BT380 .G48 1915 Gesner, Herbert M. The life worth living trp/e y THE LIFE WORTH LIVING The Life Worth Living OR THE RELIGION OF CHRIST A Systematic and Popular Exposition of the Greatest Religious Document the World has ever seen, Commonly Known as the Ser¬ mon on the Moufit By v/ HERBERT MORTIMER GESNER Formerly Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlantic City , N.f. BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGEiR TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED Copyright, 1915, by Herbert M. Gesner All Rights Reserved The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. PREFACE This book, born in fear and trembling and brought forth with much travail of spirit, is now sent out into the world. My one aim and one de¬ sire has been to know the “ Mind of the Master ” and to exhibit the Religion of Jesus as he taught it. “ As much as in me lieth ” I have sought to free myself from all theological bias and all trend of training, that I might see “ Jesus only ” and that I might hear the teachings which he taught. While in this book it is “ I who speak and not the Lord,” yet I say humbly, though confidently, that “ I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” My chief hope is, that those into whose hands this book may come, and those who may peruse its pages, seeking for an answer to that question which confronts every thoughtful, serious man, “ What is the life worth living? ” and desiring to know what was the “ Religion that Jesus Taught ” may find in this exposition of his own words some¬ thing that shall help them in their quest. May he who reads experience the joy and com¬ fort of spirit, which he who wrote received, at 3 4 PREFACE every moment, from the first contemplation of the plan to its present imperfect completion. While I, like every man, am greatly indebted to helps many and to teachers many, whose names cannot be here expressly acknowledged, I wish to recognize my particular indebtedness to the Rev. Henry W. Maier of New Britain, Conn., who has colabored with me, in forming the general out¬ line of most of the chapters of this book, and to whom I am largely obligated for many valuable suggestions. FOREWORD How well the artist understands the value of the view-point! None better than he knows its importance in the painting and interpreting of pictures. If he can lead the observer to that place, point or motive, from which he looks out upon that subject he seeks to portray, he has done much to quicken the sympathy, assist the under¬ standing, and aid the mind to the right use of the picture. This value of the view-point has suggested to me, that a brief word, explanatory of how I was led to the study of the subject myself, and intro¬ ductory to the chapters which follow, may be of practical use to the reader. If I can get you clearly to understand the mo¬ tive, the purpose, the quest, which spurred and inspired me in my study of this subject, I shall, in thought, have brought you to my view-point, and thus will you be enabled better to sympathize with, appreciate, and understand what I have at¬ tempted to accomplish in these pages. While it is often difficult to state the origin of an idea, I believe I can safely say that two in¬ fluences cooperated to give birth to this book. 5 6 FOREWORD The first was those passages in the Gospel biog¬ raphies of our Lord, which speak of his preach¬ ing, and of his teaching the disciples and the peo¬ ple, where no mention whatever is made of what he said. These passages are not a few. Among the many recorded, we read such as the following: “ And he was preaching in the syna¬ gogues of Galilee,” “ And he sat down and taught the multitudes out of a boat,” “ And he spake to them of the kingdom of God,” “ And he was teaching daily in the temple ”; and concerning his disciples, it is recorded: “ And he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” The question arose in my mind, What did he preach? What did he teach? What was his sys¬ tem, if he had any? For a long time these queries had lain latent in my mind, until, in my course of reading, this quotation from Lessing, “ The Christian Religion has been tried for eighteen centuries and the Re¬ ligion of Christ remains to be tried,” again brought the question squarely before my view, and again I asked, Where is the Religion of Christ found? Where any clear setting forth of what he was wont to preach, of what he taught his disciples to teach? Where in best and brief¬ est form is his exhibition of those principles of the Kingdom of God and of heaven, which he FOREWORD 7 would have promulgated and prevail upon the earth? and that question I sought to answer. It was plain to me that the religious system of Christ was not given in the miracles, nor in the parables, nor in the incidents of his interesting life; these are merely illustrations and expres¬ sions of principles and beliefs already established and are themselves without coordination or sys¬ tematic relation. Then the thought came to me that there was one place and only one in the Gos¬ pel record, where a complete sermon, an entire discourse, a systematic and related body of teach¬ ing was given; to wit, in the Sermon on the Mount. The more I studied the matter the more I be¬ came convinced that this was the truth, that the Sermon on the Mount is the heart and soul of the Gospel, is the Gospel, and that miracle, par¬ able and occasional saying, in short, the life, are but expressive and illustrative of what is taught in that greatest, briefest system of religion the world has ever known. I dare not be so bold as to say that all that Jesus taught concerning the Kingdom of God is contained in this great sermon, but all that he taught is hinted at, suggested in principle, fore¬ shadowed in these marvelous words, even as every commandment and every law of God is contained in the great law of Love. With little doubt this 8 FOREWORD Mountain Sermon is the fruit of those long years of patient waiting, keen observation, divine medi¬ tation, and heavenly communion, before our Lord entered upon his public ministry. This, we believe, will be the final conclusion of the deep and thoughtful student of this remark¬ able discourse. It is characterized by those elements of excel¬ lence which a sensitive and appreciative student will recognize and must admire in written or spoken discourse, and which come only as the re¬ sult of years of painstaking labor. There is in this sermon that sweet simplicity, that lucidity, plainness, and beauty of utterance which bespeak care. The one who will follow this discourse faith¬ fully will discover that Christ here gives an ar¬ ticulated body of principles and not merely dis¬ jecta membra of precept and saying. This is a body of truth, a system of thought, a coordinated setting forth of the true religion; part is related to part, teaching to teaching, with logical coher¬ ence and rational sequence; and the whole bears to the one end — the Kingdom of God. But, above all, the reader is impressed with its practical character. It deals with life — every theme is a theme of life; and every principle is applicable to man as long as man is man. FOREWORD 9 In short, I believe in this marvelous teaching he who seeks will find the desideratum of the heart, mind and spirit of every man — a sound Philosophy for life, a spiritual Ethic and a prac¬ tical Religion. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Character Worth Having . . 15 II Live a Useful Life.33 III Live a Progressive Life .... 48 IVi Live a Peaceable Life.67 V Live a Pure Life.82 VI Live a Truthful Life.97 VII Live a Large Life.113 VIII Live the Perfect Life.129 IX Live the Charitable Life . . . .145 X Live the Prayerful Life . . . .161 XI Live the Self-Denying Life . . .178 XII Live Free from the Bondage of Gold . 196 XIII Live Free from the Bondage of Dou- ble-Mindedness.213 XIV Live Free from the Bondage of Worldly Care ..227 XV Live Free from the Bondage of Cen¬ soriousness .245 XVI Live for the Best Within You . . 262 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVII Live Through the Power that is Without You.279 XVIII Live for the Best Within Others . 293 XIX Life’s Golden Invitation .... 308 XX Life’s Needed Word of Warning and Wisdom. 325 XXI Life’s Relation to the Christ and His Religion.. . 344 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING The Life Worth Living CHAPTER I THE CHARACTER WORTH HAVING Matt, v, i—12 HAT part of the Gospel, containing the JL address which Jesus delivered in the Mount, before the multitudes and his disciples, and re¬ corded in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew, has commonly been called the “ Ser¬ mon on the Mount.” While this title has the ad¬ vantage of being convenient, attractive and fa¬ miliar, it is by no means adequate, as a definition or classification of that remarkable discourse. Says Austin Phelps , 1 “ The generic idea of a ser¬ mon is that of an oral address to the popular mind on religious truth contained in the Scriptures, and elaborately treated with a view to persuasion.” Now while this discourse of Christ may be made to tally with this definition almost in detail, and we have our suspicion that the definition was made from a study of this very passage, yet this is the 1 “ The Theory of Preaching.” A Phelps, p. 28. 15 16 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING definition of a scholar, the product of an analytic mind, and by no means tallies with the popular idea of a sermon. The popular conception of a sermon, we appre¬ hend, is more nearly contained in the definition which the Standard Dictionary gives. “ A dis¬ course by a clergyman upon some religious topic based on a passage or text of the Bible, and de¬ livered as part of a church service.” We believe that this expresses the average idea of a sermon, and it is a term far too small to comprehend the bounds of this exhaustive discourse. I know, for myself, that the conception of this product of the Divine Teacher, as a sermon, has limited its idea in my mind, and has lessened its place and pur¬ pose, in the Gospel record. And this is the very result we would seek to avoid. Viewed from the standpoint of God’s government of a world of moral and spiritual beings, it should more prop¬ erly be denominated the setting forth of the Con¬ stitution and Statutes of that moral and spiritual system which Jesus so often referred to as “ The Kingdom of God ” or “ the Kingdom of Heaven.” Viewed from the standpoint of man as a religious being, dependent upon and guided by a revelation of the Divine, it is an analytic and systematic set¬ ting forth of the Gospel which Jesus preached, a related exhibition of the Religion of Christ. It CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 17 contains the foundation stones upon which the life shall be built, the mountain principles to which the spirit of man shall aspire! It is the center and soul of the Mind of the Master — it is the creed of the Christ; to it all preaching of prophets of the earlier time, all the laws of the Jewish na¬ tion, all the experiences of Israel’s history, con¬ verge; and from it radiate all incidents and events written in the Gospel story, all epistles, preaching and Acts of the apostles. Therefore it seems to me that we must have an absolutely larger con¬ ception, of this “ Great Discourse ” of the Christ in our minds, that it may assume its proper place in our system of thinking, and have its proper in¬ fluence in our way of life. And we believe that a proper study of its content and meaning must result in a larger conception of the discourse it¬ self. When Jesus declared himself as a prophet and teacher sent from God, when he came upon the heels of John’s proclamation, “ behold the king¬ dom of heaven is at hand,” and declared himself to be the exponent and head of this kingdom, men asked questions as they are asking them to-day. He came as a Teacher of religious truth, and men asked, Wherein does the authority of this teacher differ from others, and wherein is his teaching parallel to or diverse from theirs? 18 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING The answers to these questions are given to those who will diligently study even as much of his teaching as is contained in this discourse. He came as a Leader of the lives of men, and asked that those who heard him, follow in his way of life, and men naturally ask, What does he require of those who follow him, and what does he promise and offer in return for such follow¬ ing? The answers to these questions are found in that Way of Life, with its obligations and re¬ wards, as set forth in this discourse. He came as the Lawgiver, the Enunciator of new spiritual principles of living, the Founder of a new kingdom, and men asked, What are the laws and principles of this new kingdom, and how is one to become a citizen of this new realm? These questions likewise receive their answers in his present discourse, and answering the last ques¬ tion first he at once turns the thoughts of his hear¬ ers to the subject of the Citizens of the kingdom of Heaven, and sets before them the Character Worth Having. It strikes the student of this Constitution of the Kingdom of God, the learner of what the Reli¬ gion of Christ is, as strange, that the Master should have sounded so high a note at the very be¬ ginning of his discourse. It seems as though he had begun at the very climax of his teaching — CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 19 and that the very perfection of attainment re¬ quired of the disciples of this Teacher is such as, at the outset, would discourage all following. But Jesus puts character, such a character as he here outlines, first in his system of teaching, be¬ cause it is to be first in the lives of his followers, and it is concerning life — real life — true life, abundant life, lasting life, satisfying life — that he is speaking throughout. Here is one point wherein his teaching differs from all those who have gone before and all those who shall come after. The Teacher puts character first, in this dis¬ course, that he may make it prominent by contrast. It is not knowledge, nor attainment, nor utterance, nor action that must have the prominent place in the Religion of Christ, but character. He puts character first because of its indispensableness to the system which he taught. Given the character, the elements of which are enumerated in these opening words, and the man is a citizen of the kingdom; but those who have all else — all out¬ ward semblance and conformity to the ideal law, yet lack the inner character — cannot be counted as citizens of the kingdom. He puts this ideal character first because the inner man and the spiritual life is of the very essence of the Religion of Christ, all else is subservient to this, and de- 20 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING signed for the production of such a manhood. He puts it first because upon this is built the Gov¬ ernment of God, and the religion of the spiritual life. Now if one should run over the opening words of Christ’s discourse, and inquire what is the prominent feature, what is that mark which ap¬ pears in every verse of the twelve and character¬ izes and distinguishes the whole, surely the least observant cannot remain long in doubt. As when some skilled player takes a simple theme, some sweet melody, and with the technique and touch of the artist weaves it into the warp and woof of his beautiful harmony, so that the theme now appears clear and true and again is lost in the very richness of its setting, yet under all and through all it is present, giving character and meaning to the entire composition, so does the Divine musician in this instance. His opening words sound that theme of u Blessed,” which threads its golden way to the very end of the passage — concluding with that burst of music, “ Rejoice and be exceeding glad.” The motif of this part of the discourse is plainly “ blessedness,” joy and gladness. This note of joy, this song of heavenly happiness, re¬ minds us of the guiding song of the woodland bird in Wagner’s Siegfried, leading the brave soul, CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 21 on and up, “ o’er moor and fen, o’er crag and tor¬ rent until the night is gone ”— and his quest is attained. How helpful and how appropriate that our Di¬ vine Leader should have begun his Gospel with this note of encouragement, this song of blessed attainment for his timid human followers! How the giving of this second law, the law of love, con¬ trasts with the giving of the first law, “ the fiery law,” when the mountain smoked and men dared not draw nigh! How beautiful in its simplicity was the giving of this new law of life, “ And when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him! ” Yea truly, “ the Blessed Life ” is the theme of these verses, and that those who have the qualities of character here enumerated shall be blessed, is the opening thought. Lyman Abbott in an ar¬ ticle in The Outlook, has given such a true defi¬ nition and such an apposite illustration of bles¬ sedness, that we cannot refrain from here quoting his words. “ There are three kinds of happiness: pleasure, joy, blessedness. Pleasure is the hap¬ piness of the animal nature; joy, of the social na¬ ture; blessedness of the spiritual nature. Pleas¬ ure we share with the animals, joy with one an¬ other, blessedness with God.” A boy comes home at Christmas from college. At the close of the Christmas dinner he says, 22 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING “ Mother, I haven’t had as good a dinner as this since I was home at Thanksgiving.” That is pleasure. Friends come in; there are games, dancing, quiet talks in nooks and corners; in brief, a good time. That is joy. By and by the friends depart, the children go to their rooms, the father closes the house, the mother sits meditatively by the dying embers of the fire, living over the birth, the childhood, the early youth of her boy, and looking forward with a mother’s hope to his future, and as her husband comes to remind her that it is time to retire, she draws a sigh of quiet joy, and says, as she reaches out to take his hand, “ John, we are certainly blest in our children!” That is blessedness. Such a blessedness, deep, sweet, spiritual, eternal, is held out in the opening words of Christ’s dis¬ course to those who will dare to walk after him, and to attain to that heavenly character which he here portrays. Observe that these are the many qualities of one character, and not the separate qualities of many characters. He is not describing the classes of the kingdom, but the perfect harmony and balance of each citizen of the kingdom. Pa¬ tience, lowliness, spiritual aspiration, kindliness, purity, peaceableness, a willingness to serve and CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 23 to suffer in that service, are to dwell together as happy brethren in the one house of character. These are the heights of the soul — the mountain peaks to be attained. There is not one quality here enumerated that is not hard to learn, difficult to attain. He who climbs to these altitudes must have purpose and resolve. Such a purpose and resolve as can only be maintained while he hears that voice of Blessedness singing him on his up¬ ward way. Who but the most impracticable, ignorant and unobservant of men could ever think that these were to be attained at a bound? Meekness, pa¬ tience, kindliness, suffering — do they not speak of years for their completion? Do they not drop with the sweat of the labor of attainment? These are the octave of the heavenly scale of music; he who can sound these notes in right re¬ lation shall go through the world making the har¬ monies of heaven. These are the colors, which form the spectrum of the heavenly light; combined in their due pro¬ portion they make that pure light which Jesus bids us to let shine. All the beauty of holiness is from the right and skillful use of these divine colors. We see again, that the striking mark which differentiates and characterizes the citizens of 24 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING Christ’s Kingdom, is determined not by the ex¬ traneous and the adventitious, not by the chance or fortune of birth — but by what you may, under the divine help, attain for yourself. In the kingdoms of this world, in the nations of the earth, citizenship is determined largely by birth. In the XIV Amendment to our Constitution it is written, u All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Other countries have statutes which are substantially the same; — but in the kingdom of heaven citizenship is not determined by where you are, but by what you are. All nations, tribes, colors, and races of men are eligible to this citizenship. It is the universal Kingdom. Jesus was a Jew, but he was free from that narrowness of nationalism which circumscribed the ancient Israelites. Nor is this citizenship determined by “ who you are.” Whole nations have held to the tradition that a man’s place in the world, his work and privileges, his life, in short, is settled by his origin or the chance circumstances of his environment. In India, a man’s caste, carrying with it privi¬ leges, opportunities, obligations and promises, is determined by custom and condition wholly with- CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 25 out the choice of the man himself. In the king¬ dom of heaven this is not so — the conditions of this citizenship are within the power of the in¬ dividual’s own choice — and its blessings are open to all. The “ what you are,” the character of the man, is the one sole and unchangeable condi¬ tion of citizenship. The emphasis of Christ’s teaching is, ever is, throughout this entire dis¬ course laid on character. “ Being ” is its great theme; “ to become ” its great endeavor. And is not the Master, philosophically and practically, wise in giving character the place he does in life? As man is the highest creature in God’s creation, so character is the highest level in man. Char¬ acter is the man. The thing to be supremely sought in life is not knowledge, for the man of knowledge who lacks character is a more danger¬ ous citizen in any community because of his knowl¬ edge. Here ignorance is preferable to knowl¬ edge. Nor is power or place the thing to be su¬ premely desired; for the man of power who lacks character is a greater menace to civilization by the very possession of power. The man of wealth and of talent does not by the possession of these enrich the community in which he lives, if, while owning these, he still lacks that character which makes the possession of these safe and helpful. The city, town or 26 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING State is not the richer but the poorer for having him within her midst. But given a character, such as is here pictured in Christ’s words, and power, knowledge, talent and possession is safe in his keeping and a real enrichment of life. Here we find the root thought from which grows that wise, beautiful rule Christ later gives —“ Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,”— then the world itself is safe in your keeping. Christ ever viewed life in its broadest aspect, ever regarded and spoke of man at his highest level. How this teaching contrasts with the wisdom of men and the aims of hu¬ manity! The true man is the spiritual man; the rich man is the spiritual man; the strong man is the spiritual man; the citizen of the heavenly kingdom is the man of the heavenly character. Again, do we not find markedly emphasized in this Character to which Christ draws our atten¬ tion, what are commonly called the passive ele¬ ments? Lowliness, meekness, patience, kindness, peaceableness, suffering, these are all passive, rather than active, qualities. The man of the Kingdom seems to be determined not so much by what he is able to do as by what he is able to bear. Says F. W. Robertson, “ Before Christ came, the heathen had counted for divine the legislative wisdom of man — manly strength, manly truth, CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 27 manly justice, manly courage. The life and the Cross of Christ shed a splendor from heaven upon a new and until then unheard-of order of heroism — that which may be called the feminine order.” The next great principle of living which this opening passage seems rightly to contain is this: Those who follow the way of life, laid down in this discourse shall have this character. Char¬ acter is not attained at a bound, it does not leap forth from the life of the man, full grown, as did Athene from the head of Zeus. This condi¬ tion of character cannot be too much emphasized. There have been dreamers, enthusiasts, idealists, in every age, who have thought that the man can be made or remade in a moment. As the earth was at the beginning without form and void and yet in that elemental substance there were the pos¬ sibilities of form, order, beauty and perfection, to be called out and developed in the course of the ages, so a truer study of man teaches us that while within the primitive man, considered indi¬ vidually or collectively, there is the possibility of moral and spiritual order, power and perfection, yet these qualities are developed and called out only after long courses of training and contact with the things of life. He who thinks other¬ wise has not rightly interpreted God’s way in the earth, nor His way in the world of men. “ One 28 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” and the element of time is necessary in the development of such a perfection of character as is revealed in these words of the Christ. Adam did not begin a man of character — nor does a boy begin with a char¬ acter, but each of them begins his career with the capabilities of a character. In the presence of these words of Christ, we stand before the Alplike altitudes of manhood — and it means a climb for their attainment; in these words a course is set before us, and it be¬ speaks a training; here is pictured a character, a heavenly character, and it means living. Alas, for that one who dreams that mere re¬ solve, or that a single act of will, gives such a character. Moreover, it seems to me that even a little thought upon this curriculum which Christ here sets down for those who are to be learners at his feet will teach us that this character is to be at¬ tained through doing, living, Action. How does the child learn anything, in this present scheme of things which we have called the world? How does he learn walking, talking, the use of his powers material and immaterial? Is it not by doing? How does the artist attain to his ac¬ curacy of eye and skill of hand? Is it not by CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 29 practice? How does the musician become the in¬ terpreter of the soul through the media of sound? Is it not by practice? And does it not tell of years of trying, of doing? And a manhood such as this here depicted speaks to us of years and tears and failures and successes and life. Sleep¬ ing on a dictionary will not give a man the knowl¬ edge of the words it contains. Reading the Bible and living on your knees will never make “ a man of Christ.” The religion of the Master is eminently practical, and the one who learns this way, must be up and doing. Moreover, there is a universal law underlying the terms and conditions which the Master here prescribes for his pupils. The result of action, good or bad, is reaction. The result of living, is being. This is to interpret life from its inner side. The modern psychology has strengthened and illustrated this truth of Christ. The physical world acts upon the man within; the psychical world reacts at the touch of this stimulus; and through this action and reaction there comes the change in the nerve, the brain, the soul itself, the man is built up or the man is broken down, made or destroyed according to this law. A wrong method of life gives a wrong character — a right method of living gives a resultant right¬ ness of being. Not that this is the whole of the 3 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING truth, but this is one important phase of the truth — the one upon which our minds are rest¬ ing at this present moment. While it is true that environment makes the man, it is likewise true that man makes the environment, but it is to this first limb of the twofold principle that our thought is here directed. Therefore and always, religion must have law, principle, precept and command — and rightly is a true religion denominated “ a way of Life.” The great end of “ the living,” “ the doing,” is not for the deeds in themselves, but for the sake of the being and of the character of the man which is thus developed. How far man has gone astray in this very region! Prayer is not for prayer’s sake — nor sacrifices for sacrifices’ sake — nor form for form’s sake, but all for man’s sake, and through him for God’s sake — and what God most desires is the right development of His chil¬ dren. The purpose of Christ’s teaching is to make men; men like those having the manhood portrayed in this picture. Men who in their re¬ lations to God are dependent, humble, submissive and receptive; men who in their relation to their fellows are patient, kind and serviceful, for even in these qualities of character the Master gives us a foreshadowing of the bifurcated law of love, to which he later calls explicit attention. Men CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 31 who realize, through living the life, the “ Blessed¬ ness ” which comes alone from being. To return to our point of starting — these texts tell us that those who attain this char¬ acter have that character which is worth possess¬ ing. This is true because of the fruits borne of such a character; these are denominated collec¬ tively as “ Blessedness.” A man cannot be a man like this and not be blessed. In spite of the vain speculations of the philosophers, in spite of the learned disquisitions of the men of Ethic — our Teacher says here, most plainly, that goodness and gladness cannot be separated; righteousness and blessedness cannot be divorced, God hath married them at the beginning, and what He hath joined together no man can put asunder. When the practical man of this world inquires, “ What things are worth doing? ” the Master an¬ swers him, briefly and completely, “ those things which result in such a being.” These are worth while, because of the Divine approval —“ The Beatitudes,” as they are called, begin and end with “ for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Christ himself is the Teacher and the pattern for just such a character. These qualities were possessed and exemplified in his way of life. These are the ways of pleasantness and these are the paths of peace. These are the texts, if you 32 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING will, of sermons which Jesus is to preach to his disciples, in his life, the outlines of which are given on this occasion. These are the subjects upon which the Teacher is about to instruct his scholars, and the motto written in letters of gold across the wall of the schoolroom, that the earnest scholar may ever have it in mind, is this: “ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” In the school of Christ, as in the school of this practical world, the guiding star must be, “ Esse quam videre.” CHAPTER II LIVE A USEFUL LIFE Matt, v, 13-16 I N his opening words Christ has told his fol¬ lowers what they are to be — he now turns to the thought of why they are to be. As he has placed before them their relation and obligation to the God who is above them, he now puts be¬ fore them their relation and obligation to the world which is about them. Unselfishness is slain with a single stroke; the purpose in living is established in a sentence. If “ to be ” is the end of a man for himself, if character is the great object of individual human existence, then it fol¬ lows, logically, that character is developed only in doing; character is expressed only in action. The solidarity of the race, the brotherhood of man, the obligation of service, is established at the outset. As we study the story of creation we see that everything in the earth exists for the sake of something else, as well as for itself. The vege¬ table kingdom rests on, and is possible only be¬ cause of, the mineral; the animal depends upon 33 34 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING the vegetable, the human is related to them all. We are debtors to every realm of creation, and man bears a relation to his fellows. As \ye view the world of nature from the standpoint of mod¬ ern science we find this truth emphasized — the interrelation and interdependence of every part of this great scheme of material things with every other part. Recently I asked a professor of astronomy in one of our large colleges whether he did not think it probable that in this infinite universe other spheres than ours were inhabited. He answered: “ Of course it may be so, but when I consider how many causes, forces, factors, must unite for the balance, adjustment and preservation of this World, I can easily conceive that it might be that the solar system with its millions of stars, with its planets and its heavenly bodies, exists for the sake of this world alone.” As we come more and more to the conviction of the interdependence and interrelation of great and small, for the production of an ordered, stu¬ pendous whole, in the world physical, so Scrip¬ ture teaches us that before all, back of all, sus¬ taining all, operating in and through all, is God. As science teaches us that nothing in the world exists for its own sake, so Scripture teaches us that God does not, cannot, live a selfish, uncom- LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 35 municative, useless life. Therefore how eminently in accord with the nature of things, how preeminently proper, is this teaching of Christ, that man who partakes of God’s nature and is made in His image should live for a purpose, and must have something to do for other than self in this present world? — in other words, he must live a useful life. If one should ask, “ Why should a man live a useful life?” the briefest answer is, “ Because he is fitted for it.” The possession of a power is the pledge of its use; the condition of the ownership of a talent is its right employment. Consider man as a mechanism merely, as a piece of machinery fitted to do work, and where will you find his equal? I have seen the hand of man likened to a chest of tools, and it is not an inapt illustration. Man’s hand contains a variety of pincers, a hammer, chisels, auger, etc. The orig¬ inal meaning of “ manufacture ” was handmade, and even to-day, in spite of the perfected ma¬ chinery, for the production of the best articles we need to go back to first principles, and make things by hand. Add to this the power of brain, imagination, contrivance and invention — and what cannot man do for the promotion and bet¬ terment of the creature-comforts of his fellows? Enter the realm of the moral and intellectual, 36 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING consider the treasures of philosophy, science, poetry, art, music, architecture and the like — and we see in the rich catalogue of what man has done, what he is fitted to do, to advance and elevate the life of his brothers. Add to this man’s spiritual equipment, if for argument’s sake we may separate these gifts from others, and we behold the rich possession of the Christian man — the truth and power which are his to bless and brighten all life. Not only do we find, in reason and in Scrip¬ ture, that these gifts are bestowed upon man that he may increase and use them unselfishly, but we likewise find within the man himself a court and judge to whom he must answer, for the use or misuse of these possessions. The man who lives the useful life is the man who lives the blessed life in this respect, and is the man who has the commendation of his conscience. The man who lives uselessly is, in general terms, the miserable man, and the man who is under the condemnation of that same inward mentor. A man can do no worse than to do nothing at all. And it is in response to this unchangeable edict of nature, that many a man, feeling himself to be no longer of use in the world, has adjudged himself worth¬ less, and taken his own life. In an interesting book, a study of Fetichism among the Africans LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 37 in the Congo region, I find a supreme illustra¬ tion of this desire in man to be of use to his fel¬ lows. Says the writer, in substance, “ If there were no hereafter, if I did not believe in a world to come, and did not feel the need of using this present world as a preparation for the future world, still the mere present utility of blessing and bettering the condition of life among these poor Africans, the reward of making lighter their burden and brighter their lot for this present time, would be reason enough for my service and my sacrifice.” We find still another ground in reason for liv¬ ing an active, useful life — because there is such need for it in this world. God never made a man to be idle, he has put him into a world that has constant need of his care; the earth is calling for his thought, the creatures of earth are asking for his help. The terms of the original lease under which this earth was left to man for a season are that he should “ till and subdue ” it; while he fulfills these conditions he shall have dominion; as long as he lives up to these terms he shall be master; but only so. Let him violate this first contract, and the earth is taken away from him and becomes his master. There is not a garden that grows that does not call lustily every morn¬ ing through the summer season for the care, at- 38 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING tention and service of its owner. The natural tendency of all things earthly, material and im¬ material, to retrograde and degenerate if neg¬ lected and left to themselves, is nature’s uni¬ versal call to man to be up and doing, and to fulfill this command of Jesus. To the man who has the observation to read the facts of nature and the ability to interpret the lessons of nature, the obligation and worth of the active and useful life is imperative. “ I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.” 1 It is because it is in accord with the con¬ stitution of things that Christ’s command is spoken. While some say it is right for man to live a useful life because Christ commands it, it would be more true to say that he commands it because it is right. Christ commands the useful life because it is a prime necessity of right living — who rightly lives must truly serve. If we bring this principle down to the world of men, we are here taught by our Master what 1 Prov., 24:30-32. LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 39 it is to be useful. It is in the first place to be a preservative element in the world. “Ye are the salt of the earth ” is not used in a compli¬ mentary, but in a real, sense. Sodium is one of the elements; its relation to life is universal and important. It is present in the composition of water, rocks, plants and animals. Its preserva¬ tive character is illustrated by J. E. Johnson in these words, “ The whole globe would be one stupendous mass of putrefaction but for the saline nature of the ocean.” This statement may be applied in a moral as well as a material sense. It is at least a significant fact that sodium is present in all living organisms; it is a life element. It is salt which prevents corruption and dissolution, and when we realize that Jesus was talking to a people who lived in a country where the tempera¬ ture rose high at certain seasons, and where ice was probably not used or little used for refrigera¬ tion, as it is among us, his figure of speech be¬ comes most apposite. What he says to his fol¬ lowers is this: If the world is to be kept morally pure and spiritually fresh it must be by the lives of those who have within them the salt of my spirit and teaching. It is the Christ-life which is to-day the savior of the world. And in that proportion and to that degree shall men be of use to their kind, as they possess or lack the ele- 4 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING ments of that character, which he has exhibited to them in his opening words, and which forms the savor of the “ living salt.” Further, says our Master, to live a useful life is to be an illuminative force in the world. “Ye are the light of the world.” The connection of light with life is inseparable and vital. Where light is there is life, where life is there light must be. “ Let there be light ” was the first com¬ mand at the dawn of Creation. And it is through the agency of light that physical life has been called into being and has been maintained. The meaning of the light of the sun to the world is a subject hard to exhaust; it means warmth, cheer, health, beauty, energy, life. We are in sympathy with those early worshipers of the sun, who bowed in worship before the brightness and glory, before the beauty and majesty, of the great King of Day — they had discovered a great law of nature. The light of the sun is, indeed, the source and spring of all our physical life and energy. The power of physical life is not from within man but from without, from the great center of our physical system, mediated to us through the multiplied physical agencies of this material world. Says Professor Tyndall in his “ Fragments of Sci¬ ence ”: “ The sunbeams excite our interest and LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 4i invite our investigation; but they also extend their beneficent influences to our fruits and corn, and thus accomplish not only intellectual ends, but minister at the same time to our material necessi¬ ties.” 2 And again, in his lecture on Force, says this same author: “But there is still another work which the sun performs, and its connection with which is not so obvious. Trees and vege¬ tables grow upon the earth, and when burned they give rise to heat, and hence to mechanical energy.” . . . “ We cannot, however, stop at vegetable life, for it is the source, mediate or im¬ mediate, of all animal life. The sun severs the carbon from its oxygen and builds the vegetable; the animal consumes the vegetable thus formed, a reunion of the severed elements takes place, producing animal heat. The process of building a vegetable is one of winding up; the process of building an animal is one of running down. The warmth of our bodies and every mechanical en¬ ergy which we exert, trace their lineage directly to the sun. The fight of a pair of pugilists, the motion of an army, or the lifting of his own body by an Alpine climber up a mountain slope, are all cases of mechanical energy drawn from the SUn.” * This is the meaning of physical light to a 2 Tyndall’s “ Fragments of Science,” I: On the Study of Physics. 3 Tyndall’s “Fragments of Science,” I: Force. 42 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING physical world. These are the first principles of science, fundamental facts of life. We may not understand all the processes, but the prime facts are certain. In like manner, says our Teacher, spiritual light is the source of spiritual energy — that man who has the light within him is that man who sheds the light about him, and where the light is there is the life also. We need but mention such lives, symbolized by the names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle — Augustine, Paul, Luther, Bunyan and Lincoln — and Jesus the Christ, the greatest of them all; we need but consider for a moment their effect and influence in the world, for beautifying, vivi- fying, glorifying, those with whom they came into touch, to realize the meaning of the Master’s teaching, “ Ye are the light of the world.” “ Let your light shine before men.” If now we ask, How does this usefulness prac¬ tically express itself in the world — of person¬ ality? Jesus here by implication answers that question. It is not things, nor principles, nor truths, but Persons that are to be the preservative of the moral and spiritual life in a moral and spiritual world. It is not things, nor principles, nor truths, but LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 43 persons that are the illuminating and energizing centers of the moral and spiritual life in a moral and spiritual world. “ / am the light of the world,” “ Ye are the light of the world,” is the formula containing these truths. This is the teaching of the Christ—and this is in accord with the facts of life and with the conclusions of all sane, sound men. In that eth¬ ical handbook of Buddhism the “ Dhammapada or Path to Virtue,” this truth is expressed in these words, “ The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor that of sandal wood or of Tagara and Malika flowers, but the odor of good people travels even against the wind; a good man pervades every place.” Again, in the same book, “ A man does not become a Brah- manna by his plaited hair, by his family or by birth: in whom there is truth and righteousness he is blessed, he is a Brahmanna.” The community is good or bad according to the good or bad persons in it. It may have the completest knowledge — the finest system of edu¬ cation, the most perfect theology, the latest sci¬ ence, and yet be a community of persons whose lives are savorless, because these things are merely trifled with and not eaten, assimilated, ap¬ propriated and expressing themselves in the daily power of personality. If the Sabbath is to 44 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING be preserved it must be preserved, not by lectures, pamphlets, tractates on the subject, but by per¬ sons loving the Sabbath and living the Sabbath, in accord with its fundamental ideas of a day of rest and worship. If the Bible is to keep its place and influence in the world, this must be ac¬ complished by those persons who give the Bible its right place and its due influence in their daily lives. If the home is to be kept from degrada¬ tion and disintegration, this can be attained only by those persons who live true and loyal to the homes which they represent. This phase of the question Jesus further elaborates when he speaks of the necessity of Living the Pure Life. If the Kingdom of God is to make any real progress, this must be by persons, daily, hourly, on work days and worship days, in business, and in associations with their fellows, expressing in their actions and in the multiplied manifestations of their lives, those principles for which the King¬ dom stands. The religion which Jesus taught is eminently practical; it descends to the most trivial and most commonplace matters of our ordinary lives, as we shall see in his later expositions. The value of a good man to a community is hard to overesti¬ mate, yet his worth is faintly figured in the nine¬ teenth chapter of Genesis, where God says to LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 45 Abraham, “ if there are ten righteous in Sodom, I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.” A good man is worth as much to a community to-day as he ever was. And surely it is a fact that the good people are “ the salt of the earth,” and the Christ-like are “ the light of the world.” How more clearly and forcibly could we have presented to us the practical character of the reli¬ gion of Christ? His religion is not compliance with set forms and prescribed ceremonies — it is not a service that is satisfied with temple worship and temple rite. His religion is a religion of the heart, a religion of the spirit, a religion that in¬ fluences and determines the center and springs of action of the entire man. It is a religion that must be kept by the entire man or it is not kept by the man at all. It concerns a man in all relations of all his life — the highest and the low¬ est — the sublimest moment of vision and in the doing of so simple a thing as giving a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. “ Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Does not this broad and beautiful teaching of what Christ means by religion, mark the absurd¬ ity and worthlessness of what men have often taught and practiced for religion? Does it not condemn, in a sentence, the mechanical, formal, 46 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING cold, periodic, ritualistic, external, pharisaic ele¬ ments of religion as not of the essence of his reli¬ gion? And are not these the very features of re¬ ligion on which men of a former day and men of the present day have too often laid their em¬ phasis? Form of baptism, method of worship, written or ex tempore prayer, metaphysics of the creeds, while they may have a place, while they may have an importance, to some minds, yet their place is not the first nor is their importance the greatest in a religion which lays so little stress on externalities, and so great an emphasis on the real¬ ities; which says in so many words, “Have the spirit of religion and let the form take care of itself.” It is this reality and breadth of the religion of Jesus which commends many a life that the church has condemned, and which condemns many a life which the church has commended. When we consider the height and depth, the breadth and fullness, of that religion which Jesus taught, when we realize that it is co-extensive and coincident with the totality of a man’s life, then we under¬ stand, as never before, that to be a person of re¬ ligion after Christ’s sense is an interminable work. A man may learn a trade in a few months, and be a master-workman; a man may know his profession or calling in a few years, and become LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 47 an authority; a man may attain to almost any earthly accomplishment in time; but to be really a man of religion is to be something that is coin¬ cident with all trades, callings, accomplishments, works; to be something that continues through life and forever and ever. The maxim which Jesus here gives his learners is this: “ Be, in order that you may do.” The man who has the salt of the kingdom within him, the man who is himself lighted by the spirit of Jesus, cannot fail to live a useful life. CHAPTER III LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE Matt, v, 17-20 G ROWTH is a fundamental mark of all life; where there is life there is growth; where there is no growth there is no life. The religion of Jesus is a life, and he came that they might have life and have it in evermore abundance 1 . With the gift of life in all its phases, which comes from God, there of necessity comes with it the power and certainty of growth. When God im¬ bued dead matter with the royal gift of life, the possibility and promise of progress were included in that gift. Within the tiny seed of physical life was wrapped all the development, all the ad¬ vancement, all the progress of that life, from the earliest primordial germ to the highest, most per¬ fectly organized form of life which we find to-day. The path from the first most simple form to the last most perfect form is termed the way of prog¬ ress. Progress is the watchword and slogan of to¬ day. Men have often feared and frequently af¬ firmed that religion destroys progress. Too 48 LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 49 often has this fear been realized because men have accepted and adopted a dead rather than a living religion. That which differentiates the re¬ ligion of Jesus from any other religion that has ever been known is that the religion of Christ is the religion of life, and hence the religion of prog¬ ress. Plainly, in this passage, as well as else¬ where, does Jesus declare that religion does not destroy, but per contra the true religion, the re¬ ligion which he taught, is the promise and prophecy of progress to perfection. “ I am not come to destroy the law ” (law, which is simply a formula of the way in which God is working out the development of the race), but to bring it to its fulfillment and perfection. It is the vital, living, progressive element in the religion of Christ which makes it suitable to all men of all ages; it is this which takes such a hold upon the hearts of men; it is the fact and prin¬ ciple of this progress which we would seek to ex¬ hibit in this chapter. In these words, “ I am not come to destroy but to fulfill,” we have the Master’s promise of prog¬ ress to completion. Jesus is speaking in this dis¬ course to his disciples on the great subject of life — and here he intimates to them the fact of growth and the large lines along which this life must develop. 50 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING If we view the unfolding of life, in the records that are left for us in the book of nature, we read that there has ever been a steady progress. We observe that life has unfolded from the simplest forms to the simpler, to the simple, to the com¬ plex, the more complex, the most complex. Whatever may be the truth or falsehood of the evolutionary theory as an explanation of the origin or variation of living species, this much is clear, that there has been an upward progress in all living organisms. As an incident of this progress we observe that old forms have passed away, old conditions have been changed, whole races of creatures have dis¬ appeared, that they might give place to the new, and the new has ever taken the place of the old. This is one great law of the physical world. That which is true in the world of nature is true in the world of men, because men are part of the world of nature. History reveals like progress with biology — old customs, old institutions, old languages, old nations, have gradually disappeared, and the new has come in to take their places. What has been true of the whole of the life of man has, likewise, been true of the parts of it; myth and fable have yielded place to fact and history, astrology and alchemy with all their fascination and with such LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 51 truth and use as they had, have been supplanted by modern science; and likewise religion has felt the touch and change of time, has broken the shell of its former, narrower self and has built for it¬ self statelier mansions to accommodate its larger, growing spirit. Old practices, old creeds, old forms, old rites, may pass, must pass, because the religion which Jesus Christ taught is living, and so keeps pace with the progress of the ages. Jesus here tells his disciples that this is the way of God’s working, which is only another name for God’s law. In this teaching of the progress of the religion which Jesus exhibits, he further shows that the progress is not to be by the destruction of that which has been; his work is not the destruction of the law and the prophets, but the promotion and furtherance of those very things for which they stood. The old law is not abrogated, but interpreted and expanded — made fuller and more binding by this very principle of progress. His disciples must not think that the law was worthless because it now comes in new form. The old law must still be maintained in its prin¬ ciple, and never can be abrogated, for it is the law of God. The old law contains within it the new, had they but the spiritual eyes to see it. It is of the old law that the new is born, under the 52 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING quickening touch of his interpretation. The new law was in the old as the full flower is within the seed, and as the “ child is father to the man.” He had not come to teach men to break the law — those who broke and taught men so to do should be called the least in the kingdom; and it was those who respected, taught and did the law who should be called great in this heavenly king¬ dom. No, it was not to destroy, nor to weaken, nor to make less binding that law which had been a guide to their fathers for so many years, that law which had brought their nation to such honor and glory, that he was speaking, but that this law might be made fuller, more far reaching, more binding, more penetrative and pervasive. To keep and honor the law, as their fathers and teachers had done, for so many centuries, was not enough for these children of a larger growth — while this might do for those who lived in the dawn of the centuries it would never do for these who were living in his day and under the light of the glorious Gospel of the Christ. This the Master makes very plain to them — he leaves no doubt in the matter — he says to them in so many words, “ For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 53 heaven.” And then in the following sections, he proceeds to quote from the old law, after the letter, and interprets it in the new way, after the spirit. Says the Master, “ Ye have heard,” quoting the old law, “ thou shalt not kill.” “ But I say unto you,” this law must go deeper than a mere outward observance — it must lay hold of the heart and be made to read, “ Thou shalt not hate.” “ Ye have heard, thou shalt not commit adul¬ tery.” “ But I say unto you, thou shalt have a pure heart.” “ Ye have heard, thou shalt not forswear.” “ But I say unto you, thou shalt live in such ac¬ cord with the truth — that thou shalt not need to swear at all.” Is this not progress, advance, growth immedi¬ ate and growth prospective? What Jesus seeks to inculcate is a more per¬ fect and fuller keeping of the law — his law looks toward the inward reality of love, purity and truth, rather than to the outward conformity, signified in murder, adultery and forswearing. This certainty and promise of progress is given to us in Christ’s attitude toward his own life work. What evidence had he of success in his work, after such devotion, such teaching, such 54 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING works — a handful of followers. What cause had he for expectations or encouragement — priests and rulers against him, Pharisees and Sadducees seeking to overthrow him, the people of the land but feebly and fearfully following him. Yet what hope, nay confidence, nay cer¬ tainty of success had he! “Heaven and earth may pass away, but my word cannot pass away.” He was never a despondent, never a disheartened and never a defeated, man. He knew that the times would grow to his teaching, because he knew the power and operation and progress of the truth. Therefore he could say to them with confidence, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed — very, very small in its beginnings, but it shall become great indeed. It is like the leaven, working secretly, silently, slowly, but it shall leaven the entire lump of life. And while he knew the certainty of growth, he also knew the law of growth, “ First the blade and then the ear and then the full corn in the ear,” and so he was content to work and wait and know. Following this hint which Jesus gives us, that the law of progress obtains in the things of the kingdom of heaven, let us apply the teaching to those facts that may come under our observa¬ tion, and is it not evident that there is this pro- LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 55 gressive element in the revelation of that reli¬ gion which has come from God? Is not the revelation in Scripture a progressive revelation, coincident with the development of mankind? “ I have many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now.” 1 What are the earliest forms of teaching concerning God found in the Bible? Are not these truths of God given to us in types, figures, story-form? We are not now considering them at all critically nor as to their content, but only asking concerning their form. The story of the Creation — the story of the Fall — the story of the two brothers — the story of the Deluge — the story of the high tower — these are the earliest forms of the Bible teaching, and how well they are adapted to the child mind we well know. Then follows the form of biog¬ raphy — lessons taught in the lives of great char¬ acters. Men are made to appear before us and the principle appears in the person. This is a later form adapted to a larger growth. Then God is revealed in detached precepts, ceremonies, rites, things to be done, that principles may be learned in the doing. Then comes the time of a larger freedom, a more spiritual revelation, given by the prophets. Then after a long time comes the Christ. He gave very few precepts, 1 Jno. xvi, 12. 56 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING had little to do with form, but much with spirit. This is the religion of principle. This is the re¬ ligion adapted to a more mature age — to chil¬ dren of a larger growth. It was principle, prin¬ ciple, principle that Jesus taught, and insisted upon — and this is suited to the liberty of the Gospel and to the individuality of spirit. Thus we see that the revelation that has been made is from the simpler and concrete to the more com¬ plex and abstract, and yet — that which is new in the revelation has been ever born out of that which is old, the earliest stories of Genesis agree largely with the latest principles of the Gospel teaching, and “ in the beginning God ” is the seed from which the entire organism has grown. That there is this progressive element in the religion of Christ is shown from a mere glance at the relation of this religion to the progress of civilization. Men to-day are better fed, better clothed, better housed, living in better material and physical conditions, surrounded with more “ creature comforts,” because of the principle, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” And when it comes to the social relations of men, the advance and betterment is directly traceable to the progressive element in the religion of Christ. Says Richard Storrs, 2 “ The religion which had 2 For a full discussion and evidencing of this entire question LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 57 shown God to mankind, so as before he had not been conceived, the same religion showed man to himself, so as before he had not been imag¬ ined, in the greatness of his nature, in his im¬ mortality.” “ In regard to this conception of the soul, its dignity and worth, the race has been a new one, since Jesus taught it, and so far as his religion has gone.” As the religion of Jesus gave birth to a “ new conception of man,” so did it give rise to a new conception of woman. “ Just so soon, and just so far, as Christianity gained its place in the em¬ pire, the position of woman, social and legal, in¬ stantaneously improved; and this was the effect of direct, immediate, constant pressure, from the religion brought by Jesus.” Says our writer further, “ Of the universality of slavery in the world into which this new reli¬ gion entered, you need not be reminded.” But the times have changed from the day when one- half of the Roman population were slaves — the race has progressed, and slavery, in its cruder forms, forever has been abolished from the civ¬ ilized nations. “ The Sermon on the Mount, God’s affectionate and watchful fatherhood of all, the brotherhood of disciples, the mutual duty and see “ The Divine Origin of Christianity—Indicated by its His¬ torical Effects,” by Richard Storrs, D.D., LL.D. 58 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING common immortality of poor and rich — these were the forces before which slavery inevitably fell.” Through the preaching of the Carpenter’s Son labor has been elevated to a new dignity. That life of work which in former days was as¬ signed to the slaves and by them despised and counted a shame and a curse, by the teaching of that one who said, “ My Father worketh hitherto and I work,” has been raised to the divine priv¬ ilege of service, which is a command laid upon all men and all classes. Says Lyman Abbott, 3 “ He reversed the world’s standard of values. He taught that wealth consists in character, not in possession. He reversed the world’s measure of greatness, He that is greatest among you he shall be your servant.” Everywhere to-day where Christianity is taught and followed, the emphasis is laid on serv¬ ice, not for self, but for our fellows. “ Praying is seeking strength for service; psalm-singing is giving thanks for the privilege of serving; but the service is in hospitals, mission schools, church schools, college settlements, boys’ clubs, girls’ clubs, political and social reforms — a thousand philanthropies, some material, some intellectual, some spiritual; but all seeking one great end — 3 “ Christianity and Social Problems,” Lyman Abbott, p. 20. LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 59 the promotion of human welfare and human hap¬ piness.” 4 Even the governments of the world’s nations, where the religion of Christ has made itself felt, have been changed in the purpose and object of their existence. In the older nations and in the former time, the people existed for the sake of the State — it was the people who were the serv¬ ants and the State which was the served; to-day it is a common and well-recognized principle of political science that the government exists for the sake of the people, and is to be such a govern¬ ment as shall best serve the greatest number. Nor could we pass over this general progress which has been experienced in every department of human affairs, under the vivifying touch of the spirit of Christ’s religion, without speaking a few plain words on a much mistaken matter. The statement has gone forth and has been accepted from of old, that the religion of Christ, the church and the clergy, have been the great op¬ ponents of intellectual growth and progress. Take the narrowest, most positive form which the Christian religion has perhaps ever assumed, the Church of Rome, and do we not find in her midst spirits who have caught and been influenced by this progressive spirit of the religion of Christ? 4 Ibid., p. 33. 6 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING There was Wycliffe, who was the “ morning star of the Reformation Huss, the promoter of lib¬ erty of thought; Luther, the strength of the liberal movement in the sixteenth century. While the mediaeval and even the modern church has been like the old Jewish church, in its attempt to put the new wine of progress into the old skins of set form, yet there have been glorious excep¬ tions to this and these exceptions by those who were the followers of the religion of Christ. Witness the part the monks and the monasteries have played in the preservation of knowledge and the making of books; witness the part the Puritan has played in the educational system of America. “ All the early settlers of New England paid great attention to instructing their children; first at home or in the ministers’ houses, and then in public schools.” “ When the Puritan spirit be¬ gan to decline there was a falling off in the schools and an increase of illiteracy; but the love of learn¬ ing never died out, and the free schools never were abandoned.” 5 The motto of the Puritans was “ Give light and the darkness will dispel it¬ self. Give education and everything else will right itself in time.” And observe that at this period of our nation’s history the action of the 5 “ The Puritan in England, Holland and America,” by Doug¬ las Campbell, Vol. I, p. 30. LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 61 government was virtually the action of the church. Witness to-day the vital relation that Christian missions everywhere bear to general education; in every country or section of country where the missionary goes, the school goes with him; and then cease to be discouraged by the ignorant statement of the ignorant, that the reli¬ gion of Christ has always been opposed to edu¬ cation and the progress of knowledge. He who in this particular feels inclined to criticise the critics, has ample reason to do so, for the real facts of the case are that the greatest opponents to the progress of science and invention have been from the ranks of the scientists. “ The great physicians and philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Huygens, Bernouilli, Cassini, Leibnitz, most of them disci¬ ples of Descartes, were opposed to Newton’s System of Gravitation.” 6 After Harvey’s dis¬ covery of the circulation of the blood, it was the physicians of his time, who were opposed to him and envied him. Dr. Jenner and his views on vaccination were opposed by men of his own call¬ ing. It was the Academy of Paris that at¬ tempted to overthrow the microscopic discover¬ ies of Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoeck, a cen- 6 Vid. here et seq., “ The Philosophical Basis of Theism,” by Samuel Harris, D.D., LL.D., pp. 319-344. 62 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING tury after they were made, with the sneer, “ One can generally see with the microscope whatever one imagines! ” Observe this, that when the doctrine of evolu¬ tion was introduced, it was opposed by scientists as well as by theologians; and it was accepted by theologians as well as by scientists; Professor Huxley’s biography, written by his son, affords ample and interesting testimony to this fact. Now if we turn from the negative to the posi¬ tive side of this question, we find from the earliest times to the very latest hour that churchmen, clergymen, believers in and followers of the re¬ ligion of Christ have been identified with the pro¬ motion and progress of every form of human knowledge, whether in science, politics, philoso¬ phy, history or what not. Such names as Sir Humphrey Davy, Linnaeus, Sir Isaac Newton, Kepler, Lord Bacon and a host of others might be called to the witness-stand to testify, impar¬ tially and equally, to their labors for the progress of human knowledge, and to their belief in the Christ and his religion. The principle of progress which Jesus Christ is here establishing finds its illustration and ap¬ plication in those fields of action he is about to mention. This passage is introductory to those treated of in the rest of this fifth chapter of Mat- LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 63 thew. In the twentieth verse he states the rela¬ tion of the individual to the principle of prog¬ ress. What is true of the mass is true of the in¬ dividual; the life of the follower of the religion Jesus taught must live a progressive life. This is shown in the life and practice of the Master himself. It is sometimes represented that the religion of Jesus is completed; that noth¬ ing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. This is true in the sense that we have the complete flower in the good seed, and only in this sense. This is true literally for those who regard the religion of Christ as a Procrustean bed into which the man must be fitted, rather than a living germ which, being planted in the man, adapts itself to the man and the man to itself, modifying and determining the entire life, growth and progress of the individual. The man who holds the religion of Christ as a thing rather than a power, as a form rather than a life, has not yet attained to his teaching. That this is true is shown by the Master’s rela¬ tion to the long-established, highly respected forms and institutions in vogue in his day. The Sabbath was as old as Creation; it is a command for rest and worship one day in seven, applying to all times and all peoples. Jesus taught a new meaning and way of observing the Sabbath. The 64 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING outcome of the old formal observance was slav¬ ery: the teaching of the Master is life and liberty. “ The attitude of Jesus toward these outward observances seems to have been at one with the attitude of the prophets. He seems to have con¬ stantly pointed out the danger inherent in all ex- ternalism, in the use of all forms of symbol, whether material or intellectual, the danger of transforming a means into an end, of resting in the seen instead of reaching through the seen to the unseen, of substituting the visible image for the invisible idea, the letter for the spirit.” “ Brought to book again and again for breaking the Sabbath, he defends himself by the quiet as¬ sertion, ( The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,’ an assertion which lays its ax to the root of all sacramentalism.” 7 A like lesson is given us in Jesus’ relation to the temple. The temple idea is as old as the race — it had its fixed forms and meanings. In¬ terpreted, it read a localized deity, some places holy and some things holy. Jesus had little sym¬ pathy with these forms; they were too narrow to accommodate the new and larger growth of the Gospel spirit. He taught, “ Ye are God’s temple all places are holy and all persons may 7 “ The Religion of Christ in the Twentieth Century,” Anon., pp. 58-123. LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 65 be holy. “ He foretold the destruction of the temple, and subverted the very foundations of this idolatrous faith by declaring that God can be worshiped at any time and in any place, if the heart in sincerity and simplicity seeks for Him.” 8 This is the same idea which the Master’s fol¬ lower, the apostle Paul, set for himself and ex¬ pressed in the maxim, “ Forgetting those things which are behind, and looking unto those which are before.” This idea of progress is the idea the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has set for his readers: “ Therefore leaving the prin¬ ciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of re¬ pentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection from the dead and of eternal judgment.” The meaning of this is that there is to be prog¬ ress in idea, teaching, practice and religious liv¬ ing. The effect of progress on the unprogressive is evidenced in the story of progress in the entire world of life. For the unyielding, the unpro¬ gressive, those who will not recognize life’s law and obey it, progress means pain, struggle, pro- 8 “ Christianity and Social Problems,” by Lyman Abbott, p. 22. 9 Heb. vi, i-2. 66 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING test and elimination. So has it been with the races of animals, so with the plant life, so with man in every phase of his activity. “ Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise en¬ ter into the kingdom of heaven.” The promise of progress to the progressive is along this same road of pain and struggle, the inevitable accompaniment of all change; doubts within and opposition from without, but issuing in ever new births, larger life — something to learn, to know and to do for the ages of ages. Thus, with the constantly enlarging sphere of knowledge and privilege comes the constantly en¬ larging responsibility, until life is religion and re¬ ligion is life. CHAPTER IV LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE Matt, v, 21-26 I N those utterances of Christ, which follow in the next three sections, we have an illustra¬ tion and an application of that principle which has just been propounded: that men are to live the progressive life. Jesus takes three commands from the old law of Moses, the law with which the Jews were fa¬ miliar, and shows how these plain commands must be interpreted and applied spiritually if a man is really to have that righteousness of life which he came to establish. Being an interpreter of the law of righteousness, a teacher of man¬ kind, and a corrector of abuses, the Master had again and again to show men that the law must be interpreted and made to apply in spirit and truly, if the law was to be kept. What a man was to seek was not form-righteousness, which the Pharisees had reduced to a science, but fact- 'righteousness. One time, as the Master was going through Perea, there came running toward him a young man, a ruler in the place and an 67 68 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING earnest, honest inquirer, who asked him: “ What must I do to inherit eternal life? ” “ You must keep the commandments,” replied the Master. “Which?” asked the zealous seeker, thinking that there might be one he had overlooked. “ Those very commandments you know already — which are summed up in the words, ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ ” “ But,” answered the youth, u all these have I kept from boyhood.” So he had, as his fathers and neighbors had kept them, as you and I keep them, after the let¬ ter and the outward form. Then the Master did for his sake just what he is here doing for his disciples’ sake, showed the young man that the law was a matter of heart and spirit, a matter of the inner, secret life — and included not only doing nothing to interfere with the neighbor’s liv¬ ing his own life and fulfilling his own destiny, but besides this included doing all that he could to help his neighbor live his life as he ought. You have doubtless heard, as I have heard, a man say, “ The Ten Commandments are enough for me; if I keep these I am satisfied, and be¬ lieve all will go well with me here and hereafter.” And the answer is true, and accords with the Mas¬ ter’s teaching, but the question arises, “ Are not LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 69 the Ten Commandments too much for you?” See how the Master interprets them, and then behold their scope and depth of meaning. In the passage we have before us we have the Master’s interpretation of one of the ten words of Moses, and that one of the simplest, the most obvious and the most universal. “ Do not mur¬ der,” is a command that most respectable people think they have fully kept — but see what Christ makes that to mean; and “ Thou shalt not kill ” becomes “ Thou shalt not be angry.” Jesus is here placing before us a picture of the passionate man, the man who is ripe for murder. The world’s view of that man is very ancient and very simple. “ Ye have heard, of olden time, thou shalt not kill.” This command is one of the plainest primer principles of the laws of all peoples. “ The right of an individual to life,” 1 is a sine qua non to even the simplest civ¬ ilization. “ If there be any rights at all this must be one of them, for life is that essential condition without which no other right can be exercised. Accordingly, usage and law in all nations en¬ deavor to protect it.” I have never heard of a nation, either ancient or modern, nor of a tribe, however primitive, which has not had some form of this law. No 1 “ Political Science,” Theodore D. Woolsey, § 21. 70 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING one will deny either the propriety or the force of this law — it is clearly recognized in the Old Tes¬ tament law for Israel, was well known among all ancient peoples, and even in Africa, Patagonia or among the Andaman islanders it obtains with varying modifications and conditions of applica¬ tion — but in its essential form it is a law of all peoples. Civil law, however, applies only to man’s out¬ ward conduct, to his overt acts. One may de¬ spise, condemn, hate his fellow as he will, but if this inward desire fails of outward expression the law has been observed. This is man’s interpre¬ tation of the law against murder. According to the kingdoms of this world, one who has not vio¬ lated the letter of the law is innocent before the law; but, says the Master, what is true for the kingdoms of this world is not true for the king¬ dom of heaven, but the law must be interpreted and made to apply deeper than overt acts. So Jesus gives his view. The soul of mur¬ der is anger, the seed of murder is anger, the sin of murder is anger — and a man must keep his heart right toward his brother. The passionate man, according to Christ’s definition, is the man easily angry, that is “ angry without cause.” There is such a thing as justifiable anger on the part of a good man. The apostle admonishes, LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 7i “ Be angry and sin not.” I have heard that Frederick W. Robertson, the Brighton preacher, one day on seeing a dissolute and evil man pass¬ ing by with a pure young girl as his companion, was so roused and stirred at the sight that he clenched his hands until the nails entered into the flesh. Such a feeling on the part of such a man was not to his shame but to his honor. A while ago I read in a novel of an English Colonel’s treatment of a boy who served as his lackey, an account that fairly made my blood boil. The story runs that two men were rivals for the hand of a young woman; the one was a colonel in the British army and the other was a captain in the colonial forces. The colonel gained possession of a young lad who had served as body-servant to the captain; this boy he abused, degraded, debauched and made a drunkard, in order to work his evil schemes and to irritate and revenge himself on the captain. Here is ground for justifiable anger on the part of any man. In¬ deed, the man who could look upon such a deed without having his blood boil and free from the desire to correct the abuse and punish the of¬ fender, would be a dead, dumb, sapless, travesty of manhood. The Master himself, when he beheld the deg¬ radation and perversion of the temple by the 72 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING traffickers in sheep and oxen who were carrying on their commercial enterprises in the name of religion, was so incensed against them that, mak¬ ing a scourge of small cords, he drove them out, saying, “ Make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” Whatever the learned and art¬ ful commentators may say of this scene, the com¬ mon-sense people will ever interpret it to mean that he was justifiably angry against the hypo¬ crites. Yes, injustice, wanton cruelty, heartless oppres¬ sion of the weak by the strong, coupled with pie- tistic pharisaism merits and receives from honest and right-minded men just and righteous wrath. The passionate man here referred to is not this man, but the man who is uncontrolled, not master of himself, whose temper is ever on the hair trigger, who goes about with a chip on his shoulder, and his eye open for infringement of his rights and trespassers on his preserves. Such a man is like one of these five-cent mouse traps, so delicately and sensitively set that if you jar it 'in the least degree, handle it without the utmost caution, breathe upon it more than ordinary, snap it goes, and some one is hurt. A look and he is incensed, a word and he is in a rage; the slightest crossing of his will and he is ready for violence. Such is the passionate man, the Master teaches, LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 73 and the peril of such a heart and temper is fatal. It results in bad morals; such a man is angry with his brother without cause. The first recorded instance in history of such a man shows that it re¬ sulted disastrously. Cain was a man of this character — and because of his passionate heart, his angry spirit, he hated his brother, and finally committed outwardly that which had been born inwardly, murder of his brother. Now the man who holds his heart in the attitude of anger and hate toward his brother is the man who already does his brother a wrong, and the man who is in constant peril of an open act of injustice and injury. The psychological course of such a feeling is traced in the twenty-second verse of this chapter. The man who harbors such a feeling toward his brother is the man who must give expression to the feeling; the first expression is to hold his brother lightly and in contempt — of this feeling is born the contemptuous expression, “Raca”; by this expression is kindled another more bitter, “Thou fool,”—he condemns his brother. Now the subtle poison of anger is present and will work its deadly spell — first the secret springs of thought are poisoned, then the dark fountain bursts forth in the form of bitter words, then follows the contemptuous, unjust, perhaps deadly 74 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING deeds. The sin which is within the heart hath conceived and brought forth its baneful progeny — death. The sin of murder is within the heart; the source of murder is anger — the law against murder must be kept in the secret places of the man. Now, proceeds the Master, in his ever log¬ ical, orderly way, he who holds this relation to his brother is in the fire of hell. How many in¬ stances we have in our daily life of brothers, neighbors, friends, who because of this suscepti¬ bility to anger, this passionate disposition, dwell in a constant state of animosity, hostility, litiga¬ tion and legal warfare with those with whom they should be at peace. As I was meditating upon this theme, there came into my hands an illustration of the very fact in point. It is taken from a Philadelphia newspaper. It reads: “After having been dragged through the courts for sixty years the lawsuit of A. C. against W. Z. was finally decided in court here to¬ day. The suit was over the ownership of a strip of land worth about five dollars. The men and their families, though neighbors, have not spoken to each other for over half a century. The case has been in the Supreme Court at least three times, and no less than thirty thousand dollars has been spent in lawyers’ fees and other costs in the litiga- LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 75 tion. When the suits involving the question of damages were tried the verdict never exceeded six dollars.” The cause of such silly, childish and wicked conduct on the part of men is a bad heart and anger against the brother. The case itself has absolutely no merits. How many instances of like import might be adduced, did we choose to seek them. The Jones County Calf Case is an instance of like character. Some may not be aware that the classic chancery suit of Jarndyce against Jarndyce, satirized in Dickens’ “ Bleak House,” is an actual case taken from the English law reports. Not a day passes that our news¬ papers do not furnish practical illustration of the truth of the Master’s teaching. Now what is the feeling in the heart, the atti¬ tude of brother toward brother, the relation be¬ tween two who entertain such feelings toward each other? Is it not rightly described as “ the hell of fire”? A sight of our opponent sends a shock through the system; the sound of his voice burns like vitriol; his success fills us with hate; his failure stirs us with unholy glee. What now becomes of the great law of God, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”? What is the inner state of the man who hates his brother? Is it calm, sweet, benevolent, com¬ forting, cheering, elevating, promotive of his own 7 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING or his brother’s good? Is it not rather like an acid, a constant irritation, a fire of hell within? And what must be the heart and spirit of that man who is so angry with his brother that he would kill him? What is the secret condition of that one who kills his brother and is glad? What a restless, tossing sea of emotions, what a dance of the devils, what a Walpurgis night must en¬ wrap the soul, and craze the mind of a man pre¬ paring to do such a deed! And what of the one who kills and is sorry? Can anything ever right the wrong? You have taken away that which cannot be restored; robbed that which cannot be returned; broken that which cannot be mended. To be in the state of mind resultant upon such a deed, is to welter in the fire of hell — with its remorse, its fear, dread, terror, restlessness, unquiet — with its absence of peace, joy, light, love. Can anything make this beautiful, peaceful world other than a hell, to that passionate man who has murdered? This is the ultimate peril of the passionate man, whose spirit has led him to the end of the way — and this is the relative peril of the man of anger, who will not heed the words of Christ. But advancing a step higher, ascending into the realm of the more spiritual, our Teacher says pas¬ sion is incompatible with true piety; these twain LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 77 cannot dwell in the same house; anger in the heart makes a worthless religion. The absurdity of an angry worshiper is pictured in the two fol¬ lowing verses: God is love; hate cannot dwell in the presence of love. He who sits in a church service and bears malice and hate toward an¬ other, who has the unforgiving and bitter spirit, had better bide at home. Such an one is a “ per¬ sona non grata ” at the court of heaven. As well might the devil, because he has a good voice, join in the choiring of the angels before the throne of God as for an angry heart to sing praises in the temple — no acceptable music can issue from such inharmonious sources. The man is seeking to right with words that which he has wronged with deeds; seeking to correct by a fiction that which can only be righted by a fact. Such a man is false, un¬ true, a hypocrite; he is but adding wrong to wrong, insult to injury. Lie is wronging first himself, next his brother, but most and always the God and Father of them both. Observe the viewpoint of the Master changes a little here, the obligation is laid not on the offended but on the offender — the text reads, “ If thou rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee.” The right-minded man will go more than half the way to right the \vrong, and to dwell in harmonious relations with his brother, for the sake of the common Father 7 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING of them both. Then follows the counsel, light-clear, emphatic, explicit. Set right the heart, then practice your religion. When you come into the temple, with your offering to God, whether of goods, or words, or praise, or promise or what not — leave them there, do not offer them in vain, go thy way, “ be reconciled to thy brother,” then return and offer the fact to God, and be assured that His face will smile upon you, and His peace will possess your soul. The best worship to God is the justice done to the brother. Could anything more point¬ edly emphasize the truth that the religion which Jesus taught is a religion of fact and not a reli¬ gion of form? Be able to recite the deeds ac¬ ceptable to God, and forgetfulness of the creeds will not offend. Have the substance of religion and the forms will take care of themselves. What now thinkest thou of that simple law of murder, according to the rendering of Christ? Hast thou kept it? Canst thou keep it? Then blessed art thou of God. The Master then makes the application of the desirability of a peaceable heart for the com¬ mon affairs of a common life. Religion is life — life is religion. So common a thing, so whole¬ some a thing, so practical a thing is religion that it applies to and mingles with the everyday affairs LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 79 of the everyday life. That which he teaches in the two following verses men call Ethics — it is merely a practical wisdom for the common life, and yet who can gainsay its excellence. The special term “ brother ” is now abandoned, its meaning being established and taken for granted. Living means differences, differences mean fric¬ tion, friction means irritation, heat, pain — be aware of this, be prepared for this. These are the accidents and incidents of life, unavoidable, certain. There are aggravating and irritating ex¬ periences every day, and when we least expect them. There are many men and many minds; differences of circumstances, estate, opinion, char¬ acter, practice, religion. Play the part of the wise man, says our Teacher, and have a peaceable heart, for a peaceable heart is the best prepara¬ tion for living in such a world. And yet, live as you will, live the best you know how, differences will arise, the best of men will find themselves opposed by an adversary, one hostile, unfriendly. Should you find yourself in this condition, the Master tells us to come to some agreement with him, as quickly as possible. It may be at a loss of some of your rights, your privileges, your com¬ fort, your money — but agree on the best terms possible. Is not this the most common sense and 8o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING practical counsel that could be given? Does it not sound like some good legal advisor, seeking his clients’ best interests? Is it not an evidence of our Lord’s deep knowledge of men and the world? Is it not the counsel that the wise and prudent man will follow? Is it not in the long run, the safest course to pursue? “ Agree with thine adversary,” says the Master, lest thou be brought to utter ruin. Then with skilled hand he traces the course that so many men, unaware or unappreciative of his words, have followed to their destruction. “ Lest the adversary deliver thee to the judge, the judge to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.” Right may be with you, justice may be on your side, but the adversary may be stronger, more influential, more wealthy, more astute than thou, and such things have been done in this world as are here described. “ In prison! ” behold the ruin of your happiness! the happiness of your family, your friends, your associates. But still further, the ad¬ versary is not content; there is hate and bitterness in his heart — what he wants is your complete destruction, “ Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thoif have paid the last farthing.” Counsel fees, costs of court, case gone against you, domestic expenses continuing, the little hoard you have saved exhausted; behold! ruin of your es- LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 81 tate. How many a man can certify to the truth of this teaching, learned from the harsher, cruder teacher, Experience. If you did not love the ad¬ versary before, you do not now love him better because of all that has happened to you. The little breach which might have been bridged at the beginning has now grown to a chasm impos¬ sible to cross. You hate him, hate him, hate him — you hate his and those associated with him in this wicked business, you are bitter toward men, toward the world, toward the innocent and guilt¬ less, your heart is poisoned, your soul is on fire — your entire life has been ruined. This same road has many a man traveled to his complete destruction. Be thou wise; enter not upon it, “ agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art with him in the way.” In short, live the peaceable life, because the other, the life of the brawler, the easily angry, the passionate man, results in bad blood, bad man¬ ners, bad morals, bad religion and utter ruin. CHAPTER V LIVE A PURE LIFE Matt, v, 27-32 T HE visible is born of the invisible, the audible of the inaudible, the tangible of the intangible and the material of the immaterial. Everywhere in this wide world of phenomena, the seen, felt and heard is but the manifestation and offspring of that which is unseen, impalpable and in secret. We walk through a summer field, mantled with green and spangled with flowers of rainbow hue, vibrant wfith sound and palpitant with all forms of life. That symphony of sound, that galaxy of glory, that ever-changing pageant of beauty and of life, is altogether a product of forces, influences, principles — secret, silent and unseen. History with its reigns and dynasties, its courts and councils, its wars and conquests, its ever vary¬ ing and constantly changing scene of action, is the product of the invisible, the spiritual, the per¬ sonal. The deeds of men are but the outward symbols of their inward thoughts. What is true of the world at large is true of 82 LIVE A PURE LIFE 83 the world in little; what is true of the mass is true of the man; therefore the wise men of old have written in constantly varying form the eter¬ nal truth, “ Keep with all diligence thy heart, for out of it are the issues of life.” And therefore our Teacher, in this passage, seeks to fix the thought and attention of his hear¬ ers on the transcendent importance of keeping the springs of their lives free from impurity and pol¬ lution. In few and simple words the Master at once exhibits to his learners the heights of purity to which they are to climb. He begins at the foot of the mountain, by calling their attention to the law given by Moses and familiar to them from the earliest years of their childhood, “ Thou shalt not commit adultery.” This law, like that which just precedes it, “ Thou shalt not kill,” belongs to the primer of legislation. It is a law fundamental, simple, ob¬ vious, universal in its form. We can say with assurance that it is a law of nature and a law of nations. And this we can affirm, in spite of all that has been said and written concerning the primitive peoples, and the aboriginal savages. Every nation that makes a claim to be a na¬ tion has some law regarding this matter on its statute books, and even those peoples who have not risen to the dignity of written laws have some 8 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING form of a common and unwritten law against the practice of adultery. That is to say, every peo¬ ple has had some form or custom regulating the relations between the sexes, and in some degree recognizing the sanctity of family ties. And this we affirm so confidently, because even those sex¬ ual relations w T hich seem to us to disregard this law are, according to the method of interpreta¬ tion of the peoples among whom they prevail, considered a keeping of the law; since the world’s method of interpretation is that the law against adultery is one that is to be kept not internally and in the spirit, but externally and after the out¬ ward form. Therefore, while we may be speak¬ ing of a people or tribe like the Caribs, the Es¬ quimaux or the Aleutian Islanders, who practice polyandry, or of a people like the Fuegians, the native Australians and the Tasmanians, who practice polygyny, both polyandry and polygyny are observances of this law after the outer form; for, among all these peoples, while these rela¬ tions may be loose yet they are in some degree restricted, and while a civilized man might re¬ gard them as immoral we have no doubt that they consider themselves as a moral people and would repudiate the accusation that their marriage forms are not regulated by custom, which to them is law. LIVE A PURE LIFE 85 It is plain that Mohammedanism and Mor- monism, which to us are palpable departures from this law, by the Mohammedans and Mor¬ mons themselves are regarded as a keeping of this law. Each of these peoples pretend to live according to a law concerning the sacredness of marriage, and each of these peoples would re¬ pudiate the idea that they are adulterers because they hold and practice customs in their sexual re¬ lations which a higher civilization cannot approve. In the Congo State in East Africa we are af¬ forded an illustration among certain tribes to what extent this outward keeping of the law may go, while the plain spirit of the law is violated. I recollect to have read that among certain tribes in the Congo region, the law against adultery is very stringent, being punished, if I rightly recall, by the death penalty; and yet it is not an uncom¬ mon thing among them for a host, as an act of courtesy, to loan his wife to a guest. Surely the people of the United States pretend to and pride themselves on the keeping of this law, and yet, when we consider how lightly the marriage bond is held and how easily it may be dissolved — when we realize that we believe ourselves to have complied with the law when we have complied with the outer form of the law — the question presents itself to us whether we are in any fit posi- 86 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING tion to find fault with the other peoples of the earth. Nay, the point we emphasize is this — the stress is laid on the spirit of the law rather than on the form of the law, and the Master calls our attention to the necessity of keeping of the law against adultery in the heart. Jesus, in contrast to the teaching of all the world that the law against adultery is kept or ' broken externally, affirms that this law is kept or broken internally. Jesus recognizes and ap¬ proves the olden law, but he fulfills this law as he did that against murder by giving us the higher, truer meaning of the law. Says he, we must go deeper than the surface of the matter; the law must be made to apply to the heart and the spirit. The “ Do not do ” is made to read, “ Do not think,” “ Do not be.” The ob¬ servation or violation of this law lies in the heart before it appears in the life. In his words, “ Every one that looketh upon a woman for the purpose of lusting after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart,” we have set before us such an ideal and such a height of purity as the world had not dreamed of, such a height as seems almost unattainable. Yet who can deny the essential truth of the state¬ ment of the Master? Who can deny that what LIVE A PURE LIFE 87 is reasonable and desirable is the keeping of the law of purity in the heart and in the spirit? In these striking words of Christ we are given still another lesson as to what the religion of Christ really means — again we are afforded an example of what he means when he says, “ Ex¬ cept your righteousness shall exceed the righteous¬ ness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” What God demands in His children is not FORM righteousness, not the outward and mechan¬ ical conformity of the steps and life to a given norm, not sacrifices, services, prayers and profes¬ sions of the outer man, but He requires FACT righteousness, a setting right of the sources of action, thinking, willing — keeping pure the heart. Thus we are made to see, quite contrary to our beliefs and practices ofttimes, that religion is the realest of all relations, and the least formal of all expressions of life. We are to worship Him in the spirit and in truth. Having thus set before his hearers such an ideal of purity, the Master now seeks to encour¬ age them and to stimulate them to effort by ex¬ hibiting to them the worth of the kind of purity he inculcates. He says in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses such purity is worth your utmost sacrifice and it will demand and necessitate your 88 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING utmost sacrifice. This fact he illustrates to them under the figure of “ the eye ” and “ the hand.” In these words he teaches that that body which is dear to every man, must be sacrificed and counted of less value than the soul, which is dearer. These words contain figures and are not to be taken literally, for to interpret them literally is to violate the very principle he is trying to es¬ tablish. Christ is not teaching the inherency of evil in the body. He never held and never intimated this vagary of the Scholastic philosophy. But the violation of the law to which he is referring is peculiarly a temptation of the body, therefore the sacrifice of the body is a most apposite illus¬ tration of the principle he would establish. To take this figure literally, as did, the Manicheans, the Essenes and the monks of the Middle Ages, is to do violence to the spiritual principle which the law teaches. To read the lesson thus is to be false to the principle, which is, Purify the springs of action, the heart, mind and will. To cut off the hand, pluck out the eye, injure the body, is futile, for it does not purify the heart. To so interpret his lesson is to be guilty of that practice which the Master condemns, the outward keeping of the law. The end of the law is not the destruction of the body, but the purification LIVE A PURE LIFE 89 of it. In a word, the principle of religion here taught is that in living, the lower ought to be sacrificed to that which is higher. To paraphrase the text, it reads, “ If your eye delights in anything, if your hand would fain do anything which is destructive of the heart and the spirit life within, deny the body and sacrifice the flesh for the sake of the spirit.” The man is worth more than the body or than any part of it. The law which guides a wise man is, to be willing to sacrifice the lower to that which is higher; this law can be learned not by con¬ templation and meditation but by actually doing the thing required. Religion of this kind is an eminently practical religion. This is the principle that guides the true seeker after knowledge; the young man or woman who would make the attainment of knowledge the aim of his activities must be willing to plod along the weary, monotonous road which leads to learning. He must be willing to deny himself many a pleas¬ ure which is offered to him, to forego many a de¬ lightful day of idleness; he must be ready to work when his body would more willingly sleep, to tire his brain and try his nerve when the comforts of the flesh would beckon him to easy repose. In other words, to sacrifice his bodily comfort to his 9 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING mental enrichment. This must the student of art do; he must be actuated by a similar spirit. He must count his art above his eating, or drinking or ease; he must have the spirit of willingness to lay these things on the altar of self-sacrifice for his art’s sake. And of like kind must be the stuff of which is made the true seeker after the kingdom of heaven. This is the principle which actuated and which is illustrated in the story of » the three Israelitish young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the court of Nebuchad¬ nezzar, king of Babylon. For the sake of their religion, for the cause of their God, they were willing to keep themselves from the luxury, the ease and the temptations of the Babylonian court. For the sake of the higher good they were will¬ ing to forego the lower good, and so the blessing of their God rested upon them. This is the course which a wise and true man will pursue, as is intimated in the words, “ It is profitable for thee.” What the impure seeks, in yielding to his pas¬ sionate desires, is gratification, pleasure, happi¬ ness and, what seems to him in his blindness, good. What the impure gets is a hell of fire. An appetite is aroused within him that only fat¬ tens by what it feeds upon. A thirst is created that only increases the more he drinks. Having LIVE A PURE LIFE 9 i given himself over to sin he becomes the slave of sin, and the sense of liberty he knows no longer. How many a voluptuary, roue, panderer and slave of the flesh can and does testify to the truth of Christ’s teaching, “ It is profitable for thee ”! Here Christ’s religion joins its voice with com¬ mon morality, and practical wisdom, and declares in no uncertain tone that the way to the good, the blessed, the free life, is along that road which sacrifices the lower to the higher, the flesh to the spirit. Having thus set forth in such striking lines the purity and its worth which the man of Christ is to seek, the Master now makes a practical ap¬ plication of the lesson he has taught. In a former section of this discourse he spoke of a principle necessary for the promotion and well-being of the life of society; there, he said, have a life free from hate, anger and enmity toward the brother — live the peaceable life. In this passage he gives a principle that will preserve society’s chief bulwark and foundation; he makes a plea for the preservation of the home and the family. Christ’s application of the teaching concerning heart-purity in this connection evidences anew the importance of the institution of the family and shows the gravity of the chief peril which threatens it. 92 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING Marriage is a sacred relation; it is built on a moral conviction at the very beginning. It is an institution of society, but more than this it is an ordinance of God. The violation of the mar¬ riage relation is more than a mere breach of con¬ tract, like the dissolution of partnership or the failure to perform a stipulated piece of work; it is a transgression of the law of God, and it is from this point that Christ here views it. Says Milton, “ Marriage is the highest form of society,” and Fraser has written, “ Marriage is the parent of civil society.” 1 Says Thwing, u The conception of marriage as purely secular has been at the basis of our modern divorce leg¬ islation.” “ The institution of marriage rests upon a triangular base. It is founded upon the interests of the individual, upon the interest of the State, and upon divine ordinance. To weaken this foundation upon any side causes the struc¬ ture to totter.” Marriage on the divine side is for the con¬ tinuance of the race, the protection and training of children and the development of the character of the husband and wife. That marriage is a divine institution the State bears witness when it appoints the clergy as its official to perform the 1 See on this entire question, “The Family,” by C. F. and C. F. B. Thwing, and “ Divorce and Divorce Legislation,” by Woolsey. LIVE A PURE LIFE 93 sacred ceremony. But marriage also sustains a relation to the State; it is the best basis for social order; affords the best provision for the sick, the aged and the infirm; and the principles, useful to the State, of justice, courage and truth are best taught and best promoted in the family. Marriage also has a distinct relation to the individual; it offers the best school of development for the noblest per¬ sonality and is in itself the truest type of the di¬ vine government, as is evidenced by the frequency with which Jesus quotes the family relations in illustrating God’s attitude toward His children. Thus, the preservation of that which is highest and best in the marriage relation is the preserva¬ tion of the home, the preservation of the family, the preservation of the State, and the preserva¬ tion of the highest and best within man and within the race. But nothing so militates against this sacred and helpful institution of marriage as impurity. This is what Christ teaches in this passage. Impurity violates the marriage bond in fact, and therefore it may be recognized as broken in form. It is not our desire to give statistics on a subject on which statistics are unavailable, and on which they are inefficient in detail. All that statistics do is to reveal the frequency with which the mar- 94 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING riage bond is dissolved and the lightness with which so many hold the marriage tie. We be¬ lieve, however, that the root of most of the di¬ vorces which weaken and disfigure our society in this country, is impurity and the violation of this heart principle taught by Christ. When we take into account those divorces which are granted for open violations of the statute against adultery and those many more which are granted for “ incompatibility ” and for other fictitious reasons, but which in reality are granted for impurity, we have named the sad cause of a very bad consequence. Indeed, this subject of our loose marriage bonds and loose marriage laws is becoming one which gives pause to our complacency and moral conceit. We are ashamed and astonished to learn that in New England more divorces are granted an¬ nually, in proportion to the size of the popula¬ tion, than in any other country on the globe. The overthrow of the Roman family was the over¬ throw of Rome, and while we do not immediately fear any such sad consequence for our own loved land, yet it behooves sane and thinking men to realize the importance of the peril and the trans¬ cendent importance of the remedy which is sug¬ gested in the teaching of him who spake as never man spake. One thing this passage brings before LIVE A PURE LIFE 95 our minds most clearly: We are sometimes in¬ clined to ask, What is worth while? The answer given to that question in the words of our Mas¬ ter is, It is worth while to live for the family and for the home. Home is the cradle in which have been rocked the bravest, the best, the most worthy of earth’s sons and daughters; home is the schoolroom in which man can learn those prin¬ ciples which best preserve and those practices which best promote the beautiful, the true and the good in all life; home is the altar at which re¬ spect, reverence, worship and religion are earliest and truliest inculcated; home is that quiet spot from which we set forth to brave the seas and storms of life; no more inspiring, restraining or comforting influence can accompany life’s way¬ farer on life’s way than the memory of a pure and pleasant home. Home is that port towards which all the faithful are steering; it is the type of heaven, the jewel of earth, the mountain of strength, the quiet valley of pleasure, the sweet¬ est word in our language, the most potent, benef¬ icent influence in our lives. No worthier, nobler work can a mortal aspire to than to be the builder of a true home — that place “ where each member loves the other and where all love God ”; and no home can be truly founded unless it rest on such a purity of heart 96 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING and spirit as our Savior here seeks to inculcate. “ This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill.” CHAPTER VI LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE Matt, v, 33-37 W HO has not heard a person express his surprise that an explicit command against lying is not contained in the two tables of the Mosaic law? As well might one exclaim because the solar spectrum does not appear in a ray of light, until it is broken into its component parts. The col¬ ors are the light. There is no ray of light with¬ out the seven colors, and there is no command¬ ment without the truth. The table of the ten words, reduced to its ulti¬ mate analysis, is but one commandment: Thou shalt be true; true to thy God, true to thy neigh¬ bor, and true to thyself. But there are always some literalists who ask for the explicit precept instead of the implicit principle; for these there are many commands against lying in Scripture, but none more far- reaching, none more authoritative, none more distinct and binding than the words spoken here by our Master, “Let your speech be, Yea, yea; 97 98 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING Nay, nay.” Christ begins his exposition of this subject by adverting to the practice of the ancients of Israel. He calls their attention to the law re¬ corded in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and sums up the import of that law in the words, “ Thou shalt not forswear thyself.” The practice of oath taking among the an¬ cients was common and prevalent. Their oaths were so many and so varied, so lightly regarded that the people had lost sight of the original meaning of the practice. “ Their number was endless; men swore by heaven, by the earth, by the sun, by the prophets, by the temple, by Jerusalem, by the altar, by the wood used for it, by the sacrifices, by the temple vessels, by their own heads.” 1 “ The garrulous, exaggerating, crafty Jew needed to be checked, rather than helped, in his untruthfulness, but the guardians of the purity of the law had invented endless oaths, with minute discriminations, and verbal shades and catches, which did not expressly name God, or the temple, or the altar, and these, the people might use, without scruple, mock oaths, harmless to themselves and of no binding force! ” So common had they become that their daily con¬ versation was interlarded with these adjurations 1 “ The Life of Christ,” by Geikie. LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 99 and asseverations. It is to this foolish custom and harmful prac¬ tice of the people that Jesus makes direct refer¬ ence when he calls their attention to the futility and emptiness of the practice — and makes plain to them that it is utter folly and unwisdom. “ Thou shalt not swear,” says Christ, “ by the heaven, for it is the throne of God,” etc. Such oaths, says the Master, lend neither weight nor strength nor certainty to your utterance, for all of these things are beyond your authority, influ¬ ence or control. What authority have you in the heavens — it is the throne of God. What rule have you in the earth — or what do you de¬ termine on H is footstool? So much are you creatures of dependence and so subject are you to the fixed order of things, that you cannot of yourselves make one hair of your head white or black. Therefore, do not be foolish, and do not talk without meaning. To deck your talk with oaths is to reveal yourself a simpleton. But what did this practice of oath taking evi¬ dence? Was it not the clearest proof of the prevalence of untruth and lying? An honest man does not need to take an oath that what he says is true; and a liar only colors a deeper dye his lie, by his oath. The common practice among the Jews showed this to be a fact. Truth 100 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING was made to be untruth. That which is simple is made to be double; a distinction is made where no difference exists. An untruth is an untruth, whether it is sworn to or merely affirmed. The distinction between perjury and false¬ hood, and the different degrees and binding qual¬ ities of oaths, simply declared that a man was permitted to speak falsely, without guilt, if he were not bound by an oath. In other words, lying is permissible, and the way for it is smoothed and made ready by the technicalities and connivance of the law. The first evil result is that darkness is made to be light, lying is not lying, if there be no oath. The second result of such fine distinctions is that lying under oath is not lying, except the oath be of a sufficiently sacred or terrifying an order. The total result is that lying is fostered and nur¬ tured, and truth is strangled by the meaningless distinction of the doctors of the law. Truth is slain by the letter of the law, and lying is hedged from attack by the protection of the law. Consequently there is a moral con¬ fusion within the man, and the entire life is weak¬ ened by the subtle poison. We are amused at these practices and distinc¬ tions of the Jews, ancient and modern, and at the ingenuity in lying prevalent in the Oriental LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE IOI nations of to-day. We contemn and condemn them, but the fair question arises, “ Are we not guilty of a like practice with them, differing in form but akin in spirit?” Is there not a like condition of affairs among ourselves, to-day? Take the world of modern business operations, and while the great sub¬ structure is formed of truth and honesty else the business world could not endure, yet in detail there are many departures from the straight and narrow way. The law of common honesty and of simple truth does not apply as largely in busi¬ ness to-day and in this country as we might wish it did; and when it is applied, far too often it obtains because, “Honesty is the best policy”; applied because it is a policy rather than a prin¬ ciple, which, from the standpoint of Christ’s re¬ ligion, means that it is not applied at all. The legal maxim of “ caveat emptor” “ let the buyer beware or be on his guard,” is of far wider necessity of application than ever was intended when it was established in law, and with the subtlety and refinements of its application law¬ yers are only too familiar. Lies are told in calico and in wool, in leather and in groceries, in china and in wood every day of the business life. Many are the sellers who will give you less goods or poorer goods, if they io2 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING can be sure to escape a lawsuit, or if they are in no peril of infringing the letter of the statute. The phrases, “ I warrant ” or “ I guarantee,” which formerly had a definite meaning, with cer¬ tain sellers to-day mean nothing more than a form of words to fill up the moment of conversation while the customer is deliberating a purchase. Take that great field of enterprise, modern “ fake ” advertisements. Just think if one could take the statements of the advertisements for truth, what an inestimable boon would have lighted upon this earth. If the goods set forth in these red-letter advertisements did what they claim to do, no short man but what would become tall — no tall man but what could be made short, no bald heads but what could be covered with a luxurious growth; deafness, blindness, dumbness, would have vanished; rheumatism, cancer, consumption and all the ills to which flesh is heir would have disappeared; every poor man would be made rich, every homely woman would become sud¬ denly beautiful, and the day of the millennium would be at hand. But what are the facts? No one who reads these personal advertisements ever dreams that they are literally true; no one who writes these personal advertisements ever imagines that the reader will think them to be true. The reader knows that he is reading a perversion, a LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 103 misrepresentation, an artistic lie, and the only ques¬ tion in his mind is not how much of this is false, but in the very last analysis, what is the remotest possibility of a grain of truth in the entire glow¬ ing statement. One thing is surely evidenced from this realm of reflection, and that is that to-day, our “ yea ” is by no means “yea,” nor our “nay,” “nay”; and that the sacred principle of the truth is far too lightly regarded. It is true that these are what are termed “ fake ” advertisements; it is like¬ wise true that there is a movement on foot among honorable business men, to purge the pages of advertisement — and we rejoice to see this move¬ ment. But the very existence of such a movement is paramount evidence of its need and proof positive of the prevalence of lying advertisements. May the day speedily come, when newspaper and magazine editors shall clearly see that truth is not only the best policy, but the only abiding principle by which to test the advertisements they shall print, and the only sure foundation on which to build a confidence among their patrons and readers. Even the practice of taking an oath in court and the distinction between perjury and non-per¬ jury is a relic of barbarism, and evidences the io 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING world’s need of the very counsel and command which the Master is here giving. Now turn, if you will, to that command which Christ gives, “ Let your yea be yea and your nay, nay,” and is not the common, wide-spread atti¬ tude of the world toward the truth tried and con¬ demned by this simple law? These words, in the largest interpretation, are not a command against perjury, nor against profanity, though each of these may be made to come under the law, but they are against untruth in the inward parts — in the mind and heart and spirit. The untrue spirit may reveal itself in the thought, may ex¬ press itself in the word, may manifest itself in the deed. You might correct the word, align the thought, make the deed to conform to a given standard, and yet have the spirit still untrue. As in the other instances of the new law previously adverted to, so here, the Master does not give a negative command but a positive principle — which runs, “ Live the true life.” The children of God ought to be true, because they are God’s children and God is true. That God is true is everywhere evidenced, where there is any manifestation of God. With¬ out being true He cannot be God. God’s truth is evidenced in the earth which He has created and which bears the impress of His being. He is true LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 105 in the stars, true in the forces and processes of na¬ ture — the laws of science are possible only be¬ cause He is true. If God were not true there could be no science, no knowledge and no safety in living. As this is the manifestation of His be¬ ing in the world, so this is the revelation of His character in the Word. This is the Scripture testimony concerning God, “ He is the same yes¬ terday, to-day and forever, with him is no vari¬ ableness, neither shadow of turning.” He is spoken of as “ God that cannot lie.” And Plato has poetically expressed this fact in the words, Truth is his body and light is his shadow.” Those who bear His spiritual image and are His spiritual children, should be like Him in this, that they are true. Moreover, the children of God should speak the truth. Greenleaf, in his work on Evidence, quoting from Reid’s “ Inquiry into the Human Mind,” shows, “ That the Author of Nature, who intended that we should be social creatures, and that we should receive a great part of our knowledge from others, hath implanted two prin¬ ciples in our natures, that tally with each other.” 2 “ The first of these principles is a propensity to speak the truth and to use the signs of language, 2 Fid. “A Treatise on the Law of Evidence,” by Simon Greenleaf, Part I: Chap. III. io6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING so as to convey our real sentiments.” This may be termed the principle of veracity. In other words, truth is in accordance with our nature and lying is a doing violence to our na¬ tures. Children by nature speak the truth, and it is only after experience and under temptation that they turn to lying. We have by nature an instinct for the truth and though “ there may be temptations to falsehood, which would be too strong for the natural principle of veracity, un¬ aided by principles of honor or virtue; yet where there is no such temptation we speak truth by instinct; and this instinct is the principle I have been explaining.” Moreover, our author continues, “ there is within us, implanted by the Supreme Being, a dis¬ position to confide in the veracity of others, and to believe what they tell us — this may be called the principle of credulity.” Children, by nature, believe that what is told them is the truth — wit¬ ness with what readiness they receive and believe in the statements concerning Santa Claus, the fair¬ ies or any other impossible or imaginable beings. Without this principle of credulity — without this predisposition to belief in what is told to us, there could be no such thing as the progress of knowledge in the world, and our own individual experience would be the limit of our knowledge. LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 107 Credulity, moreover, is a gift of nature and not the result of reasoning or experience; it is the strongest in childhood and weakens only through experience and the disappointing contact with a deceiving world. The above statements, while not verbatim, are yet substantially taken from Dr. Reid’s remarks quoted in Greenleaf. This presents before our minds the iniquity of lying. Lying is one of the most subtle and potent evils which can assail human society. It is doing violence to our natural instincts; it is out of the order of things. It is the greater evil because of the difficulty of its detection. A thief can be traced, a murderer can be discovered, but the liar leaves no trail in the air. What has not a lie ac¬ complished? It has defamed characters, dis¬ rupted households, created wars, overthrown thrones, perverted religion and kindled the fires of hell. The lie is evil again, because of its evil associ¬ ations. The lie seldom travels singly. Says O. W. Holmes, “ The devil hath many tools but a lie is a handle that will fit them all.” It is the handmaid of every other kind of vice, the evil helper of every form of iniquity. The murderer and the thief are primarily liars. The principle of lying is back of murder, which is denying the truth that another has the same right to live as I io8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING have. The thief is in principle a liar, because he denies that to be another’s which he hath taken. Lying is a great evil because of its propagating powers. Lies multiply like guinea pigs by the dozens. That man who thinks he can go free with one little lie, does not understand the nature of lying. The man who seeks to use the lie as his servant, is seldom free until himself becomes the slave. No man can become the master of the lie. Lying is a great evil to humanity because of its pervasiveness. There is no form of social re¬ lation into which it will not thrust its sneaking face; there is no relation too sacred for it to re¬ spect. There are the “ white lies ” of society; the “ black lies ” of commerce; the “ gilt lies ” of diplomatic relations; the “ glorified lies ” for the supposed sake of religion, illustrated most aptly by Job’s comforters; the “ party lies ” as Addison terms them for political purposes; of these latter Addison remarks, that some persons seem to think that if the iniquity of the lie can be dis¬ tributed over the many it loses something of the personal sin, not realizing that a drop of ink can discolor and pollute a considerable body of pure water. The lie is a great evil because it deceives the liar. That definition of the lie, attributed to the LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 109 Sunday-school scholar and illustrating a too com¬ mon opinion of the use of the lie —“ a lie is an abomination unto the Lord and a very present help in trouble ”— is false, absolutely false. The lie is a broken reed upon which to lean at any time; it is a saving from present trouble by sign¬ ing a contract for a future trouble; it is paying a a present bill by giving a worthless note for a larger sum. And how foolish is the practice of parents to lead and invite their little children to flee to the false protection of a lie, under threat of punishment, for telling the truth! “Did you break that vase? If you did you shall be sorely punished for it. Now tell me the truth.” The child moves naturally along the line of the least peril, and “ did not break the vase,” but fright¬ fully shatters the truth. Lying is an evil to be dreaded, because it makes a dupe and a slave of the liar. A liar must con¬ tinue to lie. Few habits are more easily ac¬ quired— none more hardly broken. Frequent lying leads to habitual lying; habitual lying, to un¬ conscious lying, until the liar arrives at that point where he cannot know the truth though he would; where he cannot distinguish between the concepts of his lying imagination and the recollections of his memory. Iago the subtle, artistic liar is a case in point. So frequently, so skillfully, so per- no THE LIFE WORTH LIVING sistently did he falsely defame the character of Desdemona, that wise critics have reached the conclusion that at the end Iago himself believed those accusations to be true which at the outset he knew to be false. If Shakespeare painted this character thus, it only shows us that he understood the full peril and deceivableness of lying. But, to change abruptly from the darkness of lying to the white light of truth, the closing words of this passage set before us the sublime and simple freedom of the truth. There is surely MORE TRUTH THAN FALSEHOOD IN SOCIETY, ELSE THE WORLD COULD NOT EXIST. The words of Carlyle concerning the religion of Mahomet are here apposite. “A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house! If he do not know and follow truly the proper¬ ties of mortar, burnt clay and what else he works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish heap — it will fall straightway.” The fact that there are great business houses, large commercial enterprises, banking systems, and a world of busi¬ ness conducted on credit, says plainer than any words can — that men live and love the truth. Were it not that where the lie abounds the truth much more abounds, society itself would cease to exist. It is well for us to realize the peril of the lie LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE hi and the traitorous spirit of that false friend who through misrepresentation of being helpful would gain entrance into the city of Man-Soul, for its betrayal and destruction. It is right for us, like¬ wise, to be aware that truth is mighty and must prevail. We must admire the honest man — the man of truth, whenever or wherever we find him. In the Life of T. H. Huxley, written by his son, there are no words that more truly grip the heart of the reader and kindle his admiration, no words which more tersely and truly picture in miniature the subject of the sketch, than those words taken from a letter written by Huxley to his son Leonard. “ I know well that ninety-nine out of a hundred of my fellows would call me atheist, infidel, and all the other usual hard names.” . . . “ But I cannot help it, one thing people shall not call me with justice and that is —* a liar.” Huxley loved the truth, lived the truth, worshiped the truth, and we believe that it was his devotion to the truth, coupled with his ab¬ horrence and utter dread of believing or teaching that which he did not know to be absolutely true, that kept his path on the plane of the material, and made him fearful of trusting himself, in those regions where the eye could not see, the ear could not hear and the sense could not test, the facts of knowledge. While we may not agree 112 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING with him in his position, it is a poor soul that cannot admire his rich possession — and bow with respect and honor to a man who tried to be true. This simple, strong text, “ Let your yea be yea and your nay, nay,” is a call of the Master to all noble minds to cultivate the truth, such truth as is here indicated, truth of mind and spirit — truth in the inward parts. For on the truth rests a man’s knowledge, his morality, his religion — his manhood, his usefulness to his fellows and his ac¬ ceptance with God. Blessed are the true in heart for they shall see and know the truth. CHAPTER VII LIVE A LARGE LIFE Matt, v, 38-42 T HERE are no “ little things ” in this earth which God has made. I sometimes wonder whether one, properly speaking, can refer to any¬ thing in this earth as a “ little thing,” speaking not as to mass, weight and appearance, but as to place, function and importance. In this vast ma¬ terial system there are the mountains, the seas, the oceans, the spheres, but there are also the drops of water, the insects and the microscopic creatures — and the student of the microscope in¬ forms us that it would almost seem as though the Creator had bestowed the greater thought and attention on those creatures which we term little than on those which we term great. The Constitution of Nature, scientifically con¬ sidered, is the constitution of “ little things,” for all that we see, know, or can know in the world of matter is the arrangement and rearrangement, the laws which govern and control molecules, which you or I cannot see, and atoms which it tires us to think about. If we would get an idea of the 11 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING minuteness of an atom, a recent illustration of Lord Kelvin will help us to do so. Said he, “ Raise a drop of water to the size of the earth and raise an atom in the same proportion, and the atom will then be in some place between the size of a marble and a cricket ball.” Along this same line of thought Professor Brashear of Lehigh University makes this comparison: “If you fill a tiny vessel of one centimeter cube with hydro¬ gen corpuscles, or electrons, you can place therein, in round numbers, five hundred and twenty-five octillions of them. If these corpuscles are al¬ lowed to run out of the vessel at the rate of one thousand a second it will require seventeen quin- tillions of years to empty it.” And yet the Cre¬ ator has thought of the atom and the corpuscle and has given it its place, function and work. At all events there are no unimportant things in this earth; and the Creator has regard for the one as for the other. There are no “ little things ” in the economy of God. He regards kings and princes, potentates and great personages; but like¬ wise the poor, the sick, the aged, the infirm and the child are his. The Father has consideration of one as of the other. There are no little, unimportant things in that life which Jesus teaches us is worth living. His religion takes into account the great principles of LIVE A LARGE LIFE 115 eternity, but also the small practices of our daily lives. The large decisions, the mountains of truth, receive his notice, but also the daily, humble, ap¬ parently insignificant deed, word and thought have our attention called to them. The spirit, to which our earnest thought is di¬ rected in his present words, is great, grand, kingly, Godlike — Live a large life, a life of love, forbearance, forgiveness and patience. The instances in which we are directed to do this are little, petty, insignificant, matters of expedience, prudence and mere good manners. Because this is the method of his teaching, is it not all the more true to the facts and experiences of life? Live a large life is the grand theme, among the common trivialities of the common day is the illustration of the theme. At the outset the Master calls our attention to that law which had been received from Moses, that law which had regulated the custom, practice and habit of the people for centuries, that law which was supposed to have the warrant of au¬ thority, and the endorsement of God Himself. It is recorded in Exodus XXI, 23-25, “ And if mis¬ chief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” This law is known through all ii 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING times and in all jurisprudence as the “ lex talionis,” the law of retaliation, recompense and revenge. And this is a law which is exceed¬ ingly congenial to human nature, because it ac¬ cords so perfectly with the impulses of nature. It is a law which springs unbidden to regulate the conduct of man. We find the root of it deeper than the nature of man, even in the nature of the brute. Snarl at a dog, make a threatening ges¬ ture at a dog, and the result is that he will show you his teeth, and stand ready to act upon the “ lex talionis.” You are, let us say, sitting in your study, reading or writing, suddenly from the nursery below issue sounds of conflict, blows are heard to fall, cries agitate the slumbering air, and the sound of weeping strikes upon your ear. With the instinct of natural judgeship you leave your quiet work and descend to “ hear the cause.” Is it not usually stated thus: “ He did it to me and I did it to him ”? Remarks by the court of a moral nature. u It don’t make any difference; he had no right to hit me, and I only did to him just what he did to me.” The case is concluded according to the wisdom or the unwisdom of the court, but the principle of “ lex talionis ” has been illustrated again for the millioneth time in the world of childhood. And as this is a primitive law, manifesting itself in the childhood of every LIVE A LARGE LIFE 117 man, so has it ever been manifested in the child¬ hood of the race. I presume that in almost every nation illustra¬ tions of the “ lex talionis ” can be found, but I be¬ lieve that nowhere can we find a better, nor an earlier illustration of this law, than in that re¬ markable Code of Khammurabbi which has in re¬ cent years come to light. This is the oldest legal code in existence; it dates from 2300 B. c., a thousand years before Moses, and illustrates to us the character of a civilization contemporary with that of Abraham’s day. In this code the “ lex talionis ” appears prominently. We give but a few of the more plain instances of it. The ideal of punishment is one that shall balance the crime, and be like the crime in kind and degree. “ If one destroys the eye of a free-born man, his eye shall one destroy.” 1 “ If any one breaks the limb of a free-born man, his limb one shall break.” “ If a builder has built a house for some one and has not made his work firm, and if the house he built has fallen and has killed the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.” If the house falls and kills the owner’s son — the son of the builder is to be killed. If a slave is killed by the falling house, a slave must 1 “ The Code of Khammurabbi ”— Historians’ History of the World, Vol. I, p. 49S. 118 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING be given to the owner of the house. If a doctor treats a slave, cutting him with a bronze lancet and the slave dies, the doctor must give the owner another slave. Thus runs the law of like for like, in the childhood of the race. This “ lex talionis ” was also a theory among the Greeks, not practiced perhaps in their laws, but appearing in their view of the divine govern¬ ment. They believed that in the order of Prov¬ idence the one who committed a sin against his brother should suffer as penalty that same wrong done by another to him. The one who stole should suffer through being stolen from. The man who lied should be deceived by lies. Inhu¬ manity would beget inhumanity. This latter is illustrated by the old story of the father who, when his son was maltreating him by dragging him by the hair of the head through the streets of the city, cried out, when they had reached the forum, “ Drag me no further, for I only dragged my father to the forum.” We have already seen that this “ lex talionis ” is one of the written laws of the Mosaic legisla¬ tion. Now while this law was to be enforced by the legally constituted authorities, and in this re¬ spect was better than the application of the law by the individual himself, because less liable to abuse, yet in this law the RIGHT of retaliation is LIVE A LARGE LIFE 119 recognized and the spirit of retaliation is incul¬ cated. Therefore the literal man concludes, I have the law back of my desire, and I have a right to MY rights. It is against this principle, against this spirit, against this maxim, so com¬ monly heard — I have a right to my rights — that Jesus opposes a better principle, and illus¬ trates it by several instances and in four fields of application. The principle which he sets at the head of his discussion is do not oppose evil WITH EVIL. The first illustration which he offers where this principle will apply is in our contact with the pas¬ sionate man. Now it is very clear that a man has the right to life and his bodily safety — the pas¬ sionate man is the man who would rob you of this right, and would injure you in your body and per¬ son. How irritating, exasperating, provoking is such a man. This human pepper-box, this ani¬ mate volcano, this troublesome sore on the body of society! Who can avoid him? Who is not fated to meet him, sometime, somewhere? Now in the home, again in the street, to-day in our business transactions, to-morrow in the sanctity of the church. And wherever you meet him he is ever the same; the man of unmodified conceit, of overbearing manner, of limitless selfishness, of irritating self-importance. Always he must be i2o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING approached with slippered feet and with gentle words lest he burst out into a passion and take up arms against his nearest neighbor, and smite him on the cheek. The natural effect of this man’s at¬ titude, of his temper and of his act, is to provoke the military and warlike spirit that lurks within every man. We have the desire to meet violence with violence, and to treat this form of human dis¬ temper homeopathically. This is the spirit, this the temptation, the Master would restrain. Says he, “ Meet not such an one with an evil spirit, but oppose his evil, and ungoverned soul, with a restrained and governed spirit.” Let a man,examine this rule and he must see that the Master is not counseling cowardice and a craven spirit. The man who has the spirit of Christ is the man of real courage; he is one who can endure, bear, take punishment; he is the man of self-mastery — far better, far braver, far nobler than the other. He is the man who illus¬ trates the wisest of the wise man’s proverbs, “ He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” 2 Such an one is the real com¬ mander of the situation, and must have the heart, courage and self-control of the brave man who 2 Prov. xvi, 32. LIVE A LARGE LIFE I 21 would tame a wild beast. This is but a practical application of the irrefutable principle that, “ A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.” As a principle this is true; it calls for wisdom in its application, like every other principle, and the wise man will realize that sometimes the way to peace is through war. A second right plainly recognized as belonging to man is his right to his own property. There be those who would deny this right, sometimes forcibly, but more often under color of law. It is the price which one pays for living in grega¬ rious relations, that one must meet this kind of man — the litigious man, the man who would de¬ prive you of your estate, or who seems to find delight in worrying and putting you to endless an¬ noyance in the keeping of that which is yours. This kind of a man is avaricious, inconsiderate, cruel, troublesome. It is painful to live near him. It is a supreme test of character to encounter him. He is the kind of human weed, which spreads broadcast the seeds of discontent, strife, bitter¬ ness, bad-feeling and hatred. Do you respect him? Do others respect him? Would you be like him? You see the evil manifested in him — there¬ fore avoid becoming like him. How? Jesus tells us in this fortieth verse. Remember that i22 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING personality is worth more than things. Remem¬ ber that power is worth more than property, and good is worth more than “ goods.” The litigious man may get the “ goods,” but Jesus directs how you may get “ the good.” What are you seek¬ ing? What is your aim in life? Is it character, is it to be, rather than to possess? Then here is your opportunity for real enrichment. The Master’s counsel in this fortieth verse is not only sound religion but it is sound prudence and com¬ mon sense, as experience hath so often verified, and as we shall briefly exhibit later. A third right of man, approved in reason and recognized in our national constitution, is the right to liberty. The right to be the arbiter of his own destiny, the right to be the determiner of his own goal. The right to go if he would go, and to refrain from going if he would not go. But one does not travel far in this world before he meets with the overbearing man. The man who has such a realization of his own rights, such a confidence in his own judgment and opinions, that he fails to recognize the right, judgment and opinion of any other mortal. This kind of a hu¬ man insect you meet most frequently in public and crowded places. He infests hotels, ferry-boats, cars and any place where the people gather to¬ gether, and wherever you find him you find him LIVE A LARGE LIFE 123 asserting himself, elbowing his way through the crowd and seeking to compel the many to go the way of the one. Now it is perfectly possible and perfectly competent for you to accept his chal¬ lenge, to make a row, to insist on your rights, to urge your vote, to subscribe your veto to the un¬ reasonable will of such a man. It is competent, but, says the Master, it is not worth while so to do. Yield the technicality of your right, leave the worthless victory to the little man covered with the tin medals, the rewards of his brag¬ gadocio, and go your calm and peaceful way, conscious that you have gained a great battle over self, and aware of the approval of every great and good spirit in the universe. This is the kind of man of whom Oliver Wendell Holmes writes, in his “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table”: “ The qualities which tend to make me hate the man himself are such as I am so much disposed to pity, that, except under immediate aggravation, I feel kindly enough to the worst of them. It is such a sad thing to be born a sneaking fellow, so much worse than to inherit a hump-back or a couple of club-feet, that I sometimes feel as if we ought to love the crippled souls, if I may use this expression, with a certain tenderness which we need not waste on noble natures. One who is born with such a congenital incapacity that nothing 124 THE life worth living can make a gentleman of him is entitled, not to our wrath, but to our profoundest sympathy.” The last class to which the Master refers, as persons who interfere with our rights and privi¬ leges, are those who tend to injure you in your kindness and charity. I like the way in which this is put — it is a man’s right to give, it is a rich privilege to him to be charitable, nothing will make him a larger or happier man than the exer¬ cise of these graces. But how many become dis¬ couraged and disheartened in their charity and giving, by being continually accosted by the asker and continually defrauded by the borrower. There are leeches and lamprey eels in the animal world, there are parasites in the vegetable world, and there are those in the world of men and women who are professional frauds and blood¬ suckers, who never laboring yet desire to eat, who never giving yet desire to get, who live by their ignoble and graceless cheek, and who laugh at you and me for being easy marks for their false and pathetic appeals. Now, many a liberal soul and many a charitably minded man has allowed this class of person to rob him of that which is worth more than his golden trash, even of his generous heart. Many a man has said, “ I have been ‘ taken in ’ so often, deceived so frequently, that I am resolved never to give to any man or any LIVE A LARGE LIFE 12 5 cause again.” To such a hasty and unwise re¬ solve the Master here says, “Don’t!” Keep your spirit of liberality; do not allow it to be de¬ stroyed; exercise that same breadth of judgment in your giving, that you do in your business, you cannot always make a profit on every transaction, bear with gracious fortitude these provoking losses, and never permit these grasping and thiev¬ ing parasites of society to steal from you the right to live the large, blessed and happy life of liber¬ ality. Now if we have carefully observed, while the Master has been talking, we have seen that the purpose of this principle, of not resisting evil with evil but of meeting the evil with good, is for the sake of the man practicing it. This is where the first returns are to be seen, in the self. It is not for the sake of the violent, nor the litigious, nor the overbearing man, that you are to observe this law, but to keep you from being like them. The Master is teaching his disciples, giving counsel to his children. Such a disposition, such a life, vic¬ torious in “ little things,” will make you a com¬ mander, a master, a hero, a truly great man. The man who can look beyond the immediate moment, past the present annoyance, over the head of the little fellow who stands insisting on his rights, is a truly great man, living a large life. 126 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING But a second good result follows: nothing will more promote the kingdom of heaven than such living as is here indicated. What becomes of quarrels with only one party to fight? What of law-suits over coats, if the other party says, “ Here, take my cloak also ”? Given this spirit and the case is settled out of court. What hap¬ pens to the joy of victory of the overbearing man when the other says, “ Why certainly, two miles if you choose ” ? Why, all the joy and spice is gone for the mean spirit of the insistent man, and he is far more likely to yield a foot or two more of the sidewalk to the one whom he thinks is crowd¬ ing him. Observe: so great and pervasive is the religion of Jesus Christ that it leavens the trivialities of daily life. How greatly would the home be im¬ proved if there were less insistence on “ my rights ” and “ thy rights.” How would busi¬ ness be made more pleasant and more profit¬ able, if there were no litigious employers and no overbearing clerks! How the church would be beautified and glorified, if each in honor preferred the other. Observe: the man who has a spirit of this kind must find roses along life’s path, the fruit of his gentle sow¬ ing. “ Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Fire feeds fire; hate breeds hate; LIVE A LARGE LIFE 127 kindness begets kindness; and love reflects love. In the Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa’di we read this incident, “ I was seated in a vessel, along with some persons of distinction, when a boat sunk astern of us and two brothers were drawn into the whirlpool. One of our gentlemen called to the pilot, saying/ Save those two drowning men and I will give you a hundred dinars! ’ The pilot went and rescued one of them, but the other perished. I observed, ‘ That man’s time was come, therefore you were tardy in assisting him and alert in saving this other.’ The pilot smiled and replied, ‘ What you say is the essence of in¬ evitable necessity; yet was my zeal more hearty in rescuing this one because on an occasion when I was tired in the desert he set me on a camel; whereas, when a boy, I had received a horse¬ whipping from that other.’ God Almighty was all justice and equity: whoever labored unto good experienced good in himself; and he who toiled unto evil experienced evil.” It is a fact hard for us to believe, that not he who has had injustice done him but he who does injustice is the most injured. Yet some one may say, “ These principles are impossible and impracticable.” How do you know? There has never been but One who has perfectly tried this way; he it is who counsels this 128 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING way for us. Says Lessing, “ The Christian re¬ ligion has been tried for eighteen centuries, and the religion of Christ remains to be tried.” This is the religion of Christ. Try it! CHAPTER VIII LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE Matt, v, 43-48 I N the past four divisions of this great dis¬ course Jesus has been treating of a morality worth practicing. In this exhibition he has made plain to his hearers that the religion which he taught was truly ethical. So emphatically is morality insisted upon that, did we separate this part of the discourse from its context, one might conclude that religion is only morality. Yet we find that the morality which he prescribed is not a mechanical conform¬ ity to a fixed norm but the natural fruit of a right spirit — the emphasis being laid on the life which is within, rather than the life which is without, and thus marking for us the true relation of re¬ ligion to morality. The morality which he taught, while based on the profoundest principles, yet extends to the ver¬ iest commonplaces of life. In these four divi¬ sions referred to Jesus had made plain that we ought to live a peaceable life — free from heart- hate; we ought to live a pure life — free from 129 I 3 0 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING heart-lust; we ought to live a true life — in word and act and thought; and we ought to live a large life — above the insistent application of “ my rights.” Thus inductively has the Master led us up to the heart of morality and the spirit of right living, which is love. The stage in the discourse we have now reached is, therefore, the summing up of that which has gone before and the introduction to that right¬ eousness worth attaining of which he is about to speak. In other words, love is the central point in his discourse, as it should be the central point in life; it is pivotal in one as in the other; it is that vital, focal point where morality meets and merges into religion. Love is that great law of the Scriptures, for the determination of a man’s right relation to his fellows and a man’s right relation to his God. Given such a love in the life as is here pictured, and the man stands in the proper relation to God and to his brethren. Love, there¬ fore, is the spring of all true morality and love is the only foundation of perfect righteousness. In short, it is the presence, power and guidance of love that makes the perfect man. The perfect life, which is now to be the theme of the Master’s teaching, is presented to his LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 131 hearers in striking contrast to the imperfect life, which is the life of the world. We find that imperfect life evidenced and authorized in the im¬ perfect law of Moses. In Deuteronomy the twenty-third chapter and the sixth and seventh verses we read, “ Thou shalt not seek their (the Moabite’s and Ammonite’s) peace nor their good, all thy days forever.” “ Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother.” In other words, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.” This was the law of the Jews, and this law exhibits the practice of the Jews in their relations to the various peoples with whom they came into contact. In this particular respect the Jews were not superior to the other nations of antiquity — for that which was prac¬ ticed by the Jews in their relations was likewise practiced by the other nations in their relations to the Jews. This loyalty to friends and hostility to enemies characterizes, in a general way, the law of love as it was written before the coming of Christ. Among the ancients the bonds of friendship were very strong, and the principle of loyalty to tribe, clan or nation was to a degree binding. That man was an outcast and an unworthy citi¬ zen, who played the traitor to a brother, a friend or to one to whom he had given the tokens of 132 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING friendship, illustrated in the ancient practice of “ eating salt ” with a man. But that man was likewise a traitor to family, tribe or nation, who showed kindness, or did good, to another, the ac¬ knowledged enemy of tribe or family. The cus¬ tom of holding the family responsible for the crime of the individual, of demanding reparation from the family for the wrong doing of one of its members; and likewise the duty of taking vengeance and of seeking reparation for a wrong done to any member of the tribe or family illus¬ trates both the solidarity of the family and tribal life, and the prevalence of the law that “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.” This law, so potent and so prevalent in the early days, still survives among all nations at the present day in the form of the commonly known legal fiction, that when a nation is at war with an¬ other nation, every member of the nation is an enemy of that other nation and vice versa. The word “ barbarian,” with its familiar mean¬ ing of uncivilized or half savage, is a positive though small relic of the narrow spirit of national¬ ism, and the limited spirit of charity of an earlier day. Among the Greeks “ a barbarian ” meant one who was not a Greek, among the Romans it meant one who was not a Roman, among the Ital¬ ians it referred to all who were not Italians. As LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 133 one has said, “ It is remarkable that we always call a rival civilization savage; the Chinese call us barbarians, and we call them barbarians.” “ The Middle Ages were a rival civilization, based upon moral science, to ours based upon physical science. Most modern historians have abused this great civilization for being barbar¬ ous.” 1 This is not literally true at the present day, and the reason for the change we shall consider later, but it was true with the utmost literalism in a former day. In one word, while the old morality taught that it was a virtue to be a good lover, it taught with equal insistence and authority, that it was an equal virtue to be a “ good hater.” This law of loving one’s friends and hating the enemy likewise represented the spirit of the best religion of a former day. David was a char¬ acter, tender, gentle, sympathetic and spiritual, loyal and true to his friends — but hating his enemies with a like zeal, devotion and singleness of purpose. Some of the imprecatory Psalms il¬ lustrate to a nicety, with what an ideal compli¬ ance David observed the law of Moses, “ Thou shalt hate thine enemy.” This spirit of hatred to 1 “ Bookman’s Biography of Thomas Carlyle,” by G. K. Ches¬ terton, J. E. Hodder Williams. i 3 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING the enemy has been strongly characteristic of all religious differences in all times of history. The Spanish Inquisition was simply a systematized propaganda for punishing and exterminating those who were regarded as the enemies of the church, and therefore the enemies of mankind. In lib¬ eral and enlightened England during the reigns of James and Charles, when religious loyalty was so devoted and religious hostility so bitter, the ad¬ herent of either religious party, which at that time frequently coincided with the political party, was the bitter enemy of the other party, so that it came to pass that house was divided against house, husband against wife, children against their parents. Now the way of life prescribed and produced by this law that “ hath been written of old,” can surely be called an imperfect way, because it re¬ sulted in such imperfect living. We believe that we have reached that point in civilization when we can surely affirm that a state of war is a state of society to be deprecated and deplored. But the observance of this old law resulted in a continual state of war of larger or lesser proportions. In England the Hundred Years’ War, and the Thirty Years’ War were the fruit of this law, and there has never been a religious war which was not the product of “ loving our friends and hating our LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 135 enemies.” This is the life, and this is the law which fosters such a life, that Jesus categorically rebukes, condemns and repeals. “ But I say unto you,” are the words with which he introduces the new law of perfection. And the law which the Master enacts and which ever is associated with his divine life and his divine works, is the great law of love. The law of love here referred to is a law to the reason and the will of a free moral agent. The love spoken of is not a matter of sentiment — it does not refer to instinctive affection, to im¬ pulsive and natural devotion, as the love of the parent for the child. Such a law, commanding a son to love his mother, in the sense of having a natural affection and right sentiment for her, would be a superfluity and an absurdity. Such a love is already furnished by nature and so there is no need for such a command. This would be a superfluous law, as much as the command, “ Thou shalt eat or thou shalt breathe.” Again, instinc¬ tive affection and natural devotion is not the object of this law because to command such a thing would be an impossibility. To command the operation of instinctive, impulsive, natural functions and senti¬ ments is beyond the pale of command, because it is beyond the pale of volition. Jesus is not here commanding either the absurd or the impossible. 136 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING In this very passage the Master illustrates to us what he here means by the “ Thou shalt love thine enemy.” At this point we eschew theories, speculations and philosophical abstractions to confine our at¬ tention to what the Master concretely shows the law of love to be. The words in which the law are couched is, “ Love your enemies.” This is simply Christ’s striking, forceful way of putting the law. The point to be emphasized in the new law of love must be contrasted with the point avoided in the old law of love and therefore the stress is laid on “the enemies”; these being the particular objects of the love of the will be¬ cause they are not the natural objects of the love of the affection. He then proceeds to show the content and method of application of this law. Such love as he here inculcates, will include, first, maintaining a right attitude of action to¬ ward them — expressing itself in good deeds. “ Do good to them that hate you ” is the way this is expressed in the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel. Let us suppose that a person has done you an injury from which you have suffered in body, mind or estate; now the opportunity arrives when you have the chance to express yourself toward the enemy, when, in other words, to use the common LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 137 phrase, you can “ get even.” The Master here says “ get even ” by doing good to him who hath done evil to you. If we should paraphrase and expand the law it might read something as fol¬ lows: It is a man’s highest duty not to do any¬ thing to interfere with another working out his own highest destiny. It is further a man’s high¬ est duty to do everything he can to help another toward the fulfillment of his highest destiny. What that other man has done to you has nothing to do with your obligation or obedience to this law. The law does not mean that you are to have a natural affection for him, it does not mean that you are to “ divinely dote ” upon him, but it does mean that you are to deal with him justly, even according to the law of love. Such a practical love as that is perfectly feasible — if we will, and the matter rests within the power of the will; therefore its obedience is commanded. Secondly, the law of love says, as recorded in Luke, that we are to “ bless them that curse you.” That is, we are to keep the heart from assuming a hostile attitude toward another. This is a step in advance, perhaps a more difficult field of appli¬ cation of the law. One thing we know is this, that the attitude of a man’s heart and mind largely influences the attitude of his life. In other words, 138 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING we are very much what we think ourselves to be, and things are very much what we think them to be. We are now in the very familiar region, so prominently before us at the present day, of the influence of the mental over the material world. While we would not go into the intricacies of the subject, yet there is broad truth in the underlying principles. Choose a thing and you will like it; refuse a thing and you will loathe it; set yourself adversely toward a person and you will dislike him; set yourself favorably toward a person and you will find him more tolerable. The Master here directs us to have that benign, favorable, happy attitude toward even our enemies, as would be indicated in the phrase “ bless them.” And such an attitude is practicable and lies within the power of the will. This was the attitude of heart that David had against his declared enemy Shimei, who stood cursing the king as the old man went forth from Jerusalem, a fugitive. David’s ad¬ herents bade him to act according to the old law and to permit them to cross over and take off Shimei’s head; but David’s spirit was humble that day, he was traveling near to God, and so he did according to the new law of love — there was no rancor in his heart, no bitterness in his spirit; he would not harm his enemy when he could, and he LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 139 returned blessing for cursing. David towered above himself that day, majestic, strong, Christ- like; this law of love molds perfect men. But, still further, Jesus illustrates what it means practically to love your enemies, he ad¬ vances a step more — we must maintain the right attitude of spirit toward them. “ Pray for them that despitefully use you.” This means to do justice to your enemy before the Throne of Grace; it means not only not to hinder him, not to harm him, but to help him as you best can. And this too lies within the power of the man who will. Thus men have done and thus men can do. Jesus prayed for his persecutors, while they were nailing him to the cross, “ Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Thus have many martyrs since that time prayed for those who were despitefully using them. This was the attitude of the spirit of Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, when they were imprisoned, in¬ sulted, maltreated, persecuted by the mad mob of French fanatics, to the eternal glory of these royal spirits and to the eternal shame of the French na¬ tion. These were the noble words, revealing the nobler spirit of the suffering queen, “ Every sus¬ picion that either the King or myself feel the least resentment for what happened must be avoided; it is not the people who are guilty, and even if it 1 4 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING were they would always obtain pardon and forget¬ fulness of their errors from us.” 2 This, there¬ fore, is the perfect law of the perfect life as illus¬ trated in the concrete teachings of the Christ. The perfect life is further impressed upon our minds by a consideration of its motive and pat¬ tern. We are to observe this perfect law that we may be the sons of our Father which is in heaven. In other words, this is the echo of the psalm¬ ist’s estimate of man as “ Little less than divine ” and the forerunner of the apostle John’s estimate of man, “ Now are we the sons of God.” Man is being trained for companionship with God. There can be no true companionship, friendship or fellowship where the persons have not something in common. For a complete fellowship the art¬ ist seeks the man of artistic taste and apprecia¬ tion; the musician finds a responsive chord in those who love music; the litterateur finds companion¬ ship in the lover of books; the man of morals and religion is at home among the moral and re¬ ligious. So God is training His children in His way, after His law, that they may be able to en¬ joy Him forever. Christ here teaches us that God’s way of dealing with mankind, even with those who are hostile and hateful, is the way of 2 “ Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty,” Imbert De Saint Amand, p. 222. LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 141 love. His goodness is shown to all, in food and raiment, and breath and life, and all good things. The man who curses God receives from God the breath with which he curses, and Judas is in the college of the apostles. Suppose that God did the way of the world; suppose He made the lim¬ ited law of love His law, loving His friends and hating His enemies. Some think that thus He ought to do — some that thus He does. There are those that marvel that the blasphemer is not struck dead in the midst of his blasphemies; Job’s counselors considered that it was only the impious and the wicked that were afflicted. There are those to-day who stand ever ready to account for a catastrophe or a cataclysm of nature as a judgment of God on a wicked city, or a wicked country. And James and John were ready to call down the fire of heaven upon Sama¬ ria because it would not listen to the words of the Christ. But the Master says to one and all of these classes, to James and John, to Job’s coun¬ selors, and all pious accusers, “ Ye know not of what manner of spirit ye are of.” God’s law of love is the law of love Christ came to propound and to prove. Had God so done, did God so do, after the manner of the law of love as promul¬ gated and practiced by men, who would merit His kindness? Who would be alive to-day? Who 142 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING then would be saved? Nay, it is his divine ob¬ servance of the divine law — it is because He is love that He is dear to us. This it is that hath won our hearts; this it is that hath broken our wills; this it is that hath humbled our pride, this it is that hath begotten our love for Him. And it is this law of Love that shall finally draw all men unto Him. But suppose that we still act according to the world’s law of love — then the Master shows us what will be the consequence. Says Jesus, “ Who does as the world, is as the world.” Can that man who does as the publicans, as the nations, as most people do, be any better than these? Then how can the world be made better? How can man himself become better? How can we call ourselves the sons of God, if we do only as the sons of the world? The end and purpose of the perfect law of love is exhibited finally by the command to live the perfect life. In this high end we have revealed an estimate of man’s dignity and man’s divinity. No one ever charges a cat with being immoral, be¬ cause the cat is without the pale of morals and the moral law does not apply to the cat. You would not demand of a child knowledge of solid geom¬ etry, nor would you expect an Andaman Is¬ lander to be familiar with the technique of music. LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 143 Little is required of these because they are capable of little. But to whom much is given of him much is demanded; and conversely when it comes to the commands of God which are always reasonable, when high demands are made of man it evidences his capability of high attainments. As ability entails responsibility, so responsibility evidences ability. In this high end intended by the perfect law of love we have the promise of the great possibility within man. The law, and the pattern, and the command seem to be revolutionary, ultra, impos¬ sible. But it is not impossible, for God never asks the impossible. It is difficult, for God ever asks the difficult. It is not impossible for God lends His help for its fulfillment; as we shall see in a later chapter, this is the realm where the in¬ junction, “ Seek, ask, knock,” obtains. It is not impossible, for men have made it, and men are making it real in their actual life to-day. This law is the very heart of charities and philan¬ thropies; it is the gentle cause of the humanities in so inhuman an art as war; it is the root from which hath grown the idea of brotherhood; it is the bond which is drawing together the nations of the earth; it is the cure which is working the abolition of feuds. Moreover, in these words of Christ, “ Ye shall 144 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING be perfect even as,” etc., we have revealed a prophecy concerning the destiny of man. While one has rightly said, that “ truth in the sense of the absolute justice is a thing for which fools look in history and wise men in the Day of Judgment,” yet in these words of promise of our Master we have not the stuff for the making of dreams but the solid foundation of principle on which we can build the certain expectation of the coming of a day when the law of love having wrought its per¬ fecting work, man shall show justice to man, in his right attitude of deed, heart and spirit. We have here the vision of a place and of a time when the law of love shall be the law of that land. In these hopeful words of the Master we hear sounded the keynote of that harmonious anthem, which shall usher in the dawn of the second crea¬ tion, as the singing of the morning stars together and the shouting of the sons of God made music at the creation of the heavens and the earth. The end therefore of this royal law is man’s per¬ fection, completeness and entirety. The power is that Spirit of peace, of truth and of love that worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleas¬ ure. CHAPTER IX LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE Matt, vi, 1-4 W E have now finished that section of the Master’s curriculum wherein he has taught his learners concerning that morality worth prac¬ ticing. In the foregoing words he has laid the foundations of a sound society, and erected the fingerposts pointing the way to a happy and strong manhood. His regard up to this moment has been chiefly concerning our relations to our fellow men. He has in a broad way pointed out how it is possible for a man to dwell in right relations to his neighbor. Now a step in advance is taken — the subject progresses to a higher level; the leading idea underlying each of the three following sections is a man’s relation to “ the Father.” The Father is brought to the fore, and mentioned prominently in each of these sections. While not leaving the realm of a higher morality, yet our study now advances to that branch of human thought which men com¬ monly denominate religion, and our teacher’s pur¬ pose here is to show especially how a man may live 145 146 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING in a right relation to God. The first great thought presented under this subject is, a man must live a charitable life. The common view of giving differs from the view pre¬ sented in these words of the Master. I believe we are not far astray when we say that men com¬ monly regard giving as a work of grace and not of debt; a work of supererogation, something ex¬ tra, something by way of addition, something which may be practiced or not according to the will of the man himself — something not a neces¬ sity of a spiritual religion. And this view, it seems to me, is evidenced by the world’s approach of the giver. Cautiously, gently, apologetically, with slippered-feet and with silver tongue let a man approach that one from whom he would solicit a contribution for any charitable or religious work. This is a sub¬ ject from which the phrase “ you ought ” must be excluded. A man’s pocket-book and property are his own to do with as he pleases, and to refuse to give to anything is the privilege of the world. This is further evidenced by the world’s opinion of the giver. As a people we regard giving as something worthy of extra praise and credit. A man may be moral and escape the notice of the papers, he may be religious and escape publicity, he may be honest and it will not be widely noticed LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 147 until we read his obituary, but let him be largely charitable and his name will be heralded in every penny sheet. Why is this, unless the charitable man be an exception, or unless charity be some¬ thing of unusual merit? To say of a woman she is pure is tantamount to an insult; to say she is honest is a doubtful compliment; to say of her she is generous and charitable is to say that which does not displease her and which gratifies her friends. A man must be honest; he must be just to have the respect of his fellows; he ought to be religious, but he may be charitable. Nor can we deny that ordinarily the giver has a good opinion of himself. That spirit which actuated the Pharisee when he stood up in the temple to pray, and which led him to say, “ I give tithes of all I possess,” is by no means absent from our common estimate of ourselves. These things are so, we believe, because the practice of charity and giving has not been as¬ signed its true and rightful position in the great obligations of our lives. The true view of giv¬ ing is brought before our minds in the words of our Master spoken to his disciples on the Mount, and set at the head of this chapter. Giving is a necessity of right living. That man does not rightly live who does not truly give. This is shown by the opening words of our Lord, i 4 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING “ Take heed that ye do not your righteousness be¬ fore men, to be seen of them,” are the words with which he begins this part of his discourse. Righteousness — or man’s right relation to his God, is the general theme. “ Therefore when thou doest thine alms,” is the particular inference from the general theme. Almsgiving, charity, therefore, is a first element of acceptable right¬ eousness, and without giving a man cannot be pleasing to his God. In one brief word — there are three ways in which a man may be acceptable to God — these are adduced and elaborated suc¬ cessively. Charity is the first, prayer is the second and self- denial is the third. These forms of elemental righteousness the Pharisee himself recognized, for he says, “ I give,” “ I pray,” and “ I fast,” and no man can even pretend to live in a right re¬ lation to his heavenly Father unless he observes these three principles of a right life. A moment’s thought will reveal to a true man why he ought to give. While men differ in rank, station and talent; while they occupy unequal levels, and enjoy unequal privileges; yet it is true that of one blood made He all the nations of the earth, and men have a common lot and live a com¬ mon life. The great law of love, which the Master has given as the norm for the guidance of LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 149 the conduct of all God’s family, says to man in no unmistakable terms, that he shall share his strength, his time, his talent, his food, his riches, with that other less gifted and more needy than himself. How more plainly could this truth be expressed than it is in the words of the Apostle of Love in his letter to “ his little children ” in I John iii, 17, “ But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? ” “ My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” If we love God, we shall love those who are God’s children, and if we love not God’s children better than we love our goods we are none of His. Christ’s first teaching to his learners is that they are to be of use and service in this world, and how can a man be of real use save as he giveth of him¬ self for the service of the world? We are to be God-like; how can a man be more God-like than to resemble in liberality and charity the Giver of every good gift and of every perfect giving? That man who pretends to be religious, but who does not give, has not truly fulfilled the first prin¬ ciple of the simplest religious life. I come more and more to believe that the pocket-book is a trustworthy test of the reality and genuineness of 1 5 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING a man’s religion. It is easy to say, “ I believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world to declare that the Gospel ought to be preached to every creature; to magnify and laud the transforming and enlightening power of the Word. But the practical question is, How much do you believe it? Do you believe it to the extent of parting with dollars and cents for the support of the Gospel, the spread of the Word, the feeding and giving to drink to the needy ones of earth? — then you be¬ lieve it in deed and in truth. Do you believe it only to the giving of pious utterances and Phari¬ saic speeches, then you believe neither in deed nor in truth. The man who gave two cents to the last mission collection does not believe very sin¬ cerely in missions, howsoever much he may prate about them. Giving has not the place in our lives that it ought to have according to the teaching of our Lord. It does not occupy the place in our busi¬ ness budget, in our estimates of expenses, that it was intended to occupy. If God’s people gave in anything like a proportionate ratio to their privi¬ lege and to their ability, the church to-day would be spared much of that humiliation of appeal to which she is subjected, and would no longer be re¬ garded as a “ begging institution.” And ob¬ serve here, an appeal does not make an obli- LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 151 gation; it merely exhibits it — the obligation ex¬ ists before the appeal is made. Giving is an obli¬ gation which no follower of the religion of Christ will want to escape. Giving is one of the great¬ est means of Christian grace. I am persuaded that that man who gives freely, gives gladly, gives as an act of worship to God, and as a God-like privilege which he may exercise in helpfulness to¬ wards God’s children, is one to whom the heart of God goes out, upon whom the love and peace of God abideth, one whose charity covers a multi¬ tude of sins. The man who does not give, does not love God. How can a man ever be like God and not give, for God is the great, bounteous, willing Giver. What are we that He has not made us? What have we that He has not given to us? Who lives in this world lives in a house which God hath given to him; daily we sit at His table and par¬ take of that abundance which He hath supplied; our eyes are feasted upon the beauties of field and sky and sea; our minds rejoice in the powers with which He hath equipped us; our hearts sing and our lives laugh because He in his giving hath made it possible. And what have we to hope for in the ages to come but the bounty of His benefi¬ cence and the eternal riches of His love? We hear much mention made in Scripture — 152 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING especially in the Old Testament — of “God’s poor,” and there are some who are wont to look with a kind of calm complacency and a con¬ descending compassion on “ God’s poor,” as though they were a class by themselves, and with whom we had no vital connection. But who are God’s poor? Let us pause a moment to inquire. In the experience of my imagination, a while ago I encountered two of those commonly called “ God’s poor,” sitting at the corner of Twenty- third Street and Sixth Avenue, New York. I had seen these two old men there many times, I be¬ came interested in them, gradually got acquainted with them, and was eventually invited to visit the rooms where they lodged. It was at the close of a summer’s day that I walked home with them to their unattractive quarters on the East Side. The evening was close and hot and their surround¬ ings seemed anything but inviting, yet I was in¬ terested in the conversation, for they had had a particularly successful day, and so the externali¬ ties of their life were more bearable to me than they might otherwise have been. These men were beggars, not by choice but by necessity; they had lived past their time, physical debility and the taking away of those upon whom they might have been naturally dependent compelled them to sit with extended hand waiting the charity of those LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 153 whose hearts moved them to give. They told me much of their lives that would be irrelevant here, but to-night they were glad of heart for one had made two dollars and the other something over four that day, and the world for the moment seemed “ very good.” As I came away from their rooms I speculated on what I had seen. The question arose in my mind, which is the more needy, the poorer, which is the greater beggar, which is the more dependent, the more indebted, the man who had received the two dollars or the one who had received the four dollars? Obvi¬ ously the answer was that the man who had re¬ ceived the most was the most indebted, the most dependent, and the greater beggar of the two, if there be degrees in such a state. But I passed this same corner another time, and glancing as I passed to see if my acquaintances, the old men, were there, I saw that they were not in their ac¬ customed places that day, but alongside of the spot they were wont to occupy an automobile was drawn up to the curb. What a beautiful thing this great touring car was; what a contrast it and its richly garbed occupants made to the two squalid old men who usually sat there to beg! The incident was all the more interesting to me because I knew the family to whom the car be¬ longed; I knew how their money was gotten; it i 5 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING was inherited from their father, and not a mem¬ ber of his family had done a serious day’s work in his life, to the best of my knowledge. But where did the father get all these riches? From mines in California? And who put the gold into the mines? Certainly it was none other than God. Thus my mind ran on in this idle yet half log¬ ical way, and I saw the problem so clearly as I had never seen it before. Then I applied the same test-question I had put to the condition of the old men. The old men were commonly called beggars, “God’s poor”; these who stood in their places to-day were termed rich, independ¬ ent. And yet in this instance was not the right answer the same that had been made before? Was it not true that those who had received most were most indebted, those who had been helped most were most dependent? And I concluded, if there are any degrees in the matter, that the rich man is the most indebted, the most depend¬ ent; the real poor is the one who has been most helped by God. In short, we are all tenants of the tenement of God; we are all dependents on the bounty of the great Giver, and there is not a man but who must hold out his hat to the Al¬ mighty. The principle of giving is ingrained into the LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 155 very constitution of things. “ Give and it shall be given unto you,” is the witnessing of every well-stored garden, the testimony of every burst¬ ing barn. The tiniest flower that blooms, had we eyes to see it, in the course of its short life teaches us that it lives not for itself alone, but it, too, must contribute of its vital seed for the adorning and beautifying of this fair earth. Man on his physical side recognizes the essential truth of the principle of giving; behold the athlete, with his symmetrical, strong body, with his lithe limbs and gnarled muscles; ask him whence he got his strength and he will tell you by giving his strength. Even the business world recog¬ nizes the ultimate truth of the principle, and teaches its disciples that money is saved not by hoarding it but by investing it. In the world spiritual the more a man spends, the more he saves; the more he gives, the more he gets. Over all this vast creation which bears the im¬ press of the generous God is written that prin¬ ciple of charity, which he that hath eyes to see may see, and which the wise man of olden day has expressed in words that are everlastingly true. “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” However, in this present teaching of our Mas- 156 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING ter the emphasis is not laid on the necessity of giving; that is assumed; it is taken for granted that a man who would be pleasing to God shall give, and our Teacher’s chief thought is turned to the method of giving. “ Therefore when thou doest thine alms,” says Jesus, do it in a way that is pleasing to your heavenly Father. Should we ask what manner of giving is pleasing to God, we receive our answer: in the manner in which God is constantly giving. Secretly, silently, unosten¬ tatiously is the method of God’s giving. So se¬ cretly and silently does He give that many men to-day do not recognize that their lives and all that support and make possible their lives is the gift of God. How crude and dull of mind and heart we are, to declare that God’s sustenance of the Children of Israel in the wilderness of Zin in the olden time is miraculous and not to see that God’s sup¬ port and sustenance of all His children in every time and in the wilderness of the world is equally miraculous! Because we do not see a visible hand of God filled with the food for our tables, because God gives us our fruit and our grain through the broad hand of the well-filled bough, and the tiny hand of the stalk of wheat, we do not rightly recognize the gift of food from our heavenly Father. And yet this is the character- LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 157 izing mark of all of God’s gifts. The very man¬ ner of giving shows it to be from God. Light is the gift of God — necessary to all life; with¬ out light, no life; and yet did you ever note how the light comes? Quietly, gradually, stealthily, unobtrusively it dawns, and God’s day is about us. God’s great gift of light vivifies us. So did God give His unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ — in the darkness, in the night, in a tiny spot of earth, in a rockhewn cave, as a little child, thus came God’s greatest gift to man. So comes that good gift of His own Spirit, which He is more ready to give to us than we are to give good gifts to our children, quietly, gently, softly as the dew upon the grass, we cannot tell whence he cometh, we cannot always tell when he cometh, but we only know that he is here. The day of Pentecost was by no means a type of the normal manner of the coming of the Spirit. The manner of his coming at Pentecost was as much a departure from the normal manner of his coming as was the resurrection of Jesus an abnormality in the realm of physical death. And this is the method of all God’s giving. As our heavenly Father giveth, so ought we to give, for we are to be like Him in this, and this is the teaching of our Savior. Therefore, says Jesus, “ When thou doest thine alms,” do 158 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING not do them showily, noisily, with a sound of trumpets and a publication of the fact of your liberality, but give so quietly that “ your left hand knoweth not what your right hand giveth.” Worship God in your giving “ in secret.” Giving is a spiritual act, an act of worship, and so a mat¬ ter unseen, hidden, not for the applause of men but for the sake of your Father. I recollect to have seen in the little town of Witney, England, one of the most refreshing in¬ stances of this humble and hidden method of giv¬ ing. There is there situated a charitable insti¬ tution of some sort; the building is of stone and of goodly proportions, representing an outlay of a large sum of money. Across the front of it, carven in letters of stone there is this inscrip¬ tion, “ Give God the Praise.” There is no men¬ tion of the name of the donor, no word of praise of his gift. The purpose of that gift, it seemed to me, was plain — for the praise of God; the method of it was perfect, and that building stands to-day a silent act of worship in stone to the Almighty and an abiding testimony to the right method of giving. Giving, according to Christ’s teaching, is primarily an act of worship, a thing that is to be done for the sake of the Father, and therefore ought to be done in the way that is acceptable to the Father, and not for LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 159 the praise or approval of men. Then the Master further assigns a practical reason for giving after this manner. Those who give to be seen of men receive their reward; “ they have their reward.” It is a reward that is visible, temporal and unsatisfactory. They are seen of men, they are to-day noted in the papers. They have the satisfaction of having their char¬ ity and generosity commented upon, and not in¬ frequently criticised and minimized. They re¬ ceive their degrees and titles as a reward for their charities, and when they have received them, what are they worth? In other words, giving as an earthly and material investment is not worth while; it does not bring in the returns that one might expect, as the heart-disappointment of many a charitable man has proven. For those who give after this earthly, imperfect manner, have no reward from God; no spiritual satisfac¬ tion; no inner blessing; no future prospect of rec¬ ognition by the Father; nothing, to resort to a commercial figure, on heaven’s ledger to their credit. But those who give as an act of wor¬ ship; those who give unostentatiously, in secret, and for the sake of God, have the assurance that God sees their gift, God approves their gift, God recognizes the giver and God will recompense them openly. 160 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING In that last judgment scene, recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, where the na¬ tions are gathered before the Lord for his ap¬ proval or disapproval, the grace that sets those at his right hand is the grace of charity. And how beautiful is the kind of giving that is there pictured; those who are there termed the right¬ eous are those who gave to the necessity of their fellows, and those who in their giving gave so simply, so naturally, so in accord with the Mas¬ ter’s teaching that they had forgotten that they had given, and were unaware that they had min¬ istered unto the wants of their needy brethren, until the Lord himself awakened them with the sweet surprise, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.” Surely there is no more spiritual grace than the grace of giving; no more acceptable act of worship than the act of giying; and I am per¬ suaded, on the authority of Scripture and on the authority of the Master’s own words, that it is charity and charity of this kind that shall cover a multitude of sins. CHAPTER X LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE Matt, vi, 5-15 I T had indeed been a strange thing if Jesus had taught his disciples nothing concerning prayer. It would have been beyond explanation if one whose religion was the very essence of spiritual¬ ity, one who lived in such close and intimate touch with the invisible and heavenly world, one who dwelt in such perfect harmony with God that he could say, “ I and my Father are one,” one whose life was the visible expression of the power of prayer, the perfect exemplification of the life of prayer — we say it would have been inexplicable if this one had not taught his disciples and the world something on the subject of prayer. In this passage now before us we have the Master’s teaching on this important theme. That he speaks at this time on the theme of prayer is not by chance nor is this subject illog- ically related to the subject of giving, which he has just explained. The theme of charity and alms-giving follows directly and logically from what the Teacher has said concerning the perfect 162 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING life and the law of love. There he has taught us that we are to be the children of our heavenly Father, who “ maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust in other words, as God is a giver, so are we to be givers, and the theme of liberality and charity is born of the root of love. After like manner the matter of prayer follows with a logical propriety after a consideration of the theme of giv¬ ing, for prayer in its broadest, deepest aspect rests on and rises from a realization of man’s utter de¬ pendence on the gifts of God, and in its most ele¬ mental form prayer is the making known of our wants to God, and its chief mark in this stage of its development is petition. That petition is a divi¬ sion of prayer all works and all authorities on the subject clearly maintain. That prayer is the making known our wants, the asking for those things which we need, is clearly evidenced by a consideration of prayer as it is commonly practiced; the child idea of prayer is that it is a means by which we get what we ask for, and many a life has never gotten beyond this true, though primal and incomplete, idea of prayer. This is a danger, that prayer shall be considered merely as a want bureau, and a spirit¬ ual exercise shall be made to promote our selfish¬ ness. At all events, the fact that God supplies LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 163 our every need is closely connected with the thought that we have a right to make known our needs unto God — and giving and praying are related subjects. But prayer is something more than the act of making known our wants to God — out of this same truth of God’s giving and our heavenly Father’s provision for our entire life, rises the next idea of prayer, that it is a grateful recogni¬ tion of those many gifts and perfect givings that have already come from Him. The element of thanksgiving enters into true prayer — and the grateful heart here has a means of exercising the true and proper sentiment of gratitude. But prayer in a still higher aspect is an act of wor¬ ship. It is the means by which the spirit of man comes into touch with the Spirit of God. It is the communion of the spiritual with the spiritual; the intercourse of earthly person with the heavenly Person; it is the way of praise, glory, exaltation, aspiration; it is the breath of the soul, the wings of the spirit, the secret stairway to power, the one exercise enjoyed in common between the dwellers on this earth and the inhabitants of the heavenly places. It is the highest act of which the mortal spirit is capable; it is the acceptable worship of God; it is the true practice of right¬ eousness, and under this head of the “ doing of 164 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING righteousness ” the Master here refers to prayer. Prayer in all its forms, whether of petition, supplication, thanksgiving or worship is a neces¬ sity of the human soul. This is clearly shown from a consideration of the universality of the practice of prayer. The record of the most spir¬ itual peoples given in the Bible and the records of the most material and carnal peoples given in the histories of the world, are one in witnessing to this fact, that men pray to the Power that is with¬ out them, the God that is above them, in all na¬ tions and at all times. Even back of the evi¬ dence of the fact seems to lie the explanation of the fact — prayer is an instinct of the soul. It is a pouring out of the soul in the presence of a stronger and wiser than can be found among the sons of men, thus giving vent to that ineradicable appetence of the soul, the desire for confession. It is a lifting up of the spirit of man toward that which is highest and best in the universe, thus giving the most perfect exercise to that di¬ vinity which stirs within us, that larger self which dwells within this narrow house, whose cry for the upper air, whose call for the larger life, we term aspiration. But prayer is further a privilege which the good God has vouchsafed to the children of men. It is the present evidence within our very hearts LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 165 that when He completed the world, He did not cast it off into space to spin its course alone and unattended. Prayer is that golden touch which binds the earth to the footstool of its Maker; it is the ladder of communication between the hu¬ man creature and his Creator; it is the access of the subject to the King of kings and the Lord of lords; it is the door of that room where dwelleth the Father, open at all times to the entrance of the Father’s little children. But prayer is still more than this; it is a reli¬ gious culture, the best and the truest that man can practice. In prayer we glorify His wisdom and power; in prayer we recall His goodness; in prayer we meditate upon His mercy; in prayer we recognize the reality and have the proof of His forgiveness and favor; in prayer every at¬ tribute, quality and manifestation of God may be rightly recalled and dwelt upon, not now from a theological or controversial standpoint, but from a spiritual and practical side, and thus prayer maintains and inculcates a vivid sense of the real¬ ity and nearness of God, and impresses upon our minds and lives a true picture of His glory, char¬ acter and being. Thus prayer is the best culture of the soul. Therefore, since prayer is of the nature and of the use that we have here briefly seen it to 166 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING be, since it is a practice ingrained in our natures, commanded in Scripture implicitly and explicitly, it is not strange that our Master devotes so large a part of this short discourse to a teaching con¬ cerning prayer; it would have been passing strange had he not done so. As in the former section, that concerning giv¬ ing, so here, the emphasis is not laid on the fact of the practice, but on the manner of it. The fact that men will and ought to pray is taken for granted, as the words “ and when thou prayest ” signify, but that when men pray they should pray as God would have them pray is the object of the Master’s teaching in this passage. And so in the first section of this teaching he tells us what prayer ought not to be. The first warning he gives as to prayer is that prayer is not to be ostentatious but “ in secret.” A prayer that is right and ac¬ ceptable with God does not depend upon posture, elegance or aptness of expression, inventiveness of thought or form, but upon the simple and genu¬ ine outpouring of the spirit of man in the pres¬ ence of the Spirit of God. There is need for warning just at this point, for though a man may come to that high thought of prayer that it is a means of worship of God, yet one can discover in himself and see in the history of public prayer the peril that naturally arises at this point. Men LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 167 are prone to confound the substance with the form, to feel that if the form is correct the fact itself is correct, and so to lay the emphasis at the wrong place in the practice of prayer. In other words, that man who in his prayers prays to be seen of men, approved by the cultured, endorsed by the educated, rather than to give expression of his simple soul in a simple way to God, is the man who has missed the central idea of prayer. Prayer is a concern between an individual and his God. It is an attitude of soul rather than an at¬ titude of body. And a man might repeat the most rhetorical and perfectly worded prayer that was ever constructed, and yet utter a prayer that reaches no higher from earth than the ears of that audience before whom and for whom the prayer is primarily given. Such a prayer is a prayer to an audience and not a prayer to God. Such was the prayer characterized in a Boston paper as “ the most eloquent prayer ever deliv¬ ered to a Boston audience.” The weakness of ostentatious prayer is that a man will not be true to himself nor to his God. It was because he knew that others were hearing him, and he was praying for their ears rather than for the ear of God, that the Pharisee uttered that bombastic and boastful prayer in the temple. The secret, private, individual, spiritual char- 168 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING acter of true prayer is most markedly empha¬ sized in the words of our Lord. He says, “ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” This most clearly exhibits the inner character of prayer; it is an opening of the heart and mind to God. This is a moment when a man must be utterly forgetful of appear¬ ances — this is a time when a man must be emi¬ nently truthful, sincere, simple. This is the phase of prayer illustrated in David’s words when he says, “ Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any way of grief or pain within me, and lead me in the way which is everlasting.” The words of our Lord simply emphasize the honest and secret character of the truest form of prayer. They do not inveigh against public prayer, for this must be the characteristic of even public prayer; for the individual, such prayer is really “ in secret,” and a matter between each soul and his God, and therefore no minister can pray for a people, or with a people, unless the people are with him in thought and spirit while he prays. If they are wool-gathering, or dreaming of their business, or wandering here and there in their thoughts during the prayer, as well have a ma¬ chine turn out the prayers as a man, as far as the LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 169 individual is concerned. Yet while these words of Christ do not teach against the practice of public prayer, it does seem that they do bear the meaning that prayer in private is more excellent, and more to be preferred as a means of wor¬ shiping God, as He would have us, than is public prayer. That man who practices prayer in se¬ cret is safe in his spiritual life. As one has said, “ A man never backslides on his knees.” At all events, our Master lays the emphasis most strongly on the thought that prayer is secret, in¬ dividual, spiritual and an act of worship. Again, says our Teacher, in your prayer be not repetitious but in earnest. In other words, he teaches that there is no virtue in the mere saying over of prayers. This calls a positive halt to a common mistake of mankind. There is an ele¬ ment of superstition in every man, and there ever has been a tendency to tie the worth of a reli¬ gious practice to the form of that practice. In other words, men are continually in danger of making religion external and formal. Among the Chinese we see a clear illustration of this failing of mankind right in point; these people, feeling that prayer to their deity is good and that much prayer is better, have constructed ingenious ma¬ chines containing rolls on which are written prop¬ erly worded and rightly approved prayers; these 1 7 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING machines are placed in a stream of running water and so the prayer is rolled on and on while water runs. It is beyond explanation strange that an intelligent being could imagine that an Intelligent Being could be moved or praised by such a me¬ chanical worship. But we need not go to heathen countries for illustration of this mistaken view of prayer; right in our own midst we have those who “ think that they shall be heard for their much speaking,” and who roll out 11 Pater Nos- ters ” and “ Ave Marias ” day and night, with the mechanical regularity and the unintelligent worship of a Chinese prayer-wheel. It is against all forms of mechanical and formal worship of God that Jesus directs these words on prayer — in every line of this great discourse he teaches us that the worship and service of God must be in spirit and in truth; that the spirit of the worship is of the first importance and that the form is everywhere of secondary importance. He here plainly says that there is a distinction to be made between saying one’s prayers and praying. But his teaching on even this subject is spiritual and in principle and must be so interpreted. There is no vice in the repetition of petition and request if these be in earnest and if the heart of the one who prays wings them on their up¬ ward way. LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 171 There come moments in the life, states of mind, crises in the experience, depths of helplessness and need, when all that the soul can do is to cry again and again the call for help; moments when the very repetition is the best evidence of the earnest¬ ness of the one who prays. Such a moment came to the Master himself in the Garden of Geth- semane when three times and in the identical words he prayed, saying, “ O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Such a prayer is not a contradiction, but an illustration of the deeper meaning of Christ’s teaching, that our prayers must not be repetitious but in earnest. Again our Master says, in substance, let not your praying be superstitious but intelligent. True prayer is not a mechanical process but an intelligent communion; I presume that prayer in its best expression is the most perfect manifesta¬ tion of which the human intellect is capable. Its acceptableness and efficacy are not tied to place, form, person nor material thing of any sort; it is the most spiritual reality with which mankind is familiar. While this is true, it does not nega¬ tive the related truth that periodic and frequent prayer is desirable, for one may come to his knees periodically with a hunger and thirst after God, as one comes to the table periodically w'ith a i 7 2 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING hunger and thirst after material aliment. And in the one case as in the other, strength, calm, pa¬ tience, power, is the reward of the true and peri¬ odic coming. And yet there is a sense, and our experiences have made us familiar with it, in which stated, periodic prayer may foster the superstitious idea. “ If you don’t say your prayer at night something will happen to you,” is a teach¬ ing, akin to fetichism rather than spirituality. Jesus teaches in the simple and beautiful words of the eighth verse of this chapter that prayer is the intelligent communion between the Parent and the child. In most simple form this truth reads — God knows our needs before we know them ourselves, and better than we know them our¬ selves, yet He likes to have us ask Him for things we need, He likes to have His children talk with Him about their lives. Was there ever any truth more comforting than this, more uplifting, ennobling, more inspiring, more encouraging a mortal man to the practice of frequent prayer? What is more gratifying and gladdening to the parent’s heart than to have his child come to him at the close of the day, to have his child lay open the things, the secret things of his life, to talk it all over w r ith father or mother? Does this not reveal a trust in the parent, a confidence, a love, a right relation of the life and the heart LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 173 of the child to the parent? God asks for just this in His children, and no more, for there is nothing higher or better for which to ask. And what can be more helpful to the child than to have and to exercise just this privilege — of con¬ fession, communion and conference with a good parent? After such a meeting the child goes away, stronger, happier, brighter, better, and love has known its best expression. This is the priv¬ ilege and this is the blessing which the child of God is offered in prayer — the right to talk it over with his heavenly Father, and from the ex¬ ercise of such a divine right a man goes away stronger, happier, brighter, better, and love has had its most perfect expression. I hold it to be true that no better illustration can be found of God’s close and tender relations to His children than those figures of our Lord wherein he likens the heavenly Father’s relation to His children to the right relation of a good father to a loving child. And how often Christ uses this figure! Thus, in these opening words, our Lord teaches his disciples how they ought to pray — and having taught them this he turns to the equally important subject of what they ought to pray for — in this they are likewise in need of teaching. It is not our purpose here to give a treatise on the Lord’s Prayer; this has been done 174 THE life worth living often and well by others; we would simply indi¬ cate what seems to us to be the main import, the underlying purpose, of this pattern prayer which the Lord taught his disciples. First, this prayer contains a suggestion as to the form of prayer. We observe that the Lord’s Prayer is simple in its spirit and diction; direct and straightforward in its utterance, free from all fulsomeness, void of all cant; it is the honest, simple utterance of a simple, honest soul. We remark again its brevity, short sentences, thoughts tersely put, a perfect example of his own dictum; be not repe¬ titious; and lastly it reveals an order in its con¬ struction; an order of importance, treating first of the things of God and then of the things of man; an order of excellence in the things of man, beginning with the material and ascending into the spiritual; and, finally, it reaches a climax, re¬ turning in the perfect circle to that theme with which it began, “ for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.” We have termed this the Pattern Prayer, and such it is and such was its purpose. Not that this is the only prayer which his disciples are to use; the spirit of true prayer is free and it must ever be left to the individual to determine his own form of prayer, if prayer is to be what it was intended to be — the free expression of the LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 175 soul of the individual. But Jesus knew our need of teaching in this matter, the disciples realized their need of teaching and so asked, “ Lord, teach us to pray and our Teacher implies the purpose of this prayer in the words, “ After this manner therefore pray ye.” In other words, the underlying thought of this Pattern Prayer is not pray for those things that ye want, but learn to pray for those things that ye ought to want; and thus shall the right training in prayer beget the right spirit in want. I believe we may truly say that Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane gives evidence of this blessed result of right prayer, for in the very act of praying his spirit and desire are brought perfectly to coin¬ cide with what his Father wills for him. First then our Pattern Prayer teaches us that we are to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, and this is based on the major teaching of the religion of Christ, “ Seek first the kingdom of God,” etc. Nor is a man to be unintelligent and contradictory in this petition; let him not pray for it unless he also works for it. It is an ab¬ surdity for a man to pray for what he does not want. “ Thy kingdom come ” is not a pious ut¬ terance but a practical petition. Secondly, we are to pray for our physical necessities. This pe¬ tition bears a relation to the former petition, but 176 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING it comes in the second place and is of secondary importance. In this prayer we see that our nat¬ ural desire is warrantable, our natural requests are permissible. Next, we are to make known and ask help in our moral necessities; that is, help that we may fulfill Christ’s teachings and observe the right relation to our brethren. The right re¬ lation to them is included in the meaning of love — an essential expression of love is forgiveness. This is the only petition in this prayer to which a limitation is plainly expressed; this limitation our Lord later emphasizes and explains, “ For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father for¬ give your trespasses.” This clause in this prayer one needs to dwell upon, think over; in a meas¬ ure the answer to prayer depends upon the man himself. Our greatest debt to God is our debt to our fellows. Then we are to pray for our spiritual interests; to realize our absolute depend¬ ence upon God; to trust Him; to be fully aware that because His is the kingdom, His the power, and His the glory forever, no prayer that is ever uttered by a sincere heart, in a simple way, by a child-like spirit, shall ever fail of an adequate and perfect answer. The hour of secret prayer, of prayer after this LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 177 spirit and after this manner, was the source of the power and glory in the life of our Lord; the secret which opens this door of privilege, power and blessing, our Lord communicates to his disci¬ ples and to us in these heavenly teachings we have just considered. CHAPTER XI LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE Matt, vi, 16-18 I T is not improbable that fasting arose orig¬ inally from necessity. In primitive civiliza¬ tion, in the early ages, when men were dependent for their sustenance upon the free products of the soil or on the precarious fortunes of the chase, the occasions would not infrequently occur when abstinence was a necessity. In those days, when men lived near to nature’s heart and the inter¬ pretation of nature’s ways was the interpretation of the will of a super-human being, it is not un¬ natural to suppose that those who of necessity must fast saw in it something of a will above that of man. So, in a way, the fast was the will of the gods. Add to this the fact that in times of distress, sorrow, agitation or anxiety one’s appetite nat¬ urally wanes and there is no desire for food. This was the frequent experience of men. By a simple and natural interchange of terms, as when one was in humiliation or sorrow he fasted, so when he fasted it was an evidence of sorrow and contrition. In this way “ abstinence, which 178 LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 179 seemed imposed by Providence, if not in expiation of guilt, yet as an accompaniment of sorrow, eas¬ ily became regarded as a religious duty when voluntarily prolonged or assumed, and grew to be considered as an efficacious means for appeas¬ ing the divine wrath, and restoring prosperity and peace.” 1 Now when such a fast was carried on to a degree, the practitioner, from the reduced vitality consequent upon lack of sufficient nour¬ ishment, and from the increased nervous suscep¬ tibility, would be liable to visions, hallucinations, vagaries of the imagination. These would be in¬ terpreted as revelations of the gods, marks of approval, and so fasting would be both a con¬ sequence and a cause of these divine apparitions. In some such way as this fasting came to be as¬ sociated with religious ceremony and worship. At all events, whatever the origin, from the earli¬ est times and among all peoples, fasting has been a common religious practice. The probability is that it was practiced among the Assyrians and Babylonians. Among the Greeks the regulations of the Orphic societies, as early as the seventh century B. c., “ demanded total abstinence from meat and beans, and subse¬ quently the highest rites in the Eleusinian mys- 1 McClintock and Strong and New International Encyclopedia, in loco. 180 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING teries were preceded by a day of fasting.” 2 While fasting does not seem to have been com¬ mon among the Egyptians, yet in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris it was practiced. Among the Romans also it was a practice at their festivals, and in later times before initiation into their se¬ cret societies. It is found in Persia and India — it is a rule of Brahmanism and Buddhism — it was observed among the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico. The aborigines of America followed the custom, and the Indians of the West, in the ceremonies of the Sun Dance, still preserve the custom. The Mohammedans fast and the Ro¬ man Catholic church to-day still has its stated times of abstaining from food. It is to this religious practice which has been so general and so widely accepted that Christ turns our attention in this part of his discourse. If we advert to the history of the Jews we find that fasting was practiced by them as by the other nations. In the earlier times of the nation, fasting followed the natural inclination, was spon¬ taneous and not regulated by law. Previous to the Exile, the only fast statedly observed seems to have been that of the Great Day of the Atone¬ ment. But after the exile, when there came that revival of the ceremonies of religion days of pub- 2 International Encyclopedia, in loco. LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 181 lie fasting were inaugurated. Then there were four fasts in the year, in the fourth, fifth, sev¬ enth and tenth months — each of these com¬ memorating some sad and calamitous event in the nation’s history. The Pharisees, as one might predict, strict fol¬ lowers of form, excellers in outward righteous¬ ness, added to these general fasts the personal custom of fasting twice in the week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and it is for this work of super¬ erogation that the Pharisee of Christ’s parable proudly thanks his God. Jesus dwelt among a people who practiced fast¬ ing, and here and in one other place in the Gos¬ pels he refers to the practice. It is interesting and instructive for us to study the attitude of the Master toward this matter. He does not wholly condemn but he interprets and regulates the practice. Combine this pas¬ sage in Matt, vi, 16-18 with that other recorded in Matt, ix, 14-17, and those passages in Mark and Luke parallel to this, and we have substan¬ tially the Master’s teaching on the subject of fasting. From the question of John’s disciples, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Phar¬ isees fast, but thy disciples fast not? ” we can readily and safely infer that Jesus himself did 182 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING not fast, as a form, neither did he teach his dis¬ ciples so to do. Nor is this statement inconsist¬ ent with the references to Christ’s fast of forty days, and his utterance, “ this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting ”; these but bear out and verify his teachings in this connection. Jesus says fasting is good if it be not a mere form but a genuine expression of the heart arid life. Fasting is a natural expression of sorrow, agi¬ tation and deep emotion. Thus David could not eat while the life of his beloved child hung in the balance (II Sam. xii, 16), and Paul was with¬ out food or drink three days after the stirring experience of his sudden conversion (Acts ix, 9), and Christ abstained from nourishment, in a measure if not altogether, at the time of his great moral and spiritual battle. At the same time Jesus condemns the mechanical, superstitious practice of the fast as a form. God is not pleased with form as form. His religion is not mechanical and external but of the heart. This is the underlying spirit of this sixth chapter up to the eighteenth verse. Your right¬ eousness is not to be in the sight of men, not for¬ mal, but real. How inconsistent, says he, it would be for his disciples to fast, while they still have the bridegroom with them. The Gospel of Jesus was the Gospel of gladness, while the re- LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 183 ligion of John was the gospel of gloom. John was the prophet of the night; the night, if you will, which sloped toward the morning, but none the less of the night. Christ was the prophet of the light. The day had come with him. We see further how the teaching and prophecy of Jesus were later fulfilled on that night when they scattered, as sheep without a shepherd — during those three days when they felt that their leader and head had been removed, we may rest assured that they fasted and that their fast was genuine. But after this the shepherd came back to his sheep; the Master returned to his disci¬ ples — and the cause for fasting as a religious practice was forever removed. Then Jesus proceeds to give his questioners a reason why formal fasting may be abated. The cloth of gladness will not fit into the garment of gloom, the spirit of rejoicing would burst the old wine skins of sadness. The teaching that Jesus here gives finds its echo in the words of Paul in his letters to the Philippians, “ Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say rejoice.’’ 3 In other words, Christ in these passages acknowledges the principle of fasting, which principle we shall con¬ sider later, but condemns its present practice. Jesus condemns this practice because of the 3 Philip, iv, 4. 184 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING false idea of God that it contained: the idea that affliction and disfiguring of the body, in itself, was pleasing to the Almighty. The idea that me¬ chanical methods could purchase favor with God. Such an idea rests on a false premise — to wit, that God is our enemy, our ill-wisher, that He finds pleasure in our affliction and discomfort, that He is jealous of human pleasure and human happiness. This is a heathen idea, and finds il¬ lustration among the heathen nations, even the most enlightened of them. How prominent among the Greeks, with their knowledge and cul¬ ture, how evident in their dramas and mytholo¬ gies, is the idea that the gods are jealous, envious, bitter toward men. The gods of those times could not bear to see their subjects too prosper¬ ous, successful or happy. What scheming in the circles of Olympus to defeat the plans and darken the life of some poor human, who was a favorite of one of the gods and hence an enemy of all the others! Nor did this idea which seems to grow native among the heathen nations, find abatement in later times among those peoples who had been taught in the religion of Christ. The history of the church is filled with illus¬ tration of belief in this fact — that God grudges happiness to man and is placated and pleased with the life of misery. This section of the moral LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 185 and religious history of mankind affords most fas¬ cinating, while most depressing, reading. At all events, read W. H. Lecky’s “ History of Euro¬ pean Morals ” and we find ample evidence of the prevalence of this unchristian belief. I quote at length from Mr. Lecky’s second volume. “ There is, perhaps, no phase in the moral his¬ tory of mankind of deeper or more painful in¬ terest than this ascetic epidemic. A hideous, sor¬ did and emaciated maniac, without knowledge, without patriotism, without natural affection, pass¬ ing his life in a long routine of useless and atrocious self-torture, and quailing before the ghastly phantoms of his delirious brain, had be¬ come the ideal of the nations which had known the writings of Plato and Cicero and the lives of Socrates and Cato.” 4 “ For about two centuries the hideous maceration of the body was regarded as the highest proof of excellence.” Men went without food, without sleep, without washing, without comfort — enduring sufferings, priva¬ tions, flagellations, macerations, not because they were necessary or required by the circumstances of a life of service, but for mere form’s sake — and to win favor with a God who delighted in the misery of his creatures. 4 Fid. here et seq., W. H. Lecky’s “ History of European Morals,” Vol. II, pp. 100-140, edition 1879. 186 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING There is the record of one monk, “ who for thirty years had lived exclusively on a small por¬ tion of barley bread and of muddy water, and of another, who lived in a hole and never ate more than five figs for his daily repast.” There was a famous saint, named John, of whom it is asserted “ that for three whole years he stood in prayer, leaning upon a rock; that dur¬ ing all that time he never sat down, and that his only nourishment was the sacrament which was brought him on Sundays.” While there were lit¬ erally multitudes who practiced these hideous rites, the palm of excellence must, without doubt, be yielded to St. Simeon Stylites, who exceeded all his brethren in the severity of his life. Of him Mr. Lecky writes: “ It would be difficult to conceive of a more horrible or disgusting picture than is given of the penances by which that saint commenced his ascetic career. He had bound a rope around him so that it became imbedded in his flesh, which putrified around it. A horrible stench, intolerable to the bystanders, exhaled from his body, and worms dropped from him whenever he moved, and they filled his bed! He built successively three pillars, the last being sixty feet high and scarcely two cubits in circumference, and on this pillar, during thirty years, he re¬ mained exposed to every change of climate, LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 187 ceaselessly and rapidly bending his body in prayer almost to the level of his feet.” “ For a whole year we are told St. Simeon stood upon one leg, the other being covered with hideous ulcers, while his biographer was commissioned to stand by his side, to pick up the worms that fell from his body, and to replace them in the sores, the saint saying to the worm, ‘ Eat what God has given you.’ ” He it was whom “ the general voice of mankind pronounced to be the highest model of a Christian saint; and several other anchorites imitated or emulated his penances.” Another strange manifestation of this princi¬ ple of formal fasting is evidenced in the insane desire to destroy that which is naturally attrac¬ tive or beautiful. “ The cleanliness of the body was regarded as a pollution of the soul, and the saints who were most admired had become one mass of clotted filth.” “ St. Abraham the her¬ mit, who lived for fifty years after his conversion, rigidly refused from that date to wash either his face or his feet.” “ He was, it is said, a person of singular beauty, and his biographer somewhat strangely remarks that ‘ his face reflected the pur¬ ity of his soul.’ ” u A famous virgin named Sil¬ via, though she was sixty years old and though bodily sickness was a consequence of her habits, resolutely refused on religious principles to wash 188 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING any part of her body except her fingers.” The hideous and grotesque painting of the face and body, by the African and Indian savage in his religious ceremony is a further illustration of this disfigurement and destruction of the naturally beautiful. Nor have there been wanting, in any age of the history of the church, among circles most highly educated and cultured, individuals and groups who have shown this same desire to abhor and condemn that which is beautiful. Ever have there been those who have protested that all adornment of the person, all grace of dress and outward appearance was a sin against God, and to be utterly condemned. We can only stand and marvel at the darkness of superstition and the deceivableness of sin in the hearts of those people who while living in a world, which God has clothed with beauty and adorned in every part with a glory which is but a faint reflection of His own nature, yet thought that hideousness and ugliness, must be acceptable unto Him. Still one other fruit, the product of this bane¬ ful principle, that God loves to see His children miserable and takes delight in human unhappi¬ ness, is found in another form of fasting — the annihilation of all that gives pleasure and all that delights the senses or comforts the life of man. “ The hermit’s cell was the scene of perpetual LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 189 mourning.” “ The duty,” said St. Jerome, “ of a monk is not to teach but to weep.” If the nat¬ ural rigors and privations of the hermit’s life were not enough to distress and harrow his flesh, he must needs resort to flagellations and penances, until his ideal bodily misery was accomplished. To be comfortable was to be irreligious, to be miserable was to please God. One particular form of robbing the life of its gladness and joy was the severing of those nat¬ ural ties and the destruction of those natural af¬ fections implanted by God. “ A man named Mutius, accompanied by his only child, a little boy eight years old, abandoned his possessions and demanded admission into a monastery. The monks received him but they proceeded to disci¬ pline his heart.” “ He had already forgotten that he was rich, he must next be taught to forget that he was a father.” “ His little child was sep¬ arated from him, clothed in dirty rags, subject to every form of gross and wanton hardship, beaten, spurned, and ill treated.” All this the father had to behold and at last, as the crucial test, “ the abbot told him to take his child and to throw it into the river. He proceeded with¬ out a murmur or apparent pang, to obey, and it was only at the last moment that the monks in¬ terposed, and on the very brink of the river saved 1 9 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING the child.” 5 Instances of a similar sort might be multiplied, but enough to say that fathers left their children and families, children left their aged and dependent parents. And in this grue¬ some category we have ample illustration of what Paul said of those last days, when men should be lovers of their own selves, for this entire prac¬ tice was but sublimated selfishness, and a man’s whole aim to save his own soul, “ boasters, proud, disobedient to parents, unholy, and without nat¬ ural affection.” 6 How strange it is that men did and men do attribute to the good God, “ a char¬ acter that would disgrace a Hottentot.” How this inhuman, unnatural practice of men contrasts with the Master’s teaching concerning our heavenly Father. God is our well-wisher, our friend, our Father, and not our enemy. This is the teaching of reason, of Scripture, and of Christ. The suffering of our body, the distresses of our lives, are a matter of His deep concern. Lovingly did Jesus say, “ I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly ”— more abundantly in body, mind and estate. And the following of his simple, beautiful teachings 5 For a study of asceticism, in more modern instances—and from the standpoint of a psychologist,