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 Porter, Noah, 1811-1892. 
 Fifteen years in the chapel 
 of Yale college 
 
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FIFTEEN YEARS 
 
 IN THB 
 
 Chapel of Yale College 
 
 BY 
 
 NOAH 'Sorter 
 
 1871-1886 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER^S SONS 
 
 1888 
 
Copyright, 1887, 
 By CHAKLES SCKIBNER'S SONS. 
 
 RAND AVERY COMPANY, 
 
 ELECTROTYPE US ANT) PRINTERS, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The discourses in this volume were prepared for definite 
 academic uses, and written in a distinctively academic spirit. 
 Fifteen of them were delivered as Baccalaureate sermons 
 before the classes which were graduated during the presi- 
 dency of the writer. The remaining three have some his- 
 toric interest. While their themes are practical, the treat- 
 ment of them is more or less philosophical. If some of 
 them may seem to be positive and polemical in their tone, 
 it will be remembered that the occasions for writing them 
 were held by the writer to be real and serious, and the 
 truths which they set forth were believed to be timely and 
 important. Should any one of his old pupils chance to 
 open this volume, he may recognize the expression of 
 thoughts which he heard man}' 3'ears ago, — perhaps with 
 little heed, — but to which the experiences of his subse- 
 quent life have given their serious attestation. Whether 
 this shall be, or not, he cannot be mistaken, if, in these 
 utterances of positive conviction, he shall think he still 
 hears the expression of affectionate regard from his old 
 
 teacher and faithful friend, 
 
 N. P. 
 Yale College, June, 1887. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 I. ON" LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL (JimE 18, 1876), 11 
 IL ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL (June 18, 1876), 34 
 
 III. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP (Sept. 24, 1876) ... 61 
 
 IV. CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH (July 7, 
 
 1872) 76 
 
 V. THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD (June 22, 
 
 1873) 97 
 
 VL OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 (June 21, 1874) 118 
 
 VII. CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE (June 27, 
 
 1875) 142 
 
 VIIL THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN (June 25, 
 
 1876) 163 
 
 IX. BY FAITH YE STAND (June 24, 1877) ... 183 
 
 X. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (June 23, 1878) . 204 
 
 XL THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT 
 
 (June 22, 1879) 223 
 
 XII. AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR (June 
 
 27, 1880) 246 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIII. SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD (June 26, 
 
 1881) 268 
 
 XIY. THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF (June 25, 
 
 1882) 288 
 
 XY. THE FIGHT OF FAITH (June 24, 1883) . . 309 
 
 XVI. IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN (June 22, 1884), 332 
 
 XVII. SUCCESS IN LIFE (June 21, 1885) . . . 355 
 
 XYIII. THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE (June 27, 1886) . 382 
 
 m 
 
FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 9 
 
I. 
 
 OJV LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL* 
 
 " Wb have thought of thy lovikg-kindnkss, O God, in the kidst 
 OF TUY temple." — Psalm zlviii. 9. 
 
 It was on the 17th of November, 1824, that this edi- 
 fice was set apart as a place of public worship. On this 
 occasion a sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Fitch, 
 professor of divinity, from 2 Chron. vi. 18. The 
 chapel older than this was begun in 1761, and dedi- 
 cated in June, 1763, by a sermon from Professor Dag- 
 gett. Towards evening on the day of dedication, " two 
 English orations were delivered by two of the pupils 
 belonging to the college." Previously to this time, 
 daily worship had been observed in the College Hall 
 from 1718, when the first college edifice was completed ; 
 while on Sundays the students attended at the First 
 Church. This original chapel, now called the Athe- 
 naeum, had become too narrow for the accommodation 
 of the students and officers. That edifice will always 
 be memorable as the scene of the pulpit labors of Pres- 
 ident Dwight. Its third story had from an early date 
 been set apart for the uses of the department of natural 
 philosophy, and was divided into three apartments, — the 
 Philosophical Chamber in the rear, and two rooms for 
 apparatus in front. On being abandoned as a chapel, 
 the most of the second story was used for many years 
 
 * June IS, 1876. 
 
 U 
 
12 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 for the libraries of the Linonian and Brothers' Societies, 
 and subsequently for recitation-rooms, and still later 
 nearly the whole of the building was given up to this 
 use. In the summer of 1830, the spire which sur- 
 mounted the tower was taken down, to make room for 
 an observatory which was required for the new refract- 
 ing telescope, then one of the most famous in the 
 country. The cost of this second chapel was some ten 
 to twelve thousand dollars, about one-fourth of which 
 was contributed by the friends of the college. The 
 edifice itself has undergone no ma,terial alterations since 
 it was erected. The attic, it will be remembered, was 
 originally handsomely fitted for the reception of the 
 college library, which had been previously kept in that 
 portion of the third story of the Lyceum Avhich is now 
 divided into two recitation-rooms. This room was for 
 several years known as the Rhetorical Chamber after 
 the library had been removed to this edifice. The 
 third story of this building was fitted, as now, for studies 
 and lodging-rooms, and from the first was chiefly occu- 
 pied by students in theology till 1838, when the Divin- 
 ity College was erected, which was removed in 1870. 
 The gallery was furnished with square pews along the 
 walls of the house, with a broad passage between them 
 and the gallery front, in which one or two rows of mov- 
 able seats were placed, for casual attendants and pro- 
 fessional or graduate students. The pulpit was so 
 arranged that the speaker stood three feet higher than 
 at present. The present arrangement of seats in the 
 gallery was made in the year 1831 ; and in 1847, the year 
 after the accession of President Woolsey, the seats 
 below were somewhat improved, the central and higher 
 portion of the pulpit was cut down, and the preacher 
 brought into somewhat nearer communication with his 
 hearers. Four years ago the pulpit itself was again 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 13 
 
 lowered, and the gallery fronts were cut down. In the 
 year 1851 the present organ was purchased, and the in- 
 strumental accompaniments to the singing which had 
 been previously used were dispensed with. 
 
 It is a little more than fifty years since this edifice 
 was finished. The college at that time had four profess- 
 ors in the academical department, besides the professor 
 of divinity. The academical department numbered 
 three hundred and forty-nine students. The medical 
 department had existed from the year 1813, and in 1824 
 had eighty students. The Theological Seminary had 
 been formally organized as a distinct department the 
 year previous, and had seventeen students. The Law 
 School was not recognized as a branch of Yale College 
 until a year or two later. The humble foundations of 
 the Scientifi.c School were laid in 1846. The School 
 of Fine Arts was founded in 1864. The department 
 of philosophy and the arts was organized in 1847, 
 although resident graduates had received instruction 
 here from the earliest days of the college. 
 
 The pecuniary resources of the college were very lim- 
 ited. In 1831 the entire net income of the academical 
 department from funds and real estate was $2,363^6^^^. 
 The whole cost of instruction in the academical depart- 
 ment in 1833 was $12,881. In 1875 it was $51,867. 
 Besides the large endowments and gifts for buildings 
 that have been made by individuals, three several 
 efforts to add to the general fund have been made since 
 1824. The first, in 1831, resulted in ^100,000, of 
 which 'f 94,000 accrued to the academical department ; 
 the second, in 1854, yielded $110,000, $90,000 of which 
 went to the same department ; and the third, in 1871, 
 which is not yet finished, has already produced more 
 than 8150,000. 
 
 The instruction of the college was conducted chiefly 
 
14 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 by tutors, each of whom taught his division in every 
 branch of study except those taught by lectures, and 
 continued with the same division during his oflicial 
 term. He became in this way the guardian and coun- 
 sellor of many of his pupils. The instruction of the 
 professors was chiefly by lectures. Though few in num- 
 ber, the professors were enterprising and able scholars, 
 standing foremost in their several departments, and 
 were united to one another by a chivalrous courtesy 
 which was worthy of the elder times, and which, with 
 their single-hearted devotion to the college, gave them 
 a high place in the confidence of the community. They 
 were all men of decided religious convictions, though 
 singularly unlike in the expression of them. 
 
 I have no disposition nor temptation to depreciate 
 the scholarship of the present day, and should be the 
 last to desire to go back to the scanty helps and the 
 uncritical methods of fifty years ago ; but the inspiring 
 power, .the resources and the individuality of the in- 
 structors and pupils of those days would not suffer by 
 comparison with the products of these times. Life was 
 more sober then to those who reflected at all. Scholars 
 were more cautious, circumspect, solid, and docile, than 
 they are at present, and the whole tone of intellectual 
 life was less pretentious and sensational. There was 
 more independence and individuality and personal 
 enthusiasm in teachers and pupils then than now. Ideas 
 were diffused more slowly, and received more cautiously, 
 for the reason that newspapers and reviews, and rail- 
 ways and steamships and telegraphs, furnished none of 
 the abundant facilities of these times for the rapid diffu- 
 sion of thought and feeling. In literature, books were 
 less abundant, and in many departments immeasurably 
 inferior to those which are now everywhere at hand. 
 But neither the men nor the times were worthy the 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 15 
 
 flippant contempt with which some learned scholars and 
 many shallow sciolists are disposed to judge the Ameri- 
 can scholars and teachers of the preceding generation. 
 
 At the time when this chapel was erected, morning 
 prayers were held at five in the summer term, and at 
 six and six and a half in the autumn and winter. Morn- 
 ing recitations were uniformly attended before break- 
 fast by all the classes except the senior, and after 1846 
 by the senior class also. Evening prayers were held 
 at five and six o'clock, according to the season. The 
 President officiated at morning prayers, and one of the 
 professors or tutors in the evening. On Sunday even- 
 ings, in addition to the two services of Sunday worship, 
 a printed sermon was read by some member of the sen- 
 ior class till the year 1828. In the year 1858 or 1859 
 morning prayers and recitations before breakfast, and 
 evening prayers, were abandoned ; and in the year 1872 
 the afternoon Sunday service was disused. 
 
 When this chapel was opened, the late Dr. Eleazer 
 Thompson Fitch had been for seven years the professor 
 of divinity, and pastor of the church. He was distin- 
 guished for the acuteness and subtilty of his theological 
 discourses, and the persuasivfe eloquence of his popular 
 sermons. No one who ever heard the pathetic tones of 
 his entreaties, or the elaborate exhaustiveness of his 
 subtile arguments, could forget the man ; and no one 
 who knew him as a man would desire to lose him from 
 his memory. He may be said to have attained the 
 zenith of his reputation and his influence some ten or 
 twelve years afterward, although his characteristic power 
 never left him. In 1852 he was led by bodily infirmity 
 to resign the active exercise of his pastorate. In the 
 year 1854 Rev. George Park Fisher was elected as his 
 successor ; and he filled the office for seven years, when 
 he was transferred to the professorship in the Theological 
 
16 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 Seminary, which he now occupies. In 1863 the Rev. 
 William B. Clarke was chosen pastor, and served three 
 years, resigning in 1866. In 1867 Rev. Oliver Ells- 
 worth Daggett, D.D., was elected, and resigned in 1870. 
 During the intervals the pulpit has been supplied by 
 the occasional services of clergymen connected with 
 the college, and others. 
 
 We turn from these external facts and events to the 
 theological and religious life of the institution during 
 this period of fifty years. I begin with the relations of 
 the chapel to Christian theology/. The pulpit in Yale 
 College has always had a positive theological character. 
 The college preacher has from the first been styled the 
 professor of divinity. President Clap took no nega- 
 tive position with respect to the controversies which 
 agitated Connecticut and the other colonies in respect to 
 the then new and old theologies.. Professors Daggett 
 and Wales were both of them able and discriminating 
 theologians of the type of their day, and were soundly 
 Calvinistic, of the school of Edwards. President Stiles 
 would have been called a Broad Churchman had he 
 lived in these days, or a moderate Calvinist with very 
 catholic sympathies. President Dwight prepared his sys- 
 tem of theology in the form of sermons for the college 
 chapel. These sermons, while theological in their sub- 
 stance, are popular in their form. They are remarkable 
 for their freedom from scholastic terminology, and their 
 successful use of an untheological diction. Dr. Dwight 
 was one of the foremost men of his time for his interest 
 in English literature, and was eminently successful in 
 employing in the pulpit the language of common life, 
 and also in examining the principles of theology in 
 the light of common sense, and setting them forth in the 
 forms of popular illustration and of common speech. 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL, 17 
 
 Though he called himself a disciple of Edwards, and in 
 form held fast to one or two of his distinctive doc- 
 trines, as upon the will and moral inability, he was 
 thoroughly averse to a dryly metaphysical manner, and 
 could not endure the extreme conclusions which some 
 of the Edwardian theologians of his time derived by 
 logical inference from the doctrine of disinterested be- 
 nevolence. He was for his time a good interpreter of 
 the Scriptures. He welcomed and used the best com- 
 mentaries which the times could furnish. He was a 
 man of marked literary taste, and no little literary 
 enterprise. He had a poet's sensibilities, and was mas- 
 ter of an imposing eloquence. For all these reasons, 
 his theology was immensely popular ; and by its popu- 
 larity it at once excited an interest in theology, and 
 softened the asperities, and smoothed the differences, of 
 narrow and extreme partisans. The services of Dr. 
 Dwight in combating the infidelity of his times, have 
 been generally recognized. The equally if not more 
 important services which he rendered in introducing a 
 more rational and scriptural theology, have not so often 
 been acknowledged. Not long before his death, the 
 new school of scriptural interpretation which had been 
 growing up in Germany began to make itself felt in 
 this country. The cardinal doctrines of this school 
 were, that the Scriptures should be interpreted like any 
 other ancient book, — by the rules of grammar and in 
 the true historic sense, — and that theologians must 
 abandon some of their proof texts, and test them all by 
 these criteria. An active and earnest controversy in 
 respect to the divinity of Christ sent the whole Chris- 
 tian community in New England and the whole coun- 
 try to the study of the New Testament with renewed 
 interest, to learn what was its testimony concerning its 
 Lord. At the same time, a new interest in every reli- 
 
18 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 gious question was everywhere awakened, as the result 
 of the revival of Christian feeling. Dr. Fitch fully 
 sympathized with the newly awakened interest in theo- 
 logical discussion, and with the new methods. He was 
 himself a subtile thinker, and a thorough student — 
 with more than a dash of genius, and yet with many of 
 the weaknesses of a recluse. He was also stimulated 
 by the fire and force of such men as Lyman Beecher, 
 Nathaniel William Taylor, and Professor Chauncey 
 Allen Goodrich. Suddenly he became the hero of a 
 theological controversy; and, before he knew it, this 
 sensitive and retiring scholar found himself assailed as 
 almost a heretic in respect to the doctrine of sin and 
 other related doctrines. He defended himself man- 
 fully, and became more positive than ever. He bestowed 
 unwearied pains upon the subtile argumentations of his 
 morning discourses, which were uniformly upon some 
 theological topic. Whether or not his auditors followed 
 him in all the intricate mazes through which he sought 
 to lead them, they respected him for his earnestness, and 
 were always ready to arouse themselves to listen with 
 breathless attention to the flights of eloquence with 
 which he uniformly ended the dryest discussions. The 
 spontaneous awakening to his animated perorations was 
 often distinctly noticeable, but it never indicated dis- 
 respect. During those earliest years of earnest theo- 
 logical and religious life, the Theological Seminary was 
 organized, and the upper story of this edifice became 
 the headquarters of all its operations. Both Dr. Taylor 
 and Professor Gibbs had their studies and their lecture- 
 rooms upon that floor. The earnestness with which 
 the so-called New-Haven theology was discussed in all 
 parts of the country was in all these ways intimately 
 connected with this chapel. It is no part of my design 
 to explain the features nor to discuss the merits of this 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL, 19 
 
 controversy. The alarm and suspicion which it excited 
 for years have now happily gone by. Good men still 
 continue to differ in opinion as to the correctness of the 
 doctrines which were taught with great earnestness by 
 Drs. Fitch, Taylor, and Goodrich, and as earnestly com- 
 bated by their critics. Some of these critics still insist 
 that they could not be real and consistent Calvinists ; 
 but none ever doubted that they were zealous Chris- 
 tians, nor that they labored with intense energy to 
 advance the kingdom of God. We record it as a simple 
 matter of history, that for very nearly forty years this 
 chapel was a place which attracted the attention of 
 many minds, and the interest of many hearts, all over 
 the country. The theology which was taught and 
 defended here Avas not taught as a scholastic specula- 
 tion, but as a living and energetic force, because it was 
 believed to be the power of God unto salvation. It 
 was preached with apostolic power. It was held or 
 rejected as the very truth of God, or fatal error. There 
 was an earnest and stirring life during all these years, 
 — an almost fiery enthusiasm, — which made this chapei 
 a memorable place to hundreds of the members and 
 graduates of this college. 
 
 If I might be permitted to give a critical estimate of 
 this theological movement, I should say it was simply 
 a development of the independent but reverent spirit 
 of theological reasoning which was begun by the 
 elder Edwards, and popularized by President Dwiglit. 
 Viewed in another aspect, it was an earnest attempt to 
 introduce the ethical element into tlie defence and 
 enforcement of the Christian system. The prominence 
 which it gave to the foundation truths of natural theol- 
 ogy, — as the freedom of the will, and the moral govern- 
 ment of God, — is explained by the conviction that 
 Christianity presupposes these truths, tliat it must be 
 
20 FIFTEEN YEABS IN TALE CnAPEL, 
 
 interpreted in harmony with them, and that it can 
 never be rejected by a man who intelligently and hon- 
 estly holds them. The threatening aspects of modern 
 unbelief bring daily and hourly confirmation that 
 these views in respect to the real strength and import 
 of the Christian evidences, and the nature of Christian 
 theology, were eminently reasonable and just, and that 
 they were not enforced too earnestly or too soon. 
 
 The transition is natural from the theological to the 
 religious life of the college. During the first half of this 
 half-century, the one was more or less closely connected 
 with the other. It was not so readily believed then as 
 now that a genuine Christian life could to a considera- 
 ble degree be independent of a sound theological creed. 
 Jt is the simple truth to say that the earnest theological 
 discussions to which we have alluded were connected 
 with an earnest religious activity and a fervent zeal for 
 the conversion of men. It was true, not only of this 
 college, but it was true of the whole country, that its 
 extensive and pervasive revivals of religion from 1820 
 to 1840 or 1845 were connected with earnest theologi- 
 cal discussions, and sometimes attended by zealous and 
 even by bitter controversies. The most active agent in 
 the religious life of the college was Professor Chauncey 
 Goodrich, from 1817-1839 professor of Rhetoric, and 
 from 1839-1860 professor of the Pastoral Charge. 
 Though he rarely, if ever, preached in the College 
 Chapel, he was eminently effective in familiar religious 
 lectures, and in private conversation with individuals. 
 He was master of an impassioned eloquence, which, 
 though it might seem occasionally to rise above the 
 level of ordinary religious emotion, was very impressive 
 to many minds. Professor Goodrich supplied those 
 services which Professor Fitch was physically incapable 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL, 21 
 
 of rendering, and till the day of his death was regarded 
 as the chief reliance for his personal religious power. 
 He was the adviser of many in times of spiritual need, 
 and by his prompt and ready sympathy and his generous 
 liberality proved himself a faithful servant of his Mas- 
 ter. As Professor Goodrich was conspicuously active 
 in all special seasons of religious interest, he left 
 behind a carefully written record of their history 
 in the college before the year 1837. From this narra- 
 tive and other sources it appears, that, during the last 
 fifty-two years, there have been fourteen occasions of 
 marked religious interest which have resulted in very 
 considerable accessions to the communion of the col- 
 lege church; viz., in 1825, 1827, 1831, 1832, 1835, 
 1837, 1840, 1841, 1843, 1846, 1849, 1857, 1858, and 
 1866. In several other years the additions to the 
 church by profession of faith have been also worthy of 
 notice. The most remarkable of these occasions were 
 in the years 1821, 1831, and 1858, in each of which 
 the entire college community was moved, and this edi- 
 fice seemed indeed none other than the house of God 
 and the gate of heaven. 
 
 The most of these revivals have been m close sym- 
 pathy with similar movements in the community. Now 
 and then it has happened that a strong religious inter- 
 est has been limited to the walls of the college, but 
 usually the tone of religious feeling in this community 
 has been in harmony with that which has i)revailed in 
 the larger community without. In 1831 the minds of 
 men were moved by the logical yet earnest presentation 
 of theological truth. In 1858, as in the community so 
 in this college, a wave of emotion seemed to affect the 
 hearts of men, on wdiich multitudes were borne into 
 the kingdom of God, by the uplifting force of praise 
 and prayer. It is not to be denied that in this college, 
 
22 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 as in other communities, these revivals have been 
 attended with more or less of mere sympathetic and 
 factitious excitement, and followed by some sad disap- 
 pointments ; but usually an intelligent and manly ear- 
 nestness has been the rule in them all, and hundreds of 
 noble men have received those impulses which have 
 saved them from threatening moral ruin, and been the 
 beginniugs of a manly Christian life. Multitudes of 
 students and their friends have reason to bless this old 
 chapel as the birthplace of their noblest life, and not 
 to them only, but indirectly to scores and hundreds 
 besides themselves, even in distant parts of our own 
 country, and in lands beyond the sea. 
 
 The ordinary religious life of the college is of greater 
 significance perhaps than the occasional, although it 
 may attract less notice. Much is said of the proverbial 
 ' sluggishness of the Christian life in college-walls, and 
 of the chilling influences of intellectual pursuits upon 
 Christian piety. Many persons indulge in the habit of 
 speaking and thinking of the religious life of tlie col- 
 lege as necessarily low, whenever it does not exhibit the 
 fervor and zeal of a revival. The low morality and 
 easy virtue of college students, especially in relation to 
 college duties and college temptations, are fruitful 
 themes for mournful lamentations and earnest appeals. 
 It were wiser if the remedies were more actively sought 
 for and more efficiently applied. It is the privilege and 
 the duty of the citizen of the kingdom of God never 
 to despair of this kingdom in the future. But whatever 
 defects have characterized the past, we have reason to 
 be grateful that it is bright with many examples of 
 Christian duty and honor. Every class during all these 
 fifty years has had scores of faithful men and true, who 
 have abhorred lying, and resisted sensuality, wdio have 
 in a good degree walked humbly before God, and up- 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 23 
 
 rightly before men. Every class has had its striking 
 examples of all human goodness, the thought of whom 
 has been potent with their classmates all their lives 
 afterwards to drive out every evil suggestion, and 
 strengthen every good purpose. During all these fifty 
 years, in every morning prayer and Sunday service, 
 some hearts have offered spiritual worship, and re- 
 sponded with faith and love to the uttered words of 
 truth. Many profane men have learned some semblance 
 of religious reverence, or at least of religious decorum. 
 Many lewd and intemperate men have been convinced 
 of the rottenness and dishonor of sin. Much is said, 
 and much might be said with truth, of the temptations 
 and dangers of college life. More miglit be said than 
 often is said of the solid and unobtrusive goodness of 
 the majority of those who hold fast to their integrity 
 from the first, or bring out of the occasionally pliant 
 gristle of youth a strong and well-knit Cliristian man- 
 hood. This old chapel has gathered within its walls 
 many noble, aspiring souls, whose lives have not dishon- 
 ored the prayers which it has taught them to repeat, and 
 the words of counsel which it has caused them to hear. 
 Wherever they are this day, they would send back their 
 blessing to this place, did they but know that this is 
 the last season of our Sunday worship here. Wherever 
 they are, we send them our blessing from this never-to- 
 be forgotten altar and temple of our God. 
 
 The Christian sons of Yale are a great and glorious 
 company of honored youth and honored men, whether 
 they witnessed a good confession of their faith while 
 here, or whether the good seed that was here sown in 
 sermon and prayer *and instructive discipline has 
 brought forth its fruits in later years. Few, very few, 
 have made a total shipwreck of their faith, or a dishonor 
 of their lives. Many, very many, of those who gave 
 
24 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 little heed to the prayers and preaching of the chapel 
 when here, would now breathe upon us their earnest 
 prayers, and stir us with their own moving admonitions, 
 taught by the salutary experiences of their later life. 
 
 Since this chapel was opened, the great enterprises of 
 Christian benevolence and reform have made a rapid 
 growth, and attained gigantic proportions. In 1824 
 the leaven of the gospel was just beginning to work in 
 heathen countries. Missionary enterprises were looked 
 upon with distrust and contempt by the sagacious and 
 worldly wise. But notwithstanding, the leaven did not 
 cease to work ; and there is now scarcely a nation 
 in which its effects are not clearly discerned, and posi- 
 tively honored or feared. Fifty years ago, the possibil- 
 ity of animating old and effete religions with a new 
 Christian life, and of displacing dead and corrupt 
 systems by the simple gospel, was scarcely credited. 
 Nowadays the missionary is respected by diplomats, 
 and his position is recognized by the commanders of 
 armies and fleets. Whether Christianity is the true 
 religion or not, it is showing its power, and fulfilling 
 its destiny, by eating out the life of the old religions. 
 Not a few of the graduates of this college have given 
 their hearts and hands to the missionary work. Many 
 distinguished for scholarship, and noble in manly accom- 
 plishments, would this day, if they could, send their 
 greetings to this house of prayer from the sanctuaries 
 which they have reared on the islands of the sea, at the 
 Golden Horn, and upon the slopes and heights of Leba- 
 non ; in India, China, and Japan. Not a few have sent 
 to us their sons from afar to be trained under the influ- 
 ences by which their own zeal was inspired. A youth 
 from China, sent hither by a Christian teacher, himself 
 a graduate of this college since this chapel was built, 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 25 
 
 returned to his home to gain wealth and distinction, 
 which he has learned nobly to use, by inducing his gov- 
 ernment to send bands of her sons under his guidance 
 to this western or eastern region to be trained by the 
 culture which Cliristianity alone inspires, and is him- 
 self soon to represent the Celestial Empire at the Capi- 
 tol of the Great Republic, Should 1 repeat the roll of 
 honored missionary brethren, who will, whether living 
 or dead, never cease to remember this hallowed place, 
 it would show a goodly company. 
 
 The services of tliis college through this chapel for 
 the kingdom of Christ in our mvn country have been, if 
 possible, still more conspicuous. Yale College, during 
 all of the present centur}^, has been pre-eminently a 
 college for the whole nation. Its undergraduates at 
 times have represented almost every State in the Union ; 
 and there is not a State now in the Union in which 
 they are not to be numbered, in some by scores, in 
 others by hundreds. Every man who has been trained 
 in the ways of Christian order and discipline, has gone 
 back to his home to be an example and a power for 
 Christian uprightness. Every man who has gone forth 
 to take part in founding or rearing one of our infant 
 States, whether as teacher or editor or lawyer or 
 judge or preacher, has been a missionary of Christian 
 truth just so far as he has exemplified the principles and 
 spirit which he here learned to believe in and to care 
 for. Not a few have here been inspired and strength- 
 ened to go forth to assist in laying the foundations of 
 many generations in the forest and prairie States, while 
 as yet the prairies were unbroken, and the forests were 
 unsubdued. Let one example suffice among many. 
 In the years 1828 and 1829, seven members of the Theo- 
 logical Seminary here were associated as the Illinois 
 Association to plant colleges and schools and churches 
 
26 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 in that infant State. They soon were increased to 
 twelve, most of them able men, who have fulfilled their 
 vows with conspicuous fidelity and zeal. The forma- 
 tion of this missionary company was not only most 
 timely in the critical condition of Illinois, but it stimu- 
 lated to many shnilar enterprises. At that time Illinois 
 had a few more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 the majority of whom sympathized with the Southern 
 civilization. Before thirty-five years had elapsed, this 
 State sent nearly two hundred and sixty thousand men 
 into the field, to serve three years in the defence of 
 Christian freedom, and of whom more than twenty- 
 eight thousand laid down their lives, among them the 
 head of the nation. And still the good work goes on. 
 I cannot count the number of heads of colleges and 
 schools, of professors and teachers, of Christian minis- 
 ters and missionaries, of bishops and missionary super- 
 intendents, of Christian magistrates and laymen, — from 
 the chief justice of the nation down to the unofficed 
 citizen, — who have been conspicuous in the newer 
 States in propagating those solid principles of Chris- 
 tian faith and duty which this college has taught or 
 confirmed. 
 
 During these last fifty years enormous advances have 
 been made in ethical, social, and political reform. The 
 movements against intemperance, slavery, and for pris- 
 on discipline ; for sanitary precautions in houses and 
 streets, in cities and villages ; for the increase of the 
 comforts and beauty of life, — need only be alluded to. 
 Fifty years ago Europe and this country were just be- 
 ginning to recover from the effects of the convulsions and 
 protracted wars which followed the first French Revolu- 
 tion. Universal political re-action then set in. Almost 
 the first sign in the opposite direction was furnished by 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 27 
 
 the Greek Revolution, which was supposed to be com- 
 plete by the battle of Navarino iu 1827, which was 
 greeted by a general illumination of the college build- 
 ings, preceded by a chant of triumph from the college 
 choir at evening prayers. The dethronement of Charles 
 X. followed in 1830, and the accession of Louis 
 Philippe with his Charter. Then came the second re- 
 action and the second Revolution of 1848, and the 
 accession of Napoleon III., after all the thrones of 
 Europe had been convulsed with revolution. Then fol- 
 lowed the Crimean war, Avhich brought the Western 
 powers into strange fellowship, and prepared the way 
 for the union of the Italian States, and the ejection of 
 Austria from their territory. Next the advance of 
 Prussia upon Austria, the triumph at Sadowa after a 
 seven weeks' war, and the creation of a united Ger- 
 many, — the beginnings of the first Protestant empire 
 on the continent. Next the invasion of Germany by 
 France, the defeat at Sedan, and the surrender of the 
 French Emperor. I cannot trace the progress of liberal 
 ideas in England, and the immense improvement in the 
 purity and force of religious convictions, and the refine- 
 ment of public and private manners, during the reign of 
 Victoria, — whose reign cannot fail to be remembered in 
 the history of man, as a reign which Christ has signally 
 blessed and honored, and in which the whole Christian 
 world has rejoiced. During these fifty years England 
 herself has planted the seeds of new Christian empires 
 in the Southern seas, which are now illustrating and 
 diffusing the blessings of Christian civilization moie 
 rapidly than the world can follow their progress. Dur- 
 ing these same fifty years, steam navigation upon the 
 ocean, railway travelling by land, telegraphic communi- 
 cation in the air and under the sea, photographic paint- 
 ing by the sun, have made the world another place to 
 
28 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 live in than when this chapel was opened, — a fairy- 
 land to dream of, had its now commonplace realities 
 been prophesied in the sermon of dedication. ^Our own 
 nation has been convulsed by a war of ideas, and saved 
 by the voluntary sacrifice of the lives of half a million 
 of men, and the martyrdom of a man whom the world 
 learned to honor almost as inspired of God, and over 
 the story of whose death it has scarcely yet ceased to 
 weep. And now, as we leave this chapel, this nation 
 celebrates the centennial year of its life, still safe, 
 though sorely chastened by the providence of God, with 
 its population and wealth increased beyond the dreams 
 of half a century ago. 
 
 These changes and this progress are chiefly interest- 
 ing to us as they are related to the kingdom of God. 
 So far as they are the causes or effects of Christian 
 civilization, they are the blossoms and fruits of the tree 
 of life. But amid all these apparent triumphs of the 
 kingdom of God in missionary progress and enterprise, 
 and in Christian reform and Christian culture, it is 
 more than hinted that the energy of Christian faith is 
 everywhere becoming relaxed, that science is sapping 
 its foundations, and criticism is disintegrating its struc- 
 ture, and that this change is nowhere so sensibly felt as 
 in the higher institutions of learning. The most inter- 
 esting question which we can ask this day is, whether 
 this is so. Is faith fleeing before the advance of sci- 
 ence? are Christian prayer and Christian consolation 
 and Christian immortality vanishing into smoke at the 
 touch of modern criticism ? 
 
 That science has made extraordinary advances in the 
 last fifty years, all of us know. Many of the sciences 
 of nature, which fifty years since were in feeble infancy, 
 have grown into vigorous manhood. Not a few of 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 29 
 
 these sciences have discerned new facts, established new 
 laws, and evolved new methods, so far as almost to have 
 parted with their identity. But not one nor all together 
 have made nature less dependent on creative thought 
 and goodness. Not one nor all together have made 
 atheism intellectually more attractive, or the denial of 
 providence more rational, or the rejection of prayer 
 more satisfactory. That science has become more theo- 
 logical by discussing these deep-lying, wide-reaching 
 questions, proves simply that the scientist is enlarging 
 his horizon. We may pardon him if he reasons very 
 badly upon these subjects, if he will condescend to rea- 
 son upon them at all. It is, perhaps, better that a man 
 should be an atheist in theology than never to ask 
 whether there is a God ; better to deny prayer and 
 providence, than sneeriugly to despise the questions 
 which pertain to both. It is a matter of congratulation 
 that scientists of every school now seek after God, if 
 haply they may find him. That some philosophers 
 should doubt, and others should deny, need not disturb 
 us so long as many believe and worship, and those who 
 do neither cannot be content to leave these questions 
 alone. 
 
 But how is it with history and literature and criti- 
 cism? Are not these abandoning the supernatural 
 Christ? Just so far as they are abandoning the living 
 God, but no farther. The man who denies creation 
 must reject miracles. The man who sees only force and 
 necessity in liistor}^, must reject a loving providence. 
 He who turns his back upon the living God as manifest 
 in his works, has no place in his head, because he has 
 no room in his heart, for God manifest in the flesh. The 
 man who believes that the soul is but atoms in motion, 
 must sneer at the love, whether human or divine, that 
 is stronger than death. He cannot escape the logic of 
 
30 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 his own theories, and he ought not to try. But let him 
 not assume to dogmatize for others, who, holding differ- 
 ent premises, follow a logic as rigid as his own, to 
 nobler and more inspiring conclusions. Let him not 
 set up the spirit of a literary clique for the time-spirit 
 of a generation. Let him remember that Voltaire and 
 Rousseau, the one a critic and the other a sentimentalist, 
 were each as confident that he represented a spirit that 
 should rule every coming generation. That time-spirit 
 ruined the generation which it sought to rule, and the 
 next generation shrank from it with abhorrence. 
 
 If we turn in another direction, we find that the 
 faith of multitudes of cultured men in the Christian 
 spirit and the Christian life was never so profound and 
 so distinctly professed as at present. The consciences 
 ■of multitudes who are asking " one another, without 
 being able to answer. What think ye of Christ ? do yet 
 declare with a pathetic earnestness never known before, 
 Let the same mind be in you ivhich was also in Christ 
 Jesus, The Christian type of courtesy and self-sacrifice 
 is more and more generally accepted as the ideal of 
 human excellence and the law of human duty. It is 
 not too much to hope that many of those who are ready 
 to believe in Christ only as a power, will very soon be 
 ready to believe in Christ as a person, and the ethical 
 and religious culture which has been inspired in the 
 school which Christ has founded and nurtured, shall 
 turn back, with tearful penitence and a loving heart, to 
 render to the Master the love and homage which are 
 his by right. 
 
 If there be a few who dream that Christ as a person 
 must soon cease to be honored, even in Christian tem- 
 ples, there are those who know that Christ as a power 
 never wrought with such energy or so demonstrated his 
 supremacy as at this moment, among all the shrines 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 31 
 
 of idolatry and superstition. Meanwhile the Living 
 Church, which contains many scholars and philosophers 
 of foremost eminence and authority, holds fast to its 
 faith that the power of Christ to subdue all things to 
 himself lies in Christ's personality as the manifested 
 Father and the glorified Son of man. 
 
 It is for the Church of Christ to ask itself whether 
 it is not largely responsible for this modern unbelief; 
 whether its sectarian strifes, its narrow dogmatism, its 
 exclusive pretensions, its suspicion of culture, its spec- 
 tacular shows ; whether its cant, its formalism, its self- 
 ishness, its denunciation of science, and its manifold 
 uncharities, — have not largely contributed to this cul- 
 tured rejection of the supernatural Christ and the 
 scientific denial of God. 
 
 It is for the Christian colleges, and the men whom 
 they train, to consider and decide whether they shall 
 not lead the way to profounder views of Christian 
 science, and wider conceptions of Christian culture, and 
 freer views of Christian fellowship. If there is to be a 
 church of the future, such as there must and will be 
 if Christ is to achieve his destined triumphs, a church 
 free from sectarian strifes and narrow dogmatisms, in 
 which the Scriptures shall be interpreted by the advan- 
 cing science and the developed culture that are to 
 be ; in which zeal shall be refined by knowledge, and 
 knowledge shall kindle zeal, — then Christian seats of 
 learning must be foremost in pre^mring the way of the 
 Lord. 
 
 We rejoice to bear testimony as we leave this pulpit, 
 that whatever have been its defects, it has been chari- 
 table and free in its treatment of Christian truth. The 
 confession of faith which w^as introduced by Dr. Dwight 
 is eminently simple and catholic. The preachers who 
 have here defended the faith, whatever have been their 
 
32 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 defects, have sought by manifestation of the truth to 
 commend themselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God. No sectarian or proselyting spirit has 
 ever been countenanced in these walls. But Christ 
 has been set forth as the example of the Christian's life, 
 the ground of the Christian's hope, the strength of the 
 Christian's weakness, the comfort of the Christian's 
 sorrow, and the triumph of the Christian's death. 
 
 And now, as I remember that we meet for the last 
 time as a Christian congregation in this house of wor- 
 ship, I cannot but think of the many noble souls who 
 have here preached and heard and prayed together, 
 many of whom worship in the house of God not made 
 with hands. Little did I think when I entered this 
 chapel for the first time, timid beyond the timidity of 
 youth, and awed by the stately presence of the vener- 
 able Day, that I should be called to follow him in his 
 duties, and to speak the last words in this house in his 
 honor, to this honored assembly. Nor again when in riper 
 years I began to rejoice in the friendship of his loved 
 successor, that I should perform this parting service 
 which were more fitly discharged by him. Nor when I 
 was moved by the persuasive eloquence of Fitch, that it 
 should be my lot to bless his memory for the last time, 
 in what was so long his pulpit. Nor, as I have seen 
 class after class go forth in the glowing promise of 
 Christian youtli to fulfil that promise in Christian man- 
 hood, that it should be my ofiice, in the name of the 
 multitudes of the dead and the living, to pronounce 
 their final blessings upon this place. 
 
 In the name of this goodly company, gathered with 
 us in spirit from the ends of the earth, and looking 
 down upon us from the heights above, do we bless this 
 place for all the good that it has witnessed and achieved, 
 and for all the precious memories that gather about its 
 
ON LEAVING THE OLD CHAPEL. 33 
 
 varied history. As we go forth, bearing with us the 
 trusts which are committed to our care, into the more 
 attractive edifice which is provided for our use, may our 
 prayers be answered that " the glory of this latter house 
 shall he greater than of the former,'' 
 
II. 
 
 ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL* 
 
 "Evert one that is or the truth hearbth my \oicv:.'*— John xviii. 37. 
 
 We are assembled to consecrate this edifice as a 
 house of prayer, and with befitting services of praise 
 and worship to set it apart to the religious uses of this 
 college. The occasion seems not only to justify, but to 
 require, that we should consider the need and the uses 
 of a college chapel. This is the more necessary and 
 suitable, because the necessity of any special provision 
 for Christian worship and instruction in a college com- 
 munity has of late been frequently questioned, and the 
 practicability of harmonizing positive religious influ- 
 ences with the appropriate aims and activities of a great 
 university has been openly denied. Upon these and 
 kindred points I propose to speak with entire freedom 
 — not disguising from myself, nor hiding from you, the 
 existence and the grounds of opposing opinions, but 
 urging the counter considerations with whatever reason 
 and force they may properly command. 
 
 I must assume that the obligations of religion are 
 supreme — that its importance is transcendent, that 
 Christianity is a supernatural religion, that to Christ 
 belongs supreme authority in heaven and earth, and 
 that the goings on of nature and the events of human 
 history, including the developments of science and let- 
 
 * June 18, 1876. 
 34 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 35 
 
 ters, of culture and art, are all in the interest of Christ's 
 kingdom. Those who deny or question any of these 
 truths can scarcely find any common ground with those 
 who receive them, upon which to discuss the question 
 whether a Christian church should be provided for a 
 Christian college. Those with whom the questions of 
 Theism and Responsibility and Immortality and Chris- 
 tianity are open questions, may reasonably contend that 
 the positive recognition or enforcement of these truths 
 should find no place in an institution, which, in their 
 view, should be devoted exclusively to literature and 
 science. With such men we can have no arguments at 
 the present time, but only with those who profess to 
 believe in God and duty, in immortality and in Christ. 
 
 I would also premise that a college is a community 
 by itself, having a separate and peculiar common life. 
 Its members must to a large extent be shut up to 
 the society of one another. The peculiar occupations 
 of teachers and pupils, the warm and generous sympa- 
 thies of the younger, and the retired habits of the older, 
 tend to make this society isolated and exclusive. 
 
 Such a college is clearly distinguished from a univer- 
 sity, and also from any school of special or advanced 
 studies in which the students by reason of greater age, 
 or of their nearer connection with the active life of tlie 
 community, are supposed to be less closely organized 
 by the bonds of common intellectual and moral sympa- 
 thies. With this as my starting-point I proceed to 
 observe, — 
 
 1. The members of a college — instructors and pupils 
 — are men, and as such are subject to religious respon- 
 sibilities, and require religious inspirations. Whether 
 Christianity be regarded as the flower of developed 
 humanity, or as the necessary agency for human re- 
 demption, those devoted to , intellectual pursuits, as 
 
36 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 learners and teachers, need to recognize and feel its 
 power as truly as other men. Every member of a col- 
 lege has a conscience which commands to duty, and for- 
 bids from sin. Every one lives a life of loving and 
 obedient fellowship with the Father of spirits, or a life 
 without God in the world. Every one is a loyal disci- 
 ple of Christ, or an unbelieving and disloyal liearer of 
 his claims. They are all exposed to the same sorrows 
 and the same disappointments as other men, and need 
 the same comforts and strength. Intellectual activities 
 and achievements are no substitutes for those which are 
 moral and spiritual. At best they can only hide from 
 the soul its weakness and its sin, and thus cut it off 
 more effectually from the fountain of strength and heal- 
 ing ; but, so far as they do this, they are no blessing, but 
 only a more dangerous curse. 
 
 It is only by a foolish conceit, that men of science 
 and culture dream that they are specially exempt from 
 those responsibilities to God which hold other men to a 
 religious life. It is only a hollow inflation that lifts 
 them above the obligations to religious reverence and 
 worship. It were well that they should be reminded, 
 that, however sagaciously they may interpret the uni- 
 verse, they did not originate its forces, and cannot 
 reverse its laws ; that however wisely they may read 
 the lessons of history, or predict the events that are to 
 come, they owe many duties to the present generation ; 
 that their individual lives are short, and their future 
 well-being depends on the use they make of the days 
 and weeks which are in their hands. However flatter- 
 ingly they say to one another in their circles of mutual 
 admiration, " Ye are gods, and all of you are children 
 of the Most High," the voice of truth sternly replies, 
 " Ye shall all of you die like men, and fall like one of 
 the princes," 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 37 
 
 It is well that instructors and pupils should come to 
 a coniinon place of prayer to hear and respond to these 
 lessons of truth as they together lift their hearts to 
 God in worship. It is well that there should be one 
 place in which they may meet together upon the same 
 level, and may be reminded that they are men, by their 
 common relations to God and duty and the immortal 
 life. Moreover, whatever tends to make them better 
 men, will make them better teachers and better stu- 
 dents. Students will be none the worse, but much the 
 better, for those positive and elevating influences which 
 impel them to be truth-telling and honest, to be mag- 
 nanimous and frank, to be upright and downright in 
 their dealings and demeanor with their fellows and their 
 teachers. They will be none the worse, but much the 
 better, to be reminded by the highest of all sanctions, 
 that the moral law is not relaxed because they are dis- 
 posed to forget it. It will do no harm, and may do 
 good, that college morality and college piety should be 
 frequently brought into the sanctuary of God for the 
 re-adjustment of the standards of the one and the re- 
 kindling of the inspiration of the other. College teach- 
 ers and officials also, require to be now and then 
 refreshed with the conviction that their relations to 
 their pupils are not simply official and formal, but are 
 also personal and human, and incited to improve every 
 occasion for kindly encouragement, for needed caution, 
 for friendly reproof ; in short, for any word or look or 
 act which may promise good for this life or the next. 
 If formal instructors make listless pupils, and supercil- 
 ious teachers make contemptuous students ; if suspicious 
 teachers make lying scholars, and earnest, patient, and 
 courteous teachers inspire respectful, confiding, and 
 well-mannered pupils ; and if a positive and fervent 
 Christian faith is most efficient to sustain the hicrhest 
 
38 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tone of manners and morals in any community, — it fol- 
 lows that the manhood of a college community requires 
 that recognition and use of Christian influences which 
 a college chapel is supposed to provide. 
 
 2. A complete education involves the use of religious 
 motives and influences, and this whether we regard 
 education as a training of the character or of the intel- 
 lect. Education cannot be worthily conceived unless it 
 respects the character. The well-trained or perfected 
 man is a higher result to achieve than the accomplished 
 logician, the smooth-voiced orator, the many-tongued 
 linguist, the sagacious scientist, or the inspired poet. 
 So thought the noblest of the ancients, interpreting the 
 suggestions of nature ; and the wisest of the moderns, 
 taught by Christian truth and Christian example. The 
 ideally perfect man is also universally recognized as 
 *!reverent and devout, humble and self-forgetting before 
 the divine in himself and the universe, and reaching 
 forward by faith into the unseen and future life. If 
 God educates the soul for immortality by the discipline 
 of its earthly career, it should be no mean part of the 
 aim of every truly liberal university to inspire its 
 pupils with the highest Christian aims, and to instruct 
 them to manifest these aims in an upright and attrac- 
 tive life. It is no good sign which we observe among 
 American educators, that so many esteem these ends as 
 inferior in importance, or, disdaining to use efficient 
 means to attain them, show a scant sympathy for posi- 
 tive religious earnestness in their ideal of the successful 
 student and of the successful teacher. At a time when 
 character is said to command the highest price in the 
 market, and not to be largely furnished under the law 
 of supply and demand, it is no encouraging token 
 which we notice, that some who seek to give direction 
 to our new education, are so coolly indifferent or super- 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 39 
 
 ciliously disdainful concerning the presence or absence 
 of a positively Christian element in our college and uni- 
 versity life. The words of Milton are worthy to be 
 pondered by all such, and indeed by all men : " The 
 end, then, of learning is to repair the ruins of our first 
 parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of 
 that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like 
 him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of 
 true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace 
 of faith, makes up the highest perfection." 
 
 Then, to stimulate and enlarge the intellect, no agency 
 is so potent as an earnest and active religious faith. 
 Other tilings being equals the moment a youth begins to 
 be inspired and controlled by such faith, his intellectual 
 power and range and aspirations are enlarged. Indo- 
 lence and animalism are renounced, the activities of his 
 intellect are more evenly poised, and the results are 
 more solid and effective. A sounder logic, a more can- 
 did judgment, and a simpler earnestness, take possession 
 of the man who serves the living God, and holds com- 
 munion with a personal Christ. 
 
 We say, other tilings being equal ; for we do not forget 
 that a fervent faith may be attended by intellectual 
 narrowness, and mistaken views, both of the duty and 
 the liberty of intellectual culture : but given similar 
 advantages from nature and training, and given correct 
 principles in respect to the relations of faith to cul- 
 ture, we assert that faith itself becomes an element of 
 power and achievement which cannot and ought not to 
 be overlooked. Would we educate a generation mighty 
 in erudition, honest and untiring in research, candid 
 and comprehensive in judgment, sagacious in conjecture, 
 cogent in reasoning, fair in statement, fervid in elo- 
 quence, lofty in imagination, inspired by and inspiring 
 to that intellectual enthusiasm, without which there is 
 
40 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 no true intellectual greatness, we must educate that 
 generation in the spirit and by the principles of the 
 Christian faith. In science and letters godliness has 
 the promise of the life which now is, as well as of the 
 life to come. All critics are forward to assert in a gen- 
 eral way, that Christianity has been an efficient quick- 
 ener of human thought and feeling. We ought never 
 to forget that much of what it has done, it has achieved 
 by leavening the higher education of successive genera- 
 tions. It may be true, that if what we call Christian 
 civilization is to continue, and the peculiar and threat- 
 ening evils of modern society are to be overcome, not 
 only Christian churches, but Christian universities, must 
 continue to exist, and both must become more positively 
 Christian in their influence. * 
 
 3. A college and university life is exposed to special 
 * moral and religious dangers, for which the college and 
 university can best provide the prevention and cure. I 
 need not recite the obvious temptations to which every 
 society of young men is liable, although the strength 
 and variety of these temptations cannot easily be exag- 
 gerated. I will suppose even that intellectual activity 
 and social refinement have effectually excluded sensu- 
 ality and falsehood, and trained to purity and self- 
 restraint, to truth and uprightness. Even in such a 
 case, it is not to be denied that intellectual activities 
 and achievements not infrequently exclude frequent and 
 fervent thoughts of God, and become unfriendly to an 
 earnest and religious life. The work of the scholar 
 takes a more exclusive possession of his inner life than 
 the occupations of other men. The ambitious and suc- 
 cessful student aims to be, and becomes, a king in his 
 own domain — by the right of that power with which 
 he is anointed of God, and which is accorded by the 
 consenting acclaim of his fellows. The elevated nature 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 41 
 
 of his pursuits imparts to the devotee of science and 
 letters, something akin to a sense of moral superiority, 
 which now and then assumes its place. If a scholar is 
 the discoverer of a new theory in science, or a new dis- 
 tinction in grammar, if he is the master of vast and 
 varied erudition or uncommon learning, if he is the in- 
 ventor of some useful instrument, or the writer of a 
 work of authority, it is not uncommon, perhaps it is 
 not unnatural, that he should regard himself as so su- 
 preme in his own domain as to be exempted from his 
 personal obligations to the personal G-od, or as in such 
 a peculiar sense a benefactor of his race, as to be re- 
 leased from any otlier obligations to the gentler chari- 
 ties of human life. The oldest representation, or record, 
 which we have of 'human temptation, is of a tempta- 
 tion to intellectual insight and pride : " Ye shall be as 
 gods, knowing good and evil ; " and nowhere is this 
 temptation so insidious or so strong as in an active and 
 ambitious university. 
 
 College men, both instructors and pupils, are also 
 sensitively and severely critical in their habits and feel- 
 ings, pre-eminently in respect to any excessive or un- 
 seemly expression of opinion or feeling. With enthu- 
 siasm in any other sphere than their own, they are 
 especially unsympathizing. The mathematician is moved 
 to amiable compassion or unfriendly scorn by the ardor 
 of the classicist, and the classicist responds with similar 
 but more intense antipathies. It is not easy to decide 
 whether scientists and theologians criticise one another 
 more sharply than scientists or theologians of one school 
 criticise scientists or theologians of every other. Keli- 
 gious activity and earnestness has its sides of weakness 
 and defect, and to all these the sensitive souls of cul- 
 tured nonehalants and contemptuous Sadducees are 
 keenly alive. Young men who fall into the mood of 
 
42 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 either are readily offended by what they call cant and 
 enthusiasm in earnest religious souls. Their guardians 
 and instructors readily yield to that sensitive hesitation 
 and reticence in the expression of personal religious 
 feelinof which is natural to men of culture, and find 
 manifold reasons for being silent and inactive in the 
 kingdom of God. It has passed into a proverb, that the 
 absorbing activities of college life, and its sensitively 
 critical atmosphere, are eminently unfavorable to the 
 free play of religious feeling, and the outward manifes- 
 tations of religious zeal. 
 
 These disadvantages and exposures are more than 
 counterbalanced by influences that may be made posi- 
 tively favorable to religious culture and activity. It is 
 true that J^oung men in college are "frivolous and excit- 
 able, that they are sensitively alive to the good or evil 
 opinion of their fellows, that their appetites are imperi- 
 ous, their antipathies are quick and strong, that they are 
 repelled by pretension, and suspect enthusiasm. But, 
 on the other hand, they frankly respond to the truth, 
 they are open to conviction, and their consciences are 
 not corrupted by the hollo wness and knavery of mature 
 life. They always know that they thirst for God, and 
 often are not afraid to confess it. Their sense of duty 
 is quick to admonish and condemn if it is sometimes 
 impotent to restrain and control. If they are often 
 ready to go with their set or faction or class or college 
 when plainly in the wrong, they can also be aroused as 
 by a common impulse, to move toward duty and God. 
 If many who had assumed Christian vows, show them- 
 selves unfaithful amid the activities and excitements of 
 college life, not a few are kindled to higher aims and 
 better aspirations : not a few also, after a longer or 
 shorter experience of the sin and folly of wandering, 
 come back to their old faith with new fervor. " I write 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 43 
 
 unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and have 
 overcome the wicked one." It is a sad confession uf 
 weakness and disloyalty for pupils or teachers to say 
 that it is idle to expect or labor for an active religious 
 life among college students. Rather should the senti- 
 ment stir us to indignation,' by whomsoever it is uttered, 
 whether by Students, Instructors, or Philistines, it is so 
 dishonorable to Christianity, and so untrue to fact, and 
 so plainly either an expression of censorious spleen, or a 
 confession of weakness, or an excuse for indolence. I 
 have had some experience in pastoral duty in this col- 
 lege and other communities, and my fair share of dis- 
 couragement in inciting younger and older persons to a 
 more earnest religious life ; but I feel justified in saying 
 that the younger members of this college church are as 
 exemplary in their church relations as the older, when 
 due allowance is made for their special circumstances ; 
 and that the younger communicants live as exemplary 
 and as earnest lives as the same number of adults, not- 
 withstanding the absence of many ordinary social and 
 family influences. 
 
 The intellectual activities of collec^e life are also at- 
 tended with peculiar moral and religious advantages. 
 If knowledge sometimes puffs up, it also furnishes man- 
 ifold reasons for humility. The moral conditions of 
 eminent success in scientific research, are akin to those 
 which admit to the kingdom of God. Intellectual aims 
 and ambitions are not, in the long-run, consistent with 
 sensuality or falsehood. If scholastic rivalries and con- 
 tests are often deformed by envy, and disgraced by 
 trickery, they also foster the spirit of justice and honor. 
 The purposes which genuine culture proposes are favor 
 able to earnest views of life, to reverent thoughts of the 
 universe, and to noble aspirations for a perfected and 
 immortal existence. Every species of intellectual disci- 
 
44 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 pline awakens that reflection which is another name for 
 the recognition of duty and of God. The truths of 
 religion appeal for their authority to the human intelli- 
 gence. Christ declared of himself and his mission, 
 *' To this end came I forth, that I might bear witness to 
 the truth." Though intellectual culture may furnish 
 subtle temptations to evil, "like the spear of Ithuriel, 
 it heals the wounds which itself has made." 
 
 We contend that the special exposures and special 
 advantages of college life require special and definite 
 arrangements for religious worship and instruction. 
 These the college itself should furnish. All the pecul- 
 iar dangers noticed, arise from the fact that this life 
 separates the students from the community and the 
 church of their homes. This natural operation of a 
 vigorous college life is felt, even upon students who con- 
 tinue to reside with their families. For those who have 
 left their homes, it is a dream of romance to hope that a 
 college town, in ordinary cases, can successfully furnish 
 to three or five hundred youths domestic associations, 
 or efficient church influences. Every college is a world 
 by itself, with its own peculiar atmosphere, and its sepa- 
 rate earth and sky. It must have an altar of its own, 
 or lose the advantage of regular and formal worship. 
 A community like this, so shut up to itself, composed 
 of youth trained in Christian families, bred to habits of 
 Christian worship, and many of them professing Chris- 
 tian aims and hopes, without its appointed hour and 
 place for public prayer would furnish an offensive ex- 
 ception to the ways of other organized human societies. 
 Attendance at such an exercise should follow the gen- 
 eral law of the college for other prescribed duties. That 
 attendance should be enforced, is no hardship so long 
 as it is practised by instructors, and so long as the stu- 
 dents are dealt with as reasonable beings, and their hon- 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 45 
 
 esty and honor in giving excuses are not challenged by 
 vexatious suspicion and degrading distrust. One of the 
 most useful results of a wise education is the acquisi- 
 tion of habits of method and regularity in meeting the 
 reciuisitions of life. Com[)liance with the college rules 
 which impose such regularity should become as easy 
 and natural as obedience to the laws of nature, if for no 
 other reason than that the students themselves may be 
 delivered from lK3sitation and self-indulgence, from daw- 
 dling and childish caprice, in controlling their time, and 
 meeting the stern demands of life. Were the student 
 at his home, he might often be constrained against his 
 will to be present at P^imily and Sunday worship, by 
 parental authority and the force of public opinion ; and 
 for both of these in college days, there is and can be no 
 eflficient substitute but college rules. College prayers 
 and Sunday worship will naturally fail of the best suc- 
 cess when conducted in a formal and mechanical spirit ; 
 when they are dishonored by neglect, or Avant of sym- 
 pathy in instructors, or made repulsive by the discom- 
 fort and squalor of the house of prayer. They are cer- 
 tain to be failures wdien they are publicly dishonored 
 by making attendance voluntary, or are made attractive 
 by such sensational devices as may excite for a week, 
 but are certain to become wearisome after the lapse of a 
 month. Compulsion, I know, is an odious word ; but, 
 as it seems to me, it is never so odious as when it is 
 wrested out of all propriety in the spirit of the dema- 
 gogue in education, or when addressed to sectarian or 
 libertine prejudices. We trust that no Christian col- 
 lege will so far lose its self-respect in obedience to such 
 a cry, as to close or dishonor its house of prayer. 
 
 Worship is itself the noblest and the most elevating 
 act of the human soul. The habit of worship with in- 
 ward reverence and outward decorum is a habit of all 
 
46 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 others most needful to be used by the educated youth 
 of our time. We live by admiration, hope^ and love ; 
 and how many are now panting and dying fur the want 
 of them all I Prayer and praise hinder no man's life. 
 An aspiration expressed at the prayers of a college 
 chapel, or a thought dropped in the Sunday's preaching, 
 has saved many a college student for this life and the 
 life to come. One of the most eminent professors of 
 the University of Berlin, who visited this country a few 
 years since, was more interested and moved by the 
 daily service in this college than by any single incident 
 of his tour, it seemed so elevating and significant an 
 homage to Christ. 
 
 4. A positive religious influence is required in college 
 and university life, to arrest and turn back those athe- 
 istic and anti-Christian tendencies which are now so 
 active in the circles of science and culture. These ten- 
 dencies should neither be disguised nor despised. It may 
 be questioned whether they are not more alarming than 
 is generally believed. Some sober thinkers are ready 
 to ask, whether if science is to proceed towards atheism 
 with steps so willing and rapid as not a fcAV scientists 
 of late have seemed ready to take, and if literature 
 shall so openly betray Christ with the kiss of Judas, as 
 not a few critics and litterateurs have done within the 
 last twenty years, — whether, after a few scores more of 
 years have gone by, there shall be found a place any 
 longer for Christian temples or Christian rites in those 
 communities in which universities hold sway. 
 
 It is not surprising that the conception of a Christian 
 university should be positively rejected by a certain 
 class of reasoners as involving a contradiction in its 
 terms. Those who contend that science and cidture 
 have always been the natural foes of theology and faith, 
 must conclude that the university should recognize no 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 47 
 
 form of religions truth as true, and exert no positive 
 religious influence. 
 
 We contend that neither faith nor tlieology is tlie 
 historical or the natural foe of science and culture. 
 We grant that Christian theologians have often feared 
 and opposed many true theories in science because they 
 were new, and have opposed them in the name of the- 
 ology. But these same theories have been received 
 and defended by other theologians. Indeed, it is only 
 till very recently that scientists could possibly be 
 arrayed against theologians, for the simple reason that 
 the larger number of eminent and progressive scientists 
 have been Christian believers, and not a few of them 
 eminent theological thinkers. If we take a strictly 
 scientific or logical view of the matter, a scientist who 
 teaches atheism, or a literary critic who argues against 
 Christianity, is as truly a theologian as a devout theist 
 or a believing Christian. 
 
 We freely concede that science and culture are bene- 
 ficial to faith. We assert that Christian tlieology and 
 historical interpretation have been instructed and liber- 
 alized by science and criticism. We find no occasion 
 to deny that this process has often been steadily resisted 
 by those who have loved their dogmas better than the 
 truth. But w^e also contend that faith is as helpful to 
 science, as science is useful to faith ; and we assert that 
 in a truly Christian university, science will be more 
 truly scientific than in one which is atheistic or anti- 
 Christian, simply because faith, when other things are 
 equal, tends to make science more thorough, more lib- 
 eral, more candid, more comprehensive, and more saga- 
 cious. 
 
 The division of labor in modern science and research, 
 tends to make the devotee of any single department, 
 narrow and dogmatic in proportion to the completeness 
 
48 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 of his mastery over liis chosen field. A thinker who is 
 limited to a single species of phenomena, or a single 
 class of relations, is likely to be inappreciative or in- 
 credulous with respect to any other. If he extends 
 his thoughts beyond, he is in danger of trying every 
 theory by those facts and laws in which he is at home, 
 and pronouncing upon every description of truth, with 
 the confidence to which he is entitled only in his own 
 sphere. Hence the readiness with which materialism 
 and atheism are accepted by men who limit their knowl- 
 edge to the phenomena and relations with which the 
 senses are conversant, and supernaturalism is rejected 
 by those who rarely think of what is involved in either 
 human or divine personality. 
 
 Faith in God lifts the student above this narrowness, 
 so far as it familiarizes the intellect with the one com- 
 prehensive thought to which every other fact and 
 relation must be referred. Whatever department of 
 nature, or even of mathematics or metaphysics, is the 
 domain of the student, God presents himself as higher 
 and deeper, and more comprehensive, than them all. 
 Whatever evolutions history unrolls, whether the his- 
 tory concerns the upbuilding of the earth, or the fortunes 
 of historic or pre-historic man, God is certainly a possi- 
 ble as he is the most satisfactory explanation of the plan 
 and the realization of this procession of phenomena. 
 Whatever forces and laws are discovered or assumed 
 as the rational explanation of the past, and the certain 
 prophecy of the future, these forces and laws are best 
 explained by the intelligent thinker and the loving 
 Father, who has prepared the earth for man's dwelliug- 
 place, and the scene of his discipline for a higher sphere 
 of activity and enjoyment. A thoughtful believer in 
 God cannot but be a broader thinker than the narrow 
 atheist, who professes to solve the problem of the uni- 
 
ON ENTElilNG THE NEW CHAPEL. 49 
 
 Terse by some single formula of the latest fashion, 
 lather than by faith in an intelligence and personality 
 grander and richer than any material agency. 
 
 Hasty and superficial generalization is another char- 
 acteristic of our times. It is seen on the one hand in 
 the brilliant romancing of the eloquent scientific lec- 
 turer, in the flippant theories that characterize our 
 historical and literary criticism, and the confident 
 dogmatism of our one-sided theorists in psychology, 
 ethics, and sociology. Digests and reviews and sum- 
 maries present the ready materials for these dashing 
 hypotheses. With these at command, the quick eye 
 can discern analogies, and the hasty glance can overlook 
 differences, the vivid imagination can shape the incom- 
 plete materials into an imposing theory, and the ready 
 tongue can set it forth in the blandishments of imposing 
 diction. A positive manner, a trenchant style, copious 
 illustrations, and humorous allusions, all lend their 
 charms, when all at once the living God is changed by 
 the accomplished juggler, before the wondering eyes of 
 the cultured but credulous crowd, into an unconscious 
 force, or a persistent tendency. Or, as Christianity 
 comes into question with its unmatched Christ, with 
 his surprising, yet befitting, supernatural deeds, with his 
 lofty claims, with their yet more wonderful fulfilment in 
 his person, words, and works, these are all disposed of 
 by a rapid whirl of the juggler's hand, as lie blends into 
 a confused image Christ's likeness to other masters of 
 faith, while he overlooks the amazing differences which 
 reveal themselves to the earnest and patient and truth- 
 loving eye. The brilliant theorist and eloquent writer 
 too often carries the day, especially with an audience of 
 hilarious youth, or of over-cultivated men, whose pur- 
 suits and associations are for the moment removed far 
 from the stern realities of life and of death. The new 
 
50 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Voltaire is more decorous and respectful in his manner 
 than the old. The new Rousseau is less impulsive and 
 more self-controlled. The new Hume is more exact in 
 his knoAvledge, more respectful and restrained in his 
 tone ; but the new Voltaire and the new Rousseau and the 
 new Hume shut their ej^es as persistently to the very 
 same facts and relations which their prototypes rejected 
 with passion or ridicule or contempt. Atheistic and anti- 
 Christian theories of history, of government, of politics, 
 of culture, of ethics, and of human progress, are as nar- 
 row in data, as fiilse in their conclusions, and as danger- 
 ous in their influence, in this generation as in any other, 
 and none the less because they are more decorous, more 
 learned, and more scientific. 
 
 Faith in God guards against the superficial, hasty, 
 ^and brilliant theorizing of modern letters, because of 
 the sobriety and caution and reverence to which it 
 trains. The Christian temper is self-distrustful and yet 
 self-reliant. It is cautious in seeking after truth, slow 
 in forming its conclusions, and undaunted in holding 
 and defending them. For these reasons the spirit of 
 reverent faith Aas a poszYzW scientific value. It was not 
 in vain that Lord Bacon discerned a sameness in that 
 child-like spirit which is the common condition of enter- 
 ing the kingdom of science and the kingdom of God. 
 The distinct recognition and the earnest enforcement of 
 Christian theism in a Christian university may become 
 an important scientific force. It has created and fostered 
 science and culture in the past. It must defend both 
 in the future from the narrow dogmatism and superficial 
 brilliancy of the theories of the day. That is no mean 
 scientific service, then, to which a college chapel and a 
 Christian pulpit are set apart in a Christian university. 
 Formal lectures in chapel or pulpit on the so-called re- 
 lations of science and religion are not often called for. 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 51 
 
 The preacher who ventures upon them is liable to go 
 beyond his depth, and a slight oversight or venial error is 
 not readily overlooked by his sharp-witted hearers. But 
 the college preacher should be sensitively alive to all 
 the tendencies of modern speculation. No electrometer 
 should respond more quickly than he to the changing 
 moods of the thinking of the times. He should antici- 
 pate as by instinct each new position for attack or de- 
 fence which is taken by the unbelief of cultivated men. 
 Being himself a man of culture, and thoroughly ac- 
 knowledging it in all its forms as the rich and becoming 
 fruitage of the kingdom of God, he should assert for 
 faith itself a royal pre-eminence, and set forth its claims 
 by arguments which command respect, and compel con- 
 viction. As he expounds to his hearers those themes 
 which are common to them with all other men, — their 
 doubts and temptations, their sorrows and sins, — he 
 should also meet their peculiar intellectual wants, and 
 justify himself to their intellectual respect. He should 
 study and understand the student's mind and the stu- 
 dent's heart by cherishing a constant sympathy with 
 the student's life. In order to do this, he must be their 
 friend and pastor ; and when he is both, he can speak 
 with the authority which only knowledge and love can 
 impart. But still it is on moral and spiritual grounds 
 that faith must stand or fall. If the students of a col- 
 lege are taught in their chapel from a man who com- 
 mands their intellectual respect and their personal 
 affection, there is little occasion to fear even from the 
 dogmatism of modern speculation or the brilliancy of 
 modern criticism. The living preacher is stronger than 
 the professor or writer, even though he know less than 
 either, because he deals with the conscience, which en- 
 forces duty; and the heart, which thirsts after God; and 
 the longing after immortality, which will not be denied. 
 
62 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 That there are honest sceptics, we have no doubt. That 
 the way to a settled faith is to many earnest souls a 
 long and arid road, we concede. And yet it may be 
 true, that it is with the heart the fool says there is no 
 God, and he that doeth the will of God shall know of 
 Christ's doctrine whether it be eternal and true. That 
 dogmatism and denunciation are specially unseemly 
 and impotent with a student audience, we know. That 
 something more than preaching is necessary to convince 
 doubting minds, is true ; but it is also true that an ear- 
 nest and intelligent and thoughtful ministry to the hearts 
 and lives of a college audience by one who is at once 
 cultivated in his tastes, intelligent in his convictions, 
 and young in his sympathies, is the most efficient and 
 the most needed instrumentality against the scepticism 
 of these times. For this reason, if for no other, the 
 Christian college should have its own pulpit and its 
 own Christian worship. That its worship may be edify- 
 ing, it must be attractive ; and its pulpit, to be useful, 
 must be a place of power. 
 
 5. The objections which are urged against the posi- 
 tions which we have defended, are not decisive. The 
 first which we name is that every so-called Christian 
 college must necessarily be sectarian. The term secta- 
 rian as used by the objector is a term of reproach. 
 The reproach which it implies is well deserved. It is 
 most dishonorable to the Christian Church that it 
 should be divided into sects, and that so much of the 
 zeal which might burn so purely and brightly for God 
 and Christ should be kindled of partisan heats, and 
 flash into an unhallowed flame. We grant that it is 
 practically necessary in the present divided state of 
 Christendom, that the religious worship and teachings 
 of a college should conform more or less nearly to the 
 practice of some religious denomination ; but we insist it 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 53 
 
 is not necessary that these slioiild offend either the con- 
 victions or the tastes of any earnest or positive Christian 
 believer. So far as the college is true to the lessons of 
 science and culture, so far will it be anti-sectarian in its 
 teachings and its spirit. The lessons of philosophy, the 
 teachings of history, and the amenities of culture, all 
 lift the Christian scholar above the narrowing influences 
 of denominational divisions and the petty excitements 
 of sectarian or personal quarrels, and open his heart to 
 a more enlarged Christian charity. These healthful in- 
 fluences can sometimes be resisted, and the college may 
 become a school of narrow judgments and a nursery of 
 bitter and unchristian sectarianism. But these are not 
 the legitimate fruits of genuine Christian culture. The 
 tendencies of all sound learning and earnest thinking 
 are in the direction of a more liberal charity and of a 
 closer union between Christian believers. To these in- 
 fluences all Christian colleges must yield, if indeed they 
 are not foremost in urging them forward. It may be 
 reserved for them to contribute most efficiently to the 
 restoration of unity to the Christian Church. So far as 
 the Church itself is concerned, whatever may have been 
 true in the past, the last thing which it needs to fear at 
 present is that the Christian colleges of this country 
 will intensify the sectarian spirit. 
 
 It is not, however, in the interest of a more catholic 
 Christianity, that the objector usually argues. He more 
 frequently appears as the advocate of what may prop- 
 erly be considered the catliolicity of science itself. In 
 this capacity he urges that the introduction of a posi- 
 tive religious element into college education interferes 
 with that freedom from all prepossessions which is the 
 essential condition of a broad and catholic culture. In 
 the university, it is said, nothing must be assumed to 
 be true ; every thing must give account of itself, — 
 
54 FIFTEEN TEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 even the principles and methods by which we know, 
 much more the religious beliefs and moral convictions 
 on which men securely rest. All these must be sifted 
 by that critical spirit which is the glory of modern cul- 
 ture. To anticipate the conclusions which the inquirer 
 should receive, and especially to use them as material 
 for positive teaching and earnest enforcement, is to 
 offend against the spirit of true science, which, in order 
 to be thorough and critical, must be absolutely free, 
 especially from any religious dogmas. 
 
 To this we reply that the argument of the objector, 
 if it proves any thing, proves too much. It would 
 require that nothing whatever in knowledge or science 
 should be presumed to be either fixed or true ; that in 
 astronomy, the Newtonian astronomy should have no 
 precedence over the theories of Descartes ; that in 
 physiology, the doctrine of the Animal Spirits must be 
 admitted to a hearing before adopting the modern 
 theory of the nervous system. By the same rule, no 
 principles of physics, or chemical philosophy, or syntax, 
 or psychology, should be assumed by the teacher to be 
 established, lest forsooth the pupil should be unduly 
 biased, and his freedom to revise and correct his knowl- 
 edge should be impaired. Such a conclusion would be 
 rejected as ridiculous by every student of science. In 
 literature and criticism, some principles are accepted as 
 so axiomatic that they cannot be shaken, and do not 
 need to be revised. 
 
 Surely it is not too much to claim that the great 
 verities of faith concerning God and duty and Christ 
 and the immortal life, may be received as so far fixed 
 as to be the basis of positive teaching in the education 
 of youth. Though not established by what is techni- 
 cally called the verified experiments of science, they are 
 assumed as the foundation of all that is valuable in 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CflAPEL. 55 
 
 human existence, — the authority of law, tlie security 
 of property, the sacrcdness of home, tlio inviohibility 
 of honor, the obligation of trutli, the tenderness of 
 affection, the nobleness of self-sacrifice, and the triumphs 
 of love and faith over death. Christian civilization has 
 had too long and too varied a history in the past not to 
 testify to some fixed foundation of truth. Christian 
 literature and Christian art have blossomed into Hower, 
 and ripened into fruit, for too many generations, to leave 
 room to doubt that Christ is indeed the tree of life. It 
 is true that every generation raises new questions of 
 doubt and difficulty concerning the adjustment of these 
 truths to the new discoveries in science, the new revela- 
 tions of history, and the new sentiments concerning man- 
 ners; but it is also true, that the oftener these truths are 
 challenged, the more satisfactory is the response which 
 they give ; and the more closely they are cross-(iues- 
 tioned, the more triumphantly do they endure the test. 
 
 IMore than this is true. A Christian university is, 
 other things being equal, the place of all others in 
 which truth is likely to be sought for with the boldest 
 and the freest spirit, for the simple reason that those 
 who believe most earnestly in the Christian verities are 
 the most fearless in submitting them to the severest 
 scrutiny. While it is true that many religionists and 
 so-called theologians are timid of new light, and suspi- 
 cious of new investigations, it is also true that those 
 whose faith is the strongest and the surest, are the iirost 
 eager for new inquiries, and the most fearless of fresh 
 investigations. On the other hand, whatever may be 
 thought of the doctrines of our modern scientific athe- 
 ists and literary anti-Christians, their spirit and temper 
 bring little honor to the catholicity of true science. A 
 university thoroughly pervaded by the modern irre- 
 ligious spirit, would be of all schools of knowledge the 
 
56 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 most intolerant of theists and Christians. Whatever it 
 might profess, the dogmatism of its unbelief, and the 
 credulity or earnestness of its faith, would sooner or 
 later weaken its scientific uprightness. The founder of 
 our faith declared with emphasis, " To this end came I 
 forth that I might bear witness to the truth ; " and for 
 this reason it is that he applies the searching test, 
 " Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 
 It might be urged still further, that no State college 
 or State university under our political system can be 
 Christian in its influence and teachings. We reply that 
 that depends upon the character of the people of the 
 State. If these are prevailingl}^ Christian, they will not 
 only tolerate, but they will require, that their schools of 
 learning shall be directed by men of positive faith and 
 of Christian zeal. Whatever difficulties or complica- 
 tions may be involved in the theory of their administra- 
 tion, the State universities of this country have hitherto 
 been emphatically Christian. Whether they can be 
 maintained in this spirit, it is not for us to ask, or to 
 attempt to answer. 
 
 We are not unaware that the religious question is not 
 an easy question to solve Avith the managers of many 
 colleges and universities. We concede that the compli- 
 cations occasioned from many former traditions of the 
 past are such that in our country it is not easy, and 
 perhaps not possible, to found a new college upon an 
 ideally correct theor}^ We have no quarrel with those 
 institutions which are conducted upon another theory 
 than our own, however much we dej^lore their defects. 
 
 It is enough for us to know that the great majority 
 of our countrymen of English and Protestant descent 
 prefer that their sons should be educated in colleges in 
 which the utmost freedom of scientific inquiry, and the 
 highest refinement of literary culture, are connected 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 57 
 
 with positive and earnest religious faith. Were it 
 otherwise, were public sentiment other than it is, a col- 
 lege proposing Christian aims, would be none the less 
 needed did it stand forth as the single representative of 
 thorough culture as controlled and elevated l)y the pres- 
 ence of Him at whose name every knee shall bow, and 
 who shall sooner or later bring into captivity every 
 thought and aspiration of man. We desire never to for- 
 get, — we should be traitors to the past if we did, — that 
 all the traditions of this college hold it to the service 
 and honor of Christ, yet in no slavish or narrow spirit. 
 It has not been backward to hail the beginnings of 
 modern physical science. It has not feared to follow 
 the subtleties of metaphysical speculation. It has not 
 shrunk from new inquiries and new results in Chris- 
 tian theology. It has not been behind other institu- 
 tions, nor behind the age, in applying the historic sense 
 and the historic imagination to the rational interpreta- 
 tion of scriptural and Christian history. It has main- 
 tained a broad and free spirit in all its inquiries after 
 truth, not loving Christianity better than the truth, but 
 loving and honoring Christ because he is the truth. It 
 has cherished a catholic spirit towards all who love our 
 Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. It has, moreover, main- 
 tained the daily worship of God, with scarce an inter- 
 ruption, since it was founded. With the opening of the 
 first College Hall, in 1718, this worship began. The 
 first chapel, still standing, heard from 1763 to 1824 the 
 orthodox discourses of Daggett, the finished sermons of 
 Wales, the catholic and learned disquisitions of Stiles, 
 and the imposing eloquence of D wight. The second 
 chapel for more than fifty years was the scene of the 
 elaborate and refined eloquence of Fitch, the weighty 
 arguments and the rousing appeals of Taylor, the calm 
 and deliberate wisdom of Day, the paj^siouate appeals 
 
58 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAFEL. 
 
 of Goodrich, and the tender and meditative pathos of 
 Woolsey, Avhose names we have brought with us to 
 remind us of the precious traditions of the past, and 
 to hold us to fidelity Jor the future. We propose also 
 to give special honor to two memorable names in the 
 roll of Theology, Philosophy, and Christian saintliness, 
 names which can never be forgotten by the graduates of 
 Yale College, the names of George Berkeley and 
 Jonathan Edwards. 
 
 We gratefully recognize the good providence of God 
 in the erection of the edifice in which we are now assem- 
 bled, and which we would now set apart for Christian 
 uses. In the year 1864, Joseph Battell made a very 
 liberal subscription toward the erection of a new chapeL 
 To this sum fifteen thousand dollars were added by sev- 
 ,eral distinguished benefactors of the college.* The year 
 after the corner-stone was laid, and the work of building 
 was commenced, the college came into possession of fifty 
 thousand dollars as a legacy from Mr. Battell, which 
 was appropriated to the enlargement of the plan, and 
 the decoration of the building. In grateful recognition 
 of his liberality, this edifice has been formally named 
 the Battell Chapel. This distinguished benefactor of 
 the college was the son of a most enterprising, honor- 
 able, and benevolent merchant of the State of Connecti- 
 cut, in simpler times, and the grandson of the first pas- 
 tor of a characteristically Puritan town. Eminently 
 loyal and true in his character, he retained till his death 
 a heartfelt respect and ardent zeal for the faith and vir- 
 tues of his New-England ancestry. A graduate of 
 Middlebury College, he was a scholar all his life in his 
 tastes and habits, although occupied with the cares of 
 extended and manifold business enterjjrises. What he 
 
 * William E Dodge, William Walter Phelps, Simeou B. Chittenden, 
 George Bliss, and Moses Taylor. 
 
ON ENTERING THE NEW CHAPEL. 59 
 
 gave to this college, be gave in tlie fixed convictimi tliat 
 its religious interests were essential to its true prosper- 
 ity, and that its religious welfare required a convenient 
 and attractive house of worship. 
 
 The church which we have been enabled to erect, we 
 do now consecrate to the honor and service of Christ, 
 as a living person, and an ever-present power. This is 
 no decorated mausoleum to a dead or dying faith which 
 we have built. We are not here with sentimental make- 
 believes to try to think of a symbol as a fact. We are 
 not here to render an empty honor to the faith in which 
 our fathers lived and died, but which to us is only a 
 beautiful and inspiring fiction of the past. This is no 
 empty tomb which we enter, whose hollow walls resound 
 with mocking echoes to our cries after Christ, saying, 
 " WJlij seek ye the living among the dead ? " but it is a liv- 
 ing temple which we would consecrate to his praise, and 
 hallow as our future place of worship, as we bring into 
 it our believing and loving hearts. Plere are present 
 instructors and guardians of youth, to whom Christian 
 parents year by year bring the ho[)e and pride of their 
 households : and they are here to set apart this house as 
 the place of their frequent worship, — with the pupils for 
 whose welfare they labor, and whom they would train 
 to Christian scholarship and Christian usefulness. Here 
 are present the families that meet in our weekly assem- 
 blies to add their prayers to ours for the blessing and 
 presence of God in all our Christian activities. Here 
 are present the students, — those who are soon to go 
 from us, who will never forget that they met once or 
 twice in this new chapel before they were parted, and 
 will not fail to leave behind their blessing upon this our 
 new house of prayer. Here are present those who are 
 to remain, to show, by the habits of decorum to which 
 the beauty and comfort of this house will most cer- 
 
60 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tainly train them, tliat in the house of prayer they are 
 always Christian gentlemen, and to create and transmit 
 to future college generations a common sentiment 
 which shall guard it from any desecration in thought 
 or deed. May the daily services of this house of prayer 
 be blessed by the quickening Spirit, that, as it awakens 
 us by the touch of each morning light, shall also move 
 our hearts to rencAved thankfulness ! Let all who shall 
 worship here, make the uttered prayers their own. Let 
 all their voices be heard in its songs of praise. May the 
 quickly coming and quickly going college generations, 
 who, as they come and go more swiftly than the weav- 
 er's flying shuttle, shall hear the preacher within these 
 walls, be ever mindful that " all flesh is as grass, and 
 the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass 
 withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the 
 word of the Lord endureth forever., mid this is the word 
 which hy the gospel is preached unto you^ 
 
III. 
 
 CHRISTIAN WORSniP* 
 
 "But the noun coMETn, and now is, when the TuirE woRsniprERs 
 
 SHALL WORSHIP THE FaTUEU IN SPIRIT AND IN TUUTU : FOR TliB FaTUER 
 BEEKETU SUCU TO WORSUIP UIM." — t/o/<n io. 23. 
 
 In these words we find the definition and warrant 
 for Christian worship. The true — that is, the genuine 
 — worshipper worships the Father^ the living and loving 
 personal God. He worships him in spirit; i.e., with 
 spiritual affections and acts, as contrasted with outward 
 doings or forms, restricted to place or time. He wor- 
 ships him in truth — with some intelligent and just con- 
 ception of ^vlio God is, and ichat his worship signifies. 
 This definition of Christian worship distinguishes it 
 from the formal and mechanical on the one hand, and 
 the sentimental on the other. It does not exclude ex- 
 pression by act or speech, by rite or song, but only in- 
 sists that the emotion and thought and obedience of 
 the inner man shall make the worship spiritual and 
 true. 
 
 Tlie warrant follows the definition, and is founded 
 upon it. The Father seeketh such to worship him. If 
 God is a spirit^ he can accept only that homage which 
 represents the man as he is. The place, the time, the 
 position, the word, the tone, are nothing, except as they 
 express and represent the man within. If he is the 
 
 * First Sunday 0/ regular worship in the Battdl Chapel, Sept. 17, ISTG. 
 
 61 
 
62 FIFTEEN YEARS IN VALE CHAPEL. 
 
 creating and loving Father, he must seek, i.e., earnestly 
 desire that men should give him their love and service. 
 The works and ways of God are perpetually attesting 
 that this is true. The heavens, as they bend over man 
 with their bright and benignant aspect; the earth, as it 
 yields its fruits and flowers, and utters its thousand 
 voices of love and gladness; the heart of man, as it 
 yearns after the divine love and sympathy ; sorrow and 
 disappointment, as they suggest the need of a consola- 
 tion which human sympathy can never impart ; the sense 
 of guilt and weakness, as they cry out for divine for- 
 giveness and help ; above all, Christ as God revealed to 
 man, with his never ceasing call, " Come unto me, all ye 
 that are weary, and heavy laden ; " and the movements 
 within the soul that lift and direct it toward God, — all 
 these confirm the truth, that the heavenly Father always 
 seeks, and always delights to find, the sincere and genu- 
 ine worshipper. 
 
 Such is the conception of Christian worship as it is 
 defined by our Lord. Its perfect and universal realiza- 
 tion lay in the distant future — although its beginning 
 had then dawned upon the earth. '* The hour co7neth^ 
 and 7iotv is ;" i.e., begins to be. But even now the hour 
 Jias not yet fully come. Men still need to be reminded 
 of what true worship is, and that God seeks it from 
 every living man. There are reasons special to our- 
 selves why the theme is appropriate for us. It cannot 
 be inappropriate on this occasion to speak of Christian 
 woi^hip in its relation to ourselves, as individuals and 
 as a community. 
 
 1. L(et us consider worship as an emotion or senti- 
 ment. Worship is conspicuously an exercise of feel- 
 ing. It can never be genuine without feeling. The 
 words and rites and observances which are so often used 
 as its semblance, uniformly express or imply feeling 
 
CHRISTIAN WORSUIP. 63 
 
 intense and fervent. The uplifted hand, the reverent 
 eye, the bended knee, the standing position, the pros- 
 trate form, the measured chant, the plaintive melody, 
 the piercing cry, the resounding chorus, the words of 
 prayer, all signify that the worshippers are moved by 
 strong and sustained emotion. The capacity for these 
 emotions is universal to man. It is as natural to man 
 to worship as it is to breathe. The instant man is con- 
 fronted with God, he cannot but respond with rever- 
 ence. His breath is hushed by awe, his speech is 
 checked in mute wonder. If man cannot behold a 
 lofty precipice or a sounding cataract, or confront a 
 furious tempest or the raging ocean, without appropriate 
 emotion, no more can he think of God without the re- 
 sponse of his heart. We do not say thjit man cannot 
 withdraw his mind from God, and doubt of God and the 
 evidences of God, and so withhold the answer of his 
 homage, but simply that he cannot believe in God, and 
 think of God, and fail to adore him. The vault of the 
 heavens at night, as all consent, fill and elevate the 
 soul of every man who lifts his eyes upward, and gazes, 
 and knows while he looks, that the God whom those 
 heavens suggest as possible or real, moves the soul even 
 more powerfully than the heavens, if his heart follows 
 and obeys his steadfast gaze. But worship is more than 
 adoration. God is more than a great Unknown who 
 moves us with wonder. He is the loving Father ; and 
 as soon as he is recognized as such, just so soon does 
 man respond with natural gratitude as quickly and as 
 necessarily as the breath of the morning rises at the 
 touch of the morning light. But worship is more than 
 gratitude superadded to wonder. It is also supplica- 
 tion. So far as God is believed to be a person who 
 feels for our wants, and cares for our sorrows, and de- 
 lights to give and receive sympathy, we spontaneously 
 
64 FIFTEEN YEARS IN VALE CHAPEL. 
 
 ask for what we believe lie can and is willing to give. 
 In these three forms of adoration, thanksgiving, and 
 prayer, every man is by nature prompted to worship. 
 
 Not only is worship natural to man whenever he finds 
 an object of worship, but it shows itself to be natural, 
 because it forces him to find such an object. Every man 
 has his god, — whether it be a fetich, an ape, a serpent, 
 a calf, a Jupiter, a Diana ; or whether it be an abstrac- 
 tion, like Evolution, Humanity, Liberty, or Progress, 
 Genius, Science, or Literature, the Immensities or the 
 Abysses, the Absolute or the Unknowable Unknown ; or 
 some gifted human being, as Newton or Goethe ; or some 
 departed human spirit, which the soul idealizes into a 
 divinity, and worships with its holiest and purest aspi- 
 rations and its noblest resolves. 
 
 2. Worship is more than a sentiment or an exercise 
 of the heart. It is also a duty ; and as such, it is an act 
 of the will, which is enforced by the conscience. Wor- 
 ship may be fervent and frequent, and yet be impure, 
 selfish, and wicked, if the man who offers it is not in 
 character and purpose subjected to the will of the Holy 
 One. The murderer may be moved with no unreal fer- 
 vor when he adores the God whom he grossly miscon- 
 ceives, and thanks for smiling upon his deeds of blood, 
 or propitiates by rites as cruel. The harlot in her life 
 of lust, the thief in his course of robbery, the fraudulent 
 in his machinations of deceit, are not necessarily pre- 
 tenders and conscious hypocrites, when warmed by the 
 fervors of devotion. They are simply sentimentalists, 
 whose religious feelings neither spring from allegiance 
 to duty, nor re-act upon it. It is well if their fervors of 
 feeling are not made a substitute for duty, if so much 
 prayer and praise are not set over against so much self- 
 denial, so much self-control, and so much good will to 
 man. Sentimentalism may be aroused by the magnifi- 
 
CHRISTIAN wonsiiip. 65 
 
 cent excitements of the mass into whicli an inspired 
 musical composer has wrouglit the best aspirations of 
 his life, by strains and choruses that are ahnost worthy 
 to be heard in heaven, or it may find incitements and 
 expression in the rudest cliorus and the rousing niehjdy 
 of the camp-meeting or the revivaL But if it does not 
 express the aspirations of the pure in heart, of tlie [jciu- 
 tent for sin, or the seeker after an unselfish life, it may 
 be only offensive in proportion to its fervor. 
 
 On the other hand, allegiance to duty necessarily 
 inspires worship. The man who obeys conscience with 
 a supreme devotion cannot but worship the living God. 
 A good tree not only brings forth its good fruit, Init, 
 in the process of growing the fruit, it puts forth the 
 leaves and flowers of refreshment and beauty. The eye 
 that waits upon the law of duty with steadfast single- 
 ness, cannot but also lift itself often to the liolv One, 
 who is ready to manifest liimself to the sight of the 
 pure in heart. This is not all. Worship is not only 
 inspired by duty, but it inspires and sanctions duty. 
 There are no motives so strong and overpowering as 
 those which worship kindles and sustains. All other 
 influences together, which make for good, — self-appro- 
 bation, self-respect, regard for the opinion of others, — 
 fail to take such a hold of man's conscience and of 
 man's life, as do faith in the ever-present God, and an 
 actual communion with the Father of our spirits, as re- 
 vealed in Christ. Hence worship is not only a duty, 
 but it is the first and last of duties, the most fundamen- 
 tal and indispensable of duties, because it involves all 
 other duties, and is the very life and potency of duty, 
 in the soul of man. 
 
 3. Worship concerns the intellect, and involves intel- 
 ligence. It was an adage of other times, that ignorance 
 is the mother of devotion. It is held in our times in 
 
66 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 another form, as the last result of modern speculation, 
 '' God as infinite, and cannot be known to the finite : 
 the object of worship must be, and is necessarily, unknow- 
 able, and must be forever unknow^able, because exact 
 and positive truth in the highest meaning of the word 
 concerning God can neither be gained by his works, nor 
 revealed through language." Worship, it is urged, is a 
 matter of feeling only. Let each man fill his heart with 
 it as he may. " Let each generation construct its altar 
 as it will, and think of its God as it must, and believe 
 in prophet and apostle as it can ; but each generation 
 must have its own altar and its own God and its 
 own Messiah." Here again is sentimentalism in another 
 form, which not only separates worship from duty, but 
 divorces it from truth, and declares that it can have no 
 possible relations to science. Practically, it divorces 
 religion from the scientific reason, and critical intelli- 
 gence. It plainly declares, or effectually insinuates, 
 that, though worship is necessary to man in the weak- 
 ness of his heart, it is unworthy of him in the strength 
 of his intellect, because, forsooth, whenever his intellect 
 essays to grasp what it worships, it will find that it 
 clutches at a shadow. Such is the condescending pa- 
 tronage with which worship is accepted by certain cir- 
 cles that call themselves scientific in a special sense, 
 when they declare that religious feeling can have no 
 relations to definite and reasoned truth. 
 
 This is not the docirine of the New Testament. "We 
 know what we worship," is the language of the Master 
 of Christian thinking. " Whom ye ignorantly worship. 
 Him declare I unto you," was proclaimed at Athens, 
 by the greatest of Christian reasoners. Nor is it alone 
 the dogmatic teachings of sound science, or sound theol- 
 ogy. Whatever extravagant things have been uttered 
 by theologians about the relation of faith to reason, it 
 
cniiisTFAN ]vo usurp. 67 
 
 still remains true that tlie service of faith is a reason- 
 able service. We cannot discuss this question here. 
 If there are able and acute thinkers who say that the 
 knowledge of the finite is alone worthy to be called 
 truth, and that all knowledge of the infinite must 
 change with the guesses of each generation, there are 
 also multitudes of thinkers as acute, and perhaps more 
 profound, who find that all finite truth presupposes a 
 personal and self-existing God, and is but an expression 
 of his thought and will, and who conclude every act 
 of research, and every discovered result, with a hymn of 
 wonder and gratitude and supplication. 
 
 4. This leads us to consider the relation of worship 
 to form and expression. Worship, to be genuine, must 
 be a worship of the Spirit; but to be true and complete, 
 it must be expressed in outward action. All earnest feel- 
 ing pants for expression. It breaks out into word and 
 gesture. If speech is denied because words cannot do 
 justice to its intensity and volume, it expresses in sighs 
 and moans what cannot be uttered by language, or 
 superadds to speech the subtile quality of musical tone 
 or eloquent fervor. It makes the body an instrument 
 of language by look and gesture, by the uplifted hand, 
 the bended knee, and whatever stately or solemn rite 
 may seem to be required. 
 
 When it is said it is essential tliat Christian worship 
 should be spiritual, it is neither commanded nor implied 
 that it should or can be independent of word or form, 
 but only that the word or rite should never be a substi- 
 tute for the inward emotion and purpose. We must 
 worship God in spirit if we worship him at all. But if 
 we worship him in truth, i.e., in fact, the spiritual act 
 will make itself manifest. Even in the sphere of pure 
 intellect, the thought is not complete till it has made 
 for itself a body in a word. Scientific thought must 
 
68 FIFTEEN YEAnS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 make for itself a laiio^uag^e to crive clearness and effect 
 to its inner life. How much more in the sphere of feel- 
 ing and of duty is it an impulse which man cannot 
 resist, to manifest his desires and his resolves, by words 
 and symbolic rites. If we pray at the corners of the 
 streets to be seen of men, we do not pray at all, and 
 therefore we are bidden to enter into our closets. Pie 
 who never prays to his Father who seeth in secret, never 
 prays at all. But neither the word of the Master, nor 
 liis example, nor the logic of his teachings, forbid — 
 rather do they all sanction — the outward act of worship 
 in all the forms in which worship is appropriate. The 
 protests of Friend and Puritan against the religion of 
 the lip and the knee were not a whit too earnest in the 
 days in which they were uttered. They need to be 
 still remembered in our more ostentatious and elaborate 
 devotion. The aesthetic excitement through the eye 
 and the ear, processional pomp and spectacular shows, 
 so far as they divert the attention, or gratify the sensi- 
 bilities, to the displacement of spiritual emotion, are as 
 emjDty and offensive in our time as in the days of Christ. 
 And yet it is no less true that the devout heart in all 
 time is impelled to break forth in uttered words of 
 prayer, and will delight itself in every aid to devotion 
 which solemn music and common supplication and elo- 
 quent exhortation can minister in the stately temple 
 when a great congregation is moved by common sym- 
 pathy, or the scanty circle in which two or three only 
 are gathered in the name of the Master, and the Master 
 is present to fulfd his word. 
 
 Hence the Christian worshipper is catholic in his 
 sympathies. He does not refuse prescribed and tradi- 
 tional forms for his prayers and his hymns, even though 
 he may prefer the freedom of those forms of speech 
 Avhich are shaped by the fervor of the hour. He can 
 
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 69 
 
 rise to God on the mighty pinions of song wliicli the 
 great composers of anthem and chorus have given to 
 the church, and he is moved by the simple melodies 
 which satisfy an uninstructed ear. He hears with 
 dehght, as he walks of an evening, the strains of the 
 hymn that sends a hallowed gladness through a Chris- 
 tian home, and is touched with tender sympatliy if 
 awakened in the morning by the chant of a band of 
 children who are trained to greet the sun with an early 
 song. He will overlook much that is defective in the 
 worship, that is unlettered and uncouth in its form, be- 
 cause of his sym[)athy with the spirit that is edified hy 
 the words and imagery and tones which grate upon his 
 ear, and offend his taste. But this sympathy with the 
 spirit does not require him to be positively plciised with 
 the doggerel verse, the wretched grammar, the incoher- 
 ent logic, or the strained rhetoric, which are never so 
 offensive as when they are used in the service of Chris- 
 tian devotion. The more intense is the earnestness 
 and the more devout the spirit of the Christian wor- 
 shipper, the more acute is his sensibility to whatever in 
 word or form or rite connects associations of dishonor 
 with prayer or praise of the living God. 
 
 Let these thoughts suffice us as to the nature of 
 Christian worship. We derive from them the following 
 practical lessons : — 
 
 1. The worship which a man offers is always in 
 harmony with his life — neither better nor worse. I 
 mean real worship. I know very well that not a few 
 bad men of very doubtful reputation are very much 
 given to prayer. Not a few even are driven to i)raycr 
 by the consciousness of the sins which they are not 
 willing to abandon. Some of them pray with the 
 hope of balancing their moral reckoning, by setting 
 off' so many prayers against so much rottenness or 
 
70 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CUAPEL. 
 
 knavery or deceit. Then, again, others are so far from 
 being conscious hypocrites, that they are scourged by a 
 knowledge of guilt to redouble their cries for pardon, 
 while they repent of nothing except the exposure or 
 consequences of their sin. But in these cases, there is 
 no real worship. Such worship would not be half so fre- 
 quent did men remember that a man's prayers are just 
 what his character and his life make them to be ; that 
 the worship of a man is to his moral self just what the 
 flower is to the plant, the consummation of the grace 
 and beauty of which it is capable, or the exhalation 
 which is emitted from its rottenness. Separate from the 
 purpose of duty, it is and can be nothing but a facti- 
 tious excitement, which may be dangerous just in pro- 
 portion to its fervid emotion or eloquent speech. 
 
 But what place does this doctrine of worship provide 
 for the prayer of the publican, who brings nothing into 
 the temple but a life of uncleanness and fraud, and 
 breathes no other prayer than " God be merciful to 
 me a sinner"? How is it consistent with the hymn 
 which we so often sing, " Just as I am — O Lamb of God, 
 I come, I come " ? Must a man be good already before 
 he can dare to come to God? We answer these natural 
 questions thus — The prayer of the publican, if it means 
 any thing, means the abandonment of the old life, and 
 the assumption of the new. His cry for mercy seeks for 
 forgiveness for the past, and unconditioned help for the 
 future ; but it is not accepted, because it is not a prayer, 
 if it does not offer in sacrifice the. purpose of the man 
 to be wholly new. No man is released from the obliga- 
 tion to worship, for two reasons. Every man who is 
 right in his purposes and aspirations will be a worship- 
 per. It is as natural for such a man to worship as it is 
 to breathe or to sleep. You can no more conceive tliat 
 a man with whom the law of duty is supreme, should 
 
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 71 
 
 withhold the worship of adoration and tliankfidness, of 
 suj)plication and penitence, than you can conceive a 
 triangle with four sides, or a circle that is triangular. 
 The second reason is, that God is so important to man, 
 and man is so near to God, and the influences which 
 Avorship excites are so potent, and man's need of help 
 from God so constant and so intense, that allegiance to 
 duty will necessarily bring him to God. Hence the 
 first thing that the prodigal thinks of when he comes 
 to himself is, I will arise, and go to my father. And so 
 it is ever afterAvards. No duty to man can be made an 
 offset against the recognition of God. The instant that 
 a man consecrates himself to duty, he consecrates him- 
 self to God. He bows his heart in adoration. He lifts 
 his eyes in praise. He bends his knee in prayer. If 
 he walks in the light of duty, he is guided by the eye 
 of God. If he offends against conscience, he confesses 
 his sin to God. If he is conscious of Aveakness, he asks 
 the help Avhich God alone can give. It is useless to ask 
 Avdiich begins first, — allegiance to duty, or allegiance to 
 God. Practically, they begin together. 
 
 2. Fervor and earnestness of worship are required by 
 every man for his strength and peace. To every man, 
 God is equally near and equally important. In every 
 man, there are capacities for love and gratitude and 
 homage to the Father of his spirit. Every man has sins 
 of which God takes notice, and Avhich God alone must 
 forgive ; and Avhich he Avill not, and ought not to, forgive 
 unless he be entreated. Every man has sorrows Avhich 
 God alone can comfort, and weaknesses Avhich he alone 
 can help. 
 
 It is not enough that a man may say lie is upright 
 and honest and earnest toAvards his felloAV-men and to 
 himself. It is not oidy a fair question to ask, but it is 
 a question Avhicli every man cannot but ask of himself. 
 
72 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 What am I toward God? It is not enough that he can 
 answer, I would gladly worship, if God were real to my 
 convictions, and near to my faith ; for the answer can- 
 not but return. Why do you not seek till you find him ? 
 Why, if you worship in purpose, do you not worship in 
 fact? Why, if you would welcome his presence, do 
 you not ask to be admitted ? To whom but to such is 
 the promise given, " Ask, and it shall be given you ; 
 seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
 unto you " ? To whom but to all ? 
 
 Let no man be content with the ante-chamber who 
 desires to enter into the palace. Let no man say to 
 himself, that he hopes to enter, and intends to enter, 
 who does not take a single decisive step forwards and 
 within. 
 
 Worship is not only a need for the men of our times, 
 but it will continue to be as long as God shall exist, and 
 men shall be made in God's image. Those who assume 
 that worship shall gradually die out with the progress 
 of culture, forget that as culture, i.e., true culture, shall 
 advance, man will know more of himself, and more of 
 the universe, and consequently the more will he know 
 of his Creator, and of his need of his help and his bless- 
 ing. Unless conscience is to be dethroned as well as 
 God by the progress of knowledge, the privilege and 
 duty of worship will be more and more clearly acknowl- 
 edged, the need of forgiveness will be more apparent, 
 and the blessing of a life formed after the divine will, 
 will be more and more distinctly recognized. If atheism, 
 whether speculative or practical, is for a time to gain 
 the ascendency, that ascendency will be briefer than 
 ever before. The cycles for the re-actions of truth and 
 the so-called revenges of truth are now more rapid in 
 their revolution, and terribly convincing in their results. 
 May God have pity on the generation, that, ceasing to 
 
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 73 
 
 worship God, shall fall to worshipping one another, and 
 end by each man worshipping himself ! The worship of 
 genius or science or culture may stimulate the intellect, 
 but it leaves the heart hard, and the affections unsatis- 
 fied. "Whatever the learning of other men may teach 
 them, let ours lead us to God. Wliatever the thouofht 
 or culture of other schools may inspire, let ours be so 
 enlightened and liberal as to find a place for the most 
 ardent thankfulness, the most fervent praise, and the 
 most earnest supplication, in the theory and practice of 
 our life. That is a narrow view of the universe that 
 finds no place and no need for God : that is a degrading 
 view of man which denies him intimate and affectionate 
 relations with his Father in heaven. Lord Bacon says, 
 they that deny God, destroy man's nobility ; and he gives 
 as a reason, that as a dog, by his respect for man, rises 
 out of his animal life, so man, to be truly noble, must 
 reverence and trust a Being higher than himself. 
 
 3. The outward expression of worship in word or 
 form or rite is often most important. Separate from 
 the spirit, it may be worse than worthless ; but as the 
 expression of what is required within, it should never 
 be overlooked or dishonored. No man should neglect 
 the forms of worship for himself, or dishonor them in 
 another. 
 
 No man should neglect worship for himself. It is 
 easy to reason, I have not the spirit of worship : why 
 should I assume the attitude, or follow the words of 
 prayer ? or thus, — I have the spirit : why subject my- 
 self to the bondage of giving it expression ? Were this 
 reasoning applied to words and acts between man and 
 man, it would silence all those utterances, and suppress 
 those nameless acts, which give grace and beauty to 
 human life. My friend knows that I honor and love 
 him : why should I tell him that I do, by si>eech or act ? 
 
74 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 or my neighbor knows that I trust him : why should I 
 offer him the empty formalities that imply that I do ? 
 As between man and man, we all see most clearly that 
 speech and manners are essential to hold men to the 
 thought of that respect which their fellow-men ought 
 to receive, or that neighborly love of which a bow or a 
 compliment is a semblance. Every one knows that 
 either, even though hollow, is better than a surly 
 silence, or studied and complete neglect. The same is 
 true of the expressions of honor and thanks to God. 
 It is not well to utter the words, or assume the attitude, 
 of worship without the spirit; but it is better far than 
 to neglect both form and emotion, and to live a life of 
 confessed neglect of the God in whose hands thy breath 
 is, and whose are all thy ways. Better repeat with 
 whatever earnestness and solemnity thou canst gather 
 for the moment, the brief prayer of thy childhood; 
 better do this, and regularly, than never pray at all. It 
 may be that God will see in it more earnestness than 
 thou dost suspect, and, meeting at first only thy formal 
 prayer, will incline thee to worship Him in spirit and in 
 truth. If the heavenly Father seeketh such to worship 
 him, it may be that he will meet thee in some act of for- 
 mal homage, and awaken the spirit of love and devotion. 
 Again, no right-minded man would dishonor or trifle 
 with the worship of others, whether it be the brief utter- 
 ance which the laborer offers with uncovered head at his 
 lonely meal in the field, or whether an assembled con- 
 gregation gives itself to solemn praise and prayer. It 
 is not only an act of rudeness by look or attitude or 
 smile or word to break in upon the decorum appropriate 
 to acts of worship, but, in the ordinary judgments of 
 men, it is justly regarded as an act of careless profanity 
 or vulgar insolence. That such judgments have some- 
 times been too harsh when pronounced by lookers-on at 
 
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 75 
 
 our worship, who do not understand how nearly allied 
 to virtues are some of the Ijesetting sins of academic 
 youth, should make no difference with those of us who 
 believe in truth, and desire to be delivered from shams 
 of all sorts, — even those shams which easily beset our- 
 selves, — or wisely accept the restraints which good 
 manners impose, even in our excitable and sympathetic 
 moods. 
 
 We are assembled for the first time this day, by our- 
 selves, in the beginning of this college year, in this our 
 attractive house of worship. The manners which we 
 shall expect and require of one another for this year 
 may have much to do with the manners of this commu- 
 nity for a college generation. They may have much to 
 do with the character and habits of many of us as indi- 
 viduals for all our earthly life. They may have more 
 to do with that life which the most thoughtless aspire 
 and hope to live in the higlier temple of God. 
 
 An old, unlettered slave was overheard praying thus : 
 "May I so live, that when I die, I may have maruiers^ 
 and know what I should say when I meet my Lord in 
 heaven ! " It would be well for all of us to remember, 
 that in our spirit and acts, not only of worship, but 
 of the life which our worship s3anbolizes, we are form- 
 ing those manyiers which we shall carry with us into the 
 life that is immortal. 
 
IV. 
 
 CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH* 
 
 "To THIS END \rAS I BORN, AND FOR THIS CAUSE CAME I INTO THE 
 WORLD, THAT I SHOULD BEAR WITNESS UNTO THE TRUTH. EVERY ONE THAT 
 IS or THE TRUTH HBARETH ilY YOlCS." —Joh7l X7Uii. 37. 
 
 Jesus was on trial for his life on a charge of sedition 
 in claiming to be a king. The charge was expressed in 
 the question, " Art thou a king then ? " His answer to 
 this charge was a puzzle to his judge. His kingdom 
 was not of this world, and yet it was to be supreme and 
 universal. Pilate could understand an authority which 
 was enforced by Roman legions, and maintained by 
 Roman bribes, but could not comprehend his prisoner 
 when he rested his claims simply upon the truth to 
 which he was to bear witness. " ' What is truth ? ' said 
 the jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer." 
 The severe assurance of the prisoner brings into bold 
 relief the frivolous scepticism of the judge. It would 
 almost seem that in the two were represented the ex- 
 tremes of modern thought and character. 
 
 The truth to which Christ bore witness at the first 
 was the truth which concerned his person, and his 
 claims to the love and obedience of men. On the 
 cross he bore witness to the love of God for sinning 
 man. By rising from the dead, and ascending to his 
 Father, he testified that he was indeed the Son of God. 
 
 * July 7, 1872, 
 76 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 77 
 
 By his present spirit he has witnessed ever since for 
 the living God as against the godlessuess and self-wor- 
 ship to which man is prone. 
 
 To the truth which enforces the duties of men, Christ 
 also bore witness, first, by his spotless and inspiring life, 
 by his penetrating and faithful words, and by the long 
 succession of obedient disciples, who have imitated the 
 one, and exemplified the other. 
 
 There is, however, truth of other descriptions than 
 the truth which we call religious and ethical. There is 
 the truth of science, which is expanded every year into 
 grander proportions ; the truth of letters, which is more 
 and more alnindant and instructive ; and the truth of 
 the imagination, which is more and more varied and 
 inspiring. Has Christ any testimony to give concerning 
 these hinds of truth? Does Christ hold any relations to 
 Science, Letters, or Art? And, if so, what are these re- 
 lations ? We believe that they are many and important. 
 We also hold that the spirit of earnest discipleship to 
 Christ always favors, and often inspires, tlie highest 
 achievements in every one of these forms of truth. We 
 hold that Christianity not only satisfies the wants of 
 which the scholar is conscious as a man, but that it is 
 equally efficient and equally essential in stimulating and 
 guiding him rightly as a scholar. In other words, we 
 contend that allegiance to Christ is a favoring, and in 
 one sense an essential, condition of the best human 
 culture and education. 
 
 This is our theme. In proposing it, we do not assert 
 that religion and culture are the same. We do not 
 contend, that for the ends of humanity, or the ends of 
 the individual, the one can or ought to be snljstituted 
 for the other. Each is in a certain sense independent 
 of the other, and each must be sovereign in its sphere, in 
 order to serve the master of both. But if Christ is the 
 
78 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Lord of the Universe and the Sovereign of the Human 
 Soul, then he must witness most efficiently for what- 
 ever is true in science and culture, and against those 
 forms and tendencies of either which are defective or 
 false. 
 
 1. The first argument which we offer is directly 
 suggested by the text. Christianity attaches supreme 
 importance to faith, and therefore enforces most effi- 
 ciently the habit of allegiance to truth. Faith is the one 
 comprehensive duty which it enforces, but faith by its 
 very nature asserts and insists that its claims are most 
 reasonable. We need raise no question here as to what 
 are the special relations of faith to reason. We only need 
 to notice, that, when faith is exercised, it is an act so 
 reasonable in the view of him whom it moves, that he 
 cannot find it in his heart to withhold it. The struggles 
 that precede the Christian life are over when the heart 
 renders its loving and complete allegiance to what it 
 knows to be true, be that more or less. As soon as the 
 eye becomes single, the whole body is full of light. 
 
 It will be conceded that a great advance is made in 
 character when Christ is accepted in faith. We affirm, 
 that, other things being equal, a change as important is 
 also wrought for the habits and aims of the intellect. 
 The disciple who takes Christ as the master of his life 
 and the end of his living because he is believed to be 
 the truth, cannot but apply similar habits of allegiance 
 to his judgments of every kind of truth. These new 
 habits cannot but affect his entire intellectual activity. 
 It is true his devotion to the truth of Christ will not 
 give him the truth of information which patient read- 
 ing and quick recollection alone can furnish. It will 
 not supply the acumen or sagacity of thought which a 
 more gifted nature and sharper discipline can alone im- 
 part. It will not remedy the defects of early training ; 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 79 
 
 but, tliese things being equal in two men, the loyal 
 disciple of Christ is more likely to find the truth in 
 Science and in Letters, and, when he finds it, to hold it 
 fast, and to hold it with earnest energy. 
 
 We concede that the law of success in culture, is 
 now so generally understood to be allegiance to truth, 
 that this allegiance may be enforced by other than 
 Christian motives. So is it with the duties of moralit}^ 
 But this does not make it the less needful that this alle- 
 giance should be perpetually re-enforced by the highest 
 of all motives. It is one thing to reverence truth 
 with the passion of self-sacrifice because it is hallowed 
 by the life and death of a divine Master, and another 
 to be constrained to it by the natural conscience, by 
 the associations of one's training, or by the honor of the 
 fraternity of cultivated men. We do not disesteem the 
 lower motive because we honor the higher. Nor need 
 we consider the exceptional cases, in which the man is 
 better or worse than the spirit of his faith or his no-faith. 
 It is not material to our argument that we should ex- 
 plain why the so-called Christian scholar is sometimes 
 less truthful and conscientious in his research and his 
 arguments, in his science and his eloquence, than the 
 man who professes no such discipleship to Christ. It is 
 enough for our argument, that the one is truly said to 
 have a more Christian love of truth than the other. In 
 the one case, the man is better than his motives ; in the 
 other, the motives are better than the man. The super- 
 ficial and pretentious philosopher as truly denies his 
 Master Christ, as does the false and uncouth hypocrite. 
 The hollow rhetorician does the same, and whoever 
 also, and in whatever way, consciously offends against 
 truth in Science, in Letters, or Art. Whosoever is not 
 of tlie truth liears not Christ's voice. Wliatever we may 
 make of Christ or Christianity, it should never be for- 
 
80 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 gotten that it is chiefly through its powerful and pene- 
 trating influence it has come to pass that the one term 
 by which the most cultured men designate the consum- 
 mate excellence in Science, Letters, and Art, is Truth, 
 and the one excellence by which they characterize the 
 condition of success is a conscientious spirit. The fact is 
 full of meaning, that men have learned to designate suc- 
 cess by such phrases as true science, true philosophy, true 
 poetry, true art, and to recognize the fact that a prime 
 condition of success in each is a conscientious and 
 honest temper. 
 
 We might argue this further from the special honor 
 which in modern times is bestowed upon Jioyiest mis- 
 givings^ and the extravagant homage which is rendered 
 to doubt. These have become so extreme that it would 
 seem at times as though the spirit of a person's faith is 
 measured by the number of his questionings, and the 
 strength of his allegiance to truth is tested by the posi- 
 tiveness and daring of his denials. In one respect, 
 modern doubt is a necessary attendant of progress; in 
 another, it is a lawful protest against the human cor- 
 ruptions of divine truth ; in another, it is a morbid 
 attendant of much reading, and of a proud or a weak 
 individuality. But whatever in individual cases may 
 be its causes or its effects, the sympathetic deference 
 which it exacts is a testimony to the supreme honor 
 which Christ has trained Christendom to set upon faith 
 as an individual conviction, and upon the truth as its 
 potent instrument. It is worthy of notice, that while, 
 in the schools of atheism and materialism, theistic 
 doubts and Christian aspirations are treated with scorn, 
 it is in the Christian Churcli alone that the honest seeker 
 after truth is cherished in proportion to the number of 
 his difficulties. It is a significant commentary on this 
 Christian homage to truth, that Christianity is the only 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 81 
 
 religion wliich has ever summoned its devotees to deny 
 the authority of its founder if it would exemplify his 
 spirit, or has bidden them to seal their testimony to the 
 truth by conceding that his miracles are scientifically 
 impossible, his history is a partial romance, and his 
 kingdom an ideal metaphor. 
 
 2. I proceed next to show particularly the spirit of 
 faith which Christianity exacts wlien joined with Chris- 
 tian love, as manifest in certain special virtues. Con- 
 spicuous among these are docility and candor. It was 
 a thought no less profound than beautiful of Lord 
 Bacon, tliat to enter the temple of science, it were as 
 necessary that a man should become a little child, as it 
 is to enter the kingdom of heaven. The prayer of the 
 Christian is, "- What I see not, teach thou me." '' Mas- 
 ter, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." His 
 rejoicing is this, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, he 
 maintains his conversation in the world. His progress 
 in discipleship is marked by casting down imagina- 
 tions or romantic fancies, and bitter and obstinate pre- 
 judices, and bringing every thought into captivity to 
 the obedience of Jesus Christ. To abjure an error, and 
 to learn a new truth, often involves hard warfare in the 
 field of Science and of Letters, of Politics, and of Public 
 Life, — as hard as it is to do the same in the sphere of 
 the feelings, or of self-sacrifice. For success in either. 
 Christian motives are most efficient ; and Christian 
 motives are often required. The man who daily casts 
 at the feet of his Master the shameful and filthy bur- 
 dens of prejudice that he has gathered from his inner 
 and outer experience, will, other things being equal, 
 more readily do the same in his intellectual activities 
 and achievements. Other things being equal, he will 
 be more hospitable to new truths, and more courageous 
 for new investigations. 
 
82 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 The Christian student is also more likely to be liberal 
 and catJioUc in his opinions and tastes. We do not deny 
 that he has special exposures to be narrow and secta- 
 rian, but we contend that he has special securities and 
 incitements for the opposite. Even his narrowness 
 springs from a noble misgiving, lest his faith in tlie 
 God of truth shall be dishonored by some pestilent and 
 plausible error, or his faith in human goodness shall be 
 insnared by some specious sophistry, or tempted by 
 some brilliant wickedness as glorified or palliated by 
 genius. Such narrow apprehensions, if narrow, derive 
 a certain elevation from the motives which they mis- 
 apply. But still it remains true, that liberality is the 
 legitimate consequence of the Christian faith. Much 
 has been said of late of the traditional narrowness of 
 theology, its hereditary battles with the new phases of 
 science, with the new theories of history, and the new 
 developments of literature. Much might be said, which 
 has usually not been said, of the traditional enterprise 
 of Christian philosophers in welcoming new truths, and 
 of the catholic feeling of hospitality with which the 
 Christian Church has entertained new phases of thought. 
 It should not be forgotten that science has its sects, 
 literature has its parties, history its opposing theories, 
 and even poetry and fiction their hostile and often 
 embittered rivalries. The concentration which modern 
 research now requires, limits its devotees to necessary 
 ignorance and a contemptuous depreciation of activi- 
 ties which are remote from our own. There is no 
 narrowness so intense as the narrowness of the scholar, 
 because it is so self-satisfied ; no sectarianism so positive 
 concerning that in which he is a master, because he is 
 well assured of what he knows. Against this divisive- 
 ness of modern intellectual life, the comprehensiveness 
 of the Christian faith and the largeness of Christian 
 
CUinST A WITNE6S TO THE TRUTH. 83 
 
 charity furnish the best counterpoise. There is one 
 phice wliere tlie lines of all knowledge meet, and that 
 is the throne of the living God. There is one mind 
 which can comprehend science in all its branches, and 
 that is the mind of God. There is one kingdom to the 
 progress of which all forms of culture stand related, and 
 that is the kingdom of Christ. The devout scientist, as 
 often as in the hour of his devotions he thinks of the 
 vastness of God's dominions, must look beyond the nar- 
 rowness of the domain to whicli he is limited by his 
 intellectual activities. The Christian historian or phil- 
 ologist or critic cannot fail to find in the kingdom and 
 love of Christ suggestions of friendly liberality for 
 other forms of culture than his own. We say nothing 
 of the temper to wliich Christ trains every believing 
 disciple, — of the large-hearted charity, the self-respect- 
 ing courtesy, and the generous recognition of others, 
 which have not a little to do with scientific liberality 
 and philosophic breadth and enlarged catholicity Were 
 Christ to visit our temples of knowledge more fre- 
 quently, and were he to be more readily recognized, 
 there would be less petty wrangling, less boastful ego- 
 tism, less spiteful criticism, and less acrid hostility, than 
 now prevail. Not only might He now and then inspire 
 our doctors with the abundance of wisdom which lies hid 
 in his simple speech, but he might now and then be 
 moved to drive out from the temple of truth the selfish 
 traders in knowledge. 
 
 The Christian student is also eminently enterprising 
 and hopeful. The believer in a personal God has a 
 ground for believing in the definite progress of science, 
 which is broader and firmer than the unbeliever can 
 furnish in his blind faith in development, or his vague 
 personifications of nature. The tlieist has a theory of 
 nature which provides for all that atheism vouches for, 
 
84 FIFTEEN YEAES IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 and for more. Faith in the living God is a better basis 
 for the staljility of the physical forces than confidence 
 in fate. The belief in a wise personal sovereign of the 
 universe provides more rationally for the regularity 
 of nature's laws than does the persistence of force. 
 The doctrine of a self-existent thinker, whose manifest 
 thoughts may require ages for future scientists to read, 
 opens in every direction a king's highway for their tri- 
 umphant processions as they return laden with spoils of 
 conquest from the more distant provinces of knowledge. 
 It may serve at least as well as the empty theory of 
 indefinite development, which is to plunge the Kosmos 
 a second tune into the abyss of chaos when its destined 
 cycles are complete. Nature glows with intellectual 
 excitement to the scientist who worships the living God. 
 The believer in a kingdom of Christ in which every one 
 who is of the truth is to hear Christ's voice, finds, for the 
 building up of that kingdom, the amplest opportunity 
 for political and social reforms, for manifold discoveries 
 and applications of public and private economies, poli- 
 tics, and ethics, such as no believer in mere progress 
 can rationally conceive. The truth that the Christ 
 whom he trusts has all power in his hands, is confirmed 
 by the fact that those ethical and social forces which 
 Christ can employ have scarcely begun to be developed. 
 The manifest dependence of physical and scientific 
 resources on moral energy, on conscientious obedience, 
 and on trust in God, for efficiency in the shock of 
 nations, when millions meet millions in the field, puts a 
 new interpretation upon the old battle-song of "• God is 
 our refuge and strength." The quickness with which 
 enlightened nations have in the last ten years responded, 
 both to the calls to battle, and the summons to peace, 
 is a feeble earnest of what civilization, with its api)li- 
 ances, may yet accomplish in the service and honor of 
 Christian truth. 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTTL 86 
 
 The Cliristiiin plnlosoplier and historical critic fincb 
 no occasiofi for deHpondency^ either for science or faith, 
 in the new aspects of a theistic materialism, or of social 
 generalizations. He does not fear lest the mattock of 
 the geologist shall unearth some scroll from beneatli, or 
 the telescope of the astronomer shall bring some report 
 from afar, which shall scientifically establish the fact that 
 there is no God. Nor does he tremble lest some new 
 critical researches shall drive the supernatural Christ 
 out of history, for the simple reason that the principles 
 on which these truths of faith adjust themselves to the 
 axioms and methods of science have been long ago fully 
 tried. Whatever errors faith has committed in defend- 
 ing the truth, — and we do not deny that these errors are 
 manifold, — they are not so conspicuous as the constant 
 abandonment by the scientific assailants of faith of their 
 weapons and methods of attack. After its manifold con- 
 flicts between faith and science, faith has no longer rea- 
 son to fear. Faith has made many mistakes, but she 
 has never lost her citadel. Whatever science may 
 reveal in respect to the order of God's working, or the 
 records of history, is therefore not dreaded with shiver- 
 ing fear, but is anticipated with cheerful welcome. 
 
 In literature^ and especially in modern literature, is it 
 manifest that Christianity is the minister of cheerfulness 
 and of hope, and that it is the only minister of either. 
 Literature, if it is earnest and true, must recognize all 
 the facts of human experience, the sad as well as the 
 joyous. It cannot overlook the joys and sorrows, the 
 hopes and fears, which elevate and depress the human 
 soul. It cannot, if it would, avoid the ugly facts of 
 human sinfulness and weakness. By whatever fair name 
 it may call them in its smooth philosophy, or however 
 lightly it may treat them in its frivolous wit or excited 
 rjlee, passion is too potent in its demoniac energy, and 
 
86 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 the debasement of man is too conspicuous, the sense of 
 guilt and fear are too oppressive, the waste and ruin of 
 character are too wide-spread, to fail to be a conspicuous 
 element in any literature, least of all in that of the 
 moderns, least of all in that of the English, whose 
 writers are confessedly earnest and honest and frank. 
 Could sin and guilt be avoided, literature might be 
 cheerful and full of hope. They are avoided to a degree 
 by the Germans, and characteristically by the French. 
 Monsieur Taine, the brilliant historian of English liter- 
 ature, finds the English people inexplicably serious in 
 their conscience of duty, and gravely earnest in their 
 religion toward God. He does not sympathize with 
 these sides of their national character, he does not 
 believe in them, and yet he confesses their elevating 
 effects upon the best English writers. He would fain 
 set them aside by his superficial philosophy of man, and 
 his ill-timed though brilliant frivolity. The fact cannijt 
 be avoided, that literature which seeks cheerfulness and 
 hope by ignoring sin and sorrow, or explains them away, 
 makes more conspicuous its sad confessions of their pres- 
 ence and power. That literature alone can be solidly 
 cheerful or joyous which is Christian, as it breaks forth 
 in thanks to Him who giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and finds deliverance for care in 
 the peace of God. The saddest and the most depress- 
 ing writers of our day are the English writers who are 
 doubtfully Christian or undeniably un-Christian. They 
 may mask their submission to fate with the expression 
 of saintly peace : they may couch their hope in the 
 beneficient laws in phrases borrowed from the lips of 
 the Psalmist who sliouts forth his hope in God. They 
 may clothe their promises of triumphant civilization in 
 the words of exalting prophecy, but the spirit of peace 
 and cheerfulness and hope is not theirs. The most 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH 87 
 
 powerful writer now living of English fiction, and of 
 all, whether living or dead, one of the most wonderful, 
 is known to be most Christian in her longings and asso- 
 ciations, and yet iin-Christian in her philosophy and her 
 creed. Not a few of her admirers have felt tlie depres- 
 sion which pervades her writings, even though they are 
 heroic in resolve, and conscientious for duty. A recent 
 friendly critic says most truly what others have thought, 
 though perhaps no other critic has said it so well : " She 
 is a melancholy teacher, — melancholy because sceptical; 
 and her melancholy and scepticism are too apt to degen- 
 erate into scorn." We re[)eat the thouglit which has 
 been once expressed, — the best modern literature is too 
 thorough and too honest to ignore the fact and the evil 
 of sin. It strives in vain wholly to deny or extenuate 
 its guilt ; hence its sadness and gloom. It can furnish 
 no redemption of itself, and hence it bewails man's fate. 
 So far as it accepts none from Christ, so far it exults in 
 no hope, and allows itself little cheerfulness. Its friv- 
 olity is too often the wail of despair, its studied and 
 decorous calmness is a constrained submission to fate, 
 its passion is a frenzied defiance or an insane mockery 
 of the God whom it dares not wholly deny. 
 
 Christ disciplines to justness and sobriety of thought. 
 He does this in respect to the independence of science 
 itself. First and foremost he separates truth secular 
 and truth spiritual, by certain definite lines. He teaches 
 most emphatically, " Render to Csesar the things wliich 
 are Coesar's, and to God the things which are God's." 
 No other discipline than that of Christ has brought men 
 to acknowledge so fervently that truth has her own 
 rights, and sliines by her own light, and that " he who 
 loves Christianity better than truth will end by loving 
 himself better than all." No other master lias dared to 
 say, " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
 
88 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 you free," and " if the Son make you free, ye shall be 
 free indeed." It has cost many centuries to adjust the 
 rights of faith and the rights of science. The lesson of 
 the Church on these points may not yet be completely 
 mastered, but the lesson has been taught effectually by 
 Christ. Even at this moment a larger and freer tolera- 
 tion is accorded to atheistic science in Christian circles 
 than to Christian science in atheistic and unbelieving 
 clubs. 
 
 Next, the habits of thinking that are formed by Chris- 
 tianity are dear, solid, and modest. The recognition of a 
 personal God holds a man to a living and powerful ruler 
 of his thinking. The presence of God's majesty tends 
 to dissipate all pretentious aspirations. The penetrating 
 eye of God reproves all shams of unclear and boastful 
 speculation. The fixed rule of God's eternal reason en- 
 forces logic and common sense. On the other hand, the 
 mystery of God's being and of Christ's incarnation ele- 
 vates and widens thought, and prevents it from becom- 
 ing flat and commonplace. The worship of the Most 
 High and the humble trust in Christ are incongruous 
 with the sneering frivolity which is the familiar spirit 
 of many modern schools, always ready to use its tram- 
 pling hoof. The unsounded resources of God's power 
 open to science the widest range for its speculations, 
 the extent of God's purposes furnishes range enough for 
 any series of development ; but the force and pressure 
 of his personality reprove the speculative romancing in 
 nature and history which are the weakness of our times, 
 and breed madness in the brain of the man who is not 
 sobered by a mind that is higher than its own. The 
 contrast is very wide between the philosopher who thinks 
 God's thoughts after him, and him Avho makes his private 
 thinking to give both force and law to the universe. 
 Christ also fosters (/ood taste in literature. His own 
 
CUniST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 89 
 
 words in beauty and force are unsurpassed ; and wliere- 
 ever Genius sits at his feet, she learns to combine 
 sobriety with elevation, clearness with breadth, and 
 good sense with fervor. The forms of literature are 
 always refined by the touch of Christ's finger. The 
 diction is more pure, and the imagery more refined and 
 subtile, the humor is more decorous, and the grace more 
 divine. The many-sided Shakspeare, the solemn Mil- 
 ton, the sad yet merry Cowper, the falling but ever ris- 
 ing Burns, the decorous Scott, the gentle Lamb, the 
 musing Wordsworth, the wide-minded Tennyson, are all 
 examples of the power of Christ to make literature at 
 once steady and clear on the one hand, and soarnig and 
 creative on the other. Pantheism may soar indeed, but 
 its flight is limited to the round of a few vague but 
 splendid platitudes. Atheism can only reiterate its 
 scanty vocabulary of unsatisfying negations. The 
 literature of either endures for a brief generation, and 
 dies of its own inanity. The living God alone furnishes 
 new thoughts and new experiences to each new genera- 
 tion of sincere and earnest writers, and the reigning 
 Christ opens new pathways for them in the opening 
 vistas of that Christian civilization which his kingdom 
 will reveal. 
 
 3. This leads me to my last thought. Christianity is 
 favorable to culture because it alone furnishes satisfy- 
 ing and exhaustless inspiration to the individual man. 
 Science, letters, and art rise or fall with the individual 
 men who produce them. The culture of a generation 
 is the product of the activities of the men who are liv- 
 ing, when added to what they inherit from the genera- 
 tions which have gone before. This product in every 
 case is just what the man who creates it makes it to be. 
 The gospel re-creates man in all his capacities, by giving 
 to all the best possible direction, and firing them all by 
 
90 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tlie noblest objects. Every man who consecrates liim- 
 self to Christ, consecrates all his powers to him, the 
 best as well as the poorest, the highest as well as the 
 lowest, — the dormant Invention, the iinwrought Erudi- 
 tion, the unripened Sentiment, the undeveloped Science, 
 the unspoken Eloquence, the unwritten Poetry, the un- 
 cultured Grace, and all in him that with industry and 
 zeal he may produce for the honor of his Master, for 
 the blessing and elevation of others, and for his own 
 joy. If it were not so, then Christ would not deserve 
 the homage and trust of men. 
 
 It is true w^e are not to make culture an end. We 
 may not love science or letters or art more than duty. 
 Life is better than thought; good actions are to be pre- 
 ferred to good speeches ; and a poem that is lived out 
 in its passages of love, and its blessed harmonies of 
 peace and good will, is better than all the poetry and 
 music and art which begin and end in selfish enjoy- 
 ment, and are devoted to baser uses. But knowledge 
 and .speech and creative art are themselves the essential 
 consequences of man's consummated redemption from 
 sin, and his culture in holiness. They manifest God's 
 manifold sympathy and his infinite resources ; they ex- 
 press Christ's overflowing benediction ; they lift us up- 
 ward to heaven by foreshadowing its pure and hallowed 
 employments. 
 
 We not only may pursue them, we ought to pursue 
 them when no higher end of life interposes its claims. 
 To deny this, is to denounce civilization as unchristian, 
 and to do this is to blaspheme Christ. By the same 
 rule, it follows that individual and social culture should 
 be as perfect as is possible, as a Christian duty, so that 
 this be done for the honor of Christ and the welfare 
 of man. Tliese motives arc the highest of all. None 
 are so constant, none so efficient, none so ennobling. 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 91 
 
 They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. 
 The history of Philosophy, of Science, of Erudition, of 
 Literature, of Poetry, and of Art, is rich in names which 
 are not only conspicuous for the splendid achievements 
 of their owners, but which shine with a peculiar lustre, 
 as their acliievements were w^rought by faith, and lial- 
 lowed by prayer, and consecrated with praise. Wlien 
 we count these names, we find that we are indeed com- 
 passed about with a great cloud of witnesses. The 
 world testifies of these men, that they are its proudest 
 names ; and they testify to the world, that they wrouglit 
 their victories of research and invention by faith. Shall 
 these motives cease to be needed? Can they be dis- 
 pensed with? Many have often believed this possible, 
 and as uniformly failed, confirming the old words Avhich 
 this new generation may accept and conquer, or aban- 
 don and fail : " This is the victory that overcometh the 
 world, even our faith." " Who is he that overcometh 
 the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son 
 of God?'* 
 
 It follows from these truths, that Christianity should 
 exert a controlling influence over college and university 
 education. The members of these institutions are men, 
 and as such have need of the same gospel which others 
 require to restrain their passions, to purify their motives, 
 and to give peace and hope to their souls. They are 
 young men with the temptations to which youth are 
 especially exposed. They are young men in a separate 
 community, cut off from the purifying and restraining 
 influences of home and public sentiment, and making 
 for themselves a new family and a separate public opin- 
 ion. They are in a course of culture ; but culture itself 
 has its own moral dangers ; and education may lead away 
 
92 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 from God, as emphatically and more fatally with its 
 peculiar fascinations, than the grosser and coarser temp- 
 tations. Christianity is required not only to bless the 
 souls of educated men, but to save culture itself from 
 the degeneracy to which it tends ; and for this reason, as 
 our argument has tended to show, its presence should 
 be felt in every college and university. The manhood 
 which is here formed should be Christian manhood. 
 The philosophy, the science, the criticism, the literary 
 tastes, that are taught, should honor Christ in the ways 
 in which all Christian teachers who are of the truth 
 hear Christ's voice. It is not more true that the nation 
 which will not serve God shall utterly perish, because 
 its atheism and passions shall weaken its courage, and 
 eat out its manhood, than that the college which does 
 not honor Christ shall become degenerate, because its 
 faith in truth, its candor, its zeal, its liberality, its edu- 
 cation, its sobriety, and, above all, its inspiration, shall 
 be more or less deficient. Such an institution may be 
 warmed and lighted by the fire that other institutions 
 shall watchfully feed and guard, but it will have no 
 warm central fire of its own. That the culture of to- 
 day needs to be more Christian, no one needs to be 
 informed who understands the manifold insecurities 
 and the transparent shams of matter and form ; of doc- 
 trine and speech, which scientific and literary men not 
 only tolerate, but to some extent glory in. Romancing 
 in science, vagueness in speculation, effrontery in criti- 
 cism, affectation in literature, are as obvious defects 
 among the so-called men of culture, as are the grosser 
 demoralizations of commercial and political and social 
 life, — wliicli, alas, so many wdio call themselves Chris- 
 tian and cultured, first denounce, then endure, then 
 practise, and then boast of ! 
 
 But if culture needs religion, and never more than at 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTU. 93 
 
 the present, it is equally true that religion needs culture 
 to dignify and enlighten it. The most ardent devoted- 
 ness to the will of Christ will not teach a man without 
 study the many things which he needs to know, nor 
 will it train him to that capacity of thought and of 
 speech which it is his duty to reach if it is in his power 
 to attain them. There is no more godliness in un cul- 
 ture than there is in squalor. A self-indulgent indo- 
 lence is the common root of both. Superficial thinking, 
 slovenly writing and speech, extravagant metaphors, 
 pretentious and egotistical declamation, partisan over- 
 statement, one-sided criticism, narrow reading, frivolous 
 literary tastes, Bohemian audacity, are no better in their 
 influence, because they are allowed in the service of 
 religion. They are infinitely worse here than elsewhere, 
 because they are reproved by the prayers and praises 
 which are supposed to sanction, and even to hallow, 
 them. They are all works of darkness with which the 
 child of light should have no fellowship, but should 
 rather reprove them. Culture is the armor of light 
 which the children of light should put on, if they would 
 walk as the children of light. Its polished beauty fitly 
 represents the truth which it would defend, and its oft- 
 proved weapons should be used with such precision and 
 grace as to win the victory without a contest. The 
 man of education is called to the same duties w4th other 
 men, but there is one class of duties to which he is espe- 
 cially set apart ; viz., to adorn his religion by the grace 
 and strength which culture may impart, and to show by 
 his life and influence how greatly that culture which is 
 animated by Christian motives surpasses every other. 
 This duty is especially imperative in a country like ours, 
 in which the tone of public courtesy and of private deco- 
 rum, the refining of tastes, and the education of man- 
 ners, are so entirely dependent on the public opinion 
 
94 FIFTEEN TEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 which is both the rule and sanction of public and pri- 
 vate life, and the only rule and sanction which we know, 
 and which so quickly feels the influence of men of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Graduating Class., — The thoughts 
 which I have presented are not unfamiliar. You rec- 
 ognize them as expressing the principles in which you 
 have been trained. The ideal aspirations described have 
 often been proposed for your realization. You stand 
 together once more in this house of prayer to look back 
 upon the brief period in which you have daily been 
 summoned hither to consecrate your pleasures and 
 work to the honor of the living God in the name, 
 and after the example, of the divine Redeemer. In one 
 respect this period has been long, so varied has it been 
 with exciting incidents, so productive in manifold excite- 
 ments, so warm with ripening friendships, so swelling 
 and productive with conscious growth, and so hopeful 
 with manly and generous aspirations. It has gone, but 
 not all of it. There are left the achieved discipline, the 
 gathered information, the matured power and grace of 
 expression, and in many, — may we not hope in all? — 
 tastes more refined and elevated, convictions of truth 
 and duty more confirmed, and faith in God and Christ 
 more ardent and enlightened. There also remain the 
 cherished recollections that will ever cleave to this well- 
 remembered and greatly hallowed spot, the manly 
 friendships the bonds of which will never be broken, 
 the tastes and ideals that will bless and adorn your own 
 lives and those of many circles, hopes for this life and 
 the next which are themselves a blessing, some of 
 which can never disappoint you. You have learned 
 something of what culture and education are in the 
 examples of the men whom you liave known, and how 
 
CHRIST A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 95 
 
 good they are when fostered by Christian integrity and 
 consecration. You have had experience of the uncer- 
 tainty of life, and the frailty of its best possessions and 
 its most refined attractions. In view of all that is past, 
 I invite you to consecrate yourselves anew to a noble, 
 unselfish Christian life, such alone as men of culture 
 can appreciate or conceive. 
 
 You cannot but think of the future, and of what it 
 has in store for you. You go forth into activity to 
 encounter special temptations, — temptations to your 
 integrity and to 3^our faith, which you cannot anticipate ; 
 temptations which will assail you as men, from power 
 and wealth and pleasure, and temptations which will 
 assail you as men of culture, from the science and let- 
 ters w^hich are now so bold in their denials, their insin- 
 uations, and their sarcasm ; temptations which are trebly 
 powerful from the generous and confident enthusiasm, 
 not to say the conceit and affectations, which are the 
 exposures of early manhood. 
 
 Would that each one of you could have a just estimate 
 of the dignity, weightiness, and reach of these words of 
 our Lord, "To this end was I born, and to this end 
 came I forth, that I might bear witness to the truth," 
 and resolve to be men of truth in the eminent sense of 
 the word, in your principles and tastes, your ideals and 
 achievements ; not only in your life as men, but in your 
 life as men of culture ! Would that you could go forth 
 to struggle and overcome in his name, to practise no arts 
 which he does not approve, to give rather than receive, 
 to sacrifice rather than overreach, to devote yourselves 
 supremely to that kingdom which includes all that is 
 good on earth, and alLthat is blessed in heaven ! 
 
 Remember that every one who is of the truth heareth 
 Christ's voice, and he who is most fully of the trutli 
 hears it most frecj^uently and implicitly. Watch for 
 
96 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 that voice, even for its gentlest whisperings, and fear 
 not to follow wherever it leads. He that does this most 
 faithfully on earth, where this kingdom struggles so 
 hard for the mastery, shall hear it sound most sweetly in 
 the fulness and heartiness of that welcome which shall 
 introduce him to that world where this kingdom has the 
 mastery, and Christ is justified and honored as the right- 
 ful sovereign. May no one of you fail of that wel- 
 come ! May many of you, may all, enter that kingdom 
 with distinguished honor ! 
 
 With these wishes and prayers, I bid you an affection- 
 ate farewell. 
 
Y. 
 THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD* 
 
 "Who is he that overcometh the wonLo, but he that believeth 
 THAT Jesus is the Son or God ? •' — 1 John v. 6. 
 
 There is no question that the writer of these words 
 liad an intimate personal acquaintance with Jesus when 
 lie was on the earth, and that then and subsequently 
 he believed that he was indeed the Son of God. The 
 critics wlio question whether John wrote the Gospel 
 that bears his name, do not deny that this Epistle was 
 written by the beloved disciple. The writer had ac- 
 cepted Jesus as the promised Deliverer who had died 
 for man's redemption, and was risen again to give effect 
 to his promises. This belief in Christ had wrought in 
 him a new life, giving him power over himself and the 
 evil that assailed him in the world. Faitli in the ever- 
 living, ever-loving, and the all-powerful Christ, had 
 made a new man of him in all the springs of his life. 
 He spake from his own experience when he said, " Who- 
 soever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of 
 God." He had also seen the power of this faith on 
 others. For two generations he had observed its influ- 
 ence on thousands who had received it. Our text is the 
 record of his own observation upon other men, coupled 
 with his experience of what he felt in himself. " This 
 is the victory which overcometh the world, even our 
 
 * June 22, 1S73. 
 
 97 
 
98 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 faith." It was the contrast between what these be- 
 lievers were, and others were not, which led him to add, 
 " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that 
 believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? " 
 
 There is, if possible, still less question that, in all the 
 centuries which have followed since this record of John, 
 faith in Jesus as the risen and reigning Son of God has 
 wrought with a similar power over multitudes of believ- 
 ing souls, and given them all in some sort the victory 
 over the world. However much Christianity may have 
 been overloaded or corrupted, its power over those who 
 have received it has come from tlie faith which it has 
 inspired in Jesus as a person who was entitled to the 
 love and obedience and trust of every living soul. It 
 is not my design to illustrate how great has been the 
 ppwer of this faith, nor how wonderful and unexpected 
 have been the changes which it has wrought in indi- 
 viduals and in communities. All critics and scholars 
 agree in this, that for nearly nineteen centuries faith in 
 Christ as the risen Son of God has wrouoht as no other 
 faith ever did, to give to man the victory over corrup- 
 tion within and witliout him. 
 
 Whatever men may think of the reasonableness of 
 this faith, no intelligent and earnest student of the 
 past will deny its transcendent power as the one cen- 
 tral, and in a sense exclusive, agency which has thus far 
 given to humanity its best conquests over evil. 
 
 While all this is conceded, there are many who tell 
 us that faith in Christ in this form must now be aban- 
 doned because it has been outgrown. They do not deny 
 its efficiency in the past, nor, in some sense, its neces- 
 sity. But for the future, they assert, the historic Christ 
 must give place to the ideal Christ, — the objective to 
 the subjective Christ, the personal to the imaginary 
 Christ. This transition must begin with the men of 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WOULD. 99 
 
 science and culture. It has indeed already begun. 
 Faith in the incarnation and miracles must graduall}^ 
 give way to faith in Christ's self-denying and loving 
 life, which has been so consecrated by the evangelic 
 story as to make it forever a symbolic gospel to the con- 
 science, although it must cease to be a gospel of faith to 
 the intellect. The conclusion which they would enforce 
 is this. Men in past ages have overcome the world by 
 faith in the personal and supernatural Christ of history, 
 but in the future they can and must overcome it by 
 faith in the Christ who has at once symbolized and ful- 
 filled the loftiest and lowliest of human perfection. 
 
 We hold the opposite. We contend that as in the 
 past, so in the future, the moral power of Christianity 
 lies in faith in Christ as a supernatural and historic 
 person. We offer an argument to prove that the neces- 
 sity for this faith has not been outgrown, but rather has 
 been made more manifest by the advance of the world 
 in culture and science, and that in the same proportion 
 the evidence has become more convincing that this 
 faith is well grounded. 
 
 1. The n.ecessity for this faith has not been outgrown. 
 Rather has it been made more manifest by the advances 
 of the world in culture and science. 
 
 (a) I assume that to overcome the world has an in- 
 telligible' and a real import. It is the ideal which the 
 most thoughtful men have dreamed of and sought after 
 in all ages. • The failure to achieve it has been the mys- 
 tery and the disappointment of the life of many, pre- 
 eminently of those who have grappled with the problem 
 and the duties of life in sober and manly earnestness. 
 To overcome the world is to understand the moral laws 
 which control the universe, and to adjust ourselves to 
 them, that we may conquer them, and wrest from them 
 the hidden blessedness which they have in their gift. 
 
100 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 In adjusting himself to these laws, man must first of 
 all overcome himself ; and this is his hardest task. His 
 appetites, with their imperiousness and unreason ; his 
 inveterate selfishness, whether unblushingly avowed, or 
 successfully disguised to himself; his self-sufficiency, 
 whether it denies and defies God, or makes a God after 
 his own wishes," — all these must be overcome. We 
 assume that this is a most important practical problem 
 for every man to work out. We assume also the truths 
 which this problem implies, — the individual conscience, 
 the eternal law of rectitude, the excellence of human 
 goodness, the fact and evil of human sinfulness, the 
 possible recovery of the fallen and the lost, and the 
 purity and tenderness of the living and loving God. 
 We have no controversy here with those who deny these 
 truths. We place ourselves upon the old-fashioned 
 theism and the old-fashioned conscience as the solid 
 grounds of man's practical convictions. We take the 
 truths which the legislation, the self-respect, the public 
 sentiment, of the world have always assumed, and in 
 which all the higher aspirations and attainments of men 
 find their air and sunlight. Christianity does not 
 undertake to prove these truths. In one sense, it does 
 not make itself responsible for them. It is true, if 
 science can demonstrate that there is no God, and the 
 human conscience is a factitious product or a transient 
 growth, or if literature can charm either or both out of 
 reality by bewitching imagery or high-sounding words, 
 then Christianity must be thrust off or bowed off the 
 stage, because there is no place or occasion for it longer. 
 But if Christianity goes for such reasons, there must go 
 with it duty and all its sacred and joyous train. The 
 bright possibilities and hopes of human goodness "must 
 also go, as well as the attending shadows of its remorse 
 and its terror. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 101 
 
 (5) Assuming this to be our problem, and these the 
 truths which underlie it, we ask next, What are the con- 
 ditions of success? Had John fallen in with Plutarch's 
 "Morals," or with Epictetus' "Handbook," or Anto- 
 nine's " Meditations," or any other books which are put 
 forth nowadays as containing all that is good in Chris- 
 tianity without its defects, and therefore a supplement 
 to, if not a substitute for, the New Testament, he would 
 doubtless have said, All this is good as far as it goes. 
 I agree with these writers in the main as to what we 
 ought to be and what we are. The difference between 
 us is, that I believe in a person who moves me to love, 
 and helps me to achieve, that which is good, who inclines 
 me to hate and repent of that which is evil, who orders 
 my life in a way favorable to my perfect victory, and 
 who commends to me a life of goodness, as a service of 
 gratitude for what he has done and will do for my com- 
 plete conquest. That is what the apostle would have 
 said. We are to show that what John would have said 
 in his day is as true and as pertinent in our day as it 
 was then. 
 
 (c) The world is a scene of struggle. What we insist 
 on is, that the occasion for help of some sort has in no 
 sense been removed, but, if possible, is greater than 
 ever before. With all that science can do to discover the 
 means of good, or that art can combine to apply them, 
 or letters can imagine for solace or elevation, life is as 
 truly a conflict from the beginning to the end, as it has 
 been from the first. The world is filled with disap- 
 pointments. Culture refines out sensibilities, and en- 
 larges our capacities for happiness • but neither physical 
 nor social science has yet learned how to keep pace 
 with the enlarged cravings of man's heart, — still less 
 how to adjust the conflicts within and without, that 
 must bring bitter and passionate disappointment ; all the 
 
102 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 more keen because disappointment is often stung with 
 the sense of real or fancied wrong. 
 
 The worki still abounds in temptation. The youth 
 goes forth to the untried scene to play the game — how 
 often a losing game I — on which he has staked the life 
 of his soul, strong in manly self-reliance and virtuous 
 resolve. The man mature in experience, and environed 
 with public respect, thinks himself proof against dis- 
 honor. But passion awakes with unsuspected energy, 
 and temptation is disguised as an angel of light. The 
 man falls, oh, how often ! and rots in infamy, or curses the 
 day of his birth. The discoveries of science, the appli- 
 ances of art, the blandishments of literature, the oppor- 
 tunities of artificial life, increase a thousand-fold the 
 danger to honor and integrity, and many a strong man 
 falls in the high noon of his strength and honor. 
 
 Sin and guilt renew their death in life, their sentence 
 of condemnation and despair. The household and the 
 heart, the market-place and the forum, are embittered 
 with their hatreds, and polluted by their shame. Ungov- 
 erned passion and fiendish hatred are none the less foul 
 or miserable because of tlie cai-pets on which men tread, 
 or the luxurious tastes with which they consort. The 
 strifes of science are sometimes as bitter as the brawl- 
 ings of the fish-market, and the jealousies and envyings 
 of literature are none the less mean and unworthy be- 
 cause their speech is exquisitely refined. The sting of 
 remorse is none the less keen in the enlightened and cul- 
 tured soul ; for none can see so clearly, or feel so sensi- 
 tively, as such a soul, the evil of abused opportunities, or 
 the guilt of inexcusable perversion. The sense of weak- 
 ness in these struggles increases rather than diminishes 
 as the breadth and height of our ideal are enlarged by 
 reflective insight, and as culture makes us more sensitive 
 to the danger and the evil of failure. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 103 
 
 Sorrow still lives. The bitter clrauglit, which she forces 
 every man to drink, is none the less bitter because it is 
 served in costly goblets wrought with exquisite art. 
 It does not soften our bereavement to know that the 
 spirit of the friend from whom we are parted was tuned 
 to the finest issues, or that wealth and honor and cul- 
 ture are at our service, with such consolations as they 
 can give. What does it avail to the man bereft of the 
 friend who is a part of his life, or to him who is struck 
 down by sudden misfortune, to know that the lost one 
 was one of the fairest and loveliest of earth, or that his 
 misfortune has robbed him of blessings such as no pre- 
 vious generation could purchase with its money or its 
 fame ? 
 
 The certainty of death is not abated, its darkness and 
 horror are not diminished, because life is more joyous 
 than ever, and the appliances for comfort and culture 
 and taste are increased as never before, and brought 
 within the reach of greater numbers. The heir of an 
 ample estate, with culture and honor and power, sits in 
 liis elegant and well-filled library, and looks out upon 
 his lovely grounds. He hears the muffled voices of 
 loving and cultured friends suppressing the song and 
 jest for his sake. He broods over what and whom he 
 must leave. Is it any the less, or is it the more bitter, 
 for such a man to die, than for one who has less to 
 leave, or who has been cultured to care for it less ? 
 
 Nor is it alone in the darker and struggling hours of 
 life that the world needs the light and strength of faith. 
 The gay need to be sober, that they may be steady and 
 strong. The successful need to learn lessons of self- 
 forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, of modesty and conde- 
 scension. T]ie self-reliant need to be saved from that 
 pride which now is inllated to foolish emptiness, or hard- 
 ened to cruel haughtiness. Science needs to be reminded 
 
104 FIFTEEN TEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 that its knowledge is limited by infinitude ; the imagina- 
 tion needs to be irradiated by a heavenly light, that it 
 may be truly refined ; and culture to be taught that art 
 and letters are the adornments, and not the ends, of life. 
 
 I add as another reason, — 
 
 (^d) The proposed substitutes for the old faith are 
 insufficient to insure the victory over the world. The 
 first we name are education in its widest and most ele- 
 vated meaning, — education in the family, the school, 
 and the university, by society, by amusements, and by 
 science, literature, and art ; the development of indus- 
 trial and economic science; the perfection of political 
 economy ; the science of government : the reconstruction 
 of the political and social fabric, and the administration 
 of industry, finance, and government on scientific prin- 
 ciples ; the elevation of the tastes by letters and man- 
 ners, amusements and the arts; and, last of all, the 
 refinement of ethical and religious ideals, till they shall 
 rise above the purity, the unselfishness, and the spirit- 
 uality of Christ, the Christian Scriptures, and the Chris- 
 tian Church. These proposed substitutes can only be 
 efficient to overcome the world in two ways, — as they 
 teach., and as they train. Every influence which we 
 have named, and every imaginable appliance, must either 
 iyistruet or iyispire. But whether it trains or inspires, it 
 must bring into the field some personal force, which 
 attracts by example, awes by authority, wins by sym- 
 pathy, or captivates by love. Example, authority, 
 sympathy, love, are abstract terms for living persons, 
 each of which is a centre of personal force. Without 
 living persons, themselves inspired and controlled, and 
 thus inspiring and controlling others, science and culture 
 can accomplish little. Without faith and love, education 
 fails to do its best work in the family and the school. 
 Education in the university, administered in the spirit 
 
TUB CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 105 
 
 of a hireling's greed for gain or reputation or power, 
 fills society with accomplished and dexterous lovers of 
 themselves. Political, legal, and social science, if mas- 
 tered by those who care not for the public good, can 
 make an educated legislature a den of thieves, and a 
 bench of justice a place where justice is more skilfully 
 and learnedly betrayed, and every junto of politicians 
 dangerous in proportion to their mastery of political 
 science. The scientific knowledge of finance and ex- 
 change may be used to convulse the moneyed centres 
 of the world, as with the panic of an earthquake. What 
 is it that at this moment fills the most thoughtful men 
 in this country, who are not alarmists, Avith serious, if 
 not distinctly expressed, disquietude ? Is it not the ineffi- 
 ciency of public sentiment in a country filled with news- 
 papers and schools and books and literature, and schools 
 of science and of letters ? And what is this defect of 
 public sentiment but a brief phrase for the want of 
 courage or the want of self-sacrifice in the men who 
 form and energize public opinion, — the lawyers, the 
 bankers, the capitalists, the merchants, the editors, the 
 influential men and women in the cities, villages, and 
 hamlets in all parts of our well-instructed and wakeful 
 country^ We say of ourselves truly that we are moved 
 by ideas, and this is true ; but what we want most of 
 all, is men who have faith and courage to enforce their 
 convictions. 
 
 There are those who, like Matthew Arnold, dream 
 that the study of morals and religion in their subjective 
 or ideal perfection will awaken this personal energy, 
 which will be strong enough to overcome the world, — 
 that the study of the manhood of the old and new Scrip- 
 tures will give us a new generation of men. They would 
 substitute the study of goodness for faith in God, and 
 the idealization of Christian virtue for trust iu the 
 
106 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 living Christ. They blame religious teachers, that they 
 give prominence to the doctrine of the personal and the 
 living God, and insist on a personal faith in a divine 
 Redeemer, instead of dwelling on the excellence of a 
 pure heart, and setting forth the unselfish love and 
 sympathy of the Christian spirit. They formally re- 
 pudiate the personality of God, in exchange for what 
 they call a stream of tendency or the beneficent laws, 
 and would displace the living and loving Christ by an 
 ideal picture of an ideal Christian, with no Christ to 
 inspire and save him. As if the study of religion could 
 make a man religious, who has no God to honor and wor- 
 ship ! and the contemphition of love to man or to God, 
 could make a man love, without some person to love 
 and to die for, who is worthy such a sacrifice ! They 
 forget that subjective science, even of the purest 
 ethics or the loveliest ideals, is as impotent as are the 
 objective science of politics and history, to achieve the 
 victory over the world, however eloquently either is ex- 
 pounded, or brilliantly it may be adorned. The failure 
 of these impersonal substitutes to do their work pre- 
 pares us to see that a personal God, manifested clearly 
 and variously and movingly to man, is the only agency 
 by which he can overcome the world. If personal force 
 is the highest and the indispensable agency for help 
 and victory, and if God has been present in man's his- 
 tory, then faith in a present and personal God is alone 
 adequate to man's needs. 
 
 We have seen already that what the culture and sci- 
 ence of to-day are waiting for and longing for is man- 
 hood — the manhood of living men, to command respect 
 and win affection, to illustrate science, to exemplify 
 culture, to apply political and social principles, to em- 
 body truth in institutions and wholesome laws, and, 
 when these exist, to enforce them, by a courage that 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER TUE WORLD. 107 
 
 will never flinch, a disinterestedness that cannot be 
 bought, a patience that is never wearied, and a love that 
 never fails to subdue and win. To train and inspire 
 men to all this, some master spirit is wanted. 
 
 What means the almost universal and almost abject 
 faith of so many scientists and philosophers in a mighty 
 despot, the expected Messiah of the New Era, who can 
 enforce the principles of health and education and 
 sociology, who can endow colleges and schools of study, 
 and build palaces of art ? What does all this mean, ex- 
 cept the implicit confession, that man, to overcome the 
 world, must obey and believe in a person, — if not in 
 the Son of God, then in a Ciesar — whether one or many 
 headed, it is the same. What means the frantic cry 
 from so many of our prophets of literature for some hero, 
 who shall be worthv of their liomag^e, and the readi- 
 ness with which, of tlie devotees of letters, each accepts 
 some hero for his worship, except that man is more 
 aware at this present moment than ever before, that 
 what each individual needs, and what society needs, is 
 belief in, and control by, a person who is worthy supreme 
 confidence and honor? 
 
 Faith in the love of God finds and accepts such a 
 person. That he should command man's respect, he 
 must master the mystery of man's being, and be pres- 
 ent in the inmost recesses of man's spirit. He must 
 gras-p all the possibilities of science in the reach of his 
 knowledge, and sympathize with all the refinements of 
 culture. He must be wiser than the wisest of men, and 
 more powerful than all earthly potentates. He must 
 stoop to an act of condescension which surpasses all hu- 
 man analogies, and commend his loving pity by acts 
 that cannot but move and sway the heart. 
 
 (f) That man may reach this being by his limited 
 capacities, he must come to man under human limitations : 
 
108 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 that man should not be able to mistake or distrust his 
 goodness, God addresses his human affections through 
 the human nature to which he stoops. Is man op- 
 pressed by a sense of guilt and fear ? Christ has died 
 that he might be forgiven. Is he weak under tempta- 
 tion? He was tempted in all points like as we are, 
 that he might succor those who are tempted. Does sor- 
 row enter man's dwelling, and rend liis heart? A voice 
 whispers in the chamber of sickness and the house of 
 death, " In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be 
 of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." Is life 
 short and uncertain ? The voice is heard again : " In my 
 Father's house are many mansions." Are the posses- 
 sions and hopes of this life vain and worthless ? The 
 least thing done or gained in Christ's memory and for 
 his kingdom can never be lost. The cup of cold water, 
 the humblest gift, the feeblest effort, all these are 
 gathered into the treasury that never fails. 
 
 It is an old story ; but it is always new to the man 
 who makes it new, by applying it freshly to his per- 
 sonal needs. We have heard it a thousand times, in 
 what have seemed to us empty declamations, tiresome 
 sermons, or formal prayers ; but when a man learns his 
 need of this personal Christ, in some experience of his 
 life, whether it be for the first or the thousandth time, it 
 is as though the glad tidings of great joy were heralded 
 and heard for the first time on the plains of Bethlehem, 
 or the shout that greeted the ascending Son of God 
 had not ceased to echo in the heavens. 
 
 The necessity for the use of it cannot be outgrown, as 
 long as groping souls shall seek after God, if so be that 
 they may find him; or sinful souls shall long for the 
 assurance that they are forgiven ; or tempted and strug- 
 gling souls shall need help in their conflicts; or suffer- 
 ing souls shall crave for sympathy ; or strong and young 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 109 
 
 men, and weak and frail women, and tender and fear- 
 some children, shall confront death, and bend broken- 
 hearted over the grave. 
 
 It is not wonderful that those who deny the necessity 
 of this faith to man, are driven by the force of an inex- 
 orable logic to deny or doubt these fundamental truths. 
 We have assumed these truths in our argument, and 
 urge that those who believe in overcoming the world 
 must accept our conclusion, that for all such there is 
 no substitute for the faith tliat Jesus is the Son of God. 
 Our argument does not require us to notice those who 
 doubt or faintly receive these fundamental truths, and 
 consequently give a vacillating and hesitating consent to 
 our conclusion. That there are many such in cultivated 
 and Christian assemblies, we are forced to believe. One 
 can with difficulty credit what we are compelled to 
 know, that Epicurean Atheism has of late made enor- 
 mous strides on the most slender evidence under the 
 guise of Natural History, and a pretentious Pantheism 
 has done the same under the imagined necessities of 
 Physical order and Metaphysical completeness, while 
 Critical Rationalism teaches the same in the form of His- 
 toric Impartiality. These tendencies are not alarming 
 to Christianity alone. They threaten all that is sacred 
 and permanent in our human as truly as all that we 
 hope or fear in our eternal life. The dignity of char- 
 acter, the sacredness of truth, the stainlessness of 
 honor, the faithfuhiess of affection, and the generosity 
 of self-denial, must all give way, if the living God is to 
 be abandoned at the suggestions of the last-discovered 
 fossil, if conscience is to be denied at the last word of 
 physiology or metaphysics, or if Christ is to walk out 
 of human history at the bidding of the last brilliant 
 critic. Not only must our human virtues go, by the 
 application of an inexorable logic, but there may also 
 
110 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 depart tlie protection of our lionor, the security of our 
 property, and the sacrediiess of our libraries and muse- 
 ums, and even the sustenance and honor of science 
 itself. It would be a not unjust nor an impossible 
 retribution, were some of these extemporized theories 
 which are so eagerly caught up and propounded by 
 scientists and Utterateiirs^ to be applied to the destruc- 
 tion of the museums along whose shelves are written in 
 lines of developnient there is no God, and from whose 
 piles of fossils and crania there leaps forth the irresist- 
 ible demonstration, the soul is a function of the brain 
 which sleeps in death. If history and criticism are to 
 flaunt similar conclusions before the people, in mystic 
 speech and imposing imagery, it may be that the half- 
 taught demagogue shall turn these lessons to a practical 
 application, as he incites the crazed populace to destroy 
 the sacred treasures of history, and to deface the price- 
 less collections of art. That such a Nemesis would be 
 just, no reasoner would deny ; that it is impossible, no 
 student of history would assert; that it is to be feared, 
 he will not allow. Fearfully as faith in the living God 
 and the personal Christ has been shaken, we will believe 
 that it has reached its lowest point of doubt or denial. 
 Tliis leads me to observe, that the evidence that this 
 faith is grounded in an historic and eternal fact becomes 
 more and more convincing with the advance of culture 
 and science. I do not assert that it will convince every 
 one. It has never promised to do this. The careless 
 and the self-reliant, the passionate and the proud, will of 
 necessity turn away from it, and reject it. They will, 
 doubtless, find new reasons for doing so, with the 
 changing aspects of science and culture. But science 
 and culture will not be in fault for this, so long as with 
 their development and advance they shall furnisli new 
 and stronger testimony to the historic verity and the 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. Ill 
 
 eternal aiitlioiity of the incarnate and exalted Son of 
 God. We insist that culture and science, the more they 
 are perfected, the better will they enable men to appre- 
 ciate the transcendent attractions of the supernatural 
 Christ. The more culture is refined, the more sensi- 
 tive does it' become to the indescribable charms of 
 Christ's sayings and life. The more scientifically man is 
 studied, the more wonderful does this one Son of man 
 appear ; the more history is compared and mastered, the 
 more unique is the story of Christ's life ; the more care- 
 fully the science of human society is thought of, whether 
 it concerns the neighborhood of man to man, or of na- 
 tion to nation, the more sagacious and comprehensive is 
 Christ's wisdom. Nothing is more significant of this 
 progressive advance in the best thought of the ages 
 than the loud and fervent homage of many of the culti- 
 vated men of later ages to this unmatched character. 
 Whatever else has been lost to the argument for super- 
 natural Christianity^ has been more than replaced by the 
 gain in the unanimity and ardor of this unquestioning 
 homage. To the culture and science of the older times, 
 Christ was an offence and a deceit. The best philoso- 
 phers and critics of our times either vie with one another 
 in extolling the charm of his words and the beauty of 
 his life, or with stealthy tread, drooping eyelids, and 
 hand upon the lips, retire silently from his presence. 
 " The greatest of all heroes," said Carlyle, '" is one whom 
 we do not name." " Let sacred silence meditate that 
 sacred matter." Nothing is more significant, and to a 
 wise forecast more hopeful, than the fact, that the ideal 
 Christ is more and more honored by the refined sensi- 
 bility of our best literature, and the sagacious insight 
 of our profoundest science. I observe, next, — 
 
 The ajsthetic and scientific interest excited by Christ 
 is justified by, as it tends itself to justify faith in, his 
 
112 FIFTEEN YEARS IN VALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Listoric and supernatural reality. Admiration tends to 
 worship: scientific wonder is heightened by faith in 
 reality. If Christ be "the brightness of the Father's 
 glory," and " the express image of his person," then it 
 is fit that we should be more than dazed by the match- 
 less charm of his character, and the strange mystery of 
 his personality, but that the historic truth of his incar- 
 nation should heighten our aesthetic delight -in his per- 
 son and his history. Culture and science cannot be 
 hostile to that conviction which harmonizes with both. 
 Conversely, the only solution to the ideal attractions of 
 Christ's person is found in his historic truth. While 
 culture refines man to the capacity of appreciating 
 Christ's ideal excellence, scientific thought demands an 
 explanation for this singular phenomenon. As men 
 become more sensitively alive to the beauty and strange- 
 ness of this wonder of their kind, the more strongly are 
 they incited to explain its mystery. The higher is their 
 admiration for its singular excellence, and the deeper 
 their amazement at its strange complexness, the more 
 readily will they be brought to accept the one possible 
 solution that lies in its sober and historic truth. The 
 solution may be itself a mystery, but it is one with the 
 mystery which is already accepted by that theism which 
 the highest culture and the deepest science both require. 
 So that the old alternative comes back, — if there be a 
 living God, and man has a responsible soul, then this 
 God has become incarnate. 
 
 Again ; culture and science are ever making new 
 experiences of the unsatisfactoriness of false solutions 
 of the person of Christ. There has never been a time 
 since Christ has appeared which has been so fruitful in 
 these solutions as the last fifty years. Never have men 
 of high culture and searching science so often pro- 
 pounded the question to one another, and so often an- 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 113 
 
 swered it, " What think je of Christ ? " Never has it 
 been answered so variously by theories Avhich contradict 
 one another so entirely. Christ is at this moment the 
 sphinx wliich attracts to itself by its mystery the spec- 
 ulative wonder of the most highly and honestly cul- 
 tured of the race. It holds them as if it would compel 
 an answer with which they shall be content. It will 
 compel an answer. The question with which it poses 
 the world will never be at re^t till it is answered by the 
 faith of Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the liv- 
 ing God." 
 
 Men are not only more sensitive than ever to the 
 charm and mystery of Christ's person, but they are 
 more alive to his actual power. The wider is their 
 reading, and the more catholic and appreciative their 
 tastes, the more alive are they to the place which the 
 name of Christ has gained in the hearts of men, and 
 the wonderful changes which he has wrought in human 
 thought and feeling. I do not allude to the quantity 
 nor the duration of these effects, but to their quality 
 and intensity. These alone are miracles which require 
 to be explained. These can only be accounted for by 
 faith in those very claims, faith in which has wrought 
 such moral and spiritual achievements as in those out- 
 ward relations which we call Christian civilization, and 
 those inward victories which we call Christian virtue. 
 These advances in culture and insight will bring the 
 world sooner or later to find in the historic energy of 
 this faith a more and more potent argument for its truth. 
 
 The real difficulties of faith are not increased by 
 modern culture and science. That there are difficulties 
 or trials to faith, we do not deny. That in one sense 
 these always must be, we concede. Faith would cease 
 to be faith could it be demonstrated by the syllogistic 
 processes, or verified by experiments of induction. But 
 
114 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 what, if it be true, that, as men live a little longer, they 
 shall discover that all that men believe in is not bounded 
 by the finite. That faith is less reasonable now than in 
 other times, or that it is called to contend with greater 
 difficulties, we deny. Not a single new difficulty is found 
 in principle, however novel many are in form. Science has 
 to do with larger spaces than formerly, and with longer 
 times. It peoples these spaces with manifold objects, 
 with the vast and the minute ; and it stretches along 
 the ages a multitude of events and beings in orderly 
 development and beautiful symmetry. In one sense, 
 God is pushed farther off from the soul of man by these 
 unmeasured spaces and these indefinite prolongations of 
 time. But unity and law and thought were never so 
 emphasized as now by the necessities of science, and 
 these all bring God very near ; and goodness and tender 
 care were never by its revelations brought so warmly to 
 the lieart. The vastness and mystery of the universe 
 exalt rather than depress the importance of the indi- 
 vidual men, who master this increase by their intellect, 
 and wonder and worship with their hearts. That God 
 never ceases to think of man, is proved by every step 
 that science takes in the world without : that God should 
 visit man, is rendered more probable by every look which 
 science bestows on the soul within. Every need of the 
 soul cries out for the manifestation of God, and makes 
 it more probable, bec?tuse it is seen to be more and 
 more necessary that God should stoop to the weakness 
 of the creatures whom he has made capable of such 
 dignity as to know and commune with himself. The 
 heart that longs for the living God, who is higher and 
 better than his works, could never find so many argu- 
 ments as now, from its culture and its reading, because 
 God was never so manifest before. 
 
 Finally, the factitious difficulties in the way of faith 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 115 
 
 promise to be rapidly removed by the progress of cul- 
 ture. Difiiculties from a waut of the historic sense, 
 from an extravagant theory of inspiration, from the dry 
 and scholastic phraseology of creeds and confessions, 
 from narrow views of the Christian ethics, from a want 
 of sympathy with art and literature, — these, and many 
 more which might be named, are fast giving way before 
 the Christian culture and science of these times. While, 
 on the one hand, there was never a time in which it was 
 so easy for a man who is so inclined to deny Christ, or 
 to doubt of God, and never so easy to find books and 
 men in abundance to give their countenance and sym- 
 pathy, it is true, on the other hand, that faith in the 
 Son of God was never so rational or so attractive as 
 now. It would seem as though no possible excuses could 
 be left for unbelief, except such as the unbelieving heart 
 would suggest and enforce. 
 
 Should all occasion for this class of difficulties cease 
 to exist, Christ would be worth no man's confidence. 
 He came to us that he might teach and aid us to over- 
 come the world ; i.e., to overcome the self-reliance and 
 selfishness that make us unwilling to trust in him. This 
 being done, all else is done. If a man will do his will, 
 he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Graduating Class^ — To you who are 
 about to leave this scene of discipline, and to try the 
 world single-handed, these truths have a special interest. 
 You are beginning to feel, if never before, that the world 
 is not a place for enjoyment alone, or for quiet prepa- 
 ration, but that it also is an arena for conflict and 
 struggle, and that its conflicts and struggles largely re- 
 late to what you are, as well as to what you will gain. 
 The experience of breaking away from this frequented 
 spot, forcibly reminds you that the world for you is no 
 
116 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 longer to be a place for holidays, but that life involves 
 loss and separation and loneliness, with labor and disap- 
 pointment and temptation. Your life while you have 
 been together, though more than usually sunny and 
 bright, has not been void of such lessons. There have 
 been many things for you to bear and to overcome, while 
 you have been coming and going to this familiar place. 
 Day after day has brought the enforced obligation to 
 labor. Temptation has lain in wait for you with artful 
 addresses for each. Sorrow and disappointment have 
 visited every heart. Death has twice come iu upon 
 you with liis resistless call. 
 
 I need not remind you that a world in which there 
 was nothing to overcome, would be scarcely worth 
 living in ; that no man should expect or desire to be 
 exempt from toil and conflict. Nor need I urge any 
 further that it is neither manly nor wise to forget the 
 imequal conditions under which every man of us prose- 
 cutes the conflict of life, and the need of the guidance 
 and the inspiration which Christ alone can minister. 
 The science which has widened your knowledge, and the 
 culture which has ripened your sensibilities, have simply 
 enlarged your capacity to measure more justly, and to 
 feel more sensitively, the necessity for this help. Would 
 that from this hour, faith in the Son of God might take 
 complete possession of each one of your hearts ! Should 
 it fail to do so now, then there will not fail to come to 
 you hours of loneliness and weakness and sorrow, in 
 which the Son of God will be your only adequate com- 
 fort and strength ; hours of struggle and darkness in 
 which he alone can give you guidance and light ; hours 
 of guilt and fear, in which he alone can give you par- 
 don and hope. 
 
 You go forth into a world in which just at this 
 moment faith in the Sou of God may not be intense 
 
TUE CONQUEST OVER THE WORLD. 117 
 
 and aggressive, into a world in which many scientists 
 find no occasion for a personal God : many critics and 
 men of culture overlook, or flippantly dispose of, the 
 greatest miracle which human history has ever encoun- 
 tered. You go into a world in which atheistic theories 
 are accepted with scarce a thought of their import, and 
 anti-Christian suggestions are adopted on a half-hour's 
 reading of a brilliant essay. 
 
 While the world is in this condition, your faith in the 
 Son of God may often be tried. It must be intelligent 
 and thoughtful if it is to be zealous and strong. This 
 condition of the world should inspire renewed energy 
 and boldness in each one of you. It is my belief, that, 
 out of these present conflicts, there is speedily to come 
 forth such a manifestation of the majesty and the love 
 of the ever-living Son of God, to every earnest seeker 
 for the truth, as shall more than satisfy their question- 
 ings, and shall give a new impulse to their zeal. The 
 lines cannot be drawn too sharpl}" or too soon. We care 
 not how soon the time shall come, when theist and 
 atheist shall each avow his faith or his no faith, — 
 when the believer and the unbeliever shall understand 
 what each accepts and denies, — provided that in this 
 way the powers of the world to come shall take more 
 complete possession of the hearts and the lives of those 
 who believe. 
 
 Whatever form this conflict may assume in your gen- 
 eration, and to w^hatever issues it may lead, may it bo 
 your happy lot to overcome the world by a faith worthy 
 the name, and thus to lay hold of eternal life I May 
 that life be yours in large measure by blessed anticipa- 
 tions and more glorious realizations! These are the 
 best wishes which I can offer for your welfare ; and 
 with these, and the warmest desires for your good, I bid 
 you farewell. 
 
VI. 
 
 OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF 
 KNOWLEDGE.'' 
 
 " If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine 
 
 WHETJIEK IT BE OF QOD." — Johu vU. 17. 
 
 Christianity, as we find it in the New Testament, 
 assumes two attitudes, which at first thought seem to 
 be inconsistent and antagonistic. It submits itself to be 
 tried and judged, and by simple evidence, asking no 
 confidence which it does not justify. Again, it assumes 
 to try and judge every living man to whom it comes ; 
 commanding him on his allegiance to accept its message, 
 and to follow its Lord. So far as it appeals to the rea- 
 son, it asks no favors. So far as it appeals to the con- 
 science, it assumes supreme authority over every man 
 who hears its voice. 
 
 It would seem at first sight, that here is a contradic- 
 tion. j\Iany expounders of Christianity have sought to 
 intensify this difficulty by emphasizing what they choose 
 to call the necessary antagonism between reason and 
 faith. But this seeming disappears when we reflect that 
 the reason which listens to evidence, and waits for a 
 verdict, is but another name for the conscience, when it 
 demands instant and unquestioning obedience, when 
 it admits no excuses, and permits no delay. 
 
 We notice also, that Christianity has from the very 
 
 * Jam 21, 1874. 
 118 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 119 
 
 first assumed both these attitudes ; submitting itself on 
 the one hand to the critical judgment of men, and com- 
 manding them on the other hand to believe and obey. 
 The modern assailants of Christianity fall into an over- 
 sight when they assume that it came into the world with- 
 out being challenged. They forget that it was confronted 
 at the very beginning with sharp-sighted critics. They 
 overlook what the New Testament distinctly records, — 
 that its claims were disputed by almost every conceiv- 
 able descri2:)tion of antagonists ; that its facts were 
 denied, its principles were questioned, its miracles 
 were referred to causes generally accredited as natural 
 and common, and that the claims of its founder to be 
 divinely commissioned were set aside as offensive by a 
 great variety of representative men. If its new assail- 
 ants would read its old history with a more critical spirit, 
 they would find it figliting its way step by step with the 
 weapons of simple truth. If they would study more 
 closely the grounds on which it was rejected in the first 
 century, they would discover that they are similar in 
 principle to those on which it is rejected in the nine- 
 teenth ; that it is only in form that these difficulties 
 have changed, while their substance remains. The 
 Greeks adored culture, — grace and beauty in art, 
 comprehensiveness and insight in science, skill and 
 forecast in commerce, sagacity and conquest in states- 
 manship. They were so occupied and delighted with 
 this life, that they did not concern themselves greatly 
 with another ; they failed to find out the fact and evil 
 of sin, and hence they could find no reason for Chris- 
 tianity, and consequently no reason in it. To them it was 
 foolishness. Tlie Jews were so occupied with the power 
 and isolation of the iMost High, and his majestic incom- 
 prehensibleness and distance, they were so elevated with 
 their own position as the select nation who alone could 
 
120 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 understand God, tliat a Christ who was condescending 
 and pitiful and self-sacrificing ; a Christ who cared for 
 dishonest publicans, and vulgar harlots, and the accursed 
 common people, and cared for them so much as to 
 expend upon them his life and death that he might 
 bring them into his kingdom ; and, more than all, a 
 Christ whose life and death emphasized human guilt 
 and weakness, — was, to their ways of thinking, simply a 
 scandal and a stumbling block. Against these rejecters 
 and antagonists, Christianity offered reasons for being 
 received as the wisdom and the power of God. It 
 quietly and earnestly asked men to think of the occa- 
 sion for its revelations, and the evidence by which it was 
 supported. It stood quietly before the bar of its judge, 
 declaring in the person of its Lord, " To this end came 
 I forth, that I might bear witness of the truth ; " while 
 yet in the same breath it rose into the majestic confi- 
 dence of command, adding, "Every one who is of the 
 truth heareth my voice." 
 
 Christ goes farther than this. He tells every man 
 who is not yet convinced of his claims, how he may 
 become satisfied of their truth and authority. He does 
 not bid him to cease to think or to inquire. He does 
 not bid him not to use his reason, but to use it more 
 persistently and earnestly than ever before. But at the 
 same time he tells him that it is essential to his success 
 that he should enter at once upon the practice of duty, 
 assuring him that if he will do this, he will be convinced 
 that Christ is from God. These words are not merely 
 words of advice or of command. They jire blessed 
 words of promise and encouragement to every soul that 
 in this questioning and unsettled age seeks to know 
 what and whom to believe. To the obstinate and the 
 fro ward only, they are words of authority and reproof: 
 to the honest inquirer, they are words of sympathy. 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 121 
 
 I^et us follow them as closely as we may, in order that 
 we may understand their meaning, so as to use them 
 ariglit. 
 
 '''' If a man ivill do his will, he shall know^ These 
 words comprise a condition and a promise. Let us first 
 consider the condition, and ask what is its import. 
 What does Christ intend in sober earnestness when this 
 direction is divested of theological or traditional phrase- 
 ology, and translated for the use of living men ? 
 
 We answer, each man is to begin with what he him- 
 self owns to be his duty — with this and nothing more. 
 We repeat and emphasize this, because it is not always 
 insisted on. Some spiritual advisers deny it altogether, 
 or so mystify their directions as to send away the 
 inquirer after guidance in greater uncertainty and de- 
 spair. Some interpret it thus : It is the will of God that 
 you believe that Christ is his messenger and representa- 
 tive : if now you will exercise this faith, you will know 
 that your faith is well grounded. But this is logically 
 and practically absurd and impossible. To a man who 
 has no difficulties, and is already a believer, it may seem 
 to be satisfactory ; but to a man whose doubts and 
 inquiries are real, it is an insult to bis understanding, 
 and a mockery of his pain. We cannot believe this to 
 have been the meaning of the wise and loving Christ, 
 who knew so completely what was in man, and what 
 was fitted for man. We are confident that though he 
 never used the formulie of the schools, he would never 
 reason in a logical circle with a diameter so short as 
 this. But what Christ says to every man is this : There 
 is something ivhich you believe to he your duty ; hey in with 
 that, and do it. 
 
 The inquirer might still urge, duty is as uncertain as 
 truth. Men are as divided upon the question, What is 
 duty? as they are upon the question, What is truth? in- 
 
122 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 deed, propositions of duty are in effect propositions of 
 truth. It may be so, and yet it still may be true, that 
 each individual man owns certain duties to be sacredly 
 binding upon himself. This we may assume until some 
 one is found who is bold enough to deny it. With this 
 each man is to begin, and this he is to turn into reality. 
 He may be mistaken in his judgment ; but whatever his 
 judgment may be, he must be willing to translate it into 
 action. 
 
 Next, the inquirer must do this with respect to everi/ 
 thing which he owns as duty. Duty admits no exemp- 
 tion or excuses. If it imposes one command, it imposes 
 another, and all, and by the same authority. " Whoso- 
 ever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one 
 point, he is guilty of all." This is not merely a dictum 
 of Scripture, but it is an axiom in ethics. The spirit of 
 duty is that of entire and comprehensive obedience. In 
 the eyes of the earnest conscience, all duties are alike 
 sacred and important. 
 
 It scarcely need be added that duties of thought and 
 feeling are included as truly as duties of word and 
 action. In the view of conscience, all duties are duties 
 of the inner man, and of the inner man alone. It is the 
 spirit and purpose which make the word or action right 
 or wrong. The voice of Christ may seem very harsh to 
 a young or old man, when it bids him from this moment 
 to subject his thoughts. and motives to the law of duty. 
 But this voice is none other than the voice of his own 
 soul, — the command which he imposes on himself. 
 
 It is the purpose, however, and not the achievement, 
 which Christ requires. Christ does not say a man must 
 first attain moral perfection before he can be convinced 
 of the truth. If he had said this, his word would have 
 been any thing but a gospel. Had Christ told the sen- 
 sual reeking in their lusts, the malignant festering with 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 123 
 
 passion, and the unbelieving stiff in tlieir pride, that 
 they eacli must go through a long course of purification 
 from their besetting sins, before they could know that 
 he was indeed the Christ, he would have made it impos- 
 sible that he should ever be a Christ to them. That for 
 which men need a Christ, is that he may help them 
 overcome their sins. It would be a mockery of their 
 need to tell them that they must first of all be rid of 
 their sins before they could judge whom to trust as a 
 Saviour from the same. 
 
 Christ exacts no such conditions. While he rigidly 
 requires the purpose of duty, as the law of the inner 
 man, he never requires that achievement should be 
 complete. He does not even wait for any achievement 
 at all. In this, the rigor and the gentleness of Clmst 
 are both illustrated, — the rigor which requires the 
 subjection of the will in an earnest purpose, and the 
 gentleness which excuses ten thousand imperfections. 
 
 Again, the spirit in which this law of duty is accepted 
 must be uncompromising. Duty must be enthroned 
 above all rivals, and for the whole of the soul's future 
 existence. The purpose of duty must be ready for any 
 sacrifice. The right hand must be cut off, the right eye 
 must be plucked out. Father and mother, and wife and 
 children, must be abandoned at its call. The whole of 
 one's future being must be given up to its rule. The 
 occupation of the future life must be a service and sac- 
 rifice at its altar. 
 
 Finally, duty must be served in a religious spirit. 
 The words of Christ are, " If a man will do his will ; " 
 i.e., the will of God. These words imply that a man 
 believes there is a God who enforces duty as his will. It 
 would seem to follow that no atheist, let him be ever so 
 conscientious and truth-loving, could comply with this 
 condition. We need not trouble ourselves with such a 
 
124 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 question. It is clear that no man can comply with it 
 who follows duty in an irreligious spirit ; that is, in a 
 conceited, unteachable, or self-relying temper. Duty 
 may be performed in a godless spirit. A man may be 
 so confident that he knoAvs and does his whole duty, as 
 to be unwilling to be taught any thing by any body. He 
 may be so wise in his knowledge of Avhat he ought to 
 be, and so confident that he is perfect in his purposes 
 and performances, as to refuse to ask help from any 
 being higher and better than himself. There have been 
 schools and individuals who have made out of duty an 
 idol for self-worship, and in the very name of duty have 
 rejected God. 
 
 For this reason it is important to add, that duty 
 must be obeyed and loved in a religious spirit, as con- 
 trasted with the spirit of the Stoic or the Pharisee. 
 Whether a man believes in God, or seeks after God, he 
 must cherish an unselfish, a humble, and a reverent 
 spirit. Whether he has found God or not, he must have 
 a temper which longs to believe there is a God whom 
 he may love and worship and trust. His soul must not 
 only be willing that God should exist and reign in the 
 interests of holiness, — he must long with an irrepres- 
 sible desire that the universe may be blessed with the 
 brightness of his unsullied purity, and that the wronged 
 and oppressed and comfortless may have one sure refuge 
 to which to flee, while the faithful rejoice in him as 
 their strong and present helper. 
 
 The religious spirit is devout and prayerful. The 
 man who is willing to do the will of God, must be a 
 man of prayer. Whether he believes there is a God 
 or no, he must stretch out his hands, and lift up his 
 voice, in entreaty that God would make himself man- 
 ifest, if he exists indeed. He cannot but be grateful 
 even to an unseen and unknown source of blessing, if 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 125 
 
 he only surmises that such a being exists. If he is con- 
 scious of exposure to error or sin or weakness, he will 
 naturally and necessarily cry out for God from the 
 depths of his soul, " Oh, that I knew where I might find 
 him ! " 
 
 This is the condition. Let us, second, consider the 
 promise, " He shall knoto of the doctrine whether it be of 
 God.'' In other words, supreme consecration to duty 
 is the one effectual way to be assured that Christ, and 
 Christ's teachings, are from God. This promise is made 
 by Christ on many occasions. It is repeated in man- 
 ifokl phraseology. That it should be uttered so often, 
 and with such confidence, by a teacher like Christ, in 
 the face of critics so severe, and enemies so violent, and 
 in defence of a system in many respects so weak, shows 
 a marvellous confidence in the resources of the system 
 itself. Earnest men do not usually talk at random in 
 such a strain, especially if they seek to teach and guide 
 earnest men. Two methods are conceivable in which 
 this promise might be fulfilled ; viz , by supernatural inr 
 fluence and natural consequence. Christ may have in- 
 tended to say, that if a man earnestly and perseveringly 
 makes duty to God his supreme aim, God will meet him, 
 and manifest himself to him in some extraordinary or 
 supernatural manner ; or, on the other hand, that the 
 consecration of the soul to duty is the appropriate and 
 necessary condition to a settled Christian faith. 
 
 The one of these does not exclude the other. The 
 first may he true, even if the second must be true. It is 
 to the natural and necessary connection between conse- 
 cration to duty and a settled faith that I would espe- 
 cially invite j^our attention. Among the reasons why 
 devotion to duty is a condition of faith, are the fol- 
 lowing: — 
 
 1. Devotion to duty holds the attention to the evi- 
 
126 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 dence that Christ is from God. Granting that faith is 
 always founded on evidence, devotion to duty in the 
 way described may be essential to faith, because noth- 
 ing else will fix and fasten the attention upon the 
 grounds for believing. Truth of any kind to be assented 
 to, must be attended to. The truths of astronomy had 
 for ages looked down upon man from the stars. The 
 truths of geology had, from the beginning, looked up to 
 man from the earth. Truth of optics had been reflected 
 from every devvdrop, and sparkled in every beam of 
 light. The truths of statesmanship and political econ- 
 omy had been illustrated in the great and small events 
 of social experience. The truths of geometry and alge- 
 bra had always been within man's reach, and, as it were, 
 been longing and struggling to be assented to by some 
 discerning mind. But for want of the attending mind, 
 all these gained neither assent nor conviction. What 
 is true of what we call the mind of the race, is true of 
 each individual. Indeed, truth that has once been ap- 
 prehended, is only retained for the race by the renewed 
 attention and the ever-renewed assent of individual 
 minds. We need not go to truths of science and 
 scientific progress for our illustrations. What is color 
 to those who can not or will not look ? What is sound to 
 those who can not or will not listen ? 
 
 The evidence that Christ is from God, is very largely 
 evidence founded on the fact and the relations of duty. 
 It is with these that Christianity is mainly concerned ; 
 and it is upon its import with respect to duty, that the 
 conviction must rest tliat Christianity is from God. 
 Christianity is not a philosophy or a metaphysics, it is 
 not a science of the natural or the supernatural, al- 
 though its truth may involve and imply these and other 
 sciences. It is not merely an historical phenomenon. 
 It does not stand or fall by learned or literary criticism, 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 127 
 
 altlioiigb its trustworthiness involves liistorical and criti- 
 cal researches. It is a revelation of a person for ends 
 of moral blessing and recovery. Its credentials are to 
 be found in man's desperate need of such intervention 
 in his impotence to deliver himself, and in the com- 
 pleteness of Christ for this work. Concerning ques- 
 tions like these, every man is competent to judge and 
 decide. But, in order to judge, every man must attend 
 to the facts. 
 
 An earnest purpose to do the will of God, commits a 
 man henceforward to attend to the fact and relations 
 of duty as an ever-present reality. Duty brings and 
 holds the mind to its presence as a commanding interest, 
 and so far enables it to judge of all that evidence which 
 has any concern with duty. Without this purpose 
 formed and acted on, I need not say that a man is 
 tempted not to attend to duty ; and to him the argu- 
 ments which derive their force from duty, will be like 
 the proofs of astronomical or geological or mathematical 
 science to the mind that does not ask whether the facts 
 and forces are true, or like the pomp of color and the 
 harmonies of sound to the man who can neither see nor 
 hear. 
 
 2. Consecration to duty also trains a man vividly to 
 apprehend, and sensitively to appreciate, the significar^ce 
 of the evidence to which he attends. If arguments are 
 to convince, they must not only be thought of, but they 
 must be responded to by a sensitive spirit. Arguments 
 are weighed, not numbered. To the sensitive observa- 
 tion of some strongly interested soul, almost every im- 
 portant discovery is to be ascribed. Necessity is the 
 mother of invention because it sharpens the wits to dis- 
 cern and judge. The hunter who studies the habits of 
 his game, the savage who reads the history of yester- 
 day in the trail of the forest, the gifted scientist who 
 
128 FIFTEEN TEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 alone interprets a hint of nature that had been repeated 
 myriads of millions of times before, the inventor who fol- 
 lows out some chance experiment to the construction of 
 some wonder-working engine, — are all sensitively alive 
 to what they judge of; and they owe to their interest in 
 what the}^ think of, their power to judge rightly. In 
 matters of taste and tact and sagacity, sensibility is 
 the condition of quick and sure discernment. The in- 
 tuitive judgment of women on points of practice rests 
 on their more refined sensitiveness. 
 
 The purpose of duty awakens in the soul a class of 
 emotions which in their nature are the most sacred and 
 refined. As soon as they have leave to exist, they quicken 
 the mind to manifold new discernments. The ends of 
 human aspiration, the judgments of what one should 
 care for and live for, are viewed under entirely new 
 lights. Dead and meaningless truisms start into being 
 as active and living powers. Manifold thoughts and 
 facts suggest God as present, and needed by man, and 
 Christ as attractive and divine. Sorrow and joy, success 
 and failure in life, are estimated chiefly with respect to 
 their bearing on character. The standards and estimates 
 of any man who begins to live for duty are all newly 
 adjusted, and cliarged with an electric sensitiveness. 
 
 His intellect has not changed in its sobriety or its 
 solidness. His reason is still amenable to evidence, and 
 to evidence only. His purpose of duty has simply 
 awakened those sensibilities which qualify him to do 
 justice to truths to which he had previously been irre- 
 sponsive, and therefore unjust. 
 
 3. The purpose of duty makes a man candid in his 
 judgments. So long as this purpose is withheld, a man 
 cannot be entirely fair in his inquiries after the truth 
 which enforces duty. He may think he is, he may in- 
 tend to be, he may carefully guard himself against bias 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 129 
 
 or one-sidedness, but he cannot escape their subtle influ- 
 ence. There is no biassing influence so subtle and so 
 powerful as that whicli springs from a conscious insub- 
 jection to duty. Let the duty which is slighted concern 
 but a single person or a single action, and it may para- 
 lyze the will, and blind the judgment. How much more 
 when such dishonor or neglect concerns the purpose 
 which makes the man I If Christ is accepted as from 
 God, the man must at once consecrate himself to a life 
 of duty as a servant of Christ. So long as he hesitates 
 to accept such a life, even under the pressure of his own 
 convicted conscience, he cannot avoid the bias to judge 
 inadequately or unjustly of the claims of a master who, 
 if he comes from God, commands him, in the name of 
 God, to yield to his commands and invitations to a life 
 which he dislikes to enter. But let the life be ac- 
 cepted, because of its own intrinsic excellence, and this 
 bias to uncandor will instantly cease. 
 
 4. Consecration to duty furnishes the evidence of 
 personal experience. It not only prepares a man to 
 estimate evidence, but it furnishes evidence of itself, 
 and a species of evidence for which there can be no 
 substitute, and to which there can be no refutation. 
 Who doubts the reality of gratitude if he has felt it for 
 himself? The selfish and sordid may argue that there 
 can be no unselfish affection, but not the man whose in- 
 most soul is glowing with its fire. 
 
 The loving parent and the devoted child would doubt 
 their own existence sooner than deny the reality and 
 sweetness of parental and filial love. The man of 
 poetic impulse and sensibility believes in what he con- 
 stantly feels. In like manner, the man who lives for 
 duty as the will of God, knows and believes as no other 
 man can know and believe, that to control passion, to 
 repress envy, to return good for evil, to please not him- 
 
130 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 self, to forgive his enemies, to wish well and do good to 
 all men living, is the best and noblest use of his powers. 
 You may argue against the convictions of such a man, 
 but you cannot argue them down, for he has made trial 
 of them for himself. You may frown down or sneer 
 down his belief, but a fresh exercise of love and self- 
 control sets aside both frown and sneer. The most 
 attractive examples of wickedness only move him to 
 pity for the ignorance of those who know no better life. 
 
 The man who is constantly making trial of the beati- 
 tudes of Christ, cannot possibly disbelieve in the truth 
 of these sayings. The practice of Christian duty goes 
 very far towards the belief that Christ is from God, be- 
 cause it excites an active sympathy with the character 
 of Christ. To such a man, Christ, by his own personal 
 experience of Christ's spirit, has become at least the 
 noblest of ideals that God has given to man. 
 
 5. Consecration to duty brings a man to understand 
 his failures and his guilt, and thus prepares him to believe 
 in Christ as a divinely provided deliverer. The man 
 who gives himself most earnestly to do the will of God, 
 will the soonest discover how high and how broad it is. 
 The more he aspires, the more sensitive will he be in 
 respect to his failures. The more earnest and sincere 
 are his efforts to be pure in feeling and in act, the more 
 bitter will be his disappointments that he fails so often 
 and so sadly. He cannot excuse himself. Can his 
 Creator? His own heart condemns him. How much 
 more must the ever-present and the spotless Jehovah? 
 He cannot forgive himself. Can God forgive him? 
 Will he forgive him, and how does he know that he. 
 will? If he forgives other men, will he forgive such a 
 man as he is, — one so ambitious in promises and so 
 poor in performance ; the ready victim of so many fool- 
 ish impulses and such imperious desires? 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 131 
 
 His aspirations and efforts have not only issued in 
 guilt, but they have demonstrated his weakness. He 
 must have help in his great life-work, which is victory 
 over himself — the establishment within himself of the 
 better life. Not only must he have help, but he must 
 have Jiope of help, or he will abandon his courage in the 
 good fight which he has undertaken. 
 
 But, again, does the God whom he seeks to please 
 and honor care for his failures and his sins ? Does he 
 care enough even to punish him, or to punish him any 
 further than to leave him to become the sport and the 
 victim of his frivolous aims, his petty envies, his impo- 
 tent strifes, his unsuccessful resolutions, his imperious 
 appetites, his bitter self-reproaches, his inward shame, 
 and his comfortless and hopeless despair ? He looks 
 out upon the earth, and it answers nothing. Winter 
 and summer pass and repass ; and the earth replies, 
 " The answer is not in me." God, if there be a God, 
 is indeed very great ; but he hides his presence and his 
 pity behind and beneath changing phenomena and 
 unchanging forces. He looks up into the heavens. 
 The clouds come and go ; the tempest gives place to 
 the sunshine ; and at night, when the sinful and help- 
 less soul cries out for God's pity and forgiveness and 
 help, there look down upon him only the silent and 
 pitiless stars. 
 
 His needs are desperate. He has undertaken to real- 
 ize the best that he can find within himself, — the law 
 of dut}^ He has sought to be a noble and perfect man. 
 He has revered his conscience as the voice of God. He 
 has accepted its monitions as the high and holy laws of 
 nature. But he has failed in the performance, and he 
 is guilty and weak and helpless and hopeless. He 
 wants as he never wanted any thing before, — he wants 
 the assurance that his God cares for him in all this, and 
 
132 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 will meet him with his personal sympathy, his personal 
 forgiveness, and his personal aid. 
 
 He opens the New Testament, and there he finds — be 
 it in romance or in history — the manifested God whom 
 he seeks after, — God manifested neither in earth nor in 
 sky, but in a man as pure, and as stern to the hypocrite 
 and the self-righteous, as the bright and pitiless stars ; 
 yet as pitiful and as condescending to the humble and 
 the fearful as the mother who comforted his childish 
 sorrows, or the sister who charmed away his childish 
 fears — who spoke to the most wicked and despairing, 
 and so sincerely, the very words which he has been 
 longing to hear, " Thi/ sins are forgiven thee^ go in pcaee.^^ 
 He finds even more than this. It is not enough that he 
 be forgiven. He desires, above all, a warrant for future 
 success in that on which his heart is set ; in the triumph 
 of duty as the law of his being and the spring of his 
 affections. He finds it written, — be it in romance or in 
 history, — that, in an affectionate personal discipleship 
 to Christ, there is success in all these aspirations and 
 desires. "Abide in me, and I in you. He that abideth 
 in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. 
 Without me ye can do nothing." That the man could 
 do little by himself, he has already learned by his many 
 failures. What joy does it give him to read, even in 
 romance, that there may be such a being as the conde- 
 scending Christ who is able to turn his ideals of perfec- 
 tion into fact. 
 
 He asks again, " What of the future destiny of my- 
 self and others who aspire to a holier immortality?" 
 And it thrills his heart to hear the words of solemn 
 assurance in the language of prayer, "Father, I will 
 that they also whom thou hast given me be with me 
 where I am. I go to prepare a place for you, and will 
 come again, and receive you unto myself. Neither pray 
 
OBEDIENCE TUE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 133 
 
 I for these alone, but for them also that shall believe in 
 me thiongh their word.'* What can he ask for more ? 
 
 But is this not a romance ? " It may be ; but never 
 did romance set forth such a personage as this," says the 
 man still intent on the life of duty, "so completely fitted 
 in word and feeling and act for all my needs, and speak- 
 ing, dying, and living again, just as the manifested and 
 condescending and pitying God might be supposed to 
 do if he were to meet my extremest needs. All the 
 words which he has spoken to which my experience can 
 testify, I know are true ; all the promises which I have 
 been able to put to the test, I have found to be fulfilled. 
 I cannot believe, when Christ speaks so truly of my 
 wants and to my wants, that what he says concerning 
 himself should be a romance or a lie. What shall I be- 
 lieve if this is not true? Surely, what is written of 
 Christ is true if any thing is true. To whom shall I 
 go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal 
 life. Thou art the Christ, not alone the consecrated 
 ideal of my wishes and my wants. Thou art more 
 than an ideal. Thou art a fact, a living reality. 
 Thou art the Son of the living God." 
 
 But is not the story very improbable ? That depends 
 entirely on the point of view from which you read it. 
 If you read it as a scientist or literary critic, or as an 
 historian of man's outward and ordinary life, much 
 more if you read it at a spectacle or a dance or a feast, 
 much more if you read it in passion or drunkenness or 
 pride, much more if you read it with a sneer or bitter 
 disdain or contemptuous satire, it is grossly improbable. 
 But if you read it as one desperately in earnest to do 
 the will of God, or as one who hungers and thirsts after 
 righteousness, still more as one stung with remorse, or 
 depressed by guilt, or hopeless from despair, it is alto- 
 gether probable. Its very improbabilities, when tried 
 
134 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 by other standards, make it to be altogether probable 
 when measured by man's needs, — nay, these so-called 
 improbabilities almost prove it to be true, inasmuch as 
 they lift the story above the range of ordinary romance, 
 and prove that it neither could nor would have been 
 invented by man. 
 
 It is no strange thing in human experience that what 
 seems unlikely from one point of view, should seem 
 natural and orderly when viewed from another. The 
 planets move in a maze as seen from the earth, but pre- 
 sent a system of harmonious revolutions when seen from 
 the sun. A crowded mass of men seen from one point 
 of observation, present a spectacle of chaotic disorder ; 
 but when looked at from another, every man, as he 
 stands or moves, contributes to the order of the whole. 
 The supremacy and costliness of the diamond, when 
 viewed in one light, are doubted. The bystander can- 
 not believe you when you assert that it is a gem of 
 priceless worth, and, perhaps, prefers the manufactured 
 paste. But as he changes his position, and views it in 
 another light, there flashes upon his eye a brightness so 
 intense and powerful as to require and admit no other 
 argument. 
 
 The position from which to view Christ's person and 
 Christ's work in order to judge of his worth and his 
 truth, is the position of a man who essays to do the will 
 of God, and fails. They that are whole have no need 
 of a physician. The man who is sick is alone compe- 
 tent to believe in the medicine, and in the physician who 
 brings it. Most pertinent is the remark of Coleridge : 
 " Evidences of Christianity ? I am weary of the word. 
 Let a man first discover his need of Christianity ! " 
 
 6. This estimate of the divine fitness of Christianity 
 to supply one's personal needs prepares him to credit 
 the testimony of those who have actually put it to the 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 135 
 
 proof. In one, and that a most important sense, the 
 experience of one man can be no substitute for actual 
 trial by another. But the man who is in earnest to do 
 the will of God, has taken the one step which is essential 
 for him in order to understand and appreciate the steps 
 in which others have gone beyond him. He has learned 
 by trial the value of the interest at stake. He believes 
 in duty because he has made trial of it: he believes in 
 sin, — alas! his efforts to do his duty have given abundant 
 experience of failure. He believes in guilt because he 
 has faced it in his ow^n condemning conscience: he be- 
 lieves in his own weakness, because the more he has 
 aspired, the less perfectly he has achieved. The fitness 
 and completeness of Christ to meet this weakness and 
 fear are seen as never before. He almost believes and 
 obeys because of his very desire of relief, and because 
 of the richness and fulness of the promise. While he 
 hesitates, there break upon his ear the consenting voices 
 of an innumerable company — a multitude whom no 
 man can number — of those who have put Christ to the 
 proof, who declare with tears of gratitude and shouts of 
 praise that they once stood where he stands, hesitated 
 where he lingered, heard the same reasons which now 
 move him, and at last trusted the promises of Christ, 
 and found that his promises were true. Here is a veri- 
 fied experiment attested by myriads of the hving and the 
 dead. The gospel has been tried by the youug and the 
 old, the wise and the weak, the cultured and the un- 
 taught, by men and women under every variety of cli- 
 mate and civilization, in every stage of guilt and inno- 
 cence, and all have found it better than it promised to 
 be, and its Lord more fully accredited to be the Christ 
 of God. This testimony is every day repeated in myr- 
 iads of prayers that go up before God. It is warbled 
 and sung in the praises of throngs of men, in the sacred- 
 
136 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 ness of solitude, and under the inspiration of worship. 
 It is attested by the peace of God that is written on the 
 brows of myriads of lifelong sufferers, and by the un- 
 utterable joy which has looked forth from the eyes of 
 multitudes as they have wrestled with death. The dis- 
 ciples of Christ are divided on many points ; but on one 
 point their testimony is united, — that he has proved 
 himself to be nearer and better than they could have 
 expected with the measure of faith and love which they 
 have given him. That man only who is in earnest to 
 do the will of God, is qualified to estimate the question 
 which has been submitted to the experiment of all these 
 generations. He alone is competent to appreciate the 
 decisiveness of the result. If he judges wisely, he can- 
 not but thus reason and decide. " No human interest is 
 so important as this : of this I am confident. No test 
 by experiment has ever been so ample, and so variously 
 applied. No result has been so unvaried. If any exper- 
 iment of this kind admits of being verified, the capacity 
 of Christianity to do all that it promises has been set- 
 tled by trial." 
 
 Here I leave my argument. The positions taken 
 seem to me to be conclusive, — that to make the purpose 
 of duty the indispensable requisite to confirmed faith, is 
 altogether rational and philosophical. Christianity is 
 not peculiar in this. Every science, every art, every 
 taste, every mode of life, even the fickle and fleeting 
 fashions of the hour, require to be in some sense taken 
 upon trust before they give complete and settled satis- 
 faction to the mind. All the great teachers of the world 
 have required a '^ purged eyesight " from their disciples. 
 But Christ alone has promised to make himself known 
 as the Son of God, to every docile and obedient soul. 
 
 But what if a man does not yet believe ? What if he 
 does not yet know that the doctrine of Christ is from 
 
OBEDIENCE TUE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE, 137 
 
 God? Are there not many in these clays, and is not 
 their number increasing, who seem earnestly consjcien- 
 tious, but who deny the divine authority of Christ? 
 Nay, are there not many who even in the name of 
 duty and its intuitions reject his supernatural claims? 
 What shall we make of these exceptions ? If the prom- 
 ise is true, does not the converse follow, that every man 
 who denies, or even doubts, the claims of Christ, must 
 fail to make duty the supreme and holiest thing ? Not 
 in the least. It is a promise that invites, and must be 
 turned to use for each man's individual self. It is a 
 precept for use and encouragement, but not a proposi- 
 tion to satisfy curiosity, or provoke censoriousness. 
 The promise is general. It provides for exceptions, and 
 supposes many delays. It supposes that conviction must 
 rest upon evidence. Evidence may be distorted by tra- 
 dition, or misrepresented by dishonesty, or in many ways 
 be clouded and confused, even to an honest mind. The 
 " honest doubter " may go on to the day of his death, 
 the victim of traditional associations, a one-sided educa- 
 tion, or some idol of the market-place or the schools. 
 It is not unjust to the spirit of the promise to suppose 
 that to the honest doubter under special limitations, 
 the distinct knowledge that Christ is indeed from God 
 may be reserved for the moment when the manifested 
 Christ shall be unveiled to his beatific vision ; when 
 passing beneath the eternal gates, and lifting his eyes 
 in wondering amazement, he shall break forth into the 
 song, " Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ ! " 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Grraduating Class, — You are 
 going forth into life as men of education and culture. 
 It is no secret to you that not a few of this class at the 
 present time are greatly in doubt whether the doctrine 
 and the person of Christ are in any special sense from 
 
138 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 God. Let me remind you that the peculiar exposures 
 of men of culture at present do not so much proceed 
 from the new phases of science, or the new revelations 
 of history, or any new insight of criticism, as from the 
 powerful and subtle — powerful because they are sub- 
 tle — moral exposures, which are incident to their pe- 
 culiar life. The training of educated men usually lifts 
 them above the grosser offences of fraud, dishonesty, 
 sensuality, and violence. Their occupations excite their 
 intellectual energies, and tend to the well-being and 
 adornment of men. But these occupations are intensely 
 and peculiarly engrossing, and easily create a world of 
 imaginary excitements and gratifications in which con- 
 science and duty in their higher significance need not 
 often enter, and the living God may be easily over- 
 looked and denied. The real cause of the prevailing 
 unbelief of thinking men at the present time is the 
 want of moral earnestness in its highest and noblest 
 forms, — this, and nothing more. This is evident from 
 the significant facts, that the prevailing unbelief is athe- 
 istic rather than anti-Christian, that it denies conscience 
 and duty as emphatically as it dispenses with Christ 
 and the Christian hope, that it rejects the personal God 
 as readily as it disowns the Word made flesh, that it 
 doubts immortality as coolly as it sets aside the resur- 
 rection, and that it mocks at prayer as confidently as it 
 sneers at miracles. It is still further evident from the 
 fact, that many men of science and culture who accept 
 Christ, find in their knowledge and culture incitements 
 and confirmations rather than hinderances to faith. Let 
 the suggestion be forever dismissed from your minds, 
 which now and then is entertained in these halls, that 
 unbelief or half-belief is either a mark of distinguished 
 illumination, or a sad necessity, that must haunt and 
 depress a cultivated mind. 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 139 
 
 History and observation abundantly prove that no 
 class of men are more dogmatic or bigoted or perverse 
 than men of culture, when they fail to bring fully into 
 the light any data which should determine their conclu- 
 sions on any subject, whether it be secular or sacred. 
 Even right conclusions of history, science, philosophy, 
 or letters, are not made sure by clearness of insight, 
 amplitude of knowledge, comprehensiveness of view, 
 felicity of diction, or elevation of sentiment, provided 
 important facts or principles are omitted. Let, then, 
 the moral light which is in every man, become darkness 
 by wilful neglect or dishonor, and his conclusions con- 
 cerning any subject with which these conclusions are 
 concerned must be defective and misleading, just in 
 proportion to the mental force by which they are de- 
 rived, or the brilliancy by which they are made attrac- 
 tive. If a man be a scientist, and gives scant recognition 
 to the force and laws of conscience ; or an historian, and 
 overlooks the function of conscience in the story of the 
 race ; or a literary critic, and slightly esteems the power 
 which duty and faith exert on the phases of literature, — 
 lie of all men is most likely to come to false conclusions 
 concerning the doctrine of Christ, simply because 'he is 
 so clear and so relf-reliant in his judgments, and so pro- 
 nounced and refined in his tastes. On the other hand, 
 let duty be sacredly revered by any man, let God be 
 honored by an earnest life, and the materials for correct 
 conclusions will be so abundant that his studies and 
 acquisitions will minister to faith. Interpreted by the 
 light of his own living experience, science, history, and 
 criticism will all testify that Christ and his doctrine are 
 from God. 
 
 But you are more than men of letters and science : 
 your 7nanhood is more to you than your intellectual 
 acquisitions, or your aesthetic culture. This is often 
 
140 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 forgotten in the secluded haunts of the university with 
 its conventionalities, its conceit, and its factitious judg- 
 ments. It is well that you are to go forth to try the 
 free and bracing air of public life, and to move among 
 the ways and haunts of common men. As you stand 
 upon the threshold of your new life, and look back- 
 wards and forwards, let me give you this parting senti- 
 ment ; A life of Christian faith is the only human life 
 in which there are cheerfulness and hope, and an assured 
 Christian faith can only be gained and sustained by the 
 earnest practice of duty. 
 
 Some of you may have stood upon a mountain, and 
 looked over an extended landscape which was envel- 
 oped in mist, and overhung with gloom. Yet here and 
 there a narrow path of light might be traced dividing 
 the mists, and terminating in some gilded summit in 
 the distant horizon, which blended with the transfigured 
 clouds. Such a path symbolizes the course of that man 
 who seeks for a confirmed faith in Christ in the earnest 
 practice of duty. At first he may see no farther before 
 him than a single step, but that step is clear and sure. 
 He may not see the heavens at all. The Sun of the 
 soul, the Christ whom he would distinctly see, does not 
 as yet reveal himself. Nothing is visible save an illu- 
 minated haze, giving light, and only light enough to 
 guide his footsteps. He goes forward, and as the path- 
 way opens before him, he sees farther and farther. The 
 illuminated mist becomes more thin. Now and then a 
 rift is opened in the clouds above. The sun is seen for 
 a moment. It is again obscured. It appears again. 
 Sooner or later both mists and clouds are gone, and 
 forth comes the day ! 
 
 May such be your life, — a life of a brighter and more 
 assured Christian faith, at once the effect and the cause 
 of a life of earnest duty to God and man ! As you stand 
 
OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. 141 
 
 Upon this dividing line that separates your past and 
 future life, and as you look forward earnestly into its 
 darkness, one face looks out upon you. It is the face of 
 Duty. Stern and severe it may seem, and it may speak 
 in a voice that sometimes is harsh and unwelcome. 
 But if you follow its guidance, and obey its voice, 
 sooner or later shall come forth to each of you the man- 
 ifested Son of God, who has promised, " If a man will 
 love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will 
 love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
 abode with him." That you may put this promise to 
 the proof, is my best and most cordial wish for each 
 and every one of you, as I bid you an affectionate 
 farewell. 
 
YII. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE* 
 
 " And this I pkay, that your love may abound yet more and more in 
 
 KNOWLEDGE AND IN ALL JUDGMENT ; THAT YE MAY APPROVE THINGS THAT 
 ARE EXCELLENT." — PhUippians i. 9, 10. 
 
 These words of prayer express the best wishes of 
 the apostle for the pupils who had been under his train- 
 ing and care. They bring out in contrasted relief the 
 two comprehensive elements of the Christian life, — love 
 and knowledge. Love, the animating force, is kindled 
 and sustained by Christ and his promises. Knowledge 
 enlightens and directs man in his judgments concerning 
 the acts and illustrations of duty, and is capable of in- 
 definite refinement and culture. What is true of the 
 individual is true of the race. If Christianity is per- 
 manent and divine, it must be equal to all the possible 
 wants of man, in these two sides of man's nature. It 
 must go on to the end of time, kindling a new life of 
 feeling and spiritual force, and adapting itself to every 
 condition of human progress, in the most advanced de- 
 velopments of science and art. If Christianity cannot 
 do both these things, it is neither permanent nor divine. 
 If man or humanity shall ever outgrow the need or the 
 capacity for it in either or both of these applications, 
 Christianity must take its place among the religions of 
 the past. But if, on the other hand, its inspiring energy 
 
 * June 27, 1875. 
 142 
 
CnmSTIANITY AN ETHICAL FOECE. 143 
 
 and its capacity for growth shall be equal to all the de- 
 mands of the future, it will show itself to be the power 
 and the wisdom of God. 
 
 It is no secret that Christianity at the present time is 
 assailed at all points, and that, to all the assaults which 
 are made upon it, men of education and culture are 
 especially sensitive. It is assailed as a history and as a 
 speculation. It is assailed on the side of positive sci- 
 ence. It is also assailed as unequal to the new phases 
 of private and public life. But of all these forms of 
 assault, the subtlest and the most dangerous is that 
 which is made upon it as a practical system. As long 
 as Christianity can show itself to be the best and 
 strongest of all existing moral forces, and to be equal 
 to all the new demands of individual and social life, so 
 long will it stand. But so soon as the faith of men 
 shall be shaken in it as the best inspiration and guide 
 of human life, it raust suffer a temporary or a final 
 eclipse. In vietv of these assaults, I pro2:>ose to speak of 
 Christianity as an ethical or spiritual force in relation to 
 modern questionings arid objections, 
 
 1. It is charged that Christianity is a religion of 
 sentiment, and that sentiment is inconsistent with, or 
 hostile to, science. Science, we are told, now rules the 
 world, and sentiment must give way. Human life must 
 hereafter be regulated by strictly scientific principles, 
 and very soon no place will be left for Christian im- 
 pulses and maxims. To this we answer, Christianity is 
 not a religion of sentiment alone, but of sentiment 
 directed and enlightened by knowledge. Its compre- 
 hensive precept is, " Add to your faith virtue, and to 
 virtue knowledge." It expressly commands, "What- 
 soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
 etc., if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think 
 on these things." It calls itself the truth, and therein 
 
114 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 implies that its disciples should accept whatever is ap- 
 proved as true. It calls itself the light, and its dis- 
 ciples the children of light, and adds, " Whatsoever doth 
 make manifest is" to be welcomed as the "light." 
 
 But to this it would be replied, The light and knowl- 
 edge which Christianity recognizes are limited to but 
 few objects and lelations. Christianity professes to 
 despise the present life. It fixes the heart on the world 
 that is to be, and teaches men to mortify most of the 
 tastes and desires that relate to the world that now is. 
 Many obvious virtues it does not even recognize, much 
 less does it enforce them. John Stuart Mill asserts, 
 " While in the morality of the best pagan nations, duty 
 to the state holds even a disproportionate place, in 
 purely Christian ethics that grand department of duty 
 is scarcely noticed or acknowledged." The author of 
 "Christianity a Civilized Heathenism," finds in Chris- 
 tianity little more than a provision for the salvation of 
 the soul in the future life, and assumes that its spirit is 
 inconsistent with an active and zealous interest in civ- 
 ilization, science, or art. This treatise illustrates two 
 things : The writer's misunderstanding of the aim and 
 nature of Christianity, and the very narrow views of 
 the same which have been held by many of its profess- 
 ors and teachers. We are told still further, that Chris- 
 tianity commands us to help the unfortunate and needy, 
 while the new political economy teaches us that the weak 
 and ignorant must and ought inevitably to go to the 
 wall in the struggle for existence. Christianity prompts 
 us to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. 
 But the new science of humanity tells us that the chil- 
 dren and widows of parents who have not insured their 
 lives ought to suffer as a lesson and a warning against 
 improvidence. Everywhere the science of living is 
 organized on solid principles, the logical deductions from 
 
CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 145 
 
 which should be enforced with unsparing rigor. The 
 exceptions which are urged in the name of pity and love 
 are set aside with merciless assurance. It would seem, 
 that, when the new science of life shall have reached its 
 perfection, marriage will be no longer a matter of aifec> 
 tion, but of the coolest calculation — upon data which ally 
 us with the brutes, and chiefly respect our earthly life. 
 Education will become a rigid and impersonal process 
 of drilling, by means of the most approved educational 
 machinery. Weak and unpromising infants will be dis- 
 posed of as burdens to society. Feeble invalids, and 
 unprofitable old men and women, will be scientifically 
 and painlessly relieved of the life of which they and 
 their friends are weary. Last of all, the body which 
 offends the earth to which it is allied, is to be trans- 
 figured by fire, the most ethereal of agencies, in order 
 that science may triumph over death in its special 
 version of the song, ''O death, where is thy sting? O 
 grave, where is thy victory ? " 
 
 There are many other so-called scientific theories of 
 life which are greatly elevated ai)ove the earthly and 
 sensual system which we have sketched, — theories which 
 in some sort provide for the intellectual and the spirit- 
 ual in man, as truly as for the animal. But so far as 
 these theories emphasize the words of law, and leave out 
 of view the ends of law as found in the sentiments of 
 curiosity and wonder and trust, and refuse honor to that 
 knowledge of duty and of God which leads us on to a 
 manhood that is perfected in character and in joy, so 
 far they are unscientific and narrow, just for the reason 
 that they fail to regard the most important elements 
 in the science of man and of human life. 
 
 But what is the truth? Simply this: Christianity 
 d()es not profess to be in any sense a perfected science 
 of human conduct, nor indeed to be a science at all. 
 
146 FIFTEEN YEABS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 It does not provide one out of ten thousand of the ob- 
 vious rules for right living which we need daily and 
 hourly to apply. The absolute rules which it gives to 
 human conduct are such as are founded on those condi- 
 tions of humanity which can never change, or such as 
 serve as examples to illustrate a principle. The New 
 Testament is in no sense a rounded code of morals, 
 either rude or scientific. It kindles a new spirit, — it 
 wakens a living energy which is subtle enough to pene- 
 trate all possible human relations, and expansive enough 
 to animate every possible condition of human life, and 
 strong enough to subdue to itself the most refined and 
 artificial structures of human society. It enjoins the 
 comprehensive duty of love to all men, and it declares 
 that to love is to fulfil every conceivable law — which is 
 now accepted or may hereafter be discovered. By 
 teaching us to love all men, it directs us to do good to 
 all men as we have opportunity. But if we are to do 
 good to all men, we must knotv what is for their good. 
 If we are to knoiv^ we must learn; and as soon as we 
 begin to learn in the 'school of life, we begin to study 
 the science of human living and acting. As each gen- 
 eration makes new advances in the science of wise liv- 
 ing, Christianity takes up the results into its practical 
 creed, and enforces them by that living code of duty 
 which is ever making progress. Domestic economy and 
 domestic rules in their simpler forms are the rudiments 
 of our modern much-vaunted political science, which 
 rises into complexity as the family is developed into the 
 state. The precepts of good neighborhood which are 
 required between two adjoining hamlets, are matured in 
 the progress of ages into the maxims of sociology and 
 the principles of international law. The brief maxims 
 of barter and exchange which held good between Abra- 
 ham and the sons of Heth are in due time expanded 
 
CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 147 
 
 into the refined and complicated principles of political 
 economy. And yet as there is no point in this progress 
 where common sense ceases, and science begins, so there 
 is no point at which Christianity can be dispensed with. 
 No science of human life and duty can rush so rapidly 
 into being as to outrun Christianity. None can expand 
 so widely as not to be filled in the instant with the sub- 
 tle element of Christian love. Those conceptions of a 
 scientific human life which fail to include God and duty 
 can never be truly scientific, because they recognize but 
 a part of man's nature. They are false in conclusion, 
 because they are one-sided in their theory. The pre- 
 tence that they are not sentimental, is equally shallow. 
 By their own showing, they are steeped in sentimental- 
 ism. Their watch-cry is humanity and human progress. 
 It is in the name of humanity that their adherents justify 
 their principles. It is in the interest of human progress 
 that they enforce their rules. It is in firm faith that 
 human development moves onward that they propound 
 their unfeeling and cruel dogmas, that they enact their 
 solenni farces, and reiterate their inflated rhetoric. 
 John Stuart Mill committed himself in the beginning of 
 his career to the supreme guidance of what he accepted, 
 as science in the theory and practice of his life. All at 
 once he discovered that intellectual activity could not 
 satisfy him. He changed his theory and practice, and 
 cultivated the feelings for their own sake. He became a 
 sentimentalist ; and he ended his career by solemnly con- 
 tending that while there are no scientific grounds for 
 receiving theism which the intellect can recognize, yet 
 the theism of the imagination and the feelings should 
 be cultivated for its emotional value. As if it were not 
 the very essence of sentimentalism to feel by the help 
 of a counterfeit or a make-belief. So Mr. Tyndall at the 
 end of his address at Belfast, after forbidding his hear- 
 
148 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 ers, in tlie name of science, to accept what he would 
 call the theological notions of God and man, proceeds 
 to command them in the name of sentiment to feel as 
 though they were true. So the author of the " Cosmic 
 Philosophy," after demonstrating, as he thinks, that 
 science must remove the Creator farther and farther 
 from our knowledge, essays to bring peace to our hearts 
 by bidding us sing the song, " Nearer, my God, to thee." 
 2. It is urged that the Christian ideal of character 
 will be displaced in the progress of modern culture. 
 The Christian ideal, I need not say, is love to man that 
 is disinterested, sincere, and self-sacrificing. That this 
 love need not and ought not to be narrow or unintelli- 
 gent has already been shown ; but that it must be fer- 
 vent, constant, and supreme, is self-evident. That it is 
 pure and self-controlled, and righteous and just, need 
 not be said ; but that it is forbearing and kind and self- 
 sacrificing, our hearts never cease to testify. That this 
 conception was new to the world, is clear to the student 
 of history. Notwithstanding all the quotations that are 
 made from Oriental sages, which are supposed to match 
 or surpass the words of Christ, the living example of 
 Christ is confessedly original. It was not so much the 
 words which Christ uttered, as the being who spoke and 
 lived them, that brought to the human race this new 
 conception of what man should aim to attain, and might 
 hope to become. The Old Testament could only sug- 
 gest a rude sketch of the ideal, true enough as far as it 
 went, and fraught with hope and suggestion, but only 
 a sketch — here and there a line, and now and then a 
 color. Socrates had some longings for, and dim fore- 
 shadowings of, what this ideal might do for man's heart ; 
 but of its moral pathos he had no adequate conception, 
 or, rather, no conception at all. Marcus Aurelius sym- 
 pathized with its justice and its considerateness, and 
 
CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 149 
 
 had some presentiment of its pity for human frailty and 
 sorrow ; but it never entered his thoughts that a human 
 being could soberly propose to himself, and successfully 
 realize, the ideal of which Paul has sketched the salient 
 features. The Greek tragedy opened to man a momen- 
 tary gaze upon that human love that is stronger than 
 death; but the fervent and patient and long-suffering 
 moral affection that at this moment blesses ten thousand 
 Christian homes, and watches by thousands of sick-beds, 
 was strange to the purest and loftiest suggestions of its 
 imagination. The practical exigencies of life have sug- 
 gested to the sharp-sighted and benevolent teachers of 
 all nations many practical maxims of fairness and cour- 
 tesy and gracefulness and decorum ; but Christ alone 
 first introduced to men that ideal of love, whose looks 
 are heavenly, and whose movements are divine. We 
 contend that this characteristic sentiment of Christian- 
 ity can never be improved nor outgrown. There is no 
 conceivable exercise of human nature which is higher 
 than this. There is no imaginable condition of spiritual 
 being where the law of love is not a royal law. It is 
 recorded of one of the sweetest and most honest writers 
 of the present generation, who seemed to grope after 
 Christian truth to the end of his life without finding it, 
 " after standing long in silence together, gazing at the 
 silent stars, he v/ould turn from their oppressive mag- 
 nificence with such words as these ; ' Love must be 
 better than hate in all worlds.' " 
 
 This ideal is the loftiest and the most attractive that 
 can be framed by the imagination. There is nothing 
 higher that I can ask of God than that he should love 
 me, and pity me, and care for me, and comfort me. 
 There is nothing sweeter and more gratifying that I can 
 crave from my fellow-man. If the union of the Crea- 
 tor and the created blesses me with this sunshine of 
 
150 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 their love, and sustains me by their uplifting arms, my 
 blessedness is complete, if only I Teflect back their love 
 from my own loving heart. For the conduct of my life, 
 it would seem that nothing more is required than that I 
 manifest this love wisely, as I am instructed by expe- 
 rience, and refined by culture. How, then, can the 
 Christian ideal ever be abandoned or displaced ? What 
 evidence is there that this most precious gift to the 
 world is in danger of being lost? It can never for- 
 mally be displaced, except as men become so utterly de- 
 generate as to reject all thought of duty and goodness, 
 or so earthly and sordid as to glory in their shame. 
 It may, perhaps, be overlooked in the name of some 
 single moral force or virtue, even though this virtue 
 was born of Christian love, and has grown to strength 
 and beauty under its fostering influence. And this is 
 precisely the danger to which Christianity is exposed 
 from the culture of the times. There is no denying 
 that culture tempts to selfishness by science, by letters, 
 and by art. Culture, whether in science or art, is ne- 
 cessarily self-absorbed, and tends to self-occupation. It 
 may easily become selfish, even when prosecuted in the 
 name of love and duty, as life becomes more artificial, 
 and the demands of culture are more exacting. To be 
 useful to his fellow-men, the philosopher, the man of 
 letters, the scientist, and artist must concern themselves 
 each with his appropriate work. He must gain reputa- 
 tion, inasmuch as reputation is a great power for good 
 in his profession, his party, his church denomination, or 
 his university. To be eminently useful, he must dis- 
 tance all his competitors, that he may use the power of 
 his name in the service of man. Even moral culture 
 requires special self-occupation, and sometimes degen- 
 erates into artificial sentimentalism. Culture also brings 
 many dangers peculiar to itself. It creates new tastes 
 
. CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 151 
 
 which are over-refined by gratification into sinful excess. 
 By and by the Christian community which owes to the 
 self-sacrificing love of Christ-like men its well-ordered 
 state, its equal laws, its well-stocked libraries, its schools, 
 its colleges, its galleries, and its hospitals, is so occupied 
 with the fruits of the tree that it forgets the root from 
 which it is nourished. It even becomes ashamed of the 
 old-fashioned names of Christian goodness. It goes 
 back to Stoic ideals of perfection as better than the 
 love which seeks not her own, which is not puffed up, 
 and thinketh no evil. Men of letters gather their pri- 
 vate coteries, men of books set up their conventional 
 ideals. Marcus Aurelius displaces Jesus. Seneca is 
 preferred to Paul and John. The enthusiasm of Chris- 
 tian love is pronounced unworthy of a cool-headed critic, 
 a well-read philosopher, or a practised man of affairs. 
 The cross is retained, not as an inspiring symbol of liv- 
 ing sentiment, but of a sentimentalism that is past, or 
 that is tenderly remembered for its hallowed associa- 
 tions, or is coldly saluted with a civil but sneering 
 courtesy, the studied civility of which imperfectly con- 
 ceals its inward contempt. These phenomena are not 
 the products of a broad-minded study of man in his best 
 possibilities, but the signs of a deterioration in our moral 
 and spiritual life. They are neither produced nor de- 
 fended by men of the highest scientific spirit or the 
 most truly catholic literary culture. Would these mod- 
 ern " high-toned " Stoics who are too proud to be human, 
 or these dainty and over-refined Sybarites who are so 
 highly cultivated as to hold that taste is above duty, 
 and art is nobler than life, — would they but study the 
 charity of tlie New Testament, they would find that in 
 its adaj^tation to every condition of manhood, it " abid- 
 etli " forever. 
 
 3. It is urged that the special motives of Christianity 
 
152 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL, 
 
 are being rapidly displaced by the progress of science and 
 of culture. We contend that they are as much needed 
 and as powerful as ever. It is characteristic of these 
 forces that they are personal forces. As such they are 
 distinguished from the abstractions of the reflecting in- 
 tellect and the brilliant phantasms of the exalted imagina- 
 tion. Christianity enforces upon man's attention, not 
 alone the moral order of the universe, but the living God ; 
 not the conception of self-sacrificing love, but also the 
 pitying and loving Christ. It appeals to our loyalty to 
 the One, and our gratitude to the Other. It promises 
 to us an immortal life, and thus transfigures and elevates 
 our brief and uncertain mortal existence. These motives 
 are not abstractions, but personal forces, and as such are 
 addressed to man's heart and to his will, the very cen- 
 tre and spring of his personal and individual being. 
 Christianity is not a system of ethics, albeit with the 
 loftiest ideal and its unexhausted adaptations. Chris- 
 tianity is more than love to man, it is love to God, and 
 love to man for God. It is a religion that brings each 
 living man into personal relations with a personal God, 
 with his individual conscience and his own future life. 
 It is true this religion is none the less ethical for this 
 reason. It is ethical in its authority, and ethical in its 
 results. God does not command us by the right of the 
 strongest, or by the inscrutable mystery of his self-exist- 
 ence. Christ does not move us to mere emotion, which 
 may be diluted into a quiet or excited to a passionate 
 sentimentalism, but to feeling ennobled and invigorated 
 by duty. An immortality of selfishness and passion 
 would neither deserve nor kindle our hope or our grati- 
 tude. But while the authority, the excellence, and 
 the achievements of the gospel are only ethical, its 
 energy is emphatically personal. The necessity and 
 the power of this personal influence from heart to heart 
 
CURISriANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 153 
 
 and from God to man must continue forever, as long 
 as personal needs are higher than the intellectual, as 
 long as character is of more consequence than intellect- 
 ual prowess and refinement, and above all as long as 
 man is a creature and finite, and can find strength ajid 
 pride in loyal obedience to God, his rightful King, or 
 be moved to pity and forgiveness by having been himself 
 forgiven. 
 
 An age of culture is an age of abstractions and of 
 generalizations, an age of imagination and rhetoric. It 
 concerns itself with principles and laws. It constructs 
 theories of the universe, and theories of religion. It 
 strives to find thought in every thing, from the develop- 
 ment of the universe to the crystallized snow-flake 
 which melts as it falls. It is in constant danger of for- 
 getting that every thought requires a thinker, and every 
 theory in science or art leads to a personal God. This 
 natural order it inverts. It personifies its own abstrac- 
 tions, and then worships the work of its own hands. 
 Eacli one of the chosen tribes of culture brings its sepa- 
 rate piece of gold which he has wrought, to some emi- 
 nent high priest at the altar of intellectual idolatry ; and 
 when many are cast into the fire, there conies out one 
 or many golden calves, and the shout goes up for the 
 moment, "These be thy gods, O Israel!" Force — a 
 mere abstraction tliin enough to be mysterious, and 
 prismatic enough to reflect the part3^-colored hues of 
 a lively fancy — is worshipped as the unknown and 
 unknowable God, which is capable of indefinite trans- 
 formation into matter and spirit, but of no creation 
 for either. The methods and plan after which the 
 divine thinker acts, are exalted into a j^ersonified but 
 not a personal energy, called Evolution. Law is substi- 
 tuted for the law-giving and law-abiding God. The 
 abstractions of ethics are lifted higher than the one 
 
154 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Great Moral Person, or are thought to be sufficient with- 
 out him. The astronomer no sooner discovers a new 
 thought of God, than he thinks that he or his theory 
 made and controls the universe, and that it is the glory 
 of his system which the heavens declare, and his handi- 
 work which the starry firmament showeth forth. The 
 political philosopher, the historical theorist, the critic in 
 literature and art, each loses sight of the living God 
 in some favorite theory or law, or principle. When 
 Christianity comes into question, it is the Christian 
 temper and character which are recognized, and not the 
 personal Christ. It may be conceded that the belief in 
 Christ's person has established the Christian ideal in the 
 world's honor ; but now this ideal has been accepted, it 
 is of no sort of consequence what the man of science 
 thinks of Christ. To act w^th reference to Christ's 
 favor, is to act from a selfish or mercenary motive. To 
 fear God's displeasure, or to recognize him as capable of 
 displeasure, is to suffer a loss of self-respect. What mat- 
 ter is it how I feel toward a personal God, or whether 
 I recognize God at all, if I only aim at rectitude and 
 holiness? It is better and nobler to do right for its 
 own sake than out of respect to the will or favor of God. 
 As to immortality, and the hopes or fears which another 
 life awakens, it is doubtful whether such a life is con- 
 ceivable, or is consistent with the greatness of the uni- 
 verse and the littleness of man. The only worthy 
 position which a wide-minded man can take, is not to 
 care for it, and to be above all concern in respect to it. 
 Indeed, he may even question whether a continued 
 existence would be worth accepting, even if it were 
 offered. It is perhaps better, when the time of our 
 departure is at hand, to say, " I have fought the good 
 fight, and am to pass into a dreamless sleep : henceforth 
 my existence shall be in the thoughts which I have 
 
CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 165 
 
 evolved, and the impulses which I have imparted, and 
 the imaginative creations which I liave given to the 
 coming generations." This is the so-called Religion 
 of Humanity, the only religion deemed worthy of a 
 scholar, — the very statement of which reveals its empti- 
 ness, humanity being nothing but an abstract term 
 for the common needs and hopes and fears of many 
 individual souls. And it is this abstraction which a 
 dexterous word-player passes off for the God whom 
 every human being cries after as an infant in the night 
 with plaintive moaning, and knows not for what or why ; 
 or as lost men at sea shout for help when in mist and 
 darkness a spectral ship moves by, and returns no an- 
 swer to their cry ; or as a crazed lover looks out wist- 
 fully and longingly day after day for her dead betrothed 
 to return. We know that a religion without a personal 
 force cannot satisfy, because we know that man cannot 
 be or make a god to himself without being in the end 
 a self-worshipper; and the worship of self is the most 
 unsatisfying, and often the most degrading, of all wor- 
 ship. The worship of the abstractions of speculation 
 b}'" the scientist, and of the personifications of the imagi- 
 nation by the literary critic, is in the last analysis a kind 
 of fetichism. It cannot last, because it neither satisfies 
 the intellect nor fills the heart. Science, if true to itself, 
 must come back to a personal God as the best solution 
 of a universe in which there is objective thought. Lit- 
 erature must acknowledge that Christ and an immortal 
 life furnish the noblest and the most sustained inspira- 
 tion. The peculiar personal influences of Christianity 
 are necessary as a counterpoise against the temptations 
 which are incident to modern life. Wealth was never 
 more attractive and tempting than now. Luxury was 
 never so various and refined in its ministrations and appli- 
 ances. Genius for science, art, or letters was never so 
 
166 FIFTEEN YE A IIS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 potent over cultivated minds. In short, man. as an indi- 
 vidual and in organized masses was never so strongly- 
 tempted to worship himself, and to deny his Creator, to 
 rely upon the inspiration of his own being, whether 
 scientific, imaginative, or ethical, and to dispense with 
 the Christ of whom it has been said — and it is true — 
 that before him every knee shall bow. No influence 
 short of the living God and the redeeming Son of God 
 can possibly hold an individual or a generation against 
 the inrushing tide of these insidious influences. 
 
 4. It follows that Christianity can demonstrate its 
 practical power by being applied in the lives of living 
 men. As the gospel acts by means of personal agencies, 
 so it requires living believers tlirough whom it may 
 manifest its power. First, love should be stimulated 
 and sustained as never before. The impelling force 
 that is created by faith in the loving God and the re- 
 deeming Christ should be more simple, more fervent, 
 and more controlling. A divided faith and feeble love 
 cannot live, in these days of pretentious atheism and 
 confident unbelief. The thinker who believes in God 
 and in Christ at all must believe with simplicity and 
 ardor. Every man who is a man must take the one 
 side or the other. If the universe is so vast as it is now 
 known to be, and if it is so full of thought in its plan, 
 and so long in its history, then its ruling originator is 
 worthy of our most reverent worship and our loyal ser- 
 vice. If man is not overlooked in this universe, but has 
 been visited by the pitying Christ, then the soul that 
 is refined by culture, and made generous and noble by 
 modern life, owes the tenderest and most constant grati- 
 tude to the Saviour and King of his redeemed race. If 
 the moral purposes of God are more and more clearly- 
 manifest, than ever to the instructed and sensitive Chris- 
 tian scholar, then his consecration to the kingdom of 
 
CHRISTIANITY AN ETHICAL FORCE. 157 
 
 God should be more fervent and active than was possi- 
 ble even in the fresh revelations of the apostolic age. 
 
 At the same time, his love should abound in knowl- 
 edge and all judgment as never before. He should learn 
 to approve the things which are excellent, — whether of 
 science, of literature, of art, of manners, of culture in 
 all its forms ; and, when he approves them, he should 
 make them his own as far as he may. Man does not 
 live by bread alone, but by all the institutions which 
 are the atmosphere for his growth and well-being, — by 
 the family, the neighborhood, the state, the church, the 
 school, the college, the profession or business he follows, 
 b}^ books, by newspapers, and by all the principles and 
 truths with which science instructs him and culture 
 refines him, and the appliances by which modern life can 
 minister to his usefulness and his enjoyment. If Chris- 
 tianity is from God, all these things should be known and 
 approved and mastered by every believer, and become 
 instruments of power in his hands, or robes and orna- 
 ments of beauty and grace for his wearing. To narrow 
 the sphere of Christian feeling and effort to mere con- 
 version and church-going, to Christian Associations and 
 prayer-meetings, and to fail to apply it to the manifold 
 and magnificent developments of public and private life, 
 is pitiably and contemptibly to narrow and dishonor our 
 conception of the kingdom of God. To teach or to hold 
 that a Christian artisan or merchant or farmer can dis- 
 charge his obligations to his master or his generation in 
 manifest ignorance or sordid disdain of what science 
 and the arts are doing for man, — above all, to teach 
 that a Christian scholar, or a scholar with Christian 
 aspirations, may use these modern appliances solely or 
 chiefly as instruments for a selfish ambition, — is to be 
 untrue to the first principles of the gospel of Christ. If 
 the Church and believing men do not concern them- 
 
158 FIFTEEN YEARS IX YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 selves, in such a country as this, and at such a clay as 
 this, with the problems of political and social life ; if 
 they are not examples and defenders of sound principles 
 in finance, in banking, in trade, in political nominations 
 and elections, in legislation of every kind, especially 
 upon matters relating to public health and to public 
 and private morality, in public spirit, in the endowment 
 and sustentation of all the institutions of education and 
 culture, in the administration and the rebuke of that 
 wonderful agency for good and evil — modern journal- 
 ism — in the formation of a just and efficient public sen- 
 timent, in the rebuke of immorality when it is exposed, 
 in the defence of character when wantonly assailed, in 
 short, in the Christianization of this our modern artifi- 
 cial life, — then an unchristian and atheistic philosophy 
 will enter in and take possession of these agencies, and, 
 in corrupting them, will poison the common atmospliere 
 which all men breathe. 
 
 We would not have the Church or the pulpit be a whit 
 less fervent in its worship, or less spiritual in its utter- 
 ances and its appeals, but we would have it arouse every 
 man to study the art of Christian living as it is made 
 possible by the developments of modern culture and 
 modern intelligence. What might not happen if, with 
 the reviving sense of spiritual realities for which we 
 pray, there were a reviving of Cln^istian morality in 
 the larger sense of the word, and all Christian believers 
 should show, as many do, how manifold and excellent 
 are the ways of Christian living and influence which 
 now are possible which were never possible before? If 
 these beautiful and enlightened moralities that are now 
 seen to be so desirable and so practicable were univer- 
 sally assumed in the Christian Church, and sought for 
 with fervent and unflagging zeal under the inspiration 
 of revived faith in the living God as manifest in Christ, 
 
CHRIsriANITV AN ETHICAL FORCE. 159 
 
 the voice would speedily be heard in all the cities and 
 villages of Christendom, " Beliold, the tabernacle of 
 God is with men, and he Avill dwell with them, and 
 they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
 them, and be their God." In the deserts of heathenism 
 also the cry would everywhere be sounded, "Prepare 
 ye the Avay of the Lord ; make straight a highway for 
 our God." 
 
 These considerations appeal Avith special force to the 
 minds of educated men, — especially to educated young 
 men. They are forced to know something of modern 
 doubt and unbelief, — to confer with those questionings 
 which disturb so many minds, and darken so many hearts. 
 They are familiar with the achievements and promises 
 of science in all its forms, and are sensitively alive to 
 the refinements of culture, literature, and art. They 
 know how blest and exalted a condition it is to believe 
 in God and in Christ, for they can best measure the 
 greatness of God and the condescension of Christ by 
 the vastness of the universe and the insignificance of 
 man. They are instructed, by reading and thought, to 
 do justice to the permanence and authority of moral 
 law. They learn from history that the dominion of 
 God is an everlasting dominion. They see in literature 
 the brightness and strength of goodness, and the black- 
 ness and weakness of sin, as also the permanence and 
 value of character in comparison with all other earthly 
 acquisitions. Their sagacious minds and cultivated 
 tastes enable them to approve the things that are excel- 
 lent in a consistent and attractive Christian life. They 
 go forth to occupy places of influence and power at a 
 time when ideas, earnestly and eloquently — or falsely 
 and plausibly — set forth, rule the world. They go forth 
 at an exciting, if not a critical, period of the world's 
 history, when positions are taken, opinions are formed, 
 
IGO FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 and great interests triumph and fall with a rapidity 
 which has never been equalled in other times. In one 
 aspect it would seem that an individual was never so 
 insignificant as now, so sweeping are the rapid currents 
 of our public life. In another aspect it would seem 
 that the humblest thought and the weakest aspiration 
 of every earnest soul cannot fail to be more quickly and 
 widely felt than ever before. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — I com- 
 mend these considerations to you, as you go forth to 
 the responsibilities of public life. Most of these prin- 
 ciples are familiar to your minds. They have been in- 
 culcated in your class-rooms and from this pulpit. You 
 have been taught that the truths of Christianity are so 
 far from being inconsistent with scientific truth, that 
 they confirm it, and are confirmed by it ; and that the 
 practical princip)les of Christianity are broad and stable 
 enough to support any superstructure of individual or 
 public life, however elaborate and stately, while its 
 refining influences cannot fail to clothe that edifice 
 with ever-growing grace and beauty. You have learned, 
 by precept at least, if not by example, that ardent de- 
 votion to the kingdom of God rather favors than re- 
 presses a generous culture and refined tastes, and that 
 the consisted ^t and fervent Christian scholar is in no way 
 disqualified for the most fearless allegiance to science, 
 or the most successful culture of letters. You have felt 
 that the controlling spirit of zeal for science and cul- 
 ture, in theory at least, is the spirit of Christian faith 
 and love and progressive enlightenment. 
 
 Standing where you for a moment now stand, view- 
 ing your college life in its relations to God and duty 
 and the immortal life, and casting one lingering and 
 tender look upon its opportunities, now gone by, it 
 
CnmSTIANlTY AJS ETHICAL FORCE. 161 
 
 may be that you regret that your own faith in God, and 
 devotion to duty, have not been more fervent and pro- 
 gressive. Simikir regrets and wishes will often come to 
 you. As you shall be called to grapple more earnestly 
 with the realities of life, we believe that with many of 
 you these remembered impressions will bring forth fruit. 
 We are often cheered, in our labors of routine and dis- 
 couragement, as we learn from so many of the graduates 
 who return or report themselves at the old college home, 
 that the lessons concerning character which were here 
 imparted have been remembered in those times of ear- 
 nest and sober thought which are sure to overtake every 
 man, sooner or later, in the battle of life. We urge you 
 to cherish these remembrances. Hold fast to them in 
 the hour of temptation. Have faith in their truth, and 
 yield your hearts to their power. 
 
 You ffo forth into life at a time when the rushino^ cur- 
 rent of modern life threatens to take every man from 
 his feet whose feet do not stand upon duty, and whose 
 hands are not stretched forth toward God. The re- 
 wards of earthly ambition were never so tempting as 
 now, it is true, and it is also true that they were never 
 more uncertain and disappointing. Wealth may be 
 gained by some, rapidly and easily ; and wealth may be 
 lost also, singularly and suddenly as never before. 
 Power and influence may be achieved ; but, unless they 
 are that enduring power and influence which come from 
 upright purposes and self-denying love, they will, in these 
 days of the unsparing scrutiny of public men, be an un- 
 certain trust. To one ambition, there is a certain prize, 
 — the ambition to follow Christ in unselfish love, and to 
 manifest that love in an enlightened and cultured Chris- 
 tian life. Culture may be achieved, and literature and 
 art may be enjoyed ; but if the soul is only refined in 
 its tastes, and is not refined in its conscience and in its 
 
162 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 affections toward God and man, the very refinement of 
 its manners, its social enjoyments, its artistic tastes, and 
 its literary appliances will make it a more empty and 
 unsatisfactory thing to live, and a more dreadful thing 
 to die. But to the cultured soul that is also loving to 
 man, and humble and trustful to God, the future life is 
 brighter in proportion to the refinement of its tastes 
 and the reach of its imagination. 
 
 The university-men of our countr}^ are now appealed 
 to as never before to show a noble and more intelligent 
 public spirit, to make and enforce a more efficient pub- 
 lic sentiment for honor and truth, and generosity and 
 courage, in all the departments of public life. They 
 are entreated to unite as a sacred band for the eleva- 
 tion, and, it may be, for the salvation, of this land. The 
 call is loud and earnest. We exhort you to respond to 
 it in the noblest way conceivable. We exhort you, 
 while standing in this sacred place, and moved by these 
 remembrances and aspirations, to pledge your energies 
 and your zeal to an enlightened and unselfish Christian 
 life. What can I wish for you that is better ? What 
 can I pray for you more earnestly than that " your love 
 may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in 
 all judgment, that you may approve things that are 
 excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence 
 till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of 
 righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory 
 and praise of God"? With these wishes and this 
 prayer, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
VIII. 
 THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN* 
 
 " That ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit 
 SHOULD remain."— t/bAw x». iff. 
 
 The times in which we are living are eminently un- 
 certain and depressing, especially to those who are 
 forming their plans for life. Fifteen years ago, and the 
 country was startled by the first shock of civil war. 
 For four years or more the hitherto stable structure of 
 our government was heaving to and fro as in the vibra- 
 tions of an earthquake. Then ensued a season of un- 
 natural financial and speculative excitement, with 
 feverish expectations of wealth, and sanguine dreams of 
 easy success at little cost or by dishonest devices. Then 
 came an ominous stagnation, followed by the crash after 
 crash of gigantic accumulations. Enormous assets now 
 shrink into nothing, or are transformed into heavy 
 burdens. Promising enterprises disappoint the confi- 
 dence of sanguine or deluded investors. Two desolat- 
 ing fires consume the centres of two most solid and most 
 enterprising representative cities. Stupendous frauds 
 begin to be exposed. The characters of men hitherto 
 held to be of the purest and holiest, are assailed, whether 
 rightly or wrongly is of little consequence ; for faith in 
 man is perceptibly dying out of the community, and in 
 the same proportion faith in goodness, and faith in God. 
 
 * June 25, 1S76. 
 
 163 
 
164 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 The uncertainty and distrust thus begun in commercial 
 and political and social circles still continue. Even 
 the faith of men in the laws of trade seems almost to 
 fail them as season after season disappoints their hopes. 
 The grinding processes of adjustment are still going on, 
 and, it would seem, will not cease till the masses of accu- 
 mulated capital are broken into atoms. The faith of 
 men in moral law which ought to increase under this 
 discipline, seems rather to be disturbed by a morbid 
 sympathy with the uncertainties of trade, of politics, 
 and of public confidence. Science even is infected with 
 a spirit of romancing. It bewilders its own votaries 
 with extravagant and contradictory theories induced by 
 the richness of its revelations, and the excitements of 
 its brilliant discoveries. It more than whispers that the 
 immortality to which men might turn with hope, in 
 their experiences of change and disappointment, is a 
 grave uncertainty. And, to complete this mockery of 
 our woe, philosophy confidently tells us that the uni- 
 verse in its present condition is uncertain, and borne 
 forward upon mighty waves of tendency, of which we 
 know only that they exist, and must displace man and 
 his interests by other forms of being, swallowing in 
 their movements our contemptible individual existence, 
 and hopes and fears. To complete the climax, we are 
 as positively assured that God himself is so enveloped 
 with clouds of uncertainty that the only certain thing 
 of him that we know is that nothing can be certainly 
 known. 
 
 In one view, this outlook of uncertainty is not very 
 hopeful to a young man who stands at the threshold of 
 life. On the one hand he is tempted to depression or 
 despair, on the other to recklessness of faith and honor 
 and duty. There is danger that some will snatch at the 
 prizes that are nearest and most positive in despair of any 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 1G5 
 
 other, as men at a fire or in an eartliquake or in ship- 
 wreck will forget their manhood in the insane excite- 
 ment of despair. Some of you will think that this 
 picture is overdrawn. I cannot but think that there is 
 some truth in its portraiture of the feelings with which 
 thoughtful young men are now looking out upon life. 
 
 Let me remind you that the times were any thing but 
 hopeful when Christ uttered the words of our text. 
 Surely, there were never so many, and never such ex- 
 treme, paradoxes of fact and of promise as are presented 
 in Christ's condition, and the pledges he made to his 
 disciples. He was to leave them alone in a desperate 
 struggle with powerful foes, and yet by being left alone 
 they would gain strength and victory. He was himself 
 to die ; but it was only by dying, that, as a seed falls 
 into the ground, he should bring forth fruit. He was 
 to die upon the cross, but it was only from the cross 
 that he could ascend to the throne of power in his 
 kingdom. His trembling disciples feared that in a few 
 days they should be scattered, and their work destroyed ; 
 but he assures them that he sends them forth, and 
 that they alone should bring forth fruit, and that their 
 fruit should remain. 
 
 What Christ said in these words, is true of every 
 young man who is going forth into life. If he goes 
 forth in Christ's service, he is certain to bring forth 
 fruit, and this fruit shall remain. My theme is success in 
 life:, not in the general sense, such as is true of all men, 
 but in the special sense in which it is true of an edu- 
 cated Christian man. I shall consider (1) the condi- 
 tions, and (2) the character, of this success. 
 
 1. What are the conditions of a successful life, or 
 who are those whom Christ sends forth to bring forth 
 fruit? The first condition is a just and hearty accej^t- 
 ance of the Christian ideal of character. The faith in 
 
166 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Christ wliicli constitutes a disciple has two sides, — the 
 ethical and the personal. From the one side, a man be- 
 lieves in Christ's spirit, and delights in his example. 
 From the other, he loves and trusts in Christ as a per- 
 son. Normally the one involves the other, but the eth- 
 ical comes first to our notice. It is certain that Christ 
 came into the world manifesting a peculiar spirit, and 
 living a peculiar life. The world at first did not even 
 understand this life, and it has learned very slowly to 
 believe in it. It is true now as it was then, if a man 
 have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Christ 
 pleased not himself, and Christ himself declared that 
 the disciple is not above his master. And yet the eth- 
 ical side of Christian discipleship approves itself to the 
 consciences of all men. The thinker and the student 
 can easily appreciate its worth and authority, and hence 
 to such a man it is the fundamental condition of Chris- 
 tian success. No stiff dogmatism of theologic ortho- 
 doxy, no partisan zeal for the formulas of this or that 
 metaphysical school, no confident or passionate trust in 
 Christ's death, can take the place of a living faith in his 
 temper and life. No ecstatic worship of Christ, as a 
 divine person, can be set off against the neglect of 
 Christ as the ideal of human perfection. Some who 
 reject Christ as an object of personal trust, fervently 
 accept Christ as their ideal of goodness. When George 
 Eliot makes her heroine say " that by desiring what is 
 perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it 
 is, or cannot do what we would, we are part of the 
 divine power against evil, — widening the skirts of 
 light, and making the struggle with darkness narrower ;'* 
 and again, " I try not to have desires merely for myself, 
 because they may not be good for others, and I have too 
 much already," — we have a fine example of the power 
 of this life to command and move the human heart, and 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 167 
 
 of the progress it has made in the circles of what is 
 sometimes called negative faith. We can far more 
 easily conceive that a person should withhold faith in 
 Christ's person, provided he is baptized with Christ's 
 Spirit, and yet be a true disciple, than that he should 
 withhold faith in Christ's Spirit. No dishonor can possi- 
 bly be so great to the name and cause of Christ as the 
 Pharisaic trust in the mere forms of worship, or the li- 
 centious reliance on his death with an open denial of 
 his Spirit which is expressed by many wliose lives are 
 any thing but Christ-like. So far as Christian fruit- 
 fulness is concerned, it cannot possibly consist with a 
 low or feeble appreciation of the Master's example. 
 The plant, with a scanty nourishment, may put forth 
 feeble buds and starveling leaves, but it must be trans- 
 planted into a better soil before it can bring forth any 
 fruit that shall remain. At this very moment, the 
 most fatal blight upon the fruitfulness of the Christian 
 Church is the low and pitiful estimate which it puts 
 upon its Master's spirit. 
 
 2. The next condition of permanent fruit from life is 
 intelligence in the exemplification of the Christian 
 ideal. To consent to Christ as the inspiration of our 
 living, is not enough : we must learn how to realize that 
 ideal under the practicable and prosaic conditions of 
 every-day life. The Son of man came eating and drink- 
 ing, the friend of publicans and sinners. Though he 
 lived as no other man ever lived in the transcendent 
 purity and unspotted blamelessness of his spirit, he fre- 
 quented the scenes of public and domestic activity, 
 gathering the dust and the dew from the highways and 
 byways of common life, being present at* feasts, and in 
 the synagogues by day, and at night always resting 
 in the quiet circle of modest friends, or in some lonely 
 retreat for prayer and resolve. So should it be with liis 
 
168 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 disciples if they would be like their Master. So must 
 it be with any man who proposes that his life should be 
 fruitful for his fellow-men. He must not only accept 
 the ideal Christ with his heart, but he must use his in- 
 tellect to make Christ practical. It is not the abstract 
 Christian which the world waits for or cares for, but it 
 is the Christian in the concrete and the detail, — the 
 Christian parent and the Christian child, the Christian 
 neighbor and the Christian friend, the Christian teacher 
 and the Christian pupil, the Christian buyer and the 
 Christian seller, the Christian magistrate and the Chris- 
 tian citizen, and all these together living and organized 
 as the Christian Commonwealth and the Christian 
 Church, by the intelligent and fearless applications of 
 Christian principles and Christian ideals to the varied 
 conditions of human society. Such applications require 
 intelligence to discern between what is possible and 
 what is simply quixotic ; experience that is slow to 
 observe, and willing to be taught by fact and experi- 
 ments ; common sense that is not disgusted with its 
 ideals, because they can only partially be realized under 
 human limitations ; and patience that has an indomitable 
 faith in the correcting and redeeming power of time. 
 The world has had its fair share of Christian romancing, 
 since the amiable dreams of that band of children who 
 went forth to sickening disappointment and death, in 
 imitation of the fanatical madness of crusading kings 
 and knights, down to the thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands now living, who waste their energies, and squan- 
 der their fortunes, and dream out their lives, in some 
 quixotic enterprise, or some romantic theory of the 
 kingdom of God, unmindful of the simple words of the 
 Master, " Lo, the kingdom of God is witliin you," and 
 the like ; or the injunction, " Whatsoever things are true, 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 
THE FRUIT TUAT SHALL REMAIN. 1C9 
 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good, report; if there 
 be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
 things : " " Be not children in understanding, but in 
 understanding he ye menS^ 
 
 3. The practical wisdom which studies the relations 
 of means to ends will not overlook the duty of attrac- 
 tiveness in the manifestations of the inner life. The 
 capacity for culture distinguishes tlie man from the 
 brute. Whatever feeble analogy modern theorists ad- 
 duce under their unnatural desire to dehumanize their 
 species, only serves to make the difterences in man more 
 conspicuous. Culture is not immoral nor anti-Christian 
 because it attained so finished a comj)leteness in Grecian 
 art and letters without the inspiration of the Christian 
 ideal of duty and self-sacrifice and hope. From what- 
 soever source man has received either the impulse or 
 the realization, culture in all the forms of art and let- 
 ters and manners is a divine gift, and cannot be disre- 
 garded by the man who would serve Christ in his 
 generation. The hermit and the ascetic, squalid and 
 beggarly, filthy and lazy, envious of human refinement, 
 and malignant toward culture and grace, are simply nui- 
 sances in the kingdom of God. The Christian disciple 
 who is constrained by the severities of duty to dispense 
 with beauty and grace, knows not what spirit he is of. 
 He forgets that Christ, by his condescending pity, has 
 introduced into art forms of grace, and expressions of 
 feeling, unknown to the world before, and into literature 
 characters and scenes of which classic pathos and sym- 
 pathy never dreamed, and into manners a delicacy and 
 tenderness, a refinement and modesty, a courtesy and 
 reserve, a self-respect and self-abnegation, which, like a 
 robe of delicate texture, never cease to give an exqui- 
 site refinement to all the aspects of modern life. It is 
 
170 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 only the rude and untaught novice in the kingdom of 
 God who will despise culture in art, in literature, or in 
 life. He who has most of the spirit of his Master, and is 
 best instructed in the things of his kingdom, will value 
 its beauty and grace ; for he is quick to discern, that, as 
 the haze in the landscape which enhances each form of 
 grace and each tint of beauty is itself transformed by 
 the sun from earth-born vapor, so the best of human 
 culture is perpetually renewed by that Sun of righteous- 
 ness who is constantly rising upon Christendom with 
 healing in his wings. 
 
 4. Energy is another condition of fruitful disciple- 
 ship. The Christian ideal may be accepted, the means 
 of making it real may be understood, refinement of 
 culture may lend its grace, and yet, if energy and zeal 
 are wanting, there will be little fruit. The man's own 
 soul may be safe, but the world will be little better for 
 his having lived in it. What energy and enthusiasm 
 are, we all understand. It is the spirit which brings a 
 man with alacrity to the* post of need and of work, 
 which shakes off indolence, which never looks around 
 for pretexts, or invents excuses, which always is ready 
 to lend a helping hand. In the Christian life, it stands 
 strongly and uncompromisingly upon its characteristic 
 principles ; it is never ashamed of the Christian name ; 
 it accepts, and is never afraid of, the logic of duty and 
 sacrifice ; it is unwearied and always abounding in 
 Christian work ; among the faithless, it is always faith- 
 ful. The man with this spirit is always fresh for his 
 work because his heart is always in it, and he accepts 
 the condition that his work is always to be renewed. 
 
 5. But such energy only comes of the next condition 
 of success, and that is faith in Christ's person. The 
 spring of the Christian life is in the living Christ. The 
 source from which Christianity renews its energy is 
 
TEE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 171 
 
 Christ believed and loved as a friend and Saviour. He 
 whom Christ sends forth must believe in a present 
 Christ, not in a symbolic ideal which has gathered 
 around some vague and unreal myth or romance of 
 history, but in a person who becomes more real, more 
 wonderful, more worthy of love and trust, the more the 
 man lives for him, and seeks to serve him. What it is 
 thus to believe in Christ, each one must learn for him- 
 self; but every man who does learn it, finds in Christ 
 the spring and secret of a life that is ever new. This 
 it is which transforms admiration of the Christian ideal 
 of which we have spoken, into the consecration of per- 
 sonal devotion. This is that which makes Christian 
 sagacity a noble virtue, and Christian culture a loving 
 service, and Christian energy a fervent consecration. 
 
 These are the conditions of a fruitful Christian life. 
 Let me repeat them : The acceptance of the Christian 
 ideal of manhood, sagacity and practical wisdom in 
 applying it, culture in exemplifying it, energy in living 
 it, and all because there is personal devotion to Christ, 
 as worthy of love and trust. I repeat these conditions 
 because one or more is lost sight of in our modern 
 theories and modern practice, and because the Christian 
 student has the advantage in being able to discriminate 
 them. 
 
 Let us next consider the fruit which will remain 
 from a life described. 
 
 1. Such a man will have permanent fruit in himself^ 
 for first of all he will have the joy of a rational and 
 permanent faith. "I envy," says Sir Humphry Davy, 
 ''no quality of the mind or intellect in others, — not 
 genius, power, wit, or fancy, — but if I could choose 
 what would be most delightful, and I l)elieve most use- 
 ful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every 
 other blessing." In one sense, faith is the essential con- 
 
172 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 dition of tlie Christian's life. In another it is its own 
 exceeding great reward. There is no so great a bless- 
 ing to a man as to have some cause which he thoroughly 
 believes in and honors, or some person whom he thor- 
 oughly admires, and is willing to die for. Such a faith 
 gives the joy of fixed conviction and chivalrous fidelity. 
 It is this which makes personal prejudices respectable, 
 party spirit noble, and religious bigotry worthy of honor. 
 The man who distrusts old truths, forsakes old friends, 
 and abandons old beliefs, because they are old, is a con- 
 ceited believer in himself, and sooner or later will find 
 out that his idol is hollow, and his worship unsatisfying. 
 There is no sign of our times more alarming than the 
 hollow conceit which has taken possession of those who 
 would be leaders of scientific and religious thinking, 
 the low value set upon certainty and conviction, and 
 the gaping credulity with which they accept the slight- 
 est suggestion of something new. The science of 
 Christ requires faith, and it rewards with faith. The 
 faith which it exacts is the reasonable confidence which 
 tests allegiance : the faith with which it rewards is the 
 satisfaction that attends those convictions which can 
 only come from actual trial. It is such satisfaction as 
 parents have who have trusted their children, and chil- 
 dren have who have trusted their parents ; such satis- 
 faction as old friends find in one another, and wise 
 readers draw from favorite books, and practised men 
 ^ain in a worthy calling. To doubt of men and to 
 doubt of a cause is sometimes necessary, for much of life 
 is a strife and a labor ; but to doubt never gives rest or 
 reward, and that whicli gives zest to critical inquiry is 
 the assurance of stronger conviction at the end. The 
 Christian is always putting his Master to the proof, and 
 always finding him true to liis word. 
 
 Courage also comes as the permanent fruit of the 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 173 
 
 Christian life. Courage, as Emerson wisely affirms, is 
 the having done a thing before. Tlie Christian who lias 
 bravely fought the first battle of self-consecration and 
 self-sacrifice, has, in a sense, fought all that are to follow. 
 The man who has intelligently and heartily accepted 
 the spirit of discipleship, has nothing new to fear. He 
 who has conquered himself, has conquered the world. 
 He has looked every struggle and every trial boldly in 
 the face. He who holds himself ready in spirit to do 
 and suffer his Master's will, has anticipated all the bat- 
 tles of life, and turned every one into a victory. Cour- 
 age to the Christian life also means hope, — not the 
 hope of romantic dreams, or insane speculation, or des- 
 perate chances of success, but the hope that springs out 
 of the achieved experiences of the past. 
 
 Intellectual excitement and growth is another pe^-ma- 
 nent fruit of Christian service. I do not assert that 
 this fruit is always gathered from the tree of life, but I 
 do assert that it might and ought to be. I do not 
 assert that intellectual products will grow spontaneously 
 without labor, as the fruit of prayer and right purposes. 
 As there is no sanction for intellectual laziness in the 
 kingdom of the Master, there are no promises of intel- 
 lectual power without intellectual effort. But, on the 
 other hand, as the truths of faith demand the most ear- 
 nest thinking; as the principles of Christian duty are 
 ever involving new and difficult solutions , as Christian 
 literature and art and manners are ever presenting new 
 excitements ; as every man's personal trials and strug- 
 gles necessarily task him to new reflection ; and as com- 
 munion with God, and discipleship to Christ, summon 
 the mind to fresh activities, — it follows that a fresh 
 and earnest and independent Christian life cannot be 
 prosecuted without the vigorous exercise of intellectual 
 power, and cannot be achieved without a vigorous intel- 
 
174 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 lectual growth. I know that this doctrine is not uni- 
 versally received. There are very high and very mean 
 authorities who teach that intellectual dependence and 
 laziness are indications of humility and contentment ; 
 but the doctrine should be counted as one of the most 
 ignoble and transparent of fallacies, at least with every 
 man trained in a Christian university. 
 
 2. We ask what will the world do for such a man? 
 What fruit will he find among his fellow-men that is 
 worth gathering ? We answer, First of all, the fruit of 
 s his love and usefulness. Whatever the world denies a 
 man, it cannot deny him the capacity to bless it with 
 his love, and to impart some fruit of active goodness. 
 Even if the world does no more for him than to give 
 him a place in which to suffer and die, it cannot refuse 
 to be moved by the example of his patient submission, 
 and his love that is stronger than death. Hard and self- 
 ish and ungrateful as the world is said to be, it never 
 refuses a genial soil to a seed of goodness like this. 
 Such seed always sprouts and bears fruit long after the 
 man who has sown it is forgotten. The chance word of 
 kindness, the cheap smile of sympathy, the helping hand 
 to the weary and forlorn, the patient goodness of suffer- 
 ing parent or brother or sister or child, sown in weak- 
 ness, and forgotten by the sower, has often been raised 
 in power in this life in the inspiration of some great 
 character at the turning-point in some great crisis, with 
 the gratitude of a nation or of the race. Usefulness in 
 life is not measured by what men talk of, and record. 
 What seems to be the widow's mite, or the orphan's 
 blessing, is not merely accepted as a wish and purpose. 
 It becomes an actual power in the energetic forces that 
 tell most in human affairs. It is a wise philosophy 
 which advises, " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the 
 evening withhold not thine hand ; for thou knowest not 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 175 
 
 whether shall prosper, either this or that." Men of our 
 day propose a career, and adore success, aud scorn to fail. 
 It is ignoble and unmanly not to do all these ; but it 
 does not require a Christian philosophy to teach us that 
 what men call success and. a career is not always a test 
 of merit ; and that, in the scrambles and jostlings of life, 
 there are sometimes greater dignity and higher manhood 
 and keener satisfaction in defeat than in triumph ; and 
 that the man who loses every tiling, because he will save 
 his honor and his conscience, is the man who wins for 
 himself, and blesses the world. Tlie greater the loss, 
 sometimes the greater the gain. The shorter the life, 
 the longer the influence. Myriads of men and women, 
 nay, of children, who have lived in obscure villages and 
 remote hamlets, have iu one way and another been great 
 powers in the world. 
 
 But what shall v\^e get from the world ? Shall we 
 always give, and never receive ? Is all this a matter of 
 chance and accident? or, if every thing in life is seen to 
 be a matter of law and necessity, is not all the getting 
 and winning resolved into the survival of the fittest ? 
 With man, as it seems to be in nature, do not the strong- 
 er drive the weaker to the wall ? Does not the law of 
 supply and demand become more savage as it is more 
 obtrusive in all the departments of human life? Are 
 not capacity and skill and combination and organization 
 and effrontery and force more and more in demand ? and 
 aie not educated men likely to be trained more and 
 more to a hard faith in themselves, and a desperate 
 and pushing confidence of self-assertion? In place of 
 the reserve and modesty which were formerly thought to 
 be the graceful robe of true merit, is it now to be forced 
 to assume the steel armor of assurance, the very polish 
 of which is hard and blinding? Alas for the world of 
 letters and. manners, and morals too, if this be so — if 
 
176 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 science and letters are to dry up faith and sympathy, and 
 to laugli down courtesy and refinement, and force is to 
 extinguish personality, and necessity is to be enthroned 
 as the living God, and the survival of the fittest is to dis- 
 place the condescending and pitying Christ I We repeat 
 the question, What shall we get from the world ? and 
 ask how it shall be answered, now that it is becoming 
 more and more clear that in human life, as in nature, law 
 everywhere reigns, and law to be beneficent, must be 
 uncompromising and stern ? There are two ways of 
 answering this question according to our point of view. 
 From one point we answer it thus : We cannot deny 
 that the science of human life rests entirely on the rec- 
 ognition of law. Every village in New England or 
 Oregon witnesses to the presence of forces that have 
 had centuries of growth, and were known of old in India. 
 Every house-door tells of traditions of ages. The hand- 
 shaking of every peasant, and his morning and evening 
 greeting, are an inheritance of the distant past. The 
 rise and fall of every family, the gathering and dissipa- 
 tion of every fortune, the success and disappointment 
 of every politician, the making and marring of every 
 reputation, the success or defeat of every scholar, are 
 governed by the eternal laws which pertain alike to the 
 growth of every mind, the development of every char- 
 acter, and the gain and loss of every life. These laws 
 are always repeating themselves. Therefore study them 
 well ; learn the lucky combination, and it shall be to 
 thee the " open sesame " of success. This is one answer 
 to our question, What shall we get from the world? 
 You will get what by skill and effrontery thou canst 
 extort by a sagacious knowledge of its laws, and a cun- 
 ning hiding of thy hand. 
 
 There is another answer, and it is this : The laws of 
 human competition and human success which you fear 
 
TUE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 177 
 
 are your kindest friends. They never deceive. You 
 can trust tlieni in the darkness and in the light, in fire 
 and in frost, in the sunshine and in the tempest. Under 
 their domain you Avill, in the long-run, gain what you 
 deserve, if you are content to gain by the docile study 
 of the conditions of success, and by patiently biding your 
 time. But these laws are never greater nor stronger 
 than God. Though grand beyond our comprehension, 
 and seemingly beyond the control of their Maker, they 
 all lie loosely in his hands, and he can combine and 
 clinch them at his will. Though in every event the 
 eternal laws repeat themselves so tliat there is nothing 
 new under the sun, yet in every event the combination 
 is novel, and has never been repeated before. Each 
 individual is upheld by the power, and guided by the 
 providence, of the heavenly Father. Not a sparrow 
 falls to the ground without his consent, and the very 
 hairs of your head are all numbered. 
 
 It is not to be overlooked, that whatever view we take 
 of law and providence, the moral forces are regarded as 
 supreme by every thoughtful mind. If we may excuse 
 the vulgar gambler and the low-lived politician, the 
 half-trained teacher and the extemporized writer, lawyer, 
 and preacher, for their faith in trickery and fraud, we 
 cannot excuse the instructed reader of history or the 
 sagacious observer of man and his nature. Scholars 
 and thinkers are nowadays supposed to know that the 
 economies of human life are not, in the long-run, favor- 
 able to falsehood and pretension. Though men for a 
 time may trust the dishonest and the superficial, they 
 will, sooner or later, render to true men their perma- 
 nent honor. If worst comes to the Avorst, they may kill 
 the prophets of one generation, but the next generation 
 will construct and decorate their tombs. 
 
 3. This suggests another thought. If the laws of the 
 
178 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 universe are but the manifestations of God, and the laws 
 under which they act are the conditions of his working, 
 then the truly successful man is he the fruit of whose 
 life is recognized and accepted by God. I find no con- 
 flict between law and God, — between stable forces and 
 trusting prayer. The moment I catch a glimpse of a 
 single force that pervades the universe, and rules from 
 eternity, there begins to be disclosed step after step of 
 the great altar-stairs that slope upward to God, toward 
 the God whom I cannot see, along which angels of ten- 
 derest sympathy troop downward to sustain and com- 
 fort man, and mount upward to lay upon its summit 
 man's humblest service, there to remain forever in the 
 heart of God. This vast network of forces, so infinite 
 in extent, so vast in power, so resistless in energy, is so 
 delicate in its ministrations, so refined in its blessing, so 
 glorious in its aspects, so soothing in its repose, that it 
 becomes to my faith the investiture and the manifesta- 
 tion of the tenderest sympathy, the purest holiness, and 
 the most long-suffering pity. It is the garment of light 
 with which God is covered, only that through its trans- 
 parency men may see his personality and love, and yet 
 may live. If I believe that in God's workings with na- 
 ture and with man, nothing that is worth saving can 
 possibly be lost, I infer that nothing which I can hon- 
 estly attempt can possibly be forgotten, but that every 
 vow and wish of blessing, and every humble work of 
 love to man, shall be recorded in his heart, and engraven 
 upon his memory, and remain there forever. 
 
 If, again, I notice how God in nature even, is ever 
 stooping to man, and man is ever discovering new proofs 
 of his minutest and most loving tenderness, I infer that 
 he will never forget me, nor any honest aspirations or 
 patient labor. I am prepared to believe that he has 
 spoken to me in Christ, and that the faithful promise, 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL REMAIN. 179 
 
 uttered so long ago with such human tenderness and 
 divine authority, assures me a blessing upon my life, 
 and will never fail. As I read the history of high- 
 minded men who have sought and prayed that they 
 might not live in vain, I find that they all declare that 
 whatever fruits of life have been gathered for Christ 
 have been the only products which have remained 
 grateful to their memory when their life on earth was 
 nearly gone. I cannot but believe that the promise of 
 Christ is true, and will be fulfilled for a laborer so 
 humble and imperfect as myself. 
 
 4. This suggests the truth that there is another life in 
 which whatever is good in the present shall be so per- 
 fected as to be worthy to remain. The last affectation 
 of modern speculation is to despise the thought of im- 
 mortality, and to dispense with the hopes and aspirations 
 which it brings. But I do not find it to be human to 
 indulge this caprice. You that are in the beginnings 
 of manhood are already reaching forward with eager- 
 ness to the untried scenes of the present life, even 
 though you know that they may bring care and disap- 
 pointment and many a bitter hour. All these shadows 
 which you forecast are glorified to j^our vision by the 
 sunshine of hope, and defied in your ardor for noble 
 effort and manly endurance. Then, again, there are 
 hours in the saddest and darkest life which we would 
 fain make immortal. There are days of health and 
 peace, of transparent skies and exhilarating atmosphere, 
 which we accept as types of the perfect life. There are 
 heiglits of purpose and aspiration, of heroic self-conquest 
 and loving sacrifice, of humble and hearty prayer, which 
 we would be content should remain forever. Surely it is 
 not unwise to hope, and not unhuman to desire, nor 
 is it either irrational to believe, that some of the fruit 
 of this present life may remain in the perfection of all of 
 
180 FIFTEEN YEAIiS IN VALE CHAPEL. 
 
 it that has been good, and the destruction of all of it 
 that was evil, by the transforming glory of the Christ 
 in whom we trust. If, then, we believe that the fruit 
 of life shall remain because it is recorded in Christ's 
 heart, we believe that he will come again, and receive 
 each one of us to himself. Because he lived, we shall 
 live also. Many are the sons of this college who have 
 gone forth into life from this place with many misgiv- 
 ings and many fears, yet with bright resolves to make 
 good this promise of Christ, who are now resting w^th 
 God, and rejoicing that the fruit of their life is safely 
 gathered in a house in which it shall ever remain. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — I have 
 no need to apologize for discoursing to you upon this 
 practical theme, and in an earnest spirit. The occasion 
 itself is practical, and finds you in a thoughtful and 
 serious mood. Whatever the scene may be to others, 
 to you it is fraught with the gravest interest. It may 
 be a spectacle to all who look on, but to you it brings 
 the most serious thoughts as you look back on the past, 
 and it awakens earnest inquiries as you would forecast 
 the future. From the loopholes of this retreat, you have 
 often looked out upon tlie busy and active world, now 
 with curiosity, then with ridicule, but always with 
 criticism; sometimes with eagerness to mingle in its 
 excitements, and share in its struggles, fully confident, 
 perhaps, that you Avould play an important role in its 
 affairs, and gather from it some honorable and permanent 
 fruit. But now you have stepped down from the place 
 of observation, and have almost reached the threshold 
 of the door that will send you forth. No wonder that 
 you linger upon this threshold, and that the walls 
 which, till now, have seemed to shut you in, as you 
 look back upon them seem as welcome defences from 
 
THE FRUIT THAT SHALL TiEMAlN. 181 
 
 invasion from without, and that what appeared to be 
 enclosures of restraint look lovingly upon you, and call 
 you back to their protecting care. But you cannot go 
 back. Forward you must go. The last step must soon 
 be taken, and you will find yourselves each fighting 
 his battle, no longer a mimic but a stern struggle for 
 what are called the prizes of life. You still stand upon 
 the threshold, and wistfully inquire, "Whither will life 
 take me, and what will life give me ? " I hear a voice 
 replying in the distance to each of you, gentle but clear, 
 tender but firm, loving in its accents, yet capable of 
 sternest command ; and its answer is, " Life will give 
 back to you what you bring to life in purpose and 
 resolve, only with ampler returns." That voice is the 
 loving voice of the great Master of human service and 
 of human destin}^ who will speak to you all your 
 lives if you will only hear him. May you always listen 
 to that voice, and may the fruit which you shall pro- 
 duce and gather from life be such fruit as he shall judge 
 worthy to remain ! If these times, in some asjjects, are 
 uncertain, and the country is depressed ; if the avenues 
 for activity are less inviting than usual, and the condi- 
 tions of Qutward success are less flattering, — in another 
 view the}^ are full of promise and hope. So far as soci- 
 ety is impressed with the conviction that men can no 
 longer thrive by pretence and shams, but by personal 
 and honest work ; that truth and honor are priceless, 
 even in their commercial value ; and that the forces 
 which expose knavery, and punish pretence, though long 
 delayed in their work, are certain in their effect, — it is a 
 good time for an honest and earnest man to begin to live. 
 It would seem that there has never been a time, for a 
 generation, which is so full of hope to a young man 
 who is willing to make full proof of an earnest, intelli- 
 gent, courteous, and loving Christian life. The country 
 
182 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 has been chastened. If it reaps wealth and power and 
 culture and freedom as the fruits of the first centurj^ of 
 its independent life, it begins the second with some just 
 convictions that the manhood of the people and their 
 rulers are its only security, and that truth and honor 
 are the only reliance of a free commonwealth which 
 hopes to remain. Go forth, then, in this time of fear 
 and of hope, of thankfulness and of chastening, — go 
 forth in the name of the Master, to labor in his service, 
 and to live for his kingdom. Yield to no fear. Remem- 
 ber that yon are not brought to this open door by your 
 own hand. No man is self-commissioned, except he cuts 
 himself off from God. He who has brought you to this 
 place will guide you to the end. May we now and then 
 hear of each one of you^ that he is a high-toned and in- 
 telligent servant of his country and his time, and that 
 the world is daily the better and the brighter for his 
 living in it, — that his life is guided and blest by the 
 living God ! As you return hither from time to time, 
 may we greet you as fellow-workers for all human en- 
 lightenment and progress I and wdien you shall return 
 no more, as each one of you shall be called to another 
 life, may you carry with you that fruit of life which 
 shall remain forever, and be welcome to the home and 
 heart of the eternal God ! With these wishes and this 
 blessing, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
IX. 
 BY FAITH YE STAND* 
 
 e< 1^0^. pojj THAT WE HAVE DOMINION OVER TOUR PAITU, BUT ABE nELPERS 
 OP TOUR JOT, rOB BT FAITH TE STAND." — 2 Cor. i. 24. 
 
 For hy faith ye stand. — I take this as meaning wliat 
 the translators of our version understood it to mean. 
 I give it in its connection because the preceding clauses 
 illustrate and enforce liiy theme ; viz., that personal 
 faith in the personal Christ is essential to a rounded 
 manhood and a successful life. By faith, and by faith 
 only, does any man stand, in the highest and best sense 
 of the word, as he is related to himself, to his Creator, 
 to the present life, and to the future. 
 
 In enforcing this theme, I will first enumerate the 
 several elements of faith, in the Christian sense of the 
 word. I name first of all the intellectual element ; viz., 
 the rational conviction that ivhat ive believe is true. The 
 fact that faith includes an intellectual element will 
 hardly be denied. It would seem that no one could 
 question or deny this. But many fail to do justice to 
 the significance and importance of this truth. I must 
 assume it to be true, that, whatever else faith may 
 involve, it includes such an intellectual conviction as 
 is founded on evidence. If this is so, faith cannot rest 
 on what is sometimes called authorit3\ This is recog- 
 nized — not only conceded, but afQrmed — in our text, 
 
 » June 24, 1877. 
 
 183 
 
184 FIFTEEN YEAJiS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 " Not for that we have dommion over your faith." In 
 this significant saying, the sacredness of individual con- 
 viction is solemnly affirmed. Not even an apostle dares 
 to assert, or covild possibly exercise, dominion over the 
 faith of the humblest disciple. 
 
 It is true, the matter of faith in this particular in- 
 stance concerned some question of duty rather than any 
 revelation of truth ; but it is none the less true, that 
 these words of Paul distinctly affirm that whether our 
 faith relates to what is to be believed or done, whatso- 
 ever is not held and acted on of faith, that is, of con- 
 viction, is sin ; that every man must be fully persuaded 
 in his own mind. The same apostle elsewhere describes 
 his power over men to consist in commending himself 
 to every man's conscience by manifestation of the truth. 
 The same truth was distinctly asserted by the Master of 
 our faith, — "To this end was I born, and for this end 
 came I forth, that I might bear witness to the truth. 
 Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 " Every one that heareth and learneth of the Father 
 cometh unto me." But when we assert that faith is con- 
 viction founded on light or evidence, we do not say that 
 this is the whole of it. I do not affirm that faith is 
 born of formal reasoning, whether demonstrative or 
 probable. I do not forget that the things which are 
 hidden from the wise and prudent, are revealed to babes 
 in intellect. But I do contend that the gospel and 
 Christ, when discerned as they are, are fitted to call forth, 
 and, so to speak, to compel, the conviction of the honest 
 understanding that they are true. I also assert that 
 this individual conviction is an essential element of the 
 faith of every individual man, so far as his intellect 
 has any thing to do with his faith. I would add that 
 witliout conviction, faith cannot exist. I have no time 
 to prove these assertions. I may be permitted to refer 
 
nr FAITH ye stand. 18-5 
 
 to tlie fact that even the current anti-Christian philos- 
 opliy, at least tliat of tlie profoiindest, most generous, 
 and sagacious type, finds it necessary to declare that 
 the unformulated convictions of men go before, and 
 lead the way to, formulated and reasoned science, and, 
 as ever-present and attendant, are often their correc- 
 tives. Even Mr. Herbert Spencer is generous enough 
 to explain what might seem to be a paradox ; viz., that 
 a devotee to his own theories of materialistic atheism 
 might be a far less rational thinker than his sturdy but 
 unschooled father, and his thoughtful but simple-hearted 
 mother. It is essential to my purpose to add that every 
 man's faith is measured by the number and strength of 
 his individual convictions. A man's faith cannot be 
 judged by the length of the written creed which he 
 affirms with his lips, or subscribes with his hand, but by 
 the number of the separate truths or realities which 
 have become living convictions in his soul. It may be 
 very important that written or spoken creeds should 
 be assented to by teachers and learners in the kingdom 
 and church of Christ. This I do not in the least ques- 
 tion ; but it remains an unshaken and an equally impor- 
 tant truth, that the faith by which a man stands or falls 
 represents only the number and strength of his personal 
 convictions. Faith cannot rest in a form of words or a 
 so-called system of doctrine. It goes through and be- 
 hind these, and rests on the beings or facts which these 
 words symbolize, and their import to each individual 
 soul. Moreover, to each individual man, convictions 
 come in a way peculiar to himself. Tried by this test, 
 some persons who su2:)pose their creed is very long, very 
 exact, and very complete, would be found to be very 
 deficient in living convictions; while others, who might 
 hesitate long in phrasing what they believe, may be full 
 of faith in the living God and the personal Christ, 
 
186 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 This truth alone enables us to be very charitable in 
 respect to intellectual or dogmatic differences, and to 
 care much less for formulas of scholastic doctrine than 
 for a living faith in the living God and present Christ. 
 It gives the key to the oft-quoted saying, which is capa- 
 ble of an honest use, as well as a flippant abuse, — 
 
 " There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds." 
 
 Faith involves feeling as well as conviction. The 
 very word conviction implies more or less of sensibility, 
 most emphatically when the truths concerned are moral 
 and religious. The word faith implies this even more 
 positively. In all its applications, whether between 
 man and truth, or man and man, or man and God, faith 
 signifies belief strengthened and fired by emotion. This 
 is so plain and so universally recognized, that not a few 
 theologians resolve faith into feeling as its germinal 
 point and essential element, making the belief to grow 
 out of sentiment, instead of kindling and firing senti- 
 ment by belief. Mr. John Tyndall and Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer, as is well known, are forward to exalt feeling 
 as singly and solely the religious element in man, telling 
 us to fill our hearts with it as full as we may, if only 
 we will concede that religion has no possible relations 
 to the intellect, and especially none to scientific truth. 
 We reject this extreme, whether held by theologians or 
 by philosophers, as leading to fanaticism with the one, 
 and to sentimentalism with the other. We refer to it 
 only as showing that feeling is universally recognized 
 as being prominent as an element of faith. 
 
 Faith involves obedience to the conscience. Here it 
 touches the will, the seat of character, the centre of 
 moral life. Every truth in which we believe points to 
 some duty. Every feeling which faith inspires impels 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 187 
 
 to the consecration of the Hfe and the subjection of the 
 man to the moral law. The intellect may consent to 
 the longest and the truest creed with the most positive 
 conviction. The heart may glow with the fervors of 
 sentimental or fanatical ecstasv ; but, if the man does 
 not accept the eternal law of rectitude as the law of his 
 being, the vital element of faith is wanting. The ortho- 
 doxy of the intellect is empty often in proportion to its 
 exactness and tenacity. The fires of feeling, if impure, 
 are baleful in proportion to the intensity with which 
 they burn. Let it ever be remembered that the reason, 
 and tlie only reason, why truth in religion is of so great 
 consequence, is because of its tendency to form the 
 character to spiritual perfection ; or why fervor in reli- 
 gious love and worship should be cherished and valued, 
 is simply and solely that it inspires to moral likeness 
 to God. 
 
 Thus far have we given the subjective characteristics 
 of faith in the three elements of conviction, of emotion, 
 and of duty. Over against these, philosophy would 
 present the true to satisfy the intellect, the beautiful to 
 move the heart, and the good to control the will, requir- 
 ing each of the three forms of faith which we have enu- 
 merated. Christianity differs from philosophy in pre- 
 senting a person for our faith. This leads me to notice 
 the. fourth, as the eminently distinctive feature of the 
 Christian faith, which is, that it rests upon a person. 
 This person is more than the true, the beautiful, and 
 the good, in that he exemplifies and enforces whatever 
 is true and beautiful and good by his personal love and 
 authority. Faith does not deny the forces of the uni- 
 verse after which science inquires, but it explains these 
 forces by a creative and upholding Person who is the 
 living God. It does not deny that these forces act by 
 unchanging laws, but it finds the reason for the reign of 
 
188 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 law in the wisdom of an eternal Thinker. It does not 
 deny devek^pnient or evolution or progress in the his- 
 tory of the physical or the moral or the social universe, 
 but the more various and manifold are the evidences of 
 a progressive and upholding plan, the more decisive is 
 the evidence of definite thought, ardent feeling, and 
 energetic personality. That the Creator should be a 
 person, is suggested by the fact that personality is con- 
 fessedly the highest form of being. If man is the high- 
 est of created existences, then it may be and must be 
 that God is a person, and loves and cares for his creatures 
 with an intensity of affection, and a force of authority, 
 of which human love and earnestness are feeble images. 
 If this God is so vast, so remote, and so beyond our 
 grasp, as modern thinking makes him to be, and yet if 
 he cares for our love and our trust, then surely there is 
 the more reason why he should contrive a way to come 
 among our dwellings, and make himself familiar to our 
 thoughts and our affections ; and if he would contrive 
 this, he could effect this ; and if he could do this, or 
 desired to do this, or has done this at all, he has done it 
 by Jesus the Christ. 
 
 If men could sin against conscience, they could sin 
 against God. They have sinned against duty, and 
 therefore have sinned against God. If God is a per- 
 son, they have grieved and dishonored and offended 
 him as truly as they have wronged their own souls. 
 They need his forgiveness and his help, and they need 
 the assurance of both. They have this forgiveness and 
 this help by Jesus Christ, and the assurance and attes- 
 tation of both in his life and death and present ix)wer 
 and grace. In accepting this personal element, faith 
 does not take leave of intellect or feeling or conscience. 
 It neither renounces science, nor denies philosophy. It 
 simply adds to science a needed element, and confirms 
 
BY FAITIT YE STAND. 189 
 
 philosopliy by tlie analogies and supports wliicli pliilos- 
 opliy suggests. Intellectually, the believer recjuires evi- 
 dence, and stands upon the truth. Emotionally, he 
 glows with feeling. Morally, he accepts duty. But 
 personally, he w^orships and loves the living God, and 
 believes in Jesus Clirist, who is the fulness of the God- 
 head, as manifest to man. In doing this, he is none the 
 less a man or a thinker or a philosopher. But he has 
 become more, — he is also a believer. 
 
 I need not say that the question of our day is emphat- 
 ically this: Whether faith is any longer required, 
 whether it has not done its work at least for thinking 
 and cultivated men, and ought now to be abandoned? 
 It is true, this is no new question, but is as old as Chris- 
 tianity itself. But it comes to us in new forms, — with 
 many it has become the confident assertion, and the 
 shivering fear of not a few, — that whatever may have 
 been true of the i)ast, henceforth man must stand by 
 manhood or thought or culture or philosophy, and no 
 longer can, and no longer needs to, stand by faith. 
 
 The position which I ivould urye is that faith is of per- 
 manefit necessity to man. The more man advances in 
 culture, the more true will it be, and the more evident, 
 that faith is essential to his perfection and his success. 
 In the definitions already given, I have endeavored to 
 state the constituents, and to bring into strong relief 
 the one distinctive element, of faith. I proceed to 
 show, in the second plaee^ that it is only by faith as 
 thus defined that man, and especially a thinking man, 
 can stand. 
 
 1. Faith widens and quickens and regulates man's 
 intellectual activity. We have already shown that 
 faith, as an intellectual conviction, assents to the truth. 
 Faith, therefore, cannot exist without some activity of 
 the intellect. We do not assert that faith involves a 
 
190 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 high degree of intellectual activity or discipline, — least 
 of all that it is in any sense a substitute for the train- 
 ing of the scholar or the discipline of experience. But 
 we do assert that it invariably excites to thought, and 
 that its natural tendency is to quicken the intellectual 
 life. INIultitudes have found in the beginning of the 
 life of faith the beginnings of intellectual activity. 
 The power of Christianity to stimulate animalized and 
 besotted communities to thought, is confessed by every 
 sagacious observer and every honest historian. Nor 
 does the thought which is thus awakened rest contented 
 with elementary knowledge. It presses forward that 
 it may master all truth. It must be convinced by evi- 
 dence in respect to every thing which it is sunnnoned 
 to believe. This tendency may be repressed by author- 
 ity, and feared by bigotry ; but the fact that churches 
 aiftl theologians — with honest or dishonest intentions 
 — have so sadly failed to understand the spirit of their 
 faith, does not make this spirit a whit less free. We 
 repeat the assertion, that, other things being equal — as 
 knowledge and training — in any two thinkers, the 
 Christian believer will become the widest and most lib- 
 eral. If he is a true Christian, he has forsaken all for 
 Christ for no other reason than that he believes him to 
 be in truth sent from God. If he has this spirit, how 
 can he avoid rendering homage to the truth wherever 
 he finds or meets it? The same principle which holds 
 a man in allegiance to his master in denying every false 
 principle in purpose and in life, must nerve him to deny 
 every false theory in science, and every mistaken inter- 
 pretation in criticism. The spii-it of self-denial which 
 lends him to bear the cross, because of his faith in his 
 Master as the Truth, will lead him to abjure every pre- 
 judice or tradition which would make error dear to his 
 heart. 
 
BY FAirn YE STAND. 191 
 
 The man of faith must become a wide thinker for 
 another reason, and that is because the truths and facts 
 which he believes are related to every thing which can 
 interest or arouse his mtellect. The sciences of nature, 
 when viewed in their broadest relations, must each and 
 all terminate in questions concerning the God who is 
 either nature or above nature. The philosophy of his- 
 tory either recognizes God, or denies God ; and in either 
 case it necessarily leads to the thought of God. The 
 atheistic theory of society and progress, which is just 
 now so fashionable in certain quarters, is a proof that 
 science is more profound and wide-reaching than it once 
 w^as, even if it thinks of God only to deny him. Athe- 
 ism and Agnosticism are as truly answers to those 
 questionings which wide and profound thinkers must 
 propound, as are the most positive and literal dogmas 
 of the narrowest bigot. Let a student of nature be in 
 very deed a believer in the living God, whose eternal 
 thinking is manifested in blazing lines of voiceless 
 order in all the revelations of science, and whose tender 
 love sustains all finite things with faithful care, and pul- 
 sates in every living soul with warmest sympathy — 
 does he discern scientific truth in more and in wider, 
 or in fewer and narrower, relations than he who sees in 
 all this kosmos of the vast and the minute only the 
 seething chaos of eternal strife as it settles itself con- 
 tinually into eternal order, or moves forward in weaves 
 of progress to the harmonious music evolved from con- 
 tending and jarring discords ? Or let a student of his- 
 tory find in its progress the development of a plan of 
 the Father of men — does he study it under broader or 
 narrower lights than he who must solve every problenj 
 by a few formulas borrowed from the last brilliant theo- 
 rist, or enforces his conclusions by a fanatical though not 
 over-devout invocation of the time-spirit ? What must 
 
192 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 be true in the nature of things, is showing itself more 
 clearly to be true in the world's convictions. Die Welt- 
 Geschichte ist das Welt- Gericht, This is as true of sys- 
 tems and principles as it is of individual men and 
 nations. Atheistic and theistic science and culture are 
 now emphatically on trial at the tribunal of the world's 
 thinking and experience. It is true that atheism m 
 science was never so confident, so courteous, and, in its 
 own belief, so scientific, as at the present moment. On 
 the other hand, never was it forced to confess so frankly 
 as now that atheism relieves the mind of not a single 
 burden of the mystery which theism involves, and that 
 a self-existent universe of dead matter, however full of 
 the potency and promise of life, is as difficult to accept, 
 and harder to hold, than a. self existent and creating 
 spirit. While there are swarms of noisy specialists in 
 every department of thought, who fill the air with their 
 chattering, there is everywhere heard a strong under- 
 tone on the part of sober and earnest philosophers that 
 matter and spirit, that force and law, are alike best 
 explained by a personal Thinker. Wherever science 
 widens itself into philosophy, it is conceded witli an 
 emphasis of unanimity that v/as never heard before, 
 that a living God is the best working hypothesis for 
 scientific thought. In history and criticism, there is a 
 flippant time spirit that professes to speak for the high- 
 est culture in blandest charity and in courteous phrase, 
 albeit with an acrid mixture of contemptuous and intol- 
 erant dogmatism. But there is also an earnest and 
 thoughtful time-spirit that rei)resents the more sober 
 convictions of thinking men, that God and Providence 
 and Duty and Christ were never so attested as now. 
 
 I know that earnestness in religion ma}^ make a man 
 narrow for the same reason that earnestness in any spe- 
 cial sphere of thought or activity may limit his views, 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 193 
 
 and intensify liis prejudices. I know also that the doc- 
 trine is inculcated in some religious schools, that to 
 think widel3% and to think earnestly, is to endanger the 
 fervor of one's piety or the soundness of one's opinions. 
 I admit that the Christian faith, like every other sort of 
 faith, brings its dangers and its hinderances to the intel- 
 lectual life. I admit most frankly that the chief end 
 of man is not always to perfect his intellect, or to ad- 
 vance scientific truth ; and still I insist that the ten- 
 dency of Christian faith is to liberalize and stimulate 
 any man who gives himself to intellectual pursuits, 
 rather than to limit and dwarf his intellectual life. 
 Let two men set off with equal advantages and from 
 the same starting-point in any career of intellectual 
 activity which is to continue for twenty years. Let the 
 one be a sincere, uncompromising, devout, and loving 
 Christian believer, and the other without such faith, 
 and the Christian believer cannot but attain to a higher 
 point of intellectual power and achievement long before 
 the end of the race. In sajdng this, I do but reason 
 from the known nature of man, and the motives and 
 influences which bring from it the best results. 
 
 2. I observe, second, it is by faith that a man can stand 
 in his sensibilities. We have seen that faith in every 
 acceptation of the word includes a very large element 
 of feeling. Faith in the Christian sense is pre-eminently 
 emotional, for the reason that it is fixed directly upon 
 a Person who is at once the most perfect and the most 
 unpretending, the loftiest and the lowliest, the mildest 
 and the sternest, the most forgiving and the most un- 
 compromising, the most ideal and the most real, the 
 most divine and the most human, who w^as ever imagined, 
 or ever lived. Abstractions and ideals may rouse and 
 satisfy the intellect, but the heart demands a Person. 
 Du 1 need to say that the Christ of the Christian faith 
 
194 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 meets every one of the heart's demands? Why should 
 I when those who reject his historic truth and his super- 
 natural claims are not only ready to concede, but are 
 foremost to contend, that he is the most consummate 
 product of the human imagination in its utmost reach 
 of effort to satisfy the longings of the human heart? 
 But the heart cannot live and be shaped by ideals or 
 abstractions, and therefore the heart of man can only 
 stand by faith in a living person. Look at its needs. 
 First of all, the subtle demon of selfishness must be 
 drawn out or dragged out of his remotest hiding-places 
 in the centre of man's being, and this can only be done 
 by a strorig personal force from without. Then every 
 special impulse and passion, from the most debasing 
 appetite up to " the last infirmity of the noblest minds," 
 is to be tamed and regulated, till that self-poise and self- 
 control, which all men long for, and hope to attain, like 
 birds of calm shall so brood on the stormy waves of 
 passion that they are charmed to rest. The experience 
 of the world ought to have taught the world by this 
 time that neither self-relying resolves nor sternest self- 
 discipline will do this. The world has learned, or ought 
 to have learned, that personal love as between man and 
 man is the mightiest force that can move and win the 
 heart. The loving eye of a gentle child or a fiiithful 
 mother has a reforming power which can tame and 
 subdue raging hatred and stubborn sullenness. Every 
 Christian household can furnish some living example of 
 an inmate who has been transformed to sweeter love and 
 mellowed self-control by faith in the personal Christ, such 
 as otherwise could never have been attained. Christian 
 burial-places scattered by thousands all over the earth are 
 watched by the loving eye of God, in which repose the 
 dust of myriads of meek and loving souls who would 
 never have been formed to the loving tempers and gov- 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 195 
 
 erned appetites and conquered pride for wliicli tlieir 
 memory is blessed, except by faith in this personal 
 Christ. Nor is it alone in the exercise of the gentler and 
 loving affections that this faith is the only resource. In 
 the collisions and strifes of gain and ambition, in the 
 misunderstandings and jealousies which are inevitable 
 to opposing interests, in the dogmatisms and criticisms 
 which are incident to the purest and holiest causes, — 
 such as are not unknown in schools of science, or acad- 
 emies of letters ; such as are most conspicuous because 
 most out of place in the Church and kingdom of Christ, 
 — nothing short of the reproving eye and the rebuking 
 word of a master like Christ can avail. It is only in 
 the school of Christ that a man can learn to be angry, 
 and sin not, to be stern in opposition to evil principles 
 and to evil men, and yet be gentle and patient, and 
 easy to be entreated. We are not to forget that in this 
 world we shall ever be called to set ourselves sternly 
 and steadfastly against falsehood and selfishness and 
 treachery, that we shall often be summoned bravely to 
 defend the right, and fearlessly to expose and to resist 
 the wrong. To do this with gentleness and courtesy on 
 the one hand, and with self-respect and, if it need be, 
 witli indignation on the other, is reserved for those who, 
 however earnestly and boldly and indignantly they 
 strive, are ever mindful that the eye of the patient and 
 loving Jesus is upon them. 
 
 This leads me to add as not unimportant, that faith in 
 the personal Christ is essential to faith in man. It is 
 significantly said of the Master, that he knew what was 
 in man., and yet he loved man, and even trusted man. 
 It is esteemed in these days the highest achievement, if 
 not the necessary completion, of a man's training, that 
 he should learn to distrust men in order that he may 
 manage men. The world of business, and, to a large 
 
196 FIFTEEN YEAHS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 extent, the world of science and letters, of politics and 
 professional life, is divided into two classes, — the sharp 
 and critical and hard men, and the so-called weak and 
 confiding men whom the world treads down with its 
 iron heel, or passes by with supercilious neglect. The 
 sharp men make it a rule to criticise and distrust every- 
 body : the confiding men learn, by being often deceived, 
 in their turn to distrust and to hate. The tendency of 
 our times is to idolize sharpness and criticism, and to sac- 
 rifice at their altar the generosities and charities and 
 graces of life, as also the divine sw^eetness of that char- 
 ity that believeth all things, and endureth all things. 
 I know of no force that will fill the heart of an indi- 
 vidual with courage and self-reliance on the one hand, 
 and with sweetness and light on the other, that will 
 buid man to man in the noble magnanimity of a wise 
 but generous faith, except a living faith in the living 
 Christ. 
 
 This leads me to notice that personal faith in Christ 
 trains and stimulates to the finest and most perfect 
 culture, whether in manners, literature, or art. There 
 can be no question that the best achievements in art 
 and literature have been the offspring of such a faith. 
 To the highest of such achievements, two elements are 
 essential, — the enthusiasm that inspires, and the judg- 
 ment that criticises and restrains. Criticism now rules 
 the day. To question is now in fashion rather than 
 to create, to revise what has been achieved rather than 
 to open the mind with generous readiness to new im- 
 pressions from nature or from God. Admiration, hope, 
 and love are just now at a discount ; and instead of 
 them, we have brilliant but heartless laudations of 
 s-weetness and liQ'ht. It remains to be seen whether 
 any great products in literature or art will proceed from 
 this critical and negative mood. But should some new 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 197 
 
 and powerful revelations he made to the world of the 
 glory of the kingdom and the person of Christ, we can- 
 not doubt that art and literature will also be inspired 
 with fresh enthusiasm, that they will again put on their 
 singing robes, and that culture will adorn herself with 
 heightened, although it may be with more unstudied, 
 graces. 
 
 It is by faith that man stands strongly and wisely in 
 chit?/. Here the old question returns, If a man has faith 
 in duty, what need is there also of faith in a person who 
 can only exemplify and enforce duty ? Because, we 
 reply, a jierson who exemplifies duty is more attractive 
 and powerful than any abstract law of duty ; because 
 duty is not a cold, unsocial, loveless impulse, but is per- 
 sonal, sympathetic, and social ; because love is not the 
 love of goodness in the abstract, but the love of good- 
 ness as impersonated ; because duty looks up to what- 
 ever is higher than itself, and prompts to reverence and 
 worship, — the goodness which is grander and greater 
 than itself, — and in its own nature delights in faith 
 and loyalty. Duty, therefore, is, by the necessity of its 
 nature, inspired by examples of goodness, and delights 
 in the law of the perfect and reigning God. Duty 
 is not duty if it does not blossom into faith. No man 
 can be loyal to conscience who is not also loyal to the 
 loving and living Jesus. Did we already stand in duty, 
 were conscience loved and obeyed with spontaneous 
 alacrit}^ we should welcome with delight the example 
 of one higher and better than ourselves, whose superior 
 power and knowledge would make duty to glow with 
 an intenser brightness. We should rush to his embrace 
 with irrepressible sympathy, and look up into his face 
 with unspeakable delight. Did we accept the law of 
 duty as supreme, we should find additional impulse and 
 pleasure in obeying it, because it was also his will. 
 
198 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Were any influence needed to strengthen us in tempta- 
 tion, or to deter us from sin, the thought that we might 
 forfeit the sympathy of a person so high and good, or 
 cross his will, would surely tend to hold us to our 
 fidelity. Much more must this be true if this Being is 
 not only higher in his capacities than we, but if he had 
 formed us by his power, and blessed us with his loving 
 care, and longed for our sympathy and gratitude. There 
 are those who think and say that to stand in duty or 
 be confirmed in duty by motives like these, is to admit a 
 debasing alloy of mercenary motives ; and therefore they 
 reject faith altogether, as not only needless, but degrad- 
 ing to duty itself. They forget, that, as duty prompts to 
 love from man to man, so it cannot withhold worship 
 from man to God. They forget that the soul animated 
 by the principle of duty must rejoice and accept the 
 inspiration and blessing that come from the utterance 
 of duty as the eternal law of God. In one word, they 
 forget that they are finite and dependent, that as crea- 
 tures they are made for worship, and as loyal subjects 
 they cannot but accept and rejoice in the reign of a 
 personal God. In other words, they forget that no 
 man can stand in duty who does not also stand in wor- 
 ship, in gratitude, in prayer, or, to sum all in one 
 phrase, who does not stand in faith. 
 
 But none of us stands in duty. The conscience 
 which we reverence, and seek to obey, condemns us. We 
 have lost the sympathy of the Perfect One. If it is 
 right for him to enact the law of duty as the law of his 
 kingdom, we have broken that law ; and the displeasure 
 of the best of beings rests upon us, just because and 
 just so far as we condemn ourselves. We need help 
 and hope. Our help is to come from hope. But hope 
 can come only from without. Whatever might be true 
 of us, had we stood fast, the fact is, that we are fallen. 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 199 
 
 And now there comes to us the personal Christ, assur- 
 ing of his syniptithy by words such as never man spake, 
 attesting it by his death, opening us certain victory over 
 all moral evil, and promising so to guide and train us 
 that when he shall appear, we shall be like himself, and 
 stand perfected in duty, after the likeness of God. By 
 what other agency can a being like man, such as we 
 know ourselves to be, expect to stand in duty in this 
 life and the future, except by faith in the unselfish, 
 the compassionate, the loving, living, dying, rising, as- 
 cended, and reigning Son of God, in which faith millions 
 of our race have fought the good fight, and been gathered 
 to the assembly of the perfected spirits of the just? 
 
 If a man in his character stands best by faith, the 
 same will be true of the life which his ftiith shall form. 
 If faith is the condition of a rounded and perfected and 
 redeemed manhood, much more is it the condition of a 
 successful life. Faith will give a man a definite plan 
 of life. The believer in a personal Christ knows what 
 he lives for and aims at. The example of his Master is 
 always intelligible and clear. His precepts are explicit, 
 his spirit cannot be mistaken. If his service involves 
 self-denial, its rules are plain. If a man follow him, he 
 shall, at least, not walk in darkness. His life will also 
 be self-consistent, for it will be in harmony with the 
 reality of things. It will enable him to penetrate 
 through the most specious illusions, and to see their 
 transparency ; and therefore it will give him always a 
 solid footing and a firm tread. He that walketh up- 
 rightly, walketh surely. Faith also pours fresh inspira- 
 tion into the life. The springs of action are never 
 relaxed to the man who gazes with the open eye on the 
 ever-present Christ. The world is always fresh and 
 stimulating to the man who values it supremely as a 
 place in which to serve his Master. The dawn of every 
 
200 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 morning rises with fresh hope, and the twilight of every 
 evening fades with new promise. His expectation^ in- 
 deed include conflict and sorrow and sickness and 
 death, but he cannot be afraid of evil tidings : his heart 
 is fixed trusting in the Lord. His life is progressive. 
 Life can never be otherwise to him, who, in the eager- 
 ness of his faith, forgets the things which are behind, 
 and reaches forth to the things which are before. Its 
 consummation is glorious. The man of faith knows 
 not in detail what he shall be, or what is the nature of 
 the future life. But he knows that he shall be like his 
 Master, because he shall see him as he is. He also 
 knows that he shall be forever satisfied when he awakes 
 in that likeness of him whom his faith has loved and 
 longed for. Wherever he is, or whatever he does, what- 
 ever he may enjoy, or whatever he may suffer, he Jias 
 always a broad and firm standing-place, for he stands 
 by faith. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — I com- 
 mend these thoughts to you, as pertinent to the times 
 in which you live, and the active and thinking world 
 into which you are about to enter. Hitherto you have 
 looked out upon this world through the loopholes of 
 this sequestered retreat, not unaware, indeed, of the 
 great movements without, and responding to them 
 somewhat with a scholar's sensitive sympathy. But, 
 however quick and responsive has been this sympathy, 
 it is one thing to gaze at a conflict from a distant height, 
 and another to go single-handed into the contest, man 
 against man. You have also been more occupied with 
 the discipline and the excitements of your college days, 
 than with the formation of a definite theory of life. 
 And yet each one of you has been maturing such a 
 theory, consciously or unconsciously, and is going forth 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 201 
 
 to apply it in action. It is at tliis moment, just as you 
 are awaking to the conviction that you must have a 
 theory, and are asking yourselves what it is, that, in 
 almost the last words of counsel and friendship which 
 I shall speak to you, I have endeavored to indicate the 
 place which an intelligent and earnest Christian faith 
 should hold in your theory of manhood and of action. 
 It would not be strange if, in these days of flippant dog- 
 matism in philosophy and of Bohemian conceit in lite- 
 rature, the faith of some of you were unsettled, and the 
 high and fervent enthusiasm of some who believe were 
 lowered. Of one thing be assured, that no calamity can 
 befall a scholar so serious as the loss of personal faith 
 in the living God and the Christ who has inspired all 
 that we most value in the sentiments of modern litera- 
 ture and modern life. If a man must struggle with 
 modern doubt, let him struggle alone, and with a manly 
 and earnest spirit, as a drowning man struggles for a 
 firm standing-place. Avoid, as the breath of the pesti- 
 lence, the sneering or confident assumption, that faith 
 in eternal and sacred verities — nay, rather, in living 
 persons and supernatural revelations — must give way 
 before the severer light of modern thinking, and with 
 it must go the cheerful hope of an immortal life. The 
 assertion is false. While modern thinking in narrow 
 fields may shut up some of its devotees to conclusions 
 as positive as they are narrow, it more certainly than 
 ever, when prosecuted in a liberal si)irit, opens the 
 mind to vistas of thought in every direction, which lead 
 the soul to a personal God who is personally interested 
 in man. Avoid, as still more dangerous, the impression 
 that an unsettled faith, or cherished dalliance with one's 
 religious convictions, is a sign of intellectual courage or 
 strength. Unbelief is quite as often as cowardly as it is 
 brave. It hesitates often because '' I dare not " waits 
 
202 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 upon " I would." Nothing can possibly be more injuri- 
 ous to the intellect than a prolonged hesitation to face 
 questions of this sort, and to settle them in a manly 
 spirit. Nothing can be more unmanly than to play 
 hide and seek with arguments for and against the most 
 important verities, or more servile than to wait for new 
 revelations from some idolized leader of opinion. Noth- 
 ing can be worse for the heart of the scholar than the 
 withdrawal from the heavens of the living God, and 
 the banishment from the earth of the Christ who blessed 
 and redeemed it ; for when God and Christ depart from 
 the faith of the thinker, his tenderness for man, his hope 
 for man, his faith in man, and his patience with man, 
 are likely to follow sooner or later. Even his sensibility 
 to culture will become less and less refined, or less and 
 less satisfying. Nothing can be worse for the conscience 
 than that the majestic presence of God should cease to 
 enforce its often feeble and vacillating commands. 
 Nothing can be more harmful to the life of a man of 
 intellectual consistency than that faith should wholly 
 die out of it, and cease to be the spring of its activities, 
 its joys and hopes. And, as for the community, one 
 shudders with not unreasonable horror at the very 
 thought of what will come, if the atheistic theories 
 with which the thinker of these days beguiles his read- 
 ers, or amuses himself, are once put in practice by the 
 men of labor and of action. The least we can say is, 
 that what seems as harmless as the summer lightning 
 when manipulated in the brilliant experiments and 
 theories of the teacher, may rend and consume the so- 
 cial structure which the faith of generations has reared 
 and sustained. 
 
 I exhort you, therefore, to prize most highly, and to 
 seek most earnestly, a living faith. No man can give 
 it you. Each one must find it for himself. No man 
 
BY FAITH YE STAND. 203 
 
 can impose it on you. We would not, if we could, have 
 dominion over this faith. But God can helj) you, if you 
 prize the gift enough to ask him earnestly and continu- 
 ously for liis blessing in tliis, the most important inter- 
 est of your life. Cherish what faith you have, not in a 
 spirit of blind uess or servility or bigotry, or sectarian 
 narrowness ; but with open-eyed candor, with manly 
 self-reliance, with catholic liberality, accept what truth 
 God reveals to you, and translate it into your life. Let 
 your faith in truth become fidelity to duty. Let your 
 obedience to conscience become allegiance to God. At 
 a time when to doubt is so much the fasliion, and so 
 many men of culture in consequence are 
 
 " As sad as night, 
 Only for wantonness," 
 
 do you dare to be what you believe, in purpose, in 
 feeling, and in action. 
 
 What the world is waiting for, is more simplicity and 
 earnestness of Christian faith on the part of the men 
 who direct the world's thinking, and inspire its feeling 
 and action. It is not argument or speculation, it is not 
 outward activity nor popular demonstration, it is not so- 
 cial excitement nor sensational harangues, it is not 
 mone}^ it is not labor, that the world needs ; but it is 
 such a present sense of God's fatherly sympathy, of his 
 forgiving mercy, and of his guiding providence, and 
 such a vivid and^ reverent apprehension of Christ as 
 God revealed to men, as shall cause men indeed to 
 stand in intellectual power, in human affection, and 
 fidelity to duty. May each of you thus stand, and may 
 I share in your joy ! In these words I include my best 
 wishes, and bid you farewell. 
 
X. 
 
 THE LiaHT OF THE WORLD* 
 
 •'I AM THE LTGHT OP THE WOTILD. HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL NOT 
 WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OP LIFE." — John ViU. 12. 
 
 Christ claimed very much for himself when he 
 littered these sayings. He claimed so much, that many 
 of his hearers were offended at what they conceived to 
 be either insane or blasphemous words. Those who 
 believed him the most, and loved him the best, did not 
 and could not comprehend their reach and import. But, 
 in saying so much to try the faith of the world, Christ 
 furnished ample materials with which to confirm the 
 faith of the world ; for he clearly foresaw, and dared to 
 say, what eighteen centuries have ever since been prov- 
 ing to be true. During all these centuries, as all con- 
 fess, Christ has been the light of the world, shining 
 more brightly, enlightening more variously, glowing 
 more intensely, as the generations have gone and come. 
 It is true, this light has always shone in darkness ; and 
 it is also true, that the darkness has uniformly failed to 
 comprehend it. Ignorance has often well-nigh extin- 
 guished this light ; foul exhalations have been kindled 
 by it into the blaze of wild enthusiasms, and fierce fanat- 
 icisms ; the stifling atmosphere of bigotry and ignorance 
 has caused it often to burn low and dim. At times, it 
 has been hard to say whether friends or foes have done 
 
 * Jane 23, 1878. 
 204 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 205 
 
 tlifi most to extinguish it. But just at tliese critical 
 moments, it lias proved miglitier than foes or friends, 
 and lias suddenly shot up into a brighter and an in- 
 tenser flame. We do not deny that Christ has occa- 
 sioned much evil. Every discerning student of history 
 knows that he has been the cause of much good. Not 
 only has he consumed the evil which he found in the 
 world, but, what is peculiar and surprising, he has 
 taught the world to discern and abandon the very evils 
 of which he lias been the occasion, as the sun as it ad- 
 vances burns up the clouds, which it had at first raised 
 from the damp and reeking earth. 
 
 Much of the darkness of our times, among thoughtful 
 men at least, is the doubt whether Christ is any longer 
 required as the light of the world, — whether he has 
 not made it so bright, that it can dispense with his shin- 
 ing. Not a few of the men of science and culture are 
 thinking and saying nowadays, " We accept and glory 
 in the Christian spirit, the Christian ethics, and the 
 Christian civilization ; but we have outgrown any occa- 
 sion for the personal Christ, as the guide and inspirer 
 of our personal life." There may be darkness where 
 there may seem to be light, — a darkness which in some 
 sense proceeds from the light. The cloud which is 
 penetrated and filled with the shining from the sun 
 which is above it, would be dark and damp and cliill 
 were the sun withdrawn; and yet the cloud may ob- 
 scure, and even hide, the disk from which the light pro- 
 ceeds. So is it Avith the illumination of our times, 
 when it hides from men of thought and culture the 
 place which Christ holds as the world's light. Every 
 age has its ov/n peculiar need of Christ. Christ has 
 a special service for every class of men in every age. 
 Men of thought and culture aspire to lead the present 
 age, and with reason. Let me ask your attention to 
 
206 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 several particulars in which Christ is needed by them 
 pre-emuiently in this present generation, and in conse- 
 quence of its science and culture. 
 
 1. Christ is the light of the world because he brings 
 God very near, and makes him very real to man. He 
 is needed at the present time to counteract those influ- 
 ences of modern science and culture which make him 
 distant and unreal. Modern science ought to be in- 
 tensely and peculiarly theistic. It is, so far as it under- 
 stands itself. It is everywhere assuming the presence, 
 and finding the proofs, of one omnipresent thinker, in 
 the great and the small, in the remote and in the near. 
 Every scientific discoverer and observer more than half 
 acknowledges that he interprets the arrangements of a 
 supreme intelligence. As they construct their theories, 
 they seem to re-create some portion of the universe. As 
 their theories of a part of it carr}^ them necessarily into 
 what is beyond, they reach out their hands after a crea- 
 tor of the whole, mightier and more knowing than them- 
 selves. As they trace a part or the whole of the history 
 of the growth from star-dust to the finished Kosmos, it 
 is the plan and the plot of the master-mind which is un- 
 consciously confessed, and gives zest and credibility to 
 the exciting drama of evolution. As they predict the 
 future, they rest with secure confidence in an orderly and 
 ever-present wisdom. And yet it is very easy to leave 
 out of view these higher relations of scientific thinking ; 
 to stop with force and law, and not go on to the agent 
 who is assumed in both. The fact is unquestioned, 
 that avowed and speculative atheism has of late come 
 into sudden fashion and favor. Why this should be, if 
 science legitimately leads to God, and implies God, is 
 explained by the slowness of the human imagination to 
 accept the teachings of reason. In the midst of man's 
 discoveries of the vastness of the universe ; of its lines 
 
THE LIGHT OF TUE WORLD. 207 
 
 of order, running far and near ; of the majestic thoughts 
 which are petrified in its past history, or palpitate in 
 its present life, or are ready to spring into being in the 
 future, — the scientific thinker is stunned into impo- 
 tence of faith before the visions which his own spells 
 have raised. His imagination stands aghast at the enor- 
 mous distances which his sober thoughts reveal. It can- 
 not make real and practical the sublime and subtile 
 forces whose secret chains it has unlocked, nor the won- 
 drous agents which it follows backward in their sub- 
 lime evolutions, and forward to their splendid future. 
 Hence, when it comes into the very antechamber of His 
 presence, it falters and disowns, if it does not deny, the 
 God whom reason recognizes, and science requires. Or, 
 it becomes so intent upon its special activities as to en- 
 gross and narrow itself with some specialty, which is 
 fiirther from the suggestion of God than the wider and 
 freer study of Nature to which the savage is forced. 
 And yet atheism brings darkness into every mind that 
 accepts it. It may not interfere with skill and success 
 in a limited department of research ; but it is always 
 held at the expense of liberal thinking, and so far to the 
 damage of true culture. Atheism may possibly now 
 and then perfect man as a thinking and observing ma- 
 chine ; but atheism has never yet brought a single ray 
 of light into the mind, nor glow into the heart. It has 
 never added either strength or clearness to science or 
 philosophy. Theistic scientists, and men of culture, are, 
 to say the least, as brave thinkers and as broad thinkers 
 and as enlightened thinkers, each in their own depart- 
 ments, as those who deny God and Providence and 
 Prayer. But the philosopher is more than the scientist, 
 and the man is more than either ; and we fearlessly 
 assert, that, as philosophers and as men, the theists are 
 broader and braver and nobler. 
 
208 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Christ teaches no science, and inculcates no philoso- 
 phy ; and yet he is a light to both science and philoso- 
 phy, not by what he teaches, but by what he is. He 
 simply manifests God as living and personal, and fills 
 the universe to the believing imagination and the lov- 
 ing heart with a sense of his presence. He comes 
 among men in human relations, and addresses human 
 sympathies ; but in so doing, he makes the living God 
 never so near, and at a time when, to human thought, 
 he seemed never so far. He forces the imagination and 
 heart to help, rather than hinder, the reason, b}- ^^oing 
 in and out among our human habitations, and speaking 
 from human lips. He not only tells us that we have a 
 Father in heaven, but he declares that he that hath 
 seen him, hath seen the Father. He emphasizes the per- 
 sonality of God by living an intensely personal human 
 life, in order that he might carry into the realm behind 
 and beyond the sensible such an attestation of God that 
 all men forever afterward, as they should look doubt- 
 ingly into the sky, might have the courage and the war- 
 rant to say, " Our Father who art in heaven ; " and that, 
 as they should go from their prayers to their studies of 
 Nature, they might never lose sight or thought of the 
 God whom Nature hides, and yet reveals. The men of 
 science and culture, by their own confession, need this 
 help as truly ; nay, more emphatically, than the men of 
 any other times. Hence Christ is more conspicuously 
 than ever the light of the world as there stream from him 
 throughout the universe, — in the near and the far, in 
 the past and the future, — rays of intelligence and love. 
 
 In asserting that Christ in this way gives light and 
 aid to science, we do not set up Christ as a teacher of 
 science, or array blind faith against discerning reason. 
 We do not dispense with thought, or deny thought. 
 We neither resist nor reject experiment. Least of all 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 209 
 
 do Ave take the preposterous position that one set of 
 trutlis may be set over against another, and each shine 
 by its own light. We simply assert that Christ calls 
 and liolds the attention of tlie man to the truths con- 
 cerning God which science assumes and confirms with 
 such force and pathos as make it impossible for man to 
 forget or overlook them. 
 
 2. Christ confirms man's confidence in man's power 
 to know the truth. Christ teaches caution and docility, 
 and a certain quality of self-distrust ; but he couples 
 with this the quality of clear and tenacious conviction. 
 He knows nothing of that fashionable scepticism which 
 suggests that knowledge is but uncertain guess-work, 
 that thinking is a changing product of a material organ- 
 ization, that the truths of one generation are but the 
 dreams of the next, that even the axioms of science are 
 physiological phenomena, that God is a being to be 
 guessed about and never guessed aright, or that the pro- 
 cesses by which we know are as untrustworthy as the 
 processes by which we question them. All suggestions 
 of this description, which have been more or less obtru- 
 sive in all times, and were never more subtle or more 
 imposing than in these times, are utterly foreign to the 
 school of thinking in which Christ is the light. The 
 capacity of man to know the truth, and the obligation 
 of man to believe it, and to defend it, and, if need be, 
 to die for it, is most distinctly recognized, and most pos- 
 itively enforced, by him. The darkness and bewilder- 
 ment of the real or affected scepticism of modern 
 thinking find no countenance in the school of Christ. 
 Bigotry and intolerance and fanaticism and uncharita- 
 bleness may have often ventured within the doors of 
 that school ; but agnosticism and scepticism could never 
 endure the eye of the Master, who calls himself the 
 Truth, and declares, "To this end was I born, that I 
 
210 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 might bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of 
 the truth heareth my voice." It is fashionable in these 
 days to speak and think of Christian believers as com- 
 mitted to a creed, and as, therefore, incapable of new 
 ideas. To one conviction they are all committed — and 
 that is worth more than men are apt to think ; and that 
 is the conviction that truth is possible to man, and that 
 he is bound to attain it. Whatever have been the cross 
 and bewildering lights that have streamed out from 
 Christ upon the darkness of successive generations, 
 this one ray has been steady and clear. Perhaps it was 
 never more needed than now, when distrust of man's 
 capacity to know what he needs most to know has been 
 hardened into a philosophy, and consecrated into a faith, 
 and when both philosophy and faith are chanted as a 
 liturgy in the daily orisons of myriads of the devotees 
 of modern culture. 
 
 3. Christ asserts for man his true dignity and his 
 rightful place in the universe of matter and of spirit. 
 There is no single point in respect to which Christ has 
 wrought so complete a revolution as in respect to the 
 dignity and worth of the individual man. He effected 
 this change, not by teaching a new philosophy, but by 
 living a new life, and consecrating that life by his pity- 
 ing death. He came to save man, not because man was 
 wise or worthy, but because he was ignorant and lost, 
 and yet could be exalted to wisdom and holiness. 
 Therein did he declare that the lowliest and the most 
 simple have an intrinsic worth in the judgment of God, 
 such as the world had never before accorded to man as 
 man. It was the reproach of Christ, that he consorted 
 with publicans and sinners. His eating with them, 
 however, did not signify that he sympathized with them 
 as they were, but that he knew what they might be- 
 come. To accomplish his work for man, Christ not only 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 211 
 
 was found in fashion as a man, but, being such, he hum- 
 bled himself, and became obedient unto death — even 
 the death of the cross. In this he attested still more 
 strikingly what manhood, as manhood, is worth in the 
 judgment of God. It is not surprising that the light 
 that streamed from Christ's life and death slowly but 
 surely effected changes so great in all the estimates that 
 Christendom has learned to put upon man. Before 
 Christ the impulse prevailed which we feel when we 
 compare man with the infinitude of Nature, and exclaim, 
 "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
 the moon and stars which thou hast ordained, what is 
 man that thou art mindful of him, the son of man that 
 thou visitest him?" When, too, the practical and solid 
 thinkers of the old times considered man in his relations 
 to the state or to his race, they reasoned thus : " The state 
 or the race remains. The individual perishes." And 
 their hearts said, " Let him go. Of what worth is he ? " 
 As they looked at a single individual as one of scores 
 of past generations, perhaps barbarous and brutal, or of 
 they knew not how many generations in the future, 
 these cultured and godlike men said, " What is one 
 among so many, when God will surely forget every 
 one of us ? The great God could not keep us all in 
 mind, if he would ; and he would not if he could." So 
 concluded and so felt the ancient men of culture, and 
 we moderns have a thousand reasons to one of theirs 
 for similar conclusions. And yet Christ has reversed 
 all these estimates of man as a race and as an individ- 
 ual. He emphasized each man's personality by recog- 
 nizing his responsibility to himself and to his God. 
 Man, as seen in the light of Christ's presence and of 
 Christ's life, is capable of a character ; and hence he 
 has individual worth. He is a child of his Father in 
 heaven, and may be loyal, grateful, and obedient, and 
 
212 FIFTEEN TEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 hence is capable of filial communion and his Father's 
 blessing, or disobedient and ungrateful and rebellious, 
 cursing himself that he receives and deserves his 
 Father's frown. As responsible, he is capable of per- 
 sonal rights from his fellows and his Creator, as the 
 conditions of the exercise of his moral freedom, and 
 the development of that character, which is the end of 
 his being. As capable of a character, and endowed with 
 rights, he is made king over Nature, being made in 
 God's image. "Thou hast put all things under his 
 feet." The education of man is the supreme end for 
 which Nature exists, and Society goes on. In the light 
 of Christ's mission, we interpret human history as the 
 unfolding of the plan of God for the education of man. 
 This education, as soon as man is known to be a sinner, 
 becomes a story of redemption. This gives us the key 
 to a rational and a Christian philosophy of history. 
 This retrospect of the past, viewed from this stand- 
 point, opens to us the long vistas of the future in our 
 rational anticipations of human progress, and fixes our 
 confidence in the triumphs of the kingdom of God. 
 These views of the past and future for man give to all 
 the developments of science and culture, of art and 
 letters, a rational as well as a pathetic interest, because 
 of their important service in the furthering and adorn- 
 ing that tabernacle of God which shall sooner or later 
 be set up with men, when he shall dwell with them, 
 and be their God. 
 
 These conceptions and faiths concerning man's dig- 
 nity and destiny are all distinctively Christian. They 
 have slowly but surely penetrated and displaced the 
 darkness which had preceded. They have found expres- 
 sion and lodgement in the ethics, the politics, the juris- 
 prudence, the arts, and manners of Christendom. What 
 we call Christian civilization is either flower or fruit of 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 213 
 
 these fjiitlis in respect to man's place in Nature and in 
 the plan of God. 
 
 It is now proposed to change all this ; to set up a 
 new philosophy of man's place in Nature and history; 
 to find altogether another place for man, and all that 
 concerns man. Man, we are taught, is simply the prod- 
 uct of Nature, and, as such, obeys the workings of the 
 elements from which he springs. So far from being the 
 end of Nature's development, or the consummation of her 
 works, Nature makes man to destroy him, and displace 
 hhn b}^ that which is higher and better. She breaks 
 every mould and every vessel as fast as she perfects 
 them ; and, when she shall have gone through the round 
 of her struggling forces, she will cast both moulds and 
 vessels into a heap of ruins, to begin again the work of 
 evolving order from chaos. Personality in man and 
 character are poetic abstractions, which are the chance 
 growth of his environment. Right and wrong are the 
 products of social forces. Conscience is but the reflex 
 of the average judgments and the dominant sentiments 
 of the community in which we have been trained. The 
 rights of the individual man have no existence as against 
 the community, and may on occasion be properly tram- 
 pled on, as a priceless gem is shattered by a horse's hoof. 
 The history of man is a story of blind struggles, in 
 which there is no law, except that the strongest force 
 should prevail over the weaker, either singly or in com- 
 bination. Prophecy holds out no hope, except that in 
 the future the combinations of the many may work 
 more favorably for the individual ; but, if they do not, 
 we must take facts as we find them, and let our senti- 
 mentalities go, which are quite unworthy to be consid- 
 ered by a philosopher. IMan is neither the beginning 
 nor the end of the universe, and it is time that he should 
 be taught to moderate his expectations and his claims. 
 
214 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Our protests against injustice and wrong are irrational 
 emotions, as vain as they are noisy. Our indignant 
 anger against tyranny and fraud, our agonizing appeals 
 to a just God, our unquenched and unquenchable asser- 
 tions that the right must and shall triumph at the last, 
 are as insignificant of any truth or fact as the sad sigh- 
 ing of the wind-harp, or the majestic roar of the sound- 
 ing surf. 
 
 That this new philosophy of man and of his history 
 must be inhuman in its practical influence, need not be 
 argued. For a while it may recognize the beneficent 
 forces of our adjusted civilization, as sustaining the 
 equilibrium of society. It may visit the sick, and sym- 
 pathize with the poor, and educate the ignorant, and 
 defend the wronged, and seek to elevate the masses. 
 But the new science of man, in the long-run, must be 
 logical. Its practice must conform to its principles. 
 That philosophy which degrades man in its theories will 
 be prepared to oppress and despise and curse him when 
 he asserts his rights. But our danger lies not in this 
 direction. It will come, if it comes at all, from the 
 masses themselves, who are quick to receive a philos- 
 ophy that teaches them that the right of the strongest 
 is the only right which Nature sanctions, and trains them 
 to infer that, therefore, capital and civilization and cul- 
 ture and religion are all outrages against the scientific 
 view of man. May God spare any of us from witness- 
 ing the horrors that will ensue when insane enthusiasts 
 or maddened criminals act out the new views of man's 
 duty and destiny which are taught in some philosophical 
 schools ! After the scenes of horror shall be over, and 
 society shall begin to re-organize itself, we are confident 
 that Christ will be the guiding and blessing light of its 
 schools of thought. 
 
 4. Christ is the light of human culture, in that he 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 215 
 
 both stimulates and refines it. Under culture we 
 include whatever expresses human thought and feeling, 
 as art and literature and manners. We have considered 
 the light which Christ lends to theoretical and practical 
 science. We proceed, by a natural transition, to con- 
 sider its manifestations in culture. All that we need say 
 of what Christ has done in the past, is comprehended in 
 a word. So far as art and literature are concerned, we 
 may concede that Greece gave to the world the perfec- 
 tion of form , and yet we may hold that Christ breathed 
 into these forms a higher living soul, just so far as the 
 Christian spirit is better and nobler than the pagan. 
 For manners, which are kindred to art, Christ has done 
 still more than for culture. The graces of modern life 
 are more numerous and more precious than we know 
 of. Its nameless comforts, its delightful amenities, its 
 secure confidences, its precious friendships, its ingenious 
 and exhaustless devices for elegance and refinement in 
 the expression of our thoughts and feelings, we cannot 
 easily over-estimate. So far as these are Christian, they 
 are products of that unselfish, sympathizing, condescend- 
 ing, forgiving, patient Son of man who dwelt for a few 
 years in the cities and villages of Palestine, but whose 
 spirit and words, whose deeds and ways, have been ever 
 since refining all the ideals of mankind and the mani- 
 fold media by which these ideals can be expressed. No 
 sooner is Christ received in any community, no sooner 
 is there a new sense of his loving presence in a commu- 
 nity that had forgotten him, than the unbought graces of 
 life are assumed, as by a natural consequence. No 
 sooner do wealth and leisure allow, than culture is 
 accepted as a duty, and art and letters are sought for, — 
 if for no other motive than as a j^frateful homa<j:e of love 
 and honor to Christ. 
 
 But culture is exposed to its own dangers. It tends 
 
216 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 to degenerac}^ so soon and so fast as it becomes an end, 
 and not a means. Art becomes insincere and factitious, 
 eloquence affected and overstrained, literature artificial 
 and sensational, and manners untrue and exaggerated. 
 Culture is substituted for duty, or made an excuse for 
 sin, or a tempter to evil, often with insidious power and 
 terrific effects. It cannot be denied that culture in our 
 times is exposed to these evils, and that these evils are 
 serious in their influences. Some of its devotees are 
 too dainty in their tastes to do the work of life to 
 which they are called. Not a few sink into unmanly 
 fastidiousness or selfish luxuriousness. Some withdraw 
 themselves from contact with their kind in sensitive 
 timidity or proud disdain. 
 
 Christ reforms these abuses, and corrects these de- 
 generacies. He justifies no man in self-culture as an 
 end ; for in his school no man liveth to himself, and no 
 man dieth to himself. Tried by this standard, culture 
 in all its forms takes a fitting place in the estimates of 
 the individual and of the community. It is hallowed 
 by the consecration of duty. It is spiritualized and re- 
 fined by the presence and approval of the Master. The 
 school of Christ is never congenial to extravagances of 
 art, to insincerities of thouglit, to exaggerations of ex- 
 pression, or affectations of manners. When circum- 
 stances favor, cultured sensibility to beauty in Nature 
 and Art is fostered as a Christian virtue ; but extrava- 
 gances and excesses of morbid or selfish dilettanteism 
 are subdued and shamed by the very presence of Him 
 who is the light of the world. 
 
 5. Christ makes clear and possible to man another 
 and a better life. Through the opened doors of that im- 
 mortality which he has brought to light by means of his 
 gospel, there has streamed ever since a steady radiance, 
 toward which the hearts of all men have turned with 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 217 
 
 thankfulness and hope. Christ has done for immortality 
 what he has done for theism. He has not demon- 
 strated it to the reason, but he has verified it as a fact. 
 He has not superseded the necessity of searching and 
 scrutinizing its possibility or probability on grounds 
 of reason, but he has enforced these demonstrations 
 by the best attested events of human history ; and 
 he stands before tlie rational faith of men declaring 
 afresh to all the generations, ''I am He that liveth and 
 was dead," and " Behold, I am alive furevermore," and 
 " Because I live, ye shall live also." In former times 
 men were esteemed profound and aspiring and brave 
 and strong, according as they reflected about another 
 life, and longed for it, and gathered courage from it, 
 and were ennobled by it. In these times man is counted 
 shallow if he accepts it, in the light of the vastness of 
 the universe and the insignificance of man ; and sordid 
 if he derives motives from it ; and cowardly if he can- 
 not brave death without it ; and weak if he cannot 
 substitute for it the immortality of his thoughts and 
 purposes and words, as repeated in other minds. 
 
 This seems unnatural and inhuman — that at the very 
 moment when life on the earth is most attractive and 
 rich in its resources, it should be deemed a sign of the 
 wisest judgment to be content to cease to act and think 
 and aspire and enjoy, and of the most generous spirit 
 to give up the hope or certainty of consciously loving 
 and being consciously loved. It cannot be explained 
 by any ordinary theory of human nature. It is the 
 enforced product of a remorseless logic, such as tyran- 
 nizes over men of speculation, and forces them to 
 imagine they accept the conclusions to which their 
 reasonings lead. It is the cant of a clique to attempt 
 to silence the protesting outcry of every longing of 
 man with the dogmatic sneer of sentimentalism. It 
 
218 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 may be that sentimentalism has as much to do with 
 rejecting as with accepting immortality — the sentimen- 
 talism of that proud and selfish isolation, of which men 
 of thought and culture alone are capable, which disdains 
 immortality as a gift or a motive if it can be had and 
 enjoyed only in the manifold glories of an ever-present 
 God, whom the soul must adore and love, in order that 
 it may be blessed. 
 
 The fact that immortality is questioned and disdained 
 in our times by so many men of thought and culture, is 
 a striking proof that the risen and personal Christ is as 
 much needed as ever as the light of the world. When 
 science becomes more simple and earnest and compre- 
 hensive, and culture more sincere and humane, both 
 will turn again to the same Christ with an allegiance as 
 single as reason and faith when united can enforce, and 
 a love as glowing and ardent as human nature can 
 render and yet live. 
 
 6. Christ gives worth and significance to the life-work 
 of every individual man. There is a strong tendency 
 among men of science and culture to depreciate, and be 
 disgusted with, the present life. I do not know that we 
 ought to be surprised that it should be regarded with 
 weariness and disgust when viewed under certain 
 lights. If there is no God but Nature ; if Nature is 
 locked in the bonds of fate ; if knowledge itself is but 
 guess-work, or its certainties are limited to the finite 
 relations of material force and mathematical quantity ; 
 if man is but the product and the sport of agencies that 
 feel not when they seem to think ; if the activities of 
 science and the delights of culture have disappointed 
 and perhaps disgusted their votaries to satiety ; if youth- 
 ful romances and old ambitions have both been disap- 
 pointed, — then no wonder that life itself seems hardly 
 worth living, for what life itself can give. At best it 
 
TTIE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 219 
 
 becomes a dull farce or a weary tragedy ; and, whether 
 it is either, the play had better be over. If another life 
 is disbelieved as unworthy of credence, or rejected with 
 contemptuous disdain, then life is a bewildered dream, 
 from which there is no waking; and the sooner we sink 
 into a dreamless sleep, the better. The weary brain, 
 the disappointed heart, the vacant because worn-out 
 sensibilities, the wronged affections, the raging hatreds, 
 the pining envies, the embittered jealousies, long for 
 rest in the extinction of being. This creed of con- 
 tempt and despair toward our daily life is now taught 
 as a philosophy, and propagated as a gospel, by grave 
 teachers of speculative philosophy, and made attractive 
 to the imagination by poets and novelists. It is cauglit 
 up with equal ardor by frivolous romancers, to Avhom 
 life is young, and by wearied and disgusted veterans, 
 whose romances are all played out. 
 
 Christ gives worth and meaning to man's earthly life. 
 Under the light which he casts upon them, no event is 
 insignificant, no joy is empty, no sorrow could be spared. 
 The hopes and regrets of the humblest life, its suc- 
 cesses and its defeats, its strifes and its reconciliations, 
 are all appointed and all accepted as steps of discipline 
 for the immortal life to which they lead. Each minu- 
 test event is ordered by his providence. Every trivial 
 joy is hallowed and sanctioned by his smile. Each tri- 
 fling disappointment and every heart-breaking sorrow is 
 alleviated by his sympathy. To each individual man a 
 place in life is assigned, if he will be content to occupy 
 it. To every man, success in life is certain, if he rightly 
 estimates success. In the humblest dwellings, and in 
 the obscurest corners, the noblest, the most successful, 
 and the most honorable lives are lived as truly as along 
 the widest avenues and beneath the gaze of myriads of 
 admiring eyes. Every life which Christ guides by his 
 
220 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 light, and cheers by his smile, and crowns with his for- 
 giveness and his blessing, is thoroughly worth living for 
 its experiences and its rewards. 
 
 Young Crentlemen of the G-raduating Class^ — I have 
 presented to you these thoughts as appropriate to your 
 college life, which is now so near its close, and to the 
 active life upon which you are so soon to enter. You 
 have been trained in a Cliristian college, — a college bear- 
 ing upon its seal the motto Lux et Veritas, which points 
 directly to Christ as the true light which lighteth every 
 man that cometh into the world. If the positions of 
 this discourse are true, a Christian college involves no 
 contradiction in terms, and no incompatibility in fact. 
 You have not found it to imply that science is not inde- 
 pendent and free, that truth of every sort should not be 
 welcomed, that arguments from every quarter should 
 not be critically examined, and that conclusions in 
 every department of knowledge and of thought should 
 not stand or fall by appropriate evidence. But you 
 have been taught that what a man believes concerning 
 duty and God cannot but exert a powerful influence in 
 determining what kinds of truth he thinks about, and 
 how he thinks and reasons in respect to it. You have 
 been taught that no truth has relations so important to 
 abstract science, and all the sciences of Nature, as 
 Christian theism ; and that no forces have been, and are 
 still, so potent in all those sciences and forms of culture 
 which relate to man as what we call Christian ideas. 
 You have also been taught that these ideas were incar- 
 nated in the person, and lived in the life, and illustrated 
 by the death, of the Christ from whom the holiest and 
 the most attractive influences still continue to flow over 
 every interest of modern life. As you stand together 
 for the last time in this place of Christian worship, let 
 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 221 
 
 me gather these manifold and oft-repeated lessons into 
 one earnest injunction, and charge you to seek to make 
 your conceptions of the universe, of man, of culture, 
 of the future life, and the present, characteristically and 
 earnestly Christian. You cannot, and you ought not to, 
 hide from yourselves the fact that in many schools and 
 studies a bold or disguised atheism is taught and held, 
 and that, by sheer effrontery on the one side, and plau- 
 sible disguises on the other, it is moving aggressively 
 upon our current science and culture. Do not fear it. 
 Do not fear to think, lest it shall insnare or overcome 
 you. Do not fear to think by the light and help of 
 Christian convictions on the one side, and with a can- 
 did and penetrating logic on the other. Be assured, 
 that, if you do, the darkness will flee from your minds, 
 that your faith and knowledge will lend to one another 
 a blended light, which shall continue to brighten unto 
 the open vision of the perfect day. 
 
 Remember, also, that what you believe, will depend 
 very largely upon what j^ou are ; that light in your con- 
 victions and in your hopes will be more or less affected 
 by that which you follow in your lives. Listen again 
 to the words of promise and of hope : " He that fol- 
 loweth me shall not walk in darkness." How clear, how 
 sweet, how assuring, are words like these in an hour 
 like this, as you know not what is before you, and as the 
 uncertainties of the future are deepened when you look 
 forward to them through the tears which will gather in 
 the eyes which look so fondly, so regretfully, upon the 
 brightness of the past ! No more assuring words than 
 these have ever fallen upon human ears ; none from 
 lips that spoke with such claims to be believed and 
 obeyed ; none that have been confirmed by such united 
 testimony from the great hosts of Christian scholars 
 who have put these words to the proof, and found them 
 
222 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 true. Their voices are as many waters — among which 
 I hear the voice of one of your own number, so recently 
 added to the great company ; and it is that he that fol- 
 loweth Christ shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
 the light of life. 
 
 May each one of you hear this voice as the Great 
 Master utters it once more in your hearing, as he would 
 make it cast its bright beam of promise over the whole 
 of your future career ! And when your earthly life is 
 gathered into one retrospect, as you now review your 
 life in college, may you be so happy as to find that this 
 promise has been fulfilled ! These are my last and best 
 wishes for you, as 1 bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
XL 
 
 THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT* 
 
 " I "WRITE NO NEW COMMANDMENT UNTO YOU, BUT AN OLD COMMANDMENT 
 WHICH YE HAD FROM THE BEGINNING. TUE OLD COMMANDMENT IS THE WOKD 
 WHICH YE HAVE HEARD I'ROM THE BEGINNING. AGAIN, A NEW COMMANDMENT 
 1 WRITE UNTO YOU, WHICH THING IS TRUE IN HIM AND IN YOU: BECAUSE THE 
 DARKNESS IS PAST, AND TUE TRUE LIGHT NOW SHINETU." — i John U. 7, ti. 
 
 The writer of these words had witnessed the two 
 greatest marvels of human history. Ho had been con- 
 versant with the person of him who, by the confession 
 of all men, is conceded and acknowledged to have been 
 the most wonderful man who ever lived on the earth. 
 He had also observed the transforming effect upon 
 human character which was produced by associating 
 with him while he was alive, and by believing on him 
 after he was dead. The student or critic may explain 
 the fact as he chooses, but he cannot deny that Christ, 
 living and dying, has wrought the most important 
 changes in the character of millions on millions of the 
 human race, — changes in kind such as no other being 
 has ever wrought, and in energy such as can be com- 
 pared to no other. It was this moral miracle which 
 astonished the pagan world, calling their attention to 
 the new faith as it ran like a flame from one heart to 
 another. It was as though a new race of men had sud- 
 denly sprung out of the earth, or rather had been let 
 down from heaven — their desires, their affections, their 
 
 * Jane 22, 1879. 
 
 223 
 
224 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tastes, their words, and their doings, were so novel and 
 strange. With these new men came new principles. 
 A novel set of rules began to be taught and received. 
 Love your enemies, bless them that -£urse you, love not 
 the world, set your affections on things above, for me to 
 live is Christ : these, and the countless other common- 
 places that everybody is tired of hearing, were once as 
 novel as the discovery of galvanism, or as the first tele- 
 gram that flashed over the land, or beneath the sea. It 
 was light contrasted with darkness. A new sun shone 
 out. Men knew that the darkness was past, and the 
 true light had begun to shine. True, this light did not 
 at once drink up, or chase away, the darkness. It awak- 
 ened an active antagonism of both passion and opinion. 
 The old impulses struggled against the new with tena- 
 cious and bitter hostility. The old doctrines and rules 
 of life were stoutly defended against the Christian max- 
 ims. Passion and pride resisted with fierce sallies and 
 tough endurance. This conflict between the old and 
 the new has continued till now. At times it has seemed 
 to be doubtful, and it is by no means over. But the 
 new life and the new rules of life have steadily gained 
 upon the old. Christendom is far enough from being 
 thoroughly Christlike or Christian in its living and 
 thinking; but there was never a time when the aims 
 and the tastes, the loves and the hates, the principles 
 and the maxims of the human race were more Christian- 
 ized than they are at the present moment. Christian 
 thought and Christian feeling. Christian motives and 
 Christian self-sacrifice. Christian purity and refinement, 
 Christian manners and tastes. Christian philosophy, juris- 
 prudence, and literature, were never more distinctly rec- 
 ognized and fervently loved than at this moment. 
 Strange as it may seem, at the very time when the ethi- 
 cal argument for Christianity was never so strong, 
 
TUE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 225 
 
 Christianity has at this time been subjected to a pro- 
 longed series of attacks from its ethical side. These 
 attacks liave come indeed from speculative rather than 
 from practical men, from philosophers and critics rather 
 than from men who live among their fellows, and know 
 their needs and weaknesses from actual trial. But these 
 speculative attacks are none the less dangerous because 
 they come from the closets of abstract thinkers. In 
 ethics and politics the theories of one generation have 
 not infrequently, if not invariably, become the working- 
 forces of the generation that followed. On the heights 
 of speculative thought the solitary thinker has often dis- 
 covered from afar a little cloud rising above the horizon 
 which has suddenly darkened the heavens, and either 
 blessed the earth with refreshing showers, or cursed it 
 with a desolating tempest. 
 
 Let me describe briefly the objections to which I refer. 
 They proceed from opposite directions, — one asserting 
 that Christianity, so far as it is peculiar, is not old 
 enough to be from God ; the other that it is not new 
 enough to satisfy the last developments of scientific 
 thought. These positions are taken by the two anti- 
 Christian schools which are known respectively as tran- 
 scendental on the one side, and scientific on the other. 
 The first is represented by Spinoza, Kant, Theodore 
 Parker, and Francis Newman, and a liost of literary 
 men ; the second by the extreme evolutionists, whether 
 physical or spiritual, who hold that man's moral consti- 
 tution is a product of blind forces, and that moral law 
 is but the reflex and effect of social forces and institu- 
 tions. The one contends that Christianity is simply 
 love to God, and love to man ; that it is this, and noth- 
 ing more ; and, as such, is as old as the creation, and in- 
 capable of being the subject of a new connnunication 
 or any personal motives. Whether the Supreme is, or is 
 
226 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 not, a person, revelation and miracle are both impossible. 
 Christ is but an ideal transfigured by some wonderful 
 ethical catastrophe into the symbol or impersonation of 
 the law of duty and the inspiration of love. It is of no 
 consequence whether the living and loving God, whose 
 help in being good, men were wont to rely on, is, or is 
 not, beyond the sky, or whether Christ, who brought 
 God so near, is ready to pity and help. It is enough 
 that we love goodness and duty for their own sake. To 
 love them because God will smile, and Christ will save, 
 is mercenary and mean. The law of duty is an old 
 commandment which men have had from the beginning. 
 If it is worthy of man or of God, it cannot be improved, 
 nor can it be made stronger by any punishment or 
 reward. We therefore take the kernel of Christianity, 
 and cast away the shell. We accept its import so far 
 as it proclaims the old commandment of ethical truth, 
 and reject its story, and the miraculous and living Christ 
 whom the story reveals. 
 
 The school of evolution teaches that the Christian 
 ethics are worthless, because they are antiquated, and 
 incapable of meeting the exigencies of modern life. 
 They consist of a few rude practical precepts which 
 have no scientific value. They served their time well 
 enough in a practical way when society was simple, and 
 man's experience was limited; but they have neither per- 
 manence nor value for the truly scientific mind, except 
 as an instructive remnant of the past. The peculiar 
 Christian virtues are overstrained and delusive senti- 
 mentalities. As for the supernatural origination of the 
 system, this is of necessity rejected on the theory of the 
 development of every thing by natural law. The moral 
 nature of man is itself the product of social environ- 
 ment. The more advanced brutes have more than a 
 rudimentary conscience. The responsible will in man 
 
TUE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 227 
 
 or brute is only a fiction of disappointed desire, or aspir- 
 ing pride, or sensitive emulation ; the condenniing con- 
 science nothing but the fancied presence of our fellow- 
 men sitting in an imagined court of judgment and 
 award. Personality is but the gathered recollections of 
 our past experiences, or the assembled hopes of possible 
 future good. Character is the inheritance of the accu- 
 mulated tendencies for good or evil of our ancestors so 
 far as they have been inwrought into the brain-fibres, 
 added to the smaller stock of the impulses which have 
 been evoked from our own circumstances, and have 
 been embedded effectually in the few brain-cells which 
 we have grown for ourselves. Right and wrong, holi- 
 ness and sin, are but the conformity or nonconformity 
 of our acts, or it may be our impulses, to the prevailing 
 opinions of the majority — or of a minority even, if it has 
 force and skill enough to prevail. The rights of men 
 are variable quantities which change with the social 
 conditions of the community. The indignant protest 
 against wrong, the appeal to a just God who will right 
 the sufferings of the oppressed, are sentimentalities 
 which science cannot justify. The irrepressible convic- 
 tion that there is another life, coupled with the belief 
 in the moral order of the universe, are a complicated 
 tangle of exaggerated emotions which are rejected by 
 the stern teachings of scientific truth. There is no 
 future life. All the analogies of nature and the teach- 
 ings of development require us to be satisfied with the 
 merging of our personal being into higher potencies of 
 thought and feeling in the mind of succeeding genera- 
 tions. I am well aware that not a few who hold this 
 theory of ethical phenomena insist that this is only an 
 explanation of their scientific relations, and in no sense 
 inconsistent with the practical control of the most fervid 
 and most elevated emotions and principles. This is 
 
228 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 doubtless true. Some of the best and purest of men have 
 accepted the most destructive and dangerous theories. 
 It is equally true, on the other hand, that the logic of 
 any false theory of life and society is certain to be 
 applied sooner or later to its legitimate conclusions by 
 the great mass of those who accept it. It would seem 
 that such a theory as I have described, which resolves 
 duty and conscience and retribution and God and im- 
 mortality into these chance growths of social environ- 
 ment, must rob them of their power to elevate and 
 restrain, with any man whose heart and mind are not 
 controlled by the tenacious remnants of a better ethical 
 creed. For men of one idea and limited experience, a 
 theory like this might become a maddening creed that 
 would incite to any sensual indulgence, or justify any 
 crime. 
 
 Christianity is in our times subjected to the double 
 strain that its peculiar claims are disproved by the 
 charge that as a moral force it is either not old enough 
 or not new enough to Avarrant the confidence of men. 
 Against both these views I would urge that it has with 
 it all the wealth and prestige of the past, and all the 
 promise of the future. It is at once an old and a new 
 commandment, and can never be dispensed with as an 
 agency for man's moral progress. In support of this 
 view I would observe, — 
 
 1. The Christian ethics are as old and as permanent 
 as the very nature of man. They recognize man as 
 imposing upon himself the law of duty by the very 
 necessity of his being. He does this as naturally as he 
 eats, sleeps, or breathes. The human powers may 
 indeed be neglected and misused ; but so soon as a man 
 calls them into action, he becomes a law unto himself. 
 The import of this law is also clear and uniform so far 
 as any man honestly applies it. Christianity does not 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 229 
 
 teach that every man expresses this law in language, or 
 draws it out in detail, any more than it assumes or 
 declares that he assents to the simple axioms of geom- 
 etry, but it teaches and implies that the moral law is as 
 old and self-evident and as sacred as man himself. In 
 one sense, indeed, it is taught by parents and teachers ; 
 but the teacher instructs the pupil by telling him what 
 he will find written on his own heart. He simply bids 
 him look within, and asserts what he will find if he looks 
 patiently and carefully. The doctrine of Christianity 
 upon these points is summed up in the words, " He hath 
 showed thee, O man! what is good." '^ These having 
 not the law, are a law unto themselves." This law not 
 only respects the desires and purposes of men, but 
 extends to their actions. It finds certain relations hold- 
 ing men together in the family, in the state, by friend- 
 ship and gratitude, by promises or contracts. These 
 impose duties and limits which all men acknowledge to 
 be sacred and binding. Wherever we find duty written 
 of, we find these duties uniformly recognized as sacred. 
 Whether it is by Socrates or Buddha, Confucius or 
 Moses, Solomon or Isaiah, or by the newest moralist of 
 modern times, we find the same special duties uniformly 
 enforced as binding. The code of Christianity differs 
 from all the oldest codes, only in concerning itself with 
 the inmost desires and purposes, and in directing every 
 word and action. Every system of ethics, however 
 defective or perverse, moves in the same direction with 
 the Christian. The primal duties shine aloft like stars; 
 and even when lust has been excused, and passion stim- 
 ulated, and crime sanctioned, by a corrupt code, it has 
 always been under the sacred name of country, or friend, 
 or benefactor, or confederate, that sin and crime have 
 been permitted or commanded in the name of duty. 
 It should not be forgotten that Christianity, like all 
 
230 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 the older moralities, enforces duty by religion, not only 
 recognizing certain duties owing to the Deity, but 
 acknowledging God as a moral ruler and judge. While 
 it finds the measure of duty in the nature of man, and 
 enforces it by the conscience of men, it recognizes God 
 as the enforcer of moral law. The idea that God is not 
 a personal being, and holds no personal relations with 
 man, is peculiar to modern times. It is a novelty un- 
 known of old. The Christian ethics never dreams that 
 for God to reward the good, or punish the wicked, is to 
 detract from the purity or energy of either holiness or 
 sin. No more do any of the ancient systems. They 
 are all positively, intensely, and earnestly religious ; and 
 Christianity is like them in this. I need not say at 
 present in what respects it is unlike them. It is no dis- 
 honor to the Christian ethics, to find in it a close rela- 
 tionship between them and the systems and rules of duty 
 which have formed the manners and morals of the great 
 nations of the past, and which are at this moment mould- 
 ing the character of millions of our race to whatever of 
 virtue and culture they attain. All these systems are 
 founded on our common nature as men. They recog- 
 nize common relations between man and man, and man 
 and God. They propose to train man to self-control, to 
 active service and sacrifice for his fellow-men, to obe- 
 dience to the known or unknown deity in whom we 
 live, and into whose presence death will bring us. The 
 common testimony of the best of all the old systems is 
 expressed in the words, " He hath showed thee, O man ! 
 what is good ; and what does the Lord require of thee 
 but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with God ? " " God is no respecter of persons ; but in 
 every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh right- 
 eously, is accepted with him." 
 
 2. Christianity, though an old, was also a new, com- 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 231 
 
 manclment. It was new in its conceptions of ideal 
 human excellence. The old morality, Judaism included, 
 never attained such an exemplification of what human 
 nature could become as Christ furnished by living a 
 perfect human life. The old law said, " Be ye holy, for 
 I am holy." But what it was to be holy, no living man 
 had ever known for himself, or shown to others. Christ 
 said, '' Be ye perfect, for your Father in heaven is per- 
 fect." The precept was good, but it was abstract. The 
 world had never seen a holy or a perfect man, and did 
 not dream of the possibilities of human nature when at 
 its best. It needed a concrete exemplar ; and, as one 
 new precept after another dropped like honey from 
 Christ's lips, his very look and tone gave effect to the 
 utterance. The living illustration of his words by his 
 life gave wondrous power to his speech. 
 
 Such an illustration was especially needed, and espe- 
 cially powerful in bringing out the attractions of the 
 characteristically Christian virtues. We read the serene 
 and humane meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and as we 
 ponder on the sweet but sad thoughts of this imperial 
 sympathizer with his kind, — this ruler of the world, who 
 was depressed because he was not more completely 
 master over himself, — we are struck with the impotence 
 of his more than half Christian spirit to attract the world 
 by its beauty. Hundreds and thousands of such saints 
 may have lived in the darkness of heathenism, whose 
 lives have failed to lend subduing force to their words. 
 Christ illustrated his own precepts in detail ; and his 
 winning example gave a charm to every one of those 
 virtues which had otherwise been endured with super- 
 cilious contempt, or rejected with angry scorn. His 
 words are sweet to our ear ; but had not Christ lived 
 them out in his own life, even Ms own words, mani- 
 foldly more sweet and touching than the words of the 
 
232 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE ClIAPEL. 
 
 emperor, would never have attained their deserved 
 honor. 
 
 The Christian ethics are pre-eminently new in being 
 taught by principles, while their application was left 
 to varying circumstances. All moral teachers before 
 Christ had been precise and uncompromising in propor- 
 tion to their earnestness. Christ bade his disciples cut 
 off the right hand, and pluck out the right eye, rather 
 than sin with either, but he warned as earnestly against 
 severe and censorious judgments in respect to particu- 
 lar actions. These few precepts of his have furnished 
 materials for volumes of what is called scientific moral- 
 ity; or, rather, if they had been understood, they would 
 have prevented many such volumes from encumbering 
 the libraries, and vexing the consciences, of the past. 
 The observance of them would have saved Christendom 
 the protracted curses of the religious wars with which 
 it has dishonored its Master, and the persecutions with 
 which his professed followers have disgraced his faith, 
 and the belittling controversies that have vexed and 
 wasted its life. The fact that the world has been so 
 slow to understand the result of these principles, is the 
 most satisfying testimony of their originality. The 
 variety and reach of Christ's precepts, especially when 
 enforced by his rounded and peculiar life, also stamp 
 his teachings as new. We have heard much of late of 
 single sayings of wise rabbis, which sound singularly 
 like detached utterances of our Lord ; and the inference 
 has been rashly drawn, that his own teachings were 
 nothing new for those times. We forget, that, had not 
 Christ availed himself of these utterances of the wise 
 men of his nation, he would not have taught as a man, 
 and overlook altogether the special use he made of the 
 thoughts which he quoted from others, as also the 
 wealth of the many original sayings which fell from his 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 233 
 
 lips, and, above all, the force which these sayings gained 
 from his life. 
 
 It still remains to be said, what is very hard for some 
 in these days to appreciate or believe, and hardest for 
 some to receive, that the new and strange power of 
 Christianity, as an ethical system, was derived from the 
 person of its author. It was Christ himself who gave 
 their peculiar and unexhausted energy to his teachings 
 and his life. Two things the world had waited for, — 
 a knowledge of duty, and a willingness to perform it ; 
 or, in other words, a true and solid theory of ethics, and 
 a strong impulse to translate it into action. Before the 
 time of Christ, whatever impulse had been felt had 
 come from religion. No student of history doubts that 
 tills has always been the most potent factor in the eth- 
 ical life, whether for good or for evil. No one who 
 traces the first beginning of Christianity, can doubt that 
 the new moral life which vivified the world proceeded 
 directly from the risen Christ, who, from that moment, 
 claimed and received the best homage which the world 
 could give. The precepts which Christ uttered in his 
 lifetime, winning as they were, had fallen powerless 
 from his lips, even when enforced by the charm and 
 dignity of his personal presence ; but when the precepts 
 which Christ had taught, and the inspiration which he 
 had lived, were glorified by the radiance which streamed 
 from his throne, his words became tlie world's law, and 
 his example inspired the world's life. Then, and only 
 then, could it be said, "The darkness is past, and the 
 true light now shineth." It was the ascended Christ 
 who had honored the life of self-sacrifice and meekness, 
 and self-control and faith, and honor and purity and 
 self-distrust, — who had gone to an agonizing death for 
 the world's welfare, full of pity for its perverseness, 
 breathing out a prayer with the last gasp of life for its 
 
234 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 forgiveness, returning again to life that he might re- 
 assure his bewildered followers that he was the same to 
 them here and there, in the spiritual as in the earthly 
 sphere, and a second time making himself manifest by 
 spiritual influences, that made heroes ot every man of 
 them. It was this majestic being who forever after- 
 wards testified of himself, " I am he that liveth and was 
 dead ; and behold, I am alive forevermore." It was this 
 living person that henceforth began to remodel the 
 world's philosophy of duty, and to breathe a resistless 
 energy into its renewed ethical life. The Sermon on 
 the Mount, with its many new and strange sayings, 
 astonished and moved those who heard its utterances. 
 The teacher taught as one having authority indeed. 
 But the words came and went, only arresting here and 
 there a listener. But when the same teachings sounded 
 from the clouds that gathered about the ascending Son 
 of God, they were ever afterwards echoed and re-echoed 
 in all the schools that sought after true wisdom. These 
 reverberations of answering assent were never so hearty 
 and so manifold as now. The response of the whole 
 world, whether unbelieving or believing, is, "These 
 words are true and beautiful. Whoever thou art, O mys- 
 terious One ! to whom shall we go but unto thee ? thou 
 hast the words of eternal life." 
 
 All candid men will own that this faith in Christ's 
 personal authority gave energy to Christ's teachings and 
 example. No man thinks of denying that this, and this 
 alone, explains the wonderful change in the world's 
 thinking in respect to the ideas and rules of duty which 
 began in the first century. All will admit that it has 
 been sustained and revivified by this faith till now, and 
 that for the present the majority of men are as greatly 
 in need of it as ever. 
 
 And yet many propose to dispense with it for them- 
 
TUE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 235 
 
 selves and for others, because, forsooth, a man who is 
 enlightened to see tlie attractions, and feel the force, of 
 duty, is quite able to dispense with personal considera- 
 tions. He is, or ought to be, above all sentimentality. 
 Moreover, the enforcement of duty by any personal 
 motives, the appeal to hope or fear, the promise and the 
 threat, introduce a degrading and immoral alloy into 
 the motives of men, which, though necessary for a sea- 
 son, cannot be accepted as a permanent element in 
 the ethics of Christ when understood in their newest 
 import. 
 
 All this is urged against the admitted fact standing 
 out in the boldest relief, that till now the world's moral- 
 ity has derived its strongest impulses from Christ as 
 sent from God, and that the person of Christ, either as 
 a reality or a symbol, was never held in such honor 
 as now. In theory it is equally weak when a man be- 
 thinks himself that personality in man and God is the 
 highest and noblest form of existence and activity, and 
 that moral relations, if they mean any thing, are em- 
 phatically personal. If they concern man's duties to 
 himself, commanding and forbidding — rewarding and 
 punishing himself, in the solemn court which conscience 
 sets up in every man's being ; or if they concern man's 
 duties to his fellows, — they introduce a wider range 
 of similar experiences. It is true the final appeal is to 
 the court in a man's own breast whenever a conflict 
 arises through human infirmity and passion. But even 
 then the individual conscience must assume that the 
 unbiased and final judgment of his fellow-men and of 
 God coincides with his own. But for dependent man 
 to exclude God from the workings of his moral nature 
 on the ground that he has no favors to ask, no help to 
 receive, no sympathy to accept, no guidance to welcome, 
 no communion to maintain with him who gave him 
 
236 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 existence, and renews the springs of life ; or for a man 
 to accept God in his intellectual tlieoiy of duty, and to 
 reject Christ as the quickener of his moral life, in face 
 of the testimony of this eighteenth century of the 
 world's experience of what faith in Christ has done for 
 it, and on the ground that he prefers, or finds it easy, to 
 be a good man without any extraneous aids, — is, to say 
 the least, a position that has no scientific justification. 
 The facts of man's nature are as we find them. We 
 did not create them. Our scientific theory of nature 
 and of life carmot alter them. Our fond ideals and 
 ideal wishes will not set them aside. We are fearfully 
 imperfect. We need forgiveness and help and comfort. 
 We cannot find these in ourselves or in our fellow-men, 
 nor in any more favorable conditions of life. No new 
 social adjustments can man make better, however con- 
 venient and beneficial they may be to a certain degree. 
 We need God, the living God, as a personal force. 
 Has he come to us in Christ ? What has he not done 
 for the world ? What is he not to do for it ? If this 
 new force is to be withdrawn, and the Christ who was 
 once living is to be proved never to have lived — if the 
 risen Christ, to whom the world has looked up in wor- 
 ship until it has so far been lifted out of its passion and 
 its pride, is no longer to inspire its moral life, then it 
 must sink back to the slow and desperate processes of 
 self-redemption, and the old story must continue to be 
 repeated of fruitless struggles ending in despair. 
 
 3. The Christian ethics since the beginning have been 
 developed in new forms of truth, and new manifestations 
 of power. The triumph of truth of every kind, espe- 
 cially of ethical truth, is to be measured by the number 
 of men who receive it, the strength of conviction with 
 which they hold it, and the energy of love with which 
 they are ready to sacrifice and die for it. When Christ 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 237 
 
 left the earth, although the love to his person was strong, 
 the range of conviction concerning Christian duty was 
 narrow. If we leave out of view the supernatural 
 inspiration which followed, and look at the believing 
 Church, when it was left to itself, and compare Christen- 
 dom as it was with what Christendom has become as to 
 its intelligent aj)prehension of Christian truth and the 
 application of it to the Christian life, how marvellous 
 has been its progress, how constant the renewal of its 
 life, and how varied and countless its widening, deepen- 
 ing knowledge of what Christianity can make of man, 
 and requires every man to become! The oldest moral- 
 ity, so far as it recognized the nature of man as in some 
 sense enforcing duty, implied the dignity of the indi- 
 vidual. But how imperfectly and inconsistently was 
 this held by the best of these older systems I Every one 
 of them limited these recognitions to the boundaries of 
 the state, and never dreamed that common manhood 
 imposed common duties, and justified the assertion of 
 common rights. Even after Clirist had enforced this 
 truth by his life and death, how slow were Christian 
 philosophers and jurists to accept it in the broad sig- 
 nificance of its truth, and the wide reach of its applica- 
 tions ! Slowly but surely the Church went on, often 
 stupidly ignorant of the foundation principles of its 
 moral life, and ferociously resisting their application ; 
 and yet as one hard question of duty after another has 
 been thrown into the furnace of discussion, the inward 
 force of Christian love and the potent solvent of Chris- 
 tian logic have finally reduced the toughest prejudices, 
 till in an instant the fiowing metal has taken the shape 
 of a new truth, with a new and permanent life. We 
 do not say that Christian men, and indeed the whole 
 Christian Church, have not at times resisted heartily and 
 successfully many legitimate, simple, and obiious appli- 
 
238 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CnAPEL. 
 
 cations of the first principles of Christian duty, but we 
 do assert that it has uniformly yielded to manifested 
 truth, and in this way has been constantly renewing 
 and deepening its ethical convictions. That it should 
 have been allowed to err, and bitterly suffer for it ; that 
 it should have fought the truth which it afterward con- 
 fessed and defended, — is an incident of its human limita- 
 tions. But that it should constantly renew the clearness 
 of its insight, and the fervor of its conviction, was dis- 
 tinctly foretold by its author, and has been fulfilled in 
 the history of Christendom. 
 
 Again, the force of Christ's personal life has also 
 renewed its energy. We have adverted to what this 
 influence must have been during the first generation 
 upon those who loved Christ with human tenderness, 
 and whose eyes followed him with amazed worship as he 
 was taken up from their sight. The energy of their life 
 gave to the love of these disciples the impulse which 
 was needed to root it in the heart of humanity. Since 
 then it has followed the laws of earthly conflict, and 
 been subject to varied human vicissitudes. The inspirer 
 of the best human affections has not come again in per- 
 son-, though many in fancy and in hope have waited to 
 see him. But all this while he has been present in the 
 earth, through the lives of saintly men and women, in 
 whose bright example men have seemed to catch a glow- 
 ing reflection of his personal presence, and whose every 
 wish and aim have been a renewal of the Master's pres- 
 ence and image. It was the Master himself who said, 
 " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so I send 
 them into the world." It is but the sober truth to say, 
 that through every living Christian disciple, and through 
 the united community of Christlike souls, during the 
 progress of the Christian centuries, there lias been con- 
 stantly flowing the active and irrepressible energy of 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 239 
 
 Christ's personal life. In every household, however 
 humble, where there has been a lovhig Christian mother, 
 or a patient Christian child ; in every hamlet, however 
 profane and godless, where there has been a single loyal 
 servant of the Master ; in every high place of power or 
 wealth or learning, to which Christ has given added 
 lustre and dignity ; in every low and dark place, where 
 Christian virtues have sparkled like diamonds, — there 
 has been the energy of the living Christ. In view of the 
 self-sacrifice of the Master, it has been the strength of 
 the disciple to say, " The disciple is not above his Mas- 
 ter, nor the servant above his Lord." In view of the 
 peculiar dignity of his calling to represent his Master, 
 it has been his glory to say, " It is enough that tlie 
 disciple should be as his Master, and the servant as his 
 Lord." 
 
 If, in this view of the matter, we ask whether the 
 person of Christ, as responded to in the convictions of 
 men and reflected in their lives, has been renewing its 
 power, we have this answer to give : It is but the sober 
 truth to say that there never was a time, when, in the 
 most solid of these convictions, the person of Christ 
 was held in such devoted esteem, or his name invested 
 with more fragrant associations, or his example followed 
 with a more faithful conscientiousness, or enforced by 
 the bright and varied attractions of so many humble 
 and loving followers. We deplore, and with reason, 
 the decay of faith in respect to many points of greater 
 and minor importance. The minds of men, especially 
 of thinking and reading men, are, indeed, unsettled in 
 regard to the most vital truths, such as the personality 
 of God, and tlie reality of liis manifestation in Christ. 
 In the struggles between darkness and light, the gather- 
 ing cloud often rolls up for an instant in tlireatening 
 form, and seems for a moment to shut out forever the 
 
240 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 sun of the universe, even from the telescopic eye of 
 science. Wave after wave of cloud moves against the 
 sacred form of the world's Redeemer and Lord. For an 
 instant, it may seem to some that he has vanished for- 
 ever. But we look again, and lo ! from out of these 
 passing clouds his form again emerges, steadfast, serene, 
 more bright and beautiful than ever from the back- 
 ground of darkness ; and it is greeted with a new shout 
 of welcome, which reveals the devoted strength of the 
 faith of men in God and Christ, and the inextinguish- 
 able ardor of their loyalty and love. 
 
 4. Christianity, both as a law and force, has the 
 capacity and promise of a progressive renewal in the 
 future. It has the capacity for constant development 
 and progress. It can never be outgrown, because its 
 principles are capable of being applied to every exigency 
 of human speculation and action. It can never be dis- 
 pensed with, because man can never be independent of 
 God, the living God ; and in the fierce trials which are 
 yet before him, he may find greater need than ever of 
 God as revealed in Christ. That such trials are to 
 come, we do not doubt. We cannot predict what new 
 strains are to be brought upon our individual or social 
 life. There are signs that the bonds of faith and rever- 
 ence, of order and decency, of kindliness and affection, 
 which have so long held men together, are to be weak' 
 ened, perhaps withered, by the dry-rot of confident and 
 conceited speculation, or consumed by the fire of human 
 passion. It is not impossible that society may be con- 
 vulsed by the heaving earthquake from beneath, or the 
 whirling: tornado from the air. We cannot tell to what 
 new forms of questioning the received truths of faith 
 may be subjected, or how far speculation and history 
 and criticism may lead to new interpretations of nature 
 and Christ and human duty. But this much we do 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 241 
 
 know, — that every change through which Christianity 
 has been conducted in the past, has served to bring out 
 in bolder relief and brighter radiance the great verities 
 that from the first have been esteemed as the essentials 
 of Christian truth and duty. Old formulas of doctrine 
 have indeed been more or less modified, or have re- 
 ceived new interpretations. History and criticism have 
 thrown a glare of new light upon the Scriptures, which 
 has been sometimes so bright as to expose strange and 
 unexpected shadows. Science has penetrated the con- 
 stitution of nature, and unrolled the mysterious pages of 
 its history, and started many as yet unanswered ques- 
 tions in respect to the mutual relations of matter and 
 S2:>irit, of nature and of God. But man remains the 
 same in his nature, his needs, and his duties, in his 
 weakness and strength, in his hopes and his fears, and 
 therefore the old religion stands. 
 
 The old commandment has been continually renew- 
 ing its life by new developments and new interpreta- 
 tions, by new illustrations and new applications, and 
 yet it is the same old commandment still. The newest 
 science, the newest criticism, the newest forms of practi- 
 cal ethics, the newest political wisdom, in one way or 
 other re-affirm the law originally written on the human 
 heart, the law re-affirmed by Moses, the grace and truth 
 that came by Jesus Christ. We believe that in the 
 future, whether our progress is to be in sunshine or in 
 storm, whether it is to be by discussion in the closet 
 and the forum, or by strife on the battle-field of civil 
 or social war, whether the new lessons are to be gently 
 distilled as the dew, or revealed by lightning and tem- 
 l)est, men are continually to renew their convictions in 
 the great truths which God upholds by his power, and 
 Christ was revealed to enforce, — the personal responsi- 
 bility and freedom of man, the sacredness of human 
 
242 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 duty, the nearness of man to God, the certainty and 
 awfulness, the reasonableness and equity, of future 
 retribution, the excellence of the life that Christ has 
 exemplified, and the assured triumphs of the kingdom of 
 light. 
 
 But we also believe, that as men shall be more and 
 more assured of these common truths, and be more con- 
 cerned with their application to the lives of their fellow- 
 men ; as they are more entranced with a deepening and 
 glowing love for the living and the loving Christ ; as 
 they become more generous, tolerant, and loving, — they 
 will enlarge their knowledge of the manifold applica- 
 tions of Christian truth and dut}^ While these, the old 
 foundations, will remain unchanged, new structures of 
 beauty and of state will rise, such as the world has 
 never dreamed of, in the philosophy, the literature, the 
 art, the manners, the jjolitics, the trade, which Chris- 
 tianity shall transfigure by its enlightened and loving 
 spirit, and employ in nobler uses, and electrify with 
 resistless energy. 
 
 We believe also, that the new examples of Christian 
 character which shall be formed under these favoring 
 influences will renew and intensify the image of the 
 Master. The gathered strength of public opinion shall 
 unite communities of men in representing at every turn 
 the purifying and ennobling presence of Christ. Chris- 
 tianized households and schools and villages and cities 
 shall use science and art and letters and civilization as 
 ready servitors and constant witnesses for the living 
 Christ. The tabernacle of God shall be with men ; and 
 he will dwell with them when the last commandment 
 has been reached, and man and human society have com- 
 pleted the development which the plan of God has 
 provided, and the redeeming love of Christ shall surely 
 accomplish. 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 243 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — These 
 truths are not unfamiliar to your thoughts. The ques- 
 tions which I have endeavored to answer, spring into the 
 minds of all thinking men at the present time. They 
 force themselves upon the attention of all who are con- 
 versant with the course of speculation now abroad in 
 the world. Development and progress are the watch- 
 words of the hour. In science and letters, in every 
 field of research and of culture, the demand is for some- 
 thing new, and the supply as constantly meets the 
 demand. So many new and startling speculations have 
 of late been accepted, and so many old and venerable 
 theories displaced in the most solid minds, while history 
 and criticism have as frequently defended such surpris- 
 ing conclusions, that it is not unnatural that the student 
 who is introduced suddenly to this imposing array of 
 novel speculations, and confronted with the confident 
 asseverations of brilliant theorists, should ask in earnest 
 and sad misgiving, Is every thing old to go which men 
 have trusted ? Must theism be abandoned because it is 
 antiquated, and Christ be denied because the time-spirit 
 can no longer find occasion for him ? Is human person- 
 ality dissolved by the last analysis? Has the conscience 
 which makes cowards of us all been itself frightened 
 away at the last word of the comparative physiologist ? 
 Is morality only a sentiment, and this the changing 
 product of habit and environment? Are worship and 
 prayer and natural piety to dry up or die out of the 
 soul under the keen and searching eyes of science and 
 criticism ? On the other hand, if we believe, must we 
 accept a formulated tradition, or a stiff and scholastic 
 dogma, or an unnatural morality? Did the living God 
 speak from Sinai thousands of years ago, and has noth- 
 ing new been commanded, or can nothing new be inferred 
 as to his will ? Did Christ exhaust the limits of the code 
 
244 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 of practical morality in the exact words which he 
 uttered, leaving nothing to be inferred in respect to 
 special duties in the broad light of the rich and mani- 
 fold experiences of modern life, and the complicated 
 structures of modern society? 
 
 To these and all questions like them, I have endeav- 
 ored on this occasion to furnish a comprehensive an- 
 swer. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 
 This is as pertinent to living truths as to living souls. 
 Christ declares of himself, " I make all things new. I 
 am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. 
 The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." 
 
 Go forth into life, carrying with you the firm convic- 
 tion that faith in God and duty, in Christ and his cause, 
 is not only justified, but required by the most liberal 
 and the profoundest philosophy. Suspect of haste and 
 charlatanism all those conclusions which are at war with 
 the old humanities and the venerable faiths on which 
 Christendom has stood so solidly for centuries, and 
 through which men have prayed and worshipped and 
 done heroic service for these several generations. Be 
 assured also that these faiths are not dead traditions, 
 but living germs which are capable of growth and 
 expansion, and of varied adaptation to every demand of 
 human experience. 
 
 Remember above all, as the one condition of safety, 
 that faith is fidelity to a living person, and that Chris- 
 tian faith is fidelity to Christ. Stand strongly in fervent 
 and hearty loyalty to him, and you may safely leave 
 manifold questions to settle themselves. Do not be mere 
 lookers-on in this day of hesitating and over-curious 
 unbelief. No mere spectators are allowed : no sneering 
 doubters, no captious critics, no self-conceited dogma- 
 tists of unbelief, have any place in the kingdom of Christ 
 and of God. Strong and hearty conviction can only 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD COMMANDMENT. 245 
 
 come of earnest feeling and practical self-consecration. 
 Whatever you believe, translate most vigorously into 
 your life. Be ambitious of one thing, — that you may 
 be permitted to show some special and effective mani- 
 festation of the Master in the individual life which you 
 may live. In this way you cannot fail of a successful 
 life. Your convictions will become fixed, because they 
 are enlightened : they will be rooted in your own being, 
 because they will have grown with your life. They will 
 be simple yet strong, tolerant yet unshaken, full of 
 mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without 
 hypocrisy. Seek for a faith like this, and you shall cer- 
 taiidy find it. Fight the good fight of faith, and you 
 shall surely lay hold of eternal life. 
 
 These are my best wishes and my parting blessing as 
 I bid you farewell. 
 
XII. 
 AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR* 
 
 " Having no hope and without God in the world." — Eph. ii. 12. 
 
 This descriptive phrase, when condensed to its 
 utmost, might be read thus : Hopeless because Godless. 
 Each of these epithets is sufficiently significant when 
 taken alone. When coupled together, their force is 
 more than doubled. To be godless is to fail to ac- 
 knowledge him whom men naturally own. It is to 
 refuse to worship the Creator and Father in heaven, 
 whom all the right-minded and loyal-hearted instinc- 
 tively reverence. It is to forsake God, and therefore te 
 be God-forsaken^ as the homely phrase is ; that is, to 
 be a man whom the sunshine warms with no heat, and 
 the rain blesses with no refreshment, because, in the 
 wide world which God has made, he finds no living and 
 loving God. No wonder that such a man has no hope, 
 — that he is classed with those to whom " hope never 
 comes, that comes to all." 
 
 The condition of the persons here referred to was 
 simply negative. They are described as without God, 
 and without hope. Possibly they did not deny, or dis- 
 believe in, God. They might have been so occupied 
 with the world itself in its brightness and beauty, that 
 God was absent from all their thinking. Possibly, one 
 
 * June 27, 1880. 
 246 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 247 
 
 or another might have had daring enough to say, there 
 is no God. Perhaps, thougli not proba])ly, in those 
 times, some of them held that God could not be known, 
 and invested this dogma with a religious halo, to 
 which they responded with mystic wonder. But to 
 them all, there was no God ; and with them all there 
 was no hope. So wrote our apostle, out of his fresh 
 and vivid experience of the hope which had come to 
 him from the new and vivid manifestation of God to 
 himself, as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, — a 
 hope which thrilled every fibre of his being with elec- 
 tric life. Since his time, men in all generations have 
 been transported with the same joyous hope. And just 
 so often as God has been forgotten or denied, has hope 
 left the hearts and habitations of men. But, in all 
 these times, ignorance of God has been more commonly 
 regarded as a calamity or a sin. In our days, as is well 
 known, it comes to us in a new form. Ignorance of 
 God is now taught as a necessity of reason. The un- 
 knowableness of God has been formulated into a Philos- 
 ophy. It has even been defended as a Theology, and 
 hallowed as a Religion. The sublimation of rational 
 piety has been gravely set forth as that blind wonder 
 which comes from man's conscious and necessary igno- 
 rance of God. In contrast with this new form of wor- 
 ship, the confident joyousness of the Christian faith 
 has been called, '' The impiety of the pious ; '' and 
 the old saying has almost re-appeared in a new guise, 
 that, even for a philosopher, " Ignorance is the mother 
 of devotion." 
 
 I do not propose to argue concerning the truth or 
 falsehood of these doctrines. I shall spend no time 
 in discussing the logic or philosophy of the atheistic 
 agnosticism which is somewhat currently taught and re- 
 ceived at the present time. I shall simply treat of it in 
 
248 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 its practical tendency : as being destructive of hope in man, 
 and therefore necessarily teyiding to the degradation of 
 mans nature, and the lowering of his life, I observe, — 
 1. That without God, there is no well-grounded hope 
 for science. This may seem to be a very daring or a 
 very paradoxical assertion. There is more truth in it, 
 however, than appears at first sight. Inasmuch as it is 
 in the name of science that ignorance of God is exalted 
 into supreme wisdom, it may be worth while to inquire 
 what the effect upon science would be, could it cast out 
 God from all its thinking. I say, could it do this ; for it 
 would be very hard for it to succeed should it try ever 
 so earnestly. Our newly fledged agnostics are apt to 
 forget that all our modern science has been prosecuted 
 in the broad and penetrating sunlight of faith in one 
 living and personal God, — that not a single theory has 
 been proposed, or experiment tried in nature, except 
 with the distinct recognition of the truth, that a wise 
 and loving mind at least mag uphold and direct the 
 goings-on of nature. The most passionate atheist can- 
 not deny that this is the conviction of most of the liv- 
 ing and breathing men about him. The most restrained 
 agnostic cannot but know and feel that the theory which 
 he strives to cherish is rejected by most of tlie women 
 and children in Christendom, who look up into the sky, 
 and walk upon the earth. The simple teachings of Chris- 
 tian theism are capable of being expanded into the 
 grandest conceptions that science ever attempted to 
 formulate, — conceptions so grand, that human reason 
 is overwhelmed with their sublime relationships, and 
 the human imagination is dazed to blindness when it 
 would make them real. The first proposition of the 
 Creed, which the infant pronounces with confiding sim- 
 plicity, " I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker 
 of heaven and earth," is easily expanded into those 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DKSrAIIi. 249 
 
 conceptions that the man necessarily and intuitively 
 accepts as the background upon which science traces all 
 its formuhe and axioms, and by which it connects its 
 theories, and proceeds to its conclusions. 
 
 That science must have both faith and hope, appears, 
 ■whether we consider it as an interpreter^ an historian^ or 
 a prophet. Science is first of all an interpreter. Though 
 it begins with fiicts, it does not end with facts. Though 
 it begins with the seen, it looks beneath the visible, and 
 strives after the invisible. So soon as it compares and 
 explains, it connects phenomena, and interprets events, 
 by forces and laws, by hypotheses and theories. Let it 
 test its theories by experiments a thousand times re- 
 peated, what it tests is something it has gained by inter- 
 pretation ; that is, something not seen, but believed. 
 Following the unseen along the lines of interpreting 
 thought, science is inevitably, even if reluctantly, led 
 into the very presence of a thinking God. 
 
 Having gained some insight into the present by this 
 process, science applies this insight in the form of historf/^ 
 going backwards into the remotest past, and unrolling 
 its records, whether these are written on indestructible 
 tables of stone, or suggested by the casual deposits of 
 heaps of refuse. But history of every kind, even of 
 nature, is interpreted force and law ; and force, to be 
 interpreted by law, must be orderly in its actings ; and 
 order in nature, if it does not require a directing God, 
 is, to say the least, best explained by such a God. 
 Especially if the great law of evolution or development 
 is accepted, and so a long story of progress is traced in 
 the past, there emerges and shapes itself into being a 
 continuous plan, a comprehensive thought wide enough 
 to embrace all the events which have successively ger- 
 minated into being, and long enough to provide for 
 their gradual successioii. This requires a single mind as 
 
250 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 wide as that of one forecasting God, and as unwearied 
 as his understanding. 
 
 But science is also a prophet. It revels in its confi- 
 dence in the future. Science believes that its interpreta- 
 tions of the present, and its solutions of the past, will be 
 surpassed by the discoveries that are to be; that both 
 nature and man shall continue as heretofore, obeying 
 the same laws as from the beginning ; that the revela- 
 tions already made of both shall be lost sight of and 
 forgotten in the revelations of force and law which the 
 future shall disclose ; and that, in all this progress, one of 
 these revelations shall prepare the way for another, as 
 naturally and as gently as the dawn brightens into the 
 sunrise. Here is hope, ardent, confident, passionate 
 hope, and, we may add, rational and well-grounded 
 hope. On what does this hope rest, — this hope for the 
 stability of nature's laws and the promise of the evolv- 
 ing future ? We need not answer by any abstract analy- 
 sis or refined philosophizing. We concede that it is 
 not necessary for success or eminence in any special sci- 
 ence that this fundamental question should be raised. 
 We know that for eminence in any specialty, the natural 
 faith and hope of men in science as interpretation and 
 history and prophecy, is altogether sufficient, whether it 
 is, or is not, expanded into actual faith in the living God. 
 We do not object in the least that science stops short in 
 its explanations of phenomena at molecules, and motion, 
 and inertia, and attraction, and heat, and electricity, and 
 heredity, and development, and variation, and environ- 
 ment. But we do contend that atheistic agnosticism 
 gives no solution of those explanations that are funda- 
 mental to science which can be so satisfactory as is the 
 creed of Christian theism. We also contend that the 
 personal thinker is more than the scientist who inter- 
 prets and prophesies, and that the living man demands 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 251 
 
 and accepts a personal God as the best solution of all 
 the problems which every special science raises, but 
 which no special science can solve. 
 
 Perhaps you have traversed a forest at midnight, and 
 have painfully and slowly felt out your path among the 
 objects which the darkness seemed to conceal rather 
 than reveal. You have mastered it by slow but sure 
 steps, such as the blind man feels out by exact and 
 reasoning touch. Anon you traverse the same forest 
 by noon. How luminous has it become by the aid of 
 the all-pervading light. Possibly you do not think of the 
 glorious sun from which this light proceeds, but you 
 cannot but know that what was once an obscure thicket, 
 beset with dimness and shade, is now flooded with the 
 revealing light, and that hope and joy have taken the 
 place of caution and doubt and fear. In like manner 
 does the recognition of a personal intelligence who may 
 be known by man, give an assured hope to what men 
 call science. In this way has it been to its advancing 
 hosts a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day. The 
 denial of such an intelligence, or the assertion that he 
 cannot be known, takes from science its hope, because 
 it withdraws from the universe the illumination of 
 personal reason and personal love which all scientific 
 thinking accepts as possible and rational. 
 
 2. To be without God, is to be without hope in re- 
 spect to man's moral culture and perfection. What we 
 are^ is of far greater consequence than what we know. 
 Strength and perfection of character are the supreme 
 aim of all right-judging men. When they think of 
 what man was made to be, and of what they themselves 
 might become, they cannot but aspire. But strong as 
 conscience is to elevate, control, and command, a per- 
 sonal God is needed by man to give to his conscience 
 energy and life. Personality without is required to re- 
 
252 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 enforce the personality within. Conscience itself is but 
 another name for the moral person within, Avhen exalted 
 to its most energetic self-assertion, and having to do 
 with the individual self in its most characteristic mani- 
 festation, as it determines the character by its indi- 
 vidual will. The theory that denies that God is a person, 
 very naturally and logically denies that man is a person. 
 It makes him only a highly developed set of phenomena 
 flowering out from a hidden root — the unknowable 
 unknown. What we call his personality, his will, his 
 character, are all as unreal as the clouds of a summer 
 noon — one moment apparently as fixed as mountain 
 summits, and another dissolving as you gaze. 
 
 On any theory of man, a personal God is needed to 
 give energy to the moral ideal, and to proclaim it as his 
 personal will. The other self within us is often power- 
 less to enforce obedience. Much as we may respect its 
 commands when forced to hear them, we can, alas ! too 
 easily shut our ears to its voice. But when this better 
 self represents the living God, who, though greater than 
 conscience, speaks through conscience, then conscience 
 takes the throne of the universe, and her voice is that 
 of the eternal king to which all loyal subjects respond 
 with rejoicing assent ; and, with the exulting hope that 
 the right will triumph, they rejoice that God reigns in 
 righteousness. 
 
 But man is not always loyal, either to conscience or 
 to God. As a sinner against both, he has need of deliv- 
 erance and hope. What he most needs and longs for, is 
 to be delivered from the narrowness of selfishness, the 
 brutality of appetite, the fever of ambition, the mean- 
 ness of envy, the fiendishness of hate, and the righteous 
 displeasure of God against all these. When men know 
 what they are, as measured by what they might have 
 become, they cannot but be ashamed. When they 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 253 
 
 review their fiiilures after trial, they cannot but despair. 
 They find no rational ground in themselves for hope 
 that they shall actually become better in the springs of 
 feeling or the results of their life. If there is no God, 
 or if they know of none who can show them what they 
 ought to be, and who can and will help them, and whom 
 it is rational to ask to guide and help them, they are 
 without hope of lasting and triumphant success. But 
 if God has made himself known in Christ, in order to 
 give us a living example of human excellence, and also 
 to inspire us to make this excellence our own, and, 
 above all, in order to remove every hinderance or doubt 
 in the way — then we may hope, by trusting ourselves 
 to this redeeming God, at last to be like him. His life, 
 his death, his words, his acts, his living self, are full of 
 the inspiration of hope. That inspiration has wrought 
 with mighty power through all the Christian genera- 
 tions. The more distinctly and lovingly Christ has 
 made God to be known, the more confidently has man 
 responded with hope that he shall be emancipated into 
 likeness to God. 
 
 From all these hopes, the agnostic atheism cuts us off. 
 It first weakens and shatters our Ideal of excellence ; 
 next it denies the Freedom by which we may rise ; and 
 finally it withdraws the inspiration which is ministered 
 by our personal Deliverer and Friend. It weakens man's 
 Ideal. It cannot do otherwise, for it derives the law of 
 duty from the changing feelings of our fellow-men. It 
 degrades the law of duty into a shifting product of soci- 
 ety : it resolves conscience with its rewards and penalties 
 into the outgrowth of the imagined favor or dislike of 
 men as unstable as ourselves when this is fixed and 
 transmitted by hereditary energy. Such an ideal, or 
 law, or tribunal, can be neither sacred nor quickening 
 nor binding, because it has no permanence. To be a 
 
254 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 good or perfect man. in one seon, is not the same thing 
 as to be a good man in another. It is altogether a 
 matter of taste or fashion, and each age under the law 
 of development sets a new fashion for itself. 
 
 It also sets freedom aside. To reach any part of this 
 ideal, is the result of simple mechanism. Character is 
 the joint product of inheritance and circumstances. 
 Freedom, with its splendid possibilities and its kindling 
 power, is but a fancy and a shadow — the mocking phan- 
 tom of man's romantic longings, or the vain surmising 
 of his idle regrets. 
 
 There is neither inspiration nor hope for such a man 
 in the help of God. He certainly needs help from some 
 one greater than himself. If his moral ideals are not 
 fixed, and he has no freedom with which to follow or 
 reject such as he has, he is like a man who is bidden to 
 walk in the sand that fails beneath his tread, and whose 
 limbs are at the same time frozen with paralysis. Or 
 he is like a bird with stiffened wings when dropped into 
 an exhausted receiver. God cannot encourage or help 
 him. To him there is no God, or none of whom he can 
 know that he can or will give him aid. 
 
 He has no certain or fixed ideal to which to aspire. 
 He has no freedom with which even to pray. He has 
 no God to whom to pray. What better can such a man 
 do than to give himself up to the passions and impulses 
 of the moment, which at least may divert his thoughts 
 from his degradation, or amuse his aimless and hopeless 
 existence, or throw startling and lurid lights over the 
 darkness of his despair ? 
 
 3. Belief in God is the only condition of hope in the 
 advancement of public and social morality, and con- 
 sequently in social stability and progress. The universe 
 in which we live represents two factors, — the physical 
 and moral. Both of these are apparent in social plie- 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 255 
 
 nomena. If God is required as the ground of our hope 
 in nature and in physical science, and also in the sphere 
 of morals, how much more in that sphere in wliich na- 
 ture and spirit meet together. Those Avho deny God, 
 or who assert that we cannot know him, can give no 
 reason for their faith and hope in human progress. 
 Force and law alone, whether physical or moral, do not 
 answer all our questions here. Social forces, too, are 
 less easily discerned than those purely physical. Even 
 if we could resolve these forces into material agencies, 
 and assume that their laws can be expressed in math- 
 ematical formulae, this would avail us but little, because 
 the forces are so complex and subtle, less easily traced, 
 less readily analyzed, and less confidently interpreted, 
 and less readily turned into prophecy. But if we be- 
 lieve these forces to be largely S2)iritual and personal, 
 and accept freedom in both man and God, then our only 
 rational ground of hope for man's future is that the 
 Eternal has his own plans concerning man's future well- 
 being, and will fulfil them in a consummation of good. 
 The developments of the past, except as they reveal 
 some plan of God, give no hope for the future. In the 
 facts of the past, there is no security that the movement 
 of man is onward. Manifold phenomena in human his- 
 tory suggest fearful forebodings of degeneracy, deprav- 
 ity, and retrogression. Long periods of darkness and 
 eclipse have gathered in gloomy folds over the human 
 race. Sudden collapses of faith have spread like the 
 plague. Fearful convulsions have opened like the 
 chasms of an earthquake to swallow up the gathered 
 fruits of culture and art. But so soon as we know that 
 God rules over man for man's moral discipline, and that 
 Christ is setting up a kingdom of righteousness and 
 peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, then we lift up our 
 hearts, and gather courage for man's future history. 
 
256 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 We find good reason to concliKle that man will continue 
 to make progress in the knowledge of whatever is true, 
 and just, and honest, and of good report. We become 
 well assured that the simple law of Christian love will 
 in due time be expanded by Christian science into thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of those special precepts 
 of Christian ethics, which future generations shall joy- 
 fully accept, and that these will be light as air in their 
 facile applications to the varying conditions of human 
 existence, yet strong as links of iron to hold men to 
 every form of duty. We triumph in the faith that the 
 time will come when this unwritten law shall sound 
 within every obedient soul as winningly and as lovingly 
 as the evening breeze that rests on the wind-harp, and 
 shall thunder as terribly in the ear of the disobedient as 
 the voice of God from Sinai. 
 
 Such a faith in human progress is rational. It is true 
 indeed, that if God is personal, and man is free, the rela- 
 tions of God to man may be more complicated, and less 
 easily known, than if man is material, and God an un- 
 knowable and impersonal force. On the other hand, 
 social science gains nothing, but loses much, in telling 
 us that the laws of society are as fixed as the laws of 
 the planets, and that man is as plastic to their moulding 
 as star-dust or protoplasm are to the cosmic forces. For 
 on either theory, if we are to have a science of the 
 future, we must have faith in order and a purpose as 
 the ground of our hope for that progress in which we 
 confide. But order and purpose suppose a personal 
 thinker. If we have no God, or a God whom we can- 
 not know, we are without rational hope for that moral 
 and social progress in which we all believe. We can 
 only believe that men will make progress, because we 
 desire it. The socialistic agnostic is a dogmatic senti- 
 mentalist rather than a rational philosopher. .:;..'.' 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 257 
 
 4. Atheism, whether positive or negative, gives no 
 hope fur the conduct or comfort of man's individual 
 life. Each man's personal life is ever present to him- 
 self as the object of his hopes or fears. Shall this life 
 be long, or short? Shall it be bright, or dark ? Shall it 
 be a failure, or a success? The man who believes in 
 God, and trusts in his guidance, he, and he alone, has 
 solid ground for hope. He knows God as a force acting 
 by law, and he knows him no less as a person acting in 
 personal relations of influence and love. From both he 
 gathers hope. He knows him through the forces of the 
 universe which surround and confront him at every step, 
 and he knows him as the heavenly Father who animates 
 and directs these forces in every single joy or sorrow. 
 In both relations he is in harmony with him, — with the 
 first so far as he knows theip, and with the God himself 
 who controls both the known and the unknown to his 
 true well-being, and makes even his ignorance and mis- 
 takes a blessing. 
 
 He knows and obeys God as revealed in nature. He 
 believes most profoundly that he acts in the majestic 
 forces of the universe and their unchanging laws. He 
 recognizes the truth that both are everywhere present 
 in the world of matter and of spirit. He watches these 
 forces as they move, often seemingly like the summer 
 cloud that broods lazily over the quiet earth at noon ; 
 sometimes like the cloud also in that it needs only to be 
 touched by another as quiet as itself, and the thunder- 
 bolt and tornado will leap forth with destructive energy. 
 But he does not limit his presence and his rule to physi- 
 cal agencies alone. He recognizes also his moral and 
 spiritual forces and laws. Though the moral are less 
 obtrusive, they are none the less sure : though slower in 
 their working, they are none the less energetic. Their 
 energy is even greater, resembling in this those subtler 
 
258 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 agents of matter, which, though they glide into one 
 another in secret hiding-pkxces, and under Protean 
 phases, are for that very reason the more easily gath- 
 ered for a fearful retribution. 
 
 Within this vast enginery of force and law, man 
 stands in his weakness and his strength. The spectacle 
 of this enginery is sublime ; and every day is making it 
 more magnificent, for every day reveals something new 
 in force or law, which manifests more of the thought 
 and power of God. But, while man continually finds 
 his strength in liis power to interpret by scientific 
 thouglit the forces and laws which had been before un- 
 known, he is in the same proportion made more and 
 more sensible of his weakness in his augmented appre- 
 hension of what is unrevealed. He is beset with fear 
 lest he shall make some fatal mistake. Hence he asks 
 earnestly, " Is there nothing more in this wide universe 
 than force and law ? " If there is nothing more, no 
 man is so much to be pitied as he, — the man of scien- 
 tific knowledge and scientific imagination, — for no man 
 feels so lonely and helpless as he. He is alone ! alone ! 
 as he muses upon the vastness of this great solitude, 
 peopled though it be with the enormous agents that 
 haunt and overmaster him with their presence, but are 
 without a thought or care for his personal life. Could 
 he but see behind these forces a personal being like 
 himself, and capable of directing both force and law to 
 issues of blessings to men, how welcome would that 
 knowledge be to his lonely heart ! That God he may 
 see and find if he will. He is suggested by his own 
 personality, which is his nobler, nay, his essential self. 
 He is demanded by the weakness and limitations of his 
 own nature. Why should not there be a personal and 
 living God behind this machinery of force and law 
 which we call nature ? Why should I not know a living 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 259 
 
 spirit, as well as unknown force and definite law ? and 
 why should I not accept personality in God, as the best 
 explanation of both ? There is, there must be, such a 
 Person : he fills this vast solitude by his immanent pres- 
 ence and his animating life. He directs the forces 
 which I cannot control. While I dare not transgress 
 any known manifestations of his will, either in force or 
 law, I can trust myself to his personal care, even though 
 I err from limited knowledge or foresight. 
 
 What natural theism thus suggests. Christian theism 
 declares for man's guidance and comfort. The living 
 God becomes our Father in heaven, the guardian of our 
 life, our ever-present Friend, who understands our most 
 secret thoughts, our weakest fears, our blushing shame, 
 our conscious guilt, and who can bring to each and to 
 all the sympathy and comfort and guidance of a per- 
 sonal friendship and an assured blessing. In what 
 words of sublime condescension and moving pathos 
 have these truths been declared ! " Even the very hairs 
 of your head are all numbered. Ye are of more value 
 than many sparrows. Take no thought for the morrow. 
 Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all 
 these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
 you." These are the words of Him who spake as never 
 man spake. Nor did he speak them alone. He lived 
 them in liis life, exemplifying them in look and de- 
 meanor, and showing their import \>j his loving trust. 
 The same revelations of God were confirmed by his 
 resurrection and his ascending majesty, as he went into 
 4;he presence of his Father and our Father, of his God 
 and our God. From that presence we hear the assuring 
 words, " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
 give us all things?" "Be careful for nothing; but in 
 
260 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiv- 
 ing let your requests be made known unto (jiod. And 
 the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
 shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
 Jesus." In this fiiith in God as the guide of their per- 
 sonal life. Christian believers, by myriads, have lived 
 and died. In this hope, and in this alone, can the liv- 
 ing of this generation stand. 
 
 5. The man without God is without hope for a future 
 life. For such a man, at best, another life is simply 
 possible. lie has no rational assurance that it is certain. 
 The universe is so vast, and man's dwelling is so con- 
 tracted ; its inhabitants are so manifold, and one among 
 them is of so little moment ; the distances are so enor- 
 mous, and man's power to traverse them is so limited ; 
 the histories of the prehistoric ages are so gigantic in 
 their forgotten details, and yet the title of each cliapter 
 is but an inscription over millions of the dead, — that 
 men tremble before nature, as when a child looks up- 
 ward on the face of an overhanging cliff, or peers over 
 the edge of a yawning gulf. 
 
 Man shudders before Nature's remorseless insensibil- 
 ity. He notices how little she makes of the dead, and 
 how little she cares for the living, — how she mocks at, 
 and trilles with, sensibility and with life. An earth- 
 quake swallows up tens of thousands of living men. 
 The jaws of the gulf that opened to receive them swing 
 back to their place, and forthwith flowers adorn the 
 ghastly seam, as if in mockery of the dead who are bur- 
 ied beneath. A great ship founders in the ocean, 
 freighted with a thousand living souls. As they go 
 down, they raise one shriek of anguish, that it would 
 seem should rend the sky. But the cry is over, and the 
 waters roll over the place as smoothly as though those 
 thousand lives were not sleeping iu death below. Of 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 261 
 
 another life, there are no tidings, and few suggestions, 
 a possibility, or perhaps a probability, but no hope. 
 
 Nowadays, even this possibility is denied by many ; 
 and the probability against such a life is hardened into 
 a certainty, and men strive to prove that they are not 
 immortal, as men strive for a great prize. All the anal- 
 ogies of nature are interpreted to prove the extinction 
 of man's being. Those who acknowledge no God but a 
 mysterious force, those who deny to God personality 
 and thought and affection and sympathy, most reason- 
 ably find no evidence in Nature for a future life ; for 
 when they look upon her stony and inflexible face, they 
 find all the evidence to be against it. 
 
 Let such a man awake to the fact that God is, that 
 he lives a personal life, that nature is not so much his 
 hiding-place as it is a garment of the revealing light ; 
 that the forces of nature are his instruments, and the 
 laws of nature his steadying and eternal thoughts ; that 
 man is made after God's image, and can interpret his 
 thoughts, and commune with his living self ; that life is 
 man's school, every arrangement and lesson of which 
 points to a definite end; that this end is not accom- 
 plished here, — then not only does there spring up in 
 his heart the hope that tliis life shall be continued in 
 another, but this hope becomes almost a certainty. But 
 this hope is a certainty so long, and only so long, as this 
 life is interpreted by the light of God's thought and 
 God's personality. So long as this light continues to 
 shine, every difficulty that would make against another 
 life is turned into an argument in its favor, and every 
 new doubt suggests the necessity of a new hope. Every 
 roughness that has cast a shadow on the picture, reflects 
 a gleam of light ; and the hard, inexpressive face of 
 Nature herself becomes radiant with promise and hope. 
 
 Now let God be seen to break forth from his hiding- 
 
262 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 place, and to manifest himself in the Christ who con- 
 quers death and brings the immortal life to light through 
 his rising and ascension ; and the hope that had been 
 reached as a conclusion of assured conviction is shouted 
 forth in the song of triumph, " Blessed be tlie God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his 
 abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively 
 hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
 fadeth not away." 
 
 I know that this argument, which sustains the hope 
 of another life, is set aside by the agnostics with the 
 denial that another life is of any value, or that men care 
 for it. The next step is to argue that it is weak and 
 ignoble to expect or desire it : the next is, to substitute 
 for it an ideal existence in the lives of others by the 
 continuance of our thoughts and activities in those fel- 
 low-men in whose lives we may expect to prolong our 
 own. Let those accept this substitute for a future life 
 who can, and find in it what satisfaction they may. 
 They will certainly confess that this fancied content- 
 ment with personal annihilation, falls immeasurably 
 short of what men call hope, and pre-eminently of the 
 Christian hope, that is full of immortality. 
 
 The doctrine itself seems to us to be simply inhuman 
 and unnatural, and to be refuted by the simplest prac- 
 tical test. If men do not care for a future life, how 
 should they, and why do they, care for any future of 
 the present life? If they do not dread annihilation, 
 why do they not more frequently commit suicide ? If 
 the hope for a nobler future existence does not animate 
 and inspire men as an original and inextinguishable im- 
 pulse, how happens it that men cleave with such tena- 
 cit}^ to the hope for a brief, and perhaps ignoble, hour in 
 the present ? Why is it so rare that even the most dis- 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 263 
 
 ciplined of modern philosophers is ready to exchange 
 the briefest hour of personal being for this landed 
 immortality of thought or emotion in the person of an- 
 other ? It is not bravery, it is simple bravado, to deny 
 or weaken the longing for a future life which every 
 man confesses and feels. The labored apostrophes of 
 George Eliot, and the studied declamations of John 
 Morley, over the entrancing prospect of annihilation, are 
 silenced by the pithy confessions of Shakspeare in Ham- 
 let. The very earnestness of the denial is but a confes- 
 sion of the strength of the desire. I know that when 
 a man half or wholly denies that God is, or that God is 
 any thing to him, he must, to be consistent, deny, in the 
 next breath, that there is a future life. I know that 
 the temptation is very strong, that he should then seek 
 to persuade himself that he cares nothing for that life ; 
 but he cannot succeed. He must have hope for this 
 life, and he must have hope for the future. And he 
 needs to know God, and to believe in God, if he would 
 have hope for either. 
 
 This, then, is our conclusion : That so far as man 
 denies God, or denies that God can be known, he aban- 
 dons hope of every kind — that intellectual hope which 
 is the life of scientific thought ; hope for his own moral 
 progress ; hope for the progress of society ; hope for 
 guidance and comfort in his personal life, and hope 
 for that future life for which the present is a preparation. 
 As he lets these hopes go, one by one, his life loses its 
 light and its dignity ; morality loses its enthusiasm and 
 its energy ; science has no promise of success ; sin gains 
 a relentless hold ; sorrow and darkness have no comfort ; 
 and life becomes a worthless farce or a sad tragedy, 
 neither of which is worth the playing, because both end 
 in nothing. Sooner or later this agnostic without hope 
 will become morose and surly, or sensual and self-indul- 
 
264 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 gent, or avaricious and churlish, or cold and selfish, or 
 cultured and hollow, — in a word, a tlieoretical or a 
 practical pessimist, as any man must who believes the 
 world, as well as himself, to be without any worthy end 
 for which one man or many men should care to live. 
 Possibly, under special advantages of culture, he may 
 be a modern Stoic, without the moral earnestness with 
 which the ancient Stoic grimly confronted fate; or a 
 modern Epicurean, without the unconscious gayety that 
 Christianity has rendered forever impossible ; or he 
 /will grope through the world, seeking the shadow of a 
 i religion that he knows can never give him rest, and 
 ' a God whom he denies can ever be found. But, in 
 either case, the story of his life will be summed uj) in 
 the fearful epitaph, " He lived without Grod, and died 
 without hope.^'' 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — This sub- 
 ject and the views which have been expressed, are not 
 altogether novel or strange to your minds. We are not 
 so narrow in this college as to be ignorant of the new 
 theories that are just now spreading so rapidly abroad 
 on the earth, and seem to be floating in the very air. 
 We are not so illiberal as to be unwilling to try these 
 theories by the test of reason. Though believers in 
 a personal God, we should be ashamed not to give a 
 patient hearing to every thing which the atheist or 
 the agnostic can urge against our faith. Though ardent 
 devotees of Christian theism, we should dishonor our 
 faith and our Master did we not defend our faith and 
 our Master against every argument which philosophy or 
 science or letters can marshal, or even suggest, against 
 either. Whatever others may say on this point, you 
 know that the motto of this college, " Lux et veritas,^^ 
 — i.e., Light for the sake of the truth, — is fervently and 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 265 
 
 zealously followed, and that light from any quarter is 
 gratefully welcomed. The graduates who have gone 
 out in the years before us, know the same, and there 
 are many of them ; and we can trust them all to speak 
 in our defence, if need be, on this or any other question, 
 with our enemies in the gate. 
 
 Agnosticism is a topic of present interest, especially 
 with university and cultivated men, on both its specur 
 lative and its practical side. As a speculation, however, 
 it is not new. It is as old as human thought. The 
 doubts and misgivings from which it springs are older 
 tlian the oldest fragment of human literature. The 
 questions which it seeks to answer are as distinctly 
 uttered in the Book of Job as are the replies of sneer- 
 ing despair, which are paraded in the last scientific 
 periodical. Modern science and philosophy have not 
 answered these questions. It may be doubted whether 
 they have shed any light upon them. They have simply 
 enlarged man's conceptions of the finite, and thus made 
 it more easy for him to overlook or deny his power and 
 his obligation to know the Infinite and the Self-existent. 
 Culture and literature, to say the least, do not justify 
 the modern contempt for positive faith. They simply 
 widen our knowledge of human weakness and error, 
 but most rashly conclude that every form of faith and 
 worship is an attitude of blind wonder before the un- 
 known, or a sentimental groping after what can never 
 be found. These inferences are hasty and unwarranted, 
 for the reason that modern culture and literature were 
 never so enriched by the Christian faith, and never could 
 find reasons so abundant for acknowledmnj^ Christ to 
 be divine. And yet we must acknowledge, that, to the 
 suj)erficially educated and the hasty thinker, agnosti- 
 cism offers many attractions, because it answers so 
 many questions by a simple formula, and gathers or 
 
266 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CUAPEL. 
 
 disposes of many phenomena under plausible generali- 
 zations, and above all, because it releases the conscience 
 and the life from present obligations of duty. Hence 
 its theories run like wildfire among the multitudes, 
 whose superficial or unfinished culture and training, or 
 whose moral preferences, prepare them to receive it. 
 With many persons these tendencies are comparatively 
 harmless, at least for a time. The old traditions of duty 
 and self-control, of decorum and worship, still remain, 
 even though God and conscience are speculatively aban- 
 doned, and Christ is an unsolved enigma, and Christian 
 hopes are harmless dreams, and the future life a ques- 
 tionable inheritance, and this life is a prize in a lottery, 
 and the fervors and self-denials and self-conquests of 
 the Christian life are innocent but vapid sentimentali- 
 ties. With others, after a longer time, the God at first 
 unknown, is openly denied, and Christ is rejected with 
 passionate scorn ; and the inspiration and restraints of 
 Christian sentiment are contemptuously abandoned. 
 By others the theory is applied still farther. Their 
 motto is. Let us eat and drink^for to-morroio we die. To 
 one or another of these dangers, you are all exposed, — 
 most of all to the danger that the energy of your faith 
 may be weakened, and the fire of your zeal may be 
 lowered, and the tone of your moral and spiritual life 
 may be relaxed, by sympathy with this paralysis of faith, 
 which is everywhere more or less prevalent. 
 
 Let me assure you that no calamity can befall a 
 young man, which is so serious as the loss of that fire 
 and hopefulness and courage for this life and the future, 
 which are so congenial to the beginning of his active 
 life. Hence no sign of our times is more depressing 
 than that so many refined and thoughtful young men 
 so readily accept the suggestions of doubt, and take a 
 position of indifference or irresponsibility in respect to 
 
AGNOSTICISM A DOCTRINE OF DESPAIR. 267 
 
 the truths of Christian theism, and the personal obliga- 
 tions which they enforce. Against these tendencies 
 would I warn you most earnestly, by the consideration 
 that so fast and so far as God is unknown by any man, 
 so fast and so far does hope depart from his soul, — hope 
 for all that a man should care to live for; hope for 
 scientific progress, for his own moral welfare, for the 
 progress of the race, for a successful life, and for a 
 happy immortality. Therefore do I declare to you in 
 this sacred place, as you soberly look back upon your 
 college life, and wistfully look forward to the unknown 
 future, that if you would live a life of cheerful, joyful, 
 and buoyant hopefulness, you must live a life that is 
 controlled and hallowed and cheered by God's presence, 
 and by a constant faith in his forgiving goodness. All 
 else that a man should care for is secured you by this 
 living hope in the living and ever-present God, — in- 
 tellectual success and satisfaction as you grow in all 
 knowledge and culture, sure progress in moral good- 
 ness, prosperity in your efforts for the well-being of 
 man, the kind direction of your earthly life, and the 
 assurance and anticipation of the life which is immortal. 
 " All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ 
 is God's." These are the traditions of this place. Under 
 these influences the generations have been trained which 
 have gone before ; each testifying that the truths and 
 instructions, of which perhaps they had been more or 
 less heedless while here, have come again to them ^vith 
 living power when recalled under the experiences of 
 life. So may it ever be I so may it be with you ! With 
 these wishes and this blessing do I bid you an affection- 
 ate farewell. 
 
XIII. 
 SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOB* 
 
 "But seek ye first the kingdom of GoT)." — Matt. vi. 33. 
 
 The kingdom of God has been the subject of much 
 ingenious research and learned discussion. The con- 
 ception has been universally acknowledged to be origi- 
 nal and ennobling. The confidence with which ,its 
 Founder predicted its assured success and its final tri- 
 umph has added to the mystery which invested its 
 beginnings and has attended its progress. To every 
 age it has presented itself in some new and peculiar 
 phase, and yet with substantially the same demands. 
 Every age has confronted these demands with a fresh 
 scrutiny. Every challenge to its claiiiis, and every 
 arrest of its progress, has been followed by a new 
 advance. 
 
 In the present generation it meets with the same old 
 questions, '^ What is the kingdom of God ? and what has 
 it to do with the men of the present time ? " While to 
 these questions it returns answers which differ with the 
 needs of each age, it never fails to enforce them with 
 the demand of our text, " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 It follows, that what I propose to say of the nature 
 of this kingdom will be implied in the reasons for seek- 
 ing it first of all. 
 
 * June 26, 1881. 
 268 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 269 
 
 1. The first of these reasons is tliat it proposes the ' 
 noblest of all conceivable ends, a perfect human char- 
 acter. " The kingdom of God is within you." '' The 
 kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteous- 
 ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Though its 
 instrumentalities are supernatural, the end of them all 
 is the restoration of man to his better self. Though 
 its appliances are from God, they are all directed to the 
 redeemed and perfected manhood of individual men. Its 
 conceptions of this manhood are definite and reasonable. 
 It does not propose to except men from the limitations ^ 
 of a human body with its fatigues, its weaknesses, and 
 its pains. It does not annihilate the affections and pas- 
 sions which make them men. It does not often raise 
 them to an ecstatic mood, or the third heaven of mystic 
 insight or rapt emotion. It plants us strongly and 
 squarely with our human feet upon the vulgar earth, 
 and it bids us look about us with cool and clear judg- 
 ment, only never failing to discern the things that are 
 excellent. We faint beneath the heat, we shiver with 
 the cold, we pine for food, we love, we hate, we fear, we 
 hope. But though we are moved by human infirmities, 
 we are to master them by self-control ; though provoked 
 to anger, to envy, and to fear, we overcome such im- 
 pulses by better thoughts; though elated by success, 
 or depressed by failure, we accept our varied lot with 
 patience and hope, and in all the disturbances of passion 
 keep even the equipoise of our souls by the presence and 
 the peace of the loving and living God. The secret 
 springs of this perfected character, at once so human 
 and yet so divine, are thankfulness and love, forgetful- 
 ness of self, and self-denying sympathy with others, the 
 consecration of the active powers — nay, of the living 
 self — to the well-being of our fellow-men, under the in- 
 spiration of faith. We do not inquire just now whence 
 
270 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 it comes, but what it is. We greet this perfection and 
 the aim for it with our welcome whenever we behold 
 either. We gladly recognize this ideal as the same, by 
 whom, or under whatever name, it is practised or taught ; 
 even when held by those who make little account of 
 Christ or his Church — nay, who even turn their backs 
 upon both, whether in sadness or in scorn. We care 
 not much for its name ; whether it is called by the scho- 
 lastic name of altruism, or the words hallowed in human 
 converse as the love that seeketh not her own — the 
 mercy that is twice blessed, which blesseth him that 
 gives, and him that takes. We care not whether this 
 self-denying goodness is illustrated by the practical good 
 sense of the parable of the good Samaritan, or half 
 travestied in the moral quixotism of the " Light of Asia." 
 So far as the ideal is the same, so far we recognize its 
 perfection, and acknowledge its authority. We only 
 urge that whenever or wherever we discover this ideal 
 of the kingdom of heaven, we confess it to be supreme. 
 Its voice to every living man who beholds it as a fact, 
 or imagines it as a fiction, is a voice of supreme com- 
 mand: "Seek me first. Here is the kingdom of God. 
 Seek first of all that it be within you." 
 
 Whether we wonder at this ideal in the matchless life 
 of the Master, or hear of it in the blessed and loving 
 words that fell from his lips ; whether we find it more 
 or less perfectly realized in the more or less perfect 
 imitations by his disciples, or only catch a glimpse of 
 it in our better aspirations ; nay, even when we guess it 
 through shame for our many failures, — we confess that 
 this is the first and best thing to be sought for, wherever 
 we are, and whatever else we attain. 
 
 It is this ideal, clothed as it is with this supreme 
 authority, that gives value and dignity to the kingdom 
 of God and whatever pertains to it. Every man who 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 271 
 
 seeks for this first and supremely is a member of this 
 kingdom by divine right. He that seeks shall find. 
 The temples of this kingdom, its priesthood, its rites, 
 its spectacles, its festivals, its music, its traditions, its 
 creeds, its theologies, are nothing except they propose 
 this as their outcome and fruit. Its penances, its fast- 
 ings, its vigils, its sacrifices, its vows, its adjurations, 
 and its prayers, are as of little worth unless they enforce 
 the ideal of this new man formed after the image of him 
 who created him. 
 
 2. The khigdom of God enforces this ideal by an 
 effective personal agency. So long as it commends to 
 us a perfect ideal, it is a school of philosophy — charm- 
 ing and divine indeed, but still a philosophy. The 
 kingdom of God is such a school as we have seen, but 
 it is more. It is also a religion ; for it is warmed with 
 love to a divine person, and controlled by devotion to 
 the highest and purest object of human loyalty and love. 
 It is a life which is commanded by the God whom we 
 worship as our Father in heaven, which is exemplified 
 by the Christ by whom God commends to us his forgiv- 
 ing grace in life and death, and which is breathed into 
 our souls by the divine Spirit. 
 
 Faith is the one condition of attaining this renewed 
 manhood, because faith brings us into a loving connec- 
 tion with a personal God. Hence this kingdom is 
 supernatural, for personal influences are in a higher 
 plane than abstract precepts or impersonal ideals. This 
 is no surprising thing. Human life at every turn 
 abounds with examples of the superiority of personal 
 force. Human excellence is propagated, not by rules or 
 imaginings, but by being impersonated in those whom 
 we love and admire. The child learns to love goodness 
 by loving his good mother or father or teacher or play- 
 mate or friend. Happy is the youth or man, who, as 
 
272 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 he goes on in life, is ever finding a charmed circle of 
 friends, who are to him a constant inspiration. To 
 such a one, goodness is all the while becoming incarnate, 
 and thereby roots itself more and more deeply in his 
 soul. 
 
 So it is in the kingdom of God. We lay hold on that 
 perfection which is eternal life by believing in him who 
 is Eternal Life — the mysterious Person who has created 
 and sustains us, who heals and restores our souls — who 
 was manifest to us, and we have seen his glory. As we 
 believe in him, he becomes to us the power of God for 
 our better life. We cannot believe in him without 
 being like him. Hence, faith in the living and self- 
 denying Christ is our first duty. Here is no arbitrary 
 condition of salvation. We do not believe in order that 
 we may be saved, but belief is itself salvation ; because 
 so far as we believe in Christ we must be like Christ, 
 and the more earnestly we believe, the more will we 
 love and admire him. 
 
 When, then, the kingdom of God comes to us in this 
 personal form, it necessarily claims our first and supreme 
 regard. It tells every man what he knows, or may 
 know already, that its ideal is excellent, and he ought 
 to seek it at once. And it also tells him that he can do 
 this best and only as he hears the voice of the living 
 and loving God, and accepts the testimony of the dying 
 and risen Christ ; and that for this reason he should 
 seek first that kingdom in which goodness is made per- 
 sonal in God, and lives and loves and dies in Christ. 
 
 This view of faith is important for many reasons. 
 First of all, it enables us to see that the kingdom of 
 God, with all its diversities of creed and sects, is essen- 
 tially one, and that it is made one by its faith in the 
 personal Christ, who inspires men by his life, and saves 
 men by his death. Interpretations of the Christian 
 
SEEK FIRST TUE KINGDOM OF GOD. 273 
 
 history may be various according to the various capaci- 
 ties and knowledge of Christian students. Systems of 
 abstract doctrine are largely the product of human 
 speculation and reasoning in respect to the import of 
 Christ's words and deeds. Parties must arise in this 
 kingdom so long as men are narrow and selfish, even 
 though they are awed and elevated by the presence of 
 the great Master. But in all these interpretations and 
 creeds and partisan heats, the same living Christ is 
 manifested to man and received by man as the very 
 power of God. Even the divisions and strifes of this 
 kingdom testify that there is at its centre a personal 
 force that draws all men to himself. 
 
 But what shall we say of those who seem to aspire 
 after eternal life without the aid of a conscious faith ? 
 What of those who seem to catch the Christian enthusi- 
 asm of humanity, and to inspire to more than Christian 
 self-sacrifice, who yet acknowledge no obligations to 
 faith and a personal Christ, or who even deny any such 
 obligations? What shall we say? Suppose we say 
 nothing, mindful of the words of the Master, *^ What is 
 that to thee ? Follow thou me." Let it suffice us to 
 say for ourselves, others may dispense with a personal 
 Christ, we cannot. If others turn their backs upon his 
 actual presence, they cannot avoid the light and warmth 
 that glow in his kingdom. Even though they read his 
 word only as a symbol, it may be to them the power 
 of God. One memorable example comes to the mind of 
 all — of the great writer so recently gone ; whose youth 
 was marked by devotion to Christian duties in the light 
 of a fervent Christian faith, but who subsequently 
 abandoned her belief in the Christian story, while yet 
 she adhered with passionate fervor to the Christian 
 ideal, and died with her " Thomas a Kempis " near to her 
 heart. How much she gained, never to lose, from her 
 
274 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 early faith, no one can measure ; how much she lost in 
 losing that faith, is indirectly confessed by the gloomy 
 steadfastness with which she looked and longed for a 
 future, yet long deferred, Christian kingdom of God. 
 Her o-ain and her loss should warn and excite each one 
 of US who knows his own weakness and his own needs, 
 to seek first that kingdom of God which gives us the 
 personal Christ, who disappoints no hopes, who dispels 
 all sadness, who completely satisfies so far as he fully 
 inspires every heart that gives to him its loving faith. 
 
 Another even more conspicuous example we cannot 
 forbear to notice, — the rough prophet of duty and self- 
 control ; in so far enforcing the Christian ideal, but leav- 
 ing out of that ideal its peculiar Christian elements, — 
 forgiveness and charity, pardon and hope. He was self- 
 denying and upright indeed, but showed little sym- 
 pathy with the Christ who confronted him with the 
 strange mystery of his tender love and heroic patience, 
 but for whom he could find no loving and grateful affec- 
 tion. It is not surprising that he had for a while for- 
 gotten the prayer of his childhood, with the Father in 
 heaven whom it recognizes and worships. Most touch- 
 ing is the record of the discovery which he made in the 
 loneliness of his old age, when in the tossings upon his 
 bed at midnight the old prayer came back to his mind 
 and to his lips, after the disuse of forty years, as a new 
 revelation that he had indeed a Father in heaven. In 
 that discovery made by any man is the revelation of 
 Christianity as a religion when contrasted with Chris- 
 tianity as a philosophy. 
 
 3. Science and culture re-enforce the claims of the 
 kingdom of God as first and foremost. The kingdom 
 of God can never be left behind by the onward march 
 of human progress, or the ever-widening sphere of cul- 
 ture and development. The more it expands, and the 
 
SEEK FIRST TUE KINGDOM OF GOD. 275 
 
 nobler and fuller it becomes, the more it requires its 
 life-giving influence and its corrective restraints. The 
 more a man knows, and the more powerfully he thinks, 
 the more distinctly will he recognize the variety of its 
 claims, and the more sensitively will he feel the force 
 of its motives. Hence, to the scholar and the man of 
 culture the command is most imperative, "Seek first 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 This kiniQjdom is both individual and social. It be- 
 gins with the individual indeed. It can do nothing 
 except it transforms the springs of action within him, 
 but it does not end with the individual. It proposes to 
 regenerate society also, and so to renew both that every 
 individual act and every social agency shall be in har- 
 mony with the original ideal of God. Its Founder in 
 his humility declared the kingdom of God to be like 
 leaven which rests not till it pervades and restores the 
 mass unto itself. And when he sat upon his throne, he 
 said, " Behold, I make all things new." 
 
 The perfected human society that is to be, is wider 
 even than the Christian Church, if we conceive the 
 Church as a society with special arrangements for Chris- 
 tian teaching and Christian worship. As thus defined, 
 the Cliurch would be one of many organisms in the per- 
 fected kingdom of God, like the heart in the human 
 body, vital and central to the whole, but acting side by 
 side with other organisms, each with special functions, 
 as those of science and art, and culture and wealth, and 
 commerce and civil government. It is no secret that 
 these great forces in human society have within the last 
 century been distinctly recognized as never before, and 
 the laws which control them have been made the sub- 
 ject of special scientific inquiry. It is equally notorious 
 that the investigation of these forces has often been con- 
 ducted in an atheistic spirit, which, from starting-point 
 
276 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 to goal, has found no place for freedom in man, or for 
 guidance or hojje from God. Hence, human progress 
 has been resolved into the blind working of forces as 
 blind. The perfection of man has been predicted as 
 the necessary outcome of the final adjustment of the 
 manifold forces that shall heave and dash in blind fury, 
 till they subside in the equilibrium of an ocean of rest. 
 One of these agents is man, who, till of late, had thought 
 himself free and responsible, and dreamed that he could 
 direct these forces to results of reason. But science has 
 discovered that among all these agents he is least of all 
 independent, because from the complexity of his being 
 he is eminently the product and slave of all the rest. 
 Are these conceptions just ? Are these inferences author- 
 ized ? We grant that as in nature, so in human society, 
 force and law have been found in ten thousand examples 
 in which their presence was once never dreamed of. We 
 also know, that by these discoveries we can interpret 
 myriads of phenomena in the history of nature and of 
 man, which hitherto had been unsolved m3^steries, and 
 that we can predict and produce results which were 
 once thought to be removed from man's foresight and 
 man's control. But the question still returns, and with 
 an energy and an interest as never before. Have force 
 and law crowded God out of being? Is nature so full 
 of forces so complete in their adjustments that there is 
 neither place nor occasion for God? Is God's provi- 
 dence over man and society proved impossible, because 
 the agencies by which he works are more numerous, 
 more wide-reaching, and more definite, than men had 
 formerly supposed ? Has man ceased to be responsible 
 and free, because he finds himself more dependent on 
 social appliances for the spheres of his activity and the 
 instruments of his actions ? or does the enlargement of 
 these spheres of action elevate and enforce his sense 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 277 
 
 of freedom and duty? Is our sense of manhood to be 
 crushed out of us by the appalling discovery that our 
 manhood is made for us, and not by us ? Is personality, 
 with its hopes and its possibilities, to be abandoned, and 
 with it the only inspiration to our goodness, and the 
 only comfort that is left for our wickedness ? Is indi- 
 vidual responsibility, with its rapturous joys and its 
 wholesome terrors ; are man's earthly sympathies and 
 affections, with his heavenly aspirations and hopes ; is 
 prayer, with its trust, its cry, and its praise before the 
 living God ; are patient imitation and humble confi- 
 dence in Christ, — are all these to vanish at the touch of 
 the new analysis ? or shall this analysis cause man's per- 
 sonality only to spring into more striking contrasts as 
 against law and nature ? 
 
 Moreover, as we look out upon the heavings of mod- 
 ern society, are we quite satisfied with the aspect of 
 the forces which are raging beneath, if there is no bene- 
 ficent God whose thundering is louder than the roaring 
 of these waves, and whose gentle whisper can subdue 
 the hearts of the most violent ? Are we not sometimes 
 appalled at the thought of what may happen in the 
 gigantic movements of our modern life, should the faith 
 of man in the living God be practically abandoned, 
 and the new faith in some abstract figment be set up in 
 its place, — whether the figment should be capital or 
 labor, or monopoly or freedom, — whether it be some 
 old or new despotism, or some old or new nihilism? 
 Would we not feel more safe in trusting the future of 
 the nations under some possible stress of modern society 
 to the Shepherd of Israel, who guides his flock in answer 
 to their trust, rather than to the stumbling Polyphemus 
 of modern negations, who blindly feels his way along 
 the solitary shores of eternal vacancy, upon which the 
 wild waves are ever sounding their wail of despair. 
 
278 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 We are not left, nor are we driven, to these appalling 
 conclusions. The new sciences of nature in enlarging 
 the domain of law have only emphasized the agency, 
 and enforced the presence, of God. Every new force 
 which has been discovered, and every new law which 
 has been formulated, have only brought into more strik- 
 ing relief the truth that the living God is the rational 
 complement and solution of both force and law. So it 
 is, and so will it be, with the science which deals with 
 social forces and economies. Every new social agency 
 that is discovered, and every law that is fixed, reveals 
 society as more complicated, and as requiring more 
 imperatively the guidance of the living God. Every 
 new discovery concerning man's well-being is but a new 
 arena for the ampler exemplification of the kingdom :>f 
 God. In the ligfht of these conclusions we enforce the 
 obligation which rests upon educated men to seek first 
 this kingdom in its applications to social relations. 
 There was never a time when the opportunity was so 
 inviting for intelligent men to apply Christian princi- 
 ples to social improvement ; never a time when a more 
 diversified, enterprising, and instructed Christian zeal 
 and self-sacrifice were more needed ; never a time when 
 these influences were more essential to preserve the 
 hopes of men from fatal disappointment, or to inspire 
 rational courage in those who would live and die for 
 human progress and perfection. Duties of this sort 
 cannot be discharged without knowledge. Hence 
 knowledge in every case, and in some cases scientific 
 knowledge, becomes a religious duty. The devotion of 
 a seraph to the best interests of man cannot insure the 
 social elevation of a community, either in the state, 
 the school, or the family, unless the conditions of such 
 elevation are well understood. In what we call the 
 simpler duties of e very-day life, our instructed coa:\miou 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 279 
 
 sense may be sufficient; but, for the more complicated 
 questions which concern even ordinary matters, ampler 
 and exacter knowledge is needed. Much more is this 
 true when we are brought face to face with the more 
 complicated relations of modern life. As questions of 
 property become more refined, as the adjustments of 
 rights are more difficult, as political parties rise and 
 fall, as the relations of the community to pauperism, 
 to crime, to education, to capital and labor, open new 
 inquiries, they cannot be answered without intelligence 
 and thought ; and intelligence and thought are but 
 other names for science. 
 
 The thinker and the scholar who would seek first of 
 all this kingdom in any kind of social progress must 
 act with an enlightened judgment. When science is 
 needed, he must listen to her voice. To refuse to heed 
 her suggestions, is to sin against the truth. To be satis- 
 fied with traditional opinions or customary ways, is to 
 sin against the right and against God. To limit the 
 range of one's duties to the religious sphere, or to make 
 a conscience only of the commonly recognized moral 
 duties, when the kingdom of God comes daily to our 
 doors in some appeal of public usefulness, is to fail to 
 understand what this kingdom requires. 
 
 But science to instruct and convince must be free. 
 The guide must lead and not follow. To throw light 
 upon man's social duties, she must study man's nature 
 and the laws of his social relations. But she need, 
 therefore, not deny duty, or resolve conscience into a 
 phantasm, or the moral aspirations into nervous secre- 
 tions, or conscience into the sympathy and fashion of 
 the hour. If she does, she may properly be called to 
 revise her experiments, and to be cautious in her con- 
 clusions ; and most reasonably, so long as we seek first 
 the kingdom of God, or assume that duty and God are 
 
280 FIFTEEN YE Alts IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 supreme. But science, rightly considered, is as much 
 a necessity in the kingdom of God as is the so-called 
 Christian Church. It is a necessity to the Church itself ; 
 giving it the history to which it appeals, the criticism 
 by which it interprets, the physics that declare the 
 glory of God, the knowledge of man that vindicates his 
 dignity and unfolds his destiny, the morals and the 
 jurisprudence by which man's actions are regulated, and 
 the literature by which the ideals of the present and 
 future life are beautified and ennobled. The kingdom 
 of God thus conceived and enforced, which provides on 
 the one hand for all these conditions of human welfare, 
 which inspires knowledge as a religious duty, and 
 stimulates culture as an act of worship, can neither fail 
 to furnish the occasion nor the motive for our first and 
 supreme affections, and our promptest and most com- 
 plete obedience. No aims in life can possibly be so 
 elevated or inspiring as those which it proposes. No 
 enthusiasm can possibly be so rational and so ardent. 
 No motives are so grand as the motives which it applies. 
 No reward is so satisfying as those with which it crowns 
 the humblest and the most exalted of its followers. 
 The least of human beings in intellect and culture have 
 found a place in this kingdom for forgiveness and hope : 
 the greatest have found in it room large and wide 
 enough fpr their loftiest ambition, their most varied 
 activities, and their purest satisfaction. 
 
 4. The kingdom of God is destined to a continued 
 conflict, and for this reason it requires that its friends 
 should make it the supreme object of their love and 
 service. Its existence implies a struggle with evil. 
 Its progress consists in a series of conquests. We 
 wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the 
 rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
 wickedness in high places. There is no need to specu- 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 281 
 
 late about the existence of a personal devil, as long as 
 sin is so often incarnated in man. We need not inquire 
 whether he has horns or hoofs, so long as he stands at 
 our street-corners, and opens our grog-shops and brothels, 
 or deals bribes in our politics, or preaches atheism in 
 our pulpits ; so long as the most dangerous and malig- 
 nant evil spirits may be those most accomplished in 
 human insight and attractive in human graces. Each 
 age has its own battle to fight, and its own victory to 
 win. The age in which we live displays its own boding 
 signals along the sky. Speculation and unbelief are in 
 some quarters gaining ground. Scientific and material- 
 istic atheism was never so confident, and never so fair 
 spoken and so bland. Literary and critical anti-super- 
 naturalism was never so well assured, and never so 
 courteous, and contemptuous of faith in God. Popular 
 godlessness was never so extreme, and never so little 
 dreaded. The fervor and faith of many professed be- 
 lievers were never more fitful and feeble — avowedly to 
 themselves, and manifestly to others. 
 
 On the other hand, there is much seeming love for 
 man, if less conscious love of God; greater enthusiasm 
 for human welfare in this life, if less zeal for man's 
 salvation in the life to come. The reasonableness of 
 consecration to God in love and worship is more gener- 
 ally consented to if it could only be proved that Christ 
 can show us the Father, and God can really be known 
 and loved by men. The person and the name of Christ, 
 it may be, as we have reason to believe, receive fervent 
 homage from many hearts who inquire with critical 
 questioning who he is and whence he came. 
 
 In these avowals and these concessions on either side, 
 there are the elements of a definite crisis which sooner or 
 later must come, and may break upon us very soon. If 
 men do not contend with one another as sharply as of old, 
 
282 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 their faiths and misgivings, their aspirations and their 
 hopes, are sure to meet in the shock of some great battle 
 of opinion, or in the complicated evolutions of a pro- 
 tracted strife that shall reach every thoughtful man and 
 woman. Men feel something like the lull which precedes 
 the earthquake. The great questions which occupy the 
 thoughts of men will not always be whispered in secret. 
 Sooner or later they will cry out for an audible answer 
 of Yes or No. Thinking men will ask their teachers 
 and one another, " Tell us, is there a living God who 
 hears the prayers of men, and guides their lives, and 
 comforts their sorrows, and forgives their sins ? Has he 
 been revealed in Christ, whose kingdom cannot fail, or 
 is Christ only a symbol and a formula? " To these ques- 
 tions every believer in the kingdom of God will be ex- 
 pected to give his answer by a life of supreme devotion 
 to his Master. To every one who says, " I believe that 
 Jesus is the Christ," the response will come with author- 
 ity, "Then seek first the kingdom of God." This de- 
 mand will be more intelligent than ever before, because 
 men have never understood so well as now what this 
 kingdom is, and what it imports. It will be more than 
 ever searching and uncompromising, because it will be 
 tried by severer tests than ever, — the test of a Christian 
 civilization without Christ, and a theistic morality with- 
 out the living God. See to it, my hearers, that you are 
 prepared to endure this test, and prove what the world 
 has often seen before, — that the faith of the scholar is 
 the noblest stuff out of which martyrs can be made. 
 
 5. The last reason why we should seek first the king- 
 dom of God, is that its triumph is assured. The Chris- 
 tian cause is never so near a victory as when it is driven 
 to the wall. It thrives by conflict and discussion. 
 Faith becomes heroic when there are few who believe, 
 and when belief is the result of many misgivings and 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 283 
 
 profound reflection. Loyalty, gratitude, and consecra- 
 tion are stimulated in every true-hearted though hither- 
 to faint-hearted believer when Christ is denied and 
 dishonored by those about them. Injustice and wrong 
 to the truth and to goodness call forth the zeal and ex- 
 ertion of men in any good cause. The very danger of 
 defeat and the need of defenders have raised armies of 
 heroes in times of pressure and distress. When little 
 can be accomplished by zeal and sacrifice, the impulse 
 and call are feeble to make the cause of one's friend or 
 country the first and present object of one's life. When 
 faith and piety have a feeble life unassailed by doubt or 
 dishonor, the defenders of both may be listless and tor- 
 pid. But when the believer lives in a godless and self- 
 indulgent generation, and God needs hira as a positive 
 witness, and Christ as a bold disciple, and man can be 
 saved or lost through his personal fidelity, then every 
 thing that is noble or heroic within him is stirred up to 
 seek first the kingdom of God because it is in peril. 
 For these reasons the season of its extremest danger has 
 often been the time of its most signal triumph. 
 
 The history of Christianity in the past is but a repeti- 
 tion of a series of victories gained by apparent defeats, 
 of onward movements succeeding discouraging retreats. 
 Its darkest hour in the view of man was when its Master 
 was fixed in shame and agony to the cross, and then 
 raised before the sight of men that they might behold the 
 end of the vaunted king and his kingdom. That was 
 the hour of his triumph, as he himself proclaimed, "and 
 I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The 
 cross of dishonor became his throne of power; the suf- 
 fering victim became a reigning king over the hearts of 
 men whom he had subdued by his love in death ; and the 
 crown of thorns a diadem of glorj'-, the radiance of which 
 is brighter and brighter as it streams through the ages. 
 
284 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Men of education and culture know the history of 
 this kingdom since. They know what it has done for 
 man, and against what fearful odds. They can know as 
 none others how much it is needed at the present. 
 They can judge as none others that it must be all that 
 it purports to be, or it is nothing. If God is not the 
 living God, what is he to me? but if he is, then how 
 much ! If Christ is not all that he has promised to be, 
 why should I believe him at all ? But if he is, in whom 
 else should I trust, and for whom should I live but for 
 him? If the kingdom of God is worthy of my faith, 
 then it shall certainly and gloriously triumph. If its 
 truths and facts are not equal to the demands and exi- 
 gencies of modern society, if its principles of life and 
 character are certain to be outgrown, then it is a sham 
 and an imposture. But if it is true, it is everlasting, and 
 its triumphs will become more and more complete, and 
 more and more manifest. Either Christ is competent 
 to control the world's thinking and acting for all time, 
 or he was a romantic dreamer or a self-conscious im- 
 postor. That he was neither, is proved to the scholar 
 by the world's history, not merely of external progress 
 and dominion, but of the spiritual and transforming 
 power of Christ's character, Christ's teachings, and 
 Christ's promises. What this kingdom has come to be, 
 when traced from what it was in the beginning, demon- 
 strates what its triumphs are to be in the future. What 
 it has done against such fearful antagonisms within and 
 without, — in man's individual being and in the various 
 forms of organized iniquity, — is decisive of what it will 
 do for the world in the coming generations. 
 
 Are we appalled at the possible evils which may be- 
 fall this kingdom in our time, and does it become us to 
 forget what mightier evils it has overcome in times that 
 are gone? Should we overlook the fact that many of 
 
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 285 
 
 the agencies that once were arrayed against her, have 
 been subjected to her victorious power, and are now be- 
 come organized as her allies ? Should we forget wliat 
 learning and wit, and government and wealth, and fash- 
 ion and tradition, have been able to accomplish to her 
 harm, and to overlook what all these agencies are now 
 doing for her help? Is it romantic or presumptuous to 
 believe that when the great social forces that unite men 
 so closely, and control them so completely, shall be more 
 thoroughly Christianized, their energy and swiftness 
 shall be such as cannot be computed by any measure- 
 ments of the past, nor imagined in our most romantic 
 hopes ? Do we know any thing of history, and yet fail to 
 observe that Christianity has also created forces of might 
 which are original with herself, in affections and habits, 
 and principles and tastes and institutions, for which 
 there are not even words in the ante-Christian vocabu- 
 lary, which have yet become watchwords and inspira- 
 tions to the noblest men who live, and are carved on the 
 monuments of the noblest who are dead ? Was not our 
 own civil war kindled by a fire that could never have 
 been lighted except on Christian altars ? Has not mod- 
 ern commerce carried precious freights of a message that 
 had not been accepted by the faiths of other times, and 
 could not have entered into their imaginations ? Is it 
 not even true that Christianity is assailed in the name 
 of principles which she herself has sanctioned, and by 
 the application of a spirit which she brought into life? 
 "We are not unmindful of modern unbelief, and its 
 plausibility to beguile and mislead. Ought we to be 
 unmindful that its most skilful assailants have forged 
 their weapons in the fires of her altars, and dared to 
 assail tlie actual Christ by using the very ideals which 
 Clirist himself inspired? Surely the man who can inter- 
 pret the signs of the certain triumph of the kingdom of 
 
286 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 God needs no incitement to seek its interests first of all 
 as the great business of his life. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the G-raduating Class, — We have 
 asked you to this place to hear, as our last injunction, 
 that ye seek first the kingdom of God. You have been 
 trained in Christian homes, you have breathed the 
 atmosphere of Christian culture, you have been educated 
 in Christian schools and a Christian college. You have 
 been moulded by the plastic energy, and have been pen- 
 etrated by the spirit, of a Christian civilization. The 
 kingdom of God in a sense has been around you since 
 your birth, and to many, perhaps to more of you than 
 know it, the kingdom of God is in some good sense 
 already formed within you. We exhort you, in the 
 circumstances that now surround you, to seek first the 
 kingdom of God. As you look back upon the past, with 
 its blessings and its reproaches, with its encouragements 
 and its monitions, with its sorrows and its joys, as you 
 look forward to the future, with its hopes and its fears, 
 with its misgivings and its anticipations, we bid you 
 resolve with new and stronger purposes to make this 
 kingdom of God supreme. Should each and all of you 
 do this, as you may, the world will feel your presence 
 and your power, it will bless your very name, it will 
 return to your own hearts ample blessings, and more 
 grateful praises than can come by any other means. 
 
 Seek this kingdom, then, in its true and noblest im- 
 port, as only men of knowledge and culture can under- 
 stand and feel it. Seek its character and spirit in the 
 perfect ideal of manhood which commands your homage, 
 and which you can appreciate better than those whom 
 knowledge has not enlightened, and culture has not 
 refined. Seek its Christ in the mystery of his manifes- 
 tation to man, in the spirit in which he lived, and in the 
 
SEEK FIUST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 287 
 
 death which he died that he might become the world's 
 riglitful master and king. Seek to know what this king- 
 dom can become in the liglit and by the aids of modern 
 science and culture. Seek it the more earnestly because 
 its claims are now called in question, and it needs 
 friends who shall be earnest and self-sacrificing, even 
 unto death. Last of all, seek it because its triumphs 
 are sure. 
 
 Let this be the aim of your life, and your life cannot 
 be a failure. All these things besides that men seek 
 after shall be added unto you. The kingdom for which 
 you live is God's. The great forces of nature are his. 
 The tides in the affairs which bear them onward to suc- 
 cess, or sweep them outward into disjippointment and 
 failure, are controlled by his providence ; and he never 
 fails to give success to the man that seeks first whatso- 
 ever is true, whatsoever is honorable, whatsoever is 
 lovely, whatsoever is of good report. 
 
 Here you have led a happy life. As you look back 
 upon it by a glance, and gather it into a single picture, 
 it is bright and lovely, with here and there a dark 
 shadow. One attracts your notice within the near past, 
 in the death of the honorable, lovely, and accomplished 
 Heald, whom so many were loath to part with, and will 
 not soon forget. To him it was of little consequence 
 whether he were to stay or go, as, whether he should 
 be here or there, he was of the kingdom of God. 
 Should all of you seek this first, whether you live or die, 
 you are at home. May those who are to live the 
 longest, make the world brighter and better by having 
 lived in it! and may those who are to die the soonest, 
 anticipate the spirit and life which shall prepare you for 
 the perfect life with God! 
 
 With these wishes and prayer, I bid you an affec- 
 tionate farewell. 
 
XIV. 
 THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF* 
 
 "Take heed, brethrex, lest there be in any op tou an evil heart 
 of unbelief, in defarting from the living god." — ileh. ul 12. 
 
 The Christian doctrine of faith and unbelief is as 
 original and peculiar as the Christian system itself. It 
 is an ofPence to superficial thinkers, and a puzzle to 
 many believers, who stumble at what they conceive to 
 he its contradictions or its mysticism. Faith, say these 
 critics, is the gift of God ; and, again, it is an act of man. 
 Faith, on the one hand, is conviction founded upon 
 evidences. Faith, on the other, must be warmed by the 
 emotions, and controlled by the will. Faith is every 
 thing, if it only carries the inner man ; but, again, faith 
 is nothing if it does not show itself in the actions, and 
 pervade the outer life. 
 
 Modern ethics and politics also are continually beset 
 by the questions how far men may be responsible for 
 acting out their faith in words and deeds which society 
 and the state forbid. The Mormon pleads for license 
 to obey God rather than man by his religious harlotry. 
 The fanatic murders his own child, or the nation's glory 
 and pride, in the name of inspiration from God. Ever 
 since Christianity set up its demand of obedient faith 
 against the counter-demand of the Roman Csesar, down 
 to the present moment, the right to form and act out 
 
 * June 25, 1S82. 
 288 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 289 
 
 one's faith has been alternately asserted and denied. 
 To adjust these chiims and counter-claims has cost 
 Europe countless persecutions, and protracted and des- 
 olating wars, all of which have turned upon the ques- 
 tions, What is it to believe? In whom ought I to 
 believe? How can faith be a duty, and unbelief a sin? 
 Men have thought to cut these knots by contending 
 that faith is not a matter of duty at all ; because, for- 
 sooth, the creeds and opinions of men are made for us, 
 and inherited by us. These views are now supposed by 
 many to be scientifically proved by the theories of 
 heredity and environment, joined to the supposed philo- 
 sophical demonstration that all matters of faith are but 
 the guess-work of fancy concerning that Spirit who can 
 never be definitely known. On this ground, and on 
 this alone, it is contended that the rights of individual 
 faith and of private judgment can firmly stand. On 
 second thought, it will be seen that the modern doctrine 
 of a faith inherited from the past, or the product of en- 
 vironment, leaves no room for individual rights, because 
 a right supposes a responsible individual, whom it de- 
 fends in the exercise of an act which is emphatically his 
 own, and for which he must answer to himself and his 
 God. 
 
 It would be easy to show that toleration for the faith 
 of others is the outgrowth in logic and in fact of that 
 cardinal doctrine of Christian ethics that a man is, to 
 a certain extent, responsible for his faith, so far, and 
 only so far, as his faith is the manifestation and out- 
 growth of his individual will. What that truth is that 
 every man ought to accept, is wisely left undecided. 
 The spirit of faith is all that we are commanded to pos- 
 sess. But there is one criterion which tests this spirit 
 as the spear of Ithuriel. Faith, to be genuine and good, 
 invariably unites a man to the living God, as a vivid 
 
290 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 and ever present reality. Christ brings God near and 
 jDresent to man: therefore, Christ is the central object 
 of faith. Theologies are much, or little, or nothing, as 
 they bring God and Christ near, or remove them, far 
 from our souls. Unbelief is evil so far as it cuts a man 
 ofP from the living God. Unbelief in this sense is a sin, 
 and in this sense it is called an evil in our text ; but 
 unbelief is also a calamity greatly to be dreaded, and 
 earnestly to be shunned. In this sense I shall treat of 
 it at the present time. I shall do so because the doc- 
 trine is now so generally insinuated, especially among 
 young men of culture, that it is a good and brave thing 
 not to believe ; or, perlia[)s, that it is a necessary thing 
 for one who is sufficiently enlightened to know what 
 the world is now thinking about, and is honest and 
 bold enough to follow his convictions. 
 
 The heart of unbelief is evil in four particulars, — in 
 its influence upon a man's character, upon his plans 
 and activities, upon his hopes for his fellow-men, and 
 upon his relations to another life. 
 
 1. Unbelief dwarfs and lowers the individual man so 
 far as it cuts him off from God. It lowers and limits 
 his intellect. Our intellects, and our intellectual solu- 
 tions of the problems of the universe, carry us back to 
 the comprehensive intellect of the living God. Every 
 discovery of a cause or a force suggests a more com- 
 prehensive force behind, who is surely none the less a 
 force because He is intelligent. Every discernment of 
 law points to a broader and deeper rule or combination 
 of laws beneath. Every indication of purpose opens to 
 wider adaptations, such as unlimited wisdom and good- 
 ness best explain. Every chain of development brings 
 out in more luminous relief its prophecy passing into 
 history, and its history explained by prophecy, botli 
 binding us by a golden chain to the throne of the living 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 291 
 
 God. Science, or intellectual insight, viewed subjec- 
 tively, is known to be the work of an intelligent person, 
 classifying and interpreting under the necessary laws of 
 his own activity. Science, objectively viewed, most sat- 
 isfactorily completes its universe by an intelligent per- 
 son in whose image man is formed, and whose reason 
 and will man interprets. Do you say that a self-existent 
 person is a mystery that logic and science cannot 
 fathom, and therefore cannot accept? We reply that 
 it is no more a mystery than is a dependent intelligence, 
 which is bewildered by the greater mystery which it 
 seeks to fathom. The living God, whom faith projects 
 as the background of the universe, is no more really an 
 enigma than the living men whom science cannot fail 
 to find in its foreground, because they do the work of 
 science. The man who has never thought of this, or, 
 thinking of it, does not accept it as true, has narrowed 
 his mind. Whether his unbelief is that of the stolid 
 earthworm, or the quick and large-minded intelligence, 
 who, in the multitude of his works and ways, has few 
 or no thoughts of God, he neglects or excludes the high- 
 est and noblest relations that man can recognize. Such 
 narrowness is essentially evil, and most of all if it is 
 self-satisfied, and contemptuous of that truth of which 
 it is willingly ignorant. Unbelief also depresses the 
 imagination. While faith provides a solid basis of facts 
 and truths, it stimulates the imagination to an intense 
 and glowing activity. While its comprehensive verities 
 are the most certain and solid of all truths, as God and 
 Christ, and duty and immortality, the particulars in 
 which these may be exemplified are (very largely) left 
 to the creative and constructive power. Faith bids the 
 imagination to soar, but it bids it to soar on a strong 
 and steady wing. Faith warrants the belief in the 
 immortal life. It holds this belief with the confidence 
 
292 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 of demonstration. While it confesses that it can give 
 no exact information as to what that life may be, it 
 boldly gathers from actual experience the most satisfy- 
 ing suggestions, and out of them constructs the most 
 exalted and rapturous ideals of what men may hope for. 
 It justifies us in following our departed friends in the 
 unseen sphere with the assured hope of a blessed life. 
 So far our conceptions are distinct and rational; but 
 the nature of the heavenly habitations, and the modes 
 of communication of heart with heart, are left to the 
 chastened fancy to anticipate. Eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love him ; and yet by the suggestions of a purified 
 imagination, steadied by faith, man has been lifted in 
 his aspirations and hopes up to the noblest ideals of 
 what is possible for himself and for his fellow-men. 
 These thoughts explain the power which the Christian 
 faith has exerted over literature, and through literature 
 over the manhood of the human race. They show why, 
 so soon as the Christian virtues begin to be held less 
 fervently and less positively, the imagination becomes 
 feebler and more unsteady, and the energy and fervor 
 of poetry decline. The faith of one generation may 
 blossom into the poetry of the generation that follows ; 
 but if faith is actually dead, the imagination must soon 
 follow to its tomb. No more striking example of the 
 impotence of an uncertain faith to flash into true poetic 
 fire can easily be found than that furnished in the 
 example of the gifted critic and essayist who has so 
 recently died. Emerson united a sharp common sense 
 to a profound yearning after the unseen with what 
 should have been a glowing imagination. But his rev- 
 erent aspirations for the unseen were slow in assuming 
 the energy of a definite faith, and his many attempts to 
 soar were singularly awkward and abortive. In the 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 293 
 
 fieUI of poetry he produced no fruits such as were wor- 
 thy of the capacities of his siiiguhirly gifted nature. 
 Though reverent before the spiritual and unseen, his 
 faith cast no clear and steady light upon the gorgeous 
 vistas which were opened to his gaze ; and hence these 
 were usually vistas in illuminated cloud-land. From 
 any less reverent type of thinkers, who in our day so 
 positively and scornfully deny that God can be known, 
 neither poetry nor fiction can be expected. The ima- 
 gination shrivels before the frosty breath of the polar 
 regions in which they dwell. Satire and scorn, and 
 analysis and logic, may be fostered by the evil heart of 
 such unbelief, but poetry and eloquence never. 
 
 I need not say that the character of a man, especially 
 of a man of culture, depends very largely upon the type 
 and fervor of his imagination. According as his ideals 
 are high or low, according as they are clear or vague, 
 such will be the man himself. If his intelligent faith 
 brings him into the constant and vivid presence of the 
 living God, his character will be lifted upwards by 
 the fervor of his stimulated and sustained imagination. 
 Unless this stimulus is renewed and inspired by con- 
 stant visions of the living God, there is danger that he 
 will either sink to the selfish and mean, or be the victim 
 or sport of any romance which caprice or fashion or 
 ambition may inspire. Lord Bacon knew not how 
 pregnant was the truth which he uttered, " They that 
 destroy God, destroy man's nobility." It has been sig- 
 nally fulfilled by the acts of those atheists of our time, 
 who, in order to destroy God, have been so eager to 
 immolate man on the altars of materialistic denial. 
 
 Unbelief weakens and misleads the conscience. 
 Whatever theory we may form of the grounds of the 
 authorit)^ of the conscience, there can be no doubt that 
 faith in God hallows and enforces that authority. How- 
 
294 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 ever potent and sacred is its voice when uttered alone, 
 it is ineffably more sacred when it is also recognized as 
 the voice of God. So intimate are the relations of the 
 two, that it may be seriously doubted whether the one 
 does not involve the other. Practically, and in fact, 
 we know that the actual energy of conscience rises and 
 falls with a man's sensibility to God's presence and God's 
 will. We ought not to be surprised, that, when mod- 
 ern atheism resolves God into a vague abstraction or a 
 poetic metaphor, the conscience should be resolved into 
 a progressive public sentiment, or into fickle associa- 
 tions, or brute authority. In any event, so soon as it is 
 lowered to the level of man's judgment, it is no longer 
 held sacred as the court in which God tries the heart. 
 We grant, that, unless man consents to the awards of 
 God as just, these awards need not move him ; but ex- 
 perience shows, that, to give to either sentence or judge 
 a quickening and controlling power, God must be pres- 
 ent in the court of conscience, — the God from whose 
 penetrating eye no man can escape, and to whose ap- 
 proving or condemning voice no man can be indifferent. 
 Let this presence be withdrawn by unbelief, and con- 
 science will cease to be the sacred and elevating force 
 which it was before ; and the light of the soul will give 
 way to a darkness which may be felt, — the darkness of 
 a conscience that is deluded or dead. Remember, when 
 the living God leaves the conscience, then every thing 
 that is good goes with him : the self-respect, the self- 
 control, the sensibility to high ideals, the deference to 
 the feelings of others, the nice sense of honor, the deli- 
 cate regard to truth of thought and truth of statement, 
 the control of the animal appetites, and whatever else 
 duty enjoins or high ideals inspire, — all these give way 
 under subtle and powerful temptations, especially those 
 in which modern life abounds. 
 
TUE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 295 
 
 2. The heart of unbelief works fatal evil in the 
 conduct of life, in respect to its theory and achieve- 
 ments. So far as it excludes the living God from either, 
 it blasts its blossoms, and blights its fruits. The extent 
 to which it prevails differs greatly with diiferent men. 
 Let us begin at the lowest point of negation, and sup- 
 pose a man to be in theory an atheist or agnostic. We 
 group the two together, because it is practically all the 
 same with the eftects upon the plans and acts of one's 
 life whether a man denies there is a God, or denies that 
 man can know him. Strictly speaking, such a man has 
 no right to any plan of life at all. A plan on his part sup- 
 poses order in the economy of nature, to which he may 
 adapt his expectations and his acts. But for his faith 
 in such order, this man can give us no reason. Should 
 he reply that without such order presumed he can 
 neither understand himself nor control his own life, he 
 does by this very answer abandon his atheism, and 
 throw himself into the everlasting arms of the living 
 God. Whether he will confess it or not, every man — 
 60 far as he has any plan or hope for the future, or any 
 theory or hope in life — must live by faith in the Un- 
 seen as a living and rational power. 
 
 Leaving this point, it may suffice us to trace a few of 
 the beneficial influences which faith imparts, and un- 
 belief withholds, in the conduct of life. Faith in God 
 justifies self-respect, and the assertion and defence of 
 one's individual rights. In the light of God's presence, 
 every individual man expresses an individual thought 
 of his Creator. He is no undistinguished molecule, like 
 a thousand or a million of his fellows, each of which 
 might take the place of an}^ other, and all of which 
 would not be missed if extinguished ; but each living 
 man has an individual life, with ends peculiar to himself; 
 and as such, each is respected and cared for by the living 
 
296 FIFTEEN TEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Person, in whom all souls have their life. Holding this 
 place in the plan of God, he is not only permitted, but 
 he is bound, to respect himself. The more brightly and 
 keenly the light of God shines upon himself, and in one 
 sense reveals his feebleness, the more distinctly does it 
 reveal his importance, and justify him in asserting it, so 
 far as he asserts it in the name of God. In the godless 
 theory of the universe, individual men are momentary 
 products of nature's loom, — woven and unravelled as 
 they make up the progressive woof of human history, 
 after the pattern of a slowly perfected humanity. The 
 individual is nothing : humanity is every thing. One 
 soul comes, and another goes : each is made by its place 
 and for its place ; but both endure for a moment, and are 
 gone. Before the relentless march of this advancing 
 horde, each single soul is trampled into annihilation and 
 forgetfulness. From the crest of this foaming sea, myr- 
 iads of drops are, for an instant, whirled into life, glisten 
 in forms of beauty, and are then whelmed by the cruel 
 waves. Human rights and joys, human affections and 
 hopes, human responsibilities and fears, are but the fly- 
 ing foam on these restless waves which, with accelerated 
 speed, are hurried toward the ocean. It is easy to see 
 how, under the influence of such a theory, man becomes 
 reckless of himself, and unfeeling towards his fellows. 
 Indeed, he cannot well be otherwise. Denying his 
 own dignity in the sight of God, he denies love and 
 justice to his fellow-man. The materialistic atheism of 
 ancient and modern schools, from the loftiness of its 
 isolated position, and under the hazy light of its broad 
 generalizations, dismisses all consideration of individual 
 rights and individual well-being, under the contemptu- 
 ous but convenient appellation of sentimental considera- 
 tions. But the moment a man sees himself in the light 
 of the living God, he finds reflected from that light the 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 297 
 
 bright radiance of an individual importance and a sepa- 
 rate sphere of duty and of right to himself and his 
 fellow-men. 
 
 Human history tells a uniform story how, as faith in 
 the living God lias come and gone in the earth, man has 
 risen and fallen in his own self-respect. It tells us how, 
 as he has risen to the dignity of his nature, and then 
 fallen below it, he has been prompt to appreciate and 
 defend his rights, or quick to waive and surrender them. 
 It also tells us how, in the same degree that he has been 
 careless of these high interests for himself, he has been 
 indifferent to them for others. 
 
 Faith in God also assures every man that he has a 
 work to do. If he has an individual existence by the 
 creative fiat that a sustaining Providence affords, he has 
 also a sphere to fill and a service to render, to which he 
 is called by the same living God. This sphere is his, 
 and his only, if he can but find it ; and if he seeks for 
 it humbly and earnestly, he cannot fail to discover it. 
 Such a faith in one's place in life lifts a man once for 
 all above depressing care and belittling anxiety. He is 
 no longer his own servant, but God's minister. If he 
 lives, he lives not to himself; if he dies, he dies not to 
 himself. It is true that in the conditions of earthly 
 life, competition and struggle and rivalry are often the 
 only methods of determining one's own place and 
 advancement. These are the wholesome conditions of 
 our earthly existence ; but it is none the less true that by 
 means of them, the call of God to a post of duty is 
 made known. These assignments often seem unequal 
 and unjust. The prizes of life, after the fairest competi- 
 tion, do not always conform to merit. The race is not 
 always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; but the 
 discipline of disappointment is often most salutary ; 
 and the trial of seeing injustice triumph is often most 
 
298 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 useful. To endure trials like these, faith is most of all 
 needed. To yield to brute force and inexorable law 
 without the confidence of faith, is hard enough ; but to 
 accept injustice from man without the belief that God 
 makes such submission to be our duty, is harder still. 
 When we say that faith assigns to every man a place for 
 service, we do not overlook the truth that the task 
 assigned may be a task of suffering and disappointment, 
 perhaps of outrageous injustice and hopeless defeat. 
 All that we assert is, that it will be assigned by the 
 Master, and that if it can be accepted in faith, the dark- 
 est passages of life become luminous with the presence 
 and smile of the Father of spirits. 
 
 Life is no holiday, whether we live with God or with- 
 out him. But it makes an enormous difference whether 
 a man is summoned to suffering and loss, to grief and 
 disappointment, by the call of the personal God; or 
 dragged to agonizing horror by the voice of blind and 
 unrelenting fate. Life, however, to most men, brings 
 more or less of enjoyment and success, — most of all to 
 the man who finds good in any sphere of action and duty. 
 I need not say that no man can so reasonably find a 
 bright side in the darkest events of life, as he along 
 whose path are ever streaming rays of hope and bright- 
 ness from the presence of the Father of spirits. 
 
 3. The heart of unbelief is evil, because it weakens 
 or destroys all rational grounds for hope in man's social 
 progress. Though a man's individual character and 
 career are specially important to himself, he can never 
 forget that he reaches them very largely through 
 others. What he is and what he does, so far as he is 
 responsible, must be ascribed to his individual will ; but 
 what he is, in another most important sense, and what 
 be can make of himself, must depend to a large extent 
 upon his fellow-men. The germ and nucleus of man's 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 299 
 
 being is this individual self ; but the growing and culti- 
 vated man, the living and loving man, depends on what 
 he appropriates in what is now called his social environ- 
 ment; that is, upon the civilization, the manners, the 
 laws, and institutions which constitute his atmosphere 
 and his food. Every individual carries in his very 
 blood the physical taint or the physical life which 
 heredity transmits. Every home is more or less a 
 training-school from or towards the living God. With 
 almost every breath, we inhale the moral atmosphere 
 of a purified or tainted public sentiment. The manners 
 we witness or imitate, the words we liear or repeat, the 
 sympathies or antipathies which we cherish or reject, 
 are constantly weaving webs of subtle associations, 
 which, " though light as air, are strong as links of iron," 
 to hold us towards or back from goodness. So far as 
 we act for ourselves, we are independent and free. So 
 far as God acts upon us and for us, he acts largely 
 tlirough social agencies. These forces and these laws 
 act upon us through their rehitions to ourselves and 
 to others, — to ourselves, for what we may expect to 
 receive through their influence ; to otliers, in what 
 we anticipate for the future of the race. 
 
 Faith in the living God is man's only warrant for a 
 confident and reasonable hope in the progress of man 
 under these social appliances. It holds this progress to 
 be provided for in the plan of human history. It finds 
 satisfying evidence that this plan has been steadily 
 carried forward in the past. It exercises a sober imagi- 
 nation when it foresees the enormous force for good 
 which lies hidden in the laws and manners, in the lit- 
 erature and art, that are to be, when they all shall be 
 made to serve the Lord Christ. When faith is disheart- 
 ened by a momentary retrogression, it needs only come 
 nearer into the presence of the living God, and its 
 
300 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 courage and hopes for man are at once renewed, and 
 with it, its joy and blessing. If one questions whether 
 unbelief tends to evil, let him notice attentively one 
 of its darkest and gloomiest aspects in that hopeless 
 pessimism of our day, which is rapidly taking hold of a 
 considerable class of cultivated men, as they seemingly 
 reject, or positively ignore, any hope for man in the 
 providential guidance or redeeming spirit of the living 
 God. The godless or animalized unbelief of the masses 
 in our time is dangerous and depressing enough when 
 conjoined with their credulous hopefulness in clutch- 
 ing at every new sham of social or political reform. 
 The silly hopefulness with which a section of material- 
 istic atheists promises for the race a prosperous voyage 
 over the pacific seas to the islands of the blest, on sun- 
 dry physiological conditions, provokes alternately our 
 wonder or our compassion. But there is no sign of the 
 times that is so dismal as the pessimistic indifference 
 and despair with which so many cultivated deniers of 
 the Christian faith look forward to the future of the 
 race ; and simply because their philosophy of the past 
 and their prophecy of the future disdain to acknowl- 
 edge the living God as an agent of power and blessing. 
 These pessimists are indeed a motley crowd. There 
 are cool and hard-headed materialists, who think they 
 believe in nothing beyond what the fingers can handle 
 and the eyes can discover. There are believers in what 
 they call force and tendency, — self-instructed and self- 
 moving, — more mysterious and mystical, except in 
 name, than the living God, whom they say is now an 
 exploded conception of the past. There are enthusi- 
 astic dreamers in human perfectibility, who have seen 
 the dreams of their youth shattered into fragments ; 
 and who, with the loss of the silly romances of their 
 youth, have flung overboard their faith after them. 
 
THE EVIL UEART OF UNBELIEF. 301 
 
 There are not a few, once Christian devotees, who, for 
 many reasons, have turned tlieir backs upon Christ and 
 his Church. There are supercilious critics of the 
 creeds and lives of other men, who profess no earnest 
 creed and no earnest life of their own. There are 
 selfish and self-indulgent favorites of fashion or of 
 letters, who are too dainty for the struggles and sacri- 
 fices which human progress involves. There are idle 
 and lazy voluptuaries of the flesh or the spirit, or of 
 both, half philosophers and half Sybarites. 
 
 But they all unite in a common cry, — Let the world 
 go, for all we care, to the ruin to which it is doomed, 
 and from which nothing can save it. Reforms and prog- 
 ress in science, in government, in morals, and religion, — 
 all are in vain. And why in vaui? Simply because 
 these men have neither faith nor inspiration from the 
 Divine Person, who is ever working salvation in the earth. 
 No greater evil can befall a man of culture and thought, 
 than to sink into such a heartless, faithless, and hope- 
 less mood in respect to himself and his kind. Against 
 its earlier suggestions and its rapidly progressive power, 
 against its supercilious selfishness or its despairing scorn, 
 no man — and especially no young man, and, pre-emin- 
 ently, no young man of culture — can -take heed too 
 earnestly. 
 
 Compare, by contrast, the hopes of human progress 
 which the Christian theory warrants and inspires. In 
 the complex movements of social forces, the Divine 
 Father is everywhere present, animating and manipu- 
 lating each and all, proportioning each to individual 
 energy, and giving energy and effect to each by a skilful 
 and ever modulated touch. In every raging battlefield, 
 within every desolating tornado, thi'ough each tumul- 
 tuous ocean-storm, in the tumult of revolution and 
 anarchy, the presence of the living God, — shall I not 
 
302 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 say of the Lord Christ, — is recognized as stilling the 
 noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the 
 tumult of the people. Notwithstanding the opposing 
 energy of races and nations, the unseen kingdom of 
 God is everywhere gathering strength, and making 
 certain, if not rapid, conquests, — is everywhere gaining 
 a stronger hold on human thought, and rising in larger 
 proportions to a constantly assured strength. 
 
 The freedom of the individual man must, indeed, 
 everywhere be respected. The conquests sought for 
 and gained are of the spirit ; and, therefore, not one of 
 the agencies employed may infringe upon the respon- 
 sible freedom of the soul made in God's image. Yet 
 the social agencies for good are all the while gathering 
 strength, and exerting a constantly augmenting influ- 
 ence. The spirit of the living God not only dwells in 
 each single soul to make it a temple for worship and 
 service, but it brings them together into a spiritual organ- 
 ism, which it moulds for a dwelling-place for himself, 
 inspiring each single agency with new energy, and lifting 
 all together into a higher, common life. From one gen- 
 eration to another, the state, the school, and the Church, 
 and the family of men shall become more perfectly 
 animated by the presence, and moulded by the spirit, of 
 the reigning Jehovah. 
 
 Animated by a faith like this in social progress, no 
 word can be lost, no prayer can return unanswered, not 
 a cup of cold water can be given in vain : neither sigh, 
 nor song, nor prayer, shall vanish into thin air. The 
 shortest life is eternal in its. influence. The life which 
 seems to be wasted is fraught with fruitfulness. The 
 faith that humanity shall be redeemed, is forever assured 
 by the faith that God has taken hold of it that he may 
 redeem it to himself in all its relationships and agencies, 
 and is conducting it toward this bright and blessed 
 consummation. 
 
THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 303 
 
 The man with such a faith has something worth living 
 and hxboring for. Hope and not despair is the inspira- 
 tion of his activities. He has received a kingdom which 
 cannot be moved ; and that kingdom is certain to be- 
 come the joy of the whole earth. That kingdom shall 
 come when the social forces that unite man to man 
 shall be transfigured and controlled by the spirit of the 
 living God, and all individual souls shall rejoice in his 
 presence and his reign. Were a living faith in its 
 promised reality to take the place of the mystical 
 dreams, the cynical contempt, or the selfish despair, — 
 which are bred of the atheistic belief of modern days, — 
 a new energy would be imparted to human hopes, and a 
 fresh inspiration to human activities. The agencies 
 and appliances for social welfare that have been freshly 
 emphasized, the new generalizations and laws of per- 
 sonal and public economy, would all be recognized as 
 the voice of one crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye 
 the wjiy of the Lord." And the echo should respond, 
 " Every valley shall be exalted, and every hill shall be 
 laid low : and the crooked shall be made straight, and 
 the rough places plain." The resistless energy, the 
 splendid enterprise, and the magical discoveries of the 
 present age would be accepted as new tokens that God 
 is moving among men for their good as never before, if 
 men would but recognize his presence and acknowledge 
 his wisdom. We do well to take heed, lest any one of 
 us be so weak as to suppose that atheism is any the 
 more rational because it is fashionable with a few, or 
 that the heart of unbelief is not wholly and desperately 
 evil, in such a hopeful time as this. 
 
 4. The heart of unbelief consummates its evil, by 
 unfitting a man for the future life. If the wilful or 
 careless abandonment of faith involves departure from 
 God, and if such departure unfits a man for a truly sue- 
 
304 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 cessful life in the present world, how much more for the 
 life which is to be ! Even for this life it is fearful to 
 think of the career of a single human being who turns 
 his back upon the living God and goes, step by step, 
 farther and farther from his presence in thought and 
 feeling and aim. If we follow that soul into another 
 life, it were evil enough if it were loft alone under the 
 impulses which had gained such headway, and in the 
 direction which habit and consistency had fixed. We 
 instinctively say, when a man deliberately turns his 
 back upon the light, and continues to walk away from 
 it, it cannot be but that the shadow will widen and 
 deepen the farther he goes, whether he prosecutes his 
 journey in the present life or the future. Whatever 
 changes death may make in his circumstances, he must 
 carry into the next world his unchanged self in respect 
 to his moral habits and purposes, in respect to his loves 
 and hatreds, his estimates of God and himself. It would 
 also seem probable that in the future life it will not be 
 so easy to forget God and live without God, as it is in 
 the present; and that for the purposes of trial and disci- 
 pline and award, the eternal God will be manifested dis- 
 tinctly to every soul, so that he cannot be overlooked or 
 forgotten. The Scriptures teach this most distinctly, 
 whatever else they may be supposed to teach or to fail to 
 convey. The writer of our text, " Take heed lest there 
 be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing 
 from the living God," also says, " It is a fearful thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living God." Whatever else 
 may have been supposed to have been learned or un- 
 learned in regard to the future state, this one lesson 
 has been deepened in every mind by all that we know 
 through nature or revelation, concerning man and God, 
 — that character in this life is prolonged and fixed into 
 destiny in the future and in the moral elements of evil 
 
TUB EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. 305 
 
 and good, which must be intensified with manifold 
 energy by the future revelations of God as he is, and by 
 the reflection of man as he will discover what he is, — 
 when tried by these vivid revelations. 
 
 If, then, it is an evil thing to cut off one's self from 
 God in the present world, it must be an unspeakably 
 greater evil to depart further from him in the life to 
 come, to be fully alive to what one has lost in turning 
 from God, and also to know that he is under the deep- 
 ening shadow of his displeasure, and that he does not 
 desire to return. From such a destiny every one hopes 
 and prays to be delivered. Should some atheist or an 
 agnostic chance to hear me, he would doubtless utter 
 the prayer. If the future state shall make known a God, 
 may I be ready to worship and love him. But let us 
 suppose that not one of us has turned his back upon 
 him, would it not be a fearful waste and loss to allow 
 the springs and habits of our early life to be so little 
 controlled by our faith that we can only hope to be 
 saved as by fire ? Would it not be evil if the ambitions 
 and activities and achievements, which we have followed 
 with energy and hope and fear, shall prove to be 
 wretched hay and stubble that shall vanish into smoke 
 under the flame of God's great displeasure? What 
 aspiring young man, even if he could save his soul, 
 would be willing to lose the work of his earthly life? 
 ^' Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class^ — It is not 
 because I think you are in special danger from unbelief 
 that I have selected this theme. It is rather that I 
 may exhort you with greater courage and hope to fight 
 the good figlit of faith. 
 
 The fact is not to be disguised, however, that faith 
 
308 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 is destined in these days to meet many a contest, and 
 that unbelief, in some of its aspects, was never more im- 
 posing to men of culture than it is at the present time. 
 There is no use in whining or whimpering about the 
 times in which we live. Our business is to defend the 
 truth as we believe it ; and to defend it because we know 
 its worth and its power. There is little service done to 
 any good cause by those who do little more than groan 
 over the degeneracy of the times, or the un worthiness of 
 their fellow defenders of the truth. The times are, in a 
 certain sense, not made by us, but for us. It is our 
 wisdom and our duty to take them as we find them, and 
 make them better as far as we may. 
 
 Unbelief is, indeed, somewhat conspicuous in the 
 high places of thought, and assumes a positive tone. It 
 has entered upon almost every region of speculation 
 and research in philosophy and science, in literature 
 and history ; and claims, with a confidence that often 
 is sheer afProntery, that the excess of light which has 
 flashed upon these new fields has only made darkness 
 visible in the encircling domain in which, hitherto, 
 faith had dreamed of unseen glory and immortal love. 
 As the result of these activities, many old opinions have 
 assumed new relations and put on new aspects ; and a 
 general disposition to question even the most sacred 
 truths prevails among not a few quick-minded and mer- 
 curial thinkers. Credulous haste in accepting the last 
 suggestions of the fancy has taken the place of critical 
 scrutiny; and positive assertion, if not insane credulity 
 in propounding paradoxical conclusions, is now and 
 then accepted as solid evidence for the truth. It is not 
 surprising that the advocates of the old faith should 
 sometimes have been filled with alarm under the cir- 
 cumstances, and that this alarm should now and then 
 have been intensified into a panic. 
 
THE EVIL UEART OF UNBELIEF. 307 
 
 Under these circumstances it has seemed to me proper 
 to remind you that unbelief in the sacred verities, as a 
 practical force, is fraught with disappointment and 
 deceit for this life and the future ; and, therefore, it is 
 presumed to be itself false and deceitful. I do not 
 expect and do not desire that your faith should, in any 
 particular, go beyond evidence, or assume any other 
 form than rational conviction. But I do urge that this 
 conviction should be large and liberal in the data on 
 which it rests, and should include among these data of 
 proof a just estimate of the practical worth of faith in 
 duty and immortality, in God and Christ as the springs 
 and motives of action and the inspiration of life. This 
 argument is thoroughly legitimate, and is especially 
 appropriate to your condition as you go forth into a 
 more or less widened sphere of active service, — a sphere 
 in which your culture here will be tried pre-eminently 
 by your manhood and character. The oft quoted saying 
 of Goethe, '^ The world's history is the world's court of 
 judgment," is as true of our faith as it is of our charac- 
 ter, and for the reason that our faith, in the long run, 
 forms our character. You will notice how quickly and 
 sharply in these days men judge of those who were 
 most admired when they were living the moment they 
 are dead ; and that it is only the men of faith and fidel- 
 ity who are honored by the world's second thoughts, as 
 it sits in judgment on its heroes. 
 
 It is probably true that very sharp conflicts of opin- 
 ion await the present generation. It is more than prob- 
 able that the men of faith and the men of unbelief will 
 be more and more distinctly divided. No evil can come 
 of this, but only good ; provided faith in the living God 
 and the present Christ becomes more fervent and con- 
 stant. The power of faith is in its energy, its patience, 
 and its fervor. You are a small company in comparison 
 
308 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 with the mass of humanity without ; but were your solid 
 convictions kindled into fervent heat, you might shake 
 the earth. Fear not for the good cause. That will 
 prevail as certainly as the heavens hang over us, and 
 the sun continues to shine. Let it be yours to trust 
 in the living God by a faith that is as unshaken and fer- 
 vent as are his truth and love. 
 
 Here you have had a more than usually prosperous 
 life. You go forth with the most cheerful recollections 
 of the past, and with hopeful prospects for the future. 
 One of your number who was with you at the begin- 
 ning of the present year, has been gently removed to the 
 immortal life, heading the long procession in which 
 each of you will take his place at the inexorable call. 
 I shall not soon forget the pensive, yet hopeful, look 
 which he gave me when he bade me good-by, hoping 
 against hope to be with you at this hour. I cannot but 
 think that you all believe and know that the Christian 
 hope in which we stand — founded as it was on Him who 
 abolished death, and brought life and immortality to 
 light ; kindled and rekindled as it has been in millions of 
 hearts in all the Christian generations — is the greatest 
 blessing and the noblest inspiration which the world has 
 ever known. May you share abundantly in that bless- 
 ing, and be animated by that inspiration. May each of 
 you fight the good fight of faith at any cost and any 
 sacrifice, and thus lay hold on eternal life. These are 
 my best wishes for you for this life and the life that is 
 to be, as I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
XV. 
 THE FIGHT OF FAITH* 
 
 "Fight the good figut op faith, lay hold on eternal life." — 
 1 Tim. vi. 12. 
 
 These are spirit-stirring words. They thrill the 
 sense and move the soul like the prolonged call of a 
 trumpet, which begins with a summons to the stern 
 excitement of the fra}^ and ends with the triumphant 
 notes of anticipated victory. No one can hear or read 
 these words without some response of sympathy, wheth- 
 er the response is felt in his kindled imagination or his 
 consenting conscience; whether his future life glows 
 with the prismatic hues of youtliful romance, or reflects 
 the wliite light of sober reality. Even if we chance to 
 listen to them in an ordinary mood, they arrest the 
 attention, and move the feelings. Much more, if they 
 meet us squarely at one of the halting or turning-places 
 of life, and we bethink ourselves of what we have been 
 or done in the past, and of what we may be or do in the 
 future. 
 
 Now and then there comes a crisis in our life, when 
 the past is gathered into a brief story, or condensed into 
 a miniature picture, and we view it at a glance, and pro- 
 nounce upon it a summary judgment. Similarly we 
 compress our future into narrow limits, and consider 
 what it may possibly become with the divine help ; when 
 
 » June 24, 1883. 
 
 309 
 
310 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 out of the clouds of uncertainty we hear the inspiring 
 call : " Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eter- 
 nal life." Such an occasion is present and passing with 
 some of my hearers. It cannot be unprofitable to them 
 to meditate upon the call which the occasion utters so 
 distinctly to themselves ; and it need not be to any of 
 us to hear it as addressed to ourselves. I need not say 
 that such a theme admits only a practical treatment, 
 while yet it may not only admit, but require, the rec- 
 ognition of important truths. 
 
 1. I notice as the first of these truths, that the Chris- 
 tian life is a contest. This is true of life in all its forms. 
 Most men who think, sooner or later find it to be true 
 of their individual experience. To some, indeed, life 
 seems only a play-time of varied excitement, alternating 
 with refreshing and delicious rest. This is the theory of 
 childhood, which takes its views of life from the sugges- 
 tions of desire, the impulses of passion, and the exhaust- 
 less energy of health and hope. To the torpid and un- 
 reflecting, life is little more tlian an alternation between 
 the heavy task-work imposed by blind and hard neces- 
 sity,- and their brief holidays of intoxication and excess. 
 But whenever a man awakes to the realities of his con- 
 dition, he finds that everywhere, and with all men, life 
 is more or less of a struggle. We find ourselves in the 
 water, and we must swim for our lives. Multitudes 
 about us go down in the struggle, as drops of water are 
 ingulfed in the ocean. These barely lift their heads 
 into the blessed light, and sink beneath the waves. 
 Others live longer, as they struggle aimlessly and igno- 
 rantly for the nearest and most attractive object, but 
 sooner or later fail, from simple lack of knowledge. 
 Multitudes more are more intelligent in their aims and 
 efforts, but fail for want of courage and perseverance. 
 These obvious generalizations have been matured, of late, 
 
THE FIGUT OF FA ITU. 311 
 
 into what is accepted as the ultimate and only scientific 
 view of life in the so-called law of the survival of the 
 fittest in the universal struggle for existence. This law 
 finds a contest everywhere and in respect to every inter- 
 est, — a contest in every form of being, from the tiniest 
 molecule that makes its first essay of individual differ- 
 entiation, up to the conquering mind of a Humboldt in 
 science, or a Goethe in imagination and art, as each sub- 
 dues all things to itself. What is held of individual 
 molecules and Godlike and all-conquering men, is held 
 of institutions and systems of opinion and fiiith. 
 
 All these movements of opinion, whether partial or 
 complete, show that thinking men are coming more and 
 more distinctly to recognize the truth that human life is 
 essentially a contest and a struggle. 
 
 I have referred to this theory, because of the contrast 
 which it emphasizes between the scientific and the so- 
 called sentimental view of life. I have also in mind the 
 charge that the Christian theory is sentimental, and not 
 scientific, because, forsooth, charity and forgiveness and 
 patience and humility are its prominent graces, as con- 
 trasted with the combative and self-asserting impulses 
 which are supposed to be the only scientific conditions 
 of human well-being. The doctrine of free forgiveness 
 is thought to be inconsistent with the principle that 
 moral strength can only come from a personal struggle. 
 Its promise of help is regarded as a premium upon in- 
 dolence and presumption ; and its reliance on personal 
 sympathy and comfort and grace are said to be incon- 
 sistent with the self-dependence which is the prime con- 
 dition of character and success. In other words, it is 
 charged that the Christian life recognizes no contest at 
 all ; and that its injunction to fight the good fight of 
 faith is self-contradictory in its very terms. I do not 
 argue the question here, whether these charges are well 
 
812 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 founded. I only refer to the fact that the plainest pre- 
 cepts and assertions of the New Testament are to the 
 effect that the Christian life, from its beginning to the 
 end, is a perpetual and active strife with evil. From 
 the earliest words that meet us in the sermon on the 
 mount, " Strive that je may enter the strait gate," to 
 the latest, " Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is 
 with me," one doctrine is taught and one only ; and that 
 is, that the Christian life in all its phases and forms is a 
 continuous contest, in which every variety of energy is 
 called for, and every form of self-denial comes in play. 
 
 That the Christian life is a contest, appears still 
 further from the forces or obstacles with which the 
 believer must contend. 
 
 First of all, there are the many forms of natural or 
 human evil, — sickness, suffering, disappointment, and 
 personal hostility, — in all their varieties and complica- 
 tions. To all these the believer is exposed ; and with 
 them all he must contend in a way peculiar to himself. 
 From not one of them is he exempt by the conditions of 
 his Christian discipleship. To some of these he is made 
 keenly sensitive by the training which they furnish. In 
 common with his fellow-men he must suffer, in fear and 
 endurance, every variety of so-called natural calamity ; 
 and resist and overcome each by his faith. There are 
 other powers of evil which spring up from within, and 
 these are far more difficult to detect and oppose. Self- 
 ishness as a spring of action must be constantly abjured 
 as the law of activity ; and love as constantly received 
 and recognized as the impulse and motive of the inner 
 life. Selfishness assumes protean forms, and can easily 
 disguise itself as an angel of light. Sensuality must be 
 abhorred as an impulse, and rejected as a contamina- 
 tion, whether in its grosser or its more insidious forms. 
 Ambition must be distinctly, yet intelligently, renounced 
 
TUE FIGHT OF FAITH. 313 
 
 and overcome. Envy, in its liateful and its more refined 
 manifestations, must be recognized as not only malig- 
 nant but mean. Avarice must be deliberately disowned 
 as a spring and motive, notwithstanding the attractive 
 guises in wliich it chjthes itself in an age in which riches 
 are so rapidly acquired, and are the instruments of such 
 manifold usefidness and blessing. Personal or party 
 success as a supreme end, even in the service of Christ, 
 must be abjured as a commanding motive, if it calls for 
 the surrender of integrity or honor or justice or truth 
 or charity. The springs and motives of the inner life, 
 the aims and princi])les and affections, must be watched 
 with constant supervision, and resisted with unsparing 
 rigor, whenever they conflict with the spirit and pre- 
 cepts of the Master. 
 
 The Christian must not only contend with evil in 
 himself; he must also contend with it in his fellow-men, 
 singly or combined. All the impulses which we are 
 called on to resist in ourselves, we are equally bound to 
 resist in others ; whether they are invested Avith the 
 charms of an attractive personality, or enforced by offi- 
 cial authority or social position. Friendship, business 
 interests, social relations, political or religious afHlia- 
 tions, may put in their pleas for exemption, but the duty 
 still remains to dissent from the opinions and will of a 
 fellow-man when not to dissent implies a consent, and 
 when dissent is plainly called for. I am not here con- 
 cerned with the spirit with which dissent should be 
 expressed. But when all the qualifications are allowed 
 which charity and skill and patience require, the duty 
 of contending against our fellow-men, when their influ- 
 ence makes for evil, remains a constant and inexorable 
 characteristic of the Christian life. 
 
 The duty of contending against evil in our fellow-men 
 also implies and emphasizes the duty of opposing evil 
 
314 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 when it takes a social or organized form. The atten- 
 tion of thinking men was never so distinctly and posi- 
 tively directed to this class of duties as at the present 
 moment. In the theories of not a few there are no 
 other evils than those which are social and organized. 
 The bald and once despised theory of Robert Owen — 
 that man individual and social is at once the product 
 and the victim of counteracting circumstances — has 
 been rehabilitated, with much pretension of biological 
 and metaphysical science, till the individual, as it would 
 seem in the theories of many, has become nothing, and 
 society every thing. Man himself, in his so-called indi- 
 vidual life, is viewed by many theorists as the product 
 of the vast and complex agencies that have been work- 
 ing from eternity their measures of truth and falsehood, 
 of moral good and evil. Even his standard of duty and 
 of truth, and the very energy by which he is summoned 
 to resist social and organized evil, are but themselves 
 the result and indirect product of those agencies. 
 
 However extravagant and one-sided these theories 
 may be, they illustrate and confirm the position that 
 men were never more alive to the truth, that it is their 
 duty and their salvation to contend against social evils 
 of every kind, and in so doing to contend against the 
 men who represent or direct these organized neglects or 
 wrongs. Christianity is not a whit behind the times in 
 its conceptions and calls to this duty. Its language has 
 ever been and ever must be, " I came not to send peace 
 on earth, but a sword." The Christianity which does 
 not aim to purify and reform society, is unworthy of the 
 name ; and the Christian disciple who has not the cour- 
 age and spirit to contend against social agencies of evil, 
 is unworthy of his master. That Christianity does not 
 under-estimate the power of the social and organized 
 forces which have ever stood in its way, is evident 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 315 
 
 from its language : " We wrestle not against flesh and 
 blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. 
 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but 
 mighty through God to the pulling down of strong 
 holds." Would we conceive how appalling must have 
 been the sense of the inveterate strength of some of 
 these organized social evils, we may put ourselves in 
 tlie place of Paul as he landed at the Pirseus and walked 
 toward the Parthenon, while his spirit sunk within him 
 as he saw on every hand, the indications that the city 
 was wholly given to idolatry, — so utterly that he could 
 find only a remote suggestion, as a text for the theism 
 which he would preach, on an obscure altar to a God 
 unknown. Or we may walk with him as he drew near 
 to Rome, a prisoner in the grasp of that mighty empire 
 whose letters and military strength and political organi- 
 zation, whose wisdom and fashion and luxury, were all 
 committed to the apotheosis of a Tiberius or a Nero, 
 and the flames of whose wrath were ready to consume 
 as tinder every unhappy wretch who would not burn 
 incense to the emperor. 
 
 Nor should we forget that Christianity itself comes to 
 man as a society of itself, — the invisible but manifestly 
 social, the loosely organized but intensely vital, kingdom 
 of God, — which works like leaven to disintegrate and 
 yet to re-unite all other societies, and to transfigure and 
 transform whatever had been corrupt and destructive in 
 the old social organizations, so as to make them the 
 agents of a new spirit, and ministers of a renewed life. 
 
 If any thing further were required to illustrate or 
 enforce the truth that the Christian life is a contest, it 
 might be found in its history. Think first of the inner 
 life of every individual believer, — through what strug- 
 gles and conllicts it is perfected. Every man who has 
 become stronger in faith, more self-governed, more 
 
316 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 patient, more truthful, more prayerful, more serene, 
 more self-possessed, more laborious, more self-denying, 
 knows that he has become so by a constant warfare 
 with antagonistic influences from within. Nor has he 
 relied upon himself alone. In his personal conflict with 
 himself, his better self has been aided by the constant 
 protests of others, uttered or imagined, as he has been ' 
 conscious of the second conscience, with which he has 
 been enveloped by the approving and reproving voice 
 of the Christianized community in which he lives. 
 Even when he has seemed to be left alone with his God, 
 he has never been able to escape the conscious presence 
 of the Church of God, as enforcing his own inner con- 
 victions against evil. 
 
 Similarly with the progress of Christianity in the 
 social and general life of the community: whatever 
 has been done in reforming the manners, or improving 
 the legislation, or elevating the literature, or affecting 
 comprehensive changes in social order or organization, 
 has been achieved by a conflict against obstacles, 
 which has been more or less definite or prolonged. 
 That these contests have often been defiled by human 
 passion, and imbittered by narrow partisanship ; that 
 they have been dishonored by envy and intrigue, and 
 polluted by all sorts of selfish and malignant feelings, — 
 does not in the least disprove or weaken the truth that 
 the Christian life is, and has always been, and always 
 will be a contest ; but rather brings out this truth in a 
 more striking relief. 
 
 2. The Christian life is a contest of faith. This 
 signifies that it is a contest by means of faith. It is 
 inspired by faith as the spring of its activity, and the 
 condition of its success. At first thought it seems a 
 paradox to think or to speak of a fight by faith, or to 
 connect a contest, which implies individuality and iude- 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 317 
 
 pendence, with the idea of faith, which implies depend- 
 ence and help. Perhaps we cannot state the problem, 
 nor solve it, better than by tracing its history in human 
 experience. Before the times of Christ and of Paul, 
 earnest men of many nations, and under a great variety 
 of circumstances, had made an earnest business of the 
 contest with passion and sin in their own souls and in 
 the world about them. The need of this strife they 
 saw and felt, with a clearness and strength of feeling to 
 which the most of men in these easier times are utter 
 strangers. They felt the burdens and sorrows of indi- 
 vidual and collective human life. They experienced 
 the impulses to evil as they were constantly revived 
 within their own souls. They were appalled at the 
 energy and strength with which sin organized itself 
 afresh to resist and defy both the individual and joint 
 desires of those who would reform themselves and re- 
 form society. 
 
 On a sudden, and yet as not wholly unexpected, a 
 few of the race are confronted with a person who over- 
 awes them by the mystery of his being, and attracts them 
 by the strangeness of his condescension ; who wins their 
 confidence by the largeness of his invitations, and sub- 
 dues their hearts by his love in death. The effect upon 
 their character and springs of action is a new creation. 
 The few who describe it, like Paul and Peter and John, 
 declare that they were born by it into a new life ; and 
 their writings give jubilant expression to the new life 
 of hope and victory which they began to live, through 
 their joyful gratitude to the living Christ. What they 
 say of themselves is observed of others. Scores and 
 hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, share in the 
 new impulse which has come into human society. This 
 new life is all comprehended in faith in the matchless 
 personality of the dying and risen Christ. " This is the 
 
318 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 " The life which I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the 
 love of Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me." 
 The story of Christ's life and death is told from believ- 
 ing and loving lips in portraitures so definite and touch- 
 ing as could only have been taken from an original. 
 For nearly sixty generations the story has made sub- 
 stantially the same impression upon the great mass of 
 men who have read it with any sense of their moral 
 needs in the conflict with self and sense and sin; and 
 the story, when believed, has ministered the same peace 
 and rest and hope and joy. Now and then a reader, 
 now and then a school of writers, has fancied or rea- 
 soned that some imaginative mythos or cunning deceit 
 had so skilfully invested this central figure of ideal 
 power as to give it the energy and power of a living 
 person ; but so diverse have been the explanations, and 
 so fanciful and so discordant their theories, that the 
 world has soon returned to the original version, ■ — that 
 the story contained the truth of God. With here and 
 there an exception, it may be said to be true that every 
 man in all these generations, who has felt and confessed 
 that he has any need of Christ in the contest of life, has 
 felt and confessed that Christ was to him the power and 
 truth of God. To the multitude of believing souls he 
 is at this moment invested with a subduing and trans- 
 forming power, and reigns, by common acclaim, a mon- 
 arch over the hearts of the great company of all those 
 who have resorted to him in the stress and need of their 
 lives. 
 
 And now what do we learn from this history of faith 
 concerning the nature of faith ? First of all, that faith 
 is eminently the act or attitude of a person toward a 
 person. We fight the battle of life under a leader and 
 master and friend, whom we follow and love and obey, 
 
THE FIGHT OF FA ITU. 319 
 
 and in whom we trust and triumph and rejoice ; in one 
 word, in wlioni we helleve. But though we fight the 
 battle by Christ's help and by gratitude toward him, 
 we iight it out each man for himself. Subjectively, 
 faith is an act, a disposition, a loving and obedient will; 
 objectively, it rests on the living Christ, to whom all 
 power is given in heaven and earth, and with whom is 
 all sympathizing, all forgiving, and, therefore, all subdu- 
 ing love. 
 
 Next we distinguish the practical faith by which a 
 man lives and acts, from the speculative theology by 
 which he reflects and anal3'zes and reasons. Both are 
 concerned with the same object, — the same person in 
 his relations to man and God. Faith is a very different 
 thing from a theology, though it is the germ of theology ; 
 just as a dormant or growing bud is not an expanded 
 or full-grown tree. In both faith and theology there is 
 an intellectual element, because in both we use the 
 intellect. But in the one case we use the intellect that 
 we may feel and love and obey and act ; in the other, 
 that we may analyze and explain and conceive and 
 understand. The infiwit intellect apprehends the rain- 
 bow, when this glorious vision from heaven first breaks 
 upon its rejoicing and wondering eyes. No one will 
 question that the physicist uses his intellect, when he 
 analyzes and explains and defines the rainbow by the 
 pulsations of the light. Each uses his mind, — the one, 
 in apprehending the fact in its simple and most obvious 
 relations; the other, in those which are complex and 
 remote. Herein is illustrated the faith and the creed 
 of the practical and the theological believer. They are 
 neither antagonistic nor exclusive. The consummate 
 theologian may have as strong and earnest a practical 
 faith as his unreflecting neighbor. Nay, his faith is so 
 far richer and stronger, as it is justified to his reflective 
 
320 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 thinking, and enriched by his ampler knowledge. On 
 the other hand, a well-reasoned creed may be to a 
 slender, practical faith, what an ambitious and well- 
 framed scaffolding is to a scanty and narrow house 
 ujDon a treacherous foundation. So, again, his practical 
 faith may be rational and effective to a man who can 
 neither state nor defend the convictions which control 
 his life and affections. This distinction is of no slight 
 importance to every earnestly thinking man. It enables 
 us to understand that the Christian faith is practically 
 one in all the varieties of definition and argument which 
 it assumes, and with all the heats and bitternesses which 
 they engender. It justifies the extremest earnestness 
 in theological discussion on the one hand, and the lar- 
 gest charity and confidence and fellowship on the other. 
 It not only sanctions the right, but confers the obliga- 
 tion, to leave many questions unsettled, and yet to cleave 
 with the utmost tenacity to those fundamental facts 
 which are essential to victory. 
 
 This brings us back to our theme. Faith, to be 
 efficient, needs not only to be personal, but positive. If 
 faith is to help us against our adversaries, it must be 
 confident and certain. If faith connects us with a per- 
 son, we must know in whom we believe : who he ^s, so far 
 as to be assured what he will be to us, — what in our joys, 
 what in our sorrows, what in our griefs, and what in our 
 fears, what in our life and what in our death. It follows 
 that if we are to contend bi/ our faith, we are to contend 
 for our faith; simply because a man without positive 
 convictions, cannot contend at all, especially in an age 
 which is shivering with doubt and uncertainty in every 
 fibre of its intellectual life. At a time when every 
 volume presents a novel theological theory or a new 
 ethical speculation, either a new negation or a new 
 sneer ; when the foundations of all sorts of truth were 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 321 
 
 never so confidently questioned, the best accredited 
 facts so freely challenged, nor the extremest needs of 
 man's nature were so boldly, nor the most sacred of 
 his hopes and aspirations so flippantly, disposed of, — at 
 a time when not a few believing souls are terrified with 
 an undefined alarm, lest perhaps the foundations of 
 their hopes and sacrifices shall sink into a yawning 
 abyss, — at this time the cry of distress is whispered 
 from many lips, and the anguish is felt in many hearts: 
 "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief." At such 
 a time, love to others, as well as duty to ourselves, re- 
 quires that every man who has a faith should make it 
 positive, clear, and energetic. No man is worth much in 
 such a strife of opinion and of tongues as now prevails, 
 who does not believe with positiveness, and believe with 
 energy, — the energy of that clear and calm conviction 
 which is sustained by a life which is hid with Christ in 
 God. In the strife and struggle of these days, it is only 
 earnest men who are wanted at the front ; let dilettanti 
 and critics and carpet-knights go to the rear. 
 
 Meanwhile, we may assure ourselves with the belief 
 that these professions of defeat and signals of distress 
 are, in some sort, harbingers of hope. They indicate 
 that multitudes who are confronted by an earnest and 
 witnessing Church are not content to leave the question 
 of a supernatural Christ, without another attempt to 
 settle it. They betoken that there is felt a need of help 
 and strength which, without his help and rest, can never 
 be satisfied. They show that the charm and energy of 
 his unmatched personality are still felt, if not confessed. 
 Past experience indicates that the searching criticism of 
 modern times may render the most efficient service to 
 faith by driving it into its impregnable defences, and 
 forcing it to prove its divine power by such fervor and 
 self-denial, by such spirituality and self sacrifice, as shall 
 
322 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL, 
 
 prove that the faith which inspires them rests in the 
 truth and power of the living God. 
 
 One thing is certain to be demonstrated and confessed 
 by the contest for faith which is destined to convulse 
 our modern life, and that is the utter and complete in- 
 adequacy of any other agency than a living Christian 
 faith to give the victory in the contest of life. If men 
 of thought, as we are told, distrust the guidance and 
 help of the gospel, they do, in nearly the same propor- 
 tion, abandon every other assistance. If they reject 
 Christ and deny his eternal life, they are tempted by 
 the logic of their argument to deny duty in its solemn 
 significance and its lasting consequences, — to defy or 
 ignore conscience in its smiles and wrathful condemna- 
 tion. If they part with Christ as at once the real and the 
 ideal of human perfection, and the inspirer of the high- 
 est activities in the battle of life, the contest of living 
 without Christ, which will force itself upon every man, 
 must be either sensual or selfish on the one hand, or 
 aimless and hopeless on the other. Men without faith 
 must either disown the seriousness of life, and turn it 
 into a shallow comedy or a mimic tragedy ; or, accepting 
 life in its seriousness, make it an unsolved and cruel mys- 
 tery ; or take the shallow creed of the materialist of a 
 brief and uncertain bodily existence with blank agnosti- 
 cism respecting any other inheritance with its aspirations 
 and hopes. Whatever may be true of philosophers and 
 dilettanti^ practical and earnest men will not be satisfied 
 with these hiterpretations and conceptions of their des- 
 tiny and their capacity. They will, sooner or later, de- 
 cide that they will not, because they cannot, fight the 
 battle of life without faith, — they v/ill, because they 
 must, come back to the only faith which will give them 
 an assured and satisfactory victory. 
 
 3. The contest of faith is a good contest. 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 323 
 
 First of all, it is a successful contest. If continued to 
 the end, it cannot but terminate in victory. There can 
 be no defeat, no failure, and no final disappointment. 
 The great result is secured for which life on earth is 
 appointed ; and every incident and act, every sacrifice 
 and service, every suffering and labor, all contribute to 
 its completeness. Not only is the supreme aim made 
 sure, but it is possible that every single act and sacri- 
 fice, every labor and relaxation, every friend and 
 enemy, every chance acquaintance, and every life-long 
 friendship should each and all appear in the final ac- 
 cumulation of good that is harvested at the end of the 
 contest. It is the peculiar glory of the Christian strife, 
 that evil suffered and defeat encountered count as much, 
 and sometimes more, than good acquired and victory 
 achieved. When the battle of life is fought aright, there 
 should be no waste and loss of the opportunities of living 
 while there is the saving the soul. There need not be. 
 There is no difficult and scant admission into the eternal 
 kingdom, on the condition that the habits and mistakes, 
 the temper and the aims, the gains of wealth and honor, 
 should all be abandoned as worse than useless lumber, 
 or condemned as hay, wood, and stubble in the trying 
 ordeal of God's fiery scrutiny. On the other hand, the 
 total of the active conflicts and patient endurances, of 
 the struggles with fortune and with one's self, with bad 
 influences and bad men, — the whole of it may be gath- 
 ered in and housed as the accepted harvest at the end. 
 
 Next, the contest of faith is a good contest, because 
 it is progressive. Each preceding victory gives the 
 promise and the assurance of the next. All the strength 
 accumulated in the past, whether by act or suffering, is 
 carried forward to the uses of each conflict that follows. 
 From progress comes courage. " Courage," says Emer- 
 son, " consists in having done the thing before ; " and 
 
324 FIFTEEN YEABS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 courage in the Christian's conflicts with evil, eminently 
 grows by the experiences of previous success. The 
 Christian contest is eminently attractive, because it 
 unites the distrust of self with an implicit and loyal 
 allegiance to its master. While it is bold, and in a sense 
 self-reliant, it is in proportion reverent and humble ; 
 while it fears nothing but infidelity and dishonor, it en- 
 larges its conception of both by recognizing Christ as its 
 leader, and conscience as its rule. The Christian humil- 
 ity has no strain of weakness or affectation. It simply 
 asserts the honest self-estimate which attends the com- 
 parison of one's self with the highest standard, and that 
 complete knowledge of one's defects which attends the 
 direct inspection of the inner life. In such an honest 
 judgment there can be neither weakness nor meanness, 
 but the conscious and modest dignity which attends 
 homage to the truth. But what is best of all, in this 
 contest of faith, is the confirmed assurance of accept- 
 ance with God, which is marked by the man who has 
 oftenest gone, with trusting faith, to his feet. When 
 this consummate and comprehensive act is confirmed as 
 the inner habit of the man and the controlling spring of 
 his life, the peace of God which passeth understanding 
 will testify that the life and strife of faith are only good. 
 Out of this peace there springs up the hope which is full 
 of immortality. This explains why the apostle, in bid- 
 ding his readers to fight the good fight of faith, bids 
 them also, as a necessary incident and consequent, to 
 lay hold on eternal life. It was because the one is con- 
 nected with the other by a necessary and inner bond of 
 spiritual relationship. It is because the man who fights 
 the good fight of faith, so far anticipates the life which 
 is immortal. The temper of earthly service is, in its 
 nature, a spirit of heavenly triumph. The man who is 
 bold and constant and self-forgetting in the contests of 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 325 
 
 Christian warfare, shows liimself, thereby, to be fitted 
 for the peace and the perfection of the heavenly state. 
 This truth reconciles free forgiveness and unquestioned 
 pardon, with a more devoted consecration to abundant 
 labors in the service of the master. It meets the grayer 
 of the publican and the last appeal of the dying thief 
 with instant and gratuitous pardon ; and, at the same 
 time, stimulates the patient laborer to a long and labo- 
 rious Christian life, by the hope of a rich reward. It 
 meets us at the beginning of life, and at every crisis of 
 our lives, with the ho})e of a rich and permanent harvest 
 of spiritual good from every contest of either trial or 
 suffering. While it constantly removes our despondency 
 and fear by the fullest offer of pardon, it stimulates 
 us never to be weary in well-doing, by the assurance 
 that thereby an open and abundant entrance shall be 
 ministered to us in the everlasting kingdom of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is no secret to any of us that the relation of the 
 eternal to the present life has, of late, been the subject 
 of free, and perhaps not always of reverent, speculation. 
 Some evil ma}^ come from the flippant way in which 
 the theme has been handled by some critics and theo- 
 logians. But it is possible that from all this great good 
 shall follow. 
 
 That man Avill continue to think of the future life in 
 every conceivable light, and in every possible attitude 
 of thought and feeling, may easily be imagined ; but the 
 solemn majesty of the eternal life, which broods over 
 the present brief existence, can never be abated by the 
 blasphemy of the profane or the jesting of the scorner. 
 The solemn yet sacred shadow which its presence will 
 continue to cast over the activities and scenes of the 
 earthly life, Avill never cease to be recognized by think- 
 ing men. That shadow, instead of being less, will 
 
326 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 become more solemn as its mysteries are interpreted in 
 a more enlightened spirit. If the discussion of the 
 revelations of nature and of Christ concerning it, shall 
 bring that life more frequently and closely to the 
 thou gilts of men, so as to enlarge and elevate their 
 conceptions of what it is, and how nearly related the 
 present is to the future, it cannot but infuse new energy 
 and elevation into the life that we are all of us living, 
 and baptize this life as with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire. Could the men of the present generation, and 
 especially the young men in their ardor and hope, be 
 made to feel that by the life which they are living here 
 they are hourly and daily laying hold of the eternal life 
 which they are to live hereafter, and that a life without 
 God here, with all its fascinations, is essentially a life 
 without God hereafter in darkness and loneliness, in 
 alienation and comfortlessness, it would put new energy 
 into every Christian purpose, and invest the sacrifices 
 and self-denials of the fight of faith with a dignity and 
 glory that would shine in the face of every combatant. 
 The powers of the world to come, in other days, proved 
 a force of enormous energy, when this immortal life was 
 made a near and living fact, by the resurrection of 
 Christ from the dead. In those days the believing 
 Church, under the new inspiration, lived its earthly life 
 in thankful triumph, and went to its martyrdom with 
 songs of blessed anticipation, — literally laying hold on 
 eternal life with faith and joy. There are many reasons, 
 at the present time, why its inspiring glories should 
 take a stronger hold than ever of the hearts of men, 
 and more completely sway their energies. The Chris- 
 tian life is now better understood than ever before, in its 
 spirituality, in its unselfishness, in its innocent pleasures, 
 conjoined with its uncompromising unworldiness, in its 
 catholic charity, added to its sacrificing heroism, and, 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 327 
 
 above all, in the intiraate connection which exists be- 
 tween the sources of earthly and heavenly joy. We 
 are no strangers now in any part of the physical uni- 
 verse. Science makes us feel at home in every planet, 
 and explore the recesses of the sun and the substance 
 of the stars. It essays to trace the history of the gath- 
 ering and the growth of the solar, if not of the stellar, 
 universe ; and to follow with minutest detail the history 
 of all living beings. The future of man's earthly his- 
 tory, in its art and civilization and science, is anticipated 
 with more or less definiteness and assurance. And why 
 not the future moral and spiritual experiences of the 
 human soul in another state, if by patient continuance 
 in well-doing it is made ready for glory and honor and 
 immortality, or if by disobedience to the truth, it has 
 thereby judged itself unworthy of eternal life. While 
 we cannot doubt that the redeeming pity will save to 
 the uttermost every soul that lays hold on eternal life 
 with the slenderest grasp of a loving and obedient faith, 
 we can also believe that he who anticipates its holy self- 
 denial and its spiritual joys with the completest sym- 
 pathy, shall lay hold of its gathered treasures with the 
 firmest grasp, and be greeted with the emphatic welcome, 
 " Thou hast been faithful over many things ; enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord." Such are the clearest and 
 most explicit teachings of the New Testament; and in 
 the apparent paradoxes which they seem to some to 
 involve, are contained the most decisive proof that its 
 free and generous forgiveness is the inspiration and 
 incitement to an earnest strife with evil, and the pledge 
 of final victory. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class^ — The 
 occasion lends eloquence and force to the words which 
 I have selected as my theme. You can be no strangers 
 
328 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 now to the truth that life is a contest. Some of you 
 may have sought to hide this fact from your thoughts 
 for a while, or to defer the full realization of its import ; 
 but it has come upon you at last, in the trials of these 
 parting days, and in the slow but certain anticipations 
 of dawning manhood. Under these circumstances, we 
 have invited you to this place of your daily worship to 
 listen to the words of exhortation and encouragement, 
 that you may make the contest of life a contest of faith ; 
 and by so doing, make it a contest of hope and victory. 
 We charge you to dismiss the impression, once for all, 
 that faith is less needful now than in former days for 
 the advancement of the race in knowledge and culture 
 and morality. So far as its attainments are genuine 
 and permanent, they are the flowers and fruit of the 
 heroic faith of other times. This fair civilization in 
 which we rejoice, these quiet homes, the palaces of 
 industry and science and letters, this established law, 
 this peaceful security, these softened manners, this free 
 government, this elevated and controlling public senti- 
 ment, have been wrought for us by the fires of martyr- 
 dom, the shock of the battle-field, and the patient labor 
 of many a hero of faith, whose name for man is perhaps 
 written in water, but shines in the book of God's mem- 
 ory in characters glowing with light. There are men 
 who call themselves students of history, who would have 
 "US believe that the continuance of these blessings is 
 assured without the continuance of the faith which pro- 
 duced them ; that Christian civilization will remain and 
 flourish as firmly and as beautifully without faith as with 
 it; and that a community of millions of men shall be as 
 strong and as fair without faith in the living God as 
 with it, or with a so-called faith that makes confessed 
 ignorance the test of its piety, and negation the glory 
 of its creed. 
 
THE FIGUT OF FAITH. 329 
 
 It is equally true that for individual welfare faith is 
 equally uecessary. Culture can do inuch for man; 
 especially when it applies the lessons which Christian 
 unselfishness and refinement have required generations 
 to mature and master. Culture, when it abjures faith 
 and denies Christ, may make a fair show of personal 
 purity and honor, of self-respect and public spirit, of 
 chivalric and courteous manners, and of high moral aims. 
 Literature and art, also, may be animated, to a large 
 extent, by a healthful moral energy, and inspire their 
 devotees to noble sentiments, to philanthropic sacrifices, 
 to refined courtesy and a self-denying life. But the 
 individual soul still requires a life-giving energy, such 
 as culture and letters win never impart, for the con- 
 science in the crisis of its inner and outer life, for the 
 temptations that now and then shake a man's integrity 
 to the centre ; under the awful strokes of overwhelming 
 calamity, for the solemn hour of approaching death, and 
 along the solitary pathway which conducts the lonely 
 spirit to the presence of the living God. For all these 
 exigencies of our human life, faith is as much needed 
 now as ever; and there are reasons why, to the thought- 
 ful man, it would seem to be more needful now than 
 ever before. 
 
 Dismiss, too, the conceited or cowardly thought that 
 the contest of faith is more difficult at present than in 
 earlier days, especially for educated men. Faith has 
 always involved a battle, and it always will ; and for 
 that matter, so has unbelief. The question is not, and 
 never has been, which will you reject, because it is free 
 from difficulties, but which will you believe, as between 
 the more and the fewer, — the greater and the less. 
 Remember always that the difficulties of denial must be 
 assumed by the man who is overcome by the difficulties 
 of faith. Atheistic science overwhelms the imagination 
 
330 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 with the mystery and the uselessness of a self-existent 
 Creator ; and thinks it quite enough to have a non- 
 theistic faith with the greatness of its mystery. But 
 atheistic science forgets that the reason finds greater 
 difficulty in accepting a self-existent universe, in which 
 there are intelligent spirits, without a supreme intelli- 
 gence to give it order, or will to give it force, or love 
 to fill it with blessings. It may be that science and 
 philosophy have, in these times, started new questions 
 and raised new objections ; but whatever difficulties 
 they have made for faith, they have made manifold 
 more for unbelief. Criticism finds new problems in its 
 enlarged knowledge of ancient history and life ; and 
 now and then reverses a traditionary opinion, which 
 had been held sacred for ages. But every flash of its 
 torch which serves to deepen some minor shadow in 
 the recovered past, casts a more brilliant light upon the 
 central object of the Christian's faith and hope. If the 
 creed of the Christian Church is less confident in respect 
 to many points once esteemed essential to faith, it is 
 more assured, more united, and more fervent in respect 
 to those commanding truths in which the Christian 
 lives and loves and labors and dies. It is not scientific 
 demonstrations, nor miracles, nor a voice from heaven, 
 which are needed now, so much as manhood and self- 
 sacrifice, the aggressive and fervid spirit, and, above all, 
 the Christ-like consecration which befit the simpler and 
 stronger views of Christian truth, the more catholic 
 conceptions of the kingdom of God, and the more en- 
 lightened views of the Christian life, which are the joy 
 and honor of our times. 
 
 Remember, too, that as you make this faith your own, 
 you lay hold of eternal life. Of that life we know but 
 little in its details, for we cannot anticipate many of its 
 experiences. It is enough that we know that it is near 
 
THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 331 
 
 enough to permit us, by the activities of our daily life, 
 to sciitter those earthly seeds in a heavenly soil, the 
 product of which shall bloom with flowers and glow 
 with fruit that shall be immortal. 
 
 How near that life may be to any one of you, you 
 know not ; but you cannot doubt that it possibly may 
 be near, since the experience of that bright Saturday in 
 October last, so bright and sunny as to seem to exclude 
 all thought of sadness and death, when one of the gay- 
 est of your company exchanged one life for another, 
 as it were, in a moment. I shall not soon forget the 
 experiences of that day, nor its lessons concerning the 
 nearness of the earthly to the immortal life. I would 
 fain believe that this event has brought the eternal life 
 nearer to the minds of many of you, and elevated your 
 aims and hopes with respect to the hopes and activities 
 and -aims of the present life. If the year that is now 
 closing has been to many a year of moral thoughtful- 
 ness and earnest reflection and spiritual resolve, it has 
 been no less a year of conscious progress, of cheerful 
 activity, and of manly enjoyment. You are so happy 
 as to be assured that your college-life has been a life of 
 more than usual success and satisfaction ; and your pros- 
 pects are more than usually flattering for a career of 
 usefulness and honor. What more can I wish for you, 
 than that each of you may "fight the good fight of faith, 
 and lay hold on eternal life." With these words I bid 
 you an affectionate farewell. 
 
XVI. 
 m UNDERSTANBINa BE MEN* 
 
 •'Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." — 1 Thess.v.Bl. 
 ••And to virtue, knowledge." — 2 Pet. i. 6. 
 ••But in understanding be men." — 2 Cor.xiv.20. 
 
 These words may seem to be commonplace, — so 
 often used as to be entirely outworn ; and in losing 
 their freshness, to have lost their meaning. There are 
 reasons, however, why they may be taken as especially 
 appropriate to the age in which we are living. This 
 age may be properly called as above all others the criti- 
 cal age, — the age of criticism by eminence, — an age in 
 which men literally attempt to prove or test all things, 
 more persistently and variously than ever before. The 
 time-spirit, as it is now familiarly called, is pre-eminently 
 a spirit of questioning analysis, such as the world has 
 hitherto never seen. Every thing that man knows or 
 fancies, that he believes or denies, is now brought to the 
 bar of critical reason, and summoned to give an account 
 of itself, that it may establish or renounce its claims. 
 Systems of faith and systems of philosophy, theories of 
 government and theories of revenue, the laws of fash- 
 ion and the laws of trade, the creeds of religion and the 
 creeds of atheism, dogmatic assertions and agnostic 
 denials, even theories of literature, poetry, diet, exercise, 
 and fashion, are all distinctly challenged, as they pass in 
 
 * June 22, 1884, 
 332 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 333 
 
 slow or rapid review before the eye of criticism, and are 
 tried and tested by its more or less competent tribunals. 
 Men, in other times, were content to enjoy. In these 
 times they cannot enjoy, unless they also understand. 
 They are not satisfied to eat, even if they become healthy 
 and strong, unless they have mastered the processes of 
 digestion, and can trace the several elements of nutri- 
 ment, and the subtle processes of animal life. They 
 cannot enjo}'' the raptures into which music lifts up the 
 soul, until they have mastered the theories of harmony, 
 or the special philosophy of the composer. They can- 
 not pray without a complete philosophy of prayer. 
 They can neither believe in man nor in God without a 
 series of critical questionings, which begin with denying 
 both, and which often end with only a half belief in 
 either. They cannot believe in knowledge itself with- 
 out first challenging the authority and trustworthiness 
 of their own power to know, and ending in doubt 
 whether they more than half know any thing. We, at 
 this time, are concerned with the relations of this spirit 
 to the religious life, and with its appropriate remedy. 
 In other words, we ask how we can, and why we should, 
 prove all things, and hold fast whatever is good. In 
 order to answer this question satisfactorily, we need to 
 scrutinize the critical spirit itself. 
 
 We notice, first, that it is, in part, the legitimate 
 outgrowth of the scientific spirit which is the glory of 
 our times. Science is nothing if it is not critical. 
 When it defines, it sharply distinguishes ; and it cannot 
 distinguish unless it sharply observes. When it reasons, 
 it must scrutinize evidence. When it arranges and 
 builds a system, it must adjust every fact or truth to its 
 fellow with the most scrupulous severity. It must look 
 every thing squarely in the face. To do this with con- 
 tinuity and success requires the concentration of the 
 
334 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 attention, either upon a limited number of facts, or a 
 limited number of relations. It is all the same whether 
 the scientist studies a drop of water with its animalculge, 
 or the universe of the kosmos as to its celestial mechan- 
 ics. In either case, he limits his attention to a few sub- 
 ject-matters. Hence every special science expands itself 
 into the work of a lifetime, and occupies the microscopic, 
 because it is the concentrated attention of the devotee 
 who is determined to master it, whether it be the natural 
 history of a family of plants or insects, or the geology 
 of the prehistoric periods, or the science of politics or 
 morals or religion, — whether it be the philosophy of 
 matter or spirit, or the relations or dependencies of each. 
 Any one of these departments may suffice for a lifetime, 
 and occupy the days and nights of the sharpest observer 
 and the closest thinker. Within each one of these 
 separate spheres each man is intellectually at home, and 
 often is at home nowhere else. Beyond this sphere he 
 finds little interest, and professes to but few clear and 
 well-reasoned convictions. Within his specialty he is 
 confident and strong, walking in the light of accepted 
 and luminous truth, and walking with an assured and 
 fearless step. In respect to what is beyond, he may be 
 positive and dogmatic, or timid and modest. If he has 
 the true scientific spirit, he will defer to the opinions of 
 his neighbors in respect to questions which lie within 
 their province. The geologist will not presume to med- 
 dle with the historian, nor the chemist with the literary 
 critic. Even the most many-sided men, the broadest and 
 most varied thinkers, best know the specialties in which 
 they are strong, and know as well that beyond these 
 they are relatively weak. It follows that if a man is 
 presuming and positive, he will measure and judge of 
 every kind of truth by the measures and methods of 
 which he is master. He will criticise every kind of truth 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 335 
 
 by the standards of his own specialty. On the other 
 hand, the wiser and more modest, while they know they 
 are strong within their own lines, also know that beyond 
 they are weak. They exemplify the fairest and most 
 attractive pliase of the true scientific spirit, — assured 
 confidence and strong convictions within certain limits, 
 and modest deference to the judgment of others beyond. 
 There is, however, one great domain beyond any line of 
 these separate fields of scientific truth ; common to all 
 men, including them all, having relations to all men, 
 the presence or possibility of which all acknowledge, if 
 they will but think. We refer to the domain of faith. 
 Into what attitude does the critical and scientific spirit 
 bring its devotee with respect to the unseen and the 
 mortal, — with respect to God and duty and eternal life ? 
 We raise no question here as to the compatibility of 
 trusting faith with critical science. All that we assert 
 is, that if its truths are not tried and tested by the 
 scientific mind, after it has been sharpened by the analy- 
 sis of logic, and schooled by the evidence of fact, there 
 is serious danger that they will be left in the limbo of 
 the unscientific prejudices of childhood, with the intel- 
 lectual trumpery of an unscientific age, and the tra- 
 ditions of unscientific thought. Here lies the chief 
 danger from the scientific side of our critical age. 
 
 2. In literature the critical spirit assumes another 
 form. Whereas in science it is courteous and modest, 
 and sometimes narrow, in literature it assumes to be 
 positive, all-judging, and all-knowing. Its characteristic 
 aim is to seem to know every thing in respect to every 
 question, and to express what it knows in forms so 
 brilliant and imposing, that no man shall have the 
 presumption to question its authority. The enormous 
 number and unquestioned ability of reviews and jour- 
 nals of every sort, aftord the amplest opportunity for the 
 
336 FIFTEEN TEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 quick eye, the rapid generalization, the dogmatic bold- 
 ness, and the imposing diction in which literature de- 
 lights, and which its leaders of the present day so much 
 affect. Next to this quality of our literature, we notice 
 the number of cultivated persons for whom it furnishes 
 the bulk of their reading, and who derive from it the 
 most of their knowledge and their opinions. Of this 
 potent instrumentality, the time-spirit has taken almost 
 complete possession, as it summons to judgment all 
 opinions and theories and creeds, all philosophies and 
 fashions, by the medium of its dashing leader or its 
 elaborate review. No subject in earth or heaven is too 
 lofty for its aspirations ; no logic too trivial for its notice. 
 The names of a few prominent writers living and dead, 
 in England and America, will occur to you who are fair 
 representatives of critical writers who have been es- 
 teemed oracles of wisdom in their time, especially to the 
 young, and from whom so many in the last two genera- 
 tions have indirectly and directly derived their princi- 
 ples, in respect to the most important of all questions. 
 As in other times, so in our times, literary critics have 
 exerted a potent influence upon the attitude of their 
 generation with respect to the Christian faith. To their 
 honor be it said, that in our time they have, to a large 
 extent, inculcated reverence and respect for the Chris- 
 tian ideal of life, and for the Christian history as best 
 symbolizing this ideal. But when they encounter the 
 supernatural and historical truth of the New-Testament 
 record, they too often either directly deny its reality, or 
 indirectly assume that it is slowly disintegrated by the 
 searching truth of modern criticism, or has been already 
 outgrown by the mysterious time-spirit. It would also 
 seem that as fast as there goes out of modern literature 
 the personal reverence for the historic Christ, there goes 
 with it a practical and fervent recognition of the living 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 33T 
 
 God as the father of men, who pities their prayers, and 
 receives them at last to his loving embrace in the heav- 
 enly home, — not because this truth itself, could it be 
 true, were not most precious and ennobling, but because 
 in the keen atmosphere of the arrogant time-spirit it is 
 congealed into a blinding mist. Not that the glory of 
 the supernatural Christ does not still remain for men as 
 the truest and most touching symbol of what man needs 
 and longs for, but that the news of it is regarded as too 
 good to be true ; and hence it is evaporated into a myth 
 by our self-indulgent epicureanism, or rejected as a lie 
 by the malignant pessimism of a generation of profes- 
 sional critics, who have never learned what life and man 
 are by doing and suffering with their kind. Such are 
 the aspects of this critical age, — an age that seeks to 
 prove all things by the tests of science or of culture. 
 I have dwelt upon both these phases for a moment, in 
 order to introduce my theme, which is the special obli- 
 gation which rests upon men of education to prove and 
 test their Christian faith in the light of intellectual 
 conviction. That this is his duty, is evident from the 
 following consideration : — 
 
 1. The nature of faith implies this duty. Faith, 
 whatever else it may be or imply, involves definite 
 and strong conviction. Conviction requires evidence. 
 Evidence is the objective truth which compels assent. 
 Subjectively and spiritually, faith in a Fiji Islander 
 may be the same as it is in a cultivated and reflecting 
 man, but intellectually it cannot be the same. What- 
 ever the truth may be, or in whatever form it may 
 meet the mind, — whether by an argument, or a per- 
 son, or a dream, or a fantasy, — it must convince the 
 intellect that something is true. It may come through 
 a person by a look or a word, as when the risen Lord 
 spoke to Mary, and she answered, " My Master ; " or 
 
338 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIlAPEL. 
 
 looked upon Peter, and Peter wept bitterly ; or con- 
 fronted Saul on the way to Damascus ; or appeared 
 to Stephen at his martyrdom. It may be by memory, 
 as when a reprobate youth thinks of his mother at home 
 on a Sunday morning, when half around the globe, and 
 believes with repentant tears ; or by sheer logic, as when 
 a hard-hearted Sadducee yields to an often-studied argu- 
 ment that becomes suddenly luminous Avith convincing 
 power. It may involve special spiritualistic influences, as 
 when the man rises into a softened and believing mood, 
 he knows not why or how, and his thoughts bring tears 
 to his eyes : and yet in every one of these cases there is 
 intellectual consent to the truth, and for good reasons. 
 Now the thinking man, just so far as he thinks at all, 
 knows the reasons of his convictions. He is trained to 
 analyze his thoughts and to justify them. It makes no 
 difference wdtli what his thoughts ai-e occupied ; just so 
 far as he is educated, he is trained to know what he 
 believes, and why he believes it ; and to state it more or 
 less distinctly to himself and to others. If there is any 
 class of his activities of which this is not true, it halts 
 and becomes a drag upon the rest. Let him be ever so 
 acute a geometer, if he fails to analyze an argument in 
 political science, his intelligence so far fails him. This 
 is j)re-eminently true if a man's religious convictions 
 are not abreast with his reflective thinking upon other 
 subjects. If he rarely asks himself why he believes in 
 God or in Christ, or whether he believes at all ; or more 
 important still, if he rarely inquires with intelligence 
 what the Christian life involves in spirit or conduct ; if 
 his mind is blankly inane upon points like these, he is 
 so far doomed to be a dwarf or a sluggard in the king- 
 dom of God ; and so much the worse, the more of a giant 
 or a prince he is in the other activities of his being. 
 Whatever his reason for his neglect may be, even if that 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 339 
 
 reason takes the form of a pious theory, it brings weak- 
 ness into his character, and inconsistency into his life. 
 
 2. The scholar must deny as well as believe ; and he 
 cannot deny intelligently without distinctly giving his 
 reasons to himself. Conviction, in this critical age, is 
 negative as truly as it is positive. The thinking man 
 must say no, as positively as he says yes, and nearly as 
 often ; and he can do neither without understanding 
 what he rejects as truly as that which he accepts. Even 
 if he is disinclined to say no to any body or any thing, 
 he cannot avoid thinking no whenever he meets a man 
 of another faith than his own, or a man of no faith at 
 all. The sight of such a one, of itself awakens the 
 question, *^Why do I deny what he believes? How 
 can he believe what I reject as absurd or irrational, or 
 at best as a half truth, or an exaggerated truth, or a 
 plausible error." No educated man in these days, no 
 thinking man who cares enough about his religion to 
 attain the thinnest semblance of faith, can avoid these 
 suggestions. Why, in the very villages where two gen- 
 erations ago every man, woman, and child was contented 
 with the traditional orthodoxy, we find in these daj^s 
 almost every variety of belief and no belief. We need 
 not go to India to find Buddhists or Brahmins. They 
 are not unknown in our New-England villages among 
 their half-dozen varieties of Christian believers, with a 
 plenty of materialists, agnostics, and pessimists thrown 
 in. Indeed, our age has proved itself so fertile in 
 breeding varieties, as almost to have run itself out ; and 
 a tendency to re-action has set in, in the form of a 
 mystical indefiniteness of a faith in the philosophy of 
 religion in general, with no creed in particular. 
 
 But with all this force of re-action towards faith, 
 every influence tends to bring the thoughts and theories 
 of all sorts of men to the knowledge of those who read 
 
340 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 and think ; and the question will constantly spring np, 
 Why do I say no to what I reject ? And that question 
 must be answered with some thought or intelligence. 
 It is of no use to talk here of toleration and charity. 
 Both these duties have their place ; and it is a large and 
 important place : but that place does not in the least 
 relieve the reflecting believer from the duty of positive 
 dissent, and of doing this with a more or less distinct 
 statement of his reasons. Enq^hatically is this true of 
 the Christian scholar. 
 
 3. A critical age tests and exposes those statements 
 and reasonings which are weak and less important. 
 Instructed and disciplined intelligence discriminates 
 between Christian truths of primary and secondary im- 
 portance, — truths which address the intellect as the be- 
 lieving, rather than the abstracting and defniing, faculty, 
 — truths which, so to speak, are appropriate to the 
 great temple of imagination where all tliinking men can 
 meet in common, as contrasted with those truths Avhich 
 are remanded to closet or private chapel where a special 
 dialect is used, and initiated disciples alone feel at 
 home. I imagine myself arrested here by the objection 
 that the logic already urged, requires every intelligent 
 believer to be a formal and finished theologian ; whereas 
 nothing seems at times less fitted to satisfy and confirm 
 the faith of many intelligent scholars, than the technical 
 terms and formal argument of catechisms and theologi- 
 cal systems. I reply that the terms and the reasoning 
 which are required by a theologian are by no means 
 essential to a rational Christian faith. Modern science 
 and modern criticism have rendered an important ser- 
 vice, in bringing theology into living relations to mod- 
 ern thought and scientific and current speech. In this 
 they have shown themselves to be by no means wholly 
 children of darkness; but have rendered noble service 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 341 
 
 to Christian truth as angels of light. Not only have 
 they brought Christian philosoj^hy into living relations 
 with the philosopher's thought and speech of the times, 
 but they have helped men to distinguish between those 
 great truths which are essential to an earnest Christian 
 life, and those which are of minor practical importance. 
 We are content to notice that such a difference exists, 
 without undertaking to draw the line between the one 
 class and the other. On the one side of this line are 
 those grand and distinctive truths, or, rather, those 
 living powers, which are no sooner thought of than they 
 fill and expand the mind with some worthy conception of 
 its own greatness ; or, rather, overwhelm and confound it 
 by the contrast of its own littleness. Let us give a mo- 
 ment to some of these truths, divested of all time-worn 
 associations ; as, for example, to God, the self-existent, 
 all-knowing, all-present, creating, and yet none the less 
 working after a plan from the beginning, as science and 
 history both declare. After this plan, more and more 
 complex forms of matter emerge into being, within 
 whose mysterious and befitting frames life appears, put- 
 ting on more and more wondrous adaptations and richer 
 experiences in the beginnings of animal life, with fuller 
 and still fuller germs of intelligence, with more and more 
 touching anticipations of human affection and sympa- 
 thy, till man appears, "made a little lower than the 
 angels, and crowned with glory and honor." Is there 
 such a being thus related to the universe of matter and 
 spirit? and can man know him and love him and trust 
 in him? or is he utterly unknowable, smiting back into 
 our very teeth the words of uplifted praise which we 
 essay to utter, repelling by a stony stare the fervent 
 love which goes up to heaven from our hearts like the 
 breath of the morning? Is this wonderful being a per- 
 son? Does he rejoice in the supreme and finished glory 
 
342 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 of a conscious intelligence and conscious life, which 
 qualifies him to seek and find delight in sympathy with 
 beings made in his image ? or is he that pale abstraction, 
 called the absolute by modern critics, — the blanched 
 and faded residuum of man's utmost effort to put as far 
 as possible from his thoughts any living and concrete 
 reality that is higher than himself. In other words, is 
 there a living God? and does faith in him justify itself 
 not only to our personal needs, and what some call our 
 sentimental longings, but to our soberest and most crit- 
 ical analysis? Surely he is a person if he is a spirit; 
 and he also seeketh those who will worship him in 
 spirit and in truth. But has he given proof of this? 
 Yes ; the highest and the best possible, by limiting him- 
 self to our human capacities that he might commend his 
 fatherly love and his pardoning goodness to men, who, 
 if they need any tiling, need pardon and help, and the 
 convincing and touching assurance of both. Does man 
 need that God should thus come to him, and conde- 
 scend to him ? or is he complete without him ? Does 
 culture furnish an adequate religion ? or does man cry 
 out for the living God ? Is it enough that I strive to 
 make myself better, or strive to be my own redeemer? 
 or must I cast myself upon the help and mercy of One 
 who is stronger and purer than myself, who stoops and 
 reaches out his hand to save me ? 
 
 Is life worth living ? or is it a wearisome tale or an 
 empty farce that now and then becomes a horrible 
 tragedy ? When I die, will that be the end of me ? 
 Do I give myself up with a shudder to dust and forget- 
 fulness, or turn my death song into an imaginative 
 harangue over my survival in the thoughts and purposes 
 of succeeding generations? Or do I, with loyal and 
 grateful trust and with triumphant peace, say, " Whether 
 I live, I live unto the Lord : whether I die, I die unto 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 348 
 
 the Lord: living or dying I am the Lord's"? Truths 
 and theories like these are the truths that wake to perish 
 never in the thoughtful soul. With them he cannot 
 but wrestle as a strong man for his life, that he may 
 know in whom and what he may trust. They are fitted 
 to rouse and invigorate the critical thinker to the ut- 
 most. Out of their intellectual and emotional life they 
 have fed and stimulated the greatest of men to their 
 highest and best. Every educated man who has not yet 
 settled with himself v/hether they are truths, in the light 
 of disciplined reflection, has not begun even to think. 
 Connected with these questionings, there are others of 
 far mferior interest ; important indeed, because knowl- 
 edge of every kind is important, but not vital to our 
 faith. These inquiries have divided Christian thinkers 
 from the earliest times. They relate to the literature 
 of the Scriptures, — the minutiae of their interpretation, 
 the extent of their inspiration, the reach of their au- 
 thority, the formulation of one's faith in the creeds of 
 theology, and scores of other matters confessedly of infe- 
 rior importance. If any or all of these are made of the 
 first importance by thousands, and even by tens of thou- 
 sands, they are not so regarded by multitudes of other 
 believers, as thoughtful, as cultivated, and as Christian 
 as they. We think it of vital importance to the prog- 
 ress of the kingdom of God, that the intelligent defend- 
 ers of Christian truth should distinguish between these 
 vital and fundamental truths and those of inferior impor- 
 tance. It is upon the strong redoubts that the chief 
 interest of any contest must centre ; and it is upon their 
 defence or capture that the issue must depend. We 
 know that many able and earnest defenders of the com- 
 mon cause seem to think that the outworks are as impor- 
 tant as the citadel. They have little sympathy, and 
 sometimes less charity, for those who will surrender a 
 
34i FIFTEEN YEABS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 single position because they believe it untenable or not 
 worth fighting for. It must also be frankly confessed 
 that the new lights of criticism in literature, history, 
 science, and philosophy have kindled a bright and broad 
 noonday in respect to many questions which Avere not 
 dreamed of by the men of other generations. Into the 
 light of that noonday the great principles and facts of 
 the Christian scheme must surely come in these days 
 of fiery and unsparing criticism. The true defenders of 
 the Christian faith at such times — the men who would 
 be martyrs if martyrs were called for — are the men 
 who are willing to cast the principles of their faith into 
 tlie fires of scientific criticism ; and are content if their 
 wood, liay, and stubble shall be utterly consumed there- 
 in. They are true defenders of the faith because they 
 do not love Christianity better than the truth, but love 
 Christianity because they have proved it to be true, and, 
 moreover, because they can distinguish that which is 
 transient from that which survives in all time. If Chris- 
 tianity is to stand in this generation, it must stand by 
 the efforts of this class of expounders and defenders ; 
 and it is the educated men of this generation who must 
 exercise themselves to a faith that is strong, because it 
 is discriminating and intelligent, and is, therefore, cath- 
 olic and tolerant. 
 
 4. Reflective intelligence adds enormously to indi- 
 vidual usefulness. We contend that questions of duty, 
 as truly as questions of faith, require the light which 
 comes from earnest and intelligent reflection. It is 
 always a real mistake, and sometimes a dangerous mis- 
 take, to suppose that the conscience, which is to the soul 
 what the eye is to the body, is never darkened or bur- 
 dened, even when it gropes or strains after the light. 
 The great Teacher has surely taught us better than this 
 in the words, " If the light that is in thee be darkness, 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 345 
 
 how great is that darkness ?" To contend or conclude 
 that only an honest mind is wanted to make the life 
 consistent, transparent, and beautiful in the eyes of all 
 who look on, has scant enough semblance of truth to 
 hide and recommend an enormous error. The believ- 
 ing spirit may, indeed, be inspired of God to a child's 
 simplicity ; but the occasions are constant in which there 
 is a call and need that in understanding we should be 
 men. The weak-minded but honest-hearted servant of 
 duty is constantly making practical blunders by ill- 
 timed words and mistaken conduct. Nothing but re- 
 spect for his honesty preserves him from oftentimes 
 being laughed at for his weak or wrong-headed error. 
 It is also a mistake to suppose that what is called an 
 average understanding is all that is needed for the con- 
 duct of life in critical hours. The man who gives 
 thought to the question, " What shall I believe ? " cannot 
 but ask at times, with equal earnestness, *' What shall I 
 do ? " The earnest actions that are fired by zeal and 
 controlled by thought have the temper in them of en- 
 lightened convictions, and cut their way like steel. The 
 fervor that flows from the slowly kindled coals of inward 
 reflection is like the touch of a seraph sent from the 
 presence and altar of God, which inspires words of duty 
 with a prophet's power. On the other hand, zeal for 
 duty that is guided and energized by no solid and well- 
 reasoned convictions, is the wildfire of windy enthusiasm, 
 which burns itself out for want of fuel ; or the sulphur- 
 ous flames of the malignant fanatic, who ends by cursing 
 and denouncing those whom he hoped to bless and save. 
 Ten thousand times has it been proved that unenlight- 
 ened moral earnestness has brought tlie very name of 
 conscience and duty into public mockery, and made 
 them a stench in the nostrils of the sober-minded. It 
 would seem to be weakness to hold that duty can be 
 
346 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 severed from the intellectual guidance of the practical 
 affairs of life. It is next to madness to entertain the 
 idea that duty can furnish its own inspiration at a time 
 when the results of conduct are scrutinized by a thou- 
 sand critical eyes, and the mistakes of good men are 
 blazoned in scores of newspapers. 
 
 5. What is true of private society, is true of social 
 movements. They all cry out for intelligence as the 
 condition of success. The world was never so wakeful 
 as at present to social combinations for human welfare. 
 The cause of political and administrative reform, of 
 public education in every plane, of temperance by 
 political and moral instrumentality, of missionary and 
 evangelistic efforts, of the arrest and prevention of 
 pauperism, poverty, and crime, or, comprehensively, of 
 the elevation of society and of man by social agencies, 
 never received so much attention as at present. If the 
 first flush of zeal and hope in respect to some of these 
 interests has abated, and given way to the depressing 
 conclusion that social regeneration must be long de- 
 layed, the assurance has but deepened in many minds, 
 that were society but half awakened to what it could 
 do and might hope for, a glorious day would soon be 
 seen to come up in the sky. With these hopes the 
 conviction is more and more established, that every 
 social movement that is founded on false or defective 
 principles will, sooner or later, be completely wrecked, 
 or suffer some desperate re-action. Now and then some 
 tidal-wave of reform sweeps over the land, — as temper- 
 ance legislation, or popular education, or evangelism, or 
 some radical notion about the currency or property in 
 land, — and the half truths that are paraded on the ban- 
 ners or shouted in the rallying cries seem to shake the 
 entire community. So far as such a movement repre- 
 sents a principle that is sound and true, it is irresistible. 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 347 
 
 A true principle once well set in motion is omnipotent. 
 The men and the community which oppose are to it as 
 is the target which stands in the line of the cannon shot. 
 They simply convert it into a ball of fire which burns 
 and shatters whatever it strikes. But so far as such a 
 movement represents only half a truth, the error neutra- 
 lizes the truth ;. and it repels as often as it constrains or 
 wins, or is itself ground into powder by the re-action 
 which it provokes. There are those who say, The cause 
 is good, on the whole: why not join with it? You 
 will do more good than harm. We cannot stay to make 
 it perfect : the people are impatient, and this is no time 
 to think, — only to act. There are times when it is 
 safe to respond to such an appeal ; and the end is so 
 great and good, and the means so wise and so direct, 
 that to stand aloof or to criticise is almost an act of 
 treason to one's kind. But it is not so when the move- 
 ment is, in its essence, a movement of theory or thought ; 
 when it concerns a principle of wise social action ; 
 when intelligence and practical wisdom are its very 
 essence and strength. Then is the opportunity and 
 duty of thinking men. Then is the time in which they 
 are called to the front. Unless they respond to the call, 
 and use the judgment which the occasion requires, the 
 good cause, however good it may be, may waste itself 
 in the flats of a shallow enthusiasm, or fling itself head- 
 long into a yawning chasm of malignant fanaticism. 
 That this has been proved to be true, is clear to those 
 who are familiar with the history of past movements, or 
 who observe with discrimination the tendencies of the 
 present. The great anti-slavery movement which is so 
 nearly finished ; the temperance reform which is the 
 vexation of politicians and the problem of statesmen ; 
 the social demand for popular education and the culture 
 of the masses ; the discussions concerning pauperism in 
 
348 FIFTEEN YEABS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 its causes and cure ; prison discipline with all which it 
 involves; public amusements and social adjustments; 
 the morals and politics of capital and labor ; and, above 
 all, evangelism and Christian missions, with their rami- 
 fied operations and varified calls for personal and pecu- 
 niary sacrifices, — all these would suggest what I need 
 not say, — that the waste of zeal and lack of judgment 
 and, oftentimes, the defiance and contempt of judgment 
 which they display have been the scandal and reproach 
 of every one of these good causes, and brought every 
 one of them into more or less discredit. A conspicuous 
 hero in one of the greatest of these movements was 
 buried a few months ago, — sjjlendid by his rhetorical 
 gifts and unequalled in some of the equipments which 
 make men leaders of their kind ; but who, in the ex- 
 tremity of his one-sided partisanship, seemed never so 
 happy as when he used his silver tongue in the utter- 
 ance of paradoxes that were most offensive to that 
 common sense and common morality by which social 
 order stands. That his fellow-men should honor him 
 for his personal worth, and praise liim for his courage, 
 was natural ; but it is a significant proof of the lack and 
 need of discriminating judgment, that there has been 
 so little manly criticism of the grievous errors of his 
 social paradoxes ; as if, forsooth, the brilliancy of the 
 fireworks which he manipulated so effectively could 
 allow us to forget that they were loaded with deadly 
 missiles, and that the magician who directed them, 
 whether he knew it or not, was scattering " fire-brands, 
 arrows, and death." I refer to this case as an example 
 of the tendency among the educated men of our country 
 to indiscrimmate j)artisanship either for or against the 
 cause with which they are identified, especially if the 
 cause proposes moral or religious ends. If another 
 example were needed, it might be found in the temper- 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 349 
 
 ance reform which for some fifty years has occupied 
 public attention, and is doubtless most important to 
 our social welfare. This reform has been characterized 
 by a series of what are called great tidal movements, — 
 each one of which has been supposed to carry public 
 sentiment upwards and onwards to a higher level. 
 Possibly this may be true ; but it cannot be denied that 
 each advance has carried forward not a little of dirt 
 and refuse and foam and fury which had better have 
 been spared, which each reflux has left behind in enor- 
 mous masses. At this moment the question of prohibi- 
 tion and license and the possibility of settling this 
 question on principles that will take it out of the hands 
 of ethical abstractionists on the one side and those who 
 call themselves practical politicians on tlie other, is one 
 of the pressing and almost hopeless questions of the 
 hour. 
 
 The advancing movements of the Church repeat the 
 same history, and enforce similar lessons. While noth- 
 ing can be more blessed, and nothing more hopeful, than 
 the increase of Christian enterprise and the multiform 
 expansion of evangelism ; while it is equally clear that 
 this expansion must and will be increased a thousand- 
 fold without exhausting the resources of the Christian 
 Church ; it is equally obvious that with this increase of 
 zeal and activity there must be a commensurate increase 
 of wisdom and good sense, if we would save ourselves 
 from thousands of failures. The sacramental host of 
 God's elect, like every other community of living men, 
 is liable to manifold weaknesses and errors ; and it is 
 certainly followed, like every other army, by many ir- 
 regular combatants. Its solid battalions, its glittering 
 squadrons, its ponderous artilleries, and its brilliant 
 officers are attended by a motley crowd of partisans, 
 who are often as jealous as they are zealous, and are as 
 
350 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 ignorant as they are confident that they are the strength 
 and hope of the cause. If you ask them for the reason 
 of the faith tliat is in them, they will tell you that faith 
 is above reason, and owes no allegiance to reason. If 
 you appeal to common sense and common prudence, they 
 appeal to their personal inspiration and to God. There 
 is nothing strange or new in all this. It has been true 
 from the beginning that "in a great house there are 
 not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood 
 and earth." But it is none the less true that the more 
 sacred the cause, and the more solemn and inspiring the 
 motives which move mankind, the more imperative the 
 necessity that the cause should be guided by intelligence, 
 if it is to be crowned with success. To use disciplined 
 intelligence in these highest of all services, is the especial 
 duty and the high privilege of educated men. For to 
 have been educated signifies nothing, unless it means 
 that you have been trained to think before jou act, and 
 to give reasons for your actions, — especially when you 
 act in great public movements ; and, most of all, when 
 these movements connect you closely with the advan- 
 cing kingdom of God. While I would inspire in each 
 of you, as the highest of all ambitions, to be efScient 
 and trusted leaders of your fellow-men in every social 
 movement that brings them nearer to God, I would 
 urge with equal earnestness, that you can only do so 
 with success, as you have clear and scientific convic- 
 tions which have been formed in the light of trained 
 intelligence. 
 
 Finally, such intelligence thus applied is essential to 
 give dignity and strength to the individual character, 
 and energy and symmetry to the personal life. What 
 we are, and the life which we live are more than every 
 thing besides. The manhood after which we aspire, the 
 manhood which we achieve, not the place which we 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 351 
 
 hold, or the gains which we acquire, are the great ob- 
 jects for which to live. For success in this aim there is 
 no rule but the rule of reflective intelligence. Zeal and 
 self-denial by themselves are not the only equipment 
 for the man who professes to form his own principles 
 and to direct those of others by the light of intelligent 
 faith. It is true the controlling spirit and aim is the 
 chief condition of success. If an educated man is 
 avowedly and consciously selfish in his theory of life, if 
 he distinctly avows and consistently practises the doc- 
 trine of " every man for himself," he is doubly cursed ; 
 for he turns his back on his nobler impulses and on the 
 eternal law of love, and treads under his feet the exam- 
 ple of the Lord who consecrated for all the ages the 
 spirit of self-sacrifice by his own death on the cross. 
 But it is not enough that a man is moved by the holiest 
 and the most unselfish aspirations. He must know 
 what he believes, and why he believes it. He must 
 know what he rejects, and why he rejects it. He must 
 distinguish the essential and practical truth, which is 
 open to all men who think, from the less essential and 
 scholastic and technical and partisan truth which is 
 limited to the few. He must be able wisely to lead his 
 fellow-men in the great social movements which tend to 
 human progress and human salvation. To the student 
 pre-eminently all these are the conditions of a symmetri- 
 cal character and a successful life. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — That 
 you may aspire after such a character, and attend to 
 such a life, we have invited you to the services of this 
 hour, under the associations of this place. Here have 
 you been assembled for your daily worship during the 
 years that are now finished. Here all of you, as we 
 hope, have now and then been lifted to higher aspira- 
 
352 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tions, and attained to better purposes, even if these 
 asjjii'ations have often dissolved like the breath of the 
 morning, and these resolves have been melted in the 
 fires of temptation. To this place and its worship, all of 
 you will look back as to the sacred altar in the home 
 from which you so soon are to go forth as wanderers in 
 the journey of life, or, it may be, as combatants in its 
 stern conflicts. 
 
 But though you have been trained by the forms of 
 Christian worship, and under the influences of a posi- 
 tive Christian faith, it has been in no narrow or techni- 
 cal spirit, least of all with any limitations upon the 
 freest inquiries, or any fear of the wakeful criticism of 
 the times. You have been encouraged by example and 
 precept to prove all things by the tests appropriate to 
 each and every truth. At the same time, you have been 
 admonished to hold fast whatever is good in the great 
 truths of Christian theism. Christian history. Christian 
 ethics, and the Christian salvation. I need not say that 
 to the enforcement of these truths this college is pledged 
 by all the traditions of the past, by all the obligations 
 of the present, and by all the hopes of the future. And 
 yet it is now, as it ever has been, foremost in testing 
 these old truths by the lights of the severest criticism, 
 and fearless in casting these most precious ores into the 
 hottest fires of fresh inquiries. And still we find reason 
 to make no concessions to the spirit of the times, which 
 shall abate one jot of our allegiance to Him who is finally 
 to rule the faith of all human kind, and to triumph over 
 every opposing thought. You will bear witness that 
 such is the free, yet reverent, spirit in which you have 
 been trained and taught, and that this is the genius which 
 controls this place. Were this to cease to be true, it 
 were better far, in the words of my loved and honored 
 predecessor, that these walls were razed to the ground, 
 
IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 353 
 
 and these endowments were scattered to the winds. 
 You are to live, as I have reminded you, in the times 
 when the most important principles are heavily tried, 
 not only in the outer conflicts of action, but in the inner 
 conllicts of faith and feeling. In this trial, both the 
 outer and the inner, may you quit yourselves like men 
 who are mature in thought, wise in action, and strong 
 and consistent in character. Do not entertain for a 
 moment the thought that the more critical thinking of 
 these times makes it especially difficult for an earnest 
 and honest student to attain to a 2)ositive faith and an 
 earnest life. The contrary seems to be true. While it 
 is easy, perhaps easier than ever, for the student and 
 reader to find plausible reasons for hesitation and denial, 
 and still more easy to lapse into self-inclulgent habits, 
 it was never so easy to find the most satisfactory foot- 
 ing for a positive and enlightened faith, and the most 
 stirring and rational incitements to a consecrated life. 
 
 Though you have in a sense lived apart from the 
 world, you have already seen and heard enough of 
 the world, through the loopholes of j^our retreat, to be 
 impressed with the instability and the uncertainty of 
 the things of earth. Even in your brief college life- 
 time, you have seen great fortunes vanish in a day, the 
 nation's pride cut down in a moment, great reputations 
 dissolve at a touch, and plausible theories perish as in 
 a night. You have already had sufficient experience to 
 be assured that there is little that is permanent on the 
 earth except an upright purpose, a manly and unselfish 
 disposition, and a loving and considerate life. You 
 have had experiences still more serious and more elevat- 
 ing, — the experiences that carried your thoughts into 
 that other life, so near and yet so far, towards which 
 we are all moving, and into which any of us, however 
 young or strong, may be suddenly summoned. You 
 
354 FIFTEEN YEABS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 will not soon forget the day when you walked up these 
 aisles, a weeping, broken-hearted company, following 
 the remains of one of your noblest and best beloved, 
 who had hoped so much and enjoyed so little of this 
 last college year. In that hour there was nothing 
 nearer or more precious to your thoughts than the un- 
 seen life into which he had vanished ; nothing more 
 consoling than the evidence that his thoughts and affec- 
 tions had been conversant with that life, and that with 
 prayerful tenderness he had parted with father and 
 mother and brother upon its confines. At that moment, 
 there was nothing so much needed by each one of you, 
 as the manifestation of the living God as your hope and 
 portion for life and death. 
 
 Surely the convictions experienced in such an hour 
 are truer and more trustworthy than the sneering scep- 
 ticism which stakes all its hopes upon the doubtful 
 hypothesis of material relationships, or the confident 
 criticism that dismisses the Christian history with one 
 of those theories that change with every season, or the 
 all-ingulfing philosophy that so confidently tells the 
 fortunes of a universe which is self-evolved from nothing, 
 and ends in the fireworks of a self-exploded chaos. 
 
 May the memories of that hour, and of all the other 
 ennobling and uplifting hours of your college-life, of 
 this place, of these studies, these enjoyments, these con- 
 tests, these defeats, these companionships, these aspira- 
 tions, these truths, and these hopes, make you all strong 
 and true-hearted men, the servants of the truth, the 
 servants of your generation, and the servants of God. 
 
 These are my best wishes, as I bid you an affectionate 
 farewell. 
 
XVII. 
 
 SUOCUSS JN LIFE* 
 
 "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to tour faith virttte; 
 and to virtue knowledge ; 
 
 "And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and 
 TO patience godliness; 
 
 "And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kind- 
 ness charity. 
 
 "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that 
 
 YE shall neither BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ." — 2 Pe^er /. o-<9. 
 
 Matthew Arnold, in his fine essay on Marcus 
 Aurelius, raised the interesting question, whether the 
 imperial yet gentle Stoic had ever encountered the 
 Christian sect which was persecuted during his reign, in 
 any such way as to understand its characteristic aims 
 and spirit. He ventures the suggestion that this was 
 impossible. Otherwise, he argues, his attention could 
 not but have been arrested by the nobleness of the one ; 
 while his heart would have been touched by the gentle- 
 ness of the other. Were we to suppose a Christianized 
 Stoic to have met his emperor, he would have expounded 
 his new faith in terms not unlike these which we find 
 in the first chapter of this Epistle. Or we might ima- 
 gine the master of the v/orld to have entered a Christian 
 assembly by night, and in disguise, and to have lis- 
 tened to an exposition of the new faith from a thought- 
 ful believer, perhaps one of his own household. Had 
 
 » June 21, 1885. 
 
 355 
 
356 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 he done so, he would have heard a philosophy of life 
 not unlike that which we find in the chapter from 
 which our text is taken. Indeed, the whole of this 
 passage might have fallen from the lips of a converted 
 Stoic, as, with tender gratitude and exultant hope, he 
 should expound his new-found secret. We call this a 
 philosophy of life ; and yet it is none the less a gospel 
 because it is a philosophy. It is full of good news for 
 man's comfort and hope, although it overflows with 
 instruction for his guidance. It is none the less a phi- 
 losophy because it is also a gospel, stating the old prob- 
 lems which had vexed the earnest thinkers from the 
 beginning, and solving them more satisfactorily than 
 was ever done before. It is pre-eminently a practical 
 pliilosophy, recognizing distinctly the fact that the 
 world is reeking with corruption through lust, and that 
 deliverance is promised through the love and gratitude 
 which its exceeding great and precious promises call 
 forth. This love and gratitude would impel to a pecul- 
 iar kind of life. This life is briefly sketched in its 
 prominent features of duty, and conducted in triumph 
 to its close. In these particulars it stands in striking 
 contrast to the stoicism of modern times, which rejects 
 it with disdain. To the considerations of this Christian 
 idea of a successful life I ask your attention, as appro- 
 priate to the present occasion. 
 
 First of all, this life is founded upon faith. The 
 direction, " Add to your faith virtue," or as the Revised 
 Version has it, " In your faith supply virtue," does not 
 recognize faith as co-ordinate with these other virtues, 
 but derives from faith the various excellencies of char- 
 acter which are named. In naming each and all, it 
 presupposes faith as the root from which all proceed. 
 In this sense the Christian ideal of living begins with 
 and presupposes a religiou or a personal trust and love 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 357 
 
 towards Christ as the object of love and confidence. It 
 binds us to him by an act of allegiance, in which are 
 blended honor and gratitude, love and hope. This 
 peculiarity, in the opinion of some, takes the Christian 
 life out of any kindred with philosophy ; while in the 
 judgment of others, it gives to it as a philosophy an 
 additional and peculiar charm. 
 
 This faith is more than an intellectual assent to a 
 speculative truth or an historical fact. It is more than 
 credit to any fact, or assent to any truth. It is an act 
 of loving devotion to a person in answer to his claims 
 upon the heart, the response to his manifold love of 
 grateful devotion, the reception of his offered pardon 
 with renunciation of the forgiven sin, the consecration 
 of the life to his cause, and a steadfast and open avowal 
 of discipleship. Such a faith by no means excludes defi- 
 nite views of Christ's nature and work, — whence he 
 came and whither he goes ; what he must be as divine 
 or as human, — but it enters into the human soul and 
 into human society as a living power, by its joyful 
 and loving realization of Christ as the master of the 
 heart, who, though he was dead, yet lives, and, behold ! 
 is alive for evermore ; but who is yet as near and as sym- 
 pathizing to every disciple as when he spoke words of 
 personal tenderness to the weakest and the most discon- 
 solate, or wept tears of sympathy at Lazarus' grave. 
 That this was the view of the v/riter of this Epistle, and, 
 with him, of the early Church, is most obvious. It was 
 to Christ as a fact of human history, who a few years 
 previous had been a living person among the haunts 
 and ways of men, that he turned back in his vivid recol- 
 lections to him who, by the charm of his moral loveli- 
 ness, and the power of his divine authority, had won 
 his believing love and his fervent devotion. Hence he 
 declares, " We did not follow cunningly devised fables, 
 
358 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 . . . but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For lie re- 
 ceived from God the Father honor and glory, when there 
 came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This 
 is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : and this 
 voice we ourselves heard, when we were with him in the 
 holy mount." We cannot doubt that at every recollec- 
 tion of the Christ whom he had known in the past, 
 when coupled with the vivid impression of what he was 
 in the present, he gathered fresh inspiration. It was the 
 Christ whom he remembered on earth, in his many acts 
 of personal tenderness, in every look of human sympathy 
 and majestic purity, whom he had also followed with 
 wondering amazement as he ascended from his sight, 
 and whom he now contemplated with worshipping faith. 
 It was this Christ who gave him the courage and hope 
 through which he could endure and do all things, even 
 on the cross or at the stake. It was the reflex of the 
 like faith with feebler energy, but similar in kind, that 
 the Stoic emperor would have found in any Christian 
 assembly which, humble and obscure as it might have 
 been, throbbed with the energy that was even then be- 
 ginning to renew the moral life of humanity. It was 
 by faith in Christ as such a person, that the Roman 
 world was conquered to his name. If the New Testa- 
 ment is worth any thing as a piece of history, it portrays 
 hundreds and thousands of believing souls, living, suffer- 
 ing, and dying for their allegiance to a person whose 
 earthly body had been slain, but who was now alive 
 upon the throne of almighty power, to accept the per- 
 sonal homage of his disciples, and to inspire them to a 
 kind and degree of homage such as the world had never 
 seen. No other fact of history is so well established, as 
 that, true or false, this was the faith that inspired their 
 lives. Whether it was reasonable or unreasonable, it 
 was faith in Christ as a person that enabled them to do 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 359 
 
 and suffer as they did. More than this is true. Christ 
 as a person exemplified and honored a type of character, 
 wliich the world, as he found it, had rejected and de- 
 spised. The characteristic spirit of his life was not in 
 harmony with the virtues which the best leaders of the 
 world had been disposed to honor. It was to honor 
 these very virtues, — those virtues which we call Chris- 
 tian, — and set them in their rightful place, that he used 
 the whole force of his person, backed as it was with 
 miracles, and invested with the indescribable charm of 
 his mysterious authority. We forget that these virtues, 
 which we now call Christian, were characteristics which 
 the Stoic despised and the Pharisee loathed and the Sad- 
 ducee scorned, and that by them Christ was brought to 
 his cross. Still further, we forget that it was by this 
 very act of humiliation that Christ exalted these virtues 
 to the throne of the world's homage, and conquered a 
 place for them in the heart and reverence of Christen- 
 dom. Still further, we forget that it was by the force 
 and energy of faith in the real Christ that men have 
 learned to honor and love the ideal Christ. It is simply 
 bcciiuse so many generations of men have struggled and 
 prayed and sacrificed and died through their faith in 
 the actual Christ, that the world has been trained to 
 that spiritual discernment and moral elevation which 
 honors the ideal Christ, who, when on earth, had not 
 where to lay his head. Atheist and agnostic, secularist 
 and worldling, now unite in homage or in loud acclaim 
 before the idealized myth or the romantic dream in 
 which criticism and philosophy profess to have found 
 the secret of the mystery. " Thou hast conquered the 
 world, O Galilean ! " Theodore Parker, who scorned to 
 find in Christ any thing more than the world's ideal 
 man, says this man has consummated the world's idea, 
 and there can never be any thing higher or better. 
 
360 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 George Eliot, whose early life seems to have been 
 steeped in zeal for the name and cause of Christ, but 
 who afterwards denied his personal power, could find 
 nothing to give her inspiration or comfort in the gloomy 
 depression of her later creed, which could take the place 
 of Thomas a Kempis and the crucifix. Whatever else 
 these facts signify, they signify the change which faith in 
 Christ as a person has effected in the world's estimate of 
 Christ as an ideal. While we lay the stress upon faith 
 as allegiance to Christ as a person, we may not forget 
 that such a faith must, in a certain sense, involve a creed 
 expressed or implied. We cannot believe in a person 
 without some intellectual judgment concerning his per- 
 sonality, and his relations to God and man. This is 
 true. All knowledge of every kind and of every subject- 
 matter involves some intellectual conviction or implied 
 assent. Allegiance of any kind, — loving and trusting 
 allegiance, consecrating worship, hope, trust, and self- 
 sacrifice, — all im]3ly belief that the object of faith is more 
 or less distinctly known as warranting and requiring 
 the love and confidence which we give. Hence it has 
 been rashly concluded that the faith which is required 
 of man, and is the condition of his better life, must 
 always be an exact and well-defined system of truth, 
 accurately stated, thoroughly reasoned, and carefully 
 adjusted in all its parts. Theological divisions and 
 sectarian strifes tend to deepen this impression, just in 
 proportion as the attention is occupied by the discus- 
 sion and defence of matters of secondary importance. 
 
 The prevalence of doubt and denial in respect to 
 the fundamental truths of religion, tends to unsettle the 
 minds of thoughtful men. Men of reading and educa- 
 tion cannot, if they would, be ignorant of the bold as- 
 saults, and the often weak and partial defences, of the 
 faith with wliich modern literature abounds. Faith, to 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 361 
 
 be worth any thing, or worthy a thinking man, must be 
 a reasonable or rational act ; and a reasonable faith must 
 be a thoroughly reasoned product, which nothing but 
 thought and time can mature. It follows, many con- 
 clude, tliat faith for them at present is impossible. If 
 it comes at all, it must come as the conclusion of patient 
 study and protracted inquiry. Hence many reflecting 
 men abandon the prospect of a strong and settled faith 
 in utter despair. Faith, they say, requires inquiry and 
 thought ; and thought and inquiry cost time and effort. 
 Hence the ins[)iration of faith must, for the present, be 
 abandoned by them. 
 
 What shall we say upon this point? First of all, a 
 correct and complete intellectual creed concerning the 
 person does not of itself impl}^ loving allegiance ; nor 
 important as it may be, for many reasons, does not of 
 necessity indicate any religious or moral worth. There 
 is no more merit involved in a correct theory of reli- 
 gious truth as such, than in a correct theory of geology 
 or physics. Such correctness of creed may indicate or 
 promote honesty and earnestness of mind, but they do 
 not necessarily involve either. As a means of good, and 
 a sign of good, these may be useful ; but of themselves 
 they have neither merit nor demerit. What is still 
 more significant, faith may co-exist with a very scanty 
 creed. Pre-eminently is this true of the countless ques- 
 tions in regard to which theologians by profession differ, 
 and over which Christian sects too often wrangle. To 
 apprehend an object that moves the feelings and impels 
 to heroic action, is quite compatible with utter inability 
 to analyze what moves the heart, and much more to 
 define and explain it. A man may believe in beauty 
 to the eye and music to the ear, in noble men and noble 
 deeds, and be moved by his faith to the costliest sacri- 
 fices and the complete surrendering of his being, and 
 
362 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 not be able to define or explain the nature of either 
 beauty or music. In like manner, a man may believe 
 in Christ to the saving of his soul, and to the complete 
 transformation of his lilc, without any theological theory 
 of Christ's person or Christ's work, or any definite creed 
 which would begin to pass for theology. That man 
 may be moved and transformed by what is true concern- 
 ing Christ, even though he cannot phrase this truth in 
 consistent or orthodox language, is, or ought to be, one 
 of tlie axioms of Christian truth. 
 
 Not that a rational judgment of what we believe is 
 not of very great importance, nor that, in some sense, it 
 is not a necessity to our reflective reason, but that the 
 reflective or analytic power of itself neither gives faith 
 its effectiveness nor measures its energy. 
 
 It is this apprehension of faith as a loving trust in a 
 person, that enables us to understand the power for 
 goodness which lies in trusting childhood and in un- 
 lettered simplicity, when either acts or speaks itself out 
 with the energy and directness of simple conviction 
 which awakens contagious and responsive sympathy. 
 
 While, then, it is of prime importance that the think- 
 ing believer should buttress his faith with reflective 
 thought, and be always ready to give a reason for the 
 hope that is in him, it should ever be remembered that 
 the power of faith to transform the personal life is 
 found in loving allegiance to the personal Christ. 
 
 We know very well that, for certain reasons, it was 
 never so hard to believe in this personal and Christian 
 sense, especially for a certain class of cultivated men, 
 as it is at the present moment. But, on tlie other hand, 
 it was never so hard not to believe, because it was never 
 so hard for such men to live without faith. The uni- 
 verse is now so vast, so abounding in force and law, 
 and God is so great, that it is diliicult to imagine that 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 863 
 
 he should come to man and visit him in person. But, 
 on the other hand, if the universe is so great and God is 
 so high, the greater is the need that God should come to 
 man, that man may rise to Him ; and the more bewil- 
 dered and helpless is man if Christ did not come and has 
 not gone again to God. Or, if we pursue like thoughts 
 in another direction, what is man to himself without 
 faith? Never, never before was he so helpless and 
 alone. True, he knows more than at any previous 
 time, — more of the past and the present and the future ; 
 more of himself, it may be, and more of the universe. 
 In one sense he is more at home in this universe than 
 ever before. With what serene, yet with what would 
 fain be a dignified, contempt does he look back upon the 
 sciences of the past ! With what a comfortable assur- 
 ance does he explain and predict and say, I told you so, 
 and I now tell you so : wait and see what will happen ! 
 And yet if there is no mind behind this visible scene in 
 whom to trust, no love in which to confide, no inspiring 
 example to stimulate, no friend stronger than death 
 and mightier than the grave, surely man was never 
 so miserable as now. The vastness of the universe re- 
 doubles and prolongs the echoes of his despairing cry. 
 No God ! No God ! The certainty and universality of 
 law give him only the calm assurance of scientific 
 despair. The deepened experience of uncertainty in 
 the struggles of life, intensifies the bitterness of disap- 
 pointment and the emptiness of success. In place of a 
 cheerful hope in the divine goodness, and the pitying 
 sympathy of the Son of God, a contemptuous pessimism 
 rules the hour, that scornful^ flings away the very sug- 
 gestion of hopeful and cheerful faith either in God or 
 man, or a gloomy stoicism that folds its hands with a 
 piteous smile of forced submission, with the felt agony 
 of mute despair. 
 
364 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 2. We pass next to the exemplification of faith in 
 character and conduct. All men, in these days, who 
 think, agree that character and conduct are the grand 
 desiderata in human well being. Theists and agnostics, 
 optimists and pessimists, selfists and altruists, all con- 
 sent that the manhood which we attain and exemplify 
 is the supreme thing to care for ; and the achievement of 
 the ideal manhood is the criterion by which to measure 
 success in life. The theory of the apostle is similar. He 
 magnifies character as the chief aim ; and yet he defines 
 the ideal man in a way peculiar to himself. To your 
 faith, or in your faith, supply virtue ; and in your virtue 
 knowledge ; and in your knowledge temperance ; and in 
 temperance patience ; and in your patience godliness ; 
 and in your godliness love of the brethren ; and in your 
 love of the brethren, love or charity. Notice that he 
 does not mean, nor does he say, add to faith, as co-ordi- 
 nate with it, the virtues which he names, but let your 
 faith manifest or exercise itself in these forms of activ- 
 ity. The New-Testament theory is never, as some con- 
 ceive it, so much faith and so many works; Believe in 
 Christ for acceptance, and do manifold good actions, by 
 way of propriety or as a make-weight ; but it is. Let your 
 loving allegiance to Christ be so strong that it cannot 
 but manifest itself in every conceivable form of charac- 
 ter and conduct which human nature makes possible. 
 The heart that is thus controlled and transformed is a 
 human heart. It is endowed with human sensibilities, 
 and connected with its kind by human relations. For 
 this reason, its loving faith in Christ cannot but make 
 itself felt through every one of these special impulses, 
 and in every variety of human excellence. Were this 
 believing allegiance to Christ to make us cease to be 
 men, it would make us monsters. Were it to dry up the 
 fountains of human emotion, or to cease to impel us to 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 365 
 
 those actions wliicli are characteristically human, it 
 would itself cease to be divine, because it would mar 
 and distort the image of God. We are not unmindful 
 that many theological theories and many practical coun- 
 sels have a strong tendency thus to dehumanize man; 
 and we are as well aware that the theoretical and prac- 
 tical mischief which they occasion, effectually condemns 
 them as false and mischievous. The argument still 
 remains good, — these things are pleasing to God and 
 profitable to men. For this very reason, the contrary 
 theory needs to be restricted, and the specific obliga- 
 tion to apply our religious incitements in every possible 
 human activity needs to be definitely recognized and 
 faithfully enforced. The teachings of our Lord are 
 most explicit from the beginning, in which he so clearly 
 declares the rules of practical discipleship, to the an- 
 ticipated sentence in which he shall say in judgment, 
 " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Faith 
 or loving allegiance is no reality unless it impels to all 
 the varied forms of human feeling and activity for which 
 our human nature provides the occasions, and to which 
 it impels by the calls and appeals of our human life. 
 There is no possible opportunity for the activity which 
 man requires, except in the relationships of man with 
 man. The attempt to strengthen one's faith by employ- 
 ing the thoughts upon God alone, in offices of devotion, 
 or in the aimless realization of scenes which the senses 
 cannot picture and the imagination cannot outline, in- 
 flates and deceives with unsatisfying illusions, or dis- 
 courages and depresses with mortifying disappointment. 
 But the attempt to carry this spirit of devotional aspira- 
 tion into the human affections, and to make it the un- 
 failing spring of human duty, both acts and re-acts to 
 elevate man to God and to bring God down to man. In 
 
366 FIFTEEN TEABS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 this sense do we interpret the direction, Add, or supply, 
 to your faith, virtue and godliness and brotherly kind- 
 ness. By this rule do we reconcile the freedom of un- 
 conditional pardon and the joy of believing faith, with 
 the impulse to every kind of labor and sacrifice, which 
 is enforced everywhere in the New Testament. With 
 these principles in mind, we may ask, What are the char- 
 acteristically Christian duties ? What are the forms of 
 Christian activity which the apostle here recognizes as 
 our aim and rule in life? It is obvious that he attempts 
 no complete catalogue of Christian virtues, and that we 
 find none in the New Testament. Therein is evinced 
 divine discernment and forecast — a discernment of the 
 fact that to attempt to classify the possible virtues 
 must be a failure ; and forecast, that as man should make 
 progress in his individual and social life, new duties 
 would come to the front, the names of which had not 
 yet been devised. Some of the virtues named by the 
 apostle are recognized as characteristically Christian, 
 and in so far novel, having been of infrequent occur- 
 rence among the pagan Greeks, because there were nei- 
 ther thoughts nor ideals to require them. We may even 
 say that were Socrates to appear in our modern life, 
 w^ith no other conceptions than those of his own time, 
 he would scarcely understand many of the names of the 
 virtues that have been created by the Christian family ; 
 that Plato would find himself embarrassed by the dia- 
 lect of the Christian commonwealth ;- and Aristotle 
 would be puzzled at much of the terminology which has 
 been evolved in our social life. 
 
 Notice some of these terms of feeling and act which 
 appear in our text, and ponder them in the light of 
 these thoughts. Virtue or manly courage, and knowl- 
 edge and temperance and patience, we may concede were 
 not unknown before the time of Paul ; while godliness 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 3G7 
 
 and love of the brethren are distinctly Christian con- 
 ceptions with a distinctively Christian meaning ; and the 
 love which he superadds to all the rest, as the compre- 
 hensive duty that binds all the other duties of heart as 
 by a golden thread, is characteristically a Christian con- 
 ception which came into the world with Christ, and was 
 first uttered in its fulness of meaning by Christ him- 
 self. Taken together, and as forming a connected 
 whole, these duties represent a type of character which 
 challenges tlie scrutinizing admiration of the curious, 
 and invests the tests of our life with the earnestness of 
 the day of judgment. 
 
 Faith being presupposed as the condition or substruc- 
 ture, the thought might occur that the supposed pagan 
 excellence of courage or manly energy has no place in 
 such a connection ; and yet was there ever a courage in 
 warrior or martyr, nay, even in woman or child, that could 
 compare with that with which the Christian faith has 
 clothed herself, as with an armor of mail ? It is equally 
 pertinent, but almost equally unexpected, that knowl- 
 edge or discriminating judgment should be specially en- 
 joined. The injunction to temperance in the control of 
 the animal impulses might occasion no surprise, nor that 
 of patient endurance ; although the temperance that 
 comes of a spiritual taste is of a higher quality, and the 
 patience that is sustained by faith can literally endure 
 all thingrs. Godliness or reverent devotedness as a habit 
 of the soul, as we have already said, is a virtue of Jew- 
 ish and Christian parentage .in its eminent sense ; and 
 love of the brethren as a special affection is pre-em- 
 inently Christian. But how came this ideal into the 
 thoughts of men? and, further, how came it to be 
 invested with such honor and authority in the hearts of 
 men ? 
 
 This ideal, let it be remembered, when taken as a 
 
368 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 whole, is a Christian ideal of the life which every man 
 ought to aspire to live. The Christian believer has 
 learned to acknowledge its excellence, to bow before its 
 authority, and to struggle for its realization. The 
 excellence of this ideal has become more and generally 
 cordially approved by those whose opinions command 
 respect, or represent the consenting judgment of their 
 fellows. But how was it when these words were first 
 written ? How would they have sounded in the ear of 
 the thoughtful Stoic who had chanced to hear them in 
 a Christian assembly, or recognized them as expressing 
 the aspirations and judgments of the early disciples? 
 Possibly he might have honored the motives, while he 
 commiserated the judgment, of these well-meaning but 
 weakly men. As for the virtues named, the most of 
 them would have been a positive offence to his convic- 
 tions and his tastes ; and as for the populace, who pro- 
 fessed no philosophy ; as to the average Roman world, — 
 the men who farmed the revenue, and filled the offices, 
 and directed, and paid for the public games, — would 
 not both philosophers and the great public have regarded 
 them all with utter contempt or disdain, as being weak 
 and mean, — utterly inconsistent with the hard sense of 
 practical men, and the refined sense of men of culture, 
 and, consequently, as having little or no authority with 
 either. 
 
 What a contrast do we find in the views of the ideal 
 of life between the literature even of Cicero and of 
 Horace, and the English literature of Coleridge and 
 Tennyson, or even of Froude and Matthew Arnold ? 
 And how has this change been brought about? How 
 many sermons and how many exhortations has it cost? 
 and how many examples struggling against adverse 
 influences at home and abroad ? How many bold defend- 
 ers and silent actors of the better life? All along, 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 369 
 
 during these struggling years, the great words of the 
 New Testajuent liave been devoutly perused in Chris- 
 tian homes and in Christian closets. Even where its 
 story could not be read, the crucifix which could be seen 
 in wayside chapel or solemn cathedral, has witnessed to 
 patient love and courage stronger than death ; and the 
 pictured virgin has, all the while, looked an example of 
 tender compassion and patient intercession. Manifold 
 other influences, also, have wrought into the world's 
 opinion and rule of life ; one golden thread after another 
 of blessed Christian sentiment has displaced the old 
 maxims and sentiments of selfishness and cruelty and 
 revenge, till the old and coarse laws of savageness and 
 butchery have given place to the new commandment 
 which Christ gave to his disciples, which has baptized 
 them into a new name, and been enacted as a new rule 
 and ideal of aspiration and action. It would seem, in 
 view of all this progress in the past, that whatever the 
 conduct and character of thinking men were likely to 
 become, this rule of thinking and feeling was, and would 
 remain forever, unchanged ; that the rule which prescribes 
 virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and 
 godliness and love of the brethren and charity, would 
 forever stand in speculative honor as sacred truth. All 
 this would seem to be natural and actual, but yet it is 
 not exactly so. One of the strange aspects of our own 
 times is an attempt, in some quarters, to return to the 
 hard Stoic ideal, and to reject the Christian rule of feel- 
 ing and of conduct. It is none other than the theoretic 
 exaltation of selfishness and self-seeking, and the con- 
 demnation of the temper and acts, which are character- 
 istically Christian. It would seem as though, with the 
 rejection of the doctrine that God is the Father of 
 spirits, the inference is tacitly implied or silently 
 enforced, that his creatures should no longer be the 
 
370 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 objects of sympathizing pity or Christ-like sacrifice ; that 
 under the sanction of a theory of physics which finds 
 the origin of the universe in the pantheistic fire-mist, 
 the rule for human ethics was condensed into the maxim, 
 " Look out for thyself, and assert and establish all thine 
 interests into rights." It would seem as though men in 
 Christendom were soon to be divided into two classes : 
 those who believe in the Father of spirits, who is an 
 example and the inspirer of love to men in all its forms 
 of self-sacrifice ; and those who deny God, and believe in 
 looking out for themselves. If this is so, there is the 
 more reason that we should re-enact as our rule in life, 
 " giving all diligence, in your faith supply virtue ; and 
 in your virtue knowledge ; and in your knowledge tem- 
 perance ; and in your temperance patience ; and in your 
 patience godliness ; and in your godliness love of the 
 brethren ; and in your love of the brethren love." 
 
 3. This leads us to the thought, — such a life is an 
 assured success. "If these things are yours, and abound, 
 they make you not to be idle nor unfruitful unto the 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." " For if ye do 
 these things, ye shall never stumble." Such a life as this 
 — a life characterized b}^ these features — cannot be a fail- 
 ure. Whatever sacrifices it may involve, whatever losses 
 it may appoint, whatever enemies it may make, what- 
 ever poverty or sickness it may bring, if it be a life of 
 faith within, exemplified by activity without, in all these 
 forms of act and suffering, it will be a life of light and 
 peace and hope. No other plan of life can assure suc- 
 cess, for the reason that success of any other kind 
 involves conditions which no man can control, — as bod- 
 ily and mental health, foresight, friends, favoring circum- 
 stances, and those thousand accidents which mar or 
 make one's fortune, none of which are assured to any 
 man. But if a man maintains a supreme allegiance to 
 
SUCCESS /2V LIFE. 371 
 
 Christ as his Master and Guide, and if he exemplifies 
 that faith in all the activities of his human nature and 
 the opportunities of human life, he cannot fail. 
 
 Every day brings to such a man its occasion for duty ; 
 and the demands of duty are responded to at every 
 instant of his life when he hears a command from his 
 Master. Every fellow-man whom he encounters utters 
 a call for sympathy, or help, or protest, or reproof. 
 Every earthly duty is both enforced and transfigured by 
 the light which it reflects from heaven. The experiences 
 of the past give him courage and hope for the future. 
 The power of habit becomes a second nature to sustain 
 and impel him in his course. The attestation of his past 
 experience and the sunlight of his future aspirations 
 assure him that he walks in the truth and in the light. 
 
 Philosophy, both ancient and modern, can teach a 
 man to bear and endure most of the evils of life with 
 patience and self-control. It can also enforce a wise 
 remedy for each, with manifold lessons of prudence in 
 avoiding greater and lesser evils ; and whatever it can 
 teach, it is needful that we should learn. The gospel 
 does not dispense with this necessity, nor with the aid of 
 both pliilosophy and common sense. It sends every man 
 to the school of common sense and experience, and bids 
 him learn the lessons which they inculcate, but it enforces 
 them by the authority of the Master, in motives which no 
 pliilosophy can furnish. The Christian philosophy of life 
 is the farthest removed from that sentimental moonshine, 
 on the one hand, which rests in the phrases of an inflated 
 and affected phraseology, as it is from the dogmatism of 
 a hard and godless so-called common sense. A stilted 
 pietism that hides its head in the clouds, and rarely 
 looks upon the ground on which it is forced to tread, 
 will stumble at every step, and bring the world's ridicule 
 and contempt as i^ sees it reel and fall. But a Chris- 
 
872 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tian common sense that is radiant with Christian love, 
 exalts human nature to its highest manifestations, and 
 gives the humblest men in the lowliest positions a 
 dignity which commands respect. 
 
 The gospel does not promise to the rash and the reck- 
 less, because they are innocent and earnest, any exemption 
 from the natural consequences of headlong imprudence, 
 wilful or thoughtless. It does not feed the improvident, 
 nor clothe the indolent, nor send money or friends to the 
 praying beggar who refuses to labor because he has reli- 
 gious aspirations or religious hopes. It does not absolve 
 any man from his subjection to the conditions and the 
 penalties of natural law. Faith does not relieve the be- 
 liever from the necessities of doing and suffering for him- 
 self and by himself, according to the physical and moral 
 conditions of his individual and social nature. But 
 though faith acts in harmony with material and spiritual 
 law, it has laws and conditions of its own, which assure 
 peace, contentment, and submission even under the 
 sharp retributions of imprudence and mistakes ; which 
 can bring out of repentance and true contrition the 
 peculiar joys of forgiveness to the unworthy, and to all 
 men the peace of God which passeth understanding. 
 
 Aside from these spiritual enjoyments, without which 
 success in life can never begin, the constant recognition 
 of duty to Christ as the law of one's life, and the ser- 
 vice of Christ as the supreme and, so to speak, the sole 
 occupation of our being, and of the spirit of Christ as 
 one's controlling inspiration, give an elevation and a 
 conscious dignity to life with which no other impelling 
 force can compare. The constant recognition of the 
 fact that one supreme object can alone stand the test 
 of scrutinizing judgment, and the continued reference 
 to it as the touchstone of our life, give confidence and 
 inward self-reliance. The unflinching application of 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. • 373 
 
 this law to every act and feeling imparts self-control and 
 self-satisfaction ; while tlie exercise for the well-being of 
 man of every gift which we possess, whether of wealth, 
 or learning, or station, awakens the highest satisfaction, 
 and blesses the conscience with the peace of God. 
 
 The remark is so often quoted as to have become 
 commonplace, — after all, the most which one can get 
 out of life is usefulness. If this is true, it takes life at 
 once out of all low and selfish relations. It makes the 
 discipline of character its noblest aim and end. It tells 
 us that what we are, not what we gain or get of fame 
 or money or learning, gives the supreme value to our 
 living. So soon as life is thus valued for its discipline 
 of character, then the most of its problems are solved ; 
 its dark passages glow with light ; its seeming inequal- 
 ities are all adjusted ; its heart-breaking disappointments 
 are explained. Every complication of evil which other- 
 wise were a tangled maze, becomes a scene of order and 
 beauty. So soon as another life comes into view, then 
 the much vexed question whether life is worth living is 
 answered ; and the motive to live this life well, because 
 it fits us for another, comes home to us as a solution of 
 our doubts and a charge to give all diligence to exem- 
 plify our faith in every opportunity of act or suffering. 
 All our difficulties about the gratuitousness of pardon 
 and the confidence of faith vanish as soon as we see 
 that a ti'usting and loving gratitude to Christ is, in its 
 very nature, a living impulse to every variety of human 
 affection and action. If we ask. Why is life so check- 
 ered and so strange ? why so incomplete with some, and 
 so finished with others ? why so stormy with some, and so 
 peaceful with others ? why so bright to one, and so dark 
 and despairing to another ? we can only say — and when 
 we say that we can say enough, in effect we say all — 
 that Ufe does not end with the bodily and the earthly, 
 
374 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 but introduces us to other scenes. It is, consequently, 
 a most natural transition by which the apostle passes 
 from the present to the future life, and tells us, — con- 
 necting fidelity and energy in the one, with a complete 
 fitness and a more hearty welcome in the other — '' If ye 
 do these things, ye shall never stumble," neither in this 
 life nor in the future ; " for there shall be supplied unto 
 you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord 
 and Saviour, Jesus Christ." 
 
 4. We have already anticipated our concluding 
 thought, — the relations of our ideal life to the future. 
 Our reasonings and our hopes have brought us to the 
 threshold of the life which is to be, and made us to 
 step over that threshold so easily and natural^ as not 
 to know that we have crossed it at all. This is what the 
 Christian life involves, — a natural and easy entrance 
 into another sphere of activity and living, the reality 
 of glorious scenes, and the ready response of the soul 
 richly prepared for all by the discipline of life. This 
 is the crown and culmination of the ideal life, that in 
 its plans and purposes, its aspirations and hopes, its 
 standards of character, and its loftiest moods, it should 
 be in harmony witli the life which it will take up when 
 it shall drop the body and wake to the realizations of 
 the better life. What this waking shall involve, we 
 cannot anticipate. It is well that we should not. 
 Otherwise our bodily life would be no discipline to our 
 fidelity ; but in place of this, would become a constant 
 temptation to discontent and self-indulgence. It is 
 eminently true, and the more we think and question 
 and seek to discover, the more convinced shall we be- 
 come, that we know not what we shall be. We cannot 
 know, and ought not to desire to know, physically or 
 psychologically considered, much of the nature and 
 conditions of that life. We have no data for scientific 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 375 
 
 theorizing to work upon, or for the imagination to 
 inflate into brilliant phantasms. But Ave know that 
 we shall be like Him whom we love and live for, for we 
 shall see him as he is. It is but sober truth to believe 
 that the man who has trusted his Master in loving alle- 
 giance under all the disabilities of humanity, shall re- 
 spond with fervent and completed consecration to the 
 distinct manifestation of Christ to his astonished vision. 
 It is equally rational to believe that to those who have 
 anticipated the atmosphere of that life by large inspira- 
 tions, it shall be home-like from the first ; that its wel- 
 coming gates shall open wide for such with generous 
 hospitality. It is rational to believe that this is possible. 
 Nay, more, it is rational to believe that it will be a fact. 
 To be assured of this hope has been the triumph of 
 Christian philosophy. To anticipate such a life in 
 heaven, so as to be transfigured by it into a new life on 
 earth, has been the triumph of Christian feeling and 
 action. The more vividly men have made real to their 
 faith the pitying and guiding love of Christ, and made 
 joyous to their experience the power of his resurrection, 
 the more confident have they been of the reality of this 
 future blessedness. What a wonderful story might be 
 told of the progressive strength with which this faith 
 has taken hold of the creeds and philosophy of Christen- 
 dom ! How has it wrought itself into its literature ! 
 How has it enriched our poetry and our fiction I How 
 tender and spiritual has it made the heart of childhood ! 
 How pathetic has it made the experience of parents, at 
 the thought of the infant that was early lost, and the 
 son or daughter who had been cut down in the flush 
 and promise of youth ! How serene and self-possessed 
 has it made old age, as it turns its last look of blessing 
 on the earth, and its first look forward into the opening 
 heavens ! How slowly has a rational theory of the cer- 
 
376 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tainty and the nature of the future life gained upon the 
 Christian Church ! and yet how strong has it become ! 
 How strongly and compactly knit is the logic which 
 commends it to the honest heart ! What a contrast in 
 every particular between heathendom and Christendom 
 in their conceptions of the future life and the motives 
 which each derives from its theory ! 
 
 But the strangest of all the facts of our modern life 
 is, that men of science and culture are so ready to fling 
 away their immortality at the first challenge of its 
 proof, and to dispense with its inspiration and its com- 
 fort at the mere suggestions of a materialism which is 
 far enough from being demonstrated, and an agnosticism 
 whose dogmatism has any air rather than that of modest 
 doubt. In other words, how strange that so many 
 should deliberately sacrifice the hopes and impulses of 
 a Christian immortality, and trample into scorn both 
 the doctrines and the proof and, most of all, the living 
 power and well-supported story of Him who abolished 
 death, and brought immortality to light. No phe- 
 nomenon is more strange than the easy acceptance of 
 negative suggestions concerning a matter in regard to 
 which certainty is most called for. The old Stoics could 
 hardly think it comported with the dignity of their 
 pantheistic divinity to save from extinction any others 
 than the aristocracy of the universe. But they had never 
 heard the gospel story of the pitying and redeeming 
 God, nor imagined its divine pathos, nor witnessed its 
 uplifting power. It is not strange that they should not 
 have conceived such a theory as the Christian immortal- 
 ity brought to light b}^ the condescending love of God, 
 nor, perhaps, that, when it was first proclaimed as a veri- 
 fied fact, they should have hesitated to receive it, or 
 even have smiled at its splendid promises. But that 
 our new Stoics should so readily part with its inspiration, 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 377 
 
 at tlie suggestions of unpledged and unproved hypoth- 
 eses, betokens greater lieartlessness of feeling than it 
 does profoundness of insight. It savors more of quick- 
 ness of wit than it does of sobriety of judgment. It 
 would seem as though it were the name rather than the 
 reality of science that had bewildered or bewitched, 
 them to throw overboard the only compass by which 
 man could steer, because of sundry difficulties in the 
 theory of its magnetism, rather than thankfully accept 
 its guidance. What is more wondrous still, the Christian 
 hopes and impulses which they reject are no longer ridi- 
 culed and scorned as they were by the ancient Stoics. 
 They are honored and blessed as an inspiration by the 
 new prophets of unbelief, even when they are belied, and. 
 rejected as truths. The sad lady who, rfter giving to 
 the English-speaking world a series of wondrous tales 
 drawn from the Christian aspirations of her earlier 
 years, has left behind her the more pathetic story of her 
 own later life when bereft of this faith and hope, is her- 
 self a striking example of what the Christian faith in 
 immortality is worth while it is retained, and of how 
 much is forfeited when it is weakened or lost. 
 
 The rash and deliberate suicides that multiply around 
 us are at once a proof of how unchristian is this life 
 which so many cultivated people propose to themselves 
 in a Christian land, and how antichristian their esti- 
 mates of the future, and how debasing is the most cul- 
 tured life in which there is no God, no worship, no 
 prayer, and no hope. 
 
 These indications and tendencies enjoin on every one 
 the duty, as well as commend the privilege, of anticii)at- 
 ing the activities of the eternal life, and even now and 
 then of breaking forth into the raptures of its eternal 
 songs. It invests the hope of a holy immortality wdth 
 an energy for good, with which nothing else can be 
 
378 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 compared. It elevates the imagination to the higher 
 conceptions of the Christian life when enlightened by 
 reflection, and stimulated by feeling, and confirmed 
 by action. It stands in the way of every sinful indul- 
 gence, every hurtful desire, every maddening passion, 
 every act of deceit ; in short, it withstands every thing 
 that is mean or low or revengeful or selfish, like an 
 angel with a drawn sword protesting in the name of 
 the Eternal Judge, "Will ye judge yourselves unworthy 
 of the eternal life ? " 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — If it is 
 ever natural and reasonable to frame an ideal of the 
 future, and to exalt such an ideal to a hope and a prom- 
 ise, it is natural and reasonable for you. These event- 
 ful days draw very definite lines in your life. They 
 sharply and distinctly terminate the past, and as posi- 
 tively hide the future. As you look over the boundary 
 that divides the two, looking backward, you see a dis- 
 tinct picture crowded with well-remembered events, gay 
 and bright on the one hand, dark and sombre on the 
 other, — bright with liilarity and hope, or gloomy with 
 sorrow and disappointment ; but in all its changes glow- 
 ing with an intense and energetic social and individual 
 activity. As you look forward to the future, it is hidden 
 from your view by a curtain, beneath which and through 
 which you cannot look. In vain do you attempt even 
 to draw in outline the scenes that await you, to fore- 
 cast the employments, the friends, the loves, the joys, 
 the sorrows, the successes, and the disappointments that 
 are to make up your future. You can discern nothing: 
 you can foretell nothing. 
 
 But you can control the purpose that shall character- 
 ize that life ; and in so far can determine the life itself 
 in its essential features and its final destiny. Shall it be 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 379 
 
 a life of strong, distinct, and fervent faith in the Christ, 
 who is accepted by all noble souls as the ideal of human 
 excellence, and by faith in whom, as a living and reign- 
 ing King, all Christendom is now moving forward to 
 higher achievements and nobler aims and enterprises ? 
 Shall your faith be so applied to your own life, that you 
 shall be transformed into his likeness, more and more 
 consciously to yourselves, and become more and more dis- 
 tinctly a power among your fellow-men in every form of 
 Christian activity and usefulness ? 
 
 You have been taught that such is eminently a rea- 
 sonable service ; that in what you are summoned to 
 believe you are not only justified by reason, but com- 
 manded by reason to rise to faith. You have also been 
 taught that faith is no mechanical and isolated activity 
 of the spirit, but that it is the spring and root of the 
 spiritual life, comprehending all the virtues and graces 
 which elevate man and adorn human life. You have 
 also learned that as the Christian life is better under- 
 stood and more perfectly exemplified, the wider and 
 more varied will be its illumination, and the higher 
 and more blessed will be its earthly joys. You have also 
 learned to look forward into the life which is immortal ; 
 which seems so far, and yet is, in fact, so near; which 
 seems unlike, and yet is so similar to the eartlily life in 
 its springs of good. You have been trained to think 
 of the present as an anticipation and discipline for the 
 joys and activities of a perfected future ; that a life of 
 active and trusting service on earth is a discipline for 
 the joys that are none the less human because they are 
 satisfj^ing and immortal. 
 
 Be not weakened in your faith or courage because of 
 the credulity or flippancy of rampant unbelief, or the 
 slowness and uncertaint}^ of honest doubt. Hold fast 
 to whatever faith you have, and give it all the nourish- 
 
380 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 ment which you can, not for your own strength, but for 
 the well-being of others. Remember that the solemn 
 responsibilities of duty extend to what a man believes 
 as truly as to what he is or does ; that in proportion to 
 the readiness with which sceptical suggestions are enter- 
 tained and yielded to, in the same measure is the believer 
 bound to be so assured of his faith as to assert and 
 defend it. Keep in mind the fact that, however hard it 
 is to believe the spiritual verities in which Christianity 
 stands, it is more difficult to reject and deny them ; that 
 if the advances of science and the discoveries of criti- 
 cism require new theories and interpretations, it is also 
 true that the convictions of honest men rest more solidly 
 than ever in the verities which concern God and duty 
 and the immortal life, and Christ and love and self- 
 -denial and prayer, and that increase of faith is to come 
 with greater energy of the believing life, and that, conse- 
 quently, the scepticism which alarms and dispirits ought, 
 rather, to arouse to greater faith and consistency in 
 Christian living. Let your faith and conduct be thor- 
 oughly manly and intelligent. In your faith supply 
 virtue ; and in virtue knowledge. In understanding be 
 ye men. Dismiss at once, and forever, the impression 
 that the meekness or simplicity of the Christian spirit has 
 any affinity with either ignorance or weakness, or that 
 the humility of the gospel involves any savor or loss of 
 self-respect. Let no man persuade you that you ought 
 not to think in respect to the grounds of your faith or 
 the reasons for duty. The service of Christ is a reason- 
 able service ; and our first and constant duty is to make 
 it appear reasonable to ourselves and to our fellow-men. 
 Unless our faith has this strong root b}^ which to hold, 
 it can neither be fruitful in its growth nor in its prod- 
 ucts. In these days, for a thinking man not to think 
 about his religious duties, is to commit a mortal sin 
 against his Christian life. 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 381 
 
 Remember that fruitfulness of life, in any form, 
 depends on the energy of individual faith ; and that faith 
 depends upon the fidelity with which the convictions 
 are obeyed. Remember, above all, that the present life 
 in its main features is prolonged and perpetuated in the 
 future ; that an intelligent and courageous and useful 
 and prayerful and unselfish and patient and forgiving 
 life on earth, which is fed from a living spring by a 
 living faith, opens wide the gates of entrance into the 
 kingdom which cannot be moved. 
 
 That each of you may, from this hour, make sure of 
 such a life for himself, is my sincere wish and prayer as 
 I bid you farewell. 
 
XVIII. 
 TEE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE* 
 
 "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
 
 — Col. ii. 3. 
 
 Yale College was founded avowedly as a Christian 
 college. All its endowments and arrangements have 
 been inspired and controlled by the definite purpose 
 that the education imparted here should be emphati- 
 cally Christian. It is no strange thing in this country 
 that colleges and universities should be founded upon 
 this theory. All the older colleges were originally es- 
 tablished in the interests of Christianity and the Church, 
 
 — the Church being conceived as providing for every 
 interest and relation of human society. Most of our 
 recent higher institutions, with a few notable and well- 
 known exceptions, have been founded in a similar spirit. 
 In the older countries the same, till of late, has been 
 emphatically true. Within a few years, however, both 
 in the old countries and the new, another theory has 
 found many advocates, and been embodied in a few 
 colleges and universities. This theory, which may be 
 called the secular as contrasted with the Christian, is 
 briefly this : — 
 
 Education of every grade — and pre-eminently of the 
 highest — to be consummate, must be free from all alli- 
 ances with religion. It must forswear any allegiance 
 
 * June 27, J8SG; also at Wellesley College, May 30, 1880, 
 382 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 383 
 
 to the Christian creed, and dispense with positive Chris- 
 tian influences. While it may accept the fruits of 
 Christian civilization so far as science and letters, art 
 and culture, law and morality, have taken these into 
 the general life, it will best do its appropriate work, 
 and. even best serve Christianity itself, if it leaves all 
 positive Christian teaching and training to the house- 
 hold and the Church. I propose at this time to explain 
 and defend the old. theory as contrasted with the new, 
 — the theory on which this college stands, and which 
 it proposes to exemplify. I must assume, first of all, 
 that Christianity is true as a history ; that it is super- 
 natural in its import ; that it is of supreme importance 
 to every individual man, and the human race ; and that 
 to both, Christ, in his life, his death, and his advancing 
 kingdom is to become more a manifested necessity and. 
 a conspicuous power, till what seem the brilliant ro- 
 mances of prophecy shall become the sober facts of his- 
 tory. The man who believes all this of Christianity 
 and of Christ would seem to be compelled to believe 
 that in the j^rogress of society towards this comsumma- 
 tion, the appliances of education must inevitably be 
 moulded more completely and confessedly by the power 
 of Him who shall subdue all things to himself. 
 
 On the other hand, the reasoner who holds that 
 Christianity is largely fabulous or exaggerated, and the 
 su})ernatural in it is impossible, must conclude that the 
 morning star which ushered in its dawn, must give way 
 before the rising sun of science and culture. The man 
 who half believes, or who even surmises that positive 
 Christianity cannot stand before modern science and 
 modern criticism, must conclude that Christianity ought 
 to have little prominence in that education which will 
 very soon permit it to have no place in scientific belief. 
 Ail those who hold these views, either as misgivings or 
 
384 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 conclusions, are thoroughly consistent in excluding 
 Christianity from every college and university, or in 
 providing for its gradual and decorous retreat with 
 appropriate honors. 
 
 For these reasons, it is of prime importance that every 
 one who discusses the question before us should, first 
 of all, settle the question whether, and in what sense, he 
 holds to the supremacy and permanence of Christianity. 
 With those who deny or half believe that Christianity 
 is supernatural and permanent we can hold no argu- 
 ment, for they have already decided the question at 
 issue. We can only address ourselves to those who 
 believe in Christianity as permanent and divine, but 
 yet honestly question whether, in the present condition 
 of our higher schools of learning, and of Christianity 
 ^ itself, it is either wise or practicable any longer to make 
 these schools distinctively and earnestly Christian. I 
 have spoken of my topic as a question, and the discus- 
 sion of it as an argument, and it may be a criticism or 
 a refutation of dissentient or opposing views. I do not, 
 hov/ever, propose to make this discussion controversial, 
 or even critical. I would rather seek to portray in pos- 
 itive form the ideal Christian college in its aims, and 
 the conditions of their realization. I shall aim, how- 
 ever, to show, also, that this ideal ought to be made 
 real. It is the glory of Christianity that it presents the 
 noblest of ideals. It is none the less its glory that it 
 inspires men with courage and self-sacrifice to turn 
 these ideals into facts. 
 
 I observe, ^rs^, that the ideal Christian college should 
 continue and supplement the functions of the family 
 and the Church. If the family and the Church should 
 be Christian, the college, for similar reasons, should also 
 be Christian. Christianity presupposes the family and 
 the Church. It finds men with a home and a temple 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 385 
 
 of some sort. It roots itself in the one, and expands 
 itself within tlie other, purifying and elevating both. 
 While it addresses man as an individual, it presup- 
 poses that he draws much of his life from his social 
 relations. Society implies letters and laws and man- 
 ners and morals; religion, that God is manifested 
 through nature and, perhaps, in history. Society and 
 religion presuppose schools — which can do more than 
 home or neighborhood in teaching language and history, 
 science and art. The Church, in its way, is also a school 
 in which religious truth is defended, explained, and ap- 
 plied to the duties of this life and the hopes of the next. 
 Had there been no patriarchs, no lawgivers, no scribes, 
 no schools of the prophets, no synagogues, there had 
 been no Christ, no cross, and no redemption. 
 
 The college, however, trains and teaches the young 
 on a still higher scale than the family or the Church. 
 If the elementary instruction of the lower should be 
 positively Christian, why should not that of the higher? 
 Looking at this question from a Cliristian standpoint, 
 we can give but one answer : the scliool of the liighest 
 grade should be emphatically and positively Christian. 
 That it should be wisely Christian need not be sug- 
 gested ; that it should not undo by overdoing is self- 
 evident ; but that Christian aims should animate and 
 control its life is equally manifest. That the realization 
 of these aims involves peculiar difficulties we do not 
 deny ; that it may call for special sagacity is very likely ; 
 that it may provoke many conflicts about reason and 
 faith, and right and wrong in conduct and character, 
 is not only probable, but certain. Similar difficulties 
 occur in the family, the home, and the Church ; but that 
 Christianity should found colleges seems at first as natu- 
 ral and necessary, as that it should seek to animate the 
 family and the Church with its truth and its life. 
 
886 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL, 
 
 As we have already seen, the influence of the one is 
 but a prolongation of the influence of the others. To 
 the college student and the scholar, the story of the 
 Gosjpels, that has been read in the home or heard in the 
 church, must take its place as true or false in the long 
 roll of general history, which every student must learn 
 to accept or reject with some measure of instructed 
 judgment. The speculative conceptions of God, of duty 
 and immortality, of government, law, and religion, of 
 the origination of the earth and the spirit of man, which 
 the educated man must formally accept or reject, are 
 necessarily theistic or atheistic. They must also be con- 
 sistent or inconsistent with the Christian creed. The 
 practical principles, the theories of manners and of mor- 
 als, which the student more or less intelligently receives 
 or rejects as the living springs of his own moral life, 
 must be sharply Christian or non-Christian ; or as many- 
 shaded and as inconsistent as the hues of the chameleon, 
 which is colored by what it chances to feed on. 
 
 We confess that we cannot understand the logic or 
 the practical wisdom of those who admit the propriety 
 and necessity of positive Christian influences in the 
 home and seminary, but would omit or exclude them 
 from the college. The reason which they give is, that 
 the pupil is no longer a child, and, therefore, should be 
 treated as a man. It is true that he is no longer a 
 child, and, perhaps, not a youth ; but neither in charac- 
 ter nor in convictions has he become a man. Moreover, 
 just at this period of life he is doomed to pass through 
 the fermenting and transition processes, by which he 
 must form for himself his practical convictions, and his 
 theoretical judgments, in the light of independent 
 thought. It may be that less can be done in a formal 
 way for either at this time than at any other. It may 
 be, and doubtless is, true, that officious and ill-timed 
 
THE CnmSTIAN COLLEGE. 387 
 
 intermeddling will do more harm than good ; and yet, 
 for all that, there is no time or condition of life in which 
 wise Christian influences are more needed or are more 
 effective than when the spontaneous impulses of child- 
 hood and youth are confirmed or rejected by distinct 
 acts of intelligent volition — the judgments of the grow- 
 ing man. The moment a youth enters a college, he 
 finds himself in a new country. Even if the pupil 
 lodges and eats at his own home, the public opinion of 
 the college will yet penetrate into his chamber with its 
 pervasive and stimulating atmosphere. This is trebly 
 true if his own home is exchanged for a home within 
 the college, charged, as this always is, with the electric 
 force of young and buoyant life. It may be that often 
 the teacher is impotent to use any direct moral or reli- 
 gious influence. We know very well that he may often 
 overdo by ill-timed zeal and injudicious obtrusiveness ; 
 and that, in contrast with misdirected speech, silence 
 is indeed golden. We know, as well, that if the teach- 
 er's own character is elevated and refined by Christian 
 earnestness, a single word or sentiment that breaks this 
 golden silence will go further to confirm the halting 
 faith or to rekindle the smouldering fervor than a ser- 
 mon from any preacher or a homily from any exhorter ; 
 or, unhappily, a contemptuous word or sarcastic utter- 
 ance may rend the feeble fabric of a failing faith, and 
 poison the heart with distrust or scorn of what is noble 
 and good. The teacher who is worthy of the name can 
 reach the inner life of his pupil b}^ what he s^js and 
 does, as no other person can. He can strengthen 
 and renew the springs of that life, sometimes, by a look 
 or a word, just as it takes the second adjustment which 
 shall be final. 
 
 This is not all. During his college and university life, 
 the pupil must at least begin the critical revisal of his 
 
888 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 religious and philosophical creed in the light of all that 
 science and history and philosophy and criticism can 
 say in their latest discoveries and reports. To the 
 searching brightness of these blazing lights, the pupil 
 must bring all that he had hitherto received without 
 question. Into this fusing crucible he must cast all his 
 traditionary faiths, to receive them back as they shall 
 leap forth in purer metal and brighter lustre, or to re- 
 ject them as worthless dross or base alloy. He cannot 
 save these faiths from this fiery trial, though rooted in 
 the convictions of his father, and hallowed by the love 
 and prayers of his mother, and made sacred by the as- 
 pirations and vows of his youth. He ought not to 
 desire to do so. It is better that they should be re- 
 viewed and revised by the light of his maturing judg- 
 ment. 
 
 To withdraw them from this light would dwarf his 
 intellect and enfeeble his convictions. It would open a 
 widening and deepening chasm between his practical and 
 intellectual life. It would dishonor the truth, which will 
 not submit to be divided. This process of adjustment 
 must and ought to go on. While it is proceeding, the 
 college or university becomes, of necessity, the church ; 
 and the teachers and associates are, for the time being, 
 priests and oracles ; for it is in the light of what these 
 attest and prove that the old creed is re-affirmed or ques- 
 tioned or renounced. And what if this church has no 
 religion, and the priests have no consecration? What, 
 again, if they are thoroughly and unaffectedly Chris- 
 tian ? In these times of crisis — and they are always 
 present — a word or look from the living teacher, a 
 chance remark in the one direction on the other, an 
 earnest and candid spirit, or a scoffing and dogmatic 
 doubt, or the combined impression of his intellectual 
 temper and personal spirit, have, in thousands of in- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 389 
 
 stances, been fraught with bane or blessing to his con- 
 fiding pui)il. Of many, in tliis crisis of their spiritual 
 history, it might be said, that so far as human counsel 
 and help can come at all in this critical and transition 
 period, they must come through those intellectual activi- 
 ties which are the absorbing and controlling element of 
 the student's life. 
 
 Second, Christianity needs the college to improve its 
 own spiritual quality, and enlarge its attractiveness and 
 power. For this reason the Christian college is an 
 essential appendage to the Church, and, therefore, ought 
 to be emphatically Christian. It is now more generally 
 conceded than formerly that education and culture are 
 essential to furnish armor for the defence of the Church, 
 and weapons for its advancement. It is not so clearly 
 recognized as it ought to be, that both are required for 
 the development of its own varied and highest perfec- 
 tions. While it is granted by all that a certain meas- 
 ure of each is required for the existence and growth of 
 the kingdom of God, it is, at the same time, feared by 
 many that too much of either will bring hindrance 
 rather than hel^) to the strength and beauty of the 
 Christian character. We hold the contrary. Knowl- 
 edge does, indeed, bring its temptations as truly as 
 ignorance. Culture may hinder Christ-likeness as cer- 
 tainly as squalor; but knowledge and culture, in their 
 highest perfection, are needed for the complete manifes- 
 tation of what Christianity can do for man. We say 
 nothing here for the moral and spiritual conditions of 
 the Christian life. We concede and contend that these 
 are indispensable ; that it is only the docile child, whether 
 he be a peasant or a philosopher, who can enter — much 
 more who is the greatest in — the kingdom of heaven. 
 But we also know that the import of the kingdom of 
 heaven, in its inner spirit and its external manifesta- 
 
390 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 tions, can only be comprehended in its full significance 
 b}^ the most enlarged and best instructed mind, or 
 appreciated by the most refined and cultured soul. 
 This ideal will never be perfectly understood and ex- 
 emplified until the results of science and culture shall 
 have been applied to all the forms of individual morals 
 and manners, and in all those agencies which Christian 
 ethics and social science shall mature and put in force. 
 To such a consummation the Christian college is as 
 necessary as Christian preaching ; the University, as the 
 Sunday School; the conscientious culture of science, 
 literature, and art, as the prayer-meeting and the Bible- 
 reader. It will not be till every thought is subjected 
 to the obedience of Christ, that the tabernacle of God 
 shall, indeed, be with men. The author of the work 
 entitled " Modern Christianity a Civilized Heathenism," 
 betrays by its title his own narrow and squalid con- 
 ceptions of the kingdom of God. The book is as vulgar 
 and narrow as its title is uncliristian, and never could 
 have been conceived or respected except in a low con- 
 dition of Christian enlightenment. 
 
 How sorely our practical Christianity needs to be 
 elevated above such narrow and vulgar conceptions of 
 many of its advocates and representatives, one hardly 
 need suggest. We are forced to confess that, with all 
 that is noble and Christian-like in its spirit, much re- 
 mains that is hateful in its manners and its morals. 
 See the Church forgetting that it should be militant 
 only against its foes, and behaving itself so often like a 
 termagant in the houses of its friends ! Think of the 
 sectarianism which is its scandal and shame, of which 
 every village, from the oldest to the newest, gives visible 
 tokens in its rival houses of worship, that also betoken 
 the hateful jealousies of their adherents ! Think, also, 
 of its hard and scholastic statements of doctrine ; of its 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 391 
 
 narrow judgments of character ; of its scrimping parsi- 
 mony in some directions, and criminal luxury in others ; 
 of the tenacity with which it adheres to old errors, and 
 the credulity witli whi(ih it runs after the last sensation- 
 alism ! And all this while how heedless is it of the 
 pure and spiritual example of the patient Christ, who 
 can only say, " Ye know not of what spirit ye are." 
 Meanwhile the plaintive cry of distress now and then 
 rises into the shriek of alarm, " When tlie Son of man 
 cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" And, worst 
 of all, in high places and low, in the lanes and avenues 
 of the cities, in the streets and lurking-places of the 
 villages, glaring frauds and brutal crime suggest the 
 question, " Has conscience, too, with faith in God, left 
 the soul of man ? " 
 
 Do you ask, What might Christian culture do for our 
 individual and public morals and economics were it 
 rightly enforced in our colleges, and spread from them 
 through our social life? We reply, it should give us 
 correct and worthy conceptions of Christianity as an 
 historic phenomenon. It should so effectually arouse 
 the historic sense, and quicken the historic imagination, 
 that, among all the heroes of the earth, Christ should be 
 visibly transfigured, high and lifted up ; and not only 
 Moses and Elias should be there with Peter, James, and 
 John, but Gautama and Plato and Marcus Aurelius 
 should also bow with wonder and worship, and say, " It 
 is good for us to be here." This historic Christ, being 
 seen in his true place and correct proportions, would be 
 worshipped as the supernatural Christ, for the reason 
 that the philosophy to which Christian culture and 
 science would attain, would recognize a personal and 
 living God as a speculative necessity ; and such a theism 
 would find no contradiction between his immanent di- 
 rection of those laws of nature which he conserves, and. 
 
392 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 those manifestations of his presence which flash forth 
 when he breaks the circuit and makes himself felt in 
 creation or miracle, or in the gentler methods of that 
 providence which answers trust and prayer. Such a 
 theory of history and of God would find it easy to 
 accept the historic Christ, when seen, in the light of 
 his finished work, to be none other than God manifest 
 in the flesh. Such a manifestation would necessarily 
 suppose some need which it was designed to meet, and 
 some import which fully meets it. Such a statement 
 of need and import involves a creed which will be more 
 or less sharp according to the capacity of men to distin- 
 guish and define, and more or less varied and flexible 
 according to tlie changes of philosophy and language. 
 In this way an enlightened Christianity would be a doc- 
 trinal, because it is a rational, Christianity, and must 
 connect its Christian trutjis with those underlying prin- 
 ciples with which humane speculation has always con- 
 cerned itself. But it would not be rationalistic in the 
 offensive sense of the term, because it is too enlightened 
 not to recognize the limits of human logic, and the 
 authority of testimony and faith, especially when per- 
 sonality and the supernatural are concerned. It would 
 not and could not be dogmatic, however, in the scholas- 
 tic sense, for it could not fail to remember that the chief 
 value of doctrine is to reveal and emphasize the personal 
 Christ, and that abstract formulse take feeble hold of 
 the feelings and the life. 
 
 But all the studies of the enlightened scholar would 
 enforce the one truth, that Christianity is a great, prac- 
 tical power, and that in this lies its chief interest in the 
 past and for the future. In the light of this absorbing 
 and overwhelming relation, he finds little interest in it 
 as a subject of curious and critical detail, or of meta- 
 physical, hair-splitting, and fiery controversy. He cares 
 
TUB CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 393 
 
 for it most of all because it is destined for use ; and 
 inquires how its energies may be largely increased, and 
 its capacities may be most successfully applied. Hence, 
 an intelligent and instructed Christianity must be evan- 
 gelistic and missionary in its spirit. It cannot but go 
 out into the highways and hedges : it must devise mis- 
 sions of all sorts to the poor and neglected at home — 
 to the idolatrous and superstitious across the seas. 
 There prevails, at present, a strong tendency to believe 
 that success in evangelistic work is reserved for men of 
 limited reading and narrow associations, because their 
 hearts and minds are supposed to be nearest to those of 
 the people. Facts by no means justify this conclusion. 
 Christian history testifies most abundantly that evan- 
 gelistic and missionary zeal have been kindled and re- 
 newed nowhere so constantly as in Christian colleges ; 
 and that men trained in the universities have found a 
 most efficient preparation in classical and scientific 
 study for using plain speech and popular illustrations 
 with the greatest effect among both pagan and Christian 
 heathens. The annals of English and American col- 
 leges abound with the names of men — some of the 
 brightest — who have been thus distinguished. Many 
 a thoughtful scholar, while studying the liistory of the 
 Church and meditating on the needs of men, has heard 
 the question addressed to himself, " Whom shall I send, 
 and who will go for us?" and has responded, with 
 trembling yet confident voice, " Here am I : send me." 
 An instructed Christianity cannot but be practical ; and 
 a practical Christianity must be evangelistic and mis- 
 sionary in its spirit. 
 
 An instructed Christianity must also be catholic and 
 unsectarian. The Christian college, almost of necessity, 
 trains its pupils to enlarged and liberal views of things 
 non-essential, and to a catholic appreciation of things 
 
394 FIFTEEN TEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 that are common. Narrowness of views tends to the 
 exaggeration of things that are less important, and 
 the overvaluation of limited interests. As the student 
 follows the great movements of the hosts of God's chosen 
 in the past, their minor subdivisions are lost sight of in 
 the movements of the mass ; their variously colored 
 banners seem to blend into one cloud of prismatic light ; 
 while the separate watchword of each division swells 
 into one harmonious war-cry of courage and victory. 
 Under the enlightened judgment which a liberal train- 
 ing fosters, an uncatholic spirit is impossible. It does 
 not suffice to assert that some colleges which have 
 called themselves Christian have been the last hiding- 
 places of bigotry, and the inveterate nurseries of secta- 
 rianism. Such institutions are not usually eminently 
 Christian, or eminent for liberal science or culture. 
 
 For the future application of Christianity to public 
 and private economics, — that department which must 
 soon be occupied, and ouglit to be directed, by the Chris- 
 tian Church, — we must look to the highest schools of 
 learning for the improvement of the aims and quality 
 of our Christian activity. These schools should be the 
 first to call the attention of the community to its duties 
 and opportunities in every sphere of political and social 
 life. An atheistic sociology may go before us with its 
 narrower vision and its emphatic affirmations of those 
 conclusions which experience has established, but as it 
 will do scant justice to the higher elements in human 
 nature, and can recognize no beneficent Providence, 
 its theories must of necessity be untrustworthy if not 
 erroneous. In motives to action and hope, it cannot 
 compare with the system which believes in a future 
 kingdom of God that shall be built up under the guid- 
 ance of an Almighty power, and shall be neither more 
 nor less than a human society transformed by means 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 395 
 
 of social agencies into a tabernacle, in wliich God shall 
 indeed dwell with men, and wipe away all tears from 
 all eyes. 
 
 But again, Thirdly^ the college sliould be Christian, in 
 order to elevate and improve the quality of our science 
 and culture. We have seen that Christianity owes 
 much to both. We proceed to show that both owe 
 much to Christianity. Christianity — i. e. Christian 
 education — enlarges and elevates science, while it in- 
 spires and refines culture. We are so accustomed to 
 talk of science and culture as separate agencies, that 
 we forget that they only represent the theories and 
 convictions, the aspirations and imaginative power, of 
 living men. We insensibly conceive of them as natural 
 agents or cosmic forces acting under impersonal laws. 
 The very current use of such phrases as the time-spirit, 
 the laws of progress, evolution and development, tends 
 to deepen this impression. The necessary narrowness of 
 all scientific thinking, which is occasioned by the limita- 
 tions of the activity of a single individual and a single 
 age, together with tlie unchanging nature of the lav/s 
 under which men classify and reason, confirm these 
 habits of thought. The new theories of materialistic and 
 metaphysical development, which sink the individual 
 soul into a metaphysical formula, carry with them the 
 conclusion that science and culture have a self-moving 
 force which is independent of personal activity or 
 emotion, and, consequently, incompatible with religious 
 belief or inspiration. The actual history of science and 
 culture is a refutation of these conceptions. Both are 
 the workmanship of living men, the joint products of 
 their individual freedom, and of the education and 
 opportunities of the men who went before and who 
 lived with them. The result is, truth and beauty as 
 reflected in individual minds, and accepted by the con- 
 
396 FIFTEEN YEAES IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 senting and approving generations of individual souls. 
 But what each individual soul shall be is determined, 
 very largely, by his religious creed and aspirations. A 
 few examples may suffice to show what we mean, and 
 to confirm its truth. The speculative thinking of mod- 
 ern times is represented by such names as Descartes, 
 Spinoza, Locke, Leibnitz, Hume, Rousseau, Reid, Adam 
 Smith, Kant, Schelling, Hamilton, Hegel, Comte, Mill, 
 and Spencer. Modern physics is represented by Newton, 
 Brewster, Young, Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, Helmholtz, 
 Herschell, Kirchhoff, and a multitude more. Modern 
 culture, by a still greater host ; such as Cowper, Byron, 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, Goethe, Schiller, Tennyson, 
 Macaulay, Carlyle, Emerson, and Matthew Arnold. In 
 speculative philosophy — which would seem to be most 
 withdrawn from personal influences — nothing is more 
 obvious than that the personal faith of each leader of 
 thought has been a potent factor in determining the 
 range of the philosophical relations which he recognized, 
 and the relative place which he assigned them in his 
 system. The mystical scepticism of Kant, the semi- 
 Christian pantheism of Schleiermacher, the decorous 
 conformity of Locke, the keen pyrrhonism of Hume, 
 and the confident and miposing agnosticism of Spencer, 
 reveal quite as much of the individual personality of 
 each of these men as of any plastic energy in their 
 environment. Of the phj^sics of modern times we may 
 say, truly, that they have been formed very largely 
 by the pervading influence of that monotheism — that 
 Christian doctrine of a living and personal God — which 
 Christianity has made the faith of Europe. We might 
 show, also, that aside from logic and mathematics, — 
 which were the gifts of ancient thought, — our modern 
 metaphysics and physics, our physiology and psychology, 
 our ethics and politics, our jurisprudence and our social 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 397 
 
 science, are the products of Christian faith and of 
 Christian ideas. When we turn to literature, we need 
 only ask tlie question. Where were our Dante and Mil- 
 ton, our Spenser and Sliakspeare, our Scott and Cole- 
 ridge, our Goethe and Schiller, our Tennyson and George 
 Eliot, had there been no personal faith in the story of 
 the supernatural Christ, and no kindling and inexhausted 
 pathos in his life and death? More than this is true: 
 we fearlessly assert that in every Christian nation, in 
 connection with every great advance in science and 
 letters in modern life, and generally preceding it, there 
 has been an awakening of religious faith, and a revival 
 of spiritual fervor ; and that every such excitement has 
 given the nation and generation a new and more ardent 
 intellectual life. We know from our own observation 
 and in our own time, that the moment when Christian 
 truth takes a strong hold of any gifted soul, it invari- 
 ably gives to what men call genius unwonted energy 
 of imagination and emotional power. Not unfrequently 
 it works like inspiration in a soul reputed narrow and 
 dull, it so increases the range and strength of its think- 
 ing, and kindles such new aspirations ! Let but the 
 breath of God at any time move a college of gifted 
 youth to the beginnings or renewal of the Christian 
 life, — especially if the community had been abandoned 
 to atheistic dearth, or epicurean frivolity, or selfish cul- 
 ture, — and it will reveal an intellectual energy that 
 was before unthought of. We do not say that Chris- 
 tianity can of itself create or inspire genius, — though, 
 in some cases, it has almost seemed to do this, — but we 
 do say that, other things being equal, it has enormous 
 resources of creative energy, and that for quickening 
 power nothing can take its place. We assert, also, that 
 the atheistic tendencies of modern science, and the 
 frivolous but decorous temper of our modern culture, 
 
398 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 would effectually dry into barrenness and comparative 
 impotence the youth of any college in which they should 
 rule, were it not for the counteracting influence of the 
 healthier faith of the community without. 
 
 This leads us to observe, Fourth., that a vigorous Chris- 
 tianity is required in our colleges and universities to 
 counteract and overcome evil tendencies which are active 
 in the science and culture of our time. These tenden- 
 cies are the natural outgrowth of science and culture, 
 when pursued for selfish ends, and uncontrolled by the 
 higher aims of a religious love to man. Science stimu- 
 lates and rewards the love of power. It tasks individ- 
 ual effort, and rewards it with the joy of interpreting 
 Nature's secrets, of understanding her laws and imi- 
 tating her skill. So long as Science recognizes these 
 powers and laws as the thoughts and actings of God, 
 so long does she open the gateway to worship and faith. 
 So long as her devotee is trained to the docility of a 
 little child, it is almost the same whether he knocks at 
 the door of the hall of science, or at the door of the king- 
 dom of heaven. But so soon as the investigator begins 
 to imagine himself to be the creator, the interpretations 
 of the scientist are mistaken for the plan which was 
 devised and the agent which executes. So soon as the 
 development of the plan sets aside both thinker and 
 actor, then emerges the scientific Titanism of our day, 
 which dethrones the living God in the name of that 
 philosophy or that faith in which all science stands. 
 
 Modern culture exalts to the highest place that which 
 was designed to be the attractive servitor of duty and 
 self-sacrifice. Culture in art, in manners, and letters 
 has, in the progress of comfort, wealth, and ease, become 
 to many the chief aim of existence and the final standard 
 of worth. So soon as it usurps this highest place with 
 an individual, a clique, or community, it becomes a reli- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, 399 
 
 gion, — a religion that is false and idolatrous while it 
 excludes the living God, and disdains the self-sacrificing 
 and man-loving Christ; a religion which tests and meas- 
 ures the aims of life, the movements of society, and all 
 individual and social achievements by such fastidious 
 and limited standards as satisfy neither the nobler capa- 
 cities of man nor the severer judgment of God. 
 
 It can be no secret to the observer of our times, that 
 these antichristian tendencies are no idle fancies, but 
 potent and formidable facts. It is equally clear that 
 the arena which is most favorable for their successful 
 manifestation would be a college or university which 
 should be cleared of all religious and ethical restraints. 
 On such a field would present themselves, in the fairest 
 forms, the most insidious temptations that can assail the 
 noblest minds — the love of knowledge combined with, 
 and disguised as, the love of power — ennobled by the 
 aspirations of duty, and dignified by the associations of 
 competition with splendid and able rivals. Here, too, 
 culture would display her fascinations, — confessed to 
 be divine, if any thing human can be, — lifting man 
 above sensual and sordid gratifications, and needing 
 neither justification nor palliation with the heart which 
 can be touched by beauty or grace. Culture in letters 
 and speech and art also allies itself to science ; and both 
 exact leisure and freedom from sordid cares, while they 
 promise to engross and satisfy the heart and life. Where 
 else can there be so much needed a diviner power than 
 either, as in this very home of science and culture? 
 Who can exert that power if it be not the Christ who 
 has been honored by so many generations of Christian 
 scholars, as they not only stand full high advanced, as 
 inferior to none in science and letters, but are lustrous 
 with that peculiar grace which is known as Christian, — 
 an epithet which suggests more than it defines ? 
 
400 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 Fifths Truth compels us to add, in conclusion, that 
 Christianity must control the college in order to exclude 
 its antagonist, or rival, in the form of some false reli- 
 gion. In the present state of speculation, a university, 
 so far as it is not positively Christian, tends towards 
 atheism or agnosticism. One or two generations ago a 
 college, might more consistently and safely than now 
 dispense with religious truth and influence by simply 
 leaving alone all questions of faith. If this were pos- 
 sible in other days, it is impossible now. The sciences of 
 nature — from the molecular physics which discusses 
 the mysterious semina rerurn^ up to those fascinating 
 departments of natural history which seem at first to 
 appeal only to wonder and delight — are no longer con- 
 tent to leave theology alone. They must now discuss 
 questions and proffer theories which force their disci- 
 ples to propose the great questions of theism, and to 
 answer them by Yes or No, History and criticism chal- 
 lenge the student, at every turn, to think and say whether 
 historical and supernatural Christianity can any longer 
 be accepted by the reader who is abreast with the time- 
 spirit. Ethics, politics, and social science suppose a 
 decisive position to be taken one side or the other in 
 respect to both theism and Christianity ; even elemen- 
 tary treatises on these subjects teach a positive faith or 
 as positive a denial. Each of these faiths has its cultus, 
 — the cultus of humane and reverent sympathy with 
 the great mass of men in Christendom who, after some 
 sort, have trusted and hoped in the living God ; or the 
 cultus of the polished Pharisee, who plants himself at 
 the corners of the streets, and gazes at the church-going 
 crowd, as he looks, if he does not speak, the prayer, 
 " O Lord ! I thank thee that I am not as other men 
 
 are." 
 
 We repeat that atheism and agnosticism are religious 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 401 
 
 creeds as truly as are theism and dogmatic Christianity. 
 Either can be taught directly or indirectly ; directly, 
 by formal and open inculcation, which, in either case, 
 may defeat itself; or indirectly, by gentle or sarcastic 
 insinuation. The one or the other can be imparted in 
 subtle ways of impression, even by an instructor who 
 may honestly strive to withhold the slightest suggestion 
 of his faith or his feelings. Each of these faiths, in the 
 germ or ripened fruit, has a larger or smaller representa- 
 tion among pupils and teachers in every considerable 
 college in this land. Holding, as we do, that positive 
 Christianity is intellectually more philosophical, and 
 morally more attractive, than either atheism or agnosti- 
 cism, we willingly accept the obligation to teach the 
 better of these religions as earnestly and as legitimately 
 as we may. 
 
 As we have thus far conceived of the Christian col- 
 lege in the ideal, let us, for a moment, imagine one that 
 had become thoroughly unchristian or antichristian, 
 and follow out the inner and outer life of such an iso- 
 lated and self-contained community of pupils, especially 
 when separated from their homes. Such a college would 
 have no place of common worship. The place where a 
 chapel once stood has become vacant; or, if the edifice 
 remains, over its portal is written, '' To us there is no 
 God, the Father of spirits, and no Clirist by whom we 
 know him ; " or, perhaps, there is emblazoned the inscrip- 
 tion that describes the object to which the so-called 
 piety of science offers its dazed and complacent worship, 
 "To the unknown and the unknowable." Nor prayer 
 nor anthem is ever heard within these enclosures that 
 are consecrated, with an anchorite's rigor, to the severe 
 austerities of a narrow intellectual insight, and of a cul- 
 ture to which no sin is mortal, except it offends against 
 decorum. In the studies of such an institution, the 
 
402 FIFTEEN YEARS IN TALE CHAPEL. 
 
 fundamental unities which science presupposes must all 
 be passed over, lest, forsooth, they should raise ques- 
 tions concerning God, and require answers that savor of 
 positive religion. The philosophic range of such an 
 institution must be narrow, whether it forbids us to 
 speculate about God, or whether it dogmatizes that only 
 women and priests accept a God who thinks and cares 
 for men. Whether theism or agnosticism is the prev- 
 alent creed that is secretly cherished, each is held on 
 narrow grounds ; for theological declarations are not 
 tolerated, except in the form of imaginative flights that 
 are admired for their suggestive imagery, or of orphic 
 utterances that fit well to music. Psychology would 
 naturally sink into physiology, because spirit, as usually 
 conceived, would make God rational and even necessary, 
 and would also provide for responsibility and immortal- 
 ity. Moreover, spirit has of late been pronounced by 
 all scientific men whose opinions are worth considering, 
 to be but a function of matter ; and ethics, politics, and 
 social science are now best explained as the successive 
 growths of that omnipresent and all-producing mechan- 
 ism which, under the name of development, has not yet 
 been branded with the title of a theological theory. 
 
 To appeal in defence or enforcement of any truth 
 concerning God or immortality to the hopes and desires, 
 to the aspirations and longings of the heart, or to the 
 guilt and fears of the conscience, is to commit the sin of 
 sentimentalism, which the intellectual tone of this house 
 of spiritual death will never pardon. 
 
 Thank God, there is no such college in this land, be- 
 cause the people in this land do not desire such a one for 
 their children. Even in those institutions upon which 
 state necessity imposes narrow restrictions, or in which 
 a secular theory strives to be logical, the Christian con- 
 victions of the people require that in some form or other 
 
THE CURISTIAN COLLEGE. 403 
 
 there shall be a more or less positive recognition of God 
 and duty and immortality — both the teaching of these 
 verities as solid and trustworthy on scientific grounds, 
 and the practical response to them in some services of 
 Christian worship. 
 
 We are well aware that all our arguments and repre- 
 sentations will be confronted with this comprehensive 
 reply : " The ideal which you describe and defend can- 
 not be made real. However desirable it may be to com- 
 bine in the same society an ardent zeal for science and 
 culture with fervent religious activities and aspirations, 
 these elements are incompatible, or, at least, they can- 
 not be provided for in the theory and practice of a 
 numerous and richly provided college or university, 
 such as our modern life imperatively demands. Your 
 ideal, and the reasons which impel to its realization, are 
 against the tendencies of modern thought. The drift 
 of modern practice, as founded on modern experience, 
 and determined by the more complicated character of 
 modern life, tends to narrow the sphere of Christian 
 influences in the formal teaching and public arrange- 
 ments of our leading colleges, and to make their internal 
 spirit more positively secular and simply intellectual." 
 That this tendency is inevitable, and that the drift can- 
 not be resisted, is argued from the following reasons : — 
 
 1. The spirit of the age requires that our investi- 
 gations should be unbiased and untrammelled by any 
 traditional creeds. Whenever Christian doctrines or 
 religious interests are prominently considered, investiga- 
 tion cannot be absolutely free. The fancied tendency 
 of a theory or conclusion must always limit the freedom 
 of thought, and disturb the coolness of the judgment. 
 Science can only thrive when one passion is supreme, 
 and that passion is devotion to the truth. Religious 
 traditions and prejudices, whether amiable or virulent, 
 
404 FIFTEEN YEAES IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 are inconsistent with, or hostile to, this devotion. Tt is 
 for this reason that science thrusts them aside, and even 
 drives them out from the arena within which tliought 
 alone achieves its conquests. 
 
 To which we reply. The love of truth is then acknowl- 
 edged to be the supreme duty. Science then appeals 
 to the conscience for help ; and conscience is a religion 
 of itself, or supposes a religion which enforces its be- 
 hests. To the supremacy of duty many interests and 
 desires are opposed. The Christian faith is properly 
 defined as the living belief of Christian truth, because 
 it is true. Moreover, similar passions hinder the accept- 
 ance of scientific and Christian truth, — as the love of 
 tradition, the pride of oj^inion, a received watchword, 
 the name of a party or a school. The great leader of the 
 Christian Church declared, " To this end was I born, and 
 to this end came I forth, that I might bear witness to 
 the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my 
 voice." In theory, then, there is no conflict between 
 the two impulses. Lord Bacon had the insight and 
 magnanimity to declare that a man must become as 
 docile as a child if he would enter either the kingdom 
 of science or the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 We do not affirm that all Christian scientists and 
 Christian universities are wholly faithful to this spirit 
 in their search after either religious or scientific truth. 
 We are quite confident that all scientists are not. But 
 this we do affirm, that a Christian college is neither 
 very enlightened nor very Christian which does not 
 found its teachings on evidence ; which does not give 
 reasons for its opinions ; which does not challenge the 
 opponents of its scientific or religious creed to open 
 combat on the grounds of reason ; and which does not 
 enjoin upon its students the dut}^ fearlessly to search for 
 truth of every sort in the fear and love of God. Those 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 405 
 
 who speak so contemptuously of theologi.ins as the 
 necessary and natural antagonists of free inquiry and 
 scientiiic progress, and argue that Christian earnestness 
 in a college or university must necessarily hinder free- 
 dom of thought, do great dishonor to the multitude of 
 Christian believers, among the dead and the living, 
 whose scientific researches have been of the freest and 
 the ablest, and for the reason that they have been con- 
 ducted in a conscientious spirit under tlie eye of the 
 living God. Prominent among men of this sort was 
 the late Dr. Alexander Duff, who was as distinguished 
 for missionary zeal as he was for the use he made of 
 Christian institutions of learning in the propagation 
 of Christianity in India. The splendid success which 
 attended the Christian seminary which he opened at 
 Calcutta, as contrasted with the secular schools of the 
 government, in respect to both educational and religious 
 results, is an instructive example of the educational 
 power which Christianity possesses, and of which our 
 American pagans might well take heed. I refer to him 
 here as a fearless lover of truth of all sorts, and quote 
 the words of the eminent lawyer and publicist, Sir Henry 
 Maine : " Next I was struck — and here we have the 
 point of contact between Dr. DufTs religious and educa- 
 tional life — by his perfect faith in the harmony of 
 truth. I am not aware that he ever desired the univer- 
 sity to refuse instruction in any subject of knowledge 
 because he considered it dangerous. When men of 
 feeble minds or weaker faith would have shrunk from 
 encouraging the study of this or that classical language 
 because it enshrined the doctrines of some antique 
 superstition, or would have refused to stimulate profi- 
 cienc}' in this or that walk of ph^^sical science because 
 its conclusions were supi)osed to lead to irreligious con- 
 sequences, Dr. Duff, believing his own creed to be true, 
 
406 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CIIAPEL. 
 
 believed, also, that it had the great characteristic of 
 truth, — that characteristic which nothing else except 
 truth possesses, — that it can be reconciled with every- 
 thing else which is also true." 
 
 The sectarian spirit in theology and religion we know 
 is sometimes fearfully narrowing, and most hostile to 
 true enlightenment and progress. The same is true of 
 the sectarian spirit in science, when it blinds the mind 
 to either facts or arguments when they make against a 
 favorite theory or school. The feuds and jealousies of 
 science extend to both principles and men : they con- 
 trol universities as truly as individuals. For this rea- 
 son, motives higher than the purely intellectual are not 
 only useful, but often greatly needed, even in schools 
 of pure science. So far as Christian motives are con- 
 cerned, we assert with confidence, that of any score or 
 hundred of seekers after scientific truth, those who are 
 devoutly theistic or Christian in their faith are by far 
 the most likely to be fearless and open-minded in re- 
 ceiving and asserting whatever is new, provided it be 
 true. For a Christian believer to insinuate the opposite 
 is to confess the narrowness of his own conceptions of 
 Christianity, or to question the liberality of those of his 
 neighbor. 
 
 2. It may still be argued, that in the present divided 
 state of Christendom a college which is positively Chris- 
 tian must, in fact, be controlled by some religious 
 denomination, and this must necessarily narrow and 
 belittle its intellectual and emotional life. We reply, 
 a college need not be administered in the interests of 
 any religious sect, even if it be controlled by it. We 
 have contended, at length, that science and culture 
 tend to liberalize sectarian narrowness. We know 
 tliat Christian philosophy, history, and literature are 
 eminently catholic and liberal. No class of men so 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 407 
 
 profoundly regret the divisions of Christendom as do 
 Christian scholars ; and, we add, their liberality is often 
 in proportion to their fervor. While a college may be, 
 and sometimes is, a nursery of petty prejudices, and a 
 hiding-place for sectarian bigotry, it is untrue to all the 
 lessons of Christian thoughtfulness if it fails to honor 
 its own nobler charity, and will sooner or later outgrow 
 its narrowness. 
 
 3. It may be still further urged, that a Christian 
 college must limit itself in the selection of instructors 
 to men of positive Christian belief, and may thus 
 deprive itself of the ablest instruction. We reply, no 
 positive inferences of this sort can be drawn from the 
 nature or duties of a Christian college. The details of 
 administration are always controlled by wise discretion. 
 A seeker after God, if he has not found rest in faith, 
 may be even more devout and believing in his influence 
 than a fiery dogmatist or an uncompromising polemic. 
 And yet it may be true, that a teacher who is careless 
 of misleading confiding youth, and who is fertile in sug- 
 gestions of unbelief, may, for this reason and this only, 
 be disqualified from being a safe and useful instructor 
 in any college, whether Christian or secular. Personal 
 characteristics very properly enter very largely mto a 
 just estimate of the requisites for an ennobling and suc- 
 cessful instructor; and among personal qualities, those 
 which we call Christian are esteemed the most enno- 
 bling, except by those who are ashamed of the Christian 
 name. 
 
 Last of all, it may be urged that a Christian college 
 may become the nursery of pietistic sentimentalism or 
 fanatical fervor. This is true ; but there are other sen- 
 timental isms than those which are inspired by Christian 
 truth and the Christian history, and there are other 
 fanaticisms than such as flame in the Christian Chui'ch. 
 
408 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 The best security against all excesses of this sort is 
 to be found in that soundness of mind which earnest 
 Christian devotion is fitted to inspire, when instructed 
 by solid learning, and enlightened by science ; when 
 refined by imaginative literature, and made graceful by 
 consummate art. 
 
 We conclude as we began, — that a Christian college, 
 to be worthy of its name, must be the home of enlarged 
 knowledge and varied culture. It must abound in all 
 the appliances of research and instruction ; its libraries 
 and collections must be rich to affluence ; its corps of 
 instructors must be well trained and enthusiastic in the 
 work of teaching. For all this, money is needed ; and 
 it should be gathered into great centres - — not wasted 
 in scanty fountains, nor subdivided into insignificant 
 rills. Into such a temple of science the Christian spirit 
 should enter as the shechinah of old, purifying and 
 consecrating all to itself. In such a college the piety 
 should inspire the science, and the culture should ele- 
 vate and refine the piety, and the two should lift each 
 the other upward toward God, and speed each other 
 outward and onward in errands of blessing to man. 
 
 Whether a Christian college shall surpass one that is 
 purely or chiefly secular in its scientific training and 
 literary culture, must be tested by time ; but, in order 
 that the test should be fair, the advantages must be 
 equal. The endowments, the appliances, the libraries, 
 the museums, and all else that wealth can furnish, must 
 be similar in attractiveness and solidity. The friends 
 of each must give to each an enthusiastic and unwaver- 
 ing support. We do not contend that religious zeal 
 can be a substitute for scientific ardor, but we do argue 
 that it may and will furnish the highest aspiration when 
 directed to scientific studies. We are not so simple as 
 to hold that the culture of the religious feelings is a 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 409 
 
 substitute for the training of the imagination ; but we 
 do contend that the imagination, when fired by Christian 
 faith and fervor, rises to its loftiest achievements. In a 
 word, we believe that the Christian faith is the per- 
 fection of the human reason, as truly as a necessity to 
 the human heart, and is, therefore, essential to the 
 highest forms of human culture. 
 
 We conclude that no institution of higher education 
 can attain the highest ideal excellence, in which the 
 Christian faith is not exalted as supreme ; in which its 
 truth is not asserted with a constant fidelity, defended 
 with unremitting ardor, and enforced with a fervent 
 and devoted zeal ; in which Christ is not honored as the 
 inspirer of man's best affections, the model of man's 
 highest excellence, and the master of all human duties. 
 Let two instructions be placed side by side, with equal 
 advantages in other particulars ; let the one be posi- 
 tively Christian, and the other consistently secular, — 
 and the Christian will assuredly surpass the secular in 
 the contributions which it will make to science and 
 culture, and in the men which it will train for the service 
 of their kind. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, — The 
 solemnity which brings you here attests the fact that 
 this is a Christian college. The routine of our daily 
 worship, the services to which you are called on Sun- 
 day, and many other provisions for religious culture, all 
 affirm that we hold and teach the Christian faith as true 
 and divine, as supreme in its importance for this life 
 and the future. The fact that science and learning and 
 culture occupy our chief attention, and meet us with 
 their daily and earnest demands, does in no sense indi- 
 cate that we esteem Christian truth of less practical 
 importance, to control our ambitions, to repress our pas- 
 
410 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 sions, to soften and subdue, to elevate and refine, our 
 human nature. For we are none the less men, because 
 we are students, with human hearts that thirst contin- 
 ually for God, for the living God. But the fact that 
 we are students lays upon us the additional obligation 
 to try our faith by the light of reason, and to justify 
 and shape our devotion by the tests of culture. If we 
 think as philosophers, we must ask and answer the ques- 
 tion whether philosophy of necessity accepts or denies 
 the living and personal God. If we answer this ques- 
 tion in the negative, we must sadly and sorrowfully turn 
 our faces to the wall, blank and chilling though it may 
 be, which shuts the living God forever out of our sight, 
 and on which we write in vain some meaningless for- 
 mulas, or paint a few brilliant pictures. If we answer 
 yes, we rejoice as none but the believing philosopher can, 
 in the ten thousand voices in which he hears the uni- 
 verse of law and order re-echo the praises of the Father 
 of spirits. If we question whether God is a loving and 
 holy person, — and all students must ask this question in 
 the light of reflective thought, — the answer which we 
 accept will either drive us to mute despair, or call forth 
 the response of our heartfelt joy. If we look back upon 
 the past in the light of history, or forward to the future 
 with the confidence of prophecy, and find in the past or 
 future no God, we must either find in the past and 
 future a maze which we cannot master, or apply to both 
 some hollow abstraction that will have its brief day in 
 the schools, and then give way to another. If we resort 
 to culture, and worship literature and the imagination, 
 we shall find that poetry and criticism and art, in which 
 the conscience and duty, and love and self-sacrifice, are 
 not living factors, will either wither into emptiness and 
 frivolity, or rot in the corruption of base and sensual 
 passion, or be hardened into the pessimism of sullen 
 despair. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 411 
 
 Most of all is the scholar of the present day vexed 
 with the great historical questions which gather about 
 the personal Christ, — questions which no student of 
 the present day can think of setting aside, but the an- 
 swers to which must disappoint or satisfy, as he accepts 
 or doubts or denies the most glorious of facts, if it be 
 a fact, or the most imposing and disappointing of fic- 
 tions, if it be a fiction. This greatest of questions in 
 many of its aspects is one which learned criticism and 
 profound philosophy can alone decide, but which is des- 
 tined sooner or later to interest most profoundly the 
 minds of thinking men. If the colleges that exist do 
 not concern themselves with these questions, and the 
 men who teach and study do not undertake to answer 
 them, then we may be assured that other colleges will 
 be raised that will ; for the earnest men of this gen- 
 eration will find out whether science will succeed in 
 dethroning God, the living God, and whether criticism 
 shall mock and crucify Christ anew. 
 
 Then, too, these practical questions which men of 
 education must confront as soon as they cross the 
 threshold of the schools, and which nowadays occupy 
 so much attention in the schools, the questions which 
 threaten to agitate and convulse society, will very soon 
 force every educated man to ask and to answer the 
 more comprehensive inquiry, — Is there, or is there not, 
 a kingdom of God slowly but surely lifting itself up in 
 the sight of the nations, or is it only a kingdom of science, 
 a kingdom of fate and force, that has no promise for 
 the poor, no comfort for the sorrowing, and no justice 
 for the wronged, no deliverance for the oppressed, or at 
 the utmost nothing more than a blind tendency of prog- 
 ress toward some brilliant mirage that eternally flees 
 before the disappointed vision ? 
 
 Sooner or later political science will discover, if it is 
 
412 FIFTEEN YEARS IN YALE CHAPEL. 
 
 not beginning to be aware, that it can neither state its 
 problems correctly, nor solve them satisfactorily, without 
 recognizing man as a moral and spiritual being, and 
 man's relations to God and duty and faith. 
 
 But while the defenders of Christian verity should 
 be aggressive and earnest, they also need to learn how 
 to be patient and tolerant and catholic. They best 
 know the difficulties of faith, for many of them have 
 trodden the long and devious ways in which many 
 thinking men must often prosecute their search after 
 God. They can best appreciate and overcome the mis- 
 givings of science, the questionings of history, the sug- 
 gestions of criticism, the rebellions of the imagination, 
 and the offences of culture. 
 
 They are slow to exalt scientific theories into theo- 
 logical creeds, and quick to exercise the largest charity 
 for the men whose theories they reject. They regard 
 freedom of thought as the condition of scientific prog- 
 ress and of religious honesty, and sometimes wait long 
 for the convictions which they hope for, but for which 
 they never cease to hope. 
 
 But college life is not a discipline for the intellect 
 only. It is also eminently social and personal. It tests 
 religious professions with unsparing scrutiny. It sees 
 through hypocrisy, it detests cant, it is repelled by over- 
 much religiousness, but it honors earnest and consistent 
 faith whenever it is sweet and reasonable and manly. 
 There is no place where a genuine Christian life tells 
 for so much as in a community like this, for there is no 
 place where wholesome impressions of character are so 
 vivid and so permanent. That is a short-sighted view 
 of Christian influences in college which limits them to 
 the four years of the college residence, when it so 
 often happens that they are fresh and vivid after forty 
 years are gone, and when we hear of so many of our 
 
THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 413 
 
 graduates who come into a settled Christian faith after 
 they leave their college home, and in so many cases as 
 the result of influences and impressions received within 
 these walls. That Clnistian excellence is honored here, 
 whenever it inspires genuine human excellence, and is 
 worthily represented in a noble and earnest manhood, 
 you will all bear witness, as to-day you think so tenderly 
 of the classmate whom you buried last Christmas, but 
 whom you will never forget to honor and mourn. Let 
 his faith be yours, let his purposes be yours, let his 
 expectations for usefulness and honor be yours. Let 
 the beauty of his life be a constant argument for the 
 truth and the power of the Christian faith, and a per- 
 petual inspiration to a fruitful Christian life. So shall 
 your college life be a preparation and an anticipation 
 for the life which is immortal. 
 
 With these wishes and prayers, I bid you farewell. 
 
Date Due ,| 
 
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