,,the ,,stuff ,,of ,,manhood ,by ,,robert ,e4 ,,speer ,the ,stuff of ,manhood #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,john's ,gospel1 ,the ,greatest ,book in the ,world #abmo1 cloth1 net #fj;c4 ,men ,who ,were ,found ,faithful #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,some ,great ,leaders in the ,world ,movement ,the ,cole ,lectures for #aiaa4 #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4be ,the ,foreign ,doctor3 8,the ,hakim ,sahib0 ,a ,biography of ,joseph ,plumb ,cochran1 ,m4,d41 of ,persia4 ,illustrated1 #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4ej ,christianity and the ,nations ,the ,duff ,lectures for #aiaj4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #b4jj ,missionary ,principles and ,practice #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ej ,a ,memorial of ,alice ,jackson #abmo1 cloth1 net #ge;c4 ,a ,memorial of ,horace ,tracy ,pitkin #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,a ,memorial of a ,true ,life ,a ,biography of ,hugh ,mc,allister ,beaver ,with ,portrait #abmo1 cloth1 #a4jj ,young ,men ,who ,overcame #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,paul1 the ,all-,round ,man #afmo1 cloth1 net #ej;c4 ,the ,master of the ,heart #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,a ,young ,man's ,questions #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,the ,principles of ,jesus ,in ,some ,applications to ,present ,life #afmo1 net #fj;c4 ,christ and ,life ,the ,practice of the ,christian ,life #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj ,studies of the ,man ,paul #afmo1 cloth1 #ge;c4 ,studies of 8,the ,man ,christ ,jesus0 #afmo1 cloth1 #ge;c4 ,remember ,jesus ,christ ,and ,other ,talks ,about ,christ and the ,christian ,life #afmo1 cloth1 #ge;c4 ,the ,deity of ,christ #ahmo1 boards1 net #be;c4 ,the ,merrick ,lectures for #aiaf-ag4 ,delivered at the ,ohio ,wesleyan ,university1 ,delaware1 ,ohio1 ,april #a-e1 #aiag ,the ,stuff of ,manhood ,,some ,,needed ,,notes ,,in ,,american ,,character ,by ,,robert ,e4 ,,speer ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,chicago ,,toronto ,fleming ,h4 ,revell ,company ,,london ,,and ,,edinburgh ,copyright1 #aiag1 by ,,fleming ,h4 ,,revell ,,company ,new ,york3 #aeh ,fifth ,avenue ,chicago3 #ag ,north ,wabash ,ave4 ,toronto3 #be ,richmond ,street1 ,w4 ,london3 #ba ,paternoster ,square ,edinburgh3 #ajj ,princes ,street ,the ,merrick ,lectures ,by the gift of the late ,rev4 ,frederick ,merrick1 ,m4 ,d41 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d41 for fifty-one years a member of the ,faculty1 and for thirteen of those years ,president of ,ohio ,wesleyan ,university1 a fund was established providing an annual income for the purpose of securing lectures within the general field of ,experimental and ,practical ,religion4 ,the following courses have previously been given on this foundation3 ,daniel ,curry1 ,d4 ,d48,christian ,education40 ,president ,james ,mc,cosh1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d48,tests of the ,various ,kinds of ,truth40 ,bishop ,randolph ,s4 ,foster1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d48,the ,philosophy of ,christian ,experience40 ,professor ,james ,stalker1 ,d4 ,d48,the ,preacher and ,his ,models40 ,john ,w4 ,butler1 ,d4 ,d48,mission ,work in ,mexico40 ,professor ,george ,adam ,smith1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d48,christ in the ,old ,testament40 ,bishop ,james ,w4 ,bashford1 ,ph4 ,d41 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d48,the ,science of ,religion40 ,james ,m4 ,buckley1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d48,the ,natural and ,spiritual ,orders and ,their ,relations40 ,john ,r4 ,mott1 ,m4 ,a41 ,f4 ,r4 ,g4 ,s48,the ,pastor and ,modern ,missions40 ,bishop ,elijah ,e4 ,hoss1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d42 ,professor ,doremus ,a4 ,hayes1 ,ph4 ,d41 ,s4 ,t4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d42 ,charles ,e4 ,jefferson1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d42 ,bishop ,william ,f4 ,mc,dowell1 ,d4 ,d41 ,,ll4 ,d42 ,president ,edwin ,h4 ,hughes1 ,d4 ,d48,the ,new ,age and ,its ,creed40 ,robert ,e4 ,speer1 ,m4 ,a48,the ,marks of a ,man1 or ,the ,essentials of ,christian ,character40 ,rev4 ,charles ,stelzle1 ,miss ,jane ,addams1 ,commissioner of ,labor ,charles ,p4 ,neill1 ,ph4 ,d41 ,professor ,graham ,taylor1 and ,rev4 ,george ,p4 ,eckman1 ,d4 ,d48,the ,social ,application of ,religion40 ,rev4 ,george ,jackson1 ,m4 ,a48,some ,old ,testament ,problems40 ,professor ,walter ,rauschenbusch1 ,d4 ,d48,christianizing the ,social ,order40 ,professor ,g4 ,a4 ,johnston ,ross1 ,m4 ,a48,one ,avenue of ,faith40 ,introduction ,the moral elements of individual character are inevitably social4 ,and the social obligation immensely strengthens the sanctions which enjoin them4 ,when a man 8has trained himself10 to use the words of ,lord ,morley in dealing with ,voltaire's religion1 8to look upon every wrong in thought1 every duty omitted from act1 each infringement of the inner spiritual law which humanity is constantly perfecting for its own guidance and advantage 444 as an ungrateful infection1 weakening and corrupting the future of his brothers10 he views each struggle within his own soul against evil and each firm aspiration after purity not as a mere incident in his own spiritual biography but as a fight for social good and for the perfecting of the nation and of humanity4 ,and the struggle for social good and the perfecting of human life is fundamentally a struggle for the triumph of ideals in personal wills4 ,god can take hold of men only in man4 ,he revealed ,himself and wrought redemption less by a social process than by a personal incarnation4 ,and the only way of which we know to uplift the life of the nation and to fit it for its mission and its ministry is to reform our own and other men's characters1 and ourselves to be what manner of man among men we would have the nation be among nations4 ,it is of some of the elements of character of which men stand specially in need to-day that we are to speak in these lectures4 ,what is good in our lives as individuals and in our life as a nation is not in need of discussion here4 ,and there is no nobility in analyzing and deriding our weaknesses4 ,our purpose is to urge our keeping if we have not lost them1 and our regaining if we feel them slipping from us1 some of the elemental moral qualities and spiritual resources which are vital to the capacity for duty and to the living of a full and efficient life4 ,it has seemed best1 on the whole1 to preserve in the printed volume the free colloquialism of the lectures as they were delivered4 ,r4 ,e4 ,s4 ,new ,york4 ,contents ,i4 ,,discipline ,,and ,,austerity #aa ,,ii4 ,,the ,,conservation ,,and ,,release ,,of ,,moral ,,resources #ej ,,iii4 ,,an ,,unfrightened ,,hope #he ,,iv4 ,,the ,,joy ,,of ,,the ,,minority #aah ,v4 ,,the ,,life ,,invisible #afj ,,lecture ,i ,,discipline ,,and ,,austerity ,whether there should be compulsory military training in ,america is a question which some people will answer yes or no according to their general theories and others according to their observation of the actual effects of such training on moral character4 ,but whatever our views may be on this familiar question1 whether we regard military service as ethically helpful in its influence or as morally injurious1 we cannot differ as to the need in our national character of those qualities of self-control1 of quick and unquestioning obedience to duty1 of joyful contempt of hardship1 and of zest in difficult and arduous undertakings which1 rightly or wrongly1 we consider soldierly1 which we attribute in such rich measure to our forefathers1 and which the moral exigencies of our national task to-day as peremptorily demand4 ,to put these primary and elemental needs as sharply as possible1 let us call them discipline and austerity4 ,our ,american character needs more of both4 ,i do not know a better starting point than is found in one of those vivid modern touches upon which we constantly come in the ,old ,testament4 ,this one is in the account of the closing year of ,king ,david's life4 ,the story seems ancient and far away until we suddenly read3 8,his father had not displeased him at any time saying1 ,why hast thou done so80 ,if we were to translate the words more directly into the language of our own day1 we should say1 8,his father had always let him do exactly as he pleased40 ,the reference is to ,david and his son ,adonijah1 and to the want of discipline by which the father had ruined his boy4 ,it is not hard to reconstruct the story4 ,david was busy about his cares as king1 and his heart was indulgent towards his children4 ,adonijah seems to have been his youngest son1 and the father let him have his way1 never reining him up or checking him by asking why he had done thus or so4 ,david pursued1 in other words1 the modern theory of child training3 that the one principle by which children should be educated is the principle of letting what is naturally in them come out2 that they must not be crossed or frustrated1 or have any external discipline or control laid upon their lives4 ,this is1 of course1 the extreme of it1 but in some form we hear the theory and see it applied all about us every day4 ,and it is a modern theory of self-education1 also4 ,we are told that life should be left free to follow its native impulses2 that it should not be thwarted and intimidated by the conventions and prohibitions of society2 that men and women should consult their own hearts and then should move out quite freely in obedience to their promptings2 that their lives and the lives of their children should not be twisted or deflected by the imposition of any external authority or command4 ,well1 that was the way ,adonijah was brought up4 ,his father was rich4 ,the boy had his own establishment1 his own horses1 his own retinue of attendants1 and round about him1 as about any oriental king's son1 there would be the usual crowd of flatterers and sycophants4 ,there was no will or desire that he had not the means to gratify1 and his father let him have his way4 ,further1 he was the younger brother of ,absalom1 and the ancient record says that they were handsome and popular boys4 ,they had a way that carried along those who came in touch with them1 and as the king's sons1 and the leading young men of the city1 we have no difficulty in understanding the atmosphere in which they lived and the conditions within which they grew4 ,it must be confessed that this was the easy way of going about the matter4 ,it is far easier to let a child have its own way than to endeavour by wisdom and patience and strength1 to study and decide what is best for the child and without hurting the child's will1 to guide it into the better way4 ,it was far less care to ,david to let ,absalom and ,adonijah go than it would have been to take these high-strung sons of his in hand and endeavour to break them to discipline and truth1 and to send them out into life real men of power4 ,it was much easier never to call them and to say1 8,boys1 why did you do this80 ,much easier never to lay any authority or guidance upon them from without1 much easier1 especially for a man like ,david4 ,he had grown up on a farm1 with all the hardship and frugality of farm life1 with no privileges as a lad1 and now that he was the king of his nation1 he was able to do anything whatever for his sons4 ,it was difficult to refuse them the things he had never had4 ,easily and indulgentlyfor he was a man of kindly heart all his dayshe found it simpler not to lay hard restraints upon his boys when he could give them their own way4 ,and1 of course1 this is the easier way of self-education too4 ,for a man to love himself so much that he never thinks of his neighbours1 to blind his eyes so completely to consequences that he can live for the passing moment1this is a very easy philosophy1 and the man or the woman who is able to practice it will seem1 for a while1 to live in the sunshine1 a fine butterfly1 smooth-going life4 ,all this is easier than to say1 not1 ,what is my impulse8 but1 ,what ought ,i8 not1 ,what do ,i like8 but1 ,what is best for all the world8 not1 ,what is the easy way8 but1 ,what is the hard way over which the feet go that carry the burdens of mankind1 that bear the load of the world8 ,but1 though it is the easy way for a while1 there comes a time when it is no longer the easy way4 ,when in his little room above the gate the old king bowed his gray head in his hands and with breaking heart sobbed out3 8,o my son ,absalom6 my son1 my son ,absalom6 would ,god ,i had died for thee1 ,o ,absalom1 my son1 my son60it was no longer the easy way4 ,when ,adonijah rose up in insurrection against his old father as he lay on his dying bed1 gathering his little company of sycophants around him and setting himself up in his father's place1 then it was no longer the easy way that the old man had pursued4 ,and to-day still1 fathers and mothers who for a little while thought the easy way was never to ask their children why they had done so1 but to let them go their own way with no imposition of outward authority or control1 find after a while that the easy way has turned bitterly hard4 ,i have a friend1 a leading merchant in one of our large cities4 ,some time ago another friend was visiting him1 and as they walked down the street together1 suddenly a large car whizzed around the corner1 full of young people1 among them the merchant's son4 ,this was the middle of the forenoon and the boy was supposed to be at work in his father's establishment4 ,the father turned to his friend and said3 8,i wish ,i knew how ,i could hold my boy in40 ,but my friend understood why he could not4 ,he knew that only two or three years before the son had been rewarded for passing examinations at college1 examinations that it ought to have been taken for granted that he would pass4 ,but his father thought he should be rewarded for passing them1 and he bought a car and sent it up to him at college4 ,now he wonders why this son does not know how to bind himself to arduous duty4 ,and in our own lives the easy education does not go easily all the way4 ,there comes a time when1 having always indulged ourselves1 we can't break the habit2 when1 never having taken our lives in our hands and reined them to the great ministries of mankind1 we discover that we cannot4 ,we find that we obey our caprices2 follow any impulse2 cannot stick to any task2 do not know a principle when we see it2 have no iron or steel anywhere in our character2 are the riffraff of the world that the worthy men and women have to bear along as they go4 ,in ,mr4 ,kipling's inelegant lines3 8,we was rotten 'fore we startedwe was never disciplined2 ,we made it out a favour if an order was obeyed2 ,yes1 every little drummer 'ad 'is rights and wrongs to mind1 ,so we had to pay for teachin'an' we paid60 ,now ,i suggest that we put all this positively to ourselves1 for every one of us knows that we are treading near some of the moral realities of weakness and need in our day and nation4 ,why should restraint1 obedience1 the authority of duty and ,god be let into our lives8 ,in order that out of all these things self-control may come4 ,and why should there be this submission and control of our lives by duty1 and truth and ,god8 ,well1 the reasons are obvious1 the moment we begin to think about them4 ,there is the indisputable fact that the strongest and best men and women we know are men and women who were trained in this school1 who some time during their life1 and the earlier the better1 passed under the discipline and influence of that chastening spoken about in the twelfth chapter of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 without which we are not children of a clean ,god4 ,all around us are these men and women1 fathers and mothers1 who indulge their sons and daughters1 who never confront them with moral principle and obligation and duty1 and then lament because their children do not seem to have the old iron grasp of duty1 the old rigid love of truth and righteousness4 ,well1 it is all very simple4 ,it is because those fathers and mothers are denying to their children the very education that made themselves what they are4 ,the men and women1 who will not run away from any task1 who stand steadfast in the truth1 upon whose every word we can rest our whole soul1 grew out of a certain discipline1 a certain education1 and it was the kind that ,adonijah did not have4 ,and all men and women who want to be masters of their lives and to have strength to lay beneath the work of the world must ask ,god that such discipline may be given to them4 ,not alone is this the only kind of training that can produce this kind of character1 but unless a man learns control from without1 he will never learn self-control4 ,unless he passes under the discipline of a wiser and stronger hand at the beginning1 he will never come to the time of deliberate and moral self-discipline1 which alone is character4 ,for this only is character1the binding of life beneath the firm sovereignty of the principle that is the heart of ,god4 ,if nations do not realize this they will pay heavily for their failure4 8,make your educational laws strict10 said ,ruskin1 8and your criminal laws may be gentle2 but leave youth its liberty and you will have to dig dungeons for age40 ,and it is this that gives freedom4 ,there is no freedom outside of character4 ,liberty1 as ,montesquieu says1 is not freedom to do just as we please4 ,liberty is the ability to do as we ought4 ,and the freedom that we need is not the freedom of caprice and whim and listening to our impulses4 ,it is the freedom that enables our eyes clearly to see what right is1 and then empowers us to do it4 ,symonds put it in his verse3 8,soul1 rule thyself4 ,on passion1 deed1 desire1 ,lay thou the law of thy deliberate will4 ,stand at thy chosen post1 faith's sentinel4 ,learn to endure4 ,thine the reward ,of those who make living light their ,lord4 ,clad with celestial steel these stand secure1 ,masters1 not slaves40 ,and if such self-control goes as far even as the self-extinction of that voluntarily accepted ,cross1 on the green hill outside ,jerusalem1 even so it will bring victory at the last1 because it has brought one long succession of victories over self all the days4 ,i cut this fugitive bit of verse from a newspaper the other day3 8,pausing a moment ere the day was done1 ,while yet the earth was scintillant with light1 ,i backward glanced4 ,from valley1 plain and height1 ,at intervals1 where my life path had run1 ,rose cross on cross3 and nailed upon each one ,was my dead self4 ,and yet that gruesome sight ,lent sudden splendour to the falling night4 ,showing the conquests that my soul had won4 8,up to the rising stars ,i looked and cried1 ,there is no death6 ,for year on year reborn1 ,i wake to larger life1 to joy more great4 ,so many times have ,i been crucified1 ,so often seen the resurrection morn1 ,i go triumphant1 though new ,calvaries wait40 ,and this freedom and victory are waiting only for those lives that have been broken beneath the cross of an absolute restraint of ,god1 and have so mastered themselves under ,god's name by the help of ,christ that control has been given over in trust into their own hands4 ,and we all know that power is to be won here in this school where men are trained both to feel and to wield dominion4 ,there is no power in the world that is not power cabined1 power held in some way4 ,loose power is imperceptible and utterly useless4 ,the only power we know is power walled in1 shut down1 confined and beating against its barriers and its walls4 ,we know this in the athletic life of our colleges to-day4 ,no athletic trainer in any college ever followed ,david's method with ,adonijah4 ,the trainer is there to say3 8,why did you do it that way80 8,why did you not do it this way8 ,you have no right to waste your energy in that way4 ,you must do it so40 ,there is one scene in ,quo ,vadis that redeems much else in the book4 ,it is the scene in the ,coliseum1 when the giant ,gothic slave is shown saving the life of his mistress1 whom he loved4 ,the great bull has come out with the girl's form tied to his horns1 and there is dead silence as the bull stands angrily facing the man4 ,you remember the picture4 ,as ,ursus lays one hand on each horn of the auroch the struggle begins4 ,there is not a sound4 ,the great multitude watches the man's muscles rise and harden and the sweat come out and drop from every pore4 ,they see his feet sinking down in the arena1 until the sand is above his ankles4 ,suddenly the great head of the bull begins to twist under that awful strength4 ,then the neck breaks and the giant lifts the limp form from the beast's neck and stands with the burden in his hands before the ,emperor4 ,one likes to read such a picture of power secured by self-discipline4 ,do we want to go out limp and beaten and ineffective in our lives against the great mass of work in the world that waits to be done8 ,or do we want to go in the strength of ,him ,who1 having bent beneath ,his ,father's will1 was able to carry on the ,cross the whole burden of human sin8 ,and we must learn in this school the things we value and desire most3 purity and delicacy and refinement of character1 for they cannot be acquired elsewhere4 ,so much social standing nowadays is uttered in terms of self-assertion and indulgence and the ability to have any whim or caprice gratified4 ,this sort of self-assertion1 this caprice1 is regarded by many of us as the highest mark of social authority1 whereas we know it is precisely the opposite1 that it is self-restraint and self-control and self-surrender that mark the finest lives4 ,there is a beautiful story in the life of ,goldwin ,smith that illustrates what ,i mean4 ,in the early sixties1 when he was one of the keenest liberal minds of ,england1 he was associated with ,cobden and ,bright in the ,manchester ,school4 ,again and again he found himself the mark of the bitterest criticism from ,disraeli4 ,later ,goldwin ,smith1 resigning his professorship at ,oxford1 came to ,canada4 ,at that time ,disraeli's novel1 8,lothair10 appeared in which he attacked ,smithof course1 without using his nameas a social parasite4 ,it stung ,smith to the depths of his soul1 but as it was an anonymous book there was nothing he could do but sit down and write this note personally to ,disraeli3 8,you well know that if you had ventured openly to accuse me of any social baseness1 you would have had to answer for your words2 but when sheltering yourself under the literary forms of a work of fiction1 you seek to traduce with impunity the social character of a political opponent1 your expressions can touch no man's honourthey are the stingless insults of a coward40 ,that was all he did4 ,and yet1 at that very moment1 ,goldwin ,smith had in his possession letters of ,disraeli1 with which he could have crushed him4 ,openly in ,parliament ,disraeli had said that he had never asked ,peel for any position4 ,but among ,peel's papers which had been placed in his hands ,smith had a letter in which ,disraeli had abjectly begged ,peel to give him office4 ,all that ,smith needed to do was to publish ,disraeli's own letter to ,peel and it would have ruined ,disraeli's career4 ,but to ,goldwin ,smith that was not a noble thing to do4 ,peel's correspondence had not been given to him to use in self-defense1 or for any personal justification of his own1 and he repressed that letter until ,disraeli was dead4 ,then1 years after1 all of ,peel's correspondence was published and the whole world knew what a gentleman ,goldwin ,smith had been4 ,our modern ideals of what constitutes high social and national standing and character say3 8,fight fire with fire4 ,dishonour releases honour from itself4 ,he struck you foul2 strike him so in return40 ,but the man who had learned self-restraint in the school of ,god's loyalty and truth1 who understood that power is ours1 not to use for self-seeking1 but for the good of men and for ,god's honour1 would not stoop to any such disloyalty and shame4 ,once more4 ,whose judgment is of any value8 ,who would have thought of going to ,adonijah and asking his opinion on anything whatsoever8 ,he did not know right from wrong4 ,he never thought over the issues of right or wrong4 ,what would ,i like to do8 ,what does passion bid me do8 ,what is my whim or caprice for to-night8that was as far as ,adonijah had ever thought4 ,no man would ever go to him1 as no men will ever come to you and me if we have not been trained in the school of moral discrimination1 if we have not looked on ethical principle and duty in deciding the question whether each thing is really right for us and for the whole world4 ,if we are to be men and women to whom people will come for comfort and strength and guidance1 to whom our own children can come with assurance that they will get the truth1 we must be men and women who now place ourselves beneath the firm discipline of ,god4 ,we see all this put simply in two great things4 ,we see it in our ,lord's constant appeal1 while here in the world1 for men and women of fiber and discipline4 ,one came to ,him and said3 8,lord1 what shall ,i do to inherit eternal life80 ,and ,jesus1 looking upon him1 loved him and said3 8,i would not think of counselling anything hard4 ,you must not sacrifice anything4 ,it is all very easy4 ,the ,father above is a ,father of great tenderness and compassion4 ,he would not lay a straw's weight upon any child of ,his4 ,go2 live according to your desires and by the natural impulses of your heart1 and for that you shall have treasure in heaven40 ,oh1 no2 ,he did not say that4 ,he said3 8,go1 sell all that thou hast1 and come and follow me4 ,except ye love less than duty your father and mother and brother and sister1 yea1 and your own life also1 ye cannot enter the kingdom of ,god40 ,we see it1 too1 in ,god's way with men as ,he laid down ,his great laws at the beginning1 when ,his people were but as a race of little children4 ,why did ,he not say to them3 8,this ye may do4 ,the world is sweet and fair4 ,this ye may do1 and all shall be easy to you08 ,why1 on the other hand1 did ,he speak to them in the stern admonitions of the ,decalogue3 8,thou shalt4 ,thou shalt not08 ,god never hesitates to lay ,his great denials upon mankind and at last to stifle us beneath the restraint of death that ,he may issue us forth through that restraint into the infinite liberties of the life immortal4 ,now do not brush all this away to-day1 or any day1 light-heartedly1 as it can be so easily brushed away4 8,oh1 don't shadow our lives10 you will say1 8with your denials and your prohibitions and your restraints4 ,leave life free and sweet as the summer air and the flowers of the field0that last how long8 ,no1 my friends1 it were well for us that we should learn this lesson1 and learn it now1 ere the time comes when the silver cord is loosed and the wheel is broken at the cistern and the grinders cease and the long shadows fall4 ,you remember a tragic incident in ,new ,york a few years ago,i do not need to recall the details of itwhen two young lives made shipwreck of themselves just because they thought that impulse and caprice were the free voices that they might obey4 ,when it was all over1 and the two lives had drawn the veil of night across their short-lived evil joy1 one of the papers published a letter which the girl had written to a friend3 8,my friend10 she wrote1 8you and ,i and ,fred1 young1 heedless1 cynical1 living in this reckless town of ,new ,york1 may laugh sometimes at the old things like law and religion1 when they say1 #8,thou shalt not4' ,we may think that phrase was written for old fogies1 and we may sneer at #8the wages of sin is death'2 but1 my friend1 there comes to us some time knowledge that the law and religion are right4 ,what they say we shall not do1 we cannot do without suffering4 ,fred and ,i have learned that4 ,the wages of sin is death40 ,it is worse than death2 for what was ,hell in that great vision that ,john saw8 ,why1 nothing but the removal of all restraint4 8,he which is filthy1 let him be filthy still40 ,he is unclean1 let him be unclean4 ,he is unholy1 let him be unholy4 ,take all the restraints away4 ,that is ,hell4 ,away from the dark gates that open thither may another voice call us here to-day1 the clear1 strong1 summoning voice of ,him ,who said of ,himself3 8,i came not to do mine own will1 but the will of him that sent me4 ,i do always those things that please my ,father10 and ,who in the garden of ,gethsemane1 when the anguish was almost greater than ,he could bear1 yet found rest when ,he prayed1 8,father1 not my will1 but thine be done02 that out of the willfulness and capriciousness and the whim and mood of our little self-indulgent lives we may pass into the great1 strong1 steadfast1 sovereign will that waits for us2 that we may stand fast and be strong in the strength and chastening of ,god6 ,now ,i have put itthis matter of our need of disciplinein the most personal and individual way1 but it is our great national and corporate need4 ,the body of a nation can only exist through the ordered discipline of its members and the spirit of a nation like the spirit of a man needs to be cleansed of all the lusts of willfulness and self-indulgence4 ,the spirit of our ,american nation needs such cleansing4 ,mr4 ,kipling has drawn us his picture of it3 8,through many roads1 by me possessed1 ,he shambles forth in cosmic guise2 ,he is the ,jester and the ,jest1 ,and he the ,text himself applies4 8,his easy unswept hearth he lends ,from ,labrador to ,guadaloupe2 ,till1 elbowed out by sloven friends1 ,he camps1 at sufferance1 on the stoop4 8,calm-eyed he scoffs at sword and crown1 ,or panic-blinded stabs and slays3 ,blatant he bids the world bow down1 ,or cringing begs a crust of praise2 8,or1 sombre-drunk1 at mine and mart1 ,he dubs his dreary brethren ,kings4 ,his hands are black with bloodhis heart ,leaps1 as a babe's1 at little things4 8,but1 through the shift of mood and mood1 ,mine ancient humour saves him whole ,the cynic devil in his blood ,that bids him mock his hurrying soul2 8,that bids him flout the ,law he makes1 ,that bids him make the ,law he flouts1 ,till1 dazed by many doubts1 he wakes ,the drumming guns thathave no doubts2 8,that checks him foolish-hot and fond1 ,that chuckles through his deepest ire1 ,that gilds the slough of his despond ,but dims the goal of his desire2 8,inopportune1 shrill-accented1 ,the acrid ,asiatic mirth ,that leaves him1 careless 'mid his dead1 ,the scandal of the elder earth40 ,doubtless we do not like this picture4 ,we call it a libel or a caricature4 ,let it be so4 ,draw your own picture4 ,if there is any truth or faithfulness in it1 if it is not blind with national vanity and self-deceit1 it will still be a revelation of national need of discipline and of self-empire4 ,and how can such discipline and self-empire be won8 ,well1 it will not be won on any ground of prudential expediency or practical self-interest4 ,it is well for men and nations to discern their moral shortcomings and to realize their need of a new character4 ,but there are no automatic processes of community salvation4 ,the disciplined nation comes in only one wayby the answers of individuals to the austere call of the one ,person who can remake character and mould the stuff of manhood and nationality4 ,the austere call6 ,this is the nation's need and it is the fundamental summons and the central note of ,christianity4 8,then said ,jesus unto his disciples1 ,if any man will come after me1 let him deny himself1 and take up his cross1 and follow me40 ,the appeal of ,christ was always addressed to the sacrificial and the heroic4 ,in every call which ,he issued to men there is this unmistakable note of austerity4 ,he never smooths things over for the sake of pleasing people or of winning followers4 ,there were times when ,he seemed almost needlessly to draw in these repelling aspects of discipleship1 and to make the conditions of following ,him unnecessarily hard4 ,it is related that it came to pass that1 as they went in the way1 a certain man said unto ,him1 8,lord1 ,i will follow thee whithersoever thou goest40 ,and ,jesus said unto him1 8,foxes have holes1 and birds of the air have nests2 but the ,son of man hath not where to lay his head40 ,and ,he said unto another1 8,follow me40 ,but he said1 8,lord1 suffer me first to go and bury my father40 ,jesus said unto him1 8,let the dead bury their dead2 but go thou and preach the kingdom of ,god40 ,and another also said1 8,lord1 ,i will follow thee2 but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house40 ,and ,jesus said unto him1 8,no man1 having put his hand to the plough1 and looking back1 is fit for the kingdom of ,god40 ,christ never concealed ,his own judgments and convictions as to life's values in these matters1 and spoke with the greatest scorn of all indulgence and softness of life4 8,what went ye out for to see80 ,he asked the people1 regarding ,john4 8,a man clothed in soft raiment8 ,behold1 they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses40 ,he was looking after men of iron and of austerity4 8,if any man will come after me1 let him deny himself1 and take up his cross and follow me40 ,the beautiful thing is that this appeal of ,christ's was not futile4 ,instead of repelling men it drew them4 ,he actually obtained the men whom ,he was hunting for1 not by offering them worldly inducements1 not by making such appeals as anybody but ,christ would have made1 but by addressing the sacrificial spirit in them1 and making an appeal to their latent capacity for heroism4 ,there is a wonderful tribute in ,jesus' method to those characteristics in human nature which have never been destroyed1 which can answer to the highest motives1 which do not need to be bought by any low compensations1 but which spring into full life when appealed to on the most heroic and unselfish plane4 ,we know how1 in consequence1 this exultation in difficulties1 this love of hardship1 this scorn of ease became the characteristic note of early ,christianity4 ,in the best summary description which ,saint ,paul gives of ,christian character and manhood1 in the twelfth chapter of ,romans we find him speaking of 8rejoicing in hope2 patient in tribulation40 ,and when he comes to write his conception of the character of the happy warrior1 we find him setting this in the foreground1 8,endure hardship1 as a good soldier of ,jesus ,christ40 ,the praise of the ,new ,testament is never given to those who have lived in luxurious1 indulgent ease4 ,it is for that little company of men and women who have loved the difficult tasks1 and who with joy trod the rough ways that transcend the stars4 ,every one of the great ,new ,testament leaders is a man who exalts for us this same love of moral hardship1 this same scorn of indulgence and smooth ease1 and this same virtue of steadfastness1 8,and not only so10 says ,paul1 8but we glory in tribulations also3 knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness2 and stedfastness1 experience2 and experience1 hope40 ,and ,peter writes1 8,yea1 and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence1 in your faith supply virtue2 and in your virtue knowledge2 and in your knowledge self-control2 and in your self-control stedfastness2 and in your stedfastness godliness40 ,james joins in1 8,my brethren1 count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations2 knowing this1 that the trying of your faith worketh patience40 ,and you remember the description which ,john gives of himself in ,revelation as 8your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and stedfastness which are in ,jesus40 ,now1 we ask ourselves the question why our ,lord poured out all this scorn on what the world counts the desirable condition and atmosphere of life1 why the ,new ,testament has no patience with self-seeking1 indulgence1 contentment1 or ease as the standard of a human life1 why it speaks contemptuously of smooth ease of every kind1 and exalts1 instead1 the austere life1 the life of strength1 and of self-discipline1 why our ,lord said to men when ,he came to call them into the best thing there was in the world1 8,if any man will come after me1 let him deny himself1 and take up his cross daily1 and follow after me40 ,well1 one reason why the whole ,new ,testament pours out such contempt upon the smooth life and exalts hardness1 is because only hardness can make a great soul1 and the end of the ,gospel1 the end of life1 was the growing of souls4 ,the words of ,socrates1 understood in the social sense which he intended and not selfishly1 contain the central end4 8,for ,i do nothing10 said he1 8but go about persuading you all1 old and young alike1 not to take thought for your persons or your properties1 but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul40 ,it is true1 in a sense1 that we are here for the work we can do1 but it is also true1 in a yet deeper sense1 that we are here to become the best workmen that we can become1 and that the work we do has a large measure of its value in its reflex power of making us capable of doing better work4 ,evidently this is not the real workshop where ,god needs ,his best men and women4 ,when ,he has perfected ,his workmen and workwomen and recognizes that they are prepared to do their best work1 does ,he make use of them here8 ,never4 ,he takes them elsewhere1 where evidently the real work is to be done4 ,everything we see in this world would seem to indicate that it is only the preparatory school1 a place where men and women are equipped for the real thing1 that the career that is to abide lies elsewhere than here4 ,the purpose of these days is to make us ready for the work ,god has for us to do in a larger sphere than this1 where we pass on1 as ,chinese ,gordon told ,mr4 ,huxley1 to have a larger government given to us to administer4 ,god pours out ,his contempt on smoothness of life because it cannot make greatness of soul1 and greatness of soul is one object of our being here4 ,the ,christian ideal despised1 also1 this smoothness which seems to many of us the most desirable thing that life has for us1 because there is such little knowledge given with it4 ,at best it can only play on the very surface of life4 ,we know no more than springs out of the deep experience through which we pass4 ,you remember the lines of ,father ,tabb3 8#8,where wast thou1 little song1 ,that hast delayed so long ,to come to me8' #8,mute in the mind of ,god ,till where thy feet had trod ,i followed thee4'0 ,it is only where we have gone that we know the way2 it is only the experience in life that we have passed through that gives us our true knowledge of life1 because the end of life is its relationships1 and wealth of life depends on the breadth of true knowledge and the riches of true relationship4 ,smoothness of life is simply deadening because it keeps us out of what is real life4 ,and ,christianity derided smoothness of life1 and scorned it1 because it separates us from fellowship with the noble and suffering life of ,god4 ,you know the long controversy in theology as to whether the idea of suffering is compatible with the idea of a perfect ,god4 ,there have been some theologians who insist it could not be possible that ,god should suffer4 ,if ,he could suffer1 ,he could not be ,god4 ,well1 ,i suppose all of us here are prepared without one moment of hesitation to range ourselves on the other side1 and to say that if ,god cannot suffer ,he cannot be our ,god4 ,he could not be a father if ,he did not suffer4 ,christ could not have been the revelation of ,him if ,he is not a suffering ,god2 for 8,he was the man of sorrows1 and acquainted with grief40 ,what ,he laid bare was a heart of love sharing the anguish of others2 for we have not a ,father who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities1,we can say that of ,him because of what we know of ,him who revealed ,him1,we have not a ,father who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities1 no impassive ,god sitting where 8no sound of human sorrow mounts to mar ,his sacred everlasting calm10 but a ,father who pities ,his children1 who enters into their life1 and who loves them with all ,his soul4 ,we can have no knowledge of that ,god1 no fellowship with ,his life1 if what we are living is the smooth1 easy1 indulgent life1 everything bought for us by others1 nothing done by us for others1 no blood of sacrifice colouring our life red with the glow of ,god and ,his incarnate ,son4 ,the ,new ,testament despises the smooth life that makes it impossible for men and women to have any part in the deepest life of their ,father4 ,and the ,new ,testament scorns the smooth1 indulgent life because it cannot connect men and women with the real springs of strength and of power4 ,no strong man was ever made against no resistance4 ,we develop no physical power by putting forth no physical effort4 ,all the strength of life we have we get by pushing against opposition4 ,we acquire power as we draw it out of deep experience and effort4 ,and the new ,christian ideal made no place for indulgence and ease because these things leave men and women weak1 with no strength either themselves to bear or to achieve for others4 ,it is as ,mrs4 ,king puts it in ,ugo ,bassi's 8,sermon in the ,hospital03 8,the ,vine from every living limb bleeds wine2 ,is it the poorer for the spirit shed8 ,the drunkard and the wanton drink thereof2 ,are they the richer for that gift's excess8 ,measure thy life by loss instead of gain2 ,not by the wine drunk1 but the wine poured forth ,for love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice2 ,and whoso suffers most hath most to give4 99 99 99 99 99 ,god said to ,man and ,woman1 #8,by thy sweat1 ,and by thy travail1 thou shalt conquer earth1' ,not1 by thy ease or pleasure3and no good ,or glory of this life but comes by pain4 ,how poor were earth if all its martrydoms1 ,if all its struggling sighs of sacrifice ,were swept away1 and all were satiate-smooth1 ,if this were such a heaven of soul and sense ,as some have dreamed of2and we human still4 ,nay1 we were fashioned not for perfect peace ,in this world1 howsoever in the next3 ,and what we win and hold is through some strife40 ,and it was because our ,lord knew this that ,he set over against men's wills the strait door of the kingdom of life4 ,he did not betray the trust that had been given to ,him4 ,he did not say1 8,come1 ,i will make life easy for you40 ,he did not say1 8,come1 let us indulge ourselves to heart's content40 ,he said1 8,if any man will come after me1 let him leave all that behind1 let him deny himself1 and let him take up his cross daily1 and let him come after me40 ,now1 ,i know what many of us will be saying of all this4 ,we will be saying1 8,god did not bring us into the world with any cross4 ,all our life long has been a sheltered life4 ,none of this hardness of which you speak has ever come to us4 ,maybe our fathers and mothers knew it before us1 but they have shielded us from its pressure4 ,are we to go back to crudeness and asceticism for the good of our souls8 ,are we who have no cross deliberately to take our smooth lives and roughen them80 ,yes1 that is precisely what ,i am saying4 ,those of us who were not born with a cross must find one1 those whose lives have been smooth are deliberately to find ways of roughening them1 so that we may know a life of power and fellowship with the suffering ,god1 and can go out to real work1 and be prepared for that greater life and greater service which await us elsewhere than here4 ,we shall not have any great difficulty in obeying this call of ,christ to roughen our lives4 ,there are many crosses in the world too heavy for the men and women who are trying to carry them4 ,we can go out and find one of these crosses and help to bear it4 ,they are not far away4 ,here is a clipping from the ,new ,york ,sun3 8,a comely young ,hungarian woman with a three-months-old baby in her arms dropped to the sidewalk at ,fifth ,avenue and ,fourteenth ,street late yesterday afternoon and lay half conscious4 ,an ambulance surgeon who came said the woman was starving and that her baby had bronchitis4 8,the woman recovered enough to tell the surgeon that she was ,mrs4 ,mary ,scheinn1 twenty years old1 and that her husband had died recently4 ,she had been living with a friend at #ig ,seigel ,street1 ,brooklyn1 she said1 but this woman also was very poor and expected to be evicted to-day1 so ,mrs4 ,scheinn had walked to ,new ,york to try to get her sick child into a hospital4 ,she tramped from hospital to hospital1 and everywhere they refused to take the child1 she said4 ,but she kept up the quest until she gave out4 ,she had had nothing to eat since yesterday and little then4 8,the ambulance took the woman and child to ,bellevue ,hospital4 ,both are in a rather serious condition40 ,being young and comely1 doubtless1 if she had not had the baby1 some pimp or other ,american citizen1 for a consideration within her power1 might have helped her1 but being innocent and carrying a baby there she stood until she fell down1 on the corner of ,fifth ,avenue and ,fourteenth ,street1 in the heart of the city1 a woman carrying a baby and a cross that were too heavy for her4 ,there were millions of ,christian people round about her4 ,thousands of us never knew what a cross was and we let the woman with her child in her arms fall down under the weight of hers4 ,this world is black with the shadows of crosses4 ,if we have none of our own1 in the name of the great ,cross1 let us borrow one4 ,here is a note from a girl4 ,she is one of thousands and the note is real4 ,i had been speaking in one of the ,new ,york churches and the next day came a letter from her asking me1 if ,i really believed what ,i had said1 to answer some questions for her4 ,i wrote in reply and this was part of her answer3 8,the great trouble with me is that ,i have to fight continually against despondency4 ,life to me is a series of sorrows and troubles1 that accumulate and grow larger1 and just when ,i am at the point of giving up altogether some little word or act deters me4444 ,i know ,i would be happy if ,i were1 as you say1 truly trustful towards ,god1 but ,god to me seems very far off and rather mythical4 ,your letter1 also the fact that you wrote1 was a help to me4 ,the part that perhaps appealed to me most was the idea that ,god and ,god's love are longing for us4 ,it is very fine to feel that when one is always lonesome40 ,i learned more of her story but it is not for telling here4 ,it was a cross too heavy for her which she was trying to bear4 ,women who knew her lifted its weight for her1 taking it over upon themselves4 ,and not only by taking up crosses1 of which the world is full1 can we roughen our lives4 ,many of us can do it by simply cutting off some of our waste and extravagance4 ,there are many of us who never ask before we spend money1 8,how can ,i get the greatest return from this money80 ,we waste it like water1 while ,belgium1 ,serbia1 ,poland and ,armenia call4 ,it is said that there are thirty million people in ,india who have only one meal a day1 and who never know what it is to have enough to eat4 ,some of them say that if they could have enough to eat for just two days1 they would be willing to lie down and die content4 ,again and again1 hundreds of thousands of people in ,china have been the victims of famine1 while we were throwing wealth away4 ,we can roughen life a bit by denying ourselves1 by abridging expenditure and devoting the money to human need and to some of the services the world is dying for4 ,students often reject the ethical and economic arguments against gambling4 ,these arguments are valid but it is very hard to get a clutch for them on many minds4 ,you can point out how dishonourable and essentially immoral it is for a man to have money which he did not earn1 for which he gave no equivalent1 which came to him as no expression of friendship or by no legitimate inheritance4 ,all this is clear to the healthy and manly moral sense4 ,but the gambler does not have such a sense4 ,i have often wondered that the case is not more frequently put from the other side1 from the side of the wrong of spending money in gambling4 ,when a man has won on a bet the moral question is lulled but when he has lost there is a chastened mood which can be invited to reflect4 ,what moral warrant did he have for throwing his money away8 ,what does he have to show for it8 ,a million hungry hands were outstretched to him1 a world of want and suffering called towards him over land and sea8 ,and he threw his money awaygot nothing for it1 did nothing with it4 ,in a world like ours1 there are parched lips waiting for drink2 there are hungry mouths in need of bread3do we have any right to waste in indulgence in a world like this8 ,men should scrutinize every dollar that passes through their hands and ask1 8,what is the very best thing that ,i can do with this80 ,and frugality1 self-imposed for the sake of service1 will come back to us in rich reward in character and power4 ,horace ,bushnell drew a noble picture of the fruitage of true parsimony in his address at the ,litchfield ,county ,centennial in #ahea1 on 8,the ,age of ,homespun03 8,it was also a great point1 in this homespun mode of life1 that it imparted exactly what many speak of only with contempt1 a closely girded habit of economy4 ,harnessed1 all together1 into the producing process1 young and old1 male and female1 from the boy that rode the plow-horse1 to the grandmother knitting under her spectacles1 they had no conception of squandering lightly what they all had been at work1 thread by thread1 and grain by grain1 to produce4 ,they knew too exactly what everything cost1 even small things1 not to husband them carefully4 ,men of patrimony in the great world1 therefore1 noticing their small way in trade1 or expenditure1 are ready1 as we often see1 to charge them with meannesssimply because they knew things only in the small2 or1 what is not far different1 because they were too simple and rustic to have any conception of the big operations by which other men are wont to get their money without earning it1 and lavish the more freely because it was not earned4 ,still1 this knowing life only in the small1 it will be found1 is really anything but meanness4 8,probably enough the man who is heard threshing in his barn of a winter evening1 by the light of a lantern1 7,i knew such an example7 will be seen driving his team next day1 the coldest day of the year1 through the deep snow to a distant wood-lot to draw a load for a present to his minister4 ,so the housewife that higgles for a half hour with the merchant over some small trade is yet one that will keep watch1 not unlikely1 when the schoolmaster1 boarding round the district1 comes to some hard quarter1 and commence asking him to dinner1 then to tea1 then to stay over night1 and literally boarding him1 till the hard quarter is passed4 ,who now1 in the great world of money1 will do1 not to say the same1 as much1 proportionally as much1 in any of the pure hospitalities of life8 8,besides1 what sufficiently disproves any real meanness1 it will be found that children brought up1 in this way1 to know things in the smallwhat they cost and what is their valuehave1 in just that fact1 one of the best securities of character and most certain elements of power and success in life2 because they expect to get on by small advances followed up and saved by others1 not by sudden leaps of fortune that despise the slow but surer methods of industry and merit4 ,when the hard1 wiry-looking patriarch of homespun1 for example1 sets off for ,hartford1 or ,bridgeport1 to exchange the little surplus of his year's production1 carrying his provision with him and the fodder for his team1 and taking his boy along to show him the great world1 you may laugh at the simplicity1 or pity1 if you will1 the sordid look of the picture2 but1 five or ten years hence1 this boy will probably enough be found in college1 digging out the cent's worths of his father's money in hard study2 and some twenty years later he will be returning1 in his honours1 as the celebrated ,judge1 or ,governor1 or ,senator and public orator1 from some one of the great states of the republic1 to bless the sight once more of that venerated pair who shaped his beginnings1 and planted the small seeds of his future success4 ,small seeds1 you may have thought1 of meanness2 but now they have grown up and blossomed into a large-minded life1 a generous public devotion1 and a free benevolence to mankind4 8,and just here1 ,i am persuaded1 is the secret1 in no small degree1 of the very peculiar success that has distinguished the sons of ,connecticut1 and1 not least1 those of ,litchfield ,county1 in their migration to other states4 ,it is because they have gone out in the wise economy of a simple1 homespun training1 expecting to get on in the world by merit and patience1 and by a careful husbanding of small advances2 secured in their virtue by just that which makes their perseverance successful4 ,for the men who see the great in the small1 and go on to build the great by small increments1 and so form a character of integrity before ,god and men1 as solid and massive as the outward successes they conquer4 ,the great men who think to be great in general1 having yet nothing great in particular1 are a much more windy affair40 ,every one ought to roughen life by friendships that will bring into it those influences which are not naturally in our daily associations and will carry us into contact with men and women who struggle harder than we do4 ,a few such friendships will help to keep life from petrification and to make us aware that the world is under a cross1 and that our hearts must be as open to all its needs as the heart of the ,father of human life is open always4 ,and we can help to roughen our lives in the very sense in which ,christ meant them to be roughened if we will resist the steadily increasing tendency of our day to multiply ways in which we are released from doing things for ourselves4 ,there are none of us who do not have a hundred things done for us that our fathers and mothers had to do for themselves4 ,little by little1 we are ridding ourselves of the responsibility of doing any service for ourselves whatsoever4 ,there is immense gain in this4 ,it gives freedom for larger living but it can go too far1 and it would be a great thing if we resolved at periods that we would not let anybody else do for us what we could do for ourselves4 ,there was a day1 perhaps1 when men needed the other rule1 when it was a great deal better to get other people to do things for us than to do them ourselves1 but the time has come when the world needs to reverse that principle4 ,what the world wants is not organizers1 but deorganizers1 men and women who will increase the number of personal services and activities1 and who will bring something frugal1 simple and elementary back into life to deliver us from the false heaven of ease and self-indulgence1 which is as bad as any other kind of hell4 ,christ came to save us from that4 ,there is one other way in which we can answer this call1 and can deliver ourselves from the curse of smooth living4 ,around about us on every side there are causes waiting for what men and women can do for them4 ,i do not mean crosses in any great1 general1 organized sense1 in which we send our five1 our twenty-five or our hundred dollars to some society and think we have1 in that way1 carried all the cross that ,christ means to have us carry4 ,we cannot fulfill ,christ's command by paying an organization to carry a cross for us4 ,all the work they do must be done1 and it must be supported4 ,millions of dollars that are not being given now ought to be given4 ,but what ,christ is waiting for also and what we have got to do if we are to have the satisfaction of the enduring life is to find each of us for himself some true cross of personal service4 ,there are men and women around us who are waiting for some touch of sympathy1 some kindness1 some unflinching word of ours to them that shall mean the awakening of their own discouraged or sleeping souls1 that they may come out to live4 8,if any man will come after me1 let him deny himself1 and take up his cross and follow me40 ,one of the saddest things in the world to-day is the principle under which those are living who are unwilling to bear these crosses and to bring home into their lives the wholesome spiritual stimulus that this roughening of life alone can give to them4 ,we have reacted too far from the old monastic idea4 ,men speak with scorn now of those men and women who went away into monasteries and convents1 despising the joys of the world for the sake of their souls4 ,but these men and women were infinitely better than the great multitudes who go out into the world to-day1 despising their souls for the sake of the joys of the world4 ,if a man or woman wants to do any despising it is better to despise the world than the soul4 ,it were well for us to go back a little to the spirit of the medival time4 ,when that spirit was pure and good the world's richest service flowed out from it4 ,the glory of life for us consists in finding the rough1 the morally austere things in life and then fearlessly and unhesitatingly doing them4 ,there is no splendour in the easy indulgent way4 ,the splendour lies in finding the hard thing to be achieved and revelling in it4 ,many years ago ,i clipped this story from the editorials of what was then our ablest newspaper3 8,a young ,briton named ,felix ,oswald became interested a while ago in the geology of ,turkish ,armenia4 ,he made long journeys through that country and finally came home with an important amount of valuable new material4 ,it was not matter1 however1 that would find favour in the eyes of the general publisher and ,mr4 ,oswald had to undertake its publication himself4 ,he had the type set at the lowest rates in a small town4 ,there were #eaf pages of print and the author undertook the large task of doing the printing himself4 ,he hired a hand press and after weeks of hard work he had produced #aja copies of the book4 ,feeling certain that this edition would fill the demand he went about the next large job1 which was the hand colouring of all his maps and profiles4 ,then the copies were bound and the book was out4 8,leading geologists say that the work is one of the best of its kind4 ,the small edition is exhausted and the book will not be reprinted4 ,the editor of ,petermann's ,mitteilungen1 believing that a wide circle of geologists would be glad to have the important results of ,oswald's investigations1 has just printed in his periodical an extended rsum of them together with some of the maps4 ,the ,university of ,london has crowned the work with its approval by conferring the degree of ,doctor of ,science upon the author4 ,oswald has certainly earned the congratulations of all who admire the qualities of courage1 perseverance and intelligent devotion to a special task40 ,a man does not have to go to ,armenia to find the hard thing to do1 although there are harder and nobler tasks waiting there to-day than ,oswald undertook1 tasks that are crosses in the divinest sense1 scarred with sorrow and grief4 ,and perhaps there are some among us here now who are bearing crosses and finding them beyond their strength4 ,but they are not to be mourned over4 ,they were not of our making1 were they8 ,if they were of our making1 perhaps there is some penitence to be felt1 some restitution to be made4 ,if they were not of our making1 we may be sure that they were built just for our shoulder1 that ,one who knew us made them that we might carry them1 and become under them what we could never become without them4 ,and if we have no such cross1 out from our smooth and easy living1 our cozy shelters in which we have been kept and are kept now1 ,one is calling us to come whose ancient word we hear to-day3 8,i came not to send peace1 but a sword4 ,whosoever would be my disciple must love nothing as much as me1 and must be willing to rise up and follow me40 ,for men and women who will do this in the full and joyous spirit of ,francis of ,assisi but in the forms suitable to our modern life the summons of ,god and the world is clear4 ,,lecture ,,ii ,,the ,,conservation ,,and ,,release ,,of ,,moral ,,resources ,one of our most familiar national ideas during recent years has been the conservation of our natural resources1 our mines1 our forests1 our water power1 the agricultural capacities of our soil4 ,it would have been a good thing if this idea had occurred to us fifty years earlier4 ,but it is an idea which always comes late to a young nation4 ,so long as the population is sparse and the supply of good land unlimited and it is an easy thing to pick up a living from the surface of the ground1 perhaps it is too much to expect that any people would be careful and frugal4 ,but when the population has increased and begins to press against the means of subsistence1 when the good public lands are exhausted and a mere living becomes harder for the masses of the people to secure1 then any nation awakens to wisdom and turns from recklessness and prodigality4 ,and1 doubtless1 the idea would have occurred to us a full generation earlier if it had not been for the terrible education of our ,civil ,war4 ,there is a great deal to be set down on the good side of the account of the ,civil ,war4 ,it took the putty of our national character and burned it into stone4 ,it ran steel fibres through our national life4 ,and it brought us for the first time to a sense of national unity4 ,but alas there is a great deal also on the ledger's other page4 ,for war is not conservation1 it is destruction4 ,it educates any people not in frugality but in wastefulness4 ,military supplies must be bought at once at any cost4 ,everything is thrown away with a negligent and wasteful hand4 ,and so long as any people is pouring out its best possession1 the precious life-blood of its sons1 like water on the battle-field1 you cannot expect it to be saving and careful in its material possessions4 ,the days of waste that followed the ,civil ,war are gone forever4 ,the nation has begun now to count carefully the amount of its available wealth4 ,we have seen calculations of how many millions of feet of lumber we have standing in our forests and how many millions of tons of coal we have still hid away in our treasure houses underground4 ,and far and wide over the nation now we are learning to husband the resources we have left1 mindful of our children who are to come after us4 ,and it is a good thing that the nation in conserving her resources realizes that there is something more important than a careful husbanding of her mere material wealth4 ,the vital resources of any people are of more significance to her than clods of coal1 or timber on her hillsides4 ,of what use would it be to conserve the material resources of any nation if we conserve them only for a deteriorating racial stock8 ,the nation has come to realize that the men and women who compose it are its largest wealth1 and that this treasure must be guarded more sacredly than our mines1 our forests1 or our water power4 ,we have seen1 accordingly1 a whole new body of legislation growing up1 that would have made our fathers stand aghast1 fixing the conditions of employment1 the age of employees1 the sanitary condition of homes and mills1 the hours of work and the care of women4 ,the expenditure of immense sums for the protection of the life and health of factory labourers is now readily recognized even by 8soul-less corporations10 which formerly fought against all such outlay1 as money well invested4 ,in all the nation to-day we realize that there is a more precious wealth than our material wealth4 ,i saw an interesting illustration of this new frame of mind a little while ago in a statement issued by some leading men in ,tennessee dealing with the excessive death rate among the negroes of the ,south4 ,they pointed out that among nine millions of white people the death rate is #afj1jjj1 and that among the nine millions of the negroes the death rate is #bff1jjj4 ,in other words1 among the negroes1 #ajf1jjj more people die every year than among a corresponding number of the whites of our country4 ,in the negro1 these men argued1 the ,south had an invaluable asset1 a better type of labour on the whole1 with all its drawbacks1 than any other section of the nation possessed1 more docile1 more faithful1 less troublesome1 and the ,south could not afford to lose this labour which it needed for developing its wealth4 ,these men estimated the economic value of each one of these lives at #cej a year1 and the period of that economic value at ten years1 so that each one of these wasted lives was a loss of #c1ejj to the ,south1 or #cga1jjj1jjj each year1 one million dollars a day1 and they argued that the ,south could not afford such a waste4 ,the ,south1 they held1 must see that the death rate among the negro is reduced to the same proportions as the death rate among the white people1 in order that such an enormous economic loss might be averted4 ,we are realizing all over the nation now that a man is a very costly product4 ,you can breed an animal in a few months for the market1 but it takes twenty years to grow a man1 and no nation can afford to throw away such costly products as men and women4 ,these are its most priceless wealth4 ,if it expects to conserve its treasures and to be prepared for the services of the days to come1 it is bound to guard this wealth more sacredly than any other4 ,and ,american capital and industry have come to see this clearly4 ,here is one typical utterance by a leading engineer at a meeting of the ,immigration ,committee of the ,chamber of ,commerce of the ,united ,states3 8,industrial ,americanization is a part of the prevalent present-day movement towards the humanizing of industry4 ,it aims to make what is commonly called #8welfare work' not an exercise of the individual employer's #8paternalism1' but a legitimate kind of business organization everywhere4 ,there are now innumerable kinds of #8welfare work4' ,one employer does it from the point of view of #8good business'2 another on the #8big brothers' theory4 ,one man confines himself to playgrounds1 another to safety appliances4 ,in one firm it is under the employment manager2 in another under a ,y4 ,m4 ,c4 ,a4 director2 and in a number of other firms it is classified in as many different ways4 8,there is no agreement among ,american employers as to where the organization of the human side of industry really belongs4 ,and there are absolutely no standards for it4 ,what we need to do is to extend scientific methods to the human phases of industrial organization1 and thus give #8welfare work' a definite place and definite standards4 ,the engineer as the #8consulting mind' of industry must be the leader in this work4 ,it is he who determines the site of the plant and its construction4 ,inside the plant again1 the engineer has much to do with efficiency methods4 ,no efficiency methods that are unrelated to the men in the plant can prosper permanently40 ,but there is another sort of resource and national treasure greater by far than these1 which most of the nations are passing by4 ,i mean the latent and undeveloped capacities for ministry and achievement which lie dormant inside human life4 ,every life is a reservoir of unawakened possibilities4 ,there is no one of us that is more than a fraction of the man he should be4 ,there is not one who is not falling short by a wide margin of the ideals that he ought to attain1 not one who is making the contribution to the nation or building the share in the ,kingdom of ,god that ,god and mankind alike have a right to expect of him4 ,not long before his death1 an article contributed by ,prof4 ,william ,james1 of ,harvard1 appeared in the ,american ,magazine1 entitled 8,the ,powers of ,man10 in which ,professor ,james argued that mankind is living on a very small fraction of its vitality1 and that there are buried underground strata of possibilities and of power which are never tapped except in times of great emergency4 ,for a little time then a man draws on these reserves1 and then seals the strata over again and falls back on the surface levels once more4 ,for illustration he spoke of the familiar phenomenon of the second wind4 ,every boy can remember such experiences4 ,there came a time in the game when he was 8all in40 ,he had done his best and drawn on his last available power4 ,suddenly it was as though something broke4 ,a partition wall fell in4 ,unsuspected reserves were released4 ,the second wind came and reservoirs of power that had been withheld came unexpectedly into play and he did better than he had done before1 what he had never been able to do before4 ,that is an absolute truth of experience all through life4 ,in our great crises1 any one of many forces may unlock these energies and let them loose4 ,and the present needed appeal of the world is to men and women that they should not be content to draw upon these reservoirs in crises alone4 ,the tragic crises come because these powers are not drawn forth and used4 ,the great wealth of the nations and of the world that needs now to be unsealed is just this wealth of moral capacity lying latent and dormant within4 ,what ,i have been saying is certainly true in the realm of our physical energies4 ,i remember a story of ,john ,lawrence1 who went out to ,india a raw1 uninfluential ,irish boy in the service of the ,east ,india ,company1 resolved to do his work well and make himself a name4 ,very early in his career he was assigned to the collectorship of the ,jullundur ,doab1 on what was then the frontier of ,india4 ,he made himself perfectly at home among his people1 entering into their life1 mastering their vernaculars1 learning their secrets1 until at last men came to think of 8,jans ,larens0 as a demi-god with powers beyond the knowledge of common men4 ,one day as he was sitting in his house a messenger came in from one of his districts and reported that a village was burning down and begged him to come4 ,he hurried out to the village4 ,when he arrived he asked the headmen if they had all the people out of the houses and was told that all had been brought out except one old woman who refused to come4 ,he went to the house where the woman lived and looked in4 ,there she sat on a bag of grain4 ,lawrence entreated her to come out but she refused1 explaining that this bag of grain was all her earthly wealth4 ,if she came out she would starve2 she would rather stay and be burned4 ,when ,lawrence found his commands and entreaties unavailing1 he rushed in1 with the embers from the burning roof falling on his shoulders1 stooped over and picked up the bag of grain1 and left the burning building1 the old woman following obediently behind4 ,the next day as he was sitting in his house it flashed on his mind that the bag of grain had been exceedingly heavy and he rode out curiously to the village again to see how much he had lifted4 ,he had no difficulty in finding the old woman and her bag of grain4 ,he stooped over to lift it but could not budge it from the ground4 ,but the day before he had budged it4 ,he had picked it up and carried it4 ,the power to do it was lying latent in him all the while4 ,all he needed was just the piercing call or inspiration adequate to release the buried energy4 ,and the world is full of evidences that what is true physically is true morally4 ,in every man lies the power with the grace and help of ,god to meet his great crisis and in every woman the power to bear the agony and pain of her great hour4 ,only a few years ago1 when the ,titanic went down and some men who had walked as dogs at the heel of their passions suddenly became masters of themselves and laughing stood at attention to death as they waited on the deck1 we all wondered what it was that gave these men who had been slaves their sudden moral mastery4 ,that mastery was within all the time4 ,it did not come out of the frame of the ,titanic4 ,it did not come out of the iceberg4 ,it was lying buried all the while only waiting the hour and the ,voice that was to summon it to come forth4 ,among the nations to-day this is the needed truth as it is the needed truth here in our own lives4 ,there are boys here to-day who have been yielding to temptation1 to whom ,god would give energies to withstand their enemy4 ,in the nation there are even now capacities to conquer all the evils with which the nation abounds4 ,some day our children will look back and ask why we have allowed immorality to dominate the moral life of the land and why in the world we have endured the saloon so long4 ,these things will be cleaned away some day and men will wonder then what their mothers and fathers were about that they surrendered where that happier generation will not surrender but will achieve4 ,the needed capacities are buried of ,god in life1 but we are not willing to believe that they are there or to have faith in ,him to energize them4 ,let me put the truth in yet a different way4 ,last spring1 just after ,holy ,week1 ,i received a very interesting letter from a friend who is one of the best known and best loved judges in our country4 ,it was written on the ,saturday between ,good ,friday and ,easter ,day1 and he said in it that he was pursuing the practice which he had pursued for many years1 of trying in the interval between ,good ,friday and ,easter morning to eliminate ,jesus ,christ entirely from his thought of life and of the world in order that he might thus bring home to his own mind and conscience more deeply the significance of ,jesus1 and he said he could hardly wait for ,easter morning to come to escape from the oppressive gloom and depression in which his spirit was as a result of his enforced practice4 ,and he begged me1 as one of his friends1 to try this between the next ,good ,friday and ,easter ,day and to see what the experience would mean4 ,oddly enough my own thoughts that same day on which my friend was writing this letter were exactly the opposite of his4 ,he was thinking of ,jesus ,christ as extinguished1 he was thinking of all that ,he had come to be and to do as gone1 and he was trying to bring home to his own heart what this utter loss of ,christ would mean4 ,i was meditating1 on the other hand1 on that ,saturday morning1 on just the contrary idea4 ,on ,good ,friday1 the day before this ,saturday1 there had been a great ,personality2 now that ,personality must be somewhere still4 ,personality does not die4 ,the next day1 on ,easter morning1 there was to be a great outburst of energy4 ,that energy must be somewhere now4 ,it will not be created to-morrow morning4 ,it must be somewhere to-day waiting to come forth to-morrow4 ,where is it8 ,and then ,i suddenly realized that it was all there1 that all that was to break loose ,easter morning was shut up inside that grave1 that all the energies that were to peal across the world on the new day were there asleep in that tomb that ,saturday4 ,all the great love and power that had been had not been annihilated4 ,it was there somewhere1 only out of sight for a little while4 ,and the great truth urged itself that all the dormant energies of life1 all the enshrouded and enfolded powers are here now and always just as truly as they will be to-morrow when they awake1 though for the hour they lie latent and unused4 ,then ,i began to see1 as one's thought ran easily on1 that that ,saturday between ,good ,friday and ,easter ,day was in reality a sort of symbol of the whole of history4 ,for history1 as we look back upon it1 is full of these repressions and these emergences1 and then perhaps repressions again1 of great impulses and outbursts of energy and of power4 ,now and then they are for good1 as when the ,reformation broke across men's minds1 shattering their shackles1 opening old prison doors1 allowing the enslaved human spirit to come out and breathe the air of freedom4 ,but why had it not come before8 ,all the great energies of ,god that burst forth in it must have been here even before that hour4 ,and why did they have to subside afterwards8 ,they all were still8 ,why might they not have gone beating their way onward and not have ceased so soon8 ,then also great explosions of evil come4 ,we look out across the world to-day and see all these dogs of war unleashed4 ,but these dogs of war were not born the year before last4 ,they had been here all the time1 only they were chained and held in leash4 ,why were they not kept chained and in leash8 ,why were they allowed to break loose and go wild across the world in their havoc and devastation8 ,we know perfectly well that after a few months they are going to be chained again1 and the great reconstructive processes will begin to make the world anew4 ,but why do these reconstructive forces have to wait8 ,they will not exist any more truly then than they do to-day4 ,why not release them to-day to go out and do their creative work in the world now8 ,why not on ,saturday let loose that which is to burst with creative freedom on the world on ,easter morning8 ,and ,i saw that this was a symbol not of history only but also of human life1 that every human life is just the mystery of the infolding of latent capacities that are there wrapped up1 the infolding of great ends of which no man can foretell4 ,that is why1 ,i suppose1 a man feels such awe every time he holds a very little child in his arms4 ,he does not know what it is that he has in his arms1 what it is that will some day come bursting forth from that little child4 ,that must have been ,mary's thrill in those early days when she held her little one1 knowing dimly and far away1 if not clearly1 that she held in her arms the mighty ,redeemer of men4 8,when ,i see a child10 said ,pasteur1 8he inspires me with two feelings3 tenderness for what he is now1 respect for what he may become hereafter40 ,of personal life it is as true as of history4 ,vast latent possibilities for good may come breaking forth4 ,now and then they do1 in some truth-loving1 unfearing1 plain-speaking1 ,god-obeying ,martin ,luther4 ,or they may issue in some tranquil1 patient1 loving-hearted1 steady-spirited1 immovable ,lincoln4 ,goodness comes leaping forth1 and oftentimes we are tempted to think the surroundings1 the circumstances1 produced it4 ,they produced none of it4 ,they gave it its opportunity and its chance1 but it was all somewhere all the time and it might not have come forth if something inside had not released the spring of our will to ,god's will and let those great energies of good come pulsing out to do their work4 ,and the same thing is true of the inwrought and enshrouded capacities for ill4 ,jesus ,christ laid off ,his limitations as well as ,his activities that ,saturday in the grave2 and ,he left ,his limitations there when ,he came out4 ,out of such ,saturday graves in man's character it may be only the limitations that emerge4 ,out of many a man's life it is the dog that ought to be chained that is allowed to roam free1 while all the possibilities for good and sacrifice and ministry are still-born inside4 ,and sometimes1 thank ,god1 men discover all this latent ill within and lay on it the restraining and throttling hand4 ,as godly old ,john ,newton said when one day he saw a criminal being led by1 8,there1 but for the grace of ,god1 goes ,john ,newton40 ,he knew that everything that had escaped in that brother of his lay latent in himself1 and he thanked ,god that a hand had been laid on all those inner capacities for evil and wreckage and that that hand held them in check and let only the good and the true and the pure go free4 ,there is something infinitely hopeful and encouraging in the principle of that ,saturday in our ,lord's last week for every man and woman of us1 as we think of life's work and what we are trying to get done in the world4 ,so many times a thing seems all vain4 ,the teacher tried to breed in the boy whom he taught a hate of lies and a love of the truth1 and he wrought with tears and blood at his task1 and the boy went out from him and it seemed to him to have been futile1 this that he had done for him4 ,we put ourselves out in this or that effort of service in the hope of achieving this or that great end4 ,every little while it seems to us to have been all fruitless4 ,but wait4 ,it is only ,saturday4 ,easter morning is going to break and the seed that was sown in the ground in darkness and obscurity will come forth then4 ,the life that was let go for a little while1 all that we did not see and therefore thought had run sheer to waste1 we shall discover then will come pulsating back4 8,no effort is wasted10 said ,pasteur4 ,it is a great joy of life to believe this1 that what ,isaiah said is true through all the ages1 by the very principle of the life of ,god1 that no word of ,his will come back to ,him vain or be void1 that it will accomplish the thing ,he pleases and prosper in the errand whereon ,he sent it4 ,i received a letter the other day from a friend1 the ,rev4 ,adolphus ,pieters1 who is a missionary in ,japan4 ,he had for very many years been engaged in an interesting work4 ,he published advertisements of ,christianity in the ,japanese papers1 and then occasionally printed a brief attractive account of what ,christianity was1 with the hope of arousing the curiosity of ,japanese readers4 ,at the end he would add that if any one were interested he might correspond with him4 ,as a result of this work he came into correspondence with hundreds of men4 ,in this recent letter he writes3 8,the total number of people who applied to us for tracts last year was #iei1 making the total from ,february1 #aiad1 when the work began1 to ,december #ca1 #aiae1 #c1eij4 ,there have been seven baptisms since my previous letter1 and the total number to date is forty-five4 ,number ,forty-,five is a most instructive case of the ,lord's blessing resting upon what was1 humanly speaking1 a complete failure4 ,the young man in question is a bright young student in the ,normal ,school at this place1 who was baptized a week ago last ,sunday1 after coming to my house off and on for two years1 and getting a good deal of instruction4 ,i did not reckon him among the results of the newspaper work1 but after he was baptized he told me that he originally got interested in the ,gospel when he was attending the primary school in his home town4 ,among his teachers was one named ,okabe ,katsumi1 who had seen our advertisements and secured some tracts1 among which were copies of the ,gospels4 ,he did not care for them himself1 and had given them to this boy1 who was deeply impressed4 ,in the course of time the boy graduated from school and went to ,oita to attend the ,normal1 and he did so with the resolution already formed to look up the man who advertised in the papers and learn from him more about the ,christian religion4 8,when ,i heard that1 ,i looked up the card index1 and found among the #d #8dead' cards one for ,okabe ,katsumi4 ,it was number #ddd1 and he had applied for tracts in the spring of #aiab1 but in ,august he wrote that he had found something in our tracts that he did not like1 and so had made up his mind to have nothing more to do with ,christianity4 ,so his card was marked in red ink1 #8,closed ,august #ab1 #aiac1' and filed away among the #8dead' onesa complete failure1 so far as any one could see4 ,but it wasn't a failure4 ,god knew better4 ,on the fifth of ,march1 #aiaf1 a young man made public confession of his faith and was baptized as a sequel to that application of ,okabe ,katsumi in #aiab4 8,such things sometimes make me look with something like awe upon my card index4 ,what is going on beneath the surface8 ,how is ,god working in the hearts of the #8failures1' or1 if not in their hearts1 through them in the hearts of others8 ,it is one more proof that #8the foundation of ,god standeth sure1 having this seal1 ,the ,lord knoweth them that are his4'0 ,looking back across the years it could be seen that bread sown upon the waters returned again4 ,absolutely no energy goes to waste in this world1no moral energy1 no spiritual energy1 any more than physical energy4 ,all that is released goes about its work4 ,let us thank ,god1 that there that ,saturday morning in the dark of the grave all that broke free the next day was1 and was not dead beyond the resurrection of life4 ,and the assurance that a man simply cannot do anything in vain is not only a word of great courage to us in the work that we are trying to do in the world1 it is a word of hope and courage to us also in our own personal life and struggle for character4 ,all the energy we need to accomplish anything that ought to be accomplished in us is in our reach4 8,all power10 said ,christ1 8is given to me in heaven and in earth4 ,i stand within at the centre of your life4 ,draw on me4 ,go out in the faith of that and do whatever your work is in the world4 ,i have the energy that you need40 ,all the energy that we require for any task in life or out of life is there1 by token and assurance of the closed grave and resurrection1 in ,christ1 waiting to be drawn upon by any man who wants to make use of it4 ,and all this is not the exaltation of human will1 the setting up of a man's own resolution and high purpose4 ,it is precisely the opposite of that4 ,it is saying to a man3 8,there do not lie in the boastful surface of your life the power and the resources that you need4 ,retire upon ,god4 ,you must get behind into the unplumbed depths where ,christ waits4 ,you must go back of the ,easter morning in the grave1 the unopened womb of the grave1 to find it there4 ,all of it is there in the now ,risen ,christ ,who that ,saturday morning awaited resurrection40 ,this is simply making faith a living1 acting reality by which a man works2 so that he arises in the morning and can say3 8,o ,god1 ,i have in ,thee in me all the energy and strength that ,i shall need this day4 ,no temptation can come to me to-day that ,i have not got the power in ,thee1 that ,i never have used yet1 to draw upon1 that will enable me to meet and conquer4 ,no work will come to me to-day that is too much for me1 no matter how exacting or unprecedented in my experience4 ,there is power in ,thee for me for this work that is come to me to do40 ,that ,saturday morning1 more vividly than any other day that brings back the triumph and pain and glory of ,easter to us1 makes a man assured that all the energies he needs are near by1 that in ,god's own presence there are all the powers he wants1 awaiting release by ,god's grace for all the necessities of his life4 ,and if we could not believe this about the world we are living in to-day1 surely a man could not go on living in it4 ,if we had to surrender to the present order and temper of the world what would be left to uphold us8 ,it is because we know it is ,saturday night in human history that we can live through it4 ,we know that as in individuals so in all the races of mankind1 ,god has planted these great dormant energies and powers4 ,for scores and scores of years the ,chinese had despaired of their power to throw off the opium curse4 ,they knew it was sapping the very vitality of their land1 and yet they wondered whether the day would ever come when they would have power enough to break those hateful chains that had been forged upon them1 and get back their freedom4 ,twenty years ago1 as we went to and fro in ,china1 the most striking odour in the ,chinese streets was the pungent stench of smoking opium4 ,one could scarcely go into a ,chinese city or walk in a ,chinese highway without seeing the wretched shipwrecks who were the products of that vice4 ,poppy fields bloomed red over the ,empire1 and the race had almost come to despair4 ,and what do we find to-day8 ,there is scarcely a great poppy field in the ,republic1 scarcely a fume of opium that you can smell on the public street in any ,chinese city4 ,the bonfires flared across the land as they burned up the signs of the old bondage4 ,a great race arose in power and in a massive moral upheaval shook itself free4 ,god had planted the energies there that needed only the touch of a living faith in ,him1 a new assurance of the freedom of man to do ,his will1 and in this matter the whole nation came out of its bondage into its liberty4 ,for generations men wondered whether slaves could ever be set free4 ,we almost feared in our land here that slavery was a permanent institution4 ,but there came a time at last when from the wrist of every ,american slave the chains fell away4 ,it might have been generations before2 it might not have been until generations after2 only in that time appointed the moral energies awoke and came forth1 and ,saturday burst into ,easter ,day for the negro bondmen of ,america4 ,precisely the same principle holds with regard to the things that we fight to-day4 ,it holds with regard to the war on war4 ,some day we shall slay it4 ,the kingdom of heaven1 said ,jesus1 is among you4 ,well1 let it loose4 ,the kingdom of heaven will have no war in it2 the kingdom of heaven will have no brothers cutting one another's throats in it2 the kingdom of heaven will have in it no vice and lust dragging its slimy trail across men's hearths and hearts4 ,if the kingdom of heaven is within1 why not set it free1 that we may live in it as well as have it buried inside of us6 ,the world that we are living in is calling us to go back to that principle of ,saturday morning and to believe that all we need to do the will of ,god is made available for us by ,god's grace now1 if we will but obey4 ,and if some men say that all this is only to put in other words the theory of development1 of historic evolution1 why1 what of it8 ,of course it is1 but what is development except the drawing out of what has been folded in8 ,what is evolution except the letting loose of what the mind of ,god ,himself at the beginning had planted within1when in the ,lamb slain from the foundation of the world ,he poured the blood of ,christ into humanity in order that humanity might be reinforced with the adequate energies to enable it to accomplish the thing that was ,god's first dream for it8 ,of course it is1 and that is precisely the ground of ,christ's constant appeal4 8,come unto me10 ,he said to men1 believing that they could4 8,unless you hear ,my call and follow ,me1 you cannot be ,my disciple40 ,what meaning was there to ,his summons unless the power to respond was there in answer to ,his call8 8,i stand at the door of your inner being10 said ,he1 8and knock4 ,i am there waiting40 ,and so to us to-day1 just as clearly as in those days1 ,his voice speaks3 8,come out of your tomb1 out of your chains1 out of your narrowness1 out of your limitations1 out of your despairs1 out of your dejections1 out of your failures1come out of them4 ,the power of the endless life is here for you1 if only by faith and love you will lay hold of it to-day40 ,is that not1 after all1 the great central message and the fundamental principle of ,christ's ,gospel to us1 which ,he symbolized and illustrated in the shadow of the ,saturday before the ,easter victory8 ,it is in one of the old hymns3 8,low in the grave ,he lay ,jesus1 my ,saviour6 ,waiting the coming day ,jesus1 my ,lord6 ,death cannot keep his prey ,jesus1 my ,saviour6 ,he tore the bars away ,jesus1 my ,lord6 ,up from the grave ,he arose1 ,with a mighty triumph o'er ,his foes2 ,he arose a victor from the dark domain1 ,and ,he lives forever with ,his saints to reign3 ,he arose6 ,he arose6 ,hallelujah6 ,christ arose60 ,and ,he arose once on ,easter morning that on the ,saturday before and on every day1 every one of us might also rise out of the old1 low1 selfish1 defeated life into the life through which are beating the victorious energies and the sufficient strength of ,god4 ,shall it be so with us8 8,rigid ,i lie in a winding sheet1 ,which mine own hands did weave1 ,and my narrow cell is myselfmyself1 ,which yet ,i may not cleave4 8,and yet in the dawn of the early morn1 ,a clear voice seems to say1 #8,i am the ,lord of the final word1 ,and ye may not say ,me nay4 8#8,unloose your hands that your brother's need ,may ever find them free4 ,unbind your feet from their winding sheet2 ,henceforth they walk with ,me4' 8,and lo6 ,i hear6 ,i am blind no more6 ,i am no longer dumb6 ,out from the doom of a self-wrought tomb1 ,pulsate with life1 ,i come40 ,yes1 ,i may come if ,i will1 by ,his life ,who will live again in me4 ,but the trouble is men do not believe this4 ,they do not believe in any latent capacities adequate to the great task of life4 ,they accept the principle of surrender and incompetence4 ,they have nothing for ,god and ,god can make no use of them4 ,and ,i imagine that it is such unbelief1 such misgiving as to whether after all we have any possibilities for ,god in us1 the undervaluation of ,god's need of us and power to make and use us1 that lead many of us to live the futile1 unfruitful1 negative lives which we do live4 ,men do not think their lives worth very much4 ,they do not deny that there are great men and that great work is to be done in the world1 but they think that ,god requires only those1 that ,he builds ,his kingdom on a few outstanding figures1 that the common men can look after themselves1 and that they are not indispensable to ,god4 ,if we are to prevent this waste1 and if we are to secure the life without which ,god is impotent to build ,his kingdom in the world1 we must somehow bring home to men the recognition of the great truth that ,god cannot get along without every man and all of that man1 and that every human life and all its buried powers are essential to ,god4 ,one of the great purposes of our ,lord's coming here to earth was that ,he might show men the value of a man's life in the plan and thought of ,god4 ,even the most sacred and time-honoured institution our ,lord weighed over against one man and found him outweighing the institution4 ,what was ,his own example but the illustration of the immeasurable value of man8 ,he did not come to teach the uselessness of human life1 but its pricelessness4 ,he did this by becoming a man ,himself4 ,and this principle of ,god's need of men and their latent possibilities is not mere theological theory4 ,it is the hard historic fact that ,god has ever needed men and waited for them and for what they were the men to do for ,him4 ,look at the great inventions1 discoveries1 achievements4 ,what is the whole lesson of the ,incarnation but that there are things that ,god ,himself will not do except as ,he uses man8 ,god ,himself1 we must say reverently1 was communicable and a ,saviour only as man4 ,and ,his call to-day as it has been all through the years is for men who will believe that the thing ,god wants done can be done by ,him through them4 ,the ,western ,hemisphere was here before ever ,columbus drew aside the veil and broadened the horizon of mankind4 ,these great energies which drive the modern world were here from the beginning4 ,we did not invent any of them4 ,there is not an ounce of power in the world to-day that was not here when the world began4 ,all that man has done has been simply to discover existing secrets4 ,he has created no power4 ,he has only found out what ,god has put here for him to find out4 ,it took man a long time to discover this4 ,but ,god waited for him4 ,and ,god needs these finding men now as much as ,he has needed them at any time4 ,he needs such men now to break open what is still concealed4 ,the past has not exhausted all the heroisms1 has not accomplished all the tasks4 ,there are greater ones yet for the days that are1 if ,god can only find ,his men4 ,think how greatly ,god needs men to-day just to bring need and supply together in the world4 ,you remember the incident in the life of our ,lord as ,he came by the ,pool of ,bethesda where the sick lay1 and spoke to one poor man lying on his pallet4 8,are you going in80 said ,he4 8,no10 said the man4 8,i have no friend who will help me in and others get the benefit before ,i can come near40 ,there was the good1 waiting to be gained1 and here was the man1 but he had no man to stand for him between the need and the supply4 ,a few years ago a great famine raged just back from the coast of ,china4 ,there were millions of ,chinese families who were in want and hundreds of thousands died of starvation because there was not bread enough to feed them4 ,little children lay crying at the breasts of dead mothers by the roadsides4 ,at that very hour the wheat was piled up at railroad stations in ,argentina as high as church spires4 ,there was grain enough to feed the starving millions in ,china4 ,here was the supply and there was the need1 but where were the men8 ,god had not men enough on whom to float the supply across to meet the need4 ,what is true of outward need is true of inward need as well4 ,there is never a want where there is not an adequate supply4 ,no little child on this earth need go hungry because ,god has not put enough in this world to feed it4 ,no human heart need go starved because there is not enough love to meet its wants4 ,there is all the food and all the love that humanity needs4 ,but there are lacking the men who for ,god will bring the supply to the demand4 ,the human need in the world can be met by the supply only through men who will fill up the gap4 ,god can do it only as men lend themselves to ,him4 ,that is why1 through all the years1 the call of ,god has been for volunteers4 ,for every unique1 external1 individual call that has been given to men1 you can find a million calls that have been just the answer of men to the great call of ,god for volunteers4 ,and ,god surely values the volunteer above the conscript4 ,isaiah did not wait for any special coercive call4 8,also ,i heard the voice of the ,lord1 saying1 ,whom shall ,i send1 and who will go for us8 ,then said ,i1 ,here am ,i2 send me40 ,that call was enough to cover him1 and he answered it4 ,there is so much work to be done that ,god cannot go marching through the world looking for individuals1 performing new miracles by which each individual is to be thaumaturgically led up to his particular work4 ,god's general way has been to picture before the eyes of ,his sons the work to be done and to wait for their hearts to leap in response1 as ,isaiah's leaped3 8,lord1 let me have a share in this work #8,here am ,i2 send me4'0 ,men are indispensable to ,god to put meaning into the words in which ,he tries to tell ,his message to men4 ,words have no meaning of their own4 ,words mean only as much as one man puts into them1 or another man takes out of them4 ,the meaning of the word does not come from the word2 it comes from some life in which the word gets incarnated1 or from some other life which interprets the word4 ,what would the word 8friend0 signify to a man who had never had one8 ,what does 8tenderness0 mean to one who has never seen a mother and her child8 ,or what is 8patriotism0 to one who has never seen or felt the contagion8 ,you remember what the eunuch said when ,philip met him in the chariot reading the prophet ,esaias4 8,understandest thou what thou readest80 ,philip asked4 ,and he replied1 8,how can ,i1 except some man should guide me80 ,things mean nothing to men until they are shown to them4 ,men go to ,china or ,japan and preach the ,gospel4 ,how is it done8 ,why1 they take words that have old meanings and fill them with new and different meanings by living new ideas in deeds before the people4 ,in our colleges this year what meaning will honour1 truth and friendship have1 except as these words derive their meaning from the object lessons in some men's lives8 ,there are places where honour means dishonour2 where purity means impurity2 where truth means falsehood4 ,these noble words are confused with their very opposites because no man has incarnated their right meaning in his life4 ,that was one reason why the incarnation was necessary nineteen hundred years ago4 ,there was no adequate religious or spiritual vocabulary and never could have been otherwise4 ,if ,god had not come in the flesh1 men would not have had the ideas that we use to describe ,god's coming in the flesh4 ,to-day1 as then1 ,god is dependent upon men in whom ,he can put meaning into ,his message to the world4 ,men are indispensable in enabling ,god to get ,his other men4 ,he gives men guidance for their lives4 ,but how8 ,i appeal to your own hearts4 ,how do we get the guidance of our lives8 ,there are many who are sure of having divine guidance in their lives1 surer of that than they are of any material thing1 and yet1 as we look back upon this supernatural guidance1 we realize that it has all been mediated through men4 ,we can name man after man who did for our lives1 in smaller measure1 just what that man of ,macedonia did for ,paul4 ,we get our guidance through men4 ,saint ,paul got his through a man4 ,through what man was it8 ,sir ,william ,ramsay has no doubt whatever that the man whom ,saint ,paul saw in his dreams was none other than his friend ,luke4 ,a real man and a friend1 and no ghost figure1 was the man of ,macedonia through whom ,god gave ,paul his great missionary call4 ,it would be easy to recall the lives of great missionaries and point out how they received their divine guidance through other mennot even through a dream1 far less through some miraculous vision1 but through a brother man who came to talk with them1 reasoned with them1 and showed them the best way in which a man could use his life4 ,men are indispensable to ,god in order to guide other men into the work which ,god has for them to do4 ,and one reason why there is such an awful waste of life to-day1 why so many men1 going out of the colleges1 miss the highest work of their lives1 is simply because there are not enough other men who recognize that they are indispensable to ,god in order that1 through them1 ,god may guide men to their highest and most efficient places4 ,men are indispensable to ,god in bringing men to ,jesus ,christ4 ,as men were brought to ,christ by other men in the beginning1 so has it been during all the succeeding years4 ,the angels are willing to do what they can1 but none of us have had any visible object lessons of what they do4 ,men have been brought to ,christ always by other men4 ,imperfect lives are to be brought up to the ,perfect ,life1 and to do this service ,christ uses common men1 just such as we are4 ,that is what ,paul conceived as the glory of his life1 that he had the privilege of being the bondno other beings in the universe being able to take that placebetween men who had not found ,christ and ,christ hunting for ,his own4 ,then ,god requires men now as ,he never required them in all the days gone by to bear testimony to the ,deity of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we know how little value our ,lord attached to any accrediting evidences that did not come right out of pure1 human personality4 ,he discredited the advantages of bringing back ,abraham from the dead1 for example1 to bear testimony to the truth4 ,if men were not willing to accept adequate moral evidence1 valid human testimony1 they would not believe by miracle1 ,he said4 ,that is why ,he was so pleased with the confession of ,simon ,peter4 8,blessed art thou1 ,simon ,bar-jona2 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee1 but my ,father which is in heaven40 ,it rejoiced ,him to get such testimony from a man who1 in turn1 had drawn it out of his own experience of ,god4 ,there is no greater need in the world to-day than for a great body of men who know ,christ to be ,god more surely than they know themselves to be men1 and are able to go out and testify to what ,christ can do with a definiteness and certainty greater than that of any other testimony they can bear1 who can say what ,john said1 8,that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you40 ,if there ever was a day when ,god was calling men to a great undertaking1 ,he is calling them now to be ,his witnesses1 unimpeachable1 unflinching1 to the unique personality1 to the supreme divine character and power of our ,god and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ4 ,and it is not only for great men that ,god is calling to do these indispensable tasks for ,him4 ,he wants the great men1 no doubt1 but ,he wants1 more than that1 the great mass of the common men4 ,after all1 the great man is only one man1 and every little man counts just as many as one great man4 ,since ,god has to have all1 one little man is as indispensable to the all as one great man can be4 ,and until ,he has all1 ,he cannot do what ,he purposes to do4 ,it is only when we all come 8unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of ,christ0 that any one of us can come4 ,it is only when we 8comprehend with all saints1 what is the breadth1 and length1 and depth1 and height0 of the love of ,christ1 that any one of us can comprehend it4 ,it is only when we all reflect as in a mirror the character of ,christ that any one of us shall be 8changed 444 from glory to glory1 even as by the ,spirit of the ,lord40 ,and the little men1 as a matter of fact1 are doing as much as the great4 ,the night that ,gough stood alone1 with all hope gone1 a drunkard in the gutter1 an almost forgotten man laid his hand on his shoulder and said1 8,man1 there is a better life than this for you40 ,the name of that man is remembered by a few1 but forgotten by the multitudes who will never forget the name of ,john ,b4 ,gough1 or cease to feel the glow of the fires which he kindled to blaze until the ,judgment ,day4 ,even a little man may fill such an indispensable place as that of helping ,god lay hold of a great man who will be one of the unmistakable forces of ,god4 ,and it is not only every man that is indispensable to ,god1 but also every bit of every man4 ,we cannot take some sections of our lives and eliminate them as though they were not indispensable to ,god4 ,there can be no schism between a man's public and his private life4 ,his hands and what he does with them1 his imaginings and where they go when he is alone by himself without any coercing1 these are just as much indispensable to ,god as a man's public worship or any of his activities in the open ministry of ,christ's kingdom4 ,it is every bit of the manbody1 soul1 and spiritthat is indispensable to ,god4 ,and if we are indispensable to ,god1 we may be very sure that we are indispensable to the world also4 ,if ,god needs us1 the world needs us even more4 ,it is waiting for the rising up of men who know that ,god needs them1 and who hand themselves over completely to ,his uses4 8,the mightiest of civilizing agencies are persons10 said ,dr4 ,fairbairn1 8and the mightiest civilizing persons are ,christian men40 ,those men are doing most for the world who are doing most to make men aware of how necessary they are to ,god1 and who are going up and down the lands allying men's lives to the eternal life and power of ,god4 ,this is the greatest of all worksgetting ,god ,his men4 ,i heard ,dr4 ,j4 ,campbell ,gibson tell the ,chamber of ,commerce in ,glasgow of a visit which he made to a temple which had been turned into a modern school in inland ,china4 ,over the gate of the school were these words in ,chinese3 8,if you are planting for ten years1 plant trees2 if you are planting for a hundred years1 plant men40 ,men are ,god's great interest and want4 ,what an opportunity this opens for every man of us6 ,we have thought of our lives as little1 insignificant1 trivial1 of no consequence4 ,there is ,one walking in the midst of us ,who was speaking to ,ezekiel4 8,i am hunting for a man10 ,he is saying1 8,i am hunting for a man10 and it is open to every one of us to rise up and say1 8,lord1 ,i am that man you are hunting for4 ,seek no further4 ,here am ,i4 ,have me for your man40 ,is that the answer that ,he is getting from us8 ,,lecture ,,iii ,,an ,,unfrightened ,,hope ,if we were asked what we considered to be the supremest motive in life1 the motive which does actually exercise the largest control over human conduct1 what would our answer be8 ,a generation ago men would have answered glibly enough3 8,the desire for happiness40 ,that was then supposed to be the one commanding motive of mankind4 ,but it was not long before the answer seemed unsatisfactory and indefinite1 because what brings happiness to one man brings misery to another1 or what a man thinks will delight him in the end disappoints and such experiences issue in confusion4 ,it was ethically indiscriminate also4 ,the same motive covered moral contradictions1 and men wanted some more consistent answer to the question4 ,nowadays those who look despondently at life often say in reply3 8,avarice1the desire for wealth40 ,or1 those who look a little more deeply say it is not money1 but the power that money represents that men desire1 and that their real motive is to acquire sources of influence and control4 ,some who look at life more hopefully are likely to reply3 8,love or friendship40 ,that is the thesis of one of the noblest books of our generation1 written by the late ,dr4 ,henry ,clay ,trumbull1 entitled 8,friendship1 the ,master ,passion40 ,doctor ,trumbull told me once that when he first began the work on this theme he spoke about it to his friend ,charles ,dudley ,warner1 who said3 8,trumbull1 you cannot prove that thesis40 ,after the book was done1 ,doctor ,trumbull took the book to him and asked if he would read it4 ,he read it1 gave it back1 saying3 8,well1 ,trumbull1 you have shown that it is true1 after all40 ,and that is a lovely view to take of life3 that the motive that lies deeper than any other1 and that really in the actual conduct of men and women is the most controlling1 is the motive of unselfish friendship1 of love4 ,but what would you say if instead of any one of these three or other answers that may suggest themselves1 some one were to reply3 8,not a bit of it4 ,the motive that really controls human life1 that does actually and not theoretically play the largest part in determining the conduct of men and women1 isfear40 ,and before we pass that contention by it may be worth our while to look at it and ask whether1 or how far1 it is true4 ,take it in the matter of dress1 for example4 ,does not fear play a large part there1either the fear of being unlike everybody else1 or the fear of being too much like everybody else8 ,in every land1 more even in civilized lands than in uncivilized1 the element of fear enters into the small external characteristics of our daily living4 ,and in the matter of opinion4 ,we speak of public opinion as though it were a free and stable and trustworthy thing4 ,but the public opinion of one generation contradicts the public opinion of another generation4 ,the public opinion of one section of the land denies the public opinion of another section1 in the same way in which two sections of society in one community think in opposite ways4 ,why8 ,not because all the individuals of these particular generations1 or sections1 or portions of the community really and independently have thought the thing out for themselves1 but because1 held under the atmospheric constraint of fear1 they are unwilling to break away from what is determined for them by the opinions in the midst of which they live4 ,there is a good deal of pacifist opinion and a great deal more of militarist which is not free and personal at all1 but simply herd intimidation4 ,and a great deal of race prejudice and international suspicion is nothing but the miasma arising from cowardice or that bullying selfishness which is essentially cowardly4 ,and a great deal of religion is of the same character4 ,the predominant element in many of the non-,christian religions is fear4 ,it is so in all of the earlier or animistic religions1 where men live in constant terror of the spirits that haunt the air or the world1 and where a large element of their worship is shaped by that dominant principle of their religion1 the dread of the unseen and the unexperienced4 ,even among us is there not a great deal1 both of religious orthodoxy and of religious heresy1 that is only the child of fear8 ,there is a coercion of sound doctrine and there is a coercion of false doctrine1 and a great many men and women belong to their school of religious opinion simply because they are afraid to break away from the companionship in which they have always been or to disagree with the associations which condition them4 ,much religious conduct1 too1 springs only from the fear of one's environment4 ,one of the saddest things which one meets in going out across the world is the great multitude1 especially of young men1 who1 when they have left ,christian lands and the environment and support of ,christian surroundings1 have simply collapsed in all their religious conviction and character4 ,asia is strewn from one end of it to the other with the wrecks of men who1 while they were at home1 supposedly were men of religious character and conviction1 but who showed when they went away from home that it was not a matter of their own real selves at all4 ,it was just a matter of their timid servility and acceptance of the conditions imposed upon them from without1 so that once they were away from home and free to do as they pleased and had no longer the help and uplift of their surroundings1 their environmental religion collapsed and they went in an entirely different way4 ,and ,i think if only we would go deep enough in our own lives1 and be honest enough with ourselves to gain a clear insight into our motives and impulses1 we would discover how large a part fear has played in us1fear1 of course1 in all the wide range of its aspects1 that shades off on the one side into arrant cowardice and on the other side into a mere hesitancy of character and timidity1 but fear nevertheless4 ,some of us are even now cloaking the things that lie deepest in our hearts1 because we are afraid to give expression to them4 ,we go into communities1 into circles1 into conditions where what has been natural and real to us is unnatural and abnormal1 and we hide our colours and conceal our principles4 ,and we do things we ought not to do or we do not do the thing we know we ought to do simply because of fear4 ,i had an experience a little while ago when this diagnosis was confirmed to me4 ,in a visit to one of our colleges1 among the boys who came around to talk quietly was one whom ,i knew as one of the leading men in the life of the institution4 ,he played on the eleven2 he was president of his class4 ,he was very timid about talking lest somebody should overhear1 but when assured that we had the whole house to ourselves he took a letter out of his pocket and handed it to me4 ,he said3 8,mr4 ,speer1 ,i wish you would read this40 ,i looked at it and saw that it was written in a girl's handwriting1 and said3 8,no1 tell me about it40 8,no10 he said1 8please read it4 ,it will tell you a great deal better than ,i can40 ,so ,i opened his letter and began to read1 substantially as follows3 8,,dear 3 8,i know all about your life at ,college1 and ,i want to tell you what ,i think about you4 ,you and ,i have known one another all our lives1 and we have been good friends2 but ,i think you are a coward and ,i think that ,i ought to tell you so40 ,i closed his letter and handed it back to him4 ,his lips were quivering and his eyes were moist as he said3 8,you can believe that when ,i got that letter it cut me all up1 and the worst of it is that what she says is true40 ,his father was a minister2 his mother was of the salt of the earth4 ,he had grown up under the best influences of a clean and wholesome ,christian home1 and he had slipped those strings4 ,he had thought that it was manly to surrender to the current ideals of the college2 that in cutting loose from the influence of his home he was doing a brave and courageous thing4 ,but the girl knew he was doing it because he was a coward and she had the courage to tell him so4 ,and he had come to see it in that light for himself4 ,in his college fraternity and in his own class1 men were praising him because he had broken from the old enslavements of home and was living his own life like a man4 ,but he knew that he was nothing but a coward1 who 8,held that hope was all a lie ,and faith a form of bigotry ,and love a snare that caught him4 ,then thought to comfort human tears ,with sundry ill-considered sneers ,at things his mother taught him40 ,and he had thought he was doing it because he was courageous1 whereas the real motive was that of fear4 ,he was a coward1 without courage enough to fly his own flag unflinchingly1 to be and do the thing which in his heart1 in the very fibres of his being1 flesh of his mother's flesh1 he knew was the thing he should be and do4 ,and if we would really look into our lives we should discover that fear plays a far larger part with us than we ever dreamed4 ,men and women lie4 ,why8 ,simply because they are afraid of telling the truth and taking the consequences4 ,nine out of every ten falsehoodsperhaps ninety-nine out of every hundredare the spawn of fear4 ,and the same thing is true of sin1 and of no small measure of unbelief1 as well as of no small measure of pretended belief4 ,our great need is the discovering of something that will cast fear out of our lives1 that will enable us to walk unafraid in the open sunlight of ,his pathway ,who bade men to be afraid of nothing4 ,think how greatly we need this emancipation from fear in the simple matter of loyalty to principle4 ,there is so much of expediency and compromise and adaptation among us1 so great reluctance to ruffle the smooth conventionalities of life1 whereas what the world needs is men and women who can see right principle as principle1 unconfused and undistorted1 and then who1 unafraid1 will abide in that right principle4 ,how greatly1 too1 this is needed in the plain1 commonplace matter of duty-doing6 ,all around us much simple work waits to be done by men and women who1 first of all1 can see it1 and then have the courage to do it4 ,the obscure tasks that1 after all1 are the really great and worthy ones1 how few there are to do them6 ,there is a fine passage in ,morley's essay on ,rousseau in which he describes what real history is1 and how much we make of history that really is not history at all1 but simply the spectacular doings of men who for the time being were deemed great and who usually were engaged in war1 whereas the great bulk of life was not the life of warfare at all4 ,it was the life of peace1of the quiet agricultural people1 of the tradespeople1 of the homes1 which is not written up in any history at all1that was the real history of the world4 ,the men and the women who were doing earth's work were not those who went out to battle or on great expeditions1 but those who1 day by day1 heroically1 unflinchingly1 and without fear of oblivion1 did the real business of the world4 ,there are some familiar lines of ,lowell's in 8,under the ,old ,elm0 that put the principle for us3 8,the longer on this earth we live ,and weigh the various qualities of men1 ,seeing how most are fugitive1 ,or fitful gifts1 at best1 of now and then1 ,wind-wavered1 corpse-lights1 daughters of the fen1 ,the more we feel the high stern-featured beauty ,of plain devotedness to duty1 steadfast and still1 ,not fed with mortal praise1 ,but finding amplest recompense ,for life's ungarlanded expense ,in work done squarely and unwasted days40 ,and take this matter of ,christian service that lies before the thought of every earnest young life4 ,why are so many of us going to be1 in the cities and homes from which we came1 the same useless driftwood that we have been8 ,why8 ,simply because of our want of courage to face the work that needs to be done there1 and to undertake that work without fear that we cannot do it1 without fear that ,god will desert us in attempting to do it1 without fear of the irregularity and uniqueness of our being seen engaged in it4 ,throughout the world ,christ waits for men and women to-day1 as ,he waited for themand so often in vainwhile ,he was here on earth4 ,who will hear ,his call now8 8,lay aside your fear and trust ,me to be with you and to enable you to do the thing4 ,come and take up ,my task after ,me40 ,some of us would dread to go out to live among the ,chinese or ,mohammedan peoples1 so far away4 ,but we would not dread going out to live in the legation1 nor would we dread it much if we were to be employed in some great commercial enterprise4 ,yet the geography would be precisely the same1 and our dangers and friendlessness would be far greater4 ,but we would not fear all that1 because others would think it natural and appropriate for us4 ,but this other thingthe missionary callwould be so exceptional1 so unusual1 so fantastic1 even fanatical1 that we would fear to do any such dreadful thing6 ,but which life of us is worth mentioning in the same breath with the life of ,god's ,son ,who came into a carpenter's home in a wretched little ,jewish village amid an outcast race1 in a bare remote corner of the earth1 and lived there among peasant folk and farmers1 pent up in the charnel house of humanity1 and ,who was willing to count ,his equality with ,god not a prize jealously to be retained1 ,who emptied ,himself and took on ,him the form of a servant and became obedient unto death1 even the death of the ,cross8 ,the contrast between our life1 with all its privileges1 to-day and the most squalid ,african village is invisible over against the contrast between what ,christ laid down and what ,christ took up for the love ,he bore us and ,his world4 ,and we need greatly this fearlessness in our confession of ,him1that1 without concealing ,whom we follow and ,whose servants we are1 we should go out now1 openly to avow our discipleship and the vow we have taken of loyalty to our ,lord ,jesus ,christ6 ,think how many betrayals of ,him there have been1 and how much of putting afresh to shame the ,son of ,god and crucifying ,him anew by men and women who had said they were going to follow ,him faithfully1 just as ,simon said he was resolved to do on that very night in which before the cock crew he denied his ,lord4 ,shall we not go out into the coming days with something in us that casts out this fear8 ,we look with longing and admiration upon such deliverance from fear when we find it in other lives4 ,i was in ,edinburgh during the ,south ,african war1 just after the battle of ,maegersfontein1 and was staying in the house of friends4 ,there was one little boy in the family named after ,prof4 ,henry ,drummond4 ,i had been in the library all the afternoon1 the very room in which ,sir ,james ,simpson discovered chloroform1 and then had gone into the drawing-room for afternoon tea4 ,the boy and his governess were the only other members of the household who came down4 ,he and ,i fell to talking about the war4 ,i asked him3 8,what do you think about the war in ,south ,africa80 8,well10 he said1 8,i did not think much about it at the beginning2 ,i did not think about it much until a friend of mine was killed40 8,yes10 ,i said1 8who was the friend80 8,general ,wauchope40 ,he was1 as you know1 the commander of the ,black ,watch1 and the ,black ,watch had been recruited from ,edinburgh4 ,the boy told me about the regiment and its fate1 and shortly after his story was filled up by an ,oxford man who had been in ,edinburgh when the tidings of the battle came4 ,he said every shop was closed1 and along the streets little knots of men were gathered1 and you could see the sobbing of strong men everywhere4 ,there was scarcely a great family in ,edinburgh that had not been touched4 ,and yet1 at the same time1 all through the city there was a subdued sense of moral elevation1 as though something had lifted the character and temper of the city4 ,they sorrowed in what had gone out from them2 but they rejoiced in the way that it had gone4 ,that regiment had been organized as a ,scotch kirk4 ,the chaplain was the minister of the kirk4 ,the officers constituted the kirk's session4 ,i believe almost every man in the regiment was a member of the kirk1 and ,i was told that as they went down through the streets of ,cork to embark for ,south ,africa1 although not under orders or restraint1 the men walked with arms on one another's shoulders1 singing3 8,i'm not ashamed to own my ,lord1 ,or to defend ,his cause1 ,maintain the honour of ,his ,word1 ,the glory of ,his laws40 ,and when they were disembarked at ,cape ,town and were taking their train to go to the front1 they went on board singing the old ,gospel soldier's hymn3 8,when the roll is called up yonder1 ,i'll be there40 ,they were sent right up and almost at once into that fateful battle4 ,general ,wauchope knew somebody had blundered1 and he said to the men3 8,men1 do not blame me for this40 ,and without any fear they went into the ending from which no soldier such as they would draw back1 unafraid of anything that might come to them because unashamed to own their ,lord and unfearing to follow ,him4 ,of such as those are we to be8 ,or will temptation intimidate us1 and the tone of the conversation of the men and women with whom we mingle pull us down and cause us to fold our colours up and lay them away1 as the man did whom the sneer of a serving maid caused to deny the ,lord ,who was dying for him8 ,where are we to find that which will drive out this fear8 8,perfect love casteth out fear4444 ,he that feareth is not made perfect in love40 ,from how many of our hearts to-day will the perfect love of ,him ,whom we call ,master and ,lord expel all fear8 ,let it be so now4 ,not years afterwards1 when other things shall have palled upon us1 years that shall have brought their dulling influence with them1 but now1 in all the full strength and richness and glory and eagerness of our lives1 let us admit the perfect love that shall cast out fear and send us out the kind of men and women ,christ would have us be1 to join the great company of men and women and girls and boys who1 unfearing1 8444 climbed the steep ascent of ,heaven1 ,through peril1 toil and pain4 ,o ,god1 to us may grace be given ,to follow in their train60 ,christian character needs this conquest of fear and it needs the love which is one of the deep springs of such conquest4 ,it needs also in our day an immensely more practical use of the principle of hope1 a principle almost totally neglected in theology and made nothing of in our codes of conduct or in our creeds4 ,paul had a far deeper insight into the human heart and a vastly richer grasp on life4 8,now abideth faith1 hope1 love1 these three10 said he4 ,paul rendered a large service when he condensed the central ideals and principles of ,christianity in this way4 ,the human mind is very fond of formulas4 ,if it had not been for some authoritative1 simplifying word like this1 we might have gone on to construct all sorts of prescriptions like the threes and sixes and tens and fifteens with which we are so familiar in ,buddhism4 ,and yet the service which ,paul rendered is not without its dangers1 for men are prone to simplify further and to see whether the three cannot be reduced to one1 or to arrange the order and proportions of the three1 or to contend alone for that which some one of them signifies at the expense of the other two4 ,paul's own words should have saved us from such folly1 for he said quite clearly that one of these three was the greatest1 8,and now abideth faith1 hope1 love1 these three2 and the greatest of these is love40 ,and yet his own doctrine elsewhere has been used to correct and to counteract his expressed judgment here1 and through the years we have had our theologies constructed in disregard of the domination of that one of these three principles which ,saint ,paul exalts4 ,it has been in terms of faith1 and faith given a very definitive construction1 that our theological thinking with regard to ,christianity has been chiefly done4 ,little by little however the proportions have changed1 and now love1 as one of the three great fundamental principles of ,christianity1 is coming to its own1 not as a principle of action only but as a regulative principle also of our thought4 ,but it is a strange thing that no one has ever arisen1 apparently1 to say of hope what the intellect of the ,church1 over against ,paul's judgment1 has been prepared to say of faith4 ,he declared that of these three1 love is the greatest4 ,the current opinion of ,christian thought through the ,christian centuries has contended that faith was the greatest4 ,what would men say if some one should arise now to restore the proportions1 who would make bold to declare1 8,now abideth faith1 hope1 and love2 and the greatest of these is hope08 ,surely the day will come some time when hope will come to its own1 when the ,christian heart and mind will no longer be content to construe its interpretation of ,christianity in terms either of love or of faith1 or of love and faith together1 but will insist that these three abidefaith and love and hope4 ,and when a man stops for a moment to think1 to disengage himself from the unscrutinized conventions1 he begins to realize immediately that he has no faith and love unless he makes larger room for hope in his thinking and feeling than has been allowed to us4 ,for there cannot be any faith detached from hope4 ,you can conceive of faith in three different ways4 ,you may think of it in its primary form1 in its primary form in the ,new ,testament at least1 as personal trust1 as the confidence that exists between two personal spirits4 ,but even so1 can you think of it without hope8 ,if ,i have no hope of seeing ,him in ,whom ,i trust1 of consulting with ,him1 or serving ,him1 of entering into a deeper and enlarged fellowship with ,him1 will not my personal trust soon empty itself of reality8 ,or1 secondly1 you may think of faith as the writer of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews does1 as the 8substance of things hoped for02 in which without any flinching1 he binds faith up with hope in terms that cannot be severed4 ,and1 thirdly1 if you go on to the rest of his definition1 8the substance of things hoped for1 the evidence of things not seen10 still faith is undetachable from hope2 for1 as ,paul says in another passage1 8,we are saved by hope3 but hope that is seen is not hope3 for what a man seeth1 why doth he yet hope for8 ,but if we hope for that we see not1 then do we with patience wait for it40 ,and you cannot detach love from hope or have anything that is real in the experience of love unless it inevitably leads a man on into those things that clearly were in ,paul's mind when he spoke not of faith and love only but also of hope4 ,i ask any man's heart if it is possible to divorce hope from love4 ,i suppose in one sense it may be1 and that you can speak of a hopeless love4 ,henry ,martyn's heroic and tragic life was the unfolding of a hopeless love4 ,but how different that is from love that is undershot with hope4 ,one looks towards evening to see the children waiting as he comes home4 ,the workman lives in the hope of all that is there of joy and confidence and perfect trust inside his home4 ,love would be a sorry thing to-day if it were stripped of the hopes that give it its sweetness and its joy4 ,and it is not only faith and love that root themselves inseparably in hope1 and that lose their fragrance and meaning if they do not continue to draw both out of hope1 but regarding almost everything else that is dearest and most precious to us in life1 does it not spring from this same great treasury8 ,in one of the chapters of the ,epistle to the ,romans we find ,paul again and again1 in his efforts to bring his message out to those to whom he writes1 describing ,god in different terms of speech4 ,he begins by speaking of ,him as the ,god of comfort1 the ,god of patience1 and then he goes on to speak of ,him as the ,god of hope4 8,now the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope40 ,and then he closes by speaking of the ,god of peace who is to order all hearts4 ,quite evidently in his thought these things all run together1 as again he writes3 8,be ye sober4 ,walk as children of light4 ,put on the breastplate of faith and love1 and for an helmet the hope of salvation40 ,joy and gladness and confidence and trust and hope1all are rooted each in the other in his own mind and experience4 ,the best that we have got in life springs from the fountains of hope4 ,we do not wonder1 accordingly1 that the old religious experience and the richer ,christian experience1 when it came1 conceived and spoke of ,god as the ,god of love and the ,god of hope4 ,they never spoke of ,him as the ,god of faith4 ,the old ,hebrew idea of ,him was as the ground-rock of their hope4 8,o hope of ,israel10 was their cry4 ,the lovely thing is that that burst from the lips of the man who mourned for his nation3 8,o the hope of ,israel1 the saviour thereof in time of trouble40 8,hope thou in ,god3 for ,i shall yet praise him1 who is the health of my countenance1 and my ,god40 ,god ,himself when ,he comes to let ,himself be richly known to men makes on them the impression of a great and joyous and glad and eager and boundless hope4 ,and when we turn away from such clews as these and look right into the face of life to ask what the powers and services and functionings of hope in the actual life of man and in the life of the world are1 we realize that all this exultant hope has its deep grounding in the actual living needs of men4 ,it is by hopethe ,new ,testament is unequivocal about it1 and our own experience answers to that wordit is by hope that we are saved4 ,not in one passage in the ,new ,testament can you find the declaration that we are saved by faith4 ,we are saved 8by grace through faith10 but ,paul is flat-footed in his declaration that we are saved by hope4 ,and the moment a man looks life square in the face he sees why it should be so4 ,were it not for hope there could not be any saving that were worth a man's while4 ,there might be a clearing up of the past2 we might secure something like a clean conscience2 but there could not be any confidence1 any ease1 any rest1 as over against the tragic problem of life1 if a man could not look out into the futurewhich is really the thing he now has to deal withwith boundless hope4 ,salvation is just that thing4 ,it is not cleaning up our lives from the point of view of the past1 just for the sake of cleaning up our lives2 but it is the hope that for the sake of our future ,god is going to live in us a saving life4 ,all this is true whether we think of salvation as it comes penetrating our lives and dealing with such problems as in shame and self-distrust we think of in our hours of recollection and penitence1 or whether we think of it as something reaching out into the expanding experience of the future4 ,either way1 salvation is a matter of hope4 ,there is a lovely touch in one of ,paul's epistles where he says3 8,having therefore these promises1 dearly beloved1 let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit1 perfecting holiness in the fear of ,god40 ,what do you think of that motive8 ,he does not say1 8,seeing that our sin is so black and abhorrent as it is1 seeing that the past is so shameful and unworthy as it is1 let us cleanse ourselves40 8,my brothers10 he said1 8seeing we have such promises0that is1 8that the hope is so bright1 that there is no ground for despair1 that we can believe victory can actually be achieved by us1 seeing that we have these hopes1 let us cleanse ourselves in growing holiness40 ,and then when those first ,christian men came to look not only at this present purging of life which should leave it rich and fragrant and glorious but out upon the wide ranges of the untried and the unforeseeable1 they still construed salvation in terms of hope4 8,now are we the sons of ,god1 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be3 but we know that1 when he shall appear1 we shall be like him2 for we shall see him as he is4 ,and he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself1 even as he is pure40 ,it is so because there is in front of us the dear voice calling1 the voice that says to every one of us3 8,man1 let that old past go now4 ,it is done and gone beyond recall4 ,come out with ,me4 ,there is a new road for your feet and ,mine1 a new tale that is to be unfolded now1 a new story1 the contradiction of the old4 ,let the past go now1 and come and walk with ,me in the limitless hope of the new ways40 ,and it is not only by hope1 as a simple downright matter of fact1 that men are saved and held fast to the ,saviour2 it is by hope also that men are nerved and empowered4 ,in the hour of darkness1 it is what lights all the darkness and makes it possible for men to bear4 8,yes10 we say to ourselves in the hour of pain1 8,i know2 but ,i can stand it1 for after this comes something that is different from this40 ,that is what the honest doctor says to us when he deals with us4 8,now hold steady for a moment4 ,i am going to cut and it will hurt dreadfully4 ,but just wait4 ,beyond the pain lies freedom from pain40 ,and we say1 8,yes1 doctor1 cut4 ,i can stand it40 ,in a moment the anguish is over4 ,we endure in that hope4 ,has it not always been so8 ,for a little while the mother bears her anguish and her pain for the joy and hope that a child is born into the world4 ,for a little while ,jesus bore the loneliness and the anguish of ,his grief and the shadow and the pain and the disgrace of ,his ,cross1 because1 looking over it1 ,he saw the glory that awaited ,him and the world1 and ,he endured all this1 this anguish of the ,cross1 for the joy that was set beyond4 8,therefore10 says ,paul1 8we rejoice in tribulation1 in being flailed1 in being pressed down as grapes in the wine-press1 in being put through discipline and strain1 we rejoice in all that1 because we know that tribulation worketh steadfastness1 steadfastness experience1 and experience hope1 and hope maketh not ashamed40 ,and you know the paradox1 and the glory of it1 is that the darker you make the shadows the more triumphantly hope laughs in the midst of them4 ,the more difficult you make the night1 the more hopeful and enticing is the sure confidence of the dawn that is not far away4 ,our word1 8,cheer up6 ,the worst is yet to come10 is as deep a ,christian word as was ever yet spoken4 ,be glad1 because darker things lie just ahead and then light beyond4 ,thank ,god that you are counted worthy for tribulations like these2 for these are what wash white a man's robes and make him fit to walk after the ,lamb whithersoever ,he goes1 in company with the men whose lips have never known a lie4 ,all this is put finely for us in 8,the ,ballad of the ,white ,horse10 the best piece of work ,chesterton has done4 ,they were as dark days as ever had been in ,english history4 ,tide after tide of invasion from ,norse and ,dane had come pouring in4 ,again and again ,alfred had called his men and gone out and fought1 and each time in vain4 ,now1 as he sits on his little island in the ,thames among the reeds1 the news comes to him that the ,danes are on their way for a fresh invasion of his land4 ,he kneels in prayer and asks the ,virgin ,mother whether he ought to go out yet once more4 ,again and again1 he tells her1 he has gone out in hope1 and each time in the confidence that victory would be his1 and each time he has come back defeated1 his men killed1 and his people to sink lower after each despair than the time before4 ,and yet1 as he prays to her he says that if she will give him one word of assurance1 he will go again4 ,but only this1 as she stands by his side1 will she say1 8,i tell you naught for your comfort1 ,yea1 naught for your desire1 ,save that the sky grows darker yet1 ,and the sea rises higher40 ,and there that day among the reeds under the promise only that the night was going to be blacker than he had ever known1 that storms fiercer than he had ever breasted were coming1 ,alfred rises up to do what he had never done under the old assurance of easy victory1 8,up over windy wastes and up ,went ,alfred over the shaws1 ,shaken of the joy of giants1 ,the joy without a cause40 ,and as his men saw him coming1 they thought it was with the old vain word of a sure victory1 and they were about to tell him in advance that if he came with such a message they would follow him no more4 ,but not now was ,alfred's word the easy word4 ,no1 but 8,this is the word of ,mary1 ,the word of the world's desire2 #8,no more of comfort shall you get ,save that the sky grows darker yet1 ,and the sea rises higher4'0 ,and in front of that darkening sky and that rising sea his men rose up to go with him1 and this time1 from the darkest night they had ever known1 came the bright morning of their lasting victory4 ,thank ,god1 we are not called out on any soft errand under the incitement of bright choices1 but challenged by great difficulties1 black nights and rising storms1 to work in the hope of that which is invisible and which lies beyond4 ,it is by hope1 and hope that lies behind impenetrable clouds1 that men are nerved and empowered4 ,it is because the world is so black and dark to-day that we walk out into it smiling in its face1 knowing that behind all this the morning the more surely waits1 the morning in which the men believe who have faith and love and hope4 ,and it is by hope that our comforts are drawn down into our lives when the darkest of all days come1 and everything is quiet about the house and the little feet that had run to and fro are still4 ,we say1 8,yes1 a little while and then those angel faces will smile1 that ,i have loved and lost and love40 ,what would we do in those hours if it were not for the sure hope8 ,saint ,paul lays his own heart open to all his friends in one of his epistles3 8,but ,i would not have you to be ignorant1 brethren1 concerning them which are asleep1 that ye sorrow not1 even as others which have no hope4 ,for if we believe that ,jesus died and rose again1 even so them also which sleep in ,jesus will ,god bring with him4 ,for this we say unto you by the word of the ,lord1 that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the ,lord shall not prevent them which are asleep4 ,for the ,lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout1 with the voice of the archangel1 and with the trump of ,god3 and the dead in ,christ shall rise first3 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds1 to meet the ,lord in the air3 and so shall we ever be with the ,lord4 ,wherefore comfort one another with these words40 ,and as for us who are in the full flush and possession of all that we have1 it is by hope that we draw our comfort for our struggle4 ,as against the background of our defeats and failures1 we say to our own hearts3 8,well1 wait1 just wait2 my time will come4 ,no matter how much of this there has been1 some day my hope will be fulfilled4 ,it is sure that something else than this there will yet be40 ,william ,henry ,green became the outstanding ,hebrew scholar in ,america4 ,he was plucked when he entered college in ,latin and ,greek4 ,at ,lafayette ,college for months and months he found himself beaten on the very battle-field where he stood at last the first man in the land4 ,at ,lexington1 ,virginia1 several years ago1 ,i went to the grave of ,general ,lee in the chancel of the chapel of his college and then ,i went out to the grave of ,stonewall ,jackson on that little hill4 ,one of his townsmen was telling me the story of ,jackson and how by hope he wrested triumph out of his uttermost failure4 ,he had been teaching in the military academy1 and had just been about to give up his work because he had no gift of discipline4 ,he could not maintain order in his own classroom1 my friend said1 and was about to surrender his career as a teacher1 because he thought he was incapable there4 ,then the war broke out1 and within twelve months ,stonewall ,jackson was the most famous disciplinarian on earth4 ,on the very field where the man's failure had been most clear1 there he achieved his richest and greatest victory1 by hope4 ,and so we comfort our hearts here to-day4 8,yes10 we say to memories of which we are reminded in our searching hours1 8the evil and unworthy imaginings and desires cling to us still1 but it will not be forever4 ,some day1 no matter how often ,i have failed1 if ,i live in hope1 it will come to me1 the clean thing that the ,lord said should be mine40 ,and last of all1 there is nothing adequate for us in the way of actually moulding men and doing that with life which we were set here to do unless we can go to the work in the spirit in which our ,lord and ,saint ,paul entered it4 ,if ,i have no hope for another man1 ,i cannot awaken any hope in him for himself4 ,unless ,i believe in him1 how can he believe8 ,the glory of ,christ was that1 though ,he knew just what was in man1 and saw all the weaknesses and the slavery and the impurity and the unwholesomeness1 though ,he saw all this in man1 ,he shut ,his eyes to it deliberately and believed in the better capacities and possibilities that were there and that ,he by ,his grace and ,his power could plant and nurture and bring out until all that old baseness that had been the man was not the man any more1 and all this new purity that had not been the man was the man1 and ,simon was turned at last out of his putty into rock and stone4 ,i do not know whether the apostles were conscious or not of what was happening to them4 ,maybe they did not appreciate their ,master1 but one likes to think that they must have done so1 and that often they would go off by themselves and one would say3 8,andrew1 is ,he not just great8 ,did you ever meet any one like that before8 ,did you see what ,he did this morning8 ,he just shut ,his eyes completely to that meanness that ,he saw in me1 and that ,i saw the moment ,i let it out1 too1 and ,he pretended that ,he never saw it at all1 and ,he believed in me when ,he knew and ,i knew there was nothing there to believe in4 ,is ,he not wonderful8 ,he will make a man of me yet40 ,and to this day ,he is still doing just what ,he was doing then4 ,in this place now ,he is doing just that thing4 ,he is shutting ,his eyes to what we do not want ,him to see and opening them to what only ,he can see in us4 ,and ,his law must be our law4 ,i can put it in a little story that a friend of some of us1 ,george ,truett1 told to a little group some years ago in a western city4 8,i am fond10 he said1 8of recalling the first soul it was ever given me to win to ,jesus4 ,i was a lad barely grown and a teacher in the mountains of ,carolina4 ,one morning1 as we were ready for prayers in the chapel1 there hobbled down the aisle to the front seat a boy of about sixteen years old4 ,he was an eager1 lonely-looking lad4 ,i read the ,scriptures and prayed and then sent the teachers to their classes4 ,but my little cripple lad stayed4 ,i supposed that he was a beggar4 ,and ,i said to myself1 #8,surely this boy deserves alms4 ,his condition betokens his need4' ,so ,i went to him at recess and said1 #8,my lad1 what do you want8' ,he looked me eagerly in the face and said3 #8,mr4 ,truett1 ,i want to go to school4 ,oh1 sir1 ,i want to be somebody in the world4 ,i will always be a cripple4 ,the doctors have told me that1 but1' he said1 #8,i want to be somebody4' 8,he had won me4 ,he told me of their poverty1 and that was taken care of4 ,i watched that lad for weeks and weeks4 ,how bright his mind was6 ,how eager he was to know6 ,one day ,i called him into my office and said to him3 #8,my boy1 ,i want you to tell me something more about yourself4' ,he told me how1 a few months before1 his father had been killed in the great cotton mill where he worked1 and the few dollars he had saved up were soon gone4 ,they tried to do their best in the county where they were1 but found it difficult2 so his mother said one day3 #8,let us move to the next county1 where they do not know us4 ,perhaps we can do better where we are not known4' ,so they moved and now he had come into my school4 ,he said1 #8,i want to help mother1 and ,i want to be somebody in the world2 so ,i made my appeal to you to come to your school4' ,it was time in a moment for the bell to ring for books4 ,i laid my hand on the head of the little fellow and said to him3 #8,jim1 ,i am for you1 my boy4 ,i believe in you thoroughly1 and ,i want you to know that ,i love you1 my boy4' ,and when ,i said that last word1 the little pinched face looked up into my face almost in a lightning flash1 and he said3 #8,mr4 ,truett1 did you say you loved me8 ,did you say that8' ,i said1 #8,i said that1 ,jim4' ,and then with a great sob he said3 #8,i did not know anybody loved me but mother and the two little girls4 ,mr4 ,truett1 if you love me1 ,i am going to be a man yet1 by the help of ,god4' ,and when a few ,friday nights afterwards ,i was leading the boys in their chapel meeting1 as was the custom1 ,i heard the boy's crutches over in the corner4 ,there ,jim sat1 in a chair away from the other boys to protect his leg4 ,and a little later he got up1 sobbing and laughing at the same time1 and said1 #8,mr4 ,truett1 ,i have found the ,saviour1 and that time you told me you loved me started me towards ,him4'0 ,and then our friend added1 8,brothers1 working men in the shops and everywhere are dying for love4 ,your grammar may be broken1 your plans may be imperfect1 your machinery may be crude1 your organization may be rough2 but if you love men and pour your hearts out to them honestly and directly1 there will be a response that will fill your hearts with joy and heaven with praises40 ,and the need and functions of hope should be viewed in no narrow personal way4 ,we want to-day men who have a large and courageous faith in ,god for the nation and the world4 ,of recent years a mood of pessimism has spread through ,america4 ,in one sense it represents a wholesome reaction from the spirit of braggadocio and spreadeagleism of an earlier day4 ,so far it is wholesome4 ,we need to be sobered and made modest and quiet in our national spirit4 ,but it is a bad thing when a nation loses the zest of a great consciousness and a brave patriotism1 and thinks meanly of what ,god can do with it4 ,our nation needs now not a timid and fearful sense of its impotence and incapacity1 but a realization that1 whatever its difficulties and defects1 ,god has a mission for us which only we can fulfill for ,him4 ,for this mission those men must be the nation's soul of hope and expectation who know that our greatest duty and service lie ahead of us and are waiting to be grasped by men whose hearts face the untried without fear4 ,and now shall we have this hope that nothing can slay8 ,do we want it8 ,well1 it is so near to us that we do not need to reach out after it4 ,you know where it is1 8,christ in you1 the hope of glory40 8,the ,lord ,jesus ,christ10 as ,saint ,paul says in the opening words of his first ,epistle to ,timothy1 8,the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 our hope40 ,this hope is not something that we work up out of the fragments of moral ideals that we find lying around in our lives or our nation4 ,jesus ,christ is the hope for a man and a people4 ,if we want it1 why not now take ,him8 ,genuinely1 ,i mean1 in a deep1 living1 religious way1 take ,him in ,his fullness of life8 ,god and the nation want the men who are filled with ,his courage and hope3 8,god's trumpet wakes the slumbering world1 ,now each man to his post4 ,the red cross banner is unfurl'd1 ,who joins the glorious host8 ,who joins the glorious host8 ,he who in fealty to the truth ,and counting all the cost ,doth consecrate his gen'rous youth1 ,he joins the noble host6 ,he joins the noble host6 8,he who1 no anger on his tongue ,nor any idle boast1 ,bears steadfast witness 'gainst the wrong1 ,he joins the sacred host6 ,he joins the sacred host6 ,he who with calm1 undaunted will ,ne'er counts the battle lost ,but though defeated battles still1 ,he joins the faithful host6 ,he joins the faithful host6 8,he who is ready for the cross1 ,the cause despised loves most1 ,and shows not pain or shame or loss1 ,he joins the martyr host6 ,he joins the martyr host6 ,god's trumpet wakes the slumbering world4 ,now each man to his post4 ,the red cross banner is unfurled4 ,we join the glorious host6 ,we join the glorious host60 ,,lecture ,,iv ,,the ,,joy ,,of ,,the ,,minority ,there are two forms of disloyalty4 ,one is flinching1 the other is compromise4 ,of course1 the compromiser will never allow that he is disloyal4 ,he is a practical man who realizes that theories and ideals have to be adapted to a practical world1 and he gives up a part1 and as unimportant a part as possible1 in order that he may gain the rest4 ,he feels himself quite capable of judging how much to give up and what part may rightly be given up4 ,he will simply abate the unreason of a ,god who demands all righteousness1 and to ,whom the whole truth is truth4 ,let us set up against such men the uncompromising principle of the duty of non-compromise4 ,it is a principle from which the wisest and best of men are sometimes won away in the supposed interest of the great ends which they seek1 and for which they feel that they may rightly sacrifice subordinate issues4 ,there is what some regard as a striking incident of this character in the life of that uncompromising man1 ,saint ,paul4 ,it is an exciting and instructive story4 ,this is the way it is told in the twenty-first chapter of ,acts 7vs4 #ag-cj73 8,and when we were come to ,jerusalem1 the brethren received us gladly4 ,and the day following ,paul went in with us unto ,james2 and all the elders were present4 ,and when he had saluted them1 he rehearsed one by one the things which ,god had wrought among the ,gentiles through his ministry4 ,and they1 when they heard it1 glorified ,god2 and they said unto him1 ,thou seest1 brother1 how many thousands there are among the ,jews of them that have believed2 and they are all zealous for the law3 and they have been informed concerning thee1 that thou teachest all the ,jews who are among the ,gentiles to forsake ,moses1 telling them not to circumcise their children1 neither to walk after the customs4 ,what is it therefore8 they will certainly hear that thou art come4 ,do therefore this that we say to thee3 ,we have four men that have a vow on them2 these take1 and purify thyself with them1 and be at charges for them1 that they may shave their heads3 and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof they have been informed concerning thee2 but that thou thyself also walkest orderly1 keeping the law4 ,but as touching the ,gentiles that have believed1 we wrote1 giving judgment that they should keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols1 and from blood1 and from what is strangled1 and from fornication4 ,then ,paul took the men1 and the next day purifying himself with them went into the temple1 declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification1 until the offering was offered for every one of them4 8,and when the seven days were almost completed1 the ,jews from ,asia1 when they saw him in the temple1 stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him1 crying out1 ,men of ,israel1 help3 ,this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people1 and the law1 and this place2 and moreover he brought ,greeks also into the temple1 and hath defiled this holy place4 ,for they had before seen with him in the city ,trophimus the ,ephesian1 whom they supposed that ,paul had brought into the temple4 ,and all the city was moved1 and the people ran together2 and they laid hold on ,paul1 and dragged him out of the temple3 and straightway the doors were shut40 ,and that was the disastrous end of this conscientious experiment4 ,paul never tried another like it4 ,perhaps there is a construction of the story which forbids the idea that it was compromise but it suffices at any rate to raise the whole question of the wisdom of compromise as a principle of action4 ,it is the one incident in ,paul's life where he might be thought even for a moment to have embarked on that course4 ,wherever else we see him1 he is a man of firm and unflinching principles1 who made no concealment of what he believed1 and did not try to adjust his convictions and practices to other convictions and practices that were at variance with them4 ,in the second chapter of ,galatians1 you will remember1 ,paul is telling of a visit he made to ,jerusalem some time before with ,barnabas and ,titus1 in which they went up to consider these very questions4 ,some of the brethren in ,jerusalem had endeavoured to persuade ,paul to have ,titus1 who was a ,gentile1 circumcised1 and ,paul says1 8,to whom we gave place 444 no1 not for an hour40 ,and then he tells of the time when ,peter came to ,antioch and he withstood him to his face because he had been a trimmer and compromiser2 for ,peter1 acting on the generous impulse of his own heart as to what was right1 had indeed bravely eaten with the converted ,gentiles1 but when some men came down from ,jerusalem who were close to ,james1 he withdrew himself from the ,gentiles1 fearing1 no doubt1 that it might injure him in ,jerusalem4 ,paul does not say anything in any letter about this particular incident in ,jerusalem1 in which1 for the one time in his life1 he was overpersuaded by his friends and put in a position where he was very much misunderstood1 and where he appeared to be compromising the great principles in which he earnestly believed4 ,we know what the far-reaching consequences were4 ,a great deal of trouble was brought into his life by this act4 ,it was out of it that all those succeeding events came which took him at last to ,rome to be tried before ,csar4 ,some may say that these results were good4 ,undoubtedly ,god led ,paul's course on1 but we may believe that ,god might have had even greater things for him to do if only he had in this incident pursued his customary course4 ,but we want to go far beyond the question as to whether the consequences may ever appear to justify acts of compromise4 ,a course of action is right or wrong1 not according to the consequences1 but according to its conformity or unconformity to the character of ,god4 ,and the point now raised is whether it is ever right for us to compromise our own firm convictions of truth and principle4 ,now1 the world tells us that such compromise is to-day absolutely unavoidable4 ,men and women1 we are assured1 cannot get along in a world like this without adaptations4 ,if it is meant by this only that we are often obliged to adapt ourselves to that with which we do not agree1 why1 of course1 we have to assent1 because we are in a world of give and take of which we have to be a part1 and it is necessary for us to live our life and do our work in this world4 ,here in many of our communities1 for example1 the saloons flourish4 ,there is not one of us here in this audience who believes that it is wise that the saloon should exist under the protection of the government1 but we have to live in a land where the principle with which we disagree prevails1 and the only way we can escape is to go to some other land1 and we would only find there some other principle with which we could not agree4 ,we cannot live at all unless we are willing to adjust ourselves to an actual world4 8,compromise0 when used as the principle of such adjustment means simply that we must of necessity find room for ourselves among the crossing strands of life4 8,all government10 says ,burke1 8indeed every human benefit and enjoyment1 every vital and every prudent act1 is founded on compromise and barter40 8,it cannot be too emphatically asserted10 says ,spencer1 8that this policy of compromise alike in institution1 in action and in belief which especially characterizes ,english life is a policy essential to a society going through the transition caused by continuous growth and development40 ,and ,emerson remarks1 8,almost all people descend to meet4 ,all association must be a compromise1 and1 what is worst1 the very flower and aroma of the flower of each of the beautiful natures disappears as they approach each other40 ,if it is meant by compromise that we have to live under conditions with which we do not agree and to which we must adjust ourselves1 why1 of course1 we must assent to thatit is perfectly obvious2 but we do not need to live under those conditions assenting to them4 ,we can bear our testimony against whatever we morally disapprove4 ,we can assert our conviction by word or by the silent protest of life that those conditions are not right1 and so to live in the midst of conditions in which we do not believe1 but from which we cannot escape1 is not compromise4 ,it is compromise when we surrender our principles so that others do not understand what those principles are1 or when we hold back something that is vital1 or cover over deceptively or misleadingly something essential4 ,when we take before men a position that is inconsistent with the position that in our hearts we are taking before ,god1 that is compromise1 and that is wrong4 ,regarding the truth in which we believe1 the principles by which we know life ought to be lived1 regarding these things there cannot be compromise1 in our lives or in the ,christian ,church4 ,there is a noble essay by ,mr4 ,john ,morley1 as he once was1 on this subject of compromise1 its nature and limits1 of which ,scott ,holland says in 8,lux ,mundi0 that 8no one can read that book without being either the better or the worse for it40 ,in it ,morley takes up three different spheres of life4 ,first1 the formation of opinion2 second1 the expression of opinion when it is called out from us2 and1 third1 the propagation of opinion2 and then he pursues this line of argument3 ,in the matter of the formation of opinion there cannot be any compromise at all4 ,every one of us is bound to hunt for the truth1 no matter what the truth may be1 and when we have found it1 to give our lives absolutely to it4 ,in the realm of the expression of opinion1 nobody has any right to deceive any one regarding his principles and convictions when they are called forth4 ,but in the third place1 he admits room for compromise when it comes to the aggressive propagation of our convictions4 ,he says that every man is not bound to propagate what he believes1 and he takes for example his own case1that of a man who does not believe in the ,bible1 who has abandoned the old religious views of his people1 but who does not regard it as his duty aggressively to propagate his dissentient convictions4 ,in his own words his thesis is this3 8,in the positive endeavour to realize an opinion1 to convert a theory into practice1 it may be1 and very often is1 highly expedient to defer to the prejudices of the majority1 to move very slowly1 to bow to the conditions of the status quo1 to practice the very utmost sobriety1 self-restraint1 and conciliatoriness4 ,the mere expression of opinion1 in the next place1 the avowal of dissent from received notions1 the refusal to conform to language which implies the acceptance of such notionsthis rests on a different footing4 ,here the reasons for respecting the wishes and sentiments of the majority are far less strong1 though1 as we shall presently see1 such reasons certainly exist1 and will weigh with all well-considering men4 ,finally1 in the formation of an opinion as to the abstract preferableness of one course of action over another1 or as to the truth or falsehood or right significance of a proposition1 the fact that the majority of one's contemporaries lean in the other direction is naught1 and no more than dust in the balance4 ,in making up our minds as to what would be the wisest line of policy if it were practicable1 we have nothing to do with the circumstance that it is not practicable4 ,and in settling with ourselves whether propositions purporting to state matters of fact are true or not1 we have to consider how far they are conformable to the evidence4 ,we have nothing to do with the comfort and solace which they would be likely to bring to others or ourselves1 if they were taken as true40 ,now1 we cannot but be rather grateful that men1 who if they spoke would have to oppose ,christianity1 take this view and remain silent1 and yet that is not our principle4 ,believing in ,christianity1 we believe that it would be wrong and unworthy compromise to conceal it and to refrain from propagating it4 ,mr4 ,morley prefixed to his essay ,whately's saying1 8,it makes all the difference in the world whether we put truth in the first place or in the second place40 ,we hold to another word of ,whately's also3 8,if our religion is false1 we must change it4 ,if it is true1 we must propagate it40 ,notice that ,morley is speaking not of his doubts1 but of his convictions4 ,there is no obligation of a propaganda of insecurity4 ,there is an obligation to propagate positive truth4 ,it must1 of course1 be the truth that ,i believe4 ,when ,i am asked what ,i believe ,i must1 of course1 tell the truth4 ,but we believe something far more than that4 ,the religious truth that one believes he must give his life to propagate throughout the world1 and it would not make any difference if he were the only man in the world who held that truth1 it would still be his duty1 if he believed it was the truth and the great and necessary truth of life1 to go out single-handed to defend and propagate it4 ,athanasius is regarded as an impracticable and troublesome type but the progress of the world is often lifted forward a sheer and discernible stage by such uncompromisingness4 ,let us set forth some of the reasons why we may believe that there dare not be1 in our ,christian life and our ,christian service1 any compromise whatever1 either in our searching for the truth1 in our utterance of the truth1 or in our aggressive and active propagation of the truth throughout the world4 ,this is to put the matter1 of course1 very broadly and sweepingly4 ,there is a great deal to be said for some of ,morley's nice discriminations4 ,but actual life is a very rough and imperative and elemental thing4 ,the difficulty of acting on any body of wary and wavery casuistical principles is enormous4 ,the really workable principle of actual living must be very simple and uncomplicated and direct4 ,the only safe ethical law is 8,no lie10 no lie whatever or under any justification4 ,so also1 however crude and blunt the rule may be1 8,no compromise0 is the only practicable right rule4 ,mr4 ,morley closed his essay with such a plain word3 8,it is better to bear the burden of impracticableness1 than to stifle conviction and to pare away principle until it becomes mere hollowness and triviality40 ,and in the beginning he wrote3 8,our day of small calculations and petty utilities must first pass away2 our vision of the true expediencies must reach further and deeper2 our resolution to search for the highest verities1 to give up all and follow them1 must first become the supreme part of ourselves40 ,the loss by compromise to ourselves and others is certain1 while its gain is uncertain and problematical4 ,in the first place1 one believes this because compromise makes no contribution to the settlement of the real issue over truth4 ,it is true that all the boundaries between truth and error are not clear and sharply drawn lines4 ,often there is a gray and misty region between4 ,and much truth is only slowly and gradually won4 ,but the ideal of truth is clearer than the sun and as pure as the character of ,god4 ,and we have a far richer chance of winning it and all that it brings with it1 if we both think and live it uncompromisingly4 8,the political spirit10 says ,mr4 ,morley in noble words1 8is the great force in throwing love of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary place4 ,the evil does not stop here4 ,this achievement has indirectly countenanced the postponement of intellectual methods1 and the diminution of the sense of intellectual responsibility1 by a school that is anything rather than political4 ,theology has borrowed1 and coloured for her own use1 the principles which were first brought into vogue in politics4 ,if in the one field it is the fashion to consider convenience first and truth second1 in the other there is a corresponding fashion of placing truth second and emotional comfort first4 ,if there are some who compromise their real opinions1 or the chance of reaching truth1 for the sake of gain1 there are far more who shrink from giving their intelligence free play1 for the sake of keeping undisturbed certain luxurious spiritual sensibilities4444 8,the intelligence is not free in the presence of a mortal fear lest its conclusions should trouble soft tranquillity of spirit4 ,there is always hope of a man so long as he dwells in the region of the direct categorical proposition and the unambiguous term2 so long as he does not deny the rightly drawn conclusions after accepting the major and minor premises4 ,this may seem a scanty virtue and very easy grace4 ,yet experience shows it to be too hard of attainment for those who tamper with disinterestedness of conviction1 for the sake of luxuriating in the softness of spiritual transport without interruption from a syllogism4 ,it is true that there are now and then in life as in history noble and fair natures1 that by the silent teaching and unconscious example of their inborn purity1 star-like constancy1 and great devotion1 do carry the world about them to further heights of living than can be attained by ratiocination4 ,but these1 the blameless and loved saints of the earth1 rise too rarely on our dull horizons to make a rule for the world4 ,the law of things is that they who tamper with veracity1 from whatever motive1 are tampering with the vital force of human progress4 ,our comfort and the delight of the religious imagination are no better than forms of self-indulgence1 when they are secured at the cost of that love of truth on which1 more than on anything else1 the increase of light and happiness among men must depend4 ,we have to fight and do lifelong battle against the forces of darkness1 and anything that turns the edge of reason blunts the surest and most potent of our weapons40 ,we do not believe in compromising1 because it makes no contribution to the larger discerning of truth or the triumphing of that truth over error4 ,in the second place1 we do not believe in it because it creates a great many more difficulties than it removes4 ,now1 ,paul was invited to this compromising course in ,jerusalem by his misguided friends because they thought it would avoid trouble4 ,they wanted to set ,paul right with the ,jewish ,christians in the city1 and maybe with the ,jews who were not ,christians2 they wanted to remove an impression which they thought prevailed regarding ,paul's attitude towards the ,mosaic customs in the ,gentile world4 ,now1 as a matter of fact1 the principle of that impression was true1 for although1 as ,dr4 ,mc,giffert says1 ,paul 8recognized the legitimacy of ,jewish ,christianity1 and the right of ,peter and other apostles to preach to the ,jews the ,gospel of circumcision1 and though there is no evidence that he ever undertook to lead the ,jews as a people to cease observing their ancestral law1 he had certainly been in the habit of insisting that his ,jewish converts should associate on equal terms with their ,gentile brethren1 and that they should not allow their law to act in any way as a barrier to the freest and most intimate association with them4 ,but this1 of course1 meant1 in so far1 their violation of the law's commands4 ,it is certain also that ,paul had preached for years the doctrine that not the ,gentile ,christian alone but the ,jewish ,christian as well is absolutely free from all obligation to keep the law of ,moses1 and though such teaching might not always result in a disregard of that law by his ,jewish converts1 it must have a tendency to produce that effect and doubtless did in many cases4 ,it is clear therefore that both accusations had much truth in them1 and it is difficult to suppose that ,paul can have deliberately attempted in ,jerusalem to prove them wholly false4 8,and yet1 though as an honourable man and a man of principle he can hardly have undertaken to demonstrate that there was no truth in the reports which were circulated concerning him1 it may well be that he tried to show that they were not wholly true4 ,it was evidently assumed by those who accused him of #8teaching all the ,jews which are among the ,gentiles to forsake ,moses1 telling them not to circumcise their children1 neither to walk after the customs1' that he hated the ,jewish law and that he was doing all that lay in his power to destroy it2 that he believed and that he taught everywhere that its observance was under any and all circumstances a positive sin4 ,but this assumption was not true4 ,paul was certainly not hostile to the law in any such sense4 ,he believed that it had no binding authority over a ,christian1 and he opposed with all his might the idea that its observance had any value as a means of salvation1 or that it contributed in any way to the believer's righteousness or growth in grace2 but he held no such view of the law as made its observance necessarily sinful1 and rendered it impossible for him ever to observe it himself in any respect4 ,and it was not at all unnatural that he should desire to convince the ,christians of ,jerusalem of the fact2 especially when he had come thither with the express purpose of conciliating them and winning their favour for himself and for his ,gentile converts4 ,he would have been very foolish under these circumstances to allow such a false impression touching his attitude towards the law to go uncontradicted40#a #a 8,the ,apostolic ,age10 p4 #cda4 ,this is a satisfactory defense if one were needed of ,paul's course1 but no one would question his motive4 ,that was right enough and he evidently acted in all good conscience1 but the procedure1 instead of getting him out of his trouble1 got him into worse trouble4 ,it always does that4 ,i do not believe any man was ever permanently helped by compromise4 ,every man who has begun to play with it has been drawn into worse difficulties and troubles1 or has gone down1 perhaps without conscious difficulty but with real moral loss1 to a lower level of life4 ,for one thing1 compromise blurs the line of cleavage between truth and error1 and that is exactly what no one of us can afford to have done4 ,we do not want the lines of distinction between what is true and what is false slurred over for us4 ,we want them sharpened so that we shall make as little mistake as possible as to where they lie4 ,furthermore compromise gets us into more difficulty than it removes1 because it throws together things that are not congruous or reconcilable4 ,this is its very nature4 ,it brings into one bed things that cannot sleep together1 into one union things that cannot be tied4 ,and it postpones real settlements in the interest of spurious arrangements1 sacrificing some 8greater good for the less1 on no more creditable ground than that the less is nearer4 ,it is better to wait1 and to defer the realization of our ideas until we can realize them fully1 than to defraud the future by truncating them1 if truncate them we must1 in order to secure a partial triumph for them in the immediate present4444 ,what is the sense1 and what is the morality1 of postponing the wider utility to the narrower8 ,nothing is so sure to impoverish an epoch1 to deprive conduct of nobleness1 and character of elevation40 ,these are ,mr4 ,morley's closing words4 ,this is the second reason why we believe there can be no room for compromise in our ,christian life or service4 ,in the third place1 it encourages evil by making it think that having got so much it can get the rest1 and so it prolongs the life of evil4 ,that is exactly what compromise did in the old days of slavery4 ,every one of those early compromises prolonged the life of evil which at last the nation had to pour out its blood to destroy4 ,that is what compromise always does4 ,it persuades evil that1 after all1 maybe evil can win the victory1 that having gotten so much from us it can get the rest if only it will be patient1 and we simply increase the courage of our foe in proportion as we make any compromise with him instead of standing up face to face against him from the very beginning4 ,and so it destroys the power and might of right causes by mixing in the taint of wrong4 ,you do not make a good man better by putting a dash of bad in him4 ,you do not make a good cause stronger by letting the evil come in2 you only weaken its strength and power4 ,compromise plays into the hands of the very evil which we are here to overcome and destroy4 ,in the fourth place1 compromise breaks down the strength of rigid consistency1 and by letting in one qualification prepares the way for others4 ,that is the reason why it is so much harder for a man to be a moderate drinker than to be a total abstainer4 ,as was said of ,samuel ,johnson1 8,he could practice abstinence but not temperance40 ,when a man has made up his mind that he will never do a thing1 it is a great deal easier for him to refuse to do it in any given instance than if he has made up his mind that he will do it moderately1 because he never knows when he ceases to be moderate4 ,there is a sharp line between moderate drinking and total abstinence4 ,that boundary line no one can ever mistake1 but the boundary line between intemperance and moderation is not located anywhere4 ,there is no definite border between those two countries4 ,as a matter of fact1 every man starts in by being a moderate drinker4 ,he never intended to become anything else but a moderate drinker when he began4 ,but there is a boundary line so clear that a blind man can see it between yes and no1 between not doing a thing at all and doing that thing only moderately4 ,we believe in the principle of absolutely no compromise in moral habit and principle1 and we believe in the same principle in our clear and evangelical convictions regarding the ,christian faith4 ,in the fifth place1 we ought to shun all such compromise because it undermines our confidence in men1 and the solid unity of their coperative action4 ,we know where truth is1 but we never know where calculating compromise may be4 ,in the language of the deaf and dumb this is the sign for trutha straight line right away from your mouthfor the simple reason that between two points there is only one straight line1 but there may be many crooked lines4 ,the truth is always a single thing1 but the error1no man knows what it may be4 ,no compromise makes possible unity of accord by giving people one standard on which they can rely1 and by supplying confidence in the stability of men and their convictions4 ,but we cannot follow the compromising man1 for as soon as he gets out of our sight we do not know where he will be4 ,it is the man who makes no compromise1 who stands fast by truth1 that we know we can locate4 ,it was that which gave ,stonewall ,jackson his huge power as a leader of men in the ,civil ,war4 ,he was a man of the most unflinching ,christian convictions4 ,he was one who never moved the breadth of a hair from his loyalty to his ,lord or to truth as he saw truth in the presence of his ,lord4 ,colonel ,henderson draws for us a rich picture of the great soldier's character and it is full of genial and kindly touches1 but it is faithful also in its account of the man's rigid and inflexible righteousness4 8,jackson's religion entered into every action of his life4 ,no duty1 however trivial1 was begun without asking a blessing1 or ended without returning thanks4 #8,he had long cultivated1' he said1 #8the habit of connecting the most trivial and customary acts of life with a silent prayer4' ,he took the ,bible as his guide1 and it is possible that his literal interpretation of its precepts caused many to regard him as a fanatic4 ,his observance of the ,sabbath was hardly in accordance with ordinary usage4 ,he never read a letter on that day1 nor posted one2 he believed that the ,government in carrying the mails was violating a divine law1 and he considered the suppression of such traffic one of the most important duties of the legislature4 ,such opinions were uncommon1 even among the ,presbyterians1 and his rigid respect for truth served to strengthen the impression that he was morbidly scrupulous4 ,if he unintentionally made a misstatementeven about some trifling matteras soon as he discovered his mistake he would lose no time and spare no trouble in hastening to correct it4 #8,why1 in the name of reason1' he was asked1 #8do you walk a mile in the rain for a perfectly unimportant thing8' #8,simply because ,i have discovered that it was a misstatement1 ,i could not sleep comfortably unless ,i put it right4' 8,he had occasion to censure a cadet who had given1 as ,jackson believed1 the wrong solution of a problem4 ,on thinking the matter over at home1 he found that the pupil was right and the teacher wrong4 ,it was late at night and in the depth of winter1 but he immediately started off to the ,institute1 some distance from his quarters1 and sent for the cadet4 ,the delinquent1 answering with much trepidation the untimely summons1 found himself to his astonishment the recipient of a frank apology4 ,jackson's scruples carried him even further4 ,persons who interlarded their conversation with the unmeaning phrase #8you know' were often astonished by the blunt interruption that he did not know2 and when he was entreated at parties or receptions to break through his dietary rules1 and for courtesy's sake to seem to accept some delicacy1 he would always refuse with the reply that he had #8no genius for seeming4' ,but if he carried his conscientiousness to extremes1 if he laid down stringent rules for his own governance1 he neither set himself up for a model nor did he attempt to force his convictions upon others4 ,he was always tolerant2 he knew his own faults1 and his own temptations1 and if he could say nothing good of a man he would not speak of him at all4 ,but he was by no means disposed to overlook conduct of which he disapproved1 and undue leniency was a weakness to which he never yielded4 ,if he once lost confidence or discovered deception on the part of one he trusted1 he withdrew himself as far as possible from any further dealings with him2 and whether with the cadets or with his brother-officers1 if an offense had been committed of which he was called upon to take notice1 he was absolutely inflexible4 ,punishment or report inevitably followed4 ,no excuses1 no personal feelings1 no appeals to the suffering which might be brought upon the innocent1 were permitted to interfere with the execution of his duty40 8,as exact as the multiplication table10 some one said of him1 8and as full of things military as an arsenal40 ,those of us who are looking for the secret of ,christian influence over others may be sure that we will find it here4 ,men are not going to follow the shifting man4 ,they will follow the man who makes no compromise1 who has his firm convictions and who stands by those convictions1 no matter what the cost of his loyalty may be4 ,recent ,american politics are rather eloquent and convincing on this point4 ,in the sixth place1 compromise in principle substitutes reliance upon majorities for reliance upon the truth1 and the majorities never have been right and we may doubt whether1 until our ,lord ,jesus ,christ comes again1 they ever will be right4 ,god never has relied upon the majority4 ,he never has waited to do ,his work until it was ready to side with ,him4 ,in all ages ,god has done ,his work by the few4 ,in ,old ,testament times ,he did it by the few4 ,the one principle prevailed alwaysnot by might1 nor by power4 ,it was ever only 8the ,sword of the ,lord and of ,gideon40 ,when our ,lord came ,he did ,his work with the few4 ,through all the ages ,god has been working so1 and we simply depart from ,his whole method in history when by compromise we try to get the force of the majority on our side4 ,the force of the majority does not amount to anything in comparison with the force of truth4 8,the history of success10 says ,mr4 ,morley1 8as we can never too often repeat to ourselves1 is the history of minorities40 ,and we do not believe in compromise because it substitutes our reliance upon the majority for our reliance upon the truth of ,god1 and upon the strength of ,god to enable the few with the truth to triumph against the error of the crowd4 ,this passes for foolish idealism and some of our most popular political leaders and reformers have poured scorn upon the idealists and dreamers1 who are not to be numbered among the practical men4 8,one would like to ask them what purpose is served by an ideal1 if it is not to make a guide for practice and a landmark in dealing with the real4 ,a man's loftiest and most ideal notions must be of a singularly ethereal and1 shall we not say1 senseless kind1 if he can never see how to take a single step that may tend in the slightest degree towards making them more real4 ,if an ideal has no point of contact with what exists1 it is probably not much more than the vapid outcome of intellectual or spiritual self-indulgence4 ,if it has such a point of contact1 then there is sure to be something which a man can do towards the fulfillment of his hopes4 ,he cannot substitute a new national religion for the old1 but he can at least do something to prevent people from supposing that the adherents of the old are more numerous than they really are1 and something to show them that good ideas are not all exhausted by the ancient forms4 ,he cannot transform a monarchy into a republic1 but he can make sure that one citizen at least shall aim at republican virtues1 and abstain from the debasing complaisance of the crowd40#b #b ,morley1 8,compromise10 p4 #bbf4 ,and we might add1 8he cannot instantly make truth the life of the nation1 but he can be loyal to its commandments4 ,he cannot make political leaders honest and patriotic1 but he can refuse to profit by their dishonesty or to regard them as honest men if they will but wear his badge and seek their own ends by promoting his4 ,he can form his own ideals of honour and glory and live by them whatever way others may go40 ,in the seventh place1 compromise increases in peril as we draw near the highest4 ,if you take a man who is down on the lower levels1 compromise does not mean as much to him as it does to men who have been climbing up4 ,the nearer we come to ,christ and the highest truth1 the more perilous does compromise become4 ,as ,edward ,thring said3 8,in proportion to excellence1 compromise is impossible4 ,a single leak sinks a great ship1 a raft that is all leaks floats40 ,that is just the deep lesson that men and women need to learn2 that the higher and cleaner and more morally lofty or exacting the life1 the more perilous compromise becomes to it4 ,one has heard ,christian men say sometimes that they thought they were safe in doing what this or that man1 not as strong or experienced or mature1 could do4 ,it is a great mistake4 ,the clearer and stronger a man's life1 the more careful must the man be1 the more solicitous1 the more anxious1 lest thinking he stands he falls4 ,one of the greatest things about the life of ,paul was the humility and self-distrust in which he walked1 fearing lest when he had preached to others he himself might be a castaway4 ,we have to learn that here lies power and duty1 and that the cleaner ,christ makes any human life1 the more careful must that life be to keep all its habits pure and unsullied1 and its convictions of truth unflinching and firm4 ,it was this principle that made our friend1 ,s4 ,h4 ,hadley1 and that makes so many men who have escaped from the slavery of drink1 go to extremes in cutting off physical indulgences4 ,mr4 ,hadley not only dropped once and forever the use of alcohol1 but he stopped tobacco too1 and he tried to get every drunkard whom he was seeking to save to discontinue the use of nicotine4 ,he held that men should be clean every whit and his strong conviction was that while he would not for a moment class such indulgences together1 nevertheless the man who wanted to be free from the one would find his deliverance far easier if he sloughed off the other also4 ,it is safer and easier to be thoroughgoing and indiscriminate1 if you will1 than to be always calculating how great risks can be safely run4 ,and1 lastly1 we believe in no compromise because the truth is bound to prevail1 and it will triumph the soonest when it is least hampered and tied up with error or with qualification4 ,one might stop here to make a defense on this ground of the fanatics and devotees1 but it is enough to say that the truth is going to prevail because it is ,god's truth1 and hell and all hell's power in the world cannot stand against it4 ,what is the use in delaying the day of that triumph by compromising with error8 ,the right will prevail all the faster if we make no compromise with error1 if we go out and preach unflinchingly and courageously with no compromise1 with no surrender or economy or adaptations1 the hard1 plain truth of ,god as we see it4 ,if what we think is truth is really error1 it will be the sooner beaten down for being made to stand up for itself4 ,but if it is indeed the truth we know it will prevail the more in the world as we keep it free from all connection with anything that will weaken or becloud it4 ,i know how much danger there is in such an attitude as this if we take it up towards the truth that we hold4 ,it lies in our human nature to go to violence or extremes with everything4 ,martin ,luther used to say that human nature is like a drunken man trying to ride a horse1 you prop him up on one side and he topples over on the other4 ,it is that way with us4 ,we try to be firm and we become hard-hearted4 ,we pride ourselves on uncompromising loyalty to the truth and we lack the tenderness and sympathy4 ,moreover1 as ,bushnell said in his essay on 8,christian ,comprehensiveness03 8,it is the common infirmity of mere human reformers that1 when they rise up to cast out an error1 it is generally not till they have kindled their passions against it4 ,if they begin with reason1 they are commonly moved1 in the last degree1 by their animosities instead of reason4 ,and as animosities are blind1 they1 of course1 see nothing to respect1 nothing to spare4 ,the question whether possibly there may not be some truth or good in the error assailed1 which is needed to qualify and save the equilibrium of their own opposing truth1 is not once entertained4 ,hence it is that men1 in expelling one error1 are perpetually thrusting themselves into another1 as if unwilling or unable to hold more than half the truth at once40 ,and yet these dangers are lesser dangers than the danger of surrendering the truth4 ,and we can be guarded from them by the great and unselfish love that guarded ,paul4 ,the man who loves others more than he loves himself1 who holds human lives sacred and free from invasion1 who is seeking not his own glory1 but the glory of ,god and the good of men1 is in little danger from an absolutely uncompromising loyalty to the truth4 ,and if ever men have any doubts or misgivings regarding this1 or if the time of discouragements and fears comes to them1 and they look with longing to the multitudes who act together1 while they think of themselves as just a few1 bearing testimony for the truth against error and sin1 they may encourage themselves with ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold's doctrine of the remnant1 or better yet1 by remembering the great ,solitary1 ,jesus ,christ4 ,how lonesomely ,he walked ,his way2 seeing what no other soul was seeing2 standing alone for the great truth which ,he uttered1 and at last meeting death upon the cross alone2 one of ,his disciples having betrayed ,him1 another having three times denied that he ever knew ,him1 and all the others having left ,him and gone away6 ,and yet as we look back1 we see that lonely cross ruling the whole world1 and that forsaken figure men are clothing now with the crown of everlasting light1 and ,his name is above every name4 ,all that we are asked to do is simply to follow in ,his train1 to take up the truth which ,he opened1 and for that truth to be willing to live1 and1 which is far easier1 if need be1 to die4 ,our lives are ours for this one thing1 that through them1 without compromise with error or with sin1 ,god may bear testimony to ,himself1 and whether ,he does that through many years or through few1 through peaceful personal service or through storm and tragedy1 is of no consequence4 ,the one thing that is of consequence is that we should know and be true to ,god4 ,but there is a better way to set forth and commend this principle as a law of life than by arguing it in these general terms4 ,let the principle put on flesh and live before us in a man3 8,and ,elijah the ,tishbite1 who was of the sojourners of ,gilead1 said unto ,ahab1 ,as the ,lord1 the ,god of ,israel1 liveth1 before whom ,i stand1 there shall not be dew nor rain these years1 but according to my word40 ,the old man who spoke these words was one of the four great characters of the ,old ,testament4 ,he and ,moses and ,samuel and ,david stood apart in the thought of the ,hebrew people4 ,indeed1 there was a sense in which he and ,moses were in a class by themselves4 ,the appearance of those two with our ,lord on the ,mountain of ,transfiguration was only an illustration of the place which they held in the imagination of ,israel4 ,these were the first words he spoke as he bursts on our view4 ,what lay behind them we can only surmise4 ,he was a ,tishbite1 one 8of the sojourners of ,gilead10 dwelling beyond the ,jordan1 a man brought up in the desert4 ,there on the level sands1 with the eye of ,god looking down upon him1 he had come to a deep feeling of the soul's lonely stand before ,god1 and convinced of ,god and the righteousness of ,god he came over the ,jordan to speak his message and do his work in the organized national life of his people4 ,he was a clean-limbed1 frugal-lived man1 who gathered up his skirts about him1 we are told1 and ran straight away sixteen miles before the chariot of ,ahab1 from ,carmel to the entering in of ,jezreel2 a calm1 quiet1 courageous1 firm-principled man2 bred so in the desert with ,god4 ,we do not have any very elaborate story of his life4 ,he appears on the stage and then he vanishes4 ,there are long periods of time covering years when he disappears entirely from the record4 ,we can condense what we know about his life into six brief chapters1 between each two of which there is an interval1 in some cases1 a long interval of time4 ,he appears first of all in connection with the great drought which he prophesied and which lasted for the three years he had foretold4 ,we see him by the little brook ,cherith1 fed of the ravens1 until through the long cessation of the rain the brook itself disappeared4 ,then we see him in the house of the widow of ,sarepta1 feeding with her on her little supply of meal1 and in her hour of depthless sorrow raising her son from death to life4 ,and then1 in the second chapter1 he breaks forth once more upon the national stage4 ,ahab and ,obadiah1 his chief man1 had sought for him up and down the land1 having divided the country between them1 partly that they might seek water for their fast diminishing herds1 partly that they might meet again and punish this troubler of ,israel4 ,at last1 on one of the highways1 the man of ,god appeared to the prime minister and told him that he had no fear to meet the king and would do so if he would carry word to ,ahab4 ,true to his word1 he met the king1 confronted him with his disloyalty to ,jehovah1 and challenged him to produce the prophets of ,baal for the great test on ,mount ,carmel2 and then1 after his triumph1 ,elijah again disappears4 ,in the third chapter we have the only account of the man's inner life4 ,if it were not for that chapter with its story of his subjective struggle1 ,elijah would be no example for us men of this day4 ,in all the other chapters of the story he appears absolutely undaunted1 unafraid of the face of man1 clearly convinced of what ,god would have him do1 and absolutely fearless in the doing of it4 ,but here we are shown the man in his own inward wavering1 in doubt in some measure about the reality or power of his mission1 afraid to carry forward that which he had set out to do with such daring spirit2 and in the wilderness alone1 first beneath the juniper tree and then on ,mount ,horeb1 ,elijah had to face again his life and settle himself once more in that faith in the living ,god which had brought him out of the desert4 ,and ,god stood out and spoke to him1 and ,elijah rose up on his feet once more a man unafraid to resume his mission4 ,god bade him return and anoint a new king over ,syria and a new king over ,israel1 and to go to ,abel-meholah and find his own successor1 the young man ,elisha1 plowing behind his oxen4 ,and the prophet went out from his hour of discouragement to find at once the young man who was to take up his work after him and to be an even mightier prophet than he4 ,then for a long time ,elijah disappears again1 only to reappear when he confronts ,ahab once more1 in ,naboth's vineyard1 shows him how little he fears him1 and pronounces upon him the judgment of ,jehovah4 ,then he vanishes from the stage for three years at least of solitary meditation in the wilderness1 vanishes so long that the common people apparently forgot him1 so that when one day he met a little party of the servants of the new king ,ahaziah on the highway bound to ,ekron to consult ,baal-zebub1 they did not know who the prophet was and brought back his message to the king1 able only to say of him that he was a hairy man1 with a leather girdle about his loins4 ,but the king well knew that the ,tishbite had broken once more upon the stage of the nation's life1 and he bowed beneath the judgments of ,god that the man from ,gilead denounced4 ,then in the concluding chapter we see ,elijah and his young man coming down from ,gilgal to ,bethel and then to ,jericho and then back to the wilderness out of which he had come1 that from his own deserts where he had come to know ,god he might go back to ,god again4 ,and there in the chariot of fire the man who was himself 8the chariots of ,israel1 and the horsemen thereof10 went up to the ,lord ,god of ,israel1 ,who was alive1 to meet ,him before ,whom he had always stood4 ,one does not wonder that the old man impressed as he did the imagination of his people1 and that when centuries later ,john the ,baptist emerged upon the stage challenging the attention of the nation1 almost the first question addressed to him was1 8,art thou ,elijah80 ,and we have the secret of ,elijah's life given to us in these words with which he is introduced to us1 8,as the ,,lord ,god of ,israel liveth1 before whom ,i stand40 ,out there in the barrenness of the desert beyond the ,jordan1 ,elijah had come to believe in a ,god ,who was alive1 and before ,whom he lived his life4 ,the deserts have never bred polytheism4 ,the great polytheistic systems have sprung from the lush jungles of the tropics4 ,the great monotheisms have been born in the deserts4 ,and out on the lonely sands beyond the ,jordan1 beyond the hills and amid the great level places where there was no one but ,god1 ,elijah came to know that ,he was and to know that his life stood in ,him4 ,this was the principle of the man's lifethe consuming conviction of a living ,god and of the commission of ,his uncompromising service4 ,indeed we are not sure that we know ,elijah's name4 ,it is possible that the name by which we think we know him is only a pseudonym,elijah1 8,my ,god is ,jehovah40 ,it may be that from the very repetition of this phrase to which he was addicted1 8,the ,,lord ,god of ,israel1 before whom ,i stand10 men came at last to call him by the opening note of his message1 8the man of the living ,god40 ,now what that message meant to ,elijah was just this3 that the ,lord ,god was no dead force1 no unknown cause of things1 that the ,lord ,god was alive1 and that a man was to have dealings with ,him2 that a man's life was not his own personal and irresponsible experiment1 but a work to be done in front of ,god2 and that a man must reckon in all his thoughts1 in all his ways1 with ,one ,who lives1 and go out and do his work in the world in the consciousness of his relationship and his subjection to an active1 working1 personal ,god ,who would stand by him in the fire1 would uphold him before kings1 and carry him through to the end of each of his appointed tasks4 ,if there is one thing that we need to get clearly fixed in our own lives it is the matter of our attitude towards this infinite and unseen ,god ,who is alive4 ,this faith in a ,god ,who is alive1 before ,whose face a man is to live his life1 is no mere theory4 ,you cannot find any conviction that will more really mould and transform all our conduct and put uncompromising stiffness in it than the conviction that we are living our lives thus before the eyes of a ,god ,who observes4 ,in the life of ,thring of ,uppingham we are told of an incident that pleased him greatly4 ,it is a story that came to him regarding a little group of boys who were spending the summer in ,france4 ,a visitor saw these ,english schoolboys and overheard their conversation as to what they should do on ,sunday4 ,some of the boys were proposing a certain course of action1 and all seemed to agree until one fellow spoke up and said3 8,no1 ,i do not agree4 ,i will not do it40 ,and when the other lads urged him to come along1 he still insisted that he would not4 ,they asked him his reasons4 ,he said3 8,well1 ,thring would not like it1 and what ,thring would not like ,i do not intend to do40 8,well1 but ,thring isn't here10 they said2 8he's back at ,uppingham40 8,i do not care10 said the boy2 8,thring would not like it40 ,he believed that he was living in a real sense,i mean in the most real sense of all1 in the life of his personal willbefore the standards of his master1 and by those standards as in the light of his master's countenance he insisted that he would uncompromisingly live4 ,before the eyes of ,god a man will beware how he lives his life4 ,if he knows that this life of his can find no darkness where he can hide himself from ,god1 if he knows that all of his days are to be spent before ,his face1 that all his deeds are to be done beneath the gaze of ,god1 assuredly that will govern and control a man's decisions about his practical ways4 ,the consciousness of a living ,god will give direction to a man's moral life4 ,and it will not only give direction4 ,there is many a man among us who knows that the consciousness of a ,god ,who is alive not only gives determination and direction to his ways1 but puts a new power and inspiration in them4 ,a friend in ,new ,york tells a lovely story about a boy in one of the great ,english schools4 ,he was an only child1 and his mother died when he was but a little fellow4 ,between him and his father there grew up relations of the most delicate and sensitive intimacy4 ,the father was blind1 so that the little boy had to be his father's eyes1 and until the day came when the lad had to go away to school there was scarcely an hour when the two were separated4 ,but at last the time came and the boy went4 ,he became the best athlete in his school4 ,one spring1 just before the final game in which the boy was to bowl for his own school1 tidings came that his father was seriously ill and he must come home4 ,the news sent the whole school into lamentation1 for they were afraid that he might not recover and that if he did not the boy could not play in the concluding and critical game4 ,and indeed1 as it turned out1 the father died4 ,the day before the game was to be played the boy came back to school1 and1 to the amazement of all1 let it be known that he intended to play4 ,the next day he took his place and played as he had never played in his life before4 ,when at last the game was over and the school had won its triumph1 one of the masters came to the boy and expressed to him the delighted surprise of the school at what he had done and their amazement both that he had played at all and at the way he had played4 8,why10 said the boy1 8didn't you understand8 ,i wouldn't have missed it for anything4 ,that was the first game my father ever saw me play40 ,beneath the consciousness that for the first time his father's eyes were open and watching him the boy had discovered capacities of power that he hardly knew he possessed before4 ,beneath the eye of our ,father1 ,who is looking upon the game that we are playing1 where is the man that cannot play a better game1 who cannot draw on the reservoirs of power untouched before1 who cannot come out and do his work in the world and live his life with larger inspiration and strength1 with more dominion and sovereignty1 because he is living it before a ,god ,who is alive8 ,to such a man will compromise not seem a filial insult impossible except by a base degradation of the soul8 ,and not only did ,elijah's principle determine his conduct and pour inspiration into it2 it was this principle of a ,god ,who is alive that made him absolutely fearless4 ,he was not only unafraid of physical harm1 but he had none of that subtler fear that every man knowsthe fear that he himself will fail1 the fear that he cannot carry himself safely through4 ,what you and ,i are afraid of is not the things that are without2 our enemy is inside4 ,treachery within the walls is all that we need to dread1 and our deepest fear is of our own failure4 ,that was the great thing in ,elijah's life1 that he dared to stand on ,mount ,carmel1 before all that crowd of priests1 confident and fearless4 ,he knew he would prevail1 that he had not promised in vain that ,god would answer4 ,the man who knows that he is living his life before a ,god ,who is alive and doing his work in the name of a ,god ,who is alive is not afraid either of what men can do to him or of the failure that he may make himself4 ,there is a story in the life of ,dr4 ,schauffler that illustrates how to-day too men can rise into just such fearlessness4 ,the missionaries were being bothered a great deal in ,constantinople by ,russian machinations against the ,protestant missions in the empire1 and ,dr4 ,schauffler went to see the ,russian ambassador4 8,i might as well tell you now1 ,mr4 ,schauffler10 said the ambassador1 8that the ,emperor of ,russia1 who is my master1 will never allow ,protestantism to set its foot in ,turkey40 ,the old missionary looked at him for a moment and then replied3 8,your ,excellency1 the kingdom of ,christ1 who is my ,master1 will never ask the ,emperor of all the ,russias where it may set its foot40 ,and he went on with his mission unintimidated by any agencies working in the dark against him1 because he was confident that the living ,god ,whose work he was doing would achieve for him ,his own victory4 ,and we see in this story of ,elijah another thing that this great conviction will do for a man3 it will make a troubler of him4 8,art thou he10 said ,ahab when he met ,elijah in the midst of the great famine1 8art thou he that troubleth ,israel80 8,no10 said ,elijah2 8thou art he who troubles ,israel40 ,and yet they were both troubling ,israel1 the one with the iniquities into which he was leading the people1 the other because the principle of the living ,god dominating his life drove him as a great moral force against the evils of his time4 ,a man cannot live in a college or university with a faith that ,god is living and that he himself is living in front of ,god1 and be quiet before the moral iniquities and evils he will find4 ,it is not enough for a man to say1 8,i will simply be myself1 live my own clean life1 and let my silent influence count40 ,if his silent influence does not count1 no other influence of his will count4 ,but the silence is not enough4 ,a little while ago ,i copied from one of the letters of ,mandel ,creighton1 late ,bishop of ,london1 written to his boys who were away at school1 this bit of advice4 8,you will see1 then10 he writes to one son1 who had just been made a monitor in his school1 8you will see1 then1 that the chief influence of a monitor is in his example4 ,but this is the point on which ,i have seen many people deceive themselves4 ,they trust to what they call the force of silent example4 ,that is most pernicious4 ,if you content yourself with merely keeping school rules and doing what is right yourself and keeping out of the way of any fellows who you know are doing wrong1 or if you stand by and listen to them saying what they ought not1 without reproof1 you are doing wrong4 ,no1 that won't do4 ,it is part of the essence of good to fight against evil4 ,you must set your face strongly against all that is bad1 and must put down not only all that you find in the course of your walk1 but you must go out of your walk to find it in order to put it down40 ,there has been much complaint these last years because in high places in this land there have been men who were troublers of the nation4 ,the great need of the nation has been men who were prepared to make trouble in order that1 at last1 righteousness might come4 ,things that have thought themselves secure will be shaken2 long vested interests that have believed themselves to be sacred will have their sanctity scrutinized2 and men will come at last into their rights and their righteousness1 if we are prepared1 following the old ,tishbite1 to live our lives before the ,god ,who is alive4 ,and this same principle brings peace and quiet and tranquillity to men4 ,elijah shook once1 we know1 but only once4 ,every time we see him on the public stage1 no matter whom he is confronting,jezebel1 ,ahab1 ,obadiah1 ,ahaziahhe is standing with confident soul1 quiet and still4 ,we can be sure that if on that day at ,mount ,carmel we could have first mingled with those four hundred and fifty priests of ,baal who knew that their day of doom had come1 and then have gone over and stood by the side of the old man1 we should have found the old man the most quiet and placid person on the mountainside and his heart beat the calmest4 ,and we may be sure that we can go in the same tranquillity and calm and steadfastness in which the old ,tishbite lived1 if we will believe as deeply as he did in a ,lord ,god ,who is alive1 and will live our lives before ,his face with as little compromise and fear4 ,and it is a great conviction like this of ,elijah's that steadies men in the hour of their trial and that when they fall redeems them again4 ,the old prophet fell down4 ,he ran from a woman's threats1 and beneath the juniper tree and then on ,horeb1 he shook and was afraid4 ,but ,god1 ,who was alive before1 was alive still1 and ,he came to ,mount ,horeb1 where the man lay in his spiritual petulance and fear1 and ,he was not in the great wind1 and ,he was not in the great earthquake1 and ,he was not in the great fire1 but at last in the still small voice of life ,he spoke to ,elijah1 and ,elijah rose up on his feet once more and went out to complete his work in unfaltering triumph4 ,it works that way still4 ,there is a letter of ,abraham ,lincoln1 the original of which is preserved in the state capitol at ,albany4 ,it is a letter ,lincoln wrote granting a pardon to a deserter4 ,,executive ,,mansion1 ,,washington1 ,october #d1 #ahfd4 ,upon condition that ,roswell ,mc,intyre of ,company ,e1 ,sixth ,regiment of ,new ,york ,cavalry1 returns to his regiment and faithfully serves out his term1 making up for lost time1 or until otherwise lawfully discharged1 he is fully pardoned for any supposed desertion heretofore committed2 and this paper is his pass to go to his regiment4 ,,abraham ,,lincoln4 ,on the side of it is indorsed3 8,quartermaster's ,office1 ,new ,york ,city1 ,october #bb1 #ahfd4 ,transportation furnished to ,baltimore1 ,maryland4 ,h4 ,brownson02 and at the bottom in a different hand is this indorsement3 8,taken from the body of ,r4 ,mc,intyre at the ,battle of ,five ,forks1 ,virginia1 #ahfe40 ,so he went back and died like a man1 with his pardon on his person4 ,and to-day1 to the coward and the deserter and the traitor1 the man who has compromised and the man who has run away1 the same ,lord ,god ,who set ,elijah on his feet is speaking1 and ,he is able to send him back to be faithful1 even unto death4 ,thanks be to a ,god ,who does not compromise and ,who is still alive4 ,,lecture ,v ,,the ,,life ,,invisible ,it is interesting to note two contrary tendencies in the current appraisal of spiritual values in ,america4 ,on the one hand there is what has been called1 not altogether happily1 the tendency of ethical materialism4 ,in its best form it is simply a demand for reality1 the renewal of the old words1 8,by their fruits ye shall know them40 8,show me thy faith by thy works40 ,in its less worthy forms it is the effort to eliminate spiritual expression and formal religion from areas of life where these have been most familiar4 ,illustrations in extreme forms abound4 ,we are told now that in charity love has nothing to do with the matter1 that the introduction of religious sentiment is only mischievous and misleading1 that the issue is one purely of proper economic principle and organization4 ,it is a question of employment for the unemployed1 or of calculating accurately the amount of need1 counting the hungry mouths and fixing the quantity of bread1 and then determining scientifically how much of the bread the hungry should earn1 and how much society through appropriate and unsentimental machinery should supply4 ,in medical philanthropy the new idea is that ideas have nothing to do with it4 ,the good ,samaritan1 we are told1 did not give the wounded man a tract or say anything to him about the religious views or motives of his benefactor4 ,he was satisfied to heal his skin and stop at that4 ,let the chaplains depart from the hospitals4 ,and so also in social service4 ,the legitimate work is to improve the culinary methods of the neighbourhood1 to provide innocent games and sports1 to secure more adequate food supplies for living bodies and to assist in the burial of dead ones2 but ,christ must not be mentioned1 and religious issues must not be raised4 ,these are extreme illustrations1 but they are perfectly familiar1 and the tendency they represent is indisputable4 ,in this view our ,lord1 of course1 was far astray when ,he talked to ,his disciples by ,jacob's well about having meat to eat which they knew not4 8,meat60 say our modern ethical materialists4 8,meat is meatbeef or bread4 ,it is not a metaphor4 ,meat that is a metaphor is a mockery40 ,well1 it would be if it were offered for food to a hungry man1 but it is not a mockery to the man who would go hungry to feed the hungry4 ,and the whole modern question is not between those who would give real meat to the hungry and those who would give only metaphorical meat4 ,it is between those who want to deal with people's skins only and those who mean to deal both with their skins and with their souls1 between those who conceive of man as mainly belly and back and those to whom our real life is the life invisible4 ,it is a very curious phenomenon1 this exclusion of ,christian ideas from the very area which they created4 ,for all this charity and philanthropy and social service were produced by the ideas of ,christianity4 ,and now the fruit says to the vine and to the inward life1 8,i have no need of thee40 ,of course not all the fruit says this4 ,some of it only says1 8,vine and inward life1 there is a prejudice against you4 ,you would do well to conceal yourself4 ,i will pretend to be the real thing40 ,but some of the fruit has gone further4 8,i am the real thing10 it says4 8,i know more than ,james4 ,faith must not only show works3 works are faith4 ,there is no need of metaphysics or creeds4 ,deeds are religion4 ,the only wealth is tangible wealth1 things handled1 works seen1 bread out of the ground1 not down from heaven4 ,meat that the disciples could not see is too pallid for this earth4 ,man is his skin and the bag which it contains1 and religion must understand this40 ,at the same time that this suicidal tendency is operating in the field of man's highest values seeking to destroy his standards and to discredit the title-deeds of all his greatest treasures1 a precisely contrary tendency is acting in commerce and politics1 in the field of man's lower values4 ,while men are busy on the one hand in the effort to materialize the spiritual wealth which ,christianity has produced1 other men are seeking with a new earnestness to spiritualize our material wealth4 ,as education1 science1 philanthropy1 surrenders the spiritual vision and ideal1 trade and politics clutch after it4 ,never before in the history of the world has there been such an effort as there is to-day to idealize nationalism1 to build up spiritual conceptions behind the ,state1 to make racial feeling a religion4 ,if some men think that religious values and spiritual ideas and so-called 8metaphysical0 notions can be spared from charity and social service1 other men are striving with all their might to secure all this rejected mass of vitality and power for patriotism and the national life4 ,and the same spiritualizing and idealizing tendency is even more evident in commerce and finance4 ,wealth becomes less and less material4 ,in primitive times riches consisted in flocks and herds and land and in actual gold and silver bullion or coins which their owner put in a crock and buried in his house4 ,now wealth consists in credit and securities1 in figures written on a ledger in a bank1 or in scraps of paper in a tin box4 ,the world's work is done with little visible wealth4 ,our new banking system is meant for this very purpose1 to provide immaterial instrumentalities4 ,millions of dollars are transported invisibly4 ,by a cable message or a message through the air untold wealth that was in ,london can be made to appear in ,new ,york4 ,and all these intangible forms of wealth are exceeded in the judgment of the late ,mr4 ,j4 ,p4 ,morgan by the credit of character1 something still more 8metaphysical40 ,the spiritualization of the material keeps pace on one side with the materialization of the spiritual on the other4 ,however clear or foggy our ideas on these issues may be now1 viewing them as present issues1 we cannot fail to see sharply the indisputable facts of the past4 ,looking backward we simply do not discern and cannot remember the visible and outward values or possessors of values at all4 ,where is the actual material wealth of earlier days1 the flocks1 the gold and silver1 the palaces8 ,the amazing thing is that it is all gone4 ,the gold and silver which ,rome gathered from the world1 which went home to ,spain in the days of the ,conquistadores1 where is it all now8 ,where are those who boasted it and built their fame or power on it8 ,shelley tells us in his sonnet1 8,ozymandias10 8,i met a traveller from an antique land ,who said1 #8,two vast and trunkless legs of stone ,stand in the desert4 ,near them1 on the sand ,half sunk1 a shattered visage lies1 whose frown ,and wrinkled lip1 and sneer of cold command ,tell that its sculptor well those passions read ,which yet survive1 stamped on those lifeless things1 ,the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed3 ,and on the pedestal these words appear3 8,my name is ,ozymandias1 king of kings1 ,look on my works1 ye ,mighty1 and despair60 ,nothing beside remains4 ,round the decay ,of that colossal wreck1 boundless and bare1 ,the lone and level sands stretch far away4'0 ,and what befell ,ozymandias' image has befallen almost all the works of the ancients' hands4 ,a few of their temples remain1 and the arches of their viaducts and some of the images of their public worship and of their national ideals4 ,but their wealth and the treasure houses which they kept it in and the palaces of their pleasure and the cities of their pride are gone4 ,i never felt more keenly the tragedy and the truth of this utter transitoriness and insecurity of all national glory than looking over the massive ruins of the palace of the ,chosroes kings at ,kasr-i-,shirin4 ,all of ,browning's 8,love ,among the ,ruins0 seemed to be there in mute evidence before one's eyes3 8,where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles ,miles and miles ,on the solitary pastures where our sheep ,half-asleep ,tinkle homeward through the twilight1 stray or stop ,as they crop ,was the site once of a city great and gay1 7,so they say7 ,of our country's very capital1 its prince ,ages since ,held his court in1 gathered councils1 wielding far ,peace or war4 8,now1the country does not even boast a tree1 ,as you see1 ,to distinguish slopes of verdure1 certain rills ,from the hills ,intersect and give a name to1 7else they run ,into one17 ,where the domed and daring palace shot its spires ,up like fires ,o'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall ,bounding all1 ,made of marble1 men might march on nor be pressed1 ,twelve abreast4 8,and such plenty and perfection1 see1 of grass ,never was6 ,such a carpet as1 this summer-time1 o'erspreads ,and embeds ,every vestige of the city1 guessed alone1 ,stock or stone ,where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe ,long ago2 ,lust of glory pricked their hearts up1 dread of shame ,struck them tame2 ,and that glory and that shame alike1 the gold ,bought and sold4 8,now1the single little turret that remains ,on the plains1 ,by the caper overrooted1 by the gourd ,overscored1 ,while the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks ,through the chinks ,marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time ,sprang sublime4 ,and a burning ring1 all round1 the chariots traced ,as they raced1 ,and the monarch and his minions and his dames ,viewed the games40 ,all this is gone4 ,the only wealth of the past which has survived is such as ,christ referred to4 8,i have meat to eat that ye know not of40 ,the ideas and the literature which enshrined them alone remain4 ,not the manuscripts4 ,they are gone1 as though ,god would show in the most vivid way ,his scorn of the visible and earth's 8real40 ,not one original page of ,plato exists4 ,but ,plato's mind is here still4 ,the kings are gone4 ,but ,isaiah and ,jeremiah1 the men of the inward resources1 spokesmen and ministers of the invisible life1 abide4 8,the tumult and the shouting dies ,the captains and the kings depart ,still stands ,thine against sacrifice ,a humble and a contrite heart40 ,and the issue is clear enough when we look at it concretely to-day and contrast the men who have the inward resources with those who have not1 the movements which are fed from deep ideal springs with those which deal skin-deep only with humanity4 ,in one of our ,american cities the president of a large institution was shelved in the prime of life by younger and less conservative men who acquired control of the business4 ,they treated the older man well1 gave him the nominal headship with his former salary1 but really transferred all the power to other men4 ,it was the chance of a lifetime for the older man4 ,he had his strength and his time for any service or ministry or pleasure he might choose4 ,but the only meat which he had to eat was the management of the business1 and accordingly he starved to death in a fine home and with a large salary4 ,all that the bag of his body needed he had1 but man cannot live by bread alone without a word from ,god4 ,the ,tinker of ,bedford ,jail heard the key turn in the lock behind him4 ,and did he famish alone8 ,he opened the gate of his house within and out they came,christian and ,great-,heart and ,hopeful and ,evangelist and ,mercy and ,dare-to-,dieand the loneliness of ,john ,bunyan's cell became the greatest society on earth1 and the immortals who marched out of the wealth of his soul are the companions of millions who could not name one human being who was ,bunyan's contemporary4 ,the rich men who have transmitted real wealth have been the lovers1 the dreamers1 the servers who ate bread at ,god's hands and who knew and taught men that the life is more than meat and the body than raiment4 8,she was not daily bread10 wrote her niece of ,emily ,dickinson4 8,she was star dust40 ,this above all was characteristic of ,christ4 ,part of our ,lord's preminence of nature and of achievement was the untold wealth of ,his inward resources4 ,no philanthropist or social worker ever lived who was ,his equal in all that our ethical materialists admire and praise4 ,but behind all this and as explaining all this ,he had meat to eat that men knew not1 thoughts of ,god1 ideas of origin and destiny1 of whence ,he came and whither ,he was going1 fellowship1 purposes1 a spiritual program4 ,his wealth was an inward1 a communicable and eternal treasure4 ,it nourished ,him and was for all men4 8,i have meat to eat10 said ,he4 8,who brought it to ,him80 asked they4 8,a primrose by the river's brim a yellow primrose0 was to them2 and it was nothing more4 ,meat was meat1 mutton or beef to ,his disciples4 ,but to ,him the primrose was a volume of revelation4 ,meat was very life of ,god within ,his soul4 ,language to ,christ was windows into the wealth of the eternities and the infinites4 ,to men it was words4 ,his discernment of latent values in men made ,him a rich man wherever ,he found a fellow4 ,he had cargoes of redeemable character afloat on the wide waters of mankind1 and these ,he was forever drawing home4 ,men brought ,him a sinner1 flotsam of ,galilee2 and ,jesus saw ,himself rich with the latent life of ,peter of ,pentecost1 victor of the gates of hell4 ,the stained hand of the ,samaritan concubine became under ,his faith purified to bear the chalice of the life of ,god4 ,he had more wealth latent in human character than ,crsus ever dreamed of4 ,his universalism1 also1 made ,him rich with all the wealth of humanity4 ,all around ,him men choked and died in the stifling air of racial exclusion and prejudice4 ,he lived in the whole free world4 ,thinking in terms of all mankind and all the ages makes the thinker rich beyond all the dreams of any racial avarice or national pride4 ,but above all ,his meat was simply this3 to walk with ,god1 to do the will of ,god and to accomplish ,his work4 ,his life was in ,god's will1 ,his strength in ,god's companionship4 ,he lived powerfully among men because ,he dwelt deeply in ,god4 ,his wealth was not herds and gold1 nor bonds and credits1 nor deeds2 but the power to do deeds in the might and pity of ,god4 ,and the inward resources of ,christ which are true wealth are accessible also to us2 and not accessible only1 but indispensable4 ,we need not set much store by what the world calls wealth4 ,its one worthy use is as capital for human service2 and ,christ who had none of it here still did and inspired more service than all the world's capital has performed4 ,louis ,pasteur was living on a salary of a few hundred francs4 ,all that he did was to examine with a microscope things infinitesimally small and to reflect upon them1 and then in his laboratory to write down and send forth some new ideas4 ,the practical men derided his 8pure science10a mere student of theories1 spinner of silk dreams thinner than the filaments of the silkworms of southern ,france4 ,but ,pasteur's thoughts were the richest source of wealth in ,france4 8,pasteur's discoveries alone10 said ,huxley1 8would suffice to cover the war indemnity paid by ,france to ,germany in #ahgj40c ,true wealth is inward resources1 the love of ,god's world1 of truth and holy thoughts1 friendship with the living and the dead1 the possession of the ,son of ,god and ,his words which are spirit and life1 and of ,his ,spirit 8whom the world cannot receive2 for it beholdeth ,him not1 neither knoweth ,him2 ye know ,him2 for ,he abideth with you1 and shall be in you40 #c ,vallery-,radot1 8,life of ,pasteur10 popular edition1 p4 #cgd4 ,and all this wealth may be ours without going anywhere for it4 ,no man brought it to ,him4 8,i have meat10 ,he said4 ,so ,he calls us to be rich4 ,we do not need to go anywhere for it4 ,no man needs to bring it to us4 ,it is here4 ,it is ,himselfthe ,bread of ,life4 ,can we also say1 8,i have itmeat to eat1 of the world unknown1 within my soul1 within my soul08 ,to be able to say that is our great ,american need4 ,i will not say that it is a greater need now than it has ever been because we have deteriorated and need to recover the element of spiritual idealism in our national character4 ,we have not deteriorated4 ,doubtless we have lost many things that it would have been well for us to have kept1 and have kept much that it would have been better to lose4 ,but we have gained in our perception of the higher values and we seek them more and not less than ever before4 ,we are far from being what we ought to be1 but the past was farther1 and we only think otherwise because we clothe the past in mists of idealization4 ,that very error is proof of our deeper spiritual discerning4 ,evils are challenged now which passed uncondemned a half generation ago4 ,but though we have gained1 we need to gain more1 and what we need to gain is not something sthetic or intellectual only1 not broader philosophies or wider social programs1 not anything external or merely ethical1 but something biological and dynamic4 ,we need the push and power of what ,one and ,one only offers4 8,the thief cometh not10 said ,christ1 8but that he may steal1 and kill1 and destroy3 ,i came that they may have life1 and may have it abundantly40 ,not long before his death1 as all remember1 the late ,mr4 ,morgan was summoned to testify before a congressional committee which was seeking to locate the seat of the money power4 ,the object of those examining ,mr4 ,morgan was to bring out the extent of his own influence and control1 and to show1 if possible1 that in the hands of a few men was concentrated the real domination of the financial life of ,america4 ,the popular impression1 after the examination was over1 was that ,mr4 ,morgan's modest disavowals were justified by all the testimony1 and that there was no one person1 or any group of individuals1 in this country who possessed so much power as was supposed to reside in the hands of a little company of men4 ,now1 at the best1 there was no question of creating or producing anything4 ,nobody thought of asking ,mr4 ,morgan whether he could create a grain of wheat1 or heal a disease1 or bring into existence anything that was not already here4 ,the main question was how much of something that was here already was he1 or any other man1 able to control4 ,as one read the testimony1 the one dominant impression it made on his mind was how small and weak and ineffectual even the strongest human life was1 and how little was the effect that it could produce in what it was able to do in behalf of others4 ,how weak does even the strongest personality appear when contrasted with ,one ,who can say such words as these ,i have just quoted6 ,suppose some great man now living were to say to us3 8,come unto me1 all ye that labour and are heavy laden1 and ,i will give you rest4 ,if any man thirst1 let him come unto me1 and drink4 ,i am come that they may have life1 and may have it abundantly10 how startled we should be6 ,but we have become familiar with the claim on the lips of ,christ and do not realize what we are really confronted with in that single great ,personality standing among men and offering to meet the ultimate human need1 to give us the deepest1 richest1 most priceless thing in the world1 which no one of us can give another4 8,i am come that ye may have life1 and that ye may have it abundantly40 ,and notice that here is not a claim only4 ,there is a strange and startling contrast4 8,the thief cometh to steal1 and to kill1 and to destroy3 ,i am come that ye may have life40 ,on the one side is our ,lord4 ,him we know4 ,but who is this thief on the other side who has come1 not to give life1 but to reduce it1 contract it1 dilute itdestroy it altogether8 ,well1 we know well enough that sin is such a thief1 that wherever sin is allowed to come into our lives it abridges those lives1 draws in the walls of their expansion1 cuts down and impoverishes their joys4 ,and there are many things short of sin1 less coarse and evil1 which1 nevertheless1 draw in the boundaries of life1 narrow and stifle it1 and do the work of the thief who came to kill1 and to destroy1 and to steal4 ,over against all these ,he stands ,who said3 8,i came to give life1 to give it abundantly40 ,now we know very well what men and women say when you bring them this offer of ,christ's about ,his life4 8,oh10 they say1 8it all depends upon what you mean by life4 ,i have my own idea of life4 ,the life ,i am living is rich and satisfying to me1 and ,i am not drawn to this life that your tepid religion offers me in exchange40 ,but are those who answer so fully satisfied8 ,are they really satisfied at all with any part of their life except such of it as consists of the kind of life that ,jesus ,christ our ,lord ,himself came to bring1 with which alone the hearts of men can be content8 ,what do we mean when we speak of life that really satisfies us8 ,i asked some boys a little while ago what they meant when they spoke about life1 real life that would satisfy men4 ,four were boys at the ,hill ,school1 ,pottstown1 ,pa4 ,they sat down and collaborated for a while as to what real life meant to them1 and when they got through it came to this3 ,purity1 integrity1 the principle of ,christian service1 unselfishness1 and the desire to be perfect4 ,i asked another man at ,princeton what life meant to him1 real life4 ,he was one of the best athletes in the college1 and this was the answer he gave3 ,humility1 charitableness1 bravery1 strength of conviction1 honesty1 sincerity1 truthfulness and the power to forgive4 ,i asked a man at ,yale what he thought life was4 ,he was the most popular man in the senior class at that time4 ,this was what he wrote down3 8,service after the manner of ,jesus1 honesty carried all the way through1 sympathy1 capacity for work1 patience in holding to principle1 as well as fidelity in actual duty40 ,now if we were to define life better than these boys1 and yet in the way they were feeling after1 not in any concrete expressions1 but in its central principle1 we should borrow the words which ,professor ,drummond borrowed from ,herbert ,spencer4 ,spencer said that the perfect correspondence of any organism with its environment would be perfect life4 ,professor ,drummond modified this by adding just one word3 the perfect correspondence of any organism with a perfect environment would be perfect life4 ,or1 to put it as it is stated in one of our best dictionaries3 life is that state in any animal or plant in which its different functions are all occupied in active healthy expression4 ,now that is just what those boys were feeling after4 ,life is the free and fearless completion of ourselves4 ,life is our utter unfolding in the direction of that of which we are capable4 ,life is the pushing out of the rim of our world into the great and boundless riches of ,god4 ,life is the opening up of the gates of our prison house that we may go after ,him ,whose word to men was3 8,if ye abide in my word1 then are ye truly my disciples2 and ye shall know the truth1 and the truth shall make you free40 ,life is what ,jesus ,christ came to give1 for ,his mission was this3 8,the thief came to steal1 and to kill1 and to destroy4 ,i am come that they may have life1 and may have it abundantly40 ,one great purpose of the ,incarnation was to show what we are in our deepest being in the purpose of ,god1 and what we are capable of4 ,our ,lord did not come to parade before men the exceptional life to which they could never attain4 ,he came1 as ,he ,himself said1 to show them what it had been ,his ,father's will that they should all be4 8,as my ,father hath sent me1 even so send ,i you40 8,i go unto my ,father1 and your ,father2 and to my ,god1 and your ,god40 ,what ,jesus ,christ was in the fullness of ,his unlimited life was the revealing of what ,god has in ,his will for every one of us4 ,the amplitudes that we see in ,him1 the subsidence of all the petty boundaries1 the unhampered outgoing of ,his free spirit in the area of ,his ,father1 ,god1all that is just a picture of what ,god meant the life of each one of us to be4 ,that is why they called ,him the ,son of ,man1 because ,he was the picture of what ,god had meant that ,his son1 man1 might be4 ,and ,christ came1 not only to show the possibilities of such being1 of what men could do and what they could be made1 but to be ,himself that expression of power in them competent to effect such a result1 the tide of the boundless life flowing through all the channels that they could offer to ,him4 ,he came to be in mankind the deep1 flowing stream of a new life4 ,one regrets to find in some churches to-day in the repetition of the ,apostles' ,creed the omission of the sentence3 8,he descended into hell40 ,there is no word in the ,creed which expresses more fully the uttermost reach of the purpose of our ,lord and the scope and boundlessness of ,his love4 ,down even into hell ,he went in the utterance of ,his love for mankind4 ,how much this means6 ,but to say no more1 it means this1 that deep into the dark of our human life ,he came1 that there1 below all sight1 below all thought1 ,he might release the vital streams that have been flowing from the fountain of ,calvary ever since1 and which have no other fountain4 ,we know what would happen in our bodies1 to put it simply1 if some great artery that fed our life were tied4 ,atrophy and palsy would creep at once over our unnourished frames4 ,precisely the same thing is true in the deeper life of our souls1 if the arteries1 those channels through which ,christ would pour ,his energy and strength and power1 are tied4 ,to put the same thing still more simply3 ,suppose the ,mississippi ,river instead of running into the ,gulf ran out of the ,gulf deep into the land4 ,suppose all of the rivers poured into the land instead of into the seas4 ,as a matter of fact1 that is in one sense what they do4 ,we have got long past looking at rivers as drains for the land4 ,we know that they are arteries through which the life-blood of the seas flows upon the land by way of the skies4 ,and suppose there were no ,mississippi ,river4 ,suppose it were stopped at the gate4 ,what a chill and death would fall upon the land6 ,and how often that life of ,christ which comes up to the gates of men's lives is stifled1 the stream that would pour in kept out1 the power that would control and remake blocked at the door through which it would enter4 8,the thief is come10 ,he says1 8and you let him in1 to kill1 and to steal1 and to destroy2 ,i am come1 and you keep ,me out4 ,and ,i am come that you may have life1 and that you may have it in all the abundance of ,god40 ,and we know that this life of ,christ is real and abundant life because it fulfills the tests of life4 ,it is a life of fullness in all its correspondences and relationships4 ,it completes life to the uttermost of its possibilities1 setting it in all those ties with that which is outside of it1 which constitute life4 ,for1 after all1 there is no separable life4 ,all the life that we know is relationship4 ,our ,lord defined it in such terms in ,his great prayer3 8,this is life eternal1 that they might know thee the only true ,god1 and ,jesus ,christ1 whom thou hast sent40 ,life can only be construed in terms of correspondence4 ,we know that the life ,christ came to give1 and does give1 is the satisfying and real life1 because it meets these testings4 ,it gives us this wealth of correspondence of relationship4 8,oh1 the pure delight of a single hour1 ,that before ,thy ,cross ,i spend1 ,when ,i kneel in prayer1 and with ,thee1 my ,god1 ,i commune as friend with friend40 ,we know that the life ,christ brings is complete and full1 because it restablishes the tie and union between ourselves and ,god1 and ,he becomes to us again our ,father and our ,friend4 ,we know it1 because it is the root of all deep and true and satisfying human relationships4 ,how can there be a real and full union of one man and one woman that is not a union in ,christ8 ,and for the highest friendship and its ideals we find sanction and nourishment best in ,him and the groundwork of ,his life4 ,and ,christ's is the real and satisfying life1 because it is creative and energizing4 ,it is not like the influence of that thiefselfishness1 low desire1 sin and small ambitionwho kills and steals and destroys4 ,but the life that ,christ is teems with vitalizing power2 it is strength and energy and new service in men4 ,i have never seen it more beautifully put than in a letter of ,stanley to ,david ,livingstone4 ,it was found by ,lady ,stanley in a little pocketbook which her husband had carried on the expedition for the relief of ,livingstone4 ,it was written in lead pencil4 ,it was a copy of the letter that ,stanley had written to the great explorer the very day after he left him4 ,it has sometimes been questioned whether ,livingstone really made on ,stanley the impression which ,stanley describes in his autobiography4 ,there have been those who said that that picture was but the reading back over the intervening years of a growing hero worship4 ,but here is the letter which ,stanley wrote as he came fresh from the old missionary's companionship and the inspiration of his personality3 8,,my ,,dear ,,doctor3 8,i have parted from you all too soon2 ,i feel it deeply2 ,i am entirely conscious of it from being so depressed4444 ,in writing to you1 ,i am not writing to an idea now1 but to an embodiment of warm1 good fellowship1 of everything that is noble and right1 of sound common sense1 of everything practical and right-minded4 8,i have talked with you2 your presence is almost palpable1 though you are absent4444 8,it seems as if ,i had left a community of friends and relations4 ,the utter loneliness of myself1 the void that has been created1 the pang at parting1 the bleak aspect of the future1 is the same as ,i have felt before1 when parting from dear friends4 8,why should people be subjected to these partings1 with the several sorrows and pangs that surely follow them8,it is a consolation1 however1 after tearing myself away1 that ,i am about to do you a service1 for then ,i have not quite parted from you2 you and ,i are not quite separate4 ,though ,i am not present to you bodily1 you must think of me daily until your caravan arrives4 ,though you are not before me visibly1 ,i shall think of you constantly1 until your least wish has been attended to4 ,in this way the chain of remembrance will not be severed4 8#8,not yet1' ,i say to myself1 #8are we apart1' and this to me1 dear ,doctor1 is consoling1 believe me4 ,had ,i a series of services to perform for you1 why then6 we should never have to part4 8,do not fear then1 ,i beg1 to ask1 nay1 to command1 whatever lies in my power4 ,and do not1 ,i beg of you1 attribute these professions to interested motives1 but accept them1 or believe them1 in the spirit in which they are made1 in that true ,david ,livingstone spirit ,i have happily become acquainted with40 ,and out from that lonely spot in eastern ,africa1 the younger man came to begin a new career2 all the old aimlessness and shiftlessness and drifting gone forever from his life1 to pass on now to lift up the mission which1 beneath the dripping eaves of the hut in which he died1 ,david ,livingstone laid down4 ,the tide of a new life and a new service was in him4 8,i came that ye may have life1 and that ye may have it abundantly40 ,he had seen ,christ and felt the contagion of the life of ,christ in ,livingstone1 and ,christ's word1 articulate or inarticulate1 had come to live in him4 ,and that life is life in the power and desire to serve4 ,this life that ,christ came to give is the only real and satisfying life1 because it alone endures4 ,we gather at ,northfield each summer and always go up to read afresh the brief inscription on ,mr4 ,moody's grave on ,round ,top1 8,the world passeth away1 and the lust thereof2 but he that doeth the will of ,god abideth forever40 ,we sing the same great truth constantly in ,george ,matheson's hymn3 8,i lay in dust life's glory dead1 ,and from the ground there blossoms red ,life that shall endless be40 ,i wrote the other day to a friend about her sister-in-law's death1 and this was the last sentence of the letter which she wrote in reply3 8,i do not know if he0that was her brother8told you how beautiful it was at the last2 how ,s's face lighted up with such an expression of surprise and adoration1 with her eyes open to their fullest extent1 and then it was all over4 ,only a glimpse into the life that was not to end could have brought such a look to a human face40 8,and that life10 said ,he ,who was the life1 8,i brought with ,me and will give to you40 ,let us lift our hearts to the life that shall endless be1 to the liberty on which there never lay a chain1 to the light of the land that hath no need of any sun1 because the 8,lamb is the light thereof10 the land of the new morning and the tearless life4 ,the thief comethlet him not come in6only to kill1 and to steal1 and to destroy4 8,i am come1 and ,i stand at the door and ask you now to let ,me in1 that you may have life abundantly40 ,as these lectures close ,i would press all this in the most earnest and personal terms upon each one individually4 ,the processes of social and moral progress in humanity are retarded or broken down because they are not carried on a volume of adequate spiritual life in men4 ,there ought to be a ,kingdom of ,living ,love and ,brotherly ,will on the earth4 ,and some day there will be1 but there is not now and there cannot be until the anemia of man is healed1 and it can be healed in only one wayby more life in man1 by life abounding in men4 ,the commercial and materialistic solution of the world's problem has been fully tried4 ,for a generation it has been preached and practiced as the one saving gospel and out of the depths to which it brought us we begin to turn heavenward again4 ,the day for a new creed has dawnedthe old creed of truth and hope and freedom and life1 of the wealth and glory of a city unseen as yet1 hid in the heavens and only possible on the earth as drawn down by men to whom the invisible things are the surest of all realities and who live and are strong in ,god4 ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america 99 99 99 99 99 ,,inspiration ,,for ,,men ,,robert ,w4 ,,bolwell ,after ,college,what8 #abmo1 cloth1 net #ge;c4 ,a protest1 in the form of autobiographical chapters1 against dawdling through college4 ,the author is sprightly and readable1anything but preachybut does put some very wholesome and helpful facts in such form as to grip the reader4 ,,halford ,e4 ,,luccock ,five-,minute ,shop-,talks #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 ,one of the best things of its kind yet issued4 ,in each of these thirty or more brief addresses1 ,mr4 ,luccock employs terse1 epigrammatic language and contrives to compress into a five-minute talk the wisdom and counsel of a fifty-minute sermon4 ,every word is made to tellto tell something worth hearing and heeding4 ,,charles ,,carroll ,,albertson ,chapel ,talks ,a ,collection of ,sermons to ,college ,students4 #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 ,practical discourses on essential subjects delivered in various colleges and universities1 including ,columbia1 ,cornell1 ,dartmouth1 ,princeton1 ,yale1 and ,virginia4 ,no one of these sermons required more than twenty-five minutes to deliver4 ,they are characterized by earnest argument1 familiar illustrations and forceful appeal4 ,,cortlandt ,,myers1 ,d4 ,d4 ,author of 8,real ,prayer10 8,the ,real ,holy ,spirit10 etc4 ,the ,man ,inside ,a ,study of ,one's ,self4 ,by ,minister at ,tremont ,temple1 ,boston4 #abmo1 cloth1 net #ej;c4 ,a four-fold study of the inner life of a man1 in which the popular pastor of ,tremont ,temple1 discusses the forces that make him1 lift him1 save him1 and move him4 ,the book is prepared in bright1 interesting fashion1 and abundantly furnished with suitable and forceful illustration4 ,,john ,t4 ,,faris ,popular-,price ,editions ,the 8,success ,books0 ,three ,vols4 each1 formerly #a4be net4 ,now each #fj;c4 net 7postage extra74 ,seeking ,success ,men ,who ,made ,good ,making ,good ,dr4 ,j4 ,r4 ,miller says3 8,bright and short and full of illustrations from actual life1 they are just the sort that will help young men in the home in school among associates and in business40 ,,biography ,,charles ,g4 ,,trumbull ,anthony ,comstock1 ,fighter ,illustrated1 #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4be4 ,an authorized biography of this great fighter for purity4 ,the story is one of life-and-death adventure1 moral and physical heroism1 and incomparable achievement4 ,during the thirty years in which ,mr4 ,comstock has been working for the suppression of vice he has destroyed over #dc tons of vile books1 #bh1dbe pounds of stereotype plates1 two and a half million obscene pictures and #ab1ide negatives4 ,the detailed account of how all this was done is a most thrilling and remarkable story4 ,,frank ,j4 ,,cannon,,dr4 ,,george ,l4 ,,knapp ,brigham ,young and ,his ,mormon ,empire ,illustrated1 #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ej4 ,ex-,senator ,cannon's personal acquaintance with this apostle of the ,mormon ,church and his knowledge of the religion and the people gained by having been born and brought up in the heart of ,mormondom1 give more than usual authority and interest to this biography4 ,this life story of the man who founded a ,mohammedan kingdom in a puritan republic sets forth in true perspective1 in impartial and unbiased manner1 the facts about one of the most romantic and interesting characters in ,american history4 ,,frances ,,willard ,frances ,willard3 ,her ,life and ,her ,work ,by ,ray ,strachey4 ,with an ,introduction by ,lady ,henry ,somerset4 ,illustrated1 #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ej4 ,a notable new life of the great temperance advocate written by an ,english woman from an entirely new standpoint4 ,mrs4 ,strachey1 the granddaughter of the author of 8,a ,christian's ,secret of a ,happy ,life10 had immediate access to ,miss ,willard's letters1 journals and papers1 and the benefit of her grandmother's advice and knowledge4 ,israel ,zangwill says of the book1 8,a masterpiece of condensation1 an adequate biography of perhaps the greatest woman ,america has produced4 ,nobody can read this book without becoming braver1 better1 wiser40 ,,mrs4 ,s4 ,,moore ,,sites ,nathan ,sites3 ,introduction by ,bishop ,w4 ,f4 ,mc,dowell4 ,oriental ,hand-,painted ,illustrations1 gilt top1 net #a4ej4 ,this is one of the notable books of the year4 ,china looms large in current political and religious interest1 so that this life story of one who for nearly half a century has been closely identified with social and religious reform in that country must have a large place in current literature4 ,,questions ,,of ,,the ,,faith ,,james ,h4 ,,snowden1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,psychology of ,religion #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ej4 ,psychology is one of the most rapidly advancing of modern sciences1 and ,dr4 ,snowden's book will find a ready welcome4 ,while especially adapted for the use of ministers and teachers1 it is not in any sense an ultra-academic work4 ,this is evidenced by the fact that the material forming it has been delivered not only as a successful ,summer ,school course1 but in the form of popular lectures1 open to the general public4 ,,william ,,hallock ,,johnson1 ,ph4,d41 ,d4,d4 ,professor of ,greek and ,new ,testament ,literature in ,lincoln ,university1 ,pa4 ,the ,christian ,faith under ,modern ,searchlight ,the ,l4 ,p4 ,stone ,lectures1 ,princeton4 ,introduction by ,francis ,l4 ,patton1 ,d4,d4 ,cloth1 net #a4be4 ,the faith which is to survive must not only be a traditional but an intelligent faith which has its roots in reason and experience and its blossom and fruit in character and good works4 ,to this end1 the author examines the fundamentals of the ,christian belief in the light of to-day and reaches the conclusion that every advance in knowledge establishes its sovereign claim to be from heaven and not from men4 ,,andrew ,w4 ,,archibald1 ,d4,d4 ,author of 8,the ,bible ,verified10 8,the ,trend of the ,centuries10 etc4 ,the ,modern ,man ,facing the ,old ,problems #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 ,a thoughtful1 ably-conducted study in which those problems of human life1 experience and destiny1 which1 in one form or another1 seem recurrent in every age1 are examined from what may be called a ,biblical viewpoint4 ,that is to say1 the author by its illuminating rays1 endeavors to find elucidation and solution for the difficulties1 which in more or less degree1 perplex believer and unbeliever alike4 ,,nolan ,,rice ,,best ,editor of 8,the ,continent0 ,applied ,religion for ,everyman #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 8,nolan ,rice ,best has earned a well-deserved reputation in the religious press of ,america1 as a writer of virile1 trenchantly-phrased editorials4 ,the selection here brought together represent his best efforts1 and contains an experienced editor's suggestions for the ever-recurrent problems confronting ,church members as a body1 and as individual ,christians4 ,mr4 ,best wields a facile pen1 and a sudden gleam of beauty1 a difficult thought set in a perfect phrase1 or an old idea invested with new meaning and grace1 meets one at every turn of the page40,the ,record ,herald4 ,,bible ,,study ,,john ,w4 ,,ligon ,pastor ,christian ,church1 ,barboursville1 ,ky4 ,paul the ,apostle #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4ae4 ,a life of the ,apostle to the ,gentiles1 which1 while fuller than the brief outlines usually followed in class instruction1 is sufficiently condensed to admit of its being specially adapted to the use of busy men and women and the young people of the ,church4 ,the events and incidents of ,paul's career are woven into a continuous narrative1 furnishing a living picture of his wonderful life as far as that life can be known4 ,,dwight ,,goddard ,jesus ,and the ,problems of ,human ,life4 ,cloth1 net #ej;c4 ,these discourses show the value and usefulness of the ,good ,news of a ,spiritual ,realm and the ,way of ,salvation to anyone who has felt a desire to make that supreme adventure in faith4 ,they set the 8,good ,news0 into its right relation with present-day thought4 ,the ,good ,news ,of a ,spiritual ,realm4 ,paraphrased by ,dwight ,goddard4 ,second ,edition4 #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 ,an interweaving and paraphrasing of the ,four ,gospels1 bringing out clearly the unity and reasonableness of ,jesus' ,life and ,teachings4 ,appropriate for devotional reading1 study classes1 and as a gift book to those we would like to become interested in our ,lord4 ,b4 ,h4 ,,carroll1 ,d4,d4 ,an ,interpretation of the ,english ,bible ,,new ,,volumes ,,added ,,to ,,this ,,series ,the ,pastoral ,epistles of ,paul and #a and #b ,peter1 ,jude and #a1 #b and #c ,john4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ge4 ,the ,book of ,daniel and the ,inter-,biblical ,period4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4ge4 ,the ,four ,gospels4 ,vol4 ,i4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #b4ej4 ,the ,four ,gospels4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #b4ej4 ,the ,acts4 #hvo1 cloth1 net #b4be4 ,james ,i-,,ii1 ,thessalonians ,i and ,,ii ,corinthians4 ,net #a4ge4 8,these works are designed especially for class use in the ,seminary1 ,christian ,colleges and ,bible ,schools1 as well as the ,sunday ,school4 ,that they will make the greatest commentary on the ,english ,bible ever published1 is our sincere conviction40,baptist and ,reflector4 ,,edward ,,augustus ,,george ,the ,twelve3 ,apostolic ,types of ,christian ,men #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4ae4 8,under his living touch the apostles seem very much like the men we know and their problems not dissimilar to our own40,congregationalist4 ,,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,moorehead ,,outline ,,studies in the ,,new ,,testament ,,series ,the ,catholic ,epistles and ,revelation ,in ,one ,volume4 ,new ,edition4 #abmo1 net #a4bj ,containing ,james1 ,i and ,,ii ,peter1 ,i1 ,,ii and ,,iii ,john1 and ,jude1 and the ,book of ,revelation4 ,,alexander ,,cruden ,complete ,concordance ,large #hvo1 cloth1 net #a4be4 ,new ,unabridged ,edition1 with the ,table of ,proper ,names entirely revised and mistranslations in the meanings corrected1 many suggestive notes4 ,,william ,,smith1 ,,ll4,d4 ,a ,dictionary of the ,bible ,its ,antiquities1 ,biography1 ,geography and ,natural ,history1 with ,numerous ,illustrations and ,maps4 ,a ,new ,worker's ,edition4 #ggf pages4 ,net #a4be4 ,,new ,,thin ,,paper ,,edition ,the ,boy ,scouts' ,twentieth ,century ,new ,testament ,officially authorized by the ,boy ,scouts' of ,america4 ,new ,thin ,paper ,edition4 #aha4 #afmo1 khaki cloth1 net #he;c4 #ahb4 #afmo1 ooze leather1 khaki color1 net #a4ej4 ,contains an introduction by the ,executive ,board1 the ,scouts' ,oath1 and the ,scouts' ,law4 ,,henry ,t4 ,,sell1 ,d4,d4 7,editor7 ,author of ,sell's ,bible ,studies ,,xx ,century ,story of the ,christ #abmo1 cloth1 net #fj;c4 ,from the text of ,the ,twentieth ,century ,new ,testament1 ,dr4 ,sell has completed a ,harmony of ,the ,gospels which1 while studiously avoiding repetition omits no important word in the fourfold record of the earthly life and teaching of our ,lord4 ,he has done his work well1 and the result is a compilation specially designed and adapted for the use of the average reader4 ,,christ',s ,,life ,,and ,,message ,,albert ,l4 ,,vail ,portraiture of ,jesus in the ,gospels #abmo1 cloth1 net #ge;c4 ,a fourfold portrait of ,jesus as ,he stands out on the canvas of each of the ,four ,gospels4 ,the varying and distinctive shadings of the four pictures1 are not1 ,mr4 ,vail contends1 a matter of accident but of ,divine arrangement and design4 ,our ,lord is thus presented in a fourfold aspect in order that ,his appeal to various classes of mankind might be the more manifold4 ,,frank ,e4 ,,wilson1 ,b4,d4 ,contrasts in the ,character of ,christ #abmo1 cloth1 net #a4jj4 ,jesus ,christ is still the key to the modern situation4 ,no matter what 8up-to-date0 methods1 of reform and reclamation spring to life1 the message of ,christ is the one great solution of the problems confronting humanity4 ,from this position ,dr4 ,wilson leads his readers to a contemplation of an abiding ,jesus1 and to a consideration of many modern points of contact contained in ,his all-sufficient ,gospel4 ,,william ,,bruce ,,doyle ,the ,holy ,family ,as ,viewed and ,viewing in ,his ,unfolding ,ministry4 #abmo1 cloth1 net #ge;c4 ,this book covers new ground2 for although separate sketches of individual members of ,joseph's family abound1 a study of the family group as a whole1one marked with satisfactory detail remained to be furnished4 ,this has been ably supplied4 ,the author's work is everywhere suffused with reverence1 as becometh one writing of some of the most endeared traditions cherished by the human race4 ,,booklets ,,david ,,de ,,forest ,,burrell ,author of 8,the ,gift0 ,the ,lost ,star ,an ,idyll of the ,desert4 #afmo1 net #ce;c4 ,an appealing story of a ,shepherd's search for the ,star4 ,it is so tender1 so sweet1 so ,christ-like1 it is sure to captivate everyone4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,text in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics72 text in bold by 8equal0 signs 7bold74 ,punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected4 ,archaic and variable spelling has been preserved4 ,variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved4