I! ) MM IIII immiUUUUDHI II I I K i llM I M I I I IIIIII IIII Division. -^sCf.rr Section i.*5„./ ( No,™ _ . 4-40 fntit^ttiuaUt? fntittJitiualit? flDt: Cl^e apojStoUc Ctwelfae Before anD aftet; pmttco^t Stutboi of "%mi ®allijJ toitl) CfcilScen" antt '"SBikte Atutiie* foe tbe l^omc" I Cintinnati : Cttrte anU Jcnnfnffg il^ieto porifc: (J^aton anU fSlainn 1899 COPYKIGHT 1899, BY THB WESTERN METHODIST BOOK CONCERN Contentjj Page I Individuality 9 II The Composite Church 23 III Impulse 35 IV The Impulsive Type of Christianity - - 51 V The Temptations of Impulse - - - - 67 VI Spirit-filled Impulse 81 VII Affection 99 VIII The Intuitive Type of Christianity - - 115 IX The Temptations of Affection - - - - 131 X Spirit-filled Affection 145 XI Intellect 163 XII The Intellectual Type of Christianity - 179 XIII The Temptations of Intellect - - - - 193 XIV Spirit-filled Intellect 209 XV Administrative Ability 225 XVI The Administrative Type of Christianity - 243 XVII The Temptations of Administration - - 257 XVIII Spirit-filled Administrative Ability - - 273 XIX " Be Filled w^ith THE Spirit " - - - - 287 5 fntitoitiualit^ s i Few overcome their temperamental inclinations. j — Sir T. Browne. I Individuality is not individualism. The latter refers* | everything to self, and sees nothing but self in all things. ^ — Fleming, Travis, of Vinet. \ As a certain vein runs through a geological formation, so a certain disposition runs through a human mind. You can not expel it. It must be recognized and dealt with. Certain tempera- mental types have long been recognized in hu- man nature. There is a nervous temperament; a sanguine temperament ; a dull phlegmatic tem- perament; a melancholy temperament. As the alphabet may be broken up into tens of thou- sands of words by the adjustment of letters dif- ferently, so the primary qualities that inhere in human nature may come down and spell out the different individualities of different men, as they actually do ; and by reason of this, men are of dif- ferent degrees of endowment, some having one gift and some another. I. Every man must recognize his own indi- viduality. But what does this seven-syllabled word signify? Dictionary men define it as "sepa- rateness of being." Man is individual in his sepa- rateness from all others; complete in himself. Paul recognized this fact. ''I, yet not I," was characteristic of Paul. He knew himself. He did not ignore himself. In his life, as a man and as an apostle, he took the proportions of his own 9 lo Individuality personality ; and at the same time confessed that all the operative grace came from God. And the practical aim of each man should be to perfect his own variety, not ape another's. No two peo- ple were ever meant to render the same service. A Luther could not be a Melanchthon. By no means could the apostle Thomas be made into a Simon Peter. Variety is everywhere a condition of strength and beauty. We need men of science and men of action to reduce their thoughts to practice; some to give strong and noble impulses, and others to apply the check of caution and experi- ence ; some to bear us aloft to the world of fancy, others to detain us among the hard realities of life. So in the highest region of all, the same manifoldness is seen. The story of no two souls is exactly alike. In some there is a burning en- thusiasm ; in others, a holy quiet. One is all ac- tivity and daring ; another, like Mary, loves to sit at the feet of Jesus. One is a Boanerges; an- other is a Barnabas. One is ''apt to teach ;" "an- other possesses an eloquent tongue; another, scholarly tastes and aptitudes ; another, business qualities; another, musical talents; another, ad- ministrative power; another, the genius of sym- pathy ; another, the gift of social leadership : and thus the whole circle of Christian service is em- braced, and the Church is enabled to edify herself btdividualiiy 1 1 in love, and to fulfill her work of ministry to the world." Each man should make the best pos- sible use of what he has. He should be himself; he should act out himself; he should find the ideal of his life in the Divine idea expressed in his nature; he should strive to be the man that God meant him to be, and to do the work that God meant him to do. As has been well said, "Much of the misery of life comes from the round man trying to squeeze himself into the square hole, and the square man into the round hole." Individuality Is Indestructible. Be yourself — that is the Divine will. Every man Is to season his sacrifice according to his individuality, — in other words, mark his labor by his own image and superscription, so that it is his labor express- ively and exclusively; it bears upon it the touch of his own soul. An unlearned man once said : ''There Is very little difference between one man and another ; but what little there Is, Is very im- portant.''^ Individuality is a man^s power. It gives char- acter to his acts, his thoughts, his writings. 2. The individualities of personal character are In no wise destroyed by the new life under the gospel. If Christ be In you, In an Important sense — but In a spiritual sense alone — you afe "'a new creature." Grace does not put a mask 12 Individuality on a man so that his individuality can not be rec- ognized. Dr. William M. Taylor says: "Your features are the same, though sweetened or calmed, perhaps, by the peace of God that reigns in your heart ; your intellect is the same, though quickened by the new Ufe of faith and hope. If cheerful, you still are cheerful ; and if born with tendencies to melancholy, you will still contend with the temptation to despondency." Religion does not merge or diminish our in- dividuality. Has nature given genius? She sus- tains and sanctifies its peculiarities. Is the philo- sophic faculty there? Its range is widened, its vigor increased. Is the poet in the man? The gospel brings both spark and fuel to the poetic flame. Far from antagonizing our idiosyncrasy, it operates on some men as did Moses' rod on Horeb's rock, unfolding energies that slumbered within, unknown to themselves, unthought of by others. Archbishop Trench remarks : "The nat- ural is the ground upon which the spiritual is superinduced, and grace does not dissolve the groundwork of the individual character, nor abolish all its peculiarities, nor bring all that are subject to it to a common standard." The gospel individualizes the man. Paul, after his conversion, was just as earnest and driv- ing as before. Peter left his boats and tackle to become the skillful fisher of men, with the Individuality • 13 same adroitness and patient business absorption put into his fresh profession. So John was the same affectionate John to the last. Naturalness is one of the best evidences of grace, for it ex- cludes assumption and hypocrisy. There is nothing, then, in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly-marked individuality which each re- ceives by nature. Rather the gospel is meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more intensely himself, more thoroughly individual, and unlike anybody else. This is the Lord's way with his own throughout. While they are all taken up with him into "heavenly places," there is no dead monotony of character produced; each wears a grace peculiar to him- self; each is Christlike after his own order. Christ in us; and yet we more ourselves. The more "self" and the less "self" there is in any man, the nobler he is. This sounds paradoxical ; but man himself is a paradox. 3. This distinctive individuality is recognized by the Holy Spirit in his work. Spirit-filled in- dividuality is God's method. Many suppose that, if religion is the work of God, it is the same in everybody. You might as well say that if flowers are the work of God, flowers are the same everywhere. In point of fact, they are alike no- where — they are varied endlessly. And there is 14 Individuality nothing truer than that every man's religion is relative to what he is by his religious organiza- A' tion. ''Religion, like water, partakes a little of the nature of the soil over which it runs." To adopt the beautiful figure of Cyril of Jerusalem, *'One and the same rain comes down upon all the earth, yet it becomes white in the lily, and red in the rose, and purple in the violets and pansies, and different and various in all the several kinds. It is one thing in the palm-tree, and another in the vine, and all in all things. Thus also the Holy Spirit, one and uniform and undivided in himself, distributes his grace to every man as he wills." Thus individuality colors the Spirit's gifts. Accordingly, all through the Book of Acts and in all the Epistles, we find that wherever the gos- pel was preached, all were told that they were to receive the Holy Spirit. All Christians were baptized with power; but the Spirit in them showed himself in different ways. He inspired some of them with knowledge, helping them to a clear sight of truth. He inspired some of them with wisdom, helping them to see what was the best thing to be done in any emergency. He inspired some of them with faith, enabling them to feel the presence and love of God amid be- reavement, loneliness, bitter disappointment, and sharp trial. He inspired some of them to be Individuality 15 good physicians, tender and careful nurses of the sick. If they saw a woman who had a gift of healing, they said, "She is inspired by the Holy Ghost to heal disease, as the apostle Paul is in- spired to preach." Gifts were special, but the inspiration was universal; one and the same for all, from the lowest to the highest. No man is left to himself to invent his own re- ligion, and to have everything according to his own way of thinking. This is the marvelous ap- parent contradiction of the Divine testimony — indwiduality, but under Divine inspiration; "Di- vine inspiration accommodating itself to indi- vidual capacities, but all the time preserving a central and unchangeable substance." And the glory of God's great work in all souls in all ages lies in this — not that the powers, wishes, and pas- sions of the actors themselves were petrified into a lifeless uniformity, and the superseding life from heaven took their place, but rather that, using as his instruments men so weak and per- verse, he built with them the Church of God. This explains the marked difiference in the writings of different men in the Scriptures. "Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." And yet inspiration did not overlook or override the individuality of the human agents whom it employed, but made use of it, allowing them to speak with their own accent, and to 1 6 Individuality think in accordance with the peculiarities of their minds. Hence Peter becomes the apostle of Hope; John the apostle of Love; James the apostle of Wisdom. In the Church, likewise, we find different types of workers. There are men who stand upon the watch-tower and point to Christ ; there are men full of fire ; there are men of surrendered intellects; and last, but not least, there are the plodding men who never do anything out of the way, but nevertheless do a great deal of neces- sary work. Some of the most beautiful effects of faith have often been wrought out in retiring characters. Thus, in every age, the Church has had its practical workers, men full of spiritual earnestness and power — its dauntless and fervid preachers; its Chrysostoms,Whitefields, Baxters, Wesleys ; its apologists; its men of broad intellect- ual views; its teachers; its controversialists; its Augustines, Luthers, Pascals, Butlers; its con- iemplative, spiritual men — men full of goodness and practical solicitude, ''charity in them tri- umphantly reigning over knowledge, and tongues, and prophesying" — such were Bernard, Fenelon, Melanchthon, Fletcher of Madeley, Watts, and Doddridge. We should learn to admire the grace of God in all its manifestations. "God fulfills himself in many ways ;" there is room in the Church for all Individuality 17 temperaments; her true aim as a Church is to follow up the work of the Spirit, not to attempt to manufacture Christians after a single ex- emplar, but rather to take what is strongest and best in the character of each, and to make it do service to God; ''not to crush the enthusiasm out of a St. Paul, or the independent thought out of an Augustine, or the artistic power out of a Fra Angelico, or the poetry out of a Milton, or the scientific spirit out of a Livingstone, but to turn their special gifts to God's ends, and consecrate them to all holy purposes." God, the Holy Spirit, is brooding over each individuality as the Great Musician. He can bring out the music that is wanted. He can enable you to furnish some strain that would be lacking in the ears of God, if your particular soul did not bring it ; if you did not strike your string, nor touch your key. 4. Our Ivord chose the Twelve possessing dif- ferent temperaments. He did it purposely. He did it because the leading characteristics of the gospel were to be exhibited in these twelve men ; they were to be the representatives and helpers of all the diverse and many-colored tempera- ments which hereafter should be found in the Church; their selection, therefore, was a matter of vast importance. Because Christ himself was so truly and deeply the Wonderful, it was neces- sary that his witnesses, who were also to be the 1 8 Individuality future organs of his Spirit, should be men of broadly varied natures — not copies one of an- other, like images of clay cast in kindred molds, but differing in mental constitution, experience, spiritual affinities, and faculty of vision. No single man could take in his whole image, or apprehend, in its completeness, the truth re- vealed in him; and therefore the ''chosen wit- nesses'* were many, and many-natured. So far as we can see, the beautiful figurative language used in i Corinthians xii, 14-27, is also com- pletely applicable to the organism of the apos- tolic circle. There are many gifts, but one Spirit. But when the results are before us, no one could venture to pronounce which of the Twelve was the most fitted for the grand work Christ gave them all to do. Each was the best for his own work. The author of the following words is un- known to us : "Interesting is it to study the nat- ural peculiarities of these most honored of the sons of men, and to see how from on high the Spirit hallowed their idiosyncrasies, and mel- lowed the fruits of their experience. To ac- quaint ourselves intimately with the Galilean sailor, brave Imt rash, deeply loving l)ut not deeply thoughtful, trained on the seashore in a fisher's hut, and whose only learning was the law Individuality 19 and prophets, and the holy hymns of David and the rest, which as a boy he had sung in his father's boat, making the rocks echo with those holy lays ; and then to form a friendship with the Cilician tentmaker, who had all that sailor's braveness without his rashness — all his love, but coupled with a keener, broader intellect; who had read Greek as well as Hebrew poets in the city of Tarsus, and had studied the rolls of Holy Writ and the lore of Rabbis at Gamaliel's feet. And then to enter the still more spiritual pres- ence of that disciple whom Jesus loved, the tem- pestuous morning of whose life settled down into an eventide of summer calmness, who carried not his gentleness to the breast of Jesus, but found it there; whose eagle eye to the last blenched not, but on the rocks of the Patmos isle let in light and glory to a heart of dovelike tenderness." Anything like an exact notation of these dif- ferences is impossible. They are individual vari- eties. Each has much in common with the rest. Not one has anything in which the others are totally deficient. A larger proportional develop- ment of some one quality seems the chief indi- vidual distinction. All the three apostles just mentioned were zealous. Peter was only emi- nently so. All were doctrinal; Paul was only 20 IndividMality eminently so. All were spiritual ; John was only eminently so. Furthermore, our personality will not be lost in heaven. Each Christian worker will be recognized individually. A great multi- tude; yet each one as observable, as distinctly recognized, as greatly celebrated, as if in all ''the space from gate to gate, and from hill to hill," he were the only inhabitant. II Ci)e Composite Cljurcj^ Men make up Man; Churches make up the Church; Truths make up Truth ; and it is only by a complete com- bination of the parts that the majesty and luster of the whole can be secured. —Joseph Parker ^ D. D. Cl^e Compositte €^mt^ 1. That the intention of Jesus was to found a Church is sufficiently proved by the calling of the apostles. After a night of prayer, he chooses the Twelve, whom he designs to employ in an especial manner as his ambassadors. Up to this time it can hardly be said that the kingdom of God was set up. But from that moment the Church of Christ is revealed in miniature, as it has stood before the world for eighteen centuries. The Apostolic Twelve, so to speak, are the nor- mal representation of primitive Christianity — of the Church which saw Christ face to face, which directly heard his voice, and received from him the great commission of preserving his memory to the world. They formed the first nucleus of the Church, that which came closest to the cen- ter of all truth and life. Hence the unwearied labors of Jesus devoted to the spiritual education of the Twelve. 2. The choice of these particular men was made in true wisdom. Some have taken excep- tion to the selection made; it has been charged that the men were ill-suited to Christ's purpose. In answer to this, others have undertaken to de- fend the selection by teaching that our Savior 23 24 Individuality made choice of twelve simple and unlettered men, that the greater their lack of natural wis- dom was, the more admirable might appear the supernatural gifts with which God endowed them. We take exception to this view. It was not a question of kindred, or of letters, or of education, that determined their selection. We hold the Twelve were selected as representative types; each was well suited to Christ's purpose, which purpose was to represent human nature in its entirety. Of course, Jesus had to select from disciples; they were the only materials at hand. He wanted zvitnesses. That some of the apostles were comparatively obscure, inferior men, can not be denied ; but it does not take a great man to make a good witness, and to be witnesses of Christian facts was the main business of the apostles. Those facts were largely matters of experience, as they shone out through them as typal individualities. Professor Bruce, in his ^'Training of the Twelve," says : ''That even the humblest of them rendered important service in that capacity we need not doubt, though noth- ing is said of them in the apostolic annals. It was not to be expected that a history so frag- mentary and so brief as that given by Luke should mention any but the principal actors, es- pecially when we reflect how few of the char- The Co7nposite Church 25 acters that appear on the stage at any particular crisis in human affairs are prominently noticed even in histories which go elaborately into detail. The purpose of history is secured by recording the words and deeds of the repxes^ntative men, and many are allowed to drop into oblivion who did nobly in their day. The less distinguished members of the apostolic band are entitled to the benefit of this reflection/* 3. The Apostolic College, as a whole, is illus- trative of composite human nature. As Christ was the Ideal Man, and was in all points what men can be, so the apostles shadow forth all the possible dispositions and temperaments of hu- man nature. In the truest sense of the word, the Twelve constitute the Composite Church. Twelve rare stones once burned in the breast- plate of the high priest; a glorious mass, the richest symbol of value, honor, and glory. The twelve apostles were like these gems. There was no duplicate stone, no duplicate apostle, and one could never be mistaken for another. Each was a man of pronounced individuality. But with all their diversities, these twelve live stones were all wrought into one symmetrical whole. The Church is one. But it is one as the body is one. "We have many members in'* the *'one" natural "body;" and just so we, being diverse Christian members of His redeemed flock, "are 26 Individuality one" mystical "body in Christ." In the natural body every part is not so much a distinct unit in itself as a fraction of one great whole ; and so in the Church, not the individuality of the member, but the oneness of the whole community, is to demonstrate the truth of Christ*s mission. One of the happiest definitions of life is this ^ by Professor Guyot: 'Xife is the mutual ex- changing of relations." And the higher the life, the intenser the exchanging. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity !" The formula of definition is, Unity in diversity, and diversity in unity. The Christian Church began in this way, and began gloriously. The Day of Pentecost supplied the mold in which it was to be cast. All Church life and service are interdepend- ent. There is nothing like Christianity to indi- vidualize mankind. But at the same time, much of what we can do that is best in the world we must do by close connection and interaction one with another. Timothy is necessary to Paul; the least essential to the great. Priscilla and Aquila ! what a power they were • for early Christianity, when they took that eloquent young Alexandrian, Apollos, and taught him in private the way of God more perfectly! Pris- cilla, that devout woman, stood, in fact, before delighted assemblies in Corinth, and spoke to The Composite Church 27 them the perfect way of God through the elo- quent man whom she had taught. In the valley of Chamounix there stands a very interesting monument ; it presents two fig- j^. ures — Saussure, the great scientist, and Balmat, '"^ the guide, who was the very first to stand on the summit of Mont Blanc. Saussure, on the sum- mit of the mighty mountain, could do what the poor guide could not do; he could observe the structure of the rocks, take observations of barometrical variations, note the intensity of the solar rays, the mode of formation of clouds, and he could describe the superb scenery unfolded to his view with the feeling of an artist and the pen of a poet. Balmat could do nothing of all this ; but had it not been for his skill and daring, Saussure had never scaled the glorious height. So on the monument both are immortalized — the lowly guide and the famous philosopher; for by their mutuality they triumphed, and gave mankind a new world of science and poetry. So it is in the Church. The Church, the body of Christ, is an organic whole. Its work is one. All its members mutually help in the common work. No one has a right to say to another, "I have no need of you." All are needful. Com- parisons as to value of service are odious. Each in his place is best. The difficulty we have with ourselves and with one another is that of not 28 Individuality perceiving that every one of us is needful to make up the sum total of God's meaning. The men in the Apostolic College belong to one another. 4. Of the apostles chosen there are given in the New Testament four lists: one by St. Mat- thew (x, 2-4); another by St. Mark (iii, 16-19); and two by St. Luke (Luke vi, 14-16; Acts i, 13). St. Matthew and St. Luke in their Gospels enu- merate the apostles in an order which answers to the date of their calling ; St. Mark ranges them according to their personal influence before the Savior's death; and in the Acts they are set in their order of importance after the ascension. The order taken in this work is that found in St. Matthew's Gospel. The record is: "And when he had called unto him his twelve dis- ciples, he gave them power against unclean spir- its, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these ; the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus ; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Is- cariot, who also betrayed him." The Composite Church 29 In the following table the names are arranged into four groups, each group centering around a characteristic key-thought : I Group Key- word: Impulse. Simon Peter. Andrew. James (son of Zebedee). II Group Key-word: Affection. John. Philip. Bartholomew (Nathanael). III Group Key-word: Intellect. Thomas (Didymus). Matthew (Ivevi). James (son of Alphseus). IV Group Key-word : Administrative Ability. Lebbseus (Thaddaeus, Judas). Simon (Canaanite, Zelotes). Judas Iscariot. These four groups, in their distinctive fea- tures, cover all our complex nature. Of the first group, Peter, the man of impulse, is the repre- sentative ; of the second, John, the man of affec- tion; of the third, Thomas, the man of reason; of the fourth, Judas Iscariot, the man of admin- 30 Individuality istrative ability. In the first group we naturally expect to find the impulsive type of Christianity ; they are the pioneers; and this expectation is justified by subsequent events. In the second group we have the intuitive type of Christian- ity — men of contemplation. In the third group we have the intellectual type of Christianity. They are all reflective men. The fourth group constitutes the administrative type of Christian- ity. All the apostles of this group were men of evidently practical gifts. Each group fell through its representative, and through the predominant strength of its chief characteristic, or that for which Christ se- lects the group. The most signal failures of Peter, John, Thomas, and Judas Iscariot took place in those points of character for which they were remarkable in excellence. In the words of Robertson : ''St. John was the apostle of charity ; yet he is the very type to us of religious intoler- ance, in his desire to call down fire from heaven. St. Peter is proverbially the apostle of impetuous intrepidity; yet twice he proved a craven." We see this same fact illustrated in certain Old Testa- W ment characters. So eminent as Abraham was ^' \ in faith, it was in faith that he most signally failed ; remarkable as Job was for patience, it was in that very thing that he gave way ; and though Moses was ''meek above all the men that dwell The Cofnpostte Church 31 upon the earth," his meekness gave place to irri- tability at Meribah, and that, too, before a provo- cation which seems to us to have been the small- est of his life. Let us not forget that our greatest danger does not always lie where we are weakest, but is sometimes where we are usually strongest. Men and women are never in more imminent danger than when they meet with temptations exactly suited to their master-disposition or temperament. 5. The apostles were in this condition. Christ recognized this fact. He chided them very gently. He told them that they were as yet incomplete men, and charged them that they should ''wait for the promise of the Father." No doubt they were new creatures in Christ. They loved and served him. But if you consider the mistakes that they made regarding Christ's kingdom, their prejudices, their fears, the shock which they had received, and the panic into which they had been thrown by Christ's death, you will admit that they were not yet ready for their work. They were to "wait" for a special preparation. Hence at that solemn moment, in which Christ turns over mankind into their hands, his last service is to tell them of the power which shall be wrought in them by the Holy Ghost, and what they shall do with it. ''Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come i Individuality upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me;" and power they did receive. The disciples, as we see them in the Gospels, are cowards ; in the Acts, they are heroes. In the Gospels, they are full of speculation and doubt; in the Acts, they are marked by a strong, unwavering faith. In the Gospels we have the source of life; in the Acts, the source of service and testimony. Christ saves; the Holy Ghost empowers. The Rev. John MacNeil says, "Life begins at the Cross, but service begins at Pentecost." And again, "God wants us to be living this side Pentecost, not the other side." The glory of the Apostolic Church was not merely in her faith, zeal, conversions, or martyrdoms; but above all, and as their source, in the possession of the Holy Ghost. This will ap- pear more and more clearly as we study each of the four apostolic groups. Ill Key-word: Impulse Simon Peter Andrew James the Son of Zebedee 33 Does he take inspiration from the Church, Directly make her rule his law of life? Not he: his own mere impulse guides the man. — Browning. He abandoned himself to the impulse of the moment, whether for good or evil. —Prescott. 34 'T- '■i 3Impul!Se The stram of passion is particularly marked and emphatic in this group. The key-word is impulse. The representative is Peter. I. Peter was a man essentially of impulses. He was distinguished from the rest of our Lord's followers by an impetuosity which seems to have been born with him, and which showed itself by obstinately holding any opinion which the mind once embraced. None of the disciples gainsaid our Lord so often as Peter. Over and over again, Peter's temperamental disposition asserts its power. His full heart put force and promptitude into his every movement. From the many in- stances recorded, we need select only a few in which this impulsiveness of his nature asserts itself. It was his impulsive faith that attempted to walk on the sea. Jesus had just performed the miracle of feeding the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. So great was the impression made on their minds by this extraordinary act of benevolence and power, that he thought it best, in order to avoid the hindrance of his great task by any popular commotion in his favor, to go away in such a manner as to be effectually be- 35 36 Individuality yond their reach for the time. With this view, he constrained the disciples to get into the ship, and go before him to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people away. After sending the multitude away, he wxnt up into a moun- tain, apart, to pray. And after nightfall the vessel was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. Weary with a night of rowing, for ''the wind was contrary," the disciple-crew had lost courage; and about three or four o'clock in the morning, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. They supposed it to have been a spirit, and "cried out with fear." It was the cry of men tossed and toiling on the wild deep in the gloom of night. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, and said, "It is I: be not afraid." That voice stilled their terrors, and at once they were eager to receive him into the ship; but Peter's im- petuous love can not even await his approach, and he passionately exclaims, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." And he said, "Come." And over the vessel's side into the troubled waves he sprang. It was a courageous faith. A timid faith would not have ventured even to think of doing that which Peter asked to do. But, beginning to sink, he cried for aid; aid was immediately given by the Sa- vior, who said, "O thou of little faith, wherefore Impidse 37 didst thou doubt?" It is not difficult to discover the characteristics of Simon Peter as they come out here. Whatever he felt for the moment was sure to come out in his words or actions. It is easy to blame and say that Peter should not have been so eager to meet his Lord, or he should have maintained his faith to the last. But we must not forget that the very height to which his faith had for the moment attained, exposed him, more than any others, to the temptation of unbelief. ''Those who sit securely in their boats'; are not liable to sink. The men of even tem- perament can not know an experience like this. They know nothing of ups and downs. Where the hills are highest, the ravines are deepest." Peter, therefore, must not be unduly blamed. It is better to dare a noble thing for Christ and fail, than not to dare at all. Had any one else but Peter attempted this, it would have appeared awkward and ungraceful ; had he refrained from rushing off to Jesus, we should have felt that it was not like Peter. The same generous, impetuous spirit shows itself in Peter's first and second confessions of Christ. The first confession was made when many false or half-sincere disciples had left the Master. In deep sadness of heart he addressed to the Twelve the touching question, "Will ye 38 Individuality also go away?" It was Simon Peter whose warm heart spoke out impetuously for all the rest: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." This was the grandest act of Peter's life. He enthroned Christ. It is the grandest act of any soul to enthrone Christ. And yet we can scarcely conceive of any but Peter speaking these words. They would not have been the first answer of the critical Thomas or the more philosophical John. Their sudden, unqualified utterance could only have broken from the lips of Peter. At the bare mention of the possibility of departure from Christ, Peter's soul was on fire, and the utterance of his heart outran the slower processes of the intellect, and he spoke with the voice of one who had experi- enced the power of the words of eternal life. The same unhesitating spirit is seen in his second confession. Jesus took advantage of a quiet time with his disciples to ask them what were men's thoughts about him in the countries through which they had just passed. When they replied that the people saw in him one of the old prophets, whose return w^as looked for at the epoch of the Messiah, the Master asked, *'Whom say ye that I am?" "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," exclaims Impulse 39 Peter, in one of those ecstasies of faith which raise him for the moment above himself, and re- veal that ardent courage which characterizes all the mighty men of action and enthusiasm. With this prompt, definite confession, Jesus was satis- fied. He solemnly pronounced Peter ''blessed" on account of his faith. Christ blesses enthusiasm when it is in the way, and does not check it. But see how he re- bukes it when not in the way ! When the Lord warned his disciples of his approaching death, "they understood not his saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not." "And they feared to ask him." But Peter, in his im- petuosity, thought that he understood, and that he could prevent; and so he interrupted those solemn utterances by his ignorant and presump- tuous zeal. He took Jesus aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, "Be it far from thee. Lord ; this shall not be unto thee." It was kindly meant. But he knew not what he said. With a flash of sudden indignation, our Lord rebuked his worldliness and presumption : "Get thee be- hind me Satan: thou art an offense unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Passing over the intervening incidental notices of Peter's actions, the next great occa- sion on which his impulsive nature shows itself 40 Individuality was in the Upper Room. At the appointed hour I the thirteen sat down to eat. And when the Passover meal was served, Jesus rose from his seat, and proceeded to wash his disciples' feet, ''performing for them the meanest offices of hos- pitality." Awe and shame kept the others silent until he came to Peter, whose irrepressible emo- tions found vent in the surprised, half-indignant question, ''Lord, dost thou seek to wash my feet?" To this the Savior replied, 'What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Peter was over-hasty in judging Christ's action, for he was ignorant. Had he waited, Christ would have made it clear. Still the erratic disciple would not consent; he im- petuously exclaims, ''Thou shalt never wash my feet." On the whole, Peter was a good man, and his language here expresses something that was really good, just that sense of Christ's great- ness and his own unworthiness as appears in Luke V, 8, "Thy condescension overwhelms me." But associated with this is Peter's want of re- flection, of ready acquiescence, and his char- acteristic impulsiveness. He should have felt such unbounded confidence in Christ as to sub- mit without resistance or reluctance. But the Master would not argue with him. He simply said, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." That calm word changed the whole cur- Impulse 41 rent of thought and feeling in the warm-hearted, passionate disciple. The idea of being cut off from his dear Master's favor through his way- wardness drove him in sheer fright to the oppo- site extreme of overdone compliance: ''Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." But that again was too much. How characteristic of the man! He goes swinging, like a pendulum, from one extreme to another. "If you drive nature out with a fork, yet it will come back again." That was an old Roman say- ing, and one can not but be reminded of it in the case of Peter. ''J^sus saith unto him. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." Peter learns first that he must yield an unquestioning obedience, and then that the general purification of the soul obtained by pardon, does not dispense with the daily cleansing; for the pilgrim bound for heaven can not pursue his journey without the dust of the way cleaving to his feet. "He who is washed needeth not save to wash his feet." And now the Savior proceeded to institute the perpetual feast commemorative of his death, observing sadly that his death would not merely / be accelerated by the treachery of one, but by the desertion of all. Again the spirit of positive assertion obtains the mastery over Peter, not yet taught the lesson of self-mistrust. He asks, 42 Individuality ''Lord, whither goest thou?" Jesus answered him, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward." Peter said unto him : ''Lord, why can I not fol- low thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake." Again, when the Master said, "All ye shall be offended because of me this night," the words spring to Peter's lips, "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended." Peter's sins, like his vir- tues, were in a large measure due to his tempera- ment. When Jesus was in the garden, and about to be apprehended, Peter, readiest in action as in word, drew his sword, and cut off the ear of Malchus, one of the servants of the high priest. Instantly Jesus rebuked the ill-timed action. "Return that sword of thine into its place," he said to Peter, "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Soon followed his threefold denial of the Master, with its sad and suggestive history. At this period of his life, Peter's easy, impressionable nature was ever liable to be molded by the influence of the mo- ment, and he passed readily into passionate ex- tremes. At different times during the Last Sup- per, and in the conversations which followed, Peter expressed himself after this fashion: "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee," "Although all shall be offended, yet Impulse 43 will not I," "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death," "I will lay down my life for thy sake." And when he said these things he was sincere. He felt all he said. And yet this was the man who denied his Lord. Peter was not content with one denial. First of all, there was the square falsehood, "I know not the man." Then, as Mark puts it, there was a second denial, with perjury; for, with an oath, he said the second time, ''I know riot the man." And then, under the third challenge, the third denial comes with dreadful imprecations and curses — "He began to curse and to swear, say- ing, I know not this man of whom ye speak." But at that fatal moment of guilt, ''the Lord turnedand looked upon Peter." It was enough; Peter went out and wept bitterly, and, as the story soon tells us, returned to the Lord. There is a peculiar silence in the narrative about him through all the remaining passion of Christ. He does not appear in the story when the Savior was crucified, nor when he was laid in Joseph's tomb; and nothing is said of him during the three days of great suspense endured by all the believers at Jerusalem. But he comes to light again on the morning of the third day. On hearing the news of the resurrection of Jesus, Peter and John started at once for the sepulcher. John outran Peter, but stood looking into the 44 IndividMality sepulcher; then Peter came up, and with his usual impetuosity, heedless of ceremonial pollu- tion, and of every consideration but his love and his astonishment, plunged in at once. Then fol- lowed John, and while they were there, they saw in a moment what had occurred. And now the scene shifts once more to the familiar shores of the Sea of Galilee. The dis- ciples had toiled all night in fishing, but in vain. At early dawn there stood on the shore the figure of One whom they did not recognize. He called to them, ^'Children, have ye any meat?" They answered him, ''No," and he called to them again, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." They cast at once, and ''they were not able to draw the net for the multitude of fishes." Then we are told that John whis- pered to Peter, "It is the Lord." Instantly the warm-hearted Peter, his whole character coming out in the act, girds around him the fisher's coat and leaps into the sea, to swim across the hun- dred yards which separated him from Jesus, and casts himself, all wet from the waves, before his Master's feet. John was the first to perceive Christ, but Peter was the first to struggle to him. John's love was quickest to discern, but Peter's impulse was quickest to stir. And here we must close with the history of the Peter of the Gospels. His character is a Impulse 45 very marked one. We notice at once his natural sincerity and boldness; his vehemence and self- confidence; his liability to be hurried away by the tide of events and the current of prevailing feeling. His love to Jesus was genuine and sin- cere ; for with all his failings, Peter was no hypo- crite ; but as Dr. McCosh says : ''His zeal is often unthinking and impetuous, and proceeds from a self-confident and self-righteous, rather than a humble and trustful, spirit of dependence on God; and it comes forth when it should be re- strained, and fails when it should flow.'* He stands out, however, as a born leader of men ; a man of boundless energy ; invaluable to every new movement ; an extremist, in the most emphatic sense of that term. Such are the men who head great reforms, and lead the way to better things. 2. "One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother." Thus is introduced the second apostle of this first group. The notices of Andrew are extremely rare, but nearly all of them exhibit him introducing others to Christ. Bede has given him the appropriate name of "Introductor to Christ." On almost every occasion where he appears at all, it is in the capacity of a missionary. First, it is his own brother whom he brings. He ''first findeth his own brother Simon." 46 Individuality There are two kinds of people : those who go and do the thing, and those who stand and wonder why it was not done after some other fashion. Andrew can not keep the blessed discovery to himself. There is no postponement for a com- plete plan, or for times. He begins at the near- est point— "his own brother." As devout Jews they had often talked of the coming Messiah ; as companions in fishing on the Sea of Galilee they had often discussed the state of religion in their nation; and as brothers they had often revealed to each other the longing of their hearts after a brighter hope, a purer life. Andrew knew what a blessing it would be for Simon to know Jesus, and so he hastens to bring them together. His heart is full, and he does what he can. We next meet with Andrew at the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus said unto Philip, ''Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" Philip answered him, ''Two hun- dred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little." But Andrew said unto Jesus, "There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?" Philip's answer betrays his impatience with the apparent unreasonableness of the question. But as F. W. Macdonald says : "Andrew's reply was a great advance on Philip's. From Philip's non- Impulse 47 existent two hundred pennyworth to Andrew's actual five loaves is certainly to make progress. It is moving out of the negative into the positive, out of the region in which our cynicism and de- spair so often tarry, into the region of practical endeavor." That is the spirit of every true pio- neer, that sees the possibilities of things and ventures. "Philip is wilHng to begin if he has a grand start ; Andrew is willing to begin with a small capital." We see no more of Andrew until the day when a party of Greeks came to Philip, and asked him to procure for them a private interview with Jesus. Philip communicates the matter to An- drew. Why not convey the request direct to Jesus? Why go to Andrew? Just because the petitioners are Greeks and Gentiles. It is a new situation. Philip is pleased that his Master should be inquired after in such a quarter, but he is not sure about the propriety of acting on his first impulse. He hesitates; but Andrew is ready — his first impulse settles the question. Thus we find in this apostle the pioneer spirit. If the figure of Andrew fades into dimness beside that of his brother, he retains, nevertheless, the honor of having been the first to hail Jesus ; and he ever shows himself zealous in his service. 3. Of James, the third apostle mentioned in this group, a few facts only stand recorded. 48 Indiviauality Originally he was a disciple of the stern Baptist, and therefore a man of no common earnestness. On him, with his brother, our Lord bestowed the title, "Son of Thunder." Unquestionably this name implies that he had a burning and im- petuous spirit. Of the characteristic events of his life none are recorded, save his call ; the token of a fiery spirit, in the case of the inhospitable Samaritans ; his ambitious desire for a chief place in the kingdom of the Messiah ; and his martyr- dom. James was the first to shed his blood for the gospel (iVcts xii, i). In the early Church he seems to have occupied a prominent place. His zeal still burnt with a hot, unhidden flame, which attracted to itself the earliest storm of hostile attack. Clement of Alexandria, in a fragment preserved by Eusebius, reports that the officer who conducted James to the tribunal was so in- fluenced by the bold declaration of his faith as to embrace the gospel and avow himself also a Christian; in consequence of which he was be- headed at the same time. Thus, we see, all the apostles of this group are characterized by an impulsive spirit. The group represents an undeniable headship in organization. Here are the pioneers, the leaders, the organizers. IV Cfje SmpiiMtie C^pe of Ctjrtstianit^ 49 Christianity is an enthusiasm, or it is nothing. — Ecce Homo, Only "a soul all flame" is likely to accomplish much in the teeth of the difficulties which beset every lofty enterprise. The great movements which have most widely blessed the world have been led by men of passionate earnestness and fervid zeal. — G. Howard James, 50 C^e 9Itnpuljstbe Ctpe of Cl^riistfantt^ There is an impulsive type of Christianity. It is one of the most needed factors in the build- ing up of Christ's kingdom. We need to see to it that our Christianity is not purely intellectual ; we need impulses; we need impulse regenerated and baptized for Christ. "The onward march of mankind," says Dr. Alexander ' Whyte ; "the ever-advancing providences of the living God; the expansion and the extension of the nations of the earth, as well as the spread and the fullness of the Church of Christ, — all these are simply bound up with the sanguine temperament. For that happy temperament is open, hopeful, be- lieving, enterprising, and responsive to all that is true and good. The sanguine temperament beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." All down human history we see the great advancements that this so generous temperament has achieved. Look at all the true leaders of men in all ages. Look at the pioneers and those who have prepared the way. Look at the men who opened their eyes, opened their hearts, spoke the first word, and took the first step. The Church, no less than the world, needs men of action to lead the way ; 51 -^2 Individuality pioneers to open up new paths; persons of im- agination and enthusiasm to devise and impress others with the practicabiUty of what they sug- gest. I. A popular author says, "The secret of all worldly success is earnestness." Our Lord made no mistake when he called a man like Peter to himself and to his service. We may moralize, if we choose, over Peter's impulsiveness, and bewail the absence of caution by which, on many occa- sions, he was characterized ; but in the language of Dr. William M. Taylor: "The fact remains that the world has never owed very much to your prudent people, who are always afraid to do any- thing until they know assuredly that they are doing the right thing. If Luther had been a man of that temperament, there would have been no Reformation." Such never make the pio- neers, the leaders, the organizers of new work. God deliver the Church from the paralyzing power of men "who never say a foolish thing, and never do a wise one !" The Church of to-day has far too many men ready to put breaks on her progress — cautious men — but far too few men of steam power, men to tell us what to do, and who go and do it. Caution and propriety have their use. Common sense is always needful. But the man whom God places at the forefront The Impulsive Type of Christianity 53 is gifted with quickness, warmth, and tremen- dous energy. In fact, a zealous spirit is essential to eminent success in anything. Perhaps there is more need to insist upon this because enthusiasm is out of fashion. It is bad form nowadays to admire any- thing very warmly. To be strenuously in ear- nest is almost vulgar. Especially is this so in regard to religion. Did not Pope say long ago, "The worst of madmen is a saint run mad?" And he only put in terse and pithy speech what other people say more clumsily. There are people who have an antipathy to enthusiasm in religion. They object that we can not rely upon ''ho- sanna" people. But what is a wooden Chris- tianity good for? What is a Christianity that is logical only good for? The worst heresy is cold- ness. "Coldness," says Dr. Joseph Parker, of London, "is the deadliest enemy. Fear the cold man more than the atheist. He sends a chill through all the regions of the Church. No hymn lifts him into rapture; no view of Divine truth transfigures him or makes his raiment glisten with sparkles of light. He is outside the fire of the most burning appeal ; yet, for some inscru- table reason, he is within the lines of the visible Church. The cold man is not brought up for excommunication, but he ought to be. . . . 54 Individuality Herein the Church is fatally wrong. She will indorse the cold man, and expel the earnest con- templatist and speculatist; she lays hands on daring yet reverent speculation, and allows the cold man to lift up his hand of ice in sign of legitimate ecclesiastical authority. Better have two men in your congregation who are in burn- ing earnest, than a houseful of men whose souls are destitute of enthusiasm. You gain in weight what you lose in number ; you gain in force what you lose in show. The prayer of every devout heart should be, 'Baptize me as with fire.' " Enthusiasm ! That is what the Church needs. There should be fervency of spirit that will radi- ate both light and heat. The faculties should be on fire. Iron can not be welded at a low tem- perature. There must be heat, and then you can weld iron to iron. So you can not weld na- tures to each other when they are at a low tem- perature. Mind can not take hold of mind, nor faculty of faculty, when they are not in a glow. But when they are in a glow they can. We see this exemplified in society. Hundreds and hun- dreds of men, who are rich in learning, ponder- ous in mental equipment, ample in philosophical power, who are low in degree of temperature, and who labor all their life, achieve but little. You see, right by the side of these men, men who have no comparison with them in native The Impulsive Type of Christimiity 55 power or in culture, but who have simplicity, straightforwardness, and, above all, intensity; and what of them? Why this: they are eminent in accomplishing results. Let a man's soul be filled with a design ; let his faith burn into enthu- siasm; let his idea become the necessity of his life and the very synonym of his name, — and will he fear? will he hesitate? will he furl his banner before the threatening foe? Let the his- tory of heroism testify ! Says Dr. John Watson : ''You can do nothing without enthusisam. You can not carry on a charitable relief society or a political club with cold-blooded men. And the kingdom of God is more than a club. No enterprise depends so absolutely on the high enthusiasm of its mem- bers ; it utilizes all kinds of power, but it succeeds in proportion as the mercury stands high in the thermometer. Its great captains have all been of the impassioned order. George Buchanan was the finest Scottish scholar of the sixteenth century ; but it was fiery John Knox, and not the Latin writer, that recast Scotland. Erasmus was the finest scholar anywhere of that century, but Luther led the European Reformation. It was not the learned Alexandrian, Apollos, that evangelized the Roman Empire, but that in- spired madman, St. Paul. History affords at every turn some impregnable fortress which was 56 Individuality the despair of the wise and prudent, but was carried by some enthusiast with a rush. He cast his reputation, his Hfe, his all, into the breach, and his body made the bridge over which the race entered into its heritage. . . . From the days of Telemachus until now, the kingdom of heaven has been served by 'the violent,' and the violent have carried it to victory." 2. The impulsive is the missionary type of Christianity. We can not tell certainly w^ho was the first foreign missionary. But we know who was the first home missionary — Andrew. "He first findeth his own brother Simon." In An- drew we find the very genius of Christianity. He felt at once the communicative and diffusive nature of religion. How instinctive and natural the impulse is when a man has found Jesus Christ to tell some one else about him ! Nobody said to Andrew, ''Go and look for your brother !" If a man has a real conviction, he can not rest until he has shared it with some one else. Even a dog that has had its injured leg mended will bring other limping dogs to the mender. Everything in religion is gloriously expansive. Andrew, before he was four and twenty hours a disciple, had made another. He did not wait till he had been made an apostle, or even a regu- lar disciple. He began at once. If we never think about doing good to the souls of men till The Impulsive Type of Christianity 57 we are licensed, we should think seriously if we ought to be licensed at all ; and if, when we are licensed or ordained, we look upon our work as a task, and measure carefully what we have to do, and what we have not to do, we should ask ourselves, "Is this not the place of a hireling?" And the same lesson comes home to all. A man may never think of being a minister or a mis- sionary; but he is not thereby freed from the duty of beginning at once to speak a word to his brother about the gospel of Christ. Let us not forget the beginnings of the Christian Church : two men — Andrew and John — each of whom found his brother. "Two snowflakes on the top of the mountain are an avalanche by the time they reach the valley." A great need of the hour is personal effort. This is an age of associations; individual effort is, in a large manner, superseded by corporate action. We do nearly all our good by commit- tees and societies. Many, feeling unable alto- gether to escape from the responsibility of doing something for the cause of Christ, pay others to act as their substitutes ; and thus organizations are necessitated to accomplish mechanically, as it were, what can only be done effectually by individual effort. Such organizations, no doubt, accomplish a vast amount of good, and it is not easy to see how, in the present state of society, 58 Individuality they could safely be abolished; but it must be acknowledged that what the world needs more than anything else — more than gifts of money, rules, speeches, theories, organizations — is the revival of personal agency; the touch of the hand, the glance of an eye, the tone of a voice, the sympathy of warm, loving hearts, charged with all-healing influences. What is wanted now is a revival of the old- fashioned "passion for souls ;" that passion which made Paul say, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh;" that which caused Brainerd to exclaim, "I cared not where or how I lived, so that I could but win souls to Christ; while I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I awaked it was my sole con- cern ;" that which made Wesley say to his breth- ren, "Let us all be men of one business ; we live only for this — to save our own souls and the souls of them that hear tis ;" that which led the devout Robert McAU to resign his prosperous Church, that he might go to win skeptical and frivolous Paris for Jesus. When Dr. Backus (the president of Hamilton College) was upon his deathbed, the physician called to see him, and, after examining the symptoms, left the room without speaking, but, as he opened the door to go out, was observed to whisper some- The linpidsive Type of Christianity 59 thing to the servant. "What did the physician say to you?" asked Dr. Backus. "He said, sir, that you can not live to exceed half an hour." "Is it so?" said the good man; "then take me out of my bed, and place me upon my knees ; let me spend that time in calling upon God for the salvation of the world." His request was com- plied with; and his last moments were spent in breathing forth his prayers for the salvation of his fellow-sinners. He died upon his knees. 3. But as Andrew did not stop short at his brother, so home missions must expand into foreign. The religion of Christ is essentially mis- sionary. The largeness of the Savior's pur- pose — "Go ye, and teach all nations" — is proof of that. What an amplitude there is in the gaze of Christ ! What a reach in his merciful design ! Calvary has not robbed him of his love. With the freshness of the resurrection power upon him, he bids men to look at mankind and con- quer the world for him. Man needs the Savior, and Christ commanded that the gospel which unfolds him should be preached to every crea- ture. We evaporate the meaning of the Master's command if we say that the heathen are saved without the gospel. We can not go behind his words. No matter how many scientists, philos- ophers, jurists, and experts you may summon, the question before the court is, "Do the 6o Individuality heathen need the gospel?" The man of the world says, "No." We challenge the witness. He is not competent. The Lord Jesus knows all things in heaven and in earth. In his life and death he reveals the mysteries of grace. Noth- ing is clearer than this : the guilt of the heathen world, their need of the gospel, and our duty to carry it to them. When the Crusades were being preached, the one cry which provoked a response from every lip was this: "God wills it!" The plea in our case is more urgent than in theirs, and shall our sense of obligation be less? "It is not merely God wills it, but Christ commands it." It comes direct, not merely as the Divine wish, but as the Divine injunction. When Christ says "Go," who will dare to stay? These are mission times. The ripeness of the time for a grand movement all along the line is one of the miracles of history. Look at the world to-day. Is there not a manifest tendency on the part of all things to assume great and world-wide relations? There are no more Alps, no more seas ; all chasms are bridged. The ends of the earth are approaching each other, and men are swarming hither and thither, and being shuf- fled together in this great period of the migra- tion of nations. Need we longer inquire what all this means? God wants to open up the re- The Impulsive Type of Chris ttanity 6i mote places of the earth and the gates of the nations for his gospel. And he is rapidly doing it. All the world's suburbs of hell are now open to gospel light. The Scriptures are in almost every tongue. The land is dotted with schools. The dark places have light. The gates have swung open, and God has entered. The imme- diate and imperative duty of the hour is a prompt, earnest, and vigorous prosecution of the colossal enterprise of a world's evangelization. The spirit of missions is the Spirit of Christ. The spiritual life and power of any Church are di- rectly in proportion to what that Church is doing outside of itself. The Church is here in order that the gospel may be preached unto all nations, not alone as a testimony, but as a transforming power. To be indifferent to missions, is to be indifferent to the gospel; to be unevangelistic, is to be unevangelical. A Church that does not let its influence go down into the moral deserts and the Dead Seas of sin; that sends not the healing flood of the gospel out from its gates, making a track of greenness and beauty; that does not go, with its sympathies and prayers and alms, into all the world — is a Church with a name to live, but dead ; the spirit of the cross is utterly dead in her. We are living near the beginning of what 6^ Individuality might be called the third great missionary era, and what might prove to be the last age of Chris- tian propagandism. We need to throw ourselves with new heart and soul into this most cheering and hopeful of all enterprises. Men of large hope; men of predominant, sanguine tempera- ment; men of the impulsive and enthusiastic type, — these are the men that are in demand in this great missionary era. The Church must have leaders capable of great tmdertakings and great attainments. There is a certain scope, horizon, and atmosphere in the peculiar com- plexion of the men of this first apostolic group ; they are capable of missionary enthusiasm. Spurgeon writes: ''We need ministers who live only for Christ, and desire nothing but oppor- tunities for promoting his glory, for spreading his truth, for winning by power those whom Jesus has redeemed by his precious blood. Men of one idea — these are they that shall do exploits in the camp of Israel. We need red-hot, white- hot men, who glow w^ith intense heat ; whom you can not approach without feeling that your heart is growing warmer; who burn their way in all positions straight on to the desired work; men like thunderbolts flung from Jehovah's hand, crashing through every opposing thing till they have reached the target they have aimed at ; men The Impulsive Type of Christianity 63 impelled by Omnipotence. It will be a great day for the Church when the members of all our Churches arrive at such a glorious state of heat as that. You may depend upon it, that enthusi- asm is a Hberal education for a Christian; I mean, nothing makes a man so quick-sighted and intelligent in the service of God." Cije 'Cemptations of f mpulse 65 Want of depth, want of real seriousness, want of steadfastness, want of endurance, want of a lasting loyalty to any man, or to any course, — these things have brought, not a tinge of disapprobation only, but a positive contempt and scorn on the oversanguine temperament, and espe- cially on that temperament in the most serious of all things — the soul of man and the salvation of God. — Alexander Whyte^ D. D. 66 Ci^e Cemptationis of 3!ntpuljSe Temptations, for the most part, spring from a man's temperament. Men's emotions or feel- ings furnish the impulse or desire upon which temptation plays. Many imagine that tempta- tion belongs to certain circumstances; they blame their cross for their sins. They say within themselves, "If I could only get a changed cross, I would immediately get a changed life." They forget that they do not get their sin from their circumstances, but that they give their sin to their circumstances; so that temptation, to all intents and purposes, is self-entertained. Its strength, its power, its center, lies in the man's own self. What he is, will determine how he will be tempted. How strong he is in the tempt- able points, will determine very largely the strength of the temptation itself. Every man, whatever his temperament, must strive against the whole body of sin, everything which is against the holy will of God ; and yet every man has some one besetting fault, which is his own special hindrance. It is the sin which has most hold of his mind, and so it is the cause why he most often offends God. It comes to him often- est, tempts him most strongly, and where he is 67 68 ludividuality the \veakest and yields the most readily. It is called the "besetting sin," because it continu- ally besets him — that is, it is always about him, always on the watch for him. It entangles him at every step. It becomes his companion. No two persons have exactly the same temptations, as no two minds are exactly alike. The im- pulsive temperament has its peculiar type of temptations. They are distinctly marked and most pronounced in the life and character of the Apostle Peter — the representative type of im- pulsive Christianity. They are: I. Self-confidence. The vices are the coun- terfeits of virtues. God gives love. Satan also fashions lust. God bestows courage. Satan in- spires foolhardiness. The saving grace of faith ripens into confidence. Satan palms upon us the vice of presumption. What was Peter's easily besetting sin? It w^as the easily besetting sin of all the natural leaders of men — self-trust. It was boastful self-reliance. Peter boasted that he stood impregnable when he uttered the vaunt, "Though all men forsake Thee, yet zvill not /." Hark ! listen for a moment after that presumptu- ous boast, and you will hear a fall! "Then Peter began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man." A presumptuous spirit is always perilous. "Who is afraid?" is the vaunt of the presumptuous professor. "Who fears?" says The Temptations of Impulse 69 every self-confident Peter in the Church — ''others may fall, but I am in no danger." Yet Peter was the very first disciple to deny his Master. Says Dr. Cuyler: ''I always feel appre- hensions for those who, on entering the Church, make a very fluent, showy profession, in which the little word T is painfully prominent. They are often the first to backslide. I had rather hear more of self-distrust and less of compla- cency. Poor 'Mr. Fearing,' in Bunyan's allegory, managed to reach heaven at the last, though with a very poor opinion of himself; while self- conceited *Mr. Presumption' was left on the road fast asleep, with the fetters of sin upon his heels. When a Church member says, 'Who fears?' I am ready to answer, '/ am afraid for you, as your pastor!' I always expect to see men stumble when they hold their heads too high." At every turn such need to remember this saying, "Be not high-minded." Peter said he would never forsake Christ, and forsook him first. The great danger of impulsiveness is a proneness to overestimate self, and to under- rate others. "Though all men — yet not I," said Peter. Such men are in the greatest danger of falling. All men are, even those who really are standing, but especially those who "think" they are standing. It is the self-consciousness that this "thinking" involves, the self-satisfaction it 70 Individtiality implies, the self-gratiilation it engenders, that is the source of peril. When a man commits some great sin, his friends often say: "Well, I never would have thought of him doing that. He is the last man in the world to have done it." And that is just why he did it, because he thought that he was quite safe, and, as a consequence, he took no precaution against falling. Man's natural strength is right in his way when he is out of joint with God, and he is putting between himself and the thing needed the strength of an arrogant reason. That self-reliance wdiich is so necessary to him in secular things, is a hindrance to him in spiritual things. That independent purpose and determination by which a man is carried forward through his outward life, when it comes to the inward and spiritual life, is the very thing that is an obstacle to his success ; and this is the reason why we do not find God's yoke easy, or his burden light. Peter was really be- lieving in himself, in his own constancy and de- termination. The worthlessness of such a faith w^as very soon to be demonstrated. For that faith in himself he was to substitute a faith in One who was able to keep him. 2. Rashness. One of the great sins of im- pulse is rashness. "The man of a purely san- guine temperament," says a medical writer, "his blood soon boils and soon cools; his heart rules The Templatwns of Impulse his head ; action precedes thought. It is a word and a blow, and then great sorrow for it. I know two partners in business ; one sanguine, the other bilious. The bilious has often to throw cold water on the projects of the sanguine, who al- most invariably fires up and says too much, and then he is miserable, and ready to allow and to yield up anything." When Jesus was in the garden and about to be arrested, and Peter drew a sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, his act was a rash one. Love had been the moving principle of Peter's life. He was prompted in this act, not by greed, ambition, or revenge, but by sympathy with his Master; a generous desire to protect him. But this impulse, good in itself, was improperly di- rected ; and how much good feeling is so still ! Did Peter expect his Master to say, "Well done?" If so, he was disappointed; for Christ had only words of disapproval. How could Christ approve of Peter's deed? It was con- trary to the old law, ''Thou shalt not kill ;" and to the new, that we should return good for evil. Peter fell through rashness. The Lord recog- nized that Aveakness when he said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Notice 72 hidividuality the discrimination which our I^ord makes in pray- ing for his disciples. This becomes apparent only when we look closely at the words. The "you" in the first clause is plural. "Satan asked to have you, to sift you,'' — that is, all of the dis- ciples. "But I have made suppHcation for ihce, Simon." All the company were in danger; but the prayer was only for one. Why was this? Why did our Lord make this discrimination? And why was it Simon was chosen for special intercession? Was it because he was dearer to Christ than any of the others? Was it because Peter, in his character, was the most amiable and beautiful of all the disciples? Nay ; it was because of Peter's peculiar tempera- ment. Our Lord looked down upon the little company with tender, compassionate heart, and saw that it would go hardest of all that night with Simon. He would be in greater peril than any of the others. His rashness and impulsive- ness would expose him to the fiercest assaults, and render him least able to resist. And for this very reason, Christ made a distinction in his favor, ofifering special prayer for him. He did not pray for John ; John's calmness would be an effectual shield for him. He did not pray for Thomas and the others; their caution would keep them away from the danger. He prayed The Temptations of Impulse 73 for Simon, because he was, of all, the most liable to fall. Impulsiveness is prone to rashness. Cotton Mather used to say that there was a gentleman mentioned in Acts xix, to whom he was often and greatly indebted ; namely, the town-clerk of Ephesus, whose counsel was, "Do nothing rashly." And on any proposal of consequence he would say, "Let us consult a little with the town-clerk of Ephesus." 3. Capriciousness. This is often a very seri- ous temptation of impulse. It shows itself in the way the over-sanguine, impulsive, and enthusi- astic temperament takes up, and runs away with, this and that new thing. The victims of this temperament are always discovering some new thing. Lo here ! or lo there ! they are continu- ally crying. But a short time comes and goes, and they have discovered another new scheme, plan, program, or leader. "They are all good things in their place," says a writer on this tem- perament; "they are all needful and necessary things ; but they are all injured past repair when they get into the hot hands of the men who think about, talk about, and will let you think about, and talk about, nothing else." Much that now floats on the surface attracts the gaze of men; it absorbs the attention just 74 Individuality because it is on the surface. Yet the flood of years will sweep it away, and it will not even form a bubble on the current of history. There are scientific as well as aesthetic and literary fashions which change with the seasons. There are burning questions now which will not even leave a deposit of dead ashes for the next gener- ation to behold as an evidence that something has been consumed. ReHgious problems may change. But a desire for something new is not necessarily indicative of progress. Indeed, it may be indicative of regress. It may not be an earnest desire for something better, but a mere restless, uneasy craving for change. We would not disparage legitimate desire for progress. But we contend that progress and restlessness are not synonymous terms. It is not the seeking of ''some new thing" which is wrong, but the ''doing nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Indeed, so far from being good, it is evil. It indicates a fevered con- dition of the system — an unhealthy and morbid state. It begets instability of character and pur- pose. Now, having seen how Peter, the represent- ative of impulsive Christianity, fell through his characteristic temperament, let us note his resto- ration to apostleship. The occasion was after they had breakfasted on the shore of Galilee. The Temptations of hnpulse 75 There are times which reveal to us the mysteri- ous identity of our ever-changing Hves. That occasion was such a period in the hfe of Peter. The past was with him ; what were its memories for Peter? Of eager haste and painful failure; of love for Christ so true and yet so powerless ; of self-confidence and of unfaithfulness. With chastened, humbled spirit he must have sat and pondered ; feeling that not in his devotedness to Christ, but in Christ's love to him, lay his hope that he might be faithful to his apostleship, if he should be reinstated in it. And to these, his thoughts, Christ at length gives expression: "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" The Master addresses himself to the painful yet necessary duty of testing the thor- oughness of Peter's repentance. Confidence, once forfeited by unfaithfulness, can not be im- mediately restored, nor indeed at all without some evidence of a genuine change of mind. Jesus himself asked the question, and he asked it until he grieved Peter. Had he not made his Master's heart bleed, and was it not fit that he should feel heart-wounds himself? The leading points of the ordeal to which the apostle was put may be briefly noted. Jesus did not call Peter a rock now; but "Simon, son of Jonas" — not Peter, the baptismal name of dis- cipleship. "Lovest thou me more than these?" 76 Individuality The language refers, without doubt, to the other disciples. Peter once affirmed the pre-eminence of his loyalty and love. In the fullness of his self-sufficiency, he had declared that, though all the rest should forsake him, yet he would follow him even to prison and to death. But now that high self-confidence had received a sad fall ; and the remembrance of his late disgraceful conduct was too fresh in his mind to allow him any more to assume that tone of presumption. The Lord brings it all up before his mind, in the question which he addresses to him, in order that he may purge himself of his self-confident boasting. Peter, in his modesty and humility, is content with simply affirming his own affection, but without any ungracious comparison. His first answer was easily spoken; it came only from the surface of his mind; it was little better than "Of course I love thee." But Christ's close and penetrating way of putting the question a second time overawed the disciple, and brought an answer from much deeper down. The third time, Jesus sent the question like a sword down to the bottom of the soul, where it drew blood, and the answer was a groan of pain out of the depths. "He puts the question to us thrice," as Dr. Stalker observes, "because there are three stories in our nature; the uppermost is feeling, the The Temptations of Impulse 77 middle one is intellect, and the basement is will ; Jesus opens the door of each, and asks, 'Lovest thou me?' " ''The will is the part of our nature out of which resolutions and actions come, and on this the Master specially wishes to have a hold." Love's real trial comes when it is called upon to endure and sacrifice. Cowper's lines to Mary Unwin are a perfect example of such love. Have we a love to Christ which makes us slay besetting sins because he wills it, devise liberal things for his cause, confess him fearlessly before men, and rejoice to suffer for his sake? It is worthy of remark how these questions revealed Peter's softened spirit. To each of his replies, "Thou knowest that I love thee," comes the Master's rejoinder, ''Feed my sheep, feed my lambs." And from the enjoining of present duty, Jesus passes to foretell the sufferings which the discharge of that duty would, in the case of Peter, entail: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest : but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." This oracle darkly told of coming events that would strike at all Peter's natural 78 Individuality loves and likings. He liked the free, impetuous joy of living ; he was to be ''bound." He liked to take the lead; he was to "be carried." He liked to have his own will ; he was to be carried ''whither he would not." He liked the glory of heroism; he was to die on a cross. He liked rapidity of movement ; he was to plod on to old age without the promise of a brilliant career. Before a man's life can fully answer the question, "Lovest thou me?" he must be ready to give up his own choice as to the way of showing it, and passively accept or actively obey the will of God alone. That "other," who was to lead Peter against his own will, is God, with his powerful hand. This leading we see in the Acts of the Apostles. VI ^pirit^jTilleti impulse 79 A character is a completely-fasliioned will. — Novalis. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the only power that can take our impulsiveness, control, direct, and adjust it so as to make it accessory to a holy life and the advancement of Christ's kingdom. The Holy Ghost, back of and within our impulses, can make them tributary to the kingdom. Peter, who had been a stone, became a rock when filled with the Holy Ghost. The stone is movable, but the rock is steadfast. —S, A. Keen, D. D. 80 ^pitiufillth Sltnpirtjse The proof of old that God was in his sanctu- ary was the shekinah in the Holy of Holies. The proof to-day is, the Holy Spirit in his peo- ple's hearts. "Ye are the temple of God, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you." This deter- mines all power, achieves all victory, and works all spiritual transformation. The gift of the Spirit does not destroy our individuality or nat- ural temperament. After Pentecost, Peter — the representative of this group — was Peter still. We find him the same man of impulse; the first to receive, utter, and act on a great Christian truth. And is it not perfectly natural that the man who appears so original and audacious in connection with some great truth at one tirne, will again show the same attributes of originality and audacity in connection with some other truth? We should have been much surprised if, in the history of the nascent Church, Peter had been found playing a part altogether devoid of originalities and audacities. He would, in that case, have been very unlike his former self. Before Pentecost, Peter stands as the expression of the impulsive temperament; after Pentecost, 6 8i 82 Individitality he stands as the expression of spirit-filled im- pulse. And now, let us study some of the effects which accompany spirit-filled impulse. I. There comes with it the spirit of courage. The practical, ethical result of the Day of Pente- cost was moral courage. The gift of the Holy Ghost inspires fearlessness, courage, boldness. It begets spiritual heroism. Fear is always an enervating and enfeebling presence. It disarms one of personal power. The Christian life, domi- nated by fear, is helpless and strengthless. But the Spirit-filled man knows the fear of God, and knows no other fear. Take Peter as an example. We know what he has been up to this time — ardent, impulsive, cowardly. But since we last saw him, he has been the subject of pentecostal influence. We have, therefore, to look on that picture and on this; and upon the change dis- covered between the two pictures we may found an estimate of the value of spiritual inspiration. On the day of Pentecost, 'Teter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spake forth." (Acts ii, 14.) What a change since his denial! Peter the denier transformed into Peter the heroic witness! Peter's sermon was pointed and courageous. He did not flinch from giving his view of the career of Jesus of Naza- reth ; neither did he go about to find soft words spirit-filled Impulse 83 for the sin which he charged home to the con- sciences of his hearers; but he said right out, ''Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" "that same Jesus whom ye crucified is both Lord and Christ." Can this be, indeed, the voice of Peter? What has come over him? How is all this to be explained? The ex- planation is easy. He is now "filled with the Holy Ghost." The same courageous impulse may be traced in Peter's speech which followed upon the cure of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful. (Acts iii, 11-26.) Mark how pointedly he addresses the multitude that had followed them to Solomon's Porch ! He charges home upon them, in unmis- takable terms, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: "Ye delivered him up;" "Ye denied him in the presence of Pilate;" "Ye de- sired a murderer to be granted unto you ;" "Ye killed the Prince of Life." And then he adds, "I know that through ignorance ye did it." That speech is a greater miracle than the lame man's cure. The "great miracles are all wrought within;" and surely a great miracle had been wrought upon Peter. The address of Peter that day won two thou- sand new disciples; and now the success of the apostles brings them into conflict with the San- hedrim. The Jewish authorities, unwilling that 84 Individuality the people should be taught by any but them- selves, laid hold of Peter and John, and put them in prison until the next day. Peter had once boasted, "I am ready to go with thee to prison." He was not ready then, and hence the folly of his boast. He was ready now — he was ''filled with the Holy Ghost" — and so did not boast. In the prison the apostles remained for the night; and on the morrow they were formally arraigned before the Council. And now mark the fearlessness of Peter. The two parties are in direct collision. It is the first battle Christianity has had to fight since Christ's departure. When the imperious question was asked, "By what power, or by what name," this deed had been done, how did it bear itself in the conflict? Did it take counsel of safety, compro- mise, policy? No! what one is struck with in the action of the apostles is an audacity that is caution, a calmness that is power, and a love that impressed friends and foes. ''Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost," declares that it is by the power of the risen Christ the healed man stood before them. The confidence, the contempt of suffer- ing, the holy elevation of soul with which Peter uttered that sentiment, filled all with surprise. "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John . . . they marveled." That was the result of Peter's boldness. Had he wavered, all had been spirit-filled Impulse 85 lost. His courage saved the Church. And when, after a private consultation, the Council charged them not to speak or to teach in the name of Jesus, and threatened them with death if they should, Peter and John could answer their threatenings, by saying, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard." The maid that taunted the rough-spoken Galilean was too much for Peter ; but when he stands be- fore Annas and the other members of the grand Court of the nation, what of him? How does the narrative read? "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost," that is a thousand Peters; "Peter multiplied by the very Deity," says Dr. Joseph Parker, of London. "Being let go, they returned to their own company." A night in jail, and fierce threats from the Council, had wrought no change, ex- cept to increase their attachment to a cause that could not be gainsaid. They had astonished the enemy by their very courage; but they knew themselves too well to trust to this. Peter is no longer the self-confident apostle ; "for he that was a hero in the last battle may turn coward in the next;" and therefore, together with their brethren, they ask God for boldness: "And now, Ivord, behold their threatenings : and grant unto 86 Individuality thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy Word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal ; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness.'' Thus heaven again responded to earth ; and as Dr. A. T. Pier- son observes, ''Not only is the cowardly and timid denier of Christ turned into a courageous and brave defender, but the whole assembly is moved to pray for 'all boldness,' and the answer comes at once in the form and manner desired ; and the boldness is traced distinctly to the in- filling of the Spirit, as though the fullness within could not be restrained, but, like a stream burst- ing through all barriers, sweeping away all ob- stacles, must scoop out for itself a channel in speech." And no one attribute is more needful to-day for Christ's witnesses than Holy Spirit boldness due to Holy Spirit fullness. In the twelfth chapter of Acts we find Peter again in prison. Encouraged by the effect pro- duced on the minds of the Jews by the killing of James, and wishing still further to secure their applause, Herod apprehended Peter, and put him in prison until the Passover should be over, intending then to make a grand public spectacle Spirit'filled Impulse 87 of his execution. The sentence has gone out that to-morrow he must die, amidst every con- dition that should afford his enemies a gloating triumph. Little wonder if we find him cast down, beset with grief and fear. But look, here he lies, asleep. Well, what else should he be doing? Of old he slept because the flesh was weak ; now he sleeps because his faith is strong. "Ah, it is the very climax of faith," says one, "when it has learnt to sleep. Many a man can fight the good fight of faith, who can not sleep the good sleep of faith." "Filled with the Holy Ghost." This made the difference between Peter before the ascension and Peter after it. Impulsive ardor, fear, cowardice — that is Peter by nature. Effusive, impulsive daring changed into granite-like firmness and steadfast cour- age — that is Peter by grace. Only once in his subsequent history do we find a little of the old vacillation — when he failed to pursue a strictly straightforward course to- ward the Gentile Jews at Antioch. (Galatians ii, II, 12.) But he would seem, even then, to have received the rebuke of Paul, his fellow-apostle, in the spirit of meekness, and to have found it a "precious oil, which did not break his head," because his heart was purified by faith. Herein was a great triumph of grace; for, although it may seem a paradox to say it, there are few 88 Individuality things which test a man's real Christianity more than reproof for that which is actually blame- worthy. How beautifully, likewise, this same coura- geous impulse is exempHfied in the character of the apostle James! Herod had ''stretched out his hands to vex certain of the Church." "And he killed James the brother of John with the sword." Such is the short record of the first and only apostolical martyrdom of which we have any account in Scripture. Of this incident no details are given. We do not know how James should have become a man so marked that the hand of authority struck at him in pref- erence to any of the other apostles. But no doubt it was by the boldness of his testimony for Christ that he won this distinction. He was a Son of Thunder in days when the impetuosity of nature had not yet been checked by the influ- ence of grace. But there came the mighty trans- formation of Pentecost. His zeal still burnt with a hot, unhidden flame, which attracted to itself the earliest storm of hostile attack. Thus we see, to be ''filled with the Holy Ghost" is to be filled with all boldness and cour- age. When a man is Spirit-filled, he will little heed what men think of him, say about him, or do unto him. 2. Another effect of Spirit-filled impulse is spirit-filled Impulse 89 the spirit of evangelism. The age of the Spirit is the age of missions. Campbell, in his "After Pentecost, What?" emphasizes this fact: "On the day of Pentecost the missionary spirit was born. All upon whom the Spirit fell were filled with 'the power of a pneumatic enthusiasm.' They were seized with a burning desire to con- vert the world. Without waiting for fields to open, they opened them; without looking afar for congenial fields, they entered those that were nearest and neediest. The burden of the Lord was upon them to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth. Filled with an operative conviction, and inspired by a militant faith, they swept over land and sea, overturning pagan religions, and bringing the nations to Immanuel's feet." Novvdiere is the hand of the Lord more distinctly seen than in the origination and superintendence of missions. In the simple story of the primitive mission, as recorded in Acts xiii, we see how every step in the enterprise was originated and directed by the presiding Spirit. In her missionary work the Church is one with the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the spirit of missions. Herein is the secret of true evangelism. Look at the record of conversions after the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost! "There were added unto them in that day about 90 hidividuality three thousand souls" (Acts ii, 41). "The number of the men came to be about five thousand'' (Acts iv, 4). "Added to the Lord mtdtitudes both of men and women" (Acts v, 14). "The number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceed- ingly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (Acts vi, 7). "The multi- tudes (in Samaria) gave heed with one accord unto the things that were spoken" (Acts viii, 6). "And all that dwelt at Lydda and in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord" (Acts ix, 35). "It became known throughout all Joppa; and many believed on the Lord" (Acts ix, 42). "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all which heard the word" (Acts x, 44). "And the hand of the Lord was with them : and a great number that believed, turned unto the Lord" (Acts xi, 21). "And the next Sabbath almost the zvhole city was gathered together to hear the Word of God" (Acts xiii, 44). "And so spake that a g^rat midtitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed" (Acts xiv, i). "And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples" (Acts xiv, 21). "The churches . . . increased in number daily" (Acts xvi, 5). "Crispus . . . believed . . . and many of the Corinthians hearing believed" (Acts xviii, 8). "So mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed" (Acts xix, 18-20). spirit-filled Impulse 91 The evangelistic spirit is the crowning gift of the Holy Spirit for service. From the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, whenever God has been in the Church, her influ- ence has been immediate and beneficent. Noth- ing has made her influence a ''track of fragrance" throughout the world but this presence. Noth- ing transformed deserts into fertility but this. But whenever she has grown rich and trusted in her riches, has grown numerous and trusted in her numbers, has grown very respectable and trusted in her respectability; whenever she has bristled all over with the outward forms of ac- tivity, and has substituted these for spirit and life, she has forgotten where the hidings of her power were, she has let go her hold of God. The one sole condition of power on the part of the Church is that she be filled with the Spirit of God. What is needed to reach the multitudes of the unsaved is the pentecostal blessing. When the Holy Ghost fills us, we shall not be incessantly arguing the question, ''What is the best method to reach the masses?" Whenever the presence of the vSpirit is powerfully felt in the Church, it soon settles that question. Let the spring impart new life to the roots of the trees, and the life will at once be transmitted to the branches, covering them with abundant foliage. Let the warm, genial months come round, re- 92 Individuality viving the drooping nature of the bird after the long dreary winter cold, and the bird shows it immediately in his song. He does not sing be- cause he thinks he ought; he sings because he must. And it is a poor way of promoting the evangelistic zeal of the Church to demonstrate constantly what she ought to do. It is useless to lay down rules for the guidance of the Churches in reaching the masses, unless we supply them with the motive power. The Holy Ghost alone can fill us with an exuberance of love that reaches others, and settles all questions about how to do it. It is a divine enthusiasm of love which makes one a successful soul-winner. This divine enthusiasm of love is not only a passion for souls, but also for the service — the warfare by which they are to be reached. As another has well said : "There are those who think they have a love for souls, but have an aversion toward all aggressive spiritual movements in the interest of souls." When this endowment of love comes, it puts into the soul an aggressive spiritual life. How eagerly it precipitates action, leads assault, plans sieges for the salvation of the people ! The world furnishes but few such men as Tholuck of Germany. On the fiftieth anniver- sary of his life-work, amid a multitude of pupils young and old, he uttered the memorable saying spirit-filled Impulse 93 that deserves to be written in letters of gold: "Not simply preaching, not simply teaching, hut a love zvhich seeks and follows.'" That had been the watchword of his long, eventful life. We have never seen this earnest, unceasing love- life better illustrated than in the instance of the Rev. John Milne, of Perth, Scotland, whose faithful biography has been given to the world by his faithful friend and co-laborer, Horatius Bonar. If there was ever a man to whom Christ and Christ-work was the ruling passion of life; if there ever was one possessed of the ''love that seeks and follows," it was John Milne. We see him constantly engaged in his Master's service. At home and abroad, among acquaintances and among strangers, on foot, in the stage, in the car, with the rich and the poor, to the fellow- traveler, to the fisherman, to the stone-breaker by the road, to the servant, to the beggar, to the little child, pleading for the soul, — it was the daily habit of his life for many years. He sought out those whom others passed by. If too early for the cars, he would look up some station-master or porter, to whom he might preach the word of life. What a touching scene: this man of God going into the streets of the city at a late hour of the night seeking out the night-watchman, pleading with him to give his heart now to Jesus ; and, after talking earnestly, saying, "Turn the 94 Individuality bright side of your lantern this way ;" then tak- ing from his pocket the Httle sacred vokime which he ahvays carried, reading a portion, and seeking to impress it upon the heart and con- science, and to engage an immediate compliance with the requirements of God ! His anxiety for souls manifested itself in ways that would have been unthought of by others; and he not only sought out, but follozved up the soul until the work was done. How much need there is that this love should glow in the heart and go out in the life of the private Christian, as well as the public ambas- sador of Christ! How strikingly is this illus- trated in the life of Harlan Page! A few such Christians in any Church would stir a whole community, and keep it stirred. The prerequi- site is a baptism that remains; a being filled with the Spirit. Referring to this work of "love," Tholuck says: "It can only be done when the Spirit of fire from God is there as the bearer of the breath of God. Above all else, that for which, in reviewing the past, I thank the Lord in prayerful wonder, is the Spirit of fire out of God's own heart which has been given me from the time when I first received the baptism of fire." He retained the great gift. So did Dr. Milne. He was at first only an ordinary Chris- tian (alas ! how many such !), but during a season spirit-filled Impulse 95 of deep religious interest he received a baptism from above, which he kept, and that gave him the higher inspiration and greater power of the succeeding years. This was the secret of that burning zeal which never burned out. O ! let the Church of to-day carry her fruitlessness and ardorless life to Him who came to ''seek and save that which was lost," and cry for that in- dwelling, continuing love ''which seeks and follows !" VII Key-word: Affection John Philip Bartholomew 97 The affections are the highest faculties. They have the nearest view of truth, and the strongest hold upon it. —A. Peabody, D. D. \ i There is no service like his that serves because he \ loves. — Sir Philip Sidney. \ Mtction Affection is the key-word of this group. The apostle John is the representative. I. John was the man of intuition; fervid, yet contemplative; modest, loving, trustful. His peculiarity has been described by calling him a mystic: he does not deal much with the outside of things, but lays hold of everything from within. ''His thinking is intuitive: he does not reason like St. Paul, nor exhort like St. Peter, but concentrates his vision on the object which opens to his steady gaze." Not the intellect, but the feelings characterize him. He is an animated witness rather than a doctrinal giant. We do not read that John had any peculiar "aptitude for business" and the "conduct of affairs." It was for the qualities of the heart, rather than the head, that John was distinguished. He was nat- urally of a warm, fervid temperament. But it is a mistake to dwell upon his gentleness alone, and magnify it into his leading characteristic. The apostle John was called by our Lord a "Son of Thunder," as well as his brother James ; nor have we any reason for supposing the name less appli- cable to him. John is called the "Apostle of Love ;" and his 99 lOO Individuality very faults show his love to Christ. On more than one occasion we have evidence of this. The first was during our Savior's last journey to Jeru- salem. He must needs go through a certain Samaritan village. He sent on messengers in advance to announce his coming, and perhaps also to make some provision for the entertain- ment of himself and his company. But they were met by an outburst of fanatical feeling ; the villagers refused to open their doors, in hospi- tality to one whose "face was as though he would go to Jerusalem." James and John, fresh from the Transfiguration scene, and knowing that he was certainly the Son of God, were indignant at the rejection of his claims, and in the impetu- osity of their hearts they ask the Master, "Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did?" Jesus turns and rebukes them sternly. He tells them, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." His whole work was one of salvation. His miracles were those of healing. His teaching was for the saving of the soul. It is strange to think that John was ever a prey to such a spirit as is here ascribed to him and his brother — he whose very name is now a synonym for love. But his very hatred only Affection loi proved the more intensely his love. He loved Jesus as intensely as he hated the Samaritans; it v^as his devoted attachment to his Master that made him resent their incivility so keenly. He could not abide any one who would be so inhospitable to his nearest Friend. As Professor Bruce, in his "Training of the Twelve," puts it : "In his tender love for the Bridegroom of his soul, he was beautiful as a mother overflowing with affection in the bosom of her family; though in his hatred he was terrible as the same mother can be in her enmity against her family's foes. John's nature, in fact, was feminine, both in its virtues and in its faults, and, like all femi- nine natures, could be both exquisitely sweet and exquisitely bitter." He fell through the pecul- iarity of his temperament. He is yet very far from that charity which can pardon all things, even insult offered to the Master; but inter- course with Jesus will yet teach him to hate his brother man no more. The next incident that brings John's faults before us preceded by a short time the solemn entry into Jerusalem. It was when he, with his brother and his mother, came to Jesus to prefer their ambitious request. According to Matthew, the request is made by the mother ; according to Mark, by the two sons. But if James and John did not verbally make the request, they spoke T02 Individuality through the mouth of their mother; the design was more theirs than hers. They said unto Jesus, ''Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory." They now perceive that he is going up to Jerusalem, and that the final crisis is approaching. They understand that some- how, through some terrible ordeal, he is to at- tain to the glorified kingdom which the Trans- figuration exhibited. Now, then, is the proper time to secure their elevated position in that new coming kingdom of glory. xA.nd who should more properly aspire to that position than those two disciples, who had on so many occasions been distinguished by the Savior's particular preferences? But the request was as ignorant as it was presumptuous. "Ye know not what ye ask," said the Master; and then he went on to call their thoughts away from speculations of future reward to practical considerations of duty. Thus we see again that John's fault lies very near his affection for his Master and his coming king- dom. Some have even discerned good elements in the ambition of James and John. ''It sprang," they think, "from their desire to be near Christ ; it showed at least their faith in his royal dignity and claims." The whole sum of John's character is con- tained in the single fact, that he was "the disciple Affection 103 whom Jesus loved." All the disciples, with the exception of Judas, loved the Lord, just as he loved them all ; but as he bore to John a peculiar love, so the love of this apostle for him was peculiarly deep and faithful. It unconsciously breaks forth in many ways. He lay on the bosom of Jesus at the Last Supper, and was rec- ognized by Peter then as being innermost in the confidence of Christ. When, troubled in heart, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me," they all began to ask in turn, ''Lord, is it I?" At length, how- ever, Peter signified by a gesture to John to ask the Master who was to betray him. This was a significant act. Dr. Stalker says: 'It was the acknowledgment of vSt. Peter of St. John's primacy in the love and confidence of Christ. It was a tribute from the man of action to the man of contemplation." John's love made him follow his Master to the judgment-hall. He alone of the Twelve was per- mitted to witness his trial. In all the pictures he is seen attending the daughters of Jerusalem who met the mournful procession on its way to Calvary. They follow the cavalcade, and endure the heart-rending sight of the crucifixion. "There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleo- phas, and Mary Magdalene;" and with these I04 Individuality holy women stood John. This may be ascribed in part to the greatness of his courage, and in part to the strength of his affection. ''When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!" Jesus knew that in John she would find a spirit whose ardent love to himself gave best pledge that he would religiously care for the widowed mother. "And from that hour," we read, "that disciple took her to his own home." John hastens with Peter to the sepulcher on the morning of the resurrection. John outruns Peter, and, stooping down, looks in ; Peter, more bold, enters first ; then John follows. As has been beautifully said : "It was because John was the disciple of love that he arrived first at the sepulcher; for love lends wings, and its tension gave John the advantage." It was John, the man of affection and in- sight, who was first to recognize his Beloved on the shores of Tiberias, in the gray twilight of the dawning day. "It is the Lord !" whispered John to Peter. The heart, rather than the intellect, is the organ of spiritual apprehension. John had been the first to perceive that Christ had risen ; now he is the first to recognize his person. Thus we have seen that the apostle John Affection 105 clearly represents the key-thought of this group, namely, affection. Canon Farrar has well said : ^'The 'touch of phantasy and flame' in his imagi- nation; the rare combination of contemplative- ness and passion, of strength and sweetness, in the same soul; the perfect faith which inspired his devotion, and the perfect love which pre- cluded fear, — these were the gifts and graces which rendered him worthy of leaning his young head on the bosom of his Lord." 2. Philip is the second apostle named in this group. Jesus "findeth Philip." One word — the one pregnant invitation, "Fo/Zotc met" — was suffi- cient to attach to Jesus forever the gentle and simple-minded apostle. And gratitude to the Redeemer impels him to a proclamation of re- demption. Phihp felt the communicative and diffusive nature of religion. Faith includes works; loyalty involves service; love carries de- votedness. "Philip findeth Nathanael." Philip thought, as he talked with Jesus, ''O, how com- pletely he answers to the Prophet of whom Moses wrote ; how he fulfills the promises of the prophets; how he realizes the expectations of pious Jews ! Who among all my acquaintances would best appreciate him?" And at once he thought of Nathanael, the guileless Jew. Philip v/ent in the fullness of his heart, expecting Na- thanael would be as glad to hear as he was to io6 Individitality tell. And when at first Nathanael received the message with caution, Philip did not stop to argue with him, but said, ''Come and see" — convinced in his simple, faithful heart that to see Jesus was to know him, and to know was to love, and to love was to adore. What a model is this for general imitation ! Experimental knowledge — not disputations about dogmas of religion — this alone will dispel prejudice. All the particulars which have reached us of Philip's life are communicated by the evangelist John. He appears for the first time, after his call, in the feeding of the five thousand. His affection shows itself. He manifested sympathy. This was greater than that of those who said, "Send them away." God seldom uses a man who has a hard or cold heart. A man must love people, or he can not save them. Another incident is brought before us that is significant: "And there came certain Greeks . . . the same came therefore to Philip . . . saying. Sir, we would see Jesus." (John xii, 20-22.) Among the pilgrims who had come to keep the Passover at Jerusalem were these Greek proselytes, who had heard of Jesus and desired to see him. The Greek name of Philip, or the fact that he was of Bethsaida, may serve to ex- plain why they applied to him. Their desire was no more than this: "Sir, we would see Jesus;" Affection 107 and it was one with which Philip could not fail to sympathize; for had he not himself invited Nathanael and many another to ''come and see" the Lord? The zealous love which he had shown in the case of Nathanael may have made him prompt to offer himself as their guide. But mark the cautious character of Philip: "Philip Cometh and telleth Andrew; and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus." There is a connection not difficult to be traced between this fact and that which follows on the last recurrence of Philip's name in the history of the Gospels. The desire to see Jesus gave occasion to the desire of Philip, "Lord, show^ us the Father." During the conversation at the Last Supper, Jesus had spoken more dis- tinctly than ever of the presence of his Father with him. The words appear to have sunk deep in Philip's heart, and he brooded over them. As a man he was conscious of the deep need which all have for something more than "an unseeable and unknowable God." The peculiarities of Philip's temperament strengthened the desire. To all Nathanael's objections he had only the reply, "Come and see." And here he says, "O ! if we could see the Father it would be enough." "His petition," says Dr. A. Maclaren, "is child- like in its simplicity, beautiful in its trust, noble and true in its estimate of what men need." He io8 Individtiality meant a palpable manifestation, and so far he was wrong. Give the word its highest and its truest meaning, and Philip's error becomes grand truth. Jesus replied: ''Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou, then, Show us the Fathier?" Philip represents all men in their deepest spiritual experiences. ''Show us the Father." It is not skepticism seeking for a Deity — "an insensate principle." It is not half- convinced doubt "feeling along the links of cre- ation after a first cause." It is not "amiable optimism out in immeasurable extension of be- neficent actuality," asking for a Creator. It is awakened faith seeking its Author; a hungry soul searching a satisfying love. And Christ teaches Philip that believing, in the sense of trusting, is seeing and knowing. Philip said, "Show." Christ answers, "Believe ! and thou dost see." The world says, "Seeing is believ- ing." The gospel says, "Believing is seeing." The true way to knowledge, and to a better vision than the uncertain vision of the eye, is faith. 3. Bartholomew, or Nathanael. This is the third apostle of this group. Nathanael and Bar- tholomew (son of Tholmai) were names of the same person, the former being a proper namg, Affection 109 and the latter a surname. Nathanael itself is a fine name; like so many of the Hebrew names, it spoke of God. The afifix, El — the hallowing, consecrating name of God ; Nathana-e/ — the gift of God — for such is the purport of the name, the same as our Theodore and Dorothea. Before he came to Christ, Nathanael was a godly man up to the measure of his light — a man of secret prayer; childlike, simple-hearted, transparent, neither credulous nor mistrustful, but honestly ready to receive testimony and to be swayed by the force of truth. No doubt he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. When Philip came to him with the glad Eureka — "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" — Nathanael's prejudice against Nazareth asserted itself. He asks, ''Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" But when Philip said, "Come and see," all hesitation passed away. Nathanael dropped his prejudice, and acted as a man of candor ; he came to Christ with great activity of heart. No sooner did Jesus see Nathanael than he exclaimed, "Behold, an Is- raelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Christ's words of praise here are the highest he ever spoke, and were spoken to one upon his first interview, spoken before he became a disciple, even when Nathanael's mind was prejudiced no Individuality against Christ as a Nazarene. There must have been something in his character specially con- genial to Jesus, to account for such strong lan- guage. No doubt the Master's approval was won by the frankness of the Israelite's nature — innocent of disguise, and retaining in manhood a childilke simplicity of thought. "Whence knowest thou me?" Nathanael asks. "Jesus answered and said unto him. Be- fore that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." These simple words, which contair^d, doubtless, an allusion to the most saci'ed secret of his soul, brought Nath;;i-.lael to the feet of Jesus. He forgot the hunrule origin of" the Messiah, which had for an instant staggered him ; the poor h^^TTiet of Naza- reth vanished' from, his eyes before the glorious vision oi- heaven oj^^r^\-,i ^y the Son of m-axi. Nathanael a^xclar ,i thou art the Son of God ; thou art 'srael." Human lips have given Jesus r^ •ref^'- ^^ when we say that? Do we not mean, I have seen him, conversed with him, interchanged thoughts with him, spent time with him, done things with him, have been admitted into his confidence, written to him, and heard from him? These things and such as these are what make up personal knowledge between man and man. Even thus it is with the knowledge of Christ. There are many hearts that turn toward the Lord Jesus Christ with an enthusisasm of love, with a clasping affection, with a yearning desire, that carries with it everything which their heart has to give; and if you say to them, ''Do you think he is Divine?" they answer, ''We knozv it.'' There are souls who, like John, are the first to detect the presence of Jesus, and to say, "It is the Lord!" They feel, while others are asking for evidence. John seems to be fixed in the en- tranced bliss of a perpetual intuition. Not dia- lectics, but intuition — not intellect, but the feel- ings — seem to characterize him. Intuitive Type of Christianity 121 The men of this group testify. The Lord wants testimony, and hence witnesses. What is a witness? The Saxon word, "witan," from which the word ''witness" comes, means to know. A witness is one who knows, and who is summoned to tell what he knows. There is great need of such evidence. There is no evi- dence so valuable as the experimental. The Christian religion is not a system of laws. It is a state of the heart. The Christian religion is not a philosophy of truth as it relates to man's nature and duty. It is a soul-life. Christ in a man — that is the Christian religion. And the final and decisive evidence of Christianity is the evidence of experience. Its victories have all been along this line. Not the labors of its learned ''apologists," but its testimonies of experience. Truly has it been said: "The disciples of Celsus were not van- quished by the treatises of Origen, but by the witness of obscure slaves and artisans. The tide of infidelity in the last century was not stemmed by Butler's 'Analogy,' but by the testimony of Kingswood colliers and Lincolnshire laborers. The good fight of faith to-day is not won by academic men in secluded cloisters, but by 'un- learned and ignorant' successors of the men who could not but speak the things they had seen and heard," And skeptics marvel. They need 122 Individuality not, for it is an open secret, "We have been with Jesus." The overwhehiiing power of the Chris- tian faith Hes in individual hearts that declare, ''One thing I know : whereas I was blind, now I see." When Paul was carried before governors and kings to defend himself, he always had re- course to the method of experience. Before Agrippa he begins his defense by saying, ''At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me." And he went on to tell with profound sim- plicity his religious experience. A Roman Catholic priest, a Protestant min- ister, a farmer, and an atheist were in a railway carriage together. The atheist commenced the conversation by asking the priest this question, "What, in your opinion, is sufficient proof of the truth of Christianity which you profess to be- lieve and teach?" The priest began to talk of Councils, of the traditions of the Church, and so on; but the atheist had been all over that ground before, and soon replied to the argu- ments advanced. He then turned to the Prot- estant minister, and asked the same question. The minister talked of external evidences, of in- ternal evidences, of collateral evidences, and so forth ; but the infidel had also considered all these arguments, and had his answer ready. The min- Intuitive Type of Christianity 123 ister then referred the atheist to the old farmer, whom he happened to know. The farmer's in- dignation had been welling up for a consider- able time at hearing his Lord and Master reviled, and when the atheist said, with a contemptuous air, ''Well, my man, what, in your opinion, is sufficient proof of the truth of the Christianity you profess to believe?" The farmer answered earnestly, ''Sir, I feel it !" The atheist was sur- prised at the reply, and said, "Gentlemen, I can't answer that !" Joseph Parker says: "Many of us were not intended to be controversialists, soldiers, fight- ers in the open field ; we are not all called upon to vindicate everything that is literal in the Scrip- tures. . . . Nor are we to be driven back by the men who say, Explain these things. We can not explain everything. We can not ex- plain 'love;' we can talk about it, give hints of it, give representations of it, point to it in vari- ous passing forms and features, but explain it we never can ; but we can feel it." 3. There is need of a sympathetic religion. It was no accident that Jesus, as he hung upon the cross, gave his mother into John's care. In the selection of John we see wise thoughtfulness. He gave her a heart that could best understand her own. James, with his common-sense, prac- tical view of religion, would probably be unable 124 Individuality to sympathize with the deeper thoughts of her who loved to keep and ponder the mysteries of heaven. ''For her children after the flesh, she had now a son after the Spirit, St. John, the man of virgin soul, as the early Church loved to call him, for her of virgin mind the best friend." And the friendship was as abiding as it was holy. From that hour, we read, ''that disciple took her to his own home." At the beginning of his First Epistle, St. John says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another;" and in proportion as we realize his presence and his claims, we appreciate more practically the bonds which unite us to those who are treading the same path, who, with us, have been made his children. The new commandment of love to one another is imperative ; we must earnestly set ourselves to fulfill it. So long as we do not, it is idle for us to pretend that we are in the light, that we know God, love God, are of God. In words perhaps more familiar than many other texts, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" On the other hand, if "we love one another," God, who is essentially love, dwelleth in us ; for charity, while it helps us to gain more love for God, is itself a fruit of such love in its first beginning, is a "due sense" of that supreme Intuitive Type of Christianity 125 love wherewith he first so loved us as to send his own Son to be our Savior ; and St. John will not recognize its existence apart from the prin- ciple of affectionate obedience to God ; he views the two loves as inseparable. It is the supreme acquisition — to know how to love in a way to suggest the Divine love. After that the exercise of every other virtue and grace is easy. It is easy to be true and just and patient and sympathetic and ministrant when one loves. In Luther's work, "On the Liberty of Christians," there are two sentences that ought never to be separated : "Faith makes the Christian lord over everything ; Love makes him the servant of every man." Though the lower animals have feeling, they have no fellow-feeling. A horse will enjoy his feed of corn when his yokefellow lies a-dying in the neighboring stall, and never turn an eye of pity on the sufferer. They have strong passions, but no sympathy. It is said that the wounded deer sheds tears; but it belongs to man only to "weep with them that weep," and by sympathy to divide another's sorrows, and double another's joys. There is constant need of this affectionate disposition, out of which spring incessant acts of kindness. A Boston minister some years ago had occa- sion to look up a very poor family, and climbed up four flights of stairs in a mission tenement- 126 Individuality house on his errand. His tap at the door was answered by Dr. PhilHps Brooks, with a baby in his arms. Inquiry revealed the fact that the woman had been very ill, and sorely needed fresh air, but had no one with whom to leave her little baby. Phillips Brooks found her out, gave her tickets for a tram-car ride, and was staying tend- ing the baby while she enjoyed it. Only from a large heart filled with the Spirit of Christ could such an act of real kindness have sprung. Sym- pathy with the masses in their strifes and strug- gles does not come from observation afar off. A letter from the Pacific Coast gives the say- ing of a young shop-girl, which is so pathetic because so true : "It seems like a girl has got to fall before any one is ready to stretch out a hand to her." ^lany of these girls are away from home, inexperienced, obliged to earn their living as best they can, with little nominal and less actual legal protection, subject to hardships and temptations which ought to be impossible in a Christian land, without personal sympathy from believers, and with no direct help from the Church. A writer relates that during a conver- sation with George Eliot, not long before her death, a vase toppled over on the mantelpiece. The great authoress quickly and unconsciously put out her hand to stop its fall. "I hope," said she, replacing it, "that the time will come when Intuitive Type of Christianity 127 we shall instinctively hold up the man or woman who begins to fall, as naturally and unconsciously as we arrest a falling piece of furniture." In 'The Greatest Thing in the World," Professor Drummond beautifully shows the need, in this work, of guilelessness — Nathanael's chief char- acteristic: "Guilelessness is the grace for sus- picious people. And the possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are the people w^ho believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that, here and there in this hard, uncharitable world, there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love 'thinketh no evil,* imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action. What a de- lightful state of mind to live in ! What a stim- ulus and benediction even to meet with it for a day ! To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief In them. For the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost ; our ideal of what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become." ■ IX Clje Cemptattons of 9lfiection 129 In human nature there are two opposite poles of sin, within which all the other forms of evil find their places. Where the constitution is soft and loose, the temptation is self-indulgence in its various forms; but where, on the contrary, the elements are finer and more compact, the danger lies in self-conceit, with all its developments of arrogance, ambition, and intolerance. St. John's was a refined and reserved nature, and pride was his besetting sin. —James Stalker, D. D. 130 Cl^e Cemptationjs of affection It may seem somewhat strange that this group of apostles should have any temptations to which they are specially liable. But even the most saintly character is not free here. A young friend was one day calling upon an old Christian woman, nearly eighty years of age, just waiting for the summons. Said this friend, "O, granny, I wish I was as sure of heaven, and as near it, as you are !" With a look of unspeakable emotion, the old woman answered, ''And do you really think the devil can not find his way up an old woman's garret-stairs? O, if He hadn't said, 'None shall pluck them out of my hand,' I would have been away wandering long ago !" The greater the soul's development, the greater its sensitiveness. This explains the spir- itual throes of saintly men — why Fenelon and Edwards write hard things against themselves, while Diderot and Hume put on the robes of self- complacency. Temptation does not cease as we rise in the scale of moral elevation. Temptation never ceases, but it alters its form. As we rise in the moral scale of victory over it, it rises also, becomes more subtle and refined; so that to know what a man's temptations are, is to know 131 132 Individuahty what the man himself is. Even Jesus, the high- est, the holiest, was tempted as truly as the vilest drunkard or profligate is tempted, though in a very different way. ''To fall short of the ideal of the Messiahship was the Messiah's temp- tation," says Dean Vaughan. "It was sin in its most refined and subtle form of shortcoming, failure, missing the mark. With him it was no question of transgression ; he was far above that. It was missing the ideal, nothing more, nothing worse ; a mere trifle, we might think ; yet to Jesus himself this to us seeming trifle was agony. And is there not an ideal for every one of us? Is it not in us to he something, which we are not yet ; to fill our place in the world, however small it be, in a higher, better, nobler way than we have learned to fill it?" What are some of the temptations peculiar to this group? I. Self-assertion. This showed itself In John's conduct, when, with his brother and his mother, he came to Jesus with his ambitious re- quest for one of the chief places of honor in his kingdom. It is a sad commentary upon human nature that immediately upon the conclusion of the Savior's prophetic address concerning his sufferings and resurrection, which should have filled their minds with deepest humility and self- forgetfulness, such a request should have been The Temptations of Affection 133 preferred, in which all the elements of selfishness are manifested. The scheme of which this re- quest was the outcome, was of the earth, earthy. Whether the mother was the instigator of it, or the sons themselves only using- her as an inter- cessor, is of little moment. In either case, the mother thought only of her sons, and her sons only of themselves. They did not consider their ten brethren, or even Peter, who had always shared with them the privileges of the inner circle. ''Grant that we may have the two chief places." Let the rest of the disciples be ranged as it may please Thee, only let us be first. The request was carnal. It conceives of the kingdom as one of place and power and outward glory, and not of spiritual character and moral glory. It is based upon mere earthly and carnal am- bition. Put us in the chief place of power and honor, that others may see us, and we may look down upon others. They had forgotten the words of the Lord, spoken but recently, con- cerning finding life and losing it, and gaining high places by taking low ones. They were run- ning counter to the rule which saith, "He that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." The desire for distinction is one of the radical principles of our nature; never so crucified and buried but that, in unexpected ways and mo- 134 Individuality ments, it may revive, and rise again in power. In the world we find it, and in the Church. Though liable to desperate abuse, this passion, like every other, was benevolently given. If it causes wars, and builds up oppressive institu- tions, poisoning the hearts and cursing the lives of men, it is likewise one of the sharpest spurs to honorable toil, inspires the grandest achieve- ments, and strikes its deepest roots into the deep- est natures. It is, then, not to be fought against as an enemy to virtue, but drawn into service rather, as an ally. Our Lord does not condemn the spirit of ambition, but simply aims to point out the basis of real greatness. The ideal and measure of greatness, as set before us by him, consists in usefulness. He who does the greatest amount of good in this world is the greatest man. This is the Christian sentiment. It is also at bottom the universal sentiment. Helpfulness is the highest quality of human life. Service is the crowning glory of man. Its characteristic ele- ments are two : unselfish love as the root-virtue, and lowliness of mind as the specific shape, which love must take when it girds itself to serve. Such was the spirit of Christ's life ; it was a vol- untary service for other men, rooted in pure love for them, and carried out with such lowli- ness of mind as deems no office degrading which The Temptation IS of Affection 135 can be lovingly rendered. Rank in the kingdom of heaven will be measured by humility. Con- descension is the measure of exaltation. The way up to the glory of the Exalted One is through humble, self-denying love. ''Within the circle of the kingdom of heaven the loftiest is the lowliest ; the lowHest the highest. He who stoops down to minister, steps up as he stoops down. He steps up by stepping down. It is so much nobler to do good than to get good. It is so much more glorious to glorify than to be glorified. To be serviceable is a far greater glory, in the moral sphere of things, than to be served. He, therefore, who is most serviceable is in the sublimest position." All such service, voluntarily undertaken in obedience to the Divine will, corrects self-asser- tion or pride. The man who serves from his heart can not indulge in self-assertion; he re- presses self if he tries to perform his service well. Each effort, each five minutes of conscientious service, has the effect of keeping self down, of bidding it submit to a higher and more righteous will. 2. Intolerance. "And John answered and said. Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he fol- loweth not us. And Jesus said unto him, Eorbid him not; for he that is not against us is for us." 136 Lidividuality (Luke ix, 49, 50.) This is one of the shortest of the recorded conversations of Jesus. It deals with the hardest condition in which wrong and right are mixed together. There was good in the jealousy of the disciples for Jesus, even though it misled them. There was evil in the narrowness into which it led them. It may surprise some to find John, the apostle of love, consenting to so uncharitable a deed; but, as Professor Bruce remarks, ^'Such surprise is founded on superficial views of his character, as well as on ignorance of the laws of spiritual growth. John is not now what he will be. . . . Devoted in mind, tender and intense in his at- tachment to Jesus, scrupulously conscientious in all his actions, he is even now; but he is also bigoted, intolerant, ambitious." The silencing of this exorcist has had its counterpart in every age of the Church. Prejudice is one of the greatest enemies to human welfare. Of all the train of mental ills with which we are affected, it is one of the most difficult to be eradicated. And the strongest prejudices are the religious ones. Whatever its etymology, "bigot" is an ugly word; and "bigotry" an ugly thing. Rowland Hill, who would often quote, with great relish, a remark of a favorite author — "Mr. Bigotry fell down and broke his leg; would that he had broken his neck!" — undertook to pen his epi- The Temptations of Affection 137 taph. But, alas ! bigotry still lives. No Church, no sect, has a monopoly of it. While many of us, perhaps, are not open to the charge of big- otry in its grossest and more palpable forms, the tendency is within all of us ; and a close analysis of its true nature, and a close search into our own spirit and temper, will but too often detect its presence and workings where, on a superficial view, they have been unsuspected. Intolerance is an essential element of bigotry. All intolerance is based upon egotism. It pro- ceeds from the assumption that you have reached the ideal. This sort of feeling is the worst char- acteristic of ultra-sectarianism — a spirit which would "compass sea and land," not merely "to gain one proselyte," but also to hinder a relig- ious rival from the attainment of a similar pur- pose. But that such was not the spirit of Christ, is seen in the mild yet earnest reply with which he met the manifestation of this haughty and jealous exclusiveness of the beloved disciple: "Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me." All are Christ's, and yet all vary in their manifestations of religious char- acter. This should enhance to us the law of Christian charity, which reminds us that men who seem "not to follow with us," may yet in spirit be truly of us and with us. 138 Individuality It is this holding the truth as it is given to you^ with fidelity to your convictions, and at the same time allowing other men to hold the truth as it is revealed to t]iem — it is this which means Christian toleration. Let us remember the words of John Wesley, a man whose bitterest enemy could not fairly accuse him of indifference to the doctrines and faith ''once delivered to the saints;" and yet he wrote thus liberally and large-heartedly to a correspondent: "Men may die without any opinions, and yet be carried into Abraham's bosom; but if we be without love, what will knowledge avail? I will not quarrel with you about opinions. Only see that your heart be right toward God, and that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and love your neighbors, and walk as your Master walked, and I ask no more. I am sick of opinions. Give me a good and substantial religion, a humble, gentle love of God and man." 3. Temper. The disposition we are now con- sidering is peculiarly liable to give way to anger, resentment, or the like. That John especially, whose usual temper was so gentle and affection- ate, should have so completely lost his temper as to want to call down fire on his opposers, ought to be an instructive warning even to the most charitable and meek to be constantly on their guard against the first risings of prejudice, The Temptations of Affection 139 passion, and false zeal, lest the fierce spirit ob- tain the mastery over them. Professor Drummond says: ''The peculiarity of ill-temper is, that it is the vice of the virtuous. It is the one blot on an otherwise noble char- acter. You know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or 'touchy' disposition. This compatibility of ill-temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics." To be "not easily provoked," — in a word, good temper seems to be generally reckoned rather among the gifts of nature, the privileges of a happy consti- tution, than among the possible results of care- ful self-discipline. We speak of our unhappy temper as if it were something that entirely re- moved the blame from us, and threw it all upon the peculiar sensitiveness of our frame. The ex- cuse is as absurd as it is mischievous. It is granted that there may be great differences of natural constitution, just as there are great dif- ferences of outward situation. But, after all, the only reasonable conclusion appears to be, that the attempt to govern the temper is more diffi- cult in some cases than in others, not that it is in any case impossible. In the rising of wrath we are often ready, with Jonah, to excuse ourselves, and say, "I do well 140 Individuality to be angry." How familiar the expressions, ''It is so provoking," or '1 was provoked beyond endurance!" We even quote the well-known maxim, ''There is a limit beyond which patience ceases to be a virtue." But what does all this mean? Neither more nor less than that ourj mind has, for the time being, lost its equilibrium, and therefore we are so far forth out of charity with God and our neighbor. Of course the range of such an expression is enormous. It may go from a hasty, passing phrase to the deadly sin of anger, malice, and all uncharitable- ness. At any rate, it is the beginning of sin; and, says the wise man, the "beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water;" that is to say, no one knows when or where it will stop. Pas- sion, when roused from its slumber, will burst through any but the strongest barriers. William Cleaver Wilkinson has written a spirited poem on an incident taken from the "American Cyclo- pedia:" "Long Pond," or as it is now called, "Runaway Pond," was formerly situated on the summit of a hill, near the towns of Glover and Greensborough, Vermont, and was one of the sources of the Lamoille River. In June, 1810, an attempt was made to open an outlet from it to Barton River on the north, when the whole waters of the pond, which was one mile and a half long by half a mile wide, tore their way The Temptations of Affection 141 through the quicksand, which was only sepa- rated by a thin stratum of clay from the pond, and advanced in a wall sixty or seventy feet high and twenty rods wide, carrying before them mills, houses, barns, fences, forests, cattle, horses, sheep — leveling the hills and filling up the valleys, till they reached Lake Memphrema- gog. Just so the whole world is full of the woe that temper works when it is allowed to become uncontrolled. Nations, Churches, congrega- tions, families, and the homes and the hearts of men, lie in ashes all around us, because of anger and ill-temper. All our evil passions, taken to- gether, slay their thousands, but this evil passion of anger its tens of thousands. A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. "Men who are as easy as an old shoe are gener- ally as of little worth." Let us thank God when we see a minister have temper enough to be in- dignant at wrong, and to be firm for the right ; but indignation against wrong-doing is different from personal resentment. Christ denounced se- verely those who devoured widows' houses, and for a pretense made long prayers. But when the word anger is used in the Bible with approba- tion, it refers to this indignation against sin. Otherwise, it is spoken of with reprobation. Sin, not our neighbor, must be its object. We are to turn our cheeks to the smiters, but not other 142 Individuality people's cheeks. Furthermore, there is need of great caution even in the exercise of what is called ''righteous" indignation. We may have too much feeling about good things. Sometimes we flame with holy indignation, as we think; we feel most intensely along the lines of our con- victions and opinions; indeed, we see the right so clearly, and espouse it so ardently, that our feelings about even the right are wrong. "Our indignation toward wrong,'* says another, "is a hellish instead of a heavenly vehemence." Ill- temper can be overcome. It must be overcome, though it cost us twenty-two years' work, as it is said to have cost a great saint. The worst- tempered people may be made gentle and loving in speech, act, and disposition by the renewing and transforming power of Divine grace. God can take the jangled keys and put them in tune, if we will but put them into his hand. ^pixiUSilitti ^fiectiott 143 Self-willing, self-seeking, self-glorying, — here is the curse. No shackles remain when these are gone ; nothing can be wanting when the spirit sees itself, loses itself in Him who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all. —F, D. Maurice. X44 ^pmt^^aieti affection The Pentecostal epoch was an era of won- ders. The great promise of the Father was, that he would send his Spirit into the hearts of men. Christ's command was, ''Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high," and the disciples obeyed; they ''all continued in prayer and supplication." Then when Pentecost came they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. What was the effect of this Divine baptism on the disciples? It made them pre-eminently spiritual. It filled them with Divine enthusiasm — with "fire." The apostles evinced such fervor that many supposed they were under the power of strong drink. No, says Peter, it is the Holy Ghost working in us. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit that will make men eloquent. Now, John was in the very midst of these pen- tecostal wonders. He, if any one, was "filled with the Holy Ghost." But the original texture of his nature abides. He is John still. He has lost nothing ; rather he has become more simply, characteristically, profoundly, essentially him- self — himself, purified and exalted. After Pen- tecost John grew to be very spiritual and deep, lo 145 146 Individuality His name does not occur often in the Book of Acts ; he retires behind the more prominent fig- ure of Peter. But there is a reason for this. Dr. Stalker, in his ''Two St. Johns of the New Testa- ment," clearly explains it : "There are gifts which qualify for leadership and publicity; but those who occupy the second place, or who are hidden altogether from the eyes of the world, may have the deeper nature and the finer graces. Some gifts are intended for immediate effect; others come slowly to maturity, but their influence is far more lasting. St. Peter had the gifts neces- sary to break ground for Christianity, to cham- pion it in the face of opposition, and to direct its first conquests; but St. John, sunk out of sight, was far nearer the heart of Christianity. In his Gospel there is a view of the Holy Spirit widely different from that which is found in Acts. In Acts the Holy Spirit is the power by which Christianity is extended — the very power which rested supremely on St. Peter ; but in the Fourth Gospel the Holy Spirit is the substitute for Jesus, the Intermediary between the invisible Christ and the visible Church, who takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. In the Spir- it's influence, as it is represented in Acts, St. John had his share; but he especially shared in the other mode of the Spirit's influence described in his own Gospel. The things of Christ were Spirit-fdicd Ajfeciion 147 shown to him, the character of Christ was put upon him, the Spirit of Christ was breathed into him." It is well to inquire, therefore, what the char- acteristic effects of Spirit-filled affection are, as they are revealed in John's experience after he received "power from on high?" I. Spiritual insight. John was naturally of an intuitive temperament. He did not reason; he saw truth ; he felt it. Hence, when Spirit-filled, he becomes a great, loving, deeply-spiritual soul, all aglow with adoration and delight and ever- living wonder, absorbed with the Lord, and rest- ing in the calm assurance of his favor. He speaks and writes as if the ''highest life of his soul was the wondering study of one vast Apoc- alypse." Now, what is the secret of this deep insight into religious truth? Love. He is the apostle of love. It has been beautifully said: "As when one gazes with speculative eye into the starlit azure, piercing far into its deep im- mensity, so (spiritually) does this man gaze into the depths of Christ with the gaze of love." "Affection is part of insight," is the apt re- mark of Canon Mozley. The lovelit eye sees deep into the heart of things. "Spiritual truths, which coyly shrink from the gaze of cold intel- lectualism, manifest themselves to those who pos- sess the lover's heart. In the light of love, which 148 Individuality the Holy Spirit kindles, many things are made visible which otherwise would remain con- cealed." If any man could be known by his style of writing, surely the apostle John was that man. Each apostle has his own key-word. John may be said to have three: 'Xife," ''Light," ''Love." The purport of his entire apostolic and ministerial life has to do with "the Word of Life" — with the deep spiritual revelation of life. The quality of John's Gospel requires the very place that has been assigned to it in the New Testa- ment. John seems to say: "You have heard what the evangelists have had to tell, and have seen the Vv'onderful things of their Master's min- istry; now let me explain the deep meaning of the whole." Hence, Canon Farrar, in his "Mes- sages of the Books," pronounces John's Gospel "eminently the spiritual Gospel, the Gospel of Eternity, the Gospel of Love. This feature was observed in the earliest days. The other Gospels were called, in contradistinction to it, the 'bodily* Gospels." John's Gospel is emphatically the Gospel of the Incarnation. "Christ fills the whole book, and absorbs the whole life of the drama of which he is the center. The informing idea of every page and chapter is the Word made flesh." And the very method in which the teach- ing is set forth reveals the writer's individuality. John was a mystic, and delighted in mystic sym- spirit-filled Affection 149 holism. Hence ''there are in St. John no scribes, no lepers, no publicans, no demoniacs; there is little or nothing which can be called anecdotic." The miracles are here narrated in the light of symbolic acts ; from picture and symbol we pass to spiritual meanings ; through the porch of mir- acles and mighty signs and wonders we enter the holy place of Truth and Love. John, with his contemplative turn of mind, was not just the man to carry the gospel to the headquarters of Cornelius, and become the me- dium through which the Holy Ghost should fall upon all his household. Peter, by nature, was the Spirit's best medium for that great mission. But John, and not Peter, was the Spirit's best medium for the revelation of the deep things of Christ. John's is the Gospel of the witness. He fixes his eye on life as found in communion with God. He becomes St. John the divine, as we find him in the Epistles — sweet, rich, mature in grace. It is a law of our nature that we become like those whom we habitually love. In China Buddhist priests have been heard to say : ''Think of Buddha, and you will be transformed into Buddha. If you pray to Buddha, and do not become Buddha, it is because the mouth prays, and not the mind." The same is true in the highest degree of Christianity: communion with God in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, 1 50 Individuality must have an assimilating effect, very gradual, it may be, but sure. To live with Christ makes us like Christ: that is to say, Christians. 2. Humility. Before Pentecost, John had shown much self-seeking, much unholy am- bition. He and his brother had schemes for personal advancement. But one of the most blessed results of the "fullness of the Spirit" in John's experience was his unfeigned humility. See how his selfishness, which so marred his character previous to Pentecost, now gives place to the most beautiful unselfishness. He does not even use his own name in his Gospel and First Epistle; he simply calls himself "that other dis- ciple." In the private letters (his Second and Third Epistles) he was virtually compelled to describe himself, but instead of choosing the high title of "Apostle," which it was not necessary for him as it was necessary for Paul to claim, he calls himself "the Elder"— a term used to express the dignity of age and the office of a Presbyter. Self-abasement before God, a dependence upon him for everything — these are the essential notes of the man "filled with the Spirit." The humblest of all men was Christ. He said, "I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge." (John v, 30.) "I came down from heaven, 7iot to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me." (John vi, 38.) "I do noth- spirit-filled Affection 151 ing of myself." (John viii, 28.) If we are filled with self-complacency, as if we stood in need of nothing — if we can not bear to be wholly laid in the dust — we have not seen the Spirit, neither known him. The memoir of Billy Bray, a pious miner of Cornwall, England, written by the Rev. F. W. Bourne, and republished in this country, contains the following concerning the unfeigned humility of this godly man : "His humility was his safeguard all through life. An aged person remembers hearing him say on one occasion : 'Soon after I was converted the devil said to me, ''Billy Bray, you '11 be a great man ;" but I sunk into nothing, and in that way slipped through the devil's hands.' Another result of Billy's deep piety was his continual sense of dependence upon God. The Lord's servants without the Lord's presence are weak like other men, like Samson when he lost his locks. "Here is one 'experience' of Billy's : 'When I was in the St. Neot Circuit I was on the plan; and I remember that one Sunday I was planned at Redgate, and there was a chapel full of people, and the Lord gave me great power and liberty in speaking ; but all at once the Lord took away his Spirit from me, so that I could not speak a word, and this might have been the best sermon that some of them ever heard. "What !" you say, 152 Individuality ''and looking like a fool, and not able to speak?" Yes, for it was not long before I said : "I am glad I am stopped, and that for three reasons. And the first is. To humble my soul and make me feel more dependent on my Lord, to think more fully of him and less of myself. The next reason is, To convince you that you are ungodly; for you say we can speak what we have a mind to, with- out the Lord as well as with him; but you can not say so now, for you heard how I was speak- ing; but when the dear Lord took away his Spirit I could not say another word ; without my Lord I could do nothing. And the third reason is, That some of you young men who are stand- ing here may be called to stand in the pulpit some day as I am; and the Lord may take his Spirit from you as he has from me, and then you might say, 'It is no good for me to try to preach or exhort, for I was stopped the last time I tried to preach, and I shall preach no more.' But now you can say: 'I saw the poor old Billy Bray stopped once like me, and he did not mind it, and told the people he was glad his dear Lord stopped him, and Billy Bray's dear Lord is my Lord, and I am glad he stopped me, too, for I can benefit the people and glorify God ; that is what I want.' " I then spoke a great while, and told the people what the dear Lord gave me to say.' " spirit-filled AJJection 153 What more beautiful evidence of Spirit-filled affection than humility! What words express more truly the feelings of one's heart, than those lines of the poet: "O, I would walk A weary journey to the farthest verge Of the big world to kiss that good man's hand Who, in the blaze of wisdom and of art, Preserves a lowly mind; and to his God, Feeling the sense of his own littleness, Is as a child in meek simplicity .^^ 3. The spirit of tolerance and charity. Before Pentecost John had been characterized as intol- erant and bigoted. After Pentecost we see no more narrowness in him. In accordance with the Divine commission, the gospel was to be carried from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, until there was no more ground to be covered. But after Pentecost, the early Christians were not disposed to leave Jerusalem. The martyrdom of Stephen, however, was the stirring up of the nest. The infatuated Jews who wrought that murderous deed may have fondly hoped that it would prove the death-blow of the little Christian Church. But God makes the wrath of man to praise him. Thus it is written, *'The disciples that were scat- tered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word." Providence made them all missionaries. Among those who fled from Jerusalem at this 1 54 Individuality juncture was Philip, one of the seven deacons. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost, and spe- cially fitted for evangelistic work ; and on reach- ing a city of Samaria he began at once to "preach Christ unto them." "The people with one ac- cord gave heed unto those things which he spake;" and probably before Philip himself re- alized it, they were in the midst of a great re- vival. "Now when the apostles which were at Jeru- salem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John." This must have been a most instructive experi- ence to John. When last there, he wanted to invoke fire from heaven upon the inhabitants of one of the villages, to consume them. Such was the natural man in John. But now that a more loving spirit actuates him, this same John calls down fire, but it is the flame of pentecostal bless- ing; and he, who before had sought to devote a whole hamlet to destruction, now preaches the gospel in many villages. John had learned that charity which can pardon all things, even insult ofifered to his Master. This most difficult lesson of Love, "which makes allowance even for the uncharitable," is one of the grandest results of Spirit-filled affection. "When filled with the Holy Spirit," says Dr. Stalker, "John was full of love, and he saw objects to admire or to pity spirit-filled Affectio7i 155 where formerly he had only seen objects to hate and to destroy. When men are filled with the Holy Ghost they will look on their fellow-crea- tures with new eyes; they will see in the worst of them precious souls to be loved and re- deemed/* This same spirit of toleration, or transforma- tion in his prejudices, is seen on another occa- sion. There is every reason to believe that John remained in Jerusalem till after the first Apos- tolic Council, mention of which is made in Acts XV, was held ; for St. Paul states that, when pres- ent on that occasion with Barnabas, John was one of the apostles who greeted him. That Council was held to determine the relation of Gentile Christians to Mosaic ordinances. The decision of the Council was liberal and tolerant ; and then "the pillar-apostles," James and Peter and John, gave their right hands to Barnabas and Paul as a pledge of good fellowship, and formally designated them to the ministry of the imcirciimcision. It seems strange to have such an example in the infant Church, since toleration is usually the fruit of long experience. Even more surprising is it, when we consider the antecedents of the men who displayed it. They were Jews, of a most bigoted race. And one of the hardest les- sons to learn is to unlearn, and act contrary to 156 Individuality early convictions. But when "filled with the Holy Ghost," though the apostles themselves, through force of habit, continued to observe the national customs, they would not bind the Gen- tiles to do the same. Therein was a tolerance born of the Holy Ghost. Not "liberalism ;" "no- where," says one author, "does John exhibit trace or taint of that false 'liberality' which bids truth and lie shake hands and be friends, or judi- cially binds them over to keep the peace ; far less of that 'philosophic breadth' which places Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, Sakya-Mouni, Mohammed (and why not, by and by, Joseph Smith?) in the same Pantheon. He is full of the grand intoler- ance of love; incapable of compromise or truce with fasehood, however mighty or loftily throned. If a man come and bring not the doc- trine of Christ, whosoever 'biddeth him God- speed is partaker of his evil deeds.' (2 John, 11.)" It is a sad fact that the decision rendered by that Council at Jerusalem should ever have been forgotten. The intolerance which has resulted from losing sight of it has been the disgrace of Christianity. There is no surer sign of the pen- tecostal gift than spiritual unification — the power by which those who differ in temperament, tastes, and opinions are welded into one. Vain has been every effort to crystallize the life of the Church around doctrinal, ceremonial or ecclesi- spirit-filled Affection 157 astical centers. The Holy Ghost is the only source of spiritual unity. This is one of the great lessons of Pentecost ; the Church needs to study it on her knees, for nothing is more indis- pensable to the world's evangelization than this spiritual unity. What does it matter to the Chi- nese whether I am a Methodist and my brother is an Episcopalian, if we manifest the same Christlike spirit? But such oneness can only be produced by the Holy Ghost. Before Pente- cost the apostles had their childish rivalries ; but the baptism of fire burned all that out of them. 4. Holy hatred. Dean Stanley, speaking of John's tempestuous spirit prior to the day of Pentecost, says: 'It is not surprising that the deep stillness of such a character as this should, like the Oriental sky, break out from time to time into tempests of impassioned vehemence; still less that the character which was to excel all others in its devoted love of good should give indications — in its earlier stages even in excess — of that intense hatred of evil, without which love of good can hardly be said to exist." It is the peculiarity of Christianity that, while it aims to exclude all sin from the heart, it does not dis- member the soul by excluding from it any fac- ulty that is natural to it. Of these, hatred is one — one terribly liable to abuse, but rightly used, a potent instrument in the suppression of 158 Individuality evil. After Pentecost John did not cease to hate, and become an indiscriminately amiable indi- vidual, whose charity made no distinction be- tween good and evil. To the last, John was what he was at the first, an intense hater as well as an intense lover. But in his later years he "knew better what to hate — the objects of his abhorrence being hypocrisy, apostasy, and Laod- icean insincerity; not, as of old, mere ignorant rudeness and clownish incivility." This vigorous abhorrence of evil is one of the special gifts of Spirit-filled afifection. A crying need of the world to-day is what one has called "a baptized indignation at wrong-doing." Love always implies hate. Holiness always condemns unholiness. And the one secret of hating evil is in the dwelling with or near the Good; in being filled with His Spirit. When brought into the presence and under the temptation of evil, God's people are to rouse up the power of indig- nation that God has planted in them, and they are to clothe the higher moral nature with such resentment as shall change the temptation from a solicitation into a loathing. The command is that we shall strike dead whatever is low and vile and mean, with the energy of a certain di- vine hatred. This is not merely a permission, it is not a doubtful power; it is a part of your Christian duty, it is a religious excellence. spirit-filled Affection 159 Thus we have seen that the natural tempera- ment of John — the representative man of this group — was only intensified by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When Payson was dying, he exclaimed, '*I long to hand a full cup of happi- ness to every human being." This was the lan- guage of a heart thoroughly purged of all selfish afTection, and filled with the Spirit of love which led our adorable Jesus to give his life for human redemption. This same spirit of love character- ized John to the last. Among the beautiful tra- ditions of his later years, Jerome tells us that when he had reached his extremest old age, he became too feeble to walk to the meetings, and had to be carried by young men. Once more his loving followers wished to hear his voice in counsel. To the Ephesian Church they bore him, and upheld him while he preached to them the summing up of all his life of blessed com- munion with the Lord — "Little children, love one another." He could no longer say much, but he constantly repeated these words. When he was asked why he constantly repeated them, his answer was: ''Because this is the command of the Lord, and because enough is done if but this one thing be done." Here we have the foun- tain of that beauteous life : "Love one another," —for "God is love." XI Key-word: Intellect Thomas (Didymus) Matthew (Levi) James (Son of Alphaeus) 1 l6i \ What is the hardest task in the world? To think. — Emerson. In thinking, or intellection, as it has been conveniently termed, there is always a search for something more or less vaguely conceived, for a clue which will be known when it occurs by seeming to satisfy certain conditions. — /. Ward, 162 intellect Intellect is the key-word of the third group. The apostle Thomas is the representative. I. Thomas belonged to the meditative and thoughtful section of the apostles. His were the struggles of the intellectual man. Of his in- troduction to Jesus we possess no account. We must agree with another "that his conversion was not so easy for a man of his temperament, as for the impulsive Peter or the loving John.'* There are three titterances of Thomas which are noteworthy ; and in each instance he is repre- sented as expressing opinions which prove him to have been very slow, not only in believing, but in comprehending spiritual truths. The first is that mentioned by John in his account of the death of Lazarus. Jesus had de- clared his intention to go into Judea again, in spite of all the mortal dangers which awaited him there. The Jews, enraged at his open declara- tions of his Divine character and origin, were determined to punish with death one who ad- vanced claims which they pronounced absolutely blasphemous. This deadly hatred they had so openly expressed, that Jesus himself had thought it best to retire awhile from that region, and to 163 164 Individuality avoid exposing himself to the fatal effects of such malice. Hence the disciples could not under- stand why he would expose himself now. No doubt Thomas headed the affectionate remon- strance, "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?" for when somewhat later Jesus announced his intention of going, it was Thomas who said to his fellow- disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." John and Peter are silent, but the heart of Thomas is revealed. It was as though he said: "This is our Master. We can not change his purpose. We can not hinder him. That is his way. He will go. He will die. Let us go, that we may die with him." Two traits of character are here apparent: First. The most entire devotion to his Master. Thomas was not cold and phlegmatic in his love. He could not live if Jesus died. He would die with him. Second. A constitutional tendency to view things on the dark side. He was naturally despondent, inclined to see the worst side of things. Such tendencies are sometimes the re- sult of physical causes. They may be the result of many and keen disappointments. They may be caused by unfavorable surroundings, long endured. But many good men and women have such dispositions. Some inherit them. Thomas did ; it was characteristic of Thomas that he took Intellect 165 the alarm sooner than the rest. He saw nothing but night and death before him ; but he was none the less resolved to go, and share the peril of it with his Master. Come what may, Thomas will cling to his Master. Not one severe word did Christ speak to Thomas. And why should he? For where is there found a courage equal to that which he displayed? Here is a man, naturally despondent, who, when his dearest visions and hopes' are quenched in darkness, through what he can not but regard as a mistaken judgment of the Master, can yet make the grand resolve to follow that Master wherever he may choose to go. That purpose was the salvation of Thomas, and not less than that in principle will be our salvation. Another significant utterance of Thomas was during the interview which Christ had with his disciples at the Last Supper. After speaking of his departure as very near, in order to comfort his disciples, Jesus told them he was going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house, where were many mansions. Assuring them of his speedy return to bring them to these man- sions, he said, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." In much perplexity at the state- ment, Thomas remarked, ''Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?" "This utterance," says Professor Bruce, 1 66 Individuality in his ^'Training of the Twelve," "was character- istic of the man as we know him from John's portraiture. While the practical-minded Peter asks Jesus where he is going, determined to fol- low him, Thomas does not think it worth his while to make any such inquiry. Not that he is unconcerned about the matter. He would like well to know whither his Lord is bound ; and, if it were possible, he would be as ready as his brother disciple to keep him company. Danger would not deter him. He had said once before, %et us go, that we may die with him,' and he could say the same thing honestly again; for though he is gloomy, he is not selfish or cow- ardly. But just as on that earlier occasion . . . Thomas took the darkest view of the situation, and looked on death as the certain fate awaiting them all, so now he resigns himself to a hopeless mood. . . . Even the ques- tion put by Thomas, *How can we know the way?' is not so much a question as an apology for not asking questions." The melancholy dis- ciple, instead of seeking light, is rather in the humor to exaggerate the darkness. Thus it is always with even good men of melancholic tem- perament. How, where, and when ? are the ques- tions. But how does Jesus reply to the sad query of Thomas? Most compassionately and sympa- thetically. He does not rebuke him, but ex- Intellect 167 plains to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the Hfe; no man cometh to the Father but by me." As though he had said, "Why, Thomas, I am going, and will show you the way, and you shall come when I come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also. I am the way." O, how gracious! how tender, was the way the Lord instructed Thomas ! The third utterance of Thomas was made when he met the disciples after Christ had risen, and was told by them that they had seen the Lord. He seems to have spent the days suc- ceeding the crucifixion apart from his fellow- disciples. Hence when the latter were assembled on the third day — the first Christian Sabbath evening — he was not with them. He was absent, for he preferred to be alone, solitary and brood- ing. Restless, moody, and disheartened, he doubtless felt that he could get no help from the disciples. This was a great mistake, for Thomas lost the help which he might have had in the Christian sympathy of his brethren. They were in common trouble. And as another has well said : *'We know what it is to be unburdened, or at least to have our burdens lightened, by being brought into contact with others who are bear- ing similar burdens to our own. It is a spiritual fact, which has no counterpart in physics, that two men who bear their own burdens, when 1 68 Individuality brought shoulder to shoulder, find that by that touch the burden of each is lessened." Thus Thomas would have missed much from forfeit- ing the communion of other sorrowful ones, even if Christ himself had not come. But the loss seems to be multiplied a thou- sand-fold when we read that Jesus came when ^'Thomas was not there." By his absence on that first Sabbath he lost the special proof of our Lord's appearance, which was given to those present. Jesus himself stood in the midst, and said unto them, "Peace be unto you." And when the disciples were terrified at the vision, the risen Lord offered them tangible proof to allay their doubts: "Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Now, Thomas was the last man who could afford the loss of such direct evidence. Naturally enough, the first concern of the dis- ciples on meeting Thomas was to tell him of the vision ; but that same melancholy humor which caused him to be an absentee, made him also skeptical, above all the rest, concerning the tid- ings of the resurrection. When, on his return, the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord," he replied with vehemence, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and Intellect 169 thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." It is not temper ; it is not a rebellious disposition ; it is not a spirit of obstinacy; it is not a spirit of pride; it is the outcome of a deep despond- ency. Not that he doubted their veracity; but he could not rid himself of the suspicion that they had been deceived. He wished exact and tangible proof. Thorwaldsen has carved the figure of the apostle at St. Thomas's Church, Copenhagen, with a me;asuring rule and a pair of compasses in his hands. TMomas would have everything made quite clear and unmistakable. And so on this occasion he was not satisfied with the evidence of the ten other apostles and of the women; he was not sure that he could rely on their inability to be misled ; he must have over- whelming evidence, or he would not believe. "It was not the willfulness of one hardened in his own theory which he would not quit, nor yet of one who could not bear to accept a truth which would unsettle his life. It was honest doubt; such doubt as naturally grew out of his state of mind." Notice how Christ dealt with Thomas. It is impossible to imagine anything more patient and compassionate. After eight days the Lord ap- pears to the disciples again, as they are gathered with closed doors, and Thomas is with them. He comes apparently for the special benefit of 1 70 Individuality Thomas, and deals with him according to his weakness. If nothing but material evidence could satisfy him, even that evidence is supplied. Thomas is singled out, and the Lord bids him, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing;" or, as some hold the Greek may be translated, "Do so, not because you are unbelieving, but that you may become believing.'* Jesus speaks as to a sincere disciple, whose faith is weak, not as to one who has an evil heart of unbelief. When demands for evidence were made by men who merely wanted an excuse for unbelief, he met them in a very different manner. "An evil and adulterous generation," he was wont to say, "seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given them." This was not the way in which our Lord dealt with his doubting but honest disciple. The proof that he asked for was given him. The mournful tokens of the Redeemer's dying ago- nies melted the doubting disciple. Touch was not thought of now. Christ was fully revealed ; and with wonder, with tender and exquisite ecstasy, and with adoring prostration of soul, he exclaimed, "My Lord! and my God!" The gloom is all gone. The shadows are past. It Intellect 171 is all right, and the heart is glad. And then Jesus speaks again. There is not a bit of re- proof. Thomas's admission has been genuine, honest. ''Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." Here is an- other "beatitude" in addition to what Matthew gives. Christ was himself the ''Blessed One," and well knew who were "blessed," and what made them so. Thomas is only once more barely mentioned in the Gospels, among those who went out with Peter on the fishing excursion on Galilee, during which they met with Jesus ; but beyond this, the writings of the New Testament give not the least account of him, until we find him present with the other disciples on the day of Pentecost. Thus, we have seen, Thomas is a type of that class of men whose "reflective powers are stronger than their susceptive." He is the rep- resentative of those who approach truth from the side of the intellect. 2. "As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the re- ceipt of custom : and he saith unto him, Follow me." Thus our Lord called Matthew — the sec- ond apostle in this group. And "he left all, rose up, and followed him." By Mark and Luke he 172 Individuality is called Levi ; by himself, Matthew, which latter name is adopted by all three evangelists in giv- ing the catalogue of the apostles. We are told but little about Matthew person- ally. The Gospels, not excepting his own, re- cord nothing about him except his call and his farewell feast. Even the Fathers are silent as to any other important circumstances of his life ; and it is only in the noble record which he has left of the life of Christ, in the Gospel which bears his name, that any monument of his character can be found. Matthew's previous habits of mind and occupation in life were such as to fit him in an eminent degree for the work of re- cording facts, dates, places, and persons, with precision and trustworthy accuracy. He was doubtless moved to undertake the task of leav- ing the first record of inspiration by the sugges- tion, and perhaps actual nomination of his breth- ren — his peculiar talents, and probably his previ- ous habits in some measure, marking him as the proper person to undertake the task. This apos- tle undoubtedly had a special mental fitness for this task. As Westcott says: "The time and place at which he wrote further impress upon his work a distinctive character. The Hebrew Christians, during a succession of fifteen bishops, outwardly observed the customs of their fathers, and for them he was inspired to exhibit in the Intellect 173 teaching of Christ the antetypes of the Mosaic law, to portray that earthly form and theocratic glory of the new dispensation, and to unfold the glorious consummation of the kingdom of heaven, faintly typified in the history of his coun- ; trymen." His selection, therefore, showed the. glorious unworldliness of a Divine insight; and Matthew more than justified it by turning his knowledge of writing to a sacred use, and be- coming the earliest biographer of his Savior and Lord. 3. James, the son of Alphasus, is the third apostle in this group. Beyond the barest allu- sions to him, the Gospels take no notice what- ever of this apostle ; and it is only in the Acts of the Apostles and some of the Epistles of Paul that he is mentioned with any great distinctness. In all those passages in the apostolic writings where he is referred to, he is presented as a per- son of high standing and great importance ; and his opinions are given in such a manner as to convey the impression that they had great weight in the regulation of the apostolic doings. This is particularly evident in the only passage of the Acts (xv, 13-21), where his words are given, which is in the account of the Council at Jerusalem about the question of communion be- tween the circumcised and uncircumcised. On this occasion, James is mentioned in such a way 174 hidividiiality as to make it evident that he was considered the most prominent among those who were zealous for the preservation of the Mosaic forms, and to have been by all such regarded in the hght of a leader, since his decision seems to have been esteemed by them as a sort of law ; and the per- fect acquiescence of even the most troublesome in the course which he recommended, is a proof of his predominant influence. The tone and style of the address itself also imply that the speaker thought he had good reason to believe that others were looking to him in particular for the decision which should regulate their opinions on this doubtful question. Speaking of the significance of that apostolic decision, Dean Stanley says : "Henceforward the Church and the world became coextensive; other evils may hinder the diffusion of Chris- tianity, but not the limits of a local and national worship; other restrictions may be imposed on the freedom of the human race, but the yoke of Judaism never ; other forms may be assumed by the spirit of bigotry and superstition, but from its earlier province it is utterly expelled. The most exclusive zealot will never again venture to confine the privileges of the true religion to a single nation ; the most ardent admirer of an- cient usages and external forms will never again dare to insist on the necessity of circumcision." Intellect 175 Thus we find James was characterized by his intellectuality. Paul was the apostle of Faith; Peter the apostle of Hope ; John the apostle of Love ; James the apostle of Wisdom. This group, then, is made up of thoughtful men; they reason; their strength is of an intel- lectual type; but they will not do much for the world apart from men of a more forward and adventurous spirit than their own. XII Ci)e f ntellectual C^pe of Ctjrtfitianitj 177 When I say that Descartes consecrated doubt, you | must remember that it was that sort of doubt which \ Goethe has called " the active skepticism whose whole aim J is to conquer itself;" and not that other sort which is born ] of flippancy and ignorance, and whose aim is only to per- ] petuate itself, as an excuse for idleness and indifference. \ — Huxley. 178 €]^e SItTtellectual Ctpe of Cl^rtjstianttt There are two classes of devout minds in the world: first, those who feel out their religion; and, second, those who think out their religion. The author of "Credo" thus distinguishes be- tween these two classes : ''Those of the first class never examine evidence, take no interest in care- fully balancing testimony. They are neither law- yers nor philosophers; they do not necessarily receive what they hear, but what they feel to be true. Religious truth enters the hearts of such persons, not through the head, but direct, as by intuition. . . . ' One who can thus believe is 'blessed' as no other on earth. . . . But those who feel out their religion can not be said, on that account, to be better men or more de- vout ; they are the more cheerful Christians ; that is all. On the other hand, those who think out their religion can not be said, on that account, to be less faithful or evangelical. As a rule, they can be depended upon in times of peril. They instantly fly to the rescue of the Church when- ever it is assailed. They are the sound theo- logians. They are the deeply earnest souls of the world, who love the truth none the less be- cause it is not seen, but who navigate the ship 179 i8o Individuality through tempest, storm, or night, to the haven, believing there is some place where anchor can be cast and sails furled." I. The Church needs the intellectual man. Intellectual in the highest sense of that term: the sense of keeping one's intellect not merely- inquisitive, but inquisitive for the truth. Thoughtlessness, and consequently ignorance, is what the Lord so pathetically lamented in his people Israel. ^'Israel doth not know ; my people doth not consider." Isaac "meditated at even- tide." Joshua was commanded to "meditate day and night in the statutes of the I^ord." David was a diligent and talented thinker. Paul was a splendid type of the proper use of the intellect. His learning, his Pharisaic training, his knowl- edge of Greek thought, his knowledge of the Hebrew language, his intellectual powers, — all these were his Master's, because everything he had was his ; and what a splendid use he made of them! The Savior of men was an intellectual preacher. He stimulated thought. He awak- ened curiosity. He startled men to inquire, "How can these things be?" He excited men to grapple with his words, and at length to say, "Declare unto us this parable." Men did not sit at their ease when he preached. They tested themselves to think. God needs men of intellect. The Intellectual Type of Christianity i8i There are pressing problems to be solved in these times. Mere impulse can not solve them ; mere emotion can not solve them; love alone will never do it. ''We need surrendered intellects; we need consecrated brains; we need directing minds baptized from on high." Christianity must be intellectual — reflective, thoughtful, ra- tional — if it is to commend itself to thinking men. This is an age of doubt; an age when it is fashionable to doubt; an age when men and women are questioning all the great verities and certainties of the Word of God and the unseen world. Science is suggesting new objections to the Bible. Nothing is easier than to say that all the new arguments against its truths are mere repetitions of what has been already refuted ; and that errors, like race-horses, are running around in the same circle which was run around in former times. The phases of the objections are changed. The forms of the replies must be new. Many of these objections, coming from men of science, are now diffused among the people. In this land of free thought and free speech they will have their influence. This influence must be resisted — not by men who declaim against these arguments, but by men who reason against them. The intellect of the Church must understand these errors, and meet them as Greek nicety 1 8 2 Individuality Greek. ''We need a revival of reverence for proof," says Professor Parks, ''else the bowie- knife will be employed instead of proof. We must have a quickened veneration for argument, else the revolver will be substituted for argu- ment. With us it is either the bludgeon or a logical faith." An intellect mighty in the Scriptures, and kindred with the Divine intellect — this is the great need of these and of all times. 2. The Church needs the sound theologian. There are some rising up who object to doctrinal preaching. A religious sentimentalism, vague and undefined as it is spiritually and morally weakening, has usurped the place of a sound doctrinal faith ; and men boast that they do not believe this and that and the other doctrinal ex- pression of truth. Not merely is doctrinal truth ignored, but issue is taken against it. Creeds and articles of faith are held up as fetters of the intellect, trammels of free thought. Christian doctrine is considered antiquated. Its preach- ing, we are told, belonged to an earlier age and less cultured people, but has now become effete and worthless. Nor do these men stop even here, but boldly proclaim that "in order to re- ligious progress intellectual creeds must be de- stroyed." Now, this no-doctrine craze is one of the The Intellectual Type of Christianity 183 blindest of delusions. You might as well look for wheat to grow out of a rock-pile, as for any life worthy the name that is not rooted in good, wholesome doctrine. A life without doctrine is an untaught life, a life without clear and endur- ing conviction, without high moral purpose. Every attitude we avow on any question worthy of us should express an inward and spiritual con- viction. Where the doctrine is wrong, the life is never right. Beautifully has it been said, "The way to the largest usefulness, and to the white gate when we put our staff in the corner, is by the way of sound Scripture doctrine." If we take away the doctrine, we have taken away the backbone of Christianity — its sinew, muscle, strength, and glory. The doctrines of Christianity are to the intellect what the atmos- phere is to the lungs. One might as safely tie up one lobe of his lungs, as shut out any one doctrine from his mind. The soul breathes the more freely when all its powers inhale all the truths of which it is said, "they are spirit; they are life." If these truths are not in some way received by the intellect, they are not in any way accepted by the will. The mind is the door of the heart. It is the human logos. It is thought which elicits feeling; strong thought elicits strong feeling. Faith is not credulity. It is nur- tured by evidence. Religious emotion, not 184 Individuality called forth by doctrine nor corresponding with it, is fanaticism. We read in Acts ii, 42, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellow- ship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." There was a doctrinal basis. They were stead- fast in the apostles' doctrine. They had a creed, and were not ashamed of it. We are told that Christianity is not dogma, but life. It is both, and to say that it is either at the expense of the other is to antagonize the clear teaching of Scripture. Christianity is neither dogma nor life; "it is life founded on dogma; it is ethics growing out of truth; it is creed flowering into conduct." The fact is, faith discerns in dogma the regulation of its thought, just as the mathe- matician finds in the axioms which are the base of his science the fixed principles which guide his onward progress, not the tyrannical obstacle which enthralls and checks him. If religion is to be a practical thing, it must depend, not on beau- tiful thoughts, but upon clearly-defined certain- ties. When tempted, wx need something solid to fall back upon ; not a picture, not a mist, not a view, not an hypothesis, but a fact. The Church needs men mighty in doctrine — ■ men capable of "holding fast the form of sound words." This is not the time for us to be done with creeds. A sound Christian indoctrination The Intellectital Type of Christianity 185 is not a mere empty theory, but a practical utility. 3. There is need of the critical habit. Thomas is the type of that class of men, of whom Robert- son, of Brighton, speaks: "Often highly gifted and powerful minds, they can not rest till they have made all their ground certain ; they do not feel safe so long as there is one possibility of delusion left: they prove all things. . . . When such men do believe, it is belief with all the heart and soul for life. When a subject has been once thoroughly and suspiciously investi- gated and settled once for all, the adherence of the whole reasoning man, if given in at all, is given frankly and heartily as Thomas gave it, 'My Lord, and my God.' " And such testimony can not be overestimated. The Divinity of Christ is one of the foundation truths of Chris- tianity. Unless our Lord be very God of very God, there is an end of his mediation, his atone- ment, his advocacy, his priesthood, his whole work of redemption. These doctrines are useless blasphemies, unless Christ is Divine. Let us bless God, then, that the doctrine of the Divinity of our Lord stands on evidence that can never be overthrown. The fact of Christ's resurrec- tion is the corner-stone of that doctrine. We have but to read tlTe matchless fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians to be convinced of that. 1 86 Individuality Evidence is worth little if it is the evidence of credulity. But here was a man who dreaded the possibility of delusion, however credulous the others might be. He resolved beforehand that only one proof should be decisive. The evidence of testimony which he did reject was very strong, but he held out against it. He would trust a thing so infinitely important to nothing but his own scrutinizing hand. Renan, in that fiction which he calls "The Life of Jesus," when he treats of the resurrection of our Lord, breaks out into a rhapsody utterly unworthy of the critic and historian, *'0, Divine power of love ! sacred moments when the pas- sion of a deluded woman gives to the world a God raised from the dead." But Renan must have forgotten Thomas's testimony. It was not all the ''passion of a deluded woman." The Church is prepared to prove that our Lord's resurrection is one of the best authenticated facts in the world's history; and among all the proofs at hand, none is more convincing than the testi- mony of Thomas. Baxter records it as his ex- perience, that nothing is so firmly believed as that which has once been doubted. It is the critical habit that lends a special value to the testimony borne by Thomas, not merely to the resurrection of our Lord or his Divinity, but to the whole system of the Christian religion. As The Intellectual Type of Christianity 187 Augustine or some other of the Fathers has it, "Thomas doubted, that we might beUeve;" the claims he so scrupulously weighed may be al- lowed by us to pass with the less hesitation ; and whatever pain the examination cost him, we are the gainers in the greater ease of accepting a record bearing his indorsement. It was not much to the credit of Thomas, perhaps, that he made faith wait on demonstration ; yet we would not have that record blotted out from the Bible. ''It was not to the credit of the Biblical critics of the past century that they called in question the authenticity and genuineness of the four Gospels; yet, because of this doubt, a vast amount of evidence has been accumulated, which has established the Christian faith more firmly than otherwise possible in the minds of thinking men." Scripture itself teaches us to prove all things, but to hold fast that which is good. Some writer has said : ''A merely speculative skepticism that entertains questions politely for a few hours, simply for intellectual interest; that puts the Christian religion among the things waiting for a far-off day of settlement, is a most injurious habit. All deep earnestness is against it, and all high living, and all Holy Scripture, and the whole mind and heart of Christ." Curiosity is often reprehensible. It is the fault of many to 1 88 Individttality wish to pry into matters which they had much better never known. But there is one direction in which inquiry is never out of place. We can never be too anxious to know about Christ, the reasons of his movements, and the explanations of his doings, (i Peter i, 10-12.) Here anxious interest and casting about for light are not only legitimate, but necessary to our proper instruc- tion, comfort, and salvation. (James i, 5.) Thomas was an earnest man. Take all the verses that relate to Thomas; they bring before us very different mental states — deep depression, rejoicing, confidence; but they all presuppose a spiritual concernedness about himself, his duty, and his Lyord. And what hope can there be for a creature like man, intellectual, spiritual, re- sponsible, if he will not think? You can do noth- ing with a man who is not earnest ; but you may do much with an earnest man, though a doubter. Christianity fears nothing from an earnest, sin- cere, critical habit. Be not afraid to investigate. Let the mind go forth continually in search of facts. Knock at the door of every phenomenon ; press against the door until the fastenings of it yield to your pleasure, and, passing in, you stand eye to eye in the presence of the long-pent mys- tery. ^'Wherever there is darkness, creep into it ; and when you have entered within its gloom, kindle the torch of investigation, and look around The Intellectual Type of Christianity 189 you to discover the hidden wonder." Explora- tions, spiritually, are forever in order. The one condition laid down is this: an attitude of rever- ence toward God. Having this, there is only one great need ; and this we need beyond everything else : it is the love of the truth. St. Augustine, the greatest of those who are called Fathers of the Church, the champion of the doctrines of grace, has left this saying respecting Holy Scrip- ture. He is speaking of it as the water of life, and he observes that it has its First Draught, it has its Second Draught, and it has also its Third Draught. The Church has nothing to fear from the men of intellect who drink deep from the Scripture well. XIII Cije temptations of f ntellect 191 No one who knows the content of Christianity, or feels the universal need of a religion, can stand idly by while the intellect of his age is slowly divorcing itself from it. — Henry Drummond. I feel constrained to think the profoundest speculative thoughts, and they are to me identical with the deepest religious feelings. —Schleiermacher. Cl^e CemptatfonjJ of Sintellect The intellectual type of Christianity has its characteristic temptations and dangers. The mere mention of these should be sufficient appeal to conscience. I. Melancholy. "Let us also go, that we may die with him," said Thomas. Thomas threw himself on the dark conclusion that all was over, and that nothing now was left them but to die. This feeling leads to the most dismal apathy. After Christ's death, Thomas wanted no com- panions but his own dismal thoughts, and there- fore he would not go to the first meeting of the apostles. "I will not be taken in again; I will not love any more," said poor Southey when his child died. So in spirit said Thomas. This is a dangerous temptation — a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. "A more than ordinary depth of thought," says Jacob Behmen, "produces this temperament." Let a more than ordinary depth of thought be found in any man, and that man's mind will natu- rally and necessarily move among the mysteries of human life, till, as sure as shadow follows sub- stance, that man is a melancholy man. "And thus it is " says Dr. Alexander Whyte, in his 13 193 194 Individuality ''Four Temperaments," "that when, either in life or in Hterature, you meet with a man of an extraordinary depth of thought, you will see shafts of sadness and chasms of melancholy sink- ing down into that man's mind and heart and character — clefts and chasms that will offend, ex- asperate, and scare away all light-minded and shallow-hearted onlookers." Blaise Pascal, Dante, Cromwell, Johnson, and Cowper are examples of this melancholy into which truly great minds are liable to sink. John Foster, a man of profound depth of thought, writes to one of his most thoughtful correspond- ents: ''Everything that interests my heart leads me into this mingled emotion of melancholy and sublime. I have lost all taste for the light and the gay; rather, I never had any such taste. I turn disgusted and contemptuous from insipid and shallow folly, to lave in the tide, the stream of deeper sentiments. I have criminally neg- lected regular, studious thinking for many years. My greatest defects are in regard to religion, on which subject, as it respects myself, I want to have a profound and solemn investigation, which I foresee must be mingled with a great deal of painful and repentant feeling. What a serious task it is to confront one's self with faithful truth, and to see one's self by a light that will not flatter! At the last tribunal no one will regret The Teniptatio7is of Intellect 195 having been a habitual and rigorous judge of self." Are you a person subject to this form of temp- tation? If consecration is to be a reality any- where, surely it should be here. If the very strength of your intellect has been your weak- ness, will you not entreat Him to keep it hence- forth really and entirely for Himself? Richard Cecil's remedy for despondency — that of doing good to somebody — is one worthy of commenda- tion. He went to preach at Bedford Road Chapel, London, and one day a person came up to him about a certain lady, a great professor of religion. He represented that she was quite out of spirits, unhappy and miserable, and that Mr. Cecil ought to go and try and do her some good. He went to the lady, and found her sitting by the fire, with her feet on the fender, and looking very miserable, with a great shawl on her back, while the sun was shining in at the window. She asked Mr. Cecil to sit down ; but he said : "I will not sit down; I know what is the matter. Get up, put on your bonnet, and go out and try and do some good. Within a few hundred yards of this very house there are people dying and per- sons that want help. Go out and do something, and try and do good in the world." She took his advice, and went out and tried to do some good, and when he called on her two or three 196 Individuality weeks after, he found her quite an altered per- son. Her voice was altered, she looked cheerful and happy, and her low spirits were all gone. She said, ''O, Mr. Cecil, you could not have done me a greater favor than ask me to try and do some good." 2. Mere intellectualism. There is a certain tendency to arrogance among the gifted intel- lectually; the disposition to find a certain satis- faction or pride in one's intellectual gifts or con- clusions, which may lead him far astray. To men who can elaborate a theory, and make an impos- ing display of argumentation, added to a fertile invention and fluent expression, the indulgence of a well-regulated conceit of superior intellect is a luxury which they can not forego on any consideration. It is an enjoyment beyond all price. This is especially perceptible in a mind that is clear and logical. The temptation is strong to idolize one's own judgment. Perhaps Thomas accounted as a virtue that critical tem- per which was his greatest danger. When any man begins to think far more of the touch of his ten fingers than of the testimony of ten apostles, self-reliance is apt to become conceit. Lovell draws an important distinction just here, which every man of an intellectual type should heed: "There is a love born of mere touch, and there is a love that death and loss can never touch. The TefHpiations of Intellect 197 There is a love dependent on circumstances, and there is a love that defies storm and cloud and death. If Thomas have the one, and John the other, all we ask is that Thomas know his con- dition, and not so readily assert his superior judgment. If a man of ordinary prudence gets to know that his weak heart says to him, 'Never hurry,' or that another organ says, 'Never eat certain things;' so let us know if our condition disqualifies us for judgment, and let us trust others and act with them, rather than argue and oppose. Most of the skeptics I have met in Hfe were like Thomas — all disqualified for their work before they began it." The temptation to argue is strong with the men of this type. But as long as we are reason- ing and arguing about a promise, we never know its reality. It is not God's way. ''It is the hum- ble who hear thereof, and are glad." Have we not found it so? Did we ever receive the power- ful fulfillment of any promise so long as we argued and reasoned, whether with our own hearts or with others, and said, "How can these things be?" Has it not always been, that we had to lay down our arms and accept God's thought and God's way instead of our own ideas, and be wilHng that he should "speak the word only," and believe it as little children believe our promises? 198 Individuality Superior intellectual gifts too often lead to mere speculation. There is a strong tendency to a certain intellectual destructiveness. "Christ," says Legh Richmond, "may be crucified be- tween classics and mathematics." While a min- ister was riding in a railway carriage he was saluted by a member of an exceedingly quarrel- some and speculative sect. "Pray, sir," said the sectary, "what is your opinion of the seven trumpets?" "I am not sure," said the preacher, "that I understand your question; but I hope you will comprehend mine. What think you of the fact that your seven children are growing up without God — without hope? You have a Bible-reading in your house for your neighbors, to discuss these speculative questions, but no family prayer for your children." The nail was fastened in a sure place ; enough candor of mind remained in the professor to enable him to profit by the timely rebuke. Furthermore, the temptation to argue leads to a certain harsh and arrogant tone, which shows itself in debate, no matter on which side of a controversy one stands. It is perhaps one of the commonest temptations of those who are much versed in theology to forget the necessity of allowing for those who dififer from them. They put that first which should be second. The first and indispensable care for every Christian and The Te77iptatioiis of Intellect 199 every Christian body is the spirit of love. No difference of belief can be truly conscientious unless it be subordinated to the spirit of love. "If you are a Christian," says one, ''you must love me before you can conscientiously differ from me." The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, cautions against "doubtful disputa- tions." When men dispute, they jostle for the way, and so one or both must needs leave the path of truth and peace. Again, men of this type are tempted too com- monly to believe that Christianity consists in the intellectual acceptance of mere dogmas. But this is so far from being the case that, as John Wesley said in his strong and striking way a hundred and fifty years ago, "A man may be as orthodox as the devil, and as wicked." No man ever becomes a Christian simply by accepting the doctrines of the Christian religion. He may have a deep conviction, and yet be without any vivid realization of what he believes. Such men often make sticklers for doctrine; an iron con- science rivets them to their creed. The Divinity of Christ is the center of their theology; total depravity, the fundamental fact in their psychol- ogy; the atonement, the ultimate reach of their moral philosophy. This is right so far as It goes. But they seem devoid of all appreciation of the practical importance of these great truths. They 200 Individuality would die for the faith, as upon some unknown altar to which they were tied by the cords of their own conscientiousness. To them the doc- trines of Scripture are as true as the propositions of Euclid, and analogous to them as statements of certain abstract principles upon which the moral and spiritual worlds are erected. But to such, Christianity is a mere intellectual creed. And no man has a right to suppose that he is a Christian because he is a theologian ; or that he knows anything about Divine pity because he is skilled in the controversy of words. This is the position about which we need to be most anx- iously jealous. "It has become so common," says Joseph Parker, "to think that a creed, merely as such — an enumerated and regulated act of beliefs — can save the world. All these we may need, every one of them may be of great importance; but until our creed becomes our faith; until it is taken into the heart and reproduced in the life by loving sacrifice, daily seasoned with salt, con- tinually ablaze to the heavens, it is a creed only which a parrot might repeat — not an inspiration which an angel might covet. Hence we come to have mechanical orthodoxies, hence we add to the profanity of a lifetime the audacity which can sentence men to the right hand or to the left in proportion as they read our books and The Temptations of Intellect 201 adopt our lines and our formal positions." But Christianity is a state of the heart, a condition of the soul before God, a continual penitence, a continual faith, a continual service. There is a well-authenticated tradition of a famous argument between that great scholar and divine, Bishop Horsley, and Dr. Cyril Jack- son, dean of Christ Church. They sat late into the night debating the question whether God could be better reached through the exercise of the intellect, or through the exercise of the affec- tion. Unwillingly, but step by step, the bishop, who advocated the claims of the intellect, re- treated before the arguments of his friend, till at length, in a spirit wdiich did no less honor to his humility than to his candor, he exclaimed, "Then my whole life has been one great mis- take!" Certainly that conclusion had been al- ready anticipated by St. Paul. 3. Doubt. How true these words of T. T. Munger: "Doubt is indeed a thorn that pierces deep. To have a mind made to know God, and yet not be able to find him ; to hunger after the truth, and yet not be sure of truth ; to have eyes that rejoice in the light, and yet catch only glimpses, — this is well-nigh the keenest suffering a true man can feel." There is a wide difference between doubt and unbelief, although often confounded together. 202 Individuality The skeptic doubts, and looks into the matter; the unbeliever rejects altogether, too often with- out inquiring (Acts xvii, 32), and frequently on moral grounds (John iii, 19). "Christ," says Professor Drummond, "never failed to distin- guish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is canH believe; unbelief is wonH believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is look- ing for light ; unbelief is content with darkness. Loving darkness rather than light — that is what Christ attacked, and attacked unsparingly. But for the intellectual questioning of Thomas and Philip and Nicodemus, and the many others who came to him to have their great problems solved, he was respectful and generous and tol- erant." Instead of looking on doubt, then, as an evil which threatens religion itself, Christianity, as well as philosophy, teaches us to see in it the means for higher attainments. It is not to be mourned over, but to be studied, used, and mas- tered. Not doubt itself is a curse, but the dis- eases often connected with it make it fatal to the religious life. The danger lies in the fact that doubt indulged, soon becomes doubt re- alized. Skepticism may end in unbelief; it is therefore a dangerous spirit. When doubt ends in what is called Rational- ism, it has in it the leaven of infidelity. By The Temptations of Intellect 203 Rationalism is presumptuously meant making the Scriptures reasonable; not submitting rea- son to the Bible, but submitting the Bible to reason. ''This system — if such it can be called — aims at divesting revelation of all mystery, and explaining away on natural principles all its miracles; leaving nothing behind save a naked, ordinary history of naked, ordinary facts. Whilst thus it admits the general historical authenticity of the Bible, it strives to strip it of all that pre- eminently constitutes its revelation. For if the Bible were merely a chronicle of certain natural events cognizable, or even a record of certain doctrines discerned or discoverable by the hu- man mind; if there were nothing in its pages transcending alike the grasp and the researches of reason, nothing that demanded the direct in- terposition and manifestation of the Deity, then assuredly the volume would lack all that essen- tially designates and characterizes it as the Word of the living God. We glory in the mysteries of Revelation. Had it no mysteries, we could hardly receive it as Divine. For can the Infinite reveal himself to the finite so as not to be past finding out? The sounding-line of human rea- son can never gauge the depths of Deity." The life, the power of that Gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation," lies in its mys- teries. "Without controversy, great is the mys- 204 Individuality tery of godliness." We glory in its greatness; for it is not a little mystery that could involve the reconciliation of the Infinite God to sinners of the human race. Much as our times are to be praised for their stores of learning and the power and freedom of their thought, yet we need to guard against building up the intellect at the expense of the heart — making us all skeptics or thinkers rather than tender-hearted children gathering in filial love at the feet of our God. That development of intellect that shall make the study of science displace the meditations of religion, that shall make the learning of men read more sweetly than the pleadings and prayers of Jesus, is a mental education that may well be feared as a fatal enemy. If an educated man is a broad man, he must be broad in his soul as well as in his intellect. Not only is there vast art in the world, and vast learning and progress, but here, too, as a Latin poet says, ''are the tears of things;" and in the words of a noted divine, "Empty will be the mission of learning and more penetrating thought, unless it shall render Christian experi- ence more silent, indeed, only because deeper; unless it undermine egotism, all the forms of self-glorying, and shall bring us as little children into the kingdom of God." Here is where we may behold the symmetry The Temptatio7is of hitellect 205 and beauty and greatness of Paul. Though the learning of Greece and Alexandria and of the East lay within his mind, and lifted him up to the calmest heights, yet the fountains of his emotions were neither frozen nor dried, but his tears mingled with his philosophy. In the Book of Acts he was "serving the Lord with many tears," and ''ceased not to warn every one with tears;" and in Corinthians he says, "I wrote to you with many tears," thus reminding us that in every truly grand character there must be conceptions of truth so clear and so precious that under their influence the heart moves as the sea in storm. Paul's great brain grasped the is- sues of life and death, and to this march of intel- ligence his great heart responded and wept. Few axioms are wiser than that admirable one of Dr. Deems: "Believe your beliefs, and doubt your doubts. Do not make the common mistake of skeptics, doubting your beliefs and believing your doubts." Or, as Goethe says, "Give us your convictions; as for doubts, we have enough of them already." A theological student once called on Dr. Archibald Alexander in great distress of mind, doubting whether he had been converted. The Doctor said: "My young brother, you know what repentance is, what faith in Christ is. You think you once repented, and once believed. 2o6 Individuality Now, do n't fight your doubts ; go all over it again ; repent now, believe in Christ now ; that 's the way to have a consciousness of acceptance with God. I have to do both very often. Go to your room, and give yourself to Christ this very moment, and let doubts go. If you have not been his disciple, be one now. Do n't fight the devil on his own ground. Choose the ground of Christ's own righteousness and atone- ment, and then fight him." That was good ad- vice. Do not exercise your doubts. Exercise your faith. Doubt is weakness; faith is power. XIV §)ptrit=jriUeti f ntellect 207 Where thought and love are active — thought the formative power, love the vitalizing — there can be no sad- ness. They are in themselves a more intense and extended participation of a divine existence. As they grow, the highest species of faith grows too, and all things are possible. — George Eliot. TfA ^pititmitti %nmuct The apostles were many-natured. But upon each came the pentecostal fullness. The tongue of fire "sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." This is true of the men of this group, no less than of Peter and John. The en- duement of power fell upon all, and spiritual gifts were imparted to all; not equally; for the expression, "As the Spirit gave them utterance," seems to indicate a diversity of gifts. While upon Peter the Holy Spirit rested as the power by which Christianity is extended, and upon John as the substitute for Jesus, who takes of the deep things of Christ, and shows them unto us, upon the men of this group he descends as the intellectual atmosphere in which the Church's thinking was to develop. Dr. Daniel Steele, in "Love Enthroned," says : "Some are designed by nature to be, when surcharged with the Spirit, like galvanic bat- teries of a thousand-cup power, electrifying vast multitudes with the shock of saving gospel truth; while others, endowed constitutionally with a smaller capacity for the exercise of im- 14 209 2 1 o Individuality mediate suasive influence, are more largely gifted in the direction of a well-balanced intel- lect, adapted to instruct and edify believers — the chief function of the pastoral ofifice." The history of the Church, both apostolic and mod- ern, sustains this view. Peter was the preacher on the day of Pentecost, not by chance, but by Divine purpose. Thomas could not have been substituted with the same results. But the Church has need of consecrated brains. And the men of this intellectual type, baptized from on high, did for the Church what neither John nor Peter could have done so far as we know them. Of Matthew nothing is stated in the Book of Acts. His was an intellectual mission purely. The Spirit endowed him specially to write the Gospel which bears his name. And now hardly the most eminent of the apostles is so often brought to mind as Matthew the evangelist, whose clear, simple, but impressive testimony to the words and deeds of his Lord, stands at the head of the Sacred Canon. The apostle James appears in the Acts. When by the special calls of God, in providences and revelations, one and another of the apostles had been summoned to new and distant fields, east, west, north, and south, there was still needed one, who, highly "endued with power spirit-filled Intellect 2 1 1 from on high," might remain in that city to which all the sons of Israel throughout the world looked as the fountain of religious light. There, too, was the scene of the first great triumphs of the Christian faith, as well as of the chief toils, the trials, and the death of the great" Founder himself. All these circumstances rendered Jeru- salem still an important post to the apostles ; and they therefore left on that station the apostle whose steady courage in the cause of Christ, and blameless yet jealous conformity to the law of Moses, fitted him at once for the bold mainte- nance of his Master's commission, and for the successful advancement of the gospel among the faithful believers of the ancient covenant. Thus James continued at Jerusalem throughout his life. And what a splendid type of consecrated in- tellect did he exhibit when called upon to pre- side at the great Ecclesiastical Council in Jeru- salem, mentioned in Acts xv! His decision on that occasion showed the mind of the jurist ; and the upshot of that first ecclesiastical assembly was a triumph of the Holy Ghost. The account reads, *'For it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost, and to us." Dr. A. T. Pierson, in "The Acts of the Holy Spirit," comments thus on this passage: "This is the formal announcement of the conclusions 212 Individuality and decisions of that first Church Council at Jerusalem. Apostles and elders have been in conference over certain troublesome and some- what vexatious questions of ceremonialism, which verge closely upon the domain of Chris- tian ethics. And now, as they draw up their 'deliverance,' and formally issue letters convey- ing their final verdict, they boldly treat the Holy Spirit as one of their number — a fellow-counselor, who unites with them in the announcement of a joint conclusion; as though he, the Spirit of God, had sat with them in their deliberations, had with them counseled as chief adviser, and now unites with them in this deliverance, seal- ing their conclusions with his approval. As no such language, or anything closely approaching it, occurs elsewhere in the Word of God, its emphasis can not be mistaken. In the earlier part of this letter to the Gentile converts, the disciples, convened at Jerusalem, had said, 'It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you;' and this is the natural language of brethren who have been in session deliberating over common ques- tions. But, as though One who was at the same time the presiding officer and chief counselor should be mentioned by name, they now, as they approach the very heart of their message to Gen- Spirit'filled Intellect 213 tile Churches, add, 'It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to its.' There is no resisting the im- plication that he had been assembled with them, and was with them of one accord." There was one Council of the Church which knew where to get guidance, and whom to choose as President and Head. The Holy Ghost took charge, and the decree which settled the hard question came from him. Here we have: i. The Spirit guiding the Church. This was in accordance with the Savior's promise. 2. The Spirit's guidance acknowledged by the Church. "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us." "To us" means acquiescence in the decision of the Spirit, as indicated by recent events, and no doubt by special inspiration. 3. The Spirit's guidance seen in the decision of the Church. In the liberality of its sentiment, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib- erty." In its sanctified common sense. Certain things were "necessary," in order that Jews and Gentiles might work together. Thomas, the representative man of this group, as we see him in the Gospel, is desponding and full of doubts; but after Pentecost he is a hero. Very beautifully Chrysostom says of him, that he would hardly venture to go with Jesus as far as the neighboring town of Bethany; but after 214 Individuality Pentecost without him he traveled to the farthest India, daring all the perils of remote and hostile nations. How is the Church to protect herself against a noxious intellectual atmosphere, and obtain a clear vision of Divine things? There can be but one answer to that question. By the baptism of the Spirit. In the diary of Jonathan Edwards we have a rare example of baptized intellect. He gives us this record of a sacred hour: *'Once as I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, having aUghted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for Divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. The grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared in- effably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and concep- tion — which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour ; which kept me a greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihi- lated: to lie in the dust and be full of Christ spirit-filled Intellect 215 alone ; to love him with a holy and pure love ; to trust in him ; to live upon him ; to serve him ; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity." Surely this is a most impressive example of great powers con- secrated and Spirit-filled. For all honest doubts, sincere questionings, reverential hesitation, there is nothing like the Pentecostal blessing; a heart fully consecrated to Christ; a vital, experimental acquaintance with the fullness of the Spirit's power in the soul. The man of this temperament who is only par- tially consecrated, will be in doubts as thick as a London fog. But the man whose heart is fixed, whose religion is a sublime consecration, who has seen the glory of God In the face of Jesus Christ, and in whom the Holy Ghost dwells in his fullness, — that man finds himself where lights do not wax and wane, where tides do not turn, where opinions do not come and go. Do you doubt It? Turn to the account given of the Spirit-baptism of the learned and eloquent author of the ''History of the Reformation." After his conversion to God, and after he had begun to preach Christ with fullness of faith, Merle D'Aublgne was so assailed and perplexed, in coming Into Germany, by the sophisms of rationalism, that he was plunged Into unutter- able distress, and passed whole nights without 2i6 Individuality sleeping, crying to God from the bottom of his heart, or endeavoring by arguments and syl- logisms without end to repel the attack and the adversary. In his perplexity he visited Kleuker, a venerable divine, at Kiel. Before this able de- fender of Christianity, D'Aubigne laid his doubts and difficulties for solution. Instead of solving them, Kleuker replied: "Were I to succeed in ridding you of these, others v^^ould soon rise up. There is a shorter, deeper, and more complete way of annihilating them. Let Christ be really to you the Son of God — the Savior — the Author of eternal life. Once get firmly settled in this grace, and then these difficulties of detail will never stop you." This advice, followed as it was by studying, with a pious fellow-traveler at an inn at Kiel, the apostle's expression, "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," relieved him from all his diffi- culties. Says this illustrious man : "We were studying the Epistle to the Ephesians, and had got to the end of the third chapter. When we read the last two verses, *Now unto him that IS able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory throughout all ages,' this expression fell upon my soul like a revelation from God. He can do by his power, spirit-filled Intellect 217 I said to myself, above all we ask, above all even that we can think — nay, exceeding abundantly above all! A full trust in Christ for the work to be done within my poor heart now filled my soul. We all three knelt down; and although I had never fully confided my inward struggle to my friends, the prayer of Rieu was filled with such admirable faith as he would have uttered had he known all my wants. When I arose in that inn-room at Kiel, I felt as if my wings were renewed as the wings of eagles. From that time forward I comprehended that my own efforts were of no avail ; that Christ is able to do all by his power that worketh in us; and the habitual attitude of my soul was to lie at the foot of the cross, crying to him, *Here I am, bound hand and foot, unable to move, unable to do the least thing to get away from the enemy who op- presses me. Do all thyself. I hiovo thou wilt do it. Thou wilt even do exceeding abundantly above all I ask.' I was not disappointed ; all my doubts were removed, my anguish quelled, and the Lord extended to me peace as a river. Then I could comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowl- edge. Then was I able to say, 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bounti- fully with thee.' " 2 1 8 Individuality What a testimony is that to the power of a vital, experimental acquaintance with Christ to preserve from the seductions of a false philos- ophy ! No wonder it has been asserted that that testimony of D'Aubigne is almost of as much practical value to the world as his celebrated work on the Reformation. It teaches us that the defense of the Christian from the painful doubts and difficulties suggested by his own reason, is to be sought rather in the grace of the heart than in the strength of the Intellect ; that prayer and deep humility will often be more powerful to establish us in the truth than logic. He who is strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and also is rooted and grounded in love, though less skillful In argument, Is In a far better condition to resist the subtleties of false doctrine than he who Is stronger In his logic. The hidden life within him Is vigorous, and rich In the enjoyment of Divine love ; he Is strong In the Lord and In the power of his might; and though the strength of the human Intellect, the chain of sound reasoning, and the conclusion of a just logic, when employed in elaborate de- fenses of the truth, are of inestimable worth, yet, with all, It Is to the blessing of God on the in- ternal vigor of his own piety that the tempted believer is indebted for his stability, more than spirit-filled Intellect 219 to those outworks which are cast up from time to time by the ablest defenders of Christianity. In D'Aubigne's experience we find the secret of being filled with the Spirit. If we have the Holy Ghost filling us, he will not make us con- scious of his presence, but of Christ's presence. ''He will not speak of himself." But he will give us frequent thoughts of Christ, sweet and pre- cious thoughts. To the Spirit-filled intellect the Lord extends ''peace like a river." Even for the purposes of the intellect, noth- ing can be truer than that the best thing we can do with it is to surrender it to the Spirit's full- ness. Religion, as the late Canon Liddon used to contend, fertilizes the intellect as well as puri- fies the heart. Not long since a celebrated elec- trician stated that he could "think a hole through an inch board ;" and by connecting an inch drill so that it could be actuated by the electric cur- rent produced by the concentration of his thought, he actually did it. If a man, by the aid of an electric current harnessed by his own hands, can think a hole through a solid timber, what can he not do when his purpose is sup- ported and sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit? "The same anointing teacheth you of all things," says John. Julius Miiller, with all his intellectual acumen ; D'Aubigne, with all his his- 220 Individuality toric knowledge, needed to be qualified by the Spirit to write their great works. We all know how absorbed men may become in their own special pursuits. For instance, we have read about Sir Isaac Newton, and how ab- sorbed he used to be in his mathematical and astronomical researches, until he was scarcely able to give a thought to the common duties and circumstances of life, but used frequently to make the most ridiculous blunders about com- monplace things, because he took so profound an interest in, and was so fully occupied with, his own great discoveries. There is a touching story of a late Cambridge professor who was one of the greatest Greek scholars of our time. For some few months before he died he was ad- vised by his friends to shut up his books, give up his studies, and go as much as possible Into social life, in order that he might be drawn away from those subjects in which his mind had be- come so absorbed that his constitution was Im- paired ; indeed, he was threatened with softening of the brain. On one occasion he was in a draw- ing-room, surrounded by cheerful company, when a half-sad smile passed over his counte- nance as he observed to a friend : *'What is the use of you shutting up my books and not allow- ing me to work? While I have been here I have traced the derivations of three distinct Greek spirit-filled Intellect 221 words, and detected their connection with cer- tain Sanskrit roots." Such was the force of his ruling passion. Now, Christ claims that God is to be loved with all our being. ''Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." They who love God, then, with the heart only, do sin. We are to love God with all our mind, with our brain, and thought, and power ; with reason and with argu- ment; with learning and knowledge. No pre- tense that we love God with our heart absolves us from loving him with our mind. "Keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee." (i Chronicles xxix, 18.) What is to be kept forever in the Imagination of the thoughts of the heart? Their consecration. Our whole mental being Is to be thus pervaded with the incense of consecration. The mind will then be "stayed on thee," and the keeping "in perfect peace" will result. Then the "peace of God" will enter in, to "garrison" the heart and thoughts. XV jfourti) 0tmp Key-word: Administrative Ability Lebb^us (Thaddseus, Judas) Simon (Canaanite, Zelotes) Judas Iscariot 223 Some men are literary, some are artistic, some are scientific, some have a great aptitude for business^ and others are evidently called to play a distinguished part in politics or public affairs. — Hugh Price Hughes. 224 aumtnfgtmtiije ability Administrative ability is the key-thought of this group. Judas Iscariot is the representa- tive man, though placed last in the list because a traitor. I. The first-named apostle of this group is Lebbseus, whose surname was Thaddaeus. Also called Judas the brother of James. (I^uke vi, i6 ; Acts i, 13.) This three-named apostle was the son of a James, of whom we know nothing ; and is himself entirely unknown to us except by a single question which he propounded during the Last Supper. (John xiv, 22.) Thomas had stated his difEculty; Philip had made his re- quest; and now the Master's discourse was turned on the topic of obedience as the test of affection: "If ye love me, keep my command- ments." Obedience, added Christ, would be re- warded by the Father's peculiar love and his own open manifestation. Hereupon, Judas In- terrupted Christ. In Introducing him, the evan- gelist denotes him as "Judas, not Iscariot." The question proposed by the apostle was pertinent to the Lord's previous line of address: "Lord, how Is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" The question was 15 225 226 Individuality founded on a misapprehension of the nature of the promised manifestation. He imagined that Jesus was to reappear corporeally after his de- parture to the Father, and would therefore be visible to the outward eye — not of this one or that one, but of all. And while it is true that neither Judas nor any of his brethren was ca- pable as yet of conceiving a spiritual manifesta- tion, not to speak of finding therein a full com- pensation for the loss of the corporeal presence, yet the very fact that Judas was the one to pro- pound this question betrays the natural tem- perament of the man. His gifts will be conse- crated to the temporalities of the Church. He represents earnestness for purity of discipline in the Church. 2. Simon the Canaanite comes second in this group. By Luke he is called Simon Zelotes. Both these surnames mean the same thing. This apostle is nowhere mentioned in the Gospel his- tory, except in the catalogues; yet, little known as he is, the epithet attached to his name con- veys a piece of curious and interesting informa- tion. He is called the Kananite (not Canaanite), which is a political, not a geographical, designa- tion. Luke calls him Simon Zelotes ; that is, in English, Simon the Zealot. This epithet Zelotes connects Simon unmistakably with the famous party which rose in rebellion under Judas in the Admmistrative Ability 227 days of the taxing, some twenty years before Christ's ministry began, when Judea and Sa- maria were brought under the direct government of Rome, and the census of the population was taken with a view to subsequent taxation. Bruce, in his ''Training of the Twelve,'* says : ''How singular a phenomenon is this ex-zealot among the disciples of Jesus! No two men could differ more widely in their spirit, ends, and means, than Judas of Galilee and Jesus of Naza- reth. The one was a political malcontent; the other would have the conquered bow to the yoke, and give to Caesar Caesar's due. The for- mer aimed at restoring the kingdom to Israel, adopting for his watchword, 'We have no Lord or Master but God;' the latter aimed at found- ing a kingdom, not national, but universal ; not 'of this world,' but purely spiritual. The means employed by the two actors were as diverse as their ends. One had recourse to the carnal weapons of war, the sword and the dagger; the other relied solely on the gentle but omnipotent force of truth." The choice of this disciple to be an apostle might have been the means of rendering Jesus and his followers objects of political suspicion. But the Master was willing to take the risk. Si- mon had formerly striven for "political and ex- ternally theocratic ends;" he now becomes the 228 Individuality politician of the Apostolic College. In some of the questions that came before our Lord the interest of Simon must have been peculiarly keen. The claim of C^sar to tribute was one on which hinged the whole zealot system; and well can we picture him pondering the depths of that answer which escaped the snare so craftily laid : ^'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Csesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." 3. Judas Iscarlot is the last named apostle in this group. Dr. Charles R Thwing says of him : "If his name is put last in the list of the apostles, it is so put, not because of his lack of eminence, but of merit. He is the last of the Twelve, as Nero was the last of the brilliant line of the Julian family. Never were rulers in which existed greater extremes of the highest splendor and basest infamy than in these Roman emperors. Never, likewise, was there a life in which meet such extremes of highest capability and lowest attainment as in the case of Judas. He comes, this man Judas, like Melchisedec, we know not whence: whether of Galilean origin, like the other eleven, or of Judean, scholars are not agreed. The very meaning of his surname, Is- cariot, is a question of philological discussion. His name seldom appears in the Divine story, as also seldom appear the names of any except Admmisiratwe Ability 229 the specially loved three. On one occasion, Christ speaks of him as a devil. Christ seems, however, to know that it is he by whose hand he is to die. Not until the close of the three years' history does he become prominent, and then his prominence is that of a traitor. The very motives that lead him to the betrayal are not presented with the fullness adequate to the significance of the deed in which they are to eventuate. He remains the enigma of sacred history." He deserves his place at the foot of the Twelve, together with the postscript, "Who also betrayed him." Of his birth, his home, his occupation, his call, and his personal character, the sacred writ- ers bear no testimony. But whatever may have been the business to which he had been devoted during his previous life, he had probably acquired a good reputation for honesty, as well as for careful management of property; for unless he had maintained such a character as that above imputed to him, it is not likely that, in the little company or family of Jesus, he would have taken such a high degree officially. The statement that he "had the bag," shows the position he occupied among the apostles. He was no mean and inferior person. He was so far from being suspected that he had the dis- tinguished honor of being intrusted with the 230 Individuality Master's financial concerns. Judas had decided natural proclivities towards finance. That he had more than ordinary capacity in this direc- tion is evidenced from the fact that at once he became the organizer of the little society, its steward, its financier, the custodian of its means. Ballinger even thinks that he must have been a man remarkable for wisdom, prudence, econ- omy, and faithfulness. The Lord, who knows how to use all sorts of gifts, perceived what gifts Judas had. Christ chose him for what he was and what he might have been, not for what he became. "Such a trust certainly implied a great confidence of Jesus in his honesty and discretion in money matters, and shows, not only the blame- lessness of his character in those particulars, but the peculiar turn of his genius, in being selected, out of the whole twelve, for this very responsible and somewhat troublesome function." The name of Judas should sound the death- knell of all presumptuous confidence in our ofti- c'lal standing. Ofiicial prominence has special dangers. As treasurer, Judas develops selfish- ness, avarice, thievishness: a typical defaulter. The progress of this covetousness is plainly seen in his case. Jesus detected its development at the time of Peter's noble confession, when, see- ing the sad defection of the worldly, he turned to the Twelve and said, "Will ye also go away?" Administrative Ability 231 Simon Peter replied, ''Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee? For thou only hast the words of eternal life." Jesus answered, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" This reply, as John says, alluded to Judas Is- cariot; for "he it was that was to betray him." The expression was terribly strong, and the ab- sence of all direct parallels render it difficult for us to understand its exact significance. The question naturally arises, How came such a man to be chosen one of the Twelve? Did Jesus not know the real character of this man when he chose him? The words of our Lord, while expounding the feet-washing, forbid us to think this. "I know whom I have chosen," meaning, evidently, to claim knowledge of them all, Judas included, at the time he chose them. Perhaps the summarized statements of Pro- fessor Bruce, in answer to all questions on this point, are the clearest explanations that can be given. He says: "We may regard these two points as certain : on the one hand, that Judas did not become a follower of Jesus with treacher- ous intentions ; and on the other, that Jesus did not elect Judas to be one of the Twelve because he foreknew that he would eventually become a traitor. . . . The only explanation of his choice that can be given is that, apart from se- cret insight, Judas was to all appearance an 232 Individuality eligible man, and could not be passed over on any grounds coming under ordinary observation. His qualities must have been such, that one not possessing the eye of Omniscience, looking on him, would have been disposed to say of him what Samuel said of Eliab: 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.' In that case, his elec- tion by Jesus is perfectly intelligible. The Head of the Church simply did what the Church has to do in analogous instances." It must be remembered that Judas "fell." He IS sometimes depicted as though he had always had the heart of an alien; and when chosen by our Lord to be one of his apostles, was then a traitor in spirit. This is a mistake. When our Lord said, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" he says, "£y a devil;" he does not say "wa-y." The evils which de- stroyed Judas had not ripened in him when Jesus called him. Judas Iscariot had a genuine voca- tion to the apostolate ; that is, he had in him the making of an apostle ; otherwise, our Lord would not have chosen him. But "vocations may be lost." Judas fell through yielding to temptation. The first sign of the alienation of his affec- tions from Jesus is seen in the incident recorded of the anointing of the Master's feet by Mary. This beautiful instance of an ardent devotion, that would sacrifice everything for its object. Administrative Ability 233 awakened no corresponding feeling in the nar- row soul of Iscariot. He indignantly exclaimed (veiling his true motive, however, under the ap- pearance of charitable regard for the poor), "To what purpose is this waste? Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" So specious was this honor- able pretense, that others of the disciples joined in this indignant remonstrance. But honorable as may have been the motives of the others, the apostle John most distinctly insists that Judas was moved by a far baser consideration. ''This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but be- cause he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." Were it not for the middle clause, we might have conceived of Judas as simply loath to see unprofitably expended a sum which would have supplied the Lord's necessities for many a day, and formed a wel- come replenishment of their slender purse. It is here declared, however, in plain terms, that Iscariot had grossly betrayed the pecuniary trust which had been committed to him on the score of his previous honesty, and had been guilty of downright peculation. ''What renders this crime doubly abominable," says another writer, "is, that it was robbing the poor of the generous contributions which, by the kindness of Jesus, had been appropriated to their use out 234 Indimdiiality of this little common stock; for it seems that Iscariot was the minister of the common chari- ties of the brotherhood, as well as the provider of such things as were necessary for their sub- sistence, and the steward of the common prop- erty/* An eminent statesman once said that critics were men who had failed. What a lurid light this definition casts over the conduct of Judas at this hour ! The next we hear of Judas he went to the high priests, with intent to betray Jesus into their hands. ^'What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" was his question — the question of a man disappointed of his cherished ambition, but in whom the passion for revenge was subordinate to the lust of gain. The same transaction is described from a different point of view by St. Luke, who says that now Satan en- tered into Judas; and "truly a treachery so un- paralleled, combined with such petty avarice, might well be termed a possession of the Evil One, not in the sense of overriding the man's freedom, but of an infernal influence to which he deliberately opened his heart." From this moment his purpose is fixed; he bargains with them for thirty pieces of silver, and departs, bound by fear as well as covetous- ness, to fulfill his part of the contract. He re- turned to the unsuspecting fellowship of the Administrative Ability 235 apostles. From day to day he waited and watched for the most desirable opportunity of meeting his engagements with his priestly em- ployers. The first day of the feast of unleavened bread having arrived, Jesus sat down at evening to eat the paschal lamb with his twelve disciples, alone. The whole twelve were there without one exception. It is inconceivable how Judas could sit through the Last Supper, listening to, the ten- der discourse and looking into the face of the Master, and remain unmoved and impenitent. During the supper, and after the impressive cere- mony of washing their feet, Jesus made a sudden transition from the comments with which he was illustrating it, and, in a tone of deep and sorrow- ful emotion, said : ''Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." Instantly all enjoyment was at an end ; and grieved by the im- putation. In which all seemed included until the individual was pointed out, they each earnestly inquired, *Xord, Is It I?" Not to be singled from the rest, the traitor defies the risk of exposure, and dares to ask in the like form, "Rabbi, is it I?" To whom the Savior darts privately the reply, ''Thou hast said." "Now, there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then, lying on Jesus' breast, salth 236 Individuality unto him, Lord, who is it?" Jesus, to make his reply as deliberate and impressive as possible, said : ''He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him." Judas was moved to no change in his dark purpose; but with a new Satanic spirit, re- solved immediately to execute his plan, in spite of his open exposure, which, he might think, was meant to shame him from his baseness. Jesus, with an eye still fixed on his most secret inward movements, said to him, 'What thou doest, do quickly." Peter and John alone understood the words; the others were still so uninformed, and so well had appearances been sustained, that they supposed the Lord simply to be giving direction to Judas in his twofold capacity of purveyor and almoner. Judas "went immediately out; and," adds the evangelist, "it was night." From the supper-table the traitor appears to have gone straightway to the chief priests, and made known to them that the time was now come. The band of watchmen and servants, with their swords and cudgels, were accordingly mustered and put under the guidance of Judas, who, well knowing the place to which Je-sus would go from the feast, conducted them to the garden of Gethsemane. A preconcerted signal Administrative Ability 237 had been arranged by Judas. "He whom I kiss," he had said to them, *'the same is he; hold him fast." And so, advancing to Jesus, he exclaimed, "Hail, Master; and kissed him." "Judas," said Jesus unto him, with stern and sad reproach, "betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" Without more delay he announced himself in plain terms to those who came to seize him ; thus showing how little need there was of artful con- trivance in taking One who did not seek to es- cape. "If ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, I am he." The simple majesty with which these words were uttered was such as to overawe even the low offi- cials; and it was not till he himself had again distinctly reminded them of their object that they could execute their errand. No further mention is made of Iscariot, after the scene of his treachery, until the next morn- ing, when Jesus had been condemned; then he began fully to realize all that he had done. "Had he, even then," says Canon Farrar, "but gone to his Lord and Savior, and prostrated himself at his feet to implore forgiveness, all might have been well. But, alas! he went instead to the patrons and associates and tempters of his crime. From them he met with no pity, no counsel. He was a despised and broken instrument, and now he was tossed aside. They met his maddening remorse with chilly indifference and callous con- 238 Individuality tempt. 1 have sinned,' he shrieked to them, *in that I have betrayed innocent blood/ Did he expect them to console his remorseful agony, to share the blame of his guilt, to excuse and con- sole him with their lofty dignity? 'What is that to us? See thou to that' was the sole and heart- less reply they deigned to the poor traitor whom they had encouraged, welcomed, incited to his deed of infamy." That answer paralyzed the heart of Judas; maddened with remorse, and flinging down the price of his infamy and woe upon the pavement in the temple where the priests sat, he hurried into the despairing soli- tude from which he would never emerge alive. Such was the end of the twelfth of Christ's chosen ones. To such an end was the familiar friend, the trusted steward, the social companion of the Savior, brought by the impulse of some not very unnatural feelings, excited by occasion into extraordinary action. Jesus gave Judas one opportunity after another for confession. "As he washed his feet, the touch of Jesus' hand; when he offered him the sop, the look on Jesus' face; when he told him to do his work quickly, the sound of Jesus's voice, were means of grace.". If, at this last moment, he had cast himself on his Master's mercy, we should have mentioned his name to-day — the chief sinner saved. Judas was to be Jesus' failure. Administrative Ability 239 This group we may call the Hebraistic, or practical, group. All the apostles in it were men of evidently practical gifts. Commercial sagac- ity, creative industry, financial ability, — these are only so many ways by which one may bring his gifts to bear upon the great ends of life and serve God. XVI C|)e 9ltimintstratt\)e Cjpe of Cijrtstianit? 24X No matter how good or how strong a cause may be, the scheme of its propagation necessarily has its business department, which, being independent of the cause itself, in the fact that it is incident to all organized human action, must be conducted on business principles. — /. G. Holland. 242 aDmutiiStmttbe C^pe of €livi^tianitv Man has a body as well as a soul; and the Church, in its corporate capacity, has material and temporal interests. Bills must be met, or debts will be incurred ; and so money is in con- stant demand. A house of worship must be built, paid for, aiid kept in repair. "Such mat- ters," says Dr. A. T. Pierson, "belonging to the Church as a civil and social institution, demand for their management financial ability, practical sagacity, energy, and prudence ; but, most of all, common sense. Nor must we underrate the importance of administrative ability. Whatever other elements of prosperity a Church may have, without this it is but as a strong mind in a weak frame." That lack of administrative or execu- tive ability which leaves the Church to "run itself," hazards not only its success, but its being. It will "run itself" — into risk, perhaps into ruin. I. The Church needs consecrated business talent. The position which Judas held among the disciples indicates almost beyond a doubt the nature of his gifts. He was their treasurer; he had talent for the administration of their busi- ness affairs. How very desirable such a talent would have been for that future organization 243 244 Individuality over which the Twelve were to preside ! Later, when the apostles were no longer capable of con- trolling the distribution of alms, and the Greek widows suffered neglect to the advantage of those of the Jews (Acts vi, i); and afterwards, when the congregation at Jerusalem was suffer- ing such privations that Paul was obliged to take up collections through all the Churches in Eu- rope and Asia to rescue the first apostles' Church from danger of starving, — these facts prompt in- quiry as to whether some deficiency was not felt among the apostles after the loss of him whom the Lord had appointed to be steward of the con- gregation, and whether Judas's successor did not lack fitness for his office. Very often the highest work of the Church fails in the attain- ment of its object, because it is not adequately supported by proper administrative ability. In First Chronicles ix, 19, reference is made to certain men who were "over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle.'* They were what we would call "church-war- dens," or Church "officials," attending to the temporal affairs of the Church. But it is just here that Christianity in some of its rarest quali- ties is revealed. There are men specially fitted for this work — better fitted than any Peter, John, or James could be. And the question of respon- sibility is just as great; and when the men of Administrative Type of Christianity 245 ^'affairs" in the Church come to feel that they are as responsible for the success of the Church as is the minister himself, a great need will have been met; and ''the institution will be equally vital at every point, and exquisitely adapted to the ends proposed by its creation." 2. New emphasis must be put upon the sanc- tification of secular life. More and more the con- viction fastens upon us that commerce between man and man — business in some form — is a Di- vine ordinance. We need not quote Scripture in support of this conclusion; it is implied in almost every chapter which bears on the prac- tical conduct of men. The merchant's work is just as providential as that of the clergyman; and his mission, if he rightly understand it, is just as important. "If the consecrating hands of the Holy Spirit," says one, ''are laid on the head of the preacher, and he is thus devoted to a special task, so are the same hands laid in equal consecration on the head of the young man who starts on a business career in life, and he is laid under solemn obligations to be useful in his sphere." That is a truth which can not be too keenly appreciated. The divorce of religion and busi- ness is the peril of the hour. The distinction which is so commonly made between secular and sacred is a deadly, anti-Christian delusion. There 246 Individuality is not a single passage in the New Testament which justifies it. We must avoid confounding "secular" with "sinful;" they are two essentially different ideas. "Sacred" and "sinful" are irrec- oncilably opposed — they war with each other to all eternity. But "sacred" and "secular" are not opposed — they can travel agreeably side by side. And that is God's intention — that you and I should learn the happy art of rightly adjusting their several claims, so that in the experience of each of us they may travel thus, side by side, in the journey of life. There is an apt illustration of this in the life of Dr. Arnold. Arnold was called to visit a dying man. He talked to him, and admonished him, and prayed with him, as became a faithful minister of Christ under the circumstances. His next engagement, immediately afterwards, was to go into the school, where the sixth-form boys were waiting for him to give them their Greek lesson. He felt the transition to be abrupt — the transition from the dying bed to the sixth form. Yet he reflected, that although of very different kinds, they zvcrc both duties; and that, to a mind perfectly in harmony with its duty, there w^ould be no difificulty. He states that he found relief in prayer, which, as he felt, harmonized the two. And there is much to be learned from his re- mark, obvious though it may appear, that they Administrative Type of Christianity 247 were both duties. One was secular, the other peculiarly sacred; yet, as duties, each formed part of a whole, which, rightly apprehended, must be in harmony with itself. Christian men's business is to be transformed and lifted from the plane of selfishness to the high plane of service. There is no necessity of making religion a side-show. It is a thing for use and service, for the store, the office, the counting-house, for land or sea, for every activity of business life. The knowledge of God's pres- ence in the store and the mart is the need of the hour; a religion that sanctifies the store and the office, as well as the church pew; a religion that runs into the business of Monday and Tuesday, making a man as careful about his credits and debits as he is on Sunday about his praises and prayers. A road surveyor, who was just finish- ing the leveling and paving of a long stretch of street, asked a bystander in an enthusiastic tone if he did not think it splendid. ''You see," he added, ''I am trying to put my Christianity into the streets I make." That is just it. Drive your engines, make your coats and boots and chairs for Christ. The ability to make money, and the adminis- tration of that gift for Christ's cause, is the Spir- it's call to the men of this group. We can not get along without money-making. The clergy 248 Individiialily are apt to talk about ''filthy lucre." But do not be led astray. Money is never filthy unless it makes the soul that seeks it filthy. Money, both inherited and accumulated, is a great talent or opportunity. If your life is one of getting, get- ting, getting, then there is but one safety-valve to such a life ; it is giving, giving, giving. Liber- ality is one of the Christian graces. What a flood of light that fact throws upon the v^hole subject of Church finances ! With the false ideas so many of us have of liberality, no w^onder that the Divine order of giving has been inverted, so that the ministers have to beg and beg the Church to give, instead of the ''Church praying us with much entreaty to receive their gift^ Failing to see that liberality is a grace, we have made it a duty, a burden. Hence all this clap- trap machinery for raising Church money ! We say clap-trap machinery! We do not speak un- advisedly; for the whole alphabet has been ex- hausted in our endeavors to provide Church en- tertainments to raise money. Just Hsten: "We have art socials and authors' socials, blackberry and broom brigade, and busy bee, cream, cake, calico and charade, Dorcas and donkey, ever- green and Easter, farewell and fan, garden and gift, harvest home and Halloween, ice-cream and instrumental, jug-breaking and jelly-mak- ing, knitting and keepsake, lawn and literary, Administrative Type of Christianity 249 May queen, Martha Washington and mission, necktie and New- Year, old folks' and old fash- ion, pink and pound, quarterly, reading and raspberry, spelling-bee and strawberry, tea- drinking, tableaux and Thanksgiving, union and variety, white Yuletide, young folks and Zenana socials. It is suggested that the alphabet be completed by a few ,t'tra jrcentric socials, if it be possible for any progressive Church to ar- range it." Nay, what the Church needs is not more ap- plied force to work her financial pumps, but more of the grace of liberality in the heart to work the machinery by a power from within. Starr King declares : "Men deny the doctrine of trust, and feel less the duty of service in respect of money than of all other things. And if Christ could return to the earth now and sit in judg- ment upon us, and show us the way of duty, the consecration of money would be the great thing, I believe, which he would strive to impress upon us ; and if he could call us all before him with our coins, — all the coins that we have spent in the years of our responsibility, — one of his most serious questions would be, as he inspected each of them, 'Whose image and superscription is this?' And as he saw them so generally stamped with the figures of Pleasure and Mammon, he would ask, in a tone that would search the secret 250 Individuality places of our souls, Where are those that have been rendered unto God by the good that they have done in the world?' " There are eyes that read upon a piece of gold nothing but the figures that tell its denomina- tion. And one of the greatest evils of the times is the miserliness of the wealthy. They are pre- paring for their children an awful retribution. There are others, thank God! that see upon money truths that thrill and gladden and uplift. And when we have learned to look through money into that infinite reach that lies beyond it, we will have learned the lesson of the gospel. 3. There is need of statesmanship. Christ had an important work for Simon Zelotes — the man trained in civics. The world needs just this type of Christianity — qualified and consecrated statesmanship. Dr. Joseph Parker puts it thus : *'If the Church is simply managed by mechanical regulations, by the starting of wheels, the turn- ing of taps, the management of congregational machinery, then an automaton may some day be invented that will conduct the whole process without intelligence or feeling. But if the Church of God is humanity in its best aspect, and humanity engaged in its most beneficent activities; if it is humanity intent upon bringing all races and grades of men into sympathy, and conducting them towards a worthy destiny, then Administrative Type of Christianity 251 is the Church a place for statesmanship, genius, and more than soldier-Uke discipline and au- thority." And, undoubtedly, that is the office of the Church. It is a Church of this character that the times demand. A man's religion consists in something else than in duty toward God, It must control the whole circle of his relationships, and make of him a better citizen, as well as a better man. Indeed, it can not do the one with- out doing the other; but there are few who are disposed to carry their religion into their poli- tics, in the same way that there are few who are disposed to carry their religion into their busi- ness. Necessarily they are more conscientious in both matters, but it is not because they believe that they should carry the atmosphere of worship and of consecration into either. But if the spirit of Christ's teaching were carried out, there would be more Christian men attend the pri- maries, and there would be less occasion to mourn that corrupt men are elected to office. If the command of Scripture is ''to obey magis- trates," then, in a land where the people elect their own magistrates, the spirit of the injunc- tion would demand that they elect magistrates whom they conscientiously can obey. "Ready to every good work" means, among other things, ready to every political duty, so that evil- 252 Individuality minded men may not have things all their own way. This is true, also, of the social problems of the day. There never was a time when so many minds were so busy with thoughts of a healthier and happier social state. But people seem to think that if they can only reconstruct the ma- chinery of society, it will run itself. They see that in the lower stages of social evolution, ma- chinery does a great deal. They see the State preserving itself by legislation; they see some evils checked, and some gain made by law. But the fact is, as Professor Peabody remarks, ''that at a certain point the movement of society becomes, not mechanical, but moral. It is not a question of controlling men, but of calling forth the best in men; and at that point the movement waits, not for new economic laws or social schemes, but for better souls, for higher impulses, for the revealing of the sons of men." It is easy enough to run away from the ten- dencies of our own times, and it is easier still to yield to the evil ; but to be in the world, yet not of it, putting a strong, clean hand upon busi- ness, or society, or politics, molding its material, yet not defiled by it, — that is the real problem of the present age. Wickedness which a man can prevent, and which he does not prevent, in- culpates him. We are not morally responsible Adfninistrative Type of Christianity 253 simply for the wickedness which we do, but for the wickedness which we can prevent as well. If you put the torch to your neighbor's house, you are guilty in one way; but if another puts the torch to that house, and you go by and see the flames, and say, *'It is not my business ; I did not kindle that fire ; and, besides, he is an enemy of mine," you are culpable in another. Men bring upon themselves the guilt, either in part or in whole, of whatever evil they can stop, and do not stop. No man has a right to call himself a Christian who, living among men, finds that the only thing he cares for is himself — that the only things that afifect his mind are moral con- siderations of his own purity and his own enjoy- ment. That spirit which says, "I will take care of my own self, and let other men take care of themselves," is of the devil. The Spirit of God is this, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." "Even when a new-born Church is forming Itself," says Dr. E. E. Hale, "while it is throw- ing down its roots and getting strength, every genuine man and woman in it, who is in earnest about it, ought to be asking, 'What can we do to bring God's rule to this town?' 'Whose fault was it, for instance, that those children died of cholera infantum last summer in Swett Street?' 'What could have been done to prevent that 254 Individuality drunken fight at the corner grocery?' 'Could we have done nothing to rescue that poor factory girl who committed suicide yesterday?' What could we do, what could this Church do, in such instances as this, where the devil seems to have succeeded, so that in his place the God of love might reign?" Well did Benjamin FrankUn say, "Whosoever introduces into pubHc affairs the principles of primitive Christianity, will change the face of the world/' XVII Cemptations of 9ltimtnisittattoti 253 If we come to that turnstile called " Temptation," may "we always be found upon that side of the bar which, as it swings, shall move us nearer to Thee! — Rev. He7iry Ostrom. 256 Cemptatfonjs of atimintjStration Ghabrias was wont to say that he was the best commander in war who best understood his enemies. The Savior commands us to "watch ;" and then gives the reason for watchfulness, "lest ye enter into temptation" — as though that would often decide the moral condition of a man; as though his safety required that he should not go into temptation, and should not lie exposed to temptation. One petition in the Lord's Prayer is, "Lead us not into temptation" — as though we should be safe if we were not led into it, and as though our safety would be doubtful if we were. No man knows, when he is led into temp- tation, whether he will come out safe. "A pru- dent man," we are told, "foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on and are punished." And that passage of Paul in Ephe- sians, "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and hav- ing done all, to stand," is to the same purport. Look out for danger, and prepare for it, and avoid it — that is the spirit of the injunction of the whole New Testament, as it was of the Old Tes- tament. The dangers arising from men's tem- peraments can not be met, on the whole, in any 17 257 258 Individuality other way so well as by a beforehand prepara- tion. Satan knows our besetments. Of all these he takes advantage. The peculiar besetments of men of administrative gifts are many ; we shall emphasize only the more prominent. I. Temptations of ofifice. Ofifice tests men. There is what may be called official haughtiness. A most singular thing it is that of!ice in many instances develops a new man, even in our most familiar friends. They no sooner become "dressed in a little brief authority," than they surprise us by unsuspected dispositions; they are haughty and self-considering. Christ ac- cused the rulers of men "of lording it" over them, and "exercising authority" over them. (Matthew xx, 25.) Then he added : "But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant ; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The ethical standard of Christ is determined, not by the ex- tent to which we "lord it over" other men, or "exercise authority" over them, but by the ex- tent that we "serve" other men, and live, not for personal or family aggrandizement, but for the public good. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes calls attention Temptations of Administration 259 to the fact that some years ago Mrs. Josephine Butler, at a great meeting in Exeter Hall, Lon- don, called attention to the disagreeable and ominous fact that those who carried on the po- litical business of the country were no longer called, as in the days of her youth, "the Min- istry," but had usurped the title of ''the Govern- ment." This is a very unfortunate change. ''The Ministry" is a much nobler name from the Christian standpoint. A tyrant or a scoundrel can "govern" for a time by the use of force, but only a true patriot and a good man can be a "minister," a servant of the people. Another prominent sin of office is a want of sincerity. The two great means which insincerity uses in order to deceive are simulation and dis- simulation : simulation is the seeming to be what we are not ; dissimulation, the seeming not to be what we are. Innumerable are the shapes which simulation puts on in order to deceive; and al- most as many are used by dissimulation for the same purpose. Dissimulation is the very groundwork of all worldly policy. Machiavelli laid down this for a master rule in his political scheme, That the show of religion was helpful to the politician, but the reality of it hurtful and pernicious. Talleyrand, whom the world ac- counted the greatest politician of his day, un- blushingly adopted the principle that "the use 26o Individuality of language is to disguise and conceal our thoughts;" and how often do the words and promises of politicians to-day show that they are made for the very purpose of evasion ! In- sincerity characterizes the conduct of the can- didate while seeking the suffrages of his country- men ; it breathes in the condescension of his per- sonal canvass, and dictates the topics of his pub- lic addresses. He gains his object by making professions which he knows are not sincere, and promises which he never means to fulfill. He advocates measures, not because they are good in themselves, but because they are likely to ad- vance his own interests or those of his party; conceals his real motives under a well-dissembled zeal for the public good ; and if he have not the effrontery of one who boldly defended lying in his parliamentary speeches as a rhetorical arti- fice, nevertheless tries to advance the meanest and most selfish purposes by loud and eloquent declarations of the noblest sentiments. But the man of sincerity will neither simulate nor dis- simulate. Sincerity in our civil and political re- lations will lead us to use with integrity the rights with which we are intrusted. Our patriot- ism must be a sincere love of our country, a sin- cere desire to perpetuate and increase the na- tional prosperity. Once more, those in authority are too apt to Tcfnpiatwns of Administration 261 forget or shelve their responsibilities. "While there are many in our Parliaments, and like governing bodies in Christendom," says Dr. S. H. Kellogg, "who cast their every vote with the fear of God before their eyes, yet, if there be any truth in the general opinion of men upon this subject, there are many in such places who, in their voting, have before their eyes the fear of party more than the fear of God ; and who, when a question comes before them, first of all consider, not what would the law of absolute righteousness, the law of God, require, but how will a vote, one way or the other, in this matter be likely to affect our party? Such certainly need to be emphatically reminded of that Divine law which holds the civil ruler specially responsible to God for the execution of his trust. For so it is still ; God has not abdicated his throne in favor of the people, nor will he waive his crown-rights out of defer- ence to the political necessities of a party." Nor is it only those who sin in this particular way who need the reminder of their personal re- sponsibility to God. All need it who either are or may be called to places of greater or less gov- ernmental responsibility; for in all times, those who have been lifted to positions of political power have been under peculiar temptation to forget God, and become reckless of their obli- gation to him as his ministers. The temptation 262 Individuality is strong to silence conscience with plausible sophistries, and to use their office to carry out in legislation, instead of the will of God, the will of the people. Yet the great principle affirmed in the Divine law stands, and will stand forever, and to it all will do well to take heed; namely, ''that God will hold the civil ruler responsible, and more heavily responsible than any private person, for any sin he may commit, and espe- cially for any violation of law in any matter com- mitted to his trust." And there is abundant rea- son for this. For the powers that be are or- dained of God, and in his providence are placed in authority; "not as the modern notion is, for the purpose of executing the will of the con- stitutents, whatever that will may be, but rather the unchangeable will of the Most Holy God, the Ruler of all nations, so far as revealed, con- cerning the civil and social relations of men." Official prominence, then, has its special dan- gers. But the loyal far outnumber the betrayers. Do not let us forget the faithful standard-bearers. 2. Mere prudential policy. When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with the precious spikenard, Judas Iscariot asked, ''Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" "There are men," says Joseph Parker, "who never take other than an arithmetical view of things. They account Temptah'o7is of Ad'}ninistration 263 themselves sharp if they can save a shilling from going in what they call the wrong way. They are 'prudent' men, 'safe' men, men of discretion and judgment, men gifted in mental arithmetic, who in a trice can give you the arithmetical value of a poem, or put Love into scales and tell you her exact substance in avoirdupois or troy weight. They are the keen economists of the Church ; they get near enough to Christ to ascer- tain the texture of his garments, and to calcu- late the value of his seamless vesture. You find such men in all Churches, and a superficial world calls them sharp, shrewd, and successful." There is great danger just here. There is great danger from what has been called the "commercial antichrist" — ''the sense in men's hearts that religion is a very good thing in its way, but that there are primary ends first to be reached; that there is, after all, a real power in the world, and that is the power of material pros- perity, which has to be attended to first." This worship of the commercial antichrist is eating the hearts and lives out of men. Judas could not understand that there are some offerings which can not be sold, but which "lose all their sacred- ness the moment you put them under the auc- tioneer's hammer;" that in this instance the ala- baster-box must be broken in the giving, and that there are offerings the value of which the 264 Individuality giver never counts. Its value in the market gave to the spikenard its only worth in the eyes of Judas. The manufacturer and retailer of it could be justified, for they made it only a means of gain ; but not Mary, who poured it out like water in the mere gratification of sentiment. Yet surely if the dignity of human existence is recog- nized, we may plead for a generous, while just, expenditure upon all that can sweeten and lend grace to Hfe. "To value only what can be *sold,' " says Sir John Herschel, "is to appreciate least what in nature and man is most glorious, and most capable of affording exquisite and perfect satis- faction. . . . The innocent joy of child- hood, the generous enthusiasm of youth, the strength of wisdom, the serenity of a holy trust in God — in what earthly market can these blessed things of the Spirit be bought or sold? With what coin can you purchase the tenderness of sympathy, the confidence of friendship, the de- votion of love? The things that can not be bartered, the price of which no merchant quotes, the value of which no figures can express, which no thief can steal, and no moth and rust corrupt, alone form the wealth of the soul." 3. Avarice. This was the sin of Judas. It was closely allied to the talent with which he was specially gifted. It is a general rule, that a man's Temptations of Administration 265 richest endowments and his besetting sins He in close proximity — the latter develop from the abuse of the former. Judas's sin also found nourishment in the self-interest with which he turned his gifts for financiering into money, and his office as manager of their common treasury afforded it only too easy nurture. The fearful lesson which the conduct of Judas teaches us is, the intimate relation which, in the nature of things, exists between appropriating to one's self the goods given to us in charge for Christ and his poor, and the betrayal of Christ himself, be- tween avarice and treason to Christ. The latter of these is the necessary consequence of the former; not the accidental, but the moral conse- quence; not in Judas only, but in every man. Betrayal of Christ, in some form or other, fol- lows the love of money as regularly and as cer- tainly as night follows day. We do well to mark the snares which attend the possession and fingering of money. The possession of money is evidently not in itself sinful and wicked. It is not the having, but the misusing money which is sinful. So long as a man feels and knows, "I am laboring for wealth as a means of doing good," he may labor with comparative safety; but the moment he has an ambition to be rich, he has passed the line of safety — he has crossed the equator into a "region 266 Iiidividiiahty where fierce tornadoes sweep over him, all un- bidden and unheralded." "They that will be rich" — not they that desire to be rich; not they that seek riches; but ''they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many fool- ish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in de- struction and perdition." The spirit of the Lord's teaching is not that it is wicked to seek wealth, but the men that make riches the chief end of life, that are willing to give everything, and to sacrifice everything for them — it is of such that the Word of God speaks ; they are in such peril, and are laid under such reprehension. And then comes that maxim that is now world- wide : "The love of money is the root of all evil : which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." It is not true that all evil springs from this cause ; but it is true that there is no evil to which, at one time or another, the love of money has not tempted men. How many snares surround the rich man! What risks does he run of violating the most sacred laws, of forgetting God, of indulging his sensual appetites, of despising the poor, of op- pressing the weak, of hardening his heart, of be- coming insensible to the misery of others ! Pros- perity is a very dangerous position. "It is not the man who has lost his property," says one, Temptations of Adrninistration 267 "who is most likely to forget God, but the man who has obtained a fortune, or made a most successful speculation, or had left to him a large property. It is not the empty cup that we have any difficulty in holding, but it requires the ut- most nicety to balance the cup that is full to the brim." When the love of money becomes in any man a dominant principle of action, the^'- is an end of all hope of his ever attaining the true excel- lence of an intelligent and moral being. In the very act of yielding himself to this principle, he becomes, in the sight of God, an idolater. The Bible discerns and disapproves of this evil spirit under its various manifestations — whether it ap- pears in the worldly woman, who delights in money as a means of display and dissipation ; or in the man, who values it as a stepping-stone for his ambition; or in the old miser, who loves it for its own sake. The idol may be pleasing or contemptible, but it is the same idol, and all these avaricious ones meet in this common point — they seek their life in their possessions. There are many sins, as was manifest among the other disciples, which are not incompatible with the practice of noble virtues, but avarice is not one of that class. Avarice in the soul will destroy every virtue, compassion, sympathy, and love; it will extinguish all spiritual light within a man ; 268 Individuality it is destructive to every power by which the higher truths may be discerned, and to all capac- ity for spiritual influence. Selfishness over- reaches itself. In grasping at the present, it loses the future; in thinking only of self, it loses all hold upon others; in caring only for the body, it loses the soul. In our Lord's warning against greed (Luke xii, 15-40), four arguments against it are put before us: First. It leads to a false conception of life. Life is not abundance of pos- sessions. Second. It forgets Divine Providence, and substitutes a human providence. Third. It prevents a true self-providence laying up treasure in heaven. Fourth. It practically denies steward- ship. But the Bible teaches that God's patent- right is stamped on everything. God gave it; we did not get it ; he continues it in our hands ; we do not keep it ; he will call us to account for it. "Take heed, and beware of covetousness." Covetousness is a deceptive sin. The same may be said, indeed, of all sins; but of this more specially, because it is a decent sin. Other sins alarm, because of their interference with the pas- sions and interests of our neighbors; and have, on that account, discredit and shame attached to them. But where is the disgrace of covetous- ness? How regular a man may be, how sober, how industrious, how moral, and yet be the slave of this vice! Spurgeon tells of a conver- Temptations of Administration 269 sation which he had with a person whom he be- lieved to be one of the most covetous individuals in his acquaintance. He asked him this ques- tion, "How was it that St. Francis de Sales, who was an eminent confessor, found that persons confessed to him, in private, all sorts of horrible sins, such as adultery, drunkenness, and mur- der, but never had one person confessed the sin of covetousness?" The man made him this an- swer, "I suppose it is because the sin is so ex- tremely rare." ''Blind soul!" exclaims Spur- geon; "I told him that, on the other hand, I feared the sin was so very common that people did not know when they were covetous, and that the man who was most covetous of all was the last person to suspect himself of it. I feel per- suaded that it is so. Covetousness breeds an insensibility of the heart, a mortification in the conscience, a blindness in the mind. It is as hard to convict a man of it as to make a deaf ear hear of its own deficiencies." O ! let us be- ware of nursing the very beginnings of this sin. Our Lord doubles his caution; not saying, "Take heed" alone, or "beware" only; but, "Take heed" and "beware," both. This argues that there is a strong inclination in our natures to this sin, the great danger we are in of falling into it, and of what fatal consequences it is to them in whom this sin reigns. XVIII pirtt-jTilleti 9ltitntnistratttje 271 The Holy Ghost from the day of Pentecost has occu- pied an entirely new position. The whole administration of the affairs of the Church of Christ has since that day devolved upon him. . . . That day was the installation of the Holy Spirit as the Administrator of the Church in all things, which office he is to exercise, according to cir- cumstances, at his discretion. It is as vested with such authority that he gives his name to this dispensation. —James Elder Cumming^ D. D. 272 ^pitiMiim aumini'sjtmtitje ability The assertion has been made that if, by some mistake, the second chapter of the Acts had been omitted, and the story of the apostles as we have it in the closing chapters of the Gospels had been immediately followed by the history of these same apostles as they stand transfigured with light in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters of the Acts, then any intelligent man would have said : "I do n't understand it ; something must have happened. There must have been the loss of some leaf from the old manuscripts. Some- thing must have happened which has wrought this wonderful transformation." How natural that conception ! The second chapter of the Acts is the explanation of all that follows ; with- out it there is no other explanation. As man after man comes to the front — apostle or deacon, evangelist or prophet — one after another is de- scribed as ''full of the Holy Ghost ;" and this is the secret of the wonders performed. The names of Lebbasus (also called Judas, the brother of James) and of Simon Zelotes never occur in the Acts after the day of Pentecost. Judas Is- cariot was dead. Hence nothing is told us of the results of the pentecostal blessing on the i8 273 274 Individimlity men of this fourth group. And yet that two of them — Lebbseus and Simon Zelotes — reaHzed the promise of the Father fulfilled in the upper room at Jerusalem, we can not question. They were Spirit-filled as well as Peter and John and James. The tongue of fire rested on each of them. And we do know the mind of the Spirit respecting men of administrative ability. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, of London, has been studying what he calls "The Social Gospel of Joel." He asserts that, beyond the great spiritual blessing which was realized on the day of Pentecost, Joel promised, with pro- phetic insight and foresight, a millennial period of social salvation or civic righteousness. Ill- informed Christians imagine that there is noth- ing beyond the "prophetic" blessing, and that the utmost we are entitled to expect in this world is a series of great spiritual revivals, accom- panied by numerous personal conversions. But, says Joel — as is unmistakably manifest, if you continue to read and ponder his words — that is not all. Pentecost is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end. The first result of Pentecost is the destruction of Jerusalem ; but the second result is the rebuilding and reconstruction of Jerusalem; and the final outcome of "the great and terrible day of Jehovah" is, that "Jerusalem shall be holy," and no invaders from the east or Spirit-fdlcd Administrative Ability 275 from the west shall pass through her streets any more. (Joeliii, 17.) This is the ultimate goal — a holy city; not merely holy individuals and groups of holy individuals, but a holy city. It is obvious that the complete program of Joel could not be carried out in the days of the apos- tles. This, doubtless, is the explanation why the special work of Simon Zelotes, as a Chris- tian politician and statesman, is not mentioned in the Acts. ''Christianity was at first, and for many generations," says the Rev. Mr. Hughes, "not sufficiently widespread and powerful to re- alize the Divine ideal. But the best and most devout Christians in all ages have been more or less conscious that the outpouring of the Spirit of God 'upon all flesh' should be followed, not only by individual conversions, strife, and perse- cution, but by the gradual reconstruction of a Christian society. Savonarola realized that in Florence, Calvin realized it in Geneva, John Knox realized it in Edinburgh, the best popes realized it in Rome. The fatal demand of the papacy for temporal power is a perversion and caricature of the program of Christianity. Not in Rome only, under the sovereignty of a bishop, but in every city and in every land, the social gospel of Joel must be realized. Because we Christians have failed to realize this, the major- ity of the men of every nominally Christian 276 Individuality country are outside the Christian Church to-day ; and the Socialistic movement, which is the great fact and the great peril of modern society, is so often fiercely antichristian. In our other- worldliness and exaggerated individualism we have forgotten that the ideal set forth by the prophet Joel, and by every other prophet of God, is not merely numerous individual conver- sions, but a 'holy city,' a righteous and Chris- tian society, where law, custom, and opinion are brought into beautiful harmony with the thoughts and purposes of God." The universally felt want of the times is the power of the Spirit for the regeneration of soci- ety. And possibly it is not too great a prophecy to say that the next widespread revival will be a sociological one. Already a new interest in social questions has sprung up. It has been well said: "The movements of social reform which characterize our times are not born altogether of social discontent. They have a deeper origin. They are at bottom spiritual movements, spring- ing from a desire for better things begotten in the heart of the race by the Holy Spirit." And nothing is so much needed to forward and direct these movements as Spirit-filled statesmen — men in the power of the Spirit banded together to seek no personal end, but to "seek the king- dom of God," and to realize the prophecy of spirit-filled Administrative Ability 277 Joel, that "jGi*usalem shall be holy." We have a profound conviction that, v^ere the Holy Spirit to-day outpoured in such a manner as to fill modern Christians as Simon Zelotes was once filled, there would be an instant discovery and disclosure of current civic evils that are now glossed over with popularity and respectability, and a new sense of awful peril that would multi- ply Spirit-filled reformers, working in the power of the Spirit for the bringing in the reign of social righteousness. ^'The Lord of the times," says F. R. Hasse, "is God; the turning point of the times is Christ ; the true Spirit of the times is the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit's active administration in the temporalities of the Church is also clearly seen in apostolic times. Had Judas proved faithful, and been one of those who on the day of Pente- cost were 'Tilled with the Holy Ghost," we can imagine the wonderful change that would have been wrought in his naturally avaricious nature. All selfish love of wealth ceased and passed away forever in the other apostles. Immediately after Pentecost the following description occurs of the conduct of the company of young disciples : ''All that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." (Acts ii, 44, 45.) Presently the 278 Individitality further record follows: "And the multitude of them that beUeved were of one heart and of one soul : neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all things common. . . . Neither was there any among them that lacked : for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man ac- cording as he had need." (Acts iv, 32, 34, 35.) Without compulsion and for the benefit of all, their goods and lands were sold, and the pro- ceeds thrown into a common fund. This state of things, of course, could only last for a short time, and ought not to have continued ; but it is adduced here to show that the love of Christ did cure most perfectly the love of wealth. And per- fect love, the power of the Holy Ghost on the heart, always has cured, and always will cure, inordinate love of the world. ''For whoso loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Renan regards these early communistic phases as showing a "surprising resemblance to certain Utopian experiments of modern times; but," he adds, "with the important difference that Christian communism rested on a religious basis, which is not the case with modern social- ism. It is evident that an association whose spirit-filled Administrative Ability 279 dividends were declared, not in proportion to the capital subscribed, but in proportion to in- dividual needs, must rest only upon a sentiment of exalted abnegation and an ardent faith in a religious idea." Such a confession from such a source is an invaluable acknowledgment of the transcendent power of the Holy Spirit to inspire men with lofty and self-sacrificing sympathy with the woes and wants of mankind. Furthermore, we know what kind of men were afterwards chosen to do the work that nat- urally fell to Judas. He was dead ; the temporal part of the work needed other men of adminis- trative qualifications. The sixth chapter of the Acts introduces the appointment of such men; and we are taught that the central qualification is that they be men ''full of the Holy Ghost." The record is: ''Wherefore, brethren, look ye out from among you seven men of honest re- port, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business?" (Acts vi, 3.) The "business" of these men was to look after temporal affairs; and yet even for this business they must be "full of the Holy Ghost." They must be "honest." Judas once "kept the bag;" but he was a thief. It is therefore of great con- sequence that men of strict integrity be put into this office. They must also have "wisdom ;" they must be men of business common sense and 28o Individuality quality. That a man is honest and pious is not enough. These seven were chosen, doubtless, because they were naturally qualified ; they were better able to serve tables than the apostles; all have not the same gifts. But with all these natural qualifications for the management of temporal concerns, they must be ''full of the Holy Ghost." It must not be supposed that mere business men can manage the Church's temporal affairs. They have a sacred bearing; they must be conducted on holy principles, and be directed to holy ends. Hence, as Dr. Pierson says in his ''Acts of the Holy Spirit:" "The Spirit of God does not surrender his headship in the Church in intrusting to hu- man hands any department of its affairs. Not only so, but all those so intrusted must be ca- pable of co-operation with him; and therefore they who in his name are to administer affairs must themselves be filled with the Spirit, so that in their ministry may be seen the ministry of the Spirit himself. Even an office that deals with temporalities and distributions of money and food, must be filled by Holy Ghost men. 'Secu- lar men' have absolutely no place in the admin- istration of the affairs of the Church of Christ, all of which are 'sacred' to the Holy Spirit." The judicious management of money requires the special aid of the Holy Spirit. It is popu- Spirit-fdled Administrative Ability 281 larly imagined that if a man is "full of the Holy Ghost," he can not attend to temporal affairs. Never was there a greater mistake. Look at Stephen. He is chosen to ''serve tables;" and yet he is called "a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." There are no merely secular duties in the Church. Church matters are not merely matters of political system. There is nothing done in Christ's Church — whether ''the opening of a door, the lighting of a lamp, or the preaching of the everlasting gospel" — that is not to be done under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. "A door may be so opened," says Dr. Joseph Parker, "as to affront the Spirit of God; a visitor may be so shown to a seat as to mani- fest a truly Christian Spirit on the part of the indicator. There is no part of our work in any section that is not holy unto the Lord." The business of the Church in all its depart- ments is thus under the management of the Holy Ghost. And when thus managed, not only is it well managed, but "the Word of God is in- creased." It was so in the case of the seven dea- cons. Men were chosen to serve tables — to do common things ; but they were found doing un- common things — working signs and wonders among the people. The first man elected was Stephen, of whom it is expressly said that he was a man "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost;" 282 Individuality and Philip was the second. "About these two men," as Dr. Pierson says, ''how much of the glorious history of this book revolves ! Stephen was the first martyr of the apostolic Church, and Philip the first of its lay evangelists. Those two men, originally set apart for a purely temporal office, have probably influenced the spiritual Hfe and history of the Church of Christ more than any other two men of the apostolic age, if we except Paul and Peter, James and John, Barna- bas and Apollos. To Stephen's martyrdom we must probably trace the first impressions made upon Saul of Tarsus. Before he met Jesus in the way and saw his glorified face, he had already seen its glory reflected in the shining face of that angelic martyr. And Philip, though a mere 'lay- man,' was the instrument chosen of the Holy Ghost to confer pentecostal blessing on Samaria, and, through the eunuch, introduce the gospel into Ethiopia ; while in his own person he carried the gospel even to Cesarea, and prepared the way for Peter to unlock the kingdom to the Romans!" In making provision to have Holy Ghost men caring for poor widows, how little did the Church foresee the resistless wisdom and spirit with which Stephen and Philip were to administer the Word! "The disciples chose Holy Ghost deacons, and got Holy Ghost mar- tyrs and evangelists ; they selected men to serve spirit-filled Administrative Ability 283 tables, and one of them bore a face that shone as the face of an angel, and amid a shower of stones he fell asleep, like his Master, with a prayer for his murderers on his lips." This is the strength which the Church needs to-day. All the machinery for the conversion of the world is in its hands; but it needs "the living Spirit in the wheels." It is said of Thomas Aquinas, the angelical doctor, that coming one day into a room where some monks were count- ing heaps of gold-pieces, they said to him : "The time is no more when the Church has to say, 'Silver and gold have I none.' " To which he answered, "Yes; and neither can it say, 'In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk !' " The loss or the absence of spiritual power can never be compensated by any amount of money or any evidences of external prosperity. XIX i I Be jTiUeti \utt|) tJje Spirit It is a great mistake into which some have fallen to suppose that the results of Pentecost were chiefly miracu- lous and temporary. The effect of such a view is to keep spiritual influences out of sight; and it will be well ever to hold fast the assurance that a wide, deep, and perpetual spiritual blessing in the Church is that which above all things else was secured by the descent of the Spirit after Christ was glorified. —J. Elder Cumming, D. D. **OBe fiUetJ lojitl^ tl^e ^pivit" Augustine calls the day of Pentecost the ''Dies Natalis''— "the birthday" of the Holy Ghost; and for the same reason that Christmas is called ''the birthday" of Jesus Christ. Then Jesus came into the world in his official capac- ity; so on the day of Pentecost the Holy Ghost came into the world in his official capacity. "He dwelleth with you and shall be in you'' said Jesus, speaking anticipatively of the coming of the Comforter ; and he is spoken of, after the day of Pentecost, as being in the Church. Dr. A. J. Gordon calls it "Incarnated in the Church." "As the leather revealed himself through the Son, so the Son by the Holy Spirit now reveals himself through the Church; as Christ was the image of the invisible God, so the Church is ap- pointed to be the image of the invisible Christ." The Holy Ghost, as a Divine Person, is now dwelling in the Church, and is to be honored, invoked, obeyed, and implicitly trusted. The coming of the Holy Ghost took place once for all on the day of Pentecost; and yet it remains for every believer to appropriate the gift. When about to pass back to the glory of God, and to be hidden from men's eyes for a little 287 288 Individuality while, we hear from Christ's Hps the blessed truth that ''ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me;" and "in ten days from that time," it has been truly said, "a third great series of manifestations commences. No longer do men see the form of the Son of God, but the power of the Holy Ghost in the sons of God. Jehovah-Elohim had appeared unto man; Je- hovah-Jesus had appeared for man ; and now, in the Church and in the fullness of his power, the Jehovah-Spirit appeared in man." The teach- ing and power of Divine truth culminate in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Read from the twenty- second verse of the second chapter of the Acts. With ''masterly speed," Peter "lifts tier above tier the stately fabric" of the new doctrine : the manifestation of God in the flesh, the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation at the right hand of God ; but he crowns the whole by declaring, "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." And the Book of Acts is replete with the records of per- sons who were "filled with the Holy Ghost." The experience was repeated to the Church in each new crisis ; and almost every great conquest recorded in the Acts is introduced by the words, "And being filled with the Holy Ghost." Be Filled ivith the Spirit Furthermore, the gift of Spirit-power is not less for all Christians to-day than at Pentecost. There was an open heaven then ; is there not an open heaven now? Pentecost was once for all; but equally the appropriation of the Spirit by believers is always for all. Nay, further, it is God's command: *'Be filled with the Spirit." Jesus Christ is the one supreme need of the Church. He is the Gospel. But he can not, he wall not, reveal himself. The ofBce of the Holy Ghost is to communicate Christ to us — Christ in all his entireness. "When he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." (John xvi, 13, 14.) Moreover, the fullness of the Spirit is the source of every other mode of fullness for which the believer hungers. One says, "I want the fullness of love, or the fullness of assurance, or the fullness of joy, or some other form of spirit- ual fullness." Let him receive the fullness of the Spirit, and in him there will come every mode of fullness which he can impart. Filled with zeal, with faith and love ; filled with meekness, gentle- ness, patience; filled with power. All this is gathered up in one word — "Be filled with the 19 »90 Indiv/dita/tVv Spirit." Zacharias, Paul. Barnabas, Stephen, and hundreds of the early disciples, were "full of the Holy Ghost," and this is the preparation "for every good work." If this Pentecostal blessing is essential to a full-orbed and Scriptural Christian life, how can it be obtained? What are the conditions upon which it may become ours? The supernatural has its laws as well as the natural. Christ does not give the Spirit to an unprepared soul. He could fwty and therefore it is of supreme conse- quence to ask the question, "What is needed if I am to be filled ^rith the Spirit?" Let us try and find a satisfactory answer to this question. I. We must come to see and believe that the Spirit-iillcd life is a f'ossibility. Andrew Alurray, in his "Spiritual Life," says: "A great many peo- ple will say in a creed that they believe in the Holy Ghost. They have no doubt about the existence of the Holy Ghost, and that he is the Third Person of the Blessed Godhead. They are orthodox on all these points : but it is an in- tellectual belief. They practically do not be- lieve in what the Holy Ghost can do in a believer ever}- day of his life. A man must be brought to see that there is a spiritual life within his reach; that there is a spiritual life which it is his duty to live; that there is a spiritual life he is in need of and may claim. There is a life in the Spirit, Be Filled with the Spirit 291 . . . (^joA commands me to be spiritual, and, by the grace of God, just as certainly as Christ's blood flowed for my sins, so Christ's Spirit can lead me down into the place of absolute helpless- ness, where he will live in me in his Divine power, and renew my whole nature into spirit- ual." If a Christian has never been filled with the Holy Ghost, he should recognize and admit it. It is utterly useless to attempt to help those who think they are spiritually '"rich," and in- creased with goods, and have need of nothing. 2. W'e must consent to make room for the Holy Spirit. We do that when we consent that everything inimical to his presence shall go out of our hearts. If we are living in known dis- obedience, all our prayers to be filled with the Spirit will be in vain. Fasting and prayers will be to no purpose. The great difificulty is not that Christians do not ask. In almost every prayer we hear believers pleading to be filled w^ith the Holy Ghost. The real difficulty is that sin hinders. It may be some known neglect of duty which God has laid upon our conscience, or the permission of some secret sin, or even cherishing an unforgiving spirit or a selfish am- bition. But if we desire to be filled with the Holy Ghost, there must be a cheerful and whole- hearted self-yielding to him. "All his power is at the disposal of every believer who is first at 292 htdividuality his disposal." This self-yielding involves three things : the surrendered will; the yielded body; the emptied heart. Everything that grieves the Spirit must be put away. He must have right of way. ''We must be emptied of self," is a com- mon form of stating it. "I believe firmly," says Mr. Moody, ''that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride, and selfishness, and ambition, and self-seeking, and everything contrary to God's law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if we are full of pride, and conceit, and ambition, and self-seeking, and pleasure, and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God ; and I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him, when he is full already with something else. Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray him to empty us." And is not this the key to the situation f This negative aspect of the Spirit's infilling is the crucial point. But let no man imagine that he can succeed in emptying his own heart of "pride, selfishness, and everything contrary to God's law." David B. Updegraff, in his book called "Old Corn," quotes from a noted public speaker of our day, who gave this advice: "Brother, you will never be worth anything until you get your- self down, and get your feet squarely down on Be Filled zvitJi the Spirit 293 yourself, and say, 'You lie there; if you dare get up, I will mash you right in the mouth.' " "Now/' says Mr. Updegraff, ''that is good, and I wish him joy in his victory, but give due notice that that old self, composed as he is of many members, — pride, ambition, anger, envy, deceit, covetousness, and lusts of all sorts, — will never take it into his head to die in that position. Nor will he ever vacate and give peaceable posses- sion. Not only so, he will stand an infinite amount of 'mouth smashing,' and yet enjoy vig- orous health, and those feet must never be re- moved for an instant, or other scenes of wrest- ling must ensue." O, what a mistake we make right here ! God never delegated power to the human will to smash or choke sin. We put will-power where Divine power ought to go. If our hearts are really to be emptied of "everything that is con- trary to God's law," he is the One that is to do it. These evil spirits are stronger than we. They do not go out at our bidding, as many of us have learned by sad experience. Who of us has not said to anger, jealousy, hatred, or other wrong temper or feelings, "Begone !" Yet they have staid. But, as Dr. Keen, in his "Pente- costal Papers," has pointed out, while we can not expel these things, we can consent that they shall go; and then the Holy Spirit, who is the 294 Individuality Strong Man that is stronger than they or we, can, by his incoming, drive them from the tem- ple of the soul, and leave it flooded with the glory of his presence, a habitation of God through the Spirit. "The filling of the Spirit gets uncleanness out of the heart, just as nature gets darkness out of night. The sun rises, and the darkness flees; so the coming of the Holy Ghost is with healing in his wings, and brings the day whose sun is to go no more down in the soul. The filling with the Spirit is the source and coincident of the cleansing of the Spirit. He cleanses by the filling of the Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Ghost simultaneously fills and cleanses the soul. Let us just now consent that all sin in us shall depart, and the Holy Spirit will see that there is an immediate exodus of all evil. He will come in, if we consent to make room for him." And, then, when we are emptied of self, we shall be ready for a definite consecration. Everything for God! "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his." The purchaser has the right of control over the purchase; and he demands its exercise to the full. The whole question of consecration becomes a mere matter of honesty. Theodore Monod once illustrated this most practically : A Be Filled with the Spirit 295 man is passing out of a hall, and sees some one in front of him drop a piece of paper. He picks it up, and discovers that it is a five-pound note. He hesitates a moment as to how he shall deal v^ith it, and then says: '1 will give that man who dropped it one pound, and I will keep four." But, of course, his conscience interposes, and tells him that that will not do. ''Well," he re- sumes in thought, ''I will give him four, and only keep one pound." Conscience objects again, and insists on more than this. At last, with a sigh, the finder says: "Then I will do a grand thing; I will consecrate the whole five pounds to the man who lost it." But who will say that even that was a very grand thing after all? Was it not a mere matter of honesty to give the man what was his own? And just so the matter of personal consecration is reduced to the simple element of honesty. You find yourself to be the ransomed and purchased pos- session of the Savior ; what now will you do with this treasure? Be honest, and you can only do one thing: give the possession to him who pur- chased it, and treat it henceforth as his, not yours. Are we ready for the Spirit's power? There are three words used by Dr. Pierson to express another thought, but which we appropriate to cover the answer to that question. They are 296 Individiialiiy the Vv'ords ''reference," ''deference," and "pref- erence." That is to say, when there are the sur- rendered will, the yielded body, and the emptied heart, there will be a soul that lives with supreme reference to God, with supreme deference to the will of God, and with supreme preference for the approbation of God. Andrew Murray says : "We want to get possession of the power, and use it ; God wants the power to get possession of us, and use us. If we will give ourselves to the power to rule in us, the power will give itself to us to rule through us." We are waiting to be filled with power. Perhaps we had better wait to be emptied. 3. There must be the asking for the Spirit's fullness. The Holy Ghost is only promised to those who ask. It was the supplicating Church that was filled with the Spirit on the day of Pen- tecost. They had "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." A second time, "when they had prayed, the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." Christ himself received the Spirit while in inter- cession with the Father. "Jesus also having been baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him." Even Jesus asked for the gift. And he said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children ; how Be Filled with the Spirit 297 much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Who can measure what is suggested by that "how much more?" What a silent reference to an incon- ceivable depth of love and pity in the heart of God ! It is as if Christ had said to those whom he addressed, You can not understand the dif- ference — words can not explain the difference — here is the kind of thing, in yourselves; but in God, "how much more!" The Holy Ghost is the "gift" of the Father and of the Son. This "gift" is free ; it is to be had for the asking. We never deserve it. We can never grow into it. It is not the result of the evolution even of the Christian life. It is, therefore, entirely inde- pendent of human merit in any shape or form. It is a "gift ;" but it is a gift bestowed only upon those who "ask" for it. There must be a definite asking; there must be an urgent asking; there must be an expectant asking. The waiting time of the apostles has been called "Expectation Week." As then, so now, there must be expec- tation. And seeing that God is waiting to im- part the Holy Spirit to them that ask, the time of waiting need not be long. The idea of man waiting upon God must not overshadow the equally important idea of God waiting upon man. It is true that the disciples waited ten days upon God at Pentecost, but it is equally true 298 Individuality that God waited ten days upon them. The prep- aration required was in them, not in him. They did not wait until God was ready; God waited until they were ready. The attitude of God towards his people is still unchanged. "The Lord waits, that he may be gracious." 4. We are to claim the fullness of the Spirit by iaith. Believers are to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite act of appropriating faith, just as they received Jesus Christ. Twice in the Epistle to the Galatians is this empha- sized: "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" (iii, 2.) "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith," (iii, 14.) Dr. Gordon says, "These texts seem to imply that just as there is a 'faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ' for sal- vation, there is a faith toward the Holy Ghost for power and consecration." In other words, just as we received by faith the gift of righteous- ness from the hands of the dying Christ, so now we must take by faith from the hands of the risen and enthroned Christ the filling of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, standing in the midst of his dis- ciples, said: ''Receive ye the Holy Ghost." "Be filled with the Spirit," saith the Holy Ghost. Note that the command is in the passive voice, "Be filled ;" that is, "Let yourself be filled." The fullness is pressing upon you ; only let it in ! We Be Filled with the Spirit 299 must consent to be filled. We must be "willing;" ready to receive the "filling." This is not merely to ask, but to accept. The act of faith is in the receiving. God says, ''Be filled" — accept this blessing. It is his to fill. It is yours to believe, to receive. It is yours to keep believing. It is God's to keep you filled. But some will ask: What is this fullness of the Spirit? What is the experience? How may Christians know whether or not they are filled with the Spirit? These are important ques- tions, and call for an answer. And once for all let it be said, The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not make the believer a miracle-worker or a supernatural prodigy. It does two things in his experience : Enthrones Christ within ; em- powers him for service. I. The Holy Spirit enthrones Christ within. The Holy Spirit comes, revealing not himself, but Christ. He comes, in a word, as "the Spirit of Jesus." "He will not speak of himself," said Christ when he promised the Comforter, but "He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." The work of the Spirit is to make Jesus vividly real to us. Pente- cost opened the eyes of the apostles ; they knew their Lord then as they had not known him in the flesh; he was a hundred-fold more to them from that hour than when he walked with them 300 Individuality on earth. And when we find a Christian who has received the Holy Ghost, what is it that strikes and dehghts us in him? It is the intense and intimate reaHty of Christ in his experience. Christ is evidently to him the dearest person in the universe. He talks to Christ. He dreads to offend Christ. He delights to please Christ. His whole life is light and elastic with this buoy- ant desire of doing everything for Jesus, as Jesus would wish it done. Duty has simply been transfigured by an enthroned Christ. Spurgeon was a man "full of the Holy Ghost." He once said that if for any consecutive fifteen minutes he found himself without a consciousness of Christ's presence, he immediately asked the Holy Spirit to make him conscious of his Sa- vior's nearness. O the sweetness and precious- ness of the thoughts of Christ with which the Holy Spirit continually fills the Spirit-filled soul ! The manifestation of Christ to the soul of the believer, antecedent to the anointing with the Holy Ghost, is largely a sense of Christ in what he does; but subsequent to this anointing, it is a sense of Christ in what he is. He is immedi- ately known and felt as a presence within. This is what Paul knew when he says, "God was pleased to reveal in me his Son." Amanda Smith says when this revelation of Jesus Christ came to her soul she was satisfied. It was Be Filled wilh the Spirit 301 enough. Her craving for blessing left her. She had seen him — she had him. 2. The Holy Spirit empowers for service. He not only gives us more of Christ, but Christ more of us. In the first chapter of John's Gospel we read, ''As many as received him" (that is, Christ), ''to them gave he poiver to become the sons of God." There is sonship. In the first chapter of the Acts we read: "But ye shall re- ceive pozvcr after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me." There is service. Christ for salvation ; the Holy Spirit for service. The great end for which the enduement of the Spirit is bestowed is our quali- fication for the highest and most effective service in the Church. Other eiTects will certainly at- tend the blessing; but these results will be con- ducive to the greatest and supreme end, our con- secrated usefulness. In the case of our Lord Jesus Christ there is a distinct recognition of this enduement as con- stituting his preparation for his work. After the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon him at the Jordan, we read that he "returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." Again, in the Acts, we hear Peter declaring "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth imth the Holy Ghost and zvith pozver, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." 302 Individuality And it is a significant fact that Jesus, having given to his disciples their great commission, should link with it the injunction, ''Receive ye the Holy Ghost." It teaches us that ''the pente- costal bestowment is an indispensable accom- paniment of the believer in the accomplishment of his mission." If Jesus needed this enduement of power in order to do his work, how much more do we need it in order to execute the mis- sion he has laid upon us ! We are to receive the Holy Spirit, not merely to comfort us, though he does that; not merely to teach us, though he does that ; not merely to strengthen us in temp- tation, though he does that, — but to be all that he was in Jesus Christ. When Jesus first opened his mouth in the synagogue and before the peo- ple, after coming from the wilderness, he said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken- hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac- ceptable year of the Lord." (Luke iv, i8, 19.) He received the Holy Spirit for the purpose of being of use to other people. That is the mission of the Holy Spirit in every believer. Jesus was sent to save the world ; so is Be Filled with the Spirit 303 the believer sent to do the same thing. And because sent to this high calling, the Holy Ghost is promised to each, in order that he may serve a good service, and execute the commission he is under. The Holy Ghost is here. Wonderful fact ! Believe it ; act upon it. Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01210 9031