:.AL 
 
 BR 121 .V37 1884 c.l 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 1852-1933 
 
 The reality of religi, 
 
 gion 
 
THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
THE 
 
 REALITY OF RELIGION 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY j/VAN DYKE, JR., d.d. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BRICK CHURCH, NEW YORK 
 
 Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietiim est 
 cor nostrum donee requiescat in Te. 
 
 St, Aug. Conf. i. i. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1884 
 
Copyright, 1884, 
 By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 

 • s 
 
 IG& 
 
 
 Amid the strife of systems and the war 
 of words our souls are thirsting for the liv- 
 ing God. We long to find and know Him, 
 to touch Him with the outstretched hands 
 of faith and love, to feel Him drawing near 
 to us and filling the dry cisterns of our lives 
 with the sweet, clear waters of Divine com- 
 munion. Even as one who has wandered 
 long in the desert yearns and pants for the 
 flowing spring, so our heart and flesh cry 
 out for God. 
 
 After all, this is the deepest need of hu- 
 manity. This is what we desire most ar- 
 dently : not so much the proof of theories 
 and the unfolding of doctrines ; not so much 
 the criticism of Scripture and the triumph- 
 ant vindication of certain forms of belief ; 
 not so much the development of more elab- 
 orate modes of worship and church govern- 
 ment, or the return to a more primitive sim- 
 plicity ; not anything in the world do we 
 
Ylli PREFACE. 
 
 desire so much as to come into close and 
 living contact with that Perfect and Eter- 
 nal Spirit in whom our souls must find their 
 only rest. 
 
 We do not sneer at the dogmas of theol- 
 ogy. They are certainly as important as 
 the dogmas of science. We do not despise 
 the questions of ritual. They are at least 
 of equal consequence with the questions of 
 social order. But relic/ion is infinitel}^ be- 
 yond all these. It is more vital and more 
 profound. It does not appeal to the intel- 
 lect alone. It is not satisfied with the con- 
 clusions of logic. Nor does it rest at ease 
 upon the aesthetic sense. It reaches down 
 into the very depths of the living, throb- 
 bing human heart, and stirs a longing which 
 nothing outward and formal can ever still, 
 — the longing for personal fellowship ivith 
 God. 
 
 Yet I cannot help feeling that a great 
 part of our religious life comes far short 
 of this. We play with forms and sym- 
 bols ; we repeat creeds and prayers ; we let 
 others do our thinking and feeling for us, 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 and then vainly strive to lift ourselves, by 
 an effort of the Avill, to the height of their 
 experience. Is it not true ? Has it never 
 come over you like a shadow of gloom? 
 Have you never sat in the church, — your 
 eyes delighted with the solemnities of arch 
 and window, — your ears thrilled with the 
 rushing music of great psalms, — but your 
 heart empty and sad, yearniug for some- 
 thing more and better, without which all 
 the rest is but a hollow dream ? Have you 
 never followed with painful care the course 
 of some intense theological controversy, link- 
 ing your mind with the tempered steel of 
 closest argument to the right conclusion, 
 and then asked at the end, ''But where is 
 my God?" 
 
 Surely there must be something more 
 than forms, either of worship or of belief. 
 There must be realities, which we can feel 
 and know in the innermost recesses of our 
 spiritual life. And if we can once touch 
 these and hold them fast, then our souls will 
 be satisfied, and we shall not be greatly 
 moved. The lesser conflict may long con- 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 tinue ; the strife about modes and degrees, 
 the controversies of doctrine and ritual, may 
 pass like storms across the world, but we 
 who have touched the realities can wait in 
 patience and in peace, as those who have 
 entered into rest and victory even in the 
 midst of conflict. 
 
 I believe that there are men and women 
 of every class and creed, scattered through- 
 out the world, who have felt, with pain and 
 hunger of heart, this craving for reality in 
 religion. And to them, as to unknown 
 friends, to whom I am bound by the secret 
 tie of a common need and a common hope, 
 I send out this little book. 
 
 It was written from the heart, and per- 
 haps this may help it to find its way to the 
 heart. It has no reference to points of 
 temporary interest or transient dispute. It 
 does not attempt to defend an old theol- 
 ogy. Nor does it profess to teach a new 
 theology. For I think that it matters lit- 
 tle whether a theology be new or old ; the 
 one thing needful is that it should be real 
 and true. And this I am sure of, that 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 the life of Moses and David and Isaiah 
 and Paul and John, — the life which throbs 
 and burns with " unquench^d fire," in every 
 page of the Bible histories, — the life that 
 was filled to overflowing with the conscious 
 presence of God, is the highest and best 
 life ever reached by man. It is the same 
 in every age : ever old and ever new. And 
 the secret of it lies in the reality of re- 
 ligion. 
 
 No one can see the defects and short- 
 comings of this book more clearly than I 
 do. And certainly no one else can regret 
 them so much. Many things have been 
 touched but briefly and imperfectly ; many 
 thoughts have failed, and could not help 
 failing, to find such expression in words 
 as should make them clear and luminous ; 
 and much of what is best and deepest has 
 been left untouched. Writing to-day in a 
 very lonely place, far away from the noise 
 and talk of the world, with the everlasting 
 hills looking down in silent majesty upon 
 me, I feel that human language cannot ut- 
 ter the deep things of God and the soul. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 But if this book, with all its imperfections, 
 shall find its way to one heart that wants it, 
 — if it shall bring help and strength to one 
 of my fellow-men who is striving to enter 
 into the realities of spiritual life, its 2^ur' 
 pose will be accomplished and its reward 
 abwidant. 
 
 It would be impossible in a work of this 
 character to make acknowledgment of all 
 my obligations for thoughts and illustra- 
 tions. But I cannot forbear to mention my 
 profound indebtedness to the " University 
 Sermons " of Canon Liddon, the " Theolog- 
 ical Essays" of Mr. Richard Holt Hutton, 
 Professor Robert Flint's " Theism," and Dr. 
 W. G. T. Shedd's " Sermons to the Spirit- 
 ual Man." 
 
 Sabanac Lake, 
 
 August, 1884. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 V^nurtnir o^ 
 
 — »— 
 
 FAOB 
 
 I. A Real Religion necessary 1 
 
 II. The Living God 25 
 
 III. The Living Soul 47 
 
 IV. The Living Word 71 
 
 V. The Living Sacrifice 97 
 
 VI. The Living Christ 121 
 
I. 
 
 A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 
 
I. 
 
 St. John iv. 24. God is a spirit, and they that worship 
 Him mtist worship Him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 This text is central. It is a starting- 
 point from which we may set out to ex- 
 plore many regions of truth. It is a con- 
 verging point at which many lines of 
 experience and reasoning come together. 
 It is a polar point, fixed, immovable, se- 
 cure, by which we may correct our reck- 
 onings and lay out our courses, even as 
 that pale, cold star in heaven, which ever 
 keeps the same place and about which the 
 greater and the lesser lights are wheeling, 
 — even as the steadfast north star is the 
 corrector of all compasses and the mari- 
 ner's constant guide over the trackless 
 waste of waters. 
 
 And yet this text was first spoken to an 
 
4 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 unknown and ignorant woman who had 
 come to draw water from a wayside well. 
 She was not wise, she was not cultured, she 
 was not high-minded. She was not even 
 one of the chosen people of God. She was 
 as common and dull a soul as you might 
 have found in the poor Samaritan city of 
 Sychar. Yet to her this sublime and cen- 
 tral truth was first uttered from the lips of 
 Christ ; proving that God is sovereign in 
 his revelations, enlightening whom He will, 
 and having no respect of persons. And 
 by her it was received ; proving that the 
 simplest human soul is adapted to the re- 
 ception of the heavenly light, which needs 
 but the open heart to flow in, bringing ful- 
 ness of wisdom and eternal life. 
 
 Look closely at this verse, I pray you, 
 before we enter upon the course of thought 
 which is to engage us for a little while. 
 We are about to study the reality of relig- 
 ion. We want to reach the essence of it ; 
 to pierce through the outer shell; to lay 
 aside all uncertainties and shams and illu- 
 sions, — yes, to lay aside even those things 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 5 
 
 which, while true and genuine in them- 
 selves, are yet secondarj^ and non-essential, 
 and, if it be possible, to stand face to face 
 with the naked facts ; to strip away all 
 ornaments and trivialities, and with open 
 eyes, reverently but clearl}^ behold the real 
 life of the soul in its relation to God, lay- 
 ing hold with firm and true grasp on " the 
 substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
 of tilings not seen." The substance, not 
 the shadow. No mere form, nor theory, 
 nor idea, but the reality of religion. 
 
 Here, then, is our point of departure. 
 This word of the world's Teacher, clear, 
 luminous, unmistakable, spoken so simply 
 and naturally in the course of a roadside 
 talk with a stranger, and yet reaching down 
 in the profundity of its meaning to the very 
 bottom depth of thought, — this word is 
 more than worthy to stand at the beoin- 
 ning of our meditations. For it declares 
 unto us that which we are seeking, — God, 
 the human soul, the real and living tie 
 which joins them. And all our reasoning 
 beyond this will be but the verifying and 
 
6 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 unfolding of Christ's sublime utterance in 
 the light of other facts and other rays of 
 revelation. 
 
 But, for the present, we must mark most 
 carefully the spirit and purpose in which 
 these words were spoken. Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, weary and thirsty, is sitting beside the 
 well of Jacob, just outside the city of Sy- 
 char. A woman comes to draw water. He 
 asks her for a drink. But He desires some- 
 thing more than He asks for. He is thirst- 
 ing for the salvation of this poor woman's 
 soul ; and so He makes His simple request 
 for a draught of water the occasion of a 
 conversation upon higher themes, to which 
 He leads the way as skilfully and courte- 
 ously as if He were speaking to a princess. 
 He introduces the subject of religion. 
 
 How does she meet it ? She imagines 
 that she is already a religious person. And 
 doubtless, in a certain sense, she is. She 
 has a creed, she has a church, she says her 
 prayers. But the first thought which rises 
 in her mind at the mention of religion is the 
 difference between His creed, as a Jew, and 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 7 
 
 hers, as a Samaritan. She descends in- 
 stantly upon the fact that He worships in 
 one Temple, she in another. She touches at 
 once, with a firm and conflict-seeking hand, 
 upon the great standing quarrel between 
 His people and hers. " Our fathers wor- 
 shipped in this mountain, and ye say that 
 in Jerusalem is the place where men ought 
 to worship." This, chiefly, is what religion 
 means to her ; an outward form, a visible 
 worship, a sacred locality, a bitter enmity 
 against all who hold a different tradition of 
 the true place and mode of divine service. 
 And is it not natural for her to feel thus ? 
 Doubtless the controversy between the 
 Jews and the Samaritans is the religious 
 topic which she has heard discussed most 
 frequently. Doubtless she has been taught 
 to rest with confidence upon the superiority 
 of Mount Gerizim to Mount Zion, and con- 
 tent her soul with the scrupulous observ- 
 ance of those forms and feasts which her 
 people regarded as essential to the true re- 
 ligion. She cannot understand the need or 
 the possibility of learning anything about 
 
8 THE REALITY OF RELIGIOK. 
 
 religion from a man whose fathers wor- 
 sliipped in Jerusalem. 
 
 But Christ sweeps away all this as the 
 wind sweeps a mist from the mountain. 
 This is unsubstantial and unreal. This 
 question of modes and places, this strife be- 
 tween Gerizim and Zion, will vanish in the 
 coming years like a wraith of vapor. If 
 reliacion were no more than this it would 
 be a vain thing, — empty, worthless, perish- 
 ing; not a spring of living water, but a 
 shimmering mirage at which no soul could 
 ever truly quench its thirst. Behind all 
 visible forms, beneath all outward appear- 
 ances, lies the reality of religion, — the liv- 
 ing intercourse of the living soul with the 
 living God. Worship is the embodiment; 
 but, without the vital spark, worship is onl}'^ 
 a body, a puppet, a corpse, a mockery. For 
 God is spirit^ and they that ivorship Him 
 must tvorsMp Him in sj^irit and in truth. 
 
 This was what the woman of Samaria in 
 her foolish blindness, in her dull content 
 with a mere sham of a religion, needed to 
 learn. And this is what we also, in this age 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 9 
 
 of shams, when there is so much talk on the 
 surface and so little thought in the depths, 
 need to learn and to remember, for the 
 peace and welfare of our souls. Shall we 
 shrink from the pain and labor of the les- 
 son ? Would you rather dwell in the care- 
 less ease of a traditional creed and a formal 
 worship, and hear your chosen preacher 
 speak pleasantly of indifferent themes, or 
 draw bright pictures of Scripture heroes, 
 or justify with ponderous argument the 
 claims of your ecclesiastical Mount Geilzim 
 against all the mountains of the other sects? 
 When the air is filled with sneers and scoffs 
 and questions, when men treat Ghiistianity 
 with polite contempt as a modern scientist 
 might treat a ghost, when they say to you, 
 coarsely or courteously as the case may be, 
 "After all, your religion is only a dream," 
 will you reply, as some have done, " Well, 
 if it be a dream I pray you do not waken 
 me"? 
 
 Nay, if it be a dream, — if these precious 
 hopes, these aspirations and yearnings of 
 the soul, these consolations of faith, this 
 
10 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Father's hand touching ours in the dark- 
 ness, this Saviour's face shining through 
 the gloom of death, this hell to shun, this 
 blessed heaven to win, — if this be all a 
 dream, then I pray God, if there be a God, 
 or any power, benign or baleful, above our 
 human life, waken me ! Yes, though the 
 thunderbolt shatter my fancied bliss for- 
 ever. Yes, though the lightning-flash of 
 truth sear my brain to the quick, — waken 
 me ! For the soul sunk in dreams is lost 
 even here. I will not waste my only life 
 in visions. Better a dreadful truth than 
 the sweetest lie. I will give a whole world 
 of golden dreams for just one handful of 
 reality. 
 
 But is this attainable ? Is it possible for 
 us ever to find in the sphere of religion any- 
 thing so clear and firm and tangible that we 
 can lay hold of it with positive assurance, 
 as we grasp the trunk of a tree, as we record 
 a fact of history, as we formulate a law of 
 science, and say, " This is real, this we 
 touch, this we know, it cannot be shaken " ? 
 
 Here, you see, is the question, — a ques- 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 11 
 
 tion which does not merely divide atheists 
 from theists, and infidels from believers, but 
 rises also within the ranks of faith, and 
 separates the professed defenders of Chris- 
 tianity into two great classes. On the one 
 side are those who regard religion as a mat- 
 ter of theory, J_ogical , consiste nt, defensibl e, 
 but entirely separate in its proofs and meth- 
 ods from the ordinary sphere of our intel- 
 lectual and practical life. On the other 
 side are those who regard religion as a mat- 
 ter' of fact, substantial, actual, undeniable, 
 entering into the life of man with a pres- 
 ence as real and tangible as the perceptions 
 of our senses or the laws of science and 
 society. On which side shall we take our 
 stand? Which view of religion shall we 
 adopt? How shall we regard our faith? 
 As a power which supposes, and imagines, 
 and acts as if certain things were true ? Or 
 as a power which actually brings us into 
 vital contact with realities ? 
 
 Certainly, for my own part, I cannot but 
 accept the latter view. There is no rest 
 for my soul anywhere else. Nor is there 
 
12 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 rest for any one who truly desires and seeks 
 tJie truth save in the finding and grasping 
 of it. It is my hope to be able to show 
 that the only religion worth having is a re- 
 ligion that deals with realities, and that this 
 is attainable for every one who earnestly 
 strives after it. The attempt to do this will 
 lead us to take up in succession the great 
 factoral ideas of Christianity, — God, the 
 human soul, revelation, atonement, holi- 
 ness, communion, the future life, — and look 
 them fairly in the face, trying to discern 
 their reality. 
 
 But, before we do this, there are certain 
 preliminary questions in regard to which 
 we ought to have a clear understanding. 
 What is meant by reality in religion? 
 What are the marks and dangers of unre- 
 ality in religion ? What makes it abso- 
 lutely necessary for our souls to have a real 
 religion ? 
 
 I. By reality in religion we do not mean 
 that its facts, relations, and experiences are 
 of a corporeal nature, and can be reduced 
 to terms of matter and force. We do not 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 13 
 
 mean that the face of God can be seen ma- 
 terially, or that his voice can be heard with 
 the outward ear, as we see the face and 
 hear the voice of a friend. We do not mean 
 that religion is a literal and physical touch- 
 ing of Him. For, even if this were possi- 
 ble, it would not be the highest kind of 
 reality. Such a religion would be phenom- 
 enal: that is to say, it would be a mat- 
 ter of appearances addressed to the bodily 
 senses; and the first lesson of philosophy 
 is that these senses often and grievously 
 deceive us. 
 
 Appearances are not realities. Far from 
 it. The little child sees the rainbow glit- 
 tering against the skirts of the departing 
 storm. It seems to him a solid and tangible 
 arch, and he runs to find the place where 
 its golden pillars rest upon the earth. But 
 they vanish before him. Is the rainbow, 
 then, unreal ? Not so ; but the reality is 
 hidden behind the shining bow of many 
 colors. It is in the unseen sunbeam re- 
 fracted in the last crystal drops of the pass- 
 ing shower. That which appears is delu- 
 
14 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 sive. It is only by a larger experience and 
 a higher knowledge that the child reaches 
 the reality. 
 
 And so there are many real and true 
 things which are not visible to the senses 
 even by an image or reflection. Love, grat- 
 itude, virtue, hope, — who has ever touched 
 or seen these things ? Yet they are so real 
 that compared with them the whole round 
 globe often seems to us like an unsubstan- 
 tial bubble. 
 
 When a man says to me, " If your re- 
 ligion is real, show me your God," I an- 
 swer, " If your doubt is real, show me your 
 mind." 
 
 On the other hand, by reality in religion 
 we do not mean merely sincerity of convic- 
 tion in the heart of the believer. There is 
 much foolish talk in this direction. Men 
 speak as if honesty of belief were the only 
 thing to be demanded, and profess an equal 
 reverence for all religious creeds, on the 
 ground that whatever a man accepts can- 
 didly, with his whole soul, is for him the 
 truth. 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 15 
 
 But, surely, to talk thus is a mere jug- 
 gling with words. For though a million 
 men may believe sincerely that Mahomet's 
 coffin hangs suspended in mid-air, this does 
 not make it true. No intensity of convic- 
 tion can lend reality to an illusion, or make 
 a dream substantial and abiding. As well 
 might we imagine that the fancy of the 
 child can give a body to the rainbow's van^ 
 ishing pillars, as that the faith of a man 
 can make his religion real. 
 
 What we are seeking is something deeper 
 than phenomena, something more substan- 
 tial than sincerity. It is the actual exist- 
 ence of facts on which religion is based : 
 powers, relations, experiences in human life 
 which cannot be explained without relig- 
 ion, and to which the contents of our faith 
 and worship correspond as the image in the 
 glass answers to the object which is reflected. 
 They do not depend for their existence 
 upon our beholding them. They are inde- 
 pendent, self - existent, everlasting. They 
 are the unseen realities of the spiritual 
 world through which we are walking every 
 
16 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 moment. They are close about us. They 
 press upon us. When we are conscious of 
 them, when we recognize them, when we 
 live in them and for them, then our relig- 
 ion is real. 
 
 II. Here, then, we have the standard by 
 which we can discern the marks and meas- 
 ure the dangers of unreality in our relig- 
 ious life. The willingness to rest content, 
 either with dreams or with traditions, pro- 
 vided they are good and pleasant ; the 
 shrinking from all serious and searching 
 inquiry ; the separation of faith and wor- 
 ship from the sphere of every-day life ; the 
 keeping of religion secluded in a dreamy 
 and secret place of the soul as in a garden 
 enclosed, — all these are signs of a ten- 
 dency towards the unreal. And these we 
 may discover not only in the Christian 
 world at large, but also more or less clearly 
 in our own hearts. 
 
 If we look for the causes of this ten- 
 dency, we shall find one of them, and tliat 
 not the least important, in the spirit of the 
 age, which exalts the human reason as the 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 17 
 
 absolute monarch in the realm of religion. ^ 
 It makes man the measure of all thinsfs. 
 It depreciates the objective reality and ex- 
 aggerates the subjective process. Accord- 
 ing to this philosophy all wisdom proceeds 
 from man, all truth is conditioned by his 
 perception of it, and all religious truth is 
 either formed or created by the human 
 mind. Thus the doctrines of Christianity 
 are only "the successive evolutions or in- 
 crustations of human thought," and faith 
 has really no higher authority than that 
 which it derives from the consent of men. 
 There are professed Christian thinkers who 
 virtually take this ground. They say that 
 this authority is enough. They say that 
 nothing higher is within reach. They say, 
 we c an never touch the realities; all we _ 
 can do is to take them for granted ; act as 
 if they were true, and this will give us a 
 religion which is good enough for any man, 
 since it will supply the great need, namely, 
 a system of rules for the regulation of the 
 spiritual and practical life. 
 
 At this point, however, the defenders of 
 
18 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 an hypothetical religion divide into two 
 schools. 
 
 On tbe one side are the ceremonialists, 
 who hold that the first necessity of man's 
 life is an orderly and beautiful form of wor- 
 ship. They bid us frequent the church, 
 and say our prayers, and bow in lowly 
 reverence before the altar: we c annot, in- 
 deed,^be sure that any God is there ; but 
 the sweet and gracious exercises of devo- 
 -j- tion will do us ^ ood in any^case,jw ill uplift 
 and purify our souls with holy visio ns. 
 
 On the other side are the moralists, who 
 hold that the first necessity is a righteous 
 and charitable life. They say : " Suppose 
 God. Suppose that this is His law. You 
 cannot be absolutely certain about it, but 
 you can suppose it. Now set yourself to 
 live according to this law. Be upright, 
 honest, kind, and you will find that in the 
 keeping of it there is great reward." 
 
 Now it is undoubtedly ver}^ easy for us 
 to fall into one or the other of these out- 
 ward semblances of religion, and persuade 
 ourselves that it is sufficient. How much 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 19 
 
 easier to repeat prayers and sing hymns 
 
 than really to wrestle in the darkness with 
 
 that mysterious Power who must be either \ 
 
 our Saviour or our Destroyer ! How much I ^ 
 
 easier to conform to a fixed and partial rule ^ 
 
 of conduct, to observe times and seasons; 
 
 to give regularly to certain charities, to 
 
 avoid gross vices and outbreaking sins, than 
 
 really to bring the sacrifice of the whole 
 
 heart to the living God and bind ourselves 
 
 to follow the living Christ whithersoever 
 
 He may lead us ! 
 
 Easier, — aye, but is it better ? Is there 
 any reality in these forms, to satisfy the 
 heart ? Are they not vain and hollow and 
 worthless? Do they not mock our hunger, 
 giving us a stone when we ask for bread ? 
 Do they not verily hinder and delude us, 
 with their false and paltry promises, from 
 that which alone can deeply satisfy us ? 
 For if there be anything higher and bet- 
 ter for us, if there be any Father's house 
 with its divine love and real communion, 
 then surely every day, every hour, spent 
 among the husks is a waste and a sin, — a 
 
20 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 sin against Him who is yearning to receive 
 us into His fellowship, — a sin against our 
 own souls, which can never be contented 
 with the forms, but only with the reality, of 
 religion. 
 
 III. There is an absolute spiritual neces- 
 sity in man's heart demandhig that which 
 is real, to feed its deepest cravings. Noth- 
 ing less will answer. A dream, a make- 
 shift, an h^^pothesis, a theory is not enough. 
 It is powerless to create either a genuine 
 morality or a sincere worship. " For we 
 can no more obey or adore that which we 
 suspect to be the mere creation of the hu- 
 man mind, than we can knowingly adore or 
 obey the carved and painted workmanship 
 of human hands." Take away reality and 
 what is left but an idol ? 
 
 Look at the case fairly. I come to you 
 asking for that which shall guide me into 
 a right and holy life. You present me 
 with the Bible. You say : " Take this 
 book. It may not be altogether true. It 
 may not have any divine authority behind 
 it. It may be largely, perhaps entirely, the 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 21 
 
 work of men like yourself. But take it, 
 and follow it, and you shall pass in safety 
 through the perilous waters of the sea of 
 life." 
 
 Do you not see that you have denied my 
 request, while seeming to grant it? Do 
 you not see that you have taken away the 
 only thing which could give your religion 
 any value, or any power over my life ? For 
 surely I cannot be content to steer my 
 course by a possible falsehood ; to follow ^ 
 blindly a thread which may lead me any- 
 where or nowhere. I demand some assur- 
 ance better than your guess, some reality, 
 something substantial and palpable. " I 
 had rather be wrecked against one really 
 discovered rock ; I had rather founder in 
 the attempt to sound my own ' dim and 
 perilous way,' than be constantly obejdng 
 directions which are a mere accommodation 
 to my ignorance, and which will leave me 
 in the end utterly without knowledge of the 
 real world in which I live." More than 
 this we must have. We want a divine law, 
 a word of God, saying to us : This is rights 
 
22 TUE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 now and forever ; this do and thou shalt 
 live. We want a Divine Example, a living 
 and eternal Righteousness, to which we 
 can look up and aspire. We want a true 
 light; not a glimmering will-o'-the-wisp, 
 but a fixed and shining star, by which we 
 can direct our way in safety and in confi- 
 dence. 
 
 Or again, I come to you with my soul full 
 of penitence and hope and great desire, 
 longing to worship. You say to me : *' Well, 
 you shall be satisfied. Here is a temple. 
 Here are songs of praise and forms of 
 prayer. Here are ideas and symbols of 
 the Divine, a priest and multitudes of wor- 
 shippers. Bow down and join in adoration. 
 What more can you desire ? " 
 
 What more can I desire ? My Grod. 
 
 He who made me, and made me for Him- 
 self : He who alone is perfect and eternal, 
 alone worthy to be worshipped : He who 
 as a dream is nothing to me, as a reality 
 everything, — He it is whom I seek. And 
 until I find Him there is no rest. Into His 
 presence I must come. His glory must 
 
A REAL RELIGION NECESSARY. 23 
 
 shine upon ray soul. Not the light of your 
 sacred candle and holy lamps, but the light 
 of His face : not the theories of His good- 
 ness and the ideas of His mercy, but His 
 living love must flow into my heart. I 
 must know that He is, and that He is the 
 rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. 
 Then His law will bind me ; Sis goodness 
 will comfort me ; His grace will bless me. 
 Then faith and penitence and 'prayer and 
 worship will satisfy me ; for then, and only 
 then, they will be the supreme realities of 
 my life. 
 
II. 
 
 THE LIVING GOD. 
 
II. 
 
 Acts xiv. 15. The living God. 
 
 Is God real? 
 
 This is the question of the ages. 
 ^T Four philosophers are discussing it to- 
 gether. The first saj^s, " There is no God." 
 This is the atheist, whose folly has been con- 
 demned alike by inspired Scripture and by 
 modern science. 
 
 The second says, " I cannot tell whether 
 there is a God or not, and therefore I do 
 not think about it." This is the agnostic, 
 who makes his doubts the limit of his 
 know ledge, and exalts the confession of_ 
 short - sightedness into the^ first of the 
 X virtues. 
 
 The third says, " I cannot be sure that 
 God is, nor what He is ; but I think He is 
 thus and so, and I act upon this supposi- 
 tion." This is the man who is willing to 
 
 K 
 
28 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 go beyond what he sees, who loves his hopes 
 so much that he treats them as if they were 
 facts, who is content with probabilities and 
 tarns them to the regulation of his practical 
 life. 
 
 The fourth says, " God is. I know Him." 
 This is the apostle of religion, who declares 
 unto us that which he has heard, that which 
 he has seen with his eyes, that which he 
 has looked upon and his hands have handled 
 of the word of life: that God is light, — 
 manifest, actual, real, as the sun in heaven. 
 
 I need not waste time in proving that 
 this last man is the only one of the four 
 who has the Bible on his side, for surely if 
 anything is plain in regard to this book it 
 is this : that it teaches the existence of a 
 living and personal Deity, who may be 
 really known by His creatures. But we can- 
 not pause here. We must go back of this. 
 We have to ask which of these four phi- 
 losophers has the facts on his side ; which 
 of them is resting, not on illusions and 
 dreams, but on the solid ground of re- 
 ality. 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 29 
 
 In regard to the first of these four men, 
 ■we see that he stands alone ; and there is 
 probably no danger that any of us will be 
 inclined to stand with him, for he is in 
 the di fficult positio n of_ha ving to prove a 
 positive by negatives. Admitting that all 
 arguments for the existence of God are 
 failures, the atheist must go beyond this, 
 and bring facts to show that God is impos- ^ 
 sible. He must sweep the universe from 
 enTtb end, and show that it is empty. He 
 must prove, not only that an effect may ex- 
 ist without a cause, but also that the sum 
 of all effects cannot possibly have had a 
 cause, and that nowhere in heaven or earth 
 is there a lurking-place in which an un- 
 explained and primal power can dwell. 
 With this task we may leave him, like a 
 foolish builder trying to reach the skies 
 with a tower of brick, and pass on to the 
 other and wiser men. 
 
 We observe at once that the second and 
 third stand together in theory, though they 
 differ in practice. They are both professors 
 of ignorance. They admit the idea of God, 
 
30 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 but they cannot discover the reality. There- 
 fore the second says that he will have noth- 
 ing to do with it. He has no need of it, 
 and can get nothing from it save perplexity 
 and humiliation. But the third declares 
 it is so bright and beautiful that he will 
 worship it and make it the guide of his life. 
 So they part company, and the former be- 
 comes a famous teacher of science, and the 
 latter a popular preacher of Christianity. 
 
 Now, in regard to their common view, 
 one thing, it seems to me, is clear. It is at 
 bottom unreasonable. For if there were 
 surely no God at all, then it would be nat- 
 urally impossible for us to find traces of 
 Him. But the very possibility of God, the 
 may-be of His existence, carries with it the 
 necessity of some kind of manifestation. 
 If He is in the universe, it cannot be as a 
 mere abstraction or impotent idea ; there 
 must be evidences of His being and power. 
 In other words, the very idea of God re- 
 quires reality for its perfection ; and this 
 truth has been developed by philosophers 
 of highest standing into what is called the 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 31 
 
 ontological argument for the existence of 
 God. 
 
 We have, therefore, an antecedent prob- 
 ability in favor of the fourth view ; and he 
 who declares that God is real and can be 
 known has, at the very outset, a kind of 
 reasonable supposition on his side. But 
 certainly this is far from being complete 
 and satisfactory. It is far from being 
 enough for our present purpose; for we 
 have agreed to make our appeal to facts. 
 We are not dealing with abstract arguments 
 and rational probabilities ; we are search- 
 ing for an actual and concrete reality. 
 Evidence, contact, experience, — this is the 
 sphere in which we are moving. It is the 
 sphere o f our every-day life, our p ractical 
 discoveries, our human emotions. And here, 
 Isa y, in this very sphere o f realitYj_we_dQ^ 
 not see lig^ ht, we do not know gravitation, 
 we do not feel love, one whit more^eally 
 than we experience the living God. 
 
 It is not an argument ; it is not a theory ; 
 it is not a leap from the region of the known 
 into the region of the unknown ; it is not 
 
 ^ 
 
32 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 the supreme conclusion of a special and 
 unquestionable religious faculty. But to 
 man as man, in the best exercise of the 
 faculties which are joined in the unity of 
 his personality, the living Divine Being is 
 manifest^ as a physical reality, as a moral 
 reality, as an historical reality, as a spirit- 
 ual reality. 
 
 I. The world is full of God. He is im- 
 manent in the universe. Lift up your eyes, 
 stretch out your hands. He is near you, on 
 every side of you. You touch not His sub- 
 stance, for that is intangible, but the force 
 that flows from Him. You see, not His 
 face, for that is invisible, but the glory 
 that clothes and hides His presence. He 
 is here as really and truly as the l ight, the 
 gravity, the electricity whi ch_fi ll this roo m 
 "^ though you cannot see them. Do you ques- 
 tion their reality ? They are formless, they 
 are invisible, they are actually unknown to 
 millions of mankind who ignorantly expe- 
 rience their effects without seeking or dis- 
 covering their real nature ; but you are 
 sure of them ; you know them ; they are 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 33 
 
 manifested to you by their workings. So 
 God is manifested in the world. 
 
 We may say that there are three forms 
 in which this manifestation comes to us, — 
 three forms under which we may inchide 
 all appearances and relations of material 
 things, — three great realities, in each of 
 which the living soul is God. Power, wis- 
 dom, beauty — in these three forms we ex- 
 perience God. 
 
 Look at these mighty forces which per- 
 meate and encircle our globe, binding earth 
 and rocks into a solid mass, hurrying waves 
 of the sea and currents of rivers in their 
 swift flow, submerging islands and upheav- 
 ing continents, driving the clouds in flocks 
 and armies, sending forth arrows of light- 
 nings, marshalling the stars in their jour- 
 neying hosts. Do not all these tell us of a 
 living spring and fountain of force ? Exalt 
 their power and order as you will ; define 
 their nature ; trace their method and re- 
 lations; show how they play one into 
 another; bind them all together into a 
 coordinated system. Still they must have a 
 
 3 
 
84 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 source. Still they bear witness to a Power 
 unknown ; nay, to a Power known, in and 
 through them, since they flow from Him. 
 / The heathen of old saw in a lightning 
 flash a thunderbolt hurled by the hand of 
 Jupiter, and trembled. We call it an ef- 
 fect of electricity. But what is electricity 
 but an effluence of an Almighty Will ? 
 And do we not still tremble when the 
 bright shaft leaps from the black quiver of 
 cloud, and the rattling thunder tells of an 
 oak riven or a house shattered ? Aye, in the 
 presence of great power, — earth-shaking, 
 heaven-riving, death-dealing, life-unfolding 
 forces, before which we are as insects blown 
 on the summer wind, we tremble and bow 
 down, for our heart tells us that a Greater 
 than man is here. 
 
 But consider, again, how wonderfully these 
 great forces, and the material substances 
 which they are incessantly moving and 
 changing, are adapted to the production of 
 "S- certain definite and desirable results. Men 
 may den}^ that the term design is properly 
 applicable to the processes of nature. They 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 35 
 
 may say that we have no right to reason 
 with Paley from the analogy of a watch 
 and a watch-maker to a world and a world- 
 maker. But whether this be true or not, 
 I think no intelligent person can fail to see 
 in the universe that which in any human 
 production we should call wisdom^ though 
 on a scale so much more vast, and of a 
 quality so much higher and more perfect 
 than our own, that we can never hope to 
 rival it, but only wonder and adore. How 
 intricate and majestic is the combination of 
 forces which keeps the heavens balanced 
 and in order, steadies the spinning globe 
 on its axis and guides it on its appointed 
 orbit, ensuring the beneficent returns of day 
 and night, winter and summer, seed-time 
 and harvest. How skilful and exact is the 
 construction of the eye, framed expressly 
 to receive the beating waves of light, and, 
 without changing its place, capable of con- 
 veying to the brain the image of a flower in 
 the hand or a star in the sky. How won- 
 derful and admirable is even such a trifle as 
 a sea-shell found on the shore : — 
 
36 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 " Frail, but a work diviue, 
 Made so fairily well, 
 With delicate spire and whorl, 
 A miracle of design, — 
 Slight; to be crushed with a tap 
 Of my finger-nail on the sand, — 
 Frail, but of force to withstand, 
 Year upon year, the shock 
 Of cataract seas that snap 
 The three-decker's oaken spine 
 Athwart the ledges of rock." 
 
 Surely when we behold these things we 
 know that a Wiser than man is here. 
 
 And then, the beauty of it all ! the 
 ^ strange and mystic splendor that gleams 
 from the face of the world, filling our hearts 
 with gladness and with worship ! Whence 
 is this derived ? If the universe were but 
 a vast machine, as some would teach us to 
 believe, — a lifeless thing of forces and sub- 
 stances, wheels and cogs and bands playing 
 into each other and producing mechanically 
 certain fixed results, — what power could it 
 have to touch our spirits? Why should 
 our hearts leap up when we behold a rain- 
 bow in the sky ? It is but the refraction 
 of certain rays of light in certain drops 
 
TEE LIVING GOD. 37 
 
 of water. An orchard in the spring-time, 
 covered with its rosy snow of blossoms ; a 
 field of golden grain waving in the soft 
 wind of summer ; a grape-vine with its 
 trailing branches, and dark, rich clusters of 
 fruit hanging motionless in the still autum- 
 nal air; a winter forest with its smooth 
 white carpet, and its net-work of crystal 
 boughs and glittering pendants of ice shining 
 overhead, — these are but chemical effects, 
 the natural results of the changes of the 
 seasons. Why should they be so love ly ? 
 Surely the grain, the fruit, the snow, could 
 have been produced just as well without 
 beauty. Why is it that they touch and 
 thrill and uplift the soul ? What is the 
 meaning and the spiritual presence of which 
 they speak to us ? Who has informed them 
 with this gracious splendor? Let the an- 
 swer come in the magnificent words of the 
 poet's Hymn at Sunrise in the Valley of 
 Chamouni : — 
 
 " Ye ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow 
 Adown enormous ravines slope amain, — 
 Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven 
 
38 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Beneath the keen, full moon ? Who bade the sun 
 Clothe you with rainbows 1 Who with living flowers 
 Of loveliest blue spread garlands at your feet 1 
 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 ! 
 And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, 
 And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! " 
 
 Yea ! He it is whose presence makes the 
 world alive with beauty : He it is whose 
 vision thrills us when we know it not. His 
 smile brightens the outgoings of the morn- 
 ing : His voice sounds from the murmuring 
 forest and the rushing cataract and the loud- 
 roaring, multitudinous ocean billows : His 
 garments of glory gleam before us in the 
 lingering hues of sunset. In every form of 
 beauty and scene of splendor we behold the 
 presence of God. And this presence, we 
 sa}^ is a reality : it exists for us as truly as 
 the light which enables us to see, or the 
 heat which enables us to live. Power, wis- 
 dom, beauty, — these are no dreams, but the 
 actual manifestations, in the physical world, 
 of the living God. 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 39 
 
 II. In the moral world we touch Him 
 yet more closely : He reveals Himself to us 
 as a person : He puts His hand upon us 
 and we feel His power. 
 
 Here, we are standing in another world 
 from that which is known to our senses. 
 Absolutely and totally different from the 
 feelings of awe, wonder, or delight at the 
 things which are seen and heard and han- 
 dled, is the sentiment of moral obligation, 
 the distinction between right and wrong, 
 the voluntary movement of the soul under 
 the laws of good and evil. No external 
 force, n o law of nature, no command of ^7^ 
 man can create~tliat which we call didyj 
 and yet it is a reality, which we cannot 
 question or change. It presses upon us 
 more closely and resistlessly than any other 
 power. It cannot be escaped or evaded. 
 It follows us, seizes us, binds us. The con- 
 sciousness that among the paths which 
 are open to my choice there is one that 
 I ought to follow and one that I ouglit to 
 avoid, that among the actions of my life 
 there are those that are right aiid those that 
 
40 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 are wrong, the sense of obligation, the voice 
 of conscience crying in the secret place 
 "Thou shalt not do this thing, for it is evil," 
 or " Thou shalt do this, for it is good," — 
 nothing in the universe is more real to me 
 than this, and in this I touch God. 
 
 He it is that calls me and commands me 
 and binds me. He it is that reveals to me 
 
 this world within the world, and summons 
 
 ■^ . . — — — -^ 
 
 me to live aright. He it is that hath " be- 
 set me behind and before, and laid His 
 hand upon me." " Whither shall I go from 
 His presence ? If I climb up into Heaven 
 He is there ; if I go down into Hell He is 
 there also." The universe is filled with His 
 voice, saying, " Thou shalt," and " Thou 
 shalt not." 
 
 But, mark you, there is no constraint laid 
 upon me. My will is free. I can, I must, 
 choose for myself between good and evil. 
 And here is the wonder of it ; here is the 
 manifest presence of the living God. For 
 if the moral law were natural and imper- 
 sonal, it would bind us resistlessly as gravity 
 or electricity, as the thousand forces which 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 41 
 
 move us Mther and thither in the ordinary 
 courses of our lives without our will. But 
 here, at the very moment when the loftiest 
 interests of our being are at stake, at the 
 turning where the fate of the soul must be 
 decided, when we are conscious that the 
 issues of life and death hang in the balance 
 of our action, — at this moment the com- 
 pulsion is withdrawn, the way is open, the 
 will is left at liberty to choose the right or 
 to reject it. But is the presence of Him 
 who has revealed to us the difference be- 
 tween good and evil withdrawn ? Nay, 
 not so ; but now most clearly manifest and 
 felt ; for He is warning us as a Fatlier 
 warns his child ; He is watching us. Bend- 
 ing down above us with an infinite and 
 tender solicitude He waits and longs to see 
 us choose the good and reject the evil. We 
 feel His eye upon us. " Thou God seest 
 me." You cannot escape it ! you cannot 
 deny it! This trembling of your soul at 
 the thought of wrong, this drawing of your 
 will towards the right, this joy of your heart 
 in the consciousness of good, — this is the 
 
42 THE REALITY OF RELIGION: 
 
 sense of the reality of God, touching you in 
 your moral life. 
 
 III. But again, we find God in the world 
 as an historical reality. Just as we know the 
 reality of the Persian, or the Grecian, or the 
 Roman empires by their records on stone 
 or parchment, by the results which they 
 have accomplished and the traces which 
 they have left in the world, so we know 
 that God is a reality by the records and 
 results of His dealings with men. In the 
 experience of mankind His will is the chief 
 factor ; and if you take that away, if you 
 deny all traces of a supreme, overruling, 
 beneficent Providence in the affairs of men, 
 -J»- the history of the world becomes an inex- 
 plicable and monstrous fable. How has the 
 race been preserved in numberless perils 
 and advanced through incessant difficulties; 
 how have human industry and knowledge 
 and character been unfolded and developed ; 
 how, amid the crash of falling empires and 
 the dust of ruined civilization, wars and 
 floods and earthquakes and revolutions, have 
 learning and virtue been kept alive and 
 
THE LIVING GOD. 43 
 
 nurtured and increased, and the happiness 
 of humanity enlarged year by year and 
 century by century ; how has the world 
 been guided on a course which, with all its 
 windings, leads surely upward, — if it be 
 not by the indwelling and inworking of 
 an almighty and allwise Governor ? God in 
 history is a reality. 
 
 And more than this, we have the actual 
 record of His special dealings with certain 
 men and nations, — records which cannot 
 be ignored or explained away. We have 
 no reason and no right to doubt them. The 
 Bible is a history, — a history of men and of 
 God. As the traveller passes through the 
 rugged defiles of Sinai, and sees the inscrip- 
 tions graven upon the rocks, he says, " The 
 Edomites, the Romans, the Arabs have been ^7^ 
 here." So, as we turn the pages of the Holy 
 Scriptures, the handwriting of divine power 
 and wisdom tells us that God has been here. 
 He has revealed Himself to Abraham and 
 Moses, Elijah and David. He has mani- 
 fested His omnipotence in the deliverance 
 and preservation and guidance of His chosen 
 
44 TEE REALITY OF RELIGIOlSr. 
 
 people Israel. Above all, He has sliined 
 forth clearly in the person and life of Jesus 
 Christ. This supreme and abiding person- 
 ality, evidently superhuman, standing all 
 the tests of criticism, refusing to be resolved 
 into a myth or a dream, the most potent 
 and permanent figure in all history, — this 
 divine-human Master and Saviour of men, 
 real and living through all the ages, — is to 
 us the unshaken evidence of the reality of 
 God. When we see Him we see the Fa- 
 ther, for He and the Father are one. 
 
 IV. But one more realm remains for us 
 to explore : but one more region of human 
 life in which we must feel after God if 
 haply we may find Him. And here, indeed, 
 He is not far from every one of us. In the 
 spiritual life, the deep and secret exercise of 
 the soul's highest powers, the life of faith 
 and hope and love and prayer, we meet and 
 touch the living God. No mere vision of 
 distempered sleep was that strange and 
 awful experience of the patriarch Jacob, 
 by the ford of Jabbok's stream. It was a 
 reality ; the contact of the human spirit 
 
TEE LIVING GOD. 45 
 
 witli the Divine ; the wrestling of the hu- 
 man soul with God, so real and close that 
 it leaves its marks upon the body and the 
 mind forever. Yes, He does come to us 
 and lay hold of us ; He does speak to us 
 and answer us, — this unseen, eternal, liv- 
 ing One, before whose presence our hearts 
 tremble and adore. In the dark, silent 
 hours of the night, in the glaring noonday, 
 in the crowded assembly of worshippers, in 
 the solitude of our chambers. He is with us 
 and we feel Him. When the tide of peni- 
 tence sweeps over the soul, and we are 
 humbled in the dust crying for pardon, have 
 we not felt the touch of His forgiving hand 
 laid upon us in secret ? Have we not cast 
 ourselves in faith upon Him whom we see 
 not, as one who leaps into the darkness, 
 and found our Father's everlasting: arms 
 encircling, embracing, bearing us up ? Have 
 we not pleaded with Him in prayer, and 
 known of a surety that He hears us, be- 
 cause the answer has come into our hearts? 
 Have we not sought guidance and found it, 
 and cried for help and received it ? Have 
 
46 THE REALITY OF RELIGION, 
 
 we not held communion -with Him in se- 
 cret, and felt tlie influences of His spirit 
 moving with sweet and sacred compulsion 
 upon our own ? Who is it that has delivered 
 our souls in great temptation, — and for- 
 given our sins in the midst of our anguish, 
 — and spoken peace to the storm that swept 
 our bosoms, — and wiped away the tears 
 from our eyes in the deepest sorrow? God! 
 our God ! 
 
 O tell me that this most vast and excel- 
 lent universe is an airy vision, that all 
 things seen and heard are a delusion, that 
 life itself is but a dream, — but never tell 
 me that God is not real ! For the one 
 reality beyond all doubt is He who pardons 
 my sins and upholds my spirit, comforts 
 my grief and lights the star of my hope, — 
 He in whom I live and move and have my 
 being, — the living and true God. 
 
III. 
 
 THE LIVING SOUL. 
 
III. 
 
 Genesis ii. 7. And man became a living sou h 
 
 God being a reality, what are we who 
 know Him ? 
 
 Realities, doubtless, for the man never 
 lived who could honestly question his own 
 existence. But of what nature ? Are we 
 mirrors of sensation, reflecting passively the 
 gleams of the Divine glory ; strings of an 
 -^olian harp vibrating beneath the efflu- 
 ences of Divine power ; cunningly devised 
 mechanisms of bone and blood, muscle and 
 nerve? or are we something more? God 
 is a spirit. This we know. But what is 
 man? 
 
 If we refer this question directly to the 
 Bible, the answer is plain, straightforward, 
 and immediate. Man is a living soul, 
 brought into existence by the inbreathing 
 of the Divine life and inhabiting a body 
 4 
 
50 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 framed by the Divine wisdom and power. 
 He is a spiritual creature, with supersensual 
 powers, rehited most intimately to God, and 
 by virtue of that relation destined to an 
 everlasting existence. He dwells in the 
 material universe ; he is bound to a physical 
 organism, by means of which his sensations 
 are received and his volitions exercised ; he 
 is subjected, thus far, to the laws of matter 
 and force ; but he himself is not to be 
 identified with the things which are seen 
 and heard and felt ; he is of another sub- 
 stance ; his life is independent and inde- 
 structible ; he is an immortal spirit. Thus 
 the Bible teaches ; and we who believe 
 that the Bible is an inspired book, accept 
 this teaching and rest upon it with an im- 
 plicit faith. 
 
 There is a substantial reality in this doc- 
 trine, and we do not by any means consent 
 to abandon it, or set it aside as insufficient. 
 It is the reality of a well-attested and un- 
 shaken revelation. But we are seeking now 
 for something more than this. We are look- 
 ing for the confirmation of this truth, which 
 
TEE LIVING SOUL. 51 
 
 is revealed to us on such high authority, in 
 human nature and experience. We are 
 questioning man himself, as he actually 
 exists in the world, — a living, sentient, in- 
 telligent being ; and we demand an answer 
 in accord with the facts as they are found 
 in the consciousness of every one of us, an 
 answer which shall bring us face to face 
 with the clear and indubitable reality. 
 
 I. What is man ? A famous scientific lec- 
 turer recently gave a striking illustration 
 of his view of this question. He reduced 
 a human body by chemical analysis to its 
 component parts. He presented to his au- 
 dience twenty-three pounds of carbon, two 
 pounds of lime, twenty - two ounces o| 
 phosphorus, about one ounce each of so- 
 dium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and sili-« 
 con ; and apologized for not exhibiting some 
 five thousand cubic feet of oxygen, one 
 hundred thousand cubic feet of hydrogen, 
 and fifty -two cubic feet of nitrogen gas. 
 These substances, he said, were what went 
 to the making of a man. 
 
 Is that all? Do you believe it? This 
 
s. 
 
 52 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 lecturer doubtless prided himself on a strict 
 loyalty to the facts ; he claimed to be deal- 
 ing with the reality of the case. But he 
 was in truth most disloyal t o the facts ; he 
 w as in truth utterly obliv ious of th e great 
 reality. Such an experiment as this is for 
 every man of common sense an instant and 
 absolute refutation of materialism. For 
 where, amid this mass of separated solids 
 and this cloud of volatile gases, shall you 
 find the distinctive qualities of human na- 
 ture? Is carbon conscious? Can lime suf- 
 fer ? Can phosphorus think ? You may 
 combine them as you will ; you may arrange 
 and organize them ; you may permeate them 
 with heat and thrill them with electricity ; 
 but you can never recall the man who once 
 lived and thought, suffered and loved, felt 
 and willed within them. lie was in the 
 body, but he was not of it. When the 
 body died, he escaped. The retort could 
 not contain him, the fire could not burn 
 him. Somewhere beyond the reach of 
 hands and eyes, somewhere in this universe 
 in which nothing can ever possibly be lost. 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 53 
 
 somewliere above the realm of physical 
 science, the man exists. The chemical 
 analysis has shown us what he is not, but 
 it has not even touched the question of what 
 he is. 
 
 We must turn then to a better source of 
 information. We must interrogate a living 
 man. We must ask one who is still within 
 reach of our questioning, and whose knowl- 
 edge of himself can still be communicated 
 to us, " What are you ? " 
 
 1. You are a conscious being. You per- 
 ceive, you feel, you know. Andjaere, in 
 tjiisjact.J here is a great gu lifixed between^ 
 you and the ma terial world, a gulf which the 
 greatest men_of_science _say is im passable. 
 No vibrations of the gray substance in the 
 brain, no theory of the refinement of matter 
 and the reflex action of nerve-cells, will ex- 
 plain the difference or bridge the chasm be- 
 tween an unconscious stone and a conscious 
 man. The sensitive plate in the camera is 
 touched and changed by the rays of light, 
 and a picture of things remains upon it. 
 But it does not see the visions which fill 
 
54 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 you with gladness. The grains of sand 
 scattered on a plate of steel are moved 
 hither and thither, and arranged in beauti- 
 ful curves and figures, by the waves of sound. 
 But they do not hear the immortal music 
 which thrills your soul with vague delight. 
 They do not and they cannot. For though 
 they are sensitive to the forces which sur- 
 round them, they are not conscious, they 
 have no perception and no emotion. That 
 is to say, they are a portion of the material 
 universe. But you are not And your 
 consciousness is just the sense of the chasm 
 which divides you from all things created. 
 
 You sit apart as a spectator, a judge, a 
 lord. Within the universe which encircles 
 you, within the house which shelters you, 
 within the body which contains you, your 
 soul, your self, abides in the royal conscious- 
 ness of personal identity. The spectacle of 
 the world passes before you ; you behold, you 
 judge, you feel, you reason, you act. It is 
 not the eye which perceives : it is you look- 
 ing through it. It is not the ear which 
 hears : it is you^ sitting behind it. It is not 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 55 
 
 the hand which moves : it is you who 
 stretch it forth. Never for an instant, 
 never by any sophistry of reason, or trick 
 of logic, can you lose your personal identity, 
 or confuse yourself with the world in which 
 you live. From the first moment of in- 
 telligence, you are separated from all things 
 tangible and visible. You are yourself a 
 reality, for you are conscious of it. 
 
 2. You are a free being. You are not 
 subject to the laws which bind and control 
 the material universe. Your body indeed 
 is within the sphere of their dominion. If 
 you reduce its temperature, it is frozen. If 
 you overheat it, it is burned. But you can ^ 
 neither be burned nor frozen. The chains ^ 
 of gravitation which bind your feet to the 
 dull earth cannot withhold your spirit from 
 the stars. Borne on the swift wings of im- 
 agination, you sweep hither and thither at 
 your will. The sunset gates open before 
 you. The translucent depths of ocean can- 
 not exclude your thought. You command 
 your body, and it bears you whither you de- 
 sire to go. And when its steps are hindered 
 
56 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION, 
 
 and its progress barred by some great ob- 
 stacle, your soul goes marclimg on, travel- 
 ling in the greatness of its strength. You 
 may be shut up in the darkness of a loath- 
 some dungeon, but you cry, — 
 
 " Stone walls do not a prison make, 
 Nor iron bars a cage/' 
 
 You are still free ; for there is in you a 
 power of will which no mortal force can 
 shake or compel. The lightning may flash 
 above you, the earthquake roll beneath you, 
 the terrors of natural convulsions and the 
 threatenings of human wrath may surround 
 you. Men may torture you and give your 
 body to be burned. But your will is un- 
 touched. You may choose, and none can 
 change you. Ay! when the slightest and 
 feeblest child of man has said, " livill not^''' 
 he has asserted a power which the weight 
 of the whole world can never break. 
 
 Whence does this power come ? Can it 
 be the product of carbon and phosphorus, 
 oxygen and hydrogen ? Incredible ! It is 
 the direct evidence that you belong to a 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 57 
 
 higlier order than tlie world which you can 
 thus defy and conquer. It is the manifest 
 strength of your living soul. 
 
 3. You are a moral being. Emancipated 
 from the laws of matter and force, you are 
 subject to the laws of spirit. Your inward 
 life, your happiness, your welfare, depend 
 upon your moral actions and relations. 
 
 I do not mean by this, merely that a man 
 ought to have regard to the laws of right 
 and wrong, and that if he despises and 
 transgresses them he will inevitably be 
 punished ; although this is certainly true : 
 but I mean to say now, that the real life of 
 every man lies not in the realm of the visi- 
 ble, but in the realm of the invisible. Here 
 are the wants which govern him, the ties 
 which bind him, the laws which he may 
 defy, but which he can never shake off. 
 Here is the true sphere of his activity, — 
 in knowledge, and love, and hope, and 
 righteousness, — and here alone he can find 
 success and satisfaction. 
 
 Do you need the proof of this ? Do you 
 need the evidence that man belongs to a 
 
~^ 
 
 58 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 different order of beings from stones and 
 trees and dumb animals ? Look into your 
 own heart and find it. You are conscious 
 of liiglier thoughts and feelings, ranging 
 infinitely above these things which perish in 
 the using. You are filled with desires and 
 longings which can never be satisfied with 
 the food of the senses. You are bound by 
 moral relations and responsibilities which 
 can never be reduced to terms of chemistry 
 or physics. 
 
 I have seen a man whose bodily wants 
 were completely gratified, well-fed, well- 
 clothed, well-housed, — 
 
 " In glowing health, with boundless wealth, 
 Yet sickening of a vague disease," — 
 
 restless, feverish, discontented, unhappy. 
 Why was he not at peace? Because he 
 had a conscience which was tormented with 
 remorse, because he had a heart which was 
 empty of love, because he had a living soul 
 which was starving to death. 
 
 I have seen a poor child lying on a bed 
 of pain and sickness, pining away her life 
 
TEE LIVING SOUL. 59 
 
 within the narrow walls of a comfortless 
 room, in want and weakness and distress, 
 and yet her days were filled with quiet 
 happiness, and the light of a great glad- 
 ness rested tenderly upon her wasted face. >^ 
 What was the secret of her joyful content- 
 ment? She had a conscience which was at 
 peace with God, she had a heart full of love, 
 she had a living soul which was satisfied 
 and overflowing with the Divine Grace. 
 
 Tell me not that this life of ours is a 
 mere play of electric forces within a per- 
 ishable form of earth. Tell me not that 
 eating and drinking and sleeping are the 
 realities of our existence, and all else is 
 but dream and delusion. 
 
 " I know we are not wholly brain, 
 Magnetic mockeries : not in vain 
 Like Paul, with beasts, I 've fought with Death ; 
 
 *' Not only cunning casts in clay ; 
 
 Let Science prove we are, and then 
 What matters Science unto men, 
 At least to me 1 I would not stay. 
 
 " Let him the wiser man who springs 
 Hereafter, up from childhood shape 
 His action like the greater ape, 
 But I was born to other things." 
 
60 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Yes, by the powers that rise within me and 
 spread their spiritual wings for flight be- 
 yond the bounds of sense, and by the yearn- 
 ings which meat and drink can never still, 
 the outreachings of the heart for truth and 
 love, — 
 
 ** the obstinate questionings 
 Of sense and outward things, 
 Fallings from us, vauishings, 
 Blank misgivings of a creature 
 Moving about in worlds not realized. 
 High instincts before which our guilty nature 
 Doth tremble like a thing surprised," — 
 
 by the awful sense of right and wrong, by 
 the joy of goodness, by the pain of sin, by 
 the longing for God, I know that I am a 
 living soul. 
 
 II. But for how long ? That is the 
 question. This living soul is indubitably 
 bound to a material body. With the body 
 it grows and acts and enjoys and suffers. 
 Does it also decay and perish with the 
 body ? As the muscles relax, and the limbs 
 grow feeble, and the senses are dulled, — 
 as the breath falters and fails, as the eyes 
 close, as the heart trembles and stands 
 
THE LIVING SOUL, 61 
 
 still, — does tlie living spirit cease to be? 
 Does tlie light of the soul go out in utter 
 darkness ? Not so ! It has within itself 
 the promise and the power of an endless 
 life. It is made not for time, but for eter- 
 nity. And even while it dwells within the 
 frail and feeble tenement of the body, the 
 soul is conscious of its immortal destiny. 
 
 1. This is the universal testimony of the 
 human race. Mankind will not believe that 
 death ends all. In every religion there is a 
 doctrine of a future life. The tombs and 
 temples of the world, the massive pyramids 
 of Egypt, the glittering shrines of the East, 
 the stately edifices of Greece and Rome, 
 the vast circles of gray stones which bear 
 their mysterious witness to the forgotten 
 faith of ancient Britain, the gigantic altars 
 hidden in the forests of South America, — 
 all these are monuments, not so much of the 
 Past, as of the Future. They are silent 
 witnesses to the faith of humanity in an- 
 other world. 
 
 And is it not a wonderful thing that such 
 a faith should everywhere exist ? Is it not 
 
62 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 a wonderful thing that man beholding death 
 on every side, living in a world where all 
 things are subject to decay, seeing hundreds 
 of his fellow-beings perish about him day 
 by day, feeling in his own body the power 
 of disease and dissolution, should ever have 
 dared to begin, should still dare to continue, 
 to believe that he would not die ? Whence 
 came this faith ? Surely not from a mor- 
 tal source. Surely a power divine has writ- 
 ten on the soul that inscription which sin 
 cannot bury and doubt cannot efface. Thou 
 art immortal. 
 
 2. I think every one of us has read this 
 inscription on his own soul. Every one of 
 us has a deep personal conviction of im- 
 mortality. We may not be able to ex- 
 plain it; we may not be able to argue it 
 out. But we feel that we shall live forever. 
 The sense of personal identity, the absolute 
 unity of our being, makes it inconceivable 
 that we should perish. For destruction 
 means dissolution. And that which has no 
 parts, that which is a unit, cannot be dis- 
 solved. The soul, that which feels and 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 63 
 
 thinks and wills, your self, is individual, 
 and therefore indissoluble. You can im- 
 agine your body as crumbling away, decay- 
 ing, scattering, yanishing. But you cannot 
 think yourself non-existent. 
 
 3. Moreover, the very powers of man's 
 spiritual life demand a wider field and an 
 unlimited duration for their exercise and 
 completion. There is something prophetic 
 in thought and in emotion. In the heart of 
 our imperfect knowledge there is lodged the 
 hope of a perfect wisdom. At the end of 
 our broken reasonings there shines the light 
 of a higher truth. All our conclusions, all 
 our theories, all our aspirations, point for- 
 ward. Our very defects are intimations of 
 a future development, and our limitations 
 are but barriers which we are gaining 
 strength to overleap. 
 
 What is it all worth unless there be a 
 bej^ond? What are the attainments and 
 acquisitions of our three -score and ten 
 years, unless they are to be completed and 
 perfected and applied in a hereafter ? Why 
 struggle and toil to gather a little knowl- 
 
64 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 edge that will be buried in all its weakness 
 and incompletion in the grave? But Reason 
 herself breaks the chains of such a despair- 
 ing doctrine. She shapes her wings to fly. 
 She looks onward and upward. An end- 
 less vista opens before her. She anticipates 
 immortality. 
 
 And how much more prophetic is love ! 
 Those strong affections which bind heart 
 to heart and life to life in the most precious 
 and beautiful of human relationships, that 
 intense devotion which almost seems to con- 
 quer personality and make of two souls one, 
 those tender and sensitive emotions which 
 seem so frail and unsubstantial, but have 
 the power to master every faculty and sway 
 the spirit at their will, — when do they find 
 their earthly close and completion ? What 
 do they know of dissolution ? They will 
 not hear of death. They reach out into 
 the gloom. They demand and they promise 
 a future satisfaction, — an endless reunion. 
 " If love lives through all life and survives 
 through all sorrow ; and remains steadfast 
 with us through all changes ; and in all 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 65 
 
 darkness of spirit burns brightly ; and if we 
 die, deplores us forever and still loves us 
 equally ; and exists with the very last gasp 
 and throb of the faithful bosom, — whence 
 it passes with the pure soul beyond death ; 
 surely it shall be immortal. Though we 
 who remain are separated from it, is it not 
 ours in heaven ? If we love still those 
 whom we lose, can we altogether lose 
 those we love ? " No, a thousand times no ! 
 If this world were all, the life of man 
 would be a mockery and a curse, infinitely 
 more wretched and pitiable than that of the 
 brutes, who perish without love or thought. 
 These pure desires, these ardent longings, 
 these close and tender affections, — kindled 
 and fostered in our hearts for a few brief 
 years and then shattered forever? Nay, 
 they live forever. They do not acknowl- 
 edge the dominion of the grave. They be- 
 long to a higher world. 
 
 " Love is indestructible. 
 Its holy flame forever burnetii ; 
 From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. 
 It soweth here with toil and care, 
 But the harvest time of love is there." 
 
 5 
 
66 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 4. Once more, the relations of the hu- 
 man soul to God demand a future and end- 
 less life. We know Him, but our knowledge 
 is partial, broken, and imperfect. Glimpses 
 of His face we catch through the rolling 
 clouds that encircle Him, and these 
 glimpses contain the promise of a clearer 
 vision, a closer knowledge. We worship 
 and love Him, but this adoration and this 
 love are feeble and incomplete. Drawings 
 and upliftings of the heart towards Him we 
 feel, and these emotions are the pledge of a 
 more perfect love, of a more living fellow- 
 ship. We acknowledge Him as our Lord 
 and Ruler, we know that we stand before 
 Him to be judged. And this sense of awful 
 responsibility is the prophecy that we shall 
 appear before His face to answer for our 
 lives. It is incredible that we should ever 
 have known Him, incredible that He should 
 ever have brought us into such relations 
 with Himself, if we were but transient 
 and perishable forms of clay. By the re- 
 ality of God we know that we are living 
 souls, and that our souls shall live forever. 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 67 
 
 Here, then, is the truth which you feel in 
 every fibre of your being, which is confirmed 
 by all the experience of thought and feeling 
 and will, which is echoed by the strong clear 
 voice of humanity, and attested by the word 
 of God. Not that you have a soul as well 
 as a body. But that you are a soul, living, 
 spiritual, immortal, and that your destiny 
 stretches on before you into eternity. 
 
 Since this is so, how will you answer the 
 question of Christ, " What shall it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul?" Surely he must be of all men 
 the most miserable. 
 
 What can be compared for a moment 
 with the needs and destinies of the soul ? 
 Even here, upon this bank and shoal of 
 time, they are supreme above all other in- 
 terests. There is a hunger which cannot be 
 stayed with bread. There is a thirst which 
 cannot be quenched with water. There is 
 a nakedness which cannot be covered with 
 purple and fine linen. Vainly shall you 
 strive to satisfy these wants with things 
 which perish in the using. You are spend- 
 
68 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 ing your strength for naught, and your 
 labor for that which satisfieth not. You 
 are wasting your life, if you are neglecting 
 your soul. Deeply, unutterably wretched 
 must you be if you do not provide for your 
 highest needs and care for your noblest 
 interests. The heavenly bread of truth, 
 the living water of faith, the white robe 
 of holiness, — seek and find these things, 
 and your soul shall be satisfied and at 
 peace even here on earth. 
 
 And beyond, — in that mysterious life 
 which stretches away through endless ages, 
 — how great, how infinite are the interests 
 of your soul ! When tliis body in which 
 you live has fallen in decrepitude and min- 
 gled with the graveyard mould, when these 
 walls have crumbled and this roof has 
 sunken in decay, when this great and proud 
 city has become a ruin, and the world itself 
 has perished, — when a million years have 
 passed away, your soul will still be living in 
 wretchedness or in bliss. What then will 
 you think of the objects which you now 
 pursue so eagerly, — the fame, the wealth, 
 
THE LIVING SOUL. 69 
 
 the pleasure of this world ? They will seem 
 to you as nothing, and less than nothing. 
 A moment of time in the balance against 
 eternity i a single drop of pleasure against 
 an ocean of happiness ; a single pang of sac- 
 rifice against an endless woe ; a span of life 
 with man against an everlasting fellowship 
 with God, — when you have weighed these 
 things through the unceasing ages, you will 
 understand that the one question in the 
 world which has reality, beside which all 
 others vanish like dreams, is this; How 
 shall you save your immortal soul ? 
 
IV. 
 
 THE LIVING WORD. 
 
IV. 
 
 Heb. iv. 12. The word of God is quick and powerful^ 
 
 This sermon revolves about a book. A 
 book which has been accepted, for a score 
 of centuries, as divine ; a book which has 
 exercised a wider and deeper influence upon 
 human thought and life than all other vol- 
 umes in the world, — such a book as this is 
 certainly no dream, but a reality, and one 
 well worthy of our attention. 
 
 But I do not propose to consider the Bible 
 merely as a book. For the one thing that is 
 peculiar about it, is that it claims to be some- 
 thing more than a mere literary produc- 
 tion. In whatever form it comes to us, — 
 written on rolls of ancient and discolored 
 parchment, repeated by living lips of men 
 who have learned it by heart, printed on 
 coarsest paper or on costliest sheets of vel- 
 
74 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 lum, in Hebrew or in Greek, in English or 
 in Chinese, bound in the fragrant leather 
 of Russia or scattered abroad in fragments 
 on loose and flying leaves, — in whatever 
 shape the Bible comes to men, it claims to 
 be something better than a book. It pre- 
 sents itself as a living word, — the word of 
 the Almighty God revealing Himself to 
 His creatures. 
 
 The question is whether this claim is true. 
 Not, can we justify it, — but does it justify 
 itself ? Not, can we explain and analyze and 
 defend it, — but do we feel it as a reality ? 
 For after all the Bible must be its own 
 argument and defense. The power of it 
 can never be proved unless it is felt. The 
 authority of it can never be supported un- 
 less it is manifest. The light of it can 
 never be demonstrated unless it shines. If 
 it comes to us with a quickening and illu- 
 mining might ; if it is warm and throbbing 
 with a secret life ; if, as Coleridge said, it 
 finds us, and touches us, and makes our 
 souls alive, then we know that it is divine. 
 
 For this is the difference between a word 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 75 
 
 and a book. The one is mechanical, the 
 other is vital. The one is printed and bound 
 and read, the other breathes and moves and 
 works. The one is a material product, the 
 other is a spiritual power. And the point 
 of supreme importance in all the present 
 controversies about the Bible is just this : 
 Does it truly manifest a superhuman spir- 
 itual life and power ; does it convey to us 
 the mind and heart and will of our Heav- 
 enly Father ? For if it does, this dead book 
 contains the living word of the living God 
 spoken eternally to the living soul. 
 
 You see at once this carries us far beyond 
 the sphere of literary and critical investiga- 
 tion. Theories of inspiration, verbal, literal, 
 plenary, partial ; arguments concerning au- 
 thorship and authority; higher criticism 
 and lower criticism ; disputes about names 
 and numbers, — all these we shall leave far 
 behind us. We do not say that they are 
 trivial, but we do say that they are second- 
 aryo We do say that men are dwelling upon 
 them with undue emphasis, and reducing the 
 Bible to the level of mere literature. We 
 
76 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 do say that tlie study of the Scriptures in 
 the spirit of cold historical research or su- 
 percilious fault-finding, the picking over of 
 its facts and narratives with the sole pur- 
 pose of exhibiting either their inconsistency 
 or their agreement, is not a religious work 
 in the highest sense of the word, and ought 
 never to be made the prominent theme of 
 public preaching or of private meditation. 
 
 It is as i f God should send an ang^el to_ 
 tell us of Himself ; and our firs t jeffort sho uld 
 J be to catch the shi ning me^nger, lay hh n. 
 on the disse cting^ - table, and cut him in 
 pieces, to fi nd out how he was mad e. 
 
 Bind not, slay not, the word of God. For 
 if it is to save us it must come to us alive, 
 and speak with a living voice to our deepest 
 hearts. 
 
 This is what we want. This is what our 
 spirits long and yearn and cry to receive ; — 
 a real communication from that great and 
 awful Being in whose image we are made 
 and in whose communion alone we can find 
 rest ; an utterance from that Father whose 
 face Ave have not seen, but for whose love 
 
TEE LIVING WORD. 77 
 
 our hearts are hungry; a word of God, 
 which shall be quick and powerful to our 
 souls, and kindle them to a higher, a holier, 
 a happier life. If we can find this it will be 
 more precious than rubies ; we will cherish 
 it more than all earthly treasures ; it will 
 be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our 
 path, a consolation and a joy forever. 
 
 We have a right, then, and not only a 
 right, but, in the highest sense, a duty, to 
 apply to the Bible the simple and searching 
 test which is suggested by the text. It is 
 true that these words were not written, in 
 their original connection, of the entire Scrip- 
 tures as we now possess them. They refer 
 strictly to a specific utterance of Jehovah, 
 the word of warning and judgment which 
 was spoken to His ancient people. But, at 
 the same time, they are a true description 
 of every divine word. Every utterance of 
 God must have and manifest these two 
 qualities, and their presence or absence is a 
 suflS.cient test of the reality of a revelation. I 
 
 It must be quick and powerful : not merely 
 agile and strong; the original meaning of 
 
78 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 the words goes far deeper, l^v koX ivcpyrj<;, — 
 living and operative, inworking, power- 
 producing. We have here the two ideas of 
 vitality and activity, a life manifested in 
 energy, a spiritual existence and a spiritual 
 potency. We may, therefore, consider the 
 word of God in the Bible, jBrst, as living; 
 second, as life-producing. 
 
 I. The marks of life are three: unity, 
 continuity, adaptability. 
 
 1. Every living thing is a unit. It has a 
 centre, a single and individual principle of 
 being. The most famous attempt of modern 
 science to define life is based upon this fact. 
 That which is alive must be homogeneous. 
 And this is the great difference between a 
 living creature and a manufactured article. 
 The manufactured article has parts. The 
 living creature has no parts, but hmbs and 
 organs which are made one by the spirit of 
 life. 
 
 In a spiritual sense this is evidently true 
 of the Bible. There is a manifest unity in 
 it. It is not a composition of disordered 
 and discordant fragments. It is one Word. 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 79 
 
 A single life animates it and breathes from 
 every page. And this appears the more 
 wonderful when we reflect that in its out- 
 ward form it is the work of men separated 
 one from another by the widest differences 
 of age, of character, of training, and of en- 
 vironment. More than a thousand years 
 were occupied in the writing of it. Legis- 
 lators, shepherds, poets, warriors, kings, a 
 tent-maker, a physician, a fisherman ; men 
 of action and men of reflection, men of no 
 education and men of the highest learning, 
 men of fiery temper and men of gentle 
 spirit, — more than forty hands were em- 
 ployed upon this work. And yet it is one 
 throughout, woven without seam from top 
 to bottom. The same view of God, deep- 
 ening and unfolding ; the same view of man, 
 piercing farther and farther into the secrets 
 of the soul; the same view of life, lifting 
 ever higher and higher the standard of 
 holiness and love. Under many different 
 forms and manners of speech it is always 
 the same mighty voice declaring to us the 
 same living truth. 
 
> 
 
 80 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 You cannot cut up the Word of God, and 
 you cannot piece it out. Try it. Take a 
 fragment from the Egyptian Book of the 
 Dead, and insert it into the books of Moses ; 
 or take tlie apocryphal Gospel of the In- 
 fancy of Jesus, and thrust it into the opening 
 chapters of St. Luke's Gospel. Instantly 
 you will perceive that you have added a 
 piece of old cloth to a new garment. You 
 have spoiled the book. You have made a 
 rent, not an addition. The spiritual unity 
 of the Word is violated. It will not suffer the 
 mingling of any human substance with it. 
 
 Now whence comes this marvelous inward 
 unity ? Not from external causes. Not from 
 a preconcerted agreement of the writers, for 
 men who lived a thousand years apart could 
 not have consulted together as to what they 
 should write. Not from a similarity of cir- 
 cumstances, for nothing could be more dif- 
 ferent than the surroundings of Moses and 
 Solomon from those of Paul and John. Not 
 from a conscious imitation, for then the 
 writers would have been more careful to 
 produce an outward resemblance and less 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 81 
 
 successful in accomplishing an inward unity. 
 It can come only from the one Spirit who 
 breathes and speaks alike through all these 
 different instruments, and uses the histories 
 and prophecies and psalms of the Old Tes- 
 tament, the narratives and epistles of the 
 New Testament, to convey the Word of 
 God to men. 
 
 We feel this by a sort of instinct. We 
 recognize the same spiritual tone and accent 
 in every portion of the Word. We feel that 
 it must be received altogether or not at all ; 
 for it is one, bound together in a truly vital 
 unity. 
 
 2. And this unity is continuous. This 
 also is a mark of every living creature. It 
 is not momentary and transient. It has a 
 principle of life, a purpose, a tendency ; and 
 its life-history, be it long or short, is the 
 continuous and consistent unfolding of this 
 principle. The living creature is not a plant 
 to-day and a bird to-morrow. From the 
 first moment of its existence to the last, it 
 follows a straight line. It develops and acts 
 with, continuity. 
 
82 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 This is cbaracteristic of the Word of God 
 as it is contained in the Bible. It has al- 
 ways manifested its life in the same line, 
 with powers and qualities which grow, but 
 do not change. From the very first it has 
 entered into the spiritual history of the race 
 with a unique character wliich it has pre- 
 served to the present day. The Jews ac- 
 cepted it, in its first imperfect form, as the 
 utterance of God, and it was to them the 
 source and fountain of religious life. Jesus 
 Christ recognized and used it in the same 
 spirit. His disciples were guided and con- 
 trolled by it in the same way. From age 
 to age it grew ; book after book was added 
 to the canon of Scripture, until at last it 
 was complete ; but the life and history of 
 the Word have been unbroken and continu- 
 ous. It has not been one thing to one 
 century, and another to the next. Always 
 and everywhere, it has been the revelation 
 of the Divine to the human. And now, 
 after so many centuries have passed away, 
 it is still manifesting the same life, still 
 doing the same work in the world. 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 83 
 
 Where shall you find another book which 
 has had such a history ? " The little ark of 
 Jewish literature," containing the living 
 treasure of God's word, " still floats above 
 the surges of time, while mere fragments of 
 the wrecked archives of the huge oriental 
 empires, as well as of the lesser kingdoms 
 that surrounded Judea, are now and then 
 cast upon our distant shores." 
 
 3. Another mark of life is adaptability. 
 By this I mean the power of the living 
 creature to fit itself to its surroundings, to 
 adjust its operations to a varied and chang- \ 
 ing environment. And this belongs in an 
 eminent degree to the Word of God. 
 
 Consider how different are the races to 
 which it has come; how widely separated in 
 disposition and employment are the indi- 
 viduals in whose hands it has been placed. 
 And yet to all tribes, and to all men, it has 
 adapted itself with vital power. The He- 
 brews found that it was a sure and sufficient 
 guide for them, alike in their desert-wander- 
 ings and in their established kingdom under 
 the house of David. The nations of Chris- 
 
84 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 tian Europe have made it the basis of all 
 their forms of government. It is woven 
 into the established law of every civilized 
 people. The fathers of our own Republic, 
 coming to set up their new nation upon the 
 barren shores of this wild continent, could 
 find no better guide than this same word of 
 God. Into every country it has come ; into 
 every language it has been translated. I 
 have seen a volume called " The Bible of 
 every Land," in which there are portions 
 of this book as it has been rendered in 
 more than two hundred and fifty different 
 tongues. 
 
 It is the Word of the world. It does not 
 belong to any race, nor to any class. It 
 belongs to all men. "It goes equally to the 
 cottage of the plain man and the palace of 
 the king. It is woven into the literature 
 of the scholar, and colors the talk of the 
 streets. It enters men's closets, mingles in 
 all the grief and cheerfulness of life. The 
 Bible attends men in sickness, when the 
 fever of the world is upon them. ... It is 
 the better part of our sermons, it lifts man 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 85 
 
 above himself. Our best of uttered prayers 
 are in its storied speech wherewith our 
 fathers and the patriarchs pra3^ed. The 
 timid man, about to wake from his dream 
 of hfe, looks through the glass of Scripture, 
 and his eye grows bright ; he does not fear 
 to stand alone, to tread the way unknown 
 and distant, to take the death-angel by the 
 hand, and bid farewell to wife and babes and 
 home. . . . Some thousand famous writers 
 come up in this century to be forgotten in 
 the next ; but the silver cord of the Bible 
 is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, 
 as Time chronicles his tens of centuries 
 passed by." 
 
 And can not we also bear witness to this 
 marvelous and living adaptability of this 
 Word of God to every mood and phase 
 of our own experience ? There are some 
 of us, I know, who have stood, like Rus- 
 kin, in childhood beside our mother's knee, 
 and heard, with a pleasure which is now 
 hallowed in our memory, that dear voice 
 reading the wise counsels and wondrous 
 histories of the Bible. There are some of 
 
86 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 US who have turned, in the hour of great 
 perplexity and temptation of the evil one, 
 to these sacred pages, and found the sav- 
 ing, enlightening word which alone could 
 show us the true way and strengthen us to 
 follow it. There are some of us who have 
 received from this precious book the conso- 
 lation without which we never could have 
 borne the sorrows and bereavements of our 
 life. Yes, and there are some of us who 
 have sat in the darkened room, beside the 
 bed of death, and read the blessed words 
 which seemed to fill the place of gloom and 
 anguish with the very light and peace of 
 heaven. "Read to me," said Sir Walter 
 Scott, when he lay a-dying, to his son-in- 
 law, Lockhart. " What book shall I read?" 
 asked Lockhart. " Can you ask ? " was the 
 reply, " there is but one ; " and he begged 
 him to read a chapter from St. John's Gos- 
 pel. Ah ! those well-worn pages, blotted 
 perhaps in your Bible with the mark of 
 tears, stained with the little flower that you 
 have pressed between them, — can their 
 comfort ever die, can their life ever cease ? 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 87 
 
 Nay, for they bring to us the Word of God, 
 which liveth and abideth forever. 
 
 II. But now turn for a moment to con- 
 sider the life-producing power of the Word 
 as it is contained in the Scriptures. The 
 spiritual efficiency of the Bible in the world 
 is manifest in facts which cannot be ques- 
 tioned, and is of such a nature as to prove 
 that it cannot be a mere book, but must be 
 a living word. Wherever it comes and is 
 received it brings forth fruit. It enlightens, 
 purifies, upUfts. It really brings God nearer 
 to men, and men nearer to God. It creates 
 a real and living bond, and establishes an 
 intimate communion between the divine and 
 the human. 
 
 This power is not confined to any one 
 portion of the Word, but belongs to it all. 
 From the histories of the Old Testament as 
 well as from those of the New, from the 
 precepts of the law as well as from the 
 poetry of the Psalms, from the discourses of 
 the prophets as well as from the doctrines 
 of the apostles, the same vital influence 
 and energy flow to the soul. 
 
88 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 The life which the Bible produces is three- 
 fold, — intellectual, moral, and spiritual. It 
 gives men wider and clearer conceptions of 
 truth, deeper and stronger convictions of 
 duty, closer and purer relations to God ; 
 and in doing this ifc manifests an energy 
 which can only come from His living Word. 
 
 1. I do not think we fully understand how 
 much of the intelligence of humanity in the 
 higher spheres of knowledge and thought is 
 directly due to the Bible. The revelations 
 which it brings have filtered through a 
 thousand secret channels into the remotest 
 corners of the world, and return to us with- 
 out acknowledging the source from which 
 they sprung. INIany of the noblest utter- 
 ances of philosophy and the grandest theo- 
 ries of science are but the unfolding of seeds 
 which have fallen from the fullness of Scrip- 
 ture into the hidden places of the human 
 mind. All that is best and loftiest in our 
 modern thought — its high regard for hu- 
 manit}^ its spiritual conception of Deity, the 
 breadth of its charity, and the firmness with 
 which it lays hold on the hopes of a better 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 89 
 
 future for the race — may be traced di- 
 rectly to the Bible. The very men who rail 
 at it and affect to despise it owe their best 
 ideas to its influence. The reason why an 
 enlightened American has a nobler and a 
 truer view of the world and life than an 
 African savage, is chiefly because he has 
 the Word of God. Blot out that which has 
 come from the Bible, and you will destroy 
 the best part of the intellectual life of the 
 race. 
 
 2. But wider still, and more glorious, has 
 been the influence of this Word upon man's 
 moral life. Wherever it has come it has 
 elevated and purified humanity. Righteous- 
 ness and peace flourish under its shadow. 
 It is the bulwark of civil and religious 
 liberty; the corner-stone of the hospital and 
 the asylum; the shelter and safeguard of 
 the happy home. On its sure foundation 
 governments are established, and by its holy 
 sanction laws are made sacred. It is the 
 fountain of public equity and private virtue ; 
 it makes men just and loyal and obedient ; 
 binds them to serve their country and their 
 
90 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 kind; summons them to defend the op- 
 pressed and resist tja-anny ; inspires them 
 to deeds of chivahy and daring. It stretches 
 a protecting arm about the poor and suffer- 
 ing, and opens the sweet springs of charity 
 and mercy in the human heart. Women 
 are purer and sweeter, men are braver and 
 better, where the Word of God has come. 
 " Wherever it is duly obeyed, it makes the 
 desert of the world to bud and blossom as 
 the rose." 
 
 Well has this been illustrated by the 
 words of one of the Bishops of the English 
 Church : — 
 
 " I invite any honest-minded man to look 
 at a map of the world and see what a story 
 that map tells. Which are the countries on 
 the face of the globe at this moment where 
 there is the greatest amount of idolatry, or 
 cruelty, or impurit}'-, or misgovernment, or 
 disregard of life, liberty, and truth ? Pre- 
 cisely those countries where the Bible is not 
 known. Wliich are the Christian countries, 
 so-called, where the greatest quantity of ig- 
 norance, superstition, and corruption is to 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 91 
 
 be found at the moment ? The countries in 
 which the Bible is a forbidden or neglected 
 book, — such countries as Spain and the 
 South American States. Which are the 
 countries where liberty and public and pri- 
 vate morality have attained the highest 
 pitch ? The countries where the Bible is 
 free to all, like England, Scotland, Ger- 
 many, and the United States. Yes ! when 
 you know how a nation deals with the Bible 
 you may know what that nation is." 
 
 Now what is the secret of this ? Surely 
 this is a result too large to come from any 
 mere book. This is the moral power of a 
 living word, and a word which is backed by 
 the authority of God Himself. Here is the 
 vast and vital difference between the Bible 
 and all systems of human morality. They 
 tell us to do thus and so because it is useful 
 or because it is right. But the Word tells 
 us to do thus and so because God wills it. 
 He who is above all things in power and 
 glory. He who has made us for His service 
 and can reward us with everlasting blessed- 
 ness, He speaks to us, saying, " This do and 
 
92 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 thou sbalt live." Thus our virtue is lifted 
 above the sphere of mere utility or expe- 
 diency, and our duty becomes a golden chain 
 to bind us to the ever-living and ever-blessed 
 God. 
 
 3. And here, you see, the moral life pro- 
 duced by the Bible runs into the spiritual. 
 All wisdom and all goodness are embraced 
 in the right relation of the human soul to 
 God. This is life, present and eternal, to 
 know the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom He has sent. And this the Divine 
 Word gives to us. It really brings us into 
 contact with God. 
 
 Where else shall we find this knowledge ? 
 Destroy, for a moment, all that is contained 
 in the Bible about God, and what will you 
 have left ? What will you know of His 
 goodness, His mercy. His truth ? What 
 assurance will you have of your relation to 
 Him, your power to obtain His grace and 
 favor? What will remain of your concep- 
 tion of His fatherhood, your trust in His 
 providence, your reliance on His everlasting 
 love ? Oh, how vague and feeble, how cold 
 
TEE LIVING WORD. 93 
 
 and distant, liow glimmering and uncertain, 
 are all the lights of nature and philosophy- 
 compared with the light of the Word ! 
 
 *' Stars are poor books and oftentimes do miss ; 
 This book of stars lights to eternal bliss." 
 
 The heavens declare the glory of God ; but 
 the Word shows us His forgiving mercy 
 and His tender compassion. Every creature 
 that He has made bears witness to His wis- 
 dom and power ; but the Word comes to us 
 warm and living from a Father's heart, 
 and draws us to Him in penitence and faith. 
 Here we learn of that purpose of redemption 
 which was hidden from all eternity in the 
 bosom of God. Here we see Him dealing 
 in righteousness and mercy with His guilty 
 and erring children, binding them to Him- 
 self in covenants of everlasting love, leading 
 them wisely and kindly in the way of life, 
 chastening their faults, forgiving their sins, 
 binding up their wounds, healing their dis- 
 eases, restoring their souls, and lighting up 
 all the darkness of their mortal pathway 
 with the glow of His heavenly promises. 
 
94 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Here we see Jesus Christ moving graciously 
 and tenderly through a world of sin jind 
 sorrow, and hear from His lips the precious 
 words of grace and truth. Here we behold, 
 as through an open portal, the mysteries of 
 the world to come, and catch the sweet 
 echoes of the immortal songs of Paradise. 
 All our light upon the past, all our comfort 
 in the present, all our sweet and priceless 
 hopes for the future, come from this Word. 
 And by its power our souls do live. Not 
 by bread alone, but by the whisperings 
 of our Father's voice, the warnings of His 
 wrath, the pleadings of His mercy, the 
 promises of His love, our spirits are quick- 
 ened and made alive. How often has the 
 Word pierced our consciences with the ar- 
 row of conviction for sin, and brought us 
 trembling and repenting to the feet of God ! 
 How often has it revealed, amid the dark- 
 ness of our guilt, the forgiving face of the 
 Saviour shining with unspeakable compas- 
 sion, and calmed our troubled and despair- 
 ing spirits with the words of pardon ! How 
 often has it lifted us above the storms and 
 
THE LIVING WORD. 95 
 
 pains and sorrows of this mortal life, into 
 the blessed peace of that upper world where 
 God dwells, and comforted us with a great 
 quietness, as one who hears his Father's 
 voice ! 
 
 Ah, my friends, we do not need a long 
 historical argument, an array of documents 
 and proofs, a profound and exact theory of 
 inspiration. We do not care to wrangle and 
 dispute about the letter, for we have felt 
 the power of the spirit. We know that 
 this is the Word of God because it speaks 
 to our hearts. 
 
V, 
 THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 
 
St. John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh 
 away the sin of the world. 
 
 This text is like a living hand pointing 
 forever to the Cross of Christ. It does not 
 propound a doctrine ; it declares a fact. It 
 does not move in the world of dreams and 
 abstractions, but in the world of reality. It 
 calls us not to suppose or imagine, but to 
 hehold; to open our eyes and see the Lamb 
 of God taking away the sin of the world. 
 
 Is this true? As we follow the guidance 
 of this pointing hand can we indeed discern 
 something real and substantial? Can we 
 see the burden lifted from the heart of man 
 and laid upon the Saviour? Can we see 
 the stains of evil washed away from the soul 
 by the flowing of His blood ? Can we see 
 the race restored to harmony and peace with 
 
100 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 God by the atoning power of the offering of 
 Jesus ? 
 
 This is the question of supreme impor- 
 tance. For upon the answer to this depends 
 the reahty of our religion. If this be not 
 true, then are we without hope in the world. 
 We have a God, existing from all eternity, 
 perfect, serene, immutable. We have a soul, 
 made in His image, and destined to an ever- 
 lasting existence. But we have no bond 
 between us and Him, no promise of His 
 mercy, no assurance of His love. And even 
 His living Word, the revelation of His 
 character and will, becomes vain and worth- 
 less, loses the very heart of its life, the very 
 spring of its power, unless we can discover 
 the reality of the Atonement. 
 
 I ask you then to look this question in the 
 face. Rest not in any theory. Build not 
 on any doctrine. Lay hold upon the facts. 
 Question the world and see if it has sinned. 
 Question the Christ and see if He be the 
 Lamb of God. Question the Cross and see 
 if it has saved men from guilt and death. 
 
 I. Behold the sin of the world. Is it a 
 reality or is it a fiction ? 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 101 
 
 Look out upon the varied scene of hu- 
 man life and tell me truthfully what you 
 see there. You behold man dwelling in 
 a fair, well-ordered universe, the manifest 
 creation of a beneficent God. You be- 
 hold him surrounded with all things which 
 are needful for his happiness, and incited 
 by every motive to a life of peace and ho- 
 liness. But you behold instantly that he 
 is neither peaceful nor holy, and therefore 
 that he is not truly happy. How dark and 
 terrible, amidst the innocence and joy of 
 nature, are the evidences of human guilt 
 and misery ! The green and tender sward 
 beside the gate of Paradise is stained with 
 the blood of a brother slain by a brother's 
 hand. The solemn forests are filled with 
 cruel and degraded savages. The pure- 
 eyed stars look down on scenes of violence 
 and lust. The golden fields of grain are 
 trampled and destroyed by warring armies 
 locked in the fury of the death-struggle, 
 and the clear streams are defiled with car- 
 nage. Avarice and envy, guile and op- 
 pression, wrath and falsehood, perturb and 
 
 i- 
 
102 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 poison the springs of peace. From a thou- 
 sand reeking cities goes up the pitiful cry 
 of the children ; from every land the exha- 
 lations of human wickedness and woe rise 
 like heavy smoke blackening against the 
 blue of heaven. 
 
 And does not man himself feel this ? 
 Does he not know that there is something 
 wrong with him ? Is not the mark of shame 
 written on his brow, and the sense of evil 
 pressed upon his heart ? 
 
 He stands amid the majestic purity, the 
 unconscious gladness of the world, like a 
 creature under an unholy spell. 
 
 " He crouches and blushes, 
 
 Absconds and conceals ; 
 He creepeth and pecpeth, 
 
 He palters and steals ; 
 Infirm, melancholy, 
 
 Jealous, glancing around, 
 An oaf, an accomplice, 
 
 He poisons the ground." 
 
 What ails him, the Lord of all things, the 
 flower of the universe ? Who has drugged 
 his cup and mixed his bread with bitter- 
 ness ? What fatal power has marred the 
 
TEE LIVING SACRIFICE. 103 
 
 joy and beauty of his life ? What mighty 
 barrier has risen between his soul and 
 God? 
 
 Sin; the choice of evil instead of good, 
 the perversion of the desires, the slavery of 
 the will, the darkening of the mind, the 
 deadly sickness of the whole heart. This 
 is the fountain of all trouble, the cause of 
 all disorder and wretchedness. This is the 
 wall which makes the world seem some- 
 times like a prison and sometimes like a 
 madhouse. This is the curse which destroys 
 life's harmony and beauty. This is the ob- 
 stacle which separates the soul, in darkness 
 and sorrow, from God. The forms of every 
 religion, the voice of unceasing prayers, the 
 smoke of endless burnt-offerings, the blood 
 of bulls and goats, the oblations of all that 
 is most precious, cruel altars drenched with 
 human gore, and flames consuming the off- 
 spring of man's body, — gifts, propitiations, 
 pleadings, sacrifices, without stint and with- 
 out number, — bear witness to the deep and 
 awful sense of sin which rests upon the heart 
 of the world. 
 
104 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Look now into your own heart and tell 
 me what you read there. Is it not the same 
 inscription ? Are you higher and holier 
 than your race ? Are you free from their 
 burden and exempt from their blame ? 
 
 You do not dare to claim it. You know 
 that you are bound to this sinful, perverted, 
 and unhappy humanity. The same passions 
 which have wrought the discord and misery 
 of the world are lurking in your own soul. 
 You know that your heart has missed its 
 true goal. You know that your feet have 
 wandered from the right way. You know 
 that your will has transgressed the law 
 which ought to bind you. Dimly though 
 you discern the true end of your being, you 
 are conscious that you have not reached it. 
 Faintly though you apprehend the glory 
 of God, you feel that you have come far 
 short of it. Judged by the standards and 
 commandments of men, you may be just 
 and free from blame. But you know that 
 there is sometbing higher than this. You 
 know that these human laws and tests are 
 imperfect and evil-tainted. You know that 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 105 
 
 there is a holiness which is supreme and 
 perfect, a love which has no stain or shadow 
 of self in it, a will which flows towards the 
 right with an unswerving and ceaseless mo- 
 tion, — and this is God. When the vision 
 of His perfection flashes upon you, when 
 you know that you were made in His image, 
 born to love Him and be like Him, then 
 you are humbled in the darkness and the 
 dust. You tremble and are ashamed before 
 Him. You know that you have sunken in- 
 finitely below Him, you have forfeited His 
 favor, you are an offense and loathing to 
 His pure eyes. 
 
 It is a vain thing to attempt to resolve 
 this sense of sin into a mere consciousness 
 of weakness or defect. It is something 
 far deeper and more painful than that. To 
 be ignorant, and to err on account of that 
 ignorance ; to be feeble, and to fail on ac- 
 count of that feebleness, does not involve 
 the deep and burning sense of guilt. The 
 blind man is not tortured with remorse 
 because he cannot see. The lame man's 
 conscience does not reproach him because 
 
106 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 he cannot run and leap. These are misfor- 
 tunes beyond the power of man's will to 
 prevent or remedy, and so far are they from 
 increasing guilt and condemnation that we 
 actually regard them as excuses and pallia- 
 tions. We do not blame the man whose 
 eyes are darkened for walking over the pre- 
 cipice. We do not demand the same high 
 virtue from the ignorant as from the wise. 
 Weakness and imperfection call forth our 
 pity, rather than our scorn. But with sin 
 there is a world-wide difference. Here the 
 conscience at once accuses and condemns. 
 Here the sense of shame and guilt burns 
 into the soul more deeply than any pain of 
 outward consequences, or penalties of an 
 offended law. A commandment broken, a 
 treasure lost, a white robe stained and de- 
 filed, a flower of innocence trampled in the 
 mire, a holy Judge offended, a loving Father 
 wounded and thrust aside, a divine fellow- 
 ship forfeited and destroyed, — these are 
 the bitter things that mingle in the con- 
 sciousness of sin. 
 
 And these are the things that divide 
 
TEE LIVING SACRIFICE. 107 
 
 the soul from God. Who dares deny them 
 or make light of them ? When the day of 
 judgment bursts in flaming splendor upon 
 the world, and the living and the dead are 
 gathered before the awful throne, who will 
 dare to lift his eyes to God and say, " I 
 am free and guiltless; I have broken no 
 law in thought, or word, or deed ; I meet 
 and defy Thy justice " ? Or now, at this 
 very hour, while those unseen eyes are bent 
 upon us, reading our hearts to their very 
 depths, what one of us dare lift his hand to 
 heaven and cry, " Behold me, for I am pure ; 
 let Thy light flash through my inmost soul; 
 there is no stain or shadow there : I am 
 perfect like Thee and fit for Thy companion- 
 ship : sitting among the husks and feeding 
 on them, I am worthy to be called Thy 
 son " ? 
 
 We can not; we dare not. It would be 
 blasphemy. The heavens would almost 
 open above us and send forth a flash of 
 light to destroy us. Whatever men may 
 think of us, whatever honor and praise may 
 be ours in the world, in the presence of 
 
108 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 the Holy One we put our hands on our 
 mouths and hide our faces in the dust, cry- 
 ing, '' Unclean, unclean, — God have mercy 
 upon us !" 
 
 II. But now behold the one Being in the 
 world who has never felt this defilement of 
 sin, the one pure and perfect Lamb of God. 
 He also is a reality ; not a dream or an 
 ideal, but a living, breathing man ; born 
 into the world in the likeness of our flesh ; 
 growing, thinking, feeling, laboring, enjoy- 
 ing, suffering, even as we do ; tempted in 
 all points like as we are, and yet without 
 sin. This holy life of Christ is a fact, — 
 solid, substantial, enduring. It stands like 
 a rock amid the billows of time. All the as- 
 saults of skeptics and unbelievers, the open 
 violence of avowed enemies and the secret 
 treachery of hidden foes, have not availed 
 to destroy or even to shake it. It abides. 
 It towers high above the highest levels of 
 humanity. It shines like a pillar of light. 
 The eyes of all men turn to it with wonder 
 and love. 
 
 I ask you to search the book of history 
 
TEE LIVING SACRIFICE. 109 
 
 and tell me if you can find one character 
 which is worthy to be compared for a mo- 
 ment with the character of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth. What company of honorable men 
 would not be abashed and put to shame by 
 His presence ? What roll of lofty names is 
 pure enough to claim an equal place with 
 His name ? 
 
 I ask you to search the record of His 
 life, calmly, fairly, dispassionately, and tell 
 me if there be any spot or blemish in it. 
 His enemies watched him like hawks, but 
 they never found the slightest trace of 
 sin. Judas would have given the world to 
 discover the faintest suspicion of evil in 
 Him whom he had so basely sold to death, 
 but he could not, and he cursed himself in 
 the despair of hell because he had betrayed 
 the innocent blood. Pilate, the cold and 
 haughty Roman, could find no fault in Him, 
 and washed his hands in water lest the 
 blood of that Just One should cling to them. 
 The friends and relatives who lived with 
 Him in the familiar intercourse of daily 
 life saw no defect or flaw in Him. He was 
 
110 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 not holy on the outside only. He was al- 
 together pure. The sun might have shone 
 through Him without disclosing a spot. 
 Aye, the sun did shine through Him, for 
 He stood up before God and men to declare 
 His innocence. He cried to His enemies, 
 " Who among you convinceth me of sin ? " 
 He said to God, " I have glorified Thee 
 on the earth. I have finished the work 
 Thou gavest me to do." He looked up to 
 heaven without shame and without repent- 
 ance. And no fiery shaft leaped forth to 
 blast Him for presumption, but instead the 
 soft sweet radiance of divine approval fell 
 upon Him, and there came a voice from the 
 most excellent glory, " This is my beloved 
 Son in whom I am well pleased." 
 
 Did ever flower so fair blossom before or 
 since upon this blood-stained earth? Did 
 ever star so clear shine out in the darkness 
 of the night of sin ? Nay, there is some- 
 thing here that transcends the powers of 
 our fallen and defiled race, something more 
 pure and holy than the best that man can 
 do. Here is a manifestation of Divine virtue 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. Ill 
 
 and heavenly beauty ; here is an"unfolding 
 of the perfect and eternal Holiness ; here in- 
 deed is the Lamb of God in whom is no 
 sin. 
 
 But how comes He, then, into a sinful 
 world ? How has His life been bound to 
 that of corrupt and guilty man ? Why does 
 He suffer the pains and sorrows which are 
 the pimishment of sin, and finally die the 
 death of a transgressor ? 
 
 There is but one answer which can eX' 
 plain this mystery. There is but one an- 
 swer which can justify a just God in per- 
 mitting the death of the only pure and 
 innocent Being who ever lived on earth. 
 He comes voluntarily into the world to offer 
 Himself as a sacrifice for the zvorlcVs sin. 
 He comes to take away the curse hy hearing 
 it in His own body. He comes to present 
 to God that holy ayid spotless oblation tvhich 
 the lost race could never find. Myriads 
 of bulls and goats had been offered in 
 vain ; thousands of altars had been drenched 
 with blood and blackened with smoke of 
 fruitless sacrifice; then said He, "Lo, I 
 
112 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 come : in the volume of tlie book it is writ- 
 ten of me, to do tliy will, O God." To do 
 all tliat tlie law demands and to suffer all 
 that sin Las deserved, to drink to the dregs 
 the bitter cup of anguish, to endure the 
 sharpness of death, to pour out the last 
 drop of the willing heart upon the world's 
 high altar, and thus to reconcile the world 
 to God. 
 
 This was the purpose of Christ's life, 
 which lay upon Him from the beginning, 
 and without which we cannot understand 
 His words or His actions. This is why the 
 disciples did not comprehend Him, because 
 they saw not the awful Cross towards which 
 He was steadily moving. Judged by their 
 standards. His life was strange and foolish 
 and unsuccessful. He cast away His best 
 opportunities of winning the people. He 
 chose the path which led Him away from 
 favor and power. As a teacher, as a leader, 
 as a ruler of Israel, He failed. But as a 
 sacrifice for sin, — ah! there He is crowned 
 with victory and glory. 
 
 From the first moment of His ministry He 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 113 
 
 took this burden upon Him, — the burden 
 of the world's sin, — and He bore it to the 
 end. 
 
 Why was His head bowed with grief, and 
 His countenance marred above the sons of 
 men ? Because the load of the sins of man- 
 kind tvas pressing upon His heart. Why- 
 did His tears fall like rain, as He looked 
 down from the hillside on the city that He 
 longed to save? Because the sorroio of sin 
 — sin ivhich rejected and despised Him^ 
 sin ivhich cast aivaij the proffered pardon 
 and scorned the mercy of Grod — was pierc- 
 ing His soul. Why did He lie upon the 
 ground, in the darkness of Gethsemane, and 
 sweat great drops of blood in the agony of 
 His spirit ? Because the aivful tveight of a 
 ivorld's sin tvas crushing Him in heaviness 
 even unto death. 
 
 Ah ! not half so heavy was the ponderous 
 cross beneath which He toiled to Calvary, 
 as the burden of sin which He took upon 
 His shoulders. Not half so sharp were the 
 nails which pierced His hands and feet, as 
 the sorrow for sin which entered into His 
 
 8 
 
114 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 soul. Not half so bitter was the desertion 
 of His disciples or the loneliness of the cross, 
 as the dreadful gloom of that inward desola- 
 tion in which His Father's face was lost, 
 and He cried out of the depths, " My God, 
 my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " 
 Why, indeed, even though but for an in- 
 stant ? Why, indeed, even though the de- 
 sertion was not real, but only the hiding of 
 the Father's face by the black cloud of an- 
 guish? Why did God even seem to forsake 
 Him ? Because He was hearing the guilt of 
 a world'' s sin; because He was tasting death 
 for every man ; because it was only through 
 the horrible darkness of that passage that He 
 could enter into the light and glory of the 
 Redeemer^ hingdo7n. 
 
 And has He truly entered into it ? Has 
 the sacrifice availed to remove the curse 
 and destroy the enmity ? Has the blood 
 of Christ made peace between man and 
 God? 
 
 III. I answer in the words of the text, 
 "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh 
 away the sin of the world." When John 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 115 
 
 said this it was a dark saying, hard to be 
 understood, shining only with the dim ra- 
 diance of hope. But to-day it is a light 
 saying, clear, glorious, resplendent. For 
 the Son of Man has been lifted up, even as 
 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
 ness, and those who have believed on Him 
 have been saved. 
 
 The saving power of the Cross of Christ is 
 no theory ; it is a fact. The sign of shame 
 and guilt has become the sign of faith and 
 hope. The instrument of torture and death, 
 defiled and loathed and hated, has been 
 lifted out of the gloom and horror of sin, 
 transfigured, crowned with honor and vic- 
 tory, and planted forever on the hill of sal- 
 vation. The eyes of the world turn to the 
 Cross of Christ. Fainting, despairing, dy- 
 ing, bound in the prison-houses of crime, 
 languishing in the lazarets of sin, crushed 
 under the load of transgressions, parched 
 and burning with the fever of life, from 
 every place of sorrow and suffering and 
 darkness, the lost children of man are look- 
 ing to the Cross with speechless longing, 
 
116 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 and feeling its blessed power with unutter- 
 able joy. 
 
 When we see the Son of God crucified for 
 us we are delivered and healed and made 
 alive. The burden is lifted from us, and 
 the fetters broken by His pierced hand. 
 The precious blood falls upon our hearts, 
 and we are made clean and pure. The 
 light of love shining from that Divine face 
 flows into our souls, and we see God recon- 
 ciling the world to Himself in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Here at last, on the Cross, is the sacrifice 
 which I have been seeking, but could never 
 find ; the pure and perfect offering which 
 God cannot refuse. All my works are sin- 
 ful and all my offerings tainted with evil. 
 Never can I atone for my own sins, or make 
 a propitiation which shall take away their 
 guilt. But this is the Lamb of God, with- 
 out spot or blemish, dying for me. This is 
 my sacrifice. I lay hold of the cross. I 
 touch these wounded feet and plead with 
 God by the merits of that priceless blood to 
 forgive my sins. Thou canst not refuse me, 
 for my heart embraces the perfect sacrifice. 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 117 
 
 and His offering thou wilt not despise. 
 Yes, I know that my sins were all laid 
 upon His head ; I know that He bore the 
 curse for me ; the chastisement of our peace 
 was upon Him, and by His stripes we are 
 healed. 
 
 Here too, on the Cross, I see the pattern 
 and example of that perfect obedience that 
 I fain would render to my God. Gladly 
 would I live the life of filial surrender and 
 self-sacrifice ; gladly would I give myself 
 wholly and perfectly to God, and lose myself 
 entirely in His will. But my heart is weak 
 and wayward. I cannot do the things that 
 I would. I am filled with shame and re- 
 proach. I need a stronger, holier motive. 
 I lay hold of the Cross. I look up to Him. 
 who suffers there, and pray, " Blessed Mas- 
 ter, make me more like Thyself ; teach me 
 the sanctifying power of Thy sacrificial 
 love." Oh, how strong and sweet are the 
 influences which flow to us from the Cross, 
 lifting us up, purifying us, making us will- 
 ing to endure and suffer and give ourselves 
 more utterly for others ! As we see the 
 blessed Saviour bleeding and dying so pa- 
 
118 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 tiently for us, what will we not gladly do 
 for Him ? Can we still love the sins which 
 slew Him ? Can we still withhold the 
 hearts for which He asks us ? " For Christ'' s 
 sake.^^ '''' Remer}iher Calvary y These words 
 have power beyond all others to deliver us 
 from the bondage of evil, and bind us to the 
 life of holiness and obedience. 
 
 And here, once more, on the Cross, I see 
 the pledge and proof of God's infinite love. 
 He has not cast me away from Him into 
 the outer darkness. He has not despised, 
 or hated, or forgotten me in the shame and 
 degradation of my sin. He has loved me, 
 and sent His own Son to die for me, and 
 redeem me to Himself. Just is He and al- 
 together righteous, but He is also forgiving 
 and merciful. Who can measure the blessed 
 life-giving power which flows from this rev- 
 elation of the heart of God upon the Cross 
 of Calvary? It kindles our desires and our 
 hopes. It sweeps away the mighty barrier 
 of doubt and dread, and draws us gently but 
 resistlessly to our Father's breast. It speaks 
 to every fallen, downcast, trembling child 
 of man, saying, " Fear not, for I am thy God 
 
THE LIVING SACRIFICE. 119 
 
 and thy Redeemer ; and tliough thou hast 
 lost all beside, my love is still thine, if thou 
 wilt take refuge here." 
 
 Can we doubt, or refuse such an invita- 
 tion ? When the prodigal son was returning 
 from his life of sin and sorrow, with that 
 penitent confession upon his lips, ready to 
 take the lowest and meanest place among 
 his father's servants, I can well believe that 
 his heart was still troubled with fears and 
 forebodings. What right had he to come 
 back? What claim had he upon his father's 
 favor? As he drew near to the house he 
 may well have trembled, and stood still, 
 and turned to go away. But when his fa- 
 ther ran to meet him, and threw his kind 
 arms about his neck, then all doubt was 
 swept away, and he knew that he was loved. 
 
 In the Cross of Christ God is forever 
 coming down to meet His sinful children, 
 even while yet they are yet a great way off. 
 His arms of love are cast about us. We 
 are drawn to His forgiving heart. A great 
 calm falls upon our weary souls. We have 
 peace with God, and the blood of Jesus 
 Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE LIVING CHRIST. 
 
VI 
 
 Revelation i. i8. I am He that liveth, and was dead ; 
 and behold I am alive for ever7nore, Ame7i ; and have 
 the keys of hell and of death. 
 
 The world needs more than a Redeemer. 
 It needs a Master, a Ruler, a living Lord. 
 
 When the guilt of sin has been taken 
 away by the perfect sacrifice of the cross, 
 when the inexorable law of righteousness 
 has been satisfied and the barrier between 
 man and God forever destroyed by the 
 death of Jesus, the way of salvation is in- 
 deed made free and clear, but the work of 
 salvation is not yet accomplished. There 
 must be a continuous exercise of divine 
 power upon the weakened and perverted 
 hearts of men ; there must be an uplifting, 
 and quickening and guiding of the world by 
 an ever-living and ever-present Saviour. 
 
 Therefore the resurrection is a necessary 
 part of the plan of redemption. God could 
 
124 TEE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 not leave Christ's soul in Hades, nor suffer 
 His Holy One to see corruption. For then, 
 although the sacrifice on Calvary was com- 
 plete and sufficient, it would have been lost 
 in the darkness of the grave. It would never 
 have rescued the world from death. It 
 would have made salvation possible but not 
 actual. Passing into history, it would have 
 left the record, that although the justice of 
 God was vindicated in the perfect satisfac- 
 tion of the law, and although the mercy of 
 God was revealed in the sending of His own 
 Son to die for sinners, yet, for all that, 
 mankind was lost, for want of a living and 
 abiding Christ. 
 
 I pray you to mark this truth. A dead 
 Christ can never save us. Even though He 
 be crucified for us, even though our sins be 
 laid upon Him and our curse borne in His 
 body on the tree, even though we behold 
 Him delivered for our offences and slain for 
 our redemption, — a dead Christ upon the 
 cross can never save us. 
 
 There must be the living Christ in our 
 hearts. He must be raised again for our 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 125 
 
 justification. The sepulchre must give Him 
 back to us. The dark under- world, into 
 which He descended for our sakes, must 
 restore Him to our faith and fellowship. 
 Yea, the heaven from which He came must 
 receive Him, that He may be clothed once 
 more with the glory which He laid aside at 
 His birth, that He may no more be hum- 
 bled to the narrow confines of a servant's 
 form and a servant's life, but reigning in 
 restored omniscience and omnipotence and 
 omnipresence, may manifest throughout the 
 world His wisdom and His power to save to 
 the uttermost all that call upon Him. 
 
 This, then, is the glorious meaning of the 
 resurrection. It is the divine answer to 
 the soul's cry for a living Saviour. It is the 
 revelation of One who was subject to the 
 power of death willingly and for a season, 
 not of necessity and forever. It is the 
 shining-forth of the bright and changeless 
 Sun of Righteousness, conquering the dark 
 grave-clouds and rejoicing as a strong man 
 to run His everlasting race of glory and 
 blessing. It is the assurance to the world 
 
126 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 that the Son of Man did not perish in His 
 attempt to redeem humanity, but won the 
 victory in the shadowy realm of death, van- 
 quishing the great adversary, capturing cap- 
 tivity ; and henceforth He is manifested as 
 Jesus Christ the Son of God, the same yes- 
 terday, to-day, and forever. 
 
 You see, now, why the Church built upon 
 this fact of the resurrection as the corner- 
 stone of her faith. You see why she made 
 it the great theme of her preaching to pro- 
 claim Jesus and the resurrection. You see 
 why she chose not Friday, the day on which 
 Christ died, but Sunday, the day on which 
 He rose from the dead, as her holy-day of 
 rest and gladness. Not because the resur- 
 rection is more sacred or more important 
 than the crucifixion ; but because, without 
 the resurrection, the crucifixion would be an 
 unutterable and irremediable loss, the dis- 
 appearance of the most holy life and char- 
 acter that the world has ever seen, the 
 vanishing forever from the earth of the most 
 precious power that has ever entered it, 
 yes, the seal of failure upon the work of 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 127 
 
 Christ and the annihilation of all our hopes 
 of immortalit}^ and heaven, for "if Christ 
 be not raised your faith is vain ; ye are yet 
 in your sins." But if He be risen then our 
 faith is sure. Then the triumph of love 
 and life over sin and death is accomplished 
 and secure. Then the dawning of every 
 Lord's day that shines upon our darkened 
 earth brings to us a bright and glad re- 
 minder of that eternal light which the 
 grave itself could not quench, — that light 
 which even now fills the heavens as it fills 
 our hearts, — the light of the glory of God 
 shining for evermore in the face of Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 To this light I ask you to turn your eyes. 
 Away from all that is transitory and perish- 
 ing, away from all that is threatened by 
 change and shadowed by decay, away from 
 all that feels the power of mortal pain and 
 sorrow and dissolution, let us look to Him 
 that liveth and was dead and is alive for 
 evermore and hath the keys of hell and of 
 death. Let us rest our souls upon the real- 
 ity of the living Christ. 
 
128 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 I. Consider, in the first place, the glorious 
 certainty of the fact that on the third day 
 after His death, He left the grave and came 
 forth alive into the living world. This 
 fact I say is a glorious certainty. There is 
 no event in history so well attested. If we 
 can be sure of anything in the past we can 
 be sure of this. 
 
 We know that Christ is risen because His 
 sepulchre is empty. Where is He gone ? 
 What power has broken the imperial seal 
 of Rome, and rolled away the ponderous 
 stone from the mouth of the tomb? The 
 feeble, scattered, trembling disciples who 
 fled in terror when they saw Him con- 
 demned to die ? Impossible. Physically 
 impossible, that they should have braved 
 and baffled and overcome the power of the 
 world-empire as it was embodied in those 
 stern and vigilant soldiers guarding the seal 
 which it was death to touch. Morally im- 
 possible, that these men, whose character 
 was so pure and true that the world owes 
 to them its spiritual regeneration, should 
 ever have stooped to an act of the basest 
 
TEE LIVING cnnisT. 129 
 
 deceit, should ever have stolen away their 
 Master's body by craft, and then adhered 
 with unalterable pertinacity to a falsehood 
 whose only consequence was to expose them 
 to the world's bitterest hatred and perse- 
 cution. Men do not steal or lie without a 
 motive. What motive could have induced 
 the disciples of Christ to perpetrate such a 
 fiction as this, — a fiction which must have 
 separated them forever from their Master, 
 whose words were purity and truth, — a 
 fiction which involved the sacrifice of all 
 that they held dearest on earth, their former 
 religion, their homes, their friends, their 
 property, their peace, their lives ? Do you 
 believe that men will make such sacrifices 
 for a baseless and fruitless lie? Incredible. 
 By the stone rolled awaj^, by the vacant 
 sepulchre, by the deserted grave-clothes, 
 we know that Christ Himself has left the 
 tomb. 
 
 We know it also by the testimony of 
 many unimpeachable witnesses who saw 
 Jesus in the flesh after He had risen, — men 
 and women who were in no condition to see 
 
130 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 a vision of exalted fanc}^ for tlie dreadful 
 gloom of the crucifixion, the strong im- 
 pression of that visible and unmistakable 
 death, still rested on their minds. They 
 had seen Him with their own eyes as He 
 hung upon the cross. They had watched 
 the Leavings of His suffering breast, and 
 seen the pallor settling on His brow. They 
 had heard the last cry of agony and triumph, 
 and beheld the wounded head fall upon His 
 bosom. They had seen the spear thrust 
 into His side, and felt the dead weight of 
 His body as they lifted it from the accursed 
 tree and laid it reverently in the rock-hewn 
 sepulchre. They had come, — as soon as 
 the Sabbath was passed and He had been 
 so long dead that His enemies would feel no 
 fear in admitting them to His sepulchre, — 
 they had come very early in the morning 
 of the first day of the week, not with any 
 hope or thought of seeing Him alive, but 
 with sweet spices that they might tenderly 
 embalm His dead body. Were these the 
 people to dream dreams or see ghosts ? 
 Were these the hearts in which such a 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 181 
 
 magnificent and startling conception as the 
 resurrection could create itself out of noth- 
 ing, and, in spite of the sorrowful evidence 
 of a memory but three days old, force them 
 to believe in its reality ? I tell you these 
 women and these disciples knew the facts 
 of Jesus' death only too well ; and nothing 
 but a fact could have made them believe 
 that He was alive again. 
 
 They tell us that the}^ saw the risen Jesus. 
 And mark the manner in which they saw 
 Him. They do not tell us that Christ 
 appeared to them in trances or midnight 
 visions of ecstasy, but in the common walks 
 of daily life, in the garden of the Arima- 
 thean Joseph, on the high-road to Emmaus, 
 by the sea-shore where they were busy with 
 their fishing. He talked with them, ate 
 with them, they touched Him. They do 
 not relate marvelous tales of garments rust- 
 ling and features dimly gleaming in the 
 shade of darkened rooms. In the cool hours 
 of the early morning, under the searching 
 sunlight, in the open air, Jesus comes to 
 them. They do not tell us only of what 
 
132 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 was seen by solitary wanderers in tlieir 
 lonely hours ; but they assure us tliat He 
 was seen of more than five hundred breth- 
 ren at one time, in the clear daylight. 
 And this assurance was written, not long 
 afterwards when all of the alleged behold- 
 ers were dead, but within less than thirty 
 years after the death of Christ, when many 
 of the eye-witnesses still lived and could 
 bear testimony to its truthfulness. These 
 are not the words of madness or deceit. 
 They are calm and dispassionate narratives 
 which bear the tests of evidence. They 
 cannot be explained on any other suppo- 
 sition than the reality of the resurrection. 
 
 Moreover, we know that Christ is risen 
 because the faith in His resurrection has 
 produced such vast and enduring results in 
 the world. It is on the strength of this 
 fact that His religion has been accepted 
 and has won its mighty triumphs in the 
 world. A French philosopher was once 
 complaining to a friend that although he 
 had invented a most beautiful religion, he 
 could not persuade any one to believe it. 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 133 
 
 *'I will tell you what you shall do," said the 
 friend ; '^you shall get yourself crucified and 
 rise again on the third day from the dead ; 
 then every one will believe it.''' 
 
 In this keen reply a great truth lies hid- 
 den. The secret of Christianity is the reality 
 of the resurrection. This is the fountain- 
 head to which we may trace the stream of 
 its success. By this stupendous fact we 
 see, first of all, the disciples transformed 
 from trembling, doubting cowards, over- 
 whelmed with disappointment and despair, 
 into brave, confident soldiers, full of zeal, 
 courage, strength. We see the faith which 
 had obtained, during the years of Christ's 
 ministry in the flesh, but a few hundred ad- 
 herents, suddenly winning in a single day 
 three thousand souls. We see those who 
 had been cold, mistrustful, hostile toward 
 Jesus changed into His ardent disciples, and 
 setting forth without misgiving to conquer 
 the world for Him. We see the resurrec- 
 tion-faith sweeping like a flood of light over 
 land and sea, conquering all obstacles, gain- 
 ing cities and tribes and whole nations for its 
 
134 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 own, and covering the earth with countless 
 spires, each one of which points up to heaven 
 as a silent witness that Christ is risen. 
 
 Are not these vast and innumerable ceme- 
 teries of the world, crowded with the memo- 
 rials of a deathless hope even in the face 
 of death, evidences of the reality of the res- 
 urrection ? Is not this long line of more than 
 ninety thousand Christian Sundays stretch- 
 ing back like a row of shining, glorious, im- 
 movable pillars to the garden of the Ari- 
 mathean, a monument to the reality of the 
 resurrection? Yes, we know that it is true. 
 Because the darkness is broken and the 
 shadows flee away from the soul of man, 
 because the clouds that hang above the 
 grave are touched with light and glor}^, be- 
 cause the flowers of faith and love and hope 
 and holiness have unclosed their folded 
 leaves and blossomed around the earth, we 
 know that the Sun, even the Lord Christ, is 
 risen. 
 
 But if we need another evidence, we have 
 it in the testimony of those who have seen 
 the risen Saviour in the splendor of His 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 135 
 
 heavenly existence. Three men, pure, sober, 
 trustworthy, have beheld in the flesli this 
 majestic vision, and left the record of what 
 they saw for our faith to build upon. 
 
 Stephen, the first martyr, dying amid the 
 stones and curses of his enemies, looked up- 
 ward, and saw the heavens opened, and tlie 
 Son of Man standing on the right hand of 
 God. 
 
 Saul of Tarsus, journeying to Damascus 
 on his mission of persecution and death to 
 the Christians, was smitten to the ground 
 in the cloudless noonday by a light far 
 above the brightness of the sun, and beheld 
 in the midst of the g^ory the form of that 
 Jesus whom he persecuted. 
 
 John, dwelling in lonely exile on the rocky 
 isle of Patmos, was in the spirit on the Lord's 
 day, and heard a mighty voice like the sound 
 of many waters, and saw, in the heart of an 
 undescribable radiance, one like unto the 
 Son of Man, clothed with a splendor so 
 majestic that John fell at his feet as dead. 
 But the Lord laid His right hand upon him 
 and said, " Fear not : I am the first and the 
 
136 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 last : I am He that livetli and was dead ; 
 and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen ; 
 and have the keys of hell and of death." 
 Yes, it is the same who once hung upon the 
 cross in agony and shame so great that the 
 sun hid his face in horror ; it is the same 
 who was wrapped in the grave-clothes and 
 laid in the darkness of the sepulchre ; it is 
 the same whom His disciples mourned as 
 the lost Hope of Israel, and for whose em- 
 balmment the sorrowing women brought 
 sweet spices on that Sunday morning eigh- 
 teen hundred years ago ; it is the same Jesus 
 now crowned with honor and glory at the 
 right hand of God. This is He that liveth 
 and was dead. The grave-clothes could not 
 bind Him, the tomb could not stay Him, 
 the under-world could not contain Him. 
 He has risen. He has ascended up on 
 high, and behold He is alive for evermore, 
 Amen. 
 
 II. Consider, in the second place, the 
 nature and evidences of this everlasting life 
 which belongs to the risen Christ. Clearly 
 it must be a reality, not a mere ideal or 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 137 
 
 imaginary existence. And just as clearly it 
 must be a mysterious and incomprehensible 
 reality. We cannot look with our feeble 
 and darkened eyes into the heavenly regions. 
 We cannot discern or understand the man- 
 ner of life in which the ascended Lord now 
 dwells. We cannot tell how He looks, or 
 in what glorious activities He is employed, 
 or in what shining place His blessed throne 
 is established. 
 
 "Jesus, these eyes have never seen 
 
 That radiant form of Thine ; 
 The veil of sense hangs dark between 
 Thy blessed face and mine." 
 
 But one thing we do know, one thing we 
 may be sure of: — the life of the risen 
 Christ, reaching away out into the endless 
 future, with all the power of sympathy and 
 help won by His earthly experience, with 
 all the might and glory of His victory over 
 sin and death, abiding and growing through 
 ages of ages, — this divine immortal life is 
 for evermore a life for men, a life of succor 
 and comfort, blessing and salvation, flowing 
 out in heavenly grace and power into this 
 sorrowful and sinful earth. 
 
138 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Here we touch the reality on its human 
 side. Here we find that which we can 
 know and understand. Here, in the moral 
 and spiritual life of man, we behold the evi- 
 dences of the living Christ, still dwelling 
 and working in the world which He died to 
 redeem. 
 
 Observe the bearing of this argument. 
 We rely for the proof of the historical fact 
 that Christ rose from the dead upon histor- 
 ical evidence. We rely for the proof of the 
 spiritual fact that Christ is alive for ever- 
 more upon spiritual evidence. But the two 
 facts correspond and are linked together. 
 If Christ be not risen, then all the inward 
 life of Christendom is a dream, a delusion, 
 a lie. But if Christ be risen, then all the 
 influences of purity and love and goodness 
 that are working in the hearts of men, all 
 the heavenly hopes and aspirations and 
 endeavors of the world, are the proofs and 
 revelations of His present and everlasting 
 life. 
 
 Is the Gospel still an active and potent 
 force in the world, quickening men who are 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 139 
 
 dead in trespasses and sins, converting them, 
 building them up in righteousness and love, 
 enlightening them with heavenly wisdom, 
 and comforting them with heavenly grace? 
 It is because the voice of the living Christ 
 still speaks in it. Are the Sacraments filled 
 with spiritual life and strength, satisfying 
 and nourishing the soul with divine food ? 
 It is because they are made the channels 
 of the power of the living Christ. Is the 
 Church alive, throbbing and glowing with 
 faith and love, laboring earnestly and pa- 
 tiently for the salvation of men, shining 
 with a more than earthly radiance, aspir- 
 ing, hoping, struggling upward, sending out 
 from her warm, deep heart the streams of 
 pity and compassion and unselfish charity 
 without which this world would be an un- 
 endurable desert? It is because she is the 
 body of the living Christ. If He were 
 dead she must perish. But because He is 
 alive she lives also. 
 
 Wherever human hearts are reaching up 
 from the shadows of this mortal sphere to 
 lay hold upon the eternal God, wherever 
 
140 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 the pure flowers of truth and peace and 
 holiness are springing from the dull and 
 barren soil of humanity, wherever men and 
 women are suffering patientl}^, toiling nobly, 
 giving themselves generously for the good 
 of others, wherever the Holy Ghost is work- 
 ing, wherever faith is burning, wherever 
 love is shining, there is the living Christ. 
 
 All light and power and goodness come 
 from Him. The Divine Spirit who keeps 
 the world from death, who quickens in our 
 hearts the mysterious heavenly life, is His 
 messenger and witness, proceeding not from 
 the Father only, but from the Father and 
 the Son. He reveals unto us not a dead 
 Christ, but the living Christ ; and we know 
 the truth of Paul's saying, " 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." 
 
 '•^Christ in us the hope of glory ^^ — this is 
 no dream, no fable, but a blessed reality. 
 
 There is not a power which He exercised, 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 141 
 
 there is not a quality which He manifested, 
 in His eartlilj ministry, which He is not 
 exercising and manifesting to-day in the 
 hearts of men. Did He rule then with 
 gracious power over the souls of the few 
 who knew and loved Him ? He is reigning 
 to-day over thousands and tens of thousands 
 of living liearts who would gladly die for 
 the honor of His name. Did He restore the 
 sick and comfort the sorrowing? He is 
 giving life and health to-day to many a 
 penitent sinner, and pouring His consola- 
 tions like balm into many a wounded and 
 suffering spirit. Did He give rest to the 
 weary and heavy-laden ? His peace is still 
 flowing like a river into many a troubled 
 soul, His voice is still hushing the storms 
 of grief and passion. His benediction is still 
 resting upon our hearts even as His kind 
 hands once rested on the heads of the little 
 children at His knee. 
 
 " In joy of inward peace, or sense 
 Of sorrow over sin, 
 He is His own best evidence; 
 His witness is within. 
 
142 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 " No fable old, nor mythic lore, 
 Nor dream of bards and seers ; 
 No dead fact stranded on the shore 
 Of the oblivious years, — 
 
 ** But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
 A present help is He ; 
 And faith has still its Olivet, 
 And love its Galilee. 
 
 ** The healing of His seamless dress 
 Is by our beds of pain ; 
 We touch Him in life's throng and press, 
 And we are whole again. 
 
 ** O Lord and Master of us all, 
 Whate'er our name or sign, 
 We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call. 
 We test our lives by Thine. 
 
 " Apart from Thee all gain is loss. 
 All labor vainly done; 
 The solemn shadow of Thy cross 
 Is better than the sun. 
 
 " Alone, O Love ineffable, 
 Thy saving name is given ; 
 To turn aside from Thee is hell, — 
 To walk with Thee is heaven." 
 
 III. Finally, let us remember that this 
 risen Christ, who liveth and was dead and is 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 143 
 
 alive for evermore, is He vrho holds the 
 keys of hell and of death. 
 
 Oh, that I could find the power to express 
 the joy and comfort which dwell in this 
 majestic truth ! 
 
 It has been well said, by one who speaks 
 always to the heart, that there are many 
 doors about us in the world, — doors of joy 
 and sorrow, doors of labor and suffering, 
 doors of success and failure. And as our 
 lives go on we are passing through them 
 one by one ; we are finding out what lies 
 behind them ; our experience is putting 
 into our hand the keys which unlock them 
 and disclose their secrets. But there is one 
 door which baffles us. Dark, cold, forbid- 
 ding, it stands in the midst of this green 
 and beautiful world, — the iron door of 
 death. All the paths of mortal life lead 
 thither; but there is none that returns from 
 that mysterious portal. We see men and 
 women and little children vanishing within 
 its gloom ; year by year, those that are 
 nearest and dearest are passing away from 
 us over that stern threshold j but not one 
 
144 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 of tliem comes back to us to tell us what is 
 beyond. Our own footsteps are drawing 
 near to it : we cannot shun or escape it : a 
 heavy hand is on us pushing us forward. 
 Through the flowers and sunshine, through 
 the thorns and tempests, through every year 
 and every day, we are moving toward that 
 iron door. 
 
 We tremble. We are afraid. Our hearts 
 are chilled and darkened by the awful mys- 
 tery. Who will open this door for us ? 
 Who will show us the things which lie be- 
 hind it ? Who will unlock and disclose the 
 mystery of death? 
 
 Behold the living Christ. He has passed 
 through that shadowy portal, and has come 
 back again. He holds the keys of the grave 
 and of the under - world. He stands be- 
 side us in the hour of fear and grief. He 
 touches the heavy door and it swings open. 
 We see the inner side of it, and lo ! it is not 
 of iron hut of (/old, for it is the door of the 
 heavenly city. Dark is the entrance of that 
 gateway, but just within its shadow lies the 
 world of light. Lonely is the brief passage 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST. 145 
 
 to the eye of mortal sense, but the moment 
 of parting is the moment of meeting with 
 God, and Jesus, and the innumerable com- 
 pany of angels and ransomed saints. 
 
 Stoop down and look through that narrow 
 opening, O mourning heart, and you shall 
 see that those whom you bewail as lost are 
 dwelling in peace and blessedness, and wait- 
 ing for you to join them. Weep no more. 
 Rejoice, be glad, and sing. The mystery of 
 death is solved. The shadow of death is 
 broken. For those who are in Christ, to be 
 absent from the body is to be present with 
 the Lord. This life of ours is no brief and 
 transient stream, flowing turbidly through 
 a few short years, and then sinking in the 
 grave. It is immortal, glorious, blessed. 
 Through the dark portal it passes instantly 
 into light and peace. 
 
 Are the birds singing here with joyous 
 melody ? Yonder the angels are singing 
 forever about the throne. 
 
 Are the flowers blooming here in fragrance 
 and beauty ? Yonder the tree of life is blos- 
 soming beside the crystal ivaters, 
 10 
 
146 THE REALITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Is the sun shining here in majesty and 
 glory ? Yonder the face of Christ is shin- 
 ing, and they need no candle, neither light 
 of the sun, for the Lord G-od giveth them 
 light, and they shall reign forever and ever. 
 
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