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diff --git a/41520-0.txt b/41520-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..617307f --- /dev/null +++ b/41520-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4603 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41520 *** + +BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + + THANKSGIVING SERMONS 12mo, net, $1.00 + LETTERS ON EVANGELISM 16mo, cloth, 25 cents; + paper, 15 cents + + + + + The Mendenhall Lectures, First Series + Delivered at DePauw University + + + THE BIBLE AND LIFE + + + BY EDWIN HOLT HUGHES + Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church + + + THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN + NEW YORK CINCINNATI + + + + + Copyright, 1915, by + EDWIN HOLT HUGHES + + First Edition printed February, 1915 + Reprinted June, 1915 + + + + +TO CHARLES RAISBECK MAGEE + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 9 + + FOREWORD 11 + + BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 13 + + THE HUMAN OUTLINE 19 + + I. THE BIBLE AND LIFE 21 + + II. THE BIBLE AND MAN 49 + + III. THE BIBLE AND HOME 76 + + IV. THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION 102 + + V. THE BIBLE AND WORK 125 + + VI. THE BIBLE AND WEALTH 151 + + VII. THE BIBLE AND SORROW 185 + + VIII. THE BIBLE AND PRACTICE 213 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +By the courteous invitation of the President, Faculty, and Trustees of +DePauw University, the writer had the privilege of delivering the first +series of lectures under the foundation as endowed by his friend, the Rev. +Marmaduke H. Mendenhall. The following comments are the only introductory +words that need be given. + +The terms of the lectures were kept strictly within the radius of real +life. The author does not claim to be a biblical scholar in any technical +sense. Nor did he deem that the primary need of the students whom he +addressed would be met by a discussion of theories of inspiration or of +dates and authorships. College students have a passion for reality, and +the most convincing apologetic for them is the argument from actual +living. + +Under the instruction of the founder the lectures are to be placed in +permanent form for the students of the University and for the wider +public. The lecturer having been rewarded by the close attention of +hundreds of youthful hearers, the writer will have a still greater reward +if those who heard the words as spoken in Meharry Hall are joined by the +larger company who will listen for the voice of the Spirit in these pages. + +EDWIN HOLT HUGHES. + + + + +THE MENDENHALL LECTURES + +FOREWORD + + +The late Reverend Marmaduke H. Mendenhall, D.D., of the North Indiana +Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, donated to DePauw University +the sum of ten thousand dollars, the purpose and conditions of which gift +are set forth in his bequest as follows: + +The object of this gift is "to found a perpetual lectureship on the +evidences of the Divine Origin of Christianity, to be known as the +Mendenhall Foundation. The income from this fund shall be used for the +support of an Annual Lectureship, the design of which shall be the +exhibition of the proofs, from all sources, of the Divine Origin, +Inspiration, and Authority of the Holy Scriptures. The course of lectures +shall be delivered annually before the University and the public without +any charge for admission. + +"The lecturers shall be chosen by an electing body consisting of the +President of the University, the five senior members of the Faculty of the +College of Liberal Arts, and the President of the Board of Trustees, +subject to the approval of the Board of Bishops of the Methodist +Episcopal Church. The lecturers must be persons of high and wide repute, +of broad and varied scholarship, who firmly adhere to the evangelical +system of Christian faith. The selection of lecturers may be made from the +world of Christian scholarship without regard to denominational divisions. +Each course of lectures is to be published in book form by an eminent +publishing house and sold at cost to the Faculty and students of the +University." + + GEORGE R. GROSE, + _President of DePauw University_. + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Inasmuch as future lecturers on the Mendenhall Foundation may not have had +the privilege of personal acquaintance with the founder, it is doubtless +good that this first volume may record the outlines of his life and +character. Marmaduke H. Mendenhall was born at Guilford, North Carolina, +May 13, 1836. He died at Union City, Indiana, October 9, 1905. He was the +son of Himelius and Priscilla Mendenhall, who, when their son was about +one year old, came northward and settled near Peru, Indiana. Doctor +Mendenhall did not suggest in manner or bearing that he was Southern born. +Had one chosen to judge of his birthplace by the man himself, one would +have said that he was a typical son of New England. His deeper self was +typified by his personal appearance. He was tall, stately, dignified, +serious, earnest. + +He joined the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church +in 1856. Those days were still pioneer, and he entered gladly into the +sacrificial ministry of that period. It is a singular coincidence that he +was doubtless the first minister of his faith to begin work near Union +City, where he closed his earthly labors. It was his privilege, also, to +build the first Methodist Episcopal church in the city where he died. The +history of his ministry shows that he served all classes of +charges--country, city, village, county seat. Several times the record is +dotted with the word "Mission," which would indicate that he frequently +followed the apostolic fashion of building strictly on his own +foundations. He came to a place of leadership in his own Conference. To +the day of his death he was an influential factor in all its plans and +programs. Though he had been technically "superannuated" for sixteen years +prior to his death, his mind kept its full vigor, and his word kept its +full weight. Twice he was elected a reserve delegate to the General +Conference, while in 1880 he was chosen as one of the regular delegates. + +From the beginning of his ministry Dr. Mendenhall showed the signs of a +remarkable mind, and at the end of his ministry he was still manifesting a +keen interest in current questions and in theological problems. His +library to the last was freshened by the purchase of new books. When he +turned his many volumes over to Gammon Theological Seminary that +institution did not receive hundreds of antiquated volumes, but rather a +collection brought down to date and selected by a master judgment. The +intellectual, though suffused at times by a proper and restrained emotion, +was his noticeable characteristic. He was given to thorough analysis. He +was markedly painstaking. Records that he made of the conduct of his +public services indicate that the final details were all regarded, and +that hymns and Scripture lessons were chosen with a view to their bearing +on the instruction of the day. + +Being a vigorous personality, he held his views with strength. He was +keenly loyal to his convictions, whether these related to methods of work +or to statements of doctrine. In his advocacy or in his antagonism he was +always frank and open. His opponent could see him standing out in plain +view, with no effort to protect himself by secrecy. Men could never doubt +his sincerity, however much they might question the correctness of his +positions. He knew no sinuous paths. He was as direct as sunlight, and he +traveled in straight lines. + +In all his spheres of work Dr. Mendenhall made deep and lasting +impressions. Highly intellectual as he was, he was still an excellent +administrator. His business qualifications were signal. Every matter +committed to him was cared for with scrupulous nicety. He left no loose +ends to any of his work. Although his salaries were never large, as +salaries are counted to-day, he secured a comfortable property, and this +in spite of the fact that throughout his lifetime he was a generous +contributor to good causes. + +He served as a trustee of De Pauw University longer than other member of +his Conference had served, up to the time of his death. From 1878 to 1887 +he served in this capacity, while in 1896 he was reelected and was an +active worker on the board up to the end of his life. He aided in pushing +the institution through its crisis. The files of this writer disclose a +careful and helpful correspondence upon matters vital to the welfare of +the University. In the sessions of the board he was always urbane and +conciliatory. He crowned the work of his life by leaving to the University +all of his estate. Upon the increase of the estate to a certain figure, +the income was to be used in founding a lectureship on Revealed Religion, +especially as related to the Holy Bible. + +Although the writer was an intimate friend of Dr. Mendenhall, he cannot +remember any statements made to him which would indicate the founder's +views of inspiration or of the other questions that have made the +biblical problem of the last two decades. But his library showed that he +was fully aware of the modern discussions. Perhaps he felt that a +lectureship, broadly founded and practically directed, would be of special +service to the church in a time of transition. The writer entertains the +conviction that, even though Dr. Mendenhall might not agree fully with all +that is found in the following pages, he would still appreciate the effort +to bring the Bible within its divine purpose as a Book of Life. + +The home of the founder revealed him as a model of courtesy and +kindliness. Friends who saw him by his own fireside noted the benignity +that matched his dignity, the tenderness that equaled his seriousness. +Those who came into the nearer circle of his life regarded him most +highly. To the wife who survives him he was in all ways a helper, gentle +in demeanor and loyally careful in the administration of her interests. As +the writer reviews the drift of these first lectures delivered under this +foundation, he is persuaded that the founder's relation to Himself, to his +Home, to his Work, to his Wealth, to his Pleasure and Sorrow, and +particularly to the cause of Education, is not misrepresented herein. The +Bible was his Book, and its ideals were achieved in his living. It is the +sincere wish that these pages may accomplish somewhat the main purpose of +the founder's heart in making the divine Book a brighter lamp for the +guidance of youth. + + + + +THE HUMAN OUTLINE + + +It may be well to give in human form the outline which will be followed in +these pages. The story is the story of millions of men on as many days. + +A man awoke one morning to the consciousness of himself. Looking about he +saw the familiar sights of his own home, and soon he heard the voices of +his wife and children. Ere long the little people were on their way to +school. The man proceeded to his work, while his wife took up her domestic +duties. He returned in the evening with the proceeds of his day's labor +added to his stock of goods. He partook of the evening meal and then +indulged in the pleasure of "the children's hour." He later called upon a +friend who had met with sorrow and in the trouble of his friend he found a +fresh reminder of his own affliction. He retired in due season to his +slumber and went forth the next morning to make the like round of the day. + +This is a piece of constant biography. It could be duplicated by reference +to many a personal journal and diary. If we analyze the description, we +shall find that the man was driven to take a relation to Himself, to Home, +to Education, to Work, to Wealth, to Pleasure and Sorrow. + +The aim of this book is to state somewhat the bearing that the Bible has +upon these great departments of our human living. The apologetic tests the +Book under the terms of this human outline. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BIBLE AND LIFE + + +The Bible is a book of power. The man who would deny this statement would +impugn his own intelligence. It is to-day the Book of the strongest +nations. If the strongest nations selected it for their inspiration and +guidance, that fact is significant. If, on the other hand, the Bible has +trained the strongest nations, that fact is more significant. In either +case power is lodged in the Holy Scriptures. The miracle is this: That a +very ancient Book rules a very modern world. + +Various explanations are given. Some men say that the Bible is powerful +because it has been promoted by a powerful organization. But this +explanation needs explaining. How did the Bible secure the aid of this +organization? Why did not the organization take the Dialogues of Plato and +become the evangel of Socrates' splendid wisdom? Why did it elect one +particular volume? And what would have been the effect on its own life if +it had chosen some other book? Would the writings of Marcus Aurelius or of +Seneca, with their high moral grade and their marked religious insight, +have served the holy purpose as effectively? When we attempt to substitute +some other book in the Bible's place, our hesitancy quickly passes on to +positive refusal. The Christian Church, with any other volume as its +textbook, is simply inconceivable. + +Other men will say that the power of the Bible has come from its girding +by a doctrine of authority. This explanation must likewise be explained. +Could a Book without inherent authority be long maintained among +intelligent peoples on the basis of artificial authority? Why is the Bible +the best seller and the greatest worker in those lands where it has been +set free to yield its own message? What is the peculiar quality in the +Book that has saved any theory of its authority from appearing absurd? The +Bible showed its power long before men adopted any theory of its power. +Doubtless the claim of authority has increased the influence of the Book +over certain types of minds. Still it may be confidently asserted that the +claim of authority has depended far more on the power of the Bible than +the power of the Bible has depended on the claim of authority. The effect +should not be allowed to pass itself off as the main cause. + +Nor does the power of the Bible depend upon mere bulk. Shakespeare wrote +enough to make several Bibles. So did Scott. So did Dickens. So did +Parkman. If the Bible is a moral and spiritual Encyclopedia, its material +has been strangely condensed. It is a brief Book, yet out of its small +compass men gather texts for fifty years of preaching and at the close of +their life's task feel that the pages are still exhaustless. The Bible has +inspired literature far beyond its own bulk. It is a small library of +books gathered from many authors, but it has filled great libraries with +commentaries and sermons and discussions. Its brevities have provoked +measureless pages of writing. The world is big, yet it is measurably ruled +by a small Book. + +It would seem likewise that a Book written so long ago would fail of the +element of timeliness. That an old volume should keep its place in a new +century is in itself an anomaly. The last of the Bible was penned hundreds +of years since. Accepting the most radical views as to dates, its youngest +book was produced quite more than a millennium and a half ago. Meanwhile +the world has been making amazing progress. We boast of our achievements +in transportation and communication. All ancient things seem to be +outgrown, save only the Bible. The books that were written as +contemporaries of parts of the great Book have either slipped into +oblivion or are known to-day only by the intellectually elect. The +classics are studied by a small circle of scholars. The average man knows +nothing of Virgil, or Cicero, or Homer, by any direct contact with the +works of those authors. But the Bible, which is out of date by the +calendar, is not out of date by its own meaning. It is singularly +contemporaneous. Its different portions were called forth by passing +events and the Book itself is clearly touched by its own times. For all +that, eternity appears to have lodged itself in its contemporaneousness. +The twentieth century, eager and thrilling as it is, accepts a Guide Book +from the distant years. Roman Law and Greek Art are filtered to the new +age through modern channels. The Bible itself comes to us more simple and +more powerful than any modern interpretations of its messages. There is a +sense in which it declines to apply to itself its own figure of speech +about the new wine in the old bottles. + +The Bible defies geographical distance as well as calendar distance. For +the most part its record relates to what happened in a small and remote +section of the earth. It reaches its climax in an obscure province which +was smaller than many a modern county. The customs of which it tells are +mostly gone. Sandals and tents and camels and parchments are curiosities +in the new lands and new times. Much of the setting of biblical events is +wholly unknown to our day, and so must be reproduced for our children in +pictures and for our adults in descriptions. An Oriental Book is the chief +literature of an Occidental world. + +In spite of its small size, its great age, its cramped geography, its +vivid Orientalism, the Bible keeps its mastery. What is the explanation? + +It must be that the Bible appeals to something fundamental in life itself. +The final test of inspiration must, of course, be found in what the Bible +does for life. A book that is not inspiring cannot be proved to be +inspired. It cannot give what it does not have and it must surely have +received what it gives. It would be a mistake, however, to confuse formal +truthfulness with inspiring vitality. The description of a street scene, +dealing with the passing relations of pedestrians, wagons, trees, birds, +houses; the lengths and widths of sidewalks and streets; the figures of +population; the social status of the various groups--all this may be told +with exact and mathematical truthfulness. It may be correct and still not +be inspired or inspiring. On the other hand, the parable of the prodigal +son is a story which in its precise detail may represent something that +never occurred. But it has impressed the world as both inspired and +inspiring. Its words haunt and pierce and coax and subdue men. This +indicates that a story given for a spiritual purpose shows more essential +truthfulness than does a description given for formal exactness. The +reason is that the parable appeals to something fundamental in life +itself. The son and the father are ever with us. God and his children are +the everlasting facts. The story is more true than is the description. +This contrast represents the biblical trend. The Book penetrates through +the husk to the kernel, through superficial facts to deepest truths, +through passing events to eternal meanings. It is the Book of Life. + +What gives the Bible this appeal? Whence did it secure its vital quality? +The only reply is that the appeal to life must be born of life itself. +Sometimes a bizarre explanation is given of the source of a religious +volume, the assumption being that a human origin denies a divine origin. +The more men have to do with its production, the less may we presume that +God has touched the work. A curious illustration of this viewpoint is +found in the claim for the Book of Mormon. The story is as follows: A +heavenly visitant appeared to Joseph Smith and told him that in a certain +place he would find the miracle book. Smith obeyed the directions and +found in the place named a box of stone. In this box was a volume half a +foot in thickness. It was written on thin plates of gold, and these plates +were bound together by gold rings. The writing was in a strange language, +but with the book was found a pair of miraculous eyeglasses which +conferred the ability to read the pages. In other words the Book of Mormon +was not born of human life under the guidance of the divine life. It was +the product of a straight miracle, and the power to decipher its meaning +came only by miracle. Such a theory of the origin is easy to understand, +even though it may be difficult to believe. It represents the extreme form +of that faith which minimizes the partnership of man with God in the +making of all genuine gospels of life. + +The incarnation was Man and God together. The church is being fashioned by +man and God together; the Spirit and the Bride are colleagues. Worship is +possible only when man and God are together in fellowship. If the Bible +came by any method other than the coworking of man and God, its production +would stand for a departure from the usual divine method. The power of the +Bible, however, grows out of the fact that it is not an abnormal book, +fantastically given to men. There is a humorous story of an old woman who +was discovered in diligent study of the Hebrew alphabet. Asked why at her +age she was beginning to learn so difficult a tongue, she made reply that +when she died she desired to address the Almighty in his own language! +There have been theories of the Bible that are scarcely caricatured by +this tale. If there have been doctrines of the Book that made it the +product of a lonely man, there have likewise been doctrines that made it +the product of a lonely God. Neither doctrine is correct. The Bible grew +out of human life that had been touched and glorified by the divine +presence and power. Because it grew out of life it makes its appeal to its +native element in life itself. It simply claims its own. + +A review of the different parts of the Bible will show how true this +statement is. Practically every book is localized and personalized. +Something that happened among men called forth the writing. The names of +the books in the Pentateuch show this fact. Genesis treats of the origins +of the earth and of man, and is an answer to the inevitable question that +springs in the human mind. Exodus treats of the going forth of the Hebrew +people from their Egyptian bondage. Leviticus is a description and +discussion of the Levitical rules. Deuteronomy is a second giving of the +Law and an enlargement of its sphere as well as an enforcement of its +precepts. The Ten Commandments make a human document because their sole +aim is to ennoble and protect human life. + +It is so with the historical books. They are the records of actual human +living. Their pages are sprinkled with the names of real men and women. +Joshua, the Judges, Ruth, Samuel, the Kings are all there, eager +participants in earth's affairs under the sense of God. These books are +not theoretical dissertations on life by a dreamer in his closet; they are +rather the general descriptions of life itself as it moved along a period +of seven or eight centuries. They give us the salient and meaningful +happenings among God's chosen people. They tell the story of a crude race +as it is being led forward to the heights. The pages record limitations +and faults simply because they tell us of actual life. The sins of the +Bible's premier heroes are written down with entire frankness. The human +touch is everywhere. We shall not read the historical books long ere we +find that they, too, are human documents. But these human documents, +covered with the names of men and women, are likewise covered with the +ever-recurring name of Jehovah. In the record one discovers man and God. + +In the prophetical books the like fact is apparent. The prophets were men +of flesh and blood. They rushed into the prophetic work from the ordinary +occupations of ancient life. From the fields they came, and from the +vineyards. Perhaps one came from a royal palace. Surely not more than one +of them came from the altar of the priesthood. They were men who knew the +shame and glory of contemporary life. They did not hesitate to touch the +politics of their day. They decried kings. They denounced landlords. They +made frontal attacks on all forms of wickedness. Their appeal was for +reality. They declared that God hated all pretense. New moons and feasts +and fasts that did not grow out of devout hearts they declared to be an +insult and an abomination before a righteous God. They talked from life to +life. They came in response to some human demand in their times. They were +not theorists, discussing academic problems of conduct. They were blazing +moral realists. We do not need to detail the list of those forthtellers of +the Word of God. Even the book of Jonah is full of life. Parable, +allegory, history--its descriptions are based in life and its appeal is to +life. In its moral lesson for the individual, and in its missionary lesson +for a narrow race, it offers enough duty to keep life busy for a million +years. If men would heed its lessons for life and cease their petty +debates about the anatomy of whales, the Book would meet them with vital +urgings. The one point now is that the prophetical writings grew out of +life. They did not come encased in stone boxes, written on gold leaves, to +be read and understood only by miraculous spectacles. They came from real +living, and they claim their own wherever real men are living to-day. + +We need not follow the same idea into the later books of the Old +Testament. The Proverbs were gathered from the streets of life. +Ecclesiastes is the pronouncement of life vainly satiated. Even the +Psalms, classed as devotional books, were usually evoked by some actual +happening. The king goes out to war; a psalm is penned. The ark is moved +from one place to another; a psalm is written. A man is jaded and +discouraged; a psalm is written to recover him to a consciousness of the +care of Jehovah. A monarch falls into grievous sin; a psalm is written to +express his penitence. A study of any Commentary on the Psalms will show +us that nearly all of these devotional utterances were prompted by some +human experiences. They are the shoutings and sobbings of living men. The +book of Psalms is not the liturgy of academicians. Its processionals and +its recessionals show actual men and women in the real march of life. + +In the New Testament this same law of life rules. Jesus comes before the +Gospels. Without the Life there could not have been the record of the +Life. In any worthy Bible life must always come first. This phase will be +treated later. Now it must be emphasized that the entire New Testament +sprang from a Life that was lived among men. The Word must become flesh +before it could become literary record. Grace and truth walked the earth +ere they were traced on pages. Here again the Bible comes from life in +order that it may return to life again. + +The statement concerning the New Testament will admit of more detail. The +Gospels grew immediately out of the disciples' life with the Lord. The +Acts grew out of the life of the disciples in their daily contact with +that ancient world. The Epistles all came from some urgency of life. While +there were minor reasons for writing each of them there was still a main +purpose that dictated the writing in every case. The Epistles to the +Thessalonians seek to produce a right attitude toward the doctrine of the +Lord's return. The Epistle to the Romans is a discussion of the doctrine +of justification by faith and the relations of that doctrine to Judaism. +That to the Galatians is both a personal defense of Paul's questioned +apostleship and a declaration of freedom from bondage to the law. The +Philippians grew out of an experience of human kindness, being an +expression of gratitude for help in trouble and sympathy in sorrow. The +Ephesians is a composite of moods--the victories of grace, the hope of the +heavenlies, the expectation of ascension with the glorified Christ, the +nature and aim of the true church. Colossians expresses the universal +Lordship of Christ and tears down every theory that denies the reality of +the incarnation and the utter preeminence of Jesus. + +Even those Epistles that are personal in their character deal with +universal life. Philemon reappeared in the contests concerning slavery +both in England and America and scattered the arguments of Christian +democracy. The bondage of men could not well live with the tender +brotherhood that breathes in the letter which Onesimus carried back with +him to his former master. Titus and Timothy are the pastoral advices sent +by the aged apostle to his younger sons in the faith, while one of the +Epistles is the hopeful farewell to earth and a glad trust toward the +Eternal City. Revelation may be filled with strange imagery and may be +shaken by the tremors of a perilous age; but men who know real life will +say that the Beast and the Lamb are not merely wild figures of speech. The +writer of the Apocalypse knew the world, and he knew the churches in its +various cities. + +Thus it seems literally true that all the New Testament was penned for the +aid of life. When life went wrong, warning came. When life went aright, +encouragement came. When life was mistaken, correction came. Whether the +need was for doctrine, for reproof, or for instruction in righteousness, +God met the need by the message that he gave to his servants. The Book is +not a series of infallible abstractions; it is rather a vital Guide Book +won from the experience of life's ways. The Bible is not a ready-made +product dropped down from heaven; it is rather a Library made by men in +many ages in partnership with the God who lives with men in all ages. In +the best and truest fashion it makes record of the life of God in the +souls of responsive men. Because it came from life it inevitably seeks +life. It was born of God among men. Therefore, it lives among men with +God. + +We may carry the relation of life to the Bible quite beyond this point. +The Bible not only grew from life, but it came back to life for its +testing. Even as there have been theories of the making of the Book that +ignored the element of human living, so have there been theories of the +canon of Scripture that ignored the element of human testing. Years ago a +renowned teacher said to his pupils, "Never go deliberately to work to +make a book. The only volumes worth while are those that grow out of your +deepest life." The advice was good. In a way it suggests the manner of the +Bible's making. There is no evidence whatsoever that any writer of its +pages ever thought that his work would become part of a Bible. No man ever +said, "I will now write a book of the Holy Scripture." Nor did any group +of men assign departments to each other, saying, "We will prepare a divine +Book." The Bible came in no such mechanical way. Written because of life's +needs, as seen in the light of God, it was tested and collected by life's +needs, as seen in that same light. It was once strikingly said that the +words of Jesus were vascular; if you cut them they would bleed. One +shrinks from the metaphor. Yet it presents a truth about the whole Bible. +A Book written by life and selected by life has naturally a message for +life. + +How did the books of the Bible secure their place in the canon? The +romancer offers his tradition here again. We find a very fantastic legend +coming down from medieval times to this effect: In the church at Nicæa one +day a great mass of religious writing lay in an indiscriminate heap +beneath the altar. A miracle gave an answer to the question as to what +books should secure permanent places in the Holy Book. The First +Ecumenical Conference was in session. The year was 325 A. D. While man +wondered and questioned, God settled the issue. Suddenly the genuine books +were lifted from the mass of volumes and, without visible power, lay on +the sacred table. The writings miraculously declared uncanonical remained +beneath the altar. This theory of selection corresponds to the theory of +dictation. We have in both cases an active God and a passive man. While it +would be unfair to say that this medieval legend has any modern following, +it is true that certain theories of the selection of the canon resemble it +in that they discount the human factor. Even as God and men worked +together in the writing of the books, so God and men worked together in +the binding of the books into their volume of fellowship. Life that +confessed God and tried to do his will chose the books and decreed that +they should dwell in unity. + +As there has been a tendency to overstate the miracle feature in the +selection of the canon, so has there been a tendency to overstate the part +played by the authoritative councils of the church. The assumption has +been that arbitrariness was the chief feature of the whole process. +Certain men met in conference, debated the merits of the several books, +and finally settled by vote what particular writings should have their +place in the Bible of the church. Now while something of this kind did +occur, it is far from the truth to affirm that the councils lacked a +representative capacity. The vote may have been recorded by theologians, +but the vote had previously been determined by the Christian democracy. +Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. His predecessors were +the people. In a dignified sense Lincoln was their clerk, expressing their +will after many years of agitation. The wisdom of the Great Commoner was +shown not only by the personal conviction that he put into the document, +but also by his keen appreciation of the will of the multitude. Though the +parchment of liberty was proclaimed by one man, it is a fact that it was +dictated by many men. Something parallel to this occurred in the selection +of the material of the Bible. Councils played their part; their part, +however, was the part of agents. + +This was true of the Old Testament. Many persons may still have the vision +of Jewish officials with long robes and sober faces deciding the ancient +canon. Indeed, there was for long a tradition that Ezra founded a kind of +Imperial Synagogue which continued for not less than two hundred years +and which in that period finished the collection and authorization of the +Old Testament. This synagogue had various presidents, including Nehemiah. +No such organization for the selection of the Scriptures existed. Accurate +ancient history gives no trace of its work. The work of testing the +writings was slow. The arbiter was life. Life had determined the writing. +Life must now determine the authority. + +We can catch an interesting glimpse into this process by studying for a +moment the story about Josiah, the young king. Hilkiah, the priest, finds +the book of the law. Shaphan carries the book to the king and reads to him +from the ancient lore. The book quickens the royal conscience. God and the +earthly ancestors of Josiah speak to him from the pages. He is made to +feel how far he and his people have gone from the will of Jehovah. He +rends his clothes. He sends for the human voices of the Most High. Huldah, +the prophetess, is the chief instructor. The people are called back to +their allegiance. The land is purged. A manuscript has done all this. It +inspired the king and his people until abominations fled from Israel. The +land continued in obedience until the archers sent King Josiah to his +sepulcher. That portion of the law that had been read to the king by +Shaphan and had then been delivered to the people proved its inspiring +quality in its effects on life. On that day a portion of the Old Testament +canon was selected. + +Doubtless this incident is somewhat typical of a procedure that was more +or less constant. The imperial synagogue was the Jewish people. The debate +that settled issues was the debate of experience. Life was electing its +own books. Words that touched the conscience into an impression of God and +then worked their way outward to the blessing of the multitude were +gaining for themselves the popular vote. Candidates for the canon were +rejected. Other candidates were held in long suspicion. Ecclesiastes, +Proverbs, Esther, Solomon's Song--all these served a long probation ere +they proved themselves worthy of their place. The ancient world, like the +modern world, was not willing to surrender Proverbs, with their homely +wisdom; Esther, with its lesson of loyalty to race and kindred; Solomon's +Song, with its refusal to listen to the blandishments of royal +lasciviousness luring to the betrayal of a true and humble lover; or even +Ecclesiastes, with its pessimism uncured until the writer once more finds +God. + +After books secured their place in the authorized list of the Jews, they +had still to contest to keep their place. As late as the first century of +the Christian era, debate was frequent. Life was slow to render its +decision. There was no hasty authority. The final judgment was rendered by +the experience of a race. When Eck reminded Martin Luther that the church +had decided what books should go into the canon and that Luther must +accept a quotation from Second Maccabees as authoritative, the great +Reformer made reply, "The church cannot give more authority or force to a +book than it has in itself. A council cannot make that be Scripture which +in its own nature is not Scripture." So it came to pass that in due season +the freed religious consciousness of the church took certain apocryphal +books from the Old Testament canon. That consciousness seemed to feel a +difference in spiritual power between the Apocrypha and the other portions +of the Old Testament. Life was still coming to the polls in order that it, +far more than any stately council, should elect the true Word of God. + +This same process of selection went on in relation to the New Testament. +The early Christians started with no New Testament whatsoever. Their Bible +was the Old Testament. We do not find any warrant for saying that they +expected to make additions to the Bible. Jesus came first. Then the +Gospels and Epistles came as natural consequences. The early Christians, +as we shall later see, had received the very purpose and climax of +Revelation, because they had received Christ. But the Gospels and Epistles +which grew up out of life had in their turn to be tested by life. +Believers began by reading these as if they were suggestive; after the +writings had wrought their full impression upon the minds of the +believers, they began to consider them inspired and holy. This decision +did not come abstractly, nor did it come quickly. Gradually the sense of +the value of certain writings grew upon the early church. Almost two +centuries of the Christian era passed ere the collection so commended +itself to believing hearts as to be given definite form. As in the case of +the Old Testament, so in the case of the New, life declined to be hurried +into a decision. The books must prove their authority in the experience of +the people. The Christian republic was engaged in the task of choosing its +Bible from life. + +We find, too, that certain books appeared as claimants for permanent +authority that did not win their case. The ancient manuscripts were passed +from church to church and were read to the people. The task of sifting +went surely forward. Directly lists of books that peculiarly commended +themselves to the Christians began to appear. In the first two centuries +such leaders as Irenæus, Clement, and Tertullian present their lists which +show some of our present books omitted, some other books included, and +still other books declared as good but inferior. The Christian +consciousness had not yet reached a confident verdict. But a review of the +period shows the Christian leaders verging toward unanimity. Slowly some +books were eliminated; and slowly other books asserted their right to be +included. By the beginning of the fifth century the canon had been +practically determined. The great Augustine, with his immediate +predecessors and his close successors, reveals the well-nigh unanimous +conclusion to which the church had come. It may well be noted that the +voting booth stood open for almost four hundred years. The Councils of +Hippo and Carthage were simply the servants of the people. The books that +had sprung from life had received the testing of life. + +It must be allowed that here, as in the case of the Old Testament canon, +some books had to re-prove their right to the place of authority. The +Council of Trent may have settled the matter for all Roman Catholics, but +it did not irretrievably close the canon for Protestants. It is well known +that Luther himself wished to remove several books from the list, and that +he called the Epistle of James "strawlike." Luther's reason was a +polemical one. He felt that the vivid practicalness of James conflicted +with the principle of justification by faith alone. It is only a stronger +evidence of the demands of life in the selection of the final canon that +even the powerful influence of Luther could not prevail. The church well +knew that the Epistle of James would be a good antidote for any lazy +mysticism. Life voted against Luther in this instance, and life won. +Zwingli wanted to exclude the Book of Revelation from the canon. The +Christian republic felt that beneath all the weird imagery of the +Apocalypse God was speaking by his servant to the churches of all time. +Life voted against Zwingli in this instance, and life won. When life was +given its freedom the most influential voices of authority could not +prevail against its verdicts. This completes the circle. The Bible was +written by life, and the Bible was selected by life. + +Perhaps it is well to note that when any portion of the Scripture has been +taken away from the purpose of life, it has lost its note of authority; +when it has been brought back to that purpose of life, it has regained +that note. The Song of Solomon illustrates this point. It had slight hold +on the life of the world as long as it was used as a complex allegory or +symbol relating to Christ and the church. All labored attempts to so +construe the book did the book itself injury. But when the Song was +permitted to recover its own relation to life, it recovered its own power. +The lesson of the book, rightly used, may save many young women from +selling themselves to lascivious luxury and may give them strength against +tempting allurements away from loyal love. However old the world may +become, it will always need that lesson. In some way the Song came from +life; and when it is tested by life, it regains its relation to life. +Released from the strain of an allegorical interpretation, it proves +itself a servant of one of life's holiest causes. + +We come now to the primary consideration. The Bible grew from life. The +Bible was tested by life. The Bible climaxes in Life. Jesus said that the +Scriptures testified of him. It is even so. In the Sargent pictures in the +Boston Public Library the prophets are represented as pointing forward to +him. We may even more surely represent the writers of the Gospels and +Epistles as pointing backward to him. The Bible is to be judged by its +goal; and the goal is Christ. Other sacred books, such as the Koran, were +written by one person; the Bible was written by many persons for one +Person. Jesus himself insisted on this. He claimed to surpass the old +revelations. With all his reverence for the Old Testament, he still put +himself above it by words like these: "Ye have heard that it hath been +said by them of olden time, But _I_ say unto you." This is as much as to +affirm that he was the end of a progressive revelation. A skeptic once +said that the whole Bible turns upon Jesus. The skeptic was right. One of +the Gospels gives a word that may safely be applied to the whole trend of +the Bible, "These things are written, that ye might believe that Christ is +the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name." +The very purpose is declared to be that men may be brought to faith in +Christ. + +It would be too much to say that all revelation ceased with the closing of +the canon. Lowell's claim that the Bible of the race is written slowly, +that each race adds its texts of hope and despair, of joy and moan, and +that the prophets still sit at the feet of God, cannot be denied. But we +may confidently assert that revelation came to its culmination and crown +in Jesus Christ. When once the essential things concerning him had found +place in a Book, the Bible found its consummation. Thus do we see that the +books that were written by life, and then were tested by life, came to +their climax in Life. The only way to secure a book better than the Bible +is to secure a person better than Jesus. The best men entertain no such +vain expectation because they know that nothing can be more perfect than +Perfection. + +We have set forth these three main reasons for the unique influence that +the Bible exercises over life. Some are fond of saying that the Bible is +merely one of many sacred books. Those who have read the bibles of other +races will not be misled by the statement. Max Müller writes that the +Sacred Books of the East "by the side of much that is fresh, natural, +simple, beautiful, and true, contain much that is not only unmeaning, +artificial, and silly, but even hideous and repellent." Of the Brahmanas +he affirms that they "deserve to be studied as the physician studies the +twaddle of idiots and the ravings of madmen." The Koran sets forth a very +fine morality, but it was written by one man and really presents a legal +religion. Moreover it offers no perfect example. The author of the Koran +himself claimed to receive revelations that opened a path to immorality. +One voice declared the authority of the book, and an obedient people +accepted this verdict. The Koran was not written by a wide range of life, +expressing God's dealing with many persons under diverse conditions. It +was not tested for its authority by the free conscience of a people. +Mohammed wrote and adopted his own canon. The Christian's Bible, written +by life, tested by life, and culminating in Life, has come back to life +with transforming power. + +The insistence of these chapters is that, when the Holy Scriptures are +given a free opportunity to do their work with life, they prove their own +inspiration. After all, there can be no other proof. The Bible is what it +is, no matter what theory men may adopt as to its formation. It creates +its own evidences. The argument for its inspiration is the life that it +inspires. If the Book gives power and purity to all departments of life, +the Book defends itself against attack and makes its own conquests. Does +the Bible rightly exalt man? Does it sanctify the home? Does it promote +education? Does it glorify work? Does it save wealth from greed, pleasure +from excess, sorrow from despair? These questions reach the center of the +problem. + +We can go but one step beyond them, and that step is most significant. Do +we find in the Bible not only a way to be followed, and a goal of truth to +be gained, but a Life that will help lives along the way toward the goal? +Does the Book really reveal the way, the truth, and the life? The answer +must again be found in life. The evidences of dynamic are in the realms +of human experience. More and more the students of the Holy Scriptures, +who seek the pages with a religious purpose, will find that all the +departments of human living wait on Jesus for their meaning and come to +him for their power. He is the Saviour. He lifts men out of their sins, up +into a trembling and glorious idealism, and still up into a passion for +efficient goodness. The supreme apology for the Bible will ever be found +in men who have been so instructed, reproved, and corrected, that they may +be named as perfect men of God, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. +Given its full right, the Book that was born of life, tried of life, +glorified of Life, will find its own best witnesses in redeemed lives. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BIBLE AND MAN + + +The natural outline of a human life which has suggested the method of +these lectures represents a man as awaking each morning to the +consciousness of himself. Every man lives perforce in his own company. He +walks with himself on every road of life. He sits with himself in its +resting places. He lies down with himself in its slumbers. He is his own +friend, and his own enemy. Omar Khayyám declares that he is his own heaven +and his own hell. There is a story of a farmer who said that when he +climbed to the roof of his barn and looked about, he always found that he +himself was the center of the world. The roof of the sky at all points was +equally distant from him; the walls of the world made by the dipping +horizon showed the same length of radius from himself! The story has its +serious, as well as its amusing side. Every man is the personal center of +a world which gets its meaning from his own heart. It is no wonder that +the old Greek motto was "Know thyself." + +Yet the knowledge of self is not easy knowledge. The fact that no man has +ever seen his own face, save by reflection in some mirror, is a parable. +The very eyes that see cannot see themselves. They are so near that they +are hidden. The moral literature of the race always emphasizes the +difficulty of self-revelation. Its cry is, "Who can understand his errors? +Cleanse thou me from secret faults." It has a yet deeper desire: that it +may know more of its own essential nature. Each man longs for a revelation +of God; and each man longs for a revelation of himself. The present +emphasis is that the Bible is the medium of this human revelation. + +We do not go far in the reading of its pages without discovering that the +word "thou" looms large in its spiritual grammar. Those curious persons +who often bring their arithmetic to the Bible could doubtless tell how +many times "thou" and "thee" and "thy" and "thine" are found in its +chapters. In the Ten Commandments and in the New Commandment "thou" is the +recurring word. Personal address is prominent everywhere. Indeed, the +whole Book is a kind of prophet coming into the court of each soul and +saying, "Thou art the man." Sometimes the approach is an accusation, +sometimes an approbation; in any case the note is intensely individual. In +the New Commandment the "self" is made the standard by which the relation +to the neighbor is to be tested. The implication would seem to be that the +man who does not love himself lacks the law by which his love for other +men may be made efficient. Polonius was not far from the biblical idea +when he said: + + To thine own self be true, + And it must follow, as the night the day, + Thou canst not then be false to any man. + +In daily parlance it is often said. "Put yourself in his place": but the +value of that transfer of self is small if you do not know what the self +is after you give it the new place! The revelation of self is likewise the +revelation of other men. We know our neighbors only as we know ourselves. + +Presuming, therefore, that we send a man to the Scriptures to find the +doctrine of his own nature, what will be his discovery? The question is +not a new one, and its answer has sometimes been touched by prejudice. +Many have contended that in its effort to magnify God, the Bible is guilty +of belittling man. Fragments of Scripture might be presented to support +this criticism. We must, however, insist that the biblical teaching is to +be determined by its main current rather than by its eddies. The Book does +present God as high and lifted up, while man lies with his lips in the +dust. It does make God a King, while it proclaims man a subject. It does +stress divine sovereignty, while insisting on human obedience and +reverence. It does call for humility on the part of man. We may well admit +that it is possible to overdo the call to humility. That good mood may +easily pass over into a false mood. Occasionally men, in an effort to be +humble, speak untruth concerning their own souls. It is just here that the +"worm-of-the-dust" theory gets its chance. That phrase was a biblical one, +used by a character in his moment of self-abasement. Yet the Concordance +will prove that this lowly estimate of man is by no means the staple of +teaching, as well as that much of the cheap preaching of human nature is a +radical departure from the doctrine of the Book. It is always good to keep +clear the distinction between vanity and self-respect, so that if a man +may not have the right to look down on his neighbors he may still have the +right to look up to himself. Humility must ever be based on truth, and +self-respect can have no other foundation. The two moods are not +contradictory. The one comes from the recognition of the nature of God, in +the utter and unspeakable perfection of his attributes; the other comes +from the recognition of the nature of man as being himself a partaker of +that divine nature. In reality the two moods grow out of the same truth. + +A still deeper objection is sometimes offered against the scriptural +theory of human nature. It is charged that the doctrine of the Fall, +together with the constant emphasis of man's "exceeding sinfulness," +deprives man of special dignity. Without doubt the theory of the Fall has +sometimes been presented in such a manner as to cancel all human claims to +greatness. Whenever a religious teacher carries his doctrine of the Fall +to unjust lengths, we must all be tempted to declare that we can readily +prove an alibi! And if he shall employ that doctrine as a vast slur on +humanity, we shall insist that the length of the fall must be the length +of the possible rise! In harmony with this idea a great preacher has given +the world a sermon on "The Dignity of Humanity as Evidenced by its Ruins." +Much of the glory of the Coliseum at Rome has departed, but even its ruins +are a testimony to its greatness. Seeing its gaunt grandeur in the +sunlight, or viewing its impressive shadows in the moonlight, the tourist +gets the shock of its glory. The simple truth is that a doctrine of the +Fall is possible only when you start with human greatness. God made one +creature strong enough to resist Himself--one creature with sufficient +self-determination to make mutiny in the world. We would not torture the +doctrine of the Fall into a mere compliment for humanity; but we would +insist that the possibility of a Fall implies a height to fall from, and +that responsibility for a Fall implies a nature great enough and free +enough to make far-reaching choices. The evidence of the dignity is still +found among the ruins. + +We must always supplement any doctrine of the Fall with a doctrine of +human responsibility. The Bible is most explicit in this insistence. Its +pages are crowded with the moral imperative for man. The thorn and the +brier are on the earth; but they are not blamed, because they wait for the +era of the good people. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth +together in pain; but the creation is not blamed, because it waits for the +revealing of the sons of God. The lion and the lamb do not lie down +together; but they are not blamed, because they wait for the age of peace +that can issue only from the hearts of men. The coin rolls into dust and +shadow and is lost; we do not blame the coin. The sheep wanders into +desert and darkness and is lost; we do not blame the sheep. The son goes +off into the swine field and is lost; and we do blame the son. The coin +and the sheep have no communings with self, no sense of guilt, no road of +repentant return; but the son has all these. The Bible does utter its +vigorous charge against man's sin; it is the ever-open court room into +which the human conscience is summoned for judgment. The Book does not +treat man as a machine whose cogs and wheels are moved only by outside +force; nor does it treat him as a manikin, jerked hither and yon by +irresponsible sensations; it rather dignifies him with personal +responsibility. The Fall does not prevent climbing, if only man will take +advantage of those gracious powers that are offered for his help. Emerson +saw the meaning of this when he wrote his tribute to mankind based on its +ability to respond to the moral order: + + So nigh is grandeur to our dust, + So near is God to man, + When Duty whispers low, "Thou must," + The youth replies, "I can!" + +Words like "ought" and "should" and "must" have gone forth from the Bible +and have fairly penetrated the moral consciousness of the race. No other +book so honors human nature with a sublime call to responsibility. + +We now leave these general considerations and take up the several portions +of the Scriptures with a view to ascertaining their contributions to a +doctrine of man. The foundation of that doctrine is seen in the account of +the creation. Whether that account be poem, parable, allegory, or history, +its meaning for this special point is the same. The climax of the creation +is man. God is represented as changing chaos into cosmos, separating +waters and land, fixing sun and moon in their places, bringing verdure to +the surface of the earth, assigning birds and beasts and fishes to their +spheres, and then as giving to man a wide rulership. "God made man to have +dominion"--that is the biblical word; and the ages have been telling how +true that word is. The Bible theory and the facts of life join in a +coronation of man. + +The account of the creation goes deeper than this in its estimate of +mankind. Its conferring of power on man is explained by its conferring a +nature on man. Man is made in the divine image. The Word was not content +with one statement of that fact; it must needs give it double emphasis. +"So God created man in his own image"--that would seem simple and strong +enough. But the statement is strengthened by repetition, "In the image of +God created he him." These twice-repeated words are the real charter of +man's greatness. The atheist must admit that man has the dominion, but the +believer holds that man has the dominion because he has the birthright. +Man is not only God's submonarch, he is God's image. + +It is interesting and convincing to note how soon that primary truth about +man's nature began to work. In the persecution under Diocletian the +precious parchments of the Bible had been secretly carried from house to +house. The charge that a Christian had given up the sacred Book in order +to save himself from death was one of the most serious that could be +presented. Many martyrdoms occurred because men preferred the Bible above +their own lives. Though circulated under such difficulty, and though made +into readable parchments at such expense of labor and money, the Bible was +slowly impressing its doctrine of man upon the stubborn period. We are +often smitten with horror as we read stories which show how lightly human +life was regarded by the Romans. Those dreadful scenes in the arena, where +thumbs so often declined to turn down as a sign of mercy, are dire +mysteries to men who have gotten the biblical standpoint. We are distant +from that heartless mood because we are near to the Bible. The Book and +the gladiator could not live together in peace. The Book at once began to +call men from the tiers of bloody pleasure. With the conversion of +Constantine, superficial as it may have been, the change began. The +emperor ordered many splendid copies of the Bible for the churches of his +capital. He himself came under the spell of its human doctrine. Zealous +Christian teachers may sometimes overstate the influence which the Bible +exercised over later Roman law. Still there are some undoubted evidences +of that influence. Constantine made a law forbidding that a criminal +should be branded on the face, and he gave as his reason for the law that +the image of God should not be marred! This leaves us in no doubt as to +what had inspired the legislation. It was the simple beginning of a +program that has not yet come to its consummation. The biblical idea of +man routed one form of slavery, and it will yet rout all other forms. When +men come to believe that man is made in the divine image all good +movements for the betterment of life are set in the way to victory. + +The legal portions of the Bible give us the like lesson, even though the +approach to the lesson is different. Here we discover that humanity is +worthy enough to call for conservation and protection. The legislation +reaches to hygienic and sanitary details of minute character. The whole +effort is to build a protecting fence about men. The Ten Commandments, +studied in this light, become a very human document. Their harsh and +negative quality is softened into gentleness. They guard the goods of +man--his property, his wife and children, his body, his good name. It +would be possible to regard the Decalogue as a series of prohibitions in +which the word "not" occurs with forbidding frequency. In this case the +appropriate accompaniment is thunder and lightning, and the appropriate +scroll for the writing is stone. This viewpoint is one sided and unfair. +The Ten Commandments are prohibitions only because they are protections. +They have been through many ages the kindly sentinels of society. They +have taken the side of God, of his dumb creatures, and of men and women +and little children. Considered in any just way, the legal portions of the +Bible are a tribute not merely to divine authority, but to human worth. + +The prophetical books add their lesson, and from a still different angle. +They are filled with protests against man's conduct, with wrath against +his insincerities, and with predictions of his coming woe. The mouths of +the prophets were not filled with compliments. Those stern men were not +the flatterers of their own generations. Their sayings could be so elected +as to make a degrading estimate of men. But here again we must get the +full meaning of the message. In their last analysis the prophecies are a +marked tribute to potential man. Beyond the disturbed present they see the +peaceful future. Beyond the clash of swords and the swish of spears they +see the mild and productive era of the plowshare and the pruning hook. +Beyond the unreal altars they see the incense of true worship arising to +God. The prophets were, in the best sense, optimists, and they were +optimists because they believed that all men would some day yield to the +Lord. They beheld the whole earth filled with righteousness. They saw the +stone cut loose from the mountain and filling the wide world. The healing +river was to flow to all peoples. Jerusalem was to be the universal joy. +The day would dawn when it would be unnecessary to say to any man, "Know +thou the Lord." The most dismal of the prophets foretold the perfect day. +But all this means that the prophets foretold the perfect man and the +perfect race. To proclaim that humanity, under the guidance of God, is so +capable is to dignify human life beyond measure. + +Nor are we lacking among the prophets an individual example of the power +of self-respect. Nehemiah may not be the premier among his fellows, but he +talks with a royal self-consciousness. When messengers come, desiring +that he shall go down into the plain for a parley with Sanballat, he +declines by saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down." +Again he is told that the enemy is coming, and he is counseled to go into +the temple and cling to the altar for protection. Once more self-respect +comes to the rescue; the reply is, "Should such a man as I flee? and who +is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? +I will not go in." Here the potential man, foretold by the prophet, was +the actual man. He had reached such a high doctrine of his own nature that +the doctrine itself became the prevention of triviality and of cowardice. +The rebuilded walls of Jerusalem arose from that spirit. Those walls were +likewise an expression of the prophet's faith in the future of his people. +The prophetic confidence in man was second only to the prophetic +confidence in God. This form of tribute to humanity is preeminent in the +books of the prophets. + +In the devotional part of the Bible we should not naturally expect that +tribute would turn manward. The tendency is seen in those sections of +prophecy where the prophet himself has close dealings with God. When the +greatest of the prophets sees the ineffable One and hears the awful +trisagion of the seraphim, the prime confession is that his own lips are +unclean and that he dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips. +Inasmuch as the Psalms are in large measure a liturgy of worship, their +emphasis is on the greatness of Jehovah. Yet sometimes the emphasis turns +toward man. The most striking illustration occurs in the eighth psalm. The +writer there utters the feeling that we have all shared. The limitless +expanse of the heavens, the shining of moon and stars in the far heights, +the workmanship of the Lord in the vast universe--all this makes the +psalmist feel that he is a mere speck in the scheme. Tried by those +celestial measurements, he drops into insignificance. He is rescued from +self-contempt only by a return to the message of Genesis. His despairing +cry issues in a shout of personal triumph. "When I consider thy heavens, +the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; +What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou +visitest him?" If materialism should conquer the Bible there is but one +answer. The psalmist is saved by the Scripture, "Thou hast made him a +little lower than God, and hast crowned him with glory and honor." It is +no marvel that the first translators lowered the tribute and substituted +"the angels" for God. The reverence that so often used a sign for the +divine name trembled on the verge of such a human tribute. Still that +tribute was a return to the doctrine that God had made man in his own +image and had given him dominion over the works of his hand. In addition +to all this, the Psalms are girded with the consciousness that man can +enter into the august presence of the Lord. The mutual element in worship +is an exaltation of man. The greatness of Jacob is greater when he meets +with the heavenly visitant by the Jabbok brook. He becomes a prince. In +the devotional books man claims his princely heritage. He treads the +courts of the infinite King. + +Moving forward into the New Testament, we find that the doctrine of man +gathers more impressiveness. Jesus never cast any doubt upon the supreme +place of man in the program of God. He put his harshest blame upon those +who wickedly misled the children of the Father. He himself was chided +because he sought the lowliest and the worst among men and women. He ate +with the publican and gave his choicest lesson to the harlot. He was +willing to exchange his social reputation for the privilege of associating +with the humblest people. For a woman with a dark past he delocalized +worship. From another he accepted the offering of grateful tears and put +her conduct in contrast with that of the lordly Pharisee. He was the +Prophet for the soul as such. He was the Priest who mediated gladly +between the least one and the greatest One. We search his words in vain +for anything that put contempt on man as man. + +When he compared men to the rest of creation it was always to human +advantage. He told of the care of the shepherd for the sheep, and then he +asked, "How much is a man better than a sheep?" He declared that God noted +the fall of sparrows, though they brought small price in the market place, +and then, speaking to ordinary men and women, nearly all of them ignorant +and more than half of them slaves, he said, "Are ye not much better than +they?" Nor were these sayings really interrogative; they were exclamatory. +Jesus knew that every normal man would feel the answer in his own soul. +The worth of man was, in the teaching of Jesus, beyond debate. + +He moved, also, from inanimate things to the assertion of man's worth. The +lilies and grasses were in the care of God and waited on him for their +vesture. "Will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" He made +the worth of man the warrant of the care of God. At last he put man on one +side of the scale and the whole world on the other side, and he affirmed +that man outweighed the world. Men may barter themselves for half a +township; but Jesus declared that it would be a disastrous bargain, if a +man should accept the world in exchange for himself. "What shall it profit +a man, if he gain the world and lose himself? Or what will a man give in +exchange for himself?" This is the final answer to any paltry teaching +about the worth of man. + +When choice had to be made between man's interests and sacred laws and +ordinances, Jesus gave preference to man. The shewbread was consecrated, +but he approved the taking of it to satisfy human hunger. The Sabbath day +was holy, but the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath; so +the plucked ears of corn were a testimonial to men. + +The attitude of Jesus toward childhood is tender evidence of his thought +of humanity. The child has not yet won any achievement, save the loving +assertion of its own dependency. The child in the midst represented +humanity in its freshest and most natural form. It is said that some +ancient religionists were accustomed to debate whether or not a child had +a soul. Jesus would have scorned such a debate. He made the child the +model of the kingdom. Human life unspoiled was lifted up as an example. To +offend a little one was worse than being sunk by a millstone into the +sea. A cup of cold water given to a child would win a special reward. The +angels of the children behold ever the face of the Father. Thus the child, +in all the teaching of Jesus, was made the creditor of the race. + +Jesus carried this doctrine of man on to the uttermost issue. We have +never yet secured the full meaning of that "inasmuch" in the account of +the final judgment. The Lord lives beyond the need of man's overt aid. But +human beings are his representatives. The righteous had so far overlooked +this fact, that they were forgetful of any ministry to him; and what had +been the unconscious glory of the righteous was the unconscious tragedy of +the wicked. The judgment day will be filled with human tests. He who has +not acted as if human beings stood for God cannot meet the final +standards. Jesus's picture of the judgment is a statement of divine +authority; and it is an appraisement of human worth. + +Thus do we see that from whatever side we come to the teaching of Christ, +we find an exalted doctrine of man. The incarnation itself is a +contribution to that doctrine. If we call it "the human life of God" it +was a life lived for the sake of man. The Word became flesh and dwelt +among men, full of grace and truth, because men needed the message of +that Word. The whole life of Jesus was lived for man. He himself said, +"For their sakes I sanctify myself." All those sacrificial phrases that +describe the purpose of his coming add glory to human life. The joy that +was set before him was the goal of a redeemed humanity. His living for men +was simply his teaching about men, made over into concrete terms. In the +Parable of the Good Shepherd he gives the revelation of his own attitude +toward men. One soul, brought back into right relations with God, makes +joy in heaven. It is the Eternal One who is represented as saying, +"Rejoice with me." Men may deny the doctrine of the only begotten Son, but +they can scarcely deny that that doctrine leads on to a wondrous doctrine +of human worth. + +The Cross, viewed in one light, becomes the very climax of the doctrine of +man. Theologians have often laid their stress upon some single purpose of +the divine sacrifice. One has said that the Cross appeases the anger of +God; another that the Cross maintains the majesty of the law; another that +the Cross is a moral influence wooing and winning the heart of man to God; +another that the Cross is the expression of the Father's sorrow with the +sins and sorrows of his children. But we may surely take one meaning of +the Cross to be the divine estimate of man. God's sense of values must be +preserved. He did not send his Son to die for worms of the dust. That idea +may fit an extreme mood of spiritual abasement. We may grant all possible +condescension in the atoning act of God, but we cannot grant a +condescension that dedicates infinite worth to finite worthlessness. Jesus +died for men just because men were far more than worms of the dust. If we +are to keep that theory of atonement that has long held the heart of the +church, we are driven to affirm that the Cross gives us a divine estimate +of mankind. No man ever appreciates the worth of himself until he gets the +appraisal of Calvary. The dying of Jesus is not out of harmony with his +teaching and his living. The whole program is like the garment taken from +him on the day of crucifixion; it is woven throughout without seam. Men +may decry a doctrine of substitution, but they cannot say that such a +doctrine is a slight tribute to human worth. In such a doctrine thorns and +nails and spears and all the drama of the Cross are made into tributes to +the soul of man. + +This carries us on to the biblical teaching of man's permanent worth. The +doctrine of immortality makes its incalculable addition to the doctrine of +man. There is a story, for which the writer cannot vouch, that Thomas +Carlyle in a mood of pessimism one day wrote this peevish estimate of man: + + What is man? A foolish baby! + Vainly strives and fumes and frets! + Demanding all, deserving nothing, + One small grave is all he gets! + +Language like this is certainly no contribution to the literature of +self-respect. The story proceeds to relate that Carlyle's wife found this +poetic depreciation lying on the table, and that she wrote the following +confession and correction: + + And man? O hate not, nor despise + The fairest, lordliest work of God! + Think not he made thee good and wise + Only to sleep beneath the sod! + +Doubtless the tale is apocryphal. In any case the latter estimate is far +nearer to the biblical conception, and it is altogether worthy of a +woman's moral instinct. If man is to live forever, as the climax of +Revelation insists, it is quite impossible for him to "think too much" of +himself, unless he indulges in comparison of himself with others. An +argument for immortality does not fall within the scope of this lecture; +but the bearing of immortality, as declared in the Holy Scriptures, on the +view that men must take of human nature, touches our purpose in a radical +way. A deathless person must respect himself. A deathless person must +command the respect of a world--and of God. The doctrine of immortality +adds an infinite measure to the doctrine of human worth. + +Even the biblical representation of heaven secures a relation to this +subject. The abode for immortal life, as well as immortal life itself, may +be turned into a human estimate. The book of Revelation declares that the +nations shall bring "their glory and honor" into the Eternal City. This +can only mean that men shall make some contribution to the eternal life. +What they are and what they have done shall fill heaven with added value. +The cities of earth shall transport treasures to the Heavenly City. Here, +again, we come upon a reason based on the divine sense of values. God will +not provide an Eternal Home that is any better than the Eternal Beings for +whom he makes it ready. The gem is to be better than the setting. In a +certain sense, therefore, jasper walls and pearl gates and gold streets, +as seen in the descriptions of heaven, are tributes to human souls. The +Bible tells us that "greater than the house is he that built it," and the +Bible would tell us, also, that the occupant of the house is greater than +the house. God will provide no everlasting dwelling that is better than +the everlasting dwellers. Heaven is made for man, and not man for heaven. +The many mansions are tributes to the people that shall live in the +Father's house. The Scriptures are reserved in their revealings of the +other land; but their descriptions of celestial glories may be united with +those other portions of the Bible that dignify the human spirit and may be +taken as standing for the divine valuation of the essential selves of men. + +This review of the teaching of the several sections of the Bible has +confessedly sought for the words and ideas that exalt the doctrine of man. +Allowing all possible discounts, and admitting all possible offsets, the +residuum of instruction tending to glorify human nature is significant. We +need not wonder that some thoughtful men have affirmed that the chief +characteristic of Christianity is the value that it places on man. If we +do not accept this statement, we can still declare that the Bible is the +supreme Book when judged by its emphasis on human values. + +Nor can there be any doubt of the need of this emphasis in our own age. As +men crowd more and more into the great centers of population, the tendency +will be to hold men cheaply. In former times man was often highly valued +because of his rarity. On the far Eastern plains a new face, not being +often seen, was regarded with curious interest. Thus Abraham stood in the +door of his tent in the heat of the day and welcomed the stranger, because +the stranger was an event. But in the modern city the stranger is no +longer an event; he is only an episode, or perhaps an incident. We pass +him on the dense street, and we do not notice him at all. There are so +many of him that, unless we are heedful, we shall come to regard him +lightly just because he is hidden by the crowd. When factories grow so +huge that men are known, not by their names, but by their numbers, only +the scriptural emphasis upon men as such can save human beings from being +deemed "hands" rather than souls. If the sin of the countryside is an +excessive social interest that makes for gossip, the sin of the city is a +social carelessness that makes for indifference. The various problems of +our social life wait for their solution upon the Christian doctrine of +man. When that doctrine has done its full service, race problems, labor +problems, liquor problems, and all their dreadful accompaniments will +issue into a righteous and intelligent peace. An immortal son of God, +knowing himself, cannot be unjust to another immortal son of God, when +once he knows his Brother. + +This hints at the personal bearing of the doctrine. As men grow in moral +and spiritual experience, they find themselves using more and more the +test of self-respect. Knowing that the reaction of certain behaviors makes +them feel that a fragment of the soul has slipped away from them, so that +they have the sense of smallness, they guard their natures lest legitimate +pride should be destroyed. Andrews Norton once wrote to his son, Charles +Eliot Norton, who was about to go abroad for an important service, telling +the young man that his family and friends recognized that he had special +powers for doing large and worthy things. Then he added that "this ought +not to make one vain. On the contrary, their true tendency is to produce +that deep sense of responsibility--of what we owe to God, to our friends, +and to our fellowmen--which is wholly inconsistent with presumption or +vanity." It was a wise father who wrote thus to his son. If the Christian +doctrine of man be true, no man can think too much of himself. There is a +type of saving pride. Clough stated it in his well-known lines: + + Then welcome, Pride! and I shall find + In thee a power to lift the mind + This low and groveling joy above-- + 'Tis but the proud can truly love. + +The pride that comes from the consciousness of the divine image has power +to restrain from sins and trivialities, and it has power likewise to +constrain toward holiness of character and largeness of service. One who +has come to believe that he is made in the divine image, that he is one of +the divinely appointed rulers of the world, that the great laws are +designed for his protection, that the alluring prophecies of the future +are declarations of his coming power, that his worship is the symbol of +his partnership with the Most High, that the incarnation is in his +interest, that the Infinite Teacher brought him matchless tributes, that +the Cross of Calvary is an expression of his own valuation, that immortal +life is his destiny, and that a glorious heaven is the fitting place for +his final dwelling--such a one has gained all the preventions and all the +inspirations of the Christian doctrine of self-respect. Sins and +trivialities cannot flourish when one thinks so much of oneself; great +affections and lasting consecrations seem natural to one so highly +endowed. The conception that makes for the dignity of self makes also for +the consideration of others. He who entertains this view begins to + + Find man's veritable stature out, + Erect, sublime, the measure of a man, + And that's the measure of an angel, + Says the apostle. + +To such a one life becomes solemn and beautiful. He is now the son of God. +While he knows not yet what he shall be, he sees the vision of the Elder +Brother and so purifies himself even as he is pure. The world needs the +gospel of the Son of God in order that it may learn the gospel of the sons +of God. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BIBLE AND HOME + + +The significance of the home is seen in the fact that every human being is +a son or a daughter. This ordinary statement at once insists on becoming +extraordinary. It is difficult to think what life would have been, or even +how it could have been, if children had been pushed upon the earth from +some mysterious void and had been nurtured without the providential agency +of fathers and mothers. So much do we realize the importance of the home +that where it is impossible to maintain one, owing to the death, or +inability, or worthlessness of parents, we still make provision for an +institution that shall provide as many domestic features as can be won for +the orphaned. This we call an Orphans' Home. It is significant that the +sociological tendency of the period drifts away from even this +institution. The effort now is to bring the childless and the parentless +together. Goldsmith said that the nakedness of the indigent world might be +clothed with the trimmings of the vain. There are those who affirm that, +if the parentless and the childless could be brought into the company of +homes, the Orphan Asylum would be no longer needed. + +Our imaginations may make an easy test. Let an authoritative edict go +forth that after the approaching midnight the home would be banished, and +that each community must adjust itself to some other form of social life. +What would such an edict mean? The homes from which students have come are +no more responsible for them. They constitute no longer the bases of +supplies on which they can draw, nor the alluring hearthstones to which +they can return. The workman turns no more his eager feet toward the +lights of his cottage. The prince finds his palace removed and all its +splendor ceases to invite him. Little children are herded into impersonal +surroundings and become public rather than domestic charges. The scene of +disaster could be described without merciful stint. These suggestions are +enough to show that society could scarcely escape chaos if the home were +to be destroyed. How much do the words father, mother, brother, sister, +wife, husband, son, daughter mean? Empty out their closer significance, +and you vacate much of life's meaning. + +Nor is this the narrow word of an ecclesiastic or theologian. Drummond in +The Ascent of Man claims that the evolution of a father and mother was +the final effort of nature. John Fiske, as scientist and historian, points +out the helplessness of infant life as binding parents into unity that +grows out of responsibility. Soon after its birth the wee animal runs and +leaps, while the wee bird does not wait long ere it flies from limb to +limb; but the human babe in the ancient forest lies helpless in its log +cradle for many months. Both Drummond and Fiske agree that by this program +the God of nature was introducing patience, devotion, and sacrifice into +the world and was making ready for the kingdom of heaven. It is plain that +Drummond does not state it too strongly when he says that "the goal of the +whole plant and animal life seems to have been the creation of a family +which the very naturalist had to call Mammals," or Mothers. + +This represents somewhat the divine history of the home. The prophecy of +the home likewise does some convincing work. The truth is that the home as +an institution plants itself squarely in the path of some modern social +theories. Some of those theories have begun by boldly demanding that the +home be abolished because it has been made a buttress of private life and +property. Not only has this suggestion been met with a horror that in +itself expresses the instinctive conviction of the sacredness of the home, +but it has been met with the insistence that the prophets should name +their substitute for the hearthstone. This insistence has received nothing +more than hazy and vague replies. The prophet stammers out some dark +saying about "something better" or about the home as having fulfilled its +mission in "the evolution of society"; and by the very helplessness of his +speech he really becomes an advocate of closer domestic relations! It is +interesting to note how these reformers seek to find a good path back from +their social desert! They soon declare that the new regime must keep the +home intact, and that only sporadic and irresponsible voices from their +camp are lifted against the home's sanctity! The antihome prophet always +has a hard task. He collides with one of the granite convictions of +humanity. If he would save the rest of his theory he must save the home +from the proposed destruction. God has set the solitary in families. Men +look in vain for a better setting for the jewel of life. From all their +seeking they come back in due season to the truth that, imperfect as the +home may often be, it is still rooted and grounded in outer life and in +inner instinct, and that it is futile to try to make better what God has +made best. + +All this will serve for emphasizing the importance of the home, though +much more might be added. When the man awakes in the morning, becomes +aware of himself, and then hears the voices of his wife and children, he +is immediately related to one of the fundamental institutions of society. +If the Bible be, as we have claimed, preeminently the Book of Life, it +must relate itself vitally to the home. Our inquiry, therefore, is, What +bearing does the Book have upon the home? The answer must necessarily be +sketchy and incomplete; but we can soon gather an answer that will +establish the biblical drift of teaching. + +The Bible begins with an impressive lesson of monogamy. In the Eden life +one man and one woman join hands as partners in joy and work. Let the +account be poetry, allegory, parable, the lesson is the same. In that +intimate communion with God that found him in the garden in the cool of +the day, bigamy and polygamy are not represented as being at home. Even +the Fall is not described as quickly dropping man low enough to reach the +dreadful level of promiscuity or of any of the approaches to so-called +free love. It required time ere that downward journey could be made. +Humanity in its innocence is not described as starting from the dens of +polygamy. + +But in season the Bible gives us some disconcerting facts. Bigamy and +polygamy confront us in the lives of some worthies. Let it be allowed that +sometimes the motive is the perpetuation of the home itself. Provision is +sought against the curse of barrenness. Let it be allowed, also, that the +Bible does not represent bigamy as working well. It brought discord into +Abraham's tent. The peevish wife drives her own wretched substitute from +the door, until the desolate Hagar stands in her loneliness and repeats +the comforting ritual of the seeing God. The son of bigamy goes off into +his wild life, with his hand against every man and every man's hand +against him. The admirable thing about the second patriarch is his +devotion to one woman. Neutral and characterless as Isaac seems to be, he +still won a mention in the marriage service of the ages by his +faithfulness to Rebecca alone. Upon the third patriarch bigamy was forced +by a cruel deception. In truth a review of the Old Testament will show +that any departure from the unity of the home made for trouble. It filled +the moving tabernacles of the patriarchs with quarrels. It led David on to +murder. It drenched Solomon in debauchery. It degraded the successive +kings until it destroyed their power and ruined the nation. Its +inevitable end was the loss of the land and the sadness of captivity. + +The Old Testament records polygamy, but it does not applaud polygamy. When +once a polygamist stood in the halls of Congress and defended his right to +a seat by quoting the examples of the patriarchs, his plea did not avail. +Not only was the conviction of the nineteenth century against his +contention, but the mood of the very Book from which he quoted was his +enemy. So far as we can judge, monogamy was the general rule among the +Jewish people. The exemplars of bigamy and polygamy were mainly those +whose position enabled them to flaunt the public sentiment of their day. +The history of Old Testament polygamy is so sorrowful that the Hebrew +people have reacted from it into a stanch defense for the monogamic home. +The seduction of Tamar, the murder of Amnon, the unfilial licentiousness +of Absalom, the sordid road of impurity trod by the later monarchs of +Israel, and the despair of the Babylonish captivity, make a piercing case +against polygamy. On the other hand, the unwavering faithfulness of the +maid in the Song of Solomon, the patience of Hosea with his prodigal wife, +the idyllic story of Ruth, all these became persuasive pleas for a home +wherein one man and one woman should live together in loyal love even +until death. When Jesus came to give his message contemporaneous polygamy +had all but ceased in Palestine. But easy divorce, sometimes called +"consecutive polygamy," had become prevalent. The world was waiting for +the voice of authority, and it heard that voice when Christ began to +teach. + +The teaching of Jesus in reference to marriage is unmistakable. It may +impress many as severe; it cannot impress any as doubtful. If we accept +him as the Supreme Teacher we receive a decision given with no equivocal +terms. It is often said that the method of the Lord was to offer general +principles and to leave his followers to carry out these principles in the +spirit of loving discipleship. Thus he declined to give detailed rules for +the observance of the Sabbath, explicit instructions for the division of +estates, definite laws for prayer and worship and almsgiving. Yet when he +discussed marriage he gave both general principles and specific rules. If +this was not the only case where he became sponsor for a rule it was +surely the most emphatic case. He seemed to feel that concerning marriage +and the home he must give a mass of distinct precepts. It was as if he +deemed the home so sacred and its enemies so subtle and powerful as to +make necessary some particular instruction. + +Perhaps we shall not err in saying that Jesus found in his time urgent +reasons for specific and strong teaching about marriage. The Jews, who +went to a mechanical extreme in their observance of the Sabbath law, had +gone to an opposite extreme in their attitude toward the law of the home. +In this regard the period was worse than our own, but it was not unlike +our own. The domestic conscience of the Jews had been more or less +weakened. Mere trifles were made excuses for the breaking up of home. +Doubtless the influence of the Romans was making itself felt among the +Hebrews. Professor Sheldon quotes Dorner as showing the reckless ease of +divorce among leading Romans. One man divorced his wife because she went +unveiled on the street; another because she spoke familiarly to a +freedwoman; another because she went to a play without his knowledge. Even +Cicero, proclaimed a very noble Roman, divorced his first wife that he +might marry a wealthier woman, and his second wife because she did not +seem to be sufficiently afflicted over the death of his daughter! "In +fine," says Professor Sheldon, "it was not altogether hyperbole when +Seneca spoke of noble women as reckoning their years by their successive +husbands rather than by the Consuls" (History of the Early Church, pages +29, 30). + +The records of this same period among the Romans will rout the claim that +easy divorce tends to purity. Faithlessness to marriage vows was not +seriously regarded, and there were instances of so-called noble women +registering as public prostitutes in order that they might thus avoid the +penalties of the laws! Easy divorce seemed to be accompanied by easy +virtue, as if, indeed, both evils grew naturally out of the same soil. The +Roman fashions were having their influence on the Jews. The sacred law was +searched and was explained away with evil subtlety in order that men might +be religiously released from the marriage bond. + +Evidently, then, the times demanded that Jesus should save the marriage +law from looseness. The ease of divorce was not unlike that in our own +land to-day. If the teaching of Jesus was needed then it is needed now in +order that marriage may recover its binding solemnity. On general +principles we must all rejoice that Jesus did not give a dubious word on +this sacred matter. It may be doubted whether any man who did not have the +cause of his own pleasure to serve and who was not willing to subordinate +a social law to the superficial joy of his own life, would be willing to +modify the Saviour's teaching. Certainly that teaching has long been the +firm bulwark of the married life. Had Jesus spoken with doubt, or had he +given sanction to easy divorce, what would the results have been? Our +homes would have been builded upon the sands of freakish impulses and of +hasty tempers. But Jesus's word puts rock into the domestic foundation. +When it was given it was met by all of the objections which it still +evokes. Some said that the teaching was extreme in its severity, quite +outdoing the law of Moses in its demands. Others said that rather than to +submit to a bond so unbreakable, it would be better not to marry at all. +Still Jesus did not lower his teaching. God was the author of marriage; +man must not assume to be its destroyer. God takes two persons and makes +them one flesh; man must not cut that vital bond. + +Plainly, then, Jesus felt that marriage established a family relationship +which was to resemble other family relationships in its indissolubleness. +How can a man get rid of his brother, or his sister, or his father or +mother, when God has decreed a relation in the flesh that cannot be +severed? One may live apart from brother or sister, or father or mother, +as a matter of convenience or peace; but how can one destroy the +relationship? In spite of angry decrees, is not the brother still a +brother, and do not father and mother remain father and mother in +defiance of all unfilial pronouncements of divorce? In Jesus's view the +second family relationship was as indissoluble as the first. If one were +to argue from a certain standpoint it might be easy to claim that it must +be even more indissoluble. A man does not choose his first home. It +represents a necessity against which he may not strive. But he does choose +his second home, and it represents a union for which he is himself +distinctly responsible. Why should a man be allowed to divorce himself +from the home which is founded by his liberty while still being inexorably +bound to the home which was founded without his choice? Jesus taught that +the very constitution of society, as resting on the word of God, demanded +that the second home be as sacredly unbreakable as the first. The "one +flesh" must not be severed in either case. + +Hence it comes about that, while the law of Jesus does not allow divorce, +unless for the one reason mentioned later, it does not forbid separation. +The sin does not consist in putting away the wife when conditions are +unbearable; it does consist in marrying another. He does not insist that +the quarrelsome shall live amid their brawls; but he does insist that they +shall not go into another experiment that degrades a sacred covenant. We +do not long listen to the specious arguments for easy divorce, with the +privilege of remarriage, without discovering that these arguments affirm +either that personal purity is impossible or that personal convenience and +pleasure are the primary demands of life. Jesus did not so teach. Dr. +Peabody, in his matchless discussion of Jesus's teaching about the family, +well says: "The family is, to Jesus, not a temporary arrangement at the +mercy of uncontrolled temper or shifting desire; it is ordained for that +very discipline in forbearance and restraint which are precisely what many +people would avoid, and the easy rupture of its union blights these +virtues in their bud. Why should one concern himself in marriage to be +considerate and forgiving, if it is easier to be divorced than it is to be +good?" (Jesus Christ and the Social Question, p. 159.) That these words +touch the evil heart of many modern divorces there can be no doubt. The +emphatic teaching of Jesus was that marriage should not be regarded as a +breakable agreement of convenience, but rather as an indissoluble pledge +of permanent union. + +Whether Jesus allowed any exception to this law remains a debatable matter +among the scholars. Some contend that the "save for fornication" clause is +an interpolation, and that the teaching of Jesus admitted no divorce +whatsoever. Others contend that the gospel writers who omit this clause +regarded the one reason for divorce as so certain that it was not deemed +necessary to mention its legitimacy. It may be claimed with a show of +reason that the regarding of adultery as an exceptional sin against the +married life stands for something instinctive in human nature. +Notwithstanding all statements that desertion and abuse and drunkenness +may be so aggravated as to constitute offenses worse than fornication, +normal men and women continue to assign a lonely infamy to the sin of +carnal unfaithfulness. If Jesus did use the exceptional clause there is +not wanting evidence that his word is confirmed by an all but universal +feeling. Many races have been disposed to decree that the sin of adultery +is the one iniquity sharp and incisive enough to sever the "one flesh." +Perhaps it is safe to affirm that the great majority of good men and women +do not shrink from the exception as being unworthy of Jesus's teaching. +But, the exception being granted, that teaching is clear and +uncompromising. When that teaching becomes the law of the world divorce +courts will be largely emptied and the marriage vows will be assumed with +less haste and with more solemnity. + +The New Testament is thus seen to be the headquarters of that conception +of marriage that alone gives a firm foundation to the home. It is +impossible to conceive what would have been the dismal statistics of +divorce, if Jesus had made the marriage bond of slender strength. Truly +the situation is bad enough as it is. Often the causes for divorce are +trivial; sometimes they are deliberately arranged by the separating +parties! and occasionally the much-married comedian is hailed on the stage +with a joking tolerance. But when more than ninety per cent of the +marriages of the land stand the tests of time and are kept in fidelity +until the "one flesh" is severed by death, it is evident that some strong +force still guards the home from desecration. + +We need not inquire what that force is; it is the Word of Christ. Among +those who follow him least, he has made divorce "bad form"; among those +who follow him somewhat, he has made it doubtful morals; while among those +who accept him as Lord and Master, he has made it sacrilege and blasphemy. +The devotees of pleasure and convenience and lust may well quarrel with +the decree of Christ. The devotees of compromise may seek to refine and +discount his explicit law. Yet all those who see in the home the very +center and heart of a properly organized society, as well as the very +ordination of the Lord God Almighty, will not cease to be grateful that +Christ spoke so unmistakably concerning its solemn sanction. He fixed +forever the difference between the civil marriage and the Christian +marriage. He filled the marriage service with religious terms. "The sight +of God," "instituted of God," "mystical union," "holy estate," "Cana of +Galilee," "reverently, discreetly, and in the fear of God," "God's +ordinance," "forsaking all other," "so long as ye both shall live," "for +better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health," +"the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," "God hath +joined together," "in holy love until their lives' end"--all these words +are Christ's words, his Spirit confirmed them in the service of his +church. That service may well close with the prayer which declares that +his is "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever." + +More and more careful students of both sociology and Christianity will see +that no safe conception of marriage can be found save in the words of the +Lord. The civil contract idea is full of peril. The case of Percy Bysshe +Shelley, the English poet, is in evidence. The illustration may be +extreme, but it will the better show the sure goal of that theory of +marriage that forgets God. Shelley, for a time at least, was an outright +atheist. Bowing God out of the universe, he could not consistently leave +God in his theory of marriage. His college thesis was an argument for +atheism. Given sufficient provocation and motive, Shelley was sure to +reach the limit of a godless idea of marriage. It seems almost impossible +for men with a literary mania to see social or moral fault in their +heroes, and their tendency often is to absolve writers of genius from the +usual laws. Shelley married the daughter of a retired innkeeper. In two +years he separated from his wife and two children. Three years later the +wife drowned herself, meeting voluntarily a fate which Shelley was to meet +involuntarily. An apologist for Shelley says, "The refinements of +intellectual sympathy which poets desiderate in their spouses Shelley +failed to find in his wife, but for a time he lived with her not +unhappily; nor to the last had he any fault to allege against her, except +such negative ones as might be implied in his meeting a woman he liked +better." The more we study this language the more does its superficiality +impress us. Let it be said that Shelley was young and heedless when he +first married; let it be said, also, that he was in general strangely +lovable and warmly philanthropic; and let it be said, even, that he was in +his lifetime execrated beyond his deserts. But it would not be so easy to +palliate his conduct if one's own daughter had drowned herself to end her +sorrow, or if one's own daughter had traveled with him, unmarried, over +France and Switzerland! Somehow literary admiration plays tricks on moral +natures. Doubtless the judgment of Shelley on the basis of his boyish poem +"Queen Mab" was unfair, even as its surreptitious publication without his +consent was unfair. None the less one may trace a connection between his +college production in defense of atheism and his later domestic conduct. +No marriage has a sure foundation apart from a religious sanction. The +more we consider the possibilities suggested by this confessedly extreme +illustration, the more will we cling to the strict theory of Jesus as +against the limping logic of any loose sociologist. + +We have thus seen that the foundation of the home comes to the Bible, and +particularly to the goal of the Bible's revelation in Christ, for its +solidity. Other foundations are fashioned of yielding sand. The marriage +ceremony might well be modified in some minor regards; but the word of +Christ will insist that the ceremony shall represent no flimsy contract. +While he rules the pronouncement will be, "God hath joined together"; and +the human response will remain, "till death us do part." + +The relation of Jesus to the home goes farther than his word about +marriage, deep and far-reaching as that is. His life emphasized the +sacredness of the family relation. He went back from the scene in the +Temple to be "subject unto his parents." He wrought his first miracle on +the occasion of a marriage. Many of his miracles of mercy were performed +in answer to a family plea. He heard the cry of a mother when he healed +the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, and again when he raised up the +son of the widow of Nain. He heard the cry of a father when he cast out +the evil spirit and restored a stricken son, clothed and in his right +mind. He heard the cry of sisters when he stood weeping at the grave of +Lazarus. The domestic plea quickly reached his heart and summoned his aid. +It was so even in the personal sense. In the agony of the crucifixion he +did not fail to commend his mother to the care of his best-to-do disciple, +and to cause the writing of that simple statement, "From that day that +disciple took her into his own home." + +Indeed, through all the life of Jesus he glorified the family, unless the +family stood in the way of his truth or work. Emerson said once, "I will +hate my father and my mother when my genius calls me." We all know where +Emerson got those words; they were not written on his own authority. Jesus +made our human ancestry subject to our divine ancestry. Above the earthly +parents he saw the heavenly Father. The God who ordained the home was +above the home. But Jesus would allow no other exception. He himself lived +by that supreme law. He was homeless in obedience to his own divine +mission. There is a peculiar illustration of this, hidden somewhat by our +awkward distribution of the Bible into chapters and verses. The seventh +chapter of John ends with the words, "They went every man to his own +house." It is not difficult for us to reproduce the scene, even with its +Oriental touches. The discussion of the day is over. The hearers did what +men and women have been doing ever since--they turned to the twinkling +lights of their homes. Soon the crowds had disappeared and the various +persons had joined themselves to their family groups. The homeless One was +left alone. The first verse of the eighth chapter of John says, "Jesus +went unto the mount of Olives." It was just an instance of his tragedy, +"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of +man hath not where to lay his head." The homelessness of Jesus was +vicarious. Sometimes still he calls his own into the same vicariousness. +He separates sons and daughters from their fathers and mothers and sends +them afar to preach his kingdom. Wherever those homeless ones may go, the +meaning of home takes on a new and sacred meaning. They carry with them +the Word and Spirit of him who, being weary, invited the weary ones to +come to him for rest; being thirsty, invited the thirsty ones to drink of +the water of life; being poor, invited the poor to come to him for riches; +being dead, invited the dying ones to look to him for eternal life; and, +being homeless, still commands the world to look to him for the spirit of +home. Even though he himself went down into the darkness of the Mount of +Olives, ever since his day the people that have heard and heeded his word +have found the lights of home more inviting and the mission of the home +more divine. + +There is yet another consideration which must be noted ere we receive the +full message of Jesus about the home. The teaching of Jesus concerning God +was almost wholly based on a figure of speech derived from the home. In +the Old Testament God is mentioned under the title of fatherhood but seven +times. Five times he is spoken of as the father of the Jewish people; +twice he is spoken of as the father of individual men. Only once in the +sweep of the ancient Scriptures is there found a prayer addressed to God +as Father. God was the King of kings, and the Lord of hosts; he was +Creator and Lawgiver. But in the knowledge of the people he was not yet +Father. The world waited long ere men found an Elder Brother who could +break the spell of their orphanhood and reveal to them a Father. When +Jesus desired to tell men what God was like he went to their homes and +found therein the form of his teaching. He sprinkled the New Testament +with the domestic name of God. Two hundred and sixty-five times God is +spoken of under the title of Fatherhood. The sacredness of the home +relation could not receive holier emphasis. + +Thus the homes which are founded by the Lord become revelations of the +Lord. Domestic relations are teachers of theology. Well may we speak of a +Family Bible! There is such a Bible. The illustration of theology is the +family illustration. Some day we shall recover that theology, and we shall +place the theologies that have superseded it in their secondary place. +Jesus was the final Teacher of theology, and we must give him the primacy. +Under his teaching every true home is a symbol of the divine household; +every true parent is a limited representative of God; every true son is an +example of the filial spirit that is religion. The path of prayer starts +with the word Father. The doctrine of providential care is explained by +the word Father. The call to obedience refers to the will of the Father. +The deeper tragedy of sin comes from the fact that the offense is against +the Father. Conversion is a return to the Father. + +Taking, then, the direct teaching of Jesus with reference to marriage as +the founding of the home, taking his life in its merciful relation to the +home, and taking his teaching about God as based on the home, we are +justified in saying that Jesus was the Prophet and Saviour of the Family. +The vision that he gave of the other life took on that form again. He +declared that he was preparing a place for his own, and he called that +place the "Father's house." He was likewise preparing a home this side of +the many mansions. A Carpenter he was. He has builded many sanctuaries, +some for worship, and some for the mercy that we show to the sick, and +aged, and destitute. But the Carpenter of Nazareth is the builder of the +true home. His word lays its foundations, raises its walls, places its +capstone, and furnishes its atmosphere of peace and love. The home that is +placed on any other word cannot stand the shock of the tempest. It is +based on sand; and when the winds and rains and storms of passion come, +the home will fall, and great will be the fall thereof. The world needs +to-day the lesson of Jesus about the home; and it needs, also, the spirit +of Jesus in the home. When men and women yield to that spirit, +extravagance will be checked, forbearance will be increased, love will be +promoted, peace will be established. Husband and wife will not then plead +that Jesus's strict decree concerning marriage may be annulled. Earthly +homes will be like vestibules of the Father's House. + +There remains for brief discussion the relation of the Epistles of the New +Testament to the home life of the people. The tendency here has been to +give undue emphasis to certain phases of Paul's teaching. Some reformers, +especially some radical feminists, have spoken of the great apostle's +teaching with scant respect. The command to wives to obey their husbands +has been kept apart from the command to husbands to love their wives even +as Christ loved the church. Christ loved the church so that he gave his +life for it; and when husbands love their wives to that sublime extent, +obedience is no longer demanded for tyranny. All technical matters aside, +it will be seen that the apostolic treatment of the domestic relations, +touching the relative duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, +and masters and servants, shows a marked balance. When each party keeps +his portion of the precepts, and is strictly minded to fulfill precisely +his part of the apostolic contract, debates about primacy and authority +find their gracious solution in mutual love. Unless we should wish to make +undue account of Saint Paul's doctrine of the husband's primacy, we cannot +say that his attitude toward womankind was marked by anything other than +utmost respect. Just what his own domestic experiences were is a question +of age-long doubt. If we study his actual references to women we shall +find a series of compliments too deep to serve as the expression of a +superficial gallantry and too genuine to allow the author to be classed as +a hater of the mothers and sisters and wives of the race. Near the end of +his life Paul caught the vision of his Master. Beyond his wanderings he +saw a destination; above his imprisonments he saw a freedom; after his +shipwrecks he saw a haven; and the destination and freedom and haven were +all expressed in the words "at home." "At home," "at home with the Lord," +this was Paul's conception of the waiting heaven. He, too, exalted the +home by making it the forefigure of heaven. + +We have now presented enough to justify the statement that the Bible is +the stanch friend of the home. As long as men and women read and obey the +Book, and love and follow the Lord of the Book, their feet will turn +reverently homeward as to the place of God's appointing, as to the school +of God's own discipline, as to the place of God's own joy, and as to the +anteroom of God's own heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION + + +The man whose program of daily life suggests the outline of these chapters +awakes in the morning to the consciousness of himself. He is soon aware of +the presence of his family and catches the sense of home. Directly the +children are made ready for school and join that romping procession that +moves each day at the joint command of parents and teachers. In the normal +Christian community this fact of school-going is all but universal. In +such a community the illiterate person is so exceptional as to be a +curiosity; he is marked by separateness if not by distinction. All of us +have marched to school; all of us have had teachers. + +The fact is still more significant. School-going is not merely a general +experience; it is a long experience. It controls about one fourth of life. +Indeed, if we figure the average span of life, the school claims more than +one fourth of the individual career. Many persons continue formal school +work into the third decade, while many give a score and a half of years +in making educational preparation for the remaining twoscore years of the +allotment. + +Beyond this, the whole educational scheme involves countless millions of +dollars. Our bookkeeping is scarcely rapid enough to keep up with the +finances of the system. In our own country it really seems as if education +had become a primary passion. Our school buildings yearly become more +imposing and more costly. Our college endowments annually leap to more +generous figures. Our largest philanthropies seek the privilege of +enlarging educational opportunity. It thus requires no long observation to +convince any thoughtful man that our educational program, involving every +young life in the nation and ideally every young life on the planet, is of +incalculable meaning. Each morning an army of many millions, ranging from +wee kindergartners up to adult postgraduates, moves to the schoolroom +door. The whole scene is as impressive as it is human. The question +naturally comes, What started that procession? What inspiration keeps it +moving through the years? Is there one Book that leads in some forceful +way to the study of many books? Does the Bible have any sure relation +either to the enthusiasm or to the efficiency of our educational life? If +our friend of the day's program could discover the intricate influences +that unite in sending his children to the school, would he find that any +large credit must be assigned to the Book? + +The aim now is not to show the place that the Bible has had in the +curriculum of the world's education; nor yet is it to show the direct +effect that the Bible has had upon the world's instruction. The Bible has +been the supreme text-book, even as it has been the supreme force, in the +schools of nearly two millenniums. These facts have been well set forth in +many treatises. The purpose now is simpler and more meaningful: to trace +to its main sources the influence which the great Book has had upon the +intellectual life of the race. + +We are met at the outset by the singular fact that the Bible has little to +say specifically concerning education. Nowhere in its pages do we read the +command, "Thou shalt found schools." The literalist who started out to +find a biblical order for education, as such, would come back from an +unrewarded search. But we have long ago discovered that the silence of the +Bible does not constitute a commandment. There are some things that are +stronger than detailed orders. An outer law that has fought an inner +sanction has usually fared badly in history. On the other hand, the inner +sanction, unenforced by any objective form of obligation, has won some +big victories. An explicit command to act as an immortal is not so +powerful as the implicit conviction that we are immortal. It is safe to +declare that the implications of Scripture are often as deep and +influential as its explications. If, then, the flowers of knowledge bloom +not by command in the fields of the Bible, may we still find there the +seeds out of which such flowers inevitably grow? If the school building is +not definitely prescribed, as was the Temple of Solomon, does the Book +yield in a deeper sense the wood and stone and mortar by which the +building must surely rise? Answers to these figurative questions will go +far toward determining the relation of the Bible to education. The +contention now is that the Bible has been the fountain whence streams of +intellectual life have flowed, and that, minor influences being freely +admitted, these streams may be traced to the Scripture's implicit doctrine +of human responsibility. + +In discussing the bearing of the Bible on learning much has been made of +the example of the Bible's mightiest characters. This fact is striking, +and it lends itself to popular treatment. The average man takes a truth +more readily when it is offered to him in a human setting. Hence it may be +granted that the spirit of the Book in its influence on education has +been supplemented by its concrete examples. In the patriarchal era the +majestic figure is that of Abraham. Whatever the critics may say about the +historicity of his person, they can hardly doubt the historicity of the +intellectual process by which some "Father of the Multitude" must have +reached the creed of the divine unity and spirituality. We could not +expect, of course, to find organized education in the primitive days of +religious history. But, after all, education is relative. An eminent +American graduated from Harvard in 1836 when he was sixteen years of age. +In this day his sixteen years and his completed course of study would +barely admit him to the Freshman class. So Abraham's education must be +graded by the standard of his dim and far day. Tradition represents him as +reaching the central doctrine of the Jewish, Mohammedan, and Christian +faith by a method of reasoning. You may say of his physical journey that +he went out, not knowing whither he went, but you cannot say that of his +intellectual journey. While his feet pressed an unknown way, his mind and +heart traveled straight toward the discovered God. If the best educated +man of a period is he who sees most deeply and clearly into its essential +truths and problems, then the "Father of the Faithful," whoever he was +and whenever he came, was the supreme scholar of his generation. + +As the life of the chosen people reaches more definite form, the place of +education is more plainly seen. Doubtless most men would agree that Moses +was the arch figure of the Old Testament. He is represented, both by the +Scripture and by the tradition given among the Jewish historians, as +having the best mental furnishing of his day. The book of the Acts says of +him that he "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Clemens +Alexandrinus records that Moses had the finest teachers in Egypt, and that +the choicest scholars were imported from Greece and Assyria to instruct +the adopted prince in the arts and sciences of their respective countries. +Perhaps we must allow something for the idealizing habit here; but it is +significant that both sacred and secular history unite in declaring that +the Lawgiver was learned. + +In the era of Prophecy we find the same development, only it is more +speedy. Elijah may have been the crude and forceful son of mountain and +rock, but his successor is the product of one of the numerous "schools of +the prophets." Although intellectual training might be presumed to have +little to do with the stern function of Old Testament prophesying, the +"school" arrived quickly and began the training of the young men. +Criticism has not attacked the view that the book of Isaiah bears marks of +high culture. If that book had two authors, the ancient world is entitled +to the credit of a second scholar. When the radical is done with the story +of Daniel we have left at least the schoolroom in which the youthful +prophet gained his superior wisdom. It would appear that the examples of +the worthies of the Old Testament give slight encouragement to the idea +that any type of selection or any mood of afflatus may not be supplemented +by trained intellect in the kingdom of God. + +We need not halt long with the like lesson from the New Testament. Much +has been made of the fact that the twelve apostles were uneducated men. +Doubtless we often do their intellectual life scant justice. Desiring to +score in an argument, we give it out as an evidence of the divinity of the +faith that it conquered in spite of the disciples' lack of education. The +truth is that the New Testament does not warrant the application to the +apostles of such words as "illiterate." Some of them wrote books that have +moved the ages. But, whatever the fact be here, he would be wild indeed +who would find in ignorance any explanation of the gospel's victory. Let +us remember, moreover, that, when the "unlettered" Twelve were cramping +the universal faith into a local religion, the corrector of their blunder +was the "lettered" Paul. In his statement of experience he was ever ready +to say that he had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest Jewish +teacher of the day. After Christ Paul is the colossal figure of the New +Testament; and there are those who would confidently declare him the +greatest man who has walked the earth since Calvary. For a review of his +education, let anyone read a standard Life of the Apostle. We thus gather +the one result from both the Old and the New Testament. Moses was the +mightiest personality of the one, and Paul was the mightiest human +personality of the other; and both were highly educated. The signal +examples of the Bible range themselves on the side of education. + +As in all things else, so in the relation of the Bible to the intellectual +life we reach the climax only when we come to Christ. Here, too, we find +in the life of Christ that same element of paradox that we often find in +his words. That saving was losing, giving was getting, and dying was +living were apparently contradictory statements that real life proved to +be true. Where words seemed to fight each other, the deeper facts were +found to live in peace. So Jesus in his personal influence was ever +reaching goals of which the paths did not give promise. This is seen +peculiarly in his relation to the intellectual life. He left no +manuscripts. The only time he is represented as writing was when he wrote +the sentence of the sinning woman on the forgetful sands of the earth. Yet +he who wrote no books has filled the world with books. Something in him +quickly evoked Gospels and Epistles which were forerunners of a marvelous +literature. Even this moment thousands of pens are being moved by him. He +wrote no books, and still he writes books evermore. + +It was so with his relation to the schools. Men tell us that the +incarnation imposed a limitation on intellect--that it involved a kenosis, +an emptying of knowledge even as of power. Be that as it may, our human +explanations do not easily reach the mystery of his influence on the +schools of the world. Did the boy Jesus go to school in Nazareth? Was his +mother his only earthly teacher? Did his neighbors speak literal truth in +the question, "Whence hath this man wisdom, having never learned"? The +silent years give no answer to the questions. But this we do know: He who +went to school slightly or not at all has sent a world to school. He who +founded no immediate institution of learning has dotted the planet with +colleges. His schoolroom was itinerant and unroofed. It moved quickly from +town to city, from capital to desert, from mountain to seashore. We have +dignified it with a great name. The school of Jesus, whose plant and +endowment and faculty all centered in one life, is named "the College of +Apostles." + +He said to them, "Go, teach." They went and they taught. They were not +deliberate founders of schools. But the heart of Jesus contained schools, +and they, having gotten their hearts from him, carried schools with them. +When the gospel reached England and Germany, education reached those +countries and began to thrive. The vast majority of the first one hundred +colleges founded in America were builded by the followers of the Great +Teacher. + +Now, this unique relation of Jesus to the educational life of men is not +accidental. Subtle as are the laws which determine it, those laws work +effectively. They are elusive, but once in a while we glimpse their ways +and meanings. The New Testament seems to feel their presence. It calls +Christ a Teacher. Forty-three times it uses his name in connection with +the word "teach" in its various forms. The world gets the same impression. +It persists in calling Jesus the Greatest Teacher. It must note the +schoolroom phrases with which the account of his life is filled. The +prologue of his wonderful message on the Mount illustrates this. "And +seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, +his disciples came unto him; and he opened his mouth, and taught them." +The posture of Jesus was that of the teacher. His audience was made up of +"disciples," that is, of pupils. He "taught" them. All this might be +called a superficial play upon mere words. But we may go further and +discover that the method of Jesus was the method of the teacher. He put +his effort into other lives in order that these lives might, within their +various limitations, duplicate his own. His work was largely devoted to +the preparation of a select few. Often he left hundreds and thousands that +he might be alone with Twelve. He poured himself into his disciples, his +scholars. He thus did what every true teacher must do: He committed the +cause of his life to those whom he schooled into faith and character and +power. + +Nor did the teaching method halt here. The good teacher makes the things +of the earth serve as approaches to the highest developments. This Jesus +did supremely. Long before men made "nature study" an educational fad, +Jesus made it an ethical and spiritual service. He pressed flowers, +mustard seeds, grapes, wine, thistles, corn, figs, into the lessons of +his roving school. He made nature study so effective that along a path of +lilies men walked to God. When it was necessary to individualize in order +to come to this high result, Jesus took up that burden of teaching. His +school, like all other schools since its day, enrolled "a son of thunder." +It took the love that suffered long to make John, the son of thunder and +lightning and vaulting ambition, into the son of tender love. It took the +patience that knows no failure to change the shifting sand of Simon's +nature into the rock of Peter's character. All these considerations will +convince us that we may go to Christ with the pedagogical, as well as with +the religious motive. We do not wonder that a man should have crept to him +in the darkness and should have said, "We know that thou art a teacher." + +There is yet another side of the subject that calls for emphasis. The +Bible and Jesus give the ideal of the intellectual life, an omniscient +God. The God who is perfect in character is often lifted before us. We +hear the voice saying, "Be ye holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." Yet +we interpret the call narrowly. Christ has come to us with the call to +purity. To the attentive he comes just as truly with the call to +knowledge. He has given us a gospel for the body, and that gospel teaches +that drunkards and other defilers of the human temple of God cannot +inherit his kingdom. He has given us a gospel for the spirit, and that +gospel commands that the inmost realm of life be given to his sway. He has +likewise given us a gospel of the mind, and that gospel cannot be omitted +from the fullness of the blessing of Christ. The God revealed in Christ +knows all things. He counts the hairs of our heads. He marks the petals of +the flowers. He notes the fall of the sparrows. He is all-knowing and +all-wise. + +Even though the ideal be a staggering one, we are still told to be like +God. Some day we shall appreciate more the duty that speaks to us in +Jesus's revelation of an omniscient God. As yet we hardly dare press to +its full meaning the call implied in that revelation. We have said that +the man who neglects and stunts and poisons his body is a sinner. We have +said that the man who dwarfs and represses his spirit is a sinner. Are we +ready to say that the man who gives his mind no chance, the man who fails +to move on to the ideal of an omniscient God, is likewise a sinner? Is +God's perfect spirit a goal for his children, and is God's perfect mind +removed from our vision of duty? If we are to start on the endless march +that leads to the purity of God, are we freed from the obligation of +starting on the endless march that leads to his knowledge? We may shrink +from the conclusion that is here involved; and our shrinking may be only +an added evidence that we have omitted one element from the divine ideal. + +Just here we are struck with the consciousness that we shall need some +great dynamic, if we are ever to start toward this unspeakable goal. +Evidently we have not reached the last thing in Christ's relation to +education. Confucius was a great teacher, but his system has not produced +schools. Mohammed was a great teacher, but his system has left his +followers wallowing in ignorance. Though Mohammedanism has proclaimed an +omniscient God, somehow that beacon on the infinite height has not coaxed +the Turk on to its shining. Mohammedanism has offered the ideal, but it +has lacked the power. On the contrary the system of Jesus seems to have +had a genius for diffusing education. It has been a vast normal school. +The purer and freer and more spiritual its form, the mightier has it been +as an educational force. If we list the nations of the earth in classes +with reference to literacy and illiteracy, we shall find that the farther +the nations are from the Bible, the more dense is their ignorance. We +shall find, too, that where the people are the freest in their relation +to the Bible, there the ignorance is least. Plainly the Bible with its +crowning revelation in Christ does furnish something of a dynamic toward +education. The school has been the inevitable companion of the church. +This is because the church, in addition to giving a list of inspiring +examples, and in addition to lifting up the uttermost ideal, has also +emphasized an obligation under the leadership of the ever-present Spirit. +It remains to show the nature of the obligation which the Spirit has +enforced with reference to knowledge. Perhaps this can be done more +clearly by taking the attitude of the Scriptures toward slavery as +illustrating their attitude toward ignorance. + +When Jesus faced his audiences he looked upon men who were in bondage as +well as upon men who were in ignorance. It is frequently said that Christ +did not attack slavery. In the days before the war the biblical +literalist, who believed in freedom, had a hard time with his Bible. He +found that the Bible did not condemn slavery, but that the Bible did give +concerning it certain regulations. The pro-slavery orators made good use +of the letter to Philemon. The people who believed in human liberty, and +who likewise believed in a mechanical and verbal theory of biblical +inspiration, passed through intellectual agony in the period of +anti-slavery agitation. If human bondage was the sum of all villainies, +why did not Jesus condemn it with unsparing invective? Why did not the +apostles enter upon an immediate crusade for its downfall? + +The answer is that Christ in the deepest way did condemn slavery, and that +the apostles in the realest way did begin their crusade. They gathered no +visible army, and they enforced no written statute, but Christ stated and +his followers promulgated a conception of humanity that prophesied the +melting of all chains. Usually the claim is that the Golden Rule was the +primary foe of slavery, but the Golden Rule is of little force, apart from +that doctrine of human personality that pervades the New Testament. Give +that doctrine power, and it would refuse to live in the same world with +slavery. That doctrine, under a Captain, was a delivering army. That +doctrine, under a King, was an Emancipation Proclamation. The Golden Rule +had been given in negative form by Confucius, and it went to sleep in his +maxims. That rule had been uttered negatively by Plato, but it nestled +quietly in his poetry. Hillel approached the positive statement of the +rule, but he does not get credit for being its author. The glory of a +truth lies with the one who gives it power. Jesus made the Golden Rule +leap to its feet. He turned it into a most effective traveler. It praised +God on its wide journeys. It began to work wonders. + +That work was slow, but it was both sure and thorough. The Rule had power +behind its saying. At length the Spirit carried that gracious weapon over +the seas and laid it in the hearts of Clarkson and Wilberforce. Soon the +English flag floated over freemen everywhere. Again the Spirit carried the +doctrine over other seas and lodged it in the hearts of Lovejoy, Phillips, +and Garrison. Directly four million sable faces were glowing with the +light of liberty. Jesus had said, "If the Son therefore shall make you +free, ye shall be free indeed." The word had essentially a spiritual +meaning, but it was worked out, also, in a splendid literalness. The Son +made men free, not primarily by the force of law, nor yet primarily by the +violence of armies, but rather by the conquest of disposition. The honor +of the victory is with the Bible theory of humanity, made strong with the +power of Christ. + +Now what the truth of the Bible did in tearing down slavery, it is +continually doing in routing ignorance. The connection is subtle, but it +is vitally real. The doctrine of personal responsibility is atmospheric in +the Bible. It is equally comprehensive. Men are held responsible for +their bodies. Drunkenness, adultery, and all forms of sensuality are +condemned. This is at the bottom of life. But at the top of life firmer +stress is placed. The spirit of man is made a field of reckoning. The +divine dominion over motive is strongly asserted. And that comprehensive +responsibility claims the mind. The first great commandment of the new +dispensation is that we must "love God with all the strength, with all the +soul, with all the _mind_." Men may differ about the precise meaning of +the mind's love for the Lord, but the Christian sense of duty has asserted +it in strange fashions. From vast revivals young men and women have gone +forward intellectually and have sought the higher education. Conversion +has set free their intellects and has made them feel the duty of +intellectual development. The pressure of the Christian ideal has been on +them. They have answered the call of the God who is infinitely good, and +they must now answer the call of the God who is infinitely wise. An +elusive intellectual law is written sure and large in the code of the +Great Kingdom. It is as certainly a commandment of God as if it had been +thundered among the crags and lightnings of a new Sinai. + +The conviction of the church at this point has not always come to +definition; nor has it always risen even to consciousness. For all that, +it has risen to practical life and has struggled always for outward +expression. Feeling that the empire of God is over all of life, man must +submit his mind to the divine rule. Hence it follows that the man who is +intellectually lazy, as well as the man who is intellectually dishonest, +is a sinner. This statement may shock those who have a surplus of caution, +but these may reassure themselves with the conviction that any theory may +be fearlessly accepted, if it brings us face to face with God at any point +of our total life. The failure to follow this biblical idea has brought a +penalty always. No denomination that has fought or slurred education has +led a large and victorious life; on the contrary it has invariably become +one of the fading and dwindling forces of God's work. The God of wisdom is +evermore against the promoters of ignorance. So do we find that, by the +examples of its greatest characters, by the life of its Greatest Teacher +and its ruling Lord, by the vision of its supreme ideal, by the assertion +of its inclusive theory of consecration, and by the divine dynamic which +it brings to bear upon the mind, the Bible has become the steadfast friend +of proper education. It has opened the doors of countless schools and has +bidden the children of men to enter the portals of learning with the +assurance that all truth is of God. + +The Bible renders education the service of inspiration, and it renders it +the service of proper restraint. When any one faculty of human life +becomes a monarch it always makes for trouble. Zeal without knowledge +tends to breakage; knowledge without zeal tends to waste. The Bible does +not make intellect all. Man has mind, and he must use that. Man has +sensibility, and he must use that. Man has will, and he must use that. Man +must get the truth out of his integral self rather than out of his +fractional self. The man who does not use his heart and will in the +gaining of truth is just as faithless as is the man who will not use his +mind. Without attempting to use psychological terms with exactness, we may +say that Jesus brought in the reign of the practical intellect, which gets +truth from all there is of man. Even as truth comes not from the naked +will of God, nor yet out of his cold thought, but rather out of the full +nature of the Infinite, so truth finds man, not at some one point of his +being, but in the glowing center of his whole life. + +We may assert, also, that the Bible saves education from frigidity. +Tennyson speaks of "the freezing reason's colder part." We all know the +meaning of the phrase. Jesus put into the search for truth the mood of +humility. The method of learning was obedience. Obedience is the organ of +intellectual vision as well as of spiritual vision. The method of Jesus +was not merely for the spiritual life, as men speak in their fragmentary +way; it was a universal method. It takes humility to make the beginnings +of a scholar, and weariness and shame of ignorance, and faith in an +intellectual empire, and a high trust that the mind is made for truth, and +the truth for mind. Ere we have done, we have a huge creed wrapped up in +our intellectual processes. But the creed has been saved from its cold +pride. The Bible says in one of its marginal readings, "Knowledge puffeth +up; love buildeth up." Knowledge alone may be swollen with pride, and the +higher demand of the Bible would save from that disaster. This gives us +the clue to more than one biblical sentence. There is a "science falsely +so called." There is a sense in which "not many wise after the flesh are +called." These implied warnings are not the cries of prejudice. They stand +for the effort to touch learning with humility, which alone can save it +from being distant and icy. + +The good Book rescues education from a selfish inaction. There was a +living and serving element in Jesus's relation to the intellectual life. +He did not deal in barren metaphysics or in helpless abstractions. His +truth went to work. He fastened it to life's burdens, and they were +lifted. He dropped it amid life's problems, and they were solved. He cast +it against life's temptations, and they were defeated. He attached it to +life's duties, and they were fulfilled. He sought those truths with which +men had to dwell. He never attempted to set forth the essential mystery of +things. He was no dealer in an intellectual cure-all. He spoke with +authority and yet with reverent limitation. There was a great reserve in +his explanations. Yet in the realm where men must live their present +lives, Jesus gave enough truth to keep men busy all their days. Here again +comes in the question of dynamic. Men sometimes prate about their "love of +truth." The intellectual life, like the religious life, may be guilty of +cant. It takes more than an open mind to get the truth; it takes a working +mind. Truth does not come to the passive man by way of transfer. One +teaching of the parable of the virgins is that, while the coarser goods of +life may be transferred, the finer goods of life must be won by spiritual +effort. It takes dynamic to secure a real intellect. Perception may see a +truth, but only inward power can use the truth. Jesus conferred that +power. He gave us the truth in the doctrine about God. He gave us the way +in the spirit of obedience. He gave us the life in the willingness to make +the truth the servant of the world for the sake of Christ. + +This leads us to the biblical idea of consecrated intellect. As we have +often failed to indicate the sin of needless ignorance, so have we failed +to point out the sin of an unconsecrated mind. All truth can be dedicated +to Christ. His great call to-day is for more men with the highest culture +placed under the thrall of his grace and under the guiding power of the +Spirit whom he sends--more Luthers from Wittenberg, more Wesleys from +Oxford, more Pauls from Gamaliel's school; more men from all our modern +seats of learning who will know that gifts of learning can be placed at +the service of the King and that all science and philosophy and literature +may be placed at the foot of the Cross. In the coming day of the Christian +intellect + + Mind and heart, according well + May make one music as before, + But vaster. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BIBLE AND WORK + + +The frank purpose of the present lecture is to discuss the relation of the +Bible to the moral and spiritual aspects of work. The aim is not a study +in economics. Without doubt the Bible stands for justice; and without +doubt, also, the intent of the Bible is to make just men. But the great +Book does not give an infallible table of wages; neither does it offer any +sure rules whereby we can determine the working value of any particular +individual. It declares that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and it +leaves the details to be wrought out by men whom it summons to the spirit +of justice and love. Interested as we may be in the economic problems of +our day, we must still rejoice that the Bible does not surrender its work +of inspiration in an effort at mechanical guidance. The wage scale must +necessarily vary with the conditions of living; and, therefore, a textbook +of money wages would have made a cumbersome volume with most of its pages +as lifeless as the Book of the Dead. The very suggestion ends in +ridiculousness. The effort of the Bible is not to give directions for +working machines, but to give motives to working men. It is not a +taskmaster, but a task-inspirer. + +True toil of whatever sort is in need of inspiration. It must go by system +and by schedule, and the element of monotony makes itself felt. The man +leaves his home six mornings of the week and takes up his accustomed task. +The bell calls him to work at an appointed hour, and it dismisses him by +the demand of the clock. The husband goes to the store or office or +factory to do the same things again and ever again, while the wife goes +about the household duties that have engrossed her on thousands of +previous days. One of the victories of life is to be a worker and not to +be a drudge. We have all known people who have not won that victory. Their +work is a grim necessity. It is not acquainted with poetry or with music. +When the idealist speaks of the man who sings at his toil, they sneer at +his sentimentalism or they doubt his sincerity. Work is a ceaseless grind; +it is a dreary round; it is a hard compulsion. The poet who wields a pen +may tell the man who wields a pick that work is joy and refreshment and +liberty, but the sour toiler will regard his teacher as a condescending +comforter. The complaint of many people is not simply that they must make +bricks without straw, but that they must make bricks at all. In their +vocabulary pleasure contrasts with labor because labor itself is pain. +They are weary in their work and weary of their work. The only ideal for +this sort of laborer is that he may labor so successfully as to be able +some day to get on without labor. This man is the drudge. + +Oddly enough, he has had his theological partners. There have been Bible +students who have held that all work is a penalty of the Fall. They say +that when God said to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat +bread," he entered toil among the punishments of life. Undoubtedly sin +adds to the hardship of work, especially if the sin be the sin of a wrong +attitude. Thorns and thistles do prosper more around the broken gate of +the sluggard. The earnest expectation of a groaning and travailing +creation does wait for the revealing of the sons of God. Discontent puts +its evil reflex on the muscles. The rebellious worker is ever the tired +worker. But even the literal story of Eden does not give the ideal of +worklessness. Adam had been placed in the garden "to dress it and to keep +it." Wherever God places the man, he places the task for the man. Any +other conception of life is unworthy and utterly irreligious. A silly +theology that puts a premium on idleness is not born of the God that +"worketh hitherto." Still the view that work is a curse persists even +after the theory that encouraged the view has gone to the discard. The +sanctified escape the fret of work, but they do not escape its fact. The +Perfect Life, as we shall later see, was the life of a Worker. + +Admitting, as we all must, that work is sometimes tragic because it lacks +its proper outer reward, we may still contend that often its deepest +tragedy is a wrong attitude of spirit. Doubtless much of this comes from +maladjustment. Some idealists believe that if every man were given his own +task, every man would be happy at that task. Kipling so states it in the +"L'Envoi" of "The Seven Seas." He sees the good time when there shall be +an adjustment between man and his task. The lower motives for work shall +all be done away, and the one satisfying motive shall abide. + + And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame, + And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, + But each for the joy of the working, and each in his separate star, + Shall draw the thing as he sees it, for the God of things as they are. + +Ideal as this is, it gets a response from us all. Besides there are some +foretokens of this age of joyful toil. Usually these are seen most clearly +in work that has a relation to beauty. The woman works cheerfully at her +fine embroidery, and she works just as cheerfully over the flowers in her +garden. With men the form of toil that stands for genuine achievement +often becomes not only a pleasure but a veritable passion. Where a +spiritual motive allures, work frequently becomes the gladness of life. +Agassiz declined to accept the remunerative call to lecture by saying, "I +am only a teacher. I cannot afford to make money." Wesley poured back into +his work all the results of his work and died a poor man whereas he might +have become rich. In America college professors have been known to save +their meager salaries in order that they might return their slight estates +to endow more fully the institutions for which they labored. They received +from their work so that they could give back to their work. + +The more we study cases of this fine sort, the more will we be impressed +that the workers labored under the biblical sense of life. The men just +mentioned were all profound believers in God, and they lived their lives +as under his eye. Hence they saw their portion of work as a part of the +infinite whole that makes for the kingdom of God. There is a story of a +workingman who, standing on the street opposite the Cathedral of Cologne, +was overheard saying, "Didn't we do a fine job over there?" Turning about, +the listener saw a rough hand pointing at the wonderful cathedral. "What +did you do?" he asked the man. The reply was, "I mixed the mortar for +several years." The tale was told by the thoughtless as being humorous. It +is, however, serious and beautiful. That workman had gotten the vision of +himself as a partner in a plan that covered centuries of grand toil. He +was a helper of God in the fashioning of his temple. In reality he had +joined the company of Hiram and of Solomon. Now all honest work must have +a direction that is both long and high. It reaches down into the years of +men. It reaches upward into the heart of God. Precisely this idealism is +needed in order that toil may be redeemed from its drudgery. George Eliot +gives us a striking illustration of it in her tribute to Stradivari, the +maker of violins. This immortal mechanic is said to have had a reverence +for his labor. He felt that, whereas God gave men skill to play, God +depended on Stradivari to furnish the instruments. He was the partner of +the Most High. God had chosen Stradivari as a helper. Hence he could say, + + God be praised, + Antonio Stradivari has an eye + That winces at false work and loves the true, + With hand and arm that play upon the tool + As willingly as any singing bird + Sets him to sing his morning roundelay, + Because he likes to sing and likes the song. + +We may not all have this attitude toward our work, but we are all +idealists enough to wish that we felt just that way. The singing workman +is not altogether a figment of the imagination; neither is his spirit +impossible in the day that now is. The men who regard work as a blessing, +and not as a penalty and a curse, are found in many trades and +professions. They are the forerunners of the Eden life. Certainly the main +teaching of the Bible, that labor is designed to aid in the bringing in of +the kingdom of God, must give to the honest laborers in every realm an +exalted joy. + +This primary consideration is joined by the human examples of the Bible. +We find in its pages a procession of workers, and from this procession God +selects many of his chosen leaders. Moses was tending his flock on the +hillside when the voice of the Lord summoned him to his manifold +leadership. Saul was seeking his father's cattle when he found the kingdom +of which he was to be king. David was busy in the sheepfold when the +prophet called him to his work as warrior and monarch. Ruth was gleaning +in the fields, in her pathetic effort to care for her widowed +mother-in-law and herself, when she found her way into happiness and into +the ancestry of our Lord. Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press +when he was drafted for the campaign that was to break the power of the +Midianites. Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen when the mantle of +Elijah was cast over his shoulders. Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to +the king when he evoked from Artaxerxes the permission to return and +rebuild the walls of his beloved city. Amos was among the herdsmen of +Tekoa when the word of God took him captive and sent him to his prophetic +career. These are the instances in the Old Testament where mention is made +of the form of toil from which God called men to some spiritual service. +Without doubt the full record would show that other signal servants +received their commissions while they were faithfully performing their +duties on threshing floors, out in the fields, and within counting-rooms. + +The New Testament is less specific in its descriptions, but it often gives +us the like hint. Matthew was at the seat of custom when he was invited +into the fellowship of the disciples that he might tell men of the eternal +exchange. James and John were engaged in their occupation as fishermen +when they heard the voice on the shore and pulled their boat over the blue +waves that they might become fishers of men. The shepherds were in +faithful watch over their flocks by night when they heard the evangel of +song and were startled by the message of peace. The illustrations make us +feel that the favorite meeting place of God with man is the meeting place +of man with his work. A motto says that "the best reward of good work is +more good work to do." The providence of God upholds the motto. The Bible +shows a preference for the workers as against the shirks. It puts the +premium on industry, whether the type of toil be manual or spiritual. + +Here, as in all other themes of real life, we come to Christ for our +highest teaching and our best example. We have noted elsewhere that he +made the home the illustration of our relations with God; and we now note +that he made the common work of earth the illustration of our +responsibility for service to God. This he did so often and so urgently +that we are driven to feel that work was not only the form of illustration +but also the form of service itself. How many parables did he gain from +the ways of toil? He would say, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto--," +and straightway his hearers' minds were sent to the places where men +wrought for their daily bread. In most places the blanks can be supplied +by some form of employment. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto--" a +merchant and his pearls; a sower and his field; a woman and her leaven; a +fisherman and his net; a husbandman and his vineyard; a merchant traveler +and the intrusted talents. Where his words were used as deft and quick +illustrations rather than as lengthy and formal parables, he gathered his +material from the realms of toil. The builder and the house; the shepherd +and the sheep; the axman and the tree; the tailor and the cloth; the +housewife and the coin; the rich man and his steward; the woman and her +grinding; the man and his plowing; the watchman and his vigil; the +husbandman and the vine; all these entered into his speech as showing what +God would expect of men. Here we have almost a cyclopedia of labors. +Inasmuch as Jesus commended the qualities shown in these various phases of +service, we are allowed to think that he regarded the legitimate +occupations of everyday life as both representing and fulfilling the +kingdom of God. Nor will reverent thought be satisfied with any less +comprehensive view. There would be a dread of living if we were made to +feel that the work which we must do, both to meet our own sense of +self-respect and to provide for the needs of ourselves and our beloved, +was either in opposition to the grace of God or stood for neutral +territory between the realms of good and evil. The teaching of Jesus saves +us from that practical atheism. He allows every honest man to take the +oft-repeated phrase, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto--," and to +complete a portion of its meaning from his own form of labor. If a man is +engaged in any task that makes sacrilege and blasphemy when it is used to +fill out the sentence, then let that man look well to his own heart and +life. Every man's work should serve as a parable of Christ. + +But Jesus was not simply the doctrinaire of toil; he was its exemplar. The +emphasis here is usually placed upon the fact that Christ was a carpenter. +He transformed crude materials into useful tools. An overdone stress on +this point is itself a confession that manual toil needs an apologist! The +significant thing is that such a stress is wholly absent from the speech +and attitude of Jesus. With him carpentry seems to have been a natural +part of life. He never refers to it as something that he had outgrown. His +backward look toward the occupation of his youth betrays no condescension, +like to that occasionally seen in so-called self-made men! After he had +left the carpenter's bench he said, "I work." When he saw the night +closing down about him, the brevity of the working day became an incentive +to more work, and he said, "I must work." Even in the agony we can catch +the exultation of the cry, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me +to do." It was his meat to finish his "work." Jesus did the appointed task +for each period of his life. Then he passed on to the task of the next +period without the least hint that the varying tasks were not joined in +the harmony of the divine purpose. The work of his life was like his +garment; it was all of one piece. From the building of the Nazareth +cottage on to the building of the "many mansions," there is no +consciousness of contradiction. With Jesus the working life was a unity. + +And at the risk of being mechanical in the use of bungling divisions we +may declare that Jesus entered into all the large divisions of toil. The +note of universality is seen here as it is seen elsewhere. We have been +told that the three forms of temptation that Jesus encountered on mountain +top and temple pinnacle exhaust all the types. It has been said, too, that +the thankfulness of Jesus is directed toward all the channels by which the +good of life can flow in upon us. This same characteristic of universality +appears in the work of Christ. As a carpenter he worked upon material +things. As a healer he worked upon the bodies of men. As a teacher he +worked upon the minds of men. As a preacher he worked upon the souls of +men. All the workers of the world can be brought into one of these +divisions, and so all true workers can enter into partnership with Jesus. +We call him the Carpenter, the Great Physician, the Greatest Teacher, the +World's Saviour! The manual toilers claim him. The doctors claim him. The +teachers claim him. The evangelists claim him. He is at home in the shop, +in the hospital, in the schoolroom, and in the temple. All the classes of +toilers can appeal to the sanction of his example. + +Still we must again assert that these clumsy divisions were not emphasized +by Jesus himself. There has been an age-long debate, ofttimes degenerating +into a wrangle, as to the relative hardships of the different forms of +labor. Men who cling to their occupations will still declare that those +occupations have trials beyond all others. Into this debate Jesus did not +enter. He never set one form of toil against another by entering into any +comparisons or contrasts. As he experienced all the general forms of +labor, so did he honor all forms. In his view they were all good and all +cooperative. On the surface they may seem to be rivals, but in the center +they are actual partners in the divine program. Hence Jesus passed from +one realm of work to another with little sense of transition. Carpenter, +Healer, Teacher, Preacher, he was ever the servant of the Kingdom. +Faithfulness, honor, industry, efficiency, patience--in short, all the +virtues were possible in any good way of work. The life of Jesus unites +all our types of labor in a divine purpose and rebukes that quarrelsome +spirit which so often sets the manual laborers and the mental and moral +laborers in opposition. The hand cannot say to the head, "I have no need +of thee," nor can the head utter the like speech of egotism and +self-sufficiency. The workers are all one body, and every one members of +another. + +So do we find Jesus putting himself with willing sacrifice into his +varying tasks. He had said to his parents in Jerusalem, "Wist ye not that +I must be amid my Father's matters?" and then he went into what men call +the silent years. But they were not wholly silent. The attentive can hear +the sound of the hammer. The point is that in passing from the Jerusalem +temple to the Nazareth shop Jesus did not depart from his Father's +business. We may all resent the particular descriptions of the quality of +his work as a carpenter; and we may be quite content in our faith that +all his work was done faithfully and well. Holman Hunt's "Shadow of the +Cross" relates Jesus's work in the shop to his sacrificial character. At +the end of a weary day the Nazareth Carpenter extends his arms to relieve +his weariness. The sunshine coming through the window casts his shadow on +the wall in the form of a Cross. His mother glancing in through another +window sees the Cross foreshadowed there and gets her glimpse of the sword +that should enter her own heart. Nor did Jesus escape hardship and +exhaustion when he became a healer and teacher of the people. The crowds +thronged him wherever he went. The hillside became like an open-air +hospital. The multitudes hung upon his words of instruction. Some have +said that one reason why he commanded men who were healed or who were told +the deeper secret of his nature that they "should tell no man," was that +he might avoid the greater press of the throngs. Be that as it may, we are +surely justified in saying that he gave himself lavishly to the work of +each period. In each section of his life his action said, "I must work." + +It would be easy, however, to overstate Jesus's relation to work. He did +not labor all the time. Knowing how to toil he knew likewise how to rest. +Men may plead the example of Satan against a vacation season, but they +cannot plead the example of Christ! He rested after he had worked and in +order that he might work again. When the crowd became importunate and the +drain upon his power had become severe, he sought the desert and in its +quiet restored himself for the new labors. He bade his weary disciples to +come apart to the spot of respite. He was the exemplar of proper rest even +as he was the exemplar of proper work. Industrious men often need one +lesson even as lazy men need the other. There are persons who are greedy +of toil. They are as avaricious for it as the miser is for gold. They are +what Carlyle would call "terrible toilers." They die before their time +because they work after their time. Jesus knew this danger. He wished to +guard against it by keeping the Sabbath for man. He wanted to save the +resting place between the weeks because he wanted to save man to his best +self and work. He prescribed the working day and the shop, and he +prescribed the resting day and the desert. + +We need not be surprised, then, to find that the new day puts the emphasis +on the sanctification of common work. Professor Peabody gives the contrast +between two well-known poems as illustrating a change that has come over +the personal side of the social question. A generation since Lowell gave +us his "Vision of Sir Launfal." The hero of this poem, after traveling in +many lands, finally finds the holy grail in the cup which he had filled +for a way-side beggar, while the more personal presence of Jesus is +discovered in the beggar himself to whom the searcher has given alms. The +characteristic of the new day is seen in Van Dyke's "The Toiling of +Felix." The hero of this later poem, after seeking the direct vision of +his Lord in caves and deserts of idle contemplation, at last secures the +coveted revelation as he enters gladly into a life of toil and +particularly as he flings himself into the swollen river to rescue a +fellow laborer. Felix finds that there is a holy literalness in the words +which he found on the piece of papyrus as a recovered gospel of Christ: + + Lift the stone, and thou shalt find me; + Cleave the wood, and there am I. + +The ranks of labor are "the dusty regiments of God." The Lord, being a +worker, is mindful of his own: + + Born within the Bethlehem manger where the cattle round me stood, + Trained a carpenter of Nazareth, I have toiled and found it good. + +The good work of the world is the work of Christ. There is really no +contrast between sacred and secular; the actual contrast is between the +sacred and the wicked. + + They who tread the path of labor, follow where Christ's feet have trod, + They who work without complaining, do the holy will of God. + + * * * * * + + This is the Gospel of labor--ring it, ye bells of the kirk, + The Lord of Love came down from above to live with the men who work. + +The inevitable drift of this emphasis on the working experience of Jesus +has swept admiration away from the monastic life. The "religious" are not +those who shun the world of toil in order that they may gain the world of +personal peace and salvation. The modern saint is not a Simon the Stylite. +Saint Francis of Assisi projects himself into the admiration of the +twentieth century because he was a worker rather than a recluse. The +attitude toward monasticism among the healthier and more energetic peoples +goes further than this: there is a feeling that in the last analysis the +religious hermit is spiritually selfish. That is deemed a poor kind of +religion which forsakes a world in order to save one's soul. The argument +that the recluses may render the world the service of constant prayer does +not appeal to those who know that work is itself a form of prayer; and +that in Jesus prayer and work lived together in harmony. A better +understanding of the religion of Christ demands that its followers shall +be socially efficient. If Jesus is to be the world's example, more and +more men and women will find in their legitimate toil one of the +sacraments of life. + +Already we have come to feel that the Bible doctrine of work, especially +as that doctrine is incarnated in Christ, lays stress upon the man as well +as upon his task. It asks, "What is the man doing with his work?" It also +asks, "What is the work doing with the man?" The reflexes of activity +often become a topic of teaching. Paul said that the man reaps the harvest +of his own sowing. Jesus said, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be +measured to you again." This is much as if he had said that in the upper +realms of living action and reaction are equal and in opposite directions. +He told his disciples that, if they pronounced the benediction of peace +upon a house unfit or unwilling to receive it, the benediction should +return to them again. The meaning is that no work done with the right +spirit can really fail. The poets give this idea currency. George Herbert +declares that a servant with the proper clause in his creed makes +"drudgery divine": + + Who sweeps a room as to thy law + Makes that and the action fine. + +He had already implied that such a servant made himself fine. Mrs. +Browning emphasizes the need of a serious purpose in work when she uses +her picturesque description: + + I would rather dance at fairs on tight rope + Till the babies dropped their gingerbread for joy, + Than shift the types for tolerable verse, intolerable + To men who act and suffer. Better far + Pursue a frivolous trade by serious means + Than a sublime art frivolously. + +It is "better far" because our seriousness comes back to dwell with us; +and our frivolousness does the same. Many of the parables get their +meaning from this certainty of reaction. The good shepherd is good because +he does his work well, and the return of his work makes him better still. +Just as physical work reacts on the muscles, so that sometimes men +exercise without any outward object in view, even so does the moral spirit +of work come back to dwell with the man and to make his last estate either +better or worse. Our bodies are built into strength by a series of +reactions, and our spirits evermore receive their own with usury. + +This idea, as we have observed in another connection, has wrought some +marked changes in the social program. It has largely superseded +almsgiving by workgiving. Scientific charity seeks to remove the causes of +poverty, knowing that this is the sure way to remove poverty itself. The +conviction is that a day's work with a day's pay is far better for the man +than a day's pay without the day's work. In the latter case the man loses +both independence and self-respect, while in the former case he keeps both +of these and gains in addition the rebound of faithful labor. The tramp, +or the man with the heart of a tramp, always fails. Outwitting others, he +outwits himself more truly. He plays tricks on his own soul. The weakness +of his life settles back into his spirit. He drags with him always his +evasions and neglects. Scamping his toil, he scamps his own soul. All +shoddy material gets built into his own being. He erects a dishonest house +for another, but with it he erects an evil structure in which he himself +must live. So it is that a man's work may be his blessing, or it may be +his vengeance. + +While this idea has its terrible side, it has also its side of glory and +comfort. It provides amply for the failure of the faithful. Goldsmith says +that "Good counsel rejected returns to enrich the giver's bosom," just as +Jesus says the declined benediction of peace comes back to the true +disciple. It follows that for the good workman there is no real failure. +The house that he has builded may go up in smoke and flame, but the +industry and honor that fashioned its walls and fashioned themselves in +the making of the walls cannot be destroyed. The fortune that he has +gathered may take wings and fly away, but the deeper treasures that have +been garnered by fair-dealing in the marketplace abide in the deposit of +the heart. Jesus said, "Your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man +taketh from you." We see here that there are possessions that human power +cannot remove. They have been woven into the self. The treasure house is +too deep for the touch of man. A minor poet tells us: + + I've found some wisdom in my quest + That's richly worth retailing; + I've found that when one does his best + There's little harm in failing. + +He corrects this mild statement in his concluding verse. He wanted riches, +but he was rich without them; he wanted to sound the depths with his +philosophy, but his ship sailed on anyhow; he wanted fame; but he +discovered the secret of greatness without it; and so he adds the lines +which declare that the failing of the faithful not only does "little +harm," but even that it furnishes its own enrichment of the real life: + + I may not reach what I pursue, + Yet will I keep pursuing; + Nothing is vain that I can do; + For soul-growth comes from doing. + +David "does well" that it is in his heart to build the Lord's house, even +though the honor be passed on to another. The good purpose helps to make +the good man; and the good purpose that expresses itself in work is sure +of the inner reward. This conception may be twisted into a soft gospel for +the inefficient; but the evident purpose of the Bible is to offer it as a +comforting gospel for the faithful. + +It would be easy to follow the guidance of the Concordance as it notes the +word "work" in the Epistles. All of the conceptions that have thus far +been treated reappear in the apostolic writings. The symbol of everyday +work is constantly lifted to the highest. We do not need to see Paul +bending over the sailcloth and thrusting his needle into the canvas ere we +know that he is a worker. His whole life was one of toil. He was not +slothful in his apostolic business; and the fervor of his spirit would +have been a good example to the ancient mechanic or merchant. He saw good +men as his colaborers with God. He saw the men that he helped to make good +as a husbandry that he was cultivating for the Lord, as a building that he +was fashioning for Christ's sake. The cure for thieving was work. He that +stole was to steal no more, but was to work with his hands the thing that +was good; and the benevolent motive was to impel to work that the former +thief might have something to give to the needy. It was of the hard toil +of servants that Paul said, "Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same +shall he receive of the Lord." It is the idea of reaction again; God +suffers no faithful worker to lose his reward. The apostolic rule is very +thoroughgoing in dealing with laziness. "If any will not work, neither +shall he eat." This rule may be an offense to the idle rich, but it +appeals to the sense of justice. Perhaps some day society will be skillful +enough to starve its tramps and shirks until they flee to toil as to a +refuge. + +It is peculiar that the end of the Bible should have been misconceived, +even as the beginning, in its teaching concerning work. We have discussed +the heresy that declares that work is a penalty of sin. There is another +heresy which pictures heaven as a place of everlasting idleness. If we +select certain of the descriptions of Revelation, it is easy to see how +the error arose. Yet in each of the weird pictures of the eternal city +there is one sentence at least that hints at heavenly service. For +energetic souls no other conception will be satisfying. Surely inactivity +is not the goal of a redeemed race. Shortly before his death Mark Twain +published in a magazine a satire on the usual idea of heaven. Introduced +in a dream to the city of our hope, he was told by an attending angel to +take his seat on a cloud and to occupy himself by wearing a crown and +holding a harp. Soon becoming weary of this do-nothing life, he came down +to the golden streets. He was asked to keep for a time the crowns and +harps of the passers-by, and he noted that the way was strewn with these +rejected ornaments! Some good people may have been offended by the satire; +and some whose life has been filled with weariness will insist that heaven +must offer rest. So indeed it must. One suggestive passage says concerning +the souls of those that were slain for the testimony of Christ that they +should "rest yet for a little season." Those that have come out of great +tribulation are given service as a reward of their tribulation. "Therefore +are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his +temple." In the later description the land of rest is seen as a land of +work, and "his servants shall serve him." The race does not look back to a +workless Eden; neither does it look forward to a workless heaven. Kipling +puts it well for either here or there: + + We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it, + Lie down for an eon or two, + Till the Master of all good workmen + Shall set us to work anew. + +The ideal of the Bible is service, and that ideal is not rejected when +life comes to its crowning. + +One of the great hymns of the church gives to the worshipers in a +sanctuary the Bible's Gospel of Work: + + Yet these are not the only walls + Wherein thou mayst be sought; + On homeliest work thy blessing falls + In truth and patience wrought. + + Thine is the loom, the forge, the mart, + The wealth of land and sea; + The worlds of science and of art, + Revealed and ruled by thee. + + Then let us prove our heavenly birth + In all we do and know, + And claim the kingdom of the earth + For thee, and not thy foe. + + Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought + As thou wouldst have it done; + And prayer, by thee inspired and taught; + Itself with work be one. + +The biblical ideal for earth sends men forth to their daily tasks, while +the biblical ideal for heaven breaks its reserve sufficiently to show us a +City wherein the saints at rest are likewise the saints at work. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BIBLE AND WEALTH + + +The word "wealth" as used in this discussion does not mean simply great +riches; it rather means those outer and visible means which have a certain +purchasing power and which gain their value from that fact. The word is +relative at best. A wealthy man of fifty years ago would by many be deemed +a poor man now; while, in the individual estimate, one man's poverty would +be another man's riches. We have all discovered, too, that persons may be +tested by their attitude toward little as well as by their attitude toward +much. The man who breaks down in his use of a thousand dollars is not +likely to recover his conscience in his use of a million dollars. There is +high authority for the belief that he that is faithful in a few things can +be trusted with rulership over many things. This principle will apply to +riches quite as well as to cities. We must necessarily take at large +discount the vigorous attack that is made on great wealth by the man who +is narrow and selfish in his use of moderate wealth. One ray of light +falling into a dark dungeon will test a man's attitude toward light; and +so the real personal attitude toward one coin may become the revelation of +a human heart. + +All of us must live within the realm of material endeavor. Six days of the +week are given by the average man in an effort to win worldly goods. If, +as is generally supposed, Jesus went back from the temple scene in +Jerusalem when he was twelve years of age and worked in the village +carpenter shop until he was thirty, he spent eighteen years in a +remunerative employment ere he entered upon the three years of public +ministry. It is a mechanical conception again; but it is interesting to +observe that the proportion of his years spent in his trade is the same +six sevenths of the time that most men must spend in the effort to gain +the necessaries or luxuries of life. One has only to stand on the streets +of the city in the early morning and see the throngs as they move to their +places of work to appreciate how large a part the wage motive plays in +actual living. Each day many millions of men and women go down to the +various marts in order that in the evening time they may come back from +the struggle with increased gains. If the Bible takes an attitude toward +the spirit that dominates work it must also take an attitude toward the +spirit that dominates the object of work. It would be small use to have +men made right toward toil if they were to be twisted in their relation to +the proceeds of toil. We should expect, then, that the Bible would give +some explicit teaching to individual men concerning the right attitude +toward wealth; and when we turn to the Holy Book this expectation is fully +met. + +Beyond this, the social consequences of wealth are manifold and important. +To see this point clearly exemplified in a wide field, we have but to +study the history of the wars waged by our own nation. At some point every +one of these great struggles has been caused by a false relation to +wealth. Just where we locate that false relation will depend somewhat upon +our prejudices; but the dilemma in each case is such that we are driven to +locate it somewhere. The French and Indian War was a military debate as to +whether the English or the French should gather the furs in the region of +the Upper Ohio and should secure the profits in the world's markets. In +the settlement of that issue many lives were sacrificed. The War for +Independence was caused by taxes--not, as many people suppose, by a tax on +tea alone, but by a long series of taxes covering many years. If the +English had a right to levy the tax and if the tax was just, then the +colonists were greedy. If, on the other hand, the Americans refused to pay +an unjust tax, inspired in their rebellion by a lofty spirit of liberty, +then the English were the greedy party. The War of 1812 was caused by the +seizure of our vessels on the French coast and related to freedom of +commerce. The dilemma is the same as before. Some one was at fault in that +commercial war. A wrong attitude toward property caused the long-drawn-out +struggle. + +Our later wars show the same form of contest. Historians declare that the +war with Mexico was occasioned by the desire to extend slavery territory; +by the nation's lust for the enlargement of her borders; and by certain +debts owed to citizens of the United States by citizens of Mexico. All of +these motives touch somewhere on gold. The Civil War grew from the same +"root of all evil." Northern men aided in bringing African slaves to this +land in order to turn forced labor into money, while Southern men +continued African slavery because it was deemed necessary for the +production of cotton. The cry "Cotton is king" was not always spoken above +a whisper, but as a slogan it caused some fierce struggling. Boston +merchants helped to mob Garrison. The sentiment of England flowed against +the North because it was thought that the abolishing of slavery would +demoralize the markets of the world. The hooting crowds that Beecher faced +in England were unconsciously influenced to their hostile attitude by a +commercial argument. The whole struggle was broadened and heightened until +words like "liberty" and "unity" put a moral passion into the fray. But, +while the nature of the government and the question of human rights were +to be settled, the primary occasion of the contest was commercial. + +Nor was the war with Spain any exception to this rule. If we absolve the +United States from any motive of greed in our claim that the struggle was +purely humanitarian in its character, we must still grant that the heavy +taxes assessed against her Western colonies by the Spanish government led +to the series of revolutions that occasioned our interference. Thus do we +find that somewhere in the heart of each war there was the lurking passion +for gold. When we make up the mournful lists of the many thousands whose +lives have gone out in these contests, we can debit them against the +spirit of greed. Milton in Paradise Lost represents that the rebellion in +heaven was caused by the like lust, and that Satan's eyes were ever bent +in anxious desire toward the very gold of the streets! Milton's +imagination concerning heaven stands for the historical fact about earth. +The demon of greed is usually the demon of war. + +The great problems of current national life all trench upon the same +influence. If money be not the principal in each of them it comes in as an +important confederate. The tariff problem, the currency problem, the canal +tolls problem, the trust problem--all these are quickly classified by +their names. The cleavage between American political parties for the last +fifty years has been made by a wedge of gold. Tariff, or coinage, or +trusts--these have been the large words of political speech. In the +problems that have a more apparent moral bearing the same commercial +element appears. The Labor Problem is with us quite as acutely as it was +with the Romans when long ago the plebeians left the city and camped on +the hillsides, leaving the patricians to do their own manual toil. Whether +the employer gives too little or the employee asks too much in any given +struggle, the demon of greed plays his part again. In the Temperance +Problem the case is even clearer. Distillers and brewers and saloonists do +not enter their trade because they thereby add either to their social +standing or to their moral peace. We cannot eliminate from the problem the +factor of the human appetite that craves a stimulant; at the same time we +know that the motive for the business itself comes from the lure of gold. +That gleam invites many men into a path which, as they themselves know +well, cannot lead to any large political preferment or to any great +personal admirations. + +The problem of social purity is, of course, related to another human +passion. But there has crept into the vocabulary of the people a +suggestive phrase, "commercialized vice." There is the general feeling +that, if the element of monetary profit could be taken from the loathsome +trade, the problem would be much nearer its solution. Hence we have our +Red Light Abatement Laws by which we seek to make it dangerous for men to +rent their property for the traffic in virtue. On the legal side the +present efforts at the solution of the problem all strive to fix a set of +conditions, making commercially unprofitable the house of her whose feet +take hold on death. If, as is earnestly contended by some, low wages tend +to furnish the recruits for the pitiable ranks of the trade in bodies, we +have another commercial factor in the campaign. Explain it as we may, it +is still true that money makes the unholy alliances. It is no marvel that +the Bible has sent down to all the centuries its phrase, "the mammon of +unrighteousness." + +Of course, many will overstate the case of American greed. The Almighty +Dollar is not our God. Our passing celebrities may be mere millionaires, +but our permanent heroes were quite more than traders. If we have seemed +more commercial than other peoples it has been because a new continent +gave such sweeping opportunities for wealth. Some one has said that it is +an evidence of the degeneracy of our period that the word "worth," which +once had a noble and inner significance, is now controlled by the market. +The fact that the word has gone downhill is taken to mean that the people +who use it so have gone downhill too! But these verbal arguments are not +reliable. While the word "worth" has dropped somewhat from its old glory, +the word "talent," which once had merely a monetary significance, has +mounted to a higher meaning. The one word is just as good a witness as the +other. The truth is that we meet to-day the world-old problem. The +evidence of this lies in the fact that the Bible dealt with the problem in +emphatic fashion. It lists for us the victims of greed: Lot, Gehazi, +Ananias and Sapphira, Simon Magus, the young ruler, Judas. We shall find +in its pages some general principles by which it seeks to warn wealth away +from pitfalls and to send it forth to service. + +The first of these principles is that God is the only and absolute Owner. +Our human conceit makes for us another theory, and our legal codes write +out that theory in complicated formulas. We have our "clear titles" and +our "quitclaim deeds." Formal records at a courthouse tell men that we +"own" houses and lands, while formal certificates assert our right to so +many shares of stock or so much value in bonds. The Bible confronts our +complacency with its plea for the ownership of Another. God has the only +clear titles! God has never put his signature to a quitclaim deed! The +courthouse record is a temporary convenience; the higher record gives the +eternal fact. "The silver and the gold" are God's. "The cattle on a +thousand hills" are God's. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness +thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." There is here not merely +the assertion of a property ownership, but an assertion of the ownership +of the very men who think that they own the property! The sea and the land +are the possessions of God. So spiritual a prelude as that to the Gospel +of John claims a divine dominion, while many words could be quoted from +both Testaments which make God the one august Possessor. The history of +all our materials leads us back to God alone. He fashioned the wood in +the forests. He stored the coal and iron in the hills. He packed the +fertility in the soil. When we look for the source of the medium of +exchange we must go back of men to God himself. We pursue the gold coin to +the bank, and then to the mint, and then to the mine, only to hear the +silent proclamation of the gold itself that it is of God. When +congregations sing: + + All things come of thee, O God, + And of thine own have we given thee, + +it is not an instance of poetic license in reverence; it is sober fact +expressed in worship. + +The claim of the Bible for the divine ownership is still more +comprehensive. All property is his; all men are his. There is, too, a bent +of human power which God confers. We are in the habit of speaking of +"gifted" men. The meaning of the word in its usual connection must be that +God gives certain powers to men--to one the power of poetry, to another +the power of moving speech, and to another the power of scientific and +inventive insight. Now there is a suggestive verse in Deuteronomy which +declares that it is the Lord God that "giveth thee power to get this +wealth." The "thee" is collective and refers to the people; but the rule +applies as well to the individual. There is no reason for supposing that +poetic genius or oratorical genius or inventive genius is a gift, while +financial genius is an achievement. Yet there are probably no men who are +more inclined to call themselves "self-made" than are the men who pass +from poverty into vast wealth. Their complacency would be diminished, and +their humility would be increased, if they perceived that all property +belongs to God, that they themselves belong to God, and that their "power +to get this wealth" comes from God. We find, then, that the first sweeping +principle which the Scriptures give concerning wealth is that God is its +inclusive and ceaseless owner. + +The second principle follows as a matter of course. God being the absolute +owner, man is a trustee, a lessee, a borrower. When the man in the New +Testament asked, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine +own?" he may not have reached a worthy definition either of "lawful" or of +"mine own." He may have deemed a loan a final gift, a lease a purchase, a +possession a creation, a stewardship an ownership. It is just this error +that more than any other leads to the abuse of wealth. We treat it as +"personal property," and the "personal" looks selfward rather than +Godward. This was the blunder of the foolish rich man. His ground brought +forth plentifully. His crops could not be crowded into his granaries. He +resolved to tear down his barns and to build greater. He told his soul to +eat, drink, and be merry, for that it had much goods laid up for many +years. Then came the sentence of eviction. In a moment the man discovered +that he was a tenant and not an owner. "Whose shall those things be which +thou hast provided?" This is the question that every man of means must +ask. Wills are never shrewd enough to secure the property for the dead. +Jesus said that the man who acted on the idea that wealth was his own was +a "fool." He missed the primary point of the divine ownership, and he +missed the secondary point of the human trusteeship. All his work was +based on impossibilities; and surely this is the supreme foolishness. + +This lesson is impressed upon men when they return to their former places +of residence after an absence of many years. They recall who "owned" +yonder house, yonder farm, yonder lot, yonder block. The old "owners" are +gone, and the new "owners" have come. Changes of apparent ownership have +been entered in the civil records; but these in their turn will be +changed. The procession of trustees moves down through the millenniums; +above the trusteeships is one changeless Owner. "We brought nothing into +this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out"--this is the +surest of edicts. It is said that one of the wealthiest of men in our +nation called his wife to his bedside just before he passed away and asked +her to sing to him, "Come, ye sinners, poor and needy." The man knew that +in a few moments he would be stripped of every earthly possession. It was +a pungent reply made when one man asked another how much a certain rich +man had left--"All he had!" was the response. Even so. Whenever any person +shall make a stout claim for his ownership of property, it is a wholesome +lesson if he be asked to postpone the discussion for a hundred years! + +The law of giving is compulsory. We may defer surrender, but we cannot +avoid surrender. The hand may grasp for fourscore years, but its final act +will be to "let go" of every earthly object. The loan must be returned. +The trusteeship must be dissolved. The lease must be transferred. The +account must be rendered. Directly all that remains of the gold is the +reflex of gold. We may decide when to give, to what to give, in what +spirit to give; but we may not decide whether we shall give. There is +lasting truth in the much-quoted epitaph: "What I spent I had. What I +saved I left behind. What I gave away I took with me." In this respect the +whole problem of life is the problem of a faithful stewardship. This is +the teaching of what we may call the commercial parables. We are +responsible for the use of our talents and pounds to an authority higher +than our own. The trustees pass away. The Owner abideth forever. + +The third biblical principle declares that this stewardship is attended by +grave temptations. For a hasty reading the New Testament judgment will +seem like a reversal of the Old Testament judgment. The ancient record +often traces a relation between piety and prosperity. Jacob's proposal at +Bethel reads like a bargain struck in the market place. The book of Job +was meant to correct this error and to drive from the world those needless +suspicions that would be directed against the sick and the poor. In the +vigorous debate with his friends the patriarch declines to plead guilty to +the charge that his bodily ills and property losses are the results of his +sins. But although the commercial value of piety may often be found among +Old Testament motives, still there is a constant offset. The period of +plenty is described as accompanied by a "leanness of soul." The deeper +insight of the psalmist saw the end of the man "who made not God his +strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches." Then there stood +before him the perplexing sight of prosperous wickedness, the bad man +spreading himself as the green bay tree and having everything that heart +could wish. Slowly the artificial nexus that had been fashioned between +piety and prosperity and wickedness and misfortune was broken, and men +began to seek for the different types of reward in their own fields. More +stress was laid upon the methods by which wealth was gained, and more upon +its charitable uses. The prophets came to thunder against a false outer +prosperity and to give their advance hints of the wealth of the kingdom of +God. + +In its warnings the New Testament is still more emphatic. The word +"riches" becomes most often a symbol of the higher wealth of spirit. It is +made over into deeper meaning. Besides, the early Christian leaders saw +the enticing dangers of wealth. Visits to Ephesus or Corinth or Rome made +them see how multitudes could be caught in the snare of riches, while +examples among the Jews gave them the same lesson with a personal +emphasis. There were likewise some concrete illustrations of a most +forbidding kind. Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The +lust of the treasury had betrayed him ere he betrayed his Lord. The first +persecution of the Christian Church was caused by greed. It is written, +"And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they +caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the market place unto the +rulers." Soon the two missionaries are beaten with rods and are taken to +the inner prison. The second persecution of the church was caused by the +same spirit of greed. Demetrius, the silversmith, makes his appeal to his +fellow-craftsmen: "Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. +Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout +all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying +that they be no gods, which are made with hands: So that ... this our +craft is in danger to be set at naught." As is the custom of men with the +commercial heart, he lifted the issue to a specious height and made his +plea for Diana of the Ephesians! + +With the memory of Christ's betrayal and of the first two persecutions of +their brethren fresh in their memories, it is no marvel that the New +Testament writers began to stress the perils of greed. The work of Luke as +a physician had doubtless given him an intense sympathy with the poor, and +his Gospel records eagerly our Lord's warnings to the rich. James in his +Epistle fairly bristles with indictments against the rich. He asks: "Do +not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not +they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?" When he wrote +thus did he have visions of Ephesus and Philippi? Later he breaks into +violence, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that +shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are +moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall +be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire." The +later verses indicate that he saw their injustice to the poor laborers and +heard the cries which these poor had sent "into the ears of the Lord of +Sabaoth." Severe as the indictment is, we can see how it was prompted by +memory as well as by scenes of recent greed. Moreover, we have all known +modern cases to which the language would apply. If the Bible is to be +complete, it must give room to such indignant words as these. + +The records would show that Paul included among his friends men and women +of worldly means; still his words of chiding and warning are not withheld. +He writes of a "cloak of covetousness." He had seen men don that cloak--by +their paltry excuses for withholding gifts; by their effort to make an +intent for the future stifle a present cry for help; by a deft transfer of +income to principal which "must not be disturbed"; by the plea that +luxuries were necessities; by a recital of past generosities; by setting +one good cause against another. All these modern cloaks Paul doubtless +found in the wardrobes of long ago. He carries the charge against +covetousness on until he identifies it with heathenism. He writes of the +"covetousness which is idolatry," and in yet another place he speaks of +the "covetous man who is an idolater," as if he wished to make the charge +personal. Idolatry is the worship of something less than God. When, +therefore, any man bows down to idols of silver and gold erected in banks +rather than by temple altars, he joins the ranks of the idolatrous. He may +be even worse than those idolaters who strive to reach beyond their +hideous images if haply they may feel after God and find him. These words +of Paul are urgent warnings that covetousness may destroy personal +genuineness and may defeat spiritual worship. Greed may shut us away from +both man and God. + +But the apostle's strongest word is given in his counsel to Timothy, a +young man whose ideals he would seek to mold. We can imagine the +impression the advice made upon the susceptible youth when he read Paul's +letter in rich and worldly Ephesus. "They that will be rich fall into +temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which +drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root +of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the +faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." It is a modern +account again. The twentieth century has already given thousands of +illustrations of the same apostasy. As for the wide statement that "the +love of money is the root of all evil," we have but to review these pages +to find the commentary. Every item in the catalogue of crimes finds a +partner in greed. Intemperance, lust, war, thieving, murder, betrayal, +persecution, untruthfulness--all these grow from the root of greed. No +heedless joking about the "root" can vacate the language or permit "the +love of money" to declare its innocence. + +In addition to these positive statements sprinkled throughout the Book, +there is a negative testimony that may well be given a hearing. If we were +to search the pages for warnings against poverty we would find that the +search was difficult and that it met with slight returns. The prayer of +Agur in the book of Proverbs is, perhaps, the only assured instance. He +pleads: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is +needful for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? or +lest I be poor, and steal, and use profanely the name of my God." There +is here a recognition of the peril of discontent in poverty, as well as of +the peril of dishonesty, and the peril of a blasphemous indictment against +God. We may take the warning at its full value. Some people of every age +will need its plain speaking. But what shall we say of the biblical idea +of the peril of wealth, when its chapters yield many scores of warnings as +contrasted with this lonely warning about poverty? It would seem +permissible to paraphrase a Bible comparison of persons and to say that +poverty has slain its thousands but wealth its tens of thousands! Even +this comparison falls short, if we measure it by the biblical proportion +of teaching. The silence of the Bible gives us here a significant lesson. + +We now approach the supreme authority in the teaching and example of +Jesus. The elective method here will give a man the result he most wishes. +The boisterous agitator can make choice of passages that will serve his +harsh purpose, while the defender of his own unconsecrated surplus may +quote us passages that give him great comfort. The one will tell us of +Jesus's words to the young ruler; of his command against laying up +treasures on earth; and of a hard-and-fast interpretation of the parable +of Dives and Lazarus. The other will tell us of the praise bestowed on +successful traders; of the inclusion of the wealthy among Christ's friends +and disciples; and of the law of the larger returns for the larger powers +and larger industry so plainly enunciated in the parables of the talents +and the pounds. The fragmentary method leads here to confusion and to the +wildest partisanship. The teaching of Jesus must be taken in its +completeness. + +That teaching must, also, be judged by the attitude of Jesus toward men. +The well-to-do were in his band of disciples. The father of John and James +had servants; and when Jesus died on the Cross John had evidently a +comfortable home to which the mother of Jesus was taken. Nicodemus was +rich. Yet in his conversation with him Christ is not represented as making +a demand that the ruler of the Jews should give up his wealth. The demand +was far more comprehensive. Zaccheus was rich. But in the table +conversation with the publican there is no call to voluntary poverty. +Joseph of Arimathea was rich. Still he appears to have been numbered with +the disciples and to have had the honor of providing the sepulcher for the +body of Christ. All this would make it certain that some of our Lord's +teaching was directed toward an individual danger and so was not meant +for a universal application. The fact that Peter said to Simon Magus, "Thy +money perish with thee," does not warrant us in repeating the same words +to every man who possesses some wealth. The rebuke was evoked by a +personal and peculiar attitude. If the teaching of Jesus, as he dealt with +rich men, varied in a marked degree, it is only reasonable to suppose that +he was fitting his message to the individual subject. The fallacy of the +universal has not yet departed from our treatment of the words of Christ. + +But even when we take the whole of Jesus's teaching rather than any +fraction thereof, and after we have given full consideration to the +personal element in his method, there is still a sobering remainder with +which we must deal. The attempt to make the parable of Dives and Lazarus a +straight contrast between the final fate of a rich man and that of a poor +man cannot succeed. Lazarus was not sent to heaven because he was poor. He +was not given a place in Abraham's bosom on the ground of his poverty of +circumstances, but on the ground of his wealth of character. Any other +conclusion is abhorrent to the moral sense. Should poverty admit to +heaven, some of the most unmitigated rascals are sure to meet the +conditions of entrance. Nor was Dives sent to hell because he was rich. +The contrast in earthly conditions of which Abraham reminds him cannot +fairly be taken to mean that the reward of poverty is heaven and the +penalty of wealth is hell. The meaning is that earthly plenty and earthly +want cannot prevent the rounding out of God's purposes. Condition will +inevitably come to correspond with real character. Should any rich man be +minded to plead with himself that his wealth was, in itself, any evidence +that its owner was entitled to special privileges in the next world +corresponding to his special privileges in this world, this parable would +meet him with its needed corrective. + +The command, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth +and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal," has +been taken by many as a literal command. Usually, however, those who so +take it are ready to substitute a theory which would ask the community to +break the literal demand by laying up treasures for us. We must read to +the end of the passage. Jesus's concern is about the heart. He wishes to +establish the direction of the treasure because he knows that in this way +the direction of the heart will be established. If money is hoarded with a +selfish purpose, the heart goes to selfishness. If money is given for a +holy cause, the heart goes into the cause. On the other hand, if money is +saved in order that the provident parent may give his child a better +fitness for life, the parental heart is invested in the child. If money is +not hoarded at all, but is given for an evil cause, the heart takes that +same evil direction. The emphasis of Jesus is spiritual again. The money +does something with the heart, and the motive of either saving or giving +determines the "heart action." It is the law of action and reaction at +work in another realm. Men say that the way to a man's purse is through +his heart; and men say well. Jesus, while accepting the statement that +there can be no true benevolence that does not come from the heart, still +says that often the way to a man's heart is through his purse. It is one +of those practical rules whose working we have seen many times. We +persuade a man to send his money into a hospital, a college, a library, +and his heart follows his money. The terrible thing that Jesus saw in +selfish hoarding was just that; and the glorious thing that he saw in +generous giving was just that. The good and the evil of earthly treasure +is that it fixes the journeys of the heart; it makes a spiritual +geography. + +There is another word of Jesus about "the deceitfulness of riches." The +phrase piques us into a search for its meaning. There is no evidence that +Christ meant that riches deceived us by flying away. The tricks which they +play upon men are far more subtle than sudden departure. Jesus meant that +riches remained with men and still carried on the deceiving work. We have +all seen enough of life to know some of the deceptions. One friend began +his business career with the idea that he would be content with a hundred +thousand; he is now utterly restless with his million. Another friend gave +to worthy causes a far larger proportion of his meager income in the day +of struggle than he now gives of his plethoric income in the day of +prosperity. Still another friend in the old days was simple and humble in +all his attitudes toward life, while in the new days of wealth he has +become proud in spirit and complex in his living. We have all seen men +whose souls lessened as their riches greatened. All these are +illustrations of Jesus's teaching about "the deceitfulness of riches." The +tragic thing is that the men who are the victims of the deceitfulness are +not aware of the sad inner effects. Men do not know that they are stingy; +they are only prudent and economical! So runs the miserable deceit. It +requires a moment of marked self-revelation to enable these men to +classify themselves with truth. Over the Bank of England men read the +words, "The Earth is the Lord's." This describes the source of wealth. +Over many financial institutions it might be good to put another motto as +a reminder of a possible effect of wealth, "The Deceitfulness of Riches." + +We now face the utterance of Christ with reference to a double mastery +over life. He asserts that "no man can serve two masters," without love +for the one and hatred for the other. When he seeks for the power that is +most likely to contest with God for the allegiance of man he selects +Mammon. Hence he states the dilemma without modification, "Ye cannot serve +God and Mammon." He did not select Pleasure as the opponent of God, nor +Ambition, nor Impurity, nor Dishonesty. He saw clearly that Mammon had the +greatest power to draw men into life-long "service." Other sins might be +occasional contestants, but the sin of greed was the constant foe seeking +to cleave the loyalty of men. Jesus did not say that we could not serve +God with Mammon. Elsewhere he says the very opposite of that. But he did +say unequivocally, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." Perhaps these six +words, more nearly than any other, give us the heart of Jesus's teaching +about wealth. They state in simple and direct form the alternatives for +many lives. We can serve God _with_ Mammon. We can serve God _or_ Mammon. +We cannot serve God _and_ Mammon. What Christ states as an impossibility +many men try to accomplish. We see the vain efforts daily--men putting +their greatest diligence into the market place as an end, with an +occasional tribute to the temple. This is the most frequent form of the +"double life." It is the poor compromise of a half-hearted or +tenth-hearted service. Jesus said that God or Mammon must win the whole +man. The God and the god cannot dwell in the same heart. Jesus here +thrusts us back to the original biblical principle: God is the Absolute +Owner. He will not share his rule. He will not partition his empire. +Mammon must yield to God. Thus Jesus enters all markets and counting rooms +and banks with his demand for undivided hearts and undivided lives. + +There is another saying of Jesus which is more frequently quoted, both +because it is in itself so radical and because it is accompanied by a +vigorous figure of speech. Besides these two attractions, the words have +an appealing setting in a human life. The young ruler comes to Jesus with +his eager question. He stands before the Lord as a fine type of promising +manhood--fresh, alert, clean, and even reverent. He is able to say, +without rebuke, that from his youth up he has kept the commandments and +that his life has moved on a high grade of morals. The record tells us +that "Jesus, looking upon him, loved him." But in this instance, instead +of meeting the young man's question with the demand for a new birth, as +Jesus did with Nicodemus, or with the acceptance of hospitality, as Jesus +did with Zaccheus, Jesus asked that he sell all his goods and give to the +poor, and that then he should follow the Lord in his homeless life. Often +the comment omits this last demand. It may be that it is the more +important demand, and that it is the reason for the minor requirement. +Other disciples had left all in order to follow Jesus; and this man was +now asked to do likewise. Evidently the teaching here has the individual +quality. Christ knew that the young man had set his heart on his riches, +and that the only way to a true discipleship was through utter surrender. + +We cannot read the story without feeling a measure of sympathy for the +young ruler; and we may confess that we ourselves would scarcely have been +equal to the severe test. The situation, however, can be estimated in +another way--not by our imagination, but by our admiration. Certain men in +Christian history have done exactly what Jesus asked this young man to do. +John Wesley did it; making much money, he continued to live on his +allowance of twenty-eight pounds a year and gave the rest to a needy +world. When he was an old man he wrote to the assessor that his taxable +property consisted of two silver spoons at Bristol! Saint Francis of +Assisi gave up all his earthly possessions. At the altar of the church he +deliberately took poverty as his bride. The heroes of complete +renunciation have been many; and the world's verdict has not been that +they were fanatics. They heard the call of God that they should surrender +all and give to the various kinds of poor; they heeded the command, and +they won their fame by their surrender. We can make a more direct test +than this. If this young man had heeded Christ's word, and had given all +that he had to the poor, and had followed the Lord--what would have been +the result? Would he have won the world's admiration by his +self-renunciation? Would he now be known only by the virtually anonymous +title of "a certain ruler"? We can see that he was offered a wonderful +opportunity. He would have been enrolled among the saints of the early +church, if he had risen to the higher choice. An English writer has +pointed out that the young man was not angered by the word of Christ; he +was "saddened." He went away "sorrowful," and his sorrow was for himself. +He went back to his riches and was lost to the sight of the world. He is +now known even anonymously only because he had a brief conversation with +One who had not where to lay his head. + +Jesus saw the young man's retreating figure and then spoke his own +"sorrowful" exclamation, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter +into the kingdom of God!" The account in the Gospel of Mark indicates that +the disciples were "amazed" by the saying, just as the men of the world +have wondered ever since. Seeing this amazement, Jesus added, "Children, +how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of +God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for +a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." It was a startling figure of +speech--an hyperbole, as the later conversation with the disciples would +show, unless, indeed, the saying refers to a certain gate of the city +through which only the unburdened camel could enter. This figure of speech +has held the attention of the world for centuries. Strangely enough, the +nineteenth century had a peculiar illustration of an accommodated meaning +of the word "needle." We cannot help wondering what the people of many +generations hence would think if they were to read in ancient history that +in the latter part of the nineteenth century a certain millionaire paid +more than one hundred thousand dollars for bringing Cleopatra's "needle" +to America. Superficial as the suggestion is, it illustrates the manner in +which a figure of speech could easily be pulled off into a path of false +literalism. + +But if we take the view that the expression was either a vivid hyperbole +or the description of a local gate, the warning still abides in strength. +It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. It is +sometimes very hard for him to remain there when his entrance into the +kingdom preceded his entrance into wealth. Experienced pastors will tell +us that not many wealthy are called. Yet Jesus distinctly declared that +the rich could enter into the Kingdom. The disciples, "astonished out of +measure," said, "Who, then, can be saved?" Jesus replied, "With men it is +impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." It is +not right that the man who clamors against the rich should omit this +assurance from the teaching. Jesus says that a rich man can be brought +into the Kingdom. He offers this as one of the evidences of the divine +omnipotence--that the power of God can break through the complacency, the +self-content, the tangle of materialism, and can win men from the +idolatry of gold to the love and worship of God. + +This message of Jesus to the young ruler, and through him to the world, is +not always welcome to the ears of the rich. The religious teacher may be +tempted to discount its meaning and to relieve in some way the severity of +the words. Yet an age of growing wealth needs this lesson, and needs it +with an increased emphasis. The trend of the Bible serves as a commentary +on the same lesson. If the Bible is to serve as the book of guidance, then +we are justified in saying that the path of material wealth is the path of +spiritual peril. + +If we halted our lesson here, we should be guilty of a partial use of the +Bible. The fourth principle of the great Book is that the stewardship of +wealth offers glorious opportunities. It offers the opportunity of aiding +the poor. John wrote, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother +have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth +the love of God in him?" It offers the opportunity of caring for the +unfortunate, as illustrated in the parable of the good Samaritan. When +Jesus uttered this parable, he laid the foundations of many hospitals. It +offers the opportunity of paying personal tributes of affection, as +exemplified in the offering to the Lord of the precious ointment. It +offers the opportunity of furnishing honest employment as a field of +personal fidelity, as taught in the parables of the talents and the +pounds. It offers the opportunity of projecting our influence to the ends +of the world, as taught by those who aided Paul on his missionary journeys +and by those who sent gifts whereby the gospel should be promoted in all +the earth. But the Bible does not give any set of rules for the use of +wealth. It asserts the primacy of God. It commands the spirit of love. It +stresses the probationary character of possessions. It declares in the +word of Christ that any man makes a disastrous bargain who gains the whole +world and in the transaction loses himself. + +Finally Jesus relates our use of money to the eternal issues. He does this +in a very simple and direct way, and in the form of an imperative. In the +more skilled translation of the Revised Version we read, "Make to +yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it +shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." It appears +here that worldly possessions may be either "the mammon of +unrighteousness" or the maker of everlasting friendships. By the right use +of gold and silver men can people the gates of heaven with welcomers. "It +shall fail," says Christ, referring to wealth. "They may receive you," he +says, referring to those human lives that are our only permanent +investments. The final emphasis of Jesus in giving the very crown of the +Bible teaching concerning wealth, great or small, is that his followers +shall so use the coin stamped with the image of some earthly Cæsar as to +produce in men and women and children the image of the heavenly Lord. The +lower commerce is to serve the higher commerce. Faneuil Hall may keep its +market place, but it must be subordinated to that upper room wherein men +learn the lessons of truth and liberty and righteousness. The Age of Gold +can help to make the Golden Age. The problem of wealth will not be solved +until all men hold their riches as willing trustees of Him who himself was +rich and who for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might +be rich. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE BIBLE AND SORROW + + +One who is jealous for the reputation of the Bible as a complete Book of +life must sometimes feel that undue emphasis has been placed upon its +messages for the sorrowing. If the jealousy does not entertain just this +feeling, it has the resembling fear--that the biblical message for sorrow +has been emphasized until it has hidden the message for gladness. As a +necessary prelude to a discussion of the Bible's relation to the sorrow of +the world, we shall treat its meaning for the world's gladness. We are +willing to use the word "pleasure" in this connection, though pleasure is +classed as representing a mood less deep than the mood of joy. Some of us +can recall the surprise we experienced in reading Lubbock's The Pleasures +of Life. One chapter dealt with "The Pleasure of Duty." This title caused +us no wonder. But the next chapter astonished us with the heading, "The +Duty of Pleasure." We quickly found ourselves asking whether there was +such a duty. Is it an obligation laid on men and women to seek for a +proportion of pleasure? Are the light joys of life to be classed with our +duties? Lubbock answered these questions in the affirmative. What reply +does the Bible give? + +Certainly we can say in the beginning that, if we take a review of its +pages, the Bible does not impress us as being a mournful book. This is +significant when we note the fact that its pages were all written by +mature and serious persons. Even more, the pages were written with +reference to some of the most serious and sacred elements and events in +life. Vast solemnities evoked many sections of the Bible. We should expect +that the seriousness of the authors and the critical importance of the +events would touch the Book and would dominate its spirit. It is even so. +Our worthier thought would not have it otherwise. If the Bible had been +simply the inspiration and guide for the world's playgrounds, it would +have lost the most of its soul. + +For a volume whose materials were jokes and whose primary purpose was +laughter might have a legitimate mission, but it would have difficulty in +being rated as redemptive literature. The real humorist is doubtless one +of God's agents in lifting the troubles of mankind; but Providence sees to +it that humorists are not so plentiful as to destroy our sense of +proportion. Each generation is granted a small group of men who set the +world aglee and become the distributors of smiles and laughter. The +appreciation of humor, also, is placed in the nature of each normal +person; but the continual demand for humor becomes a plague. Men know +instinctively that for the greatest things it will not suffice. There is a +story to the effect that one of the most renowned Americans was not +allowed to write the Declaration of Independence because it was feared +that he might work a joke into the historic document. True or false, the +story stands for a fact--that humor is a secondary form of service and +that the big crises insist that humor shall stay in its own realm. + +None the less the Bible is not a stranger to the play element. As we march +through its life we see smiles and hear laughter. Children are there in +their careless gladness. Young men and maidens are there in their innocent +pleasures. Games are there with their delight of striving. Parties are +there with their gayety and music. We pass through pages of darkness only +to emerge into pages of sunshine. We sit down at Marah and find the +brackish and bitter waters and hear the murmuring of the Israelites. But +the next day we come to Elim, with its twelve pure and gushing wells and +its threescore and ten palm trees. This transition is what we would +anticipate in a Book of real life, and it is what fits the Bible to be the +guide of total life. A joyless book could not control a joyful world; +neither could a sorrowless book control a sorrowful world. The Bible must +have a message for both types of experience. + +There is a theological reason for this twofold message. We have been told +by our religious teachers that Christ, being tempted, can succor those +that are tempted. The Man of Sorrows can save the people of sorrows. The +High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The Captain of +our salvation was made perfect through suffering. He learned obedience +through the things he suffered. The world is made acquainted with the +sorrowing Saviour of the sorrowing world. Still we have been slow to apply +our theology to the other side of life. The forged letter of Publius +Lentulus stated that Jesus had often been seen to weep, but never to +smile! The mischief of such a misconception is apparent. It provides for a +mutilated theology. It gives the world a fractional Christ. It leaves the +hour of gladness without its Exemplar. It gives comfort for a funeral, but +no companionship for a feast. In the average life the realm of joy is +larger than the realm of sorrow. Few people would declare that with them +sadness had exceeded gladness. The world needs to-day the Saviour of the +joyful, even as it needs the Saviour of the sorrowful. Joy that refuses to +be curbed needs saving power just as does sorrow that refuses to be +comforted. We need not enter into any needless comparison and try to state +which has the more need. It is sufficient to affirm that a complete Bible +must take account of pleasures and joys, if these are to be counted among +the divinely appointed experiences of life. + +We do not long study the Bible without becoming aware of its law of +proportion. It gives the word in season, and it gives the word in measure. +Hence its aim is to cultivate proportion in human lives. Its ideal is the +ideal of a holy God, that is, of One with a perfect balance of the +infinite nature. Its ideal for man must, therefore, be that man shall gain +for himself that balance in the human realm that God has in his divine +realm. For this reason the Bible is a curber of excesses, a restorer of +proportions. It gives here its largest lesson for pleasure. Recognizing +its legitimacy, it recognizes its limits as well. As an example from both +Testaments we may give a statement of conduct that receives rebuke from +Moses and from Paul. It is recorded in Exodus that, after their riotings +with the golden calf, the Israelites proceeded to engage in riotings of +pleasure. The ancient account puts it, "The people sat down to eat and to +drink, and rose up to play." Saint Paul quotes it in First Corinthians in +precisely its original form. In the early account the rebuke of the Lord +awaits the people. In the later account the apostle makes the conduct the +natural accompaniment of idolatry, as if indeed the worship of an image +would issue into the idolatry of the table and the playground. Now eating +and drinking are not only good; they are necessary. Play is not only good; +it is necessary. The Bible declares that food and water are the gifts of +God, and it makes them symbols of God's deeper benevolence. Nor does the +Bible ever condemn play. On the contrary, it represents the streets of the +Holy City as filled with playing children. The trouble, then, must have +been in the lack of proportion as well as in the lack of a good motive. +The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. This is to +say that the two constant movements of life were monopolized by appetite +and sport. The Israelites ate to play, and they played to eat. Two things +intended to be legitimate portions of life became its illegitimate +entirety. Designed to be preludes, eating and drinking and playing became +the whole program. Life consisted in the satisfaction of two ranges of +desire. The demand of Moses and Paul was not that eating and drinking and +playing should be abolished, but that they should be pushed back into +their just proportions as worthy departments of living. The glutton of +food and the glutton of play are both condemned by the Bible. + +There are those who say that one of the crying evils of our own day is +that the people are appetite-mad and pleasure-mad. Probably some men in +every age have brought this charge against their time; and the charge is +true as applied to some persons in each period. For such the Bible has its +repeated warning. They who are lovers of pleasure more than of God fall +under condemnation. Mankind has never long admired the eaters and players +of history. If it remembers Beau Brummel and Beau Nash at all, it enrolls +them in its lists of ridicule. An epitaph which recorded that "He ate much +of the time and played the rest of the time," would not serve to enroll a +man among the earth's heroes! The Bible and humanity are against the +unbalanced devotees of the table and the parlor and the field of sports. + +But the Bible and humanity unite again in their estimate of the other +extreme. The mere ascetic secures curiosity rather than admiration. He +has not learned how to follow Him who often went to feasts and who sat +down with his friends at the supper which they gave him at Bethany. It is +said of him that "he was anointed with the oil of joy above his fellows." +Jesus entered into the normal joys of life. He came eating and drinking, +until his enemies seized upon his conduct and exaggerated it into a charge +against him. He was present at weddings where joy reigned supreme. In all +his teaching and by all his example he never proved himself an enemy to +the normal pleasures of life. This particular emphasis is occasionally +needed. It may not have as large a mission as has the warning against +overdone appetite and play; but it has its message to that smaller circle +of the deceived who would drive joy from the world in the name of Christ. +One of the hymns declares: + + The brightest things below the sky + Yield but a flattering light; + We should suspect some danger nigh + Where we possess delight. + +There is something morbid in this conception. The invitation to the +religious life becomes gruesome. The sister of Pascal cared for him +through a long and serious illness. Pascal came to love her so much that +he feared that his affection was wicked. In a gloomy hour he wrote in his +diary these words, "Lord, forgive me for loving my dear sister so much!" +Afterward his abnormal conscience worked again, and Pascal actually erased +the word "dear." For such moods the Bible has a lesson. God "giveth us +richly all things to enjoy." We would think it small glory for ourselves +if our children should push our gifts away from their little hands with +the idea that those selected gifts were perilous. God fills the world with +possibilities of pleasure. Food and drink are not negative and tasteless. +The paths of earth are not flowerless. Voices are not without music. +Companionship is not lifeless. The Bible is the foe of wicked pleasure. +The Bible is the foe of excessive pleasure. The Bible is the friend of +legitimate and proportionate pleasure. + +But while pleasure needs to be guarded and curbed, it is not either a +burden to be lifted or a pain to be endured. Sorrow is both. Therefore +sorrow demands some positive services from the Bible. We may be impatient +with those doleful folks who speak of this world as a vale of tears or as +a wilderness of woe! We may be inclined to quote the lines: + + I think we are too ready with complaint + In this fair world of God's. + +On the other hand, it is well to remember that the young, especially, see +life almost exclusively from the standpoint of hope and courage. The +minister of the gospel begins to feel, when he reaches the age of forty, +that he has not given enough comfort to his people. As he identifies +himself closely with their lives he finds that most homes carry some +secret sorrow and that most men and women have their own personal +tragedies. You will recall the myth about the boatman whose duty it was to +carry over the Styx the souls who departed from earth. He noticed that +these souls mourned much and took the voyage unwillingly. He thought that +it must be a very beautiful and joyful land that laid such hold on their +hearts. So he secured leave of absence from his post of duty and made an +excursion into the world. He discovered that for every birth there must +eventually be a death; that every home that was made must in due season be +broken; that men and women were troubled and maimed and sick. On all sides +he saw the evidences of sorrow. He went back to his ferry greatly +wondering why people should be sad because they left a sad world. This +mythical picture is overdrawn, but it has its suggestion of truth. Earth +does have its manifold sorrows. If all the burdens and pains and problems +and anguishes of a single day could focus their influence upon any single +life, the result would be either a broken heart or an insane mind. + +The Bible does not make light of sorrows. Its heroes have their troubles. +Call the roll of its sons and daughters and you will find that at some +time each one of them was a child of grief. The Book does not assign +burden and pain and sorrow to the class of unrealities. Neither does it +assign them to the class of negations. In the Bible sorrow is real and +sorrow is positive. When Rachel weeps for her children, the scene is real. +When David goes into the room in the tower over the gate and utters his +pitiful lament over Absalom, the Book does not describe his anguish as an +illusion. Paul's hunger and thirst, and stripes and shipwrecks, and perils +and imprisonments were not the vain froth of a mortal mind. Jesus's cross, +and the thorns and the nails and the spear, and the tauntings of the +passers-by, and the thirst, and the darkened face of the Father were not +swept into the void by reciting a formula about the All. Jesus gave a +promise to his disciples, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." He +kept that promise. They walked the ways of martyrdom. Their spirits won +victories over their flesh. Yet there is no hint that their persecutions +and deaths were the fictions of error or the dreams of a night that did +not exist. The Bible, being real, ministers to sorrow that is real. + +The Book, too, touches on all the phases of comfort that we may gather +from the surface of life, only it does not make them either a full gospel +of consolation or a large part of that gospel. Sometimes a word of +Scripture will suggest the method of comparison implied in the statement, +"It might be worse." Paul does this with one quick word. "Our _light_ +affliction," he puts it. We have lost one hand; we might have lost two! We +have lost one eye; we might have lost both! We have been sick one week; it +might have been a year! Sometimes this method carries us off into rather +graceless comparisons of ourselves with other people as if, indeed, we +were divine favorites. Can a man prove more divine providence for himself +by assuming that there is less for another person? This road of comparison +leads to phariseeism unless we watch carefully against a despicable +by-path. Tennyson in his "In Memoriam," which is a poem of comfort, shows +much impatience with this false form of consolation: + + One writes, "that other friends remain," + That loss is common to the race; + And common is the commonplace, + And vacant chaff well meant for grain. + + That loss is common would not make + My own less bitter, rather more; + Too common! Never morning wore + To evening but some heart did break. + +This method of comparison is inadequate. Whether the word "light" makes +our imagination furnish the details of the worse affliction, or whether it +contrasts our sorrows with the greater sorrows of others, it does not do +enough for our smitten hearts. + +Nor are we fully satisfied with the plea that sorrow is but "for a moment" +and that we can be thankful for its brevity. There is comfort here, to be +sure, but it has no final quality. Paul knew that, and so he gave the idea +an incidental part of a sentence, and then went on to the deeper +consolation. One poet puts it: + + Since the scope + Must widen early, is it well to droop + For a few days consumed in loss and taint? + O pusillanimous heart! be comforted; + And like a cheerful traveler, take the road, + Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread + Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod + To meet the flints? At least it may be said, + "Because the way is short, I thank thee, God." + +The truth is that there is real comfort in all this only when pain's +brevity contributes something to the good of the years and even to +eternity. Thus the Bible does not give much space to the slight comforts +of either comparison or brevity. These have their function, but they are +the small helpers of the larger consolations. + +The Bible likewise gives as one of the comforts of sorrow that sorrow +prepares us to console others' sorrows. Saint Paul uses this in his +message to the Corinthians: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord +Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who +comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them +which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are +comforted of God." Here we are pushed back to the deepest sources of +comfort. God comforts the sorrowful in order that other sorrowful ones may +have comfort. The consolers are delegated by the great Consoler. It +requires this reach clear back to the heart of God to rescue this +suggestion from the superficial. One man has sorrow. He consoles others +who have sorrow. Then you have two sorrows in your problem. In this way +you would keep playing off sorrow against sorrow, without any fundamental +explanation of any sorrow. The question is, Why any sorrow at all? If one +of the by-products of sorrow is the power to comfort the sorrowing, we +must still find some main product that will put the two sorrows together +in a meaning of good. The God of comfort must preside over both sorrows +ere either sorrow shall yield its contribution to the sufferer. Paul saw +this, and so he related our power to comfort others to the fact that we +had gotten our comfort from the Father of all consolation. + +It is thus clear that the Scriptures give place to all the minor elements +in the ministry of sorrow. Its comparative lightness, its sure brevity, +and its tuition for sympathy have their part in the Bible curriculum. The +Scriptures also move onward to the vision of a God who cares. "Like as a +father pitieth"--this is the message even of the Old Testament. It gives +an answer to that piercing cry: + + What can it mean? Is it aught to Him + That the nights are long and the sun is dim? + Can he be touched by the griefs I bear + Which sadden the heart and whiten the hair? + Around his throne are eternal calms, + And glad, strong music of happy psalms, + And bliss unruled by any strife! + How can he care for my little life? + +The answer of the Bible is the vision of the pitying God. Our earthly +friends have helped us in our sorrows by simply caring. They have come to +us in the shadows, and their words and faces have told us that they cared. +It is a strange feature of human psychology that just this gives us +comfort. Our friends do not solve the problem for us. They do not remove +the cause of our pain. But they feel with us, and this is aid. Every +sympathizer seems to lift a bit of the weight from our own hearts. When +the Bible gives us the revelation of One who pitieth "like as a father +pitieth," it brings God into that circle of helpfulness. + +The lesson goes farther and deeper than this. Though we have not here used +the words technically, the soul's dictionary draws a distinction between +pity and sympathy. The pitier may never have walked the way that allows +him to understand our grief; the sympathizer comes to us from some +experience that permits him to remember those that are in bonds as bound +with them. We cannot read the Bible long ere we discover that there is in +God the capability of joy and sorrow. The passages are abundant that +justify this statement. God can be pleased. God can be grieved. If men and +women have been made in his image, and if we find in them the capability +of pain and sorrow, we are driven to the conclusion that something +corresponding thereto must be in the divine nature. The father in the +parable of the prodigal son, sitting lonely and mournful in his home, +represents God. The father in that same parable meeting his son in the +roadway and giving him glad welcome, and calling to his neighbors, +"Rejoice with me," likewise represents God. The truth seems to be that the +farther up we go in the grade of being, the more capability of pain and of +pleasure do we find. The polyp can neither suffer much nor enjoy much. The +oyster can enjoy more and suffer more. The bird has its note of joy and +its note of pain. Human beings have exquisite powers of enjoyment and +equally exquisite powers of suffering. We may well believe that when we +reach the perfect being of God both of these capabilities come to their +highest. This is the meaning of that verse: + + Can it be, O Christ Eternal, + That the wisest suffer most? + That the mark of rank in nature + Is capacity for pain? + That the anguish of the singer + Makes the sweetness of the strain? + +We are allowed to believe, then, that the pity of God passes over into +sympathy. We are visited in our sorrows not by a God whose mood toward us +is abstract, but whose own infinite heart knows grief. "The human life of +God" is a phrase that has been used to describe the incarnation. That +phrase enters into our problem here. If Jesus shows us what God is like, +then the Christ who wept over Jerusalem brings us one revelation of the +divine life. The pitying God becomes the sympathizing God. + +The biblical lesson of comfort does not halt even here. It is given a +closer and more personal quality. A pitier and sympathizer may be very +distant, and his aid may reach us over the abysses. If the Bible gives us +the vision of a pitying father, it gives us also the vision of the God who +comforteth even as a mother comforteth. In the various kinds of trouble +men become aware of reserve forces in their nature. They endure what they +thought they could not endure. In crisis times the muscles secure extra +strength, the mind secures extra alertness, and the spirit secures extra +power either to do or to bear. These reserves must be of God's giving, +whether they lie ready in the nature always, or are special gifts sent +direct to help us in the troublous hours. There is, however, a still more +personal interpretation that the Bible offers for these experiences. They +are the special visits of God to the afflicted. If the creed of the divine +sympathy gets its meaning from "the human life of God" as seen in the +incarnation of Christ, this part of the creed gets its meaning from the +doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It is true that the Greek word which is +translated "Comforter" might be given other meanings such as Adviser or +Helper. But this does not change the point for the present discussion. An +Adviser in sorrow is a Comforter, and a Helper in sorrow is a Comforter. +It is significant that the consciousness of the church followed the +translators eagerly and adopted the word Comforter as if it met some need +of life and as if it answered to some deep experience of life. We may not +go into a labored discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity. We may affirm +that a humanity that sorrows is glad for a doctrine of the Godhead that +magnifies the office of consolation. The comforting quality in Barnabas +led the early disciples to change his name from Joses to Barnabas because +he was a "son of consolation." They rejoiced in their human comforter. The +church has ever found satisfaction in the revelation of a divine +Comforter. In this revelation it sees the pitying God and the sympathizing +God become the Comforting God. + +Related to this is the scriptural idea that God conquers our sorrow not by +removing it but by making us equal to its burden. The clearest concrete +illustration of this is seen in Paul's words about his "thorn in the +flesh." His thrice-repeated prayer was that the thorn might be removed; +his answer was that, while the difficulty would not be taken away, he +would be given grace sufficient for his trial. Paul's experience has +impressed men as being typical of the inner kind of divine aid. The sorrow +may be of many kinds; but the powers of resistance are strengthened by the +grace of God and the sorrows are borne in a brave and patient spirit. +Although the idea be trite, it claims a place in the discussion, as indeed +it was worthy of a place in the ritual of comfort. We are not dealing with +any mere law of reaction. It was not the thorn that was making Paul +strong; it was God who was making Paul strong to endure the thorn. He +himself describes the transaction as if it had involved a direct gift of +the divine grace, as it had involved a direct message from the divine +heart. + +Yet great as are all these types of biblical consolation, we all feel that +we have not reached the conclusion of the matter. Comparison is not +enough. Brevity does not explain why sorrow should be just brief. Pity +does not tell us why we should need to be pitied. Direct spiritual +reserves do not fully justify the hard experience that calls for them. +Direct and personal comfort does not solve the problem since no one would +seek trouble in order to have the visits of a comforting friend. The +gaining of inner strength comes nearer to a positive warrant for the +sorrows of life; yet it does not quite reach the satisfying conception. +All these things are parts of the program, but they are not its +conclusion. The tale of life's sorrow is not all told by their recital. +The full story we cannot understand now; still we may be able to glimpse +its meaning. In the epic of Job there are traces of the revelation. The +patriarch gathers a harvest out of his troubles. They never reach the +uttermost extreme. They do not last forever. They bring him pity, however +crude; sympathy, however bungling; comforters, however mistaken; reserve +forces, however tardy; inner strength, however won. But his sorrows do +more than this; they are represented in the last chapter as having been +made the servant of Job. The richer and stronger man returns to the richer +and stronger life. The testings have been turned into gains. + +This deeper lesson of comfort is often given to us in the Bible by means +of a very positive verb. Our afflictions "work" for us. All things "work" +together for us. As men are sent to the fields, and as the forces of +nature are sent along the wires, so sorrows are sent to become our +servants. This service is not inevitable; it is conditioned on the +attitude of the sorrowing life; but it is a very real service when the +conditions are met. Our afflictions work for us--when we get the +spiritual vision so that we can receive the things that are eternal. All +things work together for good for us--when we fulfill the innermost +requirement of loving God. The condition in both cases is located within +the spiritual life. This condition being met, the promise of the Bible is +that sorrow is made our efficient servant. Paul in his famous verse of +consolation states the case with marked confidence. The afflictions work +for us until they produce "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of +glory." Language could scarcely be stronger. Nor were the words used by +one who lolled in the high places of ease and delight and shouted down his +abstract comforts to the strugglers in the vale. The assurance to the +sorrowing comes from their comrade. His experiences ranged all the way +from the petty hardships of a wandering life on to the Appian Way and the +block of death. It was the sure faith of the apostle that all his sorrows +had been made to work for him. He was not their victim; he was their +master and their beneficiary. + +The persons who have seen much of the world's better living will not deny +this conception. Le Gallienne in his booklet, If I Were God, admits that +suffering does often work toward the making of character and becomes a +real servant. His skepticism does not lie at this point. His inquiry is +whether a just and good God could not have found some easier way, some +servant for which we would not have to render such a painful cost. This, +of course, is that old method of debate that flees for refuge to some +imaginary world and conceives of people who do not exist. Our task is with +the people now on earth, and with them we must deal in our efforts at +consolation. Some of them we have seen driven to bitterness of spirit by +their sorrow. They themselves made sorrow an evil servant which filled the +garden of life with noxious weeds, shut the windows of hope in the home of +life, put the poison of despair into the water of life, and spread the +clouds of gloom over all the sky of life. Others we have seen mellowed and +sweetened by the servantship of sorrow. All our visits to them showed +clearly that sorrow was doing gracious service. The "weight of glory" was +more and more apparent. The "good" produced by the "all things" gave +increasing evidence that the "servant" was doing his work. When any close +observer of life writes down his lists of saints he will always find that +he has been compelled to canonize many who, like their Master, have been +made "perfect through suffering." + +The quotation of these words about Christ reminds us that the world turns +to him as to the last resort for the sorrowing. Here, as in all other +studies, we find the climax in him. As he entered into all forms of work, +so did he enter into all forms of sorrow. Is it homelessness? Is it +privation? Is it misunderstanding? Is it anxiety for others? Is it +anticipated suffering? Is it evil accusation? Is it ridicule? Is it shame? +Is it mockery? Is it torture? Is it utter disgrace? Is it abandonment? Is +it denial? Is it betrayal? Is it death? All these he knew. If the wisest +and holiest suffer most, he knew all these sorrows at their deepest. None +could really join with him in chanting the real De Profundis. He trod the +winepress alone, and of the people there was none with him. The world that +left him alone in his sorrow does not wish him to leave it alone in its +sorrow. It seeks him then. It hears him as he promises, not immunity from +suffering, but the experience of overcoming in suffering: "Be of good +cheer: I have overcome the world." He put a deeply personal quality into +his assurance, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." "I +am with you always, even unto the end of the æons." So runs the promise. +It is no wonder that the troubled flee to him. The Man of Sorrows draws +the men of sorrows. His benediction of peace is not formal. With the +authority and with the reserves of comfort at his command, he still says, +"Let not your heart be troubled." + +To the usual messages of consolation he now adds the eternal reason, "In +my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told +you. I go to prepare a place for you." Well did Carlyle say that if Jesus +were only man, he had no right to utter these words. But Jesus said much +more. He would prepare the place. He would come again. He would receive +them into his company. If some doubter shall ask about the way, his reply +shall be the same as of old, "I am the way." Through him alone we come to +the Father. Full trust in him removes all bitter tears: and the remainder +of tears he does not rebuke. He inspires the visions wherein we see those +who have come up out of great tribulation hungering no more, nor thirsting +any more, nor smitten by the sun or any heat; but fed by the Lamb and led +by him amid fountains of living waters, while God wipes away all tears +from their eyes. + +This doctrine of heaven as a consolation for sorrow is not born of +selfishness, as is often charged. The rankest of infidels said, "In the +night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle +of a wing." Not "listening selfishness," but "listening love"! The love +that we bear to our own and to all mankind seeks this vision and finds it +waiting in the divine plan. Is it selfish to desire that for ourselves +which will injure none others? Is it selfish to long for that which will +meet the longings of the whole world? Verily some critics discover strange +dictionaries when they define words in reference to the holy faith. But +all the while the afflicted seek the face of Christ. Troubles look unto +him and are lightened. The poor man cries and the Lord still delivers him +out of his troubles. Our Bibles and our Hymnals personalize the haven for +us. He is the Rock of Ages. His bosom is the Refuge. To him we go when +shadows darkly gather. A present help is he. The last low whispers of our +dead are burdened with his name. The suffering world states its comfort in +terms of Christ himself. + +For the final sorrow of death he offers the full consolation. The tragedy +of separation remains. Our indictment against death is that of Tennyson: + + He puts our lives so far apart, + We cannot hear each other speak. + +The more worthy of immortality our beloved seems to be, the keener is the +pang of parting. Lowell felt it so "After the Burial": + + Immortal! I feel it and know it, + Who doubts it of such as she? + But that is the pang's very secret-- + Immortal away from me. + +The Bible has no rebuke for the sorrow of separation. But it does have the +healing hope of eternal reunion. Jesus said: "I am the resurrection, and +the life: he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: +and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." These words, +fully believed, still our fear, confirm our hope, and comfort our final +sorrow. + +To all the burdened, Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." +To all the joyless he says, "I will see you again, and your heart shall +rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." To all the lonely and +mourning he comes with the message, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye +believe in God, believe also in me." The world may have difficulty in +securing that belief; but the world knows well that this belief alone is +the defeat of sorrow. In their best and most desperate and most hopeful +hours men flee to the Bible as to the only tent in which their anguish can +be soothed. Within that tabernacle walks the form of the Fourth. When +they turn from him, they must return with the question, "Lord, to whom +shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." The eternal life that +he gives is the only consolation for our passing sorrows. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BIBLE AND PRACTICE + + +When men separate the Bible from devotion and practice they are guilty of +the final heresy in relation to the Book of Life. The previous pages have +shown that the Bible has a real message for actual living. While the +larger departments have been treated, it is still true that the message of +the Scriptures for other sections of life is vital and fundamental. +Whatever we may say about the message of the Bible in regard to chemistry, +or biology, or geology; whatever we may say about its inspiration for the +literature of the world; and whatever we may say about its accuracy in +matters of ancient history and geography--the Book holds a lonely primacy +as the Book of Duty. The scientist may not get from it a full revelation; +the littérateur may be tempted to omit certain portions from his "choice +selections"; the historian may not find in it a full or chronological list +of events; but the man with a moral and spiritual passion, the man bent on +finding his duty that he may do it faithfully, will discover ample +material in its pages. Indeed, he will have a sense of surplus. The ideals +of the Book will be so far beyond his performance as to give him the +feeling of a gentle rebuke. As a Book of moral science, moral literature, +moral history, the Bible has no competitors. As a revelation of the heart +of God, of the heart of man, and of the way in which the heart of God and +the heart of man are brought into loving harmony, the Bible is supreme. + +The great difficulty in the use of the Bible has come from wrenching it +from this main purpose. Confusion is sure to arise whenever any volume is +employed apart from its primary intent. If one wishes to learn +mathematics, and his foolish teacher shall give him a book of music, the +result is not edifying. The pages of the book may be properly numbered, +and the scales of music may be denoted by the correct fractions; but +mathematics represents a thoroughly subordinate purpose, and the volume +does not lead easily on to Calculus. The result is even more confusing if +the arithmetic be handed to a pupil who wishes to study versification. The +multiplication table may look like verses when seen at some distance; +still the arithmetic's main intent is not the teaching of poetry. The +illustrations of possible confusion could be taken from all fields. The +common sense of the race saves it from the blunder of misapplying the +most of its books. The Bible, however, has been subjected to +misapplication because the theory of its infallibility has often been made +to cover a wide, not to say a universal, range. The student who goes to +the Bible with a purpose that is mainly historical, or scientific, or +geographical, or genealogical, or mathematical, or even poetical and +literary, may not find all his wishes gratified. But the student who seeks +its pages under a profound sense of God and with an equally profound will +to do God's will is certain to find material for all his moral and +spiritual ambitions. + +Consequently when the religious attitude toward the Bible is changed into +a professional or critical or debating attitude, the Book is deflected +from its intent. Doubtless we must have in the realm of scholarship some +men who give themselves to a technical discussion of the Bible. These men +may be charged with the duty of recovering portions of the Book to +reality; and they may have an important, but secondary, relation to its +primary purpose. Nevertheless their attitude is not the final one. It +would be useless to deny that the last generation has witnessed a changed +attitude toward the Holy Scriptures. One result has been that two camps +have been formed, and that doughty champions of a view have sallied forth +from each camp to do warfare. The missiles have been verbal. Sometimes +they have been abusive. Each champion has believed himself a David and his +opponent a Goliath. The unprejudiced observer of the conflict has had +difficulty in deciding which champion has been most guilty of a wrong +spirit. The conservative has called the progressive various names, +infidel, atheist, destroyer, betrayer, a successor of Judas in spirit and +of Celsus in method! The progressive has responded in kind and has named +the conservative a reactionary, an intellectual coward, a defender of a +discredited theory, a foe of liberty, and a traitor to the truth. The +conservative has often become a spiritual Pharisee and has ruled the +progressive out of court on the ground that the progressive lacked piety, +while the progressive has often become an intellectual Pharisee and has +ruled the conservative out of court on the ground that the conservative +lacked scholarship. There have, of course, been conspicuous instances of +breadth and catholicity on both sides, but occasionally the spirit of the +contest has not tended to exalt the mood of the contestants or to glorify +the divine Book. + +The results of such a spirit could easily be predicted: they cannot make +for edification. If we list on one side the radical conservatives and on +the other side the radical progressives, we shall discover an evangelical +helplessness in both lists. In each case a conception of the Bible +supplants the purpose of the Bible. The champion defends a doctrine more +than he promotes a life. The apologist overcomes the preacher. The +theorist destroys the evangelist. All this is not a denial that the +speculative emphasis has its place. The defender of the faith will always +have his place. Usually he must work in the background, in some point of +scholarly retreat. The pastor and preacher who goes into a community with +the idea that his main mission is to promote a special view of inspiration +is doomed to failure, while he who goes into a community with the idea +that his main mission is to preach the salvation of the Bible as it +climaxes in Christ cannot fail utterly. There are conservatives and +progressives whose ministry is pitiably weak, and there are progressives +and conservatives whose ministry is grandly strong. The difference comes +from the point of emphasis. If a man is more anxious to prove that Moses +was the sole author of the Pentateuch than he is to prove that Jesus is +the sole author of salvation, his ministry will answer to his own +emphasis. If a man is more anxious to prove that there were two Isaiahs +than he is to show that there is one only name given among men whereby we +may be saved, his ministry will be no more important than is his +contention. The primary purpose of the Bible is not the revelation of the +single authorship of one of its sections or the dual authorship of one of +its books; its primary purpose is to declare that One is our Master, even +Christ. + +It must be plain that, as the divine revelation of the Bible culminates in +a Life, so the human intent of the Bible can culminate only in lives. The +purpose of the Bible is met in Practice. If we adopt the military figure +of life, the Bible is a weapon given to men for moral warfare. Sometimes +in its own pages the Word of God is presented under the figure of a Sword. +The writers could not have had in mind the Scriptures as we have them now; +but the principle applies to every revelation by which God seeks to bring +men to the understanding and doing of his own will. When Isaiah felt +divine messages burning in his heart he said, "He hath made my mouth like +a sharp sword." The writer of Hebrews took the same nervous metaphor and +wrote, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any +two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, +and of the joints and marrow." Paul in his description of the Christian +armor speaks of "The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It +may not be amiss, then, to take this highly authorized figure of speech +and to employ it once again--not claiming, of course, that our particular +applications were in the thought of the first users. The point is that +under the ancient military system the sword had its main intent, and that +it never did its real work as long as it was divorced from that intent. +There were wrong uses of the sword, and there were secondary uses of the +sword; and there was but one primary use of the sword. + +We can conceive of an actual sword as being used in different ways by +different people. A robber seizes it, defends himself against just arrest, +and slashes the representatives of a righteous law. Evidently the sword +was not made for that purpose. The sportsman takes the sword, tests its +handle, polishes its blade, tries its resiliency, purchases a manual of +arms, secures the best teacher, drills himself in its use. On holidays he +wears a flashy uniform, marches through the streets, waves the glittering +thing over his head, and so makes it an instrument of personal flourish. +This use is not evil, but it does not stand for the weapon's first intent. +A third man, with a more serious mien, secures the sword. He is enlisted +in the militia, and the time may come when it will be necessary for him to +go into real war. He tests its handle and polishes its blade; he studies +the manual of arms; he seeks the best masters; he practices its use +through many months. When the time of war actually comes this man draws +the sword from its scabbard and goes out to do service in his country's +cause. The primary purpose of the sword is met only in this earnest use. + +The three men may represent three classes in their attitudes toward the +Bible. The Bible is often used for defense in immoralities. It is often +used as a means of that cheap skill that comes near to personal display. +It is often used for spiritual defense and warfare. The robber's use is +evil. The parader's use is secondary. The warrior's use is primary. + +Many illustrations of the immoral use of the Bible could be given. In the +story of the temptation of Jesus the devil is pictured as a user of the +Scriptures, and he has not been without his followers in an unholy use of +a holy record. The Bible covers a wide range of thought and experience. It +tells of all manner of sins. It deals with all classes of characters. It +presents the lives of bad men who were sometimes good, and of good men who +were occasionally bad, and of other men who were quite steadily bad or +good. Thus the Bible gives us all sorts of examples. The record, +distorted and misapplied, may be made to justify the baldest of sins. In +matters of questionable morality men are ever ready to appeal to the +divine Book, and even for actions condemned by all enlightened moral +judgment the Bible is sometimes summoned as an advocate. There is scarcely +a sin which has not had a passage of Scripture presented as its excuse. +Men have justified rash murder on the ground that Moses killed the cruel +Egyptian taskmaster. As was shown in a previous chapter the practices of +the patriarchs have been quoted, even in the halls of Congress, as a +warrant for bigamy and polygamy. Men in the midst of unreasoning anger +have condoned their madness by reciting the words, "Be ye angry, and sin +not." Jesus himself named to the Jews a sacrilegious misuse of a Bible +phrase by which heartless children excused themselves from filial duties. +Illustrations might be given touching almost every phase of personal life. +Even as in old days the wicked sometimes fled to a city of refuge, so now +do men caught in an evil mood hide themselves behind a biblical rampart. + +In larger social matters this use of the Bible has been fully as striking. +Human slavery felt secure within a scriptural fortress. Wilberforce and +Clarkson in England, and Garrison and Phillips in America were compelled +to reply to biblical arguments. Charles Sumner, at a meeting in +Massachusetts, spent an entire evening in replying to a pro-slavery +discussion based on Paul's letter to Philemon, arriving duly at the +conviction that the only logical and religious result of the apostle's +words to Philemon would be the freeing of slaves in the name of Christian +brotherhood. So pieces of Mosaic legislation and scraps of Pauline +regulation were used to conceal the Golden Rule and the law of fraternity. +It is easy to observe here, too, that as men advance in ethical life this +use of the Bible ceases. Doubtless in twenty years no one has heard the +Bible quoted in behalf of slavery. Yet the biblical argument would serve +quite as well for reinstating slavery as it did for continuing slavery. +The argument dies not only because the moral consciousness of man lives, +but also because the moral judgment of man perceives that the general +principles of the Bible are utterly opposed to human slavery. The man who +proposed to bring the bondage of men back into the social life of the +world by means of the biblical argument would be deemed as much an +anachronism as his method of debate. + +This same evil use of the Bible proceeds to-day among the opponents of the +temperance reform. Our debate with the saloonist or brewer or wine maker +never goes far ere we are told of biblical examples of drinking, as well +as that Christ turned water into wine in his first miracle at Cana of +Galilee. Saloon keepers have framed and have placed upon the walls of +their alluring palaces Paul's advice to Timothy, "Take a little wine for +thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities." They do not quote the +verdict that wine is a mocker, with a bite like that of a serpent and a +sting like that of an adder--the cause of woes and sorrows and redness of +eyes; nor the pronouncement that no drunkard can inherit the Kingdom; nor +the condemnation laid upon him that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's +lips. Nor do they put forward the inevitable drift of Paul's law of +charity which commands men to do naught that will make their brothers to +offend. Nor yet do they heed the sure drift of the Bible's teaching as it +comes to its crown in Christ himself. The man who would claim that Jesus +would approve the modern traffic in intoxicating liquors would convict +himself of amazing perversity and ignorance. There are increasing +evidences that the Master of life is now finding an effective use for his +whip of cords and that there is beginning a retreat greater than that of +the ancient thieves and dove sellers. The time will come when men will +marvel that an attempt was ever made to use the Bible as a foundation for +the trade in alcoholics. + +In Scott's Ivanhoe there is given an example of this misuse of the Bible, +as well as an example of its effective rebuke. Rebecca the Jewess is +beautiful in person, as she is in character. Brian de Bois-Guilbert is a +member of the Order of the Holy Temple. He is a dashing, handsome, +hypocritical crusader, both a military and a moral adventurer. He turns +his lewd eye toward Rebecca. She stands by an open window, ready to throw +herself to death upon the rocks far beneath rather than to submit herself +to his wickedness. To justify his black intention Guilbert mentions the +conduct of David and Solomon, and then says to the tempted one, "The +protectors of Solomon's Temple may claim license by the example of +Solomon." The beautiful woman makes a worthy retort, one that deserves +frequent repetition: "If thou readest the Scriptures and the lives of the +saints only to justify thine own license and profligacy, thy crime is like +that of him who extracts poison from the most helpful herbs." No honest +person can believe in Guilbert's use of the Bible; nor can any honest +person escape the truth of Rebecca's reply. The murderer's, the +bigamist's, the slaveholder's, the rum-seller's, the sensualist's method +of employing the Bible is the final blasphemy against the Holy Word. The +robbers of life simply steal the sword of the Spirit in order that they +may use it in the service of hell. Wolves in sheep's clothing and devils +clad in the livery of heaven are apt figures of speech for the description +of this perversity. The Bible itself speaks of those who wrest the +Scriptures to their own destruction! + +The second use of the sword moves into the realm of the legitimate, but +not into the realm of the final. Expert swordsmanship is no crime, even as +it is not the highest morality. The Bible has long been one of the +favorite fields of the critical scholar. Very often the search has been +for technical truth rather than for vital truth. Heated discussions have +related to questions of dates and authorship. These questions are not to +be ruled out as useless. Sometimes technical truth gives the vital truth +of the Bible a setting that makes it more forceful and persuasive. It was +inevitable that both the higher critics and their opponents would +sometimes go to great extremes--the critics to an idolatry of intellect, +their opponents to an idolatry of literalness. We must all have been +impressed that at times when the spiritual battle has been intense the +warriors have stepped aside from the main conflict in order that they +might discuss how and when and by whom the Sword and its parts were +fashioned! + +We may change the figure of speech for a moment and modify for the present +purpose a borrowed illustration. A man finds a casket buried deeply in his +yard. The vessel appears to have been constructed a long time ago. It +bears upon its sides characters that are difficult of translation. There +is even doubt as to the nature of the metal. The man summons the other +members of the family. They open the vessel and discover that it is filled +with gold. At once a warm dispute begins over several questions. Who made +the casket? When was it made? How many persons took part in its fashioning +and its filling? From what precise mintage did the coins come? What is the +meaning of the peculiar hieroglyphics found upon its sides? Are all the +coins of equal value? Whose images are stamped upon them? The debaters +become excited over these mooted matters. At last one sensible member of +the family suggests that it is apparent that by right of finding this +particular household owns the casket; that the needs of the members are +many; that the gold, even though the coinage be ancient, can be turned to +modern use; that the questions which they are debating can be settled only +by metallurgists and historians and philologists, if they are to be +settled at all; and that, pending the settlement of incidental issues, the +wants of the family may be richly met by appropriating the contents of the +casket! The illustration scarcely needs any interpretation. It surely does +represent the attitude which the devout and obedient heart may take in +this period toward the Holy Book. The ancient casket that we call the +Bible is full of treasures. This much lies beyond doubt or debate. While +the learned philologists and historians and exegetes surround the casket +and try to ascertain the dates of its parts, the names of its authors, the +meaning of its obscurities, the family of God may continue to draw on its +exhaustless treasures. Nor are there wanting signs that more and more our +age is adjusting itself to this reverent and practical use of the Word of +God, and that Professor Dobschütz rightly contends in his new volume that +the Bible is again becoming the Book of Devotion. + +There is likewise what we might well call the "lowest" criticism--the +spirit that uses the Bible as a volume of puzzles rather than as a volume +of directions. Many a man has spent more time in speculating about where +Cain got his wife than he has in trying to find out how to make his own +wife happy. Many a man has spent more time in trying to find out about +the Witch of Endor as an excuse for his consulting some vulgar +fortune-teller of modern time than he has spent in trying to learn the +will and secure the guidance of the good and wise God. Many a man has +spent more time in discussing Melchizedek, who had neither ancestors nor +descendants, than he has spent in trying to learn from the Bible how he +himself may honor his forbears and may train his own children in +righteousness. Many a man has been so piqued by curiosity about the exact +nature of Saint Paul's "thorn in the flesh" as to forget the teaching that +the grace of God can make us equal to any burden and torment of life. The +men of this type will not allow the Bible the use of hyperbole. When it +suits their contentious mood they become strict literalists. Even though +they themselves may declare that it is "raining pitchforks" or that the +waves are dashing "mountain high," they will insist that Christ's words +about the two coats and the two cloaks and the two miles are not the +strong urging of much forbearance and generosity, but the counsel of +literal folly. Meanwhile the certainties and duties of the Bible outnumber +its riddles and its curiosities many-fold. The importunate call to holy +practice ceases not. From each of a thousand passages of the Good Book +there issues a patient rebuke for the curiosity monger, "What is that to +thee? Follow thou me." + +This leads us to the third use of the sword as seen in our illustration. +The gallant soldier took the weapon and used it in harmony with its +intent. So the Bible should be employed preeminently as a means of +spiritual defense and warfare. The Scriptures are profitable, not for +immoral justification, not for mere criticism however exact and searching, +not for the solving of superficial riddles, but "for doctrine, for +reproof, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be +perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." To go to the Bible +with the motive revealed in these great words is to recover the Bible to +its divine purpose as the book of human practice. Such a motive lifts the +volume above any mere literary or historical aspects. There is, for +example, the oft-quoted story about Benjamin Franklin's experience at the +Court of France. He was passing an evening with a company of cultured +ladies and gentlemen. The conversation turned to the subject of Oriental +life. Franklin read aloud to the company the book of Ruth. Struck by the +beautiful simplicity and spirit of the narrative, his hearers expressed +their delight and desired to know in what book the charming pastoral could +be found! It is safe to say that these men and women needed the lesson of +fidelity in the book of Ruth far more than they needed the sense of its +literary merit. + +We must always return to the idea that the key to the Bible is the deeply +religious instinct and motive. Nothing else will really open its pages. +Nor does the Bible herein wholly differ from other literature. There are +men and women so thoroughly cultivated on the so-called practical side of +their natures that it would be punishment for them to read Whittier, or +Longfellow, or Lowell, or Tennyson for a full hour. The demands of +business or social life have killed the poetic impulse. So many persons +may crush from their natures the religious instinct and then wonder why +the Bible does not appeal to them! The truth seems to be that a person +gets from the Bible about what he seeks. It takes divinely opened eyes to +see the wondrous things in the law. The psalmist, therefore, prayed that +the change might come over himself rather than over the parchment. The way +to illumine the sacred page was to illumine him. The Book may lie in a +great light, but what can the Book do for a man with closed eyes? Seneca +tells of an idiot child in his home who, becoming blind, insisted always +that the room was dark! Herein is another parable. + +It is only this disposition of the seeing eye and the obedient hand that +can bring the Bible to us in its main purpose. Having this disposition we +shall not suffer ourselves to be lured into interesting byways. We shall +have a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Our spiritual purpose +will defeat all needless criticism and all needless dissection. Having +this purpose, we will turn to the early chapters of Genesis. Instead of +debating whether in a literal garden Adam and Eve were tempted by a +literal serpent to the eating of literal fruit, and were driven through a +literal gate, while a literal angel with a literal flame running along a +literal blade guarded against reentrance, we shall be moved by the thought +that we have lifted ourselves in puny rebellion against God, and that we +have gone forth from our place of innocence, and that the third chapter of +Genesis recounts the essential history of our souls. Having this religious +purpose, we shall read the story of Job with a view to securing its +spiritual lesson. We shall not permit any critical arguer to confine us to +the question of the historicity of Job himself. We shall rather lay hold +of the teaching of that marvelous book, with its colossal debate, and we +shall see that, whether the book be a history or a parable or an allegory, +it drives crushing suspicion from the world by teaching that suffering is +not always the result of sin, and brings cheerful trust into the world by +teaching that afflictions bravely endured must have their reward. The man +who back in that dim and far age got hold of the teaching of the book of +Job must have somehow caught the inspiration of God himself. The common +ground in all these mooted portions of Scripture is really a large and +wealthy place; but only a common spiritual purpose will ever bring +conservatives and progressives together in the knowledge and peace of God. + +One almost hesitates to discuss the book of Jonah in this connection +because petty debates have robbed it of much of its deeper meaning. The +nature of the book doubtless lies beyond earthly settlement. Whether we +declare that Jonah's journey was as historical as those of Saint Paul, or +that it was as parabolic as the journey of the prodigal son, we can find +no sure end of the debate. But all the while the teaching of the book +waits for our obedience. The individual lesson seems to be that whenever a +man turns his ship from the Nineveh of duty toward the Tarshish of +pleasure he will directly come to rough and perilous seas. In other words, +the man who flees from his God-assigned work sooner or later gets into +trouble. The missionary lesson is just as plain. Back yonder in a time of +racial narrowness, some one caught the inspiration from God and declared +that the Lord of all the earth cared for all the people of the earth. The +infinite love traveled beyond all our little boundaries. The personal +lesson and the missionary lesson of the book of Jonah are sufficient to +keep individuals and churches busy for a thousand years to come. The +spirit with which we approach the book of Jonah will decide whether we +shall become petty debaters, or men and women with dutiful purpose and +missionary zeal. + +The conclusion is that when we seek the Bible with the motive of holy +practice we never meet with disappointment. The religious purpose saves +the Book for us and saves us by the Book. This purpose will likewise bring +us face to face with the Hero of the Divine Word. Other sacred literatures +may offer us high moral precepts, and they may occasionally give us +glimpses of spiritual ideals. But one Book alone gives us Christ. One Book +alone reveals the Redeemer. The climax of practice to which the Scriptures +call us is the following of Christ. In all our studies in these chapters +we have found that the supreme lessons centered in his teaching and in his +example. The Man, the Home, the School, the Workshop, the Market Place, +the Playground, and the Hospital all wait upon him for their guidance and +their warning. But Jesus is more than the way and the truth; he is the +Life. He is more than the Exemplar of Practice; he is the Helper in +Practice. He walks the pages of the Bible even as he walked the ancient +paths, and his disciples may still say, "Behold the Lamb of God, which +taketh away the sin of the world." Other sacred books may offer +revelations of morality; the Bible offers the revelation of a Saviour. The +Bible is not its own goal. Jesus is the end of its revelation. The devout +in all ages have been ready to use the heart of the verse of a familiar +hymn: + + Beyond the sacred page, + I seek thee, Lord; + My spirit pants for thee, + Thou living Word. + +If men seek the Exemplar who will give them a goal for their practice, +they find such an Exemplar in the Christ of the Bible. If they seek the +Inspirer who will give them a longing for the perfect practice, they will +find that Inspirer in the Christ of the Bible. If men seek the Saviour who +will help them on to the perfect practice, they will find that Helper in +the Christ of the Bible. + +Indeed, it may be said to be characteristic of the Bible that it not only +offers the perfect program, but that it offers the perfect help. This was +true even of the Old Testament. Jehovah was the strength of life. His +power was as immediate as his presence. He was a present help in time of +trouble. He was a present Guide in time of perplexity. The Christian +revelation seems to bring that consciousness of divine help nearer to men, +and to make it more real. Hence the Christian faith goes over all the +world seeking to win men to God and his righteousness. Everywhere it +proclaims a redeeming God. An ideal without a Saviour may become a +despair--a tormenting impossibility, the lure of the final falsehood. The +Bible gives the ideal and then it adds, "It is God which worketh in you +both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The Bible warns against +temptation, and then it tells of One who was himself tempted in all points +like as we are, yet without sin, of One who is able to succor them that +are tempted. The religion of the dead code becomes the religion of the +living Person. The Ideal becomes Example, and both Ideal and Example are +found in a Saviour. + +With all this in our purpose, as well as in our creed, we come to the +Bible in full harmony with its primary intent. We find now that for every +moral and spiritual emergency the Book has its message. If it were +necessary we could list these emergencies and show the word that the +Bible has for each of them. Here is an illustration that serves as well as +a thousand for making the main point. The Gideons have been placing the +Bibles in the hotels of America. Travelers seldom go to their rooms +without seeing upon the table a copy of the Book. The organization that +has done this good work often receives accounts, anonymous or otherwise, +of the help given by the Bibles that its work has supplied. Here is a +letter received from a young woman: + + Perhaps a word will help you to realize that the little "Good Book" on + the table in a lonely hotel room helps some. Last night, after + fighting the fight that any young woman with any appearance fights, I + found myself in Chicago at this hotel. I had papers, magazines, books, + and other reading matter, but for a joke--yes, joke--I picked up the + Bible. It fell open at the seventieth psalm. Can you imagine the + impression it made on me? I read it again and again. Needless to say, + it helped and I feel better, happier, and not so much alone. + +Picture the full circumstances, and we may feel that the help went deeper +and wrought more than this letter indicates. If this young woman was at +the beginning of that dreadful path of death that invites careless +travelers, how much must these ancient words, so graciously modern, have +meant to her? "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O +Lord. Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them +be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Let them be +turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, Aha. Let all those +that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy +salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy; +make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make +no tarrying." Any study of the authorship or date of this seventieth +psalm, or any theorizing as to the identity of "The chief musician," or +even any discussion of the particular circumstances under which the words +were originally written would not have solved the life problem of a young +woman coaxed on toward carelessness. The psalm was penned to make God +real, and his help real. Doubtless it performed that office long ago; and +surely it performs that office now whenever a needy heart supplicates the +good God by means of the ancient prayer. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, +that I might not sin against thee"--this was the psalmist's statement as +to the reason for carrying portions of the ancient revelation with him on +all his journeys. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By +taking heed thereto according to thy word"--this was the use of God's +Word prescribed for all time. The writer of the one hundred and nineteenth +psalm did not have our Bible, but when he wrote these two verses he had +within him the purpose of our Bible. He brought the ancient law within its +primary intent, and he gave the principle by which all later Scripture +should be employed. The Bible is to be placed in the heart as a defense +against sin. The Bible is intended to cleanse the ways of life. The Bible +is given to lead us to Him who is himself the Perfect Life and who offers +the Divine Grace. + +All this means that the best apologetic for the Bible is the earnest and +honest use of the Bible. We may well use the apostle's fine phrase and say +that those persons who follow the ideals of the Bible under the +inspiration of the Saviour of the Bible are "living epistles known and +read of all men." They are the modern evidences for the ancient Book, the +human and divine proofs of the human and divine Book. The Bible does not +fail the soul that searches its pages for the paths of truth and +righteousness. The prayer of the ritual is that we may "read, mark, learn, +and inwardly digest, that by patience and comfort of thy Holy Word we may +embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life." In +everything that bears on making men worthy subjects of everlasting life +the Bible is the sure guide. All sincere souls that come to its chapters +with this primary and spiritual intent will find their due reward. They +may stand before the open Book confident that the voice of God will speak +through the written Word and determined that they themselves shall ever be +in the attitude of eager listeners, saying, "Speak, Lord; for thy servants +hear." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bible and Life, by Edwin Holt Hughes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41520 *** |