The New Ten Commandments By Louis Albert Banks, D.D. The New Ten Commandments And Other Sermons $1.50 Strong, stirring Gospel addresses reflecting the true evangelical note. Dr. Banks' latest volume, fully maintains his impressive, picturesque style of presentation. Thirty- One Revival Sermons Cloth #1.50 " Dr. Banks is at his best in these pages. That these sermons abound in illustrations and that they are extremely interesting goes without saying. They furnish inspiring devotional reading for preacher or layman." — United Presbyterian. Illustrative Prayer- Meeting Talks Cloth. International Leaders' Library . . . $1.00 "Dr. Banks appeals tenderly and forcibly to the heart." — Review of Reviews. THE NEW TEN COMMANDM ENTS And other Sermons By LOUIS ALBERT BANKS Author of " Christ and His Friends" "The Great Saints of the Bible," "Soul-Winning Stories" "Thirty-one Revival Sermons," "Prayer Meeting Talks," etc. New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1922, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY -ft* Printed in United States of America, New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street DEC 30 f 22 ©CU602627 To My Wife Florence Aiken Banks In whose loving intellectual and spiritual fellowship these sermons had their inspiration, this volume is gratefully dedicated by the author. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. The New Ten Commandments . . 9 Rev. 21:5; Matt. 5 : 1 II.. Expect Great Things .... 24 Heb. 10 : 13 III. Going on Adventures with Jesus . 36 Luke 24 : 28 IV. The Happy Fortune of the Good Will Men 47 Luke 2 : 14 V. Sun-Facing Lives 58 Psalms 4 : 6 VI. The Love Mysteries of God . .70 I Timothy 3 : 16 ; I John 4 : 16 VII. The Love Mysteries of Jesus . . 80 I John 4 : 9-1 1 VIII. The Tragedy of the Gospel Jesus Cannot Preach .... 93 John 16 : 12 IX. The Jazz Spirit in Modern Life . . 102 Matt. 7 : 26, 27 X. The Folly of Meddling with God . 113 II Chronicles 35:21 XI. The Voice of Jesus 122 John 10 13, 4 7 8 CONTENTS XII. Unexplored Spiritual Harmonies . 138 I Cor. 2 : 9, 10 XIII. The Vision Splendid . . . .148 John 20 : 25 XIV. The Romantic Interest in the Christian's Fellowship . . .163 I John 1 : 3 XV. When God Lives with Me . . .175 I Cor. 6 : 19 I THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS "And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. — Rev. 21:5. " And he opened his mouth and taught them." — Matt. 5:1. CHRIST made all things new because he brought God into close, intimate touch with life. The earth is very old, and most of it that we see has known the barren deadness of ten thousand winters, but at the touch of the springtime sun all things become new and fresh, with hope and promise as though the old earth had never heard the call from heaven before. So Jesus takes up all the old commonplace problems that pertain to men and women and children, and under his touch they spring into newness of life. He brings God to us, and at his call everything springs into vibrant pulsating life. The Sermon on the Mount, given at length in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel as it is recorded by Matthew, is a wonderful example of how Jesus by bringing the old commandments re- ceived by Moses on Mount Sinai into human con- duct and clothing them about with love filled them with fascination and charm, so that it seemed an entirely new teaching. It was the difference between theory and life. Christ put the Mosaic command- ments into a man, breathed into them the breath of 9 10 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS life, clothed them with the essence of the God who is love, and lo ! we have the most magnetic appeal to the human heart and the most attractive presenta- tion of truth about life, that the world has ever seen. Let us take them one by one for a brief glance for the inspiration and comfort of our hearts. The first commandment is what men have come commonly to call " The Golden Rule." I. The Rule of Brotherhood " Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." The romantic beauty of this rule is that Christ lived it before all men. Throughout his life he treated others exactly as he would wish them to treat him if he were in their place, and he assures us that as we treat others, so he will treat us. " Judge not and ye shall not be judged, condemn not and ye shall not be condemned; forgive and ye shall be forgiven." And again, " For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." And still again, " For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." This is Christ's first test of a good man. We must not fail here or we are blocked at the very start. It is very simple. In every confusing situa- tion I have only to ask, " How would I wish this man or that woman to treat me, if I were in the same situation?" It revolutionizes life very quickly, and life must be revolutionized if it is to be saved. Slav- ery went down before this golden rule. The liquor NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 11 traffic is 'being overthrown by the steady pounding of the golden rule, war must be overthrown by the same battering ram, and in your life and in mine evil must cease and good must come to the throne by our acceptance and obedience to the golden rule. II. The Rule of Gentleness Christ assures us that the good man is known by tke way he acts under injustice. Hear his wonderful words: " I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Christ lived by that rule. " Who when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." That rule when interpreted by its spirit is simply this, that we will not seek to avenge ourselves. We will not be angry because one is angry with us. We will not return evil words or deeds because we have received them. Most of us have to hang our heads in shame when we think of the retaliatory things we have said and done. But just because it is hard at first, and a commandment easily broken, we must fortify at this point. The good man must train himself to gen- tleness, model his treatment of those who are unjust to him after the conduct of his Master. " Come wealth or want, oome good or ill, Let young and old accept their part, And bow before the Awful Will, And bear it with an honest heart, 12 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS Who misses or who wins the prize — Go, lose or conquer as you can; But if you fail, or if you rise, Be each, pray God, a gentleman." The very source of that word " gentleman " which every true man prizes so highly is in this rule of Christ's holding human conduct to the law of gentleness. III. The Rule of Love Jesus says a good man can be known by the breadth of his love. It is natural and very easy to love those who love us and who treat us kindly. We are ingrates, and inhuman, and monsters of ingrati- tude unless we do that. But our love life is very cramped and narrow if it goes no further than that. Jesus says : " I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you." And if you ask why, Jesus answers : " That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." If we hold ourselves steadily to this law of love in the treatment of those who dislike us, and seek to do them good, we become like God. Our lives become splendid as we triumph over that which is hard for us. ^You have doubtless heard of the little boy's com- ment on the path which made Abraham Lincoln a great man. He said : NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 13 "It's no wonder, Look what he had to make him great: He had that log cabin, He had that pine knot, He had those rails to split; He had that tall plug hat, He had all those stories, He had that Douglass debate, He had that Civil War to win, He had that Gettysburg speech, He had everything To make a man great. And look what I have got — Not one of those things." Lincoln became great and gentle and patient and wise and immortal through holding himself steady and faithful against heavy odds to the law of love. In our humbler path we, too, may conquer in the same fight. The true Christian man will always be known by the way he acts when he is abused. It is so easy to fly off into anger and give way to resent- ment, but that is not Christlike. On the Cross he prayed for his enemies and persecutors, and said: " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." ^May God give us victory on this hard battle- ground! Such victory can only be sure by a heart that opens to receive the love of God into its depths. God is love. It is the very spirit of his life. If I keep close to God and seek always to know his feel- ing about life, then I, too, will become love and all that stands in the way of my loving others will be overcome. God is so willing to give himself to us if we ask him. Do you remember that wonderful verse of James Russell Lowell's : 14 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS "Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking. 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking; No price is set on the lavish summer; June may be had by the poorest comer." The June of infinite love comes to every heart that comes to God asking. IV. The Rule of Forgiveness Again Jesus says that a good man is to be tested by the way he forgives those who wrong him. In- deed, Christ lays tremendous stress upon this rule. With great solemnity he says : " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their tres- passes, neither will your Father forgive your tres- passes." So our very hope of divine forgiveness for our own sins hinges on our willingness to forgive those who sin against us. Perhaps more sorrow is caused by people who count themselves among good people, through lack of a spirit of forgiveness than from almost anything else. We cannot be truly happy a single day or a single hour unless we feel that God is freely and lovingly forgiving us our many sins against him, and yet if we are treasuring up re- sentment against any one we know, he cannot for- give us. Sometimes a whole church is saddened and NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 15 made weak and powerless for good because of this lack of forgiveness. I was once holding a series of evangelistic meet- ings in a church and the meetings had gone on for a week, and there had been little apparent result. All was formal and cold and lifeless. I seemed to be beating my soul out against a stone wall. On Sun- day morning as I preached I laid the emphasis on the matter of forgiveness of injuries, and urged that we ought never to wait until one who had wronged us apologized, that it was too serious a matter for that, but we should go and frankly and lovingly assure the other person of our forgiveness and our desire to live in the spirit of love. Now, I did not know it, but there was a man in the congregation who had had a quarrel with another man in that church, and it had grown into a good deal of a feud, and though they belonged to the same church they did not speak to each other when they met, and it had split the people of the church into two factions. Well, as soon as the sermon was over the man who had been at church went straight across the fields to his neighbour with whom he had quarrelled, and when the other came to the door he burst into tears and said : " John, I cannot stand this any longer. You have felt hard toward me, and I have been bit- ter toward you, and I am unhappy and you don't come to church any more, and my heart is broken about it. Forgive me, John. I forgive you every- thing, and let us ask God to forgive us and be at peace and live as Christian men ought to live." The other man melted in a moment, and that after- 16 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS noon those two men came to church together and sat near the front in the same seat and sang out of the same hymn book, and the spirit that came on the church was that of Pentecost, and the church awoke to new spiritual power and hundreds were converted to God. God grant us the spirit of forgiveness ! V. The Tongue Rule How close the Psalmist came to the proper law of the tongue when he exclaimed : " Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be ac- ceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." Jesus says : " Let your communication be, Yea, Yea; Nay, Nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil," which Paul, commenting and elaborating upon, enlarges into : " Let all bitter- ness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speak- ing be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one to another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Many of us talk too much, and few people bridle the tongue with sufficient care. Many otherwise good people would have much greater influence for good if they held the tongue always not only to the law of kindness and gentle- ness, but also to the rule of charity and consideration for the feelings of others. An unwise, uncharitable word is often as dangerous as a spark from a passing locomotive in a field of ripened grain, and burns and consumes a promising harvest in another soul, leav- ing only blackened ruins in its path. Let each of us be careful of our tongues that they never go forth unbridled. And here, too, there is great blessing for NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 17 triumph over difficulties. If this is our besetting sin, it will not be easy for us, but our victory will be all the richer in blessing because it is hard to win. C Ella Wheeler Wilcox sings with true spiritual in- sight when she says: " 'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song, But the man worth while is the one who will smile When everything goes dead wrong; For the test of the heart is trouble, And it always comes with the years, And the smile that is worth the praises of earth, Is the smile that shines through tears." ^ VI. The Rule Against Worry How tenderly Jesus gives utterance to the com- mand against worry. It is one of the tenderest as well as one of the most beautiful in the beautiful Book of God. " Wherefore," says Jesus, " if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith! Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Is it not apparent from these wonderful wftrds of Jesus that our worry all comes from our not having 18 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS at the time a clear sense of the presence of God in our affairs? Tolstoi once said that the trouble with the world is that it has lost its sense of God. The supreme dif- ference between Jesus and other good men is his keen consciousness of God. Jesus realized his oneness with God. He said : " I have come to show you the Father; he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Now Jesus never did anything for men in a spirit- ual way that he did not ask them to do for them- selves. Jesus always identifies his life with man's life, and man's life with his. He says: "As I am one with my Father, I pray that ye also may be one." And again: "As the Father hath sent me into the world, even so I am sending you into the world" He called himself "The Light of the World"; but he also said : " Ye are the light of the world." When we feel our oneness to God, that God is not afar off, but at hand, there is no need to worry. We worry only when we lose God. Science and the Bible are at last a unit on this gloriously comforting truth of the immanence, the presence of God as the vital force everywhere, in everything. There was a time when the scientist talked a great deal about " dead matter," but he recognizes to-day that all matter is living matter, and God is in it. The scientist agrees now with the Christian poet when he sings: "Speak to him, thou, for he hears, Spirit with spirit can meet; Closer is He than breathing, Nearer than hands or feet." NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 19 VII. The Rule About Secret Prayer All public prayer is to some extent consciously or unconsciously affected by the pressure of the audi- ence. The real test of prayer applies only to our secret devotions, and it is there where Jesus lays the emphasis. After telling of some people who ex- ploited their professed religion by public prayers, Jesus says : " But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Jesus often spent whole nights m secret prayer. He communed alone with his Father. The breath from heaven comforted his soul as he prayed. It is told of Michael Angeio that by his prolonged and unremitting toil upon the frescoed domes which he wrought he acquired such an habitual upturn of the countenance that as he walked the streets men called him " a visionary with the heaven-turned face." If we are much in secret prayer it will give us a heavenward looking mind and heart, and a peace and courage earth cannot give. " Treasure the gift of a quiet heart, For the crown of peace is rare ; And a mind at rest is the better part: God's pledge to the child of care. "Fear not the storm, for he holds the sea In the hollow of his hand ; Sorrow or pain can come to thee Only at his command. " Run out to welcome the dawning day With shout that is cheery and strong, For many who travel along life's way Are helped by a brave man's song. 20 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS "So quiet thy soul with the thought that God Still reigns on the throne of time, With sandals of peace the feet are shod Which carry this truth sublime. ''When Duty calls, thrice blest is he Who dare obey her choice; For Duty's call, when heard by thee, Is God's directing voice. "All things are good and work his will; His love will hold thee fast: — Dread not the future — trust — be still: God holds thee to the last." VIII. The Rule About Money The Christian religion has to do in a practical way with everything we think or say or do or possess. We are not built like compartment ships, we are a unit. If I am to be a good man, my money must come under the law of Christ. Jesus says : " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treas- ures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal ; for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." Now there is no prohibition in this nor in Christ's attitude toward life at any time toward thrift and proper provision for the necessities of life here; but it clearly sets forth that money, earthly treasures, must never be counted superior or the equal of spirit- ual values. It must always be held in submission as the servant of the spiritual treasures that will endure forever. Christ illustrates in his own life the principle he NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 21 teaches here. Paul says: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich." That is the spirit in which we must hold all our earthly treasures to be used for the blessing and saving of humanity. IX. The Rule of Obedience Jesus makes obedience the test of discipleship. He says : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Jesus puts us side by side with himself in obedi- ence. He says : " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." He judges the quality of our friendship by the character of our obedience : " Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." He makes it the ther- mometer that gauges our love: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." And again he says: " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself unto him." And still again he says : " If a man love me, he will keep my word : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." And John the beloved disciple, commenting on these words long afterwards, wrote : " Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his com- 22 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS mandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." The path of obedience is the only way by which we may rejoice the heart of God, gladden the heart of our Saviour, and bring the peace of heaven to our own souls. I read the other day of a Korean Christian who told in prayer meeting how he conquered anger, which was his besetting sin. The Missionary had be- fore explained to him how every burst of anger pierced the heart of Jesus. " So I hung a picture of the Lord Jesus on my wall," he said, " and every time I lost my temper I put a thorn on that picture. The picture was soon covered with thorns. A great love came over me that he should suffer because of my temper, and now he gives me grace in temptation. I say, ' Not I, but Christ within me/ and his sweet- ness comes instead of my bad temper." God help us all to keep the rule of obedience. X. The Rule About Fruit Finally we come to the results. After all, the test of the tree is in the fruit it bears. Jesus puts this very clearly : " Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor- rupt tree bring forth good fruit." And again Jesus puts it in another way : " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And Paul, in that wonderful description NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 23 of the Christian's spiritual garden in the fifth of Galatians, says : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such there is no law." We must not neglect the cultivation of any of these beautiful and blessed trees in the garden of our souls. Now we have glanced at these ten rules which Jesus lays down for the Christian life. How glorious is our calling! It is the noblest conception of life possible for God to conceive for his children. It is a glorious thing to be a Christian. We cannot achieve it in our own strength, but in fellowship with Jesus Christ we can achieve it. Let us go forth from our study of these new com- mandments of our Saviour and Lord singing with Robert Browning: " I go to prove my soul ! I see my way, as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first I ask not: but unless God send his hail, Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive; He guides me and the bird. In his good time ! " II EXPECT GREAT THINGS " Henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the foot- stool of his ieet."—Heb. 10: 13. THAT virile and frankly Christian writer, Bruce Barton, not long ago had a most re- markable interview with the then head of the Roman Catholic Church in America, the late Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, after he had passed his eighty-sixth milestone in the journey of life. In beginning his conversation with Cardinal Gib- bons, Mr. Barton remarked : " I notice that your secretary and your associates are all young men." " That's part of the secret of warding of! old age," the Cardinal answered, with a smile the freshness of which belied his years. " When a man begins to look back, then he is old. I never look back. Lot's wife looked back, you remember, and was destroyed. Looking back is destruction always — the beginning of the end. After a person passes middle life he ought to surround himself with those who have a long time yet to look forward." He turned so that he faced a little into the sun. " Until you are forty, seek the companionship of men who are older," he continued. " After that, keep a vital contact with those who are younger. That is a pretty good rule. Until my re- cent sickness I used to walk every afternoon from 24 EXPECT GREAT THINGS 25 five to six, and whom did I choose for companions? Students from the Seminary. They come from every part of the United States: one day a man from Massachusetts, another day one from Oklahoma, and so on. They tell me their hopes and their ambitions and their plans. " And do you want to know what I say to them ? I say, ' Young man, expect great things ! Expect great things of God ; great things of your fellow men and of yourself. Expect great things of America. For great opportunities are ahead; greater than any that have come before. But only those who have the courage and the vision to expect them will profit when they come.' " And at the close of that long and extraordinarily interesting conversation he closed the interview on the same key: " I said at the beginning, ' Young man, expect great things.' And I say it again at the end. I have lived almost three times as long as the average age of your readers. I have watched men climb up to success, hundreds of them ; and of all the elements that are important for success, the most important is Faith. Those who throw up their hands in discour- agement when the first snow falls, fail to profit when the sunshine of spring returns. And no great thing comes to any man unless he has courage, even in dark days, to expect great things ; to expect them of him- self, of his fellow men, of America, and of God." When I read this remarkable and exceeding profit- able piece of advice from this venerable man out of his long experience, there came to me these similar 26 EXPEGT GREAT THINGS words written nearly two thousand years ago by a greater than Cardinal Gibbons, — the words of St. Paul, in describing the attitude of Jesus since he gave himself on the cross as the infinite sacrifice for the sins of the world. Paul says, writing of Jesus in the tenth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews : " But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; hence- forth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet." This wonderful declaration appeals to our imagina- tion very strongly. It gives us the picture of Jesus watching through all the ages the strife and turmoil and evolution of mankind, never for a moment losing the attitude of confident expectation that the love of God, which had its supreme revelation in the suffer- ings of the cross on Calvary, will finally come to ever- lasting triumph. Others may lose hope for humanity, but Jesus never. Others may become discouraged, but Jesus is the eternal optimist. " Henceforth expecting." That is the Christian attitude for us all if we are to imitate our Lord himself. I wish to apply this so as to be an immediate blessing to each of us. I Expect great things of your own physical life. I speak of the physical first because it is the first essen- tial and has so much to do with our success in every other phase of our career. A man's or a woman's body is as important as the nest is to the young bird. "As useless as a last-year's bird's nest " has gone into EXPECT GEE AT THINGS 27 proverb, but nothing is more important to the young bird than this year's bird's nest, and your body is " this year's " life nest for you. No young man or young woman can afford to be careless or indifferent concerning the health and strength of the body. It is either one of your greatest assets or one of your heaviest liabilities. Without health and strength of body you will be increasingly handicapped and lim- ited in your powers of achievement throughout your life. Every other gift or blessing of life will be dis- counted and detracted from if you surrender to go through life with a weak or sickly body. But what miracles can be wrought by improving your body and bringing it into a state of health and power if you will expect great things of it, and give yourself with earnest determination to realize your expectations. Theodore Roosevelt, who was the beau ideal of the athletic world for so many years in America, was a very weak and sickly child. In her reminiscences of her brother, Mrs. Robinson tells how the first Theo- dore Roosevelt, father of the future President of the United States, turned one of the upstairs rooms in their New York City residence into a kind of out- door gymnasium, with every imaginable swing and bar and seesaw, and when the second Theodore was eleven years old his father took him up into this gymnasium and said : " Theodore, you have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body. It is hard drudgery to make one's body, but I know you will do it." The little boy looked up, and threw back his head in a charac- 28 EXPECT GREAT THINGS teristic fashion. Then, with a flash of those white teeth — which later in life became so well known that when he was police commissioner in New York City it was said that any recreant policeman would faint if he came suddenly face to face with a set of false teeth in a shop window — he said : " I'll make my body." And how splendidly he lived up to the ex- pectations of his father, and his own, the story of his romantic and useful life tells. II We should expect much of our minds and the suc- cess of the work to which we give our energies for our share in the work of the world. Your success in the development of your mental power will be largely dictated by your expectations. " According to thy faith be it unto thee," is just as scientific in our every-day life as any demonstrated truth of science. You will not do more than you expect. Orville Harrold, who is generally conceded to be the greatest American tenor, is a splendid illus- tration of the power of expecting great things in high endeavor. He was a farm boy on a poor farm where there was no money for education. He was twenty years old before he graduated from the High School, so hardly did he have to work his way through. But he had faith in himself and in the powers God had given him to produce musical sounds, and struggled on. When finally, very late in life for the triumph of a great singer, he had brought the musical world to his feet, when asked the secret of his success, he said very simply : " I won because I thought I could EXPECT GKEAT THINGS 29 win." He expected great things and so achieved them. There is a picture called " The Devil's Auction " in which, among many other articles, the devil, who is the auctioneer, holds in his hand a small wedge with a very sharp edge. This he is said to prize above all his other tools, because he has caused more failures with it than through any other device. The name of that efficient tool in the devil's shop is Discourage- ment. Discouragement is the most insidious enemy known to man. So long as a man keeps his courage and expects great things, he is never defeated; but the discouraged man is whipped before the battle begins. Ill We should expect great things of our friends and those we love. We should deem this of the greatest importance, because the very sweetest and most satisfying comfort that will come to us in all our human experiences will be the love and friend- ship we win from others, and the tenderness and af- fection we feel for them. Have you heard the story of the " Ruby of Great Price?" We are told that Abdul Hamid had long been troubled in his mind as he wove baskets in the doorway of his humble hut. So he asked of the bam- boo tree beside the path : " Why should I toil and slave to make my living? Perhaps I shall be the one to discover the Ruby of Great Price, and so I shall become the Great Mogul, as the gods ordained 30 EXPECT GREAT THINGS when they hid the great and beautiful stone. To- morrow I will start and search until I find it." And so Abdul Hamid sold his little hut and searched all the rest of his life throughout all the lands of the East for the Ruby of Great Price. But his search was in vain, and at the last, an old and broken and defeated man, he came back to die among the scenes of his youth, his only hope to be buried beneath the great bamboo tree that grew beside the path near the little hut where he used to weave baskets. But imagine his astonishment on his return to find that where once his little hut stood there was now the marble palace of the Great Mogul, and to find that the poor peasant no richer than himself, to whom he had sold his hut, had, underneath the door- step where for so many years he had sat to weave baskets, found the Ruby of Great Price. Oh, my friends, it is not in searching the halls of political fame, or the palaces of great wealth, or the temples of science, but in your own home, at your own doorstep, the richest and sweetest and most won- derful prize of life is to be found. It is in the bosom of your mother or your father. It is in the heart of your wife or your husband. It is in the love of your child or the affection of your friend. Did David in all the years of his life in the palace as the great king of his time ever find any Ruby of Great Price as dear and rich with blessing as the love of Jonathan, who risked his life for him? Expect great things of those you love and those who love you, and they will rarely disappoint you. EXPECT GREAT THINGS 31 IV We must expect great things of God. We must expect great things in our spiritual development and in the enrichment of our own characters in true goodness and nobility of manhood and womanhood. There are three fields where we may expect great help in our spiritual lives and in the development of righteous character. I. The first of these must always be through per- sonal communion with God, in prayer. Our attitude toward prayer should be that of the disciples to Jesus : " Lord, teach us how to pray ! " Teach us to pray, In accents measured by thy truth, Thy love divine ! Teach us the way That leads past earthly night To gates of dawn, And everlasting day. O Master of our way, Teach us to pray! Teach us to pray ! To hearken by the gate ajar To unseen choruses of light, The choruses of faith, of praise and peace. Teach us to reach The far grand measure Of thy praise divine, O Lord of earth, Teach us to pray! Teach us to pray, In accents measured by thy love, Remove the earth mist from our eyes That we may see, Push thou ajar the gate of time That we may hear. And in thy vision glorified, Lift us to thee, O Lord and Master of our life Teach us to pray! 32 EXPECT GREAT THINGS 2. The second great help to the spiritual life we will find in the earnest, expectant reading and study of the Bible. And in approaching the Bible we must never forget that what we find will depend very largely on the spirit of our minds in our opening it for help. rjohn Hays Hammond, one of the greatest mining that one finds in Africa what he seeks. It does not mean the same to all. To the imaginative youth, Africa stands for mystery, endless deserts, jungles and dark forests, towering snow-clad peaks, the lost Mountains of the Moon, cataracts beside which Niagara is a small affair, multitudes of black slaves, elephants, lions, camels, and other strange denizens of the zoo. It means ruins of ancient cities, great gold camps, diamond mines, strange tribes and stranger customs, cannibals and pyramids. It is the land of adventure. To the student Africa means destroyed nations, vast tombs, and the thoughts of men long dead given to us to read on miles of stone carvings. It is still the land of adventure. To the hard-headed, unromantic, business man, who cares it may be nothing for the past and little for the future, it is the land of greatest risks and quickest returns. It means miles of mills grinding out gold day and night ; without ceasing, grinding it out literally by the ton — the greatest gold camp on earth, a vast black army of kaffirs digging forever in endless underground galleries. It means diamond fields, supplying the world with precious stones ; cop- world, writing about Africa, says EXPECT GREAT THINGS 33 per, too ; zinc, lead, iron, coal, rubber, ivory, palm-oil, and spices. It is still the land of adventure. To the statesman and philosopher Africa beckons with a seductive finger. During thousands of years every race of mankind has marched into that mys- terious continent. They have built cities and founded countless colonies. But whatever the search or what- ever the result, it is always the land of adventure. Now the Bible is in many ways like that. It is one thing to the historian, another thing to the poet, still another to the student of literature or comparative science, but always repays the adventurous explorer. But to the man or the woman who wants to find God, who wants to find the meaning of sin and the cure for his or her wicked heart, who longs for a ladder that leads from earth up to heaven, this is the most glorious and profitable field of adventure on the globe. Here we learn about God and his love for us. Here we find the love of God coming down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, who took upon him- self not the nature of angels, but our own human nature, and lived the divine life of heaven in the midst of our own human conditions. Here in the Bible we find the cross as the center of man's ex- pectations and hope, and the divine and glorious as- surance that Jesus, the divine Son of God, who gave his life there as a ransom for sinners, is " able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him." We see Saul, the chief of sinners, become Paul, the chief of saints. We find the exploit of that marvelous power of God that has later turned a 34 EXPECT GREAT THINGS drunken thief of a Jerry McAuley into an apostle of Jesus; a debauched John G. Wooley into an evangel of a sober world ; and a dissolute baseball player into the most famous and efficient evangelist to great mul- titudes the world has ever seen. Here is the place where we may find salvation and uplift of the soul and culture of the spirit, and find our most extrava- gant expectations of spiritual inspiration to lofty character more than realized. C Third, we will find in service of our fellow men, following the example of Jesus who went about doing good, the greatest realm of glorious blessing to humanity. Expect great things in serving human- ity, and God will more than realize your fondest hopes. Oh, how much we need at this very chaotic hour of the world's history, when so many are discouraged, that every true follower of Jesus Christ shall imitate the example of their Lord and go forth to preach his Gospel and seek to win sinning men to Christ, not with doubtful or apologetic spirit, but in the atti- tude of Jesus, who waits, " Henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet." The night is dark, storm clouds hang low, And fitful lights flash through the gloom. Men do not know the way to go. The deeper darkness tokens doom. Before the darkness, souls are bowed. The flashing lights do but betray Black question marks upon the cloud ; And men are asking, "Whither way?" The lore of man reveals no light; Philosophy is blind before The growing gloom; and deeper night Reveals to straining eyes no door. EXPECT GREAT THINGS 35 But in the background, on the cloud The great interrogations stand, And hearts in agony are bound, And " Whither way ? " the souls demand. Is there no way? Is there no light? No, not of man. But o'er the gloom, The voice of God breaks through the night, And Triumph paeans o'er the tomb Of black dead hopes : God lives and reigns. His everlasting tidings bright Will heal the wounds and wash the stains, And make the sad old dark world light. Believe in God ! Creative power Responds to faith, makes strong the soul ; And in this awful judgment hour, No other cure can make thee whole. " Fear God," " give glory," " worship him " — Creator of the rolling spheres. The light of life shall never dim With him — joy of eternal years. Beyond the turbid, murky cloud, There shines the light of endless day; Beyond the gloom palls that enshroud, Stretches the holy, heavenly way ; Beyond the anxious questions rise The glorious answers of our God, So true, so sure, so just, so wise. The way? — The path our Saviour trod. Ill GOING ON ADVENTURES WITH JESUS " He made as though he would go further." — Luke 24:28. CHRISTIANITY is not simply a system of negations, and thou shalt nots. It is a call to romantic exploration and lofty daring achievement. The greatest commandments in the decalogue are among the thou shalts. When the lawyer among the Pharisees came to question Jesus, and asked " Which is the great commandment in the law ? " Jesus an- swered : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment, and a second like unto it is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets." So you see, according to Christ's classification, both the first and second in importance among the commandments are thou shalts, and all the virtue in the thou shalt nots comes from obedience to these two thou shalts. The very first step in the Christian life calls for adventure. Christ was always for advance. When the disciples came to him and told him that all the people in the town where they were believed on him, Jesus said : " Let us go into the next towns." Christ is always for going on and doing more. He often 36 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 37 said while on earth that he would and could have done vastly more for the people of his day if they had had more faith. When he wept over the doomed city of Jerusalem his cry was : " How often would * I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" If they had been willing to venture farther with Jesus, he would have saved them from a thousand woes. And there is not one of us that Jesus would not have already done more for, if we had only had the daring faith that would have fol- lowed him wherever he led. I If we are to share the happy and adventurous career with Jesus, we must dare to cut loose entirely from sin and accept him, not only as our Saviour, but as our Lord and Master. In South Africa there is a pagan tribe called the Red Kafirs. These people have the peculiar habit of rubbing their skin with fat and red clay, which makes them look like polished bronze. Those who are clothed wear red garments. The missionaries tell us that red is worn as a sign of their pagan religion. When one of these Red Kafirs becomes a Christian, the first token of it is that he puts off his red gar- ment — that is his open confession of this renuncia- tion of his pagan superstitions and of his acceptance of Christ as his Saviour and Lord. A missionary relates that on one occasion a woman clothed in her heathen garb presented herself to him as a candidate for baptism. He asked why she came 38 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS for baptism wearing her heathen dress, and she re- plied that she would gladly put it off, but it was the only dress she had, A proper garment was provided, and she put off her red garment forever. So Christ calls to men and women now to put away the red gar- ments of sin and be clothed upon with the white gar- ments of righteousness. None need fear their sins are too red with iniquity, for the cheering call is: " Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jeho- vah ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." II The man who would go on adventure with Jesus must keep alive his curiosity of mind and heart, in order to feed his zest and appetite for new and inter- esting and glorious achievements in high living. A prominent physician says that the normal baby comes into the world with knowledge-hunger. Through his sense organs there enter into his tiny brain myriads of messages ; and his first life work, outside of nutri- tion and growth, is the interpretation of these mes- sages. Long before he can talk he is a human inter- rogation point. In fact, it is curiosity, knowledge- hunger, that enables a very small child to learn a language more quickly and more accurately than can a grown person. After a child has learned to talk he becomes a rapid-fire machine gun of queries. He is striving to know, and the wise parent will go a long way in patiently and honestly answering the questions as ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 39 they are asked. At no later period of life is there such a hunger for knowledge, but it is exceedingly important for each of us to know that as long as that curiosity of mind is kept alive and active, and that eagerness for knowledge continued, the brain con- tinues to grow and develop. What an interesting line of thought this arouses ! A man, in the high intellectual sense, may be said to be just as old and no older than his curiosity of mind. Many people die young intellectually, though the body still remains fat and flourishing. Others go on to old age, as it is counted by years, and the hair whitens and the body shows signs of weakness; but the mind not only retains its freshness and its power for the exercise of noble thinking and the portrayal of splendid pictures of the imagination, but grows and enlarges with the years. Where many men and women of forty seem intel- lectually to have reached the zenith of their mental powers, other men and women, like Victor Hugo, Gladstone, Julia Ward Howe, and many others, at eighty are yet as alive and progressive as in their youth. In one case the curiosity of mind was allowed to atrophy and die, while in the other it was kept awake and alert by constant use and high endeavor. We observe the same thing in the still loftier realm of the spirit, where we are dealing with those great dynamic forces that make for high and holy charac- ter. In the realm of sainthood we must be obedient to the same law as in the realm of the intellect. As curiosity is to the mind, so the zest and appetite of 40 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS the spirit is all that is needed for continued growth in goodness. Do you recall that puzzling one of the " blesseds where Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount : " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness ; for they shall be rilled " ? How clear it all is when read in the light of this thought ! Just as knowledge is gathered easily by the mind awake with curiosity, so goodness, righteousness, is easily obtained by the heart that has an appetite for it, hungers and thirsts after it. God grant us all this great zest for goodness! May we keep alive, both in mind and heart, that higher hunger of soul that will enable us to grow in the beautiful grace of our divine Lord ! How much men and women lose when they falter and hesitate, and do not dare to go farther with Jesus to scale all heights, and penetrate all the noble love mysteries of God where he would lead them. One of the most pitiful things in the world is to see a man ten years on the way as a professed Chris- tian, and yet not so sensitive to the breath of evil, nor so hungry for the reading of the Bible, nor so quick to respond in gratitude to God, nor so earnest in desire to win souls to Christ, as at the entrance of the journey. The moral and spiritual appetite has been allowed to atrophy through neglect and disuse. My friends, let us arise and go on to holy adven- tures with Christ, and we shall grow and expand in high and saintly personality. Glorious careers, like that of Paul, who was the chief of sinners, yet be- came the greatest saint of his age; or the fiery- tempered John, who became the disciple whom Jesus ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 41 loved, have not exhausted, but only illustrate, the pos- sibilities of growth into holiness of life. It is the open road, the open secret of goodness. Thank God, we have in us the power and possibili- ties of growth if we but hearken to the call of the adventurous Christ and go to the limit where he will lead. Some men are great by an inborn strength, By a gift and a gift alone; And some may leap at a single length From a hovel to a throne. But some — and these are the choice of God — Must striving and patience know, As trees that spring from the acorned clod Must wrestle, and reach, and grow. The rose that blooms for a happy hour Knows only a brief, bright day — The morn to bud, and the noon to flower, And evening to pass away. But the strong roof beam and the ship's tall mast, Out there where the wild storms blow, In thunderous tempest and wintry blast, Through centuries long they grow. Labor, and study, and 3