diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11693-8.txt | 5541 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11693-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 123568 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11693.txt | 5541 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11693.zip | bin | 0 -> 123545 bytes |
4 files changed, 11082 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/11693-8.txt b/old/11693-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c549625 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11693-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5541 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The world's great sermons, Volume 8, by Grenville Kleiser + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The world's great sermons, Volume 8 + Talmage to Knox Little + +Author: Grenville Kleiser + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11693] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS VOL. 8 *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + +THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS + + +GRENVILLE KLEISER + +Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in +Public," Etc. + +With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other +Theologians + + +INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + +Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University + + +VOLUME VIII TALMAGE TO KNOX LITTLE + +1908 + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME VIII. + + + TALMAGE (1832-1901). + A Bloody Monster + + SPURGEON (1834-1892). + Songs in the Night + + POTTER (1834-1908) + Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks + + ABBOTT (Born in 1835). + The Divinity in Humanity + + BROOKS (1835-1893). + The Pride of Life + + GLADDEST (Born in 1836). + The Prince of Life + + CLIFFORD (Born in 1836). + The Forgiveness of Sins + + MOODY (1837-1899). + What Think Ye of Christ? + + FOWLER (1837-1908). + The Spirit of Christ + + WHYTE (Born in 1837). + Experience + + WATKINSON (Born in 1838). + The Transfigured Sackcloth + + LORIMER (1838-1904). + The Fall of Satan + + LITTLE (Born in 1839). + Thirst Satisfied + + + + +TALMAGE + +A BLOODY MONSTER + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Thomas De Witt Talmage was born at Bound Brook, N.J., in 1832. For +many years he preached to large and enthusiastic congregations at the +Brooklyn Tabernacle. At one time six hundred newspapers regularly +printed his sermons. He was a man of great vitality, optimistic by +nature, and particularly popular with young people. His voice +was rather high and unmusical, but his distinct enunciation and +earnestness of manner gave a peculiar attraction to his pulpit +oratory. His rhetoric has been criticized for floridness and +sensationalism, but his word pictures held multitudes of people +spellbound as in the presence of a master. He died in 1901. + + + + +TALMAGE + +1832--1901 + +A BLOODY MONSTER[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch, and reprinted by +permission.] + +_It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him._--Gen. xxxvii., +33. + + +Joseph's brethren dipt their brother's coat in goat's blood, and then +brought the dabbled garment to their father, cheating him with the +idea that a ferocious animal had slain him, and thus hiding their +infamous behavior. But there is no deception about that which we hold +up to your observation to-day. A monster such as never ranged African +thicket or Hindustan jungle hath tracked this land, and with bloody +maw hath strewn the continent with the mangled carcasses of whole +generations; and there are tens of thousands of fathers and mothers +who could hold up the garment of their slain boy, truthfully +exclaiming, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him." +There has, in all ages and climes, been a tendency to the improper use +of stimulants. Noah took to strong drink. By this vice, Alexander the +Conqueror was conquered. The Romans at their feasts fell off their +seats with intoxication. Four hundred millions of our race are +opium-eaters. India, Turkey, and China have groaned with the +desolation; and by it have been quenched such lights as Halley and De +Quincey. One hundred millions are the victims of the betelnut, which +has specially blasted the East Indies. Three hundred millions chew +hashish, and Persia, Brazil, and Africa suffer the delirium. The +Tartars employ murowa; the Mexicans, the agave; the people at Guarapo, +an intoxicating product taken from sugarcane; while a great multitude, +that no man can number, are the votaries of alcohol. To it they bow. +Under it they are trampled. In its trenches they fall. On its ghastly +holocaust they burn. Could the muster-roll of this great army be +called, and could they come up from the dead, what eye could endure +the reeking, festering putrefaction? What heart could endure the +groan of agony? Drunkenness! Does it not jingle the burglar's +key? Does it not whet the assassin's knife? Does it not cock the +highwayman's pistol? Does it not wave the incendiary's torch? Has it +not sent the physician reeling into the sick-room; and the minister +with his tongue thick into the pulpit? Did not an exquisite poet, from +the very top of his fame, fall a gibbering sot, into the gutter, on +his way to be married to one of the fairest daughters of New England, +and at the very hour the bride was decking herself for the altar; and +did he not die of delirium tremens, almost unattended, in a hospital? +Tamerlane asked for one hundred and sixty thousand skulls with which +to build a pyramid to his own honor. He got the skulls, and built the +pyramid. But if the bones of all those who have fallen as a prey to +dissipation could be piled up, it would make a vaster pyramid. Who +will gird himself for the journey and try with me to scale this +mountain of the dead--going up miles high on human carcasses to find +still other peaks far above, mountain above mountain white with the +bleached bones of drunkards? + +The Sabbath has been sacrificed to the rum traffic. To many of our +people, the best day of the week is the worst. Bakers must keep their +shops closed on the Sabbath. It is dangerous to have loaves of bread +going out on Sunday. The shoe store is closed: severe penalty will +attack the man who sells boots on the Sabbath. But down with the +window-shutters of the grog-shops. Our laws shall confer particular +honor upon the rum-traffickers. All other trades must stand aside for +these. Let our citizens who have disgraced themselves by trading in +clothing and hosiery and hardware and lumber and coal take off their +hats to the rum-seller, elected to particular honor. It is unsafe for +any other class of men to be allowed license for Sunday work. But +swing out your signs, and open your doors, O ye traffickers in the +peace of families and in the souls of immortal men. Let the corks fly +and the beer foam and the rum go tearing down the half-consumed throat +of the inebriate. God does not see! Does He? Judgment will never come! +Will it? + +It may be that God is determined to let drunkenness triumph, and the +husbands and sons of thousands of our best families be destroyed by +this vice, in order that our people, amazed and indignant, may rise up +and demand the extermination of this municipal crime. There is a way +of driving down the hoops of a barrel so tight that they break. We +have, in this country, at various times, tried to regulate this evil +by a tax on whisky. You might as well try to regulate the Asiatic +cholera or the smallpox by taxation. The men who distil liquors are, +for the most part, unscrupulous; and the higher the tax, the more +inducement to illicit distillation. Oh! the folly of trying to +restrain an evil by government tariff! If every gallon of whisky +made--if every flask of wine produced, should be taxed a thousand +dollars, it would not be enough to pay for the tears it has wrung from +the eyes of widows and orphans, nor for the blood it has dashed on +the Christian Church, nor for the catastrophe of the millions it has +destroyed for ever. + +I sketch two houses in one street. The first is bright as home can be. +The father comes at nightfall, and the children run out to meet him. +Bountiful evening meal! Gratulation and sympathy and laughter! Music +in the parlor! Fine pictures on the wall! Costly books on the table! +Well-clad household! Plenty of everything to make home happy! + +House the second! Piano sold, yesterday by the sheriff! Wife's furs at +pawnbroker's shop! Clock gone! Daughter's jewelry sold to get flour! +Carpets gone off the floor! Daughters in faded and patched dresses! +Wife sewing for the stores! Little child with an ugly wound on her +face, struck by an angry blow! Deep shadow of wretchedness falling in +every room! Doorbell rings! Little children hide! Daughters turn pale! +Wife holds her breath! Blundering step in the hall! Door opens! Fiend, +brandishing his fist, cries, "Out! out! What are you doing here?" Did +I call this house second? No; it is the same house. Rum transformed +it. Rum embruted the man. Rum sold the shawl. Rum tore up the carpets. +Rum shook his fist. Rum desolated the hearth. Rum changed that +paradise into a hell. + +I sketch two men that you know very well. The first graduated from one +of our literary institutions. His father, mother, brothers and sisters +were present to see him graduate. They heard the applauding thunders +that greeted his speech. They saw the bouquets tossed to his feet. +They saw the degree conferred and the diploma given. He never looked +so well. Everybody said, "What a noble brow! What a fine eye! What +graceful manners! What brilliant prospects!" + +Man the second: Lies in the station-house. The doctor has just been +sent for to bind up the gashes received in a fight. His hair is matted +and makes him look like a wild beast. His lip is bloody and cut. Who +is this battered and bruised wretch that was picked up by the police +and carried in drunk and foul and bleeding? Did I call him man the +second? He is man the first! Rum transformed him. Rum destroyed his +prospects. Rum disappointed parental expectation. Rum withered those +garlands of commencement day. Rum cut his lip. Rum dashed out his +manhood. Rum, accurst rum! + +This foul thing gives one swing to its scythe, and our best merchants +fall; their stores are sold, and they sink into dishonored graves. +Again it swings its scythe, and some of our physicians fall into +suffering that their wisest prescriptions cannot cure. Again it swings +its scythe, and ministers of the gospel fall from the heights of +Zion, with long resounding crash of ruin and shame. Some of your own +households have already been shaken. Perhaps you can hardly admit it; +but where was your son last night? Where was he Friday night? Where +was he Thursday night? Wednesday night? Tuesday night? Monday night? +Nay, have not some of you in your own bodies felt the power of this +habit? You think that you could stop? Are you sure you could? Go on +a little further, and I am sure you cannot. I think, if some of you +should try to break away, you would find a chain on the right wrist, +and one on the left; one on the right foot, and another on the left. +This serpent does not begin to hurt until it has wound 'round and +'round. Then it begins to tighten and strangle and crush until the +bones crack and the blood trickles and the eyes start from their +sockets, and the mangled wretch cries. "O God! O God! help! help!" But +it is too late; and not even the fires of we can melt the chain when +once it is fully fastened. + +I have shown you the evil beast. The question is, who will hunt him +down, and how shall we shoot him? I answer, first, by getting our +children right on this subject. Let them grow up with an utter +aversion to strong drink. Take care how you administer it even as +medicine. If you must give it to them and you find that they have a +natural love for it, as some have, put in a glass of it some horrid +stuff, and make it utterly nauseous. Teach, them, as faithfully as +you do the truths of the Bible, that rum is a fiend. Take them to the +almshouse, and show them the wreck and ruin it works. Walk with them +into the homes that have been scourged by it. If a drunkard hath +fallen into a ditch, take them right up where they can see his face, +bruised, savage, and swollen, and say, "Look, my son. Rum did that!" +Looking out of your window at some one who, intoxicated to madness, +goes through the street, brandishing his fist, blaspheming God, a +howling, defying, shouting, reeling, raving, and foaming maniac, say +to your son, "Look; that man was once a child like you." As you go by +the grog-shop let them know that that is the place where men are slain +and their wives made paupers and their children slaves. Hold out to +your children warnings, all rewards, all counsels, lest in afterdays +they break your heart and curse your gray hairs. A man laughed at my +father for his scrupulous temperance principles, and said: "I am more +liberal than you. I always give my children the sugar in the glass +after we have been taking a drink." Three of his sons have died +drunkards, and the fourth is imbecile through intemperate habits. + +Again, we will grapple this evil by voting only for sober men. How +many men are there who can rise above the feelings of partizanship, +and demand that our officials shall be sober men? I maintain that the +question of sobriety is higher than the question of availability; and +that, however eminent a man's services may be, if he have habits of +intoxication, he is unfit for any office in the gift of a Christian +people. Our laws will be no better than the men who make them. Spend a +few days at Harrisburg or Albany or Washington and you will find +out why, upon these subjects, it is impossible to get righteous +enactments. + +Again, we will war upon this evil by organized societies. The friends +of the rum traffic have banded together; annually issue their +circulars; raise fabulous sums of money to advance their interests; +and by grips, passwords, signs, and strategems, set at defiance public +morals. Let us confront them with organizations just as secret, +and, if need be, with grips and pass-words and signs, maintain our +position. There is no need that our beneficent societies tell all +their plans. I am in favor of all lawful strategy in the carrying on +of this conflict. I wish to God we could lay under the wine-casks a +train which, once ignited, would shake the earth with the explosion of +this monstrous iniquity! + +Again, we will try the power of the pledge. There are thousands of men +who have been saved by putting their names to such a document. I know +it is laughed at; but there are some men who, having once promised a +thing, do it. "Some have broken the pledge." Yes; they were liars. But +all men are not liars. I do not say that it is the duty of all persons +to make such signature; but I do say that it would be the salvation +of many of you. The glorious work of Theobald Mathew can never be +estimated. At this hand four millions of people took the pledge, and +multitudes in Ireland, England, Scotland, and America, have kept +it till this day. The pledge signed has been to thousands the +proclamation of emancipation. + +Again, we expect great things from asylums for inebriates. They have +already done a glorious work. I think that we are coming at last to +treat inebriation as it ought to be treated, namely, as an awful +disease, self-inflicted, to be sure, but nevertheless a disease. Once +fastened upon a man, sermons will not cure him, temperance lectures +will not eradicate it; religious tracts will not remove it; the Gospel +of Christ will not arrest it. Once under the power of this awful +thirst, the man is bound to go on; and, if the foaming glass were on +the other side of perdition, he would wade through the fires of +hell to get it. A young man in prison had such a strong thirst for +intoxicating liquors that he had cut off his hand at the wrist, called +for a bowl of brandy in order to stop the bleeding, thrust his wrist +into the bowl, and then drank the contents. Stand not, when the thirst +is on him, between a man and his cups. Clear the track for him. Away +with the children! he would tread their life out. Away with the wife! +he would dash her to death. Away with the cross! he would run it down. +Away with the Bible! he would tear it up for the winds. Away with +heaven! he considers it worthless as a straw. "Give me the drink! +Give it to me! Tho the hands of blood pass up the bowl, and the soul +trembles over the pit--the drink! Give it to me! Tho it be pale with +tears; tho the froth of everlasting anguish float on the foam--give it +to me! I drink to my wife's wo to my children's rags; to my eternal +banishment from God and hope and heaven! Give it to me! the drink!" + +Again, we will contend against these evils by trying to persuade +the respectable classes of society to the banishment of alcoholic +beverages. You who move in elegant and refined associations; you +who drink the best liquors; you who never drink until you lose your +balance, let us look at each other in the face on this subject. You +have, under God, in your power the redemption of this land from +drunkenness. Empty your cellars and wine-closets of the beverage, and +then come out and give us your hand, your vote, your prayers, your +sympathies. Do that, and I will promise three things: first, that you +will find unspeakable happiness in having done your duty; secondly, +you will probably save somebody--perhaps your own child; thirdly, +you will not, in your last hour, have a regret that you made +the sacrifice, if sacrifice it be. As long as you make drinking +respectable, drinking customs will prevail, and the plowshare of +death, drawn by terrible disasters, will go on turning up this whole +continent, from end to end, with the long, deep, awful furrow of +drunkards' graves. + +This rum fiend would like to go and hang up a skeleton in your +beautiful house, so that, when you opened the front door to go in, you +would see it in the hall; and when you sat at your table you would see +it hanging from the wall; and, when you opened your bedroom you would +find it stretched upon your pillow; and, waking at night, you would +feel its cold hand passing over your face and pinching at your heart. +There is no home so beautiful but it may be devastated by the awful +curse. It throws its jargon into the sweetest harmony. What was it +that silenced Sheridan, the English orator, and shattered the golden +scepter with which he swayed parliaments and courts? What foul sprite +turned the sweet rhythm of Robert Burns into a tuneless babble? What +was it that swamped the noble spirit of one of the heroes of the last +war, until, in a drunken fit, he reeled from the deck of a Western +steamer, and was drowned. There was one whose voice we all loved to +hear. He was one of the most classic orators of the century. People +wondered why a man of so pure a heart and so excellent a life should +have such a sad countenance always. They knew not that his wife was a +sot. + +I call upon those who are guilty of these indulgences to quit the path +of death! Oh! what a change it would make in your home! Do you see how +everything there is being desolated? Would you not like to bring back +joy to your wife's heart, and have your children come out to meet you +with as much confidence as once they showed? Would you not like to +rekindle the home-lights that long ago were extinguished? It is not +too late to change. It may not entirely obliterate from your soul the +memory of wasted years and a ruined reputation, nor smooth out from +your anxious brow the wrinkles which trouble has plowed. It may not +call back unkind words uttered or rough deeds done; for perhaps in +those awful moments you struck her! It may not take from your memory +the bitter thoughts connected with some little grave. But it is not +too late to save yourself, and secure for God and your family the +remainder of your fast-going life. + +But perhaps you have not utterly gone astray. I may address one who +may not have quite made up his mind. Let your better nature speak out. +You take one side or other in war against drunkenness. Have you the +courage to put your foot down right, and say to your companions and +friends, "I will never drink intoxicating liquor in all my life; nor +will I countenance the habit in others"? Have nothing to do with +strong drink. It has turned the earth into a place of skulls, and has +stood opening the gate to a lost world to let in its victims; until +now the door swings no more upon its hinges, but, day and night, +stands wide open to let in the agonized procession of doomed men. + +Do I address one whose regular work in life is to administer to +this appetite? For God's sake get out of that business! If a we be +pronounced upon the man who gives his neighbor drink, how many woes +must be hanging over the man who does this every day and every hour of +the day! + +Do not think that because human government may license you that +therefore God licenses you. I am surprized to hear men say that they +respect the "original package" decision by which the Supreme Court +of the United States allows rum to be taken into States like Kansas, +which decided against the sale of intoxicants. I have no respect for +a wrong decision, I care not who makes it; the three judges of the +Supreme Court who gave minority report against that decision were +right, and the chief justice was wrong. The right of a State to defend +itself against the rum traffic will yet be demonstrated, the Supreme +Court notwithstanding. Higher than the judicial bench at Washington is +the throne of the Lord God Almighty. No enactment, national, State, or +municipal, can give you the right to carry on a business whose effect +is destruction. + +God knows better than you do yourself the number of drinks you have +poured down. You keep a list; but a more accurate list has been kept +than yours. You may call it Burgundy, Bourbon, cognac, Heidsieck, sour +mash, or beer. God calls it "strong-drink." Whether you sell it in low +oyster-cellar or behind the polished counter of a first-class hotel, +the divine curse is upon you. I tell you plainly that you will meet +your customers one day when there will be no counter between you. When +your work is done on earth, and you enter the reward of your business, +all the souls of the men whom you have destroyed will crowd around +you, and pour their bitterness into your cup. They will show you their +wounds and say, "You made them"; and point to their unquenchable +thirst and say, "You kindled it"; and rattle their chain and say, "You +forged it." Then their united groans will smite your ear; and with the +hands out of which you once picked the sixpences and the dimes they +will push you off the verge of great precipices; while rolling up from +beneath, and breaking away among the crags of death, will thunder, "Wo +to him that giveth his neighbor drink!" + + + + +SPURGEON + +SONGS IN THE NIGHT + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, Essex, England, in 1834. +He was one of the most powerful and popular preachers of his time, +and his extraordinary force of character and wonderful enthusiasm +attracted vast audiences. His voice was unusually powerful, clear and +melodious, and he used it with consummate skill. In the preparation of +his sermons he meditated much but wrote not a word, so that he was +in the truest sense a purely extemporaneous speaker. Sincerity, +intensity, imagination and humor, he had in preeminent degree, and +an English style that has been described as "a long bright river of +silver speech which unwound, evenly and endlessly, like a ribbon +from a revolving spool that could fill itself as fast as it emptied +itself." Thirty-eight volumes of his sermons were issued in his +lifetime and are still in increasing demand. Dr. Robertson Nicoll +says: "Our children will think more of these sermons than we do; and +as I get older I read them more and more." He died in 1892. + + + + +SPURGEON + +1834--1892 + +SONGS IN THE NIGHT + +_But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the +night_?--Job xxxv., 10. + + +Elihu was a wise man, exceeding wise, tho not as wise as the all-wise +Jehovah, who sees light in the clouds, and finds order in confusion; +hence Elihu, being much puzzled at beholding Job thus afflicted, cast +about him to find the cause of it, and he very wisely hit upon one of +the most likely reasons, altho it did not happen to be the right one +in Job's case. He said within himself--"Surely, if men be tried and +troubled exceedingly, it is because, while they think about their +troubles and distress themselves about their fears, they do not say, +'Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?'" Elihu's +reason was right in the majority of cases. The great cause of the +Christian's distress, the reason of the depths of sorrow into which +many believers are plunged, is this--that while they are looking +about, on the right hand and on the left, to see how they may escape +their troubles, they forget to look to the hills whence all real help +cometh; they do not say, "Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in +the night?" We shall, however, leave that inquiry, and dwell upon +those sweet words, "God my maker, who giveth songs in the night." + +The world hath its night. It seemeth necessary that it should have +one. The sun shineth by day, and men go forth to their labors; but +they grow weary, and nightfall cometh on, like a sweet boon from +heaven. The darkness draweth the curtains, and shutteth out the light, +which might prevent our eyes from slumber; while the sweet, calm +stillness of the night permits us to rest upon the lap of ease, and +there forget awhile our cares, until the morning sun appeareth, and +an angel puts his hand upon the curtain, and undraws it once again, +touches our eyelids, and bids us rise, and proceed to the labors of +the day. Night is one of the greatest blessings men enjoy; we have +many reasons to thank God for it. Yet night is to many a gloomy +season. There is "the pestilence that walketh in darkness"; there +is "the terror by night"; there is the dread of robbers and of fell +disease, with all those fears that the timorous know, when they have +no light wherewith they can discern objects. It is then they fancy +that spiritual creatures walk the earth; tho, if they knew rightly, +they would find it to be true, that + + "Millions of spiritual creatures walk this earth, + Unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake," + +and that at all times they are round about us--not more by night than +by day. Night is the season of terror and alarm to most men. Yet even +night hath its songs. Have you never stood by the seaside at night, +and heard the pebbles sing, and the waves chant God's glories? Or have +you never risen from your couch, and thrown up the window of your +chamber, and listened there? Listened to what? Silence--save now and +then a murmuring sound, which seems sweet music then. And have you not +fancied that you heard the harp of God playing in heaven? Did you not +conceive, that yon stars, that those eyes of God, looking down on you, +were also mouths of song--that every star was singing God's glory, +singing, as it shone, its mighty Maker, and His lawful, well-deserved +praise? Night hath its songs. We need not much poetry in our spirit, +to catch the song of night, and hear the spheres as they chant praises +which are loud to the heart, tho they be silent to the ear--the +praises of the mighty God, who bears up the unpillared arch of heaven, +and moves the stars in their courses.... + +If we are going to sing of the things of yesterday, let us begin with +what God did for us in past times. My beloved brethren, you will find +it a sweet subject for song at times, to begin to sing of electing +love and covenanted mercies. When thou thyself art low, it is well to +sing of the fountain-head of mercy; of that blest decree wherein thou +wast ordained to eternal life, and of that glorious Man who undertook +thy redemption; of that solemn covenant signed, and sealed, and +ratified, in all things ordered well; of that everlasting love which, +ere the hoary mountains were begotten, or ere the aged hills were +children, chose thee, loved thee firmly, loved thee fast, loved thee +well, loved thee eternally. I tell thee, believer, if thou canst go +back to the years of eternity; if thou canst in thy mind run back +to that period, or ere the everlasting hills were fashioned, or the +fountains of the great deep scooped out, and if thou canst see thy +God inscribing thy name in His eternal book; if thou canst see in His +loving heart eternal thoughts of love to thee, thou wilt find this a +charming means of giving thee songs in the night. No songs like those +which come from electing love; no sonnets like those that are dictated +by meditations on discriminating mercy. Some, indeed, cannot sing of +election: the Lord open their mouths a little wider! Some there are +that are afraid of the very term; but we only despise men who are +afraid of what they believe, afraid of what God has taught them in His +Bible. No, in our darker hours it is our joy to sing: + + "Sons we are through God's election, + Who in Jesus Christ believe; + By eternal destination, + Sovereign grace we now receive. + Lord, thy favor, + Shall both grace and glory give." + +Think, Christian, of the yesterday, I say, and thou wilt get a song +in the night. But if thou hast not a voice tuned to so high a key as +that, let me suggest some other mercies thou mayest sing of; and they +are the mercies thou hast experienced. What! man, canst thou not sing +a little of that blest hour when Jesus met thee; when, a blind slave, +thou wast sporting with death, and He saw thee, and said: "Come, poor +slave, come with me"? Canst thou not sing of that rapturous moment +when He snapt thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said: +"I am the Breaker; I came to break thy chains, and set thee free"? +What tho thou art ever so gloomy now, canst thou forget that happy +morning, when in the house of God thy voice was loud, almost as a +seraph's voice, in praise? for thou couldst sing: "I am forgiven; I am +forgiven": + + "A monument of grace, + A sinner saved by blood." + +Go back, man; sing of that moment, and then thou wilt have a song in +the night? Or if thou hast almost forgotten that, then sure thou hast +some precious milestone along the road of life that is not quite grown +over with moss, on which thou canst read some happy inspiration of His +mercy toward thee! What! didst thou never have a sickness like that +which thou art suffering now, and did He not raise thee up from that? +Wast thou never poor before, and did He not supply thy wants? Wast +thou never in straits before, and did He not deliver thee? Come, man! +I beseech thee, go to the river of thine experience, and pull up a few +bulrushes, and weave them into an ark, wherein thy infant faith may +float safely on the stream. I bid thee not forget what God hath done. +What! hast thou buried thine own diary? I beseech thee, man, turn over +the book of thy remembrance. Canst thou not see some sweet hill Mizar? +Canst thou not think of some blest hour when the Lord met with thee at +Hermon? Hast thou never been on the Delectable Mountains? Hast thou +never been fetched from the den of lions? Hast thou never escaped the +jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear? Nay, O man, I know thou hast; +go back, then, a little way, and take the mercies of yesterday; and +tho it is dark now, light up the lamps of yesterday, and they shall +glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt find that God hath given +thee a song in the night. + +But I think, beloved, there is never so dark a night, but there is +something to sing about, even concerning that night; for there is one +thing I am sure we can sing about, let the night be ever so dark, and +that is, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, and +because His compassions fail not." If we cannot sing very loud, yet we +can sing a little low tune, something like this--"He hath not dealt +with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." + +"Oh!" says one, "I do not know where to get my dinner from to-morrow. +I am a poor wretch." So you may be, my dear friend; but you are not so +poor as you deserve to be. Do not be mightily offended about that; if +you are, you are no child of God; for the child of God acknowledges +that he has no right to the least of God's mercies, but that they come +through the channel of grace alone. As long as I am out of hell, I +have no right to grumble; and if I were in hell I should have no right +to complain, for I feel, when convinced of sin, that never creature +deserved to go there more than I do. We have no cause to murmur; +we can lift up our hands, and say, "Night! thou art dark, but thou +mightst have been darker. I am poor, but, if I could not have been +poorer, I might have been sick. I am poor and sick--well, I have some +friend left, my lot cannot be so bad, but it might have been worse." +And therefore, Christian, you will always have one thing to sing +about--"Lord, I thank Thee, it is not all darkness!" Besides, +Christian, however dark the night is, there is always a star or moon. +There is scarce ever a night that we have, but there are just one or +two little lamps burning up there. However dark it may be, I think you +may find some little comfort, some little joy, some little mercy left, +and some little promise to cheer thy spirit. The stars are not put +out, are they? Nay, if thou canst not see them, they are there; but +methinks one or two must be shining on thee; therefore give God a song +in the night. If thou hast only one star, bless God for that one, +perhaps He will make it two; and if thou hast only two stars, bless +God for the two stars, and perhaps He will make them four. Try, then, +if thou canst not find a song in the night. + +But, beloved, there is another thing of which we can sing yet more +sweetly; and that is, we can sing of the day that is to come. I am +preaching to-night for the poor weavers of Spitalfields. Perhaps there +are not to be found a class of men in London who are suffering +a darker night than they are; for while many classes have been +befriended and defended, there are few who speak up for them, and (if +I am rightly informed) they are generally ground down within an inch +of their lives. I suppose that their masters intend that their bread +shall be very sweet, on the principle, that the nearer the ground, the +sweeter the grass; for I should think that no people have their grass +so near the ground as the weavers of Spitalfields. In an inquiry by +the House of Commons last week, it was given in evidence that their +average wages amount to seven or eight shillings a week; and that +they have to furnish themselves with a room, and work at expensive +articles, which my friends and ladies are wearing now, and which they +buy as cheaply as possible; but perhaps they do not know that they are +made with the blood and bones and marrow of the Spitalfields weavers, +who, many of them, work for less than man ought to have to subsist +upon. Some of them waited upon me the other day; I was exceedingly +pleased with one of them. He said, "Well, sir, it is very hard, but I +hope there is better times coming for us." "Well, my friend," I said, +"I am afraid you cannot hope for much better times, unless the Lord +Jesus Christ comes a second time." "That is just what we hope for," +said he. "We do not see there is any chance of deliverance, unless the +Lord Jesus Christ comes to establish His kingdom upon the earth; and +then He will judge the opprest, and break the oppressors in pieces +with an iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." I +was glad my friend had got a song in the night, and was singing about +the morning that was coming. Often do I cheer myself with the thought +of the coming of the Lord. We preach now, perhaps, with little +success; "the kingdoms of this world" are not "become the kingdoms of +our Lord and of his Christ"; we send out missionaries; they are for +the most part unsuccessful. We are laboring, but we do not see the +fruits of our labors. Well, what then? Try a little while; we shall +not always labor in vain, or spend our strength for naught. A day is +coming, and now is, when every minister of Christ shall speak with +unction, when all the servants of God shall preach with power, and +when colossal systems of heathenism shall be scattered to the winds. +The shout shall be heard, "Alleluia! Alleluia! the Lord God Omnipotent +reigneth." For that day do I look; it is to the bright horizon of that +second coming that I turn my eyes. My anxious expectation is, that the +sweet Sun of righteousness will arise with healing beneath His wings, +that the opprest shall be righted, that despotisms shall be cut down, +that liberty shall be established, that peace shall be made lasting, +and that the glorious liberty of the gospel shall be extended +throughout the known world. Christian! if thou art in a night, think +of the morrow; cheer up thy heart with the thought of the coming of +thy Lord. + +There is another sweet to-morrow of which we hope to sing in the +night. Soon, beloved, you and I shall lie on our dying bed, and we +shall want a song in the night then; and I do not know where we shall +get it, if we do not get it from the to-morrow. Kneeling by the bed of +an apparently dying saint, last night, I said, "Well, sister, He has +been precious to you; you can rejoice in His covenant mercies, and His +past loving-kindnesses." She put out her hand, and said, "Ah! sir, do +not talk about them now; I want the sinner's Savior as much now as +ever; it is not a saint's I want; it is still a sinner's Savior that +I am in need of, for I am a sinner still." I found that I could not +comfort her with the past; so I reminded her of the golden streets, of +the gates of pearl, of the walls of jasper, of the harps of gold, of +the songs of bliss; and then her eyes glistened; she said, "Yes, I +shall be there soon; I shall meet them by-and-by;" and then she +seemed so glad! Ah! believer, you may always cheer yourself with that +thought. Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it +shall wear a starry crown directly; thy hand may be filled with +cares--it shall grasp a harp soon, a harp full of music. Thy garments +may be soiled with dust now; they shall be white by-and-by. Wait a +little longer. Ah! beloved, how despicable our troubles and trials +will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the +prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven, we shall then, + + "With transporting joys recount + The labors of our feet." + +Our trials will seem to us nothing at all. We shall talk to one +another about them in heaven, and find all the more to converse +about, according as we have suffered more here below. Let us go on, +therefore; and if the night be ever so dark, remember there is not a +night that shall not have a morning; and that morning is to come by +and by. + +And now I want to tell you, very briefly, what are the excellences of +songs in the night above all other songs. + +In the first place, when you hear a man singing a song in the night--I +mean in the night of trouble--you may be quite sure it is a hearty +one. Many of you sang very prettily just now, didn't you? I wonder +whether you would sing very prettily, if there was a stake or two in +Smithfield for all of you who dared to do it? If you sang under pain +and penalty, that would show your heart to be in your song. We can all +sing very nicely indeed when everybody else sings. It is the easiest +thing in the world to open your mouth, and let the words come out; but +when the devil puts his hand over your mouth, can you sing then? Can +you say, "Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in him"? That is hearty +singing; that is real song that springs up in the night. The +nightingale singeth most sweetly because she singeth in the night. We +know a poet has said that, if she sang by day, she might be thought to +sing no more sweetly than the wren. It is the stillness of the night +that makes her song sweet. And so doth a Christian's song become sweet +and hearty, because it is in the night. + +Again: the songs we sing in the night will be lasting. Many songs we +hear our fellow-creatures singing in the streets will not do to sing +by-and-by; I guess they will sing a different kind of tune soon. They +can sing nowadays any rollicking, drinking songs; but they will not +sing them when they come to die; they are not exactly the songs with +which to cross Jordan's billows. It will not do to sing one of those +light songs when death and you are having the last tug. It will not do +to enter heaven singing one of those unchaste, unholy sonnets. No; but +the Christian who can sing in the night will not have to leave off +his song; he may keep on singing it forever. He may put his foot in +Jordan's stream, and continue his melody; he may wade through it, and +keep on singing still, and land himself safe in heaven; and when he is +there, there need not be a gap in his strain, but in a nobler, sweeter +strain he may still continue singing His power to save. There are a +great many of you that think Christian people are a very miserable +set, don't you? You say, "Let me sing my song." Ay, but, my dear +friends, we like to sing a song that will last; we don't like your +songs; they are all froth, like bubbles on the beaker, and they will +soon die away and be lost. Give me a song that will last; give me one +that will not melt. Oh, give me not the dreamster's gold! he hoards it +up, and says, "I'm rich"; and when he waketh, his gold is gone. But +give me songs in the night, for they are songs I sing forever. + +Again: the songs we warble in the night are those that show we have +real faith in. God. Many men have just enough faith to trust God as +far as they can see Him, and they always sing as far as they can see +providence go right; but true faith can sing when its possessors +cannot see. It can take hold of God when they cannot discern Him. + +Songs in the night, too, prove that we have true courage. Many sing by +day who are silent by night; they are afraid of thieves and robbers; +but the Christian who sings in the night proves himself to be a +courageous character. It is the bold Christian who can sing God's +sonnets in the darkness. + +He who can sing songs in the night, too, proves that he has true love +to Christ. It is not love to Christ to praise Him while everybody else +praises Him; to walk arm in arm with Him when He has the crown on +His head is no great deed, I wot; to walk with Christ in rags is +something. To believe in Christ when He is shrouded in darkness, to +stick hard and fast by the Savior when all men speak ill of Him and +forsake Him--that is true faith. He who singeth a song to Christ in +the night, singeth the best song in all the world; for He singeth from +the heart. + +I am afraid of wearying you; therefore I shall not dwell on the +excellences of night songs, but just, in the last place, show you +their use. + +It is very useful to sing in the night of our troubles, first, because +it will cheer ourselves. When you were boys living in the country, and +had some distance to go alone at night, don't you remember how you +whistled and sang to keep your courage up? Well, what we do in the +natural world we ought to do in the spiritual. There is nothing like +singing to keep your spirits alive. When we have been in trouble, +we have often thought ourselves to be well-nigh overwhelmed with +difficulty; and we have said, "Let us have a song." We have begun to +sing; and Martin Luther says, "The devil cannot bear singing." That is +about the truth; he does not like music. It was so in Saul's days: an +evil spirit rested on Saul; but when David played on his harp, the +evil spirit went away from him. This is usually the case: if we can +begin to sing we shall remove our fears. I like to hear servants +sometimes humming a tune at their work; I love to hear a plowman in +the country singing as he goes along with his horses. Why not? You say +he has no time to praise God; but he can sing a song--surely he can +sing a Psalm, it will take no more time. Singing is the best thing to +purge ourselves of evil thoughts. Keep your mouth full of songs, and +you will often keep your heart full of praises; keep on singing as +long as you can; you will find it a good method of driving away your +fears. + +Sing, again, for another reason: because it will cheer your +companions. If any of them are in the valley and in the darkness with +you, it will be a great help to comfort them. John Bunyan tells us, +that as Christian was going through the valley he found it a dreadful +dark place, and terrible demons and goblins were all about him, and +poor Christian thought he must perish for certain; but just when his +doubts were the strongest, he heard a sweet voice; he listened to it, +and he heard a man in front of him saying, "Yea, when I pass through +the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Now, that man +did not know who was near him, but he was unwittingly singing to cheer +a man behind. Christian, when you are in trouble, sing; you do not +know who is near you. Sing, perhaps you will get a companion by it. +Sing! perhaps there will be many a heart cheered by your song. There +is some broken spirit, it may be, that will be bound up by your +sonnets. Sing! there is some poor distrest brother, perhaps, shut up +in the Castle of Despair, who, like King Richard, will hear your song +inside the walls, and sing to you again, and you may be the means of +getting him a ransom. Sing, Christian, wherever you go; try, if you +can, to wash your face every morning in a bath of praise. When you go +down from your chamber, never go to look on man till you have first +looked on your God; and when you have looked on Him, seek to come down +with a face beaming with joy; carry a smile, for you will cheer up +many a poor way-worn pilgrim by it. + +One more reason; and I know it will be a good one for you. Try and +sing in the night, Christian, for that is one of the best arguments in +all the world in favor of your religion. Our divines nowadays spend a +great deal of time in trying to prove Christianity against those who +disbelieve it. I should like to have seen Paul trying that! Elymas the +sorcerer withstood him: how did our friend Paul treat him? He said, +"Oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, +thou enemy of the righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the +right ways of the Lord?" That is about the politeness such men ought +to have who deny God's truth. "We start with this assumption: we will +prove that the Bible is God's word, but we are not going to prove +God's word. If you do not like to believe it, we will shake hands, and +bid you good-by; we will not argue with you. The gospel has gained +little by discussion. The greatest piece of folly on earth has been +to send a man round the country, to follow another up who has been +lecturing on infidelity just to make himself notorious. + +Why, let them lecture on; this is a free country; why should we +follow them about? The truth will win the day. Christianity need not +wish for controversy; it is strong enough for it, if it wishes it; but +that is not God's way. + +God's direction is, "Preach, teach, dogmatize." Do not stand +disputing; claim a divine mission; tell men that God says it, and +there leave it. Say to them, "He that believeth shall be saved, and he +that believeth not shall be damned"; and when you have done that, +you have done enough. For what reason should our missionaries stand +disputing with Brahmins? Why should they be wasting their time +by attempting to refute first this dogma, and then another, of +heathenism? Why not just go and say, "The God whom ye ignorantly +worship, I declare unto you; believe me, and you will be saved; +believe me not, and the Bible says you are lost." And then, having +thus asserted God's word, say, "I leave it, I declare it unto you; it +is a thing for you to believe, not a thing for you to reason about." + +Religion is not a thing merely for your intellect; a thing to prove +your own talent upon, by making a syllogism on it; it is a thing that +demands your faith. As a messenger of heaven, I demand that faith; if +you do not choose to give it, on your own head be the doom, if there +be such, if there be not, you are prepared to risk it. But I have done +my duty; I have told you the truth; that is enough, and there I leave +it. Oh, Christian, instead of disputing, let me tell thee how to prove +your religion. Live it out! + +Live it out! Give the external as well as the internal evidence; give +the external evidence of your own life. You are sick; there is your +neighbor who laughs at religion; let him come into your house. When +he was sick, he said, "Oh, send for the doctor"; and there he was +fretting, and fuming, and whining, and making all manner of noises. +When you are sick, send for him, tell him that you are resigned to the +Lord's will; that you will kiss the chastening rod; that you will take +the cup, and drink it, because your Father gives it. + +You do not need to make a boast of this, or it will lose all its +power; but do it because you cannot help doing it. Your neighbor will +say, "There is something in that." And when you come to the borders of +the grave--he was there once, and you heard how he shrieked, and how +frightened he was--give him your hand, and say to him, "Ah! I have a +Christ that will do to die by; I have a religion that will make me +sing in the night." Let me hear how you can sing, "Victory, victory, +victory!" through Him that loved you. I tell you, we may preach fifty +thousand sermons to prove the gospel, but we shall not prove it half +so well as you will through singing in the night. Keep a cheerful +frame; keep a happy heart; keep a contented spirit; keep your eye up, +and your heart aloft, and you prove Christianity better than all the +Butlers, and all the wise men that ever lived. Give them the analogy +of a holy life, and then you will prove religion to them; give them, +the evidence of internal piety, developed externally, and you will +give the best possible proof of Christianity. + + + + +POTTER + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON PHILLIPS BROOKS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Henry Codman Potter was born at Schenectady, New York, in 1834, and +was graduated from the Theological Seminary of Virginia in 1857. He +was appointed rector of Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, New York, +in 1868, and was coadjutor to his uncle, Horatio Potter, from 1883 +to 1887, when he was made Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He won +considerable distinction as a clear-cut and eloquent speaker. He +dealt in pulpit and on platform, with many public questions, such as +temperance, capital and labor, civic righteousness, and the purifying +of East Side slum life. He advocated personal freedom, and invariably +spoke with authority. He was particularly happy as an after-dinner +speaker. He died in 1908. + + + + +POTTER + +1834--1908 + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON PHILLIPS BROOKS[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of Bishop Henry C. Potter and The +Century Company, publishers of "The Scholar and the State."] + +_It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the +words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life_.--John +vi., 63. + + +He who stops over-long in the mere mechanism of religion is verily +missing that for which religion stands. Here, indeed, it must be owned +is, if not our greatest danger, one of the greatest. All life is full +of that strange want of intellectual and moral perspective which fails +to see how secondary, after all, are means to ends; and how he only +has truly apprehended the office of religion who has learned, when +undertaking in any wise to present it or represent it, to hold fast +to that which is the one central thought and fact of all: "It is the +spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." + +And this brings me--in how real and vivid a way I am sure you must +feel as keenly as I--face to face with him of whom I am set to speak +to-day. + +Never before in the history, not only of our communion, but of any or +all communions, has the departure of a religious teacher been more +widely noted and deplored than in the case of him of whom this +Commonwealth and this diocese have been bereaved. Never before, +surely, in case of any man whom we can recall, has the sense of loss +and bereavement been more distinctly a personal one,--extending to +multitudes in two hemispheres who did not know him, who had never seen +or heard him, and yet to whom he had revealed himself in such real and +helpful ways. + +It has followed, inevitably, from this, that that strong tide of +profound feeling has found expression in many and most unusual +forms, and it will be among the most interesting tasks of the future +biographer of the late Bishop of Massachusetts to take note of these +various memorials and to trace in them the secret of his unique power +and influence. + +But just because they have, so many of them, in such remarkable +variety and from sources so diverse, been written or spoken, and no +less because a memoir of Phillips Brooks is already undertaken by +hands preeminently designated for that purpose, I may wisely here +confine myself to another and very different task. I shall not +attempt, therefore, even the merest outline of a biographical review. +I shall not undertake to analyze, nor, save incidentally, even to +refer to, the influences and inheritances that wrought in the mind +and upon the life of your late friend and teacher. I shall still less +attempt to discover the open secret of his rare and unique charm and +attractiveness as a man; and I shall least of all endeavor to forecast +the place which history will give to him among the leaders and +builders of our age. Brief as was his ministry in his higher office, +and to our view all too soon ended, I shall be content to speak of him +as a bishop,--of his divine right, as I profoundly believe, to a place +in the episcopate, and of the preeminent value of his distinctive and +incomparable witness to the highest aim and purpose of that office. + +And first of all let me say a word in regard to the way in which he +came to it. When chosen to the episcopate of this diocese, your late +bishop had already, at least once, as we all know, declined the +office. It was well known to those who knew him best that, as he had +viewed it for a large part of his ministry, it was a work for which +he had no especial sympathy either as to its tasks, or, as he had +understood them, its opportunities. + +But the time undoubtedly came when, as to this, he modified his +earlier opinions; and the time came too, as I am most glad to think, +when he was led to feel that if he were called to such an office he +might find in it an opportunity for widening his own sympathies and +for estimating more justly those with whom previously he had believed +himself to have little in common. + +It was the inevitable condition of his strong and deep convictions +that he should not always or easily understand or make due allowance +for men of different opinions. It was--God and you will bear me +witness that this is true!--one of the noblest characteristics of his +fifteen months' episcopate that, as a bishop, men's rightful liberty +of opinion found in him not only a large and generous tolerance, but +a most beautiful and gracious acceptance. He seized, instantly and +easily, that which will be forever the highest conception of the +episcopate in its relations whether to the clergy or the laity, its +paternal and fraternal character; and his "sweet reasonableness," both +as a father and as a brother, shone through all that he was and did. + +For one, I greatly love to remember this,--that when the time came he +himself, with the simple naturalness which marked all that he did, +was brought to reconsider his earlier attitude toward the episcopal +office, and to express with characteristic candor his readiness to +take up its work if he should be chosen to it; he turned to his new, +and to him most strange, task with a supreme desire to do it in a +loving and whole-hearted way, and to make it helpful to every man, +woman, and child with whom he came in contact. What could have been +more like him than that, in that last address which he delivered to +the choir-boys at Newton, he should have said to them, "When you meet +me let me know that you know me." Another might easily have been +misunderstood in asking those whom he might by chance encounter to +salute him; but he knew, and the boys knew, what he had in mind,--how +he and they were all striving to serve one Master, and how each--he +most surely as much as they--was to gain strength and cheer from +mutual recognition in the spirit of a common brotherhood. + +And thus it was always; and this it was that allied itself so +naturally to that which was his never-ceasing endeavor--to lift all +men everywhere to that which was, with him, the highest conception of +his office, whether as a preacher or as a bishop,--the conception of +God as a Father, and of the brotherhood of all men as mutually related +in Him. + +In an address which he delivered during the last General Convention +in Baltimore to the students of Johns Hopkins University, he spoke +substantially these words: + + "In trying to win a man to a better life, show him not the + evil but the nobleness of his nature. Lead him to enthusiastic + contemplations of humanity;" + +in its perfection, and when he asks, 'Why, if this is so, do not I +have this life?'--then project on the background of his enthusiasm his +own life; say to him, 'Because you are a liar, because you blind your +soul with licentiousness, shame is born,--but not a shame of despair. +It is soon changed to joy. Christianity becomes an opportunity, a high +privilege, the means of attaining to the most exalted ideal--and the +only means.' + +"Herein must lie all real power; herein lay Christ's power, that he +appreciated the beauty and richness of humanity, that it is very near +the Infinite, very near to God. These two facts--we are the children +of God, and God is our Father--make us look very differently at +ourselves, very differently at our neighbors, very differently at God. +We should be surprized, not at our good deeds, but at our bad ones. +We should expect good as more likely to occur than evil; we should +believe that our best moments are our truest. I was once talking with +an acquaintance about whose religious position I knew nothing, and he +exprest a very hopeful opinion in regard to a matter about which I was +myself very doubtful. + +"'Why, I said to him, 'You are an optimist.' + +"'Of course I am an optimist,' he replied, because I am a Christian.' + +"I felt that as a reproof. The Christian must be an optimist." + +Men and brethren, I set these words over against those of his Master +with which I began, and the two in essence are one. "The words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." There is a life +nobler and diviner than any that we have dreamed of. To the poorest +and meanest of us, as to the best and most richly-dowered, it is alike +open. To turn toward it, to reach up after it, to believe in its +ever-recurring nearness, and to glorify God in attaining to it, this +is the calling of a human soul. + +Now then, what, I ask you, is all the rest of religion worth in +comparison with this?--not what is it worth in itself, but what is its +place relatively to this? This, I maintain, is the supreme question +for the episcopate, as it ought to be the supreme question with the +ministry of any and every order. And therefore it is, I affirm, that, +in bringing into the episcopate with such unique vividness and power +this conception of his office, your bishop rendered to his order and +to the Church of God everywhere a service so transcendent. A most +gifted and sympathetic observer of our departed brother's character +and influence has said of him, contrasting him with the power of +institution, "His life will always suggest the importance of the +influence of the individual man as compared with institutional +Christianity." + +In one sense, undoubtedly, this is true; but I should prefer to say +that his life-work will always show the large and helpful influence of +a great soul upon institutional Christianity. It is a superficial +and unphilosophical temperament that disparages institutions; for +institutions are only another name for that organized force and life +by which God rules the world. But it is undoubtedly and profoundly +true that you no sooner have an institution, whether in society, in +politics, or in religion, than you are threatened with the danger +that the institution may first exaggerate itself and then harden +and stiffen into a machine; and that in the realm of religion, +preeminently, those whose office it should be to quicken and infuse it +with new life should themselves come at last to "worship the net and +the drag." And just here you find in the history of religion in all +ages the place of the prophet and the seer. He is to pierce through +the fabric of the visible structure to that soul of things for which +it stands. When, in Isaiah, the Holy Ghost commands the prophet, "Lift +up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the +cities of Judah, Behold your God!" it is not alone, you see, his voice +that lie is to lift up. No, no! It is the vision of the unseen and +divine. "Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" + +Over and over again that voice breaks in upon the slumbrous torpor of +Israel and smites the dead souls of priests and people alike. Now +it is a Balaam, now it is an Elijah, a David, an Isaiah, a John the +Baptist, a Paul the Apostle, a Peter the Hermit, a Savonarola, a Huss, +a Whitefield, a Wesley, a Frederick Maurice, a Frederick Robertson, a +Phillips Brooks. + +Do not mistake me. I do not say that there were not many others. But +these names are typical, and that for which they stand cannot easily +be mistaken. I affirm without qualification that, in that gift of +vision and of exaltation for which they stand, they stand for the +highest and the best,--that one thing for which the Church of God most +of all stands, and of which so long as it is the Church Militant +it will most of all stand in need: to know that the end of all its +mechanisms and ministries is to impart life, and that nothing which +obscures or loses sight of the eternal source of life can regenerate +or quicken;--to teach men to cry out, with St. Augustine, "_Fecisti +nos ad te, Domine, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in +te_": Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is unquiet +until its rests in Thee,--this however, as any one may be tempted to +fence and juggle with the fact, is the truth on which all the rest +depends. + +Unfortunately it is a truth which there is much in the tasks and +engagements of the episcopate to obscure. A bishop is preeminently, +at any rate in the popular conception of him, an administrator; and +howsoever wide of the mark this popular conception may be from the +essential idea of the office, it must be owned that there is much in +a bishop's work in our day to limit his activities, and therefore his +influence, within such a sphere. + +To recognize his prophetic office as giving expression to that mission +of the Holy Ghost of which he is preeminently the representative, to +illustrate it upon a wider instead of a narrower field, to recognize +and seize the greater opportunities for its exercise, to be indeed +"a leader and commander" to the people, not by means of the petty +mechanisms of officialism, but by the strong, strenuous, and unwearied +proclamation of the truth; under all conditions to make the occasion +somehow a stepping-stone to that mount of vision from which men may +see God and righteousness and become sensible of the nearness of both +to themselves,--this, I think you will agree with me, is no unworthy +use of the loftiest calling and the loftiest gifts. + +And such a use was his. A bishop-elect, walking with him one day in +the country, was speaking, with not unnatural shrinking and hesitancy, +of the new work toward which he was soon to turn his face, and said +among other things, "I have a great dread, in the Episcopate, of +perfunctoriness. In the administration, especially, of confirmation, +it seems almost impossible, in connection with its constant +repetition, to avoid it." + +He was silent a moment, and then said, "I do not think that it need be +so. The office indeed is the same. But every class is different; and +then--think what it is to them! It seems to me that that thought can +never cease to move one." + +What a clear insight the answer gave to his own ministry. One turns +back to his first sermon, that evening when, with his fellow-student +in Virginia, he walked across the fields to the log-cabin where, not +yet in holy orders, he preached it, and where afterward he ministered +with such swiftly increasing power to a handful of negro servants. +"It was an utter failure," he said afterward. Yes, perhaps; but all +through the failure he struggled to give expression to that of which +his soul was full; and I do not doubt that even then they who heard +him somehow understood him. We pass from those first words to the +last,--those of which I spoke a moment ago,--the address to the +choir-boys at Newton,--was there ever such, an address to choir-boys +before? He knew little or nothing about the science of music, and with +characteristic candor he at once said so. But he passed quickly from +the music to those incomparable words of which the music was the mere +vehicle and vesture. He bade the lads to whom he spoke think of +those who, long ago and all the ages down, had sung that matchless +Psalter,--of the boys and men of other times, and what it had meant to +them. And then, as he looked into their fresh young faces and saw the +long vista of life stretching out before them, he bade them think of +that larger and fuller meaning which was to come into those Psalms of +David, when he,--was there some prophetic sense of how soon with him +the end would be?--when he and such as he had passed away,--what new +doors were to open, what deeper meanings were to be discerned, what +nobler opportunities were to dawn, as the years hastened swiftly on +toward their august and glorious consummation! How it all lifts us +up as we read it, and how like it was to that "one sermon" which he +forever preached! + +And in saying so I do not forget what that was which some men said was +missing in it. His, they tell us--who hold some dry and formalized +statement of the truth so close to the eye that it obscures all larger +vision of it,--his, they tell us, was an "invertebrate theology." Of +what he was and spoke, such a criticism is as if one said of the wind, +that divinely appointed symbol of the Holy Ghost, "it has no spine nor +ribs." + +A spine and ribs are very necessary things; but we bury them as so +much chalk and lime when once the breath has gone out of them! In the +beginning we read, "And the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the +breath of life, and man became a living soul." + +And all along since then there have been messengers of God into whom +the same divine breath has been, as it were, without measure breathed, +and who have been the quickeners and inspirers of their fellows. +Nothing less than this can explain that wholly exceptional and yet +consistent influence which he whom we mourn gave forth. It was not +confined or limited by merely personal or physical conditions, but +breathed with equal and quickening power through all that he taught +and wrote. There were multitudes who never saw or heard him, but by +whom nevertheless he was as intimately known and understood as if he +had been their daily companion. + +Never was there an instance which more truly fulfilled the saying, +"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." +They reached down to the inmost need of empty and aching hearts and +answered it. They spoke to that in the most sin-stained and wayward +soul which is, after all, the image of the invisible God,--spoke +to it, touched it, constrained it. "What has this fine-bred Boston +scholar," plain men asked, when he bade him come to us and preach in +our Trinity--"what has such an one to say to the business men of Wall +Street?" But when he came, straightway every man found out that he had +indeed something to say to him,--a word of power, a word of hope, a +word of enduring joy and strength! + +A kindred thinker of large vision and rare insight, New England born +and nurtured like himself, speaking of him not long after his death, +said: + + "There are three forms pertaining to the Christian truths: they + are true as facts, they are true as doctrines intellectually + apprehended, they are true as spiritual experiences to be + realized. Bishop Brooks struck directly for the last. In the + spirit he found the truth; and only as he could get it into a + spiritual form did he conceive it to have power. + + "It was because he assumed the facts as true in the main, refusing + to insist on petty accuracy, and passed by doctrinal forms + concerning which there might be great divergence of opinion, and + carried his thought on into the world of spirit, that he won so + great a hearing and such conviction of belief. For it is the + spirit that gives common standing-ground; it says substantially + the same thing in all men. Speak as a spirit to the spiritual + nature of men, and they will respond, because in the spirit they + draw near to their common source and to the world to which all + belong. + + "It was because he dealt with this common factor of the human and + the divine nature that he was too positive and practical. In the + spirit it is all yea and amen; there is no negative; in the New + Jerusalem there is no night. We can describe this feature of his + ministry by words from, one of his own sermons: 'It has always + been through men of belief, not unbelief, that power from God has + poured into man. It is not the discriminating critic, but he whose + beating, throbbing life offers itself a channel for the divine + force,--he is the man through, whom the world grows rich, and whom + it remembers, remembers with perpetual thanksgiving.'" + +And shall not you who are here to-day thank God that such a man was, +tho for so brief a space, your bishop? Some there were, you remember, +who thought that those greater spiritual gifts of his would unfit him +for the business of practical affairs. "A bishop's daily round," they +said, "his endless correspondence, his hurried journeyings, his weight +of anxious cares, the misadventures of other men, ever returning to +plague him,--how can he bring himself to stoop and deal with these?" + +But as in so much else that was transcendent in him, how little here, +too, his critics understood him! No more pathetic proof of this has +come to light than in that testimony of one among you who, as his +private secretary, stood in closest and most intimate relations +to him. What a story that is which he has given to us of a great +soul--faithful always in the greatest? Yes, but no less faithful in +the least. There seems a strange, almost grotesque impossibility in +the thought that such an one should ever have come to be regarded as +"a stickler for the canons." + +But we look a little deeper than the surface, and all that is +incongruous straightway disappears. His was the realm of a divine +order,--his was the office of his Lord's servant. God had called him. +He had put him where he was. He had set his Church to be His witness +in the world, and in it, all His children, the greatest with the +least, to walk in ways of reverent appointment. Those ways might irk +and cramp him sometimes. They did: he might speak of them with sharp +impatience and seeming disesteem sometimes. He did that too, now and +then,--for he was human like the rest of us! But mark you this, my +brothers, for, in an age which, under one figment or another, +whether of more ancient or more modern license, is an age of much +self-will,--we shall do well to remember it,--his was a life of +orderly and consistent obedience to rule. He kept to the Church's +plain and stately ways: kept to them and prized them too. + +But all the while he held his soul wide open to the vision of his +Lord! Up out of a routine that seemed to others that did not know or +could not understand him, and who vouchsafed to him much condescending +compassion for a bondage which he never felt, and of which in vain +they strove to persuade him to complain,--up out of the narrower round +in which so faithfully he walked, from time to time he climbed, and +came back bathed in a heavenly light, with lips aglow with heavenly +fire. The Spirit had spoken to him, and so he spoke to us. "The flesh +profiteth nothing: it is the spirit that quickeneth. The words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." + +And so we thank God not alone for his message, but that it was given +to him to speak it as a bishop in the Church of God. We thank God that +in a generation that so greatly needs to cry, as our _Te Deum_ teaches +us, "Govern us and lift us up!" he was given to the Church not alone +to rule but to uplift. + +What bishop is there who may not wisely seek to be like him by drawing +forever on those fires of the Holy Ghost that set his lips aflame? +Nay, what soul among us all is there that may not wisely seek to +ascend up into that upper realm in which he walked, and by whose +mighty airs his soul was filled? Unto the almighty and ever-living God +we yield most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace +and virtue declared in all His saints who have been the chosen vessels +of His grace and the lights of the world in their several generations; +but here and to-day especially for his servant, Phillips Brooks, some +time of this Commonwealth and this diocese, true prophet, true priest, +true bishop, to the glory of God the Father. + + + + +ABBOTT + +THE DIVINITY IN HUMANITY + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Lyman Abbott was born at Roxbury, Mass., in 1835. As successor to +Henry Ward Beecher, at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, he ministered with +great spiritual power until 1898, when he resigned his pastorate to +devote his entire time to _The Outlook_, of which he was, and still +is, the editor. Dr. Abbott's conception of the minister's work is +briefly summed up in his own words: + +"Whenever a minister forgets the splendid message of pardon, peace and +power based on faith in Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh, +whenever for this message he substitutes literary lectures, critical +essays, sociological disquisitions, theological controversies, or even +ethical interpretations of the universal conscience, whenever, in +other words, he ceases to be a Christian preacher and becomes a lyceum +or seminary lecturer, he divests himself of that which in all ages of +the world has been the power of the Christian ministry, and will be +its power so long as men have sins to be forgiven, temptations to +conquer, and sorrows to be assuaged." + + + + +ABBOTT + +BORN IN 1835 + +THE DIVINITY IN HUMANITY + +_Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are +gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and +the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath +sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, +I am the Son of God_?--John X., 34-36. + + +The context and argument is this: Jesus Christ has declared that He +will give unto His sheep eternal life; and that no one can pluck them +out of His hand, because He and His Father are one; and the Father +who gives these sheep to His care and keeping is greater than all the +forces that are leagued against them. Thereat the Jews took up stones +against Him, saying: "Being a man thou makest thyself equal with God." +And Christ answers with our text. He refers them back to the Old +Testament, which, He says, declares of the judges of Israel, of the +men to whom the inspiration of God came, that they are divine. "Why, +then," He says, "do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I claim +divinity?" It is impossible to consider this a mere play upon the +word; that Christ uses the word God in one sense in one paragraph +and in another sense in the paragraph immediately following. It is +impossible to conceive that this is a kind of sacred pun. No, no; the +argument is clear and unmistakable. According to your Old Testament +scripture, He says, the men in whom and to whom and through whom the +power and grace of God are manifested are themselves the partakers +of the divine nature. If that is so, if the men of the olden +times, patriarchs and prophets, through whom the divine nature was +manifested--if they are divine, do not accuse me of blasphemy because +I claim for Myself divinity. If in this message, on the one hand, +Christ claims kinship with God, on the other He lifts the whole of +humanity up with Him and makes the claim for them. The religion of the +Old Testament and the New Testament, the religion of Christianity and +of Judaism, is a religion of faith in God. But it is not less truly a +religion of faith in man, and of faith in man because man is a child +of God. And the one faith would be utterly useless without the other. +For faith in God is effective because it is accompanied with faith in +man as the child of God. + +And in this faith in man is the inspiration of all human progress. +_Faith_ in man, I say. Faith sees something which the eye does not +see. Faith sees something which the reason does not perceive. Faith +is not irrational, but it perceives a transcendent truth, over beyond +that which the sense perceives. Faith is always intermixed with hope +and with a great expectation, either with a hope because it sees +something which is not yet but will be, or else with a hope because it +sees something which is not yet seen but will be seen. Faith in a man +is not a belief that man is to-day a great, noble character, but it is +a perception in man of dormant possibilities of greatness and nobility +which time and God will develop. It is only the man who has faith in +man who can really interpret man. It is faith in man that gives us all +true human insight. The difference between a photograph and a portrait +is this: the photograph gives the outward feature, and stops there; +and most of us, when we stand in a photograph saloon to have our +picture taken, hide our soul away. The artist sees the soul behind the +man, knows him, understands something of his nature, and paints the +soul that looks out through the eyes. He sees in the man something +which the sun does not exhibit, and makes that something shine on +the canvas. The artist in literature sees an ideal humanity, and +interprets it. Realism in literature does not portray the real man. +Anthony Trollope pictures the Englishman as he is to-day, and society +as any man may take it with a kodak; but Dickens gives Toby Veck and +Tiny Tim; George Eliot, Adam Bede and Dinah Morris. Men say that no +such boy ever lived as MacDonald has portrayed in Sir Gibbie. In every +street Arab is a possible Sir Gibbie; and MacDonald has seen the +possible and shown us what Christianity may make out of a street +Arab. In this perception of a possible in man lies the spirit of all +progress in science. The man of practical science laughs at the notion +of an iron railway on which steam cars shall travel faster than +English coaches. But the man of faith in men, who believes that it is +in the power of men to dominate the powers of nature, builds the road. +The man of practical science laughs at the notion that we can reach up +our hands into the clouds and draw down the lightning. But Franklin +does it. The man of faith is sometimes mistaken, but he is always +experimenting, because he always believes that man to-morrow will +be more than man is to-day or was yesterday. And all progress in +civilization has its secret in this great faith in man as a being +that has a mastery, not yet interpreted, not yet understood, not yet +comprehended in its fulness, over all the powers of nature. + +Now, is there any ground or basis for this faith in man? Have we a +right to believe that man is more than he seems to be, as we can see +him in the street to-day? Have we a right to build our institutions +and fabrics on this belief? Have we a right to think that man can +govern himself, or must we go back and say with Carlyle and Ruskin +and Voltaire that the great body of men are incompetent to govern +themselves, and a few wise rulers must govern them? Have we a right to +believe that all the progress that has thus far been made in +science is but an augury of progress far greater, reaching into the +illimitable? Have we a right to say that these portraits of a possible +humanity, this Portia, this Toby Veck, this Tiny Tim, this ideal man +and woman, are real men and real women in possibility, if not in +the actualities of life? Or are we to think of them as simply +phantasmagoria hung up for the delectation of a passing moment? The +Bible makes answer to that question,--the Bible preeminently, but +the great poets and the great prophets of all religions; the Bible, +because the poets and the prophets of the Bible transcend the poets +and the prophets of all other religions. And that declaration is that +man is made in the image of God, and that God dwells in man and +is coming to the manifestation of Himself in growing, developing, +redeemed humanity. Our Bible starts out with the declaration that God +made man in His own image. The poets take the idea up. MacDonald tells +us in that beautiful poem of his, that the babe came through the blue +sky and got the blue of his eyes as he came; Wordsworth, that the +child's imaginings are the recollected glory of a heavenly home; and +the author of the first chapter of Genesis, that God breathed his own +breath into the nostrils of man and made him in the image of God. All +fancy, all imaginings? But, my dear friends, there is a truth in fancy +as well as in science. We need not believe that this aspiration that +shows itself in the pure mind of a little child is a trailing glory +that he has brought with him from some pre-existent state. We need not +think that it is physiological fact that the sky colored the eyes of +the babe as the babe came through. Nor need we suppose that man was +a clay image into which God breathed a physical breath, so animating +him. But beyond all this imagery is the vision of the poet. God in +man; a divine life throbbing in humanity; man the offspring of God; +man coming forth from the eternal and going forth into the eternal. + +This is the starting-point of the Bible. Starting with this, it goes +on with declaration after declaration based on this fundamental +doctrine that man and God in their essential moral attributes have the +same nature. It is human experience which is used to interpret divine +experience. According to pagan thought, God speaks to men through +movements of the stars, through all external phenomena, through even +entrails of animals. Seldom so in the Bible, save as when the wise men +followed the star, and then that they might come to a divine humanity. +In the Old Testament God speaks in human experience, through human +experience, about human experience, to typify and interpret and +explain Himself. God is like a shepherd that shepherds his flock. +God is like a king that rules in justice. He is like the father that +provides for his children. He is like the mother that comforts the +weeping child. All the experiences of humanity are taken in turn and +attributed to God. The hopes, the fears, the sorrows, the joys, the +very things which we call faults in men--so strong and courageous are +the old prophets in this fundamental faith of theirs that man and God +are alike--the very things we call faults in men are attributed to the +Almighty. He is declared to hate, to be wrathful, to be angry, to be +jealous; because, at the root, every fault is a virtue set amiss; and +the very faults of men have in them something that interprets the +power and will of God, as the very faults of a boy interpret the +virtues of his father. All through the Old Testament God manifests +Himself through human experience. He speaks in the hearts of men; He +dwells in the experience of men; He interprets Himself through the +life of men; and, finally, when this one selected nation which has a +genius for spiritual truth has been so far educated that there is no +danger that it will go back and worship man, that it will become a +mere hero-worshiper, when it has been so far educated that there is no +danger of that, then Jesus Christ comes into the world--God manifests +Himself in human life. + +Who, then, is Jesus Christ? Let John tell us. The Oriental world was +puzzled about the question of the origin of evil. They said, in brief, +a good God cannot make a bad world. Out of a good God, therefore, +there have emanated other gods, and out of these gods other gods, +until at last there came to be imperfect gods or bad gods. And the +world was made, some of them said, partly by a good god and partly by +a bad one; and others by an imperfect god who was an emanation of the +perfect one. Of these emanations one was Life, another was Light, +another was the Word. And John, writing in the age of Oriental +philosophy, uses the phraseology of Oriental philosophy in order that +he might tell mankind who and what Jesus Christ is. "In the beginning +was the Word, and the Word was God." God never was an abstraction; +from the very beginning He was a speaking God, a living God, a +manifesting God, a forth-putting God. "The same was in the beginning +with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not +anything made that was made. And this Word became flesh and dwelt +among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten +of the Father), full of grace and truth." Let me put this into +modern language. What is it but this? From eternity God has been a +manifesting God. When the fulness of time came, God, that He might +manifest Himself to His children, came into a human life and dwelt +in a human life. He that had spoken here through one prophet, there +through another prophet; He that had sent one message in this +direction and another in that; He that had spoken through signs and +tokens, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, in divers +manners and in fragmentary utterances--when the fulness of time had +come, He spoke in one perfect human life, taking entire possession of +it and making it His own, that He might manifest Himself in terms of +human experience to humanity. Or turn to Paul and let me read you this +declaration; "Let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ; +who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with +God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of +a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in +fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, +even the death of the cross." What is this, again, but the same +declaration? God desiring to show Himself to humanity, entered into +one human life, became subject to human conditions, shared the +weakness, the wants, the ignorance of humanity, entered into and was +identified with one human life. + +Do I say, then, that Jesus Christ was a man like other men? No. But I +do say that in their essential qualities God and man are identical, +and God entered into humanity that He might show to humanity what He +is. I do say, not that Jesus Christ was a man like other men, but that +other men may become like Jesus Christ. I hold a bulb in my one hand +and a tulip in my other. Will any man say to me, this beautiful flower +with all its rich coloring is like this bulb? Oh, no! But let the +sun of God shine long enough on this bulb, put it where it belongs, +subject it to the conditions of life, and this bulb will become like +this flower. Man is made in the image of God. All that is in man +that is not in God's image does not belong to man's nature. Natural +depravity? There is no natural depravity. Depravity is unnatural. +Depravity is contra-natural. It is against the whole law of man's +being. It is never wrong for any creature God has made to act out the +nature which God endowed him with. It is not wicked for a tiger to be +ravening. It is not wicked for a snake to be sinuous. It is wicked for +man to be ravening or sinuous, because it is against the divine nature +that God has put in man. He made man for better things. + +God made man in His own image, God coming through successive stages, +manifesting Himself in successive relations of Himself in human +experience, God at last disclosing Himself in one pure, sinless, +typical man in order that man through that humanity might know who and +what God is--and is that the end? Oh, no! That is the beginning, +only the beginning. For what did God come in Christ? Simply to show +Himself? Here is a hospital--all manner of sick; the paralytic, the +fever-stricken, the consumptive. Is it good news to these hospital +bedridden ones if an athlete come in and show them his life, his +muscles, the purity of his lungs, the health of his constitution, and +then goes out? But if he comes in and says, "My friends, if you will +follow my directions I will put into you consumptive ones some of the +strength of my lungs, into you fever-stricken ones some of the purity +of my blood; into you paralytic ones some of the sinew and muscle +I possess--you can become like me," then there is good news in the +message. If God came into the world simply to tell us what God is and +what the ideal of humanity is, the gospel would be the saddest message +that could be conceived, as delivered to the human race. It would add +gloom to the gloom, darkness to the darkness, chains to the chains, +despair to despair. He comes not merely to show divinity to us, but to +impart divinity to us; rather, to evolve the latent divinity which He +first implanted in us. As God has entered into Christ, He will enter +into me. Christ says to me: As I am patient, you can become patient; +as I am strong, you can become strong; as I am pure, you can become +pure; as I am the Son of God, you can become the Son of God. Therefore +His message is the gospel that it is. + +Christ is not a man like other men. I can find in the biography of +Jesus no trace of sin. In every other biography, oh, how many traces! +There is no trace of repentance. The Hebrew Psalmist laments his +iniquity. Paul confesses himself to be the chief of sinners. Luther, +Calvin, Melanchthon, Edwards--go where I will, in the biography of +all the saints there are signs of sin and iniquity. Never a trace of +repentance or confession in Christ. In all others we see a struggle +after God. "My heart panteth after thee, as the hart panteth after +water-brooks." "I count not myself to have attained, but, forgetting +those things that are behind, I press forward toward the mark." Never +in the written biography of Christ a trace of that aspiration after +something not yet reached. On the contrary, a great peace and a great +possession. He says: I have come full of life. I have come to give +life. This sinless Christ comes that He may give to us that which +He Himself possesses; that He may take the sin out of our lives and +sorrow out of our hearts, and for the yearning desire give a great, +great peace. I have come, He says, that you might have life. How much, +Lord and Master? Life more abundantly. What kind of life, Lord and +Master? Eternal life. Has He come with that great life of His to give +a little and then stop? Nay, to give all to every one that every one +will take. + +I marvel to find Christian men denying that Christ is the type and +manifestation and revelation of the possible divinity in universal +humanity. It is written all over the Bible. What says Christ Himself? +I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more +abundantly. As the Father has sent Me into the world, even so I send +you into the world. You shall be My disciples. You shall learn of Me. +You shall be My followers, and tread where I have trod. You shall take +up My cross, and suffer as I have suffered. The secret of My life +shall be the secret of your life. Ye shall be in Me. I will abide with +you. Ye shall be as a branch grafted on the vine, drawing the same +life as I have, as out of My very veins. As the Father was in Me, so +I and My Father will come and abide in you. He breathes upon the +disciples and tells them to receive the Spirit that was in Him; and in +His last prayer He prays that they may share His glory, that they may +be one with the Father, as He is one with the Father. Paul takes up +the same refrain and repeats it over and over again. Righteousness in +man is the righteousness of God, God's own righteousness coming out +of God's heart into human hearts. Ye shall be partakers of the divine +nature. Ye shall be joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, inheriting +all that Christ inherited from His Father. Ye shall have the same +spirit that was in Christ. Metaphor and trope and figure are exhausted +in the endeavor of the apostle to set forth this sublime truth. Christ +is the servant of God. We are the servants of God. He is the Son of +God. We are the sons of God. He is the light of the world. We are +the lights of the world. He is a priest forever. We are priests +perpetually serving in His temple. He is the one eternal sacrifice. We +are to present our bodies a living sacrifice before God. He is dead. +We are to die with Him. He has risen. We are to rise with Him. Already +we sit in the heavenly place with Christ Jesus. We are changed from +glory to glory into His image. We are predestined to be conformed to +that image. We are bid to pray that we may be rooted and grounded in +Christ, and that with Him, we may be filled with all the fulness of +God. + +Do I say, then, that I am equal to Christ? Or that I shall ever become +equal to Christ? No! Let me try to make this plain to the child, and +then the rest will perhaps understand it. Here is a great man. He is +a great statesman. He is a great poet. He is a great orator. He is a +great philosopher. He is a great general. He is Bismarck and Gladstone +and Dante and Napoleon and Raphael and Plato all combined in one. +And he has children, and this boy is a statesman, and this boy is a +general, and this boy is an orator, and this boy is a poet, and this +boy is an artist. No one of them comprizes all the genius that was in +his father, but each one has one quality of that father, and all the +boys together reflect their father's nature. No, I shall never be +equal to Christ. But according to the measure of my own capacity, +I may reflect even here and now something of Christ and be really +Christ-like. + +Christ is my Master. I acknowledge no other Master than Him. I wish to +follow where He leads. I gladly believe whatever He says. And I have +no other ambition--oh, I wish it were true that I never had any other +ambition!--than to be like Him. But He is my Master because He bids me +follow where He leads, because He gives what I can take, because He +promised what He will yet fulfil. I believe in the divinity of our +Lord Jesus Christ. It is the center of my faith, as He is the center +and source of my life. But I do not believe in the medieval formula +that Jesus Christ is God and man mysteriously joined together, because +to believe that would be to leave me both without an ideal of man +which I might follow, and without a manifestation of God to which I +might cling. In my country home two Christians quarreled. An atheist +went to them and said to one of them, "Your Christ said, 'Forgive +all your enemies and love one another.'" "Yes," he said, "Christ was +divine. He could. I cannot." But there was nothing of moral virtue +that God wrought in Christ that He cannot work in you and me if we +give Him time enough. And, on the other hand, this separation of "God" +and "man" in Christ denies the real manifestation of God to man. +Jesus called His disciples to watch while He wrestled with agony in +Gethsemane, and Dean Alford, speaking on Gethsemane, says this was the +manifestation in Christ of human weakness. No! no! A thousand times, +No! It is the glorious manifestation of that sympathy in God which +wants the sympathy of the feeblest of His followers, as the mother +wants the sympathy and love of the babe on her lap. "Beloved, now are +we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Only +we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." There are two +things we do not know. Genius is always a mystery, spiritual genius +the greatest mystery of genius, and Christ the greatest mystery of +all. We do not know what we shall be, any more than one who never had +seen a garden could guess what the mold would be when the spring had +finished its work. Those are two things we do not know. But there are +two things we do know. We shall be like Him, and when we are like Him, +we shall see Him as He is. We shall be like no imagination of Him, no +deteriorated or imperfect conception of Him; but when we come to see +Him in all the regal splendor of His character, with all the love, all +the justice, all the purity, all the divine glory which is adumbrated +and shadowed here because our eyes could not look upon it and still +live--when we come to see Him in all the glory of that divine +character, we shall be like Him--_we shall be like Him_. + + + + +BROOKS + +THE PRIDE OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Phillips Brooks was born at Boston, Mass., in 1835, graduated at +Harvard in 1855 and studied theology at the P.E. Seminary, Alexandria, +Va. He was elected rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, +in 1859, and three years later to that of Holy Trinity in the same +city. In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and was +consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891. He died in 1893. He was +in every sense a large man, large in simplicity and sympathy, large in +spiritual culture. In his lectures to the students at Yale he spoke of +the preparation for the ministry as being nothing less than the making +of a man. Said he: + +"It cannot be the mere training to certain tricks. It cannot be even +the furnishing with abundant knowledge. It must be nothing less than +the kneading and tempering of a man's whole nature till it becomes of +such a consistency and quality as to be capable of transmission. This +is the largeness of the preacher's culture." Doctor Brastow describes +him thus: "The physical equipment was symbol of his soul; and the +rush of his speech was typical of those mental, moral, and spiritual +energies that were fused into unity and came forth in a stream of +fiery intensity." + + + + +BROOKS + +1835--1893 + +THE PRIDE OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: Published for the first time by the kind permission of +William G. Brooks.] + +_The pride of life_.--1 John ii., 16. + + +John is giving his disciples the old warning not to love the world, +that world which then and always is pressing on men's eyes and ears +and hearts with all its loveliness and claiming to be loved. "Love not +the world, neither the things that are in the world.... For all that +is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and +the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." + +What is the pride of life? Pride is one of those words which hover in +the middle region between virtue and vice. The materials which under +one set of circumstances and in one kind of character make up an +honorable self-respect, seem so often to be precisely the same as +those which under another set of circumstances and in another kind of +character make up arrogance and self-conceit. This last is the tone +evidently in which John speaks. So it is with most moral minglings. +All character is personal, determined by some force that blends the +qualities into a special personality. The same apparent qualities +unite into the most various results. It is like the delicate +manufacture of mosaics. The skilful workers of Rome or Venice put in +the same ingredients in nature and amount, and the composition comes +out at one time dull and muddy and at another time perfectly clear and +lustrous. Some subtle difference in the mixture of the constituents +or in the condition of the atmosphere or in the heat of the furnace +alters the whole result. So out of life we may say in its various +minglings there come various products in character, either humility or +thankfulness or contentment or self-respect, from some failure of the +qualities to meet in perfect union, from some fault in the shape or +misregulation of the temperature of the human furnace in which they +are fused, this degenerate and confused result of pride which yet +is often so near to, that we can see how it was only some slightest +cause, some stray and unguarded draft across the surface that hindered +it from being, one of the clear and lustrous combinations of the same +material. But that fact makes it no better. The muddy glass is no more +useful because it is made of the same components as the clear glass. +There is nothing still to be done with it but to throw it away. + +What then is the pride of life which is bad, which "is not of the +Father, but is of the world"? Life itself we know is of the Father. In +whatever sense we take that much-meaning word, life is God's gift. The +mere physical being, if that be life, is the creation of His mighty +word. The continuance, the prolongation of the vital function, if +that be life, that too is the result of His never-sleeping care. The +surrounding circumstances, the scenery of our experience, if that be +life, is also of His arranging. The spiritual vitality, all the higher +powers as we call them, of thought and feeling and conscience, if they +be life, no hand but His strung and tuned their manifold and subtle +cords. Everywhere there is no life but what He gives. It is not of the +world. In no sense does any creative power of being issue either from +the material earth, or from the social system, or from the mass of +conventional laws and standards, each of which is sometimes, in +different uses of the word, characterized as "the world." They may all +influence and change and give character to life, but none of them can +create it. + +And perhaps this brings us to what we want. The world may give a +certain character or shape to life, even altho it cannot create it. +Now pride is a certain character or shape of life. It is a term of +description not of the material of life but of a particular result of +that material fused into a particular furnace. In general the shape of +life which pride describes may be otherwise characterized as +arrogant self-reliance or self-sufficiency. We may reach more minute +definitions of it before we are done, but this seems to make the +meaning plain when it is said that the pride of life is not of the +Father, but of the world. Life comes from God. It is the world's +influence that shapes that life, which has no moral character in +itself, into arrogance and self-sufficiency, makes it up into pride +instead of into humility, and so leaves as the result the pride of +life. The pride of life, then, is God's gift which means dependence +changed and distorted into independence, revolt and disobedience. + +Most necessary is it that in all we say we should keep clear in mind +that the first gift is God's. The substance of life is His. All evil +is misuse, otherwise repentance must be cursed with misanthropy and +hopelessness instead of being as it always ought to be, the very +birthplace of hope, the spring of a new life from the worn-out failure +of an old, back into the possibility of life that is older still, as +old as man's first creation. + +Let us see where the pride of life shows itself. First of all +doubtless in the mere exuberance of animal strength. To be well and +strong, full of spirit and physical vitality, this is beyond all doubt +one of the most precious gifts of God. We never can forget the large +strong physical strain with which our Bible opens, the torrent of +health and full life that seems to pour down to us out of those early +days when the world was young, when the giants made the earth shake +under their mighty tread and the patriarchs outlived the forests with +their green old years. The fulness of physical vitality is of God, to +be accepted as His benefaction, to be cultivated and cared for with +the reverence that His gifts demand. And round the mere physical life +group a whole circle of tastes and enjoyments and exercises which +belong with the sensuous more than with the intellectual or moral part +of us, and whose full life seems to be dependent upon the fulness of +physical being, the mere perception of beauty, the love of comfort, +the delight in enterprise and adventure and prowess. The sum of all +these is what we call full physical life. It is what gives youth its +most generous charm and makes it always poetic with its suggested +powers and unaccomplished possibilities. + +But yet this mere fulness of life as we all know has its dangers. Mere +health is overbearing by its very nature. There is a lack of sympathy +in it. Not knowing suffering itself, it is not respectful of suffering +in others. It is not careful of inflicting suffering. The full blood +sings of nothing but itself. It is careless of others. It is careless +of God, not malignantly cruel, nor deliberately atheistic, but selfish +with a sort of self-absorption which is often, very gracious in its +forms and infidel with a mere forgetfulness of God. Who of us does not +know, and who of us, wavering between his standards and his feelings, +has not very often found it hard to tell just how he ought to value +the enthusiastic and arrogant self-sufficiency of healthy youth? + +It is this, I take it, that is described here as "the pride of life." +Wherever there is eager and full-blooded youth there it appears. It +breaks out in the wild and purposeless mob of lower city life, in the +impatience and insubordination of the country boy who longs to be free +from his father's farm, in the crude skepticism of college students' +first discussions of religion. It is jealous of slight, of insult, +of the least suspicion of restraint or leading. It belongs to strong +young nations as well as to strong young men. By it they flaunt +defiance in the face of the world and are afraid of the imputation of +prudence. It is what you can see in the faces of any group of eager +young men as you pass them on the street. Sometimes it makes them +attractive and sometimes it makes them detestable. It turns the noble +youth into a hero and the mean youth into a bully. A fine nature it +leads into the most exquisite tastes and encircles it with art and +music. A coarse nature it plunges into the vilest debauchery and vice. +In good fortune it makes the temper carelessly benignant. In bad +fortune it makes the temper recklessly defiant. It works these very +different effects but is always the one same spirit still,--the pride +of life. The gift of life which came from God, taken possession of by +the world and tamed into self-sufficiency, a thing not of the Father, +but of the world, who does not know in himself, or see in somebody +he watches, something of this pure pride in life? Just to live is so +attractive that the higher ends and responsibilities of living drift +away out of sight. This instinctive almost physical selfishness is the +philosophy of more than we think both of the good and of the bad that +is in young people. + +I have seen too much of it to undervalue the sweet and sober piety of +old age. There is a beauty in it that is all its own. A softness and +tenderness and patience and repose in the western sky that the bolder +glories of the east where the morning breaks never can attain. Many +and many of the best men we have known have been old men, but no one +looks at men's progress without feeling that a great deal of what +passes for growth in goodness as men grow old is in reality only the +deadening of the pride of life from the dying-down of the life itself. +Many and many a man who passes for a sober, conscientious, religious +sort of man at fifty, if you put back into his cooled blood the hot +life he had at twenty-five would be the same reckless, profligate, +arrogant sinner that he was then. It is the life, not the pride, that +he has lost. Many and many a man thinks that he has saved his house +from conflagration because he, sees no flame, when really the flame +is hidden only because the house is burnt down and the fire is still +lurking among the ashes, hunting out any little prey that is left and +hungrily waiting for more fuel to light up the darkness again. One +thing at least is true, that the goodness of old age in what we may +call its passive forms, humility, submission, patience, faith, is +necessarily far more hard to recognize and be sure of than the same +goodness in a younger man. What you call piety may be only deadness. + +And young men are often pointed just to this old age as the golden +time when they will be religious as they cannot be now. They look to +it themselves. "You are full of the pride of life," men say to them; +"Ah, wait! By and by the life will flag. The senses will grow dull, +the tastes will stupefy, the enterprise will flicker out, and the days +come in which your soul will say 'I have no pleasure in them.' Just +wait for that! Then your pride will go too, and then you will need and +seek your God." It is a poor taunt and a poorer warning. If you have +nothing better to say to make men use their powers rightly than to +tell them that they will lose their powers some day, the answer will +always be, "Well, I will wait until that losing day comes before +I worry." If you tell a young man that his life is short, the old +bacchanalian answer is the first one, "Live while we live." You must +somehow get hold of that, you must persuade him that the true life now +is the holy life, that life, this same life that he prizes, ought to +breed humility and faith, not arrogance and pride, or else you +must expect to talk to the winds. It surely is important that the +conversion of the pride of life must come not by the putting-out of +life but by making it a source of humility instead of pride. +The humbleness of life. How can it come? By clearer and deeper +truthfulness to let us see what the real facts of the case are, that +is all; but that is very hard, so hard that it can be brought about by +no other than the Almighty Holy Ghost. Let me see that this physical +life of mine, having no true character of its own, is made to be a +great machinery for simply conducting the knowledge and the love of +God into my life; let all my study of the exquisite adaptations of +the physical organs for their work be sanctified with this idea, this +ever-pervading consciousness that eye and ear and hand are doors for +the knowledge and the love of Him to enter by, and that all their +marvelous mechanism is only the perfecting of hinges and bolt that He +may enter more impressively and lovingly and entirely; let me learn +that every bright taste or fine instinct or noble appetite is a ray of +sunlight, not the sun, is the projection into my life of some force +above, outside of me, which I can find only by climbing back along the +ray that is projected, up to it; let me see all animal life a +study and preparation for this final life of man, sensations and +perceptions, growing clearer and clearer as we rise in the scale until +in man they are fit to convey this knowledge which man alone can have, +the knowledge of God; let me see this, and I must be ashamed to make +that life a thing of pride which might be the seat of such an exalted +and exalting dependence and humility. I am unwilling that those +well-built cisterns which ought to be so full of God should hold +nothing but myself, as if one crept into his aqueduct and closed it up +where the water came into it from the fountain and lived in it for a +house and found it very dry. + +We see clearly enough what the change is that is needed. It is +to substitute for self-consciousness as the result of life the +ever-abiding consciousness of God. Do you ask how it shall be done? +Ah, my dear friends, that is the very miracle of the gospel. I can +tell you only this about it, which the Lord has told us all before: +"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The +kingdom of God, that region of life in which God is the life's King. +And again: "If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father +will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." +"We will come to him!" That is what we want, for that is the source of +all humility, the coming of God into us, and the condition is love and +obedience, the spiritual and the active forms of faith. That is all we +can say. And that is enough, for in that this at least is clear, that +such a conversion is a work that God has undertaken to do for us, that +He asks of us nothing but submission to His willing helpfulness, and +that being a transformation of life, it may, nay it must, be done +while life is in possession, it can be done best when life is in its +fullest. We have not to wait till movement is slow and color is dull. +We are not tempted to make a vacancy and call it piety; but when man's +life is so full that it tempts him daily to self-consciousness and +pride, then let him open it wide to the consciousness of God and +ennoble it with the full dignity of that humility whose first +condition is the presence of God in the soul that He built for His own +inhabiting. + +There is a condition possible where the life shall flow with God as +fully and freely as it ordinarily flows with self, where the greater +volume it acquires, it only bears the more of Him; where every joy +delights in Him, and every power depends on Him, and the whole man +lives in Him and knows it. It is not a constant effort. It is the +spontaneous direction of the whole nature. It is the new condition +of the Christian who has been exalted from the human pride into the +divine humility of life, out of self to God. + +But I suggested at the outset that the word life was used in various +meanings, and in connection with one or two of them I should like to +develop a little what is meant by this phrase the "pride of +life." Life sometimes familiarly signifies what we otherwise call +circumstances. A man is said to "get on in life," not with reference +to his growing older or growing healthier, but as he grows more rich, +more prosperous. The pride of life in this sense would be the pride +of success, which we see wherever men are struggling in this world of +competition. Look at the young merchant who is making a living. Things +go well with him. He rises from stratum to stratum of that commercial +system whose geology is the ever-eluding study of the toilers of the +street. He grows rich. His store begins to spread with the pressure of +new enterprises. His house begins to blossom into the rich bloom +of luxury. He is greeted with a new respect. He is courted with an +eagerness he never knew before. Friends gather about him. His word has +weight. His name means money. He is successful. What is the result? +Those facts in themselves signify nothing, let us remember, but +material capable of being made into one thing or another wholly its +opposite. These are the gift of the Father, every one of them, all +that profusion of life. But there is a possible effect of them all in +character, a pride, which is not of the Father, but of the world. With +a morbid sympathy the man assimilates all that is poor and mean and +worldly out of his prosperity, and rejects, because he has no affinity +for it, all that is good and sweet and heavenly. He is chilled and +narrowed and embittered. All the old sweetness and humility fade out +of his nature. Need I tell you of it? Our streets are full of the +pride of life. Its types only, its outer types flash in the splendid +carriages and blaze in the fronts of gaudy houses and sweep the floors +of drawing-rooms and the aisles of churches. Those types, the mere +outward trappings of success, are not wherein the badness lies. The +reality is in the hard hearts and selfish tempers and undocile minds +which, in the splendor or the squalidness of wealth, show the sad ruin +of self-sufficient success, the pride of life. + +The pride of life kills out the life itself. Is there a sadder picture +than you have in the life of a man, old or young, to whom God has +sent prosperity, who by his own act then turns that prosperity into a +failure by being proud of it? Christ Himself has told us how it is. +The life is more than meat. He has no tolerance for this little +meaning of a word that He made so large. The life is more than meat. +Yes, life is meat and man, and to lose the best manhood to get the +meat, to lose the soul to save the body, to fail of heaven above you +and before you that you may own the ground under your feet, that is +not success but failure. "In all time of our prosperity, Good Lord +deliver us!" May God help you who are prosperous. + +I would speak again of what is called intellectual life, the life of +thought. It is "of the Father," indeed. We picture to ourselves +the pure joy of God in thought. Free from so many of our cumbrous +processes, free from the limitations of slow-moving time, free from +all imperfection, with an instantaneous thought as is His being, the +intellect that is the center of all reason revolves in its unfathomed +majesty. And man thinks too. God makes him think. God gives him powers +to think with, and then, as when you pour for your child a stream of +water out of your cisterns upon the wheels of the machinery that you +have first built for him, God gives man thoughts to exercise his power +of thinking upon. Can anything be more humble? The power was from God, +the thoughts by which the power moves were God's thoughts first. "Oh, +God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee," cried John Kepler, when he +caught sight of the great law of planetary motion. But mere thought, +self-satisfied, seeking no unity in God, owning no dependence, +boasting of itself, counting it hardship that it cannot know all where +it knows so much, this is the pride of thought, and this is not of the +Father, but is of the world. How arrogant it is! How it is jealous of +dictation, how it chafes under a hand that presses it down and a voice +that says to it, "Wait! what thou knowest not now thou shall; know +hereafter." How carefully it limits its kind of evidence, shutting out +everything that sounds like personal communication, revelation, in its +impatient independence; how studiously it orphans itself. And then +how, in some moods, orphaned by its arrogance, it suddenly becomes +intensely cognizant of its orphanage, and the child's hunger for a +Father takes possession of its heart and it is dreary and miserable! + +I always know, when I speak thus of types of men, that you will think +that I am talking of those types in their extreme specimens. I am +not speaking to-day of the miracles of physical vitality, nor of the +over-successful men with their colossal fortunes, nor of the mighty +thinkers only. We all have our certain share in these various kinds of +life, and each of us may make his little share a seed of pride. We +are strangely ingenious here. We have an easy faculty of persuading +ourselves that ours is best of everything and growing arrogant, +unfilial and worldly over it. I speak to the men confident in their +youth and health, to the merchants strong in their business credit, +to the thoughtful brains at work over their problems of settling the +universe for themselves. I warn them all against the pride of life. I +would try to show them all that the same material which is capable of +being made into pride is capable also of being made into humility. I +would tell them therefore that they have not to be made old or sick or +poor or stupid before they can be made humble, that the best humility, +as well as the hardest, is that which can come to them here, right in +the midst of their strength and wealth and study! + +Do you ask how that can be? It is time that I tried to tell you, tried +to tell how one may be full of life and yet be free from the pride of +life. That question must somehow be answered, or else the world will +be condemned to choose forever between an arrogant prosperity and a +salvation by misery, distress and disaster, by death. What do we need +for the salvation of a prosperous life? The answer in one word is +consecration. Consecration, that is what we need. There have been men +in whom life seemed complete who have yet walked very humbly. They had +no pride of life. And why? Because always before them and above them +there stood some great principle, some idea, some duty to which +their life belonged, not to themselves. All work is modest, all idle +self-contemplation is vain. And what the young man needs with his +vague aspirations and conceits is to make himself the servant of some +worthy purpose. And what the merchant needs with his growing business +is to count himself the steward of some worthy Master. And what the +student needs with his active mind is to trace the footsteps of the +God of wisdom in the path he walks and to count the reaching nearer to +Him, the true prize and object of all thinking. Consecration! We are +proud of life because we do so little with it. It is as if the bearer +of dispatches sat down calmly and boasted of the well-made box in +which they had been given to him, and never bore them to their +destination. Life is force, to be transmitted and delivered to a +purpose and an end. It loses its true nature and sweetness, it +corrupts into pride, when it is robbed of its true purpose and +cherished only for itself. + +We can find our example of the consecrated man wherever we see true +lives lived in history or about us now, in the Bible or in common +life. Moses, David, Paul! But why look at the poor, imperfect copies +when in our Lord Himself we have the consummate human life clothed in +the wondrous humility of His appointed work. The life of lives! and +yet was ever any life so utterly free from the tawdry pride that makes +our poor achievements so wretched and unsatisfying. You say He cut +Himself off from all that men are proud of. Not so. He gave up house +and home, but he carried about with Him always the devotion of the +people, the mystery of unknown power and the consciousness of great +work and influence, the very things that have always seduced the best +men most and in their highest labors made them proud. You say He was +divine and so could not be humble. Yes, but He was profoundly human +also, and humility is not subserviency or meanness. It is a grace not +unworthy of, nay, necessary to, even the perfect humanity. But one +thing stands out always: His was the consecrated life. It was all +given to its purpose. "He was called Jesus because he should save his +people from their sins." "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's +business?" "Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be +betrayed." "To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the +world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." Everywhere the +consecration, a life appointed to an end, the face set to Jerusalem, +the hands and feet waiting for the cross! Meanwhile it was the fullest +life, but lived so high that the "pride of life" lay all below under +His feet and out of sight. + +And our life must be consecrated even as His was. What shall the +consecration be? Far be it from me to undervalue the exaltation into +humility that comes to a man when he consecrates himself to any great +and noble cause. I believe that it helps to save any man from pride +when he gives himself to his family or his country or his fellow men, +to truth, to liberty, to purity, to anything outside of and above +himself, but there is a consecration higher and fuller and more saving +than any such can be. We go back to the Cross. Jesus is dying there +for us. He dies and we are saved. What then? When a soul "knows its +full salvation" and sees it all bought by, all wrapt up in, that +Redeemer, then in the outburst of a grateful love, he gives himself +to the Redeemer Christ. There is no hesitation, no keeping back of +anything. He is all offered up to Christ; and then to serve that +Christ, to follow Him, to do His will, to enter into Him, that is +the one great object of the whole consecrated life, and in that +consecration, the straining of the life toward that One Object, the +"pride of life" is swept down and drowned. Not merely the life then, +but the use of the life, comes from the Father. It is not of the +world. The soul is saved! + +The salvation of the Cross! Its center is the forgiveness of sins +which the cross alone made possible; but is not its issue here, in the +lifting of the soul above the pride of life and consecrating it in the +profoundest gratitude to "Him who redeemed us and washed us from +sins in His own blood"? What humility! What self-forgetfulness! What +unworldliness! What utter childhood to the Father! + +My friends, my people, would you be saved, saved from your sins, saved +from yourselves, saved from the pride of life? You must be His that +you may not be your own! He died for you that you might not henceforth +live to yourself but unto Him. You must be consecrated to your Savior. +If there is one soul in my church to-day who is weary and dissatisfied +with his self-slavery, I offer him Jesus for Savior, for Master! If +any man thirst let him come unto Him and drink. Turn unto Him and be +ye saved! You can, you must! His service is life, life in its fullest +because life in humility. Outside of His gospel and His service there +is the pride of life, and the pride of life is death. + + + + +GLADDEN + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Washington Gladden, Congregational divine, was born at Pottsgrove, +Pa., in 1836. After graduating at Williams College he was ordained +pastor, and occupied pulpits in Brooklyn, Morrisania, N.Y., and +Springfield, Mass., until 1882, when he assumed charge of the First +Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio. He has also occupied +editorial positions, and has published many books on social and civil +reform and the practical application of Christian truth to popular and +common life. His style, whether he is writing or speaking, combines +vigor with grace. + + + + +GLADDEN + +BORN IN 1836 + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: From Mr. Gladden's "The New Idolatry." By permission of +The McClure Co. Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co.] + +_And killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the +dead._--Acts iii., 15. + + +This is the phrase with which Peter, in his great speech in the temple +porch, describes the Master whose disciple he had been for three years, +whose death he had witnessed on Calvary, and to whose resurrection from +the dead he is now bearing witness. "The prince of life!" It is one of +the many great titles conferred upon the Lord by those who loved Him. +Reverence and devotion fell from their lips in lyrical cadences whenever +they spoke of Him, and they wreathed for Him garlands of words with +which they loved to deck His memory. He was "the Prophet of the +Highest"; He was "the Great High Priest"; He was "the Shepherd of the +Sheep"; He was "the Captain of Salvation"; He was "the First Born of +Many Brethren"; He was "Redeemer," "Reconciler," "Savior." Gratitude and +affection shaped many a tender phrase in which to describe Him, but +there is none, perhaps, more luminous or more comprehensive than this +with which the impulsive Peter, facing the men who had put Him to death, +gave utterance to his loyalty. Its pertinence is confirmed by the word +of Jesus Himself, in one of the sayings in which He described His +mission: "I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it +abundantly." Author and Giver of life He was, and what He gave He gave +with princely munificence--freely, unstintedly. + +The phrase seems to be one on which we may fitly dwell to-day, since +the day of the year which commemorates His birth occurs on the day of +the week which celebrates His resurrection. Both events proclaim Him +the Prince of Life. In the one He is the Bringer of new life, in +the other He is the Victor over death; and thus He becomes, in the +impassioned confessions of the apostle, the Alpha and the Omega, the +Author and the Finisher of Faith, the First and the Last and the +Living One. + +Those who are familiar with the New Testament narration do not need to +have their attention called to the constant ministry of this Son of +Man to the vital needs of men. The impartation of life seems to +have been His main business. Somehow it came to be believed by the +multitude, at the very beginning of His public ministry, that He +possest some power of communicating life. The wonderful works ascribed +to Him are nearly all of this character. The healing of the sick, the +cleansing of the lepers, all resulted from the reenforcement of the +vital energies of the sufferers. When He laid His hand upon men, new +life seemed to speed through their veins. We have known some who +seemed to have, in some imperfect way, this quickening touch. It is +a physiological fact that warm blood from the veins of a thoroughly +healthy person, transfused through the veins of one who is emaciated +or exhausted, quickens the wavering pulse and brings life to the +dying. It may be that through the nerve tissues, as well as through +the veins, the same vitalizing force may be communicated, and that +those who are in perfect health, both of body and of mind, may have +the power of imparting life to those who are in need of it. The +miracles of healing ascribed to Jesus must have been miracles in the +literal sense; they were wonders, marvels--for that is what the word +miracle means; that they were interruptions or violations of natural +law is never intimated in the New Testament; they may have been purely +natural occurrences, taking place under the operation of natural +laws with which we are not familiar. We are far from knowing all the +secrets of this wonderful universe; the time may come when these words +of Jesus will have larger meaning than we have ever given them: "If ye +abide in me, the works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works +than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father." + +The fact to be noted is, however, that the people with whom Jesus was +brought into contact were made aware in many ways of the impartation +of His Life to them. "Of His fulness," said John, "we all received, +and grace for grace." There seemed to be in Him a plenitude of +vitality, from which health and vigor flowed into the lives of those +who came near to Him. Nor does this seem to have been any mere +physical magnetism; there is no intimation that His physical +endowments were exceptional; the restoring and invigorating influence +oftener flowed from a deeper source. The physical renewal came as the +result of a spiritual quickening. He reached the body through the +soul. The order was, first, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"; then, "Arise +and walk." If the spirit is thoroughly alive, the body more quickly +recovers its lost vigor. And it was mainly in giving peace to troubled +consciences and rest to weary souls that He conferred upon those who +received Him the great boon of life. + +Thus Jesus proved Himself "the Prince of Life." In the early ages of +the Church the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, came to be described as +"the Lord and Giver of Life"; but that was because He was believed to +be the Continuator of the work of Jesus--the spiritual Christ. + +There seems to be in this conception a great and beautiful revelation +of the essential nature of Christianity. There are many ways of +conceiving of this, but I am not sure that any one of them is more +significant than that which we are now considering. Those words of +Jesus to which I have before referred are wonderful words when we come +to think upon them. They occur in that discourse in which He describes +Himself first as the Good Shepherd, and contrasts Himself with the +thieves and robbers who have been ravaging the flock. "The thief +cometh not," He says, "but that he may steal and kill and destroy; I +came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly," Have we +not here the great fundamental distinction between men--the line that +separates the evil from the good, the just from the unjust, the sheep +from the goats--that distinction which Jesus marks so clearly in His +parable of judgment, and which must never, in our interpretations or +philosophizings, be blotted or blurred? Some are life-givers; some are +life-destroyers. "The thief cometh not but that he may steal and +kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have it +abundantly." + +I do not suppose that Jesus meant in this to declare that there is a +large class of persons whose entire purpose it is to steal and kill +and destroy; probably there are none so malevolent that they do not +cherish some kindly impulses and perform some generous deeds. It is a +distinction between acts, or perhaps between tendencies of character, +that He is making. He speaks in the concrete, as He always does; but +He expects us to make the proper application of His words. The fact to +which He guides our thought is this--that there are ways of living, +forms of conduct, which are predatory and destructive of life, and +other ways that tend to make life increase and abound. When Jesus +contrasts His own conduct, as one who gives life and gives it +abundantly, with the thieves and robbers who kill and destroy, we must +interpret the conduct of those whom He describes as destructive of +life--as tending to the diminution of life. Indeed, it is a very deep +and awful truth that all our social action tends in one or other of +these directions. Life, in its proper relation, is the one supreme and +central good; the life of the body is the supreme good of the body; +the life of the spirit is the supreme good of the spirit. And you can +rightly estimate any act or habit or tendency of human conduct only by +determining whether it increases and invigorates the life of men, body +and spirit, or whether it reduces or diminishes their life. Good men +are adding to the life of those with whom they have to do; evil men +are debilitating and depleting the life of those with whom they have +to do. + +Even in our economic relations the final effect of all our conduct +upon those with whom we deal is to replenish or diminish their life. +The wage question is at bottom a question of more or less life for the +wage-worker. Starvation wages are wages by which the hold upon life +of the wage-earner and his wife and children is weakened. Systems of +industry are good in proportion as they enlarge and invigorate the +life of the whole population; evil in proportion as they lessen and +weaken its life. So all industrial and national policies are to be +judged by the amount of life which they produce and maintain--life of +the body and of the spirit. Those strong words of John Ruskin are the +everlasting truth: + +"There is no wealth but life--life including all its powers of love, +of joy and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes +the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is +richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the +utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal and by +means of his possessions, over the lives of others," + +We have here, as you see, the Christian conception--the very word of +the Prince of Life, of Him who came that we might have life, and that +we might have it abundantly. And when His kingdom has come, this will +be the end for which wealth is sought and used in every nation. + +It is possible to use wealth so that it shall be productive of life; +so that the entire administration of it shall tend to the enlargement +and enrichment of the life of men; so that the labor which it employs +shall obtain an increasing share of the goods which it produces; so +that all the conditions under which that labor is performed shall be +favorable to health and life and happiness; so that the spiritual +life, also, of all who are employed shall be nourished by inspiring +them with good-will and kindness, with the confidence in man which +helps us to have faith in God. Such an administration of wealth is +perhaps the very best testimony to the reality of the truth of the +Christian religion which it is possible to bear in this day and +generation. One who handles capital with this clear purpose can do +more to establish in the earth the kingdom of heaven than any minister +or missionary can do. + +But it is possible to use wealth in the opposite way, so that it shall +be destructive rather than productive of life. A man may manage his +industry in such a way that the last possible penny shall be taken +from wages and added to profit; in such a way that the health of his +employees shall be impaired and their happiness blighted and their +hope taken, away. He may do this while maintaining an outwardly +religious behavior and giving large sums to philanthropy. But such +a handling of wealth does more to make infidels than any heretical +teacher or lecturer ever did or can do. + +The fact needs to be noted that all the predatory schemes by which +capital is successfully inflated and nefariously manipulated, and the +community is thus burdened, are deadly attacks upon the life of the +people. They filch away the earnings of the laboring classes. They +increase the cost of rent and transportation and all the necessaries +of life. They extort from the people contributions for which no +equivalent has been given, of commodity or service. Thus the burden of +toil is increased and the reward of industry is lessened for all who +work; the surplus out of which life would be replenished is consumed, +and the amount of life in the nation at large is lessened. Every one +of those schemes of frenzied finance about which we are reading +in these days is a gigantic bloodsucker, with ten million minute +tentacles which it stealthily fastens upon the people who do the +world's work, and each one of the victims must give up a little of his +life for the aggrandizement of our financial Titans. When such schemes +flourish, by which men's gains are suddenly swollen to enormous +proportions, somebody must be paying for it, and life is always the +final payment. It all comes out of the life of the people who are +producing the world's wealth. The plethora of the few is the depletion +of the millions. In every great aggregation of workers, the faces of +the underfed are a little paler and the pulses of the children beat a +little less joyously, and the feet are hastened on that journey to +the tomb--all because of those who come to steal and to kill and to +destroy. + +Such is the contrast between beneficent business and maleficent +business. The good business employs men, feeds them, clothes them, +shelters them, generously distributes among them the goods that +nourish life; the bad business contrives to levy tribute on the +resources out of which they are fed and clad and nourished, and thus +enriches itself by impoverishing the life of the multitude. + +And I suppose that we should all find, whether we are engaged in what +is called business or not, that the work which we are doing, the way +in which we are spending our time and gaining our income, is tending +either to the enlargement and increase of the life of those with whom +we have to do or to the impoverishment and destruction of their life; +and that this is the final test by which we must be judged--are we +producers of life or destroyers of life? Is there more of life in the +world--more of physical and spiritual life--because of what we are and +what we do, or is the physical and spiritual vitality of men lessened +by what we are and what we do? Are we helping men to be stronger and +sounder in body and mind and soul for the work of life, or are we +making them feebler in muscle and will and moral stamina? + +When Jesus Christ came into the world the civilization prevailing--if +such it could be called--was under the dominion of those who came +to steal and to kill and to destroy. Rome was the world, and the +civilization of Rome, with all its splendor, was at bottom a predatory +civilization. It overran all its neighbors that it might subjugate and +despoil them; its whole social system was based on a slavery in which +the enslaved were merely chattels; the life of its ruling class was +fed by the literal devouring of the lives of subject classes. Of +course, this civilization was decadent. That terrible decline and fall +which Gibbon has pictured was in full progress. It was in the midst of +this awful scene that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Can anyone +doubt that His heart was full of divine compassion for those who were +trampled on and preyed upon by the cruel and the strong, for those +whose lives were consumed by the avarice and greed of their fellows? +What did He mean when, at the beginning of His ministry in the synagog +where He had always worshiped, He took in his hand the roll of the +prophet Isaiah and read therefrom: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, +because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; he +hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight +to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the +acceptable year of the Lord"--adding as He sat down, under the gaze of +the congregation, "To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your +ears"? What could He have meant but this, that it was His mission to +change the entire current and tendency of human life; to put an end to +the plunderers and devourers; to chain the wolfish passion in human +hearts which prompts men to steal and to kill and to destroy; to +inspire them with His own divine compassion; to give life and to give +it abundantly? And is it not true that so far as men do receive of His +fulness, so far as they are brought under the control of His spirit, +they do cease to be destroyers and devourers of the bodies and souls +of their fellows, and become helpers, saviors, life-bringers? And is +not this included in His meaning when He says: "I am come that they +may have life, and that they may have it abundantly"? + +To-day, then, we hail Him as Prince of Life, the glorious Giver to men +of the one supreme and crowning good. And the manner of the giving is +not hard to understand. He gives life by kindling in our hearts the +flame of sacred love. Love is life. Love to God and man brings the +soul into unity with itself; it is obeying its own organic law, and +obedience to its law brings to any organism life and health and +peace. If the spirit of Christ has become the ruling principle of our +conduct, then we have entered into life, and it is a life that knows +no term; it is the immortal life. If the spirit of Christ has entered +into our lives, then in all our relations with others life is +increased; we are by nature givers of good; out of our lives are +forever flowing healing, restoring, saving, vitalizing influences; and +when all the members of the society in which we move have received +this spirit and manifest it, there are none to bite and devour, to +hurt and destroy; the predatory creatures have ceased their ravages, +and the world rejoices in the plenitude of life which He came to +bring. + +We hail Him, then, to-day, as the Lord and Giver of life. We desire to +share with Him the unspeakable gift, and to share it, as best we may, +with all our fellow men. What we freely receive from Him, we would +freely give. What the whole world needs to-day is life, more life, +fuller life, larger life. We spend all our energies in heaping up the +means of life, and never really begin to live; our strength is wasted, +our health is broken, our intellects are impoverished, our affections +are withered, our peace is destroyed in our mad devotion to that +which is only an adjunct or appendage of life. Oh, if we could only +understand how good a thing it is to live, just to live, truly and +freely and largely and nobly, to live the life that is life indeed! + +Shall we not draw to this Prince of Life and take from Him the gift +that He came to bring? Is not this the one thing needful? We are +reading and hearing much in these days of the simple life. What is it +but the life into which they are led who take the yoke of this Master +upon them and learn of Him? It is a most cheering omen that this +little book of Pastor Wagner's is falling into so many hands and +littering its ingenuous and persuasive plea before so many minds +and in so many homes. If we heed it, it must bring us back to the +simplicity of Christ. Pastor Wagner is only preaching over again the +Sermon on the Mount; it is nothing but the teaching of Jesus brought +down to this day and applied to the conditions of our complex +civilization. It is the true teaching; none of us can doubt it. And I +wish that we could all begin the new year with the earnest purpose to +put ourselves under the leadership of the Prince of Life. I know that +we should find His yoke easy and His burden light, and that there +would be rest for our souls in the paths into which He would lead us. +We should know, if we shared His life, that we were really living; and +we should know also that we wore helping others to live; that we were +doing what we could to put an end to the ravages of the destroyers and +the devourers, and to fill the earth with the abundance of peace. + +Is not this, fellow men, the right way to live? Does not all that is +deepest and divinest in you consent to this way of life into which +Jesus Christ is calling us, as the right way, the royal way, the +blessed way? Choose it, then, with all the energy of your volition, +and walk in it with a glad heart and a hope that maketh not ashamed. + + + + +CLIFFORD + +THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +John Clifford, Baptist divine, was born at Lawley, Derbyshire, +in 1836. He was educated at the Baptist College, Nottingham, and +University College, London. He has had much editorial as well as +ministerial experience and has published a number of works upon +religious, educational and social questions. The Rev. William Durban, +the editor, writing from London of John Clifford in the _Homiletic +Review_, styles him "the renowned Baptist preacher, undoubtedly the +most conspicuous figure in his own denomination." He speaks of "the +profundity of thought," "simplicity and beauty of diction," the +"compactness of argument" and "instructive expository character" of +this preacher's discourses. + + + + +CLIFFORD + +BORN IN 1836 + +THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS + +_I believe in the forgiveness of sins_.--Apostles' Creed. + + +This is the first note of personal experience in the Apostles' Creed. +We here come into the society of men like John Bunyan and go with +them through the wicket-gate of repentance, through the Slough of +Despond, getting out on the right side of it, reaching at length the +cross, to find the burden fall from our backs as we look upon Him who +died for us; and then we travel on our way until we come to the River +of Death and cross it, discovering that it is not so deep after all, +and that on the other side is the fulness of the life everlasting. + +It is a new note, and it is a little surprizing--is it not?--to most +students of this creed that we should have to travel through so many +clauses before we reach it. It scarcely seems to be in keeping with +the spirit and temper of the early Christian Church that we should +have all this analysis of thought, this statement of the facts of +Christian revelation, this testimony as to the power of the Holy +Spirit, before we get any utterance as to that individual faith by +which the Christian Church has been created, and owing to which there +has been the helpful and inspiring fellowship of the saints. + +I say it is a new note, but it is fundamental. When the Creed does +touch the inward life, it goes straight to that which is central--to +that which is preeminently evangelical. Without the doctrine of the +forgiveness of sins you could have no good news for a sinful world; +but with the assertion of this faith as the actual faith of the man, +you have possibilities of service, the upspringing of altruism, the +conquest of self, the enthronement of Christ, the advancement of +humanity after the likeness of Jesus Christ. + +A note it is which is not only fundamental but most musical, +harmonious and gladdening. In the ancient Psalms we hear it +oft--"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his +holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy +diseases." It recurs in the prophets: "I, the Lord, am he that +blotteth out thy sins; yea, tho they be as a thick cloud, I will blot +them out." It is the highest note reached by the singers of the Old +Testament; but it comes to us with greater resonance and sweetness +from the lips of the men who have stood in the presence of Jesus +Christ, and who are able to say, as they look into the faces of their +fellows: "Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto +you the forgiveness of sins from which you could not have been freed +by the law of Moses." With emphasis, with, strength, with fulness of +conviction, with gladdening rapture, these men proclaimed their faith +in the forgiveness of sins, and tho the Creed of the churches travels +slowly after the faith of the early Church, its last note sounds out +a note of triumph: "I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the +resurrection of the body, and life everlasting." + +It is the crown of the whole Creed. It is the flowering of the truths +that are contained in the Creed. Let a man understand God, and let him +have such a vision of the Eternal as Job had, and he is constrained to +say, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." He desires first +and chiefly to know that the true relation between the human spirit +and God which has been broken by sin has at length been rearranged, +and that sin is no longer an obstacle to the soul's converse with a +holy God, but that the ideal relation of the human spirit with the +divine spirit is reestablished by the proclamation of forgiveness. +For, as you know, pardon is not the extinguishing of a man's past; +that cannot be done. What has been done by us of good or evil abides, +it endures; not God Himself can extinguish the deeds of the past. What +forgiveness does is this: it rearranges the relations between the +spirit of man and our Father, so that the sins of the past are no +longer an obstacle to us in our speech with Him, our trust in Him--our +using the energies of God for the accomplishment of His purposes. It +is the restoration of the human spirit to right relations with God. +Forgiveness of sins conies, therefore, at the very start of a right +life. It is the beginning. All else in the spiritual life succeeds +upon this. + +I know there is a theory among us, and I am prepared to endorse it, +that, if we are trained by godly parents in godly homes, we may grow +into the spiritual life, pass into it, as it were, by stages which it +is impossible for us to register. We are largely unconscious of +these spiritual ascents; they are being made by the gracious use +of influences that are in our environment, that reach us through +sanctified folk, and we travel on from strength to strength, and, +then, perchance, in our young manhood or womanhood, there comes a +crisis of revelation, and we discover that we are in such relations +with God our Father, Redeemer, and Renewer as fill us with peace, +create hope and conscious strength. But I assure you that in addition +to this experience there will come, it may be early, it may be late, +some moment in the life when there is discovered to the individual +spirit making that ascent a sense of the awful heinousness of sin; and +tho we may not have such a unique experience of evil as the Apostle +Paul had, and become so conscious of it as to feel, as it were, that +it is a dead body that we have to carry about with us as we go through +life, interfering with the very motions of our spirit; yet we do +approximate to it, and it is through these approximations to +the Apostle Paul that we are lifted to the heights of spiritual +achievement, and are qualified for sympathy with a sin-stricken world, +and inspired by and nourished in a passionate enthusiasm to serve that +world by bringing it into right relations with God. + +When, therefore, a man says, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, +maker of heaven and earth," he is asserting that which, being turned +to its full and true use, carries him to this goal, "I believe in the +forgiveness of sins." For a full and true doctrine of God can only +be heartily welcomed when it is associated with the message of the +forgiveness of sins. Otherwise the visions of the eternal Power may +start in us the cry of Peter: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, +O Lord," When a man asserts his faith in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, +our Lord, who was crucified, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, who +died on the cross; he is himself asserting his faith in the great +purpose for which God sent His Son; even to take away the sin of +the world, to make an end of iniquity, to bring in an everlasting +righteousness; and so out of that faith he prepared for the response +which the soul makes to the workings of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost +within him, and he is able to say from his own knowledge of what God +has been to him, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." + +Friends, you have said this again and again, some of you hundreds of +times. You have asserted it week by week. What did you mean by it? +What exactly was the thought in your heart as the words passed over +your lips, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins"? Was it simply the +recognition of a universal amnesty for a world of rebels? Was it +merely the assertion of your confidence in the goodness of God +irrespective of His holiness? Or when you uttered that faith of yours, +did it mean that you were able to say, "My sins, which were many, +are all forgiven. My sins are forgiven, not may be--that pardon is a +glorious possibility only--but are forgiven, not will be forgiven at +some future time. I am now at peace with God through faith, in our +Lord Jesus Christ"? Could you say that? Was that what it meant; or was +it simply the repetition of a phrase which has been handed down to +you by your predecessors, and which you took up as part of an ordered +service, without putting the slightest fiber of your soul into it? + +Depend upon it, the mere recitation of a creed will not bring you +God's peace, it will not open your heart to the access of His infinite +calm. It will not secure you that emancipation from evil which will +mean immediate dedication of yourself to work for the emancipation +of the world. You must know of yourself, of your own heart and +consciousness, that God has forgiven you. And if you do get that +consciousness, that moment of your life will be marked indelibly upon +the tablet of your memory. The dint will go so deeply into your nature +that it will be impossible for you to forget it. Speaking for myself, +I can at this moment see the whole surroundings of the place and time +when to me there came the glad tidings, "God has forgiven you." "God +was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto +men their trespasses." + +Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Then preach it. Tell it +to other people. Let your neighbors know about it. I do not mean +by preaching at the street corners, but by getting into such close +affectionate touch, with your friends as that you shall be able to +persuade them to disinter the thoughts of their own hearts, and show +the sorrows that are there--sorrows produced by sin. For, believe me, +behind all the bright seeming of human countenances there is a subtle +bitterness gnawing constantly at the heart, consequent upon the +consciousness of failure--the sense of having broken the law of God. I +know that hundreds of people go into the church and tell God that they +are miserable sinners. They do that in a crowd; it is saying nothing. +They no more think of saying it in such a way as to place themselves +apart from their fellows than they would of saying: "I am a thief!" + +Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? What, then, are you going +to do with your faith? + +Prove your faith by your works. Every time you ask God for forgiveness +you should feel yourself pledged to a most strenuous and resolute +fight with the sin you ask God to forgive. The acceptance of pardon +pledges you to the pursuit of holiness, and yet we have to keep on +with this doctrine, because it is not only the very beginning of the +Christian life, but also the continuous need of that life. + +We have to say night by night, "Forgive the ill that I this day have +done." And if we say it as we ought, as really believing that God +forgives us, so that we may not lose heart, may never encourage +despair of final victory, we shall get up next morning resolved to +make a fiercer fight than ever with the evil that sent us on our knees +last night. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Let the joy of +it come to you, and as your own heart overflows with the fulness of +that joy, declare unto others God's salvation, and teach transgressors +His way. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Then find in that +faith an impact to obedience to the law of Jesus: "Be ye perfect even +as your Father in heaven is perfect"; and do not forget that He who +begins the good work in you with His pardon will carry it on to the +day of Jesus Christ; so that you may add the last words of the +Creed: "I believe in the resurrection from the dead and in the life +everlasting." + +It is not altogether a good sign that we have pushed eternity out of +our modern thought. Confronted as man is every moment by a sense of +the fragility and the brevity of human life, it is not surprizing +that we should welcome everybody who comes with a message concerning +eternity. + +Is there not, in truth, beauty in the old Anglo-Saxon story of the +bird that shot in at one open window of the large assembly hall and +out at another, where were gathered together a great company of thanes +and vassals; and when the missionary was asked to speak to them +concerning God and His salvation, the thane who was presiding rose +and said, recalling the bird's speedy flight from side to side of +the hall, "Such is our life, and if this man can tell us anything +concerning the place to which we are going, let him stand up and be +heard." Brothers, a few days may carry us into eternity. "Boast not +thyself of to-morrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." +Strong, hopeful, rich in promise of service is to-day; to-morrow +friends may be weeping, kith and kin full of sorrow for our +departure. This life does not end all; we are going to an eternity of +blessedness, to progress without limit, to an assimilation with God +that shall know no sudden break or failure, but shall be perfect, even +as He is perfect. + + + + +MOODY + +WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Dwight Lyman Moody, the evangelist, was born at Northfield, +Massachusetts, in 1837, and died in 1899. As a business man he brought +to his evangelistic work exceptional tact, initiative, and executive +ability, but the main source of his power lay in his knowledge of the +Bible, his constant companion. In preaching he largely disregarded +form, and thought little of the sermon as such. His one overwhelming +and undeviating purpose was to lead men to Christ. His speaking was in +a kind of monotone, but his straightforward plainness never failed to +be effective. He usually held the Bible in his hand while speaking, +so that there was little of gesture. His great sympathetic nature is +spoken of by Henry Drummond in these words: + +"If eloquence is measured by its effect upon an audience, and not by +its balanced sentences and cumulative periods, then this is eloquence +of the highest sort. In sheer persuasiveness Mr. Moody has few equals, +and rugged as his preaching may seem to some, there is in it a pathos +of a quality which few orators have ever reached, and an appealing +tenderness which not only wholly redeems it, but raises it, not +unseldom, almost to sublimity." + + + + +MOODY + +1837--1899 + +WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?[1] + +[Footnote 1: By permission of the Fleming H. Revell Company, owners of +copyright.] + +_What think ye of Christ_?--Matt, xxii., 42. + + +I suppose there is no one here who has not thought more or less about +Christ. You have heard about Him, and read about Him, and heard men +preach about Him. For eighteen hundred years men have been talking +about Him and thinking about Him; and some have their minds made up +about who He is, and doubtless some have not. And altho all these +years have rolled away, this question comes up, addresst to each of +us, to-day, "What think ye of Christ?" + +I do not know why it should not be thought a proper question for one +man to put to another. If I were to ask you what you think of any of +your prominent men, you would already have your mind made up about +him. If I were to ask you what you thought of your noble queen, you +would speak right out and tell me your opinion in a minute. + +If I were to ask about your prime minister, you would tell me freely +what you had for or against him. And why should not people make up +their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ, and take their stand for or +against Him? If you think well of Him, why not speak well of Him and +range yourselves on His side? And if you think ill of Him, and believe +Him to be an impostor, and that He did not die to save the world, why +not lift up your voice and say you are against Him? It would be a +happy day for Christianity if men would just take sides--if we could +know positively who is really for Him and who is against Him. + +It is of very little importance what the world thinks of any one else. +The queen and the statesman, the peers and the princes, must soon be +gone. Yes; it matters little, comparatively, what we think of them. +Their lives can only interest a few; but every living soul on the face +of the earth is concerned with this Man. The question for the world +is, "What think ye of Christ?" + +I do not ask you what you think of the Established Church, or of the +Presbyterians, or the Baptists, or the Roman Catholics; I do not ask +you what you think of this minister or that, of this doctrine or that; +but I want to ask you what you think of the living person of Christ? + +I should like to ask, Was He really the Son of God--the great God-Man? +Did He leave heaven and come down to this world for a purpose? Was it +really to seek and to save? I should like to begin with the manger, +and to follow Him up through the thirty-three years He was here upon +earth. I should ask you what you think of His coming into this world +and being born in a manger when it might have been a palace; why He +left the grandeur and the glory of heaven, and the royal retinue of +angels; why He passed by palaces and crowns and dominion and came down +here alone. + +I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a teacher. He spake +as never man spake. I should like to take Him up as a preacher. I +should like to bring you to that mountain-side, that we might listen +to the words as they fall from His gentle lips. Talk about the +preachers of the present day! I would rather a thousand times be five +minutes at the feet of Christ than listen a lifetime to all the wise +men in the world. He used just to hang truth upon anything. Yonder is +a sower, a fox, a bird, and He just gathers the truth around them, so +that you cannot see a fox, a sower, or a bird, without thinking what +Jesus said. Yonder is a lily of the valley; you cannot see it without +thinking of His words, "They toil not, neither do they spin." + +He makes the little sparrow chirping in the air preach to us. How +fresh those wonderful sermons are, how they live to-day! How we love +to tell them to our children, how the children love to hear! "Tell me +a story about Jesus," how often we hear it; how the little ones love +His sermons! No story-book in the world will ever interest them like +the stories that He told. And yet how profound He was; how He puzzled +the wise men; how the scribes and the Pharisees would never fathom +Him! Oh, do you not think He was a wonderful preacher? + +I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a physician. A man +would soon have a reputation as a doctor if he could cure as Christ +did. No case was ever brought to Him but what He was a match for. He +had but to speak the word, and disease fled before Him. Here comes a +man covered with leprosy. + +"Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean," he cried. + +"I will," says the Great Physician, and in an instant the leprosy is +gone. The world has hospitals for incurable diseases; but there were +no incurable diseases with Him. + +Now, see Him in the little home at Bethany, binding up the wounded +hearts of Martha and Mary, and tell me what you think of Him as +a comforter. He is a husband to the widow and a father to the +fatherless. The weary may find a resting-place upon that breast, and +the friendless may reckon Him their friend. He never varies. He never +fails, He never dies. His sympathy is ever fresh, His love is ever +free. Oh, widow and orphans, oh, sorrowing and mourning, will you not +thank God for Christ the comforter? + +But these are not the points I wish to take up. Let us go to those who +knew Christ, and ask what they thought of Him. If you want to find out +what a man is nowadays, you inquire about him from those who know him +best. I do not wish to be partial; we will go to His enemies, and to +His friends. We will ask them, What think ye of Christ? We will ask +His friends and His enemies. If we only went to those who liked Him, +you would say: + +"Oh, he is so blind; he thinks so much of the man that he can't see +His faults. You can't get anything out of him unless it be in His +favor; it is a one-sided affair altogether." + +So we shall go in the first place to His enemies, to those who hated +Him, persecuted Him, curst and slew Him. I shall put you in the +jury-box, and call upon them to tell us what they think of Him. + +First, among the witnesses, let us call upon the Pharisees. We +know how they hated Him. Let us put a few questions to them. "Come, +Pharisees, tell us what you have against the Son of God, What do you +think of Christ?" Hear what they say! "This man receiveth sinners." +What an argument to bring against Him! Why, it is the very thing that +makes us love Him. It is the glory of the gospel. He receives sinners. +If He had not, what would have become of us? Have you nothing more +to bring against Him than this? Why, it is one of the greatest +compliments that was ever paid Him. Once more: when He was hanging on +the tree, you had this to say to Him, "He saved others, but He could +not save Himself and save us too." So He laid down His own life for +yours and mine. Yes, Pharisees, you have told the truth for once in +your lives! He saved others. He died for others. He was a ransom for +many; so it is quite true what you think of Him--He saved others, +Himself He cannot save. + +Now, let us call upon Caiaphas. Let him stand up here in his flowing +robes; let us ask him for his evidence. "Caiaphas, you were chief +priest when Christ was tried; you were president of the Sanhedrin; you +were in the council-chamber when they found Him guilty; you yourself +condemned Him. Tell us; what did the witnesses say? On what grounds +did you judge Him? What testimony was brought against Him?" "He hath +spoken blasphemy," says Caiaphas. "He said, 'Hereafter you shall see +the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the +clouds of heaven.' When I heard that, I found Him guilty of blasphemy; +I rent my mantle and condemned Him to death." Yes, all that they had +against Him was that He was the Son of God; and they slew Him for the +promise of His coming for His bride! + +Now let us summon Pilate. Let him enter the witness-box. + +"Pilate, this man was brought before you; you examined Him; you talked +with Him face to face; what think you of Christ?" + +"I find no fault in him," says Pilate. "He said he was the King of +the Jews [just as He wrote it over the cross]; but I find no fault in +him." Such is the testimony of the man who examined Him! And, as He +stands there, the center of a Jewish mob, there comes along a man +elbowing his way in haste. He rushes up to Pilate, and, thrusting out +his hand, gives him a message. He tears it open; his face turns pale +as he reads--"Have thou nothing to do with this just man, for I have +suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." It is from +Pilate's wife--her testimony to Christ. You want to know what His +enemies thought of Him? You want to know what a heathen, thought? +Well, here it is, "no fault in him"; and the wife of a heathen, "this +just man." + +And now, look--in comes Judas. He ought to make a good witness. Let us +address him. "Come, tell us, Judas, what think ye of Christ? You +knew the Master well; you sold Him for thirty pieces of silver; you +betrayed Him with a kiss; you saw Him perform those miracles; you were +with Him in Jerusalem. In Bethany, when He summoned up Lazarus, you +were there. What think you of Him?" I can see him as he comes into the +presence of the chief priests; I can hear the money ring as he dashes +it upon the table, "I have betrayed innocent blood!" Here is the man +who betrayed Him, and this is what he thinks of Him! Yes, those who +were guilty of His death put their testimony on record that He was an +innocent man. + +Let us take the centurion who was present at the execution. He had +charge of the Roman soldiers. He told them to make Him carry His +cross; he had given orders for the nails to be driven into His feet +and hands, for the spear to be thrust in His side. Let the centurion +come forward. "Centurion, you had charge of the executioners; you saw +that the order for His death was carried out; you saw Him die; you +heard Him speak upon the cross. Tell us, what think you of Christ?" +Hark! Look at him; he is smiting his breast as he cries, "Truly, this +was the son of God!" + +I might go to the thief upon the cross, and ask what he thought of +Him. At first he railed upon Him and reviled Him. But then he thought +better of it: "This man hath done nothing amiss," he says. + +I might go further. I might summon the very devils themselves and ask +them for their testimony. Have they anything to say of Him? Why, the +very devils called Him the Son of God! In Mark we have the unclean +spirit crying, "Jesus, thou Son of the most high God." Men say, "Oh, +I believe Christ to be the Son of God, and because I believe it +intellectually I shall be saved." I tell you the devils did that. And +they did more than that, they trembled. + +Let us bring in His friends. We want you to hear their evidence. Let +us call that prince of preachers. Let us hear the forerunner; none +ever preached like this man--this man who drew all Jerusalem and all +Judea into the wilderness to hear him; this man who burst upon the +nations like the flash of a meteor. Let John the Baptist come with his +leathern girdle and his hairy coat, and let him tell us what he thinks +of Christ. His words, tho they were echoed in the wilderness of +Palestine, are written in the Book forever, "Behold the Lamb of God +which taketh away the sin of the world!" This is what John the Baptist +thought of him. "I bear record that He is the Son of God." No wonder +he drew all Jerusalem and Judea to him, because he preached Christ. +And whenever men preach Christ, they are sure to have plenty of +followers. + +Let us bring in Peter, who was with Him on the mount of +transfiguration, who was with Him the night He was betrayed. Come, +Peter, tell us what you think of Christ. Stand in this witness-box and +testify of Him. You denied Him once. You said, with a curse, you did +not know Him. Was it true, Peter? Don't you know Him? "Know Him!" I +can imagine Peter saying: "It was a lie I told then. I did know +Him." Afterward I can hear him charging home their guilt upon these +Jerusalem sinners. He calls Him "both Lord and Christ." Such was the +testimony on the day of Pentecost. "God had made that same Jesus +both Lord and Christ." And tradition tells us that when they came to +execute Peter he felt he was not worthy to die in the way his Master +died, and he requested to be crucified with the head downward. So much +did Peter think of Him! + +Now let us hear from the beloved disciple John. He knew more about +Christ than any other man. He had laid his head on his Savior's bosom. +He had heard the throbbing of that loving heart. Look into his Gospel +if you wish to know what he thought of Him. + +Matthew writes of Him as the royal king come from His throne. Mark +writes of Him as the servant, and Luke of the Son of Man. John takes +up his pen, and, with one stroke, forever settles the question of +Unitarianism. He goes right back before the time of Adam. "In the +beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was +God." Look into Revelation. He calls him "the bright and the morning +star." So John thought well of Him--because he knew Him well. + +We might bring in Thomas, the doubting disciple. You doubted Him, +Thomas? You would not believe He had risen, and you put your fingers +into the wound in His side. What do you think of Him? + +"My Lord and my God!" says Thomas. + +Then go over to Decapolis and you will find Christ has been there +casting out devils. Let us call the men of that country and ask what +they think of Him. "He hath done all things well," they say. + +But we have other witnesses to bring in. Take the persecuting Saul, +once one of the worst of his enemies. Breathing out threatenings he +meets Him. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" says Christ. He +might have added, "What have I done to you? Have I injured you in any +way? Did I not come to bless you? Why do you treat Me thus, Saul?" And +then Saul asks, "Who art thou, Lord?" + +"I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." You see, He was not +ashamed of His name, altho He had been in heaven; "I am Jesus of +Nazareth." What a change did that one interview make to Saul! A few +years afterward we hear him say, "I have suffered the loss of all +things, and do count them but dross that I may win Christ." Such a +testimony to the Savior! + +But I shall go still further. I shall go away from earth into the +other world. I shall summon the angels and ask what they think of +Christ. They saw Him in the bosom of the Father before the world was. +Before the dawn of creation, before the morning stars sang together, +He was there. They saw Him leave the throne and come down to the +manger. What a scene for them to witness! Ask these heavenly beings +what they thought of Him then. For once they are permitted to speak; +for once the silence of heaven is broken. Listen to their song on the +plains of Bethlehem, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, +which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the +city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." He leaves the +throne to save the world. Is it a wonder the angels thought well of +Him? + +Then there are the redeemed saints--they that see Him face to +face. Here on earth He was never known, no one seemed really to be +acquainted with Him; but He was known in that world where He had been +from the foundation. What do they think of Him there? If we could hear +from heaven we should hear a shout which would glorify and magnify His +name. We are told that when John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, +and being caught up, he heard a shout around him, ten thousand times +ten thousand, and thousands and thousands of voices, "Worthy is the +Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and +strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!" Yes, He is worthy of +all this. Heaven cannot speak too well of Him. Oh, that earth would +take up the echo and join with heaven in singing, "Worthy to receive +power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and +blessing!" + +But there is still another witness, a higher still. Some think that +the God of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. But when Jesus +came out to Jordan, baptized by John, there came a voice from heaven. +God the Father spoke. It was His testimony to Christ: "This is my +beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Ah, yes! God the Father +thinks well of the Son. And if God is well pleased with Him, so ought +we to be. If the sinner and God are well pleased with Christ, then the +sinner and God can meet. The moment you say, as the Father said, "I am +well pleased with Him," and accept Him, you are wedded to God. Will +you not believe the testimony? Will you not believe this witness, this +last of all, the Lord of hosts, the King of kings himself? Once more +he repeats it, so that all may know it. With Peter and James and John, +on the mount of transfiguration, He cries again, "This is my beloved +Son; hear him." And that voice went echoing and reechoing through +Palestine, through all the earth from sea to sea; yes, that voice is +echoing still, Hear Him! Hear Him! + +My friend will you hear Him to-day? Hark! what is He saying to you? +"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and +lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke +is easy, and my burden is light." Will you not think well of such a +Savior? Will you not believe in Him? Will you not trust in Him with +all your heart and mind? Will you not live for Him? If He laid down +His life for us, is it not the least we can do to lay down ours for +Him? If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not to be +willing to take it up for Him? Oh, have we not reason to think well of +Him? Do you think it is right and noble to lift up your voice against +such a Savior? Do you think it is just to cry, "Crucify Him! crucify +Him!" Oh, may God help all of us to glorify the Father, by thinking +well of His only-begotten Son. + + + + +FOWLER + +THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles H. Fowler, Methodist Episcopal divine, was born 1837 in +Burford, Ontario, Canada, was educated at Syracuse University and the +Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ill. He was ordained in 1861 +and after filling pastorates in many places was made president of +the Northwestern University in 1872, but vacated this post to become +editor of the _Christian Advocate_; four years later he was appointed +missionary secretary and in 1884 was elected bishop. He was well-known +as an able preacher and administrator. He died in 1908. + + + + +FOWLER + +1837--1908 + +THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST + +_Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of +his_.--Rom. viii., 9. + + +I read that with the conviction that it is one of the most searching +passages that can be found in the Book of God. It takes hold of the +question of our salvation as a very substantial and thorough question. +It removes indefinitely, almost infinitely, from this problem of our +destiny, all shadow of uncertainty or of doubt. It brings us squarely +to the facts in our character. On the force of this Scripture we are +borne up on to a platform where we stand with our hearts uncovered and +naked before the eye of God. + +This means that the saint must be great in the arduous greatness of +things achieved; that there is no chance for sainthood by any fixt, +imputed plan, but that our real selves shall test and make our real +future. + +I never read this Scripture in the presence of a Christian +congregation without feeling that I have in some way chopped down +through every heart with a great broadaxe. There is no whitewashing +this passage: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none +of his." Not, "He will do tolerably well, but not quite as well as he +might do"; not that he will get on after a fashion, and have quite a +respectable entrance into the city of the great King, tho he may not +push quite as far toward the front as he might have done if he had had +the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. Not that at all; but, if any man have +not the Spirit of Christ, there is not the remotest shadow of a chance +for him: "he is none of his." + +And so I put this at you, asking you, on account of the great fact +that you are going hence, to so apply this critical test to your +hearts and lives that you may see and feel your need, and that you may +take hold on the great supply, and have that actual transformation of +character that will justify you in believing that you have the Spirit +of Christ. + +The success of the missionary cause turns upon exactly the spirit of +this text. I have no faith in the final triumph, of the missionary +cause based upon any other ground than that of the honest, deep-down +conviction of the people of God that the Lord God of Heaven wants this +work done. I am here as a believer in a supernatural gospel--not with +philosophy that may be framed out of the human life of Jesus, but with +a religion that is based upon the supernatural life of the divine +Christ. And I appeal to you on this subject of missions as to a +company of men who believe in the divine authority of the Book of God; +who believe in a blood atonement; who believe in salvation by faith +only; who believe in the pardon of sin and in the regeneration of your +natures; who believe in the power of the Holy Ghost; who believe, in +short, in the sum and substance of an old-fashioned orthodoxy. And I +put this cause upon you as such believers, knowing that, if such +is your position, you have at least the large part of the argument +wrought into the very fiber of your being, by which you cannot stop +short of the conviction that what you have need of for your salvation +other people will need for their salvation. You know that you need a +divine Redeemer; you know that you need the divine pardoning of your +sins; you know that you need the supernatural and divine cleansing of +your hearts; you know that you need the divine, unbreakable promises; +you know that you need this Word, and the way to salvation set forth +in this Book of God, by which you know that there is none other name +given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved. And so I +come to you as to those who have had some experience in supernatural +matters, with the cause based upon this Book of God, asking that your +experience may be made possible for the multitudes beyond, who have +not yet had this opportunity. + +Let us take some of the simpler and plainer things in this question, +that we may come up to it without any hesitation. Now, I do not need +to go into the question as to what God will do with the heathen. I +don't know what He will do with them. I know as much about it as you +do, or anybody else, because I know what the Book says about it. God +knows better about this than I do, and will find a way that I cannot +dream of. But, because the words are not uttered by divine authority, +I dare not stand here and utter any word of hope for any man beyond +the gospel committed to me to preach. This I know: That if the heathen +have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, whether they ever saw the Lord +Jesus or not, they are of His. And this I know: That if this +congregation have not the spirit of the Lord Jesus, tho it may have +seen Him, they are not of His. And this I know: That He will save a +Jew and a Gentile on the same terms; that He will do no better for the +Gentile than He will for the Jew, and no better for the Jew than for +the Gentile. And if there was no other name given under heaven among +men by which an ancient Jew or an ancient Gentile might be saved, that +is true to-day. The Lord Jesus thought that these people needed the +gospel, and that they needed it so much that He actually came and +submitted Himself unto death that they might have the gospel. And +God seems so thoroughly to believe that they need the gospel that He +actually gives His only-begotten Son to die, that they may have the +gospel. He treats the case just exactly as if He thought, at least, +that they do really need this divine Redeemer. He has done, in every +step and process of this great work of world-saving, just exactly as +He would have done had He absolutely thought and believed that they +needed a divine Redeemer. + +And then I understand another thing out of the Book: That the very +last and supreme utterance of the Master on earth grew out of His +conviction that we should do exactly this thing. And see how He comes +up to it, little by little! He does not rush suddenly upon it--He does +not, upon any truth. It is not in the divine plan to flash upon us +in anything. Truths grow; moral ideas grow. They come into the race +little, and hardly able to stand at all; we can barely find them +beneath us in the lower strata of our being. But they struggle into +power and strength until they fill the field of vision. Nearly every +great truth of Old and New Testament Scripture is to be found in +the Book of Genesis. In Genesis you will find the principle of the +atonement; you will find the division of animals into clean and +unclean, foreshadowing sacrifice; you will find the principle of the +acceptance of offerings that came out of the flock, and the rejection +of the offerings out of the field; you will find the pardon of sin and +the giving of covenants--all the essential parts of the New Testament +growing with their roots away back in Genesis. There is the first +declaration of the coming of this wondrous Redeemer. It was so dim and +uncertain that it was hard to tell what it meant; somehow, somewhere, +some time, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." It +was so dim that our first great mother, when she had gotten her first +son, cried out in her joy, "I have gotten a man from the Lord!" She +thought she had the Redeemer, but she had only a murderer. It was +many a century before the Redeemer would come. The truth was unfolded +little by little; a little brighter it shone on the altars of the +patriarchs; it was unfolded a little more in the visions of the +prophets; was exemplified in the ceremonials of the temple; and in the +fullness of time it came with the Master and His disciples and the +outpouring of the Holy Ghost. + +And then see, when the Master comes, how He takes hold of us, knowing +that we are but little, and that we have to be lifted up and enlarged +before we can take in these great truths! He says: "I have more to +tell you: you cannot bear it to-day; I will tell you to-morrow." And +so He gives lesson and instruction, and parable and illustration, all +through. His life, teaching these disciples, chosen on account of +their particular adaptation for the reception of His truth; walking +with them day by day, trying to lift their thought toward the +spiritual and the eternal; teaching them that it is not His plan to +put them on His right hand and His left, and trying to lift them up +toward a spiritual and eternal kingdom. So He keeps on all the time, +lifting them out of their littleness, saying to them later: "You shall +be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the +uttermost parts of the earth." They did not know what to make of that. +He was lifting them out of their narrowness. And so He pushes on still +further with them, lifting them up, until, in the supreme hour of His +earthly history--after His agony, after the cross, after He had broken +asunder the bars of the sepulcher, after He had risen, and been +declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead--He +hovers over the Church, coming down to speak to them by the sea-side +and mountain-side; appearing to them suddenly, vanishing as quickly; +offering His hands to their touch, showing His body to their vision, +yet all the time lifting them up, until He brought them to the thought +and gave to the Church the idea of His ubiquity, saying: "Lo! I am +with you alway, even unto the end of the world"; and they appreciated +the feeling that He was within hand-reach, and that this was a +spiritual kingdom, and that they could take hold upon the great +spiritual forces. And thus He lifted them up and prepared them for +His great truth, until at last, in the supreme moment of His earthly +history, we see Him yonder on the summit of the mount--the earth +beneath Him, the angels gathered above Him--with His hands spread out +over His followers, with the summit of Olivet receding beneath His +feet. He cries out to them: "All power is given unto me in heaven and +in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in +the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching +them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo! +I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And the +unspeakable glory took Him out of their sight. + +That is the supreme utterance of the Master after many a century of +preparation, opening our hearts, bringing us to this great truth, and +that this one thing He wants done is His final charge to believers: Go +everywhere; teach, preach, baptize, agonize, give, sacrifice--out to +the very ends of the earth. And lo! I am with you alway, and you shall +lack no good thing. Surely, there can be no doubt that the Master, at +least, thinks that these people have a great need for this gospel. + +There are some who have an idea that salvation is to be the sum and +substance of what we are. Well, I think that way myself: that, if you +find heaven on the other side of death, you will take it over with +you; if there is any condition of peace, you will take that condition +of peace with you. Death will be no more than going over a seam in +this carpet. The moment after death will differ from the moment before +death in your essential character no more than any two consecutive +moments in your life. If you are a mean, narrow, selfish, ugly, cross +man the moment before death, you will be a mean, narrow, selfish, +ugly, cross man the moment after death. If you find a good character +over yonder, you will take it over with you. If you have a good +character to take over with you, you will have it in the Lord Jesus +Christ here. If you live on that basis, I think this is pretty safe +that those millions out yonder in the darkness, plunged in ignorance +and superstition, knowing nothing about morality and nothing about +heaven--those millions want a chance, that the same law that governs +our lives will govern theirs. I surround my boy with the best possible +opportunities; I watch every book that comes in his hands; I watch +every playmate that I possibly can that comes in his path; I see to +it, as my highest business on this footstool--higher than my call to +this pulpit--that that boy has a fair chance for heaven. If I push him +out into the alley to herd with criminals, and be dandled in the lap +of vice, and be familiar with all corruption, I have no moral right to +expect to meet him in heaven. But if I multiply advantages about him, +give him the best possible books and surroundings, make him at home +with the Lord Jesus, so that he talks about his salvation and life +eternal as he does about matters in the home, I have a good right to +expect that the King will give me His eternal peace. + +Now, I think that the law that holds over my boy holds over all boys +in China and Japan and Hindustan; that, just in proportion as we +multiply the light and the favorable circumstances about them, then in +that proportion we increase their fair chance for heaven. I think it +is sound in philosophy. I believe that, just in proportion as we act +by it, we will be safe. + +Now, they are plunged in darkness. They know nothing about our way +of salvation, nothing about the pardon of sin, nothing about purity, +nothing about righteousness, nothing about heaven. We want to multiply +their chances to rid themselves of sin, and to take hold upon life, +and make their way in the path of peace. And the Master seems to so +think it that He says: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." And +if they will believe it, as I read, they will be saved. "But how can +they believe if they have not heard? And how can they hear without a +preacher? And how can they preach except they be sent?" So the Master +says, Go, send quick, everywhere. That I take to be the teaching of +the Book concerning their needs. + +But there is another side of it, and that is the side that swings in +under the passage I have read this morning, and that is our side of +it, our relation to the cause: "If any man have not the Spirit of the +Lord Jesus, he is none of his." + +Now, what is the spirit of Christ? I will tell you: He came not to be +ministered unto. Please remember that. Not to see how much He could +gather into His own bosom out of the lives of others. Not to be +ministered unto; not to be petted, and dandled, and lifted along and +fed all the way, with no burden and no care and no work--not that. He +came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; to pour out of His +life into the lives of others; to see what He could do to make others +blest; and "to give his life a ransom for many." Not merely to give +the little pittance that He could spare and not know it any more than +one would miss the farthing with which he would buy his ride on the +street car, but to give His life a ransom for many. And if any man +have not that spirit, he is none of His. + +Now I preach you a doctrine of salvation by faith only, and I put the +emphasis on the word only. That is exactly what I need as a sinner: I +want some sort of release from my past transgressions that will give +me a new start. I have gotten behind; I am borrowing money to +pay interest with, and I see no way out. I must have a spiritual +bankruptcy law. Somebody must come in to my relief, or I am +everlastingly undone. And so I preach this blest doctrine of the +Book of God: "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of +yourselves: it (the salvation) is the gift of God." I take salvation +as a divine gift, and take it with a glad heart. It gives me a new +chance; it unhinges my present struggle for heaven from the past +transgressions of my life, and gives me an open door to heaven that I +could not reach on any other platform. And so I preach this doctrine +to sinners, knowing that it is exactly what they need. + +There is another part of it that covers the question of our pardon; +that takes all my past sins and wipes them out; that gives me a new +chance for righteousness. Now mind: That pardon, that new life, that +new chance works out all the time necessarily from my finger-ends; it +shows itself in my life, absolutely, as certainly as it is there; and +if I cannot find the fruit of it in the fruits of the Spirit, in the +interest in God's cause, in patience and teachableness, in gentleness +and love, I have the absolute demonstration that I have not the thing +itself. Saved by faith, kept alive, kept saved by work, in work, by +grace in work. Let me touch that theology just a little. If you +are pardoned, you are pardoned by the Lord in a second, through +faith--when you believe, that is. Pardon is an operation in God's mind +concerning myself; you cannot pardon yourself. God pardons. If we are +pardoned He can do it in a second, when we believe. + +The next step in the case is, that there is not anything in the Book +of God that gives us any ground to believe that in that same faith, or +believing, or pardon, we will be instantly lifted up into the stature +of a man in Christ Jesus. What I mean to say is this: That there is +not one word in this Book that will justify any man in believing that +he may be brought by any process to the stature of a man in Christ +Jesus in a minute. But some good brother will say: "Oh! now I am just +a little afraid that you are striking against that blest old Methodist +doctrine of sanctification." No, I am not. I haven't said anything +about sanctification. But I will. If you are sanctified, or cleansed, +that is God's work, through faith, and He can do it in a second. Now, +understand me definitely, you cannot cleanse yourself. God cleanses +you through faith in the cleansing blood of His Son. It is His work. +You cannot grow into it. You can grow in it, but if you don't grow in +it you may know you are not in it--you are in something else. But you +can grow in it, because it is God's work, and He will do it when you +believe. But what of that? What are you after you are cleansed? I will +tell you. You are a clean baby: that is all. You are not a man in +Christ Jesus; you are only a babe--cleansed, indeed, and greatly +improved by the process, too, but you are not matured. Do not miss, +now, the broad distinction between purity and maturity. You are +purified, through faith, in a second; you are matured through many a +struggle and many a year. God cannot make a twenty-one-year-old saint +in one second less than twenty-one years. There is no platform marked +over with faith upon which a man may step and be lifted up into the +perfect stature of a man in Christ Jesus in a minute. It is not the +teaching of the Book. But all the year, loving, and giving, and +fighting, and praying, and walking in righteousness, you will mature +characters, and by and by you will grow into the manhood in Christ +Jesus that is set before us in the gospel. Now, if you come in here +and tell me that there is a baby over yonder in the next square, that +is three weeks old, and can talk Greek and Latin, and Spanish and +Italian, and solve all the problems in mathematics, I will tell you +that that is a monstrosity, and you don't want that kind of babies in +your house: they will turn you out in a few days. So, if you come +in here and tell me that you have, down in your prayer-meeting, a +spiritual baby three or four weeks old, that can teach all the old +saints, and can tell them all about God, and heaven, and faith, and +theology, and all about everything in the Church, I will tell you +that that is a monstrosity. And you don't want that kind in your +prayer-meeting; they will turn you out before a great while. St. Paul +says: "Ye are born babes, and ye are fed on milk"; and the trouble +with too many of us is that we keep on that diet when we ought to be +eating meat. The Master says: "First the blade, then the ear; after +that, the full corn in the ear." So I am free to say that God's plan +of making saints is to give them the divine germ--if you please, the +supernatural principle; or, as our scientists would say, with proper +environments, "That have the divine initial impulse," but as our +fathers would have said, "They got through at the altar"; born of God, +and then cleansed of God in the true process of education and faith, +they matured at the harvest. God gives us the start and the cleansing, +and we have to do all the rest of it. He will give us opportunity for +growth by loading and goading us, by setting on our track every sort +of force to test us--to "polish us," as the old Hebrew word means. +When Abraham was tested he was "polished." He will put us on such +lines that, if we stand true to our convictions and walk according to +the light we have, He will bring us on to manhood. + +See how wonderfully the Word of God fits down upon this? Take that +remarkable passage that, to me, is as beautiful as anything can be, +where He says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor"--I know what +that means in the struggle under sin--"all ye that labor and are +heavy-laden, and I will give"--I will give: it is mine. You cannot +earn it: you cannot buy it; you cannot find it; you cannot dig it out. +It is mine--"I will give you rest"--the blest pardon that only God can +give. Then, in the very next second and breath, He says: "Take my yoke +upon you"--that means work--"and learn of me"--that is more work--and, +"For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find"--that is yours; +I do not give that to you; that is not mine to give; that is yours. +"Ye shall find rest to your souls." That is the rest that comes from +the crystallization of the character in righteousness; that comes from +the habit of believing, and the habit of obeying, and the habit of +praying; from the habit of righteousness, until the old saint is ready +for any struggle, and never expects to be turned aside. That, I take +it, is God's plan of building up saints, and for fitting them for the +rest that is in God, that abides. + + + + +WHYTE + +EXPERIENCE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Alexander Whyte, senior minister of St. George's Free Church, +Edinburgh, was born at Kirriemuir (Thrums), Scotland, in 1837. He was +educated at Aberdeen University (M.A., 1862), and at New College, +Edinburgh (1862-66), and after being assistant minister of Free +St. John's, Glasgow, from 1866 to 1870, became at first assistant +minister, and later (1873) minister, of Free St. George's, Edinburgh, +a position which be still retains, having had there an uninterrupted +success. He is the author of a number of biographies, his most recent +work being "An Appreciation of Newman." + + + + +WHYTE + +BORN IN 1837 + +EXPERIENCE + +_And patience; experience; and experience, hope_.--Romans v., 4. + + +The deeper we search into the Holy Scriptures the more experimental +matter do we discover in that divine Book. Both in the Old Testament +and in the New Testament the spiritual experiences of godly men form a +large part of the sacred record. And it gives a very fresh and a very +impressive interest to many parts of the heavenly Book when we see how +much of its contents are made up of God's ways with His people as well +as of their ways with Him. In other words, when we see how much of +purely experimental matter is gathered up into the Word of God. In a +brilliant treatise published the other year, entitled, "The Gospel in +the Gospels," the author applies this experimental test even to our +Lord's teaching and preaching. Writing of the beatitudes in our Lord's +Sermon on the Mount that fresh and penetrating writer says: "When our +Savior speaks to us concerning what constitutes our true blessedness +He is simply describing His own experience. The beatitudes are not the +immediate revelation of His Godhead, they are much more the impressive +testimony of His manhood. He knew the truth of what He was saying +because He had verified it all in Himself for thirty experimental +years." Now if that is so demonstrably true of so many of our Lord's +contributions to Holy Scripture, in the nature of things, how much +more must it be true of the experimental contributions that David and +Paul have made to the same sacred record. And we ourselves are but +imitating them in their great experimental methods when we give our +very closest attention to personal and spiritual religion, both +in ourselves and in all our predecessors and in all our own +contemporaries in the life of grace in all lands and in all languages. + +Now by far the deepest and by far the most personal experience of +every spiritually minded man is his experience of his own inward +sinfulness. The sinfulness of his sin; the malignity of his sin; the +ungodliness and the inhumanity of his sin; the dominion that his sin +still has over him; the simply indescribable evil of his sin in every +way: all that is a matter, not of any man's doctrine and authority; +all that is the personal experience and the scientific certainty, as +we say, of every spiritually minded man; every man, that is, who takes +any true observation of what goes on in his own heart. The simply +unspeakable sinfulness of our own hearts is not the doctrine of David, +and of Christ, and of Paul, and of Luther, and of Calvin, and of +Bunyan, and of Edwards, and of Shepard only. It is their universal +doctrine, indeed, it could not be otherwise; but it is also the +every-day experience and the every-day agony of every man among +ourselves whose eyes are open upon his own heart. + +And then, if you are that spiritually enlightened man, from the day +when you begin to have that heart-sore experience of yourself you +will begin to search for and to discover those great passages of Holy +Scripture that contain the recorded experiences of men like yourself. +"I am but dust and ashes," said the first father of all penitent and +believing and praying men. "I am vile," sobs Job. "Behold, I am vile, +and I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I have heard of thee by the +hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor +myself and repent in dust and ashes." And David has scarcely heart or +a pen for anything else. "There is no soundness in my flesh because of +thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. +My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. For, behold, I was +shapen in iniquity." And Daniel, the most blameless of men and a man +greatly beloved in heaven and on earth: "I was left alone and +there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned to +corruption, and I retained no strength." And every truly spiritually +minded man has Paul's great experimental passage by heart; that great +experimental and autobiographic passage which has kept so many of +God's most experienced saints from absolute despair, as so many of +them have testified. Yes! There were experimental minds long before +Bacon and there was a great experimental literature long before the +Essays and the "Advancement" and the "_Instauratio Magna_." + +And then among many other alterations of intellectual insight and +spiritual taste that will come to you with your open eyes, there will +be your new taste, not only for your Bible, but also for spiritual +and experimental preaching. The spiritual preachers of our day are +constantly being blamed for not tuning their pulpits to the new themes +of our so progressive day. Scientific themes are prest upon them +and critical themes and social themes and such like. But your new +experience of your own sinfulness and of God's salvation: your new +need and your new taste for spiritual and experimental truth will not +lead you to join in that stupid demand. As intelligent men you will +know where to find all the new themes of your new day and you will be +diligent students of them all, so far as your duty lies that way, and +so far as your ability and your opportunity go; but not on the Lord's +Day and not in His house of prayer and praise. The more inward, and +the more spiritual, and the more experimental, your own religion +becomes, the more will you value inward, and spiritual, and +experimental preaching. And the more will you resent the intrusion +into the evangelical pulpit of those secular matters that so much +absorb unspiritual men. There is another equally impertinent advice +that our preachers are continually having thrust upon them from the +same secular quarter. And that is that they ought entirely to drop +the old language of the Scriptures, and the creeds, and the classical +preachers, and ought to substitute for it the scientific and the +journalistic jargon of the passing day. But with your ever-deepening +knowledge of yourselves and with the disciplined and refined taste +that will accompany such knowledge you will rather demand of your +preachers more and more depth of spiritual preaching and more and more +purity of spiritual style. And then more and more your estimates of +preaching and your appreciations of preachers will have real insight +and real value and real weight with us. "The natural man receiveth +not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: +neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." But +he that is spiritual discerneth spiritual things and spiritual persons +and he has the true authority to speak and to write about them. + +And then, for all doubting and skeptically disposed persons among +you, your own experience of your evil heart, if you will receive that +experience and will seriously attend to it, that will prove to you +the true apologetic for the theism of the Holy Scriptures and for the +soul-saving faith of Jesus Christ. What is it about which you are +in such debate and doubt? Is it about the most fundamental of +all facts--the existence, and the nature, and the grace, and the +government of Almighty God? Well, if you are really in earnest to know +the truth, take this way of it: this way that has brought light and +peace of mind to so many men. Turn away at once and forever from all +your unbecoming debates about your Maker and Preserver and turn to +what is beyond all debate, your own experience of yourselves. There is +nothing else of which you can be so sure and certain as of the sin and +the misery of your own evil hearts, your own evil hearts so full +of self-seeking, and envy, and malice, and pride, and hatred, and +revenge, and lust. And on the other hand, there is nothing of which +you can be so convinced as that love, and humility, and meekness, +and purity, and benevolence, and brotherly kindness, are your true +happiness, or would be, if you could only attain to all these +beatitudes. Well, Jesus Christ has attained to them all. And Jesus +Christ came into this world at first, and He still comes into it by +His Word and by His Spirit in order that you may attain to all His +goodness and all His truth and may thus escape forever from all your +own ignorance and evil. As William Law, the prince of apologists, +has it: "Atheism is not the denial of a first omnipotent cause. Real +atheism is not that at all. Real atheism is purely and solely nothing +else but the disowning, and the forsaking, and the renouncing of the +goodness, and the virtue, and the benevolence and the meekness, of +the divine nature: that divine nature which has made itself so +experimental and so self-evident in us all. And as this experimental +and self-evident knowledge is the only sure knowledge you can have of +God; even so, it is such a knowledge that cannot be doubted or +debated away. For it is as sure and as self-evident as is your own +experience." And so is it through all the succeeding doctrines of +grace and truth: The incarnation of the divine Son: His life, His +death, His resurrection, and His intercession: and then your own life +of faith, and prayer, and holy obedience: and then your death, "dear +in God's sight." Beginning with this continually experienced need of +God, all these things will follow, with an intellectual, and a moral, +and a spiritual demonstration, that will soon place them beyond all +debate or doubt to you. Only know thyself and admit the knowledge: +and all else will follow as sure as the morning sun follows the dark +midnight. + +And then in all these ways, you will attain to a religious experience +of your own, that will be wholly and exclusively your own. It will not +be David's experience, nor Paul's, nor Luther's, nor Bunyan's; much as +you will study their experiences, comparing them all with your own. As +you go deeper and ever deeper, into your own spiritual experience, +you will gradually gather a select and an invaluable library of such +experiences, and you will less and less read anything else with very +much interest or delight. But your own unwritten experience will, all +the time, be your own, and in your own spiritual experience you will +have no exact fellow. For your tribulations, which work in you your +experience,--as the text has it,--your tribulations are such that in +all your experimental reading in the Bible, in spiritual biography, in +spiritual autobiography, you have never met the like of them. Either +the writers have been afraid to speak out the whole truth about their +tribulations; or, what is far more likely, they had no tribulations +for a moment to match with yours. There has not been another so weak +and so evil heart as yours since weak and evil hearts began to be; +nor an evil life quite like yours; nor surrounding circumstances +so cross-bearing as yours; nor a sinner, beset with all manner of +temptations and trials, behind and before, like you. So much are you +alone that, if your fifty-first Psalm, or your seventh of the Romans, +or your "Confessions," or your "Private Devotions," or your "Grace +Abounding," could ever venture to be all honestly and wholly written +and published, your name would, far and away, eclipse them all. You do +not know what a singular and what an original and what an unheard-of +experience your experience is destined to be; if only you do not break +down under it; as you must not and will not do. + +Begin, then, to make some new experiments upon a new life of faith, +and of the obedience of faith. And begin to-day. If in anything you +have been following a false and an unphilosophical and an unscriptural +way of life, leave that wrong and evil way at once. Be true Baconians, +at once, as all the true men of science will tell you to be. "If we +were religious men like you," they will all say to you, "we would do, +and at once, what you are now being told to do. We would not debate, +or doubt, but we would make experiment, and would follow out the +experience": so all the scientifically minded men will say to you. +Come away then, and make some new experiments from this morning. For +one thing, make a new experiment on secret prayer. And then come forth +from your place of secret prayer and make immediate experiment on more +love, and more patience, and more consideration for other men, +and, especially, for the men of your own household. Be more +generous-minded, and more open-handed, as God has been so +generous-minded, and so open-handed toward you: if that has indeed +been so. Make experiment upon the poor and the needy and help them +according to your ability and opportunity and watch the result of the +experiment upon yourself; and so on, as your awakened conscience, and +as the regenerate part of your own heart, will prompt you and will +encourage you to do. + +Make such experiments as these and see if a new peace of conscience +and a new happiness of heart does not begin to come to you, according +to that great experimental psalm,--"Oh, that my people had hearkened +unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued +their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. He should +have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of +the rock should I have satisfied thee." + + + + +WATKINSON + +THE TRANSFIGURED SACKCLOTH + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William L. Watkinson, Wesleyan minister, was born at Hull, 1838, was +educated privately and rose to eminence as a preacher and writer. +The Rev. William Durban calls him "The classic preacher of British +Methodism." "He ranks," says Dr. Durban, "with Dr. Dallinger and the +Rev. Thomas Gunn Selby as the three most learned and refined of living +preachers in the English Methodist pulpit. Dr. Watkinson is famous for +the glittering illustrations which adorn his style. These are for the +most part gathered from biography, the classics, and science, and +of late years Dr. Watkinson has become more and more addicted to +spiritualizing the aspects of modern scientific discovery. Dr. +Watkinson never reads his utterances from a manuscript. Nor does +he preach memoriter, as far as the language of his addresses is +concerned. They are always carefully thought out and are never +characterized by florid diction. His simple, strong Anglo-Saxon +endears him to the people, for he is never guilty of an obscure +sentence. He is in the habit of saying, 'I have always been aware that +I have no power of voice for declamation, and therefore I can only +hope for success in the pulpit by originality of thought.'" He was +president of the Wesleyan Conference, 1897-1898, and editor of the +_Wesleyan Church_, 1893-1890. He has published several volumes of +sermons. + + + + +WATKINSON + +BORN IN 1838 + +THE TRANSFIGURED SACKCLOTH[1] + +[Footnote: Printed by permission of B.P. Button & Company from "The +Transfigured Sackcloth and Other Sermons," by W.L. Watkinson.] + +_For none might enter into the king's gate clothed with +sackcloth_.--Esther iv., 2. + + +The sign of affliction was thus excluded from the Persian court in +order that royalty might not be discomposed. The monarch was to see +bright raiment, flowers, pageantry, smiling faces only; to hear +only the voices of singing men and singing women; no smatch of the +abounding wormwood of life was to touch his lip, no glimpse of its we +to disturb his serenity. The master of an empire spreading from India +to Ethiopia was not to be annoyed by a passing shadow of mortality. +Now, this disposition to place an interdict on disagreeable and +painful things still survives. Men of all ranks and conditions +ingeniously hide from themselves the dark facts of life--putting these +aside, ignoring, disguising, forgetting, denying them. Revelation, +however, lends no sanction to this habit of passing by the tragedy +of life with averted face; and in this discourse we wish to show the +entire reasonableness of revelation in its frank recognition of the +dark aspects of existence. Christianity is sometimes scouted as "the +religion of sorrow," and many amongst us are ready to avow that the +Persian forbidding the sackcloth is more to their taste than the +Egyptian or the Christian dragging the corpse through the banquet; but +we confidently contend that the recognition by Christ of the morbid +phases of human life is altogether wise and gracious. + +I. We consider, first, the recognition by revelation of sin. Sackcloth +is the outward and visible sign of sin, guilt, and misery. How men +shut their eyes to this most terrible reality--coolly ignoring, +skilfully veiling, emphatically denying it! "The heart from the moment +of its first beat instinctively longs for the beautiful...." We strive +for the right and the true: it is circumstance that thrusts wrong +upon us. What is popularly called sin these philosophers call error, +accident, inexperience, indecision, misdirection, imperfection, +disharmony; but they will not allow the presence in the human heart of +a malign force which asserts itself against God, and against the +order of His universe. That principle which is darkness in the mind, +perverseness in the will, idolatry in the affections, "every passion's +wild excess, anger, lust, and pride,"--the existence of any such +principle they absolutely and scornfully deny. There is no evil in the +universe, all is good, and where everything is good human nature is +still the best. A single substance comprises all that is, and no place +is left for that profoundly decisive and destructive element called +sin; all that we have to do is to descant on the marvelous loveliness +of the world, the serene harmony of the universe, man's love of the +true, the beautiful, and the good. Intellectual masters like Emerson +and Renan. ignore conscience; they refuse to acknowledge the +selfishness, the baseness, the cruelty of society; they are deaf to +the groans of creation; they smile, and expect us to smile, whilst +they clap a purple patch of rhetoric on the running sores of humanity. +No sackcloth must pass their gate, and no craftsman of Ind ever wove +gossamer half so delicate and delightful as the verbal veil with which +these literary artists attempt to conceal the leprosy of our nature. + +And men generally are willing to dupe themselves touching the fact +and power of sin; they are strongly disinclined to look directly and +honestly at that inner confusion of which we are all more or less +conscious. We willingly acknowledge our transgression of the higher +law, that we do the things we ought not to do, and leave undone the +things that we ought to do; we have an unpleasant feeling that all is +not right, nay, indeed, that something is seriously wrong; but we do +not unshrinkingly acquaint ourselves with the malady of the spirit as +we should at once acquaint ourselves with any malady hinting itself in +the flesh. The sackcloth must not mar our shallow happiness. Great is +the power of self-deception, but in no other direction do we permit +ourselves to be more profoundly cheated than we do in this. In the +vision of beautiful things we forget the troubles of conscience, +as the first sinners hid themselves amid the leaves and flowers of +Paradise; in fashion and splendor we forget our guilty sorrow, as +medieval mourners sometimes concealed their cerements with raiment of +purple and gold; in the noises of the world we become oblivious of the +interior discords, as soldiers forget their wounds amid the stir and +trumpets of the battle. With a busy life, a gay life, we manage to +forget the skeleton of the heart, rarely permitting ourselves to look +upon the ominous specter which some way or other has entrenched itself +within us, and which is the bane of our existence. + +Nevertheless, sin thrusts itself upon our attention. The greatest +thinkers in all ages have been constrained to recognize its presence +and power. The creeds of all nations declare the fact that men +everywhere feel the bitter working and intolerable burden of +conscience. And, however we may strive to forget our personal +sinfulness, the cry is ever being wrung from us in the deepest moments +of life, "O wretched man that I am! who can deliver me from the body +of this death?" The sense of sin has persisted through changing +generations; it is the burden of experience and philosophy, and +the genius of the race has exhausted itself in devising schemes of +salvation. + +Aeschylus, Dante, Shakespeare, knew of truth, justice, purity, and +love, of the supreme and eternal law of righteousness; they knew that +man alone of all this lower creation is subject to this transcendental +rule; they knew also that the violation of this highest law lay at the +root of the world's mysterious and complex suffering--in other words, +that sin was the secret of the tragedy of life. The beasts are happy +because they are beasts; they do not lie awake in the dark weeping +over their sins, because they have no sins to weep over; they do not +discuss their duty to God, they do it; whilst, on the contrary, men +are unhappy because being subject to the highest law of all, and +competent to fulfil that law in its utmost requirements, they have +consciously fallen short of it, wilfully contradicted it. We cannot +accept the coat of many colors, whatever the flatterers may say; the +sackcloth is ours, and it eats our spirit like fire. + +Most fully does Christ recognize the great catastrophe. Some modern +theologians may dismiss sin as "a mysterious incident" in the +development of humanity, as a grain of sand that has unluckily blown +into the eye, as a thorn that has accidentally pierced our heel, +but the greatest of ethical teachers regarded sin as a profound +contradiction of that eternal will which is altogether wise and good. +More than any other teacher Jesus Christ emphasized the actuality and +awfulness of sin; more than any other has He intensified the world's +consciousness of sin. He never attempted to relieve us of the +sackcloth by asserting our comparative innocence; He never attempted +to work into that melancholy robe one thread of color, to relieve it +with one solitary spangle of rhetoric. Sin was the burden of the life +of Christ because it is the burden of our life. Christ has done more +than insisted on the reality, the odiousness, the ominousness, of +sin--He has laid bare its principle and essence. The New Testament +discovers to us the mystery of iniquity as ungodliness; its inmost +essence being unbelief in God's truth, the denial of His justice, +the rejection of His love, the violation of His law. The South Sea +islanders have a singular tradition to account for the existence of +the dew. The legend relates that in the beginning the earth touched +the sky, that being the golden age when all was beautiful and glad; +then some dreadful tragedy occurred, the primal unity was broken up, +the earth and the sky were torn asunder as we see them now, and the +dewdrops of the morning are the tears that nature sheds over the sad +divorce. This wild fable is a metaphor of the truth; the beginning of +all evil lies in the alienation of the spirit of man from God, in the +divorce of earth from heaven; here is the final reason why the face +of humanity is wet with tears. How vividly Christ taught that all our +fear and we arise out of this false relation of our spirit to the +living God! Above and beyond all, Christ recognizes the sackcloth that +He may take it away. In the anguish of his soul Job cried, "I +have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men?" +Christianity is God's full and final answer to that appeal. In Christ +we have the revelation of God's ceaseless, immeasurable, eternal love. +In Him we have the satisfaction of God's sovereign justice. Our own +awakened conscience feels the difficulty of absolution; it demands +that sin shall not be lightly passed over; it wearies itself to find +an availing sacrifice and atonement. "Behold the Lamb of God, that +taketh away the sin of the world!" In Him, too, we have that grace +which brings us into accord with the mind and government of God. +Christ reveals to us the divine ideal life; He awakens in us a passion +for that life; He leads us into the power and privilege, the liberty +and gladness, of that life. He fills our imagination with the vision +of His own divine loveliness; He refreshes our will from founts of +unfathomable power; He fills us with courage and hope; He crowns us +with victory. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, +not imputing their trespasses unto them." Sin is ungodliness; Christ +makes us to see light in God's light, fills us with His love, attunes +our spirit to the infinite music of His perfection. Instead of +shutting out the signs of wo, Christ followed an infinitely deeper +philosophy; He arrayed Himself in the sackcloth, becoming sin for us +who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. +We have redemption in His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; he +established us in a true relation to the holy God; He restores in +us the image of God; He fills us with the peace of God that passeth +understanding. + +Not in the spirit of a barren cynicism does Christ lay bare the +ghastly wound of our nature, but as a noble physician who can purge +the mortal virus which destroys us. He has done this for thousands; He +is doing it now; in these very moments He can give sweet release to +all who are burdened and beaten by the dire confusion of nature. +Sin is a reality; absolution, sanctification, peace, are not less +realities. Christ's gate is not shut to the penitent, neither does +He send him empty away. We go to Him in sackcloth, but we leave His +presence in purity's robe of snow, in honor's stainless purple, in the +heavenly blue of the holiness of truth. The Spirit of the Lord God is +upon Him, that He may give to the mourners in Zion beauty for ashes, +the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness. + +II. We consider the recognition by revelation of sorrow. Sackcloth is +the raiment of sorrow, and as such it was interdicted by the Persian +monarch. We still follow the insane course, minimizing, despising, +masking, denying suffering. Society sometimes attempts this. The +affluent entrench themselves within belts of beauty and fashion, +excluding the sights and sounds of a suffering world. "Ye that put far +away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that +lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and +eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the +stall, that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves +instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint +themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the +affliction of Joseph." So do opulent and selfish men still seek "to +hide their heart in a nest of roses." Literature sometimes follows +the same cue. Goethe made it one of the rules of his life to avoid +everything that could suggest painful ideas, and the taint of his +egotism is on a considerable class of current literature which +serenely ignores the morbid aspects of life. Art has yielded to the +same temptation. The artist has felt that he was concerned only with +strength, beauty, and grace; that he had nothing to do with weakness, +agony, wretchedness, and death. Why should sorrow find perpetual +remembrance in art? Pain will tear our bodies, but we will have no +wrinkles on our statues; suffering will rend our heart, but we will +have no shadows on our pictures. None clothed in sackcloth might enter +the gate that is called Beautiful. + +Most of us are inclined to the sorry trick of gilding over painful +things. We resolutely put from us sober signs, serious thoughts, and +sometimes are really angry with those who exhibit life as it is, +and who urge us to seek reconciliation with it. When the physician +prescribed blisters to Marie Bashkirtseff to check her consumptive +tendency, the vain, cynical girl wrote, "I will put on as many +blisters as thee like. I shall be able to hide the mark by bodices +brimmed with flowers and lace and tulle, and a thousand other +delightful things that are worn, without being required; it may even +look pretty. Ah! I am comforted." Yes, by a thousand artifices do we +dissemble our ugly scars, sometimes even pressing our deep misfortunes +into the service of our pride. Many of the fashions and the diversions +of the world much sought after have little positive attractiveness, +but the real secret of their power is found in the fact that they +hide disagreeable things, and render men for a while oblivious of the +mystery and weight of an unintelligible world. + +Nevertheless suffering is a stern fact that will not long permit us to +sleep. Some have taught the unreality of pain, but the logic of life +has spoiled their plausible philosophizing. A man may carry many +hallucinations with him to the grave, but a belief in the unreality of +pain is hardly likely to be one of them. The laughing philosopher is +quite invincible on his midsummer's day, but ere long fatality makes +him sad. There is no screen to shut off permanently the spectacle of +suffering. When Marie Antoinette passed to her bridal in Paris, the +halt, the lame, and the blind were sedulously kept out of her way, +lest their appearance should mar the joyousness of her reception; but, +ere long, the poor queen had a very close view of misery's children, +and she drank to the dregs the cup of life's bitterness. Reason as we +may, suppress the disagreeable truths of life as we may, suffering +will find us out, and pierce us to the heart. Indeed, despite our +dissimulations, we know that life is not a matter of lutes, doves, and +sunflowers, and at last we have little patience with those who thus +seek to represent it. We will not have the philosophy which ignores +suffering; witness the popularity of Schopenhauer. We resent the art +which ignores sorrow. True art has no pleasure in sin and suffering, +in torture, horror, and death; but on its palette must lie the sober +colorings of human life, and so to-day the most popular picture of the +world is the "Angelus" of Millet. We will not have the literature that +ignores suffering. "Humanity will look upon nothing else but its old +sufferings. It loves to see and touch its wounds, even at the risk of +reopening them. We are not satisfied with poetry unless we find tears +in it." We will not have the theology which ignores sin and suffering. +The preacher who confines his discourses to pleasant themes has a +meager following; the people swiftly and logically conclude that if +life is as flowery as the discourse, the preacher is superfluous. +Foolish we may often be, yet we cannot accept this Gethsemane for a +garden of the gods; the most wilful lotus-eater must perforce see the +streaming tears, the stain of blood, the shadow of death. Nature in +the full swing of her pageantry soon forgets the wild shriek of the +bird in the red talons of the hawk, and all other sad and tragic +things, but humanity is compelled to note the blood and tears which +flow everywhere, and to lay these things to heart. + +Christ giveth us the noblest example of suffering. So far from +shutting His gate on the sackcloth, once more He adopted it, +and showed how it might become a robe of glory. He Himself was +preeminently a Man of sorrows; He exhausted all forms of suffering; +touching life at every point, at every point He bled; and in Him we +learn how to sustain our burden and to triumph throughout all the +tragedy. In His absolute rectitude, in His confidence in His Father, +in His hours of prayer, in His self-sacrificing regard for His +fellow-sufferers, in His charity, and patience, we see how the +heaviest cross may be borne in the spirit of victory. We learn from +Him how divine grace can mysteriously make the sufferer equal to the +bitterest martyrdom; not putting to our lips some anodyne cup to +paralyze life, but giving us conquest through the strength and +bravery of reason in its noblest mood, through faith in its sublimest +exercise, through a love that many waters cannot quench nor the +floods drown. Poison is said to be extracted from the rattlesnake for +medicinal purposes; but infinitely more wonderful is the fact that the +suffering which comes out of sin counterworks sin, and brings to pass +the transfiguration of the sufferer. + +Christ teaches us how, under the redemptive government of God, +suffering has become a subtle and magnificent process for the full +and final perfecting of human character. Science tells us how the +bird-music, which is one of nature's foremost charms, has risen out of +the bird's cry of distress in the morning of time; how originally the +music of field and forest was nothing more than an exclamation caused +by the bird's bodily pain and fear, and how through the ages the +primal note of anguish has been evolved and differentiated until it +has risen into the ecstasy of the lark, melted into the silver note of +the dove, swelled into the rapture of the nightingale, unfolded into +the vast and varied music of the sky and the summer. So Christ shows +us that out of the personal sorrow which now rends the believer's +heart he shall arise in moral and infinite perfection; that out of the +cry of anguish wrung from us by the present distress shall spring the +supreme music of the future. + +The Persian monarch forbidding sackcloth had forgotten that +consolation is a royal prerogative; but the King of kings has not +forgotten this, and very sweet and availing is His sovereign sympathy. +Scherer recommends "amusement as a comfortable deceit by which we +avoid a permanent _tête-à-tête_ with realities that are too heavy for +us." Is there not a more excellent way than this? Let us carry our +sorrows to Christ, and we shall find that in Him they have lost their +sting. It is a clumsy mistake to call Christianity a religion of +sorrow--it is a religion _for_ sorrow. Christ finds us stricken and +afflicted, and His words go down to the depths of our sorrowful heart, +healing, strengthening, rejoicing with joy unspeakable. He finds us +in sackcloth; He clothes us with singing-robes, and crowns us with +everlasting joy. + +III. We consider the recognition by revelation of death. We have, +again, adroit ways of shutting the gate upon that sackcloth which is +the sign of death. A recent writer allows that Shakespeare, Raleigh, +Bacon, and all the Elizabethans shuddered at the horror and mystery +of death; the sunniest spirits of the English Renaissance quailed to +think of it. He then goes on to observe that there was something in +this fear of the child's vast and unreasoned dread of darkness and +mystery, and such a way of viewing death has become obsolete through +the scientific and philosophic developments of the later centuries. +Walt Whitman also tells us "that nothing can happen more beautiful +than death," and he has exprest the humanist view of mortality in +a hymn which his admirers regard as the high-water mark of modern +poetry. But will this rhapsody bear thinking about? Is death +"delicate, lovely and soothing," "delicious," coming to us with +"serenades"? Does death "lave us in a flood of bliss"? Does "the body +gratefully nestle close to death"? Do we go forth to meet death "with +dances and chants of fullest welcome"? It is vain to attempt to hide +the direst fact of all under plausible metaphors and rhetorical +artifice. It is in defiance of all history that man so write. It is in +contradiction of the universal instinct. It is mockery to the dying. +It is an outrage upon the mourners. The Elizabethan masters were far +truer to the fact; so is the modern skeptic who shrinks at "the black +and horrible grave." Men never speak of delicious blindness, of +delicious dumbness, of delicious deafness, of delicious paralysis; and +death is all these disasters in one, all these disasters without hope. +No, no, the morgue is the last place that lends itself to decoration. +Death is the crowning evil, the absolute bankruptcy, the final defeat, +the endless exile. Let us not shut our eyes to this. The skeptic +often tells us that he will have no "make-believe." Let us have no +"make-believe" about death. Let us candidly apprehend death for all +that it is of mystery and bitterness, and reconcile ourselves to it, +if reconciliation be possible. If we are foolish enough to shut the +gate on the thought of death, by no stratagem can we shut the gate +upon death itself. + +Without evasion or euphony Christ recognizes the somber mystery. The +fact, the power, the terror of death are displayed by Him without +reserve or softening. And He goes to the root of the dire and dismal +matter. He shows us that death as we know it is an unnatural thing, +that it is the fruit of disobedience, and by giving us purity and +peace He gives us eternal life. The words of Luther, so full of power, +were called "half-battles"; but the words of Christ in their depth and +majesty are complete battles, in which sin, suffering, and death +are finally routed. He attempts no logical proof of immortality; He +supplies no chemical formula for the resurrection; He demonstrates +immortality by raising us from the death of sin to the life of +righteousness, by filling our soul with infinite aspirations and +delights. Here is the proof supreme of immortality. "Verily, verily, I +say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do +also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto +my Father." The moral works are the greater works. Wonderful is the +stilling of the sea, the healing of the blind, the raising of the +dead, but the moral miracles of our Lord express a still diviner power +and carry with them a more absolute demonstration. If, therefore, we +have known the power of Christ delivering our soul from the blindness, +the paralysis, the death of sin, lifting it above the dust and causing +it to exult in the liberties and delights of the heavenlies, why +should we think it a thing incredible that God should raise the +dead? If He has wrought the greater, He will not fail with the less. +Christianity opens our eyes to splendid visions, makes us heirs of +mighty hopes, and for all its prospects and promises it demands our +confidence on the ground of its present magnificent and undeniable +moral achievements. Its predictions are credible in the light of its +spiritual efficacy. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because +of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the +Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that +raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies +by his Spirit that dwelleth in you," Being one with Christ in the +power of purity, we are one with Him in the power of an endless +life. Death has its temporary conquest, but grace reigning through +righteousness shall finally purge the last taint of mortality. Not +through the scientific and philosophic developments of later centuries +has the somber way of viewing death become obsolete; Christ bringing +life and immortality to life has brought about the great change in the +point of view from which we regard death, the point of view which +is full of consolation and hope. In Christ alone the crowning evil +becomes a coronation of glory; the absolute bankruptcy, the condition +of an incorruptible inheritance; the final defeat, an everlasting +victory; the endless exile, home, home at last. Once more, by boldly +adopting the sackcloth Christ has changed it into a robe of light. +"That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, +that is, the devil" + +We cannot escape the evils of life; they are inevitable and +inexorable. We may hide from our eyes the signs and sights of +mourning; but in royal splendor our hearts will still bleed; wearing +wreaths of roses, our heads will still ache. A preacher who complains +that Christianity is "the religion of sorrow" goes on to predict +that the woes of the world are fast coming to an end, and then the +sorrowful religion of Jesus Christ will give place to some purer +faith. "Through the chinks we can see the light. The condition of man +becomes more comfortable, more easy; the hope of man is more visible; +the endeavor of man is more often crowned with success; the attempt +to solve the darkest life-problems is not desperate as it was. The +reformer meets with fewer rebuffs; the philanthropist does not despair +as he did. The light is dawning. The great teachers of knowledge +multiply, bear their burdens more and more steadily; the traditions +of truth and knowledge are becoming established in the intellectual +world. It is so; and those of us who have caught a vision of the +better times coming through reason, through knowledge, through manly +and womanly endeavor, have caught a sight of a Christendom passing +away, of a religion of sorrow declining, of a gospel preached for the +poor no longer useful to a world that is mastering its own problems of +poverty and lifting itself out of disabling misery into wealth without +angelic assistance. This is our consolation; and while we admit, +clearly and frankly, the real power of the popular faith, we also see +the pillars on which a new faith rests, which shall be a faith, not +of sorrow, but of joy." Now, the deepest sorrow of the race is not +physical, neither is it bound up with material and social conditions. +As the Scotch say, "The king sighs as often as the peasant"; and this +proverb anticipates the fact that those who participate in the richest +civilization that will ever flower will sigh as men sigh now. When the +problem of poverty is mastered, when disease is extirpated, when a +period is put to all disorganization of industry and misgovernment, +social and political, it will be found by the emancipated and enriched +community what is now found by opulent individuals and privileged +classes, that the secret of our discontent is internal and mysterious, +that it springs from the ungodliness, the egotism, the sensuality, +which theology calls sin. But whatever the future may reveal, all the +sorrows of life are upon us here and now; we cannot deny them, we +have constantly to struggle with them, we are often overwhelmed by +irreparable misfortune. Esther "sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and +to take his sackcloth from him; but he received it not." In vain do +men offer us robes of beauty, chiding us for wearing the color of the +night; we cannot be deceived by flattering words; we must give place +to all the sad thoughts of our mortality until haply we find a +salvation that goes to the root of our suffering, that dries up the +fount of our tears. + +In a very different spirit and for very different ends do men +contemplate the dark side of human life. The cynic expatiates on +painful things--the blot on life's beauty, the shadow on its glory, +the pitiful ending of its brave shows--only to gibe and mock. The +realist lingers in the dissecting chamber for very delight in +revolting themes. The pessimist enlarges on the power of melancholy +that lie may justify despair. The poet touches the pathetic string +that he may flutter the heart. Fiction dramatizes the tragic sentiment +for the sake of literary effect. Cultured wickedness drinks wine +out of a skull, that by sharp contrast it may heighten its sensuous +delight; whilst estheticism dallies with the sad experiences of life +to the end of intellectual pleasure, as in ornamental gardening, dead +leaves are left on ferns and palms in the service of the picturesque. +But Christianity gives such large recognition to the pathetic element +of life, not that it may mock with the cynic, or trifle with the +artist; not because with the realist it has a ghoulish delight in +horror, or because with the refined sensualist it cunningly aims to +give poignancy to pleasure by the memory of pain; but because it +divines the secret of our mighty misfortune, and brings with it the +sovereign antidote. The critics declare that Rubens had an absolute +delight in representing pain, and they refer us to that artist's +picture of the "Brazen Serpent" in the National Gallery. The canvas is +full of the pain, the fever, the contortions of the wounded and dying; +the writhing, gasping crowd is everything, and the supreme instrument +of cure, the brazen serpent itself, is small and obscure, no +conspicuous feature whatever of the picture. The manner of the great +artist is so far out of keeping with the spirit of the gospel. +Revelation brings out broadly and impressively the darkness of the +world, the malady of life, the terror of death, only that it may +evermore make conspicuous the uplifted Cross, which, once seen, is +death to ever vice, a consolation in every sorrow, a victory over +every fear. + + + +LORIMER + +THE FALL OF SATAN + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George C. Lorimer was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1838. He was +brought up by his stepfather who was associated with the theater, +and in this relation he received a dramatic education and had some +experience on the stage. In 1855 he came to the United States, where +he joined the Baptist Church and abandoned the theatrical profession. +Later he studied for the Baptist ministry, being ordained in 1859. He +died in 1904. His direct and dramatic, pulpit style brought him into +great popularity in Boston, Chicago, and New York. At Tremont Temple, +Boston, he frequently spoke to overflowing congregations. He is the +author of several well-known books, from one of which the sermon here +given is taken as indicating his familiarity with and liking for +dramatic literature. His pulpit manner always retained a flavor of +dramatic style that contributed to his popularity. + + + + +LORIMER + +1838--1904 + +THE FALL OF SATAN[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copyright, 1882, by "The Homiletic Monthly," New York.] + +_I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven_.--Luke x., 18. + + +Whether the "glorious darkness" denoted by the name Satan is an actual +personage or a maleficent influence, is of secondary moment as far +as the aim and moral of this discourse are concerned. If the ominous +title applies to an abstraction, and if the event so vividly +introduced is but a dramatical representation of some phase in the +mystery of iniquity, the spiritual inferences are just what they would +be were the words respectively descriptive of an angel of sin, and of +his utter and terrible overthrow. I shall not, therefore, tax your +patience with discussions on these points, but shall assume as true +that literal reading of the text which has commended itself to the +ripest among our evangelical scholars. + +The Scriptures obscurely hint at a catastrophe in heaven among +immortal intelligences, by which many of them were smitten down from +their radiant emerald thrones. Their communications on the subject +are not specific and unambiguous, and neither can they escape the +suspicion of being designedly figurative; intended, probably, as much +to veil as to reveal. One of the clearest statements is made by Jude, +where he says: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but +left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, +under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day"; and Peter, in +like manner, speaks of God sparing not the angels that sinned, "but +cast them down to hell"; and yet these comparatively lucid passages +suggest a world of mist and shadow, which becomes filled with strange +images when we confront the picture, presented by John, of war in +heaven, with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, "that +old serpent called the devil." Back of them there doubtless lies a +history whose tragic significance is not easily measured. The sad, +imperishable annals of our race prove that sin is a contingency +of freedom. Wherever creatures are endowed with moral liberty, +transgression is impliedly possible. It is, consequently, inherently +probable that celestial beings, as well as man, may have revolted from +the law of their Maker; and a fall accomplished among the inhabitants +of heaven should no more surprize us than the fall of mortals on +earth. Perhaps, after all, there is as much truth as poetry in +Milton's conception of the rebellion, and of the fearful defeat that +overtook its leader:-- + + "Him the almighty Power + Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, + With hideous ruin and combustion, down + To bottomless perdition: there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal fire, + Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." + +An apostle, admonishing a novice, bids him beware of pride, "lest he +fall into the condemnation of the devil." Here presumptuous arrogance +and haughtiness of spirit are specified as the root and source of the +great transgression. Shakespeare takes up this thought:-- + + "Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. + By that sin fell the angels: how can man, then, + The image of his Maker, hope to win by't?" + +And Milton repeats it in the magnificent lines:-- + + "What time his pride + Had cast him out of heaven, with all his host + Of rebel angels; by whose aid, aspiring + To set himself in glory above his peers, + He trusted to have equalled the Most High, + If He opposed; and, with ambitious aim, + Against the throne and monarchy of God + Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud, + With vain attempt." + +Our Savior, also, sanctions this idea in the text. Joining His +disciples again, after their brief separation, He finds them elated +and exultant. They rejoiced, and, apparently, not with modesty, that +devils were subject unto them, and that they could exorcize them at +their pleasure. While they acknowledged that their power was due to +the influence of His name, they evidently thought more of +themselves than of Him. They were given to unseemly glorifying and +self-satisfaction, and were met by the Master's words--half warning, +half rebuke--"I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven." He thus +identifies their pride with that evil spirit which led to angelic +ruin, and seeks to banish it from their hearts: "Rejoice not that the +demons are subject unto you, but, rather, rejoice because your names +are written in heaven." Rejoice not on account of privilege and +power, but on account of grace; for the memory of grace must promote +humility, as it will recall the guilt of which it is the remedy. + +We have, here, a lesson for all ages and for all classes of society--a +lesson continually enforced by Scripture, and illustrated by history. +It deals with the insanity of pride and the senselessness of +egotism. It reminds us, by repeated examples, of the temptations to +self-inflation, and of the perils which assail its indulgence. "Ye +shall be as gods," was the smiling, sarcastic allurement which +beguiled our first parents to their ruin. They thought that before +them rose an eminence which the foot of creaturehood had never +trodden; that from its height the adventurous climber would rival +Deity in the sweep of his knowledge and the depth of his joy. Elated +and dazzled by the prospect, they dared tread through sin to its +attainment, vainly dreaming that wrong-doing would lead to a purer +paradise and to a loftier throne. One step, and only one, in the +gratification of their desires, converted their enchanting mountain +into a yawning gulf, and in its horrid wastes of darkness and of +sorrow their high-blown pride was shamed and smothered. The haughty +king walked on the terrace heights of Babylon, and, beneath the calm +splendor of an Assyrian sky, voiced the complacent feeling which +dulled his sense of dependence upon God--as the perfumes of the East +lull into waking-slumber the faculties of the soul. Thus ran his +self-glorifying soliloquy: "Is not this great Babylon that I have +built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for +the honor of my majesty?" Alas for the weakness of the royal egotist! +In an hour his boasting was at an end, and, reduced by the chastening +judgment of the Almighty to the level of the brute creation, he was +compelled to learn that "those who walk in pride the King of heaven +is able to abase." Similar the lesson taught us by the overthrow +of Belshazzar when, congratulating himself on the stability of his +throne, and in his excess of arrogance, he insulted the sacred vessels +which his father had plundered from the temple at Jerusalem. I say +taught us, for the foolhardy braggart was past learning anything +himself. Like the yet more silly Herod, who drank in the adulation of +the mob as he sat shimmering in his silver robe and slimed his speech +from his serpent-tongue, he was too inflated and bloated with vanity +to be corrected by wholesome discipline. Both of these rulers were too +self-satisfied to be reproved, and God's exterminating indignation +overtook them. Like empty bubbles, nothing could be done with them, +and hence the breath of the Almighty burst and dispersed their +glittering worthlessness. Pope John XXI., according to Dean Milman, is +another conspicuous monument of this folly. "Contemplating," writes +the historian, "with too much pride the work of his own hands"--the +splendid palace of Viterbo--"at that instant the avenging roof came +down, on his head." And Shakespeare has immortalized the pathetic doom +which awaits the proud man, who, confident in his own importance and +in the magnitude of his destiny, is swallowed up in schemes and plans +for his personal aggrandizement and power. Wolsey goes too far in his +self-seeking, is betrayed by his excess of statecraft, and, being +publicly disgraced, laments, when too late, his selfish folly:-- + + "I have ventured, + Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, + These many summers on a sea of glory, + But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride + At length broke under me; and now has left me, + Weary, and old with service, to the mercy + Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me." + +It is not difficult to discern the fatal effects of this spirit in +the lives of the great and mighty; but we are frequently blind to its +pernicious influence on the lowly and weak. We do not realize, as we +ought, that the differences between men lie mainly in their position, +not in their experiences and dangers. The leaders of society are +merely actors, exhibiting on the public stage of history what is +common to mankind at large. However insignificant we may be, and +however obscure our station, our inner life is not far removed from +that of the exalted personages who draw to themselves the attention of +the world. The poorest man has his ambitions, his struggles and his +reverses; and the first may take as deep a hold upon his heart, and +the second call forth as much cunning or wisdom to confront, and the +last as much bitterness to endure, as are found in the vicissitudes +of a Richelieu or a Napoleon. The peasant's daughter, in her narrow +circle, feels as keenly the disappointment of her hopes, and mourns as +intensely the betrayal of her confidence, or the rude ending of her +day-dreams, as either queen or princess, as either Katharine of +England or Josephine of France. We do wrong to separate, as widely as +we do in our thoughts, ranks and conditions of society. The palace and +the hovel are nearer to each other than we usually think; and what +passes beneath the fretted ceiling of the one, and the thatched roof +of the other, is divided by the shadowy line of mere externalities. +And so it happens that the fall of an angel may be pertinent to the +state of a fisherman-disciple, and the fall of a prime minister or +ruler have its message of warning for the tradesman and mechanic. + +Indeed, it will generally be found that the failures of life, and the +worse than failures, are mainly due to the same cause which emptied +heavenly thrones of their angelic occupants. What is it, let me ask, +that comes into clearer prominence as the Washington tragedy[1] is +being investigated and scrutinized? Is it not that a diseased egotism, +or perhaps it would be more correct to say, a stalwart egotism, robbed +this country of its ruler, committed "most sacrilegious murder," and +"broke ope" + + "The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence + The life o' the building." + +[Footnote 1: The assassination of President Garfield.] + +Like bloody Macbeth, who greedily drank in the prognostications of the +weird sisters, tho he feared that the "supernatural soliciting" could +not be good, because they pandered to his monstrous self-infatuation, +Guiteau, having wrought himself up through many years of +self-complacency, claims to have believed that the divine Being had +chosen him to do a deed which has filled the earth with horror. Thus +the growth of self-conceit into mammoth proportions tends to obscure +the rights of others, and to darken with its gigantic shadow the +light of conscience. If we are to admit the prisoner's story, as the +expression of his real condition prior to the assassination, we look +on one so intoxicated with the sense of his own importance that he +would "spurn the sea, if it could roar at him," and hesitate not to +perform any deed of darkness that would render him more conspicuous. +Others, less heinous offenders than this garrulous murderer, have, +from similar weakness, wrought indescribable mischief to themselves. +The man, for instance, who frets against providence because his +standing is not higher and his influence greater, has evidently +a better opinion of his deservings than is wholesome for him. He +imagines he is being wronged by the Creator--that his merits are not +recognized as they should be--never, for a moment, remembering that, +as a sinner, he has no claims on the extraordinary bounty of his +heavenly Father. From murmuring he easily glides into open rebellion, +and from whispered reproaches to loud denunciations. There are people +in every community whose pride leads them into shameful transactions. +They would not condescend to mingle with their social inferiors, but +they will subsist on the earnings of their friends, and consider it no +disgrace to borrow money which they have no intention of returning. +Their vanity, at times, commits them to extravagances which they have +no means of supporting. They ought to have carriages and horses, +mansions and pictures, with all the luxuries of affluence--at least +so they think--and, being destitute of the resources requisite to +maintain such state, they become adepts in those arts which qualify +for the penitentiary. Others have such confidence in the strength of +their virtue, such commanding arrogance of integrity, that, like a +captain who underestimates the force of an enemy and overrates his +own, they neglect to place a picket-guard on the outskirts of their +moral camp, and in such an hour as they think not they are surprized +and lost. Even possessors of religion are not always clear of this +folly, or safe from its perils. They "think more highly of themselves +than they ought to think"; they come to regard themselves as specially +favored of heaven; they talk of the Almighty in a free and easy +manner, and of Jesus Christ as tho He were not the Judge at all. When +they pray, it is with a familiarity bordering on irreverence, and +when they deal with sacred themes it is with a lightness that breeds +contempt. When they recount the marvels which they have wrought in +the name of Christ, it is hardly-possible for them to hide their +self-complacency; for, while they profess to give Him the glory, the +manner of their speech shows that they are taking it to themselves. +They are like the disciples, who were as proud of their prowess in +casting out devils as children are with their beautiful toys, and +they are as much in need of the Savior's warning: "I beheld Satan, as +lightning, fall from heaven." And because they have failed to give +heed unto it, they have oftentimes followed the Evil One in his +downward course, and in a moment have made shipwreck of their faith. + + "As sails, full spread, and bellying with the wind, + Drop, suddenly collapsed, if the mast split; + So to the ground down dropped the cruel fiend"; + +and earthward have the unsaintly saints of God as swiftly sped, when +they have fostered the pride which changed angels into demons. + +"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" What +more pitiable spectacle than the ruin of an angel! We have seen the +forsaken halls of time-worn and dilapidated castles, have stood in +the unroofed palaces of ancient princes, and have gazed on the +moss-covered and ivy-decked towers of perishing churches, and the +sight of them has tilled our hearts with melancholy, as we thought +of what had been, and of the changes that had swept over the fair, +valiant and pious throngs whose laughter, bravery and prayers once +made these scenes so gay and vocal. All is hushed now, and the silence +is broken only by the hoot and screech of the owl, or by the rustle of +the nightbat's leathern wing. But how much sadder is the form of the +mighty spirit, who once sat regnant among the sons of light, emptied +of his innocence, filled with foul, creeping, venomous thoughts and +feelings, uncrowned, dethroned only with malignity and throned in +evil! The Bible calls him the prince and the god of this world; and +everywhere we are surrounded with evidences of his despotic sway. +Unlike earthly rulers, whose exhausted natures exact repose, he +is ever sleepless, and his plotting never ends. Enter his somber +presence-chamber, and commotion, bustle, activity will confront and +amaze you. He is continually sending his emissaries forth in every +direction. The perpetual wranglings, ceaseless distractions, +irreconcilable contradictions, disquieting doubts, discouraging +outlooks, inharmonious and jangling opinions, unaccountable delusions, +clashing and crashing dissonances, cruel hatreds, bitter enmities and +stormful convulsions, which so largely enter and deface the course of +human history, proceed mainly from his influence. We know that "the +heart of a lost angel is in the earth," and as we know its throbbings +carry misery and despair to millions of our fellow-beings, we can +surmise the intensity of we wherewith it afflicts himself. Mrs. +Browning's Adam thus addresses Lucifer:-- + + "The prodigy + Of thy vast brows and melancholy eyes, + Which comprehend the heights of some great fall. + I think that thou hast one day worn a crown + Under the eyes of God." + +But now the vast brow must wear a heavier gloom, and the eyes betray a +deeper sorrow, as in his ruin he has sought to bury the hopes and joys +of a weaker race. How different his dealings with the race from those +which mark the ministry of Christ! Immortal hate on the one side of +humanity; immortal love on the other; both struggling for supremacy. +One sweeping across the soul with pinions of dark doubts and fears; +the other, with the strong wing of hope and fair anticipations. One +seeking to plunge the earth-spirit into the abysmal depths of eternal +darkness; the other seeking to bear it to the apex of light, where +reigns eternal day. And of the two, Christ alone is called "the +blest." In the agony and anguish of His sufferings He yet can exclaim, +"My joy I leave with thee"; and in the lowest vale of His shame can +calmly discourse on peace. The reason? Do you ask the question? It +is found in His goodness. He is good, and seeks the good of all; and +goodness crowns His lacerated brow with joy. This Satan sacrificed +in his fall; this he antagonizes with, in his dreary career, and so +remains in the eyes of all ages the monument of melancholy gloom. +Thus, also, is it with man, whose haughtiness thrusts him into evil. +He is morose and wretched, crusht beneath a burden of we, which weighs +the eyelids down with weariness and the heart with care, and +which constrains him to curse the hour of his birth. Next to the +grief-crowned angel, there is no more pitiable object in all God's +fair creation than a human soul tumbled by its own besotted pride into +sin and shame. "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold +changed!" aye, changed to dross, which the foot spurns, and which the +whirlwind scatters to the midnight region of eternity. + +In view of these reflections, we can understand the stress laid by the +inspired writers on the grace of humility. We are exhorted to be like +Jesus, who was meek and lowly in heart; and we are commanded to esteem +others better than ourselves. These admonitions are not designed to +cultivate a servile or an abject spirit, but to promote a wholesome +sense of our own limitations, weaknesses and dependence. They would +foster such a state of mind as will receive instruction, as will lean +on the Almighty, and recognize the worthiness and rights of all. Just +as the flower has to pass its season entombed in the darkness of its +calyx before it spreads forth its radiant colors and breathes its +perfume, so the soul must veil itself in the consciousness of its own +ignorance and sinfulness before it will be able to expand in true +greatness, or shed around it the aroma of pure goodness. Crossing the +prairies recently between this city and St. Louis, I noticed that the +trees were nearly all bowed in the direction of the northeast. As our +strongest winds blow from that quarter, it was natural to inquire why +they were not bent to the southwest. The explanation given was, that +the south winds prevail in the time of sap, when the trees are supple +with life and heavy with foliage, and consequently, that they yield +before them. But when the winter comes they are hard and firm, rigid +and stiff, and even the fury of the tempest affects them not. Thus +is it with human souls. When humility fills the heart, when its +gentleness renders susceptible its thoughts and feelings, the softest +breath of God's Spirit can bend it earthward to help the needy, and +downward to supplicate and welcome heaven's grace. But when it is +frozen through and through with pride, it coldly resists the overtures +of mercy, and in its deadness is apathetic even, to the storm of +wrath. Nothing remains but for the wild hurricane to uproot it and +level it to the ground. Such is the moral of my brief discourse. God +grant we may have the wisdom of humility to receive it! + + + + +KNOX LITTLE + +THIRST SATISFIED + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William John Knox Little, English preacher, was born 1839 and educated +at Cambridge University. He has filled many parochial cures, and in +1881 was appointed canon of Worcester, and sub-dean in 1902. He also +holds the vicarage of Hoar Cross (1885). He is of high repute as a +preacher and is in much request all over England. He belongs to the +High Church school and has printed, besides his sermons, many works of +educational character, such as the "Treasury of Meditation," "Manual +of Devotion for Lent," and "Confirmation and Holy Communion." + + + + +KNOX LITTLE + +BORN IN 1839 + +THIRST SATISFIED[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, London.] + +_My soul is athirst for God, for the living God; when shall I come and +appear before the presence of God?_--Psalm xlii., 2. + + +The verse, dear friends, which I have read to you for a text is one +of those verses which justify in the highest degree the action of the +Christian Church in selecting the Hebrew Psalter as, in fact, her +prayer-book. There are many passages, as you will feel with me, in the +Hebrew psalter that express in a very high degree the wants of the +human soul; but perhaps there is no passage more telling, more +touching, more searching, more expressive than that solemn and that +exalted sentiment which is spoken in the text, "My soul is athirst +for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the +presence of God?" The passage is a justification, then, of the action +of the Christian Church. People sometimes ask why in the daily +service, why on Sundays, you rehearse the Psalms, which have about +them so much that is incomprehensible, so much that requires +explanation; why there are those tremendous denunciations of enemies, +why there are those prayers that seem at first sight to touch +wants that we modern people scarcely know; but if you want a real +justification and a handy answer you may fall back upon the general +texture of the psalter as exprest by such solemn words as those of the +text. If you would find any document, any volume that will speak your +thoughts best about and towards eternity, you cannot select a better +than the Hebrew psalter, for the general tone and temper of its +teaching is the cry of the soul for God. + +And then there is another thought upon the threshold of such a subject +that demands our attention. This verse of the text, being a sort of +example or representative verse of the psalter, expresses to us--does +it not?--the attitude and the mission of the Christian Church. The +attitude. For what is the position, dear friends, of the Christian +Church? What are the struggles of Christian souls except, in the midst +of a world that is quite complicated with difficulties, in the midst +of a world that is overwhelmed with sorrow, in the midst of a time of +severe temptation, to constantly rise and gaze high above the thought +of evil, and gaze towards the sun of brightness, and cry for God? And +what is the mission of the Christian Church? Is it not to help men and +women in their struggle and their sorrow to forget at least at times +their pettinesses and degradation to rise to better standards and +loftier ideals, and cry for God? And if that be the mission of the +Christian Church, then I hold--and that is my point this morning--that +that is the justification of such noble efforts as have been made in +your church to enable so great, so sinful a city as London to have at +least moments of relaxation from its world-wide weariness, moments of +pause in the pursuit of its sin, and to call it back from that +which is overpowering tho transient--to ask it to pass them in the +ministrations of religion. What is the object of such a church as +this? Why, buried among your buildings, in the midst of this great, +powerful, sinful city,--why has it a mission for eternity? Why is +it good that you should do your best? Why is it praiseworthy and +beautiful that your rector and churchwardens should have exerted +themselves to the utmost to make this church what it ought to be? +Why? Because there is not a man or woman in London, not one in this +bustling crowd, not one in this confusion of commerce, not one in this +sink of sin, but might say "Yes"--ought to say, and must ultimately +feel, and should now be taught to realize that the soul has one +satisfaction, one only--"My soul is athirst for God, for the living +God." Well, if that be so, can we be wrong, dear friends, can we waste +our time, if we ask ourselves this morning something quite practical +about this thirst of the soul? + +And, first of all, I submit that in such a verse as this, and in such +a work as this, we are face to face with one of those great governed +contrasts that are found throughout Scripture and throughout human +life. I may say, _par parenthèse_, that that is one of the great +proofs of sacred Scripture. When your shallow thinker, when your wild +and profound philosopher, kicks the sacred Book with the toe of his +boot, and denounces it because he does not like the measure of Noah's +Ark or the exact activity of Jonah's whale, the moment you begin +to think beneath those mere sharpnesses of speech and those mere +quicknesses of the thought, you say this: "There may be this or that +about the surface of Scripture which I do not and cannot explain, and +cannot entirely understand; but at least there is no book--no, not +excepting Milton; no, not even excepting Dante; no, for us English +people, making no reserve for Shakespeare--there is no book that, +after all, expresses that deep, inner, serious fact of my being, of +my soul, of myself; the fact that lives when our facts are dying; the +fact that persists in asserting itself when the noise of the world is +still; the fact that does not care about daylight only, but comes up +in the dark; the fact that whispers low when I am in the crowd, but +speaks loud in the darkest night, when the clock is ticking on the +stairs, and conscience has stalked out and stood before me, asserting +facts that I cannot contradict--there is no look that can speak that +fact of facts, that thirst, that longing, that desolation, that +desire, that hope, that activity, that possibility of supreme +contention and final victory, there is nothing like the Bible that +does that." And so wise men, while they admit difficulties, thoughtful +men, while they do not controvert the fact that that which is divine +needs larger explanation, fall back upon such great governed truths as +that text to support the Bible. The Bible says, asserts, determines, +and insists upon the truth which the Church is insisting upon, which +you and I, in our better moments, emphasize and say "Amen" to--the +soul is athirst for God. The Bible brings home the great contrast that +is present to us all. + +Let us dwell, that we may realize this thirst of the soul, upon the +contrast. There are, at least, four forms of attraction which are +presented, as I suppose, to your soul, certainly to mine. First of +all, there is the attraction of natural beauty. If you stand on a fair +August afternoon on the terrace, for instance, at Berne, or on the +heights of Chaumont; if you gaze at the distant Alps, crowned with +snow which was generated in winter, but which takes the brightness and +glory of diamonds in the summer sun; if, coming from the noise and +heat of England, you first gaze at that line of strange pointed +mountains crowned with that whiteness, struck with the sunlight, you +are moved by natural beauty. If you stand in America on the upper +reaches of the St. Lawrence, and watch the river as it hurries to its +destiny at Niagara; if you see the tossing water writhing almost like +living creatures anticipating a dreadful destiny and passing over the +fall; or if, rising out of what is tragic in nature, you come to what +is homely--if, for instance, you see the chestnut woods of spring with +an inspiration of quiet joy, or if you see the elms at Worcester or +Hereford in our common England in the autumn time with an inspiration +of sorrow; wherever you turn with eye or head, with a feeling in your +heart, a thought in your mind, nature demands her recognition; and you +London men, in the toil of your struggle, in the noise of your work, +in the dust of your confusion of life, when you get your holiday in +spring or autumn,--unless, indeed, you have passed into the mere +condition of brutes,--while you still keep the hearts of men, you feel +there is something in the apostles of culture, in the teachers of +esthetics, in persons who say that beauty is everything to satisfy the +soul. Nature, you say--and you say it justly--says, "Beauty." You +find a delight as you gaze upon nature. Yes, dear friends, you are +stimulated, you are delighted, you are consoled; there is one thing +which you are not--you are not satisfied. + +Or, quite possibly, you turn to that which seems to English natures +more practical and less poetical--you turn to the attraction of +activity. You say the poets, or the preachers, or the dreamers may +gaze upon nature; but Englishmen have something else to do--we have to +work. You look at the result of activity, and it is splendid. Imagine, +picture for a moment, political achievement; picture to yourselves the +power not only of a mind, but of a personality, of a character +which can attract vast millions who have never gazed upon the human +expression in the human face--can attract them to great love or to +great hatred, can mold the destinies of an empire, can change the +current of the time--think of such men as Richelieu or Cavour, or more +modern instances, and you understand what is the greatness and the +power of the attraction of political activity. Or, to come nearer +home, go into your London city, and watch the working of your London +mart. What have you before you there? The activity of the hearts and +minds of Englishmen, sending out the force of the life that is in them +from the heart that is beating in those tremendous centers to the +distances that are only stopt by the most distant frontiers of the +world. Your sayings and thoughts are quoted throughout the markets of +Europe--yes, throughout the markets of other continents; your actions +and decisions make the difference between the decisions and the +actions of men that you have never seen, that you shall never see. The +Medici were a power in Florence, first as bankers, then as governors. +There are men in London who have power throughout the world, not only +in Florence, not as profest governors, but as practical governors +through the activity of commercial instinct. Certainly, it seems to me +quite possible that there may be minds carried away by such a great +activity; but that great activity I submit to your deeper, quieter +English Sunday thought--that activity will stimulate, will delight, +will attract, will intoxicate; one thing it will not do--I am bold to +say it will never satisfy. + +And if I may take another instance for a moment, there is this pure +intellect, bidding good-by to the political arena, to the commercial +strife, saying farewell to the dreams of beauty, and falling back +upon the cells of the brain, traversing the corridors of thought, and +entering first here and there into that labyrinth of instinct, or +association, or accumulative learning. Certainly, there is a power of +a delight that the world can never realize outside the region of the +brain. If that needs proof you have only, dear friends, to meditate +upon such lives as Newton, or Shakespeare, or Kepler, or if you turn +to the region of meditative thought, to such lives as our own George +Eliot--yes, there is that in the mere exercise of intellect which +is intoxicating, which is consoling even to the highest degree. But +intellect, after all, finds its frontier. I may say of it what I +have said of the esthetic sentiment, what I have said of the active +sentiment in man: it attracts, it delights--what is more, I think +it even consoles; but the one thing I find about it that to me is +perfectly appalling is that it does not satisfy. + +There are many of you perhaps to-day who will demand that I should +take my fourth instance, and will ask that that at least may do its +duty. Will it? There is the region of the affections--that region +wherein we stray in early spring days as pickers of the spring-flowers +of our opening life, where suns are always glorious and sunsets only +speak of brighter dawn, where poetry is in all ordinary conversation +and hope springs to higher heights from hour to hour, where Mays +are always Mays and Junes are always Junes, where flowers are ever +bursting, and there seems no end to our nosegays, no limit to our +imaginations, no fetter to our fancies, no restraint to our desires. +There is the world, the vast, powerful world, of the passions, +purified by exhaustive cultivation into what we call the affections +of a higher life. By them we deal with our fellow-creatures; by them, +when we are young, we form great friendships; by them, as we grow +older, we form around us certain associations that we intend to +support us as life goes off. We have all known it. There is the +friend, there is the sweetheart, there is the wife, there is the +child, there are the dear expressions of the strong heart that after +all beats in Englishmen. But as life goes on, first in one object and +then by anticipation and terror perhaps in others, we watch those who +have been dear to us pass in dim procession to the grave, and we find, +after all, that in the world of affections that old strange law that +pervades one branch of the contrast prevails; it can stimulate, it can +support, it can console, it can delight, it can lead to delirium +at moments, but it does not satisfy. And, my brothers and sisters, +because you and I are born not for a moment, but for infinite moments; +not for the struggle of time, but for the great platform and career of +eternity--because that is so, never, never, never, if we are true to +ourselves, shall we pause in the midst of our mortal pilgrimage until +we find, and grasp, and embrace, and love that which satisfies. When +you awaken up a young heart to that truth, then that heart, as I hold +it, is on the path of conversion. When amidst the struggle of sin you +have determined the soul to strive after that truth, then that soul is +in progress of solid conversion and final perfectibility. But, at any +rate, all human nature joins that cry of the Christian, and the Bible +speaks of it as it always does--its ultimate truth expressing what we +need. No; there are many things given, there are many attractions to +draw; they will stimulate, they will help, they will console, they +will give pleasure; there is one thing that satisfies the immortal, +there is one life that meets your need: "My soul is athirst for God, +for the living God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of +God?" + +Why, dear friends, why is it that these things do not satisfy? There +lies a city in the Volscian Hills, fair and beautiful, climbing in its +peaks and pinnacles up little ledges of the rocks, and down into the +depths of the valleys. And if you wander some two days from Rome, and +gaze upon those mountains, historic in their memories and splendid in +their beauty, you are struck by the tenderness and the attraction of +that city. It is a city of flowers. The flowers stream up its streets +in grave procession; they climb up the pillars of churches, embracing +them and holding on with arms of deep affection; they laugh in the +sunshine, they weep in the shadow, they are shrouded in the clouds of +night, but they blaze again in the blaze of the morning. There is +the dim funereal ivy, there is the brightness and glow of the purple +convolvulus, there is the wild-rose clustering round the windows. They +are lying asleep on the doorsteps, they gather themselves into +knots as if to gossip and to talk in the language of flowers by the +doorways--utterly beautiful! You look at the city with wonder and +astonishment--with desire. How wonderful, you say, that church tower +covered with its flowers; that altar covered with flowers not gathered +and placed in vases, but with Nature's own hand arranging an offering +to the living God. These streets that sound no footfall of an angry +multitude, but that listen to the footfall of a quiet nature--yes, +it is beautiful in the early morning. But stay there until the later +afternoon, when the fog begins to gather; stay there until night-time, +when the miasma begins to rise; stay there until morning, and you +are in danger of destruction from poison. It is a land of flowery +expression; but it is not a land of real life. + +My friends, the activity of man, the poetic faculty of man, all the +gifts and all the capacities of man--they are beautiful, they are +touching, they are attractive; but if they are all, if they express +all that you have to offer, and all that is in you to feel, then they +are hollow, or they-are poisonous, and like that city of flowers. Why? +Because there is in you and me a soul that lies behind our thought, +altho there is more than feeling there--a soul that supports our will, +and is more than our volition. It thinks, but is not thought; it +feels, but is not feeling; it wills, but is not volition. There +is something deeper in man than his esthetic desire or his active +practise, something deeper beneath us all than anything that finds +expression, certainly than anything that finds satisfaction. There is +the self; there is myself, yourself; there is that strange, mysterious +life of loneliness which stands, and thinks, and judges, and +appraises. When, by divine grace, we escape from the voice of the +crowd, and from the cry of custom, from the delirium of desire, that +poor lonely self within us pleads to us in a cry like the call of +the starveling crying to the rich man that passes by, "Oh, will you +gratify desire? Oh, will you gratify pleasure? Oh, will you stimulate +activity, and will you leave me alone? I, yourself, your very self, +the foundation of your life, the permanent expression of your +immortality--I must be satisfied, and being infinite and immortal, I +know but one satisfaction: 'My soul is athirst for God, for the living +God; when shall I come, and appear before the presence of God?'" + +If that be true, or if it be approximately true, dear friends, let us +ask ourselves this morning these questions. Let us be quite practical. +What do you mean, you may say for a moment, by the thirst for God? I +remember long ago in Paris, in conversation with one whom I deem +one of the greatest modern statesmen, tho not one of the most +successful--I remember, when a mere boy, talking to that thoughtful +man just at the moment when he was standing amidst the ruins of his +activity, and gazing with the placid spirit with which a good man +gazes when he feels that he has done his duty, tho the world can see +that he has failed--I remember talking to him on such questions as +these, and what he said, among other things, was this: "In dealing +with mankind and in dealing with yourself you must rise by degrees, +you must advance from point to point; there is a point of achievement, +but you cannot reach the point of achievement unless you have gone +up the ladder of progress." I follow his advice. What do we mean by +thirsting for God? My friends, on the lower round of that ladder, I +mean thirsting for and desiring moral truth. I mean that the soul +within you is thirsting and imploring for the satisfaction of its +moral instincts. Turn for an instant to the ten commandments; they are +trite, they are ordinary, they are placed before you in the east end +of your church, after the old custom of your practical, unaesthetic, +and undreaming England. Ask what they mean. Turn to the second table. +You are to reverence your father and mother. Why? Because they are +the instruments of life that God gives. You are to reverence life in +others in the sixth commandment. Why? Because life is the deepest +mystery that God can possibly exhibit to you. In the seventh +commandment--I scarcely like to say, but yet it is wise to repeat, it +is necessary to assert it--we are to remember, you and I, when we +are young, when we are active, when we are passionate, the great +responsibility of man; you are not to trifle with that awful mystery, +the transmission of life, life which unites itself with eternal love. +You are to remember respect for property, for that which divine +providence has placed by wise laws in the hands of others. You are to +remember that the best of properties is a good character. Finally, in +the tenth commandment, you are not to forget that divine providence +guides you, and you are not to murmur and be angry when He guides you +who knows the best for you, and when you have done your best. And +rising from the second table and coming to the first, you are not to +forget that there is one object for every soul, as the text asserts. +You are not to forget that a jealousy may be created, ought to be +created, if you put anything before God. You are not to grudge God the +restraint of speech, and--thank God, still it is possible to appeal to +the wise instincts of England--you are not to grudge on your Sunday +the gift of your time. These are the outlines of the grave moral law +that runs deep into the heart of the Christian; and I answer, the +thirst for God means the thirst within me to fulfil that grave moral +law. + +But, my friends, pause for a moment. After all, that would only be a +skeleton. After all, simply to draw out the outlines of a picture is +not the work of an artist. Suppose you ask a master in music, "How am +I to produce the real result of stately sound?" He will tell you about +the common cord; he will tell you about the result of its changes and +its affinities, and will speak of those results as harmony; or he will +tell you about the gamut of sounds--sounds found in the wind upon the +mountains, found in the surging sea, found in the voice of childhood, +found in the whisper of your dreams--sound that is everywhere, sound +that wanders up and down this wild, wild universe. He will tell you +all that, and explain how in proper steps, in wise modulations, that +is melody, as the union of sounds is harmony. Is that enough? Would +that produce "The Last Judgment" of Spohr, that made you dissolve in +tears? Would that produce the chorus of Handel that made you almost +rise and march in majesty? Would that fill you with deep thoughts in +Beethoven, or fire you into joy in Mendelssohn? Oh, no! You have your +skeleton, but you have not one thing, the deepest; genius has to touch +with its fire the fact that is before you; you want the mystery of +life. And then suppose you turn to an artist and ask him to guide you +in painting, and he talks to you about light and shadow, about the +laying of the color, about the drawing of lines, about the exact +expression of the distant and the present, of the foreground and the +background, and having learned it all, you produce what seems an +abortion; you ask yourself, "What is the meaning of this?" Is this +enough to make you quiver, in Dresden, before the San Sisto, carried +away by those divine eyes of the "Mother of Eternity," or rent with +sorrow before the solemn eyes of the Child? Is this enough to fill you +with tears of delight when you enter the Sistine Chapel and see St. +John as he kneels with his unshed tears about the dead Christ? What is +there wanting in the touch of your artist? There is wanting genius; +there is wanting life. Or to take one instance more. You ask somebody +to teach you sculpture, to tell you how to make yourself master in the +treatment of stone. He will tell you wise things about the plastic +material that you have to mold with thumb and finger, and then about +the use of the chisel and the hammer to produce the result in the +stone, following the treatment of that plastic material. But when you +have learned it all, can you really believe that you will produce the +effect of that majestic manhood that you see in the David of Angelo +in the Piazza of Florence, or that wise, determined progress that is +exprest in Donatello's St. George? What is the difference between your +failure and the results of those men? Genius--life. And when you turn +to the moral law, and when you ask yourself, "How can I learn to +be athirst for God?" the preachers say, "Accept the moral law; act +exactly in distinct duty to your parents; say, 'Corban, it is a gift +by whatsoever thou mayest be profited thereby'; do your duty strictly +to the letter and nothing more; be conservative about your property; +restrain yourself from desire of change; do not stimulate and do not +satisfy your passions beyond what is exactly exprest in the moral +law." But then, if you speak the truth, you say, "And in the end what +am I? Why, after all, most commonplace, and, in truth, most sinful." +What is the difference? This difference: there wants here the touch of +genius; there wants the touch of life divine, grace that illuminates +the moral law; there wants, my friends, the enthusiasm for goodness, +the science of sciences, the art of arts, the delight and the desire +of doing right because it is right, the great and splendid spirit that +belongs to all of us; and yet it is the highest when the thirst of +your soul is real. Certainly it is to know God's guidance in law; but +what is law? It is to grasp that atmosphere of life and reality which +comes out of the moral law to those who seek it in a living person +first--the desire of goodness, the desire, the love, the enthusiasm, +the ambition, cost what it may, of doing right because it is +right. Oh, my friends, I submit--and I submit it without fear of +contradiction--that is an ambition worthy of Englishmen. Certainly +we are not dreamers; certainly God has given us practical activity; +certainly, whatever we misunderstand, this we can understand, the +thirst of the soul for God is the thirst to love goodness because it +is right. + +And then hastily to conclude, I would say that that thirst is exprest, +that that thirst is satisfied, not only in moral law and in its +atmosphere, but in one thing more that I think we can all understand. +When we read the New Testament, so simple, so straightforward, so +true, so beautiful, with some difficulties, but no difficulties that a +true heart can find insuperable--when we read the New Testament we are +brought face to face with the teachings of Christ. And there is this, +my friends, more about these teachings, that if you are to follow them +out you have not time enough in time; the teachings of our Master +demand eternity--there is something about them infinite, so simple, so +beautiful, and yet we feel that we are insufficient to fulfil them in +this sphere of time. If my soul is athirst for God, it is athirst for +the fulfilment of those great, splendid, practical teachings which +remind me that I am to begin to learn my lesson in this narrow school, +but that I shall fulfil my achievement in that great land beyond the +grave. Is that enough? No; no, when the heart is lonely; no, when the +sun is setting; no, when the clouds are gathering round us; no, when +the storm is coming up. It is useless for the preacher, if he tries to +be real, to talk about law, or the result of law, or the splendor of +teaching; if we know the human heart in its width and its activity, if +it is to find satisfaction it must find it in a personal life. You +may say you cannot know God. That is the ordinary answer of the human +sinning heart, which in modern times calls itself agnostic. Know God! +Well, of course it is truly said that it is by mere license of speech +when you talk of knowledge about human perceptions--it is wisely said. +You perceive a fact, my friend; you must perceive it in itself, and as +it is, and by an intellect that can infallibly state that it is so +and in that manner. Knowledge like that is impossible, I grant; but +between that scientific knowledge and utter unbelief there are shades, +first of all of assent that shuts out doubt, and at last, at the other +pole, of a doubt that almost shuts out assent. Between the two there +are activities of life, and if you are to say, "I cannot know the +personal God with scientific knowledge," I grant it; but you cannot +know anything, not only in theology, but in politics, or social life, +or moral conduct, or conduct that is not moral--you can know nothing, +you can never act at all, because all our action is not on knowledge, +but on belief, and therefore when we turn to a personal life that is +not perceived by the activity of the senses we only demand that you +are to accept that which it is possible to accept in any sphere of +activity, and which you do accept. It is possible for you, according +to the laws of your being, to accept a personal Christ. "But," you +say--and I must remind you of it as I close--"a personal Christ, +but still clothed in human lineaments, a personal Christ who is +mysterious--how can you accept that?" How can you not? My friends, the +human intellect is so framed that it acts habitually upon ideas that +are true yet indistinct. You act on space, you act on time, you have +infinity, you have in your mouth the word "cause." What do you know +exactly about infinity, or space, or time, or cause? The human +intellect, it is truly said, first by the greatest of the fathers, +then repeated by modern thinkers--the human intellect is so great, +first, that it can take exact ideas, and then, because it is infinite, +that it can act instantly upon ideas that are real but indistinct. +Christ--yes, first He is indistinct yet most real--real because He +entered into history, real because He exprest the idea that is in the +brain and heart of us all; indistinct because these little twenty +centuries have separated us from His actual historic life; but a fact +to those who seek Him, because His power is to make Himself an inward +gift to the human soul, because His activity is such that He meets us +on the altar of His sacred sacrament, that He meets us in the divine +Word to express His thoughts, that He meets us in consolation, that He +meets us in absolution, in moments of sorrow and of prayer. Oh, you +are not driven to a distant infinity! Oh, you are not asked to rest +upon a shadow I Oh, you are not besought to play the dreamer or +the sentimentalist, when you think about God! Oh, you are asked to +remember that fair, sweet vision--the vision of a Man so devoid of +vulgarity, that whilst He loved the people He did not despise the +great--the vision of a Man so strong that He could face a multitude, +so tender that He could raise the lost woman, so gentle that the +little children gathered their arms about His neck; the vision of +a Man at home with fishermen, and at home with the high-born, with +thoughts so deep that they permeate modern Christendom, with thoughts +so simple that they taught truth to ancient Galilee; the vision of a +Man who encouraged youth, the One on whom we rest, by whom we hang, in +whom we hope, who sympathizes with all our best desires, who does not +denounce us, but only intercedes and pities; the Man who never places +Himself upon a Pharisaic pedestal, but feels with the child, with the +boy, with the man, with the woman,--the Man of men, the crown of our +humanity, the God in Man, the Man in God, the power of the sacraments, +the force of prayer, the sweet, dear Friend who never misunderstands +us, never forsakes us, never is hard upon us. My friends, it is your +privilege, it is mine, beyond the privilege of the psalmist, to know +in the gospel, to know in the Church, Christ, God exprest in humanity. +Is your soul athirst for the highest? You may find it if you could +come in repentance, if you come in desire, if you come in quiet +determination to do your duty; you may find it satisfied--yes, now +satisfied--in Christ. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The world's great sermons, Volume 8 +by Grenville Kleiser + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS VOL. 8 *** + +***** This file should be named 11693-8.txt or 11693-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/6/9/11693/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. For example: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11693-8.zip b/old/11693-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..859aea3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11693-8.zip diff --git a/old/11693.txt b/old/11693.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1904456 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11693.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5541 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The world's great sermons, Volume 8, by Grenville Kleiser + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The world's great sermons, Volume 8 + Talmage to Knox Little + +Author: Grenville Kleiser + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11693] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS VOL. 8 *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + +THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS + + +GRENVILLE KLEISER + +Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in +Public," Etc. + +With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other +Theologians + + +INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + +Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University + + +VOLUME VIII TALMAGE TO KNOX LITTLE + +1908 + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME VIII. + + + TALMAGE (1832-1901). + A Bloody Monster + + SPURGEON (1834-1892). + Songs in the Night + + POTTER (1834-1908) + Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks + + ABBOTT (Born in 1835). + The Divinity in Humanity + + BROOKS (1835-1893). + The Pride of Life + + GLADDEST (Born in 1836). + The Prince of Life + + CLIFFORD (Born in 1836). + The Forgiveness of Sins + + MOODY (1837-1899). + What Think Ye of Christ? + + FOWLER (1837-1908). + The Spirit of Christ + + WHYTE (Born in 1837). + Experience + + WATKINSON (Born in 1838). + The Transfigured Sackcloth + + LORIMER (1838-1904). + The Fall of Satan + + LITTLE (Born in 1839). + Thirst Satisfied + + + + +TALMAGE + +A BLOODY MONSTER + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Thomas De Witt Talmage was born at Bound Brook, N.J., in 1832. For +many years he preached to large and enthusiastic congregations at the +Brooklyn Tabernacle. At one time six hundred newspapers regularly +printed his sermons. He was a man of great vitality, optimistic by +nature, and particularly popular with young people. His voice +was rather high and unmusical, but his distinct enunciation and +earnestness of manner gave a peculiar attraction to his pulpit +oratory. His rhetoric has been criticized for floridness and +sensationalism, but his word pictures held multitudes of people +spellbound as in the presence of a master. He died in 1901. + + + + +TALMAGE + +1832--1901 + +A BLOODY MONSTER[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch, and reprinted by +permission.] + +_It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him._--Gen. xxxvii., +33. + + +Joseph's brethren dipt their brother's coat in goat's blood, and then +brought the dabbled garment to their father, cheating him with the +idea that a ferocious animal had slain him, and thus hiding their +infamous behavior. But there is no deception about that which we hold +up to your observation to-day. A monster such as never ranged African +thicket or Hindustan jungle hath tracked this land, and with bloody +maw hath strewn the continent with the mangled carcasses of whole +generations; and there are tens of thousands of fathers and mothers +who could hold up the garment of their slain boy, truthfully +exclaiming, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him." +There has, in all ages and climes, been a tendency to the improper use +of stimulants. Noah took to strong drink. By this vice, Alexander the +Conqueror was conquered. The Romans at their feasts fell off their +seats with intoxication. Four hundred millions of our race are +opium-eaters. India, Turkey, and China have groaned with the +desolation; and by it have been quenched such lights as Halley and De +Quincey. One hundred millions are the victims of the betelnut, which +has specially blasted the East Indies. Three hundred millions chew +hashish, and Persia, Brazil, and Africa suffer the delirium. The +Tartars employ murowa; the Mexicans, the agave; the people at Guarapo, +an intoxicating product taken from sugarcane; while a great multitude, +that no man can number, are the votaries of alcohol. To it they bow. +Under it they are trampled. In its trenches they fall. On its ghastly +holocaust they burn. Could the muster-roll of this great army be +called, and could they come up from the dead, what eye could endure +the reeking, festering putrefaction? What heart could endure the +groan of agony? Drunkenness! Does it not jingle the burglar's +key? Does it not whet the assassin's knife? Does it not cock the +highwayman's pistol? Does it not wave the incendiary's torch? Has it +not sent the physician reeling into the sick-room; and the minister +with his tongue thick into the pulpit? Did not an exquisite poet, from +the very top of his fame, fall a gibbering sot, into the gutter, on +his way to be married to one of the fairest daughters of New England, +and at the very hour the bride was decking herself for the altar; and +did he not die of delirium tremens, almost unattended, in a hospital? +Tamerlane asked for one hundred and sixty thousand skulls with which +to build a pyramid to his own honor. He got the skulls, and built the +pyramid. But if the bones of all those who have fallen as a prey to +dissipation could be piled up, it would make a vaster pyramid. Who +will gird himself for the journey and try with me to scale this +mountain of the dead--going up miles high on human carcasses to find +still other peaks far above, mountain above mountain white with the +bleached bones of drunkards? + +The Sabbath has been sacrificed to the rum traffic. To many of our +people, the best day of the week is the worst. Bakers must keep their +shops closed on the Sabbath. It is dangerous to have loaves of bread +going out on Sunday. The shoe store is closed: severe penalty will +attack the man who sells boots on the Sabbath. But down with the +window-shutters of the grog-shops. Our laws shall confer particular +honor upon the rum-traffickers. All other trades must stand aside for +these. Let our citizens who have disgraced themselves by trading in +clothing and hosiery and hardware and lumber and coal take off their +hats to the rum-seller, elected to particular honor. It is unsafe for +any other class of men to be allowed license for Sunday work. But +swing out your signs, and open your doors, O ye traffickers in the +peace of families and in the souls of immortal men. Let the corks fly +and the beer foam and the rum go tearing down the half-consumed throat +of the inebriate. God does not see! Does He? Judgment will never come! +Will it? + +It may be that God is determined to let drunkenness triumph, and the +husbands and sons of thousands of our best families be destroyed by +this vice, in order that our people, amazed and indignant, may rise up +and demand the extermination of this municipal crime. There is a way +of driving down the hoops of a barrel so tight that they break. We +have, in this country, at various times, tried to regulate this evil +by a tax on whisky. You might as well try to regulate the Asiatic +cholera or the smallpox by taxation. The men who distil liquors are, +for the most part, unscrupulous; and the higher the tax, the more +inducement to illicit distillation. Oh! the folly of trying to +restrain an evil by government tariff! If every gallon of whisky +made--if every flask of wine produced, should be taxed a thousand +dollars, it would not be enough to pay for the tears it has wrung from +the eyes of widows and orphans, nor for the blood it has dashed on +the Christian Church, nor for the catastrophe of the millions it has +destroyed for ever. + +I sketch two houses in one street. The first is bright as home can be. +The father comes at nightfall, and the children run out to meet him. +Bountiful evening meal! Gratulation and sympathy and laughter! Music +in the parlor! Fine pictures on the wall! Costly books on the table! +Well-clad household! Plenty of everything to make home happy! + +House the second! Piano sold, yesterday by the sheriff! Wife's furs at +pawnbroker's shop! Clock gone! Daughter's jewelry sold to get flour! +Carpets gone off the floor! Daughters in faded and patched dresses! +Wife sewing for the stores! Little child with an ugly wound on her +face, struck by an angry blow! Deep shadow of wretchedness falling in +every room! Doorbell rings! Little children hide! Daughters turn pale! +Wife holds her breath! Blundering step in the hall! Door opens! Fiend, +brandishing his fist, cries, "Out! out! What are you doing here?" Did +I call this house second? No; it is the same house. Rum transformed +it. Rum embruted the man. Rum sold the shawl. Rum tore up the carpets. +Rum shook his fist. Rum desolated the hearth. Rum changed that +paradise into a hell. + +I sketch two men that you know very well. The first graduated from one +of our literary institutions. His father, mother, brothers and sisters +were present to see him graduate. They heard the applauding thunders +that greeted his speech. They saw the bouquets tossed to his feet. +They saw the degree conferred and the diploma given. He never looked +so well. Everybody said, "What a noble brow! What a fine eye! What +graceful manners! What brilliant prospects!" + +Man the second: Lies in the station-house. The doctor has just been +sent for to bind up the gashes received in a fight. His hair is matted +and makes him look like a wild beast. His lip is bloody and cut. Who +is this battered and bruised wretch that was picked up by the police +and carried in drunk and foul and bleeding? Did I call him man the +second? He is man the first! Rum transformed him. Rum destroyed his +prospects. Rum disappointed parental expectation. Rum withered those +garlands of commencement day. Rum cut his lip. Rum dashed out his +manhood. Rum, accurst rum! + +This foul thing gives one swing to its scythe, and our best merchants +fall; their stores are sold, and they sink into dishonored graves. +Again it swings its scythe, and some of our physicians fall into +suffering that their wisest prescriptions cannot cure. Again it swings +its scythe, and ministers of the gospel fall from the heights of +Zion, with long resounding crash of ruin and shame. Some of your own +households have already been shaken. Perhaps you can hardly admit it; +but where was your son last night? Where was he Friday night? Where +was he Thursday night? Wednesday night? Tuesday night? Monday night? +Nay, have not some of you in your own bodies felt the power of this +habit? You think that you could stop? Are you sure you could? Go on +a little further, and I am sure you cannot. I think, if some of you +should try to break away, you would find a chain on the right wrist, +and one on the left; one on the right foot, and another on the left. +This serpent does not begin to hurt until it has wound 'round and +'round. Then it begins to tighten and strangle and crush until the +bones crack and the blood trickles and the eyes start from their +sockets, and the mangled wretch cries. "O God! O God! help! help!" But +it is too late; and not even the fires of we can melt the chain when +once it is fully fastened. + +I have shown you the evil beast. The question is, who will hunt him +down, and how shall we shoot him? I answer, first, by getting our +children right on this subject. Let them grow up with an utter +aversion to strong drink. Take care how you administer it even as +medicine. If you must give it to them and you find that they have a +natural love for it, as some have, put in a glass of it some horrid +stuff, and make it utterly nauseous. Teach, them, as faithfully as +you do the truths of the Bible, that rum is a fiend. Take them to the +almshouse, and show them the wreck and ruin it works. Walk with them +into the homes that have been scourged by it. If a drunkard hath +fallen into a ditch, take them right up where they can see his face, +bruised, savage, and swollen, and say, "Look, my son. Rum did that!" +Looking out of your window at some one who, intoxicated to madness, +goes through the street, brandishing his fist, blaspheming God, a +howling, defying, shouting, reeling, raving, and foaming maniac, say +to your son, "Look; that man was once a child like you." As you go by +the grog-shop let them know that that is the place where men are slain +and their wives made paupers and their children slaves. Hold out to +your children warnings, all rewards, all counsels, lest in afterdays +they break your heart and curse your gray hairs. A man laughed at my +father for his scrupulous temperance principles, and said: "I am more +liberal than you. I always give my children the sugar in the glass +after we have been taking a drink." Three of his sons have died +drunkards, and the fourth is imbecile through intemperate habits. + +Again, we will grapple this evil by voting only for sober men. How +many men are there who can rise above the feelings of partizanship, +and demand that our officials shall be sober men? I maintain that the +question of sobriety is higher than the question of availability; and +that, however eminent a man's services may be, if he have habits of +intoxication, he is unfit for any office in the gift of a Christian +people. Our laws will be no better than the men who make them. Spend a +few days at Harrisburg or Albany or Washington and you will find +out why, upon these subjects, it is impossible to get righteous +enactments. + +Again, we will war upon this evil by organized societies. The friends +of the rum traffic have banded together; annually issue their +circulars; raise fabulous sums of money to advance their interests; +and by grips, passwords, signs, and strategems, set at defiance public +morals. Let us confront them with organizations just as secret, +and, if need be, with grips and pass-words and signs, maintain our +position. There is no need that our beneficent societies tell all +their plans. I am in favor of all lawful strategy in the carrying on +of this conflict. I wish to God we could lay under the wine-casks a +train which, once ignited, would shake the earth with the explosion of +this monstrous iniquity! + +Again, we will try the power of the pledge. There are thousands of men +who have been saved by putting their names to such a document. I know +it is laughed at; but there are some men who, having once promised a +thing, do it. "Some have broken the pledge." Yes; they were liars. But +all men are not liars. I do not say that it is the duty of all persons +to make such signature; but I do say that it would be the salvation +of many of you. The glorious work of Theobald Mathew can never be +estimated. At this hand four millions of people took the pledge, and +multitudes in Ireland, England, Scotland, and America, have kept +it till this day. The pledge signed has been to thousands the +proclamation of emancipation. + +Again, we expect great things from asylums for inebriates. They have +already done a glorious work. I think that we are coming at last to +treat inebriation as it ought to be treated, namely, as an awful +disease, self-inflicted, to be sure, but nevertheless a disease. Once +fastened upon a man, sermons will not cure him, temperance lectures +will not eradicate it; religious tracts will not remove it; the Gospel +of Christ will not arrest it. Once under the power of this awful +thirst, the man is bound to go on; and, if the foaming glass were on +the other side of perdition, he would wade through the fires of +hell to get it. A young man in prison had such a strong thirst for +intoxicating liquors that he had cut off his hand at the wrist, called +for a bowl of brandy in order to stop the bleeding, thrust his wrist +into the bowl, and then drank the contents. Stand not, when the thirst +is on him, between a man and his cups. Clear the track for him. Away +with the children! he would tread their life out. Away with the wife! +he would dash her to death. Away with the cross! he would run it down. +Away with the Bible! he would tear it up for the winds. Away with +heaven! he considers it worthless as a straw. "Give me the drink! +Give it to me! Tho the hands of blood pass up the bowl, and the soul +trembles over the pit--the drink! Give it to me! Tho it be pale with +tears; tho the froth of everlasting anguish float on the foam--give it +to me! I drink to my wife's wo to my children's rags; to my eternal +banishment from God and hope and heaven! Give it to me! the drink!" + +Again, we will contend against these evils by trying to persuade +the respectable classes of society to the banishment of alcoholic +beverages. You who move in elegant and refined associations; you +who drink the best liquors; you who never drink until you lose your +balance, let us look at each other in the face on this subject. You +have, under God, in your power the redemption of this land from +drunkenness. Empty your cellars and wine-closets of the beverage, and +then come out and give us your hand, your vote, your prayers, your +sympathies. Do that, and I will promise three things: first, that you +will find unspeakable happiness in having done your duty; secondly, +you will probably save somebody--perhaps your own child; thirdly, +you will not, in your last hour, have a regret that you made +the sacrifice, if sacrifice it be. As long as you make drinking +respectable, drinking customs will prevail, and the plowshare of +death, drawn by terrible disasters, will go on turning up this whole +continent, from end to end, with the long, deep, awful furrow of +drunkards' graves. + +This rum fiend would like to go and hang up a skeleton in your +beautiful house, so that, when you opened the front door to go in, you +would see it in the hall; and when you sat at your table you would see +it hanging from the wall; and, when you opened your bedroom you would +find it stretched upon your pillow; and, waking at night, you would +feel its cold hand passing over your face and pinching at your heart. +There is no home so beautiful but it may be devastated by the awful +curse. It throws its jargon into the sweetest harmony. What was it +that silenced Sheridan, the English orator, and shattered the golden +scepter with which he swayed parliaments and courts? What foul sprite +turned the sweet rhythm of Robert Burns into a tuneless babble? What +was it that swamped the noble spirit of one of the heroes of the last +war, until, in a drunken fit, he reeled from the deck of a Western +steamer, and was drowned. There was one whose voice we all loved to +hear. He was one of the most classic orators of the century. People +wondered why a man of so pure a heart and so excellent a life should +have such a sad countenance always. They knew not that his wife was a +sot. + +I call upon those who are guilty of these indulgences to quit the path +of death! Oh! what a change it would make in your home! Do you see how +everything there is being desolated? Would you not like to bring back +joy to your wife's heart, and have your children come out to meet you +with as much confidence as once they showed? Would you not like to +rekindle the home-lights that long ago were extinguished? It is not +too late to change. It may not entirely obliterate from your soul the +memory of wasted years and a ruined reputation, nor smooth out from +your anxious brow the wrinkles which trouble has plowed. It may not +call back unkind words uttered or rough deeds done; for perhaps in +those awful moments you struck her! It may not take from your memory +the bitter thoughts connected with some little grave. But it is not +too late to save yourself, and secure for God and your family the +remainder of your fast-going life. + +But perhaps you have not utterly gone astray. I may address one who +may not have quite made up his mind. Let your better nature speak out. +You take one side or other in war against drunkenness. Have you the +courage to put your foot down right, and say to your companions and +friends, "I will never drink intoxicating liquor in all my life; nor +will I countenance the habit in others"? Have nothing to do with +strong drink. It has turned the earth into a place of skulls, and has +stood opening the gate to a lost world to let in its victims; until +now the door swings no more upon its hinges, but, day and night, +stands wide open to let in the agonized procession of doomed men. + +Do I address one whose regular work in life is to administer to +this appetite? For God's sake get out of that business! If a we be +pronounced upon the man who gives his neighbor drink, how many woes +must be hanging over the man who does this every day and every hour of +the day! + +Do not think that because human government may license you that +therefore God licenses you. I am surprized to hear men say that they +respect the "original package" decision by which the Supreme Court +of the United States allows rum to be taken into States like Kansas, +which decided against the sale of intoxicants. I have no respect for +a wrong decision, I care not who makes it; the three judges of the +Supreme Court who gave minority report against that decision were +right, and the chief justice was wrong. The right of a State to defend +itself against the rum traffic will yet be demonstrated, the Supreme +Court notwithstanding. Higher than the judicial bench at Washington is +the throne of the Lord God Almighty. No enactment, national, State, or +municipal, can give you the right to carry on a business whose effect +is destruction. + +God knows better than you do yourself the number of drinks you have +poured down. You keep a list; but a more accurate list has been kept +than yours. You may call it Burgundy, Bourbon, cognac, Heidsieck, sour +mash, or beer. God calls it "strong-drink." Whether you sell it in low +oyster-cellar or behind the polished counter of a first-class hotel, +the divine curse is upon you. I tell you plainly that you will meet +your customers one day when there will be no counter between you. When +your work is done on earth, and you enter the reward of your business, +all the souls of the men whom you have destroyed will crowd around +you, and pour their bitterness into your cup. They will show you their +wounds and say, "You made them"; and point to their unquenchable +thirst and say, "You kindled it"; and rattle their chain and say, "You +forged it." Then their united groans will smite your ear; and with the +hands out of which you once picked the sixpences and the dimes they +will push you off the verge of great precipices; while rolling up from +beneath, and breaking away among the crags of death, will thunder, "Wo +to him that giveth his neighbor drink!" + + + + +SPURGEON + +SONGS IN THE NIGHT + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, Essex, England, in 1834. +He was one of the most powerful and popular preachers of his time, +and his extraordinary force of character and wonderful enthusiasm +attracted vast audiences. His voice was unusually powerful, clear and +melodious, and he used it with consummate skill. In the preparation of +his sermons he meditated much but wrote not a word, so that he was +in the truest sense a purely extemporaneous speaker. Sincerity, +intensity, imagination and humor, he had in preeminent degree, and +an English style that has been described as "a long bright river of +silver speech which unwound, evenly and endlessly, like a ribbon +from a revolving spool that could fill itself as fast as it emptied +itself." Thirty-eight volumes of his sermons were issued in his +lifetime and are still in increasing demand. Dr. Robertson Nicoll +says: "Our children will think more of these sermons than we do; and +as I get older I read them more and more." He died in 1892. + + + + +SPURGEON + +1834--1892 + +SONGS IN THE NIGHT + +_But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the +night_?--Job xxxv., 10. + + +Elihu was a wise man, exceeding wise, tho not as wise as the all-wise +Jehovah, who sees light in the clouds, and finds order in confusion; +hence Elihu, being much puzzled at beholding Job thus afflicted, cast +about him to find the cause of it, and he very wisely hit upon one of +the most likely reasons, altho it did not happen to be the right one +in Job's case. He said within himself--"Surely, if men be tried and +troubled exceedingly, it is because, while they think about their +troubles and distress themselves about their fears, they do not say, +'Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?'" Elihu's +reason was right in the majority of cases. The great cause of the +Christian's distress, the reason of the depths of sorrow into which +many believers are plunged, is this--that while they are looking +about, on the right hand and on the left, to see how they may escape +their troubles, they forget to look to the hills whence all real help +cometh; they do not say, "Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in +the night?" We shall, however, leave that inquiry, and dwell upon +those sweet words, "God my maker, who giveth songs in the night." + +The world hath its night. It seemeth necessary that it should have +one. The sun shineth by day, and men go forth to their labors; but +they grow weary, and nightfall cometh on, like a sweet boon from +heaven. The darkness draweth the curtains, and shutteth out the light, +which might prevent our eyes from slumber; while the sweet, calm +stillness of the night permits us to rest upon the lap of ease, and +there forget awhile our cares, until the morning sun appeareth, and +an angel puts his hand upon the curtain, and undraws it once again, +touches our eyelids, and bids us rise, and proceed to the labors of +the day. Night is one of the greatest blessings men enjoy; we have +many reasons to thank God for it. Yet night is to many a gloomy +season. There is "the pestilence that walketh in darkness"; there +is "the terror by night"; there is the dread of robbers and of fell +disease, with all those fears that the timorous know, when they have +no light wherewith they can discern objects. It is then they fancy +that spiritual creatures walk the earth; tho, if they knew rightly, +they would find it to be true, that + + "Millions of spiritual creatures walk this earth, + Unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake," + +and that at all times they are round about us--not more by night than +by day. Night is the season of terror and alarm to most men. Yet even +night hath its songs. Have you never stood by the seaside at night, +and heard the pebbles sing, and the waves chant God's glories? Or have +you never risen from your couch, and thrown up the window of your +chamber, and listened there? Listened to what? Silence--save now and +then a murmuring sound, which seems sweet music then. And have you not +fancied that you heard the harp of God playing in heaven? Did you not +conceive, that yon stars, that those eyes of God, looking down on you, +were also mouths of song--that every star was singing God's glory, +singing, as it shone, its mighty Maker, and His lawful, well-deserved +praise? Night hath its songs. We need not much poetry in our spirit, +to catch the song of night, and hear the spheres as they chant praises +which are loud to the heart, tho they be silent to the ear--the +praises of the mighty God, who bears up the unpillared arch of heaven, +and moves the stars in their courses.... + +If we are going to sing of the things of yesterday, let us begin with +what God did for us in past times. My beloved brethren, you will find +it a sweet subject for song at times, to begin to sing of electing +love and covenanted mercies. When thou thyself art low, it is well to +sing of the fountain-head of mercy; of that blest decree wherein thou +wast ordained to eternal life, and of that glorious Man who undertook +thy redemption; of that solemn covenant signed, and sealed, and +ratified, in all things ordered well; of that everlasting love which, +ere the hoary mountains were begotten, or ere the aged hills were +children, chose thee, loved thee firmly, loved thee fast, loved thee +well, loved thee eternally. I tell thee, believer, if thou canst go +back to the years of eternity; if thou canst in thy mind run back +to that period, or ere the everlasting hills were fashioned, or the +fountains of the great deep scooped out, and if thou canst see thy +God inscribing thy name in His eternal book; if thou canst see in His +loving heart eternal thoughts of love to thee, thou wilt find this a +charming means of giving thee songs in the night. No songs like those +which come from electing love; no sonnets like those that are dictated +by meditations on discriminating mercy. Some, indeed, cannot sing of +election: the Lord open their mouths a little wider! Some there are +that are afraid of the very term; but we only despise men who are +afraid of what they believe, afraid of what God has taught them in His +Bible. No, in our darker hours it is our joy to sing: + + "Sons we are through God's election, + Who in Jesus Christ believe; + By eternal destination, + Sovereign grace we now receive. + Lord, thy favor, + Shall both grace and glory give." + +Think, Christian, of the yesterday, I say, and thou wilt get a song +in the night. But if thou hast not a voice tuned to so high a key as +that, let me suggest some other mercies thou mayest sing of; and they +are the mercies thou hast experienced. What! man, canst thou not sing +a little of that blest hour when Jesus met thee; when, a blind slave, +thou wast sporting with death, and He saw thee, and said: "Come, poor +slave, come with me"? Canst thou not sing of that rapturous moment +when He snapt thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said: +"I am the Breaker; I came to break thy chains, and set thee free"? +What tho thou art ever so gloomy now, canst thou forget that happy +morning, when in the house of God thy voice was loud, almost as a +seraph's voice, in praise? for thou couldst sing: "I am forgiven; I am +forgiven": + + "A monument of grace, + A sinner saved by blood." + +Go back, man; sing of that moment, and then thou wilt have a song in +the night? Or if thou hast almost forgotten that, then sure thou hast +some precious milestone along the road of life that is not quite grown +over with moss, on which thou canst read some happy inspiration of His +mercy toward thee! What! didst thou never have a sickness like that +which thou art suffering now, and did He not raise thee up from that? +Wast thou never poor before, and did He not supply thy wants? Wast +thou never in straits before, and did He not deliver thee? Come, man! +I beseech thee, go to the river of thine experience, and pull up a few +bulrushes, and weave them into an ark, wherein thy infant faith may +float safely on the stream. I bid thee not forget what God hath done. +What! hast thou buried thine own diary? I beseech thee, man, turn over +the book of thy remembrance. Canst thou not see some sweet hill Mizar? +Canst thou not think of some blest hour when the Lord met with thee at +Hermon? Hast thou never been on the Delectable Mountains? Hast thou +never been fetched from the den of lions? Hast thou never escaped the +jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear? Nay, O man, I know thou hast; +go back, then, a little way, and take the mercies of yesterday; and +tho it is dark now, light up the lamps of yesterday, and they shall +glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt find that God hath given +thee a song in the night. + +But I think, beloved, there is never so dark a night, but there is +something to sing about, even concerning that night; for there is one +thing I am sure we can sing about, let the night be ever so dark, and +that is, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, and +because His compassions fail not." If we cannot sing very loud, yet we +can sing a little low tune, something like this--"He hath not dealt +with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." + +"Oh!" says one, "I do not know where to get my dinner from to-morrow. +I am a poor wretch." So you may be, my dear friend; but you are not so +poor as you deserve to be. Do not be mightily offended about that; if +you are, you are no child of God; for the child of God acknowledges +that he has no right to the least of God's mercies, but that they come +through the channel of grace alone. As long as I am out of hell, I +have no right to grumble; and if I were in hell I should have no right +to complain, for I feel, when convinced of sin, that never creature +deserved to go there more than I do. We have no cause to murmur; +we can lift up our hands, and say, "Night! thou art dark, but thou +mightst have been darker. I am poor, but, if I could not have been +poorer, I might have been sick. I am poor and sick--well, I have some +friend left, my lot cannot be so bad, but it might have been worse." +And therefore, Christian, you will always have one thing to sing +about--"Lord, I thank Thee, it is not all darkness!" Besides, +Christian, however dark the night is, there is always a star or moon. +There is scarce ever a night that we have, but there are just one or +two little lamps burning up there. However dark it may be, I think you +may find some little comfort, some little joy, some little mercy left, +and some little promise to cheer thy spirit. The stars are not put +out, are they? Nay, if thou canst not see them, they are there; but +methinks one or two must be shining on thee; therefore give God a song +in the night. If thou hast only one star, bless God for that one, +perhaps He will make it two; and if thou hast only two stars, bless +God for the two stars, and perhaps He will make them four. Try, then, +if thou canst not find a song in the night. + +But, beloved, there is another thing of which we can sing yet more +sweetly; and that is, we can sing of the day that is to come. I am +preaching to-night for the poor weavers of Spitalfields. Perhaps there +are not to be found a class of men in London who are suffering +a darker night than they are; for while many classes have been +befriended and defended, there are few who speak up for them, and (if +I am rightly informed) they are generally ground down within an inch +of their lives. I suppose that their masters intend that their bread +shall be very sweet, on the principle, that the nearer the ground, the +sweeter the grass; for I should think that no people have their grass +so near the ground as the weavers of Spitalfields. In an inquiry by +the House of Commons last week, it was given in evidence that their +average wages amount to seven or eight shillings a week; and that +they have to furnish themselves with a room, and work at expensive +articles, which my friends and ladies are wearing now, and which they +buy as cheaply as possible; but perhaps they do not know that they are +made with the blood and bones and marrow of the Spitalfields weavers, +who, many of them, work for less than man ought to have to subsist +upon. Some of them waited upon me the other day; I was exceedingly +pleased with one of them. He said, "Well, sir, it is very hard, but I +hope there is better times coming for us." "Well, my friend," I said, +"I am afraid you cannot hope for much better times, unless the Lord +Jesus Christ comes a second time." "That is just what we hope for," +said he. "We do not see there is any chance of deliverance, unless the +Lord Jesus Christ comes to establish His kingdom upon the earth; and +then He will judge the opprest, and break the oppressors in pieces +with an iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." I +was glad my friend had got a song in the night, and was singing about +the morning that was coming. Often do I cheer myself with the thought +of the coming of the Lord. We preach now, perhaps, with little +success; "the kingdoms of this world" are not "become the kingdoms of +our Lord and of his Christ"; we send out missionaries; they are for +the most part unsuccessful. We are laboring, but we do not see the +fruits of our labors. Well, what then? Try a little while; we shall +not always labor in vain, or spend our strength for naught. A day is +coming, and now is, when every minister of Christ shall speak with +unction, when all the servants of God shall preach with power, and +when colossal systems of heathenism shall be scattered to the winds. +The shout shall be heard, "Alleluia! Alleluia! the Lord God Omnipotent +reigneth." For that day do I look; it is to the bright horizon of that +second coming that I turn my eyes. My anxious expectation is, that the +sweet Sun of righteousness will arise with healing beneath His wings, +that the opprest shall be righted, that despotisms shall be cut down, +that liberty shall be established, that peace shall be made lasting, +and that the glorious liberty of the gospel shall be extended +throughout the known world. Christian! if thou art in a night, think +of the morrow; cheer up thy heart with the thought of the coming of +thy Lord. + +There is another sweet to-morrow of which we hope to sing in the +night. Soon, beloved, you and I shall lie on our dying bed, and we +shall want a song in the night then; and I do not know where we shall +get it, if we do not get it from the to-morrow. Kneeling by the bed of +an apparently dying saint, last night, I said, "Well, sister, He has +been precious to you; you can rejoice in His covenant mercies, and His +past loving-kindnesses." She put out her hand, and said, "Ah! sir, do +not talk about them now; I want the sinner's Savior as much now as +ever; it is not a saint's I want; it is still a sinner's Savior that +I am in need of, for I am a sinner still." I found that I could not +comfort her with the past; so I reminded her of the golden streets, of +the gates of pearl, of the walls of jasper, of the harps of gold, of +the songs of bliss; and then her eyes glistened; she said, "Yes, I +shall be there soon; I shall meet them by-and-by;" and then she +seemed so glad! Ah! believer, you may always cheer yourself with that +thought. Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it +shall wear a starry crown directly; thy hand may be filled with +cares--it shall grasp a harp soon, a harp full of music. Thy garments +may be soiled with dust now; they shall be white by-and-by. Wait a +little longer. Ah! beloved, how despicable our troubles and trials +will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the +prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven, we shall then, + + "With transporting joys recount + The labors of our feet." + +Our trials will seem to us nothing at all. We shall talk to one +another about them in heaven, and find all the more to converse +about, according as we have suffered more here below. Let us go on, +therefore; and if the night be ever so dark, remember there is not a +night that shall not have a morning; and that morning is to come by +and by. + +And now I want to tell you, very briefly, what are the excellences of +songs in the night above all other songs. + +In the first place, when you hear a man singing a song in the night--I +mean in the night of trouble--you may be quite sure it is a hearty +one. Many of you sang very prettily just now, didn't you? I wonder +whether you would sing very prettily, if there was a stake or two in +Smithfield for all of you who dared to do it? If you sang under pain +and penalty, that would show your heart to be in your song. We can all +sing very nicely indeed when everybody else sings. It is the easiest +thing in the world to open your mouth, and let the words come out; but +when the devil puts his hand over your mouth, can you sing then? Can +you say, "Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in him"? That is hearty +singing; that is real song that springs up in the night. The +nightingale singeth most sweetly because she singeth in the night. We +know a poet has said that, if she sang by day, she might be thought to +sing no more sweetly than the wren. It is the stillness of the night +that makes her song sweet. And so doth a Christian's song become sweet +and hearty, because it is in the night. + +Again: the songs we sing in the night will be lasting. Many songs we +hear our fellow-creatures singing in the streets will not do to sing +by-and-by; I guess they will sing a different kind of tune soon. They +can sing nowadays any rollicking, drinking songs; but they will not +sing them when they come to die; they are not exactly the songs with +which to cross Jordan's billows. It will not do to sing one of those +light songs when death and you are having the last tug. It will not do +to enter heaven singing one of those unchaste, unholy sonnets. No; but +the Christian who can sing in the night will not have to leave off +his song; he may keep on singing it forever. He may put his foot in +Jordan's stream, and continue his melody; he may wade through it, and +keep on singing still, and land himself safe in heaven; and when he is +there, there need not be a gap in his strain, but in a nobler, sweeter +strain he may still continue singing His power to save. There are a +great many of you that think Christian people are a very miserable +set, don't you? You say, "Let me sing my song." Ay, but, my dear +friends, we like to sing a song that will last; we don't like your +songs; they are all froth, like bubbles on the beaker, and they will +soon die away and be lost. Give me a song that will last; give me one +that will not melt. Oh, give me not the dreamster's gold! he hoards it +up, and says, "I'm rich"; and when he waketh, his gold is gone. But +give me songs in the night, for they are songs I sing forever. + +Again: the songs we warble in the night are those that show we have +real faith in. God. Many men have just enough faith to trust God as +far as they can see Him, and they always sing as far as they can see +providence go right; but true faith can sing when its possessors +cannot see. It can take hold of God when they cannot discern Him. + +Songs in the night, too, prove that we have true courage. Many sing by +day who are silent by night; they are afraid of thieves and robbers; +but the Christian who sings in the night proves himself to be a +courageous character. It is the bold Christian who can sing God's +sonnets in the darkness. + +He who can sing songs in the night, too, proves that he has true love +to Christ. It is not love to Christ to praise Him while everybody else +praises Him; to walk arm in arm with Him when He has the crown on +His head is no great deed, I wot; to walk with Christ in rags is +something. To believe in Christ when He is shrouded in darkness, to +stick hard and fast by the Savior when all men speak ill of Him and +forsake Him--that is true faith. He who singeth a song to Christ in +the night, singeth the best song in all the world; for He singeth from +the heart. + +I am afraid of wearying you; therefore I shall not dwell on the +excellences of night songs, but just, in the last place, show you +their use. + +It is very useful to sing in the night of our troubles, first, because +it will cheer ourselves. When you were boys living in the country, and +had some distance to go alone at night, don't you remember how you +whistled and sang to keep your courage up? Well, what we do in the +natural world we ought to do in the spiritual. There is nothing like +singing to keep your spirits alive. When we have been in trouble, +we have often thought ourselves to be well-nigh overwhelmed with +difficulty; and we have said, "Let us have a song." We have begun to +sing; and Martin Luther says, "The devil cannot bear singing." That is +about the truth; he does not like music. It was so in Saul's days: an +evil spirit rested on Saul; but when David played on his harp, the +evil spirit went away from him. This is usually the case: if we can +begin to sing we shall remove our fears. I like to hear servants +sometimes humming a tune at their work; I love to hear a plowman in +the country singing as he goes along with his horses. Why not? You say +he has no time to praise God; but he can sing a song--surely he can +sing a Psalm, it will take no more time. Singing is the best thing to +purge ourselves of evil thoughts. Keep your mouth full of songs, and +you will often keep your heart full of praises; keep on singing as +long as you can; you will find it a good method of driving away your +fears. + +Sing, again, for another reason: because it will cheer your +companions. If any of them are in the valley and in the darkness with +you, it will be a great help to comfort them. John Bunyan tells us, +that as Christian was going through the valley he found it a dreadful +dark place, and terrible demons and goblins were all about him, and +poor Christian thought he must perish for certain; but just when his +doubts were the strongest, he heard a sweet voice; he listened to it, +and he heard a man in front of him saying, "Yea, when I pass through +the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Now, that man +did not know who was near him, but he was unwittingly singing to cheer +a man behind. Christian, when you are in trouble, sing; you do not +know who is near you. Sing, perhaps you will get a companion by it. +Sing! perhaps there will be many a heart cheered by your song. There +is some broken spirit, it may be, that will be bound up by your +sonnets. Sing! there is some poor distrest brother, perhaps, shut up +in the Castle of Despair, who, like King Richard, will hear your song +inside the walls, and sing to you again, and you may be the means of +getting him a ransom. Sing, Christian, wherever you go; try, if you +can, to wash your face every morning in a bath of praise. When you go +down from your chamber, never go to look on man till you have first +looked on your God; and when you have looked on Him, seek to come down +with a face beaming with joy; carry a smile, for you will cheer up +many a poor way-worn pilgrim by it. + +One more reason; and I know it will be a good one for you. Try and +sing in the night, Christian, for that is one of the best arguments in +all the world in favor of your religion. Our divines nowadays spend a +great deal of time in trying to prove Christianity against those who +disbelieve it. I should like to have seen Paul trying that! Elymas the +sorcerer withstood him: how did our friend Paul treat him? He said, +"Oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, +thou enemy of the righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the +right ways of the Lord?" That is about the politeness such men ought +to have who deny God's truth. "We start with this assumption: we will +prove that the Bible is God's word, but we are not going to prove +God's word. If you do not like to believe it, we will shake hands, and +bid you good-by; we will not argue with you. The gospel has gained +little by discussion. The greatest piece of folly on earth has been +to send a man round the country, to follow another up who has been +lecturing on infidelity just to make himself notorious. + +Why, let them lecture on; this is a free country; why should we +follow them about? The truth will win the day. Christianity need not +wish for controversy; it is strong enough for it, if it wishes it; but +that is not God's way. + +God's direction is, "Preach, teach, dogmatize." Do not stand +disputing; claim a divine mission; tell men that God says it, and +there leave it. Say to them, "He that believeth shall be saved, and he +that believeth not shall be damned"; and when you have done that, +you have done enough. For what reason should our missionaries stand +disputing with Brahmins? Why should they be wasting their time +by attempting to refute first this dogma, and then another, of +heathenism? Why not just go and say, "The God whom ye ignorantly +worship, I declare unto you; believe me, and you will be saved; +believe me not, and the Bible says you are lost." And then, having +thus asserted God's word, say, "I leave it, I declare it unto you; it +is a thing for you to believe, not a thing for you to reason about." + +Religion is not a thing merely for your intellect; a thing to prove +your own talent upon, by making a syllogism on it; it is a thing that +demands your faith. As a messenger of heaven, I demand that faith; if +you do not choose to give it, on your own head be the doom, if there +be such, if there be not, you are prepared to risk it. But I have done +my duty; I have told you the truth; that is enough, and there I leave +it. Oh, Christian, instead of disputing, let me tell thee how to prove +your religion. Live it out! + +Live it out! Give the external as well as the internal evidence; give +the external evidence of your own life. You are sick; there is your +neighbor who laughs at religion; let him come into your house. When +he was sick, he said, "Oh, send for the doctor"; and there he was +fretting, and fuming, and whining, and making all manner of noises. +When you are sick, send for him, tell him that you are resigned to the +Lord's will; that you will kiss the chastening rod; that you will take +the cup, and drink it, because your Father gives it. + +You do not need to make a boast of this, or it will lose all its +power; but do it because you cannot help doing it. Your neighbor will +say, "There is something in that." And when you come to the borders of +the grave--he was there once, and you heard how he shrieked, and how +frightened he was--give him your hand, and say to him, "Ah! I have a +Christ that will do to die by; I have a religion that will make me +sing in the night." Let me hear how you can sing, "Victory, victory, +victory!" through Him that loved you. I tell you, we may preach fifty +thousand sermons to prove the gospel, but we shall not prove it half +so well as you will through singing in the night. Keep a cheerful +frame; keep a happy heart; keep a contented spirit; keep your eye up, +and your heart aloft, and you prove Christianity better than all the +Butlers, and all the wise men that ever lived. Give them the analogy +of a holy life, and then you will prove religion to them; give them, +the evidence of internal piety, developed externally, and you will +give the best possible proof of Christianity. + + + + +POTTER + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON PHILLIPS BROOKS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Henry Codman Potter was born at Schenectady, New York, in 1834, and +was graduated from the Theological Seminary of Virginia in 1857. He +was appointed rector of Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, New York, +in 1868, and was coadjutor to his uncle, Horatio Potter, from 1883 +to 1887, when he was made Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He won +considerable distinction as a clear-cut and eloquent speaker. He +dealt in pulpit and on platform, with many public questions, such as +temperance, capital and labor, civic righteousness, and the purifying +of East Side slum life. He advocated personal freedom, and invariably +spoke with authority. He was particularly happy as an after-dinner +speaker. He died in 1908. + + + + +POTTER + +1834--1908 + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON PHILLIPS BROOKS[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of Bishop Henry C. Potter and The +Century Company, publishers of "The Scholar and the State."] + +_It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the +words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life_.--John +vi., 63. + + +He who stops over-long in the mere mechanism of religion is verily +missing that for which religion stands. Here, indeed, it must be owned +is, if not our greatest danger, one of the greatest. All life is full +of that strange want of intellectual and moral perspective which fails +to see how secondary, after all, are means to ends; and how he only +has truly apprehended the office of religion who has learned, when +undertaking in any wise to present it or represent it, to hold fast +to that which is the one central thought and fact of all: "It is the +spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." + +And this brings me--in how real and vivid a way I am sure you must +feel as keenly as I--face to face with him of whom I am set to speak +to-day. + +Never before in the history, not only of our communion, but of any or +all communions, has the departure of a religious teacher been more +widely noted and deplored than in the case of him of whom this +Commonwealth and this diocese have been bereaved. Never before, +surely, in case of any man whom we can recall, has the sense of loss +and bereavement been more distinctly a personal one,--extending to +multitudes in two hemispheres who did not know him, who had never seen +or heard him, and yet to whom he had revealed himself in such real and +helpful ways. + +It has followed, inevitably, from this, that that strong tide of +profound feeling has found expression in many and most unusual +forms, and it will be among the most interesting tasks of the future +biographer of the late Bishop of Massachusetts to take note of these +various memorials and to trace in them the secret of his unique power +and influence. + +But just because they have, so many of them, in such remarkable +variety and from sources so diverse, been written or spoken, and no +less because a memoir of Phillips Brooks is already undertaken by +hands preeminently designated for that purpose, I may wisely here +confine myself to another and very different task. I shall not +attempt, therefore, even the merest outline of a biographical review. +I shall not undertake to analyze, nor, save incidentally, even to +refer to, the influences and inheritances that wrought in the mind +and upon the life of your late friend and teacher. I shall still less +attempt to discover the open secret of his rare and unique charm and +attractiveness as a man; and I shall least of all endeavor to forecast +the place which history will give to him among the leaders and +builders of our age. Brief as was his ministry in his higher office, +and to our view all too soon ended, I shall be content to speak of him +as a bishop,--of his divine right, as I profoundly believe, to a place +in the episcopate, and of the preeminent value of his distinctive and +incomparable witness to the highest aim and purpose of that office. + +And first of all let me say a word in regard to the way in which he +came to it. When chosen to the episcopate of this diocese, your late +bishop had already, at least once, as we all know, declined the +office. It was well known to those who knew him best that, as he had +viewed it for a large part of his ministry, it was a work for which +he had no especial sympathy either as to its tasks, or, as he had +understood them, its opportunities. + +But the time undoubtedly came when, as to this, he modified his +earlier opinions; and the time came too, as I am most glad to think, +when he was led to feel that if he were called to such an office he +might find in it an opportunity for widening his own sympathies and +for estimating more justly those with whom previously he had believed +himself to have little in common. + +It was the inevitable condition of his strong and deep convictions +that he should not always or easily understand or make due allowance +for men of different opinions. It was--God and you will bear me +witness that this is true!--one of the noblest characteristics of his +fifteen months' episcopate that, as a bishop, men's rightful liberty +of opinion found in him not only a large and generous tolerance, but +a most beautiful and gracious acceptance. He seized, instantly and +easily, that which will be forever the highest conception of the +episcopate in its relations whether to the clergy or the laity, its +paternal and fraternal character; and his "sweet reasonableness," both +as a father and as a brother, shone through all that he was and did. + +For one, I greatly love to remember this,--that when the time came he +himself, with the simple naturalness which marked all that he did, +was brought to reconsider his earlier attitude toward the episcopal +office, and to express with characteristic candor his readiness to +take up its work if he should be chosen to it; he turned to his new, +and to him most strange, task with a supreme desire to do it in a +loving and whole-hearted way, and to make it helpful to every man, +woman, and child with whom he came in contact. What could have been +more like him than that, in that last address which he delivered to +the choir-boys at Newton, he should have said to them, "When you meet +me let me know that you know me." Another might easily have been +misunderstood in asking those whom he might by chance encounter to +salute him; but he knew, and the boys knew, what he had in mind,--how +he and they were all striving to serve one Master, and how each--he +most surely as much as they--was to gain strength and cheer from +mutual recognition in the spirit of a common brotherhood. + +And thus it was always; and this it was that allied itself so +naturally to that which was his never-ceasing endeavor--to lift all +men everywhere to that which was, with him, the highest conception of +his office, whether as a preacher or as a bishop,--the conception of +God as a Father, and of the brotherhood of all men as mutually related +in Him. + +In an address which he delivered during the last General Convention +in Baltimore to the students of Johns Hopkins University, he spoke +substantially these words: + + "In trying to win a man to a better life, show him not the + evil but the nobleness of his nature. Lead him to enthusiastic + contemplations of humanity;" + +in its perfection, and when he asks, 'Why, if this is so, do not I +have this life?'--then project on the background of his enthusiasm his +own life; say to him, 'Because you are a liar, because you blind your +soul with licentiousness, shame is born,--but not a shame of despair. +It is soon changed to joy. Christianity becomes an opportunity, a high +privilege, the means of attaining to the most exalted ideal--and the +only means.' + +"Herein must lie all real power; herein lay Christ's power, that he +appreciated the beauty and richness of humanity, that it is very near +the Infinite, very near to God. These two facts--we are the children +of God, and God is our Father--make us look very differently at +ourselves, very differently at our neighbors, very differently at God. +We should be surprized, not at our good deeds, but at our bad ones. +We should expect good as more likely to occur than evil; we should +believe that our best moments are our truest. I was once talking with +an acquaintance about whose religious position I knew nothing, and he +exprest a very hopeful opinion in regard to a matter about which I was +myself very doubtful. + +"'Why, I said to him, 'You are an optimist.' + +"'Of course I am an optimist,' he replied, because I am a Christian.' + +"I felt that as a reproof. The Christian must be an optimist." + +Men and brethren, I set these words over against those of his Master +with which I began, and the two in essence are one. "The words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." There is a life +nobler and diviner than any that we have dreamed of. To the poorest +and meanest of us, as to the best and most richly-dowered, it is alike +open. To turn toward it, to reach up after it, to believe in its +ever-recurring nearness, and to glorify God in attaining to it, this +is the calling of a human soul. + +Now then, what, I ask you, is all the rest of religion worth in +comparison with this?--not what is it worth in itself, but what is its +place relatively to this? This, I maintain, is the supreme question +for the episcopate, as it ought to be the supreme question with the +ministry of any and every order. And therefore it is, I affirm, that, +in bringing into the episcopate with such unique vividness and power +this conception of his office, your bishop rendered to his order and +to the Church of God everywhere a service so transcendent. A most +gifted and sympathetic observer of our departed brother's character +and influence has said of him, contrasting him with the power of +institution, "His life will always suggest the importance of the +influence of the individual man as compared with institutional +Christianity." + +In one sense, undoubtedly, this is true; but I should prefer to say +that his life-work will always show the large and helpful influence of +a great soul upon institutional Christianity. It is a superficial +and unphilosophical temperament that disparages institutions; for +institutions are only another name for that organized force and life +by which God rules the world. But it is undoubtedly and profoundly +true that you no sooner have an institution, whether in society, in +politics, or in religion, than you are threatened with the danger +that the institution may first exaggerate itself and then harden +and stiffen into a machine; and that in the realm of religion, +preeminently, those whose office it should be to quicken and infuse it +with new life should themselves come at last to "worship the net and +the drag." And just here you find in the history of religion in all +ages the place of the prophet and the seer. He is to pierce through +the fabric of the visible structure to that soul of things for which +it stands. When, in Isaiah, the Holy Ghost commands the prophet, "Lift +up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the +cities of Judah, Behold your God!" it is not alone, you see, his voice +that lie is to lift up. No, no! It is the vision of the unseen and +divine. "Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" + +Over and over again that voice breaks in upon the slumbrous torpor of +Israel and smites the dead souls of priests and people alike. Now +it is a Balaam, now it is an Elijah, a David, an Isaiah, a John the +Baptist, a Paul the Apostle, a Peter the Hermit, a Savonarola, a Huss, +a Whitefield, a Wesley, a Frederick Maurice, a Frederick Robertson, a +Phillips Brooks. + +Do not mistake me. I do not say that there were not many others. But +these names are typical, and that for which they stand cannot easily +be mistaken. I affirm without qualification that, in that gift of +vision and of exaltation for which they stand, they stand for the +highest and the best,--that one thing for which the Church of God most +of all stands, and of which so long as it is the Church Militant +it will most of all stand in need: to know that the end of all its +mechanisms and ministries is to impart life, and that nothing which +obscures or loses sight of the eternal source of life can regenerate +or quicken;--to teach men to cry out, with St. Augustine, "_Fecisti +nos ad te, Domine, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in +te_": Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is unquiet +until its rests in Thee,--this however, as any one may be tempted to +fence and juggle with the fact, is the truth on which all the rest +depends. + +Unfortunately it is a truth which there is much in the tasks and +engagements of the episcopate to obscure. A bishop is preeminently, +at any rate in the popular conception of him, an administrator; and +howsoever wide of the mark this popular conception may be from the +essential idea of the office, it must be owned that there is much in +a bishop's work in our day to limit his activities, and therefore his +influence, within such a sphere. + +To recognize his prophetic office as giving expression to that mission +of the Holy Ghost of which he is preeminently the representative, to +illustrate it upon a wider instead of a narrower field, to recognize +and seize the greater opportunities for its exercise, to be indeed +"a leader and commander" to the people, not by means of the petty +mechanisms of officialism, but by the strong, strenuous, and unwearied +proclamation of the truth; under all conditions to make the occasion +somehow a stepping-stone to that mount of vision from which men may +see God and righteousness and become sensible of the nearness of both +to themselves,--this, I think you will agree with me, is no unworthy +use of the loftiest calling and the loftiest gifts. + +And such a use was his. A bishop-elect, walking with him one day in +the country, was speaking, with not unnatural shrinking and hesitancy, +of the new work toward which he was soon to turn his face, and said +among other things, "I have a great dread, in the Episcopate, of +perfunctoriness. In the administration, especially, of confirmation, +it seems almost impossible, in connection with its constant +repetition, to avoid it." + +He was silent a moment, and then said, "I do not think that it need be +so. The office indeed is the same. But every class is different; and +then--think what it is to them! It seems to me that that thought can +never cease to move one." + +What a clear insight the answer gave to his own ministry. One turns +back to his first sermon, that evening when, with his fellow-student +in Virginia, he walked across the fields to the log-cabin where, not +yet in holy orders, he preached it, and where afterward he ministered +with such swiftly increasing power to a handful of negro servants. +"It was an utter failure," he said afterward. Yes, perhaps; but all +through the failure he struggled to give expression to that of which +his soul was full; and I do not doubt that even then they who heard +him somehow understood him. We pass from those first words to the +last,--those of which I spoke a moment ago,--the address to the +choir-boys at Newton,--was there ever such, an address to choir-boys +before? He knew little or nothing about the science of music, and with +characteristic candor he at once said so. But he passed quickly from +the music to those incomparable words of which the music was the mere +vehicle and vesture. He bade the lads to whom he spoke think of +those who, long ago and all the ages down, had sung that matchless +Psalter,--of the boys and men of other times, and what it had meant to +them. And then, as he looked into their fresh young faces and saw the +long vista of life stretching out before them, he bade them think of +that larger and fuller meaning which was to come into those Psalms of +David, when he,--was there some prophetic sense of how soon with him +the end would be?--when he and such as he had passed away,--what new +doors were to open, what deeper meanings were to be discerned, what +nobler opportunities were to dawn, as the years hastened swiftly on +toward their august and glorious consummation! How it all lifts us +up as we read it, and how like it was to that "one sermon" which he +forever preached! + +And in saying so I do not forget what that was which some men said was +missing in it. His, they tell us--who hold some dry and formalized +statement of the truth so close to the eye that it obscures all larger +vision of it,--his, they tell us, was an "invertebrate theology." Of +what he was and spoke, such a criticism is as if one said of the wind, +that divinely appointed symbol of the Holy Ghost, "it has no spine nor +ribs." + +A spine and ribs are very necessary things; but we bury them as so +much chalk and lime when once the breath has gone out of them! In the +beginning we read, "And the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the +breath of life, and man became a living soul." + +And all along since then there have been messengers of God into whom +the same divine breath has been, as it were, without measure breathed, +and who have been the quickeners and inspirers of their fellows. +Nothing less than this can explain that wholly exceptional and yet +consistent influence which he whom we mourn gave forth. It was not +confined or limited by merely personal or physical conditions, but +breathed with equal and quickening power through all that he taught +and wrote. There were multitudes who never saw or heard him, but by +whom nevertheless he was as intimately known and understood as if he +had been their daily companion. + +Never was there an instance which more truly fulfilled the saying, +"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." +They reached down to the inmost need of empty and aching hearts and +answered it. They spoke to that in the most sin-stained and wayward +soul which is, after all, the image of the invisible God,--spoke +to it, touched it, constrained it. "What has this fine-bred Boston +scholar," plain men asked, when he bade him come to us and preach in +our Trinity--"what has such an one to say to the business men of Wall +Street?" But when he came, straightway every man found out that he had +indeed something to say to him,--a word of power, a word of hope, a +word of enduring joy and strength! + +A kindred thinker of large vision and rare insight, New England born +and nurtured like himself, speaking of him not long after his death, +said: + + "There are three forms pertaining to the Christian truths: they + are true as facts, they are true as doctrines intellectually + apprehended, they are true as spiritual experiences to be + realized. Bishop Brooks struck directly for the last. In the + spirit he found the truth; and only as he could get it into a + spiritual form did he conceive it to have power. + + "It was because he assumed the facts as true in the main, refusing + to insist on petty accuracy, and passed by doctrinal forms + concerning which there might be great divergence of opinion, and + carried his thought on into the world of spirit, that he won so + great a hearing and such conviction of belief. For it is the + spirit that gives common standing-ground; it says substantially + the same thing in all men. Speak as a spirit to the spiritual + nature of men, and they will respond, because in the spirit they + draw near to their common source and to the world to which all + belong. + + "It was because he dealt with this common factor of the human and + the divine nature that he was too positive and practical. In the + spirit it is all yea and amen; there is no negative; in the New + Jerusalem there is no night. We can describe this feature of his + ministry by words from, one of his own sermons: 'It has always + been through men of belief, not unbelief, that power from God has + poured into man. It is not the discriminating critic, but he whose + beating, throbbing life offers itself a channel for the divine + force,--he is the man through, whom the world grows rich, and whom + it remembers, remembers with perpetual thanksgiving.'" + +And shall not you who are here to-day thank God that such a man was, +tho for so brief a space, your bishop? Some there were, you remember, +who thought that those greater spiritual gifts of his would unfit him +for the business of practical affairs. "A bishop's daily round," they +said, "his endless correspondence, his hurried journeyings, his weight +of anxious cares, the misadventures of other men, ever returning to +plague him,--how can he bring himself to stoop and deal with these?" + +But as in so much else that was transcendent in him, how little here, +too, his critics understood him! No more pathetic proof of this has +come to light than in that testimony of one among you who, as his +private secretary, stood in closest and most intimate relations +to him. What a story that is which he has given to us of a great +soul--faithful always in the greatest? Yes, but no less faithful in +the least. There seems a strange, almost grotesque impossibility in +the thought that such an one should ever have come to be regarded as +"a stickler for the canons." + +But we look a little deeper than the surface, and all that is +incongruous straightway disappears. His was the realm of a divine +order,--his was the office of his Lord's servant. God had called him. +He had put him where he was. He had set his Church to be His witness +in the world, and in it, all His children, the greatest with the +least, to walk in ways of reverent appointment. Those ways might irk +and cramp him sometimes. They did: he might speak of them with sharp +impatience and seeming disesteem sometimes. He did that too, now and +then,--for he was human like the rest of us! But mark you this, my +brothers, for, in an age which, under one figment or another, +whether of more ancient or more modern license, is an age of much +self-will,--we shall do well to remember it,--his was a life of +orderly and consistent obedience to rule. He kept to the Church's +plain and stately ways: kept to them and prized them too. + +But all the while he held his soul wide open to the vision of his +Lord! Up out of a routine that seemed to others that did not know or +could not understand him, and who vouchsafed to him much condescending +compassion for a bondage which he never felt, and of which in vain +they strove to persuade him to complain,--up out of the narrower round +in which so faithfully he walked, from time to time he climbed, and +came back bathed in a heavenly light, with lips aglow with heavenly +fire. The Spirit had spoken to him, and so he spoke to us. "The flesh +profiteth nothing: it is the spirit that quickeneth. The words that I +speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." + +And so we thank God not alone for his message, but that it was given +to him to speak it as a bishop in the Church of God. We thank God that +in a generation that so greatly needs to cry, as our _Te Deum_ teaches +us, "Govern us and lift us up!" he was given to the Church not alone +to rule but to uplift. + +What bishop is there who may not wisely seek to be like him by drawing +forever on those fires of the Holy Ghost that set his lips aflame? +Nay, what soul among us all is there that may not wisely seek to +ascend up into that upper realm in which he walked, and by whose +mighty airs his soul was filled? Unto the almighty and ever-living God +we yield most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace +and virtue declared in all His saints who have been the chosen vessels +of His grace and the lights of the world in their several generations; +but here and to-day especially for his servant, Phillips Brooks, some +time of this Commonwealth and this diocese, true prophet, true priest, +true bishop, to the glory of God the Father. + + + + +ABBOTT + +THE DIVINITY IN HUMANITY + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Lyman Abbott was born at Roxbury, Mass., in 1835. As successor to +Henry Ward Beecher, at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, he ministered with +great spiritual power until 1898, when he resigned his pastorate to +devote his entire time to _The Outlook_, of which he was, and still +is, the editor. Dr. Abbott's conception of the minister's work is +briefly summed up in his own words: + +"Whenever a minister forgets the splendid message of pardon, peace and +power based on faith in Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh, +whenever for this message he substitutes literary lectures, critical +essays, sociological disquisitions, theological controversies, or even +ethical interpretations of the universal conscience, whenever, in +other words, he ceases to be a Christian preacher and becomes a lyceum +or seminary lecturer, he divests himself of that which in all ages of +the world has been the power of the Christian ministry, and will be +its power so long as men have sins to be forgiven, temptations to +conquer, and sorrows to be assuaged." + + + + +ABBOTT + +BORN IN 1835 + +THE DIVINITY IN HUMANITY + +_Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are +gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and +the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath +sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, +I am the Son of God_?--John X., 34-36. + + +The context and argument is this: Jesus Christ has declared that He +will give unto His sheep eternal life; and that no one can pluck them +out of His hand, because He and His Father are one; and the Father +who gives these sheep to His care and keeping is greater than all the +forces that are leagued against them. Thereat the Jews took up stones +against Him, saying: "Being a man thou makest thyself equal with God." +And Christ answers with our text. He refers them back to the Old +Testament, which, He says, declares of the judges of Israel, of the +men to whom the inspiration of God came, that they are divine. "Why, +then," He says, "do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I claim +divinity?" It is impossible to consider this a mere play upon the +word; that Christ uses the word God in one sense in one paragraph +and in another sense in the paragraph immediately following. It is +impossible to conceive that this is a kind of sacred pun. No, no; the +argument is clear and unmistakable. According to your Old Testament +scripture, He says, the men in whom and to whom and through whom the +power and grace of God are manifested are themselves the partakers +of the divine nature. If that is so, if the men of the olden +times, patriarchs and prophets, through whom the divine nature was +manifested--if they are divine, do not accuse me of blasphemy because +I claim for Myself divinity. If in this message, on the one hand, +Christ claims kinship with God, on the other He lifts the whole of +humanity up with Him and makes the claim for them. The religion of the +Old Testament and the New Testament, the religion of Christianity and +of Judaism, is a religion of faith in God. But it is not less truly a +religion of faith in man, and of faith in man because man is a child +of God. And the one faith would be utterly useless without the other. +For faith in God is effective because it is accompanied with faith in +man as the child of God. + +And in this faith in man is the inspiration of all human progress. +_Faith_ in man, I say. Faith sees something which the eye does not +see. Faith sees something which the reason does not perceive. Faith +is not irrational, but it perceives a transcendent truth, over beyond +that which the sense perceives. Faith is always intermixed with hope +and with a great expectation, either with a hope because it sees +something which is not yet but will be, or else with a hope because it +sees something which is not yet seen but will be seen. Faith in a man +is not a belief that man is to-day a great, noble character, but it is +a perception in man of dormant possibilities of greatness and nobility +which time and God will develop. It is only the man who has faith in +man who can really interpret man. It is faith in man that gives us all +true human insight. The difference between a photograph and a portrait +is this: the photograph gives the outward feature, and stops there; +and most of us, when we stand in a photograph saloon to have our +picture taken, hide our soul away. The artist sees the soul behind the +man, knows him, understands something of his nature, and paints the +soul that looks out through the eyes. He sees in the man something +which the sun does not exhibit, and makes that something shine on +the canvas. The artist in literature sees an ideal humanity, and +interprets it. Realism in literature does not portray the real man. +Anthony Trollope pictures the Englishman as he is to-day, and society +as any man may take it with a kodak; but Dickens gives Toby Veck and +Tiny Tim; George Eliot, Adam Bede and Dinah Morris. Men say that no +such boy ever lived as MacDonald has portrayed in Sir Gibbie. In every +street Arab is a possible Sir Gibbie; and MacDonald has seen the +possible and shown us what Christianity may make out of a street +Arab. In this perception of a possible in man lies the spirit of all +progress in science. The man of practical science laughs at the notion +of an iron railway on which steam cars shall travel faster than +English coaches. But the man of faith in men, who believes that it is +in the power of men to dominate the powers of nature, builds the road. +The man of practical science laughs at the notion that we can reach up +our hands into the clouds and draw down the lightning. But Franklin +does it. The man of faith is sometimes mistaken, but he is always +experimenting, because he always believes that man to-morrow will +be more than man is to-day or was yesterday. And all progress in +civilization has its secret in this great faith in man as a being +that has a mastery, not yet interpreted, not yet understood, not yet +comprehended in its fulness, over all the powers of nature. + +Now, is there any ground or basis for this faith in man? Have we a +right to believe that man is more than he seems to be, as we can see +him in the street to-day? Have we a right to build our institutions +and fabrics on this belief? Have we a right to think that man can +govern himself, or must we go back and say with Carlyle and Ruskin +and Voltaire that the great body of men are incompetent to govern +themselves, and a few wise rulers must govern them? Have we a right to +believe that all the progress that has thus far been made in +science is but an augury of progress far greater, reaching into the +illimitable? Have we a right to say that these portraits of a possible +humanity, this Portia, this Toby Veck, this Tiny Tim, this ideal man +and woman, are real men and real women in possibility, if not in +the actualities of life? Or are we to think of them as simply +phantasmagoria hung up for the delectation of a passing moment? The +Bible makes answer to that question,--the Bible preeminently, but +the great poets and the great prophets of all religions; the Bible, +because the poets and the prophets of the Bible transcend the poets +and the prophets of all other religions. And that declaration is that +man is made in the image of God, and that God dwells in man and +is coming to the manifestation of Himself in growing, developing, +redeemed humanity. Our Bible starts out with the declaration that God +made man in His own image. The poets take the idea up. MacDonald tells +us in that beautiful poem of his, that the babe came through the blue +sky and got the blue of his eyes as he came; Wordsworth, that the +child's imaginings are the recollected glory of a heavenly home; and +the author of the first chapter of Genesis, that God breathed his own +breath into the nostrils of man and made him in the image of God. All +fancy, all imaginings? But, my dear friends, there is a truth in fancy +as well as in science. We need not believe that this aspiration that +shows itself in the pure mind of a little child is a trailing glory +that he has brought with him from some pre-existent state. We need not +think that it is physiological fact that the sky colored the eyes of +the babe as the babe came through. Nor need we suppose that man was +a clay image into which God breathed a physical breath, so animating +him. But beyond all this imagery is the vision of the poet. God in +man; a divine life throbbing in humanity; man the offspring of God; +man coming forth from the eternal and going forth into the eternal. + +This is the starting-point of the Bible. Starting with this, it goes +on with declaration after declaration based on this fundamental +doctrine that man and God in their essential moral attributes have the +same nature. It is human experience which is used to interpret divine +experience. According to pagan thought, God speaks to men through +movements of the stars, through all external phenomena, through even +entrails of animals. Seldom so in the Bible, save as when the wise men +followed the star, and then that they might come to a divine humanity. +In the Old Testament God speaks in human experience, through human +experience, about human experience, to typify and interpret and +explain Himself. God is like a shepherd that shepherds his flock. +God is like a king that rules in justice. He is like the father that +provides for his children. He is like the mother that comforts the +weeping child. All the experiences of humanity are taken in turn and +attributed to God. The hopes, the fears, the sorrows, the joys, the +very things which we call faults in men--so strong and courageous are +the old prophets in this fundamental faith of theirs that man and God +are alike--the very things we call faults in men are attributed to the +Almighty. He is declared to hate, to be wrathful, to be angry, to be +jealous; because, at the root, every fault is a virtue set amiss; and +the very faults of men have in them something that interprets the +power and will of God, as the very faults of a boy interpret the +virtues of his father. All through the Old Testament God manifests +Himself through human experience. He speaks in the hearts of men; He +dwells in the experience of men; He interprets Himself through the +life of men; and, finally, when this one selected nation which has a +genius for spiritual truth has been so far educated that there is no +danger that it will go back and worship man, that it will become a +mere hero-worshiper, when it has been so far educated that there is no +danger of that, then Jesus Christ comes into the world--God manifests +Himself in human life. + +Who, then, is Jesus Christ? Let John tell us. The Oriental world was +puzzled about the question of the origin of evil. They said, in brief, +a good God cannot make a bad world. Out of a good God, therefore, +there have emanated other gods, and out of these gods other gods, +until at last there came to be imperfect gods or bad gods. And the +world was made, some of them said, partly by a good god and partly by +a bad one; and others by an imperfect god who was an emanation of the +perfect one. Of these emanations one was Life, another was Light, +another was the Word. And John, writing in the age of Oriental +philosophy, uses the phraseology of Oriental philosophy in order that +he might tell mankind who and what Jesus Christ is. "In the beginning +was the Word, and the Word was God." God never was an abstraction; +from the very beginning He was a speaking God, a living God, a +manifesting God, a forth-putting God. "The same was in the beginning +with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not +anything made that was made. And this Word became flesh and dwelt +among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten +of the Father), full of grace and truth." Let me put this into +modern language. What is it but this? From eternity God has been a +manifesting God. When the fulness of time came, God, that He might +manifest Himself to His children, came into a human life and dwelt +in a human life. He that had spoken here through one prophet, there +through another prophet; He that had sent one message in this +direction and another in that; He that had spoken through signs and +tokens, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, in divers +manners and in fragmentary utterances--when the fulness of time had +come, He spoke in one perfect human life, taking entire possession of +it and making it His own, that He might manifest Himself in terms of +human experience to humanity. Or turn to Paul and let me read you this +declaration; "Let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ; +who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with +God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of +a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in +fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, +even the death of the cross." What is this, again, but the same +declaration? God desiring to show Himself to humanity, entered into +one human life, became subject to human conditions, shared the +weakness, the wants, the ignorance of humanity, entered into and was +identified with one human life. + +Do I say, then, that Jesus Christ was a man like other men? No. But I +do say that in their essential qualities God and man are identical, +and God entered into humanity that He might show to humanity what He +is. I do say, not that Jesus Christ was a man like other men, but that +other men may become like Jesus Christ. I hold a bulb in my one hand +and a tulip in my other. Will any man say to me, this beautiful flower +with all its rich coloring is like this bulb? Oh, no! But let the +sun of God shine long enough on this bulb, put it where it belongs, +subject it to the conditions of life, and this bulb will become like +this flower. Man is made in the image of God. All that is in man +that is not in God's image does not belong to man's nature. Natural +depravity? There is no natural depravity. Depravity is unnatural. +Depravity is contra-natural. It is against the whole law of man's +being. It is never wrong for any creature God has made to act out the +nature which God endowed him with. It is not wicked for a tiger to be +ravening. It is not wicked for a snake to be sinuous. It is wicked for +man to be ravening or sinuous, because it is against the divine nature +that God has put in man. He made man for better things. + +God made man in His own image, God coming through successive stages, +manifesting Himself in successive relations of Himself in human +experience, God at last disclosing Himself in one pure, sinless, +typical man in order that man through that humanity might know who and +what God is--and is that the end? Oh, no! That is the beginning, +only the beginning. For what did God come in Christ? Simply to show +Himself? Here is a hospital--all manner of sick; the paralytic, the +fever-stricken, the consumptive. Is it good news to these hospital +bedridden ones if an athlete come in and show them his life, his +muscles, the purity of his lungs, the health of his constitution, and +then goes out? But if he comes in and says, "My friends, if you will +follow my directions I will put into you consumptive ones some of the +strength of my lungs, into you fever-stricken ones some of the purity +of my blood; into you paralytic ones some of the sinew and muscle +I possess--you can become like me," then there is good news in the +message. If God came into the world simply to tell us what God is and +what the ideal of humanity is, the gospel would be the saddest message +that could be conceived, as delivered to the human race. It would add +gloom to the gloom, darkness to the darkness, chains to the chains, +despair to despair. He comes not merely to show divinity to us, but to +impart divinity to us; rather, to evolve the latent divinity which He +first implanted in us. As God has entered into Christ, He will enter +into me. Christ says to me: As I am patient, you can become patient; +as I am strong, you can become strong; as I am pure, you can become +pure; as I am the Son of God, you can become the Son of God. Therefore +His message is the gospel that it is. + +Christ is not a man like other men. I can find in the biography of +Jesus no trace of sin. In every other biography, oh, how many traces! +There is no trace of repentance. The Hebrew Psalmist laments his +iniquity. Paul confesses himself to be the chief of sinners. Luther, +Calvin, Melanchthon, Edwards--go where I will, in the biography of +all the saints there are signs of sin and iniquity. Never a trace of +repentance or confession in Christ. In all others we see a struggle +after God. "My heart panteth after thee, as the hart panteth after +water-brooks." "I count not myself to have attained, but, forgetting +those things that are behind, I press forward toward the mark." Never +in the written biography of Christ a trace of that aspiration after +something not yet reached. On the contrary, a great peace and a great +possession. He says: I have come full of life. I have come to give +life. This sinless Christ comes that He may give to us that which +He Himself possesses; that He may take the sin out of our lives and +sorrow out of our hearts, and for the yearning desire give a great, +great peace. I have come, He says, that you might have life. How much, +Lord and Master? Life more abundantly. What kind of life, Lord and +Master? Eternal life. Has He come with that great life of His to give +a little and then stop? Nay, to give all to every one that every one +will take. + +I marvel to find Christian men denying that Christ is the type and +manifestation and revelation of the possible divinity in universal +humanity. It is written all over the Bible. What says Christ Himself? +I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more +abundantly. As the Father has sent Me into the world, even so I send +you into the world. You shall be My disciples. You shall learn of Me. +You shall be My followers, and tread where I have trod. You shall take +up My cross, and suffer as I have suffered. The secret of My life +shall be the secret of your life. Ye shall be in Me. I will abide with +you. Ye shall be as a branch grafted on the vine, drawing the same +life as I have, as out of My very veins. As the Father was in Me, so +I and My Father will come and abide in you. He breathes upon the +disciples and tells them to receive the Spirit that was in Him; and in +His last prayer He prays that they may share His glory, that they may +be one with the Father, as He is one with the Father. Paul takes up +the same refrain and repeats it over and over again. Righteousness in +man is the righteousness of God, God's own righteousness coming out +of God's heart into human hearts. Ye shall be partakers of the divine +nature. Ye shall be joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, inheriting +all that Christ inherited from His Father. Ye shall have the same +spirit that was in Christ. Metaphor and trope and figure are exhausted +in the endeavor of the apostle to set forth this sublime truth. Christ +is the servant of God. We are the servants of God. He is the Son of +God. We are the sons of God. He is the light of the world. We are +the lights of the world. He is a priest forever. We are priests +perpetually serving in His temple. He is the one eternal sacrifice. We +are to present our bodies a living sacrifice before God. He is dead. +We are to die with Him. He has risen. We are to rise with Him. Already +we sit in the heavenly place with Christ Jesus. We are changed from +glory to glory into His image. We are predestined to be conformed to +that image. We are bid to pray that we may be rooted and grounded in +Christ, and that with Him, we may be filled with all the fulness of +God. + +Do I say, then, that I am equal to Christ? Or that I shall ever become +equal to Christ? No! Let me try to make this plain to the child, and +then the rest will perhaps understand it. Here is a great man. He is +a great statesman. He is a great poet. He is a great orator. He is a +great philosopher. He is a great general. He is Bismarck and Gladstone +and Dante and Napoleon and Raphael and Plato all combined in one. +And he has children, and this boy is a statesman, and this boy is a +general, and this boy is an orator, and this boy is a poet, and this +boy is an artist. No one of them comprizes all the genius that was in +his father, but each one has one quality of that father, and all the +boys together reflect their father's nature. No, I shall never be +equal to Christ. But according to the measure of my own capacity, +I may reflect even here and now something of Christ and be really +Christ-like. + +Christ is my Master. I acknowledge no other Master than Him. I wish to +follow where He leads. I gladly believe whatever He says. And I have +no other ambition--oh, I wish it were true that I never had any other +ambition!--than to be like Him. But He is my Master because He bids me +follow where He leads, because He gives what I can take, because He +promised what He will yet fulfil. I believe in the divinity of our +Lord Jesus Christ. It is the center of my faith, as He is the center +and source of my life. But I do not believe in the medieval formula +that Jesus Christ is God and man mysteriously joined together, because +to believe that would be to leave me both without an ideal of man +which I might follow, and without a manifestation of God to which I +might cling. In my country home two Christians quarreled. An atheist +went to them and said to one of them, "Your Christ said, 'Forgive +all your enemies and love one another.'" "Yes," he said, "Christ was +divine. He could. I cannot." But there was nothing of moral virtue +that God wrought in Christ that He cannot work in you and me if we +give Him time enough. And, on the other hand, this separation of "God" +and "man" in Christ denies the real manifestation of God to man. +Jesus called His disciples to watch while He wrestled with agony in +Gethsemane, and Dean Alford, speaking on Gethsemane, says this was the +manifestation in Christ of human weakness. No! no! A thousand times, +No! It is the glorious manifestation of that sympathy in God which +wants the sympathy of the feeblest of His followers, as the mother +wants the sympathy and love of the babe on her lap. "Beloved, now are +we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Only +we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." There are two +things we do not know. Genius is always a mystery, spiritual genius +the greatest mystery of genius, and Christ the greatest mystery of +all. We do not know what we shall be, any more than one who never had +seen a garden could guess what the mold would be when the spring had +finished its work. Those are two things we do not know. But there are +two things we do know. We shall be like Him, and when we are like Him, +we shall see Him as He is. We shall be like no imagination of Him, no +deteriorated or imperfect conception of Him; but when we come to see +Him in all the regal splendor of His character, with all the love, all +the justice, all the purity, all the divine glory which is adumbrated +and shadowed here because our eyes could not look upon it and still +live--when we come to see Him in all the glory of that divine +character, we shall be like Him--_we shall be like Him_. + + + + +BROOKS + +THE PRIDE OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Phillips Brooks was born at Boston, Mass., in 1835, graduated at +Harvard in 1855 and studied theology at the P.E. Seminary, Alexandria, +Va. He was elected rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, +in 1859, and three years later to that of Holy Trinity in the same +city. In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and was +consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891. He died in 1893. He was +in every sense a large man, large in simplicity and sympathy, large in +spiritual culture. In his lectures to the students at Yale he spoke of +the preparation for the ministry as being nothing less than the making +of a man. Said he: + +"It cannot be the mere training to certain tricks. It cannot be even +the furnishing with abundant knowledge. It must be nothing less than +the kneading and tempering of a man's whole nature till it becomes of +such a consistency and quality as to be capable of transmission. This +is the largeness of the preacher's culture." Doctor Brastow describes +him thus: "The physical equipment was symbol of his soul; and the +rush of his speech was typical of those mental, moral, and spiritual +energies that were fused into unity and came forth in a stream of +fiery intensity." + + + + +BROOKS + +1835--1893 + +THE PRIDE OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: Published for the first time by the kind permission of +William G. Brooks.] + +_The pride of life_.--1 John ii., 16. + + +John is giving his disciples the old warning not to love the world, +that world which then and always is pressing on men's eyes and ears +and hearts with all its loveliness and claiming to be loved. "Love not +the world, neither the things that are in the world.... For all that +is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and +the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." + +What is the pride of life? Pride is one of those words which hover in +the middle region between virtue and vice. The materials which under +one set of circumstances and in one kind of character make up an +honorable self-respect, seem so often to be precisely the same as +those which under another set of circumstances and in another kind of +character make up arrogance and self-conceit. This last is the tone +evidently in which John speaks. So it is with most moral minglings. +All character is personal, determined by some force that blends the +qualities into a special personality. The same apparent qualities +unite into the most various results. It is like the delicate +manufacture of mosaics. The skilful workers of Rome or Venice put in +the same ingredients in nature and amount, and the composition comes +out at one time dull and muddy and at another time perfectly clear and +lustrous. Some subtle difference in the mixture of the constituents +or in the condition of the atmosphere or in the heat of the furnace +alters the whole result. So out of life we may say in its various +minglings there come various products in character, either humility or +thankfulness or contentment or self-respect, from some failure of the +qualities to meet in perfect union, from some fault in the shape or +misregulation of the temperature of the human furnace in which they +are fused, this degenerate and confused result of pride which yet +is often so near to, that we can see how it was only some slightest +cause, some stray and unguarded draft across the surface that hindered +it from being, one of the clear and lustrous combinations of the same +material. But that fact makes it no better. The muddy glass is no more +useful because it is made of the same components as the clear glass. +There is nothing still to be done with it but to throw it away. + +What then is the pride of life which is bad, which "is not of the +Father, but is of the world"? Life itself we know is of the Father. In +whatever sense we take that much-meaning word, life is God's gift. The +mere physical being, if that be life, is the creation of His mighty +word. The continuance, the prolongation of the vital function, if +that be life, that too is the result of His never-sleeping care. The +surrounding circumstances, the scenery of our experience, if that be +life, is also of His arranging. The spiritual vitality, all the higher +powers as we call them, of thought and feeling and conscience, if they +be life, no hand but His strung and tuned their manifold and subtle +cords. Everywhere there is no life but what He gives. It is not of the +world. In no sense does any creative power of being issue either from +the material earth, or from the social system, or from the mass of +conventional laws and standards, each of which is sometimes, in +different uses of the word, characterized as "the world." They may all +influence and change and give character to life, but none of them can +create it. + +And perhaps this brings us to what we want. The world may give a +certain character or shape to life, even altho it cannot create it. +Now pride is a certain character or shape of life. It is a term of +description not of the material of life but of a particular result of +that material fused into a particular furnace. In general the shape of +life which pride describes may be otherwise characterized as +arrogant self-reliance or self-sufficiency. We may reach more minute +definitions of it before we are done, but this seems to make the +meaning plain when it is said that the pride of life is not of the +Father, but of the world. Life comes from God. It is the world's +influence that shapes that life, which has no moral character in +itself, into arrogance and self-sufficiency, makes it up into pride +instead of into humility, and so leaves as the result the pride of +life. The pride of life, then, is God's gift which means dependence +changed and distorted into independence, revolt and disobedience. + +Most necessary is it that in all we say we should keep clear in mind +that the first gift is God's. The substance of life is His. All evil +is misuse, otherwise repentance must be cursed with misanthropy and +hopelessness instead of being as it always ought to be, the very +birthplace of hope, the spring of a new life from the worn-out failure +of an old, back into the possibility of life that is older still, as +old as man's first creation. + +Let us see where the pride of life shows itself. First of all +doubtless in the mere exuberance of animal strength. To be well and +strong, full of spirit and physical vitality, this is beyond all doubt +one of the most precious gifts of God. We never can forget the large +strong physical strain with which our Bible opens, the torrent of +health and full life that seems to pour down to us out of those early +days when the world was young, when the giants made the earth shake +under their mighty tread and the patriarchs outlived the forests with +their green old years. The fulness of physical vitality is of God, to +be accepted as His benefaction, to be cultivated and cared for with +the reverence that His gifts demand. And round the mere physical life +group a whole circle of tastes and enjoyments and exercises which +belong with the sensuous more than with the intellectual or moral part +of us, and whose full life seems to be dependent upon the fulness of +physical being, the mere perception of beauty, the love of comfort, +the delight in enterprise and adventure and prowess. The sum of all +these is what we call full physical life. It is what gives youth its +most generous charm and makes it always poetic with its suggested +powers and unaccomplished possibilities. + +But yet this mere fulness of life as we all know has its dangers. Mere +health is overbearing by its very nature. There is a lack of sympathy +in it. Not knowing suffering itself, it is not respectful of suffering +in others. It is not careful of inflicting suffering. The full blood +sings of nothing but itself. It is careless of others. It is careless +of God, not malignantly cruel, nor deliberately atheistic, but selfish +with a sort of self-absorption which is often, very gracious in its +forms and infidel with a mere forgetfulness of God. Who of us does not +know, and who of us, wavering between his standards and his feelings, +has not very often found it hard to tell just how he ought to value +the enthusiastic and arrogant self-sufficiency of healthy youth? + +It is this, I take it, that is described here as "the pride of life." +Wherever there is eager and full-blooded youth there it appears. It +breaks out in the wild and purposeless mob of lower city life, in the +impatience and insubordination of the country boy who longs to be free +from his father's farm, in the crude skepticism of college students' +first discussions of religion. It is jealous of slight, of insult, +of the least suspicion of restraint or leading. It belongs to strong +young nations as well as to strong young men. By it they flaunt +defiance in the face of the world and are afraid of the imputation of +prudence. It is what you can see in the faces of any group of eager +young men as you pass them on the street. Sometimes it makes them +attractive and sometimes it makes them detestable. It turns the noble +youth into a hero and the mean youth into a bully. A fine nature it +leads into the most exquisite tastes and encircles it with art and +music. A coarse nature it plunges into the vilest debauchery and vice. +In good fortune it makes the temper carelessly benignant. In bad +fortune it makes the temper recklessly defiant. It works these very +different effects but is always the one same spirit still,--the pride +of life. The gift of life which came from God, taken possession of by +the world and tamed into self-sufficiency, a thing not of the Father, +but of the world, who does not know in himself, or see in somebody +he watches, something of this pure pride in life? Just to live is so +attractive that the higher ends and responsibilities of living drift +away out of sight. This instinctive almost physical selfishness is the +philosophy of more than we think both of the good and of the bad that +is in young people. + +I have seen too much of it to undervalue the sweet and sober piety of +old age. There is a beauty in it that is all its own. A softness and +tenderness and patience and repose in the western sky that the bolder +glories of the east where the morning breaks never can attain. Many +and many of the best men we have known have been old men, but no one +looks at men's progress without feeling that a great deal of what +passes for growth in goodness as men grow old is in reality only the +deadening of the pride of life from the dying-down of the life itself. +Many and many a man who passes for a sober, conscientious, religious +sort of man at fifty, if you put back into his cooled blood the hot +life he had at twenty-five would be the same reckless, profligate, +arrogant sinner that he was then. It is the life, not the pride, that +he has lost. Many and many a man thinks that he has saved his house +from conflagration because he, sees no flame, when really the flame +is hidden only because the house is burnt down and the fire is still +lurking among the ashes, hunting out any little prey that is left and +hungrily waiting for more fuel to light up the darkness again. One +thing at least is true, that the goodness of old age in what we may +call its passive forms, humility, submission, patience, faith, is +necessarily far more hard to recognize and be sure of than the same +goodness in a younger man. What you call piety may be only deadness. + +And young men are often pointed just to this old age as the golden +time when they will be religious as they cannot be now. They look to +it themselves. "You are full of the pride of life," men say to them; +"Ah, wait! By and by the life will flag. The senses will grow dull, +the tastes will stupefy, the enterprise will flicker out, and the days +come in which your soul will say 'I have no pleasure in them.' Just +wait for that! Then your pride will go too, and then you will need and +seek your God." It is a poor taunt and a poorer warning. If you have +nothing better to say to make men use their powers rightly than to +tell them that they will lose their powers some day, the answer will +always be, "Well, I will wait until that losing day comes before +I worry." If you tell a young man that his life is short, the old +bacchanalian answer is the first one, "Live while we live." You must +somehow get hold of that, you must persuade him that the true life now +is the holy life, that life, this same life that he prizes, ought to +breed humility and faith, not arrogance and pride, or else you +must expect to talk to the winds. It surely is important that the +conversion of the pride of life must come not by the putting-out of +life but by making it a source of humility instead of pride. +The humbleness of life. How can it come? By clearer and deeper +truthfulness to let us see what the real facts of the case are, that +is all; but that is very hard, so hard that it can be brought about by +no other than the Almighty Holy Ghost. Let me see that this physical +life of mine, having no true character of its own, is made to be a +great machinery for simply conducting the knowledge and the love of +God into my life; let all my study of the exquisite adaptations of +the physical organs for their work be sanctified with this idea, this +ever-pervading consciousness that eye and ear and hand are doors for +the knowledge and the love of Him to enter by, and that all their +marvelous mechanism is only the perfecting of hinges and bolt that He +may enter more impressively and lovingly and entirely; let me learn +that every bright taste or fine instinct or noble appetite is a ray of +sunlight, not the sun, is the projection into my life of some force +above, outside of me, which I can find only by climbing back along the +ray that is projected, up to it; let me see all animal life a +study and preparation for this final life of man, sensations and +perceptions, growing clearer and clearer as we rise in the scale until +in man they are fit to convey this knowledge which man alone can have, +the knowledge of God; let me see this, and I must be ashamed to make +that life a thing of pride which might be the seat of such an exalted +and exalting dependence and humility. I am unwilling that those +well-built cisterns which ought to be so full of God should hold +nothing but myself, as if one crept into his aqueduct and closed it up +where the water came into it from the fountain and lived in it for a +house and found it very dry. + +We see clearly enough what the change is that is needed. It is +to substitute for self-consciousness as the result of life the +ever-abiding consciousness of God. Do you ask how it shall be done? +Ah, my dear friends, that is the very miracle of the gospel. I can +tell you only this about it, which the Lord has told us all before: +"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The +kingdom of God, that region of life in which God is the life's King. +And again: "If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father +will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." +"We will come to him!" That is what we want, for that is the source of +all humility, the coming of God into us, and the condition is love and +obedience, the spiritual and the active forms of faith. That is all we +can say. And that is enough, for in that this at least is clear, that +such a conversion is a work that God has undertaken to do for us, that +He asks of us nothing but submission to His willing helpfulness, and +that being a transformation of life, it may, nay it must, be done +while life is in possession, it can be done best when life is in its +fullest. We have not to wait till movement is slow and color is dull. +We are not tempted to make a vacancy and call it piety; but when man's +life is so full that it tempts him daily to self-consciousness and +pride, then let him open it wide to the consciousness of God and +ennoble it with the full dignity of that humility whose first +condition is the presence of God in the soul that He built for His own +inhabiting. + +There is a condition possible where the life shall flow with God as +fully and freely as it ordinarily flows with self, where the greater +volume it acquires, it only bears the more of Him; where every joy +delights in Him, and every power depends on Him, and the whole man +lives in Him and knows it. It is not a constant effort. It is the +spontaneous direction of the whole nature. It is the new condition +of the Christian who has been exalted from the human pride into the +divine humility of life, out of self to God. + +But I suggested at the outset that the word life was used in various +meanings, and in connection with one or two of them I should like to +develop a little what is meant by this phrase the "pride of +life." Life sometimes familiarly signifies what we otherwise call +circumstances. A man is said to "get on in life," not with reference +to his growing older or growing healthier, but as he grows more rich, +more prosperous. The pride of life in this sense would be the pride +of success, which we see wherever men are struggling in this world of +competition. Look at the young merchant who is making a living. Things +go well with him. He rises from stratum to stratum of that commercial +system whose geology is the ever-eluding study of the toilers of the +street. He grows rich. His store begins to spread with the pressure of +new enterprises. His house begins to blossom into the rich bloom +of luxury. He is greeted with a new respect. He is courted with an +eagerness he never knew before. Friends gather about him. His word has +weight. His name means money. He is successful. What is the result? +Those facts in themselves signify nothing, let us remember, but +material capable of being made into one thing or another wholly its +opposite. These are the gift of the Father, every one of them, all +that profusion of life. But there is a possible effect of them all in +character, a pride, which is not of the Father, but of the world. With +a morbid sympathy the man assimilates all that is poor and mean and +worldly out of his prosperity, and rejects, because he has no affinity +for it, all that is good and sweet and heavenly. He is chilled and +narrowed and embittered. All the old sweetness and humility fade out +of his nature. Need I tell you of it? Our streets are full of the +pride of life. Its types only, its outer types flash in the splendid +carriages and blaze in the fronts of gaudy houses and sweep the floors +of drawing-rooms and the aisles of churches. Those types, the mere +outward trappings of success, are not wherein the badness lies. The +reality is in the hard hearts and selfish tempers and undocile minds +which, in the splendor or the squalidness of wealth, show the sad ruin +of self-sufficient success, the pride of life. + +The pride of life kills out the life itself. Is there a sadder picture +than you have in the life of a man, old or young, to whom God has +sent prosperity, who by his own act then turns that prosperity into a +failure by being proud of it? Christ Himself has told us how it is. +The life is more than meat. He has no tolerance for this little +meaning of a word that He made so large. The life is more than meat. +Yes, life is meat and man, and to lose the best manhood to get the +meat, to lose the soul to save the body, to fail of heaven above you +and before you that you may own the ground under your feet, that is +not success but failure. "In all time of our prosperity, Good Lord +deliver us!" May God help you who are prosperous. + +I would speak again of what is called intellectual life, the life of +thought. It is "of the Father," indeed. We picture to ourselves +the pure joy of God in thought. Free from so many of our cumbrous +processes, free from the limitations of slow-moving time, free from +all imperfection, with an instantaneous thought as is His being, the +intellect that is the center of all reason revolves in its unfathomed +majesty. And man thinks too. God makes him think. God gives him powers +to think with, and then, as when you pour for your child a stream of +water out of your cisterns upon the wheels of the machinery that you +have first built for him, God gives man thoughts to exercise his power +of thinking upon. Can anything be more humble? The power was from God, +the thoughts by which the power moves were God's thoughts first. "Oh, +God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee," cried John Kepler, when he +caught sight of the great law of planetary motion. But mere thought, +self-satisfied, seeking no unity in God, owning no dependence, +boasting of itself, counting it hardship that it cannot know all where +it knows so much, this is the pride of thought, and this is not of the +Father, but is of the world. How arrogant it is! How it is jealous of +dictation, how it chafes under a hand that presses it down and a voice +that says to it, "Wait! what thou knowest not now thou shall; know +hereafter." How carefully it limits its kind of evidence, shutting out +everything that sounds like personal communication, revelation, in its +impatient independence; how studiously it orphans itself. And then +how, in some moods, orphaned by its arrogance, it suddenly becomes +intensely cognizant of its orphanage, and the child's hunger for a +Father takes possession of its heart and it is dreary and miserable! + +I always know, when I speak thus of types of men, that you will think +that I am talking of those types in their extreme specimens. I am +not speaking to-day of the miracles of physical vitality, nor of the +over-successful men with their colossal fortunes, nor of the mighty +thinkers only. We all have our certain share in these various kinds of +life, and each of us may make his little share a seed of pride. We +are strangely ingenious here. We have an easy faculty of persuading +ourselves that ours is best of everything and growing arrogant, +unfilial and worldly over it. I speak to the men confident in their +youth and health, to the merchants strong in their business credit, +to the thoughtful brains at work over their problems of settling the +universe for themselves. I warn them all against the pride of life. I +would try to show them all that the same material which is capable of +being made into pride is capable also of being made into humility. I +would tell them therefore that they have not to be made old or sick or +poor or stupid before they can be made humble, that the best humility, +as well as the hardest, is that which can come to them here, right in +the midst of their strength and wealth and study! + +Do you ask how that can be? It is time that I tried to tell you, tried +to tell how one may be full of life and yet be free from the pride of +life. That question must somehow be answered, or else the world will +be condemned to choose forever between an arrogant prosperity and a +salvation by misery, distress and disaster, by death. What do we need +for the salvation of a prosperous life? The answer in one word is +consecration. Consecration, that is what we need. There have been men +in whom life seemed complete who have yet walked very humbly. They had +no pride of life. And why? Because always before them and above them +there stood some great principle, some idea, some duty to which +their life belonged, not to themselves. All work is modest, all idle +self-contemplation is vain. And what the young man needs with his +vague aspirations and conceits is to make himself the servant of some +worthy purpose. And what the merchant needs with his growing business +is to count himself the steward of some worthy Master. And what the +student needs with his active mind is to trace the footsteps of the +God of wisdom in the path he walks and to count the reaching nearer to +Him, the true prize and object of all thinking. Consecration! We are +proud of life because we do so little with it. It is as if the bearer +of dispatches sat down calmly and boasted of the well-made box in +which they had been given to him, and never bore them to their +destination. Life is force, to be transmitted and delivered to a +purpose and an end. It loses its true nature and sweetness, it +corrupts into pride, when it is robbed of its true purpose and +cherished only for itself. + +We can find our example of the consecrated man wherever we see true +lives lived in history or about us now, in the Bible or in common +life. Moses, David, Paul! But why look at the poor, imperfect copies +when in our Lord Himself we have the consummate human life clothed in +the wondrous humility of His appointed work. The life of lives! and +yet was ever any life so utterly free from the tawdry pride that makes +our poor achievements so wretched and unsatisfying. You say He cut +Himself off from all that men are proud of. Not so. He gave up house +and home, but he carried about with Him always the devotion of the +people, the mystery of unknown power and the consciousness of great +work and influence, the very things that have always seduced the best +men most and in their highest labors made them proud. You say He was +divine and so could not be humble. Yes, but He was profoundly human +also, and humility is not subserviency or meanness. It is a grace not +unworthy of, nay, necessary to, even the perfect humanity. But one +thing stands out always: His was the consecrated life. It was all +given to its purpose. "He was called Jesus because he should save his +people from their sins." "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's +business?" "Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be +betrayed." "To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the +world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." Everywhere the +consecration, a life appointed to an end, the face set to Jerusalem, +the hands and feet waiting for the cross! Meanwhile it was the fullest +life, but lived so high that the "pride of life" lay all below under +His feet and out of sight. + +And our life must be consecrated even as His was. What shall the +consecration be? Far be it from me to undervalue the exaltation into +humility that comes to a man when he consecrates himself to any great +and noble cause. I believe that it helps to save any man from pride +when he gives himself to his family or his country or his fellow men, +to truth, to liberty, to purity, to anything outside of and above +himself, but there is a consecration higher and fuller and more saving +than any such can be. We go back to the Cross. Jesus is dying there +for us. He dies and we are saved. What then? When a soul "knows its +full salvation" and sees it all bought by, all wrapt up in, that +Redeemer, then in the outburst of a grateful love, he gives himself +to the Redeemer Christ. There is no hesitation, no keeping back of +anything. He is all offered up to Christ; and then to serve that +Christ, to follow Him, to do His will, to enter into Him, that is +the one great object of the whole consecrated life, and in that +consecration, the straining of the life toward that One Object, the +"pride of life" is swept down and drowned. Not merely the life then, +but the use of the life, comes from the Father. It is not of the +world. The soul is saved! + +The salvation of the Cross! Its center is the forgiveness of sins +which the cross alone made possible; but is not its issue here, in the +lifting of the soul above the pride of life and consecrating it in the +profoundest gratitude to "Him who redeemed us and washed us from +sins in His own blood"? What humility! What self-forgetfulness! What +unworldliness! What utter childhood to the Father! + +My friends, my people, would you be saved, saved from your sins, saved +from yourselves, saved from the pride of life? You must be His that +you may not be your own! He died for you that you might not henceforth +live to yourself but unto Him. You must be consecrated to your Savior. +If there is one soul in my church to-day who is weary and dissatisfied +with his self-slavery, I offer him Jesus for Savior, for Master! If +any man thirst let him come unto Him and drink. Turn unto Him and be +ye saved! You can, you must! His service is life, life in its fullest +because life in humility. Outside of His gospel and His service there +is the pride of life, and the pride of life is death. + + + + +GLADDEN + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Washington Gladden, Congregational divine, was born at Pottsgrove, +Pa., in 1836. After graduating at Williams College he was ordained +pastor, and occupied pulpits in Brooklyn, Morrisania, N.Y., and +Springfield, Mass., until 1882, when he assumed charge of the First +Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio. He has also occupied +editorial positions, and has published many books on social and civil +reform and the practical application of Christian truth to popular and +common life. His style, whether he is writing or speaking, combines +vigor with grace. + + + + +GLADDEN + +BORN IN 1836 + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: From Mr. Gladden's "The New Idolatry." By permission of +The McClure Co. Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co.] + +_And killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the +dead._--Acts iii., 15. + + +This is the phrase with which Peter, in his great speech in the temple +porch, describes the Master whose disciple he had been for three years, +whose death he had witnessed on Calvary, and to whose resurrection from +the dead he is now bearing witness. "The prince of life!" It is one of +the many great titles conferred upon the Lord by those who loved Him. +Reverence and devotion fell from their lips in lyrical cadences whenever +they spoke of Him, and they wreathed for Him garlands of words with +which they loved to deck His memory. He was "the Prophet of the +Highest"; He was "the Great High Priest"; He was "the Shepherd of the +Sheep"; He was "the Captain of Salvation"; He was "the First Born of +Many Brethren"; He was "Redeemer," "Reconciler," "Savior." Gratitude and +affection shaped many a tender phrase in which to describe Him, but +there is none, perhaps, more luminous or more comprehensive than this +with which the impulsive Peter, facing the men who had put Him to death, +gave utterance to his loyalty. Its pertinence is confirmed by the word +of Jesus Himself, in one of the sayings in which He described His +mission: "I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it +abundantly." Author and Giver of life He was, and what He gave He gave +with princely munificence--freely, unstintedly. + +The phrase seems to be one on which we may fitly dwell to-day, since +the day of the year which commemorates His birth occurs on the day of +the week which celebrates His resurrection. Both events proclaim Him +the Prince of Life. In the one He is the Bringer of new life, in +the other He is the Victor over death; and thus He becomes, in the +impassioned confessions of the apostle, the Alpha and the Omega, the +Author and the Finisher of Faith, the First and the Last and the +Living One. + +Those who are familiar with the New Testament narration do not need to +have their attention called to the constant ministry of this Son of +Man to the vital needs of men. The impartation of life seems to +have been His main business. Somehow it came to be believed by the +multitude, at the very beginning of His public ministry, that He +possest some power of communicating life. The wonderful works ascribed +to Him are nearly all of this character. The healing of the sick, the +cleansing of the lepers, all resulted from the reenforcement of the +vital energies of the sufferers. When He laid His hand upon men, new +life seemed to speed through their veins. We have known some who +seemed to have, in some imperfect way, this quickening touch. It is +a physiological fact that warm blood from the veins of a thoroughly +healthy person, transfused through the veins of one who is emaciated +or exhausted, quickens the wavering pulse and brings life to the +dying. It may be that through the nerve tissues, as well as through +the veins, the same vitalizing force may be communicated, and that +those who are in perfect health, both of body and of mind, may have +the power of imparting life to those who are in need of it. The +miracles of healing ascribed to Jesus must have been miracles in the +literal sense; they were wonders, marvels--for that is what the word +miracle means; that they were interruptions or violations of natural +law is never intimated in the New Testament; they may have been purely +natural occurrences, taking place under the operation of natural +laws with which we are not familiar. We are far from knowing all the +secrets of this wonderful universe; the time may come when these words +of Jesus will have larger meaning than we have ever given them: "If ye +abide in me, the works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works +than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father." + +The fact to be noted is, however, that the people with whom Jesus was +brought into contact were made aware in many ways of the impartation +of His Life to them. "Of His fulness," said John, "we all received, +and grace for grace." There seemed to be in Him a plenitude of +vitality, from which health and vigor flowed into the lives of those +who came near to Him. Nor does this seem to have been any mere +physical magnetism; there is no intimation that His physical +endowments were exceptional; the restoring and invigorating influence +oftener flowed from a deeper source. The physical renewal came as the +result of a spiritual quickening. He reached the body through the +soul. The order was, first, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"; then, "Arise +and walk." If the spirit is thoroughly alive, the body more quickly +recovers its lost vigor. And it was mainly in giving peace to troubled +consciences and rest to weary souls that He conferred upon those who +received Him the great boon of life. + +Thus Jesus proved Himself "the Prince of Life." In the early ages of +the Church the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, came to be described as +"the Lord and Giver of Life"; but that was because He was believed to +be the Continuator of the work of Jesus--the spiritual Christ. + +There seems to be in this conception a great and beautiful revelation +of the essential nature of Christianity. There are many ways of +conceiving of this, but I am not sure that any one of them is more +significant than that which we are now considering. Those words of +Jesus to which I have before referred are wonderful words when we come +to think upon them. They occur in that discourse in which He describes +Himself first as the Good Shepherd, and contrasts Himself with the +thieves and robbers who have been ravaging the flock. "The thief +cometh not," He says, "but that he may steal and kill and destroy; I +came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly," Have we +not here the great fundamental distinction between men--the line that +separates the evil from the good, the just from the unjust, the sheep +from the goats--that distinction which Jesus marks so clearly in His +parable of judgment, and which must never, in our interpretations or +philosophizings, be blotted or blurred? Some are life-givers; some are +life-destroyers. "The thief cometh not but that he may steal and +kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have it +abundantly." + +I do not suppose that Jesus meant in this to declare that there is a +large class of persons whose entire purpose it is to steal and kill +and destroy; probably there are none so malevolent that they do not +cherish some kindly impulses and perform some generous deeds. It is a +distinction between acts, or perhaps between tendencies of character, +that He is making. He speaks in the concrete, as He always does; but +He expects us to make the proper application of His words. The fact to +which He guides our thought is this--that there are ways of living, +forms of conduct, which are predatory and destructive of life, and +other ways that tend to make life increase and abound. When Jesus +contrasts His own conduct, as one who gives life and gives it +abundantly, with the thieves and robbers who kill and destroy, we must +interpret the conduct of those whom He describes as destructive of +life--as tending to the diminution of life. Indeed, it is a very deep +and awful truth that all our social action tends in one or other of +these directions. Life, in its proper relation, is the one supreme and +central good; the life of the body is the supreme good of the body; +the life of the spirit is the supreme good of the spirit. And you can +rightly estimate any act or habit or tendency of human conduct only by +determining whether it increases and invigorates the life of men, body +and spirit, or whether it reduces or diminishes their life. Good men +are adding to the life of those with whom they have to do; evil men +are debilitating and depleting the life of those with whom they have +to do. + +Even in our economic relations the final effect of all our conduct +upon those with whom we deal is to replenish or diminish their life. +The wage question is at bottom a question of more or less life for the +wage-worker. Starvation wages are wages by which the hold upon life +of the wage-earner and his wife and children is weakened. Systems of +industry are good in proportion as they enlarge and invigorate the +life of the whole population; evil in proportion as they lessen and +weaken its life. So all industrial and national policies are to be +judged by the amount of life which they produce and maintain--life of +the body and of the spirit. Those strong words of John Ruskin are the +everlasting truth: + +"There is no wealth but life--life including all its powers of love, +of joy and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes +the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is +richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the +utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal and by +means of his possessions, over the lives of others," + +We have here, as you see, the Christian conception--the very word of +the Prince of Life, of Him who came that we might have life, and that +we might have it abundantly. And when His kingdom has come, this will +be the end for which wealth is sought and used in every nation. + +It is possible to use wealth so that it shall be productive of life; +so that the entire administration of it shall tend to the enlargement +and enrichment of the life of men; so that the labor which it employs +shall obtain an increasing share of the goods which it produces; so +that all the conditions under which that labor is performed shall be +favorable to health and life and happiness; so that the spiritual +life, also, of all who are employed shall be nourished by inspiring +them with good-will and kindness, with the confidence in man which +helps us to have faith in God. Such an administration of wealth is +perhaps the very best testimony to the reality of the truth of the +Christian religion which it is possible to bear in this day and +generation. One who handles capital with this clear purpose can do +more to establish in the earth the kingdom of heaven than any minister +or missionary can do. + +But it is possible to use wealth in the opposite way, so that it shall +be destructive rather than productive of life. A man may manage his +industry in such a way that the last possible penny shall be taken +from wages and added to profit; in such a way that the health of his +employees shall be impaired and their happiness blighted and their +hope taken, away. He may do this while maintaining an outwardly +religious behavior and giving large sums to philanthropy. But such +a handling of wealth does more to make infidels than any heretical +teacher or lecturer ever did or can do. + +The fact needs to be noted that all the predatory schemes by which +capital is successfully inflated and nefariously manipulated, and the +community is thus burdened, are deadly attacks upon the life of the +people. They filch away the earnings of the laboring classes. They +increase the cost of rent and transportation and all the necessaries +of life. They extort from the people contributions for which no +equivalent has been given, of commodity or service. Thus the burden of +toil is increased and the reward of industry is lessened for all who +work; the surplus out of which life would be replenished is consumed, +and the amount of life in the nation at large is lessened. Every one +of those schemes of frenzied finance about which we are reading +in these days is a gigantic bloodsucker, with ten million minute +tentacles which it stealthily fastens upon the people who do the +world's work, and each one of the victims must give up a little of his +life for the aggrandizement of our financial Titans. When such schemes +flourish, by which men's gains are suddenly swollen to enormous +proportions, somebody must be paying for it, and life is always the +final payment. It all comes out of the life of the people who are +producing the world's wealth. The plethora of the few is the depletion +of the millions. In every great aggregation of workers, the faces of +the underfed are a little paler and the pulses of the children beat a +little less joyously, and the feet are hastened on that journey to +the tomb--all because of those who come to steal and to kill and to +destroy. + +Such is the contrast between beneficent business and maleficent +business. The good business employs men, feeds them, clothes them, +shelters them, generously distributes among them the goods that +nourish life; the bad business contrives to levy tribute on the +resources out of which they are fed and clad and nourished, and thus +enriches itself by impoverishing the life of the multitude. + +And I suppose that we should all find, whether we are engaged in what +is called business or not, that the work which we are doing, the way +in which we are spending our time and gaining our income, is tending +either to the enlargement and increase of the life of those with whom +we have to do or to the impoverishment and destruction of their life; +and that this is the final test by which we must be judged--are we +producers of life or destroyers of life? Is there more of life in the +world--more of physical and spiritual life--because of what we are and +what we do, or is the physical and spiritual vitality of men lessened +by what we are and what we do? Are we helping men to be stronger and +sounder in body and mind and soul for the work of life, or are we +making them feebler in muscle and will and moral stamina? + +When Jesus Christ came into the world the civilization prevailing--if +such it could be called--was under the dominion of those who came +to steal and to kill and to destroy. Rome was the world, and the +civilization of Rome, with all its splendor, was at bottom a predatory +civilization. It overran all its neighbors that it might subjugate and +despoil them; its whole social system was based on a slavery in which +the enslaved were merely chattels; the life of its ruling class was +fed by the literal devouring of the lives of subject classes. Of +course, this civilization was decadent. That terrible decline and fall +which Gibbon has pictured was in full progress. It was in the midst of +this awful scene that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Can anyone +doubt that His heart was full of divine compassion for those who were +trampled on and preyed upon by the cruel and the strong, for those +whose lives were consumed by the avarice and greed of their fellows? +What did He mean when, at the beginning of His ministry in the synagog +where He had always worshiped, He took in his hand the roll of the +prophet Isaiah and read therefrom: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, +because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; he +hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight +to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the +acceptable year of the Lord"--adding as He sat down, under the gaze of +the congregation, "To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your +ears"? What could He have meant but this, that it was His mission to +change the entire current and tendency of human life; to put an end to +the plunderers and devourers; to chain the wolfish passion in human +hearts which prompts men to steal and to kill and to destroy; to +inspire them with His own divine compassion; to give life and to give +it abundantly? And is it not true that so far as men do receive of His +fulness, so far as they are brought under the control of His spirit, +they do cease to be destroyers and devourers of the bodies and souls +of their fellows, and become helpers, saviors, life-bringers? And is +not this included in His meaning when He says: "I am come that they +may have life, and that they may have it abundantly"? + +To-day, then, we hail Him as Prince of Life, the glorious Giver to men +of the one supreme and crowning good. And the manner of the giving is +not hard to understand. He gives life by kindling in our hearts the +flame of sacred love. Love is life. Love to God and man brings the +soul into unity with itself; it is obeying its own organic law, and +obedience to its law brings to any organism life and health and +peace. If the spirit of Christ has become the ruling principle of our +conduct, then we have entered into life, and it is a life that knows +no term; it is the immortal life. If the spirit of Christ has entered +into our lives, then in all our relations with others life is +increased; we are by nature givers of good; out of our lives are +forever flowing healing, restoring, saving, vitalizing influences; and +when all the members of the society in which we move have received +this spirit and manifest it, there are none to bite and devour, to +hurt and destroy; the predatory creatures have ceased their ravages, +and the world rejoices in the plenitude of life which He came to +bring. + +We hail Him, then, to-day, as the Lord and Giver of life. We desire to +share with Him the unspeakable gift, and to share it, as best we may, +with all our fellow men. What we freely receive from Him, we would +freely give. What the whole world needs to-day is life, more life, +fuller life, larger life. We spend all our energies in heaping up the +means of life, and never really begin to live; our strength is wasted, +our health is broken, our intellects are impoverished, our affections +are withered, our peace is destroyed in our mad devotion to that +which is only an adjunct or appendage of life. Oh, if we could only +understand how good a thing it is to live, just to live, truly and +freely and largely and nobly, to live the life that is life indeed! + +Shall we not draw to this Prince of Life and take from Him the gift +that He came to bring? Is not this the one thing needful? We are +reading and hearing much in these days of the simple life. What is it +but the life into which they are led who take the yoke of this Master +upon them and learn of Him? It is a most cheering omen that this +little book of Pastor Wagner's is falling into so many hands and +littering its ingenuous and persuasive plea before so many minds +and in so many homes. If we heed it, it must bring us back to the +simplicity of Christ. Pastor Wagner is only preaching over again the +Sermon on the Mount; it is nothing but the teaching of Jesus brought +down to this day and applied to the conditions of our complex +civilization. It is the true teaching; none of us can doubt it. And I +wish that we could all begin the new year with the earnest purpose to +put ourselves under the leadership of the Prince of Life. I know that +we should find His yoke easy and His burden light, and that there +would be rest for our souls in the paths into which He would lead us. +We should know, if we shared His life, that we were really living; and +we should know also that we wore helping others to live; that we were +doing what we could to put an end to the ravages of the destroyers and +the devourers, and to fill the earth with the abundance of peace. + +Is not this, fellow men, the right way to live? Does not all that is +deepest and divinest in you consent to this way of life into which +Jesus Christ is calling us, as the right way, the royal way, the +blessed way? Choose it, then, with all the energy of your volition, +and walk in it with a glad heart and a hope that maketh not ashamed. + + + + +CLIFFORD + +THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +John Clifford, Baptist divine, was born at Lawley, Derbyshire, +in 1836. He was educated at the Baptist College, Nottingham, and +University College, London. He has had much editorial as well as +ministerial experience and has published a number of works upon +religious, educational and social questions. The Rev. William Durban, +the editor, writing from London of John Clifford in the _Homiletic +Review_, styles him "the renowned Baptist preacher, undoubtedly the +most conspicuous figure in his own denomination." He speaks of "the +profundity of thought," "simplicity and beauty of diction," the +"compactness of argument" and "instructive expository character" of +this preacher's discourses. + + + + +CLIFFORD + +BORN IN 1836 + +THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS + +_I believe in the forgiveness of sins_.--Apostles' Creed. + + +This is the first note of personal experience in the Apostles' Creed. +We here come into the society of men like John Bunyan and go with +them through the wicket-gate of repentance, through the Slough of +Despond, getting out on the right side of it, reaching at length the +cross, to find the burden fall from our backs as we look upon Him who +died for us; and then we travel on our way until we come to the River +of Death and cross it, discovering that it is not so deep after all, +and that on the other side is the fulness of the life everlasting. + +It is a new note, and it is a little surprizing--is it not?--to most +students of this creed that we should have to travel through so many +clauses before we reach it. It scarcely seems to be in keeping with +the spirit and temper of the early Christian Church that we should +have all this analysis of thought, this statement of the facts of +Christian revelation, this testimony as to the power of the Holy +Spirit, before we get any utterance as to that individual faith by +which the Christian Church has been created, and owing to which there +has been the helpful and inspiring fellowship of the saints. + +I say it is a new note, but it is fundamental. When the Creed does +touch the inward life, it goes straight to that which is central--to +that which is preeminently evangelical. Without the doctrine of the +forgiveness of sins you could have no good news for a sinful world; +but with the assertion of this faith as the actual faith of the man, +you have possibilities of service, the upspringing of altruism, the +conquest of self, the enthronement of Christ, the advancement of +humanity after the likeness of Jesus Christ. + +A note it is which is not only fundamental but most musical, +harmonious and gladdening. In the ancient Psalms we hear it +oft--"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his +holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy +diseases." It recurs in the prophets: "I, the Lord, am he that +blotteth out thy sins; yea, tho they be as a thick cloud, I will blot +them out." It is the highest note reached by the singers of the Old +Testament; but it comes to us with greater resonance and sweetness +from the lips of the men who have stood in the presence of Jesus +Christ, and who are able to say, as they look into the faces of their +fellows: "Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto +you the forgiveness of sins from which you could not have been freed +by the law of Moses." With emphasis, with, strength, with fulness of +conviction, with gladdening rapture, these men proclaimed their faith +in the forgiveness of sins, and tho the Creed of the churches travels +slowly after the faith of the early Church, its last note sounds out +a note of triumph: "I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the +resurrection of the body, and life everlasting." + +It is the crown of the whole Creed. It is the flowering of the truths +that are contained in the Creed. Let a man understand God, and let him +have such a vision of the Eternal as Job had, and he is constrained to +say, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." He desires first +and chiefly to know that the true relation between the human spirit +and God which has been broken by sin has at length been rearranged, +and that sin is no longer an obstacle to the soul's converse with a +holy God, but that the ideal relation of the human spirit with the +divine spirit is reestablished by the proclamation of forgiveness. +For, as you know, pardon is not the extinguishing of a man's past; +that cannot be done. What has been done by us of good or evil abides, +it endures; not God Himself can extinguish the deeds of the past. What +forgiveness does is this: it rearranges the relations between the +spirit of man and our Father, so that the sins of the past are no +longer an obstacle to us in our speech with Him, our trust in Him--our +using the energies of God for the accomplishment of His purposes. It +is the restoration of the human spirit to right relations with God. +Forgiveness of sins conies, therefore, at the very start of a right +life. It is the beginning. All else in the spiritual life succeeds +upon this. + +I know there is a theory among us, and I am prepared to endorse it, +that, if we are trained by godly parents in godly homes, we may grow +into the spiritual life, pass into it, as it were, by stages which it +is impossible for us to register. We are largely unconscious of +these spiritual ascents; they are being made by the gracious use +of influences that are in our environment, that reach us through +sanctified folk, and we travel on from strength to strength, and, +then, perchance, in our young manhood or womanhood, there comes a +crisis of revelation, and we discover that we are in such relations +with God our Father, Redeemer, and Renewer as fill us with peace, +create hope and conscious strength. But I assure you that in addition +to this experience there will come, it may be early, it may be late, +some moment in the life when there is discovered to the individual +spirit making that ascent a sense of the awful heinousness of sin; and +tho we may not have such a unique experience of evil as the Apostle +Paul had, and become so conscious of it as to feel, as it were, that +it is a dead body that we have to carry about with us as we go through +life, interfering with the very motions of our spirit; yet we do +approximate to it, and it is through these approximations to +the Apostle Paul that we are lifted to the heights of spiritual +achievement, and are qualified for sympathy with a sin-stricken world, +and inspired by and nourished in a passionate enthusiasm to serve that +world by bringing it into right relations with God. + +When, therefore, a man says, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, +maker of heaven and earth," he is asserting that which, being turned +to its full and true use, carries him to this goal, "I believe in the +forgiveness of sins." For a full and true doctrine of God can only +be heartily welcomed when it is associated with the message of the +forgiveness of sins. Otherwise the visions of the eternal Power may +start in us the cry of Peter: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, +O Lord," When a man asserts his faith in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, +our Lord, who was crucified, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, who +died on the cross; he is himself asserting his faith in the great +purpose for which God sent His Son; even to take away the sin of +the world, to make an end of iniquity, to bring in an everlasting +righteousness; and so out of that faith he prepared for the response +which the soul makes to the workings of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost +within him, and he is able to say from his own knowledge of what God +has been to him, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." + +Friends, you have said this again and again, some of you hundreds of +times. You have asserted it week by week. What did you mean by it? +What exactly was the thought in your heart as the words passed over +your lips, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins"? Was it simply the +recognition of a universal amnesty for a world of rebels? Was it +merely the assertion of your confidence in the goodness of God +irrespective of His holiness? Or when you uttered that faith of yours, +did it mean that you were able to say, "My sins, which were many, +are all forgiven. My sins are forgiven, not may be--that pardon is a +glorious possibility only--but are forgiven, not will be forgiven at +some future time. I am now at peace with God through faith, in our +Lord Jesus Christ"? Could you say that? Was that what it meant; or was +it simply the repetition of a phrase which has been handed down to +you by your predecessors, and which you took up as part of an ordered +service, without putting the slightest fiber of your soul into it? + +Depend upon it, the mere recitation of a creed will not bring you +God's peace, it will not open your heart to the access of His infinite +calm. It will not secure you that emancipation from evil which will +mean immediate dedication of yourself to work for the emancipation +of the world. You must know of yourself, of your own heart and +consciousness, that God has forgiven you. And if you do get that +consciousness, that moment of your life will be marked indelibly upon +the tablet of your memory. The dint will go so deeply into your nature +that it will be impossible for you to forget it. Speaking for myself, +I can at this moment see the whole surroundings of the place and time +when to me there came the glad tidings, "God has forgiven you." "God +was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto +men their trespasses." + +Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Then preach it. Tell it +to other people. Let your neighbors know about it. I do not mean +by preaching at the street corners, but by getting into such close +affectionate touch, with your friends as that you shall be able to +persuade them to disinter the thoughts of their own hearts, and show +the sorrows that are there--sorrows produced by sin. For, believe me, +behind all the bright seeming of human countenances there is a subtle +bitterness gnawing constantly at the heart, consequent upon the +consciousness of failure--the sense of having broken the law of God. I +know that hundreds of people go into the church and tell God that they +are miserable sinners. They do that in a crowd; it is saying nothing. +They no more think of saying it in such a way as to place themselves +apart from their fellows than they would of saying: "I am a thief!" + +Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? What, then, are you going +to do with your faith? + +Prove your faith by your works. Every time you ask God for forgiveness +you should feel yourself pledged to a most strenuous and resolute +fight with the sin you ask God to forgive. The acceptance of pardon +pledges you to the pursuit of holiness, and yet we have to keep on +with this doctrine, because it is not only the very beginning of the +Christian life, but also the continuous need of that life. + +We have to say night by night, "Forgive the ill that I this day have +done." And if we say it as we ought, as really believing that God +forgives us, so that we may not lose heart, may never encourage +despair of final victory, we shall get up next morning resolved to +make a fiercer fight than ever with the evil that sent us on our knees +last night. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Let the joy of +it come to you, and as your own heart overflows with the fulness of +that joy, declare unto others God's salvation, and teach transgressors +His way. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Then find in that +faith an impact to obedience to the law of Jesus: "Be ye perfect even +as your Father in heaven is perfect"; and do not forget that He who +begins the good work in you with His pardon will carry it on to the +day of Jesus Christ; so that you may add the last words of the +Creed: "I believe in the resurrection from the dead and in the life +everlasting." + +It is not altogether a good sign that we have pushed eternity out of +our modern thought. Confronted as man is every moment by a sense of +the fragility and the brevity of human life, it is not surprizing +that we should welcome everybody who comes with a message concerning +eternity. + +Is there not, in truth, beauty in the old Anglo-Saxon story of the +bird that shot in at one open window of the large assembly hall and +out at another, where were gathered together a great company of thanes +and vassals; and when the missionary was asked to speak to them +concerning God and His salvation, the thane who was presiding rose +and said, recalling the bird's speedy flight from side to side of +the hall, "Such is our life, and if this man can tell us anything +concerning the place to which we are going, let him stand up and be +heard." Brothers, a few days may carry us into eternity. "Boast not +thyself of to-morrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." +Strong, hopeful, rich in promise of service is to-day; to-morrow +friends may be weeping, kith and kin full of sorrow for our +departure. This life does not end all; we are going to an eternity of +blessedness, to progress without limit, to an assimilation with God +that shall know no sudden break or failure, but shall be perfect, even +as He is perfect. + + + + +MOODY + +WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Dwight Lyman Moody, the evangelist, was born at Northfield, +Massachusetts, in 1837, and died in 1899. As a business man he brought +to his evangelistic work exceptional tact, initiative, and executive +ability, but the main source of his power lay in his knowledge of the +Bible, his constant companion. In preaching he largely disregarded +form, and thought little of the sermon as such. His one overwhelming +and undeviating purpose was to lead men to Christ. His speaking was in +a kind of monotone, but his straightforward plainness never failed to +be effective. He usually held the Bible in his hand while speaking, +so that there was little of gesture. His great sympathetic nature is +spoken of by Henry Drummond in these words: + +"If eloquence is measured by its effect upon an audience, and not by +its balanced sentences and cumulative periods, then this is eloquence +of the highest sort. In sheer persuasiveness Mr. Moody has few equals, +and rugged as his preaching may seem to some, there is in it a pathos +of a quality which few orators have ever reached, and an appealing +tenderness which not only wholly redeems it, but raises it, not +unseldom, almost to sublimity." + + + + +MOODY + +1837--1899 + +WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?[1] + +[Footnote 1: By permission of the Fleming H. Revell Company, owners of +copyright.] + +_What think ye of Christ_?--Matt, xxii., 42. + + +I suppose there is no one here who has not thought more or less about +Christ. You have heard about Him, and read about Him, and heard men +preach about Him. For eighteen hundred years men have been talking +about Him and thinking about Him; and some have their minds made up +about who He is, and doubtless some have not. And altho all these +years have rolled away, this question comes up, addresst to each of +us, to-day, "What think ye of Christ?" + +I do not know why it should not be thought a proper question for one +man to put to another. If I were to ask you what you think of any of +your prominent men, you would already have your mind made up about +him. If I were to ask you what you thought of your noble queen, you +would speak right out and tell me your opinion in a minute. + +If I were to ask about your prime minister, you would tell me freely +what you had for or against him. And why should not people make up +their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ, and take their stand for or +against Him? If you think well of Him, why not speak well of Him and +range yourselves on His side? And if you think ill of Him, and believe +Him to be an impostor, and that He did not die to save the world, why +not lift up your voice and say you are against Him? It would be a +happy day for Christianity if men would just take sides--if we could +know positively who is really for Him and who is against Him. + +It is of very little importance what the world thinks of any one else. +The queen and the statesman, the peers and the princes, must soon be +gone. Yes; it matters little, comparatively, what we think of them. +Their lives can only interest a few; but every living soul on the face +of the earth is concerned with this Man. The question for the world +is, "What think ye of Christ?" + +I do not ask you what you think of the Established Church, or of the +Presbyterians, or the Baptists, or the Roman Catholics; I do not ask +you what you think of this minister or that, of this doctrine or that; +but I want to ask you what you think of the living person of Christ? + +I should like to ask, Was He really the Son of God--the great God-Man? +Did He leave heaven and come down to this world for a purpose? Was it +really to seek and to save? I should like to begin with the manger, +and to follow Him up through the thirty-three years He was here upon +earth. I should ask you what you think of His coming into this world +and being born in a manger when it might have been a palace; why He +left the grandeur and the glory of heaven, and the royal retinue of +angels; why He passed by palaces and crowns and dominion and came down +here alone. + +I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a teacher. He spake +as never man spake. I should like to take Him up as a preacher. I +should like to bring you to that mountain-side, that we might listen +to the words as they fall from His gentle lips. Talk about the +preachers of the present day! I would rather a thousand times be five +minutes at the feet of Christ than listen a lifetime to all the wise +men in the world. He used just to hang truth upon anything. Yonder is +a sower, a fox, a bird, and He just gathers the truth around them, so +that you cannot see a fox, a sower, or a bird, without thinking what +Jesus said. Yonder is a lily of the valley; you cannot see it without +thinking of His words, "They toil not, neither do they spin." + +He makes the little sparrow chirping in the air preach to us. How +fresh those wonderful sermons are, how they live to-day! How we love +to tell them to our children, how the children love to hear! "Tell me +a story about Jesus," how often we hear it; how the little ones love +His sermons! No story-book in the world will ever interest them like +the stories that He told. And yet how profound He was; how He puzzled +the wise men; how the scribes and the Pharisees would never fathom +Him! Oh, do you not think He was a wonderful preacher? + +I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a physician. A man +would soon have a reputation as a doctor if he could cure as Christ +did. No case was ever brought to Him but what He was a match for. He +had but to speak the word, and disease fled before Him. Here comes a +man covered with leprosy. + +"Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean," he cried. + +"I will," says the Great Physician, and in an instant the leprosy is +gone. The world has hospitals for incurable diseases; but there were +no incurable diseases with Him. + +Now, see Him in the little home at Bethany, binding up the wounded +hearts of Martha and Mary, and tell me what you think of Him as +a comforter. He is a husband to the widow and a father to the +fatherless. The weary may find a resting-place upon that breast, and +the friendless may reckon Him their friend. He never varies. He never +fails, He never dies. His sympathy is ever fresh, His love is ever +free. Oh, widow and orphans, oh, sorrowing and mourning, will you not +thank God for Christ the comforter? + +But these are not the points I wish to take up. Let us go to those who +knew Christ, and ask what they thought of Him. If you want to find out +what a man is nowadays, you inquire about him from those who know him +best. I do not wish to be partial; we will go to His enemies, and to +His friends. We will ask them, What think ye of Christ? We will ask +His friends and His enemies. If we only went to those who liked Him, +you would say: + +"Oh, he is so blind; he thinks so much of the man that he can't see +His faults. You can't get anything out of him unless it be in His +favor; it is a one-sided affair altogether." + +So we shall go in the first place to His enemies, to those who hated +Him, persecuted Him, curst and slew Him. I shall put you in the +jury-box, and call upon them to tell us what they think of Him. + +First, among the witnesses, let us call upon the Pharisees. We +know how they hated Him. Let us put a few questions to them. "Come, +Pharisees, tell us what you have against the Son of God, What do you +think of Christ?" Hear what they say! "This man receiveth sinners." +What an argument to bring against Him! Why, it is the very thing that +makes us love Him. It is the glory of the gospel. He receives sinners. +If He had not, what would have become of us? Have you nothing more +to bring against Him than this? Why, it is one of the greatest +compliments that was ever paid Him. Once more: when He was hanging on +the tree, you had this to say to Him, "He saved others, but He could +not save Himself and save us too." So He laid down His own life for +yours and mine. Yes, Pharisees, you have told the truth for once in +your lives! He saved others. He died for others. He was a ransom for +many; so it is quite true what you think of Him--He saved others, +Himself He cannot save. + +Now, let us call upon Caiaphas. Let him stand up here in his flowing +robes; let us ask him for his evidence. "Caiaphas, you were chief +priest when Christ was tried; you were president of the Sanhedrin; you +were in the council-chamber when they found Him guilty; you yourself +condemned Him. Tell us; what did the witnesses say? On what grounds +did you judge Him? What testimony was brought against Him?" "He hath +spoken blasphemy," says Caiaphas. "He said, 'Hereafter you shall see +the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the +clouds of heaven.' When I heard that, I found Him guilty of blasphemy; +I rent my mantle and condemned Him to death." Yes, all that they had +against Him was that He was the Son of God; and they slew Him for the +promise of His coming for His bride! + +Now let us summon Pilate. Let him enter the witness-box. + +"Pilate, this man was brought before you; you examined Him; you talked +with Him face to face; what think you of Christ?" + +"I find no fault in him," says Pilate. "He said he was the King of +the Jews [just as He wrote it over the cross]; but I find no fault in +him." Such is the testimony of the man who examined Him! And, as He +stands there, the center of a Jewish mob, there comes along a man +elbowing his way in haste. He rushes up to Pilate, and, thrusting out +his hand, gives him a message. He tears it open; his face turns pale +as he reads--"Have thou nothing to do with this just man, for I have +suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." It is from +Pilate's wife--her testimony to Christ. You want to know what His +enemies thought of Him? You want to know what a heathen, thought? +Well, here it is, "no fault in him"; and the wife of a heathen, "this +just man." + +And now, look--in comes Judas. He ought to make a good witness. Let us +address him. "Come, tell us, Judas, what think ye of Christ? You +knew the Master well; you sold Him for thirty pieces of silver; you +betrayed Him with a kiss; you saw Him perform those miracles; you were +with Him in Jerusalem. In Bethany, when He summoned up Lazarus, you +were there. What think you of Him?" I can see him as he comes into the +presence of the chief priests; I can hear the money ring as he dashes +it upon the table, "I have betrayed innocent blood!" Here is the man +who betrayed Him, and this is what he thinks of Him! Yes, those who +were guilty of His death put their testimony on record that He was an +innocent man. + +Let us take the centurion who was present at the execution. He had +charge of the Roman soldiers. He told them to make Him carry His +cross; he had given orders for the nails to be driven into His feet +and hands, for the spear to be thrust in His side. Let the centurion +come forward. "Centurion, you had charge of the executioners; you saw +that the order for His death was carried out; you saw Him die; you +heard Him speak upon the cross. Tell us, what think you of Christ?" +Hark! Look at him; he is smiting his breast as he cries, "Truly, this +was the son of God!" + +I might go to the thief upon the cross, and ask what he thought of +Him. At first he railed upon Him and reviled Him. But then he thought +better of it: "This man hath done nothing amiss," he says. + +I might go further. I might summon the very devils themselves and ask +them for their testimony. Have they anything to say of Him? Why, the +very devils called Him the Son of God! In Mark we have the unclean +spirit crying, "Jesus, thou Son of the most high God." Men say, "Oh, +I believe Christ to be the Son of God, and because I believe it +intellectually I shall be saved." I tell you the devils did that. And +they did more than that, they trembled. + +Let us bring in His friends. We want you to hear their evidence. Let +us call that prince of preachers. Let us hear the forerunner; none +ever preached like this man--this man who drew all Jerusalem and all +Judea into the wilderness to hear him; this man who burst upon the +nations like the flash of a meteor. Let John the Baptist come with his +leathern girdle and his hairy coat, and let him tell us what he thinks +of Christ. His words, tho they were echoed in the wilderness of +Palestine, are written in the Book forever, "Behold the Lamb of God +which taketh away the sin of the world!" This is what John the Baptist +thought of him. "I bear record that He is the Son of God." No wonder +he drew all Jerusalem and Judea to him, because he preached Christ. +And whenever men preach Christ, they are sure to have plenty of +followers. + +Let us bring in Peter, who was with Him on the mount of +transfiguration, who was with Him the night He was betrayed. Come, +Peter, tell us what you think of Christ. Stand in this witness-box and +testify of Him. You denied Him once. You said, with a curse, you did +not know Him. Was it true, Peter? Don't you know Him? "Know Him!" I +can imagine Peter saying: "It was a lie I told then. I did know +Him." Afterward I can hear him charging home their guilt upon these +Jerusalem sinners. He calls Him "both Lord and Christ." Such was the +testimony on the day of Pentecost. "God had made that same Jesus +both Lord and Christ." And tradition tells us that when they came to +execute Peter he felt he was not worthy to die in the way his Master +died, and he requested to be crucified with the head downward. So much +did Peter think of Him! + +Now let us hear from the beloved disciple John. He knew more about +Christ than any other man. He had laid his head on his Savior's bosom. +He had heard the throbbing of that loving heart. Look into his Gospel +if you wish to know what he thought of Him. + +Matthew writes of Him as the royal king come from His throne. Mark +writes of Him as the servant, and Luke of the Son of Man. John takes +up his pen, and, with one stroke, forever settles the question of +Unitarianism. He goes right back before the time of Adam. "In the +beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was +God." Look into Revelation. He calls him "the bright and the morning +star." So John thought well of Him--because he knew Him well. + +We might bring in Thomas, the doubting disciple. You doubted Him, +Thomas? You would not believe He had risen, and you put your fingers +into the wound in His side. What do you think of Him? + +"My Lord and my God!" says Thomas. + +Then go over to Decapolis and you will find Christ has been there +casting out devils. Let us call the men of that country and ask what +they think of Him. "He hath done all things well," they say. + +But we have other witnesses to bring in. Take the persecuting Saul, +once one of the worst of his enemies. Breathing out threatenings he +meets Him. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" says Christ. He +might have added, "What have I done to you? Have I injured you in any +way? Did I not come to bless you? Why do you treat Me thus, Saul?" And +then Saul asks, "Who art thou, Lord?" + +"I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." You see, He was not +ashamed of His name, altho He had been in heaven; "I am Jesus of +Nazareth." What a change did that one interview make to Saul! A few +years afterward we hear him say, "I have suffered the loss of all +things, and do count them but dross that I may win Christ." Such a +testimony to the Savior! + +But I shall go still further. I shall go away from earth into the +other world. I shall summon the angels and ask what they think of +Christ. They saw Him in the bosom of the Father before the world was. +Before the dawn of creation, before the morning stars sang together, +He was there. They saw Him leave the throne and come down to the +manger. What a scene for them to witness! Ask these heavenly beings +what they thought of Him then. For once they are permitted to speak; +for once the silence of heaven is broken. Listen to their song on the +plains of Bethlehem, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, +which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the +city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." He leaves the +throne to save the world. Is it a wonder the angels thought well of +Him? + +Then there are the redeemed saints--they that see Him face to +face. Here on earth He was never known, no one seemed really to be +acquainted with Him; but He was known in that world where He had been +from the foundation. What do they think of Him there? If we could hear +from heaven we should hear a shout which would glorify and magnify His +name. We are told that when John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, +and being caught up, he heard a shout around him, ten thousand times +ten thousand, and thousands and thousands of voices, "Worthy is the +Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and +strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!" Yes, He is worthy of +all this. Heaven cannot speak too well of Him. Oh, that earth would +take up the echo and join with heaven in singing, "Worthy to receive +power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and +blessing!" + +But there is still another witness, a higher still. Some think that +the God of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. But when Jesus +came out to Jordan, baptized by John, there came a voice from heaven. +God the Father spoke. It was His testimony to Christ: "This is my +beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Ah, yes! God the Father +thinks well of the Son. And if God is well pleased with Him, so ought +we to be. If the sinner and God are well pleased with Christ, then the +sinner and God can meet. The moment you say, as the Father said, "I am +well pleased with Him," and accept Him, you are wedded to God. Will +you not believe the testimony? Will you not believe this witness, this +last of all, the Lord of hosts, the King of kings himself? Once more +he repeats it, so that all may know it. With Peter and James and John, +on the mount of transfiguration, He cries again, "This is my beloved +Son; hear him." And that voice went echoing and reechoing through +Palestine, through all the earth from sea to sea; yes, that voice is +echoing still, Hear Him! Hear Him! + +My friend will you hear Him to-day? Hark! what is He saying to you? +"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and +lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke +is easy, and my burden is light." Will you not think well of such a +Savior? Will you not believe in Him? Will you not trust in Him with +all your heart and mind? Will you not live for Him? If He laid down +His life for us, is it not the least we can do to lay down ours for +Him? If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not to be +willing to take it up for Him? Oh, have we not reason to think well of +Him? Do you think it is right and noble to lift up your voice against +such a Savior? Do you think it is just to cry, "Crucify Him! crucify +Him!" Oh, may God help all of us to glorify the Father, by thinking +well of His only-begotten Son. + + + + +FOWLER + +THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles H. Fowler, Methodist Episcopal divine, was born 1837 in +Burford, Ontario, Canada, was educated at Syracuse University and the +Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ill. He was ordained in 1861 +and after filling pastorates in many places was made president of +the Northwestern University in 1872, but vacated this post to become +editor of the _Christian Advocate_; four years later he was appointed +missionary secretary and in 1884 was elected bishop. He was well-known +as an able preacher and administrator. He died in 1908. + + + + +FOWLER + +1837--1908 + +THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST + +_Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of +his_.--Rom. viii., 9. + + +I read that with the conviction that it is one of the most searching +passages that can be found in the Book of God. It takes hold of the +question of our salvation as a very substantial and thorough question. +It removes indefinitely, almost infinitely, from this problem of our +destiny, all shadow of uncertainty or of doubt. It brings us squarely +to the facts in our character. On the force of this Scripture we are +borne up on to a platform where we stand with our hearts uncovered and +naked before the eye of God. + +This means that the saint must be great in the arduous greatness of +things achieved; that there is no chance for sainthood by any fixt, +imputed plan, but that our real selves shall test and make our real +future. + +I never read this Scripture in the presence of a Christian +congregation without feeling that I have in some way chopped down +through every heart with a great broadaxe. There is no whitewashing +this passage: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none +of his." Not, "He will do tolerably well, but not quite as well as he +might do"; not that he will get on after a fashion, and have quite a +respectable entrance into the city of the great King, tho he may not +push quite as far toward the front as he might have done if he had had +the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. Not that at all; but, if any man have +not the Spirit of Christ, there is not the remotest shadow of a chance +for him: "he is none of his." + +And so I put this at you, asking you, on account of the great fact +that you are going hence, to so apply this critical test to your +hearts and lives that you may see and feel your need, and that you may +take hold on the great supply, and have that actual transformation of +character that will justify you in believing that you have the Spirit +of Christ. + +The success of the missionary cause turns upon exactly the spirit of +this text. I have no faith in the final triumph, of the missionary +cause based upon any other ground than that of the honest, deep-down +conviction of the people of God that the Lord God of Heaven wants this +work done. I am here as a believer in a supernatural gospel--not with +philosophy that may be framed out of the human life of Jesus, but with +a religion that is based upon the supernatural life of the divine +Christ. And I appeal to you on this subject of missions as to a +company of men who believe in the divine authority of the Book of God; +who believe in a blood atonement; who believe in salvation by faith +only; who believe in the pardon of sin and in the regeneration of your +natures; who believe in the power of the Holy Ghost; who believe, in +short, in the sum and substance of an old-fashioned orthodoxy. And I +put this cause upon you as such believers, knowing that, if such +is your position, you have at least the large part of the argument +wrought into the very fiber of your being, by which you cannot stop +short of the conviction that what you have need of for your salvation +other people will need for their salvation. You know that you need a +divine Redeemer; you know that you need the divine pardoning of your +sins; you know that you need the supernatural and divine cleansing of +your hearts; you know that you need the divine, unbreakable promises; +you know that you need this Word, and the way to salvation set forth +in this Book of God, by which you know that there is none other name +given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved. And so I +come to you as to those who have had some experience in supernatural +matters, with the cause based upon this Book of God, asking that your +experience may be made possible for the multitudes beyond, who have +not yet had this opportunity. + +Let us take some of the simpler and plainer things in this question, +that we may come up to it without any hesitation. Now, I do not need +to go into the question as to what God will do with the heathen. I +don't know what He will do with them. I know as much about it as you +do, or anybody else, because I know what the Book says about it. God +knows better about this than I do, and will find a way that I cannot +dream of. But, because the words are not uttered by divine authority, +I dare not stand here and utter any word of hope for any man beyond +the gospel committed to me to preach. This I know: That if the heathen +have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, whether they ever saw the Lord +Jesus or not, they are of His. And this I know: That if this +congregation have not the spirit of the Lord Jesus, tho it may have +seen Him, they are not of His. And this I know: That He will save a +Jew and a Gentile on the same terms; that He will do no better for the +Gentile than He will for the Jew, and no better for the Jew than for +the Gentile. And if there was no other name given under heaven among +men by which an ancient Jew or an ancient Gentile might be saved, that +is true to-day. The Lord Jesus thought that these people needed the +gospel, and that they needed it so much that He actually came and +submitted Himself unto death that they might have the gospel. And +God seems so thoroughly to believe that they need the gospel that He +actually gives His only-begotten Son to die, that they may have the +gospel. He treats the case just exactly as if He thought, at least, +that they do really need this divine Redeemer. He has done, in every +step and process of this great work of world-saving, just exactly as +He would have done had He absolutely thought and believed that they +needed a divine Redeemer. + +And then I understand another thing out of the Book: That the very +last and supreme utterance of the Master on earth grew out of His +conviction that we should do exactly this thing. And see how He comes +up to it, little by little! He does not rush suddenly upon it--He does +not, upon any truth. It is not in the divine plan to flash upon us +in anything. Truths grow; moral ideas grow. They come into the race +little, and hardly able to stand at all; we can barely find them +beneath us in the lower strata of our being. But they struggle into +power and strength until they fill the field of vision. Nearly every +great truth of Old and New Testament Scripture is to be found in +the Book of Genesis. In Genesis you will find the principle of the +atonement; you will find the division of animals into clean and +unclean, foreshadowing sacrifice; you will find the principle of the +acceptance of offerings that came out of the flock, and the rejection +of the offerings out of the field; you will find the pardon of sin and +the giving of covenants--all the essential parts of the New Testament +growing with their roots away back in Genesis. There is the first +declaration of the coming of this wondrous Redeemer. It was so dim and +uncertain that it was hard to tell what it meant; somehow, somewhere, +some time, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." It +was so dim that our first great mother, when she had gotten her first +son, cried out in her joy, "I have gotten a man from the Lord!" She +thought she had the Redeemer, but she had only a murderer. It was +many a century before the Redeemer would come. The truth was unfolded +little by little; a little brighter it shone on the altars of the +patriarchs; it was unfolded a little more in the visions of the +prophets; was exemplified in the ceremonials of the temple; and in the +fullness of time it came with the Master and His disciples and the +outpouring of the Holy Ghost. + +And then see, when the Master comes, how He takes hold of us, knowing +that we are but little, and that we have to be lifted up and enlarged +before we can take in these great truths! He says: "I have more to +tell you: you cannot bear it to-day; I will tell you to-morrow." And +so He gives lesson and instruction, and parable and illustration, all +through. His life, teaching these disciples, chosen on account of +their particular adaptation for the reception of His truth; walking +with them day by day, trying to lift their thought toward the +spiritual and the eternal; teaching them that it is not His plan to +put them on His right hand and His left, and trying to lift them up +toward a spiritual and eternal kingdom. So He keeps on all the time, +lifting them out of their littleness, saying to them later: "You shall +be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the +uttermost parts of the earth." They did not know what to make of that. +He was lifting them out of their narrowness. And so He pushes on still +further with them, lifting them up, until, in the supreme hour of His +earthly history--after His agony, after the cross, after He had broken +asunder the bars of the sepulcher, after He had risen, and been +declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead--He +hovers over the Church, coming down to speak to them by the sea-side +and mountain-side; appearing to them suddenly, vanishing as quickly; +offering His hands to their touch, showing His body to their vision, +yet all the time lifting them up, until He brought them to the thought +and gave to the Church the idea of His ubiquity, saying: "Lo! I am +with you alway, even unto the end of the world"; and they appreciated +the feeling that He was within hand-reach, and that this was a +spiritual kingdom, and that they could take hold upon the great +spiritual forces. And thus He lifted them up and prepared them for +His great truth, until at last, in the supreme moment of His earthly +history, we see Him yonder on the summit of the mount--the earth +beneath Him, the angels gathered above Him--with His hands spread out +over His followers, with the summit of Olivet receding beneath His +feet. He cries out to them: "All power is given unto me in heaven and +in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in +the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching +them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo! +I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And the +unspeakable glory took Him out of their sight. + +That is the supreme utterance of the Master after many a century of +preparation, opening our hearts, bringing us to this great truth, and +that this one thing He wants done is His final charge to believers: Go +everywhere; teach, preach, baptize, agonize, give, sacrifice--out to +the very ends of the earth. And lo! I am with you alway, and you shall +lack no good thing. Surely, there can be no doubt that the Master, at +least, thinks that these people have a great need for this gospel. + +There are some who have an idea that salvation is to be the sum and +substance of what we are. Well, I think that way myself: that, if you +find heaven on the other side of death, you will take it over with +you; if there is any condition of peace, you will take that condition +of peace with you. Death will be no more than going over a seam in +this carpet. The moment after death will differ from the moment before +death in your essential character no more than any two consecutive +moments in your life. If you are a mean, narrow, selfish, ugly, cross +man the moment before death, you will be a mean, narrow, selfish, +ugly, cross man the moment after death. If you find a good character +over yonder, you will take it over with you. If you have a good +character to take over with you, you will have it in the Lord Jesus +Christ here. If you live on that basis, I think this is pretty safe +that those millions out yonder in the darkness, plunged in ignorance +and superstition, knowing nothing about morality and nothing about +heaven--those millions want a chance, that the same law that governs +our lives will govern theirs. I surround my boy with the best possible +opportunities; I watch every book that comes in his hands; I watch +every playmate that I possibly can that comes in his path; I see to +it, as my highest business on this footstool--higher than my call to +this pulpit--that that boy has a fair chance for heaven. If I push him +out into the alley to herd with criminals, and be dandled in the lap +of vice, and be familiar with all corruption, I have no moral right to +expect to meet him in heaven. But if I multiply advantages about him, +give him the best possible books and surroundings, make him at home +with the Lord Jesus, so that he talks about his salvation and life +eternal as he does about matters in the home, I have a good right to +expect that the King will give me His eternal peace. + +Now, I think that the law that holds over my boy holds over all boys +in China and Japan and Hindustan; that, just in proportion as we +multiply the light and the favorable circumstances about them, then in +that proportion we increase their fair chance for heaven. I think it +is sound in philosophy. I believe that, just in proportion as we act +by it, we will be safe. + +Now, they are plunged in darkness. They know nothing about our way +of salvation, nothing about the pardon of sin, nothing about purity, +nothing about righteousness, nothing about heaven. We want to multiply +their chances to rid themselves of sin, and to take hold upon life, +and make their way in the path of peace. And the Master seems to so +think it that He says: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." And +if they will believe it, as I read, they will be saved. "But how can +they believe if they have not heard? And how can they hear without a +preacher? And how can they preach except they be sent?" So the Master +says, Go, send quick, everywhere. That I take to be the teaching of +the Book concerning their needs. + +But there is another side of it, and that is the side that swings in +under the passage I have read this morning, and that is our side of +it, our relation to the cause: "If any man have not the Spirit of the +Lord Jesus, he is none of his." + +Now, what is the spirit of Christ? I will tell you: He came not to be +ministered unto. Please remember that. Not to see how much He could +gather into His own bosom out of the lives of others. Not to be +ministered unto; not to be petted, and dandled, and lifted along and +fed all the way, with no burden and no care and no work--not that. He +came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; to pour out of His +life into the lives of others; to see what He could do to make others +blest; and "to give his life a ransom for many." Not merely to give +the little pittance that He could spare and not know it any more than +one would miss the farthing with which he would buy his ride on the +street car, but to give His life a ransom for many. And if any man +have not that spirit, he is none of His. + +Now I preach you a doctrine of salvation by faith only, and I put the +emphasis on the word only. That is exactly what I need as a sinner: I +want some sort of release from my past transgressions that will give +me a new start. I have gotten behind; I am borrowing money to +pay interest with, and I see no way out. I must have a spiritual +bankruptcy law. Somebody must come in to my relief, or I am +everlastingly undone. And so I preach this blest doctrine of the +Book of God: "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of +yourselves: it (the salvation) is the gift of God." I take salvation +as a divine gift, and take it with a glad heart. It gives me a new +chance; it unhinges my present struggle for heaven from the past +transgressions of my life, and gives me an open door to heaven that I +could not reach on any other platform. And so I preach this doctrine +to sinners, knowing that it is exactly what they need. + +There is another part of it that covers the question of our pardon; +that takes all my past sins and wipes them out; that gives me a new +chance for righteousness. Now mind: That pardon, that new life, that +new chance works out all the time necessarily from my finger-ends; it +shows itself in my life, absolutely, as certainly as it is there; and +if I cannot find the fruit of it in the fruits of the Spirit, in the +interest in God's cause, in patience and teachableness, in gentleness +and love, I have the absolute demonstration that I have not the thing +itself. Saved by faith, kept alive, kept saved by work, in work, by +grace in work. Let me touch that theology just a little. If you +are pardoned, you are pardoned by the Lord in a second, through +faith--when you believe, that is. Pardon is an operation in God's mind +concerning myself; you cannot pardon yourself. God pardons. If we are +pardoned He can do it in a second, when we believe. + +The next step in the case is, that there is not anything in the Book +of God that gives us any ground to believe that in that same faith, or +believing, or pardon, we will be instantly lifted up into the stature +of a man in Christ Jesus. What I mean to say is this: That there is +not one word in this Book that will justify any man in believing that +he may be brought by any process to the stature of a man in Christ +Jesus in a minute. But some good brother will say: "Oh! now I am just +a little afraid that you are striking against that blest old Methodist +doctrine of sanctification." No, I am not. I haven't said anything +about sanctification. But I will. If you are sanctified, or cleansed, +that is God's work, through faith, and He can do it in a second. Now, +understand me definitely, you cannot cleanse yourself. God cleanses +you through faith in the cleansing blood of His Son. It is His work. +You cannot grow into it. You can grow in it, but if you don't grow in +it you may know you are not in it--you are in something else. But you +can grow in it, because it is God's work, and He will do it when you +believe. But what of that? What are you after you are cleansed? I will +tell you. You are a clean baby: that is all. You are not a man in +Christ Jesus; you are only a babe--cleansed, indeed, and greatly +improved by the process, too, but you are not matured. Do not miss, +now, the broad distinction between purity and maturity. You are +purified, through faith, in a second; you are matured through many a +struggle and many a year. God cannot make a twenty-one-year-old saint +in one second less than twenty-one years. There is no platform marked +over with faith upon which a man may step and be lifted up into the +perfect stature of a man in Christ Jesus in a minute. It is not the +teaching of the Book. But all the year, loving, and giving, and +fighting, and praying, and walking in righteousness, you will mature +characters, and by and by you will grow into the manhood in Christ +Jesus that is set before us in the gospel. Now, if you come in here +and tell me that there is a baby over yonder in the next square, that +is three weeks old, and can talk Greek and Latin, and Spanish and +Italian, and solve all the problems in mathematics, I will tell you +that that is a monstrosity, and you don't want that kind of babies in +your house: they will turn you out in a few days. So, if you come +in here and tell me that you have, down in your prayer-meeting, a +spiritual baby three or four weeks old, that can teach all the old +saints, and can tell them all about God, and heaven, and faith, and +theology, and all about everything in the Church, I will tell you +that that is a monstrosity. And you don't want that kind in your +prayer-meeting; they will turn you out before a great while. St. Paul +says: "Ye are born babes, and ye are fed on milk"; and the trouble +with too many of us is that we keep on that diet when we ought to be +eating meat. The Master says: "First the blade, then the ear; after +that, the full corn in the ear." So I am free to say that God's plan +of making saints is to give them the divine germ--if you please, the +supernatural principle; or, as our scientists would say, with proper +environments, "That have the divine initial impulse," but as our +fathers would have said, "They got through at the altar"; born of God, +and then cleansed of God in the true process of education and faith, +they matured at the harvest. God gives us the start and the cleansing, +and we have to do all the rest of it. He will give us opportunity for +growth by loading and goading us, by setting on our track every sort +of force to test us--to "polish us," as the old Hebrew word means. +When Abraham was tested he was "polished." He will put us on such +lines that, if we stand true to our convictions and walk according to +the light we have, He will bring us on to manhood. + +See how wonderfully the Word of God fits down upon this? Take that +remarkable passage that, to me, is as beautiful as anything can be, +where He says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor"--I know what +that means in the struggle under sin--"all ye that labor and are +heavy-laden, and I will give"--I will give: it is mine. You cannot +earn it: you cannot buy it; you cannot find it; you cannot dig it out. +It is mine--"I will give you rest"--the blest pardon that only God can +give. Then, in the very next second and breath, He says: "Take my yoke +upon you"--that means work--"and learn of me"--that is more work--and, +"For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find"--that is yours; +I do not give that to you; that is not mine to give; that is yours. +"Ye shall find rest to your souls." That is the rest that comes from +the crystallization of the character in righteousness; that comes from +the habit of believing, and the habit of obeying, and the habit of +praying; from the habit of righteousness, until the old saint is ready +for any struggle, and never expects to be turned aside. That, I take +it, is God's plan of building up saints, and for fitting them for the +rest that is in God, that abides. + + + + +WHYTE + +EXPERIENCE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Alexander Whyte, senior minister of St. George's Free Church, +Edinburgh, was born at Kirriemuir (Thrums), Scotland, in 1837. He was +educated at Aberdeen University (M.A., 1862), and at New College, +Edinburgh (1862-66), and after being assistant minister of Free +St. John's, Glasgow, from 1866 to 1870, became at first assistant +minister, and later (1873) minister, of Free St. George's, Edinburgh, +a position which be still retains, having had there an uninterrupted +success. He is the author of a number of biographies, his most recent +work being "An Appreciation of Newman." + + + + +WHYTE + +BORN IN 1837 + +EXPERIENCE + +_And patience; experience; and experience, hope_.--Romans v., 4. + + +The deeper we search into the Holy Scriptures the more experimental +matter do we discover in that divine Book. Both in the Old Testament +and in the New Testament the spiritual experiences of godly men form a +large part of the sacred record. And it gives a very fresh and a very +impressive interest to many parts of the heavenly Book when we see how +much of its contents are made up of God's ways with His people as well +as of their ways with Him. In other words, when we see how much of +purely experimental matter is gathered up into the Word of God. In a +brilliant treatise published the other year, entitled, "The Gospel in +the Gospels," the author applies this experimental test even to our +Lord's teaching and preaching. Writing of the beatitudes in our Lord's +Sermon on the Mount that fresh and penetrating writer says: "When our +Savior speaks to us concerning what constitutes our true blessedness +He is simply describing His own experience. The beatitudes are not the +immediate revelation of His Godhead, they are much more the impressive +testimony of His manhood. He knew the truth of what He was saying +because He had verified it all in Himself for thirty experimental +years." Now if that is so demonstrably true of so many of our Lord's +contributions to Holy Scripture, in the nature of things, how much +more must it be true of the experimental contributions that David and +Paul have made to the same sacred record. And we ourselves are but +imitating them in their great experimental methods when we give our +very closest attention to personal and spiritual religion, both +in ourselves and in all our predecessors and in all our own +contemporaries in the life of grace in all lands and in all languages. + +Now by far the deepest and by far the most personal experience of +every spiritually minded man is his experience of his own inward +sinfulness. The sinfulness of his sin; the malignity of his sin; the +ungodliness and the inhumanity of his sin; the dominion that his sin +still has over him; the simply indescribable evil of his sin in every +way: all that is a matter, not of any man's doctrine and authority; +all that is the personal experience and the scientific certainty, as +we say, of every spiritually minded man; every man, that is, who takes +any true observation of what goes on in his own heart. The simply +unspeakable sinfulness of our own hearts is not the doctrine of David, +and of Christ, and of Paul, and of Luther, and of Calvin, and of +Bunyan, and of Edwards, and of Shepard only. It is their universal +doctrine, indeed, it could not be otherwise; but it is also the +every-day experience and the every-day agony of every man among +ourselves whose eyes are open upon his own heart. + +And then, if you are that spiritually enlightened man, from the day +when you begin to have that heart-sore experience of yourself you +will begin to search for and to discover those great passages of Holy +Scripture that contain the recorded experiences of men like yourself. +"I am but dust and ashes," said the first father of all penitent and +believing and praying men. "I am vile," sobs Job. "Behold, I am vile, +and I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I have heard of thee by the +hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor +myself and repent in dust and ashes." And David has scarcely heart or +a pen for anything else. "There is no soundness in my flesh because of +thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. +My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. For, behold, I was +shapen in iniquity." And Daniel, the most blameless of men and a man +greatly beloved in heaven and on earth: "I was left alone and +there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned to +corruption, and I retained no strength." And every truly spiritually +minded man has Paul's great experimental passage by heart; that great +experimental and autobiographic passage which has kept so many of +God's most experienced saints from absolute despair, as so many of +them have testified. Yes! There were experimental minds long before +Bacon and there was a great experimental literature long before the +Essays and the "Advancement" and the "_Instauratio Magna_." + +And then among many other alterations of intellectual insight and +spiritual taste that will come to you with your open eyes, there will +be your new taste, not only for your Bible, but also for spiritual +and experimental preaching. The spiritual preachers of our day are +constantly being blamed for not tuning their pulpits to the new themes +of our so progressive day. Scientific themes are prest upon them +and critical themes and social themes and such like. But your new +experience of your own sinfulness and of God's salvation: your new +need and your new taste for spiritual and experimental truth will not +lead you to join in that stupid demand. As intelligent men you will +know where to find all the new themes of your new day and you will be +diligent students of them all, so far as your duty lies that way, and +so far as your ability and your opportunity go; but not on the Lord's +Day and not in His house of prayer and praise. The more inward, and +the more spiritual, and the more experimental, your own religion +becomes, the more will you value inward, and spiritual, and +experimental preaching. And the more will you resent the intrusion +into the evangelical pulpit of those secular matters that so much +absorb unspiritual men. There is another equally impertinent advice +that our preachers are continually having thrust upon them from the +same secular quarter. And that is that they ought entirely to drop +the old language of the Scriptures, and the creeds, and the classical +preachers, and ought to substitute for it the scientific and the +journalistic jargon of the passing day. But with your ever-deepening +knowledge of yourselves and with the disciplined and refined taste +that will accompany such knowledge you will rather demand of your +preachers more and more depth of spiritual preaching and more and more +purity of spiritual style. And then more and more your estimates of +preaching and your appreciations of preachers will have real insight +and real value and real weight with us. "The natural man receiveth +not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: +neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." But +he that is spiritual discerneth spiritual things and spiritual persons +and he has the true authority to speak and to write about them. + +And then, for all doubting and skeptically disposed persons among +you, your own experience of your evil heart, if you will receive that +experience and will seriously attend to it, that will prove to you +the true apologetic for the theism of the Holy Scriptures and for the +soul-saving faith of Jesus Christ. What is it about which you are +in such debate and doubt? Is it about the most fundamental of +all facts--the existence, and the nature, and the grace, and the +government of Almighty God? Well, if you are really in earnest to know +the truth, take this way of it: this way that has brought light and +peace of mind to so many men. Turn away at once and forever from all +your unbecoming debates about your Maker and Preserver and turn to +what is beyond all debate, your own experience of yourselves. There is +nothing else of which you can be so sure and certain as of the sin and +the misery of your own evil hearts, your own evil hearts so full +of self-seeking, and envy, and malice, and pride, and hatred, and +revenge, and lust. And on the other hand, there is nothing of which +you can be so convinced as that love, and humility, and meekness, +and purity, and benevolence, and brotherly kindness, are your true +happiness, or would be, if you could only attain to all these +beatitudes. Well, Jesus Christ has attained to them all. And Jesus +Christ came into this world at first, and He still comes into it by +His Word and by His Spirit in order that you may attain to all His +goodness and all His truth and may thus escape forever from all your +own ignorance and evil. As William Law, the prince of apologists, +has it: "Atheism is not the denial of a first omnipotent cause. Real +atheism is not that at all. Real atheism is purely and solely nothing +else but the disowning, and the forsaking, and the renouncing of the +goodness, and the virtue, and the benevolence and the meekness, of +the divine nature: that divine nature which has made itself so +experimental and so self-evident in us all. And as this experimental +and self-evident knowledge is the only sure knowledge you can have of +God; even so, it is such a knowledge that cannot be doubted or +debated away. For it is as sure and as self-evident as is your own +experience." And so is it through all the succeeding doctrines of +grace and truth: The incarnation of the divine Son: His life, His +death, His resurrection, and His intercession: and then your own life +of faith, and prayer, and holy obedience: and then your death, "dear +in God's sight." Beginning with this continually experienced need of +God, all these things will follow, with an intellectual, and a moral, +and a spiritual demonstration, that will soon place them beyond all +debate or doubt to you. Only know thyself and admit the knowledge: +and all else will follow as sure as the morning sun follows the dark +midnight. + +And then in all these ways, you will attain to a religious experience +of your own, that will be wholly and exclusively your own. It will not +be David's experience, nor Paul's, nor Luther's, nor Bunyan's; much as +you will study their experiences, comparing them all with your own. As +you go deeper and ever deeper, into your own spiritual experience, +you will gradually gather a select and an invaluable library of such +experiences, and you will less and less read anything else with very +much interest or delight. But your own unwritten experience will, all +the time, be your own, and in your own spiritual experience you will +have no exact fellow. For your tribulations, which work in you your +experience,--as the text has it,--your tribulations are such that in +all your experimental reading in the Bible, in spiritual biography, in +spiritual autobiography, you have never met the like of them. Either +the writers have been afraid to speak out the whole truth about their +tribulations; or, what is far more likely, they had no tribulations +for a moment to match with yours. There has not been another so weak +and so evil heart as yours since weak and evil hearts began to be; +nor an evil life quite like yours; nor surrounding circumstances +so cross-bearing as yours; nor a sinner, beset with all manner of +temptations and trials, behind and before, like you. So much are you +alone that, if your fifty-first Psalm, or your seventh of the Romans, +or your "Confessions," or your "Private Devotions," or your "Grace +Abounding," could ever venture to be all honestly and wholly written +and published, your name would, far and away, eclipse them all. You do +not know what a singular and what an original and what an unheard-of +experience your experience is destined to be; if only you do not break +down under it; as you must not and will not do. + +Begin, then, to make some new experiments upon a new life of faith, +and of the obedience of faith. And begin to-day. If in anything you +have been following a false and an unphilosophical and an unscriptural +way of life, leave that wrong and evil way at once. Be true Baconians, +at once, as all the true men of science will tell you to be. "If we +were religious men like you," they will all say to you, "we would do, +and at once, what you are now being told to do. We would not debate, +or doubt, but we would make experiment, and would follow out the +experience": so all the scientifically minded men will say to you. +Come away then, and make some new experiments from this morning. For +one thing, make a new experiment on secret prayer. And then come forth +from your place of secret prayer and make immediate experiment on more +love, and more patience, and more consideration for other men, +and, especially, for the men of your own household. Be more +generous-minded, and more open-handed, as God has been so +generous-minded, and so open-handed toward you: if that has indeed +been so. Make experiment upon the poor and the needy and help them +according to your ability and opportunity and watch the result of the +experiment upon yourself; and so on, as your awakened conscience, and +as the regenerate part of your own heart, will prompt you and will +encourage you to do. + +Make such experiments as these and see if a new peace of conscience +and a new happiness of heart does not begin to come to you, according +to that great experimental psalm,--"Oh, that my people had hearkened +unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued +their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. He should +have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of +the rock should I have satisfied thee." + + + + +WATKINSON + +THE TRANSFIGURED SACKCLOTH + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William L. Watkinson, Wesleyan minister, was born at Hull, 1838, was +educated privately and rose to eminence as a preacher and writer. +The Rev. William Durban calls him "The classic preacher of British +Methodism." "He ranks," says Dr. Durban, "with Dr. Dallinger and the +Rev. Thomas Gunn Selby as the three most learned and refined of living +preachers in the English Methodist pulpit. Dr. Watkinson is famous for +the glittering illustrations which adorn his style. These are for the +most part gathered from biography, the classics, and science, and +of late years Dr. Watkinson has become more and more addicted to +spiritualizing the aspects of modern scientific discovery. Dr. +Watkinson never reads his utterances from a manuscript. Nor does +he preach memoriter, as far as the language of his addresses is +concerned. They are always carefully thought out and are never +characterized by florid diction. His simple, strong Anglo-Saxon +endears him to the people, for he is never guilty of an obscure +sentence. He is in the habit of saying, 'I have always been aware that +I have no power of voice for declamation, and therefore I can only +hope for success in the pulpit by originality of thought.'" He was +president of the Wesleyan Conference, 1897-1898, and editor of the +_Wesleyan Church_, 1893-1890. He has published several volumes of +sermons. + + + + +WATKINSON + +BORN IN 1838 + +THE TRANSFIGURED SACKCLOTH[1] + +[Footnote: Printed by permission of B.P. Button & Company from "The +Transfigured Sackcloth and Other Sermons," by W.L. Watkinson.] + +_For none might enter into the king's gate clothed with +sackcloth_.--Esther iv., 2. + + +The sign of affliction was thus excluded from the Persian court in +order that royalty might not be discomposed. The monarch was to see +bright raiment, flowers, pageantry, smiling faces only; to hear +only the voices of singing men and singing women; no smatch of the +abounding wormwood of life was to touch his lip, no glimpse of its we +to disturb his serenity. The master of an empire spreading from India +to Ethiopia was not to be annoyed by a passing shadow of mortality. +Now, this disposition to place an interdict on disagreeable and +painful things still survives. Men of all ranks and conditions +ingeniously hide from themselves the dark facts of life--putting these +aside, ignoring, disguising, forgetting, denying them. Revelation, +however, lends no sanction to this habit of passing by the tragedy +of life with averted face; and in this discourse we wish to show the +entire reasonableness of revelation in its frank recognition of the +dark aspects of existence. Christianity is sometimes scouted as "the +religion of sorrow," and many amongst us are ready to avow that the +Persian forbidding the sackcloth is more to their taste than the +Egyptian or the Christian dragging the corpse through the banquet; but +we confidently contend that the recognition by Christ of the morbid +phases of human life is altogether wise and gracious. + +I. We consider, first, the recognition by revelation of sin. Sackcloth +is the outward and visible sign of sin, guilt, and misery. How men +shut their eyes to this most terrible reality--coolly ignoring, +skilfully veiling, emphatically denying it! "The heart from the moment +of its first beat instinctively longs for the beautiful...." We strive +for the right and the true: it is circumstance that thrusts wrong +upon us. What is popularly called sin these philosophers call error, +accident, inexperience, indecision, misdirection, imperfection, +disharmony; but they will not allow the presence in the human heart of +a malign force which asserts itself against God, and against the +order of His universe. That principle which is darkness in the mind, +perverseness in the will, idolatry in the affections, "every passion's +wild excess, anger, lust, and pride,"--the existence of any such +principle they absolutely and scornfully deny. There is no evil in the +universe, all is good, and where everything is good human nature is +still the best. A single substance comprises all that is, and no place +is left for that profoundly decisive and destructive element called +sin; all that we have to do is to descant on the marvelous loveliness +of the world, the serene harmony of the universe, man's love of the +true, the beautiful, and the good. Intellectual masters like Emerson +and Renan. ignore conscience; they refuse to acknowledge the +selfishness, the baseness, the cruelty of society; they are deaf to +the groans of creation; they smile, and expect us to smile, whilst +they clap a purple patch of rhetoric on the running sores of humanity. +No sackcloth must pass their gate, and no craftsman of Ind ever wove +gossamer half so delicate and delightful as the verbal veil with which +these literary artists attempt to conceal the leprosy of our nature. + +And men generally are willing to dupe themselves touching the fact +and power of sin; they are strongly disinclined to look directly and +honestly at that inner confusion of which we are all more or less +conscious. We willingly acknowledge our transgression of the higher +law, that we do the things we ought not to do, and leave undone the +things that we ought to do; we have an unpleasant feeling that all is +not right, nay, indeed, that something is seriously wrong; but we do +not unshrinkingly acquaint ourselves with the malady of the spirit as +we should at once acquaint ourselves with any malady hinting itself in +the flesh. The sackcloth must not mar our shallow happiness. Great is +the power of self-deception, but in no other direction do we permit +ourselves to be more profoundly cheated than we do in this. In the +vision of beautiful things we forget the troubles of conscience, +as the first sinners hid themselves amid the leaves and flowers of +Paradise; in fashion and splendor we forget our guilty sorrow, as +medieval mourners sometimes concealed their cerements with raiment of +purple and gold; in the noises of the world we become oblivious of the +interior discords, as soldiers forget their wounds amid the stir and +trumpets of the battle. With a busy life, a gay life, we manage to +forget the skeleton of the heart, rarely permitting ourselves to look +upon the ominous specter which some way or other has entrenched itself +within us, and which is the bane of our existence. + +Nevertheless, sin thrusts itself upon our attention. The greatest +thinkers in all ages have been constrained to recognize its presence +and power. The creeds of all nations declare the fact that men +everywhere feel the bitter working and intolerable burden of +conscience. And, however we may strive to forget our personal +sinfulness, the cry is ever being wrung from us in the deepest moments +of life, "O wretched man that I am! who can deliver me from the body +of this death?" The sense of sin has persisted through changing +generations; it is the burden of experience and philosophy, and +the genius of the race has exhausted itself in devising schemes of +salvation. + +Aeschylus, Dante, Shakespeare, knew of truth, justice, purity, and +love, of the supreme and eternal law of righteousness; they knew that +man alone of all this lower creation is subject to this transcendental +rule; they knew also that the violation of this highest law lay at the +root of the world's mysterious and complex suffering--in other words, +that sin was the secret of the tragedy of life. The beasts are happy +because they are beasts; they do not lie awake in the dark weeping +over their sins, because they have no sins to weep over; they do not +discuss their duty to God, they do it; whilst, on the contrary, men +are unhappy because being subject to the highest law of all, and +competent to fulfil that law in its utmost requirements, they have +consciously fallen short of it, wilfully contradicted it. We cannot +accept the coat of many colors, whatever the flatterers may say; the +sackcloth is ours, and it eats our spirit like fire. + +Most fully does Christ recognize the great catastrophe. Some modern +theologians may dismiss sin as "a mysterious incident" in the +development of humanity, as a grain of sand that has unluckily blown +into the eye, as a thorn that has accidentally pierced our heel, +but the greatest of ethical teachers regarded sin as a profound +contradiction of that eternal will which is altogether wise and good. +More than any other teacher Jesus Christ emphasized the actuality and +awfulness of sin; more than any other has He intensified the world's +consciousness of sin. He never attempted to relieve us of the +sackcloth by asserting our comparative innocence; He never attempted +to work into that melancholy robe one thread of color, to relieve it +with one solitary spangle of rhetoric. Sin was the burden of the life +of Christ because it is the burden of our life. Christ has done more +than insisted on the reality, the odiousness, the ominousness, of +sin--He has laid bare its principle and essence. The New Testament +discovers to us the mystery of iniquity as ungodliness; its inmost +essence being unbelief in God's truth, the denial of His justice, +the rejection of His love, the violation of His law. The South Sea +islanders have a singular tradition to account for the existence of +the dew. The legend relates that in the beginning the earth touched +the sky, that being the golden age when all was beautiful and glad; +then some dreadful tragedy occurred, the primal unity was broken up, +the earth and the sky were torn asunder as we see them now, and the +dewdrops of the morning are the tears that nature sheds over the sad +divorce. This wild fable is a metaphor of the truth; the beginning of +all evil lies in the alienation of the spirit of man from God, in the +divorce of earth from heaven; here is the final reason why the face +of humanity is wet with tears. How vividly Christ taught that all our +fear and we arise out of this false relation of our spirit to the +living God! Above and beyond all, Christ recognizes the sackcloth that +He may take it away. In the anguish of his soul Job cried, "I +have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men?" +Christianity is God's full and final answer to that appeal. In Christ +we have the revelation of God's ceaseless, immeasurable, eternal love. +In Him we have the satisfaction of God's sovereign justice. Our own +awakened conscience feels the difficulty of absolution; it demands +that sin shall not be lightly passed over; it wearies itself to find +an availing sacrifice and atonement. "Behold the Lamb of God, that +taketh away the sin of the world!" In Him, too, we have that grace +which brings us into accord with the mind and government of God. +Christ reveals to us the divine ideal life; He awakens in us a passion +for that life; He leads us into the power and privilege, the liberty +and gladness, of that life. He fills our imagination with the vision +of His own divine loveliness; He refreshes our will from founts of +unfathomable power; He fills us with courage and hope; He crowns us +with victory. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, +not imputing their trespasses unto them." Sin is ungodliness; Christ +makes us to see light in God's light, fills us with His love, attunes +our spirit to the infinite music of His perfection. Instead of +shutting out the signs of wo, Christ followed an infinitely deeper +philosophy; He arrayed Himself in the sackcloth, becoming sin for us +who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. +We have redemption in His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; he +established us in a true relation to the holy God; He restores in +us the image of God; He fills us with the peace of God that passeth +understanding. + +Not in the spirit of a barren cynicism does Christ lay bare the +ghastly wound of our nature, but as a noble physician who can purge +the mortal virus which destroys us. He has done this for thousands; He +is doing it now; in these very moments He can give sweet release to +all who are burdened and beaten by the dire confusion of nature. +Sin is a reality; absolution, sanctification, peace, are not less +realities. Christ's gate is not shut to the penitent, neither does +He send him empty away. We go to Him in sackcloth, but we leave His +presence in purity's robe of snow, in honor's stainless purple, in the +heavenly blue of the holiness of truth. The Spirit of the Lord God is +upon Him, that He may give to the mourners in Zion beauty for ashes, +the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness. + +II. We consider the recognition by revelation of sorrow. Sackcloth is +the raiment of sorrow, and as such it was interdicted by the Persian +monarch. We still follow the insane course, minimizing, despising, +masking, denying suffering. Society sometimes attempts this. The +affluent entrench themselves within belts of beauty and fashion, +excluding the sights and sounds of a suffering world. "Ye that put far +away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that +lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and +eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the +stall, that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves +instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint +themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the +affliction of Joseph." So do opulent and selfish men still seek "to +hide their heart in a nest of roses." Literature sometimes follows +the same cue. Goethe made it one of the rules of his life to avoid +everything that could suggest painful ideas, and the taint of his +egotism is on a considerable class of current literature which +serenely ignores the morbid aspects of life. Art has yielded to the +same temptation. The artist has felt that he was concerned only with +strength, beauty, and grace; that he had nothing to do with weakness, +agony, wretchedness, and death. Why should sorrow find perpetual +remembrance in art? Pain will tear our bodies, but we will have no +wrinkles on our statues; suffering will rend our heart, but we will +have no shadows on our pictures. None clothed in sackcloth might enter +the gate that is called Beautiful. + +Most of us are inclined to the sorry trick of gilding over painful +things. We resolutely put from us sober signs, serious thoughts, and +sometimes are really angry with those who exhibit life as it is, +and who urge us to seek reconciliation with it. When the physician +prescribed blisters to Marie Bashkirtseff to check her consumptive +tendency, the vain, cynical girl wrote, "I will put on as many +blisters as thee like. I shall be able to hide the mark by bodices +brimmed with flowers and lace and tulle, and a thousand other +delightful things that are worn, without being required; it may even +look pretty. Ah! I am comforted." Yes, by a thousand artifices do we +dissemble our ugly scars, sometimes even pressing our deep misfortunes +into the service of our pride. Many of the fashions and the diversions +of the world much sought after have little positive attractiveness, +but the real secret of their power is found in the fact that they +hide disagreeable things, and render men for a while oblivious of the +mystery and weight of an unintelligible world. + +Nevertheless suffering is a stern fact that will not long permit us to +sleep. Some have taught the unreality of pain, but the logic of life +has spoiled their plausible philosophizing. A man may carry many +hallucinations with him to the grave, but a belief in the unreality of +pain is hardly likely to be one of them. The laughing philosopher is +quite invincible on his midsummer's day, but ere long fatality makes +him sad. There is no screen to shut off permanently the spectacle of +suffering. When Marie Antoinette passed to her bridal in Paris, the +halt, the lame, and the blind were sedulously kept out of her way, +lest their appearance should mar the joyousness of her reception; but, +ere long, the poor queen had a very close view of misery's children, +and she drank to the dregs the cup of life's bitterness. Reason as we +may, suppress the disagreeable truths of life as we may, suffering +will find us out, and pierce us to the heart. Indeed, despite our +dissimulations, we know that life is not a matter of lutes, doves, and +sunflowers, and at last we have little patience with those who thus +seek to represent it. We will not have the philosophy which ignores +suffering; witness the popularity of Schopenhauer. We resent the art +which ignores sorrow. True art has no pleasure in sin and suffering, +in torture, horror, and death; but on its palette must lie the sober +colorings of human life, and so to-day the most popular picture of the +world is the "Angelus" of Millet. We will not have the literature that +ignores suffering. "Humanity will look upon nothing else but its old +sufferings. It loves to see and touch its wounds, even at the risk of +reopening them. We are not satisfied with poetry unless we find tears +in it." We will not have the theology which ignores sin and suffering. +The preacher who confines his discourses to pleasant themes has a +meager following; the people swiftly and logically conclude that if +life is as flowery as the discourse, the preacher is superfluous. +Foolish we may often be, yet we cannot accept this Gethsemane for a +garden of the gods; the most wilful lotus-eater must perforce see the +streaming tears, the stain of blood, the shadow of death. Nature in +the full swing of her pageantry soon forgets the wild shriek of the +bird in the red talons of the hawk, and all other sad and tragic +things, but humanity is compelled to note the blood and tears which +flow everywhere, and to lay these things to heart. + +Christ giveth us the noblest example of suffering. So far from +shutting His gate on the sackcloth, once more He adopted it, +and showed how it might become a robe of glory. He Himself was +preeminently a Man of sorrows; He exhausted all forms of suffering; +touching life at every point, at every point He bled; and in Him we +learn how to sustain our burden and to triumph throughout all the +tragedy. In His absolute rectitude, in His confidence in His Father, +in His hours of prayer, in His self-sacrificing regard for His +fellow-sufferers, in His charity, and patience, we see how the +heaviest cross may be borne in the spirit of victory. We learn from +Him how divine grace can mysteriously make the sufferer equal to the +bitterest martyrdom; not putting to our lips some anodyne cup to +paralyze life, but giving us conquest through the strength and +bravery of reason in its noblest mood, through faith in its sublimest +exercise, through a love that many waters cannot quench nor the +floods drown. Poison is said to be extracted from the rattlesnake for +medicinal purposes; but infinitely more wonderful is the fact that the +suffering which comes out of sin counterworks sin, and brings to pass +the transfiguration of the sufferer. + +Christ teaches us how, under the redemptive government of God, +suffering has become a subtle and magnificent process for the full +and final perfecting of human character. Science tells us how the +bird-music, which is one of nature's foremost charms, has risen out of +the bird's cry of distress in the morning of time; how originally the +music of field and forest was nothing more than an exclamation caused +by the bird's bodily pain and fear, and how through the ages the +primal note of anguish has been evolved and differentiated until it +has risen into the ecstasy of the lark, melted into the silver note of +the dove, swelled into the rapture of the nightingale, unfolded into +the vast and varied music of the sky and the summer. So Christ shows +us that out of the personal sorrow which now rends the believer's +heart he shall arise in moral and infinite perfection; that out of the +cry of anguish wrung from us by the present distress shall spring the +supreme music of the future. + +The Persian monarch forbidding sackcloth had forgotten that +consolation is a royal prerogative; but the King of kings has not +forgotten this, and very sweet and availing is His sovereign sympathy. +Scherer recommends "amusement as a comfortable deceit by which we +avoid a permanent _tete-a-tete_ with realities that are too heavy for +us." Is there not a more excellent way than this? Let us carry our +sorrows to Christ, and we shall find that in Him they have lost their +sting. It is a clumsy mistake to call Christianity a religion of +sorrow--it is a religion _for_ sorrow. Christ finds us stricken and +afflicted, and His words go down to the depths of our sorrowful heart, +healing, strengthening, rejoicing with joy unspeakable. He finds us +in sackcloth; He clothes us with singing-robes, and crowns us with +everlasting joy. + +III. We consider the recognition by revelation of death. We have, +again, adroit ways of shutting the gate upon that sackcloth which is +the sign of death. A recent writer allows that Shakespeare, Raleigh, +Bacon, and all the Elizabethans shuddered at the horror and mystery +of death; the sunniest spirits of the English Renaissance quailed to +think of it. He then goes on to observe that there was something in +this fear of the child's vast and unreasoned dread of darkness and +mystery, and such a way of viewing death has become obsolete through +the scientific and philosophic developments of the later centuries. +Walt Whitman also tells us "that nothing can happen more beautiful +than death," and he has exprest the humanist view of mortality in +a hymn which his admirers regard as the high-water mark of modern +poetry. But will this rhapsody bear thinking about? Is death +"delicate, lovely and soothing," "delicious," coming to us with +"serenades"? Does death "lave us in a flood of bliss"? Does "the body +gratefully nestle close to death"? Do we go forth to meet death "with +dances and chants of fullest welcome"? It is vain to attempt to hide +the direst fact of all under plausible metaphors and rhetorical +artifice. It is in defiance of all history that man so write. It is in +contradiction of the universal instinct. It is mockery to the dying. +It is an outrage upon the mourners. The Elizabethan masters were far +truer to the fact; so is the modern skeptic who shrinks at "the black +and horrible grave." Men never speak of delicious blindness, of +delicious dumbness, of delicious deafness, of delicious paralysis; and +death is all these disasters in one, all these disasters without hope. +No, no, the morgue is the last place that lends itself to decoration. +Death is the crowning evil, the absolute bankruptcy, the final defeat, +the endless exile. Let us not shut our eyes to this. The skeptic +often tells us that he will have no "make-believe." Let us have no +"make-believe" about death. Let us candidly apprehend death for all +that it is of mystery and bitterness, and reconcile ourselves to it, +if reconciliation be possible. If we are foolish enough to shut the +gate on the thought of death, by no stratagem can we shut the gate +upon death itself. + +Without evasion or euphony Christ recognizes the somber mystery. The +fact, the power, the terror of death are displayed by Him without +reserve or softening. And He goes to the root of the dire and dismal +matter. He shows us that death as we know it is an unnatural thing, +that it is the fruit of disobedience, and by giving us purity and +peace He gives us eternal life. The words of Luther, so full of power, +were called "half-battles"; but the words of Christ in their depth and +majesty are complete battles, in which sin, suffering, and death +are finally routed. He attempts no logical proof of immortality; He +supplies no chemical formula for the resurrection; He demonstrates +immortality by raising us from the death of sin to the life of +righteousness, by filling our soul with infinite aspirations and +delights. Here is the proof supreme of immortality. "Verily, verily, I +say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do +also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto +my Father." The moral works are the greater works. Wonderful is the +stilling of the sea, the healing of the blind, the raising of the +dead, but the moral miracles of our Lord express a still diviner power +and carry with them a more absolute demonstration. If, therefore, we +have known the power of Christ delivering our soul from the blindness, +the paralysis, the death of sin, lifting it above the dust and causing +it to exult in the liberties and delights of the heavenlies, why +should we think it a thing incredible that God should raise the +dead? If He has wrought the greater, He will not fail with the less. +Christianity opens our eyes to splendid visions, makes us heirs of +mighty hopes, and for all its prospects and promises it demands our +confidence on the ground of its present magnificent and undeniable +moral achievements. Its predictions are credible in the light of its +spiritual efficacy. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because +of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the +Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that +raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies +by his Spirit that dwelleth in you," Being one with Christ in the +power of purity, we are one with Him in the power of an endless +life. Death has its temporary conquest, but grace reigning through +righteousness shall finally purge the last taint of mortality. Not +through the scientific and philosophic developments of later centuries +has the somber way of viewing death become obsolete; Christ bringing +life and immortality to life has brought about the great change in the +point of view from which we regard death, the point of view which +is full of consolation and hope. In Christ alone the crowning evil +becomes a coronation of glory; the absolute bankruptcy, the condition +of an incorruptible inheritance; the final defeat, an everlasting +victory; the endless exile, home, home at last. Once more, by boldly +adopting the sackcloth Christ has changed it into a robe of light. +"That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, +that is, the devil" + +We cannot escape the evils of life; they are inevitable and +inexorable. We may hide from our eyes the signs and sights of +mourning; but in royal splendor our hearts will still bleed; wearing +wreaths of roses, our heads will still ache. A preacher who complains +that Christianity is "the religion of sorrow" goes on to predict +that the woes of the world are fast coming to an end, and then the +sorrowful religion of Jesus Christ will give place to some purer +faith. "Through the chinks we can see the light. The condition of man +becomes more comfortable, more easy; the hope of man is more visible; +the endeavor of man is more often crowned with success; the attempt +to solve the darkest life-problems is not desperate as it was. The +reformer meets with fewer rebuffs; the philanthropist does not despair +as he did. The light is dawning. The great teachers of knowledge +multiply, bear their burdens more and more steadily; the traditions +of truth and knowledge are becoming established in the intellectual +world. It is so; and those of us who have caught a vision of the +better times coming through reason, through knowledge, through manly +and womanly endeavor, have caught a sight of a Christendom passing +away, of a religion of sorrow declining, of a gospel preached for the +poor no longer useful to a world that is mastering its own problems of +poverty and lifting itself out of disabling misery into wealth without +angelic assistance. This is our consolation; and while we admit, +clearly and frankly, the real power of the popular faith, we also see +the pillars on which a new faith rests, which shall be a faith, not +of sorrow, but of joy." Now, the deepest sorrow of the race is not +physical, neither is it bound up with material and social conditions. +As the Scotch say, "The king sighs as often as the peasant"; and this +proverb anticipates the fact that those who participate in the richest +civilization that will ever flower will sigh as men sigh now. When the +problem of poverty is mastered, when disease is extirpated, when a +period is put to all disorganization of industry and misgovernment, +social and political, it will be found by the emancipated and enriched +community what is now found by opulent individuals and privileged +classes, that the secret of our discontent is internal and mysterious, +that it springs from the ungodliness, the egotism, the sensuality, +which theology calls sin. But whatever the future may reveal, all the +sorrows of life are upon us here and now; we cannot deny them, we +have constantly to struggle with them, we are often overwhelmed by +irreparable misfortune. Esther "sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and +to take his sackcloth from him; but he received it not." In vain do +men offer us robes of beauty, chiding us for wearing the color of the +night; we cannot be deceived by flattering words; we must give place +to all the sad thoughts of our mortality until haply we find a +salvation that goes to the root of our suffering, that dries up the +fount of our tears. + +In a very different spirit and for very different ends do men +contemplate the dark side of human life. The cynic expatiates on +painful things--the blot on life's beauty, the shadow on its glory, +the pitiful ending of its brave shows--only to gibe and mock. The +realist lingers in the dissecting chamber for very delight in +revolting themes. The pessimist enlarges on the power of melancholy +that lie may justify despair. The poet touches the pathetic string +that he may flutter the heart. Fiction dramatizes the tragic sentiment +for the sake of literary effect. Cultured wickedness drinks wine +out of a skull, that by sharp contrast it may heighten its sensuous +delight; whilst estheticism dallies with the sad experiences of life +to the end of intellectual pleasure, as in ornamental gardening, dead +leaves are left on ferns and palms in the service of the picturesque. +But Christianity gives such large recognition to the pathetic element +of life, not that it may mock with the cynic, or trifle with the +artist; not because with the realist it has a ghoulish delight in +horror, or because with the refined sensualist it cunningly aims to +give poignancy to pleasure by the memory of pain; but because it +divines the secret of our mighty misfortune, and brings with it the +sovereign antidote. The critics declare that Rubens had an absolute +delight in representing pain, and they refer us to that artist's +picture of the "Brazen Serpent" in the National Gallery. The canvas is +full of the pain, the fever, the contortions of the wounded and dying; +the writhing, gasping crowd is everything, and the supreme instrument +of cure, the brazen serpent itself, is small and obscure, no +conspicuous feature whatever of the picture. The manner of the great +artist is so far out of keeping with the spirit of the gospel. +Revelation brings out broadly and impressively the darkness of the +world, the malady of life, the terror of death, only that it may +evermore make conspicuous the uplifted Cross, which, once seen, is +death to ever vice, a consolation in every sorrow, a victory over +every fear. + + + +LORIMER + +THE FALL OF SATAN + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George C. Lorimer was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1838. He was +brought up by his stepfather who was associated with the theater, +and in this relation he received a dramatic education and had some +experience on the stage. In 1855 he came to the United States, where +he joined the Baptist Church and abandoned the theatrical profession. +Later he studied for the Baptist ministry, being ordained in 1859. He +died in 1904. His direct and dramatic, pulpit style brought him into +great popularity in Boston, Chicago, and New York. At Tremont Temple, +Boston, he frequently spoke to overflowing congregations. He is the +author of several well-known books, from one of which the sermon here +given is taken as indicating his familiarity with and liking for +dramatic literature. His pulpit manner always retained a flavor of +dramatic style that contributed to his popularity. + + + + +LORIMER + +1838--1904 + +THE FALL OF SATAN[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copyright, 1882, by "The Homiletic Monthly," New York.] + +_I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven_.--Luke x., 18. + + +Whether the "glorious darkness" denoted by the name Satan is an actual +personage or a maleficent influence, is of secondary moment as far +as the aim and moral of this discourse are concerned. If the ominous +title applies to an abstraction, and if the event so vividly +introduced is but a dramatical representation of some phase in the +mystery of iniquity, the spiritual inferences are just what they would +be were the words respectively descriptive of an angel of sin, and of +his utter and terrible overthrow. I shall not, therefore, tax your +patience with discussions on these points, but shall assume as true +that literal reading of the text which has commended itself to the +ripest among our evangelical scholars. + +The Scriptures obscurely hint at a catastrophe in heaven among +immortal intelligences, by which many of them were smitten down from +their radiant emerald thrones. Their communications on the subject +are not specific and unambiguous, and neither can they escape the +suspicion of being designedly figurative; intended, probably, as much +to veil as to reveal. One of the clearest statements is made by Jude, +where he says: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but +left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, +under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day"; and Peter, in +like manner, speaks of God sparing not the angels that sinned, "but +cast them down to hell"; and yet these comparatively lucid passages +suggest a world of mist and shadow, which becomes filled with strange +images when we confront the picture, presented by John, of war in +heaven, with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, "that +old serpent called the devil." Back of them there doubtless lies a +history whose tragic significance is not easily measured. The sad, +imperishable annals of our race prove that sin is a contingency +of freedom. Wherever creatures are endowed with moral liberty, +transgression is impliedly possible. It is, consequently, inherently +probable that celestial beings, as well as man, may have revolted from +the law of their Maker; and a fall accomplished among the inhabitants +of heaven should no more surprize us than the fall of mortals on +earth. Perhaps, after all, there is as much truth as poetry in +Milton's conception of the rebellion, and of the fearful defeat that +overtook its leader:-- + + "Him the almighty Power + Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, + With hideous ruin and combustion, down + To bottomless perdition: there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal fire, + Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." + +An apostle, admonishing a novice, bids him beware of pride, "lest he +fall into the condemnation of the devil." Here presumptuous arrogance +and haughtiness of spirit are specified as the root and source of the +great transgression. Shakespeare takes up this thought:-- + + "Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. + By that sin fell the angels: how can man, then, + The image of his Maker, hope to win by't?" + +And Milton repeats it in the magnificent lines:-- + + "What time his pride + Had cast him out of heaven, with all his host + Of rebel angels; by whose aid, aspiring + To set himself in glory above his peers, + He trusted to have equalled the Most High, + If He opposed; and, with ambitious aim, + Against the throne and monarchy of God + Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud, + With vain attempt." + +Our Savior, also, sanctions this idea in the text. Joining His +disciples again, after their brief separation, He finds them elated +and exultant. They rejoiced, and, apparently, not with modesty, that +devils were subject unto them, and that they could exorcize them at +their pleasure. While they acknowledged that their power was due to +the influence of His name, they evidently thought more of +themselves than of Him. They were given to unseemly glorifying and +self-satisfaction, and were met by the Master's words--half warning, +half rebuke--"I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven." He thus +identifies their pride with that evil spirit which led to angelic +ruin, and seeks to banish it from their hearts: "Rejoice not that the +demons are subject unto you, but, rather, rejoice because your names +are written in heaven." Rejoice not on account of privilege and +power, but on account of grace; for the memory of grace must promote +humility, as it will recall the guilt of which it is the remedy. + +We have, here, a lesson for all ages and for all classes of society--a +lesson continually enforced by Scripture, and illustrated by history. +It deals with the insanity of pride and the senselessness of +egotism. It reminds us, by repeated examples, of the temptations to +self-inflation, and of the perils which assail its indulgence. "Ye +shall be as gods," was the smiling, sarcastic allurement which +beguiled our first parents to their ruin. They thought that before +them rose an eminence which the foot of creaturehood had never +trodden; that from its height the adventurous climber would rival +Deity in the sweep of his knowledge and the depth of his joy. Elated +and dazzled by the prospect, they dared tread through sin to its +attainment, vainly dreaming that wrong-doing would lead to a purer +paradise and to a loftier throne. One step, and only one, in the +gratification of their desires, converted their enchanting mountain +into a yawning gulf, and in its horrid wastes of darkness and of +sorrow their high-blown pride was shamed and smothered. The haughty +king walked on the terrace heights of Babylon, and, beneath the calm +splendor of an Assyrian sky, voiced the complacent feeling which +dulled his sense of dependence upon God--as the perfumes of the East +lull into waking-slumber the faculties of the soul. Thus ran his +self-glorifying soliloquy: "Is not this great Babylon that I have +built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for +the honor of my majesty?" Alas for the weakness of the royal egotist! +In an hour his boasting was at an end, and, reduced by the chastening +judgment of the Almighty to the level of the brute creation, he was +compelled to learn that "those who walk in pride the King of heaven +is able to abase." Similar the lesson taught us by the overthrow +of Belshazzar when, congratulating himself on the stability of his +throne, and in his excess of arrogance, he insulted the sacred vessels +which his father had plundered from the temple at Jerusalem. I say +taught us, for the foolhardy braggart was past learning anything +himself. Like the yet more silly Herod, who drank in the adulation of +the mob as he sat shimmering in his silver robe and slimed his speech +from his serpent-tongue, he was too inflated and bloated with vanity +to be corrected by wholesome discipline. Both of these rulers were too +self-satisfied to be reproved, and God's exterminating indignation +overtook them. Like empty bubbles, nothing could be done with them, +and hence the breath of the Almighty burst and dispersed their +glittering worthlessness. Pope John XXI., according to Dean Milman, is +another conspicuous monument of this folly. "Contemplating," writes +the historian, "with too much pride the work of his own hands"--the +splendid palace of Viterbo--"at that instant the avenging roof came +down, on his head." And Shakespeare has immortalized the pathetic doom +which awaits the proud man, who, confident in his own importance and +in the magnitude of his destiny, is swallowed up in schemes and plans +for his personal aggrandizement and power. Wolsey goes too far in his +self-seeking, is betrayed by his excess of statecraft, and, being +publicly disgraced, laments, when too late, his selfish folly:-- + + "I have ventured, + Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, + These many summers on a sea of glory, + But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride + At length broke under me; and now has left me, + Weary, and old with service, to the mercy + Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me." + +It is not difficult to discern the fatal effects of this spirit in +the lives of the great and mighty; but we are frequently blind to its +pernicious influence on the lowly and weak. We do not realize, as we +ought, that the differences between men lie mainly in their position, +not in their experiences and dangers. The leaders of society are +merely actors, exhibiting on the public stage of history what is +common to mankind at large. However insignificant we may be, and +however obscure our station, our inner life is not far removed from +that of the exalted personages who draw to themselves the attention of +the world. The poorest man has his ambitions, his struggles and his +reverses; and the first may take as deep a hold upon his heart, and +the second call forth as much cunning or wisdom to confront, and the +last as much bitterness to endure, as are found in the vicissitudes +of a Richelieu or a Napoleon. The peasant's daughter, in her narrow +circle, feels as keenly the disappointment of her hopes, and mourns as +intensely the betrayal of her confidence, or the rude ending of her +day-dreams, as either queen or princess, as either Katharine of +England or Josephine of France. We do wrong to separate, as widely as +we do in our thoughts, ranks and conditions of society. The palace and +the hovel are nearer to each other than we usually think; and what +passes beneath the fretted ceiling of the one, and the thatched roof +of the other, is divided by the shadowy line of mere externalities. +And so it happens that the fall of an angel may be pertinent to the +state of a fisherman-disciple, and the fall of a prime minister or +ruler have its message of warning for the tradesman and mechanic. + +Indeed, it will generally be found that the failures of life, and the +worse than failures, are mainly due to the same cause which emptied +heavenly thrones of their angelic occupants. What is it, let me ask, +that comes into clearer prominence as the Washington tragedy[1] is +being investigated and scrutinized? Is it not that a diseased egotism, +or perhaps it would be more correct to say, a stalwart egotism, robbed +this country of its ruler, committed "most sacrilegious murder," and +"broke ope" + + "The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence + The life o' the building." + +[Footnote 1: The assassination of President Garfield.] + +Like bloody Macbeth, who greedily drank in the prognostications of the +weird sisters, tho he feared that the "supernatural soliciting" could +not be good, because they pandered to his monstrous self-infatuation, +Guiteau, having wrought himself up through many years of +self-complacency, claims to have believed that the divine Being had +chosen him to do a deed which has filled the earth with horror. Thus +the growth of self-conceit into mammoth proportions tends to obscure +the rights of others, and to darken with its gigantic shadow the +light of conscience. If we are to admit the prisoner's story, as the +expression of his real condition prior to the assassination, we look +on one so intoxicated with the sense of his own importance that he +would "spurn the sea, if it could roar at him," and hesitate not to +perform any deed of darkness that would render him more conspicuous. +Others, less heinous offenders than this garrulous murderer, have, +from similar weakness, wrought indescribable mischief to themselves. +The man, for instance, who frets against providence because his +standing is not higher and his influence greater, has evidently +a better opinion of his deservings than is wholesome for him. He +imagines he is being wronged by the Creator--that his merits are not +recognized as they should be--never, for a moment, remembering that, +as a sinner, he has no claims on the extraordinary bounty of his +heavenly Father. From murmuring he easily glides into open rebellion, +and from whispered reproaches to loud denunciations. There are people +in every community whose pride leads them into shameful transactions. +They would not condescend to mingle with their social inferiors, but +they will subsist on the earnings of their friends, and consider it no +disgrace to borrow money which they have no intention of returning. +Their vanity, at times, commits them to extravagances which they have +no means of supporting. They ought to have carriages and horses, +mansions and pictures, with all the luxuries of affluence--at least +so they think--and, being destitute of the resources requisite to +maintain such state, they become adepts in those arts which qualify +for the penitentiary. Others have such confidence in the strength of +their virtue, such commanding arrogance of integrity, that, like a +captain who underestimates the force of an enemy and overrates his +own, they neglect to place a picket-guard on the outskirts of their +moral camp, and in such an hour as they think not they are surprized +and lost. Even possessors of religion are not always clear of this +folly, or safe from its perils. They "think more highly of themselves +than they ought to think"; they come to regard themselves as specially +favored of heaven; they talk of the Almighty in a free and easy +manner, and of Jesus Christ as tho He were not the Judge at all. When +they pray, it is with a familiarity bordering on irreverence, and +when they deal with sacred themes it is with a lightness that breeds +contempt. When they recount the marvels which they have wrought in +the name of Christ, it is hardly-possible for them to hide their +self-complacency; for, while they profess to give Him the glory, the +manner of their speech shows that they are taking it to themselves. +They are like the disciples, who were as proud of their prowess in +casting out devils as children are with their beautiful toys, and +they are as much in need of the Savior's warning: "I beheld Satan, as +lightning, fall from heaven." And because they have failed to give +heed unto it, they have oftentimes followed the Evil One in his +downward course, and in a moment have made shipwreck of their faith. + + "As sails, full spread, and bellying with the wind, + Drop, suddenly collapsed, if the mast split; + So to the ground down dropped the cruel fiend"; + +and earthward have the unsaintly saints of God as swiftly sped, when +they have fostered the pride which changed angels into demons. + +"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" What +more pitiable spectacle than the ruin of an angel! We have seen the +forsaken halls of time-worn and dilapidated castles, have stood in +the unroofed palaces of ancient princes, and have gazed on the +moss-covered and ivy-decked towers of perishing churches, and the +sight of them has tilled our hearts with melancholy, as we thought +of what had been, and of the changes that had swept over the fair, +valiant and pious throngs whose laughter, bravery and prayers once +made these scenes so gay and vocal. All is hushed now, and the silence +is broken only by the hoot and screech of the owl, or by the rustle of +the nightbat's leathern wing. But how much sadder is the form of the +mighty spirit, who once sat regnant among the sons of light, emptied +of his innocence, filled with foul, creeping, venomous thoughts and +feelings, uncrowned, dethroned only with malignity and throned in +evil! The Bible calls him the prince and the god of this world; and +everywhere we are surrounded with evidences of his despotic sway. +Unlike earthly rulers, whose exhausted natures exact repose, he +is ever sleepless, and his plotting never ends. Enter his somber +presence-chamber, and commotion, bustle, activity will confront and +amaze you. He is continually sending his emissaries forth in every +direction. The perpetual wranglings, ceaseless distractions, +irreconcilable contradictions, disquieting doubts, discouraging +outlooks, inharmonious and jangling opinions, unaccountable delusions, +clashing and crashing dissonances, cruel hatreds, bitter enmities and +stormful convulsions, which so largely enter and deface the course of +human history, proceed mainly from his influence. We know that "the +heart of a lost angel is in the earth," and as we know its throbbings +carry misery and despair to millions of our fellow-beings, we can +surmise the intensity of we wherewith it afflicts himself. Mrs. +Browning's Adam thus addresses Lucifer:-- + + "The prodigy + Of thy vast brows and melancholy eyes, + Which comprehend the heights of some great fall. + I think that thou hast one day worn a crown + Under the eyes of God." + +But now the vast brow must wear a heavier gloom, and the eyes betray a +deeper sorrow, as in his ruin he has sought to bury the hopes and joys +of a weaker race. How different his dealings with the race from those +which mark the ministry of Christ! Immortal hate on the one side of +humanity; immortal love on the other; both struggling for supremacy. +One sweeping across the soul with pinions of dark doubts and fears; +the other, with the strong wing of hope and fair anticipations. One +seeking to plunge the earth-spirit into the abysmal depths of eternal +darkness; the other seeking to bear it to the apex of light, where +reigns eternal day. And of the two, Christ alone is called "the +blest." In the agony and anguish of His sufferings He yet can exclaim, +"My joy I leave with thee"; and in the lowest vale of His shame can +calmly discourse on peace. The reason? Do you ask the question? It +is found in His goodness. He is good, and seeks the good of all; and +goodness crowns His lacerated brow with joy. This Satan sacrificed +in his fall; this he antagonizes with, in his dreary career, and so +remains in the eyes of all ages the monument of melancholy gloom. +Thus, also, is it with man, whose haughtiness thrusts him into evil. +He is morose and wretched, crusht beneath a burden of we, which weighs +the eyelids down with weariness and the heart with care, and +which constrains him to curse the hour of his birth. Next to the +grief-crowned angel, there is no more pitiable object in all God's +fair creation than a human soul tumbled by its own besotted pride into +sin and shame. "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold +changed!" aye, changed to dross, which the foot spurns, and which the +whirlwind scatters to the midnight region of eternity. + +In view of these reflections, we can understand the stress laid by the +inspired writers on the grace of humility. We are exhorted to be like +Jesus, who was meek and lowly in heart; and we are commanded to esteem +others better than ourselves. These admonitions are not designed to +cultivate a servile or an abject spirit, but to promote a wholesome +sense of our own limitations, weaknesses and dependence. They would +foster such a state of mind as will receive instruction, as will lean +on the Almighty, and recognize the worthiness and rights of all. Just +as the flower has to pass its season entombed in the darkness of its +calyx before it spreads forth its radiant colors and breathes its +perfume, so the soul must veil itself in the consciousness of its own +ignorance and sinfulness before it will be able to expand in true +greatness, or shed around it the aroma of pure goodness. Crossing the +prairies recently between this city and St. Louis, I noticed that the +trees were nearly all bowed in the direction of the northeast. As our +strongest winds blow from that quarter, it was natural to inquire why +they were not bent to the southwest. The explanation given was, that +the south winds prevail in the time of sap, when the trees are supple +with life and heavy with foliage, and consequently, that they yield +before them. But when the winter comes they are hard and firm, rigid +and stiff, and even the fury of the tempest affects them not. Thus +is it with human souls. When humility fills the heart, when its +gentleness renders susceptible its thoughts and feelings, the softest +breath of God's Spirit can bend it earthward to help the needy, and +downward to supplicate and welcome heaven's grace. But when it is +frozen through and through with pride, it coldly resists the overtures +of mercy, and in its deadness is apathetic even, to the storm of +wrath. Nothing remains but for the wild hurricane to uproot it and +level it to the ground. Such is the moral of my brief discourse. God +grant we may have the wisdom of humility to receive it! + + + + +KNOX LITTLE + +THIRST SATISFIED + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William John Knox Little, English preacher, was born 1839 and educated +at Cambridge University. He has filled many parochial cures, and in +1881 was appointed canon of Worcester, and sub-dean in 1902. He also +holds the vicarage of Hoar Cross (1885). He is of high repute as a +preacher and is in much request all over England. He belongs to the +High Church school and has printed, besides his sermons, many works of +educational character, such as the "Treasury of Meditation," "Manual +of Devotion for Lent," and "Confirmation and Holy Communion." + + + + +KNOX LITTLE + +BORN IN 1839 + +THIRST SATISFIED[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, London.] + +_My soul is athirst for God, for the living God; when shall I come and +appear before the presence of God?_--Psalm xlii., 2. + + +The verse, dear friends, which I have read to you for a text is one +of those verses which justify in the highest degree the action of the +Christian Church in selecting the Hebrew Psalter as, in fact, her +prayer-book. There are many passages, as you will feel with me, in the +Hebrew psalter that express in a very high degree the wants of the +human soul; but perhaps there is no passage more telling, more +touching, more searching, more expressive than that solemn and that +exalted sentiment which is spoken in the text, "My soul is athirst +for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the +presence of God?" The passage is a justification, then, of the action +of the Christian Church. People sometimes ask why in the daily +service, why on Sundays, you rehearse the Psalms, which have about +them so much that is incomprehensible, so much that requires +explanation; why there are those tremendous denunciations of enemies, +why there are those prayers that seem at first sight to touch +wants that we modern people scarcely know; but if you want a real +justification and a handy answer you may fall back upon the general +texture of the psalter as exprest by such solemn words as those of the +text. If you would find any document, any volume that will speak your +thoughts best about and towards eternity, you cannot select a better +than the Hebrew psalter, for the general tone and temper of its +teaching is the cry of the soul for God. + +And then there is another thought upon the threshold of such a subject +that demands our attention. This verse of the text, being a sort of +example or representative verse of the psalter, expresses to us--does +it not?--the attitude and the mission of the Christian Church. The +attitude. For what is the position, dear friends, of the Christian +Church? What are the struggles of Christian souls except, in the midst +of a world that is quite complicated with difficulties, in the midst +of a world that is overwhelmed with sorrow, in the midst of a time of +severe temptation, to constantly rise and gaze high above the thought +of evil, and gaze towards the sun of brightness, and cry for God? And +what is the mission of the Christian Church? Is it not to help men and +women in their struggle and their sorrow to forget at least at times +their pettinesses and degradation to rise to better standards and +loftier ideals, and cry for God? And if that be the mission of the +Christian Church, then I hold--and that is my point this morning--that +that is the justification of such noble efforts as have been made in +your church to enable so great, so sinful a city as London to have at +least moments of relaxation from its world-wide weariness, moments of +pause in the pursuit of its sin, and to call it back from that +which is overpowering tho transient--to ask it to pass them in the +ministrations of religion. What is the object of such a church as +this? Why, buried among your buildings, in the midst of this great, +powerful, sinful city,--why has it a mission for eternity? Why is +it good that you should do your best? Why is it praiseworthy and +beautiful that your rector and churchwardens should have exerted +themselves to the utmost to make this church what it ought to be? +Why? Because there is not a man or woman in London, not one in this +bustling crowd, not one in this confusion of commerce, not one in this +sink of sin, but might say "Yes"--ought to say, and must ultimately +feel, and should now be taught to realize that the soul has one +satisfaction, one only--"My soul is athirst for God, for the living +God." Well, if that be so, can we be wrong, dear friends, can we waste +our time, if we ask ourselves this morning something quite practical +about this thirst of the soul? + +And, first of all, I submit that in such a verse as this, and in such +a work as this, we are face to face with one of those great governed +contrasts that are found throughout Scripture and throughout human +life. I may say, _par parenthese_, that that is one of the great +proofs of sacred Scripture. When your shallow thinker, when your wild +and profound philosopher, kicks the sacred Book with the toe of his +boot, and denounces it because he does not like the measure of Noah's +Ark or the exact activity of Jonah's whale, the moment you begin +to think beneath those mere sharpnesses of speech and those mere +quicknesses of the thought, you say this: "There may be this or that +about the surface of Scripture which I do not and cannot explain, and +cannot entirely understand; but at least there is no book--no, not +excepting Milton; no, not even excepting Dante; no, for us English +people, making no reserve for Shakespeare--there is no book that, +after all, expresses that deep, inner, serious fact of my being, of +my soul, of myself; the fact that lives when our facts are dying; the +fact that persists in asserting itself when the noise of the world is +still; the fact that does not care about daylight only, but comes up +in the dark; the fact that whispers low when I am in the crowd, but +speaks loud in the darkest night, when the clock is ticking on the +stairs, and conscience has stalked out and stood before me, asserting +facts that I cannot contradict--there is no look that can speak that +fact of facts, that thirst, that longing, that desolation, that +desire, that hope, that activity, that possibility of supreme +contention and final victory, there is nothing like the Bible that +does that." And so wise men, while they admit difficulties, thoughtful +men, while they do not controvert the fact that that which is divine +needs larger explanation, fall back upon such great governed truths as +that text to support the Bible. The Bible says, asserts, determines, +and insists upon the truth which the Church is insisting upon, which +you and I, in our better moments, emphasize and say "Amen" to--the +soul is athirst for God. The Bible brings home the great contrast that +is present to us all. + +Let us dwell, that we may realize this thirst of the soul, upon the +contrast. There are, at least, four forms of attraction which are +presented, as I suppose, to your soul, certainly to mine. First of +all, there is the attraction of natural beauty. If you stand on a fair +August afternoon on the terrace, for instance, at Berne, or on the +heights of Chaumont; if you gaze at the distant Alps, crowned with +snow which was generated in winter, but which takes the brightness and +glory of diamonds in the summer sun; if, coming from the noise and +heat of England, you first gaze at that line of strange pointed +mountains crowned with that whiteness, struck with the sunlight, you +are moved by natural beauty. If you stand in America on the upper +reaches of the St. Lawrence, and watch the river as it hurries to its +destiny at Niagara; if you see the tossing water writhing almost like +living creatures anticipating a dreadful destiny and passing over the +fall; or if, rising out of what is tragic in nature, you come to what +is homely--if, for instance, you see the chestnut woods of spring with +an inspiration of quiet joy, or if you see the elms at Worcester or +Hereford in our common England in the autumn time with an inspiration +of sorrow; wherever you turn with eye or head, with a feeling in your +heart, a thought in your mind, nature demands her recognition; and you +London men, in the toil of your struggle, in the noise of your work, +in the dust of your confusion of life, when you get your holiday in +spring or autumn,--unless, indeed, you have passed into the mere +condition of brutes,--while you still keep the hearts of men, you feel +there is something in the apostles of culture, in the teachers of +esthetics, in persons who say that beauty is everything to satisfy the +soul. Nature, you say--and you say it justly--says, "Beauty." You +find a delight as you gaze upon nature. Yes, dear friends, you are +stimulated, you are delighted, you are consoled; there is one thing +which you are not--you are not satisfied. + +Or, quite possibly, you turn to that which seems to English natures +more practical and less poetical--you turn to the attraction of +activity. You say the poets, or the preachers, or the dreamers may +gaze upon nature; but Englishmen have something else to do--we have to +work. You look at the result of activity, and it is splendid. Imagine, +picture for a moment, political achievement; picture to yourselves the +power not only of a mind, but of a personality, of a character +which can attract vast millions who have never gazed upon the human +expression in the human face--can attract them to great love or to +great hatred, can mold the destinies of an empire, can change the +current of the time--think of such men as Richelieu or Cavour, or more +modern instances, and you understand what is the greatness and the +power of the attraction of political activity. Or, to come nearer +home, go into your London city, and watch the working of your London +mart. What have you before you there? The activity of the hearts and +minds of Englishmen, sending out the force of the life that is in them +from the heart that is beating in those tremendous centers to the +distances that are only stopt by the most distant frontiers of the +world. Your sayings and thoughts are quoted throughout the markets of +Europe--yes, throughout the markets of other continents; your actions +and decisions make the difference between the decisions and the +actions of men that you have never seen, that you shall never see. The +Medici were a power in Florence, first as bankers, then as governors. +There are men in London who have power throughout the world, not only +in Florence, not as profest governors, but as practical governors +through the activity of commercial instinct. Certainly, it seems to me +quite possible that there may be minds carried away by such a great +activity; but that great activity I submit to your deeper, quieter +English Sunday thought--that activity will stimulate, will delight, +will attract, will intoxicate; one thing it will not do--I am bold to +say it will never satisfy. + +And if I may take another instance for a moment, there is this pure +intellect, bidding good-by to the political arena, to the commercial +strife, saying farewell to the dreams of beauty, and falling back +upon the cells of the brain, traversing the corridors of thought, and +entering first here and there into that labyrinth of instinct, or +association, or accumulative learning. Certainly, there is a power of +a delight that the world can never realize outside the region of the +brain. If that needs proof you have only, dear friends, to meditate +upon such lives as Newton, or Shakespeare, or Kepler, or if you turn +to the region of meditative thought, to such lives as our own George +Eliot--yes, there is that in the mere exercise of intellect which +is intoxicating, which is consoling even to the highest degree. But +intellect, after all, finds its frontier. I may say of it what I +have said of the esthetic sentiment, what I have said of the active +sentiment in man: it attracts, it delights--what is more, I think +it even consoles; but the one thing I find about it that to me is +perfectly appalling is that it does not satisfy. + +There are many of you perhaps to-day who will demand that I should +take my fourth instance, and will ask that that at least may do its +duty. Will it? There is the region of the affections--that region +wherein we stray in early spring days as pickers of the spring-flowers +of our opening life, where suns are always glorious and sunsets only +speak of brighter dawn, where poetry is in all ordinary conversation +and hope springs to higher heights from hour to hour, where Mays +are always Mays and Junes are always Junes, where flowers are ever +bursting, and there seems no end to our nosegays, no limit to our +imaginations, no fetter to our fancies, no restraint to our desires. +There is the world, the vast, powerful world, of the passions, +purified by exhaustive cultivation into what we call the affections +of a higher life. By them we deal with our fellow-creatures; by them, +when we are young, we form great friendships; by them, as we grow +older, we form around us certain associations that we intend to +support us as life goes off. We have all known it. There is the +friend, there is the sweetheart, there is the wife, there is the +child, there are the dear expressions of the strong heart that after +all beats in Englishmen. But as life goes on, first in one object and +then by anticipation and terror perhaps in others, we watch those who +have been dear to us pass in dim procession to the grave, and we find, +after all, that in the world of affections that old strange law that +pervades one branch of the contrast prevails; it can stimulate, it can +support, it can console, it can delight, it can lead to delirium +at moments, but it does not satisfy. And, my brothers and sisters, +because you and I are born not for a moment, but for infinite moments; +not for the struggle of time, but for the great platform and career of +eternity--because that is so, never, never, never, if we are true to +ourselves, shall we pause in the midst of our mortal pilgrimage until +we find, and grasp, and embrace, and love that which satisfies. When +you awaken up a young heart to that truth, then that heart, as I hold +it, is on the path of conversion. When amidst the struggle of sin you +have determined the soul to strive after that truth, then that soul is +in progress of solid conversion and final perfectibility. But, at any +rate, all human nature joins that cry of the Christian, and the Bible +speaks of it as it always does--its ultimate truth expressing what we +need. No; there are many things given, there are many attractions to +draw; they will stimulate, they will help, they will console, they +will give pleasure; there is one thing that satisfies the immortal, +there is one life that meets your need: "My soul is athirst for God, +for the living God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of +God?" + +Why, dear friends, why is it that these things do not satisfy? There +lies a city in the Volscian Hills, fair and beautiful, climbing in its +peaks and pinnacles up little ledges of the rocks, and down into the +depths of the valleys. And if you wander some two days from Rome, and +gaze upon those mountains, historic in their memories and splendid in +their beauty, you are struck by the tenderness and the attraction of +that city. It is a city of flowers. The flowers stream up its streets +in grave procession; they climb up the pillars of churches, embracing +them and holding on with arms of deep affection; they laugh in the +sunshine, they weep in the shadow, they are shrouded in the clouds of +night, but they blaze again in the blaze of the morning. There is +the dim funereal ivy, there is the brightness and glow of the purple +convolvulus, there is the wild-rose clustering round the windows. They +are lying asleep on the doorsteps, they gather themselves into +knots as if to gossip and to talk in the language of flowers by the +doorways--utterly beautiful! You look at the city with wonder and +astonishment--with desire. How wonderful, you say, that church tower +covered with its flowers; that altar covered with flowers not gathered +and placed in vases, but with Nature's own hand arranging an offering +to the living God. These streets that sound no footfall of an angry +multitude, but that listen to the footfall of a quiet nature--yes, +it is beautiful in the early morning. But stay there until the later +afternoon, when the fog begins to gather; stay there until night-time, +when the miasma begins to rise; stay there until morning, and you +are in danger of destruction from poison. It is a land of flowery +expression; but it is not a land of real life. + +My friends, the activity of man, the poetic faculty of man, all the +gifts and all the capacities of man--they are beautiful, they are +touching, they are attractive; but if they are all, if they express +all that you have to offer, and all that is in you to feel, then they +are hollow, or they-are poisonous, and like that city of flowers. Why? +Because there is in you and me a soul that lies behind our thought, +altho there is more than feeling there--a soul that supports our will, +and is more than our volition. It thinks, but is not thought; it +feels, but is not feeling; it wills, but is not volition. There +is something deeper in man than his esthetic desire or his active +practise, something deeper beneath us all than anything that finds +expression, certainly than anything that finds satisfaction. There is +the self; there is myself, yourself; there is that strange, mysterious +life of loneliness which stands, and thinks, and judges, and +appraises. When, by divine grace, we escape from the voice of the +crowd, and from the cry of custom, from the delirium of desire, that +poor lonely self within us pleads to us in a cry like the call of +the starveling crying to the rich man that passes by, "Oh, will you +gratify desire? Oh, will you gratify pleasure? Oh, will you stimulate +activity, and will you leave me alone? I, yourself, your very self, +the foundation of your life, the permanent expression of your +immortality--I must be satisfied, and being infinite and immortal, I +know but one satisfaction: 'My soul is athirst for God, for the living +God; when shall I come, and appear before the presence of God?'" + +If that be true, or if it be approximately true, dear friends, let us +ask ourselves this morning these questions. Let us be quite practical. +What do you mean, you may say for a moment, by the thirst for God? I +remember long ago in Paris, in conversation with one whom I deem +one of the greatest modern statesmen, tho not one of the most +successful--I remember, when a mere boy, talking to that thoughtful +man just at the moment when he was standing amidst the ruins of his +activity, and gazing with the placid spirit with which a good man +gazes when he feels that he has done his duty, tho the world can see +that he has failed--I remember talking to him on such questions as +these, and what he said, among other things, was this: "In dealing +with mankind and in dealing with yourself you must rise by degrees, +you must advance from point to point; there is a point of achievement, +but you cannot reach the point of achievement unless you have gone +up the ladder of progress." I follow his advice. What do we mean by +thirsting for God? My friends, on the lower round of that ladder, I +mean thirsting for and desiring moral truth. I mean that the soul +within you is thirsting and imploring for the satisfaction of its +moral instincts. Turn for an instant to the ten commandments; they are +trite, they are ordinary, they are placed before you in the east end +of your church, after the old custom of your practical, unaesthetic, +and undreaming England. Ask what they mean. Turn to the second table. +You are to reverence your father and mother. Why? Because they are +the instruments of life that God gives. You are to reverence life in +others in the sixth commandment. Why? Because life is the deepest +mystery that God can possibly exhibit to you. In the seventh +commandment--I scarcely like to say, but yet it is wise to repeat, it +is necessary to assert it--we are to remember, you and I, when we +are young, when we are active, when we are passionate, the great +responsibility of man; you are not to trifle with that awful mystery, +the transmission of life, life which unites itself with eternal love. +You are to remember respect for property, for that which divine +providence has placed by wise laws in the hands of others. You are to +remember that the best of properties is a good character. Finally, in +the tenth commandment, you are not to forget that divine providence +guides you, and you are not to murmur and be angry when He guides you +who knows the best for you, and when you have done your best. And +rising from the second table and coming to the first, you are not to +forget that there is one object for every soul, as the text asserts. +You are not to forget that a jealousy may be created, ought to be +created, if you put anything before God. You are not to grudge God the +restraint of speech, and--thank God, still it is possible to appeal to +the wise instincts of England--you are not to grudge on your Sunday +the gift of your time. These are the outlines of the grave moral law +that runs deep into the heart of the Christian; and I answer, the +thirst for God means the thirst within me to fulfil that grave moral +law. + +But, my friends, pause for a moment. After all, that would only be a +skeleton. After all, simply to draw out the outlines of a picture is +not the work of an artist. Suppose you ask a master in music, "How am +I to produce the real result of stately sound?" He will tell you about +the common cord; he will tell you about the result of its changes and +its affinities, and will speak of those results as harmony; or he will +tell you about the gamut of sounds--sounds found in the wind upon the +mountains, found in the surging sea, found in the voice of childhood, +found in the whisper of your dreams--sound that is everywhere, sound +that wanders up and down this wild, wild universe. He will tell you +all that, and explain how in proper steps, in wise modulations, that +is melody, as the union of sounds is harmony. Is that enough? Would +that produce "The Last Judgment" of Spohr, that made you dissolve in +tears? Would that produce the chorus of Handel that made you almost +rise and march in majesty? Would that fill you with deep thoughts in +Beethoven, or fire you into joy in Mendelssohn? Oh, no! You have your +skeleton, but you have not one thing, the deepest; genius has to touch +with its fire the fact that is before you; you want the mystery of +life. And then suppose you turn to an artist and ask him to guide you +in painting, and he talks to you about light and shadow, about the +laying of the color, about the drawing of lines, about the exact +expression of the distant and the present, of the foreground and the +background, and having learned it all, you produce what seems an +abortion; you ask yourself, "What is the meaning of this?" Is this +enough to make you quiver, in Dresden, before the San Sisto, carried +away by those divine eyes of the "Mother of Eternity," or rent with +sorrow before the solemn eyes of the Child? Is this enough to fill you +with tears of delight when you enter the Sistine Chapel and see St. +John as he kneels with his unshed tears about the dead Christ? What is +there wanting in the touch of your artist? There is wanting genius; +there is wanting life. Or to take one instance more. You ask somebody +to teach you sculpture, to tell you how to make yourself master in the +treatment of stone. He will tell you wise things about the plastic +material that you have to mold with thumb and finger, and then about +the use of the chisel and the hammer to produce the result in the +stone, following the treatment of that plastic material. But when you +have learned it all, can you really believe that you will produce the +effect of that majestic manhood that you see in the David of Angelo +in the Piazza of Florence, or that wise, determined progress that is +exprest in Donatello's St. George? What is the difference between your +failure and the results of those men? Genius--life. And when you turn +to the moral law, and when you ask yourself, "How can I learn to +be athirst for God?" the preachers say, "Accept the moral law; act +exactly in distinct duty to your parents; say, 'Corban, it is a gift +by whatsoever thou mayest be profited thereby'; do your duty strictly +to the letter and nothing more; be conservative about your property; +restrain yourself from desire of change; do not stimulate and do not +satisfy your passions beyond what is exactly exprest in the moral +law." But then, if you speak the truth, you say, "And in the end what +am I? Why, after all, most commonplace, and, in truth, most sinful." +What is the difference? This difference: there wants here the touch of +genius; there wants the touch of life divine, grace that illuminates +the moral law; there wants, my friends, the enthusiasm for goodness, +the science of sciences, the art of arts, the delight and the desire +of doing right because it is right, the great and splendid spirit that +belongs to all of us; and yet it is the highest when the thirst of +your soul is real. Certainly it is to know God's guidance in law; but +what is law? It is to grasp that atmosphere of life and reality which +comes out of the moral law to those who seek it in a living person +first--the desire of goodness, the desire, the love, the enthusiasm, +the ambition, cost what it may, of doing right because it is +right. Oh, my friends, I submit--and I submit it without fear of +contradiction--that is an ambition worthy of Englishmen. Certainly +we are not dreamers; certainly God has given us practical activity; +certainly, whatever we misunderstand, this we can understand, the +thirst of the soul for God is the thirst to love goodness because it +is right. + +And then hastily to conclude, I would say that that thirst is exprest, +that that thirst is satisfied, not only in moral law and in its +atmosphere, but in one thing more that I think we can all understand. +When we read the New Testament, so simple, so straightforward, so +true, so beautiful, with some difficulties, but no difficulties that a +true heart can find insuperable--when we read the New Testament we are +brought face to face with the teachings of Christ. And there is this, +my friends, more about these teachings, that if you are to follow them +out you have not time enough in time; the teachings of our Master +demand eternity--there is something about them infinite, so simple, so +beautiful, and yet we feel that we are insufficient to fulfil them in +this sphere of time. If my soul is athirst for God, it is athirst for +the fulfilment of those great, splendid, practical teachings which +remind me that I am to begin to learn my lesson in this narrow school, +but that I shall fulfil my achievement in that great land beyond the +grave. Is that enough? No; no, when the heart is lonely; no, when the +sun is setting; no, when the clouds are gathering round us; no, when +the storm is coming up. It is useless for the preacher, if he tries to +be real, to talk about law, or the result of law, or the splendor of +teaching; if we know the human heart in its width and its activity, if +it is to find satisfaction it must find it in a personal life. You +may say you cannot know God. That is the ordinary answer of the human +sinning heart, which in modern times calls itself agnostic. Know God! +Well, of course it is truly said that it is by mere license of speech +when you talk of knowledge about human perceptions--it is wisely said. +You perceive a fact, my friend; you must perceive it in itself, and as +it is, and by an intellect that can infallibly state that it is so +and in that manner. Knowledge like that is impossible, I grant; but +between that scientific knowledge and utter unbelief there are shades, +first of all of assent that shuts out doubt, and at last, at the other +pole, of a doubt that almost shuts out assent. Between the two there +are activities of life, and if you are to say, "I cannot know the +personal God with scientific knowledge," I grant it; but you cannot +know anything, not only in theology, but in politics, or social life, +or moral conduct, or conduct that is not moral--you can know nothing, +you can never act at all, because all our action is not on knowledge, +but on belief, and therefore when we turn to a personal life that is +not perceived by the activity of the senses we only demand that you +are to accept that which it is possible to accept in any sphere of +activity, and which you do accept. It is possible for you, according +to the laws of your being, to accept a personal Christ. "But," you +say--and I must remind you of it as I close--"a personal Christ, +but still clothed in human lineaments, a personal Christ who is +mysterious--how can you accept that?" How can you not? My friends, the +human intellect is so framed that it acts habitually upon ideas that +are true yet indistinct. You act on space, you act on time, you have +infinity, you have in your mouth the word "cause." What do you know +exactly about infinity, or space, or time, or cause? The human +intellect, it is truly said, first by the greatest of the fathers, +then repeated by modern thinkers--the human intellect is so great, +first, that it can take exact ideas, and then, because it is infinite, +that it can act instantly upon ideas that are real but indistinct. +Christ--yes, first He is indistinct yet most real--real because He +entered into history, real because He exprest the idea that is in the +brain and heart of us all; indistinct because these little twenty +centuries have separated us from His actual historic life; but a fact +to those who seek Him, because His power is to make Himself an inward +gift to the human soul, because His activity is such that He meets us +on the altar of His sacred sacrament, that He meets us in the divine +Word to express His thoughts, that He meets us in consolation, that He +meets us in absolution, in moments of sorrow and of prayer. Oh, you +are not driven to a distant infinity! Oh, you are not asked to rest +upon a shadow I Oh, you are not besought to play the dreamer or +the sentimentalist, when you think about God! Oh, you are asked to +remember that fair, sweet vision--the vision of a Man so devoid of +vulgarity, that whilst He loved the people He did not despise the +great--the vision of a Man so strong that He could face a multitude, +so tender that He could raise the lost woman, so gentle that the +little children gathered their arms about His neck; the vision of +a Man at home with fishermen, and at home with the high-born, with +thoughts so deep that they permeate modern Christendom, with thoughts +so simple that they taught truth to ancient Galilee; the vision of a +Man who encouraged youth, the One on whom we rest, by whom we hang, in +whom we hope, who sympathizes with all our best desires, who does not +denounce us, but only intercedes and pities; the Man who never places +Himself upon a Pharisaic pedestal, but feels with the child, with the +boy, with the man, with the woman,--the Man of men, the crown of our +humanity, the God in Man, the Man in God, the power of the sacraments, +the force of prayer, the sweet, dear Friend who never misunderstands +us, never forsakes us, never is hard upon us. My friends, it is your +privilege, it is mine, beyond the privilege of the psalmist, to know +in the gospel, to know in the Church, Christ, God exprest in humanity. +Is your soul athirst for the highest? You may find it if you could +come in repentance, if you come in desire, if you come in quiet +determination to do your duty; you may find it satisfied--yes, now +satisfied--in Christ. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The world's great sermons, Volume 8 +by Grenville Kleiser + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS VOL. 8 *** + +***** This file should be named 11693.txt or 11693.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/6/9/11693/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. For example: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11693.zip b/old/11693.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44c08f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11693.zip |