LIBRARY OF TRINCaCr^ NOV 2 8 2000 f THECLOGiCAl SEk.lKhhi The Positive Note in Christianity The Positive Note in Christianity /^ °' ( APR 1 Lectures Delivered in the Memorial Baptist Church, Philadelphia, in Connection with the Celebration of Its Fiftieth Anniversary in the Fall and Winter of 1917 Philadelphia THE GRIFFITH AND ROWLAND PRE55 Boston Chicago St. Louis New York Los An^ales Kansas City Toronto Vi innipe^ THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO OF MEMORIAL CHURCH WHO MADE ITS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE FOREWORD This preface was spoken by the pastor as in- troductory to the course of lectures to the public. During all the while in the last fifty years the present world war has been in the making, from Schleswig-Holstein to Sarajevo. In the imme- diate event of the war the world saw Chris- tianity on the defensive. Vast strata in the struc- ture of the world's civilization have been shifted among the nations in this time. Empires have trembled in the fear of ruin; monarchs have grown pale at the stalking figure of world democ- racy. The church itself, in the moments of the world's worst paroxysms, has been charged with failure and weakness and pathetic invalidism. Anxious care has all but corroded the heart of Christianity itself. And because men have waited for all the churches to speak out plainly and sound their trumpet blast, this series of addresses has been planned by this church after fifty years of continuous history to sound the positive note in Christianity. Natives of Scotland say to us that to hear the best music of the bagpipes one must be a half mile away. When the evening hour in the sum- vii Vin FOREWORD mer twilight is on, and from the meadows in the valley far away there comes the music of the bag- pipes blending all of the harmonies of heaven, so beautiful is the distant melody that one is lulled to sleep by its charm and quieted to dreams by its song. But when their soldiers need to be thrilled and moved and inspired, the bagpipes are brought near with blatant voice and raucous notes, screaming, shrieking, bursting, ecstatic, in wild confusion of sound, but thrilling the soul and stirring soldiers to any charge by which the Scotsman may go out and take the world. The charm of Germany's intrigue to bid farewell to Jesus has all but lulled the church into a fatal sleep; but now Christianity is again moved and stirred : and these lectures are an attempt to set forth the fundamental positive notes of our faith. Christianity is not even obscured by the red mist that rises out of the trenches of war. Christianity is at its flush meridian. Christians stand to-day with head erect, unbowed, uneowed, unbludg- eoned by the cudgel of gibing philosophies; posi- tive that the voice of the Christ can alone bring the world back to itself. This course of lectures sounds our note of certainty. CONTENTS Page The Finality of Jesus i Edwin McNeill Poteat, D. D. The Unimpeached Bible 1 1 William Holloway Main, D. D. The Chivalry of Service ^;^ Carter Helm Jones, D. D. Our Lord and Master 49 Robert E. Speer, D. D. Personal Responsibility 69 T. Edwin Brown, D. D. The Church and the Child 87 E. B. Pollard, Ph. D. Christianity the Only World Religion. 97 Milton G. Evans, D. D., LL. D. Christianity the Great International- ist 123 James H. Franklin, D. D. The Spiritual Interpretation of the Ordinances 145 Edgar Young Mullins, D. D., LL. D. ix X CONTENTS Page The Manifold Coronation of Our Di- vine Lord 163 Robert Stuart MacArthur, D. D., LL. D. Baptists and Education 187 Ernest D. Burton, D. D. Christians and Church-membership. ... 211 Curtis Lee Laws, D. D. The Fact of the Resurrection 231 William Russell Owen, D. D. Historical Sketch of the Memorial Baptist Church of Philadelphia. Read on the Twenty-fifth Anni- versary OF Its Organization 247 Charles H. Harrison. Commemoration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary 28^ Historical Sketch of the Memorial Baptist Church, 1892-1917 291 Edith M. Casselberry. Fiftieth Anniversary 311 Statistical Record of Memorial Church for Fifty Years 316 ILLUSTRATIONS Pacb Memorial Baptist Church, Philadelphia. Frontispiece P. S. Henson, Pastor, iSdy-iSSi 20 Thomas M. Greene, Deacon, iSdy-igiy . ... 44 Wayland Hoyt, Pastor, 1882-188^; Stated Supply, 1904, 1905 64 Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, Stated Supply, i8po p2 T. Edzvin Brozvn, Pastor, 1890- 189 5 116 B. L. Whitman, Stated Supply, 1896, 189^. . 140 Edwin McNeill Poteat, Pastor, 1898-190^. . 168 Edzvard Bagby Pollard, Stated Supply, 1906. 194 William Hollozvay Main, Pastor, 190/^-1916. 218 William Russell Owen, Pastor, 19 ly- 2^6 XI THE FINALITY OF JE5U5 EDWIN McNeill poteat, d. d. President, Furman University I Tim. 2:5; Rev. 5:9, 10 1. 4:4; Matt. 21 : 2)7 \ I7 Matt. 24 : 35- -- - " ; Heb. i : 1-4; 9 : 12, 26; Gal. 4:4; Matt. 21 : 37; 17 : 5 ; John i : 1-18; 12 ;; II : 25-30; 7 : 24-27. THE FINALITY OF JESUS The fourth and fifth chapters of the Revelation are among the most gorgeous in the Bible. The emerald-cinctured throne, the four living crea- tures, the twenty-four elders, the sealed book, the slain lamb, the whole creation — no wonder the seer prostrated himself. And no wonder he wept when the assembled universe acknowledged itself baffled in the presence of the sealed mystery in the hand of Him who sat upon the throne. A moment later when, upon the promise of the angel, he watched to see a lion emerge, lo! a lamb. And now we see through the symbolism of the passage the nature world ( four living crea- tures), the world of human intelligence (the four and twenty elders), and the whole creation (angels, every created thing in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea), unite to worship the Slain Lamb, who because he is the Redeemer is able to open the sealed book. What is here said in the spectacular and dra- matic manner of the apocalypse, is said in plain prose by Paul in his first letter to Timothy (i Tim. 2:5): God is one (not many), the Me- diator is one (not many). Redemption is not a 3 4 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY process but a deed, accomplished '^ once for all '^ (Heb. 9 : 26). '' Once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Thus the early believers set forth the finality of Jesus as Redeemer and Teacher of men. And it is to be noted that he is not a redeemer by means of his teaching; he is Teacher because he was first and last and all the time Redeemer. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in a pas- sage cited above acknowledges that the prophets were sent from God, but their message was par- tial and incomplete. He acknowledges the minis- try of angels in the old dispensation and cele- brates the glory of Moses. But he is writing his letter to say of the Son that he is heir of all things, that he is the creator of the ages, that he is the sustainer of the universe, that he is the cleanser of sins, that he is the effulgence and die- stamp of the substance of God, and that when he had accomplished his work on earth he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. In the Mount of Transfiguration the frightened disciples heard a voice saying, *' This is my be- loved Son, hear him." To-day many conflicting voices are heard. Mr. Bernard Shaw, for exam- ple, says the Golden Rule is that there is no golden rule. Mr. Paul Bourget says, " Science renders impK>ssible any belief in supernatural revelation, and at the same time proclaims itself impotent to THE FINALITY OF JESUS 5 solve the problem which revelation formerly solved." H-erbert Spencer ("Autobiography," ad Hn.) confesses that the naturalistic interpreta- tion of the universe has failed, finds himself un- able to accept the conclusions offered by religion, but wishing " that conclusions might be found." Tolstoy protested in his book entitled " Resur- rection " that man is his own redeemer, and therefore needs no other. Chesterton says of Ibsen that he returned from the quest of the mystery and reported failure. Mr. Britling (H. G. Wells) sitting dazed before the spectacle of a blase scientific civilization plunging into the abyss of war, acknowledges '' cosmic solicitudes " ; and he says of these vast anxieties that " they are, it may be, the last penalty of irreligion." And even Mr. Bernard Shaw appears in a recent book to be passing into a new phase. In his preface tO' '' Androcles and the Lion " he asks, '' Why not give Christianity a trial ? " The question, he says, *' seems a hopeless one after two thousand years of resolute adherence to the old cry of * Not this man, but Barabbas,' yet it is beginning to look as if Barabbas was a failure in spite of his strong right hand, his victories, his empires, his millions of money, and his moralities and churches and political constitutions. * This man ' has not. been a failure yet; for nobody has even been sure enough to try his way." And with his mild in- tellectual arrogance, which is not without a touch B 6 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY of disdain, Mr. Shaw goes on : *' I am no more a Christian than are you, gentle reader; yet, like Pilate, I prefer Jesus to Caiaphas and Annas, and I am ready to admit that after contemplating the world and human nature for over sixty years, I see no way out of the world's misery but the way which would have been found by Christ's will if he had undertaken the work of a modern practical statesman." And Mr. Shaw actually proceeds to exhort us all that we should live by the law of love alone. Above this babel of conflicting voices the voice of the New Testament believers rings high and clear: We need not remain forever in uncer- tainty; at least One Mind saw through the tan- gle, and he in the strong confidence of one who walked always in the light calls to us his high assurance that we were not meant to be put to permanent intellectual confusion. So never miss I footing in the maze; I have the light, nor fear the dark at all. The Chaldean astrologers, the savants of Bel- shazzar's court, babbling learned nonsense before an authentic word from God, did not mean that Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin could not be inter- preted ; and when Daniel was brought in the meaning was made plain. And the men of to- day who are baffled by the mystery of the uni- verse and the perplexities of human life on this THE FINALITY OF JESUS 7 planet, must surely come at last to see Jesus and to listen to him. Hushed be the noise and the strife of the schools, Volume and pamphlet, sermon and speech, The lips of the wise and the prattle of fools — Let the Son of man teach ! Prof. T. R. Glover, in his fascinating little book, " The Jesus of History," insists that Jesus outlived, outthought, and outdied the ancient world. And it follows that he is the final author- ity for the modern world, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the Prince of all kings of the earth. (Rev. 1:5.) In him we have our redemption, the forgive- ness of our sins through faith in his blood. In him we have our teacher, who himself said, '' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away " (Matt. 24 : 35). In him we have the leader of the ages, who from the head of the procession still calls to all the sons of men of the twentieth century as of the first, " Follow me." /. The Unality of Jesus as Redeemer. The New Testament believers put redemption first. The preaching of the apostles and the let- ters of Paul were mainly occupied with expound- ing the redemption which was in Messiah Jesus. The Gospels come after, and were written mainly to preserve the record of the life and the words of 8 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the Master in whom redemption had been achieved. And men who find the substance of Christianity in the Sermon on the Mount, rather than in the cross and the empty tomb, misread the documents of the Christian faith and throw the whole New Testament into confusion. Apart from the cancelation of sin at the cross, and the release of the soul from bondage into peace there effected, the teaching of Jesus is a doom and not a salvation. The redeemed are happier than the enlightened. Witness Bunyan and Tolstoy. Bunyan lost his burden at the cross, but Tolstoy as an old man confessed that the sins of his youth returned often to torture him like a nightmare. One cannot wonder at this in a man who ac- cepted '' Resist not evil," but denied the redemp- tion and the resurrection. The characteristic difference between the Christian mind and the non-Christian mind, of whatever type, is an esti- mate of and an attitude toward the cross of Christ. Paul puts this difference for all time in the familiar statement, " The word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God " (i Cor. I : i8). And there is no salvation in any other. //. The finality of Jesus as Teacher. He who died for us that he might reconcile us to God has the sole right to be our teacher, to THE FINALITY OF JESUS 9 tell US about Gk)d, about ourselves, about sin, about death, about eternal life. And he was so fully assured that his words are truth and life that he boldly classifies men into two groups — those who hear his words and do them, and those who hear his words and do them not. The first are like a man who built his house on a rock, and the second are like the man who built his house upon the sand. (Matt. 7 : 24-29.) This can mean nothing less than that the course of prog- ress for civilization lies in the lines of his think- ing about God and man. ///. The finality of Jesus as Leader. His word to the disciples on the lakeshore, *' Follow me," evoked the ready compliance of young men eager to enlist in a cause, but that simplest statement of discipleship became in the short space of two years and a half the severest test of devotion when they discovered that his way led straight to the cross. He is still at the head of the procession, and they that follow him, seeing the distance be- tween themselves and their Leader, are amazed and afraid. (Mark 10 : 2>^.) And now as in the days of his flesh men fall out of the ranks, 'deny that they ever knew him, when once they see clearly the obligations they assume when they enter upon the career of the followers of Jesus. For we now see that the Cross (redemption) lO THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY means democracy, justice, brotherhood. At last the social implications of the doctrine of the Cross have become plain, and we know that our Re- deemer cannot be satisfied until every man en- joys (by virtue of his bare humanity) his pre- rogative of direct access to God, until he has set judgment in the earth, and until men shall broth- ers be the world over. To-day as never before, He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment- seat, Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him! Be jubilant my feet, Our God is marching on. THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE WILLIAM HOLLOWAY MAIN, D. D. Pastor, First Baptist Church, Chlca^ THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE This is the subject that has been assigned to me as my contribution to these jubilee services. To impeach is to call in question, accuse of error, disparage, bring discredit on. We believe we have an unimpeached Bible be- cause it has stood the test of time, and that it has stood the test of time because it is the in- spired word of God; that it is unimpeached be- cause it has stood the test of modern scholarship and discoveries; and last, but not the least, it has stood the test of our soul's greatest need. We love and believe our Bible, for it is a reve- lation from God. From beginning to end it teaches the doctrine of one God. And the world was full of gods! Roman satirists said of an- cient Athens, ** It is easier to find a god than a man." In spite of their surroundings, the sacred writers continued to say, " There is only one God." The doctrine of one God is to triumph, and the Bible is now recognized as the most won- derful book in the world. The Bible has stood the test of time. It took about fifteen hundred years to complete the Bible, yet it has a wonderful unity. 13 14 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY A writer, in a little poem, speaks of the mighty scholars of the past, who worked with laborious pen, piling up books which they thought would be read in future ages. But now the cobwebs bind their pages and the volumes lie moldering peace- fully : Coffined thought of coffined men — Never more to stir again In the passion and the strife, In the fleeting forms of life; All their force and meaning gone As the stream of thought flows on. But how the Bible defies time ! The writers of the Old Testament had slept in their graves a cen- tury, and more, before Caesar, Horace, Cicero, and Virgil lived. The Bible has stood the test of time because it is the inspired word of God. Men spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Verbal inspiration would be mechanical but divine dictation is not. Men who wrote were not related to divine thought as the pen to the hand, but God touched the inner life of the soul so that his own ideas reappear in human concep- tion and in human language. In repeating the words of a message without comprehending the thought, one is liable to more error than when his heart and soul understand the meaning, and every word he speaks, whether accurately re- peated or not, bears upon the true interpretation. THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 1 5 The man who best interpreted Christ was the man who knew the most of his inner life. The Scriptures are, of course, a record of a revelation, but this in no wise lessens their inspiration, for the record interprets the revelation. It is not the mere statement of facts, but a breathing forth of life which makes the Bible the word of God. In- spiration enabled a writer to be authoritative in his particular sphere, and belonged not so much to the man as to his religious office. When he was performing his distinctive work under the direc- tion of the Holy Spirit, he was inspired. A prophet was inspired to tell of coming events, and in the same manner the Spirit inspired men to write other truths, and these truths are infallible. Inspiration did not destroy individuality. Sacred writers had authority to address our religious na- tures. The apostles did not quote from the Old Testament as critics, but as religious teachers seeking to get truth into the hearts of men. A truth is never harmed by presenting it in many different ways. The same discourses of our Lord are differently reported by different writers, but the great essentials are not changed. Two things we should strictly avoid : ( i ) Try- ing to make the Bible mean more than it claims to mean. Augustine said that the idea of men being on the other side of the earth, with their feet opposite our feet, was contrary to Scripture. Galileo was forced to abandon the idea of the sun £6 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY being the center of the universe because the Bible said that the world is established, and cannot be moved, and even Calvin thought that this text proved that the earth stands still and the sun moves around it. The text had no reference at all to the solar system. The Scriptures were never intended to teach natural science, but to reveal God's will and to establish a rule of life and conduct. We all say that the sun sets, but we all know the truth concerning it. The Bible used language that could be understood by the age to which it was given. Human language is of neces- sity imperfect, for we cannot have one word for each distinct idea. A boy learns his letters, and writes letters to his friends, and if he studies hard may become a man of letters. Here are three dis- tinct ideas for one word to cover. Then too, of necessity, language must be figurative at times. The streets of heaven are not necessarily gold because we read of gold-paved streets, any more than a picture must have odor because we call it sweet. Moses, inspired of God, wrote so that men would understand him. What he wrote was the truth, no matter how he wrote it. (2) We must not make the Bible mean less than it in- tends to mean. Now Moses' account of the crea- tion, simple as it seems to be, has under it the great purpose of opposing the pantheistic, poly- theistic, and atheistic ideas of creation, and shows that all existing things are the work of one self- THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 1 7 conscious and intelligent God. Underneath the story of the Garden of Eden lies the awful fact of man's fall from his high estate. God created Adam. How long it took we may not know, but God created him. The Bible has stood the test of scholarship. Of course the books of the Bible are colored by the country in which they were written. Exodus is colored by Egyptian life and thought ; the New Testament is colored by Greek and Roman thought; and going back to Genesis we find an Oriental influence everywhere. It is hard to fit Abraham into these times, but when we know something of the times in which he lived we more easily understand his character. We now know much of the influences that surrounded his early life. Ur of the Chaldees was a splendid and flourishing city four thousand years ago. Arts and sciences were studied; astronomers watched the heavens; poets composed the hymns; scribes stamped books on clay tablets, many of which are being read to-day. All large cities had libraries, comprising works of history and science. In the Briti-sh Museum is a book of this time, divided into seventy-two divisions, the title being " The Observations of Bel." By an intelligent study of the things that throw light on the sacred word, we may learn more fully to understand the truth, and this knowledge is now within the reach of alL 1 8 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Scholarship is ever unfolding new conceptions of truth, and we need never fear for our Bible because men are applying modern methods of study to it. Truth will live, and true scholarship is friendly always to truth. The Bible has stood the test of modern dis- coveries. One hundred years ago the Bible stood alone, not a single contemporary document being known. The Bible said that Nineveh was a great city in Assyria, but not a trace of it could be found. But we can now trace the history of As- syria back two thousand years B. C, and up to the fall of Nineveh. This is not only a general history, but a history of detail, the number of in- scriptions found making possible an uninter- rupted record for centuries. In 1820 Claudius James Rich determined thoroughly to examine the mounds on the bank of the Tigris, the result being published in 1836, shortly after his death. The remains of sculptures and inscriptions brought by him to Europe formed the basis of the splendid collection in the British Museum. A Frenchman, P. E. Botta, in 1843-1845, excavated just north of Nineveh, and Henry Austin Layard worked at Nimrud, and these excavations brought to light a whole series of Assyrian palaces with a great number of sculptures and inscriptions which had been buried for two thousand five hundred THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE I9 years. Botta had the good fortune to lay bare the first Assyrian palace, which had been built by King Sargon. It covered an area of more than twenty-five acres, and was probably the most magnificent palace in the world. It was enclosed by a high wall, which had two gates on each side. Traces of small lakes were also found. Up to this time the only mention of Sargon was in the Old Testament, and by many he was regarded as a mythical character. Layard soon unearthed five other great palaces, and a great number of clay tablets upon which was written the history of Assyria. These tablets are not unlike an ordi- nary brick, while some of them are cylindrical in shape. Upon such tablets have been found leg- ends of the Creation, the Fall of Man, and the Deluge. The cylinder telling of the Fall of Man is without words. There is a group of figures, and in the center of the group is a tree from which hangs some fruit. On one side of the tree is a man, on the other side a woman. Behind the woman, with its head near hers, is a serpent. This is a very old cylinder, representing the Babylonian tradition of the Fall of Man. Next to the Bible account of the flood, the Babylonian account is best. The deluge tablet was translated in 1872. The lines which describe the building of the ship, however, are badly broken. The whole tablet contained one hundred and eighty-five lines. Now how can we account 20 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY for the similarity of these traditions with the account in Genesis? The cylinder referred to belongs to a very early day of the Chaldean Em- pire. Nor is this the only tradition. An old Greek legend practically covers the same ground. In India a like tradition is found, and the Egyp- tians speak of a time when the whole earth was covered with blood, and the greater part of man- kind was destroyed. In Mexico have been found rude paintings representing the deluge, and among the Cree Indians, in the Arctic circle, a similar legend is found. Even in the islands of the south- ern ocean you will find the same story. If the flood were not a fact, how account for this almost universal tradition ? By these discoveries most of the early rulers known to us, and fourteen whose names were lost, have been restored to history. We now know much of the Semitic race even as far back as 3800 B. C. These modern discoveries also show that Babylonian art, 4000 B. C., had a neatness and fineness of work far beyond a later period. The farther back we go, the higher seems to have been the civilization. Doubtless the question has arisen in your minds as to how these tablets can be read. For a long time it was an unsolved mys- tery, and it was only after much shrewd guessing that the secret was revealed. A young Englishman, whose name was Raw- linson, an ofificer in the Persian army, in 1835 p. 5. HENSON Pastor, 1867-1881 THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 21 found on the side of a mountain a bas-relief rep- resenting a king, before whom stood a line of captives, bound neck to neck with a rope. Near this were several columns of cuneiform inscrip- tions. With a ladder resting on a fourteen-inch ledge, three hundred and fifty feet above the ground, Rawlinson made a copy of the writing. In these inscriptions, after long study, he found the key, and translated the writing, and the past was compelled to give up its secrets. Soon schol- ars began to read the tablets, but of course there were skeptics who would not believe that a lan- guage had been discovered. To test the matter, four men were given fine lithographic copies of these inscriptions, and each was to work alone, and hold no communications with the others. At a given date they brought in their work, and their translations agreed from beginning to end with very slight variations. The new-old language had been discovered. Scholars are not rare now who can read this tongue, and both in America and Europe special college chairs for its study have been established. During the past fifty years six times as much cuneiform literature has been discovered as is contained in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. The time covered is from 5000 B. C. down to 100 B. C. So far, in the in- vestigation, not a single historical discovery has cast doubt upon the truthfulness of the statements of the Old Testament. It is also a matter to be 22 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY thankful for that the hieroglyphics can now be read. The find of the " Rosetta Stone " was the key that unlocked this door of a great past. One hundred years ago, if the question had been asked, *' How far does history reach into the past? " the answer would have been, " The oldest history is the history of Greece and Rome, which goes back to 400 B. C." Critics decided that much of the history of the Old Testament could not be true, as it was uncorroborated by contemporary his- tory, and the story of the conquest made by Abra- ham must be the attempt of the Jews to make him out a great man. The Hittites were considered by the critics to be a mythical race, as there was no evidence that they ever existed, except the statements of the Old Testament. Sargon is mentioned in Isaiah as being the King of Assyria, but other than this reference we knew nothing of him, therefore he was probably a myth. Herodotus was the father of history, and he doesn't mention these things, therefore they could not have been. But the Old Testament claims to go back one thousand years beyond the extreme limit of Greek history. One hundred years ago most of the Old Testa- ment statements were absolutely unsupported. Were the Israelites in bondage to the Egyptians ? The only evidence of it was the statement of the Old Testament. But the light now has burst through the darkness. Men had noted for years THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 23 that on temples and tombs there were series of pictures, or objects arranged in a certain order. If it was a language, what was the key? The key was found. In 1799 Napoleon began his cam- paign in Egypt. While excavations were being made at the mouth of the Nile, a strange stone was discovered. It was of black granite, three feet, nine inches in height, two feet, four inches and a half wide, and eleven inches thick. On the top were lines in the strange picture language. Below were lines in another language, while still farther down were lines in Greek uncial letters. In 1818 the long lost combination was discovered, and the past of Egypt was revealed. This stone called the " Rosetta Stone " is now in the British Museum. We now go back in Egyp- tian history nearly five thousand years B. C. We now know the history of a great civilization ante- dating the history of the Old Testament three thousand years. In 1887, at Tel-Amarna, a peas- ant woman found over three hundred cuneiform tablets, which proved to be a correspondence be- tween kings of Asia and Egypt, and these, with the hieroglyphic inscriptions, have given us a most marvelous view into the past. We find that the Hittites were, indeed, a real and great nation, and were finally conquered by King Sargon. Because of the great discoveries made, the Old Testament has become a new book to us. Ex- plorations have been made in nearly every Bible 24 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY land, and the work is still going on. We have, as yet, only entered the borders of the great field of investigation. We can now look upon the bodies or pictures of people from most of the lands men- tioned in Scripture, while tons of new materials are each year being gathered which will throw added light upon the statements of the Bible. Every mound uncovered is a step toward new and important discoveries. New light has been thrown upon nearly every name mentioned in the Old Testament. So during the last century history has jumped backward to at least four thousand years before Christ. The Old Testament is not very old, for we now know that Abraham and Moses belong to a comparatively recent age. They were preceded many centuries by highly civilized and cultured races. " Can there be books older than the Old Testament?" some one may ask. Yes, and we see the evidence cut in the hardest of rocks. We find not only evidence of the greatness of this old civilization, but also much that establishes the accuracy of the records of the Old Testament. The oldest known Hebrew writings are on the Moabite Stone and the Siloam Inscription. The Moabite Stone was found in 1868, and not only does it show the oldest style of Hebrew writing, biit it supplements the records of the third chapter of the second book of Kings. The stone was two feet wide by four feet high, and more than a foot THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 25 in thickness. Believing- it to be something won- derful, because of the large prices offered, the natives built a fire under the stone, and when it was hot poured cold water on it, breaking it in pieces which they divided among themselves as charms. Most of the broken pieces were after- ward recovered, and from a paper impression taken before, scholars were enabled to put the stone together. The restored stone is in the Louvre, in Paris. The record on this stone con- firms much of the history of Omri, Ahab, Jeho- ram, and Jehoshaphat. The other ancient Hebrew writing mentioned was the Siloam Inscription. No site in Palestine is more surely identified than the Pool of Siloam. The pool is supplied from the Fountain of the Virgin, some hundreds of yards away. This stream has been flowing into Jerusalem for more than two thousand six hun- dred years. Of it the Psalmist sang, saying, " There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High." As they were carrying water from this Pool of Siloam, to pour out on the altar, Jesus said, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." The tunnel through which the water comes was hewn through the living rock. From the fountain to the pool is one thousand seven hundred and eight feet. It is not straight, for men began at either end, and did not quite meet in a straight line at the middle. In 2 Kings 26 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY 20 : 20, we learn that Hezekiah " made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city." In i88o a boy, playing with others at the Pool of Siloam, fell into the water, and from the water, looking up, he saw the shapes of letters cut out in the rocky wall. It was an inscription, telling of the building of the tunnel, and explained why the conduit was not straight. This inscription may be the oldest known Hebrew writing. Our present Hebrew Bible is almost identical with the Scriptures of Christ's time. Christ read the same stories we read and often referred to them. The Bible has stood the test of popularity. The Bible is now the most widely distributed of all books. It is being carried to the farthest regions of the globe, and is being translated into all languages and dialects. Millions of copies are given away, and the zeal of Christians knows no limits in spreading the word of God. The Bible may now be read even in Chinese and Siamese dialects. Even the natives of the islands of the sea can now read the Bible in their own tongue. The Bible has stood the test of our so id's great- est need. It is our spiritual food. " Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 27 out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." How essential to spiritual growth is the constant partaking of this heavenly manna. The Bible has been given us that we may learn the will of God. " The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Paul in quoting these words adds, " that is, the word of faith, which we preach." The first duty of the Christian is obedience. How shall we obey if we know not his will ? The Bible is the statute-book of the kingdom of God. *' Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." The Bible is a many-sided book and touches on almost every phase of life. Would we know how to live right we should observe God's laws. It seeks to protect the family and society. In the plainest possible terms it condemns immo- rality. There are verses in the Bible that should not be read in the family nor in public, but they ought to be read. Certain books on medicine are not for public or family reading, but they are exceedingly valuable, nevertheless. What inspiration there is in the Psalms; what comfort in the teachings of our Lord ; how bright the future looks when we read about our victory over death in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians. The word should be read as an act of devotion. It is our Father's letter of direction, instruc- tion, and comfort. It reveals his will. It is not a 28 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY fetish, like the relic or crucifix of the superstitious Christian, or the medicine-bag of an Indian. It is the principles of the Bible brought into contact with our inner life, that makes it of value to us. The thirsty man must drink when he comes to the fountain or he will perish. Of course there are many things which we can- not understand ; if we understood it all, would it be the word of God ? We may well ask, with an old saint of God, " Why should I choke over a bone, when I have so much good meat?" The Bible has been given into our charge that we may keep it intact. Holding fast the faithful word, The word of majesty and light, the church's heritage. It was given into our hands " that we may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." It is an exceedingly dangerous and foolish thing to trifle with the compass when we are out in the storm, or to change the chart when the rocks are around us. The Bible is a chart for every sea, the compass whose needle points always to the Cross which is the only safe place for the soul. So we should esteem the word above all else, and receive it with great joy. Job said, " I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." If the Bible cannot be impeached, we must take THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 29 it more seriously and rearrange our program. If we believe all we have claimed, we cannot longer play at Christian work, nor longer neglect our opportunities. If the Bible be the word of God and his message to us, we must have a higher ideal of service. // the Bible cannot he impeached, then we must rearrange our program for s'oul-zuinning, and every Christian must become an evangelist. If what we believe be true, surely we ought to have an interest in people that shall give to us a burden for their souls. If men were in danger when Christ uttered his solemn warnings, they are equally in danger now. We must increase our powers in the use of the sword of the Spirit. Then the art of repression always comes with real knowledge. What we know we can tell. Knowing God and knowing men, we ought to be able to point men to God. With a burden, knowl- edge of truth, skill in truth's expression, and a great soul earnestness, we can all become soul- winners. // the Bible cannot be impeached, i^e must re- arrange our program, and every Christian must become a missionary. We need a new world vision. Carey did what he did because a world-map was before him while 30 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY he mended shoes. What happens in China, Japan, Germany, and Russia has a marked effect upon us almost as soon as it happens. How much we owe to missionaries we may never know. Perhaps theirs has been the re- straining hand that is protecting us to-day. It is a very small world now, and every Christian should have a world view-point of service. If the Bible cannot he impeached^ we need to give neiv dignity to Christian service, and every Christian shoidd go into the life-assurance busi- ness. Not many of our best young men are looking forward to the ministry. Do you blame them? To please the churches they must be married. But what about old age, or the '' dead line," or disability? Not for themselves are they afraid, but for their families. The world needs the gos- pel, but how shall they hear it without preachers ? We must take care of our needy ministers and missionaries, and their families. Every Christian can help assure this blessed result. It must not be charity but justice. If the Bible cannot be impeached, we must re- arrange our program, and every Christian must become a scholar and a teacher. All of the world's greatest blessings have come because of Christian education. It has freed the THE UNIMPEACHED BIBLE 3I slave, elevated woman, and will give us world democracy and the prohibition of strong drink. If the Bible cannot be impeached, ii^e must re- arrange our program, and every Christian must become an administrator. We greatly need a new conception of steward- ship. Not one-tenth, but ten-tenths belong to God. We are stewards of everything that is of use to us and to others. Stewardship implies an owner; something of value has been placed in our hands, for which we are responsible and which must be used faithfully for the Master. We must become joyful, thankful, and wor- shipful administrators. We have the greatest motive — for Christ, his church, and his kingdom. No, the Bible cannot be impeached. " For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." " The Scripture can- not be broken." We believe with Horatius Bonar : A thousand hammers keen With fiery force and strain, Brought down on it in rage and hate, Have struck this gem in vain. Against this sea-swept rock Ten thousand storms their will Of foam and rage have widely spent; It lifts its calm face still. ^2 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY A blind girl had been in the habit of, reading the Bible by means of the raised letters such as the blind use. She worked hard for a living, and soon her fingers became calloused. She would cut off the calloused skin that her fingers might become sensitive, but still she could not read. In her sorrow she said, " Farewell, my dear Bible. You have been the joy of my life." She pressed the book to her lips and felt the letters, and her heart thrilled with joy. " Thank God," said she. *' I can read it with my lips." Do we love God's word like this? And yet without it, what would our lives be? Only the Bible has lifted the veil of the future ; it is the corner-stone of our civiliza- tion ; it is the way to eternal life. May God bless to us our Bible. THEICHIVALRY OF SERVICE CARTER HELM JONES, D. D. Pastor, First Baptist Church, Philadelphia Isa. 6 : 8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. I Cor. i6 : 13. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you Hke men, be strong. THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE' Chivalry is more than a medieval memory of clash of tourney and press of knights. The spirit of Arthur's " table round," the quest of the Holy Grail, the genius of the Crusades, all have their rebirth in the knighthood of to-day. For us chivalry is the personal response to the call of the highest, and the chivalry of service is the translation of radiant ideals into worthy deeds. I shall speak of the Cause, the Conflict, the Call, the Comradeship, the Challenge, and the Captain. What is this Cause zvhich has led our peace- loving nation into zvarf May I state it in the words of three great men ? Washington appealed to heaven, and these are his words : That the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so care- ful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing (the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution) as will ac- 1 This sermon is not the one delivered at the jubilee of the Memorial Church. Manuscript for that address could not be furnished. The sermon here reproduced was preached to soldiers in the First Baptist Church of Seattle, on July 22, 1917. 35 36 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY quire to them the glory of recommending it to the ap- plause, the affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. Wonderful words ! An experiment in govern- ment. An experiment in love. That challenge which every adventure of faith makes, a chal- lenge to the attention, a challenge to the admira- tion, a challenge to adoption by the nations of the world. Isn't it audacious and yet magnificent? A man standing with a handful of people, repre- senting thirteen loosely coordinated colonies, a nation in its birth throes, calls across the waters to the world : *' Look ! This is what your fathers have dreamed of, this is what your mothers have wept for, this is what your philosophers and po- litical doctrinaires have longed for. We will make it good in achievement as we have made it beauti- ful in promise." The second — Lincoln in his immortal words, half appeal to the people, half prayer to Almighty God, heartened for fresh effort the struggling na- tion — you will recognize these words : It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 37 The smoke of Gettysburg has long cleared away, the high tide of Southern valor that made a new record in the annals of the world's heroism is marked no longer with sectionalism or stigma- tized with injustice, but has been proudly recog- nized as a memorial, as a waymark of American manhood struggling for what it thought was right. The shadows have fallen away, the prej- udices have dropped, and there looms large, not the president of a federal government alone, not the hero and pride of a section alone, but a great- hearted, wonderful man who bowed before Al- mighty God that day and almost with prescient fingers pulled aside the curtains of to-morrow and looked upon the future destiny of the nation he loved so dearly and from which he was soon to step aside in the shadows of an ineffable tragedy. The third — Woodrow Wilson, worthy of this great fellowship. In that recent hour upon which focused the thought of the whole world, he was speaking as a prophet, speaking for God to his people, speaking through his people for America to humanity, and gathering up in tense fingers the great lines of political philosophy of all time and interpreting the truth to generations unborn. Listen to these words in his epochal message to Congress : The right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts : for democracy, for the right of those who sub- D 38 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY mit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a univer- sal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedi- cate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. These three great utterances ring with a com- mon note. It vibrates through twelve decades of the nation's Hfe — ^the indefeasible right of human liberty. This is why you go, my dear boys. God bless you ! It is for the defense of such principles. It is for the promulgation, the proclamation of the gospel of such everlasting truth. It is for the maintenance of such national sacredness in in- ternational atmosphere. I want to add another word to the preciousness of this ideal. Because — hear me, men — it is an ideal for which we are fighting. We are not fighting because they sank a ship which bore some freight and caused a loss of money. We are not even fighting because a ship went down on which some ill-fated Ameri- cans were so unfortunate as to be traveling. We are fighting because when Belgium was invaded, America was invaded ; when Belgium was raped, then the virtue at the heart of our republic was THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 39 violated ; and when those treaties that had become the sacred words of faith between nations were violated by the Prussian military system, then no international treaty was safe. Out of this war there has loomed large a great personality. I bow my head in unaffected reverence before a Roman Catholic prelate. I do this gladly in what is called a Protestant pulpit. Cardinal Mercier has won for himself a place among the immortals, not because he is a cardinal, but because he is a man. As an article in the " Outlook " says : Against the lurid and awful background of conquered Belgium, one figure stands out in sharp silhouette, a per- sonality that has succeeded in dominating the chaos of events. . . Cardinal Mercier is nearer the heart of Bel- gium than any one else, because no one knows so well what she has suffered, and no one else has seen so clearly all her moral grandeur. He has been all things to all men — the embodiment of patriotism and courage. This is one of the beauties that is being painted by God's own hand upon the awful shadow of this dreadful war — that men are coming into a nobler unity, into a finer conformity, unto a more gra- cious brotherhood, and we are not asking what churches they belong to, we are asking the fiber of their manhood, the quality of their ideals, and the strength of their stabilities. Cardinal Mercier says this, soldiers : A just war has austere beauty. It brings out the disin- terested enthusiasm of the whole people, which gives, or is 40 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY prepared to give, its most precious possession, even life itself, for the defence and vindication of things which can- not be weighed, which cannot be calculated, but which can never be extinguished — justice, honor, peace, liberty. Are these worth fighting for? Are these worth sacrificing for? The ConMct I need not discuss. You know it. It is a conflict in which autoc- racy is taking its last stand against democracy, in which the " divine right of kings " is not stating itself in the old feudal terms of the baronial Mid- dle Ages, but in which the '' divine right of kings " has found a new argument in the philo- sophic basis of German rationalism. If this were the time and this were the place, I could trace with you how they have taken that man of gigan- tic intellect and inexorable logic, Immanuel Kant, and from his principles have developed the doc- trine that the individual exists for the State — not the State for the individual. The international conclusion of Prussian logic would be that the world exists for the German state. So when you meet a Prussian militarist you not only meet a man who is a marvelous machine of a soldier, but you meet a man panoplied in one of the most dan- gerous armors that one can ever wear — that of personal infallibility. God help a man when he meets an infallible man ! And so it is that this ter- rible ambition like a great upas has shadowed all THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 4I the distinct idealism, the critical genius, the artistic bent, the inventive efficiency of a wonderful peo- ple. Philosophy, learning, music, literature, science, and invention have all been prostituted and made subservient to an imperial ambition for European and world domination, whose sudden uncovering has been the surprise, the dismay, and the horror of our age. They have kept hid for the last generation inventions which they would not let the rest of the world know existed, and harnessed them to the enginery of this terrible desire and purpose to dominate Europe and then to dominate the whole world. That is the essence of the conflict you face. Next notice the Call. Isaiah said, " I saw the Lord.'' God is invisi- ble. By the very nature of his existence, by the very terms of his almightiness and all wisdom he must be invisible, and yet, wonder of wonders, in every age there have been men who have seen God, who have heard God, and the glory of it is that even though your eyes, like mine, are finite, though your senses, like mine, are limited, yet God speaks through men. Your call, I do believe, has come as clearly as the call to patriot, prophet, apostle and martyr, crusader and hero in all the recorded realms and annals of men. God has called you through your country. " Whom shall I send; who will go for us?" You have said: 42 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY "Here am I; send me." Your cause is sacred because he who calls you is God. I shall not take time — though I am tempted to do so — to go more fully into the conception, that sweeps me some- times like the conflagration of a burning enthu- siasm, of what constitutes a call of duty, but God has called, and as Emerson has so beautifully put it, So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, " Thou must," The youth replies, " I can." And that is the spirit in which I greet you to- day. / would suggest in the fourth place the Com- radeship. O men, this is a wonderful comradeship. When you step forth in this new chivalry of our new day, you come into electric sympathy with the comradeship of the chivalry of all the ages. More than that, you come into direct succession with the splendid comradeship of your fore- fathers. There sings in your veins the blood that flowed in the patriot veins at Valley Forge and in the glorious battles of 1812, on land and sea; across the burning sands of Mexico until the Stars and Stripes were planted in the halls of the Montezumas; and then again in the awful con- flict when North and South were fighting them- THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 43 selves together and purifying themselves in the seven heated furnaces of suffering. Yes, you are in the comradeship with Washington and La- fayette, with Decatur and John Paul Jones, with Scott, Taylor, and Jackson; you are in the com- radeship of Lincoln and Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, with Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jack- son, and Albert Sidney Johnston. Dewey, Schley, Sampson, and the heroes who made incarnadine the soils of the isles over the sea are your broth- ers in arms. You are also in comradeship with those who are watching for you, perhaps across the water, over whom flies the Union Jack, and the Lilies of France, and the flag of brave little Belgium, and the flag of the scions of the Caesars, and the flag of that strange mystic giant republic which has almost like Minerva from the head of Jove sprung full armed into the international arena of modern history — new Russia. But your comradeship is higher than that. Yours too is the comradeship celestial. You are coming in touch with the chivalry of faith, you are coming in touch with the knighthood of God. God him- self is in you and shall be with you. Notice the Challenge made by this chivalry of serznce. It is a challenge to courage. There never was a time when war made a fiercer demand upon real courage than to-day. I shall not depict its hor- 44 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY rors. You would not mind it, but some who sit near you might. Ah, there was a time when men went forth to meet men, when men could look their foes in the eye. Sometimes, as on the splendid fields of medieval chivalry when knight- hood was in flower, whole armies would stop that two men-at-arms or two knights might do their high devoir according to the stainless annals and laws of tourney. There was a time even in our day when men knew that when they fought they were fighting men worthy of their steel. The tragedy of the war of to-day is that you are fighting foes who have discredited all of the modern amendments to ancient warfare and have reverted to a savagery undreamed of in military annals, unsuspected in the bitterest moments of racial rancor. You are fighting foes who may be miles above you in the air, who may be fathoms beneath you in the sea. You are fighting foes who may be miles away from you. You are fighting science, you are fighting the enginery of a diabolism born in hell and translated in infernal terms in modern warfare. Strong words? I wish I knew the English language well enough to make them stronger. It is a call to courage. I do not fear that you will fear. I am not afraid that our boys will be false to all the glory of their fathers. I am not afraid that the spirit of Valley Forge and Gettysburg, of Chancellors- ville and Chickamauga will fail you. I am not THOMAS M. GREENE Deacon, 1867-1917 THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 45 afraid that you will falter before mortal man. I am asking you that you will have that fine cour- age which knows how to wait, that fine courage which is patient, that fine courage which knows how to suffer. It would never enter my dreams to think that you would ever be laggards when the order to charge comes, but oh, I pray that God will make you brave to wait until that order •comes. I call you also to a courage that shall withstand an enemy worse than Prussianism has ever put into the field. There is an insidious, deadly im- morality, a fatal foe to purity, truth, manhood, and right more horrible than Mars has ever yet been able to make swim the sea, ride the air, or run upon the land. I call you to that life of purity which shall make you unashamed and un- afraid always, as you are to-day, to look mother and sister, wife or sweetheart in the face. We are praying that God will bring you back to us When you go, and we are praying that God will bring you back sweet and clean and pure and true- hearted. You will keep tryst with Old Glory ; we are not afraid of that. You will keep tryst with all the loftiest traditions that blazon the annals of our country with an imperishable light. You will keep tryst also with that sweetness, sim- plicity, and purity which came with you from the time when your mother rocked your cradle in the golden gloaming and mingled the " name which 46 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY is above every name " with the lullabies which hushed you to your rosy rest. Have courage, be strong ! And the last word is your Captain. Moses had gone and Joshua stood with the host of Israel on the eve of battle. Joshua rose that morning and saw before him a man standing with a naked sword, and instantly the doughty-hearted old hero went toward him and said, " Art thou with us or for our adversaries? " And he said: *' I am the captain of the hosts of the Lord, thy God. Take off thy shoes. The ground upon which thou dost stand is holy ground." The captain of the hosts of the Lord ! Ah, the writer of the Hebrews, harking back to that moment, and thinking of that Presence which moved un- hasting and unlagging down the long corridors of the ages, referred to him as the '' Captain of our salvation." His name is Immanuel, and Im- manuel means " God with us." O men, be true to the Captain of your salvation. His is the in- visible presence which will stand by your side and walk with you on the weary march. His is the invisible presence that will nerve you with strength and give you grace in the moments when patience almost gives way. His is the melody that will flood your souls with song in the nights when you may be lonely-hearted, thinking of the old home and the loved ones, perhaps across the THE CHIVALRY OF SERVICE 47 sea. His is the presence that will go with you when the hail of lead and the maelstrom of de- struction break upon you. He, if need be, will walk with you " through the valley of the shadow of death," his rod and staff sustaining you. And more than that — because God in Christ is the Captain of your salvation, you are sure of victory. He has never been conquered. Death smote him on Calvary, but death could not hold him. He rose triumphant. He has marched down the ages, the preceding Christ, leading all the centuries, and he is marching before the nations that stand for truth and freedom in this war, and he will lead us out into that glory of democracy where monarchies have crumbled and crowns dissolved to dust, and where the eternal brotherhood of man shall realize itself in the beauty of the eternal fatherhood of God. He is the Captain of your salvation. Oh, may I ask that each of you will wear Jesus Christ in the inner soul of you. Trust him. Talk to him. Not in the formal language you may have heard others use, but each in his own tongue. Speak to him, thou, for he hears thee, And spirit with spirit can meet; C'oser is he than breathing, Nearer than hands and feet. So to-day, greeting you in this fashion in be- half not only of this dear church, but of all of the 48 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY churches that may be represented in the faith which you have, or the faith of your loved ones, I say, Go forth and God go with you. This church and all the churches will go with you as far as they may with love and prayer, fair prophe- cies, and bright hopes. In spirit fellowship we will hover around you and strengthen you. Eagerly we will wait until you come back with shouts of victory and the glory of duty well done. After my father's death I found in his army diary this quotation : I will go forth *mong men, not mailed in scorn, but in the quiet armor of a good intent. Great deeds are before me. But whether crowned or crownless when I fall, it matters not, so God's will be done. OUR LORD AND MASTER ROBERT E. SPEER, D D. Secretary, Presbyterian Boardj of Foreign Missions Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am.— John 13 : 13. OUR LORD AND MASTER There are two different ways in which we may study any object. On the one hand, we may look directly at it, or, on the other hand, we may not look at it at all, but may study instead the im- pression that it is making upon some one who is looking at it. We are familiar with both of these methods, and with the greater power and effec- tiveness of the second of them. How often in good books we have seen a clever writer, realizing that there were certain emotions that he could not describe directly, succeed in impressing us with all that he wanted to impress us with by describ- ing instead the reaction which watching those emotions effected upon some stander-by. And how common it is in painting to see the device of a fire represented by the reflection of the fire upon the faces of those who are gazing upon it. One sees this second method of description at its best in the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, a description of the experience of his great call. One wishes at times that Isaiah had told us just what it was that he saw, " The Lord . . . high and lifted up." If we might only know what the Lord looked like, when you see him high and lifted up! But all we know is that when Isaiah 5T 52 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY saw the Lord, high and lifted up, he covered his mouth with his hands and lay down upon his face in the temple, and all that is left to us is a picture of the impress that the vision made upon Isaiah's own heart. It is beautiful to go through the four Gospels studying the picture of Jesus Christ which the Evangelists present in both of these ways. They were masters of the art of direct representation, telling us what they saw, and reporting the words which they heard him speak. But they were even more skilful, if that might be, in those little touches of theirs in which by indirection they re- vealed to us what Jesus Christ was, and let us see the deep impress that he made upon their lives. " And they were in the way," we read, " going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was before them ; and they were amazed, and as they followed they were afraid." Why were they amazed? What was it that made them fear? Not a word is said, only we can see in their fear, more vividly than if they had drawn it, the figure of the Saviour with his white set face and the eager greyhound steps and will that could not be moved, as he went reso- lutely on to what he knew was waiting for him in Jerusalem. And again we read that, as they came to get him in the vineyard, Jesus " went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They an- swered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which be- OUR LORD AND MASTER 53 trayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went back- ward and fell to the ground." Why did they go backward and fall to the ground simply because Jesus said, '' I am he " ? We see the lonely figure standing there with the red drops on his white robe, and the light that must fiave been shining on his face from those holy hours of loneliness in the garden by himself, facing the great tragedy of his life. We see all that far more vividly than if the Evangelists had tried to describe him as they beheld him standing there. And it is beautiful to see how they used both these methods in setting before us the great prin- ciple that is embodied in these words from the thirteenth chapter of John — the mastership of Jesus Christ : " Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well; for so I am." Both in what they directly represent of the masterly qualities in Christ, and the way in which he displayed all these lordly powers of his, and then in those subtle references here and there throughout, in which they speak indirectly of him, they let us into the spell of his influence over their hearts. We get such a representation as we have not of any other personality in history of what our Lord was to these friends of his, and what we may be sure he would be to us. When, combining these things, we turn to pick out one by one the outstanding features of E 54 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY this mastery of Christ, it is not hard to single out the most conspicuous ones. There was, first of all, his mastery of truth, and that was a wonderful thing. How it stood out the instant you came into his presence ! You know when you are with any man or woman whether it is a guesser and groper you are talking with, or whether it is some one upon whose soul the light has fallen. And the moment we draw near to Christ we realize instantly we are with a unique One, not guessing his way along, piecing together little by little the results of other days and experiences, and trying to spell out life's great lesson. We realize that we are with One to whom the great area of truth lies open with the sun blazing upon it, who thinks those things that he has seen with his Father, and that he does not have painfully to recall by exercise of memory anything at all, but that it lies all open before him, as the living, blazing reality of life. There is no other master of truth anywhere through the ages toward whom we feel, as we instinctively feel when we come near to the Lord Jesus Christ and realize that here at least we have come on One who has, as Simon Peter said, " the words of eternal life," who is " the way, the truth, and the life," who is himself just the light of the world, so that one cannot come near him without realizing that one is beneath the influence of One who has in his understanding all the great secrets of what we would know. OUR LORD AND MASTER 55 And it is not only that one feels Christ's mastery of the substance of truth, but it is almost equally wonderful — indeed to the men and women who listen to him at times it seems more wonder- ful — to see and feel his skilful and unsurpassed way of expressing the truth to men. It is one thing to see the truth; it is sometimes a very difficult thing to say it. My father was a lawyer, and one of the ablest men I ever knew. I remember, as a boy, hearing him one evening at the dinner-table speaking about a case he was trying, and the an- guish he was experiencing in that case. " I see the truth of this case as clear as the noonday sun," he said. " I cannot describe to you the pain it is to me to try to put this truth to the twelve men who sit in that jury-box up there. I must make them see and feel that truth as I see it." The wonder of our Lord was that he knew how much of his great truth men could not take, and he knew how much they could take and how much he must patiently wait with for a little while. We see him using his simple figures, or using the most direct approach, or taking the in- cidents of his own personal relationship with them and building upon them that he might bring his truth at last into their lives. And the more one turns back to that picture that the Evangelists draw, the more he simply bows his head in won- der before Christ's absolute mastery of truth. And there is, secondly, Christ's mastery over 56 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY nature and life. From that first day at the wed- ding at Cana of Galilee, when ** the conscious water saw its Lord and blushed," down to the very last day when the gates of death rolled apart for him and he came out free from all that had bound him, we see in Jesus Christ the first one who knew the secrets that are hidden from us, the great Master of the world's controlled ener- gies and powers, who walked through the world not as its plaything, not as one acted upon and coerced by all he experienced, but as one who could speak to the sea and it obeyed him, who could command the energies of life everywhere that men could only touch the fringes of, and find them his willing and humble slaves. And, what is more wonderful even than that, is his mastery over life, over events, over time and space, which are the vestments of our living. Most of us do not live our lives at all. It is our lives that live us. We will do this morning not what we will to do, but what has been suggested to us. Environment is the framework that con- trols all our living. Our thoughts are controlled by the suggestions of what other people have said. Our acts are controlled, not by some carefully thought-out principle, but by the whim or the caprice or the mood of the hour, or by the acci- dent of the association in which we happen to be. But we turn back to the life of Jesus, and it is very different from every other life. Here was OUR LORD AND MASTER 57 One who really lived his life, who was not lived by it, who was not controlled by the chance occur- rences of the days, but put all these into his own great original free-developing project unhindered and unhampered to the end. I do not wonder that he called himself the life, and that those who came near to him felt the thrill of a great living energy, not merely a great teacher, not merely a beauti- ful character, not merely the best man, but knew that somehow what they called God, the great living Power that lies back of all things, was there for them in him as it never had been in any other. One notes as he looks back the mastery that he wielded over truth and over things and over life. And one notes, in the third place, his mastery over men. We read at the very beginning of his public ministry that he did not need that any- body should tell him what men were thinking about, for he himself knew what was in men, that he had an eye that ran right down to the very initial springs and impulses and motives of men, that from the very beginning he knew who the man was who was to betray him. All life lay out before him like an open book, and he lived on in the world a free life, was master of the world that he lived in, because he knew fully and completely the inner life of those with whom he mingled. It is that that makes him still to us, and will make him always to men, the central, outstanding 58 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY figure. Look at him in those last days. Men thought they were crushing him; they thought that he was the victim of all that was taking place ; that he was the judged one. As we look back, we see quite contrariwise. He is the Judge, and those round about him the judged. They take their place from their attitude and relationship to him, the Lord Christ whom we shall see high on the throne judging the twelve tribes of Israel and all the life of man. It is just so still. Some of you may have seen in " Life " a clever review of Mr. George Bernard Shaw's attempt to de- scribe in a book to our day afresh the personality of Jesus Christ. The reviewer in " Life " does not speak at all of this book as he speaks of those that he had been reviewing. Of this book he speaks gravely and reverently, and he says that it is a daring thing Mr. Shaw has tried to do, for no man ever tries to describe Christ without end- ing up by exposing himself. Every effort on the part of a man to draw a picture of Jesus Christ simply results in his drawing his own picture ; for Christ stands to judge all of those who would judge him. We see him now, just as we saw him looking back across the years. Master of all the life that he moves among. And, only once more, we see him not only in his mastery of truth and his mastery of life and his mastery of men, but we see him also as the perfect Master of himself. Pick out two or three OUR LORD AND MASTER 59 outstanding things in the last week of his earthly life. For one thing, there was no anger at false friendship. Now, if ever in life you and I can justify anger it is when we come upon disloyalty and treachery in friendship. That is the one last unpardonable sin. And our Lord came upon that in that last week. A man who had been in his company for three years, for whom he had done everything, came now at the last to betray him with a kiss. How does he greet him ? I have no doubt that it was in the heart of Christ even if it was not in the words. When Judas came to be- tray him with that treacherous kiss, Jesus did not say, '' Traitor! Thief! " but, '' Friend! Friend, wherefore art thou come? '' There was no anger or wrath at disloyalty in friendship. There was no despair at apparent failure. Now, there is no denying it. Men did think, as they looked at what was taking place, that Christ had failed. We know he did not fail ; but as men gazed at his work then, what was there to show for it ? He came to his own and his own received him not. For three thousand years God had been educating the Hebrew nation to recognize the Messiah. Now the Messiah had been offered to this nation and it rejected him. He came and gathered a company of men and women around him. It was largest at the beginning. One by one they began to break away from him until there were Twelve, the Twelve apostles. One 60 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY day he asked them if they too were going to leave him. And they did. At last he was cru- cified with only two thieves for his companions, and they were nailed to trees so that they could not run away. Men looked to his life, and what was there to show for it ? Yet, right in the midst of that great havoc we hear him say, '' Father, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do." And not only was there no anger at betrayed friendship and no despair over apparent failure, but there was no reproach of God's goodness. There are many here who have reproached God. They have faced life's great tragedies. Life that they loved has seemed ruthlessly taken away from them. Little voices that have done no wrong, that made music about the home, were stilled so that they could not hear them again, and they looked out on life and wondered how men could believe in the goodness and justice and the love of God. And here was God's own Son, who out of the great anguish and misery had cried — and no one can guess the meaning of that cry — *' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " Yet, at the last, no reproach, no word of reproach or sorrow, but only the trusting, loving voice of a little child lying down to sleep in arms that it perfectly trusted. " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Was there ever in all the world — is there now any one who shows himself so completely, so absolutely the master of men? OUR LORD AND MASTER 6 1 " Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye do well ; for so I am." And in some sense Christ's mastery has been accepted across the years. All that we need to do is to take the life that has been in the world since Christ came and compare it with the life that was here before his influence was wielded upon the earth to see how deeply his mastery has pene- trated. Take the changed life for women. Take any area of the world to-day where Christ has not been recognized even nominally as Master and Lord, and compare that area of the world with our own land, or any part of Christendom. You see it in the ideals of womanhood, and the place of the child in society, and the obligation of different classes, and the attitude toward the un- seen. Even the little acceptance of Christ's mas- tery that there has been has changed the world. And thank God that there have been those men and women, many or few, who have yielded their lives completely to the mastery of Christ! Some of them we have known, and they stand out for us as a comforting, satisfying Christian apologetic. We know these lives in their beauty and harmony and peace and strength and contentment and fruit- fulness. We know, tracing their qualities back to their source, that there must be some true origin, that Jesus Christ must be Master and Lord, if he could bear such fruitage in these lives. But when all that has been said, is it not still 62 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY true that the one pathetic and tragic thing about the earth to-day is that Jesus Christ's mastership is so Httle recognized, that men and women in such partial ways have brought their lives under it? Is there one greater need now in ourselves, in our nation, or internationally, than that Christ should be actually accepted as the Master and the Lord of the world ? We need to accept, for one thing — let us make it very clear and direct — we need to accept the mastery of Christ's idea of rights. We are where we are to-day just because we have not done that. Christ's idea of a right was that it was something that he had authority to forego. Our idea of a right is of something that we are justified in claiming. Now there is all the differ- ence in the world between those two ideas of right — ^between the conception of a right as some- thing we have a right to give up, and the concep- tion of a right as something that we have a right to claim and insist upon. Jesus Christ's concep- tion of a right was of something that its pos- sessor was justified in giving away and not keep- ing. He was on an equality with God, and he counted not that equality a right to be kept; but he gave it up and emptied himself and became obedient unto death. What makes all the havoc and the shame of the world? Why, simply that men and nations insist upon construing rights as obligations of assertion instead of authorities for surrender. And in our own lives is it not just OUR LORD AND MASTER 63 SO ? And can we ever have Christ's peace and joy in us and in the world until we accept the mastery of his conception of rights as of something we are justified, not in claiming, but in giving away? If it is my right, I have a right to give it up. And, in the second place, zve need to accept the mastery of Christ's conception of duty. We are being slowly schooled away from it to-day. Our modern theories of pedagogy are little by little sapping the rigid, high conception of duty out of our life. If we do not like to do the thing, if it does not please us, why, it is nobody's place, we are told nowadays, to coerce us with any external obligation to do anything. If we cannot be made to see that it would be nice for us to do it, nowa- days we do not feel there is any obligation upon us to do it at all. We need to get back to our Lord's conception, " The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? " " The will that my Father hath set for me, shall I not fulfil it? " " The work that my Father hath given me to do, shall I not accomplish it?" How much better that is! We would have completely to rewrite those old words of his to bring them into accord with our contemporary frame of mind. '' Why did you seek me? " Jesus should have said to his father and mother : " Why did you not seek me in the temple ? Did you not know that it was a very interesting place for me to be ? " '' No," he ought to have said to the people of Capernaum, " no ; 64 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY I cannot come back to your city and preach. I am interested in seeing the whole of Palestine. It is interesting me to go about preaching the gospel in other cities also, instead of just one or two near my old home." " I am interested in finishing the work that was given me to do, because the night is coming when a man cannot work any more." " It is very interesting to me to look for- ward to going up to Jerusalem to die." No, never such softness. *' I innst be about my Fath- er's business." " I must preach the kingdom in other cities also, for therefore was I sent." " I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, for the night is coming." " I must go up to Jerusalem to die." We need to bring back into our lives the heart of our Lord's noble sense of righteousness, of the thing that ought to be done because it was the thing that, in the will of God, it was right to do. We call him Master and Lord, but he is no Master and Lord of ours, if we do not accept the mastery of his idea of rights, if we do not accept the mastery of his sense of duty. And accepting them both will answer a great many problems for us. Somebody gave a friend this question one morning at one of the Northfield Conferences : " Mr. Speer spoke last night of friendship as willingness to serve. Should we do things for our friends that they are capable of doing for themselves, just because we love them? Or, if we strengthen our own characters in this WAYLAND HOYT Pastor. 1882-1889; Stated Supply, 1904, 1905 OUR LORD AND MASTER 65 way, are we not doing it at the risk of weakening and making selfish the character of our friend? Should we allow ourselves to be imposed upon? Is that one of the sacrifices a Christian must bear?" Well, the life of Christ will solve our problem for us. He had rights that he forewent, and he had duties that nothing could lead him to forego. And we have rights and duties in our lives also. Any right is mine. So long as it is just mine, I am absolutely entitled to let it go. Nine times out of ten my duty will be to surren> der my right; but the tenth time, when it is my duty to exercise my right, my right is transformed into something more than a right and has risen into what is higher and nobler than a mere right, into a duty, where my right is lost in the larger obligation that I am under to others. But Jesus Christ loved as no other lover ever loved, and his hand was as firm, and his strength and his will as clean and as unbending, as any hand and will we have ever known. In our lives we shall have no trouble in friendship, in home obligations, in the work of our own local church, in loyalty to the Christian body to which we be- long, in dealing with our social and political problems, in thinking out our own course of ac- tion, in relationship to the queer tangle of inter- national relationships, we shall have no insoluble difficulties if we are sure and resolved here, ac- cepting absolutely the mastery of Christ's con- 66 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ception and use of his rights and the mastery of Christ's conception and exercise of his duties. And, thirdly, we need to bring our lives under the mastery of Christ's conception of what men and women ought to he and can be. So many times we lose this. Do you suppose a girl who smokes and drinks would feel absolutely comfort- able reclining with that little group in the upper room and watching the Lord going about wash- ing the feet of his disciples and coming at last to herself? Do you think she really would feel abso- lutely comfortable ? I do not want to distort life by lifting up trivial and inconsequential things, but those trivial and inconsequential things, with many of us, are the expressions of our life, and with many of us they are the determinations of our future living. If Jesus Christ is to be our Master and our Lord, why, the whole of life has got to be handed over to him. You cannot keep back certain hours of the evening; you cannot keep back certain exercises and entertainments and amusements ; you cannot keep back a certain segment of the will or mind. You cannot do that and have Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. He does not want any divided loyalty and that kind of half-faithfulness and half-treachery. He will not be Lord at all, if he cannot be Lord of all. And he asks here to-day in our lives that, calling him Lord and Master, we should really let him be so in all the common things of our lives. OUR LORD AND MASTER dy My friends, more than that is involved in ac- cepting the mastery of Christ's ideals for our lives. It is not only believing that you and I ought to be the kind of men and women who would be comfortable in the actual presence of Christ ; but it is also believing that we can be the kind of men and women that Jesus Christ was, that there are no limits of attainment in life to those who really yield themselves up to be de- veloped by the molding influence and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, lastly, we need to accept not only the mastery of Christ's ideals of rights and duties and of character. We need to accept also the mastery of his inward spirit and principle of life — because all around us to-day a quite con- tradictory spirit and principle is being exalted. The very spirit and principle of which his Cross was meant to be the utter repudiation, the spirit and principle of self-assertion and energic will to mark out our own way and push our own pro- cesses through as individuals and as nations, is the spirit of our day. It is the way of strength and power, so different from his way. " Except ye be changed and become as little children, ye cannot see the kingdom of God. So different is all this of our time from the spirit and principle of his life who was as a lamb before his shearers, dumb, opening not his mouth, who would not quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised 68 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY reed, so different is all that from this that is round about us to-day! Which is the easier of the two ? Nietzsche told us that Christ's theory was so pallid and anemic that it was a message for weaklings and not a good robust gospel for a world of living men and women. Try the two and see which is harder, self-assertion, trying to have one's own way, or the way of Christ's Cross, the law of a positive and selfless love, the spirit of a simple, inoffensive child. Let anybody try the two and see which of them is the harder. The worship of self-will, the enthroning of energy and power, that is the tame and pallid and easy course. But I suspect that maybe there will be drops of blood on our white robes too if we go the Gethsemane way, and maybe prints of nails and crowns of thorns there where the crosses stand. But that was the way that the Lord and Master chose. And nobody does us any kindness who offers us a little cup of rose-water instead of that cup that could not pass away from him except he drink it. " Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am." Yes ; he is. But is he mine? Mine? Truly and eternally, is he mine? Let us let him be to-day. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY T. EDWIN BROWN, D. D. VVouldest thou be made whole? — ^John 5 : 6. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY This question went straight and searchingly from the health-giving heart of Christ to the central personality of " The Impotent Man." It sepa- rated him for the moment from his sickness and its causes, from his friends, if he had any, and their neglect, and from the sick who lay help- less around him in the Bethesda porches. It made his healing, then and there, a matter of his own will, a will accepting responsibility, exercising choice. John Bunyan has been criticized because he made Pilgrim start alone, without wife, or child, or friend, in his flight from the City of Destruc- tion. Bunyan knew just what he was about. He loved wife, children, friends devotedly, and was deeply concerned for their religious welfare. What he wanted to teach in his great allegory was the truth that the soul in its inner struggles and triumphs is solitary. The call comes to the man himself, is heard by the man himself, must be answered by the man himself. The historian Green tells us that " To the Puritan, religion in its iilnermost sense had to do, not with the 71 y2 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY churches, but with the individual soul. It was each Christian man who held in his power the issues of life and death. It was in each Christian conscience that the strife was waged between heaven and hell. In the outer world of worship and discipline the Puritan might call himself one of many brethren. But at every moment of his inner existence, in the hour of temptation and struggle, in his dark and troubled wrestling with sin, in the glory of conversion and in the peace of acceptance with God, he stood utterly alone." Had such a suffocating philosophy as that of Omar Khayyam sounded in his ears to quench the flame of his enthusiasm for righteousness or dull the edge of his sword, the Puritan would have answered : No pieces we in any fateful game, Nor free to shift on Destiny the blame ; Each soul doth tend its own immortal flame, Fans it to heaven or smothers it in shame. It is to be feared that this principle is largely discounted in our modern life; that neither the " thou " element nor the " will " element is at the fore. Many, even of the best and strongest currents of our thought and action, often by misunderstanding of their true relations, are making the individual of less and less account. One of the most alarming facts in the world to- day is the too large absence of the sense of per- PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY J^i sonal responsibility. Men move in masses. They drift with the current. They float, like so much flotsam and jetsam, with the ebb and flood of the tide. Until 1 9 14, strangers had been coming to our shores by the million. Natives had been shifting their homes with a frequency never known in any land. Very few, who reached mature years, now die in the homes wherein they were born. There are gigantic perils in these ceaseless move- ments of population. The break-up of the home often means the upturning of the foundations of morality. The man who stands out distinct and himself in the village, who is on familiar terms wath the merchant, the judge, the doctor, the minister, is lost in the city; his very existence is unknown to the masses of his fellow-citizens. Cities are great destroyers of individuality. Industrial forces are working in the same di- rection. Machinery calls and crowds the work- ers into huge factories and mills, where they are lumped together as hands and known as numbers^ Commercial forces work to destroy person- ality. Little business is swallowed up by big business. Big business rolls up into the corpora- tion, the syndicate, the trust, each man disappear- ing more and more deeply into the increasing hugeness of the corporate mass. And so men give themselves over, to have their opinions formed for them, their judgments registered for 74 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY them, their standards of conscience set for them, their wills exercised for them, their actions de- termined for them, by the trust, or the trade- union, or the lodge, or the political party, or the social set to which they belong. Oh, it takes one with some real stuff, and grit of manhood, to get a grip upon himself, to pull himself together, and looking himself and God squarely in the face to say, '' I ! " I, a name, a number, a nonentity, as men count me — I am thy child, O my Fa- ther! ''Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " That takes strength, and faith, and self-respect, and courage too. Much of our every-day philosophy is tending toward an enforced feebleness of will, a practi- cal disuse of the power of personal choice, a waste of the sense of personal accountability. In the instruction we receive concerning our- selves, and in our own thinking about ourselves, we seem to see ourselves — these mites, these in- finitesimal specks of dust — not only beat upon and beat against by the fierce and constant tempests of all the forces of life about us, which we call environment, but beat upon also by the more immense and immeasurable forces of all the past, which we call heredity. And these indeed are tremendous forces. History does matter. We come of a long descent. We are parts of a vast whole. And we often seem to ourselves to be mere nothings, wholly impotent. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 75 bound hand and foot by ropes of steel. But these forces, tremendous as they are, are not the only forces that determine character and conduct and history and destiny. They are not the greatest force. Under God himself, the force, the great determinator of character is this speck, this atom, this pigmy, this flesh and blood and spirit — this man. A son of God, with sparks of God's all- creative omnipotence blazing in him, this creature who, if he listens, can hear in himself " music that mates with the pulses of God," and can be aware of " the glory that runs from the core of himself to the core of the suns." But much of our social philosophy and more of our social practice is in denial of this founda- tion principle of personality. The socialism of Karl Marx and Ferdinand Lassalle, the socialism " made in Germany," the socialism that is stran- gling the new-born liberty of Russia and that among most of the nations of the world to-day is doing such effective work for its German mak- ers and masters — that socialism w^as born in the atmosphere of a philosophy which avowed that the body is not only a part of man's being, but the whole of it ; that '' man is what he eats " ; that '' man has no other God before man " ; that '' man alone is our God, our Father, our Judge, our Re- deemer, our law and rule, the Alpha and Omega of our political, moral, public, and domestic life and work," The inevitable fruitage of such a y6 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY root-atmosphere as this could only be material- istic fatalism. And so we find one of the leaders of this " made in Germany " socialism avowing that " the Marxist absolutely denies the free- dom of the will. Every human action is inevi- table. Nothing- happens either by chance or choice. Everything is because it cannot but be." This pernicious heresy is ravaging society like a veritable epidemic of tuberculosis of the moral spine. The chairman of a Young Men's Chris- tian Association Campaign Committee published, as one of the reasons why he was interested in work for boys, this : " The boy is not responsible. His life depends entirely on his association and environment." A leading journal of reform, wishing to explain the increase of vice among young girls in great cities, published a jingle end- ing with these lines : I guess you know what some don't know, And others know right well, That sweat-shops don't grow angel wings, That working girls is easy things, And poverty's the straitest road to hell. Oh, this is dreadful. It has dreadful prevalence, and a dreadful menace. To teach the boy that he is simply the victim of his surroundings, and the girl that poverty or evil conditions of work make virtue impossible — this is to cut every sinew of moral resiliency and destroy every force and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 77 motive for high character. We cannot be too eager to improve environment and improve heredity. But we may be so eager about this need- ful work as to fail to be saying to our boys and girls, our men and women, with all the empha- sis that the noblest examples in history of tri- umph over circumstance and triumph over he- redity can supply, " Watch your step." You watch your steps. " Keep thy heart with all dili- gence." " Yield not to temptation." You — yield not, for yielding is sin, not a surrender to fate, but sin. The same will-destroying tendency is seen in the realm of religion. It is every man's duty to act upon the truth he knows. If one knows that something is wrong in the relation between him- self and God, that the mission of Jesus Christ is to effect a right relation, that a personal choice of Christ as Saviour and Lord is essential if Christ is to do his work in the soul, then the urgency and immediateness of the duty are coincident with the knowledge. To be sure, those who are already walking in the Christian way have much to do with the en- trance of others upon that way. There is in- struction to be given, misunderstanding to be corrected, hindrance to be removed, treasures of Christian character to be displayed. Personal influence, personal persuasion, the personal touch of friend on friend, neighbor on neighbor, shop- yS THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY mate on shopmate must always have much to do with the propagation, by contagion, of Christian faith and character. We are to be lights amid the world's darkness. Would to God we were, keeping the spiritual atmosphere of our churches and communities all ablaze with the light. Would to God we were all prophets, all teachers, all evangelists, passionately eager to have the lives of our fellows set as stars in the diadem of our Lord. But all these manifest duties are often urged in such a way that those on whose behalf they are urged come to feel that they have no immediate and solitary responsi- bility in the matter. A few years ago I heard a distinguished evangelist pressing the duty of per- sonal work for others. He told this story. A Christian worker, in a time of revival, called on a friend, a learned judge. To the visitor's affec- tionate appeal on behalf of Christ, the judge, moved to tears, replied : " I accept your invitation. I have been waiting for three years for some one to extend it." Duty and the reward for doing it had waited during that long period. Last winter, on his Kansas City platform, Mr. Sunday told this story : '' In one of our meetings a lady asked me to talk to her husband. I said, ' Talk to him yourself.' ' Oh, I couldn't do that' That night he was at the meeting close to the platform on which she sat as a member of the chorus. Well, I nagged at her, and almost had to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 79 drag her from the platform to get her to do some- thing for Christ Finally she went down and said, * Charles, I have been praying for you to come to Christ' He burst into tears and said, ' I have been waiting two weeks for you to ask me that, Bess.' " These stories were deserved rebukes for the neglectful Christians. But as they were told, there was no rebuke either by word or tone for the crime of the procrastinating husband or judge. Are not such stories illustrations of the degeneracy of the public and personal will, and of such overemphasis on duty on the one side that it hoodwinks the conscience of duty on the other side? Is it not a crime that should call forth our amazement and moral indignation that in a land of Christian homes and sanctuaries, with a multitude of Christian lives flashing forth the light of Christ, with Christianity increasingly embodying itself in social laws and customs, where Christ by his Spirit is continually calling men to faith and obedience — is it not a shameful crime, without excuse, which a man confesses as this judge and this husband confessed, when he declares that he has been living for weeks or for years in unforgiven sin and in refusal of the healing of the Christ, waiting for some one to tell him what he already knows, and to urge him to the duty of which he is already fully aware? The personal will is the center of conduct. It is the one and only sufficient power by which, under 80 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the grace of God, each man has to possess him- self of his character. Human history rightly re- fuses every reference to a quality other than this. This is our fundamental Baptist principle. " God and the Son, and nothing between." Addison Symonds was right in his great words, and they should be often pondered by those who blame circumstances for their sins, or the neglect of their friends for their failure to bathe in the love of Christ's redemption : Blame not the times in which we Hve, Nor fortune frail and fugitive, — Blame not thy parents, nor the rule Of vice and wrong once learned at school — But blame thyself, O man. Although both Heaven and earth combined To mold thy flesh and form thy mind ; Though every thought, word, action, will, Was formed by powers beyond thee, Still, thou art thyself, — O man. And self to take or leave is free Feeling its own sufficiency; In spite of science, spite of fate. The Judge within thee, soon or late, Will blame but thee, O man. Say not, " I would but could not ; He Must bear the blame who fashioned me." Call you mere change of motion choice? Scorning such pleas, the inner voice Cries, " Thine the deed, O man." PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 8 1 In his own earthly ministry Christ had first- hand dealings with men as separate, personal, responsible souls. The philosophy of his time was a pantheistic materialism. God had no ex- istence apart from external nature. Unavoidable necessity was the law by which all things were governed. The moral environment of Christ's day was such as the Roman satirists describe and the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum picture. Iniquity seemed to have reached the end of its inventiveness and the depth of its inveterateness. Christ knew how human wills are weakened and warped by false philosophy and pernicious habit. And it was a part of the very essence of his Sav- iourhood, finding constant illustration in his own personal doing of the will of his Father, that he came to renew and reenforce weakened wills. For he came to recover and to save lost manhood. And the center of manhood, the soul's holiest ground, where most of all a man finds his kinship with the God who made him, is the will. And so Christ dealt with personality. It has been claimed for him that personality was his dis- covery. It was the marked quality of his minis- try, at any rate, that he ministered to separate souls. Whether he is dealing with the multitude on the mountain, or Nicodemus in the secluded chamber on the housetop ; whether with the crowd by the seashore, or the lone woman by the well- side, he has the same method. It is not the 82 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY masses, but the man; not the crowd, but the conscience he is seeking. Peering intently into each separate face, reaching with his tender claimant fingers, electric with life-giving truth, down into each separate heart, this Master and Saviour of men brought his redeeming message into the throne-room of each soul's sovereign personality. " Repent," he cried. You can change your mind, your character. You can. You ought. You, the finite person, in the presence and by the help of God, the infinite person. Change ! You believe ; you obey ; you follow me ! Would'st thou ? Oh, that our Lord's tremendous emphasis on that great personal pronoun " thou," and his gracious insistence on the responsive ac- tion of the personal choice, might come with benign and inspiring call from that far-away porch of Bethesda, to our own hearts to-day. Dear brothers and sisters of this Memorial Baptist Church of Philadelphia! You are re- joicing over fifty years of life, and of opportunity, and service as a community of Christ's disciples organized into a Christian church. What, under God, has helped to make this history great and influential? Cooperation? Yes, indeed; hearty, and beautiful, and stedfast cooperation. But there has been more than that. Many of these cooperators were initiators also. They took the church, its mission, its interests on their hearts. They dreamed, prayed, worked, gave time and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 83 money and thought for it, as if they alone were responsible for the success of the enterprise. Many of these initiators were still with us dur- ing my pastorate when it was my great honor to share with you the joys of your jubilee, twenty- five years ago. What a splendid company of men and women they were! And how sadly I have missed the faces and voices and hand-clasps of so many of them, from the otherwise delight- ful atmosphere of welcome that has so thrilled and warmed my heart during these halcyon, historic days. Initiators! The church still needs them. The world still needs them. It was a fine thing said recently, concerning a distinguished English statesman : He comes into affairs bringing his own atmosphere with him. He has the large serenity of one who is at home in his own mind, draws water from his own well, has that inward light That makes the path before him always bright. That is the sort of men and women the church needs. Too many people are leaning entirely on the drift of things around them. They have no atmosphere, no wells they can call their own. O brothers, dare in the strength of God to be initia- tors, as well as cooperators, if you would carry your history where " yonder the trail lies — ahead!" Picture to yourself such a Christian, such a 84 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY church-member, such a home-builder, such a citi- zen as the great Master Artist of character can help you to draw. Dare to be original — self- willed because Christ-willed. Then listen as, with the pledge of copartnership labor in his per- suasive tones, the Master asks : " Wouldest thou become a Christian, a church-member, a home- builder, a citizen like that? Wouldest thou?" Oh, answer your Masters call with your own in- vincible, " I would. I will." And what shall be your message to the multi- tude of irresolute, undecided, impotent folk all about you? This: that God's time of salvation is now — this day, this hour. Nothing is to be waited for; no rushing winds of Pentecostal grace, no flaming tongues of new illumination, no freshly stirred waters of social religious en- thusiasm, no eloquent pleading of eager friends. Nothing is to be waited for. These irresolute men and women know their duty. Their own intuitions have taught them. Parents, pastors, Sunday School teachers, Christian friends, provi- dences of God, have taught them. There has not been an hour in their responsible lives when they have not been competent for the personal choice to receive Christ's redemption. God can make no soul Christian against its will. The door of the life must be opened from within to the Spirit. First or last the soul itself must make the choice to open the door. First or last the soul itself is PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 85 responsible for making the choice. Nowhere else in the realm of human freedom is the principle that every man shall give an account concerning himself unto God so irrepealable as in this realm of the personal choice of Christ's salvation. And to-day, every day, every hour, into the ears and against the doors of the hearts, not of one sufferer alone, but of the whole vast mass of religiously competent but irresolute folk, Jesus the world's Healer and Saviour is ringing his gracious challenge, '' Wouldest thou be made whole ? " Wouldest thou begin to live a Chris- tian life? Wouldest thou? Thou — separate, singular. Thou — apart, alone. Wouldest thou be made whole? We know the paths wherein our feet should press, Across our hearts are written thy decrees: Yet now, O Lord, be merciful to bless With more than these. Grant us the will to fashion as we feel, Grant us the strength to labor as we know, Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel, To strike the blow. Knowledge we ask not, knowledge thou hast lent; But, Lord, the will, there lies our bitter need; Grant us to build above the deep intent. The deed — the deed ! THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD E. B. POLLARD, PH. D. Professor of Homlletlcs, Crozer Theological Seminary THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD The best babe that ever came to earth received scant welcome, for there was no room for him in the inn. The Christian church, like the simple folk of Bethlehem, has never quite found for the child his proper place in the household of faith. Neglect and indifference on the one hand, and superstitious practices on the other have con- spired to rob the child of his true religious birth- right. With all our educational progress and moral advance, the status of the child in the church cannot even yet be said to be satisfactory. Since earliest Christianity was necessarily an evangelistic and missionary propaganda, it con- cerned itself chiefly with the conversion of adults. This doubtless accounts in a measure for the paucity of reference to the child in the New Tes- tament writings. Besides, Christianity, in dis- tinction from Judaism, rejected the hereditary principle in religion. When Jews came out in large numbers demanding, as a matter of birth- right, baptism at the hands of the Forerunner who was heralding the new era of the Christ, John replied : " Say not. We are children of Abraham. . . Repent," and "bring forth fruits 89 90 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY meet for repentance." Repentance and personal obedience, rather than heredity and '' Abra- hamic covenant," were to be the determining re- quisites for entrance into the kingdom of the new Messiah. Men could no longer claim special spiritual privilege because of family connections. Indeed, the family was no longer to be regarded as the religious unit, but the individual. It was for this reason the Master declared that families would often be religiously divided — father against son, mother against daughter, mother-in- law against daughter-in-law. The individual is the unit of Christian faith. On the other hand, Jesus took deep interest in childhood, encouraged mothers to bring their children to him for his blessing, and rebuked those who inferred that there was no place for them in the new order. The Lord, doubtless more than once, set a little child in the midst of the disciples and taught lessons in humility, in docile trust and forgiveness, for " of such is the kingdom of heaven." And the greatest of the apostles enjoined upon Christian parents that they see they bring up their children ** in the nur- ture and admonition of the Lord." It came to pass, however, that an Oriental paganism came stealing into the Christian mind, through a current Greek philosophy, and that too very soon after the days of the apostles. This philosophy taught that the physical is always, and THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 9I everywhere, evil; that celibacy therefore is the highest virtue, and that children are conceived in sin. Augustine later formulated and emphasized the doctrine of inherited sin. The child is not only launched into the world in sin, is permeated by sin, but in fact belongs to the devil from the start. But no Christian parent could regard this as final or satisfactory. So infant baptism seemed to a superstitious age to be the way out ; and this practice was invented and used to con- ceal, as was supposed, the deadly fact of original sin. In this way the short cut of baptismal re- generation of the babe received the emphasis rather than the slow and patient method of its bringing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is a strange commentary upon heathen litera- ture and art, as well as upon the Christianity of much of the writings of the early Fathers, that so little attention is given to the child. In a sense he may be said to be a modern discovery. Such writers as Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and others have put the world in much debt to them for their rediscovery of child life, and the recog- nition of the important place the child must hold in all sane and sure progress. To-day the sciences — psychology, biology, sociologfy — kneel at the cradle of the child, and are rendering val- iant help to the church in understanding its duty and directing its energies toward saving life and 92 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY civilization at their source. The study of the genetic psychology and the psychology of re- ligious phenomena has been peculiarly helpful for the better understanding of the child and his religion. We know perfectly well that the babe comes into the world with certain native capacities, which are early and progressively rivaled and developed by the impact of its environment upon it; and that the child's native interests are the surest index to its needs at each stage of its prog- ress. Among its inborn capacities and native in- terests is its capacity for religion. In its sense of wonder, as it opens its free soul to the miracles of nature about it ; the sense of mystery and sur- prise, leading to awe and childlike reverence, to admiration and worship — just here we discover incipient religious feeling, naturally unfolding under right stimulus and helpful guidance. It is for this reason that Wordsworth can say : Heaven lies about us in our infancy. It is easy for a little child to be religious, for he can see God everywhere. Miracles give him no difficulty, for he finds them at every turn. The God that is everywhere is just the God he knows. His open-eyed imagination, so akin to faith, peo- ples the universe with personality like his own. No child is a materialist, or an atheist, or an agnostic. He sees everywhere Spirit and Life. EZEKIEL OILMAN ROBINSON Stated Supply, 1890 THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 93 The child too is a hero-worshiper, and through mother, father, big brother, or admired friend, through Bible hero and ancient worthy may easily be led to love and follow the great Leader and Hero of all the ages. The child's native trust, his teachable spirit, his capacity for entering into any experience with his entire being — all this discloses his capacity for entering the kingdom of heaven. Study of child life discloses the fact of perio- dicity. Growth involves new intents and new ca- pacities. It is the parent's and the teacher's busi- ness to discern the stages of unfoldment and minister to the new hungers as they come — not to anticipate, not to delay; but be ready at each step to supply the rising need of the unfolding life. One does not hurry the coming of the frog by cutting off the tadpole's tail. The tail will go in time, but it is necessary to the life of the tad- pole and to the advent of the freer life of the frog. Some have tried to turn children into lit- tle men, only to spoil them both. We are not to expect of children the religious experiences of grown-up people. It is our splendid privilege so to meet the needs of the religious life of the child at each stage, that he may live normally and fully the life of that stage, and so may pass naturally and strongly into the next, and the next, without forcing or dwarfing, toward com- plete manhood and womanhood in Christ Jesus. 94 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY But is there a place for conversion in such a scheme of education? There surely is; but it will take on a somewhat different form from that of one who has advanced far along the road of sin. There will be a sense of sin, and a turning from sin to God, but no stronghold of habit to be broken in struggle and soul-scorching tears. There has been an unfolding of the life Godward ; and so when the age of adolescence comes, when the child is to make his life choices, he chooses Christ as the controlling principle and purpose of his life. He enters life therefore, not self- centered, but Christ-centered. Conversion be- comes, not so much a harsh reversal as a de- liberate consecration. This is what may be called a normal conversion for a child brought up in a Christian home. History, psychology. Scripture, and common experience lead us to believe that early adolescence is preeminently the time for conversion. Here is the break-up of the entire being, as it were, preparatory to a reshaping, in order that youth may face the larger problems of coming manhood and womanhood. Here is the rebirth of the physical, the mental — and here may come the rebirth of the spiritual being. No child should be allowed, if it be possible to prevent, to get by his fifteenth year without taking Christ as his Saviour, and dedicating the life to his service. It is childhood when one is most easily reached with the gospel, and one converted in childhood THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 95 lives longest and strongest for God. Once men asked, " Can children be converted ? " They are now more inclined to ask, " Can any others but children be converted ? " Professor Starbuck has graphically shown how rapidly the curve of con- version falls when the age of adolescence is past. The child's heart is a stronghold, and he is victor who gets in first. Furthermore, the church needs the testimony of childhood, which has so winsome and convinc- ing an interpretation of the Christ. Its simple faith and open heart, its sense of dependence, its forgiving love bear witness to the pure gospel of Him who said, '* If these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out." A little child has often led old age in spiritual discernment ; and out of the mouth of babes, more than once, has strength been ordained. It has become a commonplace to say that the child is the hope of the church. Infants are born into the world faster than adults are converted to God. At this rate, how rapidly will the king- dom come? The child is strategic in the con- quest of the world for Christ, both at home and abroad. As some one has wittily declared : " It is not the automobile church, but the baby-car- riage church that holds the key of the future." In one of our handsomest modern places of wor- ship, over every arch there is cut in the keystone the beautiful face of a little child, above whose 90 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY forehead there shines out a carved star. Surely the star of hope for the church shines in the face of the little child. Horace Bushnell was quite correct when he said, " The world is as truly to be saved through the child in the cradle as by the babe in the manger." Ary Sheffer, the artist, loved Dickens, because Dickens loved chil- dren, and so desired to paint the great teller of stories. This was his conception: Charles Dick- ens standing upon a bright cloud, holding little Nell by the hand and pointing heavenward. The church must lovingly grasp the hand of the child and lead it heavenward ; that at last she may be able to say, "Lord, here am I and the children thou hast given me." CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION MILTON G. EVANS, D. D., LL. D. President, Crozer Theological Seminary CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION The subject of this address is a profession of faith, not a fact of history ; a philosophic theory, not a demonstrated truth. Christianity is not now the only world religion. It is not the domi- nant religion even in India, a relatively small part of the world. For purposes of illustration, exact figures of the census table are not necessary. The total population of India is about 295,- 000,000. Of this number about 207,000,000 are Hindus, 62,500,000 are Mohammedans, 9,500,- 000 Buddhists, 8,500,000 animists, 3,000,000 Christians, 2,000,000 Sikh, 1,200,000 Jains. That is, not quite one per cent of the total popu- lation of India is nominally Christian. But it is the task of Christianity to make every inhabitant of India Christian, from the animistic worshiper to the adherent of the Brahmo-Somaj or the Arya Samaj, from the degraded jungle- folk to the cultured citizens of Delhi and Bombay. Christianity is not now the nominal religion of China, with its over four hundred million population, whose faith is a blend of Buddhism, 99 lOO THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Taoism, and Confucianism, on a substratum of animism. There is also a Mohammedan popu- lation, estimated to number at least seven million. Christianity is not yet a fact in Central Africa, in Central South America, in Central Australia, in the extreme northern regions of North Amer- ica, in northwestern Asia, in western China, in islands of the seas, where unnumbered millions of animistic worshipers live a life of helpless be- wilderment, waging a life-and-death warfare with demon-spirits that people air and land and water. These pitiable people have no answer to our simple questions about God and duty and destiny, except the pathetic confession, '' We do not know." The theoretical character of my theme may be illustrated in another way. Mohammedanism claims to be a world religion. It makes the claim in the face of the Christian claim. They are both equally insistent on the validity of their claims. The Mohammedan evangelist can give a good account of himself, in controversy, if ap- peal be made to numbers. He can say, for exam- ple, to his Christian disputant : '' We have in European Turkey 2,500,000 Mohammedans, in the Balkan Peninsula 1,360,000, in Asiatic Turkey 12,000,000, in Egypt 9,000,000 (some statisticians make it 14,000,000), in Arabia 4,- 500,000; 9,000,000 in Persia, 4,000,000 in Af- ghanistan, 407,000 in Baluchistan, 7,000,000 in CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION lOI Turkestan, 14,000,000 in Siberia, 7,000,000 in China (some say 20,000,000) ; in Africa skirting the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal to the Atlantic Ocean, 22,000,000, in Soudan and Sa- hara 30,000,000, in Uganda and Congo State, Central Africa, East Africa, the adjacent islands 8,000,000; and in the Malaysian Islands 38,000,- 000." In short, 3,410,000 Europeans, 69,000,000 Africans, and 162,728,000 Asiatics to-night con- fess one God, one prophet, one book, one sacred city toward which they pray, and cherish the hope that some day the crescent will supplant the cross in every continent and in every island. Evi- dently the assertion that Christianity is the only world religion is a theory yet to be proved by experiment, a confession of faith to be justified by achievement. But the actual fact has not yet been fully de- scribed. Nominal Christianity numbers 230,- 000,000 Roman Catholics; 100,000,000 adherents of the Eastern Church, including its fifteen branches; and 140,000,000 Protestants. Which one of these three dominant forms will the world finally accept? Is each, as it now exists, equally good for the world? As Protestants, we claim that the Protestant form is the best ; and we vali- date our claim by aggressive missionary activity in non-Protestant Christian countries. But Protestantism is now a world religion only in theory. Whether it is potentially a world-con- H 102 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY quering force must be left to the verdict of history. But the fact must be more clearly stated. Hitherto, I have been describing the goal of Christianity extensively, in terms of geography and of population. When the goal is described intensively, it becomes still more apparent how sublimely daring is the assertion that Christianity is the only world religion. Its goal is the com- plete remaking of each human being, so that he may be in character a son of God, reproducing in himself the actual religious experiences of Jesus Christ, thinking about God and man and human duty and human destiny as Christ thought. The result designed for each Christian is that he bring ^' every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." The goal is not the ideal Christian individual only. It is an ideal Christian society — a city, a heavenly city, a Jerusalem of a new order or kind. It will be a civilization in which persons rather than property will be valued ; a civilization in which the adornment of the city will be the moral beauty of its citizens, and its illuminating and elevating ideals will rise from the conscious possession of the spirit of the redeeming Christ. " And the city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine upon it; for the glory of God lightened it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations will walk by its light; and the kings of CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION IO3 the earth bring their glory into it . . . and there shall not enter into it anything unclean, or he that works abomination and falsehood; but only they who are written in the L^amb's book of life." Evidently both the ideal Christian individual and the ideal Christian social group are yet ob- jects of hope, not accomplished facts. That is, Christianity must be interpreted pros- pectively, not restrospectively, if it is to justify the claim to be a world religion. It must have the inherent power to win not only uncultured people of animistic and idolatrous beliefs, but also men whose esthetic tastes have been developed, intellects quickened, and conduct moralized by the most exacting scientific inquiry, by most wide- reaching philosophic speculative thinking, by ex- perience in most complex economic situations, and by participation in shaping varied political institutions. Its abiding power must be of such nature as to win and hold the faith of generations that shall inherit the fruitage that will inevitably ripen from the seeds sown by our great public institutions of learning and by richly endowed pri- vate institutions of scientific research. It must govern a world educated to the highest degree possible, and therefore must keep pace with human progress in all its phases — ^artistic, scientific, finan- cial, economic, educational, philosophic, sociolog- ical, moral. This exacting demand upon Chris- tianity is conceived possible, else we would not 104 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY pray, " Father, hallowed be thy name, thy king- dom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven." At present, then, it is but my theory that Chris- tianity is a world religion. On what grounds do I believe that my theory will eventually prove to be true? First, the conviction that this zvorld is morally ordered and progressively developing. This was the belief of Jesus. He began his public ministry with the assertion of an ordered relation between the present and the past. " The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand." He justified his teaching by relating it to the past. " Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets ; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accom- plished." Into the orderly process of a developing human history he himself came, and entered into it as leaven into meal, or seed into soil. His presence in Palestine, and his power in overthrowing evil, were the actual establishment in human society of a new power, a new force injected into the so- cial forces already at work. " If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then has the kingdom of God come upon you." This new divine force CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION IO5 came in such unostentatious and unexpected manner, that its coming was not observed. It had arrived, and they knew it not. " The kingdom of God comes not with observation ; neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or there, for lo, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." To this new divine force in its inception, in its processes, and in its completion Jesus gives the name kingdom of God, and his favorite analogy to depict its history is that of growth — a growth gradual, slow, and mysterious. ''The earth bears fruit of itself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." The seed springs up and grows, the farmer may not know how, but he knows the fact. It is the mystery of life. But in growth two factors are involved, life and environment. Life includes reproduction, growth, and varia- bility; environment influences the nature of off- spring, shapes growth, and defines the course of variation. Conceive the history of the kingdom biologically as Christ conceived it, and conceive Christ's activity as the good seed of the kingdom, and all that is needed is time to produce the har- vest of a hundredfold. The orderly and gradual character of history as taught by Jesus was grasped by the early Christians, and one of them in classic words defined the process and goal of Jewish history : " God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers por- tions and in divers manners, hath at the end of I06 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things." And the Son in Christian history repeats the method and the process of his Father in Jewish history. " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all the truth. . . He shall glorify me ; for he shall take of mine and declare it unto you." The Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the assertion of the immanence of Christ in Christian history, as theism asserts the presence of God in racial history, and the immanence of Christ in history is the ceaseless activity of Christ in enlightening the understanding and energizing the will. '' My Father works even until now, and I work." " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It is this doctrine of the perpetual presence of the Spirit of Christ within Christendom that makes it possible for Christianity to adapt itself to any variability whatsoever, whether occasioned by race-temperament, physical environment, in- termingling of races, syncretism, either through social commingling or speculative synthesis, or contribution of religious geniuses modifying ear- lier religious conceptions; and at the same time to maintain its marvelous power to shape vary- ing environments toward distinctively Christian ends. CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION IO7 Secondly, the Christian doctrines of God, of man, and of salvation guarantee the idtimate vic- tory of Christianity. A. Doctrine of God. The God of Christianity is the one with whom Jesus Christ had fellowship, namely, a Person of immeasurable good will, using illimitable power, by methods of unerring intelligence, for the highest conceivable welfare of the race and of the individual. This brief statement gives the essentially Christian view, and at the same time allows room for all possible contributions to knowledge that may be made by science and philosophy. The conviction that God has in view the high- est conceivable welfare of man is made concrete by the revelation of himself in Jesus Christ. In brief, in Jesus of Nazareth God came into human history as revelation, as justification, as sanctifi- cation, as redemption. It is God in Christ that reconciles the world. But Christ's presence in history is the revela- tion of God's purpose for the world, for it was God who sent him. The love of Jesus for sin- ful men was as intense as that of the Father, for it led him to the cross. '' Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." '' I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me, and that life which I now live in I08 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me." So that Jesus could say, " He that has seen me has seen the Father." It is a historical certainty and therefore a permanent conviction that it is Christ, who is Christianity in its histori- cal origin and in its continuance, that has brought to the world the certainty of God's saving power and love. B. Doctrine of Man. Every religion attests the unsatisfactoriness of experience. That is, every religion arises out of a more or less pessi- mistic view of the world. But the pessimism of Christianity is not founded on the fact of physical suffering, but rather on the fact of moral evil, or that which man is and does. To the Christian, the worst evil is his impo- tency to do what is right. He has constant ex- perience of guilt, when he views his conduct and his character in the light of his moral standard. The power to escape this moral helplessness is the highest gift that can be bestowed. The Christian view of evil lies in what men DO, not in what men suffer. The first comes under the category of choice and action; the latter under the category of results and conse- quences. The former cannot be explained away without impugning the character of God, or denying the freedom of man ; the latter can have positive values attached to them, and in assigning CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION IO9 such values they are no longer regarded a neces- sary evil, but a means to an end. Physical evil, in such a world as this, is the divine energy ever at work moralizing men. Its chief results have been to propel, to educate, to regenerate. Even the sufferings of Christ had this value for himself and for others. But this is not all. The Chris- tian has " persecutions " as reward for following Christ. In this world he has tribulation, but he has cheer in it too. Jesus assumed that men were in the grip of moral helplessness. He warranted the cold scien- tific insight of a Huxley and the passionate de- spairing cry of Paul, if facts are faced as they are. Men choose to do evil, and they often feel they cannot help their choices. So helpless do they seem that they are prone to seek a cause for it outside of self, either in heredity, or environ- ment, or some supernatural power. Man is cap- tive to sin; he cannot escape. He needs a de- liverer. In this pessimistic view of life, Christ brings hope. He asks men not to despair. Evil has an end. The reason for this optimism is the freedom of man to choose to break with the past, and to choose companionship with Jesus. Jesus, the founder of Christianity, assumed freedom, and held man responsible for his choices, although he did not minimize the power of heredity and en- vironment, nor deny the inequality of capacities. no THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY It is possible for God to save man even in his freedom to will to sin. Man is neither a clock to be wound up every morning, a piece of mechan- ism; nor a demon, whose nature must be radi- cally changed by a miracle in the moral world; but he is a man with a man's powers and privi- leges, and his highest privilege and the one worthy of all his powers is to determine his own future. Christ invited man to choose to co- operate with him in overthrowing evil. When a few had made the choice, and had set to work to make the choice effective, Satan's kingdom was doomed. C. Doctrine of Salvation. Every religion has some doctrine of the end to be gained, and this doctrine grows out of the unsatisfactoriness of experience. It postulates a more or less pessi- mistic view of the world. The end sought is a negation of what constitutes our ills. The worst evil will be variously conceived ; notions of high- est good will correspondingly vary. For exam- ple, to primitive peoples the evils are physical wants; salvation is the satisfaction of their tem- poral needs. To the Mohammedan the highest good is to be happily circumstanced physically ; hence salvation is to enjoy a physical paradise and escape physical torments. To the Brahman, finite existence is the greatest evil; and moksha (salvation) is a condition of CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION 1 1 1 existence above the finite and limited — a condi- tion of identification of the atman of the uni- verse with the atman of the individual — absorp- tion of self into the All. To the Buddhist, existence is the worst evil ; and redemption is cessation of existence, a state that is neither conscious nor unconscious, i. e., Nirvana. To the Jain, bodily existence is the evil; and redemption is escape from the body with its weaknesses and passions. To the early Greeks, death was the fact to be escaped; and since deathlessness was the only distinguishing feature between gods and man. salvation was the attainment of immortality, i. e., deification. In later development, the basal idea of godlikeness was retained, and salvation (deifi- cation) was the attainment of any attribute that was thought to characterize deity, such as knowl- edge, power, righteousness, etc. To the Hebrew all ills, including death, were evidences of the displeasure of Jehovah for of- fenses against him ; so that to escape evils was to be restored to fellowship with him. In the history of religion, then, the idea of salvation progressively assumes a more ethical character as the individual progressively appre- ciates his own intrinsic worth and moral helpless- ness, and correspondingly elevates his view of God and his purpose in the world. So that in 112 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Christianity, the highest development of re- ligion thus far reached, salvation is deliverance from sin as an ethical state, and from its conse- quences now and hereafter. The one that de- livers is Jesus Saviour. (Matt, i : 21.) Salvation conceived as end necessitates the conception of a method whereby that end may be secured. The kind of attitudes and of practices will de- pend upon the kinds of evil to be escaped and the nature of the salvation desired. To illustrate, if to the Brahman, finite existence is evil and salva- tion is escape from it, escape is possible by re- garding the body of the self and the visible frame of the universe as illusions, and the way to es- cape is to attain the knowledge of the identity of " self-soul " with '' world-soul." If to the Jain, salvation is release from the body, this can be attained by ascetic practices and by contemplation. If to the Buddhist, salvation is Nirvana, and existence is evil, the method is to make existence impossible by making its necessity impossible, and this may be done by following the "eight- fold path " and by breaking the " ten fetters." If to the Neo-Platonic Greek, salvation is im- mediate knowledge of God, this is attained by mystic contemplation. If to the Mohammedan, paradise is reward for believing the prophet, the way to paradise is to CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION I i;^ accept the Koran as the word of God, and to do exactly as it demands. If to the Jew, salvation is reconciliation with an offended God, the way to secure reconciliation is to appease him either by sacrifices, or by aban- doning evil conduct, or both. If to the Christian, salvation is peace of con- science and the power to live a moral life ac- ceptable to God, the way is to accept the proffered divine forgiveness and help as given in and through Jesus Christ. That is, the distinctive character of Christianity is its object of faith — Jesus Christ. Through faith in himself he provides for the conquest of sin in every one. The forgiven penitent receives moral power over sin because of what Jesus is to him in his own personal history. It is the love of the Son of God who gave himself to death for sinners that draws them into fellowship with him. It was belief in the fact of God's love, as shown in Christ, that impelled Paul to live the life that he knew God required. It was the grace of God that called forth the apostle's deathless energy. The revelation of God's love in Christ both recon- ciles and renews the believer who surrenders him- self to it. For God cannot be conceived as forgiving one that does not wish forgiveness, and a sinner con- scious of sin, and fearful of its penalties, and de- sirous of moral renewal, is grateful to God who- 114 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY forgives, and expresses his gratitude in changed attitude toward him. If the liberated sinner has the sensitive susceptibilities and deep emotions of Paul, he at once feels himself a slave to the One that freed him. No language could be strong enough to depict his intimate union with the Person that gave himself for him. It is not strange, then, that we find Paul using the figures " buried with Christ," " raised with Christ," '' crucified with Christ," to describe his relation to his Saviour. Such expressions are the result of " that immediate or unreasoned mystic faith, which feels that in devotion to the crucified ' the old has passed away, and all has become new.' " Because he was conscious of " the debt im- mense of endless gratitude " he wrote, " both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and fool- ish. I am debtor." Gratitude is rendered to the one that confers benefits, and presupposes assured conviction that he is worthy to receive it. It also calls moral states and activities into being. Again, hope is one of the two most valued pos- sessions of the human race. " Without God and without hope " is Paul's terse description of the deplorable condition of the Gentile world. The apostle's judgment of the value of hope is en- dorsed by the common experience of men. " All hope abandon, ye who enter here," is felt to be a fit inscription over the entrance to Inferno, and " hope never comes, that comes to all," a true CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION 1 15 characterization of the lost. If a modern poet could write, Who bids me hope, and in that charming word Has peace and transport to my soul restored, much more could Paul exult in the hope begotten in him by Jesus Christ. He was not depressed by " the sickening pang of hope deferred," for every successive obstacle overcome and suffering en- dured added strength to expectation and intensi- fied the certainty of participation in the glory of heaven. He had found that hope in Christ was good to have, because it gave worth and joy to life ; it banished sorrow and despair by changing death into sleep; it gave him endurance and con- stancy; it originated invigorating joy, that made him strong to toil and agonize in Christian ser- vice. Unless the believer is helmeted with the hope of salvation, he is not sufficiently panoplied against the moral evil of the world. Hope, then, has a moral value for believers, and it has such value because it is centered in Jesus Christ. But it must be noted that Paul traces his Chris- tian hope back to the historical fact of the death of Christ. It is the knowledge of what God has done for sinners that gives convincing proof of his love and calls into being a hope that will not be put to shame. He that wrote, " I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principali- Il6 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ties, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other cre- ated thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," could not have lived a morally indifferent life; nor could he have written thus, unless he had been able to write : " He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God is he that justifies. Who is he that con- demns ? Christ is he that died ; yea, rather, was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." Again, certainty of the great boon Christ has conferred enthrones him as Lord of the believer's conscience. He is recognized as having right to regulate Christian behavior, and his commands are taken as standard of conduct. Endeavor to obey them necessarily betters the moral life. Jesus has given a new commandment, which must regulate the conduct of Christians in their treatment of erring brethren. Again, Jesus is the ethical ideal. In the matter of saving men Paul took Jesus as his exemplar, and urged his Corinthian converts to do likewise ; he had furnished an example for his Thessalo- nian converts, because he himself had imitated Christ in his joyful endurance of suffering; he tried to soften the hearts of those that judge T. EDWIN BROWN Pastor, 1890-1895 CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION 1 1 7 harshly by reminding them of the meekness and gentleness of Christ; the Ephesians were urged to take Christ's love, shown in his willing self- surrender to death, as the measure of theirs ; and Christians were exhorted to possess that lowli- ness of mind and self-denying love that prompted Jesus Christ to become incarnate for their salva- tion. Jesus as an ethical ideal is to be imitated in spirit, rather than in any isolated act or par- ticular moral quality. " And whatsoever ye do, in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him." In the full comprehension of what he is as the revelation of the glory of God, the very image of God, he must be the goal of moral endeavor. The standard for human perfection is " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," or '' the fulness of God." For the very reason that Christ is the perfect type of character imita- tion of him purifies. The imitation, however, is not that of a slavish copyist, who tries to reproduce in his own life every detail of his great Exemplar, but it is the method of contemplation and meditation. A stu- dent who desires excellence in literary art may try to secure it in either of two ways. He may patiently and laboriously copy the phrases, sen- tences, and paragraphs of his classical models, expecting to acquire their beauty of diction and elegance of style; or he may read and I Il8 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY reread the masterpieces of literature, medi- tate upon their excellences, reflect upon their ideas and relation of ideas to the language, and catch the spirit of the writers rather than their phrases. By the second method the pupil ac- quires excellence unconsciously and therefore the more surely. His models master him, but he is not their slave; he gladly acknowledges his in- debtedness, but rejoices in his freedom. So a Christian may adopt either of these methods to perfect his character, but he soon finds that the method of slavish imitation is to revert to the bondage of the letter, the serfdom of conscious effort; while the method of contemplation and imaginary companionship is the liberty of the spirit, the freedom of spontaneity. " But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." Again, a much more powerful formative in- fluence on character is the conception of Christ as divine. The ascended Christ was the object of Paul's adoration, and the habit of adoration re- acts on life. Worship implies contemplation, ad- miration, and devotion to the object worshiped. The apostle had accepted Jesus as God's image, and he knew that in the face of Christ he had discovered the full glory of God. Whatever moral value the worship of God, whose character is revealed in the Old Testament, had for Saul CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION 1 1 9 the Pharisee was enhanced in his worship of Christ, for Christ had all the religious value of Jehovah plus the value of the new revelation of his love and righteousness in his Son. Gratitude, hope, obedience, imitation, and wor- ship as motive forces in moral living are causally connected with Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the New Testament. Accordingly God did all he could possibly do to overcome sin in the race when he sent to earth such a one as Jesus Christ, the sinless. Just what Christ is makes it inevitable that Christianity, not Buddhism, not Mohammedanism, should be the only world religion. Thirdly, experiment is proving the theory a fact in history. Our missionary operations during the century are the churches' experiment sta- tions, where doctrines are tested. The results justify our profession of faith. Time prevents detailed citation of facts as illustrations. Three general statements will suffice. A. Christian Doctrines Civilize the Uncivil- ized. Within two generations whole islands of savage peoples have been made as clean and pure in life as model communities in the Uuited States. In the jungles of India and the wilds of Africa communities have been lifted out of their fear and superstition and made to feel themselves masters in this world, and victors beyond the grave. They are royal conquerors in Christ. 120 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY B. Christian Doctrines are Moralizing the Civilized. India, China, and Japan were civilized before they were touched by Christian missionaries. They had their national heroes in war and in statecraft; they had a literature of power and charm; they had engineering and architectural and artistic skill ; they had a continuous national development of centuries; they had moral forces that effected a compact civilization. But they all lacked a moral dynamic until they learned about Christ through our missionaries. To illustrate in detail is to write the missionary biographies and achievements of the last one hundred years. Slowly, but surely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Con- fucianism, and Mohammedanism are being dis- placed by Christianity. Indian, Japanese, Chi- nese, and Moslem men and women of culture are remaking their ideals in the image of our Christ. C. Christianity Alone has Self-recuperating Powers. Christianity alone has power within it- self to help itself. Buddhism is being reformed, but from without. Mohammedanism is being lifted, but from without. Christianity, however, gets its rejuvenating power from within. It has this power because it has the New Testament as the avenue open to all by which every man may see Jesus face to face, and hear his words as though for the first time. Luther from within the church renewed Christendom by the New Tes- CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WORLD RELIGION 121 tament. Wesley, from within the Church of England, by preaching- New Testament doctrines purified the church that spurned him and made Christendom evangelical. The history of revivals is the history of a self- recuperative religion, because Christ is within and not without. He is in Christianity the hope of glory. This guarantees its permanency and in- creasing power both extensively and intensively. Christ is the permanent possession of our race. He has gotten such a grip on history that man- kind will not let him go. The world clings to him, even though as yet it may be but to the hem of his garments. But the world will be healed by him, because of its faith in him. Because of his victories thus far, and because of its experience of good in him, the world of to-day is saying : Wait there, wait and invite me while I climb, For see, I come, but slow, but slow, Yet even as your chime Soft and sublime Lifts at my feet, they move, they go Up the great stairs of time. CHRISTIANITY THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST JAMES H. FRANKLIN, D. D. Foreign Secretary, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society CHRISTIANITY THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST In this grave hour in the history of the world, when the structure of civilization seems to be shattered, there is a natural reluctance on the part of many to listen to an address on any theme that does not promise a discussion of some issue in connection with the great war. Certainly, there is a reluctance on the part of serious men to speak at such an hour to an audience like this on any trivial subject. The establishment of peace on a basis of justice and righteousness is the para- mount issue, and we are anxious to throw our full strength into the fight against autocracy. It may be well, therefore, to remind you at the be- ginning that the theme assigned me is not inap- propriate to the thought that is engaging our minds. Indeed, it is especially appropriate to the tragic hour through which we are passing if we are interested in constructive measures for an abiding peace in the world as well as in the imme- diate success of our cause. One almost needs to apologize for saying so obvious a thing as that the world is in the throes 125 126 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY of its greatest war, and that we of America must hold back nothing that is required to defeat the forces which appear to us opposed to democracy, and which unchecked will, we believe, turn his- tory back a thousand years and make world peace an impossibility for many generations. In the light of the ideals for which we fight, peace and democracy, two propositions may be made under the theme assigned me. First, the foreign mission movement is one of the most important factors in the long struggle for ivorld peace. Secondly, the American foreign mission move- ment has helped to hasten the spread of democ- racy. When Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, for many years one of the editors of " The Outlook " and a well-known publicist in America, returned five years ago from a visit to the Orient, whither he had journeyed as a special messenger to Japan in the interest of international peace, there appeared in the editorial columns of the journal with which he was connected an appreciation of the mission- ary movement that was significant. A part of the editorial was as follows : So the missionary has ceased to be primarily the man of an emergency and become the familiar friend who gives himself to his neighbors in all great or humble ways of living; the physician who not only cures disease, but shows how to avoid it; the teacher who opens paths of knowledge that lead to higher usefulness and wider knowl- THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST 1 27 edge of life; the pastor to whom the bodies and souls of his people are alike sacred ; the statesman who quietly lays the foundations of a nobler society. The missionary movement is to-day the greatest unifying power at work among men ; it is defining a universal standard of morals, teaching and illustrating a practice of the gospel of love, which steadily gains ground in the face of skepticism and cynicism, and is silently working a revolution in the feelings and thoughts of men in race relations. The mis- sionary movement has become the very highest statesman- ship ; it is the one adequate expression of that spiritual internationalism which was long the dream of the prophets, but is fast becoming an inspiring fact in the life of the world. Dr. Wellington Koo, minister from the Chi- nese Government to the United States, made a statement recently in an address at the University of Chicago, which is an illustration of the state- ment made by " The Outlook " regarding the unifying power of the missionary movement. Doctor Koo said : Nothing which individual Americans have done in China has more strongly impressed the Chinese mind with the sincerity and genuineness and altruism of American friendship for China than this spirit of service and self- sacrifice so beautifully demonstrated by American mis- sionaries. . . As religious teachers, they have made the Christian faith known to the millions of China who had not heard its truths before, and thereby gave them new hope and a new source of inspiration. It is impossible to estimate how much happiness and comfort they have brought to those who found life miserable because of its lack of spiritual vision. 128 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY About a year ago Mr. Victor Murdock, who was for twelve years a member of Congress, and well known, made his first visit to the Orient. In a letter, written during his stay in the East, to " The Wichita Daily Eagle," of which he is editor, Mr. Murdock, who is not known to have had any personal interest in foreign missions, wrote that but for the presence of the missiona- ries in the Far East the Orient would be a danger to the Occident. Although his statement may to some seem rather strong, it is significant that an editor without any personal connection with church life should express himself so favorably with reference to the value of the missionary movement in fostering i>eace among the nations. About sixty years ago, Guido Verbeck, a native of Holland who had spent some time in America, journeyed from this country to Japan as a i3hris- tian missionary. In the school which he estab- lished at Nagasaki he gathered a group of promis- ing Japanese boys, and among them was one named Okuma. This lad and others he not only taught the ordinary subjects in the curriculum of a Western school, but between classes he in- structed them in the Constitution of the United States and in the teachings of the New Testa- ment. Marquis Okuma, twice the prime minister of Japan, in the last interview with which he honored me in his own home, referred to the gift of a Bible made to him in boyhood by his teacher, THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST I29 Missionary Verbeck. It was fortunate that soon after the agitation was begun over the legisla- tion in California, which was unfavorable to the ownership of land in that State by Japanese, Okuma should have been made prime minister in his land for the second time. During the agita- tion over the legislation in California, this distin- guished Japanese publicist received in his home, in Tokyo, Dr. John R. Mott, Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, and Prof. Francis G. Peabody, and was reported as making this statement to his guests : Now, how can questions of the character that have arisen between California and Japan be solved? Person- ally, I am profoundly convinced that questions of this kind can never be solved by law, nor by politics, nor by diplomacy. And as for war, it is unthinkable that Amer- ica and Japan will ever resort to arms in an effort to find a solution for any of the questions that come up be- tween them. It is only when the American people on the one hand and the Japanese people on the other hand come to believe what the gospel teaches in regard to man's true relation to his fellow men, that questions of this character will be peaceably and permanently solved. It is only when these two peoples believe what Christ taught in regard to the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man that they will be able to extend hands across the Pacific and work together for all that is good and great and noble. The only force that can solve such questions is Christianity. It would be easy to bring numerous illustra- tions of the influence of the missionary in pro- 130 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY moting a spirit of brotherhood. Many reports have come to us, even in recent days, which would make it appear that " The Outlook " was not far wrong in its editorial deliverances : " The mis- sionary movement is to-day the greatest unifying power at work among men . . . and is silently working a revolution in the feelings and thoughts of men in race relations. The missionary move- ment has become the very highest statesmanship." The Christian missionary movement is one of the greatest forces at work in the world be- cause it is a spiritual force. It has been said that the greatest forces in the universe are the spiritual forces. It is clear to thoughtful men that, how- ever necessary our own participation in the great war may be (and we are sure it is necessary), nevertheless the preparation of the world for an abiding peace must be a spiritual preparation. It is certain that the spirit of peace must dominate the hearts of men before we shall ever see peace established among the nations. This is true as to brotherhood among individuals in human society, and it is equally true for nations as such. The root cause of all our conflicts, large or small, is the failure somewhere to apply the principles of the gospel of Christ. The cause of this failure is not in any lack of efficacy in the remedy that is available, but is in the selfishness of human na- ture which refuses to accept the remedy as Christ gave it. THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST I3I We shall continue to suffer from the selfish am- bitions of men and races as long as selfishness predominates and the spirit of brotherhood is denied. Now the object of the foreign mission movement is the spiritual renewal of men every- where. It would follow the Master whose pur- pose in coming into the world was that men might have life and might have it more abun- dantly. When mankind enjoys the abounding life, brotherhood will reign the world around, and peace among nations can never be established until enmity gives way to brotherhood. Doubt- less these will seem like the words of a dreamer ; like the theories of one who is writing regarding the merits of an ideal fire-extinguisher when the house in which he lives is ablaze. Let no one misunderstand. We are fighting not only to end the present holocaust, but to make its repetition impossible. Its repetition will not be impossible until men have caught a spirit of brotherhood, and men will not become brothers the world around without a spiritual renewal. We do well to remember that there is no alchemy divine whereby golden conduct can be secured from leaden instincts, and that there will be no abiding peace until men are unified in spirit. As already stated, my second proposition is to the effect that the American Christian missionary movement is a movement in favor of democracy. At the time of my first visit to China, which was 132 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY soon after the revolution that began in 191 1, and which was followed by the establishment of a republic instead of the absolute monarchy which had existed for so long, a British missionary re- marked to me that but for the presence in China of so many American mission schools, in which Chinese students had learned much regarding a republican form of government, a limited mon- archy would have been established after the revo- lution intead of a republic. As I crossed Europe a few weeks later, I picked from the floor of a railway carriage a soiled copy of *' The London Daily Mail," of May 5, 191 3, containing an arti- cle by Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil on " The Op- portunity in China," who was chiding his coun- trymen for their failure to do more educational work among the Chinese. A part of his article was as follows : Now they are breaking up the idol temples, the old heathen festivals of the seasons are dying quickly, and will be as dead as our May-day, and China will soon be without a religion unless she becomes Christian. She is becoming Christian, but she still needs our help. In this matter I have a little quarrel with my countrymen. You may notice that nine-tenths of the men who are leading this revolution have had their inspiration from American mission schools, with the result that America has a great moral position in China. Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil overstated the case, but it cannot be denied that many of the young THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST I33 men in China who helped to furnish ideals dur- ing the revolution had learned of democratic government as they were taught in the American mission schools in China. From the authorities quoted, it appears that in China the American missionary movement hastened the advent of the republic, and therefore must be considered as a movement in favor of democracy. Missionaries who preach and live a Christ who teaches us to think of men everywhere as our brothers, and to lift our hearts to one God as our Father, are quietly promoting belief in the equality of all men before God, which is fundamental to democracy. There is no real democracy except as men learn to respect each other's rights and opinions, and to believe in the equality of all men before God. Naturally, American missionaries teach the the people to whom they minister much regard- ing our struggles here for political democracy and for religious freedom. The students in their schools learn something about American history, and eagerly read such books as are within their reach that tell of the stirring days in the life of our country. It is only natural that young people educated in American mission schools, where the curriculum is not determined by the local govern- ment, and is often a repetition to a considerable extent of courses in American schools, should learn to love the ideals of democratic govern- ment. It should never be forgotten, however, K 134 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY that democracy is dependent upon brotherhood. Dr. Lyman Abbott has said recently that autoc- racy is political paganism, while democracy is political Christianity. If these things be true, any movement which is working for the dissemi- nation of the spirit of Christ must be counted as a factor in the movement for world peace and democracy. In view of the relation of the Christian mis- sionary movement to the program for the estab- lishment of a world-wide peace and democracy, it is appropriate that this church, celebrating now the semicentennial of its organization, should pause this evening to ask what progress has been made during its lifetime in the furtherance of Christian work in those lands to which we are sending missionaries. It has been one hundred and twenty-five years since William Carey sailed from England to India, which may be said to have marked the beginning of the modern missionary movement among evangelical churches. It is barely more than a hundred years since Adoniram Jud- son, the first missionary from America to for- eign lands, sailed out of Salem harbor. The mis- sionaries who were sent out in the early decades of this movement were few in number, and con- tributions for their support were small in com- parison with the offerings that are received to- day for the propagation of the gospel. Indeed, THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST 1 35 many people in the first half of the last century stoutly opposed foreign missions as opposed to the plans of the Eternal, and during that period the total contributions from evangelical churches in the United States of America seldom went beyond one million dollars. It is hard to secure ac- curate figures, but from the best records available it apppears that fifty years ago, or about the time when your church was organized, the total con- tributions from evangelical churches in the United States to foreign missions in a single year amounted to something over $1,300,000. Last year contributions from the same sources amounted to nearly $20,000,000, and from Euro- pean Christians came an additional $10,000,000. Foreign mission societies in the United States now have under appointment more than 10,000 missionaries on their various fields. More than 46,000 native workers are employed, 3,752 of whom are ordained preachers of the gospel. In the field of the American societies are more than 2,000 central mission stations, with more than 17,000 outstations or preaching-places, nearly 12,000 organized churches, and 1,153,000 com- municants. As many as 81,642 people united with the evangelical churches last year. The mission schools reported a total enrolment of 635.381. Our own Society, including the woman's work, of course, last year expended $1,462,713.11. 136 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Our work has been greatly blessed in many places. But a few figures for the foreign mission work in the world at large are of interest. One hundred and twenty-live years ago a society was organized to support William Carey. To-day there are three hundred and fifty-one foreign mis- sion agencies, supporting a total of more than 24,000 missionaries, who labor at 4,094 central stations, on fields with 26,210 Christian churches, in which there are 2,408,900 communicants. These native Christians contributed last year $4,575,984. When the earning capacity of these natives is considered, the size of their contribu- tions (nearly two dollars per capita) is encourag- ing. But during the last fifty years there has been a growth which cannot be expressed in figures alone. In the earlier years of the foreign mission move- ment the ideal was almost exclusively that of a direct evangelism, the work being done princi- pally by foreign missionaries assisted by native workers. To-day we see clearly that China must be evangelized by the Chinese, Japan by the Japanese, India by the Indians, Africa by the Africans, Turkey by the Turks, the Philippines by the Filipinos ; and that, increasingly, the work of the foreign missionary is that of cooperation with native leaders, upon whose shoulders may be placed large responsibility for directing the movement in their own lands. This is an expla- THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST 1 37 nation for the enlarged emphasis that has been placed in recent times on mission schools. There is no departure by us from the ideal of evangel- ism. To give to men everywhere that revelation of God that we have found in Christ is our great aim. There is no change in our purpose, al- though there has been some modification in our methods. We are seeing that a Christian school, conducted by a few missionaries, may train a large body of Christian leaders, and thus in the end do more for the evangelization of a land than could be accomplished by the missionaries without such an agency. Fifty years ago most of our people had grave questions regarding forms of mission work other than direct evangelism. The first medical mis- sionary, John Scudder, went to India in 1819. Our own Baptist Board, however, with some others, was slow to believe that the Great Com- mission included the healing of the body. We were disposed to forget that Jesus came both doing and teaching. This evening there are in this audience medical missionaries from China, and medical mission work is accepted as a Christ- like form of service. But we are seeing that it is oftentimes profitable for the medical missionaries to unite in the establishment of schools for the training of native doctors. We are placing more emphasis too on homes for the afflicted than was given when your church was organized fifty years 138 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ago. To-day, under missionary auspices, schools are established for the education of the blind, homes for the orphans, asylums for the insane, and camps of mercy for the lepers. Industrial schools have been established in regions where famines have prevailed partly because the people did not know how to till the soil properly. In a word, to-day we believe it is a part of our privi- lege, as well as of our duty, to share with men the world around all blessings which have come to us through Christ. Nor should the production of literature be forgotten. Christian mission presses in many lands are producing millions of papers, tracts, and books, although we have hardly begun to support this form of work. During the half century of the existence of your church there has been large growth in mis- sionary interest, although as yet we are doing only a small part of what should be done. Dur- ing the same period there have been changes in our method of work also. But perhaps the most notable change in the last half century has been in the attitude of multi- tudes of thoughtful men in the lands to which we send missionaries. Less than fifty years ago there were public sign-boards in many places in Japan strictly prohibiting the Christian religion as an evil teaching. To-day Christianity is recog- nized by the government, and Christians have full freedom. In Japan there are large, self-sup- THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST I39 porting churches with educated Japanese pastors, who would scorn the thought of receiving help from abroad. There are large Christian schools with Japanese faculties and boards of trustees. There are Japanese home and foreign mission agencies which do aggressive work. In China, one hundred years ago, Robert Morrison found it almost impossible to plant the seed. Only eight- een years ago, in many sections of China, at the time of the Boxer uprising, no man's life was safe if he was suspected of sympathy with the Chris- tian religion. To-day multitudes of people flock to hear the Christian message at the announce- ment that Dr. John R. Mott, or Mr. Sherwood Eddy will deliver an address. Our Christian mission schools are crowded to the doors and turning away students. Some of these institu- tions have received large gifts in money from in- fluential Chinese gentlemen. In some sections of India the movement toward Christianity has been so large as to justify the name mass-movement. Thoughtful men the world around understand that man must worship and that his life is vitally affected by the character of his religion. While there has been a change during the last fifty years on the part of the peoples to whom we send Christian ambassadors, it must be admitted that there has been some change on our part. In recent decades Christian bodies at home have learned much in the art of cooperation with each I40 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Other in the common task of giving Christ to all the world. We have learned how to cooperate without sacrifice of freedom; to stand for our deepest convictions. Perhaps too there has been some change in our attitude toward those who do not hold the Christian religion. Our contact with them has given us a fresh appreciation of the truth " that Christ is the light that lighteth every man." We have found confirmation of the apostle's statement that God hath not left himself without witness among any people. Certainly there has been a change in our attitude toward the native Christian forces. We are not to think of the foreign missionaries as men who are to be masters with a few natives as assistants. The native Christian leaders of any land must be trusted, and we must be prompt to recognize their rightful place. We may be encouraged at what has been ac- complished during the last fifty years. We may be grateful for what our own denomination has contributed. But we must face the future. We must plan for larger things in the days to come. At this particular moment we are called to face the immediate demands and particularly the herculean task in which we are engrossed — our fight against autocracy. In conclusion, let us ask again if the foreign mission work is not vitally related to this task in which we are becoming more seriously engrossed B. L. WHITMAN Stated Supply, 1896, 1897 THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST I4I with every passing month. Was " The Outlook " correct in saying that " The missionary move- ment is to-day the greatest unifying power at work among men " ? If so, it is no time for an abatement of effort, but rather an hour for an en- largement of interest. The world is afire. We must do our utmost in this solemn hour. At the same time, we must be considering how a repeti- tion of this unspeakable tragic experience can be prevented. Just outside the great city of Hangchow, China, which was visited by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo about five hundred years ago, and which was said by him to have been at that time the finest and richest city in all the world, is the noted Lin Ying Temple. Changes are occurring in the city with startling rapidity, and Hangchow is taking on numerous modern features. The temple too has been completely rebuilt in recent years. The famous old structure, in which so many hundreds of thousands, yes, millions, had worshiped, was destroyed by fire a few years ago, to the sorrow of a multitude of devout people. Immediately the governor of Chekiang Province began to make plans to replace the structure. He requested Capt. Robert Dollar, an owner of ships on the Pacific Ocean, to secure sixteen of the largest trees to be found in America, which could be transported to China to be used as pil- lars in supporting the lofty roof and in furnish- 142 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ing Strength to the new structure. Captain Dol- lar secured the trunks of sixteen large, straight pine trees from the hills of Oregon, placed them aboard ship, and a few weeks later landed them at Hangchow, from which port they were taken with great labor over the hills to the site of the old temple. At Chinese Eastertime I saw these pillars in the reconstructed temple, when multitudes of Chinese had stopped first to worship at the graves of their ancestors before proceeding to the noted shrine, at which many of the ancestors themselves had worshiped. Men from the far interior as they entered the temple doors gazed at the graceful pillars and marveled at the size of such trees as had been found in America. One man would try to make his finger-tips touch those of another on the opposite side of a column in order to be able to give the people back home some adequate conception of the size of the trees that had been brought from America, and which, to them, were the real wonder in the recon- structed temple. They gazed in astonishment at the high roof, supported by these massive pillars, covered with the brightest of red Chinese lac- quer, and decorated with inscriptions in the Chi- nese language. Unless he were told, no one would suspect that the pillars that constituted both the glory and the strength of the temple, now denuded of native THE GREAT INTERNATIONALIST 1 43 bark and needles, and given finish and mottoes which satisfied Chinese ideals of fitness, were the trunks of pine trees grown on the hills of Oregon. But there they were, American pine trees furnish- ing the strength and glory of the reconstructed Chinese temple. As I mused, the fire burned. First I said, " If America were really Christian, so that men the world over could see that Chris- tianity is the best of all religions, they would come from every race and every clime to secure it for the regeneration of their own lives and the reconstruction of their own nations." Again I spoke. This time I said : " My chief concern is that the nations of the Orient, as well as those of the Occident, shall find Christ and shall build him into the temple of their life as its glory and strength. Often, perhaps, we may have allowed him to be hidden beneath the veneer of an eccle- siasticism which does not always seem essential to men of the Orient as they interpret the Christ. My chief concern is that they shall have him as the strength of their lives." Once more I spoke; '' Nor is it essential that the language in which they express their adoration and devotion to the Lord of All shall be that which I use, but I do yearn that they shall have the eternal Christ as the strength and glory of the temple of their lives." Recently I have meditated again, and this time I have said : '' The world is aflame ; the temple of 144 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY civilization is being destroyed in the greatest holo- caust of history. Is there no hope? Yes, there is hope. Some day from the ashes of the struc- ture now in flames must rise a reconstructed tem- ple, and into that temple must go the strength of the eternal Christ if it is to abide." To recon- struct the temple of humanity is now our great task. Into the structure must go the love and strength of the living Christ, or there is no hope for us. All else has failed, and we have failed to try him. We have taken his name, but we have failed to do his will. The aim of the foreign mission movement is to give men everywhere the opportunity to take Christ into their lives. It is vain for us to attempt to reconstruct the temple now in flames, except as we recognize our de- pendence upon the Eternal and build according to the teachings of the Master Builder. We shall never have world-wide peace until the Prince of Peace dominates the hearts of men. THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETA- TION OF THE ORDINANCES EDGAR YOUNG MULLINS, D. D., LL. D. President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Are ye ignorant, that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through the baptism into his death ; that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of Hfe. — Rom. 6 : 3, 4. For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death, till he come. — i Cor. 11 : 26. THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETA- TION OF THE ORDINANCES I WISH to unfold the thought of the spiritual meaning and value of the ordinances. In order to do so, it is necessary that we glance at the New Testament teaching on the relation of a sign to the thing signified. We might at the outset be- come confused and mystified if we failed to do this. If we should put the sign in the place of what is signified ; or put what is signified in place of the sign ; or if we should fail to grasp clearly how the sign represents what is signified, it would be very easy to go astray. Hence my address might be described as an effort to show the spiritual meaning and value of a sign or symbol. Baptism and the Lord's Sup- per are signs or symbols of spiritual truths and realities. The word symbol is made up of two other words, one of which means " together," and the other to " put " or " place." Hence the primary meaning of symbol is the placing together of two things, or the use of one thing as a sign of another. There are, for example, symbols used 147 148 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY by astronomers. The symbol which represents the sun is a circle with a dot in the center. The symbol of the planet Venus is a smaller circle with a cross hanging from its lower edge. Sometimes a sign is used to indicate a quality. A lion is the symbol of courage. An olive-branch is the symbol of peace. Sometimes on ancient Greek coins a figure was stamped as a symbol of authority — a lyre or wine-cup or ivy wreath. Here the symbol set forth the authority of the magistrate under whom the coin was issued. Now, in Christianity there are two ceremonies or symbols, which correspond to the meaning I have given. Baptism is one of these. It is a cere- mony which is put with spiritual truths and facts, by divine authority, for certain ends. What are those spiritual truths and realities? I can only refer briefly to them. Baptism is a sign of remis- sion or forgiveness. As immersion, it symbolizes complete remission and forgiveness. It is also a symbol of the washing of regeneration, and as immersion it is a symbol of complete washing, a radical inward and not a superficial outward cleansing. It is a symbol of submission and con- secration, and as immersion it is a symbol of complete dedication to the authority and service of Christ. It is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection, and as immersion it expresses death, burial, and resurrection in a dramatic and symbolic form. Thus it is a symbol of our THE ORDINANCES I49 own inward spiritual death, burial, and resurrec- tion, and at the same time it prefigures our own bodily resurrection. There is no longer any serious difference among representative scholars of the world, of all denominations, that baptism as taught and prac- tised in the New Testament was the immersion of the believer in water, in obedience to the au- thority of Christ. Professor Sanday, of Oxford, a member of the Church of England, gives the following as the meaning of the passage I have given as my text : Baptism has a double function, (i) It brings the Chris- tian into personal contact with Christ, so close that it may be fitly described as union with him. (2) It expresses symbolically a series of acts corresponding to the re- deeming acts of Christ — immersion, which symbolizes death; submersion, which symbolizes burial (the ratifica- tion of death) ; emergence, which symbolizes resurrection- All these the Christian has to undergo in a moral and spiritual sense, and by means of his union with Christ.. As Christ by his death on the cross ceased from all con- tact with sin, so the Christian united with Christ in his baptism has done once for all with sin, and lives hence- forth a reformed life dedicated to God. (" Commentary on Romans," p. 153.) This is in harmony with the New Testament teaching everywhere. Immersion and death are '' put together " in this symbol. Submersion and burial are also put together, as are emergence and resurrection. If, then, these things are joined L 150 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY together by the authority of Christ, who shall as- sert an authority above his to justify us in putting asunder what he has joined together? I might in a similar manner develop the re- lation between sign and thing signified in the Lord's Supper. But the general truth is clear from the preceding. Now, in order that we may preserve the spiritual meaning and value of the ordinances, we must fulfil all the following con- ditions : I. First of all, zve must keep the ordinances in their proper places as symbols. It is strange how difficult this has been in Christian history. Men have erred constantly in one of three directions : ( I ) They have said : " It is a mere symbol ; it amounts to little or nothing." Then they have proceeded to change its form to suit their own comfort or convenience; or else they have abol- ished it altogether, as the Unitarians and Quak- ers have done. Or (2), men have erred in another direction by identifying the sign with the thing signified. Jesus said, as to the bread and wine, " This is my blood," " this is my body," and the Roman Catholic Church has insisted on taking the words literally. Some one has said that the terrible dogma of transubstantiation, with all its magical power in the hands of a priest- hood, with all its debasing influence upon New Testament Christianity, arose out of man's failure to understand a figure of speech, a metaphor, so THE ORDINANCES I5I that Christ's words, which are easily understood by an intelligent child, were perverted into words of revolutionary import. To appreciate a symbol one must have imagination and faith. Children have no trouble in understanding symbols. I once heard of a man who objected to the poetic lines, " Sermons in stones, books in running brooks, God in everything," because it was a perversion of the facts. The poet should have said rather, " Sermons in books, stones in run- ning brooks, God in everything." There are literalists who object to the teaching of the little stanza to baby : Where did you come from, baby dear? Out of the everywhere into the here. Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through. Where did you get your pearly ear? God spoke, and it came out to hear. Where did you get that little tear? I found it waiting when I got here. Now a man without imagination or insight might object that every statement in these lines is false. You might argue with such a man a week, and you could not convince him. He lacks the insight and imagination necessary to understand figurative language. So also you could never impart spiritual insight to a literalist who insisted that Christ meant his real body and blood when he said, " This is my body," " this is my blood." 152 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY (3) A third way in which baptism as a symbol is perverted from its true use is to convert it into a saving ordinance. Ceremonies in religion are like ladders. You can climb up on them if you keep them in their place. You can climb down on them if you misuse them for wrong ends. Baptism is an act of duty. It is a sign of life within. It is the answer of a good conscience; not the regenerating power that makes a good conscience. Hence, I repeat, if we are to preserve the spiritual meaning and value of baptism and the Supper, we must keep them in their places as symbols. 2. I remark secondly that, in order to preserve the spiritual meaning and value of an ordinance, zve must maintain its relation to the truths and facts symbolized in and by it. We must never forget the value of the outward as a means of helping men to understand the inward. The idea of God never became tangible and workable and real to men generally until God became visible and audible and tangible in Jesus himself. Until Christ came men failed to grasp the idea of God clearly. Since he came all false ideas are cor- rected in and through him. For example, when the Indian or other phi- losophy says God is an impersonal principle, and man is to be reabsorbed at death or snuffed out like a candle, Christ comes and says God is a THE ORDINANCES 1 53 person and our personality will remain forever. When Mohammedanism perverts the idea of God and makes him mere power, Christ comes and shows that God is love. When science exag- gerates heredity and sin, and asserts that man is under the operation of natural law, Christ cor- rects it by showing that where heredity and sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly. God became visible and outward in Christ. Now, in a corresponding manner, the central spiritual truths and facts of Christianity became visible in the ordinances. Christ planned it so. If you look at the great group of inner vital truths of Christianity, and then look at the mean- ing of the two ordinances of Christianity, you will at once see that it is like looking at two cir- cles of exactly the same diameter. You can place one upon the other, and not only their centers will coincide, but their circumferences will also coin- cide. Note then the two parallel lines in Chris- tianity — the inward and real, and the outward and symbolic. There are two kinds of cleans- ing — inward cleansing by the Spirit of God, and outward cleansing in symbol through water bap- tism. There are two kinds of entrance into the kingdom — the inner and spiritual, when the soul yields to Christ, and the outward and symbolic in baptism. There are two kinds of remission of sins, two kinds of death, two kinds of burial, two 154 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY kinds of resurrection — the inward and vital, and the outward dramatic and symbolic. There is no conflict or confusion, nothing to lead any one astray in this. It is like all other inward things with a corresponding outward expression. There is no conflict or confusion between the invisible thought and the visible deed ; none between the inaudible thought and the audible word ; none be- tween the unheard melodies in the heart and the heard music on the organ or other instrument. There is no conflict between the beautiful sunset I see and the inward image of it I carry in my memory. There is no conflict between that mar- velous and matchless experience I had one night in Major Penn's meeting, when Christ drew near and spoke to me and entered the open door of my heart and shed his radiance through my soul, and when I gave myself to him as a penitent sinner and died to him and rose in new life to him and dedicated myself to him forever — I say there is no conflict between that inward drama of my soul and that other drama a week later, when on a clear November afternoon my father led me into the baptismal waters and I reenacted outwardly all that inward transaction. There was no con- flict between the song my soul sang that night of my conversion and the other song my lips sang the day of my baptism : How happy are they who their Saviour obey, And whose treasure is laid up above. THE ORDINANCES I 55 Now I think I have made clear what I mean. Christ intended that our Christianity should have the inward reality and the outward expression in the ordinances ; two kinds of remission, two kinds of cleansing, two kinds of death, burial, and resurrection — the inward, vital, and real, and the outward, dramatic, and symbolic. If we seek to know and do the will of Christ, we will maintain both the outward and the inward. 3. Again, if we would preserve the spiritual meaning and value of the ordinances, zee must conserz'e the relation of the form of the symbol to its meaning. It is perfectly clear that if a cer- tain meaning is bound up with a certain form ; if the form is chosen in order to express a certain meaning, the moment you change the form you change the meaning. A symbol has no value in itself. Its value is in its fitness to a certain mean- ing. Its use and value ceases when it no longer expresses the necessary meaning. The American flag has red, white, and blue in the color scheme. It has thirteen stripes and as many stars as there are States, on blue ground. Its value as a na- tional symbol is the retention of these elements. Suppose we should change the color scheme to red, white, and black, or increase the number of stripes and put a single star on the blue ground, would that be an American flag? Surely not. When a marriage takes place, sometimes a gold ring is used. The groom puts it on the hand of 156 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the bride as a part of the ceremony. It is a symbolic marriage, which is parallel with the legally authorized ceremony. The gold, we will say, represents the quality of love, and its circular form represents the endless duration of marriage. Now, if you use a straight bar of gold instead of a ring, or if you use an iron instead of a gold ring, it is evident that the symbolic aspect of the marriage is in part destroyed. Now suppose this symbolic form of the ceremony, this use of the gold ring, instead of being voluntary, were re- quired by law in order to make the ceremony legal. Surely every one would seek to observe the law. Any change from a gold ring to a gold bar or iron ring would destroy the symbolism and violate the law. I remind you that baptism is not optional with us. It is commanded by Christ. To refuse to submit to it violates his command ; and since the meaning of it is wrapped up with the form, we cannot change the form without changing the meaning. Sprinkling no more makes real baptism than one star on a blue ground with thirteen stripes makes a flag which we would recognize as " Old Glory.'' 4. Finally, zue must preserve the relation of baptism to the corporate life of believers in the church if zve zvould maintain its true tise and value. Baptism admits to church-membership. It is not an isolated individual act merely with no relation to the church-membership. In THE ORDINANCES 157 Ephesians 4 : ^-6, Paul gives the true basis of Christian union. It is sevenfold union : " Give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body (the church), and one Spirit (God's Holy Spirit), even as ye were called in one hope of your calling (the Christian calling), one Lord (Jesus Christ), one faith (faith in Christ), one baptism (the immersion of the believer in water), one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Here, then, is the glorious outline of Christian unity by the matchless hand of the master builder, Paul. We shall realize it when his ideal becomes the practical working ideal of Christen- dom. When the members of the one body, ani- mated by the one Spirit, shall bow to the author- ity of the one Lord ; when other lords shall give place to him; when the lord of self-will, and the lord of convenience, and the lord of inclination, and the lord of pride in the heart, and the lord of half-heartedness shall give place to the Lord of life and glory, then the ideal of unity will come to pass, and unto the angels and principalities and powers in the heavenly places shall be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God. The advocates of " open membership " among Baptists forget these and other scriptures. Bap- tism belongs in the great group of unities. We must not make it optional with men. Christ 158 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY commands and requires it. A church with no condition of membership would soon cease to attract men. No folly is greater than the idea that the leveling of the walls will attract men into the church. Human nature wants what costs something. We must not compromise the New Testament truth here. Our historic Baptist posi- tion is sound. It has given us success hitherto. Let us be loyal to it now and always. 5. // zve zwuld preserve the spiritual meaning and value of the ordinance^, ive must maintain their true relation to the subject zvho obeys in the act. For the person baptized baptism is a means of expressing his relation to Jesus Christ. No one will appreciate baptism who overlooks this fact. For the normal believer, the person who follows the natural instincts of his heart when he becomes a follower of Christ, obedience in baptism is far more than the mechanical obser- vance of a mere religious form. Feeling and sentiment, loyalty and love abound in the act. Suppose you hold in your hand a picture of a wo- man's face, an imaginary face, conceived in the mind and transferred to the canvas of some artist. If it were a beautiful face, artistically painted, you might care for it because of its artistic value. Otherwise it would not interest you at all. But suppose, instead of being an imaginary face, it was the face of a real woman. Suppose, further, that real woman was your mother, and still fur- THE ORDINANCES 1 59 ther that your mother was dead, and this was the only picture of her you possessed; and now sup- pose in her last moments, her dying statement, she had given you the picture and told you to preserve it and remember her by means of it. Do you not see how your whole soul would go out in affection toward that picture ? It would be to you an expression of one of the deepest and sweetest of personal human relations. Your treatment of the picture would be your expres- sion of your feeling toward your mother. Even so, to the loyal and loving disciple of Jesus, bap- tism is full of sweet, personal meaning. Let me try to put into words the real feelings of the normal disciple, who is truly loyal to Jesus, as he is baptized. This is what he says in his heart : '' Let me follow the example of my Master in this act. He went all the way to Jordan to be baptized by John, and he said, ' Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,' and surely if it be- came him, it becomes me. Let me obey the com- mand of my Master, for he gave this command in his last words to the disciples. Let me obey just as his words require me to obey. Let the quality of my obedience not be lowered by compromises of any kind. Let no one presume to obey for me when I am a helpless, unconscious babe. Vica- rious obedience here is not real obedience. Let my obedience be not something which men call the ' spirit of obedience,' while the fact of obedi- l60 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ence is wanting. Let me not follow my comfort or convenience, or the advice of human advisers, and obey partially when I can obey fully. Let me have the joy of full obedience. Let me die in symbol as Christ died actually. Let me be buried in the watery tomb as he was buried in the grave. Let me rise again from that symbolic grave as he rose from the tomb in the garden. Let me walk in newness of life as he walked in resurrec- tion power." It is thus that the disciple thinks and feels and speaks. It is thus that he enters into mystic fel- lowship with his Saviour. It is thus that he catches the spirit of the great passage of Paul in the sixth chapter of Romans. Baptism is baptism into Christ. It is symbolic union with Christ. As the hand is a member of the body, so now the believer is a member of Christ. The ordinance does not unite him to Christ, but it symbolizes the union. He desires now to live the life the ordi- nance symbolizes. He now says, *' The love of Christ constraineth me," meaning by the love of Christ, not his love for Christ simply, nor Christ's love for him simply, but meaning rather the great eternal principle of love which ruled in Christ and is now ruling in him, as the life of the head rules in the members. Again he says with Paul : " I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of THE ORDINANCES l6l the dead." Paul did not doubt that he would be raised from the dead, but he was anxious that his life and character be worthy of the resurrection glory. The bride may not doubt the marriage just ahead before the multitude of spectators, but her hand trembles as she arranges her hair lest she be not worthy of the great occasion. Men and wo- men and children obey Christ in baptism because they are swayed by the eternal motive. They are transformed by the vision of the risen and glorified Saviour, and the very act expresses, meaning and the deepest feeling in their hearts. THE MANIFOLD CORONATION OF OUR DIVINE LORD ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR, D. D., LL. D. President, Baptist World Alliance And on his head were many crowns. — Rev. 19 : 12. THE MANIFOLD CORONATION OF OUR DIVINE LORD Moscow is far and away the most interesting city in vast Russia. This statement is true archi- tecturally, historically, racially, and religiously. Muravieff graciously considered Rome to be in- teresting because it reminded him of Moscow. Petrograd is modern and European ; but Moscow is ancient and Asiatic. Moscow is the heart of old Russia; the Kremlin is the heart of Moscow; the Treasury is the heart of the Kremlin; and the throne- and crown-rooms are the heart of the Treasury. Enter the throne-room. Here is the throne of Poland, taken from Warsaw in 1833; here is the gorgeously jeweled throne of Persia, brought to Russia in 1660; and here is the Eastern ivory throne of Sophia Paleologus, which she brought with her to Russia in 1473, when she came as the bride of Ivan III. Enter the next room. There we see a row of crowns standing on pedestals, all silent, but eloquent witnesses to Russia's triumphs in the past, her power in the present, and her hopes for the future. Look at some of those crowns. Here is the crown of Astrakan, the M 165 l66 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY crown of the Crimea, the crown of Finland, the crown of Georgia, the crown of Kazan, the crown of Poland, the crown of Siberia, and still other crowns which I do not name. We have here, as has been said with appreciable exaggeration, '' crowns upon crowns, scepters upon scepters, rivers of diamonds, oceans of pearls." Com- pared with this Treasury, all other treasuries seem to be insignificant. When, on May 26, 1896, the present czar put with his own hands, as is the manner of Russian czars at their coronation, the crown of Russia on his brow, he virtually put on all these other crowns which I have named. He might well be called the many-crowned czar. But I now speak not of the coronation of any earthly kings or emperors or czars. I speak of the coronation of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, Son of man, and Son of God. In Revelation 19 : 12 we read, " And on his head were many crowns." I am embar- rassed by the richness of my subject. What crowns shall I omit? What crowns shall I name? I shall mention only those crowns which suggest lordship over vast realms. The Crown of Creation. I see on Christ's brow the Crozim of Creation. The first verse in the Bible, as we all know, is, " In the beginning God created the heaven and CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 67 the earth." These are majestic words; nothing more sublime is found in any literature. The Bible nowhere attempts to prove the existence of God ; the Bible as a revelation from God neces- sarily implies his existence. This verse virtually denies atheism, because it assumes theism; it de- nies materialism, because it asserts creation; it rejects pantheism, because it declares the per- sonality of God. Were it not that we have be- come so familiar with this verse, its reading would invariably evoke our admiration and secure our reverence. Alongside of this verse we must put another which is somewhat similar in form, is equally majestic in significance, and is profounder in its theistic philosophy and mystery. This verse is the first one in the Gospel by the Evangelist John, '' In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This verse sets forth the eternal preexistence of Jesus Christ, his personal coexistence with the Father, and his divine essence as God. It is the formulation of the proposition to prove which the Gospel by this Evangelist was written; and, in the writer's opinion, as he informs us near the close of the Gospel (20 : 31), he has proved the Messiahship and the Godhead of Jesus Christ as the eternal Word. The writer goes back, as did Moses, to the origin of all things, and there he finds God as Creator. By the side of this won- l68 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY derful verse we ought also to put the third and fourth verses of this same chapter : " All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." Here the work of creation is distinctly ascribed to the divine Word, who is Jesus Christ. Thus creative Omnipotence is ascribed to Jesus Christ ; we thus see that he is the divine Personality who is spoken of in Genesis as the Creator. By the side of both of these passages we ought to place the remarkable words in Colossians i : 1 6, 17: " For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and invisible . . . and all things have been created through him and unto him ; and he is be- fore all things, and in him all things exist." When we turn to Hebrews i : 2 we read that the Son is " appointed heir of all things, through him also he made the worlds." We thus see that Jesus Christ is the Creator of this physical uni- verse. He is our Prophet, our Priest, our King, our Creator, our Preserver, and our Redeemer. Preservation is continuous creation ; and redemp- tion is the loftiest function of the Almighty; it is, indeed, the recreation of the race. Not God the Father, not God the Spirit, but God the Son is the glorious Personality of the blessed Trinity through whom creative and preservative power manifests itself in this world. EDWIN McNeill poteat Pastor, 1898-1903 CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 69 This world was once the thought of God, as the engine was once the thought of its inventor. This world is still the thought of God. It is now God's thought materialized, incarnated, trans- lated. The mountains are God's majestic thoughts. The stars are God's brilliant thoughts. The flowers are God's beautiful thoughts. Crea- tion speaks to us of his wisdom, his power, and his love. We ought to study creation with this thought in mind, as our dominant motive and our lofty inspiration. Do I study geology? Then, with Hugh Miller, I may read God's thoughts in the imperishable granite. Do I study astronomy? Then I am reading God's thoughts after him. Every true student may say with the great astronomer Kepler, " O Almighty God, I think thy thoughts after thee." Thus I may see Jesus Christ as the bright and Morning Star. Do I study botany? Then I shall see Christ as the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. In studying chemistry, I may learn that every law of attraction and repulsion is a manifestation of the will of God. Why do two and two make four? Why do they not make five? Why not three? No man can conclusively answer these questions. The fact that two and two make four is a revela- tion of the Almighty from eternity. All the world to the devout student is voiceful with God's name, and resplendent with God's glory. The modern conception of the uniformity and 170 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the universality of law does not militate against this truth. Some men speak of law as if it some- how had a personality and potency of its own; they incorrectly define law if they attempt to give it any definition. What is law in this connection ? May I attempt a definition? Law is the name which we give to the manner in which we have observed some force to act. If that force be material, we have a physical law ; if it be mental, we have an intellectual law; if it be moral, we have a spiritual law. Law is not a force ; law is a form. Law is not a power; law is a process. Law is not a motor ; law is a motion. Law is not an agent; law is an agency. Back of the motion is the motor; there stands God. Back of the proc- ess is the power; there stands God. Back of the form is the force ; there stands God. Back of the agency is the agent ; there stands God. The laws of nature have been well called " the habits of God." They reveal God, glorify God, and exalt his presence and power. Evolution does not eliminate God from the universe. Perhaps we are not ready to affirm that the doctrine of evolution has been indispu- tably established, but for all practical purposes it has been established. It certainly is sufficiently established to be a working hypothesis. Evolu- tion only puts God farther back in the line of development. I believe that evolution the more exalts God; it gives him additional honor and CORONATION OF OUR LORD I71 glory. There may be an agnostic and even an atheistic evolution; but there may be an evolu- tion which is truly theistic and even Christie. This evolution honors God with knowledge and power to a remarkable degree. Evolution is simply God's method of accomplishing deter- mined results. Evolution implies an involver; nothing can be evolved which was not first in- volved. Evolution thus necessitates involution. Law suggests a Lawgiver; order implies an Or- dainer. The progress of physical science is mak- ing it vastly easier for us to believe in God than ever before. A generation ago religious men were fearful regarding the progress of scientific knowledge. Their fears have not been justified by the results. The long-distance telephone and the wireless telegraph make it easier than ever before in the history of the human race to believe in the unseen God and in invisible forces. I can stand in New York and talk through a long-dis- tance telephone to my brother man in Chicago, in round numbers one thousand miles away, with- out the violation of natural law, but in perfect harmony therewith. Who dare say that I can- not kneel in my room and talk to my Father who is in heaven ? Heaven is nearer to me than Chi- cago. Perhaps this heavenly communication is in as perfect harmony with natural law as when I talk to my brother man in Chicago. A genera- tion ago it would have been affirmed that it was 172 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY contrary to all natural law to claim that we could talk to a man a thousand miles away. It was contrary to the natural laws that were then known, but we did not then know all natural laws ; and he would be a reckless man who would affirm that we know all natural laws to-day. God is speaking to us in his world. And as we listen to our Father's voice, we may see our Father's face in the person of Jesus Christ, for he said, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The crown of Creation is on the brow of our divine Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Crown of Revelation. We see also on the brow of Christ the Crown of Revelation. We have made unwarranted dis- tinction between God's world and God's word. I distinctly remember when certain teachers thought that they gave additional honor to the word by taking somewhat from the honor of the world. These were chiefly Scottish teach- ers and preachers, to whom I listened as a boy. That was a great mistake. God's word and God's world are only different parts of God's wonderful book of revelation. There is no con- tradiction between natural and revealed religion when both are rightly understood. Natural re- ligion is revealed religion, as far as it goes. But neither goes far enough, and so both are supple- mented by God's fuller, humaner, and diviner CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 73 revelation contained in the blessed book which we call the Bible. It seems to me that the Nineteenth Psalm sets forth most beautifully the true relation which ought to exist between God's world and God's word. In the first six verses of that psalm we have natural religion : " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." We have here one of the finest personifications I know of in any writer. One day is represented as calling to the next day, and the next takes up the cry and passes it on ; thus day unto day, in ceaseless pro- cession, shows God's wondrous revelation of him- self. In the seventh verse of this psalm we enter into a new atmosphere. We feel now that we are breathing the air more distinctively of heaven, and that our feet are standing upon the solid rock, for we read, " The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." Down to the end of the thirteenth verse we have revealed religion, and the effect which it ought to produce on conduct and character. Then in the last verse we have ex- perimental religion : " Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my re- deemer." Observe what progress we have made in this psalm. We have first, creation; second, revelation; third, regeneration — natural religion, 174 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY revealed religion, experimental religion. As I understand it, this psalm is, in this respect, an epitome of the whole Bible. Strictly speaking, the Bible is not a book; it is a library. It is the most wonderful library in existence. It took i,6oo years to make it. It took God Almighty, and probably forty human writers, to produce it. Some of these writers were princes, some were peasants; some were lovers of war, some, preservers of peace. Parts of it were written in prison; parts in palaces; parts by men of the highest culture ; parts by men of ordinary intellect. And yet the book is a unit. The unity of the whole Bible centers about Jesus Christ. From the first majestic words of Genesis to the last love-notes of Revelation, this book reveals his glory and chants his praise. We remember that when Handel became dis- couraged by his attempts to give opera in London in a comparatively unknown tongue, he left Lon- don and went to Dublin. Just before leaving Lon- don, a friend gave him a passage of Scripture on which to write an oratorio. In Dublin he wrote the oratorio which was first called '' The Sacred Oratorio," and which was produced first in Dublin in the autumn of 174 1. A few months ago I sat by the organ on which Handel played this ora- torio. It was given in London, March 2^^, I743, in Covent Garden. When the '* Hallelujah Chorus " was rendered, the king, George II, the CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 75 court, and the whole audience arose, and thus established a custom which continues to this day in America and Great Britain. The oratorio gave Handel immediate fame in both cities; now it is known as the '' Oratorio of the Messiah," and it has carried in sacred song the name of Handel around the globe. He linked his name, as a musician, with the immortal name of Christ. The operas of the hour are for the hour. The music that has in it the element of enduringness is religious music. The man whose name is in- separably linked with the name of Christ, will catch somewhat of the glory of Christ, and will live in the future, crowned, in his measure, with immortal youth, as is Jesus Christ. I never lose an opportunity to hear that oratorio. There are parts of it so sweet and so beautiful that I some- times think that if heaven has anything better in the way of song, I cannot endure the bliss, except I be endued with new powers of enjoyment. I have listened to the pastoral symphony in that oratorio until the plain of Bethlehem came visibly before my eyes, and the song of the angels that rolled over the plain the night the Christ was born echoed through my soul. I have listened to the contralto solo, '' He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," until it seemed as if my own heart would break with sympathetic sorrow. I have listened to the " Hallelujah Chorus " until I 176 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY could appreciate what Handel said of the com- position, that he seemed to see the gates of heaven opened, and the great God standing be- fore him. We know that Handel wrote parts of that music on his knees, and that he mingled his tears with his ink. But, men and women, the real, the true, the most glorious oratorio of " The Messiah " I have here in my hand as I hold the Bible aloft. The score and the text were written by God through holy men of old. This divine-human book is the true '' Oratorio of the Messiah." The Bible is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ his Son, and our divine Redeemer. The genuine unity of which I spoke pervades the book. In every great musical composition there is a diapason, a uni- tive, a pervasive, a dominant, a concordant note. If I were skilful as a musician, I could stand by Niagara Falls and write the score of the majestic music of this marvelous cataract. If I were a sufficiently competent musician, I could stand by a little brook and write the score of its music; both would have their diapason, their pervasive and unitive notes. Jesus Christ is the diapason of the oratorio of the Bible. His name is the harmo- nious note in this glorious song of the ages. The unity of the Bible is not external, but internal ; it is not mechanical, but essential ; it is not material, but spiritual; and throughout all the Bible the name of Christ echoes, and the glory of Christ CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 77 shines. Through the corridors of Bible revelation the footfalls of Christ reverberate, and the music of his name resounds. In England, as in America, audiences uni- formly rise when choirs begin to sing the " Halle- lujah Chorus " in the '' Oratorio of the Mes- siah." In Albert Hall, London, a great audience was assembled, and Victoria, the great and good, was present in the royal box. The audience rose, but the noble queen remained seated. Soon every eye was directed to the royal box in which sat the aged and somewhat enfeebled queen. On rolled the magnificent chorus; but the queen remained seated. Higher still mounted the lofty song; on- ward swept the glorious music. With curious glances the audience turned to the royal box in which the queen remained seated. Loftier still rose the celestial notes. Now the song reached the part of the chorus where Christ is praised as *' King of kings and Lord of lords." The swell- ing song thus puts the crown of universal do- minion on his divine-human brow. Then the noble queen arose, stepped forward to the front of the royal box, and stood with bowed head, as if she would put the crown of the world's mightiest empire at the pierced feet of her divine Lord. Creation and revelation, art and science, song and story, learning and genius, and all earthly rulers reach their noblest heights when they bend in lowliest reverence at the feet of 178 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Jesus Christ, and crown him " King- of kings and Lord of lords." Thus we see the Crown of Reve- lation on the brow of our Lord and Master. The Crown of History. We see on Christ's brow also the Crozvn of History. What is history ? It is not easy to give a satisfactory definition. Perhaps we may say that history is a systematic narrative of events in which man has participated. We sometimes say that Herodotus was the father of history. Not so ; Moses is the father of history. Moses was an ancient and authoritative historian centuries be- fore Herodotus was born. Thucydides has given us valuable illustrations of a scientific tendency in the study of history. Polybius was an accu- rate student of Thucydides. Caesar was not a scientific historian, but a chronicler. Xenophon was simply an annalist; even Livy and Tacitus were not quite scientific historians. Eusebius was the first ecclesiastical historian worthy the name. Augustine in his great apologetic work, the " City of God," unfolded the meaning of the past and the secrets of the future. In ten books of the twenty-two into which this work is divided, he refutes the pagan notion that the worship of the gods secures prosperity here or hereafter. In the remaining twelve books he traces the progress of the kingdom of God until it ends in final triumph. He spent thirteen years CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 79 of his busy life, from 413 to 426, in the sublime attempt to construct a Christian philosophy of history. But we do not have a true conception of his- tory until about the year 1567. Then Jean Bodin published his historical philosophy. He was the enemy of persecution ; his antagonism to the ultra-Catholics cost him the favor of his royal patrons. It has been said that he deserves a place with Aristotle and Montesquieu as one of the three greatest political philosophers in history. He enunciated the proposition that the course of events is controlled by definite laws. Bossuet, for the primary purpose of instructing the Dauphin, wrote his *' Discourses on Universal History," which were published in 168 1. This was an attempt, following Augustine and Bodin, to give a philosophical treatment to history. Bossuet is considered to be one of the greatest ecclesiastical orators of the world, some say the greatest. He is celebrated for his orations at the funerals of the Duchess of Orleans and the great Conde. These orations are masterpieces of this kind of eloquence. The true founder, however, of historical phi- losophy was Giovanni Battista Vico, who was born in Naples in 1668. He was truly a great Italian philosopher. His " New Science " was published in 1725. The germ of his political speculations is found in Plato's " Republic." l80 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Vice's aim was to reconcile the existence of a divine plan with freedom of human agency. There is a science and there is a philosophy of history; and the true historian does not simply state facts, but also shows the relation between causes and effects. In any true conception of history it is seen that Jesus Christ is the unifier of the history of the world. Neither Gibbon, Hume, Macaulay, Green, nor McMaster, I venture to affirm, nor any other man can write a scientific history of the world and leave out Jesus Christ. We might as well try to write a treatise on astronomy and leave out the sun. Jesus Christ is the Sun of the moral universe. All the events of history before his coming converged toward him; all events since have diverged from him. Christ's cross is the pivotal point in the history of the race. On this cross was written his title in Hebrew, the language of religion; in Greek, the language of art ; in Latin, the language of law and military power. The cross stood at the confluence of these three streams of ancient civilization. Religion came and laid its crown at Jesus Christ's feet ; art came and paid its tribute at the cross; and law came and cast its honors before the Christ. They all virtually said, '* We will have Jesus for our King." Christ assuredly is the center of the civilization of the race. Somehow we have largely lost this conception of the position of Christ. We have somehow CORONATION OF OUR LORD l8l relegated Jesus to distant ages and remote coun- tries. We are willing to believe that God was in the world in the days of Moses and David, of Solomon and Isaiah, and of Hosea and Mala- chi ; perhaps also in the days of the apostles, and some would admit that God was actively present in the days of Wesley and Whitefield. But, somehow, many of us in this day and time have come to the conclusion that God has retired from the world. Do not believe it. God is not dead ; God is not dethroned. The pierced palm of Jesus Christ is on the helm of this universe. God was never more really in the world than he is to-day. Jesus Christ was never more truly the center of the events of history than he is now. Even in the center of the events of this terrible war, now devastating the world, is Jesus Christ. I would not pun on a word in a sacred connection ; but I say that history is His Story. The story of Christ is the history of man. I believe that God is going before America, Great Britain, France, and Italy as truly to-day as he went before Israel of old, with pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. He is leading America and her allies onward and upward, until soon America will sit crowned as queen in the congress of nations. Men say God was with Washington and God was with Lincoln. Why should we not say God is with our heroic leaders to-day. Is not God with Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson, as truly as N l82 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY he was with Washington and Lincoln? I speak not as a partisan, but as an enthusiastic, al- though only an adopted, American citizen. Jesus Christ is guiding this whole world into fuller light, into larger life, and into diviner work than ever before in the history of America or in the history of humanity. We thus see on the august brow of Jesus the Christ the Crown of History. The Crozvn of Salvation. We see upon Christ's brow also the Crown of Salvation. I limit the word salvation, for the moment, to our personal Christian experience. I shall not make light of the church, God forbid. I am too much of a churchman for that. The church is the bride of Christ. He came from heaven to woo and to win her. I shall not make light of church ordinances. God forbid. Bap- tism is honored as is no other ordinance of the church. At the baptism of Jesus all the persons of the divine Trinity were audibly or visibly pres- ent — God the Father, by an audible voice; God the Son, in human form; and God the Spirit, in the form of a dove. This is the only instance in the Bible of the simultaneous presence of the Holy Trinity. The ordinances have their place and purpose. I shall not make light even of church creeds. They have a place and purpose, although not so great as many churchmen believe, but still CORONATION OF OUR LORD 183 a place. We repeated in our New York church service the so-called Apostles' Creed. There was eliminated from the form we used the clause about the descent into Hades. It ought never to have been introduced, and as speedily as possible it ought to be struck out. It was not in that creed for several hundred years, and no man can tell how it got into this creed. Its introduction is one of the mysteries and misfortunes of eccle- siastical history. This creed ought never to have been called the Apostles' Creed. The apostles never wrote it ; and the last apostle was hundreds of years in heaven before this creed in its present form was issued. I would not make light of the Nicene Creed, although it is too abstruse and difficult for ordinary use, and its preparation was the result of shameful quarrels on the part of members of the council who acted at times more like a caucus of ward politicians than like Chris- tian teachers. I am glad I am not obliged to repeat the Athanasian Creed. There are parts of it that doom many men to eternal perdition for no other reason than that they do not believe every clause of this creed, some words of which, on my lips at least, would be blasphemy. In the Anglican Church, the days on which this creed is recited are called " damnation days." It has been facetiously called " The Anathemasian Creed" In Christian experience it is Christ first, Christ last, Christ always. We do not read, " Come 184 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY unto baptism, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." We do not read, '' Come unto the com- munion for peace and salvation." But Christ said, *' Come unto me, and I will give you rest." A little while ago I was called to visit a dying man. He did not belong to my parish, in any strict sense in which that term may be used; but my parish included everybody to whom I could be helpful in the providence of God. I saw, im- mediately on entering the room, that he was a very sick man, and the moment the members of his family spoke I saw that I was in a Scottish home. Probably I was called because of my name and parentage. The wife went near him and said : '' John, the minister is come. Do you ken him?" But his eyes were lightless and his face expressionless. His daughter then went to him and said : " Father, do ye ken me ? I'm yer ain wee dochter Jeanie." But there was no re- sponse. The wife was filled with peculiar sad- ness, and going to him again she said : " John, John, do ye ken me? John, speak to me, I'm yer ain wee wifey." Still there was no response. Then I went close to him, and in a calm, clear voice, adopting their own method of speech, I said, "John, do ye ken Jesus?" Instantly his face and eyes were illumined with almost heavenly light, and with strength which seemed to be divinely given, he said : " Oh, I ken him weel. He's my ain Saviour." I knelt by his side, CORONATION OF OUR LORD 1 85 took his hand in mine, and prayed. For a time I felt the grasp of his hand in response to the prayer, then his hand was still, and when I ceased praying I looked into his face and he was gone. He had gone to see " his ain Saviour " face to face. That was no time to talk about creeds; that was no time to talk about churches. That was no time to talk of baptism or the communion. That was the time to talk about Christ. The older I grow, the shorter and simpler my creed becomes. Not more creed, but more Christ the church needs and the world needs. A Christless pulpit is a powerless pulpit. Christless pews are charmless pews. Let us crown Christ in our studies, in our pleasures, in our homes, and in our business. If a man cannot take Christ into his business, he must have a very bad business, or he must have a very poor religion; probably he has both. Christ shall be crowned with many crowns in heaven. Without Christ heaven itself would be charmless. You have children in heaven; you have parents in heaven. But past the dearest of children, past the best beloved mothers, you will hasten to cast your joyous crown at the pierced feet of Jesus Christ. His name will be the sweetest note in your most triumphant song; his presence will give heaven its chief attraction. There you shall see him face to face; there you l86 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY shall behold him as '' King of kings, and Lord of lords." Your glad and grateful song will re- sound through heaven's lofty dome : *' Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto God for- ever and ever." Higher still will rise the other song which even angels and archangels cannot sing, but which re- deemed sinners shall ever chant : " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION ERNEST D. BURTON, D. D. Professor in the University of Chicago BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION Religion and education are natural allies. If they have not always been associated together that has been due to a false conception either of religion or of education. If religion be thought of as a means of appeasing the wrath of a hostile deity, or of escaping from this life into a blissful state after death, and if education be conceived of simply as the prerequisite to political office, or as training for some other gainful occupation, then, indeed, religion and education have little to do with one another. But when religion is thought of as the adjustment of the individual to the to- tality of the world in which he lives, especially to the Supreme Factor in that world, and education as the discipline of all one's native powers to meet the opportunities and responsibilities of life, it is inevitable that they should be felt to be intimately related to one another. In Christianity above all other religions, and, broadly speaking, in modern Protestantism above all less democratic forms of Christianity, these conceptions of religion and education have pre- vailed, and the church has in consequence con- 189 190 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY cerned itself with education. Wherever Jesus' es- timate of the value of human personality has pre- vailed, and his thought of the possibility of a human life lived in harmony and cooperation with the Supreme Mind and Will has gained ac- ceptance, and in proportion as they have domi- nated the thought of the church, education has gone hand in hand with religion. Nowhere, perhaps, has this ideal relation been more fully realized than in American Chris- tianity. The founders of this nation were pre- dominantly men who'believed in religion, and that too a religion not of sacramentalism, but of con- scious and intelligent relation to an intelligent Creator, and of deliberately determined moral re- lation to one's fellow men. Such a religion de- mands intelligence and education, and by the side of their houses of worship our fathers built their schools. In this interest in education our Baptist fathers shared, and especially in the last century of our history continuous efforts have been made to de- velop schools which should make our denomina- tional contribution to the educational forces of the country, and prepare our youth to fill their place in the church, the nation, and the world. Roughly speaking, the history of educational movements among the Baptists of the United States, since the founding of our first college, falls into three periods of half a century each. BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION I9I In 1764, as the outcome of a movement that arose in the Philadelphia Baptist Association, then the principal organization of Baptists in the colonies, the College of Rhode Island, now for long known as Brown University, was founded. In 1 8 14, after a lapse of a half century, which seems to have been almost without notable event in our educational history, the Boston Baptist Association formed what a few years later became the Northern Baptist Education Society. In the same year the Convention of Baptists which met in Philadelphia to consider the formation of a missionary society, issued an address to the Bap- tists of the United States in which education was one of the topics discussed. In this same year, 1814, also the Baptist Education Society of the Middle States, founded in 1812, enlarged its scope and became the Baptist Education Society of the United States of America. When in 18 17 the first triennial meeting of the Baptist General Convention was held in Philadel- phia, its president, Dr. Richard Furman, brought forward a " Plan of Education," as a result of which education was included in the sphere of the Convention's work, and the Baptists of the United States were definitely committed to an educa- tional program. Time would altogether fail me to show the de- velopment of this movement, or how out of it there sprang both in the East and in the West col- 192 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY leges and theological schools. A glance at the list of the schools founded in the Northern States, to say nothing of the South, in the next fifty years is sufficient to show the activity of the denomina- tion in that direction. Colby, which had been chartered in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, opened its theological department in 18 19, and obtained the right to confer college degrees in 1820. In 18 17 " The Baptist Educational Society of the State of New York " was organized, and out of it grew, in 1820, Hamilton Literary and Theological Institu- tion, of which Hamilton Theological Seminary and Colgate University are the living successors. Columbian College was founded in Washington in 1 82 1, Newton Theological Institution in 1826, Denison in 183 1, Franklin in 1834, Shurtleff in 1835, Bucknell in 1846, William Jewell in 1849, Rochester University and Rochester Seminary in 1850, Central University of Iowa at Pella in 1853, Kalamazoo (chartered as an academy in 1833) in 1855, McMinnville in 1857, the old University of Chicago in 1859, Des Moines in 1865. The last half century, beginning in 1867, has been characterized by the foundation of new schools, and great increase both in the total num- ber of students going from our churches to col- lege and in the ratio of college students to church- membership. But that which marks it off most notably from the previous periods is a series of BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 1 93 efforts to organize and nationalize the work of the denomination in the promotion of education. Among the schools established are, of theo- logical seminaries, Chicago, Crozer, Berkeley, Kansas City ; of colleges and universities, Ottawa in Kansas, the new University of Chicago, and Frances Shimer' in Illinois, Redlands in Califor- nia, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, Grand Island in Nebraska, and Colorado Woman's College in Denver. Besides this, missionary training-schools have been established in Philadelphia and Chi- cago, the two colleges of Iowa — Des Moines and Central — have been practically merged in the new Union College of Iowa, and by the union between Baptists and Free Baptists we have acquired Bates College in Maine and Hillsdale College in Michigan. Of academies the list is too long to be enumerated here. Nor is there space to speak of the educational work of the Home Mission Society for Negroes and Indians, or of that of the Foreign Mission Society in the Orient. Accurate statistics as to the number of students going to college from Baptist churches or Bap- tist families are difficult, indeed impossible, to ob- tain. But there is an interesting ratio between such figures as we possess. In 1868, Dr. S. S. Cutting estimated on the basis of somewhat ac- curate reports that in the State of New York there was one Baptist student in college for each 194 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY seven hundred members in Baptist churches, and added that this was the highest ratio prevaiHng in any of our churches outside of New England. It was probably therefore considerably above the average. The latest statistics that we possess, gathered some five years ago, indicate that the present ratio in the Northern States is about one college student to one hundred and seventy-five church-members, just four times the ratio in New York in 1867. Definite efforts for the creation of a national Baptist organization for the promotion of educa- tion date from the year 1867, the same year in which the Memorial Baptist Church was founded in Philadelphia, the city which more than any other in the country has been associated with movements for the promotion of organized edu- cation among the Baptists of the country. In October of that year, at the meeting of the New York Baptist State Convention, Rev. Dr. S. S. Cutting read a paper which made so deep an im- pression upon those present that they proceeded to organize the " Baptist Educational Commis- sion," the object of which was, as Article I of the constitution states, " the promotion, within the field of its operations, of education and the in- crease of the ministry in the Baptist denomina- tion." The organization was definitely intended to be provisional, December 31, 1872, being named in the constitution as the limit of its life, EDWARD BAGBY POLLARD Stated Supply. 1906 BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 195 but undoubtedly also as a stepping-stone to some- thing permanent. In May, 1872, there met in Philadelphia a National Baptist Educational Con- vention, summoned by the commission above re- ferred to, which proceeded to organize the *' American Baptist Educational Commission," a body intended to be permanent and to discharge the functions of a Board of Education for the whole Baptist denomination of the United States, North and South. Into the reasons for its failure to achieve and hold the position it was intended to occupy it is impossible here to enter. But fif- teen years later, in 1887, it had so far ceased to be effective that when in that year steps were taken in the annual meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission Society to organize a denomina- tional education society, no mention was made of the former organization. At Washington, in May, 1888, in an enthu- siastic meeting of delegates from North and South, summoned in pursuance of the action of May, 1887, the American Baptist Education So- ciety was organized. Under Dr. Henry L. More- house, to whose broad vision and ceaseless ac- tivity more than to any other one person the Society owed its existence, and under Mr. Fred T. Gates, corresponding secretary from 1888 to 1893, the new organization did a notable work. In the fifteen years of its activity the number of schools under Baptist auspices increased, accord- 196 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY ing to the testimony of Dr. Frank W. Padelford, the present secretary of the Society, from 128 to 214; the number of students from 17,721 to 47,443 ; the teachers from 968 to 2,938 ; the value of the property from $9,188,096 to $24,953,148; endowments from $8,763,385 to $24,192,965. The most conspicuous, but by no means the only notable, achievement of the Society was the founding, in 1891, of the new University of Chi- cago, to replace the one which had closed its doors in 1886. But the fate that had overtaken the com- mission of 1872 pursued also the effort of 1888. and .^fter a few years of vigorous life the Ameri- can Baptist Education Society, though continu- ing to exist legally, ceased to be active. But the consciousness of the need of an organi- zation through which the denomination as rep- resented in the Northern Baptist Convention might express its belief in education and become effective in the promotion of it, remained and de- manded expression. A resolution passed by the Convention at Portland, Oregon, in 1909, led to the creation in 19 10 of the Board of Education of the Northern Baptist Convention. Into the work of that Board or the agreement made with the American Baptist Education So- ciety, by which the two organizations, though separate legally, are in effect one in activity, it is not my thought now to enter. The future claims our chief attention. Let us pause before turning BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION I97 to it only long enough to consider where we stand at the end of three half centuries since the found- ing of our oldest existing educational institution. In the first place we are not in urgent need of more educational institutions. Of universities, colleges, theological seminaries, and of academies we have enough for our present needs and for the demands of the immediate future as far as we can now foresee what these will be. In the development of these institutions also we have made encouraging progress. But our achievements leave us with our goal still far in the distance. Our schools are to be found from Maine to the Pacific Coast, and in almost every instance occupy strategic positions. Among them are some that stand high among schools of their class. But by no means all of them have reached that measure of efficiency which can justify us in sitting down in complacency to admire them and felicitate ourselves on their possession. Aside from the fact that any live institution must always be growing, we have both in the East and in the West colleges and academies that fall so far short of possessing the equipment and faculty neces- sary to the maintenance of an institution of the first rank as to call for immediate eflforts to in- crease their resources. But it is in respect to our interest in education as expressed in the number of our youth that go to college that we are perhaps most manifestly 198 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY falling short of our duty. Its college graduates are not the only members of a denomination that give it power and efficiency. Far from it. But the number of its youth that a denomination sends to college is one of the indices by which its present efficiency may be measured, and especially its future be forecast. And tried by this standard the Baptist denomination is far from having at- tained. To have multiplied by four the propor- tion of our youth that go to college, though this perhaps means only a doubling of the ratio of young men in college to our membership, is an indication of gratifying progress. But it is not an achievement to be satisfied with. The Congrega- tionalists and the Presbyterians each send just about two and a half times as many young peo- ple to college as do we Baptists of the Northern States, and there is little reason to think that they are doing too much for the education of their youth. But such general statements as these, which might be uttered in almost any year of our his- tory, are inadequate, if not positively inappro- priate in such a year as this. For we have come to a unique period in the world's history, and this fact can but be significant for us as a denomina- tion, nor fail to have an imj)ortant bearing on our program of education. The wo of our Master, and of the God of history, falls on those who can- not interpret their own time. It is reported that BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 1 99 Petropoff, the Minister of the Interior under the late Czar of Russia, when retiring from office said, " Apparently I have committed the unpar- donable crime of not understanding the spirit of my age." He was right. This is an unpardon- able crime, because a fatal defect, in any states- man. Not less is it an unpardonable fault in a religious denomination not to understand the facts of its own age, of which its spirit is one, but by no means the only, factor of importance. To this aspect of the matter then let us turn our thought. The United States has entered upon a new period of her history. It will enter upon another when the present world-wide war is over. The end of the Civil War marked the beginning of a new era in our history. It unified the peo- ple as never before, settling it forever that the States of the Union are a nation, not simply a federation to be dissolved at will. But the pres- ent war will make an even greater difference to us as a nation than did the war of the sixties. The world is hereafter to be one as never before, and our problems as a nation are to be problems of a world horizon. Whether we desire it or not, we shall be compelled to deal with world-wide questions and grapple with tasks of world-wide import. The affairs of the world are to be, literally and strictly, our affairs. We may wish it other- wise, but we cannot make it so. World-wide business, world-wide travel, steamships, airships, 200 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY submarine cables and submarine boats — and we have had our part in creating all these — yes, and the very universalism of the Christian religion, of which more than any other nations England and America have been the advocates and expo- nents, have created a new world in which the separateness of a nation like ours from the woes and sorrows, the struggles and wars, of other nations is no longer possible. In this new era we must be a new nation. Gone forever are the days of our childhood and youth. Gone forever are the days of our national isola- tion. We have been thrust out, like a youth from the shelter of a father's home, into the world full of responsibilities and tasks. We shall never go back. The clock of history never moves back- ward. The new era will bring with it new ideas and new watchwords. We shall not do less business than before ; we shall do more. But '' business " ought never again to be the great word that it has been in our national vocabulary. " Coun- try " is taking its place, and words of world-wide horizon will more and more thrust themselves into the foreground and claim for themselves the bold-face type in our newspapers and in our thoughts. Consider for a moment some of the questions that are already confronting us and demanding immediate attention and early solution. What is BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 201 to be our relation to the states of Latin America, from Mexico southward to Brazil and Argen- tina ? Is the Monroe Doctrine to be maintained, and if so, according to which of its various defini- tions ? If it has been swept away in the swelling flood of war, what is to take its place? Is the United States to be in any sense the friend and protector of these states, or of any of them, or are all the states of the Western Continent hence- forth to stand on an equal footing, with no priority or seniority of one as against another? What is to be our final policy, when we reach one, toward Mexico ? And what is to be our place in the far East ? Shall we exclude it from our sphere of action as if it were in Mars or Jupiter? Or recognizing that it is impossible thus to fly in the face of facts, shall we concede that in China's present state of transition and weakness she needs a friend among the nations, and assuming for ourselves that oflice, shall we make ourselves the champion of China against any possible aggres- sion of other nations of East or West? Or shall we recognize that such an oflice falls rather by virtue of proximity and consanguinity to Japan, and conceding this to Japan, shall we exercise the right we seem recently to have gained to maintain a. friendly supervision over her guardianship? And shall we find in such responsibility a new reason for being so scrupulously just and friendly to Japan that we shall always retain her confi- 202 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY dence and friendship, and so be able to render to China also our largest possible service ? I raise these questions not to answer or even to discuss them, but only to emphasize the fact that isolation is for us henceforth an impossibility, and that the problems that are henceforth to be ours, whether we desire it or not, cannot be solved by any vacillating hand-to-mouth, month-by-month policy, but must be met by well-considered, de- liberately maintained action, ever adapted to new situations, but never varying in its broad outlook or its fundamental principles. Now all this has an important bearing on the problems of education. For it signifies that as a nation we must become, to a much greater extent than ever before, students of history, and of social and political science. Not, let me hasten to say, to the exclusion of any other worthy subject of study. This is no time for narrowness of intel- lectual horizon. One thing that has contributed greatly to the strength of Germany in this war is the fact that for fifty years at least she has studied everything; specialized in a sense, but specialized in every possible field of knowledge, with the result of having in her own nation the ability to deal promptly and effectively with any problem that might arise. And the greatest ele- ment of weakness in some, if not all of her oppo- nents, has been precisely the one-sidedness of their education — the scorn or the neglect of some BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 203 branch of knowledge which suddenly proved utterly necessary to the achievement of their purpose. There is no field of knowledge that we can afford to neglect. Never was the wisdom of the maxim Nihil hiimanum niihi alienum more evident than it is to-day, or more necessary to be adopted by our nation. We must take all knowl- edge for our field, and prosecute our studies in every department with vigor and persistence. But this does not alter, in a way it only empha- sizes, the necessity of the study of history and of the sciences that have sprung in recent years from history. For history is the great teacher of man- kind. All that we know, all the wisdom we have inherited or acquired, the race has learned from history, if history be broadly and justly defined. History, in its broadest sense, must become not the diversion or the profession of a few college instructors, but the serious study of the American nation. In this, as in all other enterprises, we must have leaders. But there must be multitudes who are intelligent enough to understand the policies of the leaders, and to follow them or criti- cize them, not with ignorant partisanship, but on the basis of real knowledge of their own. But again moral principles must be more clearly apprehended and more firmly held than ever before. The great questions that our nation will have to face in the coming years will be moral questions. That conduct is three-fourths of life 204 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY is as true of a nation as of an individual, and all national conduct is moral. I have spoken of the strength of Germany's education. Its awful vice, that to which more than to any other cause the world owes the infinite loss and suffering of this war, is the falsity of its moral ideals. Slowly, almost unobserved by the world, by a process of education that affected the nation from peasant to emperor, and stamped itself on each rising generation, Germany became thoroughly infected by the doctrine that power is right, that the State can do no wrong, that a nation owes no allegiance to those principles that rightly prevail between in- dividuals. If the world is to be safe for human- ity, not to say for democracy, the nations of the world must learn — we as a nation must learn — that there cannot be one morality for individuals and another for nations, that it is more necessary that the Golden Rule be observed by groups and nations than by individuals, because the results of its violation are disastrous in proportion to the magnitude of the bodies disregarding it. If we as a nation are to contribute not to a fresh world- disaster, but to the future welfare of the race, we must found our national policy on the principles of Jesus, on the Golden Rule he gave for all. But the new world will need religion also, and spiritual leadership. The war has created faith, but it has also destroyed it. It must be rekindled where it has gone out, purified where it has be- BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 205 come corrupt and unintelligent. A world with- out faith will be a world without hope, a world with a false faith will be a world of false morals. Never in the history of our nation, perhaps never in the history of the world, was there such a need of spiritual leaders, men with a knowledge of history and present-day conditions, men also of vision and unshakable faith in the eternal God. Loud is the call for the Christian prophet, but for the prophet whose enthusiasm is founded on knowledge, whose faith rests on the rock of fact. Such a situation cannot be met by mere intel- lectualism, however keen. But neither can it be dealt with by an enthusiasm that is ignorant of the great teachings of history. It calls for educa- tion broad in its historical basis and outlook, per- meated with moral ideals and religious faith, and fitted to prepare men and women for great tasks in a real world. It calls for the services of the best minds the nation possesses to define and or- ganize such education. Education made Ger- many the efificient foe of the world and her own worst enemy. A better education must make America strong in her own defense, the ef^cient friend of all nations. But if we need a better education, so also do we need more of it. In a democracy every ignorant member is an element of danger. It can escape disaster only when that element does not exceed the margin of safety. That margin is narrowed 206 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY by every increase in the magnitude and serious- ness of the problems that confront the nation. Russia has furnished us of late a terrible illustra- tion of what happens to a democracy in which noble aspirations are defeated by wide-spread ignorance of the elementary principles of eco- nomics and government. The weakness of that other giant, China, is the result of two causes — a sad dearth of great men, and a lack of general education. America is far in advance of both Russia and China, but she is far behind the de- mands of the hour. More great men, fitted by character, knowledge, and training to be leaders of the people, more of the people educated to fol- low intelligently, resolutely, courageously — these alone can fit America to fill her place in the new age of the world. What, then, does this signify to the Baptist denomination ? This chiefly and inclusively, that following the precedent set for us by President Furman a century ago here in Philadelphia, we shall definitely and determinedly include a " plan of education '' in our denominational policy. On the one hand we must educate ourselves in refer- ence to education. We must create a recognition of its necessity that will make parents and pastors propagandists in its behalf, and an appetite for it that will impel multitudes of our youth to pre- pare themselves for the responsibilities of life. On the other hand, we must strengthen our BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 20/ schools, providing them with the equipment and facuhy that are necessary to the highest efficiency. I plead not for luxuries, rather for Spartan sim- plicity and more than Spartan efficiency. These achievements are vital to our life as a denomination. Religion and education must go hand in hand. The divorce of them is fatal to both. Only as they are united shall we have com- petent spiritual leadership or intelligent follow- ing. Without such union we can neither develop the life of our own churches nor effectively prose- cute the work of world evangelization, nor fur- nish the statesmen which equally with other de- nominations we must contribute to the service of our country. Moreover, our twofold task we must undertake as a task of the whole denomination. This has always been the weakest point in our educational work. Though one hundred and fifty years ago Brown University was established not as a local institution, but by the combined efforts of the Baptists of all the colonies, the initial step being taken in the Philadelphia Association, and Geor- gia next to Rhode Island making the largest con- tribution; though a hundred years ago Doctor Furman presented a " Plan of Education " to the denomination as a whole, though three times in the last fifty years the effort has been made to create an educational organization that would represent the Baptists either of the whole coun- 208 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY try or of the whole North, though good results have been achieved by each of these efforts, two of them have failed of permanence, the third is still on trial, and education is still with us in large part a local affair. This ought not to be. It must not continue to be if we are to meet the full measure of our responsibility. As Americans our patriotism has become na- tional — the war of the sixties settled that forever. We are destined to make it international, not in the sense that it will cease to be national, but that we shall make the Golden Rule the basis of inter- national relationships. As Baptists we have con- ducted the work of home missions with a conti- nental horizon, and with a home base coextensive with the area of the Northern Baptist Convention. In foreign missions from the same home base we have extended our vision to all the lands of the earth. But in education, except as it has been an incident of home or foreign missions, we have bounded our vision for the most part by States or small groups of States. The Board of Education of the Northern Bap- tist Convention has insisted that every institution must appeal to the local constituency first, and every region has responded loyally to the demand. There is no occasion to fear that the West will seek to shift its share of the burden to the shoul- ders of the East. Our Western colleges are being endowed by gifts of prairie farmers of scanty BAPTISTS AND EDUCATION 209 income and meager accumulation. In days past the men of the East have by their activity in home missions created bonds stronger than steel be- tween East and West. The time has come when it should be done in education. We are one de- nomination East and West, with constant inter- change of ministers and lay members. We can- not do our work effectively without high ideals of education and strong institutions in all parts of our land. If we would build for the future we must take not a narrow State-wide vision of our duty, but a vision from sea to sea, from the coasts to the mountains. Nor is this a task that can be postponed. Whatever the war may demand of us by way of taxation or in gifts to the great cooperative relief agencies, we must face the fact that at the end of the war the need of education will be greater than ever. We fight to create a new world. We must give to make the men who will build that new world. War destroys — God grant this war may destroy war itself — ^but to all the destructive work of war, necessary though it be, we must add con- struction, and for that work we shall need an army of educated Christian men and women. As we prize the future of the church, the future of the nation, the future of the world, now more than ever before we work and give and pray for the cause of Christian education. CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP CURTIS LEE LAWS, D. D. Editor, The Watchman-Examiner CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH- MEMBERSHIP There are two senses in which the word " church " is used in the New Testament. It is used to represent the whole body of be- lievers in Christ from the day of Pentecost to the end of the dispensation. Dr. Henry G. Weston says : '' In this sense the church is a body of peo- ple called out from the world and composed of those to whom Christ is revealed by the Father. This church shall not be dissolved by death, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The members of this church are given to Christ by the Father; they are gathered out of all na- tions; they are regenerated and sanctified by the truth, and this church shall be presented at the. last without spot or blemish. It differs radically and generically from all other organizations; its principle of union is unknown to them ; it recog- nizes none of their divisions or distinctions. In it all national peculiarities, all diversities of birth^ culture, social position, or possessions are swal- lowed up. It is not a development of the moral,, religious, or social nature of man ; it is not a prod- uct of the human intellect; it is not a school of opinion, nor a voluntary association of persons of p 213 214 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY similar tastes or pursuits. It is a supernatural and vital union, a new creation, a divine organism." The word *' church " is also used to describe a body of professed believers in Christ, who have been baptized upon a credible confession of their faith in him, and who have associated themselves together for worship and for work and for fel- lowship. It is with this last conception of the church that we are to deal this morning. Who should be church-members f Let us consider first of all the character of those who constitute the membership of a local church of the New Testament pattern. The teach- ing of the New Testament is explicit on this sub- ject. Without controversy we all agree that the New Testament teaches that a church should be composed of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and King, and who have openly confessed their faith in him and their allegiance to his cause. Such people are called '' Chris- tians." There is no more majestic word in our lan- guage than the word " Christian." It has come to be the word which suggests all that is noblest in our civilization; all that is noblest in history, philosophy, literature, art, heroism, and character. It is the highest ambition of the noblest people of our day to be worthy to be called by that honor- CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 2 1 5 able name. This word, so familiar and common- place to us, occurs but three times in the New Testament. In the city of Antioch, some ten years after the resurrection of our Lord, the disciples were first called " Christians." They did not themselves as- sume the name, for they called themselves " be- lievers," " disciples," " followers," " saints," and *' those of the way." Nor was the name given to them by the Jews, for that would have been an acknowledgment upon the part of the Jews that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, was really the Christ or the Messiah. The Jews called the new sect ** Galileans," " Nazarenes," and " heretics." It remained for the people of An- tioch, heathen though they were, to furnish us our name, the name in which we now so delight. It has been the habit of speakers and writers to de- clare that the name was given to the disciples as an opprobrious epithet, but I never could see any reason for this interpretation. There is no hint in the New Testament that the name carried with it ridicule. It is far more probable that the church at Antioch, during the year of Paul's residence, made a profound impression upon the community, and that the heathen, hearing the name of Christ so constantly, and beholding the devotion of the disciples to Christ and his teachings, called them " Christians," not in ridicule, but that they might be intelligently designated. Let us believe that the 2l6 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY people of Antioch, beholding the zeal and conse- cration of the disciples, purposely called them by the name which was their chief glory. But what- ever led to the name, it has ever since been the name by which the followers of Jesus have been known. The second mention of the word " Christian " is in the record of the trial of Paul the apostle be- fore King Herod Agrippa. You will recall the circumstances. Men were minded to make sport of the apostle, but with red-hot earnestness he poured forth his remarkable defense, and turning suddenly to Agrippa he said : " King Agrippa, be- lievest thou the prophets? I know that thou be- lievest." Then the king, in confusion, tried to turn the matter into a jest, and said, " With a lit- tle persuasion wouldest thou fain make me a Christian ? " Paul answered : " I would to God that whether with little or with much, not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, might be- come such as I am, except these bonds." Here you note that the word " Christian " seems to have become the commonplace designation of the dis- ciples, since Agrippa uses it without explanation. The third instance in which the word " Chris- tian " occurs, is the only instance in which the word is used by a Christian, but it unmistakably declares that by this time the disciples had them- selves accepted the name. It is the apostle Peter who called the disciples '' Christians " in a re- CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 21/ markable passage. '' Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you : on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil- doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, . . let him glorify God on his behalf." Thus we see that three times the word " Chris- tian " occurs in the New Testament. The name is first applied simply to the followers of Christ, to those whose profession emphasized the fact that they were disciples. It is next applied to those who were recognized as anxious to make disciples of others. It is next applied to those who walk in Christ's footsteps, sharing his char- acter, experiencing his beatitudes, and enduring his suffering. What is a Christian? Informing and interesting, indeed, is the use of this New Testament word. We know the characteristics and deeds of the disciples which gave birth to the beautiful name which we are 2l8 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY discussing, but we must go back of these and find out just what a Christian is. Henry Drummond says that he knew of a cynic who gave the following definition of a Christian, " A Christian man is a man whose great aim in life is a selfish desire to save his own soul (who in order to do that goes regularly to church), and whose supreme hope is to go to heaven when he dies." Drummond declared that the definition re- minded him of one of Professor Huxley's exami- nation papers in which the question was put, '' What is a lobster? " One student replied, " A lobster is a red fish which moves backwards." Professor Huxley declared that this would be a good answer except for three things. In the first place, a lobster is not a fish ; secondly, it is not red ; and thirdly, it does not move backward. That cynic exactly described what a Christian is not, rather than what a Christian is. The principal thing which Christianity seeks to extirpate from a man's nature is selfishness. The more Christ- like a man becomes the less selfish he is. The cynic was wrong. A Christian is one who, con- scious of sin and helplessness, puts his trust in Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and then strives to be obedient to Jesus Christ as King. A Christian is one in whom Christ works for the salvation of a lost world. A Christian is one who repents of his sins, accepts Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and yields his life to Christ and his service. WILLIAM HOLLOWAY MAIN Pastor. 1907-1916 CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 2 19 How do zve become Christians? This is an age-long and commonplace question. It is amazing, with all the books of the present day, with all the sermons which are preached, with all the personal work which is done, that the matter of personal religion assumes a kind of mysteriousness which baffles the average man. Dr. David J. Burrell had this word in a letter from a prominent man of affairs in New York, " All my life I have been an attendant at church ; I would like to be a Christian, but I confess I have never yet learned how to set about it." We are afraid that the men of the pew have been mysti- fied by the men of the pulpit. Our congregations have come for bread and have received a stone. Too many men have preached everything except the thing which Christ sent them to preach. There are many false notions abroad as to what makes a man a Christian. Many people feel that they are Christians without having any scrip- tural warrant for that feeling. Many others are Christians, but they have no assurance. To make a mistake here is to make a fatal mistake. No man ought to comfort himself with a false hope ; no man ought to be without assurance who is a true Christian. We do not become Christians by inheritance. Many feel that they have become Christians by inheritance — that they are Christians because 220 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY their parents were Christians ; that they are Chris- tians because of the blood that runs in their veins ; or because of a covenant that God entered into with their parents. In other words, that the sav- ing grace of Christianity is handed down from father to son, just as covenant blessings were handed down from father to son among the Jews, This is an utter perversion of Christianity. It is true that parents may do much toward bringing their children to the Saviour, and wo to parents who neglect this God-given privilege ! Scripture and experience prove that the graces of Chris- tianity are not inherited from parents, however godly these parents may be. We do not become Christians by obedience to Christian precepts. There are many people who feel that they have become Christians by taking the moral precepts of the New Testament as the guide of life, and by striving earnestly to mold the life according to these high ideals. A prominent religious teacher puts it this way : " With regard to the question, how you shall begin the Christian life, let me remind you that theology is the most abstruse thing in the world, but that practical religion is the simplest thing. If any of you wants to know how to begin to be a Christian, all I can say is that you should begin to do the next thing you find to be done as Christ would have done it. If CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 221 you follow Christ the ' old man ' will die of atrophy, and the ' new man ' will grow day by day under his abiding friendship." No better advice could have been given to the Christian who yearns for a fuller Christian life, but no more perilous advice could be given to the inquirer who is seeking to become a Christian. A man can never become a Christian by seeking to follow in the footsteps of Christ. There must be life be- fore there can be fruit. It is not the imitation of Christ, but the assimilation of Christ which makes a man a Christian. We do not become Christians by submitting ourselves to ordinances. There are many people who feel that they be- come Christian by submitting themselves to the ordinances which Christ commanded. This is sacramentarianism. Ordinances were ordained by God, but no observance of ordinances can make a man a Christian. Baptism is an external form of rare teaching value, by which men are to con- fess their allegiance to Christ. The Lord's Sup- per is an external form of rare teaching value, by which men are to recall and declare Christ's death in their behalf and his blessed promise to come again. Neither baptism nor the Lord's Supper can make us Christians, for neither of them can be properly observed until after we are Christians. But apart from this, how absurd it is to think that 222 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY the application of water to a man's body can change his heart ! Baptism makes nobody a child of God. It never has; it never can. We hold these two ordinances in great reverence, but we should rather abandon their use altogether as the Quakers did, than exalt them to a place in the scheme of salvation which would make them a positive menace to the souls of meru We do not become Christians by uniting zvith a church. Many feel that the way to salvation is through the church, and there are multitudes of people who believe that they are Christians simply because they are church-members. This is ecclesiasticism. They became Masons by joining a Masonic lodge, so they have become Christians by joining a Christian church ! We have little admiration for the Christian who refuses to identify himself with the institution which represents Christ in the world, and which stands for Christian worship, Christian work, and Christian fellowship; yet all sane men ought to know that uniting with a church never yet made a man a Christian. All Christians ought to be members of some church, for loyalty to Christ demands it, and the most effi- cient service to the world demands it, but there is no essential connection between church-member- ship and personal salvation. It is to our shame that we confess it, but there are many people in CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 22:i^ the churches who show no evidence whatever that they are Christians. We must have a surer foundation upon which to rest than church-mem- bership. To be sure you are a Mason because you belong to a Masonic lodge, but you are not neces- sarily a Christian because you belong to a Chris- tian church. In the churches there are some hypocrites, and many who have deceived them- selves into believing, or who have been deceived by others into believing, that they are Christians. The wheat and the tares will grow together until the harvest. We do not become Christians by accepting doc- trinal systems. There are many people who believe that they are Christians because they give intellectual cre- dence to the doctrines of Christianity — that men become Christians as they become evolutionists, by giving the assent of their minds to a certain system of truth or philosophy. In this sense men are Christians rather than Mohammedans or Buddhists. In this sense we are a Christian na- tion; in this sense our institutions are Christian institutions. But the assent of a man's mind to Christian truth never made a man a Christian. I have often found this the dilemma of Jews seeking to become Christians. • Just as soon as they came to see the historicity of Cm-istianity,-ji*st as soon as they came to the conviction that Jesus of Naza- 224 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY reth was the Christ, they felt that they were Chris- tians. We have known godless men to make val- iant war in behalf of a Christian doctrine, and not infrequently we have heard godless men argu- ing hotly over denominational differences, all alike convinced of the truth of Christianity, and even divided into hostile denominational camps! Ask your friend if he is a Christian and he will probably answer, "Do you think I am a heathen ? " We need to make very clear the fact that intellectual acceptance of revealed truth con- cerning Jesus Christ does not make a man a Christian. A man may hold a correct view of the doctrine of regeneration all his life, and yet never be regenerated himself. Orthodoxy of belief is not inconsistent with unrighteousness of life. Do not feel that you are a Christian simply because you believe that the Bible is the word of God. It is not enough to give intellectual assent to the truth. Having cleared away the rubbish, we are now in a position to see what the New Testament has to say concerning the method by which men become Christians. How then do zve become Christians? The New Testament explicitly declares that men become Christians by a change of heart, of disposition, of nature, so radical that it is called a '' new birth," or regeneration. This radical CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 225 change which takes place in us separates us from the world and unites us to God and to all men who have passed through the same experience. Regenerated men differ from one another in gifts and graces, but because of their common birth by the Holy Spirit they constitute one family in Christ. No man can regenerate him- self. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. But sinful and lost men are so constituted that they must assume a definite and prescribed attitude before the work of regeneration upon the part of God is possible. What does the Bible teach as to man's part in the matter of salvation ? To make a mistake here is to make a fatal mistake. Let Jesus Christ speak. To Nicodemus he said, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- ish, but have everlasting life." The simplicity of the plan bewildered the learned rabbi, so the Master used a simple object-lesson, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The Master taught that the one thing necessary is to believe in Christ. Over and over again this is repeated by Christ and those authorized to speak for him. To the jailer con- victed of sin Paul said, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." But what 226 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY is it to believe in Christ? What is faith? Dr. John A. Broadus, that prince of preachers, de- clared that the best explanation he ever heard of faith was given by an old negro preacher down in Virginia. Some one said to him, " Uncle Reuben, can you explain the meaning of faith? " " To be sure I can. Now, in the first place, there is faith. What is faith? Why, faith is jes' faith. Faith ain't nothing less than faith. Faith, is nothing more than faith. Faith is jes' faith. Now I done 'splain it." That man was right. Faith is as simple a conception as the human mind can have. Like love, it cannot be analyzed into parts, nor can you find anything simpler with which to compare it. It is like laughter ; you can- not explain it nor analyze it, but you know what it is well enough. So it is with believing on Christ or having faith in Christ. The content of faith. But if the matter of believing is so simple, we may at least inquire as to what we are to believe, as to what is to be the content of faith. First, we must believe what the Bible says about Jesus, we must credit the historic record of his life. We must believe what the Bible says about Jesus ; we must believe that he lived and preached and healed, and sacrificed and suffered and died on the accursed cross, and arose from the dead. We must go even farther and believe what Jesus CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 22/ claimed for himself. He claimed to be the Mes- siah, the Christ, the Son of God. He claimed to be able to forgive sins, and declared that he had come to give his life a ransom for many. He claimed to be the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, the Saviour spoken of in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. We believe this record concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, but to give mere intellectual as- sent is not sufficient. Do we believe Jesus when he says, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out " ? Do we believe him when he says, " He that believeth on me hath everlasting life"? Do we believe him sufficiently to yield ourselves to his love and forgiveness, to lay down our arms and make an unconditional surrender, to espouse and advocate his cause ? If we do, then we have exercised saving faith in the Son of God, and by that act we have become Christians. Jusfiftcation by faith. There is a simple phrase which has been cov- ered up for many centuries by theological discus- sions and dogmas. What does Paul mean when he says, ''being justified by faith"? Martin Luther found no peace until he came to under- stand the meaning of these words. On his knees he was wearily climbing the Scala Santa. We saw seventeen men and women climbing those stairs at one time. It is a work of merit. But 228 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY suddenly it came to Luther, as it must come to all of us, that we can never find peace by any merit of our own. Like a flash Luther saw the mean- ing of " being justified by faith." He understood then how he could have peace with God. What does it mean? It means that if you believe on Jesus Christ God will regard you and treat you as a just and righteous man. It means that God will look upon you, as he will look upon a per- fectly righteous man, with all the love and com- placency of his heart. A great scholar puts it this way : ''As God would treat a man who was just because he deserved it, so the gospel proposes to treat men who are not just and who do not de- serve it, if they believe on Christ. A sinful man, an undeserving man, may have God's forgiveness and favor and love, may be regarded with com- placency and delight, though he does not deserve it, if he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ." But this justification is only the first step in our salvation. When God declares us just because we believe in Christ, he begins to make us just. When he wraps us about with the robe of Christ's righteousness, he plants in our hearts the seeds of Christ's righteousness. He declares us righteous and simultaneously he begins the process of mak- ing us righteous. One process we call justifica- tion, the other we call regeneration. In justifica- tion he deals with our standing before the law. In regeneration he deals with our characters. CHRISTIANS AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 229 Both justification and regeneration are the work of God. All that is essential for us is that we exercise saving faith, that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We yield ourselves to Christ, and straightway the waiting and yearning Christ takes possession of us, and we become Christians. '' Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." He is able to save to the uttermost of sin, he is able to save to the uttermost of bad habit, he is able to save to the uttermost of despair. There are no incurables in the hospital of the Lord. But to be a Christian means not only to be con- scious of sin and helplessness, not only to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour, but also to obey him as Lord and Master. He said, ^' If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments." It is ours to yield, day by day, and hour by hour, to the promptings of the indwelling Spirit, and thus we shall work out our salvation with fear and trembling, realiz- ing that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. We are Christians if we have accepted Christ as Saviour, if we are manifesting Christ's life in our char- acter, and if we are giving our life to his service. Christ's life within us will inevitably blossom into noble character, and bear fruit in noble conduct. " What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works ? can faith Q 230 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY save him? . . Faith, if it hath not works, is dead in itself/' A chitrch after the New Testament pattern. A church of Christ is composed of these saved people, these Christians whom I have been de- scribing. They have confessed their faith in their Lord and Saviour by the exquisitely beautiful or- dinance of baptism, an ordinance which is a pic- torial representation of all the essentials of our evangelical faith. As they have gone down into the baptismal waters they have declared that hav- ing died with Christ on the cross they are about to be buried with him by baptism, and that as Christ arose from the dead they hope to arise from the watery grave to walk in newness of life. How wonderful it is that in this ordinance Christ safeguards the great doctrines of Christianity, and how precious therefore it ought to be to us ! These believers, having confessed Christ, now associate themselves together in an organization called the church, which has for its purpose Chris- tian worship. Christian work, and Christian fel- lowship. Such a church has this been during the past half century. May it continue to be such a church through all centuries to come. THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION WILLIAM RU55ELL OWEN. D. D. Pastor, Memorial Baptist Church, Philadelphia Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. — Luke 24 : 36 THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION Christianity is positive in its belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and reigns as a living personality. The normal events of any life — birth and death — in Jesus were wrought with the event of the supernatural ; that is, the birth and death of Jesus entered the realm of the spiritual. In his birth, modest maidenhood was called upon to offer itself in heroism upon the altar of mute consecra- tion, the grandeur of which never before had the world known. In his death, somehow, the fact of the tragedy of the cross has a meaning which at once transcends the rationalist's effort to explain ; and whether the theory of the death of Jesus be that of the Middle Ages or that of modern scholarship, the event of his death in both cases is a spiritual event which strangely contributes a historic dynamic to the centuries, and is still trans- forming the world. The resurrection of its Founder is a fact peculiar to Christianity. The resurrection of Jesus was not a reanimation nor an apparition of a spirit visualized at spectacular moments. After three days, unwitnessed, un- heralded, Jesus came out of death with a body 234 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY changed, improved, immortal, incorruptible, and spiritual. None but sympathetic disciples ever saw him in the forty days preceding the ascension. His body thus glorified challenged the faith and the best spiritual powers of his disciples. The case for immortality is not parallel to the fact of the resurrection. Jesus brought light to immortality. A universal faith in immortality, and an unanswerable longing for another life to establish equity for life's inequalities, and the ar- gument based upon the evolution of life into the higher and better potentialities about close the case for immortality, yet a few confound the truth of the resurrection with simple existence after death. On the night when my father had slipped on the sandals of peace and had walked away into the world of light, I was walking with my younger brother under the silent stars. We were seeking some comfort in our faith, and I said, '' Well, there is the fact of the resurrection," *' Yes," he answered, ** I believe we shall live after death." '' But," was the reply, *' that body which we saw, pale and weakened and white, shall some day rise from the dead in the image of the old body, but with a heavenly difference, recognizable, but perfect, without the limitations of time or space, and painless, no longer a natural body but a spiritual. This is guaranteed to us by the words which say, * Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.' " THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 235 The New Testament abounds with the expec- tant hope of the resurrection of Jesus. He himself often spoke of it. It is clearly the inspiration of the preaching of the early church, and to attain to the power of his resurrection was a motive which called out the noblest service of the early apostles. The book of Romans, whose integrity has never been successfully questioned, states, " He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." And the first letter to the Corinthian church, whose place as a historical book is wholly established, declares : '' If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen : and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." The resurrection of Jesus is as easily proved from unimpeached records as is the incident of George Washington's crossing the Delaware. In our day of world distress, observers of the battle- fields in Europe declare that there is scarce a sol- dier who does not believe in the fact of the im- mortality of the soul, and as a corollary to this belief the vast regiments of thinking soldiers, with blinding fire-blasts and reeking shrapnel swath- ing death lanes on all sides of them, somehow are taking a greater and realer comfort in the fact of the resurrection, which couples together the im- mortal soul and body after death. Some simple proofs of the resurrection of Jesus will buttress our faith in the fact of the 236 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY resurrection of Jesus and the prophecy of our own. We shall present, first, the proof from the argu- ment of the records, secondly, the internal evi- dence of Jesus' life, and then the extracanonical evidence which gathers up its case from the centu- ries of history. The New Testament presents the record of more than five hundred eye-witnesses to the risen Lord. History, recorded by a careful scribe years after rumors and traditions have cleared away, increases its value as a record the longer its pages remain unimpeached. Thus with the New Testa- ment presenting Mary in the early morning cry- ing, '' Rabboni," and those other women in the garden meeting the Lord face to face; with the pensive disciples on the Emmaus Road testifying to his presence ; and Peter alone in some Galilean bower; and at the close of the first Sunday the ten disciples in the barred room stirred to the ecstasy of worship by the sudden appearance of Jesus — certainly these eye-witnesses become cu- mulative as a jury of spectators of the Christ of the resurrection in a single day. Later we have the Lord's presentation of himself to the Eleven, when Thomas comes forth with his testimony im- mortal, in reassuring conversation with James his doubting brother, to the five hundred in a single epiphany, to the fishers by Tiberias Lake, and finally to the disciples on tlie way to Bethany, WILLIAM RUSSELL OWEN Pastor, 1917- THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 237 when they saw him gently lifted, transported, as- cending to the heavens, from which in like man- ner he shall return. Upon the testimony of these eye-witnesses of record we might almost rest. Greenleaf, the world's great authority on evi- dence, in his volume on the harmony of the Four Gospels as related to the evidence of the eye- witnesses to the resurrection, states his significant opinion that " The testimony of the eye-witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus is conclusive." The proof from the record convinces one of the fact. There comes again the problem of the life and personality of Jesus to be explained if he be not risen and living to-day. Death is the natural end of all men. You lose a friend by death. You come to me at the close of three days and say, " Come, dine with me, I have a friend risen from the dead.'' I make light of your strange fancy. I answer you : " I will not come ; I knew your friend. It was natural that he die. He suffered, and murmured because he suffered. He had the common faults of men. It was natural that he die, for to all men there comes once death." But here is Jesus, the contemporary of the ages. Among philosophers the chief, among teachers the first, he stands head and shoulders above all men, sinless, stainless, scarless in moral fiber. He sweeps through the centuries as the silhouetted figure against the skyline of every age. Nations which sat in darkness have seen his great light. 2^8 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY " Never a single word which he uttered has been discredited," cries Romanes, and Jesus in his earthly career has kept all of the law which if a man keep, says Jehovah, he shall live thereby. But Jesus dies, he is buried, and the onlooking by- stander asks of God : '* Where is thy integrity ? Why should a blameless life, having kept the law, reap the wages of sin, being sinless? " " God's character," writes Johnston-Ross, '' is at stake, but in the last moment he is rescued by the resur- rection of Jesus." It were a greater miracle to explain God and solve the problem of Jesus with- out a resurrection than to accept the fact of the risen Lord. Greater even than his singular per- sonality are the survival values of the preeminent spiritual qualities and persistent moral buttresses of the post-resurrection expressions of the life of Jesus. Jesus, because of what he was, and what he is, and what he did, must rise from the dead, else his life is commonplace as man's. And there is the proof which gathers accumu- lating value through the years. Often by the tes- timony of the saints who endure, often by the transformation of barbarous communities into centers of mercy by the hospitals that literally fleck every hillside as flowers cover the vales, often by the quiet intrusion of the life of the living risen Christ with the gentleness of one who quenches no smoking flax and breaks no bruised or broken reed, into the inner potential centers THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 239 of civic, and national, and international affairs, Jesus is conquering the earth. The world has all but made up its mind that Jesus lives and still in- volves his life in the events and program of man. Recently a prominent minister of Jesus Christ v^as introduced by a Jewish rabbi. *' You," he said, '* believe in the Christ that has come and con- quered. We believe in the Messiah yet to come, but we desire to say that if our Messiah will meet the measure of your Christ, we as Jews shall be satisfied." You would expect after the event of the miracle of the resurrection that the world would fall upon a new era, a new age, a new dispensation, a new ideal. That is what has happened in the world since Jesus arose from the dead. Timid disciples are made bold, a mighty dynamic in the story of a life which has conquered death inspires the ages, and the testimony of the centuries indicates the fact with which the early apostles visualized their age, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead as the Master of death and the Lord of life. But the doctrine of the resurrection stands like a sentinel's steel armor, empty in a public mu- seum, unless we can thrust into the doctrine a vi- tal personality who moves the shining armor to take its place in the lists of life to-day. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead spirit- ualizes the common ways of men. He is their companion on the plains, in the battles, in the 240 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY quiet agony of grief. His disciples had lost him, and they were seeking his grave : Oh! could'st thou but know With what a deep devotedness of woe We wept thy absence, o'er and o'er. Again thinking of thee, still of thee, Till thought grew pain, and memory. Like a drop that night and day Falls cold and ceaseless, wore our hearts away. But Jesus was in the garden at the very side of Mary the devoted; on the road to the quiet village he was walking with the two dejected men ; in the profusion of a bower of springing flowers he cheered and forgave the truant Peter; and in the upper room, with windows closed and bar- riers hung, he smiled in victory on the defeated, fearing Eleven. When we walk along the Via Dolorosa, Jesus is our companion, our presence, our friend. Every common task has a halo of glory surrounding it. The cross on our insignia is no longer a rude engine of death, it is the signal of the hosts of the largest life. Bethlehem has hallowed every cradle with its child, Gethsemane has wrapped the world in a common badge of sorrow, and Golgotha is the challenge to every wronged man and institution in life to wait pa- tiently for a final justice. If a man is a Christian, he does not have to raise his voice to summon his Christ in the dark night, when the pulse beats slow and the songs THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 24I have stilled their voices. He is the alert Christ. He is thrusting our doors inward, seeking to be- friend us, when we thought him asleep in a grave. The drudgeries of the housewife, and the gray grind of the fretting wheels of commerce are every day being transformed in the delights of victories and the dreams of those who overcome. Donald Hankey discovered him in the trenches of war when the summons to charge came. " Men," he said, " if wounded, ' Blighty ' ; if killed, the resurrection." Thomas Tiplady tells of a child in Belgium that could not be sung to sleep or to repose, so fright- ened had the child become by the presence of the Germans, when into the room came a doctor in khaki, and the child reached out to him crying, " English, English," and soon fell asleep in his arms. We older children grope our way From the dark behind to the dark before ; But only when, dear Lord, we lay Our hands in thine, the night is day, And there is darkness never more. And not the least dynamic found in the fact of the resurrection lies in the spiritual value that the resurrection of Jesus puts upon the capacity of the individual soul to enter into a personal friendship with his risen Lord. Jesus sought Peter alone after the resurrection to reveal his unbroken friendship; by special appearance to James his- 242 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY own brother, tardy in his conversion to disciple- ship, Jesus made known his risen glory; to the disciples fearing the Jews Jesus suddenly ap- peared, revealed himself, and then unfolded the larger glimpses of his kingdom; to the pilgrims on the silent walk to the near-by village he slowly approached by means of discourse, and then in the breaking of bread he revealed his hidden self. To the truant, Jesus assures his forgiveness with not even a rebuke ; for the slow to believe he seeks his time and place ; the fearing he encircles with a comforting presence first, then leads reason to understand his ways and words ; with the world- wearied and disconsolate toilers he first walks, then talks, then sits in the unbroken beauty of friendship. A rugged, tender preacher of the Southern States of America had been summoned to the bed of a dying man, and his sick friend said to him : " Sometimes one seems to have unwittingly grown into a friendship with Christ, as a child with gentle wooing walks naturally over the threshold into the kingdom of God, yet others must have their minds captivated and held by subtle argument, while others need to be taken by the scruff of the neck and broken up on a bed of illness or in the wreck of a physical grief. I am the latter kind," he added, '' and here, broken in body, beaten upon the ground, I acknowledge the gentle mastery of Jesus over my soul." THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 243 So the risen Lord often suddenly, sometimes with seeming tardiness, again and again in the agony of suffering or the brightness of an un- shaded triumph, enters into the soul that seeks his acquaintance. Mount Pilatus, famous for the splendor of its sunrises, reaches its highest point at Eisel. I stood there in the early morning, shrouded in the garments of the sunless gloom, watching the east for the sunrise. The Bernese Alps, stretching away for one hundred and fifty miles, were like the gray-bloused shoulders of a giant asleep. A score of Swiss lakes were dull in their dim outlines at our feet below. It was chill and drear. But away in the east were faint ribbons of blue and streamers of crimson bordering along the trail of the breaking day. The Alps were now flaming red at their crests, and the Swiss lakes were glowing into pearl and opal and irides- cent charm, the highest peaks shone with golden sunbeams glistening, and every niche and cranny of the mountains was filled with the effulgent light; the sun was rising over Pilatus and day- light was everywhere. Oh, the gray sunless mornings in our lives, we cannot understand them! Drear, tragic, unsolved often are these problems of Providence, perchance a death, a financial collapse, a moral disaster, a cataclysm of war; but Jesus is a risen Lord, and he reveals himself often in the patient waiting, often in the solitude of sunless hours, often when the east 244 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY winds have roughened the seas or the bugle has summoned men to blood and battle, he reveals, he quickens hope; and surely, never failing, at last to the watching disciples he floods the soul with his shining presence and quieting assurance and his benediction of peace — and there is sunlight everywhere. Perhaps chiefest of all is the spiritual note that the resurrection of Jesus sounds in the event of death. And '' now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Christianity teaches its disciples that the Chris- tian's death is a triumph, not a tragedy; death is a dream of hope, never a disaster; death is a vic- tory, never a verdict of guilt. Oftentimes when I try to recall the happiest days of life, I wander back to the ecstasies of joy that came to me on the days when my parents went into the dream of hope. My father had been preaching the truths of the gospel of Jesus for nearly half a century, and that was his crowning; she, the preacher's wife, had wept and smiled and lifted and garnered with him, and on that day she came into the vic- tory of the waving palms. Death, taught Jesus, is a sleep, and when the day is dying away the tired child climbs into his father's arms and falls asleep, to awake in the early morning in a world where he never grows weary of toil and his work never rusts with fail- ure. He taught too that the figure of the exodus THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION 245 is the figure of death. Moses and Elias spoke of his exodus, the passing out of slavery, life's limi- tations, its taskmaster's scourge, the shrouded glory of life through the dark days of the wilder- ness, into the land of freedom and days of dreams fulfilled, and purposes and plans perfected, and a rich land, and a throne, and a king entered upon his endless reign. This is death, teaches Jesus. He who, in his boyhood, has watched the ships sail out to sea knows the figure by which Paul in- terprets death to Christianity. " The time of my departure is at hand." With the imagination of a boy who was born near the sea he is watching the ships unmoor. There they depart, the ships, cast- ing off the ropes, the hawsers, the cords that held them fast. They have unmoored. They drift si- lently. They spread the canvas and trim the sails for newer harbors, better harbors, always with hope, always seeing golden strands and quiet waters overseas. The ship is lost awhile, and moors again beyond the flowing of the tide, in the harbor of God. This tie of friendship, the cares of home life, the ropes that entwine us with the earthly things, we cast off one by one, we set our sails, and the waters are quiet waters and the land is '' the land of a fadeless day." Death is an unmooring. When Saint John, the apostle of love, had fin- ished his course and the call had come, they gath- ered about him, and he told them perhaps that R 246 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY death was a homecoming. ''I go to prepare a home for you," he had heard Jesus say, and John was confident in his fading days that he was go- ing home. Death was near. And this was his hope ; " Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him." The apostle of old age had seen the home and the returning Christ, for when he had led them as far as Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them; and they worshiped as he was carried into heaven, and a voice said, '' This same Jesus (the risen Lord) which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go." Perchance he is near; no man knows his time of return. The hillsides may now even be forests of purple glory, Jesus is coming again. Even so come, Lord Jesus ! HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA Read on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Its Organization CHARLES H. HARRISON HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH A YEAR or two previous to our late Civil War a young man, born and educated in Virginia, was called to the pastorate of the Broad Street Baptist Church of Philadelphia. Coming friendless and without prestige to a city of strangers, he soon won an enviable reputation as an able, earnest, and eloquent preacher. From the beginning crowds waited on his ministry. Many conver- sions occurred, and large additions to the church were made. Soon the little meeting-house was constantly filled beyond its capacity, and ere long the question of new and enlarged accommodations demanded consideration. The pastor was universally beloved. His manly and patriotic decision to stand by the North in the awful struggle for national existence de- served, as it secured, the respect and admiration of the community. The utmost harmony pre- vailed; yet, in the view of many, the horizon of possible usefulness was ever widening, and the " regions beyond " constantly invited advance. In the spring of 1865 a step forward was taken. The Broad Street Baptist Church resolved to es- 249 250 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY tablish a mission at some point north or west of their location at Broad and Brown streets, in the hope that it might speedily develop into another church, of which there was urgent need in that quarter of the city. A room, known as " Green Hill Hall," at Seventeenth and Poplar streets, was accordingly secured, where, on the second day of July, the first public religious service was held, conducted by the Rev. P. S. Henson, the pastor of the Broad Street Baptist Church, the text of whose sermon, " In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not," was prophetic of the abundant bless- ings which have followed. On the following Sunday, the ninth of July, a Sunday School was organized, and more than one hundred scholars enrolled, under the superinten- dence of Brother John Barry, assisted by a corps of efficient teachers. The enterprise prospered greatly. Besides the work of the school, a preach- ing service was maintained on Sunday afternoons, which was well attended. After eighteen months of successful labor in Green Hill Hall, it was deemed advisable to re- move to " Athletic Hall," then just completed, on Thirteenth Street above Jefferson, a new and more inviting room, and in a still more eligible portion of the city. On the evening of January 7, 1867, the mission formally took possession of its new home, a large congregation being in at- tendance, and numerous Baptist ministers partici- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 25 1 pating in the exercises. This change to better quarters and to a more desirable neighborhood signified the evokition of a church. It might be well to remark for the information of the young, and for those unfamiliar with the city a quarter of a century ago, that the new loca- tion of the mission was in the outskirts, as was the lot subsequently purchased at Broad and Mas- ter streets for a building site. There were vast areas of unoccupied territory, with here and there only an old farmhouse, tumble-down brick shed or antiquated barn, now marvelously transformed, as by a magic touch, into a great and ever-grow- ing city. The rapid progress of the mission now began to awaken interest in the home church and to at- tract attention in denominational circles. It gradually dawned upon the sagacious and pro- gressive brethren of the Broad Street Baptist Church that the Lord's time for a great advance movement had come. They were confronted by a rare oportunity and its correspondent responsi- bility. Soon there was the motion of a new life. Stagnation gave place to the excitement of in- quiry, hope lent a stimulus to courage, and a sub- lime faith in God and man rendered victory over all obstacles possible. In the strength of the Lord, the pastor and a goodly number of the brethren resolved to '' go forward." It not infrequently happens in human affairs 252 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY that the lines of action converge in what we call a coincidence, but which, in the last analysis, we cannot fail to recognize as the outcome of the guiding touch of a divine hand. God's hand is on the lever. Thus, while the new church enterprise was tak- ing shape, in the spring of 1867 ^ number of brethren interested in the progress of our denomi- nation organized the Philadelphia Baptist Church Extension Society, and raised twenty thousand dollars for church extension purposes. They indi- cated a willingness to appropriate this amount to the field occupied by the mission school of the Broad Street Baptist Church, provided a church should be organized under suitable auspices. Hitherto this movement, which for a long time had been a frequent subject of thought and dis- cussion, had lacked leadership and definiteness of purpose, but on the evening of the eighth of July the first meeting of the friends of the new church enterprise was held at the house of Mr. Eben C. Jayne, No. 1302 North Broad Street. There were present Rev. P. S. Henson, Mr. Eben C. Jayne, Brethren Charles A. Pearson, John Barry, Charles Crossley, Sylvester Crossley, Stephen Kerns, David Davis, Jr., Thomas M. Greene, Theo- dore H. Stagers, George A. Leinau, William Walker, Benjamin F. Fenimore, Charles L. Strawn, William D. Richmond, Jared D. Bitting, HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 253 Turner Hamilton, William T. Wray, Rev. Levi G. Beck, and Rev. Charles Griffin, twenty in all; a number small, indeed, but animated by a high purpose and evidently acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. At this meeting the Rev. P. S. Henson, whose personal risk in the event of failure was greatest, cheered the brethren and confirmed them in their purpose by avowing his intention to join them in the enterprise. Rev. P. S. Henson, William Holloway, Eben C. Jayne, and Charles A. Pearson were delegated to confer with the Philadelphia Baptist Church Extension Society. As the result of this conference, held a few days subsequently, a building site was purchased at the northeast corner of Broad and Master streets, seventy-five feet by one hundred and sixty feet, at a cost of $22,500, of which the Philadel- phia Baptist Church Extension Society was to pay $20,000, and the mission $2,500. At a subsequent meeting, held on the nineteenth of August, at the residence of Brother David Davis, Jr., No. 1333 Girard Avenue, a plan for the proposed chapel was submitted and adopted. A building committee was appointed, consisting of William Holloway, Eben C. Jayne, George W. Altemus, Theodore H. Stagers, and Stephen Kerns, to which Charles N. Selser, John Wal- lace, Bloomfield Lore, and Aaron Shaw were af- 254 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY terward added. At this same meeting a larger committee was appointed to solicit contributions for the building fund. Regular Sunday morning and evening services began to be held in Athletic Hall on the first of September. Rev. P. S. Henson occupying the pulpit, he having recently resigned the pastorate of the Broad Street Baptist Church, with the view to casting in his lot with the new interest. It thus appears that the preliminary steps to- ward the successful issue of this noble enterprise were taken before the formal organization of the church was effected. On Wednesday evening, September i8, 1867, the Memorial Baptist Church was organized in Athletic Hall, with one hundred and eighty-five constituent members, one hundred and seventy of whom were dismissed from the Broad Street Church and fifteen from other churches. Rev. P. S. Henson was unanimously elected pastor, and at once signified his acceptance. Articles of faith, rules and regulations, and a form of covenant were adopted; an election for deacons was had, and a name chosen. Much division of sentiment prevailed with respect to an appropriate name for the new body. Monumental and Memorial were both suggested, with a view to commemorating the fact that the site upon which the new building was to stand was mainly the gift of the Philadel- phia Baptist Church Extension Society. It was HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 255 urged that the considerable gift of this society, and the many acts of personal sacrifice which the enterprise would devolve on its participants, was in the same category of loving deeds as the beautiful action of the woman who broke her vase of precious nard to show her devotion to her Lord, and of whom he said, in words which make her name fragrant for all time, '' Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." And so the name '' Me- morial " was unanimously adopted. As throwing light upon a question of no little importance, and one not infrequently raised, it may be interesting to recite the action of the church at its organization in respect to the method of choice for the diaconate. The minutes re- cord : " It was then resolved to go into an elec- tion for three deacons to serve until December, 1 87 1, and six brethren were placed in nomina- tion. On the first ballot Brother Barry was elected ; a second ballot resulted in the election of Brother Pearson. For the third deacon there was no choice." " At a subsequent meeting, held October 30, it was voted that two additional dea- cons be elected instead of one, and five brethren were nominated." '' Again at the regular meet- ing for business, on the twenty-sixth of Novem- ber, nominations were reopened, and two names added to the list." The election was deferred 256 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY until the annual meeting in December, when Brethren Greene and Harrison were chosen. It seems singular that with these precedents be- fore the church, and with a policy thus clearly de- fined, there should have been through all the sub- sequent years so wide a departure from this early practice — a departure in repeated instances result- ing in no little injur}^ The hymn sung at this historic meeting was that good old sacred song : 'Tis religion that can give Sweetest pleasure while we live ; 'Tis religion must supply- Solid comfort when we die. Its sentiment was the keynote of the enter- prise. The motives that prompted it, the sacrifices it involved, and the strong faith in God and man it demanded, found their inspiration in that celes- tial bond that united the brethren to each other and to Jesus Christ. Their spirit was not unlike that of the early disciples, who met with one ac- cord in one place, awaiting the promise of the Father. Not strong in numbers, respecting worldly goods not richly endowed, yet clear in the indications of divine providence, fortified by mu- tual sympathy, and sustained by a common love for a common Lord, the spirit which animated them made failure impossible. A number of the brethren and sisters who were HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 257 profoundly interested in these early proceedings — war-worn veterans now' — are still active in the church's counsels and work, but many have been called from us — some from the post of duty — and they rest in the everlasting arms. On the twenty-fifth of September the church was duly recognized by a council representing all the Baptist churches of Philadelphia, convened in the meeting-house of the Broad Street Baptist Church. In the early morning of September 30 a large number of members of the church and friends of the enterprise met upon the church's lot at Master and Ontario streets, to participate in the interest- ing ceremony of breaking ground for the new chapel. On the twenty-sixth of October the corner- stone was laid with appropriate religious services. The work on the building was necessarily sus- pended during the winter which followed, but was resumed in the spring of 1868, and was prose- cuted by the Building Committee with as much expedition as the funds contributed would warrant. The year 1868 was one of no small toil and sac- rifice for the young and struggling church, but the toil and sacrifice were abundantly compen- sated by the hope and joy which seemed to fill all hearts. It was a period of great financial depression.. 258 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Values, inflated by the abnormal conditions in- cident to the Civil War, were in process of read- justment. The burden of a great undertaking rested painfully upon the little company. Few of the brethren were in affluent circumstances; none were very rich ; the large majority possessed but limited incomes, yet all gave heartily and liberally as unto the Lord. Not a few gave at great per- sonal sacrifice. Many a weary mile was walked that the hoarded carfare might be builded into the chapel walls. Coats were worn till the cut became antiquated and the texture threadbare; and dresses and bonnets made their wearers look none the less beautiful because worn long after they had ceased to be a la mode. Dingy carpets and shabby furni- ture took on new beauty as they were transmuted into brightness by the alchemy of sacrifice. The church's first letter to the Philadelphia Baptist Association says : " Organized under auspices most favorable and commencing with prospects most promising, we have nevertheless been obliged to encounter difficulties and to make sacrifices, the thought of which would have ap- palled us, perhaps overwhelmed us, had we known at the beginning how much of these awaited us." " Our current expenses, which have all been promptly paid (there were no pew-rents), have amounted to upwards of $4,000, besides which we have paid $2,500 of the purchase money for the lot and $800 for the Nicholson pavement, making HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 259 a total of $33,000 raised during the year, and that a year of almost unexampled dulness and depression in financial circles." As always, in connection with every cause which has in view the glory of God and welfare of humanity, the women bore a most important part. The report of the Building Committee at the annual church meeting in December, 1869, says : " To the ladies and to the Ladies' Chapel Furnishing Fund your committee and the church are particularly indebted. By their industry and good management in the fair held at Concert Hall in connection with other churches, the means were obtained to pay for materials used during the years 1867 and 1868, and without which our en- trance into the chapel might have been delayed for many months, probably a year. So also, by their contributions and by their fair at the chapel, means were secured to furnish the same." The funds accruing from these sources aggregated seven thousand dollars. Incidental to, and not the least beneficial con- sequence of, this self-sacrificing work was the welding together of the membership into thor- ough acquaintance and homogeneity. A beautiful spirit of harmony and brotherly kindness domi- nated the people. Social distinctions, as they should always be in church fellowship, were prac- tically obliterated, and the whole body, impelled by a common motive and animated by a common 26o THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY aim, was thus enabled, under God, to achieve the remarkable work which characterized the earlier years of our history. The chapel was so nearly completed by the close of the year that on the night of the thirty-first of December an old-fashioned watch-meeting was held within its walls. On the evening of the twenty-fifth of January it was solemnly dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, Dr. H. G. Wes- ton, president of Crozer Theological Seminary, preaching the sermon, and the pastor offering the prayer of dedication. The church was now happily housed in its beautiful and commodious chapel, which had been erected at a cost of $42,384.80. During the progress of the material structure the church had not been unmindful of the spirit- ual building. Toil and sacrifice for the temporal house seemed but to quicken effort and prayer for the upbuilding of the house not made with hands. Repeatedly, while worshiping in Athletic Hall, through the courtesy of the Broad Street Baptist Church, the ordinance of baptism was adminis- tered in their house of worship. The years 1869 and 1870 were periods of great spiritual pros- perity. Action and reaction seem to be the law of the spiritual as of the natural harvest. The abun- dant crop of the present year is apt to be followed by the scanty one of the next. After the quiet but precious revival of 1869 came a period of com- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1 867- 1 892 26 1 parative dearth in 1870, in which year but ten were added to the church by baptism. This low spiritual condition was greatly deplored. The church was brought to her knees. A day for humiliation and prayer was appointed. The brethren and sisters met both jointly and sepa- rately. There were tears, confessions, and pray- ers; promises were made to each other and to God; the Holy Spirit was invoked as at Pente- cost, and as a consequence the church was shaken by divine power. Preaching and prayer services were held every night except Saturday for weeks together; and a six-o'clock morning prayer- meeting, attended by large numbers, was sus- tained for many days. A mighty spiritual impulse was imparted to the church, the full effect of which eternity alone can reveal, and as a nu- merical result one hundred and one souls were added to the church '' of such as were being saved." The growth of the church numerically had been exceedingly rapid; it had also grown in fi- nancial strength in an equal ratio. The letter to the Philadelphia Baptist Association, in Septem- ber, 1 87 1, reported five hundred and twelve mem- bers, an increase of three hundred per centum in four years. The congregations had likewise in- creased, until the chapel was overcrowded; every desirable pew on the lower floor and several in the galleries being rented. Block after block and s 262 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Street after street of substantial and elegant resi- dences had been built or were building. The church's opportunity had come. It was evident that the denomination and the neighborhood im- peratively demanded that the enterprise as origi- nally conceived in the thought of its projectors should be carried out. Accordingly, on the eve- ning of April 17, 1872, a special church meeting was called, at which it was unanimously decided to proceed with the work of building as originally contemplated when the chapel was begun, and committees on plans and finance were appointed. On the evening of October 21 the Finance Committee reported a scheme for the organiza- tion of the church into an association to be known as the Memorial Baptist Church Building Asso- ciation ; and a committee of twenty-five persons was named to canvass the church for subscrip- tions. As a result of this canvass $12,973.60 was subscribed, to be paid in one year in weekly instal- ments. Mr. Davis E. Supplee was chosen archi- tect; and after much thought and investigation by the Committee on Plans, on the evening of June 23, 1873, plans were adopted by the church, and the Building Committee was instructed to proceed with the construction of the building. The contract to place the edifice under roof was awarded to Mr. Charles D. Supplee, and under a subsequent contract the completion of the struc- ture was placed in his hands. Ground was broken HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 263 in the early morning of July 3, in the name of the " Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost," and on the fifth of August the corner-stone was laid by the pastor, with appropriate ceremonies, in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. On the evening of February 21, 1876, the completed edifice was thrown open for public inspection, the occasion being a grand organ recital. The dedi- cation services occurred on the evening of Wed- nesday, February 2;^, a very large congregation being present. The sermon was preached by Dr. John A. Broadus, and the dedicatory prayer was offered by the pastor. A praise and platform meeting was held on the following evening, in which a number of city pastors participated ; and on Friday evening a sermon was preached by Dr. George C. Lorimer. And so the house was finished and set apart for the worship of Almighty God. It had cost $92,378.59. Of this large sum, $40,000 had been secured on bond and mortgage on the church's property, and there remained, in addition, a floating debt of $9,506.12 to be pro- vided for. The amounts actually subscribed and paid had cost heroic struggle and sacrifice. The church chafed under the burden of its enormous debt. Early in 1878 a special commit- tee of ways and means reported that in their judgment it was entirely feasible to organize a plan of weekly contributions, under which, each 264 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY member contributing something, provision would be made to meet the interest, and from year to year reduce the principal of the bonded debt. The details and execution of the plan were en- trusted to the Board of Trustees. The results of this method were entirely inade- quate. The opening of 1880 found the church in much financial embarrassment. The distinguish- ing event of this year was the ever memorable '' debt raising." Meetings had been held to de- vise means to liquidate pressing obligations. The Board of Trustees had about determined to con- tinue the method of previous years, when, in the providence of God, Mr. Edward Kimball visited Philadelphia. He immediately placed himself in communication with the pastor, and at his invi- tation certain brethren met him at the pastor's residence for consultation. After prayer and some preliminary conversation he almost over- whelmed the little company by proposing to at- tempt immediately by one extraordinary effort to free the Lord's house from debt. The impracticable and visionary, under the businesslike detail of his plan and the contagion of his own invincible courage and faith, soon be- came the possible and the real. Without a dis- senting voice it was decided to make the attempt. The interview took place on a Saturday evening. The work of '' debt raising " was begun on the following Sunday morning. The gentlemen pres- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 265 ent pledged themselves to start the subscription with such amounts as they felt able to give, and others were seen who agreed to join in the move- ment. Two entire Sundays were devoted to the project. Every department contributed liberally. Quietly, earnestly, without excitement or cant, the duty of Christian stewardship was impressed upon the hearts and consciences of the people, who for thirteen years had sacrificed freely for the cause. An undercurrent of deep enthusiasm prevailed. Those who at first believed they could contribute but little, as the work went on counted it a joy to join heartily in this last supreme effort. At the close of the evening of the second Sunday $45,196.25 had been pledged, and in two years, with a very slight percentage of loss, the pledges had been redeemed. Thus in a period of thirteen years, besides ex- penditures for current expense account, and the annual contributions to the various objects of benevolence, which with the growth of the church had increased from year to year until they equaled the gifts of the strongest churches, more than $150,000 had been expended on buildings and ground alone, a munificence of giving that up to that time was unparalleled in our denomination in this vicinity. The success of Doctor Henson's ministry and its crowning triumph in bringing to completion our noble edifice had given him a national reputa- 266 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY tion. Numerous were the calls, tempting the of- fers, urgent the solicitations to other fields and pastorates. In 1879, greatly to the satisfaction of the church, he declined a call to the presidency of Lewisburg (now Bucknell) University, to which he had been unanimously elected. On the eve- ning of November 25, 1 881, the pastor announced that he had been called to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Chicago, 111. After stat- ing various reasons which made him apprehend that duty demanded his acceptance of the call, he concluded by tendering his resignation, to take effect December 31. The church declined to ac- cept the resignation, and earnestly requested its reconsideration, which he consented to make. In a very tender communication, dated Decem- ber 2, among many other things he says : " Such a request, preferred at such a time and urged with so much tenderness of affection, I felt I did not dare to refuse. Since then there has been such an uncovering of the depths of feeling in your hearts towards one who keenly realizes his great unworthiness of such devotion that my own heart has been overwhelmed within me. . . I cannot but feel, still following the inward suggestions of duty and the outward indications of Providence, that the Lord does not require at his hands the sacrifice which he supposed, but only required that he be willing to make it. It is therefore with HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1 867- 1 892 267 exceeding joy that I feel myself at liberty to with- draw the resignation which I tendered a week ago." But the brethren of the First Baptist Church of Chicago were persistent. Certain radical changes in the constitution of the church and a general re- construction of its organization, which he had in- sisted upon, had been substantially accomplished. Concerning the changes, which had seemed to be carried out with marked unanimity, he was led to believe there had occurred " a decided revul- sion of feeling and opinion, and that they were regarded with disfavor, even though they had been adopted." He therefore, at the close of communion service, February 11, 1882, again tendered his resignation. The communication closes as follows : '^ I am now entirely satisfied the time has fully come when I can do better in another field and you can do better with another man, and so I tender you my resignation, to take effect March 15, 1882; and while I shall never cease to love and pray for you, I desire very affec- tionately and explicitly to say that my purpose in this regard is unalterably fixed." Thus terminated a pastorate of exceptional power. Viewed from any standpoint its success was remarkable. Magnificent in its material achievements, it was yet more glorious in its spiritual results. In a little more than fourteen years it was his privilege to baptize four hundred 268 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY and forty-one persons into the fellowship of the church. There were three prominent characteristics in Doctor Henson's pastorate which, under God, will account for its success. The first, for want of a better term, might be called his zimisomeness. Old and young were alike attracted to him by the warmth of his natural disposition. He lived in a sunny atmosphere, and the church and commu- nity delighted in his brightness and cheer. In his daily intercourse there was the perpetual sparkle of an irrepressible wit, and a kindliness of mood that rendered him accessible to all. He did not stalk aloft on intellectual stilts, but was one with the multitude, and, like his Lord, '* the common people heard him gladly." Another characteristic was the quality of his preaching. His sermons, as literary productions, were fresh, original, and bristling with points. Revealing a rare gift of imagination, a vocabu- lary of unusual range, and a fine poetic feeling, many of his sermons were poems in prose, need- ing but the measured rhythm of verse to con- stitute them poetry. A natural orator, he disdained the arts of the elocutionist, and w^on the people by his natural- ness, while he touched them by his pathos and swayed them at will by his eloquence. But the chief and most potent characteristic of his pastorate was the uplifting of the Cross. HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 269 Christ was always the central thought, the con- stant theme of his preaching. It was always Ecce Homo with him. Whether he moved his audi- ence to smiles or tears, the climax of his discourse was the face of Him whose visage was more marred than any man's — Christ our Example, our Saviour, our King. On the seventeenth of February Doctor Hen- son's resignation was accepted. On March 30 the Pulpit Committee recommended that the church invite Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D. D., pastor of the Strong Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., to occupy the pulpit with a view to his consideration of a call. This somewhat unusual recommendation was adopted, and on Sunday, May 14, morning and evening, he preached with great acceptance to large congregations. On May 22, at a very large and enthusiastic meeting, a unanimous call to the pastorate was extended to him, which was accepted on the sixteenth of June, with the understanding that the official relation should begin July i. The Associational letter of this year, referring to the beginning of Doctor Hoyt's ministry, says : "Already the future is 'big with promise.' Great congregations, unusual interest in the ministrations of the word, and plans developing for a thorough and efficient organization of all the activities of the church, indicate that God has sent us the man of his choice." 270 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY The chapel, originally built with special refer- ence to public worship, had long been found in- convenient for the Sunday School and various social and other requirements. This had not es- caped the discernment of the pastor, and soon after his settlement the question of its alteration to meet the pressing necessities of the work claimed his attention. On March 27, 1883, the Board of Trustees, having had the matter under advisement, reported to the church that no altera- tion would be wise or economical that did not in- clude accommodations for all the various depart- ments, and were directed to proceed immediately with the proposed alterations. The work was begun in July and completed in the following October at a cost, including the furnishing, of $8,966.99. The first year of the new pastorate was one of steady growth. Improvement was manifest in all lines of work. From its organization the Sunday School had carried on its operations without fixed, often with uncertain, and always with inadequate, provision for its financial support. The brethren who freely gave their time and thought to the exacting work of this department wxre compelled to bear the burden of its financial management as well. But the rosy morn of a brighter day was dawning. November 2y, 1885, in response to a com- munication from the Sunday School reciting its HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 27I needs and its claims upon the church for support, it was declared '' that it is the duty of the church to provide means for the current expenses of the Sunday School." It was at first attempted to obtain the necessary funds by systematic weekly contributions, but this not proving satisfactory, for several years a liberal appropriation by the Board of Trustees has been made from the regular revenue. This most wise step was the recognition of a principle now coming to be generally accepted, viz., that the Sunday School is the church work- ing in this capacity, and as such is entitled to the financial support and fostering care of the whole body. It was also a gracious return for the generous gifts of the Sunday School in connection with the church's building operations. These aggregated several thousand dollars. For the Sunday School points with pardonable pride to the serpentine stone in church and chapel walls, to a considerable contribution toward the organ fund, and to a large donation that helped on the triumph of the great " debt raising." '' He loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue " was the encomium passed upon the noble centurion by his fellow townsmen of Ca- pernaum. In some such esteem the church holds Mr. Eben C. Jayne, who from the very inception of the church and through all its subsequent his- 2.J2 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY tory has been one of its warmest friends and most liberal contributors. In addition to his many generous gifts, early in 1886 he deeded to the church a large collection of well-selected books, to be used in perpetuity as a free library. This library, known as the '' Jayne Library for Adults," has been increased from time to time through his continued generosity, and is a source of great pleasure and profit to its numerous patrons. 1887 was remarkable as exhibiting the largest increase by baptism of any year except one, sixty- nine having been received by this ordinance. Deep religious interest pervaded all departments. This year the church mourned the death of Thomas U. Walter, LL. D., the first and only member of its Board of Deacons in a quarter of a century to pass from service here to service yonder. Deacon Walter closed a long and useful life at the advanced age of eighty-four. For many years he faithfully served the church. He achieved lasting reputation as architect of Girard College and of the Capitol extension at Washing- ton. Though much of his time was spent with the gifted and great, he was yet true to his de- nominational principles. A sincere and simple- hearted Christian, though erecting great earthly temples, he was continually building upon the '' one foundation " an eternal structure of '' gold, HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 273 silver, and precious stones," that will outlast the noble yet perishable monuments of his earthly fame. Early in 1888 a call was extended to Pastor Hoyt by the First Baptist Church of St. Louis, Mo., which he declined. While this call was under consideration he frankly stated to the brethren that he deemed the employment of a missionary for parish work and the enlargement of the Board of Deacons indispensable to the highest church efficiency. In pursuance of the pastor's suggestion, on February 3 the choice and regulation of the work of a missionary was delegated to the deacons. The salary was to be provided by voluntary contributions. It being thought inadvisable to press the matter just then, at the pastor's suggestion, and by common con- sent, the subject was temporarily postponed. On March 2^ three additional deacons were chosen. The deacons, in their annual report, December 20, in suggesting the need for more aggressive work, say : " Mission work is what we need to do. Our church, as a great central heart, should send out the pulsations of her life to the destitute places of our city. Our church, cradled in a stable like her Lord, began her existence as a mis- sion. She is a wonderful illustration of the results of mission work," etc. The suggestion of the report was referred to 274 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY a committee, and the prosperous mission at Eighteenth and York streets was the outcome of this action. During the summer of 1889 alarming rumors reached the brethren from Minneapolis, where Doctor Hoyt was spending his vacation and sup- plying the pulpit of the First Baptist Church, in effect that an invitation to the pastorate had been extended to him and was receiving favorable con- sideration. As the church had no official or defi- nite information of the truth of these rumors no action was taken. On the fifteenth of November he submitted his resignation, in which, among other things, he says : '' After the most anxious and conscientious thought possible for me, I have come to the con- clusion that, everything considered, without be- ing, I hope, in the least unmindful of the oppor- tunity here, I can do largest and most effi- cient work for the Lord's kingdom in Minneapo- lis. Actuated solely by the motives indicated, I hereby tender my resignation of the pastorate of this church, to take effect after the second Sunday in December, or earlier." The resignation was referred to the Board of Deacons, who, on the twenty-first of November, submitted to the church a paper of suggestions, touching various questions considered vital by Doctor Hoyt, which they hoped, if adopted, would induce its reconsideration. HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 2/5 The suggestions were adopted, and a committee was appointed to convey to him the report of the action taken by the church. After most prayerful dehberation, on the sixth of December, in a communication to the church he says: " You may be sure I have given the ac- tion of the church and the most kind communica- tion of the committee all the consideration possi- ble in the circumstances, but as the case now stands, in view of other obligations and opportu- nities, and after most prayerful and careful search for light and leading, it does not seem to me that I can honorably withdraw my resignation." Doctor Hoyt's ministry bore the impress of his strong personality. In the church, in society, among the ministry of our own and other denomi- nations, he was characterized by a sturdiness and individuality which commanded recognition and respect. True to his convictions, he was fearless in their expression, and was esteemed as much for what he was as for what he said. As a leader he possessed a rare facility in mov- ing and influencing men ; a definiteness of purpose that kept the end ever in view; and a cheerful patience which sought to control by conviction rather than by compulsion. Naturally diffident, some thought him reserved, but to those who knew him best he was a man of kindly impulses, noble aspirations, and Christly life. 2yG THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY His preaching was masterful. Few men have so thoroughly understood the art of public speech. Conscientious in his preparation, he had for his work the passion of the artist, and his sermons, though always artistic, were never artificial. Employing the illustrative method of treatment, his style was exceedingly picturesque, if the phrase may be allowed, and his lucubrations were replete with the results of his wide reading and careful study. Science, art, literature, biography, anecdote, travel — all sources were drawn upon and made tributary to the one end of making clear the thought and impressing the hearer. It was also eminently practical. He individual- ized his audience. Usually, his sermon possessed the directness and efficacy of a personal appeal. Evangelistic work was his delight. His services were sought by his brethren in the ministry, whom he was ever pleased to aid, and in the pulpit and inquiry-room he was greatly blessed in bringing souls to Christ. In after-meetings and special services, as he went from person to person, few escaped his word of warning, entreaty, or invita- tion. It was a principle of his ministry to expect results, and in a pastorate of less than eight years three hundred and nineteen souls were added to the church in baptism. On the ninth of December Doctor Hoyt's resig- nation was accepted, and the services of Rev. E. G. Robinson, D. D., LL. D., were immediately se- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 2/7 cured as permanent supply, who for a period of more than nine months occupied the pulpit. The church owes much to the short ministry of Doctor Robinson. His profound and original thought, his searching and exact analysis, his pre- cise and elegant use of language, and his lucid and able expositions of truth, afforded an in- tellectual and spiritual uplift which is not yet forgotten. It was an inspiration and joy to sit at the feet of this great and good man, whose hoary head and dignified bearing lent weight to the words in which he clothed the thoughts and experiences of his long and studious life. Sunday, March i6, 1890, by invitation, Rev. T. Edwin Brown, D. D., pastor of the First Bap- tist Church, Providence, R. I., preached morning and evening, and was received with much enthu- siasm. On March 20 a unanimous call to the pastorate was extended to him, which was accepted on the eighteenth of May, to take effect August i, ser- vice for the church to begin October i. In his communication to the church he says : '' I need not assure you of my sense of the honor put upon me in your call, and in the manner in which it was given. I know I may depend upon your love and sympathy, your prayers and your constant cooperation. Your action is a pledge that I shall have all these, and your history a 2yd> THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY guaranty that this pledge will be fulfilled. But my chief dependence for any successful work with you is upon the presence and blessing of God." Doctor Brown's ministry began most aus- piciously. Immediately there was marked in- crease in the attendance, and improvement in the spiritual tone, of the Friday evening prayer- meeting, which had fallen off in numbers and interest during the vacancy in the pastorate. A quiet work of grace progressed during the year, resulting in thirty-four baptisms, as against seven the previous year, the smallest number of any year in our annals. The Board of Deacons in their annual report say : " Our pastor's ministry has been character- ized by a most earnest and faithful discharge of the duties of his office, and by the use of methods eminently dignified and conservative. There has been on his part a studious refusal to adopt the so-called popular and sensational style of dispens- ing the gospel so often employed at the expense of good taste, sound instruction, and all the sancti- ties of a holy calling. Scholarly, thoughtful, elo- quent, spiritual, our pastor's pulpit ministrations have helped and strengthened his people amid the work and worry of their daily life." The mission established in 1889 at Eighteenth and Dauphin streets had struggled on under great difficulties and discouragements. The little com- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 279 pany of workers had labored with zeal and fidelity, but from the outset were hindered by unsuitable and limited accommodations. On June 8, 1891, in a communication from the Executive Board of the Philadelphia Baptist City Mission Society, a proposal was made to purchase " a lot on the northeast corner of Eighteenth and York streets suitable for a mission of the Memo- rial Baptist Church, located at Eighteenth and Dauphin streets, provided that the church erect thereon a suitable building, to cost not less than five thousand dollars." The proposal was promptly accepted, and on Sunday morning, June 28, a public subscription was taken amounting to nearly six thousand dollars. After some un- avoidable delay building operations were begun. A neat and convenient chapel is now ready for dedication, alike creditable to the church and to the denomination. It will doubtless meet all the requirements of the locality for several years. Under the charge of Rev. Enoch Fullaway the mission is doing ef^cient work, and, with the blessing of God, has a prosperous future before it. Sunday morning, October 9, 1892, the presi- dent of the Board of Trustees, in behalf of the trustees and deacons, submitted a financial state- ment, in which it appeared that there was charged against the church an accumulation of indebted- ness, much of which was of long standing, in- cluding requirements to close the fiscal year, ag- 280 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY g-reg-ating $5,650. This, with the necessary ex- penses attending the anniversary, which would probably accrue before the close 01 the fiscal year, made a total approximating $6,500, which it was deemed advisable, in view of the contemplated celebration of her twenty-fifth anniversary, to liquidate. The suggestion met with an iinmediate and hearty response. A subscription was at once started, and the entire amount has been secured. The church, therefore, on her " jubilee day " will '' owe no man anything." Her debts will all have been paid or ample provision made to pay them. The church stands upon the threshold of Pas- tor Brown's ministry. It remains for her, with him, to open wide the door to " nobler issues than ever she has known before." She could haye no more capable leader, if she will but follow him. A refined and courteous gentleman, a kind and sympathetic pastor, he is, at the same time, an able teacher and eloquent preacher. His sermons are models alike in diction, arrangement, and grasp of truth. Never superficial, he is always profound, seeking the principles involved in his text ; and his practical lessons, as fruit, grow natu- rally out of the principles. His theology is as broad as his Master's, for he teaches the possible good in every soul, and an atonement comprehen- sive enough to include every son of Adam. To sit under his ministry is an education in social HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1867-1892 281 science, moral philosophy, and theology, which, from his point of view, are nothing more than " applied Christianity." An earnest seeker after truth and a logical thinker, he ignores the sensa- tionalisms of the day, and seeks to instruct rather than to amuse, to elevate rather than to entertain. May the blessing of God rest upon his ministry. STATISTICS The following table of statistics shows expendi- tures from organization to date : Home Church Expenses $243,582.40 Beneficence 99,017.89 Buildings 167,083.13 Total $509,683.42 The following table of statistics shows num- ber of members received from organization to date: Constituent Members 185 Received by Baptism 844 " Letter 743 " " Experience 42 Total 1814 COMMEMORATION TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH 1867 1892 COMMEMORATION OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA Organized September 1 8, 1 867 T. Edwin Brown, D. D., Pastor. Mrs. J. M. Corbin, Organist and Director. Miss Theodora B. Wormley, Soprano. Miss Laura Ericson, Alto. Henry Graff, Tenor. James G. Alexander, Bass. Committee on Anniversary Theodore C. Search, Samuel G. Lewis, William Holloway, Edwin J. Howlett, Eben C. Jayne, Charles H. Harrison, Thomas M. Greene, Charles A. Pearson, Robert M. Mackay. 285 286 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY THE HISTORICAL SERVICE. Wednesday, October 26, 1892, 7.30 p. m. {Corner-stone of the Chapel laid October 26, 186/.) ORDER OF SERVICE. ORGAN PRELUDE, "Overture to Zampa " . . . . Herold. ANTHEM, " Christians Awake " Schnecker. DOXOLOGY, "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow." THE LORD'S PRAYER Pastor and Congregation. SCRIPTURE LESSON. HYMN. (421 Baptist Hymnal.) " Onward, Christian Soldiers." PRAYER George Dana Boardman, D. D. ANTHEM, " Chime, Ye Bells of Heaven " Shelly. THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH BY DEACON CHARLES H. HARRISON ANTHEM, " Hallelujah " Handel. PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. ORGAN POSTLUDE, " Offertoire in C Minor ".. Batiste. TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 287 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL SERVICE. Thursday, October 27, 7.30 p. m, ORDER OF SERVICE. 1. OVERTURE Orchestra. 2. SINGING, " Glory to God " School. 3. INVOCATION, Praise, " The Lord hath done great things for us." 4. SINGING, " I was Glad " School. 5. ADDRESS The Pastor. 6. SINGING, "Praise the Lord" School. 7. ADDRESSES BY FORMER SUPERINTEN- DENTS. 8. SINGING, "Welcome Song" Primary School. 9. JUBILEE EXERCISE... Primary and Intermediate Schools. Written for this occasion by Miss Lizzie Rawlings. 10. ADDRESSES BY FORMER SUPERINTEN- DENTS. 11. MUSIC Orchestra. 12. SINGING, "Great King of Glory, Come ".... Branch School. 13. ADDRESSES BY FORMER SUPERINTEN- DENTS. 14. SINGING, " Standing at the Portal " School. 15. BENEDICTION. 288 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Written for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary. Memorial school is gathered here to-night, Enriched and blessed beyond all power to tell ; Maintained by God's right hand; in Him we dwell. Our God hath led us in a pathway bright, Revealed Himself to us in marvelous light. In Him we trust, to Him we give all praise, All honor, for 'tis He hath crowned our days ; Let all the glory be whence came the might. So shall we ever onward, upward go ; Content to follow as He shows the way, He'll lead us to a yet more perfect day. Oh, let us seek His holy will to know, On Him depend for strength to live and grow; Love, honor, serve Him who hath been our stay. SOCIAL SERVICE. Friday, October 28, 8.00 p. m. A social reunion of the church and congregation and former members. ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY. Sunday, October 30. PUBLIC WORSHIP 10.30 a. m. Sermon by P. S. HENSON, D. D. Our pastor from 1867 to 1882. ANTHEM, "This is the Day Which the Lord Hath Made " Holden. OFFERTORY, " Sing, O Daughter of Zion " Gadsby. TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 289 PUBLIC WORSHIP 7.30 p. m. Sermon by WAYLAND HOYT, D. D. Our pastor from 1882 to 1889. ANTHEM, " Lift Up Your Heads " Schnecker. OFFERTORY, "O Glorious Night" Shelly. CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK. Beginning Sunday, October 30. SUNDAY.— 2.30 Sunday School. 2.30 Mission School, Eighteenth and York streets. MONDAY. — 3.00 Woman's Prayer-meeting. 7.30 Jayne Library Open. 8.00 Monthly Meeting of Pastor and Dea- cons. TUESDAY.— 8.00 Society of Christian Endeavor. WEDNESDAY.— 2.30 " The Dorcas." FRIDAY. — 7.45 Prayer and Conference Meeting. SUNDAY, Nov. 6. — 9.30 Prayer-meeting. 10.30 Public Worship, conducted by the Pastor. Topic : " A Church of Jesus Christ — Its Mission and Its Spirit." 7,30 Public Worship, conducted by the Pastor. Pastor's Monthly Talk with Young People, Topic : " Recreations and Dis- sipations." HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH 1892-1917 EDITH M. CA55ELBERRY HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH, 1892-1917 To Stand on the mountaintop of experience and take a survey over fifty years that lie behind in- volves many deep and heart-searching memories, and when it is the privilege of a church to occupy such a position the significance of the event far outweighs that of any individual. Journeying back through a quarter of a cen- tury in order to meet the historian of the first twenty-five years half-way, we find ourselves in restrospect inhaling the refined and spiritual ozone of Dr. T. Edwin Brown's incomparable sermons, and being reverently educated by him in the supreme art of prayer. At this time Sunday-morning prayer-meetings were conducted regularly in the pastor's study, before the chapel was remodeled. It was as if this hour were set apart for the church to observe family worship., when the word of God was read, a hymn or two were sung, and the balance of the time was spent in invoking God's blessing on the day. Not only was the home-field blessed, but the mission at Eighteenth and York streets also showed continuous and steady growth, the u 293 294 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY preaching and church work at this place being then conducted by Rev. Harrison B. Garner. Having been prospered to the extent of outgrow- ing its quarters, a commodious building was erected, suitably adapted to the needs of a strong and self-supporting church; and when in 1896 it was successfully launched as an independent organ under the name of the Bethlehem Baptist Church it was felt that the mother church had not assumed the great responsibility in vain. Nor was her period of sacrifice over on its be- half, for at that time a noble band of some of her most devout and faithful members severed their connection with the '' old home church." in order to contribute to the upbuilding of the new church at Eighteenth and York streets. Among these were Mr. H. N. McKinney, who assumed charge of the Bible School ; Mr. and Mrs. G. Wm. Molloy, Mr. Albert W. Butter- worth, Mr. Frank L. Estabrook, Mr. and Mrs. Martin B. Young, Miss M. R. S. Young, Miss Elizabeth Rawlings, Mr. Chas. A. Pearson. Jr., Mr. and Mrs. John Dooley, Miss Louise H. Haesler, Miss Amelia C. Wight, Mr. Milton Foreman and daug'hters, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Logan Fitts, Miss Lydia A. Hillyer, and others, number- ing about fifty-six altogether. Concerning our relationship to foreign mis- sionary work, mention must also be made of the departure of Dr. and Mrs. David Downie. the HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 295 latter at that time holding her membership with us. During Doctor Brown's pastorate they left this country to take up their work in Nellore, India. Since then, thirty dollars has been set apart each year by the Junior Department of the Bible School for the education and supjx^rt of a native boy — a perpetual Andrew Kennedy as it were — in the Nellore mission station. This beneficence was instituted by the mutual friend of the junior children and the missionaries, Mrs. M. G. Kennedy, and it is still carried on in her memory. On April i, 1896, Doctor Brown accepted a call to Franklin, Pa., thereby leaving us with a vacant pastorate. The pulpit was temporarily filled by B. L. Whitman, D. D., president of Columbian University, Washington, D. C, whose preaching was also greatly blessed. His genial manner endeared him to all, and the church counted herself extremely fortunate in securing such a faithful undershepherd while there was a vacancy in the pastorate. Through the efforts of some of the members and the assistance of Doctor Whitman, the church witnessed the successful launching of the First Chinese Bap- tist Church of Philadelphia, with Rev. Lee Hong ordained as its pastor. It was a very impressive sight when Doctor Whitman led the three for- eign-speaking candidates down into the bap- tismal waters to confess the Lord Jesus Christ 296 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY before their brethren, thus forming the nucleus of a new Chinese church, born on American soil. In 1898 a call was extended to Rev. Edwin M. Poteat, D. D., of New Haven, Conn. In answer to the prayers of the people, Doctor Poteat was led to accept the call, and October 21, 1898, marks the beginning of the fourth pastorate, one des- tined to arouse fresh interest not only in our own local church, but throughout the Baptist commu- nity of Philadelphia at large. Doctor Poteat soon won the esteem and love of his congregation, and the increase in attendance upon prayer-meetings and preaching services marked the substantial and steady progress of the work of the kingdom. Missionary activities thrived; the various depart- ments of the church were all well maintained ; the Bible School continued doing efficient work, the average attendance for the year being four hun- dred and seven, and the Christian Endeavor So- ciety made itself felt as a potent factor in the development of the Christian life of the young people. At the annual meeting in December reports were heard from the following organizations at that time connected with the church : Missionary Endeavor Society, Farther Lights Society, Forty-four Club, Memorial Home Mis- sion Band, Memorial Literary Union, Christian Endeavor Society, Women's Union. In April, 1899, after due consideration, the HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 297 church voted upon the adoption of the individual communion service for permanent use. It has since proved in every way satisfactory. Memorial again had the pleasure of extending her hospitality to the delegates of the churches representing the Philadelphia Baptist Associa- tion, a number of years having elapsed since that privilege was assumed. Fifty-eight new members were added to our church that year. Later on a church calendar, containing the va- rious weekly appointments, including programs of Sunday morning and evening services, was adopted and printed for distribution each Sunday. It became necessary during the summer of 1900 to make extensive alterations and repairs on the chapel building. For this purpose it was necessary to raise twenty-five thousand dollars, which was accomplished in the last three weeks of 1 90 1 by a spirited canvass of the membership, without resorting to any but the most upright method of raising money, namely, by voluntary subscriptions. The subscription list included three hundred and twenty-three names, every family of the church constituency being repre- sented thereon. The Bible School, averaging that year four hundred and fifty in attendance, sub- scribed $1,339, entering the list by classes. The pastor's public ministrations, including such topics as " The Church," " The Family," " The Teachings of Jesus," and " The Life of Our 298 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Lord," proved him to be a teacher as well as a preacher. Following these he began to enlarge upon two great themes, viz., '' Individual Work for Individuals," and ''What is Christianity?" Out of the first grew a corps of personal work- ers who rendered valuable service. Special prayer-meetings were held, and the pastor con- ducted a class for beginners in the Christian life through which came most of the accessions to the church by baptism. New features of this period consisted in an annual supper in connection with the annual meeting, free popular lectures, and open-air meetings during the warm weather in Ontario Park, also wharf meetings for sailors carried on by the young people of the church. These all re- sulted in conversions and the coming to us of a number of persons previously non-churchgoers. In November, 1902, Deacon Greene called the attention of the church to the matter of legacies bequeathed by Eben C. Jayne to the church, one for two thousand dollars to the deacons for the benefit of the poor, and one for one thousand dol- lars for the benefit of the Jayne Library, in memory of his wife, Ellen F. Jayne. Another new phase of work that originated about this time was the Loyalty Guild, under the personal direction of Dr. Frieda E. Lippert, for the children of the junior age. Though it has changed its leadership and necessarily its methods HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 299 several times during the course of events, it has never ceased to follow the lead of its never- changing motto, '' Others." In 1903 the pastor instituted a midw^inter con- ference on aggressive evangelism, and in this connection there were held special meetings of five weeks' continuance with four other churches followed by the notable conference in April of the Association churches for discussion, Bible study, and prayer. This became a matter of un- usual associational interest, and it was suggested that similar assemblies might be made permanent features in the life of the Association ; but at this juncture Doctor Poteat was made to feel the appeal of '' a cry from Macedonia," when the governing board of Furman University, of Green- ville, S. C, urged upon him the presidency of the university. Praying his way through the situa- tion, as was his custom, he resigned his pastorate in Memorial Church, October 24, 1903. Indefatigable in his w^ork, sincere in his Chris- tianity, and kindly and lovable in his nature, the force of his character left a lasting impression upon us, contributing to the character of the church those qualities which rendered it capable of holding its own through the four succeeding years when it was without an undershepherd. The history of an organization centers natu- rally about its leaders, but the church of the liv- ing God, counting Christ as its supreme Head, 300 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY may be guarded and guided in a way that would be impossible under merely human conditions; so, all unknowing, we entered in October, 1903, upon one of the most trying ordeals that a church is called to face, and the God of our fathers held us to our task of being faithful, himself leading us day by day, month by month, and year by year. Upon Doctor Poteat's departure our former pastor, Dr. Way land Hdyt, was secured to act as stated supply, October 20, 1904. During the summer of 1905 it was deemed advisable to have the main audience-room re- carpeted and the entire building renovated. Gifts to benevolence continued unusually large, amount- ing in 1906 to more than fourteen thousand dol- lars, of which six thousand dollars and more was given to foreign missions, thanks to the gener- osity of Mrs. Sarah Trevor, since taken to her reward. At the close of Doctor Hoyt's services as a stated supply, the church was fortunate in secur- ing for that position the Rev. Edward B. Pollard, D. D., of Crozer Theological Seminary, who through his kindly and sympathetic ministrations and straightforward presentation of the gospel endeared himself to all. At last the long period of waiting was over, and on October i, 1907, the church greeted a pastor once more in the person of William Hollo- HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 3OI way Main, D. D. Doctor Main was installed as pastor at a largely attended service, at which former pastors Doctor Henson and Doctor Hoyt, also Doctor Pollard and Dr. J. Henry Haslam made addresses of welcome. On the first Sunday in January, 1908, the church pledged sufficient funds to cover expenses for the year, and subscriptions were received from a larger proportion of the members than on any former occasion. In February a Home Week was observed, which brought our members into a close bond of fellowship. An Advisory Committee, consisting of the pastor, deacons, trustees, and ten addi- tional male members, was established to promote the welfare of the church. The young people's meetings were held uninterruptedly during the year, and the weekly prayer-service of the church was combined with theirs during the summer months. One new feature in the work of the Bible School in this period was the organization •of a teacher-training class in charge of Miss Florence H. Darnell. Sunday-evening musical services were held during the winter of 1908- 1909. Illustrated lec- tures by the pastor, and musical and literary en- tertainments were also given regularly through- out the season. A monthly paper called the " Memorial Her- ald " was started in December, its object being 302 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY to help the members and outsiders to keep in touch with the church work. At the annual men's meeting, held in the fall, a New England dinner was furnished by the pastor, at which time a Men's League was formed, with the intention of binding together for work all the men of the church and Bible School. The benevolent contributions were now sys- tematized, and the receipts apportioned among the different objects on a percentage basis. On No- vember 21, 1909, known as Jubilee Sunday, the church by united and vigorous effort secured sub- scriptions sufficient to cover the entire amount of indebtedness. A plan was also put into opera- tion, adopting the weekly system of contributing to world-wide missions. The Bible School now started on a new career. Owing to the previous resignation, in 1906, of Mr. Robert M. Mackay, acting superintendent, after having served in that capacity for eight years of continuous service, the position was tem- porarily filled by Deacon G. Gerald Evans, whose willingness to serve at a critical hour proved his utter loyalty to the school, and won the gratitude of all concerned. Feeling that he could not hold the office permanently, he resigned, and the Rev. Hugh T. Musselman was elected to take his place. At the same time Mrs. C. H. Barber came into our midst, having been appointed Sunday School HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 303 visitor. Her work among us speaks for itself, and we as a Bible School can in no wise estimate the value of her devotion and love for '' the church and the child." Mr. Musselman remained with us for but a brief period and was succeeded by your present superintendent, Mr. George L. Estabrook, under whom the Bible School has come to be the verita- ble right arm of the church. Mr. Estabrook has also served Memorial Church in the office of treasurer since 1896, rounding out a period of twenty-one years in this, our fiftieth, anniversary. It is of interest to recall some of the sermon topics used from time to time by the pastor. Doctor Main, such as : *' The Family that Lives in the Basement," " Pilgrim's Progress," '' Heroes and Heroines of the Bible," '* Voices of Nature," " Weaponless Warfare," " From Shepherd Staff to Kinglv Scepter," " The Cross." A shadow fell over the church at this time ow- ing to the death of our former pastor, Dr. Way- land Hoyt. It was felt to be the first break in the ranks. Since then Dr. P. S. Henson has also en- tered the homeland. '^ They do rest from their labors and their works do follow them." In March, 191 1, Memorial held special union services with Gethsemane Church and Fifth Church, which proved to be of spiritual uplift to all who attended. The Northern Baptist Conven- 304 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY tion and the Baptist World Alliance were also a blessing to us and strengthened our denomina- tional ties. There was a large number of organizations in the church at this period of our history; those performing important parts in the united activity were the pastor's choir of children, to whom he preached an object sermon at the Sunday-morn- ing service ; the Loyalty Guild and pastor's train- ing class, meeting every Monday afternoon ; the Memorial Brotherhood, meeting on Friday night ; the Women's Union and Dorcas Society; the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor; added to which were social features, such as the Mandolin Club, Men's and Women's Glee Clubs, uniting later as a choral union, which for several seasons rendered special oratorio work at Easter- time and on other special occasions in the calen- dar of church services. A Red Letter Day was celebrated October 6, 19 1 2, our pastor's fifth anniversary, when the church treasurer in the presence of the congrega- tion burnt paid notes amounting to $12,500, thus effacing the last vestige of church debt. In January, 19 13, current expenses for the coming year having been provided for in the usual way, viz., by rents and sittings and voluntary contribu- tions, one thousand dollars was donated to start an Endowment Fund, which in this, our jubilee, year aggregates four thousand dollars. HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1 892- 19 1 7 O'-'O Another interesting occasion was a banquet to the ladies of the church. Nearly two hundred ladies were entertained and served by the men of the church. A summer Bible School was conducted during July and August of 19 13, and union services with four neighboring churches were held with satis- factory results in strengthening our mutual influ- ence and cooperation. Under the direction of Superintendent George L. Estabrook, assisted by Brethren Evans, Warner, Knabe, and Barber, the Bible School continued to make progress and an Intermediate Department was formed, meeting a need which had for some time been impressing itself as of growing urgency. In order to bridge the gaps in the organiza- tional system of the church two new features were added : a Girls' Fellowship Club, admitting all girls over thirteen, and a Women's A. W. T. (All Work Together) Society, the latter taking the place of the Dorcas Society of the early days. Added to this was the Young Women's Home and Farther Lights Society (since then organized into a chapter of the World Wide Guild), and the Women's Missionary Union, necessarily main- tained in order that we might not lose our point of contact with the extension work of the kingdom. Memorial Home Week was observed by the church November 9-15, 1913, and later on in the 306 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY month a union Thanksgiving service with out- side churches was agreed upon. During May and June of 19 14 we departed from our usual custom somewhat by instituting a four o'clock Vesper Service to take the place of the regular evening service, the object being to bring the Bible School into closer touch with the church. In September, 19 14, after a period of twenty- five years of continuous activity in the Bible School, Mrs. A. F, Hand retired from her posi- tion as superintendent of the Primary Depart- ment, to be succeeded by Miss E. Madeleine Barber. An addition to the Bible School was brought about, following the Billy Sunday campaign in 191 5, which resulted in the Henson Memorial Bible class, led by Deacon Saull. This year was marked with the spirit of service as signified by the fruitage of the largest number of baptisms in Doctor Main's eight-year pastorate. Contrasted with former years was the large number of adults baptized, showing an awakening in the lives of those who had not heeded the voice of God in their earlier days. Mobilization Week was observed by the church the second week of January, 19 16, and on Wed- nesday evening, March 15, 19 16, Dr. David Spencer led the prayer-meeting, giving, by re- quest, " Recollections of Philadelphia Baptists." HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1 892- 19 1 7 307 On the first of October, 191 6, having completed nine years of service, constituting the second longest term of any one of the five pastors of Memorial Baptist Church, Doctor Main severed his connection with us to assume ministerial duties in the First Baptist Church of Chicago, for the second time in his career filling a pulpit in a church that had been formerly occupied by Doctor Henson. Prior to the expiration of Doctor Main's pas- torate, it was deemed wise to relieve our time- honored sexton, Mr. Peter L. Snyder, from active service, so by action of the church he was retired, out of deference to nearly fifty years of faithful stewardship. In order to fit herself for the new problems and difiiculties confronting her, the church ob- served a week of prayer from November 5-12, 19 16, in which pastors of neighboring churches took a kindly and active interest. One of the blessings vouchsafed to Memorial has been the long periods of constant loyalty on the part of a number of her officers and members. Among such are the late Thomas M. Greene, who held the office of deacon since her organiza- tion, and who passed out of this life in September, 19 1 7, just prior to the celebration of her fiftieth anniversary; and Mr. Charles N. Selser, who united with the church on March 2, 1868, and is now the president of the Board of Trustees. 308 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY The list of constituent members, who lived to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Memorial Church, is as follows : Mrs. Anna F. Hand, Miss Susan M. James, Miss Emily A. Kerns, Mrs. Clementina M. Matlack, Mrs. Mary E. M. Rawlings, Miss Sallie L. Rumble, Miss Anna M. Watson. Having passed the fiftieth milestone, we now enter into the gates of the future with thanksgiv- ing and into the courts of the unknown with praise, confident that the mercies of our God en- dure forever. Dr. William Russell Owen, who came, in answer to the call of an undivided peo- ple, to be our pastor in February, 191 7, is stirring in our hearts *' the positive note in Christianity." In an address given by him during Jubilee Week he paid a beautiful tribute to a certain group of individuals to whom, alas! he lamented that oftentimes little credit is given, viz., to the devoted and helpful wives of our pastors, their silent, prayerful allies. " For who will hearken unto you in this mat- ter ? but as his part is that goeth down to the bat- tle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff : they shall part alike." Encompassed about by enemies, without and HISTORICAL SKETCH, 1892-I917 309 within, called upon to send her sons to bear the brunt of a great world war, the church must stand firm, taking Christ as her eye-mark, remembering that " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- ness, temperance: against such there is no law." Such was the motive of the woman from whose loyal act of devotion, in anointing Jesus' feet, this church was named. May her spirit, proving her love for her Master, be reincarnated in our midst in the lives of each and all of us. FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH 1867 1917 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH Broad and Master Streets, Philadelphia October 2 1-28, 1917 PASTORS P. S. Henson, D, D 1867 to 1882 Wayland Hoyt, D. D 1882 to 1889 T. Edwin Brown, D. D 1890 to 1896 Edwin M. Poteat, D. D. < 1898 to 1903 William H. Main, D. D 1907 to 1916 William Russell Owen, D. D 1917 Sunday, October 21, 19 17. ■ ANNIVERSARY Public Worship. — 10.30 a. m. Sermon to the Junior Church. By William H. Main, D. D. Sermon, " Finality of Jesus." By Edwin M. Poteat, D. D. T, Edwin Brown, D. D., will be present. 314 THE POSITIVE NOTE IN CHRISTIANITY Bible School. — 2.30 p. m. In the main auditorium. Special services in which all living Pastors vi^ill par- ticipate. B. Y. P. U.— 7.00 p. m. Miss McKean, recently of Siam, will speak on " Work Among Lepers." Evening Worship. — 7.45 p. m. Sermon, " The Unimpeached Bible." By William H. Main, D. D. Monday, October 22 — 8 p. m. Greetings from Philadelphia Baptists by Hon. Ernest L. Tustin, who will introduce Dr. Carter Helm Jones, of Seattle, Wash. Doctor Jones will lecture on " Baptist Leadership in Democracy," followed by a reception to the Baptists of Philadelphia. Tuesday, October 23 — 8 p. m. Social Gathering. Greetings from former pastors and Rev. A. E. Harris, D. D., pastor of the Bethlehem Baptist Church, with the home-coming of former and present members. Wednesday, October 24 — 8 p. m. Dr. Robert E. Speer on " The Deity of Jesus." Thursday, October 25 — 8 p. m. The King's Business League. Lecture with one hundred slides on Japan. By the president, Mr. Charles W. Shelmire- FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 315 Friday and Saturday, October 26, 27. Baptist Young People's Institute. Doctor White from Chicago, Frank Leavell from At- lanta, Doctor Chalmers and Mr. A. H. Vautier from Philadelphia. Sunday, October 28. 10.30 Sermon, by T. Edwin Brown, D. D. 7.45 Sermon, " The Church and the Child." By Dr. Edward B. Pollard. STATISTICAL RECORD OF MEMORIAL CHURCH FOR FIFTY YEARS Received V 1 1 c > 1 1-. u B a. u U2 4) n "rt V Pi ^ M I ^ ^ g 1867 1868 P. S. Henson P. S. Henson 200 281 Organized 27 6s 7 no record 1868 P. S. Henson 375 54 47 3 no record 1870 P. S, Henson 407 10 23 15 $1,500.00 $9,128.03 1871 P. S. Henson S13 lOI 61 21 i,339-o8 no record 1872 P. S. Henson 534 III 33 II 1,741.50 8,241.50 1873 P. S. Henson 537 39 26 23 702.28 15.877.59 1874 P. S. Henson 572 45 17 26 2,247.00 16,972.00 1875 P. S. Henson 564 4 16 18 2,673.00 29,678.00 1876 P. S. Henson 624 36 48 16 2,467.52 25,467.52 1877 P. S. Henson 632 20 15 18 3,284.25 15,284.25 1878 P. S. Henson 637 22 19 34 3,317.80 14.953.80 1879 P. S. Henson 621 19 15 18 2,727.20 12,727.2a 1880 P. S. Henson 642 25 21 6 3.409.55 40,474.73 1881 P. S. Henson 650 16 19 16 1,986.00 23,926.00 1882 Wayland Hoyt 650 17 22 24 2,264.00 13,963.00 1883 Wayland Hoyt 701 21 52 12 4,451.00 19,260.63 1884 Wayland Hoyt 745 41 35 24 5,447.83 18,644.83 188s Wayland Hoyt .... 802 54 42 27 5,099.69 18,110.37 1886 Wayland Hoyt .... 827 40 22 30 4,588.48 18,937.51 1887 Wayland Hoyt 884 69 40 20 5,233-88 24,582.50 1888 Wayland Hoyt .... 888 31 12 26 5,761.74 25.643.30 1889 Wayland Hoyt 895 42 22 20 5,012.38 19,858.11 1890 T. Edwin Brown . . 857 6 19 35 5,951.96 20,707.80 1 89 1 T. Edwin Brown . . 846 34 16 47 5,358.37 20,455.15 1892 T. Edwin Brown . . 821 21 22 24 5.524.17 30,242.66 1893 T. Edwin Brown . . 815 22 21 44 5,129.14 17,720.24 1894 T. Edwin Brown . . 807 18 21 35 4,940.30 20,455.15 1895 T. Edwin Brown . . 787 19 14 17 5.825.18 30,268.22 1896 B. L. Whitman, Spl. 697 25 II 72 1,470.70 15,029.05 1897 B. L. Whitman, Spl. 677 9 12 23 2,323.69 12,024.70 1898 E. M. Poteat 696 17 22 10 4,087.72 14,891.64 1899 E. M. Poteat 711 24 30 23 5,651.94 21,089.98 1900 E. M. Poteat 702 15 12 17 9,380.03 28,131.95 1 90 1 E. M Poteat 698 2.2 14 16 6,718.95 33,304.60 1902 E. M. Poteat 705 30 5 14 4,822.87 37,086.69 1903 E. M. Poteat 703 17 6 II 4,026.15 37.641.98 1904 Wayland Hoyt, Spl. 676 17 3 22 6,441.43 22,348.24 1905 Wayland Hoyt, Spl. 663 15 3 13 6,788.77 20,096.19 1906 E. B. Pollard, Spl. 662 II 6 7 10,428.89 22,945.71 1907 W. H. Main 625 I I 26 12,876.73 24,387.98 1908 W. H. Main 668 46 25 12 9,761.60 19,669.47 1909 W. H. Main 664 20 2 6 2,6si.29 16,042.22 1910 W. H. Main 666 II 10 3 3,061.81 16,670.96 1911 W. H. Main 688 26 15 9 2,939.81 26,022.76 1912 W. H. Main 688 10 7 10 5,822.77 18,397.80 1913 W. H. Main 682 15 3 12 2,448.66 15.452.97 1914 W. H. Main 716 25 13 7 3.278.69 16,299.66 1915 W. H. Main 747 57 6 9 2,291.63 15,591.99 1916 W. H. Main 743 18 II 10 4,744.19 15.550.66 1917 W. R. Owen 762 31 8 5 3.024.93 15,282.07 1 Totals 1.427 i,oio| 954 $213,026.55 $975,539.36 B458 TB^ 321 ll-lB-00 32180 MS Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01132 1744