tihvavy of trhe CKeolo^ical ^eminarjo 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 the author 
 
 BV 4501 .B87 1906 c.l 
 Burrell, David James, 1844-,, 
 1926. ^^ 
 
 The evolution of a Christia. . 
 
The Evolution 
 of a Christian 
 
 David James Burrell, d. d., ll.d. 
 
 Minister of Marble Collegiate Church, New York; 
 
 Author of "The Verilies of Jesus." "The Teaching of Jesus 
 
 Concerning the Scriptures," Etc. 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 150 Nassau Street 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
Cofyrieht, 190b. bv 
 Anurican Tract Society 
 
THE MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH 
 5th Avenue and 29th Street. 
 
 New York, Sept. 15th, 1906. 
 
 Dr. Louis Klopsch, 
 
 Editor of the Christian Herald. 
 
 Dear Sir : I wonder if it has escaped your 
 mind that, two winters ago, you asked me to prepare foi 
 pubhcation **A Plain Statement of the Steps to the Christian 
 Life?" 
 
 In answer to that request a sermon was preached 
 which you may recognize in the first of these chapters ; and 
 that was followed by others intended to show Young 
 Christians how to keep on in the Good Way. 
 
 Thus you are, so to speak, the god -father of this little 
 book. Wherefore I ask you to join me in the hope and 
 prayer that it may serve its purpose in saying to many, 
 "Behold the Lamb of God." 
 
 With sincere regard 
 
 I am yours, 
 
 David Jas. Burrell. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 1. How TO Begin.— *'The Way" 1 
 
 2. How TO Hear. — Wireless Messages 14 
 
 3. How TO See. — God's Horses and Chariots 24 
 
 4. How TO Grow. — Putting Off and On 35 
 
 5. The Test of Profession. — Oil in the Vessel . 48 
 
 6. The Test of Faith.— The Field of Anathoth 60 
 
 7. The Test of Practice. — Stacte, Onyche and 
 
 Galbanum 72 
 
 8. Sonship.— Pride of Birth 84 
 
 9. Character. — Four Things Needful 97 
 
 10. Renunciation. — "The Graves of Lust.". . . . 107 
 
 11. Non-Conformity. — The Transfigured Life. . 118 
 
 12. Imitatio Christi. — The Stature of a Man . . . 126 
 
 13. From Glory to Glory. — The Shining Face. . 139 
 
 14. The Law OF Capital.-A Profitable Investment 150 
 
 15. The Law of Honesty. — The Eighth Com- 
 
 mandment 160 
 
 16. The Law of Justice.— "The Square Deal". . 170 
 
 17. The Law OF Kindness.-" Sweet Saint Charity" 180 
 
 18. The Duty OF Fault-finding. — "The Wounds 
 
 of a Friend" 191 
 
 19. The Grace of Forgiveness.-" Seventy Times 
 
 Seven" 201 
 
 20. The Secret of Power. — The Indwelling of 
 
 the Spirit 211 
 
 21. Unrealized Ideals. — ^Dream On! 222 
 
 22. Failure. — Driven Back from the Border 233 
 
 23. Steadfastness. — The Fixed Heart 244 
 
 24. HosANNA ! — Saints Triumphant 256 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 
 
 "the way." 
 
 "And there arose no small stir about the Way." Acts 19: 23. 
 
 The name by which the early Christians were famil- 
 iarly known was " the People of the Way." In the year 
 36 the Sanhedrin issued a commission to Saul of Tarsus 
 authorizing him to arrest any whom he might find " of 
 the Way," whether they were men or women, and to 
 bring them bound unto Jerusalem (Acts 9:2). In the 
 year 58, twenty -two years later, the same Saul, now an 
 apostle of Christ, made a defence from the steps of the 
 Castle of Antonia, in which he said, " I persecuted this 
 Way unto the death, binding and delivering into prison 
 both men and women" (Acts 22:4). 
 
 The name thus given to the followers of Christ is 
 significant for many reasons. The question has been 
 raised in some quarters as to whether religion is dogma 
 or life. In fact, our religion in the last reduction is 
 neither dogma nor life; it is a Way from sin into the 
 Kingdom of God. Its bed-rock is truth, its pavement 
 is character, its destination is eternal life. 
 
 It is a plain Way; as indicated in the prophecy, "A 
 highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called 
 the Way of Holiness ; the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
 shall not err therein." Nevertheless, to the unsaved 
 
 (1) 
 
2 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 no question is more bewildering than this: "What 
 shall I do that I may inherit eternal Hfe?" In the 
 Pocono mountains I found it very difficult to keep in 
 the old Indian trail; though it was easy enough for 
 my comrade, who had been born and bred in that 
 vicinity. A letter lies before me, written by a man of 
 affairs, in which he says, "All my Hfe I have been an 
 attendant at church; I would like to be a Christian, 
 but I confess that I have never yet learned how to set 
 about it." 
 
 It is my present purpose to make this matter as clear 
 as I can. Let it be said at the outset that one thing 
 only is needful in order to become a follower of Christ; 
 to wit, that one shall believe in Him; but, before we 
 come to that, we must touch upon a matter of prelimi- 
 nary importance. 
 
 I. A man must begin with Repentance (Mark 1 :15). 
 
 Now repentance is not a saving grace; it has value 
 only as it leads to something further on. The pain of 
 a physical malady has no curative virtue; but it is this 
 pain that incHnes the patient to ring the doctor's bell. 
 So John the Baptist goes before Christ with his cry, 
 "Repent ye!" since without repentance there is no 
 adequate sense of need, nor disposition to accept Christ. 
 
 Let us get a clear understanding of repentance. It 
 suggests first, an apprehension of sin as a fact; not a 
 figment of the imagination, not "a belief of mortal 
 mind"; not an infection due to environment, and 
 therefore involving no personal accountabiUty ; but a 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 3 
 
 distinct, flagrant violation of holy law, by which the 
 sinner is brought into open rebellion against God. 
 
 And sin must be apprehended, furthermore, as a 
 calamitous fact, that is, involving an adequate penalty: 
 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." A true penitent 
 recognizes the justice of the punishment which is im- 
 posed upon him; as did the crucified thief, when he 
 said to his comrade, "We indeed are condemned 
 justly." One who spends his time in trying to explain 
 away hell and " the unquenchable fire " and " the worm 
 that dieth not," is not a penitent man. 
 
 And sin must be recognized, also, as a concrete or 
 personal fact. It is not enough to acknowledge the 
 incontrovertible presence of sin in the world around us. 
 The important thing is, that this sin inheres in me. So 
 David prayed, " Have mercy upon me, O God, accord- 
 ing unto thy lovingkindness ; for I have sinned and 
 done this evil in thy sight." He had always known, in 
 general terms, that adultery was a fearful thing; but 
 when it pointed its gaunt finger at him in the watches 
 of the night and hissed "Bathsheba!" it brought him 
 to his knees. 
 
 And this conviction of sin must be followed by a 
 resolution to forsake it. The true penitent fears his sin, 
 hates it, loathes it, abhors it, and determines to quit it. 
 
 But observe, all this is merely preliminary to the one 
 thing needful. There is no virtue in repentance per se. 
 The penitent is not saved; he has only discovered his 
 need of salvation. He knows his malady; now how 
 
4 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 shall he be cured of it ? To pause here is death. One 
 in a sinking boat must not be satisfied with stopping 
 the leak; the boat must be bailed out. A man head- 
 over-ears in debt cannot recover his credit by resolving 
 to pay cash in the future; he must somehow cancel his 
 past obhgations. If a penitent were never to commit 
 another sin, the "handwriting of ordinances" would 
 still be against him. The record of the past remains; 
 and it will confront him in the Judgment unless it 
 be disposed of. The past! The mislived past! What 
 shall be done about it? 
 
 This brings us to the matter in hand: What shall I 
 do to be saved? or How shall I become a Christian? 
 
 II. The one thing needful is to Believe in Christ. 
 
 Our Lord at the beginning of His ministry said to 
 Nicodemus< " God so loved the worid that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever helieveth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everiasting life." And to 
 make the matter perfectly clear to this learned rabbi. 
 He resorted to the kindergarten method, using an 
 object lesson: "As Moses Hfted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up 
 (that is, crucified), that whosoever helieveth in Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal fife." So the one 
 thing needful is to believe in Christ. 
 
 The same truth was repeated over and over in the 
 teachings of Jesus and of His disciples as well. To 
 the jailor of Philippi who, in sudden conviction, was 
 moved to cry, "What must I do to be saved?" the 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 5 
 
 answer of Paul was, " BeKeve on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt be saved." 
 
 But what is it to " BeUeve in Christ ? " It is easy to 
 say, "Come to Christ" and "Accept Christ" and 
 "Believe in Him"; but just here occurs the bewilder- 
 ment. These are oftentimes mere shop-worn phrases 
 to the unsaved, however simple they may appear to 
 those who have entered on the Christian Hfe. 
 
 To believe in Christ is, jirsU to credit the historic 
 record of His hfe. Once on a time He lived among 
 men, preached, wrought miracles, suffered and died on 
 the accursed tree. So far all will agree; but there is 
 cleariy no saving virtue in an intellectual acceptance of 
 an undisputed fact. 
 
 It means, second, to beHeve that Jesus was what He 
 claimed to be. And His claim is perfectly clear. To 
 the woman of Samaria who spoke of the coming of 
 Messiah He said, "I that speak unto thee am he." 
 No reader of the Scripture could misunderstand His 
 meaning, since the prophecy of the Messiah runs like 
 a golden thread through all its pages from the pro- 
 tevangel, " The seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's 
 head," to the prediction of Malachi, "The Sun of 
 Righteousness shall arise with healing in His beams." 
 
 But, more than this, Jesus claimed that as Messiah 
 He was the only-begotten and co-equal Son of God. 
 He came forth from God and, after finishing His work, 
 was to return to God and reassume "the glory which 
 He had with the Father before the world was." It was 
 
6 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 this oft-repeated assertion which so mortally offended 
 the Jews as to occasion His arrest on the charge of 
 blasphemy. He persisted in His claim, and was put 
 to death for "making Himself equal with God." It 
 must be seen, therefore, that no man can be said to 
 beheve in Christ who is not prepared to affirm, without 
 demur or qualification, that He was what He claimed 
 to be. 
 
 It means, third, to believe that Jesus did what He 
 said He came into the world to do. And here again 
 there can be no doubt or peradventure. He said: 
 "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. " 
 His death was to be the purchase price of redemption. 
 In the wilderness He was tempted to turn aside from 
 His great purpose. The adversary led Him to a high 
 place, and with a wave of his hand, directed His thought 
 to the kingdoms of this world, saying: "All these are 
 mine. I know thy purpose: thou art come to win 
 this world by dying for it. Why pay so great a price ? 
 I know thy fear and trembUng — for thou art flesh — in 
 view of the nails, the fever, the dreadful exposure, the 
 long agony. Why pay so great a price .^ I am the 
 prince of this world. One act of homage, and I will 
 abdicate. Fall down and worship me!" Never before 
 or since has there been such a temptation, so specious, 
 so alluring. But Jesus had covenanted to die for 
 sinners. He knew there was no other way of accom- 
 pUshing salvation for them. He could not be turned 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 7 
 
 aside from the work which He had volunteered to do. 
 Therefore He put away the suggestion with the word, 
 "Get thee behind me, Satan! I cannot be moved! 
 I know the necessity that is laid upon me. I know 
 that my way to the kingdom is only by the cross. I 
 am therefore resolved to suffer and die for the deliver- 
 ance of men." 
 
 On a later occasion, on His way to Jerusalem — that 
 memorable journey of which it is written, " He set His 
 face steadfastly" to go toward the cross — He spoke to 
 His disciples of His death. He had been with them 
 now three years, but had not been able fully to reveal 
 His mission, because they were not able to bear it. 
 A man with friends, yet friendless, lonely in the pos- 
 session of His great secret. He had longed to give them 
 His full confidence, but dared not. Now, as they 
 journeyed southward through Csesarea Philippi, He 
 asked them, " Who do men say that I am .^ " And they 
 answered, "Some say, John the Baptist; others, Elias; 
 others, Jeremias, or one of the Prophets." And He 
 saith, "But who say ye that I am.?" Then Peter- 
 brave, impulsive, glorious Peter — witnessed his good 
 confession: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 Hving God!" The hour had come. His disciples were 
 beginning to know Him. He would give them His full 
 confidence. So as they journeyed on toward Jerusalem 
 He told them all how He had come to redeem the world 
 by bearing its penalty of death; "He began to show 
 them how He must suffer many things of the elders 
 
8 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and chief priests and scribes, and be killed." At that 
 point Peter could hold his peace no longer, but began to 
 rebuke Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord! To 
 suffer ? To die ? Nay, to reign in Messianic splendor ! " 
 And Jesus turning, said unto him, "Get thee behind 
 me, Satan!" — the very words with which He had 
 repelled the same suggestion in the wilderness. As 
 He looked on His disciple. He saw not Peter, but Satan 
 — perceived how the adversary had for the moment 
 taken possession, as it were, of this man's brain and 
 conscience and lips. "Get thee behind me, Satan! 
 I know thee! I recognize thy crafty suggestion; but 
 I am not to be turned aside from my purpose. Get thee 
 behind me ! Thou art an offence unto me. Thy words 
 are not of divine wisdom, but of human policy. Thou 
 savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be 
 of men!" 
 
 From this we conclude that the vicarious death of 
 Jesus is the vital center of His Gospel, and that any 
 word which contravenes it is in the nature of a satanic 
 suggestion. It follows that no man can truly beheve 
 in Christ without assenting to the fact that the saving 
 power is in His death ; as it is written : " The blood of 
 Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," and, "Without 
 shedding of blood is no remission." He came into the 
 worid to die for sinners, that they by His death might 
 enter into life; He came to take our place before the 
 bar of the offended Law, to be "wounded for our 
 transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that by 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 9 
 
 His stripes we might be healed"; He came to "bear 
 our sins in His own body on the tree"; and to believe 
 in Christ is to believe that He did what He came to do. 
 
 It means, fourth — and now we come to the very 
 heart of the matter — to believe that Christ means 
 precisely what He says. He says to the sinner, "The 
 Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." He 
 says, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
 out." He says, "He that believeth in me hath ever- 
 lasting life." At this point belief means personal 
 appropriation; acceptance, immediate, here, now. It 
 is to make an end of doubt and perplexity and all 
 questioning, by closing in with the overtures of divine 
 mercy. It is to lay down one's arms and make an un- 
 conditional surrender. It is to take the proffered hand 
 of the Saviour in an everlasting covenant of peace. It 
 is to say, " My Lord, my Life, my Sacrifice, my Saviour 
 and my All ! " 
 
 But just here is where many hesitate and fail. They 
 do not "screw their courage to the sticking point." 
 They come up to the line, but do not take the step that 
 crosses it. They do not summon resolution to say, "I 
 will!" They put away the outstretched hand, and so 
 fall short of salvation. 
 
 The will must act. The prodigal in the far country 
 will stay there forever unless his resolution cries, "I 
 will arise and go ! " This resolution is an appropriating 
 act. It makes Christ mine; it links my soul with His, 
 as the coupler binds the loaded train to the locomotive. 
 
10 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 It grasps His outstretched hand; it seals the compact 
 and inspires the song: 
 
 " 'Tis done, the great transaction's done, 
 I am my Lord's and He is mine! 
 He drew me, and I followed on, 
 
 Charmed to confess the voice divine. 
 
 "High heaven that hears the solemn vow. 
 That vow renewed shall daily hear; 
 Till in hfe's latest hour I bow 
 
 And bless in death a bond so dear!" 
 
 Now this is all. The man who really believes on 
 Christ is saved by that alone. He can never be lost. 
 As Rowland Hill used to say, "We two are so joined, 
 He can't be in glory and leave me behind." But salva- 
 tion from the penalty of sin is not the whole of salvation ; 
 only the beginning of it. 
 
 in. There is an inevitable sequel. The sequel to 
 ''becoming a Christian" is following Christ. "Salva- 
 tion " is a large word, including growth in character and 
 usefulness and all the high attainments which are 
 included in a genuine Christian life. This is what Paul 
 means when he says, "Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in 
 you." Work it outl Work your salvation out to its 
 uttermost possibilities! Be a maximum Christian; not 
 content with being saved "so as by fire" but craving 
 "an abundant entrance" into the kingdom. All this 
 is accomplished in the close and faithful following of 
 Christ. 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 11 
 
 This "following" is the sure test and touchstone by 
 which a man determines whether he has really come to 
 Christ and believes in Him. Our " good works " are not 
 meritorious as having any part in our deliverance from 
 condemnation ; but they are the acid-test of our faith ; 
 and they also determine the quality of the heaven that 
 awaits us. And in this sense, "they shall in no wise 
 lose their reward." To use a rude figure; a man going 
 to an entertainment gets a ticket of admission, but for 
 his reserved seat he pays something more. "The just 
 shall live by faith"; but the abundance of their life is 
 determined by the product of their faith. Therefore, he 
 loses much who, while believing in Christ, follows Him 
 afar off. 
 
 To follow Christ at the best, means to regard Him 
 as our Priest, our only Priest, whose sacrifice is full 
 and suflBcient for us. We forsake all other plans of 
 salvation and trust simply and solely to the merit of His 
 atoning blood. 
 
 To follow Christ means to regard Him as our only 
 Prophet, or Teacher. All preachers, ecclesiastical 
 councils, historic creeds and symbols are remanded to a 
 subordinate place. His word is ultimate for us. 
 
 To follow Christ means to regard Him as our King. 
 He reigns in us and over us. His love constrains us. 
 His wish is our law. His authority is final. " Whatso- 
 ever He saith unto you, do it." 
 
 And to follow Christ means to do all this in the open. 
 It may be that some who refuse to confess Christ are 
 
12 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ultimately saved by Him; but the presumption is 
 immensely against the man who lives that way. " Stand 
 forth into the midst!" "Quit thyself like a man!" 
 
 In closing we return to iterate and reiterate the 
 proposition that our salvation from sin and spiritual 
 death is by faith in Christ and by that only. Let no 
 side issues enter here to confuse and bewilder us. Let 
 not the simplicity of the proceeding offend us. "He 
 that beheveth shall be saved." 
 
 That is final and conclusive. Our deliverance is 
 wholly of grace: we do not earn it. "The wages of 
 sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life." 
 
 *'Long as I live, I'll still be crying 
 Mercy's free!" 
 
 And therefore all the glory is unto God: "Of whom 
 are we in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom 
 and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 
 that, according as it is written, if any man glory, let 
 him glory in the Lord." 
 
 Nevertheless, the benefit of the gift is conditioned 
 on our acceptance of it. The manna lies about our 
 feet "white and plenteous as hoar frost," but it will not 
 save us from famishing unless we gather it up and eat it. 
 The water gushes from the rock, but we shall die of 
 thirst unless we dip it up and drink it. Christ on the 
 Cross saves no man ; it is only when Christ is appropri- 
 ated that He saves us. We must make Him ours. We 
 must grasp His extended hand. Luther said, "The 
 
HOW TO BEGIN. 13 
 
 Important thing is the possessive pronoun, first person 
 singular." One of the early fathers said, "It is the 
 grip on the blood that saves us." Christ stands waiting 
 — He offers Hfe for the taking. Who will have it ? The 
 worst of sinners can make it his very own by saying 
 with all his heart. *' I will ! I do ! " 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 
 
 WIRELESS MESSAGES. 
 
 "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they 
 are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them: because they are 
 spiritually discerned." I Corinthians 2: 14. 
 
 A principle is here laid down which governs in the 
 universal realm of truth ; to wit, the principle of mutual 
 adjustment. If you strike a tuning fork, keyed to middle 
 C, it will awaken a response in another fork, providing 
 the latter is keyed to the same pitch, but not otherwise. 
 This is the basic fact in wireless telegraphy. On Cape 
 Cod there is a transmitting station, consisting of four 
 steel towers with a bunch of wires suspended from the 
 top and meeting at a common point, like an inverted 
 cone. If the power be applied to the apex of this cone, 
 the wires begin to tremble ; and this current, oscillating 
 at a rate of, say, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand 
 vibrations per second, creates a series of corresponding 
 vibrations in the surrounding ether: just as a stone 
 cast into a pond sends out concentric circles. This 
 ether wave or message speeds outward with incalculable 
 rapidity in search of its receiver. Now there is such a 
 receiver at Pol Dhu in Cornwall; where the wires are 
 precisely attuned to the transmitter on Cape Cod; that 
 is, their oscillation is nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 
 U4) 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 15 
 
 thousand per second, so that the message sent from 
 Cape Cod meets no response until it finds its sympathetic 
 station at Pol Dhu ; and this welcomes it. 
 
 The system of wireless telegraphy which is justly 
 credited to Marconi is not an invention but a discovery. 
 He has simply lighted upon a process which has been 
 going on perpetually in the infinite realms of space. 
 The sun as the great source and center of energy in our 
 solar universe is constantly sending out messages of 
 light: for it is a scientifically demonstrated fact that 
 a beam of light is simply an electric message; that is, 
 a vibrant wave of ether. And here the same principle 
 holds, that no message can be received except by some 
 object which is sympathetically attuned to it. Let us 
 suppose, as Professor Pupin suggests, that a beam of 
 light representing a certain number of vibrations per 
 second, intended to convey the color red, is sent forth 
 from the sun. It speeds through space until it reaches 
 the earth; where, intent upon its eager quest, it passes 
 unresting through all the meadows, since no grass-blade 
 is adjusted to receive it; passes over all gardens, no 
 daisy or buttercup, no mignonette or heliotrope being 
 disposed to welcome it, until it finds a rose; and here 
 it pauses and finds welcome, because the rose has been 
 precisely co-ordinated with it. 
 
 Let us go further now and we will find a spiritual 
 analogy. For this process, which has been discovered 
 to be so prevalent in nature, has infinite field and scope 
 of operation in the province of spiritual things. God 
 
16 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 as the great transmitter of truth bears to the spiritual 
 world a relation corresponding with that of the sun 
 in the natural world. Assuming that there is a God, 
 and that we are created in His image and after His like- 
 ness, it follows as an inevitable conclusion that He 
 will somehow reveal Himself to His children and hold 
 converse with them. But here is the application of the 
 principle referred to: The man who would hear the 
 wireless messages of God must himself he attuned or 
 adjusted to the character of God. 
 
 I. Let us begin with Nature; for this is the univer- 
 sal medium through which God communicates with the 
 children of men. 
 
 Now there are some who " look through Nature up to 
 Nature's God" and hear Him speaking in everything 
 about them; as it is written, " There are so many voices 
 in the world and none of them is without signification." 
 Such persons, though they dwell in the desert of Midian, 
 find "every common bush afire with God." At night 
 the heavens declare His glory to them and the firmament 
 showeth His handiwork. This was in Bryant's mind 
 when he wrote, 
 
 "To him who in the love of Nature holds 
 Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
 A various language." 
 
 But there are others who hear no voices, and see noth- 
 ing that is not visible to fleshly eyes; like Peter Bell, 
 of whom Wordsworth says. 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 17 
 
 **A primrose by the river's brim 
 A yellow primrose was to him. 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 Whence this difference ? It arises from the fact that 
 some souls are sympathetic with God and others are 
 not. There was Coleridge who was so devoutly in- 
 clined, so open to the reception of spiritual truth, that 
 walking in the vale of Chamounix he heard the snow- 
 capped mountains and ice falls echoing their Maker's 
 name. 
 
 "God! Let the torrents like a shout of nations 
 Answer, and let the ice plains echo, God! 
 God! Sing, ye meadow streams with gladsome voice; 
 Ye pine groves with your soft and soul-like sounds; 
 Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost; 
 Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest; 
 Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain stream; ' 
 Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the winds; 
 Ye sounds and wonders of the elements 
 Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise!" 
 
 But there are peasants born and bred in Chamounix 
 who, if asked their interpretation of its sounds would 
 answer, "I hear nothing but the lowing of my cattle 
 and the bleating of my flocks." Thus there are many 
 who have no ears for the song which is within the song 
 of birds and no eye for the visions which are within the 
 beauty of the natural world. They are of the earth 
 earthy, bound down to things material, dreaming no 
 dreams and seeing no visions. 
 
18 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 "Great God! I'd rather be 
 A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, 
 Catch sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn ! " 
 
 It is the misfortune of all misfortunes to be thus bond- 
 slaves to the five senses; to see nothing beyond the 
 range of physical vision and the circumscription of the 
 finger tips. This is to be agnostics, indeed; to have no 
 clairvoyance, no spiritual apprehension, no second 
 sight, no faith. It is an eternal and immeasurable ca- 
 lamity to stand in the midst of a universe where the 
 ether is vibrant with messages of truth, so deeply ab- 
 sorbed in our little plans and pursuits that we hear 
 nothing above or beyond the rattle of the machinery 
 of physical life. 
 
 II. Let us now turn from Nature to the ScriptureSy 
 which claim to be " the Word of God. " 
 
 There is an attempt in some quarters to reduce them 
 to the level of other Hterature; and those who assume 
 this attitude will find in these inspired records precisely 
 what they find in other books and no more. Here, as 
 elsewhere, men find what they are looking for, and hear 
 what they are hstening for. The mere student of 
 literature finds in the Bible myths and parables, songs 
 and chronicles of surpassing beauty: but there are 
 others who hearken as at Divine Oracles, and hear the 
 very voice of God. 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 19 
 
 How are we to account for this difference of esti- 
 mate as to the spiritual value and veracious integrity of 
 the Scriptures? It is due, as before, to a difference 
 of qualification or predisposition. In some cases men 
 hold themselves in readiness to hear, as Samuel did in 
 the early watches of the morning, when he said, " Speak 
 Lord, for Thy servant heareth!" In other cases they 
 stand in a critical or skeptical attitude; as Theodore 
 Parker did when he remarked, "I am not willing to 
 receive this statement upon the authority of any such 
 person as God." There is nothing in the world that can 
 so destroy the receptivity of the soul as this pride of 
 worldly wisdom. No man can hear a heavenly message 
 who is not prepared to admit that there are some things 
 which he can learn from God. 
 
 The fact that a man is Hberally educated in certain 
 directions, does not argue that he is competent to pass 
 judgment on a divine communication. In the middle 
 of the seventeenth century there were two men living 
 in England whose names are equally historic and illus- 
 trious for broad culture. One of these was Sir Isaac 
 Newton and the other John Milton. Now it is a 
 singular fact that Sir Isaac Newton could not appre- 
 ciate "Paradise Lost," and equally singular that John 
 Milton could see nothing in "The Principia." Ob- 
 viously this was not to the discredit of either Paradise 
 Lost or The Principia; nor was it a reflection upon the 
 technical learning of either man. It simply indicates 
 that in order to apprehend truth in any quarter a man 
 
90 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 must be sympathetically disposed toward it. Milton 
 had no mind for mathematics, nor Newton for poetry. 
 So the wisest of men, as the world holds wisdom, may 
 come to the Scriptures and find nothing there; as the 
 soldiers of Titus, at the taking of Jerusalem, threw open 
 the Ark of the Covenant and found it empty. It is a 
 proverb that none are so blind as those who will not see. 
 So if we would hear God speaking through the Script- 
 ures, we must divest ourselves of prejudice and be 
 willing to hear Him. 
 
 III. God speaks to us, also, through His Incarnate 
 Son; who, for this reason, is called " the Word." 
 
 But here again we observe a great diversity of opinion. 
 There are multitudes who regard Christ at the chief- 
 est among ten thousand and altogether lovely; while 
 other multitudes see in Him nothing but " a root out of 
 a dry ground, having no form nor comeliness nor beauty 
 that they should desire Him. 
 
 Why this wide difference? It is due to the same 
 difference of responsiveness. Some are prepared to re- 
 ceive Christ because they profoundly feel the need of 
 Him; the sense of sin lies heavy upon them and they 
 would fain be delivered from it. They wait, like aged 
 Simeon in the temple, for the coming of the mighty One; 
 and, beholding Him, they instantly receive Him as 
 divinely sent, saying, " Now lettest Thou Thy servant 
 depart in peace ; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation ! " 
 They welcome the message because they were waiting 
 for it. Others like Nathanael cry, " Can any good thing 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 21 
 
 come out of Nazareth ? " and prejudice must be over- 
 come before they can receive Him. Thus it is written, 
 "He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
 not ; but as many as received Him, to them gave He the 
 right to become the sons of God. " Prejudice is grounded 
 in pride of worldly wisdom; and this is always the 
 great obstacle between the soul and Christ as the 
 " Word " or message of God. 
 
 Thus it has come to pass that some who have been 
 distinguished for their attainments in certain provinces 
 of knowledge, have been wholly blind on the Godward 
 side. One cannot forget how Charles Darwin, after 
 spending his life in experimenting along the lines of 
 physical science, died lamenting that his spiritual na- 
 ture had been starved. In his childhood he had been 
 deeply religious, he said ; but he had dwelt so long amid 
 an environment of purely material things that God and 
 immortality had become empty dreams to him. He 
 called this "atrophy," that is, a wasting away for want 
 of nourishment. All through his life he had fostered 
 the natural man; or, as Paul calls it, '' fsuchikos,'' "the 
 psychical man." Wherefore he could reason indefi- 
 nitely in the realm of material things, but the super- 
 natural was wholly ruled out. 
 
 IV. God speaks, also, by the voice of His Spirit. 
 
 There is more skepticism at this point, I believe, than 
 anywhere else, in these days. We are living under the 
 dispensation of the Holy Ghost. He is now the Execu- 
 tive of God's kingdom on earth; and those who are in 
 
22 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 this kingdom have to do officially with Him. Yet there 
 are many who characterize the Third Person of the 
 Godhead by a neuter pronoun, and regard Him merely 
 as an influence or effluence, bearing no vital or personal 
 relation to them. 
 
 There is obviously a vital difference of opinion here. Is 
 the Holy Spirit the personal director of our life and ser- 
 vice, or is He not " He " at all but merely " it " ? If He 
 sustains the former relation to us, it is because our souls 
 are in harmony with His great purposes concerning us and 
 adjusted to receive communications from Him. In this 
 case we stand as Elijah did on Horeb, his face wrapped 
 in his mantle, while he hearkened to "the still small 
 Voice." And living thus we follow His guidance as did 
 Abraham on his journey from Ur of the Chaldees along 
 the windings of the Great River, ever heeding the direc- 
 tion of the Voice, pitching his tent or moving on as the 
 Voice bade him. Otherwise we are like the multitudes 
 at Pentecost who, despite the manifestations of divine 
 power in the sound of the rushing mighty wind and the 
 miracle of the tongues, looked on in doubt and bewilder- 
 ment, saying, "These men are full of new wine!" In a 
 recent book on religious experience the manifestations of 
 pagan frenzy are collated with the feelings and convic- 
 tions of Christian believers, and all alike are subjected to 
 analysis by the so-called "scientific method." Thus 
 judged, there is nothing in regeneration, nothing in 
 sanctification, nothing but infatuation in the upHfting 
 and transporting influence of the Spirit of God. 
 
HOW TO HEAR. 23 
 
 In View of such considerations is it not apparent that 
 the soul is blind and deaf to heavenly visions and revel- 
 ations, unless it is attuned to them ? And what solemn 
 significance there is in the words of Jesus: "He that 
 hath ears to hear let him hear!" There are, indeed, "so 
 many voices and none of them without signification"; 
 but sordid souls are unable to interpret them. The 
 people standing by say, "It thundereth!" O for the 
 hearing ear and the understanding heart! What avails 
 it to call a commission of blind men to pass judgment 
 on the art of Titian or of Raphael ? What avails it to 
 bid a jury of deaf men sit in judgment on anthems 
 and oratorios? Thus when the philosophers of 
 Athens heard Paul preaching on Mars Hill, "some 
 mocked and others said, *We will hear thee again 
 concerning this matter.'" The Gospel is "foolish- 
 ness to the Greek, and to the Jews a stumbling-block; 
 but to them that are saved, it is the wisdom and 
 power of God." Men sit like blind Bartimaeus in 
 the Valley of Palms; and its beauty is all unknown; 
 until the Lord passing by says to them, "Receive thy 
 sight!" The five physical senses are as five gates open 
 to physical truth; but faith is the sixth gate, at which 
 alone spiritual verities can enter. By all that makes 
 life worth living and immortality worth winning it 
 behooves us to keep that gate open; for it is a true 
 saying, "He that cometh to God must believe that 
 He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek Him." 
 
HOW TO SEE. 
 
 god's horses and chariots. 
 
 "The Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and, behold, 
 the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." II Kings 6: 18. 
 
 It was a time of despondency in Israel. The Syrians 
 had harried the people until they trembled at the rustle 
 of a leaf. All the northern country about the sources of 
 the Jordan had been devastated as if by fire. Once and 
 again Samaria had been besieged, until the grim game of 
 slaughter and plunder had become a mere pastime for 
 Ben-hadad and his army. 
 
 But just now the Syrian king was in a quandary. For 
 some reason all his recent movements had been antici- 
 pated and brought to nought. It transpired that this 
 was due to the prophetic gift of Elisha, who made known 
 the plans formed in the royal bedchamber. This man 
 must be put out of the way. 
 
 The duties of Elisha as superintendent of the Schools 
 of the Prophets, carried him about from one point to 
 another; and it chanced that, in his itinerary, accom- 
 panied by one of his theological students, he came to the 
 town of Dothan. Here was Ben-hadad 's opportunity. 
 In the night the Syrian army invested the town. At 
 dawn the student arose, and, perceiving the situation, 
 ran back to EHsha, crying, "Alas, master! What shall 
 
 (24) 
 
HOW TO SEE. 25 
 
 we do ?" The answer was, " Fear not; for they that be 
 with us are more than they that be with them." This 
 assurance, however, seems not to have been sufficient to 
 quiet the student's fears. Then Elisha prayed, " O Lord 
 open his eyes that he may see!" The prayer was an- 
 swered; the youth's "eyes were opened; and he saw; 
 and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and char- 
 iots of fire!" 
 
 Here is a vision of good cheer for the fearful and 
 down-hearted. There are times when we all find our- 
 selves in the town of Dothan with hosts of enemies 
 encamped about us. We have misgivings as to our sal- 
 vation, as to the welfare of the community, as to the 
 survival of the righteous cause. There are fears within 
 and foes without. Now, master, what shall we do ? 
 
 O for the gift of second sight! For there are more 
 things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our 
 sordid philosophy. God is ever in the foreground of 
 events with reinforcements that are invisible to fleshly 
 eyes. 
 
 It is safe to say that on that memorable day, one fact 
 was impressed on the mind of the young man in Dothan 
 with startling distinctness; to wit, the Reality of the 
 Unseen World. 
 
 His vision was no dream; the horses and chariots 
 which he saw on the mountain slopes were not spectral, 
 but quite as substantial as the Syrian soldiers who sat 
 chatting in the doorways of their tents. Nay, they were 
 more real and substantial. The things which are appre- 
 
26 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 hended by faith within the province of the spiritual life 
 are destined to outlast all tangibilities. "The things 
 which are seen are temporal, but the things which are 
 not seen are eternal." All that I touch with my fingers 
 shall ultimately crumble into dust as will my hands 
 themselves ; but that which I apprehend by my spirit- 
 ual sense is destined to endure forever and ever. What 
 is more substantial, apparently, than a silver dollar 
 in my hand.^ But when that dollar is expended in 
 charity, the prayer which is offered by the benefici- 
 ary in behalf of the donor will infinitely outlast it. So 
 if permanency be the test of reality, the spiritual is ever 
 more real than the material. Eternity is more real 
 than time; heaven is more real than earth. The homes 
 that we live in shall vanish from the earth, but we 
 have another home, "an house not made with hands, 
 eternal, in the heavens." All our cities are destined 
 to share the doom of Thebes and Babylon, but there is 
 "a city which hath foundations whose builder and 
 maker is God." 
 
 And this spiritual world is nearer than we think. I 
 can come from the Mississippi valley on a twenty-four- 
 hour train : but how long does it take a soul to go from 
 earth to heaven ? An infinitesimal fraction of a second ! 
 So frail is the separating veil that a breath of noxious 
 wind will rend it. O, no; heaven is not " a happy land, 
 far, far away. " God's horses and chariots do not need 
 to weary themselves with forced marches on their way 
 hither. 
 
HOW TO SEE. 27 
 
 could I see, 
 
 As in truth they be. 
 The glories of heaven that compass me , 
 
 1 should lightly hold 
 The tissued fold 
 
 Of that marvellous curtain of blue and gold. 
 
 Soon the whole. 
 
 Like a parchment scroll. 
 Shall before my amazed sight uproU; 
 
 And without a screen. 
 
 At one burst be seen — 
 The Presence wherein I've ever been. 
 
 If these things are true, it is obviously of the utmost 
 importance that we should ponder them, lest we allow 
 ourselves to be of the earth earthy. We differ from all 
 the lower orders of life in that we belong to two worlds. 
 One of them is merely the threshold of the other. Life 
 here gets all its solemnity from the fact that it leads to 
 the life beyond. Here is the fatal flaw in Confucian- 
 ism; it teaches that, being ignorant of spiritual things, 
 we should live for the seen and temporal: "As to God 
 and immortality," said Confucius, "we do not know. 
 We do know that we are living here and now, and it be- 
 hooves us to make the best of it." The result is that the 
 Chinese are the most sordid people on earth. And 
 there are those who, living in the noonday light of Christ- 
 ian civilization, deride Christians for their ideal of 
 " other- worldliness." God be praised, we do look for a 
 better country, even an heavenly, and try to live accord- 
 ingly; and in this we fondly trust that we are con- 
 
28 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ducting ourselves as becomes the children of God. 
 
 A boy in Corsica was wont to climb the hills that sur- 
 rounded his narrow home and gaze away across the 
 waters with wistful eyes. Yonder lay the great world! 
 He dreamed dreams and saw visions of conquest. 
 But for those dreams and visions he might have been 
 content to spend his life in Corsica: as it was, he 
 trumpeted his name along the ages. There are no con- 
 quests for those who are satisfied to dwell within the 
 small environment of a groveling life. Up to the heights, 
 O my soul! Look beyond; for life is yonder. Life! 
 Eternal life! 
 
 But the youth whose eyes were opened in Dothan saw 
 more than the reality of spiritual things. The Philo- 
 sophy of History came to him that day. 
 
 Once and again he had seen the armies of Syria cross 
 the mountains to invade his country; and at sight of their 
 waving banners and gleaming spears his heart had sunk 
 within him. But nevermore could he doubt the out- 
 come, since he had seen these horses and chariots of fire. 
 He knew now how to read the logic of events. 
 
 O blest is he to whom is given 
 
 The instinct that can tell 
 That God is on the field, when He 
 
 Is most invisible! 
 
 At this point we note the mistake made by Gibbon in 
 his Rise and Fall of the Romxin Empire. He saw the 
 great fabric grow and mount aloft Hke the historic tower 
 in the vale of Shinar; and then for some inscrutable 
 
HOW TO SEE. 29 
 
 reason its growth was arrested, and developing a weak- 
 ness, like leprosy in mortar, it hastened to its fall. 
 Why ? Gibbon could not tell. His eyes were not pro- 
 phetic eyes ; he saw not the Stone hewn out of the moun- 
 tain that smote it. 
 
 The problem of history is algebraic ; inasmuch as we 
 are always working with an unknown factor, "x," 
 which must be reduced to known terms. 
 
 In the process of solution we come upon certain singu- 
 lar facts or results incidental to the main problem. 
 
 One of these is the Indestructibility of Truth and 
 Righteousness. 
 
 Everything else is liable to overthrow; but truth is 
 proof against the tooth of time and rasure of oblivion. 
 Fires cannot burn it; floods cannot overwhelm it. 
 Now and then, like the sun, it seems to vanish under a 
 passing cloud, but only to reappear in greater splendor. 
 How shall we account for this? 
 
 Truth crushed to earth will rise again; 
 
 The eternal years of God are hers; 
 But Error, wounded, writhes with pain. 
 
 And dies amid his worshippers. 
 
 Another of the facts incidental to the solution of our 
 problem is the Power of Minorities. 
 
 Napoleon never made a greater mistake than when he 
 said, "Victory is with the strongest battalions. " Great 
 were the armies of Ben-hadad, and everything was in his 
 favor; but Israel, "a little flock of goats by the water- 
 side, " was stronger. Is it not written, " One shall chase 
 
30 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight ? " 
 Explain, if you can, how Gideon's three hundred, with 
 lamps, pitchers and trumpets, were able to overwhelm 
 the hosts of Midian that were "like grasshoppers for 
 multitude. " The night before the battle of Bannock- 
 burn, the English king, surveying the Scottish array 
 from the top of a hill, expressed surprise at their insig- 
 nificance. But presently he saw them fall upon their 
 knees and rise again to lift the Psalm: "God is our 
 refuge and strength; therefore will we not fear though 
 the earth be removed and though the mountains be car- 
 ried into the midst of the sea!" and he said to his com- 
 panion, "Believe me, these men will win tomorrow or 
 die." And he was right; they won. All along the 
 chronicles we happen on this fact, the strange, dispro- 
 portionate power of the righteous minority. And 
 thoughtful readers must account for it. 
 
 Another of these concurrent facts in the problem is 
 the Irresistible Momentum of Progress. 
 
 The world grows better every day. This is proven 
 beyond peradventure, not by a momentary glimpse of 
 a skirmish on the border of the field, but by the broader 
 view that embraces the entire campaign. We look on 
 marches and countermarches, and at times our hearts 
 misgive us; but when the smoke-clouds lift, all's well. 
 The hands on the great dial of heaven always turn one 
 way. The movement is distinctly tidal: an invisible 
 force Hfts the mighty volume of the waters and rolls it in 
 successive waves, now advancing, now receding, but 
 
How TO SEE. SI 
 
 ever gaining and creeping onward to high tide : so is the 
 march of civiUzation by ebb and flow, yet ever onward. 
 But onward to what ? 
 
 This brings us to another fact, namely, the Conver- 
 gence of the Lines of Progress. 
 
 The chronicles show that men and nations are not 
 moving in parallel lines, but toward some objective, 
 focal point. This is the consummation of which the 
 poets have been singing: "The one far-off, divine 
 event to which the whole creation moves." It is the 
 Golden Age. 
 
 Thus pursuing the solution of our problem, we finally 
 resolve the unknown factor into known terms. "X" 
 equals God. His horses and chariots wheel into view. 
 The great reserve! The mighty reinforcements! What 
 shall we then say to these things ? If God be for us, who 
 can be against us.^ 
 
 Truth forever on the scaffold; Wrong forever on the throne; 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim un- 
 known, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His 
 own! 
 
 But this was not all our young man learned in Dothan. 
 By his vision of God's embattled host that day he found 
 the Secret of a Happy Life. 
 
 He had hitherto been timid and apprehensive, for 
 himself and his people; but he could tremble no more. 
 
 He knew that, as for himself, though shut up in Do- 
 than and encompassed by the enemy, no harm could be- 
 
82 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 fall him. Blessed is the man who thus feels the sustain- 
 ing strength of the everlasting arms ! The lesson came 
 to Jacob when, on the heights of Bethel, he laid himself 
 down to sleep with a stone for his pillow. He was a fu- 
 gitive, lone and desolate, forsaken by friends and, as he 
 thought, abandoned of God. But his eyes were opened 
 and he saw the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, 
 with angels bearing his prayers aloft and descending 
 with blessings. Observe his waking thought, "The 
 Lord is in this place and I knew it not!" 
 
 So comes the peace of God. The student knew now 
 that Samaria was safe. In vain did the armies of Ben- 
 hadad besiege it. Could they outwit God ? Here is a 
 lesson for us in the midst of our campaigns for Municipal 
 Reform. There is nothing new in the issue. " Graft '* is 
 as old as greed, and greed is as old as sin. There were 
 "red lights" in Samaria as there have been in New 
 York. Welcome, then, the vision of the horses and 
 chariots of fire ! The friends and defenders of righteous- 
 ness are never alone. If they fail, it can only be because 
 they lean upon themselves and are blind to God's ban- 
 ners waving on the hills. 
 
 Let the young man of Dothan cany back to his fellow 
 students in the Schools of the Prophets an assurance 
 that the righteous cause is in no real danger. Israel 
 could not be overthrown until it had accomplished its 
 destiny. No more can the Church ; which is so founded 
 upon a rock that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. Opposition ? Aye. The foot-fall of the pur- 
 
HOW TO SEE. 33 
 
 suing host of Pharaoh is ever heard; but tomorrow 
 Miriam will lift up her song, "Who is like unto our 
 God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won- 
 ders ? The horse and his rider hath He cast into the 
 sea!" Herod is ever plotting the massacre of the inno- 
 cents ; but the Christ-child lives and from His throne on 
 Calvary, where He appears to die, He stretches forth His 
 hands, saying, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men un- 
 to me!" The kings of the earth are ever setting them- 
 selves and the rulers taking counsel together, saying, 
 "Let us break His bands asunder and cast away His 
 cords from us!" But He that sitteth in the heavens 
 shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. 
 
 I have called this the Secret of a Happy Life: to 
 know that the Lord reigneth and all's well; to be able 
 to say, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
 elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that con- 
 demneth? It is Christ that died"; so to read history as to 
 discern wonderful things between the lines. Do we bor- 
 row trouble because an assault is made on Christ and 
 the Bible, or because the fundamental facts of Chris- 
 tianity are called in question by many who profess to 
 love truth and God.^ But all this is ancient history. 
 These things have been going on from the beginning. 
 O ye of little faith, lift up your eyes; behold how the 
 mountains are full of horses and chariots! 
 
 In the darkest hour of Elijah's life, pursued by the 
 wrath of Jezebel, he fled to the wilderness and laid him- 
 self down under a juniper tree. His desire was to die. 
 
S4 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 And the Lord said, " What doest thou here ? " He an- 
 swered, ** I have been very jealous for the Lord of Hosts; 
 but Thy people have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown 
 down Thine altars and slain Thy prophets with the sword ; 
 so that I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life." 
 And God encouraged him once and again, dissipating 
 his fears, girding him with power, and saying at length, 
 "Return on thy way to Damascus; and when thou 
 comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. " Aye, 
 God crowns the kings of Syria! Ben-hadad is his pup- 
 pet.. The heart of principalities and powers is in His 
 hands as the rivers of water. He rules in the destiny of 
 men and nations. He maketh even the wrath of men 
 to praise Him. 
 
 Wherefore, up with your hearts, O followers of Christ! 
 Give no place to melancholy. "They never lose who 
 side with God." In the darkest crisis of our Civil War 
 a minister asked of President Lincoln, "Do you think 
 God is on our side ? " He answered, " I*m not worrying 
 about that. What I want is to make sure that we are on 
 God's side." And, indeed, this is the important matter. 
 For the armies of Ahab and of Ben-hadad alike may 
 come and go, but God's horses and chariots ride on. 
 Fall in! Keep step to the trumpets of the Lord! His 
 kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion 
 is for ever and ever. 
 
HOW TO GROW. 
 
 PUTTING OFF AND PUTTING ON. 
 
 "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, 
 and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put ofiF, as 
 concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt accord- 
 ing to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and 
 that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness 
 and true holiness." Ephesians 4: 20-24. 
 
 It is one thing to learn about Christ and another to 
 learn Him. The difference is like that between reading 
 a biography and taking a portrait. If you were to 
 engage an artist to paint your portrait, saying, " Here is 
 a bundle of photographs, here are the main incidents 
 of my life, proceed"; he would laugh at you. He must 
 have "sittings," so that he may catch your pose, your 
 manner, your "atmosphere." He must see you face to 
 face and eye to eye, that he may know you. 
 
 We have been learning about Christ from our youth 
 up ; but have we caught His life-giving spirit ? We sit 
 about His feet, and hsten to His words, and believe them, 
 and formulate them into our creed and moral code; and 
 we derive an incalculable benefit from doing so; never- 
 theless this is not that Hfe eternal which is to know 
 Him (John 17: 3). He, Himself, is the one comprehen- 
 sive fact in the curriculum of our spiritual life. To see 
 Him is to see Character. To learn Him is to imbibe 
 the mind that was in Him. To know Him is to attain 
 
 (35) 
 
36 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 unto the fullness of the stature of a man ; as it is written, 
 " We all beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, 
 are changed into the same image from glory to glory 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord." This is the evolution of 
 the saint; the making of a man. 
 
 There are five steps leading upward to the per- 
 fection of character, as follows: 
 
 First. An apprehension of the fact that the natural 
 man is Sold under Sin. 
 
 Now this does not mean that there is nothing good 
 in the natural man, but that his tendency is towards 
 evil. He is a creature of habit, and his habit is bad. 
 He is a slave in the galley, chained to the bench ; when 
 his master bids him row, he bends to the oar. This 
 it what is meant by being sold under sin. 
 
 The second step is to perceive that we are Ransomed 
 in Christ. 
 
 Jesus said, " The Son of man came not to be minis- 
 tered unto but to minister, and to give His life a 
 ransom for many." The ransom for our deliverance 
 was paid on Calvary; as it is written, "Ye are not 
 your own, ye are bought with a price, not with 
 silver and gold, but the precious blood of Jesus, as of 
 a lamb without blemish and without spot." In order 
 to receive the fall benefit of this "propitiation for 
 sin" it is necessary that we shall appropriate it, by 
 the exercise of faith, that is, drop the oar, quit the 
 galleys and enter into the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God. 
 
HOW TO GROW. 37 
 
 The third step is Regeneration; which follows an 
 acceptance of Christ. 
 
 This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and is neces- 
 sary to our spiritual life; as Jesus said, "Verily I say 
 unto you, except a man be born again he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God." This means more than "turning 
 over a new leaf" or making a good resolution, more 
 than putting on an outward veneering of morality or 
 joining the church: it is a revolutionary change; the 
 getting of a new heart, a new conscience, a new mind, 
 a new purpose. " Old things are passed away, behold, 
 all things are become new." 
 
 The fourth step is Conflict. 
 
 This is life-long. Regeneration is only the begin- 
 ning of life ; it does not eradicate the evil in our nature 
 but fatally wounds it; so that thenceforth there is an 
 unceasing struggle within us. The end, however, is 
 to be seen from the beginning. The better nature is 
 bound to win. The "new man," strenuous by reason 
 of ever increasing life, is constantly getting the better 
 of the " old man " who is stricken with death. Do not 
 suppose that the end of salvation is reached when 
 Christ bends over you saying, "Thy sins be forgiven 
 thee!" This is but the tocsin of strife. It is the en- 
 listing, the unfurling of the flag, the drawing of the 
 sword. It is related of Hercules that on the day of 
 his birth he strangled two serpents that had been sent 
 by Juno to his cradle to destroy him. But the serpent 
 is our life-long foe. " There is no discharge in this war." 
 
38 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 And the fifth step is Perfection, or Glorification. 
 
 Then a man is rid finally and forever of sin; then 
 he puts on the "fine linen, clean and white," crosses 
 the threshold of heaven and finds himself unabashed in 
 the presence of a holy God. 
 
 Now let us turn to Paul, and observe how he 
 illustrates these successive steps in his own life and 
 experience. 
 
 He repeatedly speaks of himself as "the bond-slave 
 of sin," that is, prior to his conversion. He says he 
 was "a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious.'* He 
 held a commission from the Sanhedrin as its arch- 
 inquisitor, his business being to hunt down the disciples 
 of Jesus and hale them to judgment and death. In 
 this he was thoroughly honest and wholly wrong; as 
 he says, " I verily thought within myself that I ought 
 to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus." 
 He was swept onward by an unholy purpose and bound 
 like a galley-slave to do what his master required of 
 him. 
 
 Then came the second step in his upward Hfe. 
 
 On his way to Damascus he heard a Voice saying, 
 " I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ! " and smitten with 
 sudden blindness he saw Christ in a new light. He 
 saw the hands that had been wounded for him, stretched 
 forth to proffer the ransom that had been paid for him. 
 The case was proved beyond controversy; insomuch 
 that he was instantly turned right about face, crying, 
 "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do.^" He was no 
 
HOW TO GROW. 39 
 
 longer his own man but Christ's man. He was bound, 
 from that moment, to believe what Christ said, to go 
 where Christ sent him and to do what Christ required 
 him to do. The love of Christ constrained him. 
 
 The third step was Regeneration. 
 
 This may have occurred at the moment when Christ 
 appeared to him on the Damascus highway or subse- 
 quently. On the third day afterward the Lord said to 
 a certain Ananias, " Go to such a house in the street 
 which is called Straight, and enquire for one called 
 Saul of Tarsus." And when Ananias, trembling, 
 answered, " Lord, I have heard by many of this man, 
 how much evil he hath done to Thy people!" the 
 Lord said, " Go thy way; Saul is a new man ; behold, he 
 prayeth!" By this we understand that the revolu- 
 tionary change had been wrought by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Then came the Conflict. 
 
 In Paul's case it was singularly fierce and unre- 
 mitting. His writings are full of it: "We wrestle" — 
 " I see a law in my members warring against the law of 
 my mind; for what I would, that do I not, and what 
 I hate, that do I" — "I keep my body under" — "So 
 fight I." 
 
 The parties to this conflict are "the old man, cor- 
 rupt according to the deceitful lusts," and "the new 
 man, which after God is created in righteousness and 
 true holiness." The battle is on and will never cease 
 until the old man is slain and the new man is perfected 
 in the likeness of Christ. "This is hard pounding, 
 
40 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 gentlemen," as Wellington said at Waterloo. How 
 Paul agonizes! Hear him crying: "O wretched man 
 that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death ? " The thought is of a strangling swimmer, 
 chained to a corpse. But he cannot drown. His deliv- 
 erance is sure. Hear him: *'I thank God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord!" And this is the experience of 
 every soul that has been in the thick of the battle with 
 the great Helper beside him. 
 
 The final step in the experience of Paul was reached 
 when he laid his head upon the block outside the walls 
 of Rome. 
 
 In anticipation of that hour he had written : " I am 
 now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure 
 is at hand ; I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
 my course, I have kept the faith! Henceforth there 
 is laid up for me a crown." What sort of a crown? 
 "'A crown of righteousness!" Thus he passed through 
 heaven's gate, crowned at last, a saint of God. 
 
 He was writing now to the Christians of the Ephe- 
 sian church; and let us observe how he indicates the 
 same upward steps in their experience. He calls their 
 attention to the wicked life of their fellow townsmen 
 who had "given themselves over to lasciviousness, to 
 work all uncleanness with greediness." And he re- 
 minds them that they were once in like manner sold 
 under sin, "walking in the vanity of their mind and 
 alienated from the life of God through the ignorance 
 that was in them." 
 
HOW TO GROW. 41 
 
 Then he proceeds to put them in remembrance of 
 what Christ had done in their behalf: how He had died 
 to ransom them from their former sin and misery. 
 The disciples at Ephesus were constant witnesses of 
 the imposing rites and ceremonies and the magnificent 
 games in honor of Diana. Their temptation was to 
 conform their lives to the idolatrous and pleasure- 
 seeking customs of their heathen neighbors. It was 
 easy then, as it is now, to fall into line and keep step 
 with the fashion. But the boundary between the 
 Christian and the pagan life was perfectly clear. There 
 was a difference; and the Christians of Ephesus must 
 be admonished to regard it. 
 
 He emphasizes the fact of their regeneration : " You 
 hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and 
 sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
 course of this world, according to the prince of the 
 power of the air; but God, who is rich in mercy, for His 
 great love wherewith He loved us, hath quickened us 
 together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, 
 and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
 Jesus." In evidence of this stupendous change he 
 might have recalled the bonfire which they had kindled 
 in the streets of Ephesus, when they had brought their 
 magical books and cabalistic letters and " burned them 
 before all men." 
 
 But the thought which he impresses upon them 
 with profoundest emphasis is that of the conflict. 
 This, indeed, is the vital point of his epistle to the 
 
42 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Ephcsians: "Ye are in the thick of battle! It is the 
 sinful nature against the regenerate nature. It is the 
 old man against the new man. Fight the good fight! 
 Lay hold on eternal life ! " 
 
 In the context he outlines, with much particularity, 
 the character of this "new man," reminding them that 
 they are ever to be "putting off" and "putting on"; 
 putting off the faults of the old man and putting on the 
 graces of the new. The old man is represented as 
 moribund : the process of death is going on continually 
 in him. The new man, on the contrary, is growing 
 more and more into the likeness of Christ, being re- 
 newed progressively "after the image of Him who 
 created him." The old man is crucified with Christ; 
 the new man lives, fives with ever-growing fulness of 
 life, and the life which he lives is by faith in the Son of 
 God. The old man is wedded to sin and shame; the 
 new man is pledged to holiness. The old man is a 
 hoary reprobate, and the sooner he dies the better; 
 the new man is destined to live forever. 
 
 At this point the Apostle proceeds to indicate the 
 characteristic features of this new man. (1) "Put 
 away lying," he says, " and speak every man truth with 
 his neighbor." He means. Be honest, be candid, free 
 yourself from every form of deception, be transparently 
 true. Froude says, "I have heard thousands of ser- 
 mons and discourses and homilies on Faith, on the 
 Apostolic Succession, on the Eflicacy of the Sacra- 
 ment; but never during these thirty wonderful years. 
 
HOW TO GROW. 43 
 
 never that I can recollect, one on that primitive com- 
 mandment, *Thou shalt not lie'; yet we have lying all 
 around us, false weights, false measures, and shoddy 
 everywhere." It behooves us who are Christians 
 wholly to unmask and show ourselves before the world 
 as honest men. 
 
 (2) Paul continues, "Be ye angry and sin not"; 
 that is. Add to your truth equanimity. Now there are 
 two sides to Christian equanimity; one side is, Be 
 angry; and the other is. Sin not. It is a man's business 
 to be angry when there is occasion for it. We must 
 ever have a store of holy indignation in reserve. Not 
 long ago a lad of eight years, the son of a rumseller 
 who had whipped him with a rawhide, ran limping 
 through the street with blood streaming from his 
 wounded face and body. What sort of a Christian 
 man would he be whose gorge did not rise in view 
 of such inhumanity.? Be ye angry at all vital and 
 unholy thinjs! Be ye angry at the dramshop and 
 the gambling den, at oppression and corruption every- 
 where! But sin not. Cherish no grudge. Do no 
 rash thing. Lynch law is as bad as the crime it punishes. 
 Hate the sin ; but wish the sinner well. Be ye angry as 
 Christ was; whose indignation against sin brought 
 Him to Calvary, where His last prayer was, "Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do!" 
 
 (3) The Apostle proceeds, "Let him that stole, 
 steal no more; but rather let him labor with his hands, 
 that he may give to him that needeth." Put off youi 
 
44 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 dishonest indolence, he says, and put on industry. Be 
 a producer, not a consumer only. Add to the exchequer 
 of the public good. If you are a follower of the Naza- 
 rene Carpenter, see to it that, as becometh the new 
 man created in righteousness and true holiness, you 
 lend yourself to the world's advancement by having 
 something to do and doing it well. 
 
 (4) He goes on to say, " Let no corrupt communica- 
 tion proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good 
 to the use of edifying." It is sometimes intimated 
 that Paul and James were at odds in their theology; 
 but here certainly they are at one. It is James who 
 says, " If any man among you seemeth to be rehgious, 
 and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own 
 heart, that man's religion is vain." The tongue is an 
 index of the heart; for out of the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh. The tongue is a little mem- 
 ber, but it boasteth great things. "Behold, we put 
 bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us, and 
 we turn about their whole body. Behold, also, the 
 ships, which, though they be so great and are driven 
 of fierce winds, yet are turned about with a small helm 
 whithersoever the pilot listeth. Even so is the tongue 
 among our members; it defileth the whole body and 
 setteth on fire the wheel of nature." On one occasion 
 our Lord was once asked to heal the infirmity of one 
 who had an impediment in his speech; but before He 
 acquiesced He ** hfted His eyes to heaven and sighed. " 
 Why did He sigh ? Was it because He knew the great 
 
HOW TO GROW. 45 
 
 responsibility which He was about to place upon that 
 man in restoring his power of speech ? In any case it 
 is well to remember that wholesome speech is one of 
 the characteristics of the new man in Christ Jesus. 
 And the more our life is developed in Christlikeness, 
 the more do our words come to shine like apples of gold 
 through the meshes of a silver basket. 
 
 (5) Then Paul adds, "Let all bitterness and wrath 
 and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away 
 from you, with all malice: and be ye kind to one an- 
 other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as 
 God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." It is related 
 that when Charles V of France was dying, he said to 
 the heir-apparent, "Kings are only happy when they 
 are doing good. " The same is true of all : we are happi- 
 est, because most Christlike, when the law of kindness 
 dwells in our hearts and finds expression in our lives. 
 
 So Paul describes the characteristics of the new 
 man — truth, equanimity, honest industry, wholesome 
 speech and kindness — and he exhorts the Ephesians 
 to busy themselves in " putting off " the opposite faults 
 and putting on these graces, that they may become 
 like Christ. For this is the ultimate, to be like Christ. 
 This is character, sainthood, perfection: I shall be 
 satisfied when I awake in His likeness. Pope defines 
 a Christian as "the highest style of man." The new 
 man in Christ Jesus is the best expression of human 
 character, because he is the nearest approach to Christ 
 Himself, the ideal Man. 
 
46 THE EVOLtJTiON OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 In view of the foregoing, many of the criticisms 
 which are passed upon the inconsistencies of Chris- 
 tians, lose their point. We do not count ourselves to 
 have apprehended, as though we were already perfect; 
 but we are making a fight for character. If our critics 
 regard this as an easy matter, let them come in and 
 try it. 
 
 The best man is not always the one who is out- 
 wardly most presentable: but he who, surrounded 
 by his besetting sins, as by mortal foes, is fighting 
 most bravely for his life. God loves the hard strug- 
 gler. Do not flatter yourself that because you find 
 it an easy thing to resist the approaches of conspicuous 
 vice, you are, therefore, approved before God. Remem- 
 ber, He looketh on the secret imaginations of the heart. 
 Let the other man, the scarred veteran, who, con- 
 fronted by old habits like beasts of Ephesus and resist- 
 ing unto blood, bears the wounds of many a momen- 
 tary defeat, yet lifts his eyes to heaven and struggles 
 on, — let him stand forth to receive the guerdon of 
 spiritual knighthood. 
 
 But the important question for those who are dis- 
 posed to look askance at imperfect professors is this: 
 Are you sure that you are in the battle at all ? Do you 
 realize the importance of it ? Are you putting off the 
 old nature and putting on the new? Have you so 
 learned Christ as to esteem character at its true value, 
 as the only thing in the world worth striving for? 
 For this is where the thing begins, in " learning Christ." 
 
HOW TO GROW. 47 
 
 Do you realize what He has done for you, and what 
 He would have you do for Him, and what He would 
 have you be ? O, this is what makes life worth living, 
 to make the most of ourselves and do our utmost 
 for others and for God. This is sainthood; to grow 
 toward this is to grow into the likeness of Christ. He 
 who puts up the bravest possible fight and dies with 
 his harness on, will surely reach the stature of a man. 
 And God will give him the new name, which will 
 appropriately designate the new man : as it is written, 
 "To him that overcometh will I give a white stone 
 with a new name written therein, which no man knoweth 
 save he that receiveth it." 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION . 
 
 OIL IN THE VESSEL. 
 "And five were foolish." Matthew 25: 2. 
 
 Why should these virgins be called foolish rather than 
 the others ? All looked alike as they passed along the 
 street on their way to the festal hall. All had been 
 invited to the wedding; all had arrayed themselves in 
 white; all carried lamps, and the lamps were all lighted; 
 and "while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered 
 and slept." Yet there was a difference, a tremendously 
 important difference, marking the eternal parting of 
 their ways. This is indicated in the statement that 
 "five were wise and five were foolish." But wherein 
 was the folly of these five ? Just here is the key to the 
 interpretation of the parable. 
 
 The folly of the virgins who were refused admittance 
 to the marriage, was not in the fact that they carried 
 lamps. The lamp, of course, stands as the symbol of a 
 religious profession. It is a sad mistake for any one to 
 carry this lamp who does not believe in Christ; but it is 
 a lamentable failure on the other hand for any believer 
 not to carry it. 
 
 And there are many true Christians who make no 
 profession of Christ. They believe in the Bible and at- 
 
 (48) 
 
THE TEST OP PROFESSION. 49 
 
 tend church: they are depending on Christ for eternal 
 life. If you, friend, belong to that class of people, 
 permit a word of kindly remonstrance. 
 
 There are three important reasons why you should 
 carry a lighted lamp; to wit: 
 
 First. — In justice to yourself you should do it. 
 
 This if only to show which side you are on; for as 
 matters now stand, you are sailing under false colors. 
 You say, " I make no profession "; but pause a moment 
 and consider. As the ten virgins were passing to the 
 bridegroom's house there were, no doubt, others who 
 turned to look. These had no lamps. What did that 
 mean? In every case it meant, "I have no personal 
 interest in this wedding. I am not acquainted with the 
 bridegroom or the bride. I have received no invitation 
 and therefore have no part nor lot in the affair." In 
 other words, the lamps spoke no more loudly than the 
 absence of them. So, "actions speak louder than 
 words." The fact that you have not avowed Christ as 
 your Saviour is precisely as if you said, *' I do not be- 
 lieve in Him"; and it is so interpreted by those who 
 know you. Do not you, yourself, think so ? 
 
 If you really do not believe in Christ, then your 
 position is the right one. In that case to make a pro- 
 fession would be hypocrisy. But if you are trusting in 
 Christ, however feebly, you are bound in justice to your- 
 self to confess Him. It is no excuse to say, " Xhere are 
 impostors in the ranks." Do men refuse to drink water 
 because some have drowned themselves in it, or to 
 
50 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 handle good money because there are counterfeits in 
 circulation ? Do men decline to vote because there are 
 grafters in all parties, or to wear their family names 
 because there is a black sheep in the family ? No, the 
 fallacy is evident. Strange that men should be so much 
 more illogical in religion than in other things! If you 
 love Christ, therefore, kindle your lamp and fall in with 
 those who profess to follow Him. 
 
 Second. — In justice to others you should do it. 
 
 Your influence is now counting the wrong way. To 
 be sure, you do not mean to exert an influence against 
 Christ or His gospel: but influence works automati- 
 cally; it does not ask to be exerted, it exerts itself. Your 
 friends and neighbors, your business associates, the 
 young people of your acquaintance, see simply that you 
 carry no lamp, and they say, " There is a man of excel- 
 lent character who makes no profession of religion ; why 
 should I.'' He is not a member of the church; why 
 should I be? He is able to live and deport himself 
 properly without any profession of Christ; what is good 
 enough for him is good enough for me.*' Thus the force 
 of your example is silently working against the religion 
 which you really believe all the while. Nor, in your 
 present position, can you avoid it; for "no man liveth 
 to himself and no man dieth to himself." We cannot 
 walk without making footprints in which others follow 
 us. So then, in the interest of your friends and acquaint- 
 ances it behooves you to light your lamp. 
 
 Third.— In f airnes^J;o Christ you should do it. 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION. ^ 51 
 
 You expect Him to stand as your Advocate in the 
 judgment: do not forget what He said about those who 
 were ashamed Jo acknowledge Him before men. The 
 making of a profession is not left to the personal option 
 of those who believe in Him. He has indicated His will 
 in these premises ; and those who look to Him for salva- 
 tion should make haste to comply with it. "Do men 
 light a candle," He said, "and put it under a bushel? 
 Nay ; but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that 
 are in the house. Let your light so shine before men 
 that they may see your good works and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven ! " 
 
 But we return to our question; Wherein was the folly 
 of the five virgins who were not received at the bride- 
 groom's house .^ We are told by the Master Himself: 
 " They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no 
 oil with them : but the wise took oil in their vessels with 
 the lamps." It is not, then, the carrying of the lamp 
 but the oil in the vessel that marks the difference between 
 a real and a superficial believer in Christ. It is not the 
 faith which is on exhibition, but the reserve of faith that 
 tells the story. We "judge by the appearance," that is, 
 by the burning lamp; but God looketh on the heart to 
 see whether it is filled with devotion to Him. 
 
 The foolish virgins here correspond to the stony- 
 ground hearers in the Parable of the Sower. "And 
 some of the seed fell in stony places, where they had not 
 much earth; and forthwith they sprung up because they 
 had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was up. 
 
52 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN 
 
 they were scorched ; and because they had no root, they 
 withered away.'* In our Lord's interpretation He said, 
 " He that received the seed into stony places is the same 
 that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it: 
 yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; 
 for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of 
 the word, by-and-by he is offended." Observe the 
 phrasing "no deepness of earth" and "no root"; that 
 is, an empty profession with nothing beneath it. The 
 oil carried by the foolish virgins in their lamps was for 
 temporary use; they had nothing else, so that when the 
 crucial moment came, their lights went out. 
 
 Now let us observe the bearing of this on the religious 
 life. Religion is two-sided; on the one hand it finds its 
 expression in the word Orthodoxy ; and on the other in 
 the word Morality. 
 
 The fact that the word " Orthodoxy " is in disrepute 
 in some quarters is no reason why we should abandon 
 it. We are not going to turn our backs on a word be- 
 cause some people have smeared its face with phos- 
 phorus and pointed their fingers at it. The real mean- 
 ing of Orthodoxy is "sound doctrine," or loyalty to 
 truth. 
 
 And there is a doctrinal side to Christianity. To say 
 that "religion is not dogma, but life," is to express a 
 fact in a most misleading way. Religion is life founded 
 on doctrme ; for " as a man thinketh in his heart so is 
 he." We hear a good deal about "Christian agnosti- 
 cism " in these days ; but the term is an utter misnomer. 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION. 53 
 
 A Christian and an agnostic are as unlike as day and 
 night : the one beheves the gospel, the other rejects it. 
 
 (1) The Symbol of Orthodoxy in historic Christianity 
 is the Apostles' Creed; in which are briefly compre- 
 hended the fundamental doctrines of the gospel which 
 have been accepted from the beginning by the universal 
 Church. It begins with the statement, " I believe in 
 God." No agnosticism there! And the God referred 
 to is^not a "Divine Principle" nor an "Unconditioned 
 Absolute," nor any impersonal thing, but "God, the 
 Father"; that is, God as He has revealed Himself in 
 Christ, who taught us when we pray to say, "Our 
 Father," and who said " I and my Father are One." And 
 the Creed ends with the statement, " I believe in the life 
 everlasting." No agnosticism there! And the ever- 
 lasting life referred to is no Nirvana, no exhaling of the 
 lotus blossom, no sinking of the soul like a drop of water 
 in the sea. It is life in the Father's house; a truth not 
 waiting for scientific demonstration, but received by 
 faith as Christ has aflfirmed it. 
 
 And in between " God the Father " and " the life ever- 
 lasting" are all the other essentials of the Christian 
 faith; to wit, the Incarnation, the Atonement and the 
 Resurrection of Christ; the Holy Ghost, the Holy Cath- 
 olic Church, the Communion of Saints, and the Forgive- 
 ness of Sins. 
 
 (2) The Essence of Orthodoxy is Faith. This is the 
 oil in the vessel. It is expressed in the words, "I be- 
 lieve." It is defined on this wise: "Faith is assurance 
 
54 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen." It 
 is not creduHty nor mere acceptance on hearsay. It is as- 
 surance and conviction founded on the promises of God. 
 ( Paul says, "/ know whom I have beheved and am 
 persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have 
 committed unto Him, against that day." Here is faith 
 founded on knowledge. It is not enough to say, " I be- 
 lieve"; the man who so professes must be able to "give 
 to every one that asketh a reason for the faith that is 
 within him." 
 
 Paul says again, " I reckon that the sufferings of this 
 present time are not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory which shall be revealed. " Here is faith founded on 
 calculation. The man who so speaks has argued the 
 matter out, pro and contra, and has come to a definite 
 conclusion. His faith has assumed the certainty of a 
 quod erat demonstrandum; there is no longer any room 
 for an if or a perad venture in it. 
 
 Paul says again, " I am persuaded that neither death, 
 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord." This persuasion is in the nature of a conviction 
 which rests on personal experience. The Apostle had 
 been through fire and water in his religion and had 
 thoroughly tested it. 
 
 Now put the knowledge founded on reason, the 
 reckoning founded on calculation and the persuasion 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION. 55 
 
 founded on experience all together, and you have faith 
 expressed in the terms " I believe "; and this faith is an 
 apprehension by will, heart and conscience; that is, by 
 the whole man. 
 
 (3) The Touchstone of Orthodoxy is Christ. All the 
 articles of our faith, as briefly expressed in the Apostles' 
 Creed, center in Christ, " who is first, last, midst and all 
 in all." No man has a right to make a Christian pro- 
 fession who does not receive Christ and receive Him on 
 His own terms. The " Rock " on which the Church 
 is founded is the good confession, "Thou art the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God." Not once, but over and over 
 again, did our Lord proclaim His Divinity and equality 
 with God. On that fact the Universal Church, however 
 it may be divided otherwise, has been united from the 
 beginning until now. This is our family tie : " I believe 
 in Christ the Son of the living God. " 
 
 The Inter-Church Conference on Federation is an 
 association of the representatives of the various denomi- 
 nations of Christians who want to bring about a closer 
 cooperation. It is a family gathering of all branches of 
 the household of Christ; that is, of all who believe that 
 He is what He claimed to be. The Unitarians take um- 
 brage because they are not invited to participate. I, for 
 one, am in favor of admitting them. For, of course, they 
 would not ask to be admitted unless they were prepared 
 to claim the kinship of believers in a frank acknowledge- 
 ment of the deity of Christ. We are bound to infer from 
 their insistence in this matter, either that we have been 
 
56 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 mistaken in supposing that Unitarianism meant a denial 
 of the Trinity and therefore the necessary denial of the 
 deity of Christ, or else that, having made war on that 
 doctrine hitherto, the Unitarians are now prepared to 
 lay down their arms and confess that the central tenet 
 of the evangelical church is correct and that they have 
 been mistaken all along in affirming that Jesus is not the 
 Divine and co-equal Son of God. On any other under- 
 standing they could not logically be received, nor could 
 they with a good grace insist on coming in. Jews and 
 Buddhists who hold to certain ethical facts which are 
 not only common to all religions but grounded in the 
 human constitution, would not think of intruding on a 
 family gathering of those who believe in Christ. There 
 would be no unkindness in excluding them, nor would 
 they be offended by it. They would be de trop in our 
 company and probably we would not be wholly com- 
 fortable to have them sitting among us. 
 
 The lines must be drawn somewhere, and in the 
 matter of Christian faith the line is thus marked out: 
 " Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come 
 in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth 
 not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 
 The lamp of Christian confession gives but an insignifi- 
 cant and temporary light if this oil is not in the vessel. 
 
 The other side of our religion is expressed in the 
 word Morality. 
 
 Nor must this word be spoken against. Christ Him- 
 self said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Here 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION. 57 
 
 we have the vital relation of ethics to doctrine. Morality 
 does not stand alone any more than fruits are indepen- 
 dent of the trees that produce them. Morality is the 
 outgrowth of truth. Belief or hy-lifian is **the thing a 
 man lives by." 
 
 (1) The Symbol of Morality is the Decalogue. 
 
 It is sometimes said that our Lord abrogated the 
 Moral Law; on the contrary He repeatedly and pro- 
 foundly emphasized it. He said, "I am come not to 
 destroy the law but to fulfil it." He fulfilled the Cere- 
 monial Law by serving as its antitype and thus blotted 
 it out. He fulfilled the Moral Law by personal obedi- 
 ence and by imposing its observance with renewed 
 authority upon all those who follow Him. Let it be said 
 reverently, He could not have abrogated the Moral Law 
 as expressed in the Ten Commandments which were 
 written on tables of stone, because they are imbedded in 
 and interwoven with the constitution of man. 
 
 (2) The Essence of Morality is Love; as it is written, 
 "Love is the fulfilling of the law." In Christ's analysis 
 arid compendium of the Decalogue He says, "The first 
 and great commandment is this. Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind and strength ; 
 and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself ; on these two commandments hang 
 all the law and the prophets." All true obedience to 
 divine law is by reason of love toward the lawgiver. 
 Nothing is harder than obedience, so long as it is 
 mechanical and perfunctory. Nothing is easier than 
 
58 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 duty, when duty is transformed by love into pleasure^ 
 To serve as a slave is drudgery ; to serve as a son is the^ 
 highest joy. The superficial light of mere legalism goes 
 out, but the oil of love in the vessel lasts forever. He 
 who has found this secret of morality can say with 
 David, " I run in the way of Thy commandments *'; and 
 with David's greater Son, "In the volume of the book 
 it is w^ritten of me, I delight to do Thy will ! " 
 
 (3) The Touchstone of Morality is Christ. One who 
 has truly found Christ is brought into harmony with the 
 first commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God," by the fact that Christ has revealed God as our 
 Father. And he is brought into harmony with the 
 second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor," 
 by the fact that Christ has revealed our neighbor as our 
 brother. He loves his neighbor because God made him 
 and Christ died for him. Thus, to a Christian, Christ 
 is all in all. 
 
 In the denouement of the Parable the fooHsh virgins 
 are left standing at the door knocking and crying, 
 "Lord, Lord, open unto us!" And he from within an- 
 swers them, " I never knew you ! " So then the question 
 of a sincere profession is determined, in the last analysis, 
 by a personal acquaintance with Christ. The wise 
 virgins were admitted to the marriage supper because 
 the bridegroom could say, " I knew you. " This vital 
 knowledge of Christ and oneness with Christ is the oil 
 in the vessel of religion. 
 
 It is a question of religion in the heart. An artist 
 
THE TEST OF PROFESSION. 59 
 
 who would paint a portrait looks long at his subject be- 
 fore he touches brush to canvas. He must catch the 
 mood of the sitter, and, before he paints, must trans- 
 form him from an objective into a subjective fact. So 
 we who, as true Christians, would imitate Christ, must so 
 apprehend Him that our hves shall be " hid with Christ 
 in God." We must come into a close and intimate ac- 
 quaintance with Him. We must subject our very per- 
 sonalities to that of Christ, so as to be able to say, " To 
 me to live is Christ ! " 
 
 Wherefore, look to your hearts ! See to the oil in the 
 vessel with your lamps. For out of the heart flow the 
 issues of life. Be true, be absolutely sincere and loyal 
 to Christ. 
 
 Lord make me like Thyself, 
 Lord make me be myself. 
 Seeming as one who lives to Thee 
 And being what I seem to be! 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 
 
 THE FIELD AT ANATHOTH. 
 
 "The word of the lord came unto me. saying, Behold, Hanameel, the 
 •on of Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee saying. Buy thee my 
 field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is thine to buy it." 
 Jeremiah 32: 6, 7. 
 
 We call Jeremiah "the weeping prophet." The 
 people of his time regarded him as a bird of ill-omen. 
 He foresaw the calamities which were to befall the 
 nation and wished that "his head were waters and his 
 eyes a fountain of tears" that he might adequately 
 weep for them. He lived under five kings, and suffered 
 under them all. It was in the time of the great reforma- 
 tion in the reign of Josiah that he first struck the minor 
 note, perceiving that the revival of righteousness which 
 then occurred was but as a summer cloud. He saw 
 the next king Jehoahaz, after a brief reign of three 
 months, led away into captivity in Egypt. To his 
 successor, Jehoiakim, he sent an earnest remonstrance, 
 which was treated with contempt; the prophet lived 
 to see him murdered and " buried with the burial of an 
 ass." The next king, Jehoiachin, was taken to Babylon 
 in chains after a reign of only three months and ten 
 days. He was followed by Zedekiah, the last of the 
 line royal, who reigned merely as a tributary viceroy 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, and was finally driven into exile 
 with his eyes put out. 
 
 (60) 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 61 
 
 It was under Zedekiah that the city was finally be- 
 sieged by the Babylonish army. Its fall was inevitable, 
 and Jeremiah foreseeing it, wrote from the court of his 
 prison an earnest call to repentance in view of the im- 
 pending calamity. It was the nation's funeral dirge. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that Jeremiah was 
 wholly a prophet of evil. While he was profoundly sen- 
 sitive to the woes of his people, he was nevertheless 
 above all his associates, the prophet of faith. He fore- 
 saw the Restoration, and beyond that, the coming of 
 Messiah, " the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His 
 beams." The true optimist is not one who blinds him- 
 self to present evil or portents of approaching woe, but 
 one, who facing all, believes in the ultimate triumph of 
 goodness, because he believes in God. 
 
 The point to which we address ourselves just now is 
 the singular test which was applied to the faith of Jere- 
 miah in the matter of the field at Anathoth. This field 
 belonged to his cousin Hanameel, who, by reason of the 
 fact that the Babylonish army was encamped upon it, 
 was prepared to sell it for a song. The Lord bade Jere- 
 miah buy it ; and he did so. It was investing on a declin- 
 ing market and against all probabilities, save as he be- 
 lieved in the Lord's assurance, " Houses and fields and 
 vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." 
 
 We find here a suggestion as to the proving of faith 
 in evil times. The field of Anathoth stands for certain 
 discredited truths in which the followers of Christ are 
 expected to believe; and of which they are to find the 
 
62 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ultimate ground of their assurance in the Word of God. 
 
 I. The truth of the Divine Word itself is largely dis- 
 counted by some people in these days. 
 
 You will find many a Hanameel, who, " taken up in 
 the lips of talkers" and seeing the waving banners of 
 Babylon just beyond the walls, is ready to dispose of 
 his interest in the authority of the Scriptures for next 
 to nothing. 
 
 To sound thinkers, however, who are prepared to 
 follow their reasoning to its logical ends it is perfectly 
 clear that this abandonment means the giving up of all 
 ultimate authority as to the truths of the spiritual life. 
 
 The Bible contains two things: Law and Gospel. 
 The foundation of the Law is the Ten Commandments, 
 which have been universally understood to be the ulti- 
 mate symbol of Christian ethics. The sanctions of 
 morality are loosened by the mere suggestion that the 
 Decalogue is a human fabrication and not a manifesto 
 from the divine throne. The right conception as to 
 ethics is not what I think, but what the Lord says about 
 it. In a letter addressed by Evan Roberts, the young 
 evangelist of Wales, to his American friends, he closes an 
 appeal to Christian loyality with the words, "Obedi- 
 ence! Obedience! Obedience!" This is indeed the 
 final test of faith. 
 
 The Gospel is briefly comprehended in three state- 
 ments : (1) Men are by nature lost in sin ; (2) the only 
 begotten Son of God came into the world to atone for 
 sin; and (3) the sole condition of salvation is faith in 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 63 
 
 Him All these truths are called in question by men who 
 profess to believe in the truth of Scripture. The old, life- 
 giving verities go under the hammer at a sacrifice ; and 
 no man invests in them unless he has a strong confidence 
 in God. It is written, " By faith Noah, being warned of 
 God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared 
 an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he con- 
 demned the world, and became an heir of the righteous- 
 ness which is by faith. " There is room for the heroism 
 of Noah in our time. To stand true to the trustworthi- 
 ness of Holy Writ means that a man must "subscribe 
 the evidence and take witnesses and weigh out the 
 money in the balances." And the ground of this pro- 
 ceeding is in the title deed of his possession, which reads 
 on this wise : " Thus saith the Lord ! " 
 
 II. Another of the discredited verities is the Doctrine 
 of God in mundane things. 
 
 This has no place whatever in much of the so-called 
 scientific thought. The only God who is worthy of cre- 
 dence and adoration is a living, personal, present God. 
 The conditions of the case are not answered by the 
 supposition of either a pantheistic or an absentee God. 
 He manifests His intervention in the affairs of this world 
 in two ways; namely, in Creation and in Providence. 
 The two theories of origins, theistic and evolutionary, are 
 diametrically opposed to each other. The former 
 affirms that God created the world and all things there- 
 in, " each after its kind " ; that is, all genera were created 
 subject to indefinite improvement within the prescribed 
 
64 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 lines. The latter affirms that all things are evolved from 
 the primordial germ by the calm operation of law. By 
 " all things " is meant everything in the organic as well 
 as in the inorganic world; and this includes rational 
 man and Christ Himself. To speak of evolution inter- 
 rupted by creative fiats, miracles or interpositions, is 
 to use a phrase which no scientific evolutionist will 
 allow for a moment. To him the phrase " theistic evolu- 
 tion " is as if one spoke of a white black man. 
 
 The other touch of God upon our world is in His 
 never-ceasing miracle of Providence; that is, in His 
 "upholding all things by the word of His power." This 
 also is at odds with evolution as pure evolutionists hold 
 it. The question is solved for the followers of Christ by 
 His own statement as to the lilies of the field. " Consider 
 them," He says, "how they grow." Well, how do they 
 grow.^ The evolutionist says that they develop auto- 
 matically by the operation of certain laws. Christ says, 
 "God clothes them." His language is perfectly clear: 
 " They toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto 
 you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
 one of these ": from which He concludes that God is all 
 the while "much more" interposing in behalf of His 
 people. " If He so clothe the grass of the field, which 
 to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He 
 not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? " Hence 
 the possibility of perfect rest in God : " Be not therefore 
 anxious saying. What we shall eat, or, What we shall 
 drink, or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed; for your 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 65 
 
 heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
 things. But seek ye first His kingdom and His right- 
 eousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." 
 If there is any significance in these words of Jesus, they 
 mean that God, so far from leaving things to look after 
 themselves, is ever consciously upholding and sustaining 
 them, and that He is perpetually interposing by His wis- 
 dom and power in behalf of those who love Him. 
 
 But this is directly contrary to the drift of current 
 thought, which rules out the supernatural and declines 
 to allow God to have any part in the inevitable flow of 
 events. It takes more courage to-day to believe in God, 
 as He has thus revealed Himself, than ever before in the 
 history of the world. It is not uncommon to hear 
 preachers speak of God in such phrases that it would 
 require a protracted argument, with the aid of profes- 
 sional counsel, to determine whether they are talking 
 about a person or a vague impersonal force. Is it not 
 clear that, under such circumstances, it behooves 
 those who care for the maintenance of their devout 
 loyalty, to be on their guard lest they be wholly swept 
 away from the moorings of faith ? At such a time the 
 believer must be ready to invest in the discredited truth 
 and to write out his title deed on this wise : " In the be- 
 ginning, God." 
 
 III. The same is true with reference to the Doctrine 
 oj Christ. 
 
 This is not to say that the air is not vibrant with 
 fulsome adulations of Christ. But what Christ? Are 
 
66 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 we to be satisfied with a Christ whose power is as 
 nominal as that of the Czar, who, while called an auto- 
 crat, is a mere lay figure in the hand of his Grand 
 Dukes ? The only Christ who is of any consequence to 
 mortal men is the Christ whose name is historically 
 associated with three stupendous miracles. 
 
 One of these is the Incarnation, of which we are wont 
 to say, " I believe in God's Only begotten Son; who was 
 conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin 
 Mary." Some men dissipate this doctrine in the very 
 breath in which they assert it; as witness the recent 
 statement made by a prominent clergyman : *' What dif- 
 ference does it make in the practical application of Chris- 
 tianity whether Christ was the son of Joseph or not ? " 
 
 The second of these great miracles is the Atonement. 
 And this, also, is denied by such as declare that He died 
 not vicariously but simply as all martyrs die. "He 
 came into the world, " they say, " to rectify a wrong 
 condition of affairs and suffered the fate of all reformers. 
 He gathered into His devoted bosom the shafts of the 
 adversary and fell.*' How far this is from His own 
 view of His atoning death is witnessed by His words, 
 " I have power to lay down my life and I have power to 
 take it again. No man taketh it from me." And 
 again, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save 
 the lost, and to give His life a ransom for many." This 
 is the consistent view of the Scriptures in such oft- 
 repeated statements as this; "The blood of Jesus 
 Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 67 
 
 The third miracle of Christ is His Resurrection from 
 the Dead, in which Hfe and immortahty are brought to 
 Hght. This, also, is treated in some quasi-evangelical 
 quarters as a mere legend, concocted by the disappointed 
 followers of Christ to cover their discomfiture after His 
 shameful death. In this manner the very ground on 
 which the citadel of our religion was intended to rest is 
 thrown into the market as a valueless possession. And 
 the true Christian must ever show his loyalty by making 
 the purchase. Let him buy the field of Anathoth in full 
 confidence that God's purposes cannot be thwarted; and 
 let him unhesitatingly record his title deed as to Chris- 
 tianity in the familiar words, " God so loved the world 
 that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. " 
 
 IV. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost is also discredited 
 by many in these days. 
 
 A recent writer in endeavoring to account for the 
 Welsh revival, advances this hypothesis ; " It appears 
 to be due to a subtle aura w^hich, striking the gastric 
 plexus, creates an epidemic." This is very like what 
 the onlookers said at Pentecost: "These men are full 
 of new wine." The words of Peter on that occasion are 
 worthy of note: "Ye men of Judea, these are not 
 drunken as ye suppose; but this is that which was 
 spoken of by th^ prophet Joel: It shall come to pass 
 in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit 
 upon all flesh ; and whosoever shall call upon the name 
 of the Lord shall be saved." 
 
68 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 The functions of the Holy Spirit are three in particu- 
 lar: First, to reveal truth. If spiritual things are to be 
 arrived at by the scientific method and not "spiritually 
 discerned," then this prerogative of the Holy Spirit is 
 ruled out. 
 
 His second function is exercised in regeneration. This 
 is more than reformation or "turning over a new leaf." 
 It is a revolutionary change in the soul, brought about 
 by coming into touch with the divine life, as Jesus said, 
 "Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a man be born 
 again (or from above) he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God." 
 
 The third function of the Spirit is manifest in sanctifi- 
 cation. This is more than the process called "ethical 
 culture." The difference is that between the putting up 
 of a building and the growing of a tree. To lay one good 
 resolution on another in the making of character is 
 simply the putting together of an inorganic thing; but 
 to yield to the influence of the Spirit is to " grow in grace 
 and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ," as a living thing 
 develops by virtue of the life within it. 
 
 A sure confidence in these things is involved in loyalty 
 to Christ. To surrender them in deference to public 
 opinion is the part of Hanameel; to hold them fast is to 
 imitate the faith of Jeremiah, to whom the minatory 
 shouts of the Babylonish host were as naught in com- 
 parison with the sureness of the divine word. And here 
 again is the phasing of our title deed : " The Spirit of 
 truth shall abide with you, whom the world cannot 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 69 
 
 receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him ; 
 but ye know Him and He dwelleth in you." 
 
 V. It remains to speak of the Ultimate Triumph of 
 Christ. 
 
 To deny the truth of progress would be to set our- 
 selves against the hearing of our ears and the sight of 
 our eyes. All believe that the world rolls round in its 
 orbit and that men and nations are being brought with- 
 in the charmed circle of civilization. But this does not 
 mean that there is a general agreement as to the coming 
 of Christ. The Christian's view of progress is that all 
 things are moving forward to one great ultimate event, 
 namely, the universal sovereignty of Jesus in the Golden 
 Age. 
 
 We believe that there are two manifest tokens of this 
 approaching reign. The first is in Revivals; which are 
 intermittent signs of the present power of God. Pente- 
 cost repeats itself. There is no " new evangelism." The 
 power that wrought in the great revival at the water- 
 gate in the time of Nehemiah is the same power that was 
 apparent at Pentecost and in every revival since that 
 day. The words of Peter at Pentecost, *' This is that,'^ 
 are applicable to the wonderful things that are occurring 
 in Wales and elsewhere. This is no new thing, it is " that 
 which was spoken of by the prophet Joel." These are 
 the great catastrophic movements of history; they are like 
 tidal waves which roll over the people and sweep hun- 
 dreds into the kingdom of God. 
 
 The other manifestation of Christian progress is in 
 
70 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Missions. This is a constant cumulative movement des- 
 tined to eventuate in the coming of the kingdom of 
 Christ. Its objective point is always the conversion of 
 souls. The building of schools and hospitals is a mere 
 incident along the way. The true missionary spirit is 
 that of the itinerant evangelist, going about like Paul 
 among the villages of Asia Minor and Macedonia, or 
 like Jacob Chamberlain among the villages of India, 
 preaching, " This Jesus is the Christ ; and He has power 
 on earth to forgive sin." 
 
 Now, both these manifestations of religious progress 
 are at a discount among many. They lift their eye- 
 brows at revivals and shrug their shoulders at missions. 
 But a true follower of Christ who has caught His spirit 
 and takes Him at His word is ever ready to devote him- 
 self to the advancement of His cause, believing with all 
 his heart that His glory is destined to cover the earth as 
 the waters cover the sea. 
 
 The question comes home to us on this wise : Are we 
 prepared to demonstrate our faith in our religion by in- 
 vesting our time, substance and energy in these dis- 
 credited things ? The opportunity for faith's purchase is 
 on a falling market. When the confidence of Hanameel 
 is at its low^est, the confidence of Jeremiah rests more 
 securely than ever in the divine promise. The title deed 
 of the kingdom is ours if we will : and our interest in the 
 Lord's business is measured by what we put into it. 
 "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove 
 me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not 
 
THE TEST OF FAITH. 71 
 
 open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a 
 blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive 
 it." 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 
 
 STACTE, ONYCHA AND GALBANUM. 
 
 *'The Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and 
 onycha and galbanum, these sweet spices, with pure frankincense; of 
 each shall there be a like weight; and thou shalt make it a perfume, a con- 
 fection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy." 
 Exodus 30:34,35. 
 
 The Secretary of Agriculture reports that our people 
 spend about one billion, one hundred and seventy-five 
 million of dollars annually for adulterated foods. We 
 should expect that bread-stuffs at least be pure; but an 
 examination of gluten flours on the market shows that 
 only two out of thirteen samples are so. Of preserved 
 meats not less than ninety per cent, prove to be more or 
 less corrupted by the use of boracic acid or other preser- 
 vatives. In like manner, vegetables are bleached with 
 sulphites or highly colored with copper and aluminum 
 salts. Of cocoas and chocolates seventy per cent, show 
 ten to ninety per cent, of foreign matter. We have honey 
 with which the bees never made acquaintance, and cider 
 that never saw an orchard ; strawberry jam compounded 
 of glucose and timothy seed; and nutmegs put upon the 
 market after the oil has been extracted from them. 
 More Vermont maple-sugar is sold every twelve-month 
 than Vermont produces in ten years. And there is a 
 corresponding corruption of medicines. Many of the 
 
 (72) 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 73 
 
 most popular " remedies " are simply liquors neither dis- 
 tilled nor fermented, but formulated in the chemist's 
 laboratory. In one of the New Orleans hospitals it was 
 recently discovered that a prevalent epidemic of blind- 
 ness was due largely to the popular use of antiseptics 
 made of wood alcohol; and an analysis of samples of 
 phenacetine showed only sixteen per cent, to be safely 
 pure. It is not strange that, under such circumstances, 
 there should be a popular clamor for the enactment of a 
 pure-food law. 
 
 The Mosaic Code furnishes in large measure the basis 
 of current legislation and jurisprudence; but it is of little 
 avail at this particular point, for an obvious reason. 
 The Jews were an agricultural people, getting their food 
 at first hand. The farmer reaped his own wheat and 
 lentils, plucked fruit and olives from his own orchards 
 and furnished his trencher from his own flocks. In our 
 text, however, there is a distinct reference to an anti- 
 adulteration law in the matter of oil and incense used in 
 the sanctuary services. These were prepared by an 
 official apothecary, for whom one of the fifteen rooms 
 in the temple was afterwards set apart as a laboratory. 
 He was called Rochekij, the "perfumer" or "apothe- 
 cary." The formula for the preparation of the oil used 
 in the anointing of kings and priests, and of the incense 
 burned on the golden altar, was given with much par- 
 ticularity; and its importance may be inferred from the 
 fact that the penalty for counterfeiting was to be "cut 
 off from among His people." 
 
74 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 As we believe in a gospel which applies to human life 
 at every point, it would not be unprofitable to devote an 
 entire sermon to the sin of adulterating foods; but our 
 present purpose is larger than that. Christ came to save 
 the whole man, body and soul ; but since the soul is more 
 important than the body by as much as eternity is longer 
 than time, we are mostly deeply concerned in the consid- 
 eration of not physical, but spiritual problems. The oil 
 and the incense may properly be regarded as symbolical 
 of truth and morals; the two supreme questions of 
 human life being, " What shall I believe ? " and " How 
 shall I live ? " In the definition of religion given by the 
 Apostle James, the emphasis is placed just here; he 
 says, *' Pure and undefiled religion before God and the 
 Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the 
 world. " In order to keep one's self " unspotted from the 
 world," it is necessary that a man should first bathe in 
 the fountain filled with blood and thenceforth live on the 
 margin of it. And "to visit the fatherless and widows 
 in their affliction," is but a specific way of setting forth 
 the importance of doing good as we have opportunity 
 unto all men. The religion thus defined is to be kept 
 " pure and undefiled, before God." To counterfeit is to 
 be "cut off from among His people." If Nadab and 
 Abihu were destroyed for offering strange fire in their 
 censers, how much more shall he be condemned who 
 presumes to trifle with the formularies of truth and 
 morals as given in the Word of God. 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 75 
 
 And this is the prevalent sin of our time. An article 
 by Senator McCumber, on the adulteration of foods 
 begins thus: "W e are living in an artificial age." If 
 this be true with respect to material things, it is much 
 more so in the religious province. It is jhe fashion to 
 follow opinion rather than the divine prescript in the for- 
 mulation of both creeds and moral codes. 
 
 I. Take, for example, the doctrine of Gody which is the 
 underlying fact in religion. 
 
 The teaching of the Scriptures at this point is perfectly 
 clear. God is set forth, on one hand, as the First Cause 
 or Creator of all; as it is written, " In the beginning God 
 created." And the things which He created were " each 
 after his kind." 
 
 Just here physical science enters, presenting a series 
 of indubitable facts followed by a procession of gratui- 
 tous inferences terminating in a hypothesis called 
 Evolution. In evolution properly so called, which is 
 distinctly materialistic, there is no room for any divine 
 interposition. If one is moved to ask, as Napoleon 
 did of La Place, " What becomes of God in your philos- 
 ophy .^ " the answer is, " We have no need of God." If 
 He is needed at all it is only as Deus ex machina, and 
 then only so far forth as may be necessary in order to 
 account for the primordial germ. The germ thus pro- 
 duced is spun out into space and left to develop itself 
 through star-dust and chaos into the present order. 
 President Lincoln once said to an importunate office- 
 seeker, "I assure you I have very little influence with 
 
76 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 this administration. " In like manner it may be said that 
 if there be any God in the philosophy of evolution He 
 has very little to do with the process. He is simply an 
 absentee God. 
 
 And God is set forth in the Scriptures, also, as a 
 Father. 
 
 He has a father's love toward all His children; eyes 
 to see their distresses, ears to hear their complaints and 
 an omnipotent arm to help. When we speak of Him as 
 the Hearer and Answerer of prayer, we mean that He 
 can turn aside, if necessary, the common order of nature 
 in order to succor and save those who call upon Him. 
 To say that the universe is so framed as to make a 
 miracle impossible (and every answer to prayer is a 
 miracle) is simply to affirm that God created a machine 
 only to imprison Himself in it; or, in other words, that 
 the law is above the law-giver. To those who hold such 
 a philosophy, there can be no Providence and no ration- 
 ale of prayer. Sir John Franklin, on his first polar 
 expedition, was greatly moved by the apparent indiffer- 
 ence of the Equimaux to religion. To his question," Do 
 you not believe in God ? " they answered, " We do not 
 know whether there is a God or not; but we are so cold 
 and dreary in this country, that, if there be any God, we 
 are sure He is afar off and has forgotten us." To such 
 a conclusion must all arrive who, in lieu of revelation, 
 or by trifling with it, have framed a theology of their 
 own. 
 
 And what is the result? Pure and simple idolatry. 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 77 
 
 The only true God is the God who has revealed Himself 
 in His inspired word. A god created by human fancy 
 or imagination is as really an idol as a brazen Buddha 
 or the mud fetish in an African kraal. To worship Law 
 or Energy or an indefinite " Something that Maketh for 
 Righteousness," or anything else except the paternal 
 Creator set forth in the Scriptures, is only a more refined 
 sort of paganism. 
 
 And what is the remedy? It is to return to the 
 authoritative prescript. To the law and the testimony ! 
 Jesus said to the young ruler who desired to know the 
 way of eternal life, "What readest thou.'^" probably 
 pointing to the shema or frontlet worn between his eyes, , 
 on which was written : " Hear, O Israel ! The Lord thy 
 God is one Lord : and thou shall love the Lord thy 
 God. " Let us renounce our idols ! The only God in the 
 universe who is worthy of worship is He who said, " I 
 am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of 
 the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; thou 
 shall have no other gods before Me ! " 
 
 II. Or, take the Moral Law. 
 
 Here again we observe a current fashion of dilution 
 and adulteration. The formulary of the Scriptures is 
 plain. The Law is given in two great historic symbols; 
 to wit, the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount, 
 which is Christ's exposition of the ancient law. We 
 profess to accept the Bible as our " infallible rule of faith 
 and practice." The doctrine of God as given therein is 
 the basis of theology, as our infallible rule of truth; and 
 
78 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 the Ten Commandments as the basis of ethics are our 
 infalHble rule of conduct. 
 /^ But great liberties are taken with the Moral Law. 
 It is affirmed in some quarters that the Decalogue was 
 not delivered amid the thunders of Sinai or written on 
 tables of stone ; but was merely a collection of precepts 
 arranged in an arbitrary manner by common men in the 
 process of the ages. And as to the Sermon on the 
 Mount, we are informed that we cannot be at all sure 
 that Jesus ever uttered it. This being so, it follows of 
 course that there is no singular authority attaching to 
 the Moral Law. 
 
 Law itself is reduced to a mere convention. And sin is 
 not " any want of conformity unto or transgression of the 
 divine law," but merely a disease, which shows itself in 
 kleptomania, or dipsomania, or other forms of " mania," 
 which call not for moral therapeutics, but for treatment 
 by materia medica. And repentance is simply a sort of 
 melanchoHa. When David, having come to himself in 
 the matter of Bathsheba, climbed the winding stairs to 
 his closet on the housetop, wringing his hands and cry- 
 ing, "Have mercy upon me,0 God. according unto Thy 
 loving kindness, and according unto the multitude of Thy 
 tender mercies blot out my transgressions; for I have 
 sinned against Thee ! " he was merely suffering from 
 nightmare. The same is true of the publican who 
 prayed, " God be merciful to me, a sinner ! " And of Paul 
 in his despairing cry, "O wretched man that I am!" 
 Such is the inevitable consequence of trifling with the 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 79 
 
 authority of the Moral Law. The process is that which 
 was suggested to Pericles who, having refused to enter 
 into a negotiation which involved a violation of one of 
 the popular tablets, was urged to evade its authority by 
 turning its face to the wall. 
 
 What is the result ^ In every quarter where the Law 
 is thus tampered with, you will find an awful deteriora- 
 tion of morals. One by one the Commandments go: 
 the first, the second, the third ("Who fears God," asked 
 Dr. Dale, " in these days " ?) ; the fourth (Else why the 
 common desecration of the Sabbath ?) ; the fifth (Is not 
 filial reverence out of fashion.^); the sixth (Were ever 
 homicide and suicide more prevalent.? Was ever life 
 cheaper than now?); the seventh (Weep for the lost 
 sanctity of the marriage tie !) ; the eighth (Farewell the 
 stringent lines and boundaries of common honesty!); 
 the ninth (Welcome duplicity!) and the tenth; since, 
 when the twin motives of love and fear toward God are 
 obliterated, a man can afford to forget magnanimity 
 and live for himself alone. 
 
 And what is the remedy ? A return to the prescript 
 of the Law. Blackstone's definition of law is, "A rule 
 of action." As gravitation is a rule of action in nature, 
 so is the Moral Law in human life. And this law is not 
 a convention, arrived at by a conference of its subjects, 
 but an edict of the Law-giver. To trifle with the formu- 
 lary is to endanger character. Rowland Hill was right 
 when, a visitor having remarked that he did not recog- 
 nize the binding character of the Decalogue, he called 
 
80 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 his butler jind said, " Show this man the door and watch 
 the silver until he has gone out ! ** 
 
 III. Or, finally, take the Gospel. 
 
 Now the Gospel is a very simple thing. It is all briefly 
 comprehended in the words : " God so loved the world 
 that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever 
 beheveth in Him should not perish, but have eternal 
 life." But this Gospel is so tampered with in some 
 places that its features are unrecognizable. The three 
 fundamental facts on which it rests are the Incarnation, 
 the Atonement and the Resurrection of Christ. And 
 these three are not denied. O, never denied ! But they 
 are all explained away. How are we to understand the 
 words recently uttered by the pastor of one of our evan- 
 gelical churches : " It in no wise affects the real power 
 of Christianity whether we believe in the doctrine of 
 the virgin-birth of Jesus or not ? " Or how are we to 
 interpret the statement: "The saving power of the 
 Gospel is not in the death, but in the life and example 
 of Christ ? " Or what is the meaning of the intimation 
 that it is immaterial whether His resurrection be a fable 
 or an historic fact ? 
 
 Thexesult of such trifling with the landmarks of faith 
 is spiritual atrophy. In a congregation where the 
 Gospel is thus dispensed with, you will find no revivals ; 
 much talking about a "new evangelism," perhaps, but 
 no real outpouring of the Spirit and no ingathering of 
 souls. Of course, there are no conversions. Con- 
 versions from what, or to what.? And in the same 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 81 
 
 quarter you will hear lamentations over the dearth of 
 ministerial candidates. For why should young men 
 offer themselves to a ministry that has nothing to preach 
 but " ifs " and " perhapses." The only temple of divine 
 service which any man can afford to enter, is that which 
 is supported by the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, the 
 pillars of authority, " I am strength," and " I will sustain 
 thee." 
 
 What is the remedy for such a condition of things ? 
 It is to get back to the preaching of Christ. He set forth 
 an exclusive Gospel. Let the exclusiveness of His 
 Gospel never be lost sight of. He drew certain lines hard 
 and fast; let no man obliterate them. 
 
 / He drew a line between Himself and all other 
 teachers. He never consented to be a mere " good rab- 
 bi." He acknowledged no peers. If He meant what He 
 said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me," 
 then Plato and Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and like 
 philosophers are never to be mentioned in the same 
 breath with Him. 
 
 ^ He drew a line between Christianity and all other 
 religions. Not that there is no good in other religions, 
 but that only one has the saving power. " There is none 
 other name given under heaven or among men whereby 
 ye must be saved. " 
 
 /7, He drew a line between the Bible and all other books. 
 In all His teaching He consistently referred to it, not as 
 one of the masterpieces of literature, but as absolute truth 
 and the Word of God. He prescribed it as our one, only 
 
82 THE EVOLUTION OP A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and infallible rule of faith and practice, saying, " Search 
 the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
 and these are they which testify of me." 
 i> He drew a line between His Church and all other 
 organizations that ever were framed, saying, "On this 
 rock (that is, the affirmation of His divinity in the words, 
 * Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God !') I will 
 build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it!" 
 
 He drew a line between His followers and all others, 
 saying, "He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting 
 life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Hf e, 
 but the wrath of God abideth on him." In other words, 
 those who accept Christ as their Saviour are saved, and 
 all others are lost. The question is not whether we like 
 this statement or not, but whether Christ made it. If 
 so, as Christians we are bound to receive it. 
 
 When it is intimated that truth and morals are being 
 corrupted in many quarters, this is not to say that the 
 world is going wrong. In the last century the number 
 of those who profess to be in some sort of relation with 
 the Gospel of Christ has increased from two hundred 
 millions to five hundred; from which it is obvious that 
 a margin for large numbers of unbelievers in the Church 
 may be allowed and still leave room for confidence that 
 the hands move forward on the dial. It is important to 
 say, however, that while the great multitude of believers 
 have not bowed the knee to Baal, there is undeniably 
 much of error and falsehood propagated in the Christian 
 
THE TEST OF PRACTICE. 8S 
 
 name. The wheat and tares must needs grow together 
 in God*s field until the harvest. The church is in no 
 danger, but there is imminent danger that many will 
 lose their moorings and drift away into doubt and un- 
 belief. So let us unceasingly emphasize the importance 
 of loyalty to the oracles of God. 
 
 To be thus loyal, however, is to confront the charge 
 of bigotry; for it is a singular fact, that in these days, 
 " liberaUsm " is synonymous with a denial of the Script- 
 ures. But can a man who sincerely calls himself a 
 Christian be more liberal than Christ .? Or can there be 
 a broader liberalism than that which announces the free 
 grace of God ? It is possible for all men to accept His 
 overtures of mercy; "The Spirit and the Bride say. 
 Come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." The King's highway runs across an open 
 country, between the two hedges of Law and Gospel, 
 to heaven's gate; and that gate is open wide enough to 
 admit all who believe in Christ. Over it you may read 
 this legend : " There shall in no wise enter anything that 
 worketh abomination or maketh a lie; but they which 
 are written in the Lamb's book of Life. " This is the old, 
 plain, only, scriptural way of salvation; "the way the 
 holy prophets went, the way that leads from banish- 
 ment, the King's highway of holiness." This is the 
 way; walk ye in it. 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 PRIDE OF BIRTH. 
 
 "Whose son art thou?" I Samuel 17: 58. 
 
 A wonderful thing had happened in the valley of Elah. 
 The armies of Israel and PhiHstia had long been facing 
 each other from the opposite hills, and now the deadlock 
 was broken. A boy of seventeen had gone out against 
 the champion of PhiHstia and slain him. The victor 
 was a mere stripling. The camp was ringing with his 
 praises. The king from his pavilion had seen the boy go 
 forth, with a sheepskin about his loins and a sling in his 
 hand. He had seen him swing the leathern thong once, 
 twice, thrice and cast the stone; and, lo! GoHath fell. 
 In the midst of the shouting that followed, the king 
 turned to his commander-in-chief and said, " Whose son 
 is this youth ? " Observe, he did not ask, " Who is he ? " 
 but, "Whose son is he?" On Abner's replying, "O 
 king, I cannot tell, " he repeated his question in prac- 
 tically the same form : " Inquire whose son the stripling 
 is ? " And when Abner came back with David himself, 
 in whose hand was the gory head of the PhiHstine, the 
 king again asked, " Whose son art thou, young man ? " 
 
 Why so.^ What difference did it make whose son 
 David was ? A man is not responsible for his forebears; 
 
 (84) 
 
SONSHIP. 85 
 
 he can only answer for himself. He had no voice in the 
 choosing of his parents; but he is bound to determine 
 what manner of man he himself will be. And Saul was 
 the last man in the world to be over-particular about a 
 man's lineage, since he was himself only a farmer's son, 
 picked up by a prophet while hunting his father's asses 
 on the hills. But this is usually the case; trust a par- 
 venu to be a tuft hunter! The important fact is, that, 
 whether a man be high-born or low-born, he is as Cer- 
 vantes said, " the son of his own works. " A weaver in 
 the Highlands used to make this daily prayer, " O Lord, 
 give me a good opinion of myself!" This is one of the 
 things which cannot be inherited. 
 
 Our joy is not that we have got the crown. 
 But that the power to win the crown is ours. 
 
 Nevertheless there is something to be said for the fam- 
 ily tree. "Blood is thicker than water." It is a grave 
 misfortune for a man to be lacking in family pride. I do 
 not recall which of the poets wrote, 
 
 My ancient but ignoble blood 
 
 Has flowed through scoundrels ever since the flood; 
 
 but, whoever he was, he betrayed a most vulgar taste. 
 
 I. It will be observed that David had no contempt 
 for his ancestry. His answer was to the point: 
 "I am the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite." 
 
 We know little of Jesse, save that he was a good man. 
 Tradition says he wove veils for the sanctuary; if so, 
 this was purely a labor of love. His business was that of 
 
86 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 a farmer. It would appear that his possessions were 
 chiefly in sheep and goats. His wife, the mother of Da- 
 vid, is mentioned but not named, from which we infer 
 that she was modestly devoted to her calling as a far- 
 mer's wife. 
 
 The thing to be observed in this connection is that, 
 humble as the parentage of David was, he was not a- 
 shamed of it. This is evident not only in his answer to 
 Saul's question, but from a subsequent event, which 
 occurred after he had become familiar with life at court. 
 When by the king's displeasure he had been driven to 
 seek shelter in the cave of Adullam, his old father and 
 mother, dispossessed of the farm at Bethlehem, sought 
 him there; and David, ill satisfied with the scanty com- 
 forts which the humble cave would afford them, took 
 them across the border to the king of Moab and commit- 
 ted them to his care, saying, "Let my father and my 
 mother, I pray thee, be with you, till I know what God 
 will do for me" (I Sam. 22:3). 
 
 All blessings on those who cherish and practice the 
 homely grace of filial piety. It is probable that some of 
 my present readers are farmers' sons and daughters. 
 If so, when the old father comes to town to visit you, his 
 hands horny and his clothes out of fashion, will you 
 blush for him ? Or if the old mother pauses to gaze at 
 the sights and look in at the windows along the street, 
 will you be impatient of her ? True, her face is seamed 
 with crows' feet and wrinkles, but they are lines of 
 beauty to the eyes of love. They tell of weaiy watch- 
 
SONSHIP. 87 
 
 care, of long nights and aching arms. Dear mother, 
 queen of the world! Be it known to all young people 
 that the fifth Commandment has lost neither its imper- 
 ativeness nor its promise: "Honor thy father and thy 
 mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which 
 the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 
 But why should David have been proud of his de- 
 scent from Jesse ? Or why should we make mention of 
 our parents .? Wherein have they enriched us ? What 
 have they bequeathed to us? 
 
 A Name^ to begin with. 
 
 If it be an honorable name so much the better. A 
 title and coat-of-arms can add Httle to it. In any case 
 we shall have our hands full to Hve up to it. 
 
 And, perhaps, a Patrimony also. 
 
 If it be Httle, let us improve it ; if great, heaven help 
 us! There are rich men's sons who use their inheri- 
 tance to the honor of their fathers and their own. All 
 praise to them ! But shame and contempt upon such as 
 take advantage of the results of parental industry to live 
 in indolence ; who earn their bread only by the sweat of 
 their fathers' brows. Non-producers, be they rich or 
 poor, are tramps and cumberera of the ground, since 
 they add nothing to the world's exchequer, to the good 
 of their fellow men or the glory of God. 
 
 And there is an inheritance, also, of Physical Traits, 
 
 " Like father, like child." How often we hear it said, 
 "He looks hke his father," or "She is the very image of 
 her mother." The great stature of the inhabitants of 
 
88 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Potsdam, the old capital of Prussia, is often remarked 
 upon. It came about in this way : Two hundred years 
 ago Frederick the Great conceived a desire to have a- 
 bout him a bodyguard of stalwart men. He recruited 
 them from all parts of the world, by methods just and 
 otherwise. And it is their descendants whom you see, 
 tall, large-boned and stalwart, in Potsdam to-day. 
 
 Our parents transmit to us also, in less or greater de- 
 gree, their Mental Characteristics. 
 
 It was calculated by Ribot, the scientist, that not less 
 than forty per cent, of the illustrious poets of English 
 literature have been descendants of those who had 
 drunk at the Pierian Spring. The inheritance of genius 
 has been obvious in the Plinys and Senecas, the Pitts 
 and Sheridans and Wilberforces, theHaydens and Hum- 
 boldts, the Adamses and Harrisons, and innumerable 
 others who have made their influence felt as gifted men. 
 
 But there is one thing which cannot be inherited; to 
 wit. Character. 
 
 At this point every man must needs be a self-made 
 man. The " empiric character," of which Kant speaks, 
 is not character at all, inasmuch as it involves no moral 
 responsibility. We are, indeed, all handicapped in one 
 way or another by the transmission of moral weakness, 
 but never in such measure that by manly struggle we 
 may not overcome it. In the light of this fact the ad- 
 dress of Wordsworth "To the Sons of Robert Bums," 
 poor Burns with his sordid vices, has a pathetic signi- 
 ficance: 
 
SONSHIP. 89 
 
 Ye now are panting up life's hill; 
 'Tis twilight time of good and ill. 
 And more than common strength and skill 
 
 Must ye display. 
 If ye would give the better will 
 
 Its lawful sway. 
 
 Strong-bodied if ye be to bear 
 Intemperance with less harm, beware! 
 But if your father's wit ye share. 
 
 Then, then, indeed. 
 Ye sons of Burns, for watchful care 
 
 There will be need! 
 
 Let no mean hope your souls enslave; 
 Be independent, generous, brave! 
 Your father such example gave. 
 
 And such revere! 
 But be admonished by his grave. 
 
 And think and fear! 
 
 II. We must go further, however, with the lineage oi 
 David. 
 
 In the Gospel of Luke we find it traced to its begin- 
 ning: "He was the son of Jesse, who was the son of 
 Obed, who was the son of Boaz," and so on until we 
 come to " Cainan, who was the son of Enos, who was the 
 son of Seth, who was the son of Adam " (Luke 3 : 32-38). 
 Thus it returns to Adam as the fons et origo of the race. 
 But why should it be regarded as important to trace 
 one's genealogy to the first man? 
 
 First, because we have inherited from him our dig- 
 nity as men. We belong to the highest and dominant 
 
90 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 order of life. It is a great thing to be able to say. 
 Homo sum! When Plato was asked to define man, 
 he said, " He is a featherless biped. " The next day one 
 of the cynics appeared at the Academy with a plucked 
 fowl, saying, "Behold your man!" To a Darwinian 
 this may be a satisfactory statement of the case, but 
 not to one who possesses a just family pride. The 
 author of "The Simple Life" is fond of saying that 
 "man is the half of God." But man is neither the 
 half nor the quarter nor any segment of God. It is 
 sufficient to meet all the demands of self-respect to say 
 that our life is a spark thrown off from the infinite life 
 of God. 
 
 And from Adam we get, also, an inheritance of 
 equality. Any man may look any other in the face 
 and say, "By nature I am as good as thou." All our 
 family trees grow in the same forest. This is the fact 
 that stands forth in Paul's statement to the boastful 
 autochthons of Athens: "God hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men"; and in the Preamble of our 
 Declaration of Independence, "All men are created 
 equal and endowed by their Creator with certain in- 
 alienable rights"; and, in Burn's ringing words, 
 
 A prince can mak' a belted knight, 
 
 A marquis, duke, and a' that; 
 But an honest man's aboon his might, — 
 
 Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! 
 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 Their dignities, and a' that; 
 
SONSHIP. 91 
 
 The pith o' sense, and pride o* worth. 
 Are higher ranks than a' that. 
 
 In the light of this proposition it is clear that no man is 
 warranted in putting on airs. You may refuse to sit 
 at table with a black man; but if there is any truth in 
 Scripture, you will have to do that when you get into 
 the kingdom of heaven : for it is written that they shall 
 come from the east and the west, and from the north 
 and the south, and sit down together at the marriage 
 supper of the Lamb. And they shall sing a new song, 
 saying, "Thou art worthy, for thou hast redeemed 
 us out of every kindred and tongue and people and 
 nation, and hast made us kings and priests unto God." 
 
 But there is another inheritance transmitted from 
 Adam to us and to all the children of men which is 
 not so pleasant to contemplate, namely. Sin. 
 
 The doctrine of original sin as formulated in the 
 New England Primer, 
 
 In Adam's fall 
 We sinned all, 
 
 is repudiated in many quarters nowadays. No matter, 
 let is pass. We need not be strenuous about the phras- 
 ing of the fact. "Heredity" will answer just as well. 
 All who are keeping abreast of current discussion are 
 prepared to concede that something, which does not 
 make for righteousness, comes down to us in the current 
 of our ancestral blood. It makes no difference what 
 you call it; thefact is not disputed; something is wrong 
 
92 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 with US. Paul puts it on this wise: "There is no 
 difference; all are concluded under sin." The uni- 
 versal consciousness responds, Yea and Amen. We 
 are all sensible of a war in our members; "the good 
 that we would, we do not; and the evil we would 
 not, that we do." And, struggle as we will, we seem 
 unable to extricate ourselves from these hereditary 
 bonds. No man, by his unaided effort, can overcome 
 them. We are all driven at last to Paul's despairing 
 cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
 me?" 
 
 III. But the lineage of David goes further still. 
 "He was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, 
 who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God" 
 (Luke 3:38). Here we have the natural descent of 
 man from God. As it is written, "So God created 
 man in His own image ; in the image of God created He 
 him. And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 Hfe, and man became a living soul." 
 
 To this there has been a universal consent, among 
 all nations from the beginning. The supreme king of 
 the Olympian gods was Jupiter, or Zeus-pater. 
 The chief of the Norse gods was Al-fadir, that is, 
 Father-of-all. The poet Aratus, from whom Paul 
 quoted in his discourse on Mars Hill, says, "We are 
 also his offspring." Thus the natural Fatherhood of 
 God has been admitted on all sides. 
 
 But if the Scriptures are to be believed, this fact has 
 little bearing on the doctrine of eternal life, since the 
 
SONSHIP. 93 
 
 race, though originally created in the divine likeness, has 
 fallen from its high estate through sin. The inheri- 
 tance has been forfeited and the children are disowned 
 by their own act. Their position is set forth in the 
 Parable of the Prodigal Son "in the far country"; he 
 went away from home, wasted his substance in riotous 
 living and degenerated into a feeder of swine. This 
 picture is true to life; or, as Coleridge would say, " It 
 finds me." We know that sin has driven us into exile; 
 and we know that without holiness no man shall see 
 God. 
 
 We are obliged to turn therefore from the natural 
 to the spiritual sonship which is revealed in the Gospel 
 of Christ. It is written, "We have not received the 
 spirit of bondage again to fear, but have received the 
 Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father." 
 The restoration, thus referred to, is accomplished 
 through the intervention of the Only-begotten Son, 
 who goes out into the far country " to seek and save the 
 lost." He finds the prodigal and brings him back to 
 the Father's house; where we behold him sitting at 
 table with the signet ring and the best robe on him. 
 In thus interposing in our behalf Christ becomes "the 
 first-born among many brethren," and Elder Brother 
 of all who believe in Him. 
 
 The steps in this restoration are as follows: 
 FirsU Faith; as it is written. The only -begotten 
 Son "came unto His own, and His own received Him 
 not; but to as many as received Him to them gave He 
 
94 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 right to become the sons of God." Observe, "to as 
 many as received Him." For "he that believeth on 
 the Son hath everlasting Hfe; and he that beheveth 
 not, the wrath of God abideth upon him." 
 
 Second, Regeneration. With this we have nothing 
 to do. It is wrought, "not by the will of flesh, nor 
 by the will of man but by the will of God." The 
 moment a man accepts Christ as his Saviour the trans- 
 formation takes place. It is a new birth ; or, as in the 
 original, "a birth from above." And Jesus said, 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born 
 again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 Third, Assurance. " The Spirit beareth witness with 
 our spirit that we are the children of God." 
 
 Fourth, Sanctification. This is wrought under the 
 influence of the Spirit, which the Elder Brother breathes 
 upon us, saying, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." By 
 this influence we are enabled to grow in grace and 
 in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; 
 in other words, to build character; the fruits of the 
 Spirit being love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, 
 goodness, faith. Furthermore, we are thus equipped 
 for service. The last we see of the prodigal son in 
 the parable, he is sitting at the table amid sounds of 
 laughter and merrymaking. But if that were all, it 
 would have been, indeed, a strange home-bringing. 
 We are quite safe in supposing that, the day after 
 his return, this son went out and helped to reap the 
 harvests in his father's fields. By the influence of 
 
SONSHIP. 95 
 
 the Spirit we are qualified to perform the work as- 
 signed to us in the kingdom of God. 
 
 The fijth and final step brings us to Eternal Life. 
 " Now are we sons of God, but it doth not yet appear 
 what we shall be." "If sons, then heirs; heirs of God 
 and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to an inheritance in- 
 corruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away." 
 This is Eternal Life. The Father's house! Home at 
 last! 
 
 All this is accomplished through faith in Christ. 
 If David himself were asked as to his pride of birth, 
 he would surely reply, "My boast is in no earthly Hn- 
 eage but in my relation to Christ." For he was a Chris- 
 tian if ever there was one, though he lived a thousand 
 years before the beginning of the Christian era. He 
 saw Christ afar off and sang His praises. Not once 
 in the Psalter do we come upon the name of Jesse or of 
 Adam; but the songs of David are full of references to 
 the coming Christ. 
 
 If we must needs boast, we also shall glory in our 
 vital relation with the Elder Brother who brings us 
 back to God. In Him we regain our lost inheritance. 
 By Him our forfeited crown is restored to us. It is 
 for us, however, to say whether we will receive it. 
 When Samuel came up to Mizpah to anoint Saul as 
 king of Israel, the young man could not be found ; and 
 those who went seeking him returned with the words, 
 "Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff." The 
 gospel is a call to royal honors. Come, take thy 
 
^6 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 crown! But alas! there are multitudes who hide 
 themselves among the stuff and will not hear it. Friend, 
 your crown awaits you. Will you allow Christ to 
 bring you back to God ? This done, it remains only to 
 quit yourself like a high-born man. "If ye be risen 
 with Christ," — that is, into newness of life, — "seek 
 those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at 
 the right hand of God!" 
 
CHARACTER. 
 
 FOUR THINGS NEEDFUL. 
 
 "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, 
 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according 
 as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." I Corinth- 
 ians 1:30,31. 
 
 Adam in the Garden of Eden had all that his heart 
 could desire, all that was necessary to make his happi- 
 ness complete, with the exception of one thing; to wit. 
 Character. If he was ever to have Character, he must 
 win it. He must pass through an ordeal in order to 
 show himself a man. Up to that point his virtue was 
 mere innocency, which is wholly negative, like the im- 
 maculateness of a marble statue; hence the necessity of 
 the forbidden tree. In eating of it Adam lost all, not 
 only the joys of Paradise but, infinitely worse, the oppor- 
 tunity of winning a positive Character for himself and 
 his children after him. 
 
 Life was destined to be thenceforth a bundle of 
 wants. As a shell cast upon the shore still murmurs of 
 the sea, so does the soul of man long for its lost in- 
 heritance. It would not be satisfied, however, with 
 the pleasures of the Garden; it must have, in order 
 to its final satisfaction, the thing which Adam failed to 
 win, that is, Character. In that word is represented the 
 
 deepest longing of the race; and that longing can be met 
 
 (97) 
 
98 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 only in Christ. His purpose in coming into the world 
 was not merely to restore the joys of Paradise to the 
 children of men, but to give them another chance to win 
 Character. And this is set forth in Paul's presentation 
 of the matter to the Christians of Corinth. He mentions 
 the four things needful in the forming of Character; and 
 affirms that we have them in Christ and nowhere else. 
 
 The first of these is Wisdom. 
 
 This does not mean knowledge in general, but truth 
 in the province of the spiritual life. The most important 
 things for us to know are not the final analysis of matter 
 or the distance of the fixed stars, but rather the things 
 which concern our relation to God. We want to know 
 whether there is a God and whether we ourselves are 
 immortal and whether there is any way of being 
 delivered from sin. It is in the solution of such problems 
 that we find the wisdom whose "price is above rubies "; 
 and it is precisely here that Christ enlightens us. 
 
 He teaches truth; and He alone can speak with 
 authority concerning the problems of the endless life. 
 The agnostic disavows all knowledge of the super- 
 natural. The positivist says, " We can see phenomena, 
 but it is a waste of time to try to account for them." 
 The materialist says, "As to any other world or any 
 hereafter, we can only speculate. We know that we 
 are living here and now; and that is enough. Let us 
 eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." 
 
 But here comes Jesus with a philosophy in which 
 **life and immortahty are brought to Hght." We ask 
 
CHARACTER. 99 
 
 Him to show us God ; and He answers, " Have I been 
 so long time with you ; and yet hast thou not known me ? 
 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Behevest 
 thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me ? 
 We ask Him, "If a man die, will he live again .^" and, 
 standing by an open grave. He answers, "He that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; 
 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die. " We ask Him if there is any way of being delivered 
 from sin and from the certain fearful looking-for of 
 judgment which accompanies it; and He points to the 
 cross saying, "The Son of man is come to seek and 
 save that which was lost and to give His life a ransom 
 for many. He that believeth in me hath everlasting 
 life." We call ourselves His disciples and, as such, 
 sitting about His feet and taking Him at His word, we 
 solve these problems of the eternal world. It is obvious, 
 therefore, that a man may be very ignorant, as the 
 schools count ignorance, and yet be a very wise man. 
 He may know nothing about the stars, but he has dis- 
 covered the Bright and Morning Star. He may know 
 nothing about metaphysics, but he has found out the 
 secret of life. 
 
 It is not enough to say, however, that Christ teaches 
 truth. He goes farther and affirms, " I am the Truth." 
 
 In these words He reduces religion to a personal and 
 vital relation with Him. As Christians we are bound to 
 do more than hearken to Him. Thomas was with Him 
 as a disciple during all His ministery, but he never really 
 
100 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 believed in Him till Christ said, "Reach hither thy 
 hand and thrust it into my side"; then he cried, "My 
 Lord and my God ! '* By faith we appropriate not only 
 the things which Christ teaches, but Christ Himself; 
 and, finding Him, we pass through the halls of wisdom 
 into the possession of life. Paul was a graduate of the 
 University of Jerusalem, a Doctor of Divinity and a 
 Doctor of Laws, yet he reckoned the knowledge thus 
 acquired as mere dross in comparison with what he 
 learned when Chri^ was made manifest to him. "I 
 am resolved," he said, "henceforth to know nothing 
 but Christ and Him crucified ! " He had found religion 
 in a personal relation to Christ and all the remainder 
 of the encyclopedia was relatively of slight value to him. 
 
 The second of the essential factors of Character is 
 Righteousness. 
 
 "Truth is in order to goodness." Doctrine is the 
 foundation of ethics. Righteousness is the principal 
 thing ; and the key to righteousness is the word " impu- 
 tation." It suggests a singular exchange, in this, that 
 Christ takes our sins and gives us His righteousness. 
 
 By righteousness we understand, in part, freedom 
 from sin. This is the negative side of it. There is an old 
 score against us by reason of our many transgressions 
 against the Moral Law and it is obvious that no man 
 can build character until that score is disposed of. As 
 well try to run a race with a ball and chain on one*s 
 ankle. But the question is, How to get rid of it ? Job 
 says, "Though I wash myself with snow water, and 
 
CHARACTER. 101 
 
 make myself never so clean ; yet shall Thou plunge me in 
 the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." In 
 other words, no man can purge himself from sin; but 
 Christ in the shedding of His blood opens a fountain 
 for our uncleanness. "Come now," He says, "let us 
 reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they 
 shall be as white as snow; though they be red like 
 crimson, they shall be as wool." So a man becomes 
 negatively righteous or "justified" by believing in Christ 
 who washes away his past sin. 
 
 But righteousness is more than innocency. On its 
 positive side it is personal merit. And the question now 
 is. How shall a man acquire merit ? Can he make any 
 of his own ? " By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be 
 justified." We hear sometimes of "works of supereroga- 
 tion," that is, works over and above the requirement of 
 the law. But such works are impossible, since every 
 moment is laden with its own responsibilities. A man 
 is not rewarded for keeping the law ; that is simply what 
 is expected of him. Medals and decorations are not con- 
 ferred for complying with statutes and ordinances, 
 though chains and imprisonment are inflicted for vio- 
 lating them. Yet without merit no man shall enter into 
 the kingdom. 
 
 All over the world there are people vainly trying to 
 make merit; nuns telling their beads, flagellants doing 
 penance, devotees bathing in the Ganges, moralists giv- 
 ing alms. But the only work of supererogation ever 
 wrought on earth was that of Jesus Christ. The law 
 
102 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 required nothing of Him. In becoming subject to it and 
 rendering a perfect obedience He laid up a great reserve 
 of merit. Out of this infinite reserve He imputes right- 
 eousness to those who beHeve in Him. As He took our 
 sins, making them His very own and bearing them in 
 His own body on the tree, so now He gives us His 
 righteousness, making it our very own, as if He threw a 
 garment of " fine Hnen, clean and white " over us. Thisis 
 the wedding garment which entitles us to enter hea- 
 ven. And it is by reason of this imputation that we sing : 
 
 Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 
 My beauty are, my glorious dress; 
 'Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed. 
 With joy shall I lift up my head. 
 
 And this is acquired simply and solely by faith in 
 Jesus Christ. The one thing that a man can do, which 
 bears the semblance of merit, is to believe in Him ; as it 
 is written, " This is the work of God (that is, acceptable 
 to God), that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." 
 
 The third factor in the building of character is 
 Sandification. 
 
 This also is by faith in Christ. The man who has 
 gone thus far in acquiring wisdom and righteousness is 
 sure of two things, namely, " no condemnation " and " a 
 title clear to mansions in the skies.'* One thing more is 
 needed; that is, fitness for a high place of usefulness in 
 the eternal life. 
 
 A letter came to me once from an ex-convict which 
 will illustrate the matter in hand. He said: 
 
CHARACTER. 103 
 
 ''Dear Sir: 
 
 *'A few months ago I came out of Sing Sing. 
 I was guilty of the crime of ivhich I was charged; hut 
 I served my time like a man. I am an old-time crook 
 and the police know me. I have had several positions, 
 but they have informed upon me from time to time, and 
 I am unable to keep a place. I want to live a square 
 and honest life. But what shall I do? Will you kindly 
 advise me?" 
 
 The pathos of his situation is clear. But there was only 
 one thing to say to him : " You must begin at the bottom 
 and work up. It is inevitable that the consequences of 
 your vicious life should follow you. But you can live 
 down your record and show by faithful service in hum- 
 ble positions that you are worthy of confidence and so 
 earn promotion; and by patient continuance in well 
 doing you will win out." 
 
 Now, this is precisely the case of the sinner who has 
 transferred his sins to Christ and received the merit of 
 His righteousness. He need not be afraid of the past, 
 since it is expiated ; nor need he have any misgivings as 
 to his entrance into heaven. But it remains for him, by 
 faithful service in apprenticeship here, to qualify himself 
 for promotion and nobler service. 
 
 The secret of sanctification is looking unto Jesus. He 
 is not only our Saviour from sin and our Advocate at 
 heaven's gate, but He is our Exemplar in right living 
 here and now. It is by the imitation of Christ that we 
 grow in virtue, in usefulness, in character; as it is 
 written, " We all, with open face beholding as in a 
 
104 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image, from glor^' to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord." 
 
 Aye; "by the Spirit of the Lord"; for in this process 
 the Holy Spirit is the vitalizing force. It is the function 
 of the Spirit to bring to remembrance whatsoever Christ 
 has said unto us. He said of the Holy Ghost, " He shall 
 take of mine and show it unto you." It is the Spirit 
 who enjoins upon us the importance of living in the 
 society of Jesus ; and, while there, He impresses upon us 
 the likeness of Jesus; so that at length we come "unto 
 a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of Christ." And this is the consummation of 
 Character. We are fitted in this manner not merely to 
 enter heaven, but to enter it as able workmen needing 
 not to be ashamed, wise in the things of the kingdom, 
 skilled in service and ready for the master's word of 
 promotion, " Thou hast been faithful in a few things, I 
 will make thee ruler over ten cities." 
 
 The fourth and final factor in the building of Char- 
 acter is Redemption. 
 
 The sound of breaking chains is in the word. It 
 indicates the final deliverance from the bondage of sin 
 and entrance into the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God. 
 
 One of the old-time theologians speaks of three kinds 
 of spiritual life: (1) In pretio; that is, deliverance 
 through the ransom which Christ has paid for us. (2) 
 In promisso; that is, the hope of heaven by virtue of the 
 
CHARACTEEL 105 
 
 exceeding great and precious promises given unto us. 
 (3) In semine; or by foretaste. We cannot understand 
 what eternal life means, since " eye hath not seen, ear 
 hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
 man the things which God hath prepared for them that 
 love Him." But we have earnests of it. A bunch of 
 grapes now and then along the way makes us yearn for 
 the vineyards of Eshcol. As the transfer of land in the 
 Middle Ages was sealed by the seller placing a bit of turf 
 in the purchaser's hand, so do we occasionally in the 
 closet or at the sacramental table get a glimpse of 
 heaven, giving us to know that it is ours in reversion 
 through faith in Christ. 
 
 Thus our longings for Character are realized in Christ. 
 Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption; 
 what remains to be desired ? When Philip Melancthon 
 was dying, one of his attendants asked, " Can we do 
 anything more for you ? " He answered, " Nothing is 
 left but heaven." 
 
 But where is self in all this? Self is lost sight of. 
 Christ is all. A man who goes to battle with the courage 
 that wins the iron cross is ever self -forgetful. The 
 Christian serves himself best when he forgets self in 
 his service of God. 
 
 And where is boasting ? God alone has the glory. So 
 Paul says to the Christians of Corinth, who were sur- 
 rounded by men who were proud of their wisdom, "If 
 any man glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 
 
 Christ is commended to the earnest man who longs 
 
106 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 for Character. There is no true Character except that 
 which is formulated by the imitation of Christ. " Talk 
 they of morals ? O Thou bleeding Lamb! The true 
 morality is love of Thee!" To undertake to build 
 character without Christ is like trying to produce a tree 
 by gathering a bundle of fagots. Plant the acorn. Faith 
 in Christ is the seed of character. We grow to manhood 
 by growing like Him. 
 
 A sermon by Philip Doddridge on the text, "Unto 
 you which believe He is precious," closed with a hymn 
 of his own composition, in which is aptly expressed the 
 satisfaction of the soul that, realizing the philosophy of 
 Paul, rests in Christ and finds its fulness in Him; 
 
 Jesus, I love Thy charming name, 
 
 'Tis music to mine ear; 
 Fain would I sound it out so loud 
 
 That earth and heaven should hear. 
 
 Yes, Thou art precious to my soul. 
 
 My transport and my trust; 
 Jewels to Thee are gaudy toys. 
 
 And gold is sordid dust. 
 
 All my capacious powers can wish 
 
 In Thee doth richly meet; 
 Not to mine eyes is light so dear. 
 
 Nor friendship half so sweet. 
 
 I'll speak the honors of Thy name 
 
 With my last laboring breath; 
 Then, speechless, clasp Thee in mine arms. 
 
 The antidote of death. 
 
RENUNCIATION. 
 
 THE GRAVES OF LUST. 
 
 "And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there 
 they buried the people that lusted." Nunabers 11: 34. 
 
 The journey of the Israelites through the wilderness 
 is an apologue of life. In the incident at Kibroth-hat- 
 taavah we have the last of four episodes which stand 
 out like living pictures. 
 
 The first is the Departure from Egypt. It is estima- 
 ted by Dean Alford that there were not less than two 
 million four hundred thousand men, women and child- 
 ren in this fugitive host. In addition to these there was 
 a "mixed multitude," made up of aliens, stragglers, 
 half-breeds, "lewd fellows of the baser sort," adven- 
 turers with an eye to the main chance, malcontents 
 into whose soul the iron of Egyptian tyranny had 
 entered, but who were by no means in sympathy with 
 the high purposes of the children of Israel. It was 
 inevitable that this contingent should play an important 
 part, for better or worse, in the story of the pilgrimage. 
 
 Our army during the Civil War was attended by a 
 mixed multitude of like character — sutlers, gamesters, 
 daughters of the regiment, vagabonds and outlaws of 
 every sort, who were constantly demoralizing the rank 
 and file. They were not infrequently dealt with by " or- 
 
 (107) 
 
108 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ders from headquarters " and on occasion drummed out 
 of camp. 
 
 In our municipal life we groan under the maleficent 
 influence of a "mixed multitude," consisting of po- 
 litical thugs, "floaters," rogues and beggars, anar- 
 chists, labor agitators, many of them foreigners who 
 have taken out their naturalization papers, but never 
 caught the genius of our American life. It is greatly 
 to be doubted whether Municipal Reform will ever 
 become an estabhshed fact until these people are dealt 
 with, not by the sporadic appeals of electioneering 
 reformers, but by radical, regenerative methods. 
 
 In the church, also, there is a " mixed multitude " of 
 loose-thinkers and loose-livers, nominal Christians, 
 some deceivers and others self-deceived, without defi- 
 nite convictions, having no creed and consequently no 
 moral code, superficial and inconsistent professors, in 
 the church but not of it. What shall be done about 
 them? Shall Christians come down to their low level; 
 or, standing by the fundamental precepts of noncon- 
 formity, seek to bring them up? This is one of the 
 important problems which must be faced before the 
 church can realize the divine ideal. And that consum- 
 mation is probably a long way off, since the wheat and 
 the tares must grow together until the Great Day. 
 
 In the second of the episodes referred to, we are 
 introduced to a melancholy spectacle. The mixed mul- 
 titude has done its work. The children of Israel are 
 sitting in the doorways of their tents weeping and la- 
 
RENUNCIATION. 109 
 
 menting for the Egyptian flesh-pots. It is true that 
 tears in the Orient He near the surface: but however 
 this may explain the puerile and mutinous outburst it 
 cannot excuse it. Brave pilgrims these! "O for the 
 fish and melons," they cry, "the luscious melons and 
 cucumbers of Egypt!" 
 
 They have forgotten the whip of scorpions, the days 
 of weary toil in the brick-kilns, and !he restless nights 
 when they were wont to cry, " Would God it were morn- 
 ing ! " The thought that they are journeying to " a land 
 that floweth with mi'k and honey" no longer stimulates 
 them; the vision has faded; the promises are naught. 
 As for the manna which has fallen about their feet, 
 their soul loathes "this light bread." O patient God, 
 how long wilt Thou bear with them ? 
 
 The two besetting sins of Israel were murmuring 
 and lusting. And they are the besetting sins of God's 
 people at this day. Has not the Lord brought us out of 
 bondage with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm ? 
 Are we not pilgrims and sojourners, looking for a 
 better country, even an heavenly, and a city which hath 
 foundations, whose builder and maker is God.^ Yet 
 how prone we are to entertain presumptuous thoughts 
 and arraign the appointed course. All heaven is before 
 us; yet we murmur because of inadequate provision 
 made for us along the way. We murmur at our light 
 afflictions which are but for a moment and work for us 
 a far more exceeding and external weight of glory. 
 We weary of angels' food and long for the sordid 
 
110 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 pleasures of the world. Better the leeks and onions of 
 Egypt than the bread that comes down from heaven! 
 What matters it that the Pillar of Cloud goes before us 
 and that we have tasted water from the living Rock? 
 Our visions of glory are dimmed by our tears over the 
 commissariat! Of all our sacred songs there is none 
 so hard to sing with heart and understanding as this: 
 
 Father, whate'er of earthly bliss 
 
 Thy sovereign hand denies, 
 Accepted at Thy throne of grace, 
 
 Let this petition rise: 
 
 Give me a calm, a thankful heart. 
 
 From every murmur free; 
 The blessings of Thy grace impart. 
 
 And let me live to Thee. 
 
 The third picture is of a carnival, a literal feast of 
 flesh. 
 
 The lawless desire of the people is granted. " There 
 went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails 
 from the sea, and let them fall by the camp." A 
 miracle.'^ Aye: just as every wind that blows goes 
 forth from the Lord. It is not unusual even now, in 
 the season of the early flight, to see multitudinous 
 flocks of birds, driven helplessly across the desert and 
 falling on exhausted wings. It would have been a 
 miracle, indeed, had God withheld the quails on this 
 occasion. As it was, the desire of the people was 
 granted and their appetite had free rein. They busied 
 themselves all that night gathering and storing flesh 
 
RENUNCIATION. Ill 
 
 which many of them were destined never to eat. Flesh 
 they have demanded and flesh they shall have. Showers 
 of flesh ! They gorge themselves with it. They are sur- 
 feited with it. Then the plague. " While the flesh was 
 yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath 
 of the Lord was kindled against the people and He 
 smote them." The wrath of the Lord.'* Yes, pre- 
 cisely as He ever puts His Yea and Amen upon the laws 
 of nature. Plenty and the plague go hand in hand. 
 Gluttony and death. Luxury and decay. Is it not 
 written everywhere in the history of nations and of 
 men? 
 
 The ruling passion, be it what it will, 
 The ruling passion conquers reason still. 
 
 The wealth-seeker, with his two hands like the 
 insatiable mouth of the horse-leech, cries," Give! Give! " 
 His eyes turn yellow and his soul is jaundiced. He 
 knows that gold gives satiety without satisfaction: 
 and that it takes wings and flies away, yet he keeps 
 up the mad pursuit until he dies of the plague ! 
 
 The same is true of all sensual desire. The volup- 
 tuary gorges himself till naught but ashes Hngers on 
 his lips. The tippler drinks until the habit masters 
 him; drinks until his eyes are red and his flesh sodden; 
 drinks until he reels and totters, lost to shame; drinks 
 until the plague slays him! 
 
 So sordid ambition, unrestrained, runs its course. 
 The lust of knowledge makes its lamentation on this 
 
112 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 wise, "Much study is a weariness of the flesh." The 
 lust of power has naught to show for its pains but a 
 hollow panegyric and a faded wreath. Here is Alexan- 
 der longing for more worlds to conquer and dying of 
 fever after days and nights of drunken revelry. You 
 may thrust him aside with your foot. Dead of the 
 plague ! 
 
 The last of the episodes referred to brings us to 
 Kibroth-hattaavah. " God's Acre " is usually a place of 
 sacred associations. We lay memorial flowers upon 
 the mounds and lovingly call up sweet memories of 
 the past. But here at Kibroth-hattaavah there are only 
 "graves of lust." 
 
 Over the doorway of this Necropolis is the inscrip- 
 tion, "Vanity of vanities." Here lie the victims of in- 
 ordinate desire: lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, pride 
 of life. Here is the tomb of that rich fool, who was 
 crushed under the weight of his full storehouses; of 
 Esau, choked by his mess of pottage; of Salome, who 
 danced herself to dea h; of Pilate, "Caesar's friend"; 
 of the young man, who "went away very sorrowful 
 because he was very rich"; of Haman, "hoist with his 
 own petard"; of Lot's wife, ruined by her love of 
 Sodom. Here are two graves side by side inscribed, 
 "Ananias and Sapphira; slain for lying unto God." 
 Here are three graves marked, "Korah, Dathan and 
 Abiram; swallowed in the gulf of overweening ambi- 
 tion." All dead of the plague! Victims of self-indul- 
 
RENUNCIATION. 113 
 
 Who shall be held responsible ? It is the ordinance 
 of nature, on which the divine decree has placed its 
 sanction. The record runs thus, " Let no man say when 
 he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot 
 be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: 
 but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his 
 own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, 
 it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bring- 
 eth forth death." 
 
 What is the lesson? There are two levels of life; 
 to wit, the high level of the Spirit, and the low level of 
 the flesh. As it is written, "They that are after the 
 flesh mind the things of the flesh: but they that are 
 after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind 
 of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life 
 and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity 
 against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
 neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the 
 flesh cannot please God." 
 
 This is not to say that the desires of the flesh are 
 intrinsically wrong. By the ordinance of nature we 
 eat and drink : it is only our over-eating and over-drink- 
 ing that bring the plague upon us. We are bound to 
 seek a livelihood; and by the same token we are per- 
 mitted to delight ourselves "in the ways of our heart 
 and in the sight of our eyes." But when we seek gold, 
 pleasure or worldly emolument to the exclusion of bet- 
 ter things, we lose our divine heritage and provoke the 
 wrath of God. An eagle, in pursuit of food, pounced 
 
114 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 upon a carcass on a floe of floating ice; so far so good; 
 but it tarried so long at the banquet that its wings 
 were frozen fast and death overtook it. Man has a 
 soul to soar like the eagle; and like the eagle he must 
 eat to live. Woe to him who forgets his heavenward 
 flight in the absorbing pursuit of lower things! 
 
 Think of the loss involved in it. The loss of Canaan 
 for a mess of quails! All these Israelites were, for 
 their murmuring and lusting, shut out of the Land 
 of Promise. Not all were buried at Kibroth-hattaavah; 
 their graves lay all along the way. Moses himself 
 did not escape the stern decree. He climbed the moun- 
 tain and looked over on the "sweet fields beyond the 
 sweUing flood " but was not permitted to enter in. 
 
 O lonely tomb in Moab's land 
 
 On dark Beth-peor's hill. 
 
 Speak to these curious hearts of ours 
 
 And teach them to be still! 
 
 God has His mysteries of grace. 
 
 Ways that we cannot tell; 
 
 He hides them deep, like the secret sleep 
 
 Of him He loved so well. 
 
 But the life of the Spirit! Ah, this is worthy of 
 men divinely born and destined to the heritage of kings. 
 V^ It means something to have come out of Egypt; to 
 have left the land of flesh-pots and of leeks and onions 
 and cucumbers; to have left the orgies of the golden 
 calf as well as of the thankless toil in the brick -yards. 
 It means something to have the great promise of a bet- 
 
RENUNCIATION. 115 
 
 ter country where every man shall dwell in peace under 
 his own vine and fig-tree. 
 
 And incidentally, it means struggle all along the 
 way; because the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. "O 
 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of 
 the body of this death ?''' The old nature is in perpetual 
 conflict with the new; the old man in close grapple 
 with "the new man in Christ Jesus." Our constant 
 temptation is to look backward and to be drawn again 
 into the swirl of passionate and inordinate desire. It 
 is like the terrible pull of the "sea-puss," which drags 
 the boldest swimmer into the danger of a resistless tide. 
 Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and pride of life! O 
 let us take heed and beware of it. 
 
 In the end all ambitions come to naught except one, 
 that is, the desire to live for God. And to this we are 
 covenanted, as His people. In our exodus from the 
 former life which we lived in the flesh we have paused 
 at the flaming mountain and heard the voice, " I am the 
 Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; thou shalt 
 have no other gods before me! " Self is the Dagon that 
 ever stands up against God. Hence it behooves us 
 to put down Self, Self-will, Self-indulgence, Self -wor- 
 ship, and to spend and be spent in devotion to God. 
 
 It is related of Lady Huntington that, after spend- 
 ing years in worldly pursuits and pleasures, oblivious of 
 all higher demands upon her time and energy, she 
 seemed to hear, in attendance on a royal function, under 
 
116 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 the glittering lights and amid the confused sounds of 
 laughter, the voice of her mother teaching her again 
 from the Shorter Catechism, " What is the chief end of 
 man? — The chief end of man is to glorify God"; and 
 then and there she changed the manner of her life. 
 
 But is it possible to be in the world yet not of it; 
 to live to the Spirit, to deny self and glorify God? 
 Let Paul answer. He was of noble birth and liberal 
 education, a member of the highest court of Israel with 
 a boundless outlook of honorable promotion. But when 
 he met Jesus on the Damascus highway, he stood for a 
 while at the gateway of Kibroth-hattaavah, and there 
 buried all. In that graveyard he left a mausoleum 
 bearing the legend, " Here lies Saul of Tarsus "; and the 
 man who went upon his way, was a new man, Paul the 
 servant of Jesus Christ. Hear him: 
 
 " If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he 
 might trust in the flesh, I more: but what things were 
 gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, 
 doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excell- 
 ency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for 
 whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do 
 count them but dung ; that I may win Christ, and be 
 found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, 
 which is of the law, but that which is through the faith 
 of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 
 that I may know him, and the power of His resurrection 
 and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made con- 
 formable unto His death: if by any means I might 
 
RENUNCIATION. 117 
 
 attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though 
 I had already attained, either were already perfect; 
 but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for 
 which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, 
 I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one 
 thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind 
 (farewell to the lusts of the flesh!) and reaching forth 
 unto those things which are before, I press toward the 
 mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus!" 
 
 Is it possible.? Ah, yes! Egypt behind, Canaan 
 before, and the graves of lust along the way. Bury 
 them all, beloved, till nothing is left but the ambition 
 to glorify God. His we are and Him we serve. " If ye 
 then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." 
 
NON-CONFORMITY 
 
 THE TRANSFIGURED LIFE. 
 
 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye pro- 
 sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acce[)table unto God, which is 
 your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye 
 transformed (transfigured) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may 
 prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Ro- 
 mans 12: 1, 2. 
 
 We are accustomed to think of Paul as a philosopher, 
 a theologian, a logician and a dialectician; but he was 
 more than that ; he was an expert rhetorician or master 
 of words. 
 
 "Words are things," said Mirabeau; and he knew 
 whereof he spoke, for it was he who thundered from the 
 Tribune with matchless power in behalf of the Third 
 Estate. His aphorism was repeated by Lord Byron, 
 " Words are things ; a drop of ink falling, like dew, upon 
 a thought makes thousands think." 
 
 In approaching our subject, we enter upon a study of 
 words. Paul's proposition is the Secret of a Successful 
 Life ; and we shall observe how his words fall into their 
 appropriate places like the stones in an arched gateway. 
 
 The key-stone of his argument is the word " Sacrifice." 
 
 This is the initial word in the Art of Christian Living ; 
 for the life of a Christian begins with surrender, or self- 
 immolation; as Jesus said, "If any man would come 
 after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and fol- 
 low me." 
 
 (118) 
 
NON-CONFORMITY. 119 
 
 The word "body" is used here by Paul in its 
 most comprehensive sense; being suggested by the simil- 
 itude of the altar, on which the body of the sacrificial vic- 
 tim was laid. It is intended to include the whole man. 
 
 The ground of this self-immolation is contained in the 
 word " reasonable, " literally, logical. A man is not asked 
 to follow Christ without weighing the matter 'pro and 
 contra. "Come now, let us reason together, saith the 
 Lord." And the rationale of the demand is found in a 
 just consideration of " the mercies of God." 
 
 Then follows the gist of the argument; to wit, "that 
 ye be not conformed to this world, but transformed by 
 the renewing of your mind; that ye may prove what is 
 that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." 
 
 The pivotal word here is "world." 
 
 By this we are not to understand the world of nature, 
 of course; since a thoughtful man " looks through nature 
 up to nature's God." Nor does it mean the world of 
 affairs ; since Jesus says in His sacerdotal prayer, " I pray 
 not that Tho« shouldest take them out of the world"; 
 and again in describing His disciples, "A city set on a 
 hill cannot be hid "; and again, " Let your light so shine 
 before men that they may see your good works and 
 glorify God." The reference is to that self -centered 
 world in which men and women, made in God's likeness, 
 are absorbed in self-interest rather than in the glory of 
 God. The great sin of the world is selfishness, or, self- 
 will; which is manifested in three specific forms; to wit, 
 " lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of 
 
120 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 life." The evil is not in the flesh, but in fleshliness or 
 sensuality. The evil is not in the eye, but in its inordi- 
 nate desire as seen in lust, avarice, covetousness and 
 sordid ambition. The evil is not in life, only in the vain- 
 glorious conceit which rests on its adventitious condi- 
 tions and separates the soul from God. 
 
 We come now to Paul's statement of our relation to 
 this self -centered world. This is suggested in two words 
 the first of which is "Conformity." 
 
 To be conformed to this world is simply to fall in 
 with its way of thinking and doing. It is to be " taken 
 up in the lips of talkers " and to " run with the multitude 
 to do evil." It is to adjust one's self to public opinion 
 with a \'iew less to duty than to expediency; like the 
 royal chaplain who held office under four reigns and so 
 veered with the vicissitudes of politics that he could 
 boast: 
 
 And this is right, I will maintain, 
 
 Whatever men may say, sir. 
 That whatsoever king may reign. 
 
 Still I'll be Vicar of Bray, sir. 
 
 The Non-conformist on the other hand is one who 
 does his own thinking, subject only to divine authority. 
 He is "in the world but not of it." He regards himself 
 not as a citizen of this world but as a pilgrim and sojourn- 
 er, hke Abraham who dwelt in tents, "looking for a 
 better country even an heavenly and for a city that hath 
 foundations whose builder and maker is God." 
 
 But the word which Paul uses as the antithesis of 
 
NON-CONFORMITY. 121 
 
 conformity is not non-conformity but "Transforma- 
 tion," literally, 31 etamor pilosis. 
 
 We shall understand this word best by observing 
 that it is the very one used in connection with the trans- 
 figuration of Christ. In our case the process is radical 
 and revolutionary, being identical with that of which 
 Jesus said, " Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man 
 be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 But how is this vital change effected ? Paul says it 
 is by " the renewing of your mind. " The word " Mind " 
 is here used comprehensively, to indicate our whole 
 moral nature, as when we say, " What is your mind ? " 
 meaning what is your disposition or inclination toward 
 any particular thing. 
 
 It involves the intellect, in the necessity of the case; 
 since, as Paul elsewhere says, " The natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness unto 
 him, and he cannot know them, because they are spirit- 
 ually discerned." The unrenewed man is blind to any 
 just consideration of God or of life and immortality or 
 of moral responsibility or of any other of the great 
 verities of the spiritual life. 
 
 This change involves the conscience also. The con- 
 science of an unrenewed man is like the deflected needle 
 of a compass ; being so perverted by sinful habit, that it 
 no longer performs its normal function but confuses " the 
 worse and better reason "; wherefore it is not enough to 
 say of any one that he is a conscientious man, unless we 
 
122 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 have reason to believe that his conscience has been recti- 
 fied and adjusted to the mind of God 
 
 A good deal is being said, particularly in England, 
 about " the Nonconformist Conscience "; a phrase coined 
 in derision, but full of noble meaning. The conformist 
 conscience is one that consults expediency, falls in with 
 fashion, explains away duty and coquets with sin. The 
 nonconformist conscience is properly one that adheres 
 to the right regardless of consequences. It is a Puritan 
 conscience; it is a scrupulous conscience; it is con- 
 science with a fine edge. It hates sin, abhors and loathes 
 it. Its principle is not outward avoidance but inward 
 aversion. It shuns casuistry and courts obedience. 
 The three youths in Babylon spoke as nonconformists 
 when, despite the royal edict, they said, "Be it known 
 unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods nor 
 worship the golden image which thou hast set up!" 
 
 The contrast between the conformist and non-con- 
 formist may be observed in the relative attitudes of 
 Abraham and his nephew Lot toward the sinful life of 
 Sodom. When the king of that accursed city offered to 
 share the loot of battle with Abraham, he received this 
 answer, " I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the 
 possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from 
 a thread even to a shoe lachet of anything that is thine." 
 But Lot, when he separated from Abraham, "journeyed 
 toward the East, and pitched his tent toward Sodom"; 
 he drew a little nearer, from time to time, until passing 
 through the gates he became a citizen; and, though " his 
 
NON-CONFORMITY. 123 
 
 righteous soul was vexed," he dwelt there prosperously 
 until he managed to escape, "yet so as by fire." 
 
 The man who is really "transformed by the renewing 
 of his mind," has an ever-increasing love for truth and 
 duty. He esteems righteousness for its own sake and 
 hates sin because it is essentially hateful. His Hfe is a 
 protest against whatsoever worketh abomination or 
 maketh a lie; and the legend on his shield is, "Touch 
 not, taste not, handle not!" 
 
 The result of this vital change is thus indicated, 
 "That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable 
 and perfect will of God." The pivotal word here is 
 "Prove"; that is, certify or know to a certainty. 
 
 The secret of the higher life is to know the divine pur- 
 pose concerning us and to adjust ourselves to it. All our 
 mistakes are due to the fact that we are at cross pur- 
 poses with God. In the making of a temple it is impor- 
 tant that the architect and the builder should understand 
 each other and work harmoniously, else the result will 
 be an anomalous structure. The word for character- 
 building in the Scriptures is "edification," literally, 
 "temple building." God is the architect of the temple, 
 we the builders. It is necessary to success, therefore, 
 that we should know " what is that good and acceptable 
 and perfect will of God." 
 
 And this can only be done by coming into vital touch 
 with God. In the account of the transfiguration of Jesus 
 it is written, " As He prayed, the fashion of His counte- 
 nance was altered." Prayer is communion with God. 
 
124 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 The moment a man really touches God in this manner he 
 is thrilled through and through with the divine spark 
 and the renewing of his mind is an accomplished fact. 
 Prayer is through Christ. In other words, the point of 
 contact is acceptance of Christ; as He said, "No man 
 cometh unto the Father but by me.'* 
 
 But what is our personal relation to this matter? 
 God is the author of the new life, yet everything depends 
 on us; else how could the apostle have said, " I beseech 
 you, brethren ?" In the current philosophy of our time 
 a great deal is said of heredity and environment as the 
 important factors of character; but there is a third fac- 
 tor, more important than either; to wit, volition. Let 
 a man say from his inmost heart, " I will, " and he makes 
 himself master of both heredity and environment. The 
 root of the whole matter is choice, and that rests in our 
 sovereign wills. We are all alike victims of heredity and 
 creatures of circumstance; in this respect there is little 
 or no difference among us. But let a man hear and see 
 God in Christ, as Paul did on the way down to Damas- 
 cus, and answer, " What wilt Thou have me to do ? " and 
 he can defy all his forebears and prove himself superior 
 to all adverse conditions. God is the Arbiter of human 
 fortune, but He perpetually stands sponsor for the man 
 who stands with Him. 
 
 The duty of nonconformity as here set forth rests 
 upon all sorts and conditions of men. Let no one delude 
 himself with the idea that by avoiding an open con- 
 fession of Christ he avoids in any measure the stern 
 
NON-CONFORMITY. 1^5 
 
 requirements of duty. Nevertheless, the special appeal 
 is to those who have entered into covenant with Christ. 
 They are set apart as " a peculiar people. " " Come out 
 from the world and be ye separate, saith the Lord." 
 The issue is clearly made between " the fashion of this 
 world " and " that good and acceptable and perfect will 
 of God." 
 
 We who have named the name of Christ are to be in 
 the world but not of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. 
 " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which 
 are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. " 
 
 We gain nothing by adjusting ourselves to the world's 
 way of thinking and doing things. He is an incompetent 
 writing-master who sets a poor copy before a stupid 
 pupil in order to please him. The important matter is 
 to live Hke Enoch who "had this testimony, that he 
 pleased God." We are compassed about by witnesses 
 who take knowledge of Christ as they observe His graces 
 in us. "Wherefore, I beseech you, brethren, by the 
 mercies of God, that ye present yourselves a living sacri- 
 fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reason- 
 able service. And be not conformed to this world; but 
 be ye transfigured by the renewing of your moral nature, 
 that ye may certify unto yourselves and unto the world 
 what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of 
 God." 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 
 
 THE STATURE OF A MAN. 
 
 "And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evan- 
 gelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, 
 unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 
 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
 of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ." Ephesians 4: 11-13 (R. V.). 
 
 It is said that when Eve went out of the Garden 
 of Eden she took with her two jflowers, Memory and 
 Hope, as mementoes of her lost happiness. One of the 
 proofs of our superiority to the lower orders of creation 
 is the fact that we are dimly sensible of something 
 that has passed out of our lives. Plato spoke of this 
 as *'the rustling of the wings of a preexistent state." 
 It was interpreted by Wordsworth in his Intimations 
 of Immortality in the same manner: 
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
 
 The soul that rises with us, our life's star. 
 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting 
 
 And Cometh from afar. 
 
 Not in entire forgetfulness. 
 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 
 From God, who is our home. 
 
 But this vague reminiscence within us need not be 
 accounted for by unfounded speculations as to a pre- 
 
 (126) 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 127 
 
 existent state; it is simply the indwelling sense of a 
 lost inheritance, lost here and now. And we shall 
 spend our time most profitably, not in looking back- 
 ward, even so far as this Paradise Lost, but in looking 
 forward to a Paradise Regained through Christ, in 
 the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 
 The flower to wear upon our hearts is not memory 
 but hope. We are chiefly concerned not with what we 
 have been but with what we may be. The longings 
 and aspirations that arise within us are not the "rust- 
 ling of the wings" of a phoenix that lives again only 
 in fable, but rather of the wings of an eagle, on which 
 lie earnest soul mounts up to renew its youth in fellow- 
 ship with God (Is. 40: 31). 
 
 Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings. 
 Thy better portion trace; 
 Rise from transitory things 
 Toward heaven, thy native place! 
 
 What is it we want.^ We are not reaching forth 
 after the unattainable. We are not as " children cry- 
 ing in the night, and with no language but a cry." We 
 want what we have lost. We were created in the 
 likeness of God and sin has robbed us of our birthright. 
 We want our forfeited inheritance. We want God- 
 likeness again. We want character. Blessed aspira- 
 tions these! We are weary of our minority and want 
 the fulness of our normal stature. We want to be 
 "fuUgrown men." 
 
 I. To this end we must have an Ideal of Manhood. 
 
128 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 We have indeed an intuitive sense of the three quali- 
 ties that com}>ine to make it. 
 
 Firsty the Fullgrown Man must he a Moralist. 
 
 This means more than that he should discourse on 
 morals; anybody can do that. Socrates had much to 
 say about personal purity while he was dancing attend- 
 ance on Aspasia, the courtesan. A true man will 
 exemplify his profession. He must " bring the bottom 
 of his life up to the top of his light." In other words he 
 must keep himself free from sin. A mere cleansing of 
 the outside of the platter will not answer: There must 
 be "no fault in him at all." 
 
 Second, he must be a Philanthropist. 
 
 An Anchorite, striving for self-mastery, and self- 
 culture alone, will not fill the bill. He must be forgetful 
 of self in his love for his fellow men. For 
 
 Unless he can erect himself above himself 
 How poor a thing is man! 
 
 He must take note of the suffering multitude and hear 
 and answer its cry for help. He must, in a spirit of 
 self-abnegation, " do good as he has opportunity unto all 
 men." 
 
 Third, he must he a Theist. 
 
 This is not merely to repeat the creed, " I believe in 
 God the Father Almighty"; but to "practise the 
 presence of God." It is so to apprehend God that He 
 shall touch our life at every point in its circumference; 
 it is to be constantly in vital touch with Him. 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 129 
 
 II, But we must go further than this; an Ideal is 
 more than an Idea. 
 
 The latter is a mental image; the former is that 
 image made objective and visible. It is the ideal and 
 not the idea that serves for practical uses. 
 
 They are making statuary by machinery in these 
 days; but the machine can only copy. It can take an 
 original and make any number of replicas. We too 
 can make a replica of Manhood if we have a model. 
 But where shall we find it ? 
 
 Here begins the noble quest. Where is the full- 
 grown man? Not certainly in the crowd about us. 
 The best we ever knew was not immaculate. There 
 is none that doeth good, no, not one! "For there is no 
 difference; for all have sinned and come short of the 
 glory of God." 
 
 In history, then ? Call the roll and let the worthies 
 answer for themselves. Greatness is not goodness. It 
 is written of Csesar, 
 
 His life was gentle; and the elements 
 
 So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up 
 
 And say to all the world, This was a man! 
 
 Yet Csesar, as " all the world " knows, was notoriously 
 lacking in all the three qualities which constitute char- 
 acter. Whatever else he had, these "elements" were 
 not " mixed in him." 
 
 Shall we then turn to the Philosophers? Plato 
 framed an ideal and called it Dikaios, the Just One. It 
 was as cold as a marble image. Proud, self-poised. 
 
130 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 indifferent alike to good and evil, the Just One had no 
 warm blood stirring at his heart, but sat in godlike re- 
 pose above the fret and worry of common life. 
 
 Aristotle also painted an Ideal, called Megalopsuchos, 
 the High-minded One; in whom were combined all 
 gracious qualities of mind and conscience, as he con- 
 ceived them, with a heart " shriveled to the dimensions 
 of a betel nut." 
 
 Seneca was scarcely more successful. His Ideal, 
 Sophos, the Wise One, was a pompous abstraction, at 
 once ambitious and sterile; intrepid in danger, free 
 from passion, happy in adversity, calm in storm; was 
 master of the world only because he was master of 
 himself and equal with God. Well might Bossuet ex- 
 claim as he read of these chimerical perfections, "O 
 maxims truly pompous! O affected insensibility! O 
 false and imaginary wisdom, which fancies itself strong 
 because it is hard, and generous because is it puffed 
 up!" 
 
 III. Shall we then abandon our quest ? No, we turn 
 to the pages of an Old Book and cry. Eureka! We have 
 found here the Ideal Man. 
 
 This book is divided into two volumes. At the 
 opening of the first, the Old Testament, we come upon 
 the mention of one called "The Seed of Woman," who 
 is destined to extirpate evil and establish righteousness 
 on earth. As the narrative proceeds we find Him every- 
 where, and always as the Perfect One. All virtues, 
 negative and positive, meet in Him. The dim, vague 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 131 
 
 Figure marches on, through chronicle and prophecy, 
 making war on the serpent and his brood and leading 
 forward to the Golden Age. Here are other worthies, 
 Abraham and Moses and David and Solomon, a mighty 
 procession ; but listen at their closed doors and you will 
 ever hear the cry, "Have mercy, for I have sinned!" 
 But there is no joint in the harness of the Perfect One. 
 And back of all the dramatis personse, this "Seed of 
 Woman," like Choragos in the Greek drama, speaks 
 ever, as he nears the appointed time, " Coming ! Com- 
 ingi" 
 
 We open the other volume, and, behold, He is here ! 
 His advent as a living man of flesh and blood is heralded 
 by angels singing, " Glory to God in the highest ! Peace 
 on earth, good will to men ! " What shall He be named ? 
 "Son of man." The Seed of Woman, indeed; but Son 
 of man because He is destined to stand henceforth as the 
 historic Ideal of Manhood, the Representative Man. 
 
 But does He meet the condition of our Ideal ? Ab- 
 solutely. Let us see: 
 
 FirsU He is a Moralist: He speaks of righteousness 
 and in Himself illustrates it. The air about Him is full 
 of the miasm of sin; it blows hot with human passion 
 as the winds that sweep the Arabian desert. But He 
 inhales no miasm, and the sirocco does not scorch His 
 naked breast. 
 
 The manHest of attributes is purity, whiteness of 
 soul. The Romans had but one word, "virtus," to ex- 
 press chastity and courage. Kn impure man is as much 
 
182 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 a coward as one who runs in battle. Therefore it is 
 written (I Pet. 2:11), "Dearly beloved, abstain from 
 fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," that is, 
 against our higher and nobler part. And again, (Titus 
 2:15), "Let no man despise thee." There is nothing 
 so despicable in human nature as the taint of sin. And, 
 alas! we are all tainted. The divine Word sets before 
 us a high standard of character, which, with our best 
 endeavor, we cannot reach. lago asks, 
 
 Who has a breast so pure 
 
 But some uncleanly apprehensions 
 
 Keep leets and law-days? 
 
 And the Nurse protests to Juliet, 
 
 There's no trust 
 
 No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured. 
 
 All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. 
 
 But, however we may contemn ourselves and our 
 fellows, here is One perfect in every lineament; clear- 
 eyed, open-browed, the temple of a soul unsoiled. There 
 is no flaw in the picture. It sets forth virtue as the 
 chief est thing; not a pharisaic virtue, not a mere ex- 
 ternal cleansing, but purity through and through, puri- 
 ty of heart shining forth in a blameless life. 
 
 Hear His challenge : " Who layeth anything to my 
 charge?" Is there any answer? Let Judas speak: 
 "I have betrayed innocent blood!" Let Pilate speak, 
 who sat in judgment on Him: "Behold the man! I 
 find no fault in him at all." Let the centurion speak. 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 133 
 
 who had charge of His execution: "Verily, this was a 
 righteous man." 
 
 A volume might be filled with the testimony of 
 modern infidels to the same purport. " Christ unites in 
 Himself," writes Theodore Parker, "the sublimest pre- 
 cepts and divinest practices, thus more than realizing 
 the dream of prophets and sages ; He rises free from all 
 prejudice and gives full range to the Spirit of God in His 
 breast; He sets aside the forms of law, puts aside its 
 rabbis ; and pours out a doctrine beautiful as the light, 
 sublime as heaven, and true as God. " 
 
 Second, Jesus was a Philanthropist 
 
 He was ever thinking of others. His self-forgetfulness 
 was perfect. In His life of kindness He never forgot but 
 one person on earth ; to wit, Jesus of Nazareth. In Him 
 alone of mortal men. 
 
 Love took up the harp of life 
 
 And smote on all its chords with might. 
 
 Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling. 
 Passed in music out of sight. 
 
 His biography is written in this brief monograph : " He 
 went about doing good." He healed the sick, com- 
 forted the sorrowing, opened His arms to the little 
 people, championed the oppressed, pointed the sinner 
 to salvation and did good as He had opportunity unto 
 all men. He was just to the unjust, and courteous to 
 those who despitef ully used Him. 
 
 The best of men that e 'er wore earth about Him. 
 
134 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Was a sufferer, a calm, meek, patient, loving spirit. 
 The first true Gentleman that ever breathed. 
 
 No other man ever knew so much about God, or so 
 constantly "practised the presence of God." His 
 relation to His Father was so vital and Their com- 
 munion so uninterrupted that Jesus could say, "I and 
 my Father are one." His will was In perfect harmony 
 with His Father's. The glory of the Father was the all- 
 absorbing purpose of the Son (John 17: 4); so that for 
 Him to live was God living in Him. 
 
 In Kenan's "Life of Jesus" occur these striking 
 words, "Jesus had no visions; God did not speak to 
 Him from without; God was in Him and He was with 
 God. He lived in the divine bosom by uninterrupted 
 converse. He understood God without the need of 
 thunder and burning bush. He believed Himself to be 
 in direct communion with God; He believed Himself 
 the veritable Son of God. The highest consciousness of 
 Deity that ever existed in the breast of humanity was 
 that of Jesus Christ." 
 
 IV. If these things are so, the Imitation of Jesus 
 should be the supreme business of every one who de- 
 sires to attain unto the stature of a FuUgrown Man. 
 
 Here is the secret of a wholly virtuous life. It begins 
 with faith in Jesus as a prerequisite to the forgiveness 
 of sins. The soul, thus freed from its frightful handicap 
 of overhanging doom, is set at liberty to pursue the path 
 of righteousness. All the rest is "looking unto Jesus" 
 and following in His steps. 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI. 135 
 
 A true Christian keeps his eyes fixed on Christ as 
 his Ideal of Character, and earnestly strives to be like 
 Him, 
 
 To this end he must, before he is through with it, 
 acquire a virtue which is, as Chalmers says, "not 
 abstinence from outward deeds of profligacy alone, 
 not a mere recoil from impurity in the thought; but a 
 quick and sensitive delicacy to which the very concep- 
 tion of evil is offensive ; a virtue which has its residence 
 within, taking guardianship of the heart as of a citadel 
 or inviolate sanctuary, in which no wrong or worthless 
 imagination is permitted to dwell; not purity of action 
 simply, but an exalted purity of heart — the ethereal 
 purity of the third heaven, which, if it be once settled 
 in the heart, brings the untroubled serenity of heaven 
 along with it." 
 
 The true Christian seeks also to copy the Philan- 
 thropy of Jesus. 
 
 He recognizes the fact that he lives not to himself 
 alone but sustains a relation of responsibility to his 
 fellow men. He repudiates the selfish philosophy of 
 Cain which asks, "Am I my brother's keeper .?" He 
 has eyes to see, a heart to pity and hands to help those 
 who have been overcome with the heat and burden of 
 the day, or who, falling among thieves, have been 
 stripped and robbed and left for dead along the Bloody 
 Way. 
 
 At this point the Scriptural idea of manhood is seen 
 to be incomparably above that of the philosophers. 
 
136 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Plato's "Just one" and Aristotle's "High-minded one" 
 and Seneca's " Wise one " were all alike in making self- 
 culture the chief end of life; but the perfect Man of 
 the Scriptures has a virtue which spends itself for 
 others. Never were truer words than those of Spen- 
 ser's Shepherd, 
 
 Good is no good but if it be spend; 
 God giveth good for none other end. 
 
 This sort of manhood has a vital place in the definition 
 of true religion; which is "to visit the fatherless and 
 widows in their affliction," as well as "to keep oneself 
 unspotted from the world." 
 
 The first of prudential maxims is, "Work out your 
 own salvation"; and the second is like unto it, because 
 it makes one's own salvation sweeter and more glorious, 
 " Go ye out into the highways and hedges and compel 
 them to come in." Indeed only thus can a man work 
 out his own salvation. The higher life may begin with 
 a prudential impulse; but the first heavenward step is 
 over the threshold of self, and all the rest of the journey 
 is between couches of the sick and the outstretched 
 hands of beggars. A man who, keeping himself pure 
 and honest and outwardly irreproachable, is Hving to 
 get rich or to enjoy himself, may be a very respectable 
 pagan, but the East is not further from the West than 
 he from the Christian standard of character. He is of 
 no account in the great brotherhood. He is a wild 
 olive in a trackless desert, whereas he should be as a 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI 137 
 
 fruit-laden tree by the roadside, satisfying the hunger 
 of wayfaring men. 
 
 But the crowning grace of the Perfect One is De- 
 votion to God. 
 
 This, as Saint Bernard said, is janitor animae, the 
 soul's keeper. No Abou ben Adhem, compassionate 
 toward his fellows while oblivious of the Most High, can 
 meet the requirement. God must be writ large in the 
 story of this Fullgrown Man. God must be the focal 
 point of all his energies. God must occupy in his 
 experience the place which the law of attraction holds 
 in the visible universe, holding every thought and 
 purpose in its appointed place. He must believe that 
 God is and that He is the rewarder of all them that 
 diligently seek Him. His face must shine with a con- 
 stant glory of communion, like the face of Moses when 
 he came from his interview with God. 
 
 Is it possible to attain to this ideal ? Aye ! In "the 
 unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of 
 God," we shall come unto "a fullgrown man, unto the 
 measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
 
 What ? Here and now ? O no ! Eternity is before 
 us The present life is one of earnest striving, with all 
 the forces of heredity and environment against us. The 
 striving begins when a man, placing his hand in Christ's, 
 takes Him as Saviour and Friend. At death the handi- 
 cap of sin is removed, like fetters from a prisoner coming 
 forth into freedom. This is the final Enabling Act. 
 After that, eternity is ours for growth and development. 
 
138 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 "We all with open face beholding, as in aglass, the glory 
 of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory 
 to glory as by the Spirit of God " (II Cor. 3: 18). Who 
 shall paint the outlook ? " Now are we the sons of God 
 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." But 
 Christ, the Ideal, will still and forever beckon us on to 
 higher and better things. "We know that when He 
 shall appear we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him, 
 as He is." 
 
 This is "the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," 
 the stimulating call of the King, standing at the golden 
 milestone with wreath in hand, to the speeding athletes. 
 It is a call to promotion, endless honor and continuance 
 in growth toward perfection. Brethren, our names 
 are listed in the Stadium ; " Wherefore, let us lay aside 
 every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us 
 and let us run with patience the race that is set before 
 us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our 
 faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured 
 the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the 
 right hand of the throne of God." 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. 
 
 THE SHINING FACE. 
 
 "And His face did shine as the sun." Matthew 17: 2. 
 
 "And Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with 
 Him." Exodus 34: 29. 
 
 "And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face 
 as it had been the face of an angel." Acts 6: 15. 
 
 All will agree that there is something in physiog- 
 nomy, but probably not so much as many discover in 
 it. By an act of Parliament under the reign of George 
 II, all persons "fayning to have knowledge of physi- 
 ognomic" were sentenced, as rogues and vagabonds, 
 to be whipped at the cart's tail. This was because the 
 practice had become shamefully allied with wizardry 
 and superstition. It is a matter of fact and beyond 
 denial that good and evil stamp themselves on the 
 countenance. AppHcants for admission to the school 
 of Pythagoras were passed upon, pro and contra, by 
 the testimony of their features as they walked before 
 him. The sad face, the morose face, the sensuous 
 face, the avaricious face, the weak face and the strong 
 one, the "face Hke an open book," the "face that lights 
 up," the face " like a benediction " and the face of which 
 Bulwer speaks, "like a letter of recommendation" — 
 all these are familiar to us. Shakespeare makes men- 
 tion of a "February face, so full of frost and cloudi- 
 
 (139) 
 
140 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ness and storm." The variety is as limitless as the 
 leaves in Vallombrosa; and this because there are 
 "many men of many minds," and the coimtenance is a 
 revelation of the soul behind it. 
 
 If it be true that the features are thus impressed 
 by the indwelling soul, we should expect to find an 
 outward mark of the change which takes place within 
 a man who returns from sin to God. If there be any 
 force in analogy, his should be a singularly luminous 
 face. And this is the particular fact to which our at- 
 tention is now directed. The glow of this supernatural 
 light is seen at its highest and best in Christ as the 
 Ideal Man. In vain have artists from time imme- 
 morial striven to paint it. We have no reason to sup- 
 pose that He was distinguished above His fellows by 
 any conventional beauty of feature. On the other 
 hand, it was said, "He hath no form nor comeliness; 
 and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we 
 should desire Him. " It can scarcely be thought that One 
 who bore in His bosom the passion of redemption 
 should not have betrayed His inward sorrow. "His 
 face was so marred more than any man's "; yet He was 
 "chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely," 
 because there was the shining of the inward light " like 
 porcelain with a light behind it." 
 
 The angels are represented as having the same re- 
 splendent features. Lowell speaks of the seraph 
 
 All radiant with the glory and the calm 
 Of haying looked upon the front of God; 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. 141 
 
 and Dante of one whose face was '' as a fine ruby smit- 
 ten by the sun." 
 
 In Uke manner great masters have represented the 
 saints with a halo or nimbus about their heads. This 
 is merely an expedient to represent what pigments 
 could not show, the glory shining outward from the 
 soul. 
 
 But why should we go to angels or saints to find it ? 
 I have seen this radiance on the face of a patient suf- 
 ferer in the hospital, a face eloquent of pain but of a di- 
 vine resignation and content behind and beyond it. 
 You can, perhaps, remember the strange supernatural 
 light as it shone on the face of your mother, telling of 
 "the peace that passeth understanding" dwelling in 
 her heart. The wounded soldiers of the Crimea saw 
 it in the face of Florence Nightingale, "the Lady of 
 the Lamp," as she passed among them on her minis- 
 try of mercy. It has been called "The solar look in 
 the face of man." 
 
 At its very highest we find it, precisely as we should 
 expect, in Jesus at His transfiguration, the supreme 
 moment in His earthly life. 
 
 In this connection Joseph Cook asks, "What if the 
 cloud which appeared as the Transfiguration was some 
 revelation to the human sense of that ether which 
 Richter calls ' the home of souls ? ' What if the trans- 
 figuring light was but a revelation of the capacities of 
 the spiritual being, enswathed within the flesh as light 
 is enswathed within the fleecy tabernacle of the trans- 
 
142 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 lucent clouds in the noon yonder above our heads ? 
 Mysterious, you say? But after all we must adhere 
 to the principle that every change must have an ade- 
 quate cause. As Dante says, there is smoke on earth; 
 the solar light in the human body is dim here; but what 
 is this flame, when at its best ? The light of the fire 
 that shines in the eyes of a good man or woman, how 
 bright would it be if their goodness could be enlarged 
 to the measure of that of the Soul that never sinned ? 
 How would it illuminate then the whole frame ? Is 
 there unity of kind between the light that we call the 
 solar look in scientific parlance, and the radiance that 
 filled Stephen's face, or that of Moses? A spiritual 
 force was concerned in the two cases, and its powers 
 are yet unchanged. Was not the same force concerned 
 in the Transfiguration also ? We have but the twilight, 
 a dim scintillation of this radiance. But we know that 
 what little we have comes from the innermost holiest. 
 Raphael studied the Transfiguration, and his painted 
 conception of it was borne aloft above his funeral 
 bier. Are we not in the advances of science obtaining 
 some views of it which his canvas cannot show us ? " 
 So then there is such a thing as the Christian face. 
 If the religion of Christ is truth, if it actually dwells 
 in the heart with transforming power, then as a scien- 
 tific fact the countenance should show it; and it does 
 so precisely in the measure in which the great uplifting 
 truths are so entertained as to dominate us. To that 
 degree and to that only the face "lights up." 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. 143 
 
 I. The Solar Look is an expression of the Beauty 
 of Holiness. 
 
 It comes from communion with God; holiness be- 
 ing a brief statement of the sum total of the divine at- 
 tributes. In Isaiah's vision he "saw the Lord sitting 
 upon a throne high and lifted up "; above Him were the 
 seraphim crying, one to another, "Holy, holy, holy is 
 the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" 
 Whereupon he cried, "Woe is me, for I am undone; 
 because I am a man of unclean Ups, and I dwell in 
 the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes 
 have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Then one of 
 the seraphim came from the altar and touched his 
 lips with a hve coal, saying, "Thine iniquity is taken 
 away and thy sin is purged"; whereupon Isaiah took 
 on the shining face as one whose life had come into 
 vital touch with God. 
 
 In the life of Jesus there was no moment when He 
 and the Father were not in close communion ; but that 
 intimacy reached its culmination in the hour of His 
 transfiguration, when His garments, fluttering aside, 
 disclosed the purple of the King, and a Voice was 
 heard saying, "This is My beloved Son." It was then 
 that His face so reflected the divine glory that His 
 biographer says, "It did shine as the sun.' 
 
 The climacteric period in the life of Moses was 
 when he went into Sinai and abode there forty days 
 in communion with God. Forty years had he been 
 in the desert of Midian feeding the flocks of Jethro, 
 
144 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 his father-in-law, and not once had his face caught 
 that shining look. He was there unmindful of his 
 larger tasks, and obHvious of his people in bondage. 
 The stolid look dwelt upon him until the day when he 
 saw the acacia bush aflame and heard God speaking 
 out of the midst of it, " I-Am-That-I-Am hath sent 
 you ! " And now in the mountain he meets the Infinite 
 face to face and speaks with Him. Is it strange that 
 his face shines, or that, descending from the mountain, 
 he must needs put a veil upon his face ere the people 
 can speak with him ? 
 
 The life of Stephen reached its zenith when he 
 stood before the Sanhedrin to defend his faith; at 
 the moment when, carried away by his devotion to 
 Christ, and forgetful of peril, he exclaimed, "Ye have 
 betrayed and murdered the Just One! Ye have re- 
 ceived the law by the disposition of angels and have 
 not kept it!" It is written that "then, being full of the 
 Holy Ghost, he looked steadfastly into heaven and saw 
 the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand 
 of God." At this juncture all who sat in the council, 
 looking steadfastly on him, "saw his face as it had 
 been the face of an angel." His eyes were open; he 
 was facing God. 
 
 II. The shining face is a manifestation of the in- 
 dwelling Ethical Imperative. It reveals the sense of 
 right doing, a conscience at peace with itself and with 
 God. 
 
 The supernatural light on the face of Jesus was 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. 145 
 
 kindled in the hour of His transfiguration because the 
 burden of His great sacrifice was then laid, finally and 
 most heavily, upon His willing heart. He had, indeed, 
 carried it all along, not without the natural shrinking 
 of the flesh; but here He bowed Himself in a supreme 
 act of acquiescence. The theme of conversation in that 
 hour was " His decease which He should accomplish at 
 Jerusalem." The chill shadow of the cross had long 
 enfolded Him ; out of that shadow He now passed into 
 "the most excellent glory"; and duty, more than ever, 
 was "the joy set before Him." 
 
 So the forty days of Moses in Sinai were days of 
 surrender: "Thou hast laid the burden of all this 
 people upon me! Thou hast said unto me. Carry them 
 in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking 
 child, unto the land which thou swearest unto their 
 fathers. I am not able to bear all this burden alone, 
 because it is too heavy for me." The man who in the 
 desert of Midian had forgotten his enslaved people 
 while following the routine of a shepherd's tasks, was 
 now prepared for the great work which God had pre- 
 pared for him. Then the light fell upon his face; so 
 that the people stood in awe as they beheld him. 
 
 In like manner the defense of Stephen marked his 
 final subjugation to the divine behest. The pains of 
 death no longer gat hold upon him, because he "saw 
 the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." 
 The noble army of martyrs passing through a like ex- 
 perience have all reflected the celestial light. The leg- 
 
146 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 end of Polycarp, the venerable bishop of Smyrna, says 
 that as the fagots were kindled about him, the flames 
 were caught up into the form of a pavilion and, thus 
 enfolded, he " lifted his face shining like the face of an 
 angel " and sang, " Glory be to the Father, and to the 
 Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, 
 is now and ever shall be!" 
 
 If one desires to attain to the fullness of the spiritual 
 life he must reach out after this all-absorbing and con- 
 suming sense of duty. "There is only one form of 
 culture," says Joseph Cook, "that gives supremacy, 
 and that is the form which produces the solar look; 
 and the solar look comes only from the Light that 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world. It 
 may be incontrovertibly proved by the coolest induction 
 from fixed natural law, that the highest culture must 
 be that through which the solar look shines, and that 
 this look is possible only when there exists in the soul 
 glad self-surrender to the innermost holiest of con- 
 science. In that innermost holiest, Christianity finds a 
 personal Omnipresence. Culture should believe in the 
 law of the survivial of the fittest. Two lights conflict, — 
 the earthly and the solar. Your eyes filled with poetic 
 rapture, your loftiest attitudes of merely aesthetic or 
 intellectual culture, quail, other things being equal, 
 before the solar look. Here is a fact of science: a visible, 
 physical, haughty circumstance of yet unf athomed signifi- 
 cance; an unexplored remainder, on which what calls it- 
 self culture may do well to fasten prolonged attention." 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. 147 
 
 It is this before which Satan quailed in Milton's 
 vision : 
 
 .... "He dilated stood. 
 Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved; 
 His stature reached the sky, and on his crest 
 Sat Horror plumed. — The Eternal 
 Hung forth in heaven His golden scales, yet seen 
 Betwixt Astrsea and the Scorpion sign. — 
 The fiend looked up, and knew 
 His mounted scale aloft; nor more; but fled 
 Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night. 
 
 III. It remains to be said that the luminous look 
 is an expression of Commanding Influence. It is the 
 outward light of authority in the soul. 
 
 We find the supreme expression of this again, as 
 we should expect, in the transfigured Christ. He de- 
 scended from the mount with a new majesty in His 
 face, so that the disciples were afraid as they beheld 
 Him. 
 
 A like impression was made by Moses as he de- 
 scended from Sinai. The people perceived that the 
 divine seal had been placed upon him. At times they 
 had questioned his authority; they could never look 
 on him again in the same way. He bore the symbol of 
 power, as one who was thenceforth to be a vicegerent 
 of God. In recognition of this fact the sculptors, led 
 by Michael Angelo, have represented him with horns, 
 this being the conventional mode of setting forth the 
 power of God. 
 
148 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Stephen, too, came to his majority of influence 
 when he stood before the council, and, led thence to his 
 death beyond the gate, "lifted up to heaven his face as 
 it had been an angel's." There was one among his 
 persecutors who would never forget that look; a 
 young man holding the clothes of those who stoned 
 him. Saul of Tarsus was destined to see the face of 
 dying Stephen in his dreams. It followed him, lumin- 
 ous with peace and power, until, on the Damascus 
 highway, the glory of the Holiest fell upon him also, 
 and, looking up, he said, " Lord what wilt Thou have 
 me to do?" 
 
 The influence growing out of such an experience 
 is inevitable. We are commanded to let our light so 
 shine before men that they may see our good works 
 and glorify God. But, with or without that command, 
 the light of indwelling godliness must shine forth and 
 manifest itself as a beneficent influence among men. 
 
 This is an unconscious influence. Moses "wist not 
 that his face shone." It is well for a man to be silent 
 concerning the indwelling light. Pride is the death of 
 power. If you are really seeking the deepening of 
 your spiritual life, do not talk about it. The graces 
 of character are like the golden dust on a butterfly's 
 wing, which is blurred when you touch it. 
 
 And this influence is immortal. Death has no power 
 over it. The glow on the face of Jesus and Moses 
 and Stephen is forever. If one of the fixed stars were 
 to be extinguished, they say we should not know it. 
 
FROM GLORY TO GLORY. . 149 
 
 because the trail of light would linger for a thousand 
 years. More lasting is the power of a Christian life; it 
 never goes out. 
 
 One thing more; this light is prophetic. "For, be- 
 hold, I show you a mystery; we shall all be changed"; 
 changed into the Hkeness of Christ. "Now are we 
 sons of God and it doth no yet appear what we shall 
 be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall 
 be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." The 
 change begins at regeneration and continues under the 
 sanctifying influence of the Spirit until we come to the 
 fulness of the stature of a fullgrown man. 
 
 But how are we thus changed? By looking unto 
 Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. It was 
 a saying among the ancients that a man took on the 
 likeness of his favorite god. So it is written of idols, 
 "they that make them are like unto them." The truth 
 holds good as to the followers of Christ. He is our 
 Exemplar and we grow into His image as we follow 
 Him. To be in communion with Christ is to be in vital 
 touch with God. Here is the secret of sanctification ; 
 "We all with open face beholding, as in a mirror, the 
 glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, 
 from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 
 
 A PROFITABLE INVESTMENT. 
 
 "Unto every one that hath, shall be given, and he shall have abundance: 
 but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath." 
 Matthew 25; 29. 
 
 So ends the Parable of the Talents, in which is set 
 forth the importance of a Profitable Investment of the 
 Assets of Life. 
 
 The law as here laid down is colloquially expressed in 
 the familiar saying, "He that has, gets." It is the rule 
 of the snow-ball and the nest-egg. He, who having a 
 Kttle adds a little more and keeps on doing so, is in the 
 way of getting rich. He, who lacks at the end of the 
 month, lacks more at the end of the year and ultimately 
 lands in bankruptcy. 
 
 Know when to spend and when to spare. 
 
 And when to buy, and thou shalt ne'er be bare. 
 
 The small surplus is the seed of the harvest. There is a 
 
 proverb, " The destruction of the poor is their poverty "; 
 
 and another, "Money makes money.*' These are 
 
 simply paraphrases of the law referred to. Its abuse is 
 
 illustrated in Trusts and Combines. A group of those 
 
 who have capital " pool " it and crowd to the wall the 
 
 small factors who have little or none to speak of. The 
 
 law is a good one, nevertheless; and we shall gain 
 
 nothing by quarreling with it. 
 
 (150) 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 151 
 
 Let US suppose a case: You have two farms which 
 you rent out. One of the tenants is thrifty and industri- 
 ous, keeps everything in repair and tills his fields spleil- 
 didly. The other dawdles, falls behind and suffers his 
 fields to run to weeds. When the leases expire, what 
 will you do ^ You will, as a matter of course, turn over 
 the neglected farm to the other man. Now read again 
 the Parable of the Talents and you will find this is 
 precisely the Lord's way of dealing with us. 
 
 The rule prevails not merely in the market-place but 
 in every province of life. It holds in our mental experi- 
 ence ; thinking increases the power of thought. This is 
 what we mean when we speak of *' sharpening our wits." 
 And we grow spiritually in the same way. The making 
 of character is a simple sum in addition; it is adding 
 grace to grace, as Peter says, "Add to your faith, virtue; 
 and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temper- 
 ance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, 
 godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness and to 
 brotherly kindness, charity." 
 
 So we have here a brief expression of the whole phil- 
 osophy of life. Is life worth living ? That depends. If 
 it means simply a year in a mother's arms, another with 
 a doll or hobby horse, a few more with primer and 
 spelling book, then youth and laughter and castles in 
 the air, then the cares and responsibilities of social and 
 business life, " the whips and scorns of time," crow's feet 
 and wrinkles, the almond-tree blossoming, the grass- 
 hopper a burden, eyes dim, shoulders bowed, lights out, 
 
152 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 curtains down, crape on the door, a handful of dust — if 
 that be all, the game is not worth the candle. It is as 
 Shakespeare says, no better than "a tale told by an 
 idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 
 
 The importance of life is to be determined not by 
 what we can get out of it, but by what we put into it. 
 The question turns on three considerations; to wit, 
 assets, investments and profit. 
 
 As to the Assets of Life; that is, our "stock in trade." 
 All that we are and have must be properly utilized if we 
 are to live profitable lives. What is the inventory ? 
 
 First. The Body; a wonderful organism served 
 by the five physical senses; and adjusted with in- 
 finite care to all demands that can normally be made 
 upon it. 
 
 Second. The Mind ; a still more wonderful organism, 
 endowed with all faculties necessary to the acquisition 
 and communication of knowledge. All persons are not 
 equally equipped ; the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 
 uses a suggestive figure when he speaks of "many- 
 storied men." A one-story man is simply a fact col- 
 lector; the two-story man has a higher floor on which 
 he analyzes and collates his facts ; the three-story man 
 puts his facts into boxes and bundles and directs them 
 to their various uses : that is, he transmutes his know- 
 ledge into life and power. 
 
 Third. The Soul. This is the sky-parlor, where a 
 man gets light from above and "thinks God's thoughts 
 after Him." It is in the use of our spiritual faculties 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 153 
 
 that we commune with our Creator and solve the pro- 
 blems reaching out into the eternal life. 
 
 Fourth. Our Time. As to this there is no difference; 
 each of us has all there is of it. And the possession is 
 priceless. How easily the words tempus fugit fall from 
 a school-boy's lips; yet what tremendous issues are in- 
 volved in them. "Time flies"; flies like an eagle, like 
 an arrow, and it never returns. I watch the sands run 
 through an hour-glass and then reverse it. I can treat 
 an hour-glass but not an hour that way. A moment 
 gone is gone forever. By patient industry I may regain 
 lost wealth. By the use of proper remedies I may re- 
 cover lost health. By right living I may win back a lost 
 reputation. But time lost is lost forever. It behooves 
 us, therefore, to make the best possible use of it. 
 
 Fifth. Our Acquisitions : wealth, whether it be the 
 fortune of a millionaire or the widow's two mites; 
 knowledge, a most important part of our working 
 capital; or character, most important of all. Our 
 moral convictions go into the inventory. You believe 
 in God, that is an asset. You believe in immortality, 
 that is an asset. You believe in the Bible, that is an 
 asset. You believe in Christ, that also is an asset. Put 
 them all down in the inventory of your capital; which 
 must be used so as to realize as much as possible from it. 
 
 So much for the Assets ; now as to Investments. 
 
 What shall we do with our capital ? The word " in- 
 vestment," derived from investire, is full of suggestion. 
 It means literally " to cover with a garment. " We speak 
 
154 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 of investing a man with rank or office. If you invest him 
 with ermine, you make him a judge; if you invest him 
 with purple, you make him a king. To invest our capi- 
 tal is literally to make it mean something, or to give 
 character to it. We can invest it so that time becomes 
 money, knowledge becomes power and faith is trans- 
 formed into character. 
 
 There are three things that we can do with our 
 capital: 
 
 First. We can hoard it; that is, play the miser with 
 it. 
 
 In a rookery in Harlem an aged man was recently 
 found dead. His life had been spent in poverty and 
 rigid abstinence; yet, when his home was searched, 
 money was found in every nook and cranny, beneath his 
 mattress, under his hearth; bank-notes, bonds and 
 mortgages, gold and silver coin. But what better were 
 they than blank paper or iron pyrites ? He had been no 
 happier and the world no better for them. There lay 
 the old man, stark and cold. Open his stiff fingers ; his 
 hands are empty ; he has left all ! 
 
 Second. We may squander it, as spendthrifts do. 
 
 We may scatter our money right and left, "kill time" 
 and fritter away our mental acquisitions. Let us hear 
 a parable: A well-dressed youth, who had gone 
 through his fortune, entered an inn and made merry 
 with revelers all night. At the first gleam of the breaking 
 day he paid his reckoning, arose, called on his comrades 
 to follow. A musician played a waltz while he and his 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 155 
 
 companions danced down to the edge of a river that 
 flowed near by. He waded in, emptying his purse and 
 tossing its few remaining coins to his wondering friends. 
 They thought it a strange diversion, until he cried 
 "Good night!" and plunged beneath the water. He 
 was a fool, you say .? Aye; but not a whit more so than 
 any other who thus squanders life's capital. For that 
 day's folly is simply an apologue of every wasted life; 
 only we see the picture better for getting it into the focus 
 of a single day. 
 
 Third. We may put our capital out at interest. 
 
 At interest for whom ? That depends on the question 
 of ownership. To whom do we and our assets belong ? 
 To God, by a three-fold right; to wit, the right of 
 creation, the right of sustenance, and the right of pur- 
 chase. If it be true that God made us, then in the last 
 reduction of logic, He has a proprietary right in us, as 
 really as has the potter in the vessel which he makes up- 
 on his wheel. If it be true that in Him we live and move 
 and have our being, so that every breath we draw is the 
 gift of his bounty, then should our pulse be ever beating 
 the refrain of honesty, "Thine Lord, Thine!" If it be 
 true that when we were under the sentence of sin He 
 interposed to save us ; then must we consent that we are 
 "bought with a price, not silver and gold, but the 
 precious blood of Jesus, as of a lamb without blemish 
 and without spot." So it is obvious that the question of 
 investment is determined by the prior question of 
 ownership. Our body, mind and soul, our time and 
 
156 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 acquisitions, are not " ours " in fee simple but merely in 
 trust. We are stewards holding for wise investment the 
 capital thus committed to us. 
 
 Now as to Profit. Whose are the dividends ? 
 
 (1) Our own, to begin with. It is our prime duty to 
 make the most of ourselves. All that we have and are 
 must be so used as to turn to our own advantage in the 
 building up of character and usefulness : and this with 
 due recognition of the fact that all that we thus invest 
 belongs to God. When Peter said to Christ, " We have 
 left all to follow thee. We have invested our nets, our 
 fishing-boats, our booths by the lake-shore, our time 
 and meager wealth, everything, in this gospel enter- 
 prise; what shall we have in return ? " the answer was, 
 "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath 
 forsaken anything for the kingdom of God's sake who 
 shall not receive an hundred-fold in this present time 
 and in the world to come, everlasting life." If it were 
 true that death ends all, the profit accruing to a man 
 from the service of the gospel is, in this present time, 
 better than gold-bearing bonds : but if immortality is a 
 fact, then measure, if you can, the meaning of those 
 words " everlasting life ! " 
 
 (2) The profit of a wise investment accrues not only 
 to the investor but to his fellow men. There is no 
 pleasure like "the generous pleasure of kindly deeds." 
 The truest self-enrichment is in self -forgetfuln ess in 
 behalf of others. This is to live like the ideal Man of 
 Whom it is written, " He went about doing good." The 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 157 
 
 world is full of heart-aches and the air is vibrant with the 
 cry for help. It is the part of both prudence and wisdom 
 to lighten the burden and sweeten the lives of all. In one 
 of Sidney Smith's letters he says, " I have been making a 
 calculation : if I make one person happy every day for 
 ten years, I shall have made three thousand six hundred 
 and fifty happy ; that is, I shall have brightened a small 
 town by my contribution to the fund of general joy." 
 
 (3) But the supreme and ultimate glory of a wise 
 investment of ourselves and our possessions is God's; 
 and here we come to the highest summit of life. The 
 chief end of man is to glorify God. To leave Him out of 
 the reckoning is immeasurable folly. When the Earl of 
 Rochester had reached the end of his frivolous and un- 
 scrupulous life he said, " I would rather be lying here as 
 a blind beggar than to have lived as I have in the midst 
 of glorious possibilities and forgotten God." 
 
 It is of God's infinite condescension that we and our 
 fellow men are thus made to be sharers in the benefits of 
 a right investment of capital which belongs absolutely 
 and only to our Creator. The principle known as 
 "profit sharing" is illustrated in His administration as 
 nowhere else. In conversation with a friend last night, 
 I inquired as to a threatened strike in one of his factories. 
 He said : " O, that is all settled now. I had intended to 
 introduce the profit-sharing system into the factory, but 
 a week ago a delegation of workmen called upon me and 
 demanded an advance of wages. I said, * But suppose 
 the condition of the business does not warrant my grant- 
 
158 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ing your request?' They answered, *We can't help 
 that; we are looking out for our own interests, and if our 
 demand is not granted, we strike.' I said to them, ' Very 
 well; I was intending to take you into the corporation, 
 and my business is in such a state that it would have been 
 greatly to your advantage; but, gentlemen, you have 
 decided otherwise. You decline to consider my interests. 
 You are not to be taken into the partnership, but your 
 demand is granted, you shall have your ten cents a 
 day.'" It would be an unspeakable misfortune if a 
 similar attitude were to rule us out of the benefits which 
 God would fain confer upon us. To yield nothing to 
 Him is to gain little for ourselves in this present time 
 and to fall short of everlasting life. 
 
 Two words in conclusion. The beginning of a profit- 
 able life is in submitting ourselves to God. 
 
 We do this when we accede to the overtures which He 
 makes through His only begotten Son. An honest man, 
 recognizing the divine claim upon Him, will not hesitate 
 to make the surrender, saying, "Thee my new master 
 now I call, and consecrate to Thee my all." 
 
 And the end is judgment; for "the Lord of all ser- 
 vants Cometh and reckoneth with them." 
 
 The man who buries his talent in the earth will lose 
 it. The one who makes a wise investment will come 
 saying, " Lord, Thou deliveredst unto me five talents ; 
 behold, I have gained besides them five talents more"; 
 and the response will be," Well done, good and faithful 
 servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
 
THE LAW OF CAPITAL. 150 
 
 make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the 
 joy of thy Lord!" And that will be heaven. Does it 
 pay, then, to make a wise investment of the assets of 
 hfe ? Does it pay to take God into the reckoning ? Take 
 your place at the Assize and see. Hear the words, " Well 
 done!" See the opening of heaven's gates. "Enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord!" Great is the hundred- 
 fold of this present time; but nothing, nothing tb the 
 unspeakable delights of heaven. O, the life everlasting 
 God help us so to live that we may enter into it. 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 
 
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 
 
 "Thou shalt not steal." Exodus 20: 15. 
 
 Steal ? Of course not. Stealing is a vulgar vice. No 
 respectable person would think of indulging in it. We 
 look with unspeakable aversion on the light-fingered 
 or heavy-handed gentry who crowd our jails; foot- 
 pads, burglars, pick-pockets, highwaymen, sharpers, 
 shoplifters, forgers, sneak thieves. " God, I thank Thee 
 that I am not as these men are!" 
 
 But all the dishonest people are not in jail. We seem 
 to be passing through an epidemic of dishonesty just 
 now. The newspapers are full of it, dishonesty in high 
 places and in low places. There are rumors of " graft " 
 in our legislatures. A bank president of Milwaukee, 
 against whose character there was no breath of sus- 
 picion, has recently made away with two millions of 
 dollars. The insurance exposure with its astonishing 
 show of expenditures for fictitious services and French 
 banquets, suggests an indefinite possibility of doubts and 
 misgivings. "Ladies" in high circles are not above 
 swindling their confiding guests on the "green-baize 
 field." Tradesmen are accused of dealing in adulterated 
 foods and using false weights and measures. And " cash 
 
 (160) 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 161 
 
 registers" are no longer effective in preventing clerks 
 from tapping their employers' tills. Thus the social 
 fabric, if rumor can be credited, is honeycombed with 
 dishonesty. It is spoken of as an " epidemic " because 
 vices, like diseases, vary in their prevalence, and this 
 is the particular form of vice to which all classes seem 
 to be addicted just now. 
 
 How shall we account for it? 
 
 It is due in large measure, no doubt, to the common 
 haste to be rich. 
 
 These are prosperous times; money comes easily, 
 and men are tumbling over one another in their eager- 
 ness to secure it. The question of supreme moment is 
 how to get wealth without working for it. We no 
 longer celebrate the virtues of the village blacksmith: 
 
 His brow is wet with honest sweat. 
 
 He earns whate'er he can; 
 And he looks the whole world in the face 
 
 For he owes not any man. 
 
 The primal sentence, "In the sweat of thy face shalt 
 thou eat bread" has been supplanted by another, "Get 
 rich honestly, if you can ; but get rich quick. " The man 
 who would formerly have rolled up his shirt-sleeves at 
 the bench now wears diamonds in his cuff-links and 
 resorts to all manner of subterfuges in order to " get on." 
 
 Another of the contributing causes in as overweening 
 desire to ''keep up appearances." 
 
 The important consideration, in some quarters, is 
 not, "What is right?" but, "What will people say?" 
 
162 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 A man can not live a ten thousand dollar life on a 
 fifteen hundred dollar salary and do it honestly. It 
 means debt, to put the matter in its mildest terms; 
 and debt is dishonesty in every case where there is no 
 clear outlook to a settlement. Under such circumstances 
 borrowing and pocket-picking are interchangeable 
 terms ; and the question of comparative respectability is 
 inadmissible. It is related of Lamartine, the greatest of 
 spendthrifts, that when he had run through his vast 
 patrimony, his freinds drew up a subscription to pre- 
 vent his disgrace in bankruptcy. One of the sub- 
 scribers went to the fish market with a basket on his 
 arm and gazed long at a turbot, questioning whether 
 in view of the generous subscription he had just made for 
 the relief of Lamartine, he might venture to purchase a 
 slice of it. While he was deliberating thus, a dis- 
 tinguished looking man came in, glanced at the turbot, 
 and without a moment's hesitation ordered the whole 
 fish. The purchaser was Lamartine, who was living in 
 luxury at the expense of his friends. The humorous side 
 of the incident is entirely obliterated by the pathos of it. 
 One is reminded of what Douglas Jerrold said, "Re- 
 spectability is very well for those who can afford it; but 
 to run in debt in order to keep up appearances is enough 
 to break the heart of an angel." 
 
 The pervailing disregard of common honesty is 
 traceable also to the wearing off of the fine edge of moral 
 principle. 
 
 But what do we mean by " principle ? " The primi- 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 163 
 
 tive is principium, compounded of primum and capio, 
 which may be Hberally rendered " I take this as a postu- 
 late." A man's principles are the fundamental facts on 
 which he formulates his conduct. They must, there- 
 fore, be bottom facts. So when a man speaks of his 
 principles it is important to know where he gets them 
 from and how well grounded they are. 
 
 The underlying motive may be the sense of honor. 
 
 So far so good. The word of a gentleman should be 
 as trustworthy as his bond. 
 
 Who misses or who wins the prize. 
 Go, lose or conquer as you can; 
 
 But if you fall, or if you rise, 
 Be each, pray God, a gentleman. 
 
 But honor is a variable term, and the title of "gentle- 
 man " goes by fashion. It is a far cry from the Knight of 
 the Round Table who, wearing a red cross on his breast, 
 went forth upon a prancing steed to vindicate the right 
 and defend the helpless, to the degenerate homunculus of 
 these times who rides in an automobile purchased by the 
 sweat of his father's brow, with a sense of honor gauged 
 by a determination to pay his gambling debts though 
 he has to rob his tailor to do it. The principles which 
 are grounded on such " honor " can furnish but a poor 
 basis of life. 
 
 Or one's principles may be derived from expediency, 
 which is set down by certain of the philosophers as the 
 ultimate motive of conduct. 
 
164 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 But this also is a variable term, its meaning being 
 dependent on circumstances. It is true that "honesty 
 is the best policy"; but, as Whately observes, "He 
 who acts on that principle is not an honest man." 
 To behave one's self from no higher consideration 
 than because it pays, is a rule so flexible as to be quite 
 untrustworthy in the long run. An unscrupulous 
 commercial adventurer once said to John Bright, "I 
 would give a thousand pounds for your reputation for 
 honesty." To which Mr. Bright replied, "What would 
 you do with it if you had it?" The answer was, "I 
 would make ten thousand pounds out of it." 
 
 Or one may get his principles from the dictates of con- 
 science. 
 
 The great dramatist says," To thine own self be true, 
 and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not 
 then be false to any man." But the conclusion is a non 
 sequituTy since the individual conscience may be so 
 deflected by habit as to utterly confuse " the worse and 
 better reason." There is no security in being true to 
 one's self unless the man is himself a true man. The 
 worst crimes in history have been perpetrated by bond- 
 slaves of conscience, like Philip II; men who were 
 wholly "true to themselves," but whose perception of 
 right and wrong had been perverted by long continu- 
 ance in wrong lines of conduct and wrong ways of look- 
 ing at things. 
 
 It is obvious, then, that if we are to have any true 
 sanctions of honesty, we must get back further than such 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 165 
 
 personal considerations as honor, expediency or consci- 
 entiousness. We must have some final and permanent 
 authority back of all variable standards. 
 
 In my boyhood I came up the Mississippi River on a 
 boat which owing to the treacherous nature of the 
 channel, was obliged to tie up on dark nights. On one 
 occasion the cable was fastened to a snag, which drifted 
 from its position and left the boat stranded on a sand- 
 spit at break of day. In seeking for a reliable basis of 
 principle, we must find something that is not subject to 
 the vicissitudes of fashion, something that we can 
 safely "tie to." 
 
 In searching for this deeper basis we come upon the 
 sanctity of law. 
 
 And just here the time is apparently much out of 
 joint. On all sides there is a disposition to evade the 
 laws. Capitalists make no scruple of evading their 
 taxes; sportsmen evade the game laws; rumsellers 
 evade the excise laws; golfers and ball-players evade 
 the Sunday laws ; men and women of " the smart set " 
 strike hands with bookmakers at our racing parks 
 to evade the gambling laws ; tourists evade the revenue 
 laws; magistrates rebuke policemen for pulling dives 
 and the police are in undisguised collusion with profes- 
 sional law-breakers. The remedy lies in a due regard to 
 the sanctity of law for its own sake, not because this or 
 that particular statute is a good one, but because the 
 law as such is enacted by the powers that be, which are 
 ordained of God. 
 
166 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 And such a condition of public opinion will never be 
 reached until we get back to the binding force of the 
 original code. 
 
 By common consent the basis of the laws and juris- 
 prudence of Christendom is the Decalogue. So long 
 as the public mind is debauched by the insinuation 
 that the Ten Commandments have the sanction of 
 neither divine authority nor historicity, we need not 
 look for any better condition of things. 
 
 And, to that end, we must search still further and get 
 lower down for the real foundation of moral principle. 
 The sanctity of law itself rests on the sanctity of divine 
 truth. 
 
 There is a vital connection between creed and con- 
 duct. A grocer who does not believe, as a matter of 
 credal subscription, that sixteen ounces make a pound, is 
 not the grocer for you or me. A politician who does not 
 believe that public office is a public trust, is a poor candi- 
 date to vote for. In fact, no man is better than his creed. 
 "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." 
 
 For years mischief-makers have been sedulously at 
 work digging under the foundations of the Bible as our 
 trustworthy rule of faith and practice, and we are reap- 
 ing the fruits of it. We have heard so much against 
 creeds and dogmas that we have measurably lost the 
 sense of authority. When a man reaches a point where 
 he lifts his eyebrows and asks, like Pilate, "What is 
 truth ? " he is apt to follow Pilate in doing as others do. 
 The Bible as a standard of belief and life is useless if it is 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 167 
 
 only true in spots. If you impugn the veracity of your 
 witness at one point, his testimony is impaired as to all 
 other points. The strength of a chain must be measured 
 by its weakest link. The Decalogue rests on no surer 
 foundation than does the story of Jonah and the whale. 
 The Sermon on the Mount is no more reliable than the 
 miracle of Christ's walking on the sea. 
 
 Wherefore, in the interests of morality, we echo the 
 cry, " Back to the Bible ! " You say, " Back to Christ! " 
 Certainly ; back to the Christ of the Bible. The author- 
 ity of the Incarnate Word stands on the integrity of the 
 Written Word of God. 
 
 But we must go deeper yet. Back of the Decalogue 
 and hack of the Bible stands God. 
 
 "In the beginning, God." All truth and ethics must 
 ultimately be referred to Him. Who cares for law if 
 there be no lawgiver ? Who cares for truth as a binding 
 force if it have not its throne in the bosom of God.^ 
 The ultimate reason for the prevalence of all sin, in- 
 cluding dishonesty, is disbelief in God. 
 
 And here again we meet the mischief makers, busily 
 engaged in bowing God off the premises. The high- 
 sounding name of Science is used to persuade us that 
 Law, Force, Energy, " a Something not Ourselves that 
 Maketh for Righteousness," the "All-pervading Soul of 
 the Universe," has taken His place. What interest has 
 an immortal man in an impersonal ghost of a God ? 
 The most pronounced of unbehevers, Voltaire, who had 
 "served a writ of ejectment on the Almighty," lived to 
 
168 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 see the logical conclusion of his teachings and sought to 
 repair the damage by saying, " Unless there be diffused 
 among mankind a belief in a Power to whom day and 
 night are the same, who takes cognizance of secret as 
 well as overt action, all law must prove inefficacious." 
 
 AVherefore, let us stand in the way and seek out the 
 old paths. If we are to have the true sanctions of 
 morahty, we must find them in Law and Truth eman- 
 ating from the throne of a personal and holy God. Here 
 is the rationale of duty. The word " duty " is radically 
 identical with " debt. " Duty is the debt we owe to God. 
 A man who, owing a sum of money, finds that his credi- 
 tor is dead and has left no personal representative, 
 asssumes that his obligation is cancelled. The bonds of 
 duty are loosed in like manner when a man discovers, or 
 imagines he has discovered, that there is no " personal 
 God." 
 
 The frequent call for "ethical preaching" in these 
 days is utterly specious and fallacious. The gospel itself 
 is distinctly and essentially ethical. The cross of Christ 
 is the greatest tribute paid to common honesty that the 
 world has ever seen. It sets forth the fact that a just 
 God, w^ho could not otherwise remit the sins of those 
 who had offended against His holy law, paid the ransom 
 by an infinite outlay of divine resource in the death of 
 His only -begotten Son. He paid our debt that He might 
 righteously be "just and the justifier of the ungodly." 
 He would not if He could, nor could He if He would, 
 override the demands of honesty and justice. We must 
 
THE LAW OF HONESTY. 169 
 
 go to Calvary if we would find the ultimate ground of 
 the precept, "Owe no man anything but to love one 
 another." 
 
 All the remainder of the gospel is of like import. The 
 moment a man is delivered from the obligation of " the 
 handwriting of ordinances which was against him " by 
 faith in the atonement of Christ, he is enjoined to live as 
 becometh those that are "children of the day." It is 
 written, " Ye are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have 
 lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ; it is thence- 
 forth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden 
 under foot of men. " And again, " Ye are the light of the 
 world ; let your light so shine before men that they may 
 see your good works and glorify God." Here is the 
 ethical code of all who truly follow Christ. Be true. Be 
 honest. Be sincere. Be transparent as the light. "Pro- 
 vide things honest in the sight of all men." 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 
 
 "the square deal." 
 
 "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight 
 so in measure; just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin 
 shall ye have; I am the lord your God." Leviticus 19: 35. 36. 
 
 The name of President Roosevelt will long be associ- 
 ated with two cabalistic phrases : " The Strenuous Life " 
 and " The Square Deal. " By the former he means what 
 Longfellow puts on this wise: 
 
 In the world's broad field of battle. 
 
 In the bivouac of life, 
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle; 
 
 Be a hero in the strife. 
 
 By "The Square Deal" is meant even-handed justice; 
 fair-play in sport and business, in poHtics and diplo- 
 macy; to every one his due. 
 
 The instinct of justice has its ultimate source and 
 basis in God. It is thus stated in the Levitical Law: 
 "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete- 
 yard, in weight or in measure; ye shall have just balan- 
 ces, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin." Why ? 
 Because "I am the Lord your God." 
 
 We say," God is love"; but that dictum could not be 
 true were there not something behind it. Justice comes 
 before mercy, by common consent. When you are called 
 
 (170) 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 171 
 
 on to pronounce judgment in the case of a millionaire 
 who has enriched himself by grinding the faces of the 
 poor and offsets the procedure by giving a modicum of 
 his ill-gotten wealth in charity, what do you say ? That 
 he is a philanthropist ? By no means. You say that one 
 must be "first just and then generous." And rightly so. 
 God is love; but if His love were not grounded in justice, 
 He would not be God. 
 
 In raising the question of God's equity, we are bound 
 to consider Him from the standpoint of His Providence 
 on the one hand and of His Grace on the other ; for it is 
 only in this twofold relation that we know Him. 
 
 Is He just in His Providence ? How then shall we ac- 
 count for its inequalities ? Why do so many go afoot 
 while others ride on horseback .? Why are the righteous 
 so frequently cast down, while the wicked flourish like a 
 green-bay tree ^ Is that even-handed justice ? If our life 
 is only a handbreadth and death ends all, then no; a 
 thousand times no ! But suppose we live forever, what 
 then? Our horizons are bounded by the tops of the 
 nearest hills ; we see no further; but what lies beyond .'^ 
 Do you answer, I do not know ? Then lay your hand 
 upon your lips; for just over those hills there may be 
 something that would fully explain all the inequalities 
 that we complain of. 
 
 Do we pass judgment on a book when we have read 
 its preface ? Our life is merely the beginning of an end- 
 less serial. It is, strictly speaking, not life at all, but 
 merely a season of preparation for it. 
 
172 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Once on a time a shepherd boy was stripped by his 
 brothers and put into a lonely pit. The unfairness of the 
 proceeding was so clear that we may easily imagine him 
 philosophizing on this wise : " How can God be just and 
 suffer this ? My brothers have gone away with my coat 
 and left me shivering here. They have carried away the 
 parched corn in their wallets and I am hungry. My 
 father will be grieving at home and I cannot comfort 
 him. No, there is no justice in the God who permits it ! " 
 Suppose that he had died in that dreary place, what 
 then? Would he not have had abundant opportunity 
 in the immeasureable aeons of eternity to explain the 
 momentary wrong and justify God's relation to it ? Are 
 we to judge of the infinite circle of Providence by an 
 infinitesimal arc of it ? A few years later that shepherd 
 boy was viceroy on the throne of Egypt. Now ask him 
 what he thinks of Providence, and he will say, " I would 
 not be upon this throne, had I not been thrown into 
 that pit." 
 
 The life which we are now living is probationary. 
 God wants to make the best of us. He has poor ma- 
 terial to work with; but He has all time for His work 
 and all eternity beyond it. We are His children; it is 
 filial wisdom to trust Him. I do not say that we under- 
 stand Providence; but only that we perceive too little 
 of it to warrant us in assuming a case against the jus- 
 tice of God. 
 
 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense 
 But trust Him for His grace; 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 173 
 
 Behind a frowning providence 
 He hides a smiling face. 
 
 Blind unbelief is sure to err 
 And scan His work in vain; 
 God is His own interpreter 
 And He will make it plain. 
 
 But while we speak with reserve, in this manner, 
 respecting the divine providence, because we know so 
 little of it, we are thoroughly informed as to the divine 
 grace; and in this we are enabled to form an opinion as 
 to the justice of God. 
 
 He sent His only begotten Son into the world to live 
 and die and triumph over death "for us men and our 
 salvation." His life was the only perfect expression of 
 justice which the world has ever seen. He dealt fairly 
 with all. He was never charged with wronging any man. 
 His enemies paid tribute to His fairness by saying, 
 "Master, we know that Thou art no respecter of per- 
 sons." There was no guile in His heart or on His lips. 
 He denounced wickedness in high places and low places 
 alike, and was always an impartial champion of human 
 rights. His earnest plea for justice in behalf of the ill- 
 deserving won for Him the title, "Friend of Sinners." 
 Fair-play was His invariable rule and practice. So wise 
 was His discrimination and so just His judgment that 
 the man who sentenced Him to death was forced to con- 
 fess, "I find no fault in Him at all." 
 
 His death was the most perfect illustration of unself- 
 ishness that ever was seen. He had done no wrong, yet 
 
174 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 He " tasted death for every man." He died on a hilltop, 
 by the wayside, with His hands stretched out; as if to 
 say, " Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye 
 saved!" Rabbi Nicodemus was converted by His pas- 
 sion ; and the penitent robber was moved to cry, " Lord, 
 remember me!" 
 
 And the benefits of His wonderful life and vicarious 
 death are offered alike to all. The sole condition is ac- 
 ceptance by faith. "He that believeth shall be saved.*' 
 There is no discrimination at this point. Sovereigns and 
 slaves, philosophers and simple folk, moralists and red- 
 handed malefactors all alike must bow and pass through 
 the same wicket-gate. Is not this even-handed justice ? 
 Salvation is a matter of personal choice. The word is 
 " Whosoever will. " If a man refuses to be saved through 
 Christ, he does it with his eyes wide open. What then ? 
 He remains voluntarily under the law, and takes the 
 consequences. There is no possible ground of com- 
 plaint. Who is there that can say, "The ways of the 
 Lord are not equal V Of all the multitudes who have 
 passed into the unseen world, penitent and impenitent, 
 there is not one who is not bound to confess, " The Lord 
 is a righteous Lord; just and holy are all His ways!" 
 
 But now as to ourselves. How do we stand in this 
 matter? God is just; but is there a just man anywhere? 
 Is there one who can say, " I have never wronged my 
 fellow man ? " Plato made an ideal which he called 
 Dikaios, that is, " The just man " ; but he never pretended 
 to find his counterpart in actual life. Suppose we set 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 175 
 
 out with Diogenes' lantern in search of Dikaios; where 
 shall we go? 
 
 To the market place ? The proverb of business-life is, 
 " There are tricks in all trades." Here is a combination 
 of capital on the one hand, by which the small dealer is 
 driven to the wall; and, on the other, a combination of 
 labor by which the non-unionist is deprived of his right 
 to earn his daily bread. Is that a square deal ? 
 
 Or, shall we enter the halls of Congress ? Is legisla- 
 tion always fair and equitable? In 1868 a treaty was 
 made with China by which, in return for important 
 concessions, the right of free immigration was accorded 
 to the people of that Empire. A few years later, in an- 
 swer to the demand of Dennis Kearney and his enfran- 
 chised friends of "the Sand Lots," that treaty was 
 erased, without saying, By your leave. Was that a 
 square deal ? 
 
 To the courts, then; for surely here we shall find the 
 equitable procedure, since these are " Courts of Justice." 
 Here is a man charged with embezzling $15,000 from a 
 Life Insurance Company; he is sentenced to Sing Sing. 
 Here is another who has confessedly made a fortune by 
 defrauding the policy holders of the same company ; he 
 goes scot-free. Is that a square deal? 
 
 But surely the pulpit is above suspicion. Here we 
 shall find our "just man." At my ordination I was re- 
 quired to stand up in the presence of my brethren and 
 enter into a solemn Covenant in these terms: "7 pro- 
 mise that I wUl with all faithfulness teach and defend, 
 
176 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 both in public and private, the doctrines established in the 
 standards oj this church." And to that covenant I 
 solemnly affixed my sign and seal. Now suppose that I 
 were habitually to deny or call in question the doctrines 
 which are indisputably affirmed in the symbols referred 
 to, such as the Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Divinity 
 of Christ and the Vicarious Atonement, would you call 
 that a square deal ? Or would you think me an honest 
 man? 
 
 Let us go a little further. In determining the ques- 
 tion of fair dealing, I find myself occupying a three-fold 
 relation. 
 
 At the outset, I am bound to be fair to myself. 
 
 Nor is this so easy or natural as one would suppose. 
 For I am a complex being, and there is ever " a war in 
 my members," in which my meaner self is constantly 
 trying to get the upper hand of my better self. The 
 danger is that in the lower pursuits of life I may wrong 
 my soul and thus defraud myself forever. I do that very 
 thing when I exhaust my time and energy in getting 
 together a little yellow dust which I cannot take with 
 me. I do that when I spend my life in chasing the 
 thistle-down of pleasure, or in pursuing a sordid ambi- 
 tion which can give me only a wreath of fading laurel. 
 I do that when, being a sinner and knowing it, I refuse 
 the only possibility of pardon which is open before me. 
 I do that when I refuse to think on death and judgment 
 and allow myself to go out into eternity with no ade- 
 quate preparation for it. A man is bound to consider 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 177 
 
 himself in this matter; for he has no right to do himself 
 an irreparable injury. 
 
 This brings us to our relations with our fellow men. 
 The rule of " the square deal" is " Live and let live." The 
 Gospel interpretation of it is " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." Here is the acid test; and who can 
 endure it.^ 
 
 The following communication recently appeared in 
 one of our morning newspapers: 
 
 "To THE Editor — Sir: Many years ago I 
 came here from a country town, poor as any boy 
 could well be ; found employment in a large con- 
 cern, bettered my position year after year; be- 
 came a partner, then the head of the concern. 
 Made my fortune, a large one; now retired. 
 
 " When I die I shall leave my children each a 
 fortune, but when I think it over day after day I 
 can only be ashamed of it all. I suppose I was 
 no worse than the others; I know some were 
 worse than I. I could always say, *It's good 
 business,' but I forgot that there was such a 
 thing as a square deal. If I could get the better 
 of an associate or a customer or an employee, I 
 did. Anything that I could do to attain my own 
 success was good business, and I did it. 
 
 " I have given to charity, headed subscriptions, 
 but it doesn't satisfy me. I know what I have 
 done wasn't manly. Last night I sat with other 
 so-called successful men. I studied them. When 
 they can't help thinking, they think just as I do. 
 
 "The modern success is rank failure. It has 
 made this country rich and has made it great; it 
 
178 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 has made its people selfish and unprincipled. I 
 would give all I possess to-night if I could say: 
 *I have given every one a s(juare deal. I have 
 done no man a wrong. ' 
 
 " Think it over; it will mean a lot to you some 
 day. Success." 
 
 But the supreme consideration has to do with a man 
 in his relations with God. 
 
 Here is the question, " Will a man rob God ? " We 
 belong to Him. He has a two-fold proprietary right in 
 us; to wit, the right of creation and the right of pur- 
 chase. We live and move and have our beine: in Him. 
 We are redeemed by the blood of His only begotten Son. 
 So it is written, "Ye are not your own; ye are bought 
 with a price, not with silver and gold, but with the pre- 
 cious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish 
 and without spot. " These things being so — and they are 
 seldom denied — it follows that we are under solemn ob- 
 ligations as stewards of God. Our time and energy, our 
 powers of body and soul, every farthing of our earthly 
 possessions, are His by proprietary right; they are ours 
 only in trust for Him. What then shall be said of the 
 man who sleeps all night in God's watch-care, yet does 
 not say at daybreak, "I thank Thee" ? And what of the 
 man who is so absorbed in selfish pursuits as practically 
 to ignore his obligations to God ? And what of the man 
 who, tacitly believing in the Bible and the philosophy of 
 the Gospel, refuses to acknowledge Christ at all.^ Is 
 that justice? Is that common honesty.? Is that "a 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE. 179 
 
 square deal " ? Let men who pride themselves on their 
 personal honor in the common relations of life meditate 
 on these things. Is not God entitled to the usual cour- 
 tesy which, in return for kindness, we tender our fellow 
 men ? " Will a man rob God ? " 
 
 If our hearts condemn us in this matter, what shall 
 be done ? How shall we purge ourselves of unfairness, 
 in all these various relations ? Let us begin at the be- 
 ginning and "get right with God.'' And the only way 
 to do that is to accept, frankly and unreservedly, the 
 proffer of His grace in the gospel of His beloved Son. To 
 undertake to set ourselves right in any other way is like 
 prescribing for the superficial symptoms of a malady, or 
 undertaking to build a house from the roof downward. 
 We cannot move, in this matter of fair dealing, until we 
 become reconciled with God. And this is the purpose 
 of " the Gospel of ReconciHation. " To accept Christ is 
 to enter into harmony with the laws of our being as 
 marked out in the divine counsels. And, having done 
 that, all the rest is to follow Christ, in pursuance of His 
 Golden, Rule " Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 unto you, do ye even so unto them." This is to live an 
 honest life; and to follow any other course is to fall 
 short of it. 
 
 D 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS . 
 
 "sweet saint charity.'* 
 
 "Love thinketh no evil." I Corinthians 13: 5. 
 
 We come now to "the Psalm of Charity"; and, 
 strange to tell, the singer is Paul. We know him as 
 logician, rhetorician, polemic, theologian — leading us 
 skilfully through the intricate mazes of argument — 
 but here he dons the poet's mantle and sings the 
 praises of the master-grace. The song is a parenthe- 
 sis, occurring in the midst of a doctrinal demonstration. 
 It was a custom in the Agora to fill with minstrelsy the 
 interval between the gladiatorial combats; but here it 
 is the gladiator himself who rests upon his sword to 
 sing ; and his measure has every distinctive mark of the 
 divine afflatus. The theme is for him an unusual one. 
 Had he pronounced a panegyric on logic or eloquence, 
 or rhetoric or dogmatics, it would have been a matter of 
 course; but behold, Paul the dialectician Hfts his voice 
 in eulogy of Love ! 
 
 He has just been discoursing on the charismata, or 
 spiritual gifts. They were necessary to the church in 
 those formative days. Tongues and interpretation, 
 healing and prophecy, these were special endowments 
 vouchsafed to the church in her early struggle for a 
 
 (180) 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 181 
 
 foothold on earth. One of the current questions among 
 the Christians of that time was, " Which is the greatest 
 of the charismata f Paul says, "Covet earnestly the 
 best of them; and yet show I unto you a better way." 
 
 He is writing to the members of the Corinthian 
 church. He seems to be present in a public assembly 
 where one possessed of the gift of eloquence pours forth 
 breathing thoughts in burning words. "Has_^e 
 Charity?" asks this bystander; "No? Then 'tis 
 nothing!" He hears another, possessed of the gift of 
 prophecy, uttering dreams and visions: "Has he 
 Charity ? No ? Then 'tis nothing !' ' And when a third 
 displays the gift of interpretation he still inquires, " Has 
 he Charity ? No ? Then all is but sounding brass or a 
 clanging cymbal ; it profiteth nothing. " 
 
 The "better way" is Charity. All other gifts are 
 incomparable with it; since Love, or Charity, is the 
 fulfilling of the law. It o'ertops all the chxirismata, 
 outshining and surviving them. "Now abide Faith, 
 Hope, Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity." 
 
 The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one, 
 But the light of the whole world dies with the setting sun. 
 The mind has a thousand eyes, and the heart but one. 
 But the light of the whole life dies when love is done. 
 
 f Thejwgrd in the^qriginal is agaj^e- The New Version 
 renders it Love. It matters not, so that we understand 
 its comprehensiveness. It is love, charity, neighbor- 
 liness, benevolence, altruism, kindness, benignity, what 
 you will. " Names name it not. " It includes them all. 
 
182 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 In this disquisition on Love the apostle names 
 fifteen distinctive features of it. For our present pur- 
 pose we select but one: "Love thinketh no evil." We 
 are here advised as to the duty of looking on the bright 
 side of character. It is an old proverb, "Faults are 
 thick where love is thin." If we walk in the "better 
 way" we shall not hastily impute evil, or put a wrong 
 construction on well-meant words, or misunderstand 
 motives or suspect the sincerity of those around us. If 
 we walk in the "better way" we shall not gossip or 
 backbite or give place to a censorious spirit. As far as 
 possible we shall speak favorably of our neighbors ; and 
 as to their errors, unless a definite purpose is to be 
 answered by an exposure, we shall prefer not to mention 
 them. 
 
 f^ This is not to say thaj jove is WijidUoJ_nig[uity or slow, 
 on occasioiL^Jojeproye it. The most scathing denunci- 
 al:ioh That ever was heard, " Woe unto you, scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites, how shall ye escape the dam- 
 nation of hell.^" fell from ^ejips of Incarnate Love. 
 It is recorded that Hannah Dustin, held as a prisoner by 
 the Indians on the little Island of Merrimac, rose in the 
 middle of the night while her savage guards were sleep- 
 
 if' ing, gazed on the faces of her children bound and 
 reserved to death, then drew a tomahawk from the 
 girdle of a sleeping brave as gently as if she were pluck- 
 ing a feather from the wing of a sleeping dove, and 
 passing around the circle fiercely brained one after an- 
 other until all the ten lay dead. It was Love that nerved 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 183 
 
 her arm ; it was Love that kindled the fire in her eyes. 
 
 In Hke manner he who walks in the "better way" 
 will be aggressive for the pubHc good, will not hesitate 
 to denounce evil in high places and low places, will cry 
 aloud and spare not. He who loves the youth of our 
 cities will, by the token of that Love, make war un- 
 ceasing on dives and dramshops and all strongholds of 
 iniquity. Love is the most fierce and fearless of the 
 graces. It hates evil, and, for the saving of souls, leaves 
 nothing undone to destroy it. Because it loves the sinner 
 it hates the sin, and can make no allowance for or com- 
 promise with it. 
 
 But Love has nothing in common with a censorious 
 spirit. A habitual fault-finder is disqualified for the 
 role of a reformer. Love and gratuitous criticism are 
 ever at variance. Love puts the best construction on 
 everything it sees. It thinketh no evil. Let us note some 
 of the reasons why we should, as far as possible, speak 
 well of our fellow-men. 
 
 I. It is Christlike. 
 
 How sympathetic and gracious and helpful He ever 
 was! He did, indeed denounce the evil on every side; 
 but His hands were ever stretched out to the evil-doer 
 in entreaty to turn from His evil ways. J3e_died for 
 those who hated Him, and, with His latest breath, put 
 the best possible construction on their murderous deed, 
 saying, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do!*' He had a kind word for the Magdalen, a 
 pitying glance for the dying thief. 
 
184 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 In one of the Apocryphal Gospels it is related that, 
 a mad dog having been slain in a public street of 
 Jerusalem, while the bystanders were thrusting it with 
 their feet and showering upon the dead brute vile 
 epithets, they saw Jesus coming. His habit of kind 
 speaking was proverbial. "Now," said they, "let us 
 hear what He will say of this despicable thing." He 
 stood looking on in silence for a moment; then said, 
 " His teeth are like pearls." Was anything lost in speak- 
 ing thus graciously ? Would anything have been gained 
 by another foot-thrust ? And why, beloved in Christ, 
 should we not follow in His steps, passing kindly judg- 
 ment, as far as possible, upon all ? 
 
 IL_ Consider our ignorance. 
 / WTio are we that we should assume to know what 
 passes in a human breast ? How little we understand 
 the conditions, the environment, the sore temptations, 
 of those who fall into sin ! 
 
 O ye wha are sae guid yoursel*, 
 
 Sae pious and sae holy, 
 Ye*ve nought to do but mark and tell 
 
 Your neebor's fauts and folly. 
 
 O, gently scan your brother man. 
 
 Still gentler sister woman; 
 Though each may gang a kennin* wrang. 
 
 To step aside is human. 
 One point must still be greatly dark. 
 
 The moving why they do it; 
 And just as lamely can ye mark 
 
 How far perhaps they rue it 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 185 
 
 Who made the heart, 'tis He alone 
 
 Decidedly can try us; 
 He knows each chord — its various tone, 
 
 Each spring — its various bias. 
 Then at the balance let's be mute; 
 
 We never can adjust it; 
 What's done we partly may compute. 
 
 But know not what's resisted. 
 
 A member of my congregation tells me that one night 
 she and her fellow-passengers in a Pullman car were 
 greatly disturbed by the crying of a child. Up and down 
 the aisle walked a man, hour after hour, with the wailing 
 infant in his arms. At length one of the passengers 
 parted the curtains of his berth and said, " Where's the I 
 mother of that child ? For goodness' sake find her. We / 
 can't bear this any longer." The man answered, **I*m 
 sorry, friend, but I can't help it. This isn't my child. 
 The mother died suddenly this side of San Francisco; 
 her body is in the baggage car. I've volunteered to take 
 the little one to its mother's friends in York State." 
 At once the complainant jumped from his berth, eager 
 to relieve him; nor was there any further murmuring. 
 But, alas, for want of knowledge as to motives and cir- 
 cumstances, we are always blundering in this way. 
 ? , We speak of justice, but what do we know of it? 
 " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord ; I will repay. "* 
 How many and lamentable are our mistakes whenever 
 we undertake to administer justice. We try offend- 
 ers by lynch law and hang them up at eventide, only 
 to discover before break-of-day that we have hung the 
 
186 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 wrong man. And unfortunately it is too late to cut him 
 down. The damage is done. Of justice we know little 
 or nothing. Let us leave that to an omniscient God. 
 Our function is with mercy. That falls measurably 
 within our sphere of knowledge, and we are safe to 
 administer it. But to speak as if we were sitting on the 
 wool-sack is to be vastly presumptuous. It is falling 
 into the error of Phaeton, who assayed, unskilled, to 
 drive the chariot of the sun. 
 
 III. We work incalculable injury by our unchar- 
 itable treatment of others. 
 
 There are people who would not prick you with a 
 bodkin, yet do not hesitate to smirch your reputation. 
 They would not steal a farthing, but rob their neighbors 
 without scruple of that which is better than life ; for — 
 
 Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 
 
 Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 
 
 *Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
 
 But he that filches from me my good name 
 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him 
 
 And makes me poor indeed. 
 
 When the martyr Taylor was d3dng at the stake, 
 one of the bystanders cast a flaming torch which struck 
 his eyes and blinded them, "and brake his face that the 
 blood ran down his visage." That was base, cowardly, 
 brutal beyond words; yet not more base, more brutal, 
 or more cowardly than to wantonly injure a man in his 
 reputation, to put him to an open shame by blackening 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 187 
 
 his honor. This is the very chmax of inhumanity; 
 baseness can no further go. 
 
 IV. We Hve in glass houses. 
 
 The old proverb, "People who live in glass houses U:^ 
 should not throw stones," had its origin, probably, in 
 our Master's words respecting the woman taken in 
 adultery. The Rabbis had dragged her up the temple 
 steps and cast her upon the pavement, saying, " Moses 
 in the law commandeth that such should be stoned, but 
 what sayest thou .^ " He stooped for a moment in silence 
 and seemed to be writing on the marble floor, then 
 quietly said, "Let him that is without sin among you 
 cast the first stone. " Why don't they throw ? O master 
 of Israel, with thy broad phylacteries, so circumspectly 
 pious, cast thou a stone at her! O venerable Sanhe- 
 drist, having the law written upon thy frontlets, against 
 whom no breath of calumny has ever come, why dost 
 thou falter .^ Cast a stone at her ! O illustrious priest, 
 minister at God's altar, lo, these many years, why is thy 
 face flushed with sudden crimson, and wherefore dost 
 thou not cast a stone .'^ It is written that they which 
 heard the Master's word, "being convicted by their 
 own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the 
 eldest even unto the last." 
 
 Our Lord said, also, " Why beholdest thou the mote 
 that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam 
 that is in thine own eye "^ Or how wilt thou say to thy 
 brother. Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and 
 behold a beam is in thine own eye .^ Thou hypocrite. 
 
188 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then 
 shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy 
 brother's eye." The word here rendered "mote "is 
 chip or splinter; that is, of the same material as the 
 beam. Here is a suggestion of the fact that the faults 
 which we are most prone to criticise in others are those 
 which are most deeply seated in ourselves. Tell me the 
 general drift of a man's aspersions and I will show you 
 his darling sin. It would be prudent in us all to take 
 advantage of that provision which in courts of justice 
 excuses a witness from testifying against a culprit when 
 to do so would incriminate himself. " It takes a rogue 
 to catch a rogue. " All captious criticism is in the nature 
 of State's evidence. 
 
 V. We are on our way to Judgment; and by our 
 judgments of our brethren we are framing the rule 
 which will apply to ourselves at that great day. 
 
 " Judge not," said the Master, " that ye be not judged. 
 For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, 
 and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to 
 you again." We may have what we will at the Great 
 Assize, mercy or justice. If we here minister justice it 
 will there be ministered unto us. But, blessed be God, 
 heaven is full of mercy, if we will have it. The Moslems 
 say that two spirits are set to guard the actions of every 
 man. At night they fly up to heaven and report to the 
 recording angel. The one says, " He hath wrought this 
 good, O angel! Write it ten times!" The other says, 
 "He hath wrought this evil; but forbear, O angel, yet 
 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS. I8d 
 
 seven hours, in order that he may repent!" It is true 
 that God delighteth in mercy; but if we want it we 
 must here accord it. 
 
 How otherwise may we offer the prayer, "Forgive 
 us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
 against us".'^ How otherwise can we with heart and 
 understanding sing, — 
 
 Teach me to feel another's woe, 
 
 To hide the fault I see; 
 The mercy I to others show. 
 
 That mercy show to me. 
 
 VI. In deahng ungraciously with others we lose the 
 blessed opportunity of kindness. 
 
 There is no telling what good may be done by a word 
 of sympathy and helpfulness, one of those "words in 
 due season " which are like apples of gold in baskets of 
 silver. 
 
 The warden of the New Bedford jail was leading 
 through the corridors a party of visitors, an old man 
 with several ladies and a little girl; they came to the 
 foot of a stairway where a prisoner was scrubbing the 
 floor. This man was a desperate criminal, serving a 
 Hfe sentence. He had been a leader in many mutinies 
 and outbreaks, and had been punished in vain. " Jim," 
 said the warden, "carry this Httle girl upstairs." The 
 prisoner looked up, scowled and turned away. The 
 child put her arms about him, saying, " If you will, I'll 
 kiss you." He hesitated a moment, then Ufted her on 
 his shoulders as tenderly as any father could have done. 
 
190 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and carried her up. At the top of the stairs she raised 
 her face; he gravely stooped and kissed it, then returned 
 to liis task. And the warden will tell you that Jim has 
 been a "trusty" ever since that day. The kindness of 
 the child transformed him. 
 
 Let us, therefore, speak the kind word, lend a hand 
 and do good as we have opportunity unto all men. 
 " Help thy fallen brother rise, wliile the days are going 
 by." It may be that some of you can remember Blon- 
 din, who years ago made dangerous journeys along a 
 wire stretched across the Niagara below the falls. 
 Sometimes he carried heavy burdens on his back. The 
 shores were lined with spectators. Did they shout and 
 applaud when they saw him poised above the abyss? 
 Did they loudly reprove his folly .^ Did they obtrude 
 unnecessary counsel upon him.^ If he stumbled and 
 seemed to lose his balance, wavering for an instant, 
 what then ? Ah, they held their breath ! Their very 
 hearts stood still! Every one of us on life's journey 
 bears his burden, oftentimes so heavy as to tax his 
 utmost strength, along a path as narrow and dangerous 
 as the sword-blade in the dream of Mirza. Every one 
 of us needs the kindly word, the helping hand. O for 
 the spirit of Charity! All the graces have done virtu- 
 ously, but thou, Charity, excellest them all! 
 
THE DUTY OF FAULT-FINDING. 
 
 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." Proverbs 27: 6. 
 "If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him." Luke 17: 3. 
 "God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners 
 Christ died for us." Romans 0: 8. 
 
 I call your attention to the most difficult and deli- 
 cate, the most neglected and overdone, the most dis- 
 agreeable and magnanimous of duties, to wit, the duty 
 of fault-finding. 
 
 The friendliest man that ever lived was Jesus. He 
 came from heaven to do two things: first, to make 
 atonement for sin; so that all who are willing to re- 
 ceive Him by faith should not perish but have eternal 
 life. And second, to set an example of right-living, so 
 that all who are willing to follow in His steps may 
 attain to character in the full stature of a man. 
 
 We, then, who profess to believe in Christ as our 
 Saviour are to receive Him as our Exemplar in the 
 right discharge of the duties of life. 
 
 Now Jesus was a fault-finder. He spared neither His 
 foes nor His friends, on occasion. In the interest of 
 truth and righteousness He laid bare the utter meanness 
 and insincerity of the religious leaders of His time, 
 saying, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 crites, generation of vipers; how shall ye escape the 
 
 (191) 
 
192 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 damnation of hell ? " Nor did He spare His disciples 
 when reproof was in order; as when He said to angry 
 John and James, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of"; 
 and to tempting Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan; 
 thou savorest not the things that be of God but those 
 that be of men.'* We must be fault-finders, therefore, 
 if we propose to follow in His steps. 
 
 The censorious man is ubiquitous : like the poor, we 
 have him always with us. All sorts of colloquial 
 titles are applied to him ; but, call him what you please, 
 he is never agreeable. A scold at home, a pessimist in 
 society, a mugwump in politics, a martinet in the 
 church; he is everywhere a cumberer of the ground. 
 Nothing suits him; nobody pleases him. He is like 
 Momus among the ancient gods, who ended his 
 long career of criticism by finding fault with Vulcan's 
 man, because he had no windows in his breast so that 
 people might see what was going on within; with 
 Neptune's bull, because his horns were not beneath 
 his eyes so that he might direct his attack; and with 
 Minerva's house, because it had no wheels to enable 
 her to move away from troublesome neighbors. For 
 this, Momus was cast out of Olympus; unfortunately 
 we cannot get rid of the fault-finder in that way. 
 
 The man at the other extreme, however, is no less 
 insufferable. He sees the strong pursuing the weak 
 and has nothing to say. He hears the truth denied and 
 keeps silence. The times are out of joint; but why 
 should he trouble himself to correct them ? Evil-doers 
 
THE DUTY OF FAULT-FINDING. 193 
 
 are abroad; but who set him as a watchman upon the 
 heights? If he be a preacher, he preaches smooth 
 things, flattering the infirmities of those who have 
 itching ears. His philosophy is briefly contained in 
 the proverb "The crooked cannot be made straight.'* 
 He sees the wounded man on the Bloody Way and 
 placidly leaves him to the good Samaritan. He is a 
 cynic, serene as Diogenes, who asked nothing of the 
 passer-by but that he would stand out of his sunlight. 
 He has never heard the injunction, "Cry aloud and 
 spare not and show the people their sins ! " 
 
 Let it be understood that fault-finding is a duty. 
 True friendship dares to wound. As Seneca said, " I 
 love not my friend if I offend him not." Or as Moses 
 said, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, 
 and not suffer sin upon him.'* Or as Jesus said, "If 
 thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him." 
 
 But fault-finding is more than a duty; it is an art. 
 The thing must be done; but the question is, How 
 to do it.^ And here is where the example of Jesus 
 helps us. This duty, like all others, must be inter- 
 preted in the light of His teaching and example. Our 
 purpose, therefore, is to discover how Jesus did it. 
 
 At the outset, the Motive must be looked at. 
 
 Jesus said He came into the world to seek and to 
 save. And whatsoever He did was in line with that 
 purpose. Our life as His followers must be formu- 
 lated along the same benevolent lines. In all our 
 criticism, of friends and foes alike, we must be actuated 
 
194 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 by a supreme desire to bring them back to truth and 
 righteousness. There is no room here for envy or 
 maHce. The philosophy of the world is briefly com- 
 prehended in the words of Cain, "Am I my brother's 
 keeper.?" With that the philosophy of Christ is dis- 
 tinctly at odds. A man is discovered in the act of 
 committing suicide. Christ says, "We must save this 
 man." Cain says, " It is his own affair; let him hang." 
 Christ says, " No; he is my brother and I am his keeper; 
 I cannot let him hang." Cain says, "Is not his life his 
 own .? Is not the rope his own "^ May he not do what 
 he will with both "^ " Christ says, " No, it devolves upon 
 us to see that he does no harm to himself " Cain 
 says, "He is a cumberer of the ground and the world 
 would be well rid of him." Christ says, "No; there 
 are di\dne possibilities in him; let us put him on his 
 feet again." And to all His people He cries, "Come, 
 let us cut this man down and make a better man of 
 him!" 
 
 We observe, further, that Jesus was always Just in 
 Ilis fault-finding, and in this we must be like Him. 
 
 Sut there's the difficulty. We know little about 
 justice. We are so ignorant of the motives and the 
 singular trials and temptations of men. 
 
 It was an easy matter for Jesus to be just, because 
 He knew what was in man. We are to exercise justice 
 only in cases where the moral quality of the act is 
 perfectly clear; in other cases we must needs condemn 
 the sin, but leave the sinner with God. And in no 
 
THE DUTY OF FAULT-FINDING. 195 
 
 case are we at liberty to pass hasty or ill-considered 
 judgment on any of our fellow men. 
 
 It is said that when the Roman magistrates sen- 
 tenced a prisoner, they had a bundle of rods nearby, 
 tied with many knots, to the intent that, while the 
 beadle was busy untying them, the court might have 
 time for a sober second thought. AIsls, we often- 
 times lay on the rod and do our thinking afterward! 
 The Scriptural rule is, " Be swift to hear, slow to speak, 
 slow to wrath." 
 
 And again, if we are to be like Jesus in the dis- 
 charge of this duty, we must be clothed with Charity. 
 
 This does not mean that we are to be oblivious of 
 wrong or injustice. They say that love is blind. But 
 "Charity thinketh no evil"; that is, it puts the best 
 construction upon the conduct of a man. It prefers 
 to see the good rather than the bad. It recognizes the 
 fact that there is a bright side to the character of every 
 one. There is a Russian fable which says that the 
 swine Kavron made its way through the gardens 
 of a lordly mansion into the barnyard, where it reveled 
 m filth. On its return the neighbors cried, "What 
 found you, Kavron ? They do say that the garden is 
 full of flowers and the house of pearls and diamonds!" 
 And Kavron answered, "I found naught but heaps of 
 offal." Thus the critic finds what he is looking for; 
 and our perverted nature not infrequently prefers to 
 find the evil rather than the good. The part of charity 
 is never to expose the evil for the sake of comment 
 
196 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 or exposure, but always with the intent of correcting it. 
 
 We have further light on the proper discharge of 
 this duty in the words of Jesus, "Why beholdest the 
 mote in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam 
 that is in thine own eye?" 
 
 Spurgeon tells of a well-known lunatic who used to 
 go up and down, muttering, "God save the fool!" So 
 Shakespeare says. 
 
 The jury, passing on the prisoner's life 
 May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two. 
 Guiltier than him they try. 
 
 It does not follow, however, that we are to be estopped 
 from fault-finding by reason of the fact that we are 
 conscious of sin. But we are bound to make sure 
 that we are bravely resisting in ourselves that which 
 we condemn in others. A man with a flask in his 
 pocket is a poor preacher of temperance. It would 
 lend weight to the argument of the Army officers who 
 are just now pleading for a restoration of the beer 
 canteen, if the public could be advised that they them- 
 selves were temperate men. "Take heed to thyself; 
 first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, then shalt 
 thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's 
 eye." 
 
 And it behooves us to be Open and Above-board in 
 our criticism of others. 
 
 The rule of Jesus is, "If thou hast aught against 
 thy brother; go tell him betwixt thee and him alone.** 
 No gossip. No backbiting. Come out of your covert! 
 
THE DUTY OF FAULT-FINDING. 197 
 
 Out into the open! The meanest man in Scripture is 
 Shimei, who threw mud and stones at David from 
 behind a hedge. It is to the credit of Paul that he 
 "withstood Peter to the face"; and history records 
 that they were the better friends for it. But this is 
 not the usual way. A tells B that C is no better than 
 he ought to be ; their wives discuss it over the tea cups ; 
 and all the neighbors are by the ears. As Dean Swift 
 says, they — 
 
 Convey a libel with a frown 
 And wink a reputation down; 
 Or, by the tossing of a fan, 
 Describe the lady and the man! 
 
 This is the part of cowardice and ill-becoming in those 
 who profess to follow Christ. 
 
 It must be added that fault-finding, after the Christian 
 method, requires the utmost Tact. 
 
 Take care! A mote that has imbedded itself in 
 the tissues of the eye cannot be extracted with the 
 naked hand, much less with red-hot pinchers. The 
 most insufferable man in the world is the one who 
 speaks of himself boastfully as "a blunt man." He 
 "calls a spade a spade," and delights in saying un- 
 pleasant things. His method is the very opposite of 
 Christ's. What tact and gentleness were displayed in 
 the Lord's rebuke of Peter, who had denied him thrice 
 with a bitter curse; he turned and looked at him, and 
 Peter " went out and wept bitterly." That look had ex- 
 posed the dark recesses of his soul. And what skill 
 
198 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 was displayed in Christ's reproof of the woman at the 
 well. He saith unto her, "Give me to drink." She 
 answered, " IIow is it that thou being a Jew askest 
 drink of me who am a Samaritan?" He saith, "If 
 thou knewest who it is that saith. Give me to drink, 
 thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would have 
 given thee living water." She saith, "Sir, give me this 
 water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw." 
 He answered, "Go call thy husband and come hither!" 
 It was at this point that the iron entered her soul; 
 and thus He drew the sinner to Him. Or where will 
 you find such tact and tenderness as in Christ's treat- 
 ment of the poor creature taken in adultery and dragged 
 before Him by the religious leaders, who clamored 
 for the extreme penalty of the law. He saw her con- 
 trition in the hiding of her crimson face. He stooped 
 and wrote his judgment on the pavement: "Let him 
 that is without sin cast the first stone at her" He 
 rose and, finding Himself alone with the woman, said, 
 "Hath no man condemned thee? Neither do I con- 
 demn thee; go and sin no more." 
 
 It remains to be said that those who would follow 
 Christ in the discharge of this duty, must have in mind 
 the ultimate Law of Requital; as He said, " Judge not 
 that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye 
 judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye 
 mete, it shall be measured to you again." 
 
 In other words, the censorious critic will have to 
 change places with his victim one day. It is with this 
 
THE DUTY OF FAULT-FINDING. 199 
 
 fact in mind that we pray, "Forgive us our trespasses 
 as we forgive those who trespass against us." 
 
 Here is no reference to the lex talionis. God does not 
 judge in the spirit of vengeance; but, in the jiecessity 
 of the case, whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
 reap. The Law of Requital works automatically. 
 Haman is always hanged on his own gallows-tree. "A 
 man is his own dungeon;" he treasures up wrath 
 against the day of wrath; he determines for himself 
 what sentence the Law shall pass upon him. If we 
 want mercy in the Great Day, we must needs grant 
 mercy here and now. 
 
 Wherefore, let the mind that was in Christ Jesus 
 be also in us. He spared neither friend nor foe; but 
 His wounds were always the wounds of a friend. The 
 severest woes that ever fell from His lips were followed 
 by the kindest of invitations : '* Come unto me all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." 
 The tenderest rebuke that ever was administered was 
 from the Cross: 
 
 I saw One hanging on a tree. 
 
 In agony and blood, 
 Who fixed His languid eyes on me 
 
 As near His cross I stood. 
 
 Sure, never till my latest breath. 
 
 Can I forget that look; 
 It seemed to charge me with His death. 
 
 Though not a word He spoke. 
 
200 THE EVOLUTION OF A CI RISTIAN. 
 
 Alas! I knew not what I did, 
 
 But now my tears are vain; 
 Where shall my trembling soul be hid, 
 
 For I the Lord have slain! 
 
 A second look He gave, that said, 
 
 "I freely all forgive: 
 "This blood is for thy ransom paid; 
 
 "I die that thou may'st Hve." 
 
 Thus while His death my sin displays 
 
 In all its blackest hue, 
 Such is the mystery of grace, 
 
 It seals my pardon, too! 
 
 He "knew what was in man" and "covered" his 
 faults by expiating them. He was aware of the im- 
 perfections of those to whom He had assumed the rela- 
 tion of an Elder Brother; and, while He exposed them. 
 He bare them also in His own body on the tree. He led 
 His friends through the rough places of Via Dolorosa, 
 because there was no other way to heaven's gate. He 
 laid bare, as with a scalpel, the secret sins of men that 
 He might heal them. It is written of Him that knowing 
 His disciples, their faults and short-comings. He never- 
 theless "loved them to the end." In this we find the 
 key-note of a Christian life: "God commendeth His 
 love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ 
 died for us." 
 
THE GRACE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 "seventy times seven." 
 
 "Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin 
 against me, and I forgive him?" Matthew 18: 21. 
 
 All the world loves Peter; brave, impulsive, blun- 
 dering Peter; the apostle of the great heart, open hand, 
 hot temper and high ambition.- But there were times 
 when Peter showed himself in most unlovely ways. 
 In some respects he was a very little man. 
 
 It was so here. He had been greatly stirred up by 
 some things that Jesus had been saying about the 
 proper way of dealing with unruly church members. 
 In the Code of Discipline, as laid down by the Master, 
 there were four steps. The first was, "If thy brother 
 trespass against thee, go tell him his fault between thee 
 and him alone." If that failed, then, "Take with thee 
 one or two witnesses and seek to arbitrate the dif- 
 ficulty." In case the offender were still obdurate, 
 "Tell it unto the church," that he may be formally 
 cited for trial. And should this also prove unavailing, 
 " Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publi- 
 can"; that is. Withdraw your fellowship from him. 
 
 Now, Peter had a personal interest in this matter, 
 owing to certain grudges of his own. A self-willed 
 self-confident, self-opinionated man is sure to provoke 
 
 (201) 
 
202 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 animosities, and equally sure to resent criticism as a 
 personal affront. It was, doubtless, this cherished 
 sense of wrong which moved Peter to inquire, " Lord, 
 how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive 
 him ? Till seven times ? " The teaching of the Rabbin- 
 ical writings was, " If thy brother offend once and ask 
 pardon, forgive him; if twice, forgive him; if thrice, 
 forgive him; and that ends it." We may assume, 
 therefore, that Peter, in suggesting seven times, sup- 
 posed himself to be taking a most magnanimous view 
 of the matter. But Jesus said, " Not until seven times, 
 but until seventy times seven"; by which He meant 
 that our spirit of forgiveness must know no limit at 
 all. 
 
 And this He enforced by one of His great parables. 
 The scene is laid in an Oriental court. A certain king, 
 calling his satraps to a reckoning, jSnds that one of 
 them is a defaulter in the sum of ten thousand talents; 
 that is, about ten millions of our money. The man 
 has no excuse to offer and he has nothing wherewith 
 to pay. The decision of the king is that he shall be 
 sold with his wife and children into slavery, a pro- 
 cedure which was in strict accordance with the Roman 
 law. He thereupon fell down and besought him, 
 "Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all." 
 And his lord did better than he asked; he forgave 
 him all. 
 
 Then comes the sequel, on which the emphasis 
 rests. The same servant went out and found one of 
 
THE GRACE OF FORGIVENESS. 203 
 
 his fellow servants who owed him the paltry sum of a 
 hundred pence, equivalent to about seventeen dollars 
 in our money; and he took him by the throat, saying, 
 "Pay me what thou owest!" His poor debtor be- 
 sought him, in the very words which the other had 
 previously used, "Have patience with me and I will 
 pay thee all!" And he would not, but cast him into 
 prison until he should pay the debt. Now when this 
 came to the knowledge of the king he was indignant, 
 saying, "O thou wicked servant! I forgave thee all, 
 because thou desiredst it; shouldst not thou also have 
 had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had 
 pity on thee?" And he delivered him over to the 
 officers of the law. 
 
 Then the lesson: "*So likewise shall my heavenly 
 Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his 
 brother from your hearts.'' The same truth is repeated 
 once and again in the teaching of Jesus on other occas- 
 ions ; as where He says, " Judge not that ye be not 
 judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall 
 be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall 
 be measured to you again." Also, in the Lord's 
 Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
 debtors." And, in general terms, in the Golden Rule, 
 "Do as ye would be done by." 
 
 In the contrast presented in the parable we have an 
 emphatic presentation of the Doctrine of Grace, or 
 mercy to the undeserving. 
 
 On the one hand, we have in bold relief the Grace 
 
204 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 of Gody as illustrated in the king's magnanimous treat- 
 ment of his servant. 
 
 This Grace is manifest in the atonement of Christ, 
 who said of Himself, " The Son of man is come not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a 
 ransom for many.'* 
 
 Sin is a debt incurred to the Law; and the Law is a 
 hard creditor. It records in a great ledger, called " the 
 Handwriting of Ordinances," all our transgressions, 
 item by item. The sinner who is thus indebted to the 
 Law is a defaulter, in that every item represents a wil- 
 ful and inexcusable violation of known duty. And the 
 sum total of his indebtedness shows him to be a hope- 
 less bankrupt; he owes "ten thousand talents." The 
 satrap was in default ten millions of dollars, with abso- 
 lutely no assets ; yet he had the effrontery to say, " Have 
 patience with me and I will pay thee all!" The reve- 
 nues of a province would have been but a bagatelle in 
 meeting such a debt. The sins of the sinner are as the 
 sands of the seashore for multitude; and what can he 
 offer as an offset ? His penitence ? Nay, there is no 
 expiatory virtue in tears. His resolution to meet the 
 obligation ? It is a true saying. Hell is paved with 
 such resolutions. There is absolutely no hope. The 
 man passes into the debtor's jail and the door clangs 
 behind him. 
 
 But as sin is debt, so pardon is remission. The Hand- 
 writing of Ordinances is blotted out. This is by 
 reason of the " ransom " which Jesus paid; as it is writ- 
 
THE GRACE OF FORGIVENESS. £05 
 
 ten, " He nailed to His cross the Handwriting of Ordi- 
 nances which was against us, taking it out of the way." 
 Thus Mercy and Justice are reconciled in the pardon 
 of sin. 
 
 The grace thus manifested to sinners is absolutely 
 free. Grace and gratis are cognate terms. Now and 
 then we hear of a creditor giving a receipt on this 
 wise: "In consideration of the sum of one dollar, 
 thus and so"; but not even such nominal remuneration 
 as this is exacted from the sinner who has accepted the 
 grace of God. 
 
 Long as I live I'll still be crying, 
 Mercy's free, mercy's free! 
 
 And this grace is extended to all; as it is written, 
 "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; 
 and he that hath no money, let him come and drink"; 
 and again, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
 cast out." In no wise? Not if he be a thief or a 
 murderer? Nay, if only he "come unto me." Heaven 
 is full of such flagrant sinners saved by grace. Christ 
 is able, and as willing as He is able, to save " unto the 
 uttermost" all who thus come unto Him. 
 
 And the gracious pardon is complete; that is, it 
 covers the whole record of the misspent life. The sins 
 of the sinner are blotted out, remitted, sunk into the 
 depths of an unfathomable sea, cast behind God's back, 
 so that He remembers them no more against him. 
 
 Is there no condition affixed to this proffer of grace ? 
 
S06 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 One only, the same condition which is aflSxed to 
 every gift; to wit, that it shall be accepted. Faith 
 is the hand stretched forth to receive it. " He that be- 
 lieveth shall be saved," that is, his debts are liquidated; 
 "and he that believeth not" is still indebted to the law; 
 therefore "the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 
 God is a great forgiver! "There's a wideness in 
 His mercy like the wideness of the sea." 
 
 But now we turn to the reverse of the picture. We 
 have contemplated the grace of God ; it remains to con- 
 sider the Grace of Man as illustrated in the attitude 
 of the satrap toward his fellow servant. 
 
 Observe the contrast, for here the emphasis lies. 
 The only possible return that we can make for the 
 divine goodness is to reflect it, as far as possible, in our 
 conduct toward our fellow men. 
 
 We have abundant opportunity for the exercise of 
 Grace, since we have all been wronged. "Man's in- 
 humanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." 
 How could it be otherwise, human nature being what 
 it is.^ But the servant is not greater than his Lord. 
 In all the universe there is no man who has suffered 
 such injustice as Christ. What "contradiction of sin- 
 ners" He endured! He was misunderstood, forsaken, 
 scourged, rejected, spit upon, put to an ignominious 
 death. How small our wrongs appear in the light 
 of His! 
 
 Do we resent them.? Do we propose to exact pay- 
 ment of the debts which are owed us? Do we take 
 
THE GRACE OF FORGIVENESS. 207 
 
 our adversary by the throat? Alas, how persistently 
 we cherish the memory of injustice and unkindness. 
 Old grudges rankle within us. We have much to say 
 about domestic feuds in the South, and about the Mafia 
 that sends its agents across the ocean with vengeance 
 in their hearts; but in a smaller, meaner and more 
 cowardly way we often keep a memorandum of gossip 
 and misrepresentation in the hope of "evening up" 
 some day. If a misfortune befall our debtor, are we 
 sorry? Back in the dark places of our heart do we 
 not somehow cherish the thought that, however he may 
 defraud us here, a just recompense awaits him in the 
 Great Day? Or if we consent to forgive, how many 
 questions like Peter's arise, "How oft shall I forgive 
 him ? " or, " Suppose he is not sorry ? " or, " Who shall 
 take the initiative ? " Thus we sweep the room and leave 
 the dust behind the door. O httle people that we are! 
 Far, far, indeed, is our spirit from the mind of God. 
 
 What is the right attitude, then? Grace. Pardon 
 to the undeserving. God's Grace in our hearts pour- 
 ing itself out without stint. Love to the uttermost. 
 Charity not to God's poor only, but to the devil's poor. 
 Forgetfulness of grudges; "let bygones be bygones;" 
 "let the dead bury their dead." Why? Because "to 
 err is human, to forgive divine." The right spirit was 
 exhibited by Sir Thomas More when, on being sen- 
 tenced to death, he said to his unjust judge, "Sir, I 
 am wronged; but I cherish no enmity against thee. 
 As Paul held the clothes of those who stoned Stephen 
 
208 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and afterwards met him in heaven, so do I entertain 
 the hope that by the mercy of Christ we may meet in 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 Now this is the very heart of the Gospel of Reconcil- 
 iation. 
 
 God by his Grace comes down to meet us, and we 
 by the exercise of a similar Grace go out to meet all 
 about us. This is "the truce of God," of which the 
 angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
 earth and good will toward men." Christ came to 
 bring peace of a three-fold sort; peace with God, peace 
 with ourselves and peace with our fellow men. And 
 in this interchange of Grace betwixt heaven and 
 earth lies the hope of that ultimate Utopia in which 
 "Man to man, the worid o'er, shall brothers be." 
 
 But how shall we attain unto it.? 
 
 Firsty by getting into vital communion with Christ; 
 that is, by accepting Him as the personal manifestation 
 of the Grace of God. 
 
 Second, by contemplating the divine Grace, as ex- 
 hibited on Calvary, until "the eye affecteth the heart." 
 
 If the debtor in the parable had not forgotten what 
 the king had done for him, he never would have dealt 
 so hardly with his fellow servant. If he had remem- 
 bered the ten millions of dollars, he would not have 
 been so particular about the seventeen dollars. So 
 then, let us take our place on Calvary and, looking 
 toward the cross, get some conception of what God 
 
THE GRACE OF FORGIVENESS. 209 
 
 has done in our behalf. An Oriental poet puts it in 
 this wise: 
 
 Once staggering blind with folly on the brink of hell, 
 Above the everiasting fire-flood's frightful roar, 
 God threw His heart before my feet; and, stumbling o'er 
 That obstacle divine, I into heaven fell! 
 
 Third, we shall assist ourselves into this attitude of 
 Grace by forming a just conception of the Canon of 
 Judgment which is to obtain on the Great Day; "For 
 with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to 
 you again." 
 
 I have read somewhere of an old-time baron who, on 
 hearing that an enemy, who had grievously wronged 
 him, was about to pass his castle, put his retainers 
 in martial array and said to his chaplain, "Ere we go 
 forth to our revenge, lead us in a prayer for victory." 
 The chaplain said, "Let us go apart, thou and I, and 
 say the Lord's prayer." They repeated it together until 
 they came to the petition, "Forgive us our trespasses 
 as we forgive those who trespass against us," where 
 the baron dropped out. "My lord," asked the chap- 
 lain, "why art thou silent.^" "I cannot say this." 
 "Then arise and go forth to meet thine enemy; but so 
 will God meet thee on the Great Day." 
 
 Is this hard doctrine.^ It is the teaching of Christ; 
 and as followers of Christ we should understand it; 
 since we profess to follow in His steps. He preached 
 the doctrine of forgiveness, and He exemplified it. Was 
 ever greater magnanimity than in His last prayer on 
 
210 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 the cross, " Father, forgive them for they know not 
 what they do " ? Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus 
 be also in us. If we are smitten, let us turn the other 
 cheek rather than resent it. If we are wronged, let us 
 not avenge it. A philosophy like this may entail a 
 measure of suffering; but we shall enter into sympathy 
 with our Lord in pursuing it. 
 
 "What can Jesus Christ do for you now?" said a 
 master who had bound his slave to the whipping-post. 
 "He can teach me how to forgive you, Massa," was the 
 answer. Aye, this our Lord can do: and in so doing 
 he will make us "partakers of the di\dne nature." In 
 Jesus we behold the vital union of God with humanity; 
 here is man at his best, in touch with God. Emerson 
 says, " His heart was as large as the universe, but there 
 was no room in it for the memory of a wrong." Our 
 imitation of Christ is the measure of our approach to 
 the full stature of manhood. And as Christians we are 
 bound to imitate Him in all things. At whatever cost 
 we must be Christlike, for a true Christian speaks on 
 this wise : " I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I 
 live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life 
 which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the 
 Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 
 
 THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would 
 grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with 
 might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
 by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to com- 
 prehend with all saints what is the breadth, andlength, and depth, and 
 height: and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that 
 ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3: 14-19. 
 
 Paul was a prisoner in the Praetorian Camp at Rome. 
 He had been condemned to chains for his persistency in 
 preaching the gospel of Christ. His enemies thought to 
 destroy his influence in that way. Foolish thought! 
 "Love laughs at locksmiths." There is no cutting the 
 sinews of an earnest man. 
 
 Tumble him down, and he will sit 
 Exultant on his ruins yet. 
 
 Lay him on a sick bed and his patience will preach, like 
 Chrysostom, with golden lips. Send him to a desert 
 island and he will plant aromatic herbs there whose 
 fragrance will be wafted far and wide. Kill him, bury 
 him, roll a stone against his sepulchre and, lo, his 
 disciples will walk the earth with messages of irrepressi- 
 ble truth. 
 
 So Paul, in chains, had to be reckoned with as a 
 strong man. He could no longer climb the Macedonian 
 
 (211) 
 
212 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 hills or cross the Syrian deserts, but he could dictate 
 letters to the churches and " bow his knees." By reason 
 of his dim sight and shackled arm he must needs do his 
 writing through an amanuensis, but he made his own 
 sign manual, " I, Paul, with mine own hand : Grace be 
 unto you ! " Wonderful letters they were, which serve as 
 formularies of Christian doctrine to this day. And won- 
 derful prayers, too. It is such prayers as this that 
 make the world go round. An ocean steamer holds its 
 way calmly and steadily toward its desired haven be- 
 cause down in the engine-room there are stokers at 
 work, grimy and stripped to the waist, feeding the fur- 
 naces. Who knows what would happen to this old 
 world of ours were it not for those earnest people who 
 in the secret places, unseen and unheard save by the 
 Lord of the universe, are ever pleading for the welfare of 
 nations and the children of men ? 
 
 Paul was praying here for the members of the Ephe- 
 sian Church. He had a singular interest in the welfare 
 of that church because it had been established and built 
 up under his ministry. Its present pastor was a young 
 friend, Timothy, his spiritual son, dear to him as the 
 apple of his eye. He knew the difficulties that beset the 
 congregation there, a feeble folk like the conies, worship- 
 ing under the shadow of the Temple of the great Diana. 
 The earnestness of his prayer is apparent in the fact that 
 his words go tumbling over each other, like heralds in 
 undue haste to carry the news. His heart is like a 
 galvanic battery which enables him, despite all hin- 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 213 
 
 drances, to commune, via the Throne of Grace, with 
 his distant friends. 
 
 The burden of his prayer is Power; " that ye may be 
 strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." 
 
 All the world loves a strong man. The reason why 
 Theodore Roosevelt is perhaps the most popular of liv- 
 ing rulers is because he is recognized as the consistent 
 apostle of the " strenuous life "; a strong man physically, 
 intellectually and spiritually; strong enough to lay a 
 kindly hand on each of two belligerent nations and 
 say, "Be at peace!" 
 
 The reverence for power is instinctive. One question 
 in "The Child's Catechism" that always finds an 
 answer is, "Who is the strongest man.?" The youth 
 who commands respect at college is the successful con- 
 testant: prize essayist, valedictorian or stroke-oar. In 
 business it is the man who pushes to the front. " Push '* 
 is the word. An ounce of that is worth a ton of " pull. " 
 In politics, in society, wherever you will, it is power 
 that tells. If this is true in secular affairs, how much 
 more in the Church of Christ? A Christian has no 
 right to be weak. Paul writes to Timothy, "Thou, 
 therefore, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus "; 
 and to the members of his church," Finally, my brethren, 
 be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." 
 To be strong is a duty; therefore, to be weak is a sin. 
 
 The strength here prayed for is spiritual strength ; or 
 as Paul phrases it, " strength in the inner man/* In this 
 expression he betrays his idea of dual personality. He 
 
214 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 conceives of himself as a complex being, in whom two 
 persons are constantly at strife; " the old man," Saul of 
 Tarsus, and "the new man," Paul the servant of Jesus 
 Christ; the carnal man and the spiritual man; the out- 
 ward man and the inward man. It is this inner or 
 spiritual man who, getting the better of his antagonist, 
 grows more and more in power and lives forever. 
 "Though our outward man perish," he says, in recog- 
 nition of his increasing ills and infirmities, "yet the in- 
 ward man is renewed day by day." 
 
 It will be remembered that Bismarck, smitten with 
 paralysis in his later years, went about with faltering 
 steps, his right arm dangling at his side: but let one 
 whisper to him, "Sedan!" or "Alsace-Lorraine!" and 
 see his form straighten and his eyes flash. His age fell 
 from him then like a garment. The eye of " the inner 
 man" was still bright and his natural force unabated. 
 And this is the divine, the immortal man. 
 
 The day came when Paul was led out along the road 
 toward Ostia to his execution. There were priests and 
 beggars and Arabs, merchants and sailors and camel- 
 drivers w^ho turned to look. What they saw was an 
 armed guard with a Jewish prisoner in chains ; a man of 
 "mean presence" outwardly, but destined to walk 
 through history like a Titan. The place was reached; 
 there was the flash of a heavy sword; a head fell from 
 the block. "There's an end of this zealot," said the 
 executioner to his men. Little they knew! The real 
 Paul could not be slain. He was destined to be heard 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 215 
 
 from. The " inner man " walks up and down in Church 
 councils to-day, a participant in all great theological 
 controversies, and will until the end of time. The death 
 of such a man is but the widening of his parish. 
 
 Out of sight sinks the stone 
 In the deep sea of time, but the circles sweep on! 
 
 And Paul points out the means of this strengthening: 
 "That ye might be strengthened with might hy His 
 Spirit in the inner man." It is by the influence of the 
 Holy Ghost that men grow in power. Holiness is power. 
 The Holy Ghost is so called because it is His official 
 function to make men holy. He is the squire of Chris- 
 tians, who equips the "good soldier of Christ" for 
 service. It is He who girds his loins with truth, buckles 
 on his breastplate of righteousness, binds on his feet the 
 sandals of the preparation of the gospel, puts the shield 
 of faith in his left hand and in his right the sword of the 
 Spirit which is the Word of God. 
 
 No man ever gathered about him a naturally weaker 
 or more inefficient body of helpers than did Jesus of 
 Nazareth. It was a company of fishermen and other 
 toilers, uneducated in the schools, without patronage, 
 weaklings in the face of duty and cowards in the front of 
 danger; who, at the critical moment, "all forsook Him 
 and fled." But after His resurrection He met them on 
 Mount Ohvet and gave them the great promise: "Ye 
 shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come 
 upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in 
 
216 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
 the uttermost parts of the earth. " Now mark the stupen- 
 dous change which was wrought upon those men by the 
 Pentecostal baptism of fire and power. They were 
 scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the 
 gospel. They crossed deserts and climbed mountains 
 as witnesses of Christ. They faced the gleaming sword, 
 the roaring lion and the blazing fagot. These fisher- 
 men, cowards and weaklings, were transformed by the 
 power of the Holy Ghost into the stuff that heroes and 
 martyrs are made of. 
 
 Any Christian may receive power in the same way. 
 For "if earthly parents know how to give good things 
 to their children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in Heaven, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him." \Miy then art thou lean, being the king's son ? 
 Why should one ever sing, " Dear Lord and shall we ever 
 live at this poor dying rate ? '* 
 
 But is it worth while to be thus strengthened by 
 God's Spirit in the inner man ? What is the purchase of 
 power? Are the results such as will warrant us in 
 earnestly striving for it.^ At this point the Apostle 
 speaks clearly ; he names the three results which follow 
 the strengthening of the inner man. 
 
 First, ''that Christ may dwell in your hearts by 
 faithr 
 
 This is distinctly a Christian truth. Who ever heard 
 of the indwelling of Buddha or of Mohammed ? Our 
 Lord makes much of it; as in the Parable of the Vine 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 217 
 
 and its Branches: "He that abideth in me, and I in 
 him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without 
 me ye can do nothing." So also in His sacerdotal prayer 
 for His disciples : " I in them and Thou in me, that they 
 may be made perfect in one; that the love wherewith 
 Thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them." 
 
 O, that we might be led into this mystery of the in- 
 dwelling of Christ! There are some who have a mere 
 speaking acquaintance with Him ; they know Him when 
 they see Him ; they salute Him and pass on. There are 
 others who have a visiting acquaintance with Him ; that 
 is, they meet Him at stated times, in the communion of 
 the closet at evening and again at break of day. But 
 there are others who have an abiding acquaintance with 
 Him; as He said, "Lo, I am with you alway." Their 
 lives are "hid with Christ in God." 
 
 The clew to this mystery is faith; as Paul intimates, 
 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.'" Our 
 Lord says, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if 
 any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come 
 in to him and will sup with him and he with me." Alas ! 
 that He should stand without, pleading to come in! 
 Faith is the hand outstretched to draw the bolt, to lift 
 the latch, to open the door, to let Christ in. And thus 
 to welcome Christ is to make certain our growth in 
 spiritual life. To appropriate Him in this manner is 
 to partake of His omnipotence. To believe is to be 
 strong. "According to your faith be it unto you." 
 
 Second, " that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. 
 
218 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Tnay he able to comprehend with all saints wJmt is 
 the breadthy and lengthy and depth, and height; and to 
 know the love oj Christ, which passeth knowledge." 
 
 By the " love of Christ" in this connection we are to 
 understand not our love toward Him, but His love 
 toward us. And just here is our ground of assurance. 
 Had Peter understood this, he would not have answered 
 Jesus as he did in that historic interview by the lake 
 shore. Thrice the Lord asked, "Lovest thou me?" 
 and thrice Peter answered, (but always, I think, with an 
 increasing waver of uncertainty in his voice.) "Yea, 
 Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." In view of his 
 frequent faults and backslidings and of his three-fold 
 denial, he well might entertain a doubt concerning him- 
 self. But suppose he had answered, "Lord, Thou 
 knowest that my oft-repeated weakness and disloyalty 
 prevent my being quite certain of my love toward Thee; 
 but this I do know, that Thou lovest me ! " Here is our 
 coign of vantage. Here is where we take hold of our 
 Lord's strength. For, after all it is not our love toward 
 Him but His love toward us that saves us. 
 
 O, this boundless love of Christ ! The Father's love is 
 set forth in John 3 :16, " God so loved the worid that He 
 gave His only -begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 in Him should not perish but have eternal life"; but the 
 Son's: love is announced in another "so" in Galatians 
 2 : 20, " Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. " The 
 Father's giving of His Son was indeed a manifestation of 
 a love unspeakable; but equally so was that of the Son 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 2 19 
 
 in giving Himself to suffering and death that we might 
 enter into life. It may be that Paul was making, for the 
 benefit of his Ephesian friends, a comparison of this 
 divine love with the dimensions of their great temple of 
 Diana. That was four hundred and twenty feet long, 
 two hundred feet wide and sixty feet in height. Any one 
 could walk about that temple and measure it. But the 
 love of Christ — its length and breadth and depth and 
 height — who could measure that.? Its length is like 
 eternity, its breadth is that of the universe, its pro- 
 fundity is unfathomable, and its dome is glorious with 
 celestial light. O, the love of Christ which "passeth 
 knowledge!" 
 
 Yet the Apostle says this unknowable may be known. 
 We cannot exhaust it, but we may enter into it. How ? 
 By being " rooted and grounded in love. " Love only can 
 comprehend love. A letter comes to me from a dear 
 old-fashioned friend, written in stilted phrases with a 
 cramped hand. You read it and smile ; there is nothing 
 there for you. Ah, but she is not your mother! Give 
 me the letter, now ; how it warms my heart and bedews 
 my eyes! Love only can comprehend love. God's 
 goodness is Sanskrit to all but His children. If you 
 would understand, you must yourself be rooted in it, 
 like a tree drawing its life from a fountain beneath the 
 hills; it knows water, because it drinks water and Uves 
 by it. 
 
 Thirdy " that ye might be filled with all the fulness of 
 God:' 
 
220 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Here is the climax of mysteries. " In Hym ye ben 
 fylled." What is this— the infilling of God? The 
 fulness of God dwelling in the soul of a mortal man! 
 
 Vse speak of " the immanence of God," and of " prac- 
 tising the presence of God"; and, indeed, if we could 
 but realize this, that God is ever with us, nearer than 
 touching or seeing, we would all be living different lives. 
 How "coy and tender to offend!" How eager to meet 
 the behest of duty! But here is something more than 
 the di\ine immanence : " to be filled with all the fulness 
 of God." I do not know what it means. It seems to 
 suggest the utmost possibilities of heaven. "Eye hath 
 not seen, ear hath not heard, neither have entered into 
 the heart of man the things which God hath prepared 
 for them that love Him." In that day we shall know, 
 and we shall be satisfied. The divine peace and glory 
 will flood our souls, when we are filled with the fulness 
 of God. 
 
 Meanwhile it is ours to long and aspire. If we may 
 not realize at once the full privileges of the transformed 
 life, we may at least covet them earnestly, and so doing 
 we shall approach them nearer every day. The secret 
 of attainment is desire. Rare beatitude ! " Blessed are 
 they that hunger and thirst; for they shall be filled." 
 
 The beginning of the fife that finds this glorious con- 
 summation is in the acceptance of Christ. No man 
 is making the journey who has not taken the first step. 
 The birth of " the inner man " is when one, hearing the 
 voice "I am Jesus," answers, as Saul of Tarsus did, 
 
THE SECRET OF POWER. 221 
 
 " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " All follows on 
 "the great renunciation." To one who has thus sur- 
 rendered himself to Christ, life is but the holding up of 
 his heart like a chalice to be filled at the infinite Foun- 
 tain. And so we pass on from grace to grace, from 
 glory to glory, until we shall be filled with all the fulness 
 of God. 
 
UNREALIZED IDEALS. 
 
 DREAM ON! 
 
 "Now it came to pass as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan 
 the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the Ark of the Covenant of 
 the Lord remaineth under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David, Do all 
 that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. And it came to pass the same 
 night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying. Go and tell David my 
 servant, thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in." 
 I Chronicles 17: 1-4. 
 
 A great purpose was in the king's heart. It came 
 to him while he sat in his house meditating on the 
 goodness of God. "As he was musing, the fire burned." 
 He dreamed a dream ; and it took the form of a splendid 
 temple. He called the Court Chaplain and laid the 
 matter before him; he approved as a matter of course: 
 " Go do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with 
 thee." But the Lord had still to be reckoned with; 
 on that same night He said to David, "Thou shalt 
 not build me an house to dwell in." So man proposes 
 and God disposes. We dream temples for the Most 
 High; and they prove to be castles in the air. 
 
 The thought of a temple was not original with 
 David; it had been in the mind of Moses centuries 
 before. In his memorable interview with Jehovah on 
 Sinai, he saw it projected in the skies; and when 
 built by the Israelites the tabernacle was "according 
 to the pattern shown in the Mount." The cedar posts 
 
 (222) 
 
UNREALIZED IDEALS. 223 
 
 and fine-twined curtains, the sacred utensils, the knobs 
 and fillets and almond-blossoms, were all fashioned 
 after the vision: and God's approval was manifest 
 when the Shekinah, the luminous symbol of His "ex- 
 cellent glory," came down and hovered over it. 
 
 But the plan of David was for larger things. " See, 
 now, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of 
 the Lord remaineth under curtains." The Tabernacle 
 might answer for primitive times, but the people had 
 outgrown it. His purpose, however, was thwarted, for 
 good and sufficient reasons. The fulness of time was 
 not come; the Jews had not gained an undisputed oc- 
 cupation of the land; the tabernacle was still a fitting 
 symbol of their unsettled state and the Lord would 
 dwell sympathetically among them as " a shifting trav- 
 eler from tent to tent." 
 
 Moreover, the hands of David, red-stained with 
 many wars, were not the proper hands to rear a sanc- 
 tuary. True, his wars were holy wars; but to every 
 man his work. Plato wisely said, "Each individual 
 is the result of a separate thought or concept in the 
 divine mind"; and it follows that each should be 
 content with the task divinely assigned to him. 
 
 The time came when Solomon dreamed the dream 
 of David over again, and brought it to a splendid con- 
 summation. Yet his temple was only a larger draught 
 or facsimile of the tabernacle which Moses had seen in 
 his vision. 
 
 Nor was this temple itself a complete or ultimate 
 
224 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 fabric. In the process of the years there came another 
 Son of David who said, " Destroy this temple and I 
 will rear it again"; and down came the temple. Its 
 walls were so wholly reduced by the fortunes of war 
 that "not one stone was left upon another." Yet that 
 destruction was only another chapter in the realization 
 of the dream; for now the Kingdom, the true "House 
 Magnificat," began to rise "without the sound of 
 hammer or of ax"; and history is the record of its 
 progress toward the final consummation when "the 
 tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He shall 
 dwell with them, and they be His people and He be 
 their God." 
 
 It thus appears that dreams and visions, great plans 
 and purposes, are not for naught. It may please God 
 to thwart their accomplishment within the narrow 
 scope of our vision, but that does not mean that He 
 disapproves, or that posterity will not complete them. 
 Did He not say to David, " Thou didst well that it was 
 in thy heart to build an house unto my name".? He 
 heard the proposal, admired, approved, commended 
 — and arrested it. 
 
 Yet David lost not heart nor abandoned aught of 
 his vision. He might not rear the temple; but he 
 could assemble the material for it. He prepared, ac- 
 cordingly, vast quantities of gold and silver. He stored 
 away the spoils of his conquered foes and the reve- 
 nues of his realm. He amassed a fund of " a hundred 
 thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver." 
 
UNREALIZED IDEALS. 225 
 
 He accumulated "brass and iron without weight." 
 He engaged mechanics and artificers. O mighty 
 faith! He was not destined to see a single beam in 
 place nor a single stone in the wall; yet he believed 
 that his vision would come true; and with all patience 
 and confidence he did the portion of the work which 
 God permitted him to do. 
 
 If there be somewhat of pathos in this narrative, 
 it is because life is always a melodrama. All its ideals 
 are elusive; yet all have their use. Are we not dream- 
 ing temples which we build not.^ Do not our neigh- 
 bors assure us that our enterprises are Utopian.^ So 
 be it: Utopia is the land that floweth with milk and 
 honey, promised to our fathers in reversion for the 
 unborn. xA.re we satisfied, then } Nay, God forbid 
 The hand of Thorwaldsen lost its cunning when he 
 made a masterpiece that satisfied him. If life were 
 complete it would not be worth living. We must take 
 eternity into the account. Our ideals are not realized 
 here because we need something to do in the incalculable 
 aeons before us. Our rebuffs are, therefore, our suc- 
 cesses; and the thwarting of our plans is the token 
 of our unending life. 
 
 I wonder if ever a song was sung 
 
 But the singer's heart sang sweeter? 
 I wonder if ever a hymn was rung 
 
 But the theme surpassed the meter ? 
 I wonder if ever a sculptor wrought 
 
 Till the cold stone echoed his ardent thought ? 
 
226 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Or if ever a painter, with light and shade. 
 The dream of his innermost heart portrayed? 
 
 We observe this in the affairs of secular life. No 
 man liveth to himself; he must reckon with posterity. 
 We frame anew and in larger lines the ideals of the 
 past and send them on unfinished to the generations 
 that come after us. Our great achievements are only 
 the measurable fulfillment of old dreams of long ago; 
 "measurable," because it remains for the future to 
 realize them. We say that the Suez Canal was com- 
 pleted under the direction of M. de Lesseps; but it 
 was originally projected by Pharaoh Necho, who 
 hoped to bind the Sea of the Rising with the Sea of 
 the Setting Sun. The Mont Cenis tunnel, one of the 
 most notable achievements of modern times, was con- 
 ceived about 200 B. C. by Hannibal, who, having led 
 his legions to the foot of the Alps, deliberated whether 
 it would be better to climb over or dig under them. 
 The Czar of Russia congratulates himself on the com- 
 pletion of the Siberian Railway; but his pride should 
 be tempered with humility in view of the fact that 
 Alexander the Great, on his campaigns of universal 
 conquest, planned a highway identical with it. Colum- 
 bus set forth in search of a western route to the Indies 
 and was disappointed; but his hope is abundantly ful- 
 filled in our trans-continental railways, which, con- 
 necting with Oriental steamships, bring us into touch 
 with the remote East. It is obvious, thus, that no 
 high purpose fails, only the future must ever be reck- 
 
UNREALIZED IDEALS. 9,9,1 
 
 oned with. The fathers sketched the temples we are 
 building, and we in turn commit to posterity the lay- 
 ing of the topstone. Our best-laid plans may "gang 
 aglee," our enterprises may be beaten back and our 
 cloud-capped towers vanish into thin air, but the Valley 
 of Achor is ever our door of hope. 
 
 The importance of this fact increases as we rise to 
 the higher levels of Hfe; as in character-building. It 
 is the part of every earnest man to make the most of 
 himself, putting forth his utmost endeavor to reach 
 the full stature of a man. The structural work of life 
 is suggested in the word "edification," which occurs so 
 frequently in Scripture. Its literal meaning is "temple 
 building." Growth in character is but dreaming a 
 temple and proceeding to rear it. 
 
 To this end, as good architects, we must begin by 
 making plans and specifications. And he is the wisest 
 builder who resolves to build "according to the pat- 
 tern shown him in the Mount." Our ideal well in 
 mind, all the rest is but filling out the silhouette; that 
 is, "going on unto perfection." Our model is Christ, 
 the " Son of Man," the Ideal Man. To hear His teach- 
 ing and imitate His graces is to grow in the practical 
 knowledge of truth and goodness. And here we 
 have everything to encourage us; for Christ offers 
 Himself not only as our Ideal but as an omnipo- 
 tent Helper. He is the Elder Brother who, climbing the 
 steep places in advance, lends a helping hand to us 
 who follow after, encouraging us with His great 
 
228 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 promise, *' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.*' 
 
 Yet here again we fail; that is, if incompleteness 
 be failure; for the best that any can say, having done 
 his best, is, "I am not what I ought to be; I am not 
 w^hat I mean to be; but by the grace of God I am what 
 I am." 
 
 Shall w^e be discouraged, then? Nay; that w^ere 
 surely to fail. Our partial success is ground for im- 
 measurable comfort, in that the boundless future is 
 before us. But suppose "death ends all".^ Then, in- 
 deed, life is not worth living. But death ends nothing. 
 It is only the veil which lifts to let us through, and 
 drops again behind us. But wx live right on. 
 
 The significance of death is in the fact that it form- 
 ulates our plans; it crystallizes our ideals; it deter- 
 mines forever what a man shall be. So it is written, 
 "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; he that is 
 filthy, let him be filthy still; he that is righteous, let 
 him be righteous still; he that is holy, let him be holy 
 still." There is no going back, now. The founda- 
 tions of the temple are laid; and the future marks the 
 progressive rearing of the superstructure, whether 
 or no God shall dwell in it. 
 
 But we must go a step further to reach the high- 
 est level of life. For, of course w^e understand that 
 secular success is not our business; and we know 
 to an equal certainty that self-culture is not our busi- 
 ness, else life would be but a poor, selfish and un- 
 satisfying thing. A man, by virtue of his birthright. 
 
UNREALIZED IDEALS. 229 
 
 is in vital relation with the family and with the Head 
 of the family of which he is a member; that is to 
 say, his supreme purpose has to do with God and his 
 fellow men. 
 
 A man begins to live on this highest level by form- 
 ing a definite thought as to his "career." It is impos- 
 sible to make a journey until one has taken the first 
 step. The question is, What shall I do with myself.^ 
 What disposition shall I make of my time, of my 
 physical, mental and moral energy, of the talents which 
 have been divinely entrusted to me.^ Shall I waste 
 them in riotous li\'ing? Shall I spend them in the 
 gratification of sordid ambition .^ Shall I use them for 
 the mere betterment of myself ? Or shall I invest them 
 in the behalf of my fellow men and the glory of God ? 
 "He builds too low who builds beneath the stars." 
 
 But let us assume that a man has chosen the high- 
 est and best; he will still fail to realize it. He will 
 climb his last mountain like Moses, praying, "Estab- 
 lish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the 
 work of our hands, establish thou it." But though 
 Moses was not permitted to enter the Land of Prom- 
 ise, was not his name written in letters of light on 
 all the historic institutions of the people who took 
 possession of it.'^ 
 
 If life were complete it would indeed be failure; 
 since there would be nothing before us. Once on a 
 time there lived a Man who did His very best; who 
 used every atom of His time and energy for God and 
 
230 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 His fellows; who never wasted an opportunity or fell 
 short of a privilege; who thought of all hut Himself 
 and ultimately gave Himself for others; who at the 
 last, dying in unspeakable agony, summoned the linger- 
 ing remnant of His powers and cried with a loud voice, 
 "It is finished!" What was finished? Was His life 
 finished? O, no; for "He that was dead liveth and is 
 alive for evermore." Did He mean that His dream of 
 conquest was over ? No, not that ; for He sits in heaven 
 "expecting until His enemies he made His foot-stool." 
 Did He mean that the temple of truth and righteousness, 
 which He had planned, was fully reared ? No ; since 
 He had only laid its foundations in His blood. His 
 meaning is clear from the commission He gave to His 
 disciples: "Go ye, evangeUze; and lo, I am with 
 you!" and again, "The works that I have done, ye 
 shall do also; and greater works than these shall ye 
 do." Nothing was ended but the beginning. He had 
 merely marked out the campaign of the centuries. He 
 now committed to His followers the realization of the 
 dream which had brought Him from His heavenly 
 throne; a dream which will not be rounded out until 
 the last resisting soul is converted and the glory of the 
 Lord shall come down among men. 
 
 The roll-call of heroes in the Eleventh of Hebrews 
 ends with a startling anticlimax. We read with kindling 
 eyes the record of the mightiest, how they journeyed 
 to strange countries, trusted in improbable prophecies, 
 esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
 
UNEEALIZED IDEALS. 231 
 
 the wealth of royal exchequers, compassed the walls 
 of hostile cities with preposterous rams' horns, com- 
 mitted their destiny to the strength of scarlet threads, 
 subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped 
 the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, 
 escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were 
 made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
 armies of the aliens, endured mockings and scourgings, 
 bonds and imprisonment, wandered in deserts and 
 mountains, in dens and caves of the earth — and then 
 abruptly we come to this strange denouement: "And 
 these all having obtained a good report received not 
 the promise, God having provided some better thing 
 for us, that they without us should not be made perfect !*' 
 Yet this, so far from being an anticlimax, is really the 
 magnificent climax of all life and history: for ever and 
 ever again life is complete only as a preparation for 
 life further on. 
 
 For what is life.^ One of the Cynics has defined it 
 as " a struggle against death with the certainty of being 
 conquered." Nay, rather, life is an arc of a great 
 circle, in which a man takes up the work of the fathers 
 where they left it and pushes it on until his hands are 
 cold and God says, "Let go!" Then others follow 
 him, as Solomon followed David, and the world moves 
 on. 
 
 And what is death? The beginning of life, on the 
 lines of preparation which we have marked out for it. 
 At death two things occur: On the one hand a man 
 
232 TUE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 commits to posterity his unifinishcd dream. The only 
 failure in the world is a finished life; the life that 
 ends at death, that has no relation to the future, that 
 closes with " Hie jacet. " That is a fiasco. It is no better 
 than the life of the beast that perisheth. Not so, how- 
 ever, does the breath of God go out of the nostrils of a 
 man. It was a true thing that Sheridan said when dying : 
 " I am called away to meet an imperative engagement, 
 but I will leave my character behind me." 
 
 And the other thing that happens is a translation 
 to the higher sphere of growth and usefulness. Our 
 present life in this probationary sphere is but an ap- 
 prenticeship, in which we are fitting ourselves for the 
 real business beyond. And, on this account its im- 
 portance grows more and more as w^e contemplate it. 
 "Make haste, O man, to five; for thou so soon must 
 die!" We shall never pass this way again. The foun- 
 dations of our eternal life must be laid now. Now or 
 never! Wherefore, whatsoever thy hand findeth to 
 do, do it. 
 
 And let us be sure in all our planning to reckon 
 with eternity. Dream on! Build castles in the air; 
 but put the foundations of truth and righteousness 
 beneath them. Have ideals; the loftier the better. 
 Let men call you visionary, if you will. Dream on! 
 Dream on! The great circle is ours. Eternity is be- 
 fore us. 
 
FAILURE. 
 
 DRIVEN BACK FROM THE BORDER. 
 
 "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Hebrews 
 3:19. 
 
 The reason why the children of Israel are so fre- 
 quently spoken of in Scripture as a "stiff-necked 
 people," is because they were so slow to learn the simple 
 lesson, "I am the Lord thy God." 
 
 A great destiny was marked out for them as a chosen 
 people. The Lord had promised to make bare His 
 arm for their deliverance from bondage and to lead 
 them into a land flowing with milk and honey. It was 
 only a fortnight's journey from Rameses to the foot- 
 hills of Canaan, yet they were kept wandering about in 
 the wilderness for a period of forty years! Why? 
 "Because of unbelief." They could not enter in until 
 they learned the lesson, "I am the Lord thy God." 
 
 On the third day after their departure they encamped 
 at Pi-hahiroth by the sea. The sound of horses hoofs* 
 was heard afar off, and the cry was raised that Pharaoh's 
 army was pursuing them. They were caught in a trap ; 
 what should they do? They gave themselves up to 
 despair, complaining of their folly in leaving Egypt. 
 It seems not to have occurred to them to trust in God. 
 But He interposed in their behalf and brought them 
 
 (233) 
 
234 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 through the sea. In the night they heard the rolling 
 back of the waters, the neighing of horses and the 
 shrill cry of strangling men. At daybreak the shore was 
 lined with bodies of the dead : and the song was raised, 
 " Who is like unto our God, glorious in holiness, fearful 
 in praises, doing wonders!" Now surely they had 
 learned their lesson; they would never more forget 
 that the Lord was their God. 
 
 Six weeks later they pitched their tents under the 
 shadow of Sinai. Never in all the course of history, 
 save at Golgotha, have there been such manifestations 
 of the divine presence and power as when Moses was 
 in the mountain receiving the laws and ordinances 
 which were to be the Constitution of the Theocracy. 
 But they were not suflScient to prevent these people 
 from lapsing into their besetting sin. "Up, make us 
 gods ! " they cry. The golden calf is erected and they are 
 circling about it in unholy orgies. "These are thy 
 gods, O Israel!" Their unbeHef that day cost them 
 three thousand lives. In all reason, this should have 
 taught them that the Lord was God. 
 
 The next summer they were at Kadesh-Barnea, on 
 the border of the promised land. Off yonder were the 
 "sweet fields, all dressed in living green." They had 
 only to march in and take possession; but, alas! their 
 hearts misgave them. Spies were sent to search out 
 the land; they returned, saying, "It is a land that 
 floweth with milk and honey; but its inhabitants are 
 giants, and we were but as grasshoppers in their sight ! " 
 
FAILURE. 235 
 
 Then more murmuring; "Oh that we had remained 
 in Egypt, with its flesh-pots and leeks and lentils!" 
 So back they went into the wilderness, whipped on by 
 unbelief, going round and round until they should 
 learn their lesson, that the Lord was their God. 
 
 Thirty-eight years have passed; and they are again 
 on the border. All along their weary pilgrimage they 
 have been led by the pillar of cloud. Not once has God 
 forsaken them; yet, under a momentary trial, they 
 give way again to murmuring; and the fiery serpents 
 are hissing through the camp. God interposes to save 
 them and still they are faithless and obdurate. O per- 
 verse and stiff-necked people: Back into the wilder- 
 ness they go again, to con their lesson that the Lord is 
 their God. 
 
 The forty years are over at last. Moses climbs the 
 mountain path and sings his farewell song: "Lord, 
 Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. 
 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou 
 hadst formed the earth and the world, even from ever- 
 lasting to everlasting Thou are God!" The waters 
 of the Jordan open before them, and they enter in. 
 
 It is a long story and pathetic. And a great truth is 
 involved in it, to wit, "According to thy faith be it unto 
 thee." We all fall measurably short of the destiny 
 which is divinely appointed for us by reason of unbelief. 
 
 There are multitudes who, on this account, fail to 
 enter the Promised Land of Life. 
 
 The question is, "What shall I do to be saved .^" 
 
236 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and the answer is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt be saved." Is there nothing else for me 
 to do ? Nothing. " This is the work of God, that ye 
 believe on Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." This is 
 the sole condition of life; but it is imperative and ul- 
 timate. 
 
 God, in making man in His own image and after His 
 likeness, must needs endow him with a sovereign will 
 — in other words. He must give him the power to do 
 right and wrong, as he should choose. And in seeking 
 to deliver him from sin and restore him to his lost in- 
 heritance He must, of necessity, appeal to his sovereign 
 will. He must "draw him with the cords of a man." 
 
 The way of salvation is made perfectly clear and 
 plain in the atonement of the cross; but God will not 
 compel any sinner to accept it. He did not force the 
 children of Israel to partake of the manna. It lay upon 
 the ground plenteous as hoar frost, free, absolutely 
 free, and enough for all. But a man might walk 
 through the camp, with manna all about his feet and 
 die of starvation, if he would not stoop down and 
 take it. 
 
 Faith is acceptance. It is the hand stretched forth to 
 receive the grace of God. Believe and live! The 
 promised land is ours for the entering. The windows 
 of heaven are open above us and the songs of redeemed 
 come this way. He that believeth shall pass in. Alas! 
 this is the very diflficulty. The way is so plain! If 
 God had required us to stand like Saint Simeon on a 
 
FAILURE. 2S7 
 
 pillar, beaten by the suns and storms for many years, 
 we, in our desire for everlasting life, might be willing 
 to earn it that way. But only to believe; to have life 
 for the mere taking; to stretch forth the hand and 
 say, "Lord, I will," ah, this is so hard, because so 
 easy. Thus men are driven back from the border by 
 their unbelief. O that they might learn the lesson of 
 divine grace! Our God is the God of salvation. The 
 cross is the supreme revelation of His majesty. Out of 
 the noon-day darkness of that mighty tragedy comes 
 the voice, "The Lord is your God!" 
 
 And many of those who have accepted Christ as 
 their Saviour are excluded from the Promised Land of 
 Peace by their unbelief. 
 
 This is the inheritance, "Peace I leave with you; 
 my peace I give unto you ; let not your heart be troubled, 
 neither let it be afraid." 
 
 Why then do we find in our hymn-books such lines as 
 these : 
 
 When Thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come 
 To take Thy ransomed people home. 
 
 Shall I among them stand? 
 Shall such a worthless worm as I, 
 Who sometimes am afraid to die, 
 
 Be found at Thy right hand ? 
 
 Can we not take Him at His word ? Suppose I ask 
 you, "Are your sins forgiven ? Have you *a title clear 
 to mansions in the skies'?" Do you answer, "I hope 
 so"? Why so? This is the language of unbelief. If 
 
238 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 I were to ask, "Have you an appetite for dinner?" 
 would you answer, "I hope so"? — "Do you love your 
 wife ? " " I hope so. " — " Have you paid your grocer's 
 bill ? " " I hope to."—" Do you own your house ? " " I 
 hope so." — Yet there is nothing surer in the world 
 than that, when we have accepted Christ, we have en- 
 tered into the earnest of our heavenly possessions. 
 Here is the manifesto : " There is, thereforey now no 
 condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the 
 law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me 
 free from the law of sin and death. For what the law 
 could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, 
 sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 
 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. — And we know tJiat 
 all things work together for good to them that love God. — 
 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for 
 us, who can be against us? He that spared not His 
 own son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall 
 He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who 
 shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is 
 God that justifleth. Who is he that condemneth? It 
 is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who 
 is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter- 
 cession for us. Who shall separate us from the love 
 of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecu- 
 tion, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As 
 it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; 
 we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in 
 
FAILURE. 239 
 
 all these things we are more than conquerers through 
 Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers 
 nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord/" 
 
 And we are excluded from the Promised Land of 
 Character by unbelief. 
 
 What is character.? Christlikeness. How is it 
 attained.? By the imitation of Christ. He came into 
 the world not only to save sinners but to show what 
 character is and what His people ought to be. And to 
 the end that we might be able to attain to character, He 
 has given us His Holy Spirit. The special and particu- 
 lar function of the Spirit is sanctification, that is, the 
 cultivation of character. So it is written, "The fruit 
 of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, faith." If a man believe in Christ he 
 is ever following in His footsteps, and, under the in- 
 fluence of His Spirit, growing to be like Him. But 
 alas, how slowly and laboriously we creep when we 
 ought to "fly up the shining way." How reluctantly 
 we surrender our old habits of sin, when we ought to 
 be joyously flinging them off and hastening on! Why 
 is this? Ah, we do not half beHeve in the presence 
 and power of the Holy Spirit. Too many of us are 
 like that group of primitive believers in Ephesus who, 
 when Paul asked them, "Have ye received the Holy 
 
240 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 i 
 
 Ghost since ye believed ? ** answered, " We have not 
 so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.'* 
 Yet He is our personal friend, ever with us, willing 
 and waiting to serve us. O for faith in the Holy Spirit, 
 by whose help we are able to "lay aside every weight 
 and the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with 
 patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus!" 
 
 And we are shut out from the Promised Land of 
 Power and Usefulness by unbelief. 
 
 The command is, "Be strong"; and we go mourn- 
 ing, "O my leanness!" Our duties and responsibilities 
 affright us. We are overcome by the heat and burden 
 of the day. AVhy ? 
 
 At the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration the dis- 
 ciples were put to shame because they were unable to 
 heal the demoniac boy. The Lord came down into the 
 midst, His face shining, and looking around upon His 
 disciples He said, " O ye faithless ones, how long shall 
 I bear with you ? " And afterwards when they asked, 
 " Why could we not heal the lad ? " He answered plainly, 
 " Because of your unbelief. " And He said, " If ye have 
 faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this 
 mountain. Remove hence to yonder place: and it shall 
 remove." A grain of mustard-seed is the symbol of 
 littleness ; but it has in it the power of life. The lifting 
 of a mountain is the symbol of impossibility; but all 
 things are possible to him that believeth. This is not 
 hyperbole, but simple truth. Of myself I can do nothing 
 
FAILURE. 241 
 
 but I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth 
 me! For faith is buttressed by the omnipotence of 
 God. 
 
 Once more, we are excluded from the Promised 
 Land of Conquest by unbelief. 
 
 Here is the weakness of the Church in these days. 
 It is appalling to reflect that eighteen hundred years 
 have passed since Jesus stood on Olivet and said to His 
 disciples, "All power is given to me in heaven and in 
 earth; go ye, therefore, and evangelize and, lo, I 
 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 Eighteen centuries ! And there are still twelve hundred 
 millions of unevangelized people on earth. Is this be- 
 cause the divine promise is ineffective.'^ Or because 
 the Church has been inadequate to her appointed task ? 
 Not at all. It is simply because the Church has not 
 believed in her commission. The nineteenth century 
 is frequently spoken of as "the great missionary cen- 
 tury"; and this is true, so far forth as that the number 
 of disciples has been more than doubled since the mis- 
 sionary movement began a hundred years ago. But O, 
 the land that still remains to be occupied! The souls 
 that are still unsaved ! The regions that still lie in dark- 
 ness and the shadow of death ! And alas, that so many 
 who profess to believe in Christ are still resting in 
 camp, murmuring under the shadow of the pillar of 
 cloud, and refusing to go forward. The unbelief of 
 God's people is absolutely the only obstacle in the way 
 of the present conquest of the world. 
 
242 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 We are a Christian nation. There are thirty mil- 
 lions of people in America who are more or less closely 
 allied with the Church. In their hands are the wealth, 
 culture and influence of our country. What are they 
 doing for universal evangelization ? Last year we 
 spent in America, fourteen hundred and fifty millions 
 of money for alcoholic beverages! And how much for 
 the conversion of the pagan world ? Possibly ten mil- 
 lions ! The consumption of beer was eighteen and one- 
 half gallons for every man, woman and child. Mean- 
 while the contribution to Foreign Missions was about 
 twelve and one-half cents per capital And we go on 
 singing, 
 
 Shall we whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high, 
 Shall we to men benighted the lamp of life deny. J* 
 Salvation, O salvation, the joyful sound proclaim. 
 Till earth's remotest nation has learned Messiah's name! 
 
 Enter in.^ Oh, no; not until we believe in our great 
 commission. Not until we take our Master at His word. 
 Not until we learn the lesson that the Lord is God. 
 There are those who do appreciate the situation and 
 recognize the fact that they are committed to the con- 
 quest of the world. But there are multitudes on multi- 
 tudes who are making a grim and ghastly farce of it. 
 Enter in.? No, never this way. We shall go wander- 
 ing about in the wilderness for centuries, until we un- 
 derstand that when God speaks. He means it. 
 
 In the spring of 1807, a great crowd was assembled 
 on the wharf in New York to witness the trial trip of 
 
FAILURE. ^43 
 
 Robert Fulton's boat, the Clermont. They called it 
 "Fulton's Folly." He says that on that day he heard 
 many "sarcastic remarks." They were making sport 
 of him. But presently clouds of steam and smoke 
 puffed from her smoke stacks, the spray began to fly 
 from her paddle wheels and the first steamboat of 
 history moved out into the river. Then the laughter 
 ceased; and as the Clermont moved up the Hudson, 
 her builder, standing on her deck, smiled as in the 
 distance he heard the sound of cheering. 
 
 The secret of Fulton's success lay in a profound 
 belief in his work. He knew that right principles were 
 involved in the machinery of the Clermont. This is the 
 faith that ever wins. Our work is the bringing of the 
 nations to the knowledge of Christ. O for a larger 
 faith in the enterprise of the Gospel, and the outcome 
 which rests upon the veracity of the living God. Let 
 us believe that the ships of Tarshish will come from 
 afar, the rams of Nebaioth and the dromedaries of 
 Midian, and that all the nations shall render obeisance 
 to our Lord. Thus believing, we shall lend a hand, 
 and our lives will tell to the glory of God. 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 
 
 THE FIXED HEART. 
 
 "My heart is fixed, God; my heart is fixed." Psalm 57: 7; 108: 1; 
 112:7. 
 
 How does it happen that these same words occur 
 thrice in different portions of the Book of Psalms ? This 
 repetition is regarded in some quarters as indicating a 
 haphazard arrangement, and so mihtating against the 
 accepted theory of inspiration. But a brief examination 
 of the matter will show that the very opposite is true. 
 
 The Psalter was the Hymn Book of ancient Israel, 
 and was used on various occasions just as hymn books 
 are used in these days. The title by which it was 
 usually known was Tehillim, or "Praises." It is 
 divided into five Parts, which were put together at dif- 
 ferent times. Part One consists of forty-one Psalms, 
 chiefly David's, collected shortly after his death. Part 
 Two, of thirty-one Psalms, was compiled a little later 
 by the Levites, in charge of the musical service of the 
 Temple. It concludes with the words, "The prayers 
 of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." Part Three, 
 seventeen Psalms, was edited by Asaph, the choir 
 leader, under an order of King Hezekiah referred to 
 in II. Chron. 29 : 30. Parts Four and Five were added 
 
 (244) 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 245 
 
 by Ezra and Nehemiah in the time of the Restoration. 
 It will be seen that in a book thus collated, for divers 
 times and occasions, it was by no means extraordinary, 
 but quite natural, that certain portions should occur 
 more than once. How natural this is will be made 
 obvious by reference to the Psalters and Hymnaries 
 used in these days. 
 
 We shall find a definite reason for the repetition of 
 these particular words in the different purposes which 
 the Psalms containing them were intended to serve. 
 The Fifty-seventh, where we first find them, was un- 
 doubtedly written by David, probably in the Cave of 
 Adullam, and intended for the temple service. It begins 
 with a complaint; "Be merciful unto me, O God; I 
 will make my refuge in the shadow of Thy wings!" 
 and it concludes with a protestation of earnest trust, as 
 if the Psalmist had come to the doorway of the cave 
 and were gazing upward, " I will sing unto Thee, O 
 Lord ; for Thy truth is great unto the clouds ! " This has 
 been a favorite song in the public worship of the Jews, 
 even to this day; like the Christian hymn so closely 
 alUed to it in sentiment, 
 
 Jesus, lover of my soul. 
 Let me to Thy bosom fly! 
 
 All my trust on Thee is stayed. 
 All my help from Thee I bring; 
 
 Cover my defenceless head 
 With the shadow of Thy wing. 
 
246 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 The One-hundred-and-eighth, in which the words 
 occur again, was a compilation made by uniting por- 
 tions of the Fifty -seventh and Sixtieth, and was clearly 
 intended for use in troublous times. It has been called 
 the Soldier's Morning Hymn. It was used in the time 
 of the EngUsh Revolution by the Parliamentary Army, 
 when once and again the hoarse voices of the Round- 
 heads commended their cause to heaven in the words, 
 "My heart is fixed, O God; my heart is fixed!" and 
 emphasized them with their historic battle-cry, "God 
 with us!" 
 
 The One-hundred-and-twelfth, in which the expres- 
 sion occurs for the third time, is an acrostic, intended 
 to be committed to memory by children in the rabbini- 
 cal schools and used particularly at the paschal feast. 
 
 It is made very clear by this repetition that the truth 
 thus accentuated is a most important one. The word 
 nachon, rendered "fixed," hterally means prepared; it 
 is used elsewhere to designate a wise preparation for 
 life, duty, battle, trial or death. We read of Reho- 
 boam, the grandson of David, that he " did evil, because 
 he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord" (2 Chron. 
 12: 14); that is, his reign was a failure because he 
 lacked that fixity of heart which had given the keynote 
 to his royal grandfather's long and successful adminis- 
 tration of affairs. So then if we take these words apart, 
 we shall expect to find the secret of a successful Hfe. 
 
 How, then, is the heart to be fixed ? 
 
 I. It must be grounded deeply in Truth. 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 247 
 
 We are reminded again and again that we are living 
 in an age of unrest. The foundations of the deep are 
 broken up and men's hearts are faihng them for fear. 
 The attitude of many toward the great verities is one 
 of doubt, wonder and questioning. It is by no means 
 certain that this is pecuUar to our time. The spirit of 
 unbeHef has always stood gazing into the face of 
 revelation asking, with lifted eyebrows, "What is 
 truth ? " But now, as ever, it is of immense importance 
 that earnest people should plant their feet on terra 
 firma and be able to speak without a rising inflection as 
 to the rudimental facts of the spiritual and eternal life. 
 
 These facts, when reduced to the minimum, are three; 
 and these three are so woven into the very warp and 
 woof of our religion that all who profess to be Christians 
 should be able to say, " These things I know ! *' 
 
 The first of these is the personal God. 
 
 He who is not firmly persuaded in his own mind 
 as to whether God is Law, Insensate Force, an All- 
 pervading Soul, a Something not Ourselves that Mak- 
 eth for Righteousness, or a loving Father with eyes to 
 see, a heart to pity and power to help His children in 
 the stress of temptation and conflict, is likely to follow 
 in the steps of Rehoboam and make a failure of his life. 
 He who Cometh to God "must believe that He is, and 
 that He is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek 
 Him." 
 
 The second of the essential truths is Christy the ordy- 
 begotten Son of God. 
 
248 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 It is not enough for a Christian to hold with Jean 
 Paul that "He was mightiest among the mighties." 
 Not a few of those who profess the Gospel in our time 
 are insistent on their loyalty to Christ, while practically 
 denying the three great miracles which attest His claims; 
 to wit, His Incarnation, His Atonement and His Resur- 
 rection from the dead. There must be no uncertainty 
 at this point. There is no middle ground. Christ was 
 an impostor or He was what He claimed to be. He has 
 no peers. He is not 'primus inter pares. He is not one 
 of many "sons of God," but stands alone and solitary 
 as God's " only -begotten Son." 
 
 In the Memoirs of Charles Lamb it is related that 
 a company of gentlemen sat together discussing the 
 personahty of Christ, when one remarked, "If Solon, 
 Caesar, Lycurgus or Jesus were to enter here, we should 
 all rise to salute him." ^Vhereupon Lamb said, "Yes, 
 gentlemen; if Solon, Caesar or Lycurgus entered we 
 should all stand up; but if Christ came in we should 
 all fall upon our knees." This is the difference of view 
 which must be recognized as marking the contrast 
 between those who accept Jesus and those who reject 
 Him. We, who are Christians do homage to many, but 
 to Jesus we say, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
 The third of the vital facts of our religion is the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Here again there is a very considerable diversity of 
 view; but there can be none among the people of God. 
 To them the Holy Spirit is not a mere influence that can 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 249 
 
 be characterized by a neuter pronoun, but the veritable 
 Third Person of the Godhead; who is the Author and 
 Source of life in Regeneration, its Sustainer and Pro- 
 motor in Sanctification, and the Director and Executive 
 in the administration of the kingdom of God. We 
 receive from Him our enduement of power for service 
 and, therefore, are constantly dependent upon Him. 
 As an electric car stops at the moment when its fuse 
 burns out or the current is arrested, so the life of a 
 Christian comes to a standstill when he slights or 
 ignores his vital dependence on the Spirit of God. 
 
 The truths thus outlined form the minimum, and 
 at the same time, in their full significance, a complete 
 compendium of Christian faith ; on which we must take 
 our stand without an "if" or "perhaps." And this is 
 not easy when the atmosphere about us is full of un- 
 belief. Our position is as that of George Wilson of 
 Edinburgh, who, when told that the world was against 
 him, replied, *' What matter that ? A man must stand 
 on his own feet when he answers to God. " 
 
 If he believes it, let him stand and say, — . 
 
 Although in scorn a thousand lips are curled, — 
 "Though no one else believe, I hold my faith 
 Like Athanasius against the world!" 
 
 II. So much for the foundation of truth; now as to 
 Moral Principle. 
 
 It is not enough for the heart to be fixed in sound 
 belief; it must be fixed, also, in right Rules of Conduct; 
 
250 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and this follows as a matter of course, since "As a man 
 thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
 
 To say that ours is an age of loose livinjr is only to 
 add the logical corollary to the statement, We are 
 living in an age of intellectual unrest. Creed and con- 
 duct go together. The same conditions which militate 
 against a loyal adherence to the rudimental facts of the 
 Gospel, are operative against the moral sanction of 
 personal and social life. If a tree be rightly rooted and 
 grounded, it wall fulfill the law of its being in appropriate 
 foliage and fruit; otherwise not. The prevalence of 
 Herbert Spencer's philosophy, as set forth in his Data 
 of Ethics, in w^hich he supplants the thought of a 
 personal God by that of Evolution and a consequent 
 "adjustment to ends," is responsible not only for much 
 of the loose thinking, but also, in large measure, for 
 the loose living of our time. It is as impossible to have 
 morality without a soul, as it is to have religion without 
 a God. 
 
 In the prevalent aversion to Puritan modes of living 
 the pendulum has been permitted to swing quite too 
 far the other way. In the Church it is notorious that 
 ministerial vows are interpreted by a process of verbal 
 jugglery which amounts to a practical denial of both 
 the dictionary and the Word of God. And the standard 
 of morality in the rank and file of church-membership 
 has been greatly affected by a lamentable obliteration 
 of the lines dividing between worldliness and Christian 
 consecration. What is to be done.^ We cannot pre- 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 251 
 
 scribe for those who reject or disavow the Gospel ; but 
 to Christians we are bound to say, Be not "taken up 
 in the Hps of talkers"; and "follow not a multitude to 
 do evil." Truth and righteousness must meet to- 
 gether and kiss each other in our walk and conversa- 
 tion. We are under bonds to know what we believe 
 and to ground our principles upon it. 
 
 And here again there are some rudimental facts, 
 briefly three, which are treated lightly in some quarters ; 
 but which cannot be set aside or slighted in any degree 
 without jeopardizing our Christian life and character. 
 
 The first of these is Law. 
 
 And by this we mean not simply "the law of our 
 being," as we speak of the law of a crystal or of a tree; 
 but Law with a Law-giver behind it; the Law that 
 went forth from Mount Sinai, with the sound of a 
 trumpet waxing louder and louder; the Law that finds 
 its supreme expression in the word, "Thus saith the 
 Lord!" 
 
 The second of the great moral facts to be received 
 without demur or hesitation is The Authority of Con- 
 science. 
 
 By this, again, we mean more than the innate moral 
 sense by which we are enabled to discern "betwixt the 
 worse and better reason." We mean the inner response 
 of the soul of a man to the voice of the Father who made 
 him in His own likeness and after His image. God 
 says, "Thou shalt!" and conscience answers, "I 
 must'" The sanctity of this Law finds its highest 
 
252 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 expression in the behest of duty. A "conscience void 
 of offense " recognizes the heinousness of sin and hates 
 and abhors it, because God hates and abhors it. A 
 "quick conscience" answers, "No," to the pointed 
 finger, to the alluring smile, to the itching palm, to the 
 brimming cup ; and, " Yes," to the nod and beck of God. 
 
 The third of the supreme moral facts is Retribution. 
 
 It is the fashion nowadays to look exclusively on 
 the milder side of the divine nature and character; 
 insomuch that men wonder whether, when God said, 
 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," He really meant it. 
 But here as elsewhere He must be taken at His word. 
 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap." There is a tre- 
 mendous truth in the word "hell"; which, indeed, 
 must be uttered with bated breath, yet never with 
 mouthing or mumbling. The trumpet that sounded 
 from Sinai is sounding still and will sound its loudest on 
 the Great Day when all shall be summoned to the bar 
 of judgment and when the line shall be forever drawn 
 between those who depart into outer darkness and 
 those who enter into eternal life. 
 
 Now, these underlying facts of "common morality," 
 as it is called, must be maintained as vigorously as the 
 great fundamental truths of the Gospel. With respect 
 to these the Christian must be able to say, " O God, my 
 heart is fixed!" To Him it matters not how popular 
 opinion may seem to be against Him; he must not 
 swerve from his conviction, but brace himself against 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 253 
 
 the divine authority, as did Fitz James against the face 
 of the beethng cHff when the hosts of Roderick Dhu 
 appeared, saying," Come one, come all! This rock 
 shall fly from its base as soon as I!" 
 
 III. Somuchfor truth and principle; now as to Pur- 
 pose. For doctrinal and moral convictions are vain 
 unless they be formulated by a ruling purpose in life. 
 
 There are those who live without an aim. Their 
 hearts are not fixed. They ate like ships without chart 
 or compass ; the sport of the wayward winds. 
 
 There are others who have a low or wrong aim; 
 they concentrate their energies on the pursuit of wealth 
 or pleasure or the attainment of worldly emolument. 
 And, in the long run, it matters Httle whether they fail 
 or succeed; for, when their lives are ended, they leave 
 all behind them and return "to the vile dust from 
 whence they sprung, unwept, unhonored and unsung." 
 
 But there are others still who seek the highest and 
 best. Their desire is to contribute to the welfare of 
 their fellow men and the glory of God. " He aims too 
 low who aims beneath the stars.'* Let the world's peo- 
 ple seek what they will, it must be ours as the people 
 of Christ to pursue the path which has been divinely 
 marked out for us. We are "sent," as Christ Himself 
 was sent, to do our Father's business; and we are 
 solemnly covenanted to devote ourselves to it. 
 
 But it requires a spirit of unceasing resolution to live 
 that way. The will must be kept in constant touch and 
 sympathy with the divine will. In the diary of Jonathan 
 
254 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Edwards we come upon this entry, under date of a 
 certain June 6th: "If there be only one man on earth 
 who remains true to his convictions and faithful in the 
 service of his Master; Resolved, that I, ])y the grace of 
 God, will be that man." And in one of Charles Kings- 
 ley's letters he says, "I have been an hour on the 
 seashore forming resolutions for time and eternity; let 
 me reduce them all to one; I do now, in a vow be- 
 yond recall, give myself to God." Thus speaks the 
 heart that is fixed; and this, I say, is the secret of a 
 successful life. 
 
 But how shall we reach it.^ When the very air is 
 vibrant with compromise and tremulous with indeci- 
 sion, how shall we plant our feet upon the rock and keep 
 them there? Assuming that we have accepted Christ 
 as our Prophet, Priest and King, it remains to keep in 
 constant company with Him. 
 
 The phrase, so familiar in our time, " Practising the 
 presence of God," was current among the mystics long 
 ago; it is full of helpful suggestions for Christians who 
 would be confidently steadfast in all the emergencies of 
 life. When a railway-train goes into a tunnel, there is 
 not a little child aboard who does not draw closer to its 
 mother and grip her hand. So must the Christian, 
 when under the stress of trial or temptation, come closer 
 to God. We must catch the meaning of our Lord when 
 He bade us " pray without ceasing." The morning and 
 the evening prayer and the occasional ejaculation are 
 not enough. A paragraph of Scripture at the opening 
 
STEADFASTNESS. 255 
 
 of the day is not enough. We must abide in prayer 
 and in the Word. Here is our safeguard : 
 
 For when in life we're tempest tossed, 
 
 And conscience such a canker, 
 A correspondence fixed wV heaven 
 
 Is sure a noble anchor. 
 
 And all the rest is "looking unto Jesus." 
 He asks us to enter " no darker doors than He passed 
 through before." It will be remembered that, on the 
 night before His crucifixion, He and His disciples 
 "sang an hymn and went out." The hymn which He 
 sang with them was, in all likelihood, the Paschal Psalm 
 in which these words occur: "O God, my heart is 
 fixed!" And, descending the outer stairway from that 
 upper room, He set His face steadfastly toward the 
 cross. He swerved not an hair's breadth from His reso- 
 lution to pursue His redemptive purpose to the end. 
 Mocked, derided, suspended between heaven and earth 
 in mortal agony. He continued on His appointed path 
 until He cried, " It is finished ! " and went back to the 
 glory which He had with the Father before the world was. 
 He is our Exemplar. "If any man will come after 
 me," He said, "let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross and follow me." With faith inflexible, with reso- 
 lution steadfast, with heart fixed in truth and principle 
 and high purpose, we run the race which is set before 
 us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our 
 faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand 
 of the throne of God. 
 
HOSANNA? 
 
 SAINTS TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 "And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others 
 cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. And the 
 multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna 
 to the Son of Davidl Blessed is he that cometh in tne name of the Lotd; 
 Hosanna in the highest!" Matthew 21:8-9. 
 
 The tenth of Nisan was usually a quiet day in Jeru- 
 salem. The people were engaged in preparing for the 
 celebration of the Passover, which would begin in four 
 days. The temple choirs and orchestras were rehears- 
 ing the music for the Hallel Psalms. Householders 
 were putting their guest-chambers in order for ex- 
 pected friends. Farmers were driving their flocks into 
 enclosures outside the gates, where those intending to 
 sacrifice might purchase them. Pilgrims were throng- 
 ing into the city by all the caravan routes. An un- 
 wonted stir was manifest among the people, owing to 
 a rumor that Jesus of Nazareth was likely to attend 
 the feast. He had been pronounced a disturber of the 
 peace, and it was known that if He came it would be at 
 peril of His life. He was now at the village of Bethany 
 and might arrive at any moment. A company set forth 
 to meet Him; and when He was seen approaching by 
 the road leading over the Mount of Olives, they has- 
 tened on, tearing branches from the palm-trees along 
 
 (256) 
 
HOSANNA ! 257 
 
 the way. They fell in with the caravan and swelled 
 their acclamations, "Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of 
 David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord!" The pilgrims came down the mountain road, 
 crossed the ford of the Cedron and presently entered 
 the Damascus gate. The city was profoundly moved; 
 people gazed from the housetops or leaned out of the 
 lattices as the strange procession passed by. The cap- 
 tain of the Roman garrison, at the Castle of Antonia, 
 looked on with apprehension, knowing well the attitude 
 of the Jewish leaders toward this man. The rabbis 
 of the Sanhedrin discussed the matter with ominous 
 bitterness, saying to each other, ''Behold, how the 
 world has gone after Him!" 
 
 The next day, Monday, our Lord taught in the 
 temple and wrought miracles in vindication of His 
 divine authority. He then returned to Bethany to 
 spend the night. Already the enthusiasm of the multi- 
 tude had oozed away. A few hosannas were uttered 
 by little children; and these He was asked to rebuke: 
 but He said, " Have ye never heard. Out of the mouth 
 of babes and sucklings God hath ordained praise?" 
 
 Tuesday was ''the day of temptations." The 
 scribes and Pharisees beset Him with test questions 
 such as the tribute money, the seven-fold widow and 
 the greatest commandment, hoping to entrap Him. He 
 knew their purpose, saw through their malignant 
 hypocrisy and reproved them: "Woe unto you, scribes 
 and Pharisees, generation of vipers! How shall ye 
 
258 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 escape the damnation of hell ? " That evening when 
 He returned to Bethany there were no hosannas along 
 the way. 
 
 Wednesday was dies non. Jesus remained in re- 
 tirement at Bethany. In Jerusalem the ecclesiastical 
 rulers were conspiring against Him. 
 
 On Thursday, the day of farewells, He returned to 
 the city and met His disciples in the upper room, where 
 He spoke to them plainly of His approaching death and 
 bade them be of good comfort : " Peace I leave with 
 you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid!" The meeting closed with the Great Hallel: 
 "O, praise the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy 
 endureth forever!" iVfter which they went out to the 
 Mount of Olives, where at midnight Jesus was arrested 
 to be haled before the Jewish court. 
 
 On Friday morning at nine o'clock He was led to 
 execution. The distance from the Castle of Antonia 
 to Golgotha was almost a mile ; it was a mile of torture. 
 The prisoner, weak from scourging, staggered under 
 the burden of His cross. He wore upon His breast a 
 i'duluni on which w^as inscribed, "This is Jesus, the 
 King of the Jews." No sound escaped His hps; the 
 mob that followed cried, " Crucify Him ! Crucify Him ! 
 Away with Him!" 
 
 Who were these people, so frenzied and athirst for 
 blood? The same who four days ago had welcomed 
 Jesus as the Son of David. And is there none to 
 cry, "Hosanna!" now.^ Not one! The surging mob 
 
HOSANNA ! 259 
 
 is Impatient for His death. Strange, do you say? 
 Nay, there is nothing strange in the fluctuation of 
 popular opinion. The world is full of fickle folk. 
 Four days are quite enough for an ordinary impression 
 to wear off. Did not Hosea say to the people, "Your 
 goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew 
 it goeth away " .^ I believe that all who come under the 
 influence of the gospel are at one time or another, 
 sooner or later, moved to accept it; but, alas, how often 
 the mood ends with a " Go thy way for this time." The 
 meeting is dismissed with the benediction; and the 
 world waits at the door. "Hosannas languish on our 
 tongues, and our devotion dies." How shall we account 
 for this .P Or is there any lesson to be learned from it ? 
 
 I. Feeling is not enough in matters pertaining to 
 the spiritual life. 
 
 The feelings must, indeed, be enlisted. God knows, 
 we are all too dull and cold. The vision of Calvary is 
 enough to break an angel's heart; and, lo, we stand be- 
 holding. " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by .? " 
 
 But if feeling be all, it will pass like foam from the 
 water when the wind dies. Sentimental considerations 
 are, of themselves, of only temporary value. I warn 
 you against the tearful enthusiasm which is aroused by 
 impressive observances. The people who are going 
 about our streets on Palm Sunday with green branches 
 in their hands are not all disciples of Christ. 
 By their fruits ye shall know them. It is not so im- 
 portant that we should cry "Long live the king!" as 
 
260 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 that we should faithfully serve him. We shall pres- 
 ently be observing the solemnities of Good Friday; and 
 multitudes of people will be moved to tears by the 
 story of the Passion, in sermon and song, who have 
 no real purpose of accepting the benefits of that passion 
 or of surrendering themselves to Christ. Feeling is not 
 conviction. The hymn 
 
 In the cross of Christ I glory, 
 Tow 'ring o'er the wrecks of time; 
 All the light of sacred story 
 Gathers round its head sublime. 
 
 was written by Sir John Bowring, who regarded Christ 
 as a mere man. And then we shall come to Easter 
 Sunday; and thousands who never attend church at 
 other times, will be momentarily moved by the music 
 and argument of the resurrection, only to turn again 
 to the world and forget all about Christ and the life 
 and immortaHty which are brought to light in His 
 gospel. 
 
 In the time of Isaiah the Jewish people reached 
 the very lowest ebb of spiritual declension: yet that 
 was the golden age of liturgical splendor. Never 
 had there been such hecatombs laid upon the altar; 
 never such devotion to religious pomp and circum- 
 stance. And the Lord said, "Hear the word of 
 the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom and ye people of Gomor- 
 rah: to what purpose is the multitude of your sacri- 
 fices unto me? I am full of the burnt offerings of 
 rams, and the fat of fed beasts. Bring no more vain 
 
hosanna! 261 
 
 oblations : incense is an abomination unto me ; the new 
 moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can- 
 not away with. Your new moons and your appointed 
 feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I 
 am weary to bear them. Your hands are full of blood! 
 Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of, your 
 doing from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to 
 do well." 
 
 II. It is evident, then, that Feeling must be sup- 
 plemented by Intellectual Conviction. 
 
 Nor is that enough. We must, indeed, as Peter 
 says, be ready always to give to every one that asketh 
 a reason for the faith that is in us (I Pet. 3:15). And 
 to this end we must think for ourselves, study our 
 Bible and confer with God. We must fortify our feel- 
 ings by mental processes which are like the digging of 
 entrenchments. You say, "I believe in a personal 
 God." Why? "I believe in the atonement." Why? 
 "I believe the Bible is true." Can you defend that 
 proposition when the next hostile critic assails it ? " I be- 
 lieve in immortality." Are you ready with your apologia ? 
 
 But suppose you are; it does not follow that you 
 are a true Christian. Orthodoxy, however important, 
 is not religion. An attache of the German Embassy 
 was asked, "Is Bismarck a Christian?" He replied, 
 " What would you have him be ? A Turk ? " It is not 
 enough to be in the Establishment or to be able to 
 give a reason for being there. Religion must go deeper. 
 Many splendid theologians have been ungodly men. 
 
262 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 If orthodoxy were sufficient to save, then the Phar- 
 isees would have been pronounced the best people in 
 Israel; for they were the representatives of the strictest 
 orthodoxy of their day, loyal to every one of the great 
 doctrines and able to defend them. They were the 
 religious leaders of their time. Yet Jesus said to the 
 people, "Except your righteousness shall exceed that 
 of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
 the kingdom of God." Observe, He did not cast any 
 reproach upon their orthodoxy; nor could He, since an 
 intellectual conviction is necessary to faith. He said 
 that a true believer must go as far as the Pharisees did, 
 and beyond it. His righteousness must " exceed " theirs 
 if he would enter the kingdom of God. 
 
 III. So then neither Feeling nor Intellectual Con- 
 viction can furnish us with a satisfactory faith; Con- 
 science must be reckoned wdth. 
 
 It is well to emphasize this; because we are living 
 in a time of moral looseness. In many quarters it 
 seems to be assumed that Church-membership is a suffi- 
 cient voucher for eternal life. Square yourself with 
 the liturgy; and then go as you please. It is of little 
 consequence what you think about the Sabbath and the 
 rest of the Moral Law. But this is not the teaching of 
 Christ. If we are to follow Him we must make room 
 in our philosophy for the ethical imperative. The word 
 Ought must find its way into our life and dominate it. 
 
 But conscience is not enough. If it were, then Saul 
 the inquisitor had no need of conversion, since he was 
 
HOSANNA ! 263 
 
 following his conscience, deeming himself to be doing 
 God's service, in haling Christians to judgment and 
 death. If sincerity were enough, then Gregory VII, 
 that monster of tyranny and oppression, whose name, 
 " Hildebrand, " is a hissing and a byword, because he 
 climbed to his papal throne on the ruins of civil and 
 domestic life, is worthy to be in the saints' calendar, 
 since he died saying, " I have loved righteousness and 
 hated iniquity." There is not an age-buttressed form 
 of error or superstition which has not had its devotees 
 ready to attest their sincerity by deeds of self-sacrifice 
 even unto martyrdom. We say that a man is bound 
 to follow his conscience; but suppose his conscience 
 is "seared as with an hot iron," or turned aside as the 
 mariner's needle is at times deflected from its normal 
 course.'^ "There is a way which seemeth right unto a 
 man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death" 
 (Prov. 14:12). We are bound to do right; and if our 
 consciences are wrong, we are bound to rectify them 
 by putting them under the control of God. So Jesus 
 taught: "Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he 
 that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have 
 we not prophesied in Thy name ? And in Thy name 
 have cast out devils ? And in Thy name done many 
 wonderful works? And then will I profess unto 
 them, I never knew you." (Matt. 7: 5il-23). It thus 
 appears that what are called "conscientious convic- 
 
264 THE EVOLUTION OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 tions" may have no real or permanent value. Punc- 
 tiliousness is not piety. A scrupulous life may be an 
 unholy one. 
 
 IV. To Feeling and Intellectual Conviction and 
 Conscientious Sincerity must be added Resolution. 
 
 The will must perform its part. The girdle must 
 be drawn tight about the loins. For want of this many 
 fail. They reach the line and stay there, though a 
 single step would cross it. They set the charge of 
 dynamite beneath the Hell-gate of their sins and never 
 light the fuse. There must be volition, determination, 
 purpose. Yet this is not enough. It is a true saying, 
 "Hell is paved with good intentions." Did not Peter 
 the denier say, " Though all forsake Thee, yet will not I 
 forsake Thee"? 
 
 In the ranks of those who opposed our forefathers 
 in the struggle for poUtical independence there were 
 no braver soldiers than the Hessians, who, nevertheless, 
 were mere mercenaries. They had no heart in the con- 
 flict: they had not troubled themselves to reason the 
 matter out, either way; nor did they care particularly 
 for the right or wrong of it. Pounds, shillings and 
 pence led them to a resolution to fight ; and they fought 
 well. That was all. 
 
 V. Well, then, if neither Feeling, Intellect, Con- 
 science nor Will, nor all together, can insure the per- 
 manent value of moral impressions, what can? Sav- 
 ing Faith, which is a reaching out of the whole man to 
 grasp the salvation of Christ and appropriate it. 
 
HOSANNA ! 265 
 
 A Christian is a man of quadrilateral conviction. 
 Take the case of the prodigal in the far country: he 
 felt deeply enough his degradation; since the pangs of 
 hunger were moving him. Nor was intellectual con- 
 viction lacking ; he knew that he had made a desperate 
 fool of himself; he fully appreciated the fact that in his 
 father's house there was bread enough and to spare, 
 while he was perishing of hunger. And his conscience, 
 also, was at work ; " How wrong it was for me to take 
 my portion of the inheritance and squander it in riotous 
 living! I have sinned, and am no more worthy to be 
 called my father's son." His will, too, was enHsted; 
 "I will arise, " he said, " and go"! And still he sat on 
 the swine-trough, hungry and in rags. What lacked 
 he yet .^ To act ! To act upon his convictions. See him 
 on his way back to his father's house: now indeed has 
 he "come to himself": and it is a foregone conclusion 
 that his father will come out while he is yet a great way 
 off, and fall upon his neck, and kiss him. 
 
 All the feeling, sound reason, sincerity and resolu- 
 tion in the world will not save us unless heart, intellect, 
 conscience and will shall all together go forth to meet 
 God. A one-sided man, a two-sided man, a three-sided 
 man, or even a four-sided man will fail unless he be a 
 four-sided man in action. We must be following 
 Christ. We must be walking with God. " If any man 
 will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his 
 cross and follow me." 
 
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