,ver4#jd4bi4ic99;,,end99 ,at the time this was typed in #jb_/jd_/bjjj1 there were images showing ,millet's ,the ,angelus available on the internet at the following sites3 http3_/_/www4tam4itesm4mx_/jdorante_/art _/realismo_/#abje4;jpg http3_/_/www4udayton4edu_/mary_/gallery_ /artists_/angelus4html http3_/_/www4tigtail4org_/,,tvm_/,x#b_/; a4,neo,classic_/milletangelus4#ahei4;jpg http3_/_/www4i-a-s4de_/,,ias_/,bilder_/, ,millet_/,angelus4htm ,while this list is not exhaustive 7and should include the ,louvre--where the painting is hung--but ,i couldn't find it there7 there should be at least one of these active at the time of the reading4 ,addresses by ,henry ,drummond ,introductory4 ,i was staying with a party of friends in a country house during my visit to ,england in #ahhd4 ,on ,sunday evening as we sat around the fire1 they asked me to read and expound some portion of ,scripture4 ,being tired after the services of the day1 ,i told them to ask ,henry ,drummond1 who was one of the party4 ,after some urging he drew a small ,testament from his hip pocket1 opened it at the #acth chapter of ,i ,corinthians1 and began to speak on the subject of ,love4 ,it seemed to me that ,i had never heard anything so beautiful1 and ,i determined not to rest until ,i brought ,henry ,drummond to ,northfield to deliver that address4 ,since then ,i have requested the principals of schools to have it read before the students every year4 ,the one great need in our ,christian life is love1 more love to ,god and to each other4 ,would that we could all move into that ,love chapter1 and live there4 ,this volume contains1 in addition to the address on ,love1 some other addresses which ,i trust will bring help and blessing to many4 signed,d4 ,l4 ,moody4 ,contents ,love1 the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #g ,lessons from the ,angelus 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ce ,pax ,vobiscum 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dd ,first6 ,an ,address to ,boys 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gj ,the ,changed ,life1 the ,greatest ,need of the ,world 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #hb ,dealing with ,doubt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aac ,love3 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world ,every one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world3 ,what is the 'summum bonum'--the supreme good8 ,you have life before you4 ,once only you can live it4 ,what is the noblest object of desire1 the supreme gift to covet8 ,we have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is ,faith4 ,that great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion2 and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world4 ,well1 we are wrong4 ,if we have been told that1 we may miss the mark4 ,in the #acth chapter of ,i ,corinthians1 ,paul takes us to ,christianity at its source2 and there we see1 the greatest of these is love4 ,it is not an oversight4 ,paul was speaking of faith just a moment before4 ,he says1 ,if ,i have all faith1 so that ,i can remove mountains1 and have not love1 ,i am nothing4 ,so far from forgetting1 he deliberately contrasts them1 ,now abideth ,faith1 ,hope1 ,love1 and without a moment's hesitation the decision falls1 ,the greatest of these is ,love4 ,and it is not prejudice4 ,a man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point4 ,love was not ,paul's strong point4 ,the observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his character as ,paul gets old2 but the hand that wrote ,the greatest of these is love1 when we meet it first1 is stained with blood4 ,nor is this letter to the ,corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum4 ,the masterpieces of ,christianity are agreed about it4 ,peter says1 ,above all things have fervent love among yourselves4 ,,above ,,all ,,things4 ,and ,john goes farther1 ,god is love4 ,you remember the profound remark which ,paul makes elsewhere1 ,love is the fulfilling of the law4 ,did you ever think what he meant by that8 ,in those days men were working the passage to ,heaven by keeping the ,ten ,commandments1 and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them4 ,christ came and said1 ,i will show you a more simple way4 ,if you do one thing1 you will do these hundred and ten things1 without ever thinking about them4 ,if you ,,love1 you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law4 ,you can readily see for yourselves how that must be so4 ,take any of the commandments4 ,thou shalt have no other gods before ,me4 ,if a man love ,god1 you will not require to tell him that4 ,love is the fulfilling of that law4 ,take not ,his name in vain4 ,would he ever dream of taking ,his name in vain if he loved him8 ,remember the ,sabbath day to keep it holy4 ,would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection8 ,love would fulfill all these laws regarding ,god4 ,and so1 if he loved man1 you would never think of telling him to honor his father and mother4 ,he could not do anything else4 ,it would be preposterous to tell him not to kill4 ,you could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal--how could he steal from those he loved8 ,it would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbor4 ,if he loved him it would be the last thing he would do4 ,and you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbors had4 ,he would rather they possess it than himself4 ,in this way ,love is the fulfilling of the law4 ,it is the rule for fulfilling all rules1 the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments1 ,christ's one4 ,secret of the ,christian life4 ,now ,paul has learned that2 and in this noble eulogy he has given us the most wonderful and original account extant of the summum bonum4 ,we may divide it into three parts4 ,in the beginning of the short chapter we have ,love ,,contrasted2 in the heart of it1 we have ,love ,,analyzed2 toward the end1 we have ,love ,,defended as the supreme gift4 ,i4 ,the ,contrast4 ,paul begins by contrasting ,love with other things that men in those days thought much of4 ,i shall not attempt to go over these things in detail4 ,their inferiority is already obvious4 ,he contrasts it with ,,eloquence4 ,and what a noble gift it is1 the power of playing upon the souls and wills of men1 and rousing them to lofty purpose and holy deeds6 ,paul says1 ,if ,i speak with the tongues of men and of angels1 and have not love1 ,i am become sounding brass1 or a tinkling cymbal4 ,we all know why4 ,we have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion1 the hollowness1 the unaccountable unpersuasiveness1 of eloquence behind which lies no ,love4 ,he contrasts it with ,,prophecy4 ,he contrasts it with ,,mysteries4 ,he contrasts it with ,,faith4 ,he contrasts it with ,,charity4 ,why is ,love greater than faith8 ,because the end is greater than the means4 ,and why is it greater than charity8 ,because the whole is greater than the part4 ,love is greater than ,,faith1 because the end is greater than the means4 ,what is the use of having faith8 ,it is to connect the soul with ,god4 ,and what is the object of connecting man with ,god8 ,that he may become like ,god4 ,but ,god is ,love4 ,hence ,faith1 the means1 is in order to ,love1 the end4 ,love1 therefore1 obviously is greater than faith4 ,if ,i have all faith1 so as to remove mountains1 but have not love1 ,i am nothing4 ,it is greater than ,,charity1 again1 because the whole is greater than a part4 ,charity is only a little bit of ,love1 one of the innumerable avenues of ,love1 and there may even be1 and there is1 a great deal of charity without ,love4 ,it is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a beggar on the street2 it is generally an easier thing than not to do it4 ,yet ,love is just as often in the withholding4 ,we purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery1 at the copper's cost4 ,it is too cheap--too cheap for us1 and often too dear for the beggar4 ,if we really loved him we would either do more for him1 or less4 ,hence1 ,if ,i bestow all my goods to feed the poor1 but have not love it profiteth me nothing4 ,then ,paul contrasts it with ,,sacrifice and martyrdom3 ,if ,i give my body to be burned1 but have not love1 it profiteth me nothing4 ,missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and reflection of the ,love of ,god upon their own character4 ,that is the universal language4 ,it will take them years to speak in ,chinese1 or in the dialects of ,india4 ,from the day they land1 that language of ,love1 understood by all1 will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence4 ,it is the man who is the missionary1 it is not his words4 ,his character is his message4 ,in the heart of ,africa1 among the great ,lakes1 ,i have come across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before--,david ,livingstone2 and as you cross his footsteps in that dark continent1 ,men's faces light up ,as they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago4 ,they could not understand him2 but they felt the love that beat in his heart4 ,they knew that it was love1 although he spoke no word4 ,take into your sphere of labor1 where you also mean to lay down your life1 that simple charm1 and your lifework must succeed4 ,you can take nothing greater1 you need take nothing less4 ,you may take every accomplishment2 you may be braced for every sacrifice2 but if you give your body to be burned1 and have not ,love1 it will profit you and the cause of ,christ ,,nothing4 ,,ii4 ,the ,analysis ,after contrasting ,love with these things1 ,paul1 in three verses1 very short1 gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is4 ,i ask you to look at it4 ,it is a compound thing1 he tells us4 ,it is like light4 ,as you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism1 as you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into its component colors--red1 and blue1 and yellow1 and violet1 and orange1 and all the colors of the rainbow--so ,paul passes this thing1 ,love1 through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect1 and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements4 ,in these few words we have what one might call ,the spectrum of ,love1 the analysis of love4 ,will you observe what its elements are8 ,will you notice that they have common names2 that they are virtues which we hear about every day2 that they are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life2 and how1 by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues1 the supreme thing1 the summum bonum1 is made up8 ,the ,spectrum of ,love has nine ingredients3 ,patience 4 4 4 4 4 ,love suffereth long4 ,kindness 4 4 4 4 4 ,and is kind4 ,generosity 4 4 4 4 ,love envieth not4 ,humility 4 4 4 4 4 ,love vaunteth not itself1 is not puffed up4 ,courtesy 4 4 4 4 4 ,doth not behave itself unseemly4 ,unselfishness 4 4 ,seeketh not its own4 ,good temper 4 4 4 ,is not provoked4 ,guilelessness 4 4 ,taketh not account of evil4 ,sincerity 4 4 4 4 ,rejoiceth not in unrighteousness1 but rejoiceth with the truth4 ,patience2 kindness2 generosity2 humility2 courtesy2 unselfishness2 good temper2 guilelessness2 sincerity--these make up the supreme gift1 the stature of the perfect man4 ,you will observe that all are in relation to men1 in relation to life1 in relation to the known to-day and the near to-morrow1 and not to the unknown eternity4 ,we hear much of love to ,god2 ,christ spoke much of love to man4 ,we make a great deal of peace with heaven2 ,christ made much of peace on earth4 ,religion is not a strange or added thing1 but the inspiration of the secular life1 the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world4 ,the supreme thing1 in short1 is not a thing at all1 but the giving of a further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the sum of every common day4 ,,patience4 ,this is the normal attitude of love2 ,love passive1 love waiting to begin2 not in a hurry2 calm2 ready to do its work when the summons comes1 but meantime wearing the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit4 ,love suffers long2 beareth all things2 believeth all things2 hopeth all things4 ,for ,love understands1 and therefore waits4 ,,kindness4 ,love active4 ,have you ever noticed how much of ,christ's life was spent in doing kind things--in ,,merely doing kind things8 ,run over it with that in view1 and you will find that ,he spent a great proportion of ,his time simply in making people happy1 in ,doing good turns to people4 ,there is only one thing greater than happiness in the world1 and that is holiness2 and it is not in our keeping2 but what ,god ,,has put in our power is the happiness of those about us1 and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them4 ,the greatest thing1 says some one1 a man can do for his ,heavenly ,father is to be kind to some of ,his other children4 ,i wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are8 ,how much the world needs it6 ,how easily it is done6 ,how instantaneously it acts6 ,how infallibly it is remembered6 ,how superabundantly it pays itself back--for there is no debtor in the world so honorable1 so superbly honorable1 as ,love4 ,love never faileth4 ,love is success1 ,love is happiness1 ,love is life4 ,love1 ,i say with ,browning1 is energy of life4 ,for life1 with all it yields of joy or woe ,and hope and fear1 ,is just our chance o' the prize of learning love1-- ,how love might be1 hath been indeed1 and is4 ,where ,love is1 ,god is4 ,he that dwelleth in ,love dwelleth in ,god4 ,god is ,love4 ,therefore ,,love4 ,without distinction1 without calculation1 without procrastination1 love4 ,lavish it upon the poor1 where it is very easy2 especially upon the rich1 who often need it most2 most of all upon our equals1 where it is very difficult1 and for whom perhaps we each do least of all4 ,there is a difference between ,,trying ,,to ,,please and ,,giving ,,pleasure4 ,give pleasure4 ,lose no chance of giving pleasure2 for that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit4 ,i shall pass through this world but once4 ,any good thing1 therefore1 that ,i can do1 or any kindness that ,i can show to any human being1 let me do it now4 ,let me not defer it or neglect it1 for ,i shall not pass this way again4 ,,generosity4 ,love envieth not4 ,this is love in competition with others4 ,whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work1 and probably doing it better4 ,envy them not4 ,envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line as ourselves1 a spirit of covetousness and detraction4 ,how little ,christian work even is a protection against un-,christian feeling6 ,that most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a ,christian's soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work1 unless we are fortified with this grace of magnanimity4 ,only one thing truly need the ,christian envy--the large1 rich1 generous soul which envieth not4 ,and then1 after having learned all that1 you have to learn this further thing1 ,,humility--to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done4 ,after you have been kind1 after ,love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work1 go back into the shade again and say nothing about it4 ,love hides even from itself4 ,love waives even self-satisfaction4 ,love vaunteth not itself1 is not puffed up4 ,humility--love hiding4 ,the fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this summum bonum3 ,,courtesy4 ,this is ,love in society1 ,love in relation to etiquette4 ,love doe not behave itself unseemly4 ,politeness has been defined as love in trifles4 ,courtesy is said to be love in little things4 ,and the one secret of politeness is to love4 ,love ,,cannot behave itself unseemly4 ,you can put the most untutored persons into the highest society1 and if they have a reservoir of ,love in their hearty they will not behave themselves unseemly4 ,they simply cannot do it4 ,carlisle said of ,robert ,burns that there was no truer gentleman in ,europe than the ploughman-poet4 ,it was because he loved everything--the mouse1 and the daisy1 and all the things1 great and small1 that ,god had made4 ,so with this simple passport he could mingle with any society1 and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on the banks of the ,ayr4 ,you know the meaning of the word gentleman4 ,it means a gentle man--a man who does things gently1 with love4 ,that is the whole art and mystery of it4 ,the gentle man cannot in the nature of things do an ungentle1 an ungentlemanly thing4 ,the ungentle soul1 the inconsiderate1 unsympathetic nature1 cannot do anything else4 ,love doth not behave itself unseemly4 ,,unselfishness4 ,love seeketh not her own4 ,observe3 ,seeketh not even that which is her own4 ,in ,britain the ,englishman is devoted1 and rightly1 to his rights4 ,but there come times when a man may exercise even ,the higher right of giving up his rights4 ,yet ,paul does not summon us to give up our rights4 ,love strikes much deeper4 ,it would have us not seek them at all1 ignore them1 eliminate the personal element altogether from our calculations4 ,it is not hard to give up our rights4 ,they are often eternal4 ,the difficult thing is to give up ,,ourselves4 ,the more difficult thing still is not to seek things for ourselves at all4 ,after we have sought them1 bought them1 won them1 deserved them1 we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already4 ,little cross then to give them up4 ,but not to seek them1 to look every man not on his own things1 but on the things of others--that is the difficulty4 ,seekest thou great things for thyself8 said the prophet2 ,,seek ,,them ,,not4 ,why8 ,because there is no greatness in ,,things4 ,things cannot be great4 ,the only greatness is unselfish love4 ,even self-denial in itself is nothing1 is almost a mistake4 ,only a great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste4 ,it is more difficult1 ,i have said1 not to seek our own at all than1 having sought it1 to give it up4 ,i must take that back4 ,it is only true of a partly selfish heart4 ,nothing is a hardship to ,love1 and nothing is hard4 ,i believe that ,christ's yoke is easy4 ,christ's yoke is just ,his way of taking life4 ,and ,i believe it is an easier way than any other4 ,i believe it is a happier way than any other4 ,the most obvious lesson in ,christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting anything1 but only in giving4 ,i repeat1 ,,there ,,is ,,no ,,happiness ,,in ,,having ,,or ,,in ,,getting1 ,,but ,,only ,,in ,,giving4 ,half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness4 ,they think it consists in having and getting1 and in being served by others4 ,it consists in giving1 and in serving others4 ,he that would be great among you1 said ,christ1 let him serve4 ,he that would be happy1 let him remember that there is but one way--it is more blessed1 it is more happy1 to give than to receive4 ,the next ingredient is a very remarkable one3 ,,good ,,temper4 ,love is not provoked4 ,nothing could be more striking than to find this here4 ,we are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless weakness4 ,we speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature1 a family failing1 a matter of temperament1 not a thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man's character4 ,and yet here1 right in the heart of this analysis of love1 it finds a place2 and the ,bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive elements in human nature4 ,the peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous4 ,it is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character4 ,you know men who are all but perfect1 and women who would be entirely perfect1 but for an easily ruffled1 quick-tempered1 or touchy disposition4 ,this compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics4 ,the truth is1 there are two great classes of sins--sins of the ,,body and sins of the ,,disposition4 ,the ,prodigal ,son may be taken as a type of the first1 the ,elder ,brother of the second4 ,now1 society has no doubt whatever as to which of these is the worse4 ,its brand falls1 without a challenge1 upon the ,prodigal4 ,but are we right8 ,we have no balance to weigh one another's sins1 and coarser and finer are but human words2 but faults in the higher nature may be less venal than those in the lower1 and to the eye of ,him who is ,love1 a sin against ,love may seem a hundred times more base4 ,no form of vice1 not worldliness1 not greed of gold1 not drunkenness itself1 does more to un-,christianize society than evil temper4 ,for embittering life1 for breaking up communities1 for destroying the most sacred relationships1 for devastating homes1 for withering up men and women1 for taking the bloom of childhood1 in short1 ,for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power this influence stands alone4 ,look at the ,elder ,brother--moral1 hard-working1 patient1 dutiful--let him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man1 this baby1 sulking outside his own father's door4 ,he was angry1 we read1 and would not go in4 ,look at the effect upon the father1 upon the servants1 upon the happiness of the guests4 ,judge of the effect upon the ,prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the ,kingdom of ,god by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside4 ,analyze1 as a study in ,temper1 the thunder-cloud itself as it gathers upon the ,elder ,brother's brow4 ,what is it made of8 ,jealousy1 anger1 pride1 uncharity1 cruelty1 self-righteousness1 touchiness1 doggedness1 sullenness--these are the ingredients of this dark and loveless soul4 ,in varying proportions1 also1 these are the ingredients of all ill temper4 ,judge if such sins are of the disposition are not worse to live in1 and for others to live with1 than the sins of the body4 ,did ,christ indeed not answer the question ,himself when ,he said1 ,i say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the ,kingdom of ,heaven before you8 ,there is really no place in heaven for a disposition like this4 ,a man with such a mood could only make heaven miserable for all the people in it4 ,except1 therefore1 such a man be ,born again1 he cannot1 simply ,,cannot1 enter the kingdom of heaven4 ,you will see then why ,temper is significant4 ,it is not in what it is alone1 but in what it reveals4 ,this is why ,i speak of it with such unusual plainness4 ,it is a test for love1 a symptom1 a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom4 ,it is the intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within2 the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some rottenness underneath2 a sample of the most hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard2 in a word1 the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-,christian sins4 ,a want of patience1 a want of kindness1 a want of generosity1 a want of courtesy1 a want of unselfishness1 are all instantaneously symbolized in one flash of ,temper4 ,hence it is not enough to deal with the ,temper4 ,we must go to the source1 and change the inmost nature1 and the angry humors will die away of themselves4 souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out1 but by putting something in--a great ,love1 a new ,spirit1 the ,spirit of ,christ4 ,christ1 the ,spirit of ,christ1 interpenetrating ours1 sweetens1 purifies1 transforms all4 ,this only can eradicate what is wrong1 work a chemical change1 renovate and regenerate1 and rehabilitate the inner man4 ,will-power does not change men4 ,time does not change men4 ,christ does4 ,therefore1 ,let that mind be in you which was also in ,christ ,jesus4 ,some of us have not much time to lose4 ,remember1 once more1 that this is a matter of life or death4 ,i cannot help speaking urgently1 for myself1 for yourselves4 ,whoso shall offend one of these little ones1 which believe in me1 it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck1 and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea4 ,that is to say1 it is the deliberate verdict of the ,lord ,jesus that it is better not to live than not to love4 ,,it ,,is ,,better ,,not ,,to ,,live ,,than ,,not ,,to ,,love4 ,,guilelessness and ,,sincerity may be dismissed almost without a word4 ,guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people4 ,the possession of it is ,the great secret of personal influence4 ,you will find1 if you think for a moment1 that the people who influence you are people who believe in you4 ,in an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up2 but in that atmosphere they expand1 and find encouragement and educative fellowship4 ,it is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard1 uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil4 this is the great unworldliness4 ,love thinketh no evil1 imputes no motive1 sees the bright side1 puts the best construction on every action4 ,what a delightful state of mind to live in6 ,what a stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for a day6 ,to be trusted is to be saved4 ,and if we try to influence or elevate others1 we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them4 ,the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost2 our ideal of what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become4 ,love rejoiceth not in unrighteousness1 but rejoiceth with the truth4 ,i have called this ,,sincerity from the words rendered in the ,authorized ,version by rejoiceth in the truth4 ,and1 certainly1 were this the real translation1 nothing could be more just2 for he who loves will love ,truth not less than men4 ,he will rejoice in the ,truth--rejoice not in what he has been taught to believe2 not in this church's doctrine or in that2 not in this ism or in that ism2 but in ,,the ,,truth4 ,he will accept only what is real2 he will strive to get at facts2 he will search for ,,truth with a humble and unbiased mind1 and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice4 ,but the more literal translation of the ,revised ,version calls for just such a sacrifice for truth's sake here4 ,for what ,paul really meant is1 as we there read1 ,rejoiceth not in unrighteousness1 but rejoiceth with the truth1 a quality which probably no one ,english word--and certainly not ,,sincerity--adequately defines4 ,it includes1 perhaps more strictly1 the self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others' faults2 the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others1 but covereth all things2 the sincerity of purpose which endeavors to see things as they are1 and rejoices to find them better than suspicion feared or calumny denounced4 ,so much for the analysis of ,love4 ,now the business of our lives is to have these things fitted into our characters4 ,that is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world1 to learn ,love4 ,is life not full of opportunities for learning ,love8 ,every man and woman every day has a thousand of them4 ,the world is not a playground2 it is a schoolroom4 ,life is not a holiday1 but an education4 ,and ,the one eternal lesson for us all is ,,how ,,better ,,we ,,can ,,love4 ,what makes a man a good cricketer8 ,practice4 ,what makes a man a good artist1 a good sculptor1 a good musician8 ,practice4 ,what makes a man a good linguist1 a good stenographer8 ,practice4 ,what makes a man a good man8 ,practice4 ,nothing else4 ,there is nothing capricious about religion4 ,we do not get the soul in different ways1 under different laws1 from those in which we get the body and the mind4 ,if a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps muscle2 and if a man does not exercise his soul1 he acquires no muscle in his soul1 no strength of character1 no vigor of moral fibre1 no beauty of spiritual growth4 ,love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion4 ,it is a rich1 strong1 manly1 vigorous expression of the whole round ,christian character--the ,christlike nature in its fullest development4 ,and the constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ,ceaseless practice4 ,what was ,christ doing in the carpenter's shop8 ,practising4 ,though perfect1 we read that he ,,learned obedience1 and grew in wisdom and in favor with ,god4 ,do not quarrel1 therefore1 with your lot in life4 ,do not complain of its never-ceasing cares1 its petty environment1 the vexations you have to stand1 the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with4 ,above all1 do not resent temptation2 do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more1 and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer4 ,that is your practice4 ,that is the practice which god appoints you2 and it is having its work in making you patient1 and humble1 and generous1 and unselfish1 and kind1 and courteous4 ,do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you4 ,it is growing more beautiful1 though you see it not2 and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection4 ,therefore keep in the midst of life4 ,do not isolate yourself4 ,be among men and among things1 and among troubles1 and difficulties1 and obstacles4 ,you remember ,goethe's words3 ,talent develops itself in solitude2 character in the stream of life4 ,talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer1 of faith1 of meditation1 of seeing the unseen2 character grows in the stream of the world's life4 ,that chiefly is where men are to learn love4 ,how8 ,now1 how8 ,to make it easier1 ,i have named a few of the elements of love4 ,but these are only elements4 ,love itself can never be defined4 ,light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients--a glowing1 dazzling1 tremulous ether4 ,and love is something more than all its elements--a palpitating1 quivering1 sensitive1 living thing4 ,by synthesis of all the colors1 men can make whiteness1 they cannot make light4 ,by synthesis of all the virtues1 men can make virtue1 they cannot make love4 ,how then are we to have this transcendent living whole conveyed into our souls8 ,we brace our wills to secure it4 ,we try to copy those who have it4 ,we lay down rules about it4 ,we watch4 ,we pray4 ,but these things alone will not bring love into our nature4 ,love is an ,,effect4 ,and only as we fulfill the right condition can we have the effect produced4 ,shall ,i tell you what the ,,cause is8 ,if you turn to the ,revised ,version of the ,first ,epistle of ,john you find these words3 ,we love because ,he first loved us4 ,we love1 not ,we love ,,him4 ,that is the way the old version has it1 and it is quite wrong4 ,,we ,,love--because ,he first loved us4 ,look at that word because4 ,it is the ,,cause of which ,i have spoken4 ,,because ,he first loved us1 the effect follows that we love1 we love ,him1 we love all men4 ,we cannot help it4 ,because ,he loved us1 we love1 we love everybody4 ,our heart is slowly changed4 contemplate the love of ,christ1 and you will love4 ,stand before that mirror1 reflect ,christ's character1 and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness to tenderness4 ,there is no other way4 ,you cannot love to order4 ,you can only look at the lovely object1 and fall in love with it1 and grow into likeness to it4 ,and so look at this ,perfect ,character1 this ,perfect ,life4 ,look at ,the great sacrifice as ,he laid down ,himself1 all through life1 and upon the ,cross of ,calvary2 and you must love ,him4 ,and loving ,him1 you must become like ,him4 ,love begets love4 ,it is a process of induction4 ,put a piece of ,iron in the presence of an electrified body1 and that piece of iron for a time becomes electrified4 ,it is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere presence of a permanent magnet1 and as long as you leave the two side by side1 they are both magnets alike4 ,remain side by side with ,him who loved us1 and ,gave himself for us1 and you1 too1 will become a permanent magnet1 a permanently attractive force2 and like ,him you will draw all men unto you1 like ,him you will be drawn unto all men4 that is the inevitable effect of ,love4 ,any man who fulfills that cause must have that effect produced in him4 ,try to give up the idea that religion comes to us by chance1 or by mystery1 or by caprice4 ,it comes to us by natural law1 or by supernatural law1 for all law is ,divine4 ,edward ,irving went to see a dying boy once1 and when he entered the room he just put his hand on the sufferer's head1 and said1 ,my boy1 ,god loves you1 and went away4 ,the boy started from his bed1 and called out to the people in the house1 ,god loves me6 ,god loves me6 ,one word6 ,it changed that boy4 ,the sense that ,god loved him overpowered him1 melted him down1 and began the creating of a new heart in him4 ,and that is how the love of ,god melts down the unlovely heart in man1 and begets in him the new creature1 who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish4 ,and there is no other way to get it4 ,there is no mystery about it4 ,we love others1 we love everybody1 we love our enemies1 ,,because ,,he ,,first ,,loved ,,us4 ,,iii4 ,the ,defence4 ,now ,i have a closing sentence or two to add about ,paul's reason for singling out love as the supreme possession4 ,it is a very remarkable reason4 ,in a single word it is this3 ,,it ,,lasts4 ,love1 urges ,paul1 never faileth4 ,then he begins again one of his marvelous lists of the great things of the day1 and exposes them one by one4 ,he runs over the things that men thought were going to last1 and shows that they are all fleeting1 temporary1 passing away4 ,whether there be ,,prophecies1 they shall be done away4 ,it was the mother's ambition for her boy in those days that he should become a prophet4 ,for hundreds of years ,god had never spoken by means of any prophet1 and at that time the prophet was greater than the king4 ,men waited wistfully for another messenger to come1 and hung upon his lips when he appeared1 as upon the very voice of ,god4 ,paul says1 ,whether there be prophecies1 they shall fail4 ,the ,bible is full of prophecies4 ,one by one they have failed2 that is1 having been fulfilled1 their work is finished2 they have nothing more to do now in the world except to feed a devout man's faith4 ,then ,paul talks about ,,tongues4 ,that was another thing that was greatly coveted4 ,whether there be tongues1 they shall cease4 ,as we all know1 many1 many centuries have passed since tongues have been known in this world4 ,they have ceased4 ,take it in any sense you like4 ,take it1 for illustration merely1 as languages in general--a sense which was not in ,paul's mind at all1 and which though it cannot give us the specific lesson1 will point the general truth4 ,consider the words in which these chapters were written--,greek4 ,it has gone4 ,take the ,latin--the other great tongue of those days4 ,it ceased long ago4 ,look at the ,indian language4 ,it is ceasing4 ,the language of ,wales1 of ,ireland1 of the ,scottish ,highlands is dying before our eyes4 ,the most popular book in the ,english tongue at the present time1 except the bible1 is one of ,dickens' works1 his ,pickwick ,papers4 ,it is largely written in the language of ,london street-life2 and experts assure us that in fifty years it will be unintelligible to the average ,english reader4 ,then ,paul goes farther1 and with even greater boldness adds1 ,whether there by ,,knowledge1 it shall be done away4 ,the wisdom of the ancients1 where is it8 ,it is wholly gone4 ,a schoolboy to-day knows more than ,sir ,isaac ,newton knew2 his knowledge has vanished away4 ,you put yesterday's newspaper in the fire3 its knowledge has vanished away4 ,you buy the old editions of the great encyclopaedias for a few cents3 their knowledge has vanished away4 ,look how the coach has been superseded by the use of steam4 ,look how electricity has superseded that1 and swept a hundred almost new inventions into oblivion4 ,one of the greatest living authorities1 ,sir ,william ,thompson1 said in ,scotland1 at a meeting at which ,i was present1 ,the steam-engine is passing away4 ,whether there be knowledge1 it shall vanish away4 ,at every workshop you will see1 in the back yard1 a heap of old iron1 a few wheels1 a few levers1 a few cranks1 broken and eaten with rust4 ,twenty years ago that was the pride of the city4 ,men flocked in from the country to see the great invention2 not it is superseded1 its day is done4 ,and all the boasted science and philosophy of this day will soon be old4 ,in my time1 in the university of ,edinburgh1 the greatest figure in the faculty was ,sir ,james ,simpson1 the discoverer of choloform4 ,recently his successor and nephew1 ,professor ,simpson1 was asked by the librarian of the ,university to go to the library and pick out the books on his subject 7midwifery7 that were no longer needed4 ,his reply to the librarian was this3 ,take every text-book that is more than ten years old and put it down in the cellar4 ,sir ,james ,simpson was a great authority only a few years ago3 men came from all parts of the earth to consult him2 and almost the whole teaching of that time is consigned by the science of to-day to oblivion4 ,and in every branch of science it is the same4 ,now we know in part4 ,we see through a glass darkly4 ,knowledge does not last4 ,can you tell me anything that is going to last8 ,many things ,paul did not condescend to name4 ,he did not mention money1 fortune1 fame2 but he picked out the great things of his time1 the things the best men thought had something in them1 and brushed them peremptorily aside4 ,paul had no charge against these things in themselves4 ,all he said about them was that they would not last4 ,they were great things1 but not supreme things4 ,there were things beyond them4 ,what we are stretches past what we do1 beyond what we possess4 ,many things that men denounce as sins are not sins2 but they are temporary4 ,and that is a favorite argument of the ,new ,testament4 ,john says of the world1 not that it is wrong1 but simply that it passeth away4 ,there is a great deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful2 there is a great deal in it that is great and engrossing2 but ,it will not last4 ,all that is in the world1 the lust of the eye1 the lust of the flesh1 and the pride of life1 are but for a little while4 ,love not the world therefore4 ,nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration of an immortal soul4 ,the immortal soul must give itself to something that is immortal4 ,and the only immortal things are these3 ,now abideth faith1 hope1 love1 but the greatest of these is love4 ,some think the time may come when two of these three things will also pass away--faith into sight1 hope into fruition4 ,paul does not say so4 ,we know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come4 ,but what is certain is that ,love must last4 ,god1 the ,eternal ,god1 is ,love4 ,covet1 therefore1 that everlasting gift1 that one thing which it is certain is going to stand1 that one coinage which will be current in the ,universe when all the other coinages of all the nations of the world shall be useless and unhonored4 ,you will give yourself to many things1 give yourself first to ,love4 ,hold things in their proportion4 ,,hold ,,things ,,in ,,their ,,proportion4 ,let at least the first great object of our lives be to achieve the character defended in these words1 the character--and it is he character of ,christ--which is built round ,love4 ,i have said this thing is eternal4 ,did you ever notice how continually ,john associates love and faith with eternal life8 ,i was not told when ,i was a boy that ,god so loved the world that ,he gave ,his only-begotten ,son1 that whosoever believeth in ,him should have everlasting life4 ,what ,i was told1 ,i remember1 was1 that ,god so loved the world that1 if ,i trusted in ,him1 ,i was to have a thing called peace1 or ,i was to have rest1 or ,i was to have joy1 or ,i was to have safety4 ,but ,i had to find out for myself that whosoever trusteth in ,him--that is1 whosoever loveth ,him1 for trust is only the avenue to ,love--hath ,everlasting life4 ,the ,gospel offers a man a life4 ,never offer a man a thimbleful of ,gospel4 ,do not offer them merely joy1 or merely peace1 or merely rest1 or merely safety2 tell them how ,christ came to give men a more abundant life than they have1 a life abundant in love1 and therefore abundant in salvation for themselves1 and large in enterprise for the alleviation and redemption of the world4 ,then only can the ,gospel take hold of the whole of a man1 body1 soul and spirit1 and give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward4 ,many of the current ,gospels are addressed only to a part of man's nature4 ,they offer peace1 not life2 faith1 not ,love2 justification1 not regeneration4 ,and men slip back again from such religion because it has never really held them4 ,their nature was not all in it4 ,it offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was lived before4 ,surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love can compete with the love of the world4 ,to love abundantly is to live abundantly1 and to love forever is to live forever4 ,hence1 eternal life is inextricably bound up with love4 ,we want to live forever for the same reason that we want to live to-morrow4 ,why do we want to live to-morrow8 ,is it because there is some one who loves you1 and whom you want to see to-morrow1 and be with1 and love back8 ,there is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and are beloved4 ,it is when a man has no one to love him that he commits suicide4 ,so long as he has friends1 those who love him and whom he loves1 he will live1 because to live is to love4 ,be it but the love of a dog1 it will keep him in life2 but let that go1 he has no contact with life1 no reason to live4 ,he dies by his own hand4 ,eternal life also is to know ,god1 and ,god is love4 ,this is ,christ's own definition4 ,ponder it4 ,this is life eternal1 that they might know ,thee the only true ,god1 and ,jesus ,christ whom ,thou hast sent4 ,love must be eternal4 ,it is what ,god is4 ,on the last analysis1 then1 love is life4 ,love never faileth1 and life never faileth1 so long as there is love4 ,that is the philosophy of what ,paul is showing us2 the reason why in the nature of things love should be the supreme thing--because it is going to last2 because in the nature of things it is an ,eternal ,life4 ,it is a thing that we are living now1 not that we get when we die2 that we shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living now4 ,no worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and grow old alone1 unloving and unloved4 ,to be lost is to live in an unregenerate condition1 loveless and unloved2 and to be saved is to love2 and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in ,god4 ,for ,god is ,love4 ,now ,i have all but finished4 ,how many of you will join me in reading this chapter once a week for the next three months8 ,a man did that once and it changed his whole life4 ,will you do it8 ,it is for the greatest thing in the world4 ,you might begin by reading it every day1 especially the verses which describe the perfect character4 ,love suffereth long1 and is kind2 love envieth not2 love vaunteth not itself4 ,get these ingredients into your life4 ,then everything that you do is eternal4 ,it is worth doing4 ,it is worth giving time to4 ,no man can become a saint in his sleep2 and to fulfill the condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time1 just as improvement in any direction1 bodily or mental1 requires preparation and care4 ,address yourselves to that one thing2 at any cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours4 ,you will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out1 the moments when you have really lived1 are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love4 ,as memory scans the past1 above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life1 there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you1 things too trifling to speak about1 but which you feel have entered into your eternal life4 ,i have seen almost all he beautiful things ,god has made2 ,i have enjoyed almost every pleasure that ,he has planned for man2 and yet as ,i look back ,i see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences1 when the love of ,god reflected itself in some poor imitation1 some small act of love of mine1 and these seem to be the things which alone of all one's life abide4 ,everything else in all our lives is transitory4 ,every other good is visionary4 ,but the acts of love which no man knows about1 or can ever know about--they never fail4 ,in the book of ,matthew1 where the ,judgement ,day is depicted for us in the imagery of ,one seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from the goats1 the test of a man then is not1 ,how have ,i believed8 but ,how have ,i loved8 ,the test of religion1 the final test of religion1 is not religiousness1 but ,love4 ,i say the final test of religion at that great ,day is not religiousness1 but ,love2 not what ,i have done1 not what ,i have believed1 not what ,i have achieved1 but how ,i have discharged the common charities of life4 ,sins of commission in that awful indictment are not even referred to4 ,by what we have not done1 ,,by ,,sins ,,of ,,omission1 we are judged4 ,it could not be otherwise4 ,for the withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of ,christ1 the proof that we never knew ,him1 that for us ,he lived in vain4 ,it means that ,he suggested nothing in all our thoughts1 that ,he inspired nothing in all our lives1 that we were not once near enough to ,him to be seized with the spell of ,his compassion for the world4 ,it means that--- ,i lived for myself1 ,i thought for myself1 ,for myself1 and none beside-- ,just as if ,jesus had never lived1 ,as if ,he had never died4 ,thank ,god the ,christianity of today is coming nearer the world's need4 ,live to help that on4 ,thank ,god men know better1 by a hair's breadth1 what religion is1 what ,god is1 who ,christ is1 where ,christ is4 ,who is ,christ8 ,he who fed the hungry1 clothed the naked1 visited the sick4 ,and where is ,christ8 ,where8--,whoso shall receive a little child in ,my name receiveth ,me4' ,and who are ,christ's8 ,every one that loveth is born of ,god4 ,lessons from the ,angelus4 ,god often speaks to men's souls through music2 ,he also speaks to us through art4 ,millet's famous painting entitled ,the ,angelus is an illuminated text1 upon which ,i am going to say a few words to you to-night4 ,there are three things in this picture--a potato field1 a country lad and a country girl standing in the middle of it1 and on the far horizon the spire of a village church4 ,that is all there is to it--no great scenery and no picturesque people4 ,in ,roman ,catholic countries at the evening hour the church bell rings out to remind the people to pray4 ,some go into the church1 while those that are in the fields bow their heads for a few moments in silent prayer4 ,that picture contains the three great elements which go to make up a perfectly rounded ,christian life4 ,it is not enough to have the root of the matter in us1 but that we must be whole and entire1 lacking nothing4 ,the ,angelus may bring to us suggestions as to what constitutes a complete life4 ,i4 ,the first element in a symmetrical life is ,,work4 ,three-fourths of our time is probably spent in work4 ,of course the meaning of it is that our work should be just as religious as our worship1 and unless we can work for the glory of ,god three-fourths of life remains unsanctified4 ,the proof that work is religious is that most of ,christ's life was spent in work4 ,during a large part of the first thirty years of ,his life ,he worked with the hammer and the plane1 making ploughs and yokes and household furniture4 ,christ's public ministry occupied only about two and a half years of ,his earthly life2 the great bulk of ,his time was simply spent in doing common everyday tasks1 and ever since then work has had a new meaning4 ,when ,christ came into the world ,he was revealed to three deputations who went to meet and worship ,him4 ,first came the shepherds1 or working class2 second1 the wise men1 or student class2 and third1 the two old people in the temple1 ,simeon and ,anna2 that is to say1 ,christ is revealed to men at their work1 ,he is revealed to men at their books1 and ,he is revealed to men at their worship4 ,it was the old people who found ,christ at their worship1 and as we grow older we will spend more time exclusively in worship than we are able to do now4 ,in the mean time we must combine our worship with our work1 and we may expect to find ,christ at our books and in our common task4 ,why should ,god have provided that so many hours of every day should be occupied with work8 ,it is because ,work makes men4 ,a university is not merely a place for making scholars1 it is a place for making ,christians4 ,a farm is not a place for growing corn1 it is a place for growing character1 and a man has no character except that which is developed by his life and thought4 ,god's ,spirit does the building through the acts which a man performs from day to day4 ,a student who cons out every word in his ,latin and ,greek instead of consulting a translation finds that honesty is translated into his character4 ,if he works out his mathematical problems thoroughly1 he not only becomes a mathematician1 but becomes a thorough man4 ,it is by constant and conscientious attention to daily duties that thoroughness and conscientiousness and honorableness are imbedded in our beings4 ,character is ,the music of the soul1 and is developed by exercise4 ,active use of the power entrusted to us is one of the chief means which ,god employs for producing the ,christian graces4 ,hence the religion of a student demands that he be true to his work1 and that he let his ,christianity be shown to his fellow students and to his professors by the integrity and the conscientiousness of his academic life4 ,a man who is not faithful in that which is least will not be faithful in that which is great4 ,i have known men who struggled unsuccessfully for years to pass their examinations who1 when they became ,christians1 found a new motive for work and thus were able to succeed where previously they had failed4 ,a man's ,christianity comes out as much in his work as in his worship4 ,our work is not only to be done thoroughly1 but it is to be done honestly4 ,a man is not only to be honorable in his academic relations1 but he must be honest with himself and in his attitude toward the truth4 ,students are not entitled to dodge difficulties1 they must go down to the foundation principles4 ,perhaps the truths which are dear to us go down deeper even than we think1 and we will get more out of them if we dig down for the nuggets than we will if we only pick up those that are on the surface4 ,other theories may perhaps be found to have false bases2 if so1 we ought to know it4 ,it is well to take our surroundings in every direction to see if there is deep water2 if there are shoals we ought to find out where they are4 ,therefore1 when we come to difficulties1 let us not jump lightly over them1 but let us be honest as seekers after truth4 ,it may not be necessary for people in general to sift the doctrines of ,christianity for themselves1 but a student is a man whose business it is to think1 to exercise the intellect which ,god has given him in finding out the truth4 ,faith is never opposed to reason1 thought it is sometimes supposed by ,bible teachers that it is2 but you will find it is not4 ,faith is opposed to sight1 but not to reason1 thought it is not limited to reason4 ,in employing his intellect in the search for truth a student is drawing nearer to the ,christ who said1 ,i am the way1 the truth and the life4 ,we talk a great deal about ,christ as the way and ,christ as the life1 but there is a side of ,christ especially for the student3 ,i am the truth1 and every student ought to be a truth-lover and a truth-seeker for ,christ's sake4 ,,ii4 ,another element in life1 which of course is first in importance1 is ,,god4 ,the ,angelus is perhaps the most religious picture painted this century4 ,you cannot look at it and see that young man standing in the field with his hat off and the girl opposite him with her hands clasped and her head bowed on her breast1 without feeling a sense of ,god4 ,do we carry about with us the thought of ,god wherever we go8 ,if not1 we have missed the greatest part of life4 ,do we have a conviction of god's abiding presence wherever we are8 ,there is nothing more needed in this generation than a larger and more ,scriptural idea of ,god4 ,a great ,american writer has told us that when he was a boy the conception of ,god which he got from books and sermons was that of a wise and very strict lawyer4 ,i remember well the awful conception of ,god which ,i had when a boy4 ,i was given an illustrated edition of ,watts' hymns1 in which ,god was represented as a great piercing eye in the midst of a great black thunder cloud4 ,the idea which that picture gave to my young imagination was that of ,god as a great detective1 playing the spy upon my actions1 as the hymn says3 ,writing now the story of what little children do4 ,that was a very mistaken and harmful idea which it has taken me years to obliterate4 ,we think of ,god as up there1 or as one who made the world six thousand years ago and then retired4 ,we must learn that ,he is not confined either to time or space4 ,god is not to be thought of as merely back there in time1 or up there in space4 ,if not1 where is ,he8 ,the word is nigh thee1 even in thy mouth4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is within you1 and ,god ,himself is among men4 ,when are we to exchange the terrible1 far-away1 absentee ,god of our childhood for the everywhere present ,god of the ,bible8 ,too many of the old ,christian writers seem to have conceived of ,god as not much more than the greatest man--a kind of divine emperor4 ,he is infinitely more2 ,he is a spirit1 as ,jesus said to the woman at the well1 and in ,him we live and move and have our being4 ,let us think of ,god as ,immanuel--,god with us--an ever-present1 omnipresent1 eternal ,one4 ,long1 long ago1 ,god made matter1 then ,he made the flowers and trees and animals1 then ,he made man4 ,did ,he stop8 ,is ,god dead8 ,if ,he lives and acts what is ,he doing8 ,he is ,making men better4 ,he it is that worketh in you4 ,the buds of our nature are not all out yet2 the sap to make them comes from the ,god who made us1 from the indwelling ,christ4 ,our bodies are the temples of the ,holy ,ghost1 and we must bear this in mind1 because the sense of ,god is kept up1 not by logic1 but by experience4 ,until she was seven years of age the life of ,helen ,keller1 the ,boston girl who was deaf and dumb and blind1 was an absolute blank2 nothing could go into that mind because the ears and eyes were closed to the outer world4 ,then by that great process which has been discovered1 by which the blind see1 and the deaf hear1 and the mute speak1 that girl's soul became opened1 and they began to put in little bits of knowledge1 and bit by bit they began to educate her4 ,they reserved her religious instruction for ,phillips ,brooks4 ,after some years1 when she was twelve years old1 they took her to him and he began to talk to her through the young lady who could communicate with her by the exceedingly delicate process of touch4 ,he began to tell her about ,god and what ,he had done1 and how ,he loved men1 and what ,he is to us4 ,the child listened very intelligently1 and finally said3 ,mr4 ,brooks1 ,i knew all that before1 but ,i didn't know ,his name4 ,how often we have felt something within us impelling us to do something which we would not have conceived of by ourselves1 or enabling us to do something which we could not have done alone4 ,it is ,god which worketh in you4 ,this great simple fact ,explains many of the mysteries of life1 and takes away the fear which we would otherwise have in meeting the difficulties which lie before us4 ,two ,americans who were crossing the ,atlantic met on ,sunday night to sing hymns in the cabin4 ,as they sang the hymn1 ,jesus1 ,lover of my ,soul1 one of the ,americans heard an exceedingly rich and beautiful voice behind him4 ,he looked around1 and although he did not know the face he thought that he recognized the voice4 ,so when the music ceased he turned and asked the man if he had not been in the ,civil war4 ,the man replied that he had been a ,confederate soldier4 ,were you at such a place on such a night8 asked the first4 ,yes1 he said1 and a curious thing happened that night2 this hymn recalled it to my mind4 ,i was on sentry duty on the edge of the wood4 ,it was a dark night and very cold1 and ,i was a little frightened because the enemy was supposed to be very near at hand4 ,i felt very homesick and miserable1 and about midnight1 when everything was very still1 ,i was beginning to feel very weary and thought that ,i would comfort myself by praying and singing a hymn4 ,i remember singing this hymn1 ',all my trust on ,thee is stayed1 ,all my help from ,thee ,i bring1 ,cover my defenceless head ,with the shadow of ,thy wing4' ,after ,i had sung those words a strange peace came down upon me1 and through the long night ,i remember having felt no more fear4 ,now1 said the other man1 listen to my story4 ,i was a ,union soldier1 and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts4 ,i saw you standing up1 although ,i didn't see your face1 and my men had their rifles focused upon you waiting the word to fire1 but when you sang out1 ',cover my defenceless head ,with the shadow of ,thy wing4' ,i said1 ',boys1 put down your rifles1 we will go home4' ,i couldn't kill you after that4 ,god was working in each of them1 in ,his own way carrying out ,his will4 ,god keeps his people and guides them and without ,him life is but a living death4 ,,iii4 ,the third element in life about which ,i wish to speak is ,,love4 ,in this picture we notice the delicate sense of companionship1 brought out by the young man and the young woman4 ,it matters not whether they are brother and sister1 or lover and loved2 there you have the idea of friendship1 the final ingredient in our life1 after the two ,i have named4 ,if the man or the woman had been standing in that field alone it would have been incomplete4 ,love is the divine element in life1 because ,god is love4 ,he that loveth is born of ,god1 therefore1 as some one has said1 let us keep our friendships in repair4 ,let us cultivate the spirit of friendship1 and let the love of ,christ develop it into a great love1 not only for our friends1 but for all humanity4 ,wherever you go and whatever you do1 your work will be a failure unless you have this element in your life4 ,these three things go far toward forming a well-rounded life4 ,some of us may not have these ingredients in their right proportion1 but if you are lacking in one or the other of them1 then pray for it and work for it that your life may be rounded and complete as ,god intended it should be4 ,pax ,vobiscum4 ,i once heard a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon ,rest4 ,it was full of beautiful thoughts2 but when ,i came to ask myself1 ,how does he say ,i can get ,rest8 there was no answer4 ,the sermon was sincerely meant to be practical1 yet it contained no experience that seemed to me to be tangible1 nor any advice that ,i could grasp--any advice1 that is to say1 which could help me to find the thing itself as ,i went about the world4 ,yet this omission of what is1 after all1 the only important problem1 was not the fault of the preacher4 ,the whole popular religion is in the twilight here4 ,and when pressed for really working specifics for the experiences with which it deals1 it falters1 and seems to lose itself in mist4 ,the want of connection between the great words of religion and every-day life has bewildered and discouraged all of us4 ,christianity possesses the noblest words in the language2 its literature overflows with terms expressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can fill the soul of man4 ,rest1 ,joy1 ,peace1 ,faith1 ,love1 ,light--these words occur with such persistency in hymns and prayers that an observer might think they formed the staple of ,christian experience4 ,but on coming to close quarters with the actual life of most of us1 how surely would he be disenchanted4 ,i do not think we ourselves are aware of how much our religious life is ,made up of phrases2 how much of what we call ,christian ,experience is only a dialect of the ,churches1 a mere religious phraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and know4 ,to some of us1 indeed1 the ,christian experiences seem further away than when we took the first steps in the ,christian life4 ,that life has not opened out as we had hoped4 ,we do not regret our religion1 but we are disappointed with it4 ,there are times1 perhaps1 when wandering notes form a diviner music stray into our spirits2 but these experiences come at few and fitful moments4 ,we have no sense of possession in them4 ,when they visit us1 it is as surprise4 ,when they leave us1 it is without explanation4 ,when we wish their return1 we do not know how to secure it4 ,all of which means a religion without solid base1 and a poor and flickering life4 ,it means a great bankruptcy in those experiences which give ,christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to the world1 and a great uncertainty as to any remedy4 ,it is as if we knew everything about health--except the way to get it4 ,i am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that men are not in earnest4 ,this is simply not the fact4 ,all around us ,christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better4 ,the amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered thousands of men and women in whom we should never suspect it2 among the wise and thoughtful1 among the young and gay1 who seldom assuage and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and touching facts of life4 ,it is not more heart that is needed1 but more light2 not more force1 but a wiser direction to be given to very real energies already there4 ,the usual advice when one asks for counsel on these questions is1 ,pray4 ,but this advice is far from adequate4 ,i shall qualify the statement presently2 but let me urge it here1 with what you will perhaps call daring emphasis1 that to pray for these things is not the way to get them4 ,no one will get them without praying2 but that men do not get them by praying is a simple fact4 ,we have all prayed1 and sincerely prayed1 for such experiences as ,i have named2 prayed1 believing that that was the way to get them4 ,and yet have we got them8 ,the test is experience4 ,i dare not limit prayer2 still less the grace of ,god4 ,if you have got them in this way1 it is well4 ,i am speaking to those1 be they few or many1 who have not got them2 to ordinary men in ordinary circumstances4 ,but if we have not got them1 it by no means follows that prayer is useless4 ,the correct conclusion is only that it is useless1 or inadequate rather1 for this particular purpose4 ,to make prayer the sole resort1 the universal panacea for every spiritual ill1 is as radical a mistake as to prescribe only one medicine for every bodily trouble4 ,the physician who does the last is a quack2 the spiritual advisor who dies the first is ,grossly ignorant of his profession4 ,to do nothing but pray is a wrong done to prayer itself1 and can only end in disaster4 ,it is as if one tried to live only with the lungs1 as if one assimilated only air and neglected solid food4 ,the lungs are a first essential2 the air is a first essential2 but the body has many members1 given for different purposes1 secreting different things1 and each has a method of nutrition as special to itself as its own activity4 ,while prayer1 then1 is the characteristic sublimity of the ,christian life1 it is by no means the only one4 ,and those who make it the sole alternative1 and apply it to purposes for which it was never meant1 are really doing the greatest harm to prayer itself4 ,to couple the word inadequate with this might word is not to dethrone prayer1 but to exalt it4 ,what dethrones prayer is unanswered prayer4 ,when men pray for things which do not come that way--pray with sincere belief that prayer1 unaided and alone1 will compass what they ask--then1 not getting what they ask1 they often give up prayer4 ,this is the natural history of much atheism1 not only an atheism of atheists1 but a more terrible atheism of ,christians1 an unconscious atheism1 whose roots have struck far into many souls whose last breath would be spent in denying it4 ,so1 ,i repeat1 it is a mistaken ,christianity which allow men to cherish a blind belief in the omnipotence of prayer4 ,prayer1 certainly1 when the appropriate conditions are fulfilled1 is omnipotent1 but not blind prayer4 ,blind prayer is superstition4 ,prayer1 in its true sense1 contains the sane recognition that while man prays in faith1 ,,god ,,acts ,,by ,,law4 ,what that means in the immediate connection we shall see presently4 ,what1 then1 is the remedy8 ,it is impossible to doubt that there is a remedy1 and it is equally impossible to believe that it is a secret4 ,the idea that some few men1 by happy chance or happier temperament1 have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick of it--is wholly incredible and wrong4 ,religion must be for all1 and the way into its loftiest heights must be by a gateway through which the peoples of the world may pass4 ,i shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path4 ,but as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into the religious sphere1 ,i must ask your forbearance for dwelling for a moment upon the commonest of commonplaces4 ,i4 ,effects ,require ,causes ,nothing that happens in the world happens by chance4 ,god is a ,god of order4 ,everything is arranged upon definite principles1 and never at random4 the world1 even the religious world1 is governed by law4 ,character is governed by law4 ,happiness is governed by law4 ,the ,christian experiences are governed by law4 ,men1 forgetting this1 expect ,rest1 ,joy1 ,peace1 ,faith to drop into their souls from the air like snow or rain4 ,but in point of fact they do not do so2 and if they did1 they would no less have their origin in previous activities and be controlled by natural laws4 ,rain and snow do drop from the air1 but not without a long previous history4 ,they are the mature effects of former causes4 ,equally so are ,rest and ,peace and ,joy4 ,they1 too1 have each a previous history4 ,storms and winds and calms are not accidents1 but brought about by antecedent circumstances4 ,rest and ,peace are but calms in man's inward nature1 and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable4 ,realize it thoroughly2 it is a methodical1 not an accidental world4 ,if a housewife turns out a good cake1 it is the result of a sound receipt1 carefully applied4 ,she cannot mix the assigned ingredients and fire them for the appropriate time without producing the result4 ,it is not she who has made the cake2 it is nature4 ,she brings related things together2 sets causes at work2 these causes bring about the result4 she is not a creator1 but an intermediary4 ,she does not expect random causes to produce specific effects--random ingredients would only produce random cakes4 ,so it is in the making of ,christian experiences4 ,certain lines are followed2 certain effects are the result4 ,these effects cannot but be the result4 ,but the result can never take place without the previous cause4 ,to expect results without antecedents is to expect cakes without ingredients4 ,that impossibility is precisely ,the almost universal expectation4 ,now what ,i mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this simple principle of ,cause and ,effect in the spiritual world4 ,and instead of applying the principle generally to each of the ,christian experiences in turn1 ,i shall examine its application to one in some little detail4 ,the one ,i shall select is ,rest4 ,and ,i think any one who follows the application in this single instance will be able to apply it for himself to the others4 ,take such a sentence as this3 ,african explorers are subject to fevers which cause restlessness and delirium4 ,note the expression1 cause restlessness4 ,,restlessness ,,has ,a ,,cause4 ,clearly1 then1 any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once to deal with the cause4 ,if that were not removed1 a doctor might prescribe a hundred things1 and all might be taken in turn1 without producing the least effect4 ,things are so arranged in the original planning of the world that certain effects must follow certain causes1 and certain causes must be abolished before certain effects can be removed4 ,certain parts of ,africa are inseparably linked with the physical experience called fever2 this fever is in turn infallibly linked with a mental experience called restlessness and delirium4 ,to abolish the mental experience the radical method would be to abolish the physical experience1 and the way of abolishing the physical experience would be to abolish ,africa1 or to cease to go there4 ,now this hold good for all other forms of ,restlessness4 ,every other form and kind of ,restlessness in the world had a definite cause1 and the particular kind of ,restlessness can only be removed by removing the allotted cause4 ,all this is also true of ,rest4 ,restlessness has a cause3 must not ,,rest have a cause8 ,necessarily4 ,if it were a chance world we would not expect this2 but1 being a methodical world1 it cannot be otherwise4 ,rest1 physical rest1 moral rest1 spiritual rest1 every kind of rest has a cause1 as certainly as restlessness4 ,now causes are discriminating4 ,there is one kind of cause for every particular effect and no other1 and if one particular effect is desired1 the corresponding cause must be set in motion4 ,it is no use proposing finely devised schemes1 or going through general pious exercises in the hope that somehow ,rest will come4 ,the ,christian life is not casual1 but causal4 ,all nature is a standing protest against the absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects1 or any effects1 without the employment of appropriate causes4 ,the ,great ,teacher dealt what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite irrelevancy by a single question1 ,do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles8 ,why1 then1 did the ,great ,teacher not educate ,his followers fully8 ,why did ,he not tell us1 for example1 how such a thing as ,rest might be obtained8 ,the answer is that ,,he ,,did4 ,but plainly1 explicitly1 in so many words8 ,yes1 plainly1 explicitly1 in so many words4 ,he assigned ,rest to its cause1 in words with which each of us has been familiar from his earliest childhood4 ,he begins1 you remember--for you at once know the passage ,i refer to--almost as if ,rest could be had without any cause2 ,come unto me1 ,he says1 and ,i will ,,give you ,rest4 ,rest1 apparently1 was a favor to be bestowed2 men had but to come to ,him2 ,he would give it to every applicant4 ,but the next sentence takes that all back4 ,the qualification1 indeed1 is added instantaneously4 ,for what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an impossibility4 ,for how1 in a literal sense1 can ,rest be ,,given8 ,one could no more give away ,rest than he could give away ,laughter4 ,we speak of causing laughter1 which we can do2 but we can not give it away4 ,when we speak of giving pain1 we know perfectly well we can not give pain away4 ,and when we aim at giving pleasure1 all that we can do is to arrange a set of circumstances in such a way as that these shall cause pleasure4 ,of course there is a sense1 and a very wonderful sense1 in which a ,great ,personality breathes upon all who come within its influence an abiding peace and trust4 ,men can be to other men as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land2 much more ,christ2 much more ,christ as ,perfect ,man2 much more still as ,savior of the world4 ,but it is not this of which ,i speak4 ,when ,christ said ,he would give men ,rest1 ,he meant simply that he would put them in the way of it4 ,by no act of conveyance would or could ,he make over ,his own ,rest to them4 ,he could give them ,his receipt for it4 ,that was all4 ,but ,he would not make it for them4 ,for one thing it was not in ,his plan to make it for them2 for another thing1 men were not so planned that it could be made for them2 and for yet another thing1 it was a thousand times better that they should make it for themselves4 ,that this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the second sentence3 ,learn of me1 and ye shall ,,find ,rest4 ,rest1 7that is to say71 is not a thing that can be ,,given1 but a thing to be ,,acquired4 ,it comes not by an act1 but by a process4 ,it is not to be found in a happy hour1 as one finds a treasure2 but slowly1 as one finds knowledge4 ,it could indeed be no more found in a moment than could knowledge4 ,a soil has to be prepared for it4 ,like a fine fruit1 it will grow in one climate1 and not in another2 at one altitude1 and not at another4 ,like all growth it will have an orderly development and mature by slow degrees4 ,the nature of this slow process ,christ clearly defines when ,he says we are to achieve ,rest by ,,learning4 ,learn of me1 ,he says1 and ye shall find rest to your souls4 ,now consider the extraordinary ,originality of this utterance4 how novel the connection between these two words ,learn and ,rest4 ,how few of us have ever associated them--ever thought that ,rest was a thing to be learned2 ever laid ourselves out for it as we would to learn a language2 ever practised it as we would practice the violin8 ,does it not show how entirely new ,christ's teaching still is to the world1 that so old and threadbare an aphorism should still be so little known8 ,the last thing most of us would have thought of would have been to associate ,,rest with ,,work4 ,what must one work at8 ,what is that which if duly learned will find the soul of man in ,rest8 ,christ answers without the least hesitation4 ,he specifies two things--,meekness and ,lowliness4 ,learn of me1 ,he says1 for ,i am ,,meek and ,,lowly in heart4 ,now these two things are not chosen at random4 ,to these accomplishments1 in a special way1 ,rest is attached4 ,learn these1 in short1 and you have already found ,rest4 ,these as they stand direct causes of ,rest2 will produce it at once2 cannot but produce it at once4 ,and if you think for a single moment1 you will see how this is necessarily so1 for causes are never arbitrary1 and the connection between antecedent and consequent her and everywhere lies deep in the nature of things4 ,what is the connection1 then8 ,i answer by a further question4 ,what are the chief causes of unrest8 ,if you know yourself1 you will answer--,pride1 ,selfishness1 ,ambition4 ,as you look back upon the past years of your life1 is it not true that its unhappiness has chiefly come from the succession of personal mortifications and almost trivial disappointments which the intercourse of life has brought you8 ,great trials come at lengthened intervals1 and we rise to breast them2 but it is the petty friction of our every-day life with one another1 the jar of business or of work1 the discord of the domestic circle1 the collapse of our ambition1 the crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit1 which make inward peace impossible4 ,wounded vanity1 then1 disappointed hopes1 unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old1 vulgar1 universal ,sources of man's unrest4 ,now it is obvious why ,christ pointed out as the two chief objects for attainment the exact opposites of these4 ,to meekness and lowliness these things simply do not exist4 ,they cure unrest by making it impossible4 ,these remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms2 they strike at once at removing causes4 ,the ceaseless chagrin of a self-centered life can be removed at once by learning meekness and lowliness of heart4 ,he who learns them is forever proof against it4 ,he lives henceforth a charmed life4 ,christianity is a fine inoculation1 a transfusion of healthy blood into an anaemic or poisoned soul4 ,no fever can attack a perfectly sound body2 no fever of unrest can disturb a soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of ,christ4 ,men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at ,rest4 ,but flying away will not help us4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is ,,within ,,you4 ,we aspire to the top to look for ,rest2 it lies at the bottom4 ,water rests only when it gets to the lowest place4 ,so do men4 ,hence1 ,,be ,,lowly4 ,the man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him4 ,hence1 ,,be ,,meek4 ,he who is without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him4 ,it is self-evident that these things are so4 ,the lowly man and the meek man are really above all other men1 above all other things4 ,they dominate the world because they do not care for it4 ,the miser does not possess gold1 gold possesses him4 ,but the meek possess it4 ,the meek1 said ,christ1 inherit the earth4 ,they do not buy it2 they do not conquer it2 but they inherit it4 ,there are people who go about the world looking out for slights1 and they are necessarily miserable1 for they find them at every turn--especially the imaginary ones4 ,one has the same pity for such men as for the very poor4 ,they are the morally illiterate4 ,they have had no real education1 for they have never learned ,how to live4 ,few men know how to live4 ,we grow up at random carrying into mature life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little children4 ,and it does not occur to us that all this must be changed that much of it must be reversed2 that life is the finest of the ,fine ,arts2 that it has to be learned with life-long patience1 and that the years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly4 ,yet this is what ,christianity is for--to teach men ,the art of life4 ,and its whole curriculum lies in one word--,learn of me4 ,unlike most education1 this is almost purely personal2 it is not to be had from books1 or lectures or creeds or doctrines4 ,it is a study from the life4 ,christ never said much in mere words about the ,christian graces4 ,he lived them1 ,he was them4 ,yet we do not merely copy ,him4 ,we learn ,his art by living with ,him1 like the old apprentices with their masters4 ,now we understand it all8 ,christ's invitation to the weary and heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new principle--upon ,his own principle4 ,watch my way of doing things1 ,he says2 ,follow me4 ,take life as ,i take it4 ,be meek and lowly1 and you will find ,rest4 ,i do not say1 remember1 that the ,christian life to every man1 or to any man1 can be a bed of roses4 ,no educational process can be this4 ,and perhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple learn of ,christ1 they would not enter ,his school with so irresponsible a heart4 ,for there is not only much to learn1 but ,much to unlearn4 ,many men never go to this school at all till their disposition is already half ruined and character has taken on its fatal set4 ,to learn arithmetic is difficult at fifty--much more to learn ,christianity4 ,to learn simply what it is to be meek and lowly1 in the case of one who has had no lessons in that in childhood1 may cost him half of what he values most on earth4 ,do we realize1 for instance1 that the way of teaching humility is generally by ,,humiliation8 ,there is probably no other school for it4 ,when a man enters himself as a pupil in such a school it means a very great thing4 ,there is much ,rest there1 but there is also much ,work4 ,i should be wrong1 even though my theme is the brighter side1 to ignore the cross and minimize the cost4 ,only it gives to the cross a more definite meaning1 and a rarer value1 to connect it thus directly and casually with the growth of the inner life4 ,our platitudes on the benefits of affliction are usually about as vague as our theories of ,christian ,experience4 ,somehow we believe affliction does us good4 ,but it is not a question of ,somehow4 ,the result is definite1 calculable1 necessary4 ,it is under the strictest law of cause and effect4 ,the first effect of losing one's fortune1 for instance1 is humiliation2 and the effect of humiliation1 as we have just seen1 is to make one humble2 and the effect of being humble is to produce ,rest4 ,it is a roundabout way1 apparently1 of producing ,rest2 but ,nature generally works by circular processes2 and it is not certain that there is any other way of becoming humble1 or of finding ,rest4 ,,if a man could make himself humble to order1 it might simplify matters2 but we do not find that this happens4 ,hence we must all go through the mill4 ,hence death1 death to the lower self1 is the nearest gate and the quickest road to life4 ,yet this is only half the truth4 ,christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that was ever lived3 tempest and tumult1 tumult and tempest1 the waves breaking over it all he time till the worn body was laid in the grave4 ,but the inner life was a sea of glass4 ,the great calm was always there4 ,at any moment you might have gone to ,him and found ,rest4 ,even when the blood-hounds were dogging ,him in the streets of ,jerusalem1 ,he turned to ,his disciples and offered them1 as a last legacy1 ,my peace4 ,nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of ,christ's life on earth4 ,misfortune could not reach ,him2 ,he had no fortune4 ,food1 raiment1 money--fountain-heads of half the world's weariness--,he simply did not care for2 they played no part in ,his life2 ,he took no thought for them4 ,it was impossible to affect ,him by lowering ,his reputation4 ,he had already made ,himself of no reputation4 ,he was dumb before insult4 ,when he was reviled1 ,he reviled not again4 ,in fact1 there was ,nothing that the world could do to him that could ruffle the surface of ,his spirit4 ,such living1 as mere living1 is altogether unique4 ,it is only when we see what it was in ,him that we can know what the word ,rest means4 ,it lies not in emotions1 or in the absence of emotions4 ,it is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church4 ,it is not something that the preacher has in his voice4 ,it is not in nature1 or in poetry1 or in music--though in all these there is soothing4 ,it is the mind at leisure from itself4 ,it is the perfect poise of the soul2 the absolute adjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things2 the preparedness against every emergency2 the stability of assured convictions2 the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith2 the repose of a heart set deep in ,god4 ,it is the mood of the man who says1 with ,browning1 ,god's in ,his ,heaven1 all's well with the world4 ,two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest4 ,the first chose for his scene a still lone lake among the far-off mountains4 ,the second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall1 with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam2 at the fork of a branch1 almost wet with the cataract's spray1 a robin sat on its nest4 ,the first was only ,,stagnation2 the last was ,,rest4 ,for in ,rest there are always two elements--tranquility and energy2 silence and turbulence2 creation and destruction2 fearlessness and fearfulness4 ,this it was in ,christ4 ,it is quite plain from all this that whatever else ,he claimed to be or to do1 ,he at least ,knew how to live4 ,all this is the perfection of living1 of living in the mere sense of passing through the world in the best way4 ,hence ,his anxiety to communicate ,his idea of life to others4 ,he came1 ,he said1 to give men life1 true life1 a more abundant life than they were living2 the life1 as the fine phrase in the ,revised ,version has it1 that is life indeed4 ,this is what ,he ,himself possessed1 and it was this which ,he offers to mankind4 ,and hence ,his direct appeal for all to come to ,him who had not made much of life1 who were weary and heavy-laden4 ,these ,he would teach ,his secret4 ,they1 also1 should know the life that is life indeed4 ,,ii4 ,what yokes are for4 ,there is still one doubt to clear up4 ,after the statement1 ,learn of ,me1 ,christ throws in the disconcerting qualification3 ,,take ,,my ,,yoke upon you1 and learn of ,me4 ,why1 if all this be true1 does ,he call it a ,,yoke8 ,why1 while professing to give ,rest1 does ,he with the next breath whisper ,,burden8 ,is the ,christian life1 after all1 what its enemies take it for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life1 some extra punctiliousness about duty1 some painful devotion to observances1 some heavy restriction and trammeling of all that is joyous and free in the world8 ,is life not hard and sorrowful enough without being fettered with yet another yoke8 ,it is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain sentence should ever have passed into currency4 ,did you ever stop to ask what a yoke is really8 ,is it to be a burden to the animal which wears it8 ,it is just the opposite4 ,it is to make its burden light4 ,attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke1 the plough would be intolerable4 ,worked by means of a yoke1 it is light4 ,a yoke is not an instrument of torture2 it is ,an instrument of mercy4 ,it is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard2 it is a gentle device to make hard labor light4 ,it is not meant to give pain1 but to save pain4 ,and yet men speak of the yoke of ,christ as if it were slavery1 and look upon those who wear it as objects of compassion4 ,for generations we have had homilies on ,the ,yoke of ,christ--some delighting in portraying its narrow exactions2 some seeking in those exactions the marks of its divinity2 others apologizing for it1 and toning it down2 still others assuring us that1 although it be very bad1 it is not to be compared with the positive blessings of ,christianity4 ,how many1 especially among the young1 has this one mistaken phrase driven forever away from the kingdom of ,god8 ,instead of making ,christ attractive1 it makes ,him out a taskmaster1 narrowing life by petty restrictions1 calling for self-denial where none is necessary1 making misery a virtue under the plea that it is the yoke of ,christ1 and happiness criminal because it now and then evades it4 ,according to this conception1 ,christians are at best the victims of a depressing fate2 their life is a penance2 and their hope for the next world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this4 ,the mistake has arisen from taking the word yoke here in the same sense as in the expression under the yoke1 or wear he yoke in his youth4 ,but in ,christ's illustration it is not the jugum of the ,roman soldier1 but the simple harness or ox-collar of the ,eastern peasant4 ,it is the literal wooden yoke which ,he1 with ,his own hands in the carpenter shop1 had probably often made4 ,he knew the difference between a smooth yoke and a rough one1 a bad fit and a good fit2 the difference also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it4 ,the rough yoke galled1 and the burden was heavy2 the smooth yoke caused no pain1 and the load was lightly drawn4 ,the badly fitted harness was a misery2 the well-fitted collar was easy4 ,and what was the burden8 ,it was not some special burden laid upon the ,christian1 some unique infliction that they alone must bear4 ,it was what all men bear4 ,it was simply life1 human life itself1 the general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle to the grave4 ,christ saw that men took life painfully4 ,to some it was a weariness1 to others a failure1 to many a tragedy1 to all a struggle and a pain4 ,how to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's problem4 ,it is still the whole world's problem4 ,and here is ,christ's solution3 ,carry it as ,i do4 ,take life as ,i take it4 ,look at it from ,my point of view4 ,interpret it upon ,my principles4 ,take ,my yoke and learn of me1 and you will find it easy4 ,for my yoke is easy1 works easily1 sits right upon the shoulders1 and ,,therefore ,my burden is light4 ,there is no suggestion here that religion will absolve any man from bearing burdens4 ,that would be to absolve him from living1 since it is life itself that is the burden4 ,what ,christianity does propose is to make it tolerable4 ,christ's yoke is simply ,his secret for the alleviation of human life1 ,his prescription for the best and happiest method of living4 ,men harness themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural ways4 ,the harness they put on is antiquated4 ,a rough1 ill-fitted collar at best1 they make its strain and friction past enduring1 by placing it where the neck is most sensitive2 and by mere continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is quick and sore4 ,this is the origin1 among other things1 of a disease called touchiness--a disease which1 in spite of its innocent name1 is one of the gravest sources of restlessness in the world4 ,touchiness1 when it becomes chronic1 is a morbid condition of the inward disposition4 ,it is self-love inflamed to the acute point2 conceit1 ,,with ,a ,,hair-,,trigger4 ,the cure is to shift the yoke to some other place2 to let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused part of our nature2 to become meek and lowly in heart while the old sensitiveness is becoming numb from want of use4 ,it is the beautiful work of ,christianity everywhere to adjust the burden of life to those who bear it1 and them to it4 ,it has a perfectly miraculous gift of healing4 ,without doing any violence to human nature it sets it right with life1 harmonizing it with all surrounding things1 and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue and dust of the world to a new grace of living4 ,in the mere matter of altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of things1 its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its own4 ,the weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth4 ,suppose the attraction of the earth were removed8 ,a ton on some other planet1 where the attraction of gravity is less1 does not weigh half a ton4 ,now ,christianity removes the attraction of the earth2 and this is one way in which it diminishes man's burden4 ,it makes them citizens of another world4 ,what was a ton yesterday is not half a ton today4 ,so without changing one's circumstances1 merely by offering a wider horizon and a different standard1 it alters the whole aspect of the world4 ,christianity as ,christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever spoken4 but let us be quite sure when we speak of ,christianity that we mean ,christ's ,christianity4 ,other versions are either caricatures1 or exaggerations1 or misunderstandings1 or shortsighted and surface readings4 ,for the most part their attainment is hopeless and the results wretched4 ,but ,i care not who the person is1 or through what vale of tears he has passed1 or is about to pass1 there is a new life for him along this path4 ,,iii4 ,how fruits grow4 ,were ,rest my subject1 there are other things ,i should wish to say about it1 and other kinds of ,rest of which ,i should like to speak4 ,but that is not my subject4 ,my theme is that the ,christian experiences are not the work of magic1 but come under the law of ,cause and ,effect4 ,i have chosen ,rest only as a single illustration of the working of that principle4 ,if there were time ,i might next run over all the ,christian experiences in turn1 and show the same wide law applies to each2 but ,i think it may serve the better purpose if ,i leave this further exercise to yourselves4 ,i know no ,bible study that you will find more full of fruit1 of which will take you nearer to the ways of ,god1 or make the ,christian life itself more solid or more sure4 ,i shall add only a single other illustration of what ,i mean1 before ,i close4 ,where does ,joy come from8 ,i knew a ,sunday scholar whose conception of ,joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in ,heaven1 and that when people prayed for it1 pieces were somehow let down and fitted into their souls4 ,i am not sure that views as gross and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser4 ,in reality1 ,joy is as much a matter of ,cause and ,effect as pain4 ,no one can get ,joy by merely asking for it4 ,it is one of the ripest fruits of the ,christian life1 and1 like all fruits1 must be grown4 ,there is a very clever trick in ,india called the mango trick4 ,a seed is put in the ground and covered up1 and after diverse incantations a full-blown mango-bush appears within five minutes4 ,i never met any one who knew how the thing was done1 but ,i never met any one who believed it to be anything else than a conjuring trick4 ,the world is pretty unanimous now in its belief in the orderliness of ,nature4 ,men may not know how fruits grow1 but they do know that they cannot grow in an hour4 ,some lives have not even a stalk on which fruits could hang1 even if they did grow in an hour4 ,some have never planted one seed of ,joy in all their lives2 and others who may have planted a germ or two have lived so little in sunshine that they never could come to maturity4 ,whence1 then1 is joy8 ,christ put ,his teaching upon this subject into one of the most exquisite of ,his parables4 ,i should in any instance have appealed to ,his teaching here1 as in the case of ,rest1 for ,i do not wish you to think ,i am speaking words of my own4 ,but it so happens that ,he has dealt with it in words of unusual fullness4 ,i need not recall the whole illustration4 ,it is the parable of the ,vine4 ,did you ever think why ,christ spoke that parable8 ,he did not merely throw it into space as a find illustration of general truths4 ,it was not simply a statement of the mystical union1 and the doctrine of an indwelling ,christ4 ,it was that2 but it was more4 ,after ,he had said it1 ,he did what was not an unusual thing when ,he was teaching ,his greatest lessons--,he turned to the disciples and said ,he would tell them why ,he had spoken it4 ,it was to tell them ,how to get joy4 ,these things ,i have spoken unto you1 ,he said1 that ,my ,joy might remain in you1 and that your ,joy might be full4 ,it was a purposed and deliberate communication of ,his ,secret of ,happiness4 ,go back over these verses1 then1 and you will find the ,causes of this ,effect1 the spring1 and the only spring1 out of which true ,happiness comes4 ,i am not going to analyze them in detail4 ,i ask you to enter into the words for yourselves4 ,remember1 in the first place1 that the ,vine was the ,eastern symbol of ,joy4 ,it was its fruit that made glad the heart of man4 ,yet1 however innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of the grape was the common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness was only a gross and passing thing4 ,this was not true happiness1 and the vine of the ,palestine vineyards was not the true vine4 ,,christ was the ,,true ,vine4 ,here1 then1 is the ultimate source of ,joy4 ,through whatever media it reaches us1 all true ,joy and ,gladness find their source in ,christ4 ,by this1 of course1 is not meant that the actual ,joy experienced is transferred from ,christ's nature1 or is something passed on from ,him to us4 ,what is passed on is ,his method of getting it4 ,there is1 indeed1 a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's sorrow4 ,but that is another matter4 ,christ is the source of ,joy to men in the sense in which ,he is the source of ,rest4 ,his people share ,his life1 and therefore share its consequences1 and one of these is ,joy4 ,his method of living is one that in the nature of things produces ,joy4 ,when ,he spoke of ,his ,joy remaining with us ,he meant in part that the causes which produced it should continue to act4 ,his followers1 7that is to say71 by ,,repeating ,his life would experience its accompaniments4 ,his ,joy1 ,his kind of ,joy1 would remain with them4 ,the medium through which this ,joy comes is next explained3 ,he that abideth in ,me1 the same bringeth forth much fruit4 ,fruit first1 ,joy next2 the one the cause or medium of the other4 ,fruit-bearing is the necessary antecedent2 ,joy both the necessary consequent and the necessary accompaniment4 ,it lay partly in the bearing fruit1 partly in the fellowship which made that possible4 ,partly1 that is to say1 ,joy lay in mere constant living in ,christ's presence1 with all that that implied of peace1 of shelter1 and of love2 partly in the influence of that ,life upon mind and character and will2 and partly in the inspiration to live and work for others1 with all that that brought of self-riddance and joy in others' gain4 ,all these1 in different ways and at different times1 are ,sources of pure happiness4 ,even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant and infallible specific4 ,there is no mystery about ,happiness whatever4 ,put in the right ingredients and it must come out4 ,he that abideth in ,him will bring forth much fruit2 and bringing forth much fruit is ,happiness4 ,the infallible receipt for ,happiness1 then1 is to do good2 and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in ,christ4 ,the surest proof that all this is a plain matter of ,cause and ,effect is that men may try every other conceivable way of finding happiness1 and they will fail4 ,only the right cause in each case can produce the right effect4 ,then the ,christian experiences are our own making8 ,in the same sense in which grapes are our own making and no more4 ,all fruits ,,grow--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul2 whether they are the fruits of the wild grape or of the ,true ,vine4 ,no man can ,,make things grow4 ,he can ,,get ,,them ,,to ,,grow by arranging all the circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions4 ,but the growing is done by ,god4 ,causes and effects are eternal arrangements1 set in the constitution of the world2 fixed beyond man's ordering4 ,what man can do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of sequences4 ,thus he can get things to grow4 ,but the power is the ,spirit of ,god4 ,what more need ,i add but this--test the method by experiment4 ,do not imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get them4 ,as well try to feed upon a cookery book4 ,but ,i think ,i can promise that if you try in this simple and natural way1 you will not fail4 ,spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in fulfilling the conditions of their growth4 ,the fruits will come1 must come4 ,we have hitherto paid immense attention to ,,effects1 to the mere experiences themselves2 we have described them1 extolled them1 advised them1 prayed for them--done everything but find out what ,,caused them4 ,henceforth ,let us deal with causes4 ,to be1 says ,lotze1 is to be in relations4 ,about every other method of living the ,christian life there is an uncertainty4 ,about every other method of acquiring the ,christian experiences there is a perhaps4 ,but in so far as this method is the way of nature1 it cannot fail4 ,its guarantee is the laws of the universe--and these are the ,hands of the ,living ,god4 ,the true vine4 ,i am the true vine1 and my ,father is the husbandman4 ,every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away2 and every branch that beareth fruit1 he purgeth it1 that it may bring forth more fruit4 ,now ye are clean through the word which ,i have spoken unto you4 ,abide in me1 and ,i in you4 ,as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself1 except it abide in the vine2 no more can ye1 except ye abide in me4 ,i am the vine1 ye are the branches3 ,he that abideth in me1 and ,i in him1 the same bringeth forth much fruit3 for without me ye can do nothing4 ,if a man abide not in me1 he is cast forth as a branch1 and is withered2 and men gather them1 and cast them into the fire1 and they are burned4 ,if ye abide in me1 and my word abide in you1 ye shall ask what ye will1 and it shall be done unto you4 ,herein is my ,father glorified1 that ye bear much fruit2 so ye shall be my disciples4 ,as the ,father hath loved me1 so have ,i loved you3 continue ye in my love4 ,if ye keep my commandments1 ye shall abide in my love2 even as ,i have kept my ,father's commandments1 and abide in his love4 ,these things have ,i spoken unto you1 that my joy might remain in you1 and that your joy might be full4 ,,first6 ,an ,address to boys4 ,i have three heads to give you4 ,the first is ,geography1 the second is ,arithmetic1 and the third is ,grammar4 ,i4 ,first4 ,geography tells us where to find places4 ,where is the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,it is said that when a ,prussian officer was killed in the ,franco-,prussian war1 a map of ,france was very often found in his pocket4 ,when we wish to occupy a country1 we ought to know its geography4 ,now1 ,,where is the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,a boy over there says1 ,it is in heaven4 ,no2 it is not in heaven4 ,another boy says1 ,it is in the ,bible4 ,no2 it is not in the ,bible4 ,another boy says1 ,it must be in the ,church1 ,no2 it is not in the ,church4 ,heaven is only the capital of the ,kingdom of ,god2 the ,bible is the guide-book to it2 the ,church is the weekly parade of those who belong to it4 ,if you turn to the seventeenth chapter of ,luke you will find out where the ,kingdom of ,god really is3 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is within you--within ,,you4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is ,,inside ,,people4 ,i remember once taking a walk by the river near where the ,falls of ,niagara are1 and ,i noticed a remarkable figure walking along the river bank4 ,i had been some time in ,america4 ,i had seen black men1 and red men1 and yellow men1 and white men2 black men1 the ,negroes2 red men1 the ,indians2 yellow men1 the ,chinese2 white men1 the ,americans4 ,but this man looked quite different in his dress from anything ,i had ever seen4 ,when he came a little closer1 ,i saw he was wearing a kilt2 when he came a little nearer still1 ,i saw that he was dressed exactly like a ,highland soldier4 ,when he came quiet near1 ,i said to him3 ,what are you doing here8 ,why should ,i not be here8 he replied2 don't you know this is ,british soil8 ,when you cross the river you come into ,canada4 ,this soldier was thousands of miles from ,england1 and yet he was in the ,kingdom of ,england4 ,wherever there is an ,english heart beating loyal to the ,queen of ,britain1 there is ,england4 ,wherever there is a boy whose heart is loyal to the ,kingdom of ,god1 the ,kingdom of ,god is within him4 ,what is the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,every ,kingdom has its exports1 it products4 ,go down the river here and you will find ships coming in with cotton2 you know they come from ,america4 ,you will find ships with tea2 you know they are from ,china4 ,ships with wool2 you know they come from ,australia4 ,ships with sugar2 you know they come from ,java4 ,what comes from the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,again1 we must refer to our ,guide-book4 ,turn to ,romans1 and we shall find what the ,kingdom of ,god is4 ,i will read it3 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is righteousness1 peace1 joy--three things4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is righteousness1 peace1 joy4 ,righteousness1 of course is just doing what is right4 ,any boy who does what is ,,right has the ,kingdom of ,god within him4 ,any boy who1 instead of being quarrelsome1 lives at peace with the other boys1 has the ,kingdom of ,god within him4 ,any boy whose heart is filled with joy because he does what is right1 has the ,kingdom of ,god within him4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is not going to religious meetings1 and hearing strange religious experiences2 the ,kingdom of ,god is doing what is right--living at peace with all men1 being filled with joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,boys1 if you are going to be ,christians1 be ,christians as boys1 and not as your grandmothers4 ,a grandmother has to be a ,christian as a grandmother1 and that is the right and the beautiful thing for her2 but if you cannot read your ,bible by the hours as your grandmother can1 or delight in meetings as she can1 don't think you are necessarily a bad boy4 ,when you are your grandmother's age you will have your grandmother's kind of religion4 ,meantime1 be a ,christian as a boy4 ,live a boy's life4 ,do the straight thing2 seek the kingdom of righteousness and honor and truth4 ,keep the peace with the boys about you1 and be filled with the joy of being a loyal1 and simple1 and natural1 and boy-like servant of ,christ4 ,you can very easily tell a house1 or a workshop1 or an office where the ,kingdom of ,god is ,,not4 ,the first thing you see in that pace is that the straight thing is not always done4 ,customers do not get fair play4 ,you are in danger of learning to cheat and to lie4 ,better a thousand times to starve than to stay in a place where you cannot do what is right4 ,or1 when you go into your workshop1 you find everybody sulky1 touchy1 and ill-tempered1 everybody at daggers-drawn with everybody else1 some of the men not on speaking terms with some of the others1 and the whole ,,feel of the place miserable and unhappy4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is not thee1 for ,,it is peace4 ,it is the ,kingdom of the ,devil that is anger1 and wrath and malice4 ,if you want to get the ,kingdom of ,god into your workshop1 or into your home1 let the quarreling be stopped4 ,live in peace and harmony and brotherliness with everyone4 ,for the ,kingdom of ,god is a kingdom of brothers4 ,it is a great ,society1 founded by ,jesus ,christ1 of all the people who try to live like ,him1 and to make the world better and sweeter and happier4 ,wherever boy is trying to do that1 in the house or on the street1 in the workshop or on the baseball field1 there is the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,and every boy1 however small or obscure or poor1 who is seeking that1 is a member of it4 ,you see now1 ,i hope1 what the ,kingdom is4 ,,ii4 ,i pass1 therefore1 to the second head2 ,what was it8 ,arithmetic4 ,are there any arithmetic words in this text8 ,added4 ,what other arithmetic words8 ,first4 ,now1 don't you think you could not have anything better to seek first than the things ,i have named to do what is right1 to live at peace1 and be always making those about you happy8 ,you see at once why ,christ tells us to seek these things first--because they are ,the best worth seeking4 ,do you know anything better than these three things1 anything happier1 purer1 nobler8 ,if you do1 seek them first4 ,but if you do not1 seek first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,i do not tell you to be religious4 ,you know that4 ,i do not tell you to seek the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,i tell you to seek the ,kingdom of ,god ,,first4 ,,first4 ,not many people do that4 ,they put a little religion into their life--once a week1 perhaps4 ,they might just as well let it alone4 ,it is not worth seeking the ,kingdom of ,god unless we seek it ,,first4 ,suppose you take the helm out of a ship and hang it over the bow1 and send that ship to sea1 will it ever reach the other side8 ,certainly not4 ,it will drift about anyhow4 ,keep religion in its place1 and it will take you straight through life and straight to your ,father in heaven when life is over4 ,but if you do not put it in its place1 you may just as well have nothing to do with it4 ,religion out of its place in a human life is the most miserable thing in the world4 ,there is nothing that requires so much to be kept in its place as religion1 and its place is what8 second8 third8 ,first4 ,boys1 ,,first the ,kingdom of ,god2 make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that the very first thing4 ,there was a boy in ,glasgow apprenticed to a gentleman who made telegraphs4 7,the gentleman told me this himself47 ,one day this boy was up on the top of a four-story house with a number of men fixing up a telegraph wire4 ,the work was all but done4 ,it was getting late1 and the men said they were going away home1 and the boy was to nip off the ends of the wire himself4 ,before going down they told him to be sure to go back to the workshop1 when he was finished1 with his master's tools4 ,do not leave any of them lying about1 whatever you do1 said the foreman4 ,the boy climbed up the pole and began to nip off the ends of the wire4 ,it was a very cold winter night1 and the dusk was gathering4 ,he lost his hold and fell upon the slates1 slid down1 and then over and over to the ground below4 ,a clothes-rope stretched across the green on which he was just about to fall1 caught him on the chest and broke his fall2 but the shock was terrible1 and he lay unconscious among some clothes upon the green4 ,an old woman came out2 seeing her rope broken and the clothes all soiled1 thought the boy was drunk1 shook him1 scolded him1 and went for the policeman4 ,the boy with the shaking came back to consciousness1 rubbed his eyes1 and got back on his feet4 ,what do you think he did8 ,he staggered1 half-blind1 up the stairs4 ,he climbed the ladder4 ,he got on to the roof of the house4 ,he gathered up his tools1 put them into his basket1 took them down1 and when he got to the ground again fainted dead away4 ,just then the policeman came1 saw there was something seriously wrong1 and carried him away to the hospital1 where he lay for some time4 ,i am glad to say he got better4 ,what was his first thought at that terrible moment8 ,his duty4 ,he was not thinking of himself2 he was thinking about his master4 ,first1 the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,but there is another arithmetic word4 ,what is it8 ,added4 ,you know the difference between ,,addition and ,,subtraction4 ,now1 that is ,a very important difference in religion1 because--and it is a very strange thing--very few people know the difference when they begin to talk about religion4 ,they often tell boys that if they seek the ,kingdom of ,god1 everything else is going to be ,,subtracted from them4 ,they tell them that they are going to become gloomy1 miserable1 and will lose everything that makes a boy's life worth living--that they will have to stop baseball and story-books1 and become little old men1 and spend all their time in going to meetings and in singing hymns4 ,now1 that is not true4 ,christ never said anything like that4 ,christ said we are to ,seek first the ,kingdom of ,god1 and ,everything else worth having is to be ,,added unto us4 ,if there is anything ,i would like you to remember1 it is these two arithmetic words--first and added4 ,i do not mean by added that if you become religious you are all going to become ,,rich4 ,here is a boy1 who1 in sweeping out the shop tomorrow1 finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes4 ,well1 nobody has missed it4 ,he puts it in his pocket1 and it begins to burn a hole there4 by breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's pocket4 ,and by-and-by he goes to his master4 ,he says 7to ,,himself1 and not to his master71 ,i was at the ,boys' ,brigade yesterday and ,i was told to seek ,,first that which was right4 ,then he says to his master3 ,please1 sir1 here is a quarter that ,i found upon the floor4 ,the master puts it in the till4 ,what has the boy got in his pocket8 ,nothing2 ,,but ,,he ,,has ,,got ,,the ,,kingdom ,,of ,,god ,,in ,,his ,,heart4 ,he has laid up treasure in heaven1 which is of infinitely more worth than the quarter4 ,now1 that boy does not find a dollar on his way home4 ,i have known that to happen1 but that is not what is meant by adding4 ,it does not mean that ,god is going to pay him in his own coin1 for ,he pays in better coin4 ,yet ,i remember once hearing of a boy who was paid in both ways4 ,he was very1 very poor4 ,he lived in a foreign country1 and his mother said to him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business1 and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and the coat forty golden dinars1 which she had saved up for many years to start him in life4 ,she told him to take care of robbers as he went across the desert2 and as he was going out of the door she said3 ,my boy1 ,i have only two words for you--',fear ,god1 and never tell a lie4' ,the boy started off1 and towards evening he saw glittering in the distance the minarets of the great city4 ,but between the city and himself he saw a cloud of dust4 ,it came nearer4 ,presently he saw that it was a band of robbers4 ,one of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him1 and said3 ,boy1 what have you got8 ,the boy looked him in the face and said3 ,i have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat4 ,the robber laughed and wheeled around his horse and went away back4 ,he would not believe the boy4 ,presently another robber came and he said3 ,boy1 what have you got8 ,forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat4 ,the robber said3 ,the boy is a fool1 and wheeled his horse and rode away back4 ,by and by the robber captain came and he said3 ,boy1 what have you got8 ,i have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat4 ,the robber dismounted1 and put his hand over the boy's breast1 felt something round1 counted one1 two1 three1 four1 five1 till he counted out the forty golden coins4 ,he looked the boy in the face and said3 ,why did you tell me that8 ,the boy said3 ,because of ,god and my mother4 ,the robber leaned on his spear and thought and said3 ,wait a moment4 ,he mounted his horse1 rode back to the rest of the robbers1 and came back in about five minutes with his dress changed4 ,this time he looked not like a robber1 but like a merchant4 ,he took the boy up on his horse and said3 ,my boy1 ,i have long wanted to do something for my ,god and for my mother1 and ,i have this moment renounced my robber's life4 ,i am also a merchant4 ,i have a large business house in the city4 ,i want you to come and live with me1 to teach me about your ,god2 and you will be rich1 and your mother some day will come and live with us4 ,and it all happened4 ,by seeing first the ,kingdom of ,god1 all these things were added unto him4 ,boys1 banish forever from your minds the idea that religion is ,,subtraction4 ,it does not tell us to give things up1 but rather gives us something so much better that they give themselves up4 ,when you see a boy on the street whipping a top1 you know1 perhaps1 that you could not make that boy happier than by giving him a top1 a whip1 and half an hour to whip it4 ,but next birthday1 when he looks back he says1 ,what a goose ,i was last year to be delighted with a top4 ,what ,i want now is a baseball bat4 ,then when he becomes an old man1 he does not care in the least for a baseball bat2 he wants rest1 and a snug fireside and a newspaper every day4 ,he wonders how he could ever have taken up his thoughts with baseball bats and whipping-tops4 ,now1 when a boy becomes a ,christian1 he grows out of the evil things one by one--that is to say1 if they are really evil--which he used to set his heart upon2 7of course ,i do not mean baseball bats1 for they are not evils72 and so instead of telling people to give up things1 we are safer to tell them to seek first the ,kingdom of ,god1 and then they will get new things and better things1 and ,the old things will drop off of themselves4 ,this is what is meant by the new heart4 ,it means that ,god puts into us new thoughts and new wishes1 and we become quite different4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 and very shortly4 ,what was the third head8 ,grammar4 ,right4 ,now1 ,i require a clever boy to answer the next question4 ,what is the verb8 ,seek4 ,very good3 seek4 ,what mood is it in8 ,imperative mood4 ,what does that mean8 ,a command4 ,what is the soldier's first lesson8 ,obedience4 ,have you obeyed this command8 ,remember the imperative mood of these words1 ,,seek first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,this is the command of your ,king4 ,it ,,must be done4 ,i have been trying to show you what a splendid thing it is2 what a reasonable thing it is2 what a happy thing it is2 but beyond all these reasons1 it is a thing that ,,must be done1 because we are ,,commanded to do it by our ,captain4 ,now1 there is ,his command to seek ,,first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,have you done it8 ,well1 ,i know some boys will say1 we are going to have a good time1 enjoy life1 and then we are going to seek--,,last--the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,now1 that is mean2 it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take all the good gifts that ,god has given him1 and then give him nothing back in return but ,his wasted life4 ,god wants boys' ,,lives1 not only their souls4 ,it is for active1 service that soldiers are drilled1 and trained1 and fed1 and armed4 ,that is why you and ,i are in the world at all--not to prepare to go out of it some day1 but to serve ,god actively in it ,,now4 ,it is monstrous1 and shameful1 and cowardly to talk of seeking the ,kingdom ,,last4 ,it is shirking duty1 abandoning one's rightful post1 playing into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank4 ,every hour a ,kingdom is coming in your heart1 in your home1 in the world near you1 be it a ,kingdom of ,darkness or a ,kingdom of ,light4 ,you are placed where you are1 in a particular business1 in a particular street1 to help on there the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,you cannot do that when you are old and ready to die4 ,by that time your companions will have fought their fight1 and lost or won4 ,if they lose1 will you not be sorry that you did not help them8 ,will you not regret that only at the last you helped the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,perhaps you will not be able to do it then4 ,and then your life has been lost indeed4 ,very few people have the opportunity to seek the ,kingdom of ,god at the end4 ,christ1 knowing all that1 knowing that religion was a thing for our life1 not merely for our death-bed1 has laid this command upon us now3 ,seek ,,first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,i am going to leave you with this text itself4 ,every boy in the world should obey it4 ,boys1 before you go to work to-morrow1 before you go to sleep to-night1 resolve that1 ,god helping you1 you are going to seek ,,first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,perhaps some boys here are deserters2 they began once before to serve ,christ1 and they deserted4 ,come back again1 come back again today6 ,others have never enlisted at all4 ,will you not do it now8 ,you are old enough to decide4 ,the grandest moment of a boy's life is that moment when he decides to ,,seek ,,first ,,the ,,kingdom ,,of ,,god4 ,the ,changed ,life3 ,the ,greatest ,need of the ,world4 ,god is all for quality2 man is for quantity4 ,the immediate need of the world at this moment is not more of us1 but1 if ,i may use the expression1 a better brand of us4 ,to secure ten men of an improved type would be better than if we had ten thousand more of the average ,christians distributed all over the world4 ,there is such a thing in the evangelistic sense as winning the whole world and losing our own soul4 ,and the first consideration of our own life--our own spiritual relations to ,god--our own likeness to ,christ4 ,and ,i am anxious1 briefly1 to look at the right and the wrong way of becoming like ,christ--of becoming better men3 the right and the wrong way of sanctification4 ,let me begin by naming1 and in part discarding some processes in vogue already for producing better lives4 ,these processes are far from wrong2 in their place they may even be essential4 ,one ventures to disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect possible work4 #a4 ,the first imperfect method is to rely on ,resolution4 ,in will power1 in mere spasms of earnestness1 there is no salvation4 ,struggle1 effort1 even agony1 have their place in ,christianity1 as we shall see2 but this is not where they come in4 ,in mid-,atlantic the ,etruria1 in which ,i was sailing1 suddenly stopped4 ,something had gone wrong with the engines4 ,there were five hundred able-bodied men on board the ship4 ,do you think that if we had gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it on8 ,when one attempts to sanctify himself by effort1 he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast4 ,he is like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head4 ,christ held up this method almost to ridicule when ,he said1 ,which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature8 ,put down that method forever as being futile4 ,the one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal4 #b4 ,another experimenter says3 ,but that is not my method4 ,i have seen the folly of a mere wild struggle in the dark4 ,i work on a principle4 ,my plan is not to waste power on random effort1 but to concentrate on a single sin4 ,by taking ,one at a time and crucifying it steadily1 ,i hope in the end to extirpate all4 ,to this1 unfortunately1 there are four objections3 ,for one thing1 life is too short2 the name of sin is legion4 ,for another thing1 to deal with individual sins is to leave the rest of the nature for the time untouched4 ,in the third place1 a single combat with a special sin does not affect the root and spring of the disease4 ,if you dam up a stream at one place1 it will simply overflow higher up4 ,if only one of the channels of sin be obstructed1 experience points to an almost certain overflow through some other part of the nature4 ,partial conversion is almost always accompanied by such moral leakage1 for the pent-up energies accumulate to the bursting point1 and the last state of that soul may be worse than the first4 ,in the last place1 religion does not consist in negatives1 in stopping this sin and stopping that4 ,the perfect character can never be produced with a pruning knife4 #c4 ,but a third protests3 ,so be it4 ,i make no attempt to stop sins one by one4 ,my method is just the opposite4 ,i copy the virtues one by one4 ,the difficulty about the copying method is that it is apt to be mechanical4 ,one can always tell an engraving from a picture1 an artificial flower from a real flower4 ,to copy virtues one by one has somewhat the same effect as eradicating the vices one by one2 the temporary result is an overbalanced and incongruous character4 ,some one defines a ,,prig as a creature that is over-fed for its size4 ,one sometimes finds ,christians of this species--over-fed on one side of their nature1 but dismally thin and starved looking on the other4 ,the result1 for instance1 of copying ,humility1 and adding it on to an otherwise worldly life1 is simply grotesque4 ,a rabid temperance advocate1 for the same reason1 is often the poorest of creatures1 flourishing on a single virtue1 and quite oblivious that his ,temperance is making a worse man of him and not a better4 ,these are examples of fine virtues spoiled by association with mean companions4 ,character is a unity1 and all the virtues must advance together to make the perfect man4 ,this method of sanctification1 nevertheless1 is in the true direction4 ,it is only in the details of execution that it fails4 #d4 ,a fourth method ,i need scarcely mention1 for it is a variation on those already named4 ,it is ,the very young man's method2 and the pure earnestness of it makes it almost desecration to touch it4 ,it is to keep a private note-book with columns for the days of the week1 and a list of virtues1 with spaces against each for marks4 this1 with many stern rules for preface1 is stored away in a secret place1 and from time to time1 at nightfall1 the soul is arraigned before it as before a private judgment bar4 ,this living by code was ,franklin's method2 and ,i suppose thousands more could tell how they had hung up in their bedrooms1 or hid in locked-fast drawers1 the rules which one solemn day they drew up to shape their lives4 ,this method is not erroneous1 only somehow its success is poor4 ,you bear me witness that it fails4 ,and it fails generally for very matter-of-fact reasons--most likely because one day we forget the rules4 ,all these methods that have been named--the self-sufficient method1 the self-crucifixion method1 the mimetic method1 and the diary method--are perfectly human1 perfectly natural1 perfectly ignorant1 and as they stand perfectly inadequate4 ,it is not argued1 ,i repeat1 that they must be abandoned4 ,their harm is rather that they distract attention from the true working method1 and secure a fair result at the expense of the perfect one4 ,what that perfect method is we shall now go on to ask4 ,i4 ,the formula of sanctification4 ,a formula1 a receipt for ,sanctification--can one seriously speak of this mighty change as if the process were as definite as for the production of so many volts of electricity8 ,it is impossible to doubt it4 ,shall a mechanical experiment succeed infallibly1 and the one vital experiment of humanity remain a chance8 ,is corn to grow by method1 and character by caprice8 ,if we cannot calculate to a certainty that the forces of religion will do their work1 then is religion vain4 ,and if we cannot express the law of these forces in simple words1 then is ,christianity not the world's religion1 but the world's conundrum4 ,where1 then1 shall one look for such a formula8 ,where one would look for any formula--among the text-books4 ,and if we turn to the text-books of ,christianity we shall find a formula for this problem as clear and precise as any in the mechanical sciences4 ,if this simple rule1 moreover1 be but followed fearlessly1 it will yield the result of a perfect character as surely as any result that is guaranteed by the laws of nature4 ,the finest expression of this rule in ,scripture1 or indeed in any literature1 is probably one drawn up and condensed into a single verse by ,paul4 ,you will find it in a letter--the second to the ,corinthians--written by him to some ,christian people who1 in a city which was a byword for depravity and licentiousness1 were seeking the higher life4 ,to see the point of the words we must take them from the immensely improved rendering of the ,revised translation1 for the older ,version in this case greatly obscures the sense4 ,they are these3 ,we all1 with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the ,lord1 are transformed into the same image from glory to glory1 even as from the ,lord1 the ,spirit4 ,now observe at the outset the entire contraction of all our previous efforts1 in the simple passive3 ,,we ,,are ,,transformed4 ,we ,,are ,,changed1 as the ,old ,version has it--we do not change ourselves4 ,no man can change himself4 ,throughout the ,new ,testament you will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are described the verbs are in the passive4 ,presently it will be pointed out that there is a ,,rationale in this2 but meantime do not toss these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or ignored intelligible law4 ,what is implied for the soul here is no more than is everywhere claimed for the body4 ,in physiology the verbs describing the processes of growth are in the passive4 ,growth is not voluntary2 it takes place1 it happens1 it is wrought upon matter4 ,so here4 ,ye must be born again--we cannot be born ourselves4 ,be not conformed to this world1 but ,,be ,,ye ,,transformed--we are subjects to transforming influence1 we do not transform ourselves4 ,not more certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer that produces a change in the thermometer1 that it is ,something outside the soul of man that produces a moral change upon him4 ,that he must be susceptible to that change1 that he must be a party to it1 goes without saying2 but that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it1 is equally certain4 ,obvious as it ought to seem1 this may be to some an almost startling revelation4 ,the change we have been striving after is not to be produced by any more striving4 ,it is to be wrought upon us by the moulding of hands beyond our own4 ,as the branch ascends1 and the bud bursts1 and the fruit reddens under the co-operation of influences from the outside air1 so man rises to the higher stature under invisible pressures from without4 the radical defect of all our former methods of sanctification was the attempt to generate from within that which can only be wrought upon us from without4 ,the radical defect of all our former methods of sanctification was the attempt to generate from within that which can only be wrought upon us from without4 ,according to the first ,law of ,motion1 every body continues in its state of rest1 or of uniform motion in a straight line1 except in so far as it may be compelled ,,by ,,impressed ,,forces to change that state4 ,this is also a first law of ,christianity4 ,every man's character remains as it is1 or continues in the direction in which it is going1 until it is compelled ,,by ,,impressed ,,forces to change that state4 ,our failure has been the failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces4 ,there is a clay1 and there is a ,potter2 we have tried to get the clay to mould the clay4 ,whence1 then1 these pressures1 and where this ,potter8 ,the answer of the formula is--,by reflecting as a mirror the glory of the ,lord we are changed4 ,but this is not very clear4 ,what is the glory of the ,lord1 and how can mortal man reflect it1 and how can that act as an impressed force in moulding him to a nobler form8 ,the word glory--the word which has to bear the weight of holding these impressed forces--is a stranger in current speech1 and our first duty is to seek out its equivalent in working ,english4 ,it suggests at first a radiance of some kind1 something dazzling or glittering1 some halo such as the old masters loved to paint round the head of their ,ecce ,homos4 ,but that is paint1 mere matter1 the visible symbol of some unseen thing4 ,what is that unseen thing8 ,it is that of all unseen things the most radiant1 the most beautiful1 the most ,divine1 and that is ,,character4 ,on earth1 in ,heaven1 there is nothing so great1 so glorious as this4 ,the word has many meanings2 in ethics it can have but one4 ,glory is character1 and nothing less1 and it can be nothing more4 ,the earth is full of the glory of the ,lord1 because it is full of ,his character4 ,the ,beauty of the ,lord is character4 ,the ,glory of the ,only ,begotten is character1 the character which is fullness of grace and truth4 ,and when ,god told ,his people ,,his ,,name1 ,he simply gave them ,his character1 ,his character which was ,himself3 ,and the ,lord proclaimed the name for the ,lord444the ,lord1 the ,lord ,god1 merciful and gracious1 long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth4 ,glory then is not something intangible1 or ghostly1 or transcendental4 ,if it were this1 how could ,paul ask men to reflect it8 ,stripped of its physical enswathement it is ,beauty1 moral and spiritual ,beauty1 ,beauty infinitely real1 infinitely exalted1 yet infinitely near and infinitely communicable4 ,with this explanation read over the sentence once more in paraphrase3 ,we all reflecting as a mirror the character of ,christ are transformed into the same ,image from character to character--from a poor character to a better one1 from a better one to a little better still1 from that to one still more complete1 until by slow degrees the ,perfect ,image is attained4 ,here ,the solution of the problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence3 ,reflect the character of ,christ4 ,you will be changed1 in spite of yourself and unknown to yourself1 into the same image from character to character4 7,i47 ,all men are reflectors--that is ,the first law on which this formula is based4 ,one of the aptest descriptions of a human being is that he is a mirror4 ,as we sat at table to-night the world in which each of us lived and moved through this day was focused in the room4 ,what we saw when we looked at one another was not one another1 but one another's world4 ,we were an arrangement of mirrors4 ,the scenes we saw were all reproduced2 the people we met walked to and fro2 they spoke1 they bowed1 they passed us by1 did everything over again as if it had been real4 ,when we talked1 we were but looking at our own mirror and describing what flitted across it2 our listening was not hearing1 but seeing--we but looked on our neighbor's mirror4 ,all human intercourse is a seeing of reflections4 ,i meet a stranger in a railway carriage4 ,the cadence of his first words tell me he is ,english and comes from ,yorkshire4 ,without knowing it he has reflected his birthplace1 his parents1 and the long history of their race4 ,even physiologically he is a mirror4 ,his second sentence records that he is a politician1 and a faint reflection in the way he pronounces ,,the ,,times reveals his party4 ,in his next remarks ,i see reflected a whole world of experiences4 ,the books he has read1 the people he has met1 the companions he keeps1 the influences that have played upon him and made him the man he is--these are all registered there by a pen which lets nothing pass1 and whose writing can ,never be blotted out4 ,what ,i am reading in him meantime he is also reading in me2 and before the journey is over we could half write each other's lives4 ,whether we like it or not1 we live in glass houses4 ,the mind1 the memory1 the soul1 is simply a vast chamber paneled with looking-glass4 ,and upon this miraculous arrangement and endowment depends the capacity of mortal souls to reflect the character of the ,lord4 7#b74 ,but this is not all4 ,if all these varied reflections from our so-called secret life are patent to the world1 how close the writing1 complete the record within the soul itself6 ,for the influences we meet are not simply held for a moment on the polished surface and thrown off again into space4 ,each is retained where first it fell1 and stored up in the soul forever4 ,this law of assimilation is the second1 and by far the most impressive truth which underlies the formula of sanctification--the truth that men are not only mirrors1 but that these mirrors1 so far from being mere reflectors of the fleeting things they see1 transfer into their own inmost substance1 and hold in permanent preservation the things that they reflect4 ,no one knows how the soul can hold these things4 ,no one knows how the miracle is done4 ,no phenomenon in nature1 no process in chemistry1 no chapter in necromancy can ever help us to begin to understand this amazing operation4 ,for1 think of it1 the past is not only ,,focused there1 in a man's soul1 it ,,is there4 ,how could it be reflected from there if it were not there8 ,all things that he has ever seen1 known1 felt1 believed of the surrounding world are now within him1 have become part of him1 in part are him--he has been changed into their image4 ,he may deny it1 he may resent it1 but they are there4 ,they do not adhere to him1 they are transfused through him4 ,he cannot alter or rub them out4 ,they are not in his memory1 they are in ,,him4 ,his soul is as they have filled it1 made it1 left it4 ,these things1 these books1 these events1 these influences are his makers4 ,in their hands are life and death1 beauty and deformity4 ,when once the image or likeness of any of these is fairy presented to the soul1 no power on earth can hinder two things happening--it must be absorbed into the soul and forever reflected back again from character4 ,upon these astounding yet perfectly obvious psychological facts1 ,paul bases his doctrine of sanctification4 ,he sees that character is a thing built up by slow degrees1 that it is hourly changing for better or for worse according to the images which flit across it4 ,one step further and the whole length and breadth of the application of these ideas to the central problem of religion will stand before us4 ,,ii4 ,the alchemy of influence4 ,if events change men1 much more persons4 ,no man can meet another on the street without making some mark upon him4 ,we say we exchange words when we meet2 what we exchange is souls4 ,and when intercourse is very close and very frequent1 so complete is this exchange that recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's nature1 and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to the first4 ,now1 we become like those whom we habitually reflect4 ,i could prove from science that applies even to the physical framework of animals--that they are influenced and organically changed by the environment in which they life4 ,this mysterious approximating of two souls1 who has not witnessed8 ,who has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage hand in hand1 with such gentle trust and joy in one another that their very faces wore the self-same look8 ,these were not two souls2 it was a composite soul4 ,it did not matter to which of the two you spoke1 you would have said the same words to either4 ,it was quite indifferent which replied1 each would have said the same4 ,half a century's ,,reflecting had told upon them2 they were changed into the same image4 ,it is the ,law of ,influence that ,,we ,,become ,,like ,,those ,,whom ,,we ,,habitually ,,reflect3 these had become like because they habitually reflected4 ,through all the range of literature1 of history1 and biography this law presides4 ,men are all mosaics of other men4 ,there was a savor of ,david about ,jonathan1 and a savor of ,jonathan about ,david4 ,metempsychosis is a fact4 ,george ,eliot's message to the world was that men and women make men and women4 ,the ,family1 the cradle of mankind1 has no meaning apart from this4 ,society itself is nothing but a rallying point for these omnipotent forces to do their work4 ,on the doctrine of ,influence1 in short1 the whole vast pyramid of humanity is built4 ,but it was reserved for ,paul to make the supreme application of the ,law of ,influence4 ,it was a tremendous inference to make1 but he never hesitated4 ,he himself was a changed man2 he knew exactly what had done it2 ,it was ,christ4 ,on the ,damascus road they met1 and from that hour his life was absorbed in ,his4 ,the effect could not but follow--on words1 on deeds1 on career1 on creed4 ,the impressed forces did their vital work4 ,he became like ,him ,whom he habitually loved4 ,so we all1 he writes1 reflecting as a mirror the glory of ,christ1 are changed into the same image4 ,nothing could be more simple1 more intelligible1 more natural1 more supernatural4 ,it is an analogy from an every-day fact4 ,since we are what we are by the impacts of those who surround us1 those who surround themselves with the highest will be those who change into the highest4 ,there are some men and some women in whose company we are ,always at our best4 ,while with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous words4 ,their mere presence is elevation1 purification1 sanctity4 ,all the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse1 and we find a music in our souls that was never there before4 ,suppose even ,,that influence prolonged through a month1 a year1 a lifetime1 and what could not life become8 ,there1 even on the common plane of life1 talking our language1 walking our streets1 working side by side1 are sanctifiers of souls2 here1 breathing through common clay1 is ,heaven2 here1 energies charged even through a temporal medium with the virtue of regeneration4 ,if to live with men1 diluted to the millionth degree with the virtue of the ,highest1 can exalt and purify the nature1 what bounds can be set to the influence of ,christ8 ,to live with ,socrates--with unveiled face--must have made one wise2 with ,aristides1 just4 ,francis ,assisi must have made one gentle2 ,savonarola1 strong4 ,but to have lived with ,christ must have made one like ,christ3 that is to say1 ,a ,,christian4 ,as a matter of fact1 to live with ,christ did produce this effect4 ,it produced it in the case of ,paul4 ,and during ,christ's lifetime the experiment was tried in an even more startling form4 ,a few raw1 unspiritual1 uninspiring men1 were admitted to the inner circle of ,his friendship4 ,the change began at once4 ,day by day we can almost see the first disciple grow4 ,first there steals over them the faintest possible adumbration of ,his character1 and occasionally1 very occasionally1 they do a thing or say a thing that they could not have done or said had they not been living there4 ,slowly the spell of ,his ,life deepens4 ,reach after reach of their nature is overtaken1 thawed1 subjugated1 sanctified4 ,their manner softens1 their words become more gentle1 their conduct more unselfish4 ,as swallows who have found a summer1 as frozen buds the spring1 their starved humanity bursts into a fuller life4 ,they do not know how it is1 but they are different men4 ,one day they find themselves like their ,master1 going about and doing good4 ,to themselves it is unaccountable1 but they cannot do otherwise4 they were not told to do it1 it came to them to do it4 ,but the people who watch them know well how to account for it--,they have been1 they whisper1 with ,jesus4 ,already even1 the mark and seal of ,his character is upon them--,they have been with ,jesus4 ,unparalleled phenomenon1 that these poor fishermen should remind other men of ,christ6 ,stupendous victory and mystery of ,regeneration that mortal men should suggest ,,god to the world6 ,there is something almost melting in the way his contemporaries1 and ,john especially1 speak of the influence of ,christ4 ,john lived himself in daily wonder at ,him2 he was overpowered1 over-awed1 entranced1 transfigured4 ,to his mind it was impossible for any one to come under this influence and ever be the same again4 ,whosoever abideth in ,him sinneth not1 he said4 ,it was inconceivable that he should sin1 as inconceivable as that ice should live in a burning sun1 or darkness coexist with noon4 ,if any one did sin1 it was to ,john the simple proof that he could never have met ,christ4 ,whosoever sinneth1 he exclaims1 hath not seen ,,him1 neither known ,,him4 ,sin was abashed in this ,presence4 ,its root withered4 ,its sway and victory were forever at an end4 ,but these were ,his contemporaries4 ,it was easy for ,,them to be influenced by ,him1 for they were every day and all the day together4 ,but how can we mirror that which we have never seen8 ,how can all this stupendous result be produced by a ,memory1 by the scantiest of all ,biographies1 by ,one who lived and left this earth eighteen hundred years ago8 ,how can modern men to-day make ,christ1 the absent ,christ1 their most constant companion still8 ,the answer is that ,friendship is a spiritual thing4 ,it is independent of ,matter1 or ,space1 or ,time4 ,that which ,i love in my friend is not that which ,i see4 ,what influences me in my friend is not his body but his spirit4 ,he influences me about as much in his absence as in his presence4 ,it would have been an ineffable experience truly to have lived at that time-- ,i think when ,i read the sweet story of old1 ,how when ,jesus was here among men1 ,he took little children like lambs to his fold1 ,i should like to have been with ,him then4 ,i wish that ,his hand had been laid on my head1 ,that ,his arms had been thrown around me1 ,and that ,i had seen ,his kind look when he said1 ',let the little ones come unto me4' ,and yet1 if ,christ were to come into the world again1 few of us probably would ever have a chance of seeing ,him4 ,millions of her subjects in the little country of ,england have never seen their own ,queen4 ,and there would be millions of the subjects of ,christ who could never get within speaking distance of ,him if ,he were here4 ,we remember ,he said3 ,it is expedient for you 7not ,,for ,,me7 that ,i go away2 because by going away ,he could really be nearer to us than ,he would have been if ,he had stayed here4 ,it would be geographically and physically impossible for most of us to be influenced by ,his person had ,he remained4 ,and so our communion with ,him is a spiritual companionship2 but not different from most companionships1 which1 when you press them down to the roots1 you will find to be essentially spiritual4 ,all friendship1 all love1 human and ,divine1 is purely spiritual4 ,it was after ,he was risen that ,he influenced even the disciples most4 ,hence1 in reflecting the character of ,christ1 it is no real obstacle that we may never have been in visible contact with ,himself4 ,there lived once a young girl whose perfect grace of character was the wonder of those who knew her4 ,she wore on her neck a gold locket which no one was ever allowed to open4 ,one day1 in a moment of unusual confidence1 one of her companions was allowed to touch its spring and learn its secret4 ,she saw written these words-- ,whom having not seen ,i love4 ,that was the secret of her beautiful life4 ,she had been changed into the ,same ,image4 ,now this is not imitation1 but a much deeper thing4 ,mark this distinction1 for the difference in the process as well as in the result1 may be as great as that between a photograph secured by the infallible pencil of the sun1 and the rude outline from a school-boy's chalk4 ,imitation is mechanical1 reflection organic4 ,the one is occasional1 the other habitual4 ,in the one case1 man comes to ,god and imitates him2 in the other1 ,god comes to man and imprints ,himself upon him4 ,it is quite true that there is an imitation of ,christ which amounts to reflection4 ,but ,paul's term includes all that the other holds1 and is open to no mistake4 ,what1 then1 is the practical lesson8 ,it is obvious4 ,make ,christ your most constant companion--this is what it practically means for us4 ,be more under ,his influences than under any other influence4 ,ten minutes spent in ,his society every day1 ay1 two minutes if it be face to face1 and heart to heart1 will make the whole day different4 ,every character has an inward spring1--let ,christ be it4 ,every action has a key-note1--let ,christ set it4 ,yesterday you got a certain letter4 ,you sat down and wrote a reply which almost scorched the paper4 ,you picked the cruelest adjectives you knew and sent it forth1 without a pang to do its ruthless work4 ,you did that because your life was set in the wrong key4 ,you began the day with the mirror placed at the wrong angle4 ,tomorrow at day-break1 turn it towards ,him1 and even to your enemy the fashion of your countenance will be changed4 ,whatever you then do1 one thing you will find you could not do--you could not write that letter4 ,your first impulse may be the same1 your judgement may be unchanged1 but if you try it the ink will dry on your pen1 and you will rise from your desk an unavenged1 but greater and more ,christian man4 ,throughout the whole day your actions1 down to the last detail1 will do homage to that early vision4 ,yesterday you thought mostly about yourself4 ,today the poor will meet you1 and you will feed them4 ,the helpless1 the tempted1 the sad1 will throng about you1 and each you will befriend4 ,where were all these people yesterday8 ,where they are today1 but you did not see them4 ,it is in reflected light that the poor are seen4 ,but your soul today is ,not at the ordinary angle4 ,things which are not seen are visible4 ,for a few short hours you live the ,eternal ,life4 ,the eternal life1 the life of faith1 is simply the life of a higher vision4 ,faith is an attitude--a mirror set at the right angle4 ,when tomorrow is over1 and in the evening you review it1 you will wonder how you did it4 ,you will not be conscious that you strove for anything1 or imitated anything1 or crucified anything4 ,you will be conscious of ,christ2 that ,he was with you1 that without compulsion you were yet compelled2 that without force1 or noise1 or proclamation1 the revolution was accomplished4 ,you do not congratulate yourself as one who has done a mighty deed1 or achieved a personal success1 or stored up a fund of ,christian experience to ensure the same result again4 ,what you are conscious of is the glory of the ,lord4 ,and what the world is conscious of1 if the result be a true one1 is also the glory of the ,lord4 ,in looking at a mirror one does not see the mirror1 or think of it1 but only of what it reflects4 ,for a mirror never calls the attention to itself--except when there are flaws in it4 ,let me say a word or two more about the effects which necessarily must follow from this contact1 or fellowship1 with ,christ4 ,i need not quote the texts upon the subject--the texts about abiding in ,christ4 ,he that abideth in ,him sinneth not4 ,you cannot sin when you are standing in front of ,christ4 ,you simply cannot do it4 ,again3 ,if ye abide in ,me1 and ,my words abide in you1 ye shall ask what ye will1 and it shall be done unto you4 ,think of that6 ,that is another inevitable consequence4 ,and there is yet another3 ,he that abideth in ,me1 the same bringeth forth much fruit4 ,sinlessness--answered prayer--much fruit4 ,but in addition to these things1 see how many of the highest ,christian virtues and experiences necessarily flow from the assumption of that attitude towards ,christ4 ,for instance1 the moment you assume that relation to ,christ you begin to know what the ,,child-,,spirit is4 ,you stand before ,christ1 and ,he becomes your ,teacher1 and you instinctively become docile4 ,then you learn also to become ,,charitable and ,,tolerant2 because you are learning of ,him1 and ,he is meek and lowly in heart1 and you catch that spirit4 ,that is a bit of ,his character being reflected into yours4 ,instead of being critical and self-asserting1 you become humble and have the mind of a little child4 ,i think1 further1 the only way of learning what ,,faith is is to know ,christ and be in ,his company4 ,you hear sermons about the nine different kinds of faith--distinctions drawn between the right kind of faith and the wrong--and sermons telling you how to get faith4 ,so far as ,i can see1 there is ,only one way in which faith is got1 and it is the same in the religious world as it is in the world of men and women4 ,i learn to trust you1 my brother1 just as ,i get to trust me just as you get to know me4 ,i do not trust you as a stranger1 but as ,i come into contact with you1 and watch you1 and live with you1 ,i find out that you are trustworthy1 and ,i come to trust myself to you1 and to lean upon you4 ,but ,i do not do that to a stranger4 ,the way to trust ,christ is to know ,christ4 ,you cannot help trusting ,him them4 ,you are changed4 ,by knowing ,him faith is begotten in you1 as cause and effect4 ,to trust ,him without knowing ,him as thousands do1 is not faith1 but credulity4 ,i believe a great deal of prayer for faith is thrown away4 ,what we should pray for is that we may be able to fulfill the condition1 and when we have fulfilled the condition1 the faith necessarily follows4 ,the way1 therefore1 to increase our faith is to increase our intimacy with ,christ4 ,we trust ,him more and more the better we know ,him4 ,and then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the character is the tranquility that it brings over the ,christian life4 ,how disturbed and distressed and anxious ,christian people are about their growth in grace6 ,now1 the moment you give that over into ,christ's care--the moment you see that you are ,,being changed--that anxiety passes away4 ,you see that it must follow by an inevitable process and by a natural law if you fulfill the simple condition2 so that peace is the reward of that life and fellowship with ,christ4 ,many other things follow4 ,a man's usefulness depends to a large extent upon his fellowship with ,christ4 ,that is obvious4 ,only ,christ can influence the world2 but all that the world sees of ,christ is what it sees of you and me4 ,christ said3 ,the world seeth ,me no more1 but ye see ,me4 ,you see ,him1 and standing in front of ,him reflect ,him1 and the world sees the reflection4 ,it cannot see ,him4 ,so that a ,christian's usefulness depends solely upon that relationship4 ,now1 ,i have only pointed out a few of the things that follow from the standing before ,christ--from the abiding in ,christ4 ,you will find1 if you run over the texts about abiding in ,christ1 many other things will suggest themselves in the same relations4 ,almost everything in ,christian experience and character follows and follows necessarily1 from standing before ,christ and reflecting his character4 ,but the supreme consummation is that we are changed into ,,the ,,same ,,image1 even as by the ,lord the ,spirit4 ,that is to say that in some way1 unknown to us1 but possibly not more mysterious than the doctrine of personal influence1 we are changed into the image of ,christ4 ,this method cannot fail4 ,i am not setting before you an opinion or a theory1 but this is ,a certainly successful means of sanctification4 ,we all1 with unveiled face1 reflecting in a mirror the glory of ,christ 7the character of ,christ7 assuredly--without any miscarriage--without any possibility of miscarriage--are changed into the same image4 ,it is an immense thing to be anchored in some great principle like that4 ,emerson says3 ,the hero is the man who is immovably centered4 ,get immovably centered in that doctrine of sanctification4 ,do not be carried away by the hundred and one theories of sanctification that are floating about in religious literature of the country at the present time2 but go to the bottom of the thing for yourself1 and see the ,,rationale of it for yourself1 and you will come to see that it is a matter of cause and effect1 and that if you will fulfill the condition laid down by ,christ1 the effect must follow by a natural law4 ,what a prospect6 ,to be changed into the same image4 ,think of that6 ,that is what we are here for4 ,that is what we are elected for4 ,not to be saved1 in the common acceptation1 but whom ,he did foreknow ,he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of ,his ,son4 ,not merely to be saved1 but ,,to ,,be ,,conformed ,,to ,,the ,,image ,,of ,,his ,,son4 ,conserve that principle4 ,and as we must spend time in cultivating our earthly friendships if we are to have their blessings1 so we must ,spend time in cultivating the fellowship and companionship of ,christ4 ,and there is nothing so much worth taking into our lives as a profounder sense of what is to be had by living in communion with ,christ1 and by getting nearer to ,him4 ,it will matter much if we take away with us some of the thoughts about theology1 and some of the new light that has been shed upon the text of ,scripture2 it will matter infinitely more if our fellowship with the ,lord ,jesus become a little closer1 and our theory of holy living a little more rational4 ,and then as we go forth1 men will take knowledge of us1 that we have been with ,jesus1 and as we reflect ,him upon them1 they will begin to be changed into the same image4 ,it seems to me the preaching is of infinitely smaller account than the life which mirrors ,christ4 ,that is bound to tell2 without speech or language--like the voices of the stars4 ,it throws out its impressions on every side4 ,the one simple thing we have to do is to be there--in the right relation2 to go through life hand in hand with ,him2 to have ,him in the room with us1 and keeping us company wherever we go2 to depend upon ,him and lean upon ,him1 and so have ,his life reflected in the fullness of its beauty and perfection into ours4 ,,iii4 ,the first experiment4 ,then you reduce religion to a common ,friendship8 ,a common ,friendship--who talks of a ,,common ,friendship8 ,there is no such thing in the world4 ,on earth no word is more sublime4 ,friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is4 ,god is love4 ,and to make religion akin to ,friendship is simply to give it the highest expression conceivable by man4 ,but if by demurring to a common friendship is meant a protest against the greatest and the holiest in religion being spoken of in intelligible terms1 then ,i am afraid the objection is all to real4 ,men always look for a mystery when one talks of sanctification1 some mystery apart from that which must ever be mysterious wherever ,spirit works4 ,it is thought some peculiar secret lies behind it1 some occult experience which only the initiated know4 ,thousands of persons go to church every ,sunday hoping to solve this mystery4 ,at meeting1 at conferences1 many a time they have reached what they thought was the very brink of it1 but somehow no further revelation came4 ,poring over religious books1 how often were they not within a paragraph of it2 the next page1 the next sentence1 would discover all1 and they would be borne on a flowing tide forever4 ,but nothing happened4 ,the next sentence and the next page were read1 and still it eluded them2 and though the promise of its coming kept faithfully up to the end1 the last chapter found them still pursuing4 ,why did nothing happen8 ,because there was nothing to happen--nothing of the kind they were looking for4 ,why did it elude them8 ,because there was no it4 ,when shall we learn that the pursuit of holiness is simply ,the pursuit of ,christ8 ,when shall we substitute for the it of a fictitious aspiration1 the approach to a ,living ,friend8 ,sanctity is in character and not in moods2 ,divinity in our own plain calm humanity1 and in no mystic rapture of the soul4 ,and yet there are others who1 for exactly a contrary reason1 will find scant satisfaction here4 ,their complaint is not that a religion expressed in terms of ,friendship is too homely1 but that it is still too mystical4 ,to abide in ,christ1 to make ,christ our most constant companion1 is to them the purest mysticism4 ,they want something absolutely tangible and absolutely direct4 ,these are not the poetical souls who seek a sign1 a mysticism in excess1 but the prosaic natures whose want is mathematical definition in details4 ,yet it is perhaps not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements4 ,the beauty of ,friendship is its infinity4 ,one can never evacuate life of mysticism4 ,home is full of it1 love is full of it1 religion is full of it4 ,why stumble at that in the relation of man to ,christ which is natural in the relation of man to man8 ,if any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with ,christ1 perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still plainer analogies from common life4 ,how do ,i know ,shakespere or ,dante8 ,by communing with their words and thoughts4 ,many men know ,dante better than their own fathers4 ,many men know ,dante better than their own fathers4 ,he influences them more4 ,as a spiritual presence he is more near to them1 as a spiritual force more real4 ,is there any reason why a greater than ,shakspere or ,dante1 who also walked this earth1 who left great words behind ,him1 who has greater works everywhere in the world now1 should not also instruct1 inspire and mould the characters of men8 ,i do not limit ,christ's influence to this3 it is this1 and it is more4 ,but ,christ1 so far from resenting or discouraging this relation of ,friendship1 ,himself proposed it4 ,abide in me was almost ,his last word to the world4 ,and ,he partly met the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the practical clause1 ,if ye abide in ,me1 ,,and ,,my ,,words ,,abide ,,in ,,you4 ,begin with ,his words4 ,words can scarcely ever be long impersonal4 ,christ himself was a ,word1 a word made ,flesh4 ,make ,his words flesh2 do them1 live them1 and you must live ,christ4 ,,he ,,that ,,keepeth ,,my ,,commandments1 he it is that loveth ,me4 ,obey ,him and you must love ,him4 ,abide in ,him1 and you must obey ,him4 ,,cultivate ,his ,friendship4 ,live after ,christ1 in ,his ,spirit1 as in ,his ,presence1 and it is difficult to think what more you can do4 ,take this at least as a first lesson1 as introduction4 ,if you cannot at once and always feel the play of ,his life upon yours1 watch for it also indirectly4 ,the whole earth is full of the character of the ,lord4 ,christ is the ,light of the world1 and much of his ,light is reflected from things in the world--even from clouds4 ,sunlight is stored in every leaf1 from leaf through coal1 and it comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun4 ,christ shines through men1 through books1 through history1 through nature1 music1 art4 ,look for ,him there4 ,every day one should either look at a beautiful picture1 or hear beautiful music1 or read a beautiful poem4 ,the real danger of mysticism is not making it broad enough4 ,do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself grow1 or hear the whir of the machinery4 ,all great things grow noiselessly4 ,you can see a mushroom grow1 but never a child4 ,paul said for the comforting of all slowly perfecting souls that they grew from character to character4 ,the inward man1 he says elsewhere1 is renewed from day to day4 ,all thorough work is slow2 all true development by minute1 slight and insensible metamorphoses4 ,the higher the structure1 moreover1 the slower the progress4 ,as the biologist runs his eye over the long ,ascent of ,life1 he sees the lowest forms of animals develop in an hour2 the next above these reach maturity in a day2 those higher still take weeks or months to perfect2 but the few at the top demand the long experiment of years4 ,if a child and an ape are born on the same day1 the last will be in full possession of its faculties and doing the active work of life before the child has left its cradle4 ,life is the cradle of eternity4 ,as the man is to the animal in the slowness of his evolution1 so is the spiritual man to the natural man4 ,foundations which have to bear the weight of an eternal life must be surely laid4 ,character is to wear forever2 who will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day8 ,to await the growing of a soul1 nevertheless1 is an almost ,divine act of faith4 ,how pardonable1 surely1 the impatience of deformity with itself1 of a consciously despicable character standing before ,christ1 wondering1 yearning1 hungering to be like that6 ,yet must one trust the process fearlessly and without misgiving4 ,the ,lord the ,spirit will do ,his part4 ,the tempting expedient is1 in haste for abrupt or visible progress1 to try some method less spiritual1 or to defeat the end by watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the ,cause4 ,a photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun4 ,while the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply stops the getting on4 ,whatever of wise supervision the soul may need1 it is certain it can never be over-exposed1 or that1 being exposed1 anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it4 ,the creation of a new heart1 the renewing of a right spirit1 is an omnipotent work of ,god4 ,leave it to the ,creator4 ,he which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto that day4 ,no man1 nevertheless1 who feels the worth and solemnity of what is at stake will be careless as to his progress4 ,to become ,like ,christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for1 the thing before which every ambition of man is folly1 and all lower achievement vain4 ,those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their lives can ever begin to hope to reach it4 ,if1 therefore1 it has seemed up to this point as if all depended on passivity1 let me now assert1 with conviction more intense1 that all depends on activity4 ,a religion of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel1 but never for a man4 ,no in the contemplative1 but in the active1 lies true hope2 not in rapture1 but in reality1 lies true life2 not in the realm of ideals1 but among tangible things1 is man's sanctification wrought4 ,resolution1 effort1 pain1 self-crucifixion1 agony--all the things already dismissed as futile in themselves1 must now be restored to office1 and a tenfold responsibility laid upon them4 ,for what is their office8 ,nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul1 and place it1 and keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it4 ,it is to rally the forces of the will1 and keep the surface of the mirror bright and ever in position4 ,it is to uncover the face which is to look at ,christ1 and draw down the veil when unhallowed sights are near4 ,you have1 perhaps1 gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the spectrum of a star4 ,as you enter the dark vault of the observatory you saw him being by lighting a candle4 ,to see the star with8 ,no2 but to adjust the instrument to see the star with4 ,it was the star that was going to take the photograph2 it was1 also1 the astronomer4 ,for a long time he worked in the dimness1 screwing tubes and polishing lenses and adjusting reflectors1 and only after much labor the finely focused instrument was brought to bear4 ,then he blew out the light1 and left the start to do its work upon the plate alone4 ,the day's task for the ,christian is to bring his instrument to bear4 ,having done that he may blow out his candle4 ,all the evidences of ,christianity which have brought him there1 all aids to ,faith1 all acts of worship1 all the leverages of the ,church1 all ,prayer and ,meditation1 all girding of the ,will--these lesser processes1 these candle-light activities for that supreme hour1 may be set aside4 ,but1 remember1 it is but for an hour4 ,the wise man will be he who quickest lights his candle2 the wisest he who never lets it out4 ,tomorrow1 the next moment1 he1 a poor1 darkened1 blurred soul1 may need it again to focus the ,image better1 to take a mote off the lens1 to clear the mirror from a breath with which the world has dulled it4 ,no readjustment is ever required on behalf of the ,star4 ,that is one great fixed point in this shifting universe4 ,but ,,the ,,world ,,moves4 ,and each day1 each hour1 demands a further motion and readjustment for the soul4 ,a telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork1 but the clockwork of the soul is called ,,the ,,will4 ,hence1 while the soul in passivity reflects the ,image of the ,lord1 the ,will in intense activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the world bear it beyond the line of vision4 ,to follow ,christ is largely to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the earth4 ,and this calculated counteracting of the movements of the world1 this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the ,mirrored1 this steadying of the faculties unerringly through cloud and earthquake1 fire and sword1 is the stupendous co-operating labor of the ,will4 ,it is all man's work4 ,it is all ,christ's work4 ,in practice it is both2 in theory it is both4 ,but the wise man will say in practice1 ,it depends upon myself4 ,in the ,gallerie des ,beaux ,arts in ,paris there stands a famous statue4 ,it was the last work of a great genius1 who1 like many a genius1 was very poor and lived in a garret1 which served as a studio and sleeping-room alike4 ,when the statue was all but finished1 one midnight a sudden frost fell upon ,paris4 ,the sculptor lay awake in the fireless room and thought of the still moist clay1 thought how the water would freeze in the pores and destroy in an hour the dream of his life4 ,so the old man rose from his couch and heaped the bed-clothes reverently round his work4 ,in the morning when the neighbors entered the room the sculptor was dead1 but the statue was saved6 ,the ,image of ,christ that is forming within us--that is life's one charge4 ,let every project stand aside for that4 ,the spirit of ,god who brooded upon the waters thousands of years ago1 is busy now creating men1 within these commonplace lives of ours1 in the image of ,god4 ,till ,christ be formed1 no man's work is finished1 no religion crowned1 no life has fulfilled its end4 ,is the infinite task begun8 ,when1 how1 are we to be different8 ,time cannot change men4 ,death cannot change men4 ,christ can4 ,wherefore ,,put ,,on ,,christ4 ,dealing ,with ,doubt4 ,there is a subject which ,i think workers amongst young men cannot afford to keep out of sight--,i mean the subject of ,doubt4 ,we are forced to face that subject4 ,we have no choice4 ,i would rather let it alone2 but every day of my life ,i meet men who doubt1 and ,i am quite sure that most ,christian workers among men have innumerable interviews every year with men who raise skeptical difficulties about religion4 ,now it becomes a matter of great practical importance that we should know how to deal wisely with these4 ,upon the whole1 ,i think these are the best men in the country4 ,i speak of my own country4 ,i speak of the universities with which ,i am familiar1 and ,i say that they men who are perplexed1--the men who come to you with serious and honest difficulties1--are the best men4 ,they are men of intellectual honesty1 and cannot allow themselves to be put to rest by words1 or phrases1 or traditions1 or theologies1 but who must get to the bottom of things for themselves4 ,and if ,i am not mistaken1 ,christ was very fond of these men4 ,the outsiders always interested ,him1 and touched ,him4 ,the orthodox people--the ,pharisees--,he was much less interested in4 ,he went with publicans and sinners--with people who were in revolt against the respectability1 intellectual and religious1 of the day4 ,and following ,him1 we are entitled to give sympathetic consideration to those whom ,he loved and took trouble with4 ,first1 let me speak for a moment or two about ,the origin of doubt4 ,in the first place1 ,,we ,,are ,,born ,,questioners4 ,look at the wonderment of a little child in its eyes before it can speak4 ,the child's great word when it begins to speak is1 ,why8 ,every child is full of every kind of question1 about every kind of thing1 that moves1 and shines and changes1 in the little world in which it lives4 ,that is the incipient doubt in the nature of man4 ,respect doubt for its origin4 ,it is an inevitable thing4 ,it is not a thing to be crushed4 ,it is a part of man as ,god made him4 ,heresy is truth in the making1 and doubt is the prelude of knowledge4 ,secondly3 ,,the ,,world ,,is ,a ,,sphinx4 ,it is a vast riddle--an unfathomable mystery2 and on every side there is temptation to questioning4 ,in every leaf1 in every cell of every leaf1 there are a hundred problems4 ,there are ten good years of a man's life in investigating what is in a leaf4 ,god has planned the world to incite men to intellectual activity4 ,thirdly3 ,,the ,,instrument ,,with ,,whcih ,,we ,,attempt ,,to ,,investigate ,,truth ,,is ,,impaired4 ,some say it fell1 and the glass is broken4 ,some say prejudice1 heredity1 or sin1 have spoiled its sight1 and have blinded our eyes and deadened our ears4 ,in any case the instruments with which we work upon truth1 even in the strongest men1 are feeble and inadequate to their tremendous task4 ,and in the fourth place1 ,,all ,,religious ,,truths ,,are ,,doubtable4 ,there is no absolute truth for any one of them4 ,even that fundamental truth--the existence of a ,god--no man can prove by reason4 ,the ordinary proof for the existence of a ,god involves either an assumption1 argument in a circle1 or a contradiction4 ,the impression of ,god is kept up by experience1 not by logic4 ,and hence1 when the experimental religion of a man1 of a community1 or of a nation wanes1 religion wanes--their idea of ,god grows indistinct1 and that man1 community or nation becomes infidel4 ,bear in mind1 then1 that all religious truths are doubtable--even those which we hold most strongly4 ,what does this brief account of the origin of doubt teach us8 ,it teaches us ,great intellectual humility4 ,it teaches us sympathy and toleration with all men who venture upon the ocean of truth to find out a path through it for themselves4 ,do you sometimes feel yourself thinking unkind things about your fellow-students who have intellectual difficulty8 ,i know how hard it is always to feel sympathy and toleration for them2 but we must address ourselves to that most carefully and most religiously4 ,if my brother is short-sighted ,i must not abuse him or speak against him2 ,i must pity him1 and if possible try to improve his sight1 or to make things that he is to look at so bright that he cannot help seeing4 ,but never let us think evil of men who do not see as we do4 ,from the bottom of our hearts let us pity them1 and let us take them by the hand and spend time and thought over them1 and try to lead them to the true light4 ,what has been ,the church's treatment of doubt in the past8 ,it has been very simple4 ,there is a heretic4 ,burn him6 ,that is all4 ,there is a man who has gone off the road4 ,bring him back and torture him6 ,we have got past that physically2 have we got past it morally8 ,what does the modern ,church say to a man who is skeptical8 ,not ,burn him6 but ,brand him6 ,brand him6--call him a bad name4 ,and in many countries at the present time1 a man who is branded as a heretic is despised1 tabooed and put out of religious society1 much more than if he had gone wrong in morals4 ,i think ,i am speaking within the facts when ,i say that a man who is unsound is looked upon in many communities with more suspicion and with more pious horror than a man who now and then gets drunk4 ,burn him6 ,brand him6 ,excommunicate him6 ,that has been the ,church's treatment of doubt1 and that is perhaps to some extent the treatment which we ourselves are inclined to give to the men who cannot see the truths of ,christianity as we see them4 ,contrast ,christ's treatment of doubt4 ,i have spoken already of ,his strange partiality for the outsiders--for the scattered heretics up and down the country2 of the care with which ,he loved to deal with them1 and of the respect in which ,he held their intellectual difficulties4 ,christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief4 ,doubt is ,,can',t ,,believe2 unbelief is ,,won',t ,,believe4 ,doubt is honesty2 unbelief is obstinacy4 ,doubt is looking for light2 unbelief is content with darkness4 ,loving darkness rather than light--that is what ,christ attacked1 and attacked unsparingly4 ,but for the intellectual questioning of ,thomas1 and ,philip1 and ,nicodemus1 and the many others who came to ,him to have their great problems solved1 ,he was respectful and generous and tolerant4 ,and how did ,he meet their doubts8 ,the ,church1 as ,i have said1 says1 ,brand him6 ,christ said1 ,teach him4 ,he destroyed by fulfilling4 ,when ,thomas came to ,him and denied ,his very resurrection1 and stood before ,him waiting for the scathing words and lashing for his unbelief1 they never came4 ,they never came6 ,christ gave him facts--facts6 ,no men can go around facts4 ,christ said1 ,behold ,my hands and ,my feet4 ,the great god of science at the present time is a fact4 ,it words with facts4 ,its cry is1 ,give me facts4 ,found anything you like upon facts and we will believe it4 ,the spirit of ,christ was the scientific spirit4 ,he founded ,his religion upon facts2 and ,he asked all men to found their religion upon facts4 ,now1 get up the facts of ,christianity1 and take men to the facts4 ,theologies--and ,i am not speaking disrespectfully of theology2 theology is as scientific a thing as any other science of facts--but theologies are ,human versions of ,divine truths1 and hence the varieties of the versions and the inconsistencies of them4 ,i would allow a man to select whichever version of this truth he liked ,,afterwards2 but ,i would ask him to begin with no version1 but go back to the facts and base his ,christian life upon these4 ,that is the great lesson of the ,new ,testament way of looking at doubt--of ,christ's treatment of doubt4 ,it is not ,brand him6--but lovingly1 wisely and tenderly to teach him4 ,faith is never opposed to reason in the ,new ,testament2 it is opposed to sight4 ,you will find that a principle worth thinking over4 ,,faith ,,is ,,never ,,opposed ,,to ,,reason ,,in ,,the ,,new ,,testament1 ,,but ,,to ,,sight4 ,with these principles in mind as to the origin of doubt1 as to ,christ's treatment of it1 how are we ourselves to deal with those who are in intellectual difficulty8 ,in the first place1 ,i think ,,we ,,must ,,make ,,all ,,the ,,concessions ,,to ,,them ,,that ,,we ,,conscientiously ,,can4 ,when a doubter first encounters you1 he pours out a deluge of abuse of churches1 and ministers1 and creeds1 and ,christians4 ,nine-tenths of what he says is probably true4 ,make concessions4 ,agree with him4 ,it does him good to unburden himself of these things4 ,he has been cherishing them for years--laying them up against ,christians1 against the ,church1 and against ,christianity2 and now he is startled to find the first ,christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost entirely agrees with him4 ,we are1 of course1 not responsible for everything that is said in the name of ,christianity2 and now he is startled to find the first ,christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost entirely agrees with him4 ,we are1 of course1 not responsible for everything that is said in the name of ,christianity2 but a man does not give up medicine because there are quack doctors1 and no man has a right to give up his ,christianity because there are spurious or inconsistent ,christians4 ,then1 as ,i already said1 creeds are human versions of ,divine truths2 and we do not ask a man to accept all the creeds1 any more than we ask him to accept all the ,christians4 ,we ask him to accept ,christ1 and the facts about ,christ and the words of ,christ4 ,you will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed the man's objections1 and possibly added a great many more to the charges which he has against ourselves4 ,these men are ,in revolt against the kind of religion which we exhibit to the world--against the cant that is taught in the name of ,christianity4 ,and if the men that have never seen the real thing--if you could show them that1 they would receive it as eagerly as you do4 ,they are merely in revolt against the imperfections and inconsistencies of those who represent ,christ to the world4 ,second3 ,,beg ,,them ,,to ,,set ,,aside1 ,,by ,,an ,,act ,,of ,,will1 ,,all ,,unsolved ,,problems3 such as the problem of the origin of evil1 the problem of the ,trinity1 the problem of the relation of human will and predestination1 and so on--problems which have been investigated for thousands of years without result--ask them to set those problems aside as insoluble4 ,in the meantime1 just as a man who is studying mathematics may be asked to set aside the problem of squaring the circle1 let him go on with what can be done1 and what has been done1 and leave out of sight the impossible4 ,you will find that will relieve the skeptic's mind of a great deal of ,unnecessary cargo that has been in his way4 ,thirdly3 ,,talking ,,about ,,difficulties1 ,,as ,a ,,rule1 ,,only ,,aggravates ,,them4 ,entire satisfaction to the intellect is unattainable about any of the greater problems1 and if you try to get to the bottom of them by argument1 there is no bottom there2 and therefore you make the matter worse4 ,but ,i would say what is known1 and what can be honestly and philosophically and scientifically said about one or two of the difficulties that the doubter raises1 just to show him that you can do it--to show him that you are not a fool--that you are not merely groping in the dark yourself1 but you have found whatever basis is possible4 ,but ,i would not go around all the doctrines4 ,i would simply do that with one or two2 because the moment you cut off one1 a hundred other heads will grow in its place4 ,it would be a pity if all these problems could be solved4 ,the joy of the intellectual life would be largely gone4 ,i would not rob a man of his problems1 nor would ,i have another man rob me of my problems4 ,they are the delight of life1 and the whole intellectual world would be stale and unprofitable if we knew everything4 ,fourthly--and this is the great point3 ,,turn ,,away ,,from ,,the ,,reason ,,and ,,go ,,into ,,the ,,man',s ,,moral ,,life4 ,i don't mean1 go into his moral life and see if the man is living in conscious sin1 which is the great blinder of the eyes--,i am speaking now of honest doubt2 but open a new door into ,the practical side of man's nature4 ,entreat him not to postpone life and his life's usefulness until he has settled the problems of the universe4 ,tell him those problems will never all be settled2 that his life will be done before he has begun to settle them2 and ask him what he is doing with his life meantime4 ,charge him with wasting his life and his usefulness2 and invite him to deal with the moral and practical difficulties of the world1 and leave the intellectual difficulties as he goes along4 ,to spend time upon these is proving the less important before the more important2 and1 as the ,french say1 ,the good is the enemy of the best4 ,it is a good thing to think2 it is a better thing to work--it is a better thing to do good4 ,and you have him there1 you see4 ,he can't get beyond that4 ,you have to tell him1 in fact that there are two organs of knowledge3 the one reason1 the other obedience4 ,and now tell him there is but ,one1 and lead him to the great historical figure who calls all men to ,him3 the one perfect life--the one ,savior of mankind--the one ,light of the world4 ,ask him to begin to ,obey ,christ2 and1 doing ,his will1 he shall now of the doctrine whether it be of ,god4 ,that1 ,i think1 is about the only thing you can do with a man3 to get him into practical contact with the needs of the world1 and to let him lose his intellectual difficulties meantime4 ,don't ask him to give them up altogether4 ,tell him to solve them afterward one by one if he can1 but meantime to give his life to ,christ and his time to the kingdom of ,god4 ,you fetch him completely around when you do that4 ,you have taken him away from the false side of his nature1 and to the practical and moral side of his nature2 and for the first time in his life1 perhaps1 he puts things in their true place4 ,he puts his nature in the relations in which it ought to be1 and he then only begins to live4 ,and by obedience he will soon become a learner and pupil for himself1 and ,christ will teach him things1 and he will find whatever problems are solvable gradually solved as he goes along the path of practical duty4 ,now1 let me1 in closing1 give an instance of how to deal with specific points4 ,the question of miracles is thrown at my head every second day3 ,what do you say to a man when he says to you1 ',why do you believe in miracles8' ,i say1 ,because ,i have seen then4 ,he asks1 ,when8 ,i say1 ,yesterday4 ,where8 ,down such-and-such a street ,i saw a man who was a drunkard redeemed by the power of an unseen ,christ and saved from sin4 ,that is a miracle4 ,the best apologetic for ,christianity is a ,christian4 ,that is a fact which the man cannot get over4 ,there are fifty other arguments for miracles1 but none so good as that you have seen them4 ,perhaps1 you are one yourself4 ,but take a man and show him a miracle with his own eyes4 ,then he will believe4 ,the ,project ,gutenberg ,etext of ,addresses by ,henry ,drummond 999999 x-header 999999