THE SECRET OF 
 SUCCE SSFU L LIFE 
 
 WILLIAM W. Mc LANE 
 
 LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 
APR 11 1918 
 
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 BV 4501 .M35 1918 
 McLane, William W. 18A6- 
 
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 THE SECRET OF 
 SUCCESSFUL LIFE 
 
 WILLIAM W. McLANE, D. D., Ph.D. 
 
 Author of ''Evolution in Religion/' etc. 
 
 ARTIetV6RITAntt1 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
 MCMXVIII 
 
 APR II ] 
 
 %C/CAL St 
 
Copyright, 1918, by Richard G. Badger 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 MADE IN THE UNITEH) STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 The GpRHAM PRE9S, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 'Tp HE science of life is the supreme science. The 
 art of living is the finest of fine arts. One who 
 knows what is essentially good, and gains it, and 
 who knows also what is of permanent value, and ac- 
 quires it, possesses that science, and practices the art 
 of living. 
 
 Men wish success in life. Men seek such things 
 as gratify desire, save from suffering, and give a 
 sense of security and the joy of possessing power. 
 
 One who studies himself must know that his real 
 life, his pleasure and his power alike, consists in 
 feeling, affection, thought, desire, choice, and power 
 of action. What adds to these, increases life ; what 
 lessens these, destroys life. 
 
 Whatever will make a man normal in feeling, 
 sweet in spirit, pure in affection, clean in imagina- 
 tion, vigorous in thought, wise in choice, calm in 
 contentions, serene in storms, brave in danger, pa- 
 tient under provocation, resolute in disappointment, 
 constant in purpose, and hopeful of the future, is of 
 extreme value in the promotion of life. 
 
 "Know thyself" is an old Greek proverb. One 
 may well begin to learn the way of life by a study 
 of himself. Man should heed his deepest hunger. 
 He should give hospitality to his highest desire. He 
 should accept and cultivate his most intimate and 
 enduring relations. 
 
 Man is a soul. He has a body. He exists in re- 
 lationship. He lives in a state whose laws are bio- 
 
4 Preface 
 
 logical and must be interpreted by the action of 
 vital laws. 
 
 Fifty years ago, an eminent teacher of theolog}^ 
 was accustomed to give as the method of study this 
 formula: "Is there a God? Has God spoken? 
 What has God said ?" A more modern and a more 
 scientific method of procedure would follow this 
 method of inquiry: "Is there a man? Has man 
 spoken — and spoken out of his heart? Has an an- 
 swer come to man from the heart of God?" 
 
 Therefore, in the following pages, the reader is 
 directed to the study of man himself, to those evi- 
 dent laws under which man lives, to the cry of the 
 human heart, and to the answer which has come and 
 still comes to that cry. 
 
 Human life viewed in various aspects is a pang, 
 a prayer, a promise, and a prophecy. 
 
 W. W. M. 
 
 Leoniinstei', Mass., 
 January, 1918. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I Hunger 9 
 
 II Bread 24 
 
 III Growth 39 
 
 IV Man's Place in Nature 58 
 
 V Cooperation 79 
 
 VI The Incarnation 94 
 
 VII The New Birth 117 
 
 VIII Love as an Atmosphere 137 
 
 IX Faith 151 
 
 X Obedience 169 
 
 XI Neglect 186 
 
 XII Eternal Life 202 
 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL LIFE 
 
The 
 Secret of Successful Life 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Hunger 
 
 A STONE never hungers. A stone never grows. 
 "^Hunger belongs to life. The quality of hunger 
 is an index of the grade of life. 
 
 In the city of Naples, on the shore of the beauti- 
 ful bay, is an excellent aquarium. One day, in this 
 aquarium, standing by a glass tank, I saw in the wa- 
 ter what looked like fine sea-weed with stem, branch 
 and frond. As I looked with admiration on this 
 beautiful form, I saw one slender branch and then 
 another, touched by no breath of air or wavelet of 
 water, shoot out slowly like an arm, close like 
 a hand, and then draw back again having grasped 
 something which was invisible to me. I knew by 
 that one action that the object on which I looked 
 was not a plant but an animal. That one act re- 
 vealed a certain dim consciousness and automatic 
 power, lifted the seeming plant out of the kingdom 
 of vegetable life into the kingdom of animal life and 
 showed to me its kinship with birds and beasts and 
 even with myself. I had found a remote and lowly 
 cousin. 
 
 On the shore of the sea at low tide, one may see 
 
 what look like acorns or brown buds clinging to the 
 
 rock. When the tide comes in bringing delicate 
 
 jelly fish and atoms of animal substance, these brown 
 
 9 
 
lO The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 buds open, like the petals of a flower, and throw out 
 tentacles which grasp minute portions of animal sub- 
 stance and enclose them, giving evidence thereby 
 that they feed on organic matter, as animals feed, 
 and not on inorganic matter, as plants feed. The 
 food which these anemones crave and eat, indicates 
 the grade of their life. 
 
 Naturalists say that the first expression and indi- 
 cation of animal life is irritability or sensitiveness to 
 impressions, as a hand is sensitive to a substance 
 which may be touched, or as an eye is sensitive to 
 sunlight. One may also say that the first distinct 
 consciousness of animal life is hunger and that the 
 first volitional act of animal life is search for food. 
 That old woman who lying on her death-bed was 
 asked by her pastor what she had enjoyed most in 
 life, and who promptly replied, "My vittles," ex- 
 pressed the basal desire and the primal satisfaction 
 of every animal. Had this woman risen higher dur- 
 ing her long years of life, she might have stated 
 something other than "vittles" as giving most satis- 
 faction; but, in any event, it would have been the 
 gratification of some hunger. Hunger is the first 
 and the most imperative appetite of every body. 
 Hunger is the first and most permanent passion of 
 every mind. The gratification of hunger by ap- 
 propriate food is the condition of bodily growth and 
 of mental development. It is likewise the condition 
 of individual satisfaction. 
 
 If the plant-like animal which I saw in the aquar- 
 ium had failed to find food, it would have drooped 
 and died. It might have been surrounded by min- 
 
Hunger 1 1 
 
 eral substances on which plants feed, but its inherent 
 incapacity to convert mineral substance into living 
 tissue, and its inability to find its own kind of food, 
 would have doomed it to speedy death. 
 
 Every living creature must find the kind and the 
 quality of food upon which its own nature may feed 
 and be satisfied if it attains perfection and even if 
 it continues to live. 
 
 Protozoa which multiply by gemination or divis- 
 ion, hunger simply for food; with food supplied 
 each protozoan reaches the limit of its possibilities. 
 But in all higher forms of animal life, the sexual 
 nature desires association and correspondence with 
 the opposite sex. It should be noted, also, that there 
 is a hunger whose source is not in the body but in 
 the soul, which craves not physical food but spiritual 
 communion, which expresses itself in the longing of 
 love and which is satisfied only by being loved. 
 
 In the animal kingdom below man, hunger seems 
 limited, mainly, to those desires which bear relation 
 to the preservation of the individual and to the per- 
 petuation of the species. I say, mainly, because 
 there is some love of beauty and of music to be found 
 below the grade of mankind. 
 
 Man, however, for whom many definitions have 
 been given, may be described as a hunger — growing, 
 vast, well-nigh insatiable. Hunger is the spring of 
 the manifold activities of man. Labor is performed 
 and endured in the hope that some hunger may be 
 satisfied by labor's product. Some may think that 
 men labor to give outlet and expression to an inher- 
 ent energy, but until men have acquired a habit of 
 
The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 work, little work is done save in hope that there 
 will be a reward in some personal satisfaction. Few 
 persons enjoy solitaire. The zest of play increases 
 in games where there is a possibility of victory, with 
 its accompaniment of praise. Men toil for bread, 
 for shelter, for the comfort of pleasant surroundings, 
 for the gratification of esthetic tastes and for the 
 means of securing and preserving love. The lust of 
 possession, of place, and of power, has incited men 
 to adventure and to war. 
 
 What a history of labor, warfare, government, 
 art, literature, and religion may be read by the 
 traveler in the ruins, the monuments, the buildings, 
 and the present products of men around the Medi- 
 terranean sea. Men have invented instruments of 
 labor; they have fashioned weapons of warfare; 
 they have marched in phalanxes; they have fought 
 battles for possession of lands; they have contended 
 for praise of men; they have woven garments of 
 beauty; they have built palaces of splendor; they 
 have carved statues to delight the eye; they have 
 sung songs to charm the ear; they have written 
 essays and have printed books that the mind might 
 be fed both with fiction and with truth; they have 
 built altars and temples ; they have ordained priests ; 
 they have offered sacrifices and conducted religious 
 rituals that the troubled conscience might have peace 
 and the struggling soul might have rest. All these 
 manifold forms of production on the part of an 
 inventive, active, and aggressive civilization have 
 been for the purpose of feeding the hunger of the 
 body and of slaking the thirst of the soul. They 
 
Hunger 13 
 
 have been wrought in order that the life of which 
 hunger is the cry might be complete. 
 
 Sometimes labor has been misdirected ; sometimes 
 labor has been expended for that which is not bread ; 
 sometimes men have spent their gains for that which 
 has not satisfied ; but the desires have been most 
 natural and the effort has been most significant. He 
 would be a singular and an unscientific man who 
 should affirm that any hunger has no true signifi- 
 cance and that what satisfies hunger may be a lie. 
 Hunger is fundamentally a cry for what is good ; 
 and that which really satisfies it is bread. 
 
 Deep in the heart of humanity is a hunger, per- 
 manent and persistent, which no material bread, 
 no physical love, and no human ministry can satisfy. 
 This is a hunger for God. It is a longing for the 
 presence, the help, and the approval of the living 
 and loving God. There may be individual men who 
 have not felt this hunger or who, more likely, hav- 
 ing felt, have not understood what it meant and 
 what it asked. All men, however, feel dependence, 
 weakness, and need. Some men, like a hungry child 
 grasping greedily and finding that which is not 
 bread, are vainly trying to satisfy themselves on 
 material things and to renew their strength from 
 physical sources, only to find at last that they are 
 not satisfied, and sometimes to find that what they 
 have eaten is not bread but poison. 
 
 The witness of generations is better and more 
 trustworthy than the opinion of individual men. 
 That which belongs to men, as men, apart from 
 learning, culture, and philosophical reasonings, is 
 
14 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 most true. The native instincts of the heart and 
 soul are genuine and seek after reality. Men, as 
 men, feel their need of God. Out of desert places 
 where nomadic tribes wander, is the cry, "O that 
 I knew where I might find Him." Out of the for- 
 est where the hunter seeks his game, out of the sheep 
 fold where the shepherd watches his flock, out of 
 the tent where the soldier prepares himself for bat- 
 tle, comes the cry, "My soul thirsteth for God, for 
 the living God." In the ancient, oriental Veda one 
 may read : "Thirst came upon the worshipper, 
 though he stood in the midst of the waters." Even 
 out of the waters, the thirsty lifted up his cry : "O 
 hear this my calling, Waruna, be gracious now ; 
 longing for help, I have called upon Thee." How 
 suggestive of deep spiritual truth is this language of 
 oriental people! Though men live in the midst of 
 waters, yet there is thirst. They are like sailors 
 sailing or shipwrecked in a great ocean with water 
 all about them, still thirsting because that water 
 cannot slake thirst nor sustain life, still crying out 
 for the fresh water which the clouds of heaven may 
 give that they may drink and live. 
 
 This en- of mankind does not cease. Whether it 
 is expressed in a sigh or in a song, by sacrifice or by 
 prayer, it is uttered in every land, it is heard in 
 every language, it is repeated in every age. 
 
 Dr. Eastman narrating the ways of his people, the 
 American Indians, says: At dawn an Indian will 
 take his stand alone on the prairie or on a hilltop and 
 silently, adoringly, trustfully lifting his face towards 
 the sunrise, will seek the blessing of the invisible 
 
Hung €7- 15 
 
 Spirit of life. 
 
 On Huntington Avenue, Boston, in front of the 
 Museum of Fine Arts, is a bronze statue of an 
 Indian sitting on a barebacked horse, motionless, si- 
 lent, with uplifted face craving communion with 
 God. This statue in such a place is suggestive of 
 the fact that to the modern man whose product is 
 the highest art, as to the primitive man whose frail 
 products soon pass away, light, inspiration, skill, 
 and power have their true source not in man himself, 
 but in the creative spirit whom we call God. 
 
 As we trace the history of nations recorded on 
 coins, in monuments, and in literature, we find 
 everywhere the symbols and the record of religion. 
 Images of deities abound ; granite temples are ex- 
 humed from the sands of Egypt; rude stone altars 
 were built on the rocky hills of Palestine ; the beau- 
 tiful ruin of the Parthenon crowns the acropolis of 
 Athens ; the Pantheon stands in the heart of Rome ; 
 stories of the worship of the Druids adorn the classic 
 page of Tacitus; the traditional mythology of the 
 Northmen awakens profound interest ; prayers, 
 hymns, and discussions of the deep things of the soul 
 are found in the literature of the farthest East. 
 Plutarch has said: "If we traverse the world, it is 
 possible to find cities without walls, without letters, 
 without kings, without wealth, without coin, with- 
 out schools, and without theatres; but a city with- 
 out a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayers, 
 and the like, no one ever saw." 
 
 Writers on the customs of primitive men tell us 
 that though such men are likely to be reticent on 
 
1 6 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the subject of religion and their manner of devotion, 
 yet they have found no tribe without some sign or 
 emblem of worship. The signs may be crude, vague, 
 and even vain; but they are there. Modern trav- 
 elers would seek in vain for a land where there is 
 no church spire, no temple, no priesthood, and no 
 worship. All missionary propaganda would be an 
 utter failure were there nothing in the mind and 
 the heart of the men approached to respond to what 
 the missionaries teach. 
 
 All the most important events among civilized na- 
 tions are sanctified by religious ceremonies. Mar- 
 riage, birth followed by circumcision or christening, 
 the burial of the dead, the ritual of secret societies, 
 the inauguration of governors and presidents, the 
 coronation of kings and emperors, the opening of 
 parliaments and international conventions, are hal- 
 lowed by religious rites. Any custom which per- 
 sistently abides among men has some reality as its 
 basis and the continuance of any custom is evidence 
 of its value to men. 
 
 In the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts in 
 New York City is a room devoted to the collec- 
 tion of musical instruments. These instruments are 
 of all sorts and from many lands. There are rude 
 horns, hollow reeds, wind instruments of great va- 
 riety, stringed instruments with two or more strings, 
 harpsichords, old pianos and drums. A man who 
 has heard the best of pianos played by Paderewski, 
 the finest of violins played by Kreisler, and who has 
 listened to the singing of Caruso, may find no mu- 
 sic in the blast of a ram's horn, in the shrill notes 
 
Hunger 17 
 
 of a rude flute, or in the reverbations of a drum; 
 nevertheless, these rude instruments are symbols of 
 a musical nature and a visible evidence of the real- 
 ity of music and of its value to men. In like man- 
 ner, the altars, temples, and ceremonies of religion, 
 however crude they may be, are mute witnesses to 
 the religious nature of mankind. 
 
 A man of unbroken health, of great physical ener- 
 gy, of constant application to material business, and 
 of constant success therein, possibly may feel that 
 religion has no place in his life and that his nature 
 has no need of God. I say "possibly," for I do not 
 know that there is such a man. I never have met 
 him. But, if there is such a man, his unawakened 
 religious nature would be no more a proof of the 
 unreality of religion than the lack of ear and of 
 musical sensibility on the part of one man would dis- 
 prove music as a feeling and as an art; or than 
 colo^- blindness in one person would prove the ab- 
 sence of color in the universe. A friend of one of 
 the greatest singers, a prima donna of the last cen- 
 tury, said: "I never have perceived in A — the 
 least interest in the higher problems of mankind — 
 in science, politics, religion, not even in belles let- 
 tres/' But the absence of interest in these things 
 on the part of one woman highly gifted in one art, 
 did not remove them from human life, or lessen 
 their vital interest to multitudes of men. 
 
 Coins are an evidence of commerce; musical in- 
 struments are symbols of the musical nature of men ; 
 marriage is a witness of man's need of communion 
 with his kind in the mingltng of love and life; re- 
 
1 8 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ligious ceremonies are outward and visible signs of 
 an inward craving on the part of man for fellowship 
 with God. Eucken in his work on The Problem of 
 Humanity has said : "Life assumes the character 
 of a yearning that soars above everything the world 
 has to offer." A modern philosopher has said: 
 "Not to feel evils is the greatest of all evils." 
 
 The worst lack which any man could have, would 
 be to have no hunger. Everywhere, hunger is the 
 primal condition, the sine qua non both of knowl- 
 edge and of growth. The new-born babe instictive- 
 ly seeks the mother's breast and through that breast 
 finds the mother to be the fountain of life, the 
 shelter of love, the heart of comfort, the soul of 
 sympathy, and the source of strength through needy 
 years. Beginning with physical hunger and mate- 
 rial supply, a babe growing to manhood learns to 
 know the mother's heart and soul through the rich 
 supplies of her love. A man coming to the period 
 of adolescence finds it not good to be alone. He 
 hungers for the love of a mate. He finds in mutual 
 love which issues in marriage, one of the chief con- 
 summations of human relationship. 
 
 Now, hunger for God, a hunger which craves for- 
 giveness when there is consciousness of sin, favor 
 when there is need of friendship, strength when 
 there is weakness, comfort when there is sorrow, 
 and hope of life when the shadow of death falls, is 
 the one great, growing hunger in the heart of man 
 which no bread springing from earth can satisfy and 
 which no ministry proceeding from human hearts 
 can meet. 
 
Hunger 19 
 
 John Fiske in his work, Through Nature to God, 
 has said: "Of all the implications of the doctrine 
 of evolution with regard to man, I believe the very 
 deepest and strongest to be that which asserts the 
 everlasting reality of religion." Professor Carpen- 
 ter in his work on Mental Philosophy has said : 
 "The only sound basis for religion consists in man's 
 own religious consciousness; since it is impossible 
 that any revelation should make a man religious 
 whose inner nature does not respond to its teachings, 
 as that any instruction should make a man a mu- 
 sician, who has not a musical ear." Saint Augus- 
 tine uttered a great truth when in addressing God 
 he said: "Thou madest us for Thyself and the 
 heart is restless till it rests in Thee." It is true 
 that even in the pursuit of religion, men may spend 
 their money for that which is not bread and their 
 labor for that which does not satisfy ; but the pursuit 
 evinces the hunger, and the labor shows the will- 
 ingness of men to make effort to find the bread of 
 life. In the thought of men altars are a way of 
 approach unto God, sacrifices are means of securing 
 divine favor, priests are agents for intercession, pray- 
 ers have power to bring divine help. Where un- 
 worthy means of approach to God are used, or 
 where worthy means are used m a mistaken mode, 
 nevertheless, they attest man's conscious need of 
 God. Failure in the means or in the method 
 of approaching God, may suggest the necessity of 
 a revelation and a gift of grace from God to man 
 in order that there may be true knowledge, pure 
 worship, and eternal life. 
 
20 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 No man will know himself aright or gain real 
 success in life unless he gives heed to his hunger. A 
 superficial hunger, which is some craving of the 
 flesh, never should be permitted to suppress the deep- 
 er hunger, which is a craving of the spirit. The 
 hunger for bread which comes from earth never 
 should be permitted to become so imperative as to 
 make one forget the hunger for bread which comes 
 from heaven. It is natural for a babe to hunger first 
 for the milk which flows from a mother's breast ; but 
 it would be pitiful and painful, if in all the years of 
 life a child never should hunger for the love which 
 flows from a mother's heart. That child would be 
 abnormal, incomplete, and unworthy who never 
 should know, or trust, or be grateful for a mother's 
 love. It is natural for a man to seek that bread 
 which will satisfy any physical or mental hunger; 
 but that man is abnormal, incomplete, and unworthy 
 who never feels, or trusts, or praises, the love of 
 God. 
 
 It takes air as well as water, sunshine as well as 
 soil, heaven as well as earth, to produce a flower 
 with fine form, vivid color, and sweet fragrance. In 
 like manner, it takes not only earth and men but 
 the light of truth, the warmth of love, and com- 
 munion of the Spirit of God to make and perfect 
 a man. 
 
 You will do irrevocable injustice to yourself and 
 you will insure failure instead of success in life, if 
 you do not heed the craving of your heart, give place 
 to conscience, and obey those impulses which prompt 
 you to seek communion with the living God. Many 
 
Hunger 21 
 
 fail not by the choice, at first, of things which are 
 wicked and worthless, but by putting things good 
 in themselves and in their place before things which 
 are better and which are essential to a complete 
 character. By the choice of something good in itself 
 but not the highest good, men lose the best. Many 
 persons, for the sake of something which they wish 
 very much at the time, somether the cry of the heart, 
 silence the voice of conscience, grieve the Spirit of 
 God, and fail of eternal life. This is just what 
 Jesus saw and against which he warned men. Jesus 
 bade men heed the deeper things of their own nature 
 and put the higher things of life first. He charged 
 men not to make material good a matter of first im- 
 portance. He warned them against the danger of 
 keeping the thought fixed on things to eat and to 
 wear. He called them to seek first the kingdom 
 of heaven. He urged them to love and to do good. 
 He commanded them to trust God. He assured 
 them that the things needed for the lower life would 
 be given them. He said that the higher life is of such 
 value to the world and of such worth in the sight 
 of God that, as the lilies are clothed in beauty and 
 the birds are bountifully fed, all needed supplies 
 are given to God's spiritual children. 
 
 Men err by reversing the order of Jesus. Men 
 place the demand for bread for the body first and 
 bid the soul wait till a later time. The result is 
 that, as an appetite may be lost — an appetite for 
 bread, an appetite for music, an appetite for love — 
 so the hunger and the desire for God may die. This 
 is lamentable. 
 
22 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 A moment's thought will convince you that man 
 is a dependent creature. He is unable to live with- 
 out air, unable to expand in thought without the 
 touch of other minds, unable to become complete 
 without love. 
 
 The life of a man absolutely depends on some 
 power greater than himself and greater than his 
 fellow men. And where should the creature of a 
 day rest rather than upon the Eternal? Where 
 should the weak seek and find strength rather than 
 in the Strong? Where should the imperfect look 
 for completion rather than to the Source of perfec- 
 tion? Where should he whose life so easily fails 
 turn for immortality rather than to Him whose life 
 is self-existent and everlasting? 
 
 And where else should God who is a spirit in 
 essence and love in quality, deign to dwell rather 
 than in the human heart? If God is in the universe 
 creating, keeping, clothing, and beautifying things 
 inanimate, things without intelligence, without con- 
 science, without love which can never know Him 
 and never love Him, how much more should He 
 dwell lovingly and graciously with human souls 
 which feel their need of Him and which give Him 
 love and praise? "Neither stars, nor sea, nor smil- 
 ing nature hold God so intimately as the bosom of 
 the soul." In the soul itself, a sense of dependence, 
 of emptiness, of yearning for approval, of longing 
 for favor and love may grow into a great hunger 
 which voices itself in the language of the psalmist: 
 "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so 
 panteth my soul after Thee, O God." The testi- 
 
Hunger 23 
 
 mony of those who have thus cried, in all ages, is to 
 the effect that God hears the cry of the hungry, 
 answers the need of the distressed, impresses the kiss 
 of forgiveness upon the contrite, and renews the 
 strength of the soul which waits on Him. 
 
 The witness of all past generations agrees in the 
 instruction given to the men of each succeeding gen- 
 eration. 'Tut thou thy trust in the Lord, and be 
 doing good; leave off from wrath, and let go dis- 
 pleasure, else shalt thou be moved to do evil. Com- 
 mit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in 
 Him. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as 
 the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday." 
 
 Jesus teaches that hunger is the condition of sat- 
 isfaction; that humility is the condition of exalta- 
 tion; that poverty is the condition of possessing 
 wealth. Let, then, a sense of sin impel you to seek 
 forgiveness; let a sense of weakness lead you to the 
 source of strength; let sorrow find a fountain of 
 comfort; let fear of death lead you to Him who 
 gives eternal life. Any condition or circumstance in 
 -life which awakens a longing for the knowledge of 
 God and for communion with Him is a blessing. 
 The history of mankind, personal experience, and 
 the deep sense of need in the heart itself, all assert 
 man's dependence upon God unto whom man's de- 
 sire should flow. Therefore, in making an inven- 
 tory of your assets, do not fail to include your 
 hunger. That of all things may prove the condition 
 of a perfect life. Jesus has said: ''Blessed are they 
 that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they 
 shall be filled." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Bread 
 
 A FEW years since, in the city of New York, on 
 "^^One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Street, in a 
 hall used for an exhibit of the effects of tuberculosis 
 and the means of its prevention, was a sign with this 
 inscription: "You can live three weeks without 
 bread; you can live three days without water; you 
 can live three minutes without air." This sign was, 
 approximately, correct in its time measurements; it 
 was entirely correct in its truth. A man may live a 
 little longer without bread than without air; but 
 bread, as well as air, is essential to the continuance 
 of life. 
 
 Ben Akbar halted his camel in the desert whither 
 he had wandered apart from his caravan. He lifted 
 his eyes and, faint from hunger and thirst, looked 
 longingly over the billowy sands glowing like gold 
 in the level rays of the slowly sinking sun. The 
 strength of his camel was spent and Ben Akbar 
 knew that his own thirst would leave him prostrate 
 and dying before another day would close. He sur- 
 veyed the horizon, sweeping almost the entire cir- 
 cumference of the visible circle without seeing any 
 sign of life. He was ready to surrender himself to 
 certain death when, in the southeast, he saw dimly 
 against the sky, dark tufts which his keen eye knew 
 to be the crest of palm trees. Ben Akbar with a 
 glad heart urged his weary beast forward encour- 
 24 
 
Bread 2$ 
 
 aging him with a voice of hope. As the sun sank 
 and twilight deepened, he arrived at an oasis with 
 its fountain of water, its palms, and its fruit. Ben 
 Akbar dismounted from his kneeling camel, threw 
 himself prostrate in prayer, and then lifting his eyes 
 heavenward in gratitude exclaimed, "Allah, I thank 
 Thee." He had found the water and the bread 
 which would sustain life. 
 
 On the plains of Egypt, I have seen lines of veiled 
 women wending their way to streams fed from the 
 Nile to find water for their daily need. The trav- 
 eler in Palestine may see women leaving a village 
 and ascending a hill where there is a spring, or 
 descending into a valley where there is a well, to 
 draw water for household use. 
 
 One of the most pathetic sights in a great city 
 is a bread line of men out of work, standing at the 
 hour of midnight by a great bakery to receive the 
 loaf of bread offered each man in line. Many 
 things these men may do without. Bread they 
 must have, or die. Shelter may be of the slightest, 
 clothing may be of the poorest, and in some climates 
 these could be dispensed with altogether; but bread 
 men must have. Bread and water are necessaries. 
 They are the indispensable substances on the table 
 of the poor. They are the essence of every feast on 
 the table of the rich. The most sumptuous banquet 
 may be varied, beautifully decorated, highly colored, 
 and finely flavored ; but, in its base, it is just bread 
 and water. 
 
 There are other men athirst besides travelers who 
 like Ben Akbar thirst in a desert. There are other 
 
26 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 lines of needy women besides those who seek water in 
 Eg}Pt or Palestine. There are other lines of men 
 quite as impressive and as significant as the bread 
 line at midnight in a great cit}*. 
 
 The long lines of pilgrims to Benares, to Mecca, 
 and to Jerusalem; the lines of men and women 
 threading the streets to the cathedrals of Rome, 
 Milan, and Paris; the lines of worshippers filing 
 into churches in cities, towns, and villages on Sun- 
 day, are suggestive and significant. All these peo- 
 ple are seeking something. They are seeking some- 
 thing for the soul. It may be said that worshippers 
 frequently have beeen ignorant ; that they have been 
 superstitious ; that their conceptions of the Deit}'^ 
 have been gross ; that the means they have used 
 to obtain a blessing have been fanciful and fictitious, 
 and all this may be granted ; but a conscious want 
 was there. They have sought after God. They 
 have sought ignorantly, if you please, but they have 
 sought after God. if haply they might find Him. The 
 ignorance and the darkness have been in them and 
 not in God. But surely it is want and the search 
 and the cr>' which God sees and knows and answers. 
 Doubtless many an ignorant worshipper whose soul 
 has felt its deep need, has been supplied with the 
 grace which has ministered to his life. Many a 
 man who knew not God intelligently will know, 
 ultimately, that in reality he had found Him. God 
 saw the need and heard the cr>' and answered. A 
 mother does not wait for clear intelligence, correct 
 language, and a courteous request before she will 
 answer the cry of her child. Though the child be 
 
Bread 27 
 
 but an infant crying in the night, "and with no 
 language but a cry," yet the mother's ear will hear, 
 her heart will answer, and her hand will help. If 
 God should make clear knowledge, correct language, 
 and good form the conditions of answering the need 
 of such as seek Him, then, His love would be less 
 than a mother's. 
 
 Tehan, the Indian, speaking of his foster mother 
 whose breast had been his refuge, whose teepee had 
 been his home, and who had thrown her own garment 
 around his shivering body, when in the cold winter 
 their teepee had been burned and they had been 
 driven into the wild by cruel white men, said of his 
 hopes for her who worshipped the Great Mystery, 
 impelled thereto because she felt her dependence and 
 longed for help, "I cannot believe that the hunger 
 of the heart is made for famine, but rather that a 
 divine hand will stoop to satisfy." 
 
 If the vision of the seer of Patmos is true, if 
 tribes of every language worship around the throne 
 of God, then, thus far in the world's history, God 
 must have been hearing the cry, answering the 
 prayer, and supplying the need of all who in sincerity 
 have called upon Him. What are land, language, 
 form of expression, and intellectual conception even 
 in comparison with the inner spirit of craving and 
 of devotion, of faith and of hope. A psalmist has 
 said with exquisite truth: "The Lord is nigh unto 
 all them who call upon Him, to all that call upon 
 Him in truth." Surely this is in keeping with in- 
 finite love. Religion would not remain in the world 
 did it not bring relief to the troubled conscience 
 
28 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and renewal of strength to the fainting heart. 
 
 Worshippers in Christian churches who continu- 
 ally seek to commune with God would be both ig- 
 norant and foolish if year after year and generation 
 after generation they continued a practice which 
 affords no benefit. 
 
 Men pursue nothing else which yields no pleas- 
 ure and no profit. Granted that education from 
 childhood, habit, and social concourse may have 
 some influence in maintaining churches these alone 
 would not suffice for their continuance. People do 
 not go to church for entertainment, they can find 
 that better elsewhere. They do not go for intellec- 
 tual gain; the intellect, now has many means of 
 gaining enjoyment and information. They do not 
 go for social pleasure, they can enjoy their friends 
 more elsewhere. The question often is asked, ''Why 
 do men not go to church?" The question had bet- 
 ter be asked, "Why do men go to church?" There 
 is no other institution in country, village, and city 
 which holds its place so continually and so firmly as 
 the Christian church. It is because the soul is 
 strengthened and the heart is fed that people attend 
 the services of the church. People who hunger 
 gather around a table and eat and know that their 
 strength is renewed. People who are disheartened 
 by adversity, hear the promise of some able person 
 to come to their relief, and discouragement passes 
 away and hope fills the heart. People who love mu- 
 sic frequent a concert and listen to music and their 
 souls are satisfied. In a like manner, people find 
 that the worship of God and the promises of his 
 
Bi-ead 29 
 
 word revive faith, love, and hope in the heart, and 
 that waiting on the Lord, they renew their strength 
 and are satisfied. This experience is as real as any 
 other experience in life. Any man who thinks for a 
 moment knows well that faith, love, and hope are 
 the great inner motives of the soul. What lessens 
 them, makes a man weak; what strengthens them, 
 makes a man strong. The response which comes to 
 the man who waits upon God is a response which re- 
 news a man's strength. 
 
 The Christian Bible also answers to the need of 
 man. It is a book much of which needs an inter- 
 pretation; but it is a book whose revelation of di- 
 vine love is so plain, whose promises are so definite, 
 and whose precepts are so practical that it affords 
 comfort, hope, and guidance to every man who be- 
 lieves. The bible is not the same book to every 
 man. The bible of one man may be bound in Rus- 
 sian leather, with flexible back, gilt edges, and fair 
 pages as clean as when it came from the bindery. To 
 that man, the bible is ancient history and Jesus is a 
 tradition. The bible of another man may have a 
 broken back, thumbed pages, many pencil marks and 
 the blisters of tears. To that man the words of 
 the bible have been spirit and life. Through that 
 book, some soul has found the fountain of living 
 water, some heart has found the bread of life. The 
 bible, like a well-spread table, affords to every age 
 its appropriate food. From its pages, according to 
 the time of life and the need of the heart, youth, 
 manhood, and age find instruction and inspiration 
 and comfort. 
 
30 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Jesus has said that he who drinks at an earthly 
 fountain will thirst again, but that he who partakes 
 of the living water will find it to be in himself a 
 continual source of refreshment and of power. They 
 who have tried it have found Jesus' words true. 
 
 We already have noticed that the lack of any 
 hunger or desire for certain things, such as music 
 or marriage, on the part of some persons does not 
 disprove the existence of that hunger in other per- 
 sons nor invalidate the reality of the source of its 
 gratification. What is common to men everywhere, 
 what is found among all races, what exists in all 
 conditions must be a reality, even though there may 
 be some individuals who know nothing of it. It 
 is more just to call such individuals abnormal than 
 to call the great mass of mankind abnormal. The 
 hunger of the soul for spiritual light, love, and 
 guidance, and the cry of the soul for God are 
 evinced by all sacred monuments, by all liturgies, 
 by all private devotions, and by the sacred scenes 
 and sayings of all literature. 
 
 Let it be noted that in the course of nature, there 
 is no hunger, beneath the hunger of the soul for 
 God, which does not find its appropriate bread. 
 There is food to fill every physical hunger, beauty 
 of form and color to delight and satisfy the eye, 
 music to charm the ear, truth to sustain the mind, 
 friendship to gratify craving for companionship, 
 domestic love to rest the heart. Some creatures may 
 be born without common desires or without the 
 organs to gratify those desires, or they may fail to 
 find what their nature craves, but these are excep- 
 
Bread 31 
 
 tional creatures, defective or unfortunate. The 
 normal rule of nature is that every hunger finds its 
 food. Shall, then, the deepest hunger of man have 
 no corresponding bread? Shall the highest desire 
 of the human soul remain unsatisfied? That would 
 be a mockery of man so unspeakable and so disas- 
 trous that for its existence man never could forgive 
 nature or nature's Creator. God himself must an- 
 swer the hunger of the soul. 
 
 It is true that some persons want a God who 
 provides chiefly for the body. Some are yet in the 
 religious state of the primitive Israelites to whom 
 promises of food, rainment, and material prosperity 
 were of primal value. Some are babes in the life 
 of the spirit. Some are only children in the higher 
 life. But in the things of the spirit, as well as in 
 the things of the mind, the highest character must 
 be the best example of the true nature and the nor- 
 mal possibilities of man. 
 
 Jesus promises three things to men. They shall 
 know the Father; they shall be free; they shall 
 have power. They shall know God as the source of 
 the most perfect purity and the most permanent 
 peace. They shall be free from bondage to the lusts 
 of the flesh, the customs of worldly society, and the 
 domination of things. They shall have power to 
 overcome evil, to exercise self-control, to do the will 
 of God, and to gain greatness of character. The 
 annals of Christian history contain a catalogue of 
 a legion of men who have been set free from sen- 
 suality, like Augustine; from timidity, like Peter; 
 from self-righteousness, like Paul; from love of 
 
32 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 pleasure, like Francis of Assisi. The number who 
 have been exalted in affection, purpose, and power, 
 like Livingston, "Chinese" Gordon, William Booth, 
 and many more would make an army. Let me has- 
 ten to say that for every man who becomes distin- 
 guished and known as a Christian hero, there are 
 scores and thousands who in spirit find the same 
 experiences and attain equal greatness of character, 
 but whose position is such that their names are not 
 published. Their names, however, are written in 
 The Book of Life. It requires heaven as well as 
 earth, sky as well as soil, sunshine as well as mineral 
 substance, to produce and to perfect, physically, any 
 life in this world. It is most natural, therefore, that 
 it should require heaven as well as earth to perfect 
 a man, and that which makes a man complete, is 
 indeed bread. 
 
 Jesus gives a threefold description of bread for the 
 soul. In contrast with bread which springs from 
 earth, he calls it Bread from Heaven. In contrast 
 with every fair but false bread by which men try to 
 satisfy the soul, he calls it True Bread. In contrast 
 with every bread which leaves men to hunger again 
 and again, he calls it Living Bread and Bread of 
 Life. 
 
 The soul of man must live by life. Man needs 
 the light of a living personality to guide; he needs 
 the warmth of personal love to quicken and expand 
 his affections; he needs the comfort of personal com- 
 panionship to cheer and sustain ; he needs the per- 
 sonal inspiration of a divine presence and power to 
 make him perfect. All that men need is revealed, 
 
Bread 33 
 
 manifested, and mediated to men in Jesus, the 
 Christ. He is the perfection of spiritual truth, 
 the fulness of love, the source of inspiration. He is 
 indeed the bread of life. 
 
 Jesus gives to men who believe in Him a vivid 
 conception of God's love and care, sweet submission 
 to God's will, cheerful obedience to God's laws, rest 
 in God's love, communion with God's strength, 
 abiding hope in the fulness and constancy of God's 
 goodness, and rich experience of God's grace. The 
 spiritual inspiration and fulness of life which Jesus 
 gives, keeps the moral intelligence clear, the con- 
 science keen, the will strong, love ardent, courage 
 constant, and hope bright. The man who is thus 
 fed, is made sufficient for the conditions and the 
 changes and the duties of life. In such a man faith, 
 hope, and love ever abide. 
 
 Jesus says: "If any man eat of this bread, he 
 shall live forever." Professor Drummond has said: 
 "One of the most startling achievements of recent 
 science is a definition of Eternal Life." Science 
 postulates eternal life as depending upon perfect 
 correspondence with an eternal environment. Sci- 
 ence, however, knows no way of obtaining such 
 correspondence. Science cannot give eternal life. Sci- 
 ence knows only those things which in themselves 
 are subject to change. Science may indeed suggest 
 the need of some eternal life with which man may 
 come into correspondence, but it has no means of 
 discovering or of revealing such a life. It is only 
 spirit which can know spirit, and spiritual things 
 must be spiritually discerned. Hence the necessity 
 
34 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 of man's consulting his own soul to know its needs 
 and trusting his soul's instincts to find some source 
 of supply for his needs. Jesus has given the com- 
 pletest answer to the hunger of man's heart. Jesus 
 reveals an eternal Spirit and shows the way of eter- 
 nal life. Jesus says: "This is life eternal, that they 
 might know Thee the true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou has sent." The knowledge of God is 
 used by Jesus in the Hebrew sense of the term. This 
 is knowledge based on personal experience derived 
 through communion. It is knowledge of the soul 
 rather than of the intellect, of the affections rather 
 than of the reason. But it is knowledge none the less 
 true. This knowledge to him who possesses it, is 
 eternal life. 
 
 All life in this world is conditioned both as to 
 its growth and as to its continuance. No form of 
 life will grow without food — without an influx of 
 that which sustains it. This is true of the body, of 
 the mind, and of the affections. The body must 
 eat to live ; the mind must find truth to be strong ; 
 the heart must dwell in love. Who could remain 
 loving if there were no person in all the universe to 
 love him? The continuance of any life depends 
 on its ability to keep in correspondence with that 
 which maintains it. A man in the course of time 
 loses his power to feed upon the things of earth. 
 Science and Scripture both affirm that visible and 
 tangible things are subject to change and will pass 
 aw^ay. The present form of the universe will pass. 
 If a man could continue in correspondence with it, 
 nevertheless, he would at last cease to be. Jesus has 
 
Bread 35 
 
 said that a soul may be in such correspondence with 
 God who "hath immortality" that it may live for- 
 ever. Saint John, the interpreter of Jesus, has said : 
 "The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but 
 he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
 That is to say, both the outward form of visible 
 things and the inward desire for them are transient 
 and must pass; but God abides and the desire for 
 Him uniting the soul to Him in holy communion 
 in love gives to man the condition of eternal life. 
 
 There is a quality of life belonging to the believer 
 in Christ which in its disposition, desires, and ex- 
 pression is superior to any form of life below it. 
 This life is called spiritual. It resembles a life of 
 morality, but greatly differs from it. A man may be 
 moral from selfishness; he can be spiritual only by 
 love. Eternal life differs from a merely moral life, as 
 love which is altruistic differs from love which is sel- 
 fish, as generosity differs from exchange, as devotion 
 differs from duty, and as the life of Jesus differed 
 from certain men of his time who trusted in them- 
 selves that they were righteous, and despised others. 
 
 The men who gathered about Jesus and became 
 his disciples may serve to illustrate the change which 
 comes to men in the reception of spiritual life. The 
 disciples when they first came to Jesus were good 
 men in the usual acceptance of goodness. But it 
 required a great change to bring them into such 
 companionship with Jesus as made them men of like 
 spirit to Him. At the first they believed in Jesus 
 as a deliverer from certain social and political con- 
 ditions rather than as a giver of spiritual life. They 
 
36 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 looked for his kingdom to come ; but it was to be a 
 kingdom of political power and dominance existing 
 for Israel and not for the world. They wished 
 for themselves places in that kingdom, but places 
 for their own honor. Selfishness rather than love 
 was dominant. They would keep children from the 
 presence of Jesus; they would silence the cry of 
 a troubled woman ; they would send hungry multi- 
 tudes away ; they would call down fire of vengeance 
 upon an offending village. 
 
 They prayed for the coming of the kingdom, but 
 a kingdom for themselves. These men, under the 
 tuition of Jesus, were greatly changed. They re- 
 ceived the words of Jesus and found them to be 
 spirit and life. They fed upon Jesus and found 
 Him to be living bread. They learned to love as 
 Jesus loved, condescendingly, generously, serviceably. 
 They received freely, they gave freely. They ob- 
 tained power, they used power beneficently. Their 
 patriotism expanded into philanthropy , Tines of racial 
 demarcation disappeared ; obligation to men was 
 measured by opportunity and power; they lived, 
 like the Master, to do good. They received the 
 spirit of Jesus and were uplifted, transformed, and 
 made children of the Highest. They lived in com- 
 munion with God ; they ministered to men in love ; 
 they rejoiced in the life eternal. 
 
 Christianity is not a higher morality, though it 
 gives higher standards of morality. Christianity is 
 a loftier faith and a purer love. Christianity is a 
 disposition, a desire, a purpose, a setting of the will, 
 an efflorescence of goodness, a rich fruitage of 
 
Bread 37 
 
 righteousness. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, 
 joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 meekness, temperance." Christianity is a quality of 
 soul which is beautiful in the sight of God. 
 
 There are conditions and experiences common to 
 saint and sinner alike as long as they are in the 
 world, but there are differences in the saint and the 
 sinner in relation to the things which are common 
 to both. Temptation comes to the saint as to the 
 sinner; but the saint gains a victory; to him temp- 
 tation is opportunity; he faces a stairway which 
 leads upward. Trouble comes to the saint as to 
 the sinner; but the saint has comfort; to him 
 trouble finds a center of inward peace. Sorrow 
 comes to the saint as to the sinner ; but the saint has 
 comfort; his sorrow is followed by joy. Victory, 
 peace, comfort, and joy are Christian experiences. 
 
 Strength of soul which comes by faith and which 
 expresses itself in love; strength which makes the 
 will firm and which keeps hope constant; strength 
 which comforts the heart and gives joy to the spirit 
 is as real an experience in human life as is strength 
 which comes to a hungry and thirsty man when he 
 drinks and is refreshed, and eats and is renewed. 
 
 All that any man needs in order to know the 
 reality of heavenly bread and the certainty of eternal 
 life is to partake of that bread and to lead that life. 
 The conscious life of any man is his real life. What 
 a man experiences, he knows. What a man has in him- 
 self, he possesses. We may say, now, with the same 
 assurance as men who wrote in the first Christian 
 century: "We know whom we have believed. We 
 
38 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 know that we have passed from death unto life. We 
 know that we are children of God. We know God 
 and knowing Him we know that we have eternal 
 life." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Growth 
 
 npHE frost-ferns on my dining room windows 
 '*• formed as by fairy fingers on a cold night, rival 
 in beauty the flowers on my table; but they lack 
 color and fragrance, and are soon gone. 
 
 The frost-ferns on a window pane of a winter 
 morning are formed of small particles of water de- 
 posited upon the glass and frozen together. The 
 ferns in a forest are formed of particles of mineral 
 substance which have been changed by a vital force 
 into living tissue and woven together from within. 
 The former increase by accretion; the latter, by 
 growth. The former is inorganic, the latter is or- 
 ganic. The substance of the former is held in place 
 by adhesion and will dissolve at the touch of the sun. 
 The substance of the latter is pervaded by a myste- 
 rious force called life and must die before it can 
 be dissolved. The former may be formed in a night 
 and dissolved in a day. The latter is the result of 
 a long process of growth, and will endure so long 
 as the vital force endures. The element of time 
 and of transformation both belong to a living entity. 
 No living thing is perfect in its inception. Perfec- 
 tion is the result of a process of growth. 
 
 Teachers of religious truth have been singularly 
 
 blind to this scientific fact. They have taught that 
 
 man was created originally perfect. They have also 
 
 taught that a renewed man might suddenly become 
 
 39 
 
40 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 perfect. The Westminster Confession of Faith 
 states the theological opinion which was long cur- 
 rent in respect of man in these words: "After God 
 made all other creatures, he created man, male and 
 female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued 
 with knowledge, righteousness and true holiness, af- 
 ter his own image." And of the renewed man, the 
 Shorter Catechism says: ''The souls of believers 
 are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do 
 immediately pass into glory." 
 
 A man of scientific turn of mind accustomed not 
 to lay down preconceived propositions but to look 
 candidly for facts which present themselves to the 
 mind might ask, "How can a creature be created 
 complete in knowledge which is an acquire- 
 ment, or perfect in holiness which is an 
 achievement?" He might also ask, "How 
 can a soul become perfect in holiness by vir- 
 tue of the fact of death, which is the separation of 
 the soul from the body, even though that soul passes 
 into glory?" 
 
 Until recently, teachers of religion, like teachers 
 of philosophy and of literature, were not scientific. 
 Their method was not inductive. They laid down 
 propositions based often on literal statements of the 
 scriptures and then sought to maintain them against 
 all disputants. They did not compare carefully 
 either the statements of the scriptures or their own 
 statements with the facts of nature and of life and 
 so they misunderstood God and misinterpreted man. 
 
 This habit of mind may be illustrated by the fol- 
 lowing incident. In looking through a theological 
 
Growth 41 
 
 library at one time, I found an old book containing 
 this statement: "When God created trees, they 
 were perfect and crowned with ripe fruit ; for God 
 would not make any incomplete thing." 
 
 This statement of a private individual may serve 
 to illustrate the difference between the ancient me- 
 chanical theory and the modern vital theory of cre- 
 ation. God is continually making trees before the 
 eyes of men, but God never makes a tree in the man- 
 ner described by this author. The trunk and branch 
 and blossom and fruit of a tree are all the result of 
 growth. What God does is this. He infuses a 
 force which we call life into an atom of matter, and 
 the growth of a tree is the result. But to our 
 author, this was not a matter of any moment. Like 
 theologians of a past period, commonly, the author 
 started with a certain conception of God and with 
 an assumed principle of his action and with these 
 mental concepts he constructed a system of creation, 
 a process of history, and a doctrine of final things. A 
 perfect man as the head of the human race was a 
 part of this system. A moral disaster on the part 
 of this man involving the character and moral 
 standing of all, men was one chief fact of human 
 history. This fact made necessary the gracious re- 
 lation of God to men which is revealed in the gospel 
 and made possible the salvation which men thereby 
 attain. 
 
 But man, as we know him, starts life in infancy, 
 a creature undeveloped and incomplete in body, 
 mind, and character. However the first man may 
 have come to be, to the scientific mind, he must 
 
42 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 have begun life in mental infancy and in moral 
 childhood. Knowledge is the result of learning. 
 Moral character is the result of choice and achieve- 
 ment. Sinlessness on the part of a first man, even 
 though he be the head of a race, would not mean 
 holiness. Sinlessness is negative. Holiness is pos- 
 itive. Holiness is the result of temptation resisted, 
 good chosen, and righteousness attained. A first 
 man, as much as any of his descendants, if he is to 
 possess the heavenly life, must have the illumination 
 of heavenly light, the quickening warmth of heav- 
 enly love, and the inpiring power of the heavenly 
 Spirit. Jesus has said: "Except a man — [not a 
 bad man only, but a man] — be born from above, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 Whatever might take place in a hypothetical 
 world, in the world as we know it, perfection of 
 any kind comes through growth. Man is no excep- 
 tion to this rule. Man differes from creatures be- 
 low him only in the potencies of his nature and the 
 possibilities of his character. 
 
 The growth of man is conditioned upon hunger, 
 made possible by bread, and accomplished by accept- 
 ing bread and by assimilating it. Bread is absolutely 
 essential to growth. Trees grow by absorbing 
 chemical substances, by transforming them, by assim- 
 ilating them, and by adding cell to cell until trunk, 
 branch, and leaf are complete. An animal body 
 grows in a similar way. Bread is absorbed, trans- 
 muted into blood, assimilated, added to the cellular 
 substances of the body and converted into tissue 
 of muscle and nerve until the body attains its full 
 
Growth 43 
 
 physical perfection. 
 
 Mental growth is similar. A body in a vacuum 
 would die. A mind isolated and kept apart from all 
 things with which a mind may hold commerce and 
 communion, would never grow. We scarcely can 
 conceive of its continuance. But as the mind stim- 
 ulated by its inherent hunger, puts forth effort and 
 through the eye sees and through the hand feels 
 material things, and remembers their form and 
 quality, it gains in power of seeing, feeling, and 
 knowing things. As a mind responds to other minds 
 which appeal to it, as a mother's glance and smile 
 and voice appeal to a baby, the mind grows. The 
 vision becomes more clear, discernment more keen, 
 grasp more firm, judgment more accurate, memory 
 more retentive, reason more subtle, and the power 
 of the will more absolute and constant. All methods 
 of education from the nursery to the kindergarten, 
 from the public school to the university prove this 
 truth. 
 
 A mind with little hunger and with little spon- 
 taneous action never will become a great mind. 
 Why? Because it is too feeble to feed, therefore it 
 cannot grow. A great mi^nd follows growth. 
 
 As it is with the mind, so it is also with the moral 
 nature. Deeper and more important than the intel- 
 lectual preception and comprehension of things is 
 the feeling which is entertained in respect of relation 
 to persons. A sense of the presence, a consciousness 
 of the individuality, and a regard for the rights of 
 other persons are both a cause and a consequence of 
 social converse with other persons. Even language 
 
44 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 testifies to this fact. A boor is a rustic whose lonely 
 life has left him rude so that the roughness of his 
 nature grates on sensitive souls. A civil man is a 
 civeSj a citizen, whose daily intercourse with other 
 persons has smoothed away the roughness of his 
 nature and made him an agreeable companion. The 
 polite man and the urbane man, as the words indi- 
 cate, have acquired refinement of manner and gra- 
 ciousness of speech from dwelling in a city. The 
 courteous man has acquired his pleasing bearing 
 and address from frequenting a court graced by 
 kingly presence. 
 
 The spiritual nature of man, which is his inner 
 disposition especially in relation to the spirit of the 
 universe which we call God, grows by communion 
 with those qualities of God, however they may be 
 revealed, which evoke love of spiritual goodness and 
 greatness. Appreciation of truthfulness, reverence 
 of holiness, love of goodness grow by feeding upon 
 those qualities until the soul is enamored of them 
 by long gazing upon their sweet lovliness. Wor- 
 ship which is waiting upon God and thinking upon 
 His majesty, power, goodness, and grace until the 
 soul is aglow with adoration, faith, and love, is one 
 chief means of spiritual growth. Only men who 
 thus waited in contemplative worship, could have 
 produced the finest psalms and the loftiest ascrip- 
 tions of praise found in the psalms and the prophe- 
 cies of the Old Testament. The contemplation of 
 the glory of God as exhibited in the heavens, of his 
 goodness as shown in the constant beneficence of 
 nature, of his grace as revealed in Jesus, tends to 
 
Growth 45 
 
 evoke such qualities of reverence and gratitude and 
 faith as make the soul strong in its adherence to 
 righteousness. 
 
 A physical nature feeds upon material food, a 
 musical nature feeds upon music, an esthetic nature 
 feeds upon beauty, and a religious or spiritual nature 
 feeds upon spiritual excellence. We love, because 
 we first are loved. This the writers of the Bible un- 
 derstood when they used such expressions as the fol- 
 lowing: "O taste and see that the Lord is good." 
 
 "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters, and he that hath no money ; come yt, buy 
 and eat. Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye 
 that which is good." So Jesus, also, speaks of bread 
 and water of life. 
 
 A soul, like a mind, will grow by that upon which 
 it feeds. A mind which concerns itself with the 
 science of mathematics will think in terms of mathe- 
 matics. A mind which thinks upon commercial 
 values and measures every thing by such values, will 
 become commercial in its tone and thought. A mind 
 which thinks upon things political will become a 
 political mind. A mind which thinks of moral 
 values will grow morally judicious. In like manner, 
 a soul which feels the impress of moral excellence 
 and beauty will grow more sensitive to moral qual- 
 ities. A soul which dwells in love and feels love's 
 embrace will grow loving. A soul which contem- 
 plates mercy will grow merciful. A soul which, 
 dwells, voluntarily, in an atmosphere of envy, hate, 
 and revenge will grow unmerciful, unloving, and 
 cruel. 
 
46 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Jesus recognized this fact in his method of teach- 
 ing. He revealed to his disciples the character of 
 the Father who is merciful to the ill-deserving, kind 
 to the unthankful, and gracious to them who believe 
 and obey Him. Jesus bade them be like the Father. 
 Their character would be formed by contemplation 
 of the divine character. They would grow into the 
 likeness of God by the worship of God. 
 
 That which Jesus prescribed to his disciples as the 
 method of growth has been abundantly shown in his- 
 tory to be the way by which men have grown. Je- 
 hovah gave Moses a vision of Himself upon a mount 
 when He passed by and proclaimed Himself "the 
 Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, 
 and abundant in goodness and truth." Moses hav- 
 ing seen the vision and heard the voice, returned to 
 the base of the mount with a shining face and with 
 a loving heart which bore in patience the rebellious 
 children of Israel. Jehovah gave to Isaiah in the 
 temple, a vision of his holiness. Isaiah beholding the 
 vision was first conscious of his own unclean lips, 
 next, sensible of pardon and peace, and then, will- 
 ing to go forth and call Israel to repentance and 
 righteousness. The vision of Jesus which Saul 
 beheld on his way to Damascus first filled Saul with 
 fear and then with faith. Having seen a vision of 
 Jesus whom he persecuted, Saul was willing to be 
 led by Jesus in a long life of sacrifice and service. 
 
 Saint Augustine whose remarkable experience of 
 deliverance from sin and from doubt, and whose 
 confirmation in faith and righteousness made him 
 a most remarkable witness to the transforming pow- 
 
Growth 47 
 
 er of divine grace, has given a beautiful testimony 
 of the power of God both to save and to satisfy 
 the soul. Augustine has said: *'Too late loved I 
 Thee, O thou beauty of ancient days. Thou wert 
 with me, but I was not with Thee. Things held 
 me far from Thee. Thou didst call and shout and 
 burst my deafness. Thou didst flash, shine, and 
 scatter my blindness. Thou didst breathe odors, and 
 I drew in breath, and pant for Thee. I tasted and 
 I hunger and thirst for Thee. When I shall with 
 my whole self cleave to Thee, I shall nowhere have 
 sorrow or labor; and my life shall wholly live as 
 wholly full of Thee." Again Augustine says: "Not 
 with doubting but with assured consciousness, do I 
 love Thee, Lord. But what do I love, when I, 
 love Thee? Not the beauty of bodies, nor the fair 
 harmony of time, nor the brightness of light so 
 gladsome to our eyes, nor sweet melodies of varied 
 songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers and oint- 
 ments and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs 
 acceptable to the embracements of flesh. None of 
 these do I love when I love my God ; and yet I love 
 a kind of light, a kind of melody, a kind of frag- 
 rance, a kind of meat, a kind of embracement, when 
 I love my God, — the light, the melody, the frag- 
 rance, the meat, the embracement of the inner man: 
 where there shineth unto my soul, what spaces can- 
 not contain, and there soundeth, what time beareth 
 not away, and there smelleth, what breathing dis- 
 perseth not, and there tasteth, what eating dimin- 
 isheth not, and there clingeth, what satiety divorceth 
 not. This is it which I love when I love my God." 
 
48 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Augustine's intellectual opinions in the matter of 
 theological thought, were sometimes remote from 
 modern thought, but his spiritual experiences of 
 divine love and grace were true for all time. As 
 Augustine's body had found delight and satisfaction 
 in the light, beauty, melody, fragrance and food of 
 nature, so did his soul find delight and satisfaction 
 in the light and love and grace of God. 
 
 There is provided, in this universe, food for the 
 soul as well as food for the body. But there is a 
 difference between food in its relation to physical 
 being, and food in its relation to spiritual being. 
 The difference is this: A physical nature transforms 
 the food which it receives into substance like itself; 
 a spiritual nature is transformed by the food which 
 it receives. Sheep and cattle and horses feeding in 
 the same pasture and drinking of the same brook 
 change the grass and water into the substance of 
 sheep and cattle and horses. The quality of food 
 eaten by a physical body determines only in a small 
 degree the quality of that body. Coarse food can- 
 not make a fine body coarse, nor fine food make a 
 coarse body fine, save in a very limited degree. But 
 the spiritual food upon which a soul feeds will make 
 that soul something worse or better than it was by 
 nature. A boy whose hero is a bully will become 
 like a bully; a boy whose hero is truly brave, will 
 become brave. A girl whose goddess is Venus will 
 become vain; a girl whose goddess is the Virgin 
 Mary will become a humble handmaid of the Lord 
 to do his will. 
 
 A man or a nation will grow like that which is 
 
Growth 49 
 
 worshipped. The Greeks loved physical beauty and 
 adored divinities of physical perfection. The Greeks 
 in art, in bodily form, and in manners, aimed to 
 produce physical perfection ; but the Greeks, in mor- 
 als, fell below some ruder nations. The Romans 
 worshipped power. Jove and Mars were mighty in 
 the thought of Rome. The Romans framed laws, 
 organized armies, and established and maintained an 
 empire by force. Some modern nations worship 
 wealth and excel in methods of gaining wealth rath- 
 er than in the practice of morality. That which 
 men regard as the highest good will inspire both 
 their thought and their action, and so determine 
 character. 
 
 It is well said, in every sense, that a man's re- 
 ligion is the chief fact in regard to him, Thomas 
 Carlyle has said: "The thing a man does practic- 
 ally lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning 
 his vital relations to this mysterious universe, and his 
 duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the pri- 
 mary thing for him, and creatively determines all 
 the rest. That is his religion." What a man wor- 
 ships — thinks of as best, adores, loves and would 
 possess — is the most important thing in the forma- 
 tion of character. 
 
 One has caricatured the saying, "An honest man's 
 the noblest work of God," by the sentence, "An 
 honest God's the noblest work of man." But man 
 never has made an honest god. Every god of whom 
 man is the creator has borne so great likeness to man 
 himself that he has proved immoral. No deity of 
 all the pantheon of the pagan world has been able to 
 
50 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 endure in the presence of the God and Father of 
 Jesus. Only the God who has revealed himself in 
 the person of Jesus endures as the supreme object 
 of men's worship. The worship of that God alone, 
 can make men perfect. 
 
 It has been suggested that as man improves him- 
 self, his conception of God improves, and therefore 
 the God of Christian people is the product and re- 
 sult of man's growing morality. But, historically, 
 this is not true. Man did not become holy first and 
 then think of God as holy. But on the other hand, 
 there came to man, in some way, the revelation and 
 the command of God, saying, "Be ye holy, for I am 
 holy." The history of the Old Testament makes 
 plain the fact that a holy God as the object of wor- 
 ship was the source of improvement in the spirit and 
 in the morals of the Hebrew race. When the He- 
 brew people worshipped some other god than Je- 
 hovah, they always declined in morals. 
 
 The history of Christianity proves even more 
 clearly than Hebrew history that the order of de- 
 velopment is from God to man and never from man 
 to God. The disciples of Jesus did not become 
 holy, loving, large-minded, merciful, and gracious to- 
 wards all men; and then conclude that God is like 
 that. No ! It was a new conception of God which 
 changed the conception of the disciples in respect of 
 themselves, their relation to other men and their 
 duty to the Gentile world. Their theology deter- 
 mined their sociology. That has been the order of 
 growth ever since. 
 
 It was the fact that God is no respecter of per- 
 
Growth 51 
 
 sons, revealed to Peter, that made him willing to 
 preach the gospel to the Roman captain, Cornelius, 
 and to baptize him. It was the fact that God had 
 made of one blood all nations, that impelled Paul 
 to regard all nations as worthy to receive the gos- 
 pel of divine grace. It was conviction of the fact 
 that, in the divine judgment, "There is neither Jew 
 nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
 neither male nor female," that made Paul welcome 
 to equal privileges the slave, Onesimus, and his mas- 
 ter, Philemon ; receive to equal privilege Aquila 
 and his wife Priscilla; and give the right hand of 
 Christian fellowship to his Jewish countrymen and 
 to the Roman soldiers of Caesar's household. It 
 was the fact that God loved men with a love which 
 would make sacrifice to save, as exemplified in the 
 life and death of Jesus, that made the apostles will- 
 ing to become martyrs and to lay down life itself 
 if, thereby, men might be saved. Had the disci- 
 ples believed that Jesus was only a man, like them- 
 selves, and that he had died an involuntary death as 
 a victim of Jewish fanaticism, they never would 
 have been constrained to accept death so willingly. 
 In that case, neither the death of Jesus nor their 
 own death would have had any appreciable effect 
 upon the character and destiny of men. Martyr- 
 doms — of which there had been many — until the 
 time of Jesus, had not made men holy nor loving. 
 
 It is true that as centuries have passed and an 
 increasing number of men have become Christians, 
 the moral standards of society generally have risen 
 and the standards of Jesus have been measurably 
 
52 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 adopted. But it is not true that because society 
 has been growing better, the conception of God 
 has risen. The reverse of this is true. A better 
 understanding of the teachings of Jesus and of the 
 character of God as revealed in Him, has preceded 
 the higher moral teachings and the more Christ- 
 like character of men. Were this not the case and 
 were the increasing goodness of men the cause of the 
 worship of a holier God, then the New Testament 
 ought to have been replaced by this time by a better 
 text book ; then, higher and holier teachings of the 
 character of God than those of Jesus ought to have 
 been given; then, Jesus Himself ought to have been 
 supplanted by a more divine Messiah. But this 
 has not happened. Two things are very significant 
 as well as very true. Men still refer to Jesus as 
 the supreme teacher of spiritual and moral truth 
 and confess that the God whom Jesus reveals is 
 worthy of the holiest worship, the most ardent love, 
 and the most devoted service. Men who drift away 
 from Jesus and his teachings, commonly deteriorate 
 in spirituality and in morals. 
 
 Another great fact is worthy of notice. The 
 number of men who worship a holy God and who 
 follow a loving life is increasing in the world, yet, 
 in the thought of men, God is no more holy, faith is 
 no more firm, love is no more fervid, devotion to 
 duty is no more complete, and character is no finer 
 with modern men than with some men of the first 
 Christian century. Men have not passed beyond 
 the teaching of Jesus who said : "Ye therefore shall 
 be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." 
 
Growth 53 
 
 Jesus is the first and the final teacher of men in 
 the sphere of the spirit. They who follow him 
 with believing mind, trustful spirit, and obedient 
 will, are disciples in the school of Christian living. 
 Their own experience tests and proves the great 
 fact that the words of Jesus are spirit, and that he 
 himself is bread of life. 
 
 The conditions of growth ought to be carefully 
 noticed and complied with. Jesus lays emphasis 
 on disposition as the primary condition of learning 
 and of growth. His blessings are for "the poor in 
 spirit," "the meek," "the merciful," "the pure in 
 heart," and for such as "hunger for righteousness." 
 
 The purpose and the practice of life are of essen- 
 tial value in the estimation of Jesus. "Every one 
 that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to 
 the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." "He 
 that doeth truth, cometh to the light." One who 
 would grow must be willing to put away evil and to 
 cultivate good. 
 
 Jesus calls attention to sincerity of heart and 
 obedience of will as necessary to growth. Jesus 
 says: "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall 
 know of the teaching whether it be of God." 
 "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is 
 in heaven, he is my brother, and sister and mother." 
 
 The effort of Jesus is to touch the inner springs 
 of emotion and action. He is more concerned with 
 feeling than with intelligence. He knows that 
 life is fed and trained by life. Jesus spoke to men 
 in parable and in picture and tried to lift their minds 
 from the knowledge of what is best in men to what 
 
54 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 is good in God. Jesus never pointed men to the 
 "fixed laws" of nature to instruct them in regard to 
 what they might expect of God. Jesus ever point- 
 ed men to the promptings of love and bade them find 
 the ways of God who is a spirit in the way of the 
 spirit of man. 
 
 If Jesus would encourage men to pray, he told 
 them of an unjust judge who avenged a widow who 
 came continually to him for justice, avenging her 
 because of her insistence ; of a neighbor who would 
 rise at midnight and give bread to his friend because 
 of his need and importunity; of a human father 
 who would not give a stone to a child who asked 
 bread ; and of the fact that the Father in heaven 
 knows men's need before they ask him. He empha- 
 sized God's willingness to answer prayer by assert- 
 ing that "much more" than men, God will hear 
 and see and know and answer prayers by giving 
 good gifts. 
 
 Jesus instructed men in a knowledge of the mer- 
 ciful and gracious ways of God, that men may both 
 depend on his mercy and become themselves merci- 
 ful. Jesus pointed men to a woman sweeping her 
 house to find a lost wedding coin, to a shepherd 
 leaving his fold to find one stray sheep, to a father 
 falling on the neck of a returning prodigal son with 
 full forgiveness and bountiful welcome, and bade 
 men see in these pictures an illustration of the loving 
 spirit of God. 
 
 Jesus tried to persuade men to put away needless 
 anxieties and hurtful fears by assuring them that 
 men who live in faith and walk in love are more 
 
Growth 55 
 
 to God than the flowers of the field which he clothes 
 in beauty, and more than the birds of the air which 
 he feeds with widespread bounty. 
 
 Jesus tried to teach men how to grow unto per- 
 fection by reminding them of the character of God 
 who loves, blesses, and does good simply because 
 such is his nature, even as it is the nature of the 
 sun to shine beneficently. Jesus bids men love 
 and bless and do good in like manner that they may 
 be the children of the Father who "makes his sun 
 to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain 
 on the just and on the unjust." 
 
 Jesus teaches that the law of life for the disciple 
 is the same as the law of life for the Master. "This 
 is my commandment, that ye love one another, even 
 as I have loved you." Jesus also teaches that the 
 disciple should be satisfied to be like the Master in 
 the experiences of life. "It is enough that the dis- 
 ciple be as his master and the servant as his Lord." 
 One who would follow Jesus and be like Him must 
 conform to the conditions of growth. 
 
 Three things constitute the conditions of growing, 
 namely, atmosphere, food, and exercise. The social 
 atmosphere in which you dwell is of first impor- 
 tance. You may perceive easily the effect of an 
 atmosphere upon your sdul. If you are in busi- 
 ness and experience sharp competition and shrewd 
 dealing, then, that influence may easily lead you to 
 cherish the same shrewd and selfish spirit. If you 
 have suffered wrong and your mind dwells upon the 
 wrong until its bitterness is constant, then, very 
 easily a spirit of resentment and of revenge may be 
 
56 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 awakened in you. If you live amid suspicion and 
 jealousy, a blight may readily fall upon generous 
 affections. On the other hand, association with the 
 just, the generous, the charitable, the kindly, and the 
 serviceable tends to awaken generous and kindly 
 feelings within your own breast. 
 
 Jesus' purpose is to lift you by his own great love 
 into a high and pure atmosphere where you may 
 consciously dwell in the light and warmth of God's 
 gracious goodness. If you keep yourself in 
 the consciousness of God's great love for 
 you, then, the lovelessness which you may 
 sometimes meet among men will not so chill 
 your own affections as to blight and destroy them. 
 The injustice of men will not turn you from the 
 path of rectitude. The evil of men will not prevent 
 you from doing good. The love of God will keep 
 you warm in affection, sweet in disposition, calm in 
 life's commotions, courageous to bear, and strong to 
 do the things demanded by your relations and by 
 your opportunities. If you feed upon the truth of 
 God as revealed by Jesus, your soul will not fail 
 nor faint, and as your days demand, so shall your 
 strength be. 
 
 That which Jesus would have you learn is the 
 quality of spirit in which to live. He would culti- 
 vate the soul rather than inform the intellect. All 
 intellectual information furnished by Him is for the 
 cultivation of the soul. You must exercise, volun- 
 tarily, the choice of things pure and true and good. 
 You must put away feelings which would make you 
 unlike Christ. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and 
 
Growth 57 
 
 anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away 
 from you with all malice." You must cultivate the 
 graces of the spirit and "be kind, tender-hearted, 
 forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake hath for- 
 given you." Thus you will grow by exercise. You 
 will control your spirit, you will cast out evil, you 
 will resist temptation, you will increase in love, you 
 will be an embodiment in living form of the pre- 
 cepts of Jesus. Growing in such ways, you will 
 become like Christ and will be numbered among the 
 citizens of his great and glorious kingdom. The 
 symbols of the Book of Revelation such as the white 
 robe, the palm, the crown will fittingly express the 
 purity, the victorious strength, the royal dignity, 
 and the worth of your character. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Man's Place in Nature 
 
 S man, naturally, a finality or a potentiality? Was 
 man complete in intelligence and character, when 
 he first appeared upon the earth, or was he a crea- 
 ture made to be completed? The doctrine taught 
 by theologians for centuries has been that man, at 
 first, was a finality. Adam was created perfect ; in 
 intelligence and moral endowment, he was the res- 
 plendent image of the Creator. So recent and so 
 eminent a theologian as the late Charles Hodge of 
 Princeton has said: "Man was originally created in 
 a state of maturity and perfection." "It is common- 
 ly said by theologians that the body was created 
 immortal and impassible." "With regard to its 
 immortality, it is certain that if man had not sinned, 
 he would not have died." A moral catastrophe fol- 
 lowing an act of disobedience has made mankind 
 degenerate. Sin, pain, suffering, and death are 
 all consequences of the fall of man. Salvation is 
 largely the restoration of man to his primal and 
 normal condition. 
 
 Nothing could illustrate more clearly than such 
 statements, the utterly unscientific habit of mind 
 which prevailed in the church as well as in the world 
 when the creeds which we have inherited were 
 formed. Theologians failed to look upon life as it 
 lay before them, but read the letter of the scriptures 
 without perceiving the spirit. A man, though he 
 should be made at once with a perfect body and a 
 
 58 
 
Mans Place in Nature 59 
 
 full-sized brain, could not be complete in knowledge 
 which is an acquirement, nor in holiness which is an 
 achievement. The body of a man, by its very con- 
 stitution, is capable of pain and, in a world like this, 
 must suffer even though there be no sin. Death, 
 also, was in the world before man appeared upon it, 
 and death is a destiny awaiting every material body 
 born in the world. Physical death is a part of the 
 orderly process of nature. 
 
 Sin and suffering and the death entailed thereby, 
 must be studied apart from the physical laws which 
 dominate the life of all animal creation including 
 man, except where sin is in violation of a physical 
 law. 
 
 Theologians have been philosophers and not sci- 
 entists. They have followed a deductive and not 
 an inductive process of reasoning. They have read 
 the story of creation in Genesis and they have inter- 
 preted it by Saint Paul's use of Adam as a type of 
 Christ. They have pressed Saint Paul's illustration 
 to extreme limits. They have made Adam as much 
 a destroyer of his race as Christ is a Saviour. 
 
 The book of Genesis, however, is a book of begin- 
 nings. It is not a scientific book. It states facts. It 
 does not describe processes. It is an imaginary 
 painting, not a photograph. It is poetical, pictorial, 
 and parabolic according to the genius of the Orien- 
 tal people who wrote the Bible.* Its purpose is relig- 
 
 *See an excellent article on The Oriental Manner of 
 Speech, by Abraham Mintrie Rihbany, in The Atlantic 
 Monthly, April, 191 6. 
 
6o The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ious, not scientific. **God created the heavens and 
 the earth." The fact not the method of creation is 
 affirmed. "God spoke" — put forth power — and 
 light, atmosphere, land, plants, animals and, finally, 
 man appeared. The purpose of all this is to show 
 God's relation to the things that are. Man is more 
 than a result of chemical processes. Man is a living 
 soul, an image of the Creator. The image is an etching 
 faint rather than full, potential in its promise rather 
 than perfect. If Adam is compared with Jesus, who 
 is said to be the image of the invisible God, the 
 embryonic character of Adam's likeness will be 
 apparent. Adam was created to be developed. It 
 was possible for him to choose his course, to know 
 good or evil by experience, to develop or to degen- 
 erate, to live or to die. 
 
 Such is the picture of Genesis. Its simplicity and 
 purity, its freedom from exaggeration, and its relig- 
 ious suggestiveness make it superior to other similar 
 traditions of the Semitic race. That parental choice 
 and conduct afEect the character of descendants and 
 transmit qualities and tendencies is obvious. The 
 fall of man and original sin are matters of vital 
 truth, but they have been pressed altogether too far. 
 They have been so presented as to give God a quality 
 of judgment, a method of conduct and a severity of 
 punishment which if practiced by any man or nation 
 would call forth condemnation. Saint Paul's use of 
 Adam must not be so pressed as to pervert the simple 
 facts of Genesis, or to deny the facts of history. 
 Genesis seeks, in the pictorial language of primitive 
 people, to tell how man began to be. Saint Paul is 
 
Mans Place in Nature 6 1 
 
 concerned, chiefly, to show how man may be com- 
 plete in Christ. 
 
 It is more important for us to know what man 
 is now, than to imagine what he may have been in 
 the beginning. It is more valuable for us to take 
 Jesus' estimate of man than to take an opinion based 
 upon some interpretation of the narrative in Genesis. 
 
 Jesus most obviously regards man as a candidate 
 for a kingdom. He came preaching the nearness of 
 a kingdom which he called the kingdom of heaven. 
 He bade men strive to enter that kingdom. He 
 said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 Potentially, a grain of corn is a possible plant; 
 but except a grain of corn be begotten by the vital- 
 izing power of sunlight, it cannot be a stalk of corn. 
 Potentially, an egg is a possible bird ; but except an 
 egg be quickened by the brooding warmth of a 
 mother, it cannot be a bird. Potentially, a child in 
 the matrix is a possible man ; but unless the child be 
 born into the larger world of air and light and 
 action, it cannot be a man. Potentially, according 
 to the teaching of Jesus, a man is a possible son of 
 God ; but unless a man is quickened by the Spirit 
 and brought into communion with God, he cannot 
 be a son. Jesus regards man as naturally a germ to 
 be quickened, an embryo to be developed, a child to 
 be born, a creature of earth to become a citizen of 
 heaven. This is quite in accord with the course of 
 nature and with the ascending orders of life. 
 
 In the ascending grades of living beings, there is 
 always something added in each new kingdom. A 
 
62 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 crystal has a form shaped by nature's forces and it 
 has beauty in some respects quite equal to the 
 beauty of a flower ; but there is something in a 
 flower which is not in a crystal. A crystal is in the 
 mineral kingdom, a flower is in the vegetable king- 
 dom. A flower has a form and a beauty something 
 like the form and beauty of a sea-anemone; but a 
 sea-anemone, as it opens itself on the face of a rock, 
 has something which a flower does not possess. A 
 flower is in the vegetable kingdom, a sea-anemone 
 is in the animal kingdom. An animal has appe- 
 tites and affections such as are found in man; but 
 there is something in man which marks him as be- 
 longing in a higher range of life than an animal. 
 There is something in man which impels him to seek 
 after God, if haply he may find him. This may 
 not be sufficient of itself to lift man out of the ani- 
 mal kingdom, but it differentiates man from all 
 other animals. It makes possible man's emergence 
 from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 It should be noticed, also, that in every advance 
 from one kingdom to another, some power from 
 above uplifts and transforms the lower. The lower 
 never emerges by its own force into a high- 
 er kingdom. Whence this power comes, we 
 know not. That it does come and that 
 it works a great change we do know. Jesus 
 says: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
 thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every 
 one that is born of the Spirit." The fact that some- 
 
Mans Place in Nature 63 
 
 thing has been produced in man is as manifest as the 
 fact that the wind has passed and produced a change 
 on the face of nautre. 
 
 It is written in the gospel that there is a light 
 shining in the world, a life coming to the race of 
 men, a breath of a spirit from heaven, an influence 
 divine, and that they who receive this light and 
 breath, receive power to become sons of God. They 
 ''are born not of blood, nor of the will of the 
 flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Saint 
 Paul says: "They who are after the flesh, do 
 mind the things of the flesh ; but they who are after 
 the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." He also adds: 
 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they 
 are the sons of God." Saint Paul also says in con- 
 nection with his doctrine of the resurrection: "How- 
 beit that is not first which is spiritual (pneumatical) 
 but that which is natural (psychical), and after- 
 ward that which is spiritual." "The first man is of 
 the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from 
 heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that 
 are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they 
 also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the 
 image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image 
 of the heavenly." It is scarcely needful to add that 
 Saint Paul is speaking of those who have known the 
 heavenly birth of the Spirit. Speaking to such per- 
 sons, Saint John also says: "Behold what manner 
 of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we 
 should be called the sons of God: therefore the 
 world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 
 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
 
64 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 not yet appear what we shall be: but we know 
 that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; 
 for we shall see him as he is." 
 
 Such, briefly, is the general tenor of the teaching 
 of the New Testament. Man is not a finality and 
 never has been. Man is a potentiality and has 
 been such from his creation. Man begins life as 
 part of the animal kingdom, but with a receptive 
 capacity and a latent power which make possible 
 action upon him by the Spirit of God whereby he 
 may be lifted into a higher kingdom called the king- 
 dom of heaven and the kingdom of God. How this 
 takes place man no more knows than he knows 
 how life begins anywhere. The process of chang- 
 ing man is as secret, subtle, and strong as the 
 process by which life once begun is quickened by the 
 warmth of sunlight or by warmth of maternal love 
 or by mental action and influence, and transformed 
 into something of higher quality and nobler form 
 and fairer beauty. That such a change does take 
 place, may be known by the results; just as the re- 
 sults of life may be known anywhere. The quality 
 of the new life is the important thing by which its 
 grade may be known. Wherever spiritual love and 
 purity, sweetness and strength, devotion and 
 righteousness are found, there the life exists. Some 
 persons evidently grow in this life from childhood. 
 They are known of God and, in the Hebrew sense 
 of communion, they know God from infancy. Oth- 
 ers evidently begin this life at a definite period and 
 with marked experiences. 
 
 The change of the natural man to the spiritual 
 
Mans Place in Nature 65 
 
 man is most perceptible and most impressive when the 
 change takes place in those who have been dom- 
 inated by that selfishness and self-seeking which 
 belong to the natural man. Such changes are 
 frequent and well defined. One day Peter is 
 a fisherman, a disciple of Jesus but a disciple 
 with an intense conviction that only Jews will 
 obtain Jesus' salvation and participate in his king- 
 dom. The next day, Peter is an apostle of love, 
 giving the right hand of fellowship to a Gentile 
 soldier of the Roman army and declaring the great 
 fact that "God is no respecter of persons, but in 
 every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh 
 righteousness is accepted of Him." One day, Saul 
 of Tarsus is a self-righteous man, breathing out 
 threatenings against all who believe in Jesus and 
 proceeding to Damascus to arrest any believers who 
 may be there. The next day, Saul has become 
 Paul, an apostle; and in Damascus is preaching 
 Jesus as the Saviour of man. The change in the 
 man was not only a change of opinion but a change 
 in the spirit of his life. One day, Augustine is 
 teaching rhetoric and revelling in sexual lusts. The 
 next day, Augustine is living in regal control of the 
 flesh and teaching spiritual truth. One day, Fran- 
 cis of Assisi is enjoying his father's wealth and 
 spending it on the pleasures of youthful society. The 
 next day, Francis is giving up all wealth and all 
 pleasure of the world that he may serve Christ 
 and enjoy the pleasures of spiritual society. One 
 day, John Bunyan is a profane tinker. The next 
 day John Bunyan is a dreamer of immortal dreams 
 
66 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and a writer of a book which next to the bible was 
 long to be the most useful book in all Britain. One 
 day, Jerry McCauley is a companion and a partner 
 of thieves. The next day, Jerry McCauley is a 
 preacher of righteousness, saving men such as he 
 had been. One day, Delia, "The Bluebird of Mul- 
 berry Bend," is a harlot on the streets of New York. 
 The next day, Delia, won by a kiss of Christian 
 love, is walking the same streets in saintly purity, 
 seeking to save the fallen. 
 
 The changes from a life in the flesh to a life 
 in the spirit, are so numerous and so marked, and 
 there are, now, so many who in pure love and 
 holy ministry walk in the ways of Christ, that the 
 fact of a higher life for men is most manifest. He 
 who doubts it, would doubt the light of a star. He 
 who denies it, would deny the finest flower bloom- 
 ing in any garden on earth. He who does not de- 
 sire it for himself, shows his lack of desire for what 
 is finest and best in men. 
 
 Salvation has been preached and is still often 
 preached as deliverance from a calamity — from the 
 results of a fall. Salvation, more properly, is deliv- 
 erance from a condition. Where there has been the 
 calamity of a fall, of course, there must be deliver- 
 ance from that ; but deeper than that, is deliverance 
 from a natural condition. Man must be saved from 
 an earthly and animal state of life. He must be 
 saved from a life which is limited to the sphere 
 of the bodily and animal senses. In this sense, man 
 always needed salvation. Adam, as much as any 
 of his descendants, needed salvation. Jesus says: 
 
Mans Place in Nature 67 
 
 ''Marvel not that I said, *Ye must be born again.' " 
 The "must" — the necessity — in Jesus' estimation, is 
 primarily not because of sin whether of Adam or of 
 any individual, but because "That which is born of 
 the flesh, is flesh." Jesus regards salvation as gener- 
 ation and birth into a higher state wherein the spirit 
 is supreme. 
 
 It is true that Jesus came to save people "from 
 their sins." But it is equally true that Jesus saves 
 from sin by lifting men into a higher life wherein 
 their desires and their choices are for things true 
 and holy. Salvation, in the opinion of many, is 
 deliverance from punishment and forgiveness of 
 sins; but, in Jesus' opinion, salvation is the recep- 
 tion of a new power from above whereby men be- 
 come children of God and delight to do his will. 
 
 It is true that Jesus began his preaching by 
 calling men to repent. But it should be noticed 
 that the reason which Jesus gave for repentance was 
 that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It was 
 not impending punishment but open opportunity of 
 the heavenly life which Jesus urged as the motive 
 of repentance. Jesus says: "God so loved the 
 world that he gave his Son that whosoever believ- 
 eth in Him might not perish." Jesus says that the 
 man who believes on Him "hath eternal life." Men 
 escape from perishing by accepting eternal life. It 
 is true that there is forgiveness where there is guilt 
 and deliverance where there is danger of destruction, 
 but forgiveness and deliverance accompany the re- 
 ception of that "grace of God which brings salvation 
 and teaches how to live." 
 
68 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 The sin which Jesus specially notices and con- 
 demns is the sin of refusing to be saved. Men are 
 not condemned by Jesus because they are down, but 
 because they refuse to rise. "This is the condem- 
 nation that light is come into the world, and men 
 loved darkness rather than light." *'God sent not 
 his Son into the world to condemn the world; but 
 that the world through him might be saved." "He 
 that believeth on him is not condemned: but he 
 that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
 hath not believed in the name of the only begotten 
 Son of God." The condemnation is not for what 
 a man has done in sinning, but for what he fails to 
 do by not believing. 
 
 This conception of salvation should give men a 
 new conception of sin. It is very noticeable that 
 Jesus did not judge harshly, men who were under 
 the domination of natural appetites. It is, likewise, 
 noticeable that Jesus did not demand morality as a 
 condition of entering his kingdom. This was not 
 because Jesus approved of physical vice, but because 
 He saw that freedom could come only by a spiritual 
 liberation. Jesus did not require morality in pros- 
 pective disciples for the reason that the morality 
 demanded in his kingdom could be produced only 
 by the force of a higher life. Sin is commonly 
 regarded as some feeling, word, or act which is evil. 
 But sin is a mistake, a wrong choice, a misdirection 
 in living, a failure. The great sin which destroys 
 men is the refusal to accept the higher life. Adam 
 chose the fruit of the tree of knowledge of evil, 
 rather than the fruit of the tree of life. Adam 
 
Mans Place in Nature 69 
 
 degenerated. Adam's descendants choose the things 
 of the flesh and the knowledge of evil rather than 
 the things of the spirit and the knowledge of good. 
 They too degenerate. Degeneration among men 
 is as common as development. 
 
 I take it that had the first man chosen to ascend, 
 he would not have fallen. Now, however low men 
 have fallen, the grace of God can lift them up. 
 "All sins shall be forgiven" unto the sons of men, 
 says Jesus. He who believeth shall be saved. This 
 is the gospel. 
 
 However high a man may be by virtue of his 
 birth and by culture in the refinements of polite 
 society, that will not save him. Birth, education, 
 culture, politeness — all good things indeed for the 
 world — will not lift any man into the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 What God desires in a man are qualities of the 
 spirit which belong to a heavenly kingdom. What 
 God requires in man is faith in Him, however 
 revealed to man, and especially faith in Him as 
 revealed in His Son where that revelation is known. 
 What God looks for as evidences of the true life of 
 man are reverence, faith, gratitude, love, obedience, 
 devotion to truth and to the law of love especially 
 as that love shows itself in the life of Jesus. These 
 qualities of character are said to be fruits of the 
 spirit. They grow not from earth alone, but from 
 earth as kissed and quickened by the touch from 
 heaven. As flowers and fruits are the product of the 
 earth and the physical heaven, so these graces are 
 the product of human nature quickened and made 
 
yo The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 perfect by the touch and power of the Spirit of God. 
 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
 perance." If these are not found in a man, then, 
 however much of decency and morality there may 
 be in human relations, condemnation must be pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 Is not this the law of judgment of all life in this 
 world? If the tree of a husbandman does not bear 
 fruit, he will dig about it, fertilize it, and give it 
 every chance of sunshine and shower. Then, if it 
 bears no fruit what will he say? "Cut it down; 
 why cumbereth it the ground." A fig tree with 
 leaves and no fruit is a failure as a fig tree. 
 
 Is not a student dropped from his class in college 
 simply because he refuses to learn? He may point 
 to his good clothes, to his politeness, to his decent 
 habits, to his freedom from vice, nevertheless, in 
 the world of scholarship for whose service a college 
 exists, if he will not learn, he is condemned. Is not 
 a soldier dismissed from the ranks if he will not 
 drill with his company? No decencies of private 
 life can make him a soldier when his individuality 
 is so pronounced that he cannot be subject to the 
 will of his commander and made one of a company. 
 Does not a clerk lose his place in the world of busi- 
 ness if he proves incompetent? In all the higher 
 ranges of life in the world, failure to accept a 
 privilege, to improve an opportunity, to fulfill an 
 obligation, and thereby to rise into a higher state of 
 life in learning, or in art, or in official position, or 
 in the esteem of men, debars one forever from that 
 
Mans Place in Nature 71 
 
 higher place or that higher life. This men rec- 
 ognize in all civilized society. 
 
 Only in things of the spirit and in things of the 
 kingdom of God, do men flatter themselves that they 
 can secure welfare and obtain the rewards of the 
 kingdom of heaven, while neglecting the conditions 
 upon which such things rest. Men, who in their 
 generation are eminently wise and prudent in respect 
 to things of the world, are singularly blind in respect 
 to the laws of the life of the spirit and indifferent 
 to the judgments of the kingdom of God. And 
 because, while they are blind, they say, "we see"; 
 therefore their sin remaineth. 
 
 The sin of Jerusalem, in the days of Jesus, was 
 that the people would not see and learn the things 
 which made for their peace. The sin of the Jews 
 was that they would not come to Jesus that they 
 might have life. The sin of men of the world is 
 that they will not come unto the light; but prefer 
 the darkness. This is as though a grain of corn in 
 the earth should refuse to receive sunlight, as though 
 an egg should resist the warmth which would 
 quicken it into a bird, as though a child in the mat- 
 rix should refuse to be born. It is the refusal of a 
 soul to respond to the light, and love, and opportun- 
 ity given by God, and so to reject the power which 
 would so act upon it as to quicken it in spirituality 
 and perfect it in righteousness. 
 
 The question may be asked, If God is omnipotent, 
 why does he not regenerate every man? This ques- 
 tion, in thought, confuses material and moral things, 
 and fails to distinguish between physical and spirit- 
 
72 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ual power. An act of physical power can lift a 
 grain of corn and transplant it, but it cannot give 
 a grain of corn life. The vitalizing power of sun- 
 light differs from a power which simply can change 
 the position of a grain of corn in space; sunlight 
 produces change within the corn itself. A man with 
 physical power can lift a child and transport him 
 from place to place in space; but such power can- 
 not persuade a child to love or to perform an act of 
 righteousness. A power which produces righteous- 
 ness must act within the soul of the child and impel 
 him to choose righteousness for himself. A power 
 acting like a physical force to compel a man's moral 
 action would destroy a man's liberty. That liberty 
 God has given to man and He does not propose to 
 destroy it. 
 
 The Spirit of God acting upon the soul of man 
 can move man, as one mind can move another 
 mind, to see and to feel righteousness; but the soul 
 of man must choose righteousness for itself. Herein 
 lies the agreement of Calvinism, which ascribes sal- 
 vation to the grace of God, and Arminianism, which 
 ascribes salvation to human choice. There can be 
 no stalk of corn if sunlight from heaven does not 
 come to a grain of corn to quicken it; there can 
 be no stalk of corn unless the grain of corn responds 
 to the sunlight. There can be no salvation, in the 
 sense of being born into the kingdom of heaven, if 
 the spirit of God does not come to the soul of man to 
 quicken it with life from above; there can be no 
 salvation, unless the soul of man responds to the 
 inspiration of the spirit. This is the deep convic- 
 
Mans Place in Nature 73 
 
 tion of the Christian church. The hymns and the 
 liturgies of the church ascribe salvation to God 
 and give thanks for grace divine. The judgment of 
 the scriptures and the judgment of the church alike 
 condemn men who are not saved, because they have 
 refused to accept salvation. 
 
 Man's place in nature gives him the singular 
 capacity to receive life from God and to hold com- 
 munion with Him. God's grace gives to men the 
 opportunity to receive such grace and to enjoy such 
 communion. Man's choice accepts or rejects such 
 communion. This agrees with the conditions of life 
 in the orders of creation below man. This accords 
 with the teaching of scripture respecting man. The 
 divine attitude and the human action are thus ex- 
 pressed in the Bible: "I have called, and ye refus- 
 ed." "I am come that they might have life." And 
 "ye w^ill not come to me that ye might have life." 
 But he that believeth, loveth, obeyeth hath eternal 
 life. 
 
 This is man's place in nature. Man stands at the 
 head of creation as now constituted in this world. 
 He is superior to everything else. He has dominion 
 over the creatures beneath him. But man stands at 
 the entrance of the kingdom of heaven. He is poten- 
 tially a child of God. He is a possible heir of God. 
 Scientists admit that further development for man 
 must be along spiritual lines. As an animal, he is 
 complete. As a spirit he is to be completed. Jesus 
 teaches that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He 
 bids men strive to enter that kingdom. As men 
 enter a kingdom other than the kingdom of their 
 
74 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 birth, by naturalization, by accepting the govern- 
 ment, laws and institutions of that kingdom, so men 
 enter the kingdom of heaven by faith and obedience. 
 The kingdom of heaven is within them and they are 
 in the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The spiritual difference between men arises from 
 the fact that some enter the kingdom just above 
 them and some choose to remain in the kingdom of 
 the world. Saint Paul defines the two classes by 
 saying that the lower class walk after the flesh and 
 the higher class walk after the Spirit. They may be 
 distinguished by this fact: "They that are after the 
 flesh mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are 
 after the Spirit — the things of the Spirit." The^ 
 sad fact remains that "the mind of the flesh is 
 death"; and the blessed fact remains that "the mind 
 of the Spirit is life." In Saint Paul's conception, 
 men who continue under the control of the flesh 
 and care only for the world are under a law which 
 leads to death ; and they who yield to the Spirit are 
 under the control of a law which leads to a contin- 
 uance of life. That is to say, the one class belong to 
 the present changing and transient order ; the other 
 class have risen into an abiding order of spiritual 
 existence. The life of the former class is fed from 
 the earth which must fail ; the life of the other class 
 is fed from God who endures. The former class 
 belong to a temporary state ; the latter class belong 
 to an eternal state. 
 
 The dividing line between these two classes may 
 be invisible to man. The difference between the 
 class below and the class above the dividing line 
 
Mans Place in Nature 75 
 
 becomes more positive and distinct as the distance 
 from the line increases. This is in accord with the 
 development of life everywhere. Likenesses in liv- 
 ing things which are similar exist in the earlier 
 stages of growth and unlikenesses appear in the later 
 stages. Wheat and rye, at first, as they stand in a 
 field, look alike to an inexperienced eye; their dif- 
 ferences are plainly visible at the harvest time. An 
 oak and a maple, as they emerge from the ground, 
 seem quite alike; they are quite unlike when full 
 grown. The embrj^o of a dog and the embryo of a 
 child, biologists say, look alike at certain periods be- 
 fore birth; their differences are great after birth. 
 A child of small intellectual power and a child of 
 great intellectual power may seem much the same 
 for the first few months or years of life ; but the 
 differences between them are very marked as time 
 advances. The saint and the sinner may seem much 
 the same to those who see only the outward expres- 
 sion and whose standards of measurements are those 
 of the parlor and the market-place; but the inward 
 difference is there and the outward expression will 
 become more and more marked with the passage of 
 time. In intelligence, morality, politeness, and ac- 
 tions pertaining to the present world, the citizens of 
 the world and the citizens of the kingdom of heaven 
 may seem alike to the untrained eye. But in spirit- 
 ual insight, moral feeling, quality of thought, purity 
 of affection, loftiness of aim, and purpose of living 
 they may be widely different. 
 
 Morality is freedom from vice and crime and 
 from offensive attitude and injurious action on the 
 
76 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 part of men toward one another. Spirituality is the 
 attitude and action of a soul towards God and to- 
 wards the inner heart of things. A man who lives 
 under the conditions of moral life which prevail to- 
 day may have higher standards of conduct than 
 the standards of a man who lived in the days of 
 David. But it is possible that a man of the days 
 of David, in point of spiritual sensibility and in 
 aim and purpose of life, may have been a better 
 man than a man of seemingly higher moral charac- 
 ter to-day. A man reared in a cultured home may 
 have finer manners than a man reared among rude 
 people; but the man of ruder speech and action 
 may, possibly, have a finer spirit than the more cul- 
 tured man. A man must be judged by his inner life 
 and not by his manners. Culture is largely the 
 product of social opportunities; character is the 
 product of choice and affection. 
 
 We know that in every class of society and with 
 every degree of culture, there are men who are ac- 
 tuated mainly by the thought of self and there are 
 men who are actuated by the thought of God. There 
 are men whose aim in life is to please themselves, 
 and there are men whose aim is to please God. 
 There are men whose prayer, if they pray at all, is 
 that God may do for them what they will; and 
 there are men whose prayer is that they may do 
 the will of God. There are men whose efforts 
 are directed wholly to the securing of such things 
 as wealth, position, and power, and there are men 
 whose efforts are expended in loving and useful ser- 
 vice. There are men who sacrifice the inner life 
 
Mans Place in Nature 77 
 
 of the soul — such as love, truth, and justice, — for 
 outward gain; and there are men who suffer the 
 loss of outward things that they may keep the spirit 
 true and pure. There are men who sell their souls 
 to buy the world, and there are men who lose the 
 world to save their souls. The former serve self, 
 live in the flesh, and live for the world ; the latter 
 serve God, live in the spirit and for the kingdom 
 of heaven. 
 
 The fundamental distinction between men lies in 
 their thought of themselves as made for themselves, 
 or as made for society. The essential character of 
 men is determined by their sense of obligation to 
 live unto themselves or to others. The rank of men 
 is determined by the fact that they live to do their 
 own will, or to do the will of God. Carlyle has 
 said most truly: "A man's religion, not what he 
 professes as a creed, but what he does absolutely 
 think of himself in his relation to God and the 
 world and to men is the most important thing about 
 him." 
 
 The soul of all evil — though evil takes so many 
 forms in choice and action — is selfishness. The 
 soul of all good — though good takes so many forms 
 in choice and action — is love. Love bows to a su- 
 perior. Love walks in equity with an equal. Love 
 stoops to an inferior. Love worships God. Love 
 deals justly with man. Love shows mercy and 
 confers grace where there is need. 
 
 The natural man simply holding his place in 
 nature and holding that place for himself, makes 
 himself, in his thought and love, the center of the 
 
78 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 universe. The spiritual man makes God the center 
 of his thought and love, and so the center of his 
 universe. 
 
 The natural man puts forth his tentacles of desire, 
 thought and volition to gather for himself, and so 
 infolds himself in loneliness, in darkness, and in 
 death. The spiritual man puts forth his tentacles 
 of aspiration, love, and will in worship and in de- 
 votion to love and to duty, and so unfolds himself, 
 dwelling in light and love immortal. So the spirit- 
 ual man fulfills the eternal purpose of God. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Cooperation 
 
 f^ UTSIDE the windows where I write, lie gar- 
 ^^ dens, orchards, green fields, and hills covered 
 with forest trees. The seeds in those gardens, or- 
 chards, and distant hillsides would never have ger- 
 minated and grown if there had been no sunshine, 
 no showers, and no air. The physical heaven and 
 the material earth cooperated to make those plants 
 and trees. Substances of the soil, breath of the air, 
 warmth of sunshine, and colors of light, are all in- 
 wrought in the forms and beauty and fragrance of 
 the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 In those gardens and orchards, man also has 
 cooperated with nature in bringing plants and trees 
 to perfection. The world is so made that man may 
 be a co-worker with his Creator. Beneath man, no 
 animal cooperates with nature to change or to im- 
 prove her products. Fish swim in waters, but they 
 do not change the course of rivers. Birds gather 
 seeds and, in an involuntary way sow them ; but 
 they do not improve the original plants. Beasts 
 roam the forests, but they do not change the for- 
 est into a harvest field. Man, however, by his 
 knowledge, care, and skill, changes a purely natural 
 product into something superior and finer. The 
 Jacqueminot rose, the full-blown Chrysanthemum, 
 and the generous, golden sunflower, are the result 
 of man's care and toil. The name of the Concord 
 79 
 
So The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 grape reminds one of the place where it originated, 
 and the Baldwin apple preserves the name of the 
 man who produced it. The fame of Burbank 
 has spread across a continent from the wonders he 
 has accomplished in producing new and improved 
 forms of flowers and fruits. It has pleased the 
 Creator to take man into partnership with himself 
 in this great department of creation, that without 
 man the highest perfection should not be attained. 
 
 According to the story of the book of Genesis, 
 man was placed in a garden "eastward in Eden to 
 dress it and to keep it." And by this keeping and 
 dressing, the garden bloomed in fairer beauty, and 
 the man grew in intelligence and skill. 
 
 Not alone in the vegetable kingdom, but also 
 in the animal kingdom, man cooperates with nature. 
 Such animals as have been domesticated by man, are 
 larger and finer than any of their kind found in a 
 wild state. Durham cattle have attained their 
 size; Jersey cattle, their beauty; and merino sheep 
 the fineness of their wool; under the care of man. 
 Percheron horses have gained their fitness for draw- 
 ing loads ; English horses, their gentleness and spir- 
 it; and Kentucky trotters, their speed, from gen- 
 erations of careful training at the hands of man. 
 
 But above this, and more to the credit of his 
 genius and power, man has been made a partner 
 with the Creator in the making of himself and his 
 fellow men. By his efforts in the cultivation of 
 plants and animals, man has improved them and 
 has also improved himself. He has gained in self- 
 control, power of mental concentration, kindness, 
 
Co-operation 8 1 
 
 gentleness, and the qualities of a gracious life. Men 
 have risen in the scale of being by the love, in- 
 struction, and inspiring influence of the higher men 
 of the race acting in wide reaches upon lower men. 
 
 Schools, colleges, and churches all rest upon the 
 fundamental principle that the lower must be served 
 by the higher. It is by cooperation in education, in 
 worship, and in ideals, that the race of mankind 
 rises. Our civilization is the result of the continu- 
 ous impartation and preservation of the best any 
 man has acquired in thought, knowledge, culture, 
 and character. For the preservation and perpetu- 
 ation of the best of any generation, books are print- 
 ed, libraries founded, schools conducted, and the 
 elaborate machinery of education and civil govern- 
 ment are established among men. The man who 
 would receive most during his lifetime must be con- 
 tent to be served by those higher than himself. The 
 man who would do most during his lifetime must 
 consent to serve. 
 
 There are two forms of service in the world; 
 service from compulsion wherein the weaker serves 
 the stronger from fear and necessit)^ and service 
 from love, wherein by an inward impulse the strong- 
 er serves the weaker. The former service degrades ; 
 the latter service elevates. Nothing is morally worse 
 for both master and servant than slavery. Nothing 
 is more beneficial than that relation of faith and 
 love by which the lower receives the ministrations 
 of the higher. Writers on social history sometimes 
 justify slavery as a historic fact by claiming that 
 slavery has been the means of training men in the 
 
82 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 habit of continuous labor and has, thereby, induced 
 greater skill, efficiency, and character. There may 
 be a measure of truth in this claim. The black 
 slaves in the United States, in language, intelligence, 
 and moral character reached a higher plane than 
 their ancestors attained in Africa. Slavery in a 
 measure civilized them. But the black people in the 
 United States who, in the last fifty years, have been 
 served by a host of white teachers quickening their 
 intelligence and training them in manual skill, have 
 risen to a much higher grade of life than their ances- 
 tors who were slaves. The native tribes of South 
 Africa who have been taught and trained by the 
 loving ministry of missionaries have advanced in 
 intelligence and efficiency far beyond what they 
 would have achieved through any system of slavery 
 and compulsory labor. It should also be noticed 
 that no race ever has risen in slavery to the height 
 to which men have risen in freedom. There must be 
 the free choice of reception of service by faith, and 
 the free choice of service in love, for the best devel- 
 opment of mankind. 
 
 The highest life ever lived on this earth was a life 
 of voluntary service. Jesus said of himself: "I 
 came forth from the Father and am come into the 
 world." "I came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister." "I am among you as he that serveth." 
 Jesus revealed the great fact that the law of love, 
 the law of service, is a law of the kingdom of 
 heaven. Prior to the time of Jesus, men conceived 
 of God as a Ruler; they hardly imagined that God 
 stooped to serve. 
 
Co-operation 83 
 
 The law of love is a law which God Himself 
 obeys. Does not the act of creation place the Cre- 
 ator in some relation of obligation to the creation? 
 
 Does not the gift of life impose some obligation 
 in respect of the care of life? Does not parentage 
 carry in itself a sense of obligation to offspring? Par- 
 ents placed on an otherwise uninhabited island 
 where there is no government to impose laws and 
 where there are no policemen to enforce laws, would 
 feel in themselves a sense of responsibility, demand- 
 ing service to the children born to them. In all 
 parental life, the nature of the parent binds the par- 
 ent to seek the welfare of the child. 
 
 If God created man capable of communion with 
 himself and needing that communion for his com- 
 pletion; then, surely, God is under obligation on His 
 part to give such communion to man. God's own 
 nature and law of life and purpose bind Him to ful- 
 fill that obligation. If man cannot be a complete 
 being without God, then God is compelled to give 
 Himself to man. This indebtedness is recognized in 
 the Bible. 
 
 Throughout the sacred scriptures, God insists, 
 continually, on the fact that He is striving to ful- 
 fill the indebtedness of His own love to men. Over 
 and over again, God is represented as declaring that 
 He has loved, sought, called, reached out His hands, 
 and tried in every way to save and bless men. And, 
 if there is failure, it is attributed, constantly, to the 
 fact that men refuse to see, hear, heed, receive, and 
 know the grace of God. The revelation, in the gos- 
 pel, is the supreme manifestation of this impulse 
 
84 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and compelling love on the part of God. "For God 
 so loved the world that he gave His only begotten 
 Son, that whoso ver believeth in Him should not per- 
 ish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 God becomes the supreme servant of man. God 
 condescends to love, visit, renew, inspire, and lift up 
 the man of humble heart, trustful spirit, and obedi- 
 ent will. This accords with the law of life under 
 the care of man. If plants and animals, in nature, 
 reach their highest development under the loving 
 care of man; is it strange that man is to reach 
 his highest development under the care of God? 
 If life from the kingdom just above the mineral 
 kingdom, or life from the kingdom just above the 
 vegetable kingdom, touches that which lies in the 
 kingdom just beneath and lifts it into the kingdom 
 above; is it not natural that life from the spiritual 
 kingdom of heaven should touch the life of man and 
 lift it into the kingdom of God? This, according 
 to the gospel and the New Testament teaching, is 
 precisely what is being done. 
 
 Man's greatest achievement here, as elsewhere, 
 lies in cooperation with God. Man's greatest achieve- 
 ment in mechanical affairs is accomplished by placing 
 his machinery so that the forces of wind, water, elec- 
 tricity, and gravity play upon that machinery until 
 it moves in accord with nature's forces. Man's 
 greatest achievements in the sphere of morals and 
 spirituality are accomplished by placing his affec- 
 tions, intelligence, and will in obedient accord with 
 God's love, thought, and will in the world. Great 
 deeds are wrought not so much by great effort as 
 
Co-operation 85 
 
 by complete surrender to the will of God. The love 
 of God constrains the man who yields to it. As a 
 rolling river carries on its way all smaller streams 
 which flow into it, so God's great love and power, in 
 things of the spirit, carry along the love and thought 
 of every man who surrenders to them. This is what 
 Saint Paul meant when he said: "The love of 
 Christ constraineth me." Saint Paul had been serv- 
 ed and saved by God. This fact brought him under 
 the control of the law of God in his relation to un- 
 saved men. Saint Paul said of himself: "I am a 
 debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; 
 both to the wise and to the unwise." This indebt- 
 edness did not arise from any service which had been 
 rendered to Saint Paul by the Greeks or Barbarians. 
 The obligation rested upon Saint Paul not from 
 any service rendered him, but by the ability con- 
 ferred on him to render service. He had become a 
 child of God through faith in Jesus. He had 
 experienced the divine love in the pardon of his sins 
 and in the gift of a new life. He who had received 
 so much from God owed something to men who had 
 received less. It was an obligation imposed by love. 
 It was the indebtedness of power possessed. It was 
 the ability to confer a benefit which impelled him 
 to seek to confer that benefit. This is the law of 
 life in all men who truly live with God. 
 
 The two greatest qualities of soul and heart are 
 faith and love. Faith is that attitude of the soul 
 towards God which makes the soul of man recep- 
 tive to the power which God stands ready to confer. 
 Love is that quality of the heart which impels a 
 
86 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 man to worship God and to serve men. Without 
 faith it is impossible to please God or to be saved. 
 Without love, it is impossible to fulfil the divine law 
 of life. Faith places the soul of man under the tui- 
 tion and guidance of God. We may say as plant 
 and animal arrive at the highest perfection through 
 faith in man and obedience to him, so man rises to 
 highest perfection through faith in God and obedi- 
 ence to Him. According to the New Testament it 
 is to the man who believeth, loveth, obeyeth, that the 
 promises of God are given. All things are his, for 
 he is Christ's and Christ is God's. 
 
 Nature itself, properly interpreted, teaches men 
 the law of love. The struggle for existence is not 
 so much a struggle for personal and individual exis- 
 tence, as a struggle for the existence of others. A 
 child begins life in instinctive faith in maternal 
 love, and a child's knowledge of that love is intui- 
 tive. A child learns early to love its immediate 
 family and to live in active cooperation with its 
 family. A child soon learns that its welfare, its 
 pleasure, and its success, lie in the keeping of the 
 family or the tribe. The mistake which men have 
 made in their history is in limiting good will to 
 the tribe or the nation, and in regarding all who 
 live without that limit as enemies. But the percep- 
 tion of diversity of natural talents and skill which 
 results in division of labor, the practice of trade 
 which issues in commerce, and the necessity of deal- 
 ing with wider groups than the family or tribe, 
 reveal to men a larger relationship. The establish- 
 ment of government and the enactment of laws 
 
Co-operation 87 
 
 which at first mainly forbid injuries, but which soon 
 enjoin duties also, train men in the perception and 
 knowledge of the fact that individual good is best 
 secured in cooperation with other men. The in- 
 creasing areas within which wars are impossible and 
 within which entire freedom of travel and trade 
 exist, the increase of international and world-wide 
 trade, and the establishment of international law 
 by which nations are to be governed, all indicate 
 increasing knowledge that in common faith, mutual 
 good-will, and widespread cooperation, the highest 
 welfare of men is to be attained. To him who can 
 see into the heart of things, this shows that the law 
 of love is the divine order of life as revealed in the 
 very constitution of society. Distrust, hatred, and 
 injury, such as mark a period of wars, lead naturally 
 to degradation, destruction, and death. The bene- 
 fits which are supposed to have followed wars arise 
 either through the perception and knowledge of a 
 higher form of civilization and life, such as an invad- 
 ing people may get from travel as in the case of the 
 invading Goths or the crusaders who returned home 
 with new ideas of manufacture and learning, or else, 
 the gains which follow wars, arise from the increas- 
 ed activities which war has demanded or made neces- 
 sary. The real gain, comes from increased 
 knowledge, inventive skill, and practical applica- 
 tion of quickened intellect and trained cooperative 
 power to the practical affairs of life. Gain to men 
 never comes directly to mankind through individ- 
 ualism and destruction, but only indirectly. Gain 
 comes directly through socialism and construction. 
 
The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 The law of love, which is the way of mutual 
 good-will and mutual service, is the law of life for 
 mankind. This fact is coming to be understood as 
 never before. This is partly because men see the 
 advantage of cooperation in all lines of effort. The 
 age of individualism is passing. The age of dem- 
 ocracy in politics, of combination in business, of 
 cooperation in social service has come. Large em- 
 pires and republics, international law, world-wide 
 commerce, increasing control and oversight of pri- 
 vate business, sanitary legislation, public education, 
 increasing social cooperation, and many other things 
 all reveal the practical operation of the principle of 
 love in the world. The individual man counts for 
 little alone; he counts for much with others. The 
 chief value of a man to himself and to the world, 
 consists in his being a member of society. Even in 
 the highest form of human life this is true. Indi- 
 vidual salvation is essential for entrance into the 
 kingdom of heaven. But even individual salvation 
 is perfected by one's becoming part of a renewed 
 society. The best things now, as in the ancient econ- 
 omy of grace, are withheld from men for a time 
 because an individual without others cannot be made 
 perfect. 
 
 As one may think God's great thoughts after 
 him in scientific knowledge, in mechanical motions, 
 and in artistic forms, so one may think God's great 
 thoughts after him in the ways of spiritual mo- 
 tives, social relations, and serviceable activities in 
 life. The eternal life and the divine law of love 
 are declared to be revealed in Jesus; they are cer- 
 
Co-operation 89 
 
 tainly illustrated in his words and works. The 
 true life of man is secured by fellowship with Jesus. 
 There can be no truly successful life to any man 
 apart from that faith which brings divine power 
 into him, and apart from that love which leads him 
 to worship and to serve. 
 
 Jesus lived among men as one who served, and 
 he bade his disciples live in the same manner. Their 
 relation to Him must be vital, like that of branches 
 to a vine; docile, like that of pupils to a teacher; 
 submissive, like that of servants to a master; obedi- 
 ent, like that of subjects to a king. As the Father 
 loved Jesus so He loved His disciples; as He loved 
 them, so they were to love ; as He had lived, so they 
 were to live; as He had served, so they were to 
 serve. They had received freely, they were to give 
 freely. They had obtained power, they were to use 
 power. They were to heal the sick; to cast out 
 demons ; to preach the gospel ; and to bring the 
 kingdom of heaven to pass. 
 
 Whatever one may think of the original gift of 
 power to the disciples by which they wrought 
 changes in the world miraculously ; it is evident that 
 in the long course of Christian history, demons have 
 been cast out, disease has been conquered, minds 
 have been made sane, and love has been generated in 
 the hearts of men by slow processes working accord- 
 ing to the laws of the spirit rather than by miracles. 
 Those who have followed Jesus in love, have added 
 their contribution to the sum of human welfare; 
 even when they could not point to specific cases 
 wherein changes were wrought by power proceeding 
 
90 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 from them. The loving heart and kind spirit, like 
 unseen flowers which breathe their fragrance on the 
 passing air, sweeten and perfect the society of hu- 
 man kind. All such persons fulfill the divine con- 
 dition of a growing and perfect life. They obey, 
 though unconsciously, the apostolic command, 
 "Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling; for it is God which worketh in you 
 both to will and to do of his good pleasure." They 
 become "workers together with Him." They live 
 in the divine light, walk in the divine love, and 
 fulfill the divine will in feeling, thought, purpose, 
 and expressed power of their life. 
 
 No life can be successful unless it conforms to the 
 divine requirement of communion. Any life to be 
 successful must commune both with God and with 
 men by receiving and by imparting. Any person 
 who attempts to be simply receptive and absorbent, 
 to partake of the good gifts of God and to make no 
 effort to serve God and man, will fail in the end. 
 The self-centered, selfish, absorbent life will become 
 diseased in affection, perverted from the truth in 
 thought, debased in purpose, enslaved in will ; and 
 so, both by its own action and by the laws of the 
 kingdom of spirits, will be separated from the cur- 
 rent of the divine life and will be thrown at last like 
 flotsam, on the shores of time, and will have no 
 place or part in the eternal kingdom. 
 
 On the other hand, any life which accepts the 
 will and the way of God as that will and way 
 are revealed in the constitution of nature and in the 
 enlightened conscience, and which expands and ex- 
 
Co-operation 91 
 
 presses itself in love will grow sweet in spirit, pure 
 in affection, true in tenor of thought, generous in 
 sympathy, rich in graciousness, and large in influ- 
 ence and in service. Such a life will move in the 
 current of the divine life in history, and will have a 
 place and a part in the eternal kingdom. 
 
 The particular sphere of life in which one finds 
 himself, may not be of his own choosing; but the 
 spirit in which one wills to live is his own. Every 
 man must control his own feelings, cherish his own 
 imagination, think his own thoughts, sing his own 
 song, paint his own picture, build his own house, 
 and complete his own work. The place of his birth 
 and the material given him with which to work 
 are not of man's choice; but what he will do with 
 the material at hand is his own choice. A man's 
 purpose is his own; if there is a flaw in the mate- 
 rial given him which mars the work, he is not re- 
 sponsible for that. A man is measured by what he 
 attempts to do. When that attempt is according to 
 the divine will, then he is a workman together with 
 God. If conditions arise which check and limit the 
 expression of the power which is within him, then, 
 like the King of Israel who desired to build a house 
 to the honor of God, but could not ; he will be 
 praised for what was within his heart. 
 
 Love, however, is irrepressible and where love ex- 
 ists there will be found some mode of expression. A 
 life inspired by love will come to blossom and to 
 fruitage. In the sphere of the spirit, love can 
 know no final failure. The divine blessing, accord- 
 
92 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ing to Jesus, is pronounced not upon him who has 
 accomplished some visible thing, but upon him 
 whose spirit is right. The humble, the pure, the 
 loving, the merciful, the gracious are blessed. 
 One's union with the divine kingdom is not depen- 
 dent upon his visible achievement, but upon his love. 
 "Every one who loveth is born of God and know- 
 eth God." 
 
 The flower growing in the field cannot tell how 
 much of the force which builds it up is rising from 
 the soil, and how much is flowing from the sun- 
 shine; the ship on the sea cannot tell how much of 
 the force which impels it comes from the waves of 
 the ocean, and how much is from the winds of 
 heaven; the child in school cannot tell how much 
 of his increasing intellectual power is due to his own 
 effort, and how much is due to the inspiring influ- 
 ence of his teacher; the soldier marching to battle 
 cannot tell how much of his courage is his own, and 
 how much comes from the companionship of the 
 marching army; and the man who is cooperating 
 with God cannot tell how much of his power is his 
 own, and how much is directly and indirectly from 
 God ; he can know only that he is growing in love 
 and in power of ministry, in peace and in joy of ser- 
 vice, in worship and in delight in doing the will of 
 God. 
 
 A scheme of world history, such as is made known 
 to us in the constitution of the world, in the gospel 
 of grace, and in the promises of great things yet to 
 be, makes possible to men participation in the prog- 
 
Co-operation 93 
 
 ress and in the results of such history, and affords 
 to men opportunity to become great through faith 
 and love. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Incarnation 
 
 npHE marvel of spring when fields which have 
 been brown are clothed in living green, when 
 flowers like arbutus and violets and dandelions ap- 
 pear, when trees so recently bare and seemingly dead 
 are clothed with delicate green leaves, when blos- 
 soms white as driven snow and pink as a baby's 
 ,hand crown the orchards in profusion is an annual 
 miracle. To the man of seeing eye and discerning 
 mind, this wealth of vegetable life and beauty is 
 a revelation of the wisdom, intelligence, and power 
 of the Creator. It shows something of which the 
 mineral kingdom has not spoken. It reveals much 
 of God ; but it leaves much unrevealed which the 
 heart would gladly know. Men beholding all this, 
 still seek after God if haply, by the spirit, they may 
 find Him and finding Him, by the spirit, may be 
 satisfied. There is needed a more complete revela- 
 tion of God than nature affords. 
 
 We cannot say that all power is life, but we can 
 say that all life is power. In our world, at least, 
 power expresses itself in material movements, by 
 changing the position of material things or their 
 relation one to another. Power, thus, expresses it- 
 self by what may be called an incarnation of force. 
 When by an act of my will, I lift a book from a 
 desk, the movement of that material thing is the 
 
 94 
 
The Incarnation 95 
 
 visible expression of the power of my will. Emo- 
 tion, thought, and will clothe themselves in mater- 
 ial form. 
 
 Music is a spiritual emotion, but music clothes 
 itself in air, shapes the air in billowy waves which 
 throb and thrill with feeling, enters the open ear, 
 and touches the listening soul until that soul throbs 
 and thrills with the same feeling. IVlusic is a uni- 
 versal language. 
 
 Thought is a mental emotion, but thought clothes 
 itself in vocal or in written speech and, thereby, be- 
 comes perceptible to ear or eye, and so intelligible 
 to a receptive mind. 
 
 Love is a feeling, an affection of the heart, but 
 love embodies itself in smile or in sigh, in tone or in 
 tear, in touch or caress and, thereby, makes itself 
 known and felt. 
 
 All life in this world, from the life of the lowliest 
 flower to the life of the highest man, is known 
 through an incarnation, and by means of physical 
 expression. But life itself is something other than 
 the material in which it is embodied and through 
 which it is expressed. 
 
 Chemically, the material may all be there and 
 yet there may be no life. Chemically, the material 
 in which life has dwelt may all remain and yet the 
 life may be gone. That which is lacking in the 
 former case and lost in the latter case, is the soul 
 of what lived. What that soul is, no man knows. 
 In the study of biology, by sight and touch and by 
 knife and microscope, I found that life itself always 
 eluded my touch and sight. Life is a mysterious 
 
96 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 force which seizes, moves, and changes the material 
 in which it is embodied. Life, also, has its own 
 peculiar quality independent of the material in 
 which it dwells. Two trees may stand in the same 
 field, may feed on the same soil, may drink the 
 same showers, may bask in the same sunshine, and 
 yet may differ radically in form, flower, fragrance, 
 and fruit. Everything else being the same, that 
 mysterious somewhat which we call life must make 
 the difference. We classify vegetation according to 
 form, fiber, blossom, and fruit. We classify animals 
 according to disposition, intelligence, and habits of 
 life. In such classification, man easily stands at the 
 head of creation. Men differ immensely from one 
 another. The difference in intelligence, morality, 
 and spirituality between the lowest specimens of 
 primitive and barbarous men and the highest types 
 of civilized and cultured men is very great; yet 
 there is no difficulty in classifying all men in the 
 family of mankind. 
 
 One person alone has appeared among men with 
 such a heart of holy love and such a spirit of 
 supreme service that men have found difficulty in 
 classfying him. Jesus alone has transcended ordin- 
 ary classification. Who Jesus is, is a question whose 
 solution men sought and still seek. Men of the 
 time of Jesus did not find Him to be a product of 
 His race, or age or environment. They said that he 
 was an old prophet returned again; or a modern 
 prophet, like John the Baptist, risen from 
 the dead ; or a superiorly gifted prophet ; 
 or a demonized man; or a son of God in 
 
The Incarnation 97 
 
 some special sense; or "The Son of the living God." 
 For nineteen centuries, men have found Jesus to be 
 singular, unique, supreme in the sphere of the spirit, 
 and their most common conclusion has been that he 
 is the Son of God. 
 
 This title, historically and according to the rec- 
 ord, was not given to Jesus by men because of an 
 angelic announcement at his advent, nor because of 
 singularity of birth, nor because of claims put forth 
 by Jesus himself; but because of the impression 
 made by his life on the minds of them who knew him 
 best. Jesus did not begin his public life by announc- 
 ing singularity of birth and divinity of nature. Jesus 
 simply lived his life and let it speak for itself. A 
 rose does not declare its beauty, it simply blooms; 
 it does not announce its sweetness, it simply breathes 
 it on the air. So Jesus simply lived His life, spoke 
 His words, did His works and, then, men called 
 Him the Son of God. When, near the close of his 
 life, in answer to His own question ''Who do you 
 say I am?" those who had accompanied Him most 
 intimately exclaimed in a burst of admiring faith, 
 "Thou art the Son of God" ; Jesus pronounced that 
 conception as a blessed one. He said that concep- 
 tion of Him did not arise from human superstition, 
 but from divine revelation of the Father. He said 
 that definition proceeded from inward illumination, 
 spiritual vision, and true knowledge. He said that 
 on that truth He would build His church. And a 
 little later He said to men of such faith, "He that 
 hath seen me, hath seen the Father." 
 The impression which a man leaves on the minds 
 
98 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 of men and on the world, reveals what he himself 
 has been. Mention Phidias, and you think of sculp- 
 ture; mention Raphael, and you think of painting; 
 mention Newton, and you think of science; men- 
 tion Beethoven, and you think of music; mention 
 Jesus, and you think of God. The impression which 
 a die makes, shows what the die is. The impression 
 which a man makes, shows what the man is. The 
 impression which Jesus made on the minds of men, 
 and which he continues to make, is not a new 
 thought of men but a new thought of God. 
 
 This is worth considering. Think of it. It was 
 not a new thought of the value and meaning of man 
 which led the apostles to adopt the life of evan- 
 gelists and missionaries. It was new thought of 
 God. God loved the world — not the Jews only — 
 and so they should love the world. "God hath 
 showed me," said Peter to the Roman captain, 
 Cornelius, "that I should call no man common or 
 unclean." Therefore, Peter was willing to give 
 the hand of fellowship to the Gentiles, and welcome 
 them into the church. The conceptions of the apos- 
 tles were so changed that they said: "In point of 
 classification, opportunity, privilege, there can be 
 'neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, 
 neither male nor female.' " "God's love," they 
 said, "has been shown in the life and sufferings of 
 Jesus, and his love constrains us. We are will- 
 ing to live and to suffer for the salvation of men." 
 It was God's love, God's judgment of men, God's 
 action, and God's effort which impressed them and 
 made them willing to put away former thoughts and 
 
The Incarnation 99 
 
 to live as the love of God had lived in the person 
 of Jesus. God loved the world, and they, too, 
 should love the world. God's love as it had ap- 
 peared in Jesus, had given itself for them, and they 
 should love as He had loved. 
 
 That which the apostles first preached as revealed 
 and published in the life of Jesus was not new 
 ethics or a new sociology, but a new theology. They 
 preached the Father who had revealed Himself 
 through a Son. "In former times," they said, "God 
 spoke to our fathers in prophets, but now He hath 
 spoken to us in a Son." They worshipped God 
 not as King, but as Father. They obeyed God not 
 as servants, but as sons. As a result of this faith 
 and this worship, they taught that the distinctions 
 which had existed between men were fortuitous and 
 should be abolished. They taught that men should 
 be brothers. Their sociology followed their the- 
 ology. 
 
 In all this description, there is no intention of de- 
 nying or making little of any statements of the 
 New Testament respecting the conception and birth 
 of Jesus, but only the intention of emphasizing the 
 greatness of His personality. Jesus' character 
 showed love; His works, power; His words, spirit 
 and life. The effect of Jesus' life upon men was 
 to make them new creations in love, purpose, and 
 power of holy living. The efEect of Jesus' life was 
 such that men felt that He could not be accounted 
 for by the common lines of heredity, education, and 
 environment. Jesus' life was so full, so rich, so 
 life-giving that men felt that it must spring from 
 
lOO The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 some higher source than the lives of other men. 
 
 How that life came to be, like the coming of all 
 life, is a mystery. Life was not, life is. Whence 
 it comes, who knows? How it comes, who can 
 tell ? The ordinary processes of sowing seed and of 
 physical generation, the growth of plants and of 
 bodies is something known, — but life itself, in its 
 origin and nature is unknown. Life is the name 
 we apply to that secret, silent, 'potent power which 
 vivifies, shapes, and completes any living thing. 
 
 All life is of God. He is the living essence in the 
 universe. He is the giver of life. His touch vivi- 
 fies. His breath quickens. His spirit imparts in- 
 telligent and moral life. He speaks, and things 
 grow. 
 
 But with every stage of increasing life, something 
 is added which was not before. There is something 
 in vegetation which was not in the mineral; that 
 something is life. There is something in an ani- 
 mal which was not in a plant ; that is more life. 
 There is something in man in capacity and possibil- 
 ity which was not in the animal; that is still more 
 life. There is something in Jesus which was not 
 in man; that, too, is more life. Man, in respira- 
 tion and the circulation of blood, is akin to vegeta- 
 tion; and, in nervous structure and feeling man is 
 akin to the whole animal kingdom; but there is 
 something in man which is not in the vegetable nor 
 in the animal below man. Jesus in physical and 
 psychical nature is like man and akin to him : but 
 Jesus in moral and spiritual nature transcends man. 
 
 "The invisible things of God," says Saint Paul, 
 
The Incarnation lOl 
 
 "are clearly seen being perceived through the things 
 that are made, even His everlasting power and di- 
 vinity." Power is seen in the roll of a locomotive, 
 and power is seen in the revolution of a world. Wis- 
 dom is seen in the construction of a watch, and wis- 
 dom is seen in the construction of a plant. But who 
 can tell from a locomotive what is the moral char- 
 acter of its maker? Who can tell from a watch 
 what is the ruling principle of the man who made 
 it? Who can tell from the material universe, so 
 expressive of intelligence and power, what is the 
 moral character of its Creator? How shall love, 
 mercy, pity, compassion, and grace, if they be in 
 God, be made to appear to men ? The sun does not 
 change its face whether its beams brighten or burn 
 the face of man. The sea does not change its swell 
 or its sound whether it carries the ship of man on its 
 waves or swallows that ship in its depths. A gen- 
 eral benevolence may appear in the course of na- 
 ture, but specific love is never shown. How shall 
 a God of love who, loving, obeys love's great law of 
 sacrifice be made known? 
 
 The New Testament says: "God so loved the 
 world that He gave His Son for men." It also 
 says: ''Hereby know we love, because He laid 
 down His life for us." Jesus has revealed what 
 nature has not spoken and cannot speak. After 
 Jesus' revelation was given, then, an account of His 
 coming into the world could be given. This we 
 have in the New Testament. 
 
 Perhaps it had been as well if the Greek mind 
 never had attempted to define the person of Christ. 
 
I02 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Light, life and love are indefinable. They may be 
 described, but they transcend definition. Christ 
 loved the world and became the light of the world 
 and the life of the world ; but, like light and life, 
 He cannot be defined. But men naturally desire 
 definition. Much that has been written about the 
 person of Christ has been an attempt to make a 
 mystery comprehensible to the human mind. Men 
 have described Christ as "the God-Man" consist- 
 ing of two natures, in one person, subsisting side 
 by side, like oil and water, each with its own quali- 
 ties and its own actions, but ever distinct. The 
 simple statement of the New Testament, namely, 
 that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
 himself," is better. This is a statement of fact. 
 What Christ is, is of value. How he came to be, 
 might be left unknown or to be known later. 
 
 However, if men seek an explanation of the 
 source and method of the life and character of Jesus ; 
 it seems to me, there is no more simple, natural, and 
 scientific setting forth of the case than that given by 
 Saint Luke in the introduction of his gospel. 
 
 There is a disposition on the part of many to 
 deny or to doubt the story of the birth of Jesus as 
 related by Saint Luke. This arises largely, I 
 think, from certain teaching of modern times which 
 tends to create a feeling that, since the first creation, 
 nothing new or extraordinary has happened in the 
 world. But Jesus is something both new and ex- 
 traordinary. Much is made of the fact that, with 
 the exception of Matthew and Luke, none of the 
 other New Testament authors tell the story of the 
 
The Incarnation 103 
 
 birth of Jesus. But we must remember that the 
 Fourth Gospel according to John says: That "the 
 Word which in the beginning was with God and 
 was God became flesh and dwelt among us." The 
 First Epistle of John says: *'The life was mani- 
 fested, and we have seen it and bear witness and 
 declare unto you the eternal life which was with the 
 Father and was manifested unto us." The author 
 of The Epistle to the Hebrews says: '*God having 
 spoken unto the fathers in the prophets hath spoken 
 unto us in His Son whom He appointed heir of all 
 things, through whom also He made the worlds." 
 Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, says: 
 "In Him were all things created in the heavens and 
 upon the earth — all things have been created through 
 Him, and unto Him: and He is before all things 
 and in Him all things consist." The denial of the 
 truth of the narrative by Saint Luke does not sim- 
 plify matters, or leave any explanation of a method 
 by which such an "eternal life" and transcendant 
 person became incarnate and lived among men. 
 
 Saint Luke's statement seems to me, personally, the 
 most simple and the most satisfactory account of the 
 person of Jesus, the Christ, which ever has been 
 given. A few facts concerning life as we know it 
 are worth noticing in this connection. Life is a 
 mysterious something which shapes and rules every 
 living creature. In the case of animals and men — 
 whatever may be the life of each physical cell — even 
 if we regard an animal body as a community of 
 cells — the unifying force which makes one plant or 
 one animal, and gives continuity to the life, is the 
 
104 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 soul. The body continually changes, but the soul 
 constantly remains. The psyche in beast and in 
 man is the formative power which shapes the body, 
 determines the actions, and makes the character. 
 Each creature is like its prenatal disposition, that is, 
 its psyche or soul. A bull dog whose nature is to 
 seize and to hold on, has a body and jaws suited for 
 that purpose. A hound is moulded before its birth 
 for the race. A deer and an elephant, a draft horse 
 and a race horse, are shaped by an inner nature and 
 each animal is fitted for the life it must lead. 
 Among men, character is like the physique, because 
 the character forms the physique. Every gifted and 
 great man is endowed before his birth and is ordain- 
 ed to be poet or painter, sculptor or scholar, prince 
 or prophet, before his birth. Whether men claim 
 the power to read character from the head, from the 
 features and expression of the face, or from the lines 
 on the hand, the claim is based upon the physical 
 correspondence with the inner life. 
 
 Through the body, life is revealed and we see it, 
 read it, and know it. A German philosopher, Scho- 
 penhauer, in his treatise on The World As Will 
 and Idea, writing on heredity and with no thought 
 of Jesus in mind, makes these suggestive statements: 
 "If now we cast upon this problem, the light of our 
 fundamental knowledge that the will is the true 
 being, the kernal, the radical element, in man ; and 
 the intellect, on the other hand, is what is secondary, 
 adventitious, the accident of that substance; before 
 questioning experience we will assume as at least 
 probable that the father as sexus potior and the pro- 
 
The Incarnation 105 
 
 creative principle, imparts the basis, the radical ele- 
 ment of the new life, thus the will and the mother, 
 as sexus sequior and merely conceiving principle, im- 
 parts the secondary element, the intellect; that thus 
 the man inherits his moral nature, his character, his 
 inclinations, his heart from the father, and, on the 
 other hand, the grade, quality, and tendency of his 
 intelligence from the mother. Now this assumption 
 actually finds its confirmation in experience; only 
 this cannot be decided by a physical experiment upon 
 the table, but results partly from the careful and 
 acute observation of many years, and partly from 
 history." 
 
 This theory may not be capable of proof, but it is 
 suggestive in relation to the common theory of the 
 Christian church in respect of the person of Jesus. 
 In Him, derived from His mother, feeling, thought, 
 emotion and passion in all ways are most truly hu- 
 man and common to men ; and the spiritual quality 
 .and moral tone of His life are truly divine and coin- 
 cide with what is in God the Father. 
 
 Now in this connection, let us read the story given 
 us by Saint Luke. He says that he traced carefully 
 all things from the first so as to give the earliest 
 traditional belief concerning the birth and life of 
 Jesus. Saint Luke tells us that the angel in declar- 
 ing to Mary how the promised Son should come, 
 said : "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the 
 power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: 
 wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten 
 of thee shall be called the Son of God." This may 
 be translated, ''That which is to be born, shall be 
 
io6 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 called holy, the Son of God." 
 
 God is a spirit, and the soul of Mary, touched 
 and filled by the Spirit divine, was the immediate 
 source of that soul, that living essence, which filled 
 and formed the living germ from which the body of 
 her child grew, and that child thus begotten and 
 born was the embodiment and the expression of the 
 eternal life and of the divine love. So the divine 
 life imparted itself and centered itself in humanity. 
 So the child, one in life and one in personality, hu- 
 man in condition and divine in disposition, entered 
 the world and was called the Son of man and the 
 Son of God. In appetite, passion, intellect, and all 
 elements of human nature He was the brother of 
 men. In spiritual quality and moral tone. He was 
 the Son of God. So God was in Christ who became 
 thereby the image of the invisible God. So the 
 divine life in its spirituality dwelt in Him, and was 
 revealed through Him. 
 
 I venture the above suggestions as being in accord 
 with what we know to be true with respect to the 
 relation of the soul and the body in the animal 
 kingdom, as being in accord with respect to much 
 that we know to be true of man in natural generation, 
 as being in accord with the promise made to Mary 
 by the angel, and as being true with respect to the 
 revelation of God made in Jesus Christ. 
 
 I do not make these suggestions ex cathedra as a 
 philosophy which another must accept. I make these 
 suggestions tentatively as a possible theory which 
 may relieve the minds of some persons who accept 
 the New Testament record, but are troubled because 
 
The Incarnation 107 
 
 of ideas suggested by the material side of physical 
 birth. I do not claim to explain a mystery, but only 
 to put forth a suggestion which seems a reasonable 
 interpretation of the manner of the incarnation. 
 
 In Jesus there was a life which in its spiritual 
 quality, expression, and power, men felt and still 
 feel to be superior to all other life in this world. 
 Had the life of Jesus in its source and in its quality 
 been just the same as the life of every man; had the 
 beauty and the power of the life of Jesus been due 
 simply to the fact that He willingly received more 
 fully of the divine spirit than other men ; had Jesus 
 merely illustrated what is possible for other men; 
 then, ere this time, He should have been equalled by 
 other men. But Jesus remains apart, distinct and 
 supreme. Men see in Him, and not in His disciples 
 of any age, the image of the invisible God. Men 
 do not look to any of His disciples, but to Him for 
 the gift of life. Men give praise, not to any of His 
 disciples, nor to the entire body of believers, but to 
 Him for salvation. Were Jesus simply the first 
 among many, this could not be the case. Others 
 would share His position in the thoughts of men and 
 share also His power and His glory. Men never 
 think of placing Paul, nor any other person in the 
 place of Christ. 
 
 This unique and transcendent position could not 
 be held age after age, were there not something in 
 Jesus to justify it. Men who cannot tell in any 
 single instance whence life comes, nor how it comes, 
 nor what it is, but who in every instance know it 
 and designate it by what it does, need not be sur- 
 
io8 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 prised at the inexplicable mystery of the life of Jesus. 
 They need not be surprised that the church, with 
 well-nigh universal uniformity, has held fast to the 
 doctrine of divine incarnation. The church which 
 believes that God has spoken in many prophets by 
 inspiration believes that He has spoken more vitally 
 in a Son. The church believes that he who sees the 
 Son, sees the Father who sent Him. This knowl- 
 edge of God, however, is not primarily an intellec- 
 tual knowledge which one may measure and mark 
 limits and comprehend as one may know a material 
 thing. It is, rather, the knowledge of faith and love 
 which sees and feels and enjoys as a growing child 
 sees and feels and enjoys a mother. It is a knowl- 
 edge of the heart. 
 
 It is the moral nature of God, His sentiment, 
 feeling, and will towards men, which Jesus makes 
 known. Save the one statement that God is a spirit, 
 Jesus says nothing about the metaphysical nature 
 of God. Jesus tells what God does in making the 
 sun to rise and the rain to fall upon good and evil 
 men alike; what God feels in that He loves the 
 world; what God suffers in that He loves with 
 sympathy ; what God knows in that He knows the 
 need of every saint ; what God hears in that He 
 listens to the cry of the needy; what God wills in 
 that it is His will to save and to keep every trustful 
 soul which seeks Him. Jesus' revelation is not de- 
 signed to satisfy the curiosity of the mind, but to 
 meet the need of the humble, penitent, and trust- 
 ful heart. 
 
 What a man may know by intellectual perception, 
 
The Incarnation 109 
 
 analysis, and reasoning, is always inferior to the man 
 himself. What a man may know by trust and love, 
 and by communion and obedience is superior to 
 himself. The world by wisdom — that is by intellec- 
 tual acumen and apprehension — knew not God and 
 knows Him not. The world by wisdom will never 
 know God's Son, but he who by faith knows the 
 Father, will know the Son, and he who by love 
 knows the Son will know the Father. 
 
 It is not by arbitrary choice and unreasonable 
 action on the part of God, but by nature of a trust- 
 ful spirit and a teachable mind that things hidden 
 from the wise and prudent are revealed unto babes. 
 A child is not the equal of a philosopher in intellec- 
 tual acumen and knowledge, but, in the sphere of the 
 spirit, 'things which are hidden from the philosopher 
 may be revealed to the child because he is using the 
 proper organ. One can never perceive light by 
 the ear, or learn music by the eye, or know the 
 things of the spirit by the intellect. "The natural 
 man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; 
 for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he 
 know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 
 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things." It is 
 true that one may learn the symbols of music by the 
 eye, and that he may state by the intellect things 
 which are known by the heart; but music itself 
 must be learned by the ear and the things of the 
 heart must be known by the heart itself. The man 
 who loves, knows God ; because God is love. 
 
 Jesus praised Peter, when Peter called Him "The 
 Son of God." Jesus promised to build His church 
 
no The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 upon this fact and on this confession. But there is 
 no record of Jesus' requiring a definition of His 
 person as a condition of receiving healing from sick- 
 ness, or salvation from sin. What Jesus did require 
 was faith, that is, belief in His ability to help and 
 in His power to save. According to faith, the bless- 
 ing came. Unbelief was the only limit. The limi- 
 tation was in man, not in Jesus. In some places, 
 Jesus did not many mighty works, because of their 
 unbelief. To one who sought a blessing from Him, 
 Jesus said, "All things are possible to him that be- 
 lieveth." 
 
 The leper who knelt at the feet of Jesus needed 
 only faith to say, "Lord, if Thou wilt, thou canst 
 make me clean," to feel the power of the cleansing 
 life. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus' 
 garment needed only faith to say, "If I but touch, 
 I shall be healed," to be made whole. The sinful 
 woman who wept over the feet of Jesus as He 
 reclined at table, needed only faith to believe that 
 He would pardon to hear Him say, "Thy sins are 
 forgiven; go in peace." 
 
 Zaccheus, the publican of local ill-repute, needed 
 only the faith which would grant hospitality to Jesus 
 to hear Him say, "This day is salvation come to this 
 house." The penitent thief on the cross needed 
 only faith to lay the bruised and broken remnant 
 of a misspent life on the breast of Jesus to hear 
 Him say, "To-day thou shalt be with Me in para- 
 dise." 
 
 According to the record given in The Acts of the 
 Apostles, the apostolic church required, as a condi- 
 
The Incarnation iii 
 
 tion of church membership, three things, namely: 
 repentance from sin; belief that Jesus, whom men 
 crucified, whom God raised from the dead, is the 
 Son of God; and belief that through Him forgive- 
 ness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit are given 
 to them who believe. Baptism was the symbol of 
 the washing away of sins and the Lord's Supper 
 was the visible pledge of spiritual communion. No 
 verbal statement of the manner of the incarnation 
 and of Jesus' advent; no definition of the meta- 
 physical nature of Jesus' person; no theory of the 
 method of his atonement ; no description of the 
 processes of the new life was demanded as a condi- 
 tion of discipleship and of membership in the church. 
 This was both wise and well. 
 
 Few men, in any department of life, care for 
 scientific knowledge or for philosophic statement of 
 the nature and relation of the things with which 
 they deal. Practical knowledge is what most men 
 desire and what they use. Scientists and philoso- 
 phers, however useful, are few in number. Most 
 men believe in the things which they use without 
 scientific knowledge of them and the practical ends 
 of life are well served. This is quite as true in 
 spiritual, as in material, things. 
 
 It is natural for men, especially for some men, to 
 formulate their thought of what they have learned 
 and experienced, and creeds are a natural expres- 
 sion of Christian belief. A creed stated in simple 
 language and used for liturgical purposes may be 
 valuable. But a creed used as a fence to exclude 
 from the communion of the church is a mistake. 
 
112 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Truth preached for purposes of instruction and in- 
 spiration is valuable, but the creed of a man must 
 be a growth of his own experience, whether he 
 states that creed in his own language or in the 
 language of another. 
 
 It has been a mistake for men to formulate an in- 
 tellectual and philosophical creed, — like the Atha- 
 nasian creed, for example, with its fine distinctions 
 of the persons of the Trinity and of the person of 
 Jesus Christ, — and to make the acceptance of its 
 propositions a condition of receiving salvation. This, 
 as in the case of the above creed, has been done, 
 "Whosoever will be saved; before all things it is 
 necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which 
 Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled : 
 without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." 
 
 The Greeks, with their love of philosophical spec- 
 ulation and of scientific analysis, gave to the church 
 that habit of mind which produced the Ecumenical 
 creeds. The Romans with their love of law and 
 power gave to the church that complex organization 
 which issued in the papacy. The Reformation 
 broke the authority of the latter for the Protestant 
 churches; but the Reformation retained the philo- 
 sophic method of the former and imposed elaborate 
 creeds upon Protestant churches. 
 
 After centuries of contention, division, and expe- 
 rience, the Protestant churches are slowly coming 
 back to "the simplicity which is in Christ." In re- 
 ligion, the heart is more than the head. Valuable 
 as clear conceptions and even definitions are, it is not 
 intellectual knowledge of truth stated in philosoph- 
 
The Incarnation 113 
 
 ical terms, but faith in a Person which secures sal- 
 vation, and love for persons, which fulfills the law 
 of Christian living. Jesus has given faith, which 
 is trust, and love, which is devotion, the supreme 
 place in the Christian system and in the soul of man. 
 Jesus has declared that faith is the condition of sal- 
 vation, and that love is the expression and fulfill- 
 ment of salvation. Faith, therefore, entitles a man 
 to membership in the Christian church, and love is 
 the evidence of his worthiness for such member- 
 ship. This the church is coming more and more to 
 see and to accept. This fact does not arise from 
 a denial of the faith even in an intellectual form; 
 but from that love which admits gradation in 
 knowledge and which permits differences of opinion 
 in the sphere of the intellect, where men seeing in 
 part and knowing in part, always have differed and 
 always will differ, and which asserts that the basis 
 of Christian union is a common faith in a com- 
 mon Lord and a common love as the motive of 
 righteous living. 
 
 This is what the church must come to in prac- 
 tical unity, if there is to be efficiency in a community 
 where there should be only one church. This is the 
 condition to which the church must come, if there 
 is to be united power in withstanding the evil which 
 is in the world. This liberty must be allowed, if men 
 are to be permitted to think. It must be allowed if 
 the best thinkers are permitted to lead. It must be 
 admitted, if men trust the truth. It must be admit- 
 ted, if we believe with Jesus that "every one that 
 is of the truth cometh to the light, and that every 
 
The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 one that loveth, knoweth God." 
 
 Certain results have followed the revelation of 
 God in Jesus Christ, and, historically, have followed 
 the course of the gospel of grace. 
 
 First, polytheism has passed and is passing away. 
 Whatever may be said of polytheism as an attempt 
 on the part of men to give expression to their con- 
 ception of the divine being or of divine beings, it re- 
 sults, always, in crudeness of worship, in carnality 
 of life, and in destruction of belief in human broth- 
 erhood. Where each race or tribe has its own god 
 or gods, there can be no true unity among men. The 
 preaching of the gospel has been followed, always, 
 by the passing away of polytheism. Its temples have 
 fallen ; its altars have crumbled ; its idols have dis- 
 appeared. Throughout Christendom, men have 
 come to believe in one God. 
 
 Second, through the revelation of God in Jesus 
 Christ, men have come to believe in God as a 
 Father. The imperial idea of God gives place 
 to the paternal idea of God. This does not mean 
 that the conception of divine power has passed away, 
 but that power is infused with love and adminis- 
 tered in grace. There is more power, in some ways, 
 in the family than in the state ; in a father than in 
 a king, but the administration is different, and its 
 design in love is more apparent. Throughout 
 Christendom, men's idea of God is that of a 
 Father. 
 
 Third, following the revelation of God in Jesus 
 Christ has come the conception of human brother- 
 hood. Slowly, alas, too slowly, is brotherhood be- 
 
The Incarnation 115 
 
 lleved and practiced ; but it is coming. It has been 
 coming ever since Jesus taught men to pray saying, 
 ''Our Father," and taught them to love as He loved. 
 Nothing was more marked in the church in the first 
 instance than the passing of Jewish narrowness and 
 the admission of Gentiles to brotherhood in the 
 church. Men who had been unwilling to eat with 
 Gentiles saw that God would have them call no 
 man unclean because of his race or nationality. If 
 God is one and loves the whole race of mankind, 
 then, men must love their fellowmen everywhere. 
 Slowly, this fact has been received as a doctrine, and 
 more slowly has it been admitted in practice ; but its 
 reception as a truth is gaining rapidly now and is be- 
 coming an obsession in many minds. It must prac- 
 tically rule the world. It is a truth which came 
 with Jesus and it must rule where he is King. It 
 must be held that He who does not love men, can- 
 not love God. 
 
 Fourth, following the revelation of the law of 
 love as the law of life in Jesus Christ, has come the 
 belief in the law of service for all men. Service 
 always has been in the world but, too frequently, 
 it has been the service of the many to the few and 
 of the weak to the strong. It has been a servile 
 service from which strong men have sought exemp- 
 tion. But since Jesus lived as one who served and 
 showed that service is the law of life to which 
 even God himself is subject, service has been seen 
 as a liberty of love which glorifies. Strong men 
 may well yield obedience to this law. This law of 
 life is now recognized in all Christendom. Service, 
 
Ii6 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 like efficiency, is now one of the most common 
 words, and expresses a common conception of life. 
 
 Service has long been demanded of certain classes 
 of men. The preacher, the physician, the teacher, 
 who will not give life to the utmost, has long been 
 condemned as unworthy of his profession. This 
 demand of service is spreading. Indebtedness is bas- 
 ed upon ability. Obligation rests on opportunity. 
 The king who rules for himself and not for his 
 people is deemed unworthy of his crown. The man 
 of wealth who keeps his wealth for himself and who 
 does not share it with his fellowmen and leave it for 
 their benefit, is unhonored. The man who knows 
 Christ must be Christlike in his living. Had not 
 Jesus, as the Son of God, revealed this law as the 
 very law of the divine life, men would not have 
 learned to love as He loved. These four great 
 facts and forces, namely : belief in one God, faith in 
 God as a Father, the thought of men as brothers, 
 and obedience to the law of love in service, all have 
 resulted from belief in the incarnation and the revel- 
 ation of God, the Father, in Jesus Christ the Son. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The New Birth 
 
 A YELLOW butterfly glowing in the sunshine, 
 "^^ flying swiftly through the air, lighting daintily 
 upon flower after flower, and sipping honey from 
 delicate cups, is quite unlike a caterpillar of which 
 it is the secondary and completed form. One won- 
 ders if the voracious caterpillar creeping slowly on 
 the ground, eating greedily, and casting away skin 
 after skin to make way for a new one, ever imagines 
 the change of which it is capable. By a metamor- 
 phosis during which the natural life undergoes 
 changes which lift it and which fit it for a higher state 
 of existence, the caterpillar undergoes a renewing pro- 
 cess which makes it more beautiful in form, more 
 dainty in taste, and more refined in the manner of 
 its life. It is the same life in essence, but a higher 
 life in its purposes and in the use of its powers. The 
 caterpillar when it becomes a butterfly is refined, 
 beautified, and physically glorified. 
 
 The butterfly is a physical picture of a psycholog- 
 ical change which may take place in man. "The 
 caterpillar, towards the end of summer, waxeth vola- 
 tile, and turneth to a butterfly," says Bacon. Man, 
 likewise, as his life progresses, should cease to be 
 essentially carnal and should become spiritual. A 
 man should become new by the regeneration of his 
 soul, transformed by the renewing of his mind, and 
 117 
 
Ii8 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 beautified by the pervading power of holy love. 
 With the butterfly, that is not first which is volatile, 
 fitting it for flight in the air, but that which is 
 gross, fitting it to creep upon the ground. With 
 man, also, as Saint Paul has so well said: "That 
 is not first which is spiritual, but that which is 
 natural or psychical, then, that which is spiritual or 
 pneumaticaW That which takes place in the but- 
 terfly is a metamorphosis, a change of form, wrought 
 by action of natural life in relation to the earth. 
 That which takes place in man is a regeneration, a 
 change of spirit wrought in him by the power of a 
 spiritual environment. The butterfly, by the action 
 of a natural power, is lifted to a little higher place 
 in the kingdom of earth. A man, by action of a 
 supernatural power touching him within, is lifted 
 into a higher state called ''the kingdom of God." 
 The metamorphosed butterfly still draws its life 
 from the things of earth. The regenerated man 
 draws his life from the kingdom of heaven. An 
 inspiration fills him with moral motive and spiritual 
 excellence. Jesus says: "Except a man be born 
 from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 The word gennao used here in the New Testament, 
 means both to beget, like a father, and to bring 
 forth, like a mother. It may refer to the beginning 
 of life, as in conception, and, also, to a change of life, 
 as at birth. Both meanings are included in Jesus' 
 words. He affirms that life must be imparted by 
 the Spirit and that life must be lived within the 
 environment of "the kingdom of God." Both uses 
 of this word gennao occur elsewhere in the New 
 
The New Birth 119 
 
 Testament. Men who experience the change 
 wrought in regeneration are said to be "begotten of 
 God," to be "born of God," and to be "sons of 
 God." This is the destiny for which man has been 
 created, but he may fail of its fulfilment. A cater- 
 pillar is made to become a butterfly, but a caterpillar 
 may fail to reach this consummation of its existence. 
 A man is born into the world to become a son of 
 God, but a man may fail to reach this consumma- 
 tion of his creation by failing to find and to fulfil 
 the conditions of a completed life. If it were left 
 to a caterpillar to choose whether it would become 
 a butterfly, it might refuse to accept the change. It 
 might prefer to remain a caterpillar. Man is a crea- 
 ture with power of choice and with liberty of choice. 
 A man cannot lift himself into the kingdom of 
 heaven; but a man may resist the power which 
 would lift him into that kingdom; he may prefer 
 to remain wholly within the communion of things of 
 the earth. 
 
 Several years ago, Professor Drummond called 
 attention to the fact that a change from one king- 
 dom to another kingdom in the ascending scale of 
 being is accomplished, always, by the entrance into 
 the lower kingdom of a new and transforming force 
 from above. The mineral never can transform itself 
 into a vegetable, nor can the mineral kingdom, of 
 itself, produce a vegetable. A seed in the soil is the 
 beginning of the transformation of mineral subs- 
 tance into vegetable substance, and the source of a 
 vegetable product. Whence life first came, no man 
 knows save by faith. But we do know that one 
 
120 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 form of life and being cannot lift itself into a higher 
 kingdom. Accepting this scientific fact, Professor 
 Drummond has said: ''The world of natural men 
 is staked off from the spiritual world by barriers 
 which never yet have been crossed from within. 
 No organic change, no modification of environment, 
 no mental energy, no moral effort, no evolution of 
 character, no progress of civilization, can endow any 
 single soul with the attribute of spiritual life. The 
 spiritual world is guarded from the world next in 
 order beneath it by a law of biogenesis — except a 
 man be born again, except a man be born of water 
 and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. Except a mineral be born from above — 
 from the kingdom just above it — it cannot enter 
 into the kingdom just above it. And except a man 
 be born from above, by the same law, he cannot 
 enter the kingdom just above him." 
 
 Let it be noted, however, that there is this 
 important difference between a mineral and a man. 
 The mineral has no will. Any change on the part 
 of a mineral is without volition on its part, without 
 resistance, and without choice. A man has will. A 
 man cannot regenerate himself. He cannot lift him- 
 self into the kingdom of heaven ; but he can neglect 
 and he can resist the action of the force which 
 would life him into that kingdom. A man cannot 
 live without air in the kingdom of the earth; but 
 a man may resist air, refuse to breathe, and so die. 
 A man may resist and refuse the vivifying breath of 
 the kingdom of heaven, and so fail of heavenly life. 
 This is the constant teaching of the scriptures. This 
 
The New Birth I2l 
 
 is the reason that men are said to be renewed and 
 saved by the grace of God, and the reason they are 
 said to be held responsible and guilty for their fail- 
 ure of salvation. This, according to the New Test- 
 ament, is the cause of the divine condemnation of 
 unsaved men. God is represented, in the scriptures, 
 as coming to men, being present with men, seeking 
 to renew and save and perfect men. Men are rep- 
 resented as resisting God and refusing salvation. 
 Wisdom calls and men mock. Light shines and men 
 love darkness. The Son of God comes and would 
 save and men will not accept salvation. The Spirit 
 woos, and men resist and reject the saving power. 
 Therefore, they are in darkness, without light, and 
 doomed to die. This has been the history of man- 
 kind from the beginning, on the downward side of 
 carnality, worldliness, and wickedness. Adam chose 
 to go downward not upward, to live in the flesh not 
 in the spirit, and so lost Eden. Some men have 
 been doing the same thing ever since. Men live 
 under varying degrees of light and of opportunity; 
 but the ultimate condemnation of men always rests 
 upon the fact that they have refused to be saved. 
 They have refused to go up. Therefore, the con- 
 demnation comes because they have not the life of 
 the spirit which is love. They have not given bread 
 to the hungry, nor water to the thirsty, nor ministry 
 to those in need. They have lived in the flesh ; they 
 belong to the world ; they have no part in the king- 
 dom; their names are not written in the book of 
 life. This condemnation on account of something 
 negative, on account of what men have not and are 
 
122 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 not, is in keeping with the judgment of life every- 
 where. 
 
 When this truth is more clearly seen than it has 
 been seen, evangelists will not direct their anathemas 
 so primarily against the drunkard, the adulterer, the 
 thief, and the persons who frequent places of amuse- 
 ment as though these were sinners par excellence; 
 preachers will not single certain sins as the con- 
 demning ones to the comfort of a moral, self-right- 
 eous and self-satisfied congregation; but evangelists 
 and preachers alike will declare that the sin which 
 shuts the door of heaven and brings abiding con- 
 demnation is the sin of refusing to accept the higher 
 life. 
 
 This is not intended to say that immorality, vice, 
 and crime are not sins and do not bring consequences 
 of heavy penalty; but it is intended to say that the 
 absence of immorality, vice, and crime does not 
 constitute salvation. Freedom from vice and crime 
 will leave any man free from their special penalties; 
 but this mere negative goodness will not constitute 
 eternal life. What does a man do more than an 
 animal when he simply keeps himself temperate, 
 loves his mate, cares for his children, is decent in 
 habit, and well-groomed in body and mind? That 
 is simply to be adjusted to the world, that is simply 
 to live well in the present order, that is to get the 
 best for one's self under earthly conditions, and it 
 will receive its reward ; but that is not faith in 
 God, it is not fellowship with Christ, it is not living 
 in communion with the spiritual kingdom of heaven, 
 it is not loving as Jesus loved, it is not living as He 
 
The New Birth 123 
 
 lived, it is not a service animated by loving self- 
 surrender to the will of God and to the sacrificial 
 w2iY of Christ. It has no part in the kingdom of 
 heavenly and holy love. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a life in this world 
 the opposite of this, namely, the life of those who 
 have chosen the upward side and have increased in 
 love and in devoted living. From the beginning, 
 some have chosen this life. Let them be called 
 saints, or sons of God, or children of the Highest, 
 or what you will; they have been lifted out of the 
 life of selfishness, self-seeking, self-indulgence and 
 neglect of things of the spirit, and they have been 
 lifted into the kingdom of love, worship, conse- 
 cration, devotion, generous sympathy, and altru- 
 istic service. Wherever they are found, they are 
 marked as being in spirit of a high order, children 
 of the upper kingdom. 
 
 The life of the new-born is a Christ-like life. As 
 an old writer has said: 
 
 "Though Christ be born a thousand times in Beth- 
 lehem 
 Yet if he be not born within thine own soul 
 His birth is all in vain to thee." 
 
 The Christ-like life is reverent, worshipful, trust- 
 ful, loving, self-sacrificing, and serviceable. It 
 transcends life in the flesh and in the world not, 
 chiefly, in the moralities of decent living, but in 
 the motives, purposes, choices, and activities of life. 
 A merchant who goes to a foreign country, though he 
 
124 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 deals honestly, which is good, simply that he may 
 gain riches for himself, is not animated by the same 
 kind of motive as a missionary who goes to the same 
 country, and lives self-denyingly, that he may give 
 the gospel to the natives. The one goes to a foreign 
 country to get for himself; the other goes that he 
 may give. This may serve as a picture to illustrate 
 the difference between the once-born man and the 
 twice-born man. Selfishness in some form is the 
 spirit of the once-born man, and self-enjoyment in 
 some way is the motive in his living. Love in some 
 form is the spirit of the twice-born man and service 
 in some way is the motive in his living. 
 
 This higher life, like every lower life, is silent 
 and secret in its inception and it reveals itself by its 
 various forms of expression. It has a breath, an 
 atmosphere, a tone, a touch by which its higher and 
 heavenly qualities are made known. It is a life 
 of the spirit, and it is spiritually discerned. 
 
 Jesus says this life comes from the Spirit of God 
 and belongs, in its development, in the kingdom of 
 heaven. It proceeds from a vital touch of the di- 
 vine Spirit, and it grows by communion with such 
 things as are in the kingdom of heaven. This is no 
 more mysterious than life elsewhere. An eagle in 
 the shell has a beak which may be strong, eyes which 
 may see, and wings which may sweep the air; but 
 in the shell the beak is weak, the eyes are without 
 sight, and the wings are without power. When the 
 eagle bursts the shell and enters the larger world of 
 light and air ; then, the beak grows strong, the eyes 
 become keen in sight, the wings beat the air with 
 
The New Birth 125 
 
 power of flight, and the eagle is perfect of its kind. 
 So the soul of man touched, first, with vivifying 
 power and, then, born into the kingdom of heaven 
 becomes a complete soul and perfect after the divine 
 idea. The New Testament teaches that the pres- 
 ence and power of the divine spirit, like the pres- 
 ence and power of light and air in the physical 
 kingdom, are always in the world moving upon men 
 to give them this life from above. 
 
 In Freiburg, Germany, there is a celebrated or- 
 gan. One day, Mendelssohn visited Freiburg to 
 see this organ of which he had heard. He found 
 an old man, the verger, within the church. Men- 
 delssohn asked permission to play upon the organ. 
 This was denied him. But the great man talked so 
 intelligently and so lovingly of the organ that at 
 length the verger consented to let him play upon 
 it. Presently, the fingers of the musician began to 
 move caressingly over the keys and the church be- 
 came filled with such music as the verger never 
 had heard. He stood entranced, touched and 
 charmed by the sweet tones. He never had known 
 the capabilities of that organ. "Who are you?" he 
 exclaimed, as the music ceased, ''I am Mendels- 
 sohn," was the reply. *'And to think," said the 
 verger, "that I was unwilling to permit you to play 
 upon that organ." Man is like this organ. He is a 
 creature of great potential powers; but he needs to 
 be touched in his feelings and emotions, his affec- 
 tions and his choices, by a spirit which will bring 
 out all the possible good which is in him. We may 
 not know all the meaning of Jesus' words respecting 
 
126 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the new birth, but we can know the truth of his say- 
 ing, ''That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." While 
 we must leave the inception of the spiritual life in 
 the silence and secrecy which belongs to the begin- 
 ning of all life, yet we know enough of the power 
 of spiritual touch and the method of spiritual cul- 
 ture to be well assured of the processes of spiritual 
 growth. We know that that which touches a man 
 only through his fleshly nature, never elevates him, 
 and that it frequently degrades him. We know, 
 also, that that which touches the springs of a man's 
 soul may make him a new creature ; it may elevate, 
 refine, and save him. Instances of this are numer- 
 ous, and a few may serve the purpose of illustration. 
 
 In one of George Eliot's books, Silas Marner, an 
 English weaver who has been crossed in love and 
 disappointed in business, shuts himself away from 
 his fellow men and lives alone plying his trade. He 
 saves his money until he comes to live for the gold 
 he may earn, over which he gloats in a perverted 
 love by night. Loving gold, he is debased by it 
 until he becomes a miser of narrow type. Suddenly 
 and unexpectedly, a little girl is left with him. In 
 caring for her whose beauty of spirit he discerns, 
 his captivity to gold is broken. He loves her with 
 the ardor of a strong heart. He becomes a man 
 dominated by love. That which is born of the 
 spirit is spirit, in him. 
 
 In the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, is 
 the original statue of The Greek Slave, by an Amer- 
 ican sculptor, Powers. A story to this effect is told 
 
The New Birth 127 
 
 of this statue. When that statue, a figure of a 
 woman exquisitely formed and with a face of sur- 
 passing purity and sweetness, but chained as a slave, 
 was first exhibited in a window in Rome, a common 
 servant girl stopped to look upon it. Standing be- 
 fore that statue, she was struck by the purity and 
 beauty of one of her own class, a slave. She went 
 home, washed her face, combed her hair, and ad- 
 justed her dress to such neatness as was possible, 
 bay after day, she returned to look upon this figure 
 of a slave made beautiful by the purity of an inward 
 life, until she herself was transformed by its influ- 
 ence. It was not the marble, not the lines of physi- 
 cal beauty, but the conception of womanly purity, 
 modesty, and sweetness w^hich the artist had caused 
 to express themselves through the marble which 
 touched the soul of the servant maid, set her free, 
 and made her beautiful. It was spirit which spoke to 
 spirit. That which is born of the spirit, is spirit. 
 
 Recently, I heard a man condemn the popular 
 conception of the Virgin Mary as the embodiment of 
 beauty which has been held by the church in an 
 idealized manner. He proceeded to describe Mary 
 in terms of the physical form of a common peasant 
 woman of Galilee. His description may have been 
 photographically true, but it pained me. What has 
 there been in Mary which has held the mind of the 
 church to the high ideal of her? This: her purity; 
 her modesty when the angel spoke to her; her sub- 
 mission to the divine will, "Be it unto me accord- 
 ing to thy word;" her trust in facing a situation 
 which might blacken her reputation; her patience 
 
128 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 in waiting through long years for the revelation of 
 her son ; her wisdom, keeping all the great promises 
 in her heart; her supreme sufferings, ''Now there 
 stood by the cross of Jesus his mother," — these 
 are the great qualities which the heart has felt 
 and which may have prompted the imagination to 
 exaggerate her physical beauty. But what does it 
 matter? Is not the heart the chief element of value? 
 I doubt not but many a humble girl and many a 
 suffering woman kneeling before an image of the 
 Virgin have found there inspiration to purity, mod- 
 esty, trustfulness, patience, and heroism in suffer- 
 ing which have greatly blessed them. Is the trellis 
 on which a morning glory climbs, a matter of chief 
 value? Are not the flowers, bright in the sunlight, 
 what a man wants? Does God care greatly for 
 the ladder on which some soul climbs to get a 
 glimpse of beauty, if that soul is thereby beautified? 
 That which is born of the spirit is spirit. 
 
 At one time, passing through a ward of a hos- 
 pital, where it was my duty to minister to patients, 
 I came to a bed on which lay a stalwart Irishman 
 greatly afflicted and unable even to lie in a comfort- 
 able position. I expressed my sympathy for him in 
 his unusual sufferings. Turning towards me, he 
 said, "The Saviour suffered more for us, sor, and 
 we should be willing to suffer." This man's theory 
 of the nature and purpose of Christ's suf- 
 ferings may have differed from the opinions 
 of some others, but his vision of the suf- 
 fering Christ made him patient in suffering 
 and peaceful in pain. That which is born of the 
 
The New Birth 129 
 
 spirit, IS spirit. 
 
 The heart is deeper than the intellect, and 
 prompts to higher living and holier character. Truth 
 received by the mind, must sink into the depths of 
 a man's nature where the sources of action are, if 
 it is to move and transform him. It is not abstract 
 truth, but truth embodied in living character, which 
 God uses to save men. God speaks in prophets. 
 God reveals himself in a Son. Life is saved and 
 trained by life. If a man cannot see beauty when 
 it is set before him ; then, he cannot be taught what 
 is beautiful. If a man cannot hear music; then, 
 he cannot be taught music. If a man cannot see 
 goodness when it is set before him; then, he cannot 
 be taught goodness. 
 
 Jesus used this method of teaching. He washed 
 the disciples feet and then bade them follow His 
 example in the spirit of humility and service. Jesus 
 loved men to the point of giving His life for them 
 and then bade His disciples love as He loved. Jesus 
 presented the Father to men in the regnant greatness 
 of His love and mercifulness, and then bade them 
 be merciful as the Father is merciful, and gracious 
 as the Father is gracious, and perfect as the Father 
 is perfect. 
 
 This was the practical method used by the 
 apostles. When Saint Paul would enlarge the Chris- 
 tians of Corinth in generous sympathy to the point 
 of giving liberally for the relief of poor saints in 
 Jerusalem, he said, 'Tor ye know the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet 
 for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His 
 
130 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 poverty might become rich." When Peter would 
 comfort servants who suffered unjustly at the hands 
 of cruel masters, he said: "If when ye do well and 
 suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is accept- 
 able with God. For hereunto were ye called; be- 
 cause Christ also suifered for you, leaving 3^ou an 
 example, that ye should follow His steps." When 
 Saint John would call the disciples to heroism, he 
 said: **He laid down his life for us: and we ought 
 to lay down our lives for the brethren." By touch- 
 ing the souls of men by the mercy of God, by the 
 love of Christ, and by the heroism of his sacrifice, 
 the apostles who called men into His kingdom and 
 glory, sought to awaken similar graces in them. 
 That which is born of the spirit is spirit. 
 
 That there is such a thing as a spiritual regenera- 
 tion by which men are renewed and made new men 
 is a fact of experience and a fact of observation. 
 There are those who testify to the change which 
 has been wrought in them, and there are those who 
 bear witness to the great change which they have 
 seen in others. In the record in the New Testa- 
 ment, there is account of men who became new 
 with clearer knowledge of truth, with wider vision, 
 with more generous sympathies, and with more 
 altruistic purposes, and whose lives were spent in the 
 loving service of mankind. 
 
 The annals of the church contain the names of 
 many who were changed from an open life of fleshly 
 vice into a life of spiritual virtue. The historian, 
 Gibbon, who will not be charged with prejudice for 
 Christianity, frankly says, "The friends of Chris- 
 
The New Birth 131 
 
 tianity may acknowledge without a blush, that many 
 of the most eminent saints had been before their 
 baptism the most abandoned sinners. As they 
 emerged from sin and superstition to the glorious 
 hope of immortality, they resolved to devote them- 
 selves to a life not only of virtue, but of penitence. 
 The desire for perfection became the ruling passion 
 of their soul." 
 
 In modern times, there are changes quite as 
 marked. Mr. Begbie, in Twice-Born Men, relates 
 the experience of men in Ceylon and in India. These 
 men have been accused by their fellow men of being 
 possessed by devils. Their spirit and manners give 
 every mark of demonical possession. Under influ- 
 ences of missionaries of the Salvation Army, some 
 of them become rational, quiet, and docile. Under 
 the spell of Christ they become very useful, giving 
 every evidence of a change of heart and soul. They 
 become entirely new men. The change is as marked 
 as in any case recorded in the New Testament. They 
 too give credit to Christ for the change. 
 
 Great changes in character occur, also, in Chris- 
 tian lands. Many who have been abandoned sin- 
 ners become eminent and useful saints. But it is 
 not in such changes that we need feel compelled to 
 look for evidences of the new birth. It is the quality 
 of the life and not its contrast to a former mode of 
 living which attests its spiritual character. Faith 
 and love and devotion mark the new life, though 
 one may have grown in it from childhood, and never 
 may have known another spirit. It is the quality 
 of life rather than any contrast to previous exper- 
 
132 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 iences which marks it as belonging to the heavenly 
 kingdom. Many have been led from infancy in the 
 footsteps of Christ. They exhibit the reality of a 
 Christ-like life among men. Faith is the ruling 
 principle in their life, and love is their motive power. 
 In such persons, the flesh is subject to the spirit, 
 the world is subjected to the kingdom of heaven, 
 purity is more than pleasure, truth is more precious 
 than gain, integrity is more than position, to do the 
 will of God is more than to please men, and to win 
 the praise of God is sweeter than to hear the plau- 
 dits of the world. The twice-born man does not 
 desire to possess personally, to own legally, and to 
 use selfishly, simply for himself; but he desires to 
 possess, to own, and to use for the glory of God and 
 for the good of men. The twice-born man does 
 certain things because they are godlike, such as the 
 Father does; he does other things because love 
 prompts the doing of them ; he does still other 
 things because the cry of need appeals to him. The 
 authority which he obeys is in his spirit; the law 
 is within his heart ; the deed is without gain to him- 
 self. As the sun shines because it is its nature to 
 shine; as flowers bloom and breathe their fragrance 
 on the air because they must ; as fruit ripens and 
 hangs ready for the hand which will pluck it; so 
 the goodness of the new man is spontaneous, free, 
 and beneficient. Like Jesus, the souls of such men 
 lie open heavenward for inspiration, and open earth- 
 ward to hear the cry of need. They are sons of 
 God ; they are servants of men ; they are living 
 souls whose love and ministry make an enduring 
 
The New Birth 133 
 
 society possible. It should be remembered, always, 
 that the man who is born of the Spirit begins as a 
 babe in the kingdom of heaven. He is still in the 
 flesh ; appetite and passion may be strong within 
 him. But a new force is working within him to 
 subject every appetite and passion and power to the 
 law of God. 
 
 A modern woman who passed through the not 
 uncommon experience of seeking to find physical 
 health and mental comfort and ease for herself 
 alone, and who, intellectuality, passed through the 
 mists and twilights of New Thought and occult 
 searchings after philosophic truth ; relates her exper- 
 ience by saying, "When I say that I became a Chris- 
 tian, I mean to use the words of the evangelists, that 
 *I found Christ'; or to use the words that seem to 
 describe what actually happened, I was 'born again.* 
 This process of introduction took about three 
 months. It was cumulative in method and results. 
 It was by neither a reasoning nor an emotional pro- 
 cess that this knowledge (if one may use so cold a 
 word of so warm a thing) came, but a sort of grad- 
 ual stimulation of the soul; a fanning, as it were, 
 of the spark of Godhead within me till the life of the 
 soul took command of the whole life ; till the divine 
 spark burst into a 'consuming fire,' till that point 
 was reached where aspiration becomes realization. 
 *I lost myself and lost the desire of having my own 
 way, in the love of the way of Christ.' " This 
 woman might have said, as a man of an ancient time 
 said, "Christ liveth in me." That is to say, the 
 spirit which animated and controlled Christ, ani- 
 
134 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 mates and controls the person who is born of the 
 spirit. 
 
 ''The difference between the spiritual man and 
 the natural man is not a difference of development, 
 but of generation." In the beginning, the difference 
 between a man of the world and a man of the 
 kingdom may be invisible to the eye of man. Indeed, 
 if by nature and by culture, the man of the world 
 is the finer man, he may seem to be the better man. 
 Along some lines, also, the man of the world may be 
 the better man. But, as in all life, the difference 
 will become more marked as time passes. The man 
 who is not conformed to the world, but who is being 
 transformed, will become visibly the better man. At 
 first, the difference is wholly within and hence hid- 
 den from the eye. It is a keener sense of God, a 
 spirit of trust in Him, a grateful heart, an obedient 
 will, a desire to submit to the will of God and to 
 obey that will, and an increasing power of love. 
 At last, when completed, it will be conformity to the 
 image of God and likeness to Christ. The divine 
 purpose in creation will be complete in Christian 
 character. ''Heaven lies about us in our infancy," 
 a poet sang. But more truly, by far, heaven lies 
 about us in our age, if life has been spent in learning 
 the will and the way of God. 
 
 The sad thing which suggests failure of a suc- 
 cessful life on the part of some persons, is the fact 
 that they do not, by any voluntary action, place 
 themselves in contact with those places and persons 
 and means and forces which may awaken and culti- 
 vate the spiritual life. Some, indeed, seem sedu- 
 
The New Birth 135 
 
 lously to avoid all such places and persons. Churches, 
 sermons, sacred songs, liturgies, societies for render- 
 ing Christian service, are all efficient means of cul- 
 tivating spiritual life. To some persons, these offer 
 no attraction; to some they are valuable for their 
 incidents, such as sociability, and not for their soul. 
 Some find them a means of grace and of growth. 
 
 How shall one who wilfully avoids all places 
 where music is heard or taught or practiced, grow 
 in musical nature and culture ? How shall one who 
 takes pains to avoid all places of art and beauty, 
 grow in esthetic nature and in the love of beauty? 
 How shall one who avoids all places and persons 
 suggesting God and revealing God, grow in the 
 likeness of God? That is impossible. To pursue 
 such a course is to turn deliberately away from light 
 and from spiritual life. A spiritual capacity unused, 
 like an unused physical power, will atrophy and be 
 lost. 
 
 But such persons as place themselves voluntarily 
 under the influences of such means and of such per- 
 sons as awaken a sense of truth and righteousness 
 and love, will grow continually. And a successful 
 life must ever come from following the way of Him 
 who is the truth and the life. 
 
 Look then on any vision which through art may 
 speak to you of purity and moral beauty. Listen 
 and hear any voice which through music speaks 
 to you of love and of worship and praise. Learn to 
 see and know on the page of literature, the saintly 
 characters which glow and are radiant with the 
 warmth of sweet sympathy, and which are regal in 
 
136 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the greatness of a serviceable life. Behold the 
 matchless person of Christ as He stands out upon 
 the page of the scriptures until you are inflamed 
 with a desire to be like Him. Interpret the circum- 
 stances of life in the light of the divine purpose of 
 training of character. Yield ever to the inspira- 
 tions of the Spirit which touch the soul in many 
 ways to inspire goodness. Then, your years will 
 not be spent in vain, but you will find and you will 
 know the way of a truly successful life. 
 
 Love is a unifying force. Love unites man to 
 God and to men. Love saves. The loving man 
 lives. The life of love endures not by virtue of any 
 arbitrary decree, but because of its own inherent 
 nature. The life of love is eternal in its essence, 
 and the kingdom to which it belongs is an eternal 
 kingdom. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Love as an Atmosphere 
 
 "V/T OST days drop behind us into the common 
 ^^■^ pathway of the past and are forgotten. They 
 have no distinguishing feature and, in memory, they 
 blend in indistinctness with many such days. Some 
 days are remembered because each is an anniver- 
 sary of an event of importance. A few days are 
 remembered for what they were in themselves. One 
 such day stands out vividly in my own memory. A 
 blue sky bright and unclouded, a pure air exhilarat- 
 ing like wine, mountain heights to be climbed with 
 joy, a wide view of an enlarged and beautiful 
 world, and simple physical and mental delight in 
 the mere fact of living made that day remain clear 
 and distinct in memory. It lives because it was a 
 day of full joyous, triumphant life. 
 
 The thing most essential and most valuable to 
 the life of any creature is atmosphere. The atmos- 
 phere which we breathe is not air composed of oxy- 
 gen and nitrogen alone, but air suffused with sun- 
 shine, moistened with vapor, and pervaded with 
 electricity. To plants and animals, the atmosphere 
 is, physically, the kingdom of heaven. It brings min- 
 istry from higher sources and from wider reaches 
 than the earth. The atmosphere may injure or it 
 may improve a living thing; it may nourish or des- 
 troy life. Plants are blasted in a cold atmosphere 
 and withered in a hot one. Plants grow where tem- 
 137 
 
138 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 perature, moisture, and light are combined in proper 
 proportions. Animals are affected by the quality 
 of the air they breathe, and mood and temper are 
 frequently the resultant effects of air upon a sensi- 
 tive organization. Men are wont to speak of air 
 as heavy, depressing, debilitating, and so injurious to 
 life, or as pure, exhilarating, and invigorating, and 
 so favorable to life. 
 
 The social atmosphere of a home is the most im- 
 portant factor in the life of a child. In an atmos- 
 phere of suspicion, distrust, anger, injustice, and 
 cruelty, it is impossible for a child to grow in faith, 
 sweetness, gentleness, and kindness. A child re- 
 produces the temper, speech, and actions of the 
 grown persons about him. Common observation of 
 the speech and conduct of children, confirms this 
 statement. Even in play, children will use the 
 tone and language of their elders. There is, of 
 course, a certain native and individual quality of 
 character independent of environment; but this is 
 modified in increased goodness or in intensified bad- 
 ness by the atmosphere in which a child lives. A 
 little girl is a moral blossom in the likeness of her 
 mother, and a small boy tries to reproduce the 
 speech and conduct of his father. 
 
 The moral and spiritual quality of a community 
 as shown in the speech, conduct, business manners, 
 amusements, and worship influence the mind and 
 habits of a growing child. 
 
 In so far as personal choice may decide the atmos- 
 phere which one will breathe, in so far, there is 
 individual responsibility. One may allow the 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 139 
 
 milder or the more severe spirit of a home to dwell 
 in mind ; one may choose the companions who 
 awaken the baser, or the companions who awaken 
 the more refined feelings; one may cultivate the 
 desires and the actions of the worse or of the bet- 
 ter spirits about him. 
 
 Personal choice performs an important part in the 
 formation of character. But in so far as choice has 
 no place, as with the very young who are confined 
 to a limited and circumstantial atmosphere, environ- 
 ment is the chief factor in determining quality and 
 direction of life. The experience and observation 
 of societies who take charge of neglected and aban- 
 doned children, and who place them in homes, con- 
 firms this statement. 
 
 The religious atmosphere in which a soul lives is 
 of prime importance. Man is a religious being. He 
 has in himself a sense of divinity. He 
 believes in the supernatural. He is moved by faith in 
 or by fear of spiritual beings. He will be, or he 
 will become, like the god he worships. Men whose 
 heaven is peopled with gods such as Pope's couplet 
 describes : 
 
 "Gods partial, passionate, unjust, 
 Whose attributes are rage, revenge, and lust," 
 
 will indulge themselves in like passions. Fear has 
 played a great part in the religions of the world. 
 Fear which is reverent, which is filled with respect, 
 and which dreads to ofifend, is beneficial. Fear 
 which is simply apprehension of danger and injury, 
 
I40 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 is hurtful. Men too frequently have conceived of 
 gods after their own image and have regarded them 
 as essentially selfish, self-seeking, and self-indulgent. 
 They have worshipped them as beings whose anger 
 may be placated by sacrificial offerings and whose 
 favor may be purchased by costly gifts. Men, 
 through their vain imagination, have lived in an 
 atmosphere spiritually unhealthful and morally 
 baneful. 
 
 But Jesus has revealed God to men. The reve- 
 lation in Jesus did not create the divine character 
 or change that character, but made it manifest. 
 Jesus has made men acquainted with the 
 spiritual atmosphere in which they live. 
 Jesus' character is holy and loving. Jesus' dispo- 
 sition towards men is unselfish and benevolent. 
 Jesus' ministry to men is beneficent, giving health 
 and holiness. He that hath seen Jesus, hath seen 
 the Father. The revelation of Jesus is threefold: 
 God is a spirit; God is light; God is love. God 
 is a spirit in essence; God is light in action; God 
 is love in relation to men. Men by faith dwell in 
 God ; God by love dwells in men. Men by faith, 
 open mind and soul to God ; God by love enters 
 and enlarges the souls of men. "He that dwelleth 
 in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 
 
 That which is wisest and best in men is used by 
 Jesus to interpret to men what is wise and good in 
 God. The farmer who sows good seed in his field, 
 the shepherd who seeks a lost sheep, the father 
 who forgives a repentant prodigal son, the father 
 who hears and answers the prayer of his child, the 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 141 
 
 householder who amply rewards a faithful steward, 
 are all used to exhibit and illustrate qualities which 
 belong to the divine nature and which spring from 
 the one source — love. 
 
 God's love is not unintelligent, unregulated, and 
 misdirected sentiment. God's love is clear in vision, 
 wise in choice, intelligent in action, moving outward 
 in ministry and in control which will secure good. 
 
 The spiritual atmosphere in which the world of 
 men lies is love. This love has in it all the elements 
 of mercy, long-suffering, forgiveness, and grace 
 which meet the various needs of men. The prin- 
 ciples and practices of the divine government are 
 to be interpreted by love. They are essentially 
 benevolent; they are for good purposes; they are 
 for the welfare of the creature. The glory of the 
 Creator is not secured by any injustice to the crea- 
 ture. The good of the creature is not obtained by 
 any dishonor to the Creator. The principles of the 
 divine administration run along the lines of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 Evil, obviously, is incidental to creatures begin- 
 ning life in infancy to be educated in spirituality 
 and pain is part of the discipline of human life. But 
 evil is not pleasurable to God, and pain is not the 
 permanent inheritance of man. That punishment of 
 sin which warns and restrains the sinner for his own 
 welfare is benevolent; and that punishment of sin 
 which, like surgery, removes the incorrigible sinner 
 from a society which would be injured by his pres- 
 ence is likewise good. Divine love is not soft-hearted 
 kindness destitute of moral principle, but wise, intel- 
 
142 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ligent, firm, and well-directed benevolence which 
 maintains the authority of right and of law, and 
 which sends suffering for the good which will ensue. 
 
 Permission given to a child to choose his own 
 way without control would not be wisdom but folly. 
 Granting a child limitless liberty, would not be the 
 act of intelligence, but of ignorance. Granting a 
 child every request would not be kindness but 
 cruelty. Withholding pain when pain would cor- 
 rect or chasten or call out heroic qualities, would 
 not be a favor but a futility. Diverting sorrow 
 when sorrow would sanctify, would not be a blessing 
 but a bane. 
 
 It is not possible to set every separate state of a 
 man or every kind of pain or every time of sorrow in 
 such a light that one may see all its relations and 
 interpret its meaning and show the good which must 
 follow, but it is quite possible to see the general 
 course of goodness in the world's guidance and 
 governance. There is, obviously, a benevolent pur- 
 pose in pain ; suffering evokes strength of soul ; sor- 
 row may soften, chasten, and serve to complete a 
 character. This world without pain and without 
 sorrow would be to a very great degree, without the 
 patience and the heroism, and without the sym- 
 pathy and the gentleness which now, are found in 
 it. There is also in the heart of mankind an abiding 
 hope of better things yet to be. 
 
 The physical atmosphere has its clouds and show- 
 ers, its currents and its storms, its electric displays 
 and destructions; but these all perform a beneficent 
 part in the promotion of health and welfare. In- 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 143 
 
 dividual instances of injury and loss occur; but 
 these are incidental and, relatively, minor; they 
 are neither the common nor the permanent things. 
 They are but temporal. The gain far outbalances 
 the loss. 
 
 In the spiritual sphere, there are times of darkness 
 and trial, of suffering and sorrow, of pain and loss; 
 but to him who believes in the love of God, and 
 abides in that love, they conserve spiritual welfare. 
 This an apostle saw when he burst out in a glad 
 exclamation: "We glory in tribulations also know- 
 ing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, 
 experience, and experience, hope." He teaches the 
 same truth when he writes, "Our affliction which is 
 for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
 weight of glory." There are some things in human 
 experience, now, which are seen only as painful and 
 full of sorrow; but, says Saint Paul, "These are 
 temporal," and there are other things which follow 
 that are full of pleasure and of glory and these "are 
 eternal." 
 
 To him who knows God as revealed in character 
 in the person of Jesus, and who knows the purpose 
 and principles of the divine government as declared 
 in the gospel, there must be this interpretation of 
 human life. He who dwells in the love of God will 
 have a strength, a comfort, and a glorious hope in 
 the midst of all life's experiences which can belong 
 to none other. "Keep yourselves in the love of 
 God." 
 
 God loved when he made the world, and the con- 
 stitution of the world must be accepted as an expres- 
 
144 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 sion of his love. We should not expect the physi- 
 cal conditions of the world to be changed because of 
 the revelation of divine grace and our acceptance of 
 it, nor the laws of nature to be annulled because of 
 our prayers. In so far as we personally have neg- 
 lected the laws of the universe and have lived in 
 violation of those laws, we should expect change; 
 but the change must be in us and not in the laws of 
 nature or in nature's course. Labor, for instance, 
 must be accepted as a primary law of life. He who 
 lives in the love of God will perform his labor not 
 in the spirit of servitude, but in the spirit of sonship 
 and will make it a ministry. 
 
 The normal relations of human life which are 
 formed by men's appetites and affections have been 
 ordained in love. These relations are not to be 
 avoided but accepted. They give much satisfaction 
 and joy; they bring also much care and sorrow. But 
 it is, mainly, through the common relations and 
 common duties of life that the finest elements of 
 character are developed. Men by obedience in spirit 
 to the constitution of society, are enlarged in affec- 
 tion and in sympathy, and are fitted to be part of an 
 enduring social order. He who believes in the love 
 of God, and who sees that love expressed in the con- 
 stitution of the world and in the structure of soci- 
 ety, cannot think that labor is a penalty for sin or 
 that celibacy is superior to marriage, or that medita- 
 tion is better than action. The mode of life which 
 must be led by the many must be good rather than a 
 manner of life which may be led by a few. 
 
 A superficial survey of the history of mankind 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 145 
 
 will show that by toil man is trained in self-re- 
 straint, self-control, power of concentration, and 
 power of application, and that by toil, man gains 
 both knowledge and skill. What most men have 
 learned has come through the necessity of a struggle 
 for existence, and the moral qualities of mankind 
 have been evoked and made strong through adapta- 
 tion to one another in the relations and mutual du- 
 ties of life. 
 
 Man is said to be nature's favorite. Yet, as 
 one has said : "How does nature deal with her fa- 
 vorite? She turns him out naked, cold, and shiv- 
 ering upon the earth ; with needs that admit of no 
 compromise; with a delicate frame that cannot lie 
 upon the bare ground an hour, but must have im- 
 mediate protection; with a hunger that cannot pro- 
 crastinate the needed supply, but must be fed to-day 
 and every day; and why is all this? I suppose, if 
 man could have made of earth a bed ; and if an ap- 
 ple or a chestnut a day could have sufficed him for 
 food ; he would have got his barrel of apples or his 
 bushel of chestnuts, and lain down upon the earth 
 and done nothing until the stock was gone. But na- 
 ture will not permit this." 
 
 Nature, which for animals provides food which 
 needs no cooking and which weaves garments for 
 them by the action of their own bodies, clothing 
 them in feathers or in fur, as climate and condi- 
 tions demand, and which makes them capable of 
 living without a house, or provides a house for them, 
 compels man to raise his own food, to weave his 
 own garments, and to build his own house. But 
 
146 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 with what result? This, namely, that while ani- 
 mals remain the same through the generations, men 
 sowing, spinning, weaving, trading, building house 
 and home, become farmers, artizans, architects, ar- 
 tists, sculptors, painters, musicians, scientists, philos- 
 ophers, poets, and, by inspiration, prophets. So it 
 comes to pass that not only through the gentleness 
 but through what seems the severity of God, men 
 become great. Now he who sees this result in the 
 course of nature and in the history of mankind, will 
 accept his place in the world, will use his power, 
 will perform his work and will do this with that 
 cheerfulness and strength and hopefulness which 
 come from the belief that his life is under the 
 rule of love. 
 
 The fact of moral evil also must be set in the 
 light of love if we are to understand it aright. Why 
 should a man be tempted to do wrong? Tempta- 
 tion is not a trap to catch a man and destroy him, 
 but temptation is a trial and a test. It is an oppor- 
 tunity to fall, but it is also an opportunity to rise. 
 He who when tempted refuses evil, rises as a bird 
 rises by beating the air with resisting wings. He 
 who is tempted, but without sin, proves thereby 
 the power of his manhood. But do not many fall, 
 rather than rise under temptation? Yes. But 
 within the soul of man, as nowhere else in the 
 animal world, there is a nature which feels remorse, 
 which regrets and repents and makes possible the 
 sundering of the soul from evil, and the renewal 
 of relation with the forces which make for righteous- 
 ness. 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 147 
 
 Suffering also, in the ordinary sense of that word, 
 that is, in the mere enduring of pains which are 
 incidental to the human frame and to a man's rela- 
 tions to the world and to other persons, is a means 
 of heroism. That suffering which is endured on 
 account of one's own sins or on account of the 
 sins of others has in it the most powerful forces to 
 expand the soul in love. Of the greatest character 
 which has appeared on earth it is written, "He 
 learned obedience by the things which He suffered; 
 and having been made perfect. He became unto all 
 them that obey Him the author of eternal sal- 
 vation." 
 
 This eternal salvation comes to him who believes 
 and knows the love that God hath for us. Nature 
 lies about man waiting to minister to him with in- 
 spiring breeze and warming sun and renewing 
 forces. He who will receive the ministration of na- 
 ture, finds that his fainting body is revived, his 
 waning strength renewed, and power is given him 
 to finish his journey or to complete his task. God, 
 also, in like manner, is a living, present, all-embrac- 
 ing spirit waiting to revive, renew, and make strong 
 the soul of man. This is no mere Oriental 
 dream, no mystic imagination, no illusive hope. 
 This is a fact which is abundantly attested by the 
 most reliable men. It is a matter of experience. 
 Shepherds, soldiers, political leaders, statesmen, and 
 men also in the very ordinary walks of common 
 life have affirmed that they have waited upon 
 God and have been helped, have called upon 
 God and been answered, have trusted God 
 
148 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and their strength has been renewed and 
 made sufficient. The sacred scriptures, the bi- 
 ographies of eminent men, and the hymns of the 
 entire church expressive of common experiences, all 
 bear witness to this truth. Humble persons have 
 asserted in the ears of those who have tried to com- 
 fort them that the grace of God has come to them 
 in their need like water of life and like comfort of 
 a mother's love. God indeed revives the heart of 
 the contrite, dwells with them who are of humble 
 heart, and renews the strength of such as wait on 
 Him. 
 
 The man who will search his own interior nature 
 must know that faith, love, and hope, in some form, 
 are the mightiest forces to keep his soul sane and 
 pure and strong. He who will try must know that 
 the love of God beyond anything else feeds these 
 forces. He who dwells in the love of God, knows 
 that he is guided in his counsels, strengthened in his 
 purposes, comforted in his sorrows, sustained in his 
 trials, and heartened at all times by the love of God. 
 This persuasion and belief is conducive to moral 
 power, mental sanity, and physical health. Salva- 
 tion physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, comes 
 from dwelling in the love of God. That love is the 
 only atmosphere in which the soul can live and live 
 eternally. 
 
 Success in life is considered by many to depend on 
 place and position, on the abundance of things with 
 which a man surrounds himself, on escape from 
 trouble and pain, and on the element of ease in liv- 
 ing. But there have been men humbled in position 
 
Love as an Atmosphere 149 
 
 who have been greatly exalted in themselves. There 
 have been men who have suffered the loss of all 
 things who have made others rich. There have been 
 men bereft who blessed God in their bereavement 
 and who greatly comforted others. There have been 
 men who have passed long years in pain for truth's 
 sake or for love's sake who have inspired souls with 
 heroism. The fact that God loved them was to 
 such men exaltation, enrichment, companionship, 
 strength, and joy. The really successful life is the 
 life in which one learns the lessons which make him 
 pure, loving, constant, strong, patient, superior to 
 external conditions, and invincible in soul. 
 
 To the servant, like Hagar, and to the public 
 man and prophet like Elijah, in the desert places of 
 life, there may be met the angel of ministry and 
 there may be received the water and the bread of 
 life. If any man thirst, let him come. **Whoso- 
 ever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
 
 Life — life renewed daily — life strong to serve — 
 life brave to suffer — life full of sympathy — life 
 abundant in ministry — life which will never fail — 
 may be unto all who will believe and dwell in the 
 love of God. 
 
 There has been transacted on this earth a marvel- 
 ous ministry of grace, healing, and salvation. There 
 has been on this earth a wonderful history full of 
 the experiences of those who have found God all- 
 sufficient in the depth, tenderness, and strength of 
 his love. This ministry has been given in part for 
 our enlightenment, and this history has been written 
 for our learning that we through like faith might 
 
I50 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 know and enjoy the love of God. It is as Browning 
 wrote of Lazarus and the Arab physician who saw 
 and conversed with him: 
 
 "Whence has the man the balm that brightens all? 
 
 Indeed the especial marking of the man 
 
 Is prone submission to the heavenly will — 
 
 Seeing it, what it is, and why it is." 
 
 So the Arab physician writes to his friend : 
 
 "The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? 
 So, the All-Great were the All-Loving too — 
 So, through the thunder comes a human voice 
 Saying, 'O heart I made, a heart beats here, 
 Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself! 
 Thou hast no power nor mayest conceive of mine. 
 But love I gave thee, with myself to love 
 And thou must love me who have died for thee!' 
 The madman saith He said so: it is strange.'' 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 Faith 
 
 T N THE north of Scotland spanning a small 
 -*■ stream, is a stone foot bridge on the keystone of 
 whose arch is an inscription, "God and Me." The 
 stream itself is small in summer, but when swollen 
 by spring freshets, it becomes a raging torrent. 
 Many years ago, when the stream was crossed by 
 a footlog, a young girl lost her footing and fell into 
 the swollen waters. She felt herself being swept 
 down the current and she prayed to God to help 
 her reach the shore. In answer to her prayer, so 
 she believed, help came and she buffetted the oppos- 
 ing waters until she was safely landed. In return 
 for her deliverance, she promised that when she 
 should be able, she would build a bridge across that 
 stream. After .many years of labor, she was able 
 to redeem her promise and she built the bridge and 
 placed upon it the above inscription. 
 
 Had a vine held fast by its roots been floating 
 in the water when that girl fell and had her hand 
 grasped it, she would have been saved by faith in a 
 physical means of deliverance. Her faith, a mater- 
 alist would say, was well placed and justified. But 
 was not her faith equally well placed and justified 
 by its trust in a spiritual source of salvation? True, 
 no audible voice from the sky responded to her cry 
 and no hand from heaven was extended to help her 
 escape from the waters. But in answer to her faith, 
 151 
 
152 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 her soul was strengthened with confidence, and she 
 was nerved for her struggle and saved from a watery 
 grave. The soul is as real as the body, and strength 
 of soul is as much a support as strength of body. 
 This girl saved through prayer might have written 
 her experience in words of the psalmist: "He sent 
 from above, he took me, he drew me out of many 
 waters." So she felt, and the bridge is the material 
 monument to her belief. 
 
 In the matter of faith, this Scotch girl was not 
 exceptional. In the purpose of her faith, her exper- 
 ience was her own, but in the nature of her faith 
 and in its object, it was a common faith. In a recent 
 book upon the work of some American women who 
 have rendered most signal and valuable civic and 
 social service, the author says, in the preface: "In 
 almost every instance, they who have done so much 
 for the public welfare have stated that they believe 
 themselves to have been selected by a divine agency 
 for their particular work and accountable to the Di- 
 vinity for success or failure. The sense of a power 
 beyond themselves, impelling them onward, was gen- 
 eral. So was a great faith in the efficacy of prayer." 
 The author who claims that she herself is "not a 
 sentimental person" says, "The simplicity and sin- 
 cerity with which this belief has been shown have 
 made it impossible to doubt." 
 
 This testimony seems much like that of Saint 
 Paul who says of his own works and remarkable 
 life, "By the grace of God I am what I am: and 
 his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in 
 vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: 
 
Faith 153 
 
 yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 
 That faith brings power to withstand evil in a 
 wicked world, to work righteousness in the midst of 
 sin, and to meet and often to overcome physical 
 difficulty and danger, is a common experience of 
 those who lead the most saintly and the most service- 
 able lives. 
 
 Faith not only frequently gives deliverance from 
 danger and strength for service, but also patience 
 of endurance and hope of future good. In fact, 
 faith, gives hope when without it one might sink in 
 despair. Among the men imprisoned by Napoleon 
 I, was a man named Charney. This man wrote 
 his brief creed on the wall of his cell in the words, 
 "All things come by chance." It was a comfortless 
 creed. It gave no light to his mind and no cheer to 
 his soul. One day as Charney was walking up and 
 down the pavement, he saw a tiny blade lifting a 
 green tip from between the flagging. He was inter- 
 ested in it, as the only living thing around. He 
 cared for it, watered it, and watched it grow. In 
 return for his love and care, the plant became his 
 teacher. It blossomed, finally, in a beautiful flower, 
 rose-colored with white fringe. The man began 
 to think that such a life and such beauty could not 
 come by chance and could not flourish without lov- 
 ing care. It occurred to his mind that higher life 
 in this world cannot be the result of chance and can- 
 not come to its best without love and care. He 
 rubbed out the creed he had written upon the wall 
 and wrote instead, "He who made all things is 
 God." Light came to cheer his mind and a sense of 
 
154 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 love to comfort his heart as he thought that if God 
 could care for so tiny a flower in a prison and make 
 it beautiful, God could care for him. Incidentally, 
 Charney's love for the flower coming to the knowl- 
 edge of a little girl whose father was also a pris- 
 oner, was reported by her and, at length, reached the 
 ears of the empress and resulted in Charney's 
 liberation. But in the prison he had learned enough 
 to believe the words of Jesus, "Consider the lilies 
 how they grow." He had learned enough to believe 
 that if God cares for the flowers of the field much 
 more will He care for a living man who trusts Him. 
 Faith is given the first place in the New Testa- 
 ment as being the most essential thing in man. Love 
 may be the greatest thing in human character, but 
 faith is the most essential. Every normal child 
 begins conscious life in faith. The child does not 
 know love, but the child intuitively trusts love. It 
 is out of this trust that love grows in the heart of 
 a child. So is faith in God first in the heart of a 
 true man and out of his faith, love grows. "Faith 
 works by love." Notice the place given to faith in 
 the New Testament. Faith is said to be the condi- 
 tion of acceptance with God. "Without faith it is 
 impossible to please Him." Faith is declared to be 
 the condition of salvation, "He that believeth shall 
 be saved." Faith is distinctly said to be the active 
 principle of a saintly and heroic life. They who do 
 great things in the service of God, do them by faith. 
 "Through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought 
 righteousness, and obtained promises." Faith is said 
 to be the means of victory and of reward. "This 
 
Faith 155 
 
 is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
 faith." Jesus says of such victors: "He that over- 
 cometh, the same shall be clothed in white rain- 
 ment; and I will not blot out his name out of the 
 book of life, but I will confess his name before my 
 Father and before His angels." The lack of faith is 
 the cause of failure. Jesus turned away from His 
 own immediate country and "He did not many 
 mighty works there because of their unbelief." 
 When the disciples asked Jesus the secret of their 
 lack of power He said : "Because of your unbelief." 
 The blessings of healing, pardon, and power of new 
 life came as a result of faith. Faith, let it be un- 
 derstood, is not primarily or chiefly a mental con- 
 cept or an intellectual assent to statements of truth, 
 valuable as this may be; but faith is an attitude of 
 mind, a state of soul, a personal relation to a per- 
 sonal presence and power. The Augsburg Confes- 
 sion states this conception of faith in fitting words 
 by saying, "This word faith is taken in Scriptures, 
 not for such a knowledge as is in the wicked, but 
 for a trust, which doth comfort and lift up dis- 
 quieted minds." Faith is trust in a Person, a living 
 Presence, a ruling Power, an inspiring Spirit. 
 "God," says Jesus, "is a spirit and they that worship 
 Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." 
 They who thus worship God revere Him, receive 
 Him, and obey Him. These statements are not de- 
 signed to discredit or to undervalue intellectual 
 knowledge of truth, which may be most valuable; 
 but to call attention to the fact, that intellectual 
 acceptance of statements of truth may be made 
 
156 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 where there is no obedience to the truth, and that 
 there may be the spirit of obedience where there is 
 little knowledge. These statements are also intended 
 to call attention to the fact that faith according to 
 the New Testament is a personal relation to a 
 personal God. Faith is the response of the soul in 
 its sensibilities and in its desires to the circumambi- 
 ant Spirit of Life. 
 
 Scientists now believe in a substance, like a lim- 
 itless ocean or vapor, like a universal atmosphere of 
 an ethereal nature, something invisible, imponder- 
 able, intactible sensibly, in which all worlds lie, 
 through which attraction passes, through which light 
 flashes, and in which all forces which pass from 
 world to world find their medium. In this name- 
 less and unseen somewhat, all things exist. Scien- 
 tists believe this not because of proof which may be 
 demonstrated like a problem in mathematics; but 
 because such a viewless and imponderable substance 
 gives a satisfactory physical basis for certain phe- 
 nomena in nature. So it has come to pass that sci- 
 entists accept belief in a physical environment simi- 
 lar to the spiritual environment in which many men 
 have believed, as affording a sufficient basis for the 
 spiritual phenomena which exist in the world. God 
 is a spirit by whose power all souls come to be, in 
 whose love all souls lie, and by whose life all souls 
 which attain complete life, find it. God, who is 
 invisible and intangible to the physical senses of 
 men but most real to the spiritual sense, is the one 
 living reality and the one source of life to men. 
 
 Jesus reveals to men not the metaphysical nature 
 
Faith 157 
 
 of God but His moral qualities and His moral at- 
 titude toward men. Jesus declares that God is lov- 
 ing, merciful, gracious, sympathetic, and serviceable, 
 ever ready to save and to serve men, ready to make 
 them strong to overcome sin and death, and ready 
 to make them perfect in character such as is worthy 
 to endure. 
 
 Every man dwells in God in so far as his existence 
 is concerned, but the believing and loving man 
 dwells in God intimately in that he is open to the 
 influx of divine power which acts within the man, 
 inspiring love and holiness. The dying plant, and 
 the growing plant both are in the air, but their rela- 
 tion to the air differs. To the one, the air is mainly 
 external and will become wholly so when it is en- 
 tirely dead; to the other, the air is both external 
 and internal in that it is nourishing the plant that 
 grows. All men are in the air, but the air is also 
 in living men as the support of life. All men are 
 in God as the all-embracing spirit, but God is in the 
 soul of the man who has faith. 
 
 Faith is a state of soul, an attitude of mind, a 
 relation to the omnipresent spirit whom we call 
 God. Faith is the open eye which light may enter; 
 the uncovered ear to which the voice of the Spirit 
 may speak; the waiting heart which love may fill; 
 the trustful soul which the tides of spiritual force 
 may swell; the obedient will which inspiring grace 
 may make strong. Faith, whether in reception or 
 in action, is the response of the soul to God. 
 
 Faith is the condition of receiving spiritual pow- 
 er. It was power which Jesus promised to his dis- 
 
158 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ciples when the Spirit should come upon them. It 
 was power which marked the change in those dis- 
 ciples when the Spirit came. They had power to 
 know and to interpret the revelation and the will of 
 God. They had power to see clearly, to think 
 truly, to love intensely, to speak boldly, to endure 
 bravely and to continue steadfastly in Christlike 
 service. This has been the quality and the result of 
 faith in all ages. Increased power, intensified from 
 some moral source, is the explanation of extraordin- 
 ary men of biblical history. The Spirit came upon 
 strong men like Samson, and they became stronger ; 
 upon skilful men like Bezalel, and they became more 
 skilful ; upon men fitted for political leadership like 
 Moses, and they became more capable; upon men 
 of poetical and musical gifts like David, and they 
 became more poetical and more musical; upon men 
 of spiritual vision like Isaiah, and they saw spiritual 
 truth more clearly and expressed it more beauti- 
 fully; upon willing and teachable men like the 
 apostles, and they increased in boldness and in 
 efficiency; upon men of heroic nature like Paul, and 
 they became invincible. The Spirit does not create 
 new faculties in men of faith, but it makes more 
 effective the faculties which they possess. The 
 prophet has a clearer vision; the poet, a loftier 
 flight; the singer, a sweeter tone; the man of ac- 
 tion, a more resolute will ; and the obedient servant 
 of the Lord, increased effectiveness. Evils are re- 
 vealed, righteousness is declared, judgment is deci- 
 sive, kingdoms of opposition to truth and righteous- 
 ness are conquered, and kingdoms of truth and love 
 
Faith 159 
 
 are established by such men. 
 
 Men of common parts, by faith, partake also of 
 these same graces as higher men. They see and 
 appreciate things which higher men have said and 
 have done and in their place and to their degree re- 
 produce the same. After all, it is not the particu- 
 lar work which men do nor its greatness, as men 
 measure greatness; but the spirit in which men do 
 their work which makes them great. To men of 
 true faith, labor becomes a service of dignity, love 
 becomes the sweet spirit of home, and the common 
 round and trivial task of daily life are elevated and 
 glorified by faith. 
 
 They who learn to walk in love, to let the light 
 of Christian character shine forth, and to do all 
 things to the glory of God, are moving in the up- 
 ward pathway and belong to the spiritual nobility 
 of the universe, quite as well as men who by vir- 
 tue of greater talent or more conspicuous position 
 are marked and praised men. 
 
 The secrets of the heavenly kingdom are revealed 
 to the believing eye and the successes of the king- 
 dom come to the submissive soul. Things which are 
 hidden from the wise are revealed to the trustful, 
 and power which is lacking to the strong who strive 
 in their own strength is imparted to the weak who 
 obey the divine will. Let it be known, however, 
 that, "It is not intellect from which God hides 
 Himself, but selfishness and pride which may be- 
 long to taught and untanght, and darken the soul 
 of sophist or of clown." 
 
 "The differences," says James Martineau, "by 
 
l6o The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 which God is revealed are in us, not in him ; in our 
 faculty of recognition, by no means, in his constancy 
 of action. His light is alive in the very hearts of 
 those who neglect or deny him ; and in those who 
 must own him is latent a thousand times for once 
 that it flashes on their conscious eye. It is he who 
 comes to us and finds us ; his presence rises of itself, 
 and the revelation is spontaneous. Our sole con- 
 cern is to accept it, to revere it, to follow it, to live 
 by it." 
 
 Certain results must inevitably follow that faith 
 which is a loving relation to a personal God. Faith 
 will deliver from that anxious care about the condi- 
 tions of life which causes fretting and which con- 
 sumes the strength of the soul by needless friction. 
 Take not anxious thought, says Jesus. The reason 
 for this freedom lies in the fact that the heavenly 
 Father knows the things that are really needed. It 
 goes without saying that, like a true father ; He will 
 provide them. Things imagined, much more than 
 things real, fret the souls of men. It is very sig- 
 nificant that Jesus specified to-morrow rather than 
 to-day, when he forbids anxiety. Faith brings free- 
 dom from fretting. 
 
 Faith, also, frees the soul from that foreboding 
 which brings fear. Fears arises either from a feel- 
 ing that strength will not be equal for the things 
 which must be borne or performed, or from the idea 
 that the things which may happen are uncontrolled, 
 or from the thought that the effect of the things 
 which may happen may be hurtful and inflict abid- 
 ing injury and loss. Faith, however, faces the fu- 
 
Faith l6l 
 
 ture with the feeling that life is of divine appoint- 
 ment, part of a divine plan, and that strength v^ill 
 be equal to the demands; that the things w^hich 
 occur are not uncontrolled, but are set within limita- 
 tions; that any thing which may befall a believer 
 cannot render abiding harm; and that "all things 
 work together for good to them who love God." 
 Jesus bids men not fear even them who may kill the 
 body. Faith drives away that fear which hath tor- 
 ment. Faith is not blind to the fact that pain and 
 losses and sorrow may come, but these things are 
 seen in true perspective; they are set in right rela- 
 tion to other things ; they are not the great and en- 
 during things ; therefore they may be met with cour- 
 age and confidence. 
 
 Faith drives away doubt, despondency, and des- 
 pair. Many persons walk beneath a murky sky, live 
 in a depressing atmosphere, and suffer from des- 
 pair in the soul; because they lack sufficient faith. 
 To the mind of faith there is always a beneficent 
 power ruling for good, a supreme strength of right- 
 eousness invincible and bound to conquer, a certainty 
 of good in the long run. Faith receives the light 
 which streams through the cloud, breathes the upper 
 stratum of air, and looks to the far future where the 
 brilliant bow of promise rests on cloud and on land. 
 Faith keeps the angel of hope in the heart of the be- 
 lieving man. 
 
 Faith, also, fastens itself in feeling, affection, de- 
 sire, and expectation upon the things which are best. 
 It is the intuitive nature of faith to see the best in 
 nature, in persons, and in God. Faith sees the 
 
1 62 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 things which are true, just, lovely, honorable, and 
 beneficent and believe that these are always good in 
 themselves and will insure good. The soul full of 
 of faith never fails, though it be set in the midst of 
 evil. "This is the victory which overcomes the 
 world, even our faith." 
 
 Faith, finally, makes him who possesses it like 
 Jesus Himself. Jesus was serene in the storm at 
 sea which filled His disciples with fear. Jesus was 
 calm in the midst of the angry crowd who thrust 
 Him out of Nazareth. Jesus was sweet in spirit 
 when men were soured in spirit in their contentions 
 about places and honors. Jesus was kind when His 
 disciples would have been cruel in their treatment 
 of the citizens of an inhospitable village. Jesus 
 was sane and judged the issue aright when His ene- 
 mies plotted to take His life and when the shadow 
 of the cross fell across His pathway. Jesus bade 
 His disciples, also, bear an untroubled heart because 
 of faith in God. "Believe in God, believe in Me" 
 was His prescription for the cure of heart trouble. 
 
 Many persons fail of comfort in life, exaggerate 
 evil, dread to-morrow and walk in weakness, because 
 they do not keep the soul stayed upon God. What 
 such persons need is to give hospitality to the truth 
 of God and they will find, as many have found, 
 that God is indeed a refuge, a fortress, a shield. 
 They will find that God is strength, salvation, and 
 a song. They who trust Him may be kept in per- 
 fect peace. They who wait upon Him, renew their 
 strength. They walk and are not weary, they run 
 and are not faint. 
 
Faith 163 
 
 But one will say, "Look at the trouble or the sor- 
 row which has come to me!" Yes, but is it more 
 than the trouble or the sorrow which has come to 
 many of the saints of God? Has not Job, bereft 
 of all things, been taken as the abiding pattern of 
 patience? Or if Job be regarded as a creation of the 
 imagination, have we not known persons, like Job, 
 bereft of property, family, and health, who have still 
 blessed God and waited in patience for His deliver- 
 ance? Have not some of the greatest letters, like 
 Paul's epistles, and some of the greatest of books, 
 like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, come from the 
 pens of men imprisoned? Have not some of the 
 greatest of poems and of sermons been written by 
 men who were blind, like Milton and George Math- 
 eson? Have not some of the most helpful of hymns 
 been composed by men bruised by suffering and 
 sweetened by sorrow? Have not some of the most 
 useful lives which the world has seen, been lives 
 filled with personal suffering? No temptation or 
 trial can overtake persons who live to-day but such 
 as has been common to men. Faith has surmounted 
 them all. The prayer of the believing soul to which 
 passing years bring losses or wrongs or pains or 
 sorrows should be, "Lord keep me sane, sweet, and 
 strong." 
 
 No words have been used more commonly for 
 comfort, than the words of the Twenty-third Psalm. 
 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Mr. 
 John R. Mott has analyzed the assurances of this 
 psalm as follows: I shall not want rest; "He makes 
 me to lie down in green pastures." I shall not want 
 
164 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 forgiveness; **He restoreth my soul." I shall not 
 want guidance ; "He leadeth me in the paths of right- 
 eousness." I shall not want companionship; "for 
 Thou art with me." I shall not want comfort; 
 "Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." I shall 
 not want food ; "Thou preparest a table before me." 
 I shall not want joy; "Thou anointest my head 
 with oil." I shall not want any thing in this life; 
 "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the 
 days of my life." I shall not want any thing in 
 eternity; "I will dwell in the house of the Lord 
 forever." 
 
 To those who try and test this psalm in their own 
 life, experience will give such assurance of its truth 
 that they may say in the language of another psalm : 
 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His 
 benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who 
 healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life 
 from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving 
 kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy 
 desire with good things, so that thy youth is renewed 
 like the eagle's." 
 
 Faith is the soul of true greatness. It has been 
 well said : "There are two types of human great- 
 ness — the pagan and the Christian — the moral and 
 the religious — the secular and the divine. The 
 former has its root and essence in trying hard ; the 
 latter, in trusting gently ; the one depends on volun- 
 tary energy, the other on the relinquishment of per- 
 sonal will to cast every burden upon God. The 
 one chooses its own ends and elaborates the means; 
 the other, possessed by a God-given end, becomes its 
 
Faith 165 
 
 organ and its implement, and simply lets it use from 
 day to day, the entire powers of the soul. There 
 is no instrument so tremendous in this world as a 
 human soul thus committed to what is diviner than 
 itself." 
 
 The pure in heart see God. They who love, 
 know God. They who obey, live with God. With 
 God there is ever the guidance of light, the sweet- 
 ness and the joy of love, the endurance and the vic- 
 tory of power. 
 
 One of three things must be believed. Either 
 this world is left to chance, or it is in the control of 
 fate, or it is guided by wisdom and unfailing power. 
 If the world is given over to chance, then one must 
 be driven by his own passions or by popular pas- 
 sions which may be like the waves of the sea and the 
 sweep of the wind without purpose and without con- 
 trol. If the world is controlled by fate, one must 
 surrender himself to forces of whose origin, nature, 
 and purpose he can know nothing. If the world is 
 governed by a God of wisdom, love, and power; 
 then one may trust the present, and quietly hope 
 for the future. 
 
 Cromwell once said, "One never mounts so high 
 as when one knows not whither one is going." The 
 man who in faith, answers the call of the spirit, 
 follows the gleam of holy light, and obeys the 
 inspiration of love, will find that he learns the 
 truth, walks in the light, fulfills the will of God, 
 and so is saved and safe. 
 
 Faith has been called a sixth sense. Faith is the 
 sense which sets a man in right relation to God and 
 
1 66 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 to the universe. ''What reason is to things demon- 
 strable, such faith is to the invisible realties of the 
 spirit world," says an Oriental writer. Reason is 
 richly rewarded in knowledge gained by exercising 
 itself on things demonstrable. Faith is richly re- 
 warded in experience gained by trusting spiritual 
 verities. Reason is rewarded by knowledge com- 
 prehended by the intellect. Faith is rewarded by 
 personal knowledge experienced in the soul. "Here- 
 by know we love." 
 
 **What is faith, but to believe what you do not 
 see?" said Saint Augustine. This accords with the 
 scripture which says that "faith is a conviction of 
 things not seen." But faith is, also, more than 
 this. Faith is to believe what the soul sees to be 
 beautiful, what the conscience affirms to be good, 
 what the heart in its purest impulses is impelled to 
 love. Faith is a power in the soul which enables one 
 to give up the inferior beauty, the lower good, the 
 baser reward, for what one sees to be higher. 
 To believe in a better country and to seek it, like 
 Abraham; to give up the wealth and the power of 
 the world for the soul's enrichment and the soul's 
 service, like Moses; to flee from the pleasure of 
 sense, when pleasure would be sin, like Joseph; to 
 respond to a call from God in the night time, like 
 Samuel; to see what great things one may suffer 
 for Christ and to choose them, like Paul; to face 
 impending martyrdom and to accept it, like Peter; 
 this is faith. Faith claims the promises of God and 
 finds them exceedingly great and precious. 
 
 Men of faith are not lifted out of the common 
 
Faith 167 
 
 experiences of life, but through these experiences, 
 they come to what, to men without Christ, are 
 uncommon experiences. Sin is a common experi- 
 ence; but forgiveness is a Christian experience. 
 Temptation is a common experience ; but triumph 
 over it, is a Christian experience. Suffering is a 
 common experience, but patient waiting in hope is a 
 Christian experience. Sorrow is a common experi- 
 ence, but comfort is a Christian experience. Death 
 is a common experience, but persuasion of victory 
 and immortal life is a Christian experience. 
 
 Faith does not change outward natural condi- 
 tions, but faith tends to give health of body, sanity of 
 mind, and strength of soul. Faith cleanses the 
 affections, sweetens the disposition, sustains the will, 
 and increases the entire life of man. If physical 
 well-being, mental clarity and strength, spiritual 
 efficiency and the achievement of good, be con- 
 sidered success in life; then, the man of faith is the 
 man of success. 
 
 Faith, then, in brief, is the relation of the soul 
 in all its powers of feeling, thought, and will, to 
 God. Faith believes that God is the absolute Cause 
 and Creator of all things and so lives in Him. Faith 
 believes that the natural conditions of the world are 
 of God's purpose and appointment, and so accepts 
 them without question and without resistance, with- 
 out fretting and without fear. Faith believes in 
 God's wisdom and so accepts cheerfully the normal 
 and destined way, and finds that way good. Faith 
 believes in God's unfailing love, and so trusts Him 
 for all things needed. Faith believes in God's care 
 
1 68 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and purpose for the individual and so submits to His 
 providence and obeys His law. Faith believes in 
 God's mercy, and so forsakes sins and forgets them 
 as belonging to a past from which there is free- 
 dom. Faith believes in God's grace, and so receives 
 from Him power to rise from a dead past to new 
 and higher life. Faith believes in God's power as 
 something to be imparted to man, and so faces duty, 
 difficulty, danger, and things which, like death, seem 
 to defeat the soul in the hope of sufficient spiritual 
 energy to insure success and victory. Faith believes 
 in God's eternity and so hopes in Him to have eter- 
 nal life. Faith sings ever in Saint Paul's immortal 
 paean: "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, 
 things present nor things to come, height nor depth, 
 nor any creature is able to separate us from the love 
 of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 Obedience 
 
 r\ BEDIENCE is the way of peace and of power. 
 ^^ Obedience escapes the hindrance of friction and 
 receives the inspiration of force. In inanimate na- 
 ture, every planet in the sky, every wave upon the 
 breast of the sea, every river rolling on its course, 
 and every particle of matter which enters into the 
 structure of any material thing, must obey the forces 
 by which it is touched and moved, if its destiny is 
 fulfilled. Here is no freedom but only submission. 
 This is the law of perfect form and of freedom from 
 pain and from deformity, in every animated physi- 
 cal body. 
 
 Obedience is the absolute condition of success in 
 human affairs. Whether one is in a hospital for the 
 healing of the sick, or in a school for the education 
 of the mind, or in a factory for the accomplishment 
 of some work, or in an army for military service; 
 one must obey those in authority. The prescriptions 
 of the doctor must be followed ; the lessons assigned 
 by the teacher must be learned ; the directions of the 
 foreman must be carried out; the commands of the 
 captain must be obeyed. Without obedience, the 
 business of the world would be disordered and de- 
 stroyed; with obedience, the business of the world 
 is performed regularly and good results are secured. 
 Among fallible men, one in authority may err in his 
 commands ; but, even with this possibility, none may 
 169 
 
170 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 venture to disobey — except in most extraordinary 
 instances and with clear vision — for, on the whole, 
 obedience is essential to the accomplishmen of life's 
 tasks. 
 
 In any sphere where there is unerring wisdom and 
 absolute authority, obedience must be universal. 
 Where a law of God is revealed, there the life of 
 man must move. As men obey God and so become 
 workers together with Him, they achieve their great- 
 est works and attain their highest good. One who 
 would attempt to walk without regard to the law 
 of gravity, or to swim without thought of the laws 
 of water, or to secure harvests without knowledge 
 and care of seasons, seeds, soil, and sunshine, would 
 absolutely fail. Men gain success only as they 
 think God's great thoughts after Him, work with 
 Him in agriculture and in manufacturing, move 
 with Him in transportation of merchandise, and 
 submit to Him in all the ways of physical busi- 
 ness. One may deceive and defraud his fellowman 
 in a business transaction and seem to gain; but no 
 one can deceive or defraud God. To attempt to 
 defraud God is to defeat one's self. Disobedience 
 to God is the destruction of one's endeavor. This 
 men recognize in the physical universe ; this men 
 should recognize in the spiritual universe. 
 
 Jesus, the highest revelation of spiritual reality 
 and the greatest teacher of moral truth, lays supreme 
 emphasis upon obedience. These are some of Jesus' 
 significant sayings: "Whosover heareth these say- 
 ings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a 
 wise man." **If a man love me, he will keep my 
 
Obedience 171 
 
 words." **Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord, 
 Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but 
 he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
 heaven." **Whosover shall do the will of God, the 
 same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." 
 
 Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to ful- 
 fil it. Jesus reveals the spirit of that law which is 
 perfect trust in God and perfect love of men. Jesus 
 enlarges love beyond geographical and racial lines, 
 frees it from limitations which men had placed 
 around it, and makes it the universal principle of 
 holy living. Without love, a man cannot worship 
 God, or keep the commandments, or fulfil his duty, 
 or attain his destiny. 
 
 There is no department of life, save this of the 
 spirit, of which men think results may be attained 
 and rewards received without fulfilment of the con- 
 ditions on which they rest. But in the sphere of 
 spirit, some think the fruits of love may be obtained 
 without love and the rewards of righteousness may 
 be received without righteousness. This false and 
 injurious opinion arises from one of two sources. It 
 arises, sometimes, from the presumptuous thought 
 that the goodness of God will compel Him to give 
 good to men irrespective of character and deserts. 
 It arises, sometimes, in part, at least, from the 
 teaching long current that the righteousness of 
 Christ is a substitute for the righteousness of men, 
 and that the righteousness of Christ is imputed 
 rather than imparted unto men. Men have been 
 taught that they are justified by faith as one is 
 justified whose commercial debt has been paid by 
 
172 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 another, rather than that they are justified as a 
 branch grafted into a good tree is justified because 
 of the life that is in it, promising blossom and fruit. 
 The former conception led men to rest satisfied in an 
 imputed righteousness; the latter conception leads 
 men to seek to become perfect by the development 
 of the life that is in them. 
 
 Jesus received His name because He would save 
 His people from their sins, not in their sins. He 
 "hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, 
 that He might bring us to God." "He died for 
 all, that they which live should not henceforth 
 live unto themselves, but unto Him." The purpose 
 of Jesus' work was to the end "that the righeous- 
 ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Through 
 Jesus we are brought near to God, reconciled to 
 Him and made willing to do His will rather than 
 our own will. There can be no success in the 
 Christian life save as one conforms to this law of 
 obedience. 
 
 The call of God is a call for the heart of man. 
 The demand for faith is a demand for that condition 
 of mind which will make a man follow God in 
 thinking and in willing. The salvation promised 
 in the gospel is salvation from self-will unto delight 
 in doing the will of God. The saved man is a fol- 
 lower of Jesus who said, "Lo, I am come to do thy 
 will, O God." Jesus' prayer was, "Not my will, 
 but thine be done." When Jesus bids men come 
 unto Him for rest, He clearly indicates that rest will 
 be found only when they have learned of Him to 
 
Obedience 173 
 
 possess a meek and quiet spirit. When Saint Paul 
 bids men live so as to be transformed by a renewing 
 of the mind, it is to the end that they may learn 
 by practice what is the good and acceptable will of 
 God. When Saint Paul bids men have in them the 
 mind which was in Christ, it is to the end that, like 
 Christ, they may not cherish pride, but may con- 
 descend to serve with a lowly mind and a loving 
 heart. 
 
 Salvation, as a possession, is the cultivation in 
 man of the moral qualities of God. The saved man 
 is the godly — Godlike — man. Practically, a man is 
 not saved because he is loved, but because he loves. 
 A man is not saved because he is forgiven, but be- 
 cause he is forgiving. A man is not saved by receiv- 
 ing mercy, but by being merciful. A man is not 
 saved by knowing sympathy, but by being sympa- 
 thetic. A man is not saved by knowing generosity, 
 but by being generous. The bestowment of mercy, 
 forgiveness, and grace upon any man is to the 
 end that he may have these same qualities in his own 
 character. Jesus bids men be merciful as the Father 
 is merciful ; to do good as the Father does good ; 
 and be perfect as the Father is perfect. This is the 
 goal of salvation. It is to be gained by the prac- 
 tice of the graces of the Spirit. 
 
 One who would succeed in the Christian life must 
 rise above the law of nature into the law of grace. 
 The impulses of the natural man may be regarded 
 as the law of nature. A man naturally thinks of 
 himself and thinks but little of others. Jesus says 
 a man rnust love his neighbor as hirnself. He must 
 
174 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 learn to consider his neighbor as himself and to re- 
 gard his neighbor as he regards himself. He must 
 not treat his neighbor in a way which would be in- 
 jurious to himself, were the places changed. A man 
 naturally seeks things for himself and measures them 
 by their value to himself. Jesus would have a man 
 seek the things which are profitable to others, and 
 value them by what they are worth to the world. 
 A man naturally invites to his home and to his 
 feasts, those who can repay the favor. Jesus bids 
 a man invite those who cannot repay. A man 
 naturally lends to them of whom he hopes to re- 
 ceive. Jesus bids a man lend to them from whom 
 he can receive nothing. A man naturally does good 
 to them who do good to him. Jesus bids him do 
 good to them who do evil to him. That is to say, 
 a man should do good spontaneously and without re- 
 gard to the actions of others. In all this, one is to 
 rise above the natural impulses of his own heart into 
 the sublimer state in which his impulses become holy 
 and godlike because they are genuinely unselfish and 
 loving. 
 
 Again, one must rise above the civil law which 
 regulates the conduct of a citizen. Many persons 
 tend to regulate much of their conduct according 
 to the civil law and to regard themselves as being 
 good so long as they are not violating the laws of 
 men. Jesus clearly teaches that His disciples must 
 rise into a higher state of judgment and motive. 
 The natural law of the heart of man impels him 
 when injured to inflict, in return, a more severe 
 injury. Naturally, a man will try to strike a harder 
 
Obedience 175 
 
 blow than he has received ; to say a sharper word 
 than he has heard ; to repay in kind beyond what 
 he has suffered. Human law tends to restrain this 
 natural tendency and to limit punishment to retalia- 
 tion. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" 
 was the restraining injunction of the Mosaic law. 
 But Jesus says, "I say unto you that ye resist not 
 evil." Meet the angry word by a soft answer. Meet 
 the blow struck by non resistance. Meet even an un- 
 just demand by more than is asked. If the law or 
 the custom of the country will compel you to go one 
 mile with a traveler to show him the way, go with 
 him two miles. Do more than the law demands. 
 Now all this implies that the man who obeys the 
 higher law will not regulate his conduct by the com- 
 mands of the civil law which are usually negative, 
 nor by the actions of other men who may be evil, but 
 by the impulses of that great and gracious Spirit 
 which impels him to do good actively as the plan of 
 his life. Can this be carried out? Try it. When 
 one member of your family, having passed an un- 
 comfortable night, comes to your breakfast table 
 in an unhappy frame of mind and speaks a sharp 
 word, reply in like tone and you may easily have a 
 family quarrel. Return a soft answer and quarrel- 
 ing is impossible, and most likely the mind of the 
 irritated member of your family will be soothed. 
 Let one child who has been struck by another child, 
 return the blow, and there will be a fight. Let the 
 child who has been struck, refuse to return the 
 blow, and most probably shame will suffuse the 
 heart of the child who was angry. Let a neighbor 
 
176 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 do you a wrong, and repay him in kind, and you 
 will have double wrong in your neighborhood. If 
 opportunity offers, do kindness to the evil neighbor, 
 and a flame of fire will burn his conscience. The 
 principle of Jesus' teaching is that evil never can be 
 overcome by evil, but must be overcome by good. 
 Society never will rise high by the natural impulses 
 of the human heart and, by the negative statutes of 
 human law. There must be a deeper, purer, and 
 more perfect source of improvement. 
 
 The natural man is governed by the impulses of 
 his own nature, and lives in selfishness, doing good 
 or evil according as he thinks it will pay him. The 
 citizen lives with regard to law and refrains from 
 doing the things which will injure others. His 
 goodness is the absence of badness and, so far forth, 
 is gain. The social man lives with regard to his 
 own class ; he sends his invitations to feasts, lends 
 his money, and confers his favors, where like kind- 
 nesses may be returned to him. So far forth, the 
 social man is in advance, for he does good within 
 limitations; but he does this good because it will 
 benefit himself. The spiritual man lives in love, 
 learns to obey the new commandment and to love as 
 Jesus loved. 
 
 How did Jesus love? Did Jesus love men be- 
 cause they were really lovable? No. Jesus loved 
 because men needed love and because they might 
 become lovable. One may love a beautiful child 
 simply because he loves himself, and the beauty of 
 the child pleases him. One may love a child be- 
 cause the child needs love, and becaues love may 
 
Obedience 177 
 
 brighten and bless the child. That is the way Jesus 
 loved. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 Me." What then? "I must bind up the broken 
 hearted, open the eyes of the blind, preach deliver- 
 ance to captives, and do good to men." What Jesus 
 had of spiritual endurement was for the use of love. 
 
 Jesus called unto Him His disciples and gave 
 unto them power. What then? "Go," He said, 
 "heal the sick, cast out devils, preach the gospel." 
 Power was for beneficent use. This is the law of 
 the kingdom. Whether a man's power is physical 
 strength, or mental vigor, or the faculty of making 
 money, or administrative ability, or personal influ- 
 ence, it must be consecrated and used so as to bene- 
 fit and not to injure men. 
 
 Slowly indeed has the world been coming to be- 
 lieve the words of Jesus, to realize the regal great- 
 ness of His spirit, and to know that the way of love 
 and of loving service is the way of peace and of 
 power. Certain individuals have caught the inner 
 meaning of Jesus' words, have believed them, have 
 lived according to them, and have become benefac- 
 tors in society. But these have been looked upon 
 as exceptional persons rather than as true examples 
 of Christian living. Many dissatisfied and unhappy 
 persons whose names stand upon a church roll and 
 who in many ways are good people, would find 
 life filled with new interest and zeal, with fresh hap- 
 piness and joy, if just where they are and in the 
 things they must do, they were to cultivate the spirit 
 of Jesus and love as He loved. An introspective, 
 self-centered, self-circumscribed life is the secret of 
 
178 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the unhappiness of many people. Jesus in His daily 
 life did not follow a set program. He simply went 
 about doing good as the opportunity came. Much 
 that He did, in comparison with His person and 
 His power, was lowly ministry; but His spirit made 
 everything great. It is neither where you are, nor 
 what you do, but the spirit in which you live and 
 speak and act, that counts. 
 
 Very gradually, the light of this truth is dawn- 
 ing upon the minds of men. They are beginning to 
 see that all life is to be fulfilled in the spirit of 
 Jesus. The religious man is no longer the 
 man of a certain order of office, but the 
 man of a certain spirit. The laborer who 
 toils, the merchant who distributes, the cap- 
 italist who controls money, the statesman who di- 
 rects the course of political history, and the man in 
 any walk of life may live and must live in the spirit 
 of ministry, if his life is to fulfill the will of God 
 and so be complete and perfect. 
 
 There has been much false teaching, and, as a 
 result thereof, much misconception of the meaning 
 of labor and of business. This has tended to debase 
 the motives of men and to destroy pure morality. A 
 few examples may be noted. For centuries, the 
 Chritian church taught that labor is part of the 
 curse which followed the fall of man. Unfallen 
 man was a gentleman, a lord, who should live with- 
 out labor. Fallen man is a serf, doomed to toil as 
 a penalty for sin. Labor, therefore, could be only 
 servile in spirit and a form of life to be escaped. 
 Teachers of economics taught *'th? iron law pf 
 
Obedience 179 
 
 wages," namely, that the natural wage to be paid 
 a workman was the lowest amount which the labor- 
 er will accept and on which laborers can be repro- 
 duced. Teachers of political economy taught that 
 the merchant who bought in the lowest market, sold 
 in the highest, and so obtained the greatest imme- 
 diate profit for himself, fulfilled the whole law of 
 merchandising. Apparently, it did not occur to such 
 teachers that this spirit and method discouraged 
 production, lessened the number of purchases which 
 a customer could make, lessened the wealth of the 
 world, and so limited the wealth of the merchant 
 himself. 
 
 Economists also taught bankers to exact the high- 
 est possible interest so as to enrich themselves. Such 
 teachers failed to see that they discouraged invest- 
 ments, lessened the scope of investments, and, in 
 the end, decreased the income even of the bankers 
 themselves. Political economists, both by the spirit 
 and the letter of their teachings, taught rulers to 
 regard their own interest first. The ruling class 
 considered themselves as divinely elected to live as 
 parasites upon society, rendering no equivalent ser- 
 vice for what they received. 
 
 All this the spirit of the divine kingdom inspired 
 by Christianity has- been changing and will yet 
 continue to change. As, historically, the struggle 
 for religious freedom led to the establishment of 
 political freedom ; so the doctrines of indebtedness 
 for divine grace, of the law of love, and of the obli- 
 gation of service, declared in the church, have been 
 leavening the world. The change wrought is of 
 
l8o The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 value chiefly in the formation of character, but it is 
 also of immense value in contributing to the mater- 
 ial welfare of the world. 
 
 The laborer who learns to live in the spirit of the 
 carpenter of Nazareth, the laborer who regards labor 
 not as a curse but as a blessing, who measures the 
 value of his work not in terms of wages but in terms 
 of its worth to the world, becomes a free man whose 
 toil does not enslave but ennobles. The merchant who 
 learns to conduct his business in the spirit of Him 
 who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, 
 the merchant who regards the rights of the produc- 
 er from whom he buys and the welfare of the cus- 
 tomer to whom he sells, who allows a profit to the 
 producer and is content with a small profit from 
 the consumer, will find that he encourages produc- 
 tion and increases the number of things which his 
 customer will buy, thereby increasing directly the 
 wealth of the world and indirectly increasing his 
 own wealth. The banker who learns to live in the 
 spirit of Him who believes that He has freely re- 
 ceived and so should freely give, the banker who is 
 content with moderate interest which allows the 
 borrower to make a profit on his business, will 
 find that he increases the number of his customers 
 and the number of those who have money to place in 
 his bank for care and use, and so increases his own 
 business and profits. The statesman who learns to 
 live in the spirit of Him who says that he who serves 
 most is greatest, finds that by serving the people over 
 whom he rules, he increases their loyalty and the 
 security of his own power. 
 
Obedience l8l 
 
 Men are beginning to see that both the welfare 
 and the wealth of the world are increased by obed- 
 ience to the law of Christ. Churches, colleges, and 
 universities are teaching a much more enlightened 
 science of life to the young than was formerly 
 taught. The change which has taken place within 
 the past forty years is most marked. Subjects which 
 scarcely would have been mentioned in a college 
 course forty years since, are now fully considered. 
 The churches no longer teach that labor is a penalty 
 but that it belongs to the natural order of the world. 
 Colleges teach, in the treatment of economics, that 
 the dignity, the rights, and opportunities of the 
 individual man must be regarded. Universities 
 teach that political economy is not simply "the sci- 
 ence of wealth," but the science of right living. 
 
 Experience, also, has shown the fallacy of much 
 past doctrine and the value of Christian principles 
 of living. "The iron law of wages" is past. Exper- 
 ience has proved that to give the laborer such condi- 
 tions of labor and of living as increase comfort and 
 inspire hope, is to increase intelligence, capability, 
 and efficiency. Governmental control of banking 
 with its effort to make money obtainable at low 
 rates of interest; the growing disposition of mer- 
 chants to be content with small profits and to de- 
 pend on large sales; public effort to obtain a mini- 
 mum wage and the legal regulation of hours and 
 conditions of labor, are all indications of the effort 
 to destroy injustice and oppression, and to make pos- 
 sible freedom both of labor and of capital within just 
 lines for the benefit of mankind in general. Sue- 
 
1 82 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 cess along these lines can be secured in full only 
 when, in addition to law, the spirit of service takes 
 possession of the hearts of mankind, and men strive 
 to do the best they can for one another in the work 
 and the business of life. Law, in the main, can 
 restrain only from certain violations of what is 
 right; love can compel obedience to what is right. 
 
 Jesus said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I 
 work." He who believes that the law of the 
 divine life is revealed in the spirit and the ministry 
 of Jesus, and who endeavors to obey that law in his 
 own life, will find himself able to fulfil that law. 
 He who sees the heavenly vision, and who hears the 
 divine voice, will be able to obey the divine law of 
 life. 
 
 There is a traditional story of Abraham which 
 will serve to illustrate this fact. "When Abraham 
 sat at his tent door, according to his custom, wait- 
 ing to entertain strangers, he espied an old man 
 stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age 
 and travel, coming towards him, who was an hun- 
 dred years of age. He received him kindly, washed 
 his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit 
 down ; but observing that the old man ate and pray- 
 ed not, nor begged for a blessing upon his meat, 
 Abraham asked him why he did not worship the 
 God of heaven. The old man told him that he wor- 
 shipped the fire only and acknowledged no other 
 god ; at which answer, Abraham grew so zealously 
 angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, 
 and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an 
 unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, 
 
Obedience 183 
 
 God called to him and asked him where the stranger 
 was; he replied, 'I thrust him away, because he did 
 not worship Thee.' God answered, 'I have suffered 
 him these hundred years, though he dishounored me ; 
 and couldest thou not endure him for one night, 
 when he gave thee no trouble?' Upon this, saith 
 the story, Abraham fetched him back again and 
 gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruc- 
 tion. Go thou and do likew^ise, and thy charity will 
 be 'rewarded by' the God of Abraham." It was the 
 knowledge of what God did that enabled Abraham 
 to love in most practical ways the man whom he had 
 regarded as loveless. Faith in God as revealed in 
 the gospel and the desire of fellowship with Him, 
 lead ever in the ways of right living. This ever has 
 been the method of the holiest character and the 
 highest service. 
 
 The New Testament insists on obedience as the 
 indispensable condition of spiritual well-being. He 
 that believeth not, he that loveth not, he that obey- 
 eth not, is condemned. "He that believeth not is 
 condemned." "If any man love not the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, let him be anathema." "They that obey not 
 the gospel, shall be punished with everlasting de- 
 struction." But on the other hand, it is written, 
 "Believe and thou shalt be saved." "If a man love 
 Me, he will keep My words," says Jesus. "He 
 became unto all them that obey Him, the author 
 of eternal salvation." These are among the plainest 
 promises of the New Testament. 
 
 Obedience must be in the spirit in that it is sub- 
 jected to the mind and the ways of Christ. All 
 
184 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 revelation is for knowledge. All doctrine is to make 
 possible fulfillment of duty. All ritual of worship 
 is for discipline in righteousness. Therefore, suc- 
 cess can come only through obedience. 
 
 Failure in Christian living comes more frequently 
 through lack of obedience than in any other way. 
 If any one is failing either in the strength or in the 
 joy of Christian living, he may well inquire whether 
 he is obeying the love and the law of Christ. One 
 who frets about the future is failing in faith in 
 God. One who cherishes an irritable and unloving 
 spirit is failing to dwell in the love of God. One 
 who does not endeavor to render some service is 
 failing to move with the moving power of God. 
 One who makes the acquistion of wealth the chief 
 aim in life, is failing to act with God in the supreme 
 purpose of living. One who is permitting the love 
 of pleasure to absorb thought and time to the neglect 
 of better things, is quenching the spirit and losing 
 the flame of devotion. 
 
 But he who trusts God for the future and obeys 
 Him in the present; who keeps himself in daily 
 consciousness of the love of God for him ; who 
 makes his daily living a daily service in whatever 
 he does; who uses increasing power of strength, 
 knowledge, or wealth as a means of doing good; 
 who, in all things, seeks to glorify God and to ben- 
 efit men, will find the peace of God possessing his 
 mind, the love of God warming his heart, and the 
 power of God making him strong. His face will 
 have a look of peace. He will have a certain win- 
 someness of nature. He will have unfailing power 
 
Obedience 185 
 
 in himself. He will never want for joy. 
 
 No one can stand upon the sunny heights, where 
 heaven lies and where the overhanging sky is ever 
 clear, without absolute faith in God. No one can 
 be serene in the midst of the storms of life unless 
 his confidence is in Him who is above all storms 
 and without whose causative or permissive will, 
 storms cannot be. No one can be strong in the 
 midst of the duties, difficulties, disappointments, and 
 apparent defeats of life unless he is moving with the 
 divine spirit in ways of truth and love. If success 
 comes to any one in the way of Christian living, it 
 must come along the line of implicit obedience to the 
 will of God. To the man who obeys, all things 
 belong; for he is Christ's and Christ is God's. 
 To him, heaven will flash with beauty, earth will 
 bear rich bounty, men will become friends, and life 
 will enrich him as a child of God. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Neglect 
 
 A N Oriental writer of proverbs and an observer 
 '^of the causes and the consequences of gain and 
 loss in life has said : 
 
 "I went by the field of the sluggard, 
 And by the vineyard of the man void of under- 
 standing, 
 And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, 
 The face thereof was covered with nettles. 
 And the stone wall thereof was broken down. 
 I saw and received instruction." 
 
 This was a wise man, for he walked with open 
 eyes; an observant man, for he saw the condition 
 of the field of the slothful and of the vineyard of the 
 man void of understanding; a man of discernment, 
 for he perceived that the cause of the sad condition, 
 was neglect. This fact of neglect as the cause of 
 grave consequence, many fail to see. This is espe- 
 cially true of the life and the welfare of the spirit. 
 
 There is a quiet assumption on the part of many 
 persons, that a man must make a positive choice of 
 evil and pursue it with zeal and steadfastness if he 
 is to be adjudged worthy of condemnation, and suf- 
 fer irretrievable loss. Is it not strange that with 
 all the patent facts of nature and of life, it has not 
 occurred to them that a man must make a positive 
 1 86 
 
Neglect 187 
 
 choice of good and pursue it with zeal and stead- 
 fastness, if he is to be deemed worthy of commen- 
 dation and of abiding reward? 
 
 If a man enters this world at the summit of hu- 
 man character and attainment, then, of course, he 
 can descend from that summit only by a choice 
 which leads downward. But if a man enters the 
 world at the beginning of human character, a crea- 
 ture to be developed, then, he can rise only by 
 choice and action. Embryonic life everywhere is a 
 capacity of reception, a potential power, a possibility, 
 a promise. Everywhere, with plants and animals 
 alike, life is conditioned, and all that is necessary to 
 insure failure, is neglect. A neglected garden runs 
 to weeds; its few plants left from former cultiva- 
 tion deteriorate or die outright. A neglected field 
 yields no harvest. A neglected animal, though the 
 product of former care and culture, speedily reverts 
 to a lower type. Moles which have burrowed in 
 the earth, have lost their eyesight. Fish which live 
 in caverns, like the Mammoth Cave, become blind. 
 Minds unexercised become idiotic or insane. Neglect 
 everywhere tends to degeneration. Degeneration is 
 as common as development. The end of degenera- 
 tion is death. 
 
 One of the solemn and significant questions of the 
 scriptures is this: "How shall we escape, if we 
 neglect so great salvation?" The scriptures leave 
 the question unanswered, because the answer is 
 obvious. The word salvation, so far as it relates 
 to the means of securing that state, is the revelation 
 of divine love and the promise of redemption and of 
 
The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the gift of the spirit of life. The word salvation, 
 in so far as it relates to the acceptance of the means 
 and the achievement of character and life, means 
 a condition which man may attain. All that is re- 
 quired to fail of salvation, is neglect. This is in 
 full accord with the law of life everywhere. Neglect 
 on the part of farmer or gardner or fruit grower, 
 means the loss of possible gain and, ultimately, the 
 loss of all he had set himself to cultivate. Death is 
 quite as common as life, and more natural. "Life 
 is the sum total of the forces which resist death." 
 The preservation and the perfection of life every- 
 where are conditioned. Asphyxia is suspended ani- 
 mation resulting from interrupted respiration. If 
 an animate creature neglects to breathe, whatever 
 may be the cause, poison of the blood and cessation 
 of heart beat ensue, and the result is death. If a 
 living creature neglects to eat food ; weakness, faint- 
 ing, and death soon follows. All that is required 
 to insure death is neglect of the means of sustaining 
 life. Solitary confinement produces insanity. The 
 lonely life of many country people prior to the mod- 
 ern means of conversation by telephone and of travel 
 by trolley, resulted in a large number of cases of in- 
 sanity, especially among women. 
 
 It is in accord with all this, that faith, love, and 
 hope should fail, and the qualities of spiritual life 
 decay; if the conditions of their growth are not im- 
 proved. The neglect of the means of their develop- 
 ment insures their loss. 
 
 "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
 reap." This is an abiding law of nature. And, if 
 
Neglect 189 
 
 a man sows nothing, he will reap nothing. Should 
 a man who sows nothing, reap a golden harvest of 
 wheat? Should a student who is indolent, reap the 
 rewards of scholarship? Would there be incentive 
 to arduous and high endeavor, if neglect of labor 
 and of study issued in the same rewards as effort 
 and diligence? In every sphere of life in which 
 things material and mental are concerned, men 
 recognize the rule and the justice of the law of re- 
 ward. They find the law a beneficent condition 
 of the development of that which is good, and an 
 incentive to effort which insures gain. Only in 
 the sphere of the spirit, do men claim that grace 
 should bring holiness and heaven to men, irrespec- 
 tive of their own choice and effort. Here alone, 
 do men think there should be a lawless world in 
 which eternal life should be given to all men. How 
 can this be? Law must rule here as elsewhere 
 in God's universe. The Son of God did not come 
 into the world to destroy law, but to fulfill it. He 
 does not save men by making them free from law, 
 but by enabling them' to fulfill law. This is the 
 covenant which I will make, saith the Lord: "I will 
 put my laws on their heart, and upon their mind 
 also will I write them." Obedience is not to the 
 letter but to the spirit of the law. The law here 
 as elsewhere is beneficent. It makes for good char- 
 acter and for a perfect society. It is a high law 
 because man is to have a high destiny. Great char- 
 acter could not be produced in a lawless world 
 where rewards are conferred without regard to de- 
 sert. Men are saved from sin, but not through 
 
I90 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 lawlessness. Forgiveness is restoration to the divine 
 favor, and is a most gracious act on the part of God. 
 But salvation which is the completion of character 
 in the likeness of God, is an achievement. Salva- 
 tion is accomplished by the acceptance of the con- 
 ditions of the spiritual life and by obedience to the 
 laws of the divine kingdom. 
 
 Men usually do not become bad by first choosing 
 some evil thing and pursuing it with zeal. ' Men 
 become bad by refusing to choose some good thing 
 and by neglecting to grow in the love of righteous- 
 ness. The man who pursues something good with 
 ardor, is not usually led into base sins. The old 
 adage that **Satan finds some work for idle hands 
 to do" rests on a very common law. Nature, it 
 is said, abhors a vacuum. Something will fill it. 
 Jesus relates a parable of a man out of whom an 
 evil spirit was cast, but into whom nothing good 
 entered. As a result, seven spirits more evil than 
 the first entered into that man and dwelt in him. 
 An uninhabited house becomes the abode of spiders 
 and bats and unclean insects. An imagination which 
 cherishes pictures of uncleanness and lawlessness, 
 leads to a lawless and unclean life. ''Keep thy 
 heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues 
 of life." "Out of the heart," says Jesus, "proceed 
 evil thoughts, murders, blasphemies." The heart 
 which is not actively engaged in taking in things 
 true, pure, and good soon will be filled with things 
 false, impure, and evil. The tragedy of life pro- 
 ceeds from an empty and then from an evil heart. 
 
 Fineness of nature is marked by sensitiveness to 
 
Neglect 191 
 
 impressions. There is a great difference in persons 
 in respect of sensitiveness in the senses of touch, 
 taste, smell, seeing, and hearing. The different 
 colors in the spectrum are made by the different 
 number of vibrations of light per second. Persons 
 who are color-blind cannot distinguish these differ- 
 ences, and so cannot distinguish colors. In the 
 sense of hearing, there is not only a natural differ- 
 ence in persons, but there is a great difference be- 
 tween the untrained and the trained ear. With 
 respect to pitch in musical notes, Preyer found that 
 unpracticed persons distinguish a difference of from 
 eight to sixteen vibrations as producing a distinct 
 difference in the sensation of pitch. It has been 
 said that, "The trained musician can detect by ear 
 a difference in quality between two tones of four 
 hundred and four hundred and one-third vibrations 
 per second." 
 
 This fineness of sensation in physical nature is 
 suggestive of the fineness of impressibility which 
 may be cultivated in the moral nature. Persons 
 who have not trained themselves to see, miss many 
 forms and many colors of beauty which delight the 
 mind of the man whose eyes have been trained to see. 
 Earth and sky glow with beauty to him whose eyes 
 have been opened ; all nature sings to him whose 
 ears, according to the fine Hebrew idiom, have been 
 uncovered. 
 
 The prophets and Jesus are absolutely correct 
 when they speak of men whose eyes have grown 
 dim that they cannot see, whose ears have grown 
 dull that they cannot hear, and who§e hearts have 
 
192 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 grown gross that they cannot know. So the su- 
 premely sad fact remains that men who are dying 
 in their spiritual nature, may be unconscious of that 
 fact. They only know that what some persons say 
 they see and feel, seems unreal to them ; and that 
 things which others speak of knowing, are to them 
 unknown. But they feel no loss, for sensibility is 
 either latent or dead. The whole upper sphere of 
 life may become an unknown world to men who 
 live in the lust of the flesh, in the lust of the world, 
 and in the pride of life. They only know that they 
 care nothing for those things which others love and 
 praise ; that those things seem to them unreal. Some 
 Christian people who live in the enjoyment of faith 
 in God and in communion with the Spirit, and who 
 delight in things divine, suppose that all other per- 
 sons equally may enjoy the things which they enjoy 
 and that, if they do not enjoy them, they should 
 know what they miss. But, in reality, things are 
 not missed when men become so blind that they can- 
 not see them and so gross that they cannot know 
 them. A man with no appreciation of music and 
 with no love for music, does not know what he has 
 missed, nor mourn his loss; but it is loss. 
 
 When God speaks of withdrawing from men and 
 of withholding His Spirit, He is simply expressing 
 what takes place, practically, when men refuse to 
 receive the grace which is offered them, and so lose 
 the power to receive it. There comes a time when a 
 grain of corn cannot be quickened by sunlight, a 
 time when an egg cannot become a bird, a time when 
 an embryo cannot become an animal. There is also 
 
Neglect 193 
 
 a time when a body which has asphyxia cannot re- 
 ceive air, cannot be charged again with life, cannot 
 partake of food. That body has passed beyond the 
 limit of reception. Henceforth, it must be left to 
 the action of forces which dissipate and destroy it. 
 
 This seems to be the condition of some souls. 
 They cannot be touched by sermon, by song, by 
 gospel story, by the presence of a holy life, or by the 
 touch of tender and yearning love. They are dead 
 so far as spiritual things are concerned. We do not 
 like to think that this is so, but we know that there 
 are those on whom Christian truth and love and life 
 make no impression. The sacred scriptures pro- 
 nounce such persons dead in sin. This is the su- 
 preme danger to which men are exposed. There is 
 need of all the warnings which may be given to lead 
 men to see the danger of refusing to accept divine 
 grace and to choose the means and the way of life. 
 Would that all men could be made to see that 
 danger lies primarily and chiefly in neglecting the 
 things which are true and good and which make for 
 life ! 
 
 It is neglect which Jesus emphasizes. In the 
 teaching of Jesus, the man who neglected to put 
 on the wedding garment was judged unworthy of 
 the wedding feast; the man who neglected to put 
 his talent with the bankers was deprived of that 
 talent; the foolish virgins who neglected to take 
 oil with their lamps were excluded from the bride- 
 groom's house when the bridegroom came; Jeru- 
 salem which neglected the day of her visitation, be- 
 came a city for which there was left only lamenta- 
 
194 
 
 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 tion and tears; the men of Jesus' time were con- 
 demned because they neglected to come to Him 
 that they might have life. Accordmg to Jesus, con- 
 demnation comes upon men because ight has come, 
 and they love darkness. The loss which is irrepar- 
 able and final, is not because of original sin nor 
 actual transgression, but because men will not hear 
 and see and believe and so receive salvation. Men 
 are not finally lost because they have been sinners, 
 but because they have refused to be saved. 1 his 
 refusal, in most cases, takes the course of neglect. 
 The majority of mankind are not now and, perhaps, 
 never have been very bad in the sense of wickedness; 
 but many are indifferent to the things of the spirit 
 They live in the flesh; they love the world; they 
 neglect the opportunities which God gives them; 
 they refuse the call to the higher life; they belong 
 to a temporal and transient order. The neglect of 
 salvation is the crying sin of the world. 
 
 Who can tell how much is lost out of .the heart 
 and life of the man who neglects salvation? 1 o 
 him, the heavens shine with sun by day and with 
 stars by night; but they shine only to warm his 
 fields and to guide his steps; they do not declare 
 to him the glory of God who made them. To him, 
 flowers bloom in brilliant beauty, and harvests wave 
 in golden splendor; but no harvest ever speaks to 
 his soul of the goodness of God who feeds men, 
 and no bush burning in glowing colors ever declares 
 to his soul a message from the invisible Spint oH ife^ 
 Never with uncovered head does he bow before the 
 heavens above, nor with unsandaled feet turn aside 
 
Neglect 195 
 
 and wait before flower and field for a message from 
 the divine. To him, prayer is an unknown tongue, 
 or if he prays, it is in the spirit of the Pharisee of 
 whom Jesus said, "He prayed with himself." If 
 petitions are ever on his lips, they are for something 
 which God may give to him and never that he may 
 learn and do the will of God. Prayer, to him, is a 
 breath of selfishness wafted heavenward, and never 
 the opening of his soul to the inspiring breath of 
 God. 
 
 To the man who neglects the higher life and who 
 lives in the lower spheres of being, love is likewise 
 self-centered and limited. The natural man loves 
 himself, and he loves all other things embraced in 
 his affections for himself. He loves for what the 
 object of his love may bring to him. His parents 
 are almoners of bounty. His wife is a source of 
 delight. His children are means of personal pleas- 
 ure, or means of perpetuating his plans, when his 
 own power fails. His fellowmen are instruments of 
 service. The love of a selfish man never outruns the 
 limits of his own personality. His love is never lost 
 in the life of another as a stream is lost in joining 
 a river, or a river is lost in the sea. The center and 
 the circumference of love are in the man himself. 
 The love of Christ never constrains such a man. 
 He is never lost and carried onward by that great, 
 warm current of love which issues from the heart 
 of God. The stream of his affections never bears 
 him heavenward. 
 
 The natural, psychical man neglects the means of 
 salvation. Neglect of the means of rising, means 
 
196 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 falling. Neglect of the way of expansion, means 
 contraction. Neglect of the means of growth, means 
 atrophy and decay. Neglect of the way of life, 
 means death. He who has eyes to see, may read 
 this law written on every hand. This law is writ- 
 ten in the garden, in the field, in the forest, in the 
 shop, in the school, and in the church. Neglect in 
 the garden, means weeds; in the field, no harvest; 
 in the forest, decay ; in the shop, loss of skill ; in 
 the school, ignorance ; in the church, spiritual de- 
 cline and moral deterioration. He who sees this, 
 easily may know that a man must awake, learn the 
 truth of God, receive His grace, and do His will, 
 if he would win life. 
 
 The fact that salvation is of grace, no more de- 
 prives man of freedom and opportunity than the fact 
 of selection in nature deprives plant and animal of 
 the means of growth. Selection means the survival 
 of such plants and animals as fulfil the conditions 
 of growth. In all education, save the education of 
 the soul, the necessity of diligence is recognized. If 
 children were left to follow their own natural in- 
 clination, many never would go to school, or acquire 
 knowledge and skill. Until a child is sufficiently 
 developed to choose a course of training for himself 
 and stick to it, parents compel discipline. Some 
 compulsion in learning the things of the spirit would 
 not harm a child. A grown man must choose for 
 himself those means of information, inspiration, and 
 growth which experience has proved to be helpful. 
 
 Prayer, public worship, and sacred music; such 
 familiarity with the New Testament as will saturate 
 
Neglect 197 
 
 the mind with its truth and spirit; the habit of 
 thinking of God and of relating Him in thought 
 with the course of one's life; the companionship of 
 devout persons; voluntary choice day by day of 
 such feelings and acts as are like the feelings and 
 acts of Jesus; cultivation of a spirit of aspiration 
 after better things ; participation in movements 
 which have for their purpose the moral and spiritual 
 improvement of mankind, — all tend to cultivate a 
 spiritual and religious character. The daily habit 
 of reverence toward God, of thoughtfulness toward 
 men, of a disposition to fulfill the labor of each day 
 in the spirit of Jesus "who went about doing good," 
 and consecration of the will to the service of God, — 
 all tend to educate the character and to make it com- 
 plete in holiness. The man who uses these means 
 will not fail to receive power, to gain in faith and 
 love, and to grow in grace until he becomes a perfect 
 man in Christ. 
 
 The wilful neglect of any of these means of good, 
 will result in the loss of power of good. The 
 neglect of all of them will result in the loss of the 
 desire of goodness. Neglect of prayer is followed 
 by forgetfulness of God ; neglect of public worship 
 increases the spirit of self-indulgence; neglect of 
 familiarity with the New Testament leaves the mind 
 in the common habits of thought which pertain to a 
 worldly life; neglect of cherishing voluntarily a 
 Christian disposition is followed by a lax and morally 
 weakened tone of mind ; neglect of participating in 
 efforts to make the world better, leaves a soul grow- 
 ing indifferent to the highest welfare of mankind 
 
198 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and increasingly self-seeking and worldly. The 
 heart in which love does not glow, will become a 
 heart chilled into lovelessness. 
 
 Demas deserted Saint Paul because he loved this 
 present world. Any man who falls away from the 
 worship of God and from conscious work for Him, 
 if he will candidly trace his course, will probably 
 note the fact that his departure began in some 
 neglect. Some duty neglected, left him more 
 inclined to place self first in his own affections; 
 some means of grace neglected left him more self- 
 indulgent; some failure to coooperate in carrying 
 on the kingdom of God, made more easy over him 
 the domination of the world ; the neglect of the 
 things of the spirit, let him sink gradually into sub- 
 jection to the things of the flesh. Neglect of good 
 submerges a man in the kingdom of evil. And the 
 man who never has risen, if he could discover the 
 cause of his decline to lower and lower moral states, 
 would discover the source of his fall in a prior re- 
 fusal to rise. 
 
 The greater part of the things for which men 
 to-day neglect the cultivation of the soul, are not 
 bad in themselves. Some of them are good. But 
 for sake of what is relatively good, men may lose 
 what is better; and for things good, men may lose 
 things which are best. For example, physical ex- 
 ercise and the joy of motion in space are in them- 
 selves good, if not carried to the point of dissipa- 
 tion ; but they minister mainly to the body, and but 
 incidentally to the mind ; they have no ministry for 
 the soul. The pleasure of entertainment whether 
 
Neglect 199 
 
 by pictures, plays, or social fellowship may be inno- 
 cent in themselves ; but they serve merely to divert 
 from serious thought and toil; they lead for a time 
 to forgetfulness of the things which make life a bur- 
 den; they give a certain relaxation and relief, and 
 so far forth are good; but they add no solid gain 
 to a man's powers. Mere rest, whether of body or 
 of mind, may renew, but cannot increase strength. 
 Inspiration increases strength. 
 
 The strength of a man is primarily in his soul. 
 Faith, love, aspiration, and hope are real power. Let a 
 man compare his strength when hopeless with his 
 strength when some great hope fills his soul. Let 
 a man compare his strength when he is in doubt, or 
 in fear, with his strength when some great faith 
 possesses him. Let a man compare his strength 
 when he feels unloved, or when he is without love, 
 with his strength when he is conscious of being de- 
 votedly loved, or when he ardently loves some one 
 for whom he would even die; and he will know 
 the power of love to make strong. The hope of fu- 
 ture good, though that good can be obtained only by 
 self-denial and hard toil, makes a man strong in 
 courage, fortitude, and patience. These are facts 
 which any man may verify in his own experience. 
 
 Now the faith, hope, and love which Christianity 
 gives to a believing man have power beyond any 
 thing else to hearten, comfort, sustain, and cheer the 
 souls of men. These give true success in life. "Hast 
 thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the ever- 
 lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of 
 the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giv- 
 
200 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 eth power to the faint ; and to them who have no 
 might He increaseth strength. Even the youths 
 shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
 utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord 
 shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up 
 with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be 
 weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." 
 
 Men may endure much hardship because they 
 cannot escape it; but only a believing man can 
 write, "We glory in tribulations." A Christian 
 man can write thus, because he can also write, "We 
 faint not; though our outward man perish, yet the 
 inward man is renewed day by day. For our light 
 affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for 
 us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; 
 while we look not at the things which are seen, but 
 at the things which are not seen : for the things 
 which are seen are temporal; but the things which 
 are not seen are eternal." 
 
 This is a matter of personal experience. One 
 may test the truth of it here and now. The charac- 
 ter and works of them who truly believe, testify to 
 its reality. Any man may prove it for himself. 
 
 The sad thing in life to-day, and life's greatest 
 tragedy, lies in the fact that for sake of things which 
 in relation to the bodies of men are good, many neg- 
 lect the higher things which minister to the spirit 
 and which are best. They drink only at earthly 
 fountains. They eat only bread which springs from 
 the ground. They wait only on the ministry of men 
 for amusement and for rest. They enjoy only the 
 things which are from beneath. What will it profit 
 
Neglect 201 
 
 them if they gain the whole world and, by neglect, 
 lose their own life? When physical energy wanes, 
 when mental vigor declines, when the things which 
 feed the body fail, when men can no longer enter- 
 tain or amuse or instruct; what remains to sustain 
 life? It stands written and men should read and 
 heed, "The world passeth away, and the lust there- 
 of: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for- 
 ever." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Eternal Life 
 
 T F a man die, shall he live?" is an ancient ques- 
 -*■ tion. If a man die should he live? is a modern 
 question. Scientific biology has disclosed the fact 
 that all life in this world is conditioned. The law 
 of the survival of the fittest has declared the fact 
 that only a living being which fulfils the conditions 
 of growth and perfection is deemed, by nature, 
 worthy of continuance. These facts suggest two 
 questions. The first is this, Is man an exception to 
 this law of biology? The second is this, Is eternal 
 life, irrespective of the character and condition of 
 that which lives, a boon to be desired? 
 
 In an attempt to answer such questions, a man 
 who feels the limitations of his vision and of his 
 knowledge, must speak with becoming modesty. 
 Nevertheless, the man who has the spirit of a seer 
 and who looks upon the world with open eyes, must 
 report what he sees; and the man who has the 
 mind of a disciple and who listens with open ears to 
 the words of Jesus, must report what he hears. 
 
 The seer who with open eye, clear vision, and 
 keen insight looks upon the world of animate things, 
 must see that every living thing, physical, mental, 
 spiritual, which does not fulfill the conditions of 
 growth, development, and perfection, degenerates, 
 decays, and dies ; that which fulfils the conditions of 
 202 
 
Eternal Life 203 
 
 growth, development, and perfection, of its kind, 
 continues to live to the full limit of its possible dur- 
 ation. We may say, in the world of nature, the liv- 
 ing thing which believes — that is, receives — feeds — 
 that is, appropriates — and works — that is, exerts its 
 powers normally — lives ; and that which does not re- 
 ceive, feed, and work — dies. This is the law of 
 nature. Nature is the expression of the mind and 
 will of God. 
 
 The disciple, who listens to the words of Jesus, 
 must hear him say, "I came that they may have life, 
 and may have it abundantly." "I am bread of 
 life." "He that believeth hath eternal life." "He 
 that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent 
 Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judg- 
 ment, but hath passed out of death into life." 
 
 Obviously, also, as specifically stated in the New 
 Testament, "He that believeth not hath been judged 
 already." He is under condemnation. He remains 
 in a state and under a law whose issue is death. 
 "Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 
 
 According to Jesus, eternal life is first of all a 
 kind and quality of life which may exist here and 
 now. It is a present possession. It is a life which, 
 by faith, feeds upon God; which, by love, fulfills 
 the will of God ; which glows, in beauty, with a cer- 
 tain divine glory. It is a life, therefore, which has 
 the quality of continuance, and which deserves im- 
 mortality. 
 
 To the disciple, the words of Jesus are a final 
 authority. Jesus surprised and startled men by 
 His use of paradox. What He said seemed to con- 
 
204 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 tradict what they saw. What He promised, seemed 
 to them opposed to their experience. 
 
 For example, their Proverbs which garnered the 
 practical knowledge of the ages, taught that if a 
 man honors the Lord, his barns shall be filled with 
 plenty and his presses shall overflow with new wine. 
 But Jesus lifted up his eyes, looked upon men and 
 said, "Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the king- 
 dom of God." Jesus said, "A man's life consisteth 
 not in the abundance of the things which he pos- 
 sesseth." Men had been taught to have special re- 
 gard to the means of securing prosperity, and so 
 saving their life. Jesus said, "Whosoever will save 
 his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his 
 life for my sake, shall find it." Jesus said that 
 not outward possessions but inward state, decided a 
 man's security and determined his destiny. 
 
 Jesus saw only two great passions and principles 
 of character and conduct. These are selfishness and 
 love. According to the teachings of Jesus, all sins 
 are rooted in the former; all righteousness springs 
 from the latter. According to Jesus, selfishness seeks 
 to gather abundance for self. It fails to see that life is 
 more than meat and more than raiment. Selfishness 
 separates a man from God. If selfishness acknowl- 
 edges God at all, it desires Him only as a servant 
 who may minister things for the increase of wealth 
 and grant pleasures for personal enjoyment. Selfish- 
 ness separates a man from other men. Selfishness 
 causes a man to make use of other men only for his 
 own pleasure and profit. Selfishness means separa- 
 tion, for it withdraws a man from God. Selfishness 
 
Eternal Life 205 
 
 means starvation, for a man cannot live upon things. 
 Selfishness means strangulation, for a soul may be 
 smothered by the abundance of the things which 
 have been gathered. Therefore, Jesus asks the 
 pertinent question : "What shall a man be profited, 
 if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his life?" 
 
 According to Jesus, love is self-forgetful, self- 
 denying, and serviceable. Love, therefore, is the 
 one passion and the one principle by which Jesus 
 is sure that men belong to His kingdom. Jesus jus- 
 tified His forgiveness and reception of a sinful wo- 
 man "because she loved much." Faith, Jesus said, 
 saved her; but love was the evidence of that faith. 
 Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my 
 words: and My Father will love him." Jesus says 
 that in the final judgment of men, He will welcome 
 into His kingdom all who have shown a heart of 
 love by their gifts of bread, clothing, visitation, and 
 ministry. According to Jesus, sinners are forgiven, 
 saints are trusted, and men are eternally rewarded 
 on the basis of love. 
 
 No life, therefore, seems to Jesus to be a success, 
 whatever may be the place and the wealth and the 
 pleasure which it has gained, if in gaining those 
 things, love has been strangled or smothered or lost. 
 What will the things gained profit, if the life is 
 lost? It stands written in nature, in human life, 
 and in the sacred scriptures, "He that loveth not 
 abideth in death." It stands also written, "He that 
 abideth in love, abideth in God, and God abideth 
 in him." That is to say, the loveless man lives in 
 the sphere of things which are transient and which 
 
2o6 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 pass away. The loving man lives in the sphere of 
 things eternal, which endure. 
 
 "The wages" — the natural reward — "of sin is 
 death ; but the free gift of God is eternal life in 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 Nothing could be more simple, direct, and intel- 
 ligible than the teaching of Jesus and His disciples 
 with respect to the consequences of unbelief and 
 faith, selfishness and love, sin and righteousness. The 
 end, in the one case, is death ; the end in the other 
 case, is life. No words and no facts are more sharp- 
 ly contrasted and more easily understood than death 
 and life. 
 
 The Christian church, as an organization, long 
 since departed from the teaching of Jesus. The 
 church long since adopted a human philosophy of 
 the nature of man, and claimed for man immortality 
 by virtue of his being man. Happiness and misery, 
 pleasure and pain, triumph in glory, and torture in 
 fire, have been taught by the church as the reward 
 of righteousness, on the one hand, and, on the other, 
 as the penalty of sin. Some portions of the church 
 latterly have turned the fire to a figure, but to a 
 figure not of cleansing or of destruction — the two 
 things which fire will do — but to a figure of tor- 
 ture. Some portions of the church now are simply 
 silent on the subject. 
 
 An opinion which has been held by a large 
 body of men and current for many years, should 
 be treated with respect and deemed worthy of 
 candid consideration. An opinion long prevalent 
 should not be rejected without sufficient reason. 
 
Eternal Life 207 
 
 An opinion, however, let it be remembered, often 
 has been formed by unobservant and unscientific 
 men, and, once formed, has been held because it is 
 an accepted opinion. An opinion, also, sometimes 
 has been accepted because of the authority of some 
 great man who has endorsed it. But the several 
 opinions of a great man are not all equally worthy 
 of credence. For example, for a thousand years or 
 more, the name of Augustine gave authority to any- 
 thing which he taught, although — great thinker 
 though he was — some of his teachings set in the light 
 of modern scientific knowledge are altogether false. 
 An opinion often is held because it has been instilled 
 into the mind in childhood and is retained without 
 investigation and without evidence. This has been 
 true of doctrines of the church, the questioning of 
 which has been regarded in some quarters as denial 
 of truth itself. I have known ministers to affirm 
 that they would continue to teach what is most ob- 
 viously false, because they had been taught it and 
 had themselves taught it. This illustrates the habit 
 of an unscientific and unthinking mind. Such a 
 mind is parrot-like, repeating what it has been told. 
 I have great respect for the Christian ministry; 
 but, in candor, I must say that it contains some 
 minds like this. 
 
 An opinion which has come to be accepted by the 
 majority of men in any country, is held without 
 question by most persons ; for most persons, do not 
 think. For example, the Ptolemaic theory of the 
 solar system was long current and concurred with 
 the superficial observation of men who did not 
 
2o8 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 think, but that theory was entirely false. Men long 
 held the opinion that the earth and the heavens were 
 created in six days of twenty-four hours each, be- 
 cause the writer of tho book of Genesis, in giving 
 a pictorial account of creation, described it as made 
 in six days. It is known, now, that this account 
 of creation is not a scientific treatise and that the 
 earth was produced by a long process. 
 
 In an old bible in the Congressional Library in 
 Washington, I saw a picture of the creation of Eve 
 which was drawn according to the ideas of the 
 artist. The Creator was shaping Eve, mechanic- 
 ally, as a sculptor might mold in clay, and drawing 
 the body gradually from the side of Adam. For a 
 long time, the creation of man was considered a me- 
 chanical formation of the human body, which being 
 formed was, then, infused with life. Men who be- 
 lieved this, neither saw nor thought scientifically, or 
 they would have seen and would have known that 
 God is continually making bodies, and that no body 
 of any living thing, from the daintiest flower to the 
 largest tree, from the tiniest insect to the most per- 
 fect man, is ever made save by a force of life which 
 in seed or germ weaves and fashions every part 
 from within. 
 
 The habit of mind which prevailed in the world 
 until late years was not scientific. Men, generally, 
 did not look patiently upon actual processes and 
 did not form opinions slowly from the data^of facts. 
 Most men accepted things as they seemed to be 
 on first view. Men were superficial in matters of 
 physical science, and superstitious in matters of re- 
 
Eternal Life 209 
 
 ligion. Men read the letter of the scriptures, and 
 often failed to perceive the spirit. Hence, the 
 theory that the sun revolves around the earth w^as 
 accepted because it looked that way. The theory 
 that physical death is the penalty of sin was held, be- 
 cause the scriptures say that Adam was told that if 
 he ate forbidden fruit, he would die. With such 
 a habit of mind, opinions were accepted and held, 
 which with the habit of tracing consequences 
 to their cause and in the clear light of 
 scientific knowledge, cannot be believed. Mod- 
 ern men, while retaining faith in the spirit of much 
 ancient doctrine, must reject its letter. The mod- 
 ern man unavoidably asks, "What is God actually 
 doing in the world?" He also asks, "What do the 
 scriptures which speak for God say and mean?" 
 
 The natural immortality of man has been taught 
 in the church since the third and fourth centuries 
 of the Christian era. At that time, men who had 
 been educated in Greek philosophy and trained in 
 Roman law, became the leaders of Christian 
 thought. Many facts of life were quietly ignored. 
 The scriptures were interpreted by men who ap- 
 proached them by a preconceived philosophy of the 
 nature of man. The terms, life and death, than 
 which no two words could be of plainer meaning 
 and no two states more vividly contrasted, were 
 interpreted as merely figurative modes of expression 
 and, in respect of the soul, spiritual states. Their 
 teaching came at length to be the common opinion 
 of the church. The truth of that opinion may well 
 be questioned at the present time. It is certainly 
 
2IO The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 well to observe what science sees and to listen to 
 what the scriptures say. 
 
 Scientific men who study man as an animal of 
 the order mammalia, do not find in his natural con- 
 stitution evidence of immortality. The feeling that 
 one canot die, of which some speak, if examined 
 closely, will be seen to be simply the feeling which 
 a living creature when full of life has, namely, a 
 sense of living. The living thing when full of its 
 natural power, cannot conceive of itself as dead. But 
 when physical and mental strength both are fast 
 ebbing away, one can conceive of himself as dying. 
 Any argument for the natural immortality of man 
 — as man — from the unity of his life and the indis- 
 solubility of his soul, could be used with equal pro- 
 priety to prove the natural immortality of any ani- 
 mal with power of affection, memory, and volition. 
 
 Certain philosophers, also, who have studied man 
 in his mental and moral nature, confess that by 
 virtue of his failure to conform to the conditions 
 by which souls live or to set himself in right rela- 
 tion to society, man may die. Immanuel Kant says, 
 "The soul may cease to be by inanition," by fading 
 out as the flame of a lamp fades from want of oil. 
 A later philosopher, Hermann Lotze, says, **In- 
 destructibility would include, not merely immor- 
 tality after death, but also unending pre-existence 
 before the present life; and with the latter, we 
 neither know how to make a beginning, nor do we 
 find in our experience any evidence for such a pre- 
 vious life." Lotze also says, "Touching immortal- 
 ity, in general we simply hold the principle to be 
 
Eternal Life 2ii 
 
 valid that everything which has once originated will 
 endure forever, as soon as it possesses an unalterable 
 value for the coherent system of the world ; but it 
 will, as a matter of course, in turn cease to be, if 
 this is not the case." The immortality of any crea- 
 ture cannot be considered simply by seeing that crea- 
 ture in itself, but in seeing it in its relation to a sys- 
 tem and a universe of which it is a part. 
 
 Scientific men and philosophers who see clearly 
 the limitations of development and of continuance 
 on the physical side, and who see also the unmeas- 
 ured possibilities on the moral side, conclude that 
 any further gain to be made in the animal creation, 
 must be along moral lines. They admit the need of 
 immortality to complete what seems to be, now, 
 great incompleteness both on the part of the individ- 
 ual and on the part of human society. Certain 
 scientists, like Sir Oliver Lodge and others, hope 
 to be able through psychical research to find proof 
 of the immortality of the soul. With them, how- 
 ever, as with all men, belief in immortality must be 
 a matter of faith and hope. 
 
 If we turn to the sacred scriptures which record 
 the revelation of the character of God and of his 
 will respecting man and which record, also, the life 
 and resurrection of one called the Son of Man, who 
 conquered death and who brought life and immortal- 
 ity to light; certain facts appear to him who will 
 see. 
 
 The first fact which appears in the scriptures is, 
 that touching immortality, most of the books of the 
 Old Testament are silent. In the account of the 
 
212 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 creation of man given in Genesis, it is said, God 
 breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life (He- 
 brew lives) and man became a living soul. Ac- 
 cording to this ancient account of creation, man's 
 life, like all life, was conditioned. Two trees grew 
 in man's garden. The fruit of one tree was the 
 symbol of life. The fruit of the other tree was the 
 symbol of death. Man was given the choice of the 
 way of life or of the way of death. He had access 
 to both trees and power to eat the fruit of them ; 
 but he was forbidden to eat the fruit of one tree 
 through which would come knowledge of good 
 and evil. Obedience or disobedience was left to his 
 own free choice. Man could follow the way of 
 faith or the way of unbelief, the way of obedience 
 or the way of disobedience; he could go up or fall 
 down; he could live or he could die. Life and 
 death were possibilities. 
 
 The death threatened was more than physical 
 death. Physical death was in the world before the 
 advent of man. Physical death is part of the order 
 of nature and not the penalty of sin. In a world 
 where animals propagate rapidly, as on the earth, 
 death is a necessary part of the order, or life could 
 not be sustained. The physical constitution of man 
 in all his organs and in the injuries and diseases to 
 which he is exposed, is precisely the same as the con- 
 stitution of the higher animals. If they naturally 
 die, so must man — as man — die. What is threat- 
 ened as the penalty of unbelief and disobedi- 
 ence is a second death. "In the day that thou eatest 
 thereof thou shalt surely die." The Hebrew words 
 
Eternal Life 213 
 
 are more suggestive of the truth. Literally, these 
 are, "Dying thou shalt die." Disobedience would 
 be followed by a process of decline which would is- 
 sue in death. The death threatened is greater than 
 physical death. "Thou shalt die." The matter is 
 left with this simple but significant statement. The 
 story of the temptation and fall of man is the most 
 suggestive of possible immortality of anything found 
 in the earlier part of the Old Testament. 
 
 The promises of the laws of Moses and of the 
 Levitical code relate to the present world. Obedi- 
 ence to the law would issue in health, prosperity, 
 and long life. Disobedience to the law would 
 issue in disease, adversity, and premature death. 
 The law knew nothing of future rewards and pun- 
 ishments. The horizon of the earthly life was the 
 boundary of knowledge. 
 
 In the historical portion of the Old Testament, 
 the man who died, slept with his fathers ; if fortun- 
 ate, he was buried in the sepulcher of his fathers. 
 Dust slept with kindred dust, and no light was cast 
 beyond the grave. 
 
 In the poetical and prophetical books of the Old 
 Testament, a few brief passages express a hope of 
 immortality. In the book of Job, in the nineteenth 
 chapter. Job expresses his hope by saying, "I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth, and will stand upon the 
 earth, and after my skin is destroyed, then without 
 my flesh shall I see God." In the sixteenth psalm, 
 the tenth verse, the psalmist voices his hope in the 
 saying, "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; 
 neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corrup- 
 
214 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 tion. Thou wilt show me the path of life ; in Thy 
 presence is fulness of joj^ ; in Thy right hand there 
 are pleasures forevermore." In the book of Daniel, 
 the twelfth chapter, it is written: "And many of 
 them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
 sortie to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt." 
 
 There is also a suggestive passage in the last book 
 of the Old Testament. In the fourth chapter of 
 Malachi, there is a striking indication of the final 
 difference to be made between the righteous and the 
 wicked. A day will come in which there will be 
 discernment "between the righteous and the wicked, 
 between him that serveth God and him that serveth 
 Him not." To the former, that day will be like 
 the light of the sun, healing, and life-giving. To 
 the latter it will be "as a furnace of fire" which will 
 consume them as stubble, and, like worthless trees, 
 burning them up "root and branch." This is prac- 
 tically all the light cast by the Old Testament upon 
 the future of man. 
 
 The second fact to be noticed is that the teachings 
 of the New Testament on the subject of immortality 
 are clear, quite consistent, concise and conclusive. 
 By the time of Jesus the Jews held a clearer concep- 
 tion and a firmer faith in a future life than had been 
 held in an earlier period. Jesus, as was His wont, 
 cast His teachings in language and in literary form 
 which would be intelligible to the men of His times. 
 Their conceptions and their figures of speech gave 
 form and color to the teachings of Jesus, but the es- 
 sence of the teaching was His own. The teaching 
 
Eternal Life 215 
 
 of Jesus as we shall see, is explicit. 
 
 There are four great facts touching immortality 
 stated in the New Testament. The first fact is 
 this: 'God only hath immortality." (I. Timothy 
 6:16). The entire passage show^s that the affirma- 
 tion is made of God the Father who alone hath 
 immortality. He is the eternal and self-existent 
 One. the Possessor and the Giver of life. 
 
 The second fact is this: "As the Father hath 
 life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son also 
 to have life in Himself." (John 5:26). It should 
 be noticed here that even in the case of the Son, life 
 is the gift of the Father. 
 
 The third fact is this: God having given life to 
 the Son, has made that Son to be the giver of life to 
 men. This Jesus clearly affirms. "For as the 
 Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even 
 so the Son also giveth life to whom He will." 
 (John 5:21). Jesus says of Himself: "I am the 
 life." "I came that they may have life." "I am 
 the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on 
 me though he die, yet shall he live." In the six- 
 teenth verse of the third chapter of the gospel by 
 John is found that greatest of all gospel declara- 
 tions: "God so loved the world, that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." It should 
 be noted that the contrast here is between perishing 
 and eternal life. 
 
 The fourth fact is this: eternal life is not the 
 natural possession of man, but the gracious gift of 
 God. In the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ro- 
 
2i6 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 mans, it is said: ''The wages of sin is death; but 
 the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." Here the contrast is between opsonia, 
 wages, a merited or natural consequence and re- 
 ward, and charis?na, a gift of grace, free and un- 
 merited. 
 
 Could anything be more plain than these four 
 statements? "God only hath immortality." "God 
 hath given to the Son to have life in himself." 
 "God so loved the world that He gave His Son that 
 whosoever believeth m Him should not perish, but 
 have eternal life." "The wages" — the natural re- 
 sult — "of sin is death ; but the free gift of God is 
 eternal life." 
 
 It should be noticed that the teachings of Jesus 
 and the apostles are along this line always. Jesus 
 claims for Himself that He is "life," and "living 
 bread," and the giver of "living water," and "the 
 resurrection and the life," in whom, if a man be- 
 lieves, he shall live forever. In vain would we 
 search through the words of Jesus to find any pas- 
 sage where He teaches that He came to deliver men 
 from misery and confer upon them happiness. Sin 
 and death are the things from which Jesus saves 
 men. Love and life are the things for which He 
 saves them. 
 
 The apostles teach the same truth. In the con- 
 clusion of the gospel according to John, it stands 
 written: "These" (the things selected and placed 
 in this book) "are written that ye may believe that 
 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believ- 
 ing ye may have life in His name." And in his 
 
Eternal Life 217 
 
 first epistle John says, ''And this is the record, that 
 God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in 
 His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he 
 that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." 
 
 Saint Peter, likewise, in his first letter, gives 
 thanks to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, hath 
 begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance 
 incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by 
 the power of God through faith unto salvation 
 ready to be revealed in the last time." Evidently 
 this hope of immortality was given to Peter in 
 Christ. It was given him through the resurrection 
 of Jesus. He did not hold this glorious hope as a 
 man, but as a Christian man. 
 
 Saint Paul, speaking of the divine economy em- 
 bracing all dispensations says, "God, who will ren- 
 der to every man according to his deeds," will give 
 "to them who by patient continuance in well-doing 
 seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal 
 life." (Romans 2:6-7). This eternal life, accord- 
 ing to Paul, is not the natural possession of men but 
 is given as a result of their seeking it. Eternal 
 life is a possibility; it may become an actuality by 
 faith. Again, Saint Paul says, in speaking of the 
 resurrection: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God. For this corruptible must put on 
 incorruption, and the mortal must put on immor- 
 tality. So when this corruptible shall have put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
 
2i8 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 immortality, then shall be brought to pass the say- 
 ing, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' " 
 
 Why multiply passages? The words of Jesus 
 and John and Peter and Paul are concise and con- 
 clusive. Only a preconceived opinion of the na- 
 ture of man which blinded the mind to the natural 
 meaning of the words of scripture and which forced 
 a figurative meaning upon the plainest of words 
 could have kept the church in ignorance of the truth. 
 As light is colored by the glass through which it 
 streams taking the colors of the windows of a cathe- 
 dral which it floods, so divine truth is affected by 
 the preconceived opinions of minds into which it en- 
 ters. But as minds become open and clear, truth 
 is seen in its clear white light. Only unwilling- 
 ness to see the truth can hold the minds of men to 
 ancient falsehood. 
 
 Jesus was accustomed to teach the people in para- 
 bles. A parable is a picture or story wherein, by 
 things known, men are given some knowledge of 
 things hitherto unknown. A parable by its nature 
 is designed especially for the instruction of un- 
 spiritual men. Jesus says, "Here is something 
 which you know. Now the kingdom of heaven is 
 like this" A parable usually is intended to teach 
 just one thing and should not be pressed beyond its 
 natural meaning. It has been said that a parable 
 and what it is intended to illustrate, are like two 
 globes which touch only at one point. 
 
 In the several parables recorded in the thirteenth 
 chapter of the gospel of Matthew, there are two 
 which reach to the final judgment of men. These 
 
Eternal Life 219 
 
 are the parable of The Wheat and Tares and the 
 parable of The Net and Fishes. In the harvest, 
 wheat and tares are separated. Wheat is for the 
 garner; tares are for the burning. Jesus says, "As, 
 therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the 
 fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The 
 Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they 
 shall gather out of His kingdom all things that 
 offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast 
 them into a furnace of fire. Then shall the 
 righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom 
 of their Father." 
 
 So likewise, when the net was brought to shore, 
 the good fish were gathered into vessels, the bad 
 were cast away. Jesus says, "So shall it be in the 
 end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and 
 sever the wicked from among the righteous, and 
 shall cast them into the furnace of fire." Ob- 
 viously, fire is not for torment but for destruction, 
 and destruction is based on worthlessness. 
 
 Four other parables of judgment are recorded in 
 the gospels. In the parable of The Ten Virgins, 
 the five foolish virgins who took no oil and who 
 were late, were excluded from the marriage cele- 
 bration. In the parable of The Talents, the man 
 who wrapped his talent in a napkin and made no 
 gain was deprived of his talent. In the parable 
 of The Ten Pounds, likewise, the man who wrap- 
 ped his pound in a napkin and gained nothing was 
 deprived of his pound. In the parable of The Mar- 
 riage which a king made for his son, the man with- 
 out a wedding garment was cast out. There is one 
 
220 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 parable in action, namely, that of The Withered Fig 
 Tree. The fig tree whose leaves gave promise of 
 fruit but which bore no fruit, was withered. 
 
 In the account of the judgment of the nations giv- 
 en in the twenty-fifth chapter of the gospel by Mat- 
 thew, Jesus says that from among the nations. He 
 will welcome all who have lived lovingly and that 
 He will condemn all who have lived selfishly and 
 have rendered no service. The former He will 
 welcome into His kingdom. The latter He will 
 send away. "These shall go away into eternal pun- 
 ishment" (literally into the eternal cutting off as 
 branches pruned from a vine) ; "but the righteous 
 into eternal life." This is the common thought in 
 the New Testament : the one class shall be cut from 
 life ; the other class shall possess life. 
 
 But one may say, do not the scriptures speak of 
 the continuance of the souls of bad men after this life? 
 Yes. But that continuance is prior to the consumma- 
 tion of this world's history ; that is not the last state. 
 A body continues after death, but it continues in a 
 state of dissolution which decomposes it into its 
 original elements until it is no longer a body. A 
 depraved soul may continue after death but under 
 laws which will destroy it. Jesus says to His dis- 
 ciples: "Fear not them who kill the body, but are 
 not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who 
 is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, in 
 gehenna." 
 
 The parable of Dives and Lazarus may be re- 
 ferred to as teaching future punishment in the form 
 of pain. But that parable was spoken in language 
 
Eternal Life 221 
 
 which would appeal to Pharisees of Jesus' time. It 
 certainly teaches future punishment of selfishness 
 and sin; but it does not reach out into times 
 beyond the final judgment. It cannot be referred 
 to as a proof of endless torment or of eternal life 
 in sin. 
 
 One may say, Do not the scriptures teach that the 
 wicked will have their place in gehenna^ in the fire 
 belonging to that place? Yes. But it will be well 
 to know what gehenna meant in the days of Jesus. 
 Gehenna is the Greek form of the words Gah Hin- 
 nom. This, in Hebrew, was the valley of Hinnom. 
 This was the narrow valley which skirted Jerusalem 
 on the south. In that valley, in times of idolatry, 
 idolatrous Israelites burned their children in the fire 
 to Moloch. The valley, in later years, became the 
 common lay-stall of the city where the dead bodies 
 of criminals, the carcasses of animals, and every 
 kind of filth was cast to waste away by natural 
 decay, or, according to late authorities, to be con- 
 sumed by fire. Decay, however, is simply slow com- 
 bustion. 
 
 Bodies were thrown into Gah Hinnom, not for 
 purposes of punishment but for destruction. The 
 Jews in the time of Jesus employed this place as a 
 symbol of the place into which the wicked finally 
 would be cast. Obviously, they could not regard 
 this place as symbolizing pain, but as setting forth 
 the idea of dissolution and dissipation into nothing- 
 ness. Jesus took up this name in common use and 
 employed it to designate the fate of the unbelieving 
 and wicked. Surely the most natural meaning of 
 
222 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 such a name and such imagery is not torture but 
 destruction. Jesus compares the wicked to tares, to 
 fruitless branches, to things of utter worthlessness. 
 The effect of fire depends on the substance on which 
 it fastens. Fire purifies gold. Fire consumes tares. 
 Jesus says the wicked are tares. 
 
 In addition to the teachings found in the gospels 
 and in the epistles which have been given in fullness, 
 there is found in the book of Revelation a brief 
 description of the judgment. The "dead great and 
 small stand before the throne." The books are 
 opened. Another book is opened which is the book 
 of life. "The dead are judged out of the things 
 which are written in the books." They are judged 
 according to their works. "And the sea gave up 
 the dead that were in it ; and death and Hades gave 
 up the dead that were in them : and they were judged 
 every man according to their works. And death and 
 Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 
 second death, even the lake of fire. And if any 
 was not found written in the book of life, he was 
 cast into the lake of fire." 
 
 Dean Alford says in commenting on this passage : 
 "Hades is death's follower and the receiver of his 
 prey. The punishment of sin is inflicted on both, 
 because both are the offspring and bound up with 
 sin. This is the second death, the lake of fire. As 
 there is a second and higher life, so there is also 
 a second and deeper death. And as after that life 
 there is no more death, so after that death there is 
 no more life." 
 
 J^otice now in this final statement of the New 
 
Eternal Life 223 
 
 Testament that not only they whose names are not 
 written in the book of life and who therefore are 
 worthless and wicked, but death itself and also 
 Hades are all cast into the lake of fire, and so suffer 
 destruction. Life alone, life holy and worthy, sur- 
 vives and reigns. 
 
 Pain as punishment holds very little place in the 
 New Testament. Torture as a divine delight has 
 no place whatever. That teaching was introduced 
 into the Christian church from pagan sources. This 
 I shall show later. The god of the doctrine of 
 eternal torture was Moloch and his kind, and not the 
 God and Father of Jesus the Christ. 
 
 I already have stated that a change came into 
 the teaching of the church when men, controlled in 
 their thinking by Greek philosophy and by Roman 
 law with its imperial ideas, became the leading 
 teachers of the church. I am not writing a history 
 of Christian doctrine and must, therefore, refer the 
 reader to treatises on that subject or to the writings 
 of the church Fathers. However, for the benefit of 
 such persons as may not be able to refer to original 
 documents, I shall give a few quotations which will 
 serve to show the earlier and the later teachings in 
 the Christian church. The reader will mark that 
 the earlier writers follow the simplicity of the New 
 Testament and the later writers elaborate their 
 philosophy of the nature of man and their theories of 
 the physical and eternal character of punishment. 
 
 In The Epistle of Barnabas whose date is about 
 the year 100 A. D., we read as follows: **Thou 
 §halt be simple in heart and rich in spirit. Thou 
 
224 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 shalt not join thyself to those who walk in the way 
 of death. The way of darkness is crooked; for it 
 is the way of eternal death." Again, we read : "He 
 who keepeth these," (the judgments of the Lord), 
 "shall be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he 
 who chooseth other things shall be destroyed with 
 his works." 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch, who belonged to the first 
 half of the second century, writing of the nature 
 of man says: "But some one will say to us, Was 
 man by nature mortal? Certainly not. Was he, 
 then, immortal? Neither do we affirm this. He 
 was by nautre neither mortal nor immortal, but ca- 
 pable of both. If he should incline to the things of 
 immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he 
 should receive as reward from Him, immortality. 
 But if, on the other hand, he should turn to the 
 things of death, disobeying God, he should him- 
 self be the cause of death to himself." Such is the 
 tenor of the teaching of the men who immediately 
 succeeded the apostles. 
 
 In the third and fourth centuries, though some 
 writers follow the earlier simplicity, a change ap- 
 pears. TertuUian, who wrote about the beginning 
 of the third century, speaking of final rewards says: 
 "After the resurrection, the servants of God are for- 
 ever with God, and clothed upon with the proper 
 substance of eternity; but the profane and all who 
 are not true worshipers of God, in like manner shall 
 be consigned to the punishment of everlasting fire." 
 TertuUian, then, proceeds to argue that this fire, 
 so far from destroying like ordinary fire, "from its 
 
Eternal Life 225 
 
 very nature ministers to their incorruptibility." 
 That is to say, it tends to make them indestructible. 
 According to Tertulian, the wicked, like volcanoes 
 which burn and last, will endure in flames for- 
 ever. 
 
 Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, 
 lived in the latter part of the fourth and the early 
 part of the fifth century. He was a man of great 
 ability and of wide influence. He knew but little 
 Greek and no Hebrew. He was a Latin writer domi- 
 nated by the idea of Roman imperialism. He inter- 
 preted the divine government after the analogy of 
 imperial Rome. To him the kingdom of heaven 
 was not ruled by biological laws but by laws like a 
 political empire. Augustine laid supreme stress on 
 law and authority and the sovereign and indepen- 
 dent character of the ruling powers. His teachings 
 gave direction to the theological thought which pre- 
 vailed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. 
 
 Augustine, in his treatise on The City of God, 
 one of his two greatest works, wrote as follows: 
 *Tor to what but to felicity should men consecrate 
 themselves were felicity a goddess? However, as 
 it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, to what God 
 but the Giver of happiness ought we to consecrate 
 ourselves, who piously love eternal life, in which 
 there is true and full felicity? For we mean by 
 eternal life, that life where there is endlessness. For 
 if the soul live in eternal punishments, by which 
 also those unclean spirits shall be tormented, that 
 is rather eternal death than eternal life. For there 
 is no greater or worse death than when death never 
 
226 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 dies. But because the soul from its very nature, 
 being created immortal, cannot be without some 
 kind of life, its utmost death is alienation from the 
 life of God in an eternity of punishment. So, then. 
 He only who gives true happiness, gives eternal life, 
 that is an endlessly happy life." 
 
 The change from the simple teachings of the New 
 Testament and of the Apostolic Fathers is here ap- 
 parent. Almost all the terms in common use for 
 fifteen hundred years are found in the writings of 
 Augustine. The natural immortality of man, felic- 
 ity as the hope of the human heart, happiness and 
 misery as the rewards of faith and of unbelief, a 
 happy heaven and a hell of physical torment, a death 
 which is simply alienation from God and literal 
 fire consuming but not destroying, are all found 
 in the writings of Augustine. 
 
 Augustine argues that there are material bodies 
 and animal bodies which can continue to exist in 
 fire. He produces these arguments in order to 
 prove the possibility of eternal physical torment. He 
 rejects as untenable, the doctrine of those who 
 consider fire as a figure of speech and who hold 
 that the punishment of sin is ''the anguish of a 
 spirit repenting too late and fruitlessly." He makes 
 mention of "Animals which live in the midst of 
 flames, and worms which live in springs of hot 
 water." 
 
 He says: "If, therefore, the salamander lives 
 in fire, as naturalists have recorded, and if certain 
 famous mountains of Sicily have been continually 
 on fire from the rernotest antiquity until now, and 
 
Eternal Life 227 
 
 yet remain entire, these are sufficiently convincing 
 examples that everthing which burns is not con- 
 sumed. As the soul too is a proof that not every- 
 thing which can suffer pain, can also die." 
 
 Again, he says: "It is absurd to suppose that 
 either body or soul will escape pain in the future 
 punishment, yet, for my own part, I find it easier 
 to understand both" (that is the fire and the worm 
 of which he has been speaking) "as referring to 
 the body, than to suppose that neither does. I think 
 that Scripture is silent regarding the spiritual pain 
 of the damned, because, though not expressed, it 
 is necessarily understood that in a body thus tor- 
 mented, the soul also is tortured with a fruitless 
 repentance." He further adds: "I have already 
 sufficiently made out that animals can live in the 
 fire, in burning without being consumed, in pain 
 without dying, by a miracle of the most omnipotent 
 Creator, to whom no one can deny that this is pos- 
 sible, if he be not ignorant by whom has been 
 made all that is wonderful in all nature." 
 
 So enamoured is Augustine with material fire as 
 the fitting means of torment that he suggests that 
 even devils — who evidently puzzle him a little — 
 may possibly have bodies. He says, "Perhaps, as 
 learned men have thought, the devils have a kind 
 of body made of that dense and humid air which we 
 feel strikes us when the wind is blowing." But, if 
 this is not the case, still devils can burn. He says: 
 "Therefore, though the devils have no bodies, yet 
 their spirits, that is, the devils themselves, shall be 
 brought into thorough contact with the material 
 
228 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 fires to be tormented by them. That hell, which 
 also is called a lake of fire and brimstone, will be 
 material fire, and will torment the bodies of the 
 damned, whether men or devils, the solid bodies of 
 the one, aerial bodies of the other." 
 
 The reader can easily judge for himself, from 
 the above quotations, whether the doctrine of hell 
 and of future punishment which was taught by the 
 church during the Middle Ages and which was 
 preached commonly since the Reformation until 
 recent years came from the New Testament. A few 
 facts are, historically, very plain. 
 
 I. Torment is not emphasized in the New Tes- 
 tament as the punishment of sin. 
 
 II. Torment is emphasized in the teachings 
 of much of the world apart from Christianity. 
 
 III. The doctrine of eternal torment was in- 
 troduced into the teaching of the Christian church 
 by men whose minds had been filled with ideas of 
 pagan philosophy and doctrine. 
 
 To the student of religions, it is quite apparent 
 that the doctrine of torment and descriptions in 
 vivid colors of physical punishments are derived 
 from pagan and not from original Christian sources. 
 A few quotations will serve to illustrate this. 
 
 Buddhist descriptions of the punishments of 
 those in hell portray them as undergoing various 
 forms of torture. "Some are among fabled moun- 
 tains ; some are upon the shores of a great sea ; 
 one place is a place of terrific darkness ; another is 
 a place of red-hot iron ; another contains pits of 
 burning charcoal; another is a dense forest whose 
 
Eternal Life 229 
 
 leaves are sharp swords; another is a place paved 
 with iron spikes." Everything is painted as vividly 
 as in the hell of Dante. 
 
 Homer who, doubtless, popularized the thought 
 of his time among the Greeks, as Milton described 
 the thought of his day, describes Tartarus as "A deep 
 gulf beneath the earth, with iron portals and a 
 brazen threshold, as far below Hades as heaven is 
 from earth." 
 
 The Northmen of Scandinavia believed that evil 
 men should be banished from Valhalla, the palace of 
 immortality where the souls of heroes dwell, "and 
 that perjurers, murderers, and they who seduce 
 men's wives shall wade through thick venom 
 streams in Nastrond." 
 
 Ximenes, in his hidian Chronicles, gives the des- 
 criptions of hell which he found among the Ameri- 
 can Indians. "Hell is a house of darkness; a house 
 of unendurable cold ; a house of tigers which lacer- 
 ate the inhabitants; a house of bats which cry ter- 
 ribly and fly wildly about; and finally a house of 
 edges of knives." 
 
 The above quotations from widely different 
 sources seem to indicate a disposition on the part 
 of primitive and unchristian men to ascribe the 
 cruelty common to men to the character of 
 God, and to conceive of punishment in terms of tor- 
 ment. 
 
 Certain influential writers of the early church, 
 retaining apparently something of this primitive dis- 
 position and controlled, in part, in their thinking by 
 pagan thought, misinterpreted some expressions of 
 
230 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 the New Testament with respect to punishment, 
 and misunderstood and misused the figure of fire 
 which occurs in the parables and the teachings of 
 Jesus. Some of these writers gave free scope and 
 vivid expression to their imagination in portraying 
 the punishment of sinners in the department of 
 Hades known as Tartarus. 
 
 Tertullian, a fierce and barbarous sort of Chris- 
 tian, depicts ''Illustrious monarchs, world's wise 
 men, philosophers, and poets trembling before the 
 judgment seat and burning in fires; tragedians, play 
 actors and wrestlers dissolving in Hame, glowing in 
 fire, tossing in fiery billows for rejecting Christ and 
 for sin." 
 
 Hippolytus describes a place of unquenchable fire 
 where the unrighteous and those w^ho believe not 
 God shall endure endless punishment. "No sleep 
 will give them rest ; no night will soothe them ; no 
 voice of interceding friends will profit them ; but 
 to the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal pun- 
 ishment.'' 
 
 Lactantius says, "The wicked will again be 
 clothed with flesh, yet it will not be flesh like this 
 our earthly body, but indestructible and abiding for- 
 ever that it may be able to hold out against tortures 
 and everlasting fire." 
 
 In later times, the paintings of artists such as ap- 
 pear in pictures of the latter part of the Middle 
 Ages and the poems of such great poets as Dante, 
 in his Inferno and Milton in his Paradise Lost, 
 added to the popular belief in the torments of the 
 lost. So the doctrine of eternal torment as the pun- 
 
Eternal Life 231 
 
 ishment of sin became incorporated in the theology 
 and the teachings of the church. 
 
 Pain does not hold the place in the punishment 
 of sin in the New Testament, which it has held in 
 historic theology. The New Testament clearly 
 teaches that sin merits and will receive punish- 
 ment. There are "many stripes" and *'few stripes" 
 inflicted according to knowledge and desert; men 
 are "rewarded according to their works;" but these 
 punishments belong rather to the discipline and 
 training of life and precede the final consumma- 
 tion. "There is a sin," says Jesus, "possible now 
 which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, 
 nor in that which is to come." The time limit, 
 when punishment shall no longer belong to the dis- 
 ciplinary process of life, but shall become purely 
 destructive, is not revealed to us. 
 
 God and holiness, truth and love, will be no more 
 attractive and lovable in any other world and 
 state than now. It would be a mistake, and con- 
 trary to the tenor of the scriptures, to imagine that 
 the future holds better conditions and possibilities of 
 salvation than the present. But, evidently, it is not 
 the incident of physical death which may happen at 
 any time and at any age, but the personal and per- 
 manent choice of every soul which decides destiny. 
 The ultimate end to the unbelieving and the wicked 
 when the chastisements of God have failed to lead 
 to repentance and the grace of God has failed to 
 save, is death. Not pain but perdition is the end 
 of sin. 
 
 Torment does not honor and maintain the law, 
 
232 The .Secret of Successful Life 
 
 nor satisfy God, nor even by an exhibition of "jus- 
 tice," cause the saints to "rejoice" and "excite them 
 to joyful praises," as so late a theologian as Jonathan 
 Edwards taught. 
 
 It is the worthlessness more than the wickedness 
 of selfish men which is emphasized in the New Tes- 
 tament. The sinful are foolish, like the foolish 
 virgins; they are slothful, like the man who wrap- 
 ped his talent in a napkin ; they are indifferent and 
 obey not the gospel; they have no future worth, 
 like fruitless branches and like tares; they are 
 objects of divine condemnation; they are children of 
 (jehenna; they are sons of destruction. 
 
 The punishments of sinners correspond to their 
 characters and may be summed up under five heads. 
 The punishment of sin is exclusion. The foolish 
 virgins are excluded from the marriage celebration; 
 sinners are excluded from heaven. The punish- 
 ment of sin is privation. The talent of the sloth- 
 ful man is taken from him ; power and opportunity 
 are taken away from the sinner. The punishment 
 of sin is degradation. The man without a wedding 
 garment is cast out from the feast ; sinners without 
 the character which divine grace offers, are cast out 
 into darkness. The punishment of sins perdition. The 
 wicked are like chaff, like fruitless branches, like 
 tares, fit only to be burned. The final punishment 
 of sin is said to be apoleia or perdition, olethros or 
 destruction, a place in a lake of fire, a second death. 
 
 Now as science does not discover, nor philosophy 
 prove, nor revelation teach, the natural immortality 
 of man, the very significant words and symbols of 
 
Etertial Life 233 
 
 the New Testament must be interpreted in their 
 ordinary and natural meaning, and we must accept 
 as a very simple statement of fact the declaration 
 of the New Testament, namely, that "the wages of 
 sin is death." Death, like life, is a merciful pro- 
 vision of infinite love. 
 
 No more unscriptural and unworthy conception 
 of punishment could have been devised than that 
 which presents it as an act of wrath inflicted mainly 
 to satisfy the injured feelings of an offended Deity. 
 That is a conception of unregenerate and unchris- 
 tian humanity unrelieved of its pagan character. I 
 once heard a preacher of some popular power com- 
 pare the result of punishment in the mind of God 
 to the efifect of punishment on the minds of men 
 whose desire of vengeance has been satisfied by the 
 violent execution of a murderer. The men have 
 given expression to their feeling of anger and lust 
 of vengeance, and so are satisfied. In like manner, 
 said the preacher, God satisfies Himself by the pun- 
 ishment of men. He added to this caricature by 
 affirming that God could not pardon sin until He 
 had satisfied Himself for vengeance by the literal 
 punishment of His Son. That God will be satisfied 
 in Himself with all His acts towards men, we may 
 well believe. But the satisfaction of the God and 
 Father of Jesus will not be the satisfaction of an 
 irate father who has whipped an erring son, and 
 has, thereby, relieved himself of his anger. The sat- 
 isfaction of God will be that of a father who has 
 suffered for his erring son, and who has done his 
 best to reclaim him. The satisfaction of God will 
 
234 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 be that of a father who, if he leaves a wilful son to 
 his fate, does so because, under the beneficent laws 
 of life, it is inevitable and it is best. 
 
 Punishments in nature are for two purposes, me- 
 dicinal and surgical. Punishment first administered 
 is medicinal and designed to save the sinner. Pun- 
 ishment, when the sinner cannot be saved, is sur- 
 gical and designed to save society. The first pun- 
 ishments of sin, if heeded, are admonitory, salutary, 
 and saving. Later punishments are destructive. 
 This is clearly seen in the effects of physical vices. 
 The first pains are admonitory and, if heeded, cor- 
 rective. Where correction is refused, they become 
 destructive. The vicious man is taken out of so- 
 ciety. His removal is beneficent. 
 
 Punishment on the part of wise and loving par- 
 ents, is intended to save the child. Where the child 
 will not be saved, that punishment which excludes 
 him from home is intended to save that portion of 
 the family which is, as yet, uncorrupted. 
 
 It is worthy of note that as society moves farther 
 away from those conceptions of government, law, 
 and punishment which have descended from pagan 
 times, and as it incorporates the teaching and the 
 spirit of Jesus into civil legislation and the admin- 
 istration of law, society loses the desire simply for 
 vengeance, on the sinner and uses punishment, first, 
 if possible, to save the offender, and, then, if that 
 cannot be done, excludes the incorrigible offender 
 from its presence to save society itself. The refor- 
 matory for children; the indeterminate sentence for 
 criminals; the gift to a discharged prisoner of an 
 
Eternal Life 235 
 
 opportunity to choose and to follow some useful 
 career, all indicate the modern conception of pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Human society, by its present practice, affirms its 
 practical belief in conditional immortality within 
 the limits of this present life. That the privilege 
 of remaining in relation to human society as a free 
 member of it is conditioned upon worthiness, is the 
 practical belief of men nowadays. The man who 
 will not accept the common customs of society and 
 obey its laws is first punished as a means of restraint 
 and of reform ; and, when reform is impossible, he 
 is excluded from society. This is, also, the prin- 
 ciple of the divine government. 
 
 All physical life in this world from the tiniest 
 flower to the most perfect animal is conditioned. All 
 physical development and the avoidance of death, de- 
 pend on the fulfillment of the conditions of life. 
 All mental and all moral growth are, likewise, con- 
 ditioned. If the conditions are not fulfilled, there 
 are degeneration and decay of mental and moral 
 power. 
 
 Conditional immortality is the doctrine that man 
 is created capable of immortality. Man's posses- 
 sion of immortality depends on his fulfilling the con- 
 ditions. Men live under various circumstances of 
 light, knowledge, and opportunity. Their attitude 
 of mind and heart towards light, their desire of 
 knowledge, or their lack of desire, their improve- 
 ment or neglect of opportunity, are the important 
 human elements. According to the New Testa- 
 ment, eternal life is given to them who diligently 
 
236 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 seek it ; eternal life is given to them who, having 
 the light of nature only, the voice of conscience and 
 the touch of the spirit of Jesus whom they have not 
 known, live in love; eternal life is given to them 
 who having the gospel, believe on the Son of God. 
 
 Saint Paul expresses his thought of the condition 
 of condemnation in his words to the Jews of An- 
 tioch in Pisidia when he said: "It was necessary 
 that the word of God should first be spoken to you: 
 Seeing ye thrust it from you and judge yourselves 
 unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gen- 
 tiles." 
 
 Jesus expresses the condition of commendation 
 when He says, "Every one that doeth evil hateth 
 the light, but he that doeth the truth cometh to the 
 light." Again Jesus says, "Every one that is of the 
 truth, heareth my voice." In His account of His 
 judgment of the nations, Jesus says that He will 
 welcome all who live in love and so possess His 
 spirit, though they have not known Him in person 
 or by name. 
 
 The truth-loving mind, the receptive soul, the lov- 
 ing heart are the conditions in man, anywhere and 
 in any age, of receiving the reward of eternal life. 
 
 Conditional immortality differs from annihila- 
 tion. Annihilation, strictly speaking, is an act of 
 reducing to nothing. The word carries with it the 
 idea of putting forth power to destroy. It conveys 
 the conception of crushing out of existence some- 
 thing which, let alone, would continue. Condi- 
 tional immortality, on the contrary, conveys the idea 
 of a life dying out of itself for want of the fulfill- 
 
Eternal Life 237 
 
 ment of the conditions of continued living. It is 
 like a flame fading and dying, because it fails to 
 feed upon oil. It is, as Kant suggests, a soul dying 
 from inanition. 
 
 Three views, at present, are held respecting the 
 final destiny of men. There is the common opinion 
 that man is created immortal and his destiny is to 
 live forever in happiness or in misery. There is the 
 opinion that man is naturally immortal and, in 
 some way, by the grace of God, all men will escape 
 from sin and exist forever in felicity. There is the 
 opinion that man is created capable of becoming 
 immortal, and men will cease to be or live forever, 
 according. as they reject or receive the grace of God. 
 
 With respect to the first view, ancient and wide- 
 spread as it is, let me ask : Can any sane man suf- 
 fering agony from toothache or neuralgia or acute 
 indigestion or filled with unspeakable anguish in his 
 soul, really believe that a man should and can and 
 must exist forever in untold misery and unspeakable 
 pain? The men who have preached this doctrine 
 have had no vivid conception and realization of 
 what it meant. It was a far-away suffering which 
 they did not feel. A God who would create a 
 being like man, place him in a world like this, give 
 him a little span of three score and ten years and, 
 then, for failure to live righteously during those 
 years, would consign him to an eternity of unre- 
 lieved torment, could not be worshipped. 
 
 If a man like Jonathan Edwards, for instance, had 
 not been under the domination of a system of belief 
 in which man was simply a means of maintaining 
 
238 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 that system, and if he had observed his own chil- 
 dren, known his own neighbors, and studied his own 
 heart, could never have preached some sermons 
 which one must wish never had been printed. 
 
 With respect to the second view, namely, that 
 of universal salvation, personally, I should be only 
 too glad to believe it true. But I cannot blind my 
 eyes to the laws of life to which I have called atten- 
 tion; I cannot refuse to see that Jesus in His para- 
 bles and plain statements declares that the laws 
 of the divine kingdom are biological laws ; I cannot 
 remove the impression of the pictures which Jesus 
 portrays, nor change the meaning of the words He 
 uses in speaking of final things. 
 
 One would think that a doctrine so full of hope 
 as universalism would crowd the churches of those 
 who preach it. But they are not crowded nor 
 greatly multiplied. Much as men like myself might 
 wish that it may be well hereafter with all men, the 
 intellectual vision of men is too clear, the moral con- 
 science of men is too keen, and the evidence in the 
 resultant facts of choice and conduct is too plain, 
 for men to entertain the thought that faith and un- 
 belief, love and selfishness, obedience to divine law 
 and disobedience, will sometime issues in the same 
 result. Ian Maclaren has said in a sermon on 
 Judgment According to Type, "We have a robust 
 common sense of morality which refuses to believe 
 that it does not matter whether a man has lived like 
 the Apostle Paul or the Emperor Nero." It is said, 
 however, that the issue of well-being comes through 
 repentance at some time. 
 
Eternal Life 239 
 
 A single act of sin, like David's adultery and its 
 consequent crimes; or like Peter's denial of Jesus, 
 may startle a soul and show its weakness and lead 
 to that repentance which pens penitential psalms or, 
 in darkness, weeps bitterly, and so may occasion 
 the rebound of a virtually healthy soul from sin. 
 But, while this is true, the plain fact remains shown 
 on every hand that a course of sin wilfully chosen 
 and followed naturally and inevitably dulls the 
 conscience, darkens the moral vision, hardens the 
 heart, and leads a soul in the way of death. The 
 law of sin is not a law which works life but death 
 rather. There are seemingly men now, such as 
 Saint Paul speaks of, **Who are past feeling." And 
 the scriptures plainly speak of a time, whatever may 
 be the deciding cause, when it is too late to repent, a 
 time when the day has gone and the night which 
 will know no dawning, has come. 
 
 With respect to the third view, that of condi- 
 tional immortality, a few things may be said. It 
 is in accordance with the laws of nature regulating 
 all life in this world within the time limits of each 
 kind of life. It is in harmony with the doctrine 
 of the survival of the fittest. The fittest, in this 
 case, is not the strongest in a militant way, but the 
 best. It is that which has fulfilled the conditions of 
 life and so is worthy to endure. It is in accord with 
 the teachings of Jesus. Jesus does not compare the 
 divine kingdom with an imperial kingdom, as Ro- 
 man theology does, but with the biological king- 
 dom of earth. All through nature, anything hav- 
 ing life which fails to fulfill the conditions of living 
 
240 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 and to attain its fitting destiny, within the possible 
 limit of time allotted it, decays and dies. Why 
 should the life of highest potentiality, having the 
 possibility of eternal existence, be an exception to 
 this law? One would think that failure here would 
 be most offensive to the Creator. One would think 
 that, beyond anything else, such life should be sub- 
 ject to the law of death. 
 
 Why a man, who has been given by his Creator 
 exceptional potential powers, great possibilities, and 
 a chance of choosing the way of eternal life, but 
 who refuses to choose that way and so becomes, at 
 length, a being of no pleasure to himself, of no value 
 to society, of no delight or use to God, should live 
 forever, does not appear. 
 
 Speaking for myself, I must say that I cannot 
 feel nor think, whatever I may do and be, that I 
 ever could be reconciled to any so-called divine jus- 
 tice which would consign me to everlasting torment 
 or to hopeless remorse and unavailing regret. But 
 I could feel and think that having been given life 
 and its possibilities; if, in the judgment of the Crea- 
 tor from whom life is derived and by whom it is 
 sustained, I were of no value to the coherent sys- 
 tem of the social and moral universe, I should cease 
 to be. There would not appear to me any injustice 
 in such a judgment. 
 
 As to eternal torment, it should be noticed, that 
 a man who, being injured in any way by another 
 man, and who having power to do so, should take 
 the man who injured him and imprison him and vol- 
 untarily inflict on him daily torture for the sake of 
 
Eternal Life 24] 
 
 punishing by pain, and who should continue this so 
 long as his enemy could possibly live, would be re- 
 garded as an immoral monster. What would be 
 immoral and unjust in man, cannot be moral and 
 just in God. 
 
 It may well be asked again. Why should any 
 creature contiue to exist when he has failed of the 
 ends of its creation? When it is no pleasure to 
 itself? When it is of no value to others? When 
 it is nothing but an offense to its Creator? By the 
 most common laws of nature that a living thing 
 which does not fulfill the conditions of its continu- 
 ance, growth, and perfection, declines, decays and 
 dies. Nay more, the very forces which build up a 
 living thing, destroy a declining and dying thing. 
 Sunlight, air, and showers feed a growing plant, 
 but consume a decaying plant. A mind unexer- 
 cised loses its powers of acquisition and expansion, 
 and sinks to idiocy. A moral nature misused, loses 
 moral discernment and affection. A wicked man 
 who says in his heart, "There is no God," has be- 
 come insensible to God and has lost connection, 
 inwardly, with the source of life, Why should the 
 touch of God, without, continue to preserve him? 
 How can he continue to live? Why should he 
 continue to live? 
 
 "No, no, the energy of life may be 
 Kept on after the grave, but not begun; 
 And he who flagged not in the earthly strife, 
 From strength to strength advancing — only he, 
 His soul well-knit and all his battles won, 
 Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life." 
 
242 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 Mr. Charles Darwin, in closing his treatise on 
 The Descent of Man, says: "For my own part, I 
 would as soon be descended from that heroic little 
 monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to 
 save the life of his keeper ; or from that old baboon, 
 who, descending from the mountains, carried away 
 in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of as- 
 tonished dogs — as from a savage who delights to 
 torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, prac- 
 tices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives 
 like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the 
 grossest superstitions." 
 
 In writing on the ascent of man, one may say: 
 The dog, who, though hungry, will suffer rather 
 than touch his master's dinner which he guards; 
 who will loyally serve his master even when that 
 master is unkind ; who will brave danger and fight 
 and die in his master's defence, seems more loving, 
 moral, and noble than the man who will allow his 
 wife and children to suffer the pangs of hunger; 
 who will treat with cruelty those who are kind to 
 him; who will beat his children and permit them 
 to die for want of attention that he may indulge 
 himself through lusts in grossest vices. Why should 
 such a man — because he has been made a man with 
 a man's possibilities — continue to live forever, when 
 he has sunk below the level of the monkey and the 
 dog? Why should the latter die because they are 
 animals, and the former live simply because he bears 
 the form of a man? 
 
 In fact, a man without love as the dominating 
 motive in his life is like a sunbeam without heat, 
 
Eternal Life 243 
 
 if he is simply moral. He is like a rose without 
 fragrance, if he is simply physically clean. He is 
 like grain which has rotted, if he is grossly de- 
 praved. 
 
 Again, I repeat the question. Why should a man, 
 who in point of love and morals is worthless, who is 
 of no pleasure to himself, who is of no use to oth- 
 ers, who is no delight to God, continue to exist for- 
 ever? For God to maintain such a life by the 
 mere exercise of His power would be a misuse of 
 power, for it is not a beneficent use. For God to 
 force a sensitive, living creature to continue to live 
 simply that He may suffer pain forever, would be 
 an act of continued cruelty. Death, in such a case, 
 is a merciful event, administered in loving kindness 
 by infinite love. 
 
 Eternal life, on the other hand, is the greatest 
 gift of divine grace, the reward of faith, the pos- 
 session of love. Three terms are used to express 
 the idea of eternal life. These are incorruptibility, 
 immortality, and eternity. According to the New 
 Testament those who believe "have been begotten 
 of incorruptible seed"; they have "a living hope 
 of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away" ; their present condition must 
 be changed so that ''this corruptible must put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortal- 
 ity"; and "when this corruptible shall have put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- 
 mortality ; then shall come to pass the saying that is 
 written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory' " ; then, 
 they, who "by patience have sought for glory and 
 
244 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 honor and Immortality, shall have eternal life." 
 These words: incorruption, immortality, and eter- 
 nal in their various forms as nouns and as adjectives 
 are the exact equivalents of the Greek words which 
 they translate. A metal which cannot corrode, a 
 vegetable fiber which cannot decay, a consciousness 
 in thought which cannot cease, must be eternal. An 
 incorruptible, immortal, and deathless man must 
 live forever. 
 
 Scientific students of human evolution and his- 
 tory, recognize the fact that further development of 
 mankind must be along moral lines. They also 
 recognize the fact that a future life seems to be 
 necessary to complete what is so imperfect and so 
 broken here. Professor Henry Drummond has said, 
 "One of the most startling achievements of recent 
 science is a definition of eternal life." Herbert 
 Spencer said, "Perfect correspondence would be per- 
 fect life. Were there no changes in the environ- 
 ment but such as the organism had adapted changes 
 to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency 
 with which it met them, there would be eternal 
 existence and eternal knowledge." 
 
 Charles Darwin writing on The Descent of Man 
 concludes his book by sajdng: "Man may be ex- 
 cused for feeling some pride at having risen, though 
 not by his own exertions, to the very summit of the 
 organic scale ; and the fact of his having risen, in- 
 stead of having been aboriginally placed there, may 
 give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the dis- 
 tant future." What that distant future may have 
 embraced in Mr. Darwin's mind, I do not know; 
 
Eternal Life 245 
 
 but even if, in his own thought, it had reference to 
 the advance of the race, it is suggestive and serves 
 to give hope of a still greater future. 
 
 Science, however, which furnishes a definition 
 of eternal life, does not inform us how to fulfil those 
 conditions. Science which sometimes expresses a 
 hope of a future life is not able to affirm it. Jesus 
 Christ, alone, who abolished death, has brought life 
 and immortality to light. Through Him, eternal 
 life is the gift of God to man. As many as receive 
 Him to them gives He the right to become children 
 of God. The Son of God became the Son of Man 
 and so, by virtue of the assumption of flesh, brother 
 of men by incarnation. The sons of men become sons 
 of God, by faith, and so brothers of Christ by 
 regeneration. 
 
 Jesus has said, "Whosoever shall do the will of 
 God, the same is my brother and sister." Saint 
 Paul has said, "As many as are led by the Spirit of 
 God, these are sons of God." Saint John has said, 
 "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." 
 
 Eternal life is, then, first of all, a kind and qual- 
 ity and grade of life. Its beginning is here; its 
 completion is hereafter. Its character is now man- 
 ifest; its consummation and its glory are yet to 
 appear. Eternal life is a life of faith in God ; it is 
 a life of love for Christ; it is a life of communion 
 with the ever-living Spirit. It is fed from unfailing 
 sources. The eternal life lives because God lives. 
 
246 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 It loves because God loves. It Is mericful because 
 God is merciful. It blesses because God blesses. 
 It is joyous because of the joy of God. It is un- 
 failing because God is unfailing. "They who wait 
 upon the Lord renew their strength." They know 
 that their strength has been renewed. The love 
 of Christ constrains them who believe. It seizes 
 them and bears them on its own gracious way as a 
 river seizes and bears on its way the smaller streams 
 which join it. The man in whom is eternal life 
 comes to think as Jesus thinks, and to love as Jesus 
 loves, and to do as Jesus does, and so grows into the 
 likeness of Jesus. 
 
 Christianity has suffered greatly in efficiency from 
 the diversion of the minds of men from this great 
 purpose of God in Christ. The church has taught 
 the gospel as a plan of salvation rather than as a 
 power of salvation. The church has conceived 
 of salvation as the adjustment of legal relations be- 
 tw^een God and men, rather than as the impartation 
 and perfecting of a new life. The fact of the new 
 life — it must be said in justice to the church — has 
 not been denied nor wholly lost sight of, but it has 
 been obscured. The result has been that men have 
 thought of the gospel as a sort of scheme and plan 
 of insurance — a condition, a covenant, a promise — 
 by belief in which men may escape future punish- 
 ment and secure entrance into heaven. But the 
 gospel is the revelation and the publication of God's 
 love to men, and the promise that he who believes 
 may live in that love. It is fortunate that of late 
 years, emphasis is placed upon Christianity as a life. 
 
Eternal Life 247 
 
 It feeds indeed upon a creed, but it formulates itself 
 in character and in deeds. 
 
 Success in life comes from believing and appre- 
 hending the great facts of the gospel where that 
 gospel is known. Or success in life comes from 
 accepting the inspiration of the living Spirit medi- 
 ated through Christ who acts beyond the bounds of 
 the published gospel. There is no other true and 
 worthy success in life. 
 
 A Christian is not exempt from the ordinary con- 
 ditions which exist in the world; but a Christian 
 who has in him eternal life, has something in him- 
 self which transforms all things. A Christian has 
 temptation; but he has a way of escape from temp- 
 tation. To him temptation is an opportunity to 
 rise rather than to fall. A Christian has trials; but 
 he has gracious help which sustains him in trials, 
 and through trials, he is made strong. None but 
 a Christian can say, "We glory in tribulations." A 
 Christian has sorrow, but he has also consolation. 
 He sorrows not as the rest who have no hope. A 
 Christian has disappointments, but he has an abiding 
 hope of better things which God has provided. A 
 Christian must die; but to him death has lost its 
 sting and its victory. To be absent from the body, 
 is to be present with the Lord; to lose this body, 
 is to receive a better one; to depart from earth, is 
 to dwell in heaven; to leave things temporal, is to 
 enjoy things eternal. Therefore, if you would truly 
 succeed in life, you must believe. 
 
 Believe, and the sky will bend in beauty, and 
 glow with glory above you now. Believe, and the 
 
248 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 truth and the promises of God will illumine your 
 path and sustain your heart and strengthen your 
 soul now. Believe, and you will be filled with 
 peace and power, sanity and strength, sweetness and 
 love, hope and joy now. You will have the eternal 
 life. 
 
 But eternal life will find its fulfillment and its 
 fruition in the future, beyond the grave and beyond 
 the present order. No one can read the words of 
 Jesus to His disciples and not perceive that the 
 future and not the present was the object of hope. 
 No one can read the writings of the New Test- 
 ament and not perceive that the emphasis of reward 
 is laid not upon the present life but upon the future 
 life. The consummation of the kingdom is not upon 
 earth but in heaven. 
 
 The parables of Jesus point to a consummation. 
 Life is to be followed by a harvest time when good 
 and evil will be separated. Life leads on to a day 
 of reckoning when a report of stewardship and ser- 
 vice will be made. Life is to be succeeded by shar- 
 ing the victory and the reward, the blessedness and 
 the glory of Him with whom the saints have suffer- 
 ed. Saint Paul teaches that the distinctions between 
 men made by position, possessions, and conditions 
 are of little moment because they are so transient. 
 Sufferings are short, afflictions for a moment, and 
 possessions as though they were not in comparison 
 with the power and the possessions and joys of 
 eternity. The things which make this present life a 
 time of trial and discipline, of suffering and sorrow 
 will pass away. They will be replaced by a state 
 
Eternal Life 249 
 
 in which pure love, perfect power, painless exercise^ 
 congenial persons, and wholly suitable and adjusted 
 conditions will make living a delight. According 
 to the revelation of the New Testament, all things 
 which, at present, occasion pain and suffering and 
 sorrow will be eliminated and only such things 
 as occasion pleasure, peace, and joy will be found in 
 the heavenly home. There, the mind will know all 
 necessary truth. There, the heart will be satis- 
 fied with love. There, all the powers possessed will 
 find free exercise. There, the soul in all its great- 
 ness will be satisfied. 
 
 Who will compose the heavenly society? Will 
 it be limited to them who have heard and believed 
 the gospel? Surely not. Jesus has said: "Many 
 shall come from the east and the west, and shall 
 sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob in the 
 kingdom of heaven." The revelation of God's 
 love in Christ does not create that love. The pub- 
 lication of the method of salvation does not make 
 the method. Sunlight floods many a valley before 
 the sun himself appears over the eastern hills. Sun- 
 light fills many a house from whose windows the 
 sun is never seen. The Son of God, who is the 
 Light of the World, sends His Spirit to many who 
 have not seen His face nor heard His voice. Jesus 
 says that every one who is of the truth will come to 
 His light and will hear His voice. The truth-loving 
 man will see and know and love Jesus when He is 
 revealed. The attitude of such a man is like the 
 attitude of the Gentile Cornelius who was ready 
 to believe the gospel and to confess Christ as soon 
 
25P The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 as they were made known to him. Not intellectual 
 knowledge of a revelation which God has graciously 
 given, but a heart ready to receive that revelation 
 is what God first requires and approves. Not 
 knowledge but love is the sign of life. 
 
 Expressing the condition of eternal life in terms of 
 natural theology and natural law, Saint Paul has 
 said that the heavenly society will be composed of 
 all "who by patient continuance in well-doing have 
 sought for glory and honor and immortality." Ex- 
 pressing the condition of eternal life in terms of 
 action possible among all nations, Jesus has said that 
 the eternal society will be composed of all who have 
 lived lovingly and have given ministrations to them 
 in need and thereby have been followers of Him 
 who came not to be ministered unto but to min- 
 ister. Expressing the condition of eternal life in 
 terms of faith and knowledge, Jesus has said that 
 eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom 
 He has sent. 
 
 This is surely a broad enough basis of eternal life 
 for all men. All who bow before the majesty of 
 moral truth, however revealed ; all who believe and 
 obey the truth, however made known; all who 
 dwell in love and cherish a loving heart; all who, 
 like Jesus, have the spirit of service and who accord- 
 ing to strength and opportunity render ministry, will 
 have a place in that perfect and permanent society. 
 
 I am persuaded also that of those who live where 
 the gospel is published, there are many who, evident- 
 ly, are only babes in Christ. As flowers are set back 
 and chilled in the spring time and blossoming is 
 
Eternal Life 251 
 
 delayed by an unfavorable atmosphere, so the lives 
 of many are limited by unfavorable circumstances. 
 The atmosphere in which they live is so cold, spirit- 
 ually, their own powers are so feeble, the burdens 
 of their life are so heavy that they are hindered in 
 growth. One may fain believe that many a har- 
 rassed man, and many a troubled woman having 
 lived under great limitations and with few oppor- 
 tunities but neither denying nor doubting the love 
 and wisdom of God but trusting in a very simple 
 faith, will blossom out in fair beauty of soul, like 
 a transplanted flower, when they are brought into 
 the light and love of Christ in a fairer world. 
 
 What the future life may be is not a matter of 
 knowledge but of hope. 
 
 An unhatched eagle has lungs fitted to breathe 
 the air, eyes which will pierce space in glorious vis- 
 ion, wings which will beat the air with strength, and 
 all the organs necessary for its life when it shall 
 leave the shell ; but the unhatched eagle cannot con- 
 ceive the form and nature of the world into which 
 it is so soon to enter; it could not conceive that 
 world even though its mind were awake and intel- 
 ligent. So we, though we possess all the powers 
 capable of entering and enjoying the future life, can- 
 not know now what its form and circumstance may 
 be. 
 
 The revelations given to us in the scriptures are 
 adapted to our present condition. They are por- 
 trayed in the imagery of things with which we are 
 familiar. They are suggestive and satisfying. These 
 revelations are worth our study. 
 
252 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 The future dwelling place, according to Jesus, 
 will be a father's house. A father's house is a home. 
 It is a place where one is loved for his own sake. 
 It is a place where every want is anticipated and 
 every desire gratified. It is a place of rest, shelter, 
 friendship, and joy. 
 
 The future dwelling place, according to Jesus, 
 will be prepared for men. "I go," said Jesus to his 
 disciples, "to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
 and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
 receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there 
 ye may be also." As a bride may trust her hus- 
 band to prepare a home for her, though it may be 
 beyond the sea ; so the believer may trust Jesus to 
 prepare a home for him, though it be far beyond his 
 sight. It will be a home prepared in every partic- 
 ular to meet the nature and the wants of those who 
 shall dwell there. 
 
 The future dwelling place is described as a city. 
 The children of faith, it is written, "look for a 
 city which hath foundations, whose builder and 
 maker is God." "Wherefore God is not ashamed 
 to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for 
 them a city." This is a "great city and a holy, hav- 
 ing the glory of God." This is a very suggestive 
 title and figure. A city is the most complete place 
 of abode for men which has been developed upon 
 earth. A city is the place of greatest safety, con- 
 venience, ministry, and comfort upon earth. A city 
 is the most completely organized society. A city 
 is a place where every want is anticipated, every 
 hunger fed, every taste gratified, and the social 
 
Eternal Life 253 
 
 nature satisfied. 
 
 They who dwell in that future world shall be like 
 Christ and shall see Him as He is. Their bodies, it 
 is written, "shall be fashioned like unto His glorious 
 body." These bodies are described as incorrupti- 
 ble, strong, perfect, and immortal. 
 
 On the negative side, all the weaknesses, evils, 
 sufiferings, and sorrows of this present earthly life, 
 shall have no place and shall not be found. "They 
 shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; 
 neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." 
 "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; 
 there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
 crying, neither shall there be any more pain." 
 
 On the positive side, they shall be clothed in 
 beauty and endowed with every necessary power. 
 They "shall be clothed with white robes," which 
 suggest purity and beauty. And "the Lamb which 
 is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and 
 shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." 
 
 The activities and occupations of the future life 
 are expressed by three significant terms. They wor- 
 ship. They sing. They reign. 
 
 They worship. Worship is the perception and 
 admiration of physical beauty and the perception 
 and adoration of spiritual excellence and glory. All 
 the works of God in the entire universe will be seen 
 in such clearness of vision that the perfection of 
 form and radiancy of beauty will awaken constant 
 delight and will evoke unceasing praise. God Him- 
 self in the surpassing excellency of His glory will be 
 so known and so loved as to evoke the joyful ador- 
 
254 The Secret of Successful Life 
 
 ation of all saints so that they shall ever worship 
 Him as the angels worship who say: "Blessing, 
 and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and hon- 
 our, and power, and might, be unto our God for- 
 ever." 
 
 They sing. Music is the language of the heart, 
 the utterance of the emotions, the voice of the soul. 
 Music speaks from the heart and speaks to the heart. 
 Music is alwaj'S pure. Song is music wedded to 
 words. Song is the feeling and voice of the heart 
 filling and expressing the thought of the mind. 
 Song, therefore, is the highest and the most perfect 
 expression and utterance of the whole personality. 
 Song gives vent and voice and harmonious and per- 
 fect form to all the feelings and inmost powers of 
 the saints. Hence, they sing, saying, ''Great and 
 marvelous are Thy works. Lord, God Almighty; 
 just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints. 
 Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy 
 name? for Thou only art holy." 
 
 These songs of the saints in the future life and the 
 heavenly world will be like the voice of many wa- 
 ters. In them, will be such sweetness and such 
 unity that it will be as though the languages of 
 every land and race speak in perfect harmony. 
 
 They reign. Reigning suggests the exercise of 
 power put forth in wisdom and in masterful ways. 
 They who reign will find expression and scope for 
 all their powers. Much of the greatest enjoyment 
 in life comes through the use of power. Power in 
 that future life will not be wasted and lost and leave 
 weariness; but power will be put forth in wisdom 
 
Eternal Life 255 
 
 and with delight, and will be used in regal and 
 kingly ways for ends beneficent and good. Men 
 will think and act and achieve with intelligence, ef- 
 ficiency, and joy. **For the Lord God giveth them 
 light: and they shall reign forever and ever." 
 
 These figures of worship and song and reigning 
 suggest that the eternal life, in its immortality, will 
 be free from weakness, from weariness, and from 
 pain. They suggest, also, that love and thought 
 and the power of will shall find expression in ways 
 congenial, delightful and full of joy. 
 
 All who by faith have received God's greatest gift 
 of eternal life in Jesus Christ and who, through that 
 life, have controlled the flesh, and have overcome 
 the world, and have conquered death will find, at 
 last, that they have achieved success and are satis- 
 fied. 
 
 They who by faith in Christ learn from Him the 
 spirit of sonship will be heirs with Him of God's 
 glorious creation. All things are theirs; for they 
 are Christ's; and Christ is God's. 
 
 They will be a joy to themselves. They will be 
 satisfied with their society. They will rejoice for- 
 ever in the light and love of God. 
 
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