The CAMBRO- AHERICAN PULPIT Sv Re^' VyrnwyJ^organ tihxary of ^he Cheolcjical ^tminavy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY The Estate of Edward H, Roberts BV 4241 .M6 1898 Morgan, John Vyrnwy, 1860- The Cambro-American pulpit (^R,,,,,,,^ .rf;i/t^'9i^ XUA ->' i^ 0'ot fmcf K JAN 3 1968 The Cambro -American Pulpit Rev. VYRNWY MORGAN AUTHOR OF The Life and Works of Kilsby Jones ...and .. Unitarianism and Evangelicalism jfunft Si Timagnalls Company New York and London i8q8 J DEDICATION. TO MY WIFE. My first step toward authorship was chiefly clue to your confidence in me. The success of my first lit- erary undertaking (a biography of Kilsby Jones) may be attributed to the popularity and eccentricity of my hero. At any rate, after reading the work, the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn, kindly sent me the following letter : Brooklyn, June 13th, 1898. Dear Brother Morgan: Many thanks for the racy and interesting biography of Rev, Kilsby Jones. He was a unique and noble character. You cannot afford to give away such good books ; so please accept this for a book worth many dollars. In haste. Your most fraternally, Theodore L. Cuyler. It has been my desire for some time to publish a volume of sermons by Welsh- American divines. In this undertaking I have had the sympathy of our best VI DEDICATION. men and of an eminent firm of publishers. My object has been to give not simply the discourses of our ablest and brightest thinkers, but to present the pub- lic with a fair representation of all sides of the Cambro- American pulpit, and it is the judgment of those whose confidence I enjoy that I have met with some measure of success. No nation since the Apos- tolic age has produced a stronger race of preachers than the Principality of Wales. In thought, style, and utterance, Welsh preachers stand alone. The men who made the country famous were men of dra- matic genius, subtle analytical power, and unusual oratorical ability; they were j)erfect artists in the presentation of their themes. Fears, however, have been expressed that in an age like the present, the temper of which is toward scientific and philosophical studies, and in days when scholasticism is in danger of absorbing the whole mental energy of the ministry, the Welsh pulpit would fall into the background. It has also been thought that in the United States, where the tendency is toward the Americanization of everything, Welsh preaching, which is so intense- ly Biblical, would lose some of its historical peculiar- ities. This volume is an honest attempt to show how it has stood the test and what is its present posi- tion. These discourses are from men of every grade, and they cover a great variety of subjects. They show a deep appreciation of the tendency of our best DEDICATION. Vll modern thought, while retaining the old spirituality which made the Welsh pulpit such a power. There is such originality and breadth of thought, such charming ease and vivacity of style about these utter- ances that they afford an illustration of the sustained industry of the laborious student. They may be taken as a fair criterion of the intellectual, theological, and scriptural status of Welsh thought in the American pulpit. Though the sole burden of selecting repre- sentatives has devolved upon myself, yet sympathetic friends have, from time to time, aided me with sug- gestions and corrections, without which the imperfec- tions would be greater than they are. I present this volume to the kind consideration of my fellow-countrymen and of the American people in the hope that, under the blessing of God, they may be productive of good. In conclusion, I desire to dedicate the same to you, my wife, trusting that, in your present affliction, the assurance that your un- wearied devotion has been a great inspiration to me may bring joy and comfort to your soul. Vybnwy JMokgan. Januaky, 1899. INTRODUCTION. By Eev. Theodore L. Cuylek, D. D. Next to his Bible and his Lord and Savior, there is nothing that a true Welshman loves so intensely as the glorious land of his forefathers. The very name of Wales is graven on his heart. The crystal streams that flow through her beautiful valleys are like his life-blood, and the cool breezes that blow down the sides of Cader Idris and from the peak of majestic Snowdon seem ever to be fanning his cheeks in this the land of his adoption. While he is a loyal Amer- ican, he never cuts the cord that binds him to the beloved old principality. While introducing this excellent volume of dis- courses to its host of readers, I may be allowed to claim kindred with them; for my ancestors on both sides of the house— the " Ledyards" and the " Lewises" — were Welsh to the backbone. I have always con- tended that there is more evangelical religion to the square mile in Wales than in any other land in Europe. It is the land of Christian homes and of clean, honest X INTRODUCTION. living. When walking through the streets of Dolgelly and other beautiful villages, I saw the word " Temper- ance" inscribed on more signs than in the towns of any country I have ever visited. Especially dear to me is the classic village of Bala, in which my dear brother Chidlaw, the famous Amer- ican Sunday-school missionary, began and ended his long life of usefulness. That village in the valley of the Dee owes its chief fame to the Eev. Thomas Charles, who was the real originator of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In my visit to Bala I passed the good man's grave under a clump of yew- trees; I saw the chapel in which he proclaimed the blessed Gospel of redemption, and in front of the build- ing stands the noble statue of the man of God in pure white marble. It was a pleasure to meet his grand- son, the Eev. Mr. Edwards, who was then preaching in the historic chapel. The essential glory of the old Principality is not in its picturesque scenery or its majestic mountains. It is not in its patriotic memories of Owen Glendower and the heroic " men of Harlech." It is in the spread and supremacy of the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ that Wales has found her safeguard and her strength. The salt which was scattered by that stalwart giant of her pulpit, Christmas Evanr, and by Howell Harris, and the Kowlands, and the Joneses, and Thomas Charles, and many another faithful ambassador of INTRODUCTION. XI Christ, has never lost its savor. The fervid evangelical spirit of these men breathes througli the pages of the present volume of discourses. The Welsh-American pulpit is fairly represented in these sermons, and the names of their authors are the best guarantee of their Scriptural soundness and orthodox doctrine. Their fire is the flame kindled by the Holy Spirit; their aim is to convert and quicken immortal souls. I bespeak for this admirable volume a hearty welcome among the sons and daughters of beautiful and beloved Wales; and may the Divine blessing richly attend these eloquent discourses ! Brooklyn, N. Y., July, 1898. CONTENTS. EDWARDS, Rev. Ebenezer. Love- Services, 69 Biographical Sketch, 573 EDWARDS, Rev. T. Cynonfardd, D.D. The Church aud the Day of Rest 82 Biographical Sketch, 574 EVANS, Rev. Frederick, D.D. Thanskgiving Sermou, 97 Biographical Sketch, 577 EVANS, Rev. Gwilym M. Spiritual Labor, 110 Biographical Sketch, 577 EVANS, Rev. Llewellyn I., D.D., LL.D. Christ as an Object of Study. .... 118 Biographical Sketch, 575 EVANS, Rev. Owen. The Christian Hope, 144 Biographical Sketch, 574 HARRIS, Rev. B. A Successful Supplicant, 158 Biographical Sketch, 578 xiv CONTENTS. PAGE HARRIS, Rev. John Howard, D.D., LL.D. Freedom and Obedience, 173 Biographical Sketch, 578 HUGHES, Rev. Morien Mon, Ph.D. The Death of Christ, 189 Biographical Sketch 578 JONES, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd. Life's Renewals, or Perpetual Youth, . . . 203 Biographical Sketch, 579 JONES, Rev. Rhys Gwesyn, D.D. The Star Seen in the East, 224 Biographical Sketch, 581 JONES, Rev. R. S., D.D. The Ordination of the Twelve Apostles, . . 235 Biographical Sketch, ...... 583 JONES, Rev. R. T., D.D. The Divine and the Human in Church Work, . 252 Biographical Sketch, 581 JONES, Rev. Samuel. The Creature, .269 Biographical Sketch, .... . 583 LLOYD, Rev. John Elwy. The Condition of Spiritual Knowledge, . 276 Biographical Sketch 583 MORGAN, Rev. Vyrnwy. Wales as it Was, and as it Is, . . . .1 The Characteristics of a Great Man, . . . 298 Biographical Sketch, 584 CONTENTS. tV PAOK MORRIS, Rev. Edward Dafydd, D.D., LL.D. The Greatness and the Joy of Preaching, . . 335 Biographical Sketch, 585 NELSON, Rev. Richard Hughes. Tlie Lord's Book 342 Biographical Sketch, 586 NEWTON, Rev. Gwernydd. The Model Message 353 Biographical Sketch, 586 PARRY, Rev. John Hughes. A Missionary Sermon, 368 Biographical Sketch 587 PARRY, Rev. Thomas, D. D. Symmetrical Development of Character, . . 386 Biographical Sketch 587 ROBERTS, Rev. Joseph, D.D. Self -Renunciation the Law of Self-Preservation, . 409 Biographical Sketch, 687 ROBERTS, Rev. Peter, Ph.D. The Threefold Look, 425 Biographical Sketch, 588 ROBERTS, Rev. William, D.D. Christ the Mighty Savior, 442 Biographical Sketch, 588 ROBERTS, Rev. William Charles, D.D., LL.D. The Inheritance of God's Children in this World. 460 Biographical Sketch, 590 xvi CONTENTS. PAGE ROBERTS, Rev. William Henry, D.D., LL.D. True Mastery, 479 Biographical Sketcli 591 ROWLANDS, Rev. H. O., D.D. An Easter Sermon, 494 Biographical Sketch, 593 SAMPSON, Rev. Caleb. Preaching the Power of God, .... 510 Biographical Sketch, 592 THOMAS, Rev. Benjamin D., D.D. The Supreme Acquisition of Supreme Being, . 517 Biographical Sketch, 593 WHITBY, Rev. Henry J., Ph.D. The Necessity of Christ's Suffering, . . . 533 Biographical Sketch 593 WILLIAMS, Rev. J. P. The Excellency of God's Law, .... 545 Biographical Sketch, 594 WILLIAMS, Rev. Owen A. Learning of Christ, 558 Biographical Sketch, 594 LIST OF PORTRAITS. PAGE Morgan, Vyrnwy Frontispiece Edwards, T. Cynonfardd, 64 Edwards, Ebenezer, . . . . . . .64 Evans, Frederick, 128 Evans, Gwilym M., 128 Evans, Llewellyn Ivan, 128 Evans, Owen, 128 Harris, B 64 Harris, John Howard, 64 Hughes, Morien M., 192 Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 192 Jones, Rhys Gwesyn, 192 Jones, R. S., 192 Jones. R. T., 256 Jones, Samuel, 256 Lloyd, John Elwy, 256 Morris, Edward D. , 256 Nelson, Richard Hughes, 256 Newton, B. Gwernydd . . 352 Parry, John Hughes, 352 Parry, Thomas, 352 Roberts, Joseph, 352 Roberts, Peter 352 Roberts. William, 416 Roberts. William C 416 xviii LIST OF PORTRAITS. PAGE Roberts. William H 416 Rowlands, H. O., . . • • ^ • • -416 Samson, Caleb, . • 512 Thomas, Benjamin D 513 Whitby, H. J., 512 Williams, J. P., 512 Williams, O. A 512 LECTURES AND SERMONS. WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. BY EEV. VYRNWY MORGAN. A Lecture Delivered at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., U. S. A., March 21, 1898. Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: — The time at my disposal is so limited that my chief diffi- culty lies in knowing what not to say; therefore my treatment of the subject must be suggestive rather than exhaustive. All history is difficult, but Welsh history is excep- tionally difficult. There is scarcely a proposition that one could lay down concerning the early history and movements of the Cymry that might not be made the subject of plausible controversy. Moreover, Welsh tradition is not always reliable. After the death of Llewellyn, the last of the Welsh princes, the bards were slain in obedience to the King's command; their writings were also destroyed, together with other historical documents, and among them the 1 1 2 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. Sacred Scriptures, of which a translation had been made into the British language. In the burning of these documents Welsh literature and history suffered irreparable loss. The English King, it seems, feared the Welsh bards more than he did the Welsh warriors, for the bards were the warriors' main artery of inspi- ration. By singing of the heroic deeds of the ancient princes they roused the soldiers into a wild, passion- ate desire to meet their foes on the battle-field in de- fense of their liberty and homes. This remarkable policy of Edward I, has been approved of by no less a personage than Hume the historian. Again, though Wales has produced some of the chief soloists, chorus-singers, and preachers of the ages, she has not produced either a scientist or a his- torian of real merit. Several of her sons made manly attempts to furnish the world with an authentic ac- count of the origin and peculiarities of the Welsh race. Among the most notable were Humphrey Lloyd, Theophilus Evans, Charles Edwards, Thomas Price, and last, but not least, Sir John Price. Sir John was a scholar, a gentleman, and one of the most noted antiquarians of his time. From his pen came the first translation of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and Confession of Faith, in the year 1555. He was brought to the notice of King Henry VIII. He was the author of the petition to the throne, praying for the annexation of Wales to Eng- WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 3 land. Still these writers have only touched the fringe of the question. And no English historian has taken what might be called a philosophical view of Welsh ideas and principles, — those principles in which they differ from all other nations. While the national peculiarities of Scotland and Ireland have been ex- plored, Wales until recent years has been regarded as a country possessing but few resources, consequently her national features have been grossly misunderstood. In fact, a remarkable degree of ignorance prevails even now among people occupying respectable positions in society, respecting the origin, manners, and character- istics of the Cymry. Too many are prone to think that the history of the Welsh, since the Conquest, is identical with that of the English. It is not so. Geographically and administratively it is the same, also in so far as the upper classes are concerned; but the upper and lower sections of the middle class, to- gether with the masses of the people, have lived a life of their own, spoken a language of their own, and practised a religion of their own. This is worthy of attention, especially when we have to take into con- sideration the fact that during the three hundred years extending from 1535 to 1837, that is, from the date of the annexation to the ascension of Queen Vic- toria to the throne, the governing principle of all Brit- ish legislation affecting Wales was the assimilation of the principality to England. Herein lies one of the 4 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. most difficult problems connected with human society, viz., that a conquered race, insignificant in number, limited in resources, and devoid of wealth, should so strangely cling to laws and habits of life manifestly inferior to the laws and habits and institutions which their victorious neighbors sought to impose upon them. In the natural course of things one would expect that contact with the institutions of Norman England would have influenced the Cymry for good; but, strange to relate, it had a contrary effect. It seemed as if the Welsh intellect had been struck with paralysis. The lamp of hope had been extinguished. The people and their leaders saw nothing but misfortune in the womb of the future. I am not disposed to quarrel with those early patriots, for it is difficult even for us, at this distant period, to reconcile ourselves to our surround- ings. The English have oppressed us and our an- cestors. After the surrender of Llewellyn, our last prince, but before we actually lost our independence, the English King and nobilities exacted the most cruel and humiliating concessions from Llewellyn. When he, attended by several Welshmen of distinction, ap- peared in London for the purpose of paying the hom- age stipulated in the treaty Edward was pleased to make, the English derided Llewellyn and his associ- ates, and held up their language, their personal appear- ance, and their customs to the ridicule of the court. In addition to this, Peckham, archbishop of Canter- WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 5 bury, threatened Llewellyn and his friends with the severest penalties, both temporal and spiritual; and in this, Peckham voiced the sentiments of the Church as such. His proffered interest in Llewellyn was only affected. He was Llewellyn's enemy and the enemy of his race. Thus it was that the Welsh had to face the opposition not only of the King, but also of the Church. No wonder that Llewellyn, goaded to desperation, resolved to renounce his unnatural alle- giance to Edward I., and to make one supreme effort to free his nation and his country from the grip of the oppressor. Then after the "Welsh lost their in- dependence the English Government treated them with contempt. They were excluded from public offices. Social and political disabilities were imposed upon those Englishmen who married Welshwomen. Vavasor Powell, a non-Conformist itinerant preacher, spent the last eleven years of his life in prison for no other cause than that he went about preaching Christ. Even in recent years the English Government and bishops sent incapable and even immoral clergymen down to Wales to preach; — and that in a language the people did not understand! These clergy not only misconducted themselves openly, and shamefully neglected their duties while still drawing their sala- ries, but they initiated and actually supported the persecution of those non-Conformist preachers who went about exhorting the people. Such facts have 6 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. their effect upon flesh and blood. It is difficult to forget them. Still it would be vain to deny that, on the whole, our connection with the British Empire has been a blessing to us. The British, better than any- other people, have solved the problem of uniting indi- vidualism with organization. They have produced the noblest language and literature. In the genius of impressing their civilization on the rest of the world, in their colonizing power, they have no equals. In the march of progress England has never made a step forward to go backward. Her development has been constant and uniform. Her only possible rival is the United States ; but in the States, liberty is more in theory than in practise, more in name than in real- ity. The more I see of the two countries and the more I read of general history, the deeper my convic- tion that there is more personal, social, and certainly more political freedom in England than in any other country in the world. While freely and frankly acknowledging our grati- tude to the British Government for many of the ad- vantages we enjoy, nevertheless the Welsh people demand that every encouragement should be given to every distinctive Welsh taste, custom, or ideal. The Welsh have something which the English have not, and which is worth preserving and cultivating. They have a temperament which is poetical, musical, rever- ential, religious. It is a peculiarity or a quality which WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 7 belongs exclusively to the Welsh nature; and while the Welsh language may die, the Welsh nature "will live. Wales means the land of the Celts. Its population is about 1,776,000. It covers an area of 7,378 square miles, or about 4,720,000 acres, — a territory not much larger than the State of Connecticut. Its extreme length from the southern parts of Glamorganshire to the northern parts of Flintshire is only about 140 miles, and its extreme width from St. Davids in Pem- brokeshire to the eastern parts of Breconshire is 100 miles. There is no spot of equal area beneath the sun that can compare with it in natural beauty. California and Switzerland surpass it in bold and grand effects ; but for romantic glens, narrow moun- tain-gorges, fascinating meadows, beautiful waterfalls and cascades, Wales can not be equaled. And as Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, of Brooklyn, N. Y., once told me, there is more religion per square foot in Wales than in any other country under the sun. The inhabitants are called Cymry. It is pronounced as if written Kumry. It implies a first or aboriginal people. This name was first applied universally to them between the fourteenth and the end of the six- teenth century. " Welsh " is the name by which they are popularly known, although at first it was a term of reproach applied to them by the English. During the Roman stay in Britain, four hundred and fifty years. 8 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. the country was called Britannia and the people Britons. The Cymry are the legitimate descendants of the ancient Britons, by whom the Saxons, Komans, and other invaders were so long and so resolutely opposed. They were the first inhabitants of the British Isles. The first view we have of them, as we gather it from Grecian and Boman history, and from Celtic tradi- tion, is in the form of a tribe or concourse of clans grouped around certain hereditary leaders as chief- tains ; making their way from the great Eastern cradle of the race, probably along the valley of the Danube, through parts of Germany and Northern Italy ; push- ing before them several Gaelic tribes which had ante- ceded them in their migrations, and successfully over- coming those tribes or nations that sought to enslave them; until at length they rested from their half- nomadic and half -warlike wanderings, — a portion in Brittany, but the larger portion across the Channel in the southern and central sections of the British Isles. It was here that the great Csesar found them and learned something of their valorous spirit. It was they who gave the Koman poet cause to say that Csesar had shown them his back. They held in check the forces of his splendid armies longer than any other race of modern Europe. It was through their aid that Con- stantine the Great was enabled in a measure to break the persecuting pagan power in the Eoman Empire. WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 9 They fought against the Eomans for four hundred years, and against the Saxons for six hundred years. But the Eoman Empire succeeded at last in establish- ing its authority over them, and the Saxons, too, in their turn overpowered them. Thus by degrees the Cymry, or Britons, as they were then called, were forced into the interior. At last they were compelled, on account of other settlements, to retreat to the ex- treme parts of the island ; so that about the sixth cen- tury we find them scattered throughout Wales, Corn- wall, and the North, under one general denomination, resisting the Saxon arms in defense of their freedom with such valor and under such circumstances that they have peculiar claim to our sympathy. In the face of bribe, fraud, and physical force they still maintained their independent existence and character under their own chiefs, preserving not only an identity of name, but a general affinity of manners and language ; a lan- guage which was a commanding form of the old Celtic speech which existed for many centuries in one type in the Gwyddelic or Irish, the Scottish Gaelic, and the dialect of the Isle of Man ; and in another type in the Cymry or the Cornish and the Armoric dialect of Brittany : all traceable backward through their close affinities, on the one hand, with the kindred dialects of Gaul ; on the other, with the Greek or Latin tongues, to some common origin in the old East. With the exception of the Armoric spoken in Brittany, and the 10 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. Welsh or Cymraeg, the other dialects constituting the old Celtic language, such as the Irish, Scotch, Manx, and Cornish, are practically dead. I do not know of anything more calculated to ex- cite one's sympathy than the history of the Cymry or Welsh from the sixth century, when they were com- pelled to retreat to the hills of Wales, their last asylum from the sword of the enemy, down to the con- quest by Edward I., in the year 1282. For eight hundred years the struggle for the preservation of their independence was carried on, — for it really began after the final departure of the Komans, in 446. It is to me a matter of surprise and of admiration that the Welsh were able for so long a time to with- stand the repeated shocks of foes so much superior in number and so much better organized. The only ex- planation that I can find is this : while the superior English armies were composed of " feudal levies " and " merceneries " having no common interest, no love for the king who had hired them, fighting in the capacity of vassals and hirelings, the Welsh armies were made up of patriots animated by the noblest motives — defense of their homes, their lives, and their independence What fine men those Welsh princes were! They had beautiful beards, hair of black, brown, and in many instances of golden locks, left unkempt and tossed back by the hand when the brow was hot and WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 11 burning in the fray, or blown from the forehead by the wild winds when the battle was over. Their very presence was an inspiration, especially to people like the Welsh, in whose nature the passion for liberty has been so deeply rooted. These princes wore gar- ments of roughly woven woolen material. In addition to this, each prince had his laureate poet to sing to him of the glorious achievements of his an- cestors and to foster the martial spirit among the troops. These recitals had the same effect as the speeches of jSTapoleon had upon his men ; they roused the army into a wild, passionate love of battle, under which they were prepared to make any sacrifice for the sake of their leader and of their land. I have often heard educated men ask the question, " Why is it that Welsh people think so much of their poets, whose fame is confined entirely to their own small country?" No intelligent person would for a moment compare any of the Welsh poets, whether ancient or modern, with Homer, or Virgil, or Pope, or Shakespeare. Still, the assertion may be safely made that the ancient Welsh bards, like our modern bards, possessed true poetical genius, — or, as it is called in Welsh, " awen." " Awen" is the Welsh name for " poetical genius " ; it means "inspiration," There is, in one of the old Welsh triads, a definition of genius which, I think, excels even that of Johnson's. It runs thus: "An 12 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. eye that can see nature, a heart that can feel nature, and a resolution that dares to follow nature." A complete and accurate literal translation of Welsh poetry into English is an impossibility; so an Eng- lishman unfamiliar with the Welsh language can not hope to gain, even under the most favorable conditions, a true conception of the worth of Welsh poetry. What, therefore, are the chief characteristics of Welsh poetry? Its wonderful alliteration, woven around beautiful similes and metaphors ; its striking interrogations and fine apostrophes j its vivid personi- fications, blended with grand exclamations and bril- liant climaxes. It has not that elegant propriety of sentiment which distinguishes the productions of Virgil, nor has it anything approaching that uniform sublimity which, from first to last, lends charm and power to the strains of Homer. But it is classical in both form and language. It is more the poetry of thought than of expression. The thoughts glow like rubies, and the sentiment is full of dignity. It has tender feeling and fine moral sense. But the flashes are irregular; there is not the same uninterrupted strain of pathos and sublimity which characterizes our English poets. The poets of every nation afford an index to the temper and character of the people. Welsh poets deal with the melancholy. Seldom, if ever, do they sing of nature in her majesty, wildness, grandeur; they deal more with the silent forces of WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 13 creation, — the calm, tender and sad aspects of life. Such is the temper of the race. It has one more vir- tue to recommend it. In Welsh poetry there is a total absence of sensuality ; there is nothing to offend the taste of the most fastidious of critics. But the chief reason for attaching so much im- portance to the productions of our ancient poets is their historical value. They, in conjunction with the Welsh triads, form our chief historical resources. These triads are peculiar to Welsh literature; for ex- ample : " Three things that are not of much use un- less they are in the house — the wife, the cat, and the chimney." " Three things that turn the world upside down — a quarreling wife, an impudent young woman, and an ignorant young man." "Three foundations of law — defense, punishment, and honor." "Three things that a Welshman ought to maintain — a mar- ried woman, armed men, and a domestic teacher." *' Three things I wish — life free from shame, a right- eous death, and an honored name." These and similar triads embody some of the earli- est laws, customs, and traditions of the Welsh. They are plain, practical, and not difficult to remember. In Great Britain, nowadays, we send lawyers to Par- liament to make laws for us; then we have to pay the same lawyers for explaining them. A noted and eccentric Welsh preacher, of the name of Griffith Jones of Tregarth, was accosted one day by an ac- 14 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. quaintance of his, a lawyer. The lawyer, anxious for a joke, told the old man that the latest news was that the Pope and the devil had gone to law ; and asked which side would win. The old man replied : "I don't know; but I do know that the Pope has the money, while the devil has the lawyers. " These triads had their origin in that remarkable Druidic system, con- cerning which I shall speak more fully later on. Our poets were true patriots. They played an important part in that long and painful struggle for independ- ence. Their task was to preserve unity, — a difficult one, especially when we take into consideration the restless spirit of discord which had prevailed among the Welsh for ages. Their feuds and civil commo- tions continued to convulse the country. Caesar no- ticed it, and immediately used it to advantage in order to land his forces in Britain. Their discord seemed like a disease of their nature. Their dissensions, be- sides destroying their power, besides weakening the element of resistance within them, affected their morals also. Among the lower classes it engendered universal contempt for social order and open defiance of all authority, as well as total disregard of the de- cencies of civilized life. The Greeks were weakened by their inter-tribal strifes for generations ; but they had one redeeming quality. When the Persian appeared on their borders with his mighty army, the Greeks instinctively for- WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 15 got their differences, and banded themselves together as one man against the foe. Not so the Welsh. What advantage they gained to-day over their ad- versary, in virtue of superior fighting quality, they lost to-morrow through civil dissensions; and these dissensions continued even after they knew that the enemy had reappeared. While the bugle sounded the alarm, the various Welsh tribes and chiefs con- tinued to quarrel among themselves. This was the main cause of their downfall as a race. United, they stood firm against first-class fighting powers, — the Normans, the Romans, and the Sax- ons; but divided, they fell. The backbone of their resistance was broken in the fall of Prince Arthur; but the final collapse came with the death of Llew- ellyn, the last of the Welsh princes. Owen Glyndwr subsequently raised the banner of insurrection, but more to avenge personal wrong than to restore the lost liberty of his nation. Owen was a brave man. For a period of fifteen years he withstood the intrigues and private factions at home which sought his ruin, and at the same time fought against the resources of a most powerful monarchy. He was not a traitor. His sword was drawn against the usurper. True, he committed many military excesses; but there was sufficient justification for such excesses in the un- pardonable outrages which provoked them. Llewellyn's idea was to unite the principality of 16 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. Wales, north and south, into one strong dominion, under his own leadership. He had ten thousand armed patriots ready to do battle for the cause, each soldier sworn to die in defense of Llewellyn's purpose. Llewellyn was more of a king than any of his predecessors. He had reduced the greater part of the principality under his dominion and had actually sus- pended the animosity of his foreign foes. He was on the point of laying the foundation of his country's unity and prosperity. But he failed when the land of prom- ise was in sight; and his failure was more the fault of his times than of himself. Through the Pope's inter- vention, peace was concluded between Llewellyn and Henry. Llewellyn was to pay twenty-five thousand marks; he was to retain the sovereignty of Wales and the feudal privileges attached to it. The treaty was signed at Montgomery in 1267, and received the sanction of the Pope. It was honorably observed by Llewellyn for a period of five years ; then Henry died, and Edward, his son, returned from the holy wars. One of Edward's first acts was to request Llewellyn to appear in London to pay homage at his coronation. Llewellyn refused unless some English nobles of distinction were delivered as hostages for his security. This made Edward angry; and he showed his anger by a most shameful disregard of the treaty enacted between Llewellyn and his own father. So the conflict was renewed, with varying WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 17 fortunes. Treaties were made and broken. In the mean time, monks and nuns were being murdered throughout the principality. Convents and monas- teries were destroyed ; and the most unwarrantable out- rages were committed by the English functionaries, and these in districts over which they had no jurisdic- tion. Llewellyn, moved by these atrocities, presented a petition to the King; but Edward ignored the petition, and permitted the outrages to continue conse- quently the breach between the two widened. Llewel- lyn gained some signal victories over Edward. These encouraged him to leave his mountain fastnesses and assume a more aggressive attitude. The proud English monarch resolved that nothing short of unconditional surrender on the part of Llewellyn would satisfy him. Thus matters were brought to a crisis. Unfortunately, Llewellyn lost the caution which had previously char- acterized his actions. He thought he saw the gleam of Welsh independence. In the battle at Moel-y- Don, near Bangor, North Wales, the English lost fifteen knights, thirty-two esquires, and a thousand private soldiers. The slaying of so many individuals of distinction depressed the English King for the moment, while Llewellyn was in high spirits. The prize which the former princes of Whales had coveted was now within his reach, he thought. But appear- ances are deceptive. A storm was brewing which was destined to shatter completely and forever his hopes. 2 18 WALES AS IT WAS. AND AS IT IS. His caution had left him. In an evil hour he set out with some of his forces for South Wales, in order to give battle to the English forces there. He found that section of the country tainted with dis- affection, and the English were stronger than he had anticipated. Under such circumstances, he deemed it necessary to hold a consultation with a few of his chiefs ; this consultation took place at Builth, in Breconshire. Llewellyn waited and waited in vain, in a neighboring wood, for the appearance of some chiefs of the country. A body of the English surrounded him, and all attempts to escape proved futile. His doom was settled. Llewellyn was un- doubtedly the victim of treachery. His chiefs had betrayed him. Adam de Francton, a private soldier, plunged a spear into his body; his head was sev- ered and despatched to Edward, the king, who was then at Conway, in North Wales. Edward received the bleeding trophy with the most barbarous delight, and had it sent to London, decorated and exhibited in a pillory. It was carried through the streets of that city in savage derision on a spear, and ulti- mately placed on the tower of London. In order to magnify the indignity, the Archishop of Canter- bury withheld the spiritual panacea of absolution, which, in that age of papal bigotry, could alone entitle the body to Christian burial. After a while the holy boon was reluctantly granted, and the remains of the WALES AS IT WAS. AND AS IT IS. 19 Prince were consigned to the tomb in the parish of Llnganten, near Builth, in the county of Brecknock, South Wales. That spot— sacred to every Welshman —is known as Cefn-y-Bedd. Thus, in the year 1282, after a reign of nearly thirty years, perished Llewellyn the last hope and pride of the Welsh nation. These are the tragic circumstances under which Wales as an independent nation forever passed away. Two hundred and fifty-three years after the year 1535, Wales was formally and administratively united to England, and was allowed for the first time to send a few representatives to the British House of Commons, in the reign of Henry VIII. The number was grad- ually increased; and in 1885 it reached thirty -four, the present number. The question which here confronts us is: What effects had the final overthrow of Wales as an inde- pendent nation upon its people? It had very serious effects. The nation actually retrograded toward bar- barism. The people turned against themselves,— despising their ancient literature, neglecting the use of their own language, and ceasing to cultivate the passion for liberty. The overthrow was followed by a period of retrogression and darkness. Thus the nation —unconsciously, no doubt— handicapped itself for future progress. The influence of those times may be clearly traced in the present life and character of the people. The Welsh bards fell into a kind of trance. 20 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. The cultivation of the national muse was abandoned. The English welcomed this, for they regarded the Welsh bard as their most resolute foe. The clergy in their official capacity took an active part in the suppression of the " awen," They showed themselves the determined enemies not only of the nation's re- ligious and political liberty, but also of the nation's very identity. Judging the clergy by their actions, they sought the extinction not only of the nation's independence, but also of the race itself. This hatred of the Welsh manifested itself in every department of life, even in the administration of justice. It has not even yet died away altogether. From the time of the overthrow, nearly a century elapsed before that rich poetic feeling for which the Welsh had been so famous, but which died away with the overthrow, was revived ; and when it had revived it did not appear in the same old form. It appeared, in the middle of the fourteenth century, in a new garb. Before the overthrow the Welsh poetic feeling was characterized by lofty, heroic strains, but now it was delivered in very subdued and melancholy tones. The old fire and wild daring of former times had forever passed away. It was the dawn of a new era in Welsh poetry, the inauguration of a new style, and even of a new system. Thus it is that all the religious hymns of the Welsh are struck in the " minor key. " They have invariably a tone of depression about them which WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 21 foreigners can not fail to notice, but which they do not understand. The same undertone of sadness pervades Welsh theology, music, prayers, preaching, and serv- ices. This sad undertone had its birth in the conquest. Another result of the overthrow of Welsh independ- ence was the paralysis of the Welsh intellect. For a period of three hundred years succeeding the act of union, not a single voice was heard to break the sad silence. It was a period of wickedness, superstition, and intellectual stagnation. The gentry did what they could to Anglicize themselves, and thus to obtain favors at the English court; but the masses of the nation lived apart, resenting English ways and ideas ; and there was then no middle class to cement the one with the other. But the awakening did come at last, at a very unexpected time and from a very unexpected source. It came in the form of a religious revival, and with all the earnestness of which an emotional race of people like the Welsh is capable. The result was that for the next hundred years the Welsh were under the influence of theological ideas. It is a mistake to regard this awakening as a manifestation of dissent, pure and simple. A state church in England is equivalent to your Episcopal Church in America, with this essential difference: that, whereas the Episcopal Church in America stands on the same footing in the eyes of the law and the state as other sections of the Christian church, and has to be supported by the contributions of 22 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. its own members, the Episcopal Church in Wales is the only church recognized by the law and the state, and is supported by tithes, endowments, state funds, and the contributions of its own members, the livings being in the hands of bishops, private individuals of position, and the Lord Chancellor, who changes with the change of Government. This religious upheaval was a protest against the habits, forms of worship, and constitution of the Episcopal Church ; but it had a far deeper significance. It was the new birth of the nation's intellectual life. The paralysis had passed away. In this and subse- quent religious revivals lay the beginnings of the higher life of Wales. They explain the educational move- ments, the political activity, the industrial enterprise which have completely revolutionized the social, in- tellectual, and religious conditions of the country. The sword of the patriot has been laid aside. The passion for independence in the form of separation has been extinguished. The Welsh writer has taken the place of the Welsh warrior. Literature, poli- tics, commerce, form the battle-field now. The pas- sion which absorbs the nation at the present time is that of vindicating the learning and genius of the race. In tracing the development of Welsh life and char- acter, and the influences that have been at work, a prominent place should be assigned to the remarkable WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 23 institution of Druidism, to which reference has already been made. Druidism was established among the various Celtic tribes in very early times j but it was among the Cymry, or Welsh, that it reached its consummation. Originally the Druids were a religious or priestly order similar to the organized priesthood of ancient Egypt and of modern India. By degrees this priestly order began to share with the chieftains and princes in the framing and even the administration of the laws. The Druids were, for their time, a very learned body of men ; the education of the youth of the country was entirely in their hands. They were in reality the schoolmasters of the nation. Previous to the Refor- mation they were to all intents and purposes the only class that sought to promote the education of the com- mon people. By degrees they developed into a poetic order, and as such enjoyed the patronage of both the lower classes and the nobles. At last there were evolved out of this old Druidic stock three classes — the philosophers, the poets, and the priests. The Druidic philosophers orally taught young men — only the choicest youths were taught — the courses of the planets, the size of the world, the nature and func- tions of herbs ; in fact, they taught concerning every- thing what may be termed philosophy. They taught the theory of the transmigration of the soul. The essence of this theory is that the soul, on leaving the 24 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. body at death, enters another body. This was taught by them in order to inspire the young men to heroism and good deeds by causing them to believe that if they lived well, their souls, in the next generation, would in- habit the bodies of lords and nobles. The students were not permitted to reveal the secrets of their school. Transgression was followed by the most barbaric pen- alties. This period was the great formative one in the history of the Welsh nation ; it is therefore natural to expect that the Druids, into whose hands the educa- tion of the young men of that time fell, should have left deep impressions upon the life, character, and institutions of the race. What impressions have they left? To the influence of Druidism, or at least that phase of it called "bardism," the old lloman church was indebted for its long independence of the see of Rome. The bards took the foremost part in exciting the zeal of the clergy — the British clergy — against the insidious and powerful influences of the Eomish church. The Eisteddfod, one of the greatest of Welsh institutions, and the bardic congress, may be attributed to the old Druids. They were the first to embody — that is, between the fifth and sixth centuries — the Welsh language in a written form. To their influence, also, we are indebted for any literature worthy of the name during many succeeding generations. I have already observed that the beginnings of the present higher life of Wales are to be found in the first WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 25 and immediately succeeding religious revivals which practically revolutionized the country. In order to enable you to realize the force of those revivals, let me for a moment call your attention to the social and intellectual condition of the people during those times. A noted clergyman of the name of Khys Prichard, vicar of Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, in the year 1579, who was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and who was a strict Conformist and a Puritan, composed a collection of poems called the *' Welshman's Candle." In these poems he describes the ignorance and immor- ality of which he was an eye-witness. The work consists of about two hundred religious carols. The young clergyman's sacred calling did not pro- tect him from the contagion of the prevalent intem- perance of the place. He became a frequenter of pot- houses, and thereby an eye-witness of the scenes so graphically described in one of his songs. He had a favorite goat — a fine, venerable, patriarchal old fel- low— to whom the younglings and the more inexperi- enced of the flock used to look up for counsel and direction in cases of emergency. This goat used to follow him wherever he went — possibly to church, but certainly to the alehouse. On one occasion the goat was made drunk ; but with the morning calm reflection came, and never afterward could he be prevailed upon to enter an alehouse. The wise conduct of the goat 26 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. impressed the vicar's mind very powerfully, and from that hour he became an altered man, and continued to the day of his death to be an example to his flock of ail that was good and Christian. In the year 1703 there appeared a remarkable book entitled " The Visions of the Sleeping Bard, " by the B,ev. Ellis Wynne, vicar of Danfair, in Merionethshire. This work has passed through seventeen editions. It is truly horrible reading. It consists of three parts : first, the vision of the course of this world; second, the vision of death in its lower courts ; third, the vision of hell. The world is a vast city, consisting of three streets, the control of which has been given to Belial's three daughters — Pride, Pleasure, and Lucre. Each street is called after the name of the particular princess that rules over it. In the street of Pride there are vani- ties innumerable: some standing before the glass for hours together to adjust their dress and to put their lips into proper shape, all endeavoring to set themselves off to the best advantage; a lady with a pedlar's shop on her neck, and gems hanging from her ears that cost enough to purchase a tolerable farm, and a gentleman passing along with such a swagger that you could winnow beans in the breeze made by the tail of his coat. The street of Lucre is full of oppression, extor- tion, and knavery of all kinds. Agents, stewards, WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 27 magistrates, lawyers, doctors, merchants, shopkeepers are all bent upon gain, and managing by hook or by crook to secure it. In the street of Pleasure he saw gluttony and drunkenness, and still grosser immoralities ; he wit- nessed scenes which he did not feel at liberty to de- scribe. And turning away from these in disgust, he and his angel guide came upon a place where they heard a great noise, jabbering and thumping, crying and laughing, shouting and singing. " Well," said I, "here is Bedlam, to be sure." When we entered the place, the riot had ceased; and we saw men in all manner of positions, lying amid the wreck of bottles and cups and pots and tobacco-pipes. Upon inquiry he found that seven thirsty neighbors — a tinker, a dyer, a blacksmith, a miner, a chimney-sweep, a poet, and a parson — had been having good times together. The parson had come to preach on temperance and to show in his own person the hideousness of drunkenness. A quarrel began in a dispute that had arisen among them over the question which could drink the hard- est; and it was the poet who had won the field over all, but the parson who, out of respect to his coat, was voted head and chief of the merry gang. Having visited a Quakers' meeting, where all was wrong, and a non-conformist meeting held in a barn, " where a man imitated preaching by rote, frequently saying the same thing three times over," he then 28 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. asked his guide : " Where, I pray thee, is the Church of England?" "That," said he, "is above, in the higher city, and constitutes a large part of the Church Catholic. But there are in this city some probationary churches belonging to the Church of England, where Welsh and English people are under training for a while to JBt them to have their names written on the book of the Church Catholic ; and who- ever obtains that privilege, happy is he. But, alas! there are only a few who care to qualify themselves for citzenship there." Such was Wales in the latter part of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. I am here reminded of an Irish joke which Eev. Dr. Newman Hall once told me at his own expense. He was in Dublin, Ireland, and very anxious to hear an Irish joke "fresh from the fountain." See- ing a boy sweeping the street, Dr. Hall asked him this question: "If the devil came along this way now, which of us two would he take first? " " I don't ' know, your Eeverence," replied the boy; then he added: "Here is Father Mahony coming; he'll be the best man to tell you. " " No, " persisted the Doc- tor, "I want you to tell me yourself." "Well, your Eeverence," answered the boy, "he would take me / first." "Why take you first, Pat?" "Because, to be sure, your Eeverence, he could get you at any time. " There were plenty of people the devil could easily WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 29 pick up in Wales at that time. They were dead in trespasses and in sin. Who made the first attempt to evangelize the peo- ple and to encourage Bible reading? It was the Rev. Thomas Gouge, an English clergyman, who in the year 1674 gave up his living in London for that purpose. This consecrated man, and an Englishman, spent his own money, raised subscriptions, bought and distrib- uted thousands of books, and placed the Bible in the hands of the Welsh people. He also established hun- dreds of schools. Sixty years after him came Rev. Griffith Jones Llanddowror, a vicar of the Church of England. That was in the year 1730. He won the sympathy of Madam Bevan, a rich lady, and was able to accomplish immense good. He established "cir- culating schools." On the Saturday preceding the monthly sacrament days he used to hold a preparatory service, at which he catechized those who were desir- ous of partaking of that sacred ordinance. The result showed the most painful ignorance. In 1730 he opened a school in his own parish, where young and old were taught to read the Scriptures. Other schools of the same kind were established in different parts of the country. Mr. Jones selected and paid the schoolmasters. These went about from place to place, staying in one locality a few months at a time. Hence the schools were called " circulating schools." At the death of Jones these schools numbered two hundred 30 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. and eighteen, and not less than ten thousand people had been taught in a single year to read the Bible. Unfortunately, after Jones died these schools ceased to exist in consequence of the conduct of one of Madam Bevan's trustees, into whose care he had intrusted the sum of f 28, 000. This trustee possessed himself of the property which Jones and Madam Bevan had left for the benefit of the circulating schools. Legal proceed- ings were instituted, but thirty years elapsed before the charity came again into effect. The Rev. Thomas Charles, B.A., of Bala, North Wales, noticed the de- plorable state of things. He took the circulating schools as a base of operation, and these he converted into what is now known as Sunday-schools. That was in 1785, shortly after their introduction at Gloucester, in England, by Eobert Raikes. These schools have been, and are now, attended not merely by children, but by aged men and women. It is to the Sunday- school that the Welsh people are indebted not only for their religious instruction, but also for their knowl- edge of the art of reading. The next factor in the shaping of Welsh national life that I shall speak about is the Welsh pulpit. It dates back to the days of the founders of Calvinis- tic Methodism, about the middle of the eighteenth century. Drunkenness, cruelty, and ignorance were rampant at that period. To preach was not fashion- able as it is now. Men like Vavassor Powell and WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 31 Howell Harris were mobbed, beaten with sticks, hooted, pelted with rotten eggs, and so shamefully maltreated that they were more than once picked up for dead. These inhumanities had their origin partly in the gross ignorance and brutality of the people; but in very many instances they were instigated by the clergy of the Church of England, who did not care to do the work for which they were paid, and yet did not want to see others doing it, especially unordained clergymen, as they called these itinerant preachers. But notwithstanding the most inhuman treatment, these holy men went on. The hand of God was in the movement. Howell Harris at one time had a con- gregation of two thousand. He preached for upward of two hours in the drenching rain, yet not a single person left. These itinerant preachers gained in power. By and by the preachers were a terror to evil-doers. As a rule, they were men of commanding presence. There was something impressive about them; they appeared like mountains among hills. Their character was unquestioned and unquestionable. Their consecration was manifest to both men and angels. The style of their preaching suited the tem- perament and spiritual state of the people. They preached law, sin, punishment, death, hell. Men and women sobbed amid tears, swooned, shouted for mercy, lost all cciitiol over themselves. Those were memor- able days. The spirit of God was stirring the nation. 32 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. No wonder that a certain justice of the peace told old Ebenezer Morris : " You are worth more than a dozen of us. " Yes, these preachers were the unpaid police of the principality. The result is that now there is no country of its size with so many churches and religious institutions, and no country with so much religion. Seven out of every ten are non-conformists. These denominations comprise the masses, and the lower and upper sections of the middle class. Few, if any, of the upper classes patronize non- conformity. The church of the rich and the high-toned is the Church of England. This church, until lately, had done no evangelistic work of any kind ; but during the last few years a striking change has come over the spirit of its dreams. The clergy are becoming astonishingly active and useful. As a body of men they are well informed, well organ- ized, pure in their habits, and possess unblemished characters. They stand well in the eyes of all unprej- udiced men. This wonderful activity of the clergy is causing some uneasiness in non-conformist quarters, perhaps through fear of disestablishment. Though disestablishment is less likely now than it was ten years ago, it may be true that this immense activity of the clergy is due, in part, to f^ar — fear of disen- dowment rather than of disestablishment ; still, it is evident that the clergy of Wales, at the present mo- ment, are a consecrated body of men. In their ranks WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 33 are to be found some of the most learned, eloquent, and pious clergy of the country ; though if they did less proselytizing and more evangelistic work, pure and simple, among the unconverted, it would be better, and would certainly create a more favorable impression. I have not the statistics of the Episcopal Church, but I will give you the figures which show the relative strength of the other denominations : ChurcJies. Members. Calvinistic Methodists 1,330 150,442 Congregationalists (or Independents) 1,040 140,652 Baptists 820 106,260 Wesleyans 375 20.080 3,565 417,440 It has been said that religion is a talent, and that we can no more expect every man to be religious than to be artistic, philosophic, or musical. I do not fully agree with this ; still, it is true that some men and some races have a greater religious capacity than others. The instinct of worship, however, is in all nations, how- ever barbarous and however enlightened, and neither knowledge nor ignorance can eradicate it from hu- man nature. The Welsh are preeminently religious. When Popery abounded in Wales, the Welsh were among the most ardent supporters the Pope had. The Welsh nature seems eminently fitted for the reception and expression of religious truths. The Welsh have no disposition toward science, but are 3 84 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. passionately fond of poetry. This explains the fact why they as a race are so partial to religion for religion is more allied to poetry than to science. Preaching has filled a higher place in the life of Wales than even in the life of modern England. The standard of preaching is also different in the two countries. The English sermon is often an essay, or a lecture, or an address. It is the very antithesis of a Welsh sermon. The nearest parallel to the ideal Welsh sermon that I can think of now is the type which prevails among the priests of the modern high church school. It is a very notable feature in Welsh preaching that the academic and popular elements are intimately blended. In power to move and thrill a mixed audience, a first-class popular Welsh preacher has no rival. He stands alone, he is a perfect artist iu the presentation of his theme. First of all, there is a lucid and intelligent exposition of the text; then the preacher seizes some great moving principle ; then that principle is gradually unfolded and applied in its various bearings to the different moods, needs, and sins of the hour. At last comes the application and peroration. Time is very essential to him. He may need an hour or more, but he must have it. What would an American audience think of that? It used to be a common custom with Welsh preach- ers, and it prevails now to some extent, to paraphrase the lesson. It was simply delightful to hear the ready WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 85 wit, the subtle analytical power, and the sound common sense displayed by many of the preachers. For ex- ample, these are the comments the Rev. Kilsby Jones, of Llandindad Wells, South Wales, made on that chap- ter containing an account of the Master and the disci- ples on the way to Emmaus : "In traveling, the mind grows tired sooner than the body. The experience of pedestrians largely points in this direction. I recollect the time when my feet carried me many a mile when I was too poor to hire and too proud to borrow. Now and then I met with men of extraordinary conversational powers, and forgot all about my feet and the roughness of the way ; but when we came to the parting of the ways, and I lost them and their exciting conversation, I soon had telegrams from my poor feet. There are some men who talk to you so charmingly that, even if you were an alderman, you would forget your dinner. On this ever-memorable journey seven miles soon passed. It was now getting late. The shadows, which were cast deep and wide over the quiet glens and hillocks, told the travelers that people resided there, and had retired to rest, and that it was time for man to wend his way homeward for the night. The disciples arrived at length at their destination; but He made as tho He would have gone farther; but they constrained Him, saying: 'Abide with us, for it is evening, and the day is far spent. ' " Having spoken of the eyes of 36 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. the disciples being opened so that they recognized their Lord in the breaking of bread, Kilsby proceeded to read : " And He vanished out of their sight ! What a blank when He vanished ! I remember well the visits of my old friend, the Kev. J. P. Mursell, many years ago. Whenever he came, he filled every nook with light; but when, after an hour's brilliant talk, he used to leave me in my room alone, the light vanished all too rapidly with him. I used to gather the re- mains of his presence, and indulged the fond imagi- nation that he was still in the arm-chair. On one occasion a small brother called upon me, and broke the reverie. He was about to sit in the chair just vacated by my great friend. I said : ' Pray, sit in this chair, not that ! ' ' But that is empty, ' responded the visitor. ' No,' said I, ' it isn't empty; it will be if you sit in it. ' " I will now give you my translation of Kilsby 's de- scription of the preaching of John Elias in the year 1829, at one of the annual associations which are held in the different counties north and south. It was at Lampeter, Cardiganshire, Christmas Evans, the best known of all Welsh preachers, was an independent thinker, a born poet, and a tumultuous speaker. Williams of the Wern was a metaphysician, a keen reasoner, and a captivating speaker. John Elias was a finished orator, an able theologian, and a voracious reader. There were three services held at the Lam- WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 37 peter Association each day, and three preachers officated at each service. The following is Kilsby's description of John Eliis : " This was the first time for me to have the privi- lege of seeing and hearing this great man ; and as I was then and still continue to be a hero-worshiper, I had a far greater desire to see the only rhetorician that Wales ever produced, than any lad ever had to go to Oblyn or Lampeter Fair. " The day was everything one might desire ; there was not a single cloud, not even the size of a man's hand, to be seen on the broad expanse of heaven; the valleys were clothed with pasture, the level plains and slopes were covered with corn ; and the people, in an- ticipation of fruitful seasons, were hearty and cheerful. "Lampeter with its whole surroundings in every direction was full of excitement since the dawn of day ; the roads below and above the town, from the remote parts of Cardigan, and the shores of the sea, were crowded with people making their way to the chosen spot. There were hosts on foot, many on horseback, and the men of note in vehicles. " Scores could be seen making their way along the valleys, and the hillsides were thick with young pedes- trians, light-footed and cheerful. The sound of these multitudes struck the ear like the murmur of the ocean at even-tide. A large platform had been raised on the common, and over it a roof made of rough canvas in 38 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. order to soften the heat of the sun; or, if it should happen to rain, to protect the speakers and the many- ladies. I had taken care to be present before the commencement of the chief service at ten o'clock, especially as the spot selected was not so convenient as many of the localities which are available for holiday meetings in hilly districts, where it is easy to choose a slope which serves as one of the ' rising galleries of nature. ' " I had never before seen together so many people, and I have not seen since on similar occasion such a vast crowd. " In front of the platform, which was a rather long one, there was an array of the chief ministers among the Calvinistic Methodists ; they were men with fine physique, broad shoulders, and crowned with a digni- fied presence. The old people, in accordance with the country slang, used to call them the * old oxen. ' " I do not remember who introduced the service or who preached first. The precentor of the thousands was Mr. Evan Kees, Llannon, to whom the selections of the hymns and the commencement of the singing had been intrusted; and it was simply necessary to hear him in order to be convinced that it would be impossible to select a more capable man to perform such a service ; for he had a fine voice, and it was a pleasure to listen to the song which had been com- menced on the platform intoning and intoning until WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 39 at last it tenderly died away on the farthest outskirts of the crowd, and the chief singer waiting until the sound had passed away, when he would commence again. " The second preacher was Mr. Evans, of Llwynff or- tun, and the old people who still survive remember his noble presence, his large, serious face, and his generous blue eyes, which he could turn in every direc- tion, and his tones of incomparable tenderness. It was an English sermon ; and though the pronunciation was not in accordance with the strict laws of Walker, his English was perfectly correct and appropriate so far as style was concerned, and his sentences were one increasing torrent, like that of the Teify close by, when it is swollen by the mountain brooks after the rain. Though Mr. Evans preached in a language that none but the minority could understand, he secured not only their attentive hearing, but also the hearing of the monoglot majority who listened merely out of re- spect for the man, and because of their implicit confi- dence in him that he would, in whatever language, do justice to the claims of his Master and Saviour. " They reminded me of ' Teimouth y gaib ' from Crug y Bar, of blessed memory, who, when pleased, would break out into loud Amen. " On one occasion Teimouth broke out while listen- ing to an English preacher, tho he could not under- stand a word the preacher said. After tho meet- 40 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. ing was over he was taken to task for saying Amen during an English sermon, when he gave the following satisfactory reply: 'I heard something very much like Jesus Christ, and at once felt my heart warming toward him.' The leader of the song gives out an- other hymn ; and while this part of the service pro- ceeds the crowd can be seen in every direction making its way to the platform. The singing is over; then suddenly, like a bolt from the sky, the master of the assembly makes his appearance. " Until now no one had seen his face ; my heart was beating so fast that my waistcoat trembled, and I felt like one about to choke. There was a lump in my throat. He cast a rapid glance at the audience ; his face was full of care, and every cord is so tight as if about to snap. After placing his spectacles on his thin, well-formed nose, he read his text with an em- phasis that was in itself half an explanation of the verse. " The subject-matter of the discourse was the Divin- ity of Christ. " Within a few yards of the platform there were several open carriages, and in the midst was one which was occupied by the professors of Lampeter College, viz., the late Dr. Llewellyn, grandson of the celebrated Jones of Llangan, the late Professor Rice Bees, and Dr. Olyphant, the present bishop of Lan- daff. The first two gentlemen understood enough of Wales as it was, and as it is. 41 Welsh to appreciate all that was said by the eloquent divine. The bishop, too, understood a little Welsh, and he was anxious to increase his knowledge of the old language. " During the delivery of the sermon he proposed a new translation of one of the verses which he quoted, in order to prove his point and with a view of estab- lishing his position. Then, to avoid the appearance and to escape the charge of assuming a larger measure of classical knowledge, he confessed that his knowledge of the original language of Scriptures did not extend beyond the ability to read Greek and Hebrew, and the power of determining the meaning of words. ' But, ' he said, ' I am happy to know that there are present, and that not very far from me, a number of scholarly gentlemen who could judge whether the translation or the improvement which I suggest is in accordance with the laws and grammar of the language. ' " Then with that eagle eye of his he looked at the occupants of those carriages, and, like a courtier, bowed respectfully ; and they, like courtiers, bowed their heads as a sign that they consented to the pro- posed translation. Then he proceeded arguing every inch of the ground he proposed to tread in order to establish his premises; and tho his style necessi- tated the closest attention, lest by missing one obser- vation or failing to comprehend some portion of the discourse, one might fail to see the propriety and 42 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. beauty of his conclusions, yet the illiterate watched and followed him while he connected link with link in the chain of argument. The sermon was over, the preacher had nothing more to do beyond drawing two inferences. ' First, if we, the Trinitarians, as we are called, do err, we are guilty of idolatry.' Then, in his inimitable style, he gave a list of the most awful curses contained in the Old Testament respecting idolatry; this was followed by a list of the heaviest and bitterest judgments which were inflicted in times past by the Lord God of Israel upon those who were guilty of this most heinous practise. ' Secondly, on the other hand, if we are orthodox, what shall I say of our opponents? ' "By my side there stood two Unitarians; and as soon as they heard the wording of the second applica- tion, one of them whispered in the ear of his friend : ' Now for hell-fire ; there is where we shall be sent to, my boy.' They appeared perfectly defiant and even profane, and yet at times they seemed like evil-doers expecting the pronouncement of the verdict. " The preacher seemed like a man whose bowels was stirred like the waves of the ocean ; his lips tremble like the leaves of the forest, and the tenderness itself seemed to shine forth out of his large eyes. His thin, beautiful finger moved back and forth, and he seemed as if he were about to collapse through a desire to say and inability to say ; as if his organs of speech declined WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 43 to give their usual services to enable of proclaiming that which he felt ; while at the time his spirit seemed overwhelmed with the weight of the burden. *How can I set forth the condition of these people, ' he asked. 'Where can I find a comparison sufficiently striking and piercing to set forth their condition? Where can I get adjectives sufficiently powerful to set forth their spiritual state? I fear ' (then the impediment of speech returned, and the finger moves back and fore swifter and swifter), ' I fear ' (impediment of speech again, and the finger still at work, followed by sighs that reached the very depths of his nature) * that they are erring.' " I happened to look at the profane Unitarian who stood by me, and I saw that the tear had frozen in his eye, and I heard him say : ' Boys, this is fearful ' ; for in the estimation of the Unitarians nothing can be more dangerous than heterodoxy. Where was the preacher? He had disappeared like a flash of light- ning, and I saw him no more. What of the people? They were struck dumb with surprise, and for a few seconds were unable to separate, seeming to be strug- glng to regain their self-possession. " What was the secret of these men's success? They were not what may be termed educated men. So far as I can gather, they had no coherent, philosophic system of study. They had not been in any school of ora- tory : there was none available ; and if there had been 44 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT Il§. these men did not have the means. Their main pur- pose was to preach what they had found in the Bible. They had familiarized themselves with Puritan dog- matics, and, to some extent, with German exegesis; they sought out the best thoughts of all men of all times; but the essence of their power lay in their intimate acquaintance with the Bible. They had what may be termed a geographical, geological, and astronomical knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. As a rule, they discoursed upon the central themes of the Gospel — the atonement, the divinity of Christ, the judgment, etc., in addition to which, they were men of true dramatic genius and great analytical ability. Their self-possession was simply marvelous; while vast audiences failed to contain themselves, and men who had defied every dispensation cried and swooned, these preachers controlled themselves abso- lutely. Their voices, which possessed great compass and melody, could be heard from afar expressing with the nicest modulation all the varying moods of their minds. And above all, they were holy men. Eobert Roberts composed a sermon while rolling on the ground all night, agonizing for a message from God. The chair on which John Elias sat, as well as the floor of his study, bears the marks of strong tears. When they appeared before the people, their preach- ing was irresistible. They had no organs, no build- ings of Gothic or Norman architecture, no marble pul- WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 45 pits, and no enchanting music. The surroundings were of the simplest kind. It has been asked, with something of prejudice in the question, whether the Welsh pulpit has not deteriorated. The Welsh ^^eo- ple have deteriorated; those at home some, those abroad a good deal more. It is more difficult now than ever to make an impression upon a Welsh audience on their native heath ; but ten times more difficult to make an impression upon the Welsh in foreign lands. They sesm to have lost the ancient simplicity of the race. They are more materialistic, having a greater passion for making money, so that religion is often made a secondary and even a third- rate question. And what is very wonderful is this : many of the preachers who have emigrated to foreign countries have lost a little of the old passion and enthusiasm in preaching. It seems to me that there is in process a general weakening of human sensibility — sensibility to what is tender, holy, religious. I do not mean among the Welsh merely, but among all nations. In general culture, knowledge, and classical learning the present generation of Welsh preachers excels the old ; but in sheer natural ability, force of character, acquaintance with the Bible, personal con- secration, and the habit of making private prayer an auxiliary to the sermon, the old preachers surpass the present. There can be no argument concerning this. Still, justice requires admission of the facts that in 46 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. olden times the pulpit was the only means of religious knowledge available to the masses, and that material civilization was that in a much more backward state. Such facts should be taken into consideration in esti- mating the difference between the authority and influ- ence of the Welsh pulpit of the present day with those of the Welsh pulpit of fifty or sixty or a hundred years ago, or even of the middle of the last century. But in order to fully gage the real influence of the Welsh pulpit upon Welsh life and character, we must not confine our attention to the religious world. The Welsh clergy were more than preachers; they were educators. As the great statesmen and great scholars of the Middle Ages were mostly ecclesiastical men, so it may be said that the pioneers of secular education in the principality of Wales were largely found among the preachers of the Gospel. Their interest in the people was of the deepest and broadest character. They led the way in the press, in the founding of schools, and in the preservation of social order. They were the men who really shaped the destiny of the people. When, in the reign of Charles I., the clergy, under penalty of suppression, were compelled to announce in their re- spective churches on Sundays the King's declaration respecting the provisions made to provide sports and amusements for the public, several of these clergymen declined to do so, and were accordingly expelled ; and by their expulsion the seeds of Non-conformity were WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 47 sown. This dawned with the martyrdom of John Penry, and it has been the mainstay of religious and social order in the principality. The rise and progress of Non-conformity is one of the most remarkable relig- ious*movements of the century. In what departments are we to look for the fruits of their labors ? They are found in the field of education. The pulpit has been charged with having neglected the culture of the national character. But the charge is unjust. The clergy had to take the people as they found them — in a state of semi-barbarism, ignorance, superstition, and sin. The first step was to evangelize them. It was too soon then to talk about the culture of the national character. That was to come. The preachers were in their turn preparing the way for it. Now that work is proceeding in earnest. The educa- tional system of Wales at the present time is nearer perfection than any other in Great Britain. There are the board schools, the intermediate schools, and the three universities, with the senate, composed of the teaching staff of these universities. The expenses of the students at these universities are small com- pared with those at Oxford and Cambridge ; they do not exceed two hundred dollars per session. Those who go to Oxford and Cambridge as unattached, for the sake of economy, would do very much better if they came to these Welsh universities. Aberystwith University, principal of which is Rev. T. F. Rob- 48 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. erts, M.A., has done some very distinguished work. The pulpit had for generations drawn to itself the best intellect of the nation. It was practically the only sphere in which a Welshman could distinguish himself. Now all is changed. The children of Wales have at last been placed on an equal footing with their Saxon neighbors ; and the historian of the twentieth century will have to record the deeds of Welsh men and women in the fields of science, literature, politics, and learning. Proofs of this have already been sup- plied. It is truly wonderful when we note the fact that even as late as 1837 — sixty-one years ago — com- merce in Wales was in a low condition ; political feel- ing was wellnigh unknown; literature, except the purely denominational form of it, was dormant; no newspaper could exist ; efficient day schools were few. People got the news from stocking-sellers and flan- nel-weavers. These made their rounds twice in the year — about May and September. If any one desired to see the doctor, or the lawyer, or the squire, the most likely place to find him was the public house. Who and what were the schoolmasters? They were men of little education or culture of any kind. There were no colleges in which masters could be trained, and any one in the shape of a man was deemed fit to teach children. Some of these masters were old soldiers who had returned from war with a broken leg or arm, or with one eye missing ; others WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 49 were broken-down butchers, clerks, and shopkeepers — their only recommendation being that they had failed at almost everything else. And what was the character of the buildings in which these schools were held? As a rule, they were old, dilapidated houses, with any and every kind of roofing, and with nothing but the bare, cold earth to stand upon ; there were no desks nor books. The children had to turn their forms into desks, and to write in their spelling-books while kneeling on the damp, cold earth. There were no maps ; and the children knew no more about geography than a shepherd's dog knows of the difference between a sovereign and a five-shilling piece. The schools were often held in chapels and churches without fire or ventilation or any conveniences. It may be interesting to describe briefly some of the methods adopted to teach English to the children. One afternoon in every week was devoted to the prac- tise of '' posing. " The children stood in a circle, and the foremost boy or girl challenged the whole rank to give the English equivalent for a Welsh word or ex- pression. If it was given, the challenger was consid- ered vanquished, and had to take his seat; but if it was not given, he kept his place. Then the next in the row did the same, and so on, the practise often lasting for an hour or two ; and the victor, at the close, adorning his hat or cap with cockades made from the leaves of the copy-books. How the farm-servants, in 4 50 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. their ignorance and superstition, used to gape at the victor as he went along the road! And how the parent used to leap with joy as the child entered the little village, or the thatched cottage at the foot of the hill! Another mode of teaching English in these primi- tive schools was by means of the "Welsh stick," or the " Welsh note, " as it was called. This was a piece of wood about one inch thick and three inches long. The letters " W. N. " were either burned into the wood or cut with a knife, and then inked, the letters " W. N." standing for the words "Welsh Note," because the children were supposed not to speak Welsh. And I need hardly say that, between tale-bearers and cul- prits, the stick was in constant use. It was very amusing to see boys tempting each other to speak Welsh by pinching, that they might vent their feel- ings in the vernacular; or by so prolonging the con- versation that their stock of English words would be exhausted. A ruder or more primitive mode of teach- ing English is hardly conceivable ; but it shows that, in those dark and cloudy days, there was some desire to acquire a knowledge of that language which is des- tined to become the one common medium of interna- tional intercourse among the civilized nations of the world. But there has been a wonderful development since then in all branches of knowledge and industry. WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 61 There is more enterprise and intelligence, broader conceptions of life, and a higher state of morality. Miners, farmers, skilled and unskilled workmen can discuss with considerable ability such questions as the nature of the soul, the origin of evil, the identity of the human body at the resurrection, the freedom of the will, etc. There is not a single parish without a Sunday school or schools. These represent over thirty- four per cent, of the population. So far as religious knowledge is concerned, the Welsh, taken as a body of people, are with the exception of the Scotch, the best informed in Christendom. There are 12,000 books in the Welsh language to-day, and among them there is not a single original skeptical or infidel work. There is one translation of a skeptical character, but it has had no sale ; it had to be given away. There are 22 weekly newspapers in the Welsh language with a circulation of 40,000 per week. There are 25 monthly periodicals and several quarterly reviews, one of them having a circulation of 37, 760. Welsh readers to-day spend $800,000 per annum on strictly Welsh literature : not on daily papers or novels, but on solid literature. There are also several weekly papers with very large circulations. Besides, they support 2 Eng- lish morning papers, 6 English evening papers, and 80 English weeklies. There have been long and sad gaps in the literary life of the Welsh. W^hen the people were disposed 52 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. to read, there was nothing to read. There are but few nations who have during their whole existence really thought and written. Take the Germans, as an instance; they have scarcely any literature for two centuries (1550-1750). The only exceptions to this rule are ancient Greece, modern France, and England. And it can be said of the Welsh as of the English, a great deal of what has been written is worthless — • worthless because written on purely denominational subjects by men of no education or literary ability. But the Welsh, as a people, are imbued with literary tastes, and are at the present time using these tastes in higher and broader spheres of learning. Let me now call your attention to the great social changes in the life of the Welsh people. In olden times a nearer relationship existed between master and servant, mistress and maid. But to-day far better wages are paid, and the general condition of the work- ing class as regards remuneration, political liberty, freedom of speech, social privileges, etc., has vastly improved. Many of the workmen of America, especi- ally the miners of Pennsylvania, are in a condition of serfdom as compared with Welsh miners. There remain very few of the old whitewashed thatched cottages, with the large fireplaces and the wide-open chimneys — the old oak arm-chair on one side of the fireplace and the long form on the other. Here friends and neighbors used to congregate to relate all WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 63 manner of ghost-stories, etc., and to discuss all sorts of theological questions. There are no longer any Christmas feasts in public houses, to watch the dawn of day, with story-telling, harp-playing, and singing such songs as the "Men of Harlech" and "Ash Grove," followed by a big feast. Not many Welsh- women are now seen wearing the old Welsh costume consisting of short flannel skirt, either of dark red or gray, and on their heads pretty caps tied with fancy ribbons, and over them the tall glossy beaver hat. The same thing is true in regard to foods, and drink. Years ago, barley bread and oatmeal bread were in great repute, also all manner of food made of oats, such as grits, porridge, and glumnery. But the Welsh of to-day do not care much about spoon food of any kind. They have been taught by the English to eat meat and white bread, and to indulge occasion- ally in unwholesome and unnecessary luxuries. The old people had no confidence in any material but sheep's wool. The clothing of the men and women was made out of homespun cloth and colored flannel, with but little linen interwoven with them. Now the Welsh dress more like the English. Many— not • all, not even the majority, but a great many— buy clothes of flimsy and unserviceable material simply for show and appearance. Most assuredly, the Welsh- man has already fallen from the simplicity of his old and long-lived ancestors. He likes the country less 54 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. and less, and town life more and more. His ideas and manners have changed considerably, and in many respects for the worse. Though there is a higher and better type of domestic discipline in Wales than in any other country, more obedience and reverence and humility among children there than throughout the world, still, home life is not exactly what it was ; there is not the same stern severe life which did so much for the country and its people. Not many parents ^and I am glad of this — now pronounce eternal damnation over the son or daughter who dares to read Scott or Thackeray or Dickens or Shakespeare. But dancing is still held to be a sin. The Welsh have been for years stoutly opposed to this practice. They have kept it out of their churches and have discouraged it among their members. The churches have no need to adver- tise themselves, or to seek patronage or raise money, by such expediences. Welsh non-conformity is based on a better foundation. Moreover, the Welsh nature as such resents it. Why ? In olden times the Welsh were regarded as excellent dancers. Owen Tudor was invited to dance some of the dances of Wales be- fore Katherine, the beautiful widow of Henry V. While the handsome young Welshman was dancing one of his wild reels, he fell against the Queen. He began to apologize ; but the Queen, with a bewitching smile, said that she was not offended ; it would only increase her pleasure if he would repeat it. - She was WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 55 in love with the handsome Welshman; and later on Katherine and Tudor were married. But the Welsh people, known as such excellent dancers, renounced it completely during the revival periods. The chief cause of that renunciation was : The dancing classes and dancing festivals which used to be such a feature of Welsh social life degenerated at last into drunken orgies; they led to scenes which can not be described. These scenes created a revulsion of feeling in the minds of the Welsh themselves. Thus they began to abhor dancing on account of the possibilities of evil which were involved in it. There has come into Wales, and is constantly com- ing, a new kind of life and a new set of men. The old peasant life as it existed generations ago is now fast dying out. These changes are due to the influ- ences of our railroad system, education, the press, and other things. Some one has said that a people's psychology is to be found in their literature. But the great bulk of Welsh literature is in the vernacular. Foreigners, therefore, can not be blamed for not understanding the Welsh, who thus have been an underrated race from time immemorial. They have always used for literary purposes a language not commonly under- stood. They have done so on account of the mistaken idea that a distinctive language is essential to nation- ality. How is it possible, therefore, for the Eng- 56 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. lish to reciprocate the intense enthusiasm which the Welsh never fail to manifest when speaking of their great preachers, poets, warriors, and musicians? Scott was prudent enough to idealize Scottish national life in the English language. If he had used Gaelic, he would have extinguished himself and his ideas. The same thing would be true of Loti if he had used the Brythonic language. But the writers of Brittany and of Scotland have sent out to the world their pro- ductions in the language of the largest of all reading constituencies. This is the reason why Wales, and the Welsh with their true idiosyncrasies, are not more familiar to the English reading public. This is the suicidal policy which the Welsh people themselves have adopted throughout the ages. Whoever wants to know the real inner life of the Welsh race must seek it under cover of that venerable old language which many think — but think wrongly — is made up of noth- ing but consonants. "What view have we of the people's psychology in Welsh literature? What are the characteristics of the "Welsh? They have a remarkable fondness and capac- ity for music, and an inherent love of liberty. They are clean in their habits, industrious, attached to home, law-abiding, economical, and can live on very much less than English people, because they are less extravagant. They dislike theatres, sports, and races. As a nation they are sober, humorous, and patient WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 67 to their own hurt. They are possessed of the vir- tues cf religion and hospitality to a remarkable degree. A gentleman from Minnesota, after an absence of twenty-eight years, visited Dollgelly, in North Wales, in order to see a lady who had helped him to the depot when the family emigrated to the States. The lady was now old, and did not recognize the stranger. She invited him into the house, and asked him where he had come from. When he re- plied, "From America," she at once exclaimed, "Dear me, you must feel hungry !" — and began to prepare the table. That is the Welsh character in a nutshell. It matters not what time of the day you call, the native Welsh are neither too indolent nor too busy to pro- vide you with a meal. They are naturally blessed with the gift of ready and expressive speech ; but they are impulsive, and, like the Germans, have a tendency to be obstinate — far more gifted with the perception of differences between themselves and others than with the recognition of similarities and agreements ; having but a feeble sense of mutual forbearance; de- void of that enterprising spirit which is characteristic of John Bull; envious and vindictive; more religious than moral. No nation under heaven has made greater strides in Christianity, yet it is in a backward state as regards material civilizations. The people are only just beginning to realize the blessings of material civilization. Advanced methods of farming, etc., are 58 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. being introduced. Technical education is being widely- recommended, thio it is to be feared that their ma- terial advancement may have an adverse effect upon their religious life. One of the most interesting social phenomena of our times is the present national reawakening in Wales. The sentiment of nationality is not a new thing in the history of the Welsh. Caesar and Augustine and Ed- ward I. discovered it in a very advanced stage. It was the one supreme idea which controlled their actions. Centuries of bloody wars, bribing, and blan- dishment failed to crush it. It is here still, and to all appearances here it will remain. There is, how- ever, this difference about it : whereas this sentiment of nationality used to be anti-English, anti-British, and anti-imperialistic, it is now pro-English, pro- British, and pro-imperialistic. The Welsh at home are no longer animated by a feeling of exclusiveuess toward and dislike of the Saxon and his ways. Consolidation has been substituted for isolation. The Welshman is now proud of Britain and the British. His desire is to stand side by side with Scotland and England, and even Ireland, if she behaves herself : not because he is less of a Welshman, but because he is a better Welshman. He has more knowledge ; his sympathies are broader and more enlightened; long and bitter experience has taught him to be a friend to himself. He is becoming increasingly loyal, while at the same WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 59 time growing in patriotism. These are the two forces that have been at work throughout Great Britain — cen- tripetal and centrifugal. In proportion as our colo- nies become autonomous they draw near the throne. The same is true of Italy, Germany, and the United States. Italy has become one, and Germany has be- come one. How? Not by an oppressive and artificial uniformity, but by a many-sided federal unity. Eng- lish statesmen have for generations labored under the mistaken notion that all peoples within the jurisdic- tion of the British Empire ought to be content to be governed by and conform to purely British, or rather English, ideas. This has been the keynote of all their legislative enactments ; and they have sought to enforce them by questionable and often brutal methods. But our present-day statesmen of both political parties are beginning to realize that it is a mistaken policy ; that it is a policy fatal to the interests of the Empire. Her strength lies in the sympathy of her colonies. The Welsh people claim that the distinctive life of Wales should be fostered; that there should be no attempt to force English peculiarities upon the nation. They claim for Wales representation on the royal shield, standard, and currency of the United King- dom. Wales is the only nation in Europe tiiat has no distinctive blazon to exhibit to the world. There is room for it on the royal standard. The sign Welsh- men ask for is Arthur's dragon or Llewellyn's lions. 60 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. They claim that either one of these should stand beside the chosen ensigns of the other three nations compo- sing the United Kingdom. It is not an unreasonable request ; and it is asked as a pledge of peace and loy- alty to an ancient foe, as well as an acknowledgment of the distinctive identity of the Welsh race. There is going on in Wales at the present moment a strong agitation for the recognition of Wales as an integral unit requiring separate treatment in legislation and administration. Then there is a revival of interest in the Welsh language and literature. Welshmen are at last alive to the fact that their ancient literary remains, both in history and poetry, have a value which makes them objects of interest to themselves and to other nations. There is more Welsh spoken in Wales to-day than ever before. It has been made more a matter of neces- sity in labor, education, law, r.nd ecclesiastical organi- zation. The earliest statutory recognition of the Welsh language in civil affairs was when Queen Victoria, ten .days after her accession, June 30, 1837, signed a bill which sanctioned the substitution of Welsh for English in the words of declaration and contract which made marriage legal. It was a new departure j and the recognition has gone on ever since, so that now knowledge of Welsh is essential to obtain many government appointments and in several matters af- fecting the state church. No one claims that Welsh WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 61 can ever become the language of commerce or of sci- ence. It is incapable of rendering such a service. It is deficient in technical terms. It is essentially the language of poetry, music, and religion. Beyond these, it can not go. In literature and in art this awakening has resulted in the reestablishment of Eisteddfodaii and in a re- newed desire for the cultivation of art and the dis- semination of Welsh influence. British statesmen no longer deem it unnecessary to trouble themselves to ascertain what Welshmen think about social and imperial matters. Welshmen have votes, and, what is better, they know how to use them. They seem to be gradually regaining the old spirit of self-assertion so characteristic of the nation before the Conquest. In the United States the Welsh and their descendants number about a million ; but even where they are in a majority they are not in power. There are one or two very insignificant exceptions. In all the great American cities. East and West, the government is in the hands of Germans and Irish Catholics. The Welsh do not count. Their votes are eagerly sought, but they are kept out of office. It almost seems as if they had lost the spirit of self-assertion with their in- dependence. What part have the Welsh played in the making of American history? What contributions have they made to the departments of theology, science, educa- 62 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. tion, medicine, missions, religion, and politics? Be- fore the year 1830 the Welsh knew next to nothing about politics. Their representatives in Parliament were mere landlords and squires who could neither speak nor think for themselves, and who took no inter- est in the common people. Now it would be impossible to find a constituency in any part of Great Britain that can teach the Welsh how to vote or how to understand some question of national or iuternational politics. Among the thirty-four representatives are men who possess a genuine grasp of statesmanship, and who have shown the qualities of an orator. I refer to Mr. Thomas Ellis, the chief Liberal Whig, and Mr. Lloyd George. There are others, like Mr. D. A. Thomas, Mr. Herbert Lewis, and Mr. W. Abrahams, who have proved themselves to be men of power and understand- ing. Now the Welsh nation is in a position to de- mand, and does demand, a hearing in the British House of Commons. Several of the most important pulpits in London aud the provincial cities and towns are occupied by Welshmen of humble origin and birth. They are men of considerable intellectual attainments, and blessed with the gift of speech. George Herbert, the hymnologist, was a Welshman. So was Mr. Burne-Jones, the celebrated artist, and Mr. H. M. Stanley, the African explorer. I have the honor of his personal acquaintance. He is a WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT TS. 63 man for whom — and his accomplished wife — I have a great and sincere admiration. While Living- stone's interest in Africa was religious, Stanley's interest was geographical. Livingstone went to Africa for souls; Stanley went there for new maps. By saying this I merely show the difference be- tween the two. Livingstone was a great, high-souled missionary. Stanley, too, is great. He has done immense service to Great Britain, to commerce, to civilization, and, indirectly, to Christianity. Pro- fessor Rhys, the widely known Oxford philologist, is a Welshman, as is also Dr. John Williams, physician to the royal family, and Griffith John, a noted mis- sionary in China. It was a Welshman, an honored member of the English Episcopal Church — I mean Bishop Morgan — who gave to the world the first complete version of the Scriptures in the Welsh tongue. This Bible has been rightly regarded as the most important work in the language, even as a literary production. It contains the many varied beauties of which the Welsh tongue is capable, with all the characteristics of the Hebrew. Critics whose knowledge and experience give weight to their judgment do not hesitate to affirm that the Welsh version approaches more closely to the peculiar genius of the original than does the English version. This is owing to the nearer affinity of the Hebrew to the Welsh than to the English. 64 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. If the Welsh translation or version has any errors at all — and it certainly has ; errors of an important character — they are, broadly speaking, inaccuracies of orthography, and too great a deference to the author- ity of the English translations. But it should not be forgotten that Biblical culture at the time the trans- lation was made was in an imperfect state. Still, not- withstanding the imperfections to which reference has already been made, and others equally important, it must be regarded as a great work. Dr. Edwards's book on the Atonement is a valuable contribution to the theology of that doctrine; and Dr. Thomas Charles Edwards's Commentary on 1 Corin- thians, in scholarship and exegesis, ranks among the best commentaries of the day. In theological grasp, philosophical insight, and erudition it is equal to the productions of Canon Westcott and Bishop Light- foot. I invite you to put my statement to the test. What have the Welsh done for America? Was not Roger Williams, the first to establish democracy on the American continent, a Welshman, born in Wales in the year 1596? And among those who signed the American Declaration of Independence, no less than seventeen were Welsh by birth and origin. There have been five Presidents of the United States who, on good historical grounds, are said to have been of Welsh descent, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and William Henry Harrison. i\\^ Rev.JohnHou;ord Harris, DD.LLD. rjJ.O WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 65 Captain Jones, commander of the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrim fathers across the ocean in 1620 to their new home in the west, was a Welshman. Like other nations, we have our faults; and some of our people abroad are not safe criterions by which to judge the nation. But I believe I am echoing the sentiment of your President and past Presidents, the sentiment of your administrations, public officers, prin- cipals of universities, bankers, and all true Americans, that, on the whole, they have found the Welsh, as a race, most desirable citizens. They have been indus- trious and law-abiding. They have contributed to the purification and consolidation of family life. They have drunk in the true American spirit — many of them, I am sorry to say, at the expense of forget- ting the mother-country that gave them birth, relig- ion, a Bible, and what education they have. Still they are people who profess faith in God, duty, and immortality. They have under the most depressing conditions kept the lamp of truth burning in the back- woods of America and in the great cities of the East and West. I am far from expecting that the Welsh race, as a race, will attain to any very great distinction, no mat- ter how much you educate it. Still, I am sanguine enough to believe, and proofs of it are already forth- coming, that by proper training and imder wise lead- ership the Welsh will make a substantial contribution 66 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. toward the production and formation of that finished race of men composed of every nation's best which ethnological science has ventured to predict shall sooner or later make its appearance on earth. I trust that ere long a better feeling will exist not only between the native Welsh and the Americans, but between England and America. There has been too great a disposition, not only in England, but also on the continent of Europe, to underrate America and its immense resources. There has also been in Amer- ica too ready a disposition to glory in any rebuff or loss or inconvenience suffered by England through the jealousy of ill-conditioned and ill-consolidated Europe, now longmg for her overthrow. I verily believe that the difficulties in the way of an alliance of the two na- tions are greater on your side than on ours — greater, perhaps, on account of the Catholic vote, the remem- brance of past indiscretions on the part of English statesmen, and also a lurking suspicion that an alli- ance might be good for England but bad for America. England' s neutrality and position in the conflict be- tween America and Spain has been a good thing for America. It was to her interest to conciliate Europe ; but she stood alone because of her Christian abhor- rence of the cruelty which caused the war, and because " blood is thicker than water. " We and you are of the same home and household; we have a common heri- tage— the same language, the same name, the same WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 67 crigin, and the same destiny. It is to the interest of civilization, equality, justice, and religion that we should be united. Mr. Chamberlain has immortalized himself by that speech the keynote of which was Anglo-Saxondom the wide world over. That signifi- cant pronouncement sent a thrill through the world. Why? Because such an alliance would be natural, founded upon blood, kinship, and mutual interest. Such an alliance would mean the triumph of the demo- cratic form of government over the monarchical. It would hasten the inevitable conflict between the two governmental ideals. It would mean better times for the downtrodden nationalities of Europe and the self- thralled, self-abased peoples throughout the entire world. Such an alliance would pave the way for the final consummation of that ideal state of society, prophesied in the Word of God, when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; when peace shall reign supreme, and the tears of the slave, the oppressed, and the poor shall be wiped away by the ringing out of the old order of things and the ringing in of widespread, universal human better- ment. The National Song of Wales. " O land of my fathers, the land of the free, The home of the harp so soothing to me ; Thy noble defenders were gallant and brave — 68 WALES AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. For freedom their hearts' life they gave. Tho slighted and scorned by the proud and the strong, The language of Cambria still charms us in song. The (awen) inspiration survives ; Nor have envious tales Yet silenced the harp of dear Wales. Wales, Wales, — home, sweet home, is Wales. Till death be past My love shall last My longing, my yearning for Wales. LOVE-SERVICES . By Rev. Ebenezeb Edwards, Minersville, Pa. " Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. " — Matt. xxvi. 13. It is well to note the faith and foresight of this ** Verily, I say " of our Lord. Already " the shadow of death " was full in sight; but beyond His tomb Jesus clearly discerned "the glories that would follow." This language implies the Eesurrection and the sub- sequent commission to preach the Gospel throughout " the whole world. " Whatever else may lie buried in the grave of oblivion, " this Gospel " must live on, for it is "the Gospel of Christ." "Verily, I say": the Christ fully realized that the " world " would hate the Gospel, and put to death its faithful preachers ; and yet He says : " This Gospel shall be preached in the whole world." Men and demons may combine to seek the overthrow of Christ's church, the custodian of this Gospel, but the Crucified declared, " The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. " And so, " The Lamb of God, " about to be slain in sacrifice for " the sins 69 70 LOVE-SERVICES. of the whole world, " looks forward even " unto the end of the age," — this Gospel dispensation! The preacher of to-day is but fulfilling the wonderful " I say" of Jesus : " This that this woman hath done shall be told." Nothing can be better fitted to stimulate and sustain, in the church of all ages, that love- service which our Lord requires, and which " the whole world" so greatly needs. The grand catholicon for the woes of our great country and the wants of the heathen everywhere is found in " This Gospel." It is neither inopportune nor imprudent now to recall what Mary did on this occasion and what Jesus did in return. Let us, in the light of this passage, consider the Mas- ter's claim to and His commendation of love-service. I. Jesus has the highest possible claim to the loving services of His followers. This claim rested in the time of Mary, and still rests, on His worthiness and His work. You will see how natural the demand, that He receive from us the "faith that worketh by love." In view of Peter's affirmation, " Thou knowest that I love thee, " came the Lord' s reply : " Peed my lambs, " " Shepherd my sheep. " 1. Mary loved her Lord for what He was. She had known something of His intrinsic excellence. She felt LOVE-SERVICES. 71 His claim to hearty confidence and to signal service such as that recorded here. Mary " sat at Jesus' s feet and heard His Word. " Even while her sister Martha ** was careful and troubled about many things, " Mary chose "that good part." The beloved of the Father was also her beloved. Hers had been the joy kindred to that of the holy ones in heaven, — the bliss of being in His presence to behold His " glory. " She could say : " Whom have I in heaven but Thee? On earth have I desired none beside Thee." No wonder Mary loved Him; and loving Him, she would delight to honor and to serve the Lord she loved so well. She could say of a truth what those who know Him best have always said : " I love Thee for that glorious worth In Thy great self I see. " Nothing could be too good for Him, and no sacrifice too great if bestowed on Him. 2. Mary loved the Lord Jesus for what He had done for her. Love begets love. " We love Him because He first loved us." The good received from Him calls forth willing service and "a. good work." So a loving and self-sacrificing parent assumes the right to the child's obedience and devotion. Now let us see the special service Christ had rendered, and learn the reason for " this that this woman hath done." The " supper " was given *' in the house of Simon the 72 LOVE-SERVICES. leper, " in honor of the Lord. It seems to have been made jointly by two families whom He had served in very notable service. " They made Him a supper," is the record of John. What ties of relationship ex- isted to bind " the house of Simon " to that of Lazarus and his sisters, we know not. Conjecture has been active, but the record is silent, and so are we. Suffice it that "Lazarus sat at the table with Him." With little stretch of imagination we can see Jesus " in the midst " of these trophies of His love and power ! John, probably an eye-witness, writes in this wise : " Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard very pre- cious " — ("Kard grolyb, "W.) — "and anointed the feet of Jesus. " Matthew says she *' poured it on His head" also. In Tennyson we have this picture : " Then one deep love doth supersede All other, when her ardent gaze Roves from the living brother's face And rests upon the Life indeed ! "All subtle thought, all curious fears Borne down by gladness so complete, She bows, she bathes the Savior's feet With costly ointment and with tears. " But a few days had passed since Mary's tears of sorrow had been dried by Christ, and now her tears of gratitude must flow and her grateful love find ex- pression in that love-service set forth in Gospel LOVE-SERVICES. 73 records. All this is "written for our learning." We as men and women redeemed from death and cleansed from sin by "the precious blood of the Christ," may well ask each for himself and herself: " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" The Christ " loved us and hath given Himself for us an offering," and shall we not heed His claim and pay to Him our " reasonable service " ? Hear Plim : "I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee ; What hast thou brought to Me?" The love-service for which Jesus waits, and for which we are pleading, is characterized by two or three par- ticular features suggested here. (a) " This that this woman hath done " shows how Love watches for and seizes opportunities for special service. " She is come aforehand to anoint My body for the burial." This is Christ's interpretation of the act, and in this light it shines with radiant beauty. "As ye have opportunity, do good," is ever the dic- tate of true love. It has a keen eye to see and a will- ing mind to utilize fitting occasions for service. " She did it for My burial," saith the Lord. The deepest affection is the most " forward " to serve both God and men (2 Cor. viii. 7-12). {b) " This that this woman hath done " declares how Love is liberal and large-hearted evermore. It serves with no stint and no sense of sacrifice. If the object 74 LOVE-SERVICES. be worthy, this is right. Such it was iu this case. The ointment for Christ's body can not be too precious ; even for His " feet " this costly spikenard was not too good. Pliny says this kind of nard was worth four hundred denarii, or Koman pennies, per pound ; and the estimate of Judas was that the amount poured on the Lord, if sold, would realize three hundred pence, or forty-five dollars, to enhance " the poor " fund. Mark adds that this woman brake the "alabaster box" or flask in her eager desire to shed the " very precious" ointment on the person of her lovely and loving Lord. Once more, the Savior indicates the costliness of Mary's gift by saying: "She hath done what she could " ; that is, she did her utmost and her best. Such is ever the record of pure love-service : it must have some worthy exponent of its intensity and strength. (c) " This that this woman hath done " proves how little any one doing real love-service thinks of being "seen of men." The cold-hearted charity of the times, ever seeking human applause, had been re- buked of Jesus (vi. 2). As Paul says (1 Cor. xiii.), true " Charity " or Love " vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own"; not self-praise, but love-service, is the in- spiring motive. Such was the love of God and of the godly. Li Mary there was no love of display. Pure as the blooming snow-white lilies, her act was the outcome LOVE-SERVICES. 75 of her heart, and therefore she was heedless of the presence of any save the object of her grateful love. With no hypocritical self-assertion, and no timid or tremulous bashfulness, "■ this woman " performed the part of one whose sole ambition was to pay her " debt of love " to Christ, her greatest benefactor. If this ser- vice was acceptable to Him, she could well afford to cherish utter unconcern about the fact that " when His disciples saw it they had indignation." What mat- tered it to Mary that Judas and the rest should mut- ter: "To what purpose is this waste?" Jesus was pleased with the act which displeased these men. Let us learn to imitate " this woman " in all we attempt to do for Christ. Like the great Apostle of the Gentiles, let us say : " The love of Christ constraineth us, . . . wherefore we labor," are ambitious, "make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleas- ing unto Him " (R. V.). The feeling of Philip Dod- dridge should be that of every true disciple every- where : " What is my being but for Thee — Its sure support, its noblest end? 'Tis my delight Thy face to see, And serve the cause of such a friend. " Happy souls ! Honored men and women ! 76 LOVE-SERVICES. II. Jesus commends, as He also claims, love-service such as this. When we think of the greatness and glory of our risen Lord, it may surprise us to know that service of so little worth as ours should receive His regard, much less His words of praise. Can the greatest of our gifts, deeds insignificant as ours must be, engage the attention of our glorious King and call forth His approval? To remove distrust, let us remember these " words of the Lord Jesus " : " Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward." Or, again, we may turn to the scene described by Him, and recorded by Matthew, chapter xxv. : " When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory. . . . And the King shall answer " the questionings of those set by Him " on His right hand." " Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." " He is the head of the body, the church " ; " many members, yet one body," even "the body of Christ." He is still present, and we, as well as Mary, may " serve the Lord Christ " in some special service, if we will. Now see how He appreciates and approves love- LOVE-SERVICES. 77 services of every kind. You notice, first, He shields Mary from the storm of indignation which Judas had awakened among the apostles. Such fault-finders are never wanting even in the church. This day, and always, there are those whose unquestioned " apos- tolical succession " is in the line of Judas the Apostate. How emphatic is their cry, *' To what purpose is this waste?" To these, and such as may be led astray by the bad influence of their example and their spirit and their words, all that is given to Christ, to His cause, to His needy members, is but " waste. " If one expend large sums of money on personal adornments, on fine carriages and fast horses, on parties and ban- quets for carnal gratification, that is all right, and the Lord's money is not wasted there. Should there re- main some surplus dimes or dollars, that may suffice for Christian giving to charities, churches, and Christ's claims! What? " Make Him a supper " and anoint His feet? John says " the house was filled with the odor of the ointment," and to him, no doubt, this odor was sweet-smelling; but to Judas this wasted oint- ment had a decidedly bad smell. What purposeless waste ! And so to all Judas-like characters to this day all anointing of " Jesus' s feet " with spikenard, " very costly," is most absurd. Such as these see in Him "nor f6rm, nor comeliness," nor majesty, nor merit, " that they should desire Him." Is Judas indignant? So is Jesus. The Lord interposes, and this is what 78 LOVE-SERVICES. He sajs: "Why trouble ys this woman? Let her alone." And what of Mary? Perhaps she was too happy to notice the murmuring. At least she rests serenely in the Lord ; not a word does she utter in her own defense. Secondly, Jesus commends the act, for that. He sees its ' beautiful ' significance. He saw this more clearly than even Mary did. It was prob- ably a glad surprise to her to hear her Lord' s inter- pretation of this deed of love. " She hath wrought a good, rather a beautiful, work on Me ; ... for in that she hath poured this ointment on My body, she did it for My burial." Even among us, and more so among the Jews in the time of Christ, no mark of respect could be esteemed extravagant when bestowed upon a loved one numbered with the dead. John informs us of how Joseph and Nicodemus " brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about one hundred pounds; then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury" — i.e., to bury distinguished personages, above all others. Such was the wealth of love ex- pended by these men on "the body of Jesus." Was it right? Judas, the treasurer of "the twelve," who had a special mission to provide for "the poor," covered his want of love to Christ with a cloak of deep con- cern for them. I rejoice that John was guided to strip off this cloak, so that the true Judas, the trai- LOVE-SERVICES. "^9 tor, might appear. " This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag, and bore what was put therein." Add to this the truth that for " thirty pieces of silver " he sold his Master— just the price of a common slave, and but one third the value of this ointment— then you will understand both the character of this man and the depth of his " indignation " in view of what *' this wom- an" did. To him the act seemed ridiculously void of good sense, while to Jesus it was beautifully proper and altogether " good." His word is, " She hath done what she could, " and while she might have opportunity for its performance. He understands her motives, and He reads her heart. What quietness and assur- ance this brings to all who honestly and heartily " serve the Lord Christ." " All things are naked and opened unto His eyes with whom we have to do,"— all hollow hypocrisy such as that of Judas, all sincere love such as that of Mary. Finally, note this evidence of how Christ commends love-service. Blessed Mary, thou worthy sister in Christ! "Where'er the Book of Light Bears hope and healing, there, beyond all blight, Is borne thy memory, and— all praise above ; Oh, say, what deed so lifted thy sweet name, Mary, to that pure, silent place of fame?— One lowly offering of exceeding Love!" The preacher delights to tell what Jesus suggested 80 LOVE-SEBVICES. should be told. This woman's name and fame are abiding as long as " this Gospel shall be preached in all the world. " " All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man (and for man's praise) as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." "Glorious Gospel," outlasting the abi- ding pyramids of Egypt ! To every age and nation this Gospel will carry down Mary's immortal " memorial " record. Such is the distinguished privilege of such as honor Christ, doing love-service for His honor and to His glory. Ye that "are Christ's," numbered among the "dis- ciples " and bearing the Christian name, how does "this that this woman hath done" strike you? If I have failed to speak of it as I ought, if I have come short of telling this story as it should be told, forgive me. No one is more painfully conscious of the preacher's prosiness than he is himself. He ought to have been more enthused with a record so glorious of love-service thus endeared to the Lord. One thing I would request of every Christian, even this : that he or she carefully and prayerfully study this record as given in the Word. Should it be that, in compliance with this request, your ambition is stirred so to love and serve the Lord as in that great day to be owned and honored by Him, my re- LOVE-SERVICES. 81 ward will be ample, your blessedness unbounded and complete. Beloved, permit me but one word more. It is the word of Christ, — His motto, shall I say, and that which seemed the inspiration of His active life. I re- fer to the passage recorded in John ix. 4 : " While it is day, the night cometh when no man can work." "Two hands upon the breast — the work is over — The warfare o'er; And they who have toiled and striven in faith Shall fight no more I "Two hands upon the breast— the work is over ; And then the promised rest Which yet remaineth for the Lord's own people "Who have His name confessed ! " Two hands upon the breast — the work is over ; And then that shore Where we shall meet the loved ones whom God took before. " " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them. " 6 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. By Eev. T. C. Edwards, D.D., Kingston, Pa. "Kemember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." — Exod. xx. 8. The Sabbath was made for man. " Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week." As the Bible is king of the books, so is the Sabbath prince of the days. " And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. " The original day of rest was the seventh day of the week. The orig- inal church was the Hebrew or Jewish church. The Jewish Sabbath was the seventh day. The Christian Sabbath is the first day of the week. The change from the seventh to the first seems to have been due to the resurrection of Christ upon the first day of the week (Matt, xxviii. 1), and to His meeting with His disciples upon that day and upon the succeeding Sun- day (John XX. 26), and to the pouring out of the Spirit upon the Pentecostal Sunday seven weeks after (Acts ii. 1). By the example of Christ and by the sanction of the apostles the first day became " the Lord's day " 83 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 83 (Rev. i. 10), on which the believers met regularly each week with their Lord. " The first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread " (Acts XX. 7). In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul directs them concerning their benevolent con- tributions that they should " upon the first day of the week let each one lay by him in store as he may prosper." The Christian Sabbath, then, is the day of Christ's resurrection. The Jewish Sabbath commemorated only the original creation of the world ; the Christian Sabbath commemorates also the new creation of the world in Christ, in which God's work in humanity first becomes complete. C. H. Mackintosh, in his Commentary, remarks: "If I celebrate the seventh day, it marks me as an earthly man, inasmuch as that day is clearly the rest of earth — creation-resfc. If I intelligently celebrate the first day of the week, I am marked as a heavenly man, believing in the new cre- ation of Christ." The natural law of demand for one seventh of time for physical and for spiritual rest is acknowledged in all nations and all ages. In the ancient Assyrian account of creation a Sab- bath is recognized, and there are indications of an observance of the ordinance long before the Mosaic legislation. Moses, in the Fourth Commandment, speaks of it as already known and observed, — "Re- 84 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. member " the Sabbath day, etc. To-day we need not a new law, nor a new Gospel, but simply to " remem- ber. " The Sabbath is the Day of Eest ; the church knows it, the world recognizes it, and all that is needed now is to "remember the Sabbath day." I shall endeavor to show, lirst, why the church should observe the day of rest; and, secondly, how it shall be observed. I. Why? — 1, Because God commands it; 2, Be- cause the church needs it. 1. The command has been planted in the very nature of things, and has been revealed on the printed page. God has also set before uo an example by resting from His labors as well as by granting to the Hebrews a double quantity of manna in the wilderness on the sixth day, and prohibiting the fall of it on the Sabbath day. The all-wise and omniscient Father has commanded his children to do, or not to do, only what will be to their temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare to obey. This command, like all the other Commandments of God, is not foreign to the spontaneous demands of nature. Every one of the Commandments which God has given to man finds an obedient response in the highest and best form of his nature. The God who said, " In it thou shalt do no manner of work, " knew right well that six days' work was better than seven, and that no human being would treat even his body THE! CBURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 85 properly if he would not rest from his labor one day of the seven. But to-day I am to look at this ques- tion in its relation to the church j therefore let me say, in the second place ; 2. The church needs it — (a) For opportunity of worship ; (b) For edification ; (c) For reenforcement. (a) In this busy age, the days of steam and elec- tricity, the church has no opportunity to congregate for worship during the six days allotted to labor and toil. True it is that regular weekly meetings are held — and xveakly they are ordinarily — where a few of the faithful saints come together and find sweet commun- ion with the Master. Were it not for that, the mount of God in many places would veritably be dry Gil- boas, and the garden of the Lord be parched and odor- less. But the great day of the feast is Sunday. Then the tribes come together to worship God and sing His praises. No band of Christian people can enjoy life anywhere if they are deprived of an oppor- tunity to worship God on the Lord's day. I have seen them in the wilds of Arizona and have been with them on mid-ocean, and have observed with imspeak- able pleasure how they instinctively draw toward each other to read the Bible, to sing hymns, to pray, and to preach (and even to take up a collection), counting one part of the service as important as the other in the worship of the Almighty and kind Father. I have seen the tribes scattered over the prairies of Illinois 86 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. and Missouri flocking together on Sundays, bringing with them the provision for lunches, so as to be able to remain the whole day in the holy assembly of wor- shipers. Why is it so? Because that within the human heart there is a deep need which nothing can satisfy except a *' little talk with Jesus " and a " dwelling to- gether of the brethren. " I believe, with Emerson, that *' no greater calamity can fall upon a nation than the loss of worship." The church needs the day of rest for an opportunity to worship. (b) It is also needed for edification. We have met with some men who claim to be self-made men, because they were either deprived of or would not avail themselves of the means of education and of the special provisions for their qualification. We also meet with some who may claim to be self- made Christians, because they keep aloof from the assembly of the saints as much as possible ; but they invariably bear the marks of " self-made " rather than Christ-made Christians. It is nothing to boast of in this age that a man is self-made; and surely it is a privilege to associate with and to learn from other people who have been more fully endowed and more abundantly blessed than ourselves. The church of Christ is a congregation of people of great variety of talents and opportunities, and they need to come together regularly for instruction in the way of the THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 87 truth. They are banded together to receive from God and to contribute to the world : to receive knowledge and inspiration for the primary purpose of imparting the same to the world, that the world may walk in the light of the church as the church walks in the light of God. The interminable variety of the con- stituency of the church proves the need of a day of rest from all labor, so that each one may bring to the other, as God has given him, for the edification of the entire family. The artisan and hard-working day laborer, whose heart is in the work of the Lord, needs it at the feet of the refined and scholarly children of God, whose yoke has always been easy and whose bur- den of care and trouble has always been light, that he may learn the delicate and intricate laws of pro- priety, etiquette, and culture. And the position fre- quently needs to he reversed, so that the "■ well at ease " and " favored few " may learn from the lowly the art of self-denial, of long-suffering, and of devout consecration. In addition to this, the Sabbath is the one day of the week for general instruction. The great searchlight which penetrates head and heart and illumines body and soul is turned upon the world on this day. If the church had not honored the holy day of rest, dark ignorance would cover the na- tions, and the Book of God would be a sealed mystery to the millions, to whom now it is a lamp for their feet and a light to their paths. If the church desires 88 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. to continue in the light and to increase in knowledge, she must have the Sabbath for her edification. (c) For reenforcement. Reenforcement is a mili- tary term. The church of to-day is militant. The battle is now on. Soldiers are needed; yea, wide- awake, energetic, devoted, willing; and consecrated soldiers. All the army of the Lord are human, tho they are engaged in a spiritual warfare; consequently they must have occasions of reenforcement. The holy day of rest is the favored day for it. " The rest that strengthens into virtuous deeds is one with prayer," said Coleridge. The rest of the Lord's day is not absence of occupation. I believe with Cowper that " Absence of occupation is not rest ; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. " The man who delights to busy himself in the ser- vice of the Lord on Sunday is the man who is most refreshed for his daily work on Monday morning. The Sunday lounger is apt to be the Monday loafer. The professed Christian who disregards the sanctity of the Sabbath is weak-kneed during the whole week. But the busy worker, who has been faithful in season and out of season during the six days, and who is used up and tired out by Saturday night, repairs to the great Captain's armory on the first day of the week, has his soul refreshed, his youth renewed, and THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 89 his zeal rekindled, and his whole frame made ready for a fresh attack. It has been to him "A day of rest and gladness, a day of joy and light ; A balm for care and sadness most beautiful and bright. " The fragrance and beauty of the rose and the lily, the vigor and inspiration of the mountain breezes, and the full blessedness of the " dwelling together in unity," always prove to the faithful and pure a sure reenforcement on the day of rest. II. Our second inquiry is, Hoiv shall the church treat the day of rest? The direct command of God is to keep it holy and to do in it no manner of work. I would desire it to be fully understood that the poor working man is not more guilty than the wealthy, and that this com- mandment of God is not an infliction upon the work- ing man, but rather a blessing. Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure, He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor. No man is so poor that he will be poorer by keeping holy the Sabbath day. No church is so wealthy that it will not get poor by disregarding the Fourth Commandment. The two great English statesmen. Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Gladstone, tho wide apart in political dogmas, agreed fully on this subject. Said Lord Beaconsfield once : " This is the most precious of all the divine 90 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. institutions which God has ordained for man, and this is the corner-stone of civilization." And said Glad- stone : " The religious observance of the Sabbath is the principal pillar to support the religious character of our country, and the right observance of the Sab- bath is of the most important results." Do you ask, Hovsr may the church help in its right and proper observance? First, by being right, and, second, by doing right. Being right is to be holy. Doing right is to keep the commandments of God. No member of the church contributes to his own holiness by neglecting his church obligations on the Sabbath. No amount of money contributions can make up for absence from Sunday services. No amount of Sunday newspapers can supply the spiritual light and life of the Book of God. No art galleries nor public parks can supply to the soul of man the scenes and visions and refreshment which he may find in the halls of the sanctuary and in the gardens of the Bible. No platform orations on social and civic subjects can compare with the plain proclamation of the *' old, old story of Jesus and His love " in the reformation of human life and character. The church should be pure in heart, rich in grace, strong in faith, and instant in prayer ; then move onward, to be diligent in action and brave in attack. The voice of the church to-day should give no uncertain sound ; but with a strength obtained from a close communion with Christ, should shout in trum- THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 91 pet tones her opposition to a secular Sunday or a con- tinental Sabbath, and demand to the United States a holy Puritan Lord's day. Let the church be heard against all athletic exercises and exhibitions on the Sabbath ; against Sunday excur- sions by land or by water ; against Sunday visiting and Sunday loafing ; and with one accord let all branches of the church nnite to demand an enforcement of the Sunday -closing of all bars in every town and borough. The church can not, dare not, and will not sleep nor close her eyes while the holy day is being dese- crated. Let every child of God honor the day and guard it with holy zeal. What a sublime picture is that of a Sabbath day in Wales ! In the background see the reflection of a busy Saturday when every member of the household is preparing for the mor- row. The " old man" of the house is shorn and shaven ; the other men have gathered together in a group to- ward evening to compare notes and make ready for Sunday. The mother and daughters have been pre- paring their part of the household duties so as to leave " next to nothing " to be done to-morrow. Then the Sabbath dawns, — heralded by the songs of birds, not by cries of newsboys ; the family surround the altar of divine worship. Scripture is read, a hymn is s\mg, prayer is offered. Together they go to God's house; and the day closes upon a people who have seen the Lord in His holy temple, and worshiped Him in the 92 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. beauty of holiness. Does not this account to a great extent for the fact that infidelity has no footing in Wales? Infidelity can not exist in a community where the Sabbath is kept holy. If the church would fill the day and fill the neighborhood with the sound of praise and the voice of prayer, much, if not all, of the surrounding abominations would necessarily be crowded out. But instead, I find that in many locali- ties the church is so silent and so stylish that all the crowding is done by the Sunday newspaper, Sunday baseball, and other evil powers. Oh, for a baptism of holiness, that we may be holy even as He is holy! We should pattern after the model of Jesus Christ. Learning from the records what Jesus did do on the Sabbath day enables us to form a fairly accurate judg- ment concerning what He would do if He lived among us to-day. The story of His life, as portrayed by the Evangel- ists, records seven important acts which He performed on the day of rest, — six of them on the Jewish Sab- bath, and one on the Christian Sabbath. Tho they are alike in some respects, yet they vary in form and purpose and degree of instruction. 1. Casting out the unclean spirit (Luke iv. 31-35). 2. Healing the withered hand (Luke vi. 6-10). 3. Healing ** a woman which had a spirit of infirm- ity eighteen years " (Luke xiii. 11-17). THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 93 4. Healing a certain man who had the dropsy (Luke xiv. 2-6). 5. Giving sight to the man who was born blind (John ix. 14). 6. Healing the man who had suffered infirmity for thirty-eight years (John v. 16). 7. Raising from the dead (Mark xvi. 9). Such is the testimony concerning the works which Jesus did on the Sabbath day. If we observe these works yet closer, we may learn from them something as to the nature of employment which may properly engage us on the holy day. Each of the recorded acts is representative of a group. 1. Casting out uncleanness. Destroying the evil. Purifying the life. Making man a fit temple for the Holy Ghost. 2. Reviving the decaying parts. Increasing power to the faint. Making it possible for the apparently useless to be of service. 3. Straightening a crooked person. Renewing the beauty of woman. Bringing back one who had been turned aside as worthless. Who can tell the results of restoring one lost woman? 4. Overcoming what was considered incurable. If Christ be for us, who can be against? Set- ting the head of the family in his right and desir- able position, to support, lead, and instruct his household. 94 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 5. Illuminating tlie darkness. Changing the course of what people call destiny. Giving sight to one born blind. Proving who is the Light of the world. 6. Merciful to the aged. Showing pity in a prac- tical way to the poor and forsaken. The friendless for thirty-eight years blessed with a friend and with health. 7. All of these kind, generous, and gracious acts were spontaneous. None of these unfortunates ex- pected nearly as much as they received. It is evi- dent to us now that if Jesus Christ is our Model, our doings on the Lord's day should be characterized by the direct purpose to — 1st. Eevive and strengthen. 2d. Purify and enlighten. 3d. Eectify and make holy. And as He arose and came out of His new tomb on the Sabbath morning, so should we awake to renewed life of consecrated service each Lord's day morning, filling the hours with earnest seeking for opportuni- ties "to do good on the Sabbath day." I have heard it stated that in one of the English coal-mines there is what miners call a Sunday stone. Water charged with lime is trickling through the rocks, and as it falls is making constant deposits of pure white lime-stone. But when the miners are at work and are scattering the coal-dust all about, the water becomes charged THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. 95 with coal as well as with lime, and the stone which otherwise was white takes upon itself a black-coal hue. But when the Sabbath comes, and the men cease working and the whirring coal-dust settles, tlien upon the blackness of the deposit of the day before begins to drop the clean lime-water, leaving, as it trickles off, the pure white stone. And so, by the regularly re- curring line of whiteness, record is made of the coming to the tired miners of God's day of rest. Likewise cometh into our tired lives the Sab- bath whiteness. If we stain it with earthly dust, it is our fault, not God's. Once a week He gives us this white, protected day, with its benign influ- ence. Blessed are they who " remember to keep it holy." " O Zion awake, God calls thee to-day, Thy cold indiflference to cast away. " Far better would it be for Pennsylvania to be de- prived of her Alleghany Mountains than to lose her holy day of rest. The United States could better afford to have her broad and majestic Mississippi dry up than to have her Sabbaths desecrated and wiped out. Bather let the sun be blotted out of the heavens, and thick darkness cover the earth, than that its bright light should be used to the desecration of God's holy day. Better would it be for man if every church edifice were demolished than that they should contain 96 THE CHURCH AND THE DAY OF REST. a body of people indifferent to the sanctity of the day of rest. " O day of rest I How beautiful, how fair, How welcome to the weary and the old ! Day of the Lord 1 and truce to earthly care I Day of the Lord, as all our days should be 1 " THANKSGIVING SERMON. By Rev. Frederick Evans, D.D., Milwau- kee, Wis. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O IVIost High ; to shew forth Thy loving-kindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. ^— Psalm xcil. 1, 2. More texts are taken from the Psalms for Thanks- giving sermons than from any other portion of God's Book; and in times of humiliation and sorrow, a preacher may find more appropriate texts here than elsewhere. It is the book of mourning and of sing- ing; a volume of tears and of smiles, of weeping and of rejoicing. Some portions of every page are moistened with tears, and some parts are radiant with smiles. Some strains of the great anthem are in the major key, and some are in the minor. David relates our experiences, sings our songs, weeps our lamentations ; and on this Thanksgiving Day I can find no words more appropriate than those of my text. Why should we render thanks unto God? I. Because our situation is pleasant and our sur- roundings favorable. The sun is warm, the atmos- 7 97 98 THANKSGIVING SERMON. phere is pure, the sky is clear, the smile is broad, and the laugh is hearty. The eye of the laborer is bright, the hand of the workman is busy, and the homes of toil are cheerful. The philosophy of hard times is a mysterious subject; it is a problem not easily solved. When the warm sun of the spring melts the snow of the winter and unlocks the arms of Jack Frost, we care but very little'about comprehending everything which pertains to the formation of the snow or to the light and heat of the sun; and when the warm sun of pros- perity turns the winter of hard times into the glorious summer of prosperity, the philosophy of hard times gives us but very little uneasiness and trouble. There is only one party in our country that knows every- thing about these things and understands thoroughly all about the why and wherefore of hard times, and that is the party which is "not in power." Not being in power, its eyes are not dim, and its vision is wonderfully clear. A person might think that all parties not in power are made of pure and angelic beings, — beings that have nothing but the unadulter- ated good of the people in view. Their language always is *' put us in power, give us your votes, and prosperity shall reign from Maine to Florida and from the Atlantic to the Pacific." In a cool moment, some years hence, the philosophy of hard times will be thoroughly understood. The prodigal son understood the subject. Famine 7nust THANKSGWINO SERMON. 99 follow extravagance ; and what is true of the individual is also true of a nation. We see it in the history of the empires which have been swept away from the face of the earth. Panics and failures create lack of confidence, economy and thrift create confidence. This has come to pass, and for this we thank God. These times are those of prosperity. The anvil rings, the furnace is aglow, the forge is busy, the hammer is active, the looms are diligent, and we live in prosper- ous days. Everything will go on well if only men of wild theories and cranky notions would keep quiet, and wild-cat speculators and dealers in highly colored dreams would only vanish from the land. Activity is everywhere. Our rivers and seas are white with the canvas of commerce, our wharves and storehouses re- sound with the music of labor, and our streets are alive with men who are diligent in business; and, for one, I would not disturb things. Pestilence has been at our door, the dreaded cholera has been at our gates ; but by care and the blessing of God it has had no ad- mission into our fair land. God has been truly good unto us, and truly we can lift up our voices and sing: "Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?— It breathes in the air, it shines in the light ; It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly distils in the dew and the rain. " We should give thanks because — II. Our country is not yet given up to professional 100 THANKSGIVING SERMON., politicians. All honor to the true politician! We can not live without him. Law and order would amount to but little without him ; but may the good Lord deliver us from the tricky professional politi- cian, the man who is a politician merely because it puts money in his purse, helps him to grind his own ax — and the nose of his opponent in the bargain, and opens many ways whereby he can benefit himself. A politician who regards his office as a money-making machine is to be detested and looked upon as a loath- some leper who should always be kept far from the habitations of men. It was asked of a sexton in Scotland: "What is Baptism? " He replied : " It is sixpence to me and fif- teenpence for the precentor." Ask the professional ward politician, " What is statesmanship? " And the reply, if honest, would be: "A fat office for myself and a less fat one for my friend Jack. " This despic- able character may profess a great deal of patriotism, may speak with seeming pride of Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrim Fathers, may sing with apparent earnest- ness " The Star-Spangled Banner " ; but all the time he is the cancer that eats up the very life of the coun- try, the poison that runs through the national body, and the pestilence that walks at noon and night through the land ; but it is a matter of Thanksgiving this very day that our country is not given up to this elastic individual ; and thanks be unto God that there THANKSGIVING SERMON. 101 are forces — mighty forces, glorious forces — at work which will keep the Republic beyond the control of such ; forces which are like the waves of the sea that beat upon the shore. No scheme can keep them back, no Pope can keep them down, no power can keep them still. They are silent forces ; and, being divinely silent, they are divinely powerful. The small poli- tician looks to the next election ; the honorable states- man looks to the next generation. Our form of government is simple, and in its sim- plicity lies its strength to a great degree. One man at the head can never make a strong government. Make the people free, intelligent, honest, manly, and you have a strong government. Crowd out the wily politicians with men — sun-crowned men, men who love humanity, men with the milk of human kindness in their breasts, tall men who breathe the air of heaven's high lands — and our Kepublic will be grand and sub- lime. " God give us men I A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; Men whom the spoils of office can not buy ; Men who possess opinions and a will ; Men who have honor ; men who will not lie ; Men who can stand before a demagog And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking ; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking. " 102 THANKSGIVING SERMON. This is the great need of our country. We do not want powdered, painted, and padded humanity. We want national greatness ; and this means truth, hon- esty, mercy, and justice in all their native simplicity as they started on their journey from the throne of Jehovah. Without this, public and private corruption will shed its withering blight over all the splendor of our civilization, undermine the very foundations of the glorious institutions of our Eepublic, and lay the whole superstructure in the grave of degradation. We have had truth, justice, and honor in our country, or our country would have been a wreck ; we have them, and by the help of God we mean to keep them. I know the ballot-box is not as sacred as it should be, and is not safe in the hands of ignorant and coarse men. Here a young, intelligent man born in this country, if only twenty years of age the day of election, can not vote ; but a man who comes here from the lands of tyranny, superstition, and ignorance — a man who can not read or write, a man who knows nothing of our institutions — if he has been here for five years, can, providing he has his citizenship papers. In the hands of such people our free institutions are not safe, our public schools are not stable, and our liberties are not secure. Despotism is necessary, but not for a free people. It is necessary for the wolf, but not for the lamb ; it is necessary for the hawk, but not for the dove ; it is necessary for the wild beast, THANKSGIVING SERMON. 103 but not for the free man. England, the a mon- archy, is a free country, — as free every whit as ours. What makes it free? The power of truth. What makes Wales free? A free Bible. What makes Scotland free? The truth. What clouds Ireland, especially the southern part of it? It is under the same form of government ; but ignorance is more dense there, — and ignorance always follows in the steps of priestcraft. Everything that tends to nourish this hydra-headed monster ought to be crushed under the heel of free and universal but unsectarian education. Some sections of our country seem to be in its grasp already ; but, thanks be unto God, our Republic is not in its grasp! Bring religion into politics, but for heaven's sake keep politics out of religion! And for the sake of the country and for the sake of all that is true, noble, and divine, let sectarianism keep away from the seat of our government ; yes, be as far from it as the East is from the West. Would to God that the slimy serpent of sectarianism had been strangled and hurled into its home, the depths of hell, long, long ago. Religion will purify politics, but sectari- anism will corrupt it. We have no church and state, and for this we give God thanks most heartily. Let us also thank Him that our country is not yet given up to professional politicians ; that it is yet " the government of the people, by the people, for the people. " 104 THANKSGIVING SERMON We should give thanks because — " III, Our country, on account of its wonderful re- sources, can not be controlled by dreamers and mere speculators. Our country is too big to be packed away in vaults. Our vast territory is united, and its vastness is almost beyond comprehension. Texas could wear Germany as an ulster without complaining it was too long; California is as large as Turkey and Greece. Our own Keystone State is three times as large as Switzerland; Nevada is as large as Italy; Florida could easily manage Scotland for a meal — and that would be almost an oat-meal. Ohio is as large as Ireland, with 18,000 square miles to spare for an ex- tra potato crop. Georgia is as large as England and Wales. Kentucky is as large as — yea, larger than — Portugal ; West Virginia is larger than Greece. We have no deserts, but have 11,000,000 square miles of arable lands. In Europe they eat our cheese, devour our meat, feast upon our canned goods, wear our cot- ton, plow with our plows, and reap with our reapers. America must to a very great extent become the feeder of Europe. With such a vast territory she can, and she ought, and she will. The possibilities of such a country are almost infinite, and the resources are almost boundless. We have enough of room for the population of the whole globe, and then it would not be thicker than that of Great Britain to-day. f his vast territory is compacted by a network of railroads, THANKSGIVING SERMON. 105 canals, navigable rivers, bays, and lakes. It is sur- rounded by a sea-coast which is unlimited. And a country whose lakes are seas, whose mountains are coal, whose hills are irou, whose rocks give oil, whose rivers are white with sails, whose lakes are plowed by mighty steamers, whose valleys groan under abundant harvests, whose towns and villages and hamlets are studded with churches and public schools and institu- tions of learning, and whose motto is " In God we trust, " — I say siich a country can not be poor ; such a country can not be in the hands of speculators ; such a country can not be under the control of gamblers. It is destined to be the storehouse of the nations. God has given us an abundant harvest. To Him give thanks. Truly, God has crowned the year with His good- ness. And what a crown it is ! The crowns of kings and queens are like gaudy toys by its side. Its gems are bright, and there they shine with untold bright- ness, reflecting, all of them, the goodness of the Lord. The reins are not in the hands of dreamers and gam- blers. The Lord reigns, and He is King indeed. The place of the United States among the nations of the world is an honorable and an influential one. Jonathan is young, but he is respectable. " Columbia I see what thou art now : A crown of stars on nature's brow, With fields of gold and teeming marts. 106 THANKSGIVING SERMON. With sixty million loving hearts, Who cling to thee from sea to sea To guard thy peace and liberty. " Our ancestors believed in the God of battles ; we be- lieve in the Prince of Peace and the God of Nations. We should give thanks because — IV. Our country is preeminently a Christian coun- try. We have a Christian President, who, during the great bereavement through which he has passed, knew in whom to trust ; and when his beloved and excellent Christian wife passed through the river to a whiter house and a grander home, he bowed in submission and cried out: "Not my will, but Thy will, 0 Father, be done." His life has been clean, and his character has been above reproach, God bless him! I am not a pessimist, I am not an alarmist, I am not ready to cry that our country is going to the devil, because an infidel in one place thunders forth against our glorious old Bible, or because a bishop in another place hurls his anathemas against our public schools. This is not the first time for dogs to bark at the moon. Let them bark, the moon will shine as brightly as ever. The magnanimity of the North toward the once rebellious but defeated South proves beyond a doubt that the Spirit of Him who said, " Father, for- give them, for they know not what they do, " is here. The words of the immortal Lincoln have burned THANKSGIVma SERMON. 107 their way into the hearts of the people : " With malice toward none; with charity for all." Not only is this a Christian nation, but it will re- main so in spite of Ingersoll and the Russian Nihilists. It is barricaded and buttressed with God's truths, with Christian teachings. The Bible is its Magna Charta ; and through the influence of this God-given Book we shall see not a solid North against a solid South, or a solid South against a solid North, but a solid United States of America, cemented together from North to South and from East to West with truth, honor, justice, mercy, peace, and prosperity. We have nothing to fear from infidelity. Its voice is not very loud ; and when we think of infidelity in other countries, its face is not very brazen. Some say that our rights, our churches, and our schools are in danger from Catholicism. Catholicism all the world over has been losing ground, and its progress is to be measured by population and emigration. In the early centuries it wielded a tremendous power. A Protes- tant Emperor rules to-day over Germany. In Rome, we have Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopal churches. In Japan, we have the Bible in the schools. We need not fear in this direction ; still, it behooves us to keep our eyes wide open. Assaults upon our public school system are numerous, and they are unwise, and, to say the least, they will prove ineffectual. Free education is one of the very foundation-stones of our Republic, 108 THANKSGIVING SERMON. and this can not be separated from our freedom. Ed- ucation can not be made sectarian ; and if any church is determined to build schools for the education of its own children, it shall pay all expenses and pay also for the support of our public schools. All this agita- tion will be soon over, for it is unreasonable, and it would be just as well to ask for a change in our form of Government. And say the least, the as- sault is of the most audacious and impious nature; but we can stand this and more also. We say to these foreign powers ; " Hands off from our Stars and Stripes, or in God's name we will stripe you until you see the stars" — that is, by our votes and by our prayers. One of our great dangers lies in the direction of pride and self-confidence. Our free government, our vast resources, our noble institutions, and our un- trammeled churches have a tendency to create pride, selfishness, and conceit. The church, to a very great extent, has left its true path. It flirts with the world. The type of piety now is too effeminate. We must remember Him who deposited coal in our mountains, iron, silver, and gold in our hills, who filled the crev- ices of the rocks beneath with oil, and smiled on our valleys. Let us thank Him that the strength of our Government is not in the capitol at Washington, not in our armies, not in our fortifications, not in our navy. We have all this ; but our Government does not THANKSGIVING SERMON. 109 rest on them for its stability, but on intelligent, true, loyal, Christian people— people whose hearts are larger than their country ; people whose aims are not confined to self ; people who see in the weak their brother, and in the unfortunate their neighbor ; people who are not blinded by prejudices arising from language or na- tionality; people whose love of truth is supreme— these constitute the strength of our Government. The best fortifications are the loyal hearts of the people; the best bulwarks are the pure motives of the inhab- itants; and the best fortresses are minds permeated with loyalty, integrity, righteousness, and above all Christ-likeness. "What constitutes a State? Not high battlements Or labored mounds, Thick wall or moated gate, Not cities proud with spires And turrets crowned. No 1 Men, high-minded men, Men who their duties know, And know their rights, And knowing, dare maintain : These constitute a State. " SPIRITUAL LABOR. By Eev. Gwiltm M. Evans, Long Island City, New York. " And He said unto them. Go ye also into the vineyard ; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. " — Matt. xx. 7. This parable was suggested to the Savior by a ques- tion asked by Peter, " What shall we have, there- fore?" The mercenary motive is extremely strong in every man. It sways a mighty influence over the faculties and the affections of the soul. The power it exerts in deciding religious matters is of no mean account. The Gospel itself does not always remove and destine its power, for if any man were ever free from it we should think that man to have been Peter ; but he says, representing the other decision : " What shall we have, therefore? " Just what Peter intended to ask by this question we can not say exactly, — whether he thought that the disciples should have a preference over all others who entered the work after, or whether they had a special claim on Christ's king- dom. But the Savior here shows them their mistake, and points out to them that God does not measure His 110 SPIRITUAL LABOR. Ill labor by the number of feet nor days ; and that he who would come into the vineyard at the remotest period of the Gospel dispensation would be as fully and freely compensated as John the Baptist, who rang out in clear tones the approach of the kingdom of heaven. In order to develop more fully the meaning of the text in connection with the entire parable, we shall observe it from four different aspects. I. In its sphere. " Go ye also into the vineyard." God has designed a certain sphere for spiritual labor; He has not left man to his own inclination, taste, and choice. If he chooses God as his master, he must be willing to act as a servant. God has fixed the place, the work, and the time. In the East, a vineyard was exceedingly choice and select ; the person owning it would ornament it with works of art, would beautify it with cool streams. All his wealth was invested in it, his toil and his care were concentrated in it. It was a sacred possession ; fathers transmitted it to sons, and sons to grandsons. We have not a more beautiful pic- ture of the church of the living God. Whatever the householder did to his vineyard in order to improve, cultivate, and protect it is nothing in comparison with what God has done and is doing for His church. He watches over her with a never-failing eye ; and while other institutions and kingdoms fall and crumble, the church will last forever. Daniel, with the keen eye of a prophet, looked forward and declared that this 112 SPIRITUAL LABOR. kingdom or dominion should remain and never end. It has come in splendor never to wane, in power never to grow less, in grandeur never to be clouded, in influ- ence never to dwindle. The splendor increases, the grandeur becomes more prominent, and the influence is constantly augmented. The church is not a scattered, disorganized force, but a concentrated power which makes the neigh- borhood in which it is better and the country where it is organized a richer one. We can print this state- ment in letters of light without any fear of con- tradiction. Heaven is its home, therefore it is kind. It breaks the shackles of the slave, it shelters the exposed, it clothes the naked, it dries the burning tear on the cheek of distress. As it moves it leaves traces which speak of kindness ; flowers grow in its path; and in the darkest night stars twinkle in its smile. II. Spiritual labor supplies work for all talents. In the vineyard all kinds of work are done : planting, watering, pruning, weeding, and dressing are the works performed. Without this, the vine would fail to yield its fruit. In the church, we find the work as various and the talents necessary to perform it equally as various. This removes any excuse, — for such excuses are numerous enough, as inactive men excuse themselves for not doing any service for Christ because they can not perform a certain and a SPIRITUAL LABOR. 113 particular part in that service. This, of course, is nothing but pride ; and of all obstacles it is the great- est in the way of leading an active and a useful Chris- tian life. The meanest laborer in the vineyard com- pletes the great band of workers, and in a certain sense the work without him would fail. Hence his service is as honorable and beneficent as any other part of the great work. All work should be for God. Some are differently constituted, others are differ- ently situated ; and it is a difficult task to convince people of all constitutions and all situations to believe that they may do and ought to do all things for God. The little brook runs for God as well as the great sun shines for Him ; and this spiritual labor is so com- prehensive that every one, however feeble and small, can find something to do. There are many things done for a name, and many things good in themselves are done to spite others. These things will perish, — there is no eternity in them ; but work done for God dieth not. III. The i^erformers of this labor. All we can say about them is that they are commissioned to do it. No one can perform it if he is not commissioned. This is the only qualification necessary. Every Chris- tian is supposed to have it. It is not anything that man may carry in his pocket, or suspend to his dress, or hang as a picture in his parlor. Religion is with 8 114 SPIRITUAL LABOR. many something that they may put on and take off just to suit circumstances; but this commission comes in a new name written on a white stone, and no one knoweth save he who receiveth it. There has been a vague notion in the world that only preachers are the servants of God, and that their work is the only legitimate divine work that is done. Many an eloquent sermon died when the amen was utttered; but the holy labor of self-denial went travel- ing on, blessing the millions. Let us beware of the shortness of the time that we have to perform this labor. While the flower opens, the bee must gather honey ; while the dew descends the plant must drink it in ; while life is ours, ours is also the toil, the fight, the foe. " 'Tis not for man to trifle ; Life is brief, And sin is here ; Our age is but the falling of a leaf, The dropping of a tear. We have no time to sport away the hours, All must be earnest in a world like ours ; Not many lives, but only one, have we — One, only one. How sacred should that one life ever be — That narrow span ! Our being is no shadow of thin air, No vacant dream, SPIRITUAL LABOR. 115 No fable of the things that never were But only seem : 'Tis full of meaning, as of mystery, Tho strange and solemn may that meaning be. Let us follow in the footsteps of our Savior, " who went about doing good." Time seemed so short to our Master though He crowded every moment with hard work. His dis- ciples, like ourselves, thought there was plenty of time ahead. "The fields are already white," said Christ. "There are four months, and then cometh harvest," said the disciples. Four months of difference. I wonder who was right? He who crowds now with wonderful possibilities, and the only one who could draw on to-morrow. God's call IS now. It is given to all, irrespective of age, caste, or nationality. He says unto all, " Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." IV. The reward of spiritual labor. It has its re- ward in itself; and what it does in aiding us to employ our talents, our time, and our means is a sufficient compensation, even if there were no future reward. What a wonderful ambition men have to commend their works to future generations. But the works of men, like their authors, sooner or later decay; and nothing will be seen to commemorate the name that 116 SPIRITUAL LABOR. wrought them. Shakespeare says that the earth has bubbles as the water has ; and names and deeds not being stamped with truth will vanish like bubbles in the air. There is much in the best life that is a failure. There is only one Life in all history that has been a success. It is through Him that we finally hope to succeed. That is Christ's life. He said on the cross, "It is finished," His life and His work were collat- eral. Men have lived and led great lives. Young men made them their models; the world looked at them with envy; poets sang their fame in sweetest strains, ministers shouted their praise in loudest notes, and sculptors carved their members in whitest mar- bles, — and yet their reward was only for a time. But he who is engaged in spiritual work has for his reward an eternal home free from all mystery. He shall see face to face, and that which is in part shall be done away with. He shall rejoice in a complete revelation of God and His truth. He shall live in perfect free- dom from all that is destructible. This body that is sometimes pierced with pain and this spirit that is often cast down with sorrow shall put on their garb of immortality, shall be forever glorified. We shall meet in that everlasting bond of friendship, and not a thread of it shall ever break, joining us to myriads of other like tendencies, affections, and occupations with our owUj and all joined to Christ, our Blessed SPIRITUAL LABOR. 117 Redeemer, who by the atonement of His blood made us meet to dwell in such a perfect state. This is the reward that awaits the faithful worker in the vineyard. Let this blessed thought of future reward create in us an intense desire to do with our might what our hands find to do. " Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thy hand ; To doubt and fear give thou no heed, Broad cast it o'er the land. " CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. By Eev. Llewellyn I. Evans, D.J)., LL.D., Late Professob of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. " But ye have not so learned Christ. " — Ephes. iv. 20. It has been said that the proper study of mankind is man. This does not imply that mankind is man's only study, nor that other studies are uninteresting or unworthy. It implies that the study of man is a con- dition, and that it is the consummation of all other studies. Man is an epitome, we say, of nature. All the highest laws and generalizations find their fullest realization in him. He is the center to which all lines converge. Arts and sciences are valuable because they assist in the knowledge and development of man. Moreover, we feel a paramount interest in man. " I am a man, and nothing human is without its interest for me, " is a sentiment which made the Roman the- ater ring with applause. Our interest in man is stronger than our interest in all else. . Hence the de- light which we all take in history, in biography, in studying individuals, nationalities, of humanity, of motive, of character, and of life. 118 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 110 God, having made man thus, determined, in giving him a religion, to adapt it to this tendency. In Chris- tianity, God has availed Himself of all the native and irresistible tendencies of our nature. He had man to love history; he thus made Christianity historical. He did not weave it into the original constitution of things. It is not something which has grown up with man and out of him. A book was once written called "Christianity Is as Old as Creation." There is a sense in which it is so. From the first the world has been good in the Christian idea, and its history has been the development of that great idea. But Chris- tianity as we know it is an event, a fact, a history. Events went before it and prepared the way for it. It assumed the form of a great historical fact. Facts clustered around it like iron filings around a magnet. It has impressed itself on the facts of all subsequent kind. We reckon our years from it, and we call this the nineteenth century of the Christian era. Again, God has made men to love biography, to be fascinated by the study of character ; and He has adapted Christianity to this feeling. He has pro- vided a biography the like of which was never seen, a character whose beauty throws everything into the shade. He has sent the Person into the world, the simple story of whose life and death has an interest for the world transcending the history of the proudest empires, of the most brilliant victories, of the most 120 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. tremendous revolutions. There never was such a biography as the life of Christ. It may be printed on a modern newspaper ; it may be read over in a few hours J yet men never tire of it. They can never know too much about it; they never forget it. A skilful painter can with a few strokes of his brush or pencil produce an admirable likeness. Flaxman's illustrations of Homer are the merest sketches or out- lines of pictures, and yet in them the individuality of the old Homeric heroes and deities is almost perfect. But there never was such an artist as God, nor such a picture as the life of Christ. A few touches, and we have it in its completeness ; a few facts, sayings, discourses, and conversations — less than we have of almost any great historical character — and the picture stands before us perfect, complete, inimitable, and divine. How little is said, how much is left unsaid! And the history is no less divine in its silences than in its utterances. And yet something new may ever be found in it ; for eighteen hundred years men have been stvidying it, and now they feel that they are just beginning to get glimpses of its inexhaustible beauty and significance. This is the Christian church, — a school to learn Christ; and this is a disciple, — a stu- dent of Christ. Let us now consider Christ as an ob- ject of study. "What may we learn in Christ? Christ is an object of study — I. In His teachings. CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 121 Teaching is the highest of all human functions. To teach, to educate, as you are aware, is to lead out, to bring forth. The term is applied exclusively to lead- ing out or bringing forth the mind. And this is the highest occupation in which any man can be engaged. All great men, all leaders of the world, are in some sense or other teachers. One gathers around himself a company of disciples, of scholars, and teaches them, brings out what is in them — the truth, the life, the power of their hidden selves. Another takes an army, and teaches it, drills it, brings out the obedience, the courage, the patriotism that slumbers in those fighting machines. Another takes a nation, and educates, brings out its resources, energies, and life. One teaches from the platform, another through the press ; one in a church, another in a schoolhouse; one in a shop, another on the street, — and all are brothers and fellow workers, and the work of each is a sacred one. The highest order of education is performed by the presentation of truth. There is a correspond- ence between truth and soul. Truth is fitted for the soul, and the soul for the truth. Human powers are adapted to lay hold of truth, — to feel it, to appropriate it, to apply it. When truth is presented, the soul reaches out toward it, sends itself out to it, comes to meet it; to teach in the highest sense is to bring truth in contact with the mind. To teach successfully is to know what truth to place before the mind and how 122 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. to place it so as to bring out the mind. Now as teach- ing is the highest of all functions, so Christ is the highest of all teachers. He is preeminently the Teacher. He never calls Himself Truth; but He says : " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. " *' I am the Light of the world." "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." Accordingly, the active period of Christ's ministry was given to teaching; and never was such a teacher as Christ. Men felt, with Nicodemus, that He was a Teacher come from God. They felt God in His words as well as in His works ; as there was a divine power in His miracles, so there was a divine beauty in His teaching. It is said again and again that men were astonished at His doctrines, and that He taught as one having authority. The common people heard Him gladly. Men inquired : " Who is this Man, and whence hath this Man this wisdom? " Now it is true that the principal value of Christ's words arises from their relation to His person and works, and that we can never understand them right without considering who it is that speaks ; and yet apart from this consideration there is a beauty, a sig- nificance, and a force in the teachings of Christ such as can be found in those of no other man. Let us look for a moment at one feature — viz., their comprehensiveness, their profound significance. CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 123 They are an inexhaustible mine. The Sermon on the Mount is in itself a body of divinity ; its theology, it is true, lies in it not as in books, in systematic form, but in scattered fragments, as we find geometry in stars or geology in rocks. Nevertheless it is there. Consider, again, what the Sermon says about God. Who is He? The Father of all. " After this manner pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven." He is the Sovereign of the universe. " Swear not at all : neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool ; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King." He is Creator, the sun is His. " He maketh the sun to rise." *' He sendeth rain." "He clothes the grass of the field." He is the God of Providence. "Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" What is His character? He must be almighty, for the sun rises and the rain falls at His bidding. He is omni- present. Heaven, as we have seen, is His throne, and the earth is His footstool. He is wherever you may be. "Pray to thy Father, which is in secret." In whatever secret place you may be, God is there. He is omniscient. " Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly. " " Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." " He is just." " Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 124 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be ful- filled." "Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the utter- most farthing." "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." " He is holy. " " Be ye therefore per- fect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." He is merciful. "If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? " So again He unfolds the nature of Christianity. He exhibits its relations to Judaism, showing it to be a perfect consummation of the law. In one word, He defines His own redemptive work. " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." There you have Christianity as a theory. " All things whatso- ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." There you have Christianity as the life. " Blessed are the pure in heart. " There is the essence of holi- ness. "They shall see God." There is the fulness of heaven. But we can not now analyze the whole discourse. These are a few specimens of what such an analysis would produce. And now, when we add all the other discourses of Christ — His parables. His prayers, His conversation, His incidental remarks — and remember CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 125 that there is in all the same suggestiveness, the same comprehensiveness and many-sidedness, the same depth and wealth of meaning, is He not emphatically the teacher of the world? A student of Christ's words is like a traveler among the mountains. As he mounts higher and higher, Alps rise on Alps, one lofty peak reveals another still loftier. One green valley is seen lying beyond an- other, one winding into and out of the other. The horizon expands, the sea glitters in the distance, until at last one half of the world seems to lie at his feet. At another time he happens on a secluded fountain which seems to have sprung out of the rock at the touch of some enchanter's rod. He determines to fol- low it to its course. At first he finds it a wild moun- tain rivulet gushing through crevices of the crags, leaping in sparkling cascades, and with joyous laugh- ter hurrying to the bay below. And on it is a majestic river, flowing grandly on through stately forests, amid smiling valleys and beneath blushing vineyards. Vil- lages and cities are seated on its banks ; it is white with the sails of flieets and argosies that dance on the heavings of its broad breast, until at last it is lost in the boundlessness of the ocean. So the words of Christ unfold new beauties and grandeur. They reveal greater heights and depths and breadths and lengths. They spring up like fountains, and give forth streams of life which will lead us on through 126 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. ever lovelier and nobler scenes, bearing us ever richer treasuries, refreshing the nations, making glad Zion, the city of our God, carrying us on heavenward and Godward, until they float us out on the ocean of eter- nal life. II. In His character — in the example which He has left us. " He has left us an example that we should follow His steps." " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. " " He that saith he abideth in Him without Himself also, so walks even as He walked." I have already said that in religion God avails Him- self of all native principles and tendencies of our nature, and that one of the strongest of these is imita- tion. Man naturally imitates and reproduces espe- cially that which he feels to be above himself. The boy imitates the man. The savage copies the vices, at least, of civilized nations. That which is beautiful, lovely, grand, or sublime in nature man loves to re- produce. That which is noble, high, worthy of con- ception, heroic in action, he would, to some extent at least, imitate. And altho that is a very shallow theory which seeks to account for sin on the principle of imitation, it will not do to overlook it, for it is undeniably true that the force of example makes some men a great deal better and others a great deal worse than they would otherwise be. In view of this tendency, God has provided a per- CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 127 feet model for iiniversal imitation. Christ is our Ex- ample, our perfect Example. On the one hand, He is so high, so pure, so divine that all leel that He is worthy of imitation. On the other hand, Pie is so lowly, so near to us, so thoroughly human, that we feel that we may imitate Him. He is so high above us that we desire to reach up to Him. He is so near to us that we feel it to be possible. One of the principal conditions of successful imita- tion is study. Before he undertakes to produce the human face, the painter must study it. He must scrutinize it well, watch every motive and expression, the play of every muscle, even the attitude of the head, the flash of the eye, the motion of the brow and tremor of the lip; and if he is skilful he will find out and touch some inner chord, some hidden spring, which will cause the whole soul to flash out in the face. That expression he will transfer to the canvas, and you have the man before you. The artist who would reproduce some scene in nature must fill him- self with the spirit of it. To represent a thunder- storm he must become, with the poet, "A sharer in Its fierce and far delight, A portion of tempest and of night. " The musician must fill his own soul with harmonies before he can produce a concord of sweet sounds ; then he will move the souls of others. So, if we would re- 128 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. produce Christ, Christ must fill our hearts. And this is another sense in which the Christian is a student of Christ. He looks at the character of Christ; he studies Hia life until he himself is filled with the spirit of Christ. Then will Christ Himself reproduce Himself in his life. " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you," writes the Apostle. Christ so takes possession of the whole inner man of the Christian, — of his thoughts, of his feelings, of his affections, of his purposes, of his soul ; then Christ forms Himself in his life. So that for him to live is Christ. Oh, the wonderful divine life of Jesus! Let us make it our study. Let us follow Him everywhere, and look at Him in all positions and relations. Let us watch Him in the marriage-feast, in the wilder- ness, on the mountain-side, in the temple at Jeru- salem, in the humble home at Bethany; with His friends and with His enemies ; comforting His disci- ples, silencing His adversaries, weeping at the grave, and driving out with a scourge the profaners of God's house; marching triumphantly to Jerusalem, and washing the feet of His followers; denouncing the Pharisees, and blessing little children ; on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, — everywhere and always. How much may we learn from Him ! Let us seek in all things to be like Him : in His love to His Father ; in His consecration to His CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDV. 129 work; in His submission to the divine will ; in His love of men ; in His desire to do good ; in His com- passion to the erring; in His sympathy with suffer- ing; in His forgiveness of spirit; in His zeal for truth; in His devotion to right; in His hatred of sin; in His love to holiness. " Be ye followers of Christ as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." III. In His work. There is always a very deep significance in work. Work is the form in which an idea or a power or a personality clothes itself. It is soul embodying itself outwardly. It is always a sign and product of light, and has therefore a twofold significance. Work is significant, in the first place, as a revelation of the worker. We are never satisfied with simply beholding a work; we must know something about the worker. You see an inglorious machine. Your first impulse no doubt will be to examine the work, to study the principles of its mechanism. Having learned these, your next impulse will be to ask who made it. What is he? What else has he done? How great the curiosity of everybody to know the author of some celebrated anonymous book! And why? Because everybody feels that the book is of importance, not simply because it contains beautiful thoughts and touches some high moral, but because it 9 130 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. is a revelation of some individual soul. We are not satisfied with possessing the Iliad. We must ask: Who was Homer? Where was he born? Was that blind old singer really the author of the grand epic, or is it the product of long generations of singers? These are questions which have been deemed worthy of years of investigation by men of culture and thought. What a pity that we know so little about Shakespeare, and how provoked we are with his con- temporaries that they should have left no more memo- rials of the greatest genius of the world! These facts show that the work is to be studied as an expression of the author, the worker. But work is significant, in the second place, as a part of the general development of the world. God has a scheme of existence, a plan of work ; and all that men do is a part of this plan, included in it. Every work exerts its own degree of influence. Everythiug which is done has its bearing on the destiny of the world. Caesar's crossing the Kubicon not only was indicative of his personal character, it was decisive of the future destiny of Eome. The act of Washington renouncing the honors which a grateful people desired to confer upon him, and retiring into private life, not only showed the nobility of the man, but secured the es- tablishment of republicanism on this continent. So the works of this age, — its continental railroads, its oceanic steamships, its submarine telegraphs, its CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 131 cylinder presses, its military death engines, its news- papers and books, its institutions and laws, its com- merce and industry, its factories and churches — all are part of God's plan. The workings of His provi- dence show how far God has brought the world. They are, moreover, the means of still further de- velopment. They are stepping-stones to still higher positions. They are resting-places for still longer and stronger levers wherewith to move the world. In both these respects the work of Christ is the most important ever carried on in this world. In its relation to the author it is a revelation of the highest of all beings, — a product of divine life, an embodiment of the divine idea. In its relation to God' s plan it is the central part of that plan which gives harmony to the whole. Let us briefly consider it in both these relations. Let us look at the work of Christ, first, as an embodiment of God's life. When the Jews persecuted Christ for healing on the Sabbath day. His defense was this: " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. " My Father is a worker, I am a worker, and My Father's work and Mine are the same. And this is one great significance of the work of Christ, — that it teaches us that God is a worker. Yea, my friends, God is a worker, and He worketh hitherto. You may argue as you please about the nature of omnipotence and the divine immutability, and you may say that it would 132 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. be derogatory to infinite perfection to ascribe work to God in the sense which we ascribe it to man. You may endeavor to explain away these Scriptural expres- sions as figurative terms, and seek to define the opera- tions of infinity in other words, and, as we may fancy, better and plainer words than those of inspiration. But the fact remains that God's Word reaffirms again and again the truth that God has worked and is work- ing, and that God's own Son justifies His own labor by an appeal to the experience of His Father. God has therefore set His own seal upon the dignity and sacredness of work. When God tells us that He is a worker, He thereby assures us that work is godly. When He calls upon us to consider His works, he seems to say. Behold, these are My works ; where are yours? When Jesus says that He is a worker. He reminds us that it is the highest of all duties and the greatest of all privileges to do the work of God. And now what shall we say? What shall we do? Shall we refuse to work? Shall we submit to it only because we can not help it, because it is a disagreeable necessity? Shall any despise it, presume to feel about it, attempt to debase it? Shall we make it a slave of money or of power, or the badge of social inferiority and even of degradation? Let us beware lest by so doing we shall be casting upon God Himself, who challenges our regard for His work, our admiration and imitation of the worker, and our gratitude and CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 133 love in return for the beneficent results for all He has done. God's experience proves to us that a spiritual being must vindicate his innate excellence by activity ; that the life which springs up within himself should manifest itself out of him and embody itself in posi- tive results. The life of the infinite has thus em- bodied itself in the work of Christ and revealed itself to men. Notice some of the features of this work. It re- veals itself, first, as the life of spirit. The work of Christ was soul-work. He did perform body-work. He was a mechanic, a carpenter, a member of the so- called laboring classes, and thereby He has forever ennobled physical labor — a truth of profound impor- tance, which, however, we can not now stop to con- sider. But that work of Christ which was more especially an expression of divine light was soul-work. It was hidden, carried on in the unseen depths of His being. And this is true of all the highest and most intense kind of work. We see not; we behold the re- sults, but the work itself we see only very partially. Unseen by mortal eyes and vmheard by mortal ear, in secret caverns of earth and air, Nature's Titan sons are daily forging her thunderbolts. It is only when the black clouds gather and are hurled to earth by the invisible powers of the skies that we remember them or think about their existence. Silently and unob- served, millions of sunbeams are hourly busying them- 134 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. selves — now above and now below, now with a cloud now with the leaf, now with the grass — never idle for a moment. Glancing hither and thither with unheard little laughters of joy, we see only the results of their labors : the myriad colors of sky and field, the shower and the rainbow, the waving forest and the harvest home. The work that we do see is, for the most part, mere surface work. Behold the raiment of green which clothes that tree. We saw the process of fit- ting it on day after day. But who saw the weaving of it or the loom wherein it was made? We see the building of a beautiful edifice ; but who saw the de- signing process in the architect' s brain ? We see the press cast forth page after page of printed thought ; but who saw the productions of trains of reasoning or the creation of those visions of imagination? We see the fire-breathing steed rush over the continent, we see the ocean furrowed by the keels of commerce, we see the forest felled, and the desert blossoming like the rose. We see streams of humanity pouring them- selves through the marts of trade. We see armies marching and countermarching. But who sees the mighty impulse by which all this is done? Who sees the spirit of order brooding over chaos, and evoking beauty and life? Who sees the incubation of earth- shaking enterprises or the conceptions of world-encir- cling plans? Who sees the shuttle of thought plying to and from the ends of the earth? Who views the CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 135 strong passions which throb in the heart of humanity? And, greater than all, more beautiful than all, more heavenly than all, which is seen, behold God's kingdom on earth, " the holy Jesus who has descended out of heaven, from God, having the glory of God, and her light like unto a stone most precious; God's holy temple, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets; the city of the Great King who has no need of sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Be- hold the " general assembly and church of the first- born, whose names are written in heaven " ; behold " the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." " This is the Lord's doing, it is mar- velous in our eyes." This is the Lord's work, the work of the Teacher, the work of Christ, which He- accomplished while here upon earth, — the product of His life, the creation of His spirit, the travail of His soul. Infinite wisdom organized it, infinite power established it, infinite holiness strengthened it, infinite justice guarded it, infinite love inspired it, — and all of this was realized in the soul of Christ. This, God's work (I say), this kingdom of heaven, this church, or by whatever name it may be called, was born of the inspirations of divine wisdom in Christ, of the exer- tion of His divine power, of the aspiration of His per- fect holiness, of the sentiments of liis God-like justice, out of the yearnings of His unmeasured, unfathomable 136 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT CF STUDY. love. He thought for us, He struggled for man, He conquered for humanity. He worked for the world. He broke the power of evil, He crushed the head of the serpent, He proved that God is stronger than sin, that right is braver than wrong. In Him heaven con- quered hell, holiness routed the kingdom of darkness, and immortality swallowed up death. But who saw that work? Thirty years of silence, of devout, quiet, retired labor, as a humble artisan of Nazareth ; three years of speech — only three — and that not of a demon- strative, exciting character ; not like that of John the Baptist; but of a noiseless, retired kind — simple in- struction given on a hillside, in a boat, in a poor dwelling, often charging the people they should not make Him known, that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet, saying : " Behold My servant whom I have chosen, My beloved in whom My soul is well pleased; I will put My spirit upon Him, and He shall show judgment to the Gentiles; He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets ; a bruised reed, shall He not break, and smoking flax, shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory." As when the woman with the issue of blood was healed, virtue had gone forth out of Him unbeknown to the disciples, or to the throng which crowded around Him, so a silent spiritual influence streamed forth unseen out of the divine life for the healing of the world. Who saw it? CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 137 Who saw omnipotent energies within Him struggling with the forces of darkness? Who saw the power of an endless life gaining the victory in Him over the world of sense? Who saw that spiritual bride who walked beside Him, all-glorious within, that He might bring her to the King in raiment of needlework and present her to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but wholly with- out blemish? Such is God's work. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, " Lo here or lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is with you." The work of God is spiritual in the soul ; with- in; within Himself, within Christ, within man, and it is by the agencies which Christ has organized, by the powers which Christ has created, by the influences which Christ has established, by the spirit which Christ has breathed into the world, that God is carry- ing on His work in the world to-day. They are un- seen, but they are real and living. The eye of sense may not see them, skepticism may scoff at them, worldly wisdom may underrate or entirely overlook them. But by these, God will confound them all. The spirit of Christ will overthrow all wrong, over- turn all evil, establish righteousness, diffuse peace, regenerate society, and finish the glorious and heavenly work which He has begun. Another feature of the work of Christ which we 138 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. must notice is that it is a labor of sorrow. Most holy and divine in this world is the mission of sorrow. Wise and blessed is he who beneath the boisterous voices of the world, its hollow laughter, and mocking vociferations, and harsh discord and din, has learned to hear oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity. Not harsh nor grating, tho of ample power to chasten and subdue, to discern that deep undertone of grief, where mingled mourning after lost joys, sobbings for departed purity, sighings of a life's failures and mur- muring aspirations after unrealized ideals, of virtue, beauty, and truth. Blessed I say is he who has heard these ; thrice blessed is he who, having heard it, attunes his own heart to it, then goes forth chastened and subdued, with soul vibrating tremulous to the stillest, saddest tones, yet " bating not one jot of heart or hope" to lighten human burdens, to redeem human wrongs, to fight manfully its battles. But whoever felt all this as Christ did ? Whose soul is sensitive as His to grief and suffering and sins of the world? Who like Him ever took upon himself the burdens of humanity— its misery and wo? Whoever sorrowed as He, and that for others? " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. " " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Go to Gethsemane and Calvary. They tell the story of Christ's work. They tell of the agony of the Eternal Son of God. And this is the CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 139 work of God — the work of iufinite holiness in opposi- tion to sin ; the work of infinite mercy in behalf of erring and suffering children ; the work of a Being of infinite sympathy ; and to subdue that which is most hateful to Himself, and to save and to glorify that which is most holy and precious in His sight. Above all, it is a work of love. And here is the divine support under this infinite sorrow. The work was prompted by love, it was schemed by love, it was inspired in every part of it by love ; it was everlast- ing love without beginning or end that sustained God's love in the day of His humiliation, when He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, and that bore Him through the dark and terrible hour of death. It is the same love that is now working in the world, extending the kingdom of Christ, overcoming selfish- ness, subduing pride, vanquishing, expelling jeal- ousy, routing out bitterness, melting indifference, dif- fusing peace, gentleness, and joy, inspiring strength, courage, and life, wherever there are hearts to feel, minds to understand, and spirits to work. And is not this the greatest of God's works? Where shall we know Him as we do here? Of all His works, this contains the most of Himself, the most of God. He has projected more of His divine char- acter, more of the truth of His being, more of the essence of His own inner life, into this than into all His other works combined. Nowhere has God worked 140 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. as in Jesus Christ ; nowliere has He shown what He can do as in the work of salvation ; nowhere do His word and power blaze forth as in the redemption of fallen man. Elsewhere He has shown us that He is glorious ; but here He shows us that He is willing to lay aside His glory that He may show mercy to the erring. His other works prove His power to hold the universe together, to sustain and direct all its forces ; but this work proves His moral almightiness ; that He has power to limit His own infinity and eternity; that He, the Infinite, can reveal Himself to humanity; that He, the Eternal, can show Himself in time — and that to save the guilty. Nature teaches us that the divine Word in a general way watches over the interests of the least of its crea- tures. But in Christ we see that God can humble Himself in person to His own creatures which He has made, that His creatures may learn to love Him and trust Him once more. Ah, infinite conditions, infinite power, infinite greatness! Where can we learn so much of God as here? And yet men, with this great and glorious revelation before them ; men with Bibles in their hands and with Christ portrayed before them as the manifestation of the Father — men can turn away from the contemplation of this work of God with never a tear in their eye, with never a prayer upon their lips, with never a quiver of the heart ! They can even fail to see that there is anything divine about it at CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 141 all. They can not see God's finger iu it. And why? Because God is not altogether the same in this as in His other works. But ah, my brother, do you not see that He is different only because here He is alto- gether greater, higher, more truly Himself; because here He has shown that He can do what we could never have dreamed He could do there ; because, great as His love everywhere makes itself known to be, here He has shown that it passeth knowledge, and is incom- prehensible in its boundlessness? And shall we judge the higher by the lower, the greater by the less? Because light, as reflected by the moon and stars, does not enable men to read, to work, and to discharge most of the necessary duties of life, shall a man shut his eyes, and say the light is good for nothing — and that even while the sun is pouring its radiance all around him? Would you not say to him. Friend, if you wish to know what light is and what are its uses, first open your eyes and see it, not in the moon and stars where it is furnished, but in the sun where there is most of it. If, because in the case of a small stone, I can resist the law of gravitation by throwing it up, I should say the gravitation is inadequate to preserve the universe, would you not tell me to look at its action on a larger scale — holding the ocean to the earth and binding every planet to its suns? Would you not require me to study it where it seems strongest? And if we wish to know God, should we not look at 142 CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. Him first where there is the most of deity? If we wish to know what love can do, should we not look at it where it has done its utmost? Should we not con- template it where it is strongest? Brethren, if we wish to know God, let us study Christ. If we desire to know what divine wisdom is, let us look at Christ, for He is the Wisdom of God. If we wish to know what divine power is, let us feel Christ, for He is the Power of God. In Him dwells all the f alness of the Godhead, and ye are complete in Him. So much concerning the work of Christ in its rela- tion to the author. Concerning its relation to God's plan, we can not now speak ; but may I not ask you to make it the study of your thoughts in connection with the other themes presented? And shall we not make Christ the object of our study more faithfully than ever? What nobler, wor- thier occupation can we engage in? The noblest study of earth, the highest study of heaven, which things the angels desire to look into, an endless study : Christ in all His attributes, in all His offices, in all His fulness, in the unsearchable riches of His grace — what a boundless field is here ! We have thus no more than skirted one or two of its borders, barely hinting at what lies beyond. How infinite is each ! While wondering at one glory, another discloses itself; as new discover- ies are continually made in the heavens ; as the invis- CHRIST AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY. 143 ible is made visible, and the visible known ; as nebulae are resolving themselves into constellations and suns ; as systems open beyond systems and the skies rise above skies, — so in Christ some new beauty will reveal itself, glory resting upon glory, heavens expanding above heavens, morn rising on mid-noon, day burst- ing through day, and brightening forever into an eter- nal noon. THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. By Rev. Owen Evans, Minneapolis, Minn. "And every one that hath this hope set on Him, purifieth himself even as He is pure. " — 1 John iii. 3 (R. V.) • The word " set" was inserted by the revisers, prob- ably to make it plainer to tlie reader that the pronoun "Him" in the text is to be understood objectively as referring to God, mentioned in the previous verse: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," — or, rather, the "children of God," denoting endearment. What the Apostle says in the text seems to be, that every one possessing the hope described in the previous verse, which is set on God as its ground, purifieth himself even as He is pure. We may mark, first of all, the universality of the language used by the Apos- tle in this Epistle generally, and in this chapter es- pecially : such as the expressions " every one " and "whosoever," which appear so frequently. The use of such expressions arises from two opposite causes — ■ viz., superficiality and profundity. Superficial per- sons deal in platitudes and generalities to cover their ignorance — those that have not arrived at " full age, " 144 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 145 as another Apostle has it, and have not exercised their senses to discern both good and evil. But we may rest assured that such is uot the case with the Apostle John. Ou the contrary, his use of the words arises from the fact that in handling any subject he penetrates to its very roots aud finds out the principles that govern it ; hence the use of these broad expressions. Principles are universal in both the natural and the spiritual world. As a law is that which is universal in phenom- ena, so a principle is that which is universal in causes. Therefore we find that laws emanate from principles. Familiar examples of this may be given from the natural world. For instance, the law of gravitation emanates from the principle of force in matter; and all the laws of growth in nature derive their power from the principle of organic life. Let us extend this to the spiritual world, and we shall find that there, also, laws are derived from principles. The " law of sin, " as the Apostle Paul calls the uniform tendency of the soul to do evil, arises from the principle of lawlessness in the heart, as shown by the Apostle John in this chapter. We touch here on the character- istic features of the two great Apostles. The one revels in pointing out the region of law, and the other de- lights in tracing the action of principles. Paul dwells mainly on the universal appearance of evil, deducing therefrom one great law of sin ; while John, penetra- ting under all appearances, grasps the principle under- 10 146' THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. lying these appearances — the spirit of lawlessness in the human heart. The moral law in the same man- ner emanates from the cardinal principles of love, justice, and holiness, which are further reduced by Christ to the great principle of love. But moral principles must' of necessity terminate in a person; hence John, in the twenty -ninth verse of the previous chapter, says : " If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Here the Apostle argues from the law of conduct — " doeth righteousness" — to the principle of life — "is born of Him." We find the same line of argument in a different form in the text. Instead of, as above, deducing the principle from the action of law, here he deduces the action of law from the prin- ciple. The action of the law is shown by the words "purifieth himself," and the principle denoted by the words "this hope set on Him." The law, then, is that of self -purification, and the principle that of hope grounded on God. To these two we shall endeavor to direct your atten- tion. First, the principle — "this hope set on Him." These words point out to us both the nature and the ground of the Christian's hope. The word "this" points to the nature of the hope, and the words " set on Him" point to the ground for this hope. Let us then, first of all, look at the nature of this hope. I hardly need to tell you that not every kind of hope THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 147 possesses the power of self-purification. How many hopes in the human breast turn out fruitless, wither and fall to the ground like autumn leaves! As our paths in the fall of the year are strewn with withered leaves and flowers that once have adorned the trees, and crowned forest and meadow with beauty and fragrance, so as we advance in years the paths of life are also strewn with withered hopes that have been once our delight and joy. It Avould be well for the young to take note of this. The young heart is like a May gar- den, replete with buds and blossoms of hope. And what is more natural than that a young man or a young woman should hope for long life and happiness, for health, wealth, and honor, to be surrounded by loving friends and dear relations, and at some period of life to accomplish some great work Avhich the world will not willingly let die, but will hold in honor and sacredness with its choicest and most precious trea- sures? Alas! by one poisonous blast, coming stealth- ily in the gloom of night, all these bright hopes are blighted forever. It may be that he or she hangs a while like a withered leaf, or falls at once to the silent grave. Such are all earth-born hopes; they return to the earth from whence they come. From earth to earth measures the extent of their course. Some form wider cycles than others ; but all earth-born hopes, without exception, return like tired birds, to hide their weary heads within the nest. 148 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. Not so, my friends, is the hope " set on Him." This is a heaven-born hope which will never die. It does not belong to the bubbles of earth, nor even to any of the worlds that move within the cycles of time. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that we should understand the nature of this hope. Kef erring to the previous verse, we find that it consists in a holy aspiration to be like God. " Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if He shall be manifested we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is" (R. v.). The Apostle John uses a pronoun here without a nominative when he says that " if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him," etc. John was more of a divine than a grammarian, and more of a Christian than either. And I rather think his intense love of Jesus caused him here to make an unconscious reference to Him without having previ- ously mentioned His name. The reasoning, then, underlying these profound words seems to be : As Jesus is "the effulgence of His Father's glory, and the very image of His substance," when "He shall be mani- fested, we shall be like Him" ; and to be like Him will be to be like our Father. This hope, therefore, is the hope of a child to be like his father. What more natu- ral than for a child to wish and to hope to be some day like his father, if the latter is in any way worthy of the name? But the natural child is often more THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 149 concerned about following his father in stature and strength than in moral character. Not so with the child of God ; he has no hope of ever reaching the altitude of his Father's natural attributes. He never expects to become omnipotent, omniscient, nor infinite. But he aspires to a higher altitude than this. He aspires to be like his Father in His most excellent glory ; in love, righteousness, and holiness. The best elements are the most communicable both in the nat- ural and the spiritual world. If a man were shel- tered by a firm and rugged rock ever so long, it would not impart its firmness nor its strength to him. But if he breathed the pure air and basked in the glorious sunshine of a summer's day, it would not be long be- fore he felt that these elements had imparted some of their purity and buoyancy to his own constitution. It is so with the child of God; if he dwelt forever with omnipotence and infinitude, they could never impart one particle of their nature to him. But when he breathes the pure atmosphere of holiness in fellow- ship with Jesus, and bathes his soul in the sunshine of His love, he soon finds, like the Apostle Paul, that he also reflects as a mirror the glory of the Lord and is being " transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (R. V.). This, then, in an essential manner, is a Christian hope foreign to the carnal mind. The ungodly may hope for forgiveness of his sins and for some kind of heaven 150 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. hereafter ; but a true desire to be holy, and a hope to be ever like God, is not within the province of his experience. Let us, in the next place, examine the grounds of this hope. According to the new rendering of the text, as we have seen, the ground of this hope is God, as shown in the words " set on Him" referring to the foregoing words : " Beloved, now are we the sons [or, rather, children] of God." When we begin to reflect upon our earthly hopes, we discover that they are not so wrong as they are groundless. But you may say it is wrong to hope for things you have no grounds to hope for. My answer is. You can not help it. And this is a conclusive proof to me that man is greater than his present environment — i.e., greater than the world and all its resources. His hopes and longings reach out far and away beyond the border of the seen and material universe, into the unseen and eternal regions. You can tell the difference between sea and land birds by the length and strength of their wings. The wings of the former are intended for long and sustained action in their sweep along the surface of the great ocean. Man's soul, in a similar manner, is not intended for this material world, but has long and strong wings of hope and affection wherewith to span the ocean of eternity. This hope, then, reach- ing as it does beyond the limits of time and the mate- rial creation, must have a foundation which is eternal THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 161 and spiritual in its nature. Such a high hope as this requires a strong foundation. When a high tower is to be built, like the Eiffel in Paris, it must have a wide base and a firm foundation. So with regard to this tower of hope, which reaches far above the liighest peak of this material world, it requires a wide base and a firm foundation. In fact, there is no founda- tion sufficiently wide or strong for such a hope as this within the range of this present world. None other than God Himself will adequately fill the conditions of a safe foundation for such a glorious hope. From the previous passage we infer that one pillar on which this hope rests is God's love as a Father. " Behold," says the Apostle, " what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called chil- dren of God." This, then, being a child's hope to be like his father, rests upon a father's love toward his chil- dren. But in nature the father's love for tlie child can not be made a ground of hope that he shall be like him. Many a paternal Solomon has been sadly dis- appointed in witnessing his Rehoboam growing up so unlike himself in Avisdom and understanding. Not so in the province of grace. God's love as a Father is a guaranty tliat all His children shall be made like Him. The inheritance of God's child lies in his ability to enjoy his Father, or rather his Father is his inher- itance ; and we are taught by the most modern philos- 152 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. ophy that perfect life and enjoyment consists in being in perfect harmony with our environment. God's child's environment in this case is his Father; and to enjoy perfect life and happiness, therefore, he must be brought, as to his nature, his disposition and taste, into perfect harmony with his Father. It would be utterly barbarous for a natural father who lived in affluence to leave his child in ignorance, and to let him grow up entirely uncultivated and uncouth, and there- fore void of all ability to enjoy his father's vast posses- sions. It is far more unthinkable, my friends, that our heavenly Father would leave any of His children unqualified to enjoy their eternal inheritance in sweet fellowship, through the Holy Spirit, with Himself and His dear Son Jesus Christ. The power to bring this about is inherent in the very love on which it is grounded. God has bestowed this manner of love on us to enable us to bestow this manner of hope on Him. It belongs, then, to the eternal fitness of things that the child should be thoroughly qualified to enjoy his father's love. This will become clearer when we con- sider further that the other pillar, so to speak, on which this hope rests is the revelation of the Father's love in His dear Son. A son is the natural revelation of a father; so here the Father's love is revealed in the Eternal Son. Let heaven and earth marvel at this miracle of grace. The Son was made a slave that the slave might be made a son ; yea, the divine Person has THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 153 become as near as possible to the likeness of a sinner in order that the sinner may be brought as near as possible to the likeness of God. Jesus thus becomes not only the ground of this hope, but also the means of its realization. All the promises of God, confirmed by His oath, are ** in Him, yea, and in Him amen, " that we m?y have strong encouragement who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us which we have as an anchor of the soul — a hope both sure and stedfast, and entering into that which is within the veil, whither, as a forerunner, Jesus entered for us " (K. v.). Let us, in the next place, look at the action of the law emanating from this principle of hope in the soul, which is set forth in the words of the text: " Every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself even as He is pure." Mark the universality of the law as shown in the words "every one." It acts uniformly without exception. This law is as cer- tain in its action as any law in nature; yea, even more so, as the spiritual is higher than the natural world; therefore the action of its laws is less liable to be im- peded by any higher law, as is the case sometimes in the natural world. If growth and development spring from the principle of life in nature, in a greater de- gree, then, we may look for self-purification arising from the principle of hope in the soul. It may be remarked, first, in a general way, that hope awakens 154 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. the soul from its dormant state and stirs it to action. When a new hope enters the heart, it revives the drooping spirit and imparts new life to the enfeebled energies of the soul. This is true of all hope ; and as action, like motion in nature, has a purifying ten- dency, any kind of hope is better than none at all to set the soul in motion to avoid mental and spiritual stagnation, which leads to corruption and decay. Idleness both of mind and body exercises a most bane- ful influence in any community, while work, on the other hand, is healthy and bracing. In this sense, then, the Gospel hope is a great factor in our sanctifi- cation, as it sets the soul to work, and so working for Christ purifies the worker. It brings the mind also into holy communion with God. In nature, the life which had been hidden and buried under the cold mantle of snow and frost in winter, in the spring of the year begins to revive. We see the tender blade forcing its way up through the hard and crusty soil, appealing in its way to the warm rays of the sun for help and encouragement; even so it is with the new principle of hope in the heart : it brings the mind and heart to look Godward, and to seek life and strength in God, and to rejoice and delight .in the light of His countenance. The Apostle John says, in this Epistle, that " God is light, " and that light is revealed in His Son, " who is the effulgence of His glory, " and focused in the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ, with the THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 155 Apostle, is the center of light. In the Book of Keve- lation, where he describes the glory of heaven or the new Jerusalem, he says her light is the Lamb. The light in which the angels and seraphims are now bask- ing is the light of the Lamb. They delight to bathe their sparkling wings in the glorious rays of the Sun of Righteousness. In this light the Christian is priv- ileged to daily walk and enjoy communion with God. Therefore, " if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Again, this hope brings its possessor to use all the means established by God for his sanctification. Who has any hope or ambition to succeed in his pro- fession that does not employ every means within his reach to attain his object? He studies the best text- books and seeks the best teachers to qualify him for his profession ; burns the midnight oil in his study, and denies himself of many luxuries to gain success. Is this hope of being like God, of awakening some bright day to find ourselves in His image — is this, I say, the feeblest of all hopes? Why, then, my friend, dost thou neglect the means to attain it? Let me tell you, if this hope is lit within your heart it swells your breast with ambition and fills your soul with holy zeal to employ every means within your reach to bring about its realization. You are daily meditating the Word of God, and, as the Psalmist, your delight is in 166 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. tlie law of the Lord, and in His law do you meditate day and night. You are also constant in your attend- ance in the sanctuary, seeking through all the minis- try of the Word, the public prayer-meeting, and the assembly of the saints to purify yourself even as God is pure. These are they that reach the goal, who are diligent and constant in the employment of the means of grace. These are they that conquer at last and arrive at that glorious habitation beyond the veil, where there is no sin nor sorrow, but joy forever- more. And having qualified themselves for the great festival by frequent rehearsals, they join the band that sings before the throne the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Of these, one of the elders in heaven inquires of John, Who are they and whence they came ; and he replies in a becoming and humble manner, " My Lord, thou knowest " ; then the elder answers — and mark his words: "These are they which come out of the great tribulation; and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." He does not merely say that their robes were washed and made white ; such expressions may be found elsewhere — as when Paul reminds the Corinthians of their regenerate condition ; but adds : " Ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, " etc. And even here, the marginal reading is, " Ye washed your- selves." And the elder, in the same manner, says of the white-robed throng aroimd the throne: "They THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 157 washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." This throws a flood of light on the Christian's life on earth. Why so diligent with the means of grace? Why so constant in his attendance on all religious meetings? Why such zest in the read- ing of the Word, and fervor in prayer? The answer is: By these means he washes his robes and makes them white; they are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and bleached in the sunshine of His eternal love. Some that we knew and loved are now numbered among that glorious band ; they have gone ; but the means remain. Jesus' s blood has not lost its power, nor the Word its sanctifying influence. *' Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look for these things, give diligence, that ye may be found in peace without spot, and blameless in His sight." A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. By Rev. B. Harris, Cincinnati, Ohio. " Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David ; my daughter is griev- ously vexed with a devil, " etc. — Matt. xv. 21-28. In vain do we search the Scriptures for a more exquisite portrait of a successful supplicant than the one presented to us in this paragraph ; and we, living in this age, with its on-rolling current of conviction and activity, may do well to rest a while, that we may carefully consider and follow its teachings. Our Lord, having been unkindly treated by His own coipitrymen, departed from them, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He went thither not for the purpose of preaching or healing, for the time had not yet come, but for retirement. While Christ was a great worker. He never so far forgot Himself as to neglect the laws of health. Whenever He de- tected signs of exhaustion in His disciples. He would say: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. " All toilers need " repair " from the 158 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 159 friction of work and contact, and they are thus enabled to pursue their appointed work with renewed vigor and energy. Christ, however, is not permitted to rest free from interruption. ^lark tells us that " He could not be hid. " We are not surprised at this. His fame had preceded Him. The sun can not rise without being perceived. The fragrance of the Kose of Sharon betrayed its presence, and it was soon known that " He was in the land." There was one who hailed the news of Christ's presence with delight, for the dark cloud of affliction hung heavily over her household. Her " daughter was grievously vexed with a devil." The needy are ever quick to hear and to seek those who can succor them. The great Syrian general who was a leper clutched at a straw of intelligence con- veyed to him by an insignificant captive maid, and went to seek the prophet. This mother, we may be sure, had tried all known remedies. The most skil- ful physicians had experimented. Baal and Ashtaroth had been entreated. But all was futile. Jesus Christ was at hand. The woman had heard of His wonder- ful works (Mark iii. 8), and had waited patiently, longingly, and wistfully for His coming. Blessed be God, W9 need not grieve to-day over an absent Christ, and say with Martha : " Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." The Divine Para- clete is ever near to hear our cry of distress. He went away in order to come and abide with us. " And 160 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. lo, I am with you alway, even unto tlie end of the world." The woman was of Canaan — a Syrophenician by race. While piety does not run in the blood, and while grace is not hereditary, it is still a priceless boon to be able to claim a noble ancestry. This woman, however, was deprived of such a legacy ; she was not even the " tapering apex " of reputable ances- tors. She belonged to a degraded and accursed race, was " an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, " a Greek, a heathen, and an idolater. Out of this nation had come Ethbaal, Jezebel, and a host of others who had troubled Israel. God, however, is able to save to the uttermost; and the story of this heathen woman teaches us that the descendants of the most corrupt nations can be Christianized. *' And such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God" (1 Cor. vi. 11). There are thou- sands to-day in the most benighted nations of the world, glorifying in the cross of Christ and singing the triumphs of redeeming grace. Having heard the news, the woman was aroused to action. She did not send to Christ. Who could take her place? Who could feel as she felt for her daugh- ter? So laying aside her prejudices, together with the conventionalities of society, she went uninvited and unbidden to the Son of God, the Son of Man, the A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 161 Brother born for adversity. In her conduct she has immortalized her name. Verily, she was one of those mothers who have taught the world how to pray. She comes to us, and will go down to succeeding gen- erations, as one of those mighty wrestlers with God who by faith won the victory. In order to impress your minds more vividly with the heroism of this successful supplicant, I shall notice: I. The trials of her faith; and, II., The tri- umphs of her faith. I. Consider the Trials of her Faith. There are three recorded in the narrative : 1. The conduct of Christ. "He answered her not a word." In all the history of Christ's ministry we meet with nothing like this. He whose generosity was unbounded, whose eyes would fill with tears at the sight of human wo, and whose great heart would always beat in sympathy with the sorrowful, is silent. The lame, the halt, and the blind were brought to Him. He healed them. One said, " If Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean" ; immediately the answer is given: " I will. Be thou clean." When He went to Jerusalem, where He was to drink of the bitter cup. He paused to send a thrill of joy into the beg- gar's heart by restoring his sight. It was Christ's readiness to relieve the afflicted that made the multi- tudes in Galilee follow Him with a wild enthusiasm rarely paralleled. But here His lips are locked in U 162 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. silence. The Word has no word for the grief- stricken mother; it is just as tho the sun, after mounting its meridian, should withhold its exhilarating beams. He who came *' to heal the broken in heart " is for once silent. There is a silence that is inestimably precious, and yet excruciatingly painful. How precious, for in- stance, is the silence of sympathy ! It is much more successful in soothing the sorrowful than the sublimest speech. The silent tear, the warm hand-grasp have sent rays of sunshine into many dreary and despond- ent hearts. There is also a silence which is distress- ingly painful. We have felt it when in the sick- chamber where a loved one lay nigh unto death. How we waited for the doctor's decision ! The silence of Christ was a severe trial to the woman. David dreaded nothing so much as the silence of God. " O Lord, my Rock, " he cries, " be not silent to me, lest if Thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. " Why was Christ silent? Let us not be hasty in censuring His conduct; for, while we may pity, yet ours is infinitesimally small when compared with His. Was He in a state of perplexity as to the proper way to proceed? In His charge to the disciples a few days previous. He had said : " Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritan enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 163 Israel. " He is now petitioned to act contrary to His own directions, and to pass beyond the region of His own appointed work. While this is plausible, still, we prefer adhering to the old view, that He was silent so as to test her faith, and that not only for her own sake, but for ours also. This, we believe, fully ac- counts for this phenomenon in the life of Christ. He " who knew what was in man " saw that the woman who stood before Him was rich in moral poten- tiality. There are some plants so fragile that the slightest touch mars or destroys them. But not so in this case; hence Christ provokes a contest, that she might exercise those stalwart virtues that lay hidden in her nature and display before the world the magni- ficent triumph of her daimtless faith. We should never attribute God's delays to indiffer- ence. He always attends to our petition. He reads deep meaning in the tear, and hears heavenly music in the broken sighs of those that seek Him. When we go to Him for help. He takes the educative processes into His own hands. In His seeming delays His pur- pose is not to injure, but to advance us ; not to dis- courage, but to stimulate us to greater efforts. Christ uses the press of silence to crush out the sweet juice of prayer from this Sidonian' s heart. Not a word. Still she prays on. That which frightened the faint-hearted acts as a challenge to the courageous. Instead of being discouraged by the 164 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. Lord's silence she prayed on, " Have mercy on me, O Lord." 2. The demeanor of the disciples. " Send her away, for she crieth after us." They knew that Christ could cure the child, and no doubt besought Him to do so ; but the motive was unqualifiedly seK- ish. They were self -centered and had not yet learned "that man's finest accomplishment is unselfishness." They were more embarrassed by the woman's cries than by the grief that was consuming her life. No electric touch of sympathy reached her from them. What icy coldness! We feel that there was more severity in their words than in their Master's silence. The woman is like a ship flying signals of distress to the vessels in view and receiving no response. Eest assured that neither of these men had, like this mother, watched for many weary days and nights the paroxysms of a child dearer than life itself. One of the delicious fruits of affliction is the ability it gives us to sympathize with our fellow men ; it develops within us a fellow feeling and makes us " sons of con- solation " to the suffering. Afflictions make human sympathy more desirable than the angelic. The sym- pathy of the " Man of Sorrows " is unspeakably pre- cious to us because it can be said of Him : " For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted. He is able to succor them that are tempted." Do we denounce the demeanor of the disciples? A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 165 Aye, but wait. How many of us can answer " Not guilty" to the indictment of coldness to the "Lord's poor " ? Many a wounded traveler is left bleeding on the highway of life because we are not disposed to part with our oil and twopence. No gleanings of gladness, no sheaves of solace are given them ; rather we are pained by their presence and provoked by their persistency. " She crieth after us." While there is much selfishness in the world, we have cause to thank God that the angel form of that love which is kind and easy to be entreated is still abroad in the world, scattering sunshine into the hearts and homes of the hapless. The demeanor of the disciples, however, failed to discourage the Syrophenician. A weaker faith than hers would have been frozen by the chilling coldness of their conduct; but she had come to stay, she would not leave them. What importunacy and pertinacity ! When our souls get into such an attitude before God for our children, something is going to happen. God will give us any good thing when we want it bad enough to ask for it in the right way ; but we look in vain for a promise for those who are not in earnest. Rushing past the disciples, the woman cast herself prostrate at the feet of Christ, crying, "Lord, help me." 3. The contention of Christ. " It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs." 166 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. Before uttering these words our Lord had turned to the disciples and had said in reply to their request, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." These words sufficed in silencing the dis- ciples, for we do not hear them speak afterward. Whether the woman heard the words we know not. If she did, they utterly failed to quiet her. Jacob- like, she perseveres. " I will not let Thee go, 0 Thou Savior of the sorrowful," is her cry. "Lord, help me." " It is not meet to take the children' s bread and to cast it to dogs." Are these the words of the divine Benefactor who came " to speak a word in season to them that are weary " ? Oh, how the words must have pierced the already aching heart ! The darkness deep- ened. No, she was not a child; she was an alien. Martin Luther confesses, " If He had said this to me, I would have run away." But not so this heroic soul; she hoped on, prayed on. The words were cold and hard, yes. But all de- pends upon the manner in which they were spoken. Faith is so sensitive and quicksighted that nothing can possibly evade its vision. Was there tenderness in His eyes, mellowness in His voice, a smile playing upon His lips that bespoke encouragement? Adolph Saphir pertly remarks, " If He said no. He looked yes." Or did she see a ray of comfort in the word " dogs " ; the little dogs, not those that ran wild A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 167 through the streets, but the pets that were kept in the house, and interpret it as a sign of hope. Even this trial did not prevail over her. She felt she must succeed. *' Truth, Lord ; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." Sublime answer, un- excelled in all the annals of prayer. Noble suppli- cant, thou shall yet succeed. Thou hast not only braved the disciples' coldness, wearied Christ' s silence ; thou shalt yet confound His denial. One would think that the epithet, however softened it might have been, would have embittered her against Christ. But no, she was satisfied to acquiesce to everything, if she could but prevail upon Him to heal her little daugh- ter. She devoured all discouragements. Self was surrendered; she was in the dust. "Truth, Lord; yet the little dogs receive the crumbs. I confess I am no better than a dog, but may I not have the portion of a dog?" Her argument was incontrovertible, her logic irrefutable. Marvelously indeed does the great Gardener unfold to our gaze the petals of this beauti- ful flower. " The heavier cross, the heartier prayer ; The bruised flowers, most fragrant are. " With palpitating heart the mother waited; in the depths of her soul she listened. Are our prayers characterized by such profound 168 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. humility, fervency, and indomitable perseverance, or are they merely formal mockeries, filled with vain repetitions, with no expectation of an answer? Pray- ers like the one offered by the woman of Canaan would soon change the spiritual atmosphere of our social gatherings, fill up our churches, and thaw the icebergs of unbelief. "Lord, teach us how to pray," II. Consider the Triumphs of Her Faith. It is : 1. A commendable triumph. 0 woman, great is thy faith. What prominence and dignity Christ gives to the woman's faith! How He fastens His admiration upon it! We would say: great is thy love, humility, persistency; but He saw the fountain and life of all in her great faith. This was the foun- dation, the substo, upon which those beautiful vir- tues rested, in which they were rooted. It was her faith, prompted by the Christ invisible, that taught her tosay the proper names, " Son of David," " Lord " — names referring both to His humanity and divinity. Christ calls it a great faith ; it was a faith which the noise of all heaven's thunders and the shock of a thou- sand earthquakes could not silence. The triumphs of faith are written as with sunbeams upon the pages of history. By faith Moses "endured as seeing Him who is invisible. " By faith the timid woman touched "the hem of His garment." By faith Paul promised that all who stayed in the ship should be saved. By faith Luther burnt the pope's bull. By faith Abra- A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 169 ham Lincoln, when the wires quivered with the news of defeat, calmly said: "Well, it sets us back a good deal, but we shall do better by and by; we must keep pegging away." " All things are possible to him that believeth." 0 this God-given, heaven-quiver- ing faith! It touches the very heart of Christ, wins His commendation, and brings the blessing. "Lord, give us such a faith as this. And then whate'er may come, We'll taste e'en here the hallowed bliss Of an eternal home. " 2. A complete triumph. " Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." There is nothing partial about the an- swer. Jacob gained a glorious victory at Peniel ; but it was only partial, for we find the angel declining to give the wrestler his name. But this comprehends all. The woman craved the crumbs, when, lo, she was told, " Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. " It is one of Christ's sweet mannerisms to grant large answers to great faith, to surpass our brightest expec- tations, and to do infinitely better than all others. The returned prodigal seeks the station of a slave, but receives reinstatement in the family. The dying thief only prays to be remembered, but " to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Truly the apostle says, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. " 170 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. But who is this who speaks with such amazing authority, that possesses such omnific power ? Where- in lies his energy and strength? We read that Sam- son's strength was in his locks ; it is said that Csesar's was in the food he ate. The Person who speaks here is none other than " God manifested in the flesh, " the great "Wonder" of the ages; the Lord of all the eternal Word, in whom the glory of heaven and the virtue of earth unite ; the One who made Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the South ; who painted the rainbow and penciled the rose. A few days before the maddened fury of the storm bowed and retired at His word ; and now in answer to prayer He stills the madder strife in the Canaanite's daugh- ter. Blessed be God, our Savior possesses all power, and is the Source of all power. 3 • A consoling triumph. " Her daughter was healed in that hour." The woman's great faith had glad- dened Christ's heart, and now He cheers her heart by giving her the realization of her desire. We are not told that she went away rejoicing, but we may be confident that there was laughter in her soul as she returned with elastic step to her home. Her appetite was keen, and the food given her was delicious to the taste. With the Phillipian eunuch she goes on her way rejoicing, singing, perhaps, something like : " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is within me, bless His holy name." A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. 171 Do not despise afflictions, if they have succeeded in sending you to the Savior. It was when Jacob's head lay on a *' pillow of stones " that he had a vision which cheered him more or less all through life's pilgrimage. When in the prison of affliction, " Ma- nasseh knew that the Lord he was God." Affliction brought the woman of Canaan to Christ, and now she returns to her home, richer, happier, and nobler for having come into contact with the Savior of the world. Beloved, where do we stand as we look upon this picture of faith? How this woman makes us feel ashamed of ourselves. Faith is indeed rare. A re- ligious profession is common. Religion is popular — we embrace it; the church is fashionable — we join it. A disgust for all shams and trickery is common. A desire to walk circumspectly is common. But faith : " Will the Son of Man when He comes find faith on the earth?" "Lord, increase our faith." "Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief. " Let the history of this successful supplicant encour- age you. You may have loved ones, who are demon- ized under the magnetism of the evil one. Take them to God in prayer. He alone can break the spell. When He sees you in earnest. He will surprise you even as He surprised the praying people in the house of Mary, when Peter knocked at the door. God has promised that you shall not seek His face in vain; 172 A SUCCESSFUL SUPPLICANT. and He can not lie. Esther was not sure of the king's favor, yet she went into the royal presence. The heathen sailors could only say to Jonah : " Call on thy God, if so be that God will think on us." But we have the sure word of Him who is " Amen, Faithful, and True. " " Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, be- lieving, ye shall receive. " " And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything ac- cording to His will, He heareth us." FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. By Rev. John H. Harris, D.D., LL.D,, Lewis- burg, Pa. " Ye are my friends, says Christ, if ye do the things which I command you. We are not to obey in order that we may become friends. Through grace, we are made friends ; through love we serve. This is the twofold principle of the Kingdom of God."— /o/i/i xv. 14. I, Christianity is, on one side, a progressive real- ization of freedom. This is the core of world his- tory. Thus Hegel says that the Oriental knew that one man was free, namely, the despot ; that the Greeks knew that some men were free, namely, the Greeks, and all the rest were by nature slaves ; but Christi- anity regards all as free, and it is its aim to develop this consciousness of personality. The substance of world history, then, is a growth in liberty. The same is true for the individual. With him, history con- sists in the realization of his freedom. Redemption through Christ is a redemption into the free life of personality in God. The emancipation of the world begins with the emancipation of the individual, and the emancipation of the individual begins in the core of his nature, by 173 174 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. the changing of his will, a change not organic, but functional. Behold, says Christ, I am making all things new. This sounds like revolution, but Christ is not a revolutionist. He is a regenerator. The soul of each man must be renewed. Image of God tho he be, yet he needs renewal because his will is per- verted, his life estranged from the life of God. Now freedom is possible because God is personal. God as personal, as having power over Himself, can give a derived reality to His creation. To man He gives the highest derived reality, that of freedom. So we read concerning Him who is both the type and goal of humanity, He was in the beginning, that He was over against God, and that He was God. While He was with God in inseparable nearness. He was over against God in His distinct reality and other- ness. So when the Word became flesh. He was still over against God, a reality, not a mode or idea. The Word made flesh has the highest reality that this world has seen. But each man as personal and free, has reality. So great is the reality given man, so far is he over against God, that he may abjure his real freedom, and become a slave ; that he may turn from the center of his life and become estranged from his own home, from God, who is the home of the soul. Man may become a slave, but not a slave of God. For God having made man free, does not let him become less than free in His service. Not only is FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 175 it possible for man to cast away his freedom in God and become a slave, but as matter of fact this is the con- dition of man, whatever may be the cause of it. Man is only potentially free; potentially so only because God is personal and wills that man may become free. God is thus the sphere of freedom, and that man may realize freedom, he must be brought into per- sonal relation with God. Until he knows himself cleansed and forgiven, he will not, however, draw near to God, who is a consuming fire. Man will not approach a consuming fire ; he will forever be in fear of it, and fear is bondage. The slave is a slave be- cause his life is passed in fear. The first step in emancipation, then, is the removal of fear by remov- ing its cause. The word that comes to the trembling bondman is not that God is love, and therefore he need not fear; but the word is, that he may repent and be forgiven, and be renewed and transformed into the likeness of God, and be lifted up out of the sphere of fear and hate into the sphere of faith and love. It is thus that he is brought into relation to the center of personality, and gains strength for free activity. A man of strong personality, of vigorous thought, calls forth the energies of other men. The soul seems to dilate in the presence of an inspiring personality. All iu it that is best blossoms forth, as in the sun- light. Personality illumines, enkindles, invigorates. Herein is a parable of the relation of the personal 176 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. Creator to the created personality. If God were only blind force, then He, or rather it, would bear man and all things endlessly onward, and man would be none the better morally for the movement. But God is mind, affection, will, and man both moves and is moved toward a goal, and with each step forward he gathers moral strength, because it is his step; he in- creases in light, because he sees where he is going. I call you not bondmen, says Christ; for the bondman knows not what his lord is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you. This is the life of freedom for which man was made, but which even the best has but imperfectly attained. Now moral freedom embraces the whole person. The free- man must have an enfranchized mind that he may see ; he must have emancipated affections and will that he may freely choose and do. Christ sets the intellect free. Every Christian be- comes a free thinker. All things which I heard from My Father, says Christ, I made known unto you. He treats His followers as friends and partners who are entitled to know why. He gives them insight into the fundamental idea of His life, into the law of His Kingdom, and into the purpose of His death. So a real Christian education is an education into in- sight. It calls everything before the baj of reason and makes it give an account of itself. It develops FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 177 thinking. The education of despotism, on the other hand, stifles thought. It may develop memory, taste, and imagination, but it must keep the judgment in abeyance. Such is the education of the Jesuits, and the Chinese, the Jesuits of thQ East. The Jesuits, says Macaulay, seem to have found the poiut up to which intellectual culture can be pushed without reach- ing intellectual emancipation. The tendency of this education is to arrest the progress of the human mind and make everything statical. This tendency is not peculiar to the Chinese and Jesuits, but it is an es- sential characteristic of all despotism, whether civil or ecclesiastical. Such education makes a man a mere tool. " One must allow himself, " to quote again from the Jesuits, "to be governed by divine Providence acting through the agency of the superiors of the order, just as if he were a dead body that could be put into any position whatever and treated accord- ing to one's good pleasure; or as if one were a baton in the hands of an old man who uses it as he pleases." The same antichristiau principle finds expression in the wish for farm hands who are not educated into thinking, but who will labor mechanically uncom- plainingly from four ia the morning until darkness sets in. The desire for workmen who are mere ma- chines; for followers who will blindly accept the leader's guidance; for a society wherein each man will contentedly remain in the lot in which he was 13 178 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. born ; for "worshipers who will repeat a creed and ac- cept the pleasures of taste as the whole of religion, — this desire is directly contrary to the spirit of Christ, which is an enfranchizing spirit, a spirit that leads out into light and liberty. But Christianity is a religion of a book, and it is claimed that intellect is thereby cramped and enthralled. This would be the case if its book were a military order-book, or if it were a book of religious etiquette. The Bible, however, is a revelation, as the world is a revelation, and as the course of history is a revelation, and like them must be interpreted by the free spirit of man. Each man, by the spirit of Christianity, is made responsible to God, and to Him alone, for his religious beliefs, and therefore each man must think out his own interpre- tation, must construct his own theology; must not only think, but work out and live his own creed, with such light as he may gain from the course of the world, the course of history, and the written Word. None of these is a fetter to the spirit, but is material to be wrought into form by each spirit. Each man, in fact, must make his own Bible from the biblical material furnished him. Nor can any power, civil or ecclesiastical, bind by mere authority those who have been made friends of Christ. The philosopher may rightfully form his own conceptions of the nature and ways of God, and connect part with part in a systematic whole, but he FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 179 may not rightfully impose his system as a finality either upon his own mind or upon that of others. The ecclesiastical council may rightfully make an exact and logical statement of their interpretation of the revealed Word, and it will have its value in many ways. But life is larger than any formula, and while the formulated statement is fixed, life is movement and progress, and so can not be fettered by a form. Every stated creed becomes history before the council which framed it adjourns, if it were not so before the council assembled. To make systematic, stereotyped formulae binding on men's minds and lives by mere authority, is to change the free revelation of God into a military order-book. Christianity is an emancipation in the sphere of the active powers of the soul. The bondman serving through fear, and whose work is therefore labor, is lifted up by Christ into the sphere of love, and his service becomes free. The curse of sin was that it made work toil. In the sweat of his face man was to eat bread till his emancipation came. Through the freedom of love work is no longer toil, but de- light, and life no longer a drudgery, but a vocation. The friends of Christ, to be sure, work, as He worked, and as the infinite Father works; but they do not work against the grain, or from constraint ; they work from love, and so as freemen. The spiritual bond- man has fear; he thinks that his master is austere. 180 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. It is fear that keeps him in bondage. Christ sets men free by revealing the nature of Grod. God is love. Yet that alone will not free the soul. Men know that God is just. The soul instinctively feels that if it sins, it must die. The terror of that sen- tence can not be removed by smooth prophesyings. Christ does not deliver men by using anodynes. He frees from the bondage of fear by abolishing the en- mity of the human heart. The man thus becomes at one with God. He receives not the spirit of bon- dage, but the spirit of sonship. The perfect love casts out servile fear. Emancipation of the affec- tions, the casting out of fear, is necessary even to mental freedom. As long as the soul is in servile fear, it can not see distinctly. All objects appear dis- colored by the medium ; they are distorted by the tor- ment which servile fear always has. Even in the study of nature, the fear arising from the conscious- ness of not being in harmony with the Author of nature will hinder the mind from thinking out its problems clearly and to the finish. Many of the dis- torted philosophies concerning the world are caused by the unconscious warping of the soul by a sense of guilt. It is eternally true that those who do not choose to retain God in their knowledge are given over to a reprobate mind, not merely to do the things which are not becoming, but also to think and be- lieve the things which are not true. FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 181 But not thought, not affection, is the center of man's nature; it is will that is fundamental in him. Will is character. For character is the form which the will assumes from the totality of its acts. Man is not at all passive, he is essentially active. It is the merit of recent philosophy that it has by inde- pendent thinking reached the standpoint revealed in Christianity. Even perception, the seeing of the landscape before the eye, is a creative act. Seeing is a construction. The listener makes the music which he hears. Much more in what we call the higher activities, man is volitional, creative. In his forming of the earth into a home; in the construc- tion of society ; in the rearing of the complex fabric which we call civilization; in the forming of his own character, man is creator. But he is not an inde- pendent creator. It is God who gives a derived ab- soluteness. Man can not exercise his reason, he can not find an object of his affection nor a sphere of action for his will, in completeness, except in God who is the ground as well as giver of reason, of love, and of freedom. It is this potential relation to God which stamps man as of unmeasured worth ; it is be- cause he is in the image of God that man is above nature. For tho immersed in nature, and to that extent under necessity, man is also supernatural, being personal, and able to conceive a goal of his being and strive toward it. But he finds himself by 182 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. transgression fettered within ; an evil, when he would do good, is present with him. The chains that bind Prometheus are not mythical, and the vultures at his vitals are not imaginary. But the Deliverer also is real. He for whom the world looked has already come, to deliver from the body of this death. With the power of reigning sin broken, with the affections purified, with the will renewed, man draws near to God as the source of his strength, and goes forward in the freedom of reason and of love, acting not ac- cording to an outward or inner necessity of nature as do the plants and animals, but according to an ideal, and drawing forth his reality, self-determined, not from what is, but from what ought to be — from the realm, in other words, of the ideal. Thus upon man himself God places the solemn responsibility for his own character ; into man' s own hand God places man' s destiny, and the responsibility can not be shifted elsewhere. Into the inner core of his nature no created being can enter, and into it God will not coer- cively enter. II. Emancipation is not an end in itself. Man ceases from bondage that he may really serve. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Freo- dom does not estrange from the Deliverer. It ele- vates into a new relation and knits a stronger bond. The freeman of Christ becomes more truly a servant than ever. Nor does emancipation, the complete FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 183 freedom of the soul which Christ gives, destroy so- ciety. Bondage throws society into unstable equilib- rium by reducing man to a bare, naked unit. Free- dom, by developing man into a unity, promotes the stability of society. Even through his appetites and desires, the natural effect of which is to disintegrate society, the freeman is bound to his fellows by a thousand ties. His breakfast-table stretches forth its tentacles to all lands. But no cords reach from the hut of the slave or savage to other latitudes and other climes. The slave or savage is almost a stark unit; the developed freeman is a rich and manifold unity which touches others, and is touched by others at a thousand points. Liberty does not reduce man- kind to atoms mutually repellent, but it makes each a free ministering member of a social organism. Thus Jesus, who of men was the most free, was also the most obedient to the laws of His individual and social being. Even His personal perfection, it is hinted, was attained by the things which He suffered in the freedom of His love toward God and man. Nor is Christian freedom arbitrariness. The free- man is not lawless in his thinking, nor in his feel- ings, nor in his volitions. Otherwise the highest type of rational life should be sought among madmen. Keason is most free when it moves most strictly ac- cording to the rational order. It is the disordered or arbitrary mental movement which is fettered. Obe- 184 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. dience to law and freedom must coexist. Neither is possible without the other. Only he who is himself master, only he who realizes his dignity as a freeman, can lovingly and nobly serve. There is always an element of bondage in him whose gift expects a re- turn. When Christ washed His disciples' feet, it was no menial service that was rendered, because it was not a menial who rendered it. It is the spirit of the doer which determines the deed. A man may rule a kingdom or preach the Gospel in the spirit of a slave. In fact, if he be a slave in soul, that is the way he will do all his work. But if he be a freeman, en- franchized and ennobled of God, illuminated by the truth and by the Spirit, he may lay upon himself the lowliest duties ; to such an one no duties can be low. But as real ethical obedience can not exist apart from freedom, so freedom can not exist except in rational obedience. Freedom is not a condition of the soul, but a mode of activity. The term freedom could not be applied to a being that was completely statical. Man will act. Such is his nature. If he does not move forward in the sphere of freedom, he will di- verge into the realm of bondage; but he must choose one or the other. Not to choose one is to choose the other. No one can be free except in obedience to the conditions of freedom. Kational living is possible only by compliance with the laws of rational life. We are his friends if we do what he commands. FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 185 Failure to obey is suicide. The wicked, physically, does not live out half his days. The rationally diso- bedient ceases at once to be free. lu the day that he sins he dies. Liberty and law are not two, but one, and around this unity in duality revolves the whole moral world. It is this principle of mind and will which is the bond of society. It is by this that right- eousness exalts both the individual and the nation ; righteousness, an activity in accordance with the con- stitutive principles of both individual and social life. Obedience, however, implies more than law, it also implies authority. Authority is personal and can be exercised only over the free. Freedom is not deduced from authority, tho it is established by it. Now the authority that can bind human freedom is not abstract law, nor man's fundamental constitution, nor anything on a level with man. The authority which is to bind free personalities must strike deeper than the person himself. It can not be anything con- ditioned or finite. It can only be supreme wisdom and power in the unity of perfect love. The source of the authority which binds freedom must be above freedom. No idea can be authoritative over me ; no principle or law. For however much the law may be above me in many respects, I am superior to the law in this, that it is I who know the law, and that the law does not know me. In order, then, to bind me in my freedom, there must be more than the law on 186 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. tables of stone, saying, Thou shalt, or Thou shalt not. There must be the person, the I am that I am, who enunciates a law as unchangeable as himself. In order that the law may commend itself to my conscience, I must know that he who gives the law and assumes the authority has the right to legislate and to rule. I must recognize him as the Lord my God who brought me out of the house of bondage. No authority, whether of state or family, which does not commend itself to the conscience can be real authority. Mere power is not, nor ever can be, authority. At the same time there must be power in authority, and in su- preme authority there must be supreme power. Au- thority must command, not persuade; yet the com- mand must be the expression not of power only, but of personal righteousness and love. The three elements exist in Christ who calls His disciples into fellowship with Himself, yet lays the commandment upon them. He is the embodiment of power; He is the incarnation of righteousness; He is the revelation of infinite love. We speak of Him thus because we regard Him as the God-man, the synthesis of the finite and Infinite, the unity of righteousness and mercy, of grace and truth. Being such, all power is given Him in heaven and in earth ; being such. He has moral authority over all free beings; being such, He calls all men every- where into the life of freedom and obedience in love. FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. 187 There arise personalities who have extraordinary intellectual and volitional potency who exercise a one- sided authority which reduces men into the condition of slaves or blind adherents, which will break or ban- ish every man of independent spirit, which will have no captains but only lieutenants in its train. The God-man has this intellectual and volitional potency, but He asks no blind adherents, He seeks no servile followers. He wants friends to whom He may in free self -revelation communicate Himself, and make them free with a freedom like His own. There are men who to great intellectual and volitional potency add moral worth, so that their authority becomes ethical, commending itself to the conscience of men. Upon such a basis rested that extraordinary moral monarchy which a hundred years ago swayed the scat- tered colonies of this land. Under that mighty and pervasive sway communities were molded into unity. But in that authority there was one element that was not present in completeness. That august figure com- manded the respect and reverence of all continents, but had few loving friends. The Christ is not defi- cient in ethical character. No one was more firm in will, more set in the way of righteousness, more in- flexible in duty than He. Whether on earth in bod- ily presence as He once was, or in spiritual presence as now He is. He was not then, nor is He now, a proper subject for pity. Not for Him the majestic incarna- 188 FREEDOM AND OBEDIENCE. tion of righteousness and truth ; not for Him before whose eye soldiers and mob alike trembled and fell back ; not for Him before whose presence priest and pretor quailed; not for Him, but for themselves and their children, should the daughters of all Jerusa- lem weep. But while He is thus the incarnate holi- ness, He is also the incarnate love and compassion. If Christ were only power and righteousness, still He ought of right to reign, and men should in their free- dom choose Him as the center of their life and goal of their activity. But there is an added element of char- acter, not the least, when He whose right it is to rule, and who commends Himself and His rule to our con- science, and commands our supreme reverence, is also one who because He is love and compassion satisfies the deepest yearnings of the heart. Such, then, is He who invites us into the circle of His friends ; such is He who makes us partakers of His character ; such is He who makes us coworkers in His mission ; such is He who will make us sharers of His throne. He does not subdue us into slaves; He does not reduce us to beggars; He enriches with all spiritual riches ; He makes us freemen ; He calls us friends; He lays down His life for His friends; He gives His final and all-including commandment, a commandment which is the bond of all society, the spur to all noble achievement, namely, this, that we love one another, as He has loved us. THE DEATH OF CHRIST. By Rev. Morien Mon Hughes, Ph.D., Rome, N. Y. " And all the people that came together to that sight smote their breasts and returned. " — Luke xxiii. 48. This wonderful event is the turning-point in our hope and prospect for time and for eternity. Be our other attainments what they may, be our progress in subjects of inferior wisdom ever so extensive, they should become as entirely subordinate to the great mystery of godliness as were the acquirements of Paul when he exclaimed : " What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. I am determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. " The importance, then, of the subject and the appro- priation of this day to a grateful remembrance of the death of Our Lord and Savior alike invite us to join the multitudes who accompanied Him from Jerusalem to Golgotha, to take our place with them by the cross, and, with a prayer for the presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit upon our meditations, to consider — I. The feelings with which the people came to wit- ness the death of Jesus. Ib9 190 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. II. The scene which they were called to behold. III. The state of mind in which they returned from the crucifixion. I. The wisdom of our blessed Lord had been un- rivaled. He had spoken as never man spake. His miracles had so undeniably attested the presence of divine power that even the devils whom He ejected acknowledged Him to be the Son of the living God. His high qualities of every kind had gained Him a name which the malignity of His enemies could only hope to bury in His grave. That the Savior should, therefore, have attracted the regard of multitudes, and induced them to follow Him eagerly as He passed from judgment and condemnation to the cruel death of the cross, is entirely in accord with the movements of a curiosity implanted in our nature. An interest, however, more noble, as well as more intense, seems to have actuated those who went in the train of the suffering Savior, and saw the keystone put to the arch of human redemption, and of human hope, when the victim of the sins of man and the justice of Jeho- vah exclaimed, *' It is finished," and bowed His anointed head and gave up the Ghost. " There fol- lowed," we are told in the accounts of this mournful procession, *' a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him." And it was doubtless upon them that the evangelist's eye was turned when the Holy Spirit bade him pen the THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 191 text. Many, no doubt, had taken their station upon the hill of crucifixion who had listened to the teach- ing of Jesus, and as His doctrine sank into their hearts reechoed the fervid confession of Peter's faith: "Thou hast the word of eternal life." Others had doubtless felt the Almighty energy of that healing hand from which pain and sickness had fled away as clouds from the sun when he sliineth in his strength. The leper over whom Jesus had said, " I will, be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed, " the deaf whose ears He had opened, the dumb whose tongue He had loosed, the cripple whose strength He had renewed, the dead whom He had restored to life, might be among the crowd of those who witnessed the last agonies of the Lamb of God. Among these, if they were swayed by the ordinary motives that influence the hearts of man, there must have been an excitement and an interest the most intense. Reverence for His character, love of His goodness, respect for His wisdom, must have lent their united power to produce a sympathy for the sufferings of Christ. There might, indeed, be some who had concurred in the terrible sentence, who had clamored out at the suggestion of the Scribes and Pharisees, and chief priests, " Crucify Him, crucify Him." Nay, some there might be on whose souls rested the deep and awful curse with which in the wantonness of malice they had charged their souls. 192 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. "His blood be upon us and our children." But even these seem with few exceptions to have been awed by the solemn scene before them; persuaded, as they must previously have been, that " this was indeed a righteous man." Now, I would ask, whether among ourselves who are met to commemorate the death of Christ, or whether among the myri?,ds who are at this hour en- gaged in the same sacred employment, there be an individual who has not, like the multitude that stood around the cross, received blessings and mercies at the Savior's hand? Where shall we iind one to whom His doctrine has not been offered? Where one on whom His arm of mercy has not been laid for tem- poral and spiritual blessings? Whom His love has not embraced or His goodness spared? There may indeed be some whom the Savior's doctrine has not made more wise, whom His power has not renewed to the exercise of spiritual strength and life, and whom His love has not subdued to the supreme gratitude of Christian love. But the cause lies neither with Christ, as the great teacher of the Gospel, nor with the won- der-working hand of His grace. Debtors, then, as you are to the mercy and compas- sion of Christ, with what affections ought you to take your place in the ordinances of this day in which He is openly set forth crucified before you? Will you permit your minds to behold this wondrous scene in THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 193 indifference? Will you attend this day at the cruci- fixion upon Calvary as if you were uninterested in all the circumstances of the Redeemer's passion? If the multitude beheld a man gifted with power and wis- dom supernaturally great, you are privileged to see still more. He whose brow was wounded with the crown of thorns now wears the diadem of everlasting dominion in Heaven, as one with the Father, over all God, blessed forevermore. He in whose hands the insulting soldiers placed the mock scepter and whom they hailed King of the Jews, hath on His vesture and on his thigh a name which is above every other name, King of kings and Lord of lords ; He before whom His enemies leaned in daring mockery of obedi- ence, is the most High God, " at whose name every knee shall bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." He whom His murderers invited to come down from the cross, on which their malice had suspended Him, is the adora- ble Being, of whom it is said " that every tongue shall confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." If, then, the Jews, who beheld this trans- action, sympathized with the dying Savior, little as they knew of His person and the objects of His mis- sion, what shall you feel " who know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that He was rich, yet that for our sake's He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich? " What shall you feel who know 13 194 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. that the hands which nailed the Redeemer to the cross were overruled by the counsels of Heaven to fasten Him upon the altar of sacrifice, the full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for our sins? What should be your emotions who know that the consummated mercy of this day is your only hope, that without the blood shed by the nails and the spear there would have been no remission for your sins? Were they who followed Jesus to His death for the most part well-wishers? What then are you ? If they saw so much to admire and reverence, what do you behold who see the whole scheme of redemp- tion, of which He is the author and finisher, laid out before you, as your guide and way, like the chart of his course to the eye of the seaman? Did the multi- tude consider Him worthy of their regard when they followed Him; and what shall you? Did men ad- mire His affection when He stood at the grave of Lazarus, and say, as He shed some tears over the life- less body of His friend, " Behold how He loved him, " and shall not you feel your hearts irresistibly drawn to Him who manifested His affection to you not by a weeping eye, but by the agony of the garden and by the blood of the cross? Angels hailed His birth, they ministered to Him after His temptation, they consoled Him in the bitter struggle of Gethsemane, the hour of His humiliation was the time in which their serv- ice was most eager, their reverence was most pro- THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 195 found; and His last agony filled them with awe and wonder. I call upon you, therefore, the redeemed of the cross, the object of a salvation, with which angels can not fully sympathize, to attend the dying Redeemer with all the feelings of holy love, unfeigned grati- tude, exalted respect, becoming those for whom such a Savior has been provided and who have been ran- somed from eternal death — by a redemption in com- parison of which the treasure of unnumbered worlds is as dust in the balance. II. If the witnesses of this astonishing scene at- tended the Savior on the cross with such feelings as I have described, the spectacle which that cross pre- sented, and which I am next to notice, must have ex- cited their still stronger emotions. The extent of suffering to which they saw the promised Messiah exposed, the indignities heaped upon Him, the meek- ness with which they were endured, the deep mystery that enveloped the whole scene — must have excited additional wonder. The certainty that all this an- guish was undeserved, the sun eclipsed, the veil of the temple rent, the earthquakes which shook the place on which they stood, the graves which were opened, the bodies of saints which arose — all these must have bowed down the minds, even of the most unreflecting, to cry with the centurion, " Truly this was the Son of God." And now I ask with our Lord, when He addressed 196 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. the multitudes concerning the person and mission of John the Baptist : *' What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what went ye out for to see?" A mere ordinary transaction, which may excite a passing interest, a momentary wonder, and then be remembered no more. Far otherwise, the ordinances of this day direct your minds to the fulfil- ments of those counsels which originated in Heaven for the salvation of a fallen world, of which the first notice was given to man when he was driven from Paradise; which a series of types and sacrifices pre- figured ; which a long line of prophets predicted, in- creasing in minuteness and clearness of description as they drew nigh the period when the Lord should lay on His Son the iniquity of us all. You are called hither to see the process of Eedemption brought to its close; the veil is rent which hid the purposes of eternal mercy from our eyes. You may not only be- hold their accomplishments on your behalf, but " you may enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for you." The attributes of Jehovah injured and out. raged by man's transgression demand signal repara- tion; His mercy has been abused; His patience has been despised ; His goodness has been wronged ; Hig holiness has been insulted ; His truth has been contra- dicted ; His power has been defied. Where, then, shall the dreadful punishment fall ; and who may abide the THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 197 consuming fierceness of the wrath with which it will be inflicted? The scene which pious minds are now at once contemplating solves the doubt and difficulty. "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world ! " Behold the second Adam sleep- ing in death ! Behold the rock smitten and the waters of life gushing out! Behold the fountain that is set open for the house of David for sin and for unclean- ness ! When the spear of the soldier pierced His side, forthwith there came blood and water, " Savior of man " by that water we are washed, by that blood we are redeemed ! " Forbid it, Lord ! that I should boast Save in the death of Christ, my God ; All the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to His blood. "Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small ; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all. " III. Having viewed the wonderful scene which the assembled multitude beheld, we shall surely be at no loss to imagine the state of mind in which they de- parted from the crucifixion. "All the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things that were done, smote their breasts and returned." If they loved and reverenced our blessed Lord before they 198 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. went with the multitude to the scene of suffering, the pangs which He underwent and the spirit in which He met His death must have produced a holy mourn- ing in their hearts. The exclamation of sorrow, when His soul fainted beneath the anguish of divine deser- tion, " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani ; My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? " must have awakened all their sympathy. The triumphant promise to con- duct the penitent companion of His last agony to para- dise; the tenderness with which He delivered His mother to the disciple whom He loved ; and the prayer of unexampled mercy in which He interceded for His murderers, must have redoubled every affectionate feeling of their hearts. Even they who had pierced Him must have looked upon their victim and mourned because of Him with cutting self-reproach. Suppose ye, then, that they returned to forget the scenes they had witnessed and the emotions which had been awakened in their hearts, amidst the eager- ness of secular pursuits or the pleasures and vanities of the city of Jerusalem? I think the history demands another view of the subject. I must believe with many ancient and modern authors that among the multi- tude who witnessed the crucifixion were very many whose minds, then first awakened, were touched with the hand of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; and who, pricked to the heart by the sermon of Peter, ex- claimed as they first turned to God : " Men and breth- THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 199 ren, what shall we do? " How, then, shall we return from this sacred place and from the contemplations which it offers to our attention? Doubtless, sincerely and earnestly sympathizing with the sufferings of our Lord. Let it not, however, be the fugitive and un- profitable emotion of quick affections ; but the sorrow of principle, the due and deep regret for the exceed- ing sinfulness of sin, which made such an atonement needful, and drew the Son of God from the exaltation of His throne to the abasement of His cross. Re- member His advice to the women who lamented and bewailed Him as He passed to crucifixion : " Daugh- ters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." Lament the share which you have had in crucifying the Lord of Heaven ; weep for your sins with the tears of true repentance. If you really glory in the cross of Christ, and view the astonishing event of this day, not merely as in itself historically remarkable, but as ministering the best gift which everlasting and unbounded mercy could bestow upon you, remember that the world must be crucified to you and you to the world. The mortifi- cation of every sin which the Lord of Heaven has branded with a curse, and which the mercy of Heaven has blotted out in the blood of the great Passover, is the only undoubted test that yours is that godly sor- row which worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of. The death of Christ was voluntary. 200 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. Let our sacrifice of all unrighteousness be offered with a willing heart ; for otherwise you can have no evi- dence of an interest in this atonement. Be sure that as God in that sacrifice has undeniably manifested His compassion to offending man, so He has evidently declared the certainty and terrors of His inflictions upon the impenitent. Let our astonishment at this act of mercy raise our hearts in grateful rapture. Let it exalt them in the sincerity of unrivaled affection to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Let it inspire us with a hope of mercy and salvation which could rest upon no other foundation, a hope which stands upon the Kock of Ages, and will remain unshaken even in the day of Judgment. " Finished all the types and shadows Of the ceremonial law. Finished all that God had promised, Death and hell no more shall awe. It is finished ! Saints, from hence your comfort draw. " Christ exclaims from the cross to you, who have not as it were beheld His dying agony : ** Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and beside Me there is no Savior." Eesign yourself to Him, unconverted friend, as the only giver of salvation, and answer His call with the question of the Psalmist's faith, " Whom have I in Heaven but THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 201 Thee? and there is noue upon earth that I desire be- side Thee." And let me affectionately entreat you to beware of a transient affection. If religion be anything (and it is everything), it is not the goodness of Ephraim which passes away like the morning cloud or the early dew; but an abiding principle which, deriving its ori- gin from a view by faith of the sufferings and resur- rection of Christ, " crucifies also with Him " our de- praved nature and quickens in us affections, dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eegard not, then, these great sufferings as they whose short-lived sympathy can not extend beyond the walls of the sanctuary. Think of them as become persons in whose minds a sentiment of abiding convic- tion has been awakened, which is in its degree per- severing like the love of Jesus, and which rests not until the hour of death, when you may say with Him, of the warfare of life successfully fought and the foes of salvation triumphantly vanquished : " It is finished. " " 'Tis finished ! let the joyful sound Be heard through all the nations round. 'Tis finished ! let the triumph rise And swell the chorus of the skies. " My dear readers, those arms which the enemies of the Lord of glory extended upon the cross in help- 202 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. lessness and pain are now stretching out in the ful- ness of infinite mercy, and the sufiiciency of almighty power for all who desire the benefit of redemption. Let the unbeliever reflect that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. Let the self-dependent learn that there is no other name given under Heaven whereby man may be saved. Let the inquiring and awakened hear the voice which says, '' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Let the humble and adoring Christian trust and know that in the Kedeemer's cross he has an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast. Let all who are indifferent to, or negligent of, this salvation con- sider the purport of the Savior's dying prayer: " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" "E'er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Cedeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die. " Then in a nobler, sweeter song ' I'll sing thy power to save. When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave. " LIFE'S RENEWALS, OR PERPETUAL YOUTH. By Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Chicago, III. " Who satisfieth thy mowth with good things ; So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. " — Psalm ciii. 5. The old alchemists sought long and earnestly for the elixir that would convert baser metals into gold, counteract the disintegrating forces of time, and se- cure for man perpetual youth. Juan Ponce de Leon led his Spanish followers through the jungles of Flop- ida, hoping to find, hidden somewhere in forest depths, the fountain, drinking from w^hich man would secure perennial youth. Expectantly they drank from every spring of fresh water they met. Anxiously they bathed in each stream they crossed, but still the days brought fatigue, the journey disease, and time death. The early explorers of this New World traveled many weary miles in search of the Eldorado, the land of gold. Gold indeed did these discoverers find, but it was ever mixed with dross, and it was only procurable at an exchange value. It must ever be bought at a 203 204 LIFE'S RENEWALS. liigh price. Spurred on by this liigli but mad quest, De Soto and his band did indeed come upon the great river; but his body soon after found its resting-place in the bottom of the Mississippi, which he had discov- ered. The elixir is not yet found, the Eldorado re- mains undiscovered. Still those who enter the gate of birth must pass out at the gate of death. The eagle itself, contrary to the assumption of the He- brew poet as implied in my text, and the traditions of the ancients, must needs learn that the time will come when its pinions will stiffen. The century will dim its eye. The time comes when its moltings bring no renewal. Let us indulge in no wild fancies. We will seek no impossible perpetuation of that which by divine necessity must end. Old age and death are a part of the beneficent order. Death and birth are divine complements. Weakness and sorrow are the conditions of life, the inevitable consequences of living. And yet there is that in them which grows not old. Once in a while we catch glimpses of a force within the human heart that may even grow more youthful with the years. The channel narrows as it deepens, and the murmuring of its waters grows more musical as it grows less turbulent. Now and then we see that which shines through faces that are canopied with white ; something more youthful and sunny than anything that breaks upon the dimpled face of baby- LIFE'S RENEWALS. 205 hood. Now and then we hear grandmothers crooning sunrise hymns and see grandfathers making cheerful that which youth fails to brighten. These hint at a renewal of life that justifies the inquiry, Whence comes it, and how is it? I abandon the impossible roads of the alchemist. I am persuaded that there are no Florida glades that contain the waters of immortal life ; that there are no sunny slopes of a Western Eldorado v/hereon may bask perennial youth in measureless plenty. I will seek, rather, some possible roads traveling which the soul may find so much of a renewal that life will grow more abundant, and the power of life increases as the soul grows less dependent upon the body and its elas- ticity grows less with years. First, if life may not be renewed, it certainly can be prolonged by simplifying it. We should at least learn to economize the forces which we may not cre- ate. Certainly the spirit is sadly harried and wor- ried by multiplying its concerns about trifling things. Life is burdened with so many unprofitable details that do not contribute to the wealth of the world, of t)ie homo, or of the soul. Cathedrals can not be built out of pine scantling. Permanent statues must not be molded in snow, and the palaces that are reared in ice vanish with the summer sun. We can not per- petuate even the life that is by trivialities. We must not fritter away the precious wealth. The limited 206 LIFE'S RENEWALS. express that spans tlie distance between New York and Chicago in twenty-four hours accomplishes the feat not so much by increasing the speed as by redu- cing the delays. In the main the train does not travel much faster than the other trains that take a third more time do at their maximum ; but it makes fewer stops, it attends more strictly to its through business. Chicago is its objective point. It is much so on the railroad of life. How young we would all be at sixty, aye at eighty, if we would avoid the petty, useless, the unnecessary delays, the unprofitable business at the side stations along the road. I say the "petty" and the "unprofitable," but let not this mislead us. We must not forget that the great things of life are often called trivial, and that the things deemed trivial really are the important things. What life is wasted and youth is lost for want of discrimination here ! We know how often in our persistent rush for what is considered by a thought- less world as the central station in the metropolitan terminus we make flag stations, unimportant sidings, oftentimes of the great things in life, — honor, duty, domestic helpfulness, and fireside confidences. These are the great stations to reach which we should concen- trate all our energies, making everything else, social considerations, affections on things external and things transient, side stations in life with which we need do but little trafl&c, at which we should seldom stop. LIFE'S RENEWALS. 207 Old age is inevitable, aye, is blessed; but prema- ture old age is deplorable and to be avoided, and this is largely brought about by the feverish unrests of ri- valry, suspicion, jealousy, and ignoble worries. They break down the life that might remain fresh and vig- orous in its eternal possession. If we would learn the secret of perpetual youth, we must do the few things well, and those things must be the central ones. Like the soldier on the march, we must throw away the surplus baggage, re- duce the impedimenta. Happy is the soul that trav- els the ways of life in light marching order. The strength of such is conserved for the long march, and all his time is his in which to do real work and to take real rest therefrom. In a shoe factory I was once shown an attachment to the sewing and other machines which caused the machine to stop whenever its work was done. When one button-hole was made the mechanism paused until it was given another task to do, so that no power was wasted and no useless wear permitted. And the superintendent said : *' That little iron ' trick ' cost us two hundred dollars, but it saves us thousands of dollars every ysar in wear and tear of machinery and in attendance. It enables one operator to take care of two, three, and sometimes more machines." Here, at least, is a hint that is intelligible and avail- able to us all. How much longer would our youth 208 LIFE'S REI^EWALS. stay by us if we had this life-saving attachment affixed; if we could only stop when a given task is done ; if we did but apply ourselves but once to the one thing? When we have done our level best, when we have put in our stroke, then let us stop, save our- selves for the next stroke. All around us we see bod- ies wrinkled and gray, and what is worse, souls soured and hardened not from overwork, but from over-worry. We grow tired not from what we do, but from what we do not do and can not do and oftentimes ought not to do ; that which if done would bring but little re- turns and count but little in tlie investments of life. If we would renew our youth, let us simplify our living, give thought only to tliose things that are thought-worthy, husband our strength to do those things that most need to be done, the imperative tasks that are ours. Life is prolonged by simplicity. There is deep philosophic truth in the pleasanti-y that accounts for the serenity which belongs to the Quaker matron" s face, by the fact that all her life long she has carried no anxiety about the styles ; she has spent no time in deciding upon the form and the trimming of her spring bonnet or the cut and color of her dresses. Long life awaits the men and women to whom such unimportant questions are not open ques- tions, in whom the routine of life becomes automatic so that conscious strength goes into the creative mar- gin, the constructive outline. LIFE'S RENEWALS. 209 But contradictory as it seems, the opposite princi- ple is equally important to him who would secure per- petual youth. Variety is as fundamental a law as simplicity. He who would keep young must keep out of the ruts. The treadmill is the symbol of that which is most exhausting in toil. The perennial life must be free. The higher life is measured by the circle of its freedom. Even the treadmill of the old prison discipline was not necessarily hard, certainly it was not dangerous work ; on the contrary, it might be, and doubtless often was, very easy work; but it became intolerable because it was so monotonous. It visited unspeakable torture because it was so listless. That work alone "pulls us down," as we say, in which there is no relish. "I found myself growing dull, and so I have taken up French this winter," said a friend at fifty-five. He was thus renewing his youth by conqueriDg a new language. This law of variety is imperative everywhere. He who works must work in such a way as to get joy out of it, else the work will crush him, however light it may be. Oue of the secrets of civilization is found in the fact that it in- troduced variety into life. This is what organiza- tion, government brings. This is the real attraction of the city, and only he who can draw variety and appropriate the diversity of its privileges profits by city life. Failing this, the awful humdrum, the very noise of the city crushes the soid. The church right- 14 210 LIFE'S RENEWALS. ly oonoeived, the Sunday properly used, the club, books, now a novel, now a poem, now history, anon biography, put within the reach of the poorest, are re- newing forces, — they are reconstructing resources. " Why do you give so much time to the study of those lessons that you have been teaching all your life," asked an unsuccessful teacher of the great schoolmaster, Arnold of Eugby. " Because I prefer to teach from a living stream rather than from a stagnant pool," was the reply. Botanists tell us that when the tree ceases to make new wood it begins to die. Indeed, the only real live part of our Northern trees is the part just under the bark. It may be even rotten and hollow on the in- side, so long as the sap courses vigorously on the ex- terior the tree lives, grows, and is young. So the mind begins to die when it loses its appetite for things new, when the heavenly hunger for variety ceases. This quest for truth and beauty, this itching for new experiences, this passion for fresh field, is not only the spice of life, but it is life itseK. There is nothing more restful than plenty of work in which the heart delights. If you would renew your youth, multiply your concerns in the world. Have you a sorrow that is hard to bear? Match it with a new duty that is a joy to perform. Does your vocation begin to drain you of your vitality? Match it with an avocation that will renew your vitality. Are you LIFE'S RENEWALS. 211 pressed for work-time? All the more do you need an itch for pastime. This principle of variety as well as the principle of simplicity enables us to realize that few men die of overwork. Stagnation, not exertion, is the short road to senility. Whenever the soul recoils from a new enthusiasm, is distrustful of new thought, and shrinks from new opportunities, and turns aside from fresh possibilities; Avhenever a soul takes council of its dis- couragements, piles up its difficulties and deals in the argument of despondency ; when any man argues from the past, hopelessness in regard to the future, and blindly insists on measuring the next year by the de- feats of the last year; when he clinches his argu- ments with the " It has been tried and it failed, conse- quently there is no more use in trying," that man is old, tho his beard is not yet grown. All around us we find these old young men and old young women who have already entered into the decrepitude of gray hairs with no gray hairs to apologize for their nervelessness or to console them in their timidity and torpidity. Heaven save us from this paralysis of youth, this palsy of listlessness. There is something magnificent in the thought of Michelangelo at sixty years of age turning from the sculptor's inspiration to the painter's task; and after having won a second im- mortality as painter, at eighty taking up the still more difficult work of an architect and crowning his young 212 LIFE'S RENEWALS. life at ninety with tlie Dome of St. Peter. Angelo, in this respect at least, is the type of an increasing class. Witness the splendid youths of the generation not yet wholly gone, — Pope Leo, James Martineau, Gladstone, and their splendid peers who have carried their youth well on toward and into the nineties. The name of Angelo suggests the third rejuvenating principle, perhaps the most nearly perennial spring from which human lips may quaff, — the fountain of love. In sympathy and affection does the soul find its renewing baths. Happily this point is so easily demon- strated that it needs no theoretic argument. Michel- angelo at seventy, at a time when most men begin to think of the grave, found his life renewing itself in a great love, and he who was already in the way of preeminence as sculptor, painter, and architect became also immortal as a poet, through the inspiration that broke upon him in the face of the pure and high Vit- toria Colonna. He verified his great lines : "Perhaps on both of us long life can I, Either in color or in stone bestow By now portraying each in look and mien ; So that a thousand years after we die, How fair thou wast, and I how full of wo. And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen. " Elizabeth Barrett, the poor bed-ridden invalid, al- ready waiting and wooing death, touched with her lips the cup that contained the draft of love, and lo ! LIFE'S RENEWALS. 213 "The face of all tlie world was changed. And I who thought to sink, Was caught up into love, And taught the whole Of life in a new rhythm. " She found the youth that gave to the world the Eliza- beth Barrett Browning, known and loved and revered wherever the English tongue is spoken. She found the life that not only rejuvenated her own soul, but has been spreading in rejuvenating ways through thousands and thousands of human souls that are made young by and through her love. We can all testify to this recreating miracle. Have we not known those who have talked of "finished lives," of " closed accounts, " of " diminishing usefulness " sud- denly caught up by a reforming impulse ; a radiance conies into the face, song touches the voice, and life begins again with greatening hopes and enlarging plans. Their lips have indeed touched the veritable fountain of youth and it has given them a new lease upon life. It is well that this renewing love should find its crowning vindication in that love most akin to the divine love, the passion that binds men and women together. Says Longfellow : " Each hath his ideal, The image of souae woman excellent, That is his guide. " 214 LIFE'S RENEWALS. And says Browning : " There is a vision in the heart of each Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness To wrong and pain, and knowledge of its cure, And these, embodied in a woman's form That best transmits them, pure as when first received. From God above her, to mankind below. " But this concrete embodiment is a demonstration of a principle tliat is universal. Mrs. Browning, again, through love, touched the deeper meaning of love when she sung : "There's nothing low in love. When love the lowest, meanest Creatures who love God, God Accepts while loving so. And what I feel, across the inferior features Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show How that great work of Love enhances Nature's. " Out of these lowly loves grow the divine loves that bring the sympathies to all sentient things, an appre- ciation of all the marvels of creation, and the heal- ing love that brings that reverence which the poet says is " The best food that souls can feed on. " The love that begins in and for one must open out and spread, or the stream turned in upon itself poisons and embitters the heart it once sweetened. The pas- sion of courtship, which is an ellipse drawn around LIFE'S RENEWALS. 215 two foci, the youth and the maiden, making them blind to all others and oblivious to all else, must needs be rounded out into a circle, ever increasing. This dual life must radiate from a common and an uncon- scious center, if it is to keep ever young. The honey- moon season, if it is to continue, must turn from the moon, the *' month-measurer," and fix its orbit around the central sun. Moonshine must give way to sun- shine, and the joy in each other must be emphasized and fed by the joy in and for others, if it is to last. Love must breed openness. It must delight in that frankness which makes old age lovely, without which domestic love becomes loathsome. The love of one must be deepened, mellowed, and broadened into the love for all, if it is to become a Siloam pool disturbed by angel steps and which, when thus troubled, quick- ens all those who step therein. " They sleep not whom God needs, " says the poet, neither do they grow old who feel the greatness of His love glinting in the crystal, blushing in the rose, trembling in the song of the bird, grow- ing sacred in the baby smile, quickening in the strug- gles of men and women, and commanding in the cry of the downtrodden. The best symbol of the love that brings perennial youth is the love that rose through the love of the few to the love of the many, and opened its arms on the cross to a waiting and 216 LIFE'S RENEWALS. suffering world. The true scientists like Humboldt, Agassiz, and Darwin never grow old. Their last work is ever the best. The artist loses his art when his heart ceases to be young, and the lover ceases to love if he does not grow into a philanthropist, the lover of men. It is this love that brings the divine youth foreshadowed in Swedenborg's paradox when he said, " The oldest angels are the youngest. " He who would renew his youth must keep the connection open be- tween himself and his fellows. He must guard well the lines of sympathy that connect his heart to all human hearts. He must find God' s great heart puls- ing in the heart of humanity. The saddest " crow-feet marks " upon the face are those marked upon the face of the soul that begins to hate, distrust, and to antagonize the good in this world. Alas ! this old age of the spirit is not Avant- ing in illustrations. How sad it is to find the halting steps in the movement of the fearless prophets, and to see old age narrow the vision and embitter the words of those who once cheered the columns onward, as the sad story of Carlyle, Euskin, and many others illus- trates. If you would keep young, keep close to the young life as revealed in the new needs of the world. Let the passing generation catch the rising radiance of the coming, if they would know the mellowness that made martial and musical the declining years of Longfel- LIFE'S RENEWALS. 217 low, Emerson, Whittier, Browning, and their fellows. Some one has said, " God is reconciling a wicked world to Himself in every new-born babe," and he who turns away from the newer generation, the baby thoughts, the fresh problems, the new schemes that to-day are cradled in despised mangers, but are destined some day to move the world with conquering power, turns away from God's Messiahs, the anointed of the Most High. He refuses that which satisfieth the soul with good things and reneweth his wings like an eagle. No, my hearers, the fountain of perennial youth is not wholly fabulous. There is an elixir of life that makes young and keeps young; but this is found not in space nor in time, but within the soul itself. In love and truth lie the boundaries of the eternal king- dom. The dead are not all encoffined. Alas! they inake ghastly the walks of life. The dead stalk through our streets. The dead sit in our churches; they hang like millstones upon the neck of society; they fetter the government; they chill the home. While, on the other hand, the buried live, even the forgotten survive. Those we deem dead are always the most alive. The only immortals are they who have passed through that humble doorway we call the tomb into perennial youth. But simplicity, variety, love, however valuable, are accentuated, brought out and realized as renewing forces only when they enlist in the service of con- 218 LIFE'S RENEWALS. science. Duty is their unerring exponent. The life that is outpouring, self-forgetting, world-serving, is the only life that can keep young, perennial, joyous. This is the deathless life. Life is blithe when it trusts the right and obeys the promptings of duty. Life is renewed when it invests all its energies not in doing its own, but in doing the will of God, in trying to obey the high exactions of the Eternal. While, on the other hand, the soul grows old, oh! so fast; when it becomes self-conscious and self -cen- tered, when it grows anxious about the " me " and the "mine" of it. The soul grows old when it enters into the service of expediency. Even the child is old when it is morose. Thus studied we find that old age is not a thing of years; it is a thing of the smothered heart, of the covetous life. It is a thing of jealousy, of selfishness, of distrust. The miserable are already old. We are old when we are conscious of antagonisms, difficulties, hatreds, and differences. We grow promptly old in the service of Madam Grundy; following her artificial standards the soul grows rheumatic. When we live in the fear or in the envy of our neighbors, the paralysis of old age overtakes us. But when we live in the fear of God, in the consciousness of His beauty, in the service of His truth, when we are free citizens in the realm of the right, we are young, the the birthday be fourscore and ten years LIFE'S RENEWALS. 219 away. " Always young for liberty, " exclaimed Chan- niug when a great crisis found liim on the right side. We can not think of the jjrophets as old. The heroes are ever young. Those who have invested their all in the cause of humanity are deathless on both sides of the river of death. They live not only as members of the band that makes glorious the fields of Heaven, but they live in their " sinewy youth " on earth as in Heaven. They live as shining members of the " choir invisible," whose music is the gladness of the world. They live " lu minds made better by their presence : live In pulses stirred to generosity, la deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge man's search To vaster issues. " I recall the great picture and the profound emo- tions that came to me when I first stood on the top of the Washington monument, that mighty obelisk whose finger-point pierces the heaven five hundred and fifty feet above the ground, higher than^the highest pyra- mid— the loftiest structure, I believe, reared by the hand of man except the Eiifel Tower in Paris. From that high vantage-ground I looked out upon that truly noble city, the splendid capital with its matchless dome so airy and symmetrical that it seems to hang 220 LIFE'S RENEWALS. self -poised in air, I traced the avenues which with their decorations mark the heroic age of our country. I noted the squares dedicated to the dauntless Far- ragut, MePherson the chivalric knight of the nine- teenth century, and Thomas the patient and invin- cible. I looked down upon paths that were once familiar to the feet of Washington, Lincoln, and Gar- field; halls that once resounded with the voices of Webster, Clay, and Sumner. I looked out on the distant forests of Virginia whereon freedom was bought at such a price. The imagination extended the line of vision westward over prairie and mountain, whither the star of empire still pursues its flight. I foresaw the great future that awaits our country, whose destiny was being clumsily shaped and directed in the public buildings below me. They seemed like petty hives, tho they were mighty piles. And, spite of partizan strife and selfish weakness, my heart went out in respect to the toilers in these public buildings; because they were the executors of the past, the administrators of the present, and the trus- tees of the future of our great country. I foresaw the art treasures that are to be added to what is now not an insignificant deposit. From that high point of view it was easy to believe that unspeakable tri- umphs and glories are in the future of our country. But when my eye rested on the national cemetery over across the Potomac, in the beautiful Lee estate, LIFE'S RENEWALS. 221 and I thought of the mute eloquence of that cenotaph that surmounts the vault thirty feet deep, two hun- dred and twenty feet in diameter, into which has been gathered the bones of 2,111 unknown Union soldiers from the battle-fields of Virginia, bones that must forever be labeled " unknown, " the tears came to my eyes and I thought of 4;liem as representing the most living in that living panorama. The 2,111 soldiers, falsely marked "dead and unknown," were the most alive of all the lives suggested in this mighty sweep of eye and mightier sweep of heart. Would that those of us who are left were half as much alive as are those unnamed heroes whose bones lie in that indistinguishable heap! Would that we were living a fraction of the tiding life which is theirs to-day! Would that we were doing as much for this and the next generation as they are doing! Would that we dying mortals could be as sure of a perennial youth that dies not as they are ! Botanists tell us that strongly scented plants are of longer duration than those destitute of smell. This is as true in the gardens of soul as in the gar- dens of nature. Lives fragrant with helpfulness en- dure. Those wanting in the aroma of love die. Shutting our hearts against sympathy, against ten- derness, against the love not of the one but of the all, not of ours but of everybody, above all shutting our hearts to duty and the battles it involves, we shut 222 LIFE'S RENEWALS. our hearts against life; denying this essence a place in our lives, we refuse Heaven. Thus we see that " he who is satisfied with good things does renew his youth like the eagle." He borders the ways of earth with fragrant mint; he makes beautiful the celestial highways with his pe- rennial youth. While he who fails to do this is ever in league with death, and is dead before he dies. He chokes the garden of God with weeds. Let us never forget, friends, that all is weariness and disappoint- ment, waste and extravagance that does not keep us young, that does not give us the perpetual youth which makes us children of God, "joint heirs with Christ" in His kingdom. J. S. Dwight, the Ameri- can poet, did but echo the profound truths of Hebrew psalmist and New-Testament apostles when he wrote : " Sweet is the pleasure Itself can not spoil 1 Is not true leisure One with true toil? Thou that wouldst taste it, Still do thy best ; Use it. not waste it — Else 'tis no rest. Wouldst behold beauty Near thee? all round? Only hath duty Such a sight found. LIFE'S RENEWALS. Rest Is not quitting The busy career ; Rest is the fitting Of self to its sphere. 'Tis the brook's motion, Clear -without strife, Fleeing to ocean After its life. Deeper devotion Nowhere hath knelt ; Fuller emotion Heart never felt. 'Tis loving and serving The highest and best ; •Tis onward ! unswerving And that is true rest. " 223 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. By Rev. R. G. Jones, D.D.,- Utica, N. Y. "Behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship Him. — Matt. ii. 1, 3. When" about to leave His disciples Jesus said : " Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. " We are very glad of this, for so great is the world's need of Him, and so well fitted for that need is Christ found by all who know Him, that they want to keep Him here all the time, and, what is very singular, we are never tired of talking about Him, meditating upon Him, and reading or hearing of Him. That which has been written concerning Him is very fragmentary, but it is written in such a manner as to excite our curiosity and cause us to desire to know more, or at least understand more thoroughly, what is written. His birthday seems to be becoming more in- teresting and influential every year, causing men to re- joice and act liberally toward each other, tho it is un- certain what day or year His birth took place. How many thousands of sermons have been delivered on 224 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. 225 His birth! yet the subject is ever new and interesting. How many thousands have been looking for the star that led the Avise men to Bethlehem ! but the church is by no means tired, neither is the question, What was that star? by any means settled. It is singular that Balaam, a gentile prophet, should have said many years before it appeared: "A star shall come forth out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel" (Num. xxiv. 17). Fourteen hundred years after that men came from his country to seek the King, led by a star. Had that revelation been preserved in the school of the Magi so long, or was it reported by the Jews after their dispersion, is quite uncertain. The question, What was the star? has been asked thousands of times and answered equally as often. Some think it was a meteor, some that it was a comet. Some think it was a conjunction of stars. Ideler, fol- lowing Sanclemente, attempted to prove that there was a conjunction of stars about six years before the Christian era. As it is now pretty certain that Jesus was born about four years before the Christian era fixed by Dionysius in the sixth century, it is not im- possible but that the wise men saw a conjunction of stars appearing as one, but it is quite uncertain. Some suppose that there was a special star created for that purpose. Others think that it was the Sheki- nah or glory which used to be on the mercy-seat and 15 226 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. which Ezekiel saw leaving the temple, and that, going to the mountain east of the city, it reappeared as a star at that time. In such a state of uncertainty, there maybe room for another conjecture: that the star was Jesus Christ Himself. He calls Himself the bright and morning star. It is no more unnatural to think of Him appearing as a star than to think of Him appearing as a man to Abraham, a ladder to Jacob, fire in a bush to Moses, and a soldier with a naked sword to Joshua. The star was evidently some manifestation closely connected with the incar- nation of the Son of God. When we remember that He was the Sun of the Universe, it is evident that He had to hide a great part of His light to become a star. But that was no more difficult than to hide the glory which He had in the bosom of the Father to take upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh. Taking for granted without asserting that the star was Christ, I would say : 1. It rose earlier than any other star in the uni- verse. We have no idea how early the morning stars which sang together at the laying down of the foundation of the earth arise. But this one's going forth was from the ages of eternity. He was the be- ginning of the creation of God, the first-born of every creature. He was before all things. Through Him were all things created, and without Him was nothing made that was made. He describes Himself in the THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. 227 eighth chapter of Proverbs, " The Lord possessed me in the beginuing of His way, before Ilis works of old. I was set up from the beginning, from everlasting, or ever the earth was." However uncertain we may feel regarding the age of the earth or the angels, we may venture to say that the star of Bethlehem is the oldest in the universe. 2. It kept its course through the ages toward our world. All the stars have their revolutions, however large their cycles may be ; they have their turn in the course of ages j but this one has been traveling from the dsija of eternity in a straight course to our earth, rejoicing in the habitations of earth and delighting in the sons of men. Great as were the difficulties and oppositions to be encountered, he said, " Kepen- tance is hid from me. I will not turn back. Lo, I come in the volume of the book ; it is written of me to do Thy will, 0 my God ! " It is a surprising history, when we consider the length of time. From the beginning, before the earth was. The great distance from the bosom of the Father, the likeness of God to the likeness of man, the form of a servant. The wonderful contrast. From the wealth, glory, and happiness of heaven to the poverty, degradation, and misery of earth. 3. It produced a disturbing influence on everything in the universe throughout the ages. The old astron- omers, whose glasses were not as powerful as modem 228 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. telescopes, were able by their calculations to say that there was a star, to them invisible, here and there causing some disturbing influence among the stars they saw. Modern telescopes have proved they were right. So with the star of Bethlehem : God seems to have rested for countless ages without creating any- thing. But ever since the introduction of the " Eirst- born of every creature," "the right image of His person, " He seems to have been so delighted with Him that He sought every opportunity by creation, susten- tation, and redemption to reveal Him. Tho it is beyond our ability to explain or even com- prehend the meaning of Paul when he calls Christ the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, yet it is natural to try and get some idea what he means. When God determined to call into existence finite creatures, it became necessary for Him to get some medium of communication between Himself, the In- finite, and all created beings who could be only finite. Therefore we have an image of Himself. An exact likeness, yet perceptible to finite beings. This image is called here the first-born of every creature. Does this mean a reality, or is it a comparison? If real, it would indicate that the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity took into union with Himself a created form through which He always manifested Himself till He THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. 229 became flesh and assumed our nature. I have thought for years that such a theory, could it be proved, would solve many mysteries concerning the person of Christ as the Mediator. But it would probably only remove the difficulty a little farther. "We see clearly how such a created nature would be a convenient medium of communication between the Absolute and all finite beings. But the question arises, How could such a created nature hold converse with and comprehend the incomprehensible and infinite? Should this be rejected, it arises again to trouble us : How did the human nature of Christ become capable of seeing and revealing the Father? We must give it up. The next verse seems to divide this first-born from every created thing, inasmuch as everything created was made by Him ; therefore, He Himself seems to have been uncreated. The saying, first-born of every creature, must then be a comparison indicating that the Second Person un- derwent some change to fit Himself to be a creator and medium of communication with creatures as if He had been a creature. If asked how could this be, I freely confess I know not, neither do I know how the Word was made flesh. We find something similar in other parts of the New Testament. As the Father hath sent me. How could an Infinite Being be sent anywhere? Who, being in the form of God, humbled Himself, taking 230 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. the form of a servant. He being rich, became poor. How, we know not. We have only to accept these wonderful declarations without trying to explain or even comprehend them. So here we know not what occurred or how or when he became the first-born of every creature. John has perhaps thrown some light on this, if we are sure that we understand him. The Word was with God and was God. Yea, even when creating all things and still further when becom- ing flesh. This leads me to think that the idea of Christ's sonship is also a comparison to help us to perceive the greatness of the love that exists between the Divine Persons, and the greatness of the sacrifice they made when separating themselves from each other to effect the plan of salvation. The idea of Father and Son and eternal equality has been a great stumbling-block to many minds, and seems to be a con- tradiction in terms, which seems to be removed by the idea that the term Son has been borrowed from human experience for our edification. The love of the Divine Persons for each other remains, and their equality seems less clouded. Many comparisons are used in Scripture to describe God which we do not take liter- ally. His hands, feet, mouth, face, back, are used to help us to have some idea of Him. Why not also Sonship and Pather be taken as comparisons of the utmost love and tenderness? To come to something we understand better: THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. 231 When man was created God said: " In the day thou eatest thereof, [dying] thou shalt die." Man did eat and thus transgressed the law of God. Justice and truth demanded that He should be in- stantly put to death. But He did not die; He was told to be fruitful, multiply, and lill the earth. Why? The star of Bethlehem approached and caused a prom- ise to be given, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. It was not very clear, but it enabled Mercy to spare the condemned criminal. Again we are told : " By the deeds of the law shall no man be justified, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission. " Yet we see many of the sinful seed of Adam, after living very imperfectly, going to heaven. But the star was there saying, " Lo, I come. The sacrifices are insufficient to take away sins; thou Last prepared for me a body, and in the fulness of time the Captain of their salvation shall be made perfect through suffering." Thus, tho invisible, its existence was known to the ancient prophets who dili- gently searched and inc^uired what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in tliem did signify, when it made known to them the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (1 Peter i. 10). 4. It gave signs of its approach as the ages rolled on. Noah said it would appear in the family of Shem. Jacob pointed out the tribe of Judah. The Psalmist mentioned the royal family of David, and 232 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. Micah. named Bethlehem as the place where it would appear. Thus men had sufficient time and warning so as to turn their eyes and hearts to know it when it came in sight. 5. It was discovered by the Gentiles. It might have been expected that Israel, after all their training and teaching, would be the first to know their star when it would rise above the horizon, aad acknowledge their King when He came. But the great honor of being the first discoverers was reserved to the Gentiles, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, without hope and without God in the world. Balaam, a Gentile prophet, pointed out its course fifteen hundred years before it came in sight : " A star out of Jacob " ; and it was Magi from the East that first saw the star over the land of Judea and perceived that it was the star of the King that was born to rule the Jews and save the world. It seems they had seen it for nearly two years before they reached «Teru- salem, and they saw it between Jerusalem and Beth- lehem. Is it not singular that the inhabitants of Judea did not see that wonderful star, or rather, as they must have seen it, they did not learn its lesson ? There is no hint given that any of them did. Were their thoughts too earthly? Were they always looking toward earth as the swine under the oak devouring THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. 233 the acorns and enjoying them, but never looking up to see whence they came? How many men are enjoying the good things of earth, but never think- ing that all good and perfect gifts come from heaven! The Jews expected an earthly king to be the Messiah, and therefore never turned to look toward heaven for him. Or was there judicial blindness, that they saw nothing in that bright star which showed the Gentiles that the King of the Jews had been born? 6. Leading to worship Him. The Avise men said, " We have come to worship Him. " The fact of finding a child a few months or a year old in the arms of a poor mother did not prevent those wonderful men from worshiping Him and opening their treasures to enrich Him to the full extent of their ability to enable Him to flee to Egypt from the wrath of Herod. How will many hearers of the Gospel meet these men in the day of Judgment? They know His won- derful history, His great sacrifice on Calvary, and His great glory as well as the benefit He is to the world, yet never worship Him nor give any help to carry on His work on earth. What Avonder if He will say to them, " Depart from me, ye cursed " ? 7. The star has become again a sun. The prophet of old saw that such would be the case. The land of Zebulon and Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond the Jor- dan, Galilee of the Gentiles, — the people which sat in darkness, saw a great light (Isa. ix. 1, 2). 234 THE STAR SEEN IN THE EAST. Zecharias saw that it would be a sun. Blessed be God who hath visited us with dayspring (sun) from above (Luke i. 78), Jesus Himself said : " While I am in the world I am the light of the world." So great is His light that He makes such dark bodies as men to be the Light of the world. John tells us of the present home of Jesus and our future home. " The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did brighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof, and the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light thereof " (Rev. xxi. 23, 24). It is very sad to think of Herod and the inhabi- tants of Judea living under the light of the star and learning nothing from it. But sadder still those who live in the light of the Gospel and not learning its lessons. " Many shall come from the East and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast forth into outer dark- ness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Math. viii. 11-13). The Magi worshiped; Herod and Hie court persecuted; heathen believe in these days and enter the kingdom by thousands. The hearers of the Gospel harden their hearts and refuse to repent and believe. THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES, By Kkv. R. S. Joxks, D.D.; Soranton, Pa. "And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. "—Mark iii. 14, 15. J. The Buried Talent of a Community/. How much buried talent may be found among the laboring classes of any community in any age or country? Who would expect to find a Moses among the enslaved of Egypt, placed in a cradle among the bulrushes of a great river, in danger of being swept away or being devoured? Who would expect to find a Daniel and his three companions among the captives of Babylon, or the Twelve Apostles among the fishermen and their like from Galilee? Who would expect a Martin Luther in a poor miner's hut in Germany, or Jesus Christ the Messiah of the world at His bench in a carpenter's shop in Naza- reth? There appears to be enough of buried talent in every community, of every age and nation, to perform the work and duty of that commimity thoroughlj- 285 236 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. and successfully, if it can only be found, equipped, and directed aright. There is enough work to be done in every community and every age for the great- est amount of talent that can be found. Undoubtedly God expects every community and age to do its own work thoroughly and efficiently. If these buried tal- ents could be found as Jesus found the Twelve Apos- tles among the common people of Galilee, every generation would have done its duty and every age have proclaimed the glad tidings of God's Kingdom throughout the whole world. Let us take these Twelve Apostles as an ilkistration of buried talent that can be found in any community of common work- ing people in every age and nation. //. The Discovert/ of this Buried Talent. He who discovers and makes use of the buried talent of a community renders one of the greatest ser- vices possible, not only to that age or community, but to all subsequent ages. Who can estimate the value of the service rendered by the daughter of Pharaoh to all mankind in the discovery of Moses and in his bringing up? Who can value the service rendered by Nebuchadnezzar in the court training given to Daniel and his three companions? Who can estimate the valuable service rendered by Jesus Christ to the ages of the world in calling and training the Twelve Apos- tles? I once heard of a very quaint old teacher who THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 237 lived in Germany a great many years ago, who, upon meeting his school children in the morning, would al- ways salute them very reverently by taking off his hat and making an old-fashioned bow to them. On being asked why he did so he replied, " Because I do not know who may be among these common school chil- dren. " And right he was, for Martin Luther, one of the greatest reformers of the world, was at that time a small boy and one of those very children. The parents of any family, or the teacher of any Sunday- school class, do not always know who might be among their children, but each of them should try to discover what talent may be there to make use of it aright. No one can serve his generation better than by discov- ering and training the buried talent which may come under his charge. III. The Divine Providence hi the Discovery of this Buried Talent. It is by the help of God that the buried talents of a community can be found and trained aright. This is the idea in the remark of Luke (vi. 12) : " And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Evidently Jesus realized thoroughly the vital connection which exists between prayer and work. They are ''what God hath joined together and we ought not to put them asunder. " He under- 238 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. stood thoroughly that by special prayer it was pos- sible for Him to discover and select the special talent which He needed from that community to be His Apostles. He knew also that by prayer it was pos- sible for Him to find the proper work and sphere of labor for these buried talents which were found in His disciples. He knew also that by prayer He could secure the encouragement, the sustenance, and the di- vine aid which He needed to do His special work in the ordination of the twelve upon the following day. This is evidently the proper way for every one of His disciples to do His work every day. It was by the force and direction of a special divine Providence, secured by special prayer, that Christ called and or- dained these Twelve Apostles, and I am confident that it is too much of a presumption upon our part to at- tempt to do anything without securing divine aid by special prayer when Christ Himself did not dare do so. IV. The Ordination. We find the list of the Twelve Apostles in the fol- lowing verses, 16-19. We do not know whether or not Jesus used an outward formality in the laying on of hands, offering a special prayer, on this occa- sion. There is nothing recorded, except the charge, and it is the most excellent charge in existence. In Matthew x. we find the charge given in full ; who else THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 239 is there that could have given it as well? He was one of them. This ordination and charge were all the au- thority given to them thus far. AValter Scott relates somewhere of a beautiful custom in old Scotland of assembling the clans together by means of a fiery cross. They had a light cross of wood charred at one end, the flames of which were extinguished by the blood of a goat, and this was sent from family to family, and village to village among the clan, each one into whose hand it came being responsible for the sending of it to his nearest neighbor. The date of the meeting only was inscribed on the cross, but each in- dividual understood its meaning — that he was bound under the strongest anathemas to obey the sign. The Twelve Apostles received their authority from such a cross — the cross of Jesus Christ Himself, which was charred by His suffering and extinguished by His blood. After receiving the cross, they received the power of the Holy Ghost, which gave them addi- tional authority. These, then, constituted the au- thority of the Twelve Apostles: 1. Their ordination and charge. 2. The Cross of Jesus Christ. 3. The power of the Holy Ghost. These are the essential authority and power of the Gospel. When these or any of them are turned aside, and some other substi- tuted, be it a scheme ever so scholarly or philosoph- ical, we make the Gospel of Jesus Christ of none effect. As we adhere the more closely and simply to 240 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. these essential elements of power and authority in the Gospel do we make it the power of God unto salva- tion to all those who believe. V. Their Number. These ordained men were twelve in number. Is there not something of especial interest in this num- ber twelve? We know the people of ancient times were accustomed to find much significance in certain numbers. The Old and New Testaments make a great use of this number twelve, viz. : The twelve tribes of Israel; the twelve wells of the Elim; twelve stones in the high priest's breast-plate; the twelve loaves of shew-bread in the Tabernacle; the twelve Patriarchs; the twelve Apostles; the twelve foundation-stones ; the twelve gates ; the twelve angels, and so on; and in Kev. xxi. 16-21; xii. 1. The twenty-four elders represent the twelve heads of the Old Testament and the twelve Apostles of the New Testament combined. The Mystics say that this number twelve forms a perfect circle, and that the safety and success of any person or plans are secured by the formation of this perfect ring around oneself. The inference is that Jesus ordained the twelve to be a perfect ring around Himself; consequently so long as this ring was unbroken He was perfectly safe, and Jesus could not be crucified, however much was the hatred of THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 241 the Jews against Him. What Judas did when he betrayed Him was to break this ring, consequently His safety was gone at once. I shall not vouch for the truth of this statement; but yet this is evident, that so long as the twelve were united and true to each other and to Christ, every scheme and hatred and power failed to touch Him in any way ; but no sooner was the ring broken by the betrayal of Judas than a whole avalanche of hatred rushed upon Him and swept Him away almost in an instant. Whatever we may think of the theory of the Mystics, we do know this to be the fact in connection with Christ's life. Besides, they say, that twelve is the number of the church. Three is the divine number, containing the Trinity and all Heaven in its widest range. Four is the world' s number, containing this earth and all that pertains to it. By multiplying three and four to- gether we find twelve, the number of the church. The idea is a good one whether it is the right idea or not. It is perfectly suitable to the church. What is a church but a combination both of heaven and earth together, and that in their widest range possible? There is nothing in heaven — Father, Son, Holy Ghost, angels, or glorified saints, but that the church can lay claim to; and there is nothing in the earth — nature. Providence, difficulties, trials, duties, respon- sibilities, or blessings, but that they exist for the ben- 16 242 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. efit of the church. The church combines everything that pertains to heaven and earth for its own use and benefit. These twelve were the representatives of this great combination, the church. Whether or not this is the idea of the twelve, it is a noble idea and a most true one. I only wish we could realize this better than we do. VI. Their Order. The list of the twelve are given here, according to their names as mentioned in verses 16-19. There are four lists of them given in the New Testament, vide Matt. x. 2-4 ; Mark iii. 16-19 ; Luke vi. 14-16 ; and Acts i. 13 j with the exception of Judas Iscariot in the last list. No two of these lists agree precisely in the order of names, and yet there is something in the lists in which all agree. They seem to be divided into three groups of four each, with the same persons at the first and last of each list, and also the same persons at the head of each group. Thus Peter is always named first, Philip the fifth, James the son of Alpheus the ninth, and Judas Iscariot the twelfth. Without looking at the characteristic of each individ- ual of the twelve, let us look only at the most promi- nent characteristic in each group. 1. The first group has Peter at its head, or, as we would say nowadays, with Peter acting as its chair- man, and as well the chairman of the whole twelve. THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 243 The men of this group all possessed remarkable in- sight, zeal, enthusiasm, sympathy, affection, spirit- uality, faith, etc. The spiritual faculties were pre- dominating in each of these men. On such men you can depend as safe guides and leaders of society. 2. The second group, with Philip at its head or chairman, were men of reflection, reason, judgment, justice, etc. The intellectual faculties predominated in this group. In this group, too, we find Philip, who could not possibly go beyond his means to feed the five thousand in the wilderness until he had con- sulted Andrew, who belonged to the first group (John vi. 5-8). It was he who could not go beyond the visible in discovering the Patherhood in Jesus Christ (John xiv. 8-10). In this group, also, we find Thomas, who could not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ until he could put his fingers in the print of the nails, etc. (John xx. 24-29). These were excellent men, but men of no religious specula- tion beyond their immediate resources. They are in the right place in the second rank; they could do nothing as leaders of a religious society. 3. The third group, with James the son of Alpheus at their head or chairman, were practical men — ■ men of business capabilities. Who knows but that this James the son of Alpheus was the right au- thor of tho Epistle known as the Epistle of James? That Epistle is the most business-like letter that we 244 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. have in the New Testament, and the most practicable in all its bearings. In this group also was Judas Is- cariot. Whatever was this man's fault, he was con- sidered a better man of business than any of his brethren. The order of this grouping is an essential element in the true success of society. The men with their spiritual faculties predominating must be the leaders of every church and society, if they are to succeed at all. Next to them must be the men of intellect} and after these come the men of business. Change this order, by allowing the men of intellect to predominate, and you will be led into doubt and fear, coldness of heart, and unbelief. Society or church will never thrive under the leadership of the men of intellect alone, much less will it thrive under the leadership of the men of business. We need all these men with their different capabilities. We greatly need the men of business ; bring them in, even the very best that can be found. We need the men of intellect, the strongest, tlie best disciplined, and most enlightened that can be found. But the men of faith, and love, and spirituality, and sympathy, etc., their spiritual faculties predominating, must be the leaders in the cause of humanity if we shall prosper aright. The order of the groups as they are among the twelve must be the true order for success in every church, be it large or small, and the only order in which society at large will succeed. THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 245 Vll. The Unknown Majority of the Twelve. But a few of the Twelve Apostles became promi- nent before the public. The majority of them re- mained unknown. I remember reading once a sermon of Dr. Talmageon the subject, "Paul in a Basket" (2 Cor. xi. 33). The idea was "The Service of the Unknown." In describing the incident he said, " On what a slender tenure great results hang." He esti- mated that there were some seventy thousand or more ministers in this country, and most of them came from early homes which had to struggle for the necessaries of life, and each one of the family had to sacrifice greatly in order to give the young man that aspired for the ministry a thorough educa- tion. But father, mother, brothers, and sisters are all in the list of the great unknown, and yet they have contributed largely toward the advancement of the Gospel. So it was in the escape of Paul over the wall in Damascus. Who conceived of the plan of let- ting him down over the wall we do not know. Who brought the basket, the rope, etc., we do not know. Who held the rope until he reached the ground in safety we do not know, but they contributed largely toward the advancement of the Gospel at that criti- cal moment in its life. Who are the religious parents of the land? — their names are not prominent before the public ; and the noble army of the Simday-school 246 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. teachers, they are of the unknown many. They all belong to the great majority of unknown workers, and yet they are faithfully doing their work, serving their generation in the great cause of Christ. What became of the majority of these Twelve Apostles we do not know ; they have dropped from sight and have fallen into the great unknown majority, and yet they must have done their work nobly and faithfully to the very last, and at the end of all things they shall be seen sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Do not think, because the names of the great majority of Christian people are not prominent before the public in the land, that they are less faithful and true to their Master, who hath delivered them from the power of darkness and hath translated them into the Kingdom of His dear Son. They belong to the unknown seven thousand in the days of Elijah (1 Kings xix. 18) . This is the use Paul makes of it in Kom. xi. 2-5. The saved unknown are always more numerous than we are apt to imagine. The majority of the Twelve Apostles belonged to the great unknown, and were not less faithful and true than the most promi- nent of them. VIII. The Secondary Uses of a Man. Judas Iscariot was ordained with the rest of them, and it was intended that he should carry on his life and his apostleship to a success like the others ; but THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 247 he failed. It indicates the possibility of a man being associated with the best companions possible, to share in the best opportunities, to be used for the greatest service, to possess the best possible gifts for the work- ing out of the great object of his life, and yet fail. When a man fails in the principal object of his life, then God places him in such a position that ho may serve as a beacon of warning to all others. This is the secondary use God makes of a man after he fails in his first object. Thus he hath done with Pharaoh, and thus also with Jud;is Iscariot. There was no ne- cessity for Judas to become traitor ; but when he chose to do so, then he became a warning for all. Ever since we can not sit together around the communion- table to partake of the Lord's Supper, but as we read, " The night he was betrayed, " take heed of this lesson, friends, and beware of failing in the principal object of your life, and do not turn traitors to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Judas Iscariot you find covetousness and gambling row in the same boat. Pie who demurred to tlie reckless expenditure of a pot of perfume first, sells his jMaster for a trifle, then flings away his own life, like a gambler does the dice-box when his last penny is lost. All the vices seem to play into each other's hands. First he enter- tained the vice of covetousness, and this soon beckoned 2?er/?(/// to come to him ; then perfidy calls t readier y ; treachery at length calls saicide. Beware of these 248 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. steps, and avoid making the first step. After making the first step, then you will soon come to estimate the most valuable things and persons at the lowest price. Judas Iscariot is used as a beacon of warning that we may avoid his end. IX. Their Work and the Method of Doing It. The object of ordaining the Twelve Apostles is specified in three ways: 1. "That they should be with Him." 2. "That He may send them forth to preach." 3. That "they may have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils," or as the Revised Version has it, " and to have authority to cast out devils. " The order is true. They were to commence by being with Him. No one is able to preach oi cast out devils, etc., with commencing to be with Him. This is the essential part of man' s prepara- tion. The idea of preparation is the foundation of this whole movement. However else a man might be equipped with talent, education, training, etc., unless he is prepared by an association with Christ he is not truly prepared and will not make a Christian worker. Commence, then, your Christian career by being with Him that you may learn of Him; that you may be in sympathy with Him ; and that you may be able to consecrate your life to His great service. This is the very foundation on which the whole fabric of Christian life is woven. Without this, as it were, the THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 249 whole building is built on sand and will not endure, however careful we may be of other things. Next to preparation is the preaching of His Word. This is the greatest of all the works of the followers of Jesus. This is the great instrument which Christ ordained for the success of His ministry. By this He is made known unto others. That is what is meant by preaching. The woman of Samaria did it as soon as she found Him, — left her water-pot by the well, as if it were a guaranty for her return, and went to make Him known unto others. When this preaching is faithfully done the sick are healed and devils are cast out. Preaching goes before healing and casting out devils. Do not reverse the order or else they will all fail us. Have preaching go first in every respect and then the others will follow. Lay the chief stress on preaching, then the healing and the casting out devils will follow. May His blessing rest upon every effort that is made on His behalf. By way of application we remark: 1. That God works through human agents. This is implied in the Incarnation, and it is confirmed by the ordination of the twelve. Christ's work depends upon the effort of men put forth in the great harvest of their own earthly life. He asks to-day for our helping hand, however feeble that may be. Do not refuse it Him. 2. The law of promotion among (Christ's followers. 250 THE TWELVE APOSTLES. There is a sense in wliicli He sends forth apostles to- day as well as in the days of His flesh. Those who come to Him to learn are those whom He sends forth as teachers. Every learner is expected to aspire for the position of a teacher (vide Heb. v. 11-14). 3. That every teacher ought to be commissioned of Christ. His commission is in force now as well as then. This is what Christ means when He says, " As thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world" (John xvii. 18) . The verb " have sent" is an aorist, the peculiarity of which is, that the action is gone forth, but has not been com- pleted. For instance, it is used in relation to the going-out of Judas Iscariot from the supper to betray Him (John xiii. 30), The action of the betrayal had commenced, but was not completed. It is used for tlie glorification of the saints by Paul (Rom. viii. 30) : "And whom he justified, them he also glorified." The action for their glorification had commenced ; they were now on the way to be glorified, but as yet have not attained it. So it is with the sending forth of these Apostles. Jesus then was only putting forth an action, starting the great movement of sending forth His commissioned servants. The action is still in force and has not been completed as yet. He is continually sending forth His commissioned servants. So there is no need for us to go forth without His commission. Get His commission first and then "go THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 251 ye into all the world and preacli the Gospel unto all nations." 4. That He endues whom He sends forth with His o^^^l supernatural divine power. He who gives the command supplies the power. This is what Paul means in Eph. iv. 8-12 : " Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." He has ascended into heaven with the very object of supplying us with the power we need to meet our different duties success- fully. Our success is sure in teaching, preaching, heal- ing the sick, casting out devils (and there are myriads of them in need of being cast out nowadays, as well as in the days of Jesus Christ) if we will but secure the Divine aid which is given us at our option. Let none of us go forth without this Divine aid. 5. That they were freely to use their freely given powers. Our gifts are not ours, God distributeth to every man severally as He will. They are given us to use for the benefit of others. We are to sacrifice ourselves in order that others may be saved. May we be filled more and more with the Spirit of Jesus that we may fulfil our commission with His commen- dation ! THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. By Rev. R. T. Jones, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa. "For the spirit of the living creature (of life) was in the wheels, "—Ezekiel i. 20. The glory of the Eternal is seen in natural forces. In this marvelous vision the prophet Ezekiel, not- withstanding his peculiar genius and imagination, with the exactness of a modern astronomer in his observa- tions, gives a vivid description of the power of God, and the relation which He sustains to nature. God in His providence, God in motion, seems to be the great and central thought of the prophet's vision. Evidently, the wheels within wheels, each one per- forming its own function, represent the various laws and forces of nature which are the methods used by the Almighty to execute His firm and eternal decrees. Not only does nature loudly proclaim the power and glory of an all-wise Creator, but the method, order, and design everywhere manifest declare that nature's material forces are the agents and active servants of the Most High. But while the wheels described in the vision are of 253 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 253 perfect dimensions and in grand harmony with each other, thus forming one huge machinery, yet the in- spired author brings out distinctly the sublime thought that it is " the spirit of life " in the wheels that gives the motion. The prophet declares life of the spirit to be the origi- nating force of the movement of the mysterious forms. As life can only come from the touch of life, the life in the wheels is that imparted by the spirit of life. The Spirit of God that " brooded upon the face of the wa- ters" ; that breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, " and man became a living soul, " is the spir- it that gives life in Ezekiel's vision. The life in- tended here is that connected with God, holy, spiri- tual life in the abundance of its energy and active power. This terrestrial globe being the stage on which God is working out His redemptive plan, no laws of exe- gesis are violated in applying the thought of the text to the blending of the Divine and human power in church work. The Almighty Spirit which moves all the wheels of nature, keeping in constant motion the stupendous machinery of the universe, is also the power which creates anew and moves the heart of man, and gives life and motion to the great church militant. The church organizing upon this earth is a ma- chinery of sublime construction, conceived of God, 254 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. redeemed with the blood of the Lamb, and is revived and kept on its onward movements by the Holy Spirit. The various Christian denominations throughout Christendom are wheels in this machinery, each one doing good seryice in its place ; and the constituents of these denominations, the members of the churches — the individual believers — are the wheels within wheels. A truth conceded by all evangelical Christians is, that the church, wonderful and powerful as is its or- ganization, and great as is its moral and uplifting in- fluence, can not of itself save and give eternal life. It is the agent of God to gather souls and bring -them to the "Fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins, And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. " It is not for us to speculate and wonder the reason why, but with an unwavering faith to accept the plain and positive fact that God has always used and em- phasized means in the unfolding of His purpose. That He could in some miraculous way lead the children of Israel triumphantly to Canaan without the aid of man no one denies ; but that was not the method He adopted ; He raised a Moses and a Joshua to be leaders. Heroes of reformation and apostles of freedom and DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 255 purity like Wyclif, John Huss, Savonarola, Luther, Calvin, and Knox; fearless and eloquent expounders of the truth like the Wesleys, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and Moody, did not spring up into preemi- nence, power, and influence of their own volition. Like Abraham they obeyed the divine voice. God prepared them and called them at a particular time to do a particular work. While the work is being prepared for the man, God prepares a man for the work. We have a grand illustration of this in Paul. It is very clear, therefore, that in the plan of salva- tion man is an important factor, not only in the sense of being saved, but also in the sense of being a means in God's hands to "rescue the perishing." Having found Jesus " tell others the story. " From the grave of Lazarus comes a most practical, forcible, and precious lesson. To the friends gath- ered the blessed Jesus said, " Take ye away the stone." Man could do that, but he could not raise the dead. The stone being rolled away, Jesus " cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." There is work for man to do. In emphasizing the human element in the extension of the Spiritual King- dom stress should be laid upon methods. It is true that life is not in methods; yet it is equally true that in aggressive church work proper methods are valuable and essential. We stand amazed at the great achievements in the domains of arts 256 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. and science, and the rapid strides in the mechani- cal world. Elements of nature have been brought into subjection; oceans have been spanned; distance anni- hilated; remote continents joined; life given to steam; a tongue to the wire, and a voice to electricity. Yet all these triumphs, as well as the marvels of inventive genius, are only the triumphs of methods. In other words, the new inventions are only new meth- ods of applying power already in existence. " There are more ways to the woods than one." It is not in the power of man to create a force, but by the application of means and methods he can make use of force for the benefit of humanity. Electric power as a force in the universe is not a new creation, but its utility to man is modern, and this service is the triumph of method. Method has made all the difference between a three months' trip and a trip of five days and a few hours across the Atlantic. Method has made all the difference between the ox- cart speed and the ninety miles in ninety minutes speed between Philadelphia and New York City. Full of significance is the advice of Lord Chester- field in his letters to his son. " Despatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to despatch than method. Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably, as far as unexpected inci- dents may allow." DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 257 Seeing, then, that the Creator Himself works through means and methods, and the effect of meth- ods in tlie success of man in the material world, sure- \y the church, the grandest and mightiest organiza- tion on earth, should use methods and emulate the Pauline spirit: "Andiuito the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. ... To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak ; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." In adapting himself and his ways to win souls for Christ, Paul did not compromise the truth; neither need the church of to-day lower the standard of truth in adapting ways and means to win the world for Jesus. The church of the living God in its founda- tion, nature, and aim, like the Foimder, is divine; but the polity or church governments which distinguish denominations are not stamped with divinity. Church polity, methods, and forms of services are of man, therefore the changing of these does not effect the truth which is of God. We love God no less than our Puritan fathers did ; there is as much earnest devotion felt in our worship- ing; Christ and Him crucified is preached with as much zeal and power as in days gone by; and the army of believers has increased mightily, and is still increasing, marching on " conquering and to conquer " ; yet wonderful changes have taken place in the method of preaching and conducting the means of grace. 17 258 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. It is said that the famous divine and preacher, John Howe, usually began the services at nine in the morn- ing on the Lord's day, and the meeting lasted nearly four hours, as the preacher occupied three and half hours, viz. : 15 minutes for the invocation, 45 for read- ing and expounding the Scriptures, 60 for the second prayer, 60 for the sermon, and 30 minutes for the closing prayer, making in all 210 minutes, or three and a half hours. Evidently that would not suit modern taste and convenience. A most remarkable change has also been brought about in the activity manifested by the old and young Christians. No longer are good people checked in their holy ambition, but are rather encouraged. Young people, whether through the means of the Christian Endeavor Society or their own denomina- tional societies, are a great power for good. Their efforts and also those of the Salvation Army are new methods adapted to the condition of things in these enterprising days for the purpose of winning souls. Every honest effort to save the young and old from the devil's grasp, everything which tends to elevate Jesus as " the way, the truth, and the life " should be welcomed and encouraged. Some keen observer has left on record the fact that the church has passed through three great transitional periods and is now passing through the fourth. The Apostolic fathers earnestly preached the Gospel in its DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 259 simplicity, aud the people accepted the simple facts without any theorizing. But as the rapid spread of Christianity alarmed heathendom, leading to acute at- tacks like those of Celsus, it became necessary to define and defend Christian doctrine, and thus the preaching became dogmatic and apologetic. Following this came the second transitional period — that of union of church and state. While this might have served a purpose, it developed a great evil. Then came the third period of transition — the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- tury. This period marked a return to spiritual truth and an advance in the application of Christian doc- trine; and now the church is passing through the fourth period, — it is a return to Christ's teaching con- cerning man's relation to his fellow man and to his God, and an advance in the application of Christian principles to the organized life of society. In other words, it is practical Christianity. It is preaching and doing the Master's will. This is an intensely interesting and practical age, and the or- ganized church should prove equal to the emer- gency. To meet the demands of the day, no new Gospel is wanted. The glorious Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of peace and life, is the same in its efficacy to save as it ever was. It is the " one thing needful, " and it is the only power that can lift man from the pitfalls of sin and put him on the lofty summit of peace with 260 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. his Maker, where his soul may forever bask in the radiant sunshine of immortal bliss. The world wants no new truth, no new Gospel, no new Savior, but what is wanted is the adapting of honest methods and sanctified means to the changed condition of society, so as to reach the masses for the salvation of immortal souls to the glory of God. But however useful and essential methods and means are, they are ineifective without the instrumentality of man ; therefore stress should be laid upon Man as an Important Factor hi the Work of Salvation. Not man in the abstract, but man in the concrete — the individual man. It is personal individuality that does the work. It is the hand of man at the throttle of the engine ; it is man that steers the ship over the mighty deep. Everywhere the individual man is needed, and his power is felt. There is a tendency to overlook the individuality and the personality of man. This is prompted by the erroneous idea that organized society can do all the thinking and the work. An organization is effective because the individuals who constitute it perform their respective work. The machinery as a whole moves and works for the reason that every part of it is doing the work assigned to it. " It is wheel within DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 261 wheel," and the smallest wheel is as essential as the largest. The church militant is a grand and mighty organi- zation, but to accomplish its mission the individual member must loyally do his and her duty. This work can not be done by proxy, it must be done by oneself. How beautifully does the Gospel story of the good Samaritan illustrate this thought! The chief actor in the parable not only had compassion on the wounded man, but " went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." A grand spirit was he, showing his sympathy practi- cally. Besides doing all he could, when he had to de- part he left with the host some money so as to secure further care for the sufferer. But many a modern Samaritan has no time for the wounded, the imfortunate, and the aflGlicted. Too many business cares he offers as the excuse. But to satisfy his conscience he makes a contribution now and then to some benevolent purpose, and he hires, as he vainly thinks, a minister to do the praying, the sympathizing, and the loving for him. This is not Christianity. A Christian must throw his own per- sonality into the work. " A work for me and a work for you, Something for each of us now to do. " Great and good actions are the eloquence of man. 262 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. " We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breath ; In feelings, not in figures on the dial. We should count time by heart-throbs when they beat For God, for man, for duty. He most lives Who thinks most, feels noblest, acts the best. " In no sphere can a man serve his God and human, ity so nobly as he can through the channel of the church of the living God. Herein is the stage for action, and herein is a place for every consecrated heart. The man with one talent is needed as much as the one with five talents. There is work for all : one to plant, another to water ; a Moody to preach, a Sankey to sing. 0 man ! created in the image of God, whoever you are, you have some redeeming feature : you are part of the great machinery. Revolve obediently in your place, doing the Master's will. God requires it of you ; the condition of the world demands it of you. Forget not your part in the salvation of your fel- low man. " To serve the present age, My calling to fulfil. Oh, may it all my powers engage To do my Master's will. " So far, we have endeavored to show the value of methods and human service, but we can not ascribe to these the motive power that gives motion to the divine machinery which redeems and sanctifies man; we therefore emphasize — DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 263 The Kohj Spirit as the Power whic^i Owes Life. The wheels in Ezekiel's vision were perfect, but they could not move of themselves. It was the spirit of life that gave them motion. As an organization the church of the present day is wellnigh perfection. ^lethods and means abound, and men are plenty. But to this grand organized body the words of Christ are as true and forcible as when they first fell from His holy lips, " Without IMe ye can do nothing." It is the Spirit blessing and sanctifying the means, renewing and quickening the individual believers, that makes the church a power in motion and to be- come " terrible as an army with banners. " The Apostle Paul understood the secret of success in God's work. " But I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which, was with me." "I, yet not I." Paul a factor, but it was God's Spirit in Paul that accomplished the work. Man is a power when he is the agent of the divine Spirit. Stephenson, the inventor, was once asked by what power was the train of cars hauled? He an- swered, " The sun. " To the popular mind this answer may seem rather indefinite, if not ridiculous. Is it not the fire under the boiler generating steam that produces the power which moves the train? Un- 264 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. doubtedly," this is tlie immediate cause. But the brainy Stephenson knew his business, and well he knew that there is a vital connection between the fire of the coal and wood and the fire of the sun. Were there no sun, there would be no fire to give power to move and drive the engine that bounds over the valleys and through the hills with the velocity of the wind. In a like manner we trace by faith every power for good in the believer to the Divine source, the " Sun of righteousness." It is He by His Spirit that generates power in the heart of man — power to act and do mighty deeds; it is He who gives vitality to every fiber of the soul. It was the Spirit that led Peter to open the doors of Christianity to the Gentile world, which act brought about one of the mightiest revolutions ever wrought on earth. It was the Spirit that directed Paul to carry the glad tidings of salvation to Europe, resulting in continents taken for Christ, and it is by the same Spirit soldiers of the cross in every age, land, and clime are enabled to carry on the war of conquest against darkness and sin. Spirit-equipped, and Spirit-led, and Spirit-filled Christians are mighty in their deeds and influence. If we, the followers of Jesus, as we stand on the threshold of the twentieth century, would be a force in the world, we must have in us the same power, the tongue of fire, which de- DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 265 scended on the day of Pentecost. This is tlie dynamic energy that can blast the pyramids of indifference, ignorance, unbelief, and corruption. Oh, for the promised dynamite of the Holy Spirit! "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." When the believer is filled with the Spirit and is willing to be led by Him, it is simply marvelous what he can do, and what joy he finds in doing. Think of a machine-shop. What a beehive of in- dustry it is, and what a din and clank of machinery are there ! Many are the machines — large ones, small ones, wheels of every dimension — wheel within wheel. What power moves them all? In some part of the building there is a powerful engine, and by the means of belts all the machines are connected to the engine. Fellow believer, see you that faithful Christian? He goes about doing good. The imfortunate, the afflicted, and the erring appeal to his sympathy. He turns no deaf ear to the cries of the needy. His heart beats in compassion for the sons and daughters o£ Adam's race who are down deep in the mire of sin. He walks up and down the narrow streets and back alleys, speaking words of cheer to those laden with burdens. He goes to the highways and byways in- viting people to the marriage feast of the Lamb. He climbs the back and dark stairways into rooms poorly 266 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. furnished to comfort tlie sick and the dying, and in the means of grace in the sanctuary he is always there with joy dancing upon his countenance, as he mingles his voice with others singing praise to Him who has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Do you ask the cause for his activity and happi- ness? Ah! he is a wheel in the great machinery — the church purchased with precious blood — and is united to Christ by the belt of faith, and he revolves in sweet harmony and perfect accord with the will of God. Owing to this sweet union with Jesus, the Spirit impels him to act. As the mountain-spring sparkles and bubbles and gushes forth because it is its nature, and as the bird sings and warbles and makes the air quiver with its melodious song because it is its nature so to do, so is the Christian who is united to Christ; being filled with the Spirit, he derives his strength from above; he is miserable unless he is doing as his Master did. " Thy Spirit shall unite Our souls to Thee, our Head, Shall form in us Thine image bright That we Thy paths may tread. " The want of the age is the Spirit's power. We advocate all honest methods and means, we concede the value of the power of learning and eloquence, yet all the genius of man is like the " tinkling cymbal " DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. 2G7 unless the Holy Spirit is in the heart. This is the power that will melt down all our icicles of iudififer- euce and change our natures into mighty torrents of earnestness and enthusiasm in God's work. It is said of Scanderbeg, King of Albania, that he was wonderfully skilful in the art of handling the sword. After his death the sword which had slain so many on the battle-field was put away and sacredly kept. One day a person of military fame desired to see the sword, and on seeing it remarked that he saw nothing remarkable about it. The keeper answered, " You do not see the hand tliat wielded it." Many a faithful worker in the Lord's vineyard does not impress us in any way remarkable as to appear- ance aud ability. He would not rank as a scholar or philosopher or orator, yet his good and effective work is known. Why is it? Ah! we do not see the power that wields him. It is the Spirit, the life- giving Spirit, that makes him what he is. "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. " In these days the feeling to alleviate the suffering of man and to rescue him from the ways of sin is grow- ing broader and deeper. It permeates the very best society, and it is a good sign. This feeling has given birth to numerous organizations, and still new ones spring into existence. We believe all these are prompted by good motives and purposes, and far be it from us to cast a single reflection upon any society 268 DIVINE AND HUMAN IN CHURCH WORK. intended for the good of man, yet observation compels us to say that the tendency seems to be to lay too mucli stress upon the man power and too little de- pendence upon the Holy Spirit. Let us give the Spirit more prominence, and with Him permeating society and every believer's heart, the world will soon be conquered for Christ. Consecrated men and women are necessary factors — they are wheels; but let the constant prayer of God's people be for the unction of the Spirit to give the wheels power and speed. "Author of the new creation ! Let us now Thine influence prove ; Make our hearts Thy habitation, Shed abroad a Savior's Love. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit ! Thou canst make the blind to see ; Witnesser of Jesus' merit. Speak the word of power to me. " THE CREATURE. By Rev. Samuel Jones, Carroll, Nebr. "For the earnest expectation of the creature waitethforthe manifestation of the sous of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not Tvillingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into thegloriousliberty of the children of God." — Rom. viii. 19-21. It is surprising what a variety of interpretations many able and learned men put upon the term ** crea- ture " in this text. Each student seems dissatisfied with the explanation of his predecessors, and not a few are actuated more by a desire to produce something original than to get at the truth. By the ''creature" here is meant the "creation." ** For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God." This is not a new explanation, but an old one, and it seems to me more reasonable than many that have been propounded since. The term " creation " is to be taken in its broader sense, including both the animate and inani- mate portion of the world, and in order to have a right view of the creation longing and striving for 269 270 THE CREATURE. deliverance from some captivity or bondage, we must in the first place understand the nature of that bond- age. It is stated here that the creation has been made subject to " vanity, " a word which is often used in the Bible to denote sin. It is further stated that the creation was made sub- ject to vanity not willingly, but "by reason of Him," etc. This means God. It was done by way of pun- ishment, and punishment for sin. But we are told that the creation has hopes of deliverance. " Because the creature itself also shall be delivered, " etc. This is Paul's own version of the term "creature," and I take it that it includes both the animate and inanimate world. Let us prove or test this view by comparing what is said of the creature with the present condition of cre- ation under the influence of sin, and also as it is through the Gospel in expectation of a deliverance. In Genesis iii. 14-19, we read as follows : " And the Lord said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field : upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life : And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here is a striking description of the fall of the ser- THE CREATURE. 271 pent. Not willingly was the serpent thus subjected; it was God that decreed it by way of punishment for deceiving the woman. "Cursed above all cattle." This implies that ail creatures have been subjected, only that the serpent is cursed "above the rest." The cruel and inhuman treatment accorded to animals shows very clearly that they have been subjected agamst their will. In the sixteenth verse we read thus : " Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children ; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." This was not the first or original condition of woman, but through yielding to temptation she likewise was subjected, not willingly, but " by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." Thus all the deg- radation and oppression to which woman has been subjected throughout the ages is due to her sin. Of man also it was said : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. " His loss of inward peace, of power, and of glory is the fruit of sin. Of the ecjth itself it was said : " Thorns and this- tles shall it bring forth." So the subjection is com- plete; it covers man, woman, earth, and the beasts of the field, moral and material, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate. This is our interpretation of the term "creature." How broad, how deep, how 272 THE CREATURE. far-reaching are the effects of sin having brought all parts of creation under the curse ! Let us now see how the " creature " or the " creation " longs for deliverance; for with the curse came the promise : " Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glo- rious liberty of the children of God. " This does not mean that the material portion of creation consciously longs for deliverance, only the immaterial, the mor- al, the personal, and the spiritual. The Bible often speaks of inanimate creation as if endowed with the power of "will" and "thought." "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands " (Isaiah Iv. 12). This is done to show that things will take place which in themselves are imlikely and un- expected and unexplainable, and which will create astonishment and wonder in every direction. Now, tho sin darkened and poisoned our moral atmosphere and produced unmeasured sorrow and inequalities of all kinds, yet we are not left without hope. There is hope of those plains which now only produce thorns and thistles that they will under sci- entific treatment bring forth rich harvests for man and beast. Science, civilization, and Christianity hand- in-hand are slowly but surely improving the condition of the earth and removing the influence of the curse. The same hope applies to the animal creation. THE CREATURE. 273 GraduaUy we are being taught to take better care of them, to extend to the beasts of the field more merci- ful treatment. The hour is approaching when ani- mals will not be subjected to the cruel and heathenish treatment so often practised in these days. So it may be said of woman. Her position is not uow what it used to be. She demands greater respect, she has better opportunities, and there is less disposi- tion abroad to disparage her simply because she is a woman. This is a most hopeful sign, and one we Christian people should be thankful for. Woman has iafluence where man has not. She can accomplish what man can not. There are certain evils that will never be crushed until woman shall have had the privi- lege of bringing her direct influences to bear upon them. . - .. To what does she owe her emancipation so far as it has gone? To Christ and Christianity. What is the power that will complete her emancipation? It is the Gospel of our blessed Lord. Man also has hopes of a deliverance. The hard labors made necessary in the battle for bread, through the fact of his sin, is under the providence of God to become less and less. These scientific discoveries of which we hear so much, the improvements and changes which are constantly coming to light, are removmg the sweat from his brow and the tears from his eyes and the burden from his back. He is being gradually 18 274 THE CREATURE. redeemed from tlie bondage of the first curse. Work- men to-day are able to do more work per hour and with less difficulty than their fathers, and they live in hope of a fuller redemption. Let me now take a more specific view of the Christian and his hopes. The apostle spoke these words for the comfort and encouragement of the Roman Christians who were then under the fire of persecution. He exhorts them to be patient, for deliverance is sure — deliverance from persecution, sorrow, and sin. In verses 17 and 18 the apostle says : " And if children, then heirs ; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suf- fer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. " Yes, glory revealed by us and in us. What a wonderful fact ! " Glory re- vealed in us ! " Here is what eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered the heart of any man to conceive. The perfection of the believer a revela- tion of the Godhead. The Christian's complete de- liverance from sin, and its consequences a manifesta- tion of glory — the glory of forgiveness, of the cross, of life's discipline, of God's providential arrange- ments, and the glory of human nature itself, its possibilities, its adaptability, its suffering, educating, refining qualities. Moreover, there will be the deliverance of the THE CREATURE. 275 body. The Christian looks forward to the resurrec- tion, when he shall be given a body pure, glorious, like unto the body of Christ. This hope includes the certainty of his own body; not another. Another in a sense of being new, more pure, more glorious, yet not another in the sense of being foreign to himself. His own body. The identity will be preserved. Also his own crown and harp and joy and sphere of life. THE CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. By Rev. John Elwt Lloyd, Brooklyn, N. Y. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doc- trine, whether it be of God, or whether 1 speak of myself. " — John vii. 17. To the Jews the social position of our Lord was a stumbling-block. They anticipated a Messiah to be their special deliverer, and to make His appearance with the pomp and splendor of a regal demonstration. In view of this, their knowledge of the lowly origin and humble occupation of Jesus was an insuperable obstacle to their acceptance of Him as their Lord and Redeemer. They never survived the prejudice against the "carpenter's son." In the chapter, from which our text is taken, we find Jesus teaching in the temple, and the Jews, eager for some pretext of complaint against Him, contemptuously asking : " How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? " By " know- ing letters " they must have meant that He had not pursued the required curriculum to qualify Him to teach in the Temple. Any man, of mature years and common intelligence, was allowed to teach in the syna- 376 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 211 gog, but a rule of the Talmud would iudicate that the temple teachers had to pass through the theologi- cal schools. Whatever was meant by their snarling criticism, it can not be that Jesus — who when twelve years old had astonished the Temple doctors — betrayed any unproficiency as a teacher. It was the current report, of friend and foe, that Jesus was an incomparable teacher, taught with authority, and spake as never man spake. We may well imagine what irresistible authority, majesty, and sublimity attended the very presence of Jesus. He could read, not only what was on the written page before Him, but what was on the fleshly tablet of every heart in His presence. He was not only ac- quainted with every train of human thought, every event of history, and every fact in the physical world, bat was also familiar with the infinite depths of the divine mind. Such a one was this teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. Nevertheless, here we find igno- rant and bigoted Jews, with brazen effrontery, daring to question His right and fitness to teach His o\\n gospel of eternal life. Jesus, in conformity with His usual forbearance, instead of hushing forever their profane cavils by the breath of His omnipotence, stoops to expostulate with them, and to point them to an inductive test that would bring satisfactory evi- dence of the truth of His teaching. Heretofore He emphasized His own character and works as proofs 278 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. of the divine authority of His mission. Again and again we find Him pleading and saying : " Believe Me for the works' sake. The works that I do, tbey testify that I am come of the Father. " In our text, He changes the line of evidence. Now, it is to de- pend upon the character and conduct of the would-be believer. Here is a test which bears an unfailing, convincing force, when His own wondrous words and works carry only the logical weight of remote histori- cal testimony; a test that reaches and touches each soul, independent of natural talents, attainments, or educational advantages ; a test which will, if sincerely and persistently applied, result in an abiding and sat- isfying assurance of the divinity of the doctrine, the saving power of His grace, and the rightful sovereignty of Jesus as the teacher and Savior of man : " If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Expositors agree that the English version does not adequately express the volitional, as well as the prac- tical suggestion, of the Greek text. What is enjoined, is not a perfunctory obedience on the one hand, nor is it on the other an idle desire to obey, without a cor- responding practical effort. It means the surrender of the will and the consecration of the life. The dis- position and the conduct must harmonize. The theme of the text, therefore, is: that conformity of heart and life to the divine will is the condition of spir- itual knowledge. That is the law. Want of compli- CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 279 ance with it accounts foi- the failure of men to discern and feel the potent realities of the higher life. These are the times when the scientist, the rationalist, the philosopher, are putting the doctrine of Jesus in their respective balances, and they report to us that it is found wanting. The secret of their adverse conclu- sion is accounted for by their want of harmony with that law of the inner and outer life, as prescribed by Him who is " the light of every man that cometh into the world. " I. We note, in the first place, that the disposition of the will affects the soul's perceptive powers ; that is, its faculty of discerning moral and spiritual truths in their due proportion and perspective. Using the term in its popular sense, as expressing the disposi- tion and inclinations of the soul, it is not difficult to understand the modifying influence of the will upon our views and opinions. When any one of the vital organs of the body is impaired, the whole constitution sympathizes, and febrile symptoms are felt to the re- motest extremities of the system. The soul, like the body, is a sympathetic unit, and when the will — that grand motor of the soul — is disordered, the whole moral nature is thereby affected. In a superficial way this is illustrated in the common affairs of life. If the task before us be agreeable to our taste and in- clinations, all goes on smoothly and well. If it be uncongenial, and contrary to our disposition, it is irk- 280 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. some ; every tool seems to come to the hand wrong end first, excuses and objections teem through the mind, and we fail to see either reason or justice in the duty imposed upon us. Out of certain untoward dispositions is born a prejudice which is inimical to the right discernment of moral truth. The shrewd and astute court advocate takes cognizance of this, and aims to emphasize and exploit it as an active fac- tor to be taken into account between plaintiff and de- fendant. There is a prejudice which absolutely blinds men to the virtues or the faults of each other, as the case may be; a prejudice whose lens colors everything according to the hue of its own disposition. If this be true with respect to our fugacious moods and the trivial affairs of this life, how much greater the effect of that inborn prejudice and that deep-rooted opposi- tion of unregenerated human nature toward all that is divine and holy? The worldly man does not share in the divine sympathies, solicitudes, and purposes. They run counter to his nature. To him religion is an intrusion. He has a hereditary distaste for the things of God. Spiritual truth is unpalatable. The spiritual law of life would turn his fairest dreams into a hideous nightmare ; it frowns upon his most cherished affections and habits, rebukes his wishes and desires, prohibits his dearest delights, thwarts his plans, and condemns with terrifying threats his sweet- est and most succulent sins. Deep in his soul is a CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 281 mighty, tho unconscious, prejudice defined in Holy Writ by no milder phrase than " enmity toward God." This is true not only of the reprobate and conspicu- ous sinner, but also of those whose lives as social beings may be decorous and admirable. They may be ethically correct and humanly generous, mentally strong and appreciative of all intellectual truth, es- thetically refined and interested in all that is beau- tiful and winsome in nature and life, and yet under- neath all there may be that condition of the will and heart known as " unbelief, " that inherited antipathy which leads men to avert God and all divine things. There is of necessity an underlying cause for the different conclusions arrived at concerning funda- mental doctrines. Given two men of equal talents and educational advantages, of the same scientific in- stincts and training, following the same path of re- search, and having like instruments of investigation, yet we find that they arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions. Two men study the mysteries of our bodily constitution. Appalled at its marvels, one cries out with the Psalmist, " I am fearfully and wonder- fully made. " The other man studies the same subject and coolly declares that this wondrous vital mechanism is a result of the accidental concourse of blind atoms. Two men critically inspect the planet upon which we live, one of whom, having explored the geologic strata with their storehouses, witnessed the principle of 282 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. adaption and the evidences of design and fore- thought everywhere manifested, and having gazed upon the world of forms and life and beauty, multi- tudinous and diversified beyond creative arithmetic, exclaims again with the Psalmist : " 0 Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches." But the other scientist, following the same path, observing the same objects, returns denying the being of God, or else having relegated Him out of His own universe as a place too mean for His operations. Two men gaze upon yonder heavens, letting eye, thought, and imagi- nation wander through those constellated fields of space. One man, thrilled with the awful sublimity of the scene, echoes the lofty acclamation of the Psalm- ist : " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." But La Place turns the lens of his great telescope to yonder dia- gramed vault, and as with an angel's glance scans the temple of Omnipotence, and then turns his face to the earth, a skeptic, and if the stars spelled out the first verse of Genesis, they could not proclaim their Creator more emphatic than they do. Two men examine the pages of the sacred Word. One reads therein his own condemnation in characters of fire and his pardon in the crimson letters of atoning blood; he feels the pulses of redeeming love throbbing from the Mosaic description of " Paradise Lost " to the apocalyptic vis- CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 283 ion of " Paradise Kegained. " Another man turns his attention to the same book ; but to him it is a volume of mystic jargon and exploded superstition. No voice speaks to his conscience, no loving appeals touch his heart, no heaven magnetizes and attracts his soul. He turns the treasury of revealed truth into a quiver of arrows to assail and ridicule its divine author. Such are the opposite conclusions of men. Where is the cause of the difference? Not in the human body, nor in the earth, nor in the heavens of astronomy, nor in the Bible, for these were the same to both inves- tigators. The difference, therefore, must be in the men. It is a subjective and not an objective differ- ence ; something in the trend of the will, in the qual- ity of the disposition, in the inclination of the heart, as related to divine truth. Immerse a straight rod per- pendicularly in the water, and it will appear crooked. The explanation is found in the fact that water is too dense to correspond with the air as a correct medium of vision. So long as men look through the medium of self-will and pride and secularism, the straight will be crooked, the clean will be unclean, and the very truth of God will be a lie. Some years ago, when leaving Liverpool, I observed that our ship was moving very slowly with the rising tide. While on deck I could tell what was stationary and what was in motion ; but when I went down to my cabin and looked through those contracted win- 284 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. dows, the port-holes, lo, before my vision the streets and the firm, solid buildings of Liverpool seemed to be passing, floating away in quick succession. Thus also some men abandon the upper light of heaven and confine their vision to the sin-perverted port-holes of their own intellects, and to their overconfident minds all that the best and wisest of men have found firm and immovable is rapidly passing away. To their jaundiced eyes the Kock of Ages itself is a myth, a mere fog-bank in the distant past; and they would tell us that the whole continent of God's inspired Word is soon to vanish away. But what is the truth? It is their own little bark that is drifting away to the destructive shoals of infidelity. God's "Word stands firm and immovable, for in it is found the light of eternal truth, the principles of eternal righteousness, the breath and spirit of eternal life, and the operative law of eternal love. It never will, it never can, pass away. II. We remark, in the second place, that the prac- tical conduct as well as the disposition of the will affects the faculty of discerning spiritual truths. It is often said that a man lives as he believes ; that his conduct is the practical unfolding of his creed. The converse is equally true. Beliefs and opinions are founded on habits. Conduct modifies creed until a man comes to believe as he lives. The actual prac- tical contact with evil in the outer life stains through CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 285 to the soul within. This is illustrated in those nations who by gradual degeneracy of life have departed from their former high moral standards. Certain commu- nities also, by reason of long-continued customs, have come to regard some of the most execrable habits and indulgences, not only as perfectly justifiable, but also commendable. In the individual character the effect of conduct on the religious thought and sensibilities is still more apparent. Picture to your mind what fre- quently happens. A young man of religious training leaves his Christian home. He is morally impressible. God is real aud near. Conscience is sensitive. But he finds himself under new environments, and a dif- ferent set of influences play aroimd and upon him. Temptations allure him. He consents, but with com- punction of soul. He yields repeatedly, and the voice of the accuser within grows more and more faint. Night after night sees him tumbling into his prayer- less bed. By and by he begins to excuse, then to justify himself. In the course of years he becomes defiant, challenging the right of man or of God to dic- tate his conduct. Finally, he denies the very being of the Highest and uplifts the clenched hand against the throne of the universe. Conscience is seared, the mind is darkened, and the noblest instincts of his nature are extinguished. Heaven is an idle word. Purity and reverence have dropped out of liis heart, and the world as well as his soul is void of everything 286 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. divine. What has wrought this fearful change? Has he been ransacking the libraries and studying the " Evidences " and found them wanting? Has he been pondering the Bible and found it a lie? How came it that he at last has discovered that religion is the sol- emn swindle of the ages? Has he been exploring the larger world, even to the remotest star that quivers on the rim of the universe, in search of a God and found none? No, nothing of the kind. He has simply- been pursuing the infernal curriculum of iniquity. He is the effect of a sinful life. The religious faculty is atrophied. He has gouged his moral eyes and shut God out of his soul. The spiritual hemisphere of the soul's life is eclipsed. The practical denial and obscu- ration of God, involved in every wilful act of sin, has worked inwardly upon the soul, clouding and blinding it to every evidence of spiritual truth. There is a degree of cold which will freeze the thermometer. There are degrees of sinfulness which render the soul incapable of moral impressions. We have used these extreme cases in order to make palpable the influence of sin in every case. We can illustrate the effect of physical action upon the tissues of the body and show how every stroke of the black- smith's arm excites physiological causes to toughen and harden the muscles. So we have wished it were possible to show on the canvas and exhibit in some vivid and realistic way the effects of thought, motive, CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 287 feeling, and moral acts upon the soul; how, so to speak, they make tlieir deposit and bring al)out cer- tain changes in the very essence of the soul itself. Of the truth of this we are sm-e ; for what is character but the aggregate or totality of the current thoughts, feelings, and acts, solidified into the very timber of the soul? "We deplore professed infidelity, but we need never fear that it will win many followers. The impression of God is too deep in the soul to be sud- denly obliterated. Man is as truly a religious being as he is a rational being. Man would have to be taken apart and conscience and the religious instincts left out before we could have a race of avowed infidels. But the practical infidelity, which is implied by every Godless life, is the cause of incalculable moral ruin, sending its millions to eternity unprepared. Thus a life of disobedience to the divine law, a life out of harmony with the supreme will must of necessity, by every law of nature and of grace, shut the heavenly light and life out of the soul. III. We remark, in the third place, that submis- sion of the will and conformity of the life not only exercise a natural influence on the mind, but are the necessary conditions on which alone it is possible for the Holy Spirit to regenerate and illuminate the soul. We dwelt at length on the former points because they represent the essential elements of true repentance — that is, an entire change in our whole method of think- 288 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. ing, feeling, and acting toward. God. There is a step which man can and must take. His free-agency is an important factor in the determination of his destiny. Whatever may be our doctrine of sovereign grace, inspiration, reason, and the universal consciousness attest this to be true. Furthermore, Christ said, re- specting the salvation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that He " would, " but they " would not. " It is for man to open the door to let Him. He has the awful power to thwart His will and shut Him out. Jesus invaria- bly required from the subjects of His miraculous influ- ence some evidence of their submission. He com- mands the paralytic to stretch forth his hand. He had no power to do so, but with the faith, the will- ingness, and the effort power came. He directs the blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man, eager for his sight, might have expostulated and said : " Master, there is water here in the temple ; there is water in the next street." It is not known that there was any particular medicinal qualities in the water of Siloam. But the man obeyed and went fumbling his way outside the walls of Jerusalem, and if he had declined to go he would have died as he was born, a blind man. Jesus said : " Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me." The yoke first; men want the learning before putting on the yoke. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. " Men want the secret before they are willing to fear. Thus CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 289 there must be a certain change in the attitude of the will, the heart, and the life. Call it repentance, con- viction, conversion, or what you please, it is abso- lutely necessary as a preliminary to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And until the Spirit enlightens there can be no satisfying discernment of spiritual things. " The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them." Why, Paul? "Because they are spiritually discerned." The nat- ural- man is spiritually unborn. It is impossible for spiritual things to be perceived by sense. Things are recognized in the objective world by appropriate fac- ulties; physical objects by physical senses; intellec- tual things by intellectual organs; spiritual truths through spiritual faculties, insight, and in experience. The limit of faculty is the limit of knowledge. Man takes rank, as to fulness of manhood and influence, according to his capacity to see, know, feel, and act. The history of his advance from ignorant childhood to maturest manhood is a record of the opening and the strengthening of the powers of apprehension. With many people the faculties remain in an embryonic state, and their world, even this lower world, is con- tracted, vulgar, and meaningless. No part, however, of man's nature is so pitiably, deplorably neglected as its spiritual side. It is utterly dormant. Spiritual influences fall upon him like light upon blind eyes and music upon deaf ears. No thrill of response is awa- 19 290 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. kened. Every sensibility is seared. In the terse and terrific language of Scripture, lie is " dead in trespasses and sins." This is the only solution to the astound- ing unconcern of men to their own eternal well-being; men who are sagacious and keen in respect to all other interests of life, both present and prospective. They insure their lives and property and make careful pro- vision for possible emergencies, but they permit the awful possibilities of eternity to take their chances. The tremendous alternative of heaven or hell or anni- hilation does not disturb them. Whether you sound in their ears the deep notes of God's avenging law or whisper the tender accents of pardoning love, no re- sponse is awakened in the sepulchered soul. Men and women spare not the sigh and the tear over the plot and tragedy of the novel and the stage, yet when we portray before them the plot of plots and the tragedy of tragedies — the plot of Gethsemane and the tragedy of Calvary — they are unmoved and un- touched. There is only one way of deliverance from this dire condition, this spiritual lethargy and fatal coma of the soul — and that is to submit to the dictates of the Master, so that His spirit may enter the soul to regenerate and illuminate. Yield your heart and life to Him. Aban- don the refuges of lies, overcome pride and the deep- grained prejudices and antipathies of your nature. Accept Him simply and devoutly by faith; enter CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 291 upon the sublime experiment of spiritual living and eternal life. You say that you have no faith; then follow with scrupulous fidelity the highest light which you have. Obey the light that is in you, and it will lead you to Him, and His holy spirit will help your infirmity. Live purely, honestly, soberly, right- eously, and godliness will follow. Purity and holiness are the refinements of angels, the etiquette of heaven. Every deed of love, every sacrifice of inclination to duty, every act of true worship, every holy aspiration, will invigorate faith, brighten hope, clarify the vision, and lift you to higher and higher altitudes of the spir- itual life, where floods of wondrous light bathe the soul. The photographer, in preparation of his work, cleans the plate and overlays it with chemicals, ren- dering it sensitive to the delicate pencilings of light. It is then placed in the camera, where all light is ex- cluded save that which is reflected from the object to be imaged. So let your soul be made clean and sen- sitive by obedient living; bring yourself to look at God through the lens of His holy Word (excluding the worldly light of the proud intellect) ; then in the silence and solitude of that sacred hour the light of His countenance will not only fall upon the soul, but will transform it after His own image. We rejoice that this text is in our Bible and that it was spoken by the Master Himself. In these days. 292 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. when airy sciolists and every stripling fresh from the academy are ready to fling their cheap and easy criti- cism in the face of Christian faith, it is well that we can ask them if they have conformed to the terms of our text : Are you living right? It is not a ques- tion of what you know, but what you are. Is the soul fitted to receive impressions from the spiritual sphere? The text also meets that class of soberer and older men who are kept from religion ostensibly because of its hopeless mysteries and supposed untenable histori- cal basis, but really because of the distemper and dis- inclination of their own souls. They want the path cleared, the web disentangled, every mystery solved before they are willing to take the first step. Bishop Butler informs us that probability is the guide of life. Truly it is. Men speculate and take great risks in enterprises on this basis. They are willing to face the privations and hardships of a journey to Klondike on the mere probability of getting gold. Yet, with respect to the holy and exalted enterprises of the Kingdom of heaven, they will take no step until every difficulty is removed, and all imagined mysteries are solved. We only know in part with respect to the things of this life, but we do use that " part " knowl- edge. We understand the benevolent utility of some of the domestic animals, such as the sheep, the cow, and the horse ; but what meaneth the writhing serpent, CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 293 the ravenous hosts of the forest, and the teeming millions of the insect world we do not know. We un- derstand our relation to sun, moon, and sister planets pretty well : the knowledge is necessary for our ad- vanced civilization ; but what meaneth those shining cohorts that are cruising eternally through the realms of infinite space we do not know. Our ignorance on these things does not deter us from using and acting upon what we do know. Why not exercise the same wisdom in religious matters? We know this world is under the sovereign rule of intelligence and infinite power; we know that sin has entered the soul and that conscience is a moral censor; we know the offers of divine grace, and that we stand condemned if we neglect so great a salvation. Why carp and criticize and magnify trivial objections while life— our one brief life— is fleeting? What are we at best? A few wavelets of that mighty river of being beat at our feet, and we are gone. Yet we arrogate to ourselves the privi- lege of solving the problem of the universe and ma- king our little minds the measure of all possibili- ties. Oh, ye who have followed proud criticism and worldly philosophy, and by searching have failed to find God, rescue your soul's expiring faculty of wor- ship by putting your heart into Christ's service. 0 man who livest in the world of sense and matter, open thy soul in devout responsiveness to the call of divine 294 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. grace, and it shall be like the opening of an eye upon a new world. It may seem but a trifling matter as to whether the inclination of the earth's axis shall point away from or toward the sun, yet it makes all the difference between summer and winter. So the incli- nation of the human soul, in its relation to the Sun of Righteousness, makes all the difference between spiritual blankness, blackness, barrenness, death, and spiritual life with its warmth, joy, beauty, and fruit- fulness. Lean toward God. Lift your eye to the shining summits of His life. Keep the mind open to the upper light. Keep the will willing. Keep the heart pure. Keep the life obedient and holy, and you shall know God and love God, and in that love find an earnest of the ineffable bliss of heaven. In conclusion we would note that this knowledge of God is distinguished by three characteristics : 1. It is independent of the technical, formal knowl- edge of the schools. It is not the product of the halls of learning nor of the temples of science. Culture may form a splendid vessel, but the oil must come from the hand of the spirit and the flame from the altar of heaven. The smoking tapers of earth can not relume the candle of the soul extinguished in Eden. We may be masters of every department of human knowledge, we may be expert theologians and cham- pions of orthodoxy, and yet not have this mystery of light, this insight of faith, which enables the soul to CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 295 feel God and catch the meaning of all things. The difference is like that between the knowledge of one who knows botanically all about a given fruit and that of an illiterate woman who never heard of botany but has eaten of the fruit, 2. It is peculiar, in that it represents all the ele- ments of certainty and assurance. It is knowledge, not belief. Belief rests on testimony. To know is to have immediate perception of the fact — it has touched our being. We change our beliefs; our knowledge, never. Thank God that in this age of isms and schisms, of ten thousand creeds and doctrines, enough to bewilder the most analytic and discriminative of intellects ; in these days when daring criticism is try- ing to tear down every foot of ground upon which the soul stands; thank God that there is something firm and immovable, an anchorage within the veil. Paul began his Christian life by saying, "I believe," but he closed it by saying, "I know." The faith of the mature Christian does not depend upon historical evi- dences or the argument of final causes nor on attorney- like logic. His hope does not turn upon a syllogism. It is a consciousness, a life within. He has received the impact of the very being of God. 3. This knowledge, when real and vital, exerts a peculiarly potent influence over the individual. No great truth can dawn upon the soul without changing the whole aspect of life. Nothing that is great comes 296 CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. alone. When Newton discovered the principle of gravitation, it did not stand alone; it unlocked the mystery of the order of the material universe. When the sun dawns upon the world, it does not come alone ; light and life and beauty come with it. So when the tremendous truth of the being of God is no longer simply an article in our creed, but a fact of the con- sciousness ; when we spiritually see and feel God, life is transformed, and we shall no longer be a band of spiritual cowards. Blessed are they who have this knowledge with all its soul-invigorating, soul-sustaining certitudes. They have the alphabet to the literature of angels, and their feet are on the rounds of a ladder which finds its other end amid the shining galaxies of heav- en. Yet it is possible that some sincere souls may be groping in the darkness. It is possible to be hold- ing out the light to others while we ourselves are in the shadows ; to be like some of the tellers in our banks — dealing out wealth to others while they have hardly enough to live upon. One thing, however, is true: in view of the entanglement of truth with error and the conflicting phases of human thought; in view of the mysteries of Providence, the enigma of life, and the appalling apprehensions of the future — this, 0 reader, is true, and we rejoice to declare it: if you are moving in the line of God's will, you are travel- ing with your face toward the dawn, toward the sim- CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 207 rise, toward that day whicli shall know no night. Tarry on then, tho the way may be dark ; tarry on a little while, and the grand perspective of that shining world will burst upon your rapt soul in all its glory and magnificence. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. By Vtbnwt Morgan, Brooklyn, N. Y. " There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. " -Job i. 1. Sir William Hamilton once said that there is nothing great in the world but man, and nothing great in man but his mind. From time immemorial poets and sages have given expression to the wonders of creation ; but as mind is greater than matter, the dis- coverer than the discovery, so man is greater than this great world ; bound to it by a million ties of the sweet- est tenderness, yet distinct from it because in posses- sion of what the creation has not — viz., will, imagi- nation, and chiefly self-consciousness; capable of a perfection which creation seldom if ever attains — "whiter than snow." Men stand before a statue and lavish their praises upon the artist that gave that figure its elegant form and exquisite finish. There can be no conceivable objection to such praises; but what about the marble? What about the material that was capable of such development? Thanks be to God, the divine Artist, who by the power of His CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT ilM.V 299 spirit and His saving grace can cause such a change in man so that he may be presented to the celestial intelligences as a creature 'Svithout spot or wrinkle." But what about the nature, the material that was capable of such a change and of standing such trial and improvement? There is a student at college. His parents live in a small cottage at the foot of the hill. It is evening, and the shadows of the night are cast wide and deep over the quiet glens and hills. It is time for the weary workers to retire to rest. But before doing so there is one little duty that has to be performed — a letter has to be written to the son. The old man takes the writing material and begins to tell his tale. While he does it the old woman knits and the daugh- ter reads her Bible. By and by, when the letter is finished and read, the old man seals it, puts the wri- ting material aside, and turns to his wife, saying: " You may now put those lights out, for it is finished." What is the real meaning of all this preaching and teaching? God is in the act of writing the names of His saints in the book of life ; He is in the act of creating the new man in Christ Jesus. This is the one supreme ideal of the Godhead — all else is subordi- nate to this; it is the great desideratum of divine love, and when this holy and heroic task shall have been accomplished God will turn to His angels and say: "Now you may put out those lights of heaven, 300 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. the moon and stars, for the purpose of the cross, of the ministry, of the church, has been brought to pass, the son has seen of the travail of His soul, man has been redeemed, perfected, and made blessed forever- more; out of great tribulation he has come with his robes washed in the blood of the Lamb and made whiter than the snow. * The last straggler in the rear-guard has arrived.' " What a great being man must therefore be ! And yet what low estimates of him the world had previous to the coming of Christ! Even the highest Greek philosophy did not respect man as man. Neither did the Romans see in human nature any intrinsic worth or beauty. It was the use to which man could be put that determined his worth, his station, wealth, or birth. The philosophers and ecclesiastical leaders had taught for ages that the Sabbath was greater than man ; that the government was greater than man ; and so was the state, they said, and out of these estimates came slavery, the arena, the degradation of woman- hood, the contempt for childhood and for human life in general. Christ came, and He gave the world a new and higher estimate of man. He said that man was greater than the Sabbath, greater than the gov- ernment, greater than the state. "Man," He said, " is not to exist for the sake of the government, but the government for the man ; the state is a provisional arrangement destined to hold a continually lessening CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 301 place in human life as man grows on toward perfec- tion." The result was that the statesmen, philosophers, and ecclesiastical leaders of His age branded Christ as a heretic, a revolutionist, and a disturber of the common peace. Such teaching, they said, struck at the very foundation of society. But He went on cast- ing the seeds of these blessed truths into the great furrows of human life. The result was that the downtrodden, the destitute, and helpless turned to Him as men turn their faces to the sun, for they felt that there was hope still left; a new and a larger world had been opened up for them. The era of free- dom had dawned upon their class. Such teaching did not pass fruitlessly away; out of it came the abolition of slavery, the destruction of the arena, the sanctity of marriage, the emancipation of womanhood, the growth of democracy, the passion for rescuing child- hood from the curse of ignorance, and the obscurity into which it had sunk, and the idea of personal liberty, so very different from the idea of personal liberty upon which the Greek and Koman republics had been built. What, therefore, is the Christian conception of hu- man greatness? Once upon a time valor was the quality that constituted a great man. After the child had been born the mother placed its first portion of food on the husband's sword, and with the point gently put it within the little one's mouth, at the 302 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. same time praying to her nation's deities that tlie child might also die in the midst of arms. The ancient Greeks worshiped the beautiful. Not that Christianity depreciated either valor or beauty. God is the Father of what is beautiful as much as of what is useful, and the beautiful is often as useful as the useful. Just think of the gorgeous garniture of creation which generations of metaphysicians have failed to explain, and in the presence of which, among the Rocky Mountains of the West of America, I my- self have seen strong men moved to tears ! Yes, God loves the beautiful, and He intends that we should love it too. A good many people I have noticed in my travels abroad and at home are a good deal uglier than they have any business to be, and I use the word " ugly " in the only sense it is proper to use it in — to denote personal appearance. Nevertheless, the Chris- tian conception of a great man is not founded upon the "beautiful," but upon character. What is the greatness of God? Is it the greatness of force? No. I fear God on account of His force, but I respect and worship Him only because of His character. The glory of God is the glory of character. As such Job is introduced to our notice here. " There was a man in the land of Uz. " A man of pure private habits, of noble instincts, of generous disposition; a man who lived honorably, usefully, prayerfully, God-fearingly ; a man of the best type and quality ; the very noblest CHARACTERISTICS OF A ORE AT MAN. 303 specimen of man God could pick up for example and inspiration to the world. I would travel a long way if I could find such a man. But are there not plenty of men about? Yes, plenty of beings in the form of men, but few of the genuine kind. What we see in abundance around us is "fractions of men," and, as one puts it, "very vulgar ones, too." Well, then, what constitutes a truly great man — a man not as he moves along our streets, but a man as he exists ideally in the mind of God ; a man not as he is, but a man as he ought to be and as God intends him to be? Is it money? !Most assuredly money is a power ; it commands learning, authority, and health. 1 would rank money power next to intellectual power. But money in itself does not make a man great. True Job was a rich man, the richest man of the East; but he was a great man nevertheless, and that in spite of his riches. Few people can stand prosper- ity. Pew people improve with their circumstances. I am told that there is a tombstone somewhere on the continent of Europe on which are inscribed these sug- gestive Avords, "Born a man, died a store-keeper." Is it not true that nine out of every ten lose the bit of manhood they have in the accumulation of property? The passion for riches has such hold upon them that they are willing to sacrifice health, comfort, honor, and even their souls in order to acquire them. Money does not make a man great. What then? Knowl- 304 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. edge? Knowledge is power. It removes diseases, it produces civilization, it brings happiness ; but knowl- edge does not constitute greatness. Job had knowl- edge; he had traveled extensively; he understood human nature; he judged the people; he solved their personal and social troubles; his word was final. He was in this respect the greatest among all the great Oriental stars. Still, according to the lesson of this book Job was not great through his riches or his knowledge, but because his whole conduct was stamped by the most unshaken probity, because of his hatred of what is mean, unkind, cruel. What made him great as God counts greatness was intense sympathy with the poor, the fallen, the oppressed, and his pray- erful, God-fearing disposition. To produce such characters is God's purpose in cre- ation. To this end He established the ministry, and to obtain this sublime object God demands the best effort of statesmanship, of philosophy, of science, of education, of home, of music, and of all institutions. In looking into the future of the world I see that power will be vested in the holy man, not the man of knowledge. Holiness, not cleverness, will govern as time rolls on. Goodness will be the ruling element. " There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job." I. Job as a " Christian " father. In the age to which Job belonged Christianity had not developed beyond CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 305 the domestic form ; the social or national aspect of it was unknown, therefore the father was the priest of his own household. How Job performed this phase of his duty we know by referring to verses 4 and 5. " And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day ; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all : for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually." Job had a joy which was not given to such men as Abraham and Isaac— vts., the joy of seeing his children, tho grown up and married, living at peace among themselves, cultivating the habit of social in- tercourse and friendship. Such proceedings met with his approval. Christianity takes note of the fact that man is a social being. Christianity seeks to make men happy. It can be no joy to God to see men mis- erable. For ages people have imagined that in order to be acceptable to the Lord they had to be sad, mo- rose, melancholy. The best Christian, they thought, was the man who could heave the heaviest sighs and utter the longest prayers. To this hideous spider we say, Begone ! God loves to see men happy, joyful, and filled with hope. 20 806 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. Moreover, Job considered tliat the spiritual condi- tion of his children, the married and having left the old home, was still a matter of concern to him. Too many, unfortunately, think that once their daughters get married, their obligation to protect their morals has ceased. Is it not so? " It may be, " said he, " that they have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Yes, sin is the great taproot of human misery. No matter what the system may be, if the man does not live righteously, sin breaks up the best system. Men need better dwellings, better wages, and more li- braries; but so long as sin remains, the evU is still there. Job offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all, "and thus did Job continually." What a great word this, "continually"! What im- mense possibilities are locked up in it ! This word is not found in the dictionary of every Christian. " Oc- casionally" is a word that may be seen in every church -member's dictionary; they prefer that. They come to-day making demonstrations of affections for the Son of God and uttering vows of fidelity to the promptings of conscience. One would think by their eloquent talk that they would close every saloon in the city and drive out of the world every devil that destroys the peace of men; but, like lightning-bugs, they disappear all of a sudden, and you know not where to find them. They shine for a moment, and then they are gone. They suffer for a few days or a CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 307 few weeks from fits of integrity, then they lapse into indifference, drunkenness, or licentiousness. Human- ity has no hope from such men and such spasmodical efforts ; they do positive mischief both to themselves and to society. What God demands and society needs in those who bear the name of Christians is the stay- ing quality, that silent, intense, constant force which works whether others work or not, whether it is rain or sunshine; men who work because it is the will of God that they should. "Thus did Job continually." What did Job do continually? He prayed for and with his children continually ; he sought to put their hearts right with God continually. What miserable sophistry there is in much of our modem domestic discipline ! The cant that one often hears about the " rights of children" ! Have children no duties? Do they owe no obligations or allegiance to their parents, masters, guardians, rulers, and institutions? Are they not to be taught and compelled to be modest, obedient, and honorable? It is possible, I know, to go to extremes on both sides, but of the two I prefer the extreme of rigidity ; there is more in it for the children themselves and for the world. Once a child has got the impression that he may read what books he pleases, come and go whenever he chooses, form any associations he likes, attend church or not as it suits him, and all in the name of freedom of conscience or personal and social liberty, that child is already 308 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. damned. This is one of our present-day evils that we ministers should seriously consider. It has more to do with keeping people out of the churches than any other cause. If our children will drift as far from our ideas of duty or obedience or from our pres- ent landmarks of faith as we have drifted from the ideas and landmarks of our fathers, they will be out- side the church altogether; they will think nothing essential, neither belief in the inspiration of the Bible nor the supernatural element in religion, nor prayer, nor worship, nor churchgoing, nor discipline of any kind, nothing but pleasure ; that will be the one thing needful. These are the present indications, and it is a crime to ignore them. What are the two great cry- ing evils in relation to our young people? They are these — a tendency to exaggerate the place of physical culture and of the intellect in the formation of char- acter and in the production of our civilization. There can be no objection to the gospel of physi- cal culture. Athleticism is good; it is necessary. I would hesitate to place my soul in the hands of a re- ligion that had no concern for my body. The body, like the soul, occupies a high and a sacred place in the Kingdom of God. We can not deal with man as if he were pure intellect or spirit. The race can not be perfected until there is greater respect for the phys- ical or the laws which govern it. I wish we would talk less about saving souls and talk more about sa- CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 309 ving men. Physical culture early became the business of the Greeks. Their one supreme informing idea was beauty of form, and it manifested itself in their paint- ings and architecture of every kind. With the Spar- tans physical training or culture began as soon as the children could walk. But there are signs that ath- letics are having a bad influence on the mind of many. Excessive physical training injures our young men both physically and morally. A man may be muscu- lar without being healthy, and a man may be healthy without being muscular. The athlete is often healthy in spite of his athleticism. Something more than physical training is needed to make our young people useful members of society; they need mind-culture, soul -training. One noted Welsh divine said he would rather be a horse to a drunkard than a mind or a soul to many a man. The way the drvmkard treated his horse was bad, but not worse than the way many a man treats his soul. Plenty of means and time and inclination to feed, mesmerize, and indulge the body, but no time or means to spare to feed the soul. May the day soon dawn when the reign of the soul has be- gun ! Not until then can it be said that good times have come. Another danger is to exaggerate the place of the intellect. The battle for bread is on, and parents are anxious to equip the children for the fray ; they want to have 310 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. their feet shod for the road. How to do it is the question. Nineteen out of every twenty think the only way is by making them smart, by filling their minds with knowledge. There is also an increasing tendency in many or most departments to measure young people by the power of their mind. What about the morals? With nineteen out of every twenty it is a secondary matter, because there is no cash value in it. It is the money side of the question that speaks. Very sad, yet very true. Nothing can be said against mathematical or literary ability. Intellectuality is a great force. But side by side with it there may or does exist a most lamentable want of noble purpose. Abraham had not the mental equipment of Aristotle; but Aristotle justified slavery, whereas Abraham abandoned the east and went westward, because he felt the promptings of progress within him. Educa- tion can not change human nature or give a man right principles or right feelings. Education alone does not produce that restlessness of spirit in the presence of social wrong and political injustice which is the forerunner of progress. There is more to be expected from holy men with small intellectual attainments than from unholy men with great mental gifts. And what is the purport of education? Is it merely to fill the mind with information? It certainly means that, but more. It means the creation of a higher standard of morality, cleaner social habits, a more God-fearing CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 311 spirit, a better quality of citizenship, the building up of a national conscience, the purification and preser- vation of our family life. Public schools and colleges are only means to an end. Mathematical or literary ability is not enough without the moral qualifications which make its owner considerate, righteous, virtuous, philanthropic. Mere intellectuality can and does often exist in perfect contentment in the midst of the cruelest inhumanity. To school a child is one thing, but to educate it is another. It is possible for you to teach your child in the right way and train it in the wrong. Nature is stronger than theory. The heart has more influence than the head. When Augustine's mother gave him money to go to complete his educa- tion, he looked at the money first, then at his mother, and said : " I have a grievance against you and my father. You have never failed to provide me with means for my education, but you have never prayed with me. You have often asked if my lesson was done, but not whether I had said my prayers. Wlien at the age of seventeen my passions were almost over- whelming in their influence upon me and I felt I wanted some one to talk to, some one to whom I could unburden myself, you gave me no encouragement to consult you, for you never asked me how it went with my soul." I am afraid that there are many Augustines through- out the country — boys and girls, young men and young 312 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. women, in whom the parents are trying to cultivate the passion for success, and only success ; looking after their education, but paying no attention to the evolu- tions of their spiritual nature or the development of the righteous element within them. Ask many of our young people why they do not attend church services, and their parents will at once excuse them by saying they have so many lessons and classes to attend to. It is righteousness, and not intellectuality, that is going to break the fetters of the oppressed, to purify social life, to crush the tyrant, to emancipate the nations from the curse of drink, of war, and of mammonism, and to say to every species of iniquity : " Avaunt, begone forever!" Whether the incoming generation is going to be sober, industrious, ashamed to beg, proud to rely upon its own resources, God-fearing, and Christ-loving does not depend upon our colleges or universities, but upon the kind of influence that will be brought to bear upon the children at home. It is still true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Personally I would trace every sort of vice or virtue which manifests itself in school or pub- lic life either to home or heredity. See that your children are being born right the first time, then you need not be so anxious about their being born again. II. Job as a sufferer. " You have heard, " says the apostle, "of the patience of Job." This does not mean that Job had no other quality to recommend CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 313 him. Hosea says that Ephraim Avas a cake not turned, a cake baked only on the one side and doughy on the other. There are plenty of men like that; their cultivation is one-sided. They are strong abstainers from drink — which is a good thing — but they are most unsympathetic and very miserly. One might as well try and rescue a soul out of hell as to get a dollar out of them for any good cause. Much as I abhor the drunkard, I believe that he is nearer the Kingdom of God than the miser. I have heard of and personally known many drimkards that were con- verted, but I have never read of or known a miser that was converted ; and surely the miser needs con- version as much if not more than the drunkard, for money has a deeper hold upon the miser than drink has upon the drunkard. There are philanthro- pists who are engaged in looking after the vineyards of other people while neglecting the-x- own — their homes and their own personality. There are men who petition Congress for laws to punish highway rob- bers, but they themselves deal rather extensively in a commercial chicanery which is equally vicious. "We have too many of these utilitarian philosophers abroad these days. Job was not a man of that type; of him it could be said what Dante said of one of his grandest char- acters : " 0 noble conscience, and without a stain ! How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee I " Yet the 314 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. sinner himself found in Job a friend and a brother. He was rich, yet accessible to the poorest of the poor ; educated, refined, well-informed, yet in touch with the most ignorant of the ignorant. There was in Job a combination of excellences which is seldom if ever seen ; which was seen in a perfect condition only in Christ. I would place Job next to Christ; the nearest approach to him was Moses. Moses was a greater genius than Job, but Job had a fuller character, a greater and a more perfect balance of moral qualities. He was complete in all his parts ; he had no oddities, no pet virtues, no extreme of one virtue with little or nothing of the opposite virtue. This is what makes a Christian man beautiful. May the Lord multiply such Christians ! I have noticed men of average all- round abilities, with no special distinction in one particular quality, doing more good and making a greater mark in the world than others who were strong in some points while weak in others. Still, Job went down to posterity as a man of patience. What is the cause? Well, men often get a particular reputation through certain contingencies. Thus it was Abraham was called a man of faith and Job a man of patience. God so placed His servant Job that his money could not help him, nor his knowledge, nor his political influence ; but his patience could. God asked Satan, " Hast thou considered my servant Job? " " Who is Job? " " Job is a Christian CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 315 man." " But what is a Christiau man? " " A Chris- tian man is a man who believes in the personality of God, in immortality, in prayer, in reward and punish- ment. He believes that all things work together for good. He believes that justice, truth, love, are the basis of Providence." "Well," said Satan, "if that be so, if that be his theological position, I'll teach him another lesson : I'll force him to abandon that position ; I'll expose those low, prudential motives that prompt his unctuous talk ; I will strip him of all he hath — money, health, children, home, political pres- tige, wife's affection, and reputation." That was the plan of attack, and it was well con- ceived, as all the devil's plans are. So successive messengers bring to the patriarch their sad tidings, and at last the crowning wo comes. A man's peril often lies most in what threatens him least. Who would have thought that such a rich man as Job would ever be short of cash? And in a moment of atheistic bitterness his wife calls upon him to abandon his reli- gious position, to curse God and die. The man who has a good wife tells me that he knows what he would do with a bad one if he had her, and the man who has a bad wife tells me he has no idea what to make of her. Nothing tries the marriage vow so much as pov- erty. Wives feel it hard to see other husbands pros- pering while their own hardly makes two ends meet. If we knew all, we would find that this accounts for 316 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. much domestic unhappiness and for many separations. Still, in all this Job did not sin with his lips. He still remained the same prayerful, believing, tranquil soul that he used to be, leaving all to the fashioning of God's sovereign Spirit. What were the elements that constituted Job's suf- ferings? (a) Poverty. Poverty is no disgrace, but pauper- ism is. Many are poor because of their sin ; some are in sin because of their poverty. The race for riches is not run on equal grounds. There are hundreds in our large cities who work long hours for a mere pit- tance, not enough beyond what is necessary to secure food to eat ; they do their best ; they have no relations or connections to fall back upon ; the result is that they walk the streets at night in order to get money enough to buy clothing, and while this goes on their own employers are piling up their millions. Preach- ers have said for two thousand years that Christianity can do great things. In God's name, do you not think it is high time Christianity should do something great? Poverty does not mean the same thing to everybody. Some are born in poverty, and they do not feel it; others have been brought up in the midst of plenty, and they feel the sting of it. Job was once a rich man, a lord of many vassals, a great political power, a man whose reputation had gone far and wide. When the young saw him, they hid them- CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 317 selves, the aged arose and stood up. The princes re- frained from talking, and the nobles held their peace. Now all is changed. Job has fallen ; and what a fall! There were many sad homes in the land of Uz that day, for it was not merely the fall of a righteous man, but of a large-hearted philanthropist. You never saw an orphan girl shedding tears over the fall or the death of a righteous man, but you did see her shed tears over the fall or the death of a man like Job. Why does the widow look so sad to-day and the poor converse together in such depressing tones? Well, a great tragedy has been enacted. Job has lost all his stock and means. He is now a poor man. No more paupers, widows, and fatherless will be seen passing through the gates of that mansion. But of all the losses Job sustained, his greatest was the loss of his reputa- tion. It was suggested by his critics that there was something wrong somewhere, so they treated him sus- piciously. Those who used to say *' Good-morning ! " now passed by in silence. Thank God! a man may lose his reputation and keep his character. Christ and Moses and John Peury, the Welsh martyr, and others of God's children, lost their reputations, a cloud of suspicion rested over their name and fame. Cir- cumstances over which they had no control or enemies who sought their destruction had brought about a feel- ing of suspicion and distrust with regard to them. There are many such examples to be had. 318 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. The poet, in speaking of tlie lost, says : " There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy- time in misery." Contrast makes the measure of our joys and pains. What, therefore, must have been the measure of Job's anguish when he contrasted his present position with his former? Yesterday his word was law; now it has no charm. Influence, friends, home — everything gone. As he passed along the street people said : " There goes old Job. What a man he was! Now he is nothing but a shadow of his former self. " Such observations sting like vipers ; they cut like two-edged swords. Not a very easy matter to be patient under such circumstances. Some are patient because they are stupid, like an old ox on the broad plains with thousands of flies on its back and never seeking to drive them away by the swing of its tail. Some are patient so long as they meet with no reverses, so long as things go their way. When trade is brisk, they will treat you kiadly and appear very cordial ; but when things go wrong they get very peevish ; and I do not know of anything worse than a peevish man unless it be a peevish woman. Becky Sharp said : •' It is easy to be patient on a thousand a year." Yes, easy then to sing and be joy- ful, but not so easy when your sails are ripped and your little bark drifts over the stormy sea ; not so easy when you see the coffin-lid shut down upon the only child that you had ; not so easy when you see others CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 319 making large incomes on small labors while you strive night and day to keep the wolf from the door. Jacob said : " If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God" (Gen. xxviii. 20, 21). If I were near Jacob when he spoke those words, I would tell him : " Yes, Jacob, and small thanks, too." Every man speaks accord- ing to his quality. Poor religion that! Poor Chris- tian that! What audacity of selfishness in the man! I prefer Habakkuk's philosophy : " Altho the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines j the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will joy in the God of my salvation " (Habak. iii. 17, 18). Of the many lessons of the long and wonderfully laborious life of Mr. Gladstone perhaps none is more valuable than the last lesson which he left behind him — his dying message — the lesson of cheerf illness in adversity. "No doubt," he said, " I have suffered a great deal during the last six months, but then I had one thousand and fifty-six months almost without pain." How refreshing! Such a state of mind is as admirable as it is rare. May God grant us that seren- ity of mind which sees in present misfortune only a 820 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. reminder of the days whicli were exempt from suffer- ing. No artisan, preacher, poet, merchant, statesman, or woman can say that all their ideals have come to pass. The man who has accomplished all did not purpose to accomplish much. I have met men who have been brought up in very narrow circles, with little educa- tion, no expectations, no ambition; they have no re- morse and no sense of failure. To the degree we see we have fallen short of our ideals, to that degree it is hard to say that God is Love and that life is sweet. But God does not pay by results. Ideals faithfully kept are as precious in His sight as are deeds. The number of jewels in your crown will not be determined by the number of your victories, but by the number of your ideals. Such men as Livingstone, Carey, Spurgeon, Beecher, Luther, and Savonarola in Flor- ence did not accomplish all they desired. They were great souls and had great expectations, but it is all the same now. The Lord has rewarded them exactly as if every holy wish, every noble purpose, and every mighty effort of the soul had been converted into an actual fact. This is the great artery of our inspiration. This is the glory of the Divine adminis- tration. I have been out on the Western plains of America in a storm, and I have with some friends gone to witness the effects of a tornado. It was in- credible! Houses swept away in the twinkling of an CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 321 eye, huge trees plucked up by tlie roots, heavy ma- chines twisted and torn as if they were mere wood ; wells and brooks completely dried up, their contents sucked in by the tornado ; horses carried away a hun- dred yards — the whole a scene of devastation truly wonderful and awe-inspiring. God put Job in the hands of Satan, and Satan placed Job and all that he had in the path of the tornado, and he lost all except his life. People, as they stood over the wreck, said: " What a great house this was ! " How did Job stand it? Did the devil succeed in his object? Did he force Job to abandon his religious position? No. True, Job did some things in the passion of his agony he afterward regretted, but he kept the faith, he stuck to his colors to the last. He established the principle that God cares for His own, and when they are tested He supplies them with the means to enable them to come out vic- toriously. (h) Another element that made up Job's suffering was its mystery. The prevailing idea of antiquity was that adversity or prosperity was an indication of divine favor. If a man did well, God was his friend; but if a man did badly, God was not his friend. Job shared and preached these sentiments. But it is not so easy for a man to apply to himself the truths he has been applying to others. Job had told his coun- trymen that their worldly positions would give them 31 322 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. aa indication of how they stood with God. Let him, therefore, apply the principle to himself. What was the secret of his difficulty? He said : " I have kept my marriage vows, I have been kind to the poor, I have caused the widow's heart to leap for joy. What- ever influence I had, it has always been for good gov- ernment, just laws, purity of morals, and the uplifting of the downtrodden." There was no roistake about that. Moreover, God said, when placing him in the hands of Satan, that he was an upright man, and that there was none like him on earth. . So Job stood half stunned, wondering what solution there might be to the difficulty, and all the while his critics were pour- ing their cold-hearted calumnies and galling suspicion into the heart God was bruising. So he turns from man to God, and exclaims: "Cause me to know wherein I have sinned." But Job is only one of many. Minds reverent, minds cultured, minds pure, have stood over these fearful mysteries of creation and of Providence and have turned away filled with uncon- querable dizziness. Just think of the undertone of sadness which pervades our literature, our philosophy, our poetry ! Out of the bosom of the past there goes up into the heavens a wail of doubt which is very sor- rowful. In every age men have thought and talked and prayed over the antagonism between history and conscience, the conflict between instinct and logic. Then there are others who, while free from intellectual CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 323 doubts, suffer from soul troubles ; their hearts stagger because the joy of their religion is suspended. They feel they still have faith in God, but that faith does not help them any. It brings them no comfort. One of the most difficult phases of our ministerial work is to deal with these two classes. We should handle such questions and such people with the gi-eatest care and tenderness. People often say : " If these ministers only preached shorter sermons, we would feel better, and there would always be a large and enthusiastic crowd to greet them." It is very strange that the very people who clamor for shorter sermons are the people who will go to a concert or theater and sit down for three hours at a stretch. But it is not true, gentlemen, that shorter sermons produce larger congregations. Every intelli- gent man knows that the same causes do not produce the same effects. Cardinal Manning, that great and holy man, had a brother called Francis ; their mother was a stern old Calvinist, and the home was an evan- gelical one. The two sons heard the same prayers and had the same discipline. What became of them? Cardinal Manning drifted into high-churchism and from there into Koman Catholicism. But Francis took an opposite course. He became a skeptic and for a while denied the existence of God. Then came a reaction, and he turned out to be a theist and remained so unto the end. It was he who wrote that book on 324 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. Phases of Faith which created such a sensation. No, the same causes do not always produce the same effect. What, then, is our remedy? To trust where we can not trace. Go on praying and working, believ- ing that some time sunshine and spring will come out of it in the end. If your stock is gone, your money gone, your ideals dashed to the four winds of heaven, you have something left ; you have the hope of im- mortality left, you have yourself left, and you have God left. Is not that a great deal? In heaven's name, man, get up and face the devil and all his angels. Some great reformer — I believe it was Luther — had got into one of his periodical fits of depression. While down in the great deeps, seeing nothing but darkened desolation, his wife suddenly asked him : " Have you heard, Luther?" "No. What?" "Well," she added, " God is dead ! " " Say it again, " he asked. "God is dead! I can see ic in Luther's face." He stirred up, smiled, and replied : " No, my dear, God is not dead," and he cast aside his sackcloth and ashes. Yes, my brother, you have God left. Your friends may be few, and the few left may not all be genuine ; things may not be coming your way ; but have faith that all things work for your good ; not your profit or your pleasure, but your good. I remember toward the end of August, 1897, going with a party up to Mount Hamilton in California to see the Lick Observatory. It was twenty-eight miles from the CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 325 starting-point, and up-grade the whole distance. I shall never forget the fearful chasms, the rushing cat- aracts, and the yawning gulfs. I did not know what my debt to God was until I stood on that mount view- ing the scene in front of us extending over sixty miles. There were the rich vineyards in the valleys beneath; the hills of various sizes and shape, each hill on its own plan ; the terrific chasms that filled one with hor- ror in looking into them ; the mist resting on the earth yonder, dense, gloomy, forbidding. Speech seemed an impertinence when nature was so eloquently ad- dressing herself to all who had ears, eyes, and hearts. By and by the sun sets in the west. And what a glo- rious setting! Then the shadows of uight are cast wide and deep over the glens, hills, lakes, and rocks. "We go to the telescope to study the magnitude and magnificence of the firmament. There was the moon swimming away into the blue depths beyond in that mighty world of space. There was Saturn with its circles like a seething mass of five, and the constella- tion in Hercules an assemblage of splendors and excel- lences which were simply overpowering in their effect. No books, however eloquently written, could give a man such grand conceptions of the infinite. I had a talk with one of those German astronomers. He said : " It is here a man can have his sordid anxieties and petty ambitions rebuked. A year's residence here will do a great deal for a man. I used to be worried 326 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. over small things, but I have been studying the calm- ness, the eternal certainty that is stamped upon all the movements of the firmament. The result is that that calmness has reflected itself on my soul ; nothing worries me now." Those observations have been a source of good to me ; they have helped me greatly. At last it is midnight, and we have to turn home. We start eleven in the coach, which was drawn by four horses. It is down-grade all the while — a never- to-be-forgotten ride ; the sudden curves in the road, the fearful chasms looking like the very jaws of death. Sometimes there would be only about a foot and a half or even less between the wheel of the coach and the edge of the precipice nearly two thousand feet deep, and the horses going at a quick pace the whole time. Sometimes the precipice would be to our right, then to our left. Suppose, I thought, the wheel gave way, or the horses slipped, or the driver made a miscalcula- tion. Where would we be? In eternity in the twin- kling of an eye. More than once the dust of the road was so thick that it covered the coach and the passen- gers, and we could see nothing, and were still going at a rapid pace. But the driver was an expert, and so were the horses, and all we had to do was to keep still, say nothing, and trust the driver. This is what we did, and great was our relief when he landed us safely at our hotel about 3 : 30 in the early morn- ing. CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 327 My friend, God may have been leading or may now be leading you along some perilous ways. You see the yawning gulfs to your right and left. He is shift- ing, testing, and proving you by some strange meth- ods. You hardly know what to make of Him, or of His providence, or of His promises. It seems so hard, so difficult to understand, so much unlike what you thought God to be, so very inexplicable. Friend, see, when God takes you along such ways, that your feet are shod for the road and your weapons strictly proper for the warfare. Do not allow your intrusive curiosity to spoil God's glorious purposes toward you. You only see a part. He sees the whole range of your life. Therefore trust Him. Believe that your seeming undoing will turn out to be yom* making, and if you are God's child your seeming fail- ure will turn out to be your making. It was so with Job. The Lord blessed his latter end more than his beginning. His sufferings clarified his ideas; they gave him a deeper and firmer grasp of the great verities of religion ; they brought him nearer to God. His tri- umph over the devil, his critics, and his own passions was complete. He was in every way a greater man than before God placed him in the hands of the devil to be tried. You can not judge God's heart by His hand. A cer- tain Welsh minister had gone to London for a few •weeks as a supply. The last charge he gave before 328 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. leaving was that his children should be kind and obed- ient to their mother, and so they were except the young- est boy, Johnnie, who was very erratic. His mother threatened to inform his father on his return, and so she did when she met him at the station. The first to greet his father at the door was Johnnie, but his father refused to kiss him ; he kissed the others. Lit- tle Johnnie had his tea in the kitchen, while the father, mother, and the rest of the children had it in the dining-room. Johnnie's heart was nearly break- ing. He wanted to hear about Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and the British House of Commons. When the father had finished his tea, he took the cane and went for Johnnie to take him up into his study to pun- ish him for disobedience. Johnnie went up slowly in front of his father. Then the father requested John- nie to take off his clothes that he might whip him for being a naughty boy. Johnnie stood right facing his father with the big tears rolling down his cheeks and nearly breaking his little heart; then he said: "Father, kiss me first, then you can kill me after." It was too much for the old man. He threw the cane aside, took Johnnie up in his arms and kissed him, and the storm was over, to the delight of the other children. You can not judge God's heart by His hand. His hand was heavy on Job in his affliction, but His heart was very tender. It was heavy on Abraham when he was requested to sacrifice the only son that he CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 329 had, but Abraham was very dear to Him. God's hand may be restiug heavily upon some of you mothers, young men or women, and business men. He is keep- ing you down very low and very long, too. Things are not coming your way. Your life seems dull, op- pressive, and difficult. It is not, you think, what you deserve. You wish He would lift His hand a little so as to make life easier for you, but God has willed it otherwise, and you have just got to stay where you are waiting for the salvation of the Lord, and what ineffable ecstasy the soul will experience in the great hour of finding out the secret of life's discipline ! What unspeakable joy will that vision of infinite blessedness produce !— the hour when God will reveal to you the real meaning of your trials and ex- periences, when to your perplexing gaze He will show you how through changing episodes of thought and feeling you arrived at last at your immortal perfec- tion. II. Job as a philanthropist. He was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, father to the poor. His judg- ment was as a robe and a diadem. The blessing of him who was ready to perish came upon Job. He was always in touch with wretchedness, poverty, and despair. He considered it his duty as a citizen and Christian. How can Christians hope to save the world unless they know it? Job had the sense of humanity, he had what is called a "social conscience." Would 330 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. to God more men had it, especially in these days of selfish individualism! Science and commerce are recognizing with increasing earnestness the doctrine of the solidarity of the race ; they realize the necessity of being concerned with the concerns of others. But science and commerce are actuated by prudential con- siderations. With them it is a question of self- defense, of interest and profit. This is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Job's concern in the concerns of others was based upon higher and purer motives. His motives were ethical. His phi- lanthropy was prompted by sympathy, by compassion. What mighty power and possibilities there are in that one word, compassion ! This is the quality that gave birth to all the great movements of the past. It has defied and defeated the power of money, of the sword, of social caste, and of custom. It is the source, the ori- gin, the fountain-head of all the mighty thoughts that are throbbing in the hearts of the people to-day. This is what we need to create and to cultivate in the rising generation. The sympathetic instinct, the so- cial conscience, yearning pity for human sorrow of every kind — this is what has enabled Christ to move the hearts and mold the ideas of the centuries. It is important we should bear a right relation to God, it is equally important we should bear a right relation to our fellow men ; and the Christian who stands near- est to God is he who has the greatest enthusiasm for CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 331 humanity and does most to apply Christ's teaching to social relations. How can we get this social conscience? Where is the source of this sympathetic instinct? A great French writer said that no man could understand and really pity the sufferings of the unfortunate and hun- gi-y unless he himself had known what it was to un- dergo the same experience. He meant that in the human mind there must be acute memory of physical suffering and destitution to make sympathy with such suffering genuine. It is a historical fact that there is infinitely more charity in proportion among the very poor than among the very rich. Thousands in our great centers of population would starve were it not for the unfailing kindness of the very poor to each other. But I doubt, despite a good deal of strong evidence to the contrary, that only the man who has himself known sorrow and defeat can sympathize with those who are now in a similar condition. For in- stance, Ruskin's best thoughts and deepest sympathies have always been with the poor. So with that great and noble character Mr. Gladstone. So with Job. True, nothing is told of the early life of Job. He is introduced to us in his full manhood, with riches, children, stock, all complete. We know nothing of his boyhood and early days. But it seems that the life of Job teaches us, and that history verifies it, that sympathy for others depends on imagination 332 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. combined with what I must describe, for want of a better term, as natural goodness. All men are not naturally good or kindly disposed. Sympathy is more natural to some than others. But it is the duty of all men to cultivate sympathy with the downtrod- den, helpless, and poor. " Wo to them that are at ease in Zion ; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music like David ; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph " (Amos vi. 4-6) . How is such concern with the concerns of others to be kindled and sustained? Let me ask another ques- tion. Where did the early Christians get it? It was a new factor in life then. It was the one main objec- tion that men like Celsus had to religion. Well, the early Christians found the source of this social con- science, this sympathetic instinct, in the new and higher valuation of man which Christ made. This valuation was an immense revelation to them, for they had always been told that a mere man was a social nobody. To be interested in such men as Socrates or Charlemagne or Cicero was reasonable, but to be inter- ested in man as such, man without distinction of birth, without acquisition, without wealth, was a new CHARACTERISTICS OF A ORE AT MAN. 333 thing. That is why Lowell called our Savior "the first real democrat that the world ever saw." An- other source whence the early Christians got this social conscience was the doctrine of the solidarity and brotherhood of the race which Christ preached. There was also their intense love for Christ. "WTiere the early Christians got it, we may get it. Until our Christian churches get it, they can never say to the helpless millions who are crippled on the highway of life: "Rise up and walk." In conclusion, let me express the hope that we do not look upon such noble men as Job as some sort of " esoteric characters." People think it is inspirmg to read of such men, but impossible to imitate them. "How can we," they say, "with such limited oppor- tunities, hope to have the patience of Job, the undeni- ableness of Daniel, the confidence of Moses, the per- severance of Paul, and the courage of Joseph? " Yes, you can ; that is why God included such characters in the Bible. My belief is that we, with our many priv- ileges and increased knowledge, ought to be better men than Joseph or Daniel, and better Christians even than Paul. Yes, however humble your surroimdings, however small your means, and however limited your education, there is no nobility of temper, no fortitude in suffering, no integrity of character, no faith in the care of God for His own, no passion for the salvation of childhood, and no sympathy with the poor and un- 334 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. fortunate, that Job showed, which is not possible to you. Let your motto therefore be : "Freely to all ourselves we give, Constrained by Jesus' love to live The servants of mankind. " THE GREATNESS AND THE JOY OF PREACHING. By Rkv. Edward D. Morris, D.D., LL.D., Pro- fessor Emeritus in the Lane Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa. " I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appear- ing and His kingdom ; preach the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-sufEer- ing and doctrine."— 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. Considered on earthly grounds alone, the work of composing and delivering sermons must be regarded as a work of the highest and grandest character. Leav- ing out of view the divine element that mingles with it and the everlasting issues it involves— considering simply what is human— preaching must take rank at once with the foremost vocations to which the mtel- lect and the heart can be summoned. Look at the range, the variety, the grandeur of the truths with which it is concerned, and set them in contrast with all other truth in these respects. Look at the wealth of knowledge, of learning, of reflection and research, needful to the full attainment of the material employed 335 336 GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. in pulpit discourse. Look at the mental effort requi- site in selecting and defining themes, in arranging and grouping thoughts, in bringing out the sermon as a complete structure, fit to be delivered to an intelligent audience. Look at the exercise of sensibility involved in the transmission of such truth to other minds — the glow of elevated feeling, the play of pure affection, and the consequent energizing and strengthening of the will along all lines of manly and worthy effort for the spiritual good of men. How shallow, how groundless, in view of such sug- gestions, appears the slight estimate entertained by some respecting the real position of this work among the various vocations to which men may be called. Even among the professions, as they are termed, what one is in this respect so glorious and inspiring as the work of preaching Christ? It surpasses poetry as much as poetry surpasses painting or sculpture; it surpasses philosophy as much as philosophy surpasses trade. It is literally first among the highest forms of mental activity; first as to the order of intellect it brings into action; first as to the sensibilities and affections it sets into play; first as to the moral aims and the volitional force it requires. Let no preacher, therefore, despise the task to which he is called, view- ing it on this earthly side only, or consent to regard or to treat it as subordinate to any other vocation whatsoever. GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. 337 But when we rise to a higher elevation, and con- template this work on its divine side, the force of this conclusion is incalculably augmented. Consider that this vocation differs from all others in being directly appointed of God, and carried on under Tlis express sanction. Consider that in no unmeaning sense every true sermon is a product of inspiration, the Holy Ghost working in and through the natural powers, and producing a result to which even the finest human abilities would by themselves be incompetent. Con- sider the aim and end of every such discourse, not simply to make a present intellectual impression on the hearers, or to affect them for any earthly purpose, but to secure results which are spiritual and eternal — to rescue the soul from sin and from death everlasting. Consider also the relation of preaching to the church and kingdom of God on earth, to the upbuilding of all holy interests among men, to the r.oral develop- ment of society in every respect, and to the healthful progress and final perfection of the race. Estimate all these higher considerations as they are involved in this beneficent work ; weigh this divine element as it mingles with and gives significance to the human; let the light of eternity shine down upon this holy voca- tion, and then you will begin to appreciate the great- ness of preaching, and come to realize how sublime a thing it is to proclaim Christ and His salvation to men. How sad and pitiable must any preacher be who can 22 338 GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. engage with any but the most elevated feeling, with anything less than the eompletest earnestness and the entire consecration of all his powers, in a vocation so noble and so truly divine ! That such a calling should bring with it the loftiest and purest joy that can come to man from any form of earthly service might well be anticipated. It is sad indeed to admit that in the life of most ministers there are seasons when the task of preparing and de- livering sermons becomes burdensome and even pain- ful. We may confess that among those who aspire to be preachers there are always some who never attain the full and pure and satisfying pleasure which such a service is in itself so well fitted to convey. And doubtless a large proportion of this burden and dis- comfort is to be found in the failure to gain any proper conception of the real grandeur of the work. How can any man preach with satisfaction who is not profoundly stirred by a sense of the intrinsic great- ness of his vocation; who does not realize how sublime his service is when seen on its merely human side, and how much more sublime it is when regarded as a service appointed of God, and containing in itself the pledge of divine aid and inspiration, even to the hum- blest of those who proclaim His truth? How can any man be truly happy in preaching who suffers personal interest, pecuniary advantage, literature or art, place in society, exaltation among men, or anything else to GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. 339 absorb his thougMs, discolor his feeling, or vitiate his will, iu this holiest of human employments? How can he expect to find true, pure,- lasting enjoyment iu his business if he does not make it a business indeed — a business enlisting all his faculties, absorbing into itself every other desire, seating itself on the throne of affection and purpose within him, and, in a word, giving form, color, direction, power, and devotion to his entire life? Just here lies the secret of blessedness in preaching — in this ardent, chivalrous, complete devotion to the work. It must be admitted that the ministry is often a sphere of peculiar trial, and that the specific task of preaching often involves much of severity, of strug- gle, of discipline. It is well for those who are enter- ing on the sacred calling to realize these severer con- ditions and surroundings amid which their work for God and man is largely to be done. Yet, after all, the work of preaching is a joyful work. If we con- sider it for the moment on its earthly side only, what other vocation is so blessed? It is a blessed thing to have the highest powers of intellect, of feeling, of will — all that is noblest and best in our manhood— so fully and so worthily employed. It is a blessed thing to be conscious that the work we are doing is a divine work, and that divine forces, both within us and with- out, are pledged to our assistance. The preparation also is joyous, whether it be generic or specific, be- 340 GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. cause it all stands in such vital relation to the glori- ous work itself. Viewed in this light, the selection of themes is pleasant; the task of composition is pleasant; the effort of delivery is pleasant. The entire labor brings joy to the soul, and such joy as no other employment of life can bring in any such meas- ure. Nothing, nothing in life can equal it in real blessedness, if this service be but thoroughly and de- votedly undertaken. Compared with it, manual toil, however worthy ; mercantile effort, however rewarded ; professional endeavor, however honorable or remune- rative, are at best but dross. But the joy of preaching can not be properly esti- mated until we come to consider the spiritual and eternal recompense it brings. As the proclamation of salvation through Christ is never to be regarded by us as a professional service merely, so its rewards are never to be measured by any earthly standards of emolument. To the natural eye it may appear less profitable than the labor of the merchant ; less prom- inent than the function of the politician or statesman ; less attractive than the vocation of the lawyer or phy- sician, less honorable than the service of the scholar. But to the eye of faith it plainly surpasses and out- shines them all. Its true end is so glorious that it can not be clearly seen through this earthly atmos- phere; its relations are so elevated that men fail to appreciate or even to apprehend them ; its recompense GREATNESS AND JOY OF PREACHING. 341 is such that not even the most thoroughly sanctified mind can discern, nor the most glowing imagination describe it. The ultimate rewards of the faithful, devoted preacher are quite beyond estimation. Eye hath not seen, earth hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to comprehend, as the future will disclose them, the things which God hath prepared for those who humbly, faithfully, and with whatever of sacrifice or self-denial, serve Him in this peculiar vocation. The eternal salvation of souls brought through their preaching to Christ; the golden sheaves of grace borne with rejoicing into the heavenly garner through their fidelity ; the rescued saints shi- ning as stars in their crown of rejoicing forever ; the satisfying fellowship of the church they have served ; the approval of the Father ; the welcome of Christ, and everlasting communion with Him as honored sharers of His celestial home ; a heaven made brighter and more blessed throughout eternity through their endeavor — these, these are rewards such as earth can not give and such as her choicest gifts can never replace. THE LORD'S BOOK. By Eev. Eichard Hughes, Nelson, N. Y. "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." — Isa, xxxiv. 16. One of the greatest gifts of God to man is His re- vealed will. For 2,000 years it was to be liad only in the traditional form, transferred from age to age, from family to family. But as the Divine revelation increased, this became more difficult. It would have been almost impossible to transfer the statutes and directions of the Old Covenant in their entirety ; the prophecies in their multiplicity and their accuracy; the Psalms in the charm of their praises and the im- portunity of their prayers; and the New Testament in the gracious wealth of its doctrines, its teachings, and its promises. Such a wealth of divine things would be very difficult to hand down from age to age in their completeness and purity, without being lost and mixed with traditions and errors, so that it would be impossible to separate the true from the false. To have God's will written in a book is therefore a great advantage. In this, the Divine hand is clearly seen, THE LORD'S BOOK. 343 keeping the truth from all harm by agitating and directing holy men to write His will. To this book, the text calls our attention. " Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read. " The text naturally divides itself into three parts : I. The Book of the Lord. II. Heading the Book. III. Seeking out of the Book. I. T?ie Book of the Lord. 1. This is the oldest and most diversified book in the world. Truly it is the source of all the sub- stantial books extant. As the planets receive their light from the sun, so all good books have received much of their light from the book of the Lord — the Book of books. The oldest history is found in this book. Moses wrote about 650 years before the days of Homer, the Greek poet, and about 900 years before Confucius, the Chinese philosopher. Herodotus was one of the oldest Greek historians, flourishing about 400 years before Christ, and over 1,000 years after the days of Moses. Under the guidance of the Spirit, Closes wrote of incidents which had taken place thousands of years back in the past. But for the Bible we would have no correct idea about the beginning of the world, for through rev- elation only has the idea of creation been found. •'* Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." "In the beginning. 344 THE LORD'S BOOK. God created the heaven and the earth. " In this book, also, is found the history of the creation of man. What is man? Where is he going? What about his future? Will death end his existence? These are questions which the philosophers of the ages have at- tempted to answer. Philosophy has failed to give a satisfactory account of the appearance of man on earth, as a reasonable being, possessing an immortal spirit ; but in the Bible we get a clear account of his creation. " And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." According to the ideas of some philosophers, man is a little higher than the animal; but according to the teachings of the Bible, he is a little lower than the angels: "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; thou crown- edst him with glory and honor." To be a little lower than the angels is infinitely better than to be much higher than the animal. There are truths contained in the Bible which man, through the light of reason and the light of na- ture, would know nothing about. 2. This is the book which has met with the great- est number of enemies. Its course through the world is similar to the life of Jesus. He had numerous friends and numerous enemies. "And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: THE LORD'S BOOK. 345 for some said, He is a good man; others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people." There is great murmuring among the people concerning the Bible. Some say. It is a good book ; others say, It deceiveth the people. It has many friends and many enemies. But it has come out of every battle more than a conqueror. No book has overcome so many enemies as this one. Laws have been enacted to burn it ; but it would be easier to prevent the sun from scattering its rays than to destroy the influence of this book. " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." 3. It is called the book of the Lord, because of its Divine source. " All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." " For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man : but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In this book, God is made manifest as Christ appeared in the flesh. The Bible is a manifestation of God in print. As the sun is full of light, so the Bible is full of God. Its divinity is clearly seen in three ways : [a) Internal evidence; viz., the contents of the Bible itself. It has been written by about forty men living in different countries, in different ages, and in different languages : some men writing in palaces, 346 THE LORD 'S BOOK. others in the wilderness, and others while bound in prison chains; some writing in unadorned prose, others in the most dignified poetry ; yet all agreeing with each other, from Moses in Midian to John in Patmos. (b) External evidence ; viz., the miracles, the proph- ecies in their fulfilment, and the success of a pure re- ligion in a corrupt world. (c) Evidence of the heart. The Bible conveys a feeling of assurance to the hearts of all who believe it to be God's Word. The truths of the Bible differ from the truths of astronomy. The latter do not affect the course of our life. We might live with a man for a year without knowing by any of his actions whether he believed that the earth rotates around the sun or the sun around the earth. But we could not live with him for a week without having an idea whether or not he believed the Bible. It is not necessary to undertake to prove the divinity and in- spiration of the Bible to the one who believes it, more than it would be to prove the splendor of the sun to the one who has eyes to perceive it. When a certain minister was ill, the story went abroad that he was dead. Some of his friends asked him how he felt when he heard he was dead. He replied, that it affected him not at all, because he knew he was alive. The believer has a proof in his heart of the divinity of the Bible, just as he knows THE LORD'S BOOK. 347 that he is alive, or that there is heat in the fire and light in the sun. 4. The chief object of the Lord's book is to teach true religion to the world. It condemns sin in every person, in aU its forms and under all conditions, in the intent of it as well as in the act; and teaches that "Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost." An old theologist once thought of writing a book worth sixpence, on the manner in which sin came into the world. A friend told him he had better compose a book worth a shill- ing to teU how to get sin out of the world. If it was worth paying sixpence to know how sin came into the world, it would surely be better to pay a shilling to know how to get it out of the world. The Bible teaches us this,-" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into t.he world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only- begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." II. Eeadi7i(/ the Lord's Book. " Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." The Bible is a book for man to read, to search, and to meditate. God's gifts to man have been many : He gave His Son, His Spirit, and His Book. We know of no creature to which God has given a book but man. Everybody should have a Bible of his own, and should read it daily in 848 THE LORD'S BOOK. a prayerful spirit. It should not be read hastily. Peter and John went to the grave, yet they did not see Jesus there; but Mary Magdalene took time to search for Him. "But Mary stood without at the sepulcher, weeping." She saw angels, — and a beauti- ful scene it was. But the angels could not pacify the storm within her soul. She wanted to see Jesus ; and she succeeded in seeing Him before any one else on the day of His resurrection. Why? Because she sought Him diligently. Angels had the privilege of publishing His birth, but Mary had the privilege of notifying the disciples of His resurrection. Why? Because she took time to seek Him. "Mary Mag- dalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord." When we read the Bible we not only come in con- tact with the thoughts of the prophets and the apostles, but we come in contact with the mind of God. A rock is blasted by drilling a hole into it to a certain depth, into which powder is put. There the rock and the powder are in close contact. What more is needed? Nothing but a spark of fire — and the rock is shattered. So, when reading the Bible, the mind of man and the mind of God are in close communion. What more is needed? Nothing but a spark of fire from heaven, and the hardened heart is shattered. As a certain minister was calling on his people, he THE LORD'S BOOK. 349 went to the house of a rather worldly old lady and asked if she read her Bible often. She answered that she did not, as the spectacles with which she used to read her Bible had been lost, " How long is it since you lost them?" asked the minister. "Four years," was the reply. The minister then offered to read a chapter with her out of the book, and the offer was accepted. Upon opening the book, the long-lost spectacles were safely found inside the covers. What a loss? The Bible not opened or read for four years! We should read our Bibles daily. III. Seeking out of the Book of the Lord. What shall we seek? 1. A plan for our lives. Man himself is the builder of character, and he only can ruin it, it being his personal property. Character is formed gradually, worked stitch by stitch, as a stocking is knit. It is not a gourd growing to full size in one night. A certain number of special deeds do not compose character ; but all the thoughts, all the words, and all the actions of life do. Nothing is so impor- tant as a good character. *' A good name is better than precious ointment." Living according to the book of the Lord is sure to produce a good character. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word." Ee- ligion increases the value of man as a moral being every day, but sin lowers it. " The curse of the Lord 350 THE LORD'S BOOK. is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just." "For bodily exercise profit- eth little. But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. " " The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. " 2. Seek faith in its truths. The centurion had great faith in the words of Jesus Christ. " But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Jairus had great faith in the hand of Jesus Christ. "I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live." We have the history of a woman who apparently had great faith in Christ's garment. "For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. " Ought we therefore not to have faith in the words of Jesus — faith in their power to save the world? It is to be feared that we are with the world, as weeping Martha, look- ing on the dead, instead of looking through faith on the power of " the resurrection and the life." We must have faith and love to work for Christ. When a child in Wales, I well remember a funeral at an old church, belonging to the parish, where no services had been held for many years, because an- other church was more convenient in the village near by. This funeral, however, was to be held in the old church, as the burial-plot of the family was in the graveyard there. The children's notice- was espe- TEE LORD'S BOOK. 351 cially drawn to the occasion because a river had to be crossed to reach the place. When the procession came to the river, the people scattered, looking for the foot-bridge, that they might cross on a dry place; but the four men who carried the bier went directly through the river. Strangers inquired who the four men were, and the answer was, that they were brothers of the deceased. Who are the brothers of Jesus who died on Calvary? They who keep close to Him and work for Him. " Faith which worketh by love. " 3, Seek to make the experiences of the pious men of the Bible oui* own. A mother and her daugh- ter were going one evening to the class-meeting, and the mother asked the girl if she had a verse to say. " Yes," she answered, — " ' Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? ' But I have nothing to say from it. " " Well, " said the mother, " say that you love Jesus Christ more than any one else." During the meeting the minister asked for verses and testimonies. Jane said, " 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? ' " — and added, " I love Jesus Christ more than anyone else." *' Well done, Jane," said the minister ; *' you have the best testimony of any one here to-night." We should have true testimonies, not artificial ones, not what others tell us to say. They should come from the heart as the light comes from the sun, heat from the fire, and perfume from the flower. " For I 352 THE LORD'S BOOK. know that my Redeemer liveth. " " The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." 'Tor I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." " Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." THE MODEL MESSAGE.* By Rev. Gwernydd Newton, Cleveland, Ohio. " "Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. "—Col. i. 28. It is with the utmost reluctance that I have under- taken the responsibility of addressing you on the duties of your high calling. I would that another of wider experience and greater insight had been chosen to discharge the important duty of delivering " the charge " to you. Rut as the responsibility is forced upon me, nothing is left but in the strength of God to seek to fulfil it to the best of my ability. I am com- forted by the thought that you know so well the love that I bear to you, as to make it impossible to mistake my meaning or my motive, and to warrant my saying without any reserve anything that may appear to my mind as being worthy of reiteration at this moment. Your knowledge of my esteem for you will save me from running any risk of being thought presumptuous * Preached at the ordination services of Rev. J. M. Thomas ; Thomastown, Ohio, March 22, 1898. 28 353 354 THE MODEL MESSAGE. or pedantic. There are many things which occur to one at a moment like this which, while pertinent and important, are better said in private than expressed in public. The very conditions debar me from saying anything but what will have a tendency to inspire respect and reverence for your sacred office in the hearts of those who may hear my words. You may rest assured that what I say to you to-day, I have said over and over again to myself. Indeed, I shall only be telling you what I myself have come to think and feel concerning the most sacred calling in God's uni- verse. I myself am therefore responsible for the sentiments which I shall express, for I have not know- ingly sought to follow the advice of any one, tho I have diligently sought foundation and warrant in the Word of God for all that I shall repeat in your hearing to-day. If my spoken thoughts will prove as serviceable to you as the search for them has been sal- utary to me, I shall be twice blessed. The words to which I have called your attention are not only an exact expression of all I am anxious to say, but all I wish to do is to exemplify the truths they teach. I am not unmindful that on first presentation the words may seem to preclude the consideration of that im- portant and vital part of the minister's calling, desig- nated pastoral duties. But I am convinced that ex- tended study of the words will support the assertion that everything of paramount importance in regard to THE MODEL MESSAGE. 355 the preacher's mission is embraced in these words. It is true the verse emphasizes the preacher not iu con- tradistinction to the pastor, however, but preaching as inclusive of all other duties ; and the message not only as the most important part of the mission, but as the power which generates all the expended force. The message is looked upon as the sun from which radiates and to which converges all the light of the ministerial life. This is not only true, but a truth that is strangely overlooked. The ministry and the message are one and inseparable. The minister has no identity, if he be true, apart from his message. The message has no meaning apart from the minister's life back of it. The message is the ministry in crys- tallization ; the ministry is the message in exemplifica- tion. The message is the ministry set to the music of the cross. It is the life of the minister set on fire by divine love, the light of which leads the lost to the Lord of life. This surely includes all the minister's work, and gives perfect freedom for the exercise of all his ambition and the fulfilment of all his hopes. This being so, the preacher as man, the sermon as message, and the pastoral duties as mission are one and the same. Unitedly, they constitute the message ; isolated, they are meaningless. The minister is first and last and all the time a message; therefore the fundamental truth of the verse becomes the natural basis of all right-thinking regarding the Christian 356 THE MODEL MESSAGE. miuistry. To this truth in its many phases I there- fore invite your attention — The Model Message. Standing as you do on the threshold of the ministry, with a long and arduous preparation back of you, with a mind well equipped and a soul on fire for the right fulfilment of the sacred obligations you have assumed this day, your spirit, while responsive to the grave responsibilities resting upon you, yet buoyed up by the consciousness of divine strength and inspired by faith that laughs at difficulties and hope that defies failure, it can not be too seriously urged upon you to take your bearings, and, by calm and prayerful contem- plation of the work you have set out to accomplish, prepare yourself for the successful fulfilment of it. You are entering upon the career of a minister of Jesus Christ. You are to be a herald of the cross, a personified voice to the people. Henceforth you are to live, and, if needs be, to die to express the best you may the message of God's love to man. What is the burden of that message? How may you best convey that message? What is to be the spirit which must ever move you in the deliverance of that message? These are questions which your mind will instinctively declare to be of infinite importance. These are the truths that are taught concerning the model message THE MODEL MESSAGE. 357 in this verse. The words naturally divide themselves into three parts : I. The Matter. "Whom we preach." II. The Manner. " Warning every man and teach- ing every man in all wisdom." III. The Motive. "That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." I. The Matter. " Whom we preach." The burden of your message and the subject of your sermon is to be Jesus Christ. You are to present Him as the only Savior of the world. Whatever else your sermon may contain, if it does not bring Christ in His saving grace before the people, it is not the model message. To preach Christ is to present Him in all that He is to a sin-sick soul, to reveal Him as the only Kedeemer of the world. Your calling is to " preach," not theo- ries about Jesus, but the personal Christ as tlie only power to uplift humanity. What the world wants is to see Jesus, and your work is to show Him to the world. Other men may speak or speculate on what others have seen of Christ, but you must live for no other purpose but that men might see in and through you the Christ you have seen. This must ever be the standard by which to measure the value of your mes- sage—how much of Christ is seen in it. Never be tempted by any sophistry away from this position. Your sermon shows Christ or shows absolutely nothing of value. To the extent that you remember this, your 358 THE MODEL MESSAGE. preaching -will be powerful and your ministry success- ful. As you deviate from this position, failure will inevitably follow your footsteps. If your people call for anything but Christ, take it as a call from God to seek a call from another church. You dare not, on the peril of your own soul and the welfare of souls committed to your charge, be false enough to offer for those hungering for bread, a stone. Do not be deceived into believing that you are improving your office by preaching much philosophy, much science, much mor- ality, and that you can squeeze in enough Christ in your peroration to save it from being called anything but preaching Christ. Christ will be through the ser- mon, permeating the whole, illuminating the whole, or absent altogether. This does not mean that your sermon is to contain nothing but the conventional " Come to Jesus." You are to bring every truth under tribute, and make philosophy and science and all that you know to do homage to Christ Jesus, and to help in making Him better known of the people. Do not allow any one to convince you that you can not deal in the pulpit with practical questions and preach Christ. You will preach Christ every time you will seek to bring the light of Christ to bear on the life of the people. You must not forget that in preaching Christ you must preach Him as the Savior of society as well as of the individual soul. He is the Savior of the world, and the kingdoms of the world are to become THE MODEL MESSAGE. 559 the kingdoms of our Christ. Therefore you must pre- sent Him in all His sufficiency for the need of the whole world. Your message will have a vital relation to all the questions on which the welfare of the i)eople depend. To preach Christ is to bring the light of Christ to bear on the whole life of man, political, social, moral ; and not only on the life of man as an individual, but man as a race. It will then be impossible to present your message unless you are familiar with the men to whom you minister. You must know their weal and wo, their difficulties and their dangers, their strength and their weakness, their pleasure and their pain. You must keep abreast of the times, and ever seek to read aright the trend of the nation. But all these questions must be considered from the Christian standpoint, and everything treated in the light of Christ's cross. The cross is to be the center of your cosmos, and salvation to be the theme of every sermon. Do not think that you are preaching Christ if you are only declaring the law. The Gospel of Christ is glad tidings. It is a Gospel of gladness, and you can not preach it but in the spirit of love. Nothing is more out of place than pessimism in the pulpit ; and it is difficult to commit a greater sin against society than to employ the ser- mon to scold the sinner and the saint. You will be tempted ofttimes to stand on Sinai and hurl your thun- derbolts at some sinner who has kindled your right- eous indignation ; but do not deceive yourself into 360 THE MODEL MESSAGE. thinking that that is preaching Christ. You will be tempted to play to the gallery ; to appear learned, and attract the crowd. But remember always that you do this at the risk of being false to your message and faithless to your Master. Do not be led by any one to imagine that the so-called evangelistic sermon, or revival sermon, is the only way to preach Christ, or indeed that it is possible to preach Christ in that way. The majority of such preaching is nothing but sense- less sentimentality, religious cant, pious platitudes, and fanaticism assuming the role of faith. Christ can not be preached save in the sweet reasonableness, awful reality, and terrible sincerity of truth. May I { remind you that the word " preach " here means " to tell thoroughly " ? Preaching, then, is to tell thor- w oughly of Jesus and His love. Nothing is more want- ing in our preaching to-day than thoroughness. Want of completeness mars our pulpit utterances. It is impossible to tell thoroughly unless we know thor- oughly, and impossible to know thoroughly unless we have studied thoroughly. There must be thorough preparation, then. The work demands your best. Let no other work interfere with your pulpit prepara- tion. Your pulpit is your throne. Everything must be made subservient and conducive to the success of the message. To " tell thoroughly " you must have individual acquaintance with Christ Jesus. You must know Him in all that He is to the soul. You must have THE MODEL MESSAGE. 361 tasted and seen that He is good. You must know His power to save. Knowing this, your message will not have an element of doubt in it. The positive note will not be found wanting. You will not preach ne- gations if your message is the result of conviction, and no space will be allowed in the sermon for specu- lation. To " tell thoroughly" of Christ requires one- ness of life with Him. You must become an incarna- tion of Christ, and your whole life an expression of His spirit. You must learn to look with the eyes of Christ, to judge with the mind of Christ, to feel with the heart of Christ, and to will with the will of Christ, before you can preach Him thoroughly to the world. Do not be discouraged because so much is required of you. Let your soul be pliable to the influence of Christ, live to look upon the beautiful in Christ Jesus ; and soon Christ will be seen in you, and your message will become full of Christ, because it will have been inspired of Christ and approved of Christ. II. The Manner. " Warning every man and teach- ing every man in all wisdom." The method of pre- senting the message is second in importance only to the message itself. The manner ranks next to the matter. Many a noble message has been ruined by an injudicious presentation. The true minister of Jesus Christ will ever seek the best way possible to present the truth and to win the people into sympathy with it. The Apostle has emphasized here the manner in 362 THE MODEL MESSAGE. which the message is to be presented. Christ is to be preached by " warning every man " ; that is, by recall- ing to mind, by bringing before the mind, by admon- ishing. It is impossible to preach Christ without con- demning sin. We can not bring the world to love Christ without bringing it to hate iniquity and sin. It is necessary not only that man should be reminded what Christ has done for him, but that the evil of sin be so presented to him that he will learn to hate it with the hatred of God's holy heart. Man is sur- rounded by temptation and is constantly in danger of falling a prey to his evil passions, and it is imperative that the message contain a note of warning; indeed, Christ can not be preached all in all unless the evil consequences of sin are kept before the mind. We must preach repentance as well as reconciliation. The minister is a watchman ; therefore it is necessary that, when he behold danger, he warn the people. If we would preach Christ, we must preach the whole coimsel of God; and this we can not do without de- nouncing evil in all its phases. Christianity is offen- sive and defensive; and he that preaches Christ must preach Him as the enemy of all evil and the source of all good. Churches are getting fashionable and fas- tidious. You will find that the preaching that ad- monishes will not always be the most welcome ; but when it is rejected most, it is usually most required. Christ is also to be preached by "teaching every THE MODEL MESSAGE. 363 man " ; that is, the message must have an element of the educational iu it. Our preaching must be intel- lectual, enlightening the mind as well as quickening the conscience. The sermon -is an educational instru- ment. Christ is the Savior of our entire manhood, and His message appeals to our whole nature. In warning, we appeal especially to the emotional nature ; but in teaching, to the intellectual nature. Christ is to be King of the head as well as of the heart. Be very much afraid of the people who cry down true intellectuality. They are the enemies of truth and Christ. The people who tell you that they do not want to be instructed and enlightened simply mean that they do not want to know the way of life. While we do not want the pulpit to be a parade of learning, yet it is safe to assert th^t without learning, without the power to generate healthy thinking in the people, it must be eternally impotent of any good. You will probably find that one of your greatest temp- tations in your ministerial life will be to tickle the fancy of your people and to soothe them, rather than to instruct and educate. It is easier to do this than to prepare strong food ; it means less sacrifice, less labor, and it is more acceptable with the general con- gregation. When the people will not eat strong food, we are tempted to give them something that they will eat, especially as they have power to select their own cooks. But shun this temptation in all its phases aa 364 THE MODEL MESSAGE. your deadly foe ; and when tempted to succumb, go to God for encouragement, and so live in the light of Christ's presence that you will become a light to the world. But you must warn and teach in all wisdom. Tho the warning must be earnest and the teaching thorough, both must be done wisely. Discretion is to be used, and the message suited to the time and place. The meaning of the word " wisdom " here is " skill, " and you well know how skill is necessary in the sacred art of preaching. Skill will come only by long and patient practise. This you will learn by many a failure. No skill is more important or yet more diffi- cult to acquire than the skill of preaching. Indeed, it comes only as we are instructed of God. This skill means the mastery of the art of preaching : not only the possession of the best message, but the power to present it in the best manner, with the best results. Seek to be a skilful sermonizer. To do this, you must know the mind of your Master and the minds of the men to whom you minister. If you possess the true skill, you will attain the true success. But you must not only warn and teach in all wisdom, you must "vrarn and teach in all wisdom every man. You must be impartial. You must not have one message to the rich and another to the poor ; but you must have the right message, given in the right manner to the right audience. The illiterate will need instruction, and the learned will need warning. You must seek at all THE MODEL MESSAGE. 365 cost, as a man of God, without fearing the frowns or courting the favors of any, to declare the whole coun- sel of God. Your Gospel is a message for every man, in every condition, and in every clime. It will be impossible to present the message in a suitable mamier unless you are familiar with your people. ISIoreover, it will be impossible for the message to have its proper influence upon your people unless they have personal acquaintance with you. III. The Motive. "That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." It is imperative that we have the right message and present it not only in the right manner, but also from a right motive. The true motive of Christian preaching is the salvation of the whole man, physical, mental, spiritual. The min- istry is to aim at the redemption of the whole race, and Jesus Christ must be preached as a Savior not only from the consequences of sin, but from the power of sin. The Gospel of Christ Jesus is God's method of making man perfect. Christianity is God's race- making power, and Christ Jesus, the Perfect Man, is to be the head of a perfect race. Any preaching that aims at anything less than to perfect our entire man- hood is not preaching Christ. Everything that we say and do ought to be conducive to the realization of this glorious and universal salvation of man. We ought to strive for the removal of all evil and for the increase of every good. To present every man per- 366 THE MODEL MESSAGE. feet in Christ Jesus is a great but a grand endeavor. It is a work worthy of God Himself. To present ; that >A is, " to set alongside " of Christ Jesus. Perfect, com- plete ; therefore the motive of all our preaching is to place every man complete, even side by side with Christ Jesus, Were it not that infinite love and om- nipotent powers are engaged in this work, we might well despair of ever realizing it. How imperfect we appear when compared with the best of men, and how immeasurably imperfect the majority of men appear when compared to Christ Jesus ! Nevertheless, it is the glorious truth that " every man" is to become so conformed to the image of Christ as to be complete in Him. To be entirely like Him, without spot or blem- ish, clothed with the same glory, moved by the same spirit, living the same life. Oh, glorious aim! This is worthy of the best that is in us. Magnify your privilege. Do not let the responsibility outweigh your sense of appreciation of your golden opportunities. A coworker with God in making man perfect and in winning the world back as a crown for Christ Jesus ! Remember always that perfection is impossible out of Christ Jesus, but that perfection is ever possible in Him for all men. Remember that the final result is assured; that the world belongs to Emmanuel, and that the whole force of the triune God is exerted in the work of uplifting man. Let this be your stay when tempted to be discouraged by the difficulties THE MODEL MESSAGE. 367 surrounding you and the enormity of the work. Christ must triumph until every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess Him Lord. Seek, therefore, with all diligence, in season and out of sea- son, to deliver the best message in the best manner, through the best motive; and God will see to it that it will bear the best results. May you have prosper- ity and peace in your ministry, and may your preach- ing be a power used of God for making men perfect in Christ Jesus. A MISSIONARY SERMON. By Rev. John Hughes Parry, Utica, N. Y. " But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart ; give ye them to eat. " — Matt. xiv. 16. These words occur in the account of the miraculous feeding of the live thousand, and contain the germ out of which the whole miracle was developed. The four evangelists describe for us this miraculous feeding, the only one of all the miracles of Christ that is so described. This is an indication of the importance attached to it by the writers, and is all the more re- markable when we remember that it finds a place in the Fourth Gospel^ the most mystical and spiritual of the four. It is not my intention to enter into all the details of the miracle. I take for granted that they are familiar to you. But there is one item, contributed by John alone, that is, I think, important as being the key to the whole situation. According to the Synoptists, the disciples took the initiative in the matter (Matt. xiv. 15). But according to John, the Master had much earlier in the day approached Philip on the subject, 368 A MISSIONARY SERMON. 369 and had asked him : " Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" "Why Philip, and not, say, Peter? Perhaps because he was known in the little company as the most practical of the twelve. All his sayings that have been handed doAvn to us certainly warrant us in thinking of him as a very practical man. "And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. " " To prove him " ; that is, to see whether he had faith or not. What a grand opportunity for faith! How well might Philip have said : " With men this is impossible, but with Thee, O Christ, Son of the living God, all things are pos- sible." But instead of faith, Philip resorted to arith- metic ; and in this the church has ever since been too ready, with far less excuse, to follow his example, much to the detriment of the great work of feeding the world's famishing multitude. Philip's practical mind was soon at work preparing an estimate of the probable cost of a meal for the crowd. It is a simple sum in multiplication: five thousand men alone at one twenty-fifth of a penny per head — yes, it would come to just two hundred pence. And it must be no "square," but a very "spare," meal at that. Besides, when did Treasurer Judas ever have such a sum as that in his bag? Thus revolving the matter in his mind, and, we may well suppose, holding frequent and anxious consultations on the subject with his brother apostles during the 24 370 A MISSIONARY SERMON. day, the only way out of the diflBculty that either he or they could arrive at was, "Send the multitude away. " In the words of our text we have the Mas- ter's reply to their somewhat forward advice, and you know how amply His statement was verified and His command was justified by the miracle that fol- lowed. Simple as the narrative is, it takes us out of our depth when we attempt to understand or to explain the hoiv of it. We do not know how, any more than we do in the case of another somewhat analogous miracle — that at Cana. In that " beginning of signs " there was a miraculous change of quality; in the present instance, a miraculous increase of quantity. But at what precise moment the miracle comes in in either case, it is impossible to say. The tvhi/ of the miracle appears to be easier to answer. The answer that probably comes readiest to the question. Why was this miracle wrought? is that the people were hungry, and, blessed be His name! Christ was not above being actuated by such consider- ations. He who was so sparing of His power when His own physical wants were concerned, used it freely for the benefit of others. He who would not command that the stones be made bread to break His forty days' fast, wrought a miracle that was quite as wonderful in order that the multitude might break their fast of a few hours. Yes, of a few hours ; for there was not A MISSIONARY SERMON. 371 here the same urgency that there was in the case of the four thousand, who had been in attendance on the Great Teacher three days, and were iu danger of "fainting in the way." But a farther and a higher reason is to be found in the Gospel of John, who tells us that it was passover time when the miracle took place. The Savior did not go up to Jerusalem to that feast, because the Jews sought to kill Him. But the real passover that year was held, not in Jerusalem, but at Bethsaida Julias, where the Great Antitype set Himself forth symboli- cally, as on the following day, in the synagog at Capernaum, He set Himself forth doctrinally as the food of the world. No doubt He had iu His mind on this occasion the same profound thought that, in the upper room at Jerusalem, twelve months later, He expressed in the never-to-be-forgotten words, " Take, eat; this is my body." There was still another reason why He wrought that miracle. It has been well said that the miracles of Christ were acted parables. They were intended to be not only acts of beneficence to suffering humanity and proofs that the Worker had come from God — they were, of course, both one and the other ; but they were also meant to set forth and illustrate, and did set forth and illustrate, the great principles which underlie the spiritual redemption through Christ. They were ob- ject-lessons in the " philosophy of the plan of salva- 372 A MISSIONARY SERMON. tion . " It was once remarked — and the remark has been freely quoted since — that the miracles were the church bell calling attention to the service going on within. According to the view we are now taking, they were not only that, but also a part, and a very important part, of the service itself. Viewed thus, the miraculous feed- ing of the five thousand was a Missionary Sermon, in which is set forth the provision which God has made for a perishing world, and also the means which He has appointed to bring this provision within the reach of those for whom it is made. In order to see this to better advantage, let us note in succession these three points : I. An Embarrassing Situation. II. A Startling Demand. III. A Glorious Consummation. I. Ati Emharrassirig Situation. It does not re- quire an exceptionally active imagination to take in the hopelessness of the situation in which the disciples found themselves. Here are some five thousand hungry people in a "desert place," with- out food and no place near where food can be pro- cured, thrown on the resources of a handful of people as poor as any of themselves, who not only had no victuals to put before their guests, but had no means wherewith to procure them even if they had been pro- curable in the desert. Yes, it was a sore plight to be in. But it occurred to the disciples that there was a short and easy way out of the difficulty, and they A MISSIONARY SEEMON. 373 forthwith suggested it to their Master : " Send the multitude away." But what is the situation that confronts us to- day? Not five thousand, but fifteen hundred mil- lions, the overwhelming majority of wljom are '* des- troyed for lack of knowledge." " There is a famine in the land"; that is, in the world; "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." We read and hear most cheer- ing news of increased missionary efforts, and the great success which attends those efforts of late years ; and to a loyal subject of our King there can be no more interesting reading or more joyful news. The devoted army of missionaries who have gone out in Christ's name may say, " The Lord hath done great things for us," and we may join in the song and add, " Whereof we are glad. " But there is another side to the question which we can not ignore. It is to be feared the church has not yet realized the fact — for fact it is — that the vast majority of the human race to-day are heathens, without the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Let us try and take in the situation as it really is. Think of the teeming millions who have no god but idols. Then, again, it is estimated that about a fourth — some think a third — of the human race profess Buddhism, a system founded centuries before Christ; and has now more disciples than at any time in its 374 A MISSIONARY SERMON. history, Christianity notwithstanding. Then there is Mohammedanism — that bloody, blighting, and sensual travesty on religion — founded centuries later than Christianity, and the most fierce and relentless antagonist Christianity has to contend with this day, next to Satan and his hosts who inspire it; this abomination is professed by about two hundred and fifty millions of our race. There is but a minority left for Christianity — even nominal Christianity. But here comes what is to me one of the most dishearten- ing features of the situation ; namely, that by far the most numerous of the sections into which Christendom is divided is a very degenerate form of Christianity — and the worst degeneracy is the degeneracy of the best thing. This corrupt form of Christianity has an estimated adherency of two hundred and fifteen mil- lions, and to these millions the Bible — Christianity's own book, the handbook of eternal life — is a forbid- den book. So it is also to the adherents of the Greek church, a formidable rival to its Roman sister in cor- ruption, tho not in numbers. Protestantism is the only form of evangelical relig- ion in our days, and it constitutes, as we can not help seeing, but a very small fraction of the human race. But then, are there not millions all over the world who are only Protestants in the sense of not being Roman Catholics; who, like Gallio of old, care for none of these things; who are not sufficiently interested in A MISSIONARY SERMON. 375 Christ even to be attracted to the preaching of the Gospel of His love and His cross; who, perhaps, never use His name except in blasphemy? And yet in any religious census they would be counted as Protes- tants and Christians ! Then, again, there are multi- tudes who are hearers, and not doers, of the Word ; and worst of all, there are some who have Sifonn of godli- ness, but having denied the poioer thereof. I am, I hope, no pessimist; that is just what a Christian, and certainly a Christian minister, ought not to be. But in view of the state of things which I have repre- sented to you — and I shall be only too glad if it can be shown that it is not so bad as represented — one is most assuredly at times forced to ask, " Are there few that be saved?" — that is, are there few that be Christ's own true, devoted followers, of all the precious souls for whom He died? And this state of things nine- teen centuries after this sin-cursed earth of ours was reddened by the redeeming blood of its King, and His voice was heard on earth : " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Where lies the responsibility? Do we not some- times come perilously near blaspheming the grace of God by attributing the slow progress of the church in the world to the restraining of His spirit? Is not this as if we were asking the disciples' question over again, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Carest Thou not that the// perish — the multitudes 376 A MISSIONARY SERMON. who through the centuries perish for lack of knowl- edge? How can we, and repeat, as we do so often, " For God so loved the world, " etc. ? How can we, when the Eedeemer of the world is waiting for the reward of His travail unto death ; when His spirit is waiting to glorify Him ; when His Father is waiting to be gracious unto a sinful world for His sake; when exceeding great and precious promises are hovering over us like clouds, charged with infinite blessings, and more than ready to deluge the world with their life-giving contents? The multitude is certainly perishing of spiritual hunger; but, "Say not in thine heart. Who shall ascend into heaven," to bring down food for them lest they die; for the Bread of Life is nigh them, and there is enough of it and to spare. " For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." Why, then, does the world perish? It is because the connecting link be- tween the food and the world — that is, the church — is, as has been forcibly and somewhat wittily said, too much of a missing link. You may possibly be inclined to say : " All this is very well, but what about the fixed purposes and decrees of God? " I believe in them. I could not believe in God without believing in them. But I also believe that our rule of conduct, both as individuals and as churches, is not the decrees, but the command- A MISSIONARY SERMON. 377 ments of God. Is not the command, " Go ye, there- fore " — because " all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth " — " and make disciples of all nations " — is not t/utt as fixed and unalterable as any purpose of the Most High? Depend upon it, brethren, that as sure as that He has decreed to save the world, He has also decreed that it shall be done in this way. This brings us to the second point — namely : II. A Stai-tling Demand. On that memorable day in " a desert place" there were proposed two ways out of the difficulty. One was the way of the disciples, the other the way of their Master; one was the way of selfishness, the other the way of love ; one was the way of convenience, the otlier the way of duty ; one was the broad way, the other the narrow way — in short, one was man's way, the other God's way. The way of the disciples was, " Send the multitude away." This proposal had the advantage of being easy and expeditious — qualities that have recommended it to too many disciples ever since. These men were afraid of responsibility. Taking into consideration the largeness of the crowd, the inconvenience of the des- ert, and their own poverty, they came to the con- clusion that they could not help them, and went the length of suggesting to their Master, if not, indeed, of urging on Him, to dismiss them. They had evi- dently counted the cost, but unfortunately they had left out of their calculation by far the most important 378 A MISSIONARY SERMON. item, and that was the presence of omnipotence among them. Calculation is a very good and necessary thing ; but the world will never be saved by calculation, but by unbounded faith in the assurance, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Give ye them to eat." That is Christ's way. Do you say that it is impossible? Every duty is im- possible. !6ut if God command a thing, the very com- mand involves the possibility. If He command the children of Israel to go forward, even when going for- ward meant going into the sea, let them go forward, and the sea will become the King's highway under their feet. If Christ say to that helpless, palsied, miserable being, "Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house," then let him arise, and he will find that his palsied limbs have the vigor of youth in them, and that his decrepid frame pulsates with a new life. If He say to His church to-day, " Give ye them to eat, " be sure the power to obey comes in the act of obedience. And you can not plead the insignificance of your resources as an excuse for disobedience or neglect. You observe that Christ did not increase their store first, and then use it, but used it as it was, and so made it enough for all, altho it consisted of but five barley loaves which were small in size and poor in quality — the food of the poor people. " "We have here but five loaves and two fishes," said the A MISSIONARY SERMON. 379 disciples — and many a timid, do-nothing disciple since. "Bring them hither to me," Christ said — and says still. " We have here but five loaves and two fishes" : that is not the cause of failure. " Bring them hither to me" : that is the secret of success. Brethren, the measure of duty is not our resources, but the com- mand of Christ. III. A Glorious Consummation. Yes; it was not only done, but done munificently. " And they did all eat, and were filled." How paltry and mean seemed Philip's calculation, his "two hundred pennyworth," and " every one of them taking a little, " by the side of that ample repast! And He is still "able to do exceeding abimdantly above all that we ask or think. " The resources of His salvation are boundless, the pro- vision of His grace inexhaustible. You may venture to open wide the doors and invite the whole world to come in. There will be bread enough and to spare. The guests can never be too numerous for the provi- sion made for them. The late C. H. Spurgeon used to say that when he looked at the streets and resorts of London, and saw the numberless crowds of human beings with which they teemed, he wondered where all that throng could find something to eat; but when he saw the vast market-places of London, charged full with food supplies, his wonder then was, where could people enough be found to consume them. I repeat, the Gospel provision is inexhaustible, and it needs 380 A MISSIONARY SERMON. must be so. A single soul can be satisfied witb noth- ing short of the Infinite ; and the Infinite is capable of satisfying the needs of the whole world ; and when that is done it is still the Infinite. But observe the manner in which it was done. ** He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. " It has been truly said that the most glorious fact in Scripture or history, next to the mediatorship of Christ, is the mediatorship of the church of Christ. There is one Mediator between God and men who wins God's gifts for men; there are many mediators who, in Christ's name and for His sake, distribute God's gifts, and especially the bread of life, to men. And we are never so like Christ as when we are engaged in this work. And notice, further, the reflex action of this media- torship, for it blessed those that gave even more than those that took. There were five loaves and two fishes at the first; five thousand men were fed, and twelve baskets remained. Spared, the five loaves and two fishes would scarcely make a basketful; shared, it was increased twelvefold. " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty " (Prov. xi. 24) . True in the time of Solomon ; true at all times ; true in America to-day. I remember that when a child, one of my most cher- ished treasures was a small wooden box, gaudily A MISSIONARY SERMOX. 381 painted, safely locked, and having a slit in the lid through which my pennies went into safe-keeping. This sacred shrine used to go by the name of " cadiv- mi-gei, " which, being interpreted, is, *' save, and thou shalt find. " Now, that is a very good piece of worldly wisdom. But the wisdom from above says, " Give, and thou shalt find." All that we are and all that we have are God's gifts, to be used for God and hu- manity. But in that use lies our most precious riches. If you want the best possible return for your money, lay it up in heaven ; invest it in the greatest concern going — namely, the kingdom of God and His right- eousness. You may possibly be richly paid in kind, altho that does not always follow. But whether or no, your " twelve baskets full" will return unto you in blessings that all the wealth of the universe can not buy. I have just spoken of likeness to Christ. The more like Him we become, the more work we shall attempt for Him ; and the more work for Him we shall attempt, the more like Him shall we bceome. There is action and reaction. Why is it that the spiritual life in our churches is so low — its pulse in many a church beating so feebly as to be almost imperceptible, and making it doubtful whether the words of Christ to the church at Sardis are not applicable to this church also, " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" — why is it? Is it that they do not get spiritual sustenance in adequate 382 A MISSIONARY SERMON. quantity or quality? Not necessarily. I believe that in most churches — even in most of the do-nothing churches — the Gospel is preached in its fulness and purity. Why, then, this low vitality? It is because they do not take exercise, which, as you know, is essential to good health, and essential even to life in the long run. It is because they " stand all the day idle." It is because lips are closed which should spread abroad the Savior's name and famej it is be- cause hands are folded which should sow the seed of the kingdom ; it is because pockets are closed to the claims of God's work that respond readily to inferior claims. How can we expect spiritual prosperity in churches where the members spend a dollar on luxuries for every cent they pay toward the extension of the kingdom of heaven in the world? What a reproach it is on the Christianity of the United States and of Britain that the money spent on strong drink in either country in one year would probably furnish sufficient funds for the evangelization of the whole world ! Would you have higher, deeper, richer Christian experience? Would you have the assurance, full and well founded, of your own salvation? Then help Christ to save the world. Oh, for a larger measure of His spirit, " who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister ! " Oh, for a deeper experience of His love ! This love does not A MISSIONARY SERMON. 383 enervate as some less worthy loves do, but elevates, inspires, constrains our whole being into consecrated activity in His service, which is also the highest ser- vice of our fellow man. I was amused, edified, and rebuked to read not long ago an account given by a gentleman who has paid much attention to the habits of ants, of a remarkable instance of sagacity, if not something more, in those wonderful little creatures. He laid a piece of sweetmeat on a table, and then picked up an ant and placed it on the sweetmeat. He was astonished to see the little creature rapidly descend by one of the legs of the table and seek his fellows. They appear to have understood the news. He then at once turned back, followed by a long train of his fellow citizens, and conducted them to the feast. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard: consider her ways, and be wise." "Can we whose souls are lighted With wisdom from on liigh, — Can we to men benighted The lamp of life deny? Salvation ! oh, salvation 1 Tlie joyful sound proclaim, Till each remotest nation Has learned Messiah's name. " But not only compassion for our fellow men, but also, and primarily, loyalty to our King, should move us to the most devoted and untiring efforts for the evangel- 384 A MISSIONARY SERMON. ization of the world. A little child once went to a missionary meeting, where she was much impressed by a missionary map of the world which was exhibited there, on which the Christian countries were colored red. She was painfully struck by the smallness of the territory assigned to her much-loved Savior; and on reaching home she immediately took steps to rem- edy, as she thought, that very unsatisfactory state of things by daubing red paint all over a map of the world that was hanging up on the wall of her father's library. On being asked for an explanation, she said she wanted all the world for Jesus. Ah ! my little maiden, it is not so easy as all that; but if all who profess the name of Christ were only actuated by thy loyal zeal for the Master and His kingdom, the earth would soon be reddened. Do not forget, brethren, the way in which it is to be done : " He gave . . . to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude." "Lord of the living harvest That whitens o'er the plain, Where angels soon shall gather Their sheaves of golden grain ; Accept these hands to labor, These hearts to trust and love, And deign with them to hasten Thy kingdom from above. " As laborers in Thy vineyard, Send us, O Christ, to be A MISSIONARY SERMON. 385 Content to bear the burden Of weary days for Thee ; Wo ask no other wages, When Thou shalt call us home, But to have shared the travail Which makes Thy kingdom come. " 25 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER. By Eev. Thomas Parry, D.D., Pittsburg, Pa. " I bow my knees unto the Father, . . . that ye may be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, . . . being rooted and grounded in love, . . . that ye be filled unto all the fulness of God. " — Ephes. iii. 14-19. Paul was at Ms best when delineating the growth of Christ in the soul. He delighted to unfold the different stages of character. He is charming when following the progress of man from a less into a larger humanity. With great pleasure he notes the changes of disposition, the gradual increase of the likeness of Christ, and the enlargement of the heart to have a greater capacity for God; the transporting of the old man into the new, of the natural into the spiri- tual. Paul is an admirer of beauty in character. He is a lover of a well-balanced manhood. He is won to the man who is complete in all his parts, a man who is symmetrical in all his faculties. He has no taste for odd or protruding idiosyncrasies. He always speaks of the whole man growing up together. Body, 386 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 387 soul, and spirit are held in their proper and relative value. All the powers of man are held in an equi- librium of development. Paul looks upon man from three separate points of view. Man has threefold relations. He has obliga- tions to himself, to society, and to God. As an in- dividual he is accountable for what he is within him- self. As a social being, he does not live to himself alone. As a spiritual being, he is responsible to God in all things. Each of these three aspects of life needs its separate characteristic growth. The indi- vidual man needs intensity; the social man needs breadth, and the spiritual man needs altitude. Man in his threefold relation is embraced in Paul's prayer. When he asks that the Ephesians " might be strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner man, " he has reference to the intensity of the individual character. He desires every man to be robust in nature, to be an independent unity of power. "When he prays that they might "be rooted and grounded in love, " he desires them to have broad sym- pathies. When he prays that they might " be filled unto all the fulness of God, " he seeks that they should have spiritual altitude, elevating aspirations in the things pertaining to godliness. The basis of intensity which shows the worth of a man in himself is in the intellect. In the intellect are the dynamic forces of the personality j brain is the 388 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. laboratory. In it are generated the activic energies of man. The basis of breadth, of magnanimity, of the radi- ant benefact>Ons and the heroic self-sacrifices, the things which reveal man as acting and reacting in society, is in the heart. But the altitude of charac- ter, that through which divine efficiency is displayed, is founded in man's spiritual nature. The glowing Shekinah, the flame of Jehovah, is there. It is through his spiritual nature that man is illumed by disclosures of God. Intellectually, man is in touch with the whole uni- verse; morally, he is related to every being capable of good; but spiritually, he is in allegiance with God, partaking of the divine nature. As an individual, man is a sphere, rounded, orbicu- lar; as a social being, he interspheres, fills all space with sweetness and light; but as a child of God, he is one with God, Christ is formed in him. A full Christian life has this threefoldness in equi- poise of development. The mind grows through the avenues of knowledge. Theology, science, and the arts are its architect. His heart grows by the minis- tries of disinterestedness, the interchange of civilities, acts of love and labors of charity. The spirit de- velops in communion with God. Capacity for God is the measure of our growth in spiritual life. In a more complete symmetrical development of SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 389 the Christian life will be found the hope of future civilization. The optimist predicts for man an un- limited progress. But already are signs of deteriora- tion in our physique, of weakness in our sensibility, and of failure between our ideas and executive energy. We have too many in our insane asylums ; too many suicides and too much brutality in our sports. Often the man who gives birth to an idea fails to make it dominant. He lacks strategic force or the necessary brawn. Tine intellect, as a rule, is deficient in stalwartness, in magnetic impetus and directive agency. The unifier of a Germany, or of an Italy, or of the United States, must have vim, executive vigor. The reformer must have nerve. Brains, to run in the van of progress, must have stout legs under him. To-day the ostensible leader of public opinion is the man of assertion, of grit and pluck, the pugnacious qualities. I^Ian, as Beecher said, is like a many-bladed knife. One uses one blade, and another, another blade. Each has only skill enough to utilize one. All the others are shut do^vn inside of the handle. They are useless. But man should be educated to open and use every one of the blades. The educated man is to have adaptation and fitness to call up any one of his faculties to do the work for which God has designed it. But we are one-sided creatures. The man of 390 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. mighty ideas has, often, not enough muscular strength to demonstrate the effectiveness of his thoughts. The marks of a great mind are sensitive- ness, delicacy of organization, humility, and modesty, the very things which are crushed in the struggle for life. Hence the real forces of civilization are ob- scured. The man in whose brain is mapped the prog- ress of empires is often a hidden factor. The major- domo of state movements is apt to have just enough mind to make an intellectual bull-dog. A Grumkow or a Sechendorf plays havoc with your kings. The knowing lawyer is not at the head of the bar. The man who speaks twenty languages in not the success- ful teacher. The divine composer fails to bring his music into recognition. Your Sam Johnson is un- qualified to protect his self-interest. He is not skilled in literary bargains. The walking encyclopedia never walks in front of the procession. The great minds are mostly used as a reference library. It is a very grotesque spectacle, yet a fact, that society is standing on its head, brains are at the feet. This monstrosity is due to the lack of symmetrical development. When brains were at college, brawn was forgotten. When it declined Latin, it declined the gymnasium. The boy's clear ideas lose force by his sallow complexion. Great thoughts need subsoil, burliness, sturdi-ness, velocity, momentum, and ex- ecutive tact. A sick girl may be a seraph ; but she SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 391 must have an Apollo to take her wisdom to market. I do not mean bulk, but sinewy vigor. Great minds are apt to have more bullet than powder. The sharpshooter has a small bullet, but powder enough to send it straight to the bull's-eye. Symmetry is an element or condition of intensity. A little symmetrical man is worth more to the world than a lopsided giant. A man needs large egotism, that kind of selfness that makes selfishness noble. It is a self-concern in being pure, intelligent, generous, honest, and courage- ous. There is a lofty selfishness and there is an ignoble humility. There is an egoism that makes men great, and enrich their surroundings. There is a humility that is self-degrading and unhealthy. It is noble in men to wish themselves large. It is noble to have the ambition of Jonathan Edwards, who re- solved to be the best man that ever lived. Our colleges are turning out a vast number of am- bitious men and women. Creatures full of dynamic forces, brave men and women who have mighty hopes, who believe in vast possibilities — they seem determined to realize the most genuine meaning of life. It is noble to have the ambition to be large. It is noble to seek to be free from littleness and awkward angularity. It is noble to reach out and draw in; to centralize all things in one's personal worth. It is 892 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. right to have omnivorous appetites of this kind, rest- less cravings of special tendencies of, active in thought, pushing out, the ambition to be a man. One of the chief elements in symmetrical personal intensity is self-mastery. There is no personal free- dom except through a regime of slavery. One must become a slave to truth, fact, and law. Man gets his liberty through this kind of servitude. The whole universe of God is under a drill-sergeant. Perfect grace comes from obedience, as it is well expressed in the life of Frederick the Great. What would Prussia be if "Frederick William had not been a severe drill- master? Eussia, if Peter the Great had not dis- ciplined the people? England, if William the Con- queror, the Normans, and the Plantagenets had not with an inflexible hand brought it amenable to laws? Discipline converted those old gluttonous Jutes and Angles into a race that is heroic in industry. So also is our liberty in ballot-boxes and suffrage secured by our being whipped, subdued, and made obedient to law. An intense life must have a purpose. Why do you enter the school or college? What is the purpose of a lawyer, teacher, physician, or merchant? Is it to secure an increase of things or an increase of man- hood? Does one study music for the money that is in it, or for the ecstasy which is felt through it? Is it not the purpose of music to express to men whatever is true and beautiful in one's hidden life? SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 393 But a man can not be intense unless he is able to discover, to discriminate and recognize his adapta- tion for a given work. Every life is a plan of God, There is a secret combination of thought and action suitable only to that life — as Christ could say, " For this cause was I born. " So it is for every one to find the cause of his birth. The worth of a developed intellect, of a disciplined moral reason and spiritual growth, is in this plan. After the end of life is discovered, then system is important. A young life is a widespread, inorganic, trackless region, or rather a confused mass of thrums. Man must be systematized. A creature of disorder is of no use. Civilization is cosmic, barbarism is chaotic. Now the first thing for a man to do when he has dis- covered his plan, is to get all his faculties together into a complex team and pull " in rational human harness " toward that end. He will find the threads and knit them into that design. An intense life is apt to be original. It has an in- finite outlook before it, and a thrilling inspiration within. It will think for itself even if it must be tried for heresy. To-day we need this kind of mind, to reafiirm old truths in new syntax. Dante and Calvin had the truth. Oh yes, there is a Calvinism in the universe, whether we are able to enter it anatomically or not. But to break our spiri- 394 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. tual fast, we need our diet of dogmas served different- ly. The old-fashioned catering by means of meta- physic systems would give us the congestion of the heart, or spiritual rheumatism. Out of old truths, we must extract new beauties, new impulses, new spiritual forms and affections. God' s kaleidoscope turns every age, and in the infinite life of the Spirit new figures appear. Here, then, you have your individual in his noblest form ; he is " strengthened by the might of the Spirit in the inner man." Now what he wants is that trans- cendent talent, the talent which takes trouble. God gives to every man a certain quantity of raw material. Five dollars worth of pig iron is worth a hundred thousand dollars converted into watch- springs — the work put on it gives it value. The masses among men only work their ore into pig iron. That is why they are so cheap. When President Grant appointed General Gresham to the judgeship, Mr. Gresham asked the President who it was that had recommended him. The Presi- dent said : " The man who led that charge of your di- vision at Peach Tree Creek, in July, 1861, where you were wounded and crippled for life, and left for dead on the field; the man I knew to be a gallant soldier; the man who fought all through the war without a blemish upon his reputation for patriotism, bravery, fidelity, and gallantry ; he recommended you so strong- SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 395 ly that I could not resist, and so I made the appoint- ment." That man was Mv. Gresham himself. The force of his own character had recommended him. The world is watching; the all-seeing eye of Provi- dence is watching, to see how much honest work we are willing to put in our endeavors. But an intense life will put forth its executive efforts to get at the truth of things. When Dr. Channing was a boy, he wondered how the preachers could speak of the wrath of God and then go home happy and laughing from church. lie came to the con- clusion that such preaching was cant. The preachers had their dogmas with the truth already dead inside of them. Intensity of soul will put forth huge determination to get the truth of things. " An honest man is the noblest work of God." When Dr. Wolf, of Germany, was under trial for heresy, and his critics seemed buried in a multiplex labyrinth of scholastic distinctions, the King of Prus- sia excitedly asked, " In the name of God, what is the truth of it? " That is the question. Blessed is the man who has divine incapacity to live among lies, or who can not be cunningly adroit in sophistry. Blessed is the man who can with simplicity, ease, and vigor throw his soul into an energy of emphasis to establish the truth. Sophie Charlotte, at the king's coronation, took a 396 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. little snuff rather than be listening to an empty, long- winded prayer. To her honest heart a bit of rasped tobacco in her nostrils was more fragrant than the risings, sittings, and meaningless eloquence. She had a transcendent, heartfelt aversion to cant, sham, and im veracity. If your Savonarolas and your Knoxes used terrific language, it was the effect of the fermentation of mighty truth under its ribs. If Christ uttered words which centuries of skepticism have not plucked up by the roots, it was because they had in them the divine truth. Truth heaved up His thoughts, truth inspired His sympathy, and truth distilled His tears. Much of our success will depend on how much of the realm of disorder we can subdue, how many facts we can make to stand on their feet, and how many worn-out creeds, obsolete language and platitudes, we can bury. Deception must be exterminated. But man is not to live for himself alone. He is to intersphere. If he neglects his social nature he has no outlet among men. His sympathies lose their cun- ning. He will fail to manipulate human forces. He has no go-between, no satellites to reflect him. He does not touch men contagiously. He inoculates nothing with the virus of his own personality. There is a picture by Church called " Knowledge is Power." A young lady collegiate is sitting with book in hand and an Oxford cap on her head. Before her. SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 397 the animal nature is represented by tigers, the fero- cious, wild passions of man. These she has tamed, made docile and made subject to government. Knowl- edge is power ; but to chain moral wild beasts, a head full of knowledge is not enough. The heart must be full of virtue, and conscious of its allegiance to God. The heart must have that quality of life which comes forth out of being *' rooted and grounded in love." In Delhi once stood a temple whose ceiling was set with diamonds and beneath which stood the throne of the divine peacock. The jewels in this tem- ple were worth ^$30,000,000. On the marble pedes- tal of the throne, in Arabic, were these words, " If ever there were Paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here." But the facts are that this temple was built by poor slaves, many of whom died of starva- tion and cruelty while in the act of building it. This temple represents intensity without breadth. Treas- ures and education have been concentrated to produce an awful kind of egotism. Men and women have been known to be sublimely beautiful within them- selves, but in relation to others ugly, hollow, and deformed, their narrowness grating rudely on the finer sensibilities. If we are to liberate slaves, to close moral and physical sweatshops, to lessen the weariness of toil, to unfetter men from the petrifactions of dead dog- mas and the dark thoughts of superstition, we must 398 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. be inwrought with that grace which bears one anoth- er's burdens. To this sympathy, as history witnesses, will atheism and darkness most likely surrender. What the world to-day needs is sympathy reaching from top to bottom of society — that disinterested love that was in Jesus Christ. If our sons are to grow up trees of righteousness ; our daughters to be as corner-stones polished after a similitude of a palace ; if they are to be the roots of a great race ; if the breath of God is to breathe sweet- ness into their thoughts ; if they expect to gain beauty and strength, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners, — they must include in their purpose of life every human being. If you would be of any power, you must seek it through reason and friendship, sweetness and light. Speaking ex cathecha is continually becoming less forcible. Pope Leo XIII. can not be the autocrat that Leo X. was. Leo X. had but to utter the word. Leo XIII. must use tenderness and reason. Leo XIII. must be considerate and thoughtful. To-day, when the Pope wishes to control Germany, Ireland, or America, he reasons through the ideas of J. S. Mill, Spencer, and Henry George. He talks as a friend with a friend. Leo XIII. can not command and com- pel a Michelangelo as did the Pope of former days. The old despotism of dogma is dead. Keligious truths are no longer slave-masters, but are winsome SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 399 with reason, are to the heart as music is to a fine thought. If the rose-fragrauee of truth can not win you ; if the sweet voice of reason can not draw you after it; if the lovely form of the Christ can not lift you into the higher spiritual kingdom, there is no whipping-post or thumb-screws to compel you. It takes a larger number of ideas to make a man to-day than ever before. Once the soul was satisfied with one or two objects of utility or beauty. A feather and a sword were enough for the old knight. For a thousand years men lived like polyps, each child being the exact reproduction of the parent. The great men spent a hundred years on one dogma or war-drill. To-day the soul is not satisfied without the secrets of the universe at its will. This amassing of the head with truth makes the heart capable of greater feelings than ever before. Thought is the father of emotions. Breadth and depth of heart follow intensity of mind. A strong sentiment is awakened by the light of truth shining in the eyes of thought. Only in an insane asylum is there much sentiment without facts and truth be- hind it. It is said that Englishmen often fail to understand our American jokes because they do not know the ideas which gave them rise. Lovers of music regard their art as of itself a creator of emotion. It is a mistake. The best 400 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. music is only an expression of feeling, the result of thought. If you do not have the thoughts underlying our "National Hymn," or "Marching through Georgia," or the " Marseillaise, " you will have but little emotion in singing them. The Wedding March has often brought tears to the eyes of old people. Their feel- ings are full of memories. It does not so touch the hearts of the unmarried. If I should cry out, " Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," or " Here I stand, I can not do otherwise, so help me God," or "For Christ's crown and kingdom," or " Liberty and union, now and forever, one and insep- arable," the effect would be nothing to the man who did not know the history of Luther, Scotland, and the struggles to keep the integrity of the union. The greater the conceptions of the intellect, the more do they move the heart. Wherein is the strength of Christianity but in its great thoughts, its groupings of truth — in truth which could not be brought here except by a God-man? If the emotions, the vigils, the tears, and pleadings of Christ have intensity, it is because of His intellectual grasp of the reality and His far-reaching penetration into the truth of things. His all-knowing mind made it possible for Him to have all sympathy. His omniscience brought the sorrows of the whole race into His tears. If Kossuth aroused our sympathy for Hungary, if John Bright SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 401 stirred waves of thrilling emotions for the working- man, and if Henry Berg cried for mercy within our hearts for the dumb animals, it was because of the intensity with which they thought on the subjects. Yes, heart-power is the regenerator of the world, truth surcharged with sympathy — truth fertilized with fellow feeling. The Lacedemonians, who were a poor people, of- fered lean sacrifices to their gods, while the Athe- nians, who were wise and wealthy, offered fat and costly sacrifices. Yet in war the former were always masters. When the Athenians asked the oracle the reason of their defeat, the oracle replied that the Lacedemonians were a people who gave their hearts to their gods, while the Athenians only gifts. Heart-power is growing. The guns and swords of the time of Columbus and Napoleon are becoming ob- solete as a power in civilization. The use of war im- plements is an affliction. So also is the old cast of scholasticism; it is of less account every day. The ethics which rise out of sympathy with men are sweep- ing around the millions. The great men of to-day are the Ben Adhems who write themselves as those who love their fellow men. It was once eloquent to remark that the British drum-beats could be heard around the world. To-day, drum-beats are humdrum. The drum-beats of this present war are notes calling the attention of a savage 26 402 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. world to the great moral ideas underlying this out- ward strife. They are the thunder come to clear the somber clouds of medievalism from the island gardens of the oceans. The Pentecostal sounds from heaven are vibrating, creating the delicious music of the heart. Under its intonations all of life will be filled with melody. Your schools and colleges are to make war use- less. Once, when a Roman general caught a few barbarian spies, instead of crucifying them he or- dered them to be taken through the army and streets of Rome. Then he sent them back to their savage captain. They told their master that war was use- less. They had seen a nation of kings. That kingly power to-day is Christian intelligence. Mind inoculated with truth and heart surcharged with the righteousness of Christ — these are the true sovereignty. A Hebrew or a Greek could afford to love only a tribe. The divines of the sixteenth cen- tury might exclude infant Turks from heaven. Mil- ton might see in Christianity the gracious will of God to man, and yet be incapable of seeing any mercy for Catholics. The early colonists believed in liberty for all except the negro. When Roger Williams cham- pioned all mankind, he had to run for shelter among the Indians. The theologians of five years ago might find it impossible for Socrates to be saved. But there is going on a mellowing of the spirit of man. This SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 403 year, many of the logomacliists died under the frown of the General Assembly. Christ is leaveuiug the heart of humanity. Soon it will be impossible to persecute a Jew or a Chinaman ; impossible for a child to be a serf in a mine, or for a woman to be tied to a cart with her dog. All crea- tion is waitiug for its redemption. God wants mankind to be happy. He does not like sackcloth and ashes on men. God delights in sweet sounds and great truths. Is it not an awful delusion that a man should ex- press his love for God and Christ by becoming hide- ously sad or carry a sorrowful countenance? The most repulsive picture at the World's Fair was that of the procession of flagellants. It is not easy to conceive how men ever imagined that bloody infliction of pain, that to be sorrowful, starved, cadaverous, and self-whipped creatures, were pleasing to God. How did men get the idea that if they loved God they must be sad and repulsive? The Bible says, " Blessed are they who know the joyful sound, for they, O Lord, shall see the light of thy countenance." On God's earth everything that is sweet and beau- tiful blossoms in the sunshine of kindness. The owl, the lizards, and the uglier kind of spiders — all hideous things are in the darkness and hidden places. Let the Christian scatter sunshine. Cheer all human societies; cheer all heroic labor and all the 404 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. children of struggle. Cheer every time a Siberian shackle is broken or a ship-load of corn crosses the Atlantic to the sons of want. Cheer whenever there is a contraction of hell, and heaven is enlarged. This old bloodthirsty and sinning world needs to be taken lovingly into our arm, and have the soul of our sym- pathy diffusively pressed through it. God so loved the world. But to do this great work we must " be filled unto all the fulness of God." Every faculty must be aglow from the furnace of inspiration, kindled by the love of Christ. Man needs intensity, he needs breadth ; but he must have altitude, a heavenward posture of soul. You can not lift this earth to heaven by standing on it. You must stand above it, on the battlements of Jehovah's truths. Christ has given us a new definition of man. Man without God is less than God designed him to be. A Christian is to be man plus Christ formed in him. Godlessness is a hindrance even in this life. "My atheism," said Colonel Ingersoll, "cost me the gov- ernorship of Illinois." In the old legend, the sect which opposed Moses and denied God was turned into apes, sent into the Dead Sea, and permitted to come out as men but one day in the year. Atheism has no inspirational forces. It has no stirrings of the imag- ination, no beauty, no romance, or art, or an infinite outlook. It has no circumambient spirit. Its last SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 405 analysis is matter. The idea of God briugs with it infinitudes, evokes supernatural conjurations and prophecies, immeasurable possibilities of moral attri- butes, which gradually yield up their secrets. The mind is fascinatingly hitched to the stars. In the Greek play, the girl Antigone perceived the world of eternal right. When the king decreed against her performing the funeral rites of her brother, she told him that there was a morality which rose above the king. She knew something of that fulness of life found in God. The idea of God is the defense of the weak against the mighty. Our sense of right is but the echo of the music of the sky. Here is the child of a poor man. Now should your Czar, with all his great power and dominion, do an act of injustice to this beggar's child, there would arise a power in the presence of which that monarch would quail. It is the sense of the presence of God. The thought of God flings open the pearly gates ; and we behold that, in the estimate of God, manhood is greater than monarchy. How noble is this manhood when intensified by the strength of the Spirit, when rooted and grounded in love, and when lifted up to the altitude of being filled unto all the fulness of God. In the presence of God the obscure celestial flower of the soul puts forth its tendrils. How the light of the glory of God puts to flight all shadows ! — the angel- 406 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. soul looks out upon tliat transfiguration in Christ, and all imagination is surpassed in reality. In the pres- ence of God the heart is made warm as by celestial fire. It overflows with serenity, ecstasy, and sweet gayety. The idea of God is to the soul a sunbeam in the darkness ; in all sorrow it is an ineffable song. My friends, it is your privilege to have this divine presence with you. If you are among the lovers of kindness and justice, Christ is with you. If you are determined to take up the duties which lessen the as- perities of your fellow men, Christ is with you. If you would make society brave, pure, and true, Christ is with you. If you catch any new light and throw it upon the mysteries of life, and thereby untie the hard knots which bind this earth to sin and lust, Christ is with you. He is with all men that try to overcome evil with good. Now look at the soul coming forth out of the seed of divine life. As a rosebud of God it seems. Every leaf within its fold is intended to shed the fragrance of virtue, of truth, and of noble achievements. It is planted at the shrine of divine knowledge, at the altar of the pure Word of God, and is under the care and tuition of the Holy Spirit. The young Christian has before him the outlines of a symmetrical character. Will he copy them and complete them into life? His life is filled with prophecies, his roots are in soil watered by the river of life, and the world is waiting SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 407 to gather the fruit. "Will he grow according to the mind of God? The world was once narrow. It will never be nar- row again. New pleasures, new duties, and new thoughts are pouring in every day. The Christian life is as a great river running over its banks. Our work is not to keep it in the old channels, but to purify it. As thoughts will roll on with greater vehe- mence, the work to control and keep pure the moral, the intellectual world, is ever increasing. My friends, here we stand. The strength of wis- dom is in the intellect ; the majestic sway of the moral sympathies are spread abroad through the heart; but the beauty of the Lord Jehovah is upon us through the altitude of our spiritual nature. The symmetrical development of man in this threefold character is what we seek. Upon a monument dedicated to General Gordon, who died in Sudan, it is written : " He gave his in- tellect to the ignorant, his substance to the poor, his sympathies to the oppressed, his energies to right the wrong, his life to his country, and his heart to his God. " That is the kind of men we ought to be. You have heard of the tomb Taj-]\Iahal. It was of snow-white marble. For a score of years twenty thou- sand men and women worked upon it. It is a gem of art. But. all this expenditure was to commemorate the beauty and virtue of one woman. It was her 408 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. pure life, her acts of love and labors of charity, that called forth this monument. In this work is the highest achievement of woman. Oh, you men and women with the infinite life of Jesus Christ within you, what is that marble com- pared with your inheritance? To you as Christians the portals of God are opened. The doors of God's republics do not turn on pedigree or on aristocratic hinges, nor are God' s advantages pivoted on heredi- tary prerogatives. They open to the masterful spirit of Christ in you. Go forth, then, with all the wealth of your soul. Be active and enthusiastic champions of mankind. It is for you to be an heir with Christ, a child of God, and a scholar of the Holy Spirit. Be intense enough to have unflinching convictions of the truth. Be broad enough to embrace in your sympa- thies all mankind. Have altitude enough that you may be as trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, whose boughs stretch skyward and whose crowns are bedewed with the clouds of His daily grace. SELF-RENUNCIATION THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. By Rev. Joseph Roberts, D.D., New York. "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except acorn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life [or soul] loseth it ; and he that hateth his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. " — John. xii. 23-25. It was the first day of the last week in the earthly- life of Jesus ; and He weut into the temple, probably passing at once into the women's court, "where the treasury boxes were. In this court *'came certain Greeks," Hellenes, to Philip, saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus." These Hellenes were not Jews who lived in Greece or in Greek colonies, but were Gentiles, real Greeks, who are described by the phrase "among those who were accustomed to come up to worship at the feast." If they had been Greek Jews, another word would have been used. What they desired was to have a private conversation on religious subjects. How do we know whether, having witnessed the op- 409 410 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. position lie encountered from the rulers of his own nation, they did not desire to invite him to turn to the Gentiles, who would better appreciate Him? Eusebius has preserved the memory of an embassy sent to Jesus by Abgarus, king of Edessa, in Syria, to invite Him to take up His abode with him and to promise Him such a royal welcome as should compen- sate Him for the obstinacy with which the Jews re- jected Him. This fact is not without resemblance to the one in the text, in which we behold one of the first demonstrations of the heathen world in favor of the Grospel, and the first indication of that attrac- tion which its moral beauty was soon to exercise over the whole human race. There were two manifesta- tions of our Lord to the Gentiles — one at the begin- ning, and this one at the close of His life. The Magi, the wise men of the East, came to the cradle of Jesus ; the Greeks, the wise men of the West, came to His cross. " The old world of the East, with its exhausted history, came to the cradle of the Child of Promise to receive a fresh impulse, to share in the new creation of God and rejuvenescence of the world. The new world of the West, with its mobile life, its very ex- panding history, its glowing hopes and aspirations, came to the cross of the Eedeemer that it might receive a deeper earnestness and a higher consecration." In these instances we see the East and the West — sci- ence and thought — seeking Christ. The Magi, on the THE LAW OF SELFPRESERVATIOS. 411 one hand, are the representatives of the world's godly scientists, the forerunners of the Galileos, the Kep- lers, the Xewtons, and Darwins, who never stop at laws, but from nature rise to nature's God. The Greeks, on the other hand, are representatives of the world's godly philosophers. They are the forerunners of the Augustines, the Anselms, and the Pascals. This circumstance made a profound impression on Jesus. It is, as it were, the first bursting forth of a new world. Hence His thoughts turned to Calvary-. So this text is the answer of Christ to the Greeks, tho it seems at the first glance to be no answer at all; touches the very heart of all such questions and answers; and is, besides that, a beautiful instance of the rich, transcendental nature of the Son of God. Christ saw in them the first fniits of the full harvest of the heathen lands, the advance guard of the multi- tude which no man can number. " The hour is come, " said He, "and the Son of ^lan should be glorified." " He that loveth his life loseth it ; aud he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." How can it be afi^med that gain is loss and loss is gain? To formal logic this statement is absurd. "We might as well say that something is nothing, or that down is up, or that the South is the Xorth. This statement violates the principle of contradiction ; that which Sir "William Hamilton declares to be the high- est of all logical laws — the supreme law of thought. 412 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. Yet the statement is not a mere rhetorical paradox, but an exact statement of the deepest law of life, the fundamental law of self-sacrifice and glorification of the Son of Man. " Loveth his life," " hateth his life," " eternal life." Do you like paradoxes? Nature is full of them. Some men are accustomed to apply paradox as if it were a term of reproach and implied absurdity. But all that the term properly implies is that the burden of proof lies with him who maintains the paradox, since men are not expected to abandon the prevailing belief until some reason is shown. As I said, nature is full of paradoxes. The water which drowns us as a fluent stream can be walked upon as ice. The bul- let which, when fired from a musket, carries death will be harmless if ground to dust before being fired. The crystallized part of the oil of roses, so graceful in its fragrance — a solid at ordinary temperatures, tho readily volatile — is a compound substance, containing exactly the same elements and exactly the same pro- portions as the gas with which we light the streets. The tea which we daily drink with benefit and pleas- ure produces palpitation, nervous tremblings, and even paralysis if taken in excess; yet the peculiar organic agent called "thein," to which tea owes its quality, may be taken by itself (as thein, not as tea) without any appreciable effect. Thus we see that nature is full of paradoxes ; and not nature only, but THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. 413 also the teaching of the Teacher from heaven. Ac- cording to His teaching, the only true gain is through loss ; the only true enrichment is through giving ; the only true victory is through suffering and humiliation ; and the only true life is through death. lie that lov- eth his life loseth it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. The life of Jesus Christ Himself was subjected to this law. More than once did the Lord express in the words which He here emphatically repeats the course of life which those must lead who would follow Him. On several great occasions He impressed this law of spirit of life upon the minds of His disciples. After call- ing the twelve iii His commission to them, to place His claim on their affections as greater than that of the father, mother, friend, and calling for self-denial, self-sacrifice. He said : " He that findeth his life shall lose it ; he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Comp. Matt. x. 39; xvi. 25; Luke x. 24.) This is the watchword of Christ, and it should be our watchword also. In the text He is applying to His own case this universal law of the divine life, of which lie was on the point of giving the crowning, climacteric expression by His suffering and death. Brethren, do you grasp this great thought? Do you understand this great law of the moral and the spir- itual world? What is it? It is the fundamental law of self-sacrifice. What does it mean? It means this : 414 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. that self-renunciation is the law of self-preservation ; and, conversely, that the law of self-preservation is the law of self-destruction. Let us try to realize this great law of the moral and the spiritual world in its application to Christ's death and to our own life. I. First, then, let us look at the vicarious death of Christ in the light of this law. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it bear- eth much fruit." This is true not only of wheat, but of every other seed J every seed must die in order to bear fruit. There is no harvest without death. All nature, con- ceived of as animated by the breath of God, contains in her phenomena the most pregnant symbols of all the truth in the spiritual world. And in these words, which were first spoken to the Greeks, Christ does not appeal to the testimony of the prophets, but to the secretly prophesying similitude of nature. Therefore nature herself, as well as the divine prophecy in Israel, speaks of the redeeming death of Christ. Since the fall of mankind was foreseen and the plan of their redemption laid in the deep counsels of eternity, the divine Creator implanted types in nature of this great principle — life through death, growth through death, gain through loss. From this divine ordinance of fruit springing from the seed, of the new THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. 415 growth from the death of the old, we have the most primitive prophecy of the mystery of the atonement which pure creation contains. Indeed, we may look upon the whole world as one great parable to which the Gospel supplies the clew. How potent and beau- tiful is this analogy to illustrate that change from weakness to power, from springing forth afresh of life out of death ! From death in its general sense and from death in its special sense — namely, as the wages of sin — new life has sprung forth. Such a wonderful idea is this! Death is the source of the natural and the spiritual harvest. The Savior of the world could not be a source of eternal life without dying, but through His death He became a source of life, increase, fruitfulness, and glorification. 1. The death of Christ is the reviving, the only reviving, power in the moral world to all united to Him by faith. The grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die in order to become a reviving energy. The seed * of wheat must undergo death-like change and death-like transformation before it springs up and *The original word is not sperma, a seed, but kokkos, a berry, a fruit. It shows the extreme, even scientific, accuracy of our Savior's language ; for corn of wheat, and other cereal grains, consist of seeds incorporated with seed-vessels, — are in reality fruits, tlio they appear like seeds. It is not the bare seed that falls into the ground, and, by dying, yields much fruits, but the corn of wheat— the whole fruit with its husk-like covering. It contains a germ of the harvest. 416 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. bears fruit. So the Eternal Son voluntarily sinks down into tlie earth of death and curse, into the do- main and destiny of sinful men, not to remain there, but to rise up out of, as the glorified Glorifier, the risen Raiser of men. The corn of wheat surrenders itself to the forces of nature, which take possession of it and seem to put it altogether aside. But this ap- parent death is in reality more abundant life. Its burial-place becomes the scene of a wonderful resur- rection. The spark of vitality has been kindled by the very elements that seemed to work its destruction ; but the seed becomes a bright, green, beautiful plant, which lays all nature under contribution for its suste- nance— the earth and the sky — and at length becomes a luxuriant stalk of corn laden with its fruitful ear. Nature does not give us her blessings without a stern struggle with hostile elements. How true is all this of the stormy end of our Savior's life, when He said, Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? — "Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause come I unto this hour. " The divine corn-seed drops into the ground ; a golden harvest waves, and heaven is garnered with ransomed souls. In the history of the nation, in the life of men, in the plan of redemption, as well as in nature, it is a law of universal operation that out of self -renouncing, self-sacrificing resignation of all, the benediction of richer fruitfulness, of glorified, multiplied existence, THE LAW OF SELF- PRESERVATION. 417 springs forth. If Christ had not died, He would " abide alone " — alone in the presence of His Father, alone in the bosom of eternal silence; back in the past eternity abide alone ; immensity a void ; the mysteri- ous trinity in unity, pervading and filling all space; no need of worlds or angels to glorify them ; there was the corn of wheat abiding alone, the Eternal Sou with the Eternal Father, in the glory which He had with Him before the foundation of the world, but with- out any of the sons of men. The corn of wheat fell into the ground and died. Impelled by nothing but His own free sovereign, unmerited grace, Christ re- solves not to abide alone. He stood to the yoke of the very laws He had made. And what is the harvest? His — through death He became the source of reviving power and fruitfulness. His power is the kingdom which is the measure of the world's empire to-day. Where is the power of Egypt and Assyria, the wisdom and genius of Greece? These, founded on mere selfishness, have passed away; but the death of the Son of Man forms the spiritual power that is to create the world anew. If we become one with God — and what higher glory or felicity is conceiv- able?— let us ever remember that Christ in His obe- dience and atoning death is the only source of our salvation. " Even the Son also quickeneth whom he will." " The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom 27 418 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. for many. " This is what the Holy Ghost said of His death : " Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. " A ransom — do you know what ransom means? It means an equivalent or satisfaction for things forfeited or lost. He gave Himself a ran- som for all. Let us take note of the word /or. The vicariousness of the sacrifice is implied in the word for. Vicarious act is an act for (dros) another. The Son of Man " poured out His soul unto death for us, " and " bore the sin of many," or, according to the Welsh hymn: " 'Nawr dim heb dalu, rhoddwyd lawn Nea clirio llyfrau'r nef yn llawn, Heb ofyn dim i mi." In all these statements the death of our Lord is set forth as the pivot, as the soul and center, of the mys- terious transaction of redemption for others. 2. Let us observe, secondly, how original and com- plete is this scheme — life through death, growth and fruitfulness through destruction. A grain of wheat is small and very insignificant, yet what a mystery is contained in it ! A little child may hold scores of them on the palm of its hand, yet all the wisdom of the world could not produce one grain. To produce one grain of wheat there is necessary the cooperation of all the laws, forces, and influences of nature. If evolution is simply the history of the steps by which the world has come to be what it is, then, according THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. 419 to the investigation of science within the last ten years into the origin and growth of wheat, wheat api^arently does not come under the law of evolution. It does not come under the law of " survival of the fittest. " I do not intend now to indicate the course and scope of these searches more than to say that the records of history and the deposits of geology testify that wheat has no developvient, no descent. It has never been found in a fossil state, it has no existence whatever in the deposits of geology, and, further, it has never been found in a wild state in any coun- try, nor in any age, and never existed where man did not cultivate it. Wheat is an exception in the vege- table kingdom, for the reason that it had no power to perpetuate its own existence, like some other grow- ing and living things. A crop of wheat left to itself, in any latitude or country, in the third or fourth year from its first planting would entirely disappear. In regard to the staff of life, man is the high priest who was ordained to administrate between God and nature. It has no power to master the surrounding difficulties so as to become self -perpetuating, and never exists where men do not cultivate it. Thus wheat does not come under the law of the survival of the fittest. It is depending entirely on God for its perpetuation. This is true of our Kedeemer as a grain of wheat. The plan of our salvation not only depends upon 420 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. God, but originated in the Divine Mind. Christ is the "Bread of Life." "Por the bread of God is that which Cometh down out of heaven and giveth life unto the world." He is the Dispenser of this heavenly- vital energy. He communicates His spiritual life and essence itself to His own, and therefore makes them like Himself, first spiritually, then corporeally. This is the universal law of life : a death-like metamorpho- sis as a condition whereon depends the renewal of life; is type of the fundamental law in the kingdom of God ; which law provides that we, by priestly sur- render of our own wills to the will of God, do obtain new kingly life from God. 3. This principle involves, further, that the Son of God is glorified in His death. When He explained this system in brief to the Greeks, He said : " The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." As the Son of Man, the normal and the central Man, by His dying the divine energy of His person will be set free and exerted for all mankind. Nature arrives at the true and the beautiful by passing through death into life. The higher form of existence is obtained only through ex- tinction of the lower form that preceded it. The food perishes in the process of digestion to reappear in vivified flesh and blood; and by dying the corn of wheat prolongs and glorifies itself. And the Lord entered into the darkness of His hour and proclaimed THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. 421 His glory. " The hour is come " — the hour is the secret term that marks the passion ; He entered the world in " the fulness of time " ; He wrought His preparatory work " in the days of the Son of ^lan" ; and now, after ages of waiting had passed into days of fulfilment, and those days are compressed into an "hour," this hour stands out from all other hours amid the reminiscences of the past and anticipation of ages to come. All prophecy of one dispensation after another was fulfilled and completed on this hour. It was an hour of intense suffering, an hour of triumph. From this moment the shadow of the cross throws its sacred gloom upon every incident and word. The Passion has begun, and the first word of the Son of Man when entering the dark valley is, the " hour " — " glomfied. " His lowest humiliation was His highest dignity. The dark cloud of suffering and death could not hide from Him the results of His death — glorifi- cation. He saw both the cloud and the star, and knew well which of the two was transient and which would endure. Oh, what a tremendous self-sacrifice that the death of the cross involved ! Yet, what is very remarkable, in five brief clauses Christ repeats the word " glorify " five times, as if to His view a coronation of glories played at that moment above His cross. He was glorified, and He is to be glorified in the results of His death — " bring forth much fruit. " The earth is the only wheat country in the universe of 422 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. God ; and tlie grain of wheat is bringing much fruit here, which will be gathered into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. II. Once more, self-renimciation is the law of self- preservation ; and, conversely, self-preservation is the law of self-destruction in the life of man. " He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." There- fore the way to eternal life is to hate oneself. That is, death of self, the death of egoism, that clings to outward life of appearance, is the condition of the tarnsition from the old life to the new. Thus the Master and the servant are under the same law. There is no other way to preserve or redeem against our- selves than by self-hating and self-renouncing sur- render of ourselves to death. Hence if we should seek to gather up the Hegelian philosophy in a sen- tence, as a Frenchman once asked Hegel to do, it would be this: "Die to live." This expresses the universal principle of morals and the spiritual life of the children of God. For if these words truly express the nature of spiritual life, then in the spirit may be found a unity which will account for and overcome all antagonisms of life and thought. The fatal mistake of the political and religious life of the Greeks, and of the ancient world, was the assertion that man is a law and end to himself. But this is not the teaching of the Teacher from heaven. We must die to self in or- THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. 423 der to live a spiritual life.* That which is held good for the Master, in its own peculiar, unapproachable sense, as of the seed which He alone could sow — the sacrifice He alone could offer — is not less on that ac- count a type for us and fulfilled in us. Suppose for a moment that Jesus, seeking only His personal safet}', had now gone to the Greeks to play among them the part of a sage, or to organize the state like another Solon. He might, indeed, thus have saved His life, but in reality have lost it. Thus kept by Him, it would have remained doomed to sterility and earthly * " The way to self-realization is through self-renunciation — i.e., through renunciatiou of that natural and immediate life of the self in which it is opposed to the not-self. Spiritual life is not like natural life — a direct development and outgoing of energy, which only at its utmost point of expansion meets with death as an external enemy, and in it finds its limit and end. On the contrary, the life of a spiritual being, as such, is, in a true sense, a continual dying. Every step in it is won by a break with the immediate or natural self — the self which is opposed to the not-self ; for only as this self dies can the higher self, which is in unity with the not-self, be developed. And, on the other hand, just for this reason, there is for this spiritual self no absolute death. Because it is capable of dying to itself,— because, indeed, as will be more fully shown in the sequel, it can not live but by some kind of dying to self, — it can not in any final sense die. As it can make that which most seems to limit it a part of its own life, it has no absolute limit; it takes up death into itself as an element, and does not therefore need to fear it as an enemy. "--Caird's Hegel, pp. 210, 212. 424 THE LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATION. failure, and could not have redounded to His glory. But by self-denial, by renouncing the life of a sage, He became a Christ, and by renouncing the throne of a Solon He obtained the throne of God. The gratifica- tion of a selfish desire in Christ at this moment meant the world's ruin. The disciple, then, must be like his Master, the servant like his Lord. There are many things in which we can not resemble Him — in freedom from sin, in knowledge, in wisdom and power. But in this highest quality of all, in the divinest fac- ulty and grace, we can be like Him. We can sacri- fice ourselves. This is merely a necessary means to a higher life. " Therefore I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a liv- ing sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. " " Ich dien. " THE THREEFOLD LOOK. By Rev. Peter Roberts, Ph.D., Glyph ant. Pa. "The wise man's eyes are in his licad, and the fool walketh in darkness. " — Ecdes. ii. 14. The eye is given man to see, but some have eyes and see not. Yqvt men living use their eyes as they should. This is not a new thing in the world. It was so in the days of Solomon ; and his comment on this is our text. Some men make far better use of their eyes than others. Try the following experiment. Ask half a dozen men to close their eyes; then lead them into a room. Tell each to open his eyes and take a glance around the room, then close them again. Lead them out, and ask each separately what he saw. You will be convinced at once that some people see far more than others. Charles Dickens was a man who saw everything at a glance. Neander was different. We are told that some men are color-blind, others see at a distance better than near, and vice versa. Oculists of large practise tell us that few men have perfect eyes. Eye-glasses are very common to-day, and the reason of it is not pride. Greater attention is given 425 426 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. the eye nowadays than ever before, and tlie defect in vision is corrected by science. If we used our eyes to better advantage, this earth would be a far more interesting place to live in. Most miners spend their days cutting coal, and see nothing in the strata but their daily bread. But take a geologist to one of these mines, and he will tell you a story of the formation of these vast coal-beds that will be most edifying and instructive. Take a bone to Professor Marsh, and he will tell you to what spe- cies of animal it belongs, and from it will be able to draw a sketch of the whole animal. If we knew how to wisely use our eyes, this earth would be filled with the glory of God, which we would feel every step of the way. Not only do we speak of the natural eye as seeing, but we also speak of the eye of the mind. In any discussion we often ask each other : " Do you see the point? " And some are far keener than others to see the point. Let a wit address an audience of a hun dred people, and as the humor leaps from his lips fifty per cent of them burst forth immediately in peals of laughter. Watch the others, and their countenances will also beam, when they will see the point. As the eye of the body sees external things, so does the eye of the mind perceive ideas and thoughts. There is another power whereby men are influenced. We can feel when we can not comprehend. Few of THE THREEFOLD LOOK. 43^ us understand the beauties of music or architecture, but good music and gorgeous buildings invariably affect us. Whoever had the privilege of hearing the celebrated Welsh Caradoc choir will never forget it. Its music overwhelmed and subdued the soul, and raised us above things of earth. The effect was not due to our comprehension of the sweet harmonies, but to that power in every soul to be influenced by the beautiful, the grand, and the good. When these powers of the soul are touched, we are filled with awe and reverence, and they are the forces that bind the soul to the very throne of God. From these preliminary remarks, you will agree with me that man can look in three directions. He can look out on the world, he can look in upon the soul, and he can look up to God. The subject I wish to call your attention to is this threefold look — out- ward, inward, upward. I. The Outward Look. By this I mean proper at- tention to the world and the things of the world. It is essential, that we may know what are necessary for our comfort and adjust ourselves to right relations which God intended should exist between our bodies and the world. Inadequate attention to this accounts for much of our discontent and misery. If men gave more thought, looked with a steadier purpose on the world around them, their lives would be better and happier. 428 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. The church of God has discouraged this, and in general it may be said to be still guilty of the charge. Men have the idea that the church exists for one thing only — viz., to save men from the wrath that is to come. And so intent have they been on that one point that they have cut off our glance from the things of the world. They call upon all men to look from the world to the kingdom that is to come, saying that the perishing things of time are not worthy of atten- tion. And it is teaching of this kind that has given plausibility to the criticism of secularists, who say that Christians neglect this present world, which they could greatly improve, for the sake of a future one. God will give us a heaven hereafter, and we must labor to be worthy of a place in that kingdom ; but we must remember that we have bodies, and it has pleased our Heavenly Father to plant us in this beautiful earth ; and don't you think it is His wiU that we should give attention to the laws of this life? Yes, it is His will. Our Father would have all His children study the laws of their physical well-being. How much of life is annually wasted because of men's ignorance of the laws of nature? Life is har- mony between our bodies and the external world. When that harmony is perfect, we have health ; when it is disturbed, we have sickness ; when it is wholly severed, that is death. When we violate the laws of nature, we are warned by pain; but few of us give TEE THREEFOLD LOOK. 429 adequate attention to the warning. Many of us are wilful children, trampling under foot nature's laws, bent on gratifying appetite, until at length a general breakdown follows. Then we complain of the mys- teries of Providence, and say how unkind God is in punishing us so. God sent warning, but we, caring more for self-indulgence than self-restraint, choosing the way of inordinate passion rather than continence, have brought upon ourselves due punishment. Oh, that men were wise, and would keep their eyes in their heads while they are in the body ! Our lives would be longer and much happier. When God placed man on earth, His command was, "Subdue the earth." The work done by men from that time to the present day is great, but it has only been possible by the outward look. How wonderful are the forces of nature brought under man's control! He has thrown bit and bridle on these giants, and com- manded them to turn our wheels, revolve our spindles, weave our garments, heat our homes, cook our food, light our streets, protect us from the cold, keep us from hunger, and transfer us wherever we will. The comforts of modern civilization are the result of this outward look. And God bless those men who sacrificed their comforts, and many of them their lives, while endeavoring to wrench from nature her secrets ! They wield the magician's wand that summons forces from the deep, which come as humble servants to minister 430 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. to the needs of man. And if any person on the face of the earth has a right to enjoy these blessings, it is the Christian. They are gifts from our Heavenly Father, and He expects His children to rightly use them. And may the day hasten when they will be wholly consecrated on the altar of divine service. The church is gradually coming to a sense of its duty in this respect. We have learned that men can be better Christians if they have comfortable homes, good food, warm clothing, pleasant surroundings, and a healthy family. Some of our churches have branched forth into institutional churches. They have their reading-rooms, their gymnasiums, their sewing-circles, their cooking-schools, etc. It is the church cultivating the outward look ; and it does well in doing so. Many good sermons have been spoiled in their delivery ; and the people say it was the ab- sence of the Holy Spirit. It was nothing of the kind. The failure was due to physical indisposition, because of a night of tossing and restlessness. Gymnastic exercise is the remedy. There are men who believe they are possessed with a devil, — and I believe they are right. But if you want to find out what devil it is, go to his kitchen, and you will find it there. And when the church opens cooking-schools, it is on the right way to cast out these devils. There are many women out of the church this day who once were loyal to their Master and faithful to their covenant. TEE THREEFOLD LOOK. 431 Ask one of them if she still loves her Savior and His church, and she answers, "Yes." But the man who pledged her his troth has given himself to drink ; he behaves as a brute, he ruins the home, he spends their substance in whisky, and that habitation that was once beautiful as a poem has become an abomina- tion. And when the church of God takes up temper- ance work, and fights the dramshop, and calls upon all men to close these whisky dens, that men may be sober, industrious, and humane, it is engaged in good work and cultivates the outward look. Church of God, don't forget the outward look ! It is very important. "We can not get along without it. We can live better so, and it is the will of our Father that we exercise it. II. The Inward Look. By this I mean a look at the soul. It means reflection and contemplation. It is the attempt to answer the question. What is this personality within which we call "I"? It is inves- tigation in the line pointed out by the Greek phi- losophers, "Know thyself." There is within each one of us a jewel, planted there by the hands of Almighty God ; and the inward look is a look to study that which is of more value than aught else in the universe. There are many who do not practise the outward look as they should; but the number of those who do not practise the inward look is far greater. Most 432 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. men have to cultivate the outward look, especially if there be a little frost on the sidewalk ; but thousands of these get along tolerably well in life without a look at that soul that can shine with greater brilliancy than the brightest star in the firmament. The vulgar think more of external things than they do of things pertaining to the mind and the soul. Without, they say, are interesting thiags. There are the sources of our pleasures. There are the means of our enjoyments. Ask them if they find anything within, and they will naively answer, " No, there is nothing within. " " The fool walketh in darkness. " There is within each casement of clay^ a living soul ; and would to God we were to spend more time in con- templatiag it! We do not know ourselves. We have powers and capacities that bind us to the very throne of God. Most of us are content to dwell in the dust, and seek not to understand the secret of that dignity and honor conferred upon man in his creation, when he was made in the image of God — made a little lower than God. We sink deep shafts for the black dia- mond, and go down deep for our ore. We go to the heart of the dark continent for our precious stones. Men risk their lives by plunging into the depths of the ocean in search of that little oyster that knows the secret of making a pearl, which has long baffled the skill of man. But within each of us there is a jewel, a gem, a diamond, brighter than any that ever THE THREEFOLD LOOK. 433 shone on royal brows, more glorious than the evening star; and yet men do not dig for it, they do not risk much to find it out. Oh, that men were wise, and try the inward look, and would know what is that " I " within! What are you? — not your body, not your clothes, I mean, but that personality that confers upon man the crown of glory in creation. Some one asks, " What is there to be gained by the inward look?" The outward look gives us material comforts; but the inward look — what can it give? Let me ask you, Where is love — that ministering angel that adds so much sweetness to life, that fills every home where it abides with heavenly harmonies, which binds hearts together in bonds that death can not sever, and which is the unifying power in the heart of the triune God? Where are the social affec- tions that make life tolerable, so that we are able to live in communities and thrive? Let me ask you, Where are the passions? Where do these dwell — malice, anger, jealousy, hatred — which are as venom- ous as hissing serpents, confusing our lives, harassing our plans, turning our homes into bedlams, and ma- king of our institutions fiery furnaces? Where are the habitations of reverence, benevolence, conscience, which powers hold us to a sense of our duty more effectually than all the prisons of the world, and make it possible for us to hold communion with the invisi- ble God? Are not these within? Yes, there is more 28 434 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. within than without ; and it would be easier for me to prove that there is nothing without than nothing within. And yet, notwithstanding this rich field of investigation in each one, how few are the men who reflect — turn upon themselves and spend an hour in serious contemplation of the soul. This fault, so common, accounts for much of the evils of life. Here are two men; they are alike tempted. The one instantly loses all control of him- self; he is swayed with passion; he foams at the mouth ; he tears himself ; he is possessed of the devil. The other is calm ; he turns blanched ; he trembles in every nerve ; you can feel the excitement within ; he speaks not ; he is calm amid the tempest ; with a firm hand he holds in stern submission the hounds of war which rage within. What accounts for this differ- ence? The one is an object of contempt, the other of admiration and awe ; the one tossed by stormy pas- sions that lash him mercilessly, the other perfect mas- ter of himself in the hour of trial. We turn from the one in scorn, to the other we bow in adoration. The difference is, that the one has known himself and can govern his "I," the other knows nothing of such a task. " He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city. " Have we not seen fair and beau- tiful dames, adorned with ornaments of gold and pre- cious stones, decked in fabrics of rare pattern, who were very careful that not a speck would mar the THE THREEFOLD LOOK. 435 beauty of their garment, even fastidiously particular that every part of their gear is right — externally per- fect? But within dwell envy, jealousy, malice; and from these comes a shadow that casts gloom on all that is radiant without. They manifest themselves in the envious eye, the slanderous tongue, the mean and con- temptible demeanor ; and the fair and beautiful crea- ture has become a shriveled and puckered soul which we despise. That which is from without defiles not the body ; defilement comes from within. On the other hand, persons with miserable exteriors have shone with almost divine splendor. That was the case with Pestalozzi. He was a small man, his body crooked, his face covered with smallpox marks and with freckles ; his hair rose from his crown in all con- ceivable angles, his dress was shabby and his shoes torn. But that homely little man had a soul within him ; and his pupils, when they saw his face, were glad with joy, and pressed around him, and said, " Father Pestalozzi ! " Why ? Because he had a soul that had been trained in meekness and love, in pa- tience and forbearance, in long-suffering and kind- ness. These made that uncomely little teacher the ideal of all his pupils, the hero of his generation, and the admiration of the civilized world to this day. Friends, cultivate the inward look! Enter your closet, close the door, look deep and long within. 436 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. Eead what your Father has written there ; and if con- scientiously you do this, you will be a better man and better able to combat the difficulties of life. III. The Upward Look. By this I mean a look up to where the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ dwells. It is acknowledgment of God as our Father, a longing for His presence and help, and an earnest desire for His fellowship. It is the longing of the soul for the homeland j for yonder, we all shaU soon be. And of all looks, this is the most important. Have you thought how often Jesus looked upward? In the brief account we have of His life it is often recorded that He looked up. When He had any im- portant work to perform. He looked heavenward. When He fed the five thousand. He looked up. When He raised Lazarus from the dead. He looked up. Jesus knew that in the home whence He had come was all power ; and thence He turned in trying moments in His life; and that source of all power never failed Him. We are very different. Few of us look up to the Father above, from whom comes every good and perfect gift. We constantly look to the earth, and little time have we for the upward look. Some take a rapid glance night and morning. Our Lord spent all nights in that upward look. Alone on the mountain. He communed with His Father the night long; and when morning came He descended to the plain and began the day by working miracles. If THE THREEFOLD LOOK. 437 we could spend nights in earnest prayer, perchance we would also do mighty works in His name. Let the church of God remember that it can not get along without this upward look. The outward look is not essential to its life. Many good and godly people are on their way to glory, and they have not cultivated a deep inward look. But no one can enter the kingdom without the upward look. An old pilgrim said in days of old, " I look to the hills whence cometh my strength " ; and, beloved, if we are to be strong in the Lord, we must not forget the hills. None of you can live happily without this upward look. No, there is no true happiness without your God. You owe Him all things, for " in Him you live and move and have your being." Every breath you take comes from Him. Every heart that beats, does so because He is. The strength you daily consume comes from the source of infinite power. And yet never have you bowed before that God and acknowl- edged Him as your Creator and Preserver. Never have you earnestly thanked Him for His goodness. Is that reasonable? Is it right? What says the voice within? God pity the man that never turns his eyes heavenward! Bow the knee, friend, this day. Let not the day close before you look to the hills whence your strength comes. To-day, God is willing to hear and answer if ye harden not your hearts. Believe me, the day will come when you will look up. There 438 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. comes a day " when your fear cometli as a storm, and your calamity cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me. " You want the upward look, for you need sympathy in the hour of trial, and there is no one who can sym- pathize as the Lord. See that small family. It is worldly and indifferent to the upward look. But in a moment the father is cut down, and the wife is plunged in grief. She has a daughter, and she now lives for her. The child's eyes are affected, and with anxiety she consults the best physicians. But one day the child says : " Mother, I can not see you. " She was blind, and the afflicted mother bowed her head and said : " 0 God, be merciful ! " Poor mother ! How much she missed during the years of her calam- ity by not crying to her Heavenly Father, and laying her burden on His bosom. Ye burden-bearers on the rugged way of life, look up ! There is a Father above who knows our sorrows and is acquainted with our grief, and He will give His beloved deliverance. He will help you in sorrow, deliver us in distress, and comfort us in trouble. Remember that salvation is of the Lord. You need this upward look, for you need forgive- ness of sin. Yes, sin is there — a cancer that eats within and troubles us every hour. It is the ghost THE THREEFOLD LOOK. 439 that comes uninvited to every feast. The accuser condemns, and there is no power on earth able to silence its voice. What are 3^011 going to do about that? Are you bound for eternity with that burden pressing heavily upon your soul? You would better tarry and consider. You can get rid of the burden ; it is by the upward look. The old pilgrim looked at the cross, and his burden rolled away. Yes, there is pardon with God; He has reconciled the world to Himself in Jesus. And He does it, not imputing unto us our sins. God loves you, and He is willing to for- give your sins J but the condition is the upward look. You must turn and set your face toward the house of your Father ; and the moment that is done, peace will flow into your soul — the sweet peace of God's love. You ought to look up, for soon we shall be in that country above. You are bound for eternity, whether you will or no. You are a pilgrim to that country from whose bourne no traveler returns. "Where will you spend eternity? Why should I ask such a ques- tion? None of you chooses hell for his eternal home. You all expect to enter heaven by some door or other. I pray God you may do so ; but, friend, let me ask you, What are you doing to secure xmto yourself that eternal home on high? Is it not time for you to look up the way, join yourself to the pilgrim band, get a little acquainted with the country, and trust your soul 440 THE THREEFOLD LOOK. to the Lord of the land? When I came to America, I got my atlas and searched for Liverpool, then for New York, then for Connecticut, and last of all the city of New Haven, — for that was the destination of my jour- ney. When I started, I thought I knew the way. Many years ago I started to a city whose builder and founder is God. It is a goodly city up yonder in the sky. It is the home of the saints, the new Jerusalem, the city of our God. This Bible is the book that tells us something of the way. Those who start, begin the journey from repentance and regeneration. They call on the way at free grace and redeeming love. The pilgrims are known, for they sing the songs of Zion. I am one of that company, tho unworthy of the name. I think the Master's presence has been felt by us in this house when looking to the hills. I have passed through dark places on the pilgrimage; but, thanks be to God! the Father's hand led the way. I have watched by the side of beloved ones as they died in the faith and passed into the rest of the children of God, and methinks that I could see from afar a dim reflection of that beautiful city above. Yes, friends, I do believe I know the way ; and by God's grace this poor sinner hopes to reach the beautiful shore by and by. I want you all to join me. God grant you help to join the pilgrim band! You will soon be yonder. Come study a little on the way before you go. Call upon your Savior, whom you soon expect to meet. TEE THREEFOLD LOOK. 441 Cry unto your God, before whom you soon expect to appear. Look up to the company of the redeemed, among whom you soon expect to spend eternity. And in doing so the Lord will bless you and cause the light of His countenance to illumine the way. CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. By Rev. William Roberts, D.D., Utica, N. Y. "Mighty to save." — Isa. Ixiii. 1. The redemption of sinners is effected through a wonderful process of conquest and destruction. Four mighty empires are vanquished and demolished in the rescue of sinners from the state of their spiritual thraldom — the kingdom of Satan, the dominion of sin, the supremacy of the world, and the empire of death. The tyradnical and oppressive dominions of Satan, of sin, of the world, and of death must be overthrown and abolished in order to complete the salvation of human sinners ; for Christ *' must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet." To effect this great undertaking on legitimate grounds, it was absolutely necessary for the Eternal Son of God to propitiate and magnify the divine gov- ernment by a sufficient ransom, even His precious blood. The mediatorial throne of Christ as the King of Zion has been founded and erected upon the merits of His atoning sacrifice as a priest. Hence the ele- ments of His priestly office constitute the basis of 443 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 443 the power and authority of His kingly office ; and the great work which He accomplishes in the latter capac- ity is the actual redemption of sinners by overcoming and destroying their bitter and cruel enemies. His meritorious triumph on the cross is to be regarded as the ground of His actual triumph by the Gospel. Our Lord, in the illustrious prophecy of which the text forms a part, is beautifully represented as a mighty conqueror, returning in triumph from the field of battle, having His garments covered with the blood of His enemies, appearing *' as one that treadeth in the wine-fat." The Prophet, being struck with His majestic appearance, anxiously inquires, " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? " The kingdom of Edom, or Idumea, of which Bozrah was the chief city, was a rival and an enemy of the Jews, the people of God. The word Edom signifies red, as is blood; and Bozrah means vintage. According to the prophetical idiom, this denotes God's vengeance on His enemies. lu all His triumphs, Messiah appears arrayed in glorious apparel as some mighty prince; and travel- ing not as one wearied with the combat, but ** in the greatness of His strength," able and prepared to van- quish all opposing powers. And when it was asked, " Who is this that cometh from Edom," Messiah Him- self answers, "I that speak in righteousness," I who pronounce sentence in righteousness upon my ene- 444 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. mies, and am mighty to save My Church from the tyranny and oppression of her adversaries. Having made these preliminary remarks, let me invite your attention to what is implied and what is declared in the text. The truth implied is the misery, wretchedness, and danger of man's state by nature. The truth declared is the all-sufficiency of Christ' s power to save him from his lost and ruined condition — "mighty to save." I. Let us notice the misery, wretchedness, and danger of man's state by nature. The terms savior, salvation, and to save, imply that his condition is one of misery and danger. His state is such as to require a mighty Savior. 1. We remark that man is in a lost and perishing condition. Humanity is defined in the language of inspiration as "that which was lost." Man is rep- resented under the different emblems of a lost sheep and a criminal sentenced to die. As a lost sheep, he has abandoned God, his faith- ful and provident Shepherd; he has departed from the sheepfold of His covenant; he has broken over the limits of His law ; he has strayed from the fruit- ful land of His favor, into the sterile wilderness of this world, and here he is surrounded by the devour- ing wolves of worldly lusts, and the roaring lions of the infernal den, exposed to all their cruelty, ferocity, and destructive power. Now Christ, the Good Shep- CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 445 herd, must be " mighty to save, " ere He could rescue sinners from under the claws, nay, from the very jaws, of such powerful and insatiate monsters. Again, man is described as a culprit under the awful sentence of death. " Judgment is come upon all to condemnation." "We have before proved," says the Apostle Paul, ** both Jews and Gentiles, that they are under sin," — i.e., we have proved from the records of the court of heaven that all have been found guilty, and sentenced to die eternally. There it is written, " There is none righteous — no, not one " ; " The soul that sinneth, it shall die. " The sentence is strictly just, immutable, and unalterable, tho trans- ferable ; and it involves in its nature an infinite punish- ment. Now Christ must be *' mighty to save" before He could suffer an infinite punishment in a definite period of time. 2. We observe, that the state of sinful man is that of poverty, of degradation, of misery. My fellow sinner, let me candidly tell you that I am speaking to you personally — "Thou art the man." You may be rolling in wealth and affluence; you may be oc- cupying a respectable position in society; you may be adorned with the imposing accompaniments of knowledge and learning ; yet, in a moral point of view, you are in a state of poverty, degradation, and misery. You may be unconscious of it; but in reality this is your condition. 446 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. Man is so awfully ruined by sin that the Holy Spirit employs the most striking and lively figures to represent it. Man is stated to be blind, naked, and dead. He has been born blind; his nakedness is of such a char- acter that no means of covering could be devised by any created understanding; and he is in addition dead in trespasses and sins. Now, the Savior must be mighty in ability and ingenuity, or He could never open the eyes of one that has been born in moral blindness. He must be mighty in His work, otherwise He could not have wrought a robe of right- eousness to cover the nakedness of man's guilt from the all-seeing eye of the heart-searching God. He must be mighty in power and authority, or He could not deliver man from the strong grasp of spiritual death, and restore him to the enjoyment of a life of holiness and happiness. Again, man is represented as a debtor, as a pris- oner, as a slave. His liabilities are infinitely beyond his power of discharging them. He is a moral bank- rupt, and has nothing to pay. He is a prisoner law- fully committed into the custody of divine justice. And besides, he is reduced to a state of bondage, be- ing the willing slave of Satan, who holds him captive at his will. Now the Savior must be mighty in wealth, the treasures of His merit must be inex- haustible, otherwise He could not pay man's enormous CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 447 debt. His atonement must be mighty in value and virtue, or it could never have satisfied the demands of Divine justice, so as to effect the liberation of the prisoner. And He must be mighty in strength and influence, or else He could not baffle the power of Satan, and win over the heart of the poor slave into His holy service. 3. We remark that the natural condition of man is a state of moral impotency. In reference to this, the great Apostle of the Gentiles says, " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Man is utterly incapable of rescu- ing himself. He has lost the Divine image, and con- sequently has lost his moral beauty and excellence; he can not find a substitute for it in all his invented artificials or his imagined good qualities. He has lost his spiritual liberty, and therefore has lost the very element of his happiness ; and he can not redeem it by any sacrifice whatever. He has lost the Divine favor, and consequently has lost all claim to the pro- tection of his Maker; and it is infinitely beyond his power to regain it. Oh, the great loss of man through sin! It is enough to make angels weep. Is it not truly lamentable and heartrending to behold God's servant on earth the abject slave of Satan? the hon- orable and noble creature, man, reduced to the most degrading condition? he who wore the precious and glittering diadem of holiness and happiness cast 448 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. into the dungeon of impurity, corruption, and misery? lie who was created in God's image exchanged into that of a demon? Awful reflection! 4. Another doleful feature of man's state by na- ture is his insensibility. He is unconscious of his danger. This characteristic of his condition exhibits him in a still more wretched and deplorable aspect. Altho he is in the power of Satan, as a slave in the possession of a pitiless tyrant, yet he is insensible of the degradation of his position. Tho he stands as it were on the precipice of eternal perdition, yet he is unconscious of his imminent peril. He is asleep under the influence of moral lethargy. Tho the fell disease of sin is rapidly devastating his soul, yet he feels not his ruin. He labors under the fearful malady of spiritual insanity. He thoughtlessly laughs at things which should make him weep bitterly. He is morally mad. These are the real features of the wretchedness and misery of man's state by nature. He is fallen ! He is fallen ! What shall become of him? Shall we give him up as eternally lost? Shall we entomb him in the graveyard of despair? Shall we commit him to the dungeon of irreparable misery? No, no! Is there hope of his recovery? Yes. Look! Behold! Gaze! "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah; this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?" Hear, 0 heaven, and give ear, 0 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 449 earth! for the glorious personage authoritatively re- plies, " I, that speak in righteousness, and am mighty to save." This naturally leads us to what is expressed in the text,— even the all-sufficiency of Christ's power to save man from his lost and ruined condition— "mighty to save." II. I invite you now to reflect upon Christ's power to save the wretched and the lost. This appears evident if we consider three things : His preeminent qualifications as a Savior, the nature and extent of the salvation which He accomplishes, and the exam- ples of His saving power as exhibited in the Scrip- tures. Let us notice : 1. That His qualifications for the stupendous work of salvation are incomparable. His qualifications are twofold — personal and official. Let us reflect upon His personal qualifications. " Great is the mystery of godliness. God was mani- fest in the flesh," in order "to seek and to save that which was lost." God and man have been united to- gether in His person; the Son of God has become the Son of Man ; the supreme nature in heaven and the most excellent upon earth have been linked together; for what purpose? That He might be "mighty to save." Heaven and earth, eternity aud time, fini- tude and infinitude, the Creator and creature, have been inseparably united in His person. He must be " mighty to save. " As man, He was capable of bleed- 29 450 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. ing and suffering ; for " without shedding of blood there is no remission." As God, He was sufficiently- able to sustain the tremendous weight of divine wrath — a burden which would have unavoidably crushed the whole human race — nay, the whole universe of in- telligences— had it come in contact with it, to the very depths of hell. As man. He was capable of dying in our room and stead ; as God, He was able to impart infinite value and merit to His death. As man, He entered into the very territories of death, and per- mitted " the king of terrors" to bind Him in his iron chains ; as God, He broke them asunder, " as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire," and rose triumphantly, having deprived the governor of the prison of his keys. " I have the keys [says He] of hell and of death." " Mighty to save! " Let us, again, briefly observe His official qualifica- tions. He has been delegated, authorized, and com- missioned to save by the supreme Governor of the universe. Hence He says He was anointed and " sent to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim lib- erty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." The high authority of God's exalted throne rests with Him. Hence the salvation of sinners is represented under the emblem " of a pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God." He appeared upon earth for the sublime pur- pose of destroying the works of the devil ; and besides. CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 451 He has accomplished all that was necessary in respect to merit in order to save us. He has "magnified the law, and made it honorable." He has endured the punishment due to sin, and thereby become the propitiation for sin; He has triumphed over man's spiritual foes ; He " hath abolished death" ; and He has ascended into heaven as a mighty conqueror to intercede for transgressors. The stupendous work which He has already accomplished, as preparatory to our salvation, is decisive evidence to the whole universe of intelligences that He is "mighty to save." Devils have grievously realized the vastness of His overcoming power; angels have been witnesses of the exceeding greatness of His redeeming power; and God the Father exultingly glorifies in the ever- glorious manifestations of His saving power, saying, "I have laid their help upon one that is mighty." 2. The nature and extent of the salvation effected by Him constitute an indisputable evidence of His mightiness to save. He is mighty to save, in the first place, from the curse of the law. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." Infinite power is embodied in God's curse. It was sufficiently mighty to hurl legions of angels from the heights of celestial happiness, and plunge them into the lowest depths of miserj-. It was powerful enough to open the windows of heaven with one hand, so to speak, and with the other to burst asunder the fountains of 452 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. the great deep in order to drown a world of rebellious men with an overflowing deluge. It is so mighty as to be capable of inflicting irreparable destruction in the twinkling of an eye upon all the hosts of obsti- nate rebels throughout the vast dominions of God. However, when its fiery cloud burst upon the head of the Savior, it came in contact with its superior, inas- much as its devouring flames were extinguished by His blood; and His ofl&ce now is to save sinners as brands plucked from the burning. Again, He is mighty to save from the dominion, pollution, and de- filement of sin. He does save not only from the guilt of sin, but also from the reigning power and contaminating influence of sin. The strength of man's corruption is terrific; hence it is called "the law of sin and death." Its power is utterly invinci- ble to all human effort and skill. Sin is stronger than the energetic and persuasive powers of reason; stronger than the agonizing pangs of a guilty con- science; stronger than the potent ties of the most endeared friendship; stronger than the forcible re- straints of scientific knowledge; stronger than the prevailing edicts of earthly potentates, — nay, it has survived the most horrible and desolating judgments of Jehovah Himself. It enfetters men in its iron chains in spite of the light of reason ; in spite of alj the accusations of conscience; in spite of the bitter tears of dearest friends and relatives j in spite of re- CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 453 spectability aud renown— in spite of the ameliorating efforts of philosophers and the rapid advancement of science ; in spite of the resolute enactments of civil governments,— yea, in spite of the frowns and inflic- tions of the divine government. My fellow sinner, beware of the delusive and destructive power of sin, or it will drag you downward to the bottomless pit from the midst of all your earthly comforts. But who is this that cometh from Edom? " His name is Jesus; ah! He is mightier than sin, for He saves His people from their sins." "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good will toward men." " Our Redeemer is strong, the Lord of Hosts is his name." Also He is mighty to save from the power and malice of Satan. In reference to this, the inspired Apostle says of himself and his brethren, " Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Satan is represented under the different emblems of " a strong man armed, " and " a roaring lion. " As " a strong man armed," he watchfully and diligent'y " keepeth his palace" in the heart of the unregenerate man; but, blessed be God! Jesus is stronger than he. He comes upon him in the chariot of the Gospel; storms the palace with the cannons of conviction; overpowers the tyrant; drives out the usurper; di- vides his spoils, and then takes possession of the 454 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. mansion, so that liencefortli He dwells therein by His Spirit. Again, He is mighty to save from the sting of death — the power of the grave and the wrath to come. Death is a mighty conqueror. He is not only " the king of terrors," but the terror of kings. He has irresistibly driven the most powerful potentates that ever flourished from their royal palaces into the small, cold, and dismal *' house appointed for all liv- ing." He }i?:3 easily triumphed over the most re- nowned conquerors that ever displayed their skill on the field of battle. The most robust giants that ever signalized themselves by their undaunted courage and strength have crumbled to dust in his mighty and chilly hands. Besides, he has a poisonous sting with which he envenoms the soul to irretrievable de- struction. And the grave is the strong prison in which he incarcerates the human family. There they are, as it were, securely deposited and locked up, bound in the chains of mortality ; while the power of God's anger is sufficient to consume all the sources of the soul's comfort, and cause it to weep and lament throughout the untold ages of eternity. But, listen ! a greater than death and the grave is here. Here also is one whose atonement is an ample refuge from the destructive storm of divine wrath. He has gloriously triumphed over the former, and has completely appeased the fury of the latter. He CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 455 loudly exclaims in reference to His poople, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will re- deem them from death." 0 death! I will be thy plague; 0 grave! I Avill be thy destruction. Let us address Him in the forcible language of the poet : "Death of death and hell's destruction, Land me safe on Canaan's shore ; Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee." Finally, on this part of the subject, the salvation Avhich He effects for believers includes the elevation of the soul into the full and eternal enjoyment of heav- enly bliss and glory ; the resurrection of the body from the tomb of mortality; and their united glorifica- tion in the mansions of immortality and joy. " Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the work- ing,"— or, as the Welsh version renders it, "the mighty working," — "whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself? " 3. Let us notice the examples of His saving power as exhibited in the Scriptures. We arrange them under three classes : sinners of all ranks and stations ; sinners of all character and description ; sinners in all circumstances and emergencies. He has saved sinners of all ranks and stations. We mention one instance of each kind. He has saved a king — David, the king of Israel. He has saved a 456 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. prince — Abijah, the son of Jeroboam. He has saved a prime minister — Daniel, in the Chaldean court. He has saved a member of Congress — Nicodemus. He has saved an attorney-at-law — Zenas. He has saved a physician — Luke. He has saved a collegian — Saul of Tarsus. He has saved a tax-collector — Matthew. He has saved a jailor — the one in Philippi. He has saved an unfaithful ser vant — Onesimus. He has saved a beggar — Lazarus. " Mighty to save! " He has saved sinners of every character. He has saved an idolater — Manasseh. He has saved a volup- tuary— Solomon. He has saved a worldling — Zac- eheus. He has saved a backslider — Thomas. He has saved a thief — the one on the cross. He has saved murderers — yea, even His own murderers. His blood was sufficiently eificacious to wash away the stains of guilt stamped on their consciences, by shed- ding His innocent blood. And just notice the de- scription of the atrocious characters whom He saved at Corinth : Fornicators, idolaters, thieves, coveters, drunkards, revilers, extortioners ; " and such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." " Mighty to save." He is mighty to save in all emergencies and circum- stances. He saved Thomas from the powerful grasp of unbelief. He saved Solomon from the enchanting delusion of carnal pleasure. He saved Daniel from CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 457 the rage of ferocious beasts. He saved the disciples from the fury of the waves of the sea. He saved the thief on the cross from the very jaws of destruction, and snatched his soul into paradise as a trophy of His victory over the powers of darkness. In short, the immensity of His power to save will not be fully de- veloped until the unnumbered multitudes of the re- deemed shall be exhibited to the universe of intelli- gences at the final day. What is needful in order to realize the power of the mighty Savior in the church? I address my answer to those who are or hope to be in the sacred office of the ministry. Preach, brethren, Christ Jesus the Lord, to the absolute exclusion of all subjects not directly connected with Him. Some of you delight in the acquisition of the classic and Biblical tongues. Place your Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at the feet of Jesus, and not over His head as Pilate did. Some of you may derive pleasure, and rightly, from the study of philosophy and science; but remember that the highest philosophy in God's universe is the philosophy of the plan of salvation, and the most elevated of the sciences, the science of the saving truth of Christi- anity. Some of you may feel inclined to study the nature and design of miracles in connection with the introduction of Christianity ; but bear in mind, as you do so, that miracles wrought in the material world were only preludes and faint emblems of higher and 458 CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. more wonderful exhibitions of divine power in the moral and spiritual world. Our Lord, in presenting the evidences of His Messiahship to the disciples of John the Baptist, referred them to the evangelization of the poor as the climax of all His miracles: "And the poor have the Gospel preached unto them, " — or, rather, " the poor are evangelized. " It was a greater miracle to cure the spiritual malady of the poor than to cure even leprosy. It was a more decisive proof of Christ's power to raise those unto life who were dead in trespasses and sins, than to restore men to life from the iron grasp of mortality. To change a devil, as it were, in enmity, into an angel in love, is the most wonderful miracle that God ever wrought. Would you then, my brethren, become instruments for the performance of greater works than the Lord Jesus wrought during His human life? Preach the mighty Savior! Make, not the system of Christian- ity, but the personal Christ, the Alpha and Omega of your utterances. Christianity is only the casket; Christ is the diamond deposited therein. Christian- ity is only the garden ; Christ is the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God. Christianity is only the sanctuary; Christ is the Shekinah which sheds luster upon all its furniture. Christianity is only the temple; Christ is the great High Priest officiating therein. Christianity is only the body ; Christ is the directing, life-giving Head. Preach, then, Christ — in CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOR. 459 the majesty of His person — in the greatness of His love — in the purity of His doctrine — in His mighty power to save unto the uttermost. You who are without Christ, what is necessary in order that you may realize in your souls the saving power of Christ? You must become conscious of your lost and perishing condition. You must renounce all confidence in human merit, and surrender yourselves as hell-deserving sinners to Christ's care and custody. Come, then, to the mighty Savior ; for His promise is, " Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." May God grant you a heart to believe in Him, being *' fully persuaded that he is able to keep that which is committed unto him against that day." Amen. THE INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN IN THIS WORLD. By Rev. William C. Roberts, D.D., LL.D., S.T.D., President Centre College, Danville, Kentucky. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord." — Isa. liv. 17. Whatever may be the condition of believers on earth, they occupy an enviable position on the sacred page. There they are called "the servants of the Lord," "the children of the Most High," "heirs of eternal life." Some one may say that there is no honor in being a " servant. " That depends upon who the master is. If he be sin, Satan, or the world, the allegation is true. But the master of believers is not sin, Satan, or the world, but the Creator of all things, the King of kings, the God over all blessed forever. Even the relation of servant to one so exalted must add honor and dignity to every one who holds it. But the word "heritage" in the text shows that the persons here called servants are not those who ordinarily pass under that designation. For a heri- tage is not the wages of a servant, but property, real 460 INHERITANCE OF OOD'S CHILDREN. 461 or personal— sometimes both— which goes down ac- cording to law even without a will or an agreement from father to son. The only ground of this, the transmission, is the relation existing between the two parties. To a cursory reader, this may appear like a confu- sion of ideas. For the question arises, How can men be children and servants at the same time? Paul explains the mystery in his Epistle to the Galatians, where he declares that the son differs in no respect from the servant so long as he remains under age. Hence "the servants of the Lord," in the text, are God's children under age. In other words, they are God's childi-en in this world. The subject to which I invite your attention is The Inheritance of God's Children in This World. We are so dazzled by the glowing descriptions the Bible gives of the inheritance of the saints that we lose sight of that part of it vouchsafed them on earth. The mo- ment the word " inheritance " is uttered, we think of the glorious mansions, the glittering robes, and -the eternal crown. It would be well for all of us to dwell more on that part of the inheritance enjoyed on earth, lest we may fall into the error of many rich men's sons, of thinking only of the millions that are to come by and by. In the wonderful chapter in which the text is recorded, Isaiah sets forth a number of the blessings bestowed upon the chui-ch on earth. What 462 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. is bestowed upon her as the mystic body of Christ is granted to every one of her members. Among these we may notice : First, God's promises. The 54th chapter of Isaiah is full of His promises. Paul tells us that the prom- ises of the New Testament are many and precious. The pages of Scripture, like the sky of Syria, are studded with stars of promise. They are found singly, in groups, and in vast constellations. There is not a book without a bow of promise, spanning the space intervening between the believer's birth into God's family and his entrance into his Father's house in heaven. There is scarcely a chapter in the Old Testament or the New without its honeycomb of promises sweeter than that of Jonathan; and the pilgrim has only to dip into its richness the tip of his staff and put it on his tongue to drive away all the weariness of his journey. The number of these promises is said to be thirty- two thousand ; that is, one hundred for every working day, or ten for every working hour. It is impossible to conceive of a child of God placed in circumstances which demand more than ten of these promises every hour! The promises are not only numerous, but precious also — a combination rarely found on earth. The pebbles on the seashore are numerous, but not pre- cious. A ton of them can be bought for a few cents. INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. 463 The diamonds and the pearls in the jeweler's shop are precious, but they are not numerous. It some- times takes a fortune to purchase one of these. But in God's redemptive plan He makes extremes meet, and apparent impossibilities easy. In it we find thirty-two thousand promises, and each one more valuable than the Kohiuoor of Queen Victoria. If you doubt this, ask the dying man which he would prefer, as he sinks into the darkness of death : the royal gem, or the precious promise " that the everlasting arms shall be underneath him. " God' s promises are adapted to all our needs. They are nearly all intended for struggling believers on earth, and not for glorified saints in heaven. They are suited mainly to fallen men and not to unfallen angels. If I were permitted to proclaim the promises of God iu heaven, it would produce no special joy there, because they would not be suited to the needs of the inhabitants. If I were to assure them that God had promised to blot out as a cloud their trans- gressions, they would instantly reply, " No clouds have ever cast their shadows here. " If I were to offer them the whole panoply of the Gospel, they would tell me that no deadly missiles were ever allowed to be hurled across the heavenly plains. If I in God's name were to present them with shoes made of iron and brass, they would inform me that there was noth- ing to lacerate the feet of those who walk on the 464 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. golden streets. If I were to proclaim to them the promise that God will make the bed of His people in sickness, they would tell me that no one in heaven ever says, "I am sick." "While thus unsuited to the inhabitants of heaven, all the promises of Scrip- ture are infinitely precious to believers on earth. No assurance can be better adapted to their condition than that of the forgiveness of sius, for these are the bane and cause of all their sorrow. No offer can fill their heart with greater delight than that of a shield and buckler to protect them against the deadly weap- ons of the enemy. No promise can be more precious than that of shoes to protect their feet as pilgrims in the world' s desert paths or that of making their bed in sickness. The promises of God, moreover, are convertible at every turn in our earthly journey. Precious as each and every one of these promises is, it is only a promise after all, and of no value except as it may be redeemed or exchanged for the substance when needed. The best notes of the Bank of England, or of the United States treasury, are of no value, except as these in- stitutions are able and willing to redeem them. I have traveled over a large part of the world with naught in my pocket save a handful of promises made by a banking-house in New York City. With these, and these alone, I have been able to meet every de- mand made upon me on land and sea. When I INHERITANCE OF OOD'S CHILDREN. 466 reached England, I had only to offer one of them to a bond-teller in order to obtain pounds, shillings, and pence with which to pay my railroad fare ami hotel expenses. When I reached the shores of France, other promises were as readily converted into francs and napoleons — the substance I needed there to meet the demands made upon me. The same plan was pursued in Italy, Turkey, and other lands. All that travelers to the ]*aradise above have to do is to pre- sent at the exchequer of Heaven the promises of Scrip- ture in order to obtain what is needed for their journey. It is a disgrace to us to be constantly com- plaining of our leanness, when we may be fat and flourishing if we only take pains to convert the prom- ises of God into substance. The second element of the heritage of God's chil- dren in this world is a divinely arranged plan for their life. No doubt can be entertained that the church as a whole has been directed of God in all her move- ments through the ages. Since the church is made up of individuals, each one of these in like manner is guided in all his movements. This is suggested in the idea underlying the word "servant." Every wise master lays out the work of his servants and directs their actions. Much more do parents study the pecvdiarities and guide the movements of their children under age. God, as our Lord and Father, is doing the same thing. All believers have been 30 466 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. more or less conscious of the existence of some invisible power directing their steps. Abraham and Joseph, Moses and Samuel had a sense of some mysterious girding of God upon them. Even Christ had a sense of the same thing, for He says, " For this end was I born." To a greater or less degree all of us have at times felt that we were under the direction of an invisible power not subject to our own will. This is also historically true of even all men in early life. Were any of you asked by the Author of your being where you would like to be born — in Eu- rope or America; had you any choice as to whether you should be born white or black, Protestant or Catholic, heathen or Christian ; or were you consulted regarding the moral and religious influences which should mold your youth and early manhood? Until you reached your teens, you had but little to do witlj your physical, moral, or religious development. Yet, in all this Divine superintendence your personal re- sponsibility was not destroyed or set aside. It is, moreover, true that God directs the movements of His people in after-life when they fancy that they themselves are doing it. He is in and behind, above and below them. All of you have seen a father pla- cing his little boy between his knees in a carriage and allowing him to put his hands on the reins. The child believed that he was guiding the fiery steed through the crowded streets. He looked around to INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. 467 see if any of his compauions were within sight wit- nessing his wondrous feat. All save himself knew that not his tiny hands, but the strong arms of his father were guiding the chariot. The same thing is often witnessed in the life of the Christian. He fancies that he is guiding his own steps and shaping his own future destiny, while in fact God's hand is doing it for him. Every one should be glad that it is so. His constant song should be — " My times are in Thy hand ; My God, I wish them there." The third element of the inheritance of God's chil- dren on earth are the principles needed to transform them from apparent servants to real sons and daugh- ters. It is frequently alleged that there is no dif- ference between those who are called God's children on earth and those who are not. There is much truth in this. AVe readily confess that the outward conduct of the Christian iu society and in the world does not always differ from that of the man of the world. But there is nothing strange or discouraging in this. The difference between the sou and the servant is not always discernible. When you are waited upon in one of the great shops in the city, you do not know whether the salesman is a son or a servant. There is nothing in his personal appearance, dress, or manners to distinguish him. If you have a special reason, however, for as- 468 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. certaining which he is, it would not be difficult to do so without asking him. A knowledge of the principles which governed his conduct, or the place in which he made his home, would tell the story. The first principle governing the conduct of both is obedience. The servant obeys the commands of his master because he knows that he can retain his place only by so doing. But the principle which prompts him to do it is mercenary, selfish. It is his own good, and not the interest of his master, that is upper- most in his mind in shaping his conduct. The same thing is true of the multitudes who are not God's children. They obey the natural and moral laws of God because it is to their advantage to do so. The principle which governs their conduct is self-interest, and not God's glory. That is not the case with God's children. They obey because they have given their love for the One who commands. The governing principle is the Father's interest. The second principle of conduct is faith in the mas- ter. The servant is satisfied that he is able and will- ing to pay him the stipulated wages. The moment he entertains any doubt regarding that he will seek em- ployment of another. He knows, too, that the courts are ready to enforce his claims. The son is not so much concerned about his father's ability to pay his wages. Indeed, he may not have agreed on any defi- nite amount as his compensation. But he toils all the INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. 469 same, knowing that in time his father will fully re- ward him. God does not reveal to His children in this world what compensation they are to have. He gives unto them faith as to substance of things hoped for. Oc- casionally, He lifts the veil and lets them see some of the things themselves, but not often. In the con- text Isaiah compares this faith to "agate windows." Agate is a translucent, not a transparent, substance. When an opaque body is held up behind it, only its outlines, its prominent features, not its beauties of form, shade, or color, are seen. It is so with celestial things. God' s children in this world see only through a glass darkly. The bare outlines only are visible to the eye of faith— the beauties of form, shade, and color are not seen. It is to our advantage to have it so. For, if our faith were transparent, allowing us to be- hold the King in his beauty and the land that is afar off, permitting us to detect in the great cloud of wit- nesses the loved faces of father, mother, husband, wife, or child, it would destroy all desire to live on earth. Not only our hearts and our affections, but our eyes also would be constantly fixed on things above. Earth would lose all its attractions for us. The third principle of conduct is hope of future favors. The servant, when he knows that he has been faithful, looks for some recognition of it in the last will and testament of his master. This kind of hope, 470 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. however, usually turns out to be a spider's web. But that of the son is as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast. The hope of God's children is as sure as the word of Him who can not lie. If it should be impracticable to distinguish the son from the servant by the principles which govern their conduct, it can be done by following them at the end of the day to their respective homes. The servant goes to his own in some quiet street, or a suburb of the city; the son goes to his father's house, in which he is permitted to occupy an expensive apartment. When God's children are done with earth, they are allowed to enter the mansions prepared for them in their Father's house above. The whole palace of the great King is theirs, tho each may have a separate mansion. The fourth element of the heritage of God's chil- dren is assured victory over all their spiritual enemies : "No weapon formed against them shall prosper." God's children have multitudes of foes. They are within as well as without. The two sometimes unite for deadly assaults. These are set forth in Scripture as three army detachments, viz. : the world, the flesh, and the devil. For the encouragement of coming generations ex- amples are given of a few who gained the victory over each of these detachments. The example of victory over the world is that of Lot. So long as he accom- INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN 471 panied his illustrious uncle in his nomadic life, he was safe. The world had but little power over him while he was bent on reaching Canaan. The tent, the altar, and the glittering stars kept his eyes fixed on things above and beyond. But just as soon as he cast his eyes on the cities of the plain, he began to waver. He was dazzled by their glare and glitter. He became convinced that better alliances could be secured there for his daughters than in the towns of Palestine. He bade farewell to his pious kinsman and fixed his abode in the cities of the plain. There, in a few years, he was lost to all that was high and holy. So far was he reduced under the world's power that his sons-in-law laughed at the modest claims to godliness he put forth. It might have been said, perhaps it was said, of him just there that the world's weapon had prospered against him. But, no; God proved true to His promise. When He destroyed the cities of the plain for their ungodliness He remem- bered Lot. Angels were commissioned to lead him out. He was saved as by fire and permitted to be- hold without personal injury all that remained of worldly glory ascending as smoke to heaven. The example of the way God gives victory to His people over the flesh is that of David. This detach- ment of Satan's army has had its numerous victims in every age of the world. In an unguarded moment the King of Israel was prostrated upon the field. He 472 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. committed adultery, which alas! ended in murder. As a result his heart grew hard and his love for God cold. He spent some time in a state of spiritual alienation and indifference to heavenly things. It seemed for a year or more as tho " the weapon formed against him" had prospered. But now and then he gave slight evidences of spiritual life in occasional ex- clamations of regret for the past, such as : "I went with the multitude that kept holyday." Later, the tears of penitence trickled down the face and the breathings of prayer ascended to heaven. Presently, he was seen repairing his silent harp, and readjusting its broken strings. This was followed by the ringing of the palace chambers with the words : " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits who forgivest all thine iniquities." But, David, thine in- iquities have been too great to be forgiven : " Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Here God fulfils His gracious promise that " no weapon formed against him should prosper." The example given as of one rescued from the direct power of Satan is that of Job. He seemed to have been put by God under the complete power of Satan. By him he was bereaved of his children, deprived of his property, and deserted by his wife. No sight could be more pitiable than that of the old patriarch strug- gling on the dunghill to reconcile the inequalities of divine Providence. With every round of discussion INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. 473 with his friends, he seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into a fathomless sea. It seemed as tho one wave after another left him lower and more helpless than before. But, despite his feelings of despair, he, at the beginning of the 19th chapter, catches the light of God's countenance and cries, " I know that my Re- deemer liveth." Rising above the mysteries around him and sweeping the whole horizon of time, he sees the land that is afar off. He triumphs gloriously at last. The weapon formed against him was not al- lowed to prosper. God's people in our day have the same assurance. Their enemies are just as numerous and just as strong as those of Lot, David, and Job. Many still fall victims to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every- where we find believers prostrated upon the field, but everywhere we find also proofs of the blessed promise, "No weapon formed against them shall prosper." Those threatened on the plains of worldly glory must yet be rescued by angels ; those prostrated under the deadly weapons of the flesh must once more tune the golden harp, and those cast upon the dunghill by the great enemy of souls will some day cry, *' I know that my Redeemer liveth." The fifth element of the heritage of God's children in this world is " the everlasting covenant " : " Tho the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall 474 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. the covenant of my peace be removed." To make everything sure here, the Lord casts around His peo- ple the arms of His love. He voluntarily enters into a solemn covenant with them, which is said to be a better covenant than that entered into by our first parent. The one who represented us in the first covenant was a fallible, but sinless man ; the one who represented us in this covenant is God in the flesh, who is infinitely holy, just, and true. The bless- ings promised in the first covenant were for the most part earthly; those promised in the new covenant are heavenly and eternal. The rewards promised in the first covenant were human and finite; those promised in the second are divine and endless in duration. We, alas! do not attach as much importance to God's covenant as our fathers did. To them it was the precious rock on which they were able to sing amid all the swelling tides of earthly wo. It was their guiding star in the night of their pilgrimage, their downy pillow in days of sickness, and their un- wavering hope in the swellings of the Jordan. When William Lyford was asked what he thought of the unknown realities just before him, he exclaimed, stretching out his hand : " There are my sins, the wrath of God and eternal death — the just punishment for my sins; here I am, redeemed by blood, pro- nounced just by the eternal Judge, included in the INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN 475 eternal covenant, and assured that God will 'remem- ber my sins against me no more forever. ' " A minister's widow remarked to me just as she was bidding farewell to all earthly friends : " One of my children is in the far country, but he is included in God's covenant and will some day be brought back to his father's house. I shall not live to see it, but you will," she added. "I die clinging to the promises connected with the eternal covenant, and believing that I shall see my wandering boy restored and brought home to glory!" The last element of the heritage of God's children in this world is the communion of saints. To the early believers this was a most precious doctrine. By it they were comforted in the catacombs, in the seclu- sion of hermitages, and even in dark prisons. I fear that too many of us run thoughtlessly over that part of the creed which reads, " I believe in the communion of saints. " Happy, indeed, are those who do sincerely believe this doctrine in all its length and breadth, its height and depth. Its dimensions come nearly up to Christ's love which passeth knowledge. No tongue can describe the help received by God's people in every age, in social meetings, church services, and on sacramental occasions. In these coldness has often been removed, doubt dispelled, dark problems solved, and rapturous views of God caught. The communion of saints extends even to those who 476 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. have reached the heavenly home. The column of God's redeemed people is not broken by death, any more than the hosts of Israel were broken by the floods of the Jordan. By this is not meant that the spirits of just men made perfect are at the bidding of men on earth or are bringing to them the secrets of eternity. What I mean is that there is a deep-seated conviction in the Christian heart, based on the teach- ings of God's Word, that their friends in glory have the same feelings toward them that they had when they lived on earth, and that God's arms are round about all alike. An example of this is furnished us by the celebrated Rowland Hill, of London. After praying by the bedside of one of his deacons, just be- fore he died, he took him by the hand and said: " When you meet the'four Johns — John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, John Knox, and John Bunyan — be kind enough to remember me to them." Those distinguished saints in heaven were just as real to Mr. Hill as if they had been on earth. He believed that they knew all about him and would be glad to receive his message. The United Brethren have a special litany bearing on this subject. Before daylight, on Easter morn, all the communicants assemble in the church and march into the graveyard after the pastor, who, in a slow, measured way, reads the litany as he marches. Thus they bring themselves into close communion with INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN. 4l11 those who have gone before. The living stand on the ashes of the dead, and the spirits of both com- mune together through blessed memories of the past. Upon learning that she had but a short time to live, a minister's daughter once sent for her father in order to receive his parting blessing. As he approached her bedside, she asked if he had any message to send by her to heaven. He replied : " When you see Moses tell him that I have kept the law from my youth up. Should you meet any of the apostles, or the prophets' tell them that I have built my hopes for time and eternity upon the foundations of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner- stone. If you meet your mother," she having pre- ceded her by two or three years, " tell her that I shall be with her by and by — as soon as God permits." Here he paused. Supposing that he was overcome by his allusion to his departed wife, she waited for some further message. But, finding that it was not forthcoming, she broke the silence by asking if he had no word for Jesus. "ISI^o," he replied, "I have just come from holding a sweet commimion with Him regarding you and your way to glory. He has prom- ised to be with you at every step of the road. He will be your shepherd in the swelling stream. 'His rod and His staff they will comfort you.' Fear no evil then ! " How real and comforting is all this I It converts 478 INHERITANCE OF GOD'S CHILDREN eternal things to present realities. It makes relig- ion worth something when we most need it. It sets our feet upon a rock and puts a song in our mouth, even when our surroundings would suggest wailing and sorrow ! TRUE MASTERY. By Rev. William Henry Roberts, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia, Pa. "And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all. ''—Mark x. 44. The supreme law of existence with the vast major- ity of human beings is to " take care of number one." The advice most commonly given by every man over forty to every man under forty is, "Aim high." These maxims illustrate forcibly the two distinguish- ing and closely related characteristics of ordinary human nature— selfishness and the desire to excel. These characteristics in combination beget that strug- gle for precedence, that desperate rush to be first in something, which has been at once the blessing and the curse of humanity— prevailingly the curse. As a curse it has claimed all the centuries of human existence as its empire, and it dared attempt to sway its scepter in the very presence of the Savior of mankind. Face to face with the tempter, Avho of old promised our first parents " precedence " in the words " Ye shall be as gods," and who later prompted the sons of Zebedee to ask to sit on the right hand and the left in the Mes- 479 480 TRUE MASTERY. siah's kingdom of glory, Jesus spake, saying, "And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all," and then added the pregnant words, " For even the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." The words of our text are the Divine commendation and the Divine direction with reference to the desire to excel natural to man. With this thought as a guide we consider the topic, "True Mastery." I. Consider, first, the basis of true mastery, the source whence it springs, a true view of life. In this Word of God life is clearly set forth in all its course and attendant circumstances as a trust. Is life in reality a trust? Then they who would rise to any height of mastery over men and things must in large degree realize the judicial character of Him to whom account must be rendered. Clear perception of the character of God as an impartial Judge, the Rewarder unto all men of the deeds done in the body, returning good for their good and evil for their evil, is the essen- tial basis of true mastery. Without this perception there can not be aught of true service. Without it the life is controlled not by divine law, but by the selfish promptings of man's sinful heart, and the sphere of action terminates with the boundary limit of the in- dividual desire. They of whom it is true that God is not in their thoughts, to them true service, and as a consequence true mastery, is an impossibility — an TRUE MASTERY. 481 impossibility not merely because of their practical re- fusal in all their ways to acknowledge God, but also because the non-acknowledgment of God leads of necessity to non-recognition of obligation to man. They to whom life is not a trust, little they heed the coming judgment of God or care for the present condi- tion of men. The former they forget for a time, the latter they treat with indifference or perchance use as means to the attainment of selfish ends, esteeming them good food for powder in the fierce battle of life. The world's practical heartlessness is rooted in its practical atheism. That human pride which mani- fests itself the world over in social and race prejudices, in indifference at home to the sorrows of the poor, in neglect abroad of the condition of the heathen, that pride is a real denial alike of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It thrusts these con- ceptions to one side by its refusal to regard life as a trust received from God to be used for the benefit of man. It voices itself throughout the ages in the Pharisee's prayer, " Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." It gives men and women to deal with the privileges, the olessings which God be- stows upon them, as the Pharisee dealt, to build there- with walls of separation between themselves and their less privileged fellow mortals. And, like the Phari- see, many are they among men the prayer of whose daily conduct, " Lord, I thank thee that I am not as •61 482 TRUE MASTERY. other men are," means just this: "Yes, Lord, thou hast been good unto us. Thou hast given us bless- ings and privileges many. Lord, increase our privi- leges, and we will make these walls of separation bar- riers impassable." Oh, if ever the thoughts of the heart and the actions of the life of man evoke con- tempt upon the holy lips of God, it is when the scene of old enacted within the temple-court at Jerusalem is anywhere reenacted upon earth, in the sight of com- mon clay, in rich attire, shrugging its shoulders at and turning its back upon common clay in coarse ap- parel ! Are any among men and women better circumstanced than others? Are they endowed with gifts of body, of mind, or of spirit? Have they social or official station? Are they in any degree or manner uplifted to high planes of privilege, of action, of influence, of vision? Then are all these things constant reminders unto them of Him who is the Giver of them all and of the purpose for which they are bestowed. Justly regard them as matters for the display of pride we can not. They are God's providential gifts, who set- teth up one and putteth down another. Treat them as instruments for the advancement of selfish ends we ought not. God intends us to use them as leverage points to raise others to higher planes of thought, of speech, of action, of privilege. An ancient mathe- matician asked but a point upon which to place a lever TRUE MASTERY. 483 that he might move the world. Before us all there lies some little world of sin, of shame, of suffering, of want. Have we, then, been blessed of God with priv- ilege or talent in any form, let us use it as a leverage point, wherewith love to God and love to man shall enable us to lift that world steadily toward salvation, virtue, happiness, and heavea. So shall we in truth treat life as a trust and begin to rise toward true mas- tery by the beginnings of a true service alike to God and man. II. Kext consider the intrinsic power of true mas- tery— gratitude. The good we do others is the meas- ure of our influence over others. To be chiefest, we must be servants of all. True mastery comes to men and women just in the proportion in which they re- press self. Sin and the doom which is its consequence finds aU its roots in selfishness, and all high attain- ment carrying wide influence is rooted, therefore, in victory over self. Except men and women love and live for something other than self, their lives must be barren of that true power which is gratitude for serv- ice rendered. Think of how this truth illustrates itself in the case of some selfish Dives, whose one aim in life is that " loudest laugh of hell, " the pride of dying rich. He lives, it may be, in luxury, is clad in fine linen and purple. He stalks on in life, heedless of the beggar at his gate, less compassionate to the sick and the 484 TRUE MASTERY. poor than his dogs, and drowning the prayer of want and the cry of suffering in the laughter of the feast, or the hoarse roar of the machinery of trade. What wealth of true blessedness and power has such a man in himself or his surroundings? His money, it is true, can command many things. It can add to his comforts; it can provide means of enjoyment; it can perhaps appease the craviiigs of the appetites of sense; it can throw open those doors of society which creak on silver hinges; it can make him, living, an object of obsequious regard, and send him to his grave in all the panoply of costly funereal trappings. But can it pur- chase stedfast friendship? Can it provide the joys which wither never? Can it satisfy the hunger of the soul? Can it open wide those doors of the human heart which swing only upon the hinges of the affec- tions? Can it make him, living or dead, a monarch whose scepter is unselfish service ; whose tributes of homage, living, are the thanks of those whom he has aided ; dying, the tears with which they bedew his memory, and whose dominion is abiding as the im- mortal natures which Christ came to save? Mere money, my hearers, yea, any and all of the things which pertain to this passing world, in themselves or in their possession contain not even the germ of the power of true mastery. Man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Means are these things to an end, instruments of serv- TRUE MASTERY. 485 ice, honorable to God and useful to man, that and nothing more. Ever in their use do we need to re- member the words of the Master of us all, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. " These words just quoted— what are they but a sum- mons to all true natures to repress, yea, to bury self, and, strong in the impulse of a new and grander life, to press forward to the helping and uplifting of others. It is just in proportion as we let self die that there springs from our lives fruitage to the good of human- ity at large. Every time we perform an unselfish action we feel this to be the truth ; we enter further into the realization of the fact, not only that we have helped others, but that we have added new power unto ourselves. The past bears clear witness to this truth. They whose lives have been most freely given for the good of men have linked themselves by their conduct to the nobility and beneficence of times gone by, and, therefore, go forward into the times to come the true kings of humanity. They hold as their heri- tage tho gratitude of the ages, and all hearts are their empire. Whose names, for instance, are re- peated in this age of progress from heart to heart and lip to lip and continent to continent? Whose deeds stir afresh the stagnating blood of liberty and quicken the dull pulses of virtue? These men who forget 486 TRUE MASTERY. themselves in thought for others — men to whom life was as nothing except as a means to the good of hu- manity ; men like Livingstone, in whose ears the pleas of selfishness were overcome by the cries of their suf- fering brethren; men in whose hearts the kernel of self died utterly and whose natures, transformed by divine power, budded into a new life, whose fruit is ever for the healing of the nations. They rise before us the true heroes of mankind, patriots, statesmen, philanthropists, confessors, martyrs, until, passing over paths strewn with heroic ashes and saintly blood, we stand in His presence and beneath the shadow of His cross who spake, saying, "Whosoever of you will be the chief est, shall be servant of all. " And the mas- tery of Christ over humanity — is it not summed up in one terse, pregnant sentence, " Who loved me and gave Himself for me "? The true source of Christ's mastery over humanity was clearly perceived by one into whose possession worldly power came in surpassing degree. Speaking to a friend concerning Jesus Christ, the great con- queror Napoleon said : " Alexander, Caesar, Charle- magne, and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. " This testimony — what is it but to declare that the true empire of a kingly soul lies in the hearts of men ; TRUE MASTERY. 4SR that the way to its throne lies along the pathway of the affections ; that the power of true mastery is abi- ding gratitude for true service rendered? " Him that hath ears, let him hear." III. Our third thought deals with the condition of true mastery — faithfulness. To be accounted among the chiefest, we must be servants of all —i.e., we must so use all opportunity and all ability as to evidence that ours is the spirit of faithfulness in all service. This spii-it of faithfulness in all duty-doing is at once the life of all true humanity and all true religion, as it is also the test of the truth of all claims of gen- erous interest in the work of human advancement. There is in this age a far wider profession of love to God and love to man than in the ages preceding. Is there more of this spirit of faithfulness? Centuries ago, during the times which in our dulness we call the dark ages, forgotten workmen reared in Britain the historic structure of Westminster Abbey. Some years since its roof needed reconstruction, and then was unveiled to the eyes of this generation the fact that those builders of old had wrought the things which were hidden from the eye with a care as great and into a beauty as complete as the things which had been seen of all. Impelled by the spirit of faithful- ness, they wrought for their work's sake, they wrought for the eye of God, they were faithful in that which is least as well as in that which is much. 488 TRUE MASTERY. What is our day and time? Ours is an age of prog- ress, of great events, of far-reaching movements ; but may it not also be an age in which the glory of our advancing civilization hides from sight much of igno- ble display, of base egotism, of unvarnished selfish- ness? Have we the spirit of the earlier time in equal degree and as clear expression? Do men and women now live and labor in any vocation where God has placed them, calm in trust in the equity of the dis- pensations of His all-wise will, or is there far and wide the spirit of impatience, of unrest, of envy, of self-seeking, of the desire to live at ease and at the expense of others? Which is first with the many — duty, or pleasure and ambition? Thoughtful minds are filled with well-grounded fears which prompt often the inquiry. Is the spirit of true progress, which is also the spirit of faithfulness, losing its grip upon human hearts and lives? And well may the question be repeated time and again, for supremacy in all the departments of human achievement, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, depends upon that faithfulness which is careful in that which is least as well as in that which is much. The condition of true mastery on earth and in heaven is faithfulness. In heaven? Yes, in heaven. The oft-quoted par- able of the talents contains sentences pregnant with meaning in their bearing upon faithfulness as the con- dition of true mastery. To the servants who brought TRUE MASTERY. 489 unto their Lord talents added unto those which they had received the words were spoken : " Well done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful in a few tilings, I will make thee ruler over many things." Faithfulness in little things here is the condition of a crown and kingdom yonder. Clearly, then, the truth stands out that the crucial question with God as to a man's or a woman's true mastery is, Has he, has she, been found faithful? Lit- tle it matters where one's lot in life may be cast or what the sphere of labor, whether narrow or broad. The workman who from day to day toils on in plod- ding patience at his bench, doing his work, " heartily as to the Lord and not unto men " — as faithful he as Paul when he stood up before Ciesar speaking in over- powering words of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. The wife and mother laboring on quietly in her home, bearing meekly the many bur- dens of the domestic circle, toiling on for husband and children, unnoticed by the crowd, heart-stricken it may be, often almost worn out by the small tasks and monotonous round of that woman's work which is never done, but yet amid all true to the best interests of her household and to her God — as grand her life in the divine sight as the life of a saint of old crowned at death with the glories of martyrdom. The mother is faithful. Was the martyr more? The workman is faithful. Was Paul anything more? Faithfulness is 490 TRUE MASTERY. the one requirement of God in all work, whether secu- lar or spiritual. And with God, blessed be His name ! " great and small " in any human and earthly sense are words utterly unknown. It is not the greatness of a work which secures reward hereafter. God meas- ures not as men measure. He measures the value of life by its quality, not by its quantity. Faithfulness in true service, faithfulness in that which is least as well as in that which is much — that gives mastery here ; that shall hereafter receive a crown unfading and a kingdom which shall not pass away. Again, " Him that hath ears to hear, let him hear " clearly this added lesson, which rings out sharply from the words, " Who- soever of you will be chief est, shall be servant of aU." IV. We present as our closing thought the truth that the glory of true mastery is self-sacrifice. We have sought to show that the basis of true mastery is a conviction that life is a trust ; that its power con- sists in the gratitude evoked by true service ; that its condition is faithfulness in all things. Its glory, my hearers, is self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice — what is it? Simply stated, it is the giving oneself as an absolute, irrevocable gift, wher- ever one's lot is cast, whatever one's station may be, to the advancement of the interests of the Kingdom of God. It does not involve of necessity great priva- tions or a martyr's death. These, it is true, are sometimes its accompaniments, but it can be mani- TRUE MASTERY. 491 fested at home as well as abroad, amid the toil of the humble tent-maker as well as in the life of the heroic missionary apostle. The keynote of all true self-sacri- fice is heard in the words of old upon the lips of Paul, as he looked forth upon the hardships of the work unto which he was called : " I count not my life dear unto myself." Add to the words of Paul the words, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, " and we add to the keynote of self-sacrifice the method of the exhibition of the fact that men and women possess that spirit Avhich was in Paul and in Christ. The proof that we are one with the apostle and the Lord is given in our love to God and our love to men. Naturally, then, we pass to the one great lesson of the text. What, my hearers, of the spirit which Jesus and others following in His footsteps have manifested? The world's need abides ever the same — self-sacrificing effort for its elevation, progress, redemption. Could we, then, be heroic if the need arose? Is the obligation to true service so royal in us that when duty calls we could say and act with Paul, face to face with the needs, the suffer- ings, the sin, the shame of man, " I count not my life dear unto myself. " Of what substance are our souls fashioned? Of clay which shall crumble to powder at the first breath of temptation or trial ; or of gold, which shall come forth from a thrice-heated 492 TRUE MASTERY. furnace, only the purer for the test? Are we fit, whatever our station or gifts, only to be servants in a low and menial sense ; or have we in us all that soul- stuff out of which God can fashion here one of His true servants hereafter, kings to sit forever with Christ on His throne? The answer to these questions must, of course, be left to ourselves, but let us see to it that the answer be given in unmistakable fashion, by our personal effort, wherever God has placed us, for the welfare and redemption of humanity. Many years ago the building of a large charitable institution in the city of London was discovered to be on fire. The hour was one in the morning, all the inmates had retired to rest, and the terrible alarm broke with startling effect upon their slumbers. The firemen arrived speedily on the ground, and in a short time ninety-seven souls had been snatched from a fiery death. It was sup- posed that all had been saved, but suddenly a shriek startled the gathered throngs, and upon the roof of the building five men were seen calling aloud for help. Quickly a long ladder was brought and raised against the building, but it failed to reach the imperiled ones by many feet. Another and shorter ladder was speed- ily brought, and a brave fireman, carrying it on his shoulders, mounted the larger ladder and placed the foot of the one he carried upon its upper rounds. But still the imperiled men were unreached. "ISTo hope! no hope ! " men muttered with bated breath as they TRUE MASTERY. 493 gazed upon the swiftly advancing flames. But see ! The fireman grasps firmly the ladder he carries, raises it, now to his knees, now to his hips, now to his shoul- ders, and now over his body those who seemed but a minute before lost pass to safety amid ringing cheers. The fireman added his own length to the means of res- cue and so made escape possible for those in danger. Let us lay to heart and act out in the life the les- son of the incident. Wherever there is human need let us gird ourselves for action. Let the spirit of our Lord dwell in us and manifest itself clearly in our conduct. Yea, let us rise to the height of the Divine example, evidencing by our acts that we apprehend the full meaning of the Gospel plan of salvation. With all reverence be it said that salvation for man from sin was an impossibility until God was Himself found in fashion as a man. In the Scriptures it is written not only that God pitied men, not only that God loved the world, but also that God was born a man, lived among men, died for men; that He so added Himself to the plan of salvation that it was brought to full completeness. May we follow in this, as in other things, the Father who is in heaven as His dear children. May His spirit increasingly dwell in us who spake of old, saying, " Whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant to all, for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many." AN EASTER SERMON. By Rev. H. 0. Rowlands, D.D., Lincoln, Nebb. "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. " " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first- fruits of them that slept. " "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. " " But every man in his own order ; Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. —1 Cor. XV. 14, 20, 22, 23. The text presents three great principles or truths of the Christian faith. I. The argument of Christianity for its claims to be a divine religion — that it has a right to the faith of man and authority over his life and conscience. The argument is based, not on its excellency as a code of ethics or on its benevolent mission in the world, but on the one great fact — the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, there is no such supernatural religion as Christianity. Its teachers are "false witnesses," its believers are credulous dupes, and "of all men the most miserable." 494 AN EASTER SERMON. 495 The first heralds of Christianity pivoted their mes- sage on this fact of the resurrection. In their ser- mons and letters they demanded the faith and accep- tance of men for the Gospel because it was verified by the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was proved to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead. Following that supreme credential, that stamp of genuineness, and dependent upon it, came the life, theology, philosophy, hope, and blessedness of Chris- tianity as commending it to men's reason, conscience, and love ; but always the basal, pivotal truth of our religion is the fact of Easter. Because He did rise from the dead He is the Son of God, the Lord of life, and King of kings, and has the right of rule over the race of man. The resurrection is His title to the throne of the human mind and heart. Eighteen centuries of the best history of man have come from the Bethlehem manger. Since then there has been in the world a social, ethical, and religious force — a civilization named Christianity. It has worked political and moral revolutions and changed the course of human history. It is to-day more liv- ing, aggressive, and powerful than ever. It is direct- ing the path in which the ages move, it is ever open- ing new avenues for the feet of knowledge, and setting the chimes of progress to holier movements. It has more believers and devotees than ever, and their num- ber is increasing with every cycle of the sun. Hos- 496 AN EASTER SERMON. pitals, asylums, homes, and other blessings follow its path as flowers bloom in the footprints of spring, as sheaves in the paths of summer. Such an effect must have a cause. We can not admit the existence of the light and ignore the sun ; of the stream and deny the fountain-head. The power and influence of Jesus in the world are felt and admitted by all. What is there in His life and death to account for this? A miraculous birth? An incarnation of deity among men was not an idea materialized first in the Bethlehem stable. Babylon and Egypt ascribed such an honor to their kings, and Greece and Eome claimed it for their heroes, and the claim was sincerely ac- knowledged ; but when those nations died their claims also perished. Honorable descent and wealth have done much for public men. Gautama was the son of a king, and Mohammed was wonderfully helped by a fortunate marriage. But the putative father of Jesus was a poor artisan living in a contemptible village. He Himself spent thirty years of His life making ox- yokes and cart-wheels, mending plows and stools. So far as we know. He made no impression on His neigh- bors. He was not a literary character ; not educated, as men at that time called education. Yet His frag- mentary sermons and talks, as they have come down to us, are the seed of the greatest libraries of the world. There is in their clear, calm depths wisdom which the plummets of eighteen centuries have not fathomed. AN EASTER SERMON. 497 On the front of every age they seem to be written with a divine chemical fluid which no influence can blot or power erase. Social influences have done much to enlarge the influence of men, and Jesus placed social life on a new basis and regenerated it to new purposes. But He had no social position. He was the companion of common people and the friend of the outcast. In the hut of the flsherman He was a comrade, in the cottage of Bethany a guest, but in the parlor of Caia- phas and palace of Pilate He was a disgraced, chained prisoner. His moral teachings were indeed the best man ever taught; but they were what any inspired messenger ef God might utter. David, Isaiah, and John also spoke words of gold from lips of wisdom. He wrought miracles ; so did the ancient prophets be- fore Him and apostles after Him, He was benevo- lent, wise, and righteous; so were Socrates, Daniel, and Aurelius. He was indeed immeasurably greater in those features and graces ; but the difference can not account for the measureless influence of His name and the abiding force of His teaching. In some respects He was signiflcantly wanting in characteristics that have belonged to the epoch-makers of history. He has won more victories than Caesar, Napoleon pales before the splendor of His achieve- ments ; but Pie was not a soldier like Joshua or David or Alexander. He commanded an army of twelve fishermen, and promptly rebuked the disciple who 32 498 AN EASTER SERMON. appealed to the sword. He said the " meek should inherit the earth." The dove, not the vulture; the lamb, not the lion, were the types of His government. He is to-day reorganizing governments, molding empires, and creating nations; crowns and thrones are at His feet. But He was not a statesman like Moses, Caesar, or Gladstone. He had no place to lay down His head, and He made short work of all politi- cal questions brought Him by tempters, either by re- pelling them or using them for a spiritual lesson. History with its rhetoric and partialisms has done much for reputations. The cruel Achilles shines lus- trously in the radiancy of the genius of Homer, ^neas was not as great as the muse of Vergil presents him, and Evangeline is much adorned in the poem of Long- fellow. Jesus has created history, inspired the no- blest poetry ; His name has made the canvas breathe with purity and the marble to pulsate with heroism ; but no historian gilded His life with rhetoric and praises. Four unlearned men prepared brief, un- adorned, fragmentary, and disconnected histories of the few years He lived. His death was pitiably pathetic. Other men as well as He died for their convictions or to bless their fellow men, as Leonidas and Winkelreid did. There are the turbulent multitude, the frightened disciples, the weeping women, the lonely mother, the gory gibbet, the loud wail, and the collapse of life. Nothing there AN EASTER SERMON. 499 to stir a muse or move an artist's brush or chisel I His death was not a " jeweled crown on a golden life." If His life had ended with that tragical death, the in- carnation would have been a myth; the story of the miracles the tale of the credulous ; His death the acci- dent of turbulence — at best the martyrdom of an enthusiast; His claims the visions of a dreamer, all preaching of Him "vain," and all faith in Him also ** vain" ; for His claims for preeminence are based on His declaration that He is "equal with God," the Source and Giver of life to all who believe in Him. An abiding death would contradict all such claims, for He Himself would be the helpless victim of death and the eternal prisoner of the grave. A religion inspired by a faith in such a person could have no power ; it would be on a level with the speculations of India or the extravagances of ]\Iecca. But, when we add to that wonderful life and awful death the substantiated declaration, " Christ is risen indeed," then all the records and teachings of the written Gospel are natural, harmonious, and true. They fit the life and character of Christ as the dawn fits the rising sun, as the light becomes the day. He who could rise from the dead must have been the incarnate God, for God alone has life and immor- tality ; the miracles He wrought were the mere alpha- bet of the crowning miracle, the resurrection; His sublime, impeccable, holy life became His character 600 ^iV EASTER SERMON. as light becomes the sun; His death was not only a testimony of His love for the truth, but was as He claimed, " giving His life for the sheep " ; it was ato- ning, sacrificial, and vicarious. He gave His life for the sheep. The Holy Spirit shows the importance of the resur- rection as the stupendous, basal fact of Christianity in substantiating by such witnesses and proofs as testify to no other event in human history. The prophecies of a thousand years point to it. Jesus declared re- peatedly He should rise from the dead. After His resurrection He was seen many times by His disciples — some of them most skeptical of His identity — and recognized as the risen Jesus. They gazed on Him, felt of Him, and satisfied their doubts. When their evidence was called in question and they were arrested, tortured, and cruelly slain for their testimony and preaching, they yielded their lives a pledge of the truth of their message that they had " looked upon " and had been with the risen Christ and had seen Him ascending into the heavens. Those who helped cru- cify Him believed in the risen Lord. So glaring was the fact that even the enemies did not care to deny it. Other witnesses of this fact are the Christian church with its sacred ordinances of baptism and the Holy Supper, memorials of the death and resurrection of Jesus ; and Easter, the memorial day of the event. AN EASTER SERMON. 501 Sixty generations have passed since the first Easter morning, and the name of Jesus holds a firmer spell over the race of man than ever. " The waif of l?eth- lehem, the boy of Nazareth, and the carpenter of Gal- ilee " has been turning the tide of human history into new channels, and the pierced hands have lifted the centuries to swing on new hinges. The secret of this mysterious energy is: Jesus is not a dead hero, but a risen, living, reigning Leader. His warm blood flows through the veins and arteries of His great religion ; His heart is beating against the ribs of the ages; for He is the living Lord of lords and King of kings. Not on the Bible, however substantiated, does the Christian religion rest for its .support. The existence and splendor of the sun do not depend on a text-book of astronomy ; it may be farther or nearer than our mathematics make it; its glow and life do not depend on the speculations how the solar fires are fed ; so not on Scripture or theology does the divine religion de- pend for its verification, but upon the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and is now pouring His life into the life of the race, and life is ever its own best wit- ness. " Now is Christ risen from the dead, " and we preach Him and believe in Him as the risen and living King. On Ilis head be many crowns! II. Faith in the immortality of man is confirmed into an assurance and a pledge by the resurrection of 502 AN EASTER SERMON. our blessed Lord. He is the " first-fruits of them that slept." That there is a life beyond death has always been the hope of love, the poet's dream, the prayer and instinct of the race. Men have always recoiled from the rumor that death is the end of all, and beyond it is the blank of unending silence and dreamless sleep. The grave is not the temple of man, nor the worm his priest. The bricks of Babylon, the granite of Egypt, the poetry of Greece, and traditions of all na- tions show that the heart of man in all ages hoped and believed in immortality and prayed the great Father to give back the sweet life death had taken. But before the coming of Christ a strong unbelief had crept like an eclipse over the radiant truth. Eome sung to her colonies that death was the " end of all. " Among the chosen people the richest and most intellectual sect, the Sadducees, taught there was no future life. Neither spirit nor angel stirred in its lethean silence, and death was the horizon of all hu- man life. In the Orient, Buddha had the ear of the great Aryan race, and he persuaded them that life was the greatest curse, and the greatest blessing Vishnu had for man was to blot out his personality in a pulseless Nirvana. The phalanxes of death were beating back the troops of life and planting the black flag of despair on the farther banks of the grave. The reason for this hopelessness was, the doctrine of im- AN EASTER SERMON. 603 mortality had always rested on sentiment. But no hope or faith can live long on sentiment; they need facts to sustain them, as a system of planets needs a solar center. Men had seen the ages going down to death, but no one returned from the strange, invisible shores to tell what was beyond and on what country the dark waters laved. At last the problem was solved, the anxious ques- tion of the ages was answered, for a great fact burst like a radiant sun in the life of the race, around which its hopes and faith might ever revolve and receive life and luster, for mark : there was no doubt of the death of the One on the middle gibbet. After He uttered a loud wail His face was seen dropping and resting like a white streak on His breast. To make death still more sure, the soldier lifts the sharp steel toward His side; it slits the skin and divides the flesh, pierces the pericardium, and enters the heart, and in its path follow blood and water. Ko doubt He is dead! He is buried in a new grave, the huge stone rolled on the entrance. Sixteen soldiers watch the contents, and the penalty of death enforces vigilance. The military power of the Roman empire is pledged to keep that tomb sealed and repel all intrusion. But behold ! with the dawn of the first Easter morn- ing around that tomb is a play of light that makes the soldiers as dead men ! The stone rolls away, brushed by a seraphic wing, and out of the house of death 504 AN EASTER SERMON. comes forth alive the crucified Jesus, girded with power, now the Conqueror of death and the Lord of life, and on the territory of the grave He delivers the immortal inaugural : " I am He who was dead and am alive, and lo, I live forevermore." " Because I live ye shall live also." Jesus is the first sheaf of the harvest of the race of man that shall yet be gathered. His resurrection is the pledge that all the hosts of the dead shall rise. They will come from battle-field, where life was thrown away as of no value; from ocean depths, from lone deserts, from hidden graves. The whole earth will quiver and agonize at the second birth of the re- deemed race into a life incorruptible, glorious, and immortal. III. The resurrection of Jesus reveals some of the conditions of the future life. Before this event, even those who firmly believed in future immortality had crude and low conceptions of the state of the departed. The Greeks fancied their heroes were wandering in Hades moaning away a dreary existence. Among the Hebrew people questions were asked such as. If a woman married more than once in the present life, whose wife would she be in the future life? There was nothing elevating or inspiring in the faith ; it was the toy of speculation, the trellis of vagaries. The resurrection of Jesus shed much light on that strange future, for it is a type of the resurrection of AN EASTER SERMON. 605 all. («) It is shown that death does not bring the spirit into a dreamless sleep, nor is it a suspension of its energies. To the redeemed thief Jesus said: " To-day thou shalt be with Me in paradise " — a higher condition of existence than that of earth. Death is a transition into a broader life, intenser consciousness, and larger intelligence than is possible on earth. The soul will not be clogged by flesh and hampered by the limitations of mortality as a bird is wired by the cage against which it beats ; but in the possession of its natural freedom it will move as a wave of light on the confines of new worlds, and the infinite disclosures of spiritual mysteries and glories will eternally greet its growing passion for knowledge. (6) After the resurrection Jesus was no longer earthly and local; he belonged to a spiritual order; He appeared and vanished at will. One of His disciples is bidden to touch his hands and feet; but as he reaches to do so, he exclaims, *' My Lord and my God ! " When He walked by the sea of Galilee, it was not the eye of Peter that first knew Him, but John's quicker intuition of love. At last the transformation is complete, and from Olive's top he ascends in a cloud and is lost to earthly sight; He enters the unseen Holy. In that record we learn that the earthly body passes away with death. " Flesh and blood do not inherit the Kingdom of heaven." The " body of our humilia- 506 AN EASTER SERMON. tion " will be " changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body." There is awaiting the soul a spiritual body, seraphic in nature and celestial in substance. It will not be limited by the material, its vision will be telescopic ; its powers will not be local and tem- poral ; age will not line its visage nor pain mar its beauty nor sorrow corrode its youth. Its passions will be pure, its appetites clean; the joys of youth immortal will forever flow through its life ; every fiber will quiver with the onrushing strength of life glori- ous and eternal ! Such is the " house not built with hands — eternal in the heavens." (c) With the passing away of the earthly body, all kinship and aJ0B.nities based on it will also perish. Jesus declared that the closest of earthly kinship, marriage, will not survive death. He also said that His brothers and sisters were those who did His Father's will. He forbade the loving woman to clasp His feet after the resurrection, implying that the for- mer earthly attachments had ceased. Only spiritual kinship and affections are deathless, John was the "beloved disciple" before His death, and after the resurrection the old love had leaped over the grave, and John was still the "disciple whom Jesus loved." Death has no claim only on the flesh and blood of mortality. The dust asks for nothing but its own. Love, friendship, spiritual attachment, are not born of earth, and the grave will not hold them. AN EASTER SERMON, 607 Herein is answered the old question of anxious love, " Shall we know our loved ones in the after-life? " Yes, we shall meet and know them in their glorified state. "We shall love and be loved with intenser affec- tions than was possible in our gross earthly life ; for affections will be purified of all dross and selfishness, love will be "like the love of God," and it will be nourished by food meet for its nature. (d) The resurrection of Jesus throws light on some of the relations the unseen world holds to the present. After His resurrection He communed with His dis- ciples and promised that after He went to His Father He would be with them still in spirit and person ; thus showing that there is a communion, spiritual and real, between the unseen world and ours. The inspired let- ters unfold this truth, and we read : " Our conversa- tion [living, society] is in heaven" — and Hebrews xii. 22, "Ye are come [not, "you will come by and by," but are already " come "] unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels . . . and to the spirits of just men made perfect." In the same letter (xii. 1) the apostle, after naming in the foregoing chapter a host of departed saints, who by faith had been crowned victors, and referring to the struggling pilgrims of earth, he writes : "... "We also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, " as those who run for prizes in the Grecian games were 608 AN EASTER SERMON. surrounded by their friends who cheered and inspired them to victory. The argument of the comparison is that around the toiling children of God on earth are their spirit friends, the radiant hosts of the redeemed, and they watch with eager interest and by the mysteri- ous influence of their invisible, presence — means un- known to mortals — they help and inspire the saints of earth; they are "ministering spirits" to those who seek salvation. This doctrine is a great comfort to those who are weary in the harness of life, whose trials and bereave- ments make them lonesome. The dead are not dead. Beyond the grave is tremulous with life, intelligent, and loving. The holy men and women who have been flocking through the ages out of this life into the pres- ence of God — they are not beyond the memories of earth, not beyond its scenes; they are with us, for they are with Jesus, and He is with us. They are with God, and we who love God are also with Him ; and it is this coil of flesh that bedims our eyes from seeing the holy departed in their spiritual robes com- passing, sympathizing with, and cheering the pilgrims of earth. This is the holy vision of Easter. The day is well represented by the familiar painting of a cross rising out of the darkness of earth, symbolizing the fears and sorrows of men, even their death; and from an unknown ethereal region stream upon it lambent rays AN EASTER SERMON. 609 bathing it in marvelous glory, an emblem of the new hope and new life of man ; and in the radiance of that light we with the doubting Thomas of old, full of faith and joy, turn to Him who died and is now alive, and say with the rapture of love, " My Lord and my God ! " PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. By Kev. Caleb Samson, Oak Hill, Ohio. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness : but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.— i Cor. i. 18. When a person of education and experience forms the acquaintance of strangers, he endeavors to ob- tain some definite information respecting their mental state and aspirations, so that he may, if possible, adapt himself to his environments. The great Apostle of the Gentiles was not an exception to this rule. The context shows that he understood that the Cor- inthians took interest in education and philosophy, which he here calls " the wisdom of this world. " It would have been a great temptation to a man of ordi- nary experience, and of worldly ambition, to pander to these people by preaching reason, philosophy, wisdom. But Paul, tho versed in Grecian wisdom, withstood the temptation ; he was a strong man, and he knew what the Corinthians needed most. He kept the Cross quite separate from philosophy. He took care not to intermix them. His preaching was nothing more and nothing less than a plain, simple, 510 PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. 511 honest presentation of the truth of the Gospel. The result was that the Corinthians charged Paul with preaching without "the wisdom of words." This led the apostle to make a defense of his style and man- ner of preaching. From the seventeenth to the thirty- first verse he gives his reasons for rejecting the " wisdom of this world " and standing by the truths revealed by God in and through His Son Jesus Christ. The chief reason Avhich he gives is that " the preach- ing of the cross " is the only doctrine that tends to salvation. It is vain, Paul contends, to expect ^ " worldly wisdom " to cleanse and to restore the de- praved nature of man. The cross alone can do that, therefore he prefers to stand by the cross. Corinth had a wide reputation for learning, but the depraved habits of her people kept her down. Corinth affords a standing example of the inability of culture to save a nation. Subject-matter — "The Preaching of the Cross." I. The Preaching of the Cross is a Revelation of the Idea of Salvation. The idea or purpose of saving existed from the foundation of the world. But the thought and plan of it were among the " secret things of God " until the fulness of the time had come for the Son who was born of a woman to reveal it to the world. God en- tertained thoughts of love for man before the moun- 512 PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. tains were brought forth, but it was reserved for Christ to show and to illustrate that love, and to bring it within the circle of our understanding. Electricity is as old as creation, but its discovery- is a recent thing. The " preaching of the cross " means God's eternal purpose of saving the world brought down to practical limits, and made intelli- gible to mortal beings. The existence of a scheme or system in the mind is one thing, but it is another question to convert it into a practical fact, and it must come to that before it can be a blessing to the world. There have been many schemes in the heart of man that never saw the light of day. However intense the love of God in the " thoughts of peace " entertained from the creation of the world, it could not benefit poor humanity unless manifested in a practical manner. Herein lies the condemnation that light has been brought into the world, and yet men love darkness rather than the light. The nature and extent of the revelation of God's love made in the life and death of Christ leave the disobedient hear- ers of the Gospel without an excuse. II. The Preaching of the Cross is a Fact. A principle or an idea can be made clear without being true. To say that a thing may be understood is not equivalent to saying it is true in fact. But the doctrine of the cross is not only easy to be under- 06 o o o mm p¥ ^^ ^^' o o b o PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. 513 stood, but it is true. It can stand the light; it has stood it for eighteen hundred years. If the preach- ing of the cross were a lie, we would be the most mis- erable of all men. But it is not so. The wonderful works of our Savior and His apostles; the experi- ences and lives of the saints in all ages and lands tes- tify to the truth of the doctrine that through the blood of the cross alone can the world be saved. III. The Preaching of the Cross is of Great Value. Who can estimate the worth of steam-power or the sailor' s compass or electricity ? Imagine for a moment their effect upon human happiness and upon the cause of civilization ! It is beyond computation. But the worth of electricity and steam-power sinks into insig- nificance when compared with the worth of the Gos- pel— the preaching of the cross. Look at the effect of the doctrine of the cross upon labor, childhood, home, literature, philosophy, and slavery! It has verily turned the world upside down. IV. The Doctrine of the Cross is Infinitely Mich. The earth is rich, the sea is rich, but these riches are as nothing compared with the riches of the Gos- pel. These are inexhaustible, these are everlasting. Man's needs are great and deep. He needs mercy. He needs sanctification. He needs spiritual sight in death. He needs the hope of immortality. He needs 514 PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. what earth, sky, sea can not give; but he needs nothing which the preaching of the cross can not give. V. The Preaching of the Cross is to be Made Known Throughout the Whole World, and the Purposes of God Are to be Realized. Many parts of the earth are yet without the cross. They have no knowledge of Christ or of sal- vation, or of heaven and hell. They live in dark- ness. It is God's purpose that the whole earth should be covered with the knowledge of the crucified, as the waters cover the sea. There are diflGculties, and great difficulties — the spirit of caste, difference of language, of habits, of blood, and a great many other difficul- ties; but what is impossible with man is possible with God. VI. The Different Effects of the Preaching of the Cross upon the Hearers of the Gospel. " To them that perish it is foolishness: but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." The hearers of the Gospel are here divided into two classes — "lost" and "saved." Each of these has an idea concerning the plan of God to save the world. The Gospel compels men to form some judgment concerning it. All have not the same mind or judg- ment. To the lost, it is " foolishness " ; to the saved, PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. 515 it is the " power of God." The bearing or conduct of men toward the Gospel is the ground or standard of their judgment upon it. The opinion or judgment of the " lost " is that it is foolishness. They regard it as a doctrine unworthy of credence — unworthy of acceptance. The system of salvation is so spiritual that the carnally minded can not appreciate its worth. Unbelievers and scoffers are not competent to judge of Christianity. The blind know nothing of colors ; the deaf nothing of harmony. So the unbeliever can not enter into the spirit and mean- ing* of the Gospel. He is not qualified to pronounce a judgment upon its merits. An infidel philosopher spoke disparagingly one time of religion iu the hear- ing of Sir Isaac Newton. Sir Isaac told him that he was prepared to hear what he had to say upon any subject except religion — such as astronomy and kin- dred subjects — for religion was a matter of which he knew nothing. But is the preaching of the cross " foolishness " ? If *' foolishness, " how was it that Thomas Paine in his last hours called for the help of Jesus? If "foolish- ness," how is it that ungodly men, when death stares them in the face, desire the consolations of the minis- ter and the church? Who is it that says that the Gospel is foolishness? Not the angels, not the devils, not the saints. Who then? The lost, the disobedient hearers of the Gos- 616 PREACHING THE POWER OF GOD. pel, the \mbelievers ; and these change their mind when they reach the borders of the Jordan. The opinion of those who are saved is that the Gospel, or the preaching of the cross, is the power of God. Change of state leads to a change of opinion con- cerning the plan and purpose of God to save the world through Christ. Saul of Tarsus was ashamed of the Gospel, but Paul was not. There are millions like him. Old sinners who for years defied the most powerful appeals, scorning the grace of God in Christ, have been brought to feel and to acknowledge its power and virtue. Its power was felt by thousands in the days of the apostles, in the time of the Refor- mation, and even in our day. Its power is equal to the most serious cases. This is the great hope of the world. The question is, To which of these two parties do we belong? Are we among the " lost " or the "saved"? You who are among the lost can be brought within the field. Do you believe? THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. Rev. Benjamin D. Thomas, D.D., Toronto, Canada. "Enter ye in at the strait gate ; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. "—Matt. vii. 13, 14. This is one of the great utterances of Our Lord. Like everything that ever issued from His lips, it is profoundly suggestive. He spoke with authority be- cause He spoke from knowledge. No one ever ad- dressed human souls with such insight into their ex- periences and needs, and certain is it that no one ever approximated to Him in the uncompromising honesty with which He adapted His teaching to the conditions which prevailed around Him. He was incomparable both in His message and in His ministry. There are few instances in which life and destiny and the trembling responsibilities hanging upon every passing instant were more vividly and solemnly portrayed. "Enter ye in at the strait gate," or, according to the corresponding passage in the Gospel of Luke, " Strive 517 518 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. to enter in at the strait gate, " etc. The theme which I believe to be enfolded in these words, and which it will be my aim, God helping me, to develop and en- force, is the supreme acquisition of being. There can be no doubt whatever as to the worthi- ness of this theme to claim the thoughtful attention of any company of immortal beings. It is truly a great theme. It bears upon human life in its eternal relations. It is the urgent message of infinite love to every man as he enters upon the untrodden way of his existence. It is burdened with the solemnity that arises from possible failure. It glows with the ear- nestness of an intelligent solicitude. It presses upon reason and conscience for rational and immediate action. It holds out before human souls a supernal good and calls upon them at any sacrifice to realize it. "Enter ye in at the strait gate," etc. "Strive to enter in." Let me invite you, then, to consider this acquisition which I have been pleased to put at the very acme of attainment; which I have deemed worthy of a fore- most place in your thought and ambition ; toward the realization of which you should bend every energy of your souls. I. What is the Supreme Acquisition of Being? That is the first question that I must endeavor to answer. We must have clearly defined thoughts in regard to it before we can intelligently proceed to its THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 519 discussion. A mistake in respect to the thing itself toward which we are urged to aspire must result in confusion and uncertainty. It is generally supposed to be heaven, but our text says that it is life, and there is a very great difference between the two conceptions. The strait gate here referred to certainly does lead into the Kingdom of heaven, but only because it first of all leads into a quality of being which makes the existence of that Kingdom possible. Our Lord's great aim in the whole of His earthly ministry was not to get men and women into heaven, but into life. This striving merely to get to heaven is not only not in harmony with the Christian idea, but directly contrary to it. If your aim is simply to get to heaven, it may be well that you should know that the road you are on does not lead in that direc- tion. The condition must precede the realization. There is something of immeasurably greater impor- tance than getting to heaven, and that is procuring a character in which the essential elements of infinite fe- licity and usefulness inhere. Salvation is not merely an act whereby the soul is rescued from hell, its chief virtue consists in producing a quality of being upon which no fires of hell can kindle. In the Christian conception the all-important matter is life. Christ does not invite to experiences that are pleasurable and delightful, but rather to that which is their certain inspiration. " Ye will not come unto me that ye 520 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. might have life." The gift of God is not some- thing that we are selfishly to enjoy, but something which we are to receive into our inmost being and work out in character. There is not a little in so- called religious teaching which is false and mislead- ing. Motives are appealed to which are utterly un- worthy of the Christian name. Men are told that if they only comply with the Divine requirements, they shall have this or that immunity, this or that blessedness ; that may be verily true, but only as the result of possessing something which is more valu- able than either. Is it not more consonant with the dignity of the Christian ministry and with the spirit and genius of the revelation with which we have been entrusted to lay the emphasis upon the life? That is the supreme acquisition — that is the attainment which makes every desirable and felicitous experience pos- sible. The ideal toward which all that Christ did and suffered to realize is found in Himself. He is the pat- tern man. The mission of Christianity is to produce men after that type. If it fails here, it fails utterly. It is not an economy of rescue but of recreation. The fundamental purpose of redemption, with all that it includes, is character — a quality of life that is Christ- like. " I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Not heaven then, but character ; not happiness, but a supernatu- ralized manhood, is the supreme acquisition of being. TUB SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 521 This larger conception will necessitate a higher ideal than has ordinarily been entertained. The strait gate leads into life, rich, regnant, potential. It is not sufficient for you to say : "I do not swear," " I do not drink of the intoxicating cup," "I do not gamble, " " I do not indulge in any practises that are mean and dishonest," "I do not use my tongue de- ceitfully, nor do aught in fact that would be obnox- ious to a refined moralist or a devout Christian. " You are not to suppose because you can bear such a record of your conduct that you have reached the acme to which our text incites. That is not the life into which the strait gate and narrow way lead. Christianity is vastly mor6 than an immaculate negativism. The goodness that consists in not doing the evil, in ab- staining from whatever is disreputable and injurious is, with all its admirableness, a very unripe kind of fruit. It is not fit for the banqueting-table of the King. The dear souls that are so good that they would turn up their eyes in holy horror at the slight- est indulgences that they have learned to consider sinful, and yet have no sympathy — no bowels of com- passion— no real generosity of heart — no directly positive excellences of life, are an offense and reproach rather than an honor and praise. We have been mak- ing too much of this goody-goody sort of Christianity. People who are mightily punctilious about the ex- ternals of religion, who are painfully devout (if I 522 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. might be pardoned the expression), who would attend religious meetings every day in the week to the neglect of the legitimate and urgent duties of life, who talk with saintly unctuousness about the dear Lord and poor dying sinners, while they are not sweet in their temper or charitable in their judg- ment or self-sacrificing in their spirit, have been re- cognized too often as the highest models of the Chris- tian quality. Why were the Scribes and Pharisees condemned by our Lord in such scathing language? Not because their negative virtues were not numerous ; not because they were lacking in religiosity ; not because they had many and glaring faults, for they were extremely careful in respect of their behavior and deportment. They were condemned because they had no positive qualities of excellence. The common idea of Christianity needs to be ele- vated. It is not the poor, vapid, jejune thing which has too frequently borne the name. I am afraid that what has sometimes been held up to us as a representa- tion has been little better than a caricature. You will remember Carlyle's aphorism of one of the Stuart kings : " He never said a foolish thing, and he never did a wise one." His greatest excellence was that he had no faults, and his greatest fault was that he had no excellences. A character that is simply an ag- gregation of negatives, and which is deficient in all THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 623 that is definite and positive, does not come up to the true Scriptural ideal. It must not be supposed for a moment that I depre- ciate the importance of the negative virtues. They are necessary and essential as they stand related to the richer and fuller life. The Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, says : " But now ye also put off all these : anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication," etc. But this is not sufficient. This is but preparatory to something better. He goes on very speedily to say : *' Put on therefore, as the elect of God holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffer- ing," etc. You must put off the bad before you can put on the good. It is vain that you attempt to de- velop the higher graces of the divine life until you have made a clean sweep of your sins. You have seen a painter at an important piece of work. How does he go about it? He first burns off the old paint; he uses knife and fire until the wood stands out clear of all its old dirty covering as it was when originally cut out of the parent tree, and then he proceeds upon the clean surface according to his ability to produce results that will bear inspection and command ap- proval. He would not dream, if he understood his work and had any regard for his reputation, to pro- ceed until he had a clean surface to operate upon. It would be a complete failure if ho did. The same is 524 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. true of character. You must put off the old sinful, worldly qualities before you can put on the new forms of spiritual excellence. That is the divine order and none other is practicable. You can not live in sin and grow in grace. You can not hold on to your old sinful delights and yet love God and holiness. You can not be in the service of Satan and clothed in Christ's righteousness at one and the same time. You must put off the old man with his affections and lusts before you can put on the new man. The prodigal was stripped even to nakedness before the best robe was put on him. It is poor, miserable work to cover rags, or to bring out qualities of ex- quisite spiritual beauty upon a surface that has not been prepared therefor by the most rigorous process. The great matter, however, the supreme matter — the matter in relation to which everything else is but preparatory and incidental — is life, rich, full, abun- dant life. The door into the palace is not beautiful simply because the old paint has been burned out of it ; the tree is not to be pronounced excellent because it does not bear poor fruit ; a man is not spiritually admir- able because he does not give himself up to open un- godliness. The individual spoken of in one of our Lord's inimitable parables, who hid his talent in the ground, was very conscientious; he was extremely careful even not to expose himself to the possibility of misusing his lord's money. He did not employ it for THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 525 unhallowed ends ; he did not speculate with it ; he would not imperil his master's capital by even pla- cing it in the bank, he simply kept it intact — he hid it in the ground, and when the day of reckoning came he said: " Lord, there thou hast that is thine." I sup- pose that man would generally be commended for his prudence, but our Lord did not so estimate his con- duct. He was as guilty in His sight as the veriest robber. " Thou wicked and slothful servant." You tell me that you have put ofif this, that, and the other, but what have you put on? You tell me that you have not wasted your Lord's money, but what use have you made of it? You assume to be very good, but are you good for something ? You have put off Satan, but have you put on Christ ? The true life really begins at this point. You are a poor, naked specimen of redeeming grace until you are clothed upon with His righteousness, until you live as He lived, love as He loved, forgive as He forgave, sacrifice as He sacrificed, until you grow up unto Him as your ideal and embody in your character the principles which He incarnated and glorified. I desire for you, as I desire for myself, a life that is rich, and strong, and noble — a life "according to Jesus Christ" — a life that has depth in it — fulness in it — purposefulness in it — a life that appeals to the highest and noblest that is in us. I am tired of that sickly, decrepit, inglorious thing that has only just 526 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. sufficient vitality to keep itself from perishing, that is all the time saying : " May I not do this, and that, and the other questionable thing, and yet retain the integrity of my Christian character? " — that is, spend- ing precious time in removing wrinkles and humors that would disappear of themselves with a little healthy exercise. II. How is this supreme acquisition of being to be realized? "A strait gate and a narrow way stands between yon and it." You must struggle, strive, agonize to enter into it. Let it be distinctly understood that I am not speaking of the Christian life in its incipiency, in its embryonic stage, in its pupilage, but of the Christian life in the fulness of its manifold possibili- ties. The entrance into the former is very simple and easy. All you have to do as a condition is to ac- cept the free gift of infinite grace. A man or a child becomes a Christian the instant he believes, but there are heights of possibility and experience which are not reached in that way. Christ is speaking of these. Every man born into this world has life, but only the few have attained to the rare inheritances of knowl- edge and power to which it invites. Every man who sincerely believes on Jesus Christ is born again, has been introduced into a realm of infinite possibili- ties, but the great multitude have not attained to them. The supreme acquisition of being is yet in THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 527 the prospective. You must come to Christ by faith before you can enter into the strait gate and narrow way that leads into it, but you may be a Christian and fail of its realization. If I mistake not, these words were spoken to those who were already dis- ciples. "And seeing the multitude he went up into a mountain, and when he was set his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them." It is the larger life, the fuller life, the life in which spiritual principles are regnant, in which Jesus Christ is enthroned, that you are urged to aspire to with the utmost striving. Let it not be deemed strange that a strait gate and a narrow way should intervene between you and it. This is the case with respect to every form of larger living. There is no inheritance worth possessing which does not present to the aspirant a strait gate. The acquisition of knowledge, of power, of influence, of success is possible only as men face the strait gate and the narrow way. Broad is the way that leadeth to incompetency and failure, and many there be that go in thereat; and narrow is the way that leadeth to eflficiency and success, and few there be that find it. Some of you are here to-day enjoying the ripe fruitage of a land that you had to strive to enter. The strait gate of self-mastery and the narrow way of mental application that opened into the green fields of intellectual delights and into orchards and gardens that 628 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. have dropped their ripe clusters into your bosoms have not been forgotten. They remain as an imperishable reminiscence. The same law is imperious with respect to that life which is highest, with respect to that acquisition which is supreme. ''Strait is the gate." You can not become royal men — men of Christ-like qualities, men of rich spiritual experience, and abounding spir- itual life, without striving for it. It means an acqui- sition which challenges the best energies of the soul. " Strive to enter in at the strait gate. " And is it not worth the effort? What saith the student who has been ushered into a world of alluring experiences and delights of which the uninitiated mul- titude are prof oundly ignorant? What saith the mer- chant who has learned to master the details of a large establishment, and who, because of the proficiency which he has acquired, is able to surround himself with luxury and elegance? What saith the states- man whose brow is garlanded with the laurels of a nation's appreciation and gratitude? Are not the strait gate and narrow way glorified in the memory of all such lives? And surely the Christian who has ascended the heights of spiritual attainment, whose feet stand upon the summit of the mount of vision, who has been transfigured by beholding the glory of God and face of Jesus Christ, is prepared to bear a like testimony. "Enter ye in at the strait gate." THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 529 III. It remains now only that I should touch upon the influences that may tempt you to treat as of tri- fling concern the supreme acquisition of being. 1 shall not attempt to sweep the hemisphere of vision. I might spend the whole evening in bring- ing into recognition the darker currents of evil that are all the time surging up against your souls. We know that they are numerous and strong, and that the fortifications need to be of no ordinary masonry to resist their influence. It can not have failed to im- press itself upon you, as you have looked out upon the ■world, that multitudes seem to be but slightly affected by considerations that are high and holy. The ag- gregate of human society seem to live and move and have their being in the realm of the sensuous. The one imperious cry of their nature is: " What shall we eat? What shall we drink? and. How shall we have a general good time? " Their tastes grovel and their very ambitions flounder in the mire of sensuous de- light. Now, why is this? There are just two reasons I would offer for the sad prevalence of this state of things, and for the general tendency to treat as of trifling concern the supreme acquisition of being. 1. False views of life. They look at the seen and fail to apprehend the unseen. They measure values by their glow and glitter, rather than by their real qualities. They sacrifice the permanent good for the momentary titillatiou of their sensibilities. The boy 34 530 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. at school has offered to him a heritage of knowledge and a disciplined mind, but he turns away from them to indulge in pastimes and in sports. The man of pleasure is invited into avenues of industry which give promise of most satisfying results, but he allows his appetites to dash the golden chalice from his lips. The worldling says, " I have enough to do to attend to one world," forgetful of the fact that •' the worlds are hung in clusters, and that to live for one is to lose that and all other worlds besides." The great mis- take is one of vision. Life is a thing of sensations rather than of principles ; of possessions rather than of qualities ; of temporal rather than of eternal sig- nificance. When religion asserts the claims of the higher na- ture and seeks to broaden out the life, to touch the eternities, these puerile conceptions come in to defeat the magnificent consummation. Another reason is — 2. An unwillingness to submit to the conditions. The gate is strait and the way is narrow. This is not an arbitrary arrangement, however ; it is not the Divine purpose to make the way of life as difficult and unpleasant as possible. The imagery was not in- tended to convey the idea, which is all too common, that the religion of Jesus Christ consists in renimcia- tion and self-surrender merely ; in giving up this and that and the other. The gate is strait not in the THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. 531 sense of limitation, but as the gate to every high at- tainment must be : " You must be a broad man to enter into this narrow way." You must have a high ideal and an earnest purpose to actualize it. It is not for self-indulgent weaklings but for those who have caught a vision of the glory of the invisible realms above them, and are determined at whatever cost to bask in its effulgence. It is really only the elite of society, those who have awakened to the unutterable possi- bilities of their nature, and who have begun to expand in the quality of their manhood as the great God has revealed to them the purposes of His grace, that can enter through the " strait gate and into the narrow way." The language as thus understood implies tremen- dous urgency. Strive because the consequences of neglect are appalling. Strive because the conditions of success are inexorable. Strive because the possi- bilities of attainment are sublime. Now if the supreme acquisition be what I have represented it, life, character, quality of manhood, then what of it? Have you realized it? Are you in the way of realizing it? Are you with the many who fail, or with the few who succeed? Has the narrow way repelled you, or has the broad way fascinated you? Where are you at this moment? What are the prospects ahead of you? Momentous questions all Let them not be asked to unresponsive hearts. 632 THE SUPREME ACQUISITION OF BEING. And now lest there be one of you rather discouraged than inspired by the ideal I have presented, let me assure you that there is a great Power that makes for righteousness, that all the resources of the Godhead are at the command of the feeblest soul that aspires. You may not become a great philosopher, or poet, or artist, but there is no reason why each one of you may not become a great saint, a strong, rich, royal man. THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUF- FERINGS. By Rev. H. J. Whitby, A.S.A., B.D., Emporia, Kansas. "Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?" — Luke xxiv. 26. The disciples had witnessed the sad rites which had been hastily performed over Christ's remains. It was a very sad day for them. The great sun of their hope, which had risen so beautifully and so entraucingly in the person of the Redeemer, had gone out in the gloom and dar' ness of Calvary. They were the most miser- able of men. Not only had they lost the Christ, but they had lost the world of hopes and expectations which had grown up about Him. There can be no doubt that the followers of Jesus were tainted by, if not indeed completely possessed of, the political and exclusively Jewish notion of the Messiah. Whatever idea of spoils had been connected with the nation in the aver- age Jewish mind, it was also connected by the disciples with the movement of which Christ had been the cen- ter. It is not, therefore, surprising that when Jesus was making His last memorable journey to Jerusalem 533 534 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. that two of His disciples, thinking that He was about to establish His kingdom, should hurriedly and in an unseemly manner apply for the positions of honor which, according to tradition, would be at His disposal. The crucifixion shattered these delusive hopes and left their possessors in a condition of bewilderment. The two men on the way to Emmaus, in their con- versation with the undiscovered Christ, admit us to the secret hopes and expectations of the Savior's fol- lowers. " We hoped that it was he which should redeem Israel. " The hope was correct so far as it cen- tered in Jesus as the Author of redemption, but in- correct so far as it had appropriated current Messianic conceptions. The destruction of these old conceptions was necessary that Christ should bring in His own pure and spiritual expositions ; and forthwith He be- gins the work of intellectual and spiritual reconstruc- tion. What had transpired was not only in deepest accord with the Divine decrees, but was also a result of the incarnation. " Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory? " Some of the reasons for the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ: I. Because of the solidarity of the race of which He was a member. The race as God regards it and as it proceeds from Him is one. The eternal Fatherhood of God which Jesus Christ announced implies a common brotherhood. Wherever we are, whatever our condi- NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. 535 tion, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, we are com- pelled, even against our own inclinations at times, to confess a common Father. Even if science should establish a plurality of origins to the different races of men on the physical side, the similarity of life, of principles, and of feelings which manifests itself in the history of the races as thus far known points un- mistakably to a common origin. Revelation and phi- losophy agree in teaching us to say. Our Father which art in heaven. Our expression of life's " relationship " must correspond to the intuitions of the purest-minded men, of even a Christ. It never occurred to Him to deny this common relationship. It never occurred to Him to set aside any obligation which originated in it. The race was made in Him. The incarnation was based upon a relationship which preceded it. It was the Christ coming unto His own. Sin did not destroy this relationship, altho it modified the form of the Chi-ist's life and determined that whenever He should come. He should come in suffering and in sorrow. As the chief member of the race, as the cause of its exist- ence, as the head in which all the parts are integrated. He was possessed of a world-consciousness after which we are but dimly feeling. " It became Him for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." It will help us to apprehend this fact and a part of 536 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. its meaning if we place it side by side with some of the relationships of life which are near and very real to all of us. Individualism needs no proof. The in- dividual stands for it. The individual life, however, is central to the various forms of social life and finds the full expression of itself in them. The beneficent force of this personal life is not found till it communi- cates itself to the family, to society, and to all God- appointed corporate forms of life. The individual in- terest and the social interest are equally real, and life corresponds to the divine ideal when these interests are properly recognized Individualism over-emphasized becomes selfishness. The individual, to save himself, must find himself in the various forms of social life. Sin disintegrates these relationships, denies them, and brings in disorder. It unfits men to feel their reality. Yet the realities remain. Man is by nature central to every social relationship. The true man, whose sen- sibilities are quick and easily moved, responds to the varied life of the world in its sufferings and sorrows as parents respond to the life of the family or as the heart to the life of the body. We know what this means in the family life. We are also taught what it means in the national life. Indeed, a world-con- sciousness is gradually evolving itself. Our best type of statesmen, our great missionaries, know what this means. They are carrying world-burdens. Thus from the individual as center we proceed through NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. 637 the different social circles until we come to a world- interest. We are slow to comprehend this unity. We are not willing to believe that there are men whose vision is large and clear enough to take in the world and whose ambitions have been formed upon the Savior's plans. We are sin-hardened. We have not risen to such purity of life and to such sensitiveness of feeling as to make world-burdens real to us. Jesus Christ was the ideal Man. His vision was large, His sympathies wide and deep. The mechanism of cablegram, tele- gram, and telephone, which expresses the awakening, commercial world-consciousness and which is charac- teristic of the new age, was preceded by a spiritual world-consciousness which was founded upon an eter- nal relationship and which found its first clear annun- ciation in the life, love, and teachings of the Lord Jesus. Center to all the world, sensitive to every condition of the race, with the sorrows of all flowing in and reporting themselves to Him as to a quivering heart, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world. When He sat on Mount Olivet and looked over the city, He wept tears of sorrow. When he ascended Calvary, He poured out His life-blood. The hour was awful, the event most tragic ; the Son of God was made sin for us and suffered the death of the cross. Being one of us. He shared the consequences of our unrighteous lives. 538 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. II. Because of the difference between Him and His environment. A great philosopher is credited to have said that if a perfect man came into the world he would be compelled to spend his life in suffering and sorrow. Doubtless he recognized, as did Jewish proph- ecy in a very clear manner, the eternal incompati- bility between the good and the bad. A man that has a medium kind of goodness, that measures up to the current moralities, but is far from the eternal ideal, may spend his life in enjoyment; but a man who draws his ideal from heaven and endeavors to fashion his life according to eternal principles will find that the world is out of joint, a place of tribulation, and that he was born to set it right. A genuine goodness is self-assertive, active, and world-renewing. It will, therefore, be regarded in an imperfect and sinful world as unsettling, disturbing, and revolutionary. This is the philosophy of such lives as Savonarola, Huss, Martin Luther, and others. They were mostly supe- rior to their surroundings. They put forth their en- ergy to lift the world to their own spiritual heights. The struggles, the sufferings, and the sorrows of their lives were the expression of the difference between them and their environment. The seriousness with which they attacked the listlessness and the moral in- difference of their contemporaries called forth an opposition persistent in its character and in some cases deadly in its effects. Jesus Christ is the highest ex- NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. 539 ample of incompatibility with His surroundings. He was absolutely perfect, His environment was imper- fect. He was the incarnation of eternal love; His contemporaries were selfish. He sought not His own ; they were distinguished by their self-seeking. He became the most luminous example of self-sacrifice; they the most consummate illustration of the world- principle. They possessed no common ground upon which they could meet and agree. Neither in the rul- ing principles of their lives nor in their views of God nor in their conceptions of the Messiahship were they at one. It is impossible to conceive of a greater dif- ference and a profounder incompatibility than that which existed between the Christ and His people. Our Lord teaches this very distinctly when He affirms the necessity of the new birth in order to a knowl- edge of His Kingdom. Jesus was an exponent and a perfect illustration of the Kingdom of heaven ; they lived and had their being within the confines of the kingdom of darkness and of this world. Therefore the more energetically He proclaimed the Kingdom of God, the more intense became the opposition that con- fronted Him. AVheu it was seen, as it was at last seen, that the order which Christ announced excluded the conditions which then prevailed, the leaders quickly agreed that it was better to sacrifice one man than to destroy the nation. This, indeed, was easier at the time, it was the convenient thing to do ; but the 640 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. world rests ultimately upon truth. All compromises simply postpone tlie day of judgment. Jewish life, thought, and feeling must at last comply with the demands of God's law or pay the penalty. Jesus was the embodiment of the true world order, and they cru- cified Him. As a further illustration of this difference between Christ and His contemporaries we may glance at some specific teachings. One of the great national institu- tions was the Temple, and the orders which had sprung up about it. Jesus recognized it as the legitimate growth of the past and looked upon it as God' s house. But in so doing He did not intimate a continuation of its existence and of its services. Here was one that was greater than the Temple. He looked forward to a time when every spot of God's earth was to be a holy of holies, and in which the priest-right was to become the possession of every individual who sought God in spirit and in truth. There was no mistaking the meaning of His message. Nor did the Jewish priest- hood mistake it. It meant the complete spiritualiza- tion of religion ; and the Jewish priesthood in a very special manner were called upon to do what in various ways the nation was to do — to deny themselves that God's Kingdom may come. Furthermore, the plans of Jesus embraced the world. If the Jew is strong in anything, it is in the principle of nationalism. On the basis of this principle the NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. 541 people were formed. The Mosaic legislation and the voice of prophecy give great prominence to this. When this principle seemed to be disappearing, the Pharisees sprang up to strengthen and to foster it. Up to a certain point it was necessary. But it was not an end in itself. Nationalism, properly under- stood, leads to universalism. Abraham was called and the nation was preserved because of something outside its own boundary. "The national election," said a great English preacher, " was like a great electric jar in which converging streams of electric force were stored — not that they might remain there a national possession, but that they might flash forth through a thousand conductors and quicken mankind." The universalism latent in Judaism colored the teaching of Jesus, and in more than one instance it can be very distinctly traced. The commission, which bids the church look out upon the world and care for it, is a blossom whose roots permeate the church's teaching and pushes back even to the Abrahamic promise. Jesus was, therefore, true to all that was best and deepest in the Jewish teaching when He spoke of world-interests. It was a parting of the ways for the nation. Jesus called them to deny themselves and carry out the Divine plan. The nation was not pre- pared to embrace the Christ plan. It was easier to kill the son and keep the inheritance than to become world-missionaries. The genius of Israel and the 642 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. plans of God centered in Christ and His followers. Through opposition, through suffering, and through death Christ and His followers passed on to form a world and an environment of their own, III. Because it pleased God to make them a mani- festation of His righteousness and a reason for the for- giveness of sin. As we have traced the reasons for Christ's sufferings and death, there is a naturalness in the whole history which seems to exclude a Divine purpose, and yet when the work is done, when the sufferings are completed and death is past, we are com- pelled to recognize behind the human agencies a Divine will, which in spite of these agencies moves forward to accomplish its own unalterable purpose of self-revela- tion. Humanly speaking, it is a murder we see on Calvary accomplished under the forms of law. It is the opposition of men that is carrying itself out. From the human standpoint we can discern no noble motive, nothing to relieve the tragedy of its dark feat- ures. But we know that an action which is diabolic when considered in the light of its originating motive may, by being cut away from its original context and by being transferred into the sweep and purpose of an- other life, be changed in its meaning, and may be made to serve ends altogether different, and from what it was first destined. The selling of Joseph was a mean, a despicable act ; as considered from the brothers' stand- point, it can never be justified. But the act takes a dif- NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. 543 ferent meaning when it is regarded, as Joseph teaches his brothers to regard it, as one of a series of actions providentially arranged to preserve life. The envy and the ill-will which originated it seem to drop off when it becomes subservient to the Divine purpose. The providence of God takes up this evil action and, having torn it out of its mean, despicable context of selfishness and ill-will, gives it a new purpose, and in so doing communicates to it a new meaning. In the larger context of God's providence the action becomes part of a scheme which glorifies God, in spite of human obliquity, and tends to bless Egypt and the household of Jacob. It is thus we are taught to look at the sufferings of Jesus Christ. There was a human agency which con- trived and carried out the terrible deed. Studying it in the light of the selfish motives that brought it about, we are minded that He was taken by wicked hands and was crucified and slain. It was tragic and terri- ble to the last degree. Under the forms of law the most sainted of men was really murdered by " His own." This is the event in its immediate and Jewish context. Later the disciples were taught to construe the event from a higher standpoint. It is remarkable that when the tragedy was passed and gone the sutferings and death of Christ were found to be central to a scheme in which God's righteousness and love were revealed. The event which revealed 544 NECESSITY OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS. the diabolism of which human nature was capable revealed also the depth of Divine love. Thus the action, which was the necessary outcome of a deep unity of relationship and antagonism with one' s envi- ronment, becomes the expression of Infinite love and Infinite justice. It was an act of sovereign grace on the part of God to transform the crucifixion of Christ to high and redemptive purposes. It is to this fel- lowship of sufferings we are called. THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. By Rev. J. P. Williams, Columbus, Ohio. "I have seen an end of all perfection : but thy command- ment is exceeding broad." — Psalm cxix. 96. This Psalm contains a sublime tribute to the excel- lency of God's law — the law of His moral nature and of His revealed Word. And our theme is : The End of the Visible, and the Continuance of the Spiritual, in the Light of God's Law. I. The End of the Visible. — "I have seen an end of all perfection." In its proper sense, perfection is a term applicable only to God. "As for God, His way is perfect." "The law of the Lord is perfect." Men can do nothing perfectly. If it were proper to apply the word "perfect" to sin, neither men nor devils are able to sin perfectly. There is such disor- der and awfulness in sin that it is impossible for any creature ever to reach its full completion. The same is true in well-doing. The best of men can do nothing perfect in this life, because, for one reason, no one can be sinless. The aspiration of the best saints is not realized — not because the " fulness of the Godhead " 35 546 546 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. is not sufficient for them, but because they are not sufficiently spiritual in asking or ready in receiving. Altho they have desired much and wrought much, they are but on the shore of God's sea of wonders. " Pressing toward the mark " was Paul even in his last days. The only perfection that the saints can hope for is the perfection of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to them in justification, and the perfec- tion of their salvation in consequence of their sanctifi- cation. The world, especially in these years, is as if rapidly pushing on to perfection in many ways — in learning, in the mechanical arts ; for example, in feats of engi- neering and the thousand and one notable inventions which have characterized this century. It might be supposed that the world has attained a sort of perfec- tion in these accomplishments; but such is not the case. Edison, Sir William Thompson, and other dis- tinguished scientists are far from being satisfied with their inventions. There are many who are seeking wealth, honor, and happiness among the children of men ; but no one has reached perfection, even approximately. "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. " Men's castles are often hurled to the ground. In what sense did the Psalmist see an end to all perfection? We can not, I suppose, make out his meaning any further than that he includes every per- THE EXCELLENCY OF OOD'S LAW. 647 fection. But perhaps we can safely mention two or three things whose perfection is to come to an end, at least in their present form and working. I see an end to the operation of the laws of creation. Every law of the Almighty is the product of His sov- ereign will. The creation and all within it are such a product. What is contained in the first chapter of Genesis? A revelation of the will of the Creator in the creation. But the universe has its laws. There would be no sense in a creation without laws, and there would be no meaning in the laws without a crea- tion. Laws pertain to every part of the universe. There is a law pertaining to the sun as the center of all the planets. So, also, the moon and " the star of light. " " He gave to the sea His decree. " " The stormy wind fulfilling His word " observes its laws literally. But we are taught in the Sacred Word that there will be an end to their operation and the period of their continuance. Perfection pertains to them now. The sun has not failed a single day in its shin- ing, nor the moon in its reflecting. The clouds do not fail in watering the earth, nor the winds in blowing. The roar of the thunder is not stayed, nor the flash of the lightning. But there will come a time when the sun will shine for the last time, when the drops of rain shall fall for the last time, and when the earth will yield its increase for the last time. The service of the old earth, however long and unfailing it has 648 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. been, will come to an end. " The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. " Everything will come under some new dispensation. " The earth hath He given to the children of men." When the chil- dren of men are taken away, there will no need of the old home. Man is lord of the creation, but when this lord is called to some other part of his King's dominion, there will be no more need of the creatures, the beasts, and winged fowls. I see an end to the dispensation of God's providence in this world. The term " providence of God " has a wide and diversified meaning. It involves His whole purpose. The providence of God in every sense is mysterious to us. The sense in which I take it here is the work of God in sustaining everything and in directing the affairs of His creatures. His ways in this sense, "how past finding out! " But His ways, how perfect they are! It is impossible to think of anything relating to Him that is not perfect. " Con- sider the work of God, for who can make that straight which He hath made crooked? " When He makes a thing crooked. He does it perfectly. God' s dealings with men from Adam till now are perfect. Often we fail to understand them ; but can we doubt their wis- dom? They contain plait upon plait of mystery ; but dare we question their justice? But in spite of the mystery, we may believe that the Psalmist saw an end to all these dispensations in their relation to time and THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. 549 to men in their present state. He sees a time when the last number of the work of God's providence in this world will be issued, and all the volumes will be folded. Then sickness and death and sorrow will have vanished away forever. I see an end to the redemptive work. The cre- ation, Providence, and revelation are unfoldings of the same mind; and not only this, but they are the differ- ent parts of one great system. Just as the creation would be imperfect without Providence — the earth created by God imperfect without the same God filling it with His presence — so the creation and Providence would be incomplete without salvation. Altho the earth has been thrown into confusion and disorder through sin, the Godhead planned a perfect way for its salvation. And but one way of deliverance was possible — the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. And the Author of our salvation was perfected, and that through suffering. Only that en- ables the plan to be effective for redeeming the world from its misery. How mighty is the work of redemp- tion ! How much already has been accomplished ! In what other way could it have been accomplished? But the greatest work still remains to be fulfilled. From a human standpoint, to the pessimist's vision it seems unlikely that the work will be fulfilled. " We see not yet all things put under subjection " to the Eman- uel King ; but there is the greatest assurance that His 550 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. Kingdom will conquer the whole earth. " Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear to him." "For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." But we can believe that the purpose of re- demption will bo accomplished before the time comes when the angel shall announce " that there shall be time no longer. " "Thencometh the end." When? After the Divine plan has failed? After the enemy has conquered and gotten the upper hand? Oh, no! " For he must reign till he hath put all enemies un- der his feet." "T/iew Cometh the end." The God- head leaves nothing half complete. He will make nothing imperfect. He did not in the creation. He will not in the work of salvation. The end will not come before the Divine purpose has been fulfilled. " Then will come the end, " when nothing remains to be done. But there will be an end after all. We see an end to every perfection in the work of saving sin- ners. There will come a time when the last sermon is preached, when the last prayer is offered, when Jesus Christ cleanseth the last sinner. The Kingdom will not then disappear, but the field of its work will disappear. I see an end to the work of redemption in its efl&cacy to save. II. The Continuance of the Spiritual and the Eternal. — "But thy commandment is exceeding broad. " It is exceeding broad as to the character of ita THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. 551 Author. "It is Thy commandment." The Psalmist speaks as if to God Himself upon the characteristics of His law. When we hear of a commandment, our first question is, Who gave the commandment — what king, or government, or authority? Little of impor- tance is attached tc the commands of a feeble power in the world ; fear of it does not reach far. But when lands like Britain or America send forth their com- mands, the world hearkens. Every commandment originating in a righteous authority demands respect. But who is equal to the Almighty to command? Who like Him to give laws to His creatures? Who pos- sesses such wealth when He promises? Who is like to our God? Here is the source of every authority. Here an authority responsible to no one else. And He does not give an account of His doings. It is exceeding broad with reference to its principles and its claims. It is a commandment. One of the superiorities of the Bible is that it accords with every worthy name given to it. How many and diversified are the names to be found in this Psalm ! But it fully accords with every name. Commandment it is called here, and as a commandment it has its claims to obe- dience. As a commandment it has its subjects. And there never was an authority that had so many sub- jects as the Kingdom of the Gospel. " The field is the world." The commandment of the text is as broad as the creation, pertaining to every tribe and nation. 552 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. Altho the heathen do not possess it, and therefore are not held responsible, still they have just as much right to and qualification for observing it as the Welsh people. There never was a commandment so broad, possessing so many subjects, as the commandment of God. It is exceeding broad as a field for meditation and investigation. Altho complaint is heard that there is neglect of searching the Scriptures, and there is some truth in it, still there is no book read by so many as is the Bible. And it is greater than any human mind that approaches it. It defies the most severe criticism of the most learned. Its poetry is superior to every other poetry. It contains history that is a model to the greatest of historians. As a field of investigation and the highest meditation the com- mandment is exceeding broad. If we seek the truly beautiful and the truly sublime, there is no book to be compared with the Bible. Christ is the life of the world in every sense, the life of literature, the like of knowledge, the life of commerce, and the life of the nation. But He is Life in these respects because He is Life in an infinitely higher sense. The great object of the Bible is to teach religion in its greatest mean- ing. " Search the Scriptures. " Why ? Eternal life opens before the earnest searcher. Its broadness ex- tends beyond the limits of time and space. And the man has not been born who can afford to lay it aside THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. 653 as a book which he has mastered. " It is exceeding broad.'' Infinity and eternity are interwoven with it. It is exceeding broad as a means of comfort and joy. Many chapters of this life are taken up with suffering and sorrow. What is the true remedy in the face of trouble? Is it to be weary? Is it to leave them to the healing of time? Is it to seek to forget them by means of the business of this life? Is it to turn to cursing the Creator? No. This is not the doctrine of the law and the testimony. The commandment di- rects us to the "Physician in Gilead," "the comfort of the Scriptures," "the consolation in Christ." And this comfort comes in all the events of life; to the young in serving their Master, to the old when the cares of age and the imminence of the life beyond are especially near. When the late Dr. Rees, of Swansea, preached the last time in north Wales, a friend said to him — one of those who are always reminding people that they are getting old : " You are whitening fast, Dr. Rees." The old gentleman did not say anything then, but when he got to the pulpit he referred to it and said : " There is a wee white flower that comes up through the earth at this season of the year. Sometimes it comes up through the snow and frost; but we are glad to see the snowdrop, because it pro- claims that the winter is over and that the summer is at hand. A friend reminded me last night that I was whitening fast. But heed not that, brother ; it is to 554 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. me a proof that my winter will soon be over ; that I shall have done presently with the cold east winds and the frosts of earth, and that my summer, my eternal summer, is at hand." It is needless to say that Dr. Eees derived his hope from the Word of God. And where other than in Scripture do we find such comforting assurances of the life beyond? It is exceeding broad with reference to its suflB- ciency . A side from revelation it is impossible to sat- isfy the natural craving of man. The pagan philoso- phers were not satisfied in their investigation of the truth. The Greek poets were far from satisfied with the sentiments of their songs. They were not dealing with things that give satisfaction. But in the com- mandment mentioned by our text we find a sufiicieucy that gives satisfaction. " With long life I will satisfy him." He shall have long life? No. But he shall feel that long life is sufficient to him. He regards the number of his days as given by God. " He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. " Have you known any one to doubt the truth of that statement? " I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." And just as the broadness of the commandment gives fulness of satisfaction it also gives rest. This is the word of the Bible. It alone possesses the patent of it. No human teacher has had the effrontery to say : " Come unto me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. " The only- THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. 555 begotten Son of the Father alone could give such an invitation. The days of work in the creation of the world were followed by the seventh day of rest. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the rest is regarded as God's rest continued till the perfection of man's rest in heaven. Augustine says that this is suggested in Genesis, inasmuch as the words connected with the history of the other days, " And the evening and the morning were, " are not said in the history of the sev- enth day. There is no evening pertaining to the seventh day. *'Thy commandment is exceeding broad, " affording a rest for the soul that extends from the seventh day of the first week of creation through eternity. " Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty ; they shall behold the land that is very far off. " " The land that is very far off." Thine eyes shall see very far off into God's nature, very far off into man's nature, very far off into the evil of sin, very far off into eter- nity after being lighted with the sun of love. Some of us know what it is to climb the cliffs of some of the high mountains of Wales on a clear day and to see very far away in every direction. To see the King in His beauty reflects such a splendor on the soul that it beholds the land that is very far off. And to see the King we must abide in the broadness of the command- ment. It is exceeding broad in its reward and the eternal 556 THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. happiness it brings. Every Divine broadness, whether in the written Word or ia the Christian soul, tran- scends the limits of this world to the state of bliss on the other side. Nothing but the revealed thoughts of God can carry the soul past the limits of time to the brink of eternity. Let me give an instance of this from an incident which occurred in the life of the late Dr. Herber Evans. He says : " I have seen many an old Welsh Christian who entered the dark valley of the shadow of death singing, singing. I knew one very dear to me. He went away to Hyeres in France, thinking that he would regain his lost health ; but death came — even in that land of sun death came. A priest came in one day to offer him help. He had no one with him but his own daughter, far away from home. He refused the help of the priest.' 'No,' said he, ' I do not want any help. I go to Christ Himself; I go to the High Priest Himself, and He is with me. ' And he said to his child : ' Will you read the twenty-third Psalm? ' She began, tried, broke down ; tried again, broke down. ' Tho I walk through the valley of the shadow ' — then broke down. ' Do not be afraid, Jesus is here. He is come to me. Read it through. Yes, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. ' " Such is the reward and the eternal happiness that come to the soul which knows of the broadness of the commandment. THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S LAW. 557 Do we know something about this broadness of which we have been speaking? If not, it is time we were seeking to know, lest we find ourselves in a nar- row place — too narrow to permit our deliverance. May our prayer be like that of the Psalmist, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law " — the broadness of God's thoughts. LEARNING OF CHRIST. By Rev. 0. A. Williams, M.A., D.D., Minne- apolis, Minn. "Learn of me. ''—Matt. xi. 29. Life is a school. Our education begins with our earliest infancy. Our teachers are many. We are directed to the birds, the beasts, and the fishes, to learn of them. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we are receiving impressions and instruction from the objects around us, from the words, the example, and the lives of our fellows among whom we mingle. The lessons taught are varied. Well were it if some of them had never been learned ! I desire to lead you to-day to the feet of the divine Teacher — infallible in His instruction, perfect in His example — who never by word or act misguided a disciple; who Himself is truth. *'In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. " I in- vite you all to come to Him. Take His yoke upon you. Acknowledge His authority. Submit to His will. Enter His service. Place yourselves in the attitude of scholars, that you may learn of Him. Look at the Man. Examine His character. Re- 558 LEARNING OF CHRIST. 659 ceive His doctrine. Follow Him in His toils. Ac- quaint yourselves with the magnitude of divine love, as revealed in His life and in His work. Let us inquire what He teaches in these particular lines of thought. The Model Man. Let us look at the model Man, and learn how pure and noble and grand human nature is without sin; and the moral possibilities of the renewed man, " cre- ated in Christ Jesus unto good works." We do not often think of Him as a real man, pos- sessing all the peculiarities and characteristics of the race (possibly because of His present exaltation) ; rather we picture Him to ourselves when He was on earth, as God moving among men, veiled in human flesh. Yet how simple is the story of His life! How like other men He appears ! How near He is brought to us ! In His childhood He is subject to His parents. He increases " in wisdom, and stature, and in favor with God and man." During His youth and early manhood. He submits to the common law of subsist- ence. He is not supported in any miraculous or supernatural manner. In the seclusion of Nazareth, we find Him engaged in the humble occupation of a carpenter, teaching all succeeding generations that honest toil is honorable, that contentment with our lot is manly. 660 LEARNING OF CHRIST. The historical facts of His life show that He was in the truest sense " the Son of man, " that He be- came identified with the race, that He possessed all the peculiarities of man. Tempted, He seeks help in prayer. Weary with labor, He requires rest and sleep in the home of His friends. Thirsting, He asks for water of a woman of Samaria. Sorrowing, He weeps at the grave of a friend and groans in spirit. Why should it surprise us to find ourselves subject to the infirmities of our nature? "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master." How grandly He appears in His sympathies and feelings as a man. His ears were ever open to every cry of want. His hand was ever ready to aid the helpless. The multi- tudes were scattered, like sheep without a shepherd, and He had compassion on them. The lepers cried for mercy, and He sent them to show themselves to the priest, cleansed. The blind begged for sight, and He opened their eyes. The mourners wept over their dead, and He restored the dead to life. The world moves on still groaning under its weight of sorrow, crying for sympathy and brotherly love. What les- sons do we learn as we look at the "Man, Christ Jesus"? "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." LEARNING OF CHRIST. 661 Character. Preeminently does He stand before us as the model man in His character. " Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." His was not the meekness that is born of cowardice, not the humbleness that springs from the consciousness of imworthiness ; but rather that which springs from the absolute mastery over all surroundings and opposing circumstances. All the elements required for the formation of a per- fect character meet in the person of Jesus of Naza- reth. Examine the virtues that adorned His life — kindness, gentleness, forbearance, love. He stands alone in His moral grandeur. When His enemies mocked Him, taunted Him, smote Him, and heaped their insults upon Him, His silence was sublime. Not less unique are the active, practical elements of His character. Devotion to His work. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Singleness of purpose. " For this cause came I to this hour." Submission to His Father's will. "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? " Purity of life. " Made in the likeness of men, but separate from sinners." "In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." The Roman governor, after examining carefully every accusation brought against Him, declared pub- licly : "I find no fault in Him." Through all the 86 LEARNING OF CHRIST. subsequent centuries, this perfect character has been submitted to the severest tests. Hostile foes have examined, scrutinized, and analyzed it; but in His majestic presence they have been forced to feel as the great Napoleon did: "Everything in Christ aston- ishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will con- founds me — everything is above me. Everything re- mains grand — of a grandeur that overpowers me." When we compare men's character with His, they seem dwarfed, one-sided, imperfect, incomplete. When you apply the microscope to human life, you are startled at its many defects. The great, how small! The strong, how weak! When you get near men, you are surprised and humiliated to discover their many faults. One is overcome with his own temper, another with his greed, another with his vanity, another with his love of popularity, and an- other with his appetite. If you want to know the perfection that should ever be your aim, and the pos- sibilities of the renewed nature in Christ, learn of Him. Keep the pattern ever before you. Copy Him, not in one or two, but in all His virtues. " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." The Model Teacher. Let us come to Him as our model teacher, our unquestionable authority on all matters pertaining to our moral, spiritual, and eternal welfare. We can LEARNING OF CHRIST. 563 gather from the story of His life the opinion that was held of Him as a teacher, by those who heard Him. " He spoke as one having authority, and not as the scribes." When He came to His own country and taught in their synagogs, they were astonished, and said : " Whence hath this man this doctrine, for His word was with power." The impression of His power and authority was not left on the common peo- ple alone. The officers testified : " Never man spake like this man." One of their own rulers, a teacher in Israel, has given us this testimony, and did he not express the common conviction of his class, tho per- haps less honest and true to their conviction than he? " Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." He stands alone as the perfect teacher iu the ab- solute authority with which He speaks. There is therefore no appeal from His decision. When we in- struct others, it is in proportion as we have received knowledge from sources outside of ourselves; but He is the truth, and He speaks from His self-knowledge of the truth. He is in no way influenced either by t^jie traditions of the fathers, the current opinions of the day, or by the creeds of religious sects. Has He not taught us fidelity to conviction and duty, " whether men will hear or whether they will forbear " ? He stands alone as the perfect teacher, when we remember the grandeur of the truth which He de- 564 LEARNING OF CHRIST. clared. Valuable are the discoveries of human re- search in the various departments of nature, science, and philosophy. But none of them shows the way of pardon and of justification, of peace and of life. But He brought " life and immortality to light. " He made known to men God's purposes of love concern- ing them. How unlike the teachers of that day in His broad and comprehensive conception of divine truth! He throws new light on old subjects. He brings old truths into new relations. He gives to them a broader and richer meaning. " Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, love your enemies." How superior, in the spirit with which He teaches ! Bold, faithful, fearless. He is not affected by posi- tion, wealth, or influence. " Wo unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sep- ulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones." But how kind and gentle to the penitent sinner ! " Go thy way in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole." "Thy sins are forgiven thee. " When He pronounced the doom of the city He did it with streaming eyes : " 0 Jeru- salem, Jerusalem, thou which killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye LEARNING OF CHRIST. 565 would not." Let us " learn of Him " and partake of His spirit. Are not religious teachers of to-day tempted to gratify the pride of their intellect and the morbid curiosity of their hearers, who, like the Athenians, ever desire something new, to depart from the simplic- ity of the gospel? It is necessary that we should ever acquaint ourselves with the great questions that have the attention of the thoughtful, and that truth should be presented to men through channels that are fresh and suited to the times in which we live. But we must learn from the great Head of the church what questions are vital and paramount. When the multitude gathered around Him who understood all mysteries, and in whom dwelt " the fulness of the Godhead bodily," we do not learn that He once gave a disquisition on the origin of the race, and kindred subjects : whether man had lived on earth six thou- sand or sixty thousand years, or whether he may not have been evolved by some unknown process from a jelly tish, a tadpole, or an ape. But what did He say to the multitudes? " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. " ^Vhat they longed for was rest. On the great day of the feast He cried : " If any man thirst, let him come to me. " What they needed was refreshing water. 566 LEARNING OF CHRIST. Casuistry. The subject of casuistry, or of Christian practise^ is causing much perplexity in the church to-day, as it did when Paul wrote to the Christians at Kome. The only difference is that the questions which we meet are peculiar to the times in which we live. The question is often asked, Is it right to drink moder- ately; to attend the theater; to play cards; to dance; to hold church fairs with their many, and, in my opinion, questionable money-making schemes? Why inquire if the church permits this and the other amusements? Is the pastor your authority? Is the church infallible? Far from it. If you follow the instruction of men, you will hardly know where you stand, what to do, or how to act, because you do not find two men that agree on all points. Let your chief inquiry be. What has Jesus taught? What would He have me to do? Have you not often thought that if Jesus should visit our sanctuaries in these times, He would find things here less suitable to His service than the oxen, the sheep, and the doves which He drove from the temple, and the tables of the money changers which He overturned? Let any one come to Jesus with an honest, earnest desire to learn of Him, and I will guarantee that such a one's conduct will be consistent before men and pleasing to God. LEARNING OF CHRIST. 667 No one ever went astray who followed the instruc- tions of Jesus. To every one He says " Follow thou Me." The Model Worker. Let us come to Him as the model worker, and learn the character of the service that is required of us. Prominent throughout His whole life is one fact, that He was among men "as one that did serve." The history of His ministry is summed up in the one com- prehensive utterance, "He went about doing good." Good to the bodies and to the souls of men, good to all classes of men ; the publicans and sinners whom He received and saved; the accursed Canaanite, whose daughter He healed ; the hated Samaritan, to whom He announced Himself as the Messiah ; the Ro- man centurion, whose servant He restored to health ; the honored ruler, whose daughter He raised to life ; a ruined world, which He came to save, by giving His life for it. When His disciples disputed as to who should have the highest place in His kingdom, He taught them and all His followers through all succeeding ages the one great lesson : " Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Is it not startling that we can scarcely see a trace of 568 LEARNING OF CHRIST. His humble, self-sacrificing spirit in the lives of many of those who claim to be His followers and represen- tatives? Compare with Him the hierarchy of the church. We see Him despised and rejected of men, because of His humble origin ; while they are honored and revered of their fellows, because of their official position. He had not where to lay His head in His own creation, depending as He did on the hospitality and the love of His creatures for food, shelter, and rest ; but they, in their costly palaces, were surrounded with luxury and wealth, attended with a retinue of servants. Surely this does not look like learning of Christ. While we can not condemn too severely such wor- ship of the creature, such abuse of trust committed to men, such wresting of power to selfish ends, is it not true that there is cause for alarm lest the same spirit should show itself in our ranks, so far as there is room for its operation? Judging from the love of gain, from strife and scramble for popularity, fame, and position, we conclude that many lose sight of the great lesson taught in the life and saying of Christ: "WTiosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant," The value of our life will be measured not by what we have, not by what we know, but by the use we make of our knowledge and possessions. Why will Lincoln and Washington have a foremost place in the LEARNINO OF CHRIST. 669 history of this republic? Is it because one was culti- vated aud retined, and the other was frank and hon- est? No. We seldom think of these qualities; but it is because one did so much to establish, and the other to perpetuate this great republic. Why have the names of Luther and Calvin, Wesley and Bunyan, and Baxter and Carey and Judson become household names in our homes? Because they were men of great learning? No; but because of what they did in the service of Christ. In the history of the early church more space is given to the life of the Apostle Paul than to all the others. Do you ask why? He gives us the answer: "In labors more abundant than they all." "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." It is to the faithful in labor that He will say : '* Well done, thou good and faithful servant. " T/ie Perfect Expounder of Divine Love. Once more, let us come to Him as the perfect ex- pounder of the Divine character, and learn of Him the nature of His Father's love. Life is to us a mystery. Questions that perplex and puzzle us confront us on every side. If left to the light of nature, reason, and science, we could never harmonize the sorrow and suffering of this world with the loving nature of God. When you pause to consider that the whole world moves under its terrible load of agony ; that not man alone is subject to suffering; that "the whole creation 570 LEARNING OF CHRIST. groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," you ask the question, Is the God that made it a God of love? You are enchanted with the song of the bird. All at once the notes of the sweet songster are forever hushed. You observe on the ground close by the bird of prey making his breakfast on its warm blood. You say to yourself : " Ah, what cruelty ! " Your child is helpless in your arms. It is pale and emaciated with disease or is writhing with pain. You say : " I can not understand this." You may see a reason why a criminal should suffer the consequences of his evil doings, but why this innocent child should suffer is more than you can solve. You try to lead an honest, upright life, and yet that life is full of trouble and sorrow. If God is Love, why not spare His creatures these afflictions? Ah, let us not forget that man is a sinner, and that sin brought the sorrow. If you want to know the loving nature of God, the Father, study it as revealed in the gift of His beloved Son, in the redemptive work of Christ. " He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." If you want to catch a glimpse of the magnitude of God's love, watch with Jesus in Gethsemane ; take your stand at the cross and compute if you can the worth of the sac- rifice that is laid on that altar. Whatever mysteries may beset you, rest assured of this fact : that " God is, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not im- puting their trespasses unto them." At best " we see LEARNING OF CHRIST. 571 only through a glass darkly" here. We know only in part. By and by we shall see " face to face," and we shall know "even as we are known." You remember how you did in your school days. When there were questions you did not understand, you waited till school was dismissed, and you took them to the teacher. Very soon our school session will be closed, and it will be our privilege to sit at the feet of the divine Teacher, who will explain to us all mysteries. And He Himself will feed us and lead us to fountains of living water. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. EDWARDS, REV. EBENEZER, was born in Denbighshire, North Wales, being the son of a Baptist minister. At the age of eighteen he began to preach. In 1850, having been ordained at Pembroke, he removed to this country. Being very much interested in the subject of foreign missions, he entered Madison University, New York, where he studied four and a half years with the object of becoming a missionary. The missionary board then assigned him to Nowgong, Assam, and he had sailed for Wales to bid adieu to his relatives when failing health and the Sepoy mutiny thwarted his purpose to labor in heathen lands. For two years he was unable to preach at all. But upon recovery he settled in Hartlepool, Durham, where he remained for four years, returning to this country in 1868. After serving churches in New York and Pennsylvania, the ill health of himself and his wife suggested a residence in Florida, where they lived two years. Mr. Edwards then returned and took charge of the Welsh and English Baptist churches at Minersville, Pa. He has served as president of the Ministerial Union, moderator of the Welsh Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and is now moderator of the Reading Association (English) . He has written con- siderably for the magazines and is widely known as a temperance man, being prominent in the councils of the Order of Good Templars. Mr. Edwards has always been very prominent in Welsh -American life in this country, 578 674 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and has been a constant winner of prizes at the eistedd- fodan, or musical literary competitions. At the World's Fair International Eisteddfod he won the William Penn $600 prize for an essay on " Welshmen as Factors in the Civil, Political, and Moral Formation and Development of the United States. " EDWARDS, REV. T. CYNONFARDD, D.D., pastor of the Welsh Congregational Church of Edwardsdale, Pa. , since January 1, 1878, was born at Landore, Swansea, Wales, December 6, 1848, and ordained at Mineral Ridge, Ohio, January 1, 1871. He was educated at Presbyterian College, Carmarthen ; was professor of elocution and oratory at Wyoming Seminary for ten years ; received his D.D., in 1891, from Marietta College, Ohio. Among his own nationality Dr. Edwards has filled the foremost positions in Wales and America, in the colleges, the eisteddfods, and the church. He has published a volume of his poetical works, and two volumes on elocution and oratory — one in Welsh, and one in English. His church at Edwardsdale is ranked among the foremost of Welsh churches in the United States. EVANS, REV. OWEN, was born at Dolffannog, Talyllyn, Merionethshire, in North Wales, August 3, 1842. At the age of seven he was sent to a common school near Corris, and to a similar school at Llanfihangel y Pen- nant, and subsequently enjoyed the advantage of three different British schools located at Bryncrug, Aberdovey, and Dyffryn-ar-dudwy. At the age of fourteen, he went to a boarding-school at Shireland Hall, Birmingham, and the next year to Bala College as a lay-student, where he remained from 1857-62, with the exception of intervals of sickness compelling him to repair home, thus proving detrimental to his studies. During this time, at sixteen BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 575 years of age, lie commenced to preach. lu 18G4 his father died, leaving him to struggle alone with ill -health and poverty, his mother having died fifteen years previ- ously. Three years after he received and accepted a call from three small churches in Flintshire ; and was or- dained in 1868, with several others, at Mold Association. In 1870 he came to this country and settled as pastor of the Welsh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, re- turning to Wales at the urgent request of his wife's family in 1874, and has since been in charge of the fol- lowing churches: Ruthin, 1875-82, Bolton, 1882-88, Colwyn Bay, 1888-95. He came the second time to this country in the fall of the year 1895 to take charge of the Welsh church, Minneapolis. EVANS, REV. LLEWELLYN L, D.D.. LL.D., was born at Trenddyn, near Mold, North Wales, June 27, 1833. Professor Evans's grandfather was an intelligent and strong-minded man. When the adoption of a confes- sion of faith was discussed at Llanfyllin in 1823, his grandfather. Rev. R. Roberts, protested against "the re- striction contained in the words, 'and they [the elect] only '"; he called it "an unscriptural restriction, and charged the article with being wise above what is writ- ten. " Those who favored the article were led by John Elias. Mr. Elias and his supporters contended that the article was simply an abridgment of one aaopted many years earlier in Bala ; however, Mr. Roberts succeeded in having the matter postponed to a following association. In the year 1857 the family emigrated to the United States. They reached Racine, Wis., in the mouth of September. The father. Rev. E. T. Evans, became pas- tor of the Welsh churcL at that place. Young Evans, the subject of this sketch, was sent at the age of thirteen to Bala College in North Wales. After the family had settled at Racine, Wis., young Evans entered Racine 576 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. College, receiving the degree of B.S. in 1854 and that of A.B. in 1856. The same year he was elected a member of the state legislature and was made chairman of the committee on education. After having served a term he found the climate too severe for his health and he resigned. Early in 1857 he accepted an appointment on the editorial staff of the Cincinatti Gazette, and re- moved to that city. While there he became convinced that the ministry was his work. The result was that in the fall of 1857 Llewellyn Evans was enrolled as a student in Lane Seminary ; he took the full three years' course. At the expiration of the term he accepted a call to the Lane Seminary Church. He served it for a period of three years. In 1863 he was elected professor of church history in Lane Seminary. In 1867 he was transferred to the chair of Biblical literature. In 1871 the chair was divided and Dr. Evans took the division of Hebrew and Old- Testament exegesis. At the death of Dr. Thomas E. Thomas, in 1875, Dr. Evans was transferred to the New- Testament department, which position he retained until his death. In the autumn of 1891, Dr. Evans received an invita- tion from the authorities of the Theological College at Bala, North Wales— the scene of his early studies. The action of the General Assembly at Detroit, which disap- proved the election of Dr. Briggs and the continuance of the attack by the denominational press, led Dr. Evans to accept, and changed the current of his life. "It will not do at this day, " he said, " to condemn any man on the theory of inerrancy. " He was in favor of Dr. Briggs and of a comprehensive and generous Presbyterianism. The leave-taking at Lane Seminary was very painful. He was cordially welcomed at Bala, North Wales. But his health was in a poor state, and he had an attack of " an- gina pectoris," In reply to his wife's exclamation, "Do BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 577 not leave me !" Dr. Evans said : " It is as the Lord wills ; if His time has come, I am ready to go. " lie then calmly gave her his message for bis son, absent at scbool. He rallied a little and wrote a letter to bis son. It was a bright letter and full of hope. Two days after another severe paroxysm came on, and the doctor never rallied. Early on the morning of July 25, 1893, be became uncon- scious, and bis spirit passed away. EVANS, REV. FREDERICK, D.D., was born at Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. April 21, 1840, and was educated at Pontypool College, Monmouthshire, from which he graduated with honors. In 1878 bo received the degree of D.D. from William and i^Iary College, Va. His pastorates were at Llangynedr, Breconshire (1861-66) ; the Welsh Baptist Church, Hyde Park, Scrantou, Pa. (1866-69) ; Laight Street Baptist Church, New York City (1869-70) ; the Central Baptist Church, New York City (1870-74) ; the First Baptist Church, Franklin, Pa. (1874-85) ; the Tenth Baptist Church, Philadelphia (1885-92) ; and the First Baptist Church of Milwaukee (1893-96). He died July 21, 1897, at Llandybie, his birthplace. EVANS, REV. G. M., was born at Llandebie, Wales, Janu- ary 10, 1858. He and his five brothers became clergy- men. Being converted at the age of eleven years, he preached his first sermon before he was sixteen. The same year he entered Arnold College, Swansea, from which he graduated with honors. He studied theology at Pontypool Seminary. He was ordained nt IMerthyr-Tyd- vil. South Wales, where he preached in liis native tongue for four years. Being compelled by ill health to leave Wales, he emigrated in 1884 to the United States. His first pastorates were at Stonebore and Union City, Pa. In 1887 he was called to the First Church, Manayunk, 37 578 BIOGRAPiilCAL SKETCHES. Pa. , and thence to Chester, Conn. He is now in charge at Loug Island City, N. Y., where he has been for sev- eral years. IIAREIS, REV. B., was born at Rhymney, South Wales, March 11, 1864. He was received into the fellowship of Moriah Welsh Independent Church by Rev. D. Silyn Evans in 1877. He served as pupil-teacher at the Lower Rhymney schools for five years, and afterward as assist- ant master for several years. In 1886 he married Miss M. A. Thomas, head-mistress of Lower Rhymney Infant School. The next year he came to the United States, and was ordained at Frostburg, Ind., July 1, 1888. He was pastor of the Homestead Congregational Church, 1891-93, Alliance, Ohio, from 1892-95. and Palmyra, Ohio, in 1895-98. He took charge of Lawrence Street Congregational Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 29, 1898, where he now is. HARRIS, REV. JOHN HOWARD, D.D.. LL.D., the son of Reese Harris, who came to America in 1830, was born in 1847, and after serving a year and a half in the army dur- ing the Civil War, entered Bucknell University in 1865, graduating A.B. in 1869, and receiving the degree A.M. in 1872. He received the doctorate of philosophy from Lafayette College in 1884 ; and of laws from Colgate Uni- versity and also from Dickinson College in 1891. Mr. Harris spent the first twenty years after graduation in founding Keystone Academy. During that time he served also as superintendent of the Sunday-school seven years, and as pastor of the church for nine years. In 1889, Dr. Harris was elected President of Bucknell University, a position which he now holds. HUGHES, REV. MORIEN MON, Ph.D., was born in the parish of Llanerchymedd, Auglesea, North Wales, Au- gust 10, 1857. He was educated at the British school, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 579 Rhosj'bol, the principal being Dr. John Rhys, the great Celtic scholar, -svlio is now president of Oxford College, England. Mr. Hughes was for some time an assistant tutor under Dr. John Rliys at the above ph\ce. lie began to preach at the age af eighteen, at which period he took a course of study in theology under the late John Prich- ard of Amlwch. In the year 1881 lie emigrated to Anier ica, and, after having identified liimself witli the Congre- gationalists, he was ordained to the ministry December 11, 1884, in the State of Ohio. In 1894 lie received ai; invitation to succeed the Rev. Morris Roberts at Roir, sen, N. Y. During the years 1885-80 Mr. Hughes tra^ eled Europe, at the same time holding evangelistic ser vices, and has written extensively to Welsh and Engl is- li periodicals. In the year 1894 the degree of Ph.D. wj; conferred upon him. For the second time he has been elected as a candidate for the Assembly on the Prohibi- tion ticket. In the year 1894 he received a unanimous call to become the pastor of the Welsli Congregational Church, Rome, N. Y., where he now labors. JOMES, REV. JENKIN LLOYD, is the sou of Richard and Mary Lloyd Jones, formerly of Blaencathal, near Llan- dyssul in Cardiganshire, Wales. He was born at this place on the 14th day of November, 1843. His parents moved into the wilds of territorial Wisconsin wlien ho was a year old, the father being one of the earliest set- tlers in the Welsh settlement of I.xonia. After thsit he lived in the Welsh settlement of Spring Green, Wis. Mr. Jones worked on the farm in summer and attended school in winter until the Civil War broke out. When a little over eighteen years of age, he enlisted in the Si.\tli Wisconsin battery and saw active service as a private clear through the war in the Army of tlie Ten- nessee under Generals Grant, Shermnn, McPhersoti, Lo- gan, etc., in the battles of Corinth, Raymond, Champion 580 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Hills, Jackson ; the sieges of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Nashville, and attendant campaigns. At the close of the war he taught school and worked on the farm the first year and then studied four years at the Mead ville (Pa.) Theological School. He began his ministry in 1870, and was ten years pastor of All Souls' Church, Janesville, Wis. During most of this time he was secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference, which he served for nine years. He organized and was the first secretary of the Western Unitarian Sunday- School Society, and in 1873 published the first Sunday- school lesson leaflet issued by that denomination. In 1878 he, with others, established Unity, a weekly paper, of which after the first year he has continued to be edi- tor-in-chief up to the present time. In 1882 he organ- ized All Souls' Church, Chicago, of which he is still pastor. He was secretary of the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in connection with the Columbian expo- sition, and prominent in the organization of the Liberal Congress of Religions, which was an outgrowth of the Parliament, in 1893, and of which he is general secre- tary. Believing that the sectarian spirit is a menace to religion, he and his church have laid aside all sectarian affiliations, and they are independent of all denomina- tional ties. All Souls' Church is open every day in the week all the year round with study classes, library and reading-rooms, etc., etc. Mr. Jones is at present wri- ting president of the Illinois State Conference of Chari- ties ; a member of the executive committee of the Amer- ican Humane Society, of the councils of the Municipal League, and of the Associated Charities Organization of Chicago. Since the organization of the Liberal Congress the paper he founded was reorganized under the name of IJie New Unity, and is the official organ of that body. It is at present the only liberal weekly religious paper representing the non-credal and undenominational move- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 581 metit iu religion published in tlie Mississippi valley. Mr. Jones is president of the Tower Hill Summer School of Literature and Religion, Tower Hill, situated near Spring Green, Wis., where he has his summer home. In 1883 he organized the lirst Browning class iu this coun- try outside of college circles, and he was the founder and first president of the Chicago Browning Society. lie is a "lecturer in English" in the University Extension Department of the University of Chicago. JONES, REV. RHYS GWESYN, D.D., was born at Peny- wern Abergwesyn, Breconshire, Wales, May 4, 1836. He commenced to preach in February, 1845, prepared for college at Hanover, Monmouthshire, with Rev. L. C. Powell, entered Brecon College in 1847, was ordained at Rhayader, Radnor, October 1, 1851, removed to Bridgend, Glamorganshire, in 1857, and was called to Bethesda Merthyr Tydvil, in 1859. He and his family emigrated to America in 1867 iu answer to a call from the First Congregational Church of Utica, N. Y. In 1879 Mr. Jones visited California, and remained there four years as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Peta- luma. In 1883 he returned to Utica and was called to re- sumo the pastorate at the First Church of that city, and also of the New York Mills Church. He preaches regu- larly three times every Sunday and attends three weekly meetings. He has not failed to preach one Sabbath on account of sickness since his ordination to the ministry, altho during the greatest part of hia ministerial life he has been obliged to preach three times on the Sabbath and many times during the week. JONES, REV. R. T., D.D., was born March 25, 1855, near Penllwyn, five miles from Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, South Wales. His father, AVilliam R. Jones, was born and reared on a farm called Torglwyd, a short distance 582 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. from Aberystwyth. His mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Lewis, was a native of Peullwyn. Soon after hi3 birth the family bought a piece of ground near Goginan, erected a house thereon and called the place Penybanc. In 1867 the parents with nine children emi- grated to this country and settled on a farm in Spring Brook, Pa. He spent some time at Wilkesbarre and Warrior Run, Pa., working in the coal-mines. At the age of thirteen he united with the Calvinistic Methodist •or the Welsh Presbyterian Church of Spring Brook, where he began early to exercise his gifts, and in 1875 was licensed to preach by the Welsh Presbytery of Northern Pennsylvania. In 1871 he entered Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa., and on receiving his diploma from that institution he entered Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1879. He then took the regular three years' course in Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated in 1882. Early in the spring of the same year he received and accepted a call from the Susquehanna Avenue Presbyterian Church of Phila- delphia— a church just then organized with twenty-three members. He began his work on the first Sabbath of May, 1882. On June 5, he was examined for ordination by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and was ordained and installed on June 8. Dr. Jones has been moderator, and a number of times delegate, to the Synod and Gen- eral Assembly, and for four years he has been serving on the committee of examination and credentials. In May, 1895, Rutherford College conferred on him the degree of D.D. During his pastorate of sixteen j^ears, a large and beautiful church edifice has been erected at a cost of nearly !560,000, and 1,087 persons have been received into church-membership. At present there are on the roll of communicants 670 active members, and a Sunday-school of nearly 700 scholars. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 583 JONES, REV. SAMUEL, was born at Bcthacdu, North Wales, in the year 1830. He was educated at the gram- mar school established in his own native town. In the year 1864 he was invited by the Welsh Congregational Church of Middle-Grauville, N. Y., to undertake the pastorate. He was ordained there on October 24 of the same year. He remained pastor of the cliurch until 1872, when he accepted a call to Red Oak, Iowa. After serving the cause of Christ at that place for several years he removed to Carrol, Nebr. .TONES, REV. R. S., D. D., was born in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, not far from the town of New Castle, and received the common-school education given in the neigh- borhood schools. After preparation in the grammar school of Prof. T. T. Elias, at New Castle, he was ad- mitted to Brecon College, in June, 1864. Four years later he graduated, and was at once ordained at Treves, near Bridgend, Glamorganshire. In the fall of 1871 he came to America, and, the next spring, became pastor of the Providence Welsh Congregational Church at Scran- ton, Pa., where he is still in charge. In 1890, while on a visit to Europe, he was made a D.D. by Marietta Col- lege, Ohio. LLOYD, REV. JOHN ELWY, was born near the city of St. Asaph, Wales. His early education was received in the local grammar school and in the newspaper oflices in Liverpool. In 1868 he came to this country and pre- pared for Princeton, from which institution he gradu- ated in 1874 and from the seminary three years later. He began preaching in the Welsh Presbyterian Church, New York City, but his first pastoral work was per- formed for the Presbyterian Church of Kyegatc, Vt. In 1879 he was called to the First Presbyterian Church, Boonville, N. Y., and then to the First Presbyterian 684 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Church of Nyack-on-the-Hudson, Mr. Lloyd came to Brooklyn in 1888, and since that time has been pastor of the Twelfth Street Reformed Church of that city. MORGAN, REV. VYRNWY, is the son of John and Mary Morgan, of Tyr Eglwys Cwm-Avon, Port Talbot, South Wales, and brother of the Rev David Morgan, B.A. (London), B.D. (Edinburgh), Congregational minister of Goole, Yorkshire, England. Mr. Morgan was born on March 20, 1860, at Cwm-Avon, where his father su- perintends tin-works, being also a deacon of the First Welsh Congregational Church, now under the ministry of Rev. Daniel Evans, a man of acknowledged ability. His grandfather, Mr. John Morgan, was a deacon of the same church for nearly half a century, and was a man of considerable influence on account of his unblemished character, wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy Scrip- tures. Rev. Vyrnwy Morgan was received a member of the First Welsh Congregational Church at the age of thir- teen, the pastor being Rev. Edward Roberts, one of the most philosophical. Scriptural, and practical preachers in the whole of the principality of Wales. His rare and noble modesty caused him to shun the usual methods of his time to gain popularity. He kept himself free from all ministerial cliques and factions, and claimed the right for all young men to make the best of themselves by the most honorable means. He remained pastor of the church until his death, a period extending over forty- four years. It was under his ministry that the Rev. Vyrnwy Mor- gan began to preach at the age of sixteen. After a pro- bation of two years, Mr. Morgan entered the Aberavon Academy in charge of Rev. T. Richards, Baptist Min- ister. He had for his contemporaries at that school men who have since won considerable fame as scholars and BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 585 preachers, notably Principal S. Morris, M.A. (London), of Bangor, North Wales, and Rev. John Thomas, M.A. (Loudon), of Myrtle Street, Liverpool. From the Aberavon Academy Mr. [Morgan entered Brecon Memorial College, then in charge of Principal Morris, D.D., Prof. D. Rowlands, B. A., and Prof. W. Oliver, M.A. In the month of April, 1884, ho took charge of the English Congregational Mission Church of Llanwddyn, North Wales, the present site of the great Vyrnwy Lake, Rev. John Thomas, D.D., Liverpool, Professor Row- lands, and others ofliciated at his ordination. In September, 1884, Mr. Morgan was married at Christ Church, Oswesty, to Miss Sarah Edwards, second daugh- ter of the Rev. D. B. Edwards, Baptist minister, Brecon South Wales. Both Mr. and ]\Irs. Morgan have twice visited the United States on a lecturing and preaching tour. In addition to his first and happy charge at Llanwddyn, North Wales, Mr. Morgan has been pastor of churches at Pontypridd, Swansea, Liverpool, and London. MORRIS, REV. EDWARD DAFYDD, D.D., LL.D., is a native of the State of New York, having been born at Utica, October 31, 1825. He graduated from Yale in 1849 and from Auburn Theological Seminary three years later. He has been pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Auburn, N. Y. (1852 to 1855), of the Second Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio (1855 to 1867), and professor of Theology in Lane Theological Seminary since 1874. He was moderator of the General Assembly at Cleveland in 1875 ; a delegate to the councils of Re- formed Churches (Pan-Presbyterian) , in Edinburgh, 1877, Philadelphia, 1880, and Belfast, 1884; and in 1894 a member of the committee on the revision of the con- fession of faith, lie has contributed articles to various 586 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. magazines and reviews, and has published "The Out- lines of Christian Doctrine" (Cincinnati, 1880), ''Eccle- siology" (New York, 1884), "Salvation After Death" (1887), "A Defense of Lane Seminary " (1893), and has also edited "Scripture Reading" (September, 1886). NELSON, REV. RICHARD HUGHES, was born in Angle- sea, North "Wales, in September, 1861. He emigrated to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania in May, 1883, and at once commenced to preach at the Second Congregational Church of Wilkesbarre. In the montli of March, 1888, he accepted an invitation to preach in the Congregational churches of Holland Patent and Trenton, N. Y., and in December of the same year he was ordained pastor of these churches. In November, 1891, he removed to Nelson, N. Y., where he labors at present. Mr. Hughes has been for several years secre- tary of the Welsh Association of New York State. NEWTON, REV. B. GWERNYDD, son of George and Ann Newton, Gwernymynydd Mold, was born near Mold, Flintshire, North Wales, April 9, 1865. He was edu- cated in Didsbury Theological College, England, and ordained into the Congregational ministry in 1889. In 1893 he came to America and undertook the charge of the Waterville Welsh Congregational Church, Water- ville, N. Y. Subsequently he became pastor of the Welsh Congregational Church of Plymouth, Pa. Two years ago he went to Cleveland, after having graduated with the degree of B.E. from the College of Oratory, Washington, D. C. Three brothers of his are in the min- istry in England, Rev. G. Talalun Newton, London ; Rev. Joseph Newton, Redruth, Cornwall ; Rev. Isaac Newton, Brighton. Mr. Newton has published a vol- ume of sermons entitled "Glimpses of God, " which has been well received and had a wide circulation. DIOGRAPIllCAL SKETCHES. 587 PARRY, REV. JOHN HUGHES, was boru at Diuorwig, North AVales, in 1844. He was educateil at the British school of his native place, and at Ban£,or College. After some years spent in teaching, ho entered the ministry of the Calvinistic Mctliodist (Prcshyterijin) Church of ■NVules, and successively held the pastorates of the fol- lowing churches: Crewe (Welsh), 1873; Welshpool (English), 1877; Oswestry (English), 1880; Holyhead, (Welsh), 1888; Utica, N. Y., U. S. A. (Welsh), 1894. I'ARRY, REV. THOMAS, D.D., was born on a small farm called Rhewl in Wales. While yet a boy he came to America and went West. After preparing at Wayland Academy, Beaver Dam, Wis., he entered Princeton College, graduating tiierefrom in 1870. While at the Princeton Seminary he gained fame by translating Kant's "Critique" and Aristotle's "Ethics." After a preaching "itinerary" throughout the West he was ap- pointed pastor at Constantine, Mich., and since then he has served as piistor at Providence, R. I., Terre Haute, Ind., Chicago, 111., and Frankfort, Ind. Dr. Parry has been very popular as a lecturer on a number of literary and historical subjects. ROBERTS, REV. JOSEPH, D.D., was born in Penmaclino, North Wales. He recci'.ed the most careful religious training, and early indicated his preference for the min- istry and showed signs of special ability for the work. He received his education in Wales, and came to Amer- ica in 1S70 to take charge of the mission work in the vi- cinity of Poultney, Vt. In 187,5 he accepted a call to tlie Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church at Racine, Wis., one of the strongest churches in this country, where he labored for fifteen years. In 1889 he accepted a unanimous call to the Welsh Church of Minneapolis, Minn., where he ministered with great success until November, 1894, when 588 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. he became pastor of the Welsh Church on East Thirteenth Street, New York City, where he now is. Dr. Roberts has contributed valuable essays to Welsh periodicals, and published a book on " Religion and Science, " which has an-ested the attention of the Welsh both iu England and Anaerica. ROBERTS, REV. PETER, Ph.D., was bom in Dowlais, Glamorganshire, South Wales, August, 1859, and educated at Academy Grammar School of Llangadog, Carmarthen- shire College, and Brecon Memorial College, of the class of 1883. In this country he attended the professional school and the theological seminary of Yale University, of the class of 1886, and was ordained to the work of the ministry in Plymouth Congregational Church of Scran - ton, Pa. , November, 1886. He has been in charge of the Olyphant Congregational Church since September, 1891, where he has been highly successful. ROBERTS, REV. WILLIAM, D.D., was born September 25, 1809, at Llanerchymedd, Anglesea, Wales. He re- ceived an excellent education, which was completed at the Presbyterian Collegiate Institution, Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. While a student in Dublin, Dr. Roberts founded theWelsh Calvinistic Methodist or Presbyterian Church in that community, which is now a flourishing congregation. Dr. Roberts began preaching in 1829, and until 1835 was engaged in the regular supply of churches in different parts of the principality. In the latter year he established an academy at Holyhead for the preparation of young men for college, and also be- came the minister of Moriah Welsh Presbyterian Church. In 1349 he was called to the pastorate of the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, at Runcorn, near Liverpool, England, where he remained until 1855. For this field he was especially fitted by his thorough knowledge of the English language, which he had acquired in boyhood. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 589 It is said that at six years of age he could read well in either the Welsh or the English Bible. In the midst of his successful pastorate at Runcorn, he was called, in the year 1855, to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist or Presbj terian Church, New York City. His acceptance of this call and entrance upon the work there was the beginning of great prosperity for the church. A new edifice was soon erected, and he remained as pastor until the year 1868. The pastorate in New York was followed by pas- torates in Scranton, Pa., from 1869 to 1875, and at Utica, N. Y., from 1875 until the day of his death. As in New York, so in Scranton and in Uticn, Dr. Roberts was in- strumental in securing the erection of new church edi- fices, lie combined with his pastoral work the labors of an editor, editing a magazine called T Tnithodydd {Es- say id) , from 1867-71, and another called Y Cijfaill (The Friend), the organ of the Welsh Presbyterian church in America, from 1871-84. His church honored him by electing him several times as moderator of its General Assembly, and he was esteemed for the last twenty years of his life as its leading minister. His labors further were not confined to his own denomination. He entered heartily into the organization of the alliance of the Re- formed churches, being present as a representative of his denomination at the formation of the alliance in the City of New York in 1873, and continuing to be one of its firm supporters. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of New York. In Wales, his popularity as a preacher was great. The Rev. John Williams, of Anglesea, says of him "that without doubt William Roberts, with "William Charles, were accounted next to John Elias in popular acceptance, " and John Elias, as is known, was among the princes of Welsh preachers. His acceptability in the United States was as great as that in Wales. In Wales he frequently addressed audiences of from 10,000 to 20.000 persons, and in the United 690 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. States of from 3,000 to 5,000 hearers. It is believed that at least 5,000 persons were converted under Dr. Roberts's personal and powerful nsiuistry. He died Oc- tober 2, 1887, leaving three living sous and one daughter. One of the sons is the Rev. William Henry Roberts, D.D., LL.D., of Philadelphia, Pa. A biography in Welsh, written by the Rev. E. C. Evans, M.A., was published in 1890. ilOBERTS, REV. WILLIAM CHARLES, D.D., LL.D., was born at Aberjstwith, Cardiganshire, South Wales. His father was educated for the Established Church ol England, but becauie a farmer and what was known as a country squire. William Charles received his early education in the famous Evans Academy, and was nearly prepared for college v;hen the family sailed for America, in May, 1849. Within a week after they had reached New York the father, mother, a son and a daughter died of the cholera, which was then epidemic. Six orphan children were left, of whom William Charles was the eldest, and upon him developed largely the care of the surviving members of his family. The three older sons entered into business, where William spent a year or two ; he then returned to his original plan of pre- paring for the ministry. He graduated with honors from Princeton College in 1855, and from the Princeton Theo- logical Seminary three years later. His first charge was in Wilmington, Del. Following this he was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at New Castle, Del. ; the First Presbyterian Church at Columbus, Ohio ; the Second Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, N. J., and the Westminster Presbyterian Church of the same city, where he was in charge for sixteen years. Dr. Roberts has been a trustee of Lafayette College ; a member of the committee that established Worcester University ; a trustee of Princeton College, modern ter of the Synod of BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 591 New Jersey, delegate to the First Presbyterian General Council in Edinburgh, a president of tlie Board of Home ilissions. president of Laice Forrtst University, chair- man of the General Assembly of 1890, and now President of Centre College, Kentucky. ROBERTS, WILLIAM HENRY, D.D., LL.D, son of Will- iam Roberts, D.D., of the Welsh Presbyterian Church, New York City, was born at Holyhead, Wales, January 31, 1844, and graduated at the College of the City of New York in 18G3 ; from 1863-65 he was statistician. Unite d States Treasury Dcpartniont. Washington, D. C. ; be was assistant librarian of Congress, 186G-72 ; graduated at Princeton Theological Seminary, N. J., 1873; pastor at Cranford, N. J., 1878-77; from 1877-'86 librarian of Princeton Theological Seminary ; became in 1886 Pro- fessor of practical theology in Lane Theological Sem,i- nary [Presbyterian], Cincinnati, Ohio, which position he occupied until 1893 ; 1889-90 stated supply of the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and also acted as supply for other important churches ; stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, since 1884. In 1888 he was unanimously elected by the London Council as American secretary of the "Alliance of the Reformed Churches throughout the World holding the Presbyterian System" ; in 1891 he was moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of Ohio; and in 1896 was president of the Sixth PanPrcs- l)yterian Council held at Glasgow, Scotluiul, Dr. Roberts also acted as treasurer of the Centennial Fund of the Presbyterian church in 1883, and of the Anniversary Reunion Fund in 1896. He has published "Inaugural Address, " Lane Seminary, 1886; "History of the Prcs- i)yterian Church, United States of America, " 1888 ; " Man- ual of the General Assembly, " 1694 ; " The Presbytcrir.w System, " 1895 ; 'vLar,-s Relnting to Religious Corpora- 692 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. tions, " 1896 ; " Manual for Ruling Elders and Church Sessions, " 1897, besides sermons and magazine articles. ROWLANDS, REV. H. O., D.D., was born on a farm in Waukesha, Wis., and spent his earlier years in his native State. He was brought up in the Presbyterian church, but when quite young he became a Baptist and soon gave himself to the work of the ministry. He stud- ied in Colgate University, taking a full collegiate and seminary course. He has been pastor at Whitesboro, N. Y. ; Oshkosh, Wis. ; also in Elgin, 111. , one of the largest churches in the West, and in Chicago. At present he is pastor of the First Baptist Church at Lincoln, Nebr. , a noted center of colleges and education. He has traveled extensively, having visited the continent three times, spending a visit of a year traveling and studying. In 1888 he followed Drs. Armitage and Peddie in the annual " theological lectures" at Colgate, and was honored the same year with the degree of D.D. from his alma mater. He preaches and writes fluently in the Welsh lan- guage, altho he never has been the pastor of a Welsh congregation. His father's brother, Dr. John Row- lands, is pastor in South Wales of one of the largest Welsh Baptist churches in the world. SAMSON, REV. CALEB, son of Benjamin and Anne (Rees), was born in the parish of Henllan Amgoed, Car- marthenshire, South Wales, March 19, 1858, and spent his early years on a farm. He commenced to preach when sixteen years of age. He was educated at St. Clears and New Castle Emlyn grammar-schools, and at Bala College, from which he graduated in March, 1881. In 1884 he came to America, and was ordained at Gomer, Red Oak, Iowa, November 30, 1884. He was called to the pastorate of Oak Hill Welsh Congregational Church in the fall of 1886, which he retains to-day. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 593 THOMAS, REV. B. D., D.D., was born near Narbertb, Wales', in January, 1843, in a farnibouse bearing tbe name of Blaeuffynnonne (which means the source of the wells) . His father, the Rev. Benjamin Thomas, was pastor of the Baptist Church in Narbcth for forty years. Four years of his school life were spent at Graig House Academy, Swansea, Wales, and he afterward graduated at Ilaverford, West. In his twentieth year, he was called to the pastorate of the English Baptist Church at Neath Glamorganshire, where he began his duties in Au- gust, 1862. After the expiration of six years he emi- grated to^America and was immediately asked to under- take the "pastorate of the Baptist Church at Pittston, Pa. He remained there for a period of two years and nine months, when he was called to occupy the pulpit of the Fifth Church of Philadelphia. He took charge in October, 1871, being at that time the youngest pastor in the city. The church had a membership of more than seven hundred, and a Sabbath-school of over a thousand. Here he spent eleven years. During his pastorate a mis- sion was started, which developed into a flourishing church now known as Trinity Baptist Church. On July 23, 1882, Dr. Thomas received a unanimous call from the Jarvis Street Church, Toronto, Canada. On October 8, 1882, he entered upon his duties, thus begin- ning a new era in his own life, which has been richly blessed. WHITBY, REV. HENRY J. , Ph.D. , was born in Glamorgan- shire, South Wales, November 25, 1855, and educated in the daily schools of his native town. AVhen nineteen years of age he began to prepare for the ministry, and after two years of preliminary training he entered Brecon Memorial College, graduating four years later. A fur- ther study of three years at Yale Theological Seminary qualified him as a Bachelor of Divinity. Ilis pastorates 38 594 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. have bean Shamokin, and the First Congregationalist Church, Pittston, Pa. For the past nine years he has been in charge of the Second Congregationalist Church, Emporia, Kansas. WILLIAMS, REV. J. P., was born April 16, 1838, at Dwygyfylchi, Carnarvonshire, North "Wales, his pater- nal grandfather being one of the founders of the Con- gregational Church of that place. Mr. Williams was re- ceived as church-member at the age of thirteen by the late Rev. E. Stephens (Tanymarian) ; at the age of sev- enteen he removed to Brymbo, near Wrexham, North Wales, where, two years later, he was invited by the pas- tor, the Rev. R. Williams (Hwfa Mon) and the church to preach. In 1859 he entered Bala College in North Wales. At the expiration of his term he accepted a call to the church at St. Asaph, Flintshire. From there he removed to Merionethshire to take the oversight of Maen- twrrog and Utica. In June, 1870, he and his family emi- grated to America, his first charge being Pomeroy and Minersville, Ohio. While he and his family were pass- ing from the boat to the dock in Pomeroy, about mid- night of September 24, 1870, Mrs. Williams slipped and fell into the river and was drowned. From Pomeroy he removed to Racine, where he remained for thirteen years. In December, 1888, he accepted an invitation to Youngs- town, Ohio ; after a ministry of six years he was called to Columbus, Ohio, where he still remains. In October, 1871, Mr. Williams was married to Mrs. Pryce, of Gomer, Ohio. For some years he was one of the cooperating editors of the Cenhadrus. His career has been both hon- orable and successful, WILLIAMS, REV. OWEN A., M.A., D.D., was born In the parish of Dolbenmaen, Carnarvonshire, North Wales. March 25, 1837. He left his native country for America BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 595 at the age of twenty. Soon afterward he began hla course of education at Madison — now Colgate — Univer- sity, graduating there from college in 1863 and from the Theological Seminary in 1865. He was ordained the same year in Mount Vermon, N. Y., where ho remained as pastor of the Baptist Church until 1874. In 1875 he moved to the West and accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Nebraska City, where he re- mained six years. Duty called him to Galesburg, 111., where he served the First Baptist Church for nearly six years. In 1886 he returned to Nebraska in response to a call from the First Baptist Church of Lincoln, which he served for eight years. In 1894 he was chosen by the Board of the American Baptist Home Mission Society to superintend the work in the Upper Mississippi district, in which work he is engaged at the present time, with headquarters at Minneapolis, Minn.