fair._ - - _Enable us to know that we may bring this to pass only through love - and sympathy and understanding; only as we realize that all are alike - Thy children--the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the - fortunate and the unfortunate. And so, our Father, give us an - ever-truer sense of human sisterhood; that with patience and - steadfastness we may do our part in ending the injustice that is in - the land, so that all may rejoice in the fruits of their toil and be - glad in Thy sunshine._ - - _Keep us in hope and courage even amid the vastness of the - undertaking and the slowness of the progress, and sustain us with the - knowledge that our times are in Thy hand. Amen._--Helen Ring Robinson. - - -Eleventh Week, Fifth Day - -Faith in Christ has always been consummated, in the experience to -which the New Testament introduces us, in an inward transformation of -life. - - =I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, - but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh - I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, - and gave himself up for me.--Gal. 2:20.= - -Such conversion of life is the normal result of a vital fellowship -whose bond is faith. For one thing, a man at once begins to care a -great deal more about his own quality when he believes in Christ and -in Christ's love. "What a King stoops to pick up from the mire cannot -be a brass farthing, but must be a pearl of great price." To be loved -by anyone is to enter into a new estimate of one's possible value; to -be loved by God in Christ is to come into an experience where our -possible value makes us alike ashamed of what we are and jubilant over -what we may become. We begin saying with Irenæus, "Jesus Christ became -what we are that he might make us what he is." And then, faith, -ripening into fellowship, opening the life sensitively to the -influence of the friend, issues in a character infused by the friend's -character. He lives in us. Such transformation of life does not happen -in a moment; it requires more than instantaneous exposure to take the -Lord's picture on a human heart; but time-exposure will do it, and -"Christ in us" be alike our hope of glory and our secret of influence. - - _O Father Eternal, we thank Thee for the new and living way into Thy - presence made for us in Christ; the way of trust, sincerity, and - sacrifice. Beneath His cross we would take our stand, in communion - with His Spirit would we pray, in fellowship with the whole Church of - Christ we would seek to know Thy mind and will._ - - _We desire to know all the fulness of Christ, to appropriate His - unsearchable riches, to feed on His humanity whereby Thou hast become - to us the bread of our inmost souls and the wine of life, to become - partakers of Thy nature, share Thy glory, and become one with Thee - through Him._ - - _Give unto us fellowship with His sufferings and insight into the - mystery of His cross, so that we may be indeed crucified with Him, be - raised to newness of life, and be hidden with Christ in Thee._ - - _We desire to make thankful offering of ourselves as members of the - body of Christ; in union with all the members may we obey our unseen - Head, so that the Body may be undivided, and Thy love, and healing - power, and very Self may be incarnate on the earth in one Holy - Universal Church. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -Eleventh Week, Sixth Day - -With faith in Christ so seen as the secret of divine forgiveness and -assistance, of achieving power and inward transformation, there can be -little surprise at the solicitude which the New Testament shows -concerning the disciples' faith. We find this urgent interest in Paul: - - =Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be - left behind at Athens alone; and sent Timothy, our brother and God's - minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort - you concerning your faith; ... night and day praying exceedingly that - we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your - faith.--I Thess. 3:1, 2, 10.= - - =We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, even as - it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of - each one of you all toward one another aboundeth.--II Thess. 1:3.= - -And one of the most appealing revelations of Jesus' habit in prayer -concerns his supplication for Peter's faith. - - =Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift - you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail - not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy - brethren.--Luke 22:31, 32.= - -In all such passages one feels at once that faith is used as Paul uses -it in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians--a comrade and ally -of hope and love. It is not a matter of dogma and does not move in the -realm of opinion, although ideas of the first magnitude may be -involved in it. It is primarily a bond of divine fellowship, which at -once keeps the life receptive to all that God would do for the man and -moves the man to do all that he should for God. If that fails, even -Peter would fall in ruins, and the expression is none too strong, when -in I Timothy the failure of such vital faith is described as a -"shipwreck" (I Tim. 1:19). But when by faith the consciousness of God -has grown clear, and alliance with him is so real that we stop arguing -about it and begin counting on it in daily living, the increment of -power and confidence and stability which a man may win is quite -incalculable. - - _O Thou plenteous Source of every good and perfect gift, shed abroad - the cheering light of Thy seven-fold grace over our hearts. Yea, - Spirit of love and gentleness, we most humbly implore Thy assistance. - Thou knowest our faults, our failings, our necessities, the dulness - of our understanding, the waywardness of our affections, the - perverseness of our will. When, therefore, we neglect to practice - what we know, visit us, we beseech Thee, with Thy grace, enlighten - our minds, rectify our desires, correct our wanderings, and pardon - our omissions, so that by Thy guidance we may be preserved from - making shipwreck of faith, and keep a good conscience, and may at - length be landed safe in the haven of eternal rest; through Jesus - Christ our Lord. Amen._--Anselm, 1033. - - -Eleventh Week, Seventh Day - -Some who gladly acknowledge the surprising results which faith can -work in life, do not see any great importance in the object to which -faith attaches itself. They say that faith is merely a psychological -attitude, and that faith in one thing does as well as faith in -another. Folk are healed, they point out, by all kinds of faith, -whether directed toward fetishes, or saints' relics, or metaphysical -theories, or God himself. It is the faith, they say, and not the -object, which does the work. There is a modicum of truth in this. -Faith, by its very power to organize man's faculties and give them -definite set and drive, is itself a master force, and if a man has no -interest beyond the achievement of some immediate end, like conquering -nervous qualms or getting strength for a special task, he may achieve -that end by believing in almost anything, provided he believes hard -enough. _But to believe in some things may debauch the intelligence -and lower the moral standards, even while it achieves a practical -end._ To win power for a business task by believing in a palm-reader's -predictions is entirely possible, but it is a poor bargain; a man -sells out his intelligence for cash. The object in which a man -believes does make an immense difference in the effect of his faith on -his _mind_ and _character_. An African savage may gain courage for an -ordeal by believing in his fetish--but how immeasurable is the abyss -between the meaning of that faith for the whole of life and the -meaning of a Christian's faith in God! We have no business, for the -sake of immediate gain, to allow our faith to rest in anything lower -than the highest. - - =Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who - according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the - resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance - incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in - heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith - unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye - greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have - been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, - being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by - fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation - of Jesus Christ: whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye - see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable - and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the - salvation of your souls.--I Peter 1:3-9.= - - _Gracious Father of our spirits, in the stillness of this worship may - we grow more sure of Thee, who art often closest to us when we feel - Thou hast forsaken us. The toil and thought of daily life leave us - little time to think of Thee; but may the silence of this holy place - make us aware that though we may forget Thee, Thou dost never forget - us. Perhaps we have grown careless in contact with common things, - duty has lost its high solemnities, the altar fires have gone - untended, Thy light within our minds has been distrusted or ignored. - As we withdraw awhile from all without, may we find Thee anew within, - until thought grows reverent again, all work is hallowed, and faith - reconsecrates all common things as sacraments of love._ - - _If pride of thought and careless speculation have made us doubtful - of Thee, recover for us the simplicity that understands Thou art - never surer than when we doubt Thee, that through all failures of - faith Thou becomest clearer, and so makest the light that once we - walked by seem but darkness. Help us then to rest our faith on the - knowledge of our imperfection, our consciousness of ignorance, our - sense of sin, and see in them shadows cast by the light of Thy - drawing near._ - - _If Thy purposes have crossed our own and Thy will has broken ours, - enable us to trust the wisdom of Thy perfect love and find Thy will - to be our peace._ - - _So lead us back to meet Thee where we may have missed Thee. - Amen._--W. E. Orchard. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -The forgiveness which the Gospel offers--reinstating a man in the -personal relationships against which he sinned, and giving him another -chance--opens opportunity, but by itself it does not furnish power. -The saviorhood of Christ, however, so far from failing at this crucial -point, makes here its chief claim to preeminence. However one may -explain it, the normal quality of a genuine Christian life is moral -energy. The Gospel not alone to Paul, but to all generations of -Christ's disciples, had been "God's saving power for everyone who has -faith" (Rom. 1:16).[8] - -Faith always supplies moral dynamic. Emerson's challenge, "They can -conquer who believe they can," is easily verified in daily life. In -practical business, in social reform, in personal character, no more -common or fatal barrier to success exists than disbelief in -possibilities. While some who think they can when they cannot, prove -the rule by its exception, we are sure in advance that one who -believes he cannot, has lost his battle before it has begun. Granted a -task worth doing, sufficient strength for its accomplishment, and -motives in plenty to make success desirable, and one insinuating enemy -can spoil the enterprise. Let the subtle fear that the task is -impossible obsess the thought, paralyze the nerve, and no hope is -left. Like chlorine gas, such fear defeats us before we have begun to -fight and fills our trenches with asphyxiated powers. - -Anyone who is to be a savior to mankind, therefore, must be able to -make men say, "I can." That Christ has had that influence on men is -the commonplace of Christian biography from the beginning until now. -"In him who strengthens me I am able for anything" (Phil. 4:13)[9] is -a word of Paul's which the best Christian experience confirms. It does -not mean that men can do what they will, overriding all obstacles to -chosen goals; it means that they are aware of resources in reserve, of -power around them and in them, so that they are not afraid of anything -which they may face. If a duty ought to be done, they are confident -that they can do it; if a trouble must be borne, they are assured that -they can bear it. - -This buoyant faith is more than a grace of temperament. In Paul's -case, for example, it was not due to rugged health, for that he -lacked; it was not the easy optimism of some happiness cult, for he -was a persecuted man, bearing in his body "the marks of the Lord -Jesus"; and such a note of assured resource as we just have quoted did -not come from the hopefulness of fortunate circumstance, but from a -prison where he wore a chain. Paul himself is certain that his sense -of power springs from discipleship to Jesus. And when one turns to the -gospels, he sees that whenever the Master had opportunity to exert to -the full his influence on men, some such result as here appears in -Paul is evident. A contagious personality always enlarges the sense of -possibilities and powers in other men. A man, leaving Trinity Church, -where he had heard Phillips Brooks, exclaimed, "He always makes me -feel so strong." It was said that one could not stand for a moment -with Edmund Burke under an archway, to let a shower pass by, without -emerging a greater man. Each one of us knows folk who so impress him. -We go into their presence, weak, self-pitiful; when we come out, the -horizons are broader, the possibilities have enlarged, there is more -in us than we had suspected, we are convinced that we _can_. - -To a degree that escapes our estimation Jesus exerted that influence -on men. Napoleon said that he made his generals out of mud. Out of -what, then, did the Master make his apostles? At the beginning, Peter, -for example, is protesting, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O -Lord," and Jesus is bending over him, saying: Come after me, and I -will make you a fisher of men; if you will, you can. After months of -influence, Peter, still shamed and weak, is pleading his love against -his deed, and Jesus is saying: Feed my sheep; feed my lambs; if you -will, you can. In Jesus' relationship with his disciple, a great -personality stands over a lesser one, by life and word insistently -saying, _You can_, until power is vitally transmitted, and in the -vacillating, vehement Simon there emerges rock-like, stable Peter. - -Throughout the Christian centuries nothing has been more typical than -this of the Master's influence on men. He has come to innumerable -sodden lives, held slaves to tyrannous sin, saying in the hopelessness -of bondage, "I cannot," and he has touched them with his contagious -confidence, until they rose into freedom, saying, "By the help of God, -I can!" He has come into social situations, where ancient evils, long -entrenched and seemingly invincible, withstood the assault of -reformation, and he has put inexhaustible resource into his people, -until they said with an old reformer, "Impossible? If that is all that -is the matter, let us go ahead!" He has come to his Church, reluctant -to undertake a world-wide mission, staggered by the task's magnitude, -and he has made men pray with _life_ and not alone with lip, "Thy -Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Wherever -the influence of Christ vitally has come, the horizons of possibility -have widened and the sense of power grown inexhaustible. - -_Such influence is of the very essence of saviorhood and the attitude -that appropriates it is saving faith._ When John B. Gough, desperately -enmeshed in habit, faces the Christian Gospel of release one easily -may trace his changing response. Dubious at first, he wants to -believe it but he does not dare. He wishes it were true, but the whole -logic of his situation, his long habit, his spoiled reputation, his -weakened will, argue against the possibility. As Augustine said about -his lust, "The worse that I knew so well had more power over me than -the better that I knew not." Still, a note of authority in the Gospel, -as though spoken by one whose power to perform is equal to the thing -he promises, arrests Gough's mind, captures his imagination, awakens -his spirit's deep desire, until at last the Master's call, "You can," -is answered by the human cry, "I will," and the man moves out into new -possibilities, new powers, and increasing liberty. That _is_ -salvation. It is no formal status decreed by legal enactment, as -though a judge technically acquitted a prisoner. It is new life, -inward liberation from old habits, apprehensions, anxieties, and -fears. It lifts horizons, consumes impossibilities, and at the center -of life sets the stirring conviction that what ought to be done can be -done. - -Christians who are accustomed lightly to assert that they are saved -need specially to take this truth to heart. Some speak as though -salvation were a technicality and they sing about it, - - "'Tis done, the great transaction's done." - -To many such, were candor courteous, one would wish to say: Saved? -Saved from what? You are habitually anxious. Your life is continually -vexed with little fears and apprehensions. When trouble comes, you are -sure that you cannot stand it; when tasks present themselves, you are -certain that you cannot perform them. You have pet self-indulgences, -from major sins to little meannesses; you know that they are wrong; -but when suggestion comes that you surrender them, you are sure that -you have not the strength. When causes, plainly Christian, on whose -successful issue man's weal depends, appeal to you for help, you -weaken every enterprise by your disheartenment. Saved from _what_? Not -from fear, timidity, selfishness, and stagnation! And if you say, -Saved from Hell--what is Hell but the final subjugation of the soul to -such sins as you now are cherishing? The words of Jesus are promises -of saviorhood from real and present evils: "Be not _anxious_" (Matt. -6:34); "Go, _sin_ no more" (John 8:11); "_Fear_ not, little flock" -(Luke 12:32). When one, by faith, turns his face homeward from such -destroyers of life, he begins to be saved; but only as he lives by -faith in fellowship with the Divine and so achieves progressive -victory, does he keep on being saved. _The heart of salvation is -victorious power._ - - -II - -Not all men feel the need of the power which comes from discipleship -to Christ. They live content without such increment of strength as -Christians find in faith. Their power is equal to their tasks because -their tasks are levelled to their power. One cannot understand, -therefore, what the Saviorhood of Christ has meant to men, unless he -sees how Christ has created the need of the very power he furnishes. -He has done this, in part, _by awakening the desire for an ascending -life_. Men do not naturally want to believe in possibilities too -great and taxing; it always is easier to leave undisturbed the -_status quo_. Even changing one's residence is difficult. Though -one may move to a better house, yet to decide to move, to break old -relationships, to tear up and refit the furnishings, and to adjust -oneself to new associations mean stress and strain. So men come to be -at home with habits; they are comfortably accustomed to timidity and -self-indulgence. Release into a new life does not lure as privilege; -it repels as hardship. Some sins, indeed, are followed by remorse, but -others, grown habitual, bring a sense of well-being and content. We -like ourselves; we do not want a better life; we are unwilling to pay -its cost. Our sins are no bed of nettles, but a lotus land of decent -ease. Were we candidly to speak to them, we should say, O Sin, you are -a comfortable friend! When most we want forbidden fruit you suggest -excuses. You side happily with our inclinations and save us from the -struggle that high duty costs and the sacrifice of striving for the -best. Among the blessings of our lives, we count you not the least, O -decent, comfortable, self-indulgent Sin! - -Idlers thus drift listlessly and refuse a voyage with a purpose and a -goal; youths living by low standards, look on Christlike character as -beyond their interest and possibility; undedicated men find excuse for -holding back devotion to great causes in the world--we shelter -ourselves from aspiration and enterprise behind our faithlessness. -Into such a situation Christ repeatedly has come, bringing a vision of -what life ought to be, too imperative to be neglected, too -challenging to be denied. Men have been shaken out of their content; -the true color of their lives has been revealed against his white -background, the meanness of their plans against the wide ranges of his -purpose. From seeing him they have gone back to be content in their -old habits, but in vain. Can one who has seen a home be happy in a -hovel? Ranke, the historian, says, "More guiltless and more powerful, -more exalted and more holy, has naught ever been on earth than his -conduct, his life, and his death. The human race knows nothing that -could be brought even afar off into comparison with it." So he has -been the disturber of man's ignoble self-content, and to say that we -believe in him means that, no longer able to endure the thing we are, -we go on pilgrimage toward the thing he is. Faith means that we decide -to _move_. This first essential work of saviorhood Christ has wrought, -and when men start to follow him, they feel the need of power. - -For another thing, Christ has created a thirst for the power he -furnishes by _revealing the quality of character in the possession -of which salvation ultimately consists_. At the beginning of the -ethical development whether of the individual or of the race, goodness -is defined in terms of prohibitions. There are many things which men -ought _not_ to do; they walk embarrassed in the presence of their -duty like courtiers before an exacting prince. How negative and -repelling such goodness is! As another exclaims: "They do not break -the Sabbath themselves, but no one who has to spend it with them likes -to see the dreadful day come round. They do not swear themselves, but -they make all who know them want to. They are just as good as trying -not to be bad can make them." - -Discerning spirits, therefore, turn to goodness positively conceived. -"Thou shalt not" becomes "Thou shalt"; duty consists of rules to be -kept, precepts to be observed, principles to be applied, and we go out -to do good deeds to men. But whoever seriously tries to do deeds -really good, faces a need of moral elevation, as much beyond the -outward act of good as that surpasses the observance of prohibitions. -_Good deeds are not a matter of will alone, but of spiritual quality._ -Let the wind blow to fan the faces of the sick, but if it discover -that it is laden with disease, what shall it do? To blow this way or -that may be within volition's power, but not to _cleanse_ oneself. The -task of character reaches inward, beyond the things we do or refrain -from doing to the man we are. Goodness is something more than girding -up the loins, blowing upon the hands, and setting to the work of being -dutiful. It springs from the spirit's depths; it is tinctured with the -spirit's quality; and deeds are never really better than the soul -whose utterances they are. From "Thou shalt not do" to "Thou shalt do" -and from "Thou shalt do" to "Thou shalt be," man's flying goal of -goodness moves. And this ideal in Christ has been incarnate, visible, -imperative. He _was_ right in the inner quality and flavor of his -life; and to be like him involves a pure and powerful personality. -Whoever sets that task ahead knows that he cannot strut proudly into -it. Like Alice entering Wonderland he must grow very small before he -can grow large. The Christ who has power to give has revealed the need -of it. - -Not only by the intensifying of the ideal, but by its extension, has -Christ created thirst for divine help. In youth the problem of -character concerns personal habits. Our untamed strength must be -broken to the harness, and the snaffle bit be used upon our wayward -powers. We justly fear our sins and in their triumph we see the wreck -of individual prospects and the ruin of our families' hopes. Our -concern centers about ourselves, and its crux is self-mastery. But -when in maturity, somewhat "at leisure from ourselves" in settled -habits, we no longer fear our own ruin nor think it probable, goodness -extends its meaning. To play our part in man's advancement, to live, -work, sacrifice, and if need be die for causes on which our children's -hopes depend, becomes our ideal. As boys in spring-time when the ice -is melting see from a hill-top the swirling flood that overflows the -plain, and know that somewhere underneath the unfamiliar and -tumultuous rapids the main channel runs, from which the floods have -broken, to which in time they must return, so in a generation when -man's life has broken its banks in fury we still believe that the main -course of the divine purpose is not forever lost. To believe that, and -in the strength of it to toil for the ends God seeks, becomes to -awakened spirits the essential soul of goodness. - -When such meanings enter into his ideal, a man runs straight upon the -need of God. For we may make our contribution to the cause of man's -good upon the earth and our children may make theirs, but if this -world is a spiritual Sahara, never meant for character and social -weal, and against the dead set of the desert's power we are building -oases here with our unaided fingers, then the issue of our work stands -in no doubt. The Sahara will pile its burning sands about us and hurl -its blistering winds across us, and we and our works together come to -naught. By as much, then, as a man really cares about democracy and -liberty and social equity, about human brotherhood and Christian -civilization, by so much he needs God, who gathers up the scattered -contributions of his children and builds them into victory. A man -alone may keep the decalogue, but alone he cannot save the world. Who -dreams of that wants power. And Christ has made men dream of that, -believe in that with passionate certainty, until "Thy Kingdom come" is -the daily prayer of multitudes. To no human strength can such prayer -be offered; we are not adequate to an eternal, universal task. Again -Christ has brought us to the need of power, and his people call him -Savior, because the need which he creates he also satisfies. - -In one of the tidal rivers near New York, the building of a bridge was -interrupted by a derelict sunk in the river's bottom. Divers put -chains about the obstacle and all day long the engineer directed the -maneuvering of tugs as they puffed and pulled in vain endeavor to -dislodge the hulk. Then a young student, fresh from the technical -school, asked for the privilege of trying, and from the vexed, -impatient chief obtained his wish. "What will _you_ do it with?" -the engineer enquired. "The flat-boats in which we brought the granite -from Vermont," the young man answered. So when the tide was out, the -flat boats were fastened to the derelict. The Atlantic began to come -in; its mighty shoulders underneath the boats lifted--lifted until the -derelict had to come. The youth had harnessed infinite energy to his -task. To the consciousness of such resource in the spiritual world -Christ has introduced his people. They have meant not formula but -fact, not technicality but experience, when they have called him -Savior. - - -III - -This consciousness of power has come in part from Christ's revelation -of God the Father. Whoever has sinned against his friend or unkindly -wronged a child knows what sin does to personal relationships. How -swift a change comes over a son's thought of his father when the son -has sinned! The wrong may have been done secretly so that his sire -does not know, and the boy alone on earth is conscious of it. But for -all that the filial relationship has lost its glory. Before the sin, -the son was happy with his father near; they were companions, -confidants, and to the boy fatherhood was very beautiful. Now, he is -most unhappy with his father near; the father's eyes like a -detective's pierce him through, the face like a judge's waits sternly -to condemn. He is looking at his father through the dark glasses of -his sin, and they distort his vision. When one considers the gods whom -men have worshiped, approaching them by bloody altar-stairs, offering -their first-born to assuage wrath or win from apathy to favor, he -sees, extended to a racial scale, our boyhood's tragedy. _Mankind has -been looking at the Father through its ignorance and sin and it has -seen him beclouded and awry._ Christ changed all that. By what he -taught, by what he was, by what he suffered he has said to man, so -that man increasingly has believed it--You are wrong about God. He -does not stand aloof--careless or vindictive; he is not as he looks to -you through the twisted lenses of your evil. He loves you. He _cares_ -beyond your power to understand, and all my compassion but reveals in -time what is eternally in him. He is pledged to the victory of -goodness in you and in the world, and you have not used all your power -until you have used his, for that, too, is yours. - -From that day the fight against sin has been a new thing, and men have -gone into it with battle-cries they never used before--"_God_ was -in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (II Cor. 5:19); -"_God_ commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were -yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8); "If _God_ is for us, -who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31). - -This access of power has come in part from Christ's revelation of -_man_. When a jewel is taken from darkness into sunlight, there is a -two-fold revealing. The sunlight is disclosed in new glory, for it -never seemed so beautiful before as it appears breaking in splendor -through the jewel's heart. And there is a revelation of the jewel. -Dull and unillumined in the dark, it is lustrous when the sun -enlightens it. So Christ brought us an unveiling of the Father; the -Divine never had seemed so wonderful as when it poured in glory -through his purity and love. And he brought as well a new revelation -of man. Our human nature, bedimmed by sin and lusterless, he in his -own person took up into the light, and lifting it where all mankind -could see he cried--This _is_ human nature--man as God intended him to -be--no slave of fate and dupe of sin, but a free man and a victor. And -from that day the war on sin has had new spirit in it, and battle -cries that presage triumph have grown familiar on the fighters' lips: -"Now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we -shall be" (I John 3:2); "Till we all attain unto the unity of the -faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, -unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13); -"His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may -become partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). - - -IV - -Christ's double revelation of God and man, however, has had its vital -impact of power on life in what Christians have always called _the -experience of the Spirit_. When the New Testament speaks its -characteristic word about the Spirit, it means the conscious presence -of the living God in the hearts of men, and that is the very essence -of religion. The first Christians did not know God in one way only; -they knew him in three ways. So one man might know Beethoven the -composer and be an authority upon his works; another might know -Beethoven the performer and delight in his playing; and another might -know Beethoven the man and rejoice in his friendship--but no one could -know the whole of Beethoven until he knew him all three ways. The New -Testament Christians came thus to God. He was the Father, Creator of -all; he was the Character, revealed in Jesus; but as well he was the -Spiritual Presence in their lives, their sustenance and power. "The -grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion -of the Holy Spirit" (II Cor. 13:14)--such was their experience of the -Divine. It was not dogma; it was _life_. God was Creator, Character, -and Comforter. - -Christian experience is in continual danger of drifting from this -vital center. In our age especially, we are prone to find God at the -end of an argument and to leave him there. We have been compelled by -militant agnosticism to put our apologetic armies on the defensive. -Finding it impossible to hold the respect of men's intelligence -without reasonable arguments in the faith's behalf, we have had to -draw such inferences from the nature of the material universe, from -the necessities of human thought, the demands of human conscience, and -the progress of moral evolution in history, that materialism should be -made, what indeed it is, a discredited affair. But God so arrived at, -by way of reason, is an external matter. He is an hypothesis to -explain the universe. "He sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the -inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers before him." Granted the -incalculable value in such faith, putting unity into history and -purpose into life--it is not religion and it never can be. _Religion -begins when the God outwardly argued is inwardly experienced._ -Religion begins when we cease using the tricky and unstable aeroplane -of speculation to seek Him among the clouds, and retreat into the -fertile places of our own spirits where the living water rises, as -Jesus said. God outside of us is a theory; God inside of us becomes a -fact. God outside of us is an hypothesis; God inside of us is an -experience. God the Father is the possibility of salvation; God the -Spirit is actuality of life, joy, peace, and saving power. God the -transcendent may do for philosophy, but he is not enough for religion. - -Without this completion of the Gospel, Christ's saviorhood does not -reach inward to our need. For lacking it, we stand before the Master -with the same admiration that a man who is no painter feels when he -sees a Raphael. He knows the work is sublime, but he is not proposing -to reproduce it. He is conquered by its beauty, but he knows no -possibility of its imitation. If, however, there were a spirit of -Raphael that could lay hold upon a man's life and transform him to the -master's skill and power, then his admiration would become inwardly -effective. _It takes the spirit of Raphael to do Raphael's work._ If -this gospel of an indwelling dynamic is not coupled with our -admiration for Jesus, we are like a student practicing the fingering -of the Hallelujah Chorus on an organ from which the power has been -shut off. With what accuracy his fingers travel the keys, who can -tell? Once Handel's soul, on fire with the passion of harmony, burned -itself into that composition. He wrote it upon his knees. But with -whatever agility the student's fingers follow the notes, no Hallelujah -Chorus comes from his organ to praise God and move men. So the record -of this matchless character handed to us in the gospels, like notes of -music meant to be played again, is but our despair, if we must attempt -its reproduction on a powerless organ. Our admiration for it is -external and ineffectual. We fall thereby into a static religion of -creed; we have no dynamic religion of progress and hope. This then is -the glorious message, where the Christian Gospel reaches its climax, -and which alone puts fullest meaning into Jesus' perfect life: _the -Spirit of God in Jesus made his quality; that same Spirit is -underground in our lives, striving to well up in characters like his, -until we live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us_. - -Any spring day may serve to illustrate this faith. Where does the -restlessness in nature have its source? Every tree, in discontent, -hastens to make buds into leaves, and every blade of grass is -tremulous with impatient life. No tree, however, is a sufficient -explanation of its own haste and dissatisfaction; no flower has in -itself the secrets of its eager growth. The spirit of life is abroad, -and crowding itself everywhere on old, dead forms, is making them -bloom again. Explain then, the moral restlessness of our hearts in -other wise! We do ill, and are distraught with remorse until we repent -and make reparation. We attain money or talents, and are chased day -and night by the urgent call to their spiritual dedication. We conform -ourselves to decency and still hear a call for goodness beyond all -earthly need. We succeed as the world calls it, and we know that it is -failure; we fail as the world sees it, and our hearts sing for joy -because we know that we have succeeded. Everywhere we are confronted -with a pulsing life that longs to get itself expressed in us. We -cannot get away from God. He is not far, he is here. This Spirit, for -whom there is no better name than the Spirit of Jesus, is our -continual companion. We are locked in an enforced fellowship with him. -There is no friend with whom we deal more directly and continually -than with him. Every time we open an inspiring book and devoutly study -it, this Spirit is pleading for entrance. Every time we pray he stands -at the door and knocks. Every time some child in need, or some great -cause demanding sacrifice, lays claim on us, this Spirit is crying to -be let in. Men's hunger for food, their love for family and friends, -are not more direct, concrete, immediate experiences than our dealings -with this Spirit of the Lord. He is not only God the Father; he is -God the Spirit, striving to dwell in us and work through us. - -Into a vital use of this relationship with the Divine, Christ opened -the way and multitudes have followed. He has taught men to find that -same resourcefulness in the spiritual world which science finds in the -physical. Every successful invention of a man like Edison involves a -twofold faith: that there is inexhaustible power in the universe and -that, with persistent patience and cooperation, there is no telling -what marvels yet may come from the employment of it. Faith is -science's flying column. It runs out into engineering, agriculture, -medicine, and refuses to limit the possibilities. Science is a -tremendous believer; it lives by faith that almost anything may yet be -done. Such a relationship Paul sustained with the Spirit. He was -confident of resources there, "exceeding abundantly above all that we -ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). He was a spiritual Edison, a believer in -the divine reality and power and their availability by faith in human -life. - -Only such a Gospel is adequate to man's deepest need. Sin, whether its -forms be decent or obscene, cripples men's wills with the appalling -certainty that they are slaves. As a hypnotist draws imaginary circles -around his victims, across which they cannot step, so Sin, that -Svengali of the soul, whether in personal or social life, paralyzes -its dupes with disbelief in possibilities. To innumerable folk, -emprisoned by their fears and sins, Christ has been the Savior. He has -awakened that faith which, as he said, is the greatest mountain-mover -known to men. They have been "strengthened with power through his -Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 3:16). - - -V - -When one considers, as we have in these two chapters, what Christ has -meant in the experience of his people, little wonder can remain that -they have called him by such high names as have aroused man's -incredulity. For this Gospel of power has never been separable from -him, as though he were its historic fountain and could easily be -forgotten by those who far down-stream enjoyed the water. His -personality itself has been the inspiration of his people. At Marston -Moor, when the Puritans and Cavaliers were aligned for battle and all -was in readiness for conflict to begin, Oliver Cromwell came riding -across the plain. And the chronicler says that at the sight of him the -Puritans sent up a great victorious shout, as though their battle -already had been won. Some such effect our Lord has had on his -disciples. To explain that effect one would have to speak not so much -of his teaching as of himself--his character and purpose; nor so much -of them as of the Cross where all he taught and was came to a point of -flame that has set the world on fire. Christ was the - - "nerve o'er which do creep - The else unfelt oppressions of the earth." - -He suffered with man and for man, he uniquely embodied in his own -experience the universal law that the consequences of sin fall in part -on the one who loves the sinner and tries to save him; and in that -sacrifice his work for man was consummated, and his influence over man -confirmed. When his people have bowed before him in unutterable -devotion they have been thinking not only of what he has done for -them, but of what it cost him to do it. - -Why, therefore, should we wonder that his disciples at their best have -called Jesus divine? His first followers began with no abstract ideas -of deity; they began with "the man, Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). They -had no idea at the first that he was more. His bodily and mental life -had obeyed the laws of normal human development, advancing "in wisdom -and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52). He hungered -after his temptation, thirsted on the Cross, slept from weariness -while the boat tossed in a storm, and exhausted, sat beside the well. -Like other men he had elevated hours of great rejoicing; times when -compassion moved him to tears, as when he saw a multitude unshepherded -or, swinging round the brow of Olivet, beheld Jerusalem; and hours of -hot indignation, too, as when he found his Father's house a den of -thieves or spoke out his heart against the Pharisees. He asked -questions, and was astonished, now at the people's lack of faith, -again at the centurion's excess of it. His fellowship with God was -nourished by secret prayer, his power replenished by retreat to quiet -places for communion, and all his life was lived, his temptations -faced, his troubles borne, and his work done in a spirit of humble, -filial dependence on his Father. - -Thus real and human, a sharer in their limitations, their sorrows, and -their moral trials, the first disciples saw the Master. But ever as -they lived with him, whether in physical presence or in spiritual -fellowship, he wrought in them a Savior's work. He became to them -manhood indeed, but manhood plus. He grew in their apprehension, as -though a boy had thought an ocean's inlet were a lake enclosed, and -now discovers that it is the sea itself, and all its tides the pulse -of the great deep. How should they name this greatness in their Lord? -They were not utterly without a clue, for he himself had introduced -them to the life divine. They had learned through him to say about -themselves that they were temples in which God dwelt (II Cor. 6:16), -that God abode in them (I John 4:12), that he stood ever waiting to -come in (Rev. 3:20), and that the possession of the divine nature was -the Gospel's promise (II Pet. 1:4). By what other element in their -experience could they interpret the greatness of their Lord? It might -be inadequate, but it was the best they had. They rose to understand -the divine life in him from the experience of the divine life in -themselves. "God was in Christ," they said. They never dreamed of -claiming equality with him. Like pools beside the sea, they understood -the ocean's quality from their own. There are not two kinds of -sea-water; nor, with one God, can there be two kinds of divine life. -But so understanding the sea, shall the pool claim equality with it? -Rather, the sea has deeps, tides, currents, and relationships with the -world's life that no pool can ever know. So Christ was at once their -brother and their Lord. He was real, because they interpreted his life -divine from the foregleams of God's presence in themselves. He was -adorable, because he was an ocean to their landlocked pools, and they -waited for his tides. - -Only by some such road as these first disciples trod can men come to a -vital understanding of the Lord. Nothing but _experience_ can give us -a living estimate of anything; without that theory is vain. Let a man -live with the Master's manhood until it grows luminous and through it -he sees the character of God; let a man avail himself of the Master's -saviorhood until forgiven and empowered he finds the "life that is -life indeed"; let a man grow in the experience of God's presence until -he knows not only the God without but the God within; and then if he -rises to estimate his Lord, he will not hesitate to see in Jesus the -incarnate presence of the living God. After that, theology may help or -hinder him, according as it is wise and vital or cold and formal; but -with theology or not, he knows the heart of the New Testament's -attitude toward Jesus. He understands why the first Christians summed -up their faith as "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ." - -[8] Moffatt's translation. - -[9] Moffatt's translation. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -The Fellowship of Faith - - -DAILY READINGS - -Our thought turns, in our closing week of study, from believers taken -one by one, to believers gathered in fellowship. This community of -faith has wider boundaries than the organized churches; in a real -sense it includes all servants of man's ideal aims; yet in the Church -we naturally seek the chief meanings of fellowship for faith. Why men -do not go to church, is often asked. But why men do go, so that in -spite of countless failures in the churches, attendance on public -worship and loyalty to organized religion are among mankind's most -usual habits, is an inquiry far more important. To that inquiry let us -in the daily readings turn our thought. - - -Twelfth Week, First Day - - =But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut - the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, - neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.= - - =Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea - and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him - twofold more a son of hell than yourselves....= - - =Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint - and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of - the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have - done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that - strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!--Matt. 23:13-15; 23, 24.= - -Jesus' indictment of the Jewish Church is terrific, and yet no one who -knows the story of the Christian churches can doubt that they often -have deserved the same condemnation. They have at times committed all -the sins that can be laid at any institution's door; they have been -selfish, formal, worldly, cruel. A wonder-story from the Arctic says -that once the candle-flames froze and the explorers broke them off and -wore them for watch charms; the flames of the great fire congealed and -were wound like golden ornaments around men's necks. So repeatedly the -burning words of Scripture, the blazing affirmations of old creeds, on -fire at first with the passion of souls possessed by God, have been -frozen in the churches' Arctic climate, and handed to men like -talismans and amulets, with no saving warmth or light. Creeds, -rituals, organizations--how often these frozen forms of life have -taken the place of inward spiritual power! Dr. Washington Gladden -would not be alone in saying: "While therefore I had as large an -experience of church-going in my boyhood as most boys can recall, I -cannot lay my hand on my heart and say that the church-going helped me -to solve my religious problems. In fact, it made those problems more -and more tangled and troublesome." And yet the Church goes on. -Voltaire prophesied its collapse in fifty years, and in fifty years -the house where he made the prophecy was a depot for the circulation -of the Scriptures. The Church's persistence, continual adaptation to -new conditions, and apparently endless power of revival must have some -deep reason. It may be because prayer like this which follows has -never utterly died out in the sanctuary. - - _O Thou that dwellest not in temples made with hands! We ever stand - within the courts of Thy glorious presence, only we open now the - gates of our poor praise. Thou hast enriched this day of rest, O - Lord, with Thy choicest gifts of peace; and lo! Thou unforgetting - God, its record is before Thee, for ages past, moistened with - penitential tears, and illumined with glad hopes, and hallowed by the - innumerable prayers of faithful and saintly men. In this our day may - the churches of Thy Holy One seek Thee still in spirit and truth; may - we also enter in and find our rest, being of one heart and mind, and - serving Thee with a wakeful and humble joy. Teach us now how we may - converse with Thee, for we cannot order our speech by reason of - darkness. We are naked and without disguise before Thee; oh! hide not - Thyself from us behind our ignorance and sin. May we at least in - this Thine hour shake off the sluggish clouds of sense and self that - cling around our souls; and strenuously open our whole nature to the - breath of Thy free spirit, and the healthful sunshine of Thy grace. - Let the divine image of the Son of God visit us with power; driving - out, with the chastisement of penitence, all obtruding passions that - profane the temple of our hearts, and turn into a place of traffic - that native house of prayer. O God of glory, God of grace! let not - the things which are spiritually discerned be foolishness unto us - through the blindness of our conscience: Thou knowest the thoughts of - our wisdom that they are vain; take them from us, and bid them vanish - away, lost in that wisdom from above which is revealed only to the - pure in heart. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thee be - every thought of praise! Amen._--James Martineau. - - -Twelfth Week, Second Day - -Some men doubtless go to church from traditional habit only, but such -a motive obviously is not adequate to explain why the recurrent tides -of humanity, even after an ebb in interest, sweep back to the Church -again. In the eighteenth century, for example, Butler reports the -common opinion that all that remained for Christianity was decent -obsequies. But in a few years the Wesleys began a movement that -changed the spiritual complexion of the English-speaking world, and -swept multitudes into Christian fellowship. One reason for this -repeated fact is clear. Mankind cannot and will not consent to live -without faith in God, and faith in God in its genesis and its -sustenance is largely a matter of contagion. We are not so much taught -it; we catch it. It is vitally imparted in the family circle, and -wherever kindred and believing spirits gather. No man is so -independent as to escape the vital fact that his noblest emotions, -attitudes, ideals, and faiths are socially engendered and socially -sustained; he never would have had them in a solitary life and a -solitary life would soon spoil those which he has now. A man may -believe in his country and love her; but let him join in a patriotic -movement or even attend a high-spirited patriotic meeting, and he will -believe in her and love her more ardently. Man's religious life is not -lawless; it is regulated by the same necessities of fellowship. The -Church has made many mistakes, but on her altar the fire has never -utterly gone out, and in her fellowship the faith of multitudes has -been kindled. - - =Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for - he is faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to - provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling - together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so - much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.--Heb. 10:23-25.= - - _Great is Thy name, O God, and greatly to be praised. In Thee all our - discordant notes rise into perfect harmony. It is good for us to - think of the wonder of Thy being. Thou art silent, yet most strong; - unchangeable, yet ever changing; ever working, yet ever at rest, - supporting, nourishing, maturing all things. O Thou Eternal Spirit, - who hast set our noisy years in the heart of Thy eternity, lift us - above the power and evils of the passing time, that under the shadow - of Thy wings we may take courage and be glad. So great art Thou, - beyond our utmost imagining, that we could not speak to Thee didst - Thou not first draw near to us and say, "Seek ye my face." Unto Thee - our hearts would make reply, "Thy face, Lord, will we seek."... We - thank Thee for our birth into a Christian community, for the Church - and the Sacraments of Thy grace, for the healing day of rest, when we - enter with Thy people into Thy House and there make holy-day; for the - refreshment of soul, the joys of communion, the spiritual discipline, - the inspiration of prayer and hymn and sermon.... We praise Thee for - the myriad influences of good, conscious and unconscious, that have - been about us, deeply penetrating our inner life, shaping and fitting - us for Thy Kingdom. Thou hast indeed forgiven all our iniquities, and - healed all our diseases, and redeemed our life from destruction, and - crowned us with loving-kindness. Therefore would we call upon our - souls, and all that is within us, to bless Thy holy Name. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Twelfth Week, Third Day - - =For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom - for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to - another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: - Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour - one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.--Gal. - 5:13-15.= - -One fundamental reason for the endless revival of the Church is that -faith never is satisfied until it issues in work. It insists on our -being "servants one to another." We have spoken of God's merciful -acceptance of a man when out of sin he turns his life by faith toward -Christ; but to interpret this as meaning the adequacy of faith without -effective service is to misread Scripture and to demoralize life. -Faith that does not lead to service is no real faith at all. But -whenever men endeavor to express in work any faith which they may hold -they must come together. Service involves cooperation. A hermit may -have faith, but his faith does not concern any ideal hopes on earth; -it has no outlooks save upon his own soul's condition in the world to -come; it is a narrow, selfish, inoperative thing. As soon as men are -grasped by some moving faith about what ought to be done for God's -service and man's welfare here and now, a hermit's solitude or any -sort of unaffiliated life becomes impossible. They must combine in a -fellowship of faith and of labor to seek common ends. They begin to -say with Edward Rowland Sill, "For my part I long to 'fall in' with -somebody. This picket duty is monotonous. I hanker after a shoulder on -this side and the other." And to fall in with others to serve -Christian ends means some kind of church. Let us pray today for a -church more fit to express this passion to serve. - - _God, we pray for Thy Church, which is set today amid the - perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great new - task. We remember with love the nurture she gave to our spiritual - life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our growing strength, the - influence of the devoted hearts she gathers, the steadfast power for - good she has exerted. When we compare her with all other human - institutions, we rejoice, for there is none like her. But when we - judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. - Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Grant her - a new birth, though it be with the travail of repentance and - humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious responsiveness to duty, - a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to the - will of God. Put upon her lips the ancient Gospel of her Lord. Help - her to proclaim boldly the coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom - of all that resist it. Fill her with the prophet's scorn of tyranny, - and with a Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and - down-trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and - in their hands that grope after freedom and light to recognize the - bleeding hands of the Christ. Bid her cease from seeking her own - life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to - humanity, that like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of - the cross to a higher glory. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Twelfth Week, Fourth Day - - =For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put - to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the - same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: - for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. - How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and - how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall - they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they - be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them - that bring glad tidings of good things!--Rom. 10:11-15.= - -The necessity of affiliation for effective faith is clear when one -considers the missionary enterprise. One of the noblest qualities in -human life is our natural desire to share our blessings. Every normal -child is happier when some other child is joining in the play; every -lover of music is gladdened by sharing with a friend enjoyment of a -favorite symphony; save in singularly churlish folk the love of having -others partake our joys is spontaneous and hearty. To those whom -Christian faith, has blessed with hope and power, the undeniable -impulse comes to share these finest benedictions with all other men. -The missionary enterprise does not rest upon a text; it wells up from -one of the worthiest impulses in man's life. One may be fairly sure, -that save as some perverted theology inhibits a spirit of love, a -man's missionary interest will be proportionate to the reality and -value of his own experience. If he himself has something well worth -sharing, he will want to share it. But the missionary enterprise is -more than any individual can compass; it demands organization, -cooperation, and massed resources; it cannot be prosecuted without a -church. The further our thought proceeds the more clear it becomes -that the question is not, shall we have churches? but rather, since -churches are inevitable, of what sort shall they be? - - _O Thou who hast made all nations of men to seek Thee and to find - Thee; bless, we beseech Thee, Thy sons and daughters who have gone - forth, into distant lands, bearing in their hands Thy Word of Life. - We rejoice that, touched with the enthusiasm of Christ, so many have - consecrated their lives to proclaiming the message of Thy love to - those other sheep of Thine who are not of our fold, that they may be - united with us and that there may be one flock and one Shepherd. Help - Thy ministering servants to recognize the fragments of truth and - goodness that are ever found where men are sincere and to claim these - glimpses of Thyself as the prophecies of a fuller revelation. When - discouraged by the hardness of their task, and the meager fruit of - all their labor, give them faith to see the far-off whitening - harvest. Inspire them with Thy gracious promise that though the sower - may go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, he will come again with - joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Comfort them in their exile and - loneliness with a sense of Thy companionship and with the prayers and - sympathy of their brethren at home. Through them let Thy Word have - free course and be glorified. And so let Thy Kingdom come, and Thy - Will be done on earth as in Heaven, for Jesus Christ's sake. - Amen._--Samuel McComb. - - -Twelfth Week, Fifth Day - - =After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, - Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in - heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us - our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not - into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive - men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But - if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father - forgive your trespasses.--Matt. 6:9-15.= - -The central ideal of Christian effort is set for us in the first -petition of the Master's prayer. But a Kingdom on earth, with God's -will done here in heavenly fashion, is a social idea. It means not -only right personal quality; it means right family life, and economic, -political, and international relationships Christianized. No amount of -fine individual character, necessary as it is, will of itself rectify -the social maladjustments and inequities. Were everyone as good as -possible, we still should need organized action. All parts of an -engine may be correct, and yet they may be wrongly fitted together. As -it is, social relations obviously demand concerted action; we must -join together to combat immoral industrial conditions, to throttle the -liquor traffic, to make human fraternity a fact and not a dream. The -opposition to all such reforms is organized, and no haphazard attack -will succeed. Now, many organizations may arise to serve special ends -and may do excellent service to the cause, but what has proved true in -the conflict with the liquor traffic, is true also of enterprises for -industrial justice and international cooperation--_only when the -churches see the moral issue and put their power in, is there any hope -of victory_. A Christian whose faith involves the Kingdom sees -plainly that he cannot go on without the Church. - - _O Lord, we praise Thy holy name, for Thou hast made bare Thine arm - in the sight of all nations and done wonders. But still we cry to - Thee in the weary struggle of our people against the power of drink. - Remember, Lord, the strong men who were led astray and blighted in - the flower of their youth. Remember the aged who have brought their - gray hairs to a dishonored grave. Remember the homes that have been - made desolate of joy, the wifely love that has been outraged in its - sanctuary, the little children who have learned to despise where once - they loved. Remember, O Thou great avenger of sin, and make this - nation to remember._ - - _May those who now entrap the feet of the weak and make their living - by the degradation of men, thrust away their shameful gains and stand - clear. But if their conscience is silenced by profit, do Thou grant - Thy people the indomitable strength of faith to make an end of it. - May all the great churches of our land shake off those who seek the - shelter of religion for that which damns, and stand with level front - against their common foe. May all who still soothe their souls with - half-truths, saying "Peace, peace," where there can be no peace, - learn to see through Thy stem eyes and come to the help of Jehovah - against the mighty. Help us to cast down the men in high places who - use the people's powers to beat back the people's hands from the - wrong they fain would crush._ - - _O God, bring nigh the day when all our men shall face their daily - task with minds undrugged and with tempered passions; when the - unseemly mirth of drink shall seem a shame to all who hear and see; - when the trade that debauches men shall be loathed like the trade - that debauches women; and when all this black remnant of savagery - shall haunt the memory of a new generation but as an evil dream of - the night. For this accept our vows, O Lord, and grant Thine aid. - Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. - - -Twelfth Week, Sixth Day - - =Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on - me through their word; that they may all be one; even as thou, - Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that - the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which - thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even - as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected - into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and - lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.--John 17:20-23.= - -To the Christian the Church is a problem, just because she is a -necessity. He caught his faith from the contagion of her fellowship -and he sees that if he is to serve effectively the ideals of Christ -and the coming of the Kingdom he must work through some church. But -because the Church is necessary, he is not thereby made content with -her. She is at once helping and hindering the spread of the faith; she -is the source of immeasurable good and yet she is not "one, that the -world may believe." A traveler across the American plains in -springtime sees fences, tiresomely prominent, staring at him from the -landscape; but in summer when he returns the fences are invisible. The -wheat and corn are growing, the earth is bearing fruit, and while the -old divisions may be there, they all are hidden. One suspects that if -Christians everywhere set themselves with hearty zeal to bear the -fruit of service for the common weal, if they gave themselves to -achieve the aims of Christ for men with ardor and thoroughness, the -sectarian divisions would grow unimperative and disappear. We may not -be able to think the disagreements through, but we may be able to work -them out; even where we cannot recite a common creed, we can share a -common purpose. The War, where Jewish rabbis have held crucifixes -before the eyes of dying soldiers, and where Catholic priests have met -death, as one did at Gallipoli, following a Wesleyan chaplain--"my -Protestant comrade"--into danger, has revealed how deeply underneath -our sharp divisions our spiritual loyalties seek unity when crisis -comes. For all the unity that can come without compromise to -conscience, surely the Christian people are bound to pray and work. - - _O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the - Prince of Peace; give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great - dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and - prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and - concord; that as there is but one body and one Spirit, and one hope - of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father - of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in - one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with - one mind and one mouth glorify Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Amen._--"The Book of Common Prayer." - - -Twelfth Week, Seventh Day - - =For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is - come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I - have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of - righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me - at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved - his appearing.--II Tim. 4:6-8.= - -The fellowship of faith is not bounded by the earth. Paul's -expectation took into its account a communion that far overreached -the confines of temporal experience. The New Testament believers not -only held but vividly apprehended that the "whole family" to which -they belonged in Christian communion was "in heaven and on earth." -Their outlook Wordsworth has expressed in modern words: - - "There is - One great society alone on earth: - The noble Living and the noble Dead." - -To that society of the world's prophets and martyrs, seers and -servants, it may well be a man's ambition to belong. And that ideal is -not impossible to anyone, for the mark and seal of their fellowship is -that they have "kept the faith." When others despaired, lost heart, -and deserted causes on which man's welfare hung, they kept the faith. -When mysteries perplexed their minds and discouragement, to human -vision, was more rational than hope, they turned from sight to insight -and they kept the faith. When new knowledge, half-understood, -disturbed old forms of thought and multitudes were confused in -uncertainty and disbelief, they kept the faith. And they often came to -their end, like Paul, having "suffered the loss of all things"--yet -not all, for they had kept the faith. - - "For all the saints, who from their labors rest, - Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, - Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, - Alleluia! - - O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, - Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, - And win with them the victor's crown of gold, - Alleluia! - - O blest communion, fellowship Divine! - We feebly struggle; they in glory shine; - Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. - Alleluia!" - - _O God, Thou only Refuge of Thy children! who remainest true though - all else should fail, and livest though all things die; cover us now - when we fly to Thee. Thy shelter was around our fathers. Thy voice - called them away, and bids us seek Thee here till we depart to be - with them. In Thy memory are the lives of all men from of old. Before - Thy sight are the secret hearts of all the living. We stand in awe of - Thy justice which, since the ages began, hath never changed: and we - cling to Thy mercy that passeth not away._ - - _Almighty Father, Thou art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand. - Thou who in times past didst pity the prayers of our forerunners, and - especially of that suffering servant of Thine whom Thou hast made our - Leader unto Thee! be pleased to strengthen us now, O Lord, to bear - our lighter cross and surrender ourselves for duty and for trial unto - Thee. Show us something of the blessed peace with which they now look - back on their days of strong crying and tears, and teach us that it - is far better to die in Thy service than to live for our own. Rebuke - within us all immoderate desires, all unquiet temper, all - presumptuous expectations, all ignoble self-indulgence, and feeling - on us the embrace of Thy Fatherly hand, may we meekly and with - courage go into the darkest ways of our pilgrimage, anxious not to - change Thy perfect will, but only to do and bear it worthily. May we - spend all our days in Thy presence, and meet our death in the - strength of Thy grace, and pass thence into the nearer light of Thy - knowledge and love. Amen._--John Hunter. - - -COMMENT FOR THE WEEK - -I - -So far in our studies we have been dealing with the individual -believer in his search for a reasonable faith. But we must face at -last what from the beginning has been true, that there is no such -thing as an individual believer. _All faiths are social._ However -little we may be aware of each other's influence, however intangible -the social forces which shape the convictions by which we live, no man -builds or keeps his faiths alone. We may pride ourselves on our -independent thought, but the fact remains as Prof. William James has -stated it: "Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in the -greatest matters this is most the case." - -The realm of religious conviction is not the only place where we hold -with a strong sense of personal possession what has been given us by -others, and often forget to acknowledge our indebtedness. We believe -in democracy and popular education, not because by some gift of -individual genius we are wiser than our unbelieving sires, but -because, in the advance of the race, that faith has been wrought out -by many minds, and, with minute addition of our own thought, we share -the general conviction. As a man considers how rich and varied are the -faiths he holds, how few of them he ever has thought through or ever -can, and how helpless he would be, if he were set from the beginning -to create any one of them, he gains new insight into Paul's words, -"What hast thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive -it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. -4:7). - -Indeed, this same truth holds in every relationship. Nothing is more -impossible than a "self-made man." In no realm can that common phrase -be intelligently applied to anyone. If in business one has risen from -poverty to wealth, he has used railroads that he did not invent and -telephones that he does not even understand; he has built his business -on a credit system for which he did not labor and whose moral basis -has been laid in the ethical struggles of unnumbered generations. For -the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the education he receives, he -is debtor to a social life that taps the ends of the earth and that -has cost blood not his and money which he never can repay. If granting -this, a man still say, "My power and the might of my hand hath gotten -me this wealth" (Deut. 8:17), he may well consider whence his power -has come. His distant ancestors stalked through primeval forests, -their brows sloped back, their hairy hides barren of clothes, and in -their hands stone hatchets, by the aid of which they sought their -food. What has this Twentieth Century boaster done to change the -habits of the Stone Age to the civilization on which his wealth is -based or to elevate man's intellect to the grasp and foresight of the -modern business world? All the power by which he wins his way is -clearly a social gift, and any contribution which he may add is -infinitesimal compared with his receipts. - -By this truth all declarations of individual independence need to be -chastened and controlled and all boasting cancelled utterly. Normal -minds have their times of self-assertion in religion, when they grow -impatient of believing anything simply because they have been told. As -a college Junior put it: "I must clear the universe of God, and then -start in at the beginning to see what I can find." But to assert a -reasonable independence ought not to mean that one cut himself off -from the support of history, the accumulated experience of the race, -the insight of the seers, and in unassisted isolation walk, like -Kipling's cat, "by his wild lone." No man can do that anywhere and -still succeed. Imagine a man, in politics, dubious of his old -affiliations and disturbed by the conflicting opinions of his day. If, -so perplexed, he should throw over all that ever had been thought or -done in civic life, and in an unaided individual adventure attempt out -of his own mind to constitute a state, in what utter confusion would -he land! No mind can begin work as though it were the first mind that -ever acted, or were the only mind in action now. All effective -thinking is social; contributions from innumerable heads pour in to -make a wise man's knowledge. And to suppose that any man can climb the -steep ascent of heaven all alone and lay his hands comprehensively on -the Eternal is preposterous. No one ever apprehended a science so, -much less God! Even Jesus fed his soul on the prophets of his race. - - -II - -Indeed, Jesus' attitude toward the fellowship of faith is most -revealing, seen against the background of his nation's history. In the -beginning, there was in Israel no such thing as individual religion. -In the earliest strata of the Bible's revelation, we find no -indication of a faith that brought God and each of his people into -intimate relationships. Jehovah was the God of the nation as a whole -and not of the people one by one. When he spoke, he spoke to the -community through a leader; "Speak thou with us and we will hear," the -people cried to Moses, "but let not God speak with us lest we die" -(Exodus 20:19). It was at the time of the Exile, when the nation fell -in ruins, and the hearts of faithful Jews were thrown back one by one -on God that individual trust, peace, joy, and confidence found -utterance. It was Jeremiah (Chap. 31) and Ezekiel (Chap. 18) who saw -men individually responsible to God, and who opened the way for loyal -Jews to be his people even when the nation was no more. And what they -began Jesus completed. He lifted up the individual and made each man -the object of the Father's care. "It is not the will of your Father -... that _one_ of these little ones should perish" (Matt 18:14). "What -man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost _one_ of them ..." -(Luke 15:4). "The very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. -10:30). As for religion's inner meaning, it became in Jesus' Gospel -not a national ritual but a private faith: "But thou, when thou -prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, -pray to thy Father who is in secret" (Matt. 6:6). - -While Jesus, however, so emphasized the inward, individual aspects of -religion, he did not leave it there, as though persons could ever be -like jugs in the rain, separate receptacles that share neither their -emptiness nor their abundance. He bound his disciples into a -fellowship. He joined their channels until, like interflowing streams, -one contributed to all and the spirit of all was expressed in each. He -braided them into friendship with himself and with each other, so -close that the community did what no isolated believer ever could have -done--it survived the shock of the crucifixion, the agony of sustained -persecution, the frailties of its members, and the discouragements of -its campaign. On that _group_ the Master counted for his work: "The -gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). And when -the New Testament Church emerged, the fellowship which Christ himself -had breathed into it was clear and strong. Men who became Christians, -in the New Testament, came into a new relationship with God indeed, -but into a new human fraternity as well. They were "builded together -for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22), and even when -death came that fellowship was not destroyed. They were still "the -whole family in heaven and on earth" (Eph. 3:15). John Wesley was -right: "The Bible knows nothing of a solitary religion." In the Old -Testament religion was predominantly national; in the New Testament, -individuals rejoicing in the "Beloved Community" could not describe -their life without the reiteration of "one another." They were to -"pray one for another" and "confess sins one to another" (James 5:16); -they were to "love one another" (I Pet 1:22), "exhort one another" -(Heb. 3:13), "comfort one another" (I Thess. 4:18); they were to "bear -one another's burdens" (Gal. 6:2) and in communal worship "admonish -one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Col. 3:16). - -So when they thought of their faith, they never held it in solitary -confidence; they were "strong to apprehend _with all the saints_ -what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the -love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:18). - - -III - -When a modern believer endeavors to interpret this spirit in the New -Testament in terms of his own wants, he sees at once that he needs -fellowship for the _enriching_ of his faith. Cooperation for -achievement is a modern commonplace, but when Paul prayed, as we have -quoted him, that the Ephesians might be "strong to _apprehend_ -with all the saints," he was stating the more uncommon proposition -that men must cooperate for knowledge. He saw the divine love in its -length, breadth, depth, and height on one side, and on the other a -solitary man endeavoring to understand it. Impossible! said Paul; the -divine love in its fulness cannot be known in solitude, it must be -apprehended in fellowship. - -At first nothing seems more strictly individual than knowledge. To -know is an intimate, personal affair; it cannot be carried on by -proxy. But even casual thought at once makes clear that in solitude we -cannot know even the physical universe. No man can go apart and -through the narrow aperture of his own mind see the full round of -truth. For astronomers study the stars, geologists the rocks, chemists -know their special field and physicists know theirs; each scientist -understands in part, and if one is to know the breadth and length and -height and depth of the physical world he must be strong to apprehend -with all the scientists. - -In religion this necessity of cooperation in knowing God may not at -first seem evident. In the secret session behind closed doors, as -Jesus said, one finds his clearest thought of God, and in the -individual heart the divine illumination comes. So some insist; and -the answer does not deny, but surpasses the truth in the insistence. -_Is yours the only heart where God is to be found? Does the sea of his -grace exhaust itself in what it can reveal in your bay?_ Rather, in -how many different ways men come to God, how various their -experiences of him, and how much each needs the rest for breadth and -catholicity of view! - -One man comes to God by way of intellectual perplexity and he knows -chiefly faith's illumination of life's puzzling problems; another -comes through the experience of sin and he responds to such a phrase -as "God our Saviour" (I Tim. 1:1); another comes to God through -trouble and has found in faith "eternal comfort and good hope through -grace" (II Thess. 2:16); and another by way of a happy life has found -in God the object of devoted gratitude. One, a mystic, finds God in -solitary prayer; another, a worker, knows him chiefly as the Divine -Ally. Some are very young and have a child's religion; some are at the -summit of their years and have a strong man's achieving faith; and -some are old and are familiar with the face of death and the thought -of the eternal. How multiform is man's experience of God! Some -compositions cannot be interpreted by a solo. Let the first violinist -play with what skill he can, he alone is not adequate to the endeavor. -There must be an orchestra; the oboes and viols, the drums and -trumpets, the violins and cellos must all be there. So faith in God is -too rich and manifold to be interpreted by individuals alone; a -fellowship is necessary. Even Paul, in one of his most gloriously -mixed-up and yet revealing sentences, prays for fellowship that his -faith may be enriched: "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you -some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I -with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith, -both yours and mine" (Rom. 1:11, 12). - -Poverty of faith, therefore, is not due only to individual lapses of -character and perplexities of mind; _it is due to neglect of Christian -fellowship_. One who with difficulty has clung to his slender -experience of God, goes up to the church on Sunday. Even though it be -a humble place of prayer, if the worship is genuine, the hymns, the -prayers, the Scriptures gather up the testimony of centuries to the -reality of God. Here David speaks again and Isaiah answers; here Paul -reaffirms his faith and John is confident that God is love. Here the -saints before Christ cry, "Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my -deliverer" (Psalm 18:2), and the sixteenth century answers, "A mighty -fortress is our God"; and the nineteenth century replies, "How firm a -foundation, ye saints of the Lord!" We go up to the church finding it -hard to sing, "_My_ Jesus, _I_ love thee, _I_ know thou art _mine_"; -we go down with a _Te Deum_ in our hearts: - - "The glorious company of the apostles praise thee; - The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee; - The noble army of martyrs praise thee; - The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee." - -In the rich and varied faiths of the Church we find a far more -fruitful relationship with God than by ourselves we ever could have -gained. Without such an enriching experience men can only with -difficulty keep faith alive. Twigs that snap out of the camp-fire lose -their flame and fall, charred sticks; but put them back and they will -burn again, for fire springs from fellowship. Amiel, after an evening -of solitude with a favorite book on philosophy, wrote what is many a -Christian's prayer: "Still I miss something--common worship, a -positive religion, shared with other people. Ah! when will the church -to which I belong in heart rise into being? I cannot, like Scherer, -content myself with being in the right all alone. I must have a less -solitary Christianity." - - -IV - -Men need fellowship, not only for the enrichment of their faith, but -for its _stability_. No man can successfully believe anything all -alone. Let an opinion in any realm be denied, despised, neglected by -common consent of men, and not easily do we hold an unshaken -conviction of its truth. But let it be agreed with, supported and -endorsed by many, especially by men of insight, and with each -additional testimony to its truth our faith grows confident. A -fundamental experience of man is that his faiths are socially -confirmed. - -Authority of some sort, therefore, never is outgrown in any province -of knowledge, and strugglers after faith have solid right to the -sustenance which it can give. For one thing the authority of the -_expert_ is acknowledged everywhere. When a great astronomer speaks -about the stars, most of us put our hands upon our mouths and humble -ourselves to listen. If in science, expert knowledge has this -authority--not artificial, infallible, and externally enforced, but -vital, serviceable, and real--how much more in realms where insight -and spiritual quality are indispensable! Such authority comes in the -spirit of Paul: "Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are -helpers of your joy" (II Cor. 1:24). - -An amateur stands before a picture like Turner's "The Building of -Carthage" and either does not notice the details, or noticing sees no -special meaning there. But when Ruskin, Turner's seer, begins to -speak--how wonderful the children in the foreground sailing toy boats -in a pool, prophecy of Carthage's future greatness on the sea!--one by -one the details take fire and glow with meaning as our eyes are -opened. Such is the service of a real authority. It does not, as -Weigel says, put out a person's eye and then try to persuade him to -see with some one else's. It rather cures our blindness and enables us -to see what by ourselves we were incapable of seeing. Christ -supremely, when allowed to be himself, has helped men thus. He has not -oppressed the mind with burdensome authority, denying us our right to -think. He has come appealing to our little insight with his own clear -vision, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" (Luke -12:57). Things which we see dimly he has clarified; things which we -did not see at all, he has made manifest. He has been what he called -himself, the Light, and his people have said of him what the man in -John's ninth chapter said, "He opened mine eyes" (John 9:30). A -struggler after faith may well count among his assets the insight of -the seers and of the Seer. As another states it: "Our weak faith may -at times be permitted to look through the eyes of some strong soul, -and may thereby gain a sense of the certainty of spiritual things -which before we had not." - -Beside the authority of the seers, there is _the authority of racial -experience_, to which indeed no mind ought slavishly to subject -itself, but from which all minds ought to gain insight and confidence. -Tradition has done us much disservice. Oppressions that might long -before have been outgrown have been counted holy because they were -hoary. There must be something to commend an opinion or a custom -beside its age, and all progress depends upon recognizing that - - "Time makes ancient good uncouth." - -But if out of the past have come evils to be overthrown, out of the -past also have come the best possessions of the race. "Traditional" -has grown to be an adjective of ill repute; it signifies in common -parlance the inheritance of oppressive ideals and institutions that -hold the "dead hand" over hopes of progress. But our best music also, -our poetry, and our art are traditional; the discoveries of our -scientists on the long road from alchemy to chemistry, from magic to -physics are traditional; all that each new generation begins with, -fitted out like the well-favored child of a provident father, is -traditional. No one can describe the utter barrenness of life, if we -could not build on the accumulations of our sires, using the result of -their toil as the basis of our work, their hardly won wisdom as our -guide. To discount anything because it is traditional is to discount -everything, except that comparatively minute addition which each new -generation makes to the slowly accumulating wisdom and wealth of the -race. As Mr. Chesterton has put it: "Tradition may be defined as the -extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most -obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the -dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy -of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object -to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects -to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells -us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; -tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is -our father." - -Now racial experience is dubious at many points and at very few does -it approach finality. But on one matter it speaks with a unanimity -that is nothing short of absolute. _Man cannot live without -religion_--like the earth beneath the mountain peaks this universal -experience of the race underlies the special insights of the seers. -When during the mid-Victorian discomfiture of faith at the first -disclosures of the new science, Tennyson's "In Memoriam" appeared, -Prof. Sidgwick wrote of it, "What 'In Memoriam' did for us, for me at -least in this struggle, was to impress on us the ineffable and -irradicable conviction that _humanity_ will not and cannot acquiesce -in a godless world." That conviction is confirmed by the whole -experience of the race. To be sure religion, like love, exists in all -degrees. From degraded lust to the relationship of Robert Browning and -Elizabeth Barrett, love is infinite in variety; it takes its quality -from the character of those whom it affects; yet through all its -changes it is itself so built into the structure of mankind, that -though there be loveless individuals, life as a whole is unimaginable -without it. So religion runs the gamut of human quality. In a Hindu -idolater it performs disgusting rites to placate an angry god, and in -Rabindranath Tagore it cries: "If thou speakest not I will fill my -heart with thy silence and endure it. I will keep still and wait like -the night with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience. The -morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour -down in golden streams, breaking through the sky." In Torquemada it is -cruel; in Father Damien it becomes a passion for saviorhood. Religion -helped Sennacherib to his campaigns and Isaiah to his prophecies; it -preached the Sermon on the Mount and it dragged Jesus before Pilate. -Can the same spring send forth sweet water and bitter? But religion -does it, for religion is life motived by visions of God; it is -tremendous in strength, but with man's unequal power to understand the -Divine, it is ambiguous in quality. Like electricity, it is -magnificent in blessing or terrible in curse. Yet through all its -degrees man's relationship with the Invisible is so essentially a part -of his humanity that lacking it he has never yet been discovered, and -without it he cannot be conceived. It was this impressive witness of -racial experience that made John Fiske, of Harvard, say, "Of all the -implications of the doctrine of evolution with regard to man, I -believe the very deepest and strongest to be that which asserts the -Everlasting Reality of Religion." - -This testimony of the spiritual seers and this cumulative experience -of the race have a right to play a weighty part in any consideration -of religious faith. Even a rebellious youth might pause before he -scoffs at a mature and thoughtful mind, letting his Church, his -Scripture, and his Christ speak impressively to him about the reality -of God. What we all do in every other realm, when we are wise, this -mind is doing in religion. His individual grasp on truth he sets in -the perspective of history. He does not feel himself upon a lonely -quest when he seeks God; rather he feels behind him and around him the -race of which he is a part and which never yet has ceased to believe -in the Divine, and he sees his own insights illumined by those supreme -spirits who have talked with God "as a man talketh with his friend." -He knows as well as any youth that authority has been stereotyped in -theories of artificial infallibility, to which no mature mind for a -moment can weakly surrender its right to think, but he refuses to give -up a real authority because some have held a false one. The authority -of the dictionary is one thing--literal and external. But the -authority of a good mother moves on a different plane. It is not -artificial and oppressive. It is vital and inspiring. She has lived -longer, experienced more than her children; she is wiser, better, more -discerning than they. A man who has had experience of great motherhood -comes to feel that if his mother thinks something very strongly and -very persistently, he would better consider that thing well, for the -chances are overwhelming that there is truth in it. How much more -shall he feel so about the age-long experience of the saints with God! -In this respect at least there still is truth in Cyprian's words, "He -that hath God for his Father, hath the Church for his Mother." - - -V - -Faith needs fellowship not alone for enrichment and stability, but for -_expression_. For faith, as from the beginning we have maintained, is -not an effortless acceptance of ideas or personal relationships; it is -an active appropriation of convictions that drive life, and Christian -faith especially has always involved a campaign whose object is the -saving of the world. Such an expression of religious life involves -cooperation; men cannot effectively support the "work of faith" (I -Thess. 1:3) apart from fellowship. - -The necessity for this cooperative expression of religion is clear -when we consider the _one in whom we believe_. How anyone can expect -in solitude to believe in Christ is a mystery. For Christ, with -overflowing love to those who shared his filial fellowship with God, -said, "No longer do I call you servants ... I have called you friends" -(John 15:15); his care encompassed folk who never heard of him and -whom he never saw, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: -them also I must bring ... and they shall become one flock, one -shepherd" (John 10:16); and beyond his generation's life his love -reached out to followers yet unborn, "Them also that believe on me -through their word" (John 17:20). Whatever other quality a movement -sprung from such a source may possess, it must be social. Moreover, -Jesus' faith was active; the meaning of it he himself disclosed, "All -things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). In such a -spirit, both by himself and through his followers, he sought the lost, -healed the sick, preached the Gospel, and expectantly proclaimed an -earth transformed to heaven. Such a character cannot be known in -contemplation under the trees in June or through the pages of an -interesting book. If Garibaldi, leading his men to the liberation of -Italy, had found a devotee who said, I believe in you; I love to read -your deeds, and often in my solitary, meditative hours I am cheered by -the thought of you--one can easily imagine the swift and penetrating -answer! That you believe in me is false; no one believes in me who -does not share my purpose; the army is afoot, great business is ahead, -the cause is calling, he who believes follows. Such a spirit was -Christ's. The hermits, whether of old time in their cells, or of -modern time with their unaffiliated lives, are wrong. _The final test -of faith in Christ is fellowship in work._ - -The Church itself has been to blame for much undedicated faith. -Correctness of opinion has been substituted, as a test, for fidelity -of life. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," -has been interpreted to mean: accept a theory about Christ's person -and all is well. But one need only go back in imagination to the time -when first that formula was used to see how vital was its import. To -believe in Christ then meant to accept a despised religion, to break -ties that men value more than life, to face the certainty of contempt -and the risk of violence. To believe in Christ then meant coming out -from old relationships and going to a sect where one was pilloried -with derision, that one might work for the things which Christ -represents. No one did that as a theory; it required a tremendous -thrust of the will, a decision that reached to the roots of life. All -this was involved in believing on Christ, and our decent holding of a -theory about him, in a time when all lips praise him, is a poor -substitute for such vital faith. John tells us that once a multitude -of Jews professed belief in Jesus, but the Master, hearing their -affirmations, saw the superficial meaning there. "Many believed on his -name," says John--"but Jesus did not trust himself unto them" (John -2:23, 24). How many believe in Christ in such a way that he cannot -believe in them! They forget that while the test of a man is his -faith, the test of faith is faithfulness. An apostolic injunction -needs modern enforcement, "that they who have believed God may be -careful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:8). - -The necessity for a cooperative expression of religion is evident -again in the _truth which we believe_. Take in its simplest form -the Gospel which Christianity presents, that God is in earnest about -personality, and what urgency is there for associated work! For -personality is being ruined in this world. False ideas of life, -idolatry whether to fetishes in Africa or to money here, irreligion in -all its manifold and blighting forms, are destroying personality from -within, and from without sweatshops, tenements, war, the liquor -traffic, industrial inequity, are engaged in the same task of ruin. -The common contrast between individual and social Christianity is -superficial. The one thing for which the Christian cares is personal -life, and in its culture and salvation he sees the aim of God and -Godlike men. Whatever, therefore, affects _that_ is his concern, -and what is there that does not affect it? What men believe about -life's meaning and its destiny strikes to the core of personal life, -and the houses in which men live, the conditions under which they -work, the wages that they are paid, and the environments which -surround their plastic childhood--these, too, mould for good or ill -the fortunes of personality. - -The Christian, therefore, who intelligently holds the faith that he -professes cannot be negligent either of evangelism, education, and -missionary enterprise upon the one side, or of social reformation on -the other. These are two ends of the tunnel by which the Gospel seeks -to open out a way for personality to find its freedom. A man who says -that he believes in Jesus Christ, and yet is complacent about child -labor and commercialized vice, poor housing conditions and unjust -wages, the trade in liquor and the butchery of men in war, stands in -peril of hearing the twenty-third chapter of Matthew's gospel brought -up to date for his especial benefit by the same lips that spoke it -first. The indignation of the Master falls on priests and Levites who, -speeding to the temple service, "pass by on the other side" the -victims of social injury. - -Isolated Christians, however, cannot further this campaign for -personality redeemed from inward ills and outward handicaps. _Evil is -organized, and goodness must be, too._ As wisely would a single -patriot shoulder a rifle and set out for France as would an -unaffiliated Christian set his solitary strength against the massed -evil of the world. Men increase effectiveness by a large per cent -through fellowship, as ancient Hebrews saw: "Five of you shall chase a -hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand" (Lev. 26:8). - - -VI - -Many secondary fellowships offer to a Christian opportunity for -associated service; no cooperative endeavor to make this a better -world for God to rear his children in should lack Christian sympathy -and support. But the primary fellowship of Christians is the Church. -Some indeed would have no church; they would have man's spiritual life -a disembodied wraith, without "a local habitation and a name." But no -other one of all man's finer interests has survived without organized -expression. Justice is a great ideal; any endeavor to incarnate it in -human institutions sullies its purity. One who dwelt only on the lofty -nature of justice, who thought of it uncontaminated and ideal, might -protest against its embodiment in the tawdry ritual and demeaning -squabbles of a law court. Between the poetry of justice and the -recriminations of lawyers, the perjury of witnesses, the fumbling -uncertainty of evidence, the miscarriages of equity, how bitterly a -scornful mind could point the contrast! But a reverent mind, sorry as -it may be at the misrepresentation of the ideal in the human -institution, is ill content with scorn. He who with insight reads the -history of jurisprudence, perceives how the courts of law, with all -their faults, have conserved the gains in social equity, have -propagated the ideal for which they stand, have made progress -sometimes slowly, sometimes with a rush like soldiers storming a -redoubt, and in times of stress have been a bulwark against the -invasion of the people's rights. The poetry of justice would have been -an idle dream without equity's laborious embodiment in codes and -courts. - -Some minds dwell with joy upon the spiritual Church. Its names are -written on no earthly roster, but in the Book of Life; its worship is -offered in no earthly temple, but in the trysting places where soul -meets Over-soul in trustful fellowship; its baptism is not with water -but with spirit, its eucharist not with bread but with the shared -life of the Lord. Or, ranging out to think of the Church as an ideal -human brotherhood men dream as Manson did in "The Servant in the -House": - - "If you have eyes, you will presently see the church itself--a - looming mystery of many shapes and shadows, leaping sheer from floor - to dome. The work of no ordinary builder!... The pillars of it go up - like the brawny trunks of heroes: the sweet human flesh of men and - women is moulded about its bulwarks, strong, impregnable: the faces - of little children laugh out from every corner-stone: the terrible - spans and arches of it are the joined hands of comrades; and up in - the heights and spaces there are inscribed the numberless musings of - all the dreamers of the world. It is yet building--building and built - upon. Sometimes the work goes forward in deep darkness: sometimes in - blinding light: now beneath the burden of unutterable anguish: now to - the tune of a great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry of - thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the night-time, one may hear - the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work up in the dome--the - comrades that have climbed ahead." - -All such ideals, like pillars of fire and cloud, lead the march toward -a promised land. They are to the actual Church what the poetry of -justice is to the actual courts. But in one case as in the other, such -ideals are dreams if, with labor and struggle, through many mistakes, -against the disheartenment of man's frailty and sin, we do not work -out an institution that shall embody and express man's spiritual life. -Even now a discerning spirit whose own faith has been nourished at the -altar regards the Church with boundless gratitude. She has indeed been -to the Gospel what courts are to justice, indispensable and yet -burdensome, an institution that the ideal cannot live without and yet -often cannot easily live with. No one feels her faults so acutely as -one who devotedly values the Gospel and longs for its adequate -expression on the earth. Yet the Church conserves the race's spiritual -gains, fits out our youth with the treasure of man's accumulated -faith, is a power house of endless moral energy for good causes in the -world, exalts the ideal aims of life amid the crushing pressure of -material pursuits, holds out a gospel of hope to men whom all others -have forsaken, and to the ends of the earth proclaims the good pews of -God and the Kingdom. No other fellowship offers to men of faith so -great an opportunity to make distinctive contribution to the race's -spiritual life. In the presence of the Church's service and the -Church's need an unaffiliated believer in Jesus Christ is an anomaly. -For enrichment, stability, and expression, faith must have fellowship. - - _"Oh magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt His name - together"_ (Psalm 34:3). - - - - -SCRIPTURE PASSAGES USED IN THE DAILY READINGS - - - EXODUS 3:1-5 (VI-5); - 4:24-26 (II-4). - - DEUTERONOMY 28:65-67 (VIII-2). - - II KINGS 21:3-6 (IV-5). - - JOB 30:20, 21, 25-27 (X-4); - 37:23 (V-3); - 38:31-38 (VII-1). - - PSALMS 16:5-11 (III-5); - 23:1-4 (X-3); - 27:1-6 (VIII-5); - 27:7-14 (V-7); - 51:1-4 (III-3); - 55:1-7 (VIII-1); - 56:1-3 (VIII-3); - 73:2, 3, 16, 17, 24-26 (II-6); - 103:1-5 (III-2); - 118:1-6 (VIII-7); - 145:1-10 (III-7); - 146:1-5 (IV-1). - - PROVERBS 2:1-5 (II-3); - 4:1-9 (II-2). - - ECCLESIASTES 3:11 (V-3). - - ISAIAH 1:10-17 (IV-2); - 40:26-31 (V-4); - 51:9-16 (VI-6); - 55:1-3 (II-7). - - AMOS 5:21-24 (IX-4). - - MICAH 6:1-8 (IX-3). - - MATTHEW 6:6-14 (III-1); - 6:9-15 (XII-5); - 6:24-33 (VI-6); - 7:15-20 (V-6); - 7:24-27 (VI-7); - 13:54-58 (XI-3); - 17:19-20 (XI-4); - 18:12-14 (II-4); - 21:28-31 (X-1); - 23:13-15, 23, 24 (XII-1); - 25:34-40 (IX-7). - - MARK 12:28-30 (V-1). - - LUKE 6:12-16 (IX-2); - 7:48-50 (XI-2); - 18:9-14 (IV-3); - 22:31, 32 (XI-6). - - JOHN 3:21 (IX-5); - 4:23, 24 (IV-5); - 6:16, 17 (IX-5); - 6:27-29 (XI-1); - 7:16, 17 (IX-5); - 14:25-27 (VII-2); - 17:20-23 (XII-6). - - ACTS 17:22-28 (IV-6). - - ROMANS 8:1-6 (X-7); - 8:14-16 (V-5); - 8:24, 25 (III-4); - 10:11-15 (XII-4); - 11:33, 34 (V-3); - 11:33-12:2 (IX-6); - 15:13 (III-4); - 16:1-8 (IX-1). - - I CORINTHIANS 2:10-14 (VII-4); - 3:4-9 (III-6); - 3:18-23 (VII-6); - 4:11-13 (VI-2). - - II CORINTHIANS 5:5 (V-2). - - GALATIANS 2:20 (XI-5); - 5:13-15 (XII-3); - 5:16-23 (IV-7). - - EPHESIANS 1:15-19 (VII-5); - 4:13-15 (X-5). - - PHILIPPIANS 3:12-16 (X-6). - - I THESSALONIANS 3:1, 2, 10 (XI-6); - 5:21 (V-1). - - II THESSALONIANS 1:3 (XI-6). - - I TIMOTHY 6:20, 21 (II-5). - - II TIMOTHY 1:3-5 (II-1); - 4:6-8 (XII-7). - - HEBREWS 1:1, 2 (VII-7); - 2:8-10 (VI-3); - 4:1, 2, (I-6); - 10:23-25 (XII-2); - 10:32-36 (I-4); - 11:1 (I-1); - 11:3, 6 (I-5); - 11:8-10 (I-2); - 11:13-16 (I-1); - 11:24-27 (I-2); - 11:32-40 (I-3); - 12:1-3 (VI-4); - 13:7 (I-7). - - JAMES 1:2-8 (X-2); - 2:14-21 (IV-4); - 5:13-16 (VIII-4). - - I PETER 1:3-9 (XI-7); - 4:12-16, 19 (VI-1). - - II PETER 1:5 (V-1). - - JUDE 20-25 (VII-3). - - - - -SOURCES OF PRAYERS USED IN THE DAILY READINGS - - - ALFRED, KING--IX-3, "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. - - ANSELM, ST.--XI-6. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. - - ARNDT, JOHANN--IX-1; X-1. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - ARNOLD, THOMAS--VII-5. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - BACON, FRANCIS--VII-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - BEECHER, HENRY WARD--I-4; I-7; II-7; III-5; III-7; IV-7; V-7; VI-6; - X-5. "A Book of Public Prayer." - - BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER--XII-6. - - DAWSON, GEORGE--X-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - HALE, SIR MATTHEW--VII-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - HUNTER, JOHN--I-1; IV-5; XI-2; XI-3; XII-7. "Devotional Services for - Public Worship." - - JENKS, BENJAMIN--X-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - MCCOMB, SAMUEL--I-6; II-1; III-1; VI-3; VIII-1; VIII-2; VIII-3; - VIII-5; VIII-6; VIII-7; IX-2; XI-1; XII-2; XII-4. "A Book of - Prayers for Public and Personal Use." - - MARTINEAU, JAMES--III-4; IV-4; V-2; VI-2; XII-1. "Prayers in the - Congregation and in College." - - NEWMAN, FRANCIS W.--VI-1; VI-7. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," - by S. F. Fox. - - ORCHARD, W. E.--I-2; I-3; II-2; II-3; II-4; II-5; II-6; III-2; IV-3; - IV-6; V-1; V-3; V-6; VI-5; VII-1; VII-3; VII-7; VIII-4; IX-5; X-7; - XI-5; XI-7. "The Temple." - - PARKER, THEODORE--I-5; V-4; V-5; VI-4; VII-6; X-6. "Prayers." - - RAUSCHENBUSCH, WALTER--III-6; IV-1; IV-2; IX-4; IX-6; XII-3; XII-5. - "Prayers of the Social Awakening." - - ROBINSON, HELEN RING--XI-4. "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. - Diffendorfer. - - SHAFTESBURY, EARL OF--IX-7. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by - S. F. Fox. - - STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS--III-3. "Prayers Written at Vailima." - - VAN DYKE, HENRY--IV-6. "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. Diffendorfer. - - WEISS, S.--X-3. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Meaning of Faith, by Harry Emerson Fosdick - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEANING OF FAITH *** - -***** This file should be named 40482-8.txt or 40482-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/4/8/40482/ - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chris Pinfield and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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