,mornings in the ,college ,chapel ,,short ,,addresses ,,to ,,young ,,men ,,on ,,personal ,,religion ,,by ,,francis ,,greenwood ,,peabody1 ,,plummer ,,professor ,,of ,,christian ,,morals ,,in ,,harvard ,,university ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge ,copyright1 #ahif1 ,by ,,francis ,g4 ,,peabody4 ,all rights reserved4 ,,to ,,my ,,beloved ,,and ,,revered ,,colleagues ,,the ,,preachers ,,to ,,the ,,university ,,and ,,to ,,the ,,sacred ,,memory ,,of ,,phillips ,,brooks ,,of ,,the ,,first ,,staff ,,of ,,preachers ,,who ,,being ,,dead ,,yet ,,speaketh ,,among ,,us ,,in ,,grateful ,,recollection ,,of ,,happy ,,association ,,in ,,the ,,service ,,of ,,christ ,,and ,,the ,,church v ,in the conduct of morning prayers at ,harvard ,university1 the ,preachers to the ,university usually say a few plain words to interpret or enforce the ,bible lesson which has been read4 ,the entire service is but fifteen minutes long1 so that this little address must occupy not more than two or three minutes1 and can at the best indicate only a single wholesome thought with which a young man may begin his day4 ,it has been suggested to me that some of these informal and brief addresses1 if printed1 may continue to be of interest to those who heard them1 or may perhaps be of use to other young people in like conditions of life2 and ,i have therefore tried to recall some of these mornings in the ,college ,chapel4 ,it is now ten years since it was determined that religion in our ,university should be regarded no longer as a part of ,college discipline1 but as a natural and rational opportunity offering itself to the life of youth4 ,it was a momentous transition1 undertaken with the profoundest sense of its seriousness and significance4 ,it was an act of faith1--of faith in religion and of faith in young men4 ,the ,university announced the belief that religion1 rationally presented1 will always have for healthy-minded young men a commanding interest4 ,this faith has been abundantly justified4 ,there has become familiar among us1 through the devotion of successive staffs of ,preachers1 a clearer sense of the simplicity and reality of religion1 which1 for many young men1 has enriched the meaning of ,university life4 ,no one who has had the slightest part in administering such a work can sum up its present issues without feeling on the one hand a deep sense of personal insufficiency1 and on the other hand a large and solemn hope4 ,i have indicated such sources of suggestion for these addresses as ,i noted at the time of their delivery1 but it may well be that some such indebtedness remains1 against my will1 unacknowledged4 ,,cambridge1 ,october1 #ahif4 vii ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,the ,,cloud ,,of ,,witnesses 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #a ,,ii4 ,,not ,,to ,,be ,,ministered ,,unto1 ,,but ,,to ,,minister 4 4 #d ,,iii4 ,,the ,,transmission ,,of ,,power 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #g ,,iv4 ,,let ,,your ,,light ,,shine 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #i ,v4 ,,the ,,centurion 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ab ,,vi4 ,,spiritual ,,athletics 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ae ,,vii4 ,,the ,,rhythm ,,of ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ah ,,viii4 ,,that ,,other ,,disciple 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ba ,,ix4 ,,moral ,,timidity 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #be ,x4 ,,the ,,heavenly ,,vision 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bg ,,xi4 ,,the ,,bread ,,and ,,water ,,of ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cj ,,xii4 ,,the ,,recoil ,,of ,,judgments 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cb ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,incidental 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ce ,,xiv4 ,,learning ,,and ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ch ,,xv4 ,,filling ,,life ,,full 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #da ,,xvi4 ,,taking ,,one',s ,,share ,,of ,,hardships 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dd ,,xvii4 ,,christian ,,unity 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dg ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,patience ,,of ,,faith 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #di ,,xix4 ,,the ,,bond-,,servant ,,and ,,the ,,son 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #eb ,,xx4 ,,dying ,,to ,,live 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ed ,,xxi4 ,,carrying ,,your ,,own ,,cross 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ef ,,xxii4 ,,the ,,poor ,,in ,,spirit 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #eh ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,mourners 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fj ,,xxiv4 ,,the ,,meek 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fb ,,xxv4 ,,the ,,hunger ,,for ,,righteousness 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fd ,,xxvi4 ,,the ,,merciful 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fg ,,xxvii4 ,,the ,,pure ,,in ,,heart 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fi ,,xxviii4 ,,the ,,two ,,baptisms 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ga viii ,,xxix4 ,,the ,,wise ,,men ,,and ,,the ,,shepherds 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gd ,,xxx4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,the ,,angels 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gf ,,xxxi4 ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,hearts ,,revealed 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gh ,,xxxii4 ,,the ,,grace ,,of ,,jesus ,,christ 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #hj ,,xxxiii4 ,,the ,,everlasting ,,arms 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #hc ,,xxxiv4 ,,the ,,comfort ,,of ,,the ,,truth 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #he ,,xxxv4 ,,the ,,sword ,,of ,,the ,,spirit 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #hg ,,xxxvi4 ,,life ,,is ,,an ,,arrow 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #hi ,,xxxvii4 ,,the ,,decline ,,of ,,enthusiasm 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ij ,,xxxviii4 ,,the ,,crown ,,of ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ic ,,xxxix4 ,,the ,,hidden ,,manna ,,and ,,the ,,white ,,stone 4 4 4 4 4 #if ,,xl4 ,,the ,,morning ,,star 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ii ,,xli4 ,,living ,,as ,,dead 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ajb ,,xlii4 ,,the ,,open ,,door 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aje ,,xliii4 ,,behold1 ,i ,,stand ,,at ,,the ,,door ,,and ,,knock 4 4 4 4 #ajg ,,xliv4 ,,he ,,that ,,overcometh 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aaj ,,xlv4 ,,the ,,prodigality ,,of ,,providence 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aac ,,xlvi4 ,,the ,,hard ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aaf ,,xlvii4 ,,the ,,thin ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aah ,,xlviii4 ,,the ,,crowded ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abj ,,xlix4 ,,the ,,patience ,,of ,,nature 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abb ,l4 ,,the ,,distribution ,,of ,,talents 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abd ,,li4 ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,increasing ,,returns 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abg ,,lii4 ,,the ,,christian ,,doctrine ,,of ,,wealth 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abi ,,liii4 ,,the ,,average ,,man 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aca ,,liv4 ,,the ,,overcoming ,,of ,,insignificance 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acc ,,lv4 ,,capacity ,,extirpated ,,by ,,disuse 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acf ,,lvi4 ,,the ,,parable ,,of ,,the ,,vacuum 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ach ,,lvii4 ,,christianity ,,and ,,business 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adj ,,lviii4 ,,making ,,friends ,,of ,,mammon 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adc ,,lix4 ,,coming ,,to ,,one',s ,,self 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adf ,,lx4 ,,popularity 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adh ,,lxi4 ,,two ,,questions ,,about ,,christianity 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aea ,,lxii4 ,,an ,,unrecorded ,,day 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aed ,,lxiii4 ,,the ,,answer ,,to ,,prayer 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aef ,,lxiv4 ,,an ,,impossible ,,neutrality 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aei ix ,,lxv4 ,,the ,,finished ,,life 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #afc ,,lxvi4 ,,attaining ,,to ,,the ,,resurrection 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aff ,,lxvii4 ,,simon ,,of ,,cyrene 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #afh ,,lxviii4 ,,power ,,and ,,temptation 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aga ,,lxix4 ,,loving ,,with ,,the ,,mind 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agd ,,lxx4 ,,am ,i ,,my ,,brother',s ,,keeper8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agf ,,lxxi4 ,,professionalism ,,and ,,personality 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agh ,,lxxii4 ,,the ,,central ,,solitude 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahj ,,lxxiii4 ,,if ,,thou ,,knewest ,,the ,,gift ,,of ,,god 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahb ,,lxxiv4 ,,the ,,wedding ,,garment 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahe ,,lxxv4 ,,the ,,escape ,,from ,,despondency 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahg ,,lxxvi4 ,,the ,,difficulties ,,of ,,unbelief 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahi ,,lxxvii4 ,,knowing ,,god1 ,,and ,,being ,,known ,,of ,,him 4 4 4 4 4 #aib ,,lxxviii4 ,,freedom ,,in ,,the ,,truth 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aie ,,lxxix4 ,,the ,,soil ,,and ,,the ,,seed 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aih ,,lxxx4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,i4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bja ,,lxxxi4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,ii4 ,,our ,,father 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bjc ,,lxxxii4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,iii4 ,,father ,,and ,,son 4 4 4 4 #bje ,,lxxxiii4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,iv4 ,,hallowed ,,be ,,thy ,,name 4 #bjg ,,lxxxiv4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,v4 ,,thy ,,kingdom ,,come 4 4 4 4 #bji ,,lxxxv4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,vi4 ,,thy ,,will ,,be ,,done 4 4 4 #baa ,,lxxxvi4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,vii4 ,,daily ,,bread 4 4 4 4 4 #bac ,,lxxxvii4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,viii4 ,,forgiveness 4 4 4 4 4 #bae ,,lxxxviii4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer3 ,,ix4 ,,temptations 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bag ,,lxxxix4 ,,simplicity ,,toward ,,christ 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bai ,,xc4 ,,open ,,our ,,eyes 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bbb ,,xci4 ,,the ,,word ,,made ,,flesh 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bbd ,,list ,,of ,,bible ,,passages 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bbg #a ,mornings in a ,college ,chapel ,i ,,the ,,cloud ,,of ,,witnesses ,hebrews xii4 #a4 7,,first ,,day ,,of ,,college ,,term7 ,no one can look for the first time into the faces of a congregation like this without thinking1 first of all1 of the great multitude of other lives whose love and sacrifice are represented here4 ,almost every single life which enters our chapel is the focus of interest for a whole domestic circle1 whose prayers and anxieties1 whose hopes and ambitions1 are turning toward this place from every region of this land4 ,out from behind our congregation stands in the background a cloud of witnesses in whose presence we meet4 ,there are the fathers1 earning and saving1 that the sons may have a #b better chance than they2 there are the mothers with their prayers and sacrifices2 there are the rich parents1 trembling lest wealth may be a snare to their sons2 and the humble homes with their daily deeds of self-denial for the sake of the boys who come to us here4 ,when we meet in this chapel we are never alone4 ,we are the centre of a great company of observant hearts4 ,and then1 behind us all1 there is the still larger fellowship of the past1 the historic traditions of the university1 the men who have adorned it1 the inheritances into which we freely enter1 the witnesses of a long and honorable associated life4 ,now this great company of witnesses does two things for us4 ,on the one hand1 it brings responsibility4 ,the apostle says in this passage1 that apart from us they should not be made perfect4 ,every work of the past is incomplete unless the present sustains it4 ,we are responsible for this rich tradition4 ,we inherit the gift to use or to mar4 ,but1 on the other hand1 the cloud of witnesses is what contributes courage4 ,it sustains you to know that you represent so much confidence and trust4 ,it is strengthening to enter into this rich inheritance4 ,you do not have to begin things #c here4 ,you only have to keep them moving4 ,it is a great blessing to be taken up thus out of solitude into the companionship of generous souls4 ,let us begin the year soberly but bravely4 ,surrounded by this cloud of witnesses1 let us lay aside every weight1 and the sin which most easily besets us1 and let us run with patience the race that is immediately set before us in the swiftly passing days of this college year4 #d ,,ii ,,not ,,to ,,be ,,ministered ,,unto1 ,,but ,,to ,,minister ,mark x4 #ce-de4 ,the disciples in this passage were looking at their faith to see what they could get out of it4 ,they wanted to be assured of a prize before they took a risk4 ,they came to ,jesus saying3 ,we would that ,thou shouldest do for us whatever we ask4 ,but ,jesus bids them to consider rather what they can do for their faith4 ,whosoever1 ,he says1 would be first1 is to be the servant for all1 for even the ,son of man comes not to be ministered unto1 but to minister4 ,i suppose that when a man faces a new year of college life1 his first thought is of what it can do for him4 ,he has studied the college programme1 asking himself3 ,what can ,i get out of this8 and now he looks into the year1 with all its unknown chances1 and asks of it3 ,o unknown year1 what happiness and friendship and instruction may ,i get from you8 ,will you not bring to #e pass what ,i desire8 ,i would that thou shouldest do for me whatever ,i ask4 ,then the spirit of ,jesus ,christ meets him here and turns his question round3 ,what are you going to do for the college during this coming year8 ,are you going to help us in our morals1 in our intellectual life1 in our religion8 ,are you going to contribute to the higher life of the university8 ,for what do you come here1--to be ministered unto1 or to minister8 ,of course a man may answer that this is an impossible test2 that there is nothing that he can give to a great place like this1 and everything he can receive4 ,but he little knows how the college from year to year gets marked for good or evil by a class1 or a group within a class1 or sometimes a few persons1 as they pass in and out of our gates4 ,sometimes a group of young men live for a few years among us and leave behind them a positively malarial influence2 and some times a few quiet lives1 simply and modestly lived among us1 actually sweeten and purify our climate for years together4 ,and so in the quiet of our prayers we give ourselves1 not to be ministered unto1 but to minister4 #f ,nowhere in the world is it more true that we are members one of another1 and that the whole vast institutional life is affected by each slightest individual4 ,nowhere in this world is there a better chance to purify the spirit and tone1 either of work or of sport1 and nowhere can a man discover more immediately the happiness of being of use4 ,the recreation and the religion1 the study and the play1 of our associated life1 are waiting for the dedication of unassuming ,christian men to a life which offers itself1 not to be ministered unto1 but to minister4 #g ,,iii ,,the ,,transmission ,,of ,,power ,john xvii4 #bb4 ,this was the glory which ,jesus ,christ claimed for himself--to take the glory of ,god and glorify with it the life of man4 ,the glory that thou hast given me ,i have given them4 ,it was not a glory of possession1 but a glory of transmission4 ,it was not his capacity to receive which glorified him1 it was his capacity to give4 ,in most of the great pictures of the glorified ,christ there is a halo of light encircling and illuminating his face4 ,that is the fictitious glory1 the glory of possession4 ,in a few such paintings the light streams from the ,master's face to illuminate the other figures of the scene4 ,that is the real glory1 the glory of transmission4 ,and such is the only glory in life4 ,a man looks at learning or power or refinement or wealth and says3 ,this is glory2 this is success2 this is the pride of life4 ,but there is really nothing glorious about possession4 ,it may be most inglorious and mean1--as #h mean when the possession is brains or power as when it is bonds or wheat4 ,indeed1 there is rarely much that is glorious or great about so slight or evanescent a thing as a human life4 ,the glory of it lies in its being able to say1 ,the glory that thou hast given me ,i give to them4 ,the worth of life is in its transmissive capacity4 ,in the wonderful system of the telephone with its miracle of intercommunication there is1 as you know1 at each instrument that little film of metal which we call the transmitter1 into which the message is delivered1 and whose vibrations are repeated scores of miles away4 ,each human life is a transmitter4 ,take it away from its transmissive purpose1 and what a poor insignificant film a human life may be4 ,but set it where it belongs1 in the great system where it has its part1 and that insignificant film is dignified with a new significance4 ,it is as if it said to its ,god3 ,the message which ,thou givest me ,i give to them1 and every word of ,god that is spoken into it is delivered through it to the lives that are wearily waiting for the message as though it were far away4 #i ,,iv ,,let ,,your ,,light ,,shine ,matthew v4 #af4 ,at the first reading there certainly seems to be something of self-assertion and self-display about this passage1 as if it said3 ,let your light so shine that people may see how much good you do4 ,but1 of course1 nothing could be farther than this from the spirit of ,jesus4 ,indeed1 his meaning is the precise opposite of this4 ,for he is speaking not of a light which is to illuminate you1 but of a light which is to shine from you upon your works2 so that they1 and not you1 are seen1 and the glory is given1 not to you1 but to ,god4 ,such a light will hide you rather than exhibit you1 as when one holds a lantern before him on some dark road1 so that while the bearer of the lantern is in the darkness1 the path before him is thrown into the light4 ,the passage1 then1 which seems to suggest a doctrine of self-display1 is really a teaching of self-effacement4 ,here is a railway-train thundering along some evening #aj toward a broken bridge1 and the track-walker rushes toward it with his swinging lantern1 as though he had heard the great command1 ,let your light shine before men2 and the train comes to a stop and the passengers stream out and see the peril that they have just escaped1 and give thanks to their ,father which is in heaven4 ,and this is the reward of the plain1 unnoticed man as he trudges home in the dark1--that he has done his duty well that night4 ,he has not been seen or praised2 he has been in the shadow2 but he has been permitted to let his little light shine and save2 and he too gives thanks to his ,father in heaven4 ,here1 again1 is a lighthouse-keeper on the coast4 ,the sailor in the darkness cannot see the keeper1 unless indeed the shadow of the keeper obscures for a moment the light4 ,what the sailor sees is the light2 and he thanks1 not the keeper1 but the power that put the light on that dangerous rock4 ,so the light-keeper tends his light in the dark1 and a very lonely and obscure life it is4 ,no one mounts the rock to praise him4 ,the vessels pass in the night with never a word of cheer4 ,but the life of the keeper gets its dignity1 not #aa because he shines1 but because his light guides other lives2 and many a weary captain greets that twinkling light across the sea1 and seeing its good work gives thanks to his ,father which is in heaven4 #ab ,v ,,the ,,centurion ,matthew viii4 #e-aa4 ,one of the most interesting things to observe in the ,new ,testament is the series of persons who just come into sight for a moment through their relation to the life of ,jesus ,christ1 and are1 as it were1 illuminated by that relationship1 and then1 as they pass out of the light again1 disappear into obscurity4 ,they are like some western-fronting window on which the slanting sun shines for a moment1 so that we see the reflection miles away4 ,then1 with the same suddenness1 the angle of reflection changes1 and the window grows dark and insignificant once more4 ,this centurion was such a person4 ,jesus perhaps never met him before1 and we never hear of him again1 and yet1 in the single phrase1 ,i have not found so great faith1 no1 not in ,israel1 ,jesus stamps him with a special character and welcomes him with a peculiar confidence4 ,how is it that there is given to him this abrupt #ac commendation8 ,why does ,jesus say that he shows more faith than ,israel itself8 ,it was1 of course1 because of the man's attitude of mind4 ,he comes to ,jesus just as a soldier comes to his superior officer4 ,he has been disciplined to obedience1 and that habit of obedience to his own superiors is what gives him in his turn authority4 ,he obeys1 and he expects to be obeyed4 ,he is under authority1 and so he has authority over his own troops1 and says to one soldier ,go1 and to another ,come1 and they obey4 ,now ,jesus sees in an instant that this is just what he wants of his disciples4 ,what discipline is to a soldier1 faith is to a ,christian4 ,a religious man is a man who is under authority4 ,he goes to his commander and gets orders for the day4 ,he does not pretend to know everything about his commander's plans4 ,it is not for him to arrange the great campaign4 ,it is for him only to obey in his own place1 and to take his own part in the great design4 ,perhaps in the little skirmish in which he is involved there may be defeat1 but perhaps that defeat is to count in the victory for the larger plan4 ,thus the religious man does not serve on his own account4 ,he is in the hands of a general1 who overlooks #ad the whole field4 ,and that sense of being under authority is what gives the religious man authority in his turn4 ,he is not the slave of his circumstances2 he is the master of them4 ,he takes command of his own detachment of life1 because he has received command from the ,master of all life4 ,he says to his passions1 ,go2 and to his virtues1 ,come2 and to his duty1 ,do this2 and the whole little company of his own ambitions and desires fall into line behind him1 because he is himself a man under authority4 ,that is a soldier's discipline1 and that is a ,christian's faith4 #ae ,,vi ,,spiritual ,,athletics #a ,timothy iv4 #h4 ,there is this great man writing to his young friend1 whom he calls his own son in the faith1 and describing religion as a branch of athletics4 ,bodily exercise1 he says1 profiteth somewhat4 ,it is as if an old man were writing to a young man today1 and should begin by saying3 ,do not neglect your bodily health2 take exercise daily2 go to the gymnasium4 ,but spiritual exercise1 this writer goes on1 has this superior quality1 that it is good for both worlds1 both for that which now is1 and that which is to come4 ,therefore1 exercise unto godliness4 ,take up those forms of spiritual athletics which develop and discipline the soul4 ,keep your soul in training4 ,be sure that you are in good spiritual condition1 ready for the strain and effort which life is sure to demand4 ,we are often told in our day that the athletic ideal is developed to excess1 but the teaching of this passage is just the opposite of #af the modern warning4 ,paul tells this young man that he has not begun to realize the full scope of the athletic ideal4 ,is not this the real difficulty now8 ,we have1 it is true1 come to appreciate exercise so far as concerns the body1 and any healthy-minded young man to-day is almost ashamed of himself if he has not a well developed body1 the ready servant of an active will4 ,we have even begun to appreciate the analogy of body and mind1 and to perceive that the exercise and discipline of the mind1 like that of the body1 reproduces its power4 ,much of the study which one does in his education is done with precisely the same motive with which one pulls his weights and swings his clubs2 not primarily for the love of the things studied1 but for the discipline and intellectual athletics they promote4 ,and yet it remains true that a great many people fancy that the soul can be left without exercise2 that indeed it is a sort of invalid1 which needs to be sheltered from exposure and kept indoors in a sort of limp1 shut-in condition4 ,there are young men in the college world who seem to feel that the life of faith is too delicate to be exposed to the sharp climate of the world of scholarship and #ag have not begun to think of it as strengthened by exposure and fortified by resistance4 ,now the apostolic doctrine is this3 ,you do not grow strong in body or in mind without discipline and exercise4 ,the same athletic demand is made on your soul4 ,all through the writings of this vigorous1 masculine1 robust adviser of young men1 you find him taking the athletic position4 ,now he is a boxer3 ,so fight ,i not as one that beateth the air4 ,now he is a runner1 looking not to the things that are behind1 but to the things before1 and running1 not in one sharp dash1 but1 with patience1 the race set before him4 ,it is just as athletic a performance1 he thinks1 to wrestle with the princes of the darkness of this world1 as to wrestle with a champion4 ,it needs just as rigorous a training to pull against circumstances as to pull against time4 ,it appears to him at least not unreasonable that the supreme interest of an immortal soul should have from a man as much attention and development as a man gives to his legs1 or his muscle1 or his wind4 #ah ,,vii ,,the ,,rhythm ,,of ,,life ,matthew xiv4 #bc4 ,one of the most striking passages in modern literature is the paragraph in ,mr4 ,spencer's ,first ,principles1 in which he describes the rhythm of motion4 ,motion1 he says1 though it seems to be continuous and steady1 is in fact pulsating1 undulatory1 rhythmic4 ,there is everywhere intermittent action and rest4 ,the flag blown by the breeze floats out in undulations2 then the branches oscillate2 then the trees begin to sway2 everywhere there is action and pause1 the rhythm of motion4 ,the same law holds good of the conduct of life4 ,its natural method is rhythmic1 intermittent1 work alternating with rest1 activity and receptivity succeeding one another1 the rhythm of life4 ,the steady strain1 the continuous uniformity of life1 is what kills4 ,work unrelieved by play1 and play unrefreshed by work1 grow equally stale and dull4 ,activity without reflection loses its grasp2 meditation #ai without action sinks into a dream4 ,jesus in this passage had been absorbed in the most active and outward-going ministry2 and then1 as the evening comes1 he turns away and goes up into the mountain and is there alone in prayer4 ,we need to take account of this law of the rhythm of life4 ,most of the time we are very much absorbed in busy1 outward-looking activity1 overwhelmed with engagements and hurry and worry2 and then in the midst of this active life there stands the chapel with its summons to us to pause and give the reflective life its chance4 ,that is one of the chief offices of religion in this preposterously busy age4 ,religion gives one at least a chance to stop and let ,god speak to him4 ,it sends the multitudes away and takes one up into the solitude of the soul's communication with ,god4 ,one of our ,cambridge naturalists told me once of an experiment he had made with a pigeon4 ,the bird had been born in a cage and had never been free2 and one day his owner took him out on the porch of the house and flung the bird into the air4 ,to the naturalist's surprise the bird's capacity for flight was perfect4 ,round and round he flew #bj as if born in the air2 but soon his flight grew excited1 panting1 and his circles grew smaller1 until at last he dashed full against his master's breast and fell on the ground4 ,what did it mean8 ,it meant that1 though the bird had inherited the instinct for flight1 he had not inherited the capacity to stop1 and if he had not risked the shock of a sudden halt1 he would have panted his little life out in the air4 ,is not that a parable of many a modern life1--completely endowed with the instinct of action1 but without the capacity to stop8 ,round and round life goes1 in its weary circle1 until it is almost dying at full speed4 ,any shock1 even some severe experience1 is a mercy if it checks this whirl4 ,sometimes ,god stops such a soul abruptly by some sharp blow of trouble1 and the soul falls in despair at his feet1 and then ,he bends over it and says3 ,be still my child2 be still1 and know that ,i am ,god6 until by degrees the despair of trouble is changed into submission and obedience1 and the poor1 weary1 fluttering life is made strong to fly again4 #ba ,,viii ,,that ,,other ,,disciple ,john xx4 #h4 ,about fifty years ago1 one of the most distinguished of ,new ,england preachers1 ,horace ,bushnell1 preached a very famous sermon on the subject of ,unconscious ,influence1 taking for his text this verse3 ,then went in also that other disciple4 ,the two disciples had come together1 as the passage says1 to the sepulchre1 but that other disciple1 though he came first1 hesitated to go in1 until the impetuous ,peter led the way1 and then went in also that other disciple4 ,there are always these two ways of exerting an influence on another's life1 the ways of conscious and unconscious influence4 ,a few persons in a community have the strength of positive leadership4 ,they devise and guide public opinion1 and may be fairly described as personal influences4 ,but such real leaders are few4 ,most of us cannot expect to stand in our community like the centurion of the #bb ,gospel and say to one man3 ,come1 and he cometh2 and to another3 ,go1 and he goeth2 and to a third3 ,do this1 and he doeth it4 ,most of us must take to ourselves what one of our professors said to a body of students3 ,be sure to lend your influence to any good object2 but do not lend your influence until you have it4 ,on the other hand1 however1 there is for all of us an unavoidable kind of influence2 the unconscious effect on another's life1 made not by him who preaches1 or poses1 or undertakes to be a missionary1 but simply by the man who goes his own way1 and so demonstrates that it is the best way for others to follow4 ,that is what ,laurence ,oliphant once called1 living the life2 the kind of conduct which does not drive1 but draws4 ,peter might have stood before the sepulchre1 and tried all in vain to influence and urge his friend to come in with him1 but instead of this he simply enters1 and then1 without any conscious persuasion on his part1 that other disciple enters too4 ,so it is that a man to-day just takes his stand among us in some issue of duty1 not dragging in allies to help him1 but quietly standing on his own isolated conviction1 and some day that other #bc disciple just comes and stands by him for the right4 ,or a man is passing some morning the door of this ,chapel1 and just slips in and says his prayer1 and falls into the habit of worship from which he had of late been falling out1 and some day as he sits here1 as he supposes1 quite out of the circle of his friends1 he turns and finds that other disciple sitting by his side4 ,or a man enters just a little way into the power of the religious life1 just enough to feel how incomplete is his faith1 and how little he can do for any one else1 and one day as he gropes his way toward the light he feels a hand reaching out to his1 and that other disciple gives himself to be guided by the strength which had seemed to its possessor until that moment weakness4 ,here is the encouragement and the interpretation of many an insignificant and apparently ineffective life4 ,positive and predetermined influence few of us can boast of possessing1 but this unconscious influence not one of us can escape4 ,and indeed1 that is the profounder leadership even of the greatest souls4 ,one of the most extraordinary traits in the ministry of ,jesus ,christ is his undesigned persuasiveness4 ,he does not seem to expect #bd a generally accepted influence4 ,he recognizes that there are whole groups of souls whom he cannot reach4 ,only they who have ears to hear1 he says1 can hear him4 ,he just goes his own great way1 misinterpreted1 persecuted2 and at last the world perceives that it is the way to go1 and falls into line behind him4 ,when he puts forth his sheep1 he goes before them1 and they follow him4 ,it is simply the contagion of personality1 the magnetism of soul1 the spiritual law of attraction1 which draws a little soul toward a great soul1 as a planet is drawn in its orbit round the sun4 #be ,,ix ,,moral ,,timidity ,john xxi4 #bb4 ,the trouble with ,peter in this passage is the sense of his own incapacity4 ,jesus comes to him with the great command3 ,feed my lambs2 feed my sheep2 as though ,peter were appointed to take the lead among his followers4 ,and then ,peter shrinks back1 not because of disinclination1 but because of sheer self-distrust4 ,who is he that he should assume the leadership8 ,he has failed once1 perhaps he may fail again4 ,lord1 he says1 there is ,john2 is not he the man to lead8 ,he never made a mistake as ,i did4 ,what is he to do8 ,and then ,jesus says3 ,what is that to thee8 ,the question is not whether you are the best man to do this thing4 ,you are simply called to do it as best you can4 ,if ,i will that he tarry till ,i come1 what is that to thee8 ,follow thou me4 ,there is a great deal of this moral timidity in college life4 ,any man of reasonable #bf modesty sees about him plenty of men better able to be leaders in good service than he is4 ,it seems audacious for him to pose as fit to lead4 ,there is ,john1 he says1 a far better man than ,i2 what is he to do8 ,then the spirit of ,jesus again answers3 ,what is that to thee8 ,here is the thing to be done1 the stand to be taken1 and here are you4 ,of course1 there is much that you cannot do4 ,of course there are many that might do it better4 ,but the call happens to be to you3 ,follow thou me4 ,it is not a call to any exciting or dramatic service4 ,it is simply the demand that one takes his life just as it is1 and gives it as he can to the service of ,christ4 ,feed my sheep1 feed my lambs2 give yourself to humble and modest service2 live your own life without much anticipation of influence or effectiveness2 with all your insufficiency and frequent stumbling1 follow thou me2 and in that simple following you are showing better than by all eloquence or argument how others ought to go1 and you are helping and strengthening us all4 #bg ,x ,,the ,,heavenly ,,vision ,acts xxvi4 #ai4 ,the great transformation in ,st4 ,paul from a persecutor to an apostle of ,christianity was a sudden revelation4 ,he saw a heavenly vision and was not disobedient unto it4 ,but this is not the common way of life4 ,it does not often happen that character is transformed and the great decision irrevocably made in an instant4 ,it is not as a rule true that3-- ,once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide1 ,in the strife of truth with falsehood1 for the good or evil side4 ,most lives proceed more evenly1 without any such catastrophic change4 ,and yet1 it is none the less true that in a very large proportion of lives there come1 now and then1 in the midst of routine and uniformity1 certain flashes of clearer vision1 disclosing the aims and ideals of life1 as though one should be traveling in a fog along a hillside1 and now and then the breeze should sweep the mist away1 and the road and its end be clear4 #bh ,now1 loyalty to such a vision is the chief source of strength and satisfaction in a man's life4 ,sometimes a young man comes to an old one for counsel about his calling in life1 and the young man sums up his gifts and capacities and defects4 ,he will be a lawyer because he has a turn for disputation1 or an engineer because he is good at figures1 or a minister because he likes the higher literature4 ,all such considerations have1 of course1 their place4 ,but by no such intellectual analysis is the fundamental question met4 ,many men fail in their lives in spite of great gifts1 and many men succeed in spite of great defects4 ,the fundamental question is3 ,has this young man had a vision of what he wants to do8 ,has a great desire disclosed itself to his heart8 ,has the breeze of ,god blown away the mists of his confusion and shown him his ideal1 very far away perhaps1 yet unmistakable and clear8 ,then1 with all reasonable allowance for gifts and faults1 the straighter he heads toward that ideal the happier and the more effective he is likely to be4 ,when he thus follows his heart1 he is working along the line of least resistance2 and when his little work is done1 however meagre #bi and unimportant it may be1 he can at least give it back to ,god1 who gave it to him to do1 and say3 ,i was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision4 #cj ,,xi ,,the ,,bread ,,and ,,water ,,of ,,life ,john vi4 #ce4 ,revelation xxii4 #ag ,here1 in the ,gospel1 the message of ,christ is described as the bread of life1 and1 here1 again1 in the ,book of ,revelation1 as the water of life4 ,bread and water--the very plainest1 most essential1 every-day needs1 the forms of nourishment of which we rarely think with gratitude1 but which on no day we go without4 ,a great many people seem to think that religion is a kind of luxury in life1 a ,sunday delicacy1 an educated taste1 an unessential food1 which one can1 at his discretion1 take or go without4 ,but to ,jesus ,christ religion is no such super-imposed accessory2 it is simply bread and water1 the daily necessity1 the fundamental food1 the universally essential and normal satisfaction of the natural hunger and the human thirst4 ,let us1 of all things1 hold fast to the naturalness1 simplicity1 and wholesomeness of the religious life4 ,religion is not a luxury added to the normal life2 it is the #ca rational attitude of the soul in its relation to the universe of ,god4 ,it is not an accident that the central sacrament of the ,christian life is the sacrament of daily food and drink4 ,this do1 says the ,master1 so oft as ye eat and drink it1 in remembrance of me4 ,and how elementary are the sources of religious confidence6 ,they lie1 not in remote or difficult regions of authority1 or conformity1 or history1 but in the witness of daily service1 and of commonplace endeavor4 ,the word is very nigh thee1 says the ,old ,testament4 ,the satisfying revelation of ,god reaches you1 not in the exceptional1 occasional1 and dramatic incidents of life1 but in the bread and water of life which you eat and drink every day4 ,as one of our most precious ,american poets1 too early silent1 has sung of the routine of life3-- ,forenoon1 and afternoon1 and night6--,forenoon1 ,and afternoon1 and night6--,forenoon1 and--what8 ,the empty song repeats itself4 ,no more8 ,yea1 that is ,life3 make this forenoon sublime1 ,this afternoon a psalm1 this night a prayer1 ,and ,time is conquered1 and thy crown is won4 #a #a ,e4 ,r4 ,sill4 ,poems1 p4 #bg ,life4 ,houghton1 ,mifflin ,co41 #ahhh4 #cb ,,xii ,,the ,,recoil ,,of ,,judgments ,matthew vii4 #a4 ,when ,jesus says ,judge not that ye be not judged1 he cannot be forbidding all severity of judgment1 for no one could be on occasion more severe1 or unsparing1 or denunciatory than he4 ,woe unto you1 hypocrites1 he says to some of the respectable church-leaders of his time4 ,beware of false prophets1 he says in this passage1 for they are inwardly ravening wolves4 ,no1 ,jesus certainly was not a soft-spoken person or one likely to plead for gentle judgments so as to get kindness in return4 ,what he is in fact laying down in this passage is a much profounder principle1--the principle of the recoil of judgments4 ,your judgments of others are in reality the most complete betrayal of yourself4 ,what you think of them is the key to your own soul4 ,your careless utterances are like the boomerang of some clumsy savage1 often missing the mark toward #cc which it is thrown1 and returning to smite the man that threw it4 ,this is a strange reversal of the common notion in which we think of our relation to other lives4 ,we fancy that another life is perfectly interpretable in its motives and aims1 but that our own lives are much disguised2 whereas the fact is that nothing is more mysterious and baffling than the interior purposes of another soul1 and nothing is more self-disclosed and transparent than the nature of a judging life4 ,one man goes through the world and finds it suspicious1 inclined to wrong-doing1 full of capacity for evil1 and he judges it with his ready gossip of depreciation4 ,he may be in all this reporting what is true1 or he may be stating what is untrue2 but one truth he is reporting with entire precision1--the fact that he is himself a suspicious and ungenerous man2 and this disclosure of his own heart1 which1 if another hinted at it1 he would resent1 he is without any disguise making of his own accord4 ,the cynic looks over the world and finds it hopelessly bad1 but the one obvious fact is not that the world is all bad1 but that the man is a cynic4 ,the snob looks over the world and finds it hopelessly #cd vulgar1 but the fact is not that the world is all vulgar1 but that the man is a snob4 ,the gentleman walks his way through the world1 anticipating just dealing1 believing in his neighbor1 expecting responsiveness to honor1 considerateness1 high-mindedness1 and he is often deceived and finds his confidence misplaced1 and sometimes discovers ruffians where he thought there were gentlemen2 but this at least he has proved1--that he himself is a gentleman4 ,through his judgment of others he is himself judged1 and as he has measured to others1 so1 in the final judgment of him1 made either by ,god or men1 it shall be measured to him again4 #ce ,,xiii ,,the ,,incidental ,luke xvii4 #e-ae4 ,as they went1 they were healed4 ,the cure of these sick men was not only remarkable in itself1 but still more remarkable because of the way in which it happened4 ,they came to ,jesus crying3 ,master1 have mercy on us1 and ,he sends them to the priest that they might show themselves to him and get his official guarantee that they were no longer lepers4 ,so they must have expected that the cure1 if it was to come at all1 would happen either under the hands of ,jesus before they started1 or under the hands of the high priest after they arrived4 ,but it did not come in either of these ways4 ,as they went1 they were cleansed4 ,not in the moment of ,christ's benediction1 nor yet in the moment of ecclesiastical recognition1 but just between the two they were healed4 ,there is something like this very often in any man's deliverance from his temptations #cf or cares or fears4 ,a man1 for instance1 sets himself to his intellectual task1 but as he studies it is all dark about him1 and his mind seems dull and heavy1 and no light shines upon his work1 and he goes away from it discouraged4 ,but then1 by some miracle of the mind's working1 such as each one of us in his own way has experienced1 his task gets solved for him1 not as he works at it1 but as he turns to other things4 ,suddenly and mysteriously1 sometimes between the night's task and the morning's waking1 his problem clears up before him1 and as he goes1 his mind is cleansed4 ,so a man goes out into his life of duty-doing4 ,he tries to do right1 and he makes mistakes2 he does his best1 and he fails4 ,but then his life goes on and other duties meet it1 and out of his old mistakes comes new success1 and out of the discipline of his conscience brought about by his failures comes the power of his conscience1 and by degrees--he hardly knows how--his will grows strong4 ,so perhaps it happens that a man some morning kneels down and says his prayer1 and then rises and goes out into the world1 the same man with the same cares and fears on his shoulder1 as though #cg there had been no blessing from his prayer4 ,he passes out into the day's life all unchanged4 ,but then1 as it sometimes happens through ,god's grace1 as he goes1 life seems soberer and plainer1 and1 by the very prayer he thought unanswered1 he is healed4 ,not in the great hour of his petition1 but as he trudges along the dusty road of life the cleansing comes to him1 and the burden which he prayed might be taken from him1 and which seemed to be left to bear1 drops unnoticed by the way4 #ch ,,xiv ,,learning ,,and ,,life ,romans xii4 #a4 ,the letters of ,paul1 varied as they are in their purpose1 have one curious likeness4 ,each goes its way through a tangled argument of doctrinal discussion1 and then in almost every case each issues1 as it were1 into more open ground1 with a series of practical maxims for the conduct of life4 ,if you are looking for profound ,biblical philosophy1 you turn to the first part of ,paul's epistles4 ,if you are looking for rules of moral conduct1 you turn to the last part4 ,and between these two sections there is1 as a rule1 one connecting word4 ,it is the word therefore4 ,the maxims1 that is to say1 are the consequences of the philosophy4 ,the theology of ,paul is to him an immediate cause of the better conduct of life4 ,i1 therefore1 the prisoner of the ,lord1--he says to the ,ephesians4 ,if1 therefore1 there is any comfort in ,christ1 he says to the ,philippians1 #ci ,i beseech you1 therefore1 by the mercy of ,god1 he says to the ,romans4 ,we hear much in these days of the practical perils of the intellectual life2 the spiritual risks of education1 the infidelity of scholars1 as though one who dealt much in the speculations of philosophy would lose the impulse to the devout and generous life2 and certainly there are scholars enough whose learning has shrivelled up their souls4 ,but the attitude of ,paul toward the general question of the relation of learning to life is this1--that the better philosopher a man is1 so much the better ,christian he is likely to be2 that hard thinking opens naturally into strong doing2 that while not all religion is for scholars1 there is a scholar's religion1 and while not all sin comes from ignorance1 much foolish conduct comes of superficial philosophy4 ,let us take courage to-day in this natural association of philosophy and life4 ,the world needs piety1 but it needs in our time a new accession of rational piety1 or what the apostle calls reasonable service4 ,the world needs enthusiasm1 but it still more urgently needs intelligently directed enthusiasm4 ,remember that the same man who laid #dj the foundation for the whole history of ,christian theology and philosophy was at the same time the most practical of counsellors concerning ,christian duty and love4 ,he explores with a free mind the speculative mysteries of religious philosophy1 and then1 perceiving the bearing of these researches on the conduct of life he proceeds as from a cause to an effect1 and writes3 ,therefore1 my brethren1 ,i beseech you1 present yourselves a living sacrifice4 #da ,,xv ,,filling ,,life ,,full ,matthew v4 #ag4 ,the ,jews thought that ,jesus had come to destroy their teaching and to abandon all their splendid history1 though ,jesus repeatedly told them that his purpose was not destructive2 that he wanted to take all that great past and fill it full of the meaning it was meant to bear2 to fulfill1 as this famous verse says1 their law and prophets4 ,a great many people still think that ,jesus comes to destroy4 ,the religious life appears to them a life of giving up things4 ,renunciation seems the ,christian motto4 ,the religious person forsakes his passions1 denies his tastes1 mortifies his body1 and then is holy4 ,but ,jesus always answers that he comes not to destroy1 but to fill full2 not to preach the renunciation of capacity1 but the consecration of capacity4 ,here is your body1 with all its vigorous life4 ,it is a part of your religion to fill out your body4 ,it is the temple of ,god1 to be kept #db clean for his indwelling4 ,not the ascetic man1 but the athletic man is the physical representative of the ,christian life4 ,here is your mind1 with all the intellectual pursuits which engross you here4 ,many people suppose that the scholar's life is in antagonism to the interests of religion1 as though a university were somehow a bad place for a man's soul4 ,but religion comes not to destroy the intellectual life4 ,it wants not an empty mind but a full one4 ,the perils of this age come not from scholars1 but from smatterers2 not from those who know much1 but from those who think they know it all4 ,when our forefathers desired to do something for the service of their ,god1 one of the first things they regarded as their religious duty was1 as you may read yonder on our gate1 to found this college4 ,and here1 once more1 are your passions1 tempting you to sin4 ,are you to destroy them1 fleeing from them like the hermits from the world8 ,oh1 no6 ,you are not to destroy them1 but to direct them to a passionate interest in better things4 ,the soul is not saved by having the force taken out of it4 ,it is1 as ,chalmers said1 the expulsive force of a new affection which redeems one from his #dc old sin4 ,how small a thing we make of the religious life2 hiding it in a corner of human nature1 serving it in a fragment of the week2 and here stands ,jesus ,christ at the centre of all our activities of body and mind and will1 and calls for the consecration of the whole of life1 for the all-round man1 for the fulfilment of capacity4 ,in him1 says the scripture1 is not emptiness1 but fullness of life4 #dd ,,xvi ,,taking ,,one',s ,,share ,,of ,,hardships #b ,timothy ii4 #c4 ,here is one of the passages where the ,revised ,version brings out more clearly the meaning4#a ,the ,old ,version says3 ,endure hardness2 as though it were an appeal to an individual4 ,the ,revised ,version in the margin says3 ,take thy part in suffering hardship2 take1 that is to say1 your share of the hardship which belongs to the common cause4 ,come in with the rest of us1 it means1 in bearing the hard times4 ,there were plenty of hard times in those days4 ,paul was a prisoner in ,rome2 ,nero's persecution was abroad4 ,when the aged ,paul1 however1 writes to the young man whom he affectionately calls his beloved child1 he does not say to him3 ,i hope1 my beloved child1 that you will find life easier than ,i have1 or that the times will clear up before you have to take the lead4 ,he says1 on the contrary3 #de ,the times are very hard4 ,come in with us then and take your share of the hardship4 ,a great many people in the modern world are trying to look at life in quite an opposite way4 ,they want to make it soft and easy for themselves and for their sons4 ,the problem of life is to get rid of hardness4 ,education is to be smoothed and simplified4 ,trouble and care are to be kept away from their beloved children4 ,young people are to have a good time while they can4 ,the apostle strikes a wholly different note4 ,writing to a young man of the modern time he would say3 ,there is a deal of hardship1 of poverty1 of industrial distress in the world1 and ,i charge you to take your share in it6 ,are you not old enough to enlist in ,christ's army8 ,at your age1 college men twenty-five years ago were brigadier-generals1 dying at the head of their troops4 ,take your place1 then1 in the modern battle4 ,be a good soldier1 not a shirk or a runaway4 ,when that extraordinary man1--perhaps the most inspiring leader of men in our generation1--,general ,armstrong1 was first undertaking his work for the negroes in ,virginia1 he wrote a letter to a friend in the ,north1 #df saying3 ,dear ,miss ,ludlow3 ,if you care to sail into a good hearty battle1 where there is no scratching and pin-sticking1 but great guns and heavy shot only used1 come here4 ,if you like to lend a hand when a good cause is short-handed1 come here4 ,could any brave man or woman resist a call like that8 ,it was a call to arms1 a summons to a good soldier of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the problem of a soldier is1 not to find a soft and easy place in life1 with plenty to get and little to do1 but to take his share of hardship1 and as the passage goes on1 to please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier4 #a ,this change of reading is finely commented on by ,f4 ,paget1 ,the ,hallowing of ,work1 p4 #eg4 ,longmans1 #ahia4 #dg ,,xvii ,,christian ,,unity ,ephesians iv4 #ac4 ,we hear much in these days of ,christian unity1 and many programmes and platforms and propositions are presented to us1 as though religious unity were a thing to be constructed and put together like a building1 which should be big enough to hold us all4 ,but in this splendid chapter religious unity is regarded by the apostle1 not as a thing which is to be made1 but as a thing which is to grow4 ,there is1 he says one body and one spirit2 there is a unity of the faith4 ,but we do not make this unity2 we grow up into it as we attain unto a full-grown man2 we attain unto it as a boy becomes a man1 not by discussing his growth1 or by worrying because he is not a man1 or by bragging that he is bigger than other boys1 but simply by growing up4 ,thus1 as people grow up into ,christ1 they grow up into unity4 ,the unity comes not of the assent of man to certain propositions1 but of the ascent of man to #dh the stature of ,christ4 ,and so what hinders unity is that we have not got our spiritual growth4 ,it takes a full-grown mind to reach it4 ,it takes a full-grown heart to feel it4 ,the unity is always waiting at the top4 ,religious progress is like the ascent of a hill from various sides4 ,below there is division1 obstructive underbrush1 perplexity2 but as the top is neared there is ever a closer approach of man to man2 and at the summit there is the same view for all1 and that view is a view all round4 ,the climbers attain to the measure of the stature of ,christ1 and they attain at the same time to the unity of the faith4 #di ,,xviii ,,the ,,patience ,,of ,,faith ,mark iv4 #bh4 ,jesus here falls back1 as he so often does1 on the gradualness of nature4 ,life1 he says1 is not abrupt and revolutionary in its method2 it is gradual and evolutionary3 the seed is sown and slowly comes to fruitage2 the leaven silently penetrates the lump2 the grain grows1 first the blade1 then the ear1 finally the full corn4 ,the best things in the world do not come with a rush4 ,some things have to be waited for4 ,faith is patient4 ,and this he says1 not only against the nervous hurry of life1 which is1 as we all know1 cursing the ,american world to-day1 but also against the spiritual impatience which is to be observed in every age4 ,the most marked illustration of it to-day is in our dealings with the social movements of the time4 ,it is the impatience of the reformer4 ,he wants to redeem the world all at once4 ,as ,theodore ,parker said of the anti-slavery cause3 ,the trouble seems to be that ,god #ej is not in a hurry1 and ,i am4 ,thus we are beset by panaceas which are to regenerate society in some wholesale1 external1 mechanical way4 ,when such a reformer not long ago presented some quick solution of the social question1 and it was criticised1 he answered3 ,well1 if you do not accept my solution1 what is yours8 as though every one must have some immediate cure for the evils of civilization4 ,but the fact is1 that the world is not likely to be saved in any wholesale way4 ,a much wiser observer of the social situation has lately said3 ,when any one brings forward a complete solution of the ,social ,question1 ,i move to adjourn4 ,jesus1 let us remember1 saved men one at a time4 ,the patience of nature taught him the patience of faith2 first the blade1 then the ear1 then the full corn4 ,or1 again1 we are afflicted in our day by the impatience of the theologian4 ,he wants to know all about ,god4 ,it seems somehow a depreciation of theology to admit that there is anything which is not revealed4 ,but the fact is that the wisest feel most the sense of mystery4 ,the only theology which is likely to last is one which admits a large degree of #ea ,christian agnosticism4 ,as one of our ,university preachers once said3 ,we do not know anything about ,god unless we first know that we cannot know ,him perfectly4 #a ,how superb1 as against all this impatience of spirit1 are the reserve and patience of ,christ4 ,accept doubts1 he says4 ,bear with incompleteness4 ,give faith its chance to grow4 ,first the blade1 then the ear1 and then the harvest4 ,there are some things which youth can prove1 and some which only the experience of maturity can teach1 and then there are some mysteries which are perhaps to be made plain to us only in the clearer light of another world4 #a ,henry van ,dyke1 ,d4 ,d41 ,straight ,sermons1 p4 #baf1 ,scribners1 #ahic4 #eb ,,xix ,,the ,,bond-,,servant ,,and ,,the ,,son ,luke xvii4 #g-aj4 ,we are unprofitable servants1 we have done that which it was our duty to do4 ,it seems almost as if we must have misread this passage4 ,can one who has done his duty be called an unprofitable servant8 ,shall one have no credit because he has done what is right8 ,this seems strange indeed4 ,but ,jesus in reality is contrasting two ideas of duty1--the duty of a bond-servant and the duty of a son4 ,the duty of a slave is to do what is demanded of him4 ,he accomplishes his stint of work1 his round of necessities1 his grudging service1 and for doing that duty he gets his hire and his day's work is done4 ,sometimes we see workmen for the city in the roadway1 doing their duty on these terms1 and we wonder that men can move so slowly and accomplish so little4 ,they have done their duty1 but they are unprofitable servants4 ,now against this1 ,jesus sets the ,christian thought of duty1 which #ec grows out of the ,christian thought of sonship4 ,a son who loves his father does not measure his duty by what is demanded of him4 ,no credit is his for obeying orders4 ,he passes from obligation to affection1 from demand to privilege4 ,and only as he passes thus into uncalled-for and spontaneous service does any credit come4 ,there is no credit in a man's paying his debts1 earning his hire1 meeting his demands4 ,the business man does not thank his clerk for doing what he is paid for4 ,what the employer likes to see is that service beyond obligation which means fidelity and loyalty4 ,do you do your work for wages1 for marks1 from compulsion8 ,then1 when you lie down at night1 you should say3 ,i have done that which it was my duty to do1 and ,i am ashamed4 ,do you do your work for love's sake1 for the life of service to which it leads1 for generous ambition and hope8 ,then with all your sense of ineffectiveness and incapacity you may still have that inward peace and joy which permits you to say3 ,i have done but little of what ,i dreamed of doing1 but ,i have tried1 at any rate1 to do it unselfishly and gladly1--not as a bond-servant1 but as a son4 #ed ,,xx ,,dying ,,to ,,live #b ,corinthians iv4 #ac4 ,paul repeatedly described his spiritual experiences under physical figures of speech2 and most of all he writes of himself as living over in his spiritual life the incidents of the physical life and death of ,jesus4 ,he is crucified with ,christ2 he is risen with ,christ2 he bears about in his body the dying of ,christ4 ,death worketh in us1 but life in you4 ,this sounds like exaggerated and rhetorical language4 ,it seems a strange use of words to say that the death of self is the life of the world4 ,but consider how it was with this man ,paul4 ,he had been ambitious1 sanguine1 impetuous1 and it had all come to nothing1 and worse than nothing4 ,he had been led to persecute the very faith which he had soon found to be ,god's truth4 ,and then he gives up everything4 ,he throws away every prospect of honor and public respect and social ambition4 ,he simply dies to himself1 and gives himself #ee to the service of ,christ2 and1 behold1 that death of self is the beginning of life and courage to generation after generation of ,christian followers4 ,the same story might be told of many a man4 ,just in proportion as self-seeking dies1 life begins4 ,a man goes his way in self-assertion1 self-display1 the desire to make an impression1 and he seems to achieve much4 ,he gets distinction1 glory1 the prizes of life4 ,but one thing he fails to do2 he fails to quicken spiritual life in others4 ,his work is stained by self-consciousness1 and becomes incapable of inspiration4 ,it is life to him1 but death to the things that are trusted to him4 ,then some day he absolutely forgets himself in his work4 ,he buries himself1 as we say1 in it4 ,his conceit and ambition die1 and then out of the death of self comes the life of the world he serves4 ,that is the paradox of life4 ,life is reproduced by sacrifice4 ,the life that is lost is the only life that is saved4 ,the dead self is the only life-bearer4 ,only the man who thus sinks himself in his cause is remembered as its apostle4 #ef ,,xxi ,,carrying ,,your ,,own ,,cross ,mark viii4 #cd4 ,if any man will come after me1 says ,jesus1 let him take up his cross and follow4 ,notice that it is his own cross4 ,this is a different picture of ,christian discipleship from that which is commonly presented4 ,we are used to thinking of people as abandoning their own lives1 their passions and desires1 their own weakness and their own strength1 and turning to the one support and safety of the cross of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we remember that familiar picture of the woman who has been almost overwhelmed in the sea of trouble1 and is finally cast up by the waves of life upon the rock where she clings to the cross which is set there as a refuge for her shipwrecked soul4 ,now1 no doubt1 that refuge in the cross of ,christ has been to many a real experience4 ,other refuge have ,i none1 hangs my helpless soul on thee1 has been1 no doubt1 often a sincere confession4 ,but that is not the #eg state of mind which ,jesus is describing in this passage4 ,he is thinking1 not of some limp and helpless soul clinging to something outside itself1 but rather of a masculine1 vigorous1 rational life1 which shoulders its own responsibility and trudges along under it4 ,jesus says that if a man wants to follow him1 he must first of all take up his own burden like a man4 ,he sees1 for instance1 a young man to-day beset by his own problems and difficulties1--his poverty1 his temper1 his sin1 his timidity1 his enemies2 and ,jesus says to him3 ,that is your cross1 your own cross4 ,now1 do not shirk it1 or dodge it1 or lie down on it1 or turn from it to my cross4 ,first of all1 take up your own2 let it lie on your shoulder2 and then stand up under it like a man and come to me2 and as you thus come1 not limply and feebly1 but with the step--even let it be the staggering step--of a man who is honestly bearing his own load1 you will find that your way opens into strength and peace4 ,the yoke you have to carry will grow easier for you to carry1 and the burden which you do not desire to shirk will be made light4 #eh ,,xxii ,,the ,,poor ,,in ,,spirit ,matthew v4 #c4 ,whom does ,jesus call the blessed people8 ,first of all1 he says1 they are the poor in spirit4 ,and who are the poor in spirit8 ,it sometimes seems as if ,christians thought that to be poor in spirit one must be poor-spirited--a limp and spiritless creature1 without dash1 or vigor1 or force4 ,but the poor in spirit are not the poor-spirited4 ,they are simply the teachable1 the receptive1 the people who want help and are conscious of need4 ,they do not think they know it all2 they appreciate their own insufficiency4 ,they are open-minded and impressionable4 ,now ,jesus says that the first approach to his blessedness is in this teachable spirit4 ,the hardest people for him to reach were always the self-sufficient people4 ,the ,pharisees thought they did not need anything1 and so they could not get anything4 ,as any one thinks1 then1 of his own greatest blessings1 the first of them must be #ei this1--that somehow he has been made open-minded to the good4 ,it may be that the conceit has been1 as we say1 knocked out of him1 and that he has been taken down4 ,well6 it is better to be taken down than to be still up or uppish4 ,it is better to have the self-complacency knocked out of you than to have it left in4 ,humility1 as ,henry ,drummond once said1 even when it happens through humiliation1 is a blessing4 ,not to the ,pharisee with his ,i am not as other men are1 but to the publican crying ,god be merciful to me1 a sinner1 comes the promise of the beatitude4 ,the first condition of receiving the gift of ,god is to be free from the curse of conceit4 ,the spiritually poor are the first to receive ,christ's blessing4 ,they have at least made themselves accessible to the further blessings which ,jesus has to bestow4 #fj ,,xxiii ,,the ,,mourners ,matthew v4 #d4 ,whom does ,jesus call the blessed people8 ,how strange it sounds when he answers3 ,blessed are they that mourn3 for they shall be comforted4 ,blessed1 that is to say1 are not only the people who1 as we say1 are in sorrow2 but blessed are all the burdened people1 the people who are having a hard time1 the people who are bearing their crosses1 for they are the ones who will learn the deeper comfort of the ,gospel4 ,it is the same promise which is repeated later in another place3 ,come unto me all ye that are heavy laden1 and ,i will give you rest4 ,this does not mean that mourning is blessed for its own sake1 or that the only way to be a ,christian is to be sad4 ,it simply calls attention to this fact1 that every life is sure to have some hardness1 or burden1 or cross in it4 ,if you have none1 it simply shows that you have not really begun to live4 ,and ,jesus says that the farther you go into #fa these deep places of experience1 the more you will get out of his religion4 ,there are some phases of life where it makes little difference whether you have any religion or not4 ,but let the water of trouble go over your soul1 and then there is just one support which keeps you from going down4 ,religion1 that is to say1 is not a thing for holidays and easy times4 ,its comfort is not discovered until you come to a hard place4 ,the more it is needed1 the stronger it is4 ,how strange it is that the people who seem most conscious of their blessings and sustained by a sense of gratitude are1 as a rule1 people who have been called to mourn4 ,it is not resignation only which they have found2 it is light4 ,they have been comforted through their sorrows4 ,their burden has been made easy and their yoke light4 #fb ,,xxiv ,,the ,,meek4 ,matthew v4 #e4 ,whom does ,jesus call the blessed people8 ,again he answers3 ,blessed are the meek3 for they shall inherit the earth4 ,and who are the meek8 ,we think of a meek man as a limp and mild creature who has no capacity to hurt or courage to help4 ,but that is not what the ,bible word means4 ,meekness is not weakness4 ,the ,book of ,numbers says that ,moses was the meekest man that ever lived2 but one of the first illustrations of his character was in slaying an ,egyptian who insulted his people4 ,the meek man of the ,bible is simply what we call the gentle-man--the man without swagger or arrogance1 not self-assertive or forthputting1 but honorable and considerate4 ,this is the sense in which it has been said of ,jesus that he was the first of gentlemen4 ,now these people1 the gracious and generous1--not the self-important and ostentatious1--are1 according to ,jesus1 in the end to rule4 #fc ,they are not to get what we call the prizes of life1 the social notoriety and position1 but they are to have the leadership of their time and its remembrance when they are gone4 ,long after showy ambition has its little day and ceases to be1 the world will remember the magnanimous and self-effacing leader4 ,he does not have to grasp the prizes of earth2 he1 as ,jesus says1 inherits the earth4 ,it is his by right4 ,the meek1 says the thirty-seventh ,psalm1 shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in abundance of peace4 ,the meek escape the quarrelsomeness of ambition4 ,they live in a world of peace and good-will4 ,and when we sing of peace on earth and good-will to men1 we are only repeating the beatitude of ,jesus3 ,blessed are the meek1 for they shall inherit the earth4 #fd ,,xxv ,,the ,,hunger ,,for ,,righteousness ,matthew v4 #f4 ,whom does ,jesus call the blessed people8 ,blessed1 he goes on1 are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness3 for they shall be filled4 ,the ,new ,testament repeatedly states this doctrine1 which sounds so strangely in our ears4 ,it is the doctrine that a man gets what he asks for--that his real hunger will be filled4 ,we should say that just the opposite of this was true--that life was a continued striving to get things which one fails to get--a hunger which is doomed to stay unsatisfied4 ,but ,jesus turns to his followers and says3 ,ask1 and you shall receive2 seek1 and you shall find1 and in the same spirit turns even to the hypocrites and says again3 ,they also receive their reward4 ,conduct1 that is to say1 fulfils its destiny4 ,what you sow1 you reap4 ,the blessing which is sufficiently desired is attained4 ,what you really ask for1 you get4 ,the only reason why this does not #fe seem to be true is that we do not realize what the things are which we are asking for and what must be the inevitable answer to our demand4 ,we ask1 for instance1 for money2 and we expect an answer of happiness4 ,but we do not get happiness1 we only get money1 which is a wholly different thing4 ,we ask for popularity and reputation1 and we expect these gifts1 when received1 to last2 but we have asked for something whose very nature is that it does not last4 ,it is like asking for a soap-bubble and expecting to get a billiard-ball4 ,we cannot work for the temporary and get the permanent4 ,if1 then1 it is true that we are to get what we want1 then the secret of happiness is to want the best things and to want them very much4 ,if we hunger and thirst for base things we shall get them4 ,oh yes1 we shall get them2 and get the unhappiness which comes of this awful discovery1 that as we have hungered so we are filled4 ,and if we are really hungry for righteousness1 if we want to be good1 as a thirsty man wants water1 if1 as ,jesus says of himself1 our meat is to do the will of ,him who sends us1 then that demand also will be supplied4 ,he satisfieth the longing soul1 #ff says the ,psalmist1 and filleth the hungry soul--not with success1 or money1 or fame1 but with that which the soul was hungry for--with goodness4 ,the longing soul has sought the best blessing1 and it has received the best blessedness4 #fg ,,xxvi ,,the ,,merciful ,matthew v4 #g4 ,whom does ,jesus call the blessed people8 ,blessed are the merciful3 for they shall obtain mercy4 ,this repeats in effect the later words of ,jesus3 ,with what judgment ye judge1 ye shall be judged4 ,the merciless judgment passed on others recoils upon one's own nature and makes it hard and mean and brutalized4 ,the habit of charitable judgment of others is a source of personal blessedness4 ,it blooms out into composure and hopefulness1 into peace and faith4 ,how wonderful these great calm affirmations of ,jesus are6 ,they are directly in the face of the most common views of life1 and yet they are delivered as simple axioms of experience1 as matters of fact1 self-evident propositions of the reason4 ,it is not a matter of barter of which ,jesus is speaking4 ,he does not say3 ,if you treat another kindly he will be kind to you4 ,the merciful man will get mercy when he needs it4 ,that #fh would not be the truth4 ,the best of men are often judged most mercilessly4 ,jesus himself gives his life to acts of mercy1 and is pitilessly slain4 ,this beatitude gives1 not a promise to pay1 but a law of life4 ,to forgive an injury is1 according to this law1 a blessing to the forgiver himself4 ,the quality of mercy blesses him that gives as well as him that takes4 ,the harsh judge of others grows hard himself1 while pity softens the pitier4 ,thus among the happiest of people are those whose grudges and enmities have been overcome by their own broader view of life4 ,it is as though in the midst of winter the warmer sun were already softening the frost4 ,they are happy1 not because others are kinder to them1 but because that softer soil permits their own better life to germinate and grow4 ,the merciful has obtained mercy2 the blesser has received the blessing4 #fi ,,xxvii ,,the ,,pure ,,in ,,heart ,matthew v4 #h4 ,blessed are the pure in heart3 for they shall see ,god4 ,that1 ,i suppose1 is the highest and deepest proposition which ever fell from human lips4 ,without the least argument or reasoning about it1 as a thing which is perfectly self-evident1 ,jesus announces that purity of heart leads to the knowledge of ,god4 ,your character clarifies your creed4 ,a theologian who wants to be profound must be pure4 ,consecration brings with it insight4 ,the perfect knowledge of ,god is to be attained only by the perfectly consecrated life4 ,the human soul is a mirror on which the light of ,god shines1 and only the pure mirror reflects the perfect image4 ,what a word is this to drop into the midst of the conflicting theologies and philosophies of the time1 of the disputes between the people who think they know all about ,god1 and the people who think they cannot know ,him at all6 ,do you want to be #gj sure that ,god is directing and supporting you in all your perplexing experiences of life8 ,you cannot see ,god in these things except through a perfectly purified heart4 ,clarify the medium of vision1 and truth undiscerned before breaks on the observer's sight4 ,a mile or two from here skilful artisans make those great object-glasses with which the mysteries of the stars are disclosed4 ,the slightest speck or flaw blurs the image1 but with the perfect glass stars unseen by any eye throughout the history of the world are to be in our days discovered4 ,it is a parable of the soul4 ,each film on the object-glass of character obscures the heavenly vision1 but to the prepared and translucent life truth undiscernible by others breaks upon the reverent gaze1 and the beatific vision is revealed to the pure in heart4 #ga ,,xxviii ,,the ,,two ,,baptisms ,luke iii4 #af4 ,,the ,,week ,,before ,,christmas4 ,among the persons who group themselves about ,jesus1 the most dramatic and picturesque figure is certainly that of ,john the ,baptist4 ,there is in him a most extraordinary combination of audacity and humility4 ,he is bold1 denunciatory1 confident2 but at the same time he is self-effacing and preparatory in his work4 ,he never thinks of his service as final2 after him is to come a man who is preferred before him4 ,there is always the larger work than his to follow4 ,there are in him the most beautiful humility and the most absolute bravery1 and this makes perhaps the rarest combination of traits which a character can show4 ,it is all summed up in his doctrine of the two baptisms3 the baptism by water1 which ,john is to bring1 and the baptism by the ,holy ,ghost and by fire1 which is to be brought by ,jesus4 ,water is1 of course1 the symbol of cleansing1 the washing away of #gb one's old sins1 an expulsive1 negative work4 ,fire is the symbol of passion1 enthusiasm1 flame4 ,it is illuminating1 kindling1 the work of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,one of these baptisms prepares for the other4 ,first a man must be clean and then he may be passionate4 ,first1 the fire of his base affections must be washed away and then the fire of a new enthusiasm may be lighted4 ,and only that second step makes one a ,christian4 ,it is a great thing to have life cleansed1 and its conceits and follies washed away4 ,but that is not safety4 ,the cleansing is for the moment only4 ,it is like that house which was swept and garnished1 but because it was empty was invaded by tenants worse than the first4 ,the only salvation of the soul lies in the kindling of a new passion1 the lighting of the fire of a new intention1 the expulsive power1 as it has been called1 of a new affection4 ,so it is in our associated life4 ,we need1 ,god knows1 the baptism of ,john1 the purifying of conduct1 the washing away of follies and sins2 but what we need much more is the fire of a moral enthusiasm to burn up the refuse that lies in the malarious corners of our college life1 and light up the whole of it #gc with moral earnestness and passionate desire for good4 ,that is to pass from the discipleship of ,john to the discipleship of ,jesus1 from the baptism by water to the baptism by fire1 from the spirit of the ,advent season to the spirit of the ,christmas time4 #gd ,,xxix ,,the ,,wise ,,men ,,and ,,the ,,shepherds ,matthew ii4 #a-aa2 ,luke ii4 #h-aj4 ,one ,gospel tells of one kind of people who saw a star in the ,east and followed it2 and another ,gospel tells the same story of quite an opposite kind of people4 ,matthew says that the wise men of the time were the first to appreciate the coming of ,christ4 ,luke says that it was the plainest sort of people1 the shepherds1 who first greeted that coming4 ,there is the same variety of impression still4 ,many people now write as if religion were for the magi only4 ,they make of it a mystery1 a philosophy1 an opinion1 a doctrine1 which only the scholars of the time can appreciate1 and which plain people can obey1 but cannot understand4 ,many people1 on the other hand1 think that religion is for plain people only2 good for shepherds1 but outgrown by magi2 a star that invites the superstitious and ignorant to worship1 but which suggests to scholars only a new phenomenon for science to explore4 #ge ,but the ,christmas legend calls both1 the wise and the humble1 to discipleship4 ,religion has both these aspects1 and offers both these invitations4 ,religion is not theology4 ,there are many things which are hidden from the magi1 and are revealed to simple shepherds4 ,but religion1 on the other hand1 is not all for the simple4 ,the man who wrote that there were many things hidden from the wise and prudent1 was himself a scholar4 ,it was like that dramatic day1 when ,wendell ,phillips arraigned the graduates of this college for indifference to moral issues1 while he who made the indictment was a graduate himself4 ,the central subject of the highest wisdom to-day is1 as it always has been1 the relation of the mind of man to the universe of ,god4 ,thus both these types of followers are called4 ,never before was the fundamental simplicity of religion so clear as it is now2 and never before was scholarship in religion so needed4 ,some of the secrets of faith are open to any receptive heart1 and some must be explored by the trained and disciplined mind4 ,the scholar and the peasant are both called to this comprehensive service4 ,the magi and the shepherd meet at the cradle of the ,christ4 #gf ,,xxx ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,the ,,angels ,luke ii4 #h-ad4 ,we are beginning to feel already the sweep of life that hurries us all along to the keeping of the ,christmas season2 our music already takes on a ,christmas tone1 and we begin to hear the song of the angels1 which seemed to the ,evangelists to give the human birth of ,jesus a fit accompaniment in the harmonies of heaven4 ,this song of the angels1 as we have been used to reading it1 was a threefold message2 of glory to ,god1 peace on earth1 and good-will among men2 but the better scholarship of the ,revised ,version now reads in the verse a twofold message4 ,first1 there is glory to ,god1 and then there is peace on earth to the men of good-will4 ,those1 that is to say1 who have the good-will in themselves are the ones who will find peace on earth4 ,their unselfishness brings them their personal happiness4 ,they give themselves in good-will1 and so they obtain peace4 ,that is the true spirit #gg of the ,christmas season4 ,it is the good-will which brings the peace4 ,over and over again in these months of feverish scrambling for personal gain1 men have sought for peace and have not found it2 and now1 when they turn to this generous good-will1 the peace they sought comes of itself4 ,many a man in the past year has had his misunderstandings or grudges or quarrels rob him of his own peace2 but now1 as he puts away these differences as unfit for the season of good-will1 the peace arrives4 ,that is the paradox of ,christianity4 ,he who seeks peace does not find it4 ,he who gives peace finds it returning to him again4 ,he who hoards his life loses it1 and he who speeds it finds it3-- ,not what we give1 but what we share1 ,for the gift without the giver is bare2 ,who gives himself with his alms feeds three1-- ,himself1 his hungering neighbor1 and me4 ,that is the sweet and lingering echo of the angels' song4 #gh ,,xxxi ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,hearts ,,revealed ,luke ii4 #cj-ce4 ,the prophecy of the aged ,simeon for the infant ,christ was this1--that through him the secrets of many hearts should be revealed4 ,jesus1 that is to say1 was not only to read the secrets of others' hearts1 but he was to enable people to read their own hearts4 ,they were to come into self-recognition as they came to him4 ,they were to be disclosed to themselves4 ,you know how that happens in some degree when you fall in with other exceptional lives4 ,you meet a person of purity or self-control or force1 and there waken in you kindred impulses1 and you become aware of your own capacity to be better than you are4 ,the touch of the heroic discovers to you something of heroism in yourself4 ,the contagion of nobleness finds a susceptibility for that contagion in yourself4 ,so it was that this disclosure of their hearts to themselves came to the people who met with #gi ,jesus ,christ4 ,one after another they come up1 as it were1 before him1 and he looks on them and reads them like an open book2 and they pass on1 thinking not so much of what ,jesus was1 as of the revelation of their own hearts to themselves4 ,nathanael comes1 and ,jesus reads him1 and he answers3 ,whence knowest thou me8 ,peter comes1 and ,jesus beholds him and says3 ,thou shalt be called ,cephas1 a stone4 ,nicodemus1 ,pilate1 the woman of ,samaria1 and the woman who was a sinner1 pass before him1 and the secrets of their different hearts are revealed to themselves4 ,it is so now4 ,if you want to know yourself1 get nearer to this personality1 in whose presence that which hid you from yourself falls away1 and you know yourself as you are4 ,the most immediate effect of ,christian discipleship is this1--not that the mysteries of heaven are revealed1 but that you yourself are revealed to yourself4 ,your follies and weaknesses1 and all the insignificant efforts of your better self as well1 come into recognition1 and you stand at once humbled and strengthened in the presence of a soul which understands you1 and believes in you1 and stirs you to do and to be what you have hitherto only dreamed4 #hj ,,xxxii ,,the ,,grace ,,of ,,jesus ,,christ ,these are the last words of most of the ,epistles of the ,new ,testament4 ,they are the last words of the ,new ,testament itself4 ,they are commonly heard as the last words of ,christian worship2 the most familiar form of ,christian benediction4 ,but what is the grace of ,jesus ,christ8 ,grace is that which acts not for duty's sake1 but for sheer love and kindness4 ,what is the grace of ,god8 ,it is just this overflowing benevolence4 ,who is the gracious man8 ,it is he who gives beyond his obligations1 and seeks opportunities of thoughtful kindliness4 ,what is the grace of ,christ8 ,it is just this superadded and unexpected generosity4 ,so the life of duty and the life of grace stand contrasted with each other4 ,the duty-doer thinks of justice1 honesty1 the reputable way of life4 ,but grace goes beyond duty4 ,duty asks1 ,what ought ,i to do8 ,grace asks1 ,what can ,i do8 ,where duty halts1 grace begins4 ,it touches duty with beauty1 and makes it fair instead of stern4 ,grace is not looking #ha for great things to do1 but for gracious ways to do little things4 ,in many spheres of life it is much if it can be said of you that you do your duty4 ,but think of a home of which all that you could say was that its members did their duty4 ,that would be as much as to say that it was a just home1 but a severe one2 decorous1 but unloving2 a home where there was fair dealing1 but where there was little of the grace of ,jesus ,christ4 ,thus it is that the grace of ,jesus ,christ sums up the finest beauty of the ,christian spirit1 and offers the best benediction with which ,christians should desire to part4 ,as we separate for a time from our worship1 ,i do not then ask that we may be led in the coming year to do our duty1 ,i ask for more4 ,i pray for the grace of ,jesus ,christ2 that in our homes there may be more of considerateness1 that in our college there may be a natural and spontaneous self-forgetfulness1 a free and generous offering of uncalled-for kindness4 ,some of us are able to do much for others1 to give1 to teach1 to govern1 to employ4 ,there is a way of doing this which doubles its effect4 ,it is the way of grace4 ,some of us must be for the most part receivers of instruction or #hb kindness4 ,there is a way of receiving kindness which is among the most beautiful traits of life4 ,it is the way of grace4 ,no one of us1 if he be permitted to live on in this coming year1 can escape this choice between obligation and opportunity1 between the way of life which is discreet and prudent and the way of life which is simply beautiful4 ,when these inevitable issues come1 then the prayer1 which may lead us to the higher choice1 must be the prayer with which the ,bible ends2 the benediction of the ,christian spirit2 even this1--that the grace of ,jesus ,christ may be with us all4 #hc ,,xxxiii ,,the ,,everlasting ,,arms ,deuteronomy xxxiii4 #bg4 ,underneath are the everlasting arms1--that was the repeated burden of the great men of ,israel4 ,they lived in the midst of national calamities and distresses4 ,they were defeated1 puzzled1 baffled4 ,the way looked dark4 ,then they fall back on the one great re-establishing thought3 after all1 it is ,god's world4 ,it is not going to ruin4 ,changes which seemed tremendous are not fatal or final4 ,israel dwells in safety1 for ,god holds us in his arms4 ,we need some such broad1 deep confidence as we enter a new year4 ,we get involved in small issues and engrossed in personal problems1 and people sometimes seem so malicious1 and things seem to be going so wrong that it is as if we heard the noise of some approaching ,niagara4 ,then we fall back on the truth that after all it is not our world4 ,we can blight it or help it1 but we do not #hd decide its issues4 ,in the midst of such a time of social distress1 ,mr4 ,lowell in one of his lectures wrote3 ,i take great comfort in ,god4 ,i think ,he is considerably amused sometimes1 but on the whole loves us and would not let us get at the matchbox if ,he did not know that the frame of the universe was fireproof4 ,that is the modern statement of the underlying faith and self-control and patience which come of confessing that in this world it is not we alone who do it all4 ,why so hot1 little man8 says ,mr4 ,emerson4 ,i take great comfort in ,god1 says ,mr4 ,lowell2 and the ,old ,testament1 with a much tenderer note repeats3 ,underneath are the everlasting arms4 #he ,,xxxiv ,,the ,,comfort ,,of ,,the ,,truth ,john xiv4 #ad1 #af4 ,jesus says that he will send a ,comforter1 and that it will be the spirit of the truth4 ,many people say just the opposite of this4 ,if you want comfort1 they think that you must not have truth4 ,is not the truth often an uncomforting and uncomfortable thing8 ,too much truth seems dangerous4 ,the spirit of the truth is a hard1 cold spirit4 ,should not a comforter shade and soften the truth8 ,but ,jesus answers there is nothing so permanently comforting as the truth4 ,why1 for instance1 is it that we judge people so severely8 ,it is not as a rule that we know the whole truth about them1 but that we know only a fragment of the truth4 ,the more we know1 the gentler grow our judgments4 ,would it not be so if people who judge you should know all your secret hopes and conflicts and dreams8 ,why is it again that people are so despondent about their own times1 their community1 the tendency of things8 ,it is because #hf they have not entered deeply enough into the truth of the times4 ,the more they know1 the more they hope4 ,and why is it that ,god is all-merciful8 ,it is because ,he is also all-wise4 ,he knows all about us1 our desires and our repentances1 and so in the midst of our wrong-doing ,he continues merciful4 ,his ,holy ,spirit bears in one hand comfort and in the other truth4 ,how does a student get peace of mind8 ,he finds it when he gets hold of some stable truth4 ,it may not be a large truth1 but it is a real truth1 and therefore it is a comfort4 ,how does a man in his moral struggles get comfort8 ,he gets it not by swerving1 or dodging1 or compromising1 but by being true4 ,the only permanent comfort is in the sense of fidelity4 ,you are like a sailor in the storm2 it is dark about you1 the wind howls1 the stars vanish4 ,what gives you comfort8 ,it is the knowledge that one thing is true4 ,thank ,god1 you have your compass1 and the tremulous little needle can be trusted4 ,you bend over it with your lantern in the dark and know where you are going1 and that renews your courage4 ,you have the spirit of the truth1 and it is your comforter4 #hg ,,xxxv ,,the ,,sword ,,of ,,the ,,spirit ,ephesians vi4 #ad-ag4 ,in this passage the apostle is thinking of the ,christian life as full of conflict and warfare4 ,it needs what he calls the good soldier of ,jesus ,christ1 and for the moment ,st4 ,paul is considering how such a soldier should be armed for such a war4 ,he is like some knight of the ,middle ,ages1 standing in his castle-yard and serving out to his vassals the weapons they need for the battle which is near at hand4 ,take all your armor1 he says4 ,this is no holiday affair1 no dress parade4 ,you are to fight against principalities and powers4 ,so take the whole armor of ,god4 ,and then he puts it into their hands4 ,there is1 however1 one curious thing about this armor4 ,it has but one offensive weapon4 ,the soldier of ,jesus ,christ is given1 to defend himself from his enemies1 the shield of faith1 the tunic of truth1 the helmet of salvation2 but to fight1 to overcome1 to disarm1 he has but one weapon1--the #hh sword of the spirit4 ,is it possible1 then1 that the ,spirit of ,god entering into a man can be to him a sword2 that a man's character has this aggressive quality2 that a man fights just by what he is8 ,yes1 that seems to be the apostle's argument4 ,looking at all the conflicts and collisions of life1 its differences of opinion1 its causes to be won1 he thinks that the best fighting weapon is the spirit of a man's life4 ,behind all argument and persuasion the only absolute argument1 the final persuasion1 is the simple witness of the spirit4 ,when a man wants to make a cause he believes in win1 his aggressive force lies not in what he says about that cause1 but in what that cause has made of him4 ,he wins his victory without striking a blow when he wields the sword of the ,spirit4 ,he comes like the soft1 fresh morning among us1 and we simply open our windows and yield to it1 greeting it with joy4 ,it is the air we want to breathe1 and we accept it as our own4 #hi ,,xxxvi ,,life ,,is ,,an ,,arrow ,john xiv4 #f4 ,when ,jesus says3 ,i am the way1 and the truth1 and the life1 he names the three things which a man must have in order to lead a straight life4 ,such a man must have first a way to go1 and then a truth to reach1 and then life enough to get there4 ,he needs first a direction1 and then an end1 and then a force4 ,some lives have no path to go by1 and some no end to go to1 and some no force to make them go4 ,now ,jesus says that the ,christian life has all three4 ,it has intention1 the decision which way to go2 it has determination1 the finding of a truth to reach2 it has power1 the inner dynamic of the life of ,christ4 ,life1 as has been lately said by one of our own preachers1 is like an arrow4 ,it must have its course1 it must have its mark1 and it must have the power to go4 ,life is an arrow1 therefore you must know ,what mark to aim at1 how to bend the bow1 ,then draw it to its head1 and let it go4 #a #a ,henry van ,dyke1 ,d4 ,d41 in the ,outlook for ,feb4 #bc1 #ahie4 #ij ,,xxxvii ,,the ,,decline ,,of ,,enthusiasm ,revelation ii4 #a-g4 ,i do not propose to consider the character or intention of this mystical ,book of ,revelation4 ,however it may be regarded1 it is first of all a series of messages written in the name of the risen ,christ to the churches of ,asia1 singling out each in turn1 pointing out its special defects1 and exhorting it to its special mission2 and there is something so modern1 or rather so universal about these messages to the churches that in spite of their strange language and figures of speech they often seem like messages to the churches of ,america to-day4 ,first the word comes to the chief church of the region1 at ,ephesus4 ,it was a great capital city1 with much prosperity and splendor1 and the church there abounded in good works4 ,the writer appreciates all this3 ,i know thy works1 and thy toil and patience1 and that thou canst not bear evil men4 ,it was a substantial1 busy city church4 ,what was lacking in the church #ia of ,ephesus8 ,it had fallen away1 says the message1 from its first enthusiasm4 ,it had lost its first love4 ,the eagerness of its first conversion had gone out of it4 ,it had settled down into the ways of an established church1 with plenty of good works and good people1 but with the loss of that first spontaneous1 passionate loyalty2 and unless it recovered this enthusiasm its candlestick would be removed out of its place1 and its light would go out4 ,how modern that sounds6 ,how precisely it is like some large church in some large city to-day1 a respectable and respected and useful church1 a ,sunday club1 a self-satisfied circle2 and how it explains that mysterious way in which1 in many such a large church1 a sort of dry-rot seems to set in1 and even where the church seems to prosper it is declining1 and some day it dies6 ,it has lost its first love1 and its candle first flickers and then goes out4 ,indeed1 how true the same story is of many an individual inside or outside the church1 perfectly respectable and entirely respected1 but outgrowing his enthusiasms4 ,he becomes1 by degrees1 first self-repressed and unemotional1 then a cynical dilettante4 ,how you wish he #ib would do something impulsive1 impetuous1 even foolish6 ,how you would like to detect him in an enthusiasm6 ,his life has moved on like the river ,rhine1 which has its boisterous ,alpine youth1 and then runs more and more slowly1 until in ,holland we can hardly detect whether it has any current4 ,it drags its slow length through the hot1 dry land1 ,and dies away in the monotonous strand4 ,that is the church of ,ephesus1 and that is the man from ,ephesus1 and unless they repent and regain their power of enthusiasm their light goes out4 ,ephesus lies there1 a cluster of huts beside a heap of ruins1 and the future of the world is with the nations and churches and people who view the world with fresh1 unspoiled1 appreciative hope4 #ic ,,xxxviii ,,the ,,crown ,,of ,,life ,revelation ii4 #h-aj4 ,the ,church of ,ephesus needed a rebuke2 the ,church at ,smyrna needed an encouragement4 ,the first was a prosperous1 busy church1 without spiritual vitality1 and the prophecy was that its light should go out4 ,the second was a persecuted church1 with much tribulation and poverty1 and the promise was that for its faithfulness it should have a crown of life4 ,and if the traveller1 as he stands among the ruins of ,ephesus1 cannot help thinking how its candle-stick has been removed1 so he must think of the reward of fidelity1 as he stands among the busy docks and bustling life of ,smyrna4 ,a crown of life6 ,there is no discovery of experience more important in a man's life than the discovery of its legitimate rewards4 ,a man undertakes to do the best he can with his powers and capacities1 and inquires some day for the natural reward of his fidelity4 ,shall he have gratitude1 or recognition1 or praise8 ,any one of these things may come #id to him1 but any one of them1 or all of them1 may elude him2 and all sooner or later show themselves to be accidents of his experience1 and not its natural and essential issue4 ,then he discovers that there is but one legitimate reward of life1 and that is increase of life1 more of power and capacity and vitality and effectiveness4 ,what is the reward of learning one's lessons8 ,marks1 or praise1 or distinction1 may come of this1 or they may not4 ,the legitimate reward is simply the power to learn other lessons4 ,the expenditure of force has increased the supply of force2 the use of capacity has developed capacity4 ,what is the reward of taking physical exercise8 ,it is not athletic prizes1 or athletic glory2 it is strength4 ,you have sought strength1 and you get strength4 ,the crown of athletic life is increase of athletic vitality4 ,what is the reward of keeping your temper8 ,it is the increased power of self-control4 ,what is the reward of doing your duty as well as you can8 ,it is the ability to do your duty better4 ,out of the duty faithfully done opens the way to meet the larger duty4 ,you have been faithful over a few things1 and you become the ruler over many things4 #ie ,and what is the crown of the whole of life lived faithfully here8 ,it is not a crown of gold or gems in another life2 it is simply more life2 a broader use of power1 a healthier capacity1 a larger usefulness4 ,you are faithful unto death1 through the misapprehensions and imperfections and absence of appreciation or gratitude in this preparatory world1 and then there is offered to you inevitably and legitimately the crown of a larger1 more serviceable1 more effective life4 #if ,,xxxix ,,the ,,hidden ,,manna ,,and ,,the ,,white ,,stone ,revelation ii4 #ab-ag4 ,both of these are ,jewish symbols4 ,one refers to that food which1 as ,moses commanded1 was kept in the sanctuary and eaten by the priest alone2 the other apparently refers to a sacred stone worn by the priest1 with an inscription on it known only to him4 ,both symbols mean to teach that the ,christian believer has an immediate and personal intimacy with ,god4 ,there is no sacerdotal intermediation for him4 ,he can go straight to the altar and take of the sacred bread4 ,he wears on his own breast the mark of ,god's communication4 ,it is the doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers2 the highest promise to a faithful church4 ,but on this white stone1 the message says1 there is a name written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it4 ,how quickly that goes home to many a faithful life4 ,hidden from all that can be read by #ig others is the writing which one bears upon his own breast1 legible only to himself and to his ,god4 ,think how hardly and carelessly people try to judge one's life1 to read its characteristics of strength or weakness4 ,think how we all thus deal in hasty judgment1 stamping our neighbors as jovial or moody1 generous or selfish1 as kind or stern1 as sinner or saint2 while all the time1 deeper than any interpretation of ours can reach1 there is the central sanctuary of the man's own soul1 where is worn against his breast the real title which to his own consciousness he bears1 and which may quite contradict all external judgments4 ,what is written on that interior life8 ,what is that name you bear which no man knoweth save you2--that life of yourself which is hidden with ,christ in ,god8 ,that is the most solemn question which any man can ask himself as he bends to say his silent prayer4 ,is it just your own name1 the badge of selfishness2 or is it some vow of irresponsibility1--,am ,i my brother's keeper8--or is it just a sheer blank white stone1 marking a life without intention or character at all8 ,or is there perhaps written there the pure #ih demand to be of use8--,for their sakes ,i sanctify myself2--or is there written on your heart the name of ,god1 or of his ,christ1 so that this interior maxim reads3 ,i live1 yet not ,i1 but ,christ that liveth in me8 #ii ,,xl ,,the ,,morning ,,star ,revelation ii4 #ah-bh4 ,the morning star is the symbol of promise1 the sign that the dawn is not far away4 ,thyatira was a little place1 with a weak church1 with small hopes and great discouragements1 much troubled by the work of a false prophetess1 tempted by the deep things of ,satan1 as the message says1 and yet to it the promise is committed1 that it shall have authority over the nations1 and receive the morning star4 ,it was the same great promise that had been already given to the early ,christians3 ,fear not1 little flock1 for it is my ,father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom4 ,it was the same amazing optimism which made ,jesus look about him1 as he stood with a dozen humble followers1 and say3 ,lift up your eyes and look at the fields1 they are white already to my harvest4 ,there is certainly passing over the world in our day a great wave of intellectual and #ajj spiritual discouragement and despondency4 ,what with philosophical pessimism and social agitations and literary decadence and political corruption and moral looseness1 a great many persons are beginning to feel that the end of the century is an end of faith1 and are not able to discern in the darkness of the time any morning star4 ,as one distinguished author has said3 ,this is not a time of the eclipse of faith1 but a time of the collapse of faith4 ,it was much the same in the times of ,thyatira4 ,there was the same luxury and self-indulgence in the ,roman world1 the same social restlessness1 the same intellectual despondency4 ,now1 who is it that can view these perturbations of the world with a tranquil and rational hope8 ,i answer1 that it is only he who views his own time in the light of the eternal purposes of ,god4 ,the religious man is bound to be an optimist1 not with the foolish optimism which blinks the facts of life2 but with the sober optimism which believes that-- ,step by step1 since time began1 ,we see the steady gain of man4 ,it may be dark as pitch in the world of speculative thought1 but religion discerns the #aja morning star4 ,it believes in its own time4 ,it believes that somehow good will be the final goal of ill4 ,even in the perplexities and disasters of its own experience it is not overwhelmed4 ,it is cast down1 but not destroyed4 ,it is saved by hope4 ,it lifts its eyes and beholds through the clouds the gleam of the morning star4 #ajb ,,xli ,,living ,,as ,,dead ,revelation iii4 #a4 ,was there ever a message of sterner irony than this to the ,church of ,sardis3 ,thou hast a name that thou livest1 and thou art dead6 ,we may suppose that it was a church of apparent prosperity1 with all the machinery of church life1 its ritual1 and officers1 and committees1 all in working order2 and yet1 when one got at the heart of it1 there was no vitality4 ,it was a dead church4 ,it could show--as the passage says--no works fulfilled before ,god4 ,it was like a tree which seems all vigorous1 but which1 when one thrusts into the heart of it1 proves to be pervaded by dry-rot4 ,there are plenty of such churches still1--churches which have a name that they are living1 but are dead4 ,they are counted in the denominational year-book2 they go through the motions of life2 but where is their quickening1 communicating1 vitalizing power8 ,what are they but mechanical1 formal1 institutional things1 and how sudden sometimes1 like #ajc the falling of a dead tree1 is the collapse of a dead church6 ,there is the same story to tell of some people4 ,they have a name that they are living1 but they are practically dead4 ,for what is it1 according to the ,new ,testament1 which makes one live1 and when is it that one comes to die8 ,to be carnally minded1 answers ,st4 ,paul1 is death1 and to be spiritually minded is life4 ,he that heareth my sayings1 answers ,jesus1 hath passed from death into life4 ,what a wonderful word is that6 ,it is not a promise that the true ,christian shall some day1 when his body dies1 pass into an eternal life4 ,it is an announcement that when one enters into the spirit of ,christ he passes1 now1 in this present world1 from all that can be fairly called death1 into all that can be rationally called life4 ,under this ,new ,testament definition1 then1 a man may suppose himself to be alive and healthy1 when he is really sick1 dying1 dead4 ,a man may perhaps1 as he says1 see life1 while he may be really seeing nothing but death4 ,or a man may be1 as we say1 dying1 and be1 in the ,new ,testament sense1 full of an abundant and transfiguring life4 #ajd ,and so it becomes an entirely practical question1 which one may ask himself any morning1 ,am ,i alive to-day1 or am ,i dead8 ,is it only that ,i have the name of living1 a sort of directory-existence1 a page in the college records1 a place in the list of my class1 while in fact there is dry-rot in my soul8 ,or is there any movement of the life of ,god in me1 of quickening and refreshing life1 of generous activity and transmissive vitality8 ,then death is swallowed up in victory1 and ,i am partaking even in this present world of the life that does not die4 #aje ,,xlii ,,the ,,open ,,door ,revelation iii4 #h4 ,a few years ago1 at the first service of the college year1 one of our preachers took for his text this message to the church at ,philadelphia3 ,behold1 ,i have set before thee an open door2 and it has always seemed to me to represent with precision the spirit of our worship here4 ,we have abandoned the principle of compulsion4 ,we do not force young men of twenty to come here and say their prayers4 ,we simply set before them an open door4 ,the privilege of worship is permitted to them from day to day1 and religion stands among us1 not as a part of college discipline1 but as the supreme privilege of a manly human soul4 ,whosoever will1 let him take the water of life freely4 ,indeed1 this same text represents the spirit of our whole university life4 ,what we call the elective system is a method of invitation and persuasion4 ,it multiplies opportunities4 ,it does not compel the allegiance of the indifferent4 ,he that is lazy1 let him be lazy still4 #ajf ,the university sets before the mind of youth its open door4 ,and this1 indeed1 is what one asks of life4 ,what should a free state in this modern world guarantee to all its citizens8 ,not that equality of condition for which many in our days plead1 the dead level of insured and effortless comfort1 but equality of opportunity1 a free and fair chance for every man to be and to do his best4 ,that land is best governed where the door of opportunity stands wide open to the humblest of its citizens1 so that no man can shut it4 ,and what is the relation of religion to the life of man1 if it be not of this same enlarging and emancipating kind8 ,here we are1 all shut in by our routine of business and study and preoccupation1 and religion simply opens the door outward from this narrowness of life into a larger and a purer world4 ,it is as if you were bending some evening over your books in the exhausted air of your little room1 and as if you should rise from your task1 and pass out into the night1 and the open door should deliver you from your weariness and your self-absorption1 as you stood in the serene companionship of the infinite heavens and the myriad of stars4 #ajg ,,xliii ,,behold1 ,i ,,stand ,,at ,,the ,,door ,,and ,,knock ,revelation iii4 #bj4 ,to the church at ,philadelphia it was promised that the door should be opened2 but here was a church at ,laodicea which had deliberately shut its door on the higher life4 ,it was a church that was neither cold nor hot1 a lukewarm1 indifferent1 spiritless people1 and to such a people1 willfully barring out the revelations of ,god1 comes the ,christ in this wonderful figure1 standing at the door like a weary traveller1 asking to be let in4 ,such a picture just reverses the common view which one is apt to take of the religious life4 ,we commonly think of truth as hiding itself within its closed door and of ourselves as trying to get in to it4 ,we speak of finding ,christ1 or proving ,god1 or getting religion1 as if all these things were mysteries to be explored1 hidden behind doors which must be unlocked2 as if1 in the relation between man and ,god1 man did all the searching1 and ,god was a hidden ,god4 #ajh ,but the fundamental fact of the religious life is this1--that the power and love of ,god are seeking man2 that before we love ,him1 ,he loves us2 that before we know ,him1 ,he knows us2 that antecedent to our recognition of ,him must be our receptivity of ,him4 ,coleridge said that he believed in the ,bible because it found him4 ,it is for the same reason that man believes in ,god4 ,god finds him4 ,it is not the sheep which go looking for the shepherd1 it is the shepherd who finds the sheep1 and when they hear his voice1 they follow him4 ,this is not contrary to nature4 ,the same principle is to be noticed in regard to all truth4 ,take1 for instance1 any scientific discovery of a physical force1 like that which we call the force of electricity4 ,there is nothing new about this wonderful power4 ,it has always been about us1 playing through the sky1 and inviting the mind of man4 ,then1 some day1 a few men open their minds to the significance of this force1 and appreciate how it may be applied to the common uses of life4 ,that is what we call a discovery2 it is the opening of the door of the mind2 and one of the most impressive things about science to-day is to #aji consider how many other secrets of the universe are at this moment knocking at our doors1 and waiting to be let in2 and to perceive how senseless and unreceptive we must seem to an omniscient mind1 when so much truth1 standing near us1 is beaten back from our closed minds and wills4 ,it is the same with religious truth4 ,here are our lives1 shut in1 limited1 self-absorbed2 and here are the messages of ,god1 knocking at our door2 and between the two only one barrier1 the barrier of our own wills4 ,religious education is simply the opening of the door of the heart4 ,a ,christian discipleship is simply that alertness and receptivity which hears the knocking and welcomes the ,spirit which says3 ,if any man will but open the door1 ,i will come in to him1 and sup with him1 and he with me4 #aaj ,,xliv ,,he ,,that ,,overcometh ,revelation xxi4 #g4 ,in each one of these letters to the churches there is repeated like a refrain1 a sort of motif which announces the character of all1--this final phrase3 ,he that overcometh4 ,he is to receive the promise1 he is to inherit these things1 he is to be the stone in the temple of ,god4 ,the reward and blessing are to be not for the shirks or runaways or easy-going of the world1 but for those who1 taking life just as it is with all its hardness1 overcome it4 ,it is the manly summons from the soft theory of life to the principle which one may call that of progress through overcoming resistance4 ,a great many lives are spoiled by the soft theory of life4 ,they expect to get out of life a comfort which is not in it to give4 ,they go about looking1 so to speak1 for a soft course in the curriculum of life1 hoping to enroll in it and be free from trouble4 ,they ask of their religion that it shall make life easy and safe and clear4 ,but the trouble is #aaa that the elective pamphlet of life does not announce a single soft course4 ,the people who try thus to live are simply courting disaster and despair4 ,some day1 perhaps in some tragic moment1 every man has to learn that life is not an easy thing1 but that it is at times fearfully and solemnly hard4 ,nothing is more plainly written on the facts of life than this1--that life was meant to be hard4 ,trouble and disaster1 and the inevitable blows of experience1 are absolutely certain to teach this truth sooner or later1 and the sooner one learns it the better for his soul4 ,and if life was not meant to be easy1 what was it meant for8 ,it was meant to be overcome4 ,it stands before one like the friction of the world of nature1 which is always seeming to retard one's motion1 but which makes really the only condition under which we move at all4 ,if there is to be any motion through life1 then it must be by overcoming its friction4 ,if life was meant just to stand still1 then it might stagnate in a soft place2 but life was meant to move1 and the only way of motion is by overcoming friction1 and the hardness of the world becomes the very condition of spiritual progress4 ,what we call the rub of life is #aab then what makes living possible4 ,what we call the burdens of life are the discipline of its power4 ,not to him who meets no resistance1 nor to him whose shoulder is chafed by no cross1 but to him who overcometh is the promise given that ,god will be his ,god1 and that he shall be ,god's son4 #aac ,,xlv ,,the ,,prodigality ,,of ,,providence ,matthew xiii4 #a-i4 ,i wish to dwell for several mornings on this parable of the sower1 and for to-day ,i call attention to the air of prodigality which pervades this story4 ,there seems to be an immense amount of seed wasted4 ,some of it falls on the roadway2 some of it is snatched away by the birds2 some of it is caught among the bushes4 ,yet the sower proceeds in no niggardly fashion4 ,he strides away across the field scattering the seed broadcast1 far beyond the border where he expects a crop1 for he knows that1 though much shall be wasted1 whatever seed may fall on good ground will have miraculous increase4 ,there may be prodigality of waste1 but there shall be prodigality of reproduction4 ,if but one seed in thirty takes root in good soil it may produce thirty or sixty or a hundred fold4 ,such is the prodigality of ,providence4 ,and it comes close to many experiences1 and #aad interprets many perplexities of life4 ,a man goes his way through life scattering his efforts1 distributing his energy1 doing his work as broadly and generously as he can1 and some day he notices what a very large proportion of all that he does comes to nothing4 ,much of the soil where he sows seems hard and barren1 and he might as well be trying to raise wheat on a stone pavement4 ,it seems to be simply effort thrown away4 ,but then some other day this man makes this other discovery1--that some very slight effort or endeavor or sacrifice or word has been infinitely more fruitful than he could have dreamed4 ,it was an insignificant thing which he did1 but it happened to fall at the right time in the right place1 and he is almost startled at its productiveness4 ,and so he takes his lesson from the prodigality of ,providence4 ,of course it will happen that the great proportion of his efforts will come to nothing4 ,of course he is to be misjudged and ineffective and barren of results2 but if only one word in a hundred falls in the right soil1 if only one effort in a hundred touches the right soul1 the hundred-fold fruitage brings with it ample #aae compensation4 ,thus he strides cheerfully over the fields of life with the broad swing of an unthrifty mind1 expecting that much of his seed will fall among the thorns and rocks1 but with faith that the harvest--even if he is not himself permitted to reap it--is yet made safe through his fidelity to that prodigal ,providence which miraculously multiplies the little he can do1 and makes it bear fruit1 sometimes a hundredfold4 #aaf ,,xlvi ,,the ,,hard ,,life ,matthew xiii4 #a-i4 ,let us look still further at this parable of the sower4 ,there are described in it various kinds of lives on which ,god's influences fall1 and fall in vain4 ,the first of these is the hard life1--hard1 like a road1 so that the seed lies there as if fallen on a pavement1 and gets no root1 and the pigeons come and pick it up4 ,we usually think of the hard life as if it were a life of sin4 ,we speak of a hardened sinner1 of a hard man1 as of persons whom good influences cannot penetrate4 ,but the hard soil of the parable is not that of sin4 ,it is that of a roadway1 hardened simply by the passing to and fro4 ,it is the hardening effect of habit4 ,sometimes1 the passage says1 your life gets so worn by the coming and going of your daily routine1 that you become impenetrable to the subtle suggestions of ,god1 as if your life were paved4 ,some people are thus hardened even to good4 ,they lose capacity for impressions4 #aag ,some people are even gospel-hardened4 ,they have heard so much talk about religion that it runs off the pavement of their lives into the gutter4 ,thus the first demand of the sower is for receptivity1 for openness of mind1 for responsiveness4 ,give ,god a chance1 says the parable4 ,his seed gets no fair opportunity in a life which is like a trafficking high-road4 ,keep the soil of life soft1 its sympathy tender1 its imagination free1 or else you lose the elementary quality of receptiveness1 and all the influences of ,god may be scattered over you in vain4 #aah ,,xlvii ,,the ,,thin ,,life ,matthew xiii4 #a-i4 ,the first thing which hinders ,god's seed from taking root is1 as we have seen1 hardness1--the life which is trodden down like a road2 an impenetrability of nature1 which is not a trait of sinners only1 but of many privileged souls4 ,the second sort of unfruitful soil is just the opposite of this4 ,it is not the unreceptive1 but the impulsively receptive life4 ,it is not too hard1 or too soft1 but it is too thin4 ,it is a superficial soil which has no depth of earth1 and so with joy it receives the word2 but the seed has no depth of earth and quickly withers away4 ,this sort of soil receives quickly and as quickly lets go4 ,it is like that unstable man of whom ,st4 ,james writes and who is like the wave of the sea1 driven with the wind and tossed4 ,we see the wave come flashing up out of the general level1 catching the sunshine as it leaps and crowned with its spray1 and then we look again for it1 and where is #aai it8 ,it has sunk again into the undistinguishable level of the sea4 ,thus the parable turns to this instability and says3 ,it is bad to be hard1 but it is bad also to be thin4 ,when tribulation or persecution arises1 something more than impulsiveness is needed to give a root to life4 ,how strongly and serenely ,newman writes of this3-- ,prune thou thy words1 the thoughts control ,that o'er thee swell and throng2 ,they will condense within thy soul ,and turn to purpose strong4 ,but he who lets his feelings run ,in soft luxurious flow1 ,faints when hard service must be done1 ,and shrinks at every blow4 #abj ,,xlviii ,,the ,,crowded ,,life ,matthew xiii4 #a-i4 ,in the parable of the sower the third kind of soil is one which is very common in modern life4 ,the first soil was too hard1 and the second too thin1 and now the third is too full4 ,it is overgrown and preoccupied4 ,other things choke the seed4 ,there is not room for the harvest4 ,the influences of ,god are simply crowded out4 ,and of what is life thus so full8 ,of two things1 answers the parable4 ,for some it is full of the cares of this world1 and for some it is full of the deceitfulness of riches4 ,care is the weed that chokes plain people1 and money is the weed that chokes rich people4 ,sometimes a poor man wonders how a rich man feels4 ,well1 he feels about his money just as a poor man does about his cares4 ,his wealth preoccupies him4 ,it is a great responsibility4 ,it takes a great deal of time4 ,it crowds out many things he would like to do4 ,the poor man says that #aba money would free him from care1 but the rich man finds that money itself increases care4 ,thus they are both choked by lack of leisure1 one by the demands of routine1 and one by the burdens of responsibility4 ,and this parable says to both these types of life3 ,keep room for ,god4 ,it comes to the scholar and says3 ,in this busy place reserve time to think and feel2 do not let your cares choke your soul4 ,and then it goes out to the great scrambling1 money-getting world1 and sees many a man hard at work in what he calls his field1 watching for things grow in his life1 and finding some day that he has been deceived in his crop4 ,he thought it was to come up grain and it turns out to be weeds4 ,he sowed money and expected a harvest of peace2 and behold6 he only reaps more money4 ,that is the deceitfulness of riches4 #abb ,,xlix ,,the ,,patience ,,of ,,nature ,matthew xiii42 ,mark iv4 #bg4 ,the parable of the sower1 which begins with its solemn warnings against the hard life1 the thin life1 and the crowded life1 ends with a note of wholesome hope4 ,who are they who bring forth fruit in abundance8 ,they are1 the parable says1 not great and exceptional people4 ,the conditions are such as any life can fulfil4 ,it is an honest and good heart which hears the word and keeps it and is fruitful4 ,nothing but sincerity and receptivity is demanded4 ,a plain soil is productive enough4 ,god only needs a fair chance4 ,he only asks that life shall not be too hard1 or too thin1 or too crowded4 ,this is a saying of great comfort to plain people4 ,and yet1 even for these1 one last demand is added1--the demand for patience4 ,if fruit is to be brought forth it must be with patience4 ,the autumn comes1 but not all at once4 ,jesus is always recalling to us the gradualness of nature2 first the blade1 #abc then the ear1 then the full corn4 ,nothing in nature is in a hurry4 ,it is not a movement of catastrophes1 it is a movement of evolution4 ,and so the last word of the parable is to the impetuous4 ,what a hurry we are in for our results4 ,we look about us among the social agitations of the day and demand a panacea2 but ,god is not in a hurry4 ,delay1 uncertainty1 doubt1 are a part of ,christian experience4 ,it brings forth its fruit with patience4 ,it is like these lingering days of spring1 when one can discern no intimation of the quickening life2 and yet one knows that through the brown branches the sap is running1 and slowly with hesitating advance the world is moving to the miracle of the spring4 #abd ,l ,,the ,,distribution ,,of ,,talents ,matthew xxv4 #ad-cj4 ,the parable of the talents takes up the side of life which is not emphasized in the parable of the sower4 ,in the story of the sower ,god is doing the work and man is receptive of his influence4 ,in the story of the talents ,god is a master who leaves his servants to do his work1 and the parable is one of activity4 ,these men are responsible agents4 ,life is a trust4 ,that is the natural teaching of the parable4 ,all these men are accountable2 there has been given to them that which is not their own1 a trust from ,god1 to be used in his service4 ,but then enters the extraordinary teaching of this parable as to the fact of diversity4 ,we talk of men as created free and equal4 ,the cry of the time is for equality of condition1 for leveling down the rich1 and leveling up the poor2 for paying the genius and the hod-carrier alike2 time for time1 and man for man4 ,but this parable stands for no such definition of #abe equality4 ,it recognizes diversity4 ,some have many talents and some have few4 ,to each is given according to his several ability4 ,diversity of condition is accepted as a natural feature of human life1 just as the hills and valleys make up the landscape4 ,the parable does not make of life a prairie4 ,where then1 in this diversified life1 is justice1 the social justice which men in our time so eagerly and so reasonably claim8 ,there is no justice1 answers the parable1 if the end of life is to be found in getting the prizes of this world2 for some are sure to get more than others4 ,the justice of this diversity is found only in its relation to ,god4 ,it is in the proportional responsibility of these holders of different gifts4 ,of those to whom much has been entrusted much will be required2 of those who are slightly gifted the judgment will be according to the gift4 ,there is no absolute standard4 ,the judgment is proportional4 ,one man may accomplish less than another1 and yet be more highly rewarded1 for he may do the less conspicuous duty laid on him better than the man with the larger trust does his4 ,the parable humbles the privileged and encourages the disheartened4 #abf ,there is no distinction of reward between the five-talent man and the two-talent man4 ,each has done his own duty with his own gifts1 and to each precisely the same language of commendation is addressed4 ,they have had proportional responsibility1 and they have identical reward4 ,both have been faithful1 and both enter into the same joy of their ,lord4 #abg ,,li ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,increasing ,,returns ,matthew xxv4 #ad-cj4 ,the parable of the talents adds to its doctrine of responsibility a second teaching4 ,it is its doctrine of interest2 the return to be looked for from investment in the spiritual life4 ,the economists have a law which they call the law of diminishing returns2 but ,jesus calls attention to the converse of that principle1--the law of increasing and accelerated returns4 ,we see this principle on a great scale in the world of money4 ,money has a self-propagating quality4 ,it breeds money4 ,if you should ask a very rich man how he accumulated his fortune he would tell you that the first savings involved great thrift and wisdom or great good luck1 but that after a while his wealth flowed in upon him almost in spite of himself4 ,he began to get money1 and the more he got the more easily he got more4 ,now this law1 says ,jesus1 which is so obvious in the business world1 is true in a much deeper way of the #abh spiritual life4 ,knowledge1 power1 faith1 all grow by investment4 ,use of the little makes it much2 hoarding what you have leaves it unfruitful4 ,do you want to know more8 ,well1 put what you now know to use4 ,invest it1 and as you seem to spend it1 it increases1 and you have found the way to the riches of wisdom4 ,do you want faith8 ,well1 use what faith you have4 ,try the working hypothesis of living by faith4 ,our ancestors in ,new ,england trading used to send out on their ships what they called a venture4 ,they took the risks of business4 ,there is a similar venture of faith1 which says3 ,lord1 ,i believe1 help thou mine unbelief4 ,he who sends the venture of his faith over the ocean of his life may look for a rich cargo in return4 ,to the faithful in the few things the many things are revealed4 ,that is the law of increasing returns4 #abi ,,lii ,,the ,,christian ,,doctrine ,,of ,,wealth ,matthew xxv4 #ad-cj4 ,in the parable of the talents the use of money is of course only an illustration of spiritual truth4 ,yet the story has its obvious lessons about the uses of money itself4 ,the five-talent man is the rich man2 and his way of service makes the ,christian doctrine of wealth4 ,and1 first of all1 the parable evidently permits wealth to exist4 ,it does not prohibit accumulation4 ,jesus is not a social leveler4 ,his words are full of tenderness to the poor1 but when a certain rich young man came to him1 ,jesus loved him also2 and when one man asked him1 saying3 ,master1 speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me1 ,jesus disclaimed the office of a social agitator1 saying3 ,man1 who made me a judge or a divider over you4 ,thus ,jesus cannot be claimed for any pet scheme which one may have of the distribution of wealth4 ,but let not the ,christian #acj think that on this account the ,christian theory of wealth is less sweeping or radical than some modern programme4 ,the fact is that it asks more of a man1 be he rich or poor1 than any modern agitator dares to propose4 ,for it demands not a part of one's possessions as the property of others1 but the whole of them4 ,the ,christian holds all his talents as a trust4 ,there is in the ,christian belief no absolute ownership of property4 ,a man has no justification in saying3 ,may ,i not do what ,i will with mine own8 ,he does not own his wealth2 he owes it4 ,the ,christian principle does not divide the rich from the poor2 it divides the faithful use of whatever one has from its unfaithful use4 ,wealth is a fund of five talents of which one is the trusted agent2 and to some five-talent men who have been faithful in their grave responsibilities1 the word of ,jesus would be given to-day as gladly as to any poor man3 ,well done1 faithful servant1 enter into the joy of thy ,lord4 #aca ,,liii ,,the ,,average ,,man#a ,matthew xxv4 #bb4 ,in the parable of the talents the man that gets least general attention is the man that stands in the middle4 ,the five-talent man gets distinction1 and the one-talent man gets rebuke1 but the two-talent man1 the man with ordinary gifts and ordinary returns from them1 seems to be an unexciting character4 ,and yet this is the man of the majority1 the average man1 the man most like ourselves1--not very bad1 and not very remarkable4 ,as has been said3 ,god must have a special fondness for average people1 for ,he has made so many of them4 ,now1 the average man stands in special need of encouragement4 ,one of the most serious moments of life is when a man discovers that he is this sort of man4 ,it comes over most of us some day that we are not going #acb to do anything extraordinary2 that we are never likely to shine2 that we are simply people of the crowd4 ,nothing seems to take the ambition and enthusiasm out of one more than this recognition of oneself as an average man4 ,then comes ,jesus with his word of courage4 ,your work1 he says1 is just as significant1 and rewarded with precisely the same commendation as the work of the five-talent man4 ,the same ,well done is spoken to both1 and it may be that the more heroic qualities are in the man with fewer gifts4 ,to make great gifts effective may be easy1 but to take common gifts and make them yield their best returns--that is what helps us all4 ,there is not a more inspiring sight in life than to see a man start with ordinary capacity and to see his power grow out of his consecration4 ,looking back on life from middle age1 that would be the story one would tell of many a success4 ,one sees five-talent men fail and two-talent men take their place2 average gifts persistently used yielding rich returns1 and the promise of usefulness lying1 not in abundant endowments of nature1 but in the using to the utmost what moderate capacities one has soberly accepted as trusts from ,god4 #a ,read also1 on this and the following subject1 the kindling sermons of ,phillips ,brooks3 ,the ,man with ,two ,talents1 vol4 iv4 p4 #aib2 ,the ,man with ,one ,talent1 vol4 i4 p4 #ach4 #acc ,,liv ,,the ,,overcoming ,,of ,,insignificance ,matthew xxv4 #bd4 ,the parable of the talents was specially given to teach ,christians not to be discouraged because ,christ's kingdom was delayed4 ,the one-talent man is its real object1 and the lessons of larger endowment are only by the way4 ,the one-talent man is not the bad man1 for to him also ,god gives a trust1 but this man is given so little to do that he thinks it not worth while to do anything4 ,he is not the many-gifted five-talent man1 or even the average two-talent man1 but he is simply the man of no account4 ,the risk of the five-talent man is his conceit2 the risk of the two-talent man is his envy2 the risk of the one-talent man is his hopelessness4 ,why should this insignificant bubble on the great stream of life inflate itself with self-importance8 ,why should it not just drift along with the current and be lost in the first rapids of the stream8 ,now ,christ's first appeal to this sense of insignificance is #acd this1--that in the sight of ,god there is no such thing as an insignificant life4 ,taken by itself1 looked at in its own independent personality1 many a life is insignificant enough4 ,but when we look at life religiously and recognize that it is a trusted agent of ,god1 then the doctrine of the trust redeems it from insignificance4 ,you have not much1 but what you have is essential to the whole4 ,the lighthouse-keeper on his rock sits in his solitude and watches his little flame4 ,why does he not let it die away as other lights in the distance die when the night comes on8 ,because it is not his light4 ,he is its keeper1 not its owner4 ,the great ,power that watches that stormy coast has set him there1 and he must be true4 ,the insignificant service becomes full of dignity and importance when it is accepted as a post of honor and trust4 ,so the unimportant life gets its significance not by its own dimensions1 but by its place in ,god's great order1 and the most wretched moment of one's life must be when he discovers that he has been trusted by ,god to do even a little part and has thrown his chance away4 ,the one-talent man thought his trust not worth investing1 and behold1 the account of it was called for with the rest4 ,he #ace had in his hands a trust from ,god and had wasted it1 and there was nothing left for him but the weeping of regret and the gnashing of teeth of indignant self-reproach4 #acf ,,lv ,,capacity ,,extirpated ,,by ,,disuse ,matthew xxv4 #bi4 ,the parable of the talents begins with its splendid encouragement to those who have done their best1 but it ends with a solemn warning and with the stern announcement of a universal law4 ,it is this1--that from him who does not use his powers there is taken away even the power that he has4 ,the gift is lost by the lack of exercise1 or as ,horace ,bushnell stated the principle1 the capacity is extirpated by disuse4 ,this principle has manifold illustrations4 ,the hand or muscle disused withers in power4 ,the fishes of the ,mammoth ,cave1 having no use for their eyes1 lose them4 ,mr4 ,darwin in an impressive passage of his biography testifies that he began life with a taste for poetry and music1 but that by disuse this aesthetic taste grew atrophied so that at last he did not care to read a poem or to hear a musical note4 ,so it is1 says ,jesus1 with spiritual insight and power4 ,sometimes we see a man of intellectual #acg gifts lose his grasp on spiritual realities1 and we ask3 ,how is it that so learned a man can find little in these things8 ,does not he testify that these things are illusions8 ,not at all4 ,it is simply that he has not kept his life trained on that side4 ,his capacity has been extirpated by disuse4 ,he may know much of science or language1 but he has lost his ideals4 ,we hear a young man sometimes say that he has grown soft by lack of exercise4 ,well1 if you live a few years you will see people who have grown soft in soul1 and you will see some great blow of fate smite them and crush them because their spiritual muscle is flabby and weak4 ,ignatius ,loyola laid down for his followers certain methods of prayer which he called ,spiritual ,exercises4 ,so in one sense they were4 ,they kept souls in training4 ,the exercise of the religious nature is the gymnastics of the soul1 and the disuse of the religious nature extirpates its capacity4 ,that is the solemn ending of the parable of the talents4 ,from him who does not use his power there is taken away even the power that he hath4 #ach ,,lvi ,,the ,,parable ,,of ,,the ,,vacuum ,matthew xii4 #ch-de4 ,it is easy to see where the emphasis of this parable lies4 ,it is on the impossible emptiness of this man's house4 ,a man casts out the devil of his life and turns the key on his empty soul and feels safe4 ,but he cannot thus find safety4 ,that is not the way to deal with evil spirits4 ,back they come1 crowding into his life through the windows if not through the doors1 and the last state of that man is worse than the first4 ,if the parable had been told in modern times it might have been called the parable of the vacuum4 ,a man's life is a space which refuses to be empty4 ,if it is not tenanted by good the evil knocks and enters it4 ,there is no such thing as an unoccupied life4 ,nature abhors a vacuum4 ,here is one of the most common mistakes of human experience4 ,a man often thinks that the less occupied his life is the safer it is4 ,he casts out his passions1 he denies his #aci desires1 he abandons his ambitions1 and so seeks safety4 ,but his life is attacked by new perils4 ,the lusts and conceits of life cannot be barred out of life2 they must be crowded out4 ,the old passion must be supplanted by a new and better one4 ,the very same qualities which go to make a great sinner are needed to make a true saint4 ,a man's soul is not safe when the vigor and force are taken out of it4 ,it is safe only when the same passion which once threatened ruin is converted to generous service2 and the same physical life that seemed an enemy of the soul has become the instrument of the soul4 ,the saved life is not the empty life1 but the full life4 ,jesus comes not to destroy men's natures1 but to fill their capacities full of better aims4 ,the only way to overcome evil is to have the life preoccupied by good4 #adj ,,lvii ,,christianity ,,and ,,business ,luke xvi4 #a-ab4 ,this is a difficult parable4 ,there is a quality of daring about it which at first sight perplexes many people4 ,it is the story of a steward who cheats his master1 and of debtors who are in collusion with the fraud1 and of a master praising his servant even while he punishes him1 as though he said3 ,well1 at least you are a shrewd and clever fellow4 ,it uses1 that is to say1 the bad people to teach a lesson to the good1 and one might fancy that it praises the bad people at the expense of the good4 ,but this is not its intention4 ,it simply goes its way into the midst of a group of people who are cheating and defrauding each other and says3 ,even such people as these have something to teach to the children of light4 ,i once heard of a father whose son was sentenced to the ,concord ,reformatory for burglary4 ,the father stood by the bars of the cell and heard the boy's story1 and then #ada with tears in his eyes he turned to the jailer and said3 ,it is a terrible sorrow to have one's boy thus disgraced1 but--and his face brightened a little--after all he was monstrous plucky4 ,so ,jesus1 out of the heart of this petty group of persons snatches a lesson for ,christians4 ,it is this3 ,why should not the children of light be as sagacious as these rascals were8 ,why should pious people be so stupid8 ,jesus looks on to the needs that must occur in his religion for sagacity1 prudence1 discretion1 and the perils that will come to it from sentimentalism1 mysticism1 silliness1 and he asks3 ,why is it that the children of this world are so much shrewder than the children of light8 ,how closely his question comes to the needs of our own time6 ,why is it that in our moral agitations and reforms the bad people seem so much cleverer than the good ones2 that political self-seeking gets the better of unselfish statesmanship2 that the liquor dealers defeat the temperance people2 that competition in business is so often cleverer than coperation in business8 ,what does ,christianity need to-day so much as wisdom8 ,it has soft-heartedness1 but it lacks #adb hard-headedness4 ,it has sweetness1 but it lacks light4 ,it has sentiment1 but it needs sense4 ,how often a man of affairs is tempted to feel a certain contempt for the ,church of ,christ1 when he turns from the intensely real issues of his week-day world to the abstractness and unreality of religious questions6 ,how fictitious1 how unbusiness-like1 how preposterous in the sight of ,god is this internecine sectarianism and impotent sentimentalism where there might be the triumphant march of one army under one flag6 ,let us learn the lesson which even the grasping1 unscrupulous world has to teach1--the lesson of an absorbed and disciplined mind giving its entire sagacity to the chief business of life4 #adc ,,lviii ,,making ,,friends ,,of ,,mammon ,luke xvi4 #a-aj4 ,mammon means money1 and the purpose of this parable is to teach ,christians their relations to that world of which ,mammon is the centre1--the world of business interests and cares4 ,jesus says that this world is neither very good nor very bad4 ,it is simply unrighteous4 ,it has no specific moral quality about it4 ,he says further that you cannot serve this world of ,mammon and serve ,god also4 ,you must choose4 ,what then can you do in your relation to ,mammon8 ,you can do one of three things4 ,you may1 first1 make an enemy of ,mammon2 or secondly1 make a master of ,mammon1 or thirdly1 make a friend of ,mammon4 ,many people in ,christian history have made an enemy of ,mammon4 ,they have regarded the world of business as a godless world which should be shunned4 ,they have run away from it to the ascetic1 unworldly life4 ,that is the spirit of the whole monastic retreat from the battle of #add practical life1--a reaction full of the beauty of self-denial1 but still a retreat4 ,the battle of life has to go on1 and the best troops have run away4 ,on the other hand1 a great many persons have made a master of ,mammon4 ,they are simply the slaves of money4 ,that is the vulgar materialism of the modern world4 ,but ,jesus says that neither of these attitudes towards ,mammon is the ,christian relation4 ,the ,christian is to make a friend of ,mammon2 to welcome it1 and to use it1 to discover the good in it and learn its lessons2 to mould it into the higher uses of life4 ,here is a potter working in his clay4 ,it is a coarse material which he uses and his hands grow soiled as he works2 but it is not for him to reject it because it is not clean1 but for him to work out through it the shapes of beauty which are possible within the limits of the clay4 ,just such a material is the modern world4 ,it is not very clean and not very beautiful2 but the problem of life is to mould out of its uncleanness the shapes of beauty which it contains4 ,to run away from life--that is easy enough2 to yield to its evil--that is still easier2 but to be in the world and to mould it--that is the #ade real problem of the ,christian life4 ,and here is the real test of ,christian character4 ,the saints of the past have been for the most part men who fled from the world1 but the saint of to-day is the man who can use the world4 ,he is the man of business who amid looseness of standards keeps himself clean4 ,he is the youth in college who without the least retreat from its influences moulds them to good4 ,he is not the runaway from the world of ,mammon1 nor yet its slave2 he makes a friend of ,mammon for the service of ,god4 #adf ,,lix ,,coming ,,to ,,one',s ,,self ,luke xv4 #ag4 ,when he came to himself he said3 ,i will arise and go to my father4 ,this is one of those gospel sentences which contains within itself a whole system of theology1 a doctrine of man and of ,god and of the relation of the one to the other4 ,he came to himself4 ,it was not then himself that had gone away into a far country4 ,it was an unreal1 fictitious self4 ,he had been insane1 beside himself1 and now1 as his better life starts up in him1 he comes to himself4 ,as his father said of him1 he had been dead and was alive again4 ,the renewal of the good self in him was the resurrection of his true personality4 ,how deep that goes into one's doctrine of human nature6 ,never believe that the sinning self is the true self4 ,your real personality is the potential good in you4 ,the moment that good springs into life you have a right to say3 ,now ,i know what ,i was #adg made for4 ,i have come to life4 ,i have discovered myself4 ,and then there is the religious aspect of this same self-discovery4 ,no sooner does this boy come to himself than he says1 ,i will arise and go to my father4 ,the religious need follows at once from the self-awakening4 ,nay1 was not the religious need the source of the self-awakening8 ,what was it that brought him to himself but just the homesickness of the child for his father's house8 ,his self-discovery was but the answer of his soul to the continuous love of ,god4 ,before he ever came to himself the father was waiting for him4 ,antecedent to the ethical return was the religious quickening4 ,that is the relation of religion to conduct4 ,you make your resolutions1 but it is ,god that prompts them4 ,your self-discovery is the drawing of the ,father4 ,your true self is his son4 ,how natural it all is1--an infinite law of love at the heart of the universe--that is the centre of theology2 a world that permits moral alienation through the free will of man1--that is the problem of philosophy2 he came to himself1--that is the heart of ethics2 ,i will go to my ,father1--that is the soul of religion4 #adh ,,lx ,,popularity ,luke xix4 #cg-dc2 ,matthew xxi4 #ag-bc4 7,,passion ,,week--,,monday7 ,the ministry of ,jesus is as a whole not easy to arrange in any fixed chronology4 ,the order of events seems often to vary in the different gospels1 and sometimes these unstudied narratives seem in positive conflict4 ,but as the story draws to its close the paths of narrative begin to converge1 and as we approach the last days and enter on the last week the incidents of each day become perfectly distinct1 and one can trace the life of ,jesus as it moves on from his triumph of ,palm ,sunday to his tragedy of the cross4 ,as we enter then to-day on the anniversary of the last week of the life of ,jesus1 the week before ,easter ,sunday1 let us glance at some of the hurrying events4 ,and for today consider the contrast which presents itself between the entrance of ,jesus at ,jerusalem on ,sunday morning1 and his return to the city by the same road on this ,monday #adi morning of his last week4 ,yesterday he came over the brow of the ,mount of ,olives1 surrounded by an enthusiastic throng1 the centre of their popularity4 ,to-day he comes along the same road1 unattended and alone1 the crowd slinking away from him1 his popularity gone4 ,and how does he bear himself through these shillings of opinion8 ,he simply does not manifest any consciousness of change4 ,he is as undisturbed by neglect as he was yesterday by success4 ,on ,sunday1 while the people were spreading their branches beneath his feet1 he looked across the valley to the city and wept as he looked2 and to-day1 coming with no popular applause1 he enters straight into the city and asserts to its leaders his supreme authority4 ,in the midst of popularity he seems saddened1 and in the midst of neglect he seems stirred to a defiant boldness4 ,in short1 he is unscathed alike by what seems to be success and what seems to be failure4 ,he goes his way through it all with his eye on that great end which gives him peace amid the throng1 and courage amid the solitude4 ,that is the only way in which one can maintain himself among the shifting currents #aej of popularity4 ,it comes and goes like a tide4 ,the man who tries to lean on it is simply swept by the rising tide into self-conceit1 and then stranded by the ebb of that same tide on the flats of despair4 ,popularity is as fickle as the ,april winds1 and one can trust it as little as he dare trust the ,new ,england climate4 ,it is only he who can be wholly self-controlled amid the triumphs of his ,palm ,sunday who can move on with equal self-control to the bearing of the cross with which that same week may close4 #aea ,,lxi ,,two ,,questions ,,about ,,christianity ,luke xx4 #ai-ch4 7,,passion ,,week--,,tuesday7 ,the ,sunday of the last week of ,jesus was all triumph1 the ,monday was all neglect1 the ,tuesday was all controversy4 ,he returns once more from ,bethany to the city1 and he finds the opposition at its height4 ,at once he is set upon by two kinds of people and asked two kinds of questions as to his mission and aim4 ,one question was political1 or as we now are saying sociological4 ,what did he think about taxation8 ,what was his attitude toward the government8 ,was he encouraging social revolt8 ,was he an anarchist or a socialist8 ,the other question was theological4 ,what did he think about the future life8 ,how would marriage be arranged in heaven8 ,was his theology orthodox8 ,all this must have seemed to ,jesus malicious enough1 but ,i think that the deepest impression he had of such questions #aeb must have been of their stupidity4 ,how was it possible that after months of public teaching any one could suppose that such problems were in the line of his intention4 ,here he was1 trying to bring spiritual life among his people1--the life of ,god to the souls of men1--and here were people still trying to find in him a political schemer or a metaphysical theologian4 ,yet there are questions of much this nature still being asked of ,jesus4 ,some honest persons are still insisting that ,christ's religion is a system of theology1 and some are trying to make of it a course in social science1 and neither of them seem to notice that the last day of general teaching which was permitted to him on earth was largely devoted to demonstrating that he was neither a social agitator nor a theological professor4 ,christianity is not a scheme or arrangement1 social or theological1 like a railway which men might build either to accelerate the business of life or to take one straight to heaven4 ,christianity provides that which all such mechanism needs4 ,it is a power1 like that electric force which makes the equipment of a railway move4 ,a church is a power-house for the #aec development and the transmission of the power that makes things go4 ,cut off the power1 and the theological creeds and social programmes of the day stand there paralyzed or dead4 ,communicate to them the dynamic of the ,christian life1 and the power goes singing over all the wires of life and sets its mechanism in motion1 as though it sang upon its way3 ,i am come that these may have my life1 and may have it abundantly4 #aed ,,lxii ,,an ,,unrecorded ,,day 7,,passion ,,week--,,wednesday7 ,we have traced from day to day the life of ,jesus through the earlier days of its last week1 its triumph of ,sunday1 its solitude of ,monday1 its controversies of ,tuesday4 ,on each of these days ,jesus has come over the hill from ,bethany into the city1 and has returned to the village at night4 ,and now we come to the last day before the ,passover and the betrayal2 the last chance to meet his enemies and to enforce his cause4 ,what then does ,jesus do on this last ,wednesday of his life8 ,so far as we know1 he does nothing at all4 ,it is a day without record4 ,there is no ,new ,testament passage from which ,i can read about it4 ,he appears to have stayed at ,bethany1 perhaps with his friends1 perhaps for a part of the day alone4 ,his work was done1 and he used this last day for quiet withdrawal4 ,what self-control and reserve are here6 ,how would one of us have been inclined to conduct himself1 if he found himself with just #aee one more day for active service8 ,one more day1 he would have said2 then fill it with the best works and the best words2 let me stamp my message on my time2 let me fulfil the work which was given me to do4 ,but ,jesus has no such lust of finishing4 ,he simply commits his spirit to his ,father1 and awaits the trial and the cross4 ,and perhaps on that unrecorded day his real agony was met1 and his real cross borne4 ,perhaps as he went up on that hillside1 which still overlooks the little village of ,bethany1 and looked at his past and at his future1 the real spiritual conquest was attained2 for he comes back again to ,jerusalem on ,thursday morning1 not with the demeanor of a martyr but with the air of a conqueror2 and when ,pilate asks him if he is a king he answers him3 ,thou hast said it4 ,so it is with many a life4 ,it has its great days1--its ,palm ,sundays of triumphs1 its ,good ,fridays of cross-bearing1 and these seem the epochs of its experience2 but when one searches for the sources of its strength1 they lie--do they not8--in some unrecorded day1 as the sources of an abundant river lie hidden in some nook among the hills4 #aef ,,lxiii ,,the ,,answer ,,to ,,prayer ,luke xxii4 #ci-dh4 7,,passion ,,week--,,thursday7 ,on ,thursday morning of his last week ,jesus sends two of his friends before him into ,jerusalem to prepare the ,passover meal1 while he does not himself enter the city until the afternoon4 ,there he meets his friends1 and after the supper he takes the bread and wine and with entire naturalness asks them1 as they eat and drink1 to remember him4 ,then he talks with them and prays with them1 and they go out again on the road toward ,bethany2 and coming to a little garden at the foot of the hill called the ,mount of ,olives he bids his companions wait while he goes1 as his custom was1 to pray4 ,we hear much discussion about prayer and its possibilities1--what we can pray for and what ,god can do in return1 and what is the true answer to prayer4 ,but what a silence comes over all such questionings when one notices that this prayer of ,jesus uttered thus #aeg in this most solemn hour was not1 in the sense of these discussions1 answered by his ,god4 ,it was the moment of the supreme agony of ,christ4 ,the falseness of friends1 the blindness of his people1 the malice of their leaders1--all these things seem more than he can bear4 ,let this cup pass from me1 he prays1 and1 behold1 his prayer is not accepted1 and what he asks is denied1 and the cup is to be drunk4 ,and yet in a far deeper sense his1 prayer is answered4 ,thy will be done1 he prays1--not in spite of me1 or over me1 but through me4 ,make me1 my ,father1 the instrument of thy will2 and so praying he rises with absolute composure and kingly authority1 and goes out with his prayer answered to do that will4 ,what should we pray for8 ,why1 we should pray for what we most deeply want4 ,there is no sincerity in praying for things which are fictitious or abstract or mere theological blessings4 ,open to ,god the realities of your heart and seek the blessings which you sincerely desire4 ,but in all prayers desire most to know the will of ,god toward you1 and to do it4 ,prayer is not offered to deflect ,god's will to yours1 but to adjust your will to ,his4 ,when a ship's captain is setting out on a #aeh voyage he first of all adjusts his compasses1 corrects their divergence1 and counteracts the influences which draw the needle from the pole4 ,well1 that is prayer4 ,it is the adjustment of the compass of the soul1 it is its restoration from deflection1 it is the pointing of it to the will of ,god4 ,and the soul which thus sails forth into the sea of life finds itself--not indeed freed from all storms of the spirit1 but at least sure of its direction through them all4 #aei ,,lxiv ,,an ,,impossible ,,neutrality ,john xviii4 #bh-ch4 7,,passion ,,day--,,friday7 ,the story of ,friday in this last week of ,jesus begins with this meeting with the ,roman governor1 and certainly few persons in history would be more surprised than ,pilate at the judgment of the world concerning him4 ,if ,pilate felt sure of anything it was that he did not commit himself in the case of ,jesus4 ,he undertook to be absolutely neutral4 ,see how nicely he poises his judgment4 ,on the one hand he says3 ,i find no fault in him1 and then on the other hand he says3 ,take him away and crucify him2 ,first he washes his hands to show that he is innocent of the blood of this just person1 and then he delivers ,jesus to the ,jews to take him away4 ,it was a fine balancing of a judicial mind1 and ,i suppose he withdrew from the judgment hall saying to himself3 ,whatever may happen in this case1 at least ,i am not responsible4 ,but what does history think #afj of this judicial ,pilate8 ,it holds him to be a responsible agent in the death of ,jesus4 ,he was attempting a neutrality which was impossible4 ,the great wind was blowing across the threshing floor of the nation1 and the people were separated into two distinct heaps1 and must be counted forever as chaff or as wheat4 ,he that was not with ,christ was against him1 and ,pilate's place1 even in spite of himself1 was determined as among those who brought ,jesus to his cross that afternoon4 ,i was once talking with a cultivated gentleman who volunteered to tell me his attitude toward religion4 ,he wished me to understand that he was in sympathy with the purposes and the administration of worship4 ,he desired that it should prevail4 ,he welcomed its usefulness in the university4 ,but as for himself it appeared better that he should hold a position of neutrality4 ,his responsibility seemed to him better met by standing neither for religion nor against it1 but in a perfectly judicial frame of mind4 ,he did not take account1 however1 of the fact that this neutrality was impossible2 that it was just what ,pilate attempted1 and just wherein he failed4 ,if he #afa was not to be counted among those who would by their presence encourage worship1 then he must be counted among those who by their absence hinder its effect4 ,on one side or other in these great issues of life every man's weight is to be thrown1 and the ,pilates of to-day--as of that earlier time--in their impossible neutrality are often the most insidious1 although most unconscious opponents of a generous cause4 ,and so to-day on this most solemn anniversary of religious history1 while it is1 as the passage says of this interview with ,pilate1 yet early1 let us set before ourselves1 the issue just as it is now and just as it was then4 ,this morning demands of any honest-minded man an answer to the question3 ,on which side do ,i propose to stand8 ,it is not a demand for absoluteness of conviction or unwavering loyalty1 but it is a summons to recognize that ,jesus ,christ died on this day largely at the hands of intellectual dilettanteism and indifferentism1--the peculiar and besetting sin of the cultivated and academic life4 ,on which side1 then1 do ,i propose to stand2 with the cultivated neutral and his skillful #afb questioning3 ,what is truth8 or with the prisoner who in this early morning says3 ,every one who is of the truth heareth my voice2 with ,pilate in his neutrality or with ,jesus on his cross8 #afc ,,lxv ,,the ,,finished ,,life ,john xix4 #cj4 7,,passion ,,week--,,saturday7 ,the last word of ,jesus as he gives up his spirit is3 ,it is finished4 ,but was it what could be called a finished life8 ,was it not1 on the contrary1 a terribly unfinished life1 prematurely cut short1 without any visible effect of his work1 and with everything left to live for8 ,surely1 if some sympathetic friend of ,jesus had been telling of his death1 one of the first things he would be tempted to say would be this3 ,what a fearful pity it was that he died so soon6 ,what a loss it was to us all that he left his life unfinished4 ,think what might have happened if he could only have lived to sixty and had had thirty years for his ministry instead of three6 ,and yet1 as ,jesus said1 it was a finished life2 for completeness in life is not a thing of quantity1 but of quality4 ,what seems to be a fragment may be in reality the most perfect thing on earth4 ,you stand in #afd some museum before a ,greek statue1 imperfect1 mutilated1 a fragment of what it was meant to be4 ,and yet1 as you look at it1 you say3 ,here is perfect art4 ,it is absolutely right2 the ideal which modern art may imitate1 but which it never hopes to attain4 ,or1 what again shall we say of those young men of our civil war1 dying at twenty-five at the head of their troops1 pouring out all the promise of their life in one splendid instant8 ,did they then die prematurely8 ,was not their life a finished life8 ,what more could they ever have done with it8 ,why do we write their names on our monuments so that our young men may read of these heroes1 except that they may say to us that life may be completed1 if one will1 even at twenty8 ,all of life that is worth living is sometimes offered to a man not in a lifetime1 but in a day4 ,and that is what any man must set before him as the test and the plan of his own life4 ,you cannot say to yourself3 ,i will live until ,i am seventy1 ,i will accomplish certain things1 and will attain a certain position2 for the greatest and oldest of men when they look back on their lives see in them only a fragment of what they once dreamed that they #afe might do or be4 ,but you can design your life1 not according to quantitative completeness1 but according to qualitative completeness4 ,it may be long or short1 but in either case it may be of the right stuff4 ,it may be carved out of pure marble with an artist's hand1 and then1 whether the whole of it remains to be a thing of beauty or whether it is broken off1 like a fragment of its full design1 it is a finished life4 ,you give back your life to ,god who gave it1 perhaps in ripe old age1 perhaps1 as your ,master did1 at thirty-three1 and you say3 ,i have accomplished1 not what ,i should like to have done1 but what ,thou hast given me to do4 ,i have done my best4 ,it is finished4 ,father1 into thy hands ,i commend my spirit4 #aff ,,lxvi ,,attaining ,,to ,,the ,,resurrection ,philippians iii4 #aa4 7,,monday ,,after ,,easter7 ,this is certainly a very extraordinary saying of ,st4 ,paul--that he hopes to attain unto the resurrection from the dead4 ,we are so apt to think of the resurrection as a remote truth1 to be realized in some distant future1 when some day we shall die and live again1 that the very idea of attaining to such a resurrection now is not easy to grasp4 ,but here we have a resurrection which can be attained any day4 ,i have not already attained1 says ,st4 ,paul1 but ,i press on4 ,it is possible1 that is to say1 for a man to-day1 who seems perfectly healthy1 to be dying or dead1 and for a man to rise from the dead to-day and attain to the resurrection4 ,and thus the fundamental question of the ,easter season is not3 ,do ,i believe that people when they die shall rise again from the dead8 but it is ,have ,i risen from the dead #afg myself8 ,am ,i alive to-day1 with any touch of the eternal life8 ,mr4 ,ruskin describes a grim ,scythian custom where1 when the king died1 he was set on his throne at the head of his table1 and his vassals1 instead of mourning for him1 bowed before his corpse and feasted in his presence4 ,that same ghastly scene is sometimes repeated now1 and young men think they are sitting at a feast1 when they are really sitting at a funeral1 and believe themselves to be1 as they say1 seeing life1 when they are in reality looking upon the death of all that is true and fair4 ,and on the other hand the most beautiful thing which is permitted for any one to see is the resurrection of a human soul from the dead1 its deliverance from shame and sin1 its passing from death into life4 ,as the father of the prodigal said of his boy1 he was dead and is alive again1 and in that coming to his true self he attains1 as surely as he ever can in any future world1 unto the resurrection from the dead4 #afh ,,lxvii ,,simon ,,of ,,cyrene ,luke xxiii4 #bj-bf4 ,this ,simon1 the ,cyrenian1 was just a plain man1 coming into town on his own business1 and meeting at the gate this turbulent group surging out toward the place of crucifixion1 with the malefactor in their midst4 ,suddenly ,simon finds himself turned about in his own journey1 swept back by the crowd with the cross of another man on his shoulder1 and the humiliation forced upon him which there seemed no reason for him to bear4 ,how often that happens in many a life6 ,you are going your own way1 carrying your own load1 and suddenly you are called on to take up some one else's burden1--a strange cross1 a home responsibility1 a business duty2 and you find yourself turned square round in the road you meant to go4 ,your plan of life is interrupted by no fault of your own1 and you are summoned to bear an undeserved and unexpected cross4 #afi ,and yet1 how certain it is that this man of ,cyrene came to look back on this interruption of his journey as the one thing he would not have missed8 ,when others were remembering the wonderful career of ,jesus1 how often he must have said3 ,yes1 but ,i once had the unapproached privilege of bearing his cross for him4 ,on one golden morning of my life ,i was permitted to share his suffering4 ,i was called from all my own hopes and plans to take up this burden of another1 and ,i did not let it drop4 ,it seemed a grievous burden1 but it has become my crowning joy4 ,i did not know then1 but ,i know now1 that my day of humiliation was my day of highest blessedness4 ,i think of the ,cyrenian ,who crossed the city-gate1 ,when forth the stream was pouring ,that bore thy cruel fate4 99 99 99 99 ,i ponder what within him ,the thoughts that woke that day ,as his unchosen burden ,he bore that unsought way4 99 99 99 99 ,yet1 tempted he as we are6 ,o ,lord1 was thy cross mine8 ,am ,i1 like ,simon1 bearing ,a burden that is thine8 #agj ,thou must have looked on ,simon2 ,turn1 ,lord1 and look on me ,till ,i shall see and follow ,and bear thy cross for ,thee4 #a #a ,harriet ,ware ,hall1 ,a ,book for ,friends1 p4 #ij4 7,privately printed47 #ahhh4 #aga ,,lxviii ,,power ,,and ,,temptation ,matthew iv4 #a-aa4 ,all these temptations of ,jesus came to him through the very sense of power of which he could not but be aware4 ,here was this great consciousness of capacity in him to do wonders1 to display himself1 to get glory4 ,how should he use his gifts8 ,should it be for himself1 for honor1 for praise1 or should it be for service1 for sacrifice1 for ,god8 ,the devil's temptation was that ,jesus should take the gifts of which he was conscious and make them serve his own ends of ambition or success4 ,the first great decision in the work of ,jesus ,christ was the decision of the end to which his powers should be dedicated2 the use to which his powers should be put4 ,the same fundamental decision comes to every young man in his own degree4 ,here are your gifts and capacities1 great or small4 ,what are you to do with them8 ,are they for glory or for use8 ,are they for ambition #agb or for service8 ,the sooner that decision is made the better4 ,some people have never quite done with that temptation of the devil4 ,they go on trying to direct their gifts to the end of reputation1 or wealth1 or dominion2 and they attain that end only to find that it is no end1 and that their lives1 which should have grown broader and richer1 have grown shrunken1 and meagre1 and unsatisfied4 ,such a life is like a fish swimming into the labyrinth of a weir4 ,it follows along the line of its vocation until the liberty to return grows less and less2 and1 at last1 in the very element where it seems most free1 it is in fact a helpless captive4 ,the man's occupation has become his prison4 ,he is the slave of his own powers4 ,the devil has withered that life with his touch4 ,and then1 on the other hand1 you turn to lives which have given themselves to the life of service1 and what do you see8 ,you see their capacity enlarged through use1 you see small gifts multiplied into great powers4 ,few things are more remarkable in one's experience of life than to see men who by nature are not extraordinarily endowed achieve the highest success by sheer dedication of their #agc moderate gifts4 ,their capacities expand through their self-surrender1 as leaves unfold under the touch of the sun4 ,they lose themselves and then they find themselves4 ,the devil tempts these men1 not with a sense of their greatness1 but with their self-distrust2 yet he tempts them in vain4 ,their weakness issues into strength2 their temptation develops their power4 ,the angels of ,god have come and ministered unto them4 #agd ,,lxix ,,loving ,,with ,,the ,,mind ,mark xii4 #cj4 ,in the great law of love to ,god and love to man which ,jesus repeats as the law of his own teaching1 there is one phrase that seems not wholly clear4 ,you can love ,god with your heart and your soul2 you can even increase your strength by love2 but how can you love with the mind8 ,is it not the very quality of a trained mind to be unmoved by love or hate1 dispassionate and unemotional8 ,is not this the scientific spirit1 this attitude of criticism1 with no prejudice or affection to color its results8 ,of course one must answer that there is much truth which can be discovered by a loveless mind4 ,yet there is1 on the other hand1 much truth which cannot be discerned without love4 ,there are many secrets of literature1 of art1 of music1 and of the higher traits of character as well1 into which you cannot enter unless you give your mind to these things with sympathy and affection and responsiveness2 loving them1 as ,jesus says1 with the mind4 ,one #age of our preachers has lately called attention to the new word in literature which illustrates this attitude of the mind4#a ,when people wrote in earlier days of other people and their works they wrote biographies or criticisms or studies1 but now we have what are called appreciations2 the attempt1 that is to say1 to enter into a character and appreciate its traits or its art1 and to love it with the mind4 ,perhaps that is what this ancient law asks of you in your relation to ,god1 to come not as a critic1 but as a lover1 to the rational appreciation of the ways of ,god4 ,here is the noblest capacity with which human life is endowed4 ,it is a great thing to love ,god with the heart and soul1 to let the emotions of gratitude to ,him or of joy in his world run free2 but to rise into sympathetic interpretation of his laws1 to think ,god's thoughts after ,him1 and to be moved by the high emotions which are stirred by exalted ideas1--to love ,god1 that is to say1 with the mind1--that1 ,i suppose1 is the highest function of human life1 and the quality which most endows a man with insight and power4 #a ,rev4 ,leighton ,parks1 ,d4 ,d41 in a sermon at the ,diocesan ,convention of the ,protestant ,episcopal ,church1 ,boston1 ,may1 #ahie4 #agf ,,lxx ,,am ,i ,,my ,,brother',s ,,keeper8 ,genesis iv4 #i4 ,cain was the first philosophical individualist2 the first laissez-faire economist4 ,when ,god asked3 ,where is ,abel8 ,cain answered3 ,what responsibility have ,i for him8 ,my business is to take care of myself4 ,am ,i my brother's keeper8 ,but the interesting fact is that ,cain had been his brother's keeper though he declined responsibility for him4 ,he refused to be responsible for his brother's life1 but he certainly was responsible for his brother's death4 ,he refused to be his brother's keeper1 but he was willing to be his brother's slayer4 ,there are plenty of people to-day who are trying to maintain this same impossible theory of social irresponsibility4 ,they affirm that they have no social duty except to mind their own business2 but that very denial of responsibility is what makes them among the most responsible agents of social disaster4 ,they deal with their affairs on the principle that they are nobody's #agg keeper1 and so they are stirring every day the fires of industrial revolt4 ,we are passing through dark days in the business world1 and there are many causes for the trouble1 but the deepest cause is ,cain's theory of life4 ,where is thy brother8 says ,god to the business man to-day1--thy brother1 the wage-earner1 the victim of the cut-down and the lockout8 ,where is thy brother8 says ,god again to the unscrupulous agitator1 bringing distress into many a workman's home for the satisfactions of ambition and power4 ,and to any man who answers3 ,i know not4 ,am ,i my brother's keeper8 the rebuke of ,god is spoken again3 ,cursed art thou6 ,the voice of thy brother crieth against thee from the ground4 #agh ,,lxxi ,,professionalism ,,and ,,personality #a ,corinthians xii4 #ca4 ,the wonderful chapter which follows this verse becomes still more interesting when one considers its connection with the preceding passage4 ,paul has been looking over the life of his ,christian brethren1 and he sees in it a great variety of callings4 ,some of his friends are preachers1--apostles and prophets1 as he calls them4 ,some are teachers1 some are doctors1 with gifts of healing2 some are politicians1 with gifts of government4 ,the apostle speaks to them as though he were advising young men as to the choice of their profession1 and he says3 ,among all these professional opportunities covet the best2 take that which most fills out and satisfies your life4 ,but then he turns from these professional capacities and adds3 ,be sure that these gifts do not crowd out of your life the higher capacity for sympathy4 ,for you may understand all knowledge and speak with all tongues1 and if you have lost thereby #agi the personal1 human1 sympathetic relation with people which we call love you are not really to be counted as a man4 ,you are nothing more than an instrument of sound1 a wind instrument like a trumpet1 or a clanging instrument like a cymbal4 ,that is the apostolic warning to the successful professional man1--the warning against the narrowing1 self-contented result which sometimes taints even great attainments and professional distinction4 ,covet the best4 ,be satisfied with nothing less than the highest professional work of doctor1 politician1 or teacher4 ,but beware of the imprisoning effect which sometimes comes of this very success in professional life1 the atrophy of sensibility1 the increasing incapacity for sympathy1 for public spirit1 for charity1--an incapacity which makes some men of the highest endowments among the least serviceable1 least loving1 and least loved of a community4 ,if1 says the apostle1 in the gain of professional success you lose the higher gift of love1 you are no longer a great man2 you are not even to be described as a small man4 ,you are 'nothing4' #ahj ,,lxxii ,,the ,,central ,,solitude ,john xvi4 #cb4 ,in one of ,frederick ,robertson's sermons he speaks of the conduct of life as like the conduct of atoms1 which have a certain attraction for each other1 but at a certain point of approach are repelled and do not touch4 ,there is in every large life a certain central solitude of this kind into which no other soul can enter4 ,some persons fear this solitude1 some rejoice in it1 but the use of it is the test of a man's life4 ,a very near friend of ,dr4 ,brooks's once heard of a man who said that he knew ,dr4 ,brooks intimately2 and this friend said3 ,no man ought to say that4 ,not one of us knew ,dr4 ,brooks intimately4 ,there was a central ,holy of ,holies in his life1 into which none of us ever entered4 ,so it was4 ,and this preservation of an inner privacy for the deeper experiences of life is what proves a soul to be peaceful and strong4 ,guard your soul's individual life4 ,in the midst of the social world keep a place for the #aha nurture of the isolated life1 for the reading and for the thoughts which deal with the interior relations of the single soul to the immanent ,god4 ,thyself amid the silence clear1 ,the world far off and dim1 ,his presence close1 the bright ones near1 ,thyself alone with ,him4 ,that is what makes a man strong under the tests of life4 ,he is not a parasitic plant deriving its life from some other life2 he is rooted deep in the soil of the ,eternal4 ,as was said of ,john ,henry ,newman1 such a man is never less alone than when alone4 ,he is not alone1 because the ,father is with him4 #ahb ,,lxxiii ,,if ,,thou ,,knewest ,,the ,,gift ,,of ,,god ,john iv4 #aj4 ,we usually notice in this story the great words of ,jesus--perhaps the deepest and richest series of utterances that have ever fallen from human lips4 ,yet it is almost as striking to notice the attitude of mind in which the woman remained throughout these wonderful scenes4 ,she seems to have been entirely oblivious of the situation1 and unaware that anything great was going on4 ,jesus speaks to her of the living water1 and she thinks it must be some device which shall save her coming with her pitcher to the well4 ,then ,jesus looks on her with infinite pathos and says3 ,if you only knew the gift of ,god1 and who it is that is now speaking to you6 ,but she does not know1 and shoulders her pitcher and trudges home again1 reporting only that she has seen some one who appeared a wonderful fortune-teller1 and never dreaming that the greatest words of human history had been spoken to her1 and her alone4 #ahc ,if thou knewest the gift of ,god6--to have had one's opportunity in one's hands and to have let it slip2 to have had the ,messiah sitting by you and not to have recognized ,him2 to have thought it just a commonplace day when the most sacred revelations of ,god were occurring1--that is about the saddest confession that any one can make4 ,and yet1 that is what might happen to any one any day4 ,no one can be sure when the great exigencies of life are likely to occur4 ,he looks forward to great things to be done in some more favoring future1 and1 behold1 the insignificant incidents of to-day are the greater things which he does not discern4 ,he looks forward to the discovery of ,god in some difficult intellectual achievement1 and meantime the daily task is full of revelation1 and as he wakes to the morning the new day stands by him and says3 ,if you only knew the gift of ,god1 and who it is that speaks to you today4 ,and at last perhaps he begins to realize that the ordinary ways of daily life are the channels of ,god's revelation1 and then there ,comes to soul and sense ,the feeling which is evidence #ahd ,that very near about us lies ,the realm of spiritual mysteries4 ,with smile of trust and folded hands1 ,the passive soul in waiting stands1 ,to feel1 as flowers the sun and dew4 ,the one true life its own renew4 #ahe ,,lxxiv ,,the ,,wedding ,,garment ,matthew xxii4 #aa-ad4 ,here is a man who has the feast offered to him1 but is not clothed to meet it4 ,he is unprepared and is therefore cast out4 ,he does not wear the wedding garment and therefore is not fit for the wedding feast4 ,this seems at first sight harsh treatment2 but one soon remembers that it was the custom of an ,oriental feast to offer the guest at his entrance a robe fit for the occasion4 ,bring forth the best robe1 says the father of the prodigal1 and put it on him4 ,this man had had offered to him the opportunity of personal preparation and had refused it4 ,he wanted to share the feast1 but he wanted to share it on his own terms4 ,he pressed into the happiness without the personal preparedness which made that happiness possible4 ,every man in this way makes his own world4 ,the habit of his life clothes him like a garment1 and only he who wears the wedding garment #ahf is at home at the wedding feast4 ,the same circumstances are to one man beautiful and to another1 at his side1 demoralizing4 ,you may have prosperity and it may be a source of happiness1 or the same prosperity and it may be a source of peril4 ,you may be at a college and it may be either regenerating to you1 or pernicious in its influence1 according as you are clothed or unclothed with the right habit of mind4 ,god first asks for your heart and then offers you his world4 ,the wedding feast is for him alone who has accepted the wedding garment4 #ahg ,,lxxv ,,the ,,escape ,,from ,,despondency #a ,kings xix4 #a-ac4 ,this is ,god's word to man's despondency2 and when we strip this man's story of its ,orientalism1 it is really the story of many a discouraged1 despondent man of to-day4 ,elijah has been doing his best1 but has come to a point where he is ready to give up4 ,his enemies are too many for him4 ,lord1 he says1 it is enough4 ,i have had as much as ,i can bear4 ,i am alone and ,baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men4 ,so he goes away into solitude1 and looks about him for some clear sign that ,god has not deserted him4 ,but nothing happens4 ,the great signs of nature pass before him1 the storm1 the lightning1 and the earthquake1 but they only reflect his own stormy mood4 ,the ,lord is not in them4 ,then1 within his heart1 there speaks that voice which is at once speech and silence1 and it says to him3 ,what doest thou here1 ,elijah1 and behold1 the man is convicted4 ,for when he #ahh reflects on it he is doing nothing at all4 ,he is sitting under a tree1 requesting that he may die4 ,he has fled from his duty and is hiding in a cave4 ,then the voice says to him3 ,get up and go and do your duty4 ,you might sit here forever and get no light on your lot4 ,the problem of life is solved through the work of life4 ,the way out of your despondency is in going straight on with the work now ready to your hand4 ,answers to great problems are not so likely to come to people in caves1 as along the dusty road of duty-doing4 ,not to the dreamer1 but to the doer come the interpretations of life4 ,elijah1 ,elijah1 what doest thou here8 #ahi ,,lxxvi ,,the ,,difficulties ,,of ,,unbelief ,matthew xxiii4 #bd4 ,we are often very much impressed by the difficulties of religious belief4 ,it seems hard to attain any absolute1 convinced faith4 ,there are doubts and obscurities which every one feels1 and these questionings are often stirred into activity by the mistaken efforts of the defenders of the faith4 ,there is even a special department in theological teaching known as ,apologetics1 or the defense of faith2 as though religion had to be always on the defensive1 and as if the easiest attitude of mind1 even of the least philosophical1 were the attitude of denial4 ,but did you ever consider the alternative position and the difficulties which present themselves when one undertakes absolutely and continuously to deny himself the relations of the religious life8 ,did you ever fairly face the conception of a logically completed unbelief1 a world stripped of its ideals1 with no region of spiritual hopes or of worship1 a #aij world absolutely without ,god1 a permanently faithless world8 ,what is the difficulty here8 ,the difficulty is that these aspects of life1 though they are often hard to maintain1 are harder still to abandon4 ,faith has its perplexities1 but no sooner do you eliminate the spiritual world than you are confronted with a series of experiences1 emotions1 and intimations which are simply inexplicable4 ,that was perhaps partly what ,jesus had in mind when he met the ,pharisees4 ,you find it hard to believe in me1 he said4 ,ah1 yes1 but is it not still harder altogether to refuse me8 ,you are quite alive to the smaller difficulties of my position1 but you seem to be quite unaware of the difficulties of your own position4 ,you busy yourself with straining out the gnat which floats on the surface of your glass1 but you do not seem to observe the residuary camel4 ,so with his splendid satire ,jesus turns the critical temper back upon itself4 ,difficulties enough1 ,god knows1 there are in every intellectual position1 and intellectual certainty usually means the abnegation of the thinking faculty4 ,but many persons strain out the little difficulties and swallow the great ones4 ,what is1 #aia on the whole1 the best working theory of life8--that is the only practical question4 ,under which view of life do the facts1 on the whole1 best fall8 ,especially1 what conception of life holds the highest facts1 the great irresistible spring-tides1 which sometimes rise within the soul1 of hope and love and desire8 ,so ,browning's ,bishop1 turning on his critic1 says3-- ,and now what are we8 unbelievers both1 ,calm and complete1 determinately fixed ,to-day1 to-morrow1 and forever1 pray8 ,you'll guarantee me that8 ,not so1 ,i think4 ,in nowise6 ,all we've gained is1 that belief1 ,as unbelief before1 shakes us by fits1 ,confounds us like its predecessor4 ,where's ,the gain8 ,how can we guard our unbelief1 ,make it bear fruit to us8 ,the problem's here4 ,just when we are safest1 there's a sunset-touch1 ,a fancy from a flower-bell1 some one's death1 ,a chorus-ending from ,euripides1-- ,and that's enough for fifty hopes and fears ,as old and new at once as nature's self1 ,to rap and knock and enter in our soul1 ,take hands and dance there1 a fantastic ring1 ,round the ancient idol1 on his base again1-- 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,what have we gained then by our unbelief ,but a life of doubt diversified by faith1 ,for one of faith diversified by doubt4 ,we called the chessboard white1--we call it black4 #aib ,,lxxvii ,,knowing ,,god1 ,,and ,,being ,,known ,,of ,,him ,galatians iv4 #i4 ,it is very interesting to come so close to a great man as we do in this passage1 for the ,apostle seems to be discovered here1 correcting himself4 ,it is as if he had written one teaching to the ,galatians1 and then crossed it out and written another4 ,you know ,god1 he says1 or rather you are known of ,him4 ,he is asking himself why the ,galatians should in a given case do their duty1 and he answers3 ,because they know ,god2 they are aware of ,his purposes and laws1 and having this rational understanding of ,him they know how to act as ,his servants4 ,but no1 he goes on to say1 that is not the real impulse of their duty4 ,what holds them to their best is rather the thought that ,god knows them1 that ,he gives them their duty1 and that they obey4 ,it is like the position of a soldier under his commander4 ,the soldier does not expect to know #aic all about the plan of the campaign1 but what keeps him to his best is the knowledge that some one knows about it2 that the commander overlooks the field2 that each little skirmish has its place in the great design4 ,that is what makes the soldier go down again into the smoke and dust of his duty with his timidity converted into faith4 ,knowing ,god1--that is theology2 being known of ,him1--that is religion4 ,both theology and religion have their influence on conduct4 ,it is a great thing to know that one knows ,god4 ,there is power in a rational creed4 ,but1 after all1 the profoundest impulse for conduct is to know that beneath all your ignorance of ,god is ,his knowledge of you2 that before you loved ,him1 ,he loved you1 that antecedent to your response to ,him was ,his invitation to you4 ,thus it is that a man looks out into each new day and asks3 ,what is to hold me to-day to my duty8 ,well1 first of all1 everything ,i may learn ought to help me4 ,it is all ,god's truth1 and1 as ,i get a grasp on truth and stand on its firm ground1 my conduct is steadier and assured4 ,but1 after all1 the deeper safety lies in this other confession1 that ,i am known of ,god2 that ,i #aid am not merely an explorer1 searching for truth1 but guided and controlled as ever under the great taskmaster's eye2 known of ,him1 with my ignorance of ,him held within ,his knowledge of me1 until the time comes when at last ,i shall know even as also ,i am known4 #aie ,,lxxviii ,,freedom ,,in ,,the ,,truth ,john viii4 #cb4 ,the truth shall make you free2--that is one of the greatest announcements of a universal principle which even ,jesus ,christ ever made4 ,but the ,jews began to ask of him3 ,how can one be a disciple of your truth and yet be free8 ,is not that discipleship only another name for bondage8 ,we are free already4 ,we are in bondage to no man4 ,why then should we enter into the servitude of obedience to your truth8 ,and to this ,jesus seems to answer3 ,that depends upon what it is to be free4 ,it is a question of your definition of liberty4 ,you seem to believe that to be free one must have no authority or leadership or master4 ,but ,i say unto you that there is no such liberty4 ,you must be the servant of something4 ,you must be under the authority of your law1 or your superstition1 or your ,god1 or yourself4 ,freedom on any other terms is not freedom1 it is lawlessness4 #aif ,indeed it may be more like slavery than freedom4 ,what is a free country8 ,not a country without law1--a country of the anarchist1--but a country where the law encourages each citizen to be and to do his best4 ,a free country gives every man a chance4 ,it opens life at the top4 ,it invites one's allegiance from the things which enslave to the things which enlarge4 ,and that is the only liberty1--a transfer of allegiance1 a higher attachment1 which sets free from the lower enslavements of life4 ,suppose a man is the slave of a sin1 how does he get free8 ,he frees himself from his sin by attaching himself to some better interest4 ,sin is not driven out of one's life2 it is crowded out4 ,suppose a man is the slave of himself1 sunk in the self-absorbed and ungenerous life1 how does he get free8 ,he gets free by finding an end in life which is larger than himself4 ,he becomes the servant of the truth1 and the truth makes him free4 ,suppose a man asks himself1 ,what can religion do for me8 ,it does not solve all my problems1 or satisfy all my needs4 ,what then does religion do8 ,well1 first of all1 it gives one liberty4 ,it detaches one's life from #aig the things which shut it in1 and attaches it to those ideal ends which give enlargement1 emancipation1 range to life4 ,god speaks to you of duty1 of self-control1 of power in your prayers1 and then you go out into the world again1 not as if all were plain before you1 but at least with a free heart1 and a mind not in bondage to the world of circumstance or of trivial cares4 ,the truth of ,god1 so far as it has been revealed to you1 has made you free4 ,you have found the perfect law1 the law of liberty4 #aih ,,lxxix ,,the ,,soil ,,and ,,the ,,seed ,matthew xiii4 #a-i4 ,it takes two things to make a seed grow4 ,one is a good seed1 and the other is a good soil4 ,one is what the sower provides1 and the other is what the ploughman prepares4 ,god's best seed falls in vain on a rock4 ,man's best soil is unfruitful till the sower visits it4 ,now the tilling of the soil of life is what in all its different forms we call culture1 and the expansion of ,god's germinating influence is what we call religion4 ,some people think that either of these alone is enough to insure a good crop4 ,some think that culture makes a man fruitful1 and some think religion is a spontaneous growth2 and some even talk of a conflict between the two4 ,but culture does for a man just what it does for a field4 ,it deepens the soil and makes it ready1 and that is all4 ,the merely cultivated man is nothing more than a ploughed field which has not been sown1 and when it comes to the proper time of harvest has a most #aii empty and untimely look4 ,and religion alone does not often penetrate into the unprepared life4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 it seems to force its way as by a miracle1 and take root1 as we see a tree or shrub growing as it seems without any soil in which to cling4 ,but in the normal way of life the seed of ,god falls in vain upon a soil which is not deepened and softened to receive it4 ,it waits for preparedness of nature1 for the obedient will1 the awakened mind1 the receptive heart2--and all these forms of self-discipline are comprehended in any genuine self-culture4 ,culture and religion--here they meet in university life4 ,most of your time is given to culture4 ,what are you doing8 ,you are enriching and spading up the soil of life4 ,that is the test of culture4 ,is it quickening1 deepening1 stimulating the mind8 ,is it opening the imagination and training the will8 ,then it is true culture and not that spurious cultivation which spreads over life gravel instead of fertilizers4 ,culture prepares the soil2 and then in sacred moments1 perhaps in your worship here1 perhaps in the solitude of your own experience1 or perhaps in the busiest moments of your day1 ,god1 the sower1 comes1 scattering #bjj ,his seeds of suggestion and ,his minute influences for good over the heart1 and what ,he needs is a receptive mind and an awakened heart2 the life of man ready for the life of ,god1 and the descending influences of ,god finding depth of earth within the life of man4 #bja ,,lxxx ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,i #a ,matthew vi4 #a-ae4 ,from day to day we gather here and repeat together the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,one is tempted sometimes to wonder whether in this daily repetition the prayer keeps its freshness and reality4 ,i will not say that even if it becomes a mere form it is useless in our worship4 ,it is something even to have a form so rich in the associations of home and of church1 of the prayers of childhood1 and the centuries of ,christian worship4 ,and yet this prayer is first of all a protest against formalism4 ,use not vain repetitions1 says ,jesus1 and then he goes on to give this type of restrained1 unswerving1 concentrated prayer4 ,while the prayer1 however1 is a protest against formalism it is itself extraordinarily beautiful in form4 ,when a clear mind #bjb expresses a deep purpose its expression is always orderly1 and the petitions of the ,lord's ,prayer do not unfold their quality until we consider the form in which they are expressed4 ,look for a moment at the order of these petitions4 ,there are two series of prayers4 ,the first series relate to ,god1 ,his kingdom1 and ,his will2 the second series deal with men1 their bread1 their trespasses1 and their temptations4 ,the ,lord's ,prayer1 that is to say1 reverses the common order of petition4 ,most people turn to ,god first of all with their own needs4 ,the ,lord's ,prayer postpones these needs of bread and of forgiveness1 and asks first of all for ,god's kingdom and ,his will4 ,thus it is1 first of all1 an unselfish prayer4 ,when a man comes here and prays the ,lord's ,prayer1 he1 first of all1 subordinates himself2 he postpones his own needs4 ,he subdues his thoughts to the great purposes of ,god4 ,he prays first for ,god's kingdom1 however it may come1 whether through joy and peace or through much trouble and pain2 and then1 in the light of that supreme and self-subordinating desire for the larger glory1 the man goes on to ask for his own bread and the forgiveness of his own sin4 #a ,see also1 ,f4 ,d4 ,maurice1 ,the ,lord's ,prayer1 ,london1 #ahfa2 ,robert ,eyton1 ,the ,lord's ,prayer1 ,london1 #ahib2 ,h4 ,w4 ,foote1 ,thy ,kingdom ,come1 ,boston1 #ahia4 #bjc ,,lxxxi ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,ii ,,our ,,father ,matthew v4 #ba-be4 ,i have said that the ,lord's ,prayer is by its very form an unselfish prayer4 ,this same mark of it is to be seen in another way by the word with which it begins4 ,it does not pray3 ,my ,father1 my bread1 my trespasses4 ,it prays throughout for blessings which are ours4 ,not my isolated life1 but the common life ,i share is that for which ,i ask the help of ,god4 ,even when a man enters into his inner chamber and shuts the door1 and is alone1 he still says3 ,our ,father4 ,he takes up into his solitary prayer the lives which for the moment are bound up in his4 ,he thinks of those he loves and says3 ,our ,father4 ,he sets himself right with those he does not love1 reconciles himself with his brother1 and says3 ,our ,father4 ,he joins himself with the whole great company of those who have said this prayer in all the ages1 and have found peace #bjd in it1 and with that great sense of companionship the solitude of his own experience is banished1 and he is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses1 living and dead1 as he bends alone1 and in his half-whispered prayer begins to say3 ,our ,father4 #bje ,,lxxxii ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,iii ,,father ,,and ,,son ,galatians iii4 #bf2 iv4 #f4 ,the fatherhood of ,god has become so familiar a phrase that we hardly realize what a revolution of thought it represents4 ,in the whole ,old ,testament1 so the scholars say1 ,god is spoken of but seven times as ,father2 five times as ,father of the ,hebrew people1 once to ,david as the father of his son ,solomon1 and once as a prediction that sometime men would thus pray4 ,and so when ,jesus at the beginning of his prayer says3 ,after this manner pray1 ,our ,father1 he is opening the door into a new conception of ,god's relation to man4 ,and what is this conception8 ,it is the recognition of kinship4 ,it is the conviction that the spiritual life in man is of the same nature as the spiritual life in ,god4 ,the child's kinship to the parent involves the natural inheritance of capacity and destiny4 ,if children1 says ,st4 ,paul1 then heirs1 heirs of ,god1 and #bjf joint heirs with ,christ4 ,because we are sons we cry1 ,abba1 ,father4 ,we are not ,greek philosophers interpreting the causes of nature or the world of ideas2 we are not ,hebrew prophets representing a sacred nation2 we are children1 with the rights and gifts of children1 and the assurance of a father's confidence and love4 ,all this great promise the humblest ,christian claims when he begins to pray the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,he says1 ,i am not a brute1 ,i am not a clod1 ,i am a partaker of the ,divine nature2 ,i claim the promise of a child4 ,and that sense of kinship summons me to my best4 ,i pray as my ,father's son1 and as his son ,i bear a name which must not be stained4 ,noblesse oblige4 ,there are some things which ,i cannot degrade myself to do because my position forbids them4 ,there are some things to which ,i could not attain of myself1 but which are made possible to me as my ,father's son4 ,i accept the unearned privilege of my descent2 ,i claim the great inheritance of the kinship of ,god1 and out of my self-distrust and weakness ,i turn to self-respect and strength1 when ,i pray3 ',our ,father4' #bjg ,,lxxxiii ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,iv ,,hallowed ,,be ,,thy ,,name ,exodus xx4 #a-g4 ,i suppose that to many a reader the prayer3 ,holy be ,thy name1 means little more than3 ,let me not be profane2 help me to keep myself from blasphemy4 ,but it is not likely that ,jesus began his prayer with any such elementary desire as this2 or that our first prayer need be only a prayer to be kept from irreverence4 ,the name of ,god to the ,hebrews was much more than a title4 ,his name represented all ,his ways of revelation4 ,the ,hebrews did not speak the name of ,god4 ,it was a word too sacred for utterance4 ,thus the man who begins the ,lord's ,prayer in that ,hebrew spirit first summons to his thought the things which are the most sacred in the world to him1 the thoughts and purposes which stand to him for ,god2 the associations1 memories1 and ideals which make life holy1 and asks that these may lead him into his own prayer4 #bjh ,what he says is this3 ,my ,father1 and the ,father of all other souls1 renew within me my most sacred thoughts and all the holy associations which are to me the symbol of ,thyself4 ,give to me a sense of the sanctity of the world4 ,set me in the right mood of prayer4 ,and as ,i thus reverently look out on ,thy varied ways of revelation and of righteousness1 help me to bring my own spirit into this unity with ,thyself1 to make a part of ,thy holy world1 and humbly to begin my prayer by hallowing ,thy name4 #bji ,,lxxxiv ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,v ,,thy ,,kingdom ,,come ,luke xvii4 #ba4 ,the prayer that the kingdom of ,god might come had long been familiar to the ,hebrews4 ,they had been for centuries dreaming of a time when their tyrants should be overcome and their nation delivered and their ,god rule4 ,but all this desire was for an outward change4 ,some day the ,romans and their tax-gatherers should be expelled from the land and then the kingdom would come4 ,jesus repeats the same prayer1 but with a new significance in the familiar words4 ,he is not thinking of a ,hebrew theocracy1 or a ,roman defeat2 he is thinking of a human1 universal1 spiritual emancipation4 ,there dawns before his inspired imagination the unparalleled conception of a purified and regenerated people4 ,never did a modern socialist in his dream of a better outward order surpass this vision of ,jesus of a coming kingdom of ,god4 #baj ,but to ,jesus the means to that outward transformation were always personal and individual4 ,the golden age1 as ,mr4 ,spencer has said1 could not be made out of leaden people4 ,the first condition of the outward kingdom must be the kingdom within4 ,the new order must be the product of the new life4 ,that is the doctrine of the social order in the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,we too are looking for outward reform in legislation and economics4 ,it is all a part of the movement to the kingdom of ,god4 ,yet any outward transformation which is to last proceeds from regenerated lives4 ,the kingdom of ,god is within before it is without4 ,do you want a better world8 ,well1 plan for it1 and work for it4 ,but1 first of all1 enter into the inner chamber of your prayer1 and say3 ,lord1 make me a fit instrument of thy kingdom4 ,purify my heart1 that ,i may purify thy world4 ,i would live for others' sakes1 but first of all that great self-sacrifice must be obeyed3 ',for their sakes ,i sanctify myself1 ,reign thus in me that ,i may rationally pray3 ,thy kingdom come6' #baa ,,lxxxv ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,vi ,,thy ,,will ,,be ,,done ,luke xxii4 #ci-df4 ,the ,lord's ,prayer begins as a prayer for the great things4 ,it prays for a sanctified world3 ,holy be ,thy name4 ,it gives form to that great hope3 ,thy kingdom come4 ,it deals with the means of that great coming3 ,thy will be done4 ,the coming of the kingdom and the hallowing of the name are to happen through the doing of the will4 ,i suppose that most prayers which ask that ,god's will may be done are prayers of passive acquiescence and resignation4 ,we are apt to pray ,thy will be done1 as though we were saying3 ,let it be done in spite of us and even against our wills1 and we will try to bear it4 ,but that is not the teaching of the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,thy will be done2--by whom8 ,by the man that thus prays6 ,he prays to have his part in the accomplishment of ,god's will1 even as ,jesus prays in the ,garden3 ,thy will be done1 and then rises and #bab proceeds to do that will4 ,the prayer recognizes the solemn and fundamental truth that the will1 even of ,god ,himself1 works1 in its human relations1 through the service of man4 ,here1 for instance1 is a social abuse4 ,what is ,god's will toward it8 ,his will is that man should remove it4 ,here is a threat of cholera1 and people pray that ,god's will be done4 ,but what is ,god's will8 ,his will is that the town shall be cleansed4 ,and who are to do ,his will8 ,why1 the citizens4 ,typhoid fever and bad drainage are not the will of ,god4 ,the will of ,god is that they should be abolished4 ,social wrongs are not to be endured with resignation4 ,they simply indicate to man what is ,god's will4 ,and who is to do ,god's will in these things8 ,we are4 ,the man who enters into his closet and says3 ,thy will be done1 is asking no mere help to bear the unavoidable2 he is asking help to be a participator in the purposes of ,god1 a laborer together with ,him1 first a discerner and then a doer of his will4 ,our ,father1 he says1 accomplish ,thine ends not over me1 or in spite of me1 but through me1--,thou the power and ,i the instrument1--,thine to will and mine to do4 #bac ,,lxxxvi ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,vii ,,daily ,,bread ,the ,lord's ,prayer begins with the desire for the great things1 the universal needs2 a holy world1 a kingdom of righteousness1 the will of ,god fulfilled4 ,then1 in the light of these great things it goes on to one's personal needs1 and prays1 first of all1 for the present1 then for the past1 then for the future4 ,the prayer for the present is this3 ,give us our daily bread1--our bread1 that is to say1 sufficient for to-day1 enough to live on and to work by1 just for today4 ,the prayer is limitative4 ,it puts restraint on my desire and limit on my ambition4 ,it does not demand the future4 ,it looks only to this present unexplored and unknown day4 ,give us in this day what is necessary for us1 fit to sustain us1--strength to do thy will1 patience to bring in thy kingdom1 grace to hallow thy name4 ,into the midst of the restless anticipations of modern life1 its living of to-morrow's life in #bad to-day's anxiety1 its social disease which has been described as ,americanitis1 and which1 if it is not arrested1 will have to be operated on some day at the risk of the nation's life1 there enters every morning in your daily prayer the desire for quiet acceptance of the day's blessings1 the dismissal of the care for the morrow1 the sense of sufficiency in the bread of to-day3-- ,lord1 for to-morrow and its needs ,i do not pray1 ,keep me from stain of sin1 just for to-day4 ,let me both diligently work1 and duly pray1 ,let me be kind in word and deed1 just for to-day4 ,let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say1 ,set thou a seal upon my lips1 just for to-day4 ,let me be slow to do my will1 prompt to obey1 ,help me to sacrifice myself1 just for to-day4 ,so for to-morrow and its needs1 ,i do not pray1 ,but help me1 keep me1 hold me1 ,lord1 just for to-day4 #bae ,,lxxxvii ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,viii ,,forgiveness ,luke xii4 #a-c4 ,we come to the petition in the ,lord's ,prayer which is the easiest to understand and the hardest to pray1--the prayer that we may be forgiven as we forgive4 ,this prayer does not1 of course1 ask ,god to measure ,his goodness by our virtues4 ,we should not dare to ask that ,god would deal with us just as we have dealt with others4 ,it is the spirit of forgiveness for which we pray4 ,give us forgiveness1 we ask1 because we come in the spirit of forgiveness4 ,the spirit of forgiveness1 that is to say1 is the condition and prerequisite of the prayer for forgiveness4 ,if you do not love your brother whom you have seen1 how can you truly pray to ,god whom you have not seen8 ,if a man comes to his prayer with hate in his heart1 he makes it impossible for ,god to forgive him4 ,he is shutting the door which opens into the spirit #baf of prayer4 ,right-mindedness to man is the first condition of right prayer to ,god4 ,the traveler in ,egypt sometimes looks out in the early morning and sees an ,arab preparing to say his prayers4 ,the man goes down to the river-bank and spreads his little carpet so that he shall look toward ,mecca2 but before he kneels he crouches on the bank1 and cleanses his lips1 his tongue1 his hands1 even his feet1 so that he shall bring to his prayer no unclean word or deed4 ,it is as if he first said with the ,psalmist3 ,wash me thoroughly of my iniquity2 purge me of my sin2 make me a clean heart2 renew in me a right spirit2 and then with a right spirit in him1 he bends and rises and bows again in his prayer4 ,the petition for a forgiving spirit prepares one in the same way to say his morning prayer4 ,it cleanses the tongue2 it washes the motives2 it purifies the thoughts of their uncharitableness2 and then1 in this spirit of forgiveness even toward those who have wronged him1 the ,christian is clean enough to ask for the forgiveness of his own sin4 #bag ,,lxxxviii ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer1 ,,ix ,,temptations ,james i4 #ab-ag4 ,this passage from the ,epistle of ,james is a commentary on the last petition of the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,when we pray3 ,lead us not into temptation1 it is1 as ,james says1 not ,god who tempts1 for ,god tempteth no man4 ,the temptation comes through our misuse of the circumstances which ,god offers us as our opportunity4 ,we turn these circumstances into temptations4 ,every condition of life has these two aspects4 ,it is on the one hand an opportunity1 and it is on the other hand a temptation4 ,god gives it as an opportunity and we misuse the opportunity and it becomes our temptation4 ,the rich have their special and great opportunity of generous service for the common good1 and yet through that very opportunity comes their special temptation4 ,the poor are saved by their lot from many temptations of self-centred and frivolous luxury1 but are much tempted #bah by their poverty itself4 ,the healthy have a great gift of ,god1 but they are tempted by that very gift to recklessness1 inconsiderateness and self-injury4 ,the sick receive peculiar blessings of patience and resignation1 but are much tempted to selfishness and discontent4 ,the business man is tempted by his very knowledge of the world to the hardness of materialism2 the minister is tempted by his very indifference to the world to unsophisticated imprudence4 ,wherever on earth a man may be he must scrutinize his future1 and calculate his powers1 and face his problems1 and pray3 ,my ,god1 prevent my vocation from becoming my temptation4 ,let me not put myself where ,i shall be tried over much4 ,save me from the peculiar temptation of my special lot4 ,deliver me from its evils and lead me not round its temptations1 but through them into its opportunity and joy4 #bai ,,lxxxix ,,simplicity ,,toward ,,christ #b ,corinthians xi4 #c4 ,in listening1 as we have done1 from day to day to ,bishop ,vincent1 there has repeatedly come to my mind this phrase3 ,the simplicity that is in ,christ2 or1 as the ,revised ,version more accurately translates it1 the simplicity that is toward ,christ1--the power which is often so much greater than eloquence1 of an obviously genuine1 sincere1 simple ,christian life4 ,but when one inquires into the nature of this ,christian simplicity1 which is one of the fairest blooms of character1 it turns out to be1 so to speak1 not so simple a trait as it at first appeared4 ,of course1 there is a kind of simplicity which is a survival of childhood1 a guileless1 childish ignorance2 but when a man is simple in a childish way1 he is only what we call a simpleton4 ,christian simplicity is not a survival but an achievement1 wrought out of the struggles and problems of maturer life4 ,it is not an infantile but a masculine trait4 #bbj ,what then is simplicity8 ,the ,latin word means singleness1 unmixedness1 straightforwardness4 ,it is sometimes used of wood which is straight-grained4 ,what simplifies life is to have a single1 specific direction in which to grow1 a straight-grained1 definite intention1 the possibility of a straightforward life4 ,the scattered1 divergent1 wavering life1--what is this but what we call the dissipating career8 ,it abandons self-concentration and steadiness2 it dissipates its energy4 ,it does not mean to begin wrong1 but because it has no fixity of direction it becomes1 as we say1 dissipated4 ,and what is it1 once more1 which gives direction1 unity1 simplicity1 to life8 ,that is made plain in this same passage4 ,it is the simplicity1 says the ,new ,version1 which is toward ,christ4 ,what gives straightforwardness is not the condition in which we are1 but the ideal toward which we are heading4 ,what simplifies life is to say something like this3 ,i do not pretend to know all about religion1 or duty1 or ,christ1 but ,i do propose to live along the line of life which ,i will call toward ,christ4 ,i propose to think less of what ,i may live by1 and more of what ,i may live toward4 ,when a man makes this decision he has not indeed #bba solved all the problems of life1 but he has amazingly simplified them4 ,many things which had been perplexing1 disturbing1 confusing1 now fall into line behind that one comprehensive loyalty4 ,he has1 as it were1 come out of the woods1 and found a high road4 ,it is not all level1 or easy2 there is many a sharp ascent in it1 and many a shadowy valley4 ,but at least the way is clear1 and he knows whither it leads1 and he has found his bearings1 and he trudges along with a quiet mind1 even though with a weary step1 for he has emerged from the bewildering underbrush of life into the simplicity which is toward ,christ4 #bbb ,,xc ,,open ,,our ,,eyes #b ,kings vi4 #ag4 7,,end ,,of ,,college ,,term7 ,this young man did not see things as they really were1 because1 as we say in smaller matters1 he did not have his eyes open4 ,he saw the horses and chariots of ,syria round about him1 and the enemy seemed too strong for him1 and then ,elisha prayed3 ,lord1 open his eyes1 and the young man saw that over against his enemies there was a host of spiritual allies1 so that ,they that be with us are more than they that be with them4 ,as we look back over this closing college year with all its problems and duties1 its conflicts and fears1 it is with something of this same sense that we have not half known the powers which were on our side4 ,sometimes we have thought the enemy too strong for us1 and it looked as if cares and fears1 troubles and misunderstandings were likely to defeat us1 and the battle of life might be lost4 ,the #bbc problems of the world about us have seemed very grievous1 and the perplexities of the life within very perilous4 ,and now ,god comes to us at last and opens our eyes1 and we look back and say3 ,what a good year1 after all1 it has been4 ,there never has been so good a year for the college as this4 ,there never has been so good a year for the world4 ,with all the social problems and agitations that seem so threatening about us1 this is1 after all1 the best year that ,god has ever made4 ,and in our personal conflicts1 how plain it is that the forces of heaven have been behind us4 ,no man has thought a true thought1 or done an unselfish deed this year without a backing which now discloses itself as very real4 ,behind our doubts and fears have been the horses and chariots of fire4 ,lord1 open our eyes1 that we may see these spiritual allies and enlist ourselves in the ranks of their omnipotence4 #bbd ,,xci ,,the ,,word ,,made ,,flesh ,john i4 #a-ad4 7,,end ,,of ,,college ,,term7 ,i do not enter into the deeper philosophical significance of this great chapter1 but any one can see on the very surface of it the general truth on which ,christianity rests its claim4 ,god's government of the world is here described as operating through ,his word4 ,god simply speaks1 and things are done4 ,god says3 ,let there be light1 and there is light4 ,the universe is ,god's language4 ,history is ,god's voice4 ,by ,his word was everything made that is made4 ,then1 when the fullness of time has come this language of ,god is made life4 ,what ,god has been trying to make men hear through his word1 ,he now lets them see through his life4 ,his word becomes flesh4 ,the life becomes the light of men4 ,that is the most elementary statement of the doctrine of the incarnation4 ,it is the transformation of language into life4 #bbe ,let us take this great truth into our own little lives as we part on this last day of common worship4 ,god has been speaking to us ,his word in many ways through our worship here2 in our silence and in our song1 in ,bible and in prayer1 in the voice of different preachers1 and in the voice of our own consciences and hearts4 ,and now what is our last prayer but this1 that this word may be made flesh1 that this worship may be transformed into life1 that these messages of courage1 of hope1 of composure1 of self-control1 may be incarnated in this life of youth2 that out of the many words here spoken in the name of ,god1 here and there one may become flesh and walk out of this chapel and out of these college grounds in the interior life of a consecrated young man4 ,the life is the light of men4 ,may it be so with us here4 ,may the spirit of him in whose life is our light1 enlighten the lives which have gathered here1 and lead them through all the obscurities of life1 and brighten more and more before them into a perfect day4 #bbg ,,list ,,of ,,bible ,,passages ,address4 ,page4 ,genesis iv1 #i ,,lxx #agf ,exodus xx1 #a-g ,,lxxxiii #bjg ,deut4 xxxiii1 #bg ,,xxxiii #hc ,i ,ks4 xix1 #a-ac ,,lxxv #ahg ,,ii ,kings vi1 #ag ,,xc #bab ,mat4 ii1 #a-aa ,,xxix #gd iv1 #a-aa ,,xlviii #aga v1 #c ,,xxii #eh v1 #d ,,xxiii #fj v1 #e ,,xxiv #fb v1 #f ,,xxv #fd v1 #g ,,xxvi #fg v1 #h ,,xxvii #fi v1 #af ,,iv #i v1 #ag ,,xv #da v1 #ba-be ,,lxxxi #bjc vi1 #a-ae ,,lxxx #bja vii1 #a ,,xii #cb viii1 #e-aa ,v #ab xii1 #ch-de ,,lvi #ach xiii1 #a-i ,,xlv #aac xiii1 #a-i ,,xlvi #aaf xiii1 #a-i ,,xlvii #aah xiii1 #a-i ,,xlviii #abj xiii1 #a-i ,,xlix #abb xiv1 #bc ,,vii #ah xxi1 #ag-bc ,,lx #adh xxii1 #aa-ad ,,lxxiv #ahe xxiii1 #bd ,,lxxvi #ahi xxv1 #ad-cj ,l #abd xxv1 #ad-cj ,,li #abg xxv1 #ad-cj ,,lii #abi xxv1 #bb ,,liii #aca xxv1 #bd ,,liv #acc xxv1 #bi ,,lv #acf ,mark iv1 #bg ,,xviii #di iv1 #bg ,,xlix #abb viii1 #cd ,,xxi #ef x1 #ce-de ,,ii #d ,mark xii1 #cj ,,lxix #agd xiii1 #a-i ,,lxxix #aih ,luke ii1 #h-aj ,,xxix #gd ii1 #h-ad ,,xxx #gf ii1 #cj-ce ,,xxxi #gh iii1 #af ,,xxviii #ga xii1 #a-e ,,lxxxvii #bae xv1 #ag ,,lix #adf xvi1 #a-aj ,,lviii #adc xvi1 #a-ab ,,lvii #adj xvii1 #e-ae ,,lxxxiv #bji xvii1 #g-aj ,,xiii #ce xvii1 #ba ,,xix #eb xix1 #cg-dc ,,lx #adh xx1 #ai-ch ,,lxi #aea xxii1 #ci-df ,,lxxxv #baa xxii1 #ci-dh ,,lxiii #aef xxiii1 #bj-bf ,,lxvii #afh ,john i1 #a-ad ,,xci #bbd iv1 #aj ,,lxxiii #ahb vi1 #ce ,,xi #bi viii1 #cb ,,lxxviii #aie xiv1 #f ,,xxxvi #hi xiv1 #ad1 #af ,,xxxiv #he xvi1 #cb ,,lxxii #ahj xvii1 #bb ,,iii #g xviii1 #bh-ch ,,lxiv #aei xix1 #cj ,,lxv #afc xx1 #h ,,viii #ba xxi1 #bb ,,ix #be ,acts xxvi1 #ai ,x #bg ,romans xii1 #a ,,xiv #ch ,i ,cor4 xii1 #ca ,,lxxi #agh ,,ii ,cor4 iv1 #aj ,,xx #ed xi1 #c ,,lxxxix #bai ,galatians iii1 #bf ,,lxxxii #bje iv1 #f ,,lxxxii #bje iv1 #i ,,lxxvii #aib ,ephes4 iv1 #ac ,,xvii #dh #bbh ,address4 ,page4 ,ephes4 iv1 #ad-ag ,,xxxv #hg ,phil4 iii1 #aa ,,lxvi #aff ,,ii ,tim4 ii1 #c ,,xvi #dd iv1 #h ,,vi #ae ,hebrews xii1 #a ,i #a ,james i1 #ab-ag ,,lxxxviii #bag ,rev4 ii1 #a-g ,,xxxvii #if ii1 #h-aj ,,xxxviii #ic ,rev4 ii1 #ab-ag ,,xxxix #ij ii1 #ah-bh ,,xl #ii iii1 #a ,,xli #ajb iii1 #h ,,xlii #aje iii1 #bj ,,xliii #ajg xxi1 #g ,,xliv #aaj xxii1 #ag ,,xi #bi