PARABLES>7&r 
 
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tihvaxy of Che trheolo^icd Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Rufus H. LeFevre 
 
 .5.KZ75 
 
PARABLES FOR 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 The parables of Jesus were neither deliberate 
 viystifications, nor idle intellectual conceits, nor 
 mere literary products of cesthetic taste ; they were 
 the utterances of a sorrowful heart. And herein 
 lies their chief rharm : not in the doctrine they 
 teach, though that is loth interesting and impor- 
 tant ; not in their literary beauty, though that is 
 great ; but in the sweet, delicate odor of human 
 pathos that breathes from them as from Alpiyie 
 wild Jlowers. 
 
 — BRUCE. 
 
 By Lawrence Keister; D.D. 
 
 Nineteen Hundred and Seven 
 
 Press of United Brethren Publishing House 
 
 Dayton, Ohio 
 
Copyright, 1907 
 
 Lawrence Keister, D.D. 
 
 Alt. Pleasant, Pa. 
 
KnttoDuction 
 
 The camel that gets permission to put his nose 
 into his master's tent — not in the fable, but in our 
 real rushing modern life — and without further ado 
 works his whole body in, to the discomfort and 
 perhaps the discomfiture of the rightful occupant, 
 might be called by a half dozen familiar names, 
 business, sports, the club, fashion, society, etc., and 
 every man and woman might reasonably be ex- 
 pected to know the name of his or her camel. 
 
 The intruder takes too large a share of the room 
 for himself, leaves too little for his master, and 
 often little or none at all for religious life, spir- 
 itual culture, and personal ministry in behalf of 
 others, which are all essential to a healthful, 
 happy life. 
 
 Certain evils are said to work their own cure, 
 but it may be noticed that the cure is apparent 
 rather than real, since evil never puts good in its 
 place, but only offers a new form of self-indulgence 
 when an old one has lost its attraction. 
 
 The camel always manages to assume the aspect 
 of a friend, or even claims the right to govern the 
 man and drive out every other claimant to his 
 place. Only when men become burdened with the 
 camel's company do they really remember that he 
 is an intruder, that there is other company for 
 them, that they are or can be worthy of the other 
 
 ill 
 
 101 
 
Introduction 
 
 company, and that the other is very much better 
 than that of the camel. 
 
 When the angels sang the advent anthem above 
 the manger-cradle of the infant Christ in the hear- 
 ing and in the language of the shepherds, they 
 rendered a real service to mankind. God had come 
 closer to man than ever before, and this great his- 
 toric fact, this supreme religious truth, was 
 worthy to be celebrated in song: 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, 
 
 And on earth, peace among men in whom he is 
 well pleased. 
 
 Two worlds were interested, and each had its ap- 
 propriate part, angels being permitted to sing 
 aloud while men listened in adoration. 
 
 Citizens of the invisible world bore witness to 
 citizens of the visible concerning the Christ. They 
 declared his presence, the closer union of God with 
 man and world with world. The invisible and the 
 visible, God and man, should no longer stand apart 
 in the minds of men, since these are brought to- 
 gether in the person of the Christ, the union ap- 
 pearing even in his words and works, and neither 
 being plain and rational on any other basis. 
 Henceforth the contrast and the conflict in the soul 
 and in society is faith and unbelief, while the har- 
 mony of the soul and of society arises by means of 
 the union of man with God, the visible with the 
 invisible, 
 
 A fact like this deserves a place in the minds and 
 hearts of men, and fairly demands the very first 
 place. If the Christ claims much, his claim is only 
 in keeping with his character. If he asks admis- 
 sion into the heart to take control, his presence 
 
 iv 
 
hitroduction 
 
 works no hardship. He never comes like the camel, 
 but, like a guest, must be invited and welcomed. 
 What if he undertakes to govern our conduct and 
 form our character; what if he is the soul of our 
 morality and the heart of our religion; what if he 
 shapes our theology and our philosophy? We have 
 suffered no loss without a far greater gain, and 
 silently and yet effectively the process of our re- 
 demption goes on. The angels' anthem is, as it 
 was, for human ears and hearts, and the need of 
 the hour will always be the acceptance of the 
 Christ, visible and invisible, in the fullness of his 
 life and wisdom and power. As an aid to men in 
 the common walks of life to know the Christ in his 
 simplicity, and continually to look to him as the 
 soul's true Creator, this little volume has been 
 written, and in so far as it serves this end, its 
 work will be accomplished. 
 
 Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father hath 
 sent me, even so send I you." In his relation to 
 them he copies the divine method as applicable to 
 human life. The Christ was sent from above down 
 to the very level of human life in order to lift it up 
 to the level of his own, in its perfect humanity and 
 its perfect harmony with God. By patient minis- 
 try and by perfect self-surrender to the will of God 
 he established that will as the law of human life, 
 the principle of man's ordinary activity, and also 
 of his present and future development. 
 
 His disciples are commanded to claim and re- 
 ceive the Spirit of God as the only means by which 
 they can have pure motives, right methods, and 
 true manhood. Henceforth life and death are alike 
 to them in this respect, that both are accepted as 
 unto the Lord. In silence and in speech they 
 
Introduction 
 
 should never step off this basis and sink to the 
 level of the irreligious and the worldly. They see 
 God in nature and can speak in parables. They see 
 him in providence and discover the principles of 
 divine action. They see him in the Christ and are 
 satisfied with this revelation of the person of deity. 
 The visible and the invisible are no longer held 
 apart in their thoughts as mutually destructive, 
 but are brought together to form the complete 
 whole in which the Christian lives as his world. 
 In this entire realm the Christ has manifested 
 himself as God and also as man, and hence the 
 Christian is to occupy both according to the prayer 
 and promise, "I will that where I am, there my 
 disciples may be also." While each Christian can 
 and must form his own views, he is not at liberty 
 to step outside of Christ's world or try to limit 
 himself to either part alone. He belongs to both 
 the visible and the invisible, and has publicly con- 
 fessed this article of his creed. He must be judged 
 by this standard. His is the life of faith, being 
 named from the principal element. He shows his 
 faith by his works, ministering to mankind and 
 glorifying God in the highest place in his own 
 heart, and thus prepares himself to glorify God in 
 his heaven, which is man's heaven also, now in 
 spiritual fellowship and Christian hope, and then 
 in personal presence and possession. 
 
 If men find that it costs a mighty effort to drive 
 the camel out in order to bring the Christ in, they 
 soon discover that it is worth all its costs, and that 
 every man really chooses his own company, the 
 camel or the Christ. 
 
 VI 
 
My World 
 
All men walk upon the same earth, yet each one 
 lives his own life in his own world. He has his 
 own idea of happiness and usefulness and great- 
 ness; exercises his power of choice, selects his sur- 
 roundings according to his tastes, and shapes them, 
 if possible, to his mind. He works his world over 
 in his thoughts, the result appearing in his choice 
 of associates and employment, his love of nature 
 or lack of it, his use or misuse of religious agencies 
 and institutions. He finds that thoughts, and in a 
 measure things become his by sympathetic in- 
 terest, by cultivating his capacity to appreciate 
 them, in a word, by giving them a place in his 
 life. Even truth itself becomes his by giving him- 
 self to the truth. 
 
9@p ^KBotlD 
 
 What a pretty little goldfish! Its beauty 
 shows to perfection in its glass globe, where 
 every shining scale and every motion is visible. 
 It is not a freak, with clumsy fin and tail, but 
 jnst an ordinary fish of its kind whose beauty 
 is not in its oddity. No wonder it is kept in 
 the sitting-room as an ornament and an object 
 of interest. 
 
 But really it does not seem to be quite itself, 
 for it seems to know it is not at home. From 
 the inside, the glass globe must be a sort of 
 glass prison, and the walls of that room prison 
 walls, and so the little creature often appears 
 homesick. How very unnatural to be hemmed 
 in on all sides and be on exhibition all day, 
 when, by nature, it prefers perfect freedom, and 
 a hiding-place safe alike from danger and 
 inquisitive eyes. 
 
 Its present domicile is not constructed with 
 reference to its own nature alone, — it loves 
 fresh water and sand and mud and growing 
 vegetation, — but rather with reference to ours, 
 
 9 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 and this new or double principle makes the 
 mischief for our little protege. The little thing 
 might lose heart and courage for life as it 
 moves about in its little glass house and hardly 
 knows what to do next. It must seem like an 
 age, if it remembers, since it had one real good 
 swim in the pond where it was hatched and 
 raised. But now the ends of life for it are com- 
 pletely changed, and it can hardly be expected 
 to be magnanimous enough to enter into sym- 
 pathy with the design of its jailer, or owner, 
 if you prefer, and be satisfied to be seen. It 
 may love appreciation, — we all do, — but appre- 
 ciation, real appreciation, sincere and sym- 
 pathetic, seeks its object at its best, and that 
 may be the reason nature is so broad in its 
 expanse and so varied in its aspects, giving 
 every living thing a fair chance to make the 
 most of itself. 
 
 In this little manufactured world there is so 
 little space and so little variety and so very 
 little the occupant can do as compared with 
 its capacity for action. It looks lonely, and no 
 doubt because it feels lonely, for if there is any 
 creature that loves company and plenty of it, 
 this little goldfish is the one. To add one or 
 two or half a dozen companions never seems to 
 relieve the situation materially, for they never 
 grow, never breed, and never spawn in close 
 
 10 
 
My World 
 
 confinement. As well have a single one and 
 generously confer upon it every inch of the 
 limited space and every bit of the admiration 
 offered in that home. But just to think of 
 it — solitary confinement for such a social 
 nature! Why, if it could weep there in the 
 water that would be some slight relief, if it 
 were not then under the necessity of drinking 
 its own little tears. 
 
 Of course, water is the natural element of 
 the goldfish, but there is not enough of it in 
 the glass globe to make effort worth while. 
 There is scarcely enough to afford a real fresh 
 drink for one hour in the twenty-four, to say 
 nothing of a fine swimming course with the 
 sweet sense of overcoming a resisting current 
 and rushing over rocks and pebbles and un- 
 counted sands. And so it quietly drinks its 
 little pool over and over again and seems to 
 lose the inspiring sense of liberty with which 
 nature endowed it, but which may only await 
 an opportunity to assert itself once more. Per- 
 haps its slow and measured movements and its 
 premature death are its silent protest against 
 man's attempt to domesticate it, or even its 
 noble appeal in behalf of the rest of its race, 
 that they at least may be spared this burden- 
 some captivity. Those shining scales, bright 
 like silver or burnished like gold, and that sym- 
 
 11 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 metrical form, so lithe and yet so graceful, 
 please the ordinary eye and appeal to the most 
 cultured sesthetic taste, but the little creature 
 itself mutely appeals to the liberty-loving mind 
 even if we deny to it the brave sentiment of 
 patriotism. 
 
 II. 
 
 That great bowl, scooped out of the earth 
 and rock and filled to the brim with clear, cool 
 water boiling up from beneath, is a natural 
 curiosity. No stagnant pool is that, with weeds 
 and slime about the edges and a green scum 
 on the surface, but a little inland lake stirring 
 like a teakettle at 212° Fahrenheit. We won- 
 der where all that water comes from, and are 
 reminded of the tiny spring from which we 
 drank in childhood, as some wild animal might 
 h^, e done, only this one before us here among 
 the Alleghenies is large enough to water a regi- 
 ment. A stream that disappears half a mile 
 away reappears at this spot as a sort of surprise. 
 The blue sky bends above us and the warm sum- 
 mer sun invites the little fish to play on the 
 surface of this interesting and ornamental piece 
 of nature's handiwork. 
 
 They come in companies and easily classify 
 themselves on the principle of size and social 
 
 12 
 
My World 
 
 relations. They seem to enjoy being agree- 
 able. Their little heads all point the same 
 way, and each has about the same space for his 
 own personal convenience. They are orderly 
 little fellows, if not really systematic. Active 
 and alert, they appear and disappear and seem 
 to enjoy to the utmost their lovely home, the 
 fresh water, the blue sky, and the warm sun, 
 and are perfectly contented and completely 
 occupied in their individual and social life. 
 The bird of larger size that flies close above 
 their peaceful habitation awakens the sense of 
 fear, and they sink a little lower or scurry 
 away pell-mell in search of their well-known 
 hiding-places. 
 
 Such is their little world scooped out of the 
 earth and joined to the Juniata by that rapid 
 little rivulet which hurries over the rocks and 
 leads the way to the Susquehanna and '^e 
 waters of all the seas. No difference how little 
 their world may be, it is a legitimate part of a 
 greater, even if these little fellows do not know 
 it. Xo difference if they do not like the taste 
 of salt water and are not quietly discussing a 
 trip to foreign parts. The ocean is a necessary 
 part of their world because it is the receptacle 
 of the great river, the river is the combination 
 of little streams, and the little streams are the 
 condensed moisture borne by the clouds from 
 
 13 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 the ocean. The whole system, with all its ac- 
 companying machinery, is required to produce 
 this circulation. It is nature's way of provid- 
 ing fresh water for these little fish, which have, 
 somehow or other, become the subject of our 
 thought and which we discover are the center 
 of a little universe that, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, is all their own. If we are thoughtful 
 and reverent we can enter their world, observe, 
 if not really share their happiness with them, 
 for a little while at least, and then respectfully 
 return to our own place. Given that these little 
 fellows are to live, they must have a world to 
 live in, and what their life requires nature 
 freely accords as an act of duty or of grace, 
 and whoever will may decide which. One thing 
 is perfectly plain, and that is these little fish 
 look quite contented in the home provided for 
 them by nature. 
 
 III. 
 
 As the divinely appointed lord of creation, 
 man is permitted to bring, golden carp from 
 their primitive home in China. Because they 
 are beautiful and because they are tenacious of 
 life, he exercises this right, but as an intelli- 
 gent and kind-hearted sovereign, he might be 
 expected not to impose any other conditions 
 
 14 
 
My World 
 
 on the little creatures than those assigned by 
 nature. The little fish is not the only sufferer 
 at his hands, but the little bird, and even the 
 big horse must lose a part of his tail to please 
 his master. Even men are made to share the 
 consequences of his readjusting of the universe, 
 and, most wonderful of all, he is himself in- 
 cluded in the common lot of becoming the slave 
 of his own customs, which all goes to show that 
 he is a little warped. There is a twist some- 
 where. He is not quite level or not quite 
 plumb, which is only a different way of saying 
 the same thing, for each test is an appeal to 
 the law of gravity. When a man actually 
 thinks that any other condition and any other 
 course is better for him than the one marked 
 out by the law of G-od, and acts accordingly, 
 then he must have a wrong notion of the true 
 environment of a spiritual being, who is de- 
 signed to be free and also worthy. A man may 
 make a glass prison out of his personal habits^ 
 his business enterprises and connections, or the 
 social customs of his community, and under- 
 take to live therein, but he is far better off in 
 the wider world of divine law and divine light. 
 The blue sky is the best roof above us; the 
 distant horizon is the only wall God has raised 
 to limit us, and this recedes at our approach, 
 and our minds, free and unlimited by the 
 
 15 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 bounds set for the body, push out into open 
 space to consider planet and star. Our spirits 
 claim other spirits, and God, who is a spirit, 
 as the answering other to our own. 
 
 The real value of possession is use — in the 
 industrial sense as the farmer owns his plow, 
 and in the commercial sense as the borrower 
 owns the money intrusted to him, and in the 
 aesthetic sense as the artist owns the beauty of 
 landscape and waterfall, and in the religious 
 sense as the devout soul claims the beauty of 
 the Lord our God and prays that it may be 
 upon him. And so it appears that every man 
 can own the whole world if he knows how, or 
 rather if he has the capacity for it all. 
 
 The rainbow I see is mine, for no other eye 
 sees this identical one, because no other eye is 
 just where mine is, and so no other can see the 
 colored reflection of light from the same drops 
 of falling Avater. In nature, as in grace, God 
 *T5an exalt the individual man without fostering 
 a selfish and offensive egotism. His aim is 
 egoism, a noble selfhood, which is a center and 
 also an object of love. The visible world is 
 required to make room for this man, and even 
 be subject to him. The home and society, the 
 state and the church are to open their doors 
 to him and give him an abundant entrance, for 
 here in the realm of human life, with all its 
 
 16 
 
My World 
 
 complications and contradictions, he is to be 
 shaped into what he shall be, if not what he 
 ought to be. Here he is to enter the kingdom 
 of God definitely and deliberately, and so to 
 indicate his purpose, by the grace of God, to 
 enter heaven at the proper time, not asking 
 for any limitations of its life for his special 
 convenience, for any change in its law to suit 
 his individual character, or any diminution of 
 its glory for his personal accommodation. 
 
 Men who throw the emphasis on ownership 
 of the material kind are limiting their life and 
 not enlarging it. A man^s life consisteth not 
 in the abundance of the things he possesseth, 
 but in answering the ends of his being. He is 
 not built for the glass globe of custom, but for 
 the open sky of the divine ideal. The rich 
 man has lost the scent and pursues a phantom. 
 The poor man thinks he wants a share, at least, 
 of the rich man's money, and forgets that he 
 is walking over and past his true treasure — "the 
 poor have the gospel preached unto them." 
 The one exalts his dear dollars above his dear 
 life. The other dreams of dear dollars and 
 fails to profit by dear duty, which brings with 
 it the sweet assurance that he who seeks first 
 God's kingdom and righteousness shall find 
 that by divine arrangement all the needful 
 things of life, food and clothing, shall be added 
 2 17 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 to liim, like a lean-to beside a building. Each 
 stands at the center of -his own world and 
 thinks and acts according to the proverb, "A 
 man's way is right in his own eyes." Each 
 makes his own world, using, of course, the mate- 
 rials he tinds about him. What if this is the 
 common practice? What if public opinion 
 sanctions it? What if it is even necessary for 
 every man to construct his own world? The 
 possession of things material is but temporary 
 and without reversion. Every acre of land, 
 every dollar of money, and every ato^m of his 
 body man surrenders before he finally leaves 
 this world. The organizations of earth, how- 
 ever great and powerful, and however useful 
 and necessary to life and well-being here, suffer 
 continual change and await their final disso'- 
 lution. And so we conclude that this world 
 is not man's world after all. He may regard 
 it as his, and the only one he has or ever will 
 have, but it fades away after it has furnished 
 him a place to begin life, a place of toil and 
 trial, and last of all a tomb, and in his empty 
 palm there is no earthly treasure found at last. 
 The old commandment, "Thou shalt not covet 
 thy neighbor's house," remains, and a new one 
 is added, "Covet earnestly tlie best gifts," which 
 means. Be as spiritually minded and religiously 
 rich as you can. 
 
 18 
 
My World 
 
 We own by admiration. We are strong by 
 gentleness. "Blessed are the meek, for they 
 shall inherit the earth," is a practical principle 
 in the true philosophy of human life, and every 
 man must accept it and apply it if he is to be 
 made free from the tyranny of custom by enter- 
 ing into the kingdom of divine law and divine 
 life. As we learn to love the sweet scenes of 
 nature they are ours, and as we comply with 
 the behest of duty we hear these words floating 
 in upon our hearts, "Theirs is the kingdom of 
 heaven." The man w^ho looks upon N"iagara 
 and sees nothing but water to drive turbine 
 wheels and dynamos cannot possess Niagara ex- 
 cept in the commercial sense, and Niagara can- 
 not possess him in the magnitude of its power 
 or the grandeur of its beauty. The man of 
 commercial instincts thinks of lighted cities 
 and a full purse, while the man of aesthetic 
 taste thinks of luminous minds and a love of 
 the beautiful satisfied but never sated. The 
 way into the heart is the w^ay out, and if this 
 be kept open it leads into the Juniata and the 
 Susquehanna and the great ocean beyond. 
 Henry Van Dyke is both prophet and poet 
 when he writes : 
 
 Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul; 
 Love is the only angel who can bid the gates 
 unroll; 
 
 19 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 And when he comes to call thee, arise and follow 
 
 fast; 
 His way may lay through darkness, but it leads to 
 
 life at last. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The easiest word in the English language, 
 or any other for that matter, since it must be 
 common to every tongue as it is common to 
 human life, is the word that has its illustration 
 in infancy, being before and behind the word 
 "mother." Love is admiration for a person 
 because of what that person is or may be, an 
 admiration that rises into downright devotion. 
 No wonder it becomes the liberating and lift- 
 ing power in the man when its first object is 
 mother and its last and supreme object is G-od 
 as revealed in Christ. God is love and God 
 is free, not being limited from without but 
 only from within, and very wonderful it is that 
 he offers this same kind of life to men. "Thou 
 shalt love," is his command because it is his 
 ideal for men who are just as slow and just as 
 quick to learn as they are to obey. 
 
 The assertion of Jesus, "Not one sparrow 
 falls to the ground without your Father," can- 
 not rest on appearances. We see nothing hap- 
 pen when the sparrow falls, no tremor of nature, 
 no recording angel to note the final catastrophe 
 
 20 
 
My World 
 
 in that little life. His assertion rests on an- 
 other basis, his knowledge of God in relation 
 to this world, a knowledge which is far better 
 and more complete than ours. Perhaps it 
 wonld modify or even radically change our 
 world if we could see as he sees or even believe 
 him when he tells us what he sees and knows 
 to be true. Old things might indeed pass away 
 and all things become new. Right under the 
 rough husk of the visible we would discover the 
 invisible and eternal, and with the ardor of a 
 supreme affection we would surely claim it as 
 our own. 
 
 Then let us ask again the question of those 
 first inquirers, "Eabbi, where abidest thou?" 
 Listen to his answer, which comes as an invi- 
 tation to each of us, ^'Come and ye shall see." 
 He leads the way while half doubtfully we fol- 
 low him and enter his home and his world. 
 The dream of the human heart becomes its 
 reality ! How human he is, more human than 
 we ! His sympathy with men is deeper and 
 wider than ours, his gentleness and his faith- 
 fulness transcend our o^vm beyond all compari- 
 son, for they correspond with his power of will 
 and humility of heart. He is true to the law 
 of God in spite of custom so respectable and so 
 imperious in scribe and Pharisee. He is a 
 man and not simply a Hebrew, and he is more 
 
 21 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 tlian man, a fact that dawns upon ns and is 
 attested by his refining and uplifting presence, 
 by his delicacy of perception and his sweep of 
 thought, by his power of love and purpose. We 
 listen and look and wonder and begin to say 
 within ourselves, "This is he of whom Moses 
 in the law and the prophets wrote." We identify 
 him to our own satisfaction as the fulfillment 
 of promise, and touch the throbbing heart of 
 human history. 
 
 We are being transformed by the renewing of 
 our minds, and our view of things is changed, 
 our view of life, our view of God. We are 
 transfigured by the presence of the divine and, 
 like the two disciples of old, we forget our tem- 
 poral surroundings, fail to report the appear- 
 ance of that humble home or to describe the 
 features of that wonderful face. We were in 
 his world. We saw him and so we saw God, 
 the beatific vision of earth, to which we are all 
 invited when we have the faith to seek it and 
 the purity of heart to realize and enjoy it. We 
 envy not Moses at the burning bush or the 
 three favored disciples on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, for he that sees the Christ sees God, 
 and that is the vision that satisfies the soul. 
 God's world must be very great and very beau- 
 tiful, and the Christ admits men into this 
 world where they become conscious that they 
 
 22 
 
My World 
 
 are no longer strangers and foreigners, but 
 fellow-citizens with the saints and of the house- 
 hold of God. "If ye abide in me, and my words 
 abide in you'' — if ye continue in my world/ 
 says Christ, in my thoughts and plans, my 
 love and purpose, with my ideals ever rising 
 before you and the mighty motive of my life 
 rising up within you, you may ask what you 
 will and it shall be done unto you. 
 
 Thus we dwell in his world in fact and not 
 only in fancy, and indeed we have less use for 
 fancy the more we realize the kingdom of God 
 as a present fact and become the objects of its 
 beneficent influence. We may call that the 
 Christian's world, whether we find it in the 
 heart or the home, in social or industrial or 
 political life, in church or state. 
 
 V. 
 
 One world may lie within another, as we 
 have seen in the case of the goldfish in the glass 
 globe and also of the minnows in the mountain 
 pond, and even of man as the many-minded 
 inhabitant of the earth, who may rise up and 
 really become a citizen of the kingdom of God. 
 One world should harmonize with all others, 
 the natural with the supernatural, the novelist's 
 with the scientist's and also the Christian's, 
 
 23 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 the farmer's with the business man's and the 
 poet's, for this harmony is essential to the com- 
 fort of the respective inhabitants of each, for 
 the better understanding of each and all worlds 
 by men who are accustomed to think, and for 
 the proper appreciation of the one great world 
 which we may call the universe of God. 
 
 One world may lie far away from another, 
 or it may be sO' near that you can step from 
 one to the other, changing worlds, if you please, 
 by a turn of the head, the glance of the eye, 
 or the transfer of attention to a new object of 
 thought. Now, we may be in one world and a 
 moment later in another, that of the goldfish, 
 the minnow, or the man. Each one is complete 
 in itself and also a part of another and a 
 greater, and yet each is very different from 
 the other two. One is unnatural, one is nat- 
 ural, and one is supernatural, including all 
 below that is consistent with itself. The world 
 each man conceives and constructs centers 
 about the supreme principle of its own life, 
 whatever that may be, and thus it appears that 
 no two men have just the same in every par- 
 ticular. Indeed, men invite each other into 
 their dwelling-places, their mountain ponds, 
 their glass globes, and even seek to make each 
 other over in order that they may fit and enjoy 
 the world they themselves occupy. The made- 
 
 24 
 
My World 
 
 over man might well rejoice if the process were 
 always conducted by one who was greater and 
 better than himself, and hence the Bible points 
 to the Christ as the one who is best able to do 
 so great a work. As a man made over by the 
 Christ, the Christian finds that he has a new 
 principle of action and not merely a modifica- 
 tion of the old, a new order of duties which is 
 the reverse of the old, a new basis of being 
 which is the Word of Christ, and so the Christ 
 himself. He has become a new creature with 
 a new principle of action, a new order of things, 
 first things being put first and second things 
 second, a new basis of life, and so the least 
 world in which he lives and moves and has his 
 being is an integral part of the one great whole 
 which the Christ has named the kingdom of 
 God and the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 However great and good, however bright and 
 beautiful, that world may be mine by my own 
 choice and by my personal entrance into its 
 charmed circle of life and fellowship; mine as 
 the rainbow is mine particularly and exclus- 
 ively; mine as the field of my thought and 
 activity and attainment; mine because the 
 forces of the kingdom of God sweep about me 
 in helpful cooperation; mine in accordance 
 with the promise of God and in answer to my- 
 own earnest prayer; mine as really as I myself 
 
 25 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 am real and my own ; mine as long as I remain 
 within its sacred borders, whether that be for 
 an hour or an age. 
 
 2G 
 
The Life Worth Living. 
 
 Great God, to Thee, who lovest me. 
 
 My soul I freely render, 
 In prayer and praise through all my days, 
 
 O Thou, my soul's Defender. 
 
 Thy word comes down to be my crown, 
 
 Thy word so true and tender; 
 With hope and love and Spirit-dove, 
 
 Of life the gentle lender. 
 
 My work assigned by Thine own mind, 
 Thy work so sweet and saving; 
 
 Thy work and mine Thou dost combine. 
 The work my soul is craving. 
 
 Life springs again in many men, 
 The life that Thou art giving; 
 
 The life divine for which we pine. 
 The life that is worth living. 
 
 27 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
jFotegleam, 
 
 Along the path of life sign-boards are set 
 which men must learn to read and regard. These 
 silent witnesses tell facts the traveler needs to 
 know, and know well enough to use for his own 
 profit. A man may take up his life journey as 
 a matter of necessity and not of choice, which 
 is sad indeed; he may pursue it to occupy his 
 time and see the sights, which must eventually 
 become burdensome; but it is possible for him 
 to awake to duty and attain in moral and relig- 
 ious life till life becomes interesting and abso- 
 lutely inspiring. Then he never wishes to wander 
 from the way and be compelled to turn on his 
 track and retrace his steps. Onward, ever onward, 
 is the motto, and duty becomes the divine direc- 
 tion, freely given, to prosper him in his journey 
 and aid him to attain his journey's end. 
 
 30 
 
The traveler who hires the railroad to carry 
 him has an easy task as compared with the one 
 who takes the public highway and strikes out 
 across the country. The one buys a ticket for 
 his destination^ which the railroad man calls 
 "a point'' because for him it never flattens out 
 into a place, boards his train with a hundred 
 others, and settles down for a pleasant journey, 
 with no further anxiety concerning his trans- 
 portation or safety, but with a keen desire to 
 "come in on time" and no apparent effort to 
 make friends by the way. The other becomes 
 his own passenger agent, assuming all risks and 
 inconvenience, and provides his own transporta- 
 tion with lines and whip in hand, let us say, 
 for the "auto" has not yet vindicated its value 
 as a comfortable means of travel and a satis- 
 factory method of observation. The country 
 road affords sights well worth seeing — hill and 
 valley, schoolhouse and church, our civilization 
 in miniature if we take this as a sample of the 
 whole, and life-size if we see it for itself alone. 
 What ruts there are in these country roads, and 
 
 31 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 mudholes, too, breakers on the hillsides and 
 bridges in the valleys where the brook finds its 
 way. Here we are at the crossroads, (not the 
 editorial we, let me explain, but the we of real, 
 "iinofficial companionship,) and must choose our 
 road as between a possible two or three. 
 
 These country sign-boards are quite inter- 
 esting, if not very artistic, and however con- 
 densed their directions they are always profit- 
 able and often almost indispensable. Every 
 division of the road makes them more interest- 
 ing, and we are glad to see them even when we 
 are sure we are right. The traveler might 
 criticise the spelling and correct the estimate 
 of distances, and even show by comparison that 
 they do not fully agree among themselves, but 
 he never on these accounts rejects the directions 
 they give by deliberately and defiantly turning 
 aside and going the wrong way. • The mistakes 
 are not inspired, of course, but the good will 
 and good sense of a very ordinary sign-board 
 is discoverable by a very ordinary traveler. As 
 a good appetite is the best sauce, so a real 
 interest is the best instructor. 
 
 Experience is a very great teacher, who wisely 
 requires in her pupils honesty and candor and 
 earnestness, and when a man stands at the 
 crossroads with no other counselors than the 
 sign-boards, bless them, he is likely to have all 
 
 32 
 
8ome Sign-Boards 
 
 three of these virtues. No country store ? No, 
 not at this one. Nobody coming? No. We 
 look about us, but there is no house in sight, 
 and not even the grave of a suicide. What a 
 lonely place ! Well, we can have it all our own 
 way this time, unless some fairy comes under 
 cover of approaching darkness. If only that 
 sign-board told a little more, or we knew the 
 roads better, or — but here goes, this is the best 
 we know and the best we can do, and we proceed 
 accordingly. 
 
 Really it seems as though we were here once 
 before. There is something familiar about this 
 place, or it may be just a repetition of a com- 
 mon crossroads' experience? Choice is a fre- 
 quent necessity. No man makes his life journey 
 on two bands of steel, nor can any man go two 
 roads at the same time, either physically or 
 morally. Men who try to divide up and go both 
 ways in morals and religion end up by discov- 
 ering their delusion. "Here lies" might be 
 written over the grave of many a moral suicide, 
 and we tread lightly at the crossroads in def- 
 erence to the dead. The happiest man is the 
 one whose choice shows no effort at division 
 now and no cause for regret in after years. To 
 be sure, right choices cost an effort, but they 
 yield a return. At the crossroads a man learns 
 to know better who he is and what his work is. 
 
 33 
 
Parables for ihe People 
 
 He is not harmed but helped, being better able 
 to read the next sign-board, to decide right in 
 case of doubt, and to commit himself confi- 
 dently to the right road while as confidently 
 forsaking all others, and so he develops the 
 essential qualification of a good traveler. 
 
 II. 
 
 The lamp of ancient design has become the 
 symbol of knowledge, and we propose the mod- 
 ern sign-board at the country crossroads as the 
 symbol of choice and decision. A fine basis is 
 thus afforded for the organization of a new 
 society, the election of a new set of officers, and 
 the creation of a new kind of greatness. Let 
 the first article of the constitution be, "The 
 name of this society shall be the Crossroads 
 Sign-Board Society of the United States of 
 America." As a large membership is needed, 
 the conditions should be easy and inviting. All 
 dues should be paid promptly and bequests 
 solicited, as it takes money to sustain any or- 
 ganization, even an insurance society, especially 
 if the relationship of the chief officers be large. 
 A beautiful badge in the form of a button with 
 a sign-board at the crossroads done in silver 
 on a black background, or in gold on a green 
 field, would be an ornament to the wearer, a 
 
 34 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 gentle reminder, and at the same time a public 
 profession of his faith. Daniel, the great 
 Hebrew prophet, can easily be claimed as one 
 of the early members of this society, for it can 
 be shown conclusively that he was a man of 
 wise choices and worthy decisions. This post- 
 humous membership conferred without the 
 knowledge or consent of the candidate shows 
 clearly a certain appreciation of goodness and 
 greatness on the part of this society, and can 
 be referred to as a sort of moral asset and a 
 religious endowment. 
 
 Whether such a society could do more than 
 others now in existence to aid men to right 
 choices and firm decisions remains to be seen, 
 but, of course, its efficiency should be tested, and 
 we should optimistically labor for the best. 
 Somebody would be willing to become presi- 
 dent for honor or pay, and all the other offices 
 could be filled on the same terms, and even a 
 respectable number of men and women could 
 be found who would kindly pay their dues to 
 support a cause so benevolent, thus giving body 
 and bottom to the whole affair. 
 
 Until this new society is well on its feet, we 
 shall be compelled to rely on the ordinary agen- 
 cies — the political party in politics, with the 
 aid of an occasional reformer, the beautiful, 
 the brilliant, and the rich in society, the man 
 
 35 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 of affairs in business, the man of culture in 
 education, and the man of God in morals and 
 religion. Men often regard morals and religion 
 as the one field of doubt and distraction, just 
 as though religious truth was the hardest and 
 not the easiest kind of knowledge to acquire, 
 even from early childhood. They refer all 
 questions to the intellect, and because the intel- 
 lect cannot answer them, they conclude there is 
 no answer. Were religion a theory only and 
 not also a life, their expectations might be real- 
 ized by this process, but since it is a life as 
 well as a theory, another faculty, the choosing 
 and doing faculty, must be called to the aid of 
 the knowing faculty, or rather the choosing 
 and doing faculty must act the chief part and 
 have the knowing faculty as its handmaid. Do 
 the next duty you know to do and another will 
 become plain, so that you can never get into a 
 corner with no duty before you. That looks 
 like a sign-board ; and here is another : Distant 
 duties may not be clear to us, but present duties 
 are, and these are the only ones we are called 
 upon to do, and so we are as safe in our moral 
 and religious life as we are on the country 
 roads we never traveled before, and where we 
 read the sign-boards only when we come to 
 them. If any man will do duty he shall know 
 duty, and hence in morals and religion the 
 
 36 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 answer to the question, How know? is the one 
 word, Do. 
 
 The man who discredits his ability and his 
 faith to do his plain duty may yet have the 
 faith and ability to try, and that is all that 
 is really required at the start. He may fail, 
 but his failure teaches him something concern- 
 ing his ability as well as his inability, some- 
 thing concerning the best way to do that thing, 
 and a second trial may be all he needs in order 
 to succeed in doing what he really could not 
 do before. At first he had faith enough to try, 
 but now he has enough to try again and even 
 enough to succeed. He may pra}^, "Lord, in- 
 crease my faith," but he keeps on using his 
 present ability and giving his faith an oppor- 
 tunity to grow according to the divinely 
 appointed method of increase. Only personal 
 choice and decision and attainment admits any 
 man into the Sign-Board Society of which we 
 are already growing decidedly proud. 
 
 III. 
 
 Men are unwise as well as willful when they 
 quarrel with God's sign-boards and lift their 
 wills in resistance to his commands. They 
 would find it very dangerous to be disobedient, 
 if, while God is stronger than they, he was not 
 
 37 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 also out of sight better. A good Christian takes 
 his will out of his sins as a good business man 
 takes his capital out of a bad investment, or 
 as much as he can. The good man invests in 
 his virtues, and nothing so opens his eyes and 
 awakens his mind to the true and beautiful and 
 good as perfect obedience to the teachings of 
 Christ as far as he understands them. His 
 meat is that of his Master, who did the will 
 of God and always seemed strong and nerved 
 for duty. 
 
 The Christian prays, "Thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in heaven," thus adopting the will 
 of God as the law of his personal life. This 
 law being settled from both sides, by his own 
 choice and by divine decree, appears well estab- 
 lished and reasonably reliable. Then, too, if 
 he obeys God's will in all things, God becomes 
 the sharer of his acts, his responsibilities, and 
 even his enjoyments. No decision is his alone, 
 and no result is only from God. And if he 
 knows that God bends over him like a mother 
 over her child, he will waste less energy in 
 anxious care and have more room for courage 
 and happiness. If the world has never been dis- 
 appointing to him, God has not. No chilling 
 wind of doubt ever comes from that quarter. 
 The divine will fits the human will in its needs 
 and ambitions, and the human will fits itself 
 
 38 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 to the divine until the divine will is done on 
 earth and until earth fades from view and 
 heaven actually appears. 
 
 When little children are interested in the 
 stories of the "Bible, is it because these narra- 
 tives appeal to the child's imagination, or be- 
 cause they describe real persons who deserve 
 sympathy or censure? who are examples of 
 evil or good, to be avoided on the one hand and 
 followed on the other? Older people may find 
 it necessary to cultivate a taste for the Word 
 of God because they have never acquired it, or 
 because of the enforcement of duty, which 
 leaves the flavor of failure if not of fulfillment. 
 The sense of sin is not agreeable, 'but the Bible 
 awakens it not because it is unpleasant, but in 
 order to help men to the sense of salvation 
 which is sweet and satisfactory. 
 
 Intelligent people read, and the only question 
 is, what they are to read, papers, magazines, 
 and books being offered to pld and young and 
 adapted to their tastes as well as their needs. 
 In some books there is a bad atmosphere. It 
 is tainted. -There is a subtle spirit of falsehood 
 which makes the true look false and the false 
 appear true, the just appear harsh and the 
 unjust gracious. In other books there is a 
 good atmosphere, fresh and fragrant and whole- 
 some, reminding us of pines and hemlocks and 
 
 39 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 winter winds. The writers are not hemmed in 
 by the hedge-fence of custom or the worm- 
 fence of theory, or hampered by little personal 
 conceits, but lead their readers out upon the 
 solid earth of duty and under the open sky of 
 truth. The thing that gives consistency to a 
 book is its plan secondarily, and primarily its 
 author, whose spirit broods over its pages like 
 the spirit of God in creation; and hence above 
 its pages, above its plan, we find the real con- 
 stitution of the book in its author. 
 
 In still other books there is little or no 
 atmosphere. They are close and stuffy and 
 labored. They smell like an unused parlor and 
 look like an ordinary attic. The reader is in 
 dread lest he should bump his head on the 
 rafters, because the writer just elbowed his way 
 through his pages. He had no sweep of vision, 
 no satisfactory system of thought, no soul that 
 could envelop you. You could not breathe 
 freely or feel at home in his chapters because 
 the author's world was low and narrow and 
 mechanical. 
 
 The best book ought to have the best atmos- 
 phere and approximate the ideal in this as in 
 every other respect. The atmosphere of the 
 Bible is sweet and pure and satisfying to the 
 honest heart. It affords breath like the air 
 and vision like the sun. It opens the heavens 
 
 40 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 above us, reveals the earth on which we stand 
 as our present but not our permanent home, 
 and even shows us the hell that yawns beneath 
 the sinful soul. It has length and breadth and 
 height and depth, enabling men to see what 
 they are by nature and what they can be by 
 grace. The Bible never makes evil attractive, 
 directly or indirectly, by accident or implica- 
 tion. It is the book that makes evil look bad 
 and good look good. It is not one book among 
 many, but the one of the many, never being 
 properly placed in comparison with books of 
 human authorship. In the Nineteenth Psalm, 
 David compares the law of God with the works 
 of God in creation, and in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, Jesus says the law is not worn by time 
 like an old coin or like furniture that is often 
 moved, but that it lasts like the heavens and 
 the earth, remaining through the centuries 
 without the loss of jot or tittle by use or even 
 misuse. As God's book and as man's book, 
 having lived through the centuries of the past 
 and having brought life and light to millions, 
 we must look upon it as the freshest and most 
 vital book in existence to-day. 
 
 41 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 IV. 
 
 The union of the visible and the invisible in 
 religious life is marked by a line plain enough 
 for any one to see, just as the voice of the Holy 
 Spirit is loud enough for any one to hear. 
 That line passes through the Christian Sab- 
 bath, the Holy Bible, and the Christian church, 
 all of which belong to the visible and the in- 
 visible. Men can see that line on the calendar 
 on the wall, on the dial of the clock, and in the 
 life of any consistent Christian anywhere. It 
 falls across the pulpit in every Christian church, 
 the center-table in almost every home, and 
 under the very eye of the devout Bible student. 
 It appears wherever a Christian church is 
 built, wherever a congregation meets to wor- 
 ship God or even two or three are gathered in 
 the name of Christ. That line should never be 
 obliterated by worldliness or skepticism in any 
 form, but should remain distinct and visible' 
 without the aid of the pretentious medium, the 
 delusive clairvoyant, or the self-hypnotized 
 Christian Scientist. No man need remain in 
 doubt, since he can see for himself. The king- 
 dom of God, visible and yet invisible, in time 
 and yet eternal, is with us as a fact and a force, 
 becoming visible to men wherever it touches 
 and transforms them. Its power is apparent, 
 
 and the cause must be equal to the effect. 
 
 42 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 God has entered human history and human 
 life, and the next duty for men is not to explain 
 away so great a historic fact and so vital a 
 religious truth, but to adjust themselves to 
 the one and make room in their hearts for the 
 other. The man who stands beside the Christ 
 needs no commentary on the words, "Lay not 
 up for yourselves treasures on earth/' and the 
 man who does not stand there will scarcely be 
 aided by any explanation. Men who minister 
 Christ's pardon and peace, his hope and happi- 
 ness, think less of lower life and lower minis- 
 tries. What the world gives, it soon takes 
 back again, and so the Christ says, "Not as the 
 world giveth give I unto you." Every dollar 
 a man may possess, every acre he owns, every 
 atom of his body belongs to this world and stays 
 right here, whether or not he bestows it by gift 
 or by his last will and testament. "My peace 
 I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," 
 says Jesus as he departs, not recalling his gifts, 
 but intending them to be our permanent pos- 
 session, like other gifts of God. 
 
 The great, good men of the Bible illustrate 
 life on the' basis of Bible truth and teaching. 
 Listen to the brave words of Daniel the man 
 and Daniel the prophet, two characters blending 
 harmoniously in the one person, "Then 
 Daniel answered and said before the king. Let 
 
 43 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards 
 to another." What a fine chance to become 
 rich and great in a moment, and fairly, too, by 
 rendering the king and the nation a trne serv- 
 ice. This opportunity of a lifetime, just what 
 many men are waiting for, sudden wealth and 
 instant greatness, is just what Daniel did not 
 desire. 
 
 But who was this Daniel, that he could afford 
 to reject such an offer? A Hebrew captive in 
 heathen Babylon, a devout man whom the 
 angel Gabriel visited with the most gracious 
 assurances of divine favor, a man of noble 
 birth and noble character, a prophet of the liv- 
 ing God. Not every man is as wise, or knows 
 that devotion to God rises above loyalty to an 
 earthly ruler, or believes that royal manhood 
 outranks earthly honors, outweighs earthly 
 riches, and outlasts both. Not every man who 
 knows all this acts accordingly. Only Daniel's 
 faith makes Daniel's choice, shows Daniel's 
 courage, and shines with Daniel's constancy. 
 
 V. 
 
 The good man is the man God can aid and 
 use. Instead of giving place to the devil, he 
 gives place to God, and God gives place to him. 
 The only place the good man really wants or 
 
 44 
 
Some Sign-Boards 
 
 really can fill is the place God gives him. 
 Seek God, and let honor and office seek you, 
 looks just a little like a sign-board set by Jesus 
 at a certain parting of the ways. Not greatness 
 of place and power, but greatness of soul sat- 
 isfies a soul, and for every great soul there is 
 a place as great and an honor equal to its worth. 
 If this were not true, the friends as well as the 
 enemies of God would here find an argument 
 against him, against his goodness and wisdom 
 and power, against his kingdom and govern- 
 ment, and even against heaven itself, the home 
 of the good, which must be great enough to 
 satisfy the good, however great they may be 
 or become. 
 
 For the good man there is a habit of duty 
 and a helpfulness of duty and a happiness of 
 duty, and he needs all three in their proper pro- 
 portions in order to relieve and finally banish 
 the feeling that duty is too heavy to bear. Like 
 gold, its weight equals its worth, and no man 
 complains of the weight of his purse or delib- 
 erately relieves himself by throwing it away. 
 With even less reason would he cast off duty, 
 since its weight measures its worth to him. 
 
 Duty is an old word too little known, too 
 little cherished, too little loved. Libertinism 
 on one hand and Puritanism on the other must 
 not be allowed to chill our ardor for this old 
 
 45 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 word which we should ever make new and keep 
 fresh in our life, individual and family, social, 
 religious, and political. When it droops or 
 withers, it must be revived and kept vigorous 
 and vital in our morals and religion, for in 
 turn it becomes our keeper. Duty is the high- 
 way of the soul, which is the greater traveler, 
 excelling the body in its movements, however 
 the latter may be aided by modern means; the 
 door of admission into the brotherhood of the 
 spirit where companionship is sweet and true 
 and lasting; the password into the society of 
 right choices and noble decisions to which be- 
 long the good, if not all the great, by their own 
 election and not by ours. Duty is a divine 
 word, written in the Bible and in the heart of 
 man, and when it is set up as a sign-board 
 along life's journey, the honest, earnest traveler 
 learns by happy experience that it marks the 
 tr3^sting-place of God. 
 
 46 
 
The Scepter of the Soul. 
 
 Say no to thyself somewhere, 
 Lest thou never can say thy yes; 
 
 And lest something that 's bright and fair 
 Thy spirit may never possess. 
 
 Say no to thyself just there 
 
 Where thy no by the Christ is placed; 
 For that no means a yes elsewhere, 
 
 And His yes by thee must be traced. 
 
 Say no, to say yes, dear friend. 
 
 That the Christ you may stand beside, 
 
 \Vho said no and then yes to the end 
 That sinners might be justified. 
 
 Say yes, to say no, dear friend. 
 
 Thus to drive out the bad with good; 
 
 To thy heart the desire to lend 
 
 Of Him who for righteousness stood. 
 
 47 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
jforeffleam. 
 
 A plan, like a rose, grows on a stem. A man's 
 purpose is the stem that produces and sustains, 
 gives form, and color, and consistency to his life 
 and character. His purpose is formed in his own 
 mind and then projects itself in his plan, which 
 comes back to bless or burden him — for, from his 
 own creation he draws his inspiration to work, 
 his wisdom in adapting means to ends, and his 
 courage to carry it to completion. On the one side 
 his plan corresponds with his body, and on the 
 other with his spirit. He impresses his plan upon 
 the materials on which he works, but as it rises 
 before his mind he regards it as his ideal, and so, 
 whatever his lot in life, a man should be both a 
 realist and an idealist. 
 
 50 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 Clear ideas like clear water and clear air 
 help us to see to the bottom of things if we 
 are looking down, and to the top if we are 
 looking np, and since we build on the one and 
 in the direction of the other, we need a clear 
 view of both. The seed the farmer sows is 
 the bottom for him, and the harvest he reaps 
 the top. For the architect the finished plan 
 and the completed building occupy these re- 
 spective places. The logician has premises and 
 conclusions in "the orderly procession of his 
 thought." The Christian accepts the Christ 
 as his alpha and omega, his beginning and his 
 end, his foundation and his ideal. 
 
 When they are worked out to their comple- 
 tion, conclusions come at the end, but if they 
 are not to appear accidental and undesirable 
 they must begin at the beginning and stay 
 with us all along the way. In fact, they do this 
 very thing when we are not aware of it, or not 
 until our undefined plans begin to show them- 
 selves in results. Then our minds may clarify 
 till we see our plans like we do the pebbles at 
 
 51 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 the bottom of the spring or the wandering 
 clouds in the sky. Our conclusions are the 
 objects of our thought and purpose and effort, 
 the plans and specifications on which we are 
 working consciously or unconsciously, our ideals 
 in process of realization. No wonder we are 
 concerned about them from the beginning as 
 well as at the end, for they are shaped like 
 crystals in solution, and once forified are not 
 easily changed. The man who takes good care 
 of his farm or his business may discover that 
 he has neglected himself shamefully. The 
 woman who shows up well before the glass may 
 be lean in soul and angular in spirit. Both 
 may make the sad discovery at the end of life 
 that they have reached no desirable conclusion, 
 while both can testify to the logical outcome 
 of their chosen course of conduct. 
 
 It may seem like a heavy burden to lay upon 
 childhood to anticipate its own future and pre- 
 pare for it, to form some idea of itself as it is 
 and as it shall be, to dream prophetically of its 
 own life and work and attainments. This bur- 
 den may appear less onerous when we remem- 
 ber that moral sense in childhood is clear and 
 convincing, that the elements of worthy life are 
 not at all mysterious, but quite plain, appear- 
 ing in settled precept and living example, and 
 that low ideal may be lifted, and impending 
 
 52 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 defeat turned into glorious victory. The 
 farmer who faces the soil has no better chance 
 to raise a good crop than has the Christian who 
 faces the Christ to form a good character. We 
 owe a debt of gratitude to King Solomon for 
 this sentence: "This is the end of the matter; 
 all hath been heard : Fear God, and keep his 
 commandments; for this is the whole duty of 
 man." This simplifies things for us and en- 
 ables us to see clearer. It says something that 
 needed saying, and says it in the best way. 
 "The end of the matter"; yes, that must be 
 considered in the catechism and in the count- 
 ing house, in the kitchen and in the pulpit, at 
 the end and at the beginning, and all the way 
 through from the beginning to the end. 
 
 II. 
 
 , If we really could put the end all at the end, 
 as many try to do, what real connection would 
 the end have with the rest of life? What con- 
 nection would it have with the mind and char- 
 acter of the man? If a bad man were to wake 
 up good at the end of life, he might easily think 
 he was not really himself and be able to prove 
 it. Oak lumber grew as oak. Conclusions are 
 in the warp as well as the woof of the fabric, 
 and so a man must learn about conclusions very 
 
 53 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 early in life, and even before he knows anything 
 concerning them his parents or guardians must 
 know something for him. 
 
 Some men have more right decisions at the 
 beginning than others have at the end of life, 
 a sort of self-imposed handicap for the latter 
 and a very important addition to the resources 
 of the former. Worldly men regard themselves 
 winners in the game of life and not losers, 
 gaining time to do their own pleasure, oppor- 
 tunity to use means destructive to Christian 
 character, and as a sort of offset relying on the 
 good Lord in a general way to save their souls 
 at the proper time. Even some professing 
 Christians seem to be infected with this view, 
 and try to see how much of duty and truth 
 and righteousness they can surrender and still 
 be regarded as Christians. A little truth may 
 be kept to make much error respectable, or a 
 little error may remain while much truth 
 holds sway and steadily roots out the remaining 
 error. 
 
 A Christian may appear to be weak and 
 emaciated, and actually be weak and even feel 
 that he is weak because he is half Christian 
 and half worldling. He is a compromise meas- 
 ure and not an original resolution. In this 
 respect he is unlike the Christ, who is the way 
 and the truth and the life without ifs or ands 
 
 54 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 or buts. No modifiers are needed to tone down 
 his words concerning himself, and no commen- 
 tary to tone them up or lend them meaning. 
 He came to save men who need to be saved and 
 to present them before God without spot or 
 wrinkle or any such thing. A great task, that ! 
 but he is working in earnest and with great 
 success replacing man's weakness with his 
 strength, man's compromises with his com- 
 pleteness. 
 
 Christians may cavil at the word "perfect" 
 found in the Bible, but the fact that Jesus 
 used it, and used it as a test of character, 
 should be sufficient to impress them with its 
 present worth and practical importance. Men 
 apply it in their own affairs with their own 
 interpretation. They have their plan or ideal, 
 and when they succeed, even measurably, in 
 working it out they are willing to call it perfec- 
 tion. They apply their standard, — every way 
 of man is right in his own eyes, — and so the 
 Christ applies his standard to the Christian 
 who works out his ideal, and no better word 
 can be found for the result than the one the 
 Bible uses. 
 
 There is a nice way of obeying the Christ in 
 appearance and yet doing as we please, of fol- 
 lowing him and yet setting a limit to our devo- 
 tion, of believing in him and yet working out 
 
 55 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 our own ideals. We fit our salvation into our 
 selfishness as a useful part, affording comfort 
 in sorrow, security in danger, and respectability 
 any time it is needed. If the Christ is accepted 
 as our personal Savior, it is only to save us 
 from sins we select; if he is welcomed as our 
 Lord, it is with the reservation of the veto 
 power. On these terms our Christ becomes our 
 servant waiting on our wish rather than our 
 Savior, our assistant to aid in time of need 
 rather than our Lord. The Christ of God 
 came to minister and not to be ministered unto, 
 to minister to manhood that the sinful and 
 broken may be saved and perfected. This is 
 the work of God, that ye believe on him whom 
 he hath sent, that ye respond to the Christ as 
 one sent by God, that ye receive him as his 
 person deserves and his work requires. He 
 comes as Savior, and so men must be saved by 
 him, and as Lord, and so men must be ruled by 
 him. The fiber of the Christian, like the grain 
 of the oak, belongs to his growth and reveals 
 not only orthodoxy or the acceptance of a creed, 
 not only respectability or conformity to custom, 
 but the hearty acceptance of the Christ as his 
 ideal who is to become real in himself to the 
 very limit of his capacity. 
 
 56 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 III. 
 
 A man does not become a God by being an 
 imitator of God, as Paul commands, or. by be- 
 coming like the Christ, as John declares he 
 shall be when he shall see him as he is. Man 
 has human nature and not divine nature, and 
 Jesus shows us that human nature carried to 
 heaven is human still. When the Bible tells 
 us that God created man in his own image, it 
 does not say that man can attain to deity or 
 take the place of God. It does say, by the pen 
 of Peter, that he can become a partaker of the 
 divine nature through the promises. In fact, 
 the Bible shows that he is not a complete 
 man, not all he can and ought to be, not even 
 on the way to become his best until he is a 
 godl}^ man. 
 
 On the other hand, the Bible shows that 
 when Jesus became man he continued to be 
 God. Possessing both a human and a divine 
 nature, we call him the God-man, no other shar- 
 ing his place with him. He is able therefore 
 to act for both and to represent both. In his 
 life and work he fulfills the law of God as a 
 man, meets the need of man as sinful and 
 salvable, and the result is atonement. In the 
 person of Jesus Christ, God is seen in loving 
 relation with man, and man is seen in perfect 
 harmony with God. 
 
 57 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 This great religious truth realized by an indi- 
 vidual in his own personal experience bears 
 the name "regeneration" when we call attention 
 to the new life of the believer; "conversion" 
 when we think of his change of front in order 
 to his change of heart; "salvation" when we 
 consider his rescue from a lost condition, his 
 restoration to a right life and the favor of God. 
 There are progressive steps in the salvation of 
 any man, but they all lead on to perfection, the 
 partial pointing to the complete Christian, the 
 immature to the perfect. Full salvation, or the 
 complete surrender of the will to God, may be 
 attained slowly through years of personal ex- 
 perience, but should never be deferred to old 
 age or regarded unbecoming to the young man 
 or the young woman. An hour approaches, 
 however distant, when a full surrender of the 
 will must be made by each and all and a full 
 salvation realized, and that hour may come to 
 the young as well as the old — then shall the 
 spirit return to God who gave it. If full sub- 
 mission is commendable in a dying hour, and 
 if this is the condition on which the dying 
 man receives dying grace, of which we often 
 hear, may it not be the condition of receiving 
 a living grace equally valuable? At any point 
 in life we might expect to find above an open 
 heart an open heaven. 
 
 58 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 A full surrender to God or a foul surrender 
 to Satan are the alternatives before every man. 
 Look ever so carefully, he will find no really 
 neutral ground in morals, no other path, no 
 third person. Therefore, men must know God 
 in order to love him, and Satan in order to 
 beware of him; see God in Jesus Christ and 
 Satan in anybody who gets between them and 
 God. No one has any legitimate business there, 
 and Satan is the one who conducts an illegiti- 
 mate business, his servants sharing this with 
 him, as the servants of God share his kingdom 
 and his work. 
 
 When a Christian can say, "If I ought to do 
 this duty then I want to do it," he has within 
 him the soul of obedience. He never needs to 
 become empty and hollow and finally collapse. 
 He has resisting power, and the one effectual 
 barrier to the evil outside seeking entrance and 
 control is his will to be good sustained by the 
 will of God. This arrangement commends it, 
 since a man should always have his will with 
 him, his will to resist wrong and do right, and 
 in that case he finds God present and in full 
 sympathy with him. 
 
 Men may think they can lift duty off the 
 basis of divine command enforced by human 
 conscience and build it upon personal conveni- 
 ence supported by human custom. This home 
 
 59 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 product in morals and religion may be admired 
 like a new style in dress and even become popu- 
 lar. We should not forget, however, that right 
 and wrong are not engaged in a little game of 
 "pussy wants a corner," each changing places 
 with the other at the first opportunity or vary- 
 ing with the change of public opinion. Our 
 reason and our conscience, aided by the prom- 
 ised guidance of the Holy Spirit, will keep us 
 true to the old order, which is very durable and 
 sufficiently ornate. 
 
 The wise man thinks less of the ashes under 
 his grate than of the bright, warm fire in it, 
 and our thoughts should dwell less on the 
 ashes of life, the residuum left after each day 
 of service, till the soul takes its departure, and 
 more on the flame of our spiritual existence, 
 just as the mind of Moses was fixed on the 
 burning bush because the bush was not con- 
 sumed and no ashes formed. That was life 
 without residuum, wonderful to him and to 
 us. How wonderful that the infinite God can 
 create a finite being who can have the infinite 
 God as the object of his thought and affection ! 
 He can have and he must have. Nothing short 
 "of deity will satisfy this finite creature; noth- 
 inoj less than the infinite God: and so we dis- 
 cover an element of the infinite in the finite, a 
 thread of divine glory in our human nature. 
 
 60 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Christian who has duty plainly before 
 him, knows just where to strike and then 
 shows a disposition to glance off, is not quite 
 in earnest. His religion is a secondary matter, 
 and his glancing strokes are dangerous to him- 
 self and others. He should adopt a creed that 
 is practical and personal, the individual "I'' 
 taking the place of the customary and collective 
 "we" and the more distant "they" so convenient 
 in conversation of a certain type. He should 
 have clear ideas in religion, and as an aid to 
 this end the following is offered by way of sug- 
 gestion : 
 
 1. I accept the Christ of the New Testa- 
 ment as my Savior and Lord; the Holy Spirit 
 as my guide into all truth and my Comforter 
 at all times ; God the Father as revealed by the 
 Christ and the Holy Spirit as the object of 
 my worship. 
 
 2. I take the four Gospels to tell me how 
 to be saved from sin, the Acts to show me how 
 to be sanctified, the twenty-one epistles to teach 
 me how to grow in the grace and knowledge of 
 the Christ, the Eevelation to John to give me 
 a vision of the ascended Christ, of the future 
 history of the Christian church, and of my own 
 future home; and I take the whole Bible to 
 
 61 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 reveal to me the will of God as the law of my 
 life here and hereafter. 
 
 3. I claim the peace of God as my present 
 and permanent possession; the love of God as 
 my motive in the inner circulation of my life 
 and also in its outer activities ; the glory of God 
 as my ambition; the people of God as my peo- 
 ple, and the kingdom of God as the field of my 
 life and labor. 
 
 Our creeds should shape and also show our 
 convictions, and our convictions, like our bones, 
 should remain with us. Right convictions 
 never need changing, and, like our bones, they 
 should not be fractured or broken. They should 
 grow with us ' in size and strength and useful- 
 ness, and be the basis of mental and moral 
 action corresponding with the basis of mus- 
 cular action of the body. Of course, we never 
 needlessly exhibit our bones, but respectfully 
 cover them with the soft flesh of courtesy and 
 keep them warm with the lifeblood of kindness. 
 As nature makes a mighty effort to repair a 
 broken bone, so should a man to restore a frac- 
 tured conviction. Two hundred and eight 
 bones are required to equip a human body, and 
 about as many settled beliefs or convictions to 
 give form and strength and consistency to a 
 man as a mental and moral and religious unit. 
 
 62 
 
Co7icerning Conclusions 
 
 As there is a place for every conviction, so 
 every conviction should be in its place. 
 
 Our creeds, whatever they may be, eventually 
 become our convictions, and are not simply the 
 formal expression of them. Hence we do well 
 to continue to "believe and confess before all 
 men.'' They are not sign-boards pointing to 
 roads we do not intend to travel, unpleasant 
 conclusions we seek to escape, ideals which we 
 regard futile or false, but symbols of truth, 
 expressions of life, embodied spirits, our creeds 
 becoming our convictions even as the Word 
 became flesh and dwelt among us. 
 
 V. 
 
 A shabby character is worse than shabby 
 clothes beyond all comparison, but both are 
 sure to become shabby unless the owner keeps 
 them in repair. Like good clothes, good char- 
 acter tends to scuff and wear out. It evolves 
 downward instead of upward unless men make 
 special provision for the upward evolution. 
 This is a historic fact, even if it looks a trifle 
 like a dogmatic declaration. The body fails 
 by reason of disease and injury, by accident 
 and old age, and clothes lose buttons, need 
 patches in out-of-the-way places, and frequently 
 the old suit must give place to a whole new out- 
 
 63 
 
"Parables for the People 
 
 fit. However proper and becoming it is for a 
 good man to be well dressed, ordinary clothes 
 cannot reduce the real worth of an extraordi- 
 nary man. Were men and women required by 
 law to wear clothes that matched their charac- 
 ters, to be in appearance what they are in fact, 
 what a revolution would be wrought ! With 
 no chance for argument and deception, the 
 rogue in business and society, in church and 
 state would think the judgment day had come, 
 while the honest man would rejoice in his in- 
 tegrity as well as in his clothes. The convict 
 would stick to his stripes or his stripes would 
 stick to him. The smooth rascal who always 
 passed for a gentleman would find a new job 
 and a new set of friends. Here and there an 
 innocent man, falsely accused and unfortu- 
 nately condemned, would say triumphantly, "I 
 told you so." Of course, this will do to think 
 about, but it is not likely to take place till 
 Gabriel sounds his trumpet, and in the mean- 
 time men must take life as it is. 
 
 In fact, life is just a course in a kinder- 
 garten. Men and women have their object 
 lessons and are called upon to learn from the 
 most ordinary tasks and experiences a wisdom 
 that is above the ordinary and which is abso- 
 lutely necessary in order to happiness and well- 
 being. If they fail to learn wisdom from the 
 
 64 
 
Concerning Conclusions 
 
 ordinary duties of life, for example, to keep 
 their feet securely on the plain, solid earth of 
 fact and truth, to discover an agreeable variety 
 amid the apparent monotony of life, to see how 
 the meanest duty is related to the most impor- 
 tant, these duties will become uninteresting 
 and even repulsive. 
 
 In the well-regulated home, the ash-pan must 
 be carefully carried out every morning and 
 emptied on the ash-pile. Ashes are inert and 
 lie where they fall unless lifted by somebody 
 or some breeze, or as often occurs both go to 
 work at the same time without premeditation 
 or any real cooperation. Ashes are considered 
 a symbol of mourning, but the contents of the 
 pan may blow all over you without reference 
 to your sorrows, and you are very likely to 
 forget the symbol while contending with the 
 real stuff. But let us remember that we are 
 optimists and prefer to think of the one who 
 carries out the ashes as having sweet com- 
 munion with common things, observing the 
 changing air currents between the kitchen door 
 and the ash-pile and rejoicing that his work 
 brightens the fire in the grate and hurries up 
 the coffee on the cook-stove. 
 
 At last we see that while we are practical 
 we must be philosophical; while we are useful 
 we must be poetical; while we are realistic we 
 
 5 65 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 m st be idealistic; and as between the realism 
 and the idealism of the man with the ash-pan 
 and the author of the ordinary work of fiction, 
 give me that of the man with the ash-pan. 
 There is something so substantial and ordinary, 
 so wholesome and homelike abont it. It be- 
 longs to real life, and that is the only kind that 
 becomes ideal. The only path to the ideal for 
 any of ns is through the real, and that path is 
 open to the housekeeper and the farmer, as well 
 as to the preacher and the poet. Any one who 
 can be real in himself, real in any sphere of life 
 and labor, real in his relation to man and God, 
 can also be ideal, and ought to do it. The 
 ability brings with it the obligation. The man 
 who wishes to be ideal, wisely begins by being 
 real. He easily assures himself of this fact 
 by personal experience and careful observation, 
 and comes to the conclusion that the real man 
 is the only one who develops naturally and nec- 
 essarily into the ideal man, and that this con- 
 clusion is not less clear to the mind than to 
 the eye are the pebbles at the bottom of the 
 crystal waters of the spring or the bright stars 
 in the depths of the cloudless midnight sky. 
 
 66 
 
The Bird px the Topmost Limb. 
 
 I saw a bird with a glossy coat 
 
 Fly up to the topmost limb 
 Of a tree so tall that as I looked 
 
 My head soon began to swim. 
 
 That bird in black chose that very limb 
 
 Of all in that graceful tree; 
 And seemed at rest at that altitude — 
 
 It never would do for me. 
 
 Admiring th' bird on the topmost limb, 
 I thought how faint I would be 
 
 To take that place, were it strong enough, 
 The top of that poplar tree. 
 
 But I must rise to the topmost limb 
 
 Of some tall tree, I am sure; 
 The tree of life with its topmost branch. 
 
 And there I must rest secure. 
 
 A duty high, none beside so high; 
 
 A day beyond which is none 
 For me on earth; but only an hour 
 
 When my life and work are done. 
 
 The courage shown on the swaying limb 
 
 My courage must emulate, 
 When I shall rise to that solemn hour. 
 
 With all of my little weight. 
 
 I can, I know, be just as secure 
 As th' bird on the topmost limb, 
 
 If, with my friend of the glossy coat, 
 I have wings and feet like him. 
 
 By faith will I walk and not by sight, 
 (Her visions my eyes shall greet;) 
 
 And offer my prayer more fervently 
 For faith as my wings and feet. 
 
 67 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
iFotegleam* 
 
 A method, like a coat, is made for individual 
 use and, of course, should fit the man who is in- 
 side. The method a man adopts or constructs fits 
 close enough to show the outlines of his figure, 
 what he is and shall be, and even the presiding 
 principle in his mind. From the moral and relig- 
 ious standpoint there are two methods — that of 
 worldly wisdom, based on appearance and force, 
 and that of divine wisdom, based on truth and 
 gentleness. Men take their pick. Some, however, 
 try to combine the two, but eventually discover 
 that they cannot work two methods any better 
 than they can serve two masters, that a man's 
 method often accounts for his efficiency or ineffi- 
 ciency, his success or failure, and that only the 
 man himself fully accounts for his method. 
 
 70 
 
Cbe Q^eaning of QietfioD 
 
 The hand of the engineer lays hold of the 
 locomotive at the throttle-valve, the air-brake, 
 and the reverse lever, and not at the wrist-pin. 
 There is a world of difference. Intelligence 
 tells at the throttle, while force rules at the 
 wrist-pin, and no man could imagine that his 
 arm of flesh is stronger than that ribbed arm 
 of steel which transmits from the cylinder to 
 the drive-wheels a power measured by pressure 
 to the square inch. The engineer governs his 
 machine by means of its own force and mech- 
 anism. His task is to direct the power har- 
 nessed under his control, moving his machine 
 forward or backward, increasing its speed or 
 slowing down and bringing it to a full stop. 
 His strength is never pitted against that of his 
 machine, or lent to it, however heavy the grade 
 or ponderous the train to which it has been 
 coupled. He is not needed at the wrist-pin, 
 but takes his place in the cab where intelligence 
 tells and reason ought to reign. 
 
 The ordinary man resembles the locomotive 
 in action, if not in appearance, being con- 
 
 71 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 structed with reference to motion. His desires 
 and motives, his aims and ambitions, and even 
 his likes and dislikes are steam in the boiler. 
 He generally carries a few pounds for ordinary 
 use, but must fire up before he can move very 
 fast or very far. His will is the engineer who 
 governs the man, or rather the man who gov- 
 erns himself, and when he does so we name this 
 power of self-control his will, which is a great 
 convenience to his friends and no inconvenience 
 to him. He keeps his desires and ambitions, 
 his aims and motives, and even his likes and 
 dislikes under control, using them for his own 
 advancement and avoiding open switches and a 
 thousand other causes of accident. When a 
 man gets tired governing himself according to 
 the law of God and his own constitution and 
 seeks relief, or what he generally calls "free- 
 dom," by throwing the reins of self-control on 
 the neck of desire, thus permitting desire to 
 develop into passion, the passion for pleasure, 
 whieh comes easy and early, or the passion for 
 stimulating drinks and drugs, which comes by 
 careless cultivation, or the passion for money, 
 which comes naturally and increases with suc- 
 cess in a regular geometrical progression, he 
 loses hold of the open throttle, the air-brake, 
 and the reverse lever, and if he tries to save 
 himself, as he often does, by laying hold of the 
 
 72 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 revolving wrist-pin of the evil consequences of 
 his folly, he feels quite sure of an impending 
 wreck, and that somebody will be hurt. For 
 once he is a prophet and foretells his own 
 future, and that of any other man in his con- 
 dition. A mantis part headlight, and not all 
 will, but his headlight is often smashed by his 
 will. As a matter of business and safety, if 
 not of morality and religion, a man ought to 
 know himself like a competent engineer knows 
 his locomotive, or be content to get back in the 
 train like a common gondola or box-car to be 
 pulled by a safe leader. He must know how 
 to regulate and shut off the steam of desire 
 and ambition, how to slow down on the curves 
 and down grades, how to use the reverse lever 
 in case of emergency by an act of quick intelli- 
 gence and heroic will, and, in short, to apply 
 his mental power and physical strength where 
 they will do the most good. He must know 
 himself as he is known and enter into the de- 
 sign of his Builder and Maker in order to 
 insure "a safe run." 
 
 II. 
 
 The word "how ?" with a question mark after 
 it, may call out the whole story of a man's 
 virility and success. His method accounts for 
 his work, quality and quantity, and even the 
 
 73 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 man himself, notwithstanding the fact that he 
 first originates or adopts his method to aid him 
 in his work, adopting, of course, a method in 
 keeping with his character and his aim in life. 
 His method faithfully reflects the man at the 
 moment of his choice. It is a "snap-shot," and 
 may become a picture of "long exposure" or 
 even a composite picture true to life at many 
 times, and so at any time. A study of methods 
 is therefore a study of men from one point of 
 view, and a very good one, too, for it shows 
 them as they are and not simply posing. 
 Method becomes the useful little straw that 
 shows which way the wind blows in a man's 
 life, the personal quality in his handwriting 
 that attests the genuineness of his signature, 
 the finger-print that individualizes him beyond 
 doubt or question. 
 
 Generally there is more than one way of 
 doing things, but we naturally suppose there 
 is one way easier and better than any other. 
 The marksman can miss the bullseye at the 
 top or bottom or on either side, but to hit it 
 requires a center shot. There are a thousand 
 ways of doing pretty nearly right, but only one 
 of doing right. Two and two make four, and 
 three and one are four, and in either case the 
 one result is as good as the other. A hundred 
 other ways of reaching the same result would 
 
 74 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 be perfectly legitimate as a mathematical pro- 
 cess. Two millions plus two millions are four 
 millions, which may represent respectively the 
 actual investment in dollars of some famous 
 financier and the actual proceeds of his legiti- 
 mate business, or it may represent the original 
 capital with an equal amount added by means 
 of capitalization to reduce the rate of interest 
 on the investment, but not the actual income 
 of the owner, and also to double the price of 
 stock, if not its value. The greatest financiers 
 wish to be agreeable and levy their tolls in the 
 nicest possible way. They evidently prefer to 
 violate no law of the land and to be considered 
 fairly respectful to the Ten Commandments. 
 Judges and juries, the press and the people, 
 the state and the church, are all trying to make 
 up their minds on this new subject in finance 
 and morals. The science of mathematics never 
 assumes the right to relieve moral beings of 
 moral responsibility. Two and two make four, 
 and the moral teacher cheerfully accepts the 
 result from the mathematician and the finan- 
 cier, but he asks a like courtesy when he goes 
 back of the figures to take a look at the method 
 by which and the man by whom this result was 
 secured. The financier must not recklessly re- 
 solve to rule the moralist out of court, for both 
 are responsible to government, human and di- 
 
 75 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 vine, and mathematics should therefore keep 
 step with morality. When the financier claims 
 the right to sell beef and coal and oil at his own 
 price, he makes his mathematics rather than 
 his morality the architect of his fortune. 
 
 We all know what we think of the preacher 
 who by his profession, if not by his superior 
 knowledge of religious truth, seeks to overreach 
 his people. Instinctively the old word "hypo- 
 crite" comes into use again, though scribe and 
 Pharisee are long dead. The physician who 
 uses his greater knowledge of medicine to de- 
 lude his patients or fill his pocketbook deserves 
 to be called a "quack." The lawyer who finds 
 means to fleece his clients or thwart justice by 
 means of his knowledge of law bears the name, 
 "shyster." In this first decade of the twentieth 
 century, men are trying to make up their minds 
 as to what they think of the financier who uses 
 his superior knowledge of business for selfish 
 ends, and abuses the confidence of the people 
 in order to make a fortune, and do it quickly. 
 The word trembles on our lips. It must be 
 spoken soon, for it is needed for immediate 
 use. This one creature unknown in that earlier 
 age was unnamed by Adam in Eden. Satan 
 uses his superior knowledge to delude and de- 
 stroy men, while the Christ uses his to save 
 and sanctify them, and the Christian, be he 
 
 76 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 financier, lawyer, pliysician, or preacher, must 
 work out the Christian and not the satanic 
 idea, and no amount of profession or profes- 
 sionalism can cover up bad practices or atone 
 for bad principles. 
 
 The man of money must be the man of 
 morals and of manhood as well as of mathe- 
 matics. He must keep manhood in view, his 
 own and that of his employee, for the two stand 
 or fall together. If he respects manhood in 
 himself, he will respect it in other men, and 
 if he neglects it in others he will neglect it in 
 himself. Manhood will rise and money sink 
 in his estimation as he learns from the Man of 
 Galilee, who knew his own worth as a man and 
 who placed the highest possible estimate on 
 every other man. Here only can the financier 
 learn to keep his mathematics in right relation 
 to his morals, and subordinate money to man- 
 hood in shaping and applying his method. 
 
 III. 
 
 A piece of fine philosophy held and advocated 
 by a small class of religious teachers and just 
 a few others as a matter of convenience, needs 
 to be considered with care, however respectable 
 its origin or plausible its appearance. This 
 doctrine generally passes unchallenged, else it 
 
 77 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 would not pass at all. But here it is, and being 
 of age it shall speak for itself. 
 
 As good men and true, we are charged to 
 enter into conflict with sin, but not the sin- 
 ner, the wrong but not the wrong-doer; to 
 resist the evil method but not the evil man, the 
 policy but not the perpetrator. As good men 
 and true, we are likely to hold the opinion that 
 a sin and a wrong, a method and a policy, 
 however evil and injurious, remain quite harm- 
 less and inactive so long as they are not adopted 
 and worked out by some man. Could we con- 
 ceive of them existing in the middle of a ten- 
 acre field, they would work no hardship there, 
 for the evil only begins when some man adopts 
 them as his own and brings them forth to foist 
 and force them upon society. 
 
 As good men and true, we are charged to 
 hate the sin but love the sinner, and this we 
 cheerfully do in the fond hope that the two are 
 not inseparable. Under the leadership of love 
 we must try to save the sinner from his sin, but 
 in case the sinner loves his sin we cannot love 
 him for loving his sin, and in case his love for 
 his sin becomes supreme, little room is left for 
 our love to act upon the sinner's heart, however 
 much may be in our own. When Ephraim is 
 joined to his idols, let him alone, says Hosea. 
 He looks upon the sin and the sinner as insep- 
 
 78 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 arable, and love is without opportunity when 
 the two have become one. 
 
 Ezekiel records the words of the covenant 
 God of Israel, "The soul that sinneth it shall 
 die." Here the sinner appears as a sinner, and 
 men are not permitted to know his particular 
 sin or separate it even in thought from the 
 perpetrator. The prophet tells nothing of the 
 temptations under which that soul labors, the 
 circumstances which might be offered in ex- 
 tenuation of its acts or the much-mooted ex- 
 cuse that others were guilty of the very same 
 sins. His word is the declaration of individual 
 responsibilit}^, universal in its scope and indi- 
 vidual in its application. The method of 
 excuse and palliation and extenuation should 
 never be confused with the method of mercy 
 and goodness and grace, or put forward as a 
 substitute for salvation. Solomon asserts that 
 "though hand join in hand the evil man shall 
 not be unpunished." Men may belong to the 
 club or corporation or even the church, but in- 
 toxicating drinks will still intoxicate, neglect 
 or misuse of the Sabbath day is still desecra- 
 tion, and, in short, sin against God is still sin, 
 however common and customary. 
 
 Jesus knew the difference between sin and 
 sinner as well as any religious teacher who has 
 yet appeared, but we never find him looking 
 
 79 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 for sin anywhere except in a being capable of 
 obeying and also of disobeying God. With him, 
 vice, like virtue, seems exceedingly personal. 
 When he looked upon the wayward Peter and 
 called him back to himself by way of repent- 
 ance, he showed his perfect knowledge of hu- 
 man nature, following up his first act by a 
 second not less important in the restoration of 
 his disciple to his favor, as he asks the pathetic 
 question, "Lovest thou me?" Love me so that 
 my love may be unhindered by your heart. 
 Only when this personal relationship is re- 
 stored completely does the mind of the Master 
 rest, for only then could the mind of his dis- 
 ciple rest once more. To his unreasonable and 
 unrelenting opponents he said earnestly and 
 openly, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
 hypocrites." Being the truth, he could say no 
 less. They were one with their sin, one with 
 error in the very presence of truth, and love 
 no longer had any way of entrance or place of 
 rest in their hearts. "Woe unto you," are his 
 stinging words, and not simply, "Woe unto 
 your evil ways and deceptive policy and grace- 
 less method." 
 
 In the fineness of his philosophy, no Chris- 
 tian can afford to part company with Jesus 
 or set aside the wisdom of God revealed in his 
 Word and applied by his Spirit. 
 
 80 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 IV. 
 
 That virtue is individual and personal tries 
 our faith far less than to believe that vice fits 
 a man so closely. It is pleasanter and easier 
 to own that goodness takes possession of a man, 
 forming his will and filling his thoughts, than 
 to admit that evil holds the same place and 
 does the same work. But excellence of char- 
 acter, like defeat, is more than a garment to 
 be laid aside or resumed at pleasure. Evil, like 
 good, radiates from the center of the man. 
 Hence the men of the Bible are not merely 
 characters like those of the novel or the drama, 
 which are carefully described in appearance and 
 attractively represented in action, but real per- 
 sons with moral quality plainly set forth and 
 religious life clearly depicted. These higher 
 categories of being are not left empty or 
 enigmatical. No uninspired writer has ever 
 given us so deep and true a view of human 
 nature as it is, and as it ought to be, covering 
 the whole range of life from the lowest depths 
 of vice to the highest altitudes of virtue. 
 
 When children in school "copy" and so pass 
 on in their course of study without really learn- 
 ing their lessons, they suffer two consequences : 
 They fail to secure the education they appear 
 to be working for, and they succeed in getting 
 
 6 81 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 what they do not desire — serious trouble on the 
 ever-recurring examination days. In like man- 
 ner Christians who copy other Christians fail to 
 learn the lessons of life as taught in God's 
 Word, by his good providence, and by his Holy 
 Spirit. Such Christians do as other Christians 
 do, their chosen examples seldom being the best 
 in sight, and at this point the Christian copyist 
 falls below the child in school. By copying 
 they fail to attain, each for himself, a satis- 
 factory religious life, and the days of trial find 
 them unprepared for trouble. Will they fail 
 in the frequent tests of life? Can they copy 
 at the final examination on the day of judg- 
 ment? or is the wisdom of that day the same 
 as this and every other, all crying out in unison, 
 "Christian, don't copy, but learn for yourself 
 the lesson of life while you may" ? 
 
 Grold-plated Christians are less valuable and 
 less durable than the solid kind who need no 
 alloy to harden them for use, but wear all the 
 better for being in the neighborhood of twenty- 
 four carats fine. The pure in heart are able to 
 see God in the Bible, in the Christ, in the Holy 
 Spirit, and wherever he is to be seen by men. 
 The Christian sees God especially in the Holy 
 Spirit, who is to him a person of prime impor- 
 tance, having convicted him of sin, of right- 
 eousness, and of judgment like any ordinary 
 
 82 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 sinner, and then comforted him and guided 
 him into all truth like any ordinary saint. His 
 method of dealing with men is individual and 
 personal and becomes exceedingly interesting 
 and instructive. Any man can discover where 
 the Spirit classes him, whether with sinners to 
 be convicted and saved or with saints to be 
 comforted and guided. JSTo man need be in 
 doubt concerning his place before God. There 
 is a meaning in the divine method of dealing 
 with men, and early in life and once for all 
 they should learn to know its significance, since 
 it is the wisdom of God applied to the individ- 
 ual and personal need of each one, whatever 
 be his spiritual state or standing, and since 
 the proving of our faith is more precious than 
 gold, though it be tried with fire. 
 
 The selfishness of one man can hardly be 
 harmonized with that of another for any con- 
 siderable period of time, and must, therefore, 
 bring the two into conflict and personal oppo- 
 sition. Xo intelligent man expects this prin- 
 ciple to be universally applicable or to be for- 
 ever enforced for his personal convenience. 
 Only when he is deluded by some selfish desire 
 which controls him inside and out does he 
 really believe others expect him to do just as 
 he is doing. Eventually the odds will be 
 against him, and in favor of the man of Chris- 
 
 83 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 tian principle who is not only unselfish but also 
 sacrificial. Though he was rich, yet for our 
 sakes the Christ became poor; while he pos- 
 sessed divine power, he refused to call for angel 
 deliverers, but gave himself over to the cross; 
 throughout his life he always did those things 
 that were pleasing to God the Father. The 
 Christian still rules his own heart, but he rules 
 it in the name of the Holy Trinity. The Baby- 
 lonian Nebuchadnezzar ate considerable grass 
 before he knew that "the heavens do rule," and 
 this old ruler, so proud of the city he built, 
 may have a wider relationship than we are 
 accustomed to think. Two ideals as different 
 as the worlding's and the Christian's can 
 hardly flourish in the same heart or home while 
 oil and water refuse to mix, and if we adopt 
 the Christian's ideal we must claim the Chris- 
 tian's assistant, for the Holy Spirit is the liv- 
 ing link between the Christian, the Holy Bible, 
 and the Holv God. 
 
 V. 
 
 The mythical theory of Strauss, first pub- 
 lished in 1835, startled the Christian world. 
 The legendary theory of Eenan, issued in 1863, 
 won many adherents, of whom a remnant may 
 still be found. But the gifted Frenchman 
 
 84 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 looks more legendary to ns to-day, and the great 
 German more mythical than the Christ, who 
 stands many centuries farther from us in his- 
 tory, but nearer in fact and in person, being 
 real to us in all that makes men agreeably real 
 — fine intelligence linked with good will, sweet 
 sympathy associated with right moral purpose, 
 and deep devotion to man corresponding to 
 his devotion to God. The Christian of to-day 
 must therefore be real, and not mythical or 
 legendary. He must be clearly defined to the 
 eye of reason and genuinely solid to the touch 
 of faith. He is described in the Bible, and 
 even illustrated. He is charted there and can 
 be found like a lighthouse. Not a floating 
 island, not a cloud without rain, not salt with- 
 out savor, but the very core of reality, being 
 real at the center where he touches God and 
 at the circumference where he meets his fellow- 
 man. Being filled with all the fullness of God 
 and protected by his providential care, he can 
 neither collapse from within nor be crushed 
 from without. 
 
 The center of the earth is inside of itself, 
 the center of its weight and also its rotation on 
 its axis, but the center of its motion in its orbit 
 is in the sun. Likewise the center of a man 
 is in himself, being a real unit and making his 
 own choices, but when he chooses the Christ, 
 
 85 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 and is chosen by the Christ, then he centers in 
 the Son of God. The Bible shows ns God in 
 relation to men and men in relation to God, 
 and no age, no theory, no philosophy should 
 ever be permitted to obscure this vision of life 
 and being. The Hebrew poet declares of the 
 covenant God, "Thou wilt show me the path 
 of life," while Jesus asserts concerning the 
 Holy Spirit, "He shall guide you into all 
 truth," and so guidance and goodness are no 
 longer doubtful questions, but certainties of 
 the most comfortable kind. Men need a guide 
 who knows human life from infancy to old 
 age ; who knows its proper course and outcome ; 
 who knows man's weakness and remembers that 
 he is dust; who knows his ambitions and also 
 his limitations; who knows us each as individ- 
 uals and never loses us in the multitude; who 
 knows us personally and deeper and wider and 
 higher than we know ourselves. Wonderful it 
 is to have such a guide, but without him we 
 are adrift on an unknown sea. 
 
 If this interpretation of the meaning of 
 method is found to be scriptural, then experi- 
 ence will show that it is sensible; if it teaches 
 us not to copy and counterfeit as Christians, it 
 also urges us to be genuine and genuinely good ; 
 if it deals with the man as well as with the 
 method, it is because of the necessity of the 
 
 86 
 
The Meaning of Method 
 
 case; if it soon loses sight of the wrist-pin, it 
 is because it seeks to give every man a firm hold 
 of the throttle-valve, the air-brake, and the 
 reverse lever. 
 
 87 
 
A Miracle to Eemember. 
 
 Bring again the loaves and fishes, 
 Place them in the Master's hand; 
 
 Then, responding to his wishes. 
 Share the fruits of his command. 
 
 Oh, how sweet to be his servant! 
 
 Oh, how good to do his will! 
 May our love be far more fervent; 
 
 May his loaves the many fill. 
 
 "What he doth he knoweth ever. 
 What he asks of us for aye; 
 
 Calling us to high endeavor 
 That our faith he thus may try. 
 
 Joined with Christ in life and labor, 
 Feeding still the multitude; 
 
 Truth we offer to our neighbor 
 As his own God-given food. 
 
 88 
 
The Use of Means 
 
JForegleam* 
 
 There is a simple science and a homely art, 
 which we all are compelled to study practically, if 
 not theoretically; namely, the adaptation of means 
 to ends in the affairs of our ordinary, every-day 
 life. Both offer opportunity for profound study. 
 This unpretentious science may carry us far if we 
 follow it faithfully, nor should it become less prac- 
 tical by becoming more profound. This every-day 
 art smoothes the path of life and aids attainment. 
 As great discoveries in natural science have proved 
 most useful, so the knowledge and skill gained by 
 any man in the use of means brings its reward in 
 the form of success in industrial and commercial 
 enterprises, in social and professional life, in the 
 construction of character, and in the realization of 
 personality on the divine pattern. 
 
 90 
 
Cfie O0e of s&tam 
 
 The wild flowers I saw the other day bloom- 
 ing on the hillside attracted the bee and the 
 butterfly, and, perchance, the humming-bird, or 
 even the little child whose natural sense of 
 beauty happily remains with it, growing as it 
 grows, and continuing through all the years of 
 toil and care and not withering even in old age, 
 when the senses are less acute. The sense, like 
 the love of the beautiful, should never droop 
 or die, and to the thoughtful man its existence 
 becomes a testimonial of the beneficence of his 
 Creator, an evidence of the immortality of his 
 own spirit and a prophecy of his future home 
 which must answer to this need of his nature. 
 The wild asters in blue and pink and white 
 on the hillside fill a place beneath the blue sky 
 and, with the goldenrod and the honeysuckle, 
 now barren of bloom, serve to accent the quiet 
 beauty of early autumn. 
 
 If we could call to our side Asa Gray or 
 Herman Mueller or Charles Darwin, to dis- 
 course to us about the flowers, their varied 
 forms and manner of fertilization, telling us 
 
 91 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 how tliey behave and everything else we wanted 
 to know, we shonld snrely be happy. Or would 
 we prefer the great Teacher of Nazareth, who 
 considered the lilies of the field and invited 
 others to join him in this original work in 
 nature study? How close he brings the lilies 
 to us and how close he brings us to the lilies ! 
 They become our instructors and even our 
 friends to remain such, let us assume, while 
 they live their brief life, and we as their sur- 
 viving friends are permitted to stand sorrow- 
 fully by their graves year after year, till at last 
 their distant descendants will hopefully bloom 
 above our own. Men and flowers are closely, 
 and we may say inseparably associated the 
 world over. No doubt both are intended to be 
 lovely and pleasant in their lives, and so in 
 their death they are not divided. 
 
 Our Teacher, who really comes in answer to 
 our wish, tells us the secret of the beauty of 
 both flowers and men, which we very much 
 need to know and had failed to discover for 
 ourselves. The flowers of the field grow without 
 cultivation by man. Here is a place for reason 
 to set her foot. An invisible relation exists 
 between God and the flowers. He clothes them 
 in beauty, and does it without any visible effort 
 on his part or toil on theirs. Thus their beauty 
 is accounted for fully and satisfactorily, and 
 
 92 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 reason feels the force of the conclusion, if she 
 is true to herself. The fact we have under con- 
 sideration is observed in nature, accurately 
 stated in language, and properly recorded in 
 the teachings of Jesus. 
 
 The flowers, unlike men in their toil and 
 strife and effort, become beautiful by natural 
 development alone, slowly and silently using 
 the means provided in soil and sunshine, in 
 rain and dew and air until they transcend even 
 Solomon in all his glory. To be fairly out- 
 done by one little flower that appears to do 
 nothing at all but just grow, to be beaten by a 
 lower form of life so that it becomes an exam- 
 ple of the right relation to God, when we ought 
 to be nearer to God than it is or ever can be, 
 to be second to a blossom that grows on the 
 hillside without human care, sustained by the 
 thin soil among the rocks, watered by dew and 
 rain, caressed by the winds of summer, and 
 nurtured bv the rays of the sun, ouHit to be 
 enough to humble human pride and bring any 
 man and every man submissively to the same 
 great God to be clothed in beauty. 
 
 Surely we each and all owe a debt of grati- 
 tude to our instructors, and also to the flowers, 
 or rather to Him who made them and made 
 them beautiful in order that we might see the 
 touch of his hand and be sure of his personal 
 
 93 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 presence and his beneficent purpose. Dealing 
 with well-known facts in the most candid and 
 trustworthy manner, our Teacher has led us 
 to a conclusion that ought to be conclusive and 
 satisfactory, because it is strictly scientific as 
 related to the facts, logical as regards method, 
 and beneficent in its outcome. This lesson in 
 botany which rises into sesthetics and philos- 
 ophy and religion, from the material to the 
 spiritual, from the natural to the supernatural, 
 should never be lost upon us as long as the 
 flowers are with us and as long as we are with 
 the flowers. 
 
 II. 
 
 "Go to the center somewhere," was the crisp 
 advice of a wise man who modestly called him- 
 self a parish preacher. In making his wisdom 
 ours we are credited with knowing which direc- 
 tion to take as well as having the means to get 
 there. Men are pleased to be credited with 
 ability of this kind because they already know 
 or are sure they can find out. Indeed, if they 
 fail to find out for themselves, they will never 
 kno\\^ very much that is worth knowing or know 
 anything very well. The teacher's secret is 
 to get scholars to want to learn, and so escape 
 the heavy task of trying to teach what they 
 do not want to know. After this first lesson is 
 
 94 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 mastered, any other is comparatively easy, the 
 lesson of the flowers, their beauty, the real 
 cause of it all, and the scholars' privilege to be 
 clothed in like manner. He may start with the 
 lilies of the field or the wild asters on the hill- 
 side and safely find his way to the center. 
 
 He should carefully note the successive steps 
 of his progress, and be able to describe the path 
 he pursued. When he studies the lily and the 
 wild aster as plants, he is plainly within the 
 limits of the science of botany. When he makes 
 their beauty the basis or starting-point for the 
 study of beauty in general and proceeds into 
 the realm of mind and spirit, he is in the realm 
 of esthetics. When he discovers the cause of 
 beauty in the flower and in the man to be one 
 and the same, and finds that God is ever an 
 active agent in both fields, as evidenced by 
 effects, he has stepped into the field of philos- 
 ophy. AVhen he discovers God as an active 
 agent and comes into his very presence, when 
 he learns that he is closely related to men as 
 well as to the flowers, and that he should 
 be related to God by personal confidence and 
 obedience, he then finds himself in the realm 
 of religion. 
 
 The appeal to reason is quite as plain and 
 direct in the Bible as in books on natural sci- 
 ence. "Consider the lilies," comes as a request 
 
 95 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 to any honest thinker to take the flowers as an 
 object of thought and then proceed to an}^ 
 legitimate conclusion in the course of our men- 
 tal activity. It is a friendly effort to get the 
 man to want to know, then to use means to 
 this end, and not to stop short of any result, 
 however far-reaching. Let botany lead on to 
 a3sthetics and philosophy and religion, if it 
 will, but he will ever be true to reason, to his 
 subject, and to himself. 
 
 The modern distinction between science and 
 religion and the supposed opposition of the two 
 seems to have been overlooked or ignored by 
 the Christ. At least that distinction served no 
 purpose in his teaching corresponding with its 
 importance in the speculations of men of our 
 age. The effort to fence off science from relig- 
 ion and to account for all we can see about us 
 on the basis of material things, physical forces 
 and natural laws, has led some scientific teach- 
 ers to a partial, inadequate, and false con- 
 clusion. Their first dictum was. Nature must 
 not tell us of God, and presently they enun- 
 ciated another which was really contained in 
 the first, Nature cannot manifest God. Botany 
 must not lead us into aesthetics and philosophy 
 and religion. The scientific man must keep 
 away from the center whatever else he does or 
 leaves undone. He must not follow the advice 
 
 96 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 of the parish preacher or the method of the 
 Christ. 
 
 On the sensible supposition that every man 
 is morally bound to use his reason for his own 
 well-being and to make the best and the most 
 out of everything about him, we are at a loss 
 to know what better use he could make of the 
 lilies than that which Jesus made of them. He 
 grasps his subject in its widest reaches of sig- 
 nificance, as a part of creation and as a means 
 of conveying great truths to our minds, and 
 any additional knowledge we may gain of the 
 structure of plants, the formation and function 
 of flowers, only enriches for us the lesson he 
 has tausfht. These new facts fall within the 
 outline of his thinking. He has gone to the 
 center, and, while he leaves much to be said by 
 scientific men, there is no new ground on which 
 reason can set her foot and no new conclusion 
 possible which shows that science and revela- 
 tion are and of right ought to be in conflict, 
 but just the very opposite appears; namely, 
 that nature ought to teach men about God, 
 that men ought to be more beautiful than the 
 flowers, and that God wishes to provide a gar- 
 ment of beauty for man which is in keeping 
 with his rank in creation. 
 
 If men fail to get to the center, it is not for 
 lack of means, but only of use. For many 
 7 97 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 men the neglect of means is a larger subject 
 than the use of means. The neglect leaves a 
 man poor, while the use makes the same man 
 rich in possessions or thoughts or character. 
 But who is so poor that he cannot get a start 
 in spiritual life? Who so indigent that he 
 cannot own an aster? Who so careless that he 
 would not use it for the best possible purpose? 
 Who so thoughtless as not to get the aid of the 
 great Teacher when it is so kindly offered? 
 Under his tuition any man can proceed from 
 the wild aster and get to the Center of all 
 beauty and all being, and do it fairly and logic- 
 ally. If a man is really determined to be a 
 man, it is hard to understand how he can fail 
 to see the flowers or to want to know about them, 
 and so become an earnest, sincere student in 
 botany, and consequently in aesthetics and phi- 
 losophy and religion. He cannot reasonably 
 limit himself or honestly steer clear of the 
 center. 
 
 III. 
 
 A lifetime of practical training must suffice 
 to confer skill in the use of means and cultivate 
 judgment in adapting means to ends. Some 
 nice calculations may be required to determine 
 what should be done and the resources under 
 our control. The three Guinea fowl that walk 
 
 98 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 along that woven-wire fence want over into 
 the yard where there is fine picking among 
 the ripened seeds, bnt only one uses its wings, 
 while the other two, in spite of a good example 
 and in total neglect of their wings, continue 
 to walk back and forth unavailingly. Many 
 a fence rises between men and their success in 
 life. They see what is to be overcome, some 
 only in part, while others survey the whole 
 situation from bottom to top. This complete 
 view is likely to suggest the way to get over 
 and the best means to be used. 
 
 The skill of the mechanic and the genius of 
 the inventor have been combined in our age as 
 never before to master the problem of rapid 
 transit in the air and over land and sea. Every 
 applicable fact of science and every new method 
 of construction are made to contribute to the 
 one grand result, speed combined with safety. 
 Men are working toward the limits in the 
 strength of materials, the combination of nat- 
 ural forces, and the endurance of human facul- 
 ties and powers. Just here may arise a sus- 
 picion that we are overworking the inventor 
 and the mechanic and forgetting the minister 
 and the man. 
 
 In fact, a man may faithfully wind his watch 
 each day and his clock each week, and then 
 carelessly forget to wind himself. He may 
 
 99 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 actually forget that he is run down on both 
 sides, the physical and the spiritual, or per- 
 haps never really know it. A good night's rest 
 brings the physical weight up to the top ordi- 
 narily, but sometimes it requires a vacation 
 and the aid of the doctor. He raises the spir- 
 itual weight by Bible study, prayer, and relig- 
 ious activity in general. He winds up by means 
 of good resolutions well kept, by devotion to 
 duty, and by consecration to the Christ, who 
 is always with him as his Friend and always 
 above him as his Greater. He discovers that 
 he and his watch require regularity, and that 
 just any time will not do for him or his watch, 
 for if he attends to it just any time he happens 
 to think of it ten to one he will think of it half 
 a dozen times one day and not at all the next. 
 His memory works better by rule than by 
 random. 
 
 The future of any boy is sufficiently safe in 
 his own keeping, if he is a good boy. When 
 Jacob left the old home and journeyed alone 
 to Haran, he saw, in a dream, as he lay sleep- 
 ing at Bethel, that wonderful ladder which 
 was a way to heaven. Jacob saw that way at 
 Bethel, while Jesus saw it anywhere; Jacob in 
 a dream, Jesus when awake; Jacob became 
 aware of it and of the presence of God as his 
 head rested on a stone, Jesus as his thoughts 
 
 100 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 rested on a little flower. Jacob needed the 
 dream, but Jesus saw with open eyes as he 
 stood in the full light of both worlds, the mate- 
 rial and the spiritual. , For him there was no 
 need and no room for dream or vision, since 
 his faculties were keen through obedience, his 
 attitude of mind rendered him receptive to 
 God and the Spirit of God rested upon him. 
 
 The oak grows taller if it has but a single 
 stem and comparatively few branches. We 
 note with wonder the respect shown by the tall 
 tree for the law of gravity. It would be dan- 
 gerous for the tree to fall out with the plumb- 
 line, and in case some mighty wind sways it 
 to the east or west, the north or south, it does 
 its best to get back to the perpendicular as a 
 whole or in part as new shoots start out again. 
 Men may have a natural tendency to grow 
 aslant and pattern after the storm-swept tree 
 or the leaning tower, but they know a way of 
 straightening up if only they would use it. 
 Any man can safely be tall if he is also true, 
 if he is straight and perpendicular, if he lives 
 in the light of the vision God gives him and 
 faithfully points to his Center. 
 
 101 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 IV. 
 
 If a man gains the standing in the school 
 of life of a master of means, his real rank is 
 not far below the bachelor of science fresh from 
 college, or even the man with the advanced 
 degree of master of arts. As a matter of 
 means, he is versed in a sort of universal sci- 
 ence that may be applied equally well in botany 
 and aesthetics and philosophy and religion, and 
 nntil a better name is suggested let us call it 
 the science of common sense. 
 
 The adaptation of means to ends by Deity 
 is more intelligent and more effective than 
 that of man, and hence in mechanical construc- 
 tion, if not in the formation of character, man 
 is often a mere copyist. When he shapes his 
 boat for the water, he studies the form of the 
 water-fowl. When he seeks to sail through the 
 air, he applies the principles discovered in the 
 structure of the bird's wing. When noble char- 
 acter is his dream, he takes the Christ as his 
 ideal. When, in the study of a lower form of 
 life he is tempted to limit himself to one phase 
 of the subject, to the neglect or even the rejec- 
 tion of all others, let him remember that his 
 Teacher is looking over his shoulder and offer- 
 ing a contribution from his own mind. Let 
 him remember also that he is more like his 
 
 102 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 Teacher than the lily or the aster, and that he 
 must expect to learn more from his Teacher 
 than from the object of his study. The teach- 
 er's contribution is an important, if not a gov- 
 erning factor in the scientific teachings of any 
 man, just as it is a very important, if not a 
 principal factor in the religious teachings of 
 Jesus. The true teacher in either field, science 
 or religion, will be faithful to facts, thorough 
 in investigation, and sincerely respectful to 
 man as intelligent, moral, and religious. He 
 never betrays reason by the kiss of sophistry, 
 or knowingly leads a student to conclusions 
 that prove false and delusive. Hence any 
 teacher who dislikes to have the Christ look 
 over his shoulder can hardly claim to be a 
 candid student who is sure of the results of his 
 own investigations. 
 
 If God touches the flower with the blush of 
 beauty by means of the sunlight in the ordi- 
 nary course of nature, then we may reasonably 
 expect that in the ordinary course of human 
 life he can also touch the spirit of man by the 
 Spirit of God in order to bring it to that degree 
 of perfection which is the divine thought of 
 excellence in the realm of character and per- 
 sonality. Man need not stand at the foot of 
 creation if only he wants to stand at the head 
 and become an example of beauty to the flow- 
 
 103 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 ers, being as much fairer than they as he is 
 more exalted in the scale of being. As he looks 
 upon the flower, let him think of the beauty 
 designed for him by the same great Artist. 
 
 The boy plays truant without fully realizing 
 the nature of his act of disobedience and decep- 
 tion or its effect upon his conduct and char- 
 acter. Men and women, who are but children 
 grown, discredit the Sabbath day as set apart 
 by God or deny the need of such a day when 
 they fail to use it as a day of rest from ordinary 
 toil and a day of religious activity and spir- 
 itual culture. On the basis that man is an 
 intelligent, moral, and religious being, either 
 view is repulsive to reason and contrary to 
 experience. Better, far better is it to accept 
 the lesson of the lilies, remain in the class and 
 under the eye and care of our great Teacher. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Gnostic of the second century knew too 
 much for his own good, and the agnostic of 
 the nineteenth knew too little. The one under- 
 took to answer unanswerable questions concern- 
 ing God in his essential being, the source of 
 moral evil, and the extended chain of existences 
 he conceived to fill up the space between God 
 and man. The other refused to accept the 
 
 104 
 
The Use of Means 
 
 teachings of the Christ concerning God and 
 man, and cherished the idea that God is not 
 really knowable, until it became the governing 
 principle in his philosophy. The Gnostic 
 sought to paganize Christianity, while the 
 agnostic thought to substitute science as a 
 system and a method. 
 
 The plain, ordinary man, who is a master 
 of means and versed in the science of common 
 sense, comes too close to the flowers to deify 
 science or betray the Christ. In spite of fanci- 
 ful theories he feels the force of fact and truth, 
 and his reason sets her foot on solid ground in 
 the very face of misleading arguments. He 
 reaches conclusions in botany and aesthetics and 
 philosophy and religion that he is not willing 
 to surrender. They are fairly and honestly 
 his, and he is not at liberty to barter them as 
 he would the products of farm or factory. 
 
 The college professor of questionable Chris- 
 tian character demands perfect freedom in 
 theorizing as well as in investigating, and 
 appeals to men to respect his vagaries because 
 of his office, when he might be expected to rely 
 solely on his appeal to their reason. The man 
 who asserts that he is an artist, and then ap- 
 peals to sensuality by his nude and suggestive 
 figures, can hardly complain if decent people 
 are inclined to denv his claim and even doubt 
 
 105 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 his sincerity. The false prophet still wears 
 sheep's clothing in order to look innocent. He 
 assumes to be what he is not, and so prevents 
 the development of a character such as he imi- 
 tates. The effort of any man not to be himself 
 is sure to fail, for whatever he appears to be 
 he is himself after all. 
 
 God commands, but never compels men to 
 do their duty as intelligent, moral, and relig- 
 ious beings. Paul persuades men to present 
 their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and accept- 
 able to God, which is their spiritual service. 
 The means of spiritual life are with us, but 
 the disposition to use them must be cultivated. 
 "Come unto me,'^ says the Christ. Not by vio- 
 lence, not by deception will he win men. If ever 
 a man belongs to God, it will be by the exercise 
 of his own will freely and cheerfully, because 
 intelligently and conscientiously. His life may 
 long be continued on the earth, but his heart 
 will ever welcome the lesson of the lily, the 
 goldenrod, and the wild aster, a lesson which, 
 in its depth of meaning and its breadth of 
 thought, it may take him a whole lifetime to 
 learn. Beautiful is the lily by the touch of 
 God, and yet more beautiful may be thy spirit, 
 man, for thou dost stand nearer the Source 
 of beauty in the scale of being and verily 
 thou canst rise higher in the measure of thy 
 realization. 
 
 106 
 
The Seakch for Happiness. 
 
 In nature all around me 
 I hear the voice of praise, 
 
 As creature and creation 
 
 Their wordless hymn they raise. 
 
 The song of bird is welcome, 
 The music of the breeze; 
 
 The running brook so quiet 
 Is well designed to please. 
 
 The joy I find in nature 
 
 I share a little while; 
 It comes from my Creator 
 
 And brings to me a smile. 
 
 The pleasures sin can offer 
 Are not to me the same; 
 
 But bring a tired feeling 
 
 And leave a sense of blame. 
 
 Not more of these will bless me 
 But less and less, I trow; 
 
 So joy I seek, another — 
 My Bible tells me how. 
 
 God's Book is one of blessing; 
 
 Concerning Christ it tells; 
 The hope and help of mortals, 
 
 And in my heart he dwells. 
 
 How wonderful and pleasant 
 This Book of love and life; 
 
 Its message is the music 
 That banishes my strife. 
 
 My Christ can make me happy, 
 For he can make me true. 
 
 Yes, Christ has made me joyful. 
 For he has made me "new." 
 
 107 
 
True joy is not the bottom, 
 
 But top of everything; 
 And as we climb the higher 
 
 The louder may we sing. 
 
 No wonder that the Christian 
 Can sing so very well, 
 
 Since more and more of heaven 
 And less and less of hell 
 
 Is filling up his spirit; 
 
 The songs the angels sing 
 Become supremely joyful 
 
 As through his sbul they ring. 
 
 The best is not the bottom. 
 But always at the top; 
 
 Then climb, you pleasure seeker, 
 You never need to stop. 
 
 Just take your open Bible 
 
 And do as it has said; 
 You '11 glory find and gladness 
 
 A crown upon your head. 
 
 108 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
iForegleam. 
 
 Motion is a familiar fact known from childhood, 
 by personal experience and observation. As we 
 are active we live physically, mentally, and spirit- 
 ually. The inactive man lives less than the active 
 man, the uneducated less than the educated, and 
 the morally and religiously undeveloped less than 
 the spiritual-minded man. Motion appears to us 
 as an effect and also a cause. The movements of 
 matter declare the presence of force, and force 
 leads us back to mind and will. In the movements 
 of mind we discover motive at the center of the 
 current. According to Revelation, love is the mo- 
 tive of the divine mind, and should be man's mas- 
 ter motive. Love as a motive is not self-destruc- 
 tive, but self-existent, and hence easily eternal; 
 and so the life of the love-moved man must bear 
 these marks. 
 
 110 
 
9@otitie anD amotion 
 
 The noisy little brook which appears to have 
 lost its way half a dozen times in its crooked 
 course across the meadow, and the great river 
 which appears to move so slowly and silently, 
 are interesting each in its own way, and we 
 never seem to tire of the sight or sonnd of 
 either one. The song of the brook successfully 
 counteracts "the song of the shirt," and we 
 find a real relief from toil and care as we rest 
 upon its grassy banks and listen to its unpre- 
 tentious music. There is enough sound to be 
 company for us, enough similarity in its notes 
 to give consistency to its song, and enough 
 variety not to become monotonous and. weari- 
 some. The individual sounds are separable by 
 the attentive ear, while the combination is har- 
 monious, and the ever-recurring order of the 
 principal tones, with the numerous grace-notes 
 beyond the skill of human artist to render, is 
 restful and refreshing to the sympathetic lis- 
 tener. It is nature's lullaby, and she sings it 
 sweetly. Many a weary one who wanders far 
 in search of rest would do well to sit on the 
 
 111 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 banks of the meadow-brook, be soothed by its 
 music, and have the wrinkles of care stroked 
 out of his forehead by the gentle hand of 
 nature. 
 
 The music of the great river is less easily 
 understood, less like a popular air, and more 
 like a classical composition. Its tone is restful 
 and reassuring like that of the brook, and calls 
 us back to the calmness and confidence of 
 health and strength and the simple life. Do 
 you hear that low swish as the water brushes 
 by the banks? Many sounds mingle as it 
 ripples over rocks and shallow places, all keep- 
 ing well up in the scale. Even when the stately 
 river breaks into the rollicking rapids there is 
 something serious in its music, something that 
 tends to make us very thoughtful; but when 
 it rushes over a precipice and roars like a 
 mighty organ its music almost overpowers us, 
 and we try again and again to comprehend this 
 wonderful composition. The reckless leap, the 
 rising mist, the rainbow so near us touch the 
 mind through the eye and heighten the effect 
 by way of the ear. 
 
 But what is it in the river and in the brook 
 that fascinates us? Is it the water flowing in 
 one continuous and unbroken stream? Is it 
 the magnitude of its power suddenly liberated 
 before our eyes? Is it the dancing waves that 
 
 112 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 never grow weary and the ascending spray that 
 loves the light? Is it the gentle tones of the 
 brook and the irresistible strains of the mighty 
 cataract? Or is it because we see our life rep- 
 resented before us in the flowing water as it 
 pursues its course in one unbroken stream? 
 Uninterrupted, it flows on, and even the preci- 
 pice cannot break that continuous flow for a 
 single moment or the fraction of an inch. Our 
 life is likewise continuous, and its motion 
 should produce a music not less sweet and rest- 
 ful, not less impressive and inspiring. Its 
 varied experiences change the stops and swells 
 and even the key, but it is one grand composi- 
 tion, now reminding us of the grassy banks of 
 the brook and now of the slow-moving river 
 or even the waterfall with the mist and the 
 rainbow. 
 
 II. 
 
 Motion in the brook means money for the 
 miller whose wheel it turns, and in the river 
 the quickening or retarding of the pulse of 
 commerce according to its direction down or 
 up, but for the happy lovers who drift list- 
 lessly with the current or row heroically against 
 it the effect is much the same — the quickening 
 of the pulse of affection. Motion means life, 
 being a condition of life on the green banks of 
 8 113 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 the brook or the placid surface of the river. 
 The Dead Sea is dead since no creature has 
 been created to inhabit its briny and motion- 
 less waters. The prison cell is hated because 
 it is a bitter limitation of life. It restrains 
 the body and may even place limits about the 
 mind and spirit unless the prisoner is a Martin 
 Luther in the Wartburg castle or a John 
 Bunyan in the Bedford jail. 
 
 The wind-wheel, which becomes so lazy on a 
 calm day and when the breeze stiffens into a 
 steady wind appears to be trying to make up 
 lost time, is very picturesque in Holland and 
 very matter of fact in America. In the home 
 land it is for business, and in the foreign land 
 it is for beauty as well as business, if the word 
 of the traveler is to be taken. Its power is one 
 remove from nature, but we can easily think 
 back to the invisible agent that lays hold of its 
 extended arms and lends it all the force it 
 exerts without any apparent diminution of its 
 own. The steam-engine is simply a contrivance 
 to convert the power of a gas into mechanical 
 motion, and so we can see right through the 
 engine to the real force behind it. The dynamo 
 does not create electricity, but only the electric 
 current which the electrician knows how to 
 transmit and apply to his uses. To the philos- 
 opher the dynamo becomes a window through 
 
 114 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 which he sees nature as the real power behind 
 the machine^ not all of nature or all of her 
 power, but just a part, just enough to convince 
 him that this energy of nature is totally beyond 
 his ability to estimate. 
 
 Had the circulation of the blood been dis- 
 covered earlier in history, good use might have 
 been made of the fact by medical science, but 
 the probability is that it would not have served 
 any practical purpose five centuries or even one 
 century sooner. Discoveries are generally made 
 when they are most needed or as soon thereafter 
 as convenient, otherwise they lie dormant like 
 an unplanted seed. Need awakens effort, de- 
 mand calls forth desire, and desire sets the 
 man in motion, and then he often finds that 
 the thing he wanted was not far to seek. In 
 many instances, discoveries appear to be mere 
 accidents, but it must be borne in mind that 
 the man who fell unexpectedly upon some sci- 
 entific secret or valuable mechanical device was 
 looking for something, or at least was wide 
 enough awake to know a useful thing when it 
 presented itself before his eyes. 
 
 Knowledge arises when the unknown becomes 
 active in the presence of the active, knowing 
 mind. The invisible becomes visible. That is 
 to say, a man sees what he did not see before. 
 The invisible is just the same as it was, but 
 
 115 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 the beholder now knows it is there and what 
 it is by means of what it does. He knows how 
 to control it and use it for his own purposes, 
 and what need can there be for this invisible 
 agent to step out into the open just to be looked 
 at ? Perhaps it would be dangerous for us if 
 it were to offer us the exhibition. 
 
 One thing is quite plain, and that is, the 
 visible and the invisible in nature are not so 
 far apart as men sometimes think, and the 
 two cannot be separated from each other. A 
 second fact is equally clear; namely, that mo- 
 tion in nature calls forth the mind of man into 
 action, whether in the form of thought and 
 investigation or of effort to control the forces 
 of nature for his own comfort and convenience. 
 A third fact quite as important, and which 
 should be quite as clear to us, is that motion 
 in nature is not the result of mere machinery, 
 but is somehow and somewhere dependent on 
 mind for its existence and always and every- 
 where for its manner of manifestation. 
 
 III. 
 
 Widely different as they are, there must 
 be some connection between mind and motion, 
 and it is worth our while to discover it. Star 
 dust might rotate after it got a start, but the 
 
 116 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 liardship of the scientist is to get the initial 
 motion. Perhaps there is a sort of circulation 
 in spiritual and material things of which we 
 do not know as yet, or know less perfectly than 
 we should. In shaping and unfolding our 
 philosophy let us not put off till to-morrow 
 what we can do to-day, unless we are sure a 
 limited delay will aid us to obtain a better 
 theory of things. The motion we find in the 
 brook, the river, the air about us, and the blood 
 in our veins, is so very beneficent that we feel 
 like attributing it to mind rather than matter 
 without argument or even question. We could 
 not get on without this motion in us and all 
 about us, and we are so well confirmed in our 
 faith that we are willing to follow it to its 
 farthest results. 
 
 When the sacred writer asserts, "In the be- 
 ginning God created the heavens and the 
 earth," he gives a fair explanation of the origin 
 of both, and far more satisfactory than the 
 theory that they originated by chance or always 
 existed. Eeason rests in unity or adequate 
 cause, and chance does so very little creative 
 work, however good its present opportunities, 
 and matter in and of itself is so very inert that 
 it appears reasonable and scientific as well as 
 religious to rely upon God for the acts attrib- 
 uted to him in his Word. In fact, the Bible 
 
 117 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 stands out not only as the best word we have 
 in religion, but also in science and philosophy, 
 enabling us to trace our steps to the "Cause of 
 causes that can do all things." 
 
 We find intelligence in close connection with 
 motion, and its orderly manifestations and in- 
 telligence linked with good intentions. The 
 mind we are really thinking about has wise 
 and gracious purposes, and evidently takes 
 great pains to carry them out for our well- 
 being. We have ample reason to believe that 
 this mind governs these motions according to 
 fixed law, for the forces producing them always 
 act the same way. Moreover, this mind of 
 which we are thinking must be governed itself 
 by law, never being notionate or erratic, but 
 always intelligent and reasonable and well- 
 disposed toward us, and hence we conclude that 
 it is moral and always impelled by a right 
 motive. 
 
 If the brook can set the poet's fancy in 
 motion, there must be a way across from the 
 brook to the poet and from the poet to the 
 brook. If Niagara Falls impresses the minds 
 of multitudes to such a degree as to attract 
 them long distances to behold, there must be 
 some desire in these minds answering to the 
 wonderful spectacle. This way across from 
 the material to the spiritual, and vice versa, is 
 
 118 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 used unconsciously by us, and only when we 
 begin to reason about it do we really become 
 unreasonable; then we become sa earthy, so 
 unimaginative, so lost to faith as to call a sud- 
 den halt. We think we are matter of fact 
 when we rule out one kind of facts and try to 
 build our world of the other alone. But mo- 
 tion and force are all about us still, and we 
 must necessarily count on them; we must use 
 them; we must be blessed by them in spite of 
 ourselves. 
 
 Going up on one side we get motion. Going 
 up on the other side we get motive. In matter 
 we see motion and in mind we see motive, and 
 discover that motion in the brook is dependent 
 on motive in the mind who created it. Motive 
 is mind in motion, and mind in motion sets 
 matter in motion. Motive and motion stand 
 in the relation of cause and effect, primarily, 
 and the wonderful windows of creation allow 
 us to see enough to enable us to complete our 
 view by the use of our reason. 
 
 There is a bridge across from mind to mat- 
 ter, but science has not undertaken to find it. 
 This task it leaves to religion. Science limits 
 itself to the laws and phenomena of the mate- 
 rial universe and the human mind as intelli- 
 gent and moral. Eeligion considers man as 
 spirit, as related to God, as primarily and essen- 
 
 119 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 tially immaterial. No wonder religion has 
 always looked upon science as its handmaid 
 and not as its master. The sphere of religion 
 embraces the whole scope of existence, visible 
 and invisible. The spirit of man, invisible yet 
 real, stands as one fact side by side with that 
 other, the invisible God who is not less real in 
 his existence and agency. The manifestation 
 of God in Christ presents the prime article of 
 faith and knowledge in the Christian system. 
 The Christian accepts the facts and truths God 
 has made known through Christ, verifying 
 them to his own satisfaction and gaining a 
 place of vantage from which he can easily see 
 he is not alone on an island, but in close rela- 
 tion with the invisible world of good or per- 
 chance of evil. From this viewpoint he sees 
 not only the motion in life, but the motive back 
 of all right motion, namely, love. Here the 
 dove of honest inquiry brings back her olive 
 leaf in testimony of subsiding doubt and as a 
 first-fruit of the new world purified and pre- 
 pared as the dwelling-place of man. Here his 
 faith rests in security and here his reason must 
 fold her wings or prepare to rely upon them 
 forever. 
 
 120 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 IV. 
 
 Who could have interpreted for iis the par- 
 able of the wind save the great Teacher of 
 Galilee ? He takes this invisible force, in nature 
 as the symbol of the invisible spirit of man. 
 ^''The wind bloweth where it will, and thou 
 hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is 
 every one that is born of the Spirit." This 
 force in nature becomes manifest to us only 
 in part, and we cannot follow it to its limits 
 and sources by our own unaided powers. It 
 goes beyond the bounds of our knowledge. The 
 spirit-born man is likewise a living, moving 
 agent in the unseen world of the spiritual, and 
 our own powers must be supplemented by di- 
 vine aid if we are to know our past, our present, 
 and our future. 
 
 The divine element has its place in our char- 
 acter and life, and we must give to it its full 
 value. In other words, we must Christianize 
 our philosophy, or our philosophy will paganize 
 us. We can follow Christ or some other master, 
 but we cannot follow both at the same time. 
 We must Christianize our science, or our science 
 will materialize us. Nor need we be less scien- 
 tific because we keep the way open between the 
 visible and the invisible, or because we regard 
 mind as well as matter, or because we consider 
 
 121 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 man as a moral and religious as well as a mate- 
 rial being. Common sense and reason and 
 Christian faith are brethren that can dwell to- 
 gether in unity. The world by wisdom knew 
 not God, in an earlier age, and history is sure 
 to repeat itself if at any time men undervalue 
 the great facts of revelation, the invisible man 
 and the invisible God. 
 
 One path alone leads up to God — obedience. 
 This is the direct road and the short cut. Back 
 of obedience you will always find love, just as 
 you find love back of revelation. Love in God 
 and love in man are alike and have affinity each 
 for the other. Being the same in both as prin- 
 ciple and motive, God and man come into har- 
 mony and cooperation on the basis of redemp- 
 tion as set forth in the New Testament. 
 
 Moses conversed with God on Horeb as an 
 individual and as the representative of his peo- 
 ple who enjoyed the privilege of prayer. Jesus 
 said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father,^' and with this vision he asked Philip 
 to be content; but his disciple had not seen 
 all there was to see. He had not looked past 
 the visible form of Jesus to the invisible God 
 who dwelt within. He had stopped short with 
 the physical and visible, even when the means 
 to pass over into the invisible were provided for 
 his comfort and convenience. The manifesta- 
 
 122 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 tions of superhuman power and wisdom had 
 not led him to discover superhuman love and 
 life. For him the world was yet divided, since 
 God was yet invisible. 
 
 From the wind-wheel to the wind that turns 
 it, from the steam-engine to the steam that is 
 its real power, from the dynamo to the electric 
 current which it produces, the mind moves 
 easily and without doubt or question, and so 
 from Christ to God the mind finds no real bar- 
 rier outside of itself. The vision is before us, 
 whether we see it or not. Shame would redden 
 the cheek of any man who professed to be in- 
 telligent and yet could not contemplate these 
 invisible forces in nature. A sense of shame, 
 tenfold deeper might be expected on the face 
 of the man who comes into the presence of the 
 Christ and yet fails to perceive the personal 
 presence of God. 
 
 V. 
 
 'No perpetual motion in mechanics has yet 
 been discovered, however diligently it has been 
 sought, which raises a strong suspicion that 
 there is none to discover. There may be a per- 
 petual motive, however, which would be much 
 more useful, and when found we should "make 
 a note of." It would serve to steady a man and 
 make him less vacillating. It would move 
 
 123 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 him in one direction and give him the sense 
 of progress, which is very agreeable. How fine 
 to have a motive as constant as the law of God 
 and as consistent as the divine will ! If love 
 moves God, and if love ought to move men, 
 then men, Christian men, Spirit-bom men 
 have a motive like God, which does not vary 
 from age to age. No one will take this to be 
 the fabled fountain of youth, but it looks much, 
 like a real fountain ever open and ever refresh- 
 ing to the aspiring spirit of man. From this 
 point of view the immortality of the soul looks 
 like a fact of science, a principle of philosophy, 
 and a truth of religion, each separately and all 
 three together, a sort of trinity of truth in 
 which reason and faith can together rest and 
 rejoice. 
 
 The man who forever has motive will forever 
 have motion. He will forever live and move 
 and have his being. He cannot drop out of 
 existence or sink down in decay and despair. 
 He will not drift helplessly into inaction and 
 unconsciousness, but will live consciously and 
 forever. His life is his inheritance, eternal life, 
 eternal in quality and so in duration. He has 
 motive and motion and belongs to the invisible 
 as well as the visible, since each is his by actual 
 possession, and since his life requires them 
 both for its completion. 
 
 124 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 God is love and so God lives, and if the good 
 man loves he lives also. He loves the eternal 
 God, the invisible God, and his life is eternal 
 and invisible, being hid with Christ in God. 
 Behind the motions of his body and mind lies 
 the master motive in his heart and in the heart 
 of our Father who art in heaven. Oh, the 
 egotism of evil, which tries to be satisfied with 
 itself ! In the realm of human character, noth- 
 ing is more impressive except the humility of 
 a true Christian. This egotism proves to be 
 very tenacious of life and undertakes to be ever- 
 lasting and even eternal or self-existent. Be- 
 cause of it sinful men think you are interfering 
 with their rights when you interfere with their 
 wrongs. Evil shall slay the wicked, but a 
 wicked man might be expected to make sure of 
 his escape from a destroyer who lies in wait 
 for him. Love may become his motive, his 
 principle, his life, but only as he cheerfully 
 ^ives it place in his breast. Truth cannot be 
 <3aptured and caged like a bird, but it can be 
 won like a friend, loved like an equal, and 
 obeyed like a superior. Each and every one 
 must therefore look upon the Christ till he sees 
 God for himself. 
 
 If we considered the religion of the Christ 
 the universal religion, the universal philosophy, 
 and the universal science, then we would con- 
 
 125 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 sider it the universal duty of men to become 
 Christians. So far as truth is concerned, 
 Christianity is all-inclusive, and the knowledge 
 that is not true is scarcely worth knowing. Men 
 worship somewhere. Every man bows at some 
 shrine, serves some master, accepts some revela- 
 tion of God. The Christian sees God in the 
 Christ, accepts the Christ as his Master, and 
 worships God as revealed by him. He lives 
 next to the Christ on one side, next to the Holy 
 Spirit. God is his nearest neighbor, and there- 
 fore the good man says concerning himself, 
 "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant 
 places; I have a goodly heritage." 
 
 The Christian has the sweet sense of Another 
 who enters the inner circle of his life as the 
 Soul of his soul and relieves it of its burden 
 and loneliness. Life is no longer the mystery 
 it was to him, a maze in which he wanders, dark 
 with the shadows of sin and final reckoning, 
 but ever more wonderful on account of its 
 known facts, because of divine grace and provi- 
 dence, and by reason of divine promises which 
 gather in themselves his past and present and 
 future. The one real mystery that remains is 
 that of divine love, which proves to be inex- 
 haustible in its freshness and fullness of life. 
 As he ascends step by step the mountain-side 
 of worthy motive, he finds himself in the com- 
 
 126 
 
Motive and Motion 
 
 pany of good men and the good Spirit. He 
 learns the lesson Philip had missed and sees 
 God in Christ. He begins to say with Paul, 
 "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in 
 me"; to understand the words of Jesus: "As 
 the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 
 It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
 Father that speaketh in you, and to hear what 
 the Spirit saith to the churches/' He has the 
 sense of Another who is as real to him to-day 
 as the visible Christ was real to the men of his 
 age; as real as the presence of God in Christ 
 was real to his first disciples after his resurrec- 
 tion; as real as the wind that fans his cheek, 
 the river that flows so majestically before his 
 eyes, or the brook to which he listens as it 
 gurgles through the meadow. 
 
 127 
 
The Sense of God. 
 
 In a quiet hour there came to me 
 
 A sense of God as good; 
 More sweet tlian ever before I knew, 
 And truer to me than ever true; 
 So sweet and so true, and yet so new. 
 
 The sense of God as good. 
 
 In a trying hour there came to me 
 
 A sense of God as wise; 
 Who ruled my heart with a gentle hand, 
 And led me away from the sinking sand, 
 And bound me close with an unseen band. 
 The sense of God as wise; 
 
 In a trustful hour there came to me 
 
 A sense of God as near. 
 My God was great and my God was good, 
 And came to my heart, and there he stood 
 While I bent low, as any one would. 
 
 When God, my God was near. 
 
 In a holy hour there came to me 
 
 A sense of God as love; 
 And with it came such a sense of rest 
 As human tongue has never expressed. 
 But belongs to those whom God has blessed 
 
 With th' sense of God as love. 
 
 In a happy hour there came to me 
 
 A sense of God as life; 
 A vision arose upon my soul. 
 The brightest ever I saw unroll; 
 The vision of life as one great whole; 
 
 And God, my God was life. 
 
 128 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
■ jforegleam* 
 
 There are words that aid us to ascend like the 
 successive rungs of a ladder. Each word keeps 
 its own place, hut each one invites us to rest our 
 thoughts on the next higher in the ascending 
 series. Our physical life is marked by birth, and 
 growth, and maturity, while our Christian life be- 
 gins with repentance and faith and regeneration. 
 Two words may complete the unit of thought — 
 as night and day, sorrow and joy, toil and rest. 
 No man rests satisfied in one half or one third 
 of these units of life, but requires the complete 
 whole for his completion. For the Christian these 
 units grow greater and never less, and among the 
 words that abide he finds faith, and hope, and love, 
 holiness, and happiness, and heaven. 
 
 130 
 
©toeet Wim 
 
 The first words of a little child linger long 
 in the memory of fond fathers- and mothers. 
 Instinct enables it to let them know its needs, 
 but when its pleasure is expressed by a smile 
 and its sense of another by the words "papa'^ 
 and "mamma," the development of its mind has 
 already begun, and also its education. Those 
 first words are not merely sounds, sweet and 
 musical, but also evidences of training and 
 first-fruits of individuality. They cannot be 
 counterfeited, and however imperfectly spoken 
 are perfectly understood and perfectly lovely. 
 They show three very important things — the 
 child's capacity for thought and speech, his 
 adaptation to the conditions of life, and his 
 ability to realize the great end of his existence. 
 
 A word, like a tripod, rests securely on three 
 legs, being spoken by some one to or for some 
 one and about some one or some thing. Like 
 carrier pigeons, they are the messengers of 
 some mind to some other mind, telling of per- 
 sons and things and thoughts. The snail leaves 
 traces of its course across the rock, but the bird 
 
 131 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 in its flight and the ocean liner in its voyage 
 make no beaten track. Many a movement of 
 the mind remains "unrecorded outside of the 
 thinking mind itself, bnt here and there a rec- 
 ord is made in the words and sentences and 
 chapters of a book which becomes the banks of 
 a stream on whose current the reader may wish 
 to float. 
 
 Two questions concern the reader: Who is 
 the author ? and. What is his philosophy ? What 
 is the meaning of his words and sentences and 
 chapters? Through the words of a friend, 
 spoken or written, we easily see his thought and 
 himself. His expressions are adapted to our 
 joy or sorrow, our needs, and even our preju- 
 dices and personal limitations, and we are won 
 to the cause of truth, and never error, let us 
 cheerfully hope, by the tact and sympathy that 
 thinly veil the one whom we are glad to claim 
 as our friend. Words call out another mind in 
 response and become the channel of communi- 
 cation both ways. 
 
 The relation of words to things is less inti- 
 mate, if not less real. Words spring from the 
 mind and not from the things, but are to rep- 
 resent or recall to the mind tangible things and 
 even intangible thoughts. The grammarian 
 finds eight kinds in common use, the lexicog- 
 rapher tells us what they all mean, and the 
 
 132 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 philologist traces them up in literature and 
 history to their origin. These three public 
 servants are held in honor for their work's 
 sake, but never discredit or supplant experi- 
 ence as a teacher by whom word and thing are 
 linked together in the mind, the former being 
 made as nearly as possible the true representa- 
 tive of the latter. In short, a man must rely 
 upon himself to learn what words stand for 
 and what men mean by them. He may know 
 what they ordinarily mean and what they ought 
 to mean, but to know what they do mean in a 
 given case he must get back to their author, 
 whether an infant in arms, an associate in life, 
 a scientist or a philosopher, a politician or a 
 statesman, a man of affairs or a man of God, 
 or even God himself speaking by his prophets 
 in the earlier age of revelation or by his Son 
 in the later age. 
 
 II. 
 
 The power of speech, man's present and 
 presumably his permanent possession, and the 
 power of song, are two great common gifts 
 conferred upon high and low, and offer a nat- 
 ural basis for cosmopolitan feeling and fellow- 
 ship. Eeligion, and especially the religion of 
 the Bible, has furnished themes and inspira- 
 tion for the musician and the orator, and both 
 
 133 
 
Parahles for the People 
 
 might be expected to look forward like prophets 
 to heaven as their proper paradise. Shall not 
 words have their best meaning there and music 
 its grandest illustrations? 
 
 If beings are more glorious in heaven than 
 on earth, if the spirit of man is more then than 
 now, if the new heavens and the new earth sur- 
 pass those we now enjoy, glorified men must 
 have larger molds of thought and forms of 
 expression. Language and music must keep 
 pace with unfolding life. Excellence of char- 
 acter may there appear in the face without the 
 aid of voice or act, and personality free from 
 the limiting power of evil must expand unhin- 
 dered, while its simplicity renders it intelligible 
 to one of like nature, but we may well wonder 
 what power of articulate and musical ex- 
 pression and enjoyment will belong to such a 
 being. If goodness is greatness and human 
 life has no external limits, man's future means 
 increased capacity to receive from others and 
 express his own mind. Here human language 
 will have its last evolution and be adapted to 
 human need, for the third time attaining per- 
 fection as regards the speaker, the one spoken 
 to, and the truth declared. 
 
 National life shows in music as well as in 
 language, a fact that will remain perhaps till 
 one song is sung and one tongue is spoken in 
 
 134 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 the kingdom of God. Written in two lan- 
 guages, the Bible is being translated into many, 
 and may yet bring them all into one again by 
 means of its ideas and ideals, which are not 
 ethnic, but universal. Attempts to popularize 
 a universal language, however scientific in con- 
 struction, have proved abortive. No mother 
 ever taught the scientific language to her 
 child. Science cannot undo what God did by 
 means of the confusion of tongues, for God 
 only can save and unify the race. His is the 
 gift of language as of life, and both are fairly 
 mysterious to man. Wise men can trace words 
 to their roots and learn much they wanted to 
 know and about an equal amount they might 
 as well not know; they may insist on reading 
 the whole history of the past out of the struc- 
 ture of words, only to find that language is still 
 very confusing; for lo, the cherished theory of 
 one learned man is ruthlessly overthrown by 
 another only a little more learned or who has 
 had the good fortune to live a little later, when 
 newly discovered facts of history laid low the 
 theory created with so much care, its only re- 
 maining use being as a monument to the indus- 
 try and ingenuity and also the folly of its 
 inventor and advocate. 
 
 Adam scarcely appears as a schoolboy, but 
 rather as a school-teacher, when he names the 
 
 135 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 animals Just as men to-day name things they 
 discover, an element in chemistry, an island in 
 the ocean, or an asteroid in space, and the first 
 man filled his place about as well as the last, 
 so far as we know. Language is a gift to be 
 called forth and cultivated in the child and 
 also in the man. Both learn the language of 
 earth and both should master the language of 
 duty and devotion, of prayer and praise, of the 
 Bible and the kingdom of heaven. Here, for 
 the second time, inspiration becomes a neces- 
 sity in order that men may understand the 
 inspired Word of God, which is inspired because 
 it is the language of the Spirit of God, because 
 it is the text-book of the spirit of man when 
 under the tuition of the Spirit of God, and 
 because it is the universal language of the spirit 
 of man, by means of which the divine thought 
 and purpose are adequately conveyed to the 
 individual and the race. 
 
 The religious linguist of to-day must go to 
 the original sources and compare his spiritual 
 experiences with those of prophet and apostle, 
 and above all with those of the Christ. Every 
 man must open his eyes and see for himself. 
 He must grasp the facts by his own power of 
 apprehension and learn the nature of these spir- 
 itual realities. Men must become children in 
 the kingdom of heaven and learn its life and its 
 
 136 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 language. How else can they expect to know 
 the worth of its words or the sweetness of its 
 music ? The alphabet of this heavenly language 
 is within the knowledge of every one of us, in 
 the keeping of every Christian who should have 
 an ear for the heavenly music and a heart for 
 the sacred accomplishments of noble thought 
 and speech and song, bringing him into real 
 fellowship with apostle and prophet or even an 
 angel from heaven coming announced or un- 
 awares. 
 
 III. 
 
 Whatsoever things God prepared for them 
 that love him; things wliich eye saw not and 
 ear heard not, and which entered not into the 
 heart of man, God revealed to us through the 
 Spirit, who becomes more than eyes, more than 
 ears, more than the heart, however much these 
 may be to us, and literally confers upon us 
 spiritual powers corresponding with our spir- 
 itual needs. As the Bible is inspired so the 
 Christian is inspired, for "it is not ye that 
 speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speak- 
 eth in you/' No wonder Christian hope reaches 
 out confidently to the future and inspired men 
 labor assiduously to tell us of the golden age 
 of mankind, which they all with one voice place 
 in the future. 
 
 137 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 John's vision on the lonely isle of Patmos 
 impresses iis more perhaps than it instructs us. 
 There is a superincumbent weight of glory that 
 presses close to the narrow gateway of ex- 
 pression. He sees a city unlike those of earth, 
 its length and height and breadth being equal, 
 as the place of perfection, having twelve foun- 
 dations, symbolizing security, and each being 
 a precious stone, to prefigure supreme moral 
 quality. A new social order appears without 
 toil and strife, the river of life and the tree of 
 life indicating the satisfaction of every need. 
 Men rest without the darkness of night and 
 worship without the aid of a temple. They 
 belong to the company of the redeemed of all 
 ages and mingle with angels in companionship 
 and song. They know God as revealed in 
 Christ; they see his face, and his name is in 
 their foreheads. The divine image is restored 
 in its beauty and perfection, and their life rises 
 to the level of heaven, where the will of God 
 is the undisputed law and the presence of Christ 
 an everlasting gospel. 
 
 The book of Revelation naturally stands at 
 the end of the New Testament as the sequel 
 of the gospel. In its descriptions of heaven 
 and the heavenly life there is symbolism and 
 there is truth, and the truth is net less than 
 the symbol used to represent it, as heaven is 
 
 138 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 not less than earth, but unspeakably greater. 
 Faith always attends school where the Spirit 
 of God is the teacher, learning the lesson of 
 the life that now is and in germ and essence 
 of that which is to come, and clinging to the 
 Bible because it 
 
 Lifts the veil that hides the day 
 That shall never pass away. 
 
 Nor should we ever carlessly confuse faith 
 and fancy or imagination, though we love our 
 imagination as we love our eyes, since it en- 
 ables us to conceive, combine, and picture. But 
 imagination is one faculty of the mind, while 
 faith is the whole man relying upon God. 
 Imagination has first place in the mind of the 
 reader and writer of fiction, and no man can 
 reasonably expect to be lifted above its source 
 by reading this kind of literature. Fiction 
 signally fails as a teacher of conscience and 
 reason and will, and yet only as these elements 
 enter into it does fiction rise to the level of 
 real life. In its lighter movements, imagina- 
 tion is called fancy, and who would mistake 
 fancy for faith? Faith removes mountains. 
 Faith overcomes the world that tempts and 
 allures and deludes; that holds men and women 
 in slavery till liberated by its victory. Fancy 
 has no such power and can point to no such 
 
 139 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 victory. It cannot rise to God like faith, which 
 is the assurance of things hoped for, a convic- 
 tion of things not seen. Imagination resem- 
 bles the long feelers of the grandfather-long- 
 legs, which are longer than his legs and always 
 in motion, while faith is like his legs, bearing 
 him along with his knees above his head and 
 his body swinging securely below as in a ham- 
 mock. Faith has the sense of God and the 
 future like a prophet, wings to rise and soar 
 like an eagle, arms to grasp the truth like a 
 giant, and courage like a soldier to contend 
 earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints. 
 
 A man without eyes might be expected to 
 question God's ability to create an organ in 
 the human body capable of observing an oak 
 half a mile away, a mountain ten miles dis- 
 tant, the moon 240,000 miles, or the sun and 
 stars separated many millions of miles from 
 the observer; but after using a pair of eyes 
 of divine construction, any man should have 
 faith in God's ability easily rising to the point 
 of a settled belief. In all candor we should 
 accord to Christian faith this same certainty 
 after as many years of use and testing of its 
 power of spiritual vision and victory over evil. 
 The eyes and ears of fancy report the sounds 
 and symbolism of Eevelation, while faith per- 
 
 140 
 
* Sweet Rest 
 
 ceives there as everywhere the mind of the 
 Spirit and sees through the little imagery of 
 earth the greater life of heaven. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Solomon complains in Ecclesiastes of the 
 emptiness of things, while John in Eevelation 
 finds language too poor to express his meaning. 
 He calls to his aid bold figures of speech, im- 
 pressive imagery, and symbolic descriptions in 
 his effort to record in human language what 
 he saw in heavenly vision, and expected to see 
 again in all its bold and beautiful reality. 
 Eight action leads on to settled rest — not the 
 rest of inaction, but the rest of harmony, 
 when life answers to environment and environ- 
 ment to life, when man is at one with himself 
 and with all who have a place in the kingdom 
 of God. The rest of heaven is the rest of faith, 
 the rest of the soul supported at its center of 
 gravity. With this, great central fact estab- 
 lished, a hundred others follow easily, and John 
 is scientific as well as prophetic, logical as well 
 as theological. The language of God's king- 
 dom grows in meaning, while that of the world 
 wanes and withers. The man who loves the 
 world feels the force of Solomon's complaint, 
 while the man who loves the Father appreci- 
 
 141 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 ates the heroic effort of John to express 
 thoughts almost beyond the power of human 
 language to represent or the human mind to 
 comprehend. 
 
 As men advance in years they perceive a 
 growing sense of the shortness of time. What 
 does it mean? The clock ticks no faster. Be- 
 cause men are occupied does time seem short 
 as measured by the demands of business? Or 
 does the approach of eternity cause men to lose 
 the sense of time, or rather their approach to 
 that state where time gives place to eternity? 
 There are no clocks in heaven and no mileposts, 
 and no man need misread this lesson of his life, 
 that space and time become less to him and 
 may even disappear altogether as conditions 
 of his life. 
 
 Death is a great awakener. Some men get 
 ready for the cemetery before they prepare for 
 heaven. Their development is one-sided. They 
 are harvested by death while they are still sin- 
 ful and sour. When his body and spirit dis- 
 solve their present partnership, a man pays 
 the last installment and closes the account with 
 this world, whether his years have been many 
 or few, and whether his life has been a profit- 
 able or an unprofitable venture. 
 
 In the three-cornered game of life, every 
 man should often ask himself. Is it my next 
 
 142 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 move? Satan has moved early and often, and 
 half unknown to many a player God has moved. 
 He has sent his Son and his Holy Spirit, and 
 while men ought to wait on God, God actually 
 waits on men, lest the game should end and 
 man be the loser. If now any man has no lurk- 
 ing fear that some day he may find something 
 better than the gospel, some other and better 
 Savior than the Christ, he can at once commit 
 himself to the Christ for time and for eternity. 
 .He can consecrate himself from the center of 
 his being to the circumference and be at rest. 
 
 How reassuring it is to know that every 
 good resolution, every act of faith by which a 
 man commits himself to Christ remains vital 
 and operative like the promises by which God 
 commits himself to man. Behind such a man 
 lies an accumulation of character and purpose 
 like the water in a mill-dam, while before him 
 opens a future safe in the keeping of Him 
 who said, "I have set before thee a door opened, 
 which none can shut." The words of this man 
 must grow greater in meaning as his life deep- 
 ens and widens and as its current is concen- 
 trated in its proper channel and continually 
 moves onward, never returning upon itself in 
 the inevitable eddies of egotism. He cannot be 
 pessimistic, but must be optimistic in the very 
 nature of the case, nor is his optimism of the 
 
 143 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 bulletin-board variety. He develops under the 
 law of life and not under the law of necessity, 
 his inner impulse being sufficient to resist every 
 outer force that threatens to crush it and suffi- 
 cient also to realize the ends of its own exist- 
 ence. If the Christian of the Johannine type 
 be accepted as a fact, then the heaven described 
 by John is a foregone conclusion. If the gos- 
 pel is received as true, then reason unites with 
 faith in asserting its proper sequel in the vision 
 of Patmos. 
 
 y. 
 
 We have here no abiding city. Cities last 
 longer than their occupants, and men reluc- 
 tantly relinquish their palaces and possessions, 
 their rights and titles. They are defendants in 
 a suit in ejectment in which the case is sure 
 to go against them and be followed by an un- 
 conditional ouster. Precedents for a thousand 
 years, personal observation in as many in- 
 stances, and the Word of God which endures 
 forever speak in concert and also in order as 
 independent witnesses establisliing beyond a 
 peradventure this fact which has a disquieting 
 effect on the minds of men who are irreligious 
 and also candid and thoughtful. 
 
 Perhaps every soul has at some time doubted 
 whether the Bible is indeed God's Word, but 
 
 144 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 that time was not when a de^ir friend lay 
 speechless in death, and no word of comfort 
 soothed its sorrow till some word from that 
 Book brought real relief. The truth was calm 
 and consoling and its sweetness conquered bit- 
 ter grief and lifted hope to her feet again. 
 There that soul became sure that the Bible is 
 the Word of God. It was true then, more than 
 literature, more than history, more than 
 poetry, more than philosophy. It spoke like* 
 a voice to the troubled spirit, and one listener 
 at least heard and knew that it was the voice 
 of God. 
 
 The Bible shows us the Christ passing up 
 through human life from infancy to mature 
 manhood and filling it with his own ideal and 
 measure of worth. He teaches us how to dwell 
 in society and also that there is no solitude for 
 a good man. He redeems us in our individual 
 and social life, saving us from the narrowness 
 of bigotry on the one hand and on the other 
 from degenerating into the careless crowd who 
 drift like fragments in a river. He saves our 
 individualism and our socialism, which go to 
 seed separately if left alone, or go to hell to- 
 gether, which is the place without God and 
 without hope. Christian individualism and 
 Christian, socialism belong to one ideal, and 
 the Christian is the only citizen, if not the 
 
 10 145 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 only candidate for a place in the new social 
 order called the kingdom of God. 
 
 Men must be sorted like apples and potatoes, 
 since one bad man, like one bad apple, may 
 spoil a dozen good ones. The David of old 
 said, "Deal gently with my son," but the David 
 of to-day says, "Deal gently with my sin." 
 Julia Ward Howe says : 
 
 God is sifting out the hearts of men before his 
 
 judgment-seat. 
 Be swift my soul to answer liim; be jubilant my 
 
 feet; 
 
 Our God is marching on. 
 
 His machinery is in motion and a hundred 
 sieves shake down their products in separate 
 heaps. Tested by one and another all the way 
 through the list, pleasure and place, honor and 
 wealth, each man passes on and every one finds 
 his own place. The worldly man adjusts him- 
 self to his world and the Christian man to his 
 world. There the one remains and there the 
 other rests when the word is spoken, "He that 
 is unrighteous let him do unrighteousness still : 
 and he that is filthy let him be made filthy still : 
 and he that is righteous let him do righteous- 
 ness still: and he that is holy let him be made 
 holy still." 
 
 The Christian is learning the language of 
 heaven, and if by chance he heard the song 
 
 146 
 
Sweet Best 
 
 of the redeemed in glory he would cry out, 
 "That is my song." His is the language of 
 obedience and divine life, and why should he 
 not claim citizenship in heaven? There he 
 will be at home and at rest, the rest of perfect 
 adjustment of his mind to the object of life as 
 conceived by the Divine Mind, of perfect har- 
 mony in himself as created in the image of 
 God and renewed by the atonement of Christ, 
 of complete correspondence with his environ- 
 ment as divinely appointed, so that wherever 
 God manifests his personal presence there is 
 rest for him, there is heaven. 
 
 Why should any man miss the meaning of 
 life? He might miss his calling, but not his 
 call, which comes as a voice from heaven. A 
 world furnished to his hand is given to him in 
 which to live and choose and work out his 
 destiny. Another and another opens to his 
 knock and his request to enter. Many paths 
 invite him, but he makes choice of the one he 
 prefers to follow. An ideal rises before him to 
 be' deciphered by his own mind and realized by 
 his own efforts aided by other agencies seen 
 and unseen. His method of labor becomes his 
 method of life, and even of being itself, guid- 
 ing his steps and keeping him true to himself. 
 In his heart he carries his governing principle, 
 like the testimony kept in the Ark of the Cov- 
 
 147 
 
Parables for the People 
 
 enantj and his impelling naotive, which may 
 and should be the same that moves and guides 
 the divine will. As long as love abides in him 
 he has heart and courage for life and labor 
 and all things. Love never fails and never 
 ceases. Sweet rest is his present possession and 
 is sure to be his future inheritance, the rest of 
 faith, the faith that sustains the center of the 
 man now and points forward and leads onward 
 to a permanent relation to God and, as a neces- 
 sary consequence, to perpetual rest. 
 
 To such a man the camel cannot come into 
 comparison with the Christ, who is easily 
 supreme, who plainly proves his right to rule, 
 who is never less but always greater in life and 
 leadership. To such a man Christianity cannot 
 come into comparison with other religions, thus 
 forming a basis for a higher generalization and 
 even a new religion, but is itself the one true 
 religion that vindicates man as a creature and 
 God as his creator at the bar of reason, that 
 undertakes single-handed and alone to make 
 men worthy in fact, that sets forth human na- 
 ture and human life in all its parts, body, soul, 
 and spirit; past, present, and future; visible 
 and invisible. To such a man, life means much 
 now and much more hereafter. It cannot mean 
 less in itself, in its relation to a greater world, 
 and in its relation to God. Like the Christ, the 
 
 148 
 
Sweet Rest 
 
 Christian increases and the line of his develop- 
 ment is determined by Christ, who is his ideal 
 and his motive. Philip's dullness of percep- 
 tion must be overcome by the Christian of 
 to-day till he sees God in Christ, and the doubt 
 of Thomas changed into living faith, so that 
 he knows God in the Holy Spirit and addresses 
 him in the memorable words, "My Lord and 
 my God"; the words of faith and reason, of 
 duty and devotion; the words of sweet spiritual 
 childhood which assure us of three important 
 things — the Christian's capacity for spiritual 
 life, his adaptation to its conditions, and his 
 ability to realize the great end of his existence. 
 
 149 
 
The Capital of the Universe. 
 
 With foundations, twelve foundations, 
 Stands the city, fair and bright; 
 
 Life and beauty, God's creations, 
 Glow with wisdom, love, and might. 
 
 Nations gathered with the angels, 
 Hosts of earth and hosts of sky; 
 
 Loud hosannas, sweet evangels, 
 Whis'pring low and rising high. 
 
 River flowing, ever flowing. 
 
 Where the shadows never fall; 
 
 Light a-glowing, ever glowing, 
 Where our God is all in all. 
 
 Tree of life and temple holy, 
 God in Christ the saint shall see. 
 
 Spirits great that once were lowly; 
 Happy place for man to be. 
 
 Waiting crowns and coronations. 
 Promised now and given then; 
 
 When we reach the twelve foundations, 
 Happy souls of ransomed men. 
 
 150