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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecda21b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67403 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67403) diff --git a/old/67403-0.txt b/old/67403-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d25df0c..0000000 --- a/old/67403-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5089 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Stuff of Manhood, by Robert E. -Speer - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Stuff of Manhood - Some Needed Notes in American Character - -Author: Robert E. Speer - -Release Date: February 13, 2022 [eBook #67403] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STUFF OF MANHOOD *** - - - - - - THE STUFF OF MANHOOD - - - - - By ROBERT E. SPEER - - - _The Stuff of Manhood_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _John’s Gospel_, The Greatest Book in the World - 12mo, cloth, net 60c. - - _Men Who Were Found Faithful_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _Some Great Leaders in the World Movement_ - _The Cole Lectures for 1911._ 12mo, cloth, net $1.25 - - _The Foreign Doctor_: “The Hakim Sahib” - A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D., - of Persia. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.50 - - _Christianity and the Nations_ - _The Duff Lectures for 1910._ 8vo, cloth, net $2.00 - - _Missionary Principles and Practice_ 8vo, cloth, net $1.50 - - _A Memorial of Alice Jackson_ 12mo, cloth, net 75c. - - _A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _A Memorial of a True Life_ - A Biography of Hugh McAllister Beaver With - Portrait 12mo, cloth, $1.00 - - _Young Men Who Overcame_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _Paul, the All-Round Man_ 16mo, cloth, net 50c. - - _The Master of the Heart_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _A Young Man’s Questions_ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _The Principles of Jesus_ In Some Applications - to Present Life 16mo, net 60c. - - _Christ and Life_ The Practice of the Christian - Life 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 - - _Studies of the Man Paul_ 16mo, cloth, 75c. - - _Studies of “The Man Christ Jesus”_ 16mo, cloth, 75c. - - _Remember Jesus Christ_ And Other Talks About - Christ and the Christian Life 16mo, cloth, 75c. - - _The Deity of Christ_ 18mo, boards, net 25c. - - - - - _The Merrick Lectures for 1916–17. Delivered at the Ohio - Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, April 1–5, 1917_ - - - The Stuff of Manhood - - _SOME NEEDED NOTES IN - AMERICAN CHARACTER_ - - By - ROBERT E. SPEER - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO - Fleming H. Revell Company - LONDON AND EDINBURGH - - - - - Copyright, 1917, by - FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY - - - New York: 158 Fifth Avenue - Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. - Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. - London: 21 Paternoster Square - Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street - - - - -The Merrick Lectures - - -By the gift of the late Rev. Frederick Merrick, M. D., D. D., LL. D., -for fifty-one years a member of the Faculty, and for thirteen of those -years President of Ohio Wesleyan University, a fund was established -providing an annual income for the purpose of securing lectures within -the general field of Experimental and Practical Religion. The following -courses have previously been given on this foundation: - -Daniel Curry, D. D.――“Christian Education.” - -President James McCosh, D. D., LL. D.――“Tests of the Various Kinds of -Truth.” - -Bishop Randolph S. Foster, D. D., LL. D.――“The Philosophy of Christian -Experience.” - -Professor James Stalker, D. D.――“The Preacher and His Models.” - -John W. Butler, D. D.――“Mission Work in Mexico.” - -Professor George Adam Smith, D. D., LL. D.――“Christ in the Old -Testament.” - -Bishop James W. Bashford, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D.――“The Science of -Religion.” - -James M. Buckley, D. D., LL. D.――“The Natural and Spiritual Orders and -Their Relations.” - -John R. Mott, M. A., F. R. G. S.――“The Pastor and Modern Missions.” - -Bishop Elijah E. Hoss, D. D., LL. D.; Professor Doremus A. Hayes, Ph. -D., S. T. D., LL. D.; Charles E. Jefferson, D. D., LL. D.; Bishop -William F. McDowell, D. D., LL. D.; President Edwin H. Hughes, D. -D.――“The New Age and Its Creed.” - -Robert E. Speer, M. A.――“The Marks of a Man, or The Essentials of -Christian Character.” - -Rev. Charles Stelzle, Miss Jane Addams, Commissioner of Labor Charles -P. Neill, Ph. D., Professor Graham Taylor, and Rev. George P. Eckman, -D. D.――“The Social Application of Religion.” - -Rev. George Jackson, M. A.――“Some Old Testament Problems.” - -Professor Walter Rauschenbusch, D. D.――“Christianizing the Social -Order.” - -Professor G. A. Johnston Ross, M. A.――“One Avenue of Faith.” - - - - -Introduction - - -The moral elements of individual character are inevitably social. -And the social obligation immensely strengthens the sanctions which -enjoin them. When a man “has trained himself,” to use the words of -Lord Morley in dealing with Voltaire’s religion, “to look upon every -wrong in thought, every duty omitted from act, each infringement of the -inner spiritual law which humanity is constantly perfecting for its -own guidance and advantage ... as an ungrateful infection, weakening -and corrupting the future of his brothers,” he views each struggle -within his own soul against evil and each firm aspiration after purity -not as a mere incident in his own spiritual biography but as a fight -for social good and for the perfecting of the nation and of humanity. -And the struggle for social good and the perfecting of human life is -fundamentally a struggle for the triumph of ideals in personal wills. -God can take hold of men only in man. He revealed Himself and wrought -redemption less by a social process than by a personal incarnation. And -the only way of which we know to uplift the life of the nation and to -fit it for its mission and its ministry is to reform our own and other -men’s characters, and ourselves to be what manner of man among men we -would have the nation be among nations. It is of some of the elements -of character of which men stand specially in need to-day that we are to -speak in these lectures. What is good in our lives as individuals and -in our life as a nation is not in need of discussion here. And there is -no nobility in analyzing and deriding our weaknesses. Our purpose is -to urge our keeping if we have not lost them, and our regaining if we -feel them slipping from us, some of the elemental moral qualities and -spiritual resources which are vital to the capacity for duty and to the -living of a full and efficient life. - -It has seemed best, on the whole, to preserve in the printed volume the -free colloquialism of the lectures as they were delivered. - - R. E. S. - -_New York._ - - - - -Contents - - - I. DISCIPLINE AND AUSTERITY 11 - - II. THE CONSERVATION AND RELEASE OF MORAL RESOURCES 50 - - III. AN UNFRIGHTENED HOPE 85 - - IV. THE JOY OF THE MINORITY 118 - - V. THE LIFE INVISIBLE 160 - - - - -LECTURE I - -DISCIPLINE AND AUSTERITY - - -Whether there should be compulsory military training in America is a -question which some people will answer yes or no according to their -general theories and others according to their observation of the -actual effects of such training on moral character. But whatever our -views may be on this familiar question, whether we regard military -service as ethically helpful in its influence or as morally injurious, -we cannot differ as to the need in our national character of those -qualities of self-control, of quick and unquestioning obedience to -duty, of joyful contempt of hardship, and of zest in difficult and -arduous undertakings which, rightly or wrongly, we consider soldierly, -which we attribute in such rich measure to our forefathers, and which -the moral exigencies of our national task to-day as peremptorily -demand. To put these primary and elemental needs as sharply as -possible, let us call them discipline and austerity. Our American -character needs more of both. - -I do not know a better starting point than is found in one of those -vivid modern touches upon which we constantly come in the Old -Testament. This one is in the account of the closing year of King -David’s life. The story seems ancient and far away until we suddenly -read: “His father had not displeased him at any time saying, Why hast -thou done so?” If we were to translate the words more directly into -the language of our own day, we should say, “His father had always let -him do exactly as he pleased.” The reference is to David and his son -Adonijah, and to the want of discipline by which the father had ruined -his boy. - -It is not hard to reconstruct the story. David was busy about his cares -as king, and his heart was indulgent towards his children. Adonijah -seems to have been his youngest son, and the father let him have his -way, never reining him up or checking him by asking why he had done -thus or so. David pursued, in other words, the modern theory of child -training: that the one principle by which children should be educated -is the principle of letting what is naturally in them come out; that -they must not be crossed or frustrated, or have any external discipline -or control laid upon their lives. This is, of course, the extreme of -it, but in some form we hear the theory and see it applied all about us -every day. - -And it is a modern theory of self-education, also. We are told that -life should be left free to follow its native impulses; that it should -not be thwarted and intimidated by the conventions and prohibitions of -society; that men and women should consult their own hearts and then -should move out quite freely in obedience to their promptings; that -their lives and the lives of their children should not be twisted or -deflected by the imposition of any external authority or command. - -Well, that was the way Adonijah was brought up. His father was rich. -The boy had his own establishment, his own horses, his own retinue of -attendants, and round about him, as about any oriental king’s son, -there would be the usual crowd of flatterers and sycophants. There was -no will or desire that he had not the means to gratify, and his father -let him have his way. - -Further, he was the younger brother of Absalom, and the ancient record -says that they were handsome and popular boys. They had a way that -carried along those who came in touch with them, and as the king’s -sons, and the leading young men of the city, we have no difficulty in -understanding the atmosphere in which they lived and the conditions -within which they grew. - -It must be confessed that this was the easy way of going about the -matter. It is far easier to let a child have its own way than to -endeavour by wisdom and patience and strength, to study and decide what -is best for the child and without hurting the child’s will, to guide it -into the better way. It was far less care to David to let Absalom and -Adonijah go than it would have been to take these high-strung sons of -his in hand and endeavour to break them to discipline and truth, and to -send them out into life real men of power. It was much easier never to -call them and to say, “Boys, why did you do this?” Much easier never -to lay any authority or guidance upon them from without, much easier, -especially for a man like David. He had grown up on a farm, with all -the hardship and frugality of farm life, with no privileges as a lad, -and now that he was the king of his nation, he was able to do anything -whatever for his sons. It was difficult to refuse them the things he -had never had. Easily and indulgently――for he was a man of kindly heart -all his days――he found it simpler not to lay hard restraints upon his -boys when he could give them their own way. - -And, of course, this is the easier way of self-education too. For a -man to love himself so much that he never thinks of his neighbours, to -blind his eyes so completely to consequences that he can live for the -passing moment,――this is a very easy philosophy, and the man or the -woman who is able to practice it will seem, for a while, to live in -the sunshine, a fine butterfly, smooth-going life. All this is easier -than to say, not, What is my impulse? but, What ought I? not, What do -I like? but, What is best for all the world? not, What is the easy -way? but, What is the hard way over which the feet go that carry the -burdens of mankind, that bear the load of the world? - -But, though it is the easy way for a while, there comes a time when -it is no longer the easy way. When in his little room above the gate -the old king bowed his gray head in his hands and with breaking heart -sobbed out: “O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had -died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!”――it was no longer the easy -way. When Adonijah rose up in insurrection against his old father as he -lay on his dying bed, gathering his little company of sycophants around -him and setting himself up in his father’s place, then it was no longer -the easy way that the old man had pursued. - -And to-day still, fathers and mothers who for a little while thought -the easy way was never to ask their children why they had done so, but -to let them go their own way with no imposition of outward authority or -control, find after a while that the easy way has turned bitterly hard. -I have a friend, a leading merchant in one of our large cities. Some -time ago another friend was visiting him, and as they walked down the -street together, suddenly a large car whizzed around the corner, full -of young people, among them the merchant’s son. This was the middle of -the forenoon and the boy was supposed to be at work in his father’s -establishment. The father turned to his friend and said: “I wish I knew -how I could hold my boy in.” But my friend understood why he could not. -He knew that only two or three years before the son had been rewarded -for passing examinations at college, examinations that it ought to have -been taken for granted that he would pass. But his father thought he -should be rewarded for passing them, and he bought a car and sent it -up to him at college. Now he wonders why this son does not know how to -bind himself to arduous duty. - -And in our own lives the easy education does not go easily all the way. -There comes a time when, having always indulged ourselves, we can’t -break the habit; when, never having taken our lives in our hands and -reined them to the great ministries of mankind, we discover that we -cannot. We find that we obey our caprices; follow any impulse; cannot -stick to any task; do not know a principle when we see it; have no -iron or steel anywhere in our character; are the riffraff of the world -that the worthy men and women have to bear along as they go. In Mr. -Kipling’s inelegant lines: - - “We was rotten ’fore we started――we was never disci_plined_; - We made it out a favour if an order was obeyed; - Yes, every little drummer ’ad ’is rights and wrongs to mind, - So we had to pay for teachin’――an’ we paid!” - -Now I suggest that we put all this positively to ourselves, for every -one of us knows that we are treading near some of the moral realities -of weakness and need in our day and nation. Why should restraint, -obedience, the authority of duty and God be let into our lives? In -order that out of all these things self-control may come. And why -should there be this submission and control of our lives by duty, and -truth and God? Well, the reasons are obvious, the moment we begin to -think about them. - -There is the indisputable fact that the strongest and best men and -women we know are men and women who were trained in this school, who -some time during their life, and the earlier the better, passed under -the discipline and influence of that chastening spoken about in the -twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, without which we are not -children of a clean God. All around us are these men and women, fathers -and mothers, who indulge their sons and daughters, who never confront -them with moral principle and obligation and duty, and then lament -because their children do not seem to have the old iron grasp of duty, -the old rigid love of truth and righteousness. Well, it is all very -simple. It is because those fathers and mothers are denying to their -children the very education that made themselves what they are. The men -and women, who will not run away from any task, who stand steadfast in -the truth, upon whose every word we can rest our whole soul, grew out -of a certain discipline, a certain education, and it was the kind that -Adonijah did not have. And all men and women who want to be masters of -their lives and to have strength to lay beneath the work of the world -must ask God that such discipline may be given to them. - -Not alone is this the only kind of training that can produce this kind -of character, but unless a man learns control from without, he will -never learn self-control. Unless he passes under the discipline of a -wiser and stronger hand at the beginning, he will never come to the -time of deliberate and moral self-discipline, which alone is character. -For this only is character,――the binding of life beneath the firm -sovereignty of the principle that is the heart of God. If nations do -not realize this they will pay heavily for their failure. “Make your -educational laws strict,” said Ruskin, “and your criminal laws may be -gentle; but leave youth its liberty and you will have to dig dungeons -for age.” - -And it is this that gives freedom. There is no freedom outside of -character. Liberty, as Montesquieu says, is not freedom to do just as -we please. Liberty is the ability to do as we ought. And the freedom -that we need is not the freedom of caprice and whim and listening to -our impulses. It is the freedom that enables our eyes clearly to see -what right is, and then empowers us to do it. Symonds put it in his -verse: - - “Soul, rule thyself. On passion, deed, desire, - Lay thou the law of thy deliberate will. - Stand at thy chosen post, faith’s sentinel. - Learn to endure. Thine the reward - Of those who make living light their Lord. - Clad with celestial steel these stand secure, - Masters, not slaves.” - -And if such self-control goes as far even as the self-extinction of -that voluntarily accepted Cross, on the green hill outside Jerusalem, -even so it will bring victory at the last, because it has brought -one long succession of victories over self all the days. I cut this -fugitive bit of verse from a newspaper the other day: - - “Pausing a moment ere the day was done, - While yet the earth was scintillant with light, - I backward glanced. From valley, plain and height, - At intervals, where my life path had run, - Rose cross on cross: and nailed upon each one - Was my dead self. And yet that gruesome sight - Lent sudden splendour to the falling night. - Showing the conquests that my soul had won. - - “Up to the rising stars I looked and cried, - There is no death! For year on year reborn, - I wake to larger life, to joy more great. - So many times have I been crucified, - So often seen the resurrection morn, - I go triumphant, though new Calvaries wait.” - -And this freedom and victory are waiting only for those lives that have -been broken beneath the cross of an absolute restraint of God, and -have so mastered themselves under God’s name by the help of Christ that -control has been given over in trust into their own hands. - -And we all know that power is to be won here in this school where men -are trained both to feel and to wield dominion. There is no power in -the world that is not power cabined, power held in some way. Loose -power is imperceptible and utterly useless. The only power we know is -power walled in, shut down, confined and beating against its barriers -and its walls. We know this in the athletic life of our colleges -to-day. No athletic trainer in any college ever followed David’s method -with Adonijah. The trainer is there to say: “Why did you do it that -way?” “Why did you not do it this way? You have no right to waste your -energy in that way. You must do it so.” There is one scene in _Quo -Vadis_ that redeems much else in the book. It is the scene in the -Coliseum, when the giant Gothic slave is shown saving the life of his -mistress, whom he loved. The great bull has come out with the girl’s -form tied to his horns, and there is dead silence as the bull stands -angrily facing the man. You remember the picture. As Ursus lays one -hand on each horn of the auroch the struggle begins. There is not a -sound. The great multitude watches the man’s muscles rise and harden -and the sweat come out and drop from every pore. They see his feet -sinking down in the arena, until the sand is above his ankles. Suddenly -the great head of the bull begins to twist under that awful strength. -Then the neck breaks and the giant lifts the limp form from the beast’s -neck and stands with the burden in his hands before the Emperor. One -likes to read such a picture of power secured by self-discipline. Do we -want to go out limp and beaten and ineffective in our lives against the -great mass of work in the world that waits to be done? Or do we want to -go in the strength of Him Who, having bent beneath His Father’s will, -was able to carry on the Cross the whole burden of human sin? - -And we must learn in this school the things we value and desire most: -purity and delicacy and refinement of character, for they cannot be -acquired elsewhere. So much social standing nowadays is uttered in -terms of self-assertion and indulgence and the ability to have any whim -or caprice gratified. This sort of self-assertion, this caprice, is -regarded by many of us as the highest mark of social authority, whereas -we know it is precisely the opposite, that it is self-restraint and -self-control and self-surrender that mark the finest lives. - -There is a beautiful story in the life of Goldwin Smith that -illustrates what I mean. In the early sixties, when he was one of the -keenest liberal minds of England, he was associated with Cobden and -Bright in the Manchester School. Again and again he found himself the -mark of the bitterest criticism from Disraeli. Later Goldwin Smith, -resigning his professorship at Oxford, came to Canada. At that time -Disraeli’s novel, “Lothair,” appeared in which he attacked Smith――of -course, without using his name――as a social parasite. It stung Smith -to the depths of his soul, but as it was an anonymous book there was -nothing he could do but sit down and write this note personally to -Disraeli: - - “You well know that if you had ventured openly to accuse me - of any social baseness, you would have had to answer for your - words; but when sheltering yourself under the literary forms of - a work of fiction, you seek to traduce with impunity the social - character of a political opponent, your expressions can touch - no man’s honour――they are the stingless insults of a coward.” - -That was all he did. And yet, at that very moment, Goldwin Smith had in -his possession letters of Disraeli, with which he could have crushed -him. Openly in Parliament Disraeli had said that he had never asked -Peel for any position. But among Peel’s papers which had been placed -in his hands Smith had a letter in which Disraeli had abjectly begged -Peel to give him office. All that Smith needed to do was to publish -Disraeli’s own letter to Peel and it would have ruined Disraeli’s -career. But to Goldwin Smith that was not a noble thing to do. Peel’s -correspondence had not been given to him to use in self-defense, or -for any personal justification of his own, and he repressed that -letter until Disraeli was dead. Then, years after, all of Peel’s -correspondence was published and the whole world knew what a gentleman -Goldwin Smith had been. Our modern ideals of what constitutes high -social and national standing and character say: “Fight fire with fire. -Dishonour releases honour from itself. He struck you foul; strike him -so in return.” But the man who had learned self-restraint in the school -of God’s loyalty and truth, who understood that power is ours, not to -use for self-seeking, but for the good of men and for God’s honour, -would not stoop to any such disloyalty and shame. - -Once more. Whose judgment is of any value? Who would have thought of -going to Adonijah and asking his opinion on anything whatsoever? He -did not know right from wrong. He never thought over the issues of -right or wrong. What would I like to do? What does passion bid me do? -What is my whim or caprice for to-night?――that was as far as Adonijah -had ever thought. No man would ever go to him, as no men will ever -come to you and me if we have not been trained in the school of moral -discrimination, if we have not looked on ethical principle and duty in -deciding the question whether each thing is really right for us and for -the whole world. If we are to be men and women to whom people will come -for comfort and strength and guidance, to whom our own children can -come with assurance that they will get the truth, we must be men and -women who now place ourselves beneath the firm discipline of God. - -We see all this put simply in two great things. We see it in our Lord’s -constant appeal, while here in the world, for men and women of fiber -and discipline. One came to Him and said: “Lord, what shall I do to -inherit eternal life?” And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and -said: “I would not think of counselling anything hard. You must not -sacrifice anything. It is all very easy. The Father above is a Father -of great tenderness and compassion. He would not lay a straw’s weight -upon any child of His. Go; live according to your desires and by the -natural impulses of your heart, and for that you shall have treasure -in heaven.” Oh, no; He did not say that. He said: “Go, sell all that -thou hast, and come and follow me. Except ye love less than duty your -father and mother and brother and sister, yea, and your own life also, -ye cannot enter the kingdom of God.” - -We see it, too, in God’s way with men as He laid down His great laws at -the beginning, when His people were but as a race of little children. -Why did He not say to them: “This ye may do. The world is sweet and -fair. This ye may do, and all shall be easy to you”? Why, on the other -hand, did He speak to them in the stern admonitions of the Decalogue: -“Thou shalt. Thou shalt not”? God never hesitates to lay His great -denials upon mankind and at last to stifle us beneath the restraint -of death that He may issue us forth through that restraint into the -infinite liberties of the life immortal. - -Now do not brush all this away to-day, or any day, light-heartedly, as -it can be so easily brushed away. “Oh, don’t shadow our lives,” you -will say, “with your denials and your prohibitions and your restraints. -Leave life free and sweet as the summer air and the flowers of the -field”――that last how long? No, my friends, it were well for us that -we should learn this lesson, and learn it now, ere the time comes when -the silver cord is loosed and the wheel is broken at the cistern and -the grinders cease and the long shadows fall. You remember a tragic -incident in New York a few years ago――I do not need to recall the -details of it――when two young lives made shipwreck of themselves just -because they thought that impulse and caprice were the free voices that -they might obey. When it was all over, and the two lives had drawn the -veil of night across their short-lived evil joy, one of the papers -published a letter which the girl had written to a friend: - - “My friend,” she wrote, “you and I and Fred, young, heedless, - cynical, living in this reckless town of New York, may laugh - sometimes at the old things like law and religion, when they - say, ‘Thou shalt not.’ We may think that phrase was written for - old fogies, and we may sneer at ‘the wages of sin is death’; - but, my friend, there comes to us some time knowledge that the - law and religion are right. What they say we shall not do, we - cannot do without suffering. Fred and I have learned that. The - wages of sin is death.” - -It is worse than death; for what was Hell in that great vision that -John saw? Why, nothing but the removal of all restraint. “He which is -filthy, let him be filthy still.” He is unclean, let him be unclean. -He is unholy, let him be unholy. Take all the restraints away. That is -Hell. - -Away from the dark gates that open thither may another voice call us -here to-day, the clear, strong, summoning voice of Him Who said of -Himself: “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent -me. I do always those things that please my Father,” and Who in the -garden of Gethsemane, when the anguish was almost greater than He could -bear, yet found rest when He prayed, “Father, not my will, but thine -be done”; that out of the willfulness and capriciousness and the whim -and mood of our little self-indulgent lives we may pass into the great, -strong, steadfast, sovereign will that waits for us; that we may stand -fast and be strong in the strength and chastening of God! - -Now I have put it――this matter of our need of discipline――in the -most personal and individual way, but it is our great national and -corporate need. The body of a nation can only exist through the -ordered discipline of its members and the spirit of a nation like the -spirit of a man needs to be cleansed of all the lusts of willfulness -and self-indulgence. The spirit of our American nation needs such -cleansing. Mr. Kipling has drawn us his picture of it: - - “Through many roads, by me possessed, - He shambles forth in cosmic guise; - He is the Jester and the Jest, - And he the Text himself applies. - - “His easy unswept hearth he lends - From Labrador to Guadaloupe; - Till, elbowed out by sloven friends, - He camps, at sufferance, on the stoop. - - “Calm-eyed he scoffs at sword and crown, - Or panic-blinded stabs and slays: - Blatant he bids the world bow down, - Or cringing begs a crust of praise; - - “Or, sombre-drunk, at mine and mart, - He dubs his dreary brethren Kings. - His hands are black with blood――his heart - Leaps, as a babe’s, at little things. - - “But, through the shift of mood and mood, - Mine ancient humour saves him whole―― - The cynic devil in his blood - That bids him mock his hurrying soul; - - “That bids him flout the Law he makes, - That bids him make the Law he flouts, - Till, dazed by many doubts, he wakes - The drumming guns that――have no doubts; - - “That checks him foolish-hot and fond, - That chuckles through his deepest ire, - That gilds the slough of his despond - But dims the goal of his desire; - - “Inopportune, shrill-accented, - The acrid Asiatic mirth - That leaves him, careless ’mid his dead, - The scandal of the elder earth.” - -Doubtless we do not like this picture. We call it a libel or a -caricature. Let it be so. Draw your own picture. If there is any -truth or faithfulness in it, if it is not blind with national vanity -and self-deceit, it will still be a revelation of national need of -discipline and of self-empire. - -And how can such discipline and self-empire be won? Well, it will -not be won on any ground of prudential expediency or practical -self-interest. It is well for men and nations to discern their moral -shortcomings and to realize their need of a new character. But there -are no automatic processes of community salvation. The disciplined -nation comes in only one way――by the answers of individuals to the -austere call of the one Person who can remake character and mould -the stuff of manhood and nationality. The austere call! This is the -nation’s need and it is the fundamental summons and the central note -of Christianity. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will -come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow -me.” - -The appeal of Christ was always addressed to the sacrificial and -the heroic. In every call which He issued to men there is this -unmistakable note of austerity. He never smooths things over for the -sake of pleasing people or of winning followers. There were times when -He seemed almost needlessly to draw in these repelling aspects of -discipleship, and to make the conditions of following Him unnecessarily -hard. It is related that it came to pass that, as they went in the way, -a certain man said unto Him, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever -thou goest.” And Jesus said unto him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of -the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” -And He said unto another, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, suffer me -first to go and bury my father.” Jesus said unto him, “Let the dead -bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” And -another also said, “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid -them farewell which are at home at my house.” And Jesus said unto him, -“No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit -for the kingdom of God.” - -Christ never concealed His own judgments and convictions as to life’s -values in these matters, and spoke with the greatest scorn of all -indulgence and softness of life. “What went ye out for to see?” He -asked the people, regarding John. “A man clothed in soft raiment? -Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king’s houses.” He was -looking after men of iron and of austerity. “If any man will come after -me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” - -The beautiful thing is that this appeal of Christ’s was not futile. -Instead of repelling men it drew them. He actually obtained the men -whom He was hunting for, not by offering them worldly inducements, -not by making such appeals as anybody but Christ would have made, but -by addressing the sacrificial spirit in them, and making an appeal to -their latent capacity for heroism. There is a wonderful tribute in -Jesus’ method to those characteristics in human nature which have never -been destroyed, which can answer to the highest motives, which do not -need to be bought by any low compensations, but which spring into full -life when appealed to on the most heroic and unselfish plane. We know -how, in consequence, this exultation in difficulties, this love of -hardship, this scorn of ease became the characteristic note of early -Christianity. In the best summary description which Saint Paul gives -of Christian character and manhood, in the twelfth chapter of Romans -we find him speaking of “rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation.” -And when he comes to write his conception of the character of the happy -warrior, we find him setting this in the foreground, “Endure hardship, -as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The praise of the New Testament is -never given to those who have lived in luxurious, indulgent ease. It is -for that little company of men and women who have loved the difficult -tasks, and who with joy trod the rough ways that transcend the stars. -Every one of the great New Testament leaders is a man who exalts for -us this same love of moral hardship, this same scorn of indulgence and -smooth ease, and this same virtue of steadfastness, “And not only so,” -says Paul, “but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation -worketh stedfastness; and stedfastness, experience; and experience, -hope.” And Peter writes, “Yea, and for this very cause adding on your -part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue -knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control -stedfastness; and in your stedfastness godliness.” James joins in, -“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; -knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” And you -remember the description which John gives of himself in Revelation as -“your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and -stedfastness which are in Jesus.” - -Now, we ask ourselves the question why our Lord poured out all this -scorn on what the world counts the desirable condition and atmosphere -of life, why the New Testament has no patience with self-seeking, -indulgence, contentment, or ease as the standard of a human life, -why it speaks contemptuously of smooth ease of every kind, and -exalts, instead, the austere life, the life of strength, and of -self-discipline, why our Lord said to men when He came to call them -into the best thing there was in the world, “If any man will come after -me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow after -me.” - -Well, one reason why the whole New Testament pours out such contempt -upon the smooth life and exalts hardness, is because only hardness can -make a great soul, and the end of the Gospel, the end of life, was the -growing of souls. The words of Socrates, understood in the social sense -which he intended and not selfishly, contain the central end. “For I -do nothing,” said he, “but go about persuading you all, old and young -alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but -first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul.” -It is true, in a sense, that we are here for the work we can do, but it -is also true, in a yet deeper sense, that we are here to become the -best workmen that we can become, and that the work we do has a large -measure of its value in its reflex power of making us capable of doing -better work. Evidently this is not the real workshop where God needs -His best men and women. When He has perfected His workmen and workwomen -and recognizes that they are prepared to do their best work, does He -make use of them here? Never. He takes them elsewhere, where evidently -the real work is to be done. Everything we see in this world would seem -to indicate that it is only the preparatory school, a place where men -and women are equipped for the real thing, that the career that is to -abide lies elsewhere than here. The purpose of these days is to make -us ready for the work God has for us to do in a larger sphere than -this, where we pass on, as Chinese Gordon told Mr. Huxley, to have a -larger government given to us to administer. God pours out His contempt -on smoothness of life because it cannot make greatness of soul, and -greatness of soul is one object of our being here. - -The Christian ideal despised, also, this smoothness which seems to many -of us the most desirable thing that life has for us, because there is -such little knowledge given with it. At best it can only play on the -very surface of life. We know no more than springs out of the deep -experience through which we pass. You remember the lines of Father -Tabb: - - “‘Where wast thou, little song, - That hast delayed so long - To come to me?’ - ‘Mute in the mind of God - Till where thy feet had trod - I followed thee.’” - -It is only where we have gone that we know the way; it is only the -experience in life that we have passed through that gives us our true -knowledge of life, because the end of life is its relationships, and -wealth of life depends on the breadth of true knowledge and the riches -of true relationship. Smoothness of life is simply deadening because it -keeps us out of what is real life. - -And Christianity derided smoothness of life, and scorned it, because -it separates us from fellowship with the noble and suffering life -of God. You know the long controversy in theology as to whether the -idea of suffering is compatible with the idea of a perfect God. There -have been some theologians who insist it could not be possible that -God should suffer. If He could suffer, He could not be God. Well, I -suppose all of us here are prepared without one moment of hesitation -to range ourselves on the other side, and to say that if God cannot -suffer He cannot be our God. He could not be a father if He did not -suffer. Christ could not have been the revelation of Him if He is not -a suffering God; for “He was the man of sorrows, and acquainted with -grief.” What He laid bare was a heart of love sharing the anguish of -others; for we have not a Father who cannot be touched with the feeling -of our infirmities,――We can say that of Him because of what we know -of Him who revealed Him,――We have not a Father who cannot be touched -with the feeling of our infirmities, no impassive God sitting where “no -sound of human sorrow mounts to mar His sacred everlasting calm,” but -a Father who pities His children, who enters into their life, and who -loves them with all His soul. We can have no knowledge of that God, no -fellowship with His life, if what we are living is the smooth, easy, -indulgent life, everything bought for us by others, nothing done by us -for others, no blood of sacrifice colouring our life red with the glow -of God and His incarnate Son. The New Testament despises the smooth -life that makes it impossible for men and women to have any part in the -deepest life of their Father. - -And the New Testament scorns the smooth, indulgent life because it -cannot connect men and women with the real springs of strength and of -power. No strong man was ever made against no resistance. We develop no -physical power by putting forth no physical effort. All the strength of -life we have we get by pushing against opposition. We acquire power -as we draw it out of deep experience and effort. And the new Christian -ideal made no place for indulgence and ease because these things leave -men and women weak, with no strength either themselves to bear or to -achieve for others. It is as Mrs. King puts it in Ugo Bassi’s “Sermon -in the Hospital”: - - “The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine; - Is it the poorer for the spirit shed? - The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof; - Are they the richer for that gift’s excess? - Measure thy life by loss instead of gain; - Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth - For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice; - And whoso suffers most hath most to give. - - * * * * * - - God said to Man and Woman, ‘By thy sweat, - And by thy travail, thou shalt conquer earth,’ - Not, by thy ease or pleasure:――and no good - Or glory of this life but comes by pain. - How poor were earth if all its martrydoms, - If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice - Were swept away, and all were satiate-smooth, - If this were such a heaven of soul and sense - As some have dreamed of;――and we human still. - Nay, we were fashioned not for perfect peace - In this world, howsoever in the next: - And what we win and hold is through some strife.” - -And it was because our Lord knew this that He set over against men’s -wills the strait door of the kingdom of life. He did not betray the -trust that had been given to Him. He did not say, “Come, I will make -life easy for you.” He did not say, “Come, let us indulge ourselves -to heart’s content.” He said, “If any man will come after me, let him -leave all that behind, let him deny himself, and let him take up his -cross daily, and let him come after me.” - -Now, I know what many of us will be saying of all this. We will be -saying, “God did not bring us into the world with any cross. All our -life long has been a sheltered life. None of this hardness of which -you speak has ever come to us. Maybe our fathers and mothers knew it -before us, but they have shielded us from its pressure. Are we to go -back to crudeness and asceticism for the good of our souls? Are we who -have no cross deliberately to take our smooth lives and roughen them?” -Yes, that is precisely what I am saying. Those of us who were not born -with a cross must find one, those whose lives have been smooth are -deliberately to find ways of roughening them, so that we may know a -life of power and fellowship with the suffering God, and can go out to -real work, and be prepared for that greater life and greater service -which await us elsewhere than here. - -We shall not have any great difficulty in obeying this call of Christ -to roughen our lives. There are many crosses in the world too heavy for -the men and women who are trying to carry them. We can go out and find -one of these crosses and help to bear it. They are not far away. Here -is a clipping from the New York _Sun_: - - “A comely young Hungarian woman with a three-months-old baby in - her arms dropped to the sidewalk at Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth - Street late yesterday afternoon and lay half conscious. An - ambulance surgeon who came said the woman was starving and that - her baby had bronchitis. - - “The woman recovered enough to tell the surgeon that she was - Mrs. Mary Scheinn, twenty years old, and that her husband had - died recently. She had been living with a friend at 97 Seigel - Street, Brooklyn, she said, but this woman also was very poor - and expected to be evicted to-day, so Mrs. Scheinn had walked - to New York to try to get her sick child into a hospital. She - tramped from hospital to hospital, and everywhere they refused - to take the child, she said. But she kept up the quest until - she gave out. She had had nothing to eat since yesterday and - little then. - - “The ambulance took the woman and child to Bellevue Hospital. - Both are in a rather serious condition.” - -Being young and comely, doubtless, if she had not had the baby, some -pimp or other American citizen, for a consideration within her power, -might have helped her, but being innocent and carrying a baby there she -stood until she fell down, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth -Street, in the heart of the city, a woman carrying a baby and a cross -that were too heavy for her. There were millions of Christian people -round about her. Thousands of us never knew what a cross was and we -let the woman with her child in her arms fall down under the weight of -hers. This world is black with the shadows of crosses. If we have none -of our own, in the name of the great Cross, let us borrow one. - -Here is a note from a girl. She is one of thousands and the note is -real. I had been speaking in one of the New York churches and the next -day came a letter from her asking me, if I really believed what I had -said, to answer some questions for her. I wrote in reply and this was -part of her answer: “The great trouble with me is that I have to fight -continually against despondency. Life to me is a series of sorrows and -troubles, that accumulate and grow larger, and just when I am at the -point of giving up altogether some little word or act deters me.... I -know I would be happy if I were, as you say, truly trustful towards -God, but God to me seems very far off and rather mythical. Your letter, -also the fact that you wrote, was a help to me. The part that perhaps -appealed to me most was the idea that God and God’s love are longing -for us. It is very fine to feel that when one is always lonesome.” I -learned more of her story but it is not for telling here. It was a -cross too heavy for her which she was trying to bear. Women who knew -her lifted its weight for her, taking it over upon themselves. - -And not only by taking up crosses, of which the world is full, can we -roughen our lives. Many of us can do it by simply cutting off some of -our waste and extravagance. There are many of us who never ask before -we spend money, “How can I get the greatest return from this money?” We -waste it like water, while Belgium, Serbia, Poland and Armenia call. It -is said that there are thirty million people in India who have only one -meal a day, and who never know what it is to have enough to eat. Some -of them say that if they could have enough to eat for just two days, -they would be willing to lie down and die content. Again and again, -hundreds of thousands of people in China have been the victims of -famine, while we were throwing wealth away. We can roughen life a bit -by denying ourselves, by abridging expenditure and devoting the money -to human need and to some of the services the world is dying for. - -Students often reject the ethical and economic arguments against -gambling. These arguments are valid but it is very hard to get a -clutch for them on many minds. You can point out how dishonourable -and essentially immoral it is for a man to have money which he did -not earn, for which he gave no equivalent, which came to him as no -expression of friendship or by no legitimate inheritance. All this -is clear to the healthy and manly moral sense. But the gambler does -not have such a sense. I have often wondered that the case is not -more frequently put from the other side, from the side of the wrong -of spending money in gambling. When a man has won on a bet the moral -question is lulled but when he has lost there is a chastened mood which -can be invited to reflect. What moral warrant did he have for throwing -his money away? What does he have to show for it? A million hungry -hands were outstretched to him, a world of want and suffering called -towards him over land and sea? And he threw his money away――got nothing -for it, did nothing with it. In a world like ours, there are parched -lips waiting for drink; there are hungry mouths in need of bread:――do -we have any right to waste in indulgence in a world like this? Men -should scrutinize every dollar that passes through their hands and ask, -“What is the very best thing that I can do with this?” - -And frugality, self-imposed for the sake of service, will come back -to us in rich reward in character and power. Horace Bushnell drew a -noble picture of the fruitage of true parsimony in his address at the -Litchfield County Centennial in 1851, on “The Age of Homespun”: - - “It was also a great point, in this homespun mode of life, that - it imparted exactly what many speak of only with contempt, a - closely girded habit of economy. Harnessed, all together, into - the producing process, young and old, male and female, from the - boy that rode the plow-horse, to the grandmother knitting under - her spectacles, they had no conception of squandering lightly - what they all had been at work, thread by thread, and grain by - grain, to produce. They knew too exactly what everything cost, - even small things, not to husband them carefully. Men of - patrimony in the great world, therefore, noticing their small - way in trade, or expenditure, are ready, as we often see, to - charge them with meanness――simply because they knew things only - in the small; or, what is not far different, because they were - too simple and rustic to have any conception of the big - operations by which other men are wont to get their money - without earning it, and lavish the more freely because it was - not earned. Still, this knowing life only in the small, it will - be found, is really anything but meanness. - - “Probably enough the man who is heard threshing in his barn of a - winter evening, by the light of a lantern, (I knew such an - example) will be seen driving his team next day, the coldest day - of the year, through the deep snow to a distant wood-lot to draw - a load for a present to his minister. So the housewife that - higgles for a half hour with the merchant over some small trade - is yet one that will keep watch, not unlikely, when the - schoolmaster, boarding round the district, comes to some hard - quarter, and commence asking him to dinner, then to tea, then to - stay over night, and literally boarding him, till the hard - quarter is passed. Who now, in the great world of money, will - do, not to say the same, as much, proportionally as much, in any - of the pure hospitalities of life? - - “Besides, what sufficiently disproves any real meanness, it will - be found that children brought up, in this way, to know things - in the small――what they cost and what is their value――have, in - just that fact, one of the best securities of character and most - certain elements of power and success in life; because they - expect to get on by small advances followed up and saved by - others, not by sudden leaps of fortune that despise the slow but - surer methods of industry and merit. When the hard, wiry-looking - patriarch of homespun, for example, sets off for Hartford, or - Bridgeport, to exchange the little surplus of his year’s - production, carrying his provision with him and the fodder for - his team, and taking his boy along to show him the great world, - you may laugh at the simplicity, or pity, if you will, the - sordid look of the picture; but, five or ten years hence, this - boy will probably enough be found in college, digging out the - cent’s worths of his father’s money in hard study; and some - twenty years later he will be returning, in his honours, as the - celebrated Judge, or Governor, or Senator and public orator, - from some one of the great states of the republic, to bless the - sight once more of that venerated pair who shaped his beginnings, - and planted the small seeds of his future success. Small seeds, - you may have thought, of meanness; but now they have grown up - and blossomed into a large-minded life, a generous public - devotion, and a free benevolence to mankind. - - “And just here, I am persuaded, is the secret, in no small - degree, of the very peculiar success that has distinguished the - sons of Connecticut, and, not least, those of Litchfield County, - in their migration to other states. It is because they have gone - out in the wise economy of a simple, homespun training, - expecting to get on in the world by merit and patience, and by a - careful husbanding of small advances; secured in their virtue by - just that which makes their perseverance successful. For the men - who see the great in the small, and go on to build the great by - small increments, and so form a character of integrity before - God and men, as solid and massive as the outward successes they - conquer. The great men who think to be great in general, having - yet nothing great in particular, are a much more windy affair.” - -Every one ought to roughen life by friendships that will bring into it -those influences which are not naturally in our daily associations and -will carry us into contact with men and women who struggle harder than -we do. A few such friendships will help to keep life from petrification -and to make us aware that the world is under a cross, and that our -hearts must be as open to all its needs as the heart of the Father of -human life is open always. - -And we can help to roughen our lives in the very sense in which Christ -meant them to be roughened if we will resist the steadily increasing -tendency of our day to multiply ways in which we are released from -doing things for ourselves. There are none of us who do not have a -hundred things done for us that our fathers and mothers had to do -for themselves. Little by little, we are ridding ourselves of the -responsibility of doing any service for ourselves whatsoever. There is -immense gain in this. It gives freedom for larger living but it can go -too far, and it would be a great thing if we resolved at periods that -we would not let anybody else do for us what we could do for ourselves. -There was a day, perhaps, when men needed the other rule, when it -was a great deal better to get other people to do things for us than -to do them ourselves, but the time has come when the world needs to -reverse that principle. What the world wants is not organizers, but -deorganizers, men and women who will increase the number of personal -services and activities, and who will bring something frugal, simple -and elementary back into life to deliver us from the false heaven of -ease and self-indulgence, which is as bad as any other kind of hell. -Christ came to save us from that. - -There is one other way in which we can answer this call, and can -deliver ourselves from the curse of smooth living. Around about us on -every side there are causes waiting for what men and women can do for -them. I do not mean crosses in any great, general, organized sense, -in which we send our five, our twenty-five or our hundred dollars to -some society and think we have, in that way, carried all the cross that -Christ means to have us carry. We cannot fulfill Christ’s command by -paying an organization to carry a cross for us. All the work they do -must be done, and it must be supported. Millions of dollars that are -not being given now ought to be given. But what Christ is waiting for -also and what we have got to do if we are to have the satisfaction of -the enduring life is to find each of us for himself some true cross of -personal service. There are men and women around us who are waiting for -some touch of sympathy, some kindness, some unflinching word of ours to -them that shall mean the awakening of their own discouraged or sleeping -souls, that they may come out to live. “If any man will come after me, -let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” - -One of the saddest things in the world to-day is the principle under -which those are living who are unwilling to bear these crosses and -to bring home into their lives the wholesome spiritual stimulus that -this roughening of life alone can give to them. We have reacted too far -from the old monastic idea. Men speak with scorn now of those men and -women who went away into monasteries and convents, despising the joys -of the world for the sake of their souls. But these men and women were -infinitely better than the great multitudes who go out into the world -to-day, despising their souls for the sake of the joys of the world. If -a man or woman wants to do any despising it is better to despise the -world than the soul. It were well for us to go back a little to the -spirit of the mediæval time. When that spirit was pure and good the -world’s richest service flowed out from it. - -The glory of life for us consists in finding the rough, the morally -austere things in life and then fearlessly and unhesitatingly doing -them. There is no splendour in the easy indulgent way. The splendour -lies in finding the hard thing to be achieved and revelling in it. - -Many years ago I clipped this story from the editorials of what was -then our ablest newspaper: - - “A young Briton named Felix Oswald became interested a while ago - in the geology of Turkish Armenia. He made long journeys through - that country and finally came home with an important amount of - valuable new material. It was not matter, however, that would - find favour in the eyes of the general publisher and Mr. Oswald - had to undertake its publication himself. He had the type set at - the lowest rates in a small town. There were 516 pages of print - and the author undertook the large task of doing the printing - himself. He hired a hand press and after weeks of hard work he - had produced 101 copies of the book. Feeling certain that this - edition would fill the demand he went about the next large job, - which was the hand colouring of all his maps and profiles. Then - the copies were bound and the book was out. - - “Leading geologists say that the work is one of the best of its - kind. The small edition is exhausted and the book will not be - reprinted. The editor of _Petermann’s Mitteilungen_, believing - that a wide circle of geologists would be glad to have the - important results of Oswald’s investigations, has just printed - in his periodical an extended résumé of them together with some - of the maps. The University of London has crowned the work with - its approval by conferring the degree of Doctor of Science upon - the author. Oswald has certainly earned the congratulations of - all who admire the qualities of courage, perseverance and - intelligent devotion to a special task.” - -A man does not have to go to Armenia to find the hard thing to do, -although there are harder and nobler tasks waiting there to-day than -Oswald undertook, tasks that are crosses in the divinest sense, scarred -with sorrow and grief. And perhaps there are some among us here now who -are bearing crosses and finding them beyond their strength. But they -are not to be mourned over. They were not of our making, were they? If -they were of our making, perhaps there is some penitence to be felt, -some restitution to be made. If they were not of our making, we may be -sure that they were built just for our shoulder, that One who knew us -made them that we might carry them, and become under them what we could -never become without them. And if we have no such cross, out from our -smooth and easy living, our cozy shelters in which we have been kept -and are kept now, One is calling us to come whose ancient word we hear -to-day: “I came not to send peace, but a sword. Whosoever would be my -disciple must love nothing as much as me, and must be willing to rise -up and follow me.” For men and women who will do this in the full and -joyous spirit of Francis of Assisi but in the forms suitable to our -modern life the summons of God and the world is clear. - - - - -LECTURE II - -THE CONSERVATION AND RELEASE OF MORAL RESOURCES - - -One of our most familiar national ideas during recent years has been -the conservation of our natural resources, our mines, our forests, our -water power, the agricultural capacities of our soil. It would have -been a good thing if this idea had occurred to us fifty years earlier. -But it is an idea which always comes late to a young nation. So long -as the population is sparse and the supply of good land unlimited -and it is an easy thing to pick up a living from the surface of the -ground, perhaps it is too much to expect that any people would be -careful and frugal. But when the population has increased and begins -to press against the means of subsistence, when the good public lands -are exhausted and a mere living becomes harder for the masses of the -people to secure, then any nation awakens to wisdom and turns from -recklessness and prodigality. - -And, doubtless, the idea would have occurred to us a full generation -earlier if it had not been for the terrible education of our Civil War. -There is a great deal to be set down on the good side of the account -of the Civil War. It took the putty of our national character and -burned it into stone. It ran steel fibres through our national life. -And it brought us for the first time to a sense of national unity. But -alas there is a great deal also on the ledger’s other page. For war -is not conservation, it is destruction. It educates any people not in -frugality but in wastefulness. Military supplies must be bought at once -at any cost. Everything is thrown away with a negligent and wasteful -hand. And so long as any people is pouring out its best possession, the -precious life-blood of its sons, like water on the battle-field, you -cannot expect it to be saving and careful in its material possessions. - -The days of waste that followed the Civil War are gone forever. The -nation has begun now to count carefully the amount of its available -wealth. We have seen calculations of how many millions of feet of -lumber we have standing in our forests and how many millions of tons of -coal we have still hid away in our treasure houses underground. And far -and wide over the nation now we are learning to husband the resources -we have left, mindful of our children who are to come after us. - -And it is a good thing that the nation in conserving her resources -realizes that there is something more important than a careful -husbanding of her mere material wealth. The vital resources of any -people are of more significance to her than clods of coal, or timber -on her hillsides. Of what use would it be to conserve the material -resources of any nation if we conserve them only for a deteriorating -racial stock? The nation has come to realize that the men and women -who compose it are its largest wealth, and that this treasure must be -guarded more sacredly than our mines, our forests, or our water power. -We have seen, accordingly, a whole new body of legislation growing up, -that would have made our fathers stand aghast, fixing the conditions -of employment, the age of employees, the sanitary condition of homes -and mills, the hours of work and the care of women. The expenditure -of immense sums for the protection of the life and health of factory -labourers is now readily recognized even by “soul-less corporations,” -which formerly fought against all such outlay, as money well invested. -In all the nation to-day we realize that there is a more precious -wealth than our material wealth. I saw an interesting illustration of -this new frame of mind a little while ago in a statement issued by some -leading men in Tennessee dealing with the excessive death rate among -the negroes of the South. They pointed out that among nine millions -of white people the death rate is 160,000, and that among the nine -millions of the negroes the death rate is 266,000. In other words, -among the negroes, 106,000 more people die every year than among a -corresponding number of the whites of our country. In the negro, these -men argued, the South had an invaluable asset, a better type of labour -on the whole, with all its drawbacks, than any other section of the -nation possessed, more docile, more faithful, less troublesome, and -the South could not afford to lose this labour which it needed for -developing its wealth. These men estimated the economic value of each -one of these lives at $350 a year, and the period of that economic -value at ten years, so that each one of these wasted lives was a loss -of $3,500 to the South, or $371,000,000 each year, one million dollars -a day, and they argued that the South could not afford such a waste. -The South, they held, must see that the death rate among the negro -is reduced to the same proportions as the death rate among the white -people, in order that such an enormous economic loss might be averted. -We are realizing all over the nation now that a man is a very costly -product. You can breed an animal in a few months for the market, but -it takes twenty years to grow a man, and no nation can afford to -throw away such costly products as men and women. These are its most -priceless wealth. If it expects to conserve its treasures and to be -prepared for the services of the days to come, it is bound to guard -this wealth more sacredly than any other. And American capital and -industry have come to see this clearly. Here is one typical utterance -by a leading engineer at a meeting of the Immigration Committee of the -Chamber of Commerce of the United States: - - “Industrial Americanization is a part of the prevalent - present-day movement towards the humanizing of industry. It - aims to make what is commonly called ‘welfare work’ not an - exercise of the individual employer’s ‘paternalism,’ but a - legitimate kind of business organization everywhere. There are - now innumerable kinds of ‘welfare work.’ One employer does it - from the point of view of ‘good business’; another on the ‘big - brothers’ theory. One man confines himself to playgrounds, - another to safety appliances. In one firm it is under the - employment manager; in another under a Y. M. C. A. director; - and in a number of other firms it is classified in as many - different ways. - - “There is no agreement among American employers as to where the - organization of the human side of industry really belongs. And - there are absolutely no standards for it. What we need to do is - to extend scientific methods to the human phases of industrial - organization, and thus give ‘welfare work’ a definite place - and definite standards. The engineer as the ‘consulting mind’ - of industry must be the leader in this work. It is he who - determines the site of the plant and its construction. Inside - the plant again, the engineer has much to do with efficiency - methods. No efficiency methods that are unrelated to the men in - the plant can prosper permanently.” - -But there is another sort of resource and national treasure greater by -far than these, which most of the nations are passing by. I mean the -latent and undeveloped capacities for ministry and achievement which -lie dormant inside human life. Every life is a reservoir of unawakened -possibilities. There is no one of us that is more than a fraction of -the man he should be. There is not one who is not falling short by -a wide margin of the ideals that he ought to attain, not one who is -making the contribution to the nation or building the share in the -Kingdom of God that God and mankind alike have a right to expect of -him. Not long before his death, an article contributed by Prof. William -James, of Harvard, appeared in the _American Magazine_, entitled “The -Powers of Man,” in which Professor James argued that mankind is living -on a very small fraction of its vitality, and that there are buried -underground strata of possibilities and of power which are never tapped -except in times of great emergency. For a little time then a man draws -on these reserves, and then seals the strata over again and falls back -on the surface levels once more. For illustration he spoke of the -familiar phenomenon of the second wind. Every boy can remember such -experiences. There came a time in the game when he was “all in.” He had -done his best and drawn on his last available power. Suddenly it was as -though something broke. A partition wall fell in. Unsuspected reserves -were released. The second wind came and reservoirs of power that had -been withheld came unexpectedly into play and he did better than he -had done before, what he had never been able to do before. That is an -absolute truth of experience all through life. In our great crises, any -one of many forces may unlock these energies and let them loose. And -the present needed appeal of the world is to men and women that they -should not be content to draw upon these reservoirs in crises alone. -The tragic crises come because these powers are not drawn forth and -used. The great wealth of the nations and of the world that needs now -to be unsealed is just this wealth of moral capacity lying latent and -dormant within. - -What I have been saying is certainly true in the realm of our physical -energies. I remember a story of John Lawrence, who went out to India a -raw, uninfluential Irish boy in the service of the East India Company, -resolved to do his work well and make himself a name. Very early in -his career he was assigned to the collectorship of the Jullundur Doab, -on what was then the frontier of India. He made himself perfectly -at home among his people, entering into their life, mastering their -vernaculars, learning their secrets, until at last men came to think of -“Jans Larens” as a demi-god with powers beyond the knowledge of common -men. One day as he was sitting in his house a messenger came in from -one of his districts and reported that a village was burning down and -begged him to come. He hurried out to the village. When he arrived he -asked the headmen if they had all the people out of the houses and was -told that all had been brought out except one old woman who refused to -come. He went to the house where the woman lived and looked in. There -she sat on a bag of grain. Lawrence entreated her to come out but she -refused, explaining that this bag of grain was all her earthly wealth. -If she came out she would starve; she would rather stay and be burned. -When Lawrence found his commands and entreaties unavailing, he rushed -in, with the embers from the burning roof falling on his shoulders, -stooped over and picked up the bag of grain, and left the burning -building, the old woman following obediently behind. The next day as he -was sitting in his house it flashed on his mind that the bag of grain -had been exceedingly heavy and he rode out curiously to the village -again to see how much he had lifted. He had no difficulty in finding -the old woman and her bag of grain. He stooped over to lift it but -could not budge it from the ground. But the day before he had budged -it. He had picked it up and carried it. The power to do it was lying -latent in him all the while. All he needed was just the piercing call -or inspiration adequate to release the buried energy. - -And the world is full of evidences that what is true physically is true -morally. In every man lies the power with the grace and help of God to -meet his great crisis and in every woman the power to bear the agony -and pain of her great hour. Only a few years ago, when the _Titanic_ -went down and some men who had walked as dogs at the heel of their -passions suddenly became masters of themselves and laughing stood at -attention to death as they waited on the deck, we all wondered what it -was that gave these men who had been slaves their sudden moral mastery. -That mastery was within all the time. It did not come out of the frame -of the _Titanic_. It did not come out of the iceberg. It was lying -buried all the while only waiting the hour and the Voice that was to -summon it to come forth. - -Among the nations to-day this is the needed truth as it is the needed -truth here in our own lives. There are boys here to-day who have been -yielding to temptation, to whom God would give energies to withstand -their enemy. In the nation there are even now capacities to conquer all -the evils with which the nation abounds. Some day our children will -look back and ask why we have allowed immorality to dominate the moral -life of the land and why in the world we have endured the saloon so -long. These things will be cleaned away some day and men will wonder -then what their mothers and fathers were about that they surrendered -where that happier generation will not surrender but will achieve. The -needed capacities are buried of God in life, but we are not willing to -believe that they are there or to have faith in Him to energize them. - -Let me put the truth in yet a different way. - -Last spring, just after Holy Week, I received a very interesting letter -from a friend who is one of the best known and best loved judges in our -country. It was written on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter -Day, and he said in it that he was pursuing the practice which he had -pursued for many years, of trying in the interval between Good Friday -and Easter morning to eliminate Jesus Christ entirely from his thought -of life and of the world in order that he might thus bring home to his -own mind and conscience more deeply the significance of Jesus, and he -said he could hardly wait for Easter morning to come to escape from the -oppressive gloom and depression in which his spirit was as a result of -his enforced practice. And he begged me, as one of his friends, to try -this between the next Good Friday and Easter Day and to see what the -experience would mean. - -Oddly enough my own thoughts that same day on which my friend was -writing this letter were exactly the opposite of his. He was thinking -of Jesus Christ as extinguished, he was thinking of all that He had -come to be and to do as gone, and he was trying to bring home to his -own heart what this utter loss of Christ would mean. I was meditating, -on the other hand, on that Saturday morning, on just the contrary idea. -On Good Friday, the day before this Saturday, there had been a great -Personality; now that Personality must be somewhere still. Personality -does not die. The next day, on Easter morning, there was to be a great -outburst of energy. That energy must be somewhere now. It will not be -created to-morrow morning. It must be somewhere to-day waiting to come -forth to-morrow. Where is it? And then I suddenly realized that it was -all there, that all that was to break loose Easter morning was shut -up inside that grave, that all the energies that were to peal across -the world on the new day were there asleep in that tomb that Saturday. -All the great love and power that had been had not been annihilated. -It was there somewhere, only out of sight for a little while. And the -great truth urged itself that all the dormant energies of life, all the -enshrouded and enfolded powers are here now and always just as truly as -they will be to-morrow when they awake, though for the hour they lie -latent and unused. - -Then I began to see, as one’s thought ran easily on, that that Saturday -between Good Friday and Easter Day was in reality a sort of symbol of -the whole of history. For history, as we look back upon it, is full of -these repressions and these emergences, and then perhaps repressions -again, of great impulses and outbursts of energy and of power. Now and -then they are for good, as when the Reformation broke across men’s -minds, shattering their shackles, opening old prison doors, allowing -the enslaved human spirit to come out and breathe the air of freedom. -But why had it not come before? All the great energies of God that -burst forth in it must have been here even before that hour. And why -did they have to subside afterwards? They all _were_ still? Why might -they not have gone beating their way onward and not have ceased so soon? - -Then also great explosions of evil come. We look out across the world -to-day and see all these dogs of war unleashed. But these dogs of war -were not born the year before last. They had been here all the time, -only they were chained and held in leash. Why were they not kept -chained and in leash? Why were they allowed to break loose and go wild -across the world in their havoc and devastation? We know perfectly well -that after a few months they are going to be chained again, and the -great reconstructive processes will begin to make the world anew. But -why do these reconstructive forces have to wait? They will not exist -any more truly then than they do to-day. Why not release them to-day -to go out and do their creative work in the world now? Why not on -Saturday let loose that which is to burst with creative freedom on the -world on Easter morning? - -And I saw that this was a symbol not of history only but also of human -life, that every human life is just the mystery of the infolding of -latent capacities that are there wrapped up, the infolding of great -ends of which no man can foretell. That is why, I suppose, a man feels -such awe every time he holds a very little child in his arms. He does -not know what it is that he has in his arms, what it is that will -some day come bursting forth from that little child. That must have -been Mary’s thrill in those early days when she held her little one, -knowing dimly and far away, if not clearly, that she held in her arms -the mighty Redeemer of men. “When I see a child,” said Pasteur, “he -inspires me with two feelings: tenderness for what he is now, respect -for what he may become hereafter.” Of personal life it is as true as of -history. Vast latent possibilities for good may come breaking forth. -Now and then they do, in some truth-loving, unfearing, plain-speaking, -God-obeying Martin Luther. Or they may issue in some tranquil, patient, -loving-hearted, steady-spirited, immovable Lincoln. Goodness comes -leaping forth, and oftentimes we are tempted to think the surroundings, -the circumstances, produced it. They produced none of it. They gave it -its opportunity and its chance, but it was all somewhere all the time -and it might not have come forth if something inside had not released -the spring of our will to God’s will and let those great energies of -good come pulsing out to do their work. - -And the same thing is true of the inwrought and enshrouded capacities -for ill. Jesus Christ laid off His limitations as well as His -activities that Saturday in the grave; and He left His limitations -there when He came out. Out of such Saturday graves in man’s character -it may be only the limitations that emerge. Out of many a man’s life -it is the dog that ought to be chained that is allowed to roam free, -while all the possibilities for good and sacrifice and ministry are -still-born inside. And sometimes, thank God, men discover all this -latent ill within and lay on it the restraining and throttling hand. -As godly old John Newton said when one day he saw a criminal being -led by, “There, but for the grace of God, goes John Newton.” He knew -that everything that had escaped in that brother of his lay latent in -himself, and he thanked God that a hand had been laid on all those -inner capacities for evil and wreckage and that that hand held them in -check and let only the good and the true and the pure go free. - -There is something infinitely hopeful and encouraging in the principle -of that Saturday in our Lord’s last week for every man and woman of -us, as we think of life’s work and what we are trying to get done in -the world. So many times a thing seems all vain. The teacher tried to -breed in the boy whom he taught a hate of lies and a love of the truth, -and he wrought with tears and blood at his task, and the boy went out -from him and it seemed to him to have been futile, this that he had -done for him. We put ourselves out in this or that effort of service -in the hope of achieving this or that great end. Every little while it -seems to us to have been all fruitless. But wait. It is only Saturday. -Easter morning is going to break and the seed that was sown in the -ground in darkness and obscurity will come forth then. The life that -was let go for a little while, all that we did not see and therefore -thought had run sheer to waste, we shall discover then will come -pulsating back. “No effort is wasted,” said Pasteur. - -It is a great joy of life to believe this, that what Isaiah said is -true through all the ages, by the very principle of the life of God, -that no word of His will come back to Him vain or be void, that it -will accomplish the thing He pleases and prosper in the errand whereon -He sent it. I received a letter the other day from a friend, the Rev. -Adolphus Pieters, who is a missionary in Japan. He had for very many -years been engaged in an interesting work. He published advertisements -of Christianity in the Japanese papers, and then occasionally printed -a brief attractive account of what Christianity was, with the hope -of arousing the curiosity of Japanese readers. At the end he would -add that if any one were interested he might correspond with him. As -a result of this work he came into correspondence with hundreds of -men. In this recent letter he writes: “The total number of people who -applied to us for tracts last year was 959, making the total from -February, 1914, when the work began, to December 31, 1915, 3,590. There -have been seven baptisms since my previous letter, and the total number -to date is forty-five. Number Forty-Five is a most instructive case of -the Lord’s blessing resting upon what was, humanly speaking, a complete -failure. The young man in question is a bright young student in the -Normal School at this place, who was baptized a week ago last Sunday, -after coming to my house off and on for two years, and getting a good -deal of instruction. I did not reckon him among the results of the -newspaper work, but after he was baptized he told me that he originally -got interested in the Gospel when he was attending the primary school -in his home town. Among his teachers was one named Okabe Katsumi, who -had seen our advertisements and secured some tracts, among which were -copies of the Gospels. He did not care for them himself, and had given -them to this boy, who was deeply impressed. In the course of time the -boy graduated from school and went to Oita to attend the Normal, and -he did so with the resolution already formed to look up the man who -advertised in the papers and learn from him more about the Christian -religion. - -“When I heard that, I looked up the card index, and found among the -4 ‘dead’ cards one for Okabe Katsumi. It was number 444, and he had -applied for tracts in the spring of 1912, but in August he wrote that -he had found something in our tracts that he did not like, and so had -made up his mind to have nothing more to do with Christianity. So his -card was marked in red ink, ‘Closed August 12, 1913,’ and filed away -among the ‘dead’ ones――a complete failure, so far as any one could see. -But it wasn’t a failure. God knew better. On the fifth of March, 1916, -a young man made public confession of his faith and was baptized as a -sequel to that application of Okabe Katsumi in 1912. - -“Such things sometimes make me look with something like awe upon my -card index. What is going on beneath the surface? How is God working -in the hearts of the ‘failures,’ or, if not in their hearts, through -them in the hearts of others? It is one more proof that ‘the foundation -of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are -his.’” - -Looking back across the years it could be seen that bread sown upon -the waters returned again. Absolutely no energy goes to waste in this -world,――no moral energy, no spiritual energy, any more than physical -energy. All that is released goes about its work. Let us thank God, -that there that Saturday morning in the dark of the grave all that -broke free the next day _was_, and was not dead beyond the resurrection -of life. - -And the assurance that a man simply cannot do anything in vain is not -only a word of great courage to us in the work that we are trying to -do in the world, it is a word of hope and courage to us also in our -own personal life and struggle for character. All the energy we need -to accomplish anything that ought to be accomplished in us is in our -reach. “All power,” said Christ, “is given to me in heaven and in -earth. I stand within at the centre of your life. Draw on me. Go out -in the faith of that and do whatever your work is in the world. I have -the energy that you need.” All the energy that we require for any task -in life or out of life is there, by token and assurance of the closed -grave and resurrection, in Christ, waiting to be drawn upon by any man -who wants to make use of it. - -And all this is not the exaltation of human will, the setting up of a -man’s own resolution and high purpose. It is precisely the opposite of -that. It is saying to a man: “There do not lie in the boastful surface -of your life the power and the resources that you need. Retire upon -God. You must get behind into the unplumbed depths where Christ waits. -You must go back of the Easter morning in the grave, the unopened womb -of the grave, to find it there. All of it is there in the now Risen -Christ Who that Saturday morning awaited resurrection.” This is simply -making faith a living, acting reality by which a man works; so that he -arises in the morning and can say: “O God, I have in Thee in me all -the energy and strength that I shall need this day. No temptation can -come to me to-day that I have not got the power in Thee, that I never -have used yet, to draw upon, that will enable me to meet and conquer. -No work will come to me to-day that is too much for me, no matter how -exacting or unprecedented in my experience. There is power in Thee for -me for this work that is come to me to do.” - -That Saturday morning, more vividly than any other day that brings back -the triumph and pain and glory of Easter to us, makes a man assured -that all the energies he needs are near by, that in God’s own presence -there are all the powers he wants, awaiting release by God’s grace for -all the necessities of his life. And if we could not believe this about -the world we are living in to-day, surely a man could not go on living -in it. If we had to surrender to the present order and temper of the -world what would be left to uphold us? It is because we know it is -Saturday night in human history that we can live through it. - -We know that as in individuals so in all the races of mankind, God has -planted these great dormant energies and powers. For scores and scores -of years the Chinese had despaired of their power to throw off the -opium curse. They knew it was sapping the very vitality of their land, -and yet they wondered whether the day would ever come when they would -have power enough to break those hateful chains that had been forged -upon them, and get back their freedom. Twenty years ago, as we went -to and fro in China, the most striking odour in the Chinese streets -was the pungent stench of smoking opium. One could scarcely go into a -Chinese city or walk in a Chinese highway without seeing the wretched -shipwrecks who were the products of that vice. Poppy fields bloomed red -over the Empire, and the race had almost come to despair. And what do -we find to-day? There is scarcely a great poppy field in the Republic, -scarcely a fume of opium that you can smell on the public street in any -Chinese city. The bonfires flared across the land as they burned up the -signs of the old bondage. A great race arose in power and in a massive -moral upheaval shook itself free. God had planted the energies there -that needed only the touch of a living faith in Him, a new assurance -of the freedom of man to do His will, and in this matter the whole -nation came out of its bondage into its liberty. - -For generations men wondered whether slaves could ever be set free. -We almost feared in our land here that slavery was a permanent -institution. But there came a time at last when from the wrist of every -American slave the chains fell away. It might have been generations -before; it might not have been until generations after; only in that -time appointed the moral energies awoke and came forth, and Saturday -burst into Easter Day for the negro bondmen of America. - -Precisely the same principle holds with regard to the things that we -fight to-day. It holds with regard to the war on war. Some day we shall -slay it. The kingdom of heaven, said Jesus, is among you. Well, let it -loose. The kingdom of heaven will have no war in it; the kingdom of -heaven will have no brothers cutting one another’s throats in it; the -kingdom of heaven will have in it no vice and lust dragging its slimy -trail across men’s hearths and hearts. If the kingdom of heaven is -within, why not set it free, that we may live in it as well as have it -buried inside of us! The world that we are living in is calling us to -go back to that principle of Saturday morning and to believe that all -we need to do the will of God is made available for us by God’s grace -now, if we will but obey. - -And if some men say that all this is only to put in other words the -theory of development, of historic evolution, why, what of it? Of -course it is, but what is development except the drawing out of what -has been folded in? What is evolution except the letting loose of what -the mind of God Himself at the beginning had planted within,――when in -the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world He poured the blood of -Christ into humanity in order that humanity might be reinforced with -the adequate energies to enable it to accomplish the thing that was -God’s first dream for it? Of course it is, and that is precisely the -ground of Christ’s constant appeal. “Come unto me,” He said to men, -believing that they could. “Unless you hear My call and follow Me, you -cannot be My disciple.” What meaning was there to His summons unless -the power to respond was there in answer to His call? “I stand at the -door of your inner being,” said He, “and knock. I am there waiting.” - -And so to us to-day, just as clearly as in those days, His voice -speaks: “Come out of your tomb, out of your chains, out of your -narrowness, out of your limitations, out of your despairs, out of your -dejections, out of your failures,――come out of them. The power of the -endless life is here for you, if only by faith and love you will lay -hold of it to-day.” Is that not, after all, the great central message -and the fundamental principle of Christ’s Gospel to us, which He -symbolized and illustrated in the shadow of the Saturday before the -Easter victory? It is in one of the old hymns: - - “Low in the grave He lay―― - Jesus, my Saviour! - Waiting the coming day―― - Jesus, my Lord! - Death cannot keep his prey―― - Jesus, my Saviour! - He tore the bars away―― - Jesus, my Lord! - Up from the grave He arose, - With a mighty triumph o’er His foes; - He arose a victor from the dark domain, - And He lives forever with His saints to reign: - He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!” - -And He arose once on Easter morning that on the Saturday before and -on every day, every one of us might also rise out of the old, low, -selfish, defeated life into the life through which are beating the -victorious energies and the sufficient strength of God. Shall it be so -with us? - - “Rigid I lie in a winding sheet, - Which mine own hands did weave, - And my narrow cell is myself――myself, - Which yet I may not cleave. - - “And yet in the dawn of the early morn, - A clear voice seems to say, - ‘I am the Lord of the final word, - And ye may not say Me nay. - - “‘Unloose your hands that your brother’s need - May ever find them free. - Unbind your feet from their winding sheet; - Henceforth they walk with Me.’ - - “And lo! I hear! I am blind no more! - I am no longer dumb! - Out from the doom of a self-wrought tomb, - Pulsate with life, I come.” - -Yes, I may come if I will, by His life Who will live again in me. - -But the trouble is men do not believe this. They do not believe in any -latent capacities adequate to the great task of life. They accept the -principle of surrender and incompetence. They have nothing for God and -God can make no use of them. And I imagine that it is such unbelief, -such misgiving as to whether after all we have any possibilities for -God in us, the undervaluation of God’s need of us and power to make and -use us, that lead many of us to live the futile, unfruitful, negative -lives which we do live. Men do not think their lives worth very much. -They do not deny that there are great men and that great work is to be -done in the world, but they think that God requires only those, that -He builds His kingdom on a few outstanding figures, that the common -men can look after themselves, and that they are not indispensable to -God. If we are to prevent this waste, and if we are to secure the life -without which God is impotent to build His kingdom in the world, we -must somehow bring home to men the recognition of the great truth that -God cannot get along without every man and all of that man, and that -every human life and all its buried powers are essential to God. - -One of the great purposes of our Lord’s coming here to earth was that -He might show men the value of a man’s life in the plan and thought -of God. Even the most sacred and time-honoured institution our Lord -weighed over against one man and found him outweighing the institution. -What was His own example but the illustration of the immeasurable value -of man? He did not come to teach the uselessness of human life, but -its pricelessness. He did this by becoming a man Himself. And this -principle of God’s need of men and their latent possibilities is not -mere theological theory. It is the hard historic fact that God has ever -needed men and waited for them and for what they were the men to do for -Him. Look at the great inventions, discoveries, achievements. What is -the whole lesson of the Incarnation but that there are things that God -Himself will not do except as He uses man? God Himself, we must say -reverently, was communicable and a Saviour only as man. And His call -to-day as it has been all through the years is for men who will believe -that the thing God wants done can be done by Him through them. The -Western Hemisphere was here before ever Columbus drew aside the veil -and broadened the horizon of mankind. These great energies which drive -the modern world were here from the beginning. We did not invent any -of them. There is not an ounce of power in the world to-day that was -not here when the world began. All that man has done has been simply to -discover existing secrets. He has created no power. He has only found -out what God has put here for him to find out. It took man a long time -to discover this. But God waited for him. And God needs these finding -men now as much as He has needed them at any time. He needs such men -now to break open what is still concealed. The past has not exhausted -all the heroisms, has not accomplished all the tasks. There are greater -ones yet for the days that are, if God can only find His men. - -Think how greatly God needs men to-day just to bring need and supply -together in the world. You remember the incident in the life of our -Lord as He came by the Pool of Bethesda where the sick lay, and spoke -to one poor man lying on his pallet. - -“Are you going in?” said He. - -“No,” said the man. “I have no friend who will help me in and others -get the benefit before I can come near.” - -There was the good, waiting to be gained, and here was the man, but -he had no man to stand for him between the need and the supply. A -few years ago a great famine raged just back from the coast of China. -There were millions of Chinese families who were in want and hundreds -of thousands died of starvation because there was not bread enough to -feed them. Little children lay crying at the breasts of dead mothers -by the roadsides. At that very hour the wheat was piled up at railroad -stations in Argentina as high as church spires. There was grain enough -to feed the starving millions in China. Here was the supply and there -was the need, but where were the men? God had not men enough on whom to -float the supply across to meet the need. What is true of outward need -is true of inward need as well. There is never a want where there is -not an adequate supply. No little child on this earth need go hungry -because God has not put enough in this world to feed it. No human heart -need go starved because there is not enough love to meet its wants. -There is all the food and all the love that humanity needs. But there -are lacking the men who for God will bring the supply to the demand. -The human need in the world can be met by the supply only through men -who will fill up the gap. God can do it only as men lend themselves to -Him. That is why, through all the years, the call of God has been for -volunteers. For every unique, external, individual call that has been -given to men, you can find a million calls that have been just the -answer of men to the great call of God for volunteers. And God surely -values the volunteer above the conscript. Isaiah did not wait for any -special coercive call. “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, -Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; -send me.” That call was enough to cover him, and he answered it. There -is so much work to be done that God cannot go marching through the -world looking for individuals, performing new miracles by which each -individual is to be thaumaturgically led up to his particular work. -God’s general way has been to picture before the eyes of His sons the -work to be done and to wait for their hearts to leap in response, as -Isaiah’s leaped: “Lord, let me have a share in this work ‘Here am I; -send me.’” - -Men are indispensable to God to put meaning into the words in which He -tries to tell His message to men. Words have no meaning of their own. -Words mean only as much as one man puts into them, or another man takes -out of them. The meaning of the word does not come from the word; it -comes from some life in which the word gets incarnated, or from some -other life which interprets the word. What would the word “friend” -signify to a man who had never had one? What does “tenderness” mean to -one who has never seen a mother and her child? Or what is “patriotism” -to one who has never seen or felt the contagion? You remember what the -eunuch said when Philip met him in the chariot reading the prophet -Esaias. “Understandest thou what thou readest?” Philip asked. And he -replied, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” Things mean -nothing to men until they are shown to them. Men go to China or Japan -and preach the Gospel. How is it done? Why, they take words that have -old meanings and fill them with new and different meanings by living -new ideas in deeds before the people. In our colleges this year what -meaning will honour, truth and friendship have, except as these words -derive their meaning from the object lessons in some men’s lives? There -are places where honour means dishonour; where purity means impurity; -where truth means falsehood. These noble words are confused with their -very opposites because no man has incarnated their right meaning in his -life. That was one reason why the incarnation was necessary nineteen -hundred years ago. There was no adequate religious or spiritual -vocabulary and never could have been otherwise. If God had not come in -the flesh, men would not have had the ideas that we use to describe -God’s coming in the flesh. To-day, as then, God is dependent upon men -in whom He can put meaning into His message to the world. - -Men are indispensable in enabling God to get His other men. He gives -men guidance for their lives. But how? I appeal to your own hearts. -How do we get the guidance of our lives? There are many who are sure -of having divine guidance in their lives, surer of that than they are -of any material thing, and yet, as we look back upon this supernatural -guidance, we realize that it has all been mediated through men. We can -name man after man who did for our lives, in smaller measure, just what -that man of Macedonia did for Paul. We get our guidance through men. -Saint Paul got his through a man. Through what man was it? Sir William -Ramsay has no doubt whatever that the man whom Saint Paul saw in his -dreams was none other than his friend Luke. A real man and a friend, -and no ghost figure, was the man of Macedonia through whom God gave -Paul his great missionary call. - -It would be easy to recall the lives of great missionaries and point -out how they received their divine guidance through other men――not -even through a dream, far less through some miraculous vision, but -through a brother man who came to talk with them, reasoned with them, -and showed them the best way in which a man could use his life. Men -are indispensable to God in order to guide other men into the work -which God has for them to do. And one reason why there is such an -awful waste of life to-day, why so many men, going out of the colleges, -miss the highest work of their lives, is simply because there are not -enough other men who recognize that they are indispensable to God in -order that, through them, God may guide men to their highest and most -efficient places. - -Men are indispensable to God in bringing men to Jesus Christ. As -men were brought to Christ by other men in the beginning, so has it -been during all the succeeding years. The angels are willing to do -what they can, but none of us have had any visible object lessons of -what they do. Men have been brought to Christ always by other men. -Imperfect lives are to be brought up to the Perfect Life, and to do -this service Christ uses common men, just such as we are. That is what -Paul conceived as the glory of his life, that he had the privilege of -being the bond――no other beings in the universe being able to take that -place――between men who had not found Christ and Christ hunting for His -own. - -Then God requires men now as He never required them in all the days -gone by to bear testimony to the Deity of Jesus Christ. We know how -little value our Lord attached to any accrediting evidences that did -not come right out of pure, human personality. He discredited the -advantages of bringing back Abraham from the dead, for example, to -bear testimony to the truth. If men were not willing to accept adequate -moral evidence, valid human testimony, they would not believe by -miracle, He said. That is why He was so pleased with the confession of -Simon Peter. “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood -hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” -It rejoiced Him to get such testimony from a man who, in turn, had -drawn it out of his own experience of God. There is no greater need -in the world to-day than for a great body of men who know Christ to -be God more surely than they know themselves to be men, and are able -to go out and testify to what Christ can do with a definiteness and -certainty greater than that of any other testimony they can bear, who -can say what John said, “That which we have seen and heard declare we -unto you.” If there ever was a day when God was calling men to a great -undertaking, He is calling them now to be His witnesses, unimpeachable, -unflinching, to the unique personality, to the supreme divine character -and power of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. - -And it is not only for great men that God is calling to do these -indispensable tasks for Him. He wants the great men, no doubt, but He -wants, more than that, the great mass of the common men. After all, -the great man is only one man, and every little man counts just as -many as one great man. Since God has to have all, one little man is -as indispensable to the all as one great man can be. And until He has -all, He cannot do what He purposes to do. It is only when we _all_ come -“unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” that any -one of us can come. It is only when we “comprehend with _all_ saints, -what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love -of Christ, that any one of us can comprehend it. It is only when we -_all_ reflect as in a mirror the character of Christ that any one of -us shall be “changed ... from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of -the Lord.” And the little men, as a matter of fact, are doing as much -as the great. The night that Gough stood alone, with all hope gone, a -drunkard in the gutter, an almost forgotten man laid his hand on his -shoulder and said, “Man, there is a better life than this for you.” -The name of that man is remembered by a few, but forgotten by the -multitudes who will never forget the name of John B. Gough, or cease to -feel the glow of the fires which he kindled to blaze until the Judgment -Day. Even a little man may fill such an indispensable place as that of -helping God lay hold of a great man who will be one of the unmistakable -forces of God. - -And it is not only every man that is indispensable to God, but also -every bit of every man. We cannot take some sections of our lives and -eliminate them as though they were not indispensable to God. There can -be no schism between a man’s public and his private life. His hands -and what he does with them, his imaginings and where they go when -he is alone by himself without any coercing, these are just as much -indispensable to God as a man’s public worship or any of his activities -in the open ministry of Christ’s kingdom. It is every bit of the -man――body, soul, and spirit――that is indispensable to God. - -And if we are indispensable to God, we may be very sure that we are -indispensable to the world also. If God needs us, the world needs us -even more. It is waiting for the rising up of men who know that God -needs them, and who hand themselves over completely to His uses. “The -mightiest of civilizing agencies are persons,” said Dr. Fairbairn, -“and the mightiest civilizing persons are Christian men.” Those men -are doing most for the world who are doing most to make men aware of -how necessary they are to God, and who are going up and down the lands -allying men’s lives to the eternal life and power of God. This is the -greatest of all works――getting God His men. I heard Dr. J. Campbell -Gibson tell the Chamber of Commerce in Glasgow of a visit which he made -to a temple which had been turned into a modern school in inland China. -Over the gate of the school were these words in Chinese: “If you are -planting for ten years, plant trees; if you are planting for a hundred -years, plant men.” Men are God’s great interest and want. - -What an opportunity this opens for every man of us! We have thought of -our lives as little, insignificant, trivial, of no consequence. There -is One walking in the midst of us Who was speaking to Ezekiel. “I am -hunting for a man,” He is saying, “I am hunting for a man,” and it is -open to every one of us to rise up and say, “Lord, I am that man you -are hunting for. Seek no further. Here am I. Have me for your man.” Is -that the answer that He is getting from us? - - - - -LECTURE III - -AN UNFRIGHTENED HOPE - - -If we were asked what we considered to be the supremest motive in -life, the motive which does actually exercise the largest control -over human conduct, what would our answer be? A generation ago men -would have answered glibly enough: “The desire for happiness.” That -was then supposed to be the one commanding motive of mankind. But it -was not long before the answer seemed unsatisfactory and indefinite, -because what brings happiness to one man brings misery to another, or -what a man thinks will delight him in the end disappoints and such -experiences issue in confusion. It was ethically indiscriminate also. -The same motive covered moral contradictions, and men wanted some more -consistent answer to the question. Nowadays those who look despondently -at life often say in reply: “Avarice,――the desire for wealth.” Or, -those who look a little more deeply say it is not money, but the power -that money represents that men desire, and that their real motive is -to acquire sources of influence and control. Some who look at life -more hopefully are likely to reply: “Love or friendship.” That is -the thesis of one of the noblest books of our generation, written by -the late Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, entitled “Friendship, the Master -Passion.” Doctor Trumbull told me once that when he first began the -work on this theme he spoke about it to his friend Charles Dudley -Warner, who said: “Trumbull, you cannot prove that thesis.” After the -book was done, Doctor Trumbull took the book to him and asked if he -would read it. He read it, gave it back, saying: “Well, Trumbull, you -have shown that it is true, after all.” And that is a lovely view to -take of life: that the motive that lies deeper than any other, and that -really in the actual conduct of men and women is the most controlling, -is the motive of unselfish friendship, of love. - -But what would you say if instead of any one of these three or other -answers that may suggest themselves, some one were to reply: “Not a bit -of it. The motive that really controls human life, that does actually -and not theoretically play the largest part in determining the conduct -of men and women, is――_fear_.” And before we pass that contention by it -may be worth our while to look at it and ask whether, or how far, it is -true. - -Take it in the matter of dress, for example. Does not fear play a large -part there,――either the fear of being unlike everybody else, or the -fear of being too much like everybody else? In every land, more even -in civilized lands than in uncivilized, the element of fear enters into -the small external characteristics of our daily living. - -And in the matter of opinion. We speak of public opinion as though it -were a free and stable and trustworthy thing. But the public opinion of -one generation contradicts the public opinion of another generation. -The public opinion of one section of the land denies the public opinion -of another section, in the same way in which two sections of society -in one community think in opposite ways. Why? Not because all the -individuals of these particular generations, or sections, or portions -of the community really and independently have thought the thing out -for themselves, but because, held under the atmospheric constraint of -fear, they are unwilling to break away from what is determined for them -by the opinions in the midst of which they live. There is a good deal -of pacifist opinion and a great deal more of militarist which is not -free and personal at all, but simply herd intimidation. And a great -deal of race prejudice and international suspicion is nothing but the -miasma arising from cowardice or that bullying selfishness which is -essentially cowardly. - -And a great deal of religion is of the same character. The predominant -element in many of the non-Christian religions is fear. It is so in -all of the earlier or animistic religions, where men live in constant -terror of the spirits that haunt the air or the world, and where a -large element of their worship is shaped by that dominant principle of -their religion, the dread of the unseen and the unexperienced. Even -among us is there not a great deal, both of religious orthodoxy and of -religious heresy, that is only the child of fear? There is a coercion -of sound doctrine and there is a coercion of false doctrine, and a -great many men and women belong to their school of religious opinion -simply because they are afraid to break away from the companionship in -which they have always been or to disagree with the associations which -condition them. - -Much religious conduct, too, springs only from the fear of one’s -environment. One of the saddest things which one meets in going out -across the world is the great multitude, especially of young men, who, -when they have left Christian lands and the environment and support of -Christian surroundings, have simply collapsed in all their religious -conviction and character. Asia is strewn from one end of it to the -other with the wrecks of men who, while they were at home, supposedly -were men of religious character and conviction, but who showed when -they went away from home that it was not a matter of their own real -selves at all. It was just a matter of their timid servility and -acceptance of the conditions imposed upon them from without, so that -once they were away from home and free to do as they pleased and had no -longer the help and uplift of their surroundings, their environmental -religion collapsed and they went in an entirely different way. - -And I think if only we would go deep enough in our own lives, and be -honest enough with ourselves to gain a clear insight into our motives -and impulses, we would discover how large a part fear has played in -us,――fear, of course, in all the wide range of its aspects, that shades -off on the one side into arrant cowardice and on the other side into -a mere hesitancy of character and timidity, but fear nevertheless. -Some of us are even now cloaking the things that lie deepest in our -hearts, because we are afraid to give expression to them. We go into -communities, into circles, into conditions where what has been natural -and real to us is unnatural and abnormal, and we hide our colours and -conceal our principles. And we do things we ought not to do or we do -not do the thing we know we ought to do simply because of fear. - -I had an experience a little while ago when this diagnosis was -confirmed to me. In a visit to one of our colleges, among the boys who -came around to talk quietly was one whom I knew as one of the leading -men in the life of the institution. He played on the eleven; he was -president of his class. He was very timid about talking lest somebody -should overhear, but when assured that we had the whole house to -ourselves he took a letter out of his pocket and handed it to me. - -He said: “Mr. Speer, I wish you would read this.” - -I looked at it and saw that it was written in a girl’s handwriting, and -said: “No, tell me about it.” - -“No,” he said, “please read it. It will tell you a great deal better -than I can.” - -So I opened his letter and began to read, substantially as follows: - - “DEAR ――――: - - “I know all about your life at ―――― College, and I want to tell - you what I think about you. You and I have known one another - all our lives, and we have been good friends; but I think you - are a coward and I think that I ought to tell you so.” - -I closed his letter and handed it back to him. His lips were quivering -and his eyes were moist as he said: - -“You can believe that when I got that letter it cut me all up, and the -worst of it is that what she says is true.” - -His father was a minister; his mother was of the salt of the earth. -He had grown up under the best influences of a clean and wholesome -Christian home, and he had slipped those strings. He had thought that -it was manly to surrender to the current ideals of the college; that -in cutting loose from the influence of his home he was doing a brave -and courageous thing. But the girl knew he was doing it because he was -a coward and she had the courage to tell him so. And he had come to -see it in that light for himself. In his college fraternity and in his -own class, men were praising him because he had broken from the old -enslavements of home and was living his own life like a man. But he -knew that he was nothing but a coward, who - - “Held that hope was all a lie - And faith a form of bigotry - And love a snare that caught him. - Then thought to comfort human tears - With sundry ill-considered sneers - At things his mother taught him.” - -And he had thought he was doing it because he was courageous, whereas -the real motive was that of fear. He was a coward, without courage -enough to fly his own flag unflinchingly, to be and do the thing which -in his heart, in the very fibres of his being, flesh of his mother’s -flesh, he knew was the thing he should be and do. - -And if we would really look into our lives we should discover that -fear plays a far larger part with us than we ever dreamed. Men and -women lie. Why? Simply because they are afraid of telling the truth -and taking the consequences. Nine out of every ten falsehoods――perhaps -ninety-nine out of every hundred――are the spawn of fear. And the same -thing is true of sin, and of no small measure of unbelief, as well as -of no small measure of pretended belief. - -Our great need is the discovering of something that will cast fear out -of our lives, that will enable us to walk unafraid in the open sunlight -of His pathway Who bade men to be afraid of nothing. Think how greatly -we need this emancipation from fear in the simple matter of loyalty to -principle. There is so much of expediency and compromise and adaptation -among us, so great reluctance to ruffle the smooth conventionalities -of life, whereas what the world needs is men and women who can see -right principle as principle, unconfused and undistorted, and then who, -unafraid, will abide in that right principle. - -How greatly, too, this is needed in the plain, commonplace matter of -duty-doing! All around us much simple work waits to be done by men and -women who, first of all, can see it, and then have the courage to do -it. The obscure tasks that, after all, are the really great and worthy -ones, how few there are to do them! There is a fine passage in Morley’s -essay on Rousseau in which he describes what real history is, and how -much we make of history that really is not history at all, but simply -the spectacular doings of men who for the time being were deemed great -and who usually were engaged in war, whereas the great bulk of life -was not the life of warfare at all. It was the life of peace,――of the -quiet agricultural people, of the tradespeople, of the homes, which is -not written up in any history at all,――that was the real history of the -world. The men and the women who were doing earth’s work were not those -who went out to battle or on great expeditions, but those who, day by -day, heroically, unflinchingly, and without fear of oblivion, did the -real business of the world. There are some familiar lines of Lowell’s -in “Under the Old Elm” that put the principle for us: - - “The longer on this earth we live - And weigh the various qualities of men, - Seeing how most are fugitive, - Or fitful gifts, at best, of now and then, - Wind-wavered, corpse-lights, daughters of the fen, - The more we feel the high stern-featured beauty - Of plain devotedness to duty, steadfast and still, - Not fed with mortal praise, - But finding amplest recompense - For life’s ungarlanded expense - In work done squarely and unwasted days.” - -And take this matter of Christian service that lies before the thought -of every earnest young life. Why are so many of us going to be, in the -cities and homes from which we came, the same useless driftwood that -we have been? Why? Simply because of our want of courage to face the -work that needs to be done there, and to undertake that work without -fear that we cannot do it, without fear that God will desert us in -attempting to do it, without fear of the irregularity and uniqueness of -our being seen engaged in it. Throughout the world Christ waits for men -and women to-day, as He waited for them――and so often in vain――while -He was here on earth. Who will hear His call now? “Lay aside your fear -and trust Me to be with you and to enable you to do the thing. Come and -take up My task after Me.” - -Some of us would dread to go out to live among the Chinese or -Mohammedan peoples, so far away. But we would not dread going out to -live in the legation, nor would we dread it much if we were to be -employed in some great commercial enterprise. Yet the geography would -be precisely the same, and our dangers and friendlessness would be -far greater. But we would not fear all that, because others would -think it natural and appropriate for us. But this other thing――the -missionary call――would be so exceptional, so unusual, so fantastic, -even fanatical, that we would fear to do any such dreadful thing! But -which life of us is worth mentioning in the same breath with the life -of God’s Son Who came into a carpenter’s home in a wretched little -Jewish village amid an outcast race, in a bare remote corner of the -earth, and lived there among peasant folk and farmers, pent up in the -charnel house of humanity, and Who was willing to count His equality -with God not a prize jealously to be retained, Who emptied Himself and -took on Him the form of a servant and became obedient unto death, even -the death of the Cross? The contrast between our life, with all its -privileges, to-day and the most squalid African village is invisible -over against the contrast between what Christ laid down and what Christ -took up for the love He bore us and His world. - -And we need greatly this fearlessness in our confession of Him,――that, -without concealing Whom we follow and Whose servants we are, we should -go out now, openly to avow our discipleship and the vow we have taken -of loyalty to our Lord Jesus Christ! Think how many betrayals of Him -there have been, and how much of putting afresh to shame the Son of God -and crucifying Him anew by men and women who had said they were going -to follow Him faithfully, just as Simon said he was resolved to do on -that very night in which before the cock crew he denied his Lord. Shall -we not go out into the coming days with something in us that casts out -this fear? - -We look with longing and admiration upon such deliverance from fear -when we find it in other lives. I was in Edinburgh during the South -African war, just after the battle of Maegersfontein, and was staying -in the house of friends. There was one little boy in the family -named after Prof. Henry Drummond. I had been in the library all -the afternoon, the very room in which Sir James Simpson discovered -chloroform, and then had gone into the drawing-room for afternoon tea. -The boy and his governess were the only other members of the household -who came down. He and I fell to talking about the war. I asked him: -“What do you think about the war in South Africa?” - -“Well,” he said, “I did not think much about it at the beginning; I did -not think about it much until a friend of mine was killed.” - -“Yes,” I said, “who was the friend?” - -“General Wauchope.” - -He was, as you know, the commander of the Black Watch, and the Black -Watch had been recruited from Edinburgh. The boy told me about the -regiment and its fate, and shortly after his story was filled up by an -Oxford man who had been in Edinburgh when the tidings of the battle -came. He said every shop was closed, and along the streets little knots -of men were gathered, and you could see the sobbing of strong men -everywhere. There was scarcely a great family in Edinburgh that had not -been touched. And yet, at the same time, all through the city there was -a subdued sense of moral elevation, as though something had lifted the -character and temper of the city. They sorrowed in what had gone out -from them; but they rejoiced in the way that it had gone. That regiment -had been organized as a Scotch kirk. The chaplain was the minister of -the kirk. The officers constituted the kirk’s session. I believe almost -every man in the regiment was a member of the kirk, and I was told -that as they went down through the streets of Cork to embark for South -Africa, although not under orders or restraint, the men walked with -arms on one another’s shoulders, singing: - - “I’m not ashamed to own my Lord, - Or to defend His cause, - Maintain the honour of His Word, - The glory of His laws.” - -And when they were disembarked at Cape Town and were taking their train -to go to the front, they went on board singing the old Gospel soldier’s -hymn: - - “When the roll is called up yonder, - I’ll be there.” - -They were sent right up and almost at once into that fateful battle. -General Wauchope knew somebody had blundered, and he said to the men: -“Men, do not blame me for this.” And without any fear they went into -the ending from which no soldier such as they would draw back, unafraid -of anything that might come to them because unashamed to own their -Lord and unfearing to follow Him. - -Of such as those are we to be? Or will temptation intimidate us, and -the tone of the conversation of the men and women with whom we mingle -pull us down and cause us to fold our colours up and lay them away, as -the man did whom the sneer of a serving maid caused to deny the Lord -Who was dying for him? - -Where are we to find that which will drive out this fear? “Perfect love -casteth out fear.... He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” -From how many of our hearts to-day will the perfect love of Him Whom -we call Master and Lord expel all fear? Let it be so now. Not years -afterwards, when other things shall have palled upon us, years that -shall have brought their dulling influence with them, but now, in all -the full strength and richness and glory and eagerness of our lives, -let us admit the perfect love that shall cast out fear and send us out -the kind of men and women Christ would have us be, to join the great -company of men and women and girls and boys who, unfearing, - - “... climbed the steep ascent of Heaven, - Through peril, toil and pain. - O God, to us may grace be given - To follow in their train!” - -Christian character needs this conquest of fear and it needs the love -which is one of the deep springs of such conquest. It needs also in -our day an immensely more practical use of the principle of hope, a -principle almost totally neglected in theology and made nothing of in -our codes of conduct or in our creeds. Paul had a far deeper insight -into the human heart and a vastly richer grasp on life. “Now abideth -faith, hope, love, these three,” said he. - -Paul rendered a large service when he condensed the central ideals and -principles of Christianity in this way. The human mind is very fond -of formulas. If it had not been for some authoritative, simplifying -word like this, we might have gone on to construct all sorts of -prescriptions like the threes and sixes and tens and fifteens with -which we are so familiar in Buddhism. And yet the service which Paul -rendered is not without its dangers, for men are prone to simplify -further and to see whether the three cannot be reduced to one, or to -arrange the order and proportions of the three, or to contend alone -for that which some one of them signifies at the expense of the other -two. Paul’s own words should have saved us from such folly, for he -said quite clearly that one of these three was the greatest, “And now -abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is -love.” And yet his own doctrine elsewhere has been used to correct and -to counteract his expressed judgment here, and through the years we -have had our theologies constructed in disregard of the domination of -that one of these three principles which Saint Paul exalts. It has been -in terms of faith, and faith given a very definitive construction, that -our theological thinking with regard to Christianity has been chiefly -done. Little by little however the proportions have changed, and now -love, as one of the three great fundamental principles of Christianity, -is coming to its own, not as a principle of action only but as a -regulative principle also of our thought. - -But it is a strange thing that no one has ever arisen, apparently, -to say of hope what the intellect of the Church, over against Paul’s -judgment, has been prepared to say of faith. He declared that of these -three, love is the greatest. The current opinion of Christian thought -through the Christian centuries has contended that faith was the -greatest. What would men say if some one should arise now to restore -the proportions, who would make bold to declare, “Now abideth faith, -hope, and love; and the greatest of these is hope”? Surely the day will -come some time when hope will come to its own, when the Christian heart -and mind will no longer be content to construe its interpretation of -Christianity in terms either of love or of faith, or of love and faith -together, but will insist that these three abide――faith and love and -hope. - -And when a man stops for a moment to think, to disengage himself -from the unscrutinized conventions, he begins to realize immediately -that he has no faith and love unless he makes larger room for hope -in his thinking and feeling than has been allowed to us. For there -cannot be any faith detached from hope. You can conceive of faith in -three different ways. You may think of it in its primary form, in its -primary form in the New Testament at least, as personal trust, as the -confidence that exists between two personal spirits. But even so, can -you think of it without hope? If I have no hope of seeing Him in Whom -I trust, of consulting with Him, or serving Him, of entering into a -deeper and enlarged fellowship with Him, will not my personal trust -soon empty itself of reality? Or, secondly, you may think of faith as -the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews does, as the “substance of -things hoped for”; in which without any flinching, he binds faith up -with hope in terms that cannot be severed. And, thirdly, if you go on -to the rest of his definition, “the substance of things hoped for, the -evidence of things not seen,” still faith is undetachable from hope; -for, as Paul says in another passage, “We are saved by hope: but hope -that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope -for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait -for it.” And you cannot detach love from hope or have anything that -is real in the experience of love unless it inevitably leads a man on -into those things that clearly were in Paul’s mind when he spoke not -of faith and love only but also of hope. I ask any man’s heart if it -is possible to divorce hope from love. I suppose in one sense it may -be, and that you can speak of a hopeless love. Henry Martyn’s heroic -and tragic life was the unfolding of a hopeless love. But how different -that is from love that is undershot with hope. One looks towards -evening to see the children waiting as he comes home. The workman lives -in the hope of all that is there of joy and confidence and perfect -trust inside his home. Love would be a sorry thing to-day if it were -stripped of the hopes that give it its sweetness and its joy. - -And it is not only faith and love that root themselves inseparably in -hope, and that lose their fragrance and meaning if they do not continue -to draw both out of hope, but regarding almost everything else that -is dearest and most precious to us in life, does it not spring from -this same great treasury? In one of the chapters of the Epistle to -the Romans we find Paul again and again, in his efforts to bring his -message out to those to whom he writes, describing God in different -terms of speech. He begins by speaking of Him as the God of comfort, -the God of patience, and then he goes on to speak of Him as the God -of hope. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in -believing, that ye may abound in hope.” And then he closes by speaking -of the God of peace who is to order all hearts. Quite evidently in -his thought these things all run together, as again he writes: “Be ye -sober. Walk as children of light. Put on the breastplate of faith and -love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” Joy and gladness and -confidence and trust and hope,――all are rooted each in the other in his -own mind and experience. The best that we have got in life springs from -the fountains of hope. - -We do not wonder, accordingly, that the old religious experience and -the richer Christian experience, when it came, conceived and spoke of -God as the God of love and the God of hope. They never spoke of Him as -the God of faith. The old Hebrew idea of Him was as the ground-rock of -their hope. “O hope of Israel,” was their cry. The lovely thing is that -that burst from the lips of the man who mourned for his nation: “O the -hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble.” “Hope thou in -God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, -and my God.” God Himself when He comes to let Himself be richly known -to men makes on them the impression of a great and joyous and glad and -eager and boundless hope. - -And when we turn away from such clews as these and look right into -the face of life to ask what the powers and services and functionings -of hope in the actual life of man and in the life of the world are, -we realize that all this exultant hope has its deep grounding in -the actual living needs of men. It is by hope――the New Testament is -unequivocal about it, and our own experience answers to that word――it -is by hope that we are saved. Not in one passage in the New Testament -can you find the declaration that we are saved by faith. We are saved -“by grace through faith,” but Paul is flat-footed in his declaration -that we are saved by hope. And the moment a man looks life square -in the face he sees why it should be so. Were it not for hope there -could not be any saving that were worth a man’s while. There might -be a clearing up of the past; we might secure something like a clean -conscience; but there could not be any confidence, any ease, any rest, -as over against the tragic problem of life, if a man could not look -out into the future――which is really the thing he now has to deal -with――with boundless hope. Salvation is just that thing. It is not -cleaning up our lives from the point of view of the past, just for the -sake of cleaning up our lives; but it is the hope that for the sake of -our future God is going to live in us a saving life. - -All this is true whether we think of salvation as it comes penetrating -our lives and dealing with such problems as in shame and self-distrust -we think of in our hours of recollection and penitence, or whether we -think of it as something reaching out into the expanding experience -of the future. Either way, salvation is a matter of hope. There is a -lovely touch in one of Paul’s epistles where he says: “Having therefore -these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all -filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear -of God.” What do you think of that motive? He does not say, “Seeing -that our sin is so black and abhorrent as it is, seeing that the past -is so shameful and unworthy as it is, let us cleanse ourselves.” “My -brothers,” he said, “seeing we have such promises”――that is, “that the -hope is so bright, that there is no ground for despair, that we can -believe victory can actually be achieved by us, seeing that we have -these hopes, let us cleanse ourselves in growing holiness.” - -And then when those first Christian men came to look not only at -this present purging of life which should leave it rich and fragrant -and glorious but out upon the wide ranges of the untried and the -unforeseeable, they still construed salvation in terms of hope. “Now -are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: -but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we -shall see him as he is. And he that hath this hope in him purifieth -himself, even as he is pure.” It is so because there is in front of us -the dear voice calling, the voice that says to every one of us: “Man, -let that old past go now. It is done and gone beyond recall. Come out -with Me. There is a new road for your feet and Mine, a new tale that is -to be unfolded now, a new story, the contradiction of the old. Let the -past go now, and come and walk with Me in the limitless hope of the new -ways.” - -And it is not only by hope, as a simple downright matter of fact, that -men are saved and held fast to the Saviour; it is by hope also that -men are nerved and empowered. In the hour of darkness, it is what -lights all the darkness and makes it possible for men to bear. “Yes,” -we say to ourselves in the hour of pain, “I know; but I can stand it, -for after this comes something that is different from this.” That is -what the honest doctor says to us when he deals with us. “Now hold -steady for a moment. I am going to cut and it will hurt dreadfully. -But just wait. Beyond the pain lies freedom from pain.” And we say, -“Yes, doctor, cut. I can stand it.” In a moment the anguish is over. We -endure in that hope. Has it not always been so? For a little while the -mother bears her anguish and her pain for the joy and hope that a child -is born into the world. For a little while Jesus bore the loneliness -and the anguish of His grief and the shadow and the pain and the -disgrace of His Cross, because, looking over it, He saw the glory that -awaited Him and the world, and He endured all this, this anguish of -the Cross, for the joy that was set beyond. “Therefore,” says Paul, -“we rejoice in tribulation, in being flailed, in being pressed down as -grapes in the wine-press, in being put through discipline and strain, -we rejoice in all that, because we know that tribulation worketh -steadfastness, steadfastness experience, and experience hope, and hope -maketh not ashamed.” - -And you know the paradox, and the glory of it, is that the darker -you make the shadows the more triumphantly hope laughs in the midst -of them. The more difficult you make the night, the more hopeful and -enticing is the sure confidence of the dawn that is not far away. Our -word, “Cheer up! The worst is yet to come,” is as deep a Christian -word as was ever yet spoken. Be glad, because darker things lie just -ahead and then light beyond. Thank God that you are counted worthy for -tribulations like these; for these are what wash white a man’s robes -and make him fit to walk after the Lamb whithersoever He goes, in -company with the men whose lips have never known a lie. - -All this is put finely for us in “The Ballad of the White Horse,” the -best piece of work Chesterton has done. They were as dark days as ever -had been in English history. Tide after tide of invasion from Norse and -Dane had come pouring in. Again and again Alfred had called his men -and gone out and fought, and each time in vain. Now, as he sits on his -little island in the Thames among the reeds, the news comes to him that -the Danes are on their way for a fresh invasion of his land. He kneels -in prayer and asks the Virgin Mother whether he ought to go out yet -once more. Again and again, he tells her, he has gone out in hope, and -each time in the confidence that victory would be his, and each time he -has come back defeated, his men killed, and his people to sink lower -after each despair than the time before. And yet, as he prays to her he -says that if she will give him one word of assurance, he will go again. -But only this, as she stands by his side, will she say, - - “I tell you naught for your comfort, - Yea, naught for your desire, - Save that the sky grows darker yet, - And the sea rises higher.” - -And there that day among the reeds under the promise only that the -night was going to be blacker than he had ever known, that storms -fiercer than he had ever breasted were coming, Alfred rises up to do -what he had never done under the old assurance of easy victory, - - “Up over windy wastes and up - Went Alfred over the shaws, - Shaken of the joy of giants, - The joy without a cause.” - -And as his men saw him coming, they thought it was with the old vain -word of a sure victory, and they were about to tell him in advance that -if he came with such a message they would follow him no more. But not -now was Alfred’s word the easy word. No, but―― - - “This is the word of Mary, - The word of the world’s desire; - ‘No more of comfort shall you get - Save that the sky grows darker yet, - And the sea rises higher.’” - -And in front of that darkening sky and that rising sea his men rose up -to go with him, and this time, from the darkest night they had ever -known, came the bright morning of their lasting victory. Thank God, we -are not called out on any soft errand under the incitement of bright -choices, but challenged by great difficulties, black nights and rising -storms, to work in the hope of that which is invisible and which lies -beyond. It is by hope, and hope that lies behind impenetrable clouds, -that men are nerved and empowered. It is because the world is so black -and dark to-day that we walk out into it smiling in its face, knowing -that behind all this the morning the more surely waits, the morning in -which the men believe who have faith and love and hope. - -And it is by hope that our comforts are drawn down into our lives when -the darkest of all days come, and everything is quiet about the house -and the little feet that had run to and fro are still. We say, “Yes, a -little while and then those angel faces will smile, that I have loved -and lost and love.” What would we do in those hours if it were not for -the sure hope? Saint Paul lays his own heart open to all his friends -in one of his epistles: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, -brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even -as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and -rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with -him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which -are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them -which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a -shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and -the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain -shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord -in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort -one another with these words.” - -And as for us who are in the full flush and possession of all that -we have, it is by hope that we draw our comfort for our struggle. As -against the background of our defeats and failures, we say to our own -hearts: “Well, wait, just wait; my time will come. No matter how much -of this there has been, some day my hope will be fulfilled. It is sure -that something else than this there will yet be.” William Henry Green -became the outstanding Hebrew scholar in America. He was plucked when -he entered college in Latin and Greek. At Lafayette College for months -and months he found himself beaten on the very battle-field where -he stood at last the first man in the land. At Lexington, Virginia, -several years ago, I went to the grave of General Lee in the chancel -of the chapel of his college and then I went out to the grave of -Stonewall Jackson on that little hill. One of his townsmen was telling -me the story of Jackson and how by hope he wrested triumph out of his -uttermost failure. He had been teaching in the military academy, and -had just been about to give up his work because he had no gift of -discipline. He could not maintain order in his own classroom, my friend -said, and was about to surrender his career as a teacher, because he -thought he was incapable there. Then the war broke out, and within -twelve months Stonewall Jackson was the most famous disciplinarian on -earth. On the very field where the man’s failure had been most clear, -there he achieved his richest and greatest victory, by hope. And so we -comfort our hearts here to-day. “Yes,” we say to memories of which we -are reminded in our searching hours, “the evil and unworthy imaginings -and desires cling to us still, but it will not be forever. Some day, no -matter how often I have failed, if I live in hope, it will come to me, -the clean thing that the Lord said should be mine.” - -And last of all, there is nothing adequate for us in the way of -actually moulding men and doing that with life which we were set here -to do unless we can go to the work in the spirit in which our Lord and -Saint Paul entered it. If I have no hope for another man, I cannot -awaken any hope in him for himself. Unless I believe in him, how can he -believe? The glory of Christ was that, though He knew just what was in -man, and saw all the weaknesses and the slavery and the impurity and -the unwholesomeness, though He saw all this in man, He shut His eyes to -it deliberately and believed in the better capacities and possibilities -that were there and that He by His grace and His power could plant and -nurture and bring out until all that old baseness that had been the man -was not the man any more, and all this new purity that had not been the -man was the man, and Simon was turned at last out of his putty into -rock and stone. - -I do not know whether the apostles were conscious or not of what was -happening to them. Maybe they did not appreciate their Master, but -one likes to think that they must have done so, and that often they -would go off by themselves and one would say: “Andrew, is He not just -great? Did you ever meet any one like that before? Did you see what He -did this morning? He just shut His eyes completely to that meanness -that He saw in me, and that I saw the moment I let it out, too, and -He pretended that He never saw it at all, and He believed in me when -He knew and I knew there was nothing there to believe in. Is He not -wonderful? He will make a man of me yet.” And to this day He is still -doing just what He was doing then. In this place now He is doing just -that thing. He is shutting His eyes to what we do not want Him to see -and opening them to what only He can see in us. And His law must be our -law. - -I can put it in a little story that a friend of some of us, George -Truett, told to a little group some years ago in a western city. “I am -fond,” he said, “of recalling the first soul it was ever given me to -win to Jesus. I was a lad barely grown and a teacher in the mountains -of Carolina. One morning, as we were ready for prayers in the chapel, -there hobbled down the aisle to the front seat a boy of about sixteen -years old. He was an eager, lonely-looking lad. I read the Scriptures -and prayed and then sent the teachers to their classes. But my little -cripple lad stayed. I supposed that he was a beggar. And I said to -myself, ‘Surely this boy deserves alms. His condition betokens his -need.’ So I went to him at recess and said, ‘My lad, what do you want?’ -He looked me eagerly in the face and said: ‘Mr. Truett, I want to go to -school. Oh, sir, I want to be somebody in the world. I will always be -a cripple. The doctors have told me that, but,’ he said, ‘I want to be -somebody.’ - -“He had won me. He told me of their poverty, and that was taken care -of. I watched that lad for weeks and weeks. How bright his mind was! -How eager he was to know! One day I called him into my office and said -to him: ‘My boy, I want you to tell me something more about yourself.’ -He told me how, a few months before, his father had been killed in the -great cotton mill where he worked, and the few dollars he had saved up -were soon gone. They tried to do their best in the county where they -were, but found it difficult; so his mother said one day: ‘Let us move -to the next county, where they do not know us. Perhaps we can do better -where we are not known.’ So they moved and now he had come into my -school. He said, ‘I want to help mother, and I want to be somebody in -the world; so I made my appeal to you to come to your school.’ It was -time in a moment for the bell to ring for books. I laid my hand on the -head of the little fellow and said to him: ‘Jim, I am for you, my boy. -I believe in you thoroughly, and I want you to know that I love you, my -boy.’ And when I said that last word, the little pinched face looked -up into my face almost in a lightning flash, and he said: ‘Mr. Truett, -did you say you loved me? Did you say that?’ I said, ‘I said that, -Jim.’ And then with a great sob he said: ‘I did not know anybody loved -me but mother and the two little girls. Mr. Truett, if you love me, I -am going to be a man yet, by the help of God.’ And when a few Friday -nights afterwards I was leading the boys in their chapel meeting, as -was the custom, I heard the boy’s crutches over in the corner. There -Jim sat, in a chair away from the other boys to protect his leg. And -a little later he got up, sobbing and laughing at the same time, and -said, ‘Mr. Truett, I have found the Saviour, and that time you told -me you loved me started me towards Him.’” And then our friend added, -“Brothers, working men in the shops and everywhere are dying for love. -Your grammar may be broken, your plans may be imperfect, your machinery -may be crude, your organization may be rough; but if you love men and -pour your hearts out to them honestly and directly, there will be a -response that will fill your hearts with joy and heaven with praises.” - -And the need and functions of hope should be viewed in no narrow -personal way. We want to-day men who have a large and courageous -faith in God for the nation and the world. Of recent years a mood of -pessimism has spread through America. In one sense it represents a -wholesome reaction from the spirit of braggadocio and spreadeagleism of -an earlier day. So far it is wholesome. We need to be sobered and made -modest and quiet in our national spirit. But it is a bad thing when a -nation loses the zest of a great consciousness and a brave patriotism, -and thinks meanly of what God can do with it. Our nation needs now -not a timid and fearful sense of its impotence and incapacity, but a -realization that, whatever its difficulties and defects, God has a -mission for us which only we can fulfill for Him. For this mission -those men must be the nation’s soul of hope and expectation who know -that our greatest duty and service lie ahead of us and are waiting to -be grasped by men whose hearts face the untried without fear. - -And now shall we have this hope that nothing can slay? Do we want it? -Well, it is so near to us that we do not need to reach out after it. -You know where it is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “The Lord -Jesus Christ,” as Saint Paul says in the opening words of his first -Epistle to Timothy, “The Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.” This hope is not -something that we work up out of the fragments of moral ideals that we -find lying around in our lives or our nation. Jesus Christ is the hope -for a man and a people. If we want it, why not now take Him? Genuinely, -I mean, in a deep, living, religious way, take Him in His fullness of -life? God and the nation want the men who are filled with His courage -and hope: - - “God’s trumpet wakes the slumbering world, - Now each man to his post. - The red cross banner is unfurl’d, - Who joins the glorious host? Who joins the glorious host? - He who in fealty to the truth - And counting all the cost - Doth consecrate his gen’rous youth, - He joins the noble host! He joins the noble host! - - “He who, no anger on his tongue - Nor any idle boast, - Bears steadfast witness ’gainst the wrong, - He joins the sacred host! He joins the sacred host! - He who with calm, undaunted will - Ne’er counts the battle lost - But though defeated battles still, - He joins the faithful host! He joins the faithful host! - - “He who is ready for the cross, - The cause despised loves most, - And shows not pain or shame or loss, - He joins the martyr host! He joins the martyr host! - God’s trumpet wakes the slumbering world. - Now each man to his post. - The red cross banner is unfurled. - We join the glorious host! We join the glorious host!” - - - - -LECTURE IV - -THE JOY OF THE MINORITY - - -There are two forms of disloyalty. One is flinching, the other is -compromise. Of course, the compromiser will never allow that he is -disloyal. He is a practical man who realizes that theories and ideals -have to be adapted to a practical world, and he gives up a part, and -as unimportant a part as possible, in order that he may gain the rest. -He feels himself quite capable of judging how much to give up and what -part may rightly be given up. He will simply abate the unreason of -a God who demands all righteousness, and to Whom the whole truth is -truth. Let us set up against such men the uncompromising principle of -the duty of non-compromise. It is a principle from which the wisest -and best of men are sometimes won away in the supposed interest of -the great ends which they seek, and for which they feel that they may -rightly sacrifice subordinate issues. There is what some regard as a -striking incident of this character in the life of that uncompromising -man, Saint Paul. It is an exciting and instructive story. This is the -way it is told in the twenty-first chapter of Acts (vs. 17–30): - - “And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received - us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto - James; and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted - them, he rehearsed one by one the things which God had wrought - among the Gentiles through his ministry. And they, when they - heard it, glorified God; and they said unto him, Thou seest, - brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them - that have believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and - they have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all - the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling - them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after - the customs. What is it therefore? they will certainly hear - that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee: We - have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify - thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may - shave their heads: and all shall know that there is no truth - in the things whereof they have been informed concerning - thee; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, keeping - the law. But as touching the Gentiles that have believed, we - wrote, giving judgment that they should keep themselves from - things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is - strangled, and from fornication. Then Paul took the men, and - the next day purifying himself with them went into the temple, - declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until - the offering was offered for every one of them. - - “And when the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from - Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the - multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, - help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against - the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he - brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled this holy - place. For they had before seen with him in the city Trophimus - the Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into - the temple. And all the city was moved, and the people ran - together; and they laid hold on Paul, and dragged him out of - the temple: and straightway the doors were shut.” - -And that was the disastrous end of this conscientious experiment. Paul -never tried another like it. Perhaps there is a construction of the -story which forbids the idea that it was compromise but it suffices -at any rate to raise the whole question of the wisdom of compromise -as a principle of action. It is the one incident in Paul’s life -where he might be thought even for a moment to have embarked on that -course. Wherever else we see him, he is a man of firm and unflinching -principles, who made no concealment of what he believed, and did not -try to adjust his convictions and practices to other convictions and -practices that were at variance with them. - -In the second chapter of Galatians, you will remember, Paul is telling -of a visit he made to Jerusalem some time before with Barnabas and -Titus, in which they went up to consider these very questions. Some -of the brethren in Jerusalem had endeavoured to persuade Paul to have -Titus, who was a Gentile, circumcised, and Paul says, “To whom we -gave place ... no, not for an hour.” And then he tells of the time -when Peter came to Antioch and he withstood him to his face because he -had been a trimmer and compromiser; for Peter, acting on the generous -impulse of his own heart as to what was right, had indeed bravely eaten -with the converted Gentiles, but when some men came down from Jerusalem -who were close to James, he withdrew himself from the Gentiles, -fearing, no doubt, that it might injure him in Jerusalem. - -Paul does not say anything in any letter about this particular -incident in Jerusalem, in which, for the one time in his life, he -was overpersuaded by his friends and put in a position where he was -very much misunderstood, and where he appeared to be compromising the -great principles in which he earnestly believed. We know what the -far-reaching consequences were. A great deal of trouble was brought -into his life by this act. It was out of it that all those succeeding -events came which took him at last to Rome to be tried before Cæsar. -Some may say that these results were good. Undoubtedly God led Paul’s -course on, but we may believe that God might have had even greater -things for him to do if only he had in this incident pursued his -customary course. - -But we want to go far beyond the question as to whether the consequences -may ever appear to justify acts of compromise. A course of action is -right or wrong, not according to the consequences, but according to its -conformity or unconformity to the character of God. And the point now -raised is whether it is ever right for us to compromise our own firm -convictions of truth and principle. - -Now, the world tells us that such compromise is to-day absolutely -unavoidable. Men and women, we are assured, cannot get along in a world -like this without adaptations. If it is meant by this only that we are -often obliged to adapt ourselves to that with which we do not agree, -why, of course, we have to assent, because we are in a world of give -and take of which we have to be a part, and it is necessary for us -to live our life and do our work in this world. Here in many of our -communities, for example, the saloons flourish. There is not one of -us here in this audience who believes that it is wise that the saloon -should exist under the protection of the government, but we have to -live in a land where the principle with which we disagree prevails, -and the only way we can escape is to go to some other land, and we -would only find there some other principle with which we could not -agree. We cannot live at all unless we are willing to adjust ourselves -to an actual world. “Compromise” when used as the principle of such -adjustment means simply that we must of necessity find room for -ourselves among the crossing strands of life. “All government,” says -Burke, “indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every vital and every -prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.” “It cannot be too -emphatically asserted,” says Spencer, “that this policy of compromise -alike in institution, in action and in belief which especially -characterizes English life is a policy essential to a society going -through the transition caused by continuous growth and development.” -And Emerson remarks, “Almost all people descend to meet. All -association must be a compromise, and, what is worst, the very flower -and aroma of the flower of each of the beautiful natures disappears as -they approach each other.” - -If it is meant by compromise that we have to live under conditions -with which we do not agree and to which we must adjust ourselves, -why, of course, we must assent to that――it is perfectly obvious; but -we do not need to live under those conditions assenting to them. We -can bear our testimony against whatever we morally disapprove. We -can assert our conviction by word or by the silent protest of life -that those conditions are not right, and so to live in the midst of -conditions in which we do not believe, but from which we cannot escape, -is not compromise. It is compromise when we surrender our principles -so that others do not understand what those principles are, or when -we hold back something that is vital, or cover over deceptively or -misleadingly something essential. When we take before men a position -that is inconsistent with the position that in our hearts we are taking -before God, that is compromise, and that is wrong. Regarding the truth -in which we believe, the principles by which we know life ought to be -lived, regarding these things there cannot be compromise, in our lives -or in the Christian Church. - -There is a noble essay by Mr. John Morley, as he once was, on this -subject of compromise, its nature and limits, of which Scott Holland -says in “Lux Mundi” that “no one can read that book without being -either the better or the worse for it.” In it Morley takes up three -different spheres of life. First, the formation of opinion; second, -the expression of opinion when it is called out from us; and, third, -the propagation of opinion; and then he pursues this line of argument: -In the matter of the formation of opinion there cannot be any -compromise at all. Every one of us is bound to hunt for the truth, no -matter what the truth may be, and when we have found it, to give our -lives absolutely to it. In the realm of the expression of opinion, -nobody has any right to deceive any one regarding his principles and -convictions when they are called forth. But in the third place, he -admits room for compromise when it comes to the aggressive propagation -of our convictions. He says that every man is not bound to propagate -what he believes, and he takes for example his own case,――that of -a man who does not believe in the Bible, who has abandoned the old -religious views of his people, but who does not regard it as his duty -aggressively to propagate his dissentient convictions. - -In his own words his thesis is this: - - “In the positive endeavour to realize an opinion, to convert - a theory into practice, it may be, and very often is, highly - expedient to defer to the prejudices of the majority, to - move very slowly, to bow to the conditions of the status - quo, to practice the very utmost sobriety, self-restraint, - and conciliatoriness. The mere expression of opinion, in the - next place, the avowal of dissent from received notions, the - refusal to conform to language which implies the acceptance - of such notions――this rests on a different footing. Here - the reasons for respecting the wishes and sentiments of the - majority are far less strong, though, as we shall presently - see, such reasons certainly exist, and will weigh with all - well-considering men. Finally, in the formation of an opinion - as to the abstract preferableness of one course of action - over another, or as to the truth or falsehood or right - significance of a proposition, the fact that the majority of - one’s contemporaries lean in the other direction is naught, - and no more than dust in the balance. In making up our minds - as to what would be the wisest line of policy if it were - practicable, we have nothing to do with the circumstance that - it is not practicable. And in settling with ourselves whether - propositions purporting to state matters of fact are true or - not, we have to consider how far they are conformable to the - evidence. We have nothing to do with the comfort and solace - which they would be likely to bring to others or ourselves, if - they were taken as true.” - -Now, we cannot but be rather grateful that men, who if they spoke would -have to oppose Christianity, take this view and remain silent, and -yet that is not our principle. Believing in Christianity, we believe -that it would be wrong and unworthy compromise to conceal it and to -refrain from propagating it. Mr. Morley prefixed to his essay Whately’s -saying, “It makes all the difference in the world whether we put truth -in the first place or in the second place.” We hold to another word of -Whately’s also: “If our religion is false, we must change it. If it is -true, we must propagate it.” Notice that Morley is speaking not of his -doubts, but of his convictions. There is no obligation of a propaganda -of insecurity. There is an obligation to propagate positive truth. It -must, of course, be the truth that I believe. When I am asked what I -believe I must, of course, tell the truth. But we believe something -far more than that. The religious truth that one believes he must give -his life to propagate throughout the world, and it would not make any -difference if he were the only man in the world who held that truth, -it would still be his duty, if he believed it was the truth and the -great and necessary truth of life, to go out single-handed to defend -and propagate it. Athanasius is regarded as an impracticable and -troublesome type but the progress of the world is often lifted forward -a sheer and discernible stage by such uncompromisingness. - -Let us set forth some of the reasons why we may believe that there -dare not be, in our Christian life and our Christian service, any -compromise whatever, either in our searching for the truth, in our -utterance of the truth, or in our aggressive and active propagation of -the truth throughout the world. This is to put the matter, of course, -very broadly and sweepingly. There is a great deal to be said for some -of Morley’s nice discriminations. But actual life is a very rough and -imperative and elemental thing. The difficulty of acting on any body of -wary and wavery casuistical principles is enormous. The really workable -principle of actual living must be very simple and uncomplicated and -direct. The only safe ethical law is “No lie,” no lie whatever or under -any justification. So also, however crude and blunt the rule may be, -“No compromise” is the only practicable right rule. Mr. Morley closed -his essay with such a plain word: “It is better to bear the burden of -impracticableness, than to stifle conviction and to pare away principle -until it becomes mere hollowness and triviality.” And in the beginning -he wrote: “Our day of small calculations and petty utilities must first -pass away; our vision of the true expediencies must reach further and -deeper; our resolution to search for the highest verities, to give up -all and follow them, must first become the supreme part of ourselves.” -The loss by compromise to ourselves and others is certain, while its -gain is uncertain and problematical. - -In the first place, one believes this because compromise makes no -contribution to the settlement of the real issue over truth. It is -true that all the boundaries between truth and error are not clear and -sharply drawn lines. Often there is a gray and misty region between. -And much truth is only slowly and gradually won. But the ideal of truth -is clearer than the sun and as pure as the character of God. And we -have a far richer chance of winning it and all that it brings with it, -if we both think and live it uncompromisingly. “The political spirit,” -says Mr. Morley in noble words, “is the great force in throwing love -of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary place. The evil -does not stop here. This achievement has indirectly countenanced the -postponement of intellectual methods, and the diminution of the sense -of intellectual responsibility, by a school that is anything rather -than political. Theology has borrowed, and coloured for her own use, -the principles which were first brought into vogue in politics. If in -the one field it is the fashion to consider convenience first and truth -second, in the other there is a corresponding fashion of placing truth -second and emotional comfort first. If there are some who compromise -their real opinions, or the chance of reaching truth, for the sake of -gain, there are far more who shrink from giving their intelligence free -play, for the sake of keeping undisturbed certain luxurious spiritual -sensibilities.... - -“The intelligence is not free in the presence of a mortal fear lest -its conclusions should trouble soft tranquillity of spirit. There is -always hope of a man so long as he dwells in the region of the direct -categorical proposition and the unambiguous term; so long as he does -not deny the rightly drawn conclusions after accepting the major and -minor premises. This may seem a scanty virtue and very easy grace. Yet -experience shows it to be too hard of attainment for those who tamper -with disinterestedness of conviction, for the sake of luxuriating -in the softness of spiritual transport without interruption from a -syllogism. It is true that there are now and then in life as in history -noble and fair natures, that by the silent teaching and unconscious -example of their inborn purity, star-like constancy, and great -devotion, do carry the world about them to further heights of living -than can be attained by ratiocination. But these, the blameless and -loved saints of the earth, rise too rarely on our dull horizons to -make a rule for the world. The law of things is that they who tamper -with veracity, from whatever motive, are tampering with the vital -force of human progress. Our comfort and the delight of the religious -imagination are no better than forms of self-indulgence, when they -are secured at the cost of that love of truth on which, more than on -anything else, the increase of light and happiness among men must -depend. We have to fight and do lifelong battle against the forces of -darkness, and anything that turns the edge of reason blunts the surest -and most potent of our weapons.” We do not believe in compromising, -because it makes no contribution to the larger discerning of truth or -the triumphing of that truth over error. - -In the second place, we do not believe in it because it creates a great -many more difficulties than it removes. Now, Paul was invited to this -compromising course in Jerusalem by his misguided friends because they -thought it would avoid trouble. They wanted to set Paul right with the -Jewish Christians in the city, and maybe with the Jews who were not -Christians; they wanted to remove an impression which they thought -prevailed regarding Paul’s attitude towards the Mosaic customs in the -Gentile world. - -Now, as a matter of fact, the principle of that impression was true, -for although, as Dr. McGiffert says, Paul - - “recognized the legitimacy of Jewish Christianity, and the - right of Peter and other apostles to preach to the Jews the - Gospel of circumcision, and though there is no evidence that he - ever undertook to lead the Jews as a people to cease observing - their ancestral law, he had certainly been in the habit of - insisting that his Jewish converts should associate on equal - terms with their Gentile brethren, and that they should not - allow their law to act in any way as a barrier to the freest - and most intimate association with them. But this, of course, - meant, in so far, their violation of the law’s commands. It - is certain also that Paul had preached for years the doctrine - that not the Gentile Christian alone but the Jewish Christian - as well is absolutely free from all obligation to keep the law - of Moses, and though such teaching might not always result in - a disregard of that law by his Jewish converts, it must have - a tendency to produce that effect and doubtless did in many - cases. It is clear therefore that both accusations had much - truth in them, and it is difficult to suppose that Paul can - have deliberately attempted in Jerusalem to prove them wholly - false. - - “And yet, though as an honourable man and a man of principle - he can hardly have undertaken to demonstrate that there was - no truth in the reports which were circulated concerning - him, it may well be that he tried to show that they were not - wholly true. It was evidently assumed by those who accused - him of ‘teaching all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to - forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, - neither to walk after the customs,’ that he hated the Jewish - law and that he was doing all that lay in his power to destroy - it; that he believed and that he taught everywhere that its - observance was under any and all circumstances a positive - sin. But this assumption was not true. Paul was certainly not - hostile to the law in any such sense. He believed that it had - no binding authority over a Christian, and he opposed with - all his might the idea that its observance had any value as a - means of salvation, or that it contributed in any way to the - believer’s righteousness or growth in grace; but he held no - such view of the law as made its observance necessarily sinful, - and rendered it impossible for him ever to observe it himself - in any respect. And it was not at all unnatural that he should - desire to convince the Christians of Jerusalem of the fact; - especially when he had come thither with the express purpose - of conciliating them and winning their favour for himself and - for his Gentile converts. He would have been very foolish under - these circumstances to allow such a false impression touching - his attitude towards the law to go uncontradicted.”[1] - - [1] “The Apostolic Age,” p. 341. - -This is a satisfactory defense if one were needed of Paul’s course, -but no one would question his motive. That was right enough and he -evidently acted in all good conscience, but the procedure, instead of -getting him out of his trouble, got him into worse trouble. It always -does that. I do not believe any man was ever permanently helped by -compromise. Every man who has begun to play with it has been drawn into -worse difficulties and troubles, or has gone down, perhaps without -conscious difficulty but with real moral loss, to a lower level of -life. For one thing, compromise blurs the line of cleavage between -truth and error, and that is exactly what no one of us can afford to -have done. We do not want the lines of distinction between what is -true and what is false slurred over for us. We want them sharpened -so that we shall make as little mistake as possible as to where they -lie. Furthermore compromise gets us into more difficulty than it -removes, because it throws together things that are not congruous or -reconcilable. This is its very nature. It brings into one bed things -that cannot sleep together, into one union things that cannot be -tied. And it postpones real settlements in the interest of spurious -arrangements, sacrificing some - - “greater good for the less, on no more creditable ground than - that the less is nearer. It is better to wait, and to defer - the realization of our ideas until we can realize them fully, - than to defraud the future by truncating them, if truncate - them we must, in order to secure a partial triumph for them - in the immediate present.... What is the sense, and what is - the morality, of postponing the wider utility to the narrower? - Nothing is so sure to impoverish an epoch, to deprive conduct - of nobleness, and character of elevation.” - -These are Mr. Morley’s closing words. This is the second reason why we -believe there can be no room for compromise in our Christian life or -service. - -In the third place, it encourages evil by making it think that having -got so much it can get the rest, and so it prolongs the life of evil. -That is exactly what compromise did in the old days of slavery. Every -one of those early compromises prolonged the life of evil which at -last the nation had to pour out its blood to destroy. That is what -compromise always does. It persuades evil that, after all, maybe evil -can win the victory, that having gotten so much from us it can get the -rest if only it will be patient, and we simply increase the courage of -our foe in proportion as we make any compromise with him instead of -standing up face to face against him from the very beginning. And so it -destroys the power and might of right causes by mixing in the taint of -wrong. You do not make a good man better by putting a dash of bad in -him. You do not make a good cause stronger by letting the evil come in; -you only weaken its strength and power. Compromise plays into the hands -of the very evil which we are here to overcome and destroy. - -In the fourth place, compromise breaks down the strength of rigid -consistency, and by letting in one qualification prepares the way for -others. That is the reason why it is so much harder for a man to be a -moderate drinker than to be a total abstainer. As was said of Samuel -Johnson, “He could practice abstinence but not temperance.” When a man -has made up his mind that he will never do a thing, it is a great deal -easier for him to refuse to do it in any given instance than if he has -made up his mind that he will do it moderately, because he never knows -when he ceases to be moderate. There is a sharp line between moderate -drinking and total abstinence. That boundary line no one can ever -mistake, but the boundary line between intemperance and moderation is -not located anywhere. There is no definite border between those two -countries. As a matter of fact, every man starts in by being a moderate -drinker. He never intended to become anything else but a moderate -drinker when he began. But there is a boundary line so clear that a -blind man can see it between yes and no, between not doing a thing at -all and doing that thing only moderately. We believe in the principle -of absolutely no compromise in moral habit and principle, and we -believe in the same principle in our clear and evangelical convictions -regarding the Christian faith. - -In the fifth place, we ought to shun all such compromise because -it undermines our confidence in men, and the solid unity of their -coöperative action. We know where truth is, but we never know where -calculating compromise may be. In the language of the deaf and dumb -this is the sign for truth――a straight line right away from your -mouth――for the simple reason that between two points there is only -one straight line, but there may be many crooked lines. The truth is -always a single thing, but the error,――no man knows what it may be. No -compromise makes possible unity of accord by giving people one standard -on which they can rely, and by supplying confidence in the stability of -men and their convictions. But we cannot follow the compromising man, -for as soon as he gets out of our sight we do not know where he will be. - -It is the man who makes no compromise, who stands fast by truth, that -we know we can locate. It was that which gave Stonewall Jackson his -huge power as a leader of men in the Civil War. He was a man of the -most unflinching Christian convictions. He was one who never moved the -breadth of a hair from his loyalty to his Lord or to truth as he saw -truth in the presence of his Lord. Colonel Henderson draws for us a -rich picture of the great soldier’s character and it is full of genial -and kindly touches, but it is faithful also in its account of the man’s -rigid and inflexible righteousness. - - “Jackson’s religion entered into every action of his life. No - duty, however trivial, was begun without asking a blessing, or - ended without returning thanks. ‘He had long cultivated,’ he - said, ‘the habit of connecting the most trivial and customary - acts of life with a silent prayer.’ He took the Bible as his - guide, and it is possible that his literal interpretation - of its precepts caused many to regard him as a fanatic. His - observance of the Sabbath was hardly in accordance with - ordinary usage. He never read a letter on that day, nor - posted one; he believed that the Government in carrying the - mails was violating a divine law, and he considered the - suppression of such traffic one of the most important duties - of the legislature. Such opinions were uncommon, even among - the Presbyterians, and his rigid respect for truth served to - strengthen the impression that he was morbidly scrupulous. - If he unintentionally made a misstatement――even about some - trifling matter――as soon as he discovered his mistake he would - lose no time and spare no trouble in hastening to correct it. - ‘Why, in the name of reason,’ he was asked, ‘do you walk a mile - in the rain for a perfectly unimportant thing?’ ‘Simply because - I have discovered that it was a misstatement, I could not sleep - comfortably unless I put it right.’ - - “He had occasion to censure a cadet who had given, as Jackson - believed, the wrong solution of a problem. On thinking the - matter over at home, he found that the pupil was right and - the teacher wrong. It was late at night and in the depth of - winter, but he immediately started off to the Institute, - some distance from his quarters, and sent for the cadet. The - delinquent, answering with much trepidation the untimely - summons, found himself to his astonishment the recipient - of a frank apology. Jackson’s scruples carried him even - further. Persons who interlarded their conversation with the - unmeaning phrase ‘you know’ were often astonished by the blunt - interruption that he did _not_ know; and when he was entreated - at parties or receptions to break through his dietary rules, - and for courtesy’s sake to seem to accept some delicacy, he - would always refuse with the reply that he had ‘no genius for - seeming.’ But if he carried his conscientiousness to extremes, - if he laid down stringent rules for his own governance, he - neither set himself up for a model nor did he attempt to - force his convictions upon others. He was always tolerant; he - knew his own faults, and his own temptations, and if he could - say nothing good of a man he would not speak of him at all. - But he was by no means disposed to overlook conduct of which - he disapproved, and undue leniency was a weakness to which - he never yielded. If he once lost confidence or discovered - deception on the part of one he trusted, he withdrew himself as - far as possible from any further dealings with him; and whether - with the cadets or with his brother-officers, if an offense - had been committed of which he was called upon to take notice, - he was absolutely inflexible. Punishment or report inevitably - followed. No excuses, no personal feelings, no appeals to - the suffering which might be brought upon the innocent, were - permitted to interfere with the execution of his duty.” - -“As exact as the multiplication table,” some one said of him, “and as -full of things military as an arsenal.” Those of us who are looking for -the secret of Christian influence over others may be sure that we will -find it here. Men are not going to follow the shifting man. They will -follow the man who makes no compromise, who has his firm convictions -and who stands by those convictions, no matter what the cost of his -loyalty may be. Recent American politics are rather eloquent and -convincing on this point. - -In the sixth place, compromise in principle substitutes reliance upon -majorities for reliance upon the truth, and the majorities never have -been right and we may doubt whether, until our Lord Jesus Christ comes -again, they ever will be right. God never has relied upon the majority. -He never has waited to do His work until it was ready to side with Him. -In all ages God has done His work by the few. In Old Testament times He -did it by the few. The one principle prevailed always――not by might, -nor by power. It was ever only “the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” -When our Lord came He did His work with the few. Through all the ages -God has been working so, and we simply depart from His whole method -in history when by compromise we try to get the force of the majority -on our side. The force of the majority does not amount to anything in -comparison with the force of truth. “The history of success,” says -Mr. Morley, “as we can never too often repeat to ourselves, is the -history of minorities.” And we do not believe in compromise because -it substitutes our reliance upon the majority for our reliance upon -the truth of God, and upon the strength of God to enable the few with -the truth to triumph against the error of the crowd. This passes for -foolish idealism and some of our most popular political leaders and -reformers have poured scorn upon the idealists and dreamers, who are -not to be numbered among the practical men. - - “One would like to ask them what purpose is served by an ideal, - if it is not to make a guide for practice and a landmark - in dealing with the real. A man’s loftiest and most ideal - notions must be of a singularly ethereal and, shall we not - say, senseless kind, if he can never see how to take a single - step that may tend in the slightest degree towards making - them more real. If an ideal has no point of contact with what - exists, it is probably not much more than the vapid outcome - of intellectual or spiritual self-indulgence. If it has such - a point of contact, then there is sure to be something which - a man can do towards the fulfillment of his hopes. He cannot - substitute a new national religion for the old, but he can - at least do something to prevent people from supposing that - the adherents of the old are more numerous than they really - are, and something to show them that good ideas are not all - exhausted by the ancient forms. He cannot transform a monarchy - into a republic, but he can make sure that one citizen at least - shall aim at republican virtues, and abstain from the debasing - complaisance of the crowd.”[2] - - [2] Morley, “Compromise,” p. 226. - -And we might add, “he cannot instantly make truth the life of the -nation, but he can be loyal to its commandments. He cannot make -political leaders honest and patriotic, but he can refuse to profit by -their dishonesty or to regard them as honest men if they will but wear -his badge and seek their own ends by promoting his. He can form his own -ideals of honour and glory and live by them whatever way others may go.” - -In the seventh place, compromise increases in peril as we draw near the -highest. If you take a man who is down on the lower levels, compromise -does not mean as much to him as it does to men who have been climbing -up. The nearer we come to Christ and the highest truth, the more -perilous does compromise become. As Edward Thring said: “In proportion -to excellence, compromise is impossible. A single leak sinks a great -ship, a raft that is all leaks floats.” That is just the deep lesson -that men and women need to learn; that the higher and cleaner and -more morally lofty or exacting the life, the more perilous compromise -becomes to it. One has heard Christian men say sometimes that they -thought they were safe in doing what this or that man, not as strong -or experienced or mature, could do. It is a great mistake. The clearer -and stronger a man’s life, the more careful must the man be, the more -solicitous, the more anxious, lest thinking he stands he falls. One -of the greatest things about the life of Paul was the humility and -self-distrust in which he walked, fearing lest when he had preached -to others he himself might be a castaway. We have to learn that here -lies power and duty, and that the cleaner Christ makes any human life, -the more careful must that life be to keep all its habits pure and -unsullied, and its convictions of truth unflinching and firm. - -It was this principle that made our friend, S. H. Hadley, and that -makes so many men who have escaped from the slavery of drink, go to -extremes in cutting off physical indulgences. Mr. Hadley not only -dropped once and forever the use of alcohol, but he stopped tobacco -too, and he tried to get every drunkard whom he was seeking to save to -discontinue the use of nicotine. He held that men should be clean every -whit and his strong conviction was that while he would not for a moment -class such indulgences together, nevertheless the man who wanted to be -free from the one would find his deliverance far easier if he sloughed -off the other also. It is safer and easier to be thoroughgoing and -indiscriminate, if you will, than to be always calculating how great -risks can be safely run. - -And, lastly, we believe in no compromise because the truth is bound -to prevail, and it will triumph the soonest when it is least hampered -and tied up with error or with qualification. One might stop here to -make a defense on this ground of the fanatics and devotees, but it -is enough to say that the truth is going to prevail because it is -God’s truth, and hell and all hell’s power in the world cannot stand -against it. What is the use in delaying the day of that triumph by -compromising with error? The right will prevail all the faster if we -make no compromise with error, if we go out and preach unflinchingly -and courageously with no compromise, with no surrender or economy or -adaptations, the hard, plain truth of God as we see it. If what we -think is truth is really error, it will be the sooner beaten down for -being made to stand up for itself. But if it is indeed the truth we -know it will prevail the more in the world as we keep it free from all -connection with anything that will weaken or becloud it. - -I know how much danger there is in such an attitude as this if we take -it up towards the truth that we hold. It lies in our human nature to go -to violence or extremes with everything. Martin Luther used to say that -human nature is like a drunken man trying to ride a horse, you prop him -up on one side and he topples over on the other. It is that way with -us. We try to be firm and we become hard-hearted. We pride ourselves -on uncompromising loyalty to the truth and we lack the tenderness -and sympathy. Moreover, as Bushnell said in his essay on “Christian -Comprehensiveness”: - - “It is the common infirmity of mere human reformers that, when - they rise up to cast out an error, it is generally not till - they have kindled their passions against it. If they begin with - reason, they are commonly moved, in the last degree, by their - animosities instead of reason. And as animosities are blind, - they, of course, see nothing to respect, nothing to spare. - The question whether possibly there may not be some truth or - good in the error assailed, which is needed to qualify and - save the equilibrium of their own opposing truth, is not once - entertained. Hence it is that men, in expelling one error, are - perpetually thrusting themselves into another, as if unwilling - or unable to hold more than half the truth at once.” - -And yet these dangers are lesser dangers than the danger of -surrendering the truth. And we can be guarded from them by the great -and unselfish love that guarded Paul. The man who loves others more -than he loves himself, who holds human lives sacred and free from -invasion, who is seeking not his own glory, but the glory of God and -the good of men, is in little danger from an absolutely uncompromising -loyalty to the truth. - -And if ever men have any doubts or misgivings regarding this, or if -the time of discouragements and fears comes to them, and they look -with longing to the multitudes who act together, while they think of -themselves as just a few, bearing testimony for the truth against -error and sin, they may encourage themselves with Mr. Matthew Arnold’s -doctrine of the remnant, or better yet, by remembering the great -Solitary, Jesus Christ. How lonesomely He walked His way; seeing what -no other soul was seeing; standing alone for the great truth which He -uttered, and at last meeting death upon the cross alone; one of His -disciples having betrayed Him, another having three times denied that -he ever knew Him, and all the others having left Him and gone away! -And yet as we look back, we see that lonely cross ruling the whole -world, and that forsaken figure men are clothing now with the crown -of everlasting light, and His name is above every name. All that we -are asked to do is simply to follow in His train, to take up the truth -which He opened, and for that truth to be willing to live, and, which -is far easier, if need be, to die. Our lives are ours for this one -thing, that through them, without compromise with error or with sin, -God may bear testimony to Himself, and whether He does that through -many years or through few, through peaceful personal service or through -storm and tragedy, is of no consequence. The one thing that is of -consequence is that we should know and be true to God. - -But there is a better way to set forth and commend this principle -as a law of life than by arguing it in these general terms. Let the -principle put on flesh and live before us in a man: - -“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead, said -unto Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, -there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” - -The old man who spoke these words was one of the four great characters -of the Old Testament. He and Moses and Samuel and David stood apart in -the thought of the Hebrew people. Indeed, there was a sense in which -he and Moses were in a class by themselves. The appearance of those -two with our Lord on the Mountain of Transfiguration was only an -illustration of the place which they held in the imagination of Israel. - -These were the first words he spoke as he bursts on our view. What -lay behind them we can only surmise. He was a Tishbite, one “of the -sojourners of Gilead,” dwelling beyond the Jordan, a man brought up -in the desert. There on the level sands, with the eye of God looking -down upon him, he had come to a deep feeling of the soul’s lonely stand -before God, and convinced of God and the righteousness of God he came -over the Jordan to speak his message and do his work in the organized -national life of his people. He was a clean-limbed, frugal-lived man, -who gathered up his skirts about him, we are told, and ran straight -away sixteen miles before the chariot of Ahab, from Carmel to the -entering in of Jezreel; a calm, quiet, courageous, firm-principled man; -bred so in the desert with God. - -We do not have any very elaborate story of his life. He appears on the -stage and then he vanishes. There are long periods of time covering -years when he disappears entirely from the record. We can condense what -we know about his life into six brief chapters, between each two of -which there is an interval, in some cases, a long interval of time. - -He appears first of all in connection with the great drought which he -prophesied and which lasted for the three years he had foretold. We -see him by the little brook Cherith, fed of the ravens, until through -the long cessation of the rain the brook itself disappeared. Then we -see him in the house of the widow of Sarepta, feeding with her on her -little supply of meal, and in her hour of depthless sorrow raising her -son from death to life. And then, in the second chapter, he breaks -forth once more upon the national stage. Ahab and Obadiah, his chief -man, had sought for him up and down the land, having divided the -country between them, partly that they might seek water for their fast -diminishing herds, partly that they might meet again and punish this -troubler of Israel. At last, on one of the highways, the man of God -appeared to the prime minister and told him that he had no fear to meet -the king and would do so if he would carry word to Ahab. True to his -word, he met the king, confronted him with his disloyalty to Jehovah, -and challenged him to produce the prophets of Baal for the great test -on Mount Carmel; and then, after his triumph, Elijah again disappears. - -In the third chapter we have the only account of the man’s inner life. -If it were not for that chapter with its story of his subjective -struggle, Elijah would be no example for us men of this day. In all the -other chapters of the story he appears absolutely undaunted, unafraid -of the face of man, clearly convinced of what God would have him do, -and absolutely fearless in the doing of it. But here we are shown the -man in his own inward wavering, in doubt in some measure about the -reality or power of his mission, afraid to carry forward that which he -had set out to do with such daring spirit; and in the wilderness alone, -first beneath the juniper tree and then on Mount Horeb, Elijah had -to face again his life and settle himself once more in that faith in -the living God which had brought him out of the desert. And God stood -out and spoke to him, and Elijah rose up on his feet once more a man -unafraid to resume his mission. God bade him return and anoint a new -king over Syria and a new king over Israel, and to go to Abel-meholah -and find his own successor, the young man Elisha, plowing behind his -oxen. And the prophet went out from his hour of discouragement to find -at once the young man who was to take up his work after him and to be -an even mightier prophet than he. - -Then for a long time Elijah disappears again, only to reappear when he -confronts Ahab once more, in Naboth’s vineyard, shows him how little -he fears him, and pronounces upon him the judgment of Jehovah. Then he -vanishes from the stage for three years at least of solitary meditation -in the wilderness, vanishes so long that the common people apparently -forgot him, so that when one day he met a little party of the servants -of the new king Ahaziah on the highway bound to Ekron to consult -Baal-zebub, they did not know who the prophet was and brought back his -message to the king, able only to say of him that he was a hairy man, -with a leather girdle about his loins. But the king well knew that the -Tishbite had broken once more upon the stage of the nation’s life, -and he bowed beneath the judgments of God that the man from Gilead -denounced. - -Then in the concluding chapter we see Elijah and his young man coming -down from Gilgal to Bethel and then to Jericho and then back to the -wilderness out of which he had come, that from his own deserts where -he had come to know God he might go back to God again. And there in -the chariot of fire the man who was himself “the chariots of Israel, -and the horsemen thereof,” went up to the Lord God of Israel, Who was -alive, to meet Him before Whom he had always stood. - -One does not wonder that the old man impressed as he did the -imagination of his people, and that when centuries later John the -Baptist emerged upon the stage challenging the attention of the nation, -almost the first question addressed to him was, “Art thou Elijah?” - -And we have the secret of Elijah’s life given to us in these words -with which he is introduced to us, “As the LORD God of Israel liveth, -before whom I stand.” Out there in the barrenness of the desert beyond -the Jordan, Elijah had come to believe in a God Who was alive, and -before Whom he lived his life. The deserts have never bred polytheism. -The great polytheistic systems have sprung from the lush jungles of the -tropics. The great monotheisms have been born in the deserts. And out -on the lonely sands beyond the Jordan, beyond the hills and amid the -great level places where there was no one but God, Elijah came to know -that He was and to know that his life stood in Him. - -This was the principle of the man’s life――the consuming conviction of a -living God and of the commission of His uncompromising service. Indeed -we are not sure that we know Elijah’s name. It is possible that the -name by which we think we know him is only a pseudonym――Elijah, “My God -is Jehovah.” It may be that from the very repetition of this phrase to -which he was addicted, “The LORD God of Israel, before whom I stand,” -men came at last to call him by the opening note of his message, “the -man of the living God.” - -Now what that message meant to Elijah was just this: that the Lord God -was no dead force, no unknown cause of things, that the Lord God was -alive, and that a man was to have dealings with Him; that a man’s life -was not his own personal and irresponsible experiment, but a work to be -done in front of God; and that a man must reckon in all his thoughts, -in all his ways, with One Who lives, and go out and do his work in the -world in the consciousness of his relationship and his subjection to an -active, working, personal God Who would stand by him in the fire, would -uphold him before kings, and carry him through to the end of each of -his appointed tasks. If there is one thing that we need to get clearly -fixed in our own lives it is the matter of our attitude towards this -infinite and unseen God Who is alive. - -This faith in a God Who is alive, before Whose face a man is to live -his life, is no mere theory. You cannot find any conviction that will -more really mould and transform all our conduct and put uncompromising -stiffness in it than the conviction that we are living our lives -thus before the eyes of a God Who observes. In the life of Thring of -Uppingham we are told of an incident that pleased him greatly. It is -a story that came to him regarding a little group of boys who were -spending the summer in France. A visitor saw these English schoolboys -and overheard their conversation as to what they should do on Sunday. -Some of the boys were proposing a certain course of action, and all -seemed to agree until one fellow spoke up and said: “No, I do not -agree. I will not do it.” And when the other lads urged him to come -along, he still insisted that he would not. They asked him his reasons. -He said: “Well, Thring would not like it, and what Thring would not -like I do not intend to do.” “Well, but Thring isn’t here,” they said; -“he’s back at Uppingham.” “I do not care,” said the boy; “Thring would -not like it.” He believed that he was living in a real sense――I mean in -the most real sense of all, in the life of his personal will――before -the standards of his master, and by those standards as in the light of -his master’s countenance he insisted that he would uncompromisingly -live. Before the eyes of God a man will beware how he lives his life. -If he knows that this life of his can find no darkness where he can -hide himself from God, if he knows that all of his days are to be spent -before His face, that all his deeds are to be done beneath the gaze of -God, assuredly that will govern and control a man’s decisions about his -practical ways. The consciousness of a living God will give direction -to a man’s moral life. - -And it will not only give direction. There is many a man among us who -knows that the consciousness of a God Who is alive not only gives -determination and direction to his ways, but puts a new power and -inspiration in them. - -A friend in New York tells a lovely story about a boy in one of the -great English schools. He was an only child, and his mother died when -he was but a little fellow. Between him and his father there grew up -relations of the most delicate and sensitive intimacy. The father was -blind, so that the little boy had to be his father’s eyes, and until -the day came when the lad had to go away to school there was scarcely -an hour when the two were separated. But at last the time came and -the boy went. He became the best athlete in his school. One spring, -just before the final game in which the boy was to bowl for his own -school, tidings came that his father was seriously ill and he must -come home. The news sent the whole school into lamentation, for they -were afraid that he might not recover and that if he did not the boy -could not play in the concluding and critical game. And indeed, as it -turned out, the father died. The day before the game was to be played -the boy came back to school, and, to the amazement of all, let it be -known that he intended to play. The next day he took his place and -played as he had never played in his life before. When at last the game -was over and the school had won its triumph, one of the masters came -to the boy and expressed to him the delighted surprise of the school -at what he had done and their amazement both that he had played at -all and at the way he had played. “Why,” said the boy, “didn’t you -understand? I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. That was the first -game my father ever saw me play.” Beneath the consciousness that for -the first time his father’s eyes were open and watching him the boy had -discovered capacities of power that he hardly knew he possessed before. -Beneath the eye of our Father, Who is looking upon the game that we are -playing, where is the man that cannot play a better game, who cannot -draw on the reservoirs of power untouched before, who cannot come out -and do his work in the world and live his life with larger inspiration -and strength, with more dominion and sovereignty, because he is living -it before a God Who is alive? To such a man will compromise not seem a -filial insult impossible except by a base degradation of the soul? - -And not only did Elijah’s principle determine his conduct and pour -inspiration into it; it was this principle of a God Who is alive that -made him absolutely fearless. He was not only unafraid of physical -harm, but he had none of that subtler fear that every man knows――the -fear that he himself will fail, the fear that he cannot carry himself -safely through. What you and I are afraid of is not the things that are -without; our enemy is inside. Treachery within the walls is all that we -need to dread, and our deepest fear is of our own failure. That was the -great thing in Elijah’s life, that he dared to stand on Mount Carmel, -before all that crowd of priests, confident and fearless. He knew he -would prevail, that he had not promised in vain that God would answer. -The man who knows that he is living his life before a God Who is alive -and doing his work in the name of a God Who is alive is not afraid -either of what men can do to him or of the failure that he may make -himself. - -There is a story in the life of Dr. Schauffler that illustrates how -to-day too men can rise into just such fearlessness. The missionaries -were being bothered a great deal in Constantinople by Russian -machinations against the Protestant missions in the empire, and Dr. -Schauffler went to see the Russian ambassador. “I might as well tell -you now, Mr. Schauffler,” said the ambassador, “that the Emperor of -Russia, who is my master, will never allow Protestantism to set its -foot in Turkey.” The old missionary looked at him for a moment and then -replied: “Your Excellency, the kingdom of Christ, who is my Master, -will never ask the Emperor of all the Russias where it may set its -foot.” And he went on with his mission unintimidated by any agencies -working in the dark against him, because he was confident that the -living God Whose work he was doing would achieve for him His own -victory. - -And we see in this story of Elijah another thing that this great -conviction will do for a man: it will make a troubler of him. “Art thou -he,” said Ahab when he met Elijah in the midst of the great famine, -“art thou he that troubleth Israel?” “No,” said Elijah; “thou art he -who troubles Israel.” And yet they were both troubling Israel, the one -with the iniquities into which he was leading the people, the other -because the principle of the living God dominating his life drove him -as a great moral force against the evils of his time. A man cannot live -in a college or university with a faith that God is living and that -he himself is living in front of God, and be quiet before the moral -iniquities and evils he will find. It is not enough for a man to say, -“I will simply be myself, live my own clean life, and let my silent -influence count.” If his silent influence does not count, no other -influence of his will count. But the silence is not enough. A little -while ago I copied from one of the letters of Mandel Creighton, late -Bishop of London, written to his boys who were away at school, this -bit of advice. “You will see, then,” he writes to one son, who had -just been made a monitor in his school, “you will see, then, that the -chief influence of a monitor is in his example. But this is the point -on which I have seen many people deceive themselves. They trust to what -they call the force of silent example. That is most pernicious. If you -content yourself with merely keeping school rules and doing what is -right yourself and keeping out of the way of any fellows who you know -are doing wrong, or if you stand by and listen to them saying what they -ought not, without reproof, you are doing wrong. No, that won’t do. It -is part of the essence of good to fight against evil. You must set your -face strongly against all that is bad, and must put down not only all -that you find in the course of your walk, but you must go out of your -walk to find it in order to put it down.” - -There has been much complaint these last years because in high places -in this land there have been men who were troublers of the nation. -The great need of the nation has been men who were prepared to make -trouble in order that, at last, righteousness might come. Things that -have thought themselves secure will be shaken; long vested interests -that have believed themselves to be sacred will have their sanctity -scrutinized; and men will come at last into their rights and their -righteousness, if we are prepared, following the old Tishbite, to live -our lives before the God Who is alive. - -And this same principle brings peace and quiet and tranquillity to -men. Elijah shook once, we know, but only once. Every time we see him -on the public stage, no matter whom he is confronting――Jezebel, Ahab, -Obadiah, Ahaziah――he is standing with confident soul, quiet and still. -We can be sure that if on that day at Mount Carmel we could have first -mingled with those four hundred and fifty priests of Baal who knew that -their day of doom had come, and then have gone over and stood by the -side of the old man, we should have found the old man the most quiet -and placid person on the mountainside and his heart beat the calmest. -And we may be sure that we can go in the same tranquillity and calm and -steadfastness in which the old Tishbite lived, if we will believe as -deeply as he did in a Lord God Who is alive, and will live our lives -before His face with as little compromise and fear. - -And it is a great conviction like this of Elijah’s that steadies men in -the hour of their trial and that when they fall redeems them again. The -old prophet fell down. He ran from a woman’s threats, and beneath the -juniper tree and then on Horeb, he shook and was afraid. But God, Who -was alive before, was alive still, and He came to Mount Horeb, where -the man lay in his spiritual petulance and fear, and He was not in the -great wind, and He was not in the great earthquake, and He was not in -the great fire, but at last in the still small voice of life He spoke -to Elijah, and Elijah rose up on his feet once more and went out to -complete his work in unfaltering triumph. - -It works that way still. There is a letter of Abraham Lincoln, the -original of which is preserved in the state capitol at Albany. It is a -letter Lincoln wrote granting a pardon to a deserter. - - EXECUTIVE MANSION, - WASHINGTON, October 4, 1864. - - Upon condition that Roswell McIntyre of Company E, Sixth - Regiment of New York Cavalry, returns to his regiment and - faithfully serves out his term, making up for lost time, or - until otherwise lawfully discharged, he is fully pardoned for - any supposed desertion heretofore committed; and this paper is - his pass to go to his regiment. - - ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - - -On the side of it is indorsed: “Quartermaster’s Office, New York City, -October 22, 1864. Transportation furnished to Baltimore, Maryland. H. -Brownson”; and at the bottom in a different hand is this indorsement: -“Taken from the body of R. McIntyre at the Battle of Five Forks, -Virginia, 1865.” So he went back and died like a man, with his pardon -on his person. And to-day, to the coward and the deserter and the -traitor, the man who has compromised and the man who has run away, the -same Lord God Who set Elijah on his feet is speaking, and He is able to -send him back to be faithful, even unto death. Thanks be to a God Who -does not compromise and Who is still alive. - - - - -LECTURE V - -THE LIFE INVISIBLE - - -It is interesting to note two contrary tendencies in the current -appraisal of spiritual values in America. On the one hand there is -what has been called, not altogether happily, the tendency of ethical -materialism. In its best form it is simply a demand for reality, the -renewal of the old words, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Show -me thy faith by thy works.” In its less worthy forms it is the effort -to eliminate spiritual expression and formal religion from areas of -life where these have been most familiar. Illustrations in extreme -forms abound. - -We are told now that in charity love has nothing to do with the matter, -that the introduction of religious sentiment is only mischievous and -misleading, that the issue is one purely of proper economic principle -and organization. It is a question of employment for the unemployed, -or of calculating accurately the amount of need, counting the hungry -mouths and fixing the quantity of bread, and then determining -scientifically how much of the bread the hungry should earn, and how -much society through appropriate and unsentimental machinery should -supply. - -In medical philanthropy the new idea is that ideas have nothing to do -with it. The good Samaritan, we are told, did not give the wounded man -a tract or say anything to him about the religious views or motives of -his benefactor. He was satisfied to heal his skin and stop at that. Let -the chaplains depart from the hospitals. - -And so also in social service. The legitimate work is to improve the -culinary methods of the neighbourhood, to provide innocent games and -sports, to secure more adequate food supplies for living bodies and to -assist in the burial of dead ones; but Christ must not be mentioned, -and religious issues must not be raised. - -These are extreme illustrations, but they are perfectly familiar, and -the tendency they represent is indisputable. In this view our Lord, -of course, was far astray when He talked to His disciples by Jacob’s -well about having meat to eat which they knew not. “Meat!” say our -modern ethical materialists. “Meat is meat――beef or bread. It is not a -metaphor. Meat that is a metaphor is a mockery.” Well, it would be if -it were offered for food to a hungry man, but it is not a mockery to -the man who would go hungry to feed the hungry. And the whole modern -question is not between those who would give real meat to the hungry -and those who would give only metaphorical meat. It is between those -who want to deal with people’s skins only and those who mean to deal -both with their skins and with their souls, between those who conceive -of man as mainly belly and back and those to whom our real life is the -life invisible. - -It is a very curious phenomenon, this exclusion of Christian ideas from -the very area which they created. For all this charity and philanthropy -and social service were produced by the ideas of Christianity. And now -the fruit says to the vine and to the inward life, “I have no need of -thee.” Of course not all the fruit says this. Some of it only says, -“Vine and inward life, there is a prejudice against you. You would do -well to conceal yourself. I will pretend to be the real thing.” But -some of the fruit has gone further. “I am the real thing,” it says. “I -know more than James. Faith must not only show works: works are faith. -There is no need of metaphysics or creeds. Deeds are religion. The -only wealth is tangible wealth, things handled, works seen, bread out -of the ground, not down from heaven. Meat that the disciples could not -see is too pallid for this earth. Man is his skin and the bag which it -contains, and religion must understand this.” - -At the same time that this suicidal tendency is operating in the -field of man’s highest values seeking to destroy his standards and to -discredit the title-deeds of all his greatest treasures, a precisely -contrary tendency is acting in commerce and politics, in the field of -man’s lower values. While men are busy on the one hand in the effort to -materialize the spiritual wealth which Christianity has produced, other -men are seeking with a new earnestness to spiritualize our material -wealth. As education, science, philanthropy, surrenders the spiritual -vision and ideal, trade and politics clutch after it. Never before -in the history of the world has there been such an effort as there -is to-day to idealize nationalism, to build up spiritual conceptions -behind the State, to make racial feeling a religion. If some men think -that religious values and spiritual ideas and so-called “metaphysical” -notions can be spared from charity and social service, other men are -striving with all their might to secure all this rejected mass of -vitality and power for patriotism and the national life. - -And the same spiritualizing and idealizing tendency is even more -evident in commerce and finance. Wealth becomes less and less material. -In primitive times riches consisted in flocks and herds and land and -in actual gold and silver bullion or coins which their owner put in -a crock and buried in his house. Now wealth consists in credit and -securities, in figures written on a ledger in a bank, or in scraps -of paper in a tin box. The world’s work is done with little visible -wealth. Our new banking system is meant for this very purpose, -to provide immaterial instrumentalities. Millions of dollars are -transported invisibly. By a cable message or a message through the air -untold wealth that was in London can be made to appear in New York. And -all these intangible forms of wealth are exceeded in the judgment of -the late Mr. J. P. Morgan by the credit of character, something still -more “metaphysical.” The spiritualization of the material keeps pace on -one side with the materialization of the spiritual on the other. - -However clear or foggy our ideas on these issues may be now, viewing -them as present issues, we cannot fail to see sharply the indisputable -facts of the past. Looking backward we simply do not discern and cannot -remember the visible and outward values or possessors of values at all. -Where is the actual material wealth of earlier days, the flocks, the -gold and silver, the palaces? The amazing thing is that it is all gone. -The gold and silver which Rome gathered from the world, which went home -to Spain in the days of the Conquistadores, where is it all now? Where -are those who boasted it and built their fame or power on it? Shelley -tells us in his sonnet, “Ozymandias,” - - “I met a traveller from an antique land - Who said, ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone - Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand - Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown - And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command - Tell that its sculptor well those passions read - Which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless things, - The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: - And on the pedestal these words appear: - “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, - Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” - Nothing beside remains. Round the decay - Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, - The lone and level sands stretch far away.’” - -And what befell Ozymandias’ image has befallen almost all the works of -the ancients’ hands. A few of their temples remain, and the arches of -their viaducts and some of the images of their public worship and of -their national ideals. But their wealth and the treasure houses which -they kept it in and the palaces of their pleasure and the cities of -their pride are gone. I never felt more keenly the tragedy and the -truth of this utter transitoriness and insecurity of all national glory -than looking over the massive ruins of the palace of the Chosroes kings -at Kasr-i-Shirin. All of Browning’s “Love Among the Ruins” seemed to be -there in mute evidence before one’s eyes: - - “Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles - Miles and miles - On the solitary pastures where our sheep - Half-asleep - Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop - As they crop―― - Was the site once of a city great and gay, - (So they say) - Of our country’s very capital, its prince - Ages since - Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far - Peace or war. - - “Now,――the country does not even boast a tree, - As you see, - To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills - From the hills - Intersect and give a name to, (else they run - Into one,) - Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires - Up like fires - O’er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall - Bounding all, - Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed, - Twelve abreast. - - “And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass - Never was! - Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o’erspreads - And embeds - Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, - Stock or stone―― - Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe - Long ago; - Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame - Struck them tame; - And that glory and that shame alike, the gold - Bought and sold. - - “Now,――the single little turret that remains - On the plains, - By the caper overrooted, by the gourd - Overscored, - While the patching houseleek’s head of blossom winks - Through the chinks―― - Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time - Sprang sublime. - And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced - As they raced, - And the monarch and his minions and his dames - Viewed the games.” - -All this is gone. The only wealth of the past which has survived is -such as Christ referred to. “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” -The ideas and the literature which enshrined them alone remain. Not the -manuscripts. They are gone, as though God would show in the most vivid -way His scorn of the visible and earth’s “real.” Not one original page -of Plato exists. But Plato’s mind is here still. The kings are gone. -But Isaiah and Jeremiah, the men of the inward resources, spokesmen and -ministers of the invisible life, abide. - - “The tumult and the shouting dies - The captains and the kings depart - Still stands Thine against sacrifice - A humble and a contrite heart.” - -And the issue is clear enough when we look at it concretely to-day -and contrast the men who have the inward resources with those who -have not, the movements which are fed from deep ideal springs with -those which deal skin-deep only with humanity. In one of our American -cities the president of a large institution was shelved in the prime -of life by younger and less conservative men who acquired control of -the business. They treated the older man well, gave him the nominal -headship with his former salary, but really transferred all the power -to other men. It was the chance of a lifetime for the older man. He had -his strength and his time for any service or ministry or pleasure he -might choose. But the only meat which he had to eat was the management -of the business, and accordingly he starved to death in a fine home -and with a large salary. All that the bag of his body needed he had, -but man cannot live by bread alone without a word from God. The Tinker -of Bedford Jail heard the key turn in the lock behind him. And did -he famish alone? He opened the gate of his house within and out they -came――Christian and Great-Heart and Hopeful and Evangelist and Mercy -and Dare-to-Die――and the loneliness of John Bunyan’s cell became the -greatest society on earth, and the immortals who marched out of the -wealth of his soul are the companions of millions who could not name -one human being who was Bunyan’s contemporary. The rich men who have -transmitted real wealth have been the lovers, the dreamers, the servers -who ate bread at God’s hands and who knew and taught men that the life -is more than meat and the body than raiment. “She was not daily bread,” -wrote her niece of Emily Dickinson. “She was star dust.” - -This above all was characteristic of Christ. Part of our Lord’s -preëminence of nature and of achievement was the untold wealth of His -inward resources. No philanthropist or social worker ever lived who -was His equal in all that our ethical materialists admire and praise. -But behind all this and as explaining all this He had meat to eat that -men knew not, thoughts of God, ideas of origin and destiny, of whence -He came and whither He was going, fellowship, purposes, a spiritual -program. His wealth was an inward, a communicable and eternal treasure. -It nourished Him and was for all men. - -“I have meat to eat,” said He. “Who brought it to Him?” asked they. “A -primrose by the river’s brim a yellow primrose” was to them; and it was -nothing more. Meat was meat, mutton or beef to His disciples. But to -Him the primrose was a volume of revelation. Meat was very life of God -within His soul. Language to Christ was windows into the wealth of the -eternities and the infinites. To men it was words. His discernment of -latent values in men made Him a rich man wherever He found a fellow. -He had cargoes of redeemable character afloat on the wide waters of -mankind, and these He was forever drawing home. Men brought Him a -sinner, flotsam of Galilee; and Jesus saw Himself rich with the latent -life of Peter of Pentecost, victor of the gates of hell. The stained -hand of the Samaritan concubine became under His faith purified to bear -the chalice of the life of God. He had more wealth latent in human -character than Crœsus ever dreamed of. His universalism, also, made -Him rich with all the wealth of humanity. All around Him men choked and -died in the stifling air of racial exclusion and prejudice. He lived in -the whole free world. Thinking in terms of all mankind and all the ages -makes the thinker rich beyond all the dreams of any racial avarice or -national pride. - -But above all His meat was simply this: to walk with God, to do the -will of God and to accomplish His work. His life was in God’s will, His -strength in God’s companionship. He lived powerfully among men because -He dwelt deeply in God. His wealth was not herds and gold, nor bonds -and credits, nor deeds; but the power to do deeds in the might and pity -of God. - -And the inward resources of Christ which are true wealth are accessible -also to us; and not accessible only, but indispensable. We need not set -much store by what the world calls wealth. Its one worthy use is as -capital for human service; and Christ who had none of it here still did -and inspired more service than all the world’s capital has performed. -Louis Pasteur was living on a salary of a few hundred francs. All -that he did was to examine with a microscope things infinitesimally -small and to reflect upon them, and then in his laboratory to write -down and send forth some new ideas. The practical men derided his -“pure science,”――a mere student of theories, spinner of silk dreams -thinner than the filaments of the silkworms of southern France. But -Pasteur’s thoughts were the richest source of wealth in France. -“Pasteur’s discoveries alone,” said Huxley, “would suffice to cover the -war indemnity paid by France to Germany in 1870.”[3] True wealth is -inward resources, the love of God’s world, of truth and holy thoughts, -friendship with the living and the dead, the possession of the Son of -God and His words which are spirit and life, and of His Spirit “whom -the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth -Him; ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.” - - [3] Vallery-Radot, “Life of Pasteur,” popular edition, p. 374. - -And all this wealth may be ours without going anywhere for it. No man -brought it to Him. “I have meat,” He said. So He calls us to be rich. -We do not need to go anywhere for it. No man needs to bring it to us. -It is here. It is Himself――the Bread of Life. Can we also say, “I have -it――meat to eat, of the world unknown, within my soul, within my soul”? - -To be able to say that is our great American need. I will not say -that it is a greater need now than it has ever been because we have -deteriorated and need to recover the element of spiritual idealism in -our national character. We have not deteriorated. Doubtless we have -lost many things that it would have been well for us to have kept, -and have kept much that it would have been better to lose. But we have -gained in our perception of the higher values and we seek them more -and not less than ever before. We are far from being what we ought to -be, but the past was farther, and we only think otherwise because we -clothe the past in mists of idealization. That very error is proof of -our deeper spiritual discerning. Evils are challenged now which passed -uncondemned a half generation ago. But though we have gained, we need -to gain more, and what we need to gain is not something æsthetic or -intellectual only, not broader philosophies or wider social programs, -not anything external or merely ethical, but something biological and -dynamic. We need the push and power of what One and One only offers. -“The thief cometh not,” said Christ, “but that he may steal, and -kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it -abundantly.” - -Not long before his death, as all remember, the late Mr. Morgan was -summoned to testify before a congressional committee which was seeking -to locate the seat of the money power. The object of those examining -Mr. Morgan was to bring out the extent of his own influence and -control, and to show, if possible, that in the hands of a few men was -concentrated the real domination of the financial life of America. -The popular impression, after the examination was over, was that Mr. -Morgan’s modest disavowals were justified by all the testimony, and -that there was no one person, or any group of individuals, in this -country who possessed so much power as was supposed to reside in the -hands of a little company of men. - -Now, at the best, there was no question of creating or producing -anything. Nobody thought of asking Mr. Morgan whether he could create -a grain of wheat, or heal a disease, or bring into existence anything -that was not already here. The main question was how much of something -that was here already was he, or any other man, able to control. As one -read the testimony, the one dominant impression it made on his mind was -how small and weak and ineffectual even the strongest human life was, -and how little was the effect that it could produce in what it was able -to do in behalf of others. - -How weak does even the strongest personality appear when contrasted -with One Who can say such words as these I have just quoted! Suppose -some great man now living were to say to us: “Come unto me, all ye -that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If any man -thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. I am come that they may have -life, and may have it abundantly,” how startled we should be! But -we have become familiar with the claim on the lips of Christ and do -not realize what we are really confronted with in that single great -Personality standing among men and offering to meet the ultimate human -need, to give us the deepest, richest, most priceless thing in the -world, which no one of us can give another. “I am come that ye may have -life, and that ye may have it abundantly.” - -And notice that here is not a claim only. There is a strange and -startling contrast. “The thief cometh to steal, and to kill, and to -destroy: I am come that ye may have life.” On the one side is our Lord. -Him we know. But who is this thief on the other side who has come, not -to give life, but to reduce it, contract it, dilute it――destroy it -altogether? Well, we know well enough that sin is such a thief, that -wherever sin is allowed to come into our lives it abridges those lives, -draws in the walls of their expansion, cuts down and impoverishes their -joys. And there are many things short of sin, less coarse and evil, -which, nevertheless, draw in the boundaries of life, narrow and stifle -it, and do the work of the thief who came to kill, and to destroy, and -to steal. Over against all these He stands Who said: “I came to give -life, to give it abundantly.” - -Now we know very well what men and women say when you bring them this -offer of Christ’s about His life. “Oh,” they say, “it all depends upon -what you mean by life. I have my own idea of life. The life I am living -is rich and satisfying to me, and I am not drawn to this life that -your tepid religion offers me in exchange.” But are those who answer -so fully satisfied? Are they really satisfied at all with any part of -their life except such of it as consists of the kind of life that Jesus -Christ our Lord Himself came to bring, with which alone the hearts of -men can be content? - -What do we mean when we speak of life that really satisfies us? I -asked some boys a little while ago what they meant when they spoke -about life, real life that would satisfy men. Four were boys at the -Hill School, Pottstown, Pa. They sat down and collaborated for a while -as to what real life meant to them, and when they got through it -came to this: Purity, integrity, the principle of Christian service, -unselfishness, and the desire to be perfect. I asked another man at -Princeton what life meant to him, real life. He was one of the best -athletes in the college, and this was the answer he gave: Humility, -charitableness, bravery, strength of conviction, honesty, sincerity, -truthfulness and the power to forgive. I asked a man at Yale what he -thought life was. He was the most popular man in the senior class at -that time. This was what he wrote down: “Service after the manner of -Jesus, honesty carried all the way through, sympathy, capacity for -work, patience in holding to principle, as well as fidelity in actual -duty.” - -Now if we were to define life better than these boys, and yet in the -way they were feeling after, not in any concrete expressions, but in -its central principle, we should borrow the words which Professor -Drummond borrowed from Herbert Spencer. Spencer said that the perfect -correspondence of any organism with its environment would be perfect -life. Professor Drummond modified this by adding just one word: the -perfect correspondence of any organism with a perfect environment would -be perfect life. Or, to put it as it is stated in one of our best -dictionaries: life is that state in any animal or plant in which its -different functions are all occupied in active healthy expression. Now -that is just what those boys were feeling after. Life is the free and -fearless completion of ourselves. Life is our utter unfolding in the -direction of that of which we are capable. Life is the pushing out of -the rim of our world into the great and boundless riches of God. Life -is the opening up of the gates of our prison house that we may go after -Him Whose word to men was: “If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly -my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make -you free.” Life is what Jesus Christ came to give, for His mission was -this: “The thief came to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come -that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” - -One great purpose of the Incarnation was to show what we are in our -deepest being in the purpose of God, and what we are capable of. Our -Lord did not come to parade before men the exceptional life to which -they could never attain. He came, as He Himself said, to show them -what it had been His Father’s will that they should all be. “As my -Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” “I go unto my Father, and -your Father; and to my God, and your God.” What Jesus Christ was in the -fullness of His unlimited life was the revealing of what God has in -His will for every one of us. The amplitudes that we see in Him, the -subsidence of all the petty boundaries, the unhampered outgoing of His -free spirit in the area of His Father, God,――all that is just a picture -of what God meant the life of each one of us to be. That is why they -called Him the Son of Man, because He was the picture of what God had -meant that His son, man, might be. - -And Christ came, not only to show the possibilities of such being, of -what men could do and what they could be made, but to be Himself that -expression of power in them competent to effect such a result, the tide -of the boundless life flowing through all the channels that they could -offer to Him. He came to be in mankind the deep, flowing stream of a -new life. One regrets to find in some churches to-day in the repetition -of the Apostles’ Creed the omission of the sentence: “He descended -into hell.” There is no word in the Creed which expresses more fully -the uttermost reach of the purpose of our Lord and the scope and -boundlessness of His love. Down even into hell He went in the utterance -of His love for mankind. How much this means! But to say no more, it -means this, that deep into the dark of our human life He came, that -there, below all sight, below all thought, He might release the vital -streams that have been flowing from the fountain of Calvary ever since, -and which have no other fountain. - -We know what would happen in our bodies, to put it simply, if some -great artery that fed our life were tied. Atrophy and palsy would -creep at once over our unnourished frames. Precisely the same thing is -true in the deeper life of our souls, if the arteries, those channels -through which Christ would pour His energy and strength and power, are -tied. To put the same thing still more simply: Suppose the Mississippi -River instead of running into the Gulf ran out of the Gulf deep into -the land. Suppose all of the rivers poured into the land instead of -into the seas. As a matter of fact, that is in one sense what they do. -We have got long past looking at rivers as drains for the land. We -know that they are arteries through which the life-blood of the seas -flows upon the land by way of the skies. And suppose there were no -Mississippi River. Suppose it were stopped at the gate. What a chill -and death would fall upon the land! And how often that life of Christ -which comes up to the gates of men’s lives is stifled, the stream that -would pour in kept out, the power that would control and remake blocked -at the door through which it would enter. “The thief is come,” He says, -“and you let him in, to kill, and to steal, and to destroy; I am come, -and you keep Me out. And I am come that you may have life, and that you -may have it in all the abundance of God.” - -And we know that this life of Christ is real and abundant life because -it fulfills the tests of life. It is a life of fullness in all its -correspondences and relationships. It completes life to the uttermost -of its possibilities, setting it in all those ties with that which -is outside of it, which constitute life. For, after all, there is no -separable life. All the life that we know is relationship. Our Lord -defined it in such terms in His great prayer: “This is life eternal, -that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom -thou hast sent.” Life can only be construed in terms of correspondence. - -We know that the life Christ came to give, and does give, is the -satisfying and real life, because it meets these testings. It gives us -this wealth of correspondence of relationship. - - “Oh, the pure delight of a single hour, - That before Thy Cross I spend, - When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God, - I commune as friend with friend.” - -We know that the life Christ brings is complete and full, because it -reëstablishes the tie and union between ourselves and God, and He -becomes to us again our Father and our Friend. We know it, because it -is the root of all deep and true and satisfying human relationships. -How can there be a real and full union of one man and one woman that is -not a union in Christ? And for the highest friendship and its ideals -we find sanction and nourishment best in Him and the groundwork of His -life. - -And Christ’s is the real and satisfying life, because it is creative and -energizing. It is not like the influence of that thief――selfishness, low -desire, sin and small ambition――who kills and steals and destroys. But -the life that Christ is teems with vitalizing power; it is strength and -energy and new service in men. I have never seen it more beautifully put -than in a letter of Stanley to David Livingstone. It was found by Lady -Stanley in a little pocketbook which her husband had carried on the -expedition for the relief of Livingstone. It was written in lead pencil. -It was a copy of the letter that Stanley had written to the great -explorer the very day after he left him. It has sometimes been -questioned whether Livingstone really made on Stanley the impression -which Stanley describes in his autobiography. There have been those who -said that that picture was but the reading back over the intervening -years of a growing hero worship. But here is the letter which Stanley -wrote as he came fresh from the old missionary’s companionship and the -inspiration of his personality: - - “MY DEAR DOCTOR: - - “I have parted from you all too soon; I feel it deeply; I am - entirely conscious of it from being so depressed.... In writing - to you, I am not writing to an idea now, but to an embodiment - of warm, good fellowship, of everything that is noble and - right, of sound common sense, of everything practical and - right-minded. - - “I have talked with you; your presence is almost palpable, - though you are absent.... - - “It seems as if I had left a community of friends and - relations. The utter loneliness of myself, the void that has - been created, the pang at parting, the bleak aspect of the - future, is the same as I have felt before, when parting from - dear friends. - - “Why should people be subjected to these partings, with the - several sorrows and pangs that surely follow them?――It is a - consolation, however, after tearing myself away, that I am - about to do you a service, for then I have not quite parted - from you; you and I are not quite separate. Though I am not - present to you bodily, you must think of me daily until your - caravan arrives. Though you are not before me visibly, I - shall think of you constantly, until your least wish has been - attended to. In this way the chain of remembrance will not be - severed. - - “‘Not yet,’ I say to myself, ‘are we apart,’ and this to me, - dear Doctor, is consoling, believe me. Had I a series of - services to perform for you, why then! we should never have to - part. - - “Do not fear then, I beg, to ask, nay, to command, whatever - lies in my power. And do not, I beg of you, attribute these - professions to interested motives, but accept them, or believe - them, in the spirit in which they are made, in that true David - Livingstone spirit I have happily become acquainted with.” - -And out from that lonely spot in eastern Africa, the younger man came -to begin a new career; all the old aimlessness and shiftlessness and -drifting gone forever from his life, to pass on now to lift up the -mission which, beneath the dripping eaves of the hut in which he died, -David Livingstone laid down. The tide of a new life and a new service -was in him. “I came that ye may have life, and that ye may have it -abundantly.” He had seen Christ and felt the contagion of the life of -Christ in Livingstone, and Christ’s word, articulate or inarticulate, -had come to live in him. And that life is life in the power and desire -to serve. - -This life that Christ came to give is the only real and satisfying -life, because it alone endures. We gather at Northfield each summer -and always go up to read afresh the brief inscription on Mr. Moody’s -grave on Round Top, “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but -he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” We sing the same great -truth constantly in George Matheson’s hymn: - - “I lay in dust life’s glory dead, - And from the ground there blossoms red - Life that shall endless be.” - -I wrote the other day to a friend about her sister-in-law’s death, and -this was the last sentence of the letter which she wrote in reply: - - “I do not know if he”――that was her brother――“told you how - beautiful it was at the last; how S――――’s face lighted up with - such an expression of surprise and adoration, with her eyes - open to their fullest extent, and then it was all over. Only a - glimpse into the life that was not to end could have brought - such a look to a human face.” - -“And that life,” said He Who was the life, “I brought with Me and will -give to you.” - -Let us lift our hearts to the life that shall endless be, to the -liberty on which there never lay a chain, to the light of the land that -hath no need of any sun, because the “Lamb is the light thereof,” the -land of the new morning and the tearless life. The thief cometh――let -him not come in!――only to kill, and to steal, and to destroy. “I am -come, and I stand at the door and ask you now to let Me in, that you -may have life abundantly.” - -As these lectures close I would press all this in the most earnest and -personal terms upon each one individually. The processes of social and -moral progress in humanity are retarded or broken down because they -are not carried on a volume of adequate spiritual life in men. There -ought to be a Kingdom of Living Love and Brotherly Will on the earth. -And some day there will be, but there is not now and there cannot be -until the anemia of man is healed, and it can be healed in only one -way――by more life in man, by life abounding in men. The commercial and -materialistic solution of the world’s problem has been fully tried. -For a generation it has been preached and practiced as the one saving -gospel and out of the depths to which it brought us we begin to turn -heavenward again. The day for a new creed has dawned――the old creed of -truth and hope and freedom and life, of the wealth and glory of a city -unseen as yet, hid in the heavens and only possible on the earth as -drawn down by men to whom the invisible things are the surest of all -realities and who live and are strong in God. - - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - - * * * * * - - - INSPIRATION FOR MEN - - - _ROBERT W. BOLWELL_ - - After College――What? - -12mo, cloth, net 75c. - -A protest, in the form of autobiographical chapters, against dawdling -through college. The author is sprightly and readable,――anything but -preachy――but does put some very wholesome and helpful facts in such -form as to grip the reader. - - - _HALFORD E. LUCCOCK_ - - Five-Minute Shop-Talks - -12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -One of the best things of its kind yet issued. In each of these thirty -or more brief addresses, Mr. Luccock employs terse, epigrammatic -language and contrives to compress into a five-minute talk the wisdom -and counsel of a fifty-minute sermon. Every word is made to tell――to -tell something worth hearing and heeding. - - - _CHARLES CARROLL ALBERTSON_ - - Chapel Talks - -A Collection of Sermons to College Students. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -Practical discourses on essential subjects delivered in various -colleges and universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, -Princeton, Yale, and Virginia. No one of these sermons required more -than twenty-five minutes to deliver. They are characterized by earnest -argument, familiar illustrations and forceful appeal. - - - _CORTLANDT MYERS, D. D._ - _Author of “Real Prayer,” “The Real Holy Spirit,” etc._ - - The Man Inside - -A Study of One’s Self. By Minister at Tremont Temple, Boston. 12mo, -cloth, net 50c. - -A four-fold study of the inner life of a man, in which the popular -pastor of Tremont Temple, discusses the forces that make him, lift him, -save him, and move him. The book is prepared in bright, interesting -fashion, and abundantly furnished with suitable and forceful -illustration. - - - _JOHN T. FARIS_ - _Popular-Price Editions_ - - The “Success Books” - -Three Vols. each, formerly $1.25 net. Now each 60c. net (postage extra). - - =Seeking Success= - =Men Who Made Good= - =Making Good= - -_Dr. J. R. Miller_ says: “Bright and short and full of illustrations -from actual life, they are just the sort that will help young men in -the home in school among associates and in business.” - - - - - BIOGRAPHY - - - _CHARLES G. TRUMBULL_ - - Anthony Comstock, Fighter - -Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. - -An authorized biography of this great fighter for purity. The story -is one of life-and-death adventure, moral and physical heroism, and -incomparable achievement. During the thirty years in which Mr. Comstock -has been working for the suppression of vice he has destroyed over 43 -tons of vile books, 28,425 pounds of stereotype plates, two and a half -million obscene pictures and 12,945 negatives. The detailed account of -how all this was done is a most thrilling and remarkable story. - - - _FRANK J. CANNON――DR. GEORGE L. KNAPP_ - - Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire - -Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. - -Ex-Senator Cannon’s personal acquaintance with this apostle of the -Mormon Church and his knowledge of the religion and the people gained -by having been born and brought up in the heart of Mormondom, give more -than usual authority and interest to this biography. This life story -of the man who founded a Mohammedan kingdom in a puritan republic sets -forth in true perspective, in impartial and unbiased manner, the facts -about one of the most romantic and interesting characters in American -history. - - - _FRANCES WILLARD_ - - Frances Willard: Her Life and Her Work - -By Ray Strachey. With an Introduction by Lady Henry Somerset. -Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. - -A notable new life of the great temperance advocate written by an -English woman from an entirely new standpoint. Mrs. Strachey, the -granddaughter of the author of “A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life,” -had immediate access to Miss Willard’s letters, journals and papers, -and the benefit of her grandmother’s advice and knowledge. - -Israel Zangwill says of the book, “A masterpiece of condensation, an -adequate biography of perhaps the greatest woman America has produced. -Nobody can read this book without becoming braver, better, wiser.” - - - _MRS. S. MOORE SITES_ - - Nathan Sites: - -Introduction by Bishop W. F. McDowell. Oriental Hand-Painted -Illustrations, gilt top, net $1.50. - -This is one of the notable books of the year. China looms large in -current political and religious interest, so that this life story of -one who for nearly half a century has been closely identified with -social and religious reform in that country must have a large place in -current literature. - - - - - QUESTIONS OF THE FAITH - - - _JAMES H. SNOWDEN, D.D._ - - The Psychology of Religion - -8vo, cloth, net $1.50. - -Psychology is one of the most rapidly advancing of modern sciences, -and Dr. Snowden’s book will find a ready welcome. While especially -adapted for the use of ministers and teachers, it is not in any sense -an ultra-academic work. This is evidenced by the fact that the material -forming it has been delivered not only as a successful Summer School -course, but in the form of popular lectures, open to the general public. - - - _WILLIAM HALLOCK JOHNSON, Ph.D., D.D._ - _Professor of Greek and New Testament Literature in Lincoln University, - Pa._ - - The Christian Faith under Modern Searchlight - -The L. P. Stone Lectures, Princeton. Introduction by Francis L. Patton, -D.D. Cloth, net $1.25. - -The faith which is to survive must not only be a traditional but an -intelligent faith which has its roots in reason and experience and -its blossom and fruit in character and good works. To this end, the -author examines the fundamentals of the Christian belief in the light -of to-day and reaches the conclusion that every advance in knowledge -establishes its sovereign claim to be from heaven and not from men. - - - _ANDREW W. ARCHIBALD, D.D._ - _Author of “The Bible Verified,” “The Trend of the Centuries,” etc._ - - The Modern Man Facing the Old Problems - -12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -A thoughtful, ably-conducted study in which those problems of human -life, experience and destiny, which, in one form or another, seem -recurrent in every age, are examined from what may be called a Biblical -viewpoint. That is to say, the author by its illuminating rays, -endeavors to find elucidation and solution for the difficulties, which -in more or less degree, perplex believer and unbeliever alike. - - - _NOLAN RICE BEST_ - _Editor of “The Continent”_ - - Applied Religion for Everyman - -12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -“Nolan Rice Best has earned a well-deserved reputation in the -religious press of America, as a writer of virile, trenchantly-phrased -editorials. The selection here brought together represent his best -efforts, and contains an experienced editor’s suggestions for the -ever-recurrent problems confronting Church members as a body, and as -individual Christians. Mr. Best wields a facile pen, and a sudden gleam -of beauty, a difficult thought set in a perfect phrase, or an old idea -invested with new meaning and grace, meets one at every turn of the -page.”――_The Record Herald._ - - - - - BIBLE STUDY - - - _JOHN W. LIGON_ - _Pastor Christian Church, Barboursville, Ky._ - -Paul the Apostle - -12mo, cloth, net $1.15. - -A life of the Apostle to the Gentiles, which, while fuller than the -brief outlines usually followed in class instruction, is sufficiently -condensed to admit of its being specially adapted to the use of busy -men and women and the young people of the Church. The events and -incidents of Paul’s career are woven into a continuous narrative, -furnishing a living picture of his wonderful life as far as that life -can be known. - - - _DWIGHT GODDARD_ - - Jesus - -And the Problems of Human Life. Cloth, net 50c. - -These discourses show the value and usefulness of the Good News of -a Spiritual Realm and the Way of Salvation to anyone who has felt a -desire to make that supreme adventure in faith. They set the “Good -News” into its right relation with present-day thought. - - - The Good News - -Of a Spiritual Realm. Paraphrased by Dwight Goddard. _Second Edition._ -12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -An interweaving and paraphrasing of the Four Gospels, bringing out -clearly the unity and reasonableness of Jesus’ Life and Teachings. -Appropriate for devotional reading, study classes, and as a gift book -to those we would like to become interested in our Lord. - - - _B. H. CARROLL, D.D._ - - An Interpretation of the English Bible - - _NEW VOLUMES ADDED TO THIS SERIES_ - -=The Pastoral Epistles= of Paul and 1 and 2 Peter, Jude and 1, 2 and 3 -John. 8vo, cloth, net $1.75. - -=The Book of Daniel= and the Inter-Biblical Period. 8vo, cloth, net -$1.75. - -=The Four Gospels. Vol. I.= 8vo, cloth, net $2.50. - -=The Four Gospels. Vol. II.= 8vo, cloth, net $2.50. - -=The Acts.= 8vo, cloth, net $2.25. - -=James I–II=, =Thessalonians I= and =II Corinthians=. Net $1.75. - -“These works are designed especially for class use in the Seminary, -Christian Colleges and Bible Schools, as well as the Sunday School. -That they will make the greatest commentary on the English Bible ever -published, is our sincere conviction.”――_Baptist and Reflector._ - - - _EDWARD AUGUSTUS GEORGE_ - - The Twelve: Apostolic Types of Christian Men - -12mo, cloth, net $1.15. - -“Under his living touch the apostles seem very much like the men we know -and their problems not dissimilar to our own.”――_Congregationalist._ - - - _PROF. W. G. MOOREHEAD_ - _OUTLINE STUDIES in the NEW TESTAMENT SERIES_ - - The Catholic Epistles and Revelation - -In One Volume. _New Edition._ 12mo, net $1.20 - -Containing James, I and II Peter, I, II and III John, and Jude, and the -Book of Revelation. - - - _ALEXANDER CRUDEN_ - - Complete Concordance - -Large 8vo, cloth, net $1.25. - -_New Unabridged Edition_, with the Table of Proper Names entirely -revised and mistranslations in the meanings corrected, many suggestive -notes. - - - _WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D._ - - A Dictionary of the Bible - -Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography and Natural History, with -Numerous Illustrations and Maps. - -_A New Worker’s Edition._ 776 pages. Net $1.25. - - - _NEW THIN PAPER EDITION_ - - The Boy Scouts’ Twentieth Century New Testament - -Officially authorized by the Boy Scouts’ of America. New Thin Paper -Edition. - - 181. 16mo, khaki cloth, net 85c. - 182. 16mo, ooze leather, khaki color, net $1.50. - -Contains an introduction by the Executive Board, the Scouts’ Oath, and -the Scouts’ Law. - - - _HENRY T. SELL, D.D. (Editor)_ - _Author of Sell’s Bible Studies_ - - XX Century Story of the Christ - -12mo, cloth, net 60c. - -From the text of The Twentieth Century New Testament, Dr. Sell has -completed a Harmony of The Gospels which, while studiously avoiding -repetition omits no important word in the fourfold record of the -earthly life and teaching of our Lord. He has done his work well, and -the result is a compilation specially designed and adapted for the use -of the average reader. - - - - - CHRIST’S LIFE AND MESSAGE - - - _ALBERT L. VAIL_ - - Portraiture of Jesus in the Gospels - -12mo, cloth, net 75c. - -A fourfold portrait of Jesus as He stands out on the canvas of each -of the Four Gospels. The varying and distinctive shadings of the four -pictures, are not, Mr. Vail contends, a matter of accident but of -Divine arrangement and design. Our Lord is thus presented in a fourfold -aspect in order that His appeal to various classes of mankind might be -the more manifold. - - - _FRANK E. WILSON, B.D._ - - Contrasts in the Character of Christ - -12mo, cloth, net $1.00. - -Jesus Christ is still the key to the modern situation. No matter -what “up-to-date” methods, of reform and reclamation spring to life, -the message of Christ is the one great solution of the problems -confronting humanity. From this position Dr. Wilson leads his readers -to a contemplation of an abiding Jesus, and to a consideration of many -modern points of contact contained in His all-sufficient Gospel. - - - _WILLIAM BRUCE DOYLE_ - - The Holy Family - -As Viewed and Viewing in His Unfolding Ministry. 12mo, cloth, net 75c. - -This book covers new ground; for although separate sketches of -individual members of Joseph’s family abound, a study of the family -group as a whole,――one marked with satisfactory detail remained to be -furnished. This has been ably supplied. The author’s work is everywhere -suffused with reverence, as becometh one writing of some of the most -endeared traditions cherished by the human race. - - - - - BOOKLETS - - - _DAVID DE FOREST BURRELL_ - _Author of “The Gift”_ - - The Lost Star - -An Idyll of the Desert. 16mo, net 35c. - -An appealing story of a Shepherd’s search for the Star. 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Speer</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Stuff of Manhood</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>Some Needed Notes in American Character</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Robert E. Speer</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 13, 2022 [eBook #67403]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STUFF OF MANHOOD ***</div> - - -<div class="figcenter" id="cover"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" title="cover" /> - <div class="caption"> - <p class="noic">Transcriber’s Note: The cover image was created from the title -page by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - </div> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noi halftitle">THE STUFF OF MANHOOD</p> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noi author">By ROBERT E. SPEER</p> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Speer"> -<col style="width: 60%;" /> -<col style="width: 40%;" /> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>The Stuff of Manhood</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>John’s Gospel</i>, <span class="works">The Greatest Book in the World</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net 60c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Men Who Were Found Faithful</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Some Great Leaders in the World Movement<br /> - <span class="works">The Cole Lectures for 1911.</span></i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>The Foreign Doctor</i>: <span class="works">“The Hakim Sahib”<br /> - A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D., of Persia.</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Christianity and the Nations<br /> - <span class="works">The Duff Lectures for 1910.</span></i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">8vo, cloth, net $2.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Missionary Principles and Practice</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">8vo, cloth, net $1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>A Memorial of Alice Jackson</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net 75c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>A Memorial of a True Life</i><br /> - <span class="works">A Biography of Hugh McAllister Beaver With Portrait</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Young Men Who Overcame</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Paul, the All-Round Man</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">16mo, cloth, net 50c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>The Master of the Heart</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>A Young Man’s Questions</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>The Principles of Jesus</i> <span class="works">In Some Applications to Present Life</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">16mo, net 60c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Christ and Life</i> <span class="works">The Practice of the Christian Life</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">12mo, cloth, net $1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Studies of the Man Paul</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">16mo, cloth, 75c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Studies of “The Man Christ Jesus”</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">16mo, cloth, 75c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>Remember Jesus Christ</i> <span class="works">And Other Talks About Christ and the - Christian Life</span></td> - <td class="tdrb works">16mo, cloth, 75c.</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl lsthang"><i>The Deity of Christ</i></td> - <td class="tdrb works">18mo, boards, net 25c.</td> -</tr> -</table> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic"><i>The Merrick Lectures for 1916–17. Delivered at the Ohio<br /> -Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, April 1–5, 1917</i></p> - -<h1 class="nobreak">The Stuff of Manhood</h1> - -<p class="noi subtitle"><i>SOME NEEDED NOTES IN<br /> -AMERICAN CHARACTER</i></p> - -<p class="p2 noi author">By<br /> -ROBERT E. SPEER</p> - -<div class="pad4"> -<div class="figcenter" id="logo"> - <img class="illowe6" src="images/logo.jpg" alt="logo" title="logo" /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noic"><span class="smcap">New York    Chicago    Toronto</span><br /> -<span class="author">Fleming H. Revell Company</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">London   and   Edinburgh</span></p> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic">Copyright, 1917, by<br /> -FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p> - - -<p class="p6 noic">New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> -Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.<br /> -Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.<br /> -London: 21 Paternoster Square<br /> -Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street</p> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Lectures">The Merrick Lectures</h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">By the gift of the late Rev. Frederick -Merrick, M. D., D. D., LL. D., for fifty-one -years a member of the Faculty, and -for thirteen of those years President of Ohio -Wesleyan University, a fund was established -providing an annual income for the purpose of -securing lectures within the general field of -Experimental and Practical Religion. The following -courses have previously been given on -this foundation:</p> - -<p>Daniel Curry, D. D.—“Christian Education.”</p> - -<p>President James McCosh, D. D., LL. D.—“Tests -of the Various Kinds of Truth.”</p> - -<p>Bishop Randolph S. Foster, D. D., LL. D.—“The -Philosophy of Christian Experience.”</p> - -<p>Professor James Stalker, D. D.—“The Preacher -and His Models.”</p> - -<p>John W. Butler, D. D.—“Mission Work in -Mexico.”</p> - -<p>Professor George Adam Smith, D. D., LL. D.—“Christ -in the Old Testament.”</p> - -<p>Bishop James W. Bashford, Ph. D., D. D., -LL. D.—“The Science of Religion.”</p> - -<p>James M. Buckley, D. D., LL. D.—“The Natural -and Spiritual Orders and Their Relations.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span></p> - -<p>John R. Mott, M. A., F. R. G. S.—“The -Pastor and Modern Missions.”</p> - -<p>Bishop Elijah E. Hoss, D. D., LL. D.; Professor -Doremus A. Hayes, Ph. D., S. T. D., LL. D.; -Charles E. Jefferson, D. D., LL. D.; Bishop -William F. McDowell, D. D., LL. D.; President -Edwin H. Hughes, D. D.—“The New Age and -Its Creed.”</p> - -<p>Robert E. Speer, M. A.—“The Marks of a -Man, or The Essentials of Christian Character.”</p> - -<p>Rev. Charles Stelzle, Miss Jane Addams, Commissioner -of Labor Charles P. Neill, Ph. D., Professor -Graham Taylor, and Rev. George P. -Eckman, D. D.—“The Social Application of -Religion.”</p> - -<p>Rev. George Jackson, M. A.—“Some Old Testament -Problems.”</p> - -<p>Professor Walter Rauschenbusch, D. D.—“Christianizing -the Social Order.”</p> - -<p>Professor G. A. Johnston Ross, M. A.—“One -Avenue of Faith.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Introduction">Introduction</h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">The moral elements of individual character -are inevitably social. And the -social obligation immensely strengthens -the sanctions which enjoin them. When a man -“has trained himself,” to use the words of Lord -Morley in dealing with Voltaire’s religion, “to -look upon every wrong in thought, every duty -omitted from act, each infringement of the inner -spiritual law which humanity is constantly perfecting -for its own guidance and advantage -... as an ungrateful infection, weakening -and corrupting the future of his brothers,” he -views each struggle within his own soul against -evil and each firm aspiration after purity not as -a mere incident in his own spiritual biography -but as a fight for social good and for the perfecting -of the nation and of humanity. And the -struggle for social good and the perfecting of -human life is fundamentally a struggle for the -triumph of ideals in personal wills. God can -take hold of men only in man. He revealed -Himself and wrought redemption less by a social -process than by a personal incarnation. And the -only way of which we know to uplift the life of the -nation and to fit it for its mission and its ministry<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -is to reform our own and other men’s characters, -and ourselves to be what manner of man among -men we would have the nation be among nations. -It is of some of the elements of character -of which men stand specially in need to-day that -we are to speak in these lectures. What is good -in our lives as individuals and in our life as a nation -is not in need of discussion here. And there -is no nobility in analyzing and deriding our -weaknesses. Our purpose is to urge our keeping -if we have not lost them, and our regaining if we -feel them slipping from us, some of the elemental -moral qualities and spiritual resources which are -vital to the capacity for duty and to the living of -a full and efficient life.</p> - -<p>It has seemed best, on the whole, to preserve -in the printed volume the free colloquialism of -the lectures as they were delivered.</p> - -<p class="right">R. E. S.</p> - -<p class="works"><i>New York.</i></p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Contents">Contents</h2> -</div> - - -<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> -<col style="width: 15%;" /> -<col style="width: 70%;" /> -<col style="width: 15%;" /> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">I.</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_I">Discipline and Austerity</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">11</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">II.</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_II">The Conservation and Release of Moral Resources</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">50</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">III.</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_III">An Unfrightened Hope</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">85</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">IV.</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_IV">The Joy of the Minority</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">118</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">V.</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_V">The Life Invisible</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">160</td> -</tr> -</table> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LECTURE_I">LECTURE I<br /> -<small>DISCIPLINE AND AUSTERITY</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Whether there should be compulsory -military training in America is a question -which some people will answer -yes or no according to their general theories and -others according to their observation of the actual -effects of such training on moral character. But -whatever our views may be on this familiar question, -whether we regard military service as ethically -helpful in its influence or as morally injurious, -we cannot differ as to the need in our national -character of those qualities of self-control, -of quick and unquestioning obedience to duty, -of joyful contempt of hardship, and of zest in -difficult and arduous undertakings which, rightly -or wrongly, we consider soldierly, which we attribute -in such rich measure to our forefathers, -and which the moral exigencies of our national -task to-day as peremptorily demand. To put -these primary and elemental needs as sharply as -possible, let us call them discipline and austerity. -Our American character needs more of both.</p> - -<p>I do not know a better starting point than is -found in one of those vivid modern touches upon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> -which we constantly come in the Old Testament. -This one is in the account of the closing year of -King David’s life. The story seems ancient and -far away until we suddenly read: “His father -had not displeased him at any time saying, Why -hast thou done so?” If we were to translate the -words more directly into the language of our -own day, we should say, “His father had always -let him do exactly as he pleased.” The reference -is to David and his son Adonijah, and to the want -of discipline by which the father had ruined his -boy.</p> - -<p>It is not hard to reconstruct the story. David -was busy about his cares as king, and his heart -was indulgent towards his children. Adonijah -seems to have been his youngest son, and the -father let him have his way, never reining him -up or checking him by asking why he had done -thus or so. David pursued, in other words, the -modern theory of child training: that the one -principle by which children should be educated -is the principle of letting what is naturally in -them come out; that they must not be crossed -or frustrated, or have any external discipline or -control laid upon their lives. This is, of course, -the extreme of it, but in some form we hear the -theory and see it applied all about us every day.</p> - -<p>And it is a modern theory of self-education, -also. We are told that life should be left free to -follow its native impulses; that it should not be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> -thwarted and intimidated by the conventions and -prohibitions of society; that men and women -should consult their own hearts and then should -move out quite freely in obedience to their -promptings; that their lives and the lives of their -children should not be twisted or deflected by the -imposition of any external authority or command.</p> - -<p>Well, that was the way Adonijah was brought -up. His father was rich. The boy had his own -establishment, his own horses, his own retinue of -attendants, and round about him, as about any -oriental king’s son, there would be the usual -crowd of flatterers and sycophants. There was -no will or desire that he had not the means to -gratify, and his father let him have his way.</p> - -<p>Further, he was the younger brother of Absalom, -and the ancient record says that they -were handsome and popular boys. They had a -way that carried along those who came in touch -with them, and as the king’s sons, and the leading -young men of the city, we have no difficulty -in understanding the atmosphere in which they -lived and the conditions within which they grew.</p> - -<p>It must be confessed that this was the easy -way of going about the matter. It is far easier -to let a child have its own way than to endeavour -by wisdom and patience and strength, to study -and decide what is best for the child and without -hurting the child’s will, to guide it into the better -way. It was far less care to David to let Absalom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> -and Adonijah go than it would have been -to take these high-strung sons of his in hand and -endeavour to break them to discipline and truth, -and to send them out into life real men of -power. It was much easier never to call them -and to say, “Boys, why did you do this?” -Much easier never to lay any authority or guidance -upon them from without, much easier, especially -for a man like David. He had grown -up on a farm, with all the hardship and frugality -of farm life, with no privileges as a lad, and now -that he was the king of his nation, he was able -to do anything whatever for his sons. It was -difficult to refuse them the things he had never -had. Easily and indulgently—for he was a man -of kindly heart all his days—he found it simpler -not to lay hard restraints upon his boys when he -could give them their own way.</p> - -<p>And, of course, this is the easier way of self-education -too. For a man to love himself so -much that he never thinks of his neighbours, to -blind his eyes so completely to consequences -that he can live for the passing moment,—this is -a very easy philosophy, and the man or the -woman who is able to practice it will seem, for a -while, to live in the sunshine, a fine butterfly, -smooth-going life. All this is easier than to say, -not, What is my impulse? but, What ought I? -not, What do I like? but, What is best for all -the world? not, What is the easy way? but,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -What is the hard way over which the feet go -that carry the burdens of mankind, that bear the -load of the world?</p> - -<p>But, though it is the easy way for a while, there -comes a time when it is no longer the easy way. -When in his little room above the gate the old -king bowed his gray head in his hands and with -breaking heart sobbed out: “O my son Absalom! -my son, my son Absalom! would God I -had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my -son!”—it was no longer the easy way. When -Adonijah rose up in insurrection against his old -father as he lay on his dying bed, gathering his -little company of sycophants around him and -setting himself up in his father’s place, then it -was no longer the easy way that the old man -had pursued.</p> - -<p>And to-day still, fathers and mothers who for -a little while thought the easy way was never to -ask their children why they had done so, but to -let them go their own way with no imposition of -outward authority or control, find after a while -that the easy way has turned bitterly hard. I -have a friend, a leading merchant in one of our -large cities. Some time ago another friend was -visiting him, and as they walked down the street -together, suddenly a large car whizzed around -the corner, full of young people, among them -the merchant’s son. This was the middle of the -forenoon and the boy was supposed to be at work<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> -in his father’s establishment. The father turned -to his friend and said: “I wish I knew how I -could hold my boy in.” But my friend understood -why he could not. He knew that only -two or three years before the son had been rewarded -for passing examinations at college, -examinations that it ought to have been taken -for granted that he would pass. But his father -thought he should be rewarded for passing them, -and he bought a car and sent it up to him at college. -Now he wonders why this son does not -know how to bind himself to arduous duty.</p> - -<p>And in our own lives the easy education does not -go easily all the way. There comes a time when, -having always indulged ourselves, we can’t break -the habit; when, never having taken our lives in -our hands and reined them to the great ministries -of mankind, we discover that we cannot. -We find that we obey our caprices; follow any -impulse; cannot stick to any task; do not know -a principle when we see it; have no iron or steel -anywhere in our character; are the riffraff of the -world that the worthy men and women have to -bear along as they go. In Mr. Kipling’s inelegant -lines:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“We was rotten ’fore we started—we was never disci<em>plined</em>;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">We made it out a favour if an order was obeyed;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Yes, every little drummer ’ad ’is rights and wrongs to mind,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">So we had to pay for teachin’—an’ we paid!”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span></p> - -<p>Now I suggest that we put all this positively -to ourselves, for every one of us knows that we -are treading near some of the moral realities of -weakness and need in our day and nation. -Why should restraint, obedience, the authority -of duty and God be let into our lives? In order -that out of all these things self-control may -come. And why should there be this submission -and control of our lives by duty, and truth -and God? Well, the reasons are obvious, the -moment we begin to think about them.</p> - -<p>There is the indisputable fact that the strongest -and best men and women we know are men and -women who were trained in this school, who -some time during their life, and the earlier the -better, passed under the discipline and influence -of that chastening spoken about in the -twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, -without which we are not children of a clean -God. All around us are these men and women, -fathers and mothers, who indulge their sons -and daughters, who never confront them with -moral principle and obligation and duty, and -then lament because their children do not seem -to have the old iron grasp of duty, the old rigid -love of truth and righteousness. Well, it is all -very simple. It is because those fathers and -mothers are denying to their children the very -education that made themselves what they are. -The men and women, who will not run away<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> -from any task, who stand steadfast in the truth, -upon whose every word we can rest our whole -soul, grew out of a certain discipline, a certain -education, and it was the kind that Adonijah did -not have. And all men and women who want -to be masters of their lives and to have strength -to lay beneath the work of the world must ask -God that such discipline may be given to them.</p> - -<p>Not alone is this the only kind of training -that can produce this kind of character, but unless -a man learns control from without, he will -never learn self-control. Unless he passes under -the discipline of a wiser and stronger hand at the -beginning, he will never come to the time of deliberate -and moral self-discipline, which alone is -character. For this only is character,—the binding -of life beneath the firm sovereignty of the -principle that is the heart of God. If nations -do not realize this they will pay heavily for their -failure. “Make your educational laws strict,” -said Ruskin, “and your criminal laws may be -gentle; but leave youth its liberty and you will -have to dig dungeons for age.”</p> - -<p>And it is this that gives freedom. There is -no freedom outside of character. Liberty, as -Montesquieu says, is not freedom to do just as -we please. Liberty is the ability to do as we -ought. And the freedom that we need is not -the freedom of caprice and whim and listening to -our impulses. It is the freedom that enables our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -eyes clearly to see what right is, and then empowers -us to do it. Symonds put it in his verse:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Soul, rule thyself. On passion, deed, desire,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Lay thou the law of thy deliberate will.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Stand at thy chosen post, faith’s sentinel.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Learn to endure. Thine the reward</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Of those who make living light their Lord.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Clad with celestial steel these stand secure,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Masters, not slaves.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>And if such self-control goes as far even as the -self-extinction of that voluntarily accepted Cross, -on the green hill outside Jerusalem, even so it -will bring victory at the last, because it has -brought one long succession of victories over -self all the days. I cut this fugitive bit of verse -from a newspaper the other day:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Pausing a moment ere the day was done,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">While yet the earth was scintillant with light,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">I backward glanced. From valley, plain and height,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">At intervals, where my life path had run,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Rose cross on cross: and nailed upon each one</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Was my dead self. And yet that gruesome sight</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Lent sudden splendour to the falling night.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Showing the conquests that my soul had won.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Up to the rising stars I looked and cried,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">There is no death! For year on year reborn,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">I wake to larger life, to joy more great.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">So many times have I been crucified,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">So often seen the resurrection morn,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">I go triumphant, though new Calvaries wait.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And this freedom and victory are waiting only -for those lives that have been broken beneath<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> -the cross of an absolute restraint of God, and -have so mastered themselves under God’s name -by the help of Christ that control has been given -over in trust into their own hands.</p> - -<p>And we all know that power is to be won here -in this school where men are trained both to feel -and to wield dominion. There is no power in -the world that is not power cabined, power held -in some way. Loose power is imperceptible and -utterly useless. The only power we know is -power walled in, shut down, confined and beating -against its barriers and its walls. We know -this in the athletic life of our colleges to-day. -No athletic trainer in any college ever followed -David’s method with Adonijah. The trainer is -there to say: “Why did you do it that way?” -“Why did you not do it this way? You have -no right to waste your energy in that way. You -must do it so.” There is one scene in <cite>Quo Vadis</cite> -that redeems much else in the book. It is the -scene in the Coliseum, when the giant Gothic -slave is shown saving the life of his mistress, -whom he loved. The great bull has come out -with the girl’s form tied to his horns, and there -is dead silence as the bull stands angrily facing -the man. You remember the picture. As Ursus -lays one hand on each horn of the auroch the -struggle begins. There is not a sound. The -great multitude watches the man’s muscles rise -and harden and the sweat come out and drop<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> -from every pore. They see his feet sinking -down in the arena, until the sand is above his -ankles. Suddenly the great head of the bull begins -to twist under that awful strength. Then -the neck breaks and the giant lifts the limp form -from the beast’s neck and stands with the burden -in his hands before the Emperor. One likes to -read such a picture of power secured by self-discipline. -Do we want to go out limp and -beaten and ineffective in our lives against the -great mass of work in the world that waits to be -done? Or do we want to go in the strength of -Him Who, having bent beneath His Father’s -will, was able to carry on the Cross the whole -burden of human sin?</p> - -<p>And we must learn in this school the things -we value and desire most: purity and delicacy -and refinement of character, for they cannot be -acquired elsewhere. So much social standing -nowadays is uttered in terms of self-assertion and -indulgence and the ability to have any whim or -caprice gratified. This sort of self-assertion, this -caprice, is regarded by many of us as the highest -mark of social authority, whereas we know it -is precisely the opposite, that it is self-restraint -and self-control and self-surrender that mark the -finest lives.</p> - -<p>There is a beautiful story in the life of Goldwin -Smith that illustrates what I mean. In the early -sixties, when he was one of the keenest liberal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> -minds of England, he was associated with Cobden -and Bright in the Manchester School. Again -and again he found himself the mark of the -bitterest criticism from Disraeli. Later Goldwin -Smith, resigning his professorship at Oxford, came -to Canada. At that time Disraeli’s novel, “Lothair,” -appeared in which he attacked Smith—of -course, without using his name—as a social -parasite. It stung Smith to the depths of his -soul, but as it was an anonymous book there -was nothing he could do but sit down and write -this note personally to Disraeli:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“You well know that if you had ventured openly to -accuse me of any social baseness, you would have had to -answer for your words; but when sheltering yourself under -the literary forms of a work of fiction, you seek to traduce -with impunity the social character of a political opponent, -your expressions can touch no man’s honour—they are the -stingless insults of a coward.”</p> -</div> - -<p>That was all he did. And yet, at that very -moment, Goldwin Smith had in his possession -letters of Disraeli, with which he could have -crushed him. Openly in Parliament Disraeli -had said that he had never asked Peel for any -position. But among Peel’s papers which had -been placed in his hands Smith had a letter in -which Disraeli had abjectly begged Peel to give -him office. All that Smith needed to do was to -publish Disraeli’s own letter to Peel and it would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> -have ruined Disraeli’s career. But to Goldwin -Smith that was not a noble thing to do. Peel’s -correspondence had not been given to him to -use in self-defense, or for any personal justification -of his own, and he repressed that letter until -Disraeli was dead. Then, years after, all of Peel’s -correspondence was published and the whole -world knew what a gentleman Goldwin Smith -had been. Our modern ideals of what constitutes -high social and national standing and character -say: “Fight fire with fire. Dishonour releases -honour from itself. He struck you foul; strike -him so in return.” But the man who had learned -self-restraint in the school of God’s loyalty and -truth, who understood that power is ours, not to -use for self-seeking, but for the good of men and -for God’s honour, would not stoop to any such -disloyalty and shame.</p> - -<p>Once more. Whose judgment is of any value? -Who would have thought of going to Adonijah -and asking his opinion on anything whatsoever? -He did not know right from wrong. He never -thought over the issues of right or wrong. -What would I like to do? What does passion -bid me do? What is my whim or caprice for to-night?—that -was as far as Adonijah had ever -thought. No man would ever go to him, as no -men will ever come to you and me if we have -not been trained in the school of moral discrimination, -if we have not looked on ethical principle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -and duty in deciding the question whether each -thing is really right for us and for the whole -world. If we are to be men and women to whom -people will come for comfort and strength and -guidance, to whom our own children can come -with assurance that they will get the truth, we -must be men and women who now place ourselves -beneath the firm discipline of God.</p> - -<p>We see all this put simply in two great things. -We see it in our Lord’s constant appeal, while -here in the world, for men and women of fiber -and discipline. One came to Him and said: -“Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” -And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and -said: “I would not think of counselling anything -hard. You must not sacrifice anything. It is -all very easy. The Father above is a Father of -great tenderness and compassion. He would -not lay a straw’s weight upon any child of His. -Go; live according to your desires and by the -natural impulses of your heart, and for that you -shall have treasure in heaven.” Oh, no; He did -not say that. He said: “Go, sell all that thou -hast, and come and follow me. Except ye love -less than duty your father and mother and brother -and sister, yea, and your own life also, ye cannot -enter the kingdom of God.”</p> - -<p>We see it, too, in God’s way with men as He -laid down His great laws at the beginning, when -His people were but as a race of little children.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> -Why did He not say to them: “This ye may do. -The world is sweet and fair. This ye may do, -and all shall be easy to you”? Why, on the -other hand, did He speak to them in the -stern admonitions of the Decalogue: “Thou -shalt. Thou shalt not”? God never hesitates -to lay His great denials upon mankind and at -last to stifle us beneath the restraint of death that -He may issue us forth through that restraint into -the infinite liberties of the life immortal.</p> - -<p>Now do not brush all this away to-day, or any -day, light-heartedly, as it can be so easily brushed -away. “Oh, don’t shadow our lives,” you will -say, “with your denials and your prohibitions -and your restraints. Leave life free and sweet -as the summer air and the flowers of the field”—that -last how long? No, my friends, it were well -for us that we should learn this lesson, and learn -it now, ere the time comes when the silver cord -is loosed and the wheel is broken at the cistern and -the grinders cease and the long shadows fall. -You remember a tragic incident in New York a -few years ago—I do not need to recall the details -of it—when two young lives made shipwreck of -themselves just because they thought that impulse -and caprice were the free voices that they -might obey. When it was all over, and the two -lives had drawn the veil of night across their -short-lived evil joy, one of the papers published -a letter which the girl had written to a friend:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“My friend,” she wrote, “you and I and Fred, young, -heedless, cynical, living in this reckless town of New York, -may laugh sometimes at the old things like law and religion, -when they say, ‘Thou shalt not.’ We may think -that phrase was written for old fogies, and we may sneer -at ‘the wages of sin is death’; but, my friend, there -comes to us some time knowledge that the law and religion -are right. What they say we shall not do, we cannot do -without suffering. Fred and I have learned that. The -wages of sin is death.”</p> -</div> - -<p>It is worse than death; for what was Hell in -that great vision that John saw? Why, nothing -but the removal of all restraint. “He which is -filthy, let him be filthy still.” He is unclean, let -him be unclean. He is unholy, let him be unholy. -Take all the restraints away. That is -Hell.</p> - -<p>Away from the dark gates that open thither -may another voice call us here to-day, the clear, -strong, summoning voice of Him Who said of -Himself: “I came not to do mine own will, but -the will of him that sent me. I do always those -things that please my Father,” and Who in the -garden of Gethsemane, when the anguish was -almost greater than He could bear, yet found rest -when He prayed, “Father, not my will, but thine -be done”; that out of the willfulness and capriciousness -and the whim and mood of our little -self-indulgent lives we may pass into the great, -strong, steadfast, sovereign will that waits for us;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -that we may stand fast and be strong in the -strength and chastening of God!</p> - -<p>Now I have put it—this matter of our need of -discipline—in the most personal and individual -way, but it is our great national and corporate -need. The body of a nation can only exist -through the ordered discipline of its members -and the spirit of a nation like the spirit of a man -needs to be cleansed of all the lusts of willfulness -and self-indulgence. The spirit of our American -nation needs such cleansing. Mr. Kipling has -drawn us his picture of it:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Through many roads, by me possessed,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">He shambles forth in cosmic guise;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He is the Jester and the Jest,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">And he the Text himself applies.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“His easy unswept hearth he lends</div> - <div class="verse indent3">From Labrador to Guadaloupe;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Till, elbowed out by sloven friends,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">He camps, at sufferance, on the stoop.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Calm-eyed he scoffs at sword and crown,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Or panic-blinded stabs and slays:</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Blatant he bids the world bow down,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Or cringing begs a crust of praise;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Or, sombre-drunk, at mine and mart,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">He dubs his dreary brethren Kings.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">His hands are black with blood—his heart</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Leaps, as a babe’s, at little things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“But, through the shift of mood and mood,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Mine ancient humour saves him whole—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The cynic devil in his blood</div> - <div class="verse indent3">That bids him mock his hurrying soul;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“That bids him flout the Law he makes,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">That bids him make the Law he flouts,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Till, dazed by many doubts, he wakes</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The drumming guns that—have no doubts;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“That checks him foolish-hot and fond,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">That chuckles through his deepest ire,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">That gilds the slough of his despond</div> - <div class="verse indent3">But dims the goal of his desire;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Inopportune, shrill-accented,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The acrid Asiatic mirth</div> - <div class="verse indent1">That leaves him, careless ’mid his dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The scandal of the elder earth.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Doubtless we do not like this picture. We call -it a libel or a caricature. Let it be so. Draw -your own picture. If there is any truth or faithfulness -in it, if it is not blind with national vanity -and self-deceit, it will still be a revelation of -national need of discipline and of self-empire.</p> - -<p>And how can such discipline and self-empire -be won? Well, it will not be won on any ground -of prudential expediency or practical self-interest. -It is well for men and nations to discern their -moral shortcomings and to realize their need of -a new character. But there are no automatic -processes of community salvation. The disciplined -nation comes in only one way—by the -answers of individuals to the austere call of the -one Person who can remake character and mould -the stuff of manhood and nationality. The austere -call! This is the nation’s need and it is -the fundamental summons and the central note<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> -of Christianity. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, -If any man will come after me, let him -deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow -me.”</p> - -<p>The appeal of Christ was always addressed to -the sacrificial and the heroic. In every call -which He issued to men there is this unmistakable -note of austerity. He never smooths -things over for the sake of pleasing people or of -winning followers. There were times when He -seemed almost needlessly to draw in these repelling -aspects of discipleship, and to make the -conditions of following Him unnecessarily hard. -It is related that it came to pass that, as they -went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, -“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou -goest.” And Jesus said unto him, “Foxes have -holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the -Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” -And He said unto another, “Follow me.” But -he said, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury -my father.” Jesus said unto him, “Let the dead -bury their dead; but go thou and preach the -kingdom of God.” And another also said, -“Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid -them farewell which are at home at my house.” -And Jesus said unto him, “No man, having put -his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit -for the kingdom of God.”</p> - -<p>Christ never concealed His own judgments<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> -and convictions as to life’s values in these matters, -and spoke with the greatest scorn of all indulgence -and softness of life. “What went ye -out for to see?” He asked the people, regarding -John. “A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, -they that wear soft clothing are in king’s -houses.” He was looking after men of iron and -of austerity. “If any man will come after me, -let him deny himself, and take up his cross and -follow me.”</p> - -<p>The beautiful thing is that this appeal of -Christ’s was not futile. Instead of repelling -men it drew them. He actually obtained the -men whom He was hunting for, not by offering -them worldly inducements, not by making such -appeals as anybody but Christ would have made, -but by addressing the sacrificial spirit in them, -and making an appeal to their latent capacity -for heroism. There is a wonderful tribute in -Jesus’ method to those characteristics in human -nature which have never been destroyed, which -can answer to the highest motives, which do not -need to be bought by any low compensations, -but which spring into full life when appealed to -on the most heroic and unselfish plane. We -know how, in consequence, this exultation in -difficulties, this love of hardship, this scorn of -ease became the characteristic note of early -Christianity. In the best summary description -which Saint Paul gives of Christian character<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> -and manhood, in the twelfth chapter of Romans -we find him speaking of “rejoicing in hope; patient -in tribulation.” And when he comes to -write his conception of the character of the -happy warrior, we find him setting this in the -foreground, “Endure hardship, as a good soldier -of Jesus Christ.” The praise of the New -Testament is never given to those who have -lived in luxurious, indulgent ease. It is for that -little company of men and women who have -loved the difficult tasks, and who with joy trod -the rough ways that transcend the stars. Every -one of the great New Testament leaders is a -man who exalts for us this same love of moral -hardship, this same scorn of indulgence and -smooth ease, and this same virtue of steadfastness, -“And not only so,” says Paul, “but we -glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation -worketh stedfastness; and stedfastness, experience; -and experience, hope.” And Peter -writes, “Yea, and for this very cause adding on -your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; -and in your virtue knowledge; and in your -knowledge self-control; and in your self-control -stedfastness; and in your stedfastness godliness.” -James joins in, “My brethren, count it all joy -when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing -this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” -And you remember the description -which John gives of himself in Revelation as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> -“your brother and partaker with you in the -tribulation and kingdom and stedfastness which -are in Jesus.”</p> - -<p>Now, we ask ourselves the question why our -Lord poured out all this scorn on what the world -counts the desirable condition and atmosphere -of life, why the New Testament has no patience -with self-seeking, indulgence, contentment, or -ease as the standard of a human life, why it -speaks contemptuously of smooth ease of every -kind, and exalts, instead, the austere life, the life -of strength, and of self-discipline, why our Lord -said to men when He came to call them into the -best thing there was in the world, “If any man -will come after me, let him deny himself, and -take up his cross daily, and follow after me.”</p> - -<p>Well, one reason why the whole New Testament -pours out such contempt upon the smooth -life and exalts hardness, is because only hardness -can make a great soul, and the end of the Gospel, -the end of life, was the growing of souls. -The words of Socrates, understood in the social -sense which he intended and not selfishly, contain -the central end. “For I do nothing,” said -he, “but go about persuading you all, old and -young alike, not to take thought for your persons -or your properties, but first and chiefly to -care about the greatest improvement of the soul.” -It is true, in a sense, that we are here for the -work we can do, but it is also true, in a yet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> -deeper sense, that we are here to become the -best workmen that we can become, and that the -work we do has a large measure of its value in -its reflex power of making us capable of doing -better work. Evidently this is not the real workshop -where God needs His best men and women. -When He has perfected His workmen and workwomen -and recognizes that they are prepared to -do their best work, does He make use of them -here? Never. He takes them elsewhere, where -evidently the real work is to be done. Everything -we see in this world would seem to indicate -that it is only the preparatory school, a place -where men and women are equipped for the real -thing, that the career that is to abide lies elsewhere -than here. The purpose of these days is -to make us ready for the work God has for us to -do in a larger sphere than this, where we pass -on, as Chinese Gordon told Mr. Huxley, to have -a larger government given to us to administer. -God pours out His contempt on smoothness of -life because it cannot make greatness of soul, -and greatness of soul is one object of our being -here.</p> - -<p>The Christian ideal despised, also, this smoothness -which seems to many of us the most desirable -thing that life has for us, because there is -such little knowledge given with it. At best it -can only play on the very surface of life. We -know no more than springs out of the deep experience<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> -through which we pass. You remember -the lines of Father Tabb:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“‘Where wast thou, little song,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That hast delayed so long</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To come to me?’</div> - <div class="verse indent1">‘Mute in the mind of God</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Till where thy feet had trod</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I followed thee.’”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>It is only where we have gone that we know -the way; it is only the experience in life that -we have passed through that gives us our true -knowledge of life, because the end of life is its -relationships, and wealth of life depends on the -breadth of true knowledge and the riches of true -relationship. Smoothness of life is simply deadening -because it keeps us out of what is real life.</p> - -<p>And Christianity derided smoothness of life, -and scorned it, because it separates us from -fellowship with the noble and suffering life of -God. You know the long controversy in theology -as to whether the idea of suffering is compatible -with the idea of a perfect God. There -have been some theologians who insist it could -not be possible that God should suffer. If He -could suffer, He could not be God. Well, I -suppose all of us here are prepared without one -moment of hesitation to range ourselves on the -other side, and to say that if God cannot suffer -He cannot be our God. He could not be a -father if He did not suffer. Christ could not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> -have been the revelation of Him if He is not a suffering -God; for “He was the man of sorrows, -and acquainted with grief.” What He laid bare -was a heart of love sharing the anguish of others; -for we have not a Father who cannot be touched -with the feeling of our infirmities,—We can say -that of Him because of what we know of Him -who revealed Him,—We have not a Father who -cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, -no impassive God sitting where “no -sound of human sorrow mounts to mar His -sacred everlasting calm,” but a Father who pities -His children, who enters into their life, and who -loves them with all His soul. We can have no -knowledge of that God, no fellowship with His -life, if what we are living is the smooth, easy, -indulgent life, everything bought for us by -others, nothing done by us for others, no blood -of sacrifice colouring our life red with the glow -of God and His incarnate Son. The New Testament -despises the smooth life that makes it impossible -for men and women to have any part in -the deepest life of their Father.</p> - -<p>And the New Testament scorns the smooth, -indulgent life because it cannot connect men and -women with the real springs of strength and of -power. No strong man was ever made against -no resistance. We develop no physical power -by putting forth no physical effort. All the -strength of life we have we get by pushing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> -against opposition. We acquire power as we -draw it out of deep experience and effort. And -the new Christian ideal made no place for indulgence -and ease because these things leave men -and women weak, with no strength either themselves -to bear or to achieve for others. It is as -Mrs. King puts it in Ugo Bassi’s “Sermon in -the Hospital”:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Is it the poorer for the spirit shed?</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Are they the richer for that gift’s excess?</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth</div> - <div class="verse indent1">For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And whoso suffers most hath most to give.</div> - </div> - <hr class="tb" /> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent3">God said to Man and Woman, ‘By thy sweat,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And by thy travail, thou shalt conquer earth,’</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Not, by thy ease or pleasure:—and no good</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Or glory of this life but comes by pain.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">How poor were earth if all its martrydoms,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Were swept away, and all were satiate-smooth,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">If this were such a heaven of soul and sense</div> - <div class="verse indent1">As some have dreamed of;—and we human still.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Nay, we were fashioned not for perfect peace</div> - <div class="verse indent1">In this world, howsoever in the next:</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And what we win and hold is through some strife.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And it was because our Lord knew this that He -set over against men’s wills the strait door of the -kingdom of life. He did not betray the trust -that had been given to Him. He did not say,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span> -“Come, I will make life easy for you.” He did -not say, “Come, let us indulge ourselves to -heart’s content.” He said, “If any man will -come after me, let him leave all that behind, let -him deny himself, and let him take up his cross -daily, and let him come after me.”</p> - -<p>Now, I know what many of us will be saying -of all this. We will be saying, “God did not -bring us into the world with any cross. All our -life long has been a sheltered life. None of this -hardness of which you speak has ever come to -us. Maybe our fathers and mothers knew it -before us, but they have shielded us from its -pressure. Are we to go back to crudeness and -asceticism for the good of our souls? Are we -who have no cross deliberately to take our -smooth lives and roughen them?” Yes, that is -precisely what I am saying. Those of us who -were not born with a cross must find one, those -whose lives have been smooth are deliberately to -find ways of roughening them, so that we may -know a life of power and fellowship with the -suffering God, and can go out to real work, and -be prepared for that greater life and greater -service which await us elsewhere than here.</p> - -<p>We shall not have any great difficulty in obeying -this call of Christ to roughen our lives. -There are many crosses in the world too heavy -for the men and women who are trying to carry -them. We can go out and find one of these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> -crosses and help to bear it. They are not far -away. Here is a clipping from the New York -<cite>Sun</cite>:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“A comely young Hungarian woman with a three-months-old -baby in her arms dropped to the sidewalk at -Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street late yesterday afternoon -and lay half conscious. An ambulance surgeon who -came said the woman was starving and that her baby had -bronchitis.</p> - -<p>“The woman recovered enough to tell the surgeon that -she was Mrs. Mary Scheinn, twenty years old, and that her -husband had died recently. She had been living with a -friend at 97 Seigel Street, Brooklyn, she said, but this -woman also was very poor and expected to be evicted to-day, -so Mrs. Scheinn had walked to New York to try to -get her sick child into a hospital. She tramped from -hospital to hospital, and everywhere they refused to take -the child, she said. But she kept up the quest until she -gave out. She had had nothing to eat since yesterday and -little then.</p> - -<p>“The ambulance took the woman and child to Bellevue -Hospital. Both are in a rather serious condition.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="noi">Being young and comely, doubtless, if she had -not had the baby, some pimp or other American -citizen, for a consideration within her power, -might have helped her, but being innocent and -carrying a baby there she stood until she fell -down, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth -Street, in the heart of the city, a woman -carrying a baby and a cross that were too heavy -for her. There were millions of Christian people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -round about her. Thousands of us never knew -what a cross was and we let the woman with her -child in her arms fall down under the weight of -hers. This world is black with the shadows of -crosses. If we have none of our own, in the -name of the great Cross, let us borrow one.</p> - -<p>Here is a note from a girl. She is one of -thousands and the note is real. I had been -speaking in one of the New York churches and -the next day came a letter from her asking me, -if I really believed what I had said, to answer -some questions for her. I wrote in reply and -this was part of her answer: “The great trouble -with me is that I have to fight continually -against despondency. Life to me is a series of -sorrows and troubles, that accumulate and grow -larger, and just when I am at the point of giving -up altogether some little word or act deters me.... -I know I would be happy if I were, as you -say, truly trustful towards God, but God to me -seems very far off and rather mythical. Your letter, -also the fact that you wrote, was a help to me. -The part that perhaps appealed to me most was -the idea that God and God’s love are longing -for us. It is very fine to feel that when one is -always lonesome.” I learned more of her story -but it is not for telling here. It was a cross too -heavy for her which she was trying to bear. -Women who knew her lifted its weight for her, -taking it over upon themselves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span></p> - -<p>And not only by taking up crosses, of which -the world is full, can we roughen our lives. -Many of us can do it by simply cutting off some -of our waste and extravagance. There are many -of us who never ask before we spend money, -“How can I get the greatest return from this -money?” We waste it like water, while Belgium, -Serbia, Poland and Armenia call. It is -said that there are thirty million people in India -who have only one meal a day, and who never -know what it is to have enough to eat. Some -of them say that if they could have enough to -eat for just two days, they would be willing to -lie down and die content. Again and again, -hundreds of thousands of people in China have -been the victims of famine, while we were throwing -wealth away. We can roughen life a bit by -denying ourselves, by abridging expenditure -and devoting the money to human need and -to some of the services the world is dying for.</p> - -<p>Students often reject the ethical and economic -arguments against gambling. These arguments -are valid but it is very hard to get a clutch for -them on many minds. You can point out how -dishonourable and essentially immoral it is for a -man to have money which he did not earn, for -which he gave no equivalent, which came to -him as no expression of friendship or by no -legitimate inheritance. All this is clear to the -healthy and manly moral sense. But the gambler<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -does not have such a sense. I have often wondered -that the case is not more frequently put -from the other side, from the side of the wrong -of spending money in gambling. When a man -has won on a bet the moral question is lulled -but when he has lost there is a chastened mood -which can be invited to reflect. What moral -warrant did he have for throwing his money -away? What does he have to show for it? -A million hungry hands were outstretched to -him, a world of want and suffering called -towards him over land and sea? And he threw -his money away—got nothing for it, did nothing -with it. In a world like ours, there are parched -lips waiting for drink; there are hungry mouths -in need of bread:—do we have any right to waste -in indulgence in a world like this? Men should -scrutinize every dollar that passes through their -hands and ask, “What is the very best thing -that I can do with this?”</p> - -<p>And frugality, self-imposed for the sake of -service, will come back to us in rich reward in -character and power. Horace Bushnell drew a -noble picture of the fruitage of true parsimony -in his address at the Litchfield County Centennial -in 1851, on “The Age of Homespun”:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“It was also a great point, in this homespun -mode of life, that it imparted exactly what many -speak of only with contempt, a closely girded -habit of economy. Harnessed, all together, into<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> -the producing process, young and old, male and -female, from the boy that rode the plow-horse, -to the grandmother knitting under her spectacles, -they had no conception of squandering lightly -what they all had been at work, thread by thread, -and grain by grain, to produce. They knew too -exactly what everything cost, even small things, -not to husband them carefully. Men of patrimony -in the great world, therefore, noticing -their small way in trade, or expenditure, are -ready, as we often see, to charge them with -meanness—simply because they knew things -only in the small; or, what is not far different, -because they were too simple and rustic to have -any conception of the big operations by which -other men are wont to get their money without -earning it, and lavish the more freely because it -was not earned. Still, this knowing life only in -the small, it will be found, is really anything but -meanness.</p> - -<p>“Probably enough the man who is heard -threshing in his barn of a winter evening, by the -light of a lantern, (I knew such an example) will -be seen driving his team next day, the coldest -day of the year, through the deep snow to a -distant wood-lot to draw a load for a present to -his minister. So the housewife that higgles for -a half hour with the merchant over some small -trade is yet one that will keep watch, not unlikely, -when the schoolmaster, boarding round<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> -the district, comes to some hard quarter, and -commence asking him to dinner, then to tea, -then to stay over night, and literally boarding -him, till the hard quarter is passed. Who now, -in the great world of money, will do, not to say -the same, as much, proportionally as much, in -any of the pure hospitalities of life?</p> - -<p>“Besides, what sufficiently disproves any real -meanness, it will be found that children brought -up, in this way, to know things in the small—what -they cost and what is their value—have, in -just that fact, one of the best securities of character -and most certain elements of power and -success in life; because they expect to get on by -small advances followed up and saved by others, -not by sudden leaps of fortune that despise the -slow but surer methods of industry and merit. -When the hard, wiry-looking patriarch of homespun, -for example, sets off for Hartford, or Bridgeport, -to exchange the little surplus of his year’s -production, carrying his provision with him and -the fodder for his team, and taking his boy along -to show him the great world, you may laugh at -the simplicity, or pity, if you will, the sordid look -of the picture; but, five or ten years hence, this -boy will probably enough be found in college, -digging out the cent’s worths of his father’s -money in hard study; and some twenty years -later he will be returning, in his honours, as the -celebrated Judge, or Governor, or Senator and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span> -public orator, from some one of the great states -of the republic, to bless the sight once more of -that venerated pair who shaped his beginnings, -and planted the small seeds of his future success. -Small seeds, you may have thought, of meanness; -but now they have grown up and blossomed -into a large-minded life, a generous public -devotion, and a free benevolence to mankind.</p> - -<p>“And just here, I am persuaded, is the secret, -in no small degree, of the very peculiar success -that has distinguished the sons of Connecticut, -and, not least, those of Litchfield County, in -their migration to other states. It is because -they have gone out in the wise economy of a -simple, homespun training, expecting to get on -in the world by merit and patience, and by a -careful husbanding of small advances; secured -in their virtue by just that which makes their -perseverance successful. For the men who see -the great in the small, and go on to build the -great by small increments, and so form a character -of integrity before God and men, as solid -and massive as the outward successes they conquer. -The great men who think to be great in -general, having yet nothing great in particular, -are a much more windy affair.”</p> -</div> - -<p>Every one ought to roughen life by friendships -that will bring into it those influences which are -not naturally in our daily associations and will -carry us into contact with men and women who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -struggle harder than we do. A few such friendships -will help to keep life from petrification and -to make us aware that the world is under a cross, -and that our hearts must be as open to all its -needs as the heart of the Father of human life is -open always.</p> - -<p>And we can help to roughen our lives in the -very sense in which Christ meant them to be -roughened if we will resist the steadily increasing -tendency of our day to multiply ways in which -we are released from doing things for ourselves. -There are none of us who do not have a hundred -things done for us that our fathers and mothers -had to do for themselves. Little by little, we are -ridding ourselves of the responsibility of doing -any service for ourselves whatsoever. There is -immense gain in this. It gives freedom for larger -living but it can go too far, and it would be a -great thing if we resolved at periods that we -would not let anybody else do for us what we -could do for ourselves. There was a day, perhaps, -when men needed the other rule, when it -was a great deal better to get other people to do -things for us than to do them ourselves, but the -time has come when the world needs to reverse -that principle. What the world wants is not -organizers, but deorganizers, men and women -who will increase the number of personal services -and activities, and who will bring something -frugal, simple and elementary back into life to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -deliver us from the false heaven of ease and self-indulgence, -which is as bad as any other kind of -hell. Christ came to save us from that.</p> - -<p>There is one other way in which we can answer -this call, and can deliver ourselves from the -curse of smooth living. Around about us on -every side there are causes waiting for what men -and women can do for them. I do not mean -crosses in any great, general, organized sense, in -which we send our five, our twenty-five or our -hundred dollars to some society and think we -have, in that way, carried all the cross that Christ -means to have us carry. We cannot fulfill Christ’s -command by paying an organization to carry a -cross for us. All the work they do must be done, -and it must be supported. Millions of dollars -that are not being given now ought to be given. -But what Christ is waiting for also and what we -have got to do if we are to have the satisfaction -of the enduring life is to find each of us for himself -some true cross of personal service. There -are men and women around us who are waiting -for some touch of sympathy, some kindness, -some unflinching word of ours to them that shall -mean the awakening of their own discouraged or -sleeping souls, that they may come out to live. -“If any man will come after me, let him deny -himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”</p> - -<p>One of the saddest things in the world to-day -is the principle under which those are living who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> -are unwilling to bear these crosses and to bring -home into their lives the wholesome spiritual -stimulus that this roughening of life alone can -give to them. We have reacted too far from -the old monastic idea. Men speak with scorn -now of those men and women who went away -into monasteries and convents, despising the joys -of the world for the sake of their souls. But -these men and women were infinitely better than -the great multitudes who go out into the world -to-day, despising their souls for the sake of the -joys of the world. If a man or woman wants to -do any despising it is better to despise the world -than the soul. It were well for us to go back a -little to the spirit of the mediæval time. When -that spirit was pure and good the world’s richest -service flowed out from it.</p> - -<p>The glory of life for us consists in finding the -rough, the morally austere things in life and then -fearlessly and unhesitatingly doing them. There -is no splendour in the easy indulgent way. The -splendour lies in finding the hard thing to be -achieved and revelling in it.</p> - -<p>Many years ago I clipped this story from the -editorials of what was then our ablest newspaper:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“A young Briton named Felix Oswald became -interested a while ago in the geology of Turkish -Armenia. He made long journeys through that -country and finally came home with an important<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -amount of valuable new material. It was not -matter, however, that would find favour in the -eyes of the general publisher and Mr. Oswald -had to undertake its publication himself. He -had the type set at the lowest rates in a small -town. There were 516 pages of print and the -author undertook the large task of doing the -printing himself. He hired a hand press and -after weeks of hard work he had produced 101 -copies of the book. Feeling certain that this -edition would fill the demand he went about the -next large job, which was the hand colouring of -all his maps and profiles. Then the copies were -bound and the book was out.</p> - -<p>“Leading geologists say that the work is one -of the best of its kind. The small edition is exhausted -and the book will not be reprinted. The -editor of <cite>Petermann’s Mitteilungen</cite>, believing -that a wide circle of geologists would be glad to -have the important results of Oswald’s investigations, -has just printed in his periodical an extended -résumé of them together with some of -the maps. The University of London has -crowned the work with its approval by conferring -the degree of Doctor of Science upon the -author. Oswald has certainly earned the congratulations -of all who admire the qualities of -courage, perseverance and intelligent devotion -to a special task.”</p> -</div> - -<p>A man does not have to go to Armenia to find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -the hard thing to do, although there are harder -and nobler tasks waiting there to-day than -Oswald undertook, tasks that are crosses in the -divinest sense, scarred with sorrow and grief. -And perhaps there are some among us here now -who are bearing crosses and finding them beyond -their strength. But they are not to be -mourned over. They were not of our making, -were they? If they were of our making, perhaps -there is some penitence to be felt, some -restitution to be made. If they were not of our -making, we may be sure that they were built -just for our shoulder, that One who knew us -made them that we might carry them, and become -under them what we could never become -without them. And if we have no such cross, -out from our smooth and easy living, our cozy -shelters in which we have been kept and are kept -now, One is calling us to come whose ancient -word we hear to-day: “I came not to send -peace, but a sword. Whosoever would be my -disciple must love nothing as much as me, and -must be willing to rise up and follow me.” For -men and women who will do this in the full and -joyous spirit of Francis of Assisi but in the forms -suitable to our modern life the summons of God -and the world is clear.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LECTURE_II">LECTURE II<br /> -<small>THE CONSERVATION AND RELEASE -OF MORAL RESOURCES</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">One of our most familiar national ideas -during recent years has been the conservation -of our natural resources, our -mines, our forests, our water power, the agricultural -capacities of our soil. It would have -been a good thing if this idea had occurred to -us fifty years earlier. But it is an idea which -always comes late to a young nation. So long -as the population is sparse and the supply of -good land unlimited and it is an easy thing to -pick up a living from the surface of the ground, -perhaps it is too much to expect that any people -would be careful and frugal. But when the -population has increased and begins to press -against the means of subsistence, when the good -public lands are exhausted and a mere living becomes -harder for the masses of the people to -secure, then any nation awakens to wisdom and -turns from recklessness and prodigality.</p> - -<p>And, doubtless, the idea would have occurred -to us a full generation earlier if it had not been -for the terrible education of our Civil War. -There is a great deal to be set down on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -good side of the account of the Civil War. It -took the putty of our national character and -burned it into stone. It ran steel fibres through -our national life. And it brought us for the first -time to a sense of national unity. But alas there -is a great deal also on the ledger’s other page. -For war is not conservation, it is destruction. It -educates any people not in frugality but in wastefulness. -Military supplies must be bought at once -at any cost. Everything is thrown away with a -negligent and wasteful hand. And so long as -any people is pouring out its best possession, -the precious life-blood of its sons, like water on -the battle-field, you cannot expect it to be saving -and careful in its material possessions.</p> - -<p>The days of waste that followed the Civil War -are gone forever. The nation has begun now to -count carefully the amount of its available wealth. -We have seen calculations of how many millions -of feet of lumber we have standing in our forests -and how many millions of tons of coal we have -still hid away in our treasure houses underground. -And far and wide over the nation now -we are learning to husband the resources we -have left, mindful of our children who are to -come after us.</p> - -<p>And it is a good thing that the nation in conserving -her resources realizes that there is something -more important than a careful husbanding -of her mere material wealth. The vital resources<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span> -of any people are of more significance to her -than clods of coal, or timber on her hillsides. -Of what use would it be to conserve the material -resources of any nation if we conserve them only -for a deteriorating racial stock? The nation has -come to realize that the men and women who -compose it are its largest wealth, and that this -treasure must be guarded more sacredly than -our mines, our forests, or our water power. We -have seen, accordingly, a whole new body of -legislation growing up, that would have made -our fathers stand aghast, fixing the conditions of -employment, the age of employees, the sanitary -condition of homes and mills, the hours of work -and the care of women. The expenditure of immense -sums for the protection of the life and -health of factory labourers is now readily recognized -even by “soul-less corporations,” which -formerly fought against all such outlay, as money -well invested. In all the nation to-day we -realize that there is a more precious wealth than -our material wealth. I saw an interesting illustration -of this new frame of mind a little while -ago in a statement issued by some leading men -in Tennessee dealing with the excessive death -rate among the negroes of the South. They -pointed out that among nine millions of white -people the death rate is 160,000, and that among -the nine millions of the negroes the death rate is -266,000. In other words, among the negroes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> -106,000 more people die every year than among -a corresponding number of the whites of our -country. In the negro, these men argued, the -South had an invaluable asset, a better type of -labour on the whole, with all its drawbacks, than -any other section of the nation possessed, more -docile, more faithful, less troublesome, and the -South could not afford to lose this labour which -it needed for developing its wealth. These men -estimated the economic value of each one of -these lives at $350 a year, and the period of that -economic value at ten years, so that each one of -these wasted lives was a loss of $3,500 to the -South, or $371,000,000 each year, one million -dollars a day, and they argued that the South -could not afford such a waste. The South, they -held, must see that the death rate among the -negro is reduced to the same proportions as the -death rate among the white people, in order that -such an enormous economic loss might be averted. -We are realizing all over the nation now that a -man is a very costly product. You can breed an -animal in a few months for the market, but it -takes twenty years to grow a man, and no nation -can afford to throw away such costly products -as men and women. These are its most -priceless wealth. If it expects to conserve its -treasures and to be prepared for the services of -the days to come, it is bound to guard this wealth -more sacredly than any other. And American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -capital and industry have come to see this -clearly. Here is one typical utterance by a -leading engineer at a meeting of the Immigration -Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of -the United States:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“Industrial Americanization is a part of the prevalent -present-day movement towards the humanizing of industry. -It aims to make what is commonly called ‘welfare work’ -not an exercise of the individual employer’s ‘paternalism,’ -but a legitimate kind of business organization everywhere. -There are now innumerable kinds of ‘welfare work.’ One -employer does it from the point of view of ‘good business’; -another on the ‘big brothers’ theory. One man -confines himself to playgrounds, another to safety appliances. -In one firm it is under the employment manager; -in another under a Y. M. C. A. director; and in a -number of other firms it is classified in as many different -ways.</p> - -<p>“There is no agreement among American employers as -to where the organization of the human side of industry -really belongs. And there are absolutely no standards for -it. What we need to do is to extend scientific methods to -the human phases of industrial organization, and thus give -‘welfare work’ a definite place and definite standards. -The engineer as the ‘consulting mind’ of industry must -be the leader in this work. It is he who determines the -site of the plant and its construction. Inside the plant -again, the engineer has much to do with efficiency methods. -No efficiency methods that are unrelated to the men in the -plant can prosper permanently.”</p> -</div> - -<p>But there is another sort of resource and national -treasure greater by far than these, which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span> -most of the nations are passing by. I mean the -latent and undeveloped capacities for ministry -and achievement which lie dormant inside human -life. Every life is a reservoir of unawakened -possibilities. There is no one of us that is more -than a fraction of the man he should be. There -is not one who is not falling short by a wide -margin of the ideals that he ought to attain, not -one who is making the contribution to the nation -or building the share in the Kingdom of God that -God and mankind alike have a right to expect -of him. Not long before his death, an article -contributed by Prof. William James, of Harvard, -appeared in the <cite>American Magazine</cite>, entitled -“The Powers of Man,” in which Professor James -argued that mankind is living on a very small -fraction of its vitality, and that there are buried -underground strata of possibilities and of power -which are never tapped except in times of great -emergency. For a little time then a man draws -on these reserves, and then seals the strata over -again and falls back on the surface levels once -more. For illustration he spoke of the familiar -phenomenon of the second wind. Every boy -can remember such experiences. There came a -time in the game when he was “all in.” He had -done his best and drawn on his last available -power. Suddenly it was as though something -broke. A partition wall fell in. Unsuspected -reserves were released. The second wind came<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> -and reservoirs of power that had been withheld -came unexpectedly into play and he did better -than he had done before, what he had never been -able to do before. That is an absolute truth of experience -all through life. In our great crises, any -one of many forces may unlock these energies -and let them loose. And the present needed appeal -of the world is to men and women that they -should not be content to draw upon these reservoirs -in crises alone. The tragic crises come because -these powers are not drawn forth and used. -The great wealth of the nations and of the world -that needs now to be unsealed is just this wealth -of moral capacity lying latent and dormant -within.</p> - -<p>What I have been saying is certainly true in -the realm of our physical energies. I remember -a story of John Lawrence, who went out to India -a raw, uninfluential Irish boy in the service of -the East India Company, resolved to do his work -well and make himself a name. Very early in -his career he was assigned to the collectorship of -the Jullundur Doab, on what was then the frontier -of India. He made himself perfectly at home -among his people, entering into their life, mastering -their vernaculars, learning their secrets, -until at last men came to think of “Jans Larens” -as a demi-god with powers beyond the knowledge -of common men. One day as he was sitting in -his house a messenger came in from one of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> -districts and reported that a village was burning -down and begged him to come. He hurried out -to the village. When he arrived he asked the -headmen if they had all the people out of the -houses and was told that all had been brought -out except one old woman who refused to come. -He went to the house where the woman lived -and looked in. There she sat on a bag of grain. -Lawrence entreated her to come out but she refused, -explaining that this bag of grain was all -her earthly wealth. If she came out she would -starve; she would rather stay and be burned. -When Lawrence found his commands and entreaties -unavailing, he rushed in, with the embers -from the burning roof falling on his shoulders, -stooped over and picked up the bag of grain, -and left the burning building, the old woman following -obediently behind. The next day as he -was sitting in his house it flashed on his mind -that the bag of grain had been exceedingly heavy -and he rode out curiously to the village again to -see how much he had lifted. He had no difficulty -in finding the old woman and her bag of grain. -He stooped over to lift it but could not budge it -from the ground. But the day before he had -budged it. He had picked it up and carried it. -The power to do it was lying latent in him all -the while. All he needed was just the piercing -call or inspiration adequate to release the buried -energy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span></p> - -<p>And the world is full of evidences that what is -true physically is true morally. In every man -lies the power with the grace and help of God to -meet his great crisis and in every woman the -power to bear the agony and pain of her great -hour. Only a few years ago, when the <i>Titanic</i> -went down and some men who had walked as dogs -at the heel of their passions suddenly became masters -of themselves and laughing stood at attention -to death as they waited on the deck, we all -wondered what it was that gave these men who -had been slaves their sudden moral mastery. -That mastery was within all the time. It did not -come out of the frame of the <i>Titanic</i>. It did not -come out of the iceberg. It was lying buried all -the while only waiting the hour and the Voice -that was to summon it to come forth.</p> - -<p>Among the nations to-day this is the needed -truth as it is the needed truth here in our own -lives. There are boys here to-day who have been -yielding to temptation, to whom God would give -energies to withstand their enemy. In the nation -there are even now capacities to conquer all -the evils with which the nation abounds. Some -day our children will look back and ask why we -have allowed immorality to dominate the moral -life of the land and why in the world we have endured -the saloon so long. These things will be -cleaned away some day and men will wonder -then what their mothers and fathers were about<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> -that they surrendered where that happier generation -will not surrender but will achieve. The -needed capacities are buried of God in life, but -we are not willing to believe that they are there -or to have faith in Him to energize them.</p> - -<p>Let me put the truth in yet a different way.</p> - -<p>Last spring, just after Holy Week, I received -a very interesting letter from a friend who is one -of the best known and best loved judges in our -country. It was written on the Saturday between -Good Friday and Easter Day, and he -said in it that he was pursuing the practice -which he had pursued for many years, of trying -in the interval between Good Friday and Easter -morning to eliminate Jesus Christ entirely from -his thought of life and of the world in order that -he might thus bring home to his own mind and -conscience more deeply the significance of Jesus, -and he said he could hardly wait for Easter -morning to come to escape from the oppressive -gloom and depression in which his spirit was as -a result of his enforced practice. And he begged -me, as one of his friends, to try this between the -next Good Friday and Easter Day and to see -what the experience would mean.</p> - -<p>Oddly enough my own thoughts that same -day on which my friend was writing this letter -were exactly the opposite of his. He was thinking -of Jesus Christ as extinguished, he was -thinking of all that He had come to be and to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -do as gone, and he was trying to bring home to -his own heart what this utter loss of Christ would -mean. I was meditating, on the other hand, on -that Saturday morning, on just the contrary idea. -On Good Friday, the day before this Saturday, -there had been a great Personality; now that -Personality must be somewhere still. Personality -does not die. The next day, on Easter -morning, there was to be a great outburst of energy. -That energy must be somewhere now. -It will not be created to-morrow morning. It -must be somewhere to-day waiting to come -forth to-morrow. Where is it? And then I suddenly -realized that it was all there, that all that -was to break loose Easter morning was shut up -inside that grave, that all the energies that were -to peal across the world on the new day were -there asleep in that tomb that Saturday. All -the great love and power that had been had not -been annihilated. It was there somewhere, only -out of sight for a little while. And the great -truth urged itself that all the dormant energies -of life, all the enshrouded and enfolded powers -are here now and always just as truly as they -will be to-morrow when they awake, though for -the hour they lie latent and unused.</p> - -<p>Then I began to see, as one’s thought ran -easily on, that that Saturday between Good -Friday and Easter Day was in reality a sort of -symbol of the whole of history. For history, as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> -we look back upon it, is full of these repressions -and these emergences, and then perhaps repressions -again, of great impulses and outbursts of -energy and of power. Now and then they are -for good, as when the Reformation broke across -men’s minds, shattering their shackles, opening -old prison doors, allowing the enslaved human -spirit to come out and breathe the air of freedom. -But why had it not come before? All -the great energies of God that burst forth in it -must have been here even before that hour. -And why did they have to subside afterwards? -They all <em>were</em> still? Why might they not have -gone beating their way onward and not have -ceased so soon?</p> - -<p>Then also great explosions of evil come. We -look out across the world to-day and see all these -dogs of war unleashed. But these dogs of war -were not born the year before last. They had -been here all the time, only they were chained -and held in leash. Why were they not kept -chained and in leash? Why were they allowed -to break loose and go wild across the world in -their havoc and devastation? We know perfectly -well that after a few months they are going -to be chained again, and the great reconstructive -processes will begin to make the world -anew. But why do these reconstructive forces -have to wait? They will not exist any more -truly then than they do to-day. Why not release<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> -them to-day to go out and do their creative -work in the world now? Why not on Saturday -let loose that which is to burst with creative freedom -on the world on Easter morning?</p> - -<p>And I saw that this was a symbol not of history -only but also of human life, that every human -life is just the mystery of the infolding of -latent capacities that are there wrapped up, the -infolding of great ends of which no man can -foretell. That is why, I suppose, a man feels -such awe every time he holds a very little child -in his arms. He does not know what it is that -he has in his arms, what it is that will some day -come bursting forth from that little child. That -must have been Mary’s thrill in those early days -when she held her little one, knowing dimly and -far away, if not clearly, that she held in her arms -the mighty Redeemer of men. “When I see a -child,” said Pasteur, “he inspires me with two -feelings: tenderness for what he is now, respect -for what he may become hereafter.” Of personal -life it is as true as of history. Vast latent -possibilities for good may come breaking forth. -Now and then they do, in some truth-loving, -unfearing, plain-speaking, God-obeying Martin -Luther. Or they may issue in some tranquil, -patient, loving-hearted, steady-spirited, immovable -Lincoln. Goodness comes leaping forth, -and oftentimes we are tempted to think the surroundings, -the circumstances, produced it. They<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -produced none of it. They gave it its opportunity -and its chance, but it was all somewhere all -the time and it might not have come forth if -something inside had not released the spring of -our will to God’s will and let those great energies -of good come pulsing out to do their work.</p> - -<p>And the same thing is true of the inwrought -and enshrouded capacities for ill. Jesus Christ -laid off His limitations as well as His activities -that Saturday in the grave; and He left His limitations -there when He came out. Out of such -Saturday graves in man’s character it may be -only the limitations that emerge. Out of many -a man’s life it is the dog that ought to be chained -that is allowed to roam free, while all the possibilities -for good and sacrifice and ministry are -still-born inside. And sometimes, thank God, -men discover all this latent ill within and lay on -it the restraining and throttling hand. As godly -old John Newton said when one day he saw a -criminal being led by, “There, but for the grace -of God, goes John Newton.” He knew that -everything that had escaped in that brother of -his lay latent in himself, and he thanked God -that a hand had been laid on all those inner capacities -for evil and wreckage and that that hand -held them in check and let only the good and -the true and the pure go free.</p> - -<p>There is something infinitely hopeful and encouraging -in the principle of that Saturday in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> -our Lord’s last week for every man and woman -of us, as we think of life’s work and what we are -trying to get done in the world. So many times -a thing seems all vain. The teacher tried to -breed in the boy whom he taught a hate of lies -and a love of the truth, and he wrought with -tears and blood at his task, and the boy went -out from him and it seemed to him to have been -futile, this that he had done for him. We put -ourselves out in this or that effort of service in -the hope of achieving this or that great end. -Every little while it seems to us to have been all -fruitless. But wait. It is only Saturday. Easter -morning is going to break and the seed that was -sown in the ground in darkness and obscurity -will come forth then. The life that was let go -for a little while, all that we did not see and -therefore thought had run sheer to waste, we -shall discover then will come pulsating back. -“No effort is wasted,” said Pasteur.</p> - -<p>It is a great joy of life to believe this, that -what Isaiah said is true through all the ages, by -the very principle of the life of God, that no -word of His will come back to Him vain or be -void, that it will accomplish the thing He pleases -and prosper in the errand whereon He sent it. -I received a letter the other day from a friend, -the Rev. Adolphus Pieters, who is a missionary -in Japan. He had for very many years been engaged -in an interesting work. He published<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -advertisements of Christianity in the Japanese -papers, and then occasionally printed a brief attractive -account of what Christianity was, with -the hope of arousing the curiosity of Japanese -readers. At the end he would add that if any -one were interested he might correspond with -him. As a result of this work he came into correspondence -with hundreds of men. In this -recent letter he writes: “The total number of -people who applied to us for tracts last year was -959, making the total from February, 1914, when -the work began, to December 31, 1915, 3,590. -There have been seven baptisms since my -previous letter, and the total number to date is -forty-five. Number Forty-Five is a most instructive -case of the Lord’s blessing resting -upon what was, humanly speaking, a complete -failure. The young man in question is a bright -young student in the Normal School at this -place, who was baptized a week ago last Sunday, -after coming to my house off and on for -two years, and getting a good deal of instruction. -I did not reckon him among the results -of the newspaper work, but after he was baptized -he told me that he originally got interested -in the Gospel when he was attending the primary -school in his home town. Among his -teachers was one named Okabe Katsumi, who -had seen our advertisements and secured some -tracts, among which were copies of the Gospels.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> -He did not care for them himself, and had given -them to this boy, who was deeply impressed. -In the course of time the boy graduated from -school and went to Oita to attend the Normal, and -he did so with the resolution already formed to -look up the man who advertised in the papers and -learn from him more about the Christian religion.</p> - -<p>“When I heard that, I looked up the card index, -and found among the 4 ‘dead’ cards one for -Okabe Katsumi. It was number 444, and he -had applied for tracts in the spring of 1912, but -in August he wrote that he had found something -in our tracts that he did not like, and so had -made up his mind to have nothing more to do -with Christianity. So his card was marked in -red ink, ‘Closed August 12, 1913,’ and filed -away among the ‘dead’ ones—a complete failure, -so far as any one could see. But it wasn’t -a failure. God knew better. On the fifth of -March, 1916, a young man made public confession -of his faith and was baptized as a sequel to -that application of Okabe Katsumi in 1912.</p> - -<p>“Such things sometimes make me look with -something like awe upon my card index. What -is going on beneath the surface? How is God -working in the hearts of the ‘failures,’ or, if not -in their hearts, through them in the hearts of -others? It is one more proof that ‘the foundation -of God standeth sure, having this seal, The -Lord knoweth them that are his.’”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span></p> - -<p>Looking back across the years it could be seen -that bread sown upon the waters returned again. -Absolutely no energy goes to waste in this -world,—no moral energy, no spiritual energy, -any more than physical energy. All that is released -goes about its work. Let us thank God, -that there that Saturday morning in the dark of -the grave all that broke free the next day <em>was</em>, -and was not dead beyond the resurrection of life.</p> - -<p>And the assurance that a man simply cannot -do anything in vain is not only a word of great -courage to us in the work that we are trying to -do in the world, it is a word of hope and courage -to us also in our own personal life and struggle -for character. All the energy we need to accomplish -anything that ought to be accomplished -in us is in our reach. “All power,” said Christ, -“is given to me in heaven and in earth. I stand -within at the centre of your life. Draw on me. -Go out in the faith of that and do whatever your -work is in the world. I have the energy that -you need.” All the energy that we require for -any task in life or out of life is there, by token -and assurance of the closed grave and resurrection, -in Christ, waiting to be drawn upon by any -man who wants to make use of it.</p> - -<p>And all this is not the exaltation of human will, -the setting up of a man’s own resolution and high -purpose. It is precisely the opposite of that. It -is saying to a man: “There do not lie in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> -boastful surface of your life the power and the -resources that you need. Retire upon God. -You must get behind into the unplumbed depths -where Christ waits. You must go back of the -Easter morning in the grave, the unopened -womb of the grave, to find it there. All of it is -there in the now Risen Christ Who that Saturday -morning awaited resurrection.” This is simply -making faith a living, acting reality by which a -man works; so that he arises in the morning -and can say: “O God, I have in Thee in me all -the energy and strength that I shall need this -day. No temptation can come to me to-day that -I have not got the power in Thee, that I never -have used yet, to draw upon, that will enable me -to meet and conquer. No work will come to me -to-day that is too much for me, no matter how -exacting or unprecedented in my experience. -There is power in Thee for me for this work that -is come to me to do.”</p> - -<p>That Saturday morning, more vividly than any -other day that brings back the triumph and pain -and glory of Easter to us, makes a man assured -that all the energies he needs are near by, that in -God’s own presence there are all the powers he -wants, awaiting release by God’s grace for all the -necessities of his life. And if we could not believe -this about the world we are living in to-day, -surely a man could not go on living in it. If we -had to surrender to the present order and temper<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> -of the world what would be left to uphold us? It -is because we know it is Saturday night in human -history that we can live through it.</p> - -<p>We know that as in individuals so in all the -races of mankind, God has planted these great -dormant energies and powers. For scores and -scores of years the Chinese had despaired of their -power to throw off the opium curse. They knew -it was sapping the very vitality of their land, and -yet they wondered whether the day would ever -come when they would have power enough to -break those hateful chains that had been forged -upon them, and get back their freedom. Twenty -years ago, as we went to and fro in China, the -most striking odour in the Chinese streets was the -pungent stench of smoking opium. One could -scarcely go into a Chinese city or walk in a Chinese -highway without seeing the wretched shipwrecks -who were the products of that vice. -Poppy fields bloomed red over the Empire, and -the race had almost come to despair. And what -do we find to-day? There is scarcely a great -poppy field in the Republic, scarcely a fume of -opium that you can smell on the public street -in any Chinese city. The bonfires flared across -the land as they burned up the signs of the old -bondage. A great race arose in power and in a -massive moral upheaval shook itself free. God -had planted the energies there that needed only -the touch of a living faith in Him, a new assurance<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -of the freedom of man to do His will, and -in this matter the whole nation came out of its -bondage into its liberty.</p> - -<p>For generations men wondered whether slaves -could ever be set free. We almost feared in our -land here that slavery was a permanent institution. -But there came a time at last when from -the wrist of every American slave the chains fell -away. It might have been generations before; -it might not have been until generations after; -only in that time appointed the moral energies -awoke and came forth, and Saturday burst into -Easter Day for the negro bondmen of America.</p> - -<p>Precisely the same principle holds with regard -to the things that we fight to-day. It holds with -regard to the war on war. Some day we shall -slay it. The kingdom of heaven, said Jesus, is -among you. Well, let it loose. The kingdom -of heaven will have no war in it; the kingdom -of heaven will have no brothers cutting one -another’s throats in it; the kingdom of heaven -will have in it no vice and lust dragging its slimy -trail across men’s hearths and hearts. If the -kingdom of heaven is within, why not set it free, -that we may live in it as well as have it buried -inside of us! The world that we are living in is -calling us to go back to that principle of Saturday -morning and to believe that all we need to -do the will of God is made available for us by -God’s grace now, if we will but obey.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span></p> - -<p>And if some men say that all this is only to -put in other words the theory of development, of -historic evolution, why, what of it? Of course it -is, but what is development except the drawing -out of what has been folded in? What is evolution -except the letting loose of what the mind of -God Himself at the beginning had planted within,—when -in the Lamb slain from the foundation -of the world He poured the blood of Christ into -humanity in order that humanity might be reinforced -with the adequate energies to enable it to -accomplish the thing that was God’s first dream -for it? Of course it is, and that is precisely the -ground of Christ’s constant appeal. “Come -unto me,” He said to men, believing that they -could. “Unless you hear My call and follow Me, -you cannot be My disciple.” What meaning -was there to His summons unless the power to -respond was there in answer to His call? “I -stand at the door of your inner being,” said He, -“and knock. I am there waiting.”</p> - -<p>And so to us to-day, just as clearly as in those -days, His voice speaks: “Come out of your -tomb, out of your chains, out of your narrowness, -out of your limitations, out of your despairs, out -of your dejections, out of your failures,—come -out of them. The power of the endless life is -here for you, if only by faith and love you will -lay hold of it to-day.” Is that not, after all, the -great central message and the fundamental principle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -of Christ’s Gospel to us, which He symbolized -and illustrated in the shadow of the Saturday -before the Easter victory? It is in one of -the old hymns:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Low in the grave He lay—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Jesus, my Saviour!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Waiting the coming day—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Jesus, my Lord!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Death cannot keep his prey—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Jesus, my Saviour!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He tore the bars away—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Jesus, my Lord!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Up from the grave He arose,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He arose a victor from the dark domain,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And He lives forever with His saints to reign:</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>And He arose once on Easter morning that on -the Saturday before and on every day, every one -of us might also rise out of the old, low, selfish, -defeated life into the life through which are beating -the victorious energies and the sufficient -strength of God. Shall it be so with us?</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Rigid I lie in a winding sheet,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Which mine own hands did weave,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And my narrow cell is myself—myself,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Which yet I may not cleave.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And yet in the dawn of the early morn,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">A clear voice seems to say,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">‘I am the Lord of the final word,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">And ye may not say Me nay.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“‘Unloose your hands that your brother’s need</div> - <div class="verse indent3">May ever find them free.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Unbind your feet from their winding sheet;</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Henceforth they walk with Me.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And lo! I hear! I am blind no more!</div> - <div class="verse indent3">I am no longer dumb!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Out from the doom of a self-wrought tomb,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Pulsate with life, I come.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Yes, I may come if I will, by His life Who will -live again in me.</p> - -<p>But the trouble is men do not believe this. -They do not believe in any latent capacities -adequate to the great task of life. They accept -the principle of surrender and incompetence. -They have nothing for God and God can make -no use of them. And I imagine that it is such -unbelief, such misgiving as to whether after all -we have any possibilities for God in us, the -undervaluation of God’s need of us and power to -make and use us, that lead many of us to live -the futile, unfruitful, negative lives which we do -live. Men do not think their lives worth very -much. They do not deny that there are great men -and that great work is to be done in the world, but -they think that God requires only those, that He -builds His kingdom on a few outstanding figures, -that the common men can look after themselves, -and that they are not indispensable to God. If we -are to prevent this waste, and if we are to secure -the life without which God is impotent to build<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> -His kingdom in the world, we must somehow -bring home to men the recognition of the great -truth that God cannot get along without every -man and all of that man, and that every human -life and all its buried powers are essential to God.</p> - -<p>One of the great purposes of our Lord’s coming -here to earth was that He might show men -the value of a man’s life in the plan and thought -of God. Even the most sacred and time-honoured -institution our Lord weighed over -against one man and found him outweighing -the institution. What was His own example -but the illustration of the immeasurable value -of man? He did not come to teach the uselessness -of human life, but its pricelessness. He did -this by becoming a man Himself. And this -principle of God’s need of men and their latent -possibilities is not mere theological theory. It -is the hard historic fact that God has ever needed -men and waited for them and for what they were -the men to do for Him. Look at the great -inventions, discoveries, achievements. What is -the whole lesson of the Incarnation but that there -are things that God Himself will not do except -as He uses man? God Himself, we must say -reverently, was communicable and a Saviour -only as man. And His call to-day as it has been -all through the years is for men who will believe -that the thing God wants done can be done by -Him through them. The Western Hemisphere<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> -was here before ever Columbus drew aside the -veil and broadened the horizon of mankind. -These great energies which drive the modern -world were here from the beginning. We did -not invent any of them. There is not an ounce -of power in the world to-day that was not here -when the world began. All that man has done -has been simply to discover existing secrets. -He has created no power. He has only found -out what God has put here for him to find out. -It took man a long time to discover this. But -God waited for him. And God needs these finding -men now as much as He has needed them at -any time. He needs such men now to break -open what is still concealed. The past has not -exhausted all the heroisms, has not accomplished -all the tasks. There are greater ones yet for the -days that are, if God can only find His men.</p> - -<p>Think how greatly God needs men to-day just -to bring need and supply together in the world. -You remember the incident in the life of our -Lord as He came by the Pool of Bethesda where -the sick lay, and spoke to one poor man lying on -his pallet.</p> - -<p>“Are you going in?” said He.</p> - -<p>“No,” said the man. “I have no friend who -will help me in and others get the benefit before -I can come near.”</p> - -<p>There was the good, waiting to be gained, and -here was the man, but he had no man to stand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> -for him between the need and the supply. A -few years ago a great famine raged just back -from the coast of China. There were millions of -Chinese families who were in want and hundreds -of thousands died of starvation because there was -not bread enough to feed them. Little children -lay crying at the breasts of dead mothers by the -roadsides. At that very hour the wheat was -piled up at railroad stations in Argentina as high -as church spires. There was grain enough to -feed the starving millions in China. Here was -the supply and there was the need, but where -were the men? God had not men enough on -whom to float the supply across to meet the -need. What is true of outward need is true of -inward need as well. There is never a want -where there is not an adequate supply. No little -child on this earth need go hungry because God -has not put enough in this world to feed it. No -human heart need go starved because there is -not enough love to meet its wants. There is all -the food and all the love that humanity needs. -But there are lacking the men who for God will -bring the supply to the demand. The human -need in the world can be met by the supply only -through men who will fill up the gap. God can -do it only as men lend themselves to Him. That -is why, through all the years, the call of God -has been for volunteers. For every unique, external, -individual call that has been given to men,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -you can find a million calls that have been just -the answer of men to the great call of God for -volunteers. And God surely values the volunteer -above the conscript. Isaiah did not wait -for any special coercive call. “Also I heard the -voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, -and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am -I; send me.” That call was enough to cover -him, and he answered it. There is so much work -to be done that God cannot go marching through -the world looking for individuals, performing new -miracles by which each individual is to be -thaumaturgically led up to his particular work. -God’s general way has been to picture before the -eyes of His sons the work to be done and to -wait for their hearts to leap in response, as -Isaiah’s leaped: “Lord, let me have a share in -this work ‘Here am I; send me.’”</p> - -<p>Men are indispensable to God to put meaning -into the words in which He tries to tell His message -to men. Words have no meaning of their -own. Words mean only as much as one man -puts into them, or another man takes out of -them. The meaning of the word does not come -from the word; it comes from some life in which -the word gets incarnated, or from some other life -which interprets the word. What would the word -“friend” signify to a man who had never had -one? What does “tenderness” mean to one -who has never seen a mother and her child? Or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> -what is “patriotism” to one who has never seen -or felt the contagion? You remember what the -eunuch said when Philip met him in the chariot -reading the prophet Esaias. “Understandest -thou what thou readest?” Philip asked. And he -replied, “How can I, except some man should -guide me?” Things mean nothing to men until -they are shown to them. Men go to China or -Japan and preach the Gospel. How is it done? -Why, they take words that have old meanings and -fill them with new and different meanings by living -new ideas in deeds before the people. In our -colleges this year what meaning will honour, -truth and friendship have, except as these words -derive their meaning from the object lessons -in some men’s lives? There are places where -honour means dishonour; where purity means -impurity; where truth means falsehood. These -noble words are confused with their very opposites -because no man has incarnated their right -meaning in his life. That was one reason why -the incarnation was necessary nineteen hundred -years ago. There was no adequate religious or -spiritual vocabulary and never could have been -otherwise. If God had not come in the flesh, -men would not have had the ideas that we use -to describe God’s coming in the flesh. To-day, -as then, God is dependent upon men in whom -He can put meaning into His message to the -world.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p> - -<p>Men are indispensable in enabling God to get -His other men. He gives men guidance for their -lives. But how? I appeal to your own hearts. -How do we get the guidance of our lives? There -are many who are sure of having divine guidance -in their lives, surer of that than they are of -any material thing, and yet, as we look back -upon this supernatural guidance, we realize that -it has all been mediated through men. We can -name man after man who did for our lives, in -smaller measure, just what that man of Macedonia -did for Paul. We get our guidance -through men. Saint Paul got his through a -man. Through what man was it? Sir William -Ramsay has no doubt whatever that the man -whom Saint Paul saw in his dreams was none -other than his friend Luke. A real man and a -friend, and no ghost figure, was the man of -Macedonia through whom God gave Paul his -great missionary call.</p> - -<p>It would be easy to recall the lives of great -missionaries and point out how they received -their divine guidance through other men—not -even through a dream, far less through some -miraculous vision, but through a brother man -who came to talk with them, reasoned with -them, and showed them the best way in which a -man could use his life. Men are indispensable -to God in order to guide other men into the -work which God has for them to do. And one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> -reason why there is such an awful waste of life -to-day, why so many men, going out of the colleges, -miss the highest work of their lives, is -simply because there are not enough other men -who recognize that they are indispensable to -God in order that, through them, God may guide -men to their highest and most efficient places.</p> - -<p>Men are indispensable to God in bringing -men to Jesus Christ. As men were brought to -Christ by other men in the beginning, so has -it been during all the succeeding years. The -angels are willing to do what they can, but none -of us have had any visible object lessons of what -they do. Men have been brought to Christ -always by other men. Imperfect lives are to -be brought up to the Perfect Life, and to do this -service Christ uses common men, just such as -we are. That is what Paul conceived as the -glory of his life, that he had the privilege of -being the bond—no other beings in the universe -being able to take that place—between men who -had not found Christ and Christ hunting for His -own.</p> - -<p>Then God requires men now as He never required -them in all the days gone by to bear -testimony to the Deity of Jesus Christ. We -know how little value our Lord attached to any -accrediting evidences that did not come right out -of pure, human personality. He discredited the -advantages of bringing back Abraham from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> -dead, for example, to bear testimony to the truth. -If men were not willing to accept adequate moral -evidence, valid human testimony, they would not -believe by miracle, He said. That is why He -was so pleased with the confession of Simon -Peter. “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for -flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, -but my Father which is in heaven.” It rejoiced -Him to get such testimony from a man who, in -turn, had drawn it out of his own experience of -God. There is no greater need in the world to-day -than for a great body of men who know -Christ to be God more surely than they know -themselves to be men, and are able to go out -and testify to what Christ can do with a definiteness -and certainty greater than that of any other -testimony they can bear, who can say what John -said, “That which we have seen and heard declare -we unto you.” If there ever was a day -when God was calling men to a great undertaking, -He is calling them now to be His witnesses, -unimpeachable, unflinching, to the unique -personality, to the supreme divine character and -power of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.</p> - -<p>And it is not only for great men that God is -calling to do these indispensable tasks for Him. -He wants the great men, no doubt, but He wants, -more than that, the great mass of the common -men. After all, the great man is only one man, -and every little man counts just as many as one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> -great man. Since God has to have all, one little -man is as indispensable to the all as one great -man can be. And until He has all, He cannot -do what He purposes to do. It is only when we -<em>all</em> come “unto the measure of the stature of the -fullness of Christ” that any one of us can come. -It is only when we “comprehend with <em>all</em> saints, -what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and -height” of the love of Christ, that any one of us -can comprehend it. It is only when we <em>all</em> reflect -as in a mirror the character of Christ that -any one of us shall be “changed ... from -glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” -And the little men, as a matter of fact, are doing -as much as the great. The night that Gough -stood alone, with all hope gone, a drunkard in -the gutter, an almost forgotten man laid his hand -on his shoulder and said, “Man, there is a better -life than this for you.” The name of that man is -remembered by a few, but forgotten by the multitudes -who will never forget the name of John B. -Gough, or cease to feel the glow of the fires -which he kindled to blaze until the Judgment -Day. Even a little man may fill such an indispensable -place as that of helping God lay hold -of a great man who will be one of the unmistakable -forces of God.</p> - -<p>And it is not only every man that is indispensable -to God, but also every bit of every man. -We cannot take some sections of our lives and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> -eliminate them as though they were not indispensable -to God. There can be no schism between -a man’s public and his private life. His -hands and what he does with them, his imaginings -and where they go when he is alone by -himself without any coercing, these are just as -much indispensable to God as a man’s public -worship or any of his activities in the open ministry -of Christ’s kingdom. It is every bit of the -man—body, soul, and spirit—that is indispensable -to God.</p> - -<p>And if we are indispensable to God, we may -be very sure that we are indispensable to the -world also. If God needs us, the world needs -us even more. It is waiting for the rising up of -men who know that God needs them, and who -hand themselves over completely to His uses. -“The mightiest of civilizing agencies are persons,” -said Dr. Fairbairn, “and the mightiest -civilizing persons are Christian men.” Those -men are doing most for the world who are doing -most to make men aware of how necessary -they are to God, and who are going up and down -the lands allying men’s lives to the eternal life -and power of God. This is the greatest of all -works—getting God His men. I heard Dr. J. -Campbell Gibson tell the Chamber of Commerce -in Glasgow of a visit which he made to a temple -which had been turned into a modern school in -inland China. Over the gate of the school were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> -these words in Chinese: “If you are planting for -ten years, plant trees; if you are planting for a -hundred years, plant men.” Men are God’s -great interest and want.</p> - -<p>What an opportunity this opens for every man -of us! We have thought of our lives as little, -insignificant, trivial, of no consequence. There -is One walking in the midst of us Who was -speaking to Ezekiel. “I am hunting for a man,” -He is saying, “I am hunting for a man,” and it -is open to every one of us to rise up and say, -“Lord, I am that man you are hunting for. -Seek no further. Here am I. Have me for -your man.” Is that the answer that He is getting -from us?</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LECTURE_III">LECTURE III<br /> -<small>AN UNFRIGHTENED HOPE</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">If we were asked what we considered to be -the supremest motive in life, the motive -which does actually exercise the largest control -over human conduct, what would our answer -be? A generation ago men would have answered -glibly enough: “The desire for happiness.” -That was then supposed to be the one -commanding motive of mankind. But it was -not long before the answer seemed unsatisfactory -and indefinite, because what brings happiness -to one man brings misery to another, or -what a man thinks will delight him in the end -disappoints and such experiences issue in confusion. -It was ethically indiscriminate also. -The same motive covered moral contradictions, -and men wanted some more consistent answer -to the question. Nowadays those who look despondently -at life often say in reply: “Avarice,—the -desire for wealth.” Or, those who look a -little more deeply say it is not money, but the -power that money represents that men desire, -and that their real motive is to acquire sources of -influence and control. Some who look at life -more hopefully are likely to reply: “Love or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> -friendship.” That is the thesis of one of the -noblest books of our generation, written by the -late Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, entitled “Friendship, -the Master Passion.” Doctor Trumbull -told me once that when he first began the work -on this theme he spoke about it to his friend -Charles Dudley Warner, who said: “Trumbull, -you cannot prove that thesis.” After the book -was done, Doctor Trumbull took the book to -him and asked if he would read it. He read it, -gave it back, saying: “Well, Trumbull, you -have shown that it is true, after all.” And that -is a lovely view to take of life: that the motive -that lies deeper than any other, and that really -in the actual conduct of men and women is the -most controlling, is the motive of unselfish friendship, -of love.</p> - -<p>But what would you say if instead of any one -of these three or other answers that may suggest -themselves, some one were to reply: “Not a bit -of it. The motive that really controls human -life, that does actually and not theoretically play -the largest part in determining the conduct of -men and women, is—<em>fear</em>.” And before we pass -that contention by it may be worth our while to -look at it and ask whether, or how far, it is true.</p> - -<p>Take it in the matter of dress, for example. -Does not fear play a large part there,—either the -fear of being unlike everybody else, or the fear -of being too much like everybody else? In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> -every land, more even in civilized lands than in -uncivilized, the element of fear enters into the -small external characteristics of our daily living.</p> - -<p>And in the matter of opinion. We speak of -public opinion as though it were a free and stable -and trustworthy thing. But the public opinion of -one generation contradicts the public opinion of -another generation. The public opinion of one -section of the land denies the public opinion of -another section, in the same way in which two -sections of society in one community think in -opposite ways. Why? Not because all the individuals -of these particular generations, or -sections, or portions of the community really and -independently have thought the thing out for -themselves, but because, held under the atmospheric -constraint of fear, they are unwilling to -break away from what is determined for them by -the opinions in the midst of which they live. -There is a good deal of pacifist opinion and a -great deal more of militarist which is not free -and personal at all, but simply herd intimidation. -And a great deal of race prejudice and international -suspicion is nothing but the miasma -arising from cowardice or that bullying selfishness -which is essentially cowardly.</p> - -<p>And a great deal of religion is of the same -character. The predominant element in many -of the non-Christian religions is fear. It is so in -all of the earlier or animistic religions, where<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -men live in constant terror of the spirits that -haunt the air or the world, and where a large -element of their worship is shaped by that -dominant principle of their religion, the dread of -the unseen and the unexperienced. Even among -us is there not a great deal, both of religious -orthodoxy and of religious heresy, that is only -the child of fear? There is a coercion of sound -doctrine and there is a coercion of false doctrine, -and a great many men and women belong to -their school of religious opinion simply because -they are afraid to break away from the companionship -in which they have always been or -to disagree with the associations which condition -them.</p> - -<p>Much religious conduct, too, springs only from -the fear of one’s environment. One of the -saddest things which one meets in going out -across the world is the great multitude, especially -of young men, who, when they have left Christian -lands and the environment and support of -Christian surroundings, have simply collapsed in -all their religious conviction and character. Asia -is strewn from one end of it to the other with the -wrecks of men who, while they were at home, -supposedly were men of religious character and -conviction, but who showed when they went -away from home that it was not a matter of their -own real selves at all. It was just a matter of -their timid servility and acceptance of the conditions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> -imposed upon them from without, so that -once they were away from home and free to do -as they pleased and had no longer the help and -uplift of their surroundings, their environmental -religion collapsed and they went in an entirely -different way.</p> - -<p>And I think if only we would go deep enough -in our own lives, and be honest enough with ourselves -to gain a clear insight into our motives and -impulses, we would discover how large a part -fear has played in us,—fear, of course, in all the -wide range of its aspects, that shades off on the -one side into arrant cowardice and on the other -side into a mere hesitancy of character and -timidity, but fear nevertheless. Some of us are -even now cloaking the things that lie deepest in -our hearts, because we are afraid to give expression -to them. We go into communities, -into circles, into conditions where what has been -natural and real to us is unnatural and abnormal, -and we hide our colours and conceal our principles. -And we do things we ought not to do -or we do not do the thing we know we ought to -do simply because of fear.</p> - -<p>I had an experience a little while ago when -this diagnosis was confirmed to me. In a visit to -one of our colleges, among the boys who came -around to talk quietly was one whom I knew as -one of the leading men in the life of the institution. -He played on the eleven; he was president<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span> -of his class. He was very timid about talking -lest somebody should overhear, but when assured -that we had the whole house to ourselves -he took a letter out of his pocket and handed it -to me.</p> - -<p>He said: “Mr. Speer, I wish you would read -this.”</p> - -<p>I looked at it and saw that it was written in a -girl’s handwriting, and said: “No, tell me about -it.”</p> - -<p>“No,” he said, “please read it. It will tell -you a great deal better than I can.”</p> - -<p>So I opened his letter and began to read, substantially -as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noi">“<span class="smcap">Dear</span> ——:</p> - -<p>“I know all about your life at —— College, and -I want to tell you what I think about you. You and I -have known one another all our lives, and we have been -good friends; but I think you are a coward and I think -that I ought to tell you so.”</p> -</div> - -<p>I closed his letter and handed it back to him. -His lips were quivering and his eyes were moist -as he said:</p> - -<p>“You can believe that when I got that letter it -cut me all up, and the worst of it is that what -she says is true.”</p> - -<p>His father was a minister; his mother was of -the salt of the earth. He had grown up under -the best influences of a clean and wholesome<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> -Christian home, and he had slipped those strings. -He had thought that it was manly to surrender to -the current ideals of the college; that in cutting -loose from the influence of his home he was doing -a brave and courageous thing. But the girl knew -he was doing it because he was a coward and -she had the courage to tell him so. And he had -come to see it in that light for himself. In his -college fraternity and in his own class, men were -praising him because he had broken from the old -enslavements of home and was living his own life -like a man. But he knew that he was nothing -but a coward, who</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Held that hope was all a lie</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And faith a form of bigotry</div> - <div class="verse indent3">And love a snare that caught him.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Then thought to comfort human tears</div> - <div class="verse indent1">With sundry ill-considered sneers</div> - <div class="verse indent3">At things his mother taught him.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And he had thought he was doing it because he -was courageous, whereas the real motive was -that of fear. He was a coward, without courage -enough to fly his own flag unflinchingly, to be -and do the thing which in his heart, in the very -fibres of his being, flesh of his mother’s flesh, he -knew was the thing he should be and do.</p> - -<p>And if we would really look into our lives we -should discover that fear plays a far larger part -with us than we ever dreamed. Men and women -lie. Why? Simply because they are afraid of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> -telling the truth and taking the consequences. -Nine out of every ten falsehoods—perhaps ninety-nine -out of every hundred—are the spawn of -fear. And the same thing is true of sin, and of -no small measure of unbelief, as well as of no -small measure of pretended belief.</p> - -<p>Our great need is the discovering of something -that will cast fear out of our lives, that will enable -us to walk unafraid in the open sunlight of -His pathway Who bade men to be afraid of -nothing. Think how greatly we need this emancipation -from fear in the simple matter of loyalty -to principle. There is so much of expediency -and compromise and adaptation among us, so -great reluctance to ruffle the smooth conventionalities -of life, whereas what the world needs is -men and women who can see right principle as -principle, unconfused and undistorted, and then -who, unafraid, will abide in that right principle.</p> - -<p>How greatly, too, this is needed in the plain, -commonplace matter of duty-doing! All around -us much simple work waits to be done by men -and women who, first of all, can see it, and then -have the courage to do it. The obscure tasks -that, after all, are the really great and worthy -ones, how few there are to do them! There is a -fine passage in Morley’s essay on Rousseau in -which he describes what real history is, and how -much we make of history that really is not history -at all, but simply the spectacular doings of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> -men who for the time being were deemed great -and who usually were engaged in war, whereas -the great bulk of life was not the life of warfare -at all. It was the life of peace,—of the quiet -agricultural people, of the tradespeople, of the -homes, which is not written up in any history at -all,—that was the real history of the world. The -men and the women who were doing earth’s work -were not those who went out to battle or on great -expeditions, but those who, day by day, heroically, -unflinchingly, and without fear of oblivion, -did the real business of the world. There are -some familiar lines of Lowell’s in “Under the -Old Elm” that put the principle for us:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The longer on this earth we live</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And weigh the various qualities of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Seeing how most are fugitive,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Or fitful gifts, at best, of now and then,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Wind-wavered, corpse-lights, daughters of the fen,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The more we feel the high stern-featured beauty</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Of plain devotedness to duty, steadfast and still,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Not fed with mortal praise,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">But finding amplest recompense</div> - <div class="verse indent1">For life’s ungarlanded expense</div> - <div class="verse indent1">In work done squarely and unwasted days.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>And take this matter of Christian service that -lies before the thought of every earnest young -life. Why are so many of us going to be, in the -cities and homes from which we came, the same -useless driftwood that we have been? Why? -Simply because of our want of courage to face<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span> -the work that needs to be done there, and to undertake -that work without fear that we cannot do -it, without fear that God will desert us in attempting -to do it, without fear of the irregularity and -uniqueness of our being seen engaged in it. -Throughout the world Christ waits for men and -women to-day, as He waited for them—and so -often in vain—while He was here on earth. -Who will hear His call now? “Lay aside your -fear and trust Me to be with you and to enable -you to do the thing. Come and take up My task -after Me.”</p> - -<p>Some of us would dread to go out to live -among the Chinese or Mohammedan peoples, so -far away. But we would not dread going out to -live in the legation, nor would we dread it much -if we were to be employed in some great commercial -enterprise. Yet the geography would -be precisely the same, and our dangers and -friendlessness would be far greater. But we would -not fear all that, because others would think it -natural and appropriate for us. But this other -thing—the missionary call—would be so exceptional, -so unusual, so fantastic, even fanatical, -that we would fear to do any such dreadful thing! -But which life of us is worth mentioning in the -same breath with the life of God’s Son Who came -into a carpenter’s home in a wretched little Jewish -village amid an outcast race, in a bare remote -corner of the earth, and lived there among<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> -peasant folk and farmers, pent up in the charnel -house of humanity, and Who was willing to count -His equality with God not a prize jealously to be -retained, Who emptied Himself and took on Him -the form of a servant and became obedient unto -death, even the death of the Cross? The contrast -between our life, with all its privileges, to-day -and the most squalid African village is invisible -over against the contrast between what -Christ laid down and what Christ took up for the -love He bore us and His world.</p> - -<p>And we need greatly this fearlessness in our -confession of Him,—that, without concealing -Whom we follow and Whose servants we are, we -should go out now, openly to avow our discipleship -and the vow we have taken of loyalty to -our Lord Jesus Christ! Think how many betrayals -of Him there have been, and how much -of putting afresh to shame the Son of God and -crucifying Him anew by men and women who -had said they were going to follow Him faithfully, -just as Simon said he was resolved to do -on that very night in which before the cock crew -he denied his Lord. Shall we not go out into the -coming days with something in us that casts out -this fear?</p> - -<p>We look with longing and admiration upon -such deliverance from fear when we find it in -other lives. I was in Edinburgh during the -South African war, just after the battle of Maegersfontein,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span> -and was staying in the house of -friends. There was one little boy in the family -named after Prof. Henry Drummond. I had -been in the library all the afternoon, the very -room in which Sir James Simpson discovered -chloroform, and then had gone into the drawing-room -for afternoon tea. The boy and his governess -were the only other members of the household -who came down. He and I fell to talking -about the war. I asked him: “What do you -think about the war in South Africa?”</p> - -<p>“Well,” he said, “I did not think much about -it at the beginning; I did not think about it much -until a friend of mine was killed.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” I said, “who was the friend?”</p> - -<p>“General Wauchope.”</p> - -<p>He was, as you know, the commander of the -Black Watch, and the Black Watch had been -recruited from Edinburgh. The boy told me -about the regiment and its fate, and shortly after -his story was filled up by an Oxford man who -had been in Edinburgh when the tidings of the -battle came. He said every shop was closed, -and along the streets little knots of men were -gathered, and you could see the sobbing of -strong men everywhere. There was scarcely a -great family in Edinburgh that had not been -touched. And yet, at the same time, all through -the city there was a subdued sense of moral -elevation, as though something had lifted the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> -character and temper of the city. They sorrowed -in what had gone out from them; but -they rejoiced in the way that it had gone. That -regiment had been organized as a Scotch kirk. -The chaplain was the minister of the kirk. The -officers constituted the kirk’s session. I believe -almost every man in the regiment was a member -of the kirk, and I was told that as they went -down through the streets of Cork to embark for -South Africa, although not under orders or restraint, -the men walked with arms on one another’s -shoulders, singing:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Or to defend His cause,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Maintain the honour of His Word,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The glory of His laws.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>And when they were disembarked at Cape -Town and were taking their train to go to the -front, they went on board singing the old Gospel -soldier’s hymn:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“When the roll is called up yonder,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">I’ll be there.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>They were sent right up and almost at once -into that fateful battle. General Wauchope knew -somebody had blundered, and he said to the -men: “Men, do not blame me for this.” And -without any fear they went into the ending -from which no soldier such as they would draw -back, unafraid of anything that might come to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -them because unashamed to own their Lord and -unfearing to follow Him.</p> - -<p>Of such as those are we to be? Or will -temptation intimidate us, and the tone of the -conversation of the men and women with whom -we mingle pull us down and cause us to fold our -colours up and lay them away, as the man did -whom the sneer of a serving maid caused to -deny the Lord Who was dying for him?</p> - -<p>Where are we to find that which will drive out -this fear? “Perfect love casteth out fear.... -He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” -From how many of our hearts to-day will the -perfect love of Him Whom we call Master and -Lord expel all fear? Let it be so now. Not -years afterwards, when other things shall have -palled upon us, years that shall have brought -their dulling influence with them, but now, in all -the full strength and richness and glory and -eagerness of our lives, let us admit the perfect -love that shall cast out fear and send us out the -kind of men and women Christ would have us -be, to join the great company of men and women -and girls and boys who, unfearing,</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“... climbed the steep ascent of Heaven,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Through peril, toil and pain.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">O God, to us may grace be given</div> - <div class="verse indent3">To follow in their train!”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Christian character needs this conquest of fear -and it needs the love which is one of the deep<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -springs of such conquest. It needs also in our -day an immensely more practical use of the -principle of hope, a principle almost totally -neglected in theology and made nothing of in -our codes of conduct or in our creeds. Paul had -a far deeper insight into the human heart and a -vastly richer grasp on life. “Now abideth faith, -hope, love, these three,” said he.</p> - -<p>Paul rendered a large service when he condensed -the central ideals and principles of Christianity -in this way. The human mind is very -fond of formulas. If it had not been for some -authoritative, simplifying word like this, we -might have gone on to construct all sorts of -prescriptions like the threes and sixes and tens -and fifteens with which we are so familiar in -Buddhism. And yet the service which Paul -rendered is not without its dangers, for men are -prone to simplify further and to see whether the -three cannot be reduced to one, or to arrange -the order and proportions of the three, or to contend -alone for that which some one of them -signifies at the expense of the other two. Paul’s -own words should have saved us from such folly, -for he said quite clearly that one of these three -was the greatest, “And now abideth faith, hope, -love, these three; and the greatest of these is -love.” And yet his own doctrine elsewhere has -been used to correct and to counteract his expressed -judgment here, and through the years<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -we have had our theologies constructed in disregard -of the domination of that one of these -three principles which Saint Paul exalts. It has -been in terms of faith, and faith given a very -definitive construction, that our theological -thinking with regard to Christianity has been -chiefly done. Little by little however the proportions -have changed, and now love, as one of -the three great fundamental principles of Christianity, -is coming to its own, not as a principle -of action only but as a regulative principle also -of our thought.</p> - -<p>But it is a strange thing that no one has ever -arisen, apparently, to say of hope what the intellect -of the Church, over against Paul’s judgment, -has been prepared to say of faith. He declared -that of these three, love is the greatest. The -current opinion of Christian thought through the -Christian centuries has contended that faith was -the greatest. What would men say if some one -should arise now to restore the proportions, who -would make bold to declare, “Now abideth faith, -hope, and love; and the greatest of these is -hope”? Surely the day will come some time -when hope will come to its own, when the -Christian heart and mind will no longer be content -to construe its interpretation of Christianity -in terms either of love or of faith, or of love and -faith together, but will insist that these three -abide—faith and love and hope.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span></p> - -<p>And when a man stops for a moment to think, -to disengage himself from the unscrutinized conventions, -he begins to realize immediately that -he has no faith and love unless he makes larger -room for hope in his thinking and feeling than -has been allowed to us. For there cannot be -any faith detached from hope. You can conceive -of faith in three different ways. You may -think of it in its primary form, in its primary -form in the New Testament at least, as personal -trust, as the confidence that exists between two -personal spirits. But even so, can you think of -it without hope? If I have no hope of seeing -Him in Whom I trust, of consulting with Him, or -serving Him, of entering into a deeper and enlarged -fellowship with Him, will not my personal -trust soon empty itself of reality? Or, secondly, -you may think of faith as the writer of the Epistle -to the Hebrews does, as the “substance of things -hoped for”; in which without any flinching, he -binds faith up with hope in terms that cannot be -severed. And, thirdly, if you go on to the rest -of his definition, “the substance of things hoped -for, the evidence of things not seen,” still faith is -undetachable from hope; for, as Paul says in -another passage, “We are saved by hope: but -hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man -seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope -for that we see not, then do we with patience -wait for it.” And you cannot detach love from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span> -hope or have anything that is real in the experience -of love unless it inevitably leads a man on -into those things that clearly were in Paul’s mind -when he spoke not of faith and love only but -also of hope. I ask any man’s heart if it is possible -to divorce hope from love. I suppose in -one sense it may be, and that you can speak of -a hopeless love. Henry Martyn’s heroic and -tragic life was the unfolding of a hopeless love. -But how different that is from love that is undershot -with hope. One looks towards evening to -see the children waiting as he comes home. The -workman lives in the hope of all that is there of -joy and confidence and perfect trust inside his -home. Love would be a sorry thing to-day if it -were stripped of the hopes that give it its sweetness -and its joy.</p> - -<p>And it is not only faith and love that root -themselves inseparably in hope, and that lose -their fragrance and meaning if they do not continue -to draw both out of hope, but regarding -almost everything else that is dearest and most -precious to us in life, does it not spring from this -same great treasury? In one of the chapters of -the Epistle to the Romans we find Paul again -and again, in his efforts to bring his message out -to those to whom he writes, describing God in -different terms of speech. He begins by speaking -of Him as the God of comfort, the God of -patience, and then he goes on to speak of Him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> -as the God of hope. “Now the God of hope fill -you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye -may abound in hope.” And then he closes by -speaking of the God of peace who is to order all -hearts. Quite evidently in his thought these -things all run together, as again he writes: “Be -ye sober. Walk as children of light. Put on -the breastplate of faith and love, and for an -helmet the hope of salvation.” Joy and gladness -and confidence and trust and hope,—all are -rooted each in the other in his own mind and -experience. The best that we have got in life -springs from the fountains of hope.</p> - -<p>We do not wonder, accordingly, that the old -religious experience and the richer Christian experience, -when it came, conceived and spoke of -God as the God of love and the God of hope. -They never spoke of Him as the God of faith. -The old Hebrew idea of Him was as the ground-rock -of their hope. “O hope of Israel,” was -their cry. The lovely thing is that that burst -from the lips of the man who mourned for his -nation: “O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof -in time of trouble.” “Hope thou in God: for I -shall yet praise him, who is the health of my -countenance, and my God.” God Himself when -He comes to let Himself be richly known to men -makes on them the impression of a great and -joyous and glad and eager and boundless hope.</p> - -<p>And when we turn away from such clews as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> -these and look right into the face of life to ask -what the powers and services and functionings -of hope in the actual life of man and in the life -of the world are, we realize that all this exultant -hope has its deep grounding in the actual living -needs of men. It is by hope—the New Testament -is unequivocal about it, and our own experience -answers to that word—it is by hope that -we are saved. Not in one passage in the New -Testament can you find the declaration that we -are saved by faith. We are saved “by grace -through faith,” but Paul is flat-footed in his declaration -that we are saved by hope. And the -moment a man looks life square in the face he -sees why it should be so. Were it not for hope -there could not be any saving that were worth a -man’s while. There might be a clearing up of -the past; we might secure something like a clean -conscience; but there could not be any confidence, -any ease, any rest, as over against the -tragic problem of life, if a man could not look -out into the future—which is really the thing he -now has to deal with—with boundless hope. -Salvation is just that thing. It is not cleaning -up our lives from the point of view of the past, -just for the sake of cleaning up our lives; but it -is the hope that for the sake of our future God -is going to live in us a saving life.</p> - -<p>All this is true whether we think of salvation -as it comes penetrating our lives and dealing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -with such problems as in shame and self-distrust -we think of in our hours of recollection and penitence, -or whether we think of it as something -reaching out into the expanding experience of -the future. Either way, salvation is a matter of -hope. There is a lovely touch in one of Paul’s -epistles where he says: “Having therefore these -promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves -from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting -holiness in the fear of God.” What do you -think of that motive? He does not say, “Seeing -that our sin is so black and abhorrent as it -is, seeing that the past is so shameful and unworthy -as it is, let us cleanse ourselves.” “My -brothers,” he said, “seeing we have such promises”—that -is, “that the hope is so bright, that -there is no ground for despair, that we can believe -victory can actually be achieved by us, -seeing that we have these hopes, let us cleanse -ourselves in growing holiness.”</p> - -<p>And then when those first Christian men came -to look not only at this present purging of life -which should leave it rich and fragrant and -glorious but out upon the wide ranges of the untried -and the unforeseeable, they still construed -salvation in terms of hope. “Now are we the -sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we -shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, -we shall be like him; for we shall see him -as he is. And he that hath this hope in him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” It is so -because there is in front of us the dear voice -calling, the voice that says to every one of us: -“Man, let that old past go now. It is done and -gone beyond recall. Come out with Me. There -is a new road for your feet and Mine, a new tale -that is to be unfolded now, a new story, the contradiction -of the old. Let the past go now, and -come and walk with Me in the limitless hope of -the new ways.”</p> - -<p>And it is not only by hope, as a simple downright -matter of fact, that men are saved and held -fast to the Saviour; it is by hope also that men -are nerved and empowered. In the hour of -darkness, it is what lights all the darkness and -makes it possible for men to bear. “Yes,” we -say to ourselves in the hour of pain, “I know; -but I can stand it, for after this comes something -that is different from this.” That is what the -honest doctor says to us when he deals with us. -“Now hold steady for a moment. I am going -to cut and it will hurt dreadfully. But just wait. -Beyond the pain lies freedom from pain.” And -we say, “Yes, doctor, cut. I can stand it.” In -a moment the anguish is over. We endure in -that hope. Has it not always been so? For a -little while the mother bears her anguish and her -pain for the joy and hope that a child is born -into the world. For a little while Jesus bore the -loneliness and the anguish of His grief and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span> -shadow and the pain and the disgrace of His -Cross, because, looking over it, He saw the glory -that awaited Him and the world, and He endured -all this, this anguish of the Cross, for the -joy that was set beyond. “Therefore,” says -Paul, “we rejoice in tribulation, in being flailed, -in being pressed down as grapes in the wine-press, -in being put through discipline and strain, -we rejoice in all that, because we know that -tribulation worketh steadfastness, steadfastness -experience, and experience hope, and hope -maketh not ashamed.”</p> - -<p>And you know the paradox, and the glory of -it, is that the darker you make the shadows the -more triumphantly hope laughs in the midst of -them. The more difficult you make the night, -the more hopeful and enticing is the sure confidence -of the dawn that is not far away. Our -word, “Cheer up! The worst is yet to come,” -is as deep a Christian word as was ever yet -spoken. Be glad, because darker things lie just -ahead and then light beyond. Thank God that -you are counted worthy for tribulations like -these; for these are what wash white a man’s -robes and make him fit to walk after the Lamb -whithersoever He goes, in company with the -men whose lips have never known a lie.</p> - -<p>All this is put finely for us in “The Ballad of -the White Horse,” the best piece of work Chesterton -has done. They were as dark days as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -ever had been in English history. Tide after -tide of invasion from Norse and Dane had come -pouring in. Again and again Alfred had called -his men and gone out and fought, and each -time in vain. Now, as he sits on his little island -in the Thames among the reeds, the news comes -to him that the Danes are on their way for a -fresh invasion of his land. He kneels in prayer -and asks the Virgin Mother whether he ought to -go out yet once more. Again and again, he -tells her, he has gone out in hope, and each time -in the confidence that victory would be his, and -each time he has come back defeated, his men -killed, and his people to sink lower after -each despair than the time before. And yet, -as he prays to her he says that if she will give -him one word of assurance, he will go again. -But only this, as she stands by his side, will she -say,</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I tell you naught for your comfort,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Yea, naught for your desire,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Save that the sky grows darker yet,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">And the sea rises higher.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And there that day among the reeds under the -promise only that the night was going to be -blacker than he had ever known, that storms -fiercer than he had ever breasted were coming, -Alfred rises up to do what he had never done -under the old assurance of easy victory,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Up over windy wastes and up</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Went Alfred over the shaws,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Shaken of the joy of giants,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The joy without a cause.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And as his men saw him coming, they thought -it was with the old vain word of a sure victory, -and they were about to tell him in advance that -if he came with such a message they would follow -him no more. But not now was Alfred’s -word the easy word. No, but—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“This is the word of Mary,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">The word of the world’s desire;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">‘No more of comfort shall you get</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Save that the sky grows darker yet,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">And the sea rises higher.’”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And in front of that darkening sky and that rising -sea his men rose up to go with him, and this -time, from the darkest night they had ever known, -came the bright morning of their lasting victory. -Thank God, we are not called out on any soft -errand under the incitement of bright choices, -but challenged by great difficulties, black nights -and rising storms, to work in the hope of that -which is invisible and which lies beyond. It is -by hope, and hope that lies behind impenetrable -clouds, that men are nerved and empowered. It -is because the world is so black and dark to-day -that we walk out into it smiling in its face, knowing -that behind all this the morning the more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span> -surely waits, the morning in which the men believe -who have faith and love and hope.</p> - -<p>And it is by hope that our comforts are drawn -down into our lives when the darkest of all -days come, and everything is quiet about the -house and the little feet that had run to and fro -are still. We say, “Yes, a little while and then -those angel faces will smile, that I have loved -and lost and love.” What would we do in those -hours if it were not for the sure hope? Saint -Paul lays his own heart open to all his friends in -one of his epistles: “But I would not have you -to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which -are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others -which have no hope. For if we believe that -Jesus died and rose again, even so them also -which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. -For this we say unto you by the word of the -Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto -the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them -which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall -descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice -of the archangel, and with the trump of God: -and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we -which are alive and remain shall be caught up -together with them in the clouds, to meet the -Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with -the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with -these words.”</p> - -<p>And as for us who are in the full flush and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -possession of all that we have, it is by hope that -we draw our comfort for our struggle. As -against the background of our defeats and failures, -we say to our own hearts: “Well, wait, -just wait; my time will come. No matter how -much of this there has been, some day my hope -will be fulfilled. It is sure that something else -than this there will yet be.” William Henry -Green became the outstanding Hebrew scholar -in America. He was plucked when he entered -college in Latin and Greek. At Lafayette College -for months and months he found himself -beaten on the very battle-field where he stood at -last the first man in the land. At Lexington, -Virginia, several years ago, I went to the grave -of General Lee in the chancel of the chapel of -his college and then I went out to the grave of -Stonewall Jackson on that little hill. One of his -townsmen was telling me the story of Jackson -and how by hope he wrested triumph out of his -uttermost failure. He had been teaching in the -military academy, and had just been about to -give up his work because he had no gift of discipline. -He could not maintain order in his own -classroom, my friend said, and was about to surrender -his career as a teacher, because he thought -he was incapable there. Then the war broke out, -and within twelve months Stonewall Jackson was -the most famous disciplinarian on earth. On the -very field where the man’s failure had been most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> -clear, there he achieved his richest and greatest -victory, by hope. And so we comfort our hearts -here to-day. “Yes,” we say to memories of -which we are reminded in our searching hours, -“the evil and unworthy imaginings and desires -cling to us still, but it will not be forever. Some -day, no matter how often I have failed, if I live -in hope, it will come to me, the clean thing that -the Lord said should be mine.”</p> - -<p>And last of all, there is nothing adequate for -us in the way of actually moulding men and doing -that with life which we were set here to do -unless we can go to the work in the spirit in -which our Lord and Saint Paul entered it. If I -have no hope for another man, I cannot awaken -any hope in him for himself. Unless I believe in -him, how can he believe? The glory of Christ -was that, though He knew just what was in man, -and saw all the weaknesses and the slavery and -the impurity and the unwholesomeness, though -He saw all this in man, He shut His eyes to it -deliberately and believed in the better capacities -and possibilities that were there and that He by -His grace and His power could plant and nurture -and bring out until all that old baseness that had -been the man was not the man any more, and all -this new purity that had not been the man was -the man, and Simon was turned at last out of his -putty into rock and stone.</p> - -<p>I do not know whether the apostles were conscious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> -or not of what was happening to them. -Maybe they did not appreciate their Master, but -one likes to think that they must have done so, -and that often they would go off by themselves -and one would say: “Andrew, is He not just -great? Did you ever meet any one like that -before? Did you see what He did this morning? -He just shut His eyes completely to that meanness -that He saw in me, and that I saw the -moment I let it out, too, and He pretended that -He never saw it at all, and He believed in me -when He knew and I knew there was nothing -there to believe in. Is He not wonderful? He -will make a man of me yet.” And to this day -He is still doing just what He was doing then. -In this place now He is doing just that thing. He -is shutting His eyes to what we do not want Him -to see and opening them to what only He can see -in us. And His law must be our law.</p> - -<p>I can put it in a little story that a friend of some -of us, George Truett, told to a little group some -years ago in a western city. “I am fond,” he -said, “of recalling the first soul it was ever given -me to win to Jesus. I was a lad barely grown -and a teacher in the mountains of Carolina. One -morning, as we were ready for prayers in the -chapel, there hobbled down the aisle to the front -seat a boy of about sixteen years old. He was an -eager, lonely-looking lad. I read the Scriptures -and prayed and then sent the teachers to their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> -classes. But my little cripple lad stayed. I supposed -that he was a beggar. And I said to myself, -‘Surely this boy deserves alms. His condition -betokens his need.’ So I went to him at -recess and said, ‘My lad, what do you want?’ -He looked me eagerly in the face and said: ‘Mr. -Truett, I want to go to school. Oh, sir, I want -to be somebody in the world. I will always be -a cripple. The doctors have told me that, but,’ -he said, ‘I want to be somebody.’</p> - -<p>“He had won me. He told me of their -poverty, and that was taken care of. I watched -that lad for weeks and weeks. How bright his -mind was! How eager he was to know! One -day I called him into my office and said to -him: ‘My boy, I want you to tell me something -more about yourself.’ He told me how, a few -months before, his father had been killed in the -great cotton mill where he worked, and the few -dollars he had saved up were soon gone. They -tried to do their best in the county where they -were, but found it difficult; so his mother said -one day: ‘Let us move to the next county, -where they do not know us. Perhaps we can do -better where we are not known.’ So they moved -and now he had come into my school. He said, -‘I want to help mother, and I want to be somebody -in the world; so I made my appeal to you -to come to your school.’ It was time in a moment -for the bell to ring for books. I laid my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span> -hand on the head of the little fellow and said to -him: ‘Jim, I am for you, my boy. I believe in -you thoroughly, and I want you to know that I -love you, my boy.’ And when I said that last -word, the little pinched face looked up into my -face almost in a lightning flash, and he said: -‘Mr. Truett, did you say you loved me? Did -you say that?’ I said, ‘I said that, Jim.’ And -then with a great sob he said: ‘I did not know -anybody loved me but mother and the two little -girls. Mr. Truett, if you love me, I am going to -be a man yet, by the help of God.’ And when -a few Friday nights afterwards I was leading the -boys in their chapel meeting, as was the custom, -I heard the boy’s crutches over in the corner. -There Jim sat, in a chair away from the other -boys to protect his leg. And a little later he got -up, sobbing and laughing at the same time, and -said, ‘Mr. Truett, I have found the Saviour, and -that time you told me you loved me started me -towards Him.’” And then our friend added, -“Brothers, working men in the shops and -everywhere are dying for love. Your grammar -may be broken, your plans may be imperfect, -your machinery may be crude, your organization -may be rough; but if you love men and pour -your hearts out to them honestly and directly, -there will be a response that will fill your hearts -with joy and heaven with praises.”</p> - -<p>And the need and functions of hope should be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> -viewed in no narrow personal way. We want -to-day men who have a large and courageous -faith in God for the nation and the world. Of -recent years a mood of pessimism has spread -through America. In one sense it represents a -wholesome reaction from the spirit of braggadocio -and spreadeagleism of an earlier day. So far -it is wholesome. We need to be sobered and -made modest and quiet in our national spirit. -But it is a bad thing when a nation loses the zest -of a great consciousness and a brave patriotism, -and thinks meanly of what God can do with it. -Our nation needs now not a timid and fearful -sense of its impotence and incapacity, but a -realization that, whatever its difficulties and defects, -God has a mission for us which only we -can fulfill for Him. For this mission those men -must be the nation’s soul of hope and expectation -who know that our greatest duty and service -lie ahead of us and are waiting to be grasped by -men whose hearts face the untried without fear.</p> - -<p>And now shall we have this hope that nothing -can slay? Do we want it? Well, it is so near -to us that we do not need to reach out after it. -You know where it is, “Christ in you, the hope -of glory.” “The Lord Jesus Christ,” as Saint -Paul says in the opening words of his first -Epistle to Timothy, “The Lord Jesus Christ, -our hope.” This hope is not something that we -work up out of the fragments of moral ideals<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -that we find lying around in our lives or our -nation. Jesus Christ is the hope for a man and -a people. If we want it, why not now take Him? -Genuinely, I mean, in a deep, living, religious -way, take Him in His fullness of life? God and -the nation want the men who are filled with His -courage and hope:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“God’s trumpet wakes the slumbering world,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Now each man to his post.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The red cross banner is unfurl’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Who joins the glorious host? Who joins the glorious host?</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He who in fealty to the truth</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And counting all the cost</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Doth consecrate his gen’rous youth,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He joins the noble host! He joins the noble host!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“He who, no anger on his tongue</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Nor any idle boast,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Bears steadfast witness ’gainst the wrong,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He joins the sacred host! He joins the sacred host!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He who with calm, undaunted will</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Ne’er counts the battle lost</div> - <div class="verse indent1">But though defeated battles still,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He joins the faithful host! He joins the faithful host!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“He who is ready for the cross,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The cause despised loves most,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And shows not pain or shame or loss,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">He joins the martyr host! He joins the martyr host!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">God’s trumpet wakes the slumbering world.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Now each man to his post.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The red cross banner is unfurled.</div> - <div class="verse indent1">We join the glorious host! We join the glorious host!”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LECTURE_IV">LECTURE IV<br /> -<small>THE JOY OF THE MINORITY</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">There are two forms of disloyalty. One -is flinching, the other is compromise. -Of course, the compromiser will never -allow that he is disloyal. He is a practical man -who realizes that theories and ideals have to be -adapted to a practical world, and he gives up a -part, and as unimportant a part as possible, in -order that he may gain the rest. He feels himself -quite capable of judging how much to give -up and what part may rightly be given up. He -will simply abate the unreason of a God who demands -all righteousness, and to Whom the whole -truth is truth. Let us set up against such men -the uncompromising principle of the duty of non-compromise. -It is a principle from which the -wisest and best of men are sometimes won away -in the supposed interest of the great ends which -they seek, and for which they feel that they may -rightly sacrifice subordinate issues. There is -what some regard as a striking incident of this -character in the life of that uncompromising -man, Saint Paul. It is an exciting and instructive<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span> -story. This is the way it is told in the -twenty-first chapter of Acts (vs. 17–30):</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren -received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in -with us unto James; and all the elders were present. And -when he had saluted them, he rehearsed one by one the -things which God had wrought among the Gentiles through -his ministry. And they, when they heard it, glorified -God; and they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how -many thousands there are among the Jews of them that -have believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and -they have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest -all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake -Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, -neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? -they will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore -this that we say to thee: We have four men that -have a vow on them; these take, and purify thyself with -them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave -their heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in -the things whereof they have been informed concerning -thee; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, keeping -the law. But as touching the Gentiles that have believed, -we wrote, giving judgment that they should keep themselves -from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and -from what is strangled, and from fornication. Then Paul -took the men, and the next day purifying himself with -them went into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the -days of purification, until the offering was offered for every -one of them.</p> - -<p>“And when the seven days were almost completed, the -Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred -up all the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> -Men of Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all -men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this -place; and moreover he brought Greeks also into the -temple, and hath defiled this holy place. For they had -before seen with him in the city Trophimus the Ephesian, -whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. -And all the city was moved, and the people ran together; -and they laid hold on Paul, and dragged him out of the -temple: and straightway the doors were shut.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And that was the disastrous end of this conscientious -experiment. Paul never tried another -like it. Perhaps there is a construction of the -story which forbids the idea that it was compromise -but it suffices at any rate to raise the whole -question of the wisdom of compromise as a principle -of action. It is the one incident in Paul’s -life where he might be thought even for a moment -to have embarked on that course. Wherever -else we see him, he is a man of firm and -unflinching principles, who made no concealment -of what he believed, and did not try to adjust -his convictions and practices to other convictions -and practices that were at variance with them.</p> - -<p>In the second chapter of Galatians, you will -remember, Paul is telling of a visit he made to -Jerusalem some time before with Barnabas and -Titus, in which they went up to consider these -very questions. Some of the brethren in Jerusalem -had endeavoured to persuade Paul to have -Titus, who was a Gentile, circumcised, and Paul<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span> -says, “To whom we gave place ... no, not -for an hour.” And then he tells of the time when -Peter came to Antioch and he withstood him to -his face because he had been a trimmer and -compromiser; for Peter, acting on the generous -impulse of his own heart as to what was right, -had indeed bravely eaten with the converted -Gentiles, but when some men came down from -Jerusalem who were close to James, he withdrew -himself from the Gentiles, fearing, no doubt, that -it might injure him in Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>Paul does not say anything in any letter about -this particular incident in Jerusalem, in which, -for the one time in his life, he was overpersuaded -by his friends and put in a position where he -was very much misunderstood, and where he -appeared to be compromising the great principles -in which he earnestly believed. We know -what the far-reaching consequences were. A -great deal of trouble was brought into his life by -this act. It was out of it that all those succeeding -events came which took him at last to Rome -to be tried before Cæsar. Some may say that -these results were good. Undoubtedly God led -Paul’s course on, but we may believe that God -might have had even greater things for him to -do if only he had in this incident pursued his -customary course.</p> - -<p>But we want to go far beyond the question as -to whether the consequences may ever appear to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> -justify acts of compromise. A course of action -is right or wrong, not according to the consequences, -but according to its conformity or unconformity -to the character of God. And the -point now raised is whether it is ever right for us -to compromise our own firm convictions of truth -and principle.</p> - -<p>Now, the world tells us that such compromise -is to-day absolutely unavoidable. Men and -women, we are assured, cannot get along in a -world like this without adaptations. If it is -meant by this only that we are often obliged to -adapt ourselves to that with which we do not -agree, why, of course, we have to assent, because -we are in a world of give and take of which we -have to be a part, and it is necessary for us to -live our life and do our work in this world. -Here in many of our communities, for example, -the saloons flourish. There is not one of us here -in this audience who believes that it is wise that -the saloon should exist under the protection of -the government, but we have to live in a land -where the principle with which we disagree prevails, -and the only way we can escape is to go to -some other land, and we would only find there -some other principle with which we could not -agree. We cannot live at all unless we are willing -to adjust ourselves to an actual world. -“Compromise” when used as the principle of -such adjustment means simply that we must of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span> -necessity find room for ourselves among the -crossing strands of life. “All government,” -says Burke, “indeed every human benefit and -enjoyment, every vital and every prudent act, is -founded on compromise and barter.” “It cannot -be too emphatically asserted,” says Spencer, -“that this policy of compromise alike in institution, -in action and in belief which especially -characterizes English life is a policy essential to -a society going through the transition caused -by continuous growth and development.” And -Emerson remarks, “Almost all people descend -to meet. All association must be a compromise, -and, what is worst, the very flower and aroma -of the flower of each of the beautiful natures disappears -as they approach each other.”</p> - -<p>If it is meant by compromise that we have to -live under conditions with which we do not agree -and to which we must adjust ourselves, why, of -course, we must assent to that—it is perfectly -obvious; but we do not need to live under those -conditions assenting to them. We can bear our -testimony against whatever we morally disapprove. -We can assert our conviction by word -or by the silent protest of life that those conditions -are not right, and so to live in the midst of -conditions in which we do not believe, but from -which we cannot escape, is not compromise. It -is compromise when we surrender our principles -so that others do not understand what those<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> -principles are, or when we hold back something -that is vital, or cover over deceptively or misleadingly -something essential. When we take -before men a position that is inconsistent with -the position that in our hearts we are taking before -God, that is compromise, and that is wrong. -Regarding the truth in which we believe, the -principles by which we know life ought to be -lived, regarding these things there cannot be -compromise, in our lives or in the Christian -Church.</p> - -<p>There is a noble essay by Mr. John Morley, as -he once was, on this subject of compromise, its -nature and limits, of which Scott Holland says -in “Lux Mundi” that “no one can read that -book without being either the better or the worse -for it.” In it Morley takes up three different -spheres of life. First, the formation of opinion; -second, the expression of opinion when it is called -out from us; and, third, the propagation of -opinion; and then he pursues this line of argument: -In the matter of the formation of opinion -there cannot be any compromise at all. Every -one of us is bound to hunt for the truth, no -matter what the truth may be, and when we -have found it, to give our lives absolutely to it. -In the realm of the expression of opinion, nobody -has any right to deceive any one regarding his -principles and convictions when they are called -forth. But in the third place, he admits room<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span> -for compromise when it comes to the aggressive -propagation of our convictions. He says that -every man is not bound to propagate what he -believes, and he takes for example his own -case,—that of a man who does not believe in -the Bible, who has abandoned the old religious -views of his people, but who does not regard it -as his duty aggressively to propagate his dissentient -convictions.</p> - -<p>In his own words his thesis is this:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“In the positive endeavour to realize an opinion, to -convert a theory into practice, it may be, and very often -is, highly expedient to defer to the prejudices of the majority, -to move very slowly, to bow to the conditions of -the status quo, to practice the very utmost sobriety, self-restraint, -and conciliatoriness. The mere expression of -opinion, in the next place, the avowal of dissent from received -notions, the refusal to conform to language which -implies the acceptance of such notions—this rests on a -different footing. Here the reasons for respecting the -wishes and sentiments of the majority are far less strong, -though, as we shall presently see, such reasons certainly exist, -and will weigh with all well-considering men. Finally, -in the formation of an opinion as to the abstract preferableness -of one course of action over another, or as to the -truth or falsehood or right significance of a proposition, -the fact that the majority of one’s contemporaries lean in -the other direction is naught, and no more than dust in the -balance. In making up our minds as to what would be -the wisest line of policy if it were practicable, we have -nothing to do with the circumstance that it is not practicable.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> -And in settling with ourselves whether propositions -purporting to state matters of fact are true or not, we have -to consider how far they are conformable to the evidence. -We have nothing to do with the comfort and solace which -they would be likely to bring to others or ourselves, if they -were taken as true.”</p> -</div> - -<p>Now, we cannot but be rather grateful that -men, who if they spoke would have to oppose -Christianity, take this view and remain silent, -and yet that is not our principle. Believing in -Christianity, we believe that it would be wrong -and unworthy compromise to conceal it and to -refrain from propagating it. Mr. Morley prefixed -to his essay Whately’s saying, “It makes -all the difference in the world whether we put -truth in the first place or in the second place.” -We hold to another word of Whately’s also: “If -our religion is false, we must change it. If it is -true, we must propagate it.” Notice that Morley -is speaking not of his doubts, but of his convictions. -There is no obligation of a propaganda -of insecurity. There is an obligation to propagate -positive truth. It must, of course, be the -truth that I believe. When I am asked what I -believe I must, of course, tell the truth. But we -believe something far more than that. The religious -truth that one believes he must give his -life to propagate throughout the world, and it -would not make any difference if he were the -only man in the world who held that truth, it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> -would still be his duty, if he believed it was the -truth and the great and necessary truth of life, to -go out single-handed to defend and propagate it. -Athanasius is regarded as an impracticable and -troublesome type but the progress of the world -is often lifted forward a sheer and discernible -stage by such uncompromisingness.</p> - -<p>Let us set forth some of the reasons why we -may believe that there dare not be, in our Christian -life and our Christian service, any compromise -whatever, either in our searching for the -truth, in our utterance of the truth, or in our -aggressive and active propagation of the truth -throughout the world. This is to put the matter, -of course, very broadly and sweepingly. There -is a great deal to be said for some of Morley’s -nice discriminations. But actual life is a very -rough and imperative and elemental thing. The -difficulty of acting on any body of wary and -wavery casuistical principles is enormous. The -really workable principle of actual living must -be very simple and uncomplicated and direct. -The only safe ethical law is “No lie,” no lie -whatever or under any justification. So also, -however crude and blunt the rule may be, “No -compromise” is the only practicable right rule. -Mr. Morley closed his essay with such a plain -word: “It is better to bear the burden of impracticableness, -than to stifle conviction and to -pare away principle until it becomes mere hollowness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> -and triviality.” And in the beginning he -wrote: “Our day of small calculations and petty -utilities must first pass away; our vision of the -true expediencies must reach further and deeper; -our resolution to search for the highest verities, -to give up all and follow them, must first become -the supreme part of ourselves.” The loss by -compromise to ourselves and others is certain, -while its gain is uncertain and problematical.</p> - -<p>In the first place, one believes this because -compromise makes no contribution to the settlement -of the real issue over truth. It is true that -all the boundaries between truth and error are -not clear and sharply drawn lines. Often there -is a gray and misty region between. And much -truth is only slowly and gradually won. But the -ideal of truth is clearer than the sun and as pure -as the character of God. And we have a far -richer chance of winning it and all that it brings -with it, if we both think and live it uncompromisingly. -“The political spirit,” says Mr. Morley -in noble words, “is the great force in throwing -love of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary -place. The evil does not stop here. This -achievement has indirectly countenanced the -postponement of intellectual methods, and the -diminution of the sense of intellectual responsibility, -by a school that is anything rather than -political. Theology has borrowed, and coloured -for her own use, the principles which were first<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> -brought into vogue in politics. If in the one -field it is the fashion to consider convenience -first and truth second, in the other there is a corresponding -fashion of placing truth second and -emotional comfort first. If there are some who -compromise their real opinions, or the chance of -reaching truth, for the sake of gain, there are far -more who shrink from giving their intelligence -free play, for the sake of keeping undisturbed -certain luxurious spiritual sensibilities....</p> - -<p>“The intelligence is not free in the presence -of a mortal fear lest its conclusions should trouble -soft tranquillity of spirit. There is always hope -of a man so long as he dwells in the region of -the direct categorical proposition and the unambiguous -term; so long as he does not deny -the rightly drawn conclusions after accepting the -major and minor premises. This may seem a -scanty virtue and very easy grace. Yet experience -shows it to be too hard of attainment for -those who tamper with disinterestedness of conviction, -for the sake of luxuriating in the softness -of spiritual transport without interruption from a -syllogism. It is true that there are now and -then in life as in history noble and fair natures, -that by the silent teaching and unconscious example -of their inborn purity, star-like constancy, -and great devotion, do carry the world about -them to further heights of living than can be attained -by ratiocination. But these, the blameless<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> -and loved saints of the earth, rise too rarely -on our dull horizons to make a rule for the world. -The law of things is that they who tamper with -veracity, from whatever motive, are tampering -with the vital force of human progress. Our -comfort and the delight of the religious imagination -are no better than forms of self-indulgence, -when they are secured at the cost of that love of -truth on which, more than on anything else, the -increase of light and happiness among men must -depend. We have to fight and do lifelong battle -against the forces of darkness, and anything -that turns the edge of reason blunts the surest -and most potent of our weapons.” We do not -believe in compromising, because it makes no -contribution to the larger discerning of truth or -the triumphing of that truth over error.</p> - -<p>In the second place, we do not believe in it -because it creates a great many more difficulties -than it removes. Now, Paul was invited to this -compromising course in Jerusalem by his misguided -friends because they thought it would -avoid trouble. They wanted to set Paul right -with the Jewish Christians in the city, and maybe -with the Jews who were not Christians; they -wanted to remove an impression which they -thought prevailed regarding Paul’s attitude -towards the Mosaic customs in the Gentile -world.</p> - -<p>Now, as a matter of fact, the principle of that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> -impression was true, for although, as Dr. McGiffert -says, Paul</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“recognized the legitimacy of Jewish Christianity, and -the right of Peter and other apostles to preach to the Jews -the Gospel of circumcision, and though there is no evidence -that he ever undertook to lead the Jews as a people -to cease observing their ancestral law, he had certainly -been in the habit of insisting that his Jewish converts -should associate on equal terms with their Gentile brethren, -and that they should not allow their law to act in any -way as a barrier to the freest and most intimate association -with them. But this, of course, meant, in so far, their -violation of the law’s commands. It is certain also that -Paul had preached for years the doctrine that not the Gentile -Christian alone but the Jewish Christian as well is absolutely -free from all obligation to keep the law of Moses, -and though such teaching might not always result in a disregard -of that law by his Jewish converts, it must have a -tendency to produce that effect and doubtless did in many -cases. It is clear therefore that both accusations had much -truth in them, and it is difficult to suppose that Paul can -have deliberately attempted in Jerusalem to prove them -wholly false.</p> - -<p>“And yet, though as an honourable man and a man of -principle he can hardly have undertaken to demonstrate -that there was no truth in the reports which were circulated -concerning him, it may well be that he tried to show -that they were not wholly true. It was evidently assumed -by those who accused him of ‘teaching all the Jews which -are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not -to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs,’ -that he hated the Jewish law and that he was doing -all that lay in his power to destroy it; that he believed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> -and that he taught everywhere that its observance was under -any and all circumstances a positive sin. But this -assumption was not true. Paul was certainly not hostile -to the law in any such sense. He believed that it had no -binding authority over a Christian, and he opposed with -all his might the idea that its observance had any value as -a means of salvation, or that it contributed in any way to -the believer’s righteousness or growth in grace; but he -held no such view of the law as made its observance necessarily -sinful, and rendered it impossible for him ever to -observe it himself in any respect. And it was not at all -unnatural that he should desire to convince the Christians -of Jerusalem of the fact; especially when he had come -thither with the express purpose of conciliating them and -winning their favour for himself and for his Gentile converts. -He would have been very foolish under these circumstances -to allow such a false impression touching his -attitude towards the law to go uncontradicted.”<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noi"><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> “The Apostolic Age,” p. 341.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="noi">This is a satisfactory defense if one were needed -of Paul’s course, but no one would question his -motive. That was right enough and he evidently -acted in all good conscience, but the procedure, -instead of getting him out of his trouble, got him -into worse trouble. It always does that. I do not -believe any man was ever permanently helped -by compromise. Every man who has begun to -play with it has been drawn into worse difficulties -and troubles, or has gone down, perhaps -without conscious difficulty but with real moral -loss, to a lower level of life. For one thing,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span> -compromise blurs the line of cleavage between -truth and error, and that is exactly what no one -of us can afford to have done. We do not want -the lines of distinction between what is true and -what is false slurred over for us. We want them -sharpened so that we shall make as little mistake -as possible as to where they lie. Furthermore -compromise gets us into more difficulty than it -removes, because it throws together things that -are not congruous or reconcilable. This is its -very nature. It brings into one bed things that -cannot sleep together, into one union things -that cannot be tied. And it postpones real settlements -in the interest of spurious arrangements, -sacrificing some</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“greater good for the less, on no more creditable ground -than that the less is nearer. It is better to wait, and to -defer the realization of our ideas until we can realize them -fully, than to defraud the future by truncating them, if -truncate them we must, in order to secure a partial triumph -for them in the immediate present.... What is the -sense, and what is the morality, of postponing the wider -utility to the narrower? Nothing is so sure to impoverish -an epoch, to deprive conduct of nobleness, and character -of elevation.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="noi">These are Mr. Morley’s closing words. This is -the second reason why we believe there can be -no room for compromise in our Christian life or -service.</p> - -<p>In the third place, it encourages evil by making<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> -it think that having got so much it can get -the rest, and so it prolongs the life of evil. That -is exactly what compromise did in the old days -of slavery. Every one of those early compromises -prolonged the life of evil which at last -the nation had to pour out its blood to destroy. -That is what compromise always does. It persuades -evil that, after all, maybe evil can win the -victory, that having gotten so much from us it -can get the rest if only it will be patient, and we -simply increase the courage of our foe in proportion -as we make any compromise with him -instead of standing up face to face against him -from the very beginning. And so it destroys the -power and might of right causes by mixing in -the taint of wrong. You do not make a good -man better by putting a dash of bad in him. -You do not make a good cause stronger by letting -the evil come in; you only weaken its -strength and power. Compromise plays into -the hands of the very evil which we are here to -overcome and destroy.</p> - -<p>In the fourth place, compromise breaks down -the strength of rigid consistency, and by letting -in one qualification prepares the way for others. -That is the reason why it is so much harder for -a man to be a moderate drinker than to be a -total abstainer. As was said of Samuel Johnson, -“He could practice abstinence but not temperance.” -When a man has made up his mind that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span> -he will never do a thing, it is a great deal easier -for him to refuse to do it in any given instance -than if he has made up his mind that he will do -it moderately, because he never knows when he -ceases to be moderate. There is a sharp line -between moderate drinking and total abstinence. -That boundary line no one can ever mistake, -but the boundary line between intemperance and -moderation is not located anywhere. There is -no definite border between those two countries. -As a matter of fact, every man starts in by being -a moderate drinker. He never intended to become -anything else but a moderate drinker when -he began. But there is a boundary line so clear -that a blind man can see it between yes and no, -between not doing a thing at all and doing that -thing only moderately. We believe in the principle -of absolutely no compromise in moral habit -and principle, and we believe in the same principle -in our clear and evangelical convictions regarding -the Christian faith.</p> - -<p>In the fifth place, we ought to shun all such -compromise because it undermines our confidence -in men, and the solid unity of their coöperative -action. We know where truth is, but we never -know where calculating compromise may be. In -the language of the deaf and dumb this is the -sign for truth—a straight line right away from -your mouth—for the simple reason that between -two points there is only one straight line, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> -there may be many crooked lines. The truth is -always a single thing, but the error,—no man -knows what it may be. No compromise makes -possible unity of accord by giving people one -standard on which they can rely, and by supplying -confidence in the stability of men and their -convictions. But we cannot follow the compromising -man, for as soon as he gets out of our -sight we do not know where he will be.</p> - -<p>It is the man who makes no compromise, who -stands fast by truth, that we know we can locate. -It was that which gave Stonewall Jackson his -huge power as a leader of men in the Civil War. -He was a man of the most unflinching Christian -convictions. He was one who never moved the -breadth of a hair from his loyalty to his Lord or -to truth as he saw truth in the presence of his -Lord. Colonel Henderson draws for us a rich -picture of the great soldier’s character and it is -full of genial and kindly touches, but it is faithful -also in its account of the man’s rigid and inflexible -righteousness.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“Jackson’s religion entered into every action of his life. -No duty, however trivial, was begun without asking a -blessing, or ended without returning thanks. ‘He had -long cultivated,’ he said, ‘the habit of connecting the most -trivial and customary acts of life with a silent prayer.’ He -took the Bible as his guide, and it is possible that his literal -interpretation of its precepts caused many to regard -him as a fanatic. His observance of the Sabbath was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> -hardly in accordance with ordinary usage. He never read -a letter on that day, nor posted one; he believed that the -Government in carrying the mails was violating a divine -law, and he considered the suppression of such traffic one -of the most important duties of the legislature. Such -opinions were uncommon, even among the Presbyterians, -and his rigid respect for truth served to strengthen the impression -that he was morbidly scrupulous. If he unintentionally -made a misstatement—even about some trifling -matter—as soon as he discovered his mistake he would lose -no time and spare no trouble in hastening to correct it. -‘Why, in the name of reason,’ he was asked, ‘do you walk -a mile in the rain for a perfectly unimportant thing?’ -‘Simply because I have discovered that it was a misstatement, -I could not sleep comfortably unless I put it -right.’</p> - -<p>“He had occasion to censure a cadet who had given, as -Jackson believed, the wrong solution of a problem. On -thinking the matter over at home, he found that the pupil -was right and the teacher wrong. It was late at night and -in the depth of winter, but he immediately started off to -the Institute, some distance from his quarters, and sent for -the cadet. The delinquent, answering with much trepidation -the untimely summons, found himself to his astonishment -the recipient of a frank apology. Jackson’s scruples -carried him even further. Persons who interlarded their -conversation with the unmeaning phrase ‘you know’ were -often astonished by the blunt interruption that he did <em>not</em> -know; and when he was entreated at parties or receptions -to break through his dietary rules, and for courtesy’s sake -to seem to accept some delicacy, he would always refuse -with the reply that he had ‘no genius for seeming.’ But -if he carried his conscientiousness to extremes, if he laid<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> -down stringent rules for his own governance, he neither set -himself up for a model nor did he attempt to force his convictions -upon others. He was always tolerant; he knew -his own faults, and his own temptations, and if he could -say nothing good of a man he would not speak of him at -all. But he was by no means disposed to overlook conduct -of which he disapproved, and undue leniency was a -weakness to which he never yielded. If he once lost confidence -or discovered deception on the part of one he -trusted, he withdrew himself as far as possible from any -further dealings with him; and whether with the cadets or -with his brother-officers, if an offense had been committed of -which he was called upon to take notice, he was absolutely -inflexible. Punishment or report inevitably followed. No -excuses, no personal feelings, no appeals to the suffering -which might be brought upon the innocent, were permitted -to interfere with the execution of his duty.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="noi">“As exact as the multiplication table,” some one -said of him, “and as full of things military as an -arsenal.” Those of us who are looking for the -secret of Christian influence over others may be -sure that we will find it here. Men are not going -to follow the shifting man. They will follow the -man who makes no compromise, who has his firm -convictions and who stands by those convictions, -no matter what the cost of his loyalty may be. -Recent American politics are rather eloquent and -convincing on this point.</p> - -<p>In the sixth place, compromise in principle -substitutes reliance upon majorities for reliance -upon the truth, and the majorities never have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span> -been right and we may doubt whether, until our -Lord Jesus Christ comes again, they ever will be -right. God never has relied upon the majority. -He never has waited to do His work until it was -ready to side with Him. In all ages God has -done His work by the few. In Old Testament -times He did it by the few. The one principle -prevailed always—not by might, nor by power. -It was ever only “the Sword of the Lord and of -Gideon.” When our Lord came He did His work -with the few. Through all the ages God has -been working so, and we simply depart from His -whole method in history when by compromise -we try to get the force of the majority on our -side. The force of the majority does not amount -to anything in comparison with the force of truth. -“The history of success,” says Mr. Morley, “as -we can never too often repeat to ourselves, is the -history of minorities.” And we do not believe -in compromise because it substitutes our reliance -upon the majority for our reliance upon the truth -of God, and upon the strength of God to enable -the few with the truth to triumph against the -error of the crowd. This passes for foolish idealism -and some of our most popular political leaders -and reformers have poured scorn upon the -idealists and dreamers, who are not to be numbered -among the practical men.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“One would like to ask them what purpose is served by -an ideal, if it is not to make a guide for practice and a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> -landmark in dealing with the real. A man’s loftiest and -most ideal notions must be of a singularly ethereal and, -shall we not say, senseless kind, if he can never see how -to take a single step that may tend in the slightest degree -towards making them more real. If an ideal has no point -of contact with what exists, it is probably not much more -than the vapid outcome of intellectual or spiritual self-indulgence. -If it has such a point of contact, then there is -sure to be something which a man can do towards the fulfillment -of his hopes. He cannot substitute a new national -religion for the old, but he can at least do something to -prevent people from supposing that the adherents of the old -are more numerous than they really are, and something to -show them that good ideas are not all exhausted by the -ancient forms. He cannot transform a monarchy into a -republic, but he can make sure that one citizen at least -shall aim at republican virtues, and abstain from the debasing -complaisance of the crowd.”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noi"><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Morley, “Compromise,” p. 226.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="noi">And we might add, “he cannot instantly make -truth the life of the nation, but he can be loyal to -its commandments. He cannot make political -leaders honest and patriotic, but he can refuse to -profit by their dishonesty or to regard them as -honest men if they will but wear his badge and -seek their own ends by promoting his. He can -form his own ideals of honour and glory and live -by them whatever way others may go.”</p> - -<p>In the seventh place, compromise increases in -peril as we draw near the highest. If you take -a man who is down on the lower levels, compromise<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> -does not mean as much to him as it -does to men who have been climbing up. The -nearer we come to Christ and the highest truth, -the more perilous does compromise become. As -Edward Thring said: “In proportion to excellence, -compromise is impossible. A single leak -sinks a great ship, a raft that is all leaks floats.” -That is just the deep lesson that men and women -need to learn; that the higher and cleaner and -more morally lofty or exacting the life, the more -perilous compromise becomes to it. One has -heard Christian men say sometimes that they -thought they were safe in doing what this or -that man, not as strong or experienced or mature, -could do. It is a great mistake. The clearer -and stronger a man’s life, the more careful must -the man be, the more solicitous, the more anxious, -lest thinking he stands he falls. One of -the greatest things about the life of Paul was the -humility and self-distrust in which he walked, -fearing lest when he had preached to others he -himself might be a castaway. We have to learn -that here lies power and duty, and that the -cleaner Christ makes any human life, the more -careful must that life be to keep all its habits -pure and unsullied, and its convictions of truth -unflinching and firm.</p> - -<p>It was this principle that made our friend, -S. H. Hadley, and that makes so many men -who have escaped from the slavery of drink, go<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> -to extremes in cutting off physical indulgences. -Mr. Hadley not only dropped once and forever -the use of alcohol, but he stopped tobacco too, -and he tried to get every drunkard whom he was -seeking to save to discontinue the use of nicotine. -He held that men should be clean every -whit and his strong conviction was that while he -would not for a moment class such indulgences -together, nevertheless the man who wanted to -be free from the one would find his deliverance -far easier if he sloughed off the other also. It is -safer and easier to be thoroughgoing and indiscriminate, -if you will, than to be always calculating -how great risks can be safely run.</p> - -<p>And, lastly, we believe in no compromise because -the truth is bound to prevail, and it will -triumph the soonest when it is least hampered -and tied up with error or with qualification. -One might stop here to make a defense on this -ground of the fanatics and devotees, but it -is enough to say that the truth is going to prevail -because it is God’s truth, and hell and all -hell’s power in the world cannot stand against it. -What is the use in delaying the day of that triumph -by compromising with error? The right -will prevail all the faster if we make no compromise -with error, if we go out and preach -unflinchingly and courageously with no compromise, -with no surrender or economy or adaptations, -the hard, plain truth of God as we see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span> -it. If what we think is truth is really error, it -will be the sooner beaten down for being made -to stand up for itself. But if it is indeed the -truth we know it will prevail the more in the -world as we keep it free from all connection with -anything that will weaken or becloud it.</p> - -<p>I know how much danger there is in such an -attitude as this if we take it up towards the truth -that we hold. It lies in our human nature to go -to violence or extremes with everything. Martin -Luther used to say that human nature is like a -drunken man trying to ride a horse, you prop -him up on one side and he topples over on the -other. It is that way with us. We try to be -firm and we become hard-hearted. We pride -ourselves on uncompromising loyalty to the -truth and we lack the tenderness and sympathy. -Moreover, as Bushnell said in his essay on -“Christian Comprehensiveness”:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“It is the common infirmity of mere human reformers -that, when they rise up to cast out an error, it is generally -not till they have kindled their passions against it. If they -begin with reason, they are commonly moved, in the last -degree, by their animosities instead of reason. And as -animosities are blind, they, of course, see nothing to respect, -nothing to spare. The question whether possibly -there may not be some truth or good in the error assailed, -which is needed to qualify and save the equilibrium of -their own opposing truth, is not once entertained. Hence -it is that men, in expelling one error, are perpetually<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span> -thrusting themselves into another, as if unwilling or unable -to hold more than half the truth at once.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And yet these dangers are lesser dangers than -the danger of surrendering the truth. And we -can be guarded from them by the great and unselfish -love that guarded Paul. The man who -loves others more than he loves himself, who -holds human lives sacred and free from invasion, -who is seeking not his own glory, but the glory -of God and the good of men, is in little danger -from an absolutely uncompromising loyalty to -the truth.</p> - -<p>And if ever men have any doubts or misgivings -regarding this, or if the time of discouragements -and fears comes to them, and they look with longing -to the multitudes who act together, while -they think of themselves as just a few, bearing -testimony for the truth against error and sin, they -may encourage themselves with Mr. Matthew -Arnold’s doctrine of the remnant, or better yet, -by remembering the great Solitary, Jesus Christ. -How lonesomely He walked His way; seeing -what no other soul was seeing; standing alone -for the great truth which He uttered, and at last -meeting death upon the cross alone; one of His -disciples having betrayed Him, another having -three times denied that he ever knew Him, and -all the others having left Him and gone away! -And yet as we look back, we see that lonely cross -ruling the whole world, and that forsaken figure<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span> -men are clothing now with the crown of everlasting -light, and His name is above every name. -All that we are asked to do is simply to follow in -His train, to take up the truth which He opened, -and for that truth to be willing to live, and, -which is far easier, if need be, to die. Our lives -are ours for this one thing, that through them, -without compromise with error or with sin, God -may bear testimony to Himself, and whether He -does that through many years or through few, -through peaceful personal service or through -storm and tragedy, is of no consequence. The -one thing that is of consequence is that we should -know and be true to God.</p> - -<p>But there is a better way to set forth and commend -this principle as a law of life than by arguing -it in these general terms. Let the principle -put on flesh and live before us in a man:</p> - -<p>“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners -of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord, -the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, -there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but -according to my word.”</p> - -<p>The old man who spoke these words was one -of the four great characters of the Old Testament. -He and Moses and Samuel and David -stood apart in the thought of the Hebrew people. -Indeed, there was a sense in which he and Moses -were in a class by themselves. The appearance -of those two with our Lord on the Mountain of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> -Transfiguration was only an illustration of the -place which they held in the imagination of -Israel.</p> - -<p>These were the first words he spoke as he -bursts on our view. What lay behind them we -can only surmise. He was a Tishbite, one “of -the sojourners of Gilead,” dwelling beyond the -Jordan, a man brought up in the desert. There -on the level sands, with the eye of God looking -down upon him, he had come to a deep feeling -of the soul’s lonely stand before God, and convinced -of God and the righteousness of God he -came over the Jordan to speak his message and -do his work in the organized national life of his -people. He was a clean-limbed, frugal-lived -man, who gathered up his skirts about him, -we are told, and ran straight away sixteen miles -before the chariot of Ahab, from Carmel to the -entering in of Jezreel; a calm, quiet, courageous, -firm-principled man; bred so in the desert with -God.</p> - -<p>We do not have any very elaborate story of -his life. He appears on the stage and then he -vanishes. There are long periods of time covering -years when he disappears entirely from the -record. We can condense what we know about -his life into six brief chapters, between each two -of which there is an interval, in some cases, a -long interval of time.</p> - -<p>He appears first of all in connection with the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span> -great drought which he prophesied and which -lasted for the three years he had foretold. We -see him by the little brook Cherith, fed of the -ravens, until through the long cessation of the -rain the brook itself disappeared. Then we see -him in the house of the widow of Sarepta, feeding -with her on her little supply of meal, and in -her hour of depthless sorrow raising her son -from death to life. And then, in the second -chapter, he breaks forth once more upon the -national stage. Ahab and Obadiah, his chief -man, had sought for him up and down the -land, having divided the country between them, -partly that they might seek water for their fast -diminishing herds, partly that they might meet -again and punish this troubler of Israel. At -last, on one of the highways, the man of God -appeared to the prime minister and told him that -he had no fear to meet the king and would do -so if he would carry word to Ahab. True to his -word, he met the king, confronted him with his -disloyalty to Jehovah, and challenged him to -produce the prophets of Baal for the great test -on Mount Carmel; and then, after his triumph, -Elijah again disappears.</p> - -<p>In the third chapter we have the only account -of the man’s inner life. If it were not for that -chapter with its story of his subjective struggle, -Elijah would be no example for us men of this -day. In all the other chapters of the story he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> -appears absolutely undaunted, unafraid of the -face of man, clearly convinced of what God -would have him do, and absolutely fearless in -the doing of it. But here we are shown the man in -his own inward wavering, in doubt in some measure -about the reality or power of his mission, -afraid to carry forward that which he had set out -to do with such daring spirit; and in the wilderness -alone, first beneath the juniper tree and then -on Mount Horeb, Elijah had to face again his -life and settle himself once more in that faith in -the living God which had brought him out of the -desert. And God stood out and spoke to him, -and Elijah rose up on his feet once more a man -unafraid to resume his mission. God bade him -return and anoint a new king over Syria and a -new king over Israel, and to go to Abel-meholah -and find his own successor, the young man Elisha, -plowing behind his oxen. And the prophet went -out from his hour of discouragement to find at -once the young man who was to take up his -work after him and to be an even mightier -prophet than he.</p> - -<p>Then for a long time Elijah disappears again, -only to reappear when he confronts Ahab once -more, in Naboth’s vineyard, shows him how little -he fears him, and pronounces upon him the -judgment of Jehovah. Then he vanishes from -the stage for three years at least of solitary -meditation in the wilderness, vanishes so long<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span> -that the common people apparently forgot him, -so that when one day he met a little party of the -servants of the new king Ahaziah on the highway -bound to Ekron to consult Baal-zebub, they -did not know who the prophet was and brought -back his message to the king, able only to say -of him that he was a hairy man, with a leather -girdle about his loins. But the king well knew -that the Tishbite had broken once more upon -the stage of the nation’s life, and he bowed beneath -the judgments of God that the man from -Gilead denounced.</p> - -<p>Then in the concluding chapter we see Elijah -and his young man coming down from Gilgal -to Bethel and then to Jericho and then back to -the wilderness out of which he had come, that -from his own deserts where he had come to -know God he might go back to God again. And -there in the chariot of fire the man who was -himself “the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen -thereof,” went up to the Lord God of Israel, -Who was alive, to meet Him before Whom he -had always stood.</p> - -<p>One does not wonder that the old man impressed -as he did the imagination of his people, -and that when centuries later John the Baptist -emerged upon the stage challenging the attention -of the nation, almost the first question addressed -to him was, “Art thou Elijah?”</p> - -<p>And we have the secret of Elijah’s life given<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span> -to us in these words with which he is introduced -to us, “As the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> God of Israel liveth, before -whom I stand.” Out there in the barrenness of -the desert beyond the Jordan, Elijah had come -to believe in a God Who was alive, and before -Whom he lived his life. The deserts have never -bred polytheism. The great polytheistic systems -have sprung from the lush jungles of the tropics. -The great monotheisms have been born in the -deserts. And out on the lonely sands beyond -the Jordan, beyond the hills and amid the great -level places where there was no one but God, -Elijah came to know that He was and to know -that his life stood in Him.</p> - -<p>This was the principle of the man’s life—the -consuming conviction of a living God and of the -commission of His uncompromising service. Indeed -we are not sure that we know Elijah’s -name. It is possible that the name by which we -think we know him is only a pseudonym—Elijah, -“My God is Jehovah.” It may be that from the -very repetition of this phrase to which he was -addicted, “The <span class="smcap">Lord</span> God of Israel, before -whom I stand,” men came at last to call him by -the opening note of his message, “the man of -the living God.”</p> - -<p>Now what that message meant to Elijah was -just this: that the Lord God was no dead force, -no unknown cause of things, that the Lord God -was alive, and that a man was to have dealings<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span> -with Him; that a man’s life was not his own -personal and irresponsible experiment, but a -work to be done in front of God; and that a man -must reckon in all his thoughts, in all his ways, -with One Who lives, and go out and do his work -in the world in the consciousness of his relationship -and his subjection to an active, working, -personal God Who would stand by him in the -fire, would uphold him before kings, and carry -him through to the end of each of his appointed -tasks. If there is one thing that we need to get -clearly fixed in our own lives it is the matter of -our attitude towards this infinite and unseen God -Who is alive.</p> - -<p>This faith in a God Who is alive, before -Whose face a man is to live his life, is no mere -theory. You cannot find any conviction that -will more really mould and transform all our -conduct and put uncompromising stiffness in it -than the conviction that we are living our lives -thus before the eyes of a God Who observes. -In the life of Thring of Uppingham we are told -of an incident that pleased him greatly. It is a -story that came to him regarding a little group -of boys who were spending the summer in -France. A visitor saw these English schoolboys -and overheard their conversation as to what they -should do on Sunday. Some of the boys were -proposing a certain course of action, and all -seemed to agree until one fellow spoke up and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span> -said: “No, I do not agree. I will not do it.” And -when the other lads urged him to come along, -he still insisted that he would not. They asked -him his reasons. He said: “Well, Thring would -not like it, and what Thring would not like I do -not intend to do.” “Well, but Thring isn’t -here,” they said; “he’s back at Uppingham.” -“I do not care,” said the boy; “Thring would -not like it.” He believed that he was living in -a real sense—I mean in the most real sense of -all, in the life of his personal will—before the -standards of his master, and by those standards -as in the light of his master’s countenance he insisted -that he would uncompromisingly live. -Before the eyes of God a man will beware how -he lives his life. If he knows that this life of his -can find no darkness where he can hide himself -from God, if he knows that all of his days are to -be spent before His face, that all his deeds are to -be done beneath the gaze of God, assuredly -that will govern and control a man’s decisions -about his practical ways. The consciousness of -a living God will give direction to a man’s moral -life.</p> - -<p>And it will not only give direction. There is -many a man among us who knows that the consciousness -of a God Who is alive not only gives -determination and direction to his ways, but puts -a new power and inspiration in them.</p> - -<p>A friend in New York tells a lovely story<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span> -about a boy in one of the great English schools. -He was an only child, and his mother died when -he was but a little fellow. Between him and his -father there grew up relations of the most delicate -and sensitive intimacy. The father was -blind, so that the little boy had to be his father’s -eyes, and until the day came when the lad had -to go away to school there was scarcely an hour -when the two were separated. But at last the -time came and the boy went. He became the -best athlete in his school. One spring, just before -the final game in which the boy was to bowl -for his own school, tidings came that his father -was seriously ill and he must come home. The -news sent the whole school into lamentation, for -they were afraid that he might not recover and -that if he did not the boy could not play in the -concluding and critical game. And indeed, as -it turned out, the father died. The day before -the game was to be played the boy came back -to school, and, to the amazement of all, let it be -known that he intended to play. The next day -he took his place and played as he had never -played in his life before. When at last the game -was over and the school had won its triumph, -one of the masters came to the boy and expressed -to him the delighted surprise of the -school at what he had done and their amazement -both that he had played at all and at the -way he had played. “Why,” said the boy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span> -“didn’t you understand? I wouldn’t have -missed it for anything. That was the first game -my father ever saw me play.” Beneath the consciousness -that for the first time his father’s eyes -were open and watching him the boy had discovered -capacities of power that he hardly knew -he possessed before. Beneath the eye of our -Father, Who is looking upon the game that we -are playing, where is the man that cannot play -a better game, who cannot draw on the reservoirs -of power untouched before, who cannot -come out and do his work in the world and live -his life with larger inspiration and strength, with -more dominion and sovereignty, because he is -living it before a God Who is alive? To such -a man will compromise not seem a filial insult -impossible except by a base degradation of the -soul?</p> - -<p>And not only did Elijah’s principle determine -his conduct and pour inspiration into it; it was -this principle of a God Who is alive that made -him absolutely fearless. He was not only unafraid -of physical harm, but he had none of that -subtler fear that every man knows—the fear that -he himself will fail, the fear that he cannot carry -himself safely through. What you and I are -afraid of is not the things that are without; our -enemy is inside. Treachery within the walls is -all that we need to dread, and our deepest fear -is of our own failure. That was the great thing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span> -in Elijah’s life, that he dared to stand on Mount -Carmel, before all that crowd of priests, confident -and fearless. He knew he would prevail, that he -had not promised in vain that God would answer. -The man who knows that he is living his -life before a God Who is alive and doing his -work in the name of a God Who is alive is not -afraid either of what men can do to him or of the -failure that he may make himself.</p> - -<p>There is a story in the life of Dr. Schauffler -that illustrates how to-day too men can rise into -just such fearlessness. The missionaries were -being bothered a great deal in Constantinople -by Russian machinations against the Protestant -missions in the empire, and Dr. Schauffler went -to see the Russian ambassador. “I might as -well tell you now, Mr. Schauffler,” said the ambassador, -“that the Emperor of Russia, who is -my master, will never allow Protestantism to set -its foot in Turkey.” The old missionary looked -at him for a moment and then replied: “Your -Excellency, the kingdom of Christ, who is my -Master, will never ask the Emperor of all the -Russias where it may set its foot.” And he -went on with his mission unintimidated by any -agencies working in the dark against him, because -he was confident that the living God -Whose work he was doing would achieve for -him His own victory.</p> - -<p>And we see in this story of Elijah another<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span> -thing that this great conviction will do for a -man: it will make a troubler of him. “Art thou -he,” said Ahab when he met Elijah in the midst -of the great famine, “art thou he that troubleth -Israel?” “No,” said Elijah; “thou art he who -troubles Israel.” And yet they were both troubling -Israel, the one with the iniquities into which -he was leading the people, the other because the -principle of the living God dominating his life -drove him as a great moral force against the -evils of his time. A man cannot live in a college -or university with a faith that God is living -and that he himself is living in front of God, and -be quiet before the moral iniquities and evils he -will find. It is not enough for a man to say, “I -will simply be myself, live my own clean life, and -let my silent influence count.” If his silent influence -does not count, no other influence of his -will count. But the silence is not enough. A -little while ago I copied from one of the letters -of Mandel Creighton, late Bishop of London, -written to his boys who were away at school, -this bit of advice. “You will see, then,” he -writes to one son, who had just been made a -monitor in his school, “you will see, then, that -the chief influence of a monitor is in his example. -But this is the point on which I have seen many -people deceive themselves. They trust to what -they call the force of silent example. That is -most pernicious. If you content yourself with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span> -merely keeping school rules and doing what is -right yourself and keeping out of the way of any -fellows who you know are doing wrong, or if -you stand by and listen to them saying what -they ought not, without reproof, you are doing -wrong. No, that won’t do. It is part of the essence -of good to fight against evil. You must -set your face strongly against all that is bad, and -must put down not only all that you find in the -course of your walk, but you must go out of -your walk to find it in order to put it down.”</p> - -<p>There has been much complaint these last -years because in high places in this land there -have been men who were troublers of the nation. -The great need of the nation has been men who -were prepared to make trouble in order that, -at last, righteousness might come. Things that -have thought themselves secure will be shaken; -long vested interests that have believed themselves -to be sacred will have their sanctity scrutinized; -and men will come at last into their rights -and their righteousness, if we are prepared, following -the old Tishbite, to live our lives before -the God Who is alive.</p> - -<p>And this same principle brings peace and -quiet and tranquillity to men. Elijah shook -once, we know, but only once. Every time we -see him on the public stage, no matter whom he -is confronting—Jezebel, Ahab, Obadiah, Ahaziah—he -is standing with confident soul, quiet and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span> -still. We can be sure that if on that day at -Mount Carmel we could have first mingled with -those four hundred and fifty priests of Baal who -knew that their day of doom had come, and then -have gone over and stood by the side of the old -man, we should have found the old man the most -quiet and placid person on the mountainside -and his heart beat the calmest. And we may be -sure that we can go in the same tranquillity and -calm and steadfastness in which the old Tishbite -lived, if we will believe as deeply as he did in a -Lord God Who is alive, and will live our lives -before His face with as little compromise and -fear.</p> - -<p>And it is a great conviction like this of Elijah’s -that steadies men in the hour of their trial and -that when they fall redeems them again. The -old prophet fell down. He ran from a woman’s -threats, and beneath the juniper tree and then on -Horeb, he shook and was afraid. But God, Who -was alive before, was alive still, and He came to -Mount Horeb, where the man lay in his spiritual -petulance and fear, and He was not in the great -wind, and He was not in the great earthquake, -and He was not in the great fire, but at last in -the still small voice of life He spoke to Elijah, -and Elijah rose up on his feet once more and -went out to complete his work in unfaltering -triumph.</p> - -<p>It works that way still. There is a letter of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span> -Abraham Lincoln, the original of which is preserved -in the state capitol at Albany. It is a letter -Lincoln wrote granting a pardon to a deserter.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noic smcap">Executive Mansion,<br /></p> - -<p><span class="flright"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, October 4, 1864.</span><br /></p> - -<p>Upon condition that Roswell McIntyre of Company E, -Sixth Regiment of New York Cavalry, returns to his regiment -and faithfully serves out his term, making up for lost -time, or until otherwise lawfully discharged, he is fully -pardoned for any supposed desertion heretofore committed; -and this paper is his pass to go to his regiment.</p> - -<p class="right smcap">Abraham Lincoln.</p> -</div> - -<p>On the side of it is indorsed: “Quartermaster’s -Office, New York City, October 22, 1864. -Transportation furnished to Baltimore, Maryland. -H. Brownson”; and at the bottom in a -different hand is this indorsement: “Taken from -the body of R. McIntyre at the Battle of Five -Forks, Virginia, 1865.” So he went back and -died like a man, with his pardon on his person. -And to-day, to the coward and the deserter and -the traitor, the man who has compromised and -the man who has run away, the same Lord God -Who set Elijah on his feet is speaking, and He -is able to send him back to be faithful, even unto -death. Thanks be to a God Who does not compromise -and Who is still alive.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LECTURE_V">LECTURE V<br /> -<small>THE LIFE INVISIBLE</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">It is interesting to note two contrary tendencies -in the current appraisal of spiritual -values in America. On the one hand there -is what has been called, not altogether happily, -the tendency of ethical materialism. In its best -form it is simply a demand for reality, the renewal -of the old words, “By their fruits ye -shall know them.” “Show me thy faith by thy -works.” In its less worthy forms it is the effort -to eliminate spiritual expression and formal religion -from areas of life where these have been -most familiar. Illustrations in extreme forms -abound.</p> - -<p>We are told now that in charity love has -nothing to do with the matter, that the introduction -of religious sentiment is only mischievous -and misleading, that the issue is one purely -of proper economic principle and organization. -It is a question of employment for the unemployed, -or of calculating accurately the amount -of need, counting the hungry mouths and fixing -the quantity of bread, and then determining -scientifically how much of the bread the hungry -should earn, and how much society through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span> -appropriate and unsentimental machinery should -supply.</p> - -<p>In medical philanthropy the new idea is that -ideas have nothing to do with it. The good -Samaritan, we are told, did not give the wounded -man a tract or say anything to him about the -religious views or motives of his benefactor. He -was satisfied to heal his skin and stop at that. -Let the chaplains depart from the hospitals.</p> - -<p>And so also in social service. The legitimate -work is to improve the culinary methods of the -neighbourhood, to provide innocent games and -sports, to secure more adequate food supplies for -living bodies and to assist in the burial of dead -ones; but Christ must not be mentioned, and religious -issues must not be raised.</p> - -<p>These are extreme illustrations, but they are -perfectly familiar, and the tendency they represent -is indisputable. In this view our Lord, of -course, was far astray when He talked to His -disciples by Jacob’s well about having meat to -eat which they knew not. “Meat!” say our -modern ethical materialists. “Meat is meat—beef -or bread. It is not a metaphor. Meat that -is a metaphor is a mockery.” Well, it would be -if it were offered for food to a hungry man, but -it is not a mockery to the man who would go -hungry to feed the hungry. And the whole -modern question is not between those who -would give real meat to the hungry and those<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span> -who would give only metaphorical meat. It is between -those who want to deal with people’s skins -only and those who mean to deal both with their -skins and with their souls, between those who -conceive of man as mainly belly and back and -those to whom our real life is the life invisible.</p> - -<p>It is a very curious phenomenon, this exclusion -of Christian ideas from the very area which they -created. For all this charity and philanthropy -and social service were produced by the ideas of -Christianity. And now the fruit says to the vine -and to the inward life, “I have no need of thee.” -Of course not all the fruit says this. Some of it -only says, “Vine and inward life, there is a prejudice -against you. You would do well to conceal -yourself. I will pretend to be the real thing.” -But some of the fruit has gone further. “I am -the real thing,” it says. “I know more than -James. Faith must not only show works: works -are faith. There is no need of metaphysics or -creeds. Deeds are religion. The only wealth -is tangible wealth, things handled, works seen, -bread out of the ground, not down from heaven. -Meat that the disciples could not see is too -pallid for this earth. Man is his skin and the -bag which it contains, and religion must understand -this.”</p> - -<p>At the same time that this suicidal tendency is -operating in the field of man’s highest values -seeking to destroy his standards and to discredit<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> -the title-deeds of all his greatest treasures, a precisely -contrary tendency is acting in commerce -and politics, in the field of man’s lower values. -While men are busy on the one hand in the effort -to materialize the spiritual wealth which Christianity -has produced, other men are seeking with -a new earnestness to spiritualize our material -wealth. As education, science, philanthropy, -surrenders the spiritual vision and ideal, trade -and politics clutch after it. Never before in the -history of the world has there been such an effort -as there is to-day to idealize nationalism, to build -up spiritual conceptions behind the State, to -make racial feeling a religion. If some men -think that religious values and spiritual ideas -and so-called “metaphysical” notions can be -spared from charity and social service, other -men are striving with all their might to secure -all this rejected mass of vitality and power for -patriotism and the national life.</p> - -<p>And the same spiritualizing and idealizing -tendency is even more evident in commerce and -finance. Wealth becomes less and less material. -In primitive times riches consisted in flocks and -herds and land and in actual gold and silver -bullion or coins which their owner put in a crock -and buried in his house. Now wealth consists -in credit and securities, in figures written on a -ledger in a bank, or in scraps of paper in a tin -box. The world’s work is done with little visible<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span> -wealth. Our new banking system is meant for -this very purpose, to provide immaterial instrumentalities. -Millions of dollars are transported -invisibly. By a cable message or a message -through the air untold wealth that was in London -can be made to appear in New York. And all -these intangible forms of wealth are exceeded in -the judgment of the late Mr. J. P. Morgan by the -credit of character, something still more “metaphysical.” -The spiritualization of the material -keeps pace on one side with the materialization -of the spiritual on the other.</p> - -<p>However clear or foggy our ideas on these -issues may be now, viewing them as present -issues, we cannot fail to see sharply the indisputable -facts of the past. Looking backward -we simply do not discern and cannot remember -the visible and outward values or possessors of -values at all. Where is the actual material -wealth of earlier days, the flocks, the gold and -silver, the palaces? The amazing thing is that -it is all gone. The gold and silver which Rome -gathered from the world, which went home to -Spain in the days of the Conquistadores, where is -it all now? Where are those who boasted it and -built their fame or power on it? Shelley tells us -in his sonnet, “Ozymandias,”</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I met a traveller from an antique land</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Who said, ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span> - <div class="verse indent1">Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Tell that its sculptor well those passions read</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless things,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And on the pedestal these words appear:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Nothing beside remains. Round the decay</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The lone and level sands stretch far away.’”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">And what befell Ozymandias’ image has befallen -almost all the works of the ancients’ hands. A -few of their temples remain, and the arches of -their viaducts and some of the images of their -public worship and of their national ideals. But -their wealth and the treasure houses which they -kept it in and the palaces of their pleasure and -the cities of their pride are gone. I never -felt more keenly the tragedy and the truth of -this utter transitoriness and insecurity of all national -glory than looking over the massive ruins -of the palace of the Chosroes kings at Kasr-i-Shirin. -All of Browning’s “Love Among the -Ruins” seemed to be there in mute evidence -before one’s eyes:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Miles and miles</div> - <div class="verse indent1">On the solitary pastures where our sheep</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Half-asleep</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop</div> - <div class="verse indent9">As they crop—</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span> - <div class="verse indent1">Was the site once of a city great and gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent9">(So they say)</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Of our country’s very capital, its prince</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Ages since</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Peace or war.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Now,—the country does not even boast a tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent9">As you see,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills</div> - <div class="verse indent9">From the hills</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Intersect and give a name to, (else they run</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Into one,)</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Up like fires</div> - <div class="verse indent1">O’er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Bounding all,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Twelve abreast.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Never was!</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o’erspreads</div> - <div class="verse indent9">And embeds</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Stock or stone—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Long ago;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Struck them tame;</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And that glory and that shame alike, the gold</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Bought and sold.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Now,—the single little turret that remains</div> - <div class="verse indent9">On the plains,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">By the caper overrooted, by the gourd</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Overscored,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">While the patching houseleek’s head of blossom winks</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Through the chinks—</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Sprang sublime.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span> - <div class="verse indent1">And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced</div> - <div class="verse indent9">As they raced,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And the monarch and his minions and his dames</div> - <div class="verse indent9">Viewed the games.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>All this is gone. The only wealth of the past -which has survived is such as Christ referred to. -“I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” The -ideas and the literature which enshrined them -alone remain. Not the manuscripts. They are -gone, as though God would show in the most -vivid way His scorn of the visible and earth’s -“real.” Not one original page of Plato exists. -But Plato’s mind is here still. The kings are -gone. But Isaiah and Jeremiah, the men of the -inward resources, spokesmen and ministers of the -invisible life, abide.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The tumult and the shouting dies</div> - <div class="verse indent1">The captains and the kings depart</div> - <div class="verse indent1">Still stands Thine against sacrifice</div> - <div class="verse indent1">A humble and a contrite heart.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p>And the issue is clear enough when we look at -it concretely to-day and contrast the men who -have the inward resources with those who have -not, the movements which are fed from deep -ideal springs with those which deal skin-deep -only with humanity. In one of our American -cities the president of a large institution was -shelved in the prime of life by younger and less -conservative men who acquired control of the -business. They treated the older man well, gave<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span> -him the nominal headship with his former salary, -but really transferred all the power to other men. -It was the chance of a lifetime for the older man. -He had his strength and his time for any service -or ministry or pleasure he might choose. But -the only meat which he had to eat was the management -of the business, and accordingly he -starved to death in a fine home and with a large -salary. All that the bag of his body needed he -had, but man cannot live by bread alone without -a word from God. The Tinker of Bedford -Jail heard the key turn in the lock behind him. -And did he famish alone? He opened the gate -of his house within and out they came—Christian -and Great-Heart and Hopeful and Evangelist -and Mercy and Dare-to-Die—and the loneliness -of John Bunyan’s cell became the greatest society -on earth, and the immortals who marched out of -the wealth of his soul are the companions of -millions who could not name one human being -who was Bunyan’s contemporary. The rich men -who have transmitted real wealth have been the -lovers, the dreamers, the servers who ate bread -at God’s hands and who knew and taught men -that the life is more than meat and the body than -raiment. “She was not daily bread,” wrote her -niece of Emily Dickinson. “She was star dust.”</p> - -<p>This above all was characteristic of Christ. Part -of our Lord’s preëminence of nature and of -achievement was the untold wealth of His inward<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span> -resources. No philanthropist or social worker -ever lived who was His equal in all that our ethical -materialists admire and praise. But behind -all this and as explaining all this He had meat to -eat that men knew not, thoughts of God, ideas of -origin and destiny, of whence He came and -whither He was going, fellowship, purposes, a -spiritual program. His wealth was an inward, a -communicable and eternal treasure. It nourished -Him and was for all men.</p> - -<p>“I have meat to eat,” said He. “Who brought -it to Him?” asked they. “A primrose by the -river’s brim a yellow primrose” was to them; -and it was nothing more. Meat was meat, mutton -or beef to His disciples. But to Him the -primrose was a volume of revelation. Meat was -very life of God within His soul. Language to -Christ was windows into the wealth of the eternities -and the infinites. To men it was words. -His discernment of latent values in men made -Him a rich man wherever He found a fellow. -He had cargoes of redeemable character afloat on -the wide waters of mankind, and these He was -forever drawing home. Men brought Him a sinner, -flotsam of Galilee; and Jesus saw Himself -rich with the latent life of Peter of Pentecost, -victor of the gates of hell. The stained hand of -the Samaritan concubine became under His faith -purified to bear the chalice of the life of God. -He had more wealth latent in human character<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span> -than Crœsus ever dreamed of. His universalism, -also, made Him rich with all the wealth of humanity. -All around Him men choked and died -in the stifling air of racial exclusion and prejudice. -He lived in the whole free world. Thinking -in terms of all mankind and all the ages -makes the thinker rich beyond all the dreams of -any racial avarice or national pride.</p> - -<p>But above all His meat was simply this: to -walk with God, to do the will of God and to accomplish -His work. His life was in God’s will, -His strength in God’s companionship. He lived -powerfully among men because He dwelt deeply -in God. His wealth was not herds and gold, nor -bonds and credits, nor deeds; but the power to -do deeds in the might and pity of God.</p> - -<p>And the inward resources of Christ which are -true wealth are accessible also to us; and not accessible -only, but indispensable. We need not -set much store by what the world calls wealth. -Its one worthy use is as capital for human service; -and Christ who had none of it here still did and -inspired more service than all the world’s capital -has performed. Louis Pasteur was living on a -salary of a few hundred francs. All that he did -was to examine with a microscope things infinitesimally -small and to reflect upon them, and -then in his laboratory to write down and send -forth some new ideas. The practical men derided -his “pure science,”—a mere student of theories,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span> -spinner of silk dreams thinner than the filaments -of the silkworms of southern France. But Pasteur’s -thoughts were the richest source of wealth -in France. “Pasteur’s discoveries alone,” said -Huxley, “would suffice to cover the war indemnity -paid by France to Germany in 1870.”<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> -True wealth is inward resources, the love of -God’s world, of truth and holy thoughts, friendship -with the living and the dead, the possession -of the Son of God and His words which are spirit -and life, and of His Spirit “whom the world cannot -receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither -knoweth Him; ye know Him; for He abideth -with you, and shall be in you.”</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noi"><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Vallery-Radot, “Life of Pasteur,” popular edition, p. 374.</p> - -</div> - -<p>And all this wealth may be ours without going -anywhere for it. No man brought it to Him. -“I have meat,” He said. So He calls us to be -rich. We do not need to go anywhere for it. -No man needs to bring it to us. It is here. It -is Himself—the Bread of Life. Can we also say, -“I have it—meat to eat, of the world unknown, -within my soul, within my soul”?</p> - -<p>To be able to say that is our great American -need. I will not say that it is a greater need -now than it has ever been because we have -deteriorated and need to recover the element of -spiritual idealism in our national character. We -have not deteriorated. Doubtless we have lost -many things that it would have been well for us<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span> -to have kept, and have kept much that it would -have been better to lose. But we have gained -in our perception of the higher values and we -seek them more and not less than ever before. -We are far from being what we ought to be, but -the past was farther, and we only think otherwise -because we clothe the past in mists of idealization. -That very error is proof of our deeper -spiritual discerning. Evils are challenged now -which passed uncondemned a half generation -ago. But though we have gained, we need to -gain more, and what we need to gain is not -something æsthetic or intellectual only, not -broader philosophies or wider social programs, -not anything external or merely ethical, but -something biological and dynamic. We need -the push and power of what One and One only -offers. “The thief cometh not,” said Christ, -“but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: -I came that they may have life, and may have it -abundantly.”</p> - -<p>Not long before his death, as all remember, -the late Mr. Morgan was summoned to testify -before a congressional committee which was -seeking to locate the seat of the money power. -The object of those examining Mr. Morgan was -to bring out the extent of his own influence and -control, and to show, if possible, that in the -hands of a few men was concentrated the real -domination of the financial life of America. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span> -popular impression, after the examination was -over, was that Mr. Morgan’s modest disavowals -were justified by all the testimony, and that there -was no one person, or any group of individuals, -in this country who possessed so much power as -was supposed to reside in the hands of a little -company of men.</p> - -<p>Now, at the best, there was no question of -creating or producing anything. Nobody -thought of asking Mr. Morgan whether he could -create a grain of wheat, or heal a disease, or -bring into existence anything that was not already -here. The main question was how much -of something that was here already was he, or -any other man, able to control. As one read -the testimony, the one dominant impression it -made on his mind was how small and weak and -ineffectual even the strongest human life was, -and how little was the effect that it could produce -in what it was able to do in behalf of -others.</p> - -<p>How weak does even the strongest personality -appear when contrasted with One Who can say -such words as these I have just quoted! Suppose -some great man now living were to say to -us: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are -heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If any -man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. I -am come that they may have life, and may have -it abundantly,” how startled we should be! But<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span> -we have become familiar with the claim on the -lips of Christ and do not realize what we are -really confronted with in that single great Personality -standing among men and offering to -meet the ultimate human need, to give us the -deepest, richest, most priceless thing in the -world, which no one of us can give another. -“I am come that ye may have life, and that ye -may have it abundantly.”</p> - -<p>And notice that here is not a claim only. -There is a strange and startling contrast. “The -thief cometh to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: -I am come that ye may have life.” On the one -side is our Lord. Him we know. But who is -this thief on the other side who has come, not to -give life, but to reduce it, contract it, dilute it—destroy -it altogether? Well, we know well -enough that sin is such a thief, that wherever -sin is allowed to come into our lives it abridges -those lives, draws in the walls of their expansion, -cuts down and impoverishes their joys. And -there are many things short of sin, less coarse -and evil, which, nevertheless, draw in the boundaries -of life, narrow and stifle it, and do the work -of the thief who came to kill, and to destroy, and -to steal. Over against all these He stands Who -said: “I came to give life, to give it abundantly.”</p> - -<p>Now we know very well what men and women -say when you bring them this offer of Christ’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span> -about His life. “Oh,” they say, “it all depends -upon what you mean by life. I have my own -idea of life. The life I am living is rich and -satisfying to me, and I am not drawn to this life -that your tepid religion offers me in exchange.” -But are those who answer so fully satisfied? Are -they really satisfied at all with any part of their -life except such of it as consists of the kind of -life that Jesus Christ our Lord Himself came to -bring, with which alone the hearts of men can be -content?</p> - -<p>What do we mean when we speak of life that -really satisfies us? I asked some boys a little -while ago what they meant when they spoke -about life, real life that would satisfy men. Four -were boys at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pa. -They sat down and collaborated for a while as -to what real life meant to them, and when they -got through it came to this: Purity, integrity, -the principle of Christian service, unselfishness, -and the desire to be perfect. I asked another -man at Princeton what life meant to him, real -life. He was one of the best athletes in the college, -and this was the answer he gave: Humility, -charitableness, bravery, strength of conviction, -honesty, sincerity, truthfulness and the power to -forgive. I asked a man at Yale what he thought -life was. He was the most popular man in the -senior class at that time. This was what he -wrote down: “Service after the manner of Jesus,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span> -honesty carried all the way through, sympathy, -capacity for work, patience in holding to principle, -as well as fidelity in actual duty.”</p> - -<p>Now if we were to define life better than these -boys, and yet in the way they were feeling after, -not in any concrete expressions, but in its central -principle, we should borrow the words which -Professor Drummond borrowed from Herbert -Spencer. Spencer said that the perfect correspondence -of any organism with its environment -would be perfect life. Professor Drummond -modified this by adding just one word: the perfect -correspondence of any organism with a perfect -environment would be perfect life. Or, to -put it as it is stated in one of our best dictionaries: -life is that state in any animal or plant in -which its different functions are all occupied in -active healthy expression. Now that is just -what those boys were feeling after. Life is the -free and fearless completion of ourselves. Life -is our utter unfolding in the direction of that of -which we are capable. Life is the pushing out -of the rim of our world into the great and boundless -riches of God. Life is the opening up of -the gates of our prison house that we may go -after Him Whose word to men was: “If ye -abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; -and ye shall know the truth, and the -truth shall make you free.” Life is what Jesus -Christ came to give, for His mission was this:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span> -“The thief came to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. -I am come that they may have life, and -may have it abundantly.”</p> - -<p>One great purpose of the Incarnation was to -show what we are in our deepest being in the -purpose of God, and what we are capable of. Our -Lord did not come to parade before men the exceptional -life to which they could never attain. -He came, as He Himself said, to show them -what it had been His Father’s will that they -should all be. “As my Father hath sent me, -even so send I you.” “I go unto my Father, -and your Father; and to my God, and your -God.” What Jesus Christ was in the fullness of -His unlimited life was the revealing of what God -has in His will for every one of us. The amplitudes -that we see in Him, the subsidence of all -the petty boundaries, the unhampered outgoing -of His free spirit in the area of His Father, God,—all -that is just a picture of what God meant the -life of each one of us to be. That is why they -called Him the Son of Man, because He was the -picture of what God had meant that His son, -man, might be.</p> - -<p>And Christ came, not only to show the possibilities -of such being, of what men could do and -what they could be made, but to be Himself that -expression of power in them competent to effect -such a result, the tide of the boundless life flowing -through all the channels that they could offer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span> -to Him. He came to be in mankind the deep, -flowing stream of a new life. One regrets to -find in some churches to-day in the repetition of -the Apostles’ Creed the omission of the sentence: -“He descended into hell.” There is no word in -the Creed which expresses more fully the uttermost -reach of the purpose of our Lord and the -scope and boundlessness of His love. Down -even into hell He went in the utterance of His -love for mankind. How much this means! But -to say no more, it means this, that deep into the -dark of our human life He came, that there, below -all sight, below all thought, He might release -the vital streams that have been flowing from the -fountain of Calvary ever since, and which have -no other fountain.</p> - -<p>We know what would happen in our bodies, -to put it simply, if some great artery that fed our -life were tied. Atrophy and palsy would creep -at once over our unnourished frames. Precisely -the same thing is true in the deeper life of our -souls, if the arteries, those channels through -which Christ would pour His energy and -strength and power, are tied. To put the same -thing still more simply: Suppose the Mississippi -River instead of running into the Gulf ran out -of the Gulf deep into the land. Suppose all of -the rivers poured into the land instead of into -the seas. As a matter of fact, that is in one -sense what they do. We have got long past<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span> -looking at rivers as drains for the land. We -know that they are arteries through which the -life-blood of the seas flows upon the land by -way of the skies. And suppose there were no -Mississippi River. Suppose it were stopped at -the gate. What a chill and death would fall -upon the land! And how often that life of Christ -which comes up to the gates of men’s lives is -stifled, the stream that would pour in kept out, -the power that would control and remake blocked -at the door through which it would enter. “The -thief is come,” He says, “and you let him in, to -kill, and to steal, and to destroy; I am come, -and you keep Me out. And I am come that -you may have life, and that you may have it in -all the abundance of God.”</p> - -<p>And we know that this life of Christ is real and -abundant life because it fulfills the tests of life. -It is a life of fullness in all its correspondences -and relationships. It completes life to the uttermost -of its possibilities, setting it in all those ties -with that which is outside of it, which constitute -life. For, after all, there is no separable life. -All the life that we know is relationship. Our -Lord defined it in such terms in His great -prayer: “This is life eternal, that they might -know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, -whom thou hast sent.” Life can only be construed -in terms of correspondence.</p> - -<p>We know that the life Christ came to give,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span> -and does give, is the satisfying and real life, -because it meets these testings. It gives us this -wealth of correspondence of relationship.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Oh, the pure delight of a single hour,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">That before Thy Cross I spend,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,</div> - <div class="verse indent3">I commune as friend with friend.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">We know that the life Christ brings is complete -and full, because it reëstablishes the tie and union -between ourselves and God, and He becomes to -us again our Father and our Friend. We know -it, because it is the root of all deep and true and -satisfying human relationships. How can there -be a real and full union of one man and one -woman that is not a union in Christ? And for -the highest friendship and its ideals we find -sanction and nourishment best in Him and the -groundwork of His life.</p> - -<p>And Christ’s is the real and satisfying life, because -it is creative and energizing. It is not -like the influence of that thief—selfishness, low -desire, sin and small ambition—who kills and -steals and destroys. But the life that Christ is -teems with vitalizing power; it is strength and -energy and new service in men. I have never -seen it more beautifully put than in a letter of -Stanley to David Livingstone. It was found by -Lady Stanley in a little pocketbook which her -husband had carried on the expedition for the -relief of Livingstone. It was written in lead<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> -pencil. It was a copy of the letter that Stanley -had written to the great explorer the very day -after he left him. It has sometimes been questioned -whether Livingstone really made on Stanley -the impression which Stanley describes in his -autobiography. There have been those who said -that that picture was but the reading back over -the intervening years of a growing hero worship. -But here is the letter which Stanley wrote as he -came fresh from the old missionary’s companionship -and the inspiration of his personality:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noi">“<span class="smcap">My dear Doctor</span>:</p> - -<p>“I have parted from you all too soon; I feel it -deeply; I am entirely conscious of it from being so depressed.... -In writing to you, I am not writing to -an idea now, but to an embodiment of warm, good fellowship, -of everything that is noble and right, of sound common -sense, of everything practical and right-minded.</p> - -<p>“I have talked with you; your presence is almost palpable, -though you are absent....</p> - -<p>“It seems as if I had left a community of friends and -relations. The utter loneliness of myself, the void that has -been created, the pang at parting, the bleak aspect of the -future, is the same as I have felt before, when parting from -dear friends.</p> - -<p>“Why should people be subjected to these partings, -with the several sorrows and pangs that surely follow -them?—It is a consolation, however, after tearing myself -away, that I am about to do you a service, for then I have -not quite parted from you; you and I are not quite separate. -Though I am not present to you bodily, you must<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span> -think of me daily until your caravan arrives. Though you -are not before me visibly, I shall think of you constantly, -until your least wish has been attended to. In this way -the chain of remembrance will not be severed.</p> - -<p>“‘Not yet,’ I say to myself, ‘are we apart,’ and this to -me, dear Doctor, is consoling, believe me. Had I a series -of services to perform for you, why then! we should never -have to part.</p> - -<p>“Do not fear then, I beg, to ask, nay, to command, -whatever lies in my power. And do not, I beg of you, -attribute these professions to interested motives, but accept -them, or believe them, in the spirit in which they are -made, in that true David Livingstone spirit I have happily -become acquainted with.”</p> -</div> - -<p>And out from that lonely spot in eastern -Africa, the younger man came to begin a new -career; all the old aimlessness and shiftlessness -and drifting gone forever from his life, to pass -on now to lift up the mission which, beneath the -dripping eaves of the hut in which he died, David -Livingstone laid down. The tide of a new life -and a new service was in him. “I came that ye -may have life, and that ye may have it abundantly.” -He had seen Christ and felt the contagion -of the life of Christ in Livingstone, and -Christ’s word, articulate or inarticulate, had come -to live in him. And that life is life in the power -and desire to serve.</p> - -<p>This life that Christ came to give is the only -real and satisfying life, because it alone endures. -We gather at Northfield each summer and always<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span> -go up to read afresh the brief inscription on Mr. -Moody’s grave on Round Top, “The world passeth -away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth -the will of God abideth forever.” We sing the -same great truth constantly in George Matheson’s -hymn:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I lay in dust life’s glory dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent1">And from the ground there blossoms red</div> - <div class="verse indent3">Life that shall endless be.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="noi">I wrote the other day to a friend about her -sister-in-law’s death, and this was the last sentence -of the letter which she wrote in reply:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“I do not know if he”—that was her brother—“told -you how beautiful it was at the last; how S——’s face -lighted up with such an expression of surprise and adoration, -with her eyes open to their fullest extent, and then it -was all over. Only a glimpse into the life that was not to -end could have brought such a look to a human face.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“And that life,” said He Who was the life, “I -brought with Me and will give to you.”</p> - -<p>Let us lift our hearts to the life that shall endless -be, to the liberty on which there never lay a -chain, to the light of the land that hath no need -of any sun, because the “Lamb is the light -thereof,” the land of the new morning and the -tearless life. The thief cometh—let him not -come in!—only to kill, and to steal, and to destroy. -“I am come, and I stand at the door -and ask you now to let Me in, that you may -have life abundantly.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span></p> - -<p>As these lectures close I would press all this -in the most earnest and personal terms upon -each one individually. The processes of social -and moral progress in humanity are retarded or -broken down because they are not carried on a -volume of adequate spiritual life in men. There -ought to be a Kingdom of Living Love and -Brotherly Will on the earth. And some day -there will be, but there is not now and there cannot -be until the anemia of man is healed, and it -can be healed in only one way—by more life in -man, by life abounding in men. The commercial -and materialistic solution of the world’s -problem has been fully tried. For a generation -it has been preached and practiced as the one -saving gospel and out of the depths to which it -brought us we begin to turn heavenward again. -The day for a new creed has dawned—the old -creed of truth and hope and freedom and life, of -the wealth and glory of a city unseen as yet, hid -in the heavens and only possible on the earth as -drawn down by men to whom the invisible things -are the surest of all realities and who live and are -strong in God.</p> - - -<p class="noic"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic adtitle">INSPIRATION FOR MEN</p> -</div> - -<hr class="r30" /> - -<p class="noi adauthor"><i>ROBERT W. BOLWELL</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">After College—What?</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A protest, in the form of autobiographical chapters, against -dawdling through college. The author is sprightly and readable,—anything -but preachy—but does put some very wholesome -and helpful facts in such form as to grip the reader.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>HALFORD E. LUCCOCK</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Five-Minute Shop-Talks</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p class="adworks">One of the best things of its kind yet issued. In each -of these thirty or more brief addresses, Mr. Luccock employs -terse, epigrammatic language and contrives to compress -into a five-minute talk the wisdom and counsel of a fifty-minute -sermon. Every word is made to tell—to tell something -worth hearing and heeding.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>CHARLES CARROLL ALBERTSON</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Chapel Talks</p> - -<p>A Collection of Sermons to College Students. -12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p class="adworks">Practical discourses on essential subjects delivered in various -colleges and universities, including Columbia, Cornell, -Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, and Virginia. No one of these -sermons required more than twenty-five minutes to deliver. -They are characterized by earnest argument, familiar illustrations -and forceful appeal.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>CORTLANDT MYERS, D. D.</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Author of “Real Prayer,” -“The Real Holy Spirit,” etc.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Man Inside</p> - -<p>A Study of One’s Self. By Minister at Tremont -Temple, Boston. 12mo, cloth, net 50c.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A four-fold study of the inner life of a man, in which the -popular pastor of Tremont Temple, discusses the forces that -make him, lift him, save him, and move him. The book is -prepared in bright, interesting fashion, and abundantly furnished -with suitable and forceful illustration.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>JOHN T. FARIS</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Popular-Price Editions</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The “Success Books”</p> - -<p>Three Vols. each, formerly $1.25 net. Now each -60c. net (postage extra).</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noi"><b>Seeking Success</b><br /> -<b>Men Who Made Good</b><br /> -<b>Making Good</b></p> -</div> - -<p class="adworks"><i>Dr. J. R. Miller</i> says: “Bright and short and full of illustrations -from actual life, they are just the sort that will help -young men in the home in school among associates and in -business.”</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic adtitle">BIOGRAPHY</p> -</div> - -<hr class="r30" /> - -<p class="noi adauthor"><i>CHARLES G. TRUMBULL</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Anthony Comstock, Fighter</p> - -<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p class="adworks">An authorized biography of this great fighter for purity. -The story is one of life-and-death adventure, moral and -physical heroism, and incomparable achievement. During -the thirty years in which Mr. Comstock has been working for -the suppression of vice he has destroyed over 43 tons of vile -books, 28,425 pounds of stereotype plates, two and a half -million obscene pictures and 12,945 negatives. The detailed -account of how all this was done is a most thrilling and remarkable -story.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>FRANK J. CANNON—DR. GEORGE L. KNAPP</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire</p> - -<p>Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p class="adworks">Ex-Senator Cannon’s personal acquaintance with this apostle -of the Mormon Church and his knowledge of the religion -and the people gained by having been born and brought up -in the heart of Mormondom, give more than usual authority -and interest to this biography. This life story of the man -who founded a Mohammedan kingdom in a puritan republic -sets forth in true perspective, in impartial and unbiased -manner, the facts about one of the most romantic and interesting -characters in American history.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>FRANCES WILLARD</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Frances Willard: <small>Her Life and Her Work</small></p> - -<p>By Ray Strachey. With an Introduction by Lady -Henry Somerset. Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A notable new life of the great temperance advocate written -by an English woman from an entirely new standpoint. -Mrs. Strachey, the granddaughter of the author of “A -Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life,” had immediate access -to Miss Willard’s letters, journals and papers, and the benefit -of her grandmother’s advice and knowledge.</p> - -<p class="adworks">Israel Zangwill says of the book, “A masterpiece of condensation, -an adequate biography of perhaps the greatest -woman America has produced. Nobody can read this book -without becoming braver, better, wiser.”</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>MRS. S. MOORE SITES</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Nathan Sites:</p> - -<p>Introduction by Bishop W. F. McDowell. Oriental -Hand-Painted Illustrations, gilt top, net $1.50.</p> - -<p class="adworks">This is one of the notable books of the year. China looms -large in current political and religious interest, so that this -life story of one who for nearly half a century has been -closely identified with social and religious reform in that -country must have a large place in current literature.</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic adtitle">QUESTIONS OF THE FAITH</p> -</div> - -<hr class="r30" /> - -<p class="noi adauthor"><i>JAMES H. SNOWDEN, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Psychology of Religion</p> - -<p>8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p class="adworks">Psychology is one of the most rapidly advancing of modern -sciences, and Dr. Snowden’s book will find a ready welcome. -While especially adapted for the use of ministers and teachers, -it is not in any sense an ultra-academic work. This is -evidenced by the fact that the material forming it has been -delivered not only as a successful Summer School course, but -in the form of popular lectures, open to the general public.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>WILLIAM HALLOCK JOHNSON, Ph.D., D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Professor of Greek and New Testament Literature in Lincoln University, Pa.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Christian Faith under Modern -Searchlight</p> - -<p>The L. P. Stone Lectures, Princeton. Introduction -by Francis L. Patton, D.D. Cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p class="adworks">The faith which is to survive must not only be a traditional -but an intelligent faith which has its roots in reason and experience -and its blossom and fruit in character and good -works. To this end, the author examines the fundamentals -of the Christian belief in the light of to-day and reaches the -conclusion that every advance in knowledge establishes its -sovereign claim to be from heaven and not from men.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>ANDREW W. ARCHIBALD, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Author of “The Bible Verified,” “The Trend of the Centuries,” etc.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Modern Man Facing the Old -Problems</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A thoughtful, ably-conducted study in which those problems -of human life, experience and destiny, which, in one -form or another, seem recurrent in every age, are examined -from what may be called a Biblical viewpoint. That is to say, -the author by its illuminating rays, endeavors to find elucidation -and solution for the difficulties, which in more or less -degree, perplex believer and unbeliever alike.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>NOLAN RICE BEST</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Editor of “The Continent”</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Applied Religion for Everyman</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p class="adworks">“Nolan Rice Best has earned a well-deserved reputation in -the religious press of America, as a writer of virile, trenchantly-phrased -editorials. The selection here brought together -represent his best efforts, and contains an experienced editor’s -suggestions for the ever-recurrent problems confronting -Church members as a body, and as individual Christians. Mr. -Best wields a facile pen, and a sudden gleam of beauty, a -difficult thought set in a perfect phrase, or an old idea invested -with new meaning and grace, meets one at every turn -of the page.”—<cite>The Record Herald.</cite></p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic adtitle">BIBLE STUDY</p> -</div> - -<hr class="r30" /> - -<p class="noi adauthor"><i>JOHN W. LIGON</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Pastor Christian Church, -Barboursville, Ky.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Paul the Apostle</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.15.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A life of the Apostle to the Gentiles, which, while fuller -than the brief outlines usually followed in class instruction, -is sufficiently condensed to admit of its being specially adapted -to the use of busy men and women and the young people of -the Church. The events and incidents of Paul’s career are -woven into a continuous narrative, furnishing a living picture -of his wonderful life as far as that life can be known.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>DWIGHT GODDARD</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Jesus</p> - -<p>And the Problems of Human Life. Cloth, net 50c.</p> - -<p class="adworks">These discourses show the value and usefulness of the Good -News of a Spiritual Realm and the Way of Salvation to anyone -who has felt a desire to make that supreme adventure in -faith. They set the “Good News” into its right relation with -present-day thought.</p> - - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Good News</p> - -<p>Of a Spiritual Realm. Paraphrased by Dwight Goddard. -<i>Second Edition.</i> 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p class="adworks">An interweaving and paraphrasing of the Four Gospels, -bringing out clearly the unity and reasonableness of Jesus’ -Life and Teachings. Appropriate for devotional reading, study -classes, and as a gift book to those we would like to become -interested in our Lord.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>B. H. CARROLL, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">An Interpretation of the English Bible</p> - -<p class="noic adauthor"><i>NEW VOLUMES ADDED TO THIS SERIES</i></p> - -<p><b>The Pastoral Epistles</b> of Paul and 1 and 2 Peter, -Jude and 1, 2 and 3 John. 8vo, cloth, net $1.75.</p> - -<p><b>The Book of Daniel</b> and the Inter-Biblical Period. -8vo, cloth, net $1.75.</p> - -<p><b>The Four Gospels. Vol. I.</b> 8vo, cloth, net $2.50.</p> - -<p><b>The Four Gospels. Vol. II.</b> 8vo, cloth, net $2.50.</p> - -<p><b>The Acts.</b> 8vo, cloth, net $2.25.</p> - -<p><b>James I–II</b>, <b>Thessalonians I</b> and <b>II Corinthians</b>. -Net $1.75.</p> - -<p class="adworks">“These works are designed especially for class use in the -Seminary, Christian Colleges and Bible Schools, as well as -the Sunday School. That they will make the greatest commentary -on the English Bible ever published, is our sincere -conviction.”—<cite>Baptist and Reflector.</cite></p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>EDWARD AUGUSTUS GEORGE</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Twelve: <small>Apostolic Types of Christian Men</small></p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.15.</p> - -<p class="adworks">“Under his living touch the apostles seem very much like -the men we know and their problems not dissimilar to our -own.”—<cite>Congregationalist.</cite></p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>PROF. W. G. MOOREHEAD</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>OUTLINE STUDIES in the NEW TESTAMENT SERIES</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Catholic Epistles and Revelation</p> - -<p>In One Volume. <i>New Edition.</i> 12mo, net $1.20</p> - -<p class="adworks">Containing James, I and II Peter, I, II and III John, and -Jude, and the Book of Revelation.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>ALEXANDER CRUDEN</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Complete Concordance</p> - -<p>Large 8vo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p class="adworks"><i>New Unabridged Edition</i>, with the Table of Proper Names -entirely revised and mistranslations in the meanings corrected, -many suggestive notes.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D.</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">A Dictionary of the Bible</p> - -<p>Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography and Natural -History, with Numerous Illustrations and Maps. -<i>A New Worker’s Edition.</i> 776 pages. Net $1.25.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>NEW THIN PAPER EDITION</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">The Boy Scouts’ Twentieth Century -New Testament</p> - -<p>Officially authorized by the Boy Scouts’ of America. -New Thin Paper Edition.</p> - -<p>181. 16mo, khaki cloth, net 85c.</p> -<p>182. 16mo, ooze leather, khaki color, net $1.50.</p> - -<p class="adworks">Contains an introduction by the Executive Board, the -Scouts’ Oath, and the Scouts’ Law.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>HENRY T. SELL, D.D. (Editor)</i></p> - -<p class="noi works"><i>Author of Sell’s Bible Studies</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">XX Century Story of the Christ</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 60c.</p> - -<p class="adworks">From the text of The Twentieth Century New Testament, -Dr. Sell has completed a Harmony of The Gospels which, -while studiously avoiding repetition omits no important word -in the fourfold record of the earthly life and teaching of our -Lord. He has done his work well, and the result is a compilation -specially designed and adapted for the use of the -average reader.</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="noic adtitle">CHRIST’S LIFE AND MESSAGE</p> -</div> - -<hr class="r30" /> - -<p class="noi adauthor"><i>ALBERT L. VAIL</i></p> - -<p class="noic adtitle">Portraiture of Jesus in the Gospels</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> - -<p class="adworks">A fourfold portrait of Jesus as He stands out on the canvas -of each of the Four Gospels. The varying and distinctive -shadings of the four pictures, are not, Mr. Vail contends, -a matter of accident but of Divine arrangement and -design. Our Lord is thus presented in a fourfold aspect in -order that His appeal to various classes of mankind might -be the more manifold.</p> - - -<p class="p2 noi adauthor"><i>FRANK E. 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