,transcriber's note3 ,text enclosed by underscores is in italics 7italics74 ,small capital text has been replaced with all capitals4 ,text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face 7bold74 99 99 99 99 99 ,illustration3 coverpage ,illustration3 titlepage ,the ,world's ,great ,sermons ,,volume ,,ix ,,cuyler ,,to ,,van ,,dyke ,,the ,,world',s ,,great ,,sermons ,,compiled ,,by ,,grenville ,,kleiser ,formerly of ,yale ,divinity ,school ,faculty2 ,author of ,how to ,speak in ,public1 ,etc4 ,with ,assistance from ,many of the ,foremost ,living ,preachers and ,other ,theologians ,,introduction ,,by ,,lewis ,o4 ,,brastow1 ,d4,d4 ,professor ,emeritus of ,practical ,theology in ,yale ,university ,,in ,,ten ,,volumes ,,volume ,,ix--,,cuyler ,,to ,,van ,,dyke ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company ,,new ,,york and ,,london ,,copyright1 #aijh1 ,,by ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america ,,contents ,,volume ,,ix ,,cuyler 7,born in #ahbb74 ,page ,the ,value of ,life #a ,,broadus 7#ahbg-ahie74 ,let us ,have ,peace ,with ,god #ai ,,wilberforce 7,born in #ahdj74 ,the ,mother ,church #cg ,,spalding 7,born in #ahdj74 ,education and the ,future of ,religion #di ,,macarthur 7,born in #ahda74 ,christ--,the ,question of the ,centuries #gc ,,carpenter 7,born in #ahda74 ,the ,age of ,progress #ia ,,parkhurst 7,born in #ahdb74 ,constructive ,faith #aaa ,,patton 7,born in #ahdc74 ,glorification ,through ,death #abi ,,scott ,,holland 7,born in #ahdg74 ,the ,story of a ,disciple's ,faith #ade ,,stalker 7,born in #ahdh74 ,temptation #afe ,,burrell 7,born in #ahdi74 ,how to ,become a ,christian #ahc ,,watson 7#ahej-aijg74 ,optimism #aii ,,nicoll 7,born in #ahea74 ,gethsemane1 the ,rose ,garden of ,god #baa ,,van ,,dyke 7,born in #aheb74 ,the ,meaning of ,manhood #bca ,,cuyler ,,the ,,value ,,of ,,life ,,biographical ,,note ,theodore ,ledyard ,cuyler1 ,presbyterian divine1 was born at ,aurora1 ,new ,york1 in #ahbb4 ,he took his degree at ,princeton in #ahda1 and studied theology in ,princeton ,seminary4 ,he was ordained to the ministry in #ahdh1 but after discharging the duties of three pastoral positions1 took up the prosecution of more general activities1 including temperance and philanthropic work4 ,he has been a voluminous writer1 having contributed some four thousand articles to leading religious organs4 ,he died ,february #bf1 #aiji4 ,,cuyler #ahbb-aiji ,,the ,,value ,,of ,,life ,the spirit of ,god hath made me1 and the breath of the ,almighty hath given me life4--,job xxxiii41 #d4 ,there are two conflicting theories1 nowadays1 as to the origin of man4 ,one theory brings him upward from the brute1 the other1 downward from ,god2 one gives him an ascent from the ape1 the other a descent from the ,almighty4 ,i shall waste no time in refuting the first theory4 ,the most profound physicist of ,europe1 ,professor ,virchow1 of ,berlin1 has lately asserted that this theory of man's evolution from the brute has no solid scientific foundation4 ,why need you and ,i seek to disprove what no man has ever yet proved or will prove8 ,the other theory of man's origin comes down to us in the oldest book in existence1 the ,book of ,job1 and tallies exactly with the narrative in the next oldest books1 those compiled by ,moses3 ,the spirit of ,god hath made me1 and the breath of the ,almighty hath given me life4 ,that is the ,bible account of your ancestry and mine4 ,we make a great deal of ancestry4 ,the son of a duke may become a duke2 the child of a king has royal blood in his veins2 and a vast deal of honor is supposed to descend with an honorable descent4 ,grant this true1 it proves a great deal2 it proves more than some of us imagine4 ,it proves that there is something grander than for man to have for his sire a king or an emperor1 a statesman or a conqueror1 a poet or a philosopher4 ,it looks to the grandest genealogy in the universe1 the ancestry of a whole race2 not a few favored individuals1 but all humanity4 ,my brethren1 fellow sharers of immortality1 open this family record4 ,trace your ancestry back to the most august parentage in the universe3 ,one is our ,father1 ,god2 ,one our elder brother1 ,jesus4 ,we all draw lineage from the ,king of kings and the ,lord of lords4 ,herein consists the value and dignity of human life4 ,i go back to the origin of the globe4 ,i find that for five days the creative hand of the ,almighty is busy in fitting up an abode of palatial splendor4 ,he adorns it2 ,he hollows the seas for man's highway1 rears the mountains for his observatories1 stores the mines for his magazines1 pours the streams to give him drink1 and fertilizes the fields to give him daily bread4 ,the mansion is carpeted with verdure1 illuminated with the greater light by day1 lesser lights by night4 ,then ,god comes up to the grandest work of all4 ,when the earth is to be fashioned and the ocean to be poured into its bed1 ,god simply says1 ,let them be1 and they are4 ,when man is to be created1 the ,godhead seems to make a solemn pause1 retires into the recesses of ,his own tranquillity1 looks for a model1 and finds it in ,himself4 ,and ,god said1 let us make man in our image1 after our likeness4444 ,so ,god created man in his own image1 in the image of ,god created he him2 male and female created he them4444 ,so ,god breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul4 ,no longer a beautiful model1 no longer a speechless statue1 but vivified4 ,life1 that subtle1 mysterious thing that no physicist can define1 whose lurking place in the body no medical eye hath yet found out--life came into the clay structure4 ,he began to breathe1 to walk1 to think1 to feel in the body the nephesh3 the word in the ,hebrew means1 in the first place1 the breath of life1 then1 finally1 by that immortal essence called the soul4 ,now1 it is not my intention to enter into any analysis of this expression1 the spirit1 but talk to you on life1 its reach and its revenue1 its preciousness and its power1 its rewards and its retributions1 life for this world and the far-reaching world beyond4 ,life is ,god's gift2 your trust and mine4 ,we are the trustees of the ,giver1 unto whom at last we shall render account for every thought1 word and deed in the body4 ,i4 ,in the first place1 life1 in its origin1 is infinitely important4 ,the birth of a babe is a mighty event4 ,from the frequency of births1 as well as the frequency of deaths1 we are prone to set a very low estimate on the ushering into existence of an animate child1 unless the child be born in a palace or a presidential mansion1 or some other lofty station4 ,unless there be something extraordinary in the circumstances1 we do not attach the importance we ought to the event itself4 ,it is only noble birth1 distinguished birth1 that is chronicled in the journals or announced with salvos of artillery4 ,i admit that the relations of a prince1 of a president and statesman1 are more important to their fellow men and touch them at more points than those of an obscure pauper2 but when the events are weighed in the scales of eternity1 the difference is scarcely perceptible4 ,in the darkest hovel in ,brooklyn1 in the dingiest attic or cellar1 or in any place in which a human being sees the first glimpse of light1 the eye of the ,omniscient beholds an occurrence of prodigious moment4 ,a life is begun1 a life that shall never end4 ,a heart begins to throb that shall beat to the keenest delight or the acutest anguish4 ,more than this--a soul commences a career that shall outlast the earth on which it moves4 ,the soul enters upon an existence that shall be untouched by time1 when the sun is extinguished like a taper in the sky1 the moon blotted out1 and the heavens have been rolled together as a vesture and changed forever4 ,the ,scandinavians have a very impressive allegory of human life4 ,they represent it as a tree1 the ,igdrasil or the tree of existence1 whose roots grow deep down in the soil of mystery2 the trunk reaches above the clouds2 its branches spread out over the globe4 ,at the foot of it sit the ,past1 the ,present1 and the ,future1 watering the roots4 ,its boughs1 with their unleafing1 spread out through all lands and all time2 every leaf of the tree is a biography1 every fiber a word1 a thought or a deed2 its boughs are the histories of nations2 the rustle of it is the noise of human existence onward from of old2 it grows amid the howling of the hurricane1 it is the great tree of humanity4 ,now in that conception of the half savage ,norsemen1 we learn how they estimated the grandeur of human life4 ,it is a transcendent1 momentous thing1 this living1 bare living1 thinking1 feeling1 deciding4 ,it comes from ,god2 ,he is its ,author2 it should rise toward ,god1 its ,giver1 who is alone worthy of being served2 that with ,god it may live forever4 ,,ii4 ,in the next place1 human life is transcendently precious from the services it may render to ,god in the advancement of ,his glory4 ,man was not created as a piece of guesswork1 flung into existence as a waif4 ,there is a purpose in the creation of every human being4 ,god did not breathe the breath of life into you1 my friend1 that you might be a sensuous or a splendid animal4 ,that soul was given you for a purpose worthy of yourself1 still more of the ,creator4 ,what is the purpose of life8 ,is it advancement8 ,is it promotion8 ,is it merely the pursuit of happiness8 ,man was created to be happy1 but to be more--to be holy4 ,the wisdom of those ,westminster fathers that gathered in the ,jerusalem chamber1 wrought it into the well-known phrase1 ,man's chief end is to glorify ,god and enjoy him forever4 ,that is the double aim of life3 duty first1 then happiness as the consequence2 to bring in revenues of honor to ,god1 to build up ,his kingdom1 spread ,his truth2 to bring this whole world of ,his and lay it subject at the feet of the ,son of ,god4 ,that is the highest end and aim of existence1 and every one here that has risen up to that purpose of life lives4 ,he does not merely vegetate1 he does not exist as a higher type of animal3 he lives a man's life on earth1 and when he dies he takes a man's life up to mingle with the loftier life of paradise4 ,the highest style of manhood and womanhood is to be attained by consecration to the ,son of ,god4 ,that is the only right way1 my friends1 to employ these powers which you have brought back to your homes from your sanctuary4 ,that is the only idea of life which you are to take to-morrow into the toils and temptations of the week4 ,that is the only idea of life that you are to carry unto ,god in your confessions and thanksgivings in the closet4 ,that is the only idea of life on which you are to let the transcendent light of eternity fall4 ,these powers1 these gifts1 the wealth earned1 the influence imparted1 all are to be laid at the feet of ,him who gave ,his life for you4 ,life is real1 momentous1 clothed with an awful and an overwhelming responsibility to its possessor4 ,nay1 ,i believe that life is the richest of boons1 or the most intolerable of curses4 ,setting before you the power of a well-spent life1 ,i might of course point first to the radiant pathway that extended from ,bethlehem's manger to the cross of ,calvary4 ,all along that path ,i read the single purpose of love1 all embracing and undying3 ,my meat is to do the will of him that sent me4444 ,i have glorified thee on earth1 ,i have finished the work thou gavest me to do4 ,next to that life we place the life begun on the road to ,damascus4 ,in him ,christ lived again1 with wondrous power1 present in the utterances and footsteps of the servant4 ,for me to live is ,christ3 that is the master passion of ,paul4 ,whether he ate or drank1 gained or lost1 wrought or suffered1 ,christ filled the eye and animated every step4 ,the chief end of ,paul was to glorify his ,savior2 and of the winding-up of that many-sided term of existence he could exclaim1 not boastfully1 but gladly3 ,i have fought the good fight2 ,i have finished my course2 ,i have kept the faith3 ,henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness4 ,i found myself lately studying with intense interest the biography of ,baxter4 ,for half a century that man gave himself to the service of ,jesus with a perseverance and industry that shames such loiterers as you and ,i4 ,just think of a man that twice on every ,lord's day proclaimed the gospel of his ,master with most elaborate care and unflinching diligence2 on the first two days of the week spent seven hours each day in instructing children of the parish1 not omitting a single one on account of poverty or obscurity2 think of him as devoting one whole day of each week to care for their bodily welfare1 devoting three days to study1 during which he prepared one hundred and sixty instructive volumes saturated with the spirit of the word1 among them that immortal ,saints' ,everlasting ,rest1 that has guided so many a believer up to glory4 ,the influence of one such life as that changed the whole aspect of the town of ,kidderminster4 ,when he came to it1 it swarmed with ignorance1 profligacy1 ,sabbath-breaking1 vice2 when he left it the whole community had become sober and industrious1 and a large portion converted and godly4 ,he says3 ,on the ,lord's ,day evening you may hear hundreds of families1 in their doors singing psalms or reading the ,bible1 as you pass along the streets4 ,sixteen hundred sat down at one time to his communion-table4 ,nearly every house became a house of prayer4 ,such was one life1 the life of a man much of the time an invalid1 crying out often unto ,god for deliverance from the most excruciating bodily pains4 ,such was one life on which was a stamped ,holiness to ,jesus1 and out of which flowed the continual efflux of ,christian power and beneficence4 ,such a man never dies4 ,good men live forever4 ,old ,augustine lives to-day in the rich discourses inspired by his teachings4 ,lord ,bacon lives in the ever-widening circles of engines1 telegraph and telephones which he taught men how to invent4 ,elizabeth ,fry lives in the prison reformers following her radiant and beneficial footsteps4 ,bunyan lies in ,bunhill ,fields1 but his bright spirit walks on the earth in the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,calvin sleeps at ,geneva1 and no man knoweth his sepulcher to this day1 but his magnificent ,vindication of ,god's ,sovereignty will live forever4 ,we hail him as in one sense an ancestor of our republic4 ,wesley slumbers beside the ,city ,road ,chapel2 his dead hand rings ten thousand ,methodist church bells round the globe4 ,isaac ,watts is dead1 but in the chariot of his hymns tens of thousands of spirits ascend to-day in majestic devotion4 ,howard still keeps prisons clean4 ,franklin protects our dwellings from lightnings4 ,dr4 ,duncan guards the earnings of the poor in the savings-bank4 ,for a hundred years ,robert ,raikes has gathered his ,sunday-schools all over ,christendom2 and ,abraham ,lincoln's breath still breathes through the life of the nation to which1 under ,god1 he gave a new birth of freedom4 ,the heart of a good man or a good woman never dies4 ,why1 it is infamy to die and not be missed4 ,live1 immortal friend1 live as the brother of ,jesus1 live as a fellow workman with ,christ in ,god's work4 ,phillips ,brooks once said to his people3 ,i exhort you to pray for fulness of life--full red blood in the body1 full and honest truth in the mind1 fulness of consecrated love to the dying ,savior in the heart4 ,,iii4 ,in the next place1 life is infinitely valuable1 not only from the dignity of its origin and the results and revenues it may reach1 but from the eternal consequences flowing from it4 ,ah1 this world1 with its curtaining of light1 its embroideries of the heavens1 and its carpeting of verdure1 is a solemn vestibule to eternity4 ,my hearer1 this world on which you exhibit your nature this morning is the porch of heaven or the gateway of hell4 ,here you may be laying up treasures through ,christ and for ,christ1 to make you a millionaire to all eternity4 ,here1 by simply refusing to hearken1 by rejecting the cross1 by grieving the ,spirit1 you may kindle a flame that shall consume and give birth to a worm of remorse that shall prey on your soul forever and ever4 ,in this brief twenty years1 thirty1 or forty1 you must1 without mistake1 settle a question1 the decision of which shall lift you to the indescribable heights of rapture or plunge you to the depths of darkness and despair4 ,i am a baby at the thought of the word eternity2 ,i have racked this brain of mine1 in its poverty and its weakness1 and have not the faintest conception of it1 any more than ,i have of the omnipresence of ,jehovah2 yet one is as real as the other1 and you and ,i will go on in the continuation of an existence that outnumbers the years as the ,atlantic drops outnumber the drops of a brook2 an existence whose ages are more than the stars that twinkled last night in the firmament--an existence interminable1 yet all swinging on the pivot of that life in that pew4 ,it is overpowering4 ,how momentous1 then1 is life6 ,how grand its possession6 what responsibility in its very breath6 what a crime to waste it6 what a glory to consecrate it6 what a magnificent outcome when it shall shuffle off the coil1 and break itself free from its entanglements1 and burst into the presence of its ,giver1 and rise into all the transcendent glories of its life everlasting6 ,in view of that1 what a solemn thing it is to preach ,god's word1 and to stand between the living and the dead6 ,and in view of life1 its preciousness and power1 its far-reaching rewards and punishments1 let me say here1 in closing1 that there are three or four practical considerations that should be prest home upon us and carried out by us3 #a4 ,the first practical thought is1 how careful you and ,i ought to be to husband it4 ,the neglect of life is a sin2 it is an insult to ,god2 it is tampering with the most precious trust ,he bestows4 ,the care of life is a religious duty4 ,a great deal of your happiness depends on it1 and ,i can tell you1 my ,christian brother1 a great deal of your spiritual growth and capacity for usefulness depends on the manner in which you treat this marvelous mechanism of the body4 ,your religious life is affected by the condition of the body in which the spirit tabernacles4 ,it is not only lying lips1 it is the wilful dyspeptic1 that is an abomination to the ,lord4 ,any one that recklessly impairs1 imperils and weakens bodily powers by bad hours1 unwholesome diet1 poisonous stimulants or sensualities1 is a suicide2 and there are some men1 ,i am afraid1 in this congregation that yield themselves such unpitied bond-slaves to the claims of business1 that they are shortening life by years and impairing its powers every day4 ,thousands of suicides are committed every year in ,brooklyn by a defiance of the simplest laws of self-preservation and health4 ,what shall we say of him who opens a haunt of temptation1 sets out his snares and deliberately deals out death by the dram8 ,so many pieces of silver for so many ounces of blood1 and an immortal soul tossed into the balance6 ,if ,i could let one ray of eternity shine into every dramshop1 methinks ,i could frighten the poison seller back from making his living at the mouth of the pit4 #b4 ,again1 in this view of the value of life1 what a stupendous crime wanton war becomes--offensive war1 such war as multitudes have dashed into from the lust of conquest or the greed of gold4 ,when war is to be welcomed1 rather than a nation should commit suicide and the hopes of men perish1 then with prayers and self-consecration may the patriot go out to the battle and the sacrifice2 but offensive war is a monster of hell4 ,with all our admiration for ,napoleon's brilliant and unsurpassed genius1 there are passages in his life that make my blood sometimes tingle to the finger ends1 and start the involuntary hiss at the very thought of such a gigantic butcher of his fellow creatures4 ,if that man knew that a battery could be carried only at the cost of a legion of men1 he never hesitated to order their sacrifice as lightly as he would the life of a gnat4 ,i read that1 after what is called his splendid victory of ,austerlitz was over and the triumph was won and the iron crown of empire was fixt on his brow1 as he stood on the high ground he saw a portion of the defeated ,russians making a slow1 painful retreat over a frozen lake4 ,they were in his power2 he rode up to a battery1 and said1 ,men you are losing time6 fire on those masses2 they must be swallowed up6 fire on that ice6 ,the order was executed4 ,shells were thrown1 and went crashing through the brittle bridge of ice1 and amid awful shrieks hundreds upon hundreds of poor wretches were buried in the frozen waters of that lake4 ,i believe the dying shrieks of his fellow creatures will haunt the eternity of a man who prostituted the most magnificent powers the ,creator fashioned in this our century of time to the awful work of shortening life1 tormenting his fellow creatures and sending a million unbidden before ,god4 #c4 ,once more ,i emphasize upon you1 my beloved people1 life1 its preciousness and power1 its rewards and its retributions4 ,and yet1 what a vapor1 what a flight of an arrow1 what a tale that is told6 ,short1 yet infinite in its reach and its retribution6 ,when life is represented as an arrow flight and a vapor1 it is not that it may be underrated in its infinite importance1 but only that we may be pushed up to the right sense of its brevity4 ,everything in ,god's world ennobles humanity and exhibits life as earnest1 solemn1 decisive1 momentous4 ,the highest ends are proposed to it while it exists1 the most magnificent rewards are held out at the termination of its consecrated vitalities4 ,at the end of it is the great white throne1 and the decisions of the judgment4 ,some of you1 turning from this discourse this morning1 may say it was nothing but sacred poetry because your life is only the steady1 monotonous round of a mill-horse--to-morrow across the ferry1 home at night--through its routine in the shop1 in the counting-room1 in the family1 on the ,sabbath in church--and say1 ,i see nothing in my life that thus sparkles or shines or has this sublime characteristic6 ,ah1 my friend1 grant that your life may be the mill-round of the mill-horse2 you turn a shaft that reaches through the wall into eternity1 and the humblest life in this house sets in motion revolving wheels that shall at last grind out for ,god's garner the precious grain1 or else the worthless chaff of a wasted existence4 ,so again ,i say1 life is the porch of eternity1 the only one we shall ever have2 and you are to decide now whether it shall be the uplift from strength to strength1 from glory to glory1 or the plunge downward and still downward and deeper downward to darkness and eternal death4 ,my friend1 what sort of a life are you living8 ,a really earnest1 humble consecration to ,god8 ,go on4 ,live1 as ,i mean to do1 as long as ,god shall spare power and intellectual faculty to serve ,him4 ,live as long as you can1 as largely as you can2 and then carry all life's accumulation and lay it down at the feet of ,him whose heart broke for you and me on the cross of ,calvary1 and say3 ,master1 here ,i am1 and the life ,thou hast given me4 ,,broadus ,,let ,,us ,,have ,,peace ,,with ,,god ,,biographical ,,note ,john ,a4 ,broadus was born in ,virginia in #ahbg4 ,his preeminence as a preacher was attained while he was chiefly occupied as professor of ,new ,testament ,interpretation and ,homiletics in the ,baptist ,theological ,seminary at ,louisville1 ,kentucky4 7,originally established at ,greenville1 ,south ,carolina47 ,for many years ,dr4 ,broadus was regarded as the foremost preacher of the ,south1 and was in demand on many important public occasions for sermons and addresses4 ,it has been said that the thought and the language of his sermons lingered in the mind like strains of melodious and inspiring music4 ,the sermon here given is characteristic of the earnest simplicity of his style1 and of the theological and philosophical bent of his homiletic methods4 ,he died in #ahie4 ,,broadus #ahbg-ahie ,,let ,,us ,,have ,,peace ,,with ,,god#a #a ,reprinted by permission of ,a4 ,c4 ,armstrong ,son1 from ,sermons and ,addresses by ,john ,a4 ,broadus4 ,copyright1 #ahhf4 ,therefore being justified by faith1 let us have peace with ,god1 through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4--,romans v41 #a4 7,r4 ,v47 ,it is nearly four centuries ago now1 that a young professor from the north of ,germany went to ,rome4 ,he was a man of considerable learning and of versatile mind4 ,yet he did not go to ,rome to survey the remains of antiquity or the treasures of modern art4 ,he went to ,rome because he was in trouble about his sins and could find no peace4 ,having been educated to regard ,rome as the center of the ,christian world1 he thought he would go to the heart of things and see what he could there find4 ,he had reflected somewhat at home1 and had talked with other men more advanced than himself1 on the thought that the just shall live by faith2 but still that thought had never taken hold of him4 ,we read--some of you remember the story quite well--how one day1 according to the strange ideas that prevailed and still prevail at ,rome1 he went climbing up a stairway on his knees1 pausing to pray on every step1 to see if that would not help him about his sins4 ,then1 as he climbed slowly up1 he seemed to hear a voice echoing down the stairway1 ,the just shall live by faith2 the just shall live by faith4 ,and so he left alone his dead works1 he arose from his knees and went down the stairway to his home to think about that great saying1 ,the just shall live by faith4 ,it is no wonder that with such an experience1 and such a nature1 ,martin ,luther should have lived to shake the ,christian world with the thought that justification by faith is the great doctrine of ,christianity1 the article of a standing or a falling church4 ,it is no wonder that ,john ,wesley1 rising up with living earnestness when ,england was covered with a pall of spiritual death1 should have revived the same thought--justification by faith4 ,yet it is not true that the doctrine of justification by faith is all of the gospel4 ,it is true that the doctrine of justification by faith is simply one of the several ways by which the gospel takes hold of men4 ,you do not hear anything of that doctrine in the ,epistles of ,john4 ,he has another way of presenting the gospel salvation1 namely1 that we must love ,christ1 and be like ,him1 and obey ,him4 ,i think sometimes that ,martin ,luther made the world somewhat one-sided by his doctrine of justification by faith2 that the great mass of the ,protestant world are inclined to suppose there is no other way of looking on the gospel4 ,there are very likely some here to-day who would be more imprest by ,john's way of presenting the matter2 but probably the majority would be more imprest by ,paul's way1 and it is our business to present now this and now that1 to present first one side and then the other4 ,so we have here before us to-day ,paul's great doctrine of justification by faith1 in perhaps one of his most striking statements4 ,therefore1 being justified by faith1 let us have peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,my friends1 we talk and hear about these gospel truths1 and repeat these ,scripture words1 and never stop to ask ourselves whether we have a clear idea of what is meant4 ,what does ,paul mean when he talks about being justified8 ,there has been a great deal of misapprehension as to his meaning4 ,martin ,luther was all wrong in his early life1 because he had been reared up in the idea that a justified man means simply a just man1 a good man1 and that he could not account himself justified or hope for salvation until he was a thoroughly good man4 ,now1 the ,latin word from which we borrow our word justified does not mean to make just1 and as the ,romanists use the ,latin1 their error is natural4 ,but ,paul's ,greek word means not to make just1 but to regard as just1 to treat as just4 ,that is a very important difference--not to make just1 but to regard and treat as just4 ,how would ,god treat you1 if you were a righteous man2 if you had1 through all your life1 faithfully performed all your duties1 conforming to all your relations to your fellow beings--how would ,he regard and treat you8 ,he would look upon you with complacency4 ,he would smile on you as one that was in ,his sight pleasing4 ,he would bless you as long as you lived in this world1 and1 when you were done with this world1 ,he would delight to take you home to ,his bosom1 in another world1 because you would deserve it4 ,and now as ,god would treat a man who was just because he deserved it1 so the gospel proposes to treat men who are not just and who do not deserve it1 if they believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,he will treat them as just1 tho they are not just1 if they believe in ,christ2 that is to say1 he will look upon them with ,his favor2 ,he will smile upon them in ,his love2 ,he will bless them with every good as long as they live1 and when they die ,he will delight to take them home to ,his own bosom1 tho they never deserved it1 through ,his ,son1 ,jesus ,christ4 ,that is what ,paul means by justification4 ,and when ,martin ,luther found that out he found peace4 ,this ,epistle to the ,romans had always stopt his progress when reading the ,new ,testament4 ,he would read1 in the ,latin version1 ,for therein is revealed the justice of ,god1 and he felt in his heart that ,god's justice must condemn him4 ,but now he came to see what was really meant by the righteousness of ,god1 the righteousness which ,god provides and bestows on the believer in ,jesus4 ,a sinful man1 an undeserving man1 may get ,god ,almighty's forgiveness and favor and love1 may be regarded with complacency and delight1 tho he does not deserve it1 if he believes in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,that is justification by faith4 ,it is one thing to take hold of this matter in the way of doctrinal conception and expression1 and of course1 ,god be thanked6 it is another thing to receive it in the heart4 ,there are many people who get hold of it all in the heart with trust and peace that never have a correct conception of it as a doctrine4 ,yet ,i suppose it is worth while that we should endeavor to see these things clearly4 ,other things being equal1 they will be the holiest and most useful ,christians who have the clearest perception of the great facts and truths of the gospel4 ,so ,i recommend to you that whenever any one tries to explain to you one of these great doctrinal truths1 you shall listen with fixt attention and see if you can not get a clearer view of the gospel teachings on that subject1 for it will do you good4 ,now let us come to the second thought here1 viz41 being justified by faith4 ,a man might say1 if ,god proposes to deal with those who are not just1 as if they were1 why does ,he condition it upon believing in the gospel of ,jesus ,christ8 ,why can not ,god proclaim a universal amnesty at once1 and be done with it1 to all ,his sinful1 weak children1 and treat them all as if they were just1 without their believing8 ,i don't think this is hard to see4 ,god does not merely propose to deal with us for the time being as if we were just1 but ,he proposes in the end to make us actually just4 ,it would be an unsatisfactory salvation to a right-minded man if ,god proposed merely to exempt us from the consequences of our sins and not to deliver us from our sins4 ,you do not want merely to escape punishment for sin without ever becoming good2 you want to be righteous and holy1 you want to be delivered from sin itself as well as from the consequences of sin4 ,and this gospel1 which begins by its proclamation that ,god is willing to treat men as just1 altho they are not just1 does not stop there4 ,it proposes to be the means by which ,god will take hold of men's characters and make them just1 make them holy4 ,you may1 for the moment1 conceive of such a thing as that ,god should make a proclamation of universal amnesty1 and treat all men as if they were just2 but that would not make them any better4 ,the gospel is not merely to deliver us from the consequence of sin1 but to deliver us from the power of sin4 ,you can conceive of an amnesty as to the consequence of sin1 which should extend to persons that will not even believe there is such an amnesty2 but you can not see how the gospel is to have any power in delivering us from the dominion of sin1 unless we believe the gospel4 ,it can do so only through belief4 ,therefore it is not possible that a man should be justified without belief4 ,i think it is useful that we should thus try to see that this is not a matter of mere arbitrary appointment on the part of the sovereign ,power of the universe1 but that the condition is necessary--that it can not be otherwise4 ,being justified by faith1 it reads2 and we can not be justified without faith1 because the same gospel is also to take hold of us and make us just4 ,and now1 some one who feels a little freshened interest in this subject1 some man who has never got hold of the gospel faith1 says to himself3 ,i wonder if the preacher is going to explain to me what believing is1 what faith is4 ,i never heard any one succeed in explaining faith4 ,well1 if you will pardon me1 the best explanation of faith ,i ever heard was given by a negro preacher in ,virginia4 ,as the story was told me1 one ,sunday afternoon1 a few years ago1 some negroes were lying on the ground together1 and one of them spoke and said1 ,uncle ,reuben1 can you explain this3 ,faith in de ,lord1 and faith in de debbil8 ,to be sure ,i can4 ,there is two things3 in de fust place1 faith in de ,lord1 and then faith in de debbil4 ,now1 in the fust place1 fustly1 there is faith4 ,what is faith8 ,why1 faith is jes faith4 ,faith ain't nothing less than faith4 ,faith ain't nothing more than faith4 ,faith is jest faith--now ,i done splain it4 ,really1 that man was right1 there is nothing to explain4 ,faith is as simple a conception as the human mind can have4 ,how1 then1 can you explain faith8 ,you are neither able to analyze it into parts1 nor can you find anything simpler with which to compare it4 ,so also as to some other things1 that are perfectly easy and natural in practical exercise1 and can not be explained4 ,what is love8 ,well1 ,i won't go into an elaborate metaphysical definition of love1 but if ,i wanted a child to love me1 ,i should try to exhibit myself in such a character to him and act in such ways that the little child would see in me something to love1 and would feel like loving4 ,there would then be no need of an explanation of what love is4 ,did you ever hear a satisfactory definition of laughter8 ,if you wanted to make a man laugh1 would you attempt to define laughter to him8 ,you might possibly succeed in making a laughable definition2 but otherwise definitions won't make a man laugh4 ,you would simply say or do something ludicrous1 and he would laugh readily enough if he was so disposed2 and if the man be not in a mood for laughing1 all your explanations are utterly useless4 ,and so what is faith8 ,there is nothing to explain4 ,everybody knows what faith is4 ,if you want to induce a man to believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 you must hold up the ,lord to him in ,his true character1 and then1 if he is in a mood to believe1 he will believe1 and if he is disinclined to belief1 all your explanations will be fruitless4 ,the practical result may even be obstructed by attempts to explain4 ,what is faith8 ,you know what faith is4 ,every one knows4 ,well1 then1 a man might say1 ,if you mean by faith in the ,lord the simple idea of believing what the ,scripture says concerning ,him1 the idea of believing its teachings about the ,lord ,jesus ,christ to be true1 if that is what faith means1 then all of us are believers1 all have faith4 ,i am afraid not4 ,i am afraid there are some here who have not faith4 ,has a man faith in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ who simply does not disbelieve in him8 ,i may not deny that what the gospel says is true1 but is that believing8 ,yonder sits a gentleman2 suppose some one should come hastily up the aisle1 calling his name1 and say1 ,your house is afire4 ,the gentleman sits perfectly quiet and looks unconcerned1 as people so often do when listening to preaching4 ,the man repeats it3 ,i say your house is afire4 ,but still he sits in his place4 ,some one near him says1 ,you hear what that man says4 ,do you believe it8 ,yes1 ,i believe it1 he carelessly replies1 and does not stir4 ,you would all say1 ,the man is insane1 or certainly he does not believe it2 for if he did1 he would not sit perfectly still and remain perfectly unconcerned4 ,even so when the preacher speaks of sin and guilt and ruin1 of ,god's wrath and the fire that is not quenched2 or when he stands with joyful face and proclaims to his hearers that for their sin and ruin there is a ,savior2 and they say they believe1 and yet look as if it were of no concern to them at all2 then ,i say they do not believe it--the thing is not possible4 ,they may not disbelieve it2 they may not care to make an attempt to overturn it2 they may be in a sort of negative mood2 but they do not believe it4 ,with that statement ,i suppose there are a great many of us who concur and who will at once say1 ,often ,i fear that ,i do not really believe it4 ,if ,i did believe it1 the gospel would have more power over my heart and more power over my life than it does have4 ,and what1 oh1 what shall ,i do8 ,the preacher has to remind you of that father to whom the ,savior came when the disciples had tried in vain to heal his suffering child4 ,jesus said to him3 ,all things are possible to him that believeth2 and he replied3 ,i believe2 help thou my unbelief4 ,that should be your cry3 ,i believe2 help thou my unbelief4 ,the man would not deny that he believed1 and yet felt bound to add that he knew he did not believe as he ought to4 ,now the comfort is1 that ,he who sees all hearts accepted that man's confessedly imperfect faith1 and granted his request4 ,that has often been the preacher's comfort as he uttered the same cry1 ,i believe2 help thou my unbelief2 and ,god give it as a comfort to you6 ,but do not content yourself with such a state of things1 with any such feeble1 half-way believing4 ,nay1 let us cherish all that tends to strengthen our faith in the gospel2 let us read the ,word of ,god1 praying that we may be able to believe2 let us say from day to day1 as the disciples said3 ,lord1 increase our faith4 ,the text proceeds3 ,therefore1 being justified by faith1 let us have peace with ,god4 ,instead of the declaration1 ,we have peace with ,god1 the best authorities for the text make it an exhortation1 ,let us have peace with ,god2 and so the revised version reads4 ,some critics admit that the documents require us so to read1 but say that they can see no propriety in an exhortation at this point--that it seems much more appropriate to understand the apostle as asserting a fact4 ,yet ,i think we can see meaning and fitness in the text as corrected3 ,being justified by faith1 let us have peace with ,god4 ,let us have peace with ,god1 notwithstanding our unworthiness4 ,my friends1 we can not have peace with ,god so long as we cling to the notion that we are going to deserve it4 ,just there is the difficulty with many of those who are trying to be at peace with ,god4 ,they have been clinging to the thought that they must first become worthy1 and then become reconciled to ,god2 and they will have to see more clearly that they must come to ,christ in order that1 being reconciled1 they may be made good1 may become worthy4 ,we may say there are two conceivable ways to have peace with ,god4 ,it is conceivable to have peace with ,god through our worthiness1 and it is conceivable and also practicable to have peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 tho we be unworthy4 ,then let us have peace with ,him1 altho so unworthy1 through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,again1 let us have peace with ,god1 tho we are still sinful and unholy1 tho we know we come far short in character and in life of what ,god's children ought to be4 ,we must be1 ought to be1 intensely dissatisfied with ourselves2 but let us be satisfied with our ,savior1 and have peace with ,god through ,him2 not content with the idea of remaining such as we are1 but1 seeing that the same gospel which offers us forgiveness and acceptance offers us also a genuine renewal through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and promises that finally we shall be made holy1 as ,god is holy1 shall indeed be perfect1 as our ,father in heaven is perfect4 ,let us rejoice in the gracious promise of that perfect life1 and1 while seeking to be what we ought to be1 let us have peace with ,god4 ,our sanctification is still sadly imperfect--the best of us well know that1 and probably the best of us feel it most deeply2 but if we believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 our justification is perfect4 ,we can never be more justified than we are now justified1 tho we shall be more and more made holy as long as we live1 and at last made perfectly holy as we pass into the perfect world4 ,my brethren1 do think more and talk more of that4 ,it is an intensely practical matter1 not only for your comfort but for the strength of your life4 ,if we believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 altho we are painfully conscious that we are far from being in character and life what we ought to be1 yet1 through the perfect justification which we have at once1 we shall in the end by ,his grace be made perfectly holy4 ,let us have peace with ,god1 tho we have perpetual conflict with sin4 ,what a singular idea6 ,peace with ,god1 and yet conflict1 yes1 perpetual conflict1 with a thousand forms of temptation to sin1 temptations springing from spiritual tempters--perpetual conflict1 and yet peace with ,god4 ,is not that conceivable8 ,is not that possible8 ,in this conflict we are on the ,lord's side2 in this conflict the ,lord is on our side2 and so1 tho the battle must be waged against every form of sin1 we may have peace with ,god4 ,and finally1 let us have peace with ,god tho ,he leaves us to suffer a thousand forms of distress and trial4 ,let us have peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 by whom also we have had access by faith into this grace wherein we stand2 and let us rejoice in hope of the glory of ,god4 ,and not only so1 but let us also rejoice in our tribulations2 knowing that tribulation worketh patience2 and patience1 proving2 and proving1 hope2 and hope maketh not ashamed1 because the love of ,god hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the ,holy ,ghost which was given unto us4 ,surely man may have peace with ,god1 tho he be left to suffer4 ,for none of these things can separate us from ,god's love4 ,who shall separate us from ,christ's love8 ,for ,i am persuaded that neither death nor life1 neither angels nor principalities nor powers1 neither things present nor things to come1 neither height nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4 ,when we are in trouble1 let us take fast hold upon that great thought1 that trouble does not divide us from the love of ,god4 ,yea1 ,god's peace can conquer trouble1 and guard us1 as in a fortress1 against its assaults4 ,in nothing be anxious2 but in everything1 by prayer and supplication1 with thanksgiving1 let your requests be made known unto ,god4 ,and the peace of ,god1 which passeth all understanding1 shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in ,christ ,jesus4 ,,wilberforce ,,the ,,mother ,,church ,,biographical ,,note ,ernest ,roland ,wilberforce1 son of ,samuel ,wilberforce1 bishop of ,winchester1 was born in #ahdj1 and educated at ,harrow and ,oxford4 ,he was appointed bishop of ,newcastle in #ahhb1 and thence translated to ,chichester in #ahie4 ,,wilberforce ,born in #ahdj ,,the ,,mother ,,church#b #b ,from ,the ,anglican ,pulpit4 ,reprinted by permission of the publishers1 ,messrs4 ,hodder ,stoughton4 ,take up thy son4--#b ,kings iv41 #cf4 ,there is a metallic sound about most missionary sermons which seems1 at least to some1 instinctively to harden the hearts and to invalidate the sympathies of the listeners4 ,the jingle of the coming collection appears to be inextricably mixed up with the solemn truths and heartfelt appeals that flow so often from the preacher's lips1 and we feel that at least we would rather separate the two by as wide a chasm of intervening time as may be possible consistently with the well-known cooling tendencies of all human emotions4 ,i have no reason to think that this sermon will prove itself to be in any real sense an exception to this general rule1 and yet1 my brethren1 ,i seek1 as ,god may now enable me1 to remind you very briefly of some of the deeper principles that underlie all missionary success1 believing as ,i do that these are possest of a peculiar power of eliciting enduring support1 since they flow from the bosom of the ,godhead itself4 ,take up thy son4 ,god alone1 it has been said1 who ,himself created it1 can fully understand the infinite pathos of human nature4 ,certain it is that beneath the inspired record the histories of men and women of old begin to sparkle and to burn as1 endowed with life and personality1 they act anew their histories before us as we sympathize with their mistakes1 wonder at their endurance1 admire them for the traits of humanity they display1 and feel drawn toward them by the attractive power of their love2 we feel that we can be no longer really solitary here below1 that1 however tiresome may be our lot1 we have friends who speak from those old records1 friends who link yet living hands the closer round our hearts as we see much of our own life-history faithfully anticipated in theirs1 and learn to read the solution of many of the struggles of the present in the difficulties of the past4 ,take up thy son4 ,from that old chamber1 built originally to form a sanctuary for the honored servant of his ,god1 where now the corpse of the only child of the household is lying1 there seems to me to speak a voice of prophecy with regard to ,god's dealings with humanity at large4 ,it was a time of overshadowing and of darkness in that ,eastern household4 ,the death of her son1 marvelously given in her husband's old age1 had left the mother's heart a thousand times more aching1 crusht1 and weary than before4 ,instinctively that heart reaches out toward the man of ,god4 ,the mother's feet are turned to ,carmel4 ,she will accept no substitute2 no wand of office1 no symbol of authority will satisfy the eager cravings of her love4 ,drawn by the cords of that great1 all-constraining power1 at length the prophet stands within the darkened room1 and through the personal contact of the prophet with the dead1 the power of ,god revives the corpse4 ,so both in the distance and within the darkened room1 while anxious1 expectant hearts keep watch below1 do ,elisha's actions typify the deeds of ,one ,who within a thousand years will walk the streets and lanes of ,eastern towns1 and will be known by loving hearts throughout the countryside4 ,humanity had died by sin throughout all the bygone ages2 the symbols of authority from the ,carmel of ,god's presence had been reached down to men upon the ,fall4 ,on human nature1 wrapt in the fell sleep of sin1 the wand of office had been used1 but there had been no bringing back to life4 ,messenger after messenger had come1 men who had communed with their ,god1 as undoubtedly as ,gehazi had left the presence of ,elisha to go that day to ,shunem2 but there was neither voice nor hearing1 and sorrowfully still each servant witnessed in succession to his mission3 ,the child is not awaked4 ,ah1 who1 my brethren1 should venture to guess1 still less to dogmatize1 how prayer might be said to quicken the accomplishment of the counsels of the triune ,god8 ,yet had prayer no part in the plan of the ,incarnation8 ,if the love of the ,shunammite mother compelled the presence of the prophet1 could then one of the greatest moral forces known within the universe be purposely excluded from the great work of man's redemption by the ,god ,who has caused it to be recorded of ,himself1 ,thou nearest prayer8 ,could fervent prayer and mighty intercession that rolled upward from the breasts of so long a line of kings1 and patriarchs1 and prophets1 and so many a lonely and unnoticed spot amid the hills and valleys of ,judah1 where ,baal found seven thousand knees that were recalcitrant to his false and bloody worship1 even when the great ,elijah believed himself to be alone in the one worship of the true ,god of ,israel2 could the longings of the hearts that desired to behold the things that after-generations saw1 could the cry of the souls from under the altar1 ,oh1 ,lord1 how long8 could1 ,i ask1 all these be fruitless and in vain8 ,or had each its own due place at least in hastening the coming of the kingdom1 and in determining when the fulness of time had arrived8 ,this1 at least1 is sure4 ,constrained by the laws of an imperious love1 ,god gave ,himself to bring what all ,his messengers had failed to convey4 ,clothed in that very flesh which once by sin had died1 ,christ stood in personal relations to mankind1 ,his hand in theirs1 ,his eyes to their eyes1 ,his mouth to their mouth2 and lo6 beneath ,his personal contact there began to glow again the warmth of pristine life which once had burned in ,eden1 when ,god and man held free and undiverted commerce4 ,and then ,christ filled up full with all its spiritual meaning that final action of the ,syrian prophet which had seemed to be so simple and so natural4 ,for1 ere ,he left the arena where ,he had proved ,himself to be the ,conqueror of death1 ,christ called forth the ,church which ,he had formed1 and ,he bade it tend the life which ,he had reimplanted in the hearts of men1 accompanying the mighty commission with a plenary promise of abiding power3 ,shepherd my sheep2 feed my lambs3 lo1 ,i am with you alway1 even unto the end of the world4 ,uniformity of action in every position1 mechanical exactness in every class of work1 whether you evangelize under frozen climes or torrid zones1 whether you preach to polished ,eastern intellects or instruct the degraded savage1 is neither to be expected nor yet to be desired4 ,the religion that becomes mechanical always stops itself4 ,but within the lines of her commission the ,church of ,god is bound to show in practise that she can touch all hearts1 enlist all sympathies1 influence all lives1 gather up into her ample bosom all whom the ,master loves2 just as a mother folds to her heart the entire members of her family1 irrespective of their diversity of tastes1 habits1 and mode of life1 nay1 even in spite of their failings1 and often of their sins1 and beneath the loving sympathy of that loving embrace all know instinctively that they have each their own peculiar place within the many mansions of the widely loving heart4 ,we are living in an age of development4 ,within old bottles it is certain new wine is beginning to ferment1 and elemental forces gather for the strife4 ,life implies assimilation2 assimilation means union of powers1 or new energies rising out of such combinations4 ,in early days the ,church of ,christ assimilated the life1 the teachings1 the powers around her1 casting out the false1 ennobling the true2 and she became the living force to which the history of the world bears testimony4 ,and what does all this teach us8 ,even that as a mother adapts herself to the varying characters displayed by her children in her wise government of the family1 so must the ,church of ,england in all her work take up her son into her bosom1 teaching the good and enforcing the true1 yet adapting her methods to win wisely1 to win surely1 to establish a lasting yet a spiritual dominion4 ,here there is a real danger1 one all the more real because speciously veiled from our sight2 philanthropy is busy around us--so much so that now it is almost a reproach not to be the instigator of half a dozen schemes for the elevation of this class or that people1 or of some other country4 ,but is not this far too often accompanied by a revolt from all dogmatic truth8 ,are not many of these schemes simply social and not religious1 and1 therefore1 at best1 temporary rather than eternal in their aims1 since they are founded upon man1 and not upon ,god8 ,religious feeling1 ,i fear1 is dying4 ,the past acquirements of man are ever laughed to scorn by the succeeding generation4 ,these are not to be the standard to which all is to be referred4 ,utilitarian principles and emotional subjectivity seem now to go hand in hand2 and the old formula1 ,thus saith the ,lord1 is to be a formula no more amid the forces of the world2 religious feeling1 ,i say1 ,i fear1 is ebbing away1 and with it goes infallibly all real missionary enterprise4 ,these are inseparably linked4 ,if it be true1 as it is1 that the spiritual life of a nation1 a parish1 or an individual be in danger of languishing unto death unless there be in it some manifestation of missionary zeal1 so also is it true that unless there be some more powerful lever at work than mere desire for social reformation1 unless ,god be the end and the object of life1 then no one will continue to spread ,god's teaching1 or to carry far and wide the good news of the ,son of man4 ,the first human mother came from out of the side of ,adam at the call of ,god2 our great spiritual mother came from the side of ,christ our ,lord4 ,oh1 my brethren1 we have so much to thank ,god for2 so much that bids us now take courage1 so much that ennobles our aims and helps to strengthen our objects4 ,from all parts of the world1 wherever the energy of ,englishmen has penetrated1 there now is coming the cry in gathering tones1 ,take up thy son4 ,hearts are asking for the priceless boon of the gospel to be preached to them4 ,heathen tribes are looking wistfully across the waste of intervening waters1 and rich ,england1 rich in her transmitted treasure of dogmatic truth and revealed faith1 rich in her dower of sons as well as in her possession of silver and gold1 is giving as yet an insufficient answer1 and has not as yet fully embraced her son4 ,how long shall there be this suspense1 as that of early dawn ere the sunshine fills the twilight8 ,let there be but more true love and warmth in the mother's heart1 let there be1 that is1 a revival of spiritual life at home1 and once more shall it be said1 ,great was the company of preachers1 as in the iron-clad armor of chastity1 temperance1 and righteousness1 men go forth to work and win for ,christ4 ,have ye each made this yet sufficiently a matter of prayer1 of self-denial1 of deep1 faithful trusting all to ,god8 ,my brothers1 in the kingdom and patience of our ,god already clarion notes are sounding out around us1 and signs are but repeating notes of warning4 ,messages of deep importance seem to tremble in the air1 forces to be gathering for some greater conflict than has been ever known before4 ,community of work is producing unity in thought2 hands are clasping now that have been kept asunder far too long4 ,the earth is being girdled gradually with spiritual fortresses1 whence is flashed on and ever on the golden light till ,christ shall come again and claim ,his bride4 ,can we then wonder at all forms of opposition meeting us8 ,but gathering gradually is the mighty family which in the day of revelation shall call ,god their ,father4 ,some time will the fellow soldiers know one another2 some day shall the long muster roll be called4 ,then will the ,captain of our salvation gather all ,his children round ,him4 ,is it long to wait1 hard to fight1 difficult to keep up the spirit during the discouragements that beset all missionary life8 ,do they wear too dark a hue at times8 ,lo1 the words of ,revelation are now finding echo in the pages of science1 and in unison these voices blend4 ,beneath us even now this solid orb begins to know fatigue and to slacken in its course4 ,remarkable words lately written are these3 ,even now as the earth circles on in her appointed orbit1 the northern ice-cap slowly thickens1 and the time gradually approaches when its glaciers will flow again1 and austral seas1 sweeping northward1 bury the seeds of present civilization under ocean wastes1 as it may be they now bury what once was as high a civilization as our own4 ,and beyond these periods science discovers a dead earth1 an exhausted sun1 a time when1 clashing together1 the solar system shall resolve itself into a gaseous form1 again to begin immeasurable mutations4 ,what ,revelation has loudly declared1 that science is now at length beginning to understand4 ,from both1 ,i say1 the voices call2 they blend into a trumpet warning mellowed with unutterable pathos3 ,work while it is day2 take up thy son4 ,,spalding ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,religion ,,biographical ,,note ,john ,lancaster ,spalding1 ,roman ,catholic bishop and author1 was born in ,lebanon1 ,kentucky1 in #ahdj4 ,he was educated at ,mount ,st4 ,mary's ,college1 and at the ,university of ,louvain1 ,belgium4 ,ordained a priest in #ahfc1 he was six years later chosen as secretary and chancellor of the diocese of ,louisville4 ,in #ahgg he was appointed to similar offices in the diocese of ,peoria4 ,he is a typical modern bishop1 of the ,cardinal ,manning type1 and the activity which he displayed in recent social and educational movements was recognized by his appointment to serve on the ,president's commission to investigate strikes1 in #aijb4 ,the trend of his literary work may be seen in his volumes on ,education and the ,higher ,life 7#ahij72 ,socialism and ,labor 7#aijb72 ,religion1 ,agnosticism and ,education 7#aijb74 ,,spalding ,born in #ahdj ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,religion#c #c ,reprinted by permission of ,messrs4 ,a4 ,c4 ,mc,clurg ,co41 from ,bishop ,spalding's ,religion1 ,agnosticism and ,education4 ,it is the spirit that quickeneth2 the flesh profiteth nothing2 the words that ,i have spoken unto you are spirit and are life4--,john vi41 #fc4 ,the greatest service we can do a human being is to give him a right education1 physical1 intellectual1 moral and religious4 ,if it is our duty to do good to all2 as far as in us lies1 it is our duty to labor for the education of all1 that no child of ,god may live with an enfeebled body1 or a darkened mind1 or a callous heart1 or a perverted conscience4 ,since it is our duty to educate1 it is our duty to give the best education2 and1 first of all1 to give the best education to woman2 for she1 as mother1 is the aboriginal ,god-appointed educator4 ,what hope is there of genuine progress1 in the religious life especially1 if we leave her uneducated8 ,where woman is ignorant1 man is coarse and sensual2 where her religion is but a superstition1 he is skeptical and irreverent4 ,if we are to have a race of enlightened1 noble and brave men1 we must give to woman the best education it is possible for her to receive4 ,she has the same right as man to become all that she may be1 to know whatever may be known1 to do whatever is fair and just and good4 ,in souls there is no sex4 ,if we leave half the race in ignorance1 how shall we hope to lift the other half into the light of truth and love8 ,let woman's mental power increase1 let her influence grow1 and more and more she will stand by the side of man as a helper in all his struggles to make the will of ,god prevail4 ,from the time the virgin mother held the infant ,savior in her arms to this hour1 woman has been the great lover of ,christ and the unwearying helper of ,his little ones2 and the more we strengthen and illumine her1 the more we add to her sublime faith and devotion the power of knowledge and culture1 the more efficaciously will she work to purify life1 to make justice1 temperance1 chastity1 and love prevail4 ,she is more unselfish1 more capable of enthusiasm for spiritual ends1 she has more sympathy with what is beautiful1 noble and godlike than man2 and the more her knowledge increases1 the more shall she become a heavenly force to spread ,god's kingdom on earth4 ,doubtless our failure to win the hearts of all men is due in no slight degree to our indifference to the education of woman4 ,the ,church1 in virtue of its divine institution1 has the supreme and absolute right to teach ,christian truth and thereby to influence all education4 ,to her alone ,christ gave the commission to teach whatsoever ,he had revealed and commanded2 and none who believe that ,he speaks the words of the eternal ,father may refuse to hearken to the voice of ,his historic ,church uttering the things that appertain to religion and salvation4 ,christ did not send ,his apostles to teach all knowledge1 but to teach ,his religion2 to teach the worship of ,god in spirit and in truth1 in lowliness of mind and purity of heart1 as men who hunger and thirst for righteousness4 ,in all that concerns the religious life the ,church has the office of ,christ1 represents ,him and speaks with ,his authority2 and to enable her to do this with infallible certainty1 the ,holy ,ghost was sent and abides with her4 ,but ,christ did not teach literature1 philosophy1 history1 or science2 and consequently ,he did not establish ,his ,church to teach these things4 ,he founded a ,church1 not an academy4 ,non in dialectica complacuit ,deo salvum facere populum suum4 ,he left natural knowledge where he found it2 left it to grow by accretion and development1 through the activity of special minds and races1 with the process of the ages4 ,he bade ,his apostles teach whatsoever things ,he had commanded them--the doctrines of salvation and the principles of ,christian living4 ,these things ,he came to reveal2 these ,he lived and died to plant in the minds and hearts of men as seeds of immortal life4 ,god doubtless might have made known from the beginning all the truths of science2 but this was not part of the divine economy4 ,for thousands of years the race was left to make its way amid the darkness of universal ignorance2 and when here and there a ray of light fell from some mind of genius1 it seemed quickly to be extinguished amid the general obscurity4 ,the philosophy and the science of ,plato and ,aristotle had been in the world for three centuries when ,christ came1 but ,he made no allusion whatever to them4 ,he neither praised nor blamed these great masters of all who know4 ,those whom ,he denounced were not the teachers of wisdom1 but the formalists1 who1 holding rigidly to the letter of the law1 and adding observance to observance and rule to rule1 had lost the spirit of religion1 had apostatized from the infinite love1 which is ,god4 ,christ came to bring immortal faith and hope and love to man4 ,he uttered no word which might lead us to suppose that ,he considered literature or philosophy or history or science as an obstacle to the worship of ,god in spirit and in truth4 ,he denounces greed and lust and indifference and heartlessness2 but ,he does not warn against the desire to know1 the desire to upbuild one's being on every side1 to become more and more like unto ,god in power1 in wisdom1 in goodness1 and in beauty4 ,he lays the stress of ,his example and teaching upon religion1 upon eternal things4 ,he tells us that we can not serve ,god and ,mammon1 but ,he does not say that faith and reason conflict4 ,we are human because ,god is present in the soul2 we have reason because the divine light shines within us--the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world4 ,there can be no real contradiction between ,god and ,his universe1 between nature and the supernatural1 between faith and knowledge4 ,on the contrary1 the universe is the manifestation of ,god's wisdom1 goodness and power4 ,nature and the supernatural both come from ,him2 and in wider and deeper knowledge1 we shall find a foundation for a mightier and more spiritual faith in the eternal ,father and ,his divine ,son4 ,truth can not contradict truth2 for truth is true because it is enrooted in ,god1 who is absolute truth and at one with ,himself4 ,things are what they are1 and ,god has given us reason1 that we may see them as they are4 ,the false can never be proven to be true1 and the ,author of truth can not teach error or give grace to believe error4 ,all truth is orthodox1 whether it come to us through revelation1 reaffirmed by the voice of the ,church1 or whether it come in the form of certain and scientific knowledge4 ,both the ,church and the men of science must accept the validity of reason1 and must therefore hold that reason can not contradict itself4 ,knowledge and faith both do ,god's work1 both help to build man's being into ever-increasing likeness to ,him4 ,let us not emphasize the opposition between the temporal and the eternal4 ,god is even here1 and even now we are immortal2 and whatever helps us to do ,his will by serving more effectively our fellow men1 is sacred and of priceless worth4 ,the giving of a cup of water in the right spirit is divine service2 and so is the patient research which leads to a knowledge of the causes of suffering and disease1 and thereby enables us to shut out pestilence or to make uninhabitable regions wholesome4 ,how infinitely difficult it is to preach the gospel effectively to those who live in ignorance and poverty as in the shadow of the darkness of death6 ,all who have striven and who strive to educate the whole people1 to bring opportunity of a freer and more human life to all1 have been and are1 whether intentionally or not1 workers in the cause of ,christ for the salvation of men4 ,with what misgiving ,catholics and ,protestants regarded scientific astronomy when it first began to gain acceptance6 ,and yet what has it done but make known to us a universe infinitely more wonderful and sublime than men had ever dreamed of8 ,so it is with all advancing knowledge4 ,in widening our view of ,god's work1 it gives us a more exalted conception of ,his absolute perfection2 and at the same time it puts into our hands more efficient means of working for the good of man4 ,a truly catholic spirit deems nothing that may be of service to man foreign to the will of ,god1 as revealed in ,christ4 ,we hold fast to the principle of authority2 and at the same time we believe that man's mind is free1 and that he has the right to inquire into and learn whatever may be investigated and known4 ,if the ,church is to live and prosper in the modern world1 ,catholics must have not only freedom to learn1 but also freedom to teach4 ,the spirit is not a mechanism1 and when it is made subject to mechanical rules and methods it loses self-activity1 becomes dwarfed and formal1 and little by little sinks into impotence4 ,a servile mind can never know the truth which liberates4 ,christ did not found ,his ,church to solve philosophic1 scientific1 or historic problems4 ,these have been left to human research2 but ,catholics1 if they hope to present effectively their supernatural beliefs to an age of civilization and culture1 must not neglect the chief means by which the mind is made strong1 supple1 and luminous4 ,our men of ability1 whether priests or laymen1 must be encouraged to put to good use the talents with which the ,creator has entrusted them2 and to prepare them for this all-important work we must leave nothing undone to provide them with schools equal to the best4 ,if we isolate ourselves and fall out of the highest intellectual and moral life of the world around us1 we shall fatally drift into a position of inferiority1 and lose the power to make ourselves heard and understood4 ,if in the early centuries of ,christianity the ,church was able to take to itself what was true and good in pagan philosophy and culture2 if ,st4 ,augustine and ,st4 ,thomas of ,aquino knew how to compel ,plato and ,aristotle to become helpers in the cause of ,christ1 why should we lose heart and imagine that the ,church has lost the faculty of assimilation8 ,she is old1 indeed1 but she is also young1 having the promise of immortal life2 and therefore she can never lack the power to adapt herself to the requirements of an ever-revolving environment4 ,since ,christ has made the success of ,his religion largely dependent on human effort1 not annuling nature by grace1 but heightening rather the play of free-will1 we must know how to make use of our best and strongest men2 for an institution which can not make use of its best and strongest men is decadent4 ,what is there to fear8 ,is it conceivable that human error shall prevail against ,god's truth8 ,does the religion of ,christ1 the absolute and abiding faith1 need the defense of concealment1 or of sophistical apology1 or of lies8 ,truth is the supreme good of the mind1 as holiness is that of the heart2 and truthfulness is the foundation of righteousness4 ,the most certain result of the philosophic thought of the last hundred years is that the primal cause and final end of all things is spiritual1 not mechanical or material4 ,if only we go deep enough1 we never fail to find ,god and the soul4 ,shall we dread the results of historical research8 ,in the ,church1 as in the world1 good has been mingled with evil--the cockle with the wheat4 ,what ,god has permitted to happen1 man may be permitted to know2 and if we are wise1 we may glean1 even from the least promising fields1 fruits which shall nourish in us a higher wisdom and a nobler courage4 ,a righteous cause can never be truly served either by the timid or the insincere4 ,and what is true of the history of the ,church1 is true also of the history of the ,bible4 ,no facts connected with its composition can obscure the light of ,god's word which shines forever in its pages1 to illumine the path that leads to a higher and more perfect life1 and in the end to everlasting life4 ,opinion rules men1 and opinion is nourished by beliefs1 and beliefs are created and sustained by ideas4 ,if we permit ourselves to fall out of the intellectual movement of the age1 we shall lose influence over the minds that create opinion and shape the future4 ,one man of science1 says von ,hertling1 who works with success in the fields of research1 whose name is written on the page of history in far-gleaming characters1 and who at the same time leads the life of a true son of the ,church1 outweighs whole volumes of apologetics4 ,the truths of salvation are doubtless infinitely more important than the truths of science2 but this natural knowledge so attracts the attention and awakens the interest of the men of to-day1 it so transforms and improves the methods and processes by which civilization is promoted1 that it has created a new world-view1 not only in the minds of the few profound thinkers and original investigators1 but in the general public of intelligent men and women2 and if our words are to awaken a response1 we must be able to place ourselves at the standpoint of our hearers4 ,the theologian1 the apologist1 the orator must be able to say to the children of this generation3 ,we see all that you see1 and beyond we see yet diviner truth4 ,arguments and syllogisms have little power of persuasion4 ,we win men by showing them the facts of life2 and to do this we must be able to look at things from many points4 ,this ability is precisely what the best education confers2 for it renders the mind open1 luminous1 fair1 supple1 and many sided4 ,to live in the mind1 to strive ceaselessly to learn more of the infinite truth1 is not easy for any one4 ,it requires a discipline1 a courage1 a spirit of self-denial1 which only the fewest ever acquire2 and when men of this strength and excellence devote themselves to the elucidation and defense of the doctrines of religion1 we must honor and trust them1 or they will lose heart or turn to studies in which their labors will be appreciated4 ,if mistrust of our ablest minds be permitted to exist1 the inevitable result will be a lowering of the whole intellectual life of ,catholics1 and as a consequence a lowering of their moral and religious life4 ,if we have no great masters1 how shall we hope to have eager and loving disciples8 ,if we have no men who write vital books--books of power1 books which are literature and endure--how shall we expect to enter along an inner line into the higher life of the age1 to quicken1 purify1 and exalt the hopes and thoughts of men8 ,is the ,bible itself written with the rigid exactness of a mathematical treatise8 ,is it not rather a book of life1 of literature1 full of symbols and metaphors and poetry8 ,what book has been so misunderstood1 and misinterpreted1 even by honest and enlightened minds1 even by theologians themselves8 ,since the inspired writers may thus easily be misunderstood1 may we not conclude that it is our duty to treat with good will and loving kindness authors who1 not being supernaturally assisted1 employ the talents which ,god has given them1 and which their own tireless industry has cultivated to the highest point1 to clothe the old truths with the light of the wider and more real knowledge of the universe and of human history1 which the modern mind possesses8 ,the new times demand new men2 the ancient faith1 if it is to be held vitally1 must be commended with fresh vigor and defended with all the arguments which the best philosophy1 science1 and literature may suggest4 ,christ came to cast fire on earth1 and what does ,he desire but that it be kindled8 ,currit verbum ,dei1 says ,st4 ,paul2 and again3 ,wo is me if ,i do not preach4 ,he is debtor to all men4 ,on ,mars ,hill he speaks to the most enlightened minds of his day4 ,he is a reasoner as well as a preacher4 ,he places the lines of a ,greek poet among his own inspired words4 ,to this intellectual1 moral1 and religious activity1 heightened and intensified by supernatural faith1 we owe the spread of ,christianity throughout the ,gentile world1 more than to the zeal and labors of all the apostles4 ,is it credible that if ,st4 ,thomas of ,aquino were now alive he would content himself with the philosophy and science of ,aristotle1 who knows nothing either of creation or of providence1 and whose knowledge of nature1 compared with our own1 is as that of a child8 ,st4 ,ignatius of ,loyola says that to occupy oneself with science1 in a pure and religious spirit1 is more pleasing to ,god than practises of penance1 because it is more completely the work of the whole man4 ,is not theology1 like the other sciences1 bound to accept facts8 ,to deny a fact is to stultify oneself4 ,but how shall we know what is1 if we are ignorant of the world-wide efforts of men of learning and intellectual power to get at the facts of the universe8 ,the supreme fact is life2 and only that is true1 in the best sense of the word1 which is favorable to life1 to its growth1 its joy1 its strength1 its freedom1 its permanence4 ,whatever dwarfs1 whatever arrests1 whatever weakens life1 is evil4 ,the great purpose of genuine education is not to store the memory or to accustom to observances1 but to strengthen man with his own mind1 to rouse him to higher self-activity1 to vivify him1 to give him fresh faith1 hope1 and courage1 to deepen the foundations of his being1 to cultivate his faculties1 to give him a firmer grasp of truth and a clearer view of things as they are4 ,whatever narrows1 whatever hardens1 whatever enslaves is foreign to the purpose of education4 ,we should dread nothing so much as what undermines spiritual energy2 for unless man's highest powers are stimulated and kept active1 he falls into sensual indulgence1 or becomes the victim of a weak and skeptical temper1 no longer able to believe anything1 or to hope for anything1 or to love anything with all his heart4 ,this is the temper of decadent races1 of perishing civilizations1 and of dying religions4 ,losing the power to believe with vital faith in ,god and in the soul1 men cling to the fantom life of cheap and vulgar pleasures4 ,they seek gold and position2 they trust to mechanical devices1 to political schemes2 they worship the rising sun2 their truth is what is popular1 their good is what makes for present success4 ,having no firm hold of the eternal and infinite1 they believe in human cunning1 not in the might of divine truth4 ,they forget that all truth is orthodox1 and that behind all truth stand the veracity and the power of ,god1 who makes ,himself known in the laws of science1 as in the majesty of the everlasting mountains and the starlit heavens4 ,as a kind word spoken for the love of ,god and man becomes religious1 so a right spirit consecrates human action in whatever sphere4 ,whoever utters truth1 says ,st4 ,augustine1 utters it by the aid of him who is truth itself4 ,a devout and illumined spirit sees all things bound together in harmony and beauty about the feet of the eternal ,father4 ,knowledge confirms faith1 and faith impels to knowledge4 ,religion nourishes morality1 and morality strengthens and purifies religion4 ,art1 in reflecting some feeble rays of the infinite splendor1 opens vistas of the diviner life4 ,science in showing that order reigns everywhere1 even in the midst of seeming discord1 that all things are subject to law1 gives us a clearer perception of ,god's infinite wisdom and power4 ,material progress itself in making earthly things subject to human knowledge and skill1 fulfils the will of the ,creator who made all things for man4 ,thus science and art and progress all conspire with religion to upbuild man's being and to mold him into ever-increasing likeness to ,god4 ,it is in religion1 however1 that the conquering might of the spirit is best revealed1 and this of itself is sufficient to give it supremacy4 ,it is not merely a world-view1 a creed1 and a worship2 but an original and historic manifestation in human life of the primal power1 which transforms and liberates4 ,it is the breaking through of the inner source of being1 of ,god1 who reveals ,himself to the lowly minded and the pure of heart1 as the beginning and end of all that exists2 as the one eternal ,absolute1 in whom and by whom and for whom all things are4 ,the soul that is conscious that religion rests upon this everlasting foundation is not troubled by misgivings as to its truth or usefulness4 ,it is ,god present in the innermost part of our being2 it is ,christ working with the almighty ,father to redeem man from subjection to the transitory and apparent1 from the lust of the flesh1 from greed for what ministers to the senses alone4 ,thus it is an independent world1 a kingdom in itself1 able to endure and to remain the same in the midst of an order of things that is forever changing and passing away4 ,whatever alteration may occur in the views of the intellectual1 whatever decay or transformation of political and social institutions may take place1 religion1 the ,catholic religion of ,christ1 shall abide1 still endowed1 after the lapse of however many ages1 with its original freshness and vigor4 ,there was never yet genuine thinker1 or poet1 or artist whose work may not be brought1 if we are strong and clear-sighted enough1 to contribute to the cause of pure religion4 ,the theologian1 the preacher1 and the apologist who are ignorant of the best that has been thought and said by the makers of the world's literature1 can not have the culture1 the intellectual vigor1 the openness and pliability of mind1 without which1 short of miracle1 it is not possible rightly to commend divine truth to an enlightened age4 ,they whose vocation it is to be public teachers1 to mold opinion1 and to direct thought1 must have more knowledge1 a wider outlook1 a firmer grasp of spiritual realities than those whom they seek to enlighten and guide4 ,the deepest truth seems shallow when uttered by the frivolous2 the holiest things seem to lose half their sacredness when they are entrusted to the coarse and ignorant4 ,it is not enough that the minister of religion have a pure and loving heart1 and strong and disciplined mind3 he must also have the breeding and culture of a gentleman4 ,manners are not idle2 they spring from inner worth2 they are the flower of high thinking and plain living4 ,christ1 it has been said1 was the world's first gentleman1 and they who live and act in ,his spirit must be gentlemen4 ,if we build majestic temples1 if we construct our altars of costly marbles1 if our sacred vessels and priestly vestments are made of gold and silk and studded with precious stones1 why shall not they who offer sacrifice and who preach the gospel be required to be clean and decorous1 fair and gracious8 ,if it is vanity to speak with ease and elegance1 to pronounce with correctness and distinctness1 to read with right intonation and emphasis1 then must we not say that it is vanity also to erect gorgeous edifices wherein to worship ,god1 who1 as ,st4 ,paul says1 may not be shut in houses made by human hands8 ,if the priest is to be educated at all1 he must receive the most thorough and complete education4 ,he must trust wholly to grace1 or he must spare no pains whereby endowment may be developed into faculty4 ,the young1 who are the hope of the future1 can be won and held only by the highest ideals1 in the light of which they may thrill with hope and feel that it is a blest thing to be alive and active1 to fight the good fight and1 if need be1 to perish in a worthy cause4 ,to speak to them with contempt of what the nineteenth century has done1 of its science and literature1 of its truer knowledge of the past1 its keener critical sense1 its amazing progress in carrying out the divine command that all things be made subject to man1 of the success with which it has battled against ignorance1 poverty1 and disease1 would be to fill them with contempt for ourselves1 as being men without understanding and without heart4 ,we must indeed warn against pride and conceit and halfness and dilettanteism1 against irreverence and knowingness2 but it were a fatal mistake to imagine that we can do aught but harm by seeking to inspire them with a distrust of science and culture1 or with a dread of the influence of such things on religious faith4 ,we of all men should be able to walk with confidence in the paths of knowledge4 ,since we are glad to receive money and to have the favor of men in high places to assist us in our spiritual work1 how shall we be willing to lack the help of thoroughly disciplined and enlightened minds1 to lack the power of thought which is the most irresistible force ,god has given to man8 ,if we look upon theology as merely a system of crystallized formulas1 as a science which need take no cognizance of the general culture of the age1 content with presenting the old truths in the old way1 as merely a larger catechism1 with a more detailed exposition of definitions and refutations1 we deprive it of power to influence men who are all alive with thoughts urgent as the growth of wings2 who in the midst of problems which the new sciences raise and accentuate1 have grown confused and begin to doubt whether human life shall not be emptied of its spiritual content4 ,all knowledges are related1 as all bodies attract and help to hold one another in place2 and if we hope to commend and enforce revealed truth with efficacious power1 we must be prepared to do so in the full blaze of the light which research and discovery have poured upon nature and the history of man4 ,if1 in consequence1 we find it necessary to abandon positions which are no longer defensible1 to assume new attitudes in the face of new conditions1 we must remember that tho the ,church is a divine institution1 it is none the less subject to the law which makes human things mutable1 that tho truth must remain the same1 it is capable of receiving fresh illustration1 and that if it is to be life-giving1 it must be wrought anew into the constitution of each individual and of each age4 ,is it possible to look on the great1 eager1 yearning1 doubting1 and suffering life of man1 and not to feel infinite desire to be of help8 ,can we believe in our inmost being that we have the words of eternal life1 and not be roused as by a voice from heaven from our indifference and somnolence1 from our easy contentment with formal education and half knowledge8 ,we do not need new devotions and new shrines1 but a new spirit1 newness of life1 a revivification of faith1 hope and love1 fresh courage and will to lay hold on the sources of power1 that we may compel all knowledge and science to do homage to ,christ1 and to serve in the noblest way all ,god's children4 ,we must be resolved to labor to see not only things as they are1 but ourselves1 too1 as we are4 ,where self-criticism is lacking1 whether in individuals or in social aggregates1 decay and degeneracy inevitably set in4 ,if there are true and wholesome developments of life and doctrine1 there is also a false and morbid evolution1 against which we must be ever watchful4 ,ceaseless vigilance is not the price of liberty alone1 it is the price we must pay for all spiritual good2 and how shall we be ever vigilant if we are forbidden to criticize ourselves and the environment by which our life is nourished and protected4 ,as walking is a continuous falling and rising1 so all progress is an upward movement through error and failure toward truth and victory4 ,as the decay of races1 the ruin of civilizations1 the downfall of states are seen in the end to be helpful to the progress of mankind1 since they do not perish1 wholly1 but contribute something of their vital substance to those that follow2 so the history of human thought shows that while systems rise and pass away1 even the errors of sincere and original minds1 associated as they are with truth1 aid in some way the general advancement of knowledge and culture4 ,all things work together for those who love ,god4 ,action may not be dissociated from thought1 nor thought from action4 ,doubt is overcome1 not by abstracting and arguing1 but by doing the thing which is given us to do4 ,the intellect is not the center and soul of life2 and knowing is not the whole of being4 ,faith is not a conclusion from a line of reasoning4 ,we can not bind our destiny to the conquests of the mind4 ,we have power to think1 but our chief business is to act2 and therefore we must forever and forever fall back on faith1 hope1 and love1 and on the conduct they inspire1 or we shall be driven forth into the regions of mere speculation1 into a dreary world of empty forms4 ,,macarthur ,,christ--,,the ,,question ,,of ,,the ,,centuries ,,biographical ,,note ,robert ,stuart ,mac,arthur was born at ,dalesville1 ,quebec1 in #ahda1 and graduated from the ,rochester ,theological ,seminary in #ahgj4 ,he has been pastor of ,calvary ,baptist ,church1 ,new ,york1 continuously since #ahgj4 ,from the very first he began to attract attention as pastor and preacher1 and the success which has attended his ministry has been phenomenal4 ,during his ministry his church has given for benevolent and missionary enterprises more than two million dollars4 ,,macarthur ,born in #ahda ,,christ--,,the ,,question ,,of ,,the ,,centuries ,what think ye of ,christ4--,matt4 xxii41 #db4 ,the ideal man has not yet been discovered4 ,humboldt1 who traveled far1 saw much and felt more1 recorded in his diary this sentence1 ,the finest fruit earth holds up to its maker is a man4 ,it is here implied that this finest fruit is the ideal man4 ,but ,humboldt did not affirm that he had ever found this man4 ,the ideal man has not yet been discovered among those who were mere men4 ,no one of our noblest men was a spotless sun2 no one reached sinless perfection4 ,from all our loftiest specimens of manhood ,i turn dissatisfied to ,jesus ,christ1 and in ,him ,i find the ideal becomes actual1 the dream real1 and the hope fruition4 ,what ,mount ,tabor is1 rising abruptly in its unique symmetry and beauty from the northeastern arm of the plain of ,esdraelon1 that ,jesus ,christ is1 rising in insulated grandeur and spotless perfection above the plain reached by the noblest men of all the centuries4 ,what ,mount ,blanc as the king of the ,alps is1 lifting its crystal domes and towers #ae1gha feet above the level of the ,mediterranean ,sea1 compared with the other snow-clad and cloud-kissed mountains of the ,alps1 that ,jesus ,christ is compared with the loftiest men who have risen as mountain heights above their fellows through all the ages4 ,what the ,himalaya range1 the most elevated and stupendous mountain system on the globe1 sweeping across historic lands as far as from ,new ,york to ,chicago and back to ,new ,york1 and rising so high that the superb ,matterhorn1 if lifted bodily and placed upon the ,jungfrau1 would not reach the glittering ,himalaya heights1 that and more ,jesus ,christ is to the long line of men who have risen highest in mortal grandeur in the history of the human race4 ,jesus ,christ is the pearl and crown of humanity2 ,he is the loftiest specimen of manhood the race has produced2 he is the fullest manifestation of divinity ,god has given the world2 ,he is the effulgence of ,god's glory1 and the very image of ,his substance4 ,he rises in unapproachable glory1 not only above men1 but also above saints and seraphs1 and above angels and archangels4 ,gazing upon ,him1 we can exclaim with inexpressible enthusiasm and unutterable ecstasy1 ,ecce ,homo6 and with the same breadth and with equal truth we can also reverently exclaim1 ,ecce ,deus6 ,the setting of this text is instructively suggestive4 ,for some time in ,his discussion with the ,pharisees1 our ,lord had been acting on the defensive4 ,both ,sadducees and ,pharisees had been asking ,him questions4 ,his answers put the ,sadducees to silence1 and their confusion greatly gratified the ,pharisees4 ,it is now their turn to experience similar confusion from the celerity and dexterity of ,his replies4 ,never was there so skilful a debater as ,jesus ,christ4 ,he was masterful in ,his clarity of thought1 simplicity of speech1 and purity of motive4 ,in the case before us1 ,he passes from the defensive to the offensive1 and he convicts ,scribes and ,pharisees of entertaining false views of the ,messiah4 ,they had disputed ,his claims as a spiritual ,messiah1 and ,he now shows the irreconcilable contradiction between their views of ,him as a mere worldly ,messiah1 and the teaching of their own prophetic ,scriptures4 ,they were silenced and even stunned by ,his rapid1 aggressive1 and unanswerable attack4 ,we are significantly told that no man was able to answer him a word1 neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions4 ,it must1 doubtless1 be admitted that there are men in every community1 who have no definite convictions regarding ,jesus ,christ4 ,it seems almost incredible that in a community of culture and ,christianity men and women should be found who have not reached definite conclusions regarding the person and character of ,christ4 ,i put then the question with the utmost directness1 ,what think ye of ,christ8 ,this is the broadest1 deepest1 and loftiest question ever put to the human race4 ,this is the question of all the ages4 ,this question virtually engaged the thought of ,abraham2 it evoked a response from ,moses2 and it stirred the deepest emotions and loftiest praise of ,david1 as he swept his lyre and sang his immortal songs4444 ,in this congregation there are no hearers unwilling to admit that ,jesus ,christ is at least a great historic character4 ,they frankly admit that ,he was born at ,bethlehem1 brought up at ,nazareth1 and crucified at ,jerusalem4 ,they are entirely correct in the outward features of ,his earthly career1 but they have comparatively little conception of the spiritual significance of ,his wonderful life and ,his vicarious death4 ,they think of the historical elements of ,his ,wonderful life as they would think of those of ,buddha1 ,zoroaster1 or ,mohammed4 ,their conception of ,his earthly life has no power over the development of their own lives1 except as a mere character of history4 ,they fail to see that ,his was a unique life1 and that it was lived on earth by ,him1 that it might be lived in some measure over again on earth by us4 ,they fail to see that ,he became the ,son of man1 that we might become the sons of ,god4 ,they do not learn that ,he revealed the fatherhood of ,god and the brotherhood of man that we should sweetly experience the one and constantly illustrate the other4 ,the historic ,christ has no more power over the practical lives of some1 than the traditional heroes of classic legend4 ,virtually for them there is no ,christ or ,god4 ,practically for them there is no historic ,christ4 ,until the historic ,christ is translated into a personal ,savior and ,master1 controlling our acts1 our words1 and our thoughts by ,his matchless example1 ,his unique personality1 and ,his spiritual purity1 there is for us no historic ,christ worthy the name4 ,there are those who think of the ,christ as a dreamy1 sentimental1 and poetic character4 ,they are charmed by the commendable characteristics of ,his remarkable life4 ,they refer to ,him in terms of soothing speech and of dreamy affection4 ,there is an element of poesy in all their conceptions of the divine-human ,christ4 ,they think of ,him in language which the robust ,chalmers called1 in his lofty scorn1 nursery endearments4 ,they are ready to adopt the language of the renowned ,french theologian1 eminent ,orientalist1 and brilliant rhetorician1 ,renan1 when he speaks of the ,christ of ,god as the sweet ,galilean4 ,such epithets must be utterly unwelcome to ,christ4 ,if ,he be not more than man1 then ,he is less than man4 ,if ,he be not worthy of our loftiest devotion1 ,he is certainly worthy of our severest reprehension4 ,in a word1 if ,he be not ,god1 ,he is not a good man4 ,carlyle described materialism as a gospel of dirt2 we might fittingly describe this sweet and silly sentimentalism as a gospel of gush4 ,only as we bow down at ,christ's feet1 and worship ,him as the divine-human ,man1 can we give ,him the honor which ,he merits and demands4 ,then we can employ and sanctify the loftiest poetry in chanting ,his praise1 the noblest art in limning ,his person1 and the profoundest logic in urging ,his claims upon men as the divine-human ,savior4 ,there are many who are willing to admit and who earnestly affirm that ,jesus ,christ is the ideal man of the human race4 ,they are ready to declare that it was a glorious thing that man was originally made like ,god1 and that it was a still more condescending thing that ,god was made like man4 ,the ,christ was indeed the ideal man of the human race4 ,he was the great exemplar1 the perfect model1 the sublime original to be imitated by all true men and women4 ,in ,him1 and in ,him only1 the plant of humanity blossomed and bloomed into a perfect flower4 ,but how can we account for the perfection of ,his humanity1 if we deny the reality of ,his divinity8 ,we ought1 as students of literature and life1 to account for ,jesus the ,christ4 ,we strive to account for ,socrates and ,plato1 for ,david and ,isaiah1 for ,paul and ,luther1 for ,washington and ,gladstone1 for ,lincoln and ,mc,kinley4 ,are we not under the strongest possible obligations to account for ,jesus ,christ8 ,men say that ,jesus ,christ was good1 but that ,he was not ,god4 ,out of their own mouths these men convict themselves of inconsistency in their locutions and illogicality in their reasonings4 ,if ,jesus ,christ be not ,god1 ,he is not good4 ,he is either an unpardonable egotist1 or a hopeless lunatic1 or he is the ,christ of ,god1 and ,god over all1 blest forever more4 ,he claimed to be ,god1 and if ,his claim be not true1 how can he be good8 ,the stream of ,his life flowed through the human race on a higher level1 and rose to a vastly higher point1 than any other stream known to human history or divine revelation4 ,how shall we account for the height to which that stream rose8 ,water can never rise higher than its source4 ,if that source were simply human1 how can we account for the superhuman height which it reached8 ,if we admit the account given in the gospels of ,his virgin birth and divine origin1 all ,his life is easily explicable4 ,but if we deny ,his unique origin1 we can not logically account for ,his unique life4 ,a life began as was never another life1 we might expect to see continue as no other life continued4 ,a naturally skeptical man finds it easier to admit the account of ,christ's remarkable birth than to attempt to explain ,his remarkable life if ,he deny the remarkable birth4 ,the unicity of ,his birth we would naturally expect to eventuate in the unicity of ,his life4 ,his life can not be explained on any principle of heredity4 ,we readily admit the royal element in ,his blood1 altho the fortunes of ,his family had fallen before ,his birth2 but no law of heredity will account for the physical attractiveness1 the mental superiority1 and the moral purity of ,jesus1 the ,christ4 ,neither will environment account for ,his marvelous career and character4 ,what was there in the peasant conditions of ,his family life to produce the uniqueness of ,his manhood8 ,neither will education account for the ,christ4 ,he was never in school1 in the technical sense of that term1 altho ,he doubtless studied in the village synagog2 and yet ,he rose above all the limitations1 traditions1 and bigotries by which ,he was surrounded4 ,it is doubtful if ,he ever sat at the feet of the greatest rabbis of the time4 ,it is certain that ,he never studied at the feet of the philosophers of ,greece and ,rome1 nor of the dreamy ,orient4 ,he never traveled1 except possibly barely across the confines of ,palestine1 a country about the size of the ,state of ,new ,hampshire4 ,how came ,he to emancipate ,himself from the sectarianism and sectionalism of ,his country and century8 ,how came ,he to be the contemporary of all the ages8 ,how came ,he to utter in the ,sermon on the ,mount truths which socially and religiously the foremost thinkers of to-day can barely understand1 and dare not fully apply to the solution of the problems of the hour8 ,no mere human thinker has ever approached the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,but in pure spirituality of thought1 our ,lord surpassed it in ,his last address to ,his disciples4 ,this address bears the ineffaceable marks of ,his supreme divinity and absolute deity4 ,o1 ye critics1 ,i ask you as a problem of literature and life to account for ,jesus the ,christ4 ,i ask no favors for ,him4 ,it is you that need the favors1 if you oppose the ,christ4 ,i demand for ,him simple justice4 ,what think ye of the ,christ8 ,dr4 ,geikie1 in his ,life of ,christ1 calls attention to the fact that the ,jews confess great admiration for the character and words of ,jesus2 that the ,mohammedan world gives ,him the high title of ,messiah2 that the myriad-minded ,shakespeare paid ,him lowly reverence1 and that men like ,galileo1 ,kepler1 ,bacon1 ,newton1 and ,milton set the name of ,christ above every other name4 ,he also reminds us that ,jean ,paul ,richter1 whom his countrymen call ,der ,einzige1 the unique1 tells us that the life of ,christ concerns him who1 being the holiest among the mighty1 the mightiest among the holy1 lifted with his pierced hands empires off their hinges1 and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel1 and still governs the ages4 ,spinoza1 the great philosopher1 son of ,portuguese ,jews1 disciple of ,aben-,ezra and ,descartes1 calls ,christ the symbol of divine wisdom4 ,schelling and ,hegel speak of ,him as the union of the divine and human4 ,the immortal ,goethe1 the acknowledged prince of ,german poets1 and one of the most superbly accomplished men of the eighteenth century1 says1 ,i esteem the gospels to be thoroughly genuine1 for there shines forth from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity1 proceeding from the person of ,jesus ,christ1 of so divine a kind as only the divine could ever have manifested upon earth4 ,what thinkest thou of the ,christ1 ,o ,jean ,jacques ,rousseau1 with all the brilliancy of thy intellect1 the singularity of thy character1 and the enthusiasm of thy writings8 ,give place to the witness ,rousseau2 hear his testimony4 ,rousseau speaks3 ,how petty are the books of the philosophers1 compared with the gospels6 ,can it be that writings at once so sublime and so simple are the work of men8 ,can ,he whose life they tell be ,himself no more than a mere man8444 ,yes1 if the death of ,socrates be that of a sage1 the life and death of ,jesus are those of a ,god4 ,what thinkest thou of the ,christ1 burly1 brusk1 brave1 and heroic ,thomas ,carlyle1 with all thy marvelous reading1 thy profound thinking1 and thy contempt of cant and love of truth8 ,carlyle steps forward and speaks3 ,jesus of ,nazareth1 our divinest symbol6 ,higher has the human thought not yet reached4 ,let us summon ,dr4 ,channing1 the cultured and eloquent preacher and writer1 the foremost man among ,american ,unitarians in his day4 ,what thinkest thou1 ,o ,channing1 of ,jesus ,christ8 ,he makes reply3 ,the character of ,jesus ,christ is wholly inexplicable on human principles4 ,what thinkest thou1 ,o ,herder1 illustrious ,german thinker1 broad scholar1 and exquisite genius1 of ,jesus1 the ,christ8 ,superb is his reply3 ,jesus ,christ is in the noblest and most perfect sense the realized ideal of humanity4 ,what thinkest thou of the ,christ1 ,o ,napoleon1 mighty son of ,mars1 striding through the world like a ,colossus1 darkening the brightness of noonday with the smoke1 and lighting the darkness at midnight with the fires of battle8 ,hear this man of gigantic intellect1 whatever may be said of his moral motives3 ,i think ,i understand somewhat of human nature1 and ,i tell you all these 7the heroes of antiquity7 were men1 and ,i am a man1 but not one is like ,him2 ,jesus ,christ was more than man4 ,alexander1 ,csar1 ,charlemagne1 and myself founded great empires2 but upon what did the creations of our genius depend8 ,upon force4 ,jesus alone founded ,his empire upon love1 and to this very day millions would die for him4 ,compared with such witnesses as these1 the opponents of ,jesus ,christ of to-day are pigmies so contemptible in mentality and so questionable in morality as to be ruled out of every court of testimony1 where intellectual ability and moral worth have weight4 ,i summon thee1 ,o execrable ,judas4 ,behold him flinging down the thirty pieces of silver before the chief priests and elders4 ,hear him speak in his agony of soul3 ,i have sinned in that ,i have betrayed the innocent blood4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,pontius ,pilate1 with thy immortality of shame in the creeds of the ages4 ,the ,roman ,procurator washes his hands4 ,strange sight6 ,he speaks3 ,i am innocent of the blood of this just person4 ,he speaks again3 ,i find no fault in this man4 ,i summon ,john1 the heroic ,baptist4 ,hear ,his testimony3 ,behold the ,lamb of ,god1 who taketh away the sin of the world4 ,o loving and divine ,john1 the ,evangelist1 what thinkest thou of the ,christ8 ,he is the ,vine1 the ,way1 the ,truth1 the ,light1 and the ,word1 and the ,word was ,god4 ,i summon thee1 ,o matchless ,paul4 ,what is thy testimony8 ,he is the image of the invisible ,god4444 ,the blest and only ,potentate1 the ,king of kings1 the ,lord of lords4 ,i summon thee1 ,apostle ,peter1 once confessor1 then denier1 but afterward penitent witness and heroic martyr4 ,what is thy testimony8 ,he is the ,christ1 the ,son of the living ,god4 ,i summon thee1 ,o once doubting but always brave ,thomas4 ,hear the testimony of this witness as he falls at the ,master's feet and exclaims1 ,my ,lord and my ,god6 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,john ,bunyan1 immortal tinker2 thy glorious ,pilgrim1 marching through the ages1 telling the story of redeeming love1 is thy testimony to the character of thy ,lord4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,charles ,spurgeon1 and the testimony of all thy volumes1 of thy glorious life and of thy peerless ministry is that ,jesus ,christ is the chiefest among ten thousand and the ,one altogether lovely4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,de ,wette1 great ,biblical critic of ,germany3 ,this only ,i know1 that there is salvation in no other name than in the name of ,jesus ,christ1 the crucified4 ,i summon thee1 ,o scholarly1 cultured ,mac,intosh2 the attendants are watching thy last moments1 they bend over thee to catch thy last whispers3 ,jesus1 love6--,jesus1 love6--,the same thing4 ,i might summon ten thousand more1 who from the ,grassmarket in ,edinburgh1 and from a thousand racks and stakes went up to glory and to ,god1 and their testimony would be1 ,none but ,jesus1 none but ,jesus4 ,i summon thee1 ,toplady1 and hear thee sing this great hymn1 ,rock of ,ages1 cleft for me4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,tennyson1 immortal laureate1 thou who hast fought thy doubts and found divine help4 ,let us hear the result of thy conflicts3 ,strong ,son of ,god1 immortal love1 ,whom we1 that have not seen ,thy face1 ,by faith1 and faith alone1 embrace1 ,believing where we can not prove4 ,thine are these orbs of light and shade2 ,thou madest life in man and brute2 ,thou madest death2 and lo6 ,thy foot ,is on the skull which ,thou hast made4 ,thou seemest human and divine1 ,the highest1 holiest manhood ,thou2 ,our wills are ours1 we know not how2 ,our wills are ours to make them ,thine4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,browning1 poet of divine optimism and interpreter of the deeper instincts of the human heart1 let us hear the conclusion of thy philosophic mind3 ,i say the acknowledgment of ,god in ,christ ,accepted by thy reason1 solves for thee ,all questions in the world and out of it1 ,and hath so far advanced thee to be wise4 ,i summon thee1 ,o ,gladstone1 noblest of statesmen1 uncrowned king of the world1 thou who didst come in contact with the throbbing life of the world1 of politics1 letters1 and religions1 what sayst thou concerning humanity's greatest need8 ,i am asked what a man should chiefly look to in his progress through life as to the power that is to sustain him under trials and enable him manfully to confront his afflictions4 ,i must point to something which1 in a well-known hymn is called1 ',the old1 old story1' and taught with an old1 old teaching1 which is the best gift ever given to mankind4 ,the older ,i grow1 the more confirmed ,i am in the belief that ,jesus ,christ is the only hope of humanity4 ,i summon ,thyself1 ,o ,thou ,christ of ,god1 ,thou holiest of the holy1 ,thou who art ,god of very ,god4 ,what sayst ,thou of ,thyself8 ,before ,abraham was ,i am4 ,i and my ,father are one4 ,he that hath seen me1 hath seen the ,father4 ,,carpenter ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,progress ,,biographical ,,note ,william ,boyd ,carpenter1 ,english divine1 was born in #ahda in ,liverpool1 educated at the ,royal ,institution and ,cambridge ,university1 where he was appointed ,hulsean lecturer in #ahgh4 ,after holding several curacies he was appointed vicar of ,christ ,church1 ,lancaster ,gate1 in #ahgi4 ,he held also a canoncy of ,windsor ,until #ahhd1 when he was consecrated bishop of ,ripon4 ,in #ahhg he delivered the ,bampton lectures4 ,he has published a large number of works1 among which may be reckoned ,commentary on ,revelation 7#ahgi72 ,lectures on ,preaching 7#ahie72 and a ,popular ,history of the ,church of ,england 7#aijj74 ,,carpenter ,born in #ahda ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,progress ,and the sons of the prophets said unto ,elisha1 ,behold now1 the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us4 ,let us go1 we pray thee1 unto ,jordan1 and take thence every man a beam1 and let us make a place there where we may dwell4 ,and he answered1 ,go ye4--#b ,kings vi41 #a1 #b4 ,there are two conditions of real personal power in the world4 ,one is that we should be able to look above this earth and see some heavenly light surrounding everything we meet4 ,we call this1 in ordinary language1 asserting the power of insight1 and it is that which redeems life from being regarded as commonplace4 ,everything is tinged with heavenliness for those who see heaven's light above all2 and the possession of this power gives that dignity of conception to life which is one of the secrets of power4 ,but there is another condition also1 and that is that there shall be the strength of personal assertiveness4 ,a man may be possest of never so much insight1 and yet he may lack that robustness of personal character which can make itself felt among his fellows2 he may1 in fact1 be deficient in the powers of personal action4 ,now these two gifts ,elisha possest4 ,he possest the loftiness of insight4 ,he had seen when his master was taken up the glimpse of the fiery chariot which took him into the heavens1 and from that time forward his life was tinged with the consciousness of heaven4 ,nothing could be mean or low to a man who had beheld that first vision of ,god4 ,this was1 as it were1 an enduring and abiding background of all his after-conceptions4 ,so in the hour when it seemed as tho beleagured by armies and enemies1 that there was no power of release1 his eyes1 as it were1 were still open to behold the heavenly brightness about him4 ,he possest also that power of personal assertiveness4 ,standing in front of the ,jordan1 he smote aside every difficulty which hindered him commencing his career4 ,but there is a third qualification still which is needed1 in order that these two powers may be brought1 as it were1 into practical contact with life4 ,great men1 it has been said by one of our own great teachers1 are men who live very largely in their own age2 that is to say1 they are persons the drift and set of whose mind does not belong to the generation before themselves exactly1 altho they may be possest of powers of insight1 nor to the generation after their own age1 but have much power of sympathy and comprehensiveness toward the interests and exigencies of their own time4 ,they are men to use the phrase1 who are in touch with their own age4 ,and therefore it is1 tho a man may be possest of so much insight that heavenly light breathes upon all things1 tho he may have a certain robust assertiveness and energy of character1 yet if he have no power of adjusting his capacities1 so to speak1 in language understood of the men among whom he moves1 all that power will1 for the practical purpose of life1 be thrown away4 ,elisha possest the two4 ,does he possess the third8 ,is he a man1 in fact1 who can make his influence felt among the men of his day8 ,is he in touch with his time8 ,can he be a man capable1 not only of acting for himself1 but capable1 by that subtle and magical influence1 of arousing the activity of others8 ,for a man may1 indeed1 hold a position of isolated splendor1 which may produce the admiration of the men of his day2 but to be a real prophet1 ,i take it1 is to be able to merge largely our own individuality into the individualities of others1 and to be not so much the cause of admiration as the cause of activity4 ,now ,i think that the scene will explain to us that ,elisha was largely possest of that gift4 ,if you watch it you will see that here is a scene which has since then often been exhibited in the story of all great movements4 ,one of the great conditions of life is the capacity to expand4 ,dead things may indeed crystallize into a sort of cold uniformity1 but that which has life in it is always possest of expansive energy4 ,here are these sons of the prophets becoming conscious that the place where they dwell is too strait for them4 ,it is a movement which1 as it were1 arises outside the prophet's suggestion2 he is not the one who tells them that the place is too strait4 ,they gather themselves together and say1 ,the place is too strait for us2 let us go and build a larger and ampler habitation for ourselves4 ,and immediately you watch him in the midst of these men whose minds are alive to the spirit of progress4 ,he identifies himself with their aspirations2 he is one with them in the movement2 he does not coldly frown upon their glorious aspirations1 which are from the extension of their own institutions1 but rather makes himself one with them4 ,not only so4 ,see how he allies himself to their individual life4 ,he does not even dictate to them the whole method of the movement2 each man shall be free1 he says1 to choose his beam4 ,when they say1 ,let us go and select our own beam for our own habitation1 be it so4 ,he is not to frown down their individual efforts1 but1 at the same time1 by going with them he preserves the coherence1 as it were1 of their work4 ,he allows the freest scope of individual activity1 but yet preserves them in the great unification of their work4 ,and when the episode happens which often does happen in the story of great movements--when the hour comes when one man's heart is smitten through with despondency1 when the work is still before him1 but the power of carrying on the work has dropt from his hand1 slipping into the stream which is ever ready to drown our best ambitions and endeavors--,elisha stands beside a man in despondency1 cheers his spirit1 which is overwhelmed by hopelessness1 and restores to him hope1 capacity1 and power4 ,i say this is a man who is1 in a great sense1 a true prophet of his day1 not simply posing for personal admiration1 not merely asserting himself and destroying the capabilities of those about him1 but with that sweet flexibility and that wondrous firmness combined1 which is capable of giving movement to the young life about him and at the same time drawing them into the one great purpose of existence4 ,and thus it seems to me that the scene spreads beyond its own age4 ,it is a type of all great movements1 and it gives us a fitting attitude of those who would direct and control such movements4 ,here is the prophet in relation to the idea of the age of progress4 ,the place is too strait for us4 ,it is not the cry of the ,jewish ,church only2 it is the cry of all ages4 ,the place is too strait4 ,you and ,i might say that is a vision of the growth of ,christendom2 the place is too strait4 ,the little upper chamber at ,jerusalem did not suffice for the three thousand converts4 ,the place is too strait1 they are forced to exclaim4 ,the limits of ,judea are too small for the ever-extending energy of ,christianity4 ,every land and every nationality must be brought within its sway1 and the workers shall be as the workers in this scene1 manifold4 ,here shall be men like ,st4 ,paul1 who shall go1 with a strong forensic sense of what the gospel is1 to speak it to the hearts of men who need it1 and lift them high above commonplace things4 ,here shall be one like ,st4 ,john1 reposing upon the bosom of his ,lord1 and able to unfold to them heavenly visions and the anticipations of the outgrowth and development of the world4 ,here is one who1 like ,origen shall collate1 like ,jerome shall translate1 like ,augustine shall expound1 like the men of later ages shall preach the spirit of reformation4 ,the place is too strait1 but given to each man his individual freedom1 the power and the expansion of the ,church goes on4 ,but is it not true that while1 on the one side1 we might say that this is a glorious picture1 untouched and untinged by any dark lines1 the moment that we begin to look at it in its practical form we begin to see the difficulties of its development8 ,let us go unto ,jordan1 and let us take each man our own beam4 ,as long as the expansion of the ,church is in the direction of the increase of its numbers or accession of new territories1 so long indeed the men who have had the spirit of zeal have been willing to sanction such extension4 ,but there comes a time when the consciousness of its expansion does not move according to the line of numbers merely1 but it moves according to the line of new institutions and of new thoughts4 ,how1 then1 will it be received by those into whose hand is placed the responsibility of its guidance8 ,the place is too strait for us2 so they cried in the early ,church when they found that ,judaic institutions were too narrow for the spirit of ,christianity4 ,the new wine could not be left in old bottles4 ,the place is too strait for us2 so they cried when they found within the bosom of the medieval ,church that there was not the opportunity for the expansion of their spiritual life and the development of their missionary energy4 ,but has it always been true that the spirit of this religious zeal which longs for new developments and new departures has been received with the spirit of wisdom8 ,you and ,i know full well that the history of the ,church of ,christ is the history of a thousand regrets4 ,did the medieval ,church never regret the act by which it drove forth the ,waldenses into schism8 ,has our ,church never regretted the day when it looked askance at the work of ,john ,wesley8 ,you know full well1 whatever might have been the feeling of earlier times1 there is growing up among us a larger and wider spirit1 catching--shall ,i say8--the true directing spirit which shone thus in the life of ,elisha2 and believing that it is possible after all that each man may have his function in life1 and each man1 choosing his beam1 may in bearing that beam be building up the temple of ,god4 ,but1 alas6 it is hard for men to believe it4 ,still1 even now1 the spirit of prejudice surrounds every aspect with which we regard life and ,church movement4 ,it is difficult for a man bred in one communion1 for example1 to believe in the types of saintship which have become the favorites of another2 harder1 perhaps1 for men bred in the very heart of ,rome to believe in the spirit of saintship which dwelt in the breast of ,molinos2 hard for those dwelling in the heart of ,protestantism to understand ,bonaventura or ,xavier2 hard for one who has been taught in ,presbyterian lines to believe in that sanctity which descends to us as an heritage from ,cosin and ,ken2 and difficult1 perhaps1 for ,episcopalians to recognize the sanctity which dwelt in ,richard ,baxter and ,john ,bunyan4444 ,you may believe that there is the danger of the ,church--shall ,i say8--growing stereotyped in its forms1 by checking the freedom of individual life4 ,there is the danger1 on the other side1 of the ,church1 as it were1 spreading itself in the aggregation of splendid individualities2 and because men believe intensely in their own mission1 because they can not but see that the beam which they are hewing down is one of paramount importance to take some place in supporting the temple of ,god1 they are inclined to prefer the attitude of isolation4 ,is this wise1 and is it well8 ,pardon me if ,i ask you to say that this spirit1 if allowed to grow1 is a spirit which1 from its various aspects1 is one which1 by all means in our power1 we ought to set our faces against4 ,our own beam is not the temple of ,god4 ,each move and form of religious thought is not comprehensive of the whole2 but it is here where men1 choosing their own beam1 begin to believe in their own1 and their own alone1 and seek to impose that little thing of their own as tho it were an absolute necessity of every portion of ,god's ,church1 that you get the spirit of actual division4 ,the whole is greater than its part4 ,if we could only bring the aphorisms of ordinary life into the bearings of the ,church of ,god we should be happier4 ,but1 let me assure you1 when a man has his beam1 and tells me that that beam will be built into the temple of ,god1 will support its roof1 and perhaps be the very thing which will add new dignity to the splendid arch which will spring from it1 ,i am content to accept it4 ,let him believe anything that will beautify and extend4 ,but when he tells me that it is catholicity to believe in his beam being all1 he simply1 as it were1 sins against the very thing he is seeking to maintain4 ,it is a sign of intellectual mediocrity2 it is the spirit of sectarianism2 it is the spirit ultimately of skepticism4 ,when a man believes that pious views1 which have been found profitable to his own soul1 are to be made the rule for the whole catholic ,church2 when he tells me that special hours for special services are essential for the well-being of all ,christian souls2 when he tells me that special attitudes in the house of ,god are essential to catholicity1 it is intellectual mediocrity1 as the brilliant ,french poet has written which can not comprehend anything beyond itself4 ,it is a spirit of sectarianism2 for what1 ,i pray1 do you mean by sectarianism1 if it is not this spirit1 that you exaggerate your own particular doctrine into such proportions as to make men feel that there is none other than that8 ,you are of your own little ,church1 and you are doubtful of the rest of the world4 ,that is the spirit of sectarianism1 and that1 if you understand it rightly1 is the only fault of skepticism2 for to believe that ,god is to be narrowed down to the conception of such a thing as that1 to believe that ,god's temple is to be brought down to the measure of your own little beam1 is to believe with such a stunted growth1 such a stunted conception of ,god1 that it is practically denying ,him altogether4 ,sometimes ,i venture to think that we have lost faith in ,christ altogether4 ,we believe in a ,church which can be manipulated by human wisdom1 we believe in a ,church which can be galvanized by organization1 but we can not believe in a ,church whose development is being overruled by the guiding spirit and eternal presence of ,christ ,himself4 ,if you take a large view of ,christianity the danger becomes yours4 ,some1 indeed1 hew down beams for the temple of ,god not themselves knowing of that temple into which they are placed2 for ,i do believe that in the development of ,god's great world the efforts of earnest and honest men who know not indeed in what direction their efforts are tending will be found to have been real efforts for the promotion of something1 for the bringing out of some truth1 for the establishment of some truth by which the ,church may live1 on which the ,church may build1 of whom the whole building1 fitly framed together and compacted by that which every joint supplies1 shall thus grow into the holy temple of the ,lord4 ,but the scene is not the scene merely of these activities uncrossed by a single reverse4 ,here is the accident1 here is the time in which men begin to feel that their power has left them4 ,one1 in hewing down his beam1 animated by a spirit of a little overeagerness1 perhaps gifted with that egotism of his work which made him develop it more rapidly than that of his fellows1 strikes too hard a blow1 and the loose ax-head slips off the haft and falls into the stream4 ,immediately he is face to face with1 and conscious of1 that most painful consciousness which can ever visit the heart of man--the contradiction between the grandness of the work and the ideal of the work which he has to achieve and his own impotence4 ,there is the beam1 and all about me are the workers1 and the house is to be built for the sons of the prophets4 ,but here1 in my hand ,i hold this simple haft1 bereft of the power of doing my share in that great work4 ,it is a picture which has been repeated often and often4 ,does there not come a time when we feel that the power1 as it were1 of things has forsaken us8 ,there was a time when our creeds afforded us great delight4 ,we believed in ,god2 we believed in redemption2 we believed in the ,spirit which could guide human affairs2 we moved to our work full of the exuberance of confidence in that faith4 ,but behold1 there has come a time when we1 perhaps almost unconsciously1 lose the very thing which has given us hope4 ,now whenever a new doctrine or new truth has come up in the history of the ,church1 it has been held1 in the first instance1 by men who lived by it and tied their own lives to it4 ,no power of that ax-head slipt off into life's stream4 ,they knew what they were doing4 ,when men brought out the doctrine of the inspiration of the ,bible1 they knew what they were doing2 they hewed down the trees about them1 and they really believed it4 ,their lives were created by this truth4 ,so when they believed in the real presence of ,christ1 they believed that ,christ was really present4 ,it was no fiction4 ,when they believed in the doctrine of justification by faith1 they believed that ,god had taken them into ,his own hands1 that ,god had grasped their lives1 and ,god ,himself was behind their lives4 ,truth was to them truth1 and it was a consecrated thing2 but remember that truth1 which is a flower1 has its roots there1 and it is only as you grasp it by its roots it becomes true to you4 ,truth is not a thing of the intellect only2 it descends into our moral nature1 it grafts upon our affections and conscience2 the moment ,i cut it away from it it ceases to be truth2 it becomes dogma--for the sake of distinction4 ,that is to say1 the men of our age who do not live by that truth wish1 as it were1 to attach that truth to them2 they wish to make it actually the cry of party4 ,they stole the wand of the enchanter1 but they had not the power of the enchanter4 ,they knew that they had the flower1 but the flower cut away from its moral root had no force and no vitality1 and therefore it crystallizes it4 ,hence1 the natural history of a doctrine is this3 when men are taking it rightly1 using it as for ,god1 rightly handling it1 it is a power in their hands4 ,taken up for their own purposes1 for the purpose of satisfying an indolent understanding1 for the purpose of evading the claims of ,god which other truths may be making upon their minds1 it then becomes evacuated of its power2 it is impotent1 it is buried underneath the stream of constantly changing time4 ,and1 then1 how shall it be restored8 ,by again1 ,i say1 being taken up out of the stream by the true handle4 ,if you wish to restore the power of truth1 you must see that it is the truth which has a claim upon your moral being4 ,for just as we are told that the sun may pour down its beams eternally upon the face of the moon1 burning and blistering with its rays its surface1 and that there everything remains cold and frozen underneath those beams1 because no sweet atmosphere can hold the sunbeams in its fold1 so it is true that when you take truth and use it from its false side1 it shall pour its brightest rays into your intellect1 not the dry light which ,bacon meant1 but the false light which some substitute for it4 ,you receive a true light upon your understanding1 and there is no moral atmosphere upon your nature to embrace those sunbeams1 to keep them and make them your own1 and make them your life blood by their presence4 ,if thus we take truth it becomes false to us1 a buried and useless thing4 ,but if you take truth from its moral side1 and approach it from its moral and spiritual side1 it shall again become a power in your nature4 ,when men believed in the inspiration of ,god and the ,bible it was a power to them2 but when this dropt down into a belief that every jot and tittle was part and parcel of ,god's inspiration1 then they merely crystallized into a dogma what was a great and living truth4 ,when men ask us1 ,are the doctrines of ,christianity dead2 are they played out8 my answer is1 ,they are dead to those who use them wrongly1 as all truth is dead to those who have no moral love of truth--dead to those who will use them as charms and incantations1 sewing them1 as the ,pharisees sewed some texts1 into the border of their robes2 dead1 indeed1 they are to those who are not making them part of their own life1 but not dead to those who1 tho they may not be able to formulate their view into any way that will satisfy a partizan section of ,christianity1 yet feel that to them the old inspiration is life4 ,god's living voice will speak to them godlike in every line1 to them because they believe in a ,christ behind all these truths1 and that these are but the endeavors of men to express the power of the living thought and voice of ,god4 ,then to them ordinances will live2 a real presence will be about their path4 ,sacraments and ordinances will live because something lives behind them4 ,they are not using them falsely but reverently1 and truly ,god has spoken to their souls2 ,he has put back the truths into their hearts by the handle of some new-found life4 ,it is the same with our own lives2 often and often it happens that you feel life has lost its power and charm2 its vigor was once great4 ,i came up1 for instance1 into the midst of my fellows here1 with all the enthusiasms of university life1 and ,i rejoiced in them2 but now1 somehow or other1 the novelty has gone away1 and the interest has palled1 and ,i do not care4 ,life has lost its meaning to me1 and ,i do not feel that life is worth living at all4 ,yes1 it is a contradiction in your own mind between the conception of life as in your nobler moments you form it and your own impotence4 ,has the ax-head gone8 ,has it slipt into the water8 ,how can it be restored8 ,the first thing a man discovers in his own impotence1 is that the power which was in his hands was not his own4 ,it is only when you and ,i see this that we can take it up again4 ,take life1 and make it the reason for indulgence2 take amusements1 and make them the instruments for mere enjoyment2 take study1 and make it the reason for mere pride2 and you will find the ax-head will slip off4 ,all the knowledge you possess will be like blinded knowledge1 capable of being applied to nothing4 ,but believe it to be your own1 given you of ,god--these hands1 this brain1 this heart1 ,god's1 not your own2 these ordinances of religion ,god's1 not your own2 these teachings of the ,church in all ages ,god's varied voice1 which1 if heard aright1 shall blend into one mold in your ears4 ,take it up as ,his1 and not your own2 lift up your life right reverently2 bend as you receive it from ,his hand1 who can alone give you the restored fulness of ,his powers4 ,you are surrounded by workers2 your mind is often disturbed among the many cries and many sounds2 but believe it1 each of you has your own beam1 and ,god can put into your hand the weapon which you are to use in hewing it down4 ,go forward1 and be not afraid4 ,,parkhurst ,,constructive ,,faith ,,biographical ,,note ,,charles ,,henry ,,parkhurst was born at ,framingham1 ,massachusetts1 in #ahdb4 ,since #ahhj he has been pastor of ,madison ,square ,presbyterian ,church1 ,new ,york4 ,he reads his sermons from a carefully prepared manuscript1 from which he does not raise his eyes during the delivery4 ,his ,english style is much admired for its force and compactness4 ,his voice interests and impresses the hearer by its unusual depth and resonance4 ,dr4 ,parkhurst has taken a conspicuous part in the effort for civic purity and righteousness4 ,he has published a number of books4 ,,parkhurst ,born in #ahdb ,,constructive ,,faith ,why is it thought a thing incredible with you that ,god should raise the dead8--,acts xxvi41 #h4 ,paul stood before ,agrippa to answer to him for the things whereof he had been accused4 ,and one of the charges of which he stood indicted was his belief in the resurrection of ,jesus ,christ and the publicity with which he had proclaimed that belief4 ,such resurrection was to ,paul credible1 to ,agrippa apparently incredible4 ,why8 ,why credible to the one1 but incredible to the other8 ,does the difficulty lie in the event or in the method of approaching it8 ,in the event1 or1 perhaps1 in the mental or moral constitution of the people who contemplate it8 ,the question is not one of mere academic interest4 ,it is too deeply involved in the whole ,christian scheme to have the door slammed in its face as a mere intellectual or scholastic intruder4 ,the writer of the first ,corinthian letter rather bruskly settled that matter when he wrote1 ,if ,christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain4 ,as ,paul understood it1 that was one of the fundamentals of the gospel1 and he1 if any one1 was competent to judge what its fundamentals were4 ,and while there is an element of formality1 ceremony and parade1 in the way in which the ,church1 after nineteen hundred years1 celebrates the event1 yet the ,church has a great deal of heart for the event1 believes in it some and would like to believe in it more4 ,its attitude toward it to-day is1 ,lord1 ,i believe2 help thou mine unbelief4 ,it is too deeply linked in with our thoughts of immortality for us to be able willingly to let go of it4 ,one man slipping through the grave in an immortal way creates a chance for every other man4 ,even if ,christ did not rise in the way predicated of ,him1 we may still be immortal2 but the soul likes one good authenticated instance of a death that was not fatal as something definite to anchor itself upon1 and is not always so sure of its anchorage grounds as to be able quite to rest in the hope it tries so hard to cherish4 ,aside from the fact that even if ,he did rise it was a great while ago--and the argumentative value of a fact tends to weaken with the centuries--there are other considerations that complicate the case1 so that we always welcome whatever promises to relieve a little the strain of an unsettled confidence4 ,it will be rather to our advantage then1 ,i am sure1 that we should distinctly face the fact that the event which the day celebrates is a somewhat severe tax upon that faculty of ours by means of which we are able to become convinced of what is unproved and perhaps unprovable4 ,we can reason toward it a part of the way1 but the reasons are all exhausted before we have arrived at an affirmative conclusion2 and the gap that still remains we fill in with faith4 ,it is better to state the situation in that frank way1 for then we know exactly what we have to deal with4 ,we can in part attest the fact of ,christ's resurrection1 but in part we have to accept it by the exercise of faith4 ,that may be a discouraging condition of things1 and may not be--discouraging1 perhaps1 if we mean by it only that we know it in part1 and guess or imagine the rest4 ,but we ought to seek for faith a somewhat more dignified and constructive function than that4 ,there is this1 at any rate1 to be said about faith--that there is no faculty of which we make more constant use or that we use with greater effect when used wisely2 and no faculty in which more of the richest contents of our personality admit of being concentrated4 ,this faculty is going to be quite largely exercised by people to-day1 and it is a favorable time to comment upon it4 ,it is of great use in religious matters and the season an opportune one for encouraging its use and stimulating it to more complete development4 ,it may enable us in some measure to understand why what was incredible to ,agrippa was credible to ,paul4 ,while there is a larger field in religion for the exercise of faith than there is anywhere else1 we ought to know that it is no more indispensable there than elsewhere4 ,you1 of course1 are aware that there are very few things that can be absolutely proved--proved in such a way that something over and above is not required in order to insure a satisfactory conviction4 ,even if mathematical demonstrations seem to be an exception to that rule1 you should remember that even there your demonstration has to start with something that is unproved and that can not be proved4 ,as matter of fact1 absolute demonstration is one of the rarities1 whether in the intellectual1 moral or spiritual world1 and a man who is not so equipped as to be prepared to piece our logical proof with something else of a different complexion is in no condition to be confident of anything4 ,as a rule1 our conclusions contain a good deal more than was comprised in the premises4 ,logic is well enough in the text-books1 is1 besides1 of considerable practical account1 and yet if we never decided to do a thing until we were satisfied of its logical accuracy1 we should leave nearly everything undone4 ,in framing our convictions we make some use of reason1 but either because the reasoning faculty is weak in us1 or still more because the situation is such with us that our convictions do not have to be altogether reasoned out1 the conclusions at which we arrive are usually a great deal sounder than can be logically accounted for4 ,there is some reason about us and a good deal of something else--has to be4 ,otherwise1 whether individually or collectively1 we should never get anywhere4 ,we trust people without being more than about half certain that it is safe to trust them1 and usually discover in the end that we made no mistake in trusting them4 ,we go aboard an express-train without having one syllable of information about the engineer1 the engine1 the track of the railroad1 and nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand1 and a good deal more1 a ticket to ,chicago will take us to ,chicago4 ,in the same way we talk confidently about the sun1 but should make awkward work trying to prove that there is one--seeing that the little ethereal pulse-beat knocking just at the window of our own eye is the only direct information that we have of it4 ,the heroism that is in our conclusions is something tremendous1 and we talk about all these matters as tho we were perfectly at home with and had intellectually penetrated to the heart of them4 ,it is interesting1 and not only interesting but quite suggestive1 the very slight degree to which ordinarily our confidence is discouraged by the small amount of distinct fact that we are able to adduce in justification of our confidence2 how brave the steps are that we take upon ground that has never been accurately explored and of which1 therefore1 only the roughest outline map has been prepared4 ,but at the same time how likely we are to find our way through and arrive safely at the terminal4 ,such illustrations are sufficient to indicate that this faculty that we have of believing where we are not able perfectly to see is a respectable faculty1 a faculty that we are all showing our respect for by the constancy with which we make use of it in all our ordinary modes of thought and usual methods of action4 ,so that when we talk about religious faith--faith in religious things1 and in events of ,christian history1 we are dealing with an inner impulse that we depend upon every day1 the only difference being a difference as to the field in which that impulse works2 even as celestial gravity is the same as terrestrial gravity1 only in the one case working among the stars1 and in the other operating down here on the ground4 ,now this faculty that in common affairs we call belief and in religious ones faith1 is quite a distinct thing from a disposition to walk in the dark when there is no light4 ,faith is not credulity4 ,a fool can be credulous and certainly will be1 but faith requires for its rooting and growth soil that is deep and strong4 ,the men large enough to be great thinkers and immense workers were they whom the writer of the ,hebrew letter describes as prophets of faith4 ,there is a dignity and authority about the faith faculty poorly appreciated by people who give it a degraded position in the scale of human powers3 the faculty of finding light enough to walk by when the light is only a twilight with no distinct sunbeams in reach to make the path brilliant4 ,if faith were simply a process of assumption1 a matter of easily and perhaps shiftlessly taking things for granted1 then the smaller a man's soul the greater would be the likelihood of the abundance of his faith4 ,but that is not the case4 ,the men of which ,scripture history especially predicates faith are the intellectual and moral giants of history1 the men who were virile and strongly chivalrous enough to make long excursions into the region of truth and to move out in a large and telling way upon the field of action4 ,credulousness will grow and blossom with its roots hidden only in dry sand1 but it takes something quite different from a human sand-lot to propagate the sort of quality and the modes of thought and activity celebrated in the eleventh of ,hebrews4 ,all men or women who have shown themselves able to be anything or do anything in the world have owed this competence to the fact that they have felt the presence of objects that were too remote from the eye to be distinctly seen1 too remote from the mind to be distinctly known4 ,their field of clear vision has been invariably girt about with an encompassing zone so dense as to be almost impenetrable1 but too obvious to remain invisible4 ,it is with them a faltering perception of what is almost altogether out of sight4 ,it is what ,st4 ,paul expresses when he says of faith that1 it is the evidence of things not seen4 ,it is that captivating apprehension of regions lying beyond the scope of definite vision that creates a sense of no end of great possibilities and so breaks down the obstinacy of antecedent objection4 ,this mysterious discernment that constitutes the genius of faith we see delicately illustrated even in the play of the bodily eye4 ,however transparent the material atmosphere immediately about us1 as the eye reaches forth into the distance the outlines become more and more obscure until the vision loses itself in the immensity of the prospect that it can only feel and scarcely distinguish4 ,but even that makes the universe grow great before us as the little world we know is evidenced to be fringed with the bewitching margin of a world that is hardly in view4 ,when1 for instance1 we look up into the sky on a starry night we are delighted1 of course1 by the stellar spots of distinct brightness1 but after all1 the charm unspeakable and almost crushing1 of such a sky1 is not the stars that we can distinctly see1 but those whose edges are softened down into tantalizing obscurity1 bits of nebulous uncertainty that leave us almost undecided whether they belong to the world of things visible or to the realm invisible2 so that our sense of them becomes nearly as much a sense of the unseen as of the seen4 ,and in the presence of celestial scenery in such manner stimulating to the mind and heart1 any declaration in regard to the astronomic world1 even fairly authenticated by competent authorities1 would secure from us not only willing but eager acceptance4 ,there pertains thus to the eye a kind of advance-guard of discovery that gives us a feeling of the unknown wonders that are away in the corner of the sky1 quite before the eye is able to take strong visual hold upon them4 ,and1 as ,i say1 it makes the universe larger and richer1 and not only that1 it lays out for us a sort of shadowy avenue along which the eye is encouraged to let its vision run out on experimental and adventurous trips with at least some prospect of being able to return from such excursions laden with more or less of the products of discovery4 ,to people who sometimes lift their eyes above the level of the ground1 such evasive hints as distant things give of themselves are very provocative2 they tend to make the eye alert1 to tax it to its utmost endeavor1 to fill it with inquiry1 and an interrogation is always the outrider of discovery4 ,and that is the way always that things of whatever kind become known to us1 by standing as closely as ever we can to the edge of the known and then feeling our way--not seeing our way1 but feeling our way--as far as we can over the edge of the known out into the vast space where1 in almost1 not quite1 utter indistinctness1 hovers the unknown4 ,that was the process by which ,columbus discovered ,america4 ,he discovered it by sailing along the line of his presentiment4 ,he reasoned toward it as far as he could and then supplemented the insufficiency of reason by a generous contribution of faith2 possest1 that is1 of so long a reach of thought and so roomy a conception of ,god's world that there seemed space in it for another ,europe1 which ought somehow to be there in order to fill that space4 ,and the way in which the discoverer who sailed from ,palos discovered a new geographical world is the way in which we have to approach the suspected contents of the religious world1 suspected events of ,christian history4 ,the sense1 the mastering sense1 of outlying spiritual territory too obscure for us to say a great many definite things about it1 but too certainly there to be denied or ignored1 is a necessary prerequisite to all successful use or observance of such a day as we are celebrating4 ,a man whose thoughts stop short at the point where those thoughts cease to move in perfect light can celebrate ,easter as a formality1 but never as a reality4 ,the resurrection of ,christ does not admit of absolute demonstration4 ,undoubtedly the testimony in favor of the event is strong4 ,it was evidently unquestioned by a great number of intelligent people living at the time of its reputed occurrence4 ,so much force as all such evidence has is to be estimated at its logical value4 ,so ,columbus estimated at its logical value all the indications that were afforded him of the existence of another continent4 ,to most people of that generation those evidences appeared insufficient to warrant fitting out vessels of exploration1 and it was long before funds requisite for the purpose could be secured4 ,and the magnificent result and discovery was due to the fact that in ,columbus' mind there was room for ,america and in the minds of other people there was not4 ,his thought1 or whatever you may call it1 had in it a vitality that enabled it to move beyond the point where it could give a satisfactory account of itself4 ,he could see beyond the point where he could see distinctly4 ,the scheme of things as it lay drafted in his mind was drawn on a scale large enough to comprehend everything that was already definitely known1 everything that was indefinitely surmised1 and a good deal beside that neither he nor any one else had ever conjectured4 ,now what ,i want you to realize is that that is the kind of mind that does the world's work1 the kind of mind that arrives1 that kind of mind that is competent to come up close to the frontier1 to venture across the frontier1 to do some outside exploring1 to bring back some of the products grown on ground newly explored1 and thus practically to push forward the frontier and to add another lot of land to the world's geography1 whether it be the geography of country1 of thought1 or of religious experience4 ,and nothing more is asked for here than is demanded along every other line of life and expansion4 ,it is only the men and women whose minds are sufficiently sensitive to the unknown to be able to take in more than has yet been definitely found that are ever the means by which anything new ever is found4 ,that is true in the departments of astronomy and geology and in every other field of whatever sort in which thought has ever done any work4 ,a presentiment of the undiscovered is the regular prelude to discovery1 and to the extent that men1 whether from intellectual contractedness or from moral aversion1 have not that presentiment they will be unable to allow even the historic proofs of ,christian events the argumentative force that belongs to such proofs4 ,the convincing power of an argument depends quite as much upon the size1 fiber1 quality of the man addrest as upon the logical compulsions or the argument used in addressing him1 which is to say that we are responsible for what we believe as well as for what we know1 and that the machinery of faith operates inside the domain of ethics4 ,for example3 standing on the basis of the harmonious testimony rendered by the intelligent authors of the gospel narratives1 no one would dispute the truth of those narratives were there not in them references to events which lie out of line with things the scheme of which we happen to be familiar with1 and which in the unblushing conceit of our unsophisticated humanness we dare to presume to be the whole of things2 which means that people do not want the world to be any larger or any different from what they have already decided to have it2 nor that any events should occur in it or occur anywhere but what are slow-paced enough to keep step with any most common thing that moves in our workaday life4 ,thomas would not believe in the risen ,christ because risen ,christs were not a part of the universe as he had plotted it4 ,the other disciples did believe in a risen ,christ because they were large enough to be able to think farther than they could think clearly1 and because they were able to push the chariot of their convictions over a road that had not been logically paved4 ,and undoubtedly when ,thomas did finally accept ,christ it was not because he had reasoned ,him out in his mind nor fingered ,him out by pressing his hands into the print of the nails1 but because of having had divinely wrought in him a capacity for larger persuasions than his mental and moral contractedness had been hitherto able to accommodate4 ,and that is still the way in which we have to acquire the art of great believing1 the art of immense assurance of faith and the triumphant joy that is bound to go along with it4 ,a world that is only large enough to contain our petty employments1 or to contain our small pleasures and paltry lusts1 is not a world big enough to have room in it for a human ,son of ,god or for ,his immortal escape from the tomb4 ,we might convert our ,church into an ,easter conservatory and crowd floor1 galleries and chancel with a chorus of as many angels as heralded the advent1 and all of this be a splendid tribute to the ,lord of the resurrection and a splendid memorial of the great ,easter event1 but the prime point of all is for us each inwardly to grow to the proportions of so august an event1 to be inwardly equal to the cordial and settled entertainment of so thrilling a thought1 to have created in us such a sense of vast spiritual territory margining this small world of commonplace1 as will give abundant space for transactions conducted on so large a scale as that of the marvelous birth1 the death in whose presence the sun was darkened1 and the great rising from the grave that broke down the walls between this world and the other1 converted the coffin into a cradle of life eternal1 and swung wide the doors of paradise4 ,it is our prayer that the wide view opened before us by this memorial season may stimulate us to higher levels of thought2 create for us a world too large to be filled with the small and passing interests and commonplace incidents of life2 destroy for us in that way the obstinacy of antecedent objection2 mental reluctance and moral antagonism be dissolved in the warm light of the larger prospect1 till we become able to recognize ,jesus in the gracious face and scarred figure2 and in the cordiality of complete conviction to echo the words of the persuaded ,thomas1 ,my ,lord and my ,god4 ,,patton ,,glorification ,,through ,,death ,,biographical ,,note ,,francis ,,landey ,,patton1 ,presbyterian minister and educator1 was born in ,bermuda in #ahdc4 ,he studied at ,knox ,college1 ,toronto1 and ,princeton ,seminary1 ,new ,jersey4 ,from #ahfe to #ahga he held many pastorates1 but in the latter year his work as a controversialist and educator began4 ,he took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical trials of ,prof4 ,david ,swing and ,dr4 ,c4 ,a4 ,briggs1 and was elected to succeed ,dr4 ,mc,cosh in the presidency of ,princeton in #ahhh1 but resigned in #aijb1 after which he was elected president of the ,princeton ,seminary4 ,he is a deep thinker and dialectician1 and a vigorous speaker on the theological subjects in which he is interested4 ,,patton ,born in #ahdc ,,glorification ,,through ,,death#d #d ,copyright1 #aije1 by ,the ,homiletic ,review1 ,new ,york4 ,verily1 verily1 ,i say unto you1 except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die1 it abideth alone2 but if it die1 it bringeth forth much fruit4--,john xii41 #bd4 ,we all know that it was necessary for ,christ to die1 and that his path lay through the valley of the shadow of death4 ,i do not take this text to illustrate this idea1 but to concern myself with a line of illustration which has no reference to ,his death1 and so will avoid the suggestion4 ,we have here1 in the first place1 the enunciation of a principle which goes far toward unifying the moral and spiritual history of our world4 ,glorification through death is a principle that may be seen in various spheres of observation1 and in the relation of the individual to the race4 ,for instance1 a man of ordinary education has a family of boys and girls4 ,he has reached that time of life1 the sure sign of middle age1 perhaps a little beyond1 when he ceased to raise the question that he has been raising about himself1 ,how shall ,i make the best of myself8 and he begins to raise the question-the only question he thinks of after that--,what shall ,i do for them8 ,well1 he says1 ,i had but a limited education2 they shall have the best the country can give or they are willing to take4 ,i had but few opportunities2 there is no lack of opportunity for them4 ,i had many a rough encounter when ,i first set out in the world2 they shall have the advantage of my accumulated earnings to set them up in life4 ,sure enough1 the boys grow up and fill positions that the father and mother did not fill1 and could not fill2 and by and by they all come home again1 and as they look on the dead man's face they say1 or rather they seem to say1 ,father did well by us1 and they may very well say it4 ,his hand had wrought for them2 his head had thought for them2 his heart had beat for them2 this is the long result--the father lies in his coffin1 and the children go their several ways in life1 and repeat in their own experience the story2 and so the individual withers1 and the world is more and more4 ,and this principle of glorification through death is illustrated further in the fact that1 when the lower forms of life or civilization disappear to make room for the higher1 the one dominating phase of the doctrine of evolution is the seeming unity with which it invests everything2 because1 imagine it true1 and there at once you see how moving are the poet's words3 ,i held it truth1 with him who sings ,to one clear harp in divers tones1 ,that men may rise on stepping-stones ,of their dead selves to higher things4 ,this is the story not of the potential1 but of the actual4 ,and what is true of the material world is true of the spiritual world4 ,the history of the spiritual world is a history of displacement4 ,you may account for it by the love of glory or by the sentiment of revenge1 but we know that ,god's glory is the final cause1 and it is all explicable upon the great scale of divine providence4 ,we all understand that there is a definite relationship between our present and the past1 and that we to-day are the heirs of all that civilization that has gone4 ,our acts are the result of all that has gone before4 ,they were the seed and we are the harvest3 ,except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die1 it abideth alone2 but if it die1 it bringeth forth much fruit4 ,the mass of this early civilization survives in the civilization of to-day4 ,where do you go to find the origin of the great principle of civil liberty8 ,where do you go1 but to that crowd of sturdy peoples who lived along the banks of the ,rhine1 and whom ,tacitus describes1 or to those sturdy barons at ,runnymede who extorted the ,magna ,charta from ,king ,john8 ,it is just as true in the sphere of science or philosophy4 ,it is a far cry back to ,thales of ,miletus1 and yet our own boasted century1 the nineteenth1 and this which may have boasts of its own1 has a close relation to the civilization of the very far past4 ,our astronomy is different from their astrology1 and our chemistry is different from their alchemy1 but they are closely associated4 ,we see further than they did sometimes1 just because we are as pigmies borne on the shoulders of a giant4 ,this principle of glorification through death is illustrated once more in that a new and expanded form of life is the fruit of death4 ,take the railroad at the proper season of the year1 and see the corn standing as a dazzling glory in the fertile fields of the golden ,west4 ,mark how towers herald the approach to the towns and cities1 and ask what they stand there for8 ,these are the nation's treasure-houses4 ,these are the storehouses of the world4 ,this is the annual coronation of nature1 and simply so many illustrations of the text3 ,except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die1 it abideth alone2 but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit4 ,change the illustration and borrow one from the humbler phases of the animal world1 like the caterpillar1 which eats up the floor of the leaf on which it creeps1 until1 by and by1 as it begins to realize that its life is nearly done1 it sets its house in order1 turns undertaker1 weaves itself a silken shroud1 and awaits the dawning of its resurrection day1 and soars away a bright-winged butterfly--a beautiful illustration of the text3 ,except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die1 it abideth alone2 but if it die1 it bringeth forth much fruit4 ,that is the story of our life4 ,we are born1 and we grow2 we go on our way1 renew our infancy with impaired faculties1 and then we pass away4 ,life is a battle1 and we win our greatest victory when we lie down on that battle-field and die4 ,life is a race1 and the goal is at the grave4 ,life is a journey1 and the path that we take lies straight for the valley of the shadow of death4 ,the valley is dark1 but beyond the darkness and across the river ,i see the lights of the celestial city2 ,i get an echo of the angels' song1 and the glimpse that ,i get tells me that it is worth all it costs to die4 ,the principle of glorification through death is illustrated in the death of ,judaism4 ,judaism was a divinely founded institution--a theological seminary4 ,the purpose of it was to disseminate the knowledge of the one living and true ,god4 ,with the approach of the pagan world and ,christianity it gathered up its energies to give birth to ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,that is what it existed for2 and in the throes of the birth-struggle ,judaism died4 ,let us not speak reproachfully of ,judaism1 for the glory of ,christianity is the glory of ,judaism with an added glory3 ,except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die1 it abideth alone2 but if it die1 it bringeth forth fruit4 ,once more 7for this is our ,lord's own illustration concerning ,himself71 the principle of glorification through death is illustrated in the death and resurrection of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ ,himself4 ,we see ,jesus made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor4 ,he suffered that we might conquer4 ,he drank the bitter cup in order that we might taste something of the sweetness of the joys of ,his ,father's house4 ,he has settled the question of ,his own place1 and of our place too1 in the scale of being4 ,the question whether the finite and the infinite can ever come together has been solved in the doctrine of the incarnation4 ,we do not want any more to sing the old song1 which never amounted to very much in the way of music or poetry3 ,i want to be an angel1 ,and with the angels stand1 ,a crown upon my forehead1 ,a harp within my hand4 ,we do not want anything of the sort4 ,angels never rise so high nor stand so low as man4 ,they know nothing about sin or repentance or salvation through ,jesus ,christ1 and are not worthy to sit with ,him who judges the ten tribes of ,israel4 ,this text not only fastens on us this principle of glorification through death1 but1 in the second place1 it gives us a twofold vindication of death1 the first being the perils of survivorship1 and the second being the promise of grace4 ,death is one of the most philosophical things in the world2 and if you put yourselves in the right attitude toward it1 it is one of the kindest agencies in nature4 ,there is such a thing as a time to die2 for two reasons at least4 ,one is the solitude of old age--the peril of survivorship--,except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die1 it abideth alone2 it abideth alone4 ,you can imagine a person very old4 ,his eyes have grown dim4 ,generations have grown old and died1 but he still lives on4 ,he is too old to take kindly to the new ideas1 or to see much reason for the changes taking place4 ,he is too old to have an interest in the present1 too old to have any friends1 and at last he lives1 and lives1 and lives1 until he seems like a monumental intrusion into the present1 an object that people stop to look at when they are in a reflective mood and wish to mark the flight of years4 ,who would not court a new-made grave rather than risk the perils of survivorship8 ,then there is the promise of grace4 ,our blest ,lord hallowed the grave by ,his presence1 and left it upon the morning of the third day4 ,the promise of ,christ gives us a connection with ,his own glorious resurrection2 and planted with ,him in ,his death1 we shall be with ,him in ,his glory4 ,and so the message comes to you and to me3 ,be not afraid4 ,do not hesitate to go down1 even into the grave4 ,our ,lord has not made it unnecessary for us to die1 but ,he has robbed death of its terrors4 ,he has made easy the approach2 ,he has festooned the entrance with flowers2 and we ride through its portals1 singing as we go1 ,o grave1 where is thy victory8 ,o death1 where is thy sting8 and we turn to discover that the door of death is the gate of heaven4 ,again1 this text teaches one other truth4 ,as we read it1 we can not very well help being imprest with the idea that there is embodied in it the thought that there are two contrasted modes of being3 a fruitless conservation and a prolific decay4 ,the seed corn is very tenacious of life1 and there is a story that grains taken from an ,egyptian mummy have been planted and have germinated in ,english gardens4 ,i believe that this is not so1 but the tenacity of wheat in respect to life is true4 ,it abideth2 but it abideth alone4 ,let it reproduce itself1 and by and by there will be enough of harvest to feed a nation4 ,we must make a choice between a fruitless conservation and prolific decay4 ,and this choice comes to us in so many ways4 ,we see it in the sphere of prejudice4 ,prejudice is often1 but it is not always1 right4 ,it is very often misplaced or perpetuated beyond a time when it does any good4 7,you never find a man cherishing a prejudice1 because he says he is standing up for a principle47 ,it was good enough when he started2 it served its purpose at first2 but it has outlived its usefulness1 and is now just a prejudice4 ,a good many years ago1 at the foundation of the ,london ,missionary ,society1 a speaker said1 ,we stand to-day at the funeral of bigotry4 ,there is not a word of objection to that1 except that these obsequies have been so unduly protracted4 ,god send the day when men shall recognize the lineament of ,jesus ,christ in one another's face1 whether they be ,presbyterians1 ,episcopalians1 or what6 ,and this principle1 this choice1 whether there shall be a conservation that is fruitless1 or an expenditure that is generous1 meets us everywhere4 ,it meets us in our relationship to the past4 ,there is a sort of medievalism cherished and fostered by some people with an odor of sanctity--they love things which are old4 ,and there is a vandalism that destroys the old1 and worships the new1 because it is new4 ,my friends1 they are both wrong4 ,let us look at our inheritance of the past in proof of this4 ,hold fast to that which is true1 and do not hold anything that is not4 ,read the great formularies of worship with the critical light of modern thought1 and hold on to that which is true4 ,the ,jerusalem ,chamber is not holy ground1 the ,westminster divines were not inspired4 ,if they said what was true1 it is because of the truth of what they say that we hold on to it1 not because they said it4 ,and what is true in regard to these formulas holds true in reference to our own individual life4 ,but there are times1 ,i suppose1 when people who live in a city as busy as this is1 and where the engagements of the week run over into two weeks1 and where every hour has its own employment1 there are times1 ,i suppose1 even here that people have leisure to sit still while the fire burns2 and in these choice stolen hours1 ,i suppose1 figures of long ago come out upon the canvas1 and stand there in bold relief2 and we say that they were happy days4 ,imagine that dear old room1 and those pictures of long ago coming before us1 when our imagination was all aglow4 ,i can imagine that the door-bell might ring1 and that one of those that we have not seen for fifty years was announced4 ,i can imagine the conversation that would ensue4 ,we would talk excitedly for twenty minutes1 and then the conversation would flag1 and before the hour was up we would be completely disillusioned1 and would see that our paths had diverged4 ,all that sort of thing was good in its way and time1 but it is not the time for it now4 ,of course1 we must have a foundation for the house4 ,still we do not live in the cellar4 ,we live upstairs in the sunlight1 and experience says we do well4 ,these past incidents of life are just the foundation1 and it is the superstructure after all that you build upon2 and unless a man is willing to part with the past1 he is going to make a mistake4 ,unless we learn to do better to-day the things that we did yesterday1 and paint a better picture to-day1 and write a better poem than the last1 and are more proficient in our arts1 we are just as good as dead4 ,we are eternally improving and moving on4 ,there is a conservation1 stedfast and still2 and there is a forgetfulness and a generous prodigality of past attainments that is prolific of vast results4 ,there is your health4 ,what are you going to do with it8 ,you had better wear out than rust out any day4 ,you can see people who make themselves obnoxious to you by their everlasting attitude of complaint4 ,there is something better for a man to do than to take care of his health1 and he will probably live longer if he does not4 ,is a man who has an intellect expected to have nothing better to do than to play nurse to his body that he has to summer in the ,north1 and winter in the ,south1 and to clothe with purple and fine linen1 and fare sumptuously every day1 and give it now and then a trip to ,europe--a body that is bound to die8 ,there is your life4 ,what are you going to do with it8 ,there is your money4 ,what are you going to do with it8 ,why1 invest it1 and be careful about your security1 and don't be careful about the interest1 and keep on investing and reinvesting1 until it will take the figures of astronomy to count it4 ,as fortunes go now1 astronomy is not in it4 ,invest it1 and then what do you do8 ,there are so many things that some people might do and do do1 that so many more people might do4 ,they might perpetuate their names by doing something for the ,church1 for education1 and for the world1 and its moral1 spiritual1 and intellectual advance4 ,god be praised for this6 ,you1 who have cast your bread of benevolence upon the waters of ,christian philanthropy hope that you will receive it after many days4 ,this world's history shows that our forests have not been cleared by the brawn of men who lived in comfortable homes4 ,how have our liberties been secured8 ,by the blood of men who counted no service too great4 ,can we do that8 ,william of ,orange might have lived a long life1 but he stript himself of land and fortune1 and planted himself in deadly opposition to ,alva1 and died a monument to the fall of ,spanish tyranny4 ,yes1 my friends1 in humbler spheres it is your privilege1 and mine1 in the house of this tabernacle1 to choose between the alternative of a conservation which is fruitless and an expenditure that is substantial1 generous1 and prodigal4 ,it is a choice for us to make4 ,wrap yourselves in your mummy folds1 and live for yourself or1 in generous forgetfulness1 live for ,god and country1 and for fellow men while you live1 and when the hour comes1 without fear1 if need be1 drop into the ground and die4 ,help us1 ,o ,lord1 to endure as good soldiers of ,jesus ,christ4 ,help us to do our duty so completely that every day we do better and become better and be with ,christ4 ,help us that we may be ready for death1 and in that last encounter may be as brave as in all the other encounters of our lives4 ,give us this faith to the end4 ,for ,christ's sake4 ,amen4 ,,scott ,,holland ,,the ,,story ,,of ,a ,,disciple',s ,,faith ,,biographical ,,note ,,henry ,,scott ,,holland1 ,english clergyman and author1 was born at ,wimbledon in #ahdg4 ,he was educated at ,eton and ,oxford1 at which university he was distinguished for learning and character4 ,in #ahdd he was appointed ,canon of ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 ,london4 ,he has published ,logic and ,life2 ,creed and ,character1 and other volumes4 ,,scott ,,holland ,born in #ahdg ,,the ,,story ,,of ,a ,,disciple',s ,,faith ,then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre1 and he saw and believed4--,john xx41 #h4 ,john1 the beloved disciple1 has given his witness1 has made his confession4 ,what he once touched1 and tasted1 and handled1 that he has declared unto us4 ,it was the shining1 the epiphany of ,god the ,father which he and the twelve had discovered1 tabernacled close at their side in the body of ,christ4 ,we saw his glory1 the glory as of ,god himself4 ,so he pronounces4 ,yet still his listeners sit on about his feet4 ,they hear great words1 but these words are the end of a long and anxious meditation4 ,the apostle is giving us1 is giving them his completed conclusions--yes1 and they have accepted the conclusions2 they hold them fast4 ,but it is not enough to know what they ought to believe1 tho that is much--they must also know the process by which the conclusion is to be reached4 ,they must reproduce in themselves the living story of its formation4 ,they must be conscious of its stages1 its degrees1 and its growth4 ,they can not surely be as reapers entering into the labors of others who went forth weeping with good seed4 ,they must feel their own faith grow1 first the blade1 then the ear1 and so at last1 in ample richness1 the full corn in the ear2 and therefore they went on wondering4 ,let us hear it all1 they say2 tell us of that day when first it came to you that something wonderful was there4 ,tell us how you slowly learned the great mystery2 and then tell us when and how it was that the full truth broke from your heart and from your lips4 ,tell us this1 that so we1 too1 may say with you and with ten thousand times ten thousand3 ',worthy is the ,lamb that was slain4' ,this is the question that ,st4 ,john sets himself to answer2 and you can see that it is so by this1 that he begins his gospel1 not with our ,lord's own beginning1 the baptism by ,john1 but with the day on which the disciples began to believe on ,him2 and he ends it1 not with our ,lord's own ending1 ,his ascension1 but with the first completed confession of ,jesus by an apostle--the confession of ,thomas4 ,this achieved1 his gospel is done2 he has nothing to add but one scene that to him was full of tender personal interest4 ,the ,fourth ,gospel tells us how the apostolic faith was built and established4 ,let us carefully turn to it1 for it is a revelation of the apostle's own heart4 ,the old man himself is bidding us draw near and taste of his own experiences4 ,he unlocks his soul to us that he may help us to mount up into his assured peace1 so calm1 so sure1 so strong4 ,he sits there murmuring always his3 ,come1 ,lord ,jesus1 even come2 and round about him1 enthroned in the majesty of age1 is that mysterious silence in which the voices of the ,spirit and the ,bride say3 ,come4 ,and yet he can turn from that upward vision and bend his eyes back on us--on us1 so perplexed1 and troubled1 and hesitating1 and fearful1 and bewildered4 ,he can yearn to make us fellowship in his joy4 ,little children1 it is the last hour4 ,even now are there many antichrists4 ,and now1 my little children1 abide in him4 ,my little children1 let no man lead you astray1 for this is the true ,god and eternal life2 and therefore1 ,o my children1 keep yourselves from idols4 ,so tender1 so beseeching1 the fatherly love6 ,and in the name of that love he sets himself to tell the story of his own conversion1 how he had begun4 ,he can recall every tiny detail of that first critical hour4 ,it began on the day when ,john the ,baptist cast off the hopes that were so eagerly bent upon him2 for he it was1 the ,baptist1 and not the ,lord ,jesus1 who first woke in their hearts that spiritual movement which became ,christianity4 ,he roused first the cry of the new faith1 and passionately they had given him their souls--they and all who1 seeing ,john1 mused in their hearts what would be the ,christ4 ,even the ,pharisees of ,jerusalem felt the excitement and shared the hope2 and it was to their deputation that the ,baptist made his great repudiation3 ,no2 ,i am not it1 not the ,christ2 no1 nor ,elias1 nor a prophet4 ,i am nought but a flying cry in the wilderness1 a cry that floats by on the wind and perishes4 ,not ,i1 but another--another who comes after me2 yea1 who is now standing among you1 even tho you know it not4 ,so he confest4 ,he denied not1 but confest2 so brave a heart he had6 ,all those hearts were at his service1 a world of devotion all lying there at his feet2 but he would not be tempted4 ,he knew his own limits2 he would have none of it4 ,he confest1 and denied not3 ,i am not the ,christ4 ,and then came the great moment4 ,it was the very next day after the great confession--so exact is the apostle's memory4 ,the very day after1 ,john saw ,jesus coming toward him1 and a wonderful word broke from him3 ,behold the ,lamb of ,god1 which taketh away the sins of the world4 ,taketh away the sin6 ,oh1 the peace of such a promise to those who had been washed in ,jordan1 and had repented1 and had confest1 and yet found their burden of sin as miserable1 as intolerable as ever6 ,the words haunted them2 and when1 the day following1 ,john uttered them again1 two of them at least could not rest4 ,their hearts burned to know more4 ,who is this strange visitant--so quiet1 so silent1 so unobserved8 ,he makes no sign4 ,he says no word4 ,he invites no attention4 ,he does not even stop to look4 ,he just passes by2 and1 lo6 ,he is already passed--in another moment ,he will have gone4 ,they must act for themselves then4 ,they will force ,him to stop and tell them the secret4 ,so two of them that heard ,john speak followed ,him--two of them1 and ,john the beloved1 who now tells us the story1 was one of the two4 ,and now that they followed1 ,he1 the ,stranger1 must turn and speak4 ,for the first time1 then1 ,he looked upon them with that look which again and again had power to draw a soul1 by one glance1 out of the night of sin into the life of eternal light4 ,he turned and saw them following1 and it was then they heard ,his voice first speak--that voice which by its cry could raise the dead4 ,whom seek ye8 ,that was all4 ,and they--they hardly knew what to say--only they must see ,him1 must go with ,him2 and they stammered out3 ,rabbi1 where dwellest thou8 ,and ,he said3 ,come and see4 ,come and see6 ,it was all as quiet and natural and easy as any ordinary interview4 ,no one could have seen anything unusual4 ,just a few words of salutation--just three short sentences that could be said in half a minute4 ,and yet that sealed their lot for eternity4 ,that was the moment of decision4 ,come and see4 ,they went and saw4 ,so intense is the apostle's memory of that blest hour that he can never forget the very hour of the day4 ,it was just ten o'clock when he got to the house4 ,they stopt there with ,him that night2 and in the morning they were sure of what they had found--so sure that neither of them could rest until he had hurried off with the good news to find and bring his brother4 ,andrew found his brother before ,john could find ,james2 or else it was that both went at once to seek for ,peter1 and ,andrew found him first4 ,anyhow1 when ,peter was found1 both were prepared to assert1 ,we have found the ,christ4 ,and so they brought the great chief to his ,master2 and in a moment the ,master knew what ,he had won in that loyal1 loving soul1 and ,he turned those deep eyes upon him1 and named him by his new name4 ,thou art ,simon1 the son of ,jonas2 thou shalt be called ,cephas4 ,so it all began4 ,the very next day after that the ,master ,himself added one other to the number--,philip a friend of ,peter's and ,andrew's--and ,philip brought ,nathaniel2 and these were the little band whom the ,master took with ,him from ,jordan to ,cana--the seed of that great ,church which now reigns from ,babylon to ,rome4 ,and what next--so the listeners ask--what was the next step made8 ,three days later1 at ,cana1 for the first time1 came that strange secret of which the apostle had spoken4 ,the glory shone out with a sudden flash from the deeps within ,him2 a word of power leapt out--very quietly4 ,very few saw or knew it4 ,but as the few saw there the white water redden into wine1 they knew1 and felt the wonder of that change which had passed over their own being4 ,that word of power was at its work within them1 transforming them from out of sickly impotence into splendid energy4 ,they saw now what it was that had happened when the ,lord spoke1 that it would have the same power whether ,he spoke to matter or spirit1 to body or soul2 whether ,he said3 ,thy sins be forgiven thee1 or ,rise up and walk4 ,as water into wine1 so the old into the new4 ,so the light flashed2 so the secret made its first disclosure4 ,it had vanished again1 for ,his hour had not yet come2 but they had seen it1 and this is ,john's enduring record1 remembered by us this day1 that there first at ,cana ,jesus manifested ,his glory1 and there ,his disciples first believed in ,him4 ,and what next did they learn8 ,it was at ,jerusalem1 the ,passover feast4 ,the ,master made ,his first entry and startled them1 for ,he who was so quiet and reserved burned with a sudden fury as ,he looked upon the temple of ,jehovah4 ,very1 very rarely did ,he show ,himself excited or disturbed2 but then ,he was terrible4 ,he bound together a scourge of small cords4 ,he drove the cattle in front of ,him2 ,he dashed over the money-changers' tables4 ,and ,john can recall still the look of the coins as they poured down upon the pavement4 ,and they1 the disciples1 wondered at the violence of the emotion1 until a word from an old ,psalm came into their minds1 and they remembered how it was written that the zeal of the ,lord's house should be in a prophet's heart like a devouring fire4 ,at that time1 too1 the ,lord ,himself gave a sign and spoke a word1 which at the time the disciples could make nothing of1 and forgot4 ,it was about the temple being destroyed and raised again in three days4 ,they forgot it2 but long after1 when ,he had risen from the dead1 the old words came back to them3 ,after three days ,i shall raise it again2 and they remembered then how ,he had spoken them two years before ,his death1 and as they remembered1 they believed4444 ,and how can we stop to follow the apostle through all the wonderful story8 ,yet just one thing we can not pass over--the awful hours of crisis in ,galilee4 ,it came just when all looked brightest1 when the people were rushing round ,him1 and would have made ,him a king4 ,they would have gone with ,him to the death4 ,but ,he--,he threw it all away to the winds4 ,he hurried off the twelve in a body across the lake1 for they had caught the crowd's enthusiasm1 and could not be calmed4 ,he scattered the crowd2 ,he fled back ,himself alone into the dark hills1 and on the morrow at ,capernaum1 ,he broke it all down by a word which staggered the rising belief4 ,it was a saying about ,his body and ,his blood--a very hard saying4 ,not only were the ,pharisees furious1 but ,his own followers were dumfounded4 ,they could not bear it1 could not believe4 ,they fell away1 and walked no more with ,jesus4 ,and you1 ,o disciple dearly loved1 what of you and your brethren8 ,most terrible1 most bitter that hour1 my children1 the old man answers4 ,we walked trembling1 quaking1 behind him4 ,we were cowed and disheartened1 until he the ,master felt himself the chill of our dismay1 and ,he turned to us and challenged our failing faith4 ',will ye also go away8' ,oh1 the shame of being open to a charge of such meanness6 ,the very tenderness of the question and of the reproach recalled and recovered us4 ,we knew nothing4 ,we could explain nothing4 ,every clue was lost4 ,the darkness was thickening over our heads1 our hearts were failing for fear1 our souls were sinking in the great water-floods1 earth was falling from us2 struggle1 and anguish1 and doubt shook us with wild alarm2 and yet1 even so as he turned his eyes upon us1 the old unconquerable faith woke1 and stirred1 and quickened2 and with a rush1 as of a mighty wind1 it lifted us2 and out from ,peter's lips broke the words which saved us--the words which sealed us to ,him forever3 ',will we go away8 ,nay1 ,lord1 to whom shall we go8 ,thou hast the words of eternal life6' ,so we spoke with burning hearts1 and yet through and through us still those strange eyes of ,his pierced4 ,deep below all our emotion ,he penetrated4 ,quite calmly ,he weighed its worth2 and in one of us even then ,he detected a flaw which would widen and worsen4 ,one of us1 ,he knew1 hung back from echoing ,st4 ,peter's confession4 ,one spirit there was there that could not throw off its dismay1 one dark spirit in whom the hard saying was the seed of bitter and poisonous fruit4 ',have ,i not chosen you twelve1 and yet one of you is a devil8' ,he spoke of ,judas ,iscariot1 who should betray him4 ,so they followed and clung1 the trembling band2 clung through all the narrowing days in which the ,jewish enmity hardened itself into the hate of hates2 clung even tho their souls fell away from the rapture of ,st4 ,peter to the desperate wail of ,thomas3 ,let us go with him that at least we may die with him2 clung even through the terrors of that last evening1 when they sat shaking with the very shudder of death1 and the soul of the ,master ,himself was trouble-tossed1 and there was the scent of treachery in the air1 and the end was very near1 and ,he spake dim1 dark words that they could not follow--only they knew one thing1 that ,he was to be taken from them1 and they sat shrouded in a mighty sorrow such as no assurances even of ,his could lessen or lift4 ,one moment there was indeed even then in which they seemed suddenly to lay hold of ,his meaning4 ,now we believe1 they cried4 ,now we are sure that thou camest forth from ,god4 ,so they cried1 and yet ,he met their professions with a sorrowful hesitation4 ,do ye now believe8 ,yea2 the hour is all but come when ye will all flee and leave me alone4 ,how sad and cowed they felt at the rebuff6 ,were they then never to rise into the joy of clear and entire belief8 ,yes2 it came at last4 ,blest assurance6 ,let ,john tell how it was reached by him4 ,two points he singles out for himself as marking epochs of his own conviction1 and in them both we are let inside the workings of his innermost mind4 ,and how curious1 yet how natural is the working6 ,for in every hour of agony the mind becomes strangely and fearfully alert to very little things4 ,it is sensitive to sudden and ineffaceable impressions4 ,it is touched into the swiftest and subtlest activity by the tiniest touches of detail4 ,often in the supreme moment of a dark tragedy1 the fibers of the imagination seem to close round some minute incident1 like the ticking of a clock in the hush of a death-chamber2 and never throughout the long years that follow can it detach that tiny incident from its memory of the black hour4 ,and so with ,st4 ,john4 ,he stood below the bitter cross1 and he saw the nails beaten through the hands and feet1 and he heard the last loud cry1 and yet still his despair hung heavy as death upon his soul1 until1 just at the touch of the soldier's spear1 there broke from the dead side a little jet of blood and water4 ,what was it that he saw and felt8 ,what was it that so startled him8 ,why could that little jet of blood and water never pass out of his sight8 ,why should it haunt him sixty years after1 as still his heart wonders over the mysterious witness of the water and the blood8 ,we can not tell4 ,perhaps he could never tell4 ,only his spirit woke with a start4 ,only a strange tremor shook him1 and somehow just then1 just at that little pivot moment1 he must break off all his story1 to declare with abrupt and quivering emphasis3 ,this is the disciple that wrote these things4 ,he it is who saw the water and the blood1 and he knows that his record is true4 ,and once again1 in the haste of the resurrection morning1 what was the moment and what was the scene which turned his despair into belief8 ,it was the moment at which he stooped down and saw within the empty tomb the folded napkin and the linen clothes4 ,what did he notice8 ,why1 that the napkin that had been round the ,master's head was not lying with the linen clothes1 but was rolled up in a place by itself4 ,a tiny1 tiny thing6 ,yet somehow it was that which he saw and never forgot4 ,it was that which he could never omit from his story of the resurrection--the rolled-up napkin lying apart from the linen clothes4 ,was it the sudden sense that struck him of order and seemliness as of a thing premeditated1 intended8 ,was it the reaction of detecting the quiet tokens of deliberate purpose there1 where all had seemed to him a very chaos of confusion8 ,who can say8 ,only just then a key was somewhat turned and a bolt shot back somewhere within his breast1 and a secret flashed in upon him1 and a thrill of insight rushed over him1 and his blindness fell off as it had been scales1 and a quiver of hope shot up like a flame1 and a new light broke over him1 and he passed at one bound out of death into life4 ,then entered in1 therefore1 that other disciple which came first to the tomb1 and he saw and believed4 ,my brethren1 where do you stand8 ,how far have you come in this pathway of faith8 ,are you yet at the beginning1 looking wistfully1 with hungry eyes1 after a hundred gallant human heroes who point you this way and that8 ,are you musing in your heart which of them may be your guide and master1 which is the ,christ8 ,good1 and fair1 and high they may be2 but they must all confess it1 they can not deny it--they are not the ,christ4 ,and all of them who are honest will earnestly assure you1 ,it is not ,i1 but another4 ,oh1 and that other even now standeth among you1 tho you know ,him not yet2 and there is a voice gone out upon ,him which has gone out upon none other ever born of woman1 with this witness1 ,behold the ,lamb of ,god1 which taketh away the sin of the world6 ,consider it4 ,what an assurance6 ,who is there that has ever been brave enough to accept such a salutation without a whisper of protest1 without a shadow of a scruple8 ,who is this that dares to stand up before the entire mass of ,his fellows and say1 ,come1 all who are weary and heavy-laden--come1 all who are burdened sorely with sin--come all to me--,i will give you rest8 ,who is ,he8 ,look at ,him4 ,he is passing even now before you4 ,follow ,him4 ,he is very quiet1 and still1 and silent2 but follow ,him4 ,he will turn at last and speak1 and invite you--invite you a little further4 ,master1 where dwellest thou8 ,come and see4 ,o ,jesus1 ,lord and lover of souls1 there are many of us laden with sickness and sin1 so many that are sad with doubt and fear1 that are asking3 ,master1 where dwellest thou8 ,oh1 let them even come home with ,thee and see4 ,go and see4 ,abide with ,him1 talk with ,him4 ,wait upon ,him4 ,learn ,his words4 ,take up ,his gospels4 ,read them with care1 with silence to yourself1 with thought and prayer4 ,abide with ,him one night at least1 that you may in the morning be able to tell your fellows3 ,i have found the ,christ4 ,and then suddenly1 now and again1 a light flashes1 and a glory is made manifest to you4 ,some touch of ,divine benediction will break out of the secret silence1 some sudden joy1 some gift of power4 ,it is as at ,cana with you when the water ran into wine4 ,yet this when it comes1 remember1 is not the end4 ,it is but a pledge4 ,you may not cling to the blessings and the gifts of faith4 ,they flash and disappear1 and you will not be surprized to find that you have yet a long road to travel--a road of disappointment1 of increasing failure1 of gathering pain1 of enlarging doubt--doubt6 why not8 ,doubt of the ways and the methods of ,god4 ,doubt of the path as the darkness encompasses1 doubt of ,christ's meaning1 of ,his wisdom1 of ,his readiness1 of ,his care1 of ,his guidance4 ,the obscurity may even deepen as you advance along the road of faith4 ,the storm may grow blacker and fiercer1 for the higher your faith in ,god1 the darker will be your despair at ,his failure to make ,his name good4 ,and you will find ,him fail4 ,he will seem to come so little way in the world2 ,he will seem to miss opportunities4 ,it is very hard to believe in ,one in whom others believe less and less every day4 ,and then it is1 when all are falling away and the hard sayings of theology begin to harass and repel1 then it is that you must call with all your might upon the ,st4 ,peter within you that you may have the heart of fire that will feel but one thing1 will feel that if the world fell into ruins1 and if the power of ,god ,himself be hidden1 yet there stands the ,christ still facing you with the question3 ,will you go away8 ,will you fail as others failed me8 ,will you feel then but this1 just that you must send out your faith in the one passionate cry3 ,lord1 thou art there1 and that is all4 ,thou hast the words of eternal life4 ,to whom can ,i go8 ,tho all men forsake thee yet will not ,i2 and in spite of all1 ,i believe1 and am sure that thou art the ,christ1 the holy one of ,god8 ,that is the faith which is felt indeed as a rock under the feet1 and to such faith the love of ,god will make itself more and more manifest4 ,you will so trust ,him in the black night1 you who can walk on knowing nothing but that ,christ goes before you1 you who mutually cling with the violence of an ineradicable love to ,him ,who has enthralled you1 you will find yourselves carried on day after day1 you know not how1 until at last you find yourselves enclosed in some upper chamber with the ,master4 ,yes1 and there the secrets of ,his love are disclosed1 and the mysteries of ,his counsels1 and the hidden wonder of ,his victory1 and the strange glory of ,his consolation4 ,you will not know or understand all2 you will feel yourselves held in the grasp of a wisdom that reaches far and away beyond your little day4 ,you will inquire with stammering lips as ,philip and ,judas1 not ,iscariot1 and ,thomas stammered in the upper chamber before you1 and the answer that ,he gives will be but dim2 and yet you will know enough to make you absolutely sure that the truth as you hold it in ,jesus is the truth that holds the world in one in ,god1 and you will be able to cry in glimpses of peculiar manifestation3 ,lord1 now speakest thou plainly1 and speakest no parable4 ,now ,i believe1 and have known1 and am sure that thou camest forth from ,god4 ,and yet even that faith1 the faith of roused feelings1 may lapse again2 even that moment of blessing may lose its power over you4 ,yes1 for only when you become convinced not only of your possession of a ,teacher who once came on earth from ,god1 but more1 of a ,lord living on the far side of death1 living in the might of a resurrection life1 able to stand by you in that life-giving might as you keep there with the faithful in the upper chamber--able to feed you with ,his life now from that home of ,his beyond the grave--only then1 when you so receive ,him1 and take of ,him1 and taste ,him1 and know yourselves quickened in ,him--only so will your last doubt pass away from you1 only so will the close of the crown of your faith be obtained1 and you will end--as the story of ,st4 ,john ends--with the cry of doubting ,thomas1 with his last doubt scattered--the cry in which the perfected apostolic faith at last saluted its rising ,master--,jesus ,christ1 my ,lord and my ,god4 ,,stalker ,,temptation ,,biographical ,,note ,,james ,,stalker1 professor of ,church ,history in the ,united ,free ,church ,college1 ,aberdeen1 was born at ,crieff in #ahdh1 and was educated at the universities of ,edinburgh1 ,halle1 and ,berlin4 ,he has been an incumbent of many pastorates in ,scotland1 and has published ,life of ,jesus ,christ2 ,life of ,st4 ,paul2 ,the ,preacher and ,his ,models1 etc4 ,in #ahia he delivered the ,lyman ,beecher ,lectures on ,preaching1 at ,yale1 and is examiner for the degree of ,b4,d4 in ,aberdeen ,university4 ,,stalker ,born in #ahdh ,,temptation ,there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to men2 but ,god is faithful1 who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able2 but will with temptation also make a way to escape1 that ye may be able to bear it4--#a ,cor4 x41 #ac4 ,once1 when ,i was going to address a gathering of young men1 ,i asked a friend what ,i should speak to them about4 ,his answer was3 ,there is only one subject worth speaking to young men about1 and that is temptation4 ,of course1 he did not mean this literally3 he only meant to emphasize the importance of this subject4 ,was he not right8 ,you remember1 in the story of the ,garden of ,eden1 where the tree which represented temptation stood8 ,it stood in the midst of the garden--just at the point where all the walks converged1 where ,adam and ,eve had to pass it every day4 ,this is a parable of human life4 ,we are out of paradise now2 but the tree of temptation still stands in our life where it stood then--in the midst2 where all the roads meet2 where we must pass it every day--and every man's weal of wo depends on the attitude to it which he takes up4 ,there are six attitudes in any of which we may stand to temptation--first1 we may be tempted2 second1 we may have fallen before temptation2 third1 we may be tempting others2 or1 fourth1 we may be successfully resisting temptation2 fifth1 we may have outlived temptation2 sixth1 we may be assisting others to overcome their temptations4 ,as ,i should like these six attitudes to be remembered1 let me give them names2 and these ,i will borrow from the politics of the continent of ,europe4 ,any of you who may glance at times into the politics of ,france or ,germany will be aware that in their legislative assemblies there prevails a more minute division into parties1 or groups as they are called1 than we are accustomed to4 ,in your politics you are content with two great historical parties--,republicans and ,democrats4 ,but1 as ,i have said1 in ,continental parliaments the members are divided into groups4 ,you read of the group of the left center1 the group of the left1 and the group of the extreme left2 the group of the right center1 the group of the right1 and the group of the extreme right4 ,i do not pretend that even these are all2 but ,i will take these as the six names ,i need for characterizing the six attitudes in which men may stand to temptation4 ,on the left there are three--first1 the group of the left center1 by which ,i mean those who are being tempted2 second1 the group of the left1 by which are meant those who have fallen before temptation2 third1 the group of the extreme left1 or those who are tempters of others4 ,and on the right there are three groups--the fourth group1 that of the right center1 containing those who are successfully resisting temptation2 the fifth1 the group of the right1 or those who have outlived their temptations2 and the sixth and last1 the group of the extreme right1 that is to say1 those who are helping others to resist their temptations4 ,let me run rapidly over these six groups4 ,i4 ,the group of the left center or those who are being tempted4 ,with this one ,i begin2 because we have all been in it4 ,whether we have been in the other groups or not1 we have all been in this one3 we have all been tempted4 ,one of the first things we were told when we were quite young was that we should be tempted--that we should have to beware of evil companions2 and there is not one of us in whose case this prediction has not come true4 ,there is1 indeed1 no greater mystery of providence than to understand the unequal proportions in which temptation is distributed4 ,some are comparatively little tempted2 others are thrown into a fiery furnace of it seven times heated4 ,there are in the world sheltered situations in which a man may be compared to a ship in the harbor1 where the waves may sometimes heave a little1 but a real storm never comes2 there are other men like the vessel which has to sail the high seas and face the full force of the tempest4 ,many here must know well what this means4 ,perhaps you know it so well that you feel inclined to say to me1 ,preacher1 you know nothing about it2 if you had to live where we live--if you had to associate with the companions whom we have to work with1 and hear the kind of language which we have to listen to every hour of the day--you would know better the truth of what you are saying4 ,do not be too sure of that4 ,perhaps ,i know as well about it as you do4 ,perhaps my library is as dangerous a place for me as your workshop is for you4 ,solitude has its temptations as well as society4 ,st4 ,anthony1 before his conversion1 was a gay and fast young man of ,alexandria2 and1 when he was converted1 he found the temptations of the city so intolerable that he fled into the ,egyptian desert and became a hermit2 but he afterward confest that the temptations of a cell in the wilderness were worse than those of the city4 ,it would not be safe to exchange our temptations for those of another man2 every one has his own4 ,i believe1 further1 that every man has his own tempter or temptress4 ,every man on his journey through life meets with some one who deliberately tries to ruin him4 ,have you met your tempter yet8 ,perhaps he is sitting by your side at this moment4 ,perhaps it is some one in whose society you delight to be1 and of whose acquaintance you are proud2 but the day may come when you will curse the hour in which you ever saw that face4 ,some of us1 looking back1 can remember well who our tempter was2 and we tremble yet1 sometimes1 as we remember how nearly we were over the precipice4 ,one of the chief powers of temptation is the power of surprize4 ,it comes when you are not looking for it2 it comes from the person and from the quarter you least suspect4 ,the day dawns which is to be the decisive one in our life2 but it looks like any other day4 ,no bell rings in the sky to give warning that the hour of destiny has come4 ,but the good angel that watches over us is waiting and trembling4 ,the fiery moment arrives2 do we stand2 do we fall8 ,oh1 if we fall1 that good angel goes flying away to heaven1 crying1 fallen1 fallen6 ,,ii4 ,the group of the left or those who have fallen before temptation4 ,tho ,i do not know this audience1 ,i know human nature well enough to be certain that there are some hearing me who are whispering sadly in their hearts1 ,this is the group ,i belong to3 ,i have fallen before temptation2 it may not be known2 it may not even be suspected2 but it is true4 ,to such ,i bear a message of hope to-day4 ,the great tempter of men has two lies with which he plies us at two different stages4 ,before we have fallen1 he tells us that one fall does not matter2 it is a trifle2 we can easily recover ourselves again4 ,and1 after we have fallen1 he tells us that it is hopeless3 we are given over to sin1 and need not attempt to rise4 ,both are false4 ,it is a terrible falsehood to say that to fall once does not matter4 ,even by one fall there is something lost that can never be recovered again4 ,it is like the breaking of an infinitely precious vessel1 which may be mended1 but will never again be as if it had not been broken4 ,and1 besides1 one fall leads to others2 it is like going upon very slippery ice on the face of a hill2 even in the attempt to rise you are carried away again farther than ever4 ,moreover1 we give others a hold over us4 ,if we have not sinned alone1 to have sinned once involves a tacit pledge that we will sin again2 and it is often almost impossible to get out of such a false position4 ,god keep us from believing the devil's lie1 that to fall once does not matter4 ,but then1 if we have fallen1 he plies us with the other lie3 ,it is of no use to attempt to rise2 you can not overcome your besetting sin4 ,but this is falser still4 ,to those who feel themselves fallen ,i come1 in ,christ's name1 to say1 ,yes1 you may rise4 ,if we could ascend to heaven to-day and scan the ranks of the blest1 should we not find multitudes among them who were once sunk low as man can fall8 ,but they are washed1 they are justified1 they are sanctified1 in the name of our ,lord ,jesus and by the ,spirit of our ,god4 ,and so may you be4 ,it is1 ,i know1 a doctrine which may be abused2 but ,i will not scruple to preach it to those who are fallen and sighing for deliverance4 ,st4 ,augustine says that we may out of our dead sins make stepping-stones to rise to the heights of perfection4 ,what did he mean by that8 ,he meant that the memory of our falls may breed in us such a humility1 such a distrust of self1 such a constant clinging to ,christ as we never could have had if we had not fallen4 ,does not the ,scripture itself go even further8 ,david fell--deep as man can fall2 but what does he say in that great fifty-first ,psalm1 in which he confesses his sin8 ,anticipating forgiveness1 he says3 ,then will ,i teach ,thy ways unto ,those that transgressors be1 ,and those that sinners are1 shall then ,be turned unto ,thee4 ,and what did our ,lord ,himself say to ,st4 ,peter about his fall8 ,when thou art converted1 strengthen thy brethren4 ,a man may derive strength to give to others from having fallen4 ,he may have a sympathy with the erring2 he may be able to describe the steps by which to rise1 as no other can4 ,thus1 by ,god's marvelous grace1 out of the eater may come forth meat1 and out of the strong may come forth sweetness4 ,,iii4 ,the group of the extreme left or those who are tempters of others4 ,these three groups on the left form three stages of a natural descent4 ,first1 tempted2 secondly1 fallen2 then1 if we have fallen1 we tempt others to fall4 ,this is quite natural4 ,if we are down ourselves1 we try to get others down beside us4 ,there is a satisfaction in it4 ,to a soul that has become black a soul that is still white is an offense4 ,it is said of some1 ,they rest not except they have done mischief1 and their sleep is taken away1 except they cause some to fall4 ,there is nothing else1 ,i think1 in human nature so diabolical as the delight which the wicked feel in making others like themselves4 ,have you never seen it8 ,have you never seen a group of evil-doers deliberately set themselves to ruin a newcomer1 scoffing at his innocence and enticing him to their orgies8 ,and1 when they succeeded1 they rejoiced over his fall as if they had won a great triumph4 ,so low can human nature sink4 ,sometimes it may be self-interest that makes man a tempter4 ,the sin of another may be necessary to secure some end of his own4 ,the dishonest merchant1 for his own gain1 undermines the honesty of his apprentice2 the employer1 making haste to be rich1 tempts his employees to break the ,sabbath2 the tyranical landlord forces his tenants to vote against their conscience4 ,why1 there are trades which nourish on other people's sins4 ,but perhaps the commonest way to become a tempter is through thoughtlessness4 ,i protest1 we have no pity for each other's souls4 ,we trample about among these most brittle and infinitely precious things1 as if they were common ware1 and we tempt one another and ruin one another without even being aware of it4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 no one who goes to the place of wo goes there alone2 perhaps every one takes at least one with him4 ,i hear it said nowadays that the fear of hell no longer moves men's minds2 and that preachers ought no longer to make use of it as a motive in religion4 ,well1 ,i confess1 ,i fear it myself2 it is a motive still to me4 ,but ,i will tell you what ,i fear ten times more4 ,what6 is there anything which a man can fear ten times more than the fire that never shall be quenched8 ,yes6 it is to meet there any one who will say1 ,you have brought me here2 you were my tempter2 and but for you ,i might never have come to this place of torment4 ,god forbid that this should ever be said to me by any one4 ,will it be said to any of you8 ,but now let us turn away from this side of our subject and look at the bright side--at the three groups on the right4 ,,iv4 ,the group of the right center1 or those who are successfully resisting temptation4 ,not very long ago a letter chanced to come under my eye4 ,it was by a young man attending one of the great ,english universities4 ,one day two or three fellow students had come into his rooms and asked him to join them in some amusement of a questionable kind1 which they were contemplating4 ,on the spur of the moment he promised2 but1 when they had gone1 he thought what his parents would say if they knew4 ,it was a godly home he belonged to and a very happy one1 in which the children were bound to the parents in such a way that they kept no secrets from them4 ,he thought of his home1 and he had doubts whether what he had promised to do might not cause pain there4 ,he was afraid it would2 and he promptly and frankly went and told his companions that his engagement was off till he should inquire4 ,the letter ,i saw was the inquiry4 ,it affected me deeply to read it2 for it was easy to understand how much manliness was required to do that which might be interpreted as unmanly4 ,the memory of that man's home came to him in the hour of temptation and made him strong to resist4 ,i wonder this influence does not prove a rescuing power oftener than it does4 ,young men1 when you are tempted1 think of home4 ,i have been a minister away in a provincial town2 and1 ,i think1 if you could realize the mother's terror1 and the father's stricken frame1 and the silent tearful circle1 as ,i have seen them--it would make you fling the cup of temptation from your lips1 however persuasive was the hand that proffered it4 ,yet this will not always be a strong enough motive in the struggle with temptation4 ,there will come times when you are tempted to great sin which will appear to you absolutely safe from discovery and not likely to inflict the slightest injury on your fortunes4 ,in such circumstances nothing will sustain you if you do not respect your own nature and stand in awe of your own conscience4 ,nay1 even this is not enough2 the only effective defense is that of one who was surely tempted in this very way1 ,how can ,i do this great wickedness and sin against ,god8 ,there are secret battles fought and victories won on this ground1 never heard of on earth1 but essentially more glorious than many victories which are trumpeted far and wide by the breath of fame4 ,there is more of courage and manhood needed for them than for walking up to the cannon's mouth8 ,many a soldier could do that who could not say ,no to two or three companions pressing him to enter the canteen4 ,not long ago ,i was speaking to a soldier who told me that many a time in the barracks he was the only man to go down on his knees out of twenty or thirty2 and he did it among showers of oaths and derision4 ,do you think walking up to the cannon's mouth would have been difficult to that man8 ,such victories have no record on earth2 but be sure of this1 they are widely heard of in heaven1 and there is ,one there who will not forget them4 ,v4 ,the group of the right or those who have outlived their temptations4 ,on this point ,i do not mean to dwell2 but ,i should like at least to mention it1 as there is contained in it a great encouragement to some who may be enduring the very hottest fires of temptation4 ,perhaps your situation is so intolerable that you often say1 ,i can not stand this much longer2 if it lasts as it is1 ,i must fall--,one day ,i shall fall into the hands of ,saul4 ,no1 you will not4 ,i bid you take courage2 and as one encouragement ,i say1 you will yet outlive your temptation4 ,that which is a temptation at one period of life may be no temptation at all at another4 ,to a child there may be an irresistible temptation in a sweetmeat which a man would take a good deal to touch2 and some of the temptations which are now the most painful to you will in time be as completely outlived4 ,god may lift you1 by some turn of providence1 out of the position where your temptation lies2 or the person from whom you chiefly suffer may be removed from your neighborhood4 ,the unholy fire of passion1 which now you must struggle to keep out of your heart1 may1 through the mercy of ,god who setteth men in families1 be burnt away and replaced by the holy fire of love burning on the altar of a virtuous home4 ,the laughter and scorn which you may now be bearing for your ,christian profession will1 if you only have patience1 be changed into respect and veneration2 for even the ungodly are forced at last to do honor to a consistent ,christian life4 ,in these and other ways1 if you only have patience1 you will outlive temptation2 tho ,i do not suppose we shall ever in this world be entirely out of its reach1 or be beyond the need of these two admonitions3 ,watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation1 and1 ,let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall4 ,,vi4 ,the group of the extreme right1 or those who are helping others to overcome temptation4 ,you see1 on the right there is an upward progress1 as on the left there was a downward one4 ,the first step is to be successfully resisting temptation2 a higher one is to have outlived temptation2 the highest of all is to be helping others to resist it2 tho ,i do not say that this must be the chronological order4 ,it is the order of honor4 ,this group of the extreme right is the exact opposite of the group of the extreme left4 ,those in the latter group are tempting others to fall2 those in this one are encouraging and aiding others to stand fast4 ,no man ought to be satisfied till he is in this noble group4 ,there are many ways in which we may assist others with their temptations4 ,a big-hearted man will often be doing so without being aware of it4 ,his very presence1 his attractive manhood1 his massive character act as an encouragement to younger men and hold them up4 ,i do not know anything so much to be coveted as in old age to have men coming to say1 ,your example1 your presence1 your sympathy were like a protecting arm put round my stumbling youth and helped me over the perilous years4 ,my brothers1 if a few men can honestly say this to us in the future1 will it not be better than ,greek and ,roman fame8 ,many are helping the young against their temptations by providing them with means of spending their leisure innocently and profitably4 ,our leisure time is the problem4 ,while we are at work1 there is not so much fear of us2 but it is in the hours of leisure--the hours between work and sleep--that temptation finds men1 and they are lost2 and therefore ,i say1 there is no more ,christian work than providing men with opportunities of spending leisure profitably4 ,but by far the best way to help men with their temptations is to bring them to ,christ4 ,it may be of some service to a man if1 in the time of trial1 ,i put round him the sympathetic arm of a brother2 but it is infinitely better if ,i can get him to allow ,christ to put round him ,his strong arm4 ,this is the effectual defense2 and no other can be really depended on4444 ,,burrell ,,how ,,to ,,become ,a ,,christian ,,biographical ,,note ,,david ,,james ,,burrell was born at ,mount ,pleasant1 ,pennsylvania1 in #ahdi4 ,he graduated from ,yale ,college in #ahfg4 ,since #ahia he has been pastor of the ,marble ,collegiate ,church1 ,new ,york1 which was founded in #afbh4 ,dr4 ,burrell is unusually popular as a pulpit preacher1 and attracts many young people to his evening services4 ,his delivery is clear-cut and vigorous1 and often he rises to dramatic heights of eloquence4 ,his gesture is marked by grace and appropriateness1 and his illustrations are always chosen with felicity4 ,his sermons are stenographically reported and printed each week in pamphlets for wide distribution4 ,,burrell ,born in #ahdi ,,how ,,to ,,become ,a ,,christian#e #e ,copyright1 #aijf1 by the ,american ,tract ,society4 ,reprinted by permission4 ,and there arose no small stir about that way4--,acts xix41 #bc4 ,the name by which the early ,christians were familiarly known was ,the people of that way4 ,in the year #cf the ,sanhedrin issued a commission to ,saul of ,tarsus authorizing him to arrest any whom he might find of the way1 whether they were men or women1 and to bring them bound unto ,jerusalem4 7,acts ix41 #b47 ,in the year #eh1 twenty-two years later1 the same ,saul1 now an apostle of ,christ1 made a defense from the steps of the ,castle of ,antonia1 in which he said1 ,i persecuted this way unto the death1 binding and delivering into prison both men and women 7,acts xxii41 #d74 ,the name thus given to the followers of ,christ is significant for many reasons4 ,the question has been raised in some quarters as to whether religion is dogma or life4 ,in fact1 our religion in the last reduction is neither dogma nor life2 it is a way from sin into the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,its bed-rock is truth1 its pavement is character1 its destination is eternal life4 ,it is a plain way2 as indicated in the prophecy1 ,a highway shall be there and a way1 and it shall be called the way of holiness2 the wayfaring man tho a fool shall not err therein4 ,nevertheless1 to the unsaved no question is more bewildering than this3 ,what shall ,i do that ,i may inherit eternal life8 ,in the ,pocono ,mountains1 last summer1 ,i found it very difficult to keep in the old ,indian trail2 tho it was easy enough for my comrade1 who had been born and bred in the vicinity4 ,a letter lies before me1 written by a man of affairs1 in which he says1 ,all my life ,i have been an attendant at church2 ,i would like to be a ,christian1 but ,i confess that ,i have never yet learned how to set about it4 ,it is my present purpose to make this matter as clear as ,i can4 ,let it be said at the outset that one thing only is needful in order to become a follower of ,christ--to wit1 that one shall believe in ,him1 but1 before we come to that1 we must touch upon a matter of preliminary importance4 ,a man must repent before he believes in ,christ 7,mark i41 #ae74 ,now repentance is not a saving grace1 having value only as it leads to something further on4 ,the pain of a physical malady has no curative virtue2 but it is this pain that inclines the patient to ring the doctor's bell4 ,so ,john the ,baptist goes before ,christ with his cry1 ,repent ye6 ,since without repentance there is no adequate sense of need1 nor disposition to accept ,christ4 ,let us get a clear understanding of repentance4 ,it suggests at the outset1 an apprehension of sin as a fact2 not a figment of the imagination1 not a belief of mortal mind2 not an infection due to environment1 and therefore involving no personal accountability2 but a distinct1 flagrant violation of holy law1 by which the sinner is brought into rebellion against ,god4 ,and sin must be apprehended1 furthermore1 as a calamitous fact1 that is1 involving an adequate penalty3 ,the soul that sinneth1 it shall die4 ,a true penitent recognizes the justice of the punishment which is imposed upon him2 as did the repentant thief1 when he said to his comrade1 ,we indeed are condemned justly4 ,one who spends his time in trying to explain away hell and the unquenchable fire and the worm that dieth not1 is not a penitent man4 ,and sin must be furthermore recognized as a concrete or personal fact4 ,it is not enough to acknowledge the incontrovertible presence of sin in the world around us4 ,the important thing is1 that this sin inheres in me4 ,so ,david prayed1 ,have mercy upon me1 ,o ,god1 according unto thy loving kindness2 for ,i have sinned and done this evil in thy sight4 ,he had always known1 in general terms1 that adultery was a fearful thing2 but when it pointed its gaunt finger at him in the watches of the night and hissed1 ,bathsheba6 it brought him to his knees4 ,and this conviction of sin must be followed by a resolution to forsake it4 ,the true penitent fears his sin1 hates it1 loathes it1 abhors it1 and determines to quit it4 ,but observe1 all this is merely preliminary to the one thing needful4 ,there is no virtue in repentance per se4 ,the penitent is not saved2 he has only discovered his need of salvation4 ,he knows his malady2 now how shall he be cured of it8 ,to pause here is death4 ,one in a sinking boat must not be satisfied with stopping the leak2 the boat must be baled out4 ,a man head over ears in debt can not recover his credit by resolving to pay cash in the future2 he must somehow cancel his past obligations4 ,if a penitent were never to commit another sin1 the handwriting of ordinances would still be against him4 ,the record of the past remains2 and it will confront him in the judgment unless it be disposed of4 ,the past4 ,the mislived past6 ,what shall be done about it8 ,this brings us to the matter in hand3 ,what shall ,i do to be saved8 or ,how shall ,i become a ,christian8 ,our ,lord at the beginning of ,his ministry said to ,nicodemus1 ,god so loved the world1 that he gave his only begotten ,son1 that whosoever believeth on him1 should not perish1 but have everlasting life4 ,and to make the matter perfectly clear to this learned rabbi1 ,he resorted to the kindergarten method1 using an object-lesson3 ,as ,moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness1 even so must the ,son of man be lifted up 7that is1 crucified71 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish1 but have eternal life4 ,so the one thing needful is to believe in ,christ4 ,the same truth was repeated over and over in the teachings of ,jesus and of ,his disciples as well4 ,to the jailer of ,philippi who1 in sudden conviction1 was moved to cry1 ,what shall ,i do8 the answer of ,paul was1 ,believe on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ and thou shalt be saved4 ,but what is it to believe in ,christ8 ,it is easy to say1 ,come to ,christ and ,accept ,christ and ,believe in ,him2 but just here occurs the bewilderment4 ,these are oftentimes mere shop-worn phrases to the unsaved1 however simple they may appear to those who have entered on the ,christian life4 ,to believe in ,christ is1 first1 to credit the historic record of ,his life4 ,once on a time ,he lived among men1 preached1 wrought miracles1 suffered and died on the accurst tree4 ,so far all will agree2 but there is clearly no saving virtue in an intellectual acceptance of an undisputed fact4 ,it means1 second1 to believe that ,jesus was what ,he claimed to be4 ,and ,his claim is perfectly clear4 ,to the woman of ,samaria who sighed for the coming of ,messiah ,he said1 ,i that speak unto thee am he4 ,no reader of the ,scripture could misunderstand ,his meaning1 since the prophecy of the ,messiah runs like a golden thread through all its pages from the protevangel1 ,the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head1 to the prediction of ,malachi1 ,the ,sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his beams4 ,but1 more than this1 ,jesus claimed that as ,messiah ,he was the only begotten and co-equal ,son of ,god4 ,he came forth from ,god and1 after finishing ,his work1 was to return to ,god and reassume the glory which he had with the ,father before the world was4 ,it was this oft repeated assertion which so mortally offended the ,jews as to occasion ,his arrest on the charge of blasphemy4 ,he persisted in ,his claim1 and was put to death for making himself equal to ,god4 ,it must be seen1 therefore1 that no man can be said to believe in ,christ who is not prepared to affirm1 without demur or qualification1 that ,he was what ,he claimed to be4 ,it means1 third1 to believe that ,jesus did what ,he said ,he came into the world to do4 ,and here again there can be no doubt or peradventure4 ,he said1 ,the ,son of man came not to be ministered unto1 but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many4 ,his death was to be the purchase price of redemption4 ,in the wilderness ,he was tempted to turn aside from ,his great purpose4 ,the adversary led ,him to a high place1 and with a wave of his hand1 directed ,his thought to the kingdoms of this world1 saying1 ,all these are mine4 ,i know thy purpose3 thou art come to win this world by dying for it4 ,why pay so great a price8 ,i know thy fear and trembling--for thou art flesh--in view of the nails1 the fever1 and dreadful exposure1 the long agony4 ,why pay so great a price8 ,i am the prince of this world4 ,one act of homage1 and ,i will abdicate4 ,fall down and worship me6 ,never before or since has there been such a temptation1 so specious1 so alluring4 ,but ,jesus had covenanted to die for sinners4 ,he knew there was no other way of accomplishing salvation for them4 ,he could not be turned aside from the work which ,he had volunteered to do4 ,therefore ,he put away the suggestion with the words1 ,get thee behind me1 ,satan6 ,i can not be moved6 ,i know the necessity that is laid upon me4 ,i know that my way to the kingdom is only by the cross4 ,i am therefore resolved to suffer and die for the deliverance of men4 ,on a later occasion1 on ,his way to ,jerusalem--that memorable journey of which it is written4 ,he set his face stedfastly to go toward the cross--,he spoke to ,his disciples of ,his death4 ,he had been with them now three years1 but had not been able fully to reveal ,his mission1 because they were not strong enough to bear it4 ,a man with friends1 yet friendless1 lonely in the possession of ,his great secret1 ,he had longed to give them ,his full confidence1 but dared not4 ,now1 as they journeyed southward through ,csarea ,philippi1 ,he asked them1 ,who do men say that ,i am8 ,and they answered1 ,some say ,john the ,baptist2 others1 ,elias2 others1 ,jeremias1 or one of the prophets4 ,and he saith1 ,but who say ye that ,i am8 ,then ,peter--brave1 impulsive1 glorious ,peter--witness his good confession3 ,thou art the ,christ1 the ,son of the living ,god6 ,the hour had come4 ,his disciples were beginning to know ,him4 ,he would give them ,his full confidence4 ,so as they journeyed on toward ,jerusalem ,he told them all how ,he had come to redeem the world by bearing its penalty of death2 ,he began to show them how he must suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes1 and be killed4 ,at that point ,peter could hold his peace no longer1 but began to rebuke him1 saying1 ,be it far from thee1 ,lord6 ,to suffer8 ,to die8 ,nay1 to reign in ,messianic splendor6 ,and ,jesus turning1 said unto him1 ,get thee behind me1 ,satan6--the very words with which ,he had repelled the same suggestion in the wilderness4 ,as ,he looked on ,his disciple1 ,he saw not ,peter1 but ,satan--perceived how the adversary had for the moment taken possession1 as it were1 of this man's brain and conscience and lips4 ,get thee behind me1 ,satan6 ,i know thee6 ,i recognize thy crafty suggestion2 but ,i am not to be turned aside from my purpose4 ,get thee behind me6 ,thou art an offense unto me4 ,thy words are not of divine wisdom1 but of human policy4 ,thou savorest not the things that be of ,god1 but those that be of men6 ,from this we conclude that the vicarious death of ,jesus is the vital center of ,his gospel1 and that any word which contravenes it is in the nature of a ,satanic suggestion4 ,it follows that no man can truly believe in ,christ without assenting to the fact that the saving power is in ,his death2 as it is written1 ,the blood of ,jesus ,christ cleanseth from all sin1 and1 ,without the shedding of blood there is no remission4 ,he came into the world to die for sinners1 that they by ,his death might enter into life2 ,he came to take our place before the bar of the offended law1 to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities1 that by his stripes we might be healed2 ,he came to bear our sins in his own body on the tree2 and to believe in ,christ is to believe that ,he did what ,he came to do4 ,it means1 fourth--and now we come to the very heart of the matter--to believe that ,christ means precisely what ,he says4 ,he says to the sinner1 ,the ,son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins4 ,he says1 ,him that cometh unto me1 ,i will in no wise cast out4 ,he says1 ,he that believeth in me hath everlasting life4 ,at this point belief means personal appropriation2 acceptance1 immediate1 here1 now4 ,it is to make an end of doubt and perplexity and all questionings1 by closing in with the overtures of divine mercy4 ,it is to lay down one's arms and make an unconditional surrender4 ,it is to take the proffered hand of the ,savior in an everlasting covenant of peace4 ,it is to say1 ,my ,lord1 my life1 my sacrifice1 my ,savior and my all6 ,but just here is where many hesitate and fail4 ,they do not screw their courage to the sticking point4 ,they come up to the line1 but do not take the step that crosses it4 ,they put away the outstretched hand1 and so fall short of salvation4 ,the will must act4 ,the prodigal in the far country will stay there forever unless his resolution cries1 ,i will arise and go6 ,the resolution is an appropriating act4 ,it makes ,christ mine2 it links my soul with ,his1 as the coupler binds the locomotive to the loaded train4 ,it grasps ,his outstretched hand2 it seals the compact and inspires the song3 ',tis done1 the great transaction's done1 ,i am my ,lord's and ,he is mine6 ,he drew me1 and ,i followed on1 ,charmed to confess the voice divine4 ,high heaven that hears the solemn vow1 ,that vow renewed shall daily hear2 ,till in life's latest hour ,i bow ,and bless in death a bond so dear6 ,now this is all4 ,the man who really believes on ,christ is saved by that alone4 ,he can never be lost4 ,as ,wesley sang1 ,christ and ,i are so joined1 ,he can't go to heaven and leave me behind4 ,but salvation from the penalty of sin is not the whole of salvation2 only the beginning of it4 ,the sequel to becoming a ,christian is following ,christ4 ,salvation is a large word1 including growth in character and usefulness and all the high attainments which are included in a genuine ,christian life4 ,this is what ,paul means when he says1 ,work out your own salvation with fear and trembling1 for it is ,god that worketh in you4 ,work it out6 ,work your salvation out to its uttermost possibilities6 ,be a maximum ,christian2 not content with being saved so as by fire1 but craving an abundant entrance into the kingdom4 ,all this is accomplished in the close and faithful following of ,christ4 ,this following is the sure test and touchstone by which a man determines whether he has really come to ,christ and believes in ,him4 ,our good works are not meritorious as having any part in our deliverance from condemnation2 but they are the acid test of our faith2 and they also determine the quality of the heaven that awaits us4 ,and1 in this sense1 they shall in no wise lose their reward4 ,to use a rude figure2 a man going to an entertainment gets a ticket of admission1 but for his reserved seat he pays something more4 ,the just shall live by faith2 but the abundance of their life is determined by the product of their faith4 ,wherefore1 he loses much who1 while believing in ,christ1 follows ,him afar off4 ,to follow ,christ at the best1 means to regard ,him as our ,priest1 our only ,priest1 whose sacrifice is full and sufficient for us4 ,we forsake all other plans of salvation and trust simply and solely to the merit of ,his atoning blood4 ,to follow ,christ means to regard ,him as our only ,prophet or ,teacher4 ,all preachers1 ecclesiastical councils1 historic creeds and symbols are remanded to a subordinate place4 ,his word is ultimate for us4 ,to follow ,christ means to regard ,him as our ,king4 ,he reigns in us and over us4 ,his love constrains us4 ,his wish is our law4 ,his authority is final4 ,whatsoever he saith unto you1 do it4 ,and to follow ,christ means to do all this in the open4 ,it may be that some who refuse to confess ,christ are ultimately saved by ,him2 but the presumption is immensely against the man who lives that way4 ,stand forth into the midst6 ,quit thyself like a man6 ,in closing1 we return to iterate and reiterate the proposition that our salvation from sin and spiritual death is by faith in ,christ and by that only4 ,let no side issues enter here to confuse and bewilder us4 ,he that believeth shall be saved4 ,that is final and conclusive4 ,our deliverance is wholly of grace3 we do not earn it4 ,the wages of sin is death3 but the gift of ,god is eternal life4 ,long as ,i live1 ,i'll still be crying ,mercy's free6 ,and therefore all the glory is unto ,god3 ,of whom are we in ,christ ,jesus1 who is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption2 that1 according as it is written1 if any man glory1 let him glory in the ,lord4 ,nevertheless1 the benefit of the gift is conditioned on our acceptance of it4 ,the manna lies about our feet white and plenteous as hoar frost1 but it will not save us from famishing unless we gather it up and eat it4 ,the water gushes from the rock1 but we shall die of thirst unless we dip it up and drink it4 ,christ on the cross saves no man2 it is only when ,christ is appropriated that ,he saves us4 ,we must make ,him ours4 ,we must grasp ,his extended hand4 ,luther said1 ,the important thing is the possessive pronoun1 first person singular4 ,one of the fathers said1 ,it is the grip on the ,blood that saves us4 ,christ stands waiting--he offers life for the taking4 ,who will have it8 ,the worst of sinners can make it his very own by saying with all his heart1 ,i will6 ,i do6 ,,watson ,,optimism ,,biographical ,,note ,,john ,,watson1 widely known under his pen name of ,ian ,maclaren1 was born at ,manningtree1 ,essex1 ,england1 in #ahej4 ,for many years he was pastor of ,free ,st4 ,matthew's ,church1 ,glasgow4 ,he died at ,mt4 ,pleasant1 ,iowa1 in #aijg4 ,he enjoyed unusual popularity1 both as a preacher and as a lecturer4 ,in #ahif he gave a course of lectures to the students of ,yale4 ,the ,bonnie ,brier ,bush is his best-known book4 ,another volume of his1 ,the ,cure of ,souls1 is full of splendid practical suggestions for the minister and divinity student4 ,here is a sample of his satire directed toward certain speakers3 ,it is said that there are ingenious books which contain extracts--very familiar as a rule--on every religious subject1 so that the minister1 having finished his sermon on faith or hope1 has only to take down this pepper-caster and flavor his somewhat bare sentences with literature4 ,if this ignominious tale be founded on fact1 and be not a scandal of the enemy1 then the ,protestant ,church ought also to have an ',index ,expurgatorius1' and its central authorities insert therein books which it is inexpedient for ministers to possess4 ,in this class should be included ',the ,garland of ,quotations' and ',the ,reservoir of ,illustrations4' ,,watson #ahej-aijg ,,optimism#f #f ,reprinted by permission of the publishers1 ,a4 ,c4 ,armstrong ,son4 ,go ye therefore and teach all nations4--,matthew xxviii41 #ai4 ,among the characteristics of ,jesus' teaching which have passed into the higher consciousness of ,christianity is an inextinguishable optimism4 ,when ,he was only a village prophet1 ,jesus declared that the social ,utopia of ,isaiah was already being fulfilled2 when ,he gave the ,sermon on the ,mount ,he spoke as a greater ,moses1 legislating not for a nation but for a race4 ,if ,he called apostles1 they were to disciple every creature1 and if ,he died it was for a world4 ,his generation might condemn ,him1 but they would see ,him again on the clouds of heaven4 ,his death would be celebrated in a sacrament unto every generation1 and being lifted on a cross ,he would draw all men to ,him4 ,the apostles who failed in ,his lifetime would afterward do greater works than ,himself1 and ,he who departed from their sight would return in the ,holy ,ghost and be with them forever4 ,he looks beyond ,his own land1 and embraces a race in ,his plans4 ,he ignores the defeats of ,his own ministry1 and discounts the victory of ,his disciples4 ,he teaches1 commands1 arranges1 prophesies with a universal and eternal accent4 ,this was not because he made light of ,his task or of ,his enemies2 no one ever had such a sense of the hideous tyranny of sin or passed through such a ,gehenna1 but ,jesus believed with all ,his heart and mind in the kingdom of ,god1 that it was coming and must come4 ,he held that the age of gold was not behind1 but before humanity4 ,the high spirit has passed into the souls of ,christ's chief servants4 ,the directors and pioneers1 the martyrs and exemplars of our faith have had no misgivings2 the light of hope has ever been shining on their faces4 ,st4 ,paul boasted that he was a free-born ,roman1 but he was prouder to be a member of ,christ's commonwealth1 whose capital was in heaven and in which all nations were one4 ,he was loyal subject of ,csar1 but he owned a more magnificent emperor at ,god's right hand4 ,above the forces of this present world he saw the principalities and powers in the heavenly places fighting for his faith4 ,scourged and imprisoned he burst into psalms1 and he looked beyond his martyrdom to the crown of righteousness4 ,shackled to a soldier he wrote letters brimming over with joy1 and confined to a barrack room he caught through a narrow window the gleam of the eternal city4 ,never did he flinch before a hostile world1 never was he browbeaten by numbers1 never was he discouraged by failure or reverse4 ,he knew that he was on the winning side1 and that he was laying the foundation of an everlasting state4 ,you catch the same grand note in ,st4 ,augustine with all his horror of prevailing iniquity2 in the medieval hymn writers celebrating ,jerusalem the ,golden1 when clouds of judgment hung over their heads2 and in the missionaries of the faith who toiled their life through without a convert1 and yet died in faith4 ,they might be losing1 but their commander was winning4 ,the cross might be surrounded with the smoke of battle1 it was being carried forward to victory4 ,they were right in this conviction1 but do not let us make any mistake about the nature of this triumph1 else we shall be caught by delusions1 and in the end be discouraged4 ,it will not be ecclesiastical1 and by that one means that no single church1 either the ,church of ,rome1 or the ,church of ,england1 or the ,church of ,scotland will ever embrace the whole human race1 or even its ,english-speaking province4 ,one can not study church history since the ,reformation1 or examine the condition of the various religious denominations to-day without being convinced that there will always be diversity of organization1 and any person who imagines the ,church of the ,east making her humble submission to ,rome1 or the various ,protestant bodies of the ,anglo-,saxon race trooping in their multitude to surrender their orders to the ,anglican ,church has really lost touch with the possibilities of life4 ,nor will the triumph be theological in the sense that all men will come to hold the same dogma whether it be that of ,rome or ,geneva4 ,there will always be many schools of thought within the kingdom of ,god just as there will be many nations4 ,neither one ,church nor one creed will swallow up the others and dominate the world4 ,he who cherishes that idea is the victim of an optimism which is unreasonable and undesirable4 ,the kingdom of ,god will come not through organization but through inspiration4 ,its sign will not be the domination of a ,church1 but the regeneration of humanity4 ,when man shall be brother to man the world over1 and war shall no longer drench cornfields with blood3 when women are everywhere honored1 and children are protected3 when cities are full of health and holiness1 and when the burden of misery has been lifted from the poor1 then the world shall know ,christ has not died in vain1 and ,his vision shall be fulfilled4 ,a fond imagination which only tantalizes and disheartens6 ,it is natural to say so1 but magnificent dreams have come true4 ,suppose you had been on the sorrowful way when ,jesus was being led to ,his doom1 and women were pitying this innocent prophet whose hopes had been so rudely dashed1 and whose life had been so piteously wasted4 ,ah6 they cry1 ,his illusions have been scattered1 and ,his brief day is going down in darkness4 ,it appeared so1 but was it so8 ,suppose while the kind-hearted people were talking1 some one had prophesied the career of ,jesus4 ,they would have laughed and called him a visionary1 yet which would have been right1 the people who judged by ,jesus' figure beneath the cross1 or the man who judged ,jesus' power through that cross8 ,the people who looked at the mob of ,jerusalem1 or the man who saw the coming generations8 ,there are two ideas of ,christ's crucifixion in art1 and each has its own place4 ,there is the realistic scene with the cross raised only a few feet from the ground1 a ,jewish peasant hanging on it1 a ,roman guard keeping order1 and a rabble of fanatical priests as spectators4 ,that is a fact1 if you please1 down to the color of the people's garments and the shape of the ,roman spears4 ,very likely that is how it looked and happened4 ,there is also the idealistic scene with a cross high and majestic on which ,christ is hanging with ,his face hidden4 ,behind there is an ,italian landscape with a river running through a valley1 trees against the sky1 and the campanile of a village church4 ,at the foot of the cross kneels ,st4 ,mary ,magdalene1 on the right at a little distance are the ,blest ,virgin and ,st4 ,francis1 on the left ,st4 ,john and ,st4 ,jerome4 ,the ,roman soldiers and the ,jewish crowd and that poor cross of ,roman making have disappeared as a shadow4 ,the great cross of the divine ,passion is planted in the heart of the ,church and of the race forever4 ,facts8 ,certainly1 but which is the fact1 that or this8 ,which is nearer to the truth1 the ,christ of the sorrowful way or the ,christ at ,god's right hand8 ,have there been no grounds for optimism8 ,has the splendid hope of ,christ been falsified8 ,one may complain that the centuries have gone slowly1 and that the chariot of righteousness has dragged upon the road4 ,but ,christ has been coming and conquering4 ,there is some difference between the statistics of the ,upper ,room1 and the ,christian ,church to-day2 between slavery in the ,roman ,empire and to-day2 between the experience of women in the pre-,christian period and to-day2 between the reward of labor in ,elizabeth's ,england and to-day2 between the use of riches in the eighteenth century1 and the beginning of the twentieth2 between pity for animals in the ,georgian period and to-day4 ,if we are not uplifted by this beneficent progress1 it is because we have grown accustomed to the reign of ,christianity1 and are impatient for greater things4 ,we are apt to be pessimists1 not because the kingdom of ,god is halting1 but because it has not raced2 not because the gospel has failed to build up native churches in the ends of the earth with their own forms1 literature1 martyrs1 but because all men have not yet believed the joyful sound4 ,there are two grounds for the unbounded optimism of our faith1 and the first is ,god4 ,how did such ideas come into the human mind8 ,where did the imagination of the prophets and apostles catch fire8 ,where is the spring of the prayers and aspirations of the saints8 ,whence do all light and all love come8 ,surely from ,god4 ,can we imagine better than ,god can do8 ,can we demand a fairer world than ,god will make8 ,were not the ,greek philosophers right in thinking that our ideals are eternal1 and are kept with ,god8 ,it is not a question of our imagining too much1 but too little1 of being too soon satisfied4 ,so soon made happy8 ,hadst thou learned ,what ,god accounteth happiness ,thou wouldst not find it hard to guess ,what hell may be his punishment ,for those who doubt if ,god invent ,better than they4 ,the other ground for optimism is ,jesus ,christ4 ,does it seem that the perfect life for the individual1 and for the race1 is too sublime1 that it is a distant and unattainable ideal8 ,it is well enough to give the ,sermon on the ,mount1 and true enough that if it were lived the world would be like heaven1 but then has it ever been lived8 ,yes1 once at least1 and beyond all question4 ,christ lived as ,he taught4 ,he bade men lose their lives and ,he lost ,his2 ,he bade men trample the world underfoot and ,he trampled it2 ,he commanded men to love1 and ,he loved even unto death4 ,this ,he did as the forerunner of the race4 ,why not again with ,christ as ,captain8 ,why not always1 why not everywhere8 ,is not ,he the standard of humanity now1 and is not ,he its ,redeemer8 ,has ,he not been working in the saints who have reminded the world of ,god8 ,will ,he not continue to work till all men come to the stature of perfection8 ,only one institution in human society carries the dew of its youth1 and through the conflict of the centuries still chants its morning song4 ,it is the religion of ,jesus4 ,i do not mean the ,christianity which exhausts its energy in the criticism of documents or the discussion of ritual--the ,christianity of scholasticism or ecclesiasticism1 for there is no life in that pedantry4 ,i do not mean the ,christianity which busies itself with questions of labor and capital1 meat and drink1 votes and politics1 for there is no lift in that machinery4 ,i mean the ,christianity which centers in the person of the ,son of ,god1 with ,his revelation of the ,father1 and ,his gospel of salvation1 with ,his hope of immortality and ,his victory of soul4 ,this ,christianity endures while civilizations exhaust themselves and pass away1 and the face of the world changes4 ,its hymns1 its prayers1 its heroism1 its virtues1 are ever fresh and radiant4 ,if a man desires to be young in his soul let him receive the spirit of ,jesus1 and bathe his soul in the ,christian hope4 ,ah1 pessimism is a heartless1 helpless spirit4 ,if one despairs of the future for himself and for his fellows1 then he had better die at once4 ,it is despair which cuts the sinews of a man's strength and leaves him at the mercy of temptation4 ,do you say1 ,what can ,i do1 because the light round me is like unto darkness8 ,climb the mast till you are above the fog which lies on the surface of the water1 and you will see the sun shining on the spiritual world1 and near at hand the harbor of sweet content4 ,true1 we must descend again to the travail of life1 but we return assured that the sun is above the mist4 ,do you say1 ,what is the use of fighting1 for where ,i stand we have barely held our own8 ,courage6 ,it was all you were expected to do1 and while you stood fast the center has been won1 and the issue of the battle has been decided4 ,it was a poet who had his own experience of adversity1 and was cut down in the midst of his days1 who bade his comrades be of good cheer4 ,say not1 the struggle naught availeth1 ,the labor and the wounds are vain1 ,the enemy faints not nor faileth1 ,and as things have been they remain4 ,if hopes were dupes1 fears may be liars4 ,it may be in yon smoke concealed1 ,your comrades chase e'en now the fliers1 ,and1 but for you1 possess the field4 ,for while the tired waves1 vainly breaking1 ,seem here no painful inch to gain1 ,far back1 through creeks and inlets making1 ,comes silent1 flooding in1 the main4 ,and not by eastern windows only1 ,when daylight comes1 comes in the light1 ,in front1 the sun climbs slow1 how slowly1 ,but westward look1 the land is bright4 ,,nicoll ,,gethsemane1 ,,the ,,rose ,,garden ,,of ,,god ,,biographical ,,note ,william ,robertson ,nicoll1 ,presbyterian minister and author1 was born at ,lumsden1 ,aberdeenshire1 #ahea4 ,he was educated at the ,university of ,aberdeen1 where he took his degree in #ahgj4 ,he was ,free ,minister of ,dufftown1 #ahgd-ahgg2 of ,kelso1 #ahgg-ahhe4 ,in #ahhf he became editor of ,british ,weekly1 ,bookman1 ,expositor and ,woman at ,home1 and is a prolific writer of books1 mostly theological4 ,,nicoll ,born in #ahea ,,gethsemane1 ,,the ,,rose ,,garden ,,of ,,god#g #g ,copyright1 #aija1 by ,the ,homiletic ,review1 ,new ,york4 ,without shedding of blood is no--,heb4 ix41 #bb4 ,i had a strange feeling1 dear brethren1 this morning1 in busy ,london1 on a week-day1 in the sunshine1 reading these words from the ,epistle to the ,hebrews2 and it struck me that some few would think they were strangely antique1 that they contrasted violently with your morning newspapers4 ,and then it passed through my mind again that there could not be anything so vitally modern1 so close and quick to the moment in ,london as just my text--,without shedding of blood there is no--no anything2 nothing2 no mighty result1 no achievement1 no triumph1 no high thing accomplished without shedding of blood4 ,that is just on the lowest plane what we are getting to know as a nation1 and if we are taught it as ,christians1 then we shall come to know at last what ,christianity means4 ,dear brethren1 life is just our chance of making this great and strange discovery1 that without shedding of blood there is nothing1 nothing at all4 ,how do young people begin1 most of them8 ,they begin by doing little or nothing2 they begin by trifling4 ,and then they begin to find that they are not making progress4 ,and if so1 they are wise1 gradually they put more strength into it2 and then more1 till at last they have put all their strength into it4 ,and then they say they have not succeeded1 have not gained their point4 ,and they say1 ,what have we got to do now8 ,you take off your coat to your work4 ,a man may disrobe2 what more can be done8 ,what more have ,i got left8 ,left8 ,you have got your blood left1 and until you begin to part with that you will never do any great work at all4 ,i mean by that1 if you leave a mark in life2 to fulfil a mission in life there is wanted something more than the concentration of life4 ,i appeal to you1 there is wanted1 besides1 the pruning of life1 aye1 and even the maiming of life4 ,there must be for success1 even in the business world1 ,i say1 in the world of commercial achievement1 there must be more and more an actual parting with the life before it is reached4 ,and we are being sternly taught this lesson as a nation4 ,but ,i want to teach it this morning to the ,church as ,christians4 ,well1 let me go back to the very beginning4 ,i find that there is in the primitive elemental religion a profound and solemn witness to this truth2 ,without shedding of blood there is no remission1 no peace with ,god1 no life in ,christ4 ,and ,i look upon these early and crude and distorted ideas as ,god's deep preparation of the mind and heart of man by the grand gospel of the substitution under the law of ,jesus ,christ for guilty sinners4 ,and we can not get those thoughts out1 they are embodied in our very language4 ,do you know what the word bless means1 what it was derived from8 ,the word bless comes from the ,anglo-,saxon word for blood4 ,and the idea dimly aimed at is this3 that before you can really bless a fellow creature you must part with your life1 or part of your life1 for him2 shed blood4 ,we can do a great deal by little things2 our ,lord said so--by smiles1 by gifts1 by kind words1 by cups of cold water4 ,christ will never forget these things4 ,but at the same time1 if you are to bless a soul in the superlative sense1 you can not do it in that easy way2 you have to sprinkle the soul with blood1 and with your own blood4 ,you know what ,i mean4 ,oh1 some of you know it who have labored for another soul for weary years2 you know it too well4 ,but part with your life and you will win a soul at last4 ,it will cover a multitude of sins4 ,i wish ,i had time to quote from the primitive religions2 but ,i would remind you of the old legend of the building of ,copenhagen4 ,the builders could not make progress with their work2 the sea came in and took it away1 until at last they took a human life1 and by the sacrifice of that human life they gave to the city stability4 ,and you know the old idea of primitive religion1 that the corn will not grow in the seed ground unless the body of a dead man is buried there--life coming out of death4 ,now1 ,i say all these things point on to the supreme ,author of the universe2 ,jesus died1 the ,just for the unjust1 that ,he might bring us to ,god4 ,now do you not think you can see how it is that the eternal ,son shed ,his blood in ,gethsemane1 and offered ,himself immaculate to ,god on ,calvary8 ,but we shall never know quite--none of the ransomed ever know--how deep were the waters crost1 or how dark was the night that the ,lord passed through ere ,he found the sheep that was lost4 ,but we read with hearts bowed the prayer offered up with strong crying and tears--the prayer1 ,if it be possible let this cup pass4 ,there is no prayer like that1 when you feel that a life is hanging in the balance1 that the issues are not quite decided1 that your prayer might turn it4 ,then you understand what prayer can be4 ,and we hear those dim1 overcome witnesses who heard afar the broken moaning1 the long-drawn sighs1 who saw the hard-won victory which seemed defeat1 and we read--,i love to read--about that all-pitying but undimmed angel who appeared to strengthen at last4 ,god made ,his minister a flame of fire in the dark and cold1 else could ,christ have conquered8 ,his prayer was answered2 the cup was not taken away1 but ,his lips were made brave to drink it1 and ,he drank it and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers4 ,some of my friends think that the real crowning-point in the suffering of ,christ was ,gethsemane1 that it was over there that the cross was more the public and open manifestation which the world1 passing by the wayside1 could see4 ,i do not know4 ,christ quivered a lament upon the cross too4 ,and now ,i come to the two thoughts of my sermon4 ,in the first place1 partly from etymology1 we learn that the shedding of our own blood is the condition of our blessing others4 ,and then my second point is1 that since bloom and blossom1 the perfection of life1 are also associated with the root1 with the word blood1 then ,i say that the bloom and perfection of our own lives depend upon our parting with the natural life and having it replaced by the resurrection life4 ,i hope it is simple enough4 ,without shedding of blood there is no blessing to others2 without shedding of blood there is no blessing to ourselves4 ,take these two great ruling missionary ideas4 ,i4 ,bloodshed for blessing others4 ,i spoke about ,gethsemane because ,i wanted you to understand that ,i was referring not merely to absolute physical death1 but to the death which leads a man to go on1 and perhaps to live more abundantly than before4 ,but still1 dear friends1 we have been most solemnly and impressively reminded in these times1 that1 whatever has failed in the ,church of ,christ1 the race of martyrs has not failed4 ,great names have been written there1 the names of those who have been received in heaven4 ,and1 for my part1 ,i love the way in which the ,church of ,rome reverences the martyrs4 ,you know that that ,church never prays for the martyrs1 but makes requests for their prayers2 you know that that ,church pictures in the assembly of the redeemed before the throne the martyrs in their robes of crimson and the saints in white4 ,the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the ,church4 ,we can not atone for others1 but we can bless others4 ,we can not1 dear friends1 have any part in the one perfect oblation and substitution in the sacrifice of the world1 but we fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of ,christ4 ,we know ,him and the fellowship of ,his sufferings as well as the power of ,his resurrection4 ,and when ,christ first laid ,his hand on ,his well-beloved ,he said3 ,i will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake4 ,this is the chief work of the martyr1 to suffer2 and it is the chief work of every ,christian to suffer for ,christ's name's sake4 ,and ,i sometimes think the whole of ,christianity1 for the present generation1 is summed up in this3 fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of ,christ1 for until that is filled up ,he can not have ,his triumph4 ,but1 dear brethren1 of course ,i do not confuse labor and suffering in the ,christian servant's life4 ,the labor is effective in proportion as there is suffering1 and the suffering by itself is nothing without the labor4 ,but1 oh1 how ,christ's great servants have suffered6 ,have you ever thought how ,st4 ,paul was actually driven to use the awful language of the passion when he described his own life8 ,he did not like to do it2 he always drew the line sharp and clear between himself and the ,master4 ,he said1 ,was ,paul crucified for you8 ,yes2 but he was driven to say1 ,i am crucified with ,christ--always bearing about the body and its death--,i die daily4 ,oh1 they have suffered by way of bloodshed4 ,yes2 but1 dear brethren1 ,i think that in the lives of the great servants of ,christ1 the elect servants1 there is always one ,gethsemane above the rest1 far above the rest2 one shedding of blood1 one parting with life which makes all the rest comparatively easy4 ,we can not tell1 ,i think1 about other people's ,gethsemane2 and we can not tell1 will not tell1 nothing would make us tell1 about our own4 ,how does the ,gethsemane come8 ,often it is passed with very little sign or show4 ,you have read in ,the ,bonny ,brier ,bush that when ,george ,howe came home to die1 his mother hid herself beneath the laburnum1 and as the cat stood beneath the stile1 it told the plain fact1 as she had feared4 ,and ,margaret passed through her ,gethsemane with the gold blossoms falling on her face4 ,i believe there are some of you who are passing through your ,gethsemane in this chapel while ,i am speaking to you now4 ,there is little to show--some absence of manner1 some twitching of the lips1 some unwonted pallor1 some strange abstraction1 but no more4 ,and you will never tell anybody about it1 and nobody will discover it when you are dead4 ,you sometimes suspect--do you not8--about another man what his ,gethsemane has been4 ,you are almost sure to be wrong4 ,that surrender which you see was accomplished almost without murmur or reluctance4 ,sometimes in biographies ,i think ,i can see where the ,gethsemane is4 ,it may be1 and often is1 the rooting out of some cherished ambition that has filled the heart and occupied every thought1 every dream for years and years4 ,it may be the shattering of some song1 the breaking of some dream4 ,it may be1 and often is1 a great rending of the affections1 the cutting the soul free from some detaining human tenderness4 ,well1 we do not know--the real ,gethsemane never lasts long4 ,i think an hour is the longest that anybody could bear it--,could ye not watch with me one hour8 ,true1 the heartache may go on to the end1 but the ,gethsemane1 that can not last a long time4 ,we have in biographies some instances of ,gethsemanes1 and sometimes in very unexpected places4 ,you would not imagine that a prosperous suburban minister1 with a rich congregation1 and every earthly ambition realized1 would have his ,gethsemane as a missionary far among the heathen has4 ,but in the ,life of ,dr4 ,raleigh1 of ,kensington1 whom many of you remember1 there is a significant passage4 ,when he was at the zenith of his fame he said that ministers came and looked around at his crowded church and envied his position4 ,they do not know1 he said1 what it has cost me to come to this4 ,in the ,life of the beloved ,james ,hamilton1 of ,regent ,square1 there is a passage which always touches me4 ,it shows how he parted1 for ,christ's sake1 with the great ambition of his life4 ,he longed to write a life of ,erasmus1 but other things came and he was balked of his desire4 ,he says3 ,so this day1 with a certain touch of tenderness1 ,i restored the eleven tone folios to the shelf and tied up my memoranda1 and took leave of a project which has often cheered the hours of exhaustion1 the mere thought of which has always been enough to overcome my natural indulgence4 ,it is well4 ,it is the only chance ,i ever had of attaining a small measure of literary distinction1 and where there is so much pride and naughtiness of heart it is better to remain unknown4 ,i think we may all easily see where the ,gethsemane came in in ,henry ,martyn's life1 and--,i say it with great diffidence--,i think we may see where the ,gethsemane came in in ,john ,wesley's life1 tho ,i should not care to indicate it4 ,but the heart knoweth its own bitterness4 ,what we know is that the ,gethsemanes in the ,christian life are in the course of duty1 and in obedience to ,god's will1 as it is revealed from day to day4 ,go back to ,john ,wesley's ,journal4 ,on one occasion he had the claim of a reputed saint1 and he rejected it1 and said--mark these words3 ,no blood of the martyrs is here1 no scandal of the cross1 no persecution of them that love ,god4 ,no blood is here1 no saint4 ,when ,adam ,clarke was speaking in the ,city-,road ,chapel in #ahaf1 at the establishment of a missionary society in ,london1 he told the people about the ,moravians4 ,and ,i need not tell you how great the ,moravian influence was on early ,methodism4 ,he told his hearers at that time that the ,moravians1 when all told1 only numbered six hundred members1 but they had missionaries in every part of the globe to which it was then possible to send them4 ,dr4 ,clarke told them of the beginning1 which was in the far-away place of ,st4 ,thomas4 ,a negro slave escaped from ,st4 ,thomas somehow1 and he came into contact with ,zinzendorf1 and found the way of salvation1 and rejoiced in ,christ4 ,well1 this negro came to the ,moravians1 and he told them that among his fellow slaves in ,st4 ,thomas there were several--his own sister was one1 ,i think--who were feeling after ,god4 ,but1 he said1 nobody can go out to tell them the gospel unless they sell themselves as slaves and go out as slaves4 ,whereupon two brethren immediately offered themselves1 and exprest their willingness to be sold as slaves1 that they might preach ,christ4 ,yes1 we may be sure that no life will bring forth fruit to ,god if it is without its ,gethsemane1 with the great drops of blood in it2 and ,i believe that just as the ,savior's blood dropt in ,gethsemane and the ground blest it1 so the blood of the surrendered soul makes its ,gethsemane a garden1 if not now1 then hereafter2 but the time must be1 whenever a martyr's blood has been shed1 upon that ground the fruits of righteousness must spring4 ,,ii4 ,bloodshed for self-perfection4 ,i have just my other point4 ,the second point is that there must be bloodshedding for the bloom and perfection of our own lives before they can come to their flower1 to ,god's ideal beauty2 there must be the expenditure of the natural life4 ,now1 what is it that should follow when we have parted with our life and lived our ,gethsemane2 what should be the effect upon our lives8 ,well1 what ought to follow is1 that the resurrection life1 which the shedding of blood has made room for1 should take the place of the other4 ,but what does follow8 ,i think three things1 often3 ,first1 it often happens that a real ,gethsemane of the soul means a brief tarrying in this world4 ,it seems as if too much life had gone1 as if the spirit could not recover its energies4 ,there are a few books which the heart of the ,church has always loved4 ,i call them ,gethsemane books4 ,they are books about ,gethsemane1 about the bloodshedding in the early days and what was gone through4 ,they are chiefly the lives of ,david ,brainerd1 ,henry ,martyn1 and ,mc,cheyne4 ,but there are many others that ,i have no time to name4 ,all of these died young1 not without signs of the divine blessing1 but their rich1 fervent natures were prematurely exhausted and burned out4 ,have you read the memoir of ,brainerd8 ,john ,wesley published it1 slightly abridged1 for his people1 and ,i have a copy4 ,read it1 mark its reserved passion1 its austere tenderness2 read the story of young ,miss ,edwards1 who followed her betrothed so soon4 ,you will then feel that you have done business in great waters4 ,the pages of this book are all spotted with blood4 ,read ,brainerd's aspirations3 ,oh1 that ,i might be a flaming fire in the service of my ,god6 ,here ,i am1 ,lord1 send me2 send me to the ends of the earth2 send me to the rough and savage pagan1 to the wilderness2 send me from all that is called earthly comfort2 send me even to death itself if it be but in ,thy service and to promote ,thy ,kingdom4 ,but sometimes the earthly life is parted with and not fully replaced by the resurrection life1 and the long-drawn melancholy ensues4 ,you really must not believe that ,i am speaking as an enemy of ,methodism when ,i say ,i venture to think there is something of that in the life of that great saint and supreme ,christian poet1 ,charles ,wesley4 ,i think it will be granted by his most ardent admirers that the last thirty years of his life will not compare with those of his mighty brother4 ,they were sad years in the main1 spent in comparative inaction1 with many1 many wearisome discontented days4 ,dear friends1 there is no such thing as melancholy in the ,new ,testament--nothing4 ,and ,charles ,wesley's melancholy is the most attractive in the world-- ,oh1 when shall we sweetly move8 ,oh1 when shall our souls be at rest8 ,and there is this view of life3 ,suffer out my threescore years till the ,deliverer come2 and then this soul appeals to ,god to explain my life of misery with all ,thy love's designs in ,thee4 ,those are awful matters--explain my life of misery with all ,thy love's designs in ,thee4 ,but1 dear friends1 am ,i right in saying that this frame is a ,christian frame8 ,when ,charles ,wesley was in his last years his favorite text was--and it is a text which will always go with his name--,i will bring the third part through the fire4 ,that is1 he thought that ,god would bring to glory one-third part of ,methodists1 that one-third of them would endure to the end4 ,compare that with ,god is with us who seeth the end4 ,who is right8 ,and he never sought an abundant entrance into the kingdom4 ,what he used to say over and over again was3 ,oh1 that ,i might escape safe to land on a broken piece of the ship4 ,this is my daily1 hourly prayer1 that ,i may escape safe to land4 ,in his latter days he was always warning those about him that a flood was coming out over the country which would sweep much of this religion away4 ,you know it was said on another death-bed1 ,clouds drop fatness4 ,it is always necessary that the bloom of life should come out of death4 ,what ,christ means is that as the natural life goes1 as the veins are depleted1 there is the resurrection life which should fill them and pour into them to strengthen4 ,there is no book in the world1 ,i think1 like ,john ,wesley's ,journal1 because it is the book of the resurrection life1 and ,i do not know another in all literature2 the resurrection life lived in this world almost as ,christ might have gone on living it if the forty years had been prolonged into fifty years4 ,as a book it stands out solitary in all literature1 clear1 detached1 columnar4 ,it is a tree that is ever green before the ,lord4 ,it tells us of a heart that kept to the last its innocent pleasures1 but held them so lightly1 while its ,christian renunciation and its passionate peace grew and grew to the end1 the old wistfulness1 the old calm fiery and revealed eloquence4 ,john ,wesley was indeed one of those who had attained the inward stillness1 who had entered the second rest1 who1 to use his own fine words1 was of those who are at rest before they go hence1 possessors of that rest which remaineth even here--even here--for the people of ,god4 ,with what emotion one comes to his closing days1 and follows him to that last sermon at ,leatherhead1 on the word3 ,seek ye the ,lord while he may be found1 call ye upon him while he is near6 ,and watch by his triumphant death-bed and hear him say1 ,the clouds drop fatness4 ,the only one ,i can compare him with in all the history of the ,church is the apostle ,elliot1 the missionary to the ,indians1 whose life was written by ,cotton ,mather4 ,you know that in that day they had a tradition that the country was safe as long as the apostle was there4 ,some of you will remember that ,nathaniel ,hawthorne1 in his great book1 ,the ,scarlet ,letter1 tells us of how the poor children of ,arthur ,dimsdale pleaded to see the apostle ,elliot1 for the testimony is that there was an unearthly light upon his face to the last of his long life4 ,we read about that great apostle1 fit to be named with ,wesley1 that he had his bitter sorrows4 ,two sons died before him1 and ,cotton ,mather says they were desirable preachers of the gospel4 ,but the old man sacrificed them4 ,now1 note ,cotton ,mather's phrase1 sacrificed with such a sacred indifference4 ,and he was so nailed to the cross and the ,lord ,jesus ,christ that the grandeur of this world would seem to him just what it would be to a dying man1 when at a great age and nearing the end he grew1 with ,john ,wesley1 still more heavenly1 more ,saviorly1 more divine and scented more and more of that spicy country at which he was ready to put ashore4 ,his last words were1 ,welcome1 joy1 and he died4 ,such a life of sacrifice is the gateway of the eternal city4 #b4 ,it is likewise necessary that the conversion of the world should come out of death4 ,i for one believe in the ancient promise1 ,the knowledge of the ,lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea4 ,yes1 but before the knowledge of the ,lord shall cover the earth1 the earth must be covered with the blood falling upon it from faithful souls4 ,without shedding of blood there is no--4 ,some young men whom ,i love have started societies for the evangelization of the world in the present generation4 ,i love that2 let us try4 ,but what is evangelization8 ,to send ,bibles1 to deliver the message to everybody8 ,no1 not that1 but the shedding of the servants' blood on every field1 with the world as one great ,gethsemane4 ,we shall see over it the flowers that grew only in the garden where ,christ's brow dropt blood4 ,at this meeting1 in this chapel1 there will be some sweet mother who is going through her ,gethsemane4 ,she is resolving to give up a son who has heard the call3 ,depart1 for ,i will send them far hence to the heathen4 ,one in widow's weeds was asked if she had subscribed to the missionary society4 ,she said3 ,yes1 ,i gave my only son1 and he died in the field4 ,that is my text3 ,without shedding of blood there is no--4 ,yes1 and there is some young heart here that has a great deal to give up1 a great deal at home4 ,and he is hearing me1 and he has made up his mind that he will make the sacrifice1 too2 that he will go forth to ,christ4 ,and what are the rest of us doing8 ,well1 dear brethren1 there is to be a collection1 and we will put our hands in our pockets in the old way1 half thinking what we will spend1 and how we are to spend it before we go home2 and select a coin and put it in4 ,and then we shall go home and see a missionary magazine on the table1 and express our regret that missionary magazines are not better edited and not more interesting4 ,of course1 there will be something for the collector when the collector goes round4 ,it will not be much2 and perhaps1 owing to the war1 you know1 we can not give quite so much as last year4 ,and do you really think that the world will ever be converted in that way8 ,do you believe it8 ,have you any right to expect that it should be converted in that way8 ,no right at all4 ,the world will never be converted until the ,church is in agony1 and prays more earnestly1 and sweats1 as it were1 great drops of blood2 never1 never6 ,without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins4 ,,van ,,dyke ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,manhood ,,biographical ,,note ,henry ,van ,dyke was born in ,germantown1 ,pa41 in #aheb4 ,he is a graduate of ,princeton ,theological ,seminary and of ,berlin ,university4 ,from #ahhb to #aijj he was pastor of the ,brick ,presbyterian ,church1 ,new ,york1 since which time he has been ,professor of ,english ,literature in ,princeton ,university4 ,as a preacher he is generally regarded as a model1 and as the author of many books he enjoys the highest literary reputation4 ,doctor ,brastow calls him the pulpit artist of his school1 and adds3 ,in skilful handling of the manuscript1 in clearness1 force1 chasteness1 and felicity of diction1 and in a directness and cogency of moral appeal which seemingly his later literary interests have not enhanced1 he stands in the front line of ,american preachers4 ,,van ,,dyke ,born in #aheb ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,manhood#h #h ,by permission of ,dr4 ,van ,dyke and the publishers4 ,from ,the ,culture of ,christian ,manhood4 ,edited by ,w4 ,h4 ,sallmon4 ,copyright1 #ahig1 by ,fleming ,h4 ,revell ,co4 ,how much1 then1 is a man better than a sheep6--,matt4 xii41 #ab4 ,on the lips of ,christ these noble words were an exclamation4 ,he knew1 as no one else has ever known1 what was in man4 ,but to us who repeat them they often seem like a question4 ,we are so ignorant of the deepest meaning of manhood1 that we find ourselves at the point to ask in perplexity1 how much1 after all1 is a man better than a sheep8 ,it is evident that the answer to this question must depend upon our general view of life4 ,there are two very common ways of looking at existence that settle our judgment of the comparative value of a man and a sheep at once and inevitably4 ,suppose1 in the first place1 that we take a materialistic view of life4 ,looking at the world from this standpoint1 we shall see in it a great mass of matter1 curiously regulated by laws which have results1 but no purposes1 and agitated into various modes of motion by a secret force whose origin is1 and forever must be1 unknown4 ,life1 in man as in other animals1 is but one form of this force4 ,rising through many subtle gradations1 from the first tremor that passes through the gastric nerve of a jellyfish to the most delicate vibration of gray matter in the brain of a ,plato or a ,shakespeare1 it is really the same from the beginning to the end--physical in its birth among the kindred forces of heat and electricity1 physical in its death in cold ashes and dust4 ,the only difference between man and other animals is a difference of degree4 ,the ape takes his place in our ancestral tree1 and the sheep becomes our distant cousin4 ,it is true that we have somewhat the advantage of these poor relations4 ,we belong to the more fortunate branch of the family1 and have entered upon an inheritance considerably enlarged by the extinction of collateral branches4 ,but1 after all1 it is the same inheritance1 and there is nothing in humanity which is not derived from and destined to our mother earth4 ,if1 then1 we accept this view of life1 what answer can we give to the question1 how much is a man better than a sheep8 ,we must say3 ,he is a little better1 but not much4 ,in some things he has the advantage4 ,he lives longer1 and has more powers of action and capacities of pleasure4 ,he is more clever1 and has succeeded in making the sheep subject to his domination4 ,but the balance is not all on one side4 ,the sheep has fewer pains as well as fewer pleasures1 less care as well as less power4 ,if it does not know how to make a coat1 at least it succeeds in growing its own natural wool clothing1 and that without taxation4 ,above all1 the sheep is not troubled with any of those vain dreams of moral responsibility and future life which are the cause of such great and needless trouble to humanity4 ,the flocks that fed in the pastures of ,bethlehem got just as much physical happiness out of existence as the shepherd1 ,david1 who watched them1 and1 being natural agnostics1 they were free from ,david's delusions in regard to religion4 ,they could give all their attention to eating1 drinking1 and sleeping1 which is the chief end of life4 ,from the materialistic standpoint1 a man may be a little better than a sheep1 but not much4 ,or suppose1 in the second place1 that we take the commercial view of life4 ,we shall then say that all things must be measured by their money value1 and that it is neither profitable nor necessary to inquire into their real nature or their essential worth4 ,men and sheep are worth what they will bring in the open market1 and this depends upon the supply and demand4 ,sheep of a very rare breed have been sold for as much as five or six thousand dollars4 ,but men of common stock1 in places where men are plenty and cheap 7as1 for example1 in ,central ,africa71 may be purchased for the price of a rusty musket or a piece of cotton cloth4 ,according to this principle1 we must admit that the comparative value of a man and a sheep fluctuates with the market1 and that there are times when the dumb animal is much the more valuable of the two4 ,this view1 carried out to its logical conclusion1 led to slavery1 and put up men and sheep at auction on the same block1 to be disposed of to the highest bidder4 ,we have gotten rid of the logical conclusion4 ,but have we gotten rid entirely of the premise on which it rested8 ,does not the commercial view of life still prevail in civilized society8 ,there is a certain friend of mine who often entertains me with an account of the banquets which he has attended4 ,on one occasion he told me that two great railroads and the major part of all the sugar and oil in the ,united ,states sat down at the same table with three gold-mines and a line of steamships4 ,how much is that man worth8 asks the curious inquirer4 ,that man1 answers some walking business directory1 is worth a million dollars2 and the man sitting next to him is not worth a penny4 ,what other answer can be given by one who judges everything by a money standard8 ,if wealth is really the measure of value1 if the end of life is the production or the acquisition of riches1 then humanity must take its place in the sliding scale of commodities4 ,its value is not fixt and certain4 ,it depends upon accidents of trade4 ,we must learn to look upon ourselves and our fellow men purely from a business point of view and to ask only3 ,what can this man make8 how much has that man made8 how much can ,i get out of this man's labor8 how much will that man pay for my services8 ,those little children that play in the squalid city streets--they are nothing to me or to the world2 there are too many of them2 they are worthless4 ,those long-fleeced1 high-bred sheep that feed upon my pastures--they are among my most costly possessions2 they will bring an enormous price2 they are immensely valuable4 ,how much is a man better than a sheep8 ,what a foolish question6 ,sometimes the man is better2 sometimes the sheep is better4 ,it all depends upon the supply and demand4 ,now these two views of life1 the materialistic and the commercial1 always have prevailed in the world4 ,men have held them consciously and unconsciously4 ,at this very day there are some who profess them1 and there are many who act upon them1 altho they may not be willing to acknowledge them4 ,they have been the parents of countless errors in philosophy and sociology2 they have bred innumerable and loathsome vices and shames and cruelties and oppressions in the human race4 ,it was to shatter and destroy these falsehoods1 to sweep them away from the mind and heart of humanity1 that ,jesus came into the world4 ,we can not receive ,his gospel in any sense1 we can not begin to understand its scope and purpose1 unless we fully1 freely1 and sincerely accept ,his great revelation of the true meaning and value of man as man4 ,we say this was ,his revelation4 ,undoubtedly it is true that ,christ came to reveal ,god to man4 ,but undoubtedly it is just as true that ,he came to reveal man to himself4 ,he called ,himself the ,son of ,god1 but ,he called ,himself also the ,son of man4 ,his nature was truly divine1 but ,his nature was no less truly human4 ,he became man4 ,and what is the meaning of that lowly birth1 in the most helpless form of infancy1 if it be not to teach us that humanity is so related to ,deity that it is capable of receiving and embodying ,god ,himself8 ,he died for man4 ,and what is the meaning of that sacrifice1 if it be not to teach us that ,god counts no price too great to pay for the redemption of the human soul8 ,this gospel of our ,lord and ,savior ,jesus ,christ contains the highest1 grandest1 most ennobling doctrine of humanity that ever has been proclaimed on earth4 ,it is the only certain cure for low and debasing views of life4 ,it is the only doctrine from which we can learn to think of ourselves and our fellow men as we ought to think4 ,i ask you to consider for a little while the teachings of ,jesus ,christ in regard to what it means to be a man4 ,suppose1 then1 that we come to ,him with this question3 ,how much is a man better than a sheep8 ,he will tell us that a man is infinitely better1 because he is the child of ,god1 because he is capable of fellowship with ,god1 and because he is made for an immortal life4 ,and this threefold answer will shine out for us not only in the words1 but also in the deeds1 and above all in the death1 of the ,son of ,god and the ,son of man4 #a4 ,think1 first of all1 of the meaning of manhood in the light of the truth that man is the offspring and likeness of ,god4 ,this was not a new doctrine first proclaimed by ,christ4 ,it was clearly taught in the magnificent imagery of the book of ,genesis4 ,the chief design of that great picture of the beginnings is to show that a personal ,creator is the source and author of all things that are made4 ,but next to that1 and of equal importance1 is the design to show that man is incalculably superior to all the other works of ,god--that the distance between him and the lower animals is not a difference in degree1 but a difference in kind4 ,yes1 the difference is so great that we must use a new word to describe the origin of humanity1 and if we speak of the stars and the earth1 the trees and the flowers1 the fishes1 the birds1 and the beasts1 as the works of ,god1 when man appears we must find a nobler name and say1 ,this is more than ,god's work2 he is ,god's child4 ,our human consciousness confirms this testimony and answers to it4 ,we know that there is something in us which raises us infinitely above the things that we see and hear and touch1 and the creatures that appear to spend their brief life in the automatic workings of sense and instinct4 ,these powers of reason and affection and conscience1 and above all this wonderful power of free will1 the faculty of swift1 sovereign1 voluntary choice1 belong to a higher being4 ,we say not to corruption1 ,thou art my father1 nor to the worm1 ,thou art my mother2 but to ,god1 ,thou art my father1 and to the great ,spirit1 ,in thee was my life born4 ,not only cunning casts in clay3 ,let science prove we are1 and then ,what matters science unto men1 ,at least to me8 ,i would not stay4 ,let him1 the wiser man who springs ,hereafter1 up from childhood shape ,his action like the greater ape2 ,but ,i was born to other things4 ,frail as our physical existence may be1 in some respects the most frail1 the most defenseless among animals1 we are yet conscious of something that lifts us up and makes us supreme4 ,man1 says ,pascal1 is but a reed1 the feeblest thing in nature2 but he is a reed that thinks4 ,it needs not that the universe arm itself to crush him4 ,an exhalation1 a drop of water1 suffice to destroy him4 ,but were the universe to crush him1 man is yet nobler than the universe2 for he knows that he dies1 and the universe1 even in prevailing against him1 knows not its power4 ,now the beauty and strength of ,christ's doctrine of man lie1 not in the fact that ,he was at pains to explain and defend and justify this view of human nature1 but in the fact that ,he assumed it with an unshaken conviction of its truth1 and acted upon it always and everywhere4 ,he spoke to man1 not as the product of nature1 but as the child of ,god4 ,he took it for granted that we are different from plants and animals1 and that we are conscious of the difference4 ,consider the lilies1 ,he says to us2 the lilies can not consider themselves3 they know not what they are1 nor what their life means2 but you know1 and you can draw the lesson of their lower beauty into your higher life4 ,regard the birds of the air2 they are dumb and unconscious dependents upon the divine bounty1 but you are conscious objects of the divine care4 ,are you not of more value than many sparrows8 ,through all ,his words we feel the thrilling power of this high doctrine of humanity4 ,he is always appealing to reason1 to conscience1 to the power of choice between good and evil1 to the noble and godlike faculties in man4 ,and now think for a moment of the fact that ,his life was voluntarily1 and of set purpose1 spent among the poorest and humblest of mankind4 ,remember that ,he spoke1 not to philosophers and scholars1 but to peasants and fishermen and the little children of the world4 ,what did ,he mean by that8 ,surely it was to teach us that this doctrine of the meaning of manhood applies to man as man4 ,it is not based upon considerations of wealth or learning or culture or eloquence4 ,those are the things of which the world takes account1 and without which it refuses to pay any attention to us4 ,a mere man1 in the eyes of the world1 is a nobody4 ,but ,christ comes to humanity in its poverty1 in its ignorance1 stript of all outward signs of power1 destitute of all save that which belongs in common to mankind2 to this lowly child1 this very beggar-maid of human nature1 comes the king1 and speaks to her as a princess in disguise1 and lifts her up and sets a crown upon her head4 ,i ask you if this simple fact ought not to teach us how much a man is better than a sheep4 #b4 ,but ,christ reveals to us another and a still higher element of the meaning of manhood by speaking to us as beings who are capable of holding communion with ,god and reflecting the divine holiness in our hearts and lives4 ,and here also ,his doctrine gains clearness and force when we bring it into close connection with ,his conduct4 ,i suppose that there are few of us who would not be ready to admit at once that there are some men and women who have high spiritual capacities4 ,for them1 we say1 religion is a possible thing4 ,they can attain to the knowledge of ,god and fellowship with ,him4 ,they can pray1 and sing praises1 and do holy work4 ,it is easy for them to be good4 ,they are born good4 ,they are saints by nature4 ,but for the great mass of the human race this is out of the question1 absurd1 impossible4 ,they must dwell in ignorance1 in wickedness1 in impiety4 ,but to all this ,christ says1 ,no6 ,no1 to our theory of perfection for the few4 ,no1 to our theory of hopeless degradation for the many4 ,he takes ,his way straight to the outcasts of the world1 the publicans and the harlots and sinners1 and to them ,he speaks of the mercy and the love of ,god and the beauty of the heavenly life2 not to cast them into black despair1 not because it was impossible for them to be good and to find ,god1 but because it was divinely possible4 ,god was waiting for them1 and something in them was waiting for ,god4 ,they were lost4 ,but surely they never could have been lost unless they had first of all belonged to ,god1 and this made it possible for them to be found again4 ,they were prodigals4 ,but surely the prodigal is also a child1 and there is a place for him in the ,father's house4 ,he may dwell among the swine1 but he is not one of them4 ,he is capable of remembering his ,father's love4 ,he is capable of answering his ,father's embrace4 ,he is capable of dwelling in his ,father's house in filial love and obedience4 ,this is the doctrine of ,christ in regard to fallen and disordered and guilty human nature4 ,it is fallen1 it is disordered1 it is guilty2 but the capacity of reconciliation1 of holiness1 of love to ,god1 still dwells in it1 and may be quickened into a new life4 ,that is ,god's work1 but ,god ,himself could not do it if man were not capable of it4 ,do you remember the story of the portrait of ,dante which is painted upon the walls of ,bargello1 at ,florence8 ,for many years it was supposed that the picture had utterly perished4 ,men had heard of it1 but no one living had seen it4 ,but presently came an artist who was determined to find it again4 ,he went into the place where tradition said that it had been painted4 ,the room was used as a storehouse for lumber and straw4 ,the walls were covered with dirty whitewash4 ,he had the heaps of rubbish carried away4 ,patiently and carefully he removed the whitewash from the wall4 ,lines and colors long hidden began to appear2 and at last the grave1 lofty1 noble face of the poet looked out again upon the world of light4 ,that was wonderful1 you say1 that was beautiful6 ,not half so wonderful as the work which ,christ came to do in the heart of man--to restore the forgotten likeness of ,god and bring the divine image to the light4 ,he comes to us with the knowledge that ,god's image is there1 tho concealed2 ,he touches us with the faith that the likeness can be restored4 ,to have upon our hearts the impress of the divine nature1 to know that there is no human being in whom that treasure is not hidden and from whose stained and dusty soul ,christ can not bring out that reflection of ,god's face--that1 indeed1 is to know the meaning of manhood1 and to be sure that a man is better than a sheep6 #c4 ,there is yet one more element in ,christ's teaching in regard to the meaning of manhood1 and that is ,his doctrine of immortality4 ,this truth springs inevitably out of ,his teaching in regard to the origin and capacity of human nature4 ,a being formed in the divine image1 a being capable of reflecting the divine holiness1 is a being so lofty that he must have also the capacity of entering into a life which is spiritual and eternal1 and which leads onward to perfection4 ,all that ,christ teaches about man1 all that ,christ offers to do for man1 opens before him a vast and boundless future4 ,the idea of immortality runs through everything that ,jesus says and does4 ,never for a moment does ,he speak to man as a creature who is bound to this present world4 ,never for a moment does ,he forget1 or suffer us to forget1 that our largest and most precious treasures may be laid up in the world to come4 ,he would arouse our souls to perceive and contemplate the immense issues of life4 ,the perils that beset us here through sin are not brief and momentary dangers1 possibilities of disgrace in the eyes of men1 of suffering such limited pain as our bodies can endure in the disintegrating process of disease1 of dying a temporal death1 which at the worst can only cause us a few hours of anguish4 ,a man might bear these things1 and take the risk of this world's shame and sickness and death1 for the sake of some darling sin4 ,but the truth that flashes on us like lightning from the word of ,christ is that the consequence of sin is the peril of losing our immortality4 ,fear not them which kill the body1 said he1 but are not able to kill the soul2 but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell4 ,on the other hand1 the opportunities that come to us here through the grace of ,god are not merely opportunities of temporal peace and happiness4 ,they are chances of securing endless and immeasurable felicity1 wealth that can never be counted or lost1 peace that the world can neither give nor take away4 ,we must understand that now the kingdom of ,god has come near unto us4 ,it is a time when the doors of heaven are open4 ,we may gain an inheritance incorruptible1 and undefiled1 and that fadeth not away4 ,we may lay hold not only on a present joy of holiness1 but on an everlasting life with ,god4 ,it is thus that ,christ looks upon the children of men3 not as herds of dumb1 driven cattle1 but as living souls moving onward to eternity4 ,it is thus that ,he dies for men3 not to deliver them from brief sorrows1 but to save them from final loss and to bring them into bliss that knows no end4 ,it is thus that ,he speaks to us1 in solemn words before which our dreams of earthly pleasure and power and fame and wealth are dissipated like unsubstantial vapors3 ,what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul8 ,or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul8 ,there never was a time in which ,christ's doctrine of the meaning of manhood was more needed than it is to-day4 ,there is no truth more important and necessary for us to take into our hearts1 and hold fast1 and carry out in our lives4 ,for here we stand in an age when the very throng and pressure and superfluity of human life lead us to set a low estimate upon its value4 ,the air we breathe is heavy with materialism and commercialism4 ,the lowest and most debasing views of human nature are freely proclaimed and unconsciously accepted4 ,there is no escape1 no safety for us1 save in coming back to ,christ and learning from ,him that man is the child of ,god1 made in the divine image1 capable of the divine fellowship1 and destined to an immortal life4 ,i want to tell you just three of the practical reasons why we must learn this4 7#a7 ,we need to learn it in order to understand the real meaning1 and guilt1 and danger1 and hatefulness of sin4 ,men are telling us nowadays that there is no such thing as sin4 ,it is a dream1 a delusion4 ,it must be left out of account4 ,all the evils in the world are natural and inevitable4 ,they are simply the secretions of human nature4 ,there is no more shame or guilt connected with them than with the malaria of the swamp or the poison of the nightshade4 ,but ,christ tells us that sin is real1 and that it is the enemy1 the curse1 the destroyer of mankind4 ,it is not a part of man as ,god made him2 it is a part of man as he has unmade and degraded himself4 ,it is the marring of the divine image1 the ruin of the glorious temple1 the self-mutilation and suicide of the immortal soul4 ,it is sin that casts man down into the mire4 ,it is sin that drags him from the fellowship of ,god into the company of beasts4 ,it is sin that leads him into the far country of famine1 and leaves him among the swine1 and makes him fain to fill his belly with the husks that the swine do eat4 ,therefore we must hate sin1 and fear it1 and abhor it1 always and everywhere4 ,when we look into our own heart and find sin there1 we must humble ourselves before ,god and repent in sackcloth and ashes4 ,every sin that whispers in our heart is an echo of the world's despair and misery4 ,every selfish desire that lies in our soul is a seed of that which has brought forth strife1 and cruelty1 and murder1 and horrible torture1 and bloody war among the children of men4 ,every lustful thought that defiles our imagination is an image of that which has begotten loathsome vices and crawling shames throughout the world4 ,my brother-men1 ,god hates sin because it ruins man4 ,and when we know what that means1 when we feel that same poison of evil within us1 we must hate sin as ,he does1 and bow in penitence before ,him1 crying1 ,god1 be merciful to me a sinner4 7#b7 ,we need to learn ,christ's doctrine of the meaning of manhood in order to help us to love our fellow men4 ,this is a thing that is easy to profess1 but hard1 bitterly hard1 to do4 ,the faults and follies of human nature are apparent4 ,the unlovely and contemptible and offensive qualities of many people thrust themselves sharply upon our notice and repel us4 ,we are tempted to shrink back1 wounded and disappointed1 and to relapse into a life that is governed by disgusts4 ,if we dwell in the atmosphere of a ,christless world1 if we read only those newspapers which chronicle the crimes and meannesses of men1 or those realistic novels which deal with the secret vices and corruptions of humanity1 and fill our souls with the unspoken conviction that virtue is an old-fashioned dream1 and that there is no man good1 no woman pure1 ,i do not see how we can help despising and hating mankind4 ,who shall deliver us from this spirit of bitterness8 ,who shall lead us out of this heavy1 fetid air of the lazar-house and the morgue8 ,none but ,christ4 ,if we will go with ,him1 ,he will teach us not to hate our fellow men for what they are1 but to love them for what they may become4 ,he will teach us to look1 not for the evil which is manifest1 but for the good which is hidden4 ,he will teach us not to despair1 but to hope1 even for the most degraded of mankind4 ,and so1 perchance1 as we keep company with ,him1 we shall learn the secret of that divine charity which fills the heart with peace and joy and quiet strength4 ,we shall learn to do good unto all men as we have opportunity1 not for the sake of gratitude or reward1 but because they are the children of our ,father and the brethren of our ,savior4 ,we shall learn the meaning of that blest death on ,calvary1 and be willing to give ourselves as a sacrifice for others1 knowing that he that turneth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins4 7#c7 ,finally1 we need to accept and believe ,christ's doctrine of the meaning of manhood in order that it may lead us personally to ,god and a higher life4 ,you are infinitely better and more precious than the dumb beasts4 ,you know it1 you feel it2 you are conscious that you belong to another world4 ,and yet it may be that there are times when you forget it and live as if there was no ,god1 no soul1 no future life4 ,your ambitions are fixt upon the wealth that corrodes1 the fame that fades4 ,your desires are toward the pleasures that pall upon the senses4 ,you are bartering immortal treasure for the things which perish in the using4 ,you are ignoring and despising the high meaning of your manhood4 ,who shall remind you of it1 who shall bring you back to yourself1 who shall lift you up to the level of your true being1 unless it be the ,teacher who spake as never man spake1 the ,master who brought life and immortality to light4 ,come1 then1 to ,christ1 who can alone save you from the sin that defiles and destroys your manhood4 ,come1 then1 to ,christ1 who alone can make you good men and true1 living in the power of an endless life4 ,come1 then1 to ,christ1 that you may have fellowship with ,him and realize all it means to be a man4 ,,end ,,of ,,vol4 ,,ix4 ,,the ,,hour-,,glass ,,stories ,,the ,,sandals ,by ,,rev4 ,,zelotes ,,grenell4 ,a beautiful little idyl of sacred story dealing with the sandals of ,christ4 ,,the ,,courtship ,,of ,,sweet ,,anne ,,page ,by ,,ellen ,v4 ,,talbot4 ,a brisk little love story incidental to ,the ,merry ,wives of ,windsor1 full of fun and frolic1 and telling of the ,courtship of ,sweet ,anne ,page by three rival lovers chosen by her father1 her mother1 and herself4 ,,the ,,transfiguration ,,of ,,miss ,,philura ,by ,,florence ,,morse ,,kingsley4 ,this clever story is based on the theory that every physical need and every desire of the human heart can be claimed and received from the ,encircling ,good by the true believer4 ,,the ,,herr ,,doctor ,by ,,robert ,,macdonald4 ,a novelette of artistic literary merit1 narrating the varied experiences of an ,american girl in her effort toward capturing a titled husband4 ,,esarhaddon ,by ,,count ,,leo ,,tolstoy4 ,three allegorical stories illustrating ,tolstoy's theories of non-resistance1 and the essential unity of all forms of life4 ,small #abmo1 ,dainty ,cloth ,binding1 ,illustrated4 #dj cents each ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company1 ,pubs4 ,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london ,,the ,,hour-,,glass ,,stories ,,the ,,czar',s ,,gift ,,by ,,william ,,ordway ,,partridge4 ,how freedom was obtained for an exiled brother4 ,,the ,,emancipation ,,of ,,miss ,,susana ,an entrancing love story that ends in a most romantic marriage4 ,,the ,,old ,,darnman ,by ,,charles ,l4 ,,goodell1 ,d4,d4 ,a character known to many a ,new ,england boy and girl1 in which the lost bride is the occasion for a lifelong search from door to door4 ,,balm ,,in ,,gilead ,by ,,florence ,,morse ,,kingsley4 ,a very touching story of a mother's grief over the loss of her child of tender years1 and her search for comfort1 which she finds at last in her husband's loyal ,christian faith4 ,,miserere ,by ,,mabel ,,wagnalls4 ,the romantic story of a sweet voice that thrilled great audiences in operatic ,paris1 ,berlin1 etc4 ,,parsifal ,by ,h4 ,r4 ,,haweis4 ,an intimate study of the great operatic masterpiece4 ,,the ,,trouble ,,woman ,by ,,clara ,,morris4 ,a pathetic little story full of heart interest4 ,small #abmo1 ,dainty ,cloth ,binding1 ,illustrated4 #dj cents each ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company1 ,pubs4 ,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london ,there is a world of sense and practical truth in this valuable book4--,the ,brooklyn ,eagle4 ,a ,bundle of ,letters ,to ,busy ,girls4 ,by ,miss ,grace ,e4 ,dodge1 7,member of the ,new ,york ,board of ,education74 ,these ,twelve ,letters are all on ',practical ,matters' which enter into the life of all our ',girls4'444 ,all is subordinated to produce wise1 practical1 and much-needed instruction1 in plain1 common-sense1 brief1 and wonderfully effective words4 ,they are indeed a model4 ,the author1 as one of the ',girls1' puts herself on their level1 and speaks in their language1 and voices their feelings1 wants1 and trials4 ,nothing could be more wisely done1 for the object in view4 ,the little book can not fail to do great good to the class of girls for whom it has been prepared4 ,let it be circulated4--,the ,christian ,observer1 ,louisville4 ,some philanthropic person ought to see this book put into the hands of thousands of school and shop girls throughout the country4 ,it would be a bit of philanthropy that would bear more moral fruit than often comes from the charitable endeavor4--,the ,journal of ,education1 ,boston4 ,no class of girls can be more usefully employed than in reading and discussing the points suggested in this excellent book4--,woman's ,journal1 ,boston4 ,it is one of the best and most helpful books ,i ever read4 ,it is written with charming directness and simplicity4--,josiah ,allen's ,wife4 #afmo4 ,cloth4 ,price1 #cj ,cents4 ,half ,cloth1 ,fancy ,sides1 ,uncut ,edges1 #a4jj4 ,post-free4 ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company1 ,publishers ,new ,york and ,london ,wives6 ,husbands6 ,sweethearts6 ,dr4 ,talmage 444 ,,in 444 ,the ,marriage ,ring ,,tells ,,all ,,about ,the ,choice of a ,wife ,choice of a ,husband ,clandestine ,marriages ,duties of ,husbands to ,wives ,duties of ,wives to ,husbands ,boarding-house and ,hotel ,life vs4 ,the ,home ,costume and ,morals ,plain ,talk ,easy ,divorce ,motherhood ,heredity ,paradisaic ,women ,influence of ,sisters over ,brothers ,martyrs of the ,kitchen ,the ,old ,folks' ,visit4 ,it is a wholesome book4 ,it will carry a benediction into thousands of domestic circles4--,zion's ,herald1 ,boston4 ,thoroughly ,christian and commonsense4--,free ,methodist1 ,chicago4 ,we recommend it as 'good gift' to the married and those about to marry4--,demorest's ,magazine1 ,new ,york4 ,beautifully ,bound--,a ,handsome ,gift ,book4 ,price1 #a4jj1 ,post-free4 ,,funk ,,wagnalls ,,company1 ,publishers1 ,,new ,,york and ,,london 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note3 ,minor typographical errors have been corrected without note4 ,irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed4 ,missing page numbers are page numbers that were not shown in the original text4 ,mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where the missing quote should be placed4 ,page #abe3 standing on the basis of the hormonious testimony 444 ,the transcriber has replaced hormonious with harmonious4