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 BR 121 .T46 1919 
 Thorns, Craig S. 1860-1945 
 The essentials of 
 Christianity 
 
THE ESSENTIALS 
 OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
THE ESSENTIALS ^ 
 OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 CRAIG S. THOMS, Ph. D. 
 
 Professor of Sociology in the University 
 of South Dakota 
 
 Author of 
 " The Bible Message for Modern Manhood 
 " The Workingman's Christ," etc 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE JUDSON PRESS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 ST. LOUIS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 SEATTLE 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 KANSAS CITY 
 TORONTO 
 
Copyright, 1919, by 
 GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 
 
 Published December, 1919 
 
TO 
 ©je T&uxlbexs of tUmmtrrafo 
 
 WHOSE CHRISTIANITY MUST BE SIMPLE 
 SPIRITUAL AND BROTHERLY 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Our day calls for what is practical in edu- 
 cation, efficient in industry, and workable 
 in political and economic relations. In these 
 spheres we are rightfully impatient of beat- 
 ing the air, intolerant of waste and loss 
 of power, and insistent upon modern ma- 
 chinery and new methods. Organization 
 is our watchword, and we want every man 
 at his post. 
 
 Religion, like everything else, has caught 
 the temper of the age. Its leaders are im- 
 bued with the same spirit as educators, and 
 feel the thrill of business efficiency. They 
 think in vital terms ; they discern the need 
 of new view-points; they speak in modern 
 language; they know the power of organ- 
 ization; they want every religious man on 
 the job ; they are aware that all our boasted 
 modern science and invention, which are 
 lightening the burdens of work, rilling the 
 world with comforts, and providing un- 
 heard-of leisure, may do more harm than 
 
preface 
 
 good unless men are made better. The 
 world needs better men, and men every- 
 where need to lay hold upon those forces 
 which enable them to become better. 
 
 These facts have been accentuated by 
 the world war. Recently the church has 
 been criticized for a sort of fatalistic re- 
 maining in old ruts while the world was 
 rapidly changing. During the war the 
 Young Men's and Young Women's Chris- 
 tian Associations, and other religious 
 bodies, working at home and abroad, gave 
 a tensely practical turn to religion. The 
 millions of virile young men in canton- 
 ments and trenches who were religiously in- 
 clined, thought of religion in vital terms. 
 They were eager for reality. They sought 
 a workable and working religion. 
 
 Today some are growing negligent of re- 
 ligion and becoming indifferent to its 
 claims. They seem unable to make those 
 readjustments in thought and attitude which 
 the times demand. They rebel against old 
 theology without getting for themselves a 
 new and better theology. They have not 
 outgrown the notion obtaining a genera- 
 tion ago that science and the Bible were 
 in conflict. They are impatient with the 
 
preface 
 
 church, failing to understand that institu- 
 tions always move more slowly than in- 
 dividuals, and that the permanence and use- 
 fulness of all institutions are conditioned 
 upon adjustments made by forward-looking 
 people who feel the need of readjustments. 
 Modern knowledge of science seems to have 
 removed God from their world because they 
 still think of God in outgrown terms. 
 Christ fails to be dynamic in their lives be- 
 cause they cannot appropriate him by the 
 theology of other days. 
 
 To discard what is outgrown is only 
 half of the modern man's task; the other 
 half is to take on and live in the new, and 
 to be made of worth and service by the 
 new. When some can no longer accept 
 old terms and theologies they throw away 
 their religion and become idlers in the 
 moral and spiritual spheres. Let the mod- 
 ern man, if he feels the need, choose his 
 own terms and make his own theology, but 
 let him not be an idler in living the in- 
 spirational life and in helping those about 
 him to a grip on God. Let him deal with 
 vital and essential things in religion and 
 leave other things of more remote conse- 
 quence for time to adjust. 
 
preface 
 
 This volume is sent forth with the hope 
 that it may help men over difficulties which 
 hold them back from Christian activity and 
 enable them to enlist all their powers in the 
 one task which alone can supply the world's 
 greatest need — the building of better men. 
 
 Craig S. Thoms. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. Faith i 
 
 II. God 25 
 
 III. Christ 47 
 
 IV. Evolution 73 
 
 V. The Bible 95 
 
 VI. Prayer 123 
 
 VII. Immortality 147 
 
 VIII. The Church 193 
 
 IX. Cooperating with God 231 
 
1 
 
 faitb 
 
FAITH 
 
 IN order to understand the full signifi- 
 cance of faith and appreciate its power 
 in religion we must first of all tear the 
 word loose from its theological definitions 
 and applications and see it operative in the 
 whole of life. 
 
 Faith is usually regarded as a religious 
 term, and the word is most frequently em- 
 ployed in that connection. In other spheres 
 of life, such as home, school, or business, 
 we are more accustomed to the words " be- 
 lief, confidence, trust," and other like terms. 
 And yet we say : " I have faith in myself," 
 meaning confidence ; " I have faith in my 
 friends," meaning trust. 
 
 Without hair-splitting definitions, then, 
 let it be noted how large and powerful a 
 factor in all spheres of life is that set of the 
 soul which is characterized by faith, con- 
 fidence, and trust as contrasted with that at- 
 titude of mind which is ever insisting upon 
 proof. 
 
 [3] 
 
Cbe Baeenttala ot CbttstlanttE 
 
 The Fundamental Character of Faith 
 
 Faith underlies all our knowing proc- 
 esses. For example, we arrive at some con- 
 clusion ; another insists that we are wrong ; 
 but we believe that we are right. That is, 
 we trust the processes of our own minds. 
 Faith in the integrity of our rational proc- 
 esses is the foundation upon which the whole 
 superstructure of knowledge rests. One 
 cannot even prove himself sane to another 
 who challenges his sanity. He may plead 
 that he is like most other people, but the 
 challenger may insist that all are insane 
 but himself. One simply believes in and 
 trusts his own sanity. Upon this basis of 
 faith in the integrity of one's own mental 
 operations all knowledge is built. 
 
 Our constantly besetting temptation is to 
 seek proof of things, and were this not the 
 case it would be difficult to see how our 
 reasoning faculty could be exercised and 
 developed. This is its means of growth. 
 But the facts of evolution teach that reason 
 is our baby faculty — the latest born of them 
 all. This baby, reason, will grow to man- 
 hood in time, and will doubtless do valiantly 
 when grown; but as yet he is not fully 
 
 [4] 
 
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 capable of holding the reins of life. Daily 
 life is guided more by faith than by reason. 
 
 Underlying all education is faith in one's 
 unfolding powers. The athlete believes that 
 he can run faster and jump higher tomor- 
 row than he did today. The football squad 
 believe that they can win this year from the 
 team to which they lost last year. By faith 
 the student passes from less difficult to more 
 difficult studies. He believes that he can 
 master untried problems, though there is no 
 possible proof of it beforehand. The grad- 
 uate goes forth to his chosen work — teach- 
 ing, engineering, law, medicine, or what- 
 ever it may be — believing in his ability to 
 succeed. It is a veritable plunge of faith. 
 He does not and cannot know beforehand 
 that success awaits him. The person full of 
 faith succeeds where the one who lacks 
 faith fails. 
 
 The driving power in all wars and in all 
 business is faith. No nation goes to war 
 unless it believes that it can win. No farmer 
 plows and sows who lacks faith in the com- 
 ing of rain and in the conquest of insect 
 pests. No manufacturing would be done 
 in advance of demand but for faith in 
 markets to take the product. All are aware 
 
 [5) 
 
Zbe Essentials of Cbrlsttanttg 
 
 that lack of faith in the business world 
 produces panic. In a country like ours, 
 where the bulk of business is done on credit, 
 faith is one of the chief ingredients of busi- 
 ness stability. No young man can prove 
 that he will not die in the poorhouse, yet 
 each of us proceeds joyfully with his work 
 in faith that he will be able to acquire a 
 competence for old age. 
 
 Our homes are established in faith. 
 What risks we run in marriage ! Shall 
 husband and wife be able to get along to- 
 gether? If they waited for demonstration 
 of this fact they would never marry. Shall 
 the husband succeed in business and be able 
 to provide a home ? Shall children turn out 
 well? Shall life be spared to old age and 
 happiness strew the long pathway? None 
 can tell. We believe the best, and we pro- 
 ceed joyfully by faith. 
 
 Every great enterprise is born, not of 
 knowledge, but of faith. " Find Living- 
 stone." Stanley believed that he could find 
 him, and he did. " Find the North Pole." 
 Peary believed that he could do it, and he 
 succeeded. " Go disciple all nations." The 
 disciples believed that it could be done, and 
 it is being done. Do we know that the 
 
 [6] 
 
jfaitb 
 
 League of Nations will succeed? It can- 
 not be known beforehand. We believe it 
 will succeed. Without that faith it never 
 would be tried. 
 
 All scientific knowledge proceeds upon 
 the basis of faith. From his look at the 
 swaying chandelier in the cathedral at Pisa, 
 Galileo believed in the law of the pendu- 
 lum and proceeded to prove it. By seeing 
 the apple fall, Newton believed in the law 
 of gravitation and demonstrated it mathe- 
 matically. Darwin and Wallace believed in 
 the evolution of species and spent years 
 gathering facts to prove it. Franklin be- 
 lieved that electricity could be made to do 
 work, and he proceeded to snatch lightning 
 from the clouds. Fulton believed that 
 steam could be made to drive ships, and the 
 oceans are now the highways of the na- 
 tions. In every laboratory of investiga- 
 tion men are working toward things that 
 they believe in but cannot prove as yet. If 
 faith were destroyed, effort would be para- 
 lyzed, and work would cease. 
 
 Inventions are the product of faith. 
 Cyrus McCormick believed that he could 
 make a machine to cut and bind grain. By 
 his neighbors he was called lazy, a fool, 
 
 [7] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstlanttB 
 
 and even crazy. His faith saved him. 
 " Darius Green with his flying-machine " 
 was the joke of the author's country-school 
 days. But from generations of men with 
 faith that they could fly, a new and terrible 
 weapon was added to the world war, and a 
 new and important method is being added to 
 the world's transportation system. 
 
 Every great forward step in government 
 is prompted by faith. Without the faith of 
 our Pilgrim Fathers the Mayflower would 
 have been unknown to history, the charac- 
 ter of this nation would have been very dif- 
 ferent, and the democratic purposes of the 
 Allies in the world war impossible. 
 
 When in the crisis of Colonial history 
 Benjamin Franklin said, " We must all hang 
 together or we shall all hang separately," 
 he expressed a phase of the venture of faith 
 which gave our nation birth. 
 
 What fight in life is not a struggle of 
 faith? The young writer receives back 
 from the critical editor manuscript after 
 manuscript, but maintains faith in the suc- 
 cess of his next endeavor. A noble man 
 begins a fight to clean up one of the worst 
 wards in Chicago, believing after every de- 
 feat that it can be done next time, and 
 
 [8] 
 
ffattb 
 
 finally it is done, or done in large measure. 
 Faith did it. 
 
 Faith blazes the trail of the future. Co- 
 lumbus, with faith as his chief asset, sailed 
 forward to a new continent, and refused to 
 turn back. The builders of our trans- 
 continental railroads believed in the de- 
 velopment of our Middle West. By faith 
 they looked forward to the time to which 
 we have now come, when towns, like neck- 
 laces, would lie upon the bosom of the 
 prairie, and homes nestle among trees on 
 every hillside and in every valley. On these 
 prairies the early settlers had no idea of 
 living alone. They believed that they were 
 the first of a gathering company, and but 
 for this faith they would not have left their 
 old homes. 
 
 The following facts about faith then are 
 evident : 
 
 i. Faith is the engine of life and drives 
 life forward when certain knowledge is im- 
 possible. 
 
 2. Faith is the pioneering faculty of the 
 soul, and attempts and exploits all pos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 3. Faith runs risks and blazes the way 
 into the larger unknown. 
 
 [9] 
 
Cbe Bssenttate ot CbrtettanitE 
 
 4. Faith seizes and utilizes opportunities 
 which would be lost if we waited for cer- 
 tain knowledge. 
 
 5. Faith is a necessary and dominant 
 power in every field of life. 
 
 Faith as Individual Relationship 
 
 Faith is the condition of assimilating the 
 best or the worst in others. 
 
 Let a youth believe in the life ideals of 
 the " fast young man," and he fairly ab- 
 sorbs him. He admires his manner and 
 dress ; he listens eagerly to accounts of his 
 exploits; his judgment is molded by his 
 ideas of morals ; he imitates him and grows 
 to be like him. Let a youth, on the con- 
 trary, lionize a person of opposite character, 
 and he himself becomes opposite in char- 
 acter. Fie who admires the industrious 
 man, praises the temperate man, loves the 
 pure man, trusts the just man, and asso- 
 ciates with the religious man, will himself 
 take on these qualities. Faith assimilates 
 its object. It is the fountain from which 
 flow admiration, praise, love, trust. It is 
 the condition of agreeable association. 
 
 Though a minister preach ever so good 
 
 [10] 
 
ffattb 
 
 a sermon, only those who have faith in his 
 character are stirred by it. Though a poli- 
 tician plead ever so eloquently for national 
 reform, those who distrust his sincerity are 
 not moved to action. On the contrary, 
 when a speaker whom you trust is stirred 
 with his theme, you also are stirred; you 
 respond to him and are ready to act with 
 him. Faith in him makes you absorb his 
 ideas and also something of his passion and 
 power. 
 
 Such facts help us to understand Christ's 
 emphasis on faith. It is the psychic bond 
 which binds us to him; it is our means of 
 assimilating his qualities of character; it is 
 our faculty for rendering his ideas dynamic 
 in us ; it is the drawing power which brings 
 him and us into vital association, makes 
 that association agreeable, and renders pos- 
 sible admiration, love, and obedience; it is 
 the channel through which his nature and 
 ours flow together. 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that Christ 
 says, if I may paraphrase him somewhat 
 freely : He that believeth on me, though he 
 were spiritually dead, yet shall he become 
 spiritually alive. He that believeth on the 
 Son is awakened into spiritual life ; he that 
 
 [in 
 
Gbe Essentials ot CbristianttE 
 
 believeth not the Son cannot find spiritual 
 life. (See John 3 : 16; 5 : 24; 6 : 47 ; 11 : 
 25, 26.) If you have faith as a grain of 
 mustard-seed, things shall be possible to 
 you which otherwise are impossible ; you 
 shall have power which may be likened to 
 plucking a mountain out of its place and 
 casting it into the sea. (Matt. 21 : 21.) 
 
 Faith is not a mystical thing for religious 
 use only. It functions the same every- 
 where between individuals. When exer- 
 cised toward Christ, it joins us to Christ; 
 Christ lives in us and we in him ; our char- 
 acters become assimilated to his ; we lay 
 hold upon his power, and he works through 
 us. 
 
 Faith is the leverage under all efforts to 
 help men and improve society. In one of 
 his lectures Dr. P. S. Henson used to tell 
 that, while hastening to a train one day 
 in Chicago, he slipped a package into a 
 postal box without first putting stamps on 
 it. He had no time to wait for the postman, 
 so, calling a little ragged newsboy from 
 across the street, he told him his predica- 
 ment. " Here are twenty-five stamps for 
 the postage," he said, " and here is money 
 to buy all your papers, and you may have 
 
 [12] 
 
jfaitb 
 
 them to sell again. You stand here and 
 wait for the postman, and have him put 
 the stamps on the package." 
 " Sure, I'll do it," said the lad. 
 
 When Doctor Henson was a block away 
 he looked back, and there the boy stood as 
 though he owned the city, straight as a 
 Northern pine. The package reached its 
 destination safely, and every one of the 
 twenty-five stamps was on it. By putting 
 faith in boys we make men out of them. 
 None of us rise to our best unless we are 
 trusted. 
 
 Of this fact Christ's conduct is a lumi- 
 nous example. He put faith in the un- 
 worthy, and they were transformed as by 
 a healing touch. He forgave the sinful and 
 sent them away to sin no more, and they 
 would have died for him. He trusted every 
 one of the twelve disciples, and those who 
 failed him were heart-broken. Peter de- 
 nied him, but alone in the darkness he wept 
 bitter tears of repentance. Judas betrayed 
 him, but, unable to live with conscious be- 
 trayal in his heart, he brought back the 
 blood-money and went and hanged himself. 
 Nothing brings out the good in one like 
 being trusted, 
 
 [13] 
 
Zbc Essentials ot Gbristiantts 
 
 Only those who believe in their fellow 
 men work for their betterment. Faith gives 
 the push for work. We believe that we 
 can keep the young from going wrong; we 
 believe that we can get bad people to change 
 their ways ; we believe that we can improve 
 social and economic conditions ; we believe 
 that international relations can be made 
 more brotherly; we believe that Christ has 
 power to uplift men and society ; we believe 
 that the kingdom of Christ is gradually be- 
 ing established in the world, that his power 
 in men's lives is increasing, and that the 
 kingdom of this world will ultimately be- 
 come " the kingdom of our Lord and of 
 his Christ" (Rev. n : 15). Apart from 
 such faith there would be no effort to uplift 
 society. Faith is the dynamic that is doing 
 the work of the world. 
 
 Faith and Knozvledge 
 
 Faith and knowledge, of course, are never 
 wholly separated. They are different 
 phases of the soul's activity. Just as the 
 old psychology separated the soul into in- 
 tellect, feelings, and will, so we too often 
 separate faith and knowledge. The newer 
 
 [14] 
 
ffattb 
 
 psychology affirms that, while it is con- 
 venient for study to separate intellect, feel- 
 ings, and will, as a matter of fact the soul 
 does not act in parts, but as a unit, that 
 every activity of the soul has something 
 of intellect, something of feeling, and some- 
 thing of will. In like manner, it is con- 
 venient to speak of faith and knowledge 
 separately; but no act of faith is without 
 some knowledge, and no knowledge pro- 
 ceeds far without the exercise of faith. 
 While faith goes beyond knowledge, knowl- 
 edge is a buttress to faith. For exam- 
 ple, coupled with the chemist's faith that 
 he can achieve certain unknown results 
 is a certain knowledge of chemical facts 
 and laws. Coupled with one's faith in 
 people is a certain knowledge of human 
 nature. Coupled with the faith that leads 
 the farmer to sow this year's crops, is his 
 knowledge of the rains and harvests of 
 former years. Coupled with the student's 
 faith that he can " make good " in college 
 or university, is his knowledge of his own 
 past achievements. Coupled also with our 
 faith in Jesus Christ is our knowledge of his 
 character and work, our observation of lives 
 changed by trusting him, the testimony of 
 
 ti5] 
 
Zbc Essentials ot GbrtsttanitB 
 
 friends to Christ's power in their lives, the 
 great historic transformations wrought by 
 Christianity, the church's world-wide en- 
 deavor to better mankind. Though one 
 may not think through these considerations 
 as they are set down here, yet the facts in- 
 dicated lie in the background of our con- 
 sciousness and are a support to faith. 
 
 It may at times be difficult to tell where 
 faith ends and knowledge begins, and it is 
 not necessary to do so. The important 
 things are that faith gives the push up- 
 ward in the face of all difficulties ; it is the 
 normal attitude of strong souls; it is the 
 achieving and conquering power in life. 
 Midst all our ignorance, and notwithstand- 
 ing all mysteries and all unsolved problems, 
 it binds us to God and links us to Christ; 
 it keeps us forward-looking and upward- 
 striving; and it makes the personalities in 
 whom we believe, powerful to transform us 
 into their likeness. 
 
 Faith as an Attitude 
 
 Faith is the optimistic attitude to life. 
 To believe in God, and to trust his justice, 
 love, and guidance, fills one with hope and 
 
 [16] 
 
yaitb 
 
 courage. To believe that Jesus Christ is 
 sent of God, that he gives spiritual life to 
 men, that he can transform the individual, 
 and that he is guiding the race on its un- 
 blazed way to a destined goal, makes one 
 both a forward-looking and a present-work- 
 ing man. To believe in the redeemableness 
 of men, even the worst of them, and in the 
 betterment of social conditions, however 
 hopeless, girds one with power for heroic 
 tasks. To believe in growing goodness in 
 the hearts of men, in the ultimate righting 
 of all wrongs, in man's fundamental love of 
 righteousness, and in the possibility of ulti- 
 mately perfecting the social order, is to 
 be a worker with God in redeeming the 
 world. 
 
 In any undertaking, he who does not be- 
 lieve in possible accomplishment is beaten 
 before he begins. Belief in one's own un- 
 tried powers sets one to work and develops 
 applied faculties. Belief draws to one the 
 faith and cooperation of others and unites 
 their endeavors with one's own. No one 
 loves a pessimist ; no one follows a doubter. 
 To be a leader of men one must be rilled 
 with faith that dares attempt the impos- 
 sible. 
 
 17 
 
Sbe Essentials of Cbristtanits 
 
 Faith in God and in Jesus Christ puts spir- 
 itual " pep " into life, gives direction and 
 momentum to every spiritual thought, every 
 moral impulse, every right endeavor. It 
 links with one, and enlists for one, both the 
 power of God and the spiritual power in 
 men. 
 
 The spiritual work of the world has been 
 done by men of faith. In that great chap- 
 ter, the eleventh of Hebrews, the writer gives 
 a catalog of the heroes of faith — Abra- 
 ham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, 
 Jephthah, Samuel, David, and many others, 
 " who through faith subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
 stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
 violence of fire, escaped the edge of the 
 sword, out of weakness were made strong, 
 waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
 armies of aliens. . . Others had trial of cruel 
 mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, 
 of bonds and imprisonments. They were 
 stoned, they were sawn asunder, were 
 tempted, were slain with the sword: they 
 wandered about in sheepskins and.goatskins ; 
 being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they 
 wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and 
 in dens and caves of the earth. And these 
 
 [18] 
 
ffaltb 
 
 all, having' received a good report through 
 faith, received not the promise : God having 
 some better thing for us, that they without 
 us should not be made perfect." 
 
 This remarkable tribute to the unsub- 
 duable power of faith could be duplicated in 
 our Christian era: Paul, the Christian 
 martyr under Roman rule, Savonarola, 
 Luther, Wiclif, Ridley, Latimer, Knox, the 
 Pilgrim Fathers, Carey, Judson, Living- 
 stone, and hosts of others, were all men 
 of unsubduable faith. They " believed 
 where they could not prove." They at- 
 tempted and achieved the seemingly impos- 
 sible. Such are always the men who pio- 
 neer the way to a larger and better future 
 and usher in conditions of finer social 
 brotherhood and greater economic justice. 
 
 Faith and Evolution 
 
 Faith is an evolutionary force. From 
 what has been 'said, it is evident that faith 
 is a necessary factor in social progress. The 
 forces of social evolution are, among others, 
 the human faculties — conscience, will, rea- 
 son, feeling (love, hate, envy, jealousy, sym- 
 pathy), faith, etc. Among these forces the 
 
 [19] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Cbristfantts 
 
 most outstanding is faith. As previously 
 stated, it is the pioneering force; it is like 
 the needle which points the direction for 
 the mariner; it roughly locates the next 
 camp on the journey of social progress, and 
 bids humanity gird up its loins for the for- 
 ward march; it indicates the direction of 
 social betterment, and summons all the 
 power in God and man for achievement. 
 
 It has been remarked in another connec- 
 tion that in biological evolution there is 
 found in each species, as it wanes, rough 
 indications or prophecies of what the next 
 species is to be like, and thus an upward 
 course of development is traceable from 
 species to species. A similar fact is ob- 
 servable in social evolution. Each century 
 holds prophecies of the next century. Faith 
 is the prophet. What man today believes he 
 can do, he does tomorrow ; what he believes 
 this century that society can become, it be- 
 comes next century. Today's faith indi- 
 cates tomorrow's achievement. Yesterday 
 man believed that he could fly ; today he is 
 flying. Centuries ago man believed that 
 steam could be made to do work; today it 
 is driving factories and mills, hauling trains, 
 and propelling ships. A generation ago man 
 
 [20] 
 
jfattb 
 
 believed that electricity could be made to 
 become his servant; today undersea cables, 
 underground and overhead wires, and the 
 very atmosphere the world around, are vi- 
 brant with hurrying messages. Not long 
 ago nations believed that kings were of 
 divine appointment ; today democracy is 
 possessing the world. Yesterday the many 
 believed that might made right, both gov- 
 ernmentally and economically; today the 
 whole world, with few exceptions, believes 
 that every person, no matter how weak and 
 insignificant, has right to worthful life ; and 
 that every nation, however small and un- 
 able to protect itself, has the right to work 
 out its own destiny in its own place. Not 
 many centuries ago most Christians believed 
 that Christ came to save a few out of a fast 
 perishing world; today the dominant con- 
 ception of Christian thinkers is that he came 
 to reconstruct human society and to make 
 this world a fit place to live in. They re- 
 gard the hereafter as safe for all who do 
 their appointed task here. They are con- 
 cerned with the betterment of human rela- 
 tions, the remaking of social conditions, the 
 righting of economic wrongs, the bringing 
 of heaven down to earth, the transforming 
 
 [21] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstianttE 
 
 of the kingdoms of this world into the king- 
 dom of our Lord. 
 
 Thus it is clear that faith is the mightiest 
 force in the process of social evolution; 
 it blazes the trail to the higher unknown. 
 Working with the other social forces, it 
 leads the way to the 
 
 Far-off divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves. 
 
 The outworking of the social process al- 
 ways goes beyond our faith. The Old Tes- 
 tament prophets, for the most part, looked 
 to Jerusalem as the capital of the world, 
 with the Hebrews as the dominant people 
 and their rule as national. All, of course, 
 was conditioned upon righteousness. But 
 the facts, as unfolded in history, burst the 
 bounds of their vision, overflowed their 
 limited hopes, and swept away the barriers 
 of their restricted faith. Christ established 
 a more glorious kingdom than John the 
 Baptist looked forward to, notwithstanding 
 that John was his prophet and forerunner. 
 The Pilgrim Fathers laid the foundation of 
 a freedom that transcended their fairest 
 dreams. Carey, Judson, Moffat, and Liv- 
 ingstone kindled a missionary zeal in the 
 
 [22] 
 
Jfaitb 
 
 world that has outflamed their highest ex- 
 pectations, and taken a social and economic 
 breadth far beyond their vision. We be- 
 lieve that the world war, notwithstanding all 
 its horrors, will work great good. Many 
 items could even now be pointed out. But 
 if history repeats itself — always with a dif- 
 ference — our feeble faith gives but faintest 
 intimation of the world-wide changes that 
 will ensue, and the multiple unseen bless- 
 ings that will follow. The need and the 
 duty of the hour is faith. It gives cour- 
 age to fight, self-sacrifice to spend, patriot- 
 ism to suffer, and renunciation to die, if 
 need be, in order that better, freer, larger 
 life than has been given to us may be the 
 portion of those who shall come after us. 
 
 Our faith is not in dead saints' bones, 
 
 In altars of vain sacrifice; 
 Nor is it in the stately stones 
 
 That rise in beauty toward the skies. 
 
 Our faith is built on living men, 
 With singing blood and minds alert; 
 
 Strong men, who fall to rise again, 
 Who strive and bleed with courage girt. 
 
 We would not spurn the ancient lore, 
 The prophet's word or psalmist's prayer; 
 
 [23] 
 
Cbe Essentials of Cbrtstianttg 
 
 But, lo! our Leader goes before, 
 Tomorrow's battles to prepare. 
 
 Our faith is in a Christ who walks 
 With men today, in street and mart; 
 
 Who gives good cheer, who thinks and talks 
 With those who seek him with the heart. 
 
 —Thomas Curtis Clark, " The Faith of Christ's 
 Freemen." 
 
 [24] 
 
in 
 
 0O& 
 
GOD 
 
 ALL knowledge, even of common thing's, 
 is partial ; we are learners. Problems 
 bristle everywhere. How is it that two 
 gases, hydrogen and oxygen, make water? 
 Is there as yet no answer to the agelong 
 query, Why does grass make wool on a 
 sheep, hair on a cow, bristles on a pig, and 
 feathers on a chicken? Why does food 
 sustain life? Why does heat make vegeta- 
 tion grow, and frost retard its growing? 
 Why do we love some people and not 
 others? Why is everybody not good? 
 Why do we so often want to do what rea- 
 son tells us we should not do? 
 
 To some of these questions we might 
 venture answers, but other questions would 
 push the problems still farther back. There 
 is no ultimate explanation. We are com- 
 pelled to stop with a simple statement of 
 fact — that things are so and so, that they 
 do occur. Just as the telescope, while bring- 
 ing distant stars into clear view, reveals 
 
 */ 
 
Gbe J&eeentiaie ot CbrtsttanitB 
 
 others dimly seen in the far distance, so 
 every increment of knowledge, while reveal- 
 ing more facts, also makes apparent more 
 mysteries. 
 
 On the threshold of our study of God it is 
 needful to recognize that the acquiring of 
 knowledge is a continuous process. We 
 but stultify ourselves, and often close the 
 door of our minds, by insisting upon ulti- 
 mate solutions to our problems. It is well, 
 of course, to solve all possible problems; 
 but in our thought of God it is fundamental 
 to recognize the magnitude of the task in- 
 volved when we seek to go beyond an 
 every-day working knowledge and plunge 
 into the field of philosophy. Our knowl- 
 edge, both of the individual and of the race, 
 is a growth. How much more our knowl- 
 edge of God! 
 
 A man's conception of God is very dif- 
 ferent from a child's conception; and the 
 twentieth-century conception is vastly dif- 
 ferent from the first-century conception. 
 Early races worshiped fetishes. They 
 conceived of powers, both malignant and 
 beneficent, in sticks, stones, trinkets, birds, 
 etc. Later races peopled hills, valleys, lakes, 
 streams, woods, fields, springs, and other 
 
 T 28I 
 
places, with spirits. Still other races wor- 
 shiped sun, moon, and stars — " all the 
 hosts of heaven." Greeks, Romans, and 
 other peoples, worshiped ancestral spirits. 
 By most races gods were represented by, or 
 located in, images made by men's hands. 
 American Indians worshiped the Great 
 Spirit — not a poor conception of God, were 
 it divorced from numerous gross supersti- 
 tions. The early Hebrews worshiped Jeho- 
 vah, but as the God of the Hebrews only, 
 while they believed in Isis and Osiris as 
 gods of the Egyptians, and the sun-god and 
 moon-god as gods of the Babylonians. 
 Thus the knowing of God is a long, slow 
 process. It was a great step forward when 
 Hebrew prophets declared that the gods of 
 the nations were idols, and that Jehovah 
 was the God of the whole world. ( I Chron. 
 1 6 : 26.) Only in comparatively recent 
 times has God been worshiped as righteous, 
 and as demanding righteousness in his wor- 
 shipers. Heathen gods, as we call them, had 
 human passions — jealousy, hate, cruelty, 
 envy, lust, vindictiveness, etc. Much 
 heathen worship was due to fear. It 
 sought to placate the anger of the gods and 
 to ward off their cruelty. Worship on " the 
 
 [29] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstfanitB 
 
 high places/' to which the Hebrews often 
 turned aside, was accompanied with licen- 
 tious orgies. (Ezek. 16 : 29-39.) Even the 
 Hebrews, spiritually the most highly en- 
 dowed, and religiously the best trained of 
 all races, found the acquisition of the knowl- 
 edge of God both a gradual and a slow 
 process. Of this fact the Old Testament it- 
 self bears eloquent testimony. 
 
 Some may object that this simply makes 
 God a big man, predicating of him human 
 qualities raised to the highest degree. This 
 is true, and ought to be true. It is in- 
 evitable from the nature of our thought 
 processes. We must interpret God in terms 
 of experience. No other terms are avail- 
 able to us, for we cannot understand any 
 other. If we should make God only force, 
 the content of the idea would necessarily be 
 our experience of force raised to the high- 
 est power; if law, our experience of law 
 imagined as perfect; if personality, our ex- 
 perience of persons raised to the degree of 
 limitless perfection. 
 
 Naturally, and all but inevitably, we think 
 of God as a person. We cannot think of 
 him as less than ourselves ; we think, sym- 
 pathize, love, regard right and wrong, value 
 
 [30] 
 
<3oD 
 
 truth and justice, etc. The best we can do 
 is to predicate of God in absolute degree 
 the qualities we know in ourselves. 
 
 Do we, then, know God in fact? and do 
 we know him as he is? We know him as 
 we know all persons, and by the same 
 means. 
 
 We see each other's bodies, but cannot 
 see each other's spirits; yet we know each 
 other's thoughts, purposes, and acts. Like- 
 wise, we see the world in which we live, and 
 something of the universe which surrounds 
 it, and by these we come to know something 
 of God's thoughts, purposes, and acts. 
 
 We accept each other as acquaintances, 
 we become friends, we love each other, we 
 have fellowship together. The relation is 
 one between spirit and spirit. We may re- 
 fuse acquaintance and turn from each other 
 if we will, thus making it impossible to 
 know each other in experience, or we can 
 turn gladly toward each other and know 
 each other in experience ever more fully. 
 
 In like manner we may know God in ex- 
 perience. If we turn toward him in atti- 
 tude of soul, if we accept and cultivate his 
 acquaintance, there come knowledge of him, 
 love for him, fellowship, confidence, and 
 
 [31] 
 
vibe Eseenttals of Cbristtamtg 
 
 trust, the same as in our acquaintance with 
 individuals. 
 
 It thus becomes evident why the know- 
 ing of God is a gradual process. A peo- 
 ple of low ethical standards like the As- 
 syrians, for example, could not conceive of 
 a very ethical God. When the highest 
 ethics of a people is " an eye for an eye 
 and a tooth for a tooth," their god will be 
 one of vengeance. But when ethics have 
 advanced to love of enemies, the god will 
 be one of love and mercy. In a word, 
 man's conception of the character of God 
 advances with advancement in human ethics. 
 It is current ethics idealized. As ethics 
 rise from lower to higher, led upward by 
 the Spirit of God working in the hearts 
 of men, man's conception of God unfolds. 
 Erroneous conceptions of God drop off as 
 false ideas of character and conduct are 
 left behind. Worthier conceptions supplant 
 them as more ethical character develops. 
 
 This long, tedious racial process of com- 
 ing to the knowledge of God is both natu- 
 ral and inevitable. It could not be other- 
 wise, not because God cannot reveal himself 
 to men, but because men, from their very 
 nature, cannot apprehend, except gradually, 
 
 [32] 
 
<5ofc 
 
 the knowledge of God. The race grows in 
 capacity like a child. Higher mathematics 
 are not taught in the kindergarten, not be- 
 cause the instructor cannot teach them, but 
 because children are not mature enough to 
 understand them. Racial capacity, like in- 
 dividual capacity, grows. To every increase 
 of knowledge there is a " fulness of time," 
 just as there was a fulness of time to the 
 coming of Christ. (Gal. 4:4.) Even 
 Christ could not tell his disciples " many 
 things " ; the time was not ripe ; their ex- 
 periences were not adequate to enable them 
 to understand. At the close of his minis- 
 try he said to them, " I have yet many things 
 to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
 now" (John 16 : 12). They could not 
 know the things indicated until they had 
 grown up to them and been persuaded of 
 them through experience. Both to the in- 
 dividual and to the race the knowledge of 
 God comes gradually. 
 
 This simple fact should make plain to 
 every one that he is destined to live with 
 problems about God, problems that he will 
 never wholly solve. Were one to give his 
 whole time and thought to the matter, he 
 could hope at most to add only his little bit 
 
 c [ 33 ] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstlanltB 
 
 to the solution of the agelong problems 
 which, in one form or another, have been in 
 the minds of men from the beginning. 
 
 The really valuable conception of God is 
 one that moves us to action. Knowledge 
 ignored in action has no significance for 
 experience. It lacks evolutionary dynamic. 
 Instead of helping the race forward it 
 leaves it with an intensified habit of inertia. 
 Neither the individual nor the race can 
 take in any greater knowledge of God than 
 it will live out. Knowing, moreover, as 
 Christ said, comes by doing. The knowl- 
 edge of God, under the leading of the 
 Spirit, must be literally battered out of ex- 
 perience. " He that willeth to do his will 
 shall know of the teaching" (John 7 : 17). 
 
 It becomes apparent, then, that the matter 
 of supreme importance is not to solve all 
 problems about God, but to begin doing 
 God's will as far as one knows it. More 
 light comes by following the light one has. 
 
 A Universal Method 
 
 This method of knowing is not peculiar 
 to religion. It is the method in all fields 
 of knowledge. An experiment in the chem- 
 
 [34] 
 
ical laboratory gives us knowledge that we 
 can secure in no other way. There is just 
 one way to learn to swim, and that is to 
 swim; one way to learn music, and that is 
 to practise; one way to learn to farm, and 
 that is to have experience with the soil. 
 To be sure, in all these cases we get help 
 from books and teachers, but the books 
 themselves come from experience. More- 
 over, all that is learned from books and 
 teachers we take on faith. We do not really 
 know for ourselves until we have lived 
 through the experience. How much can 
 one tell another of love, sorrow, jealousy, 
 or hate? In order to know these passions 
 we must experience them. A lover is 
 thought silly by those who have never been 
 in love, while a little experience is a de- 
 cided illumination, and brings us to knowl- 
 edge. Mother-love and father-love can be 
 known only by fathers and mothers. Hus- 
 band and wife are a constant revelation to 
 each other because they live together and 
 love each other. The extreme depth of 
 either's personality is never sounded by the 
 other. New beauties are revealed daily. 
 New circumstances uncover unsuspected 
 riches of devotion; and the harder the cir- 
 
 [35] 
 
Gbe ^essentials of CbristianttB 
 
 cumstances the greater is the beauty of 
 character unfolded. In a word, they come 
 to know each other by living together and 
 having experience of each other. 
 
 The way to know God is to experience 
 him, to live and work with him, to love 
 him and do his will. This fact Christ rec- 
 ognized when, refusing to answer numer- 
 ous inquiries, he said to men, " Follow me." 
 In no other way could they know him. 
 
 Building Moral Character 
 
 It is important to observe that the highest 
 moral character possible at any given time 
 lies in doing God's will as one understands 
 it. We often marvel, and sometimes really 
 shudder, at the savage cruelty of Old Tes- 
 tament wars. Men, women, and children 
 are ruthlessly slain by the Hebrews in bat- 
 tle — the very thing that we have denounced 
 as a stain upon Christian civilization in the 
 world war. Yet from these cruel battles the 
 Hebrews returned rejoicing in Jehovah as 
 the God of battles, never doubting that in 
 their ruthless slaughter they were doing 
 God's will. 
 
 These cruel ideas were the ideas of the 
 
 [36] 
 
<5ofc 
 
 age. All nations held them and practised 
 them. Moreover, all nations regarded their 
 gods as going before them in war and giv- 
 ing victory in battle if they were strong 
 enough to do so. 
 
 At no time do people rise very far 
 above their age. The particular features 
 which any battle takes on depend on the 
 ideas of the age in which it is fought. 
 Elijah slew with his own hands the four 
 hundred prophets of Baal, and regarded the 
 deed as a great triumph for Jehovah, 
 (i Kings 18 : 17-40.) We live in an age 
 which condemns persecution for religious 
 beliefs and practices ; and such a slaughter 
 for such a purpose, we should regard as 
 fiendish. Samuel condemns Saul unspar- 
 ingly for not utterly destroying the sheep 
 and cattle of the Amalekites, in addition to 
 the Amalekites themselves, big and little, 
 young and old, men and women. (1 Sam. 
 15 : io,f.) We should regard the doing of 
 the same things, not only as wanton cruelty, 
 but as a wicked waste of substance. Paul 
 thought that he did God service by per- 
 secuting the church. (Acts 26 : 9.) 
 
 The important thing is not the form of 
 the battle we fight. That is determined by 
 
 [37] 
 
Sbe ^essentials of CbristianttB 
 
 the ideas of the age, and also, as in Paul's 
 case, by personal ideas. Both sets of ideas 
 change, the first by the progressing age, 
 and the second by the individual's progress- 
 ing experience. The vitally important mat- 
 ter is that we consciously fight God's battles 
 as we see them. These are not the same in 
 any two ages. The Christian centuries, not 
 to go farther back, have seen battles with 
 heathenism, battles over doctrines, reforma- 
 tion battles, slavery battles, temperance bat- 
 tles, and many others. Some battles, of 
 course, are fought out, but others take their 
 places. At the present hour, for example, 
 the Christian emphasis is not upon doctrine 
 but upon ethics and service; not upon be- 
 ing saved in the kingdom of God hereafter, 
 but upon building the kingdom of God 
 here, a kingdom that shall be socially, eco- 
 nomically, and internationally righteous. In 
 these present-day problems there are just as 
 real battles as ever were fought from trench 
 and submarine. We fight to bring our- 
 selves to God's will as we see it; and we 
 fight to get God's will, as we see it, done in 
 society. 
 
 In thus fighting God's battles, we doubt- 
 less are as blind in our way as were the 
 
 [38] 
 
<3ofc 
 
 heroes of the Old Testament in theirs, 
 though on a higher plane. We doubtless 
 make as many mistakes in regard to what 
 God's will is as they did. But in progres- 
 sive knowledge, as formerly in progressive 
 revelation, man is shut up to just one thing, 
 viz., to the fighting of God's battles as he 
 sees them. Men must fight according to 
 their light, and according to the light of 
 their age. This is both the highest possible 
 ethics for the moment, and also the con- 
 dition of rising to higher ethics in the 
 future. To do less is to lower one's ethical 
 standard and to be untrue to one's age, for 
 it is to turn one's back on God. 
 
 The knowledge of God, then, is ever par- 
 tial, both for the age and for the individual. 
 It comes to both as it is welcomed in ex- 
 perience; and it is experienced by doing 
 God's will according to one's light. Our 
 experience of God is most intense when we 
 consciously fight his battles, both within 
 ourselves and for our generation. 
 
 Christ the Revelation of God 
 
 The clearest and fullest knowledge of 
 God comes to us, of course, in Jesus Christ. 
 
 [39] 
 
Cbe Essentials of CbtisttanitE 
 
 The author once asked a Christian woman, 
 who sang for a time in a Jewish synagogue, 
 what idea of God the services gave her. 
 She replied that God seemed " so far away " 
 that she could get no " heart-grip," that God 
 seemed to be wholly " intellectualized." 
 Recall in this connection the words of Paul, 
 " But now, in Christ Jesus, ye that once 
 were far off, are made nigh by the blood of 
 Christ" (Eph. 2 : 13). I presume that we 
 who are accustomed to think of God in 
 terms of Christ little realize how cold and 
 distant God would be to us but for the fact 
 that we habitually think of him through the 
 medium of Christ's sympathetic personality 
 and loving ministry. 
 
 Emphasis must here rest upon the fact 
 that Christ is a person, and reveals God's 
 personal qualities. He does not leave us 
 with a God that is simply force or law. He 
 always speaks of God as a person. " He 
 that hath seen me," he says, " hath seen the 
 Father" (John 14:9). "I and my 
 Father are one" (John 10: 30). He 
 speaks of the Father's will, love, and watch- 
 care — all expressive of personality. 
 
 Christ reveals God as a loving personal- 
 ity. Love is contained in the name Father : 
 
 [40] 
 
<3ofc 
 
 in the teaching that God so loved that he 
 sent Christ; in the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son (Luke 15 : 11-32) ; in all Christ's ex- 
 hortations to prayer; in fact, it suffuses all 
 Christ's teachings and permeates his every 
 attitude. 
 
 Christ reveals God as righteous, and as 
 demanding righteousness in men. All his 
 teachings about rewards and punishments 
 speak of God's justice. The righteous are 
 rewarded ; the wicked are punished. Nota- 
 ble teachings on this point are the parables 
 of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16 : 19-31) 
 and the Last Judgment (Matt. 25 : 31-46), 
 in which the righteous are gathered on the 
 right hand and the wicked on the left. 
 
 Christ reveals God as forgiving. He bids 
 his disciples pray, " Forgive us our debts 
 as we forgive our debtors." To those who 
 came to him for physical healing he some- 
 times said, " Thy sins be forgiven thee " 
 (Matt. 9:2). And he insisted that God 
 was more willing to forgive us our sins than 
 fathers to forgive their children. 
 
 Christ reveals God as having a peculiarly 
 sympathetic and tender care for men. This 
 teaching lies in the parables of the Good 
 Shepherd (John 10) and the Prodigal Son 
 
 [41] 
 
Gbe JEsscntiale ot Cbrtetianits 
 
 (Luke 15 : 11-32); in such passages as 
 " The very hairs of your head are all num- 
 bered. Fear not therefore : ye are of more 
 value than many sparrows " (Luke 12 : 7) ; 
 in all exhortations to prayer, and in such 
 definite statements as " If ye then, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven give good things to them 
 that ask him" (Matt. 7 : 11). 
 
 Christ reveals God as hopeful of men. 
 He made himself the champion of the sin- 
 ful and, by his sympathy, faith, and love, 
 won them to righteousness. He said that 
 he came, not to call the righteous, but sin- 
 ners to repentance; to heal, not the well, 
 but the sick. (Luke 5 : 31, 32.) 
 
 Christ reveals God as no respecter of per- 
 sons. He did not turn away from any class, 
 but plainly said, " For whosoever shall do 
 the will of God, the same is my brother, 
 and my sister, and mother " (Mark 3 : 35). 
 He associated with the rich and learned as 
 freely as with the poor and ignorant. He 
 valued man as man, and not for any trap- 
 pings that man might possess. He insisted 
 that people were no more and no less than 
 what they were at heart. He inveighed 
 
 [42] 
 
<3ofc 
 
 against mere formal worship and parade of 
 righteousness. 
 
 Christ revealed God as yearning and 
 striving to bring men into fellowship with 
 himself. Thus only could they secure 
 worthful, abounding life. " I am come," he 
 said, " that they might have life, and that 
 they might have it more abundantly " (John 
 10 : 10). He pictured the kingdom of 
 God, which he bade men enter, as a wed- 
 ding (Matt. 22 : 2-14), a feast (Luke 14 : 
 16-24), a costly pearl (Matt. 13 : 45, 46), 
 a rich treasure (Matt. 13 : 44), and, above 
 all, as eternal life. (John 3 : 16.) 
 
 The Essential Things 
 
 Christ does not give us a complete revela- 
 tion of God, but only such a revelation as 
 man needs and craves, a revelation that 
 awakens man to God's love, makes him 
 aware of God's companionship, and sets 
 him to work with God. 
 
 Our scientific and philosophic studies, 
 while displacing nothing of Christ's revela- 
 tion, have corrected many errors which had 
 accumulated about his teachings. No longer 
 do we think of God as an absentee land- 
 
 43 
 
Sbe Bssenttals of CbtietianitB 
 
 lord, but rather as an immanent Spirit. No 
 longer do we view the universe as run by 
 self-acting laws, but rather by the imme- 
 diate activity of divine energy. No longer 
 do we regard the world as created complete 
 at the beginning, but as being in a continu- 
 ous process of creation. Science and phi- 
 losophy corroborate John when, in his 
 vision, he hears God saying, " Behold ! I 
 make all things new." The heavens and 
 the earth, man and society, are in a con- 
 tinuous process of renewal. 
 
 Aside from his relation to man as Father, 
 God has relations to the physical universe, 
 to natural law, to the whole process of 
 creation. About these relations, of course, 
 we may speculate, and we shall doubtless 
 learn more about them as the centuries 
 sweep on. Our philosophy has always been 
 a changing thing. It will continue to 
 change, and, we trust, to improve. We 
 should strive for a progressive philosophy 
 of God, just as we strive for progressive 
 knowledge in all fields of learning. Knowl- 
 edge of God is not, and should not be, a 
 fixed and finished product, but, on the con- 
 trary, a growing process. " We know now 
 in part " ; but then — more fully. 
 
 [44] 
 
(BoO 
 
 Christ, however, avoids the philosophical 
 problems which so often trouble us. He 
 does not discuss God's methods in creation, 
 his relation to natural laws, or such theo- 
 logical questions as omnipotence, omni- 
 presence, God's foreknowledge and man's 
 free will, and a hundred other questions 
 that we are curious about. Christ gives us 
 a helpful, working conception of a God 
 that we can live with, work with, love, 
 trust, and obey — a personal, loving, right- 
 eous, and forgiving God; a God of sym- 
 pathy and tender compassion, who is hope- 
 ful of man at his worst, and no respecter of 
 persons ; a God who looks, not on the out- 
 ward appearance, but on the heart, and is 
 ever working to bring man to himself that 
 he may bless him, impart himself to him, 
 and bring him into the fulness of joyful, 
 abounding life. 
 
 We serve no God whose work is done, 
 Who rests within his firmament, 
 
 But one whose task is but begun, 
 Who toils today, with power unspent. 
 
 — T. C. Clark, " The Faith of Christ's Free- 
 men." 
 
 [451 
 
WW 
 Cbrist 
 
CHRIST 
 
 A YOUNG man once said to the writer, 
 " God's relation to us would be simple 
 enough if Jesus Christ had just kept out." 
 This remark indicated, not that he under- 
 stood God apart from Christ, for he had 
 given the subject little thought, but that 
 the nearer the problem was brought to him 
 the more difficulty he found with it. A 
 landscape is simple enough when far enough 
 away, but the nearer we approach the more 
 diversified are its objects, and the more mul- 
 tiple and intricate their relations. Many 
 things now complex would have remained 
 simple if telescopes and microscopes had not 
 been invented. Christ brings more prob- 
 lems than does God because he brings God 
 near and reveals new relations. 
 
 Knowing Christ 
 
 It is natural that many should have dif- 
 ficulties in understanding Christ. During a 
 certain period of mental development the 
 
 d [49] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot CbrfattanitB 
 
 mind seeks to fathom everything. While 
 varying in different persons, this period, 
 roughly speaking, embraces the years be- 
 tween seventeen and twenty-five. During 
 this time it is of the utmost importance to 
 hold steady, and to realize that the mind 
 simply outgrows some things. As years 
 pass we come upon so much that we cannot 
 fathom, so many things that the ages have 
 worked on and have not fathomed, that we 
 become reconciled to live with mysteries, 
 and are glad to walk by faith where before 
 we demanded sight. 
 
 Of one thing we should be certain, that 
 our effort to do the will of Christ is always 
 stronger than our effort to understand 
 Christ. Christ himself says, " He that will- 
 eth.to do his will, shall know of the teach- 
 ing*" (John 7 : 17). Unwillingness to do 
 Christ's will clouds the mind. It invites 
 and raises difficulties which, but for such 
 unwillingness, faith and love and eager- 
 ness to serve would either pierce through 
 or brush aside. 
 
 Personality is never fully understood, and 
 Christ is a person. Even an ordinary per- 
 son is a continuous revelation. The greater 
 one's powers, the less one is understood. 
 
 [So] 
 
Cbriat 
 
 The genius is a puzzle to the rest of us. 
 That is the reason we call him a genius. 
 The term is a cloak for our ignorance. The 
 more of a genius he is, the more of a puzzle 
 he is. 
 
 It is common for those who find mys- 
 teries in Christ to say, what is self-evident 
 to all, that Christ is more than a man. But 
 to say this is to admit ourselves shut out 
 from understanding all that lies in the 
 word " more." Man can understand only 
 what comes within his own experience, or 
 what is analogous thereto. He may, how- 
 ever, have faith in what transcends experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Our main difficulty, however, lies, not in 
 the fact that we cannot understand Christ, 
 but rather in our dissatisfaction with theol- 
 ogies about him. No doubt we ought to 
 be dissatisfied with them. Each century 
 has constructed its theology of Christ on 
 the basis of current types of philosophy, 
 government, social practice, and forms of 
 worship. No century could or can do other- 
 wise. 
 
 Explanations of Christ have changed 
 from century to century, and ought to 
 change. Christ promises the Holy Spirit 
 
 [51] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Gbttsttantts 
 
 to take of the things of himself and reveal 
 them to men (John 16 : 14) ; but Christ re- 
 mains the same; his relations to us do not 
 change. Before Christ came the scribes and 
 Pharisees had him defined, and even had his 
 program arranged. Their hatred of him 
 and opposition to him were due to the fact 
 that he neither fitted their definitions nor 
 would follow their program. 
 
 If we had Christ all understood and de- 
 fined today, he would shatter our defini- 
 tions and transcend the bounds of our un- 
 derstanding tomorrow. He could not be 
 the leader of human progress unless he did 
 so. He has been doing this through all the 
 Christian centuries, and for this reason the 
 centuries have been growing toward him. 
 A Christ pent up, defined, understood, could 
 not be the " captain of our salvation " (Heb. 
 2 : 10), leading humanity toward God and 
 unfolding the divine life of God in man. 
 
 It is of utmost importance, then, to note 
 carefully the methods of knowing persons, 
 remembering meanwhile that Jesus Christ 
 is a person. 
 
 1. We come to understand persons by 
 living with them. Go on a month's camp- 
 ing trip with a man, and you will learn 
 
 [52] 
 
Cbriat 
 
 much about him that you did not know be- 
 fore. If two women would really know each 
 other, let them live together in the same 
 house. People are acquainted when they 
 marry, and yet they really know very little 
 of each other. Married life, as previously 
 stated, is a continuous revelation. When 
 husband and wife have spent fifty years to- 
 gether, and children and grandchildren 
 gather at the old home to celebrate their 
 golden wedding, they know each other as 
 they could not know each other on their 
 wedding-day. Fifty years of companion- 
 ship in joy and sorrow, disappointment and 
 triumph, success and failure, have been a 
 continuous revelation of each to the other; 
 and in no- other way is it possible for them 
 to become thus known to each other. Ex- 
 planations of personality would be trivial 
 and unavailing. 
 
 It becomes apparent, then, how sensible 
 and true to the laws of life Christ's method 
 was when, refusing all explanations of him- 
 self, he simply said to those who would be 
 disciples, " Follow me " ; that is, be learn- 
 ers through companionship with me. 
 
 2. We come to know by experience. No 
 one can explain his experience to another 
 
 [53] 
 
Zbc Essentials of Christianity 
 
 who has not had the same or like experience. 
 A painting, a sunset, a landscape, find no 
 adequate expression in words. They must 
 be experienced. Only those who have seen 
 them understand each other when words 
 are used to describe them. Years ago a 
 young man, standing among the rock-chips 
 of a petrified forest in Arizona, which had 
 just been wet by a shower of rain that 
 made all the colors live, could not hold 
 back the tears. Only those with artistic 
 temperament, and to whom like experiences 
 were possible, could understand such tears. 
 To others they would seem weak and fool- 
 ish. Only the lover can understand a lover. 
 Only the converted man is in position to 
 understand the converted man — his new 
 love, his changed purposes, his willing self- 
 denial. 
 
 On the same principles, and by the same 
 laws of our nature, we understand Christ 
 as we experience what Christ experienced — 
 obedience to the Father; confidence in the 
 Father's love; love for the sinful; self- 
 giving for the undeserving; disappoint- 
 ment in friends ; hatred by enemies ; patience 
 with the dull and indifferent; yearning 
 desire and strenuous endeavor to bring 
 
 [54] 
 
Cbriat 
 
 the sinful and suffering into the forgiv- 
 ing love of God; being misunderstood, 
 even by disciples, maligned, abused, and at 
 length crucified for obeying God and loving- 
 men. In proportion as we pass through 
 these experiences, not to mention deeper 
 and more mysterious ones, may we hope to 
 understand Christ. 
 
 3. We understand persons as zve become 
 like them. Artists understand artists. 
 Mothers understand mothers. Sinners un- 
 derstand sinners. The righteous under- 
 stand the righteous — their motives, pur- 
 poses, love, and service. 
 
 Surely, then, the folly of seeking satis- 
 factory explanations of Christ, explanations 
 that construe his personality to our philos- 
 ophy, and his vital processes to our logic, is 
 evident. It is contrary to the laws of life 
 to understand Christ except as we follow 
 him, live with him, enter into his experi- 
 ences, love him, and work with him. To 
 know Christ is a lifelong process. Even 
 at the end of life, though life be long, we 
 know, as Paul said, " in part." It is prom- 
 ised, however, that in the eternal eons we 
 shall see him as he is — when we shall have 
 become like him. (1 John 3:2.) 
 
 [55] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrlstianitE 
 
 A Scientific Method 
 
 This method of knowing Christ is not 
 only Christ's own method, but also the 
 scientific method. 
 
 i. Like all scientific methods, it involves 
 a venture of faith. Pupils believe in, and 
 entrust themselves to, their teachers. We 
 entrust ourselves to railroads, steamships, 
 and all means of conveyance. We eat 
 freely at restaurants and hotels, whose cooks 
 we do not know. We place our lives in the 
 hands of physicians. Life itself is a great 
 venture and involves faith at every turn. To 
 live the Christian life, adopt Christ's prin- 
 ciples, trust Christ's power, believe in and 
 work for Christ's program, involves a ven- 
 ture of faith. In this respect it is like the 
 whole of life. But it is the highest venture 
 of faith for the highest goal and the highest 
 service. 
 
 2. This method of knowing Christ, like 
 all effective methods, involves a definite pur- 
 pose. The chemist seeks a definite result. 
 Educators aim to develop the individual 
 and fit him for life. Investigators work on 
 definite problems. As we thus pursue defi- 
 nite purposes we hit upon much unexpected 
 
 [56] 
 
Cbrist 
 
 knowledge, but without definite purpose and 
 well-directed endeavor, one is not carried 
 far in any field of learning. 
 
 Christ's purpose is to produce the best 
 type of life, both in the individual and in 
 society. Whoever does not join him in 
 this definite purpose, both for his own life 
 and for the social good, may as well at once 
 abandon all hope of knowing Christ. Who- 
 ever desires the best life for himself, ear- 
 nestly seeks it, and is willing to pay the 
 price of progress, will find his knowledge of 
 Christ increasing with his growing experi- 
 ence. 
 
 3. This method of knowing Christ is in- 
 ductive. It draws knowledge from experi- 
 ence. The chief characteristic of modern 
 study is the inductive, as contrasted with the 
 deductive, method. In biology, geology, 
 sociology, and the other sciences, we deal 
 with concrete facts, not with theories. We 
 act upon the little knowledge we have, and 
 are thus led to more knowledge. Acting 
 on what we know of electricity, we light 
 our homes, send messages, drive cars, and 
 look at each other's bones. 
 
 This modern method of experiment is the 
 one to which Christ invites us, and the only 
 
 [57] 
 
Gbe Essentlate of Christianity 
 
 one. " Follow me," test me, prove me, he 
 constantly insisted, while shunting all ques- 
 tions of theory about himself. (Matt. 4 : 
 19; Luke 5 : 27; Mark 8 : 34; 10 : 21.) 
 
 4. Knowledge of Christ comes by obedi- 
 ence to lazv, like all other scientific knowl- 
 edge. When the chemist disobeys chemical 
 laws he bursts the test-tube, or blows up 
 both himself and the laboratory. When the 
 engineer disobeys the laws of physics the 
 boiler bursts, or the building tumbles down, 
 or the train crashes through the bridge. 
 Disobedience to law, of course, brings nega- 
 tive knowledge — if we survive the dis- 
 obedience ; it tells us what not to do, but 
 not what to do. Obedience to law gives 
 constructive knowledge. It makes us co- 
 operators with God. All his laws are at 
 our beck and call as long as we obey them, 
 while disobedience to law spells defeat and 
 destruction. 
 
 In like manner, obedience to Christ makes 
 all the laws of divine personality operative 
 in us. Our characters are molded by asso- 
 ciation with him ; love for him grows as we 
 do for him and he for us ; the more we love 
 him the more we become like him ; through 
 our companionship with him his passion to 
 
 [58] 
 
Cbvlst 
 
 help and bless men grows upon us. These 
 are simple and well-known laws of person- 
 ality. They make us partners and cowork- 
 ers with God through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Big Questions 
 
 It is of vital importance for young people 
 to learn to live with, work patiently upon, 
 and add their mite to, the solution of prob- 
 lems which no person, generation, or cen- 
 tury settles. The young are eager to settle 
 questions about Christ that have baffled all 
 thinkers, such as, for example, How can 
 God become incarnate? Is Christ really 
 God? How can human and divine nature 
 be joined in one person? How does Christ 
 save us? How can one be converted by 
 accepting Christ? How can Christ and evo- 
 lution both be true? and many others. 
 
 Christ has never been explained, and 
 doubtless never will be. Were he so sim- 
 ple and shallow that we could explain him, 
 he doubtless could not be the Saviour of 
 men. A Christ who grips life at its very 
 heart, who awakens in one new desires and 
 passions, who imparts himself increasingly 
 to the race, who becomes the center of 
 
 [59] 
 
ftbe Essentials of Cbristtanttg 
 
 human love, the acknowledged commander 
 of human endeavor, and the dominant force 
 in organizing society on an increasingly 
 high basis of righteousness and brother- 
 hood, is beyond all explanation. He be- 
 comes an ever deeper mystery. 
 
 Christ was a puzzle to the religious lead- 
 ers of his own day, and an unsolved problem 
 to his own disciples. Paul speaks of the 
 mystery of Christ, " unto the Jews a stum- 
 bling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; 
 but unto them which are called, both Jews 
 and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and 
 the wisdom of God " ( i Cor. i : 23, 24 ; see 
 Eph. 3:4; 6:19; 1 Tim. 3: 9, 16). 
 Christ himself, speaking of spiritual birth, 
 said that it could not be explained, but was 
 a fact, like the wind, which rose and fell 
 without the cause being known. (See John 
 3 : 7, 8.) 
 
 It should be observed that the Bible 
 labors — fairly groans — to express in terms 
 of human experience, who and what Christ 
 is. It calls him Son of God and Son of 
 Man. We know something of sons in our 
 homes — their place in the heart of the 
 father, their relations to each other, their 
 duties of filial obedience, their unity with 
 
 T601 
 
Cbrlst 
 
 the father in purpose and endeavor. All 
 this Christ is to God and men. 
 
 The Bible calls Christ a king. Christ 
 himself admits that he is a king. (John 
 1 8 : 37.) We know something of kings — 
 their right to rule, the duty of subjects, etc. 
 
 Christ is called a redeemer. In the days 
 of slavery the redeemer was one who bought 
 back the slave and set him free. Peo- 
 ple understood something of the work of a 
 redeemer. 
 
 Christ is called our sacrifice. (Eph. 5 : 
 2.) It was a time when both heathen and 
 Jewish sacrifices were common, and peo- 
 ple understood their significance. They 
 were a means of approach to God, an of- 
 fering for sins committed, a way of recon- 
 ciliation with God and of beginning life 
 again with a clean sheet. 
 
 Christ is called priest. (Heb. 2 : 17.) 
 People understood the function of priests. 
 They stood between God and men; they 
 brought men's offerings to God; they 
 pleaded with God for men ; they sought to 
 keep men right with God ; they made known 
 to men the will of God. 
 
 Christ was called, and called himself, a 
 servant. (Luke 22 : 27.) All knew the 
 
 [61] 
 
Gbe JBssenttate ot CbriatianitB 
 
 work of a servant. He was obedient to 
 his master ; he bore the burdens of others ; 
 his was a life of ministry. 
 
 Christ calls himself the good shepherd. 
 (John 10 : 1 1.) The people were familiar 
 with the love, solicitude, and watch-care 
 of shepherds — how they led their flocks into 
 green pastures and beside refreshing- 
 waters; how they fought off wild beasts 
 and brought the lambs safely into the fold ; 
 how they sought lost sheep, and did not 
 hesitate to sacrifice life searching for them. 
 
 Christ calls himself the bread of life. 
 (John 6 : 35.) In a country where beg- 
 gars were numerous, where multitudes were 
 poor, where conquering armies frequently 
 swept away the harvests, people knew inten- 
 sively the meaning of bread and its sig- 
 nificance for life. 
 
 Christ calls himself the water of life. 
 (John 4 : 14.) In a country of highlands 
 and deserts, where small streams went dry 
 in summer, and failure of rains often pro- 
 duced famines, the people knew the life- 
 giving value of water. 
 
 Christ calls himself the vine, and his dis- 
 ciples branches. (John 15 : 1-8.) It was in 
 a country of grapes. All understood how 
 
 [62] 
 
Cbri5t 
 
 dependent branches were upon the vine, and 
 how the life of the> vine flowed through the 
 branches. 
 
 Christ called himself the light of the 
 world, the way, the truth, the life. By still 
 other names he was called. Every term 
 was one falling within human experience, 
 and lifting up out of experience a certain 
 character-quality or spiritual relationship. 
 These terms — son, king, redeemer, sacrifice, 
 priest, servant, shepherd, vine, bread, water, 
 light, way, truth, life — taken together, 
 doubtless only begin to express to us what 
 Christ really is to the race. They illus- 
 trate both the wealth and the poverty of 
 human expression. Christ is more than all 
 of them. Human knowledge and experi- 
 ence doubtless do not contain ideas or terms 
 adequate to express fully what Jesus Christ 
 is to humanity. He overfills and overflows 
 all our ideas, all our terms, all our experi- 
 ences. This fact Paul, the greatest ex- 
 pounder of Christ, evidently felt when, as 
 in a burst of exultant despair over explana- 
 tions, he exclaimed, " In him dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 
 2 : 9). 
 
 Christ makes the understanding of him- 
 
 [ 63 1 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtsttanttB 
 
 self an agelong task — something into which 
 the race grows as it experiences him — when 
 he says to his disciples : " 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 will guide you into all 
 the truth; . . for he shall receive of mine, 
 and shall show it unto you " (John 16 : 
 12-14). 
 
 The rapid changes going on at present 
 in religious thought amply illustrate Christ's 
 teaching, that the Spirit of God is reveal- 
 ing to the growing mind of the race more 
 and more of the truth in Christ. For ex- 
 ample : For centuries men have emphasized 
 the cross of Christ as the basis of salvation, 
 and the salvation was thought of as safety 
 in heaven hereafter. Today, while we hold 
 both of these facts as precious truths, the 
 emphasis has shifted, and the truths are 
 seen in relations not before discerned. No 
 longer do men believe that the cross of 
 Christ will avail for him who neglects his 
 own cross. They believe that as the way 
 of the cross was the way of Christ's life, so 
 every one who finds life must find it by 
 way of the cross accepted as a principle of 
 action for his own life. The later concep- 
 
 [64] 
 
Cbttet 
 
 tion of the cross is maturer and more ade- 
 quate than the earlier one. It betokens the 
 breaking of a new light upon the soul of 
 man from Christ's words, " Whosoever 
 doth not bear his cross, and come after me, 
 cannot be my disciple." 
 
 Today also the cross of Christ is re- 
 garded, not only as a means of saving us 
 in heaven, precious as that is, but more 
 especially as a means of building heaven 
 on earth. The cross of Christ, borne by 
 men, means, in the life of men, love instead 
 of hate, brotherliness instead of selfishness, 
 the square deal instead of exploitation, help- 
 fulness instead of indifference to others' 
 needs, self-giving instead of self-seeking, 
 " each for all, and all for each." The way 
 of the cross is life, not simply a means to 
 life. It is the abounding life, and any other 
 sort of life is poor and mean and poverty- 
 stricken compared with it. It is eternal life, 
 life that grows on forever, flowering ever 
 more gloriously as it grows. 
 
 Today, when one takes the cross into one's 
 own life and lives it, we have no concern 
 whatever about his salvation hereafter. We 
 look for that to arrive as a matter of course, 
 guaranteed by the quality of the life lived 
 
 E [6 5 ] 
 
vibe Essentials of GbrtettanltB 
 
 here — life united to Christ, lived by the 
 power of Christ, and having the quality 
 of Christ's life. 
 
 And thus, as the centuries sweep on, the 
 mind of the race ever maturing, and the 
 Spirit of God ever teaching, we find our- 
 selves, not going beyond Christ, but under- 
 standing him more fully. In the light of 
 such facts, for one to seek adequate ex- 
 planation of Christ, and to refuse to link 
 his life with Christ until such explanation 
 is forthcoming, is like the questioning child 
 of four refusing to eat or drink until his 
 father has answered all his machine-gun 
 questions about food and drink. We know 
 Christ by associating with him, working 
 with him, taking into our lives his purposes, 
 and experiencing the worth-whileness of 
 sacrificing for truth and righteousness be- 
 cause men need truth and righteousness. 
 
 Christ Is Power 
 
 The person, Christ Jesus, in personal re- 
 lations with the individual, is power. While 
 during a brief three years he walked with 
 his disciples, he transformed them from 
 commonplace men into spiritual idealists and 
 
 [66] 
 
Cbrfst 
 
 moral heroes. He filled them with bound- 
 less faith in God and men. He kindled in 
 them an undying love, for which they gladly 
 worked, suffered, and died. He filled them 
 with contagious and persuasive power over 
 men, a power which caused men to turn 
 their backs on heathenism, forsake sinful 
 lives, love things before hated, and hate 
 things before loved. 
 
 This miracle of transforming power has 
 not ceased. There are several types of con- 
 version — cataclasmic, calm and serene, and 
 all the way between the two. The type is 
 determined by differing conditions of home, 
 school, church, beliefs, etc. But Christ's 
 power in the life is manifest in all types. 
 One in association with Christ is trans- 
 formed, purified, and given poise, steadi- 
 ness, and strength to pursue the good; he 
 is filled with hope, courage, and heroism for 
 righteousness. On the other hand, the mo- 
 ment a person consciously and wilfully dis- 
 associates himself from Christ, he begins to 
 decline spiritually and morally; he begins 
 to lose faith in God and men ; he ceases to 
 be a wholesome and uplifting dynamic in 
 other lives. 
 
 The power of Christ has changed and 
 
 [671 
 
Gbe Bssentials of CbristianttB 
 
 is changing the conditions of society. Some 
 evils, such as slavery, are wholly done away. 
 So extensively has the spirit of brotherhood 
 spread, that war, once the ordinary busi- 
 ness of nations, is condemned by the whole 
 race, except as a national necessity, and as 
 a measure of self-defense. Ridiculous as it 
 was, Germany must put forth the self-de- 
 fense plea to justify war to her own peo- 
 ple. Charity — organized, expensive, but im- 
 perative — a product of Christ' s spirit in 
 men, hastens to supply human needs wher- 
 ever they appear on the entire globe. This 
 fact, the multiple ministries of the Red 
 Cross, the Young Men's and Young Wo- 
 men's Christian Associations, and the 
 Knights of Columbus attest. Christian mis- 
 sionaries hasten with messages of God's love 
 to every known land, and Christian preach- 
 ers, teachers, physicians, engineers, and 
 other workers fill all lands with tokens of 
 Christ's uplifting power. 
 
 The Christian emphasis today is largely 
 social. Christian business men, as never 
 before in history, are insisting upon " the 
 square deal " because all men are brothers. 
 Christians are found everywhere working 
 in causes of social uplift — temperance, sani- 
 
 [68] 
 
Cbttet 
 
 tation, good housing, fair wages, adequate 
 hospitals, good schools, ample parks and 
 playgrounds, healthful recreations, social 
 purity, and worthful life for all. 
 
 One only needs to compare ours with 
 other civilizations to realize that ours is 
 Christian, leavened with the spirit of Christ, 
 and that a power from Christ, working in 
 the hearts of men, is the dynamic which 
 holds it up and pushes it forward. 
 
 Christ Judges Men 
 
 Every one is fairly judged by his attitude 
 to Christ. " He that rejecteth me," says 
 Christ, " and receiveth not my words, hath 
 one that judgeth him: the word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him in the last 
 day" (John 12 : 48). When one looks at 
 a masterpiece and calls it a chromo, he is 
 condemned as not being an artist. When 
 one looks at the character of Christ — its 
 beauty, symmetry, justice, sympathy, for- 
 giveness, righteousness, love, heroism, self- 
 giving, and willingness to suffer and die for 
 men — his judgment of that character, his 
 attitude toward it, and his relations with it, 
 weigh him and judge him. 
 
 [69] 
 
Gbe J60scntial0 of Cbttettanitg 
 
 To choose Christ is to choose the highest 
 life, to require of one's self heroism to fight 
 against sin both in self and society; and 
 to associate with Christ is to seek inspira- 
 tion and strength for the struggle. It is 
 said that " the good is the enemy of the 
 best," and it is true. To choose Christ is to 
 choose the best, to live with the best, to 
 work for the best. Looking at Christ, one 
 squarely faces a great challenge — whether 
 with Christ he will choose his own best, or 
 without Christ fall short of it. 
 
 It should be emphasized here, even at the 
 risk of repetition, that to choose Christ is 
 not to accept some theological formulas 
 about Christ. Christ is a person, alive from 
 the dead, eager to be friend and companion 
 to every one of us, and to endue us with 
 spiritual power as we join purposes with 
 him and exert ourselves to supply the 
 world's spiritual needs. 
 
 The writer will never forget the years of 
 struggle during which he sought to work 
 out a satisfactory theory of the atonement 
 of Christ, and the failure accompanying 
 the attempt. It was like a burst of sun- 
 shine through the clouds when an aged min- 
 isterial friend said simply : " You do not 
 
 [70] 
 
Cbtfat 
 
 have to have any theory of the atonement. 
 Christ is a person. Deal with him per- 
 sonally, not with theories about him." 
 
 Christ is not our Saviour because we be- 
 lieve in him as Saviour, but because of what 
 he works in us when we make him friend, 
 companion, may I not say, chum. The 
 things of supreme value for life are facts, 
 not theories; persons, not philosophies. A 
 friend of the author's undertook to per- 
 suade a man that Jesus was Saviour by 
 piloting' him through the whole body of 
 " Christian Evidences " as they were em- 
 bodied in books years ago. When they had 
 finished, my friend inquired, " Are you 
 convinced ? " " Yes," replied the man, " but 
 I am no different." One may accept with- 
 out question all theologies about Christ 
 without having Christ as a power in his 
 life ; and one may know nothing about the- 
 ologies, and care less for them, and have 
 Christ in his life a continuous revelation, a 
 growing power, and an increasing joy, if 
 only he will make Christ his friend and 
 companion, and be true to him as such. 
 " Follow me," Christ commands. If we 
 obey, he becomes to us the bread of life, 
 the water of life, the light of life, the way 
 
 [71] 
 
Cbe Essentials of Cbrtstianm: 
 
 of life, the truth of life, the life itself. 
 Gradually and increasingly there comes to 
 us through him revelation of what God is, 
 revelation of ourselves, revelation of the 
 eternal principles which bind God and man 
 together, which transform men into the di- 
 vine image, and which, through the long 
 centuries, produce the growing union of 
 man with God and men with men. 
 
 Then fiercely we dig the fountain, 
 
 Oh! where do the waters rise? 
 Then, panting, we climb the mountain, 
 
 Oh! are there indeed blue skies? 
 And we dig till the soul is weary, 
 
 Nor find the waters out, 
 And we climb till all is dreary, 
 
 And still the sky is a doubt. 
 
 Search not the roots of the fountain, 
 
 But drink the waters bright ; 
 Gaze far above the mountain, 
 
 The sky may speak in light — 
 But if yet thou see no beauty, 
 
 If, widowed, thy heart still cries, 
 With thy hands go do thy duty, 
 
 And thy work will clear thine eyes. 
 
 — George Macdonald. 
 
 [72] 
 
Id) 
 
 Evolution 
 
EVOLUTION 
 
 THE study of biological evolution is apt 
 to disturb for a time the religious ideas 
 of young people in colleges and universities. 
 That the facts of modern science conflict 
 with medieval religious ideas, goes without 
 saying. They equally conflict with medieval 
 scientific beliefs. But between the facts 
 of modern science and the best religious 
 thought of our day there is no conflict, but 
 instead a marvelous and significant har- 
 mony. It would be difficult to find a single 
 prominent Christian scholar today who does 
 not believe in the theory of evolution. The 
 conflict which the young imagine to exist 
 between this theory and religion arises out 
 of mistaken notions of both science and 
 religion. Among these mistaken notions 
 are the following: 
 
 i. People sometimes speak of evolution 
 as though it were sufficient unto itself, 
 an energizing force which develops life 
 from lower to higher stages. Just as any 
 
 [75] 
 
XLbc Essentials of CbristlanttE 
 
 law in and of itself does nothing, but tells 
 how some force operates, so evolution in 
 and of itself does nothing, but is descriptive 
 of the way in which force works. Back of 
 all phases of the theory of evolution is the 
 question, What is the force at work? The 
 Christian evolutionist says it is God. God 
 creates, and is ever creating. From the 
 first life cell, and before, to the highest man 
 in the most complex society, God is ener- 
 gizing. Nothing is apart from him. Laws 
 and methods and theories simply tell, or at- 
 tempt to tell, how he works. God is not an 
 absentee landlord, but an indwelling energy 
 in the physical universe, an unfolding power 
 in biological creation, and an indwelling and 
 guiding Spirit in man and society. " In 
 him we live, and move, and have our be- 
 ing " (Acts 17 : 28). 
 
 2. This erroneous idea, that evolution 
 is a force instead of the description of the 
 working of a force, is sometimes carried to 
 the extreme- of assuming that physical and 
 biological forces are sufficient to account for 
 social phenomena. But no well-informed 
 scientist today thinks of accounting for so- 
 cial phenomena, and social and spiritual 
 progress, simply by the operation of phys- 
 
 [76] 
 
Bvolutton 
 
 ical and biological forces. Into the process, 
 even of biological evolution, new and inex- 
 plicable forces keep entering — forces which 
 separate species and mark off eras. All that 
 goes before new species cannot account for 
 them. The less never accounts for the 
 greater ; nor the lower for the higher. The 
 oyster cannot account for the fish, nor the 
 fish for the amphibian, nor the amphibian 
 for the bird, nor the bird for the mammal, 
 nor all lower animals for man. 
 
 Into social evolution also new forces 
 enter: Mind controls, love is powerful, 
 ethical ideas grip, great ideals lift, and God 
 comes increasingly into conscious relations 
 with men. 
 
 Instead of there being some so-called 
 evolutionary force that is unfolding all 
 things, we are living in a continuous proc- 
 ess of creation. New forces enter every 
 now and then to change the direction of 
 progress and lift life to a higher plane. 
 The Spirit of the eternal God fairly throbs 
 and thrills through the whole process. 
 
 Why is it that a nation like the United 
 States, for years in the grip of commer- 
 cialism, and, as some think, money-mad, 
 with its young men dominated by ambition 
 
 [77] 
 
Zbe ^Essentials of Cbrietianitc 
 
 for success, suddenly took up arms, poured 
 out treasure, and laid down life in the world 
 war for an ideal — the ideal that every na- 
 tion, no matter how small or weak, has a 
 right to work out its highest possibilities 
 in its own place unmolested, and that right, 
 not might, must rule the world ? What had 
 come over our young men that, with tear- 
 dimmed eyes as they left home and friends, 
 they said, as some of them said to the 
 writer : " I want to do something for my 
 country ; " " Unless I have part in the war, 
 I would not want to live after the war ; " 
 " They may bury me on the hills of France, 
 but if so I shall feel that my life has been 
 well spent"? Why did the boys in the 
 trenches get next to God as never before, 
 pray the thing through at night, and in 
 the morning, with victory in their hearts, 
 go into the drive singing, deeming it worth 
 while to die if need be to help those who 
 should live after them to realize an ideal? 
 Why? God was moving upon men in a 
 new way, turning life in a nobler direction, 
 and lifting it to a higher stage of manliness. 
 The same God who has worked in the 
 whole life process from the beginning was 
 working in new ways. Men today are in 
 
 [78] 
 
Evolution 
 
 the grip of world ideas, and humanitarian 
 feelings of unprecedented breadth and depth 
 are moving them to action. God is creat- 
 ing a new social order. 
 
 3. Another erroneous notion is that evo- 
 lution is wholly a gradual process. It is, 
 indeed, largely gradual ; and yet the whole 
 course of evolution is marked by occasional, 
 and somewhat frequent sudden changes, 
 new outbursts of power, new directions of 
 life. These sudden leaps — mutations, some 
 of them have been called — are inexplicable. 
 
 Perhaps the simplest analogy to these 
 sudden changes is found in the individual, 
 who is thought by many to recapitulate in a 
 rough way the life history of the race. Not 
 to mention prior changes, human birth is a 
 sudden break in the prenatal life. After 
 the event new powers unfold, and the in- 
 dividual enters into new relations. The age 
 of puberty again brings sudden changes, 
 both physical and mental, and after these 
 changes a new era in life begins. In the 
 individual's spiritual life, conversion marks 
 the end of an old era and the beginning of 
 a new one. Christ calls it a new birth. So 
 marked is it with most people that, as Paul 
 says, one is " a new creature : old things are 
 
 [79] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot GbrtetfanttB 
 
 passed away ; behold, all things are become 
 new" (2 Cor. 5 : 17). Life assumes a 
 new attitude, experiences a new joy, finds 
 a new love, becomes possessed of a new 
 faith, is moved by a new purpose, enlists 
 in a new service. In a word, a new force 
 has entered the individual, which starts into 
 new and vigorous growth elements of life 
 before latent, and guides the life in a new 
 and higher direction. 
 
 Analogous to these comparatively sudden 
 changes in individual evolution, are the 
 more or less sudden changes in the unfold- 
 ing of life as a whole. Biological species 
 show innumerable inexplicable changes ; be- 
 tween species there are great and sudden 
 leaps; and there is a wide, unbridged gulf 
 between the highest animal and the lowest 
 man. 
 
 Social evolution also is filled with sud- 
 den outbursts of new life and sudden mani- 
 festations of new power. The most marked 
 one in history is the advent of Christ. His 
 advent began a new era and changed the 
 course of human development. It filled 
 men with new hopes, new purposes, new 
 faith, new love, new courage, new al- 
 legiance, new devotion, and a new spirit of 
 
 [80] 
 
Bvolutton 
 
 self-giving. It began the development of 
 a new humanitarianism, which found ex- 
 pression in a new valuation of the indi- 
 vidual, more humanitarian laws, more be- 
 neficent institutions, juster government, 
 more equitable trade relations — in a word, 
 in a higher and finer humanity. 
 
 Less great and sudden changes appear in 
 the barbarian invasion of Italy, which over- 
 threw the Roman empire; in the Crusades, 
 the Reformation, and the Renaissance. The 
 world war will doubtless prove to be the 
 most significant sudden historic event since 
 Christ. It is the bursting forth of new 
 life; it will mark off more or less dis- 
 tinctly a new era; it will change the direc- 
 tion of human thought and endeavor, es- 
 pecially in those spheres of life which make 
 for social betterment and have to do directly 
 with the building of the kingdom of God 
 on earth. Now that the war is over every 
 one expects the world to be different. It 
 will be better than before, for the processes 
 of social evolution lead upward. The mind 
 of man is travailing in a new birth. It is 
 coming to a keener appreciation of the 
 rights of even the weakest man and nation, 
 to a new discernment of the things that are 
 
 f r 8x 1 
 
XLbc Essential* of Christian its 
 
 most worth while, to a new resolve for 
 brotherly conduct in the whole of life, to 
 a growing sense of the presence, power, and 
 working of God in the individual and in 
 history, and to a growing appreciation of 
 the things that God values. 
 
 4. Another wrong notion about evolution 
 arises from the fact that students, after a 
 smattering of biological evolution, leap to 
 the conclusion that biological methods of 
 evolution — differentiation, selection, propa- 
 gation, adaptation, struggle for existence, 
 survival of the fittest — continue to be the 
 methods of social evolution. The facts are 
 otherwise, or perhaps more accurately, these 
 principles of evolution must be differently 
 interpreted or applied when we enter the 
 field of social evolution. 
 
 Professor Drummond, in his " Ascent of 
 Man," showed that the human struggle for 
 existence was not for self, as is largely true 
 in biological evolution, but increasingly for 
 others; and history corroborates his show- 
 ing. The United States went to war with 
 Spain, not in a struggle for self, but for 
 Cuba. In the world war, while the United 
 States apprehended a possible future danger 
 from Germany, that future possibility alone 
 
 [82] 
 
Bvolutton 
 
 would not have led us to take up arms when 
 we did. Our impelling motive was a sense 
 of duty to contribute our part in the win- 
 ning of liberty and democracy for all peo- 
 ples. We entered the struggle, not for self, 
 but for the larger life of humanity. 
 
 The great difference between biological 
 and social evolution is that the former is 
 primarily an evolution of physical life as 
 expressed in physical forms — the bodies of 
 genera and species of animals ; whereas the 
 latter is the evolution of psychic life as ex- 
 pressed in social forms — governments, cus- 
 toms, laws, institutions, etc. The strata of 
 human history are as filled with fossil social 
 institutions as are the geologic strata with 
 the remains of fossil animals. 
 
 Let it be noted that biological evolution 
 reached its goal in the production of the 
 human body. There are no human genera 
 or species. Whether we go back to the 
 earliest human remains or examine all liv- 
 ing races, no divergencies of human forms 
 are found sufficient for a basis of different 
 species, much less genera. 
 
 With the advent of man, and the perfec- 
 tion of the physical form, the goal of evo- 
 lution is lifted higher, and its methods be- 
 
 [83] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot Cbrtsttanits 
 
 come different. Human progress is not in 
 being molded by environment, as was largely 
 the case with animal progress, but in psychic 
 mastery of environment — in cultivating 
 land, building cities, making the world 
 smaller by rapid communication, and in ad- 
 justing human relations to these new en- 
 vironing conditions. 
 
 Why the biological organism varies in 
 certain directions rather than others, is not 
 known. No more is it known why the so- 
 cial mind grows in certain directions, ever 
 making demands upon itself for new ad- 
 justments — more brotherhood, more sym- 
 pathy, more justice, more cooperation, more 
 service; except that the social mind, plant- 
 like, grows toward the light, toward the 
 Christ, " the light of the world." 
 
 In social evolution, as indicated above, 
 if biological laws continue to operate, they 
 must be differently applied. For example, 
 the " fittest " in the " struggle for exis- 
 tence " are no longer the strongest phys- 
 ically, but the best ; not those who fight, but 
 those who cooperate; not those who hate 
 their enemies, but those who love them ; not 
 those who exploit their fellows, but those 
 who serve them. Events, of course, often 
 
 [84] 
 
Bvolutton 
 
 seem to indicate the contrary, but they do 
 not. Christ seemed to go down in defeat 
 when he was crucified, but his crucifiers are 
 forgotten, the world has repudiated their 
 principles, and the crucified Christ has con- 
 quered the human heart and is leavening 
 the laws of nations increasingly with his 
 spirit. Not the strong, but the best survive. 
 The application here, of course, is not to 
 individuals, nor even to races of men, but 
 to those higher qualities of life for which 
 men are willing to die, and which get them- 
 selves embodied in human convictions, laws, 
 governments, and institutions. These are 
 propagated century after century ; they con- 
 tinue because they are fittest to continue. 
 The Romans thought they were making an 
 end of the Christians when they threw 
 them to the lions. The Romans were phys- 
 ically strong and the Christians physically 
 weak. But " the blood of the martyrs was 
 the seed of the church." The Christians 
 were really the strong, for they embodied 
 those principles which human institutions 
 needed, and which the heart of man would 
 not let die. The Roman Government has 
 perished; Christian principles live on with 
 more and more abundant life. 
 
 [8 5 ] 
 
Cbe Essentials of GbrtstianttB 
 
 In social evolution, then, the struggle is 
 not between individuals and species as in 
 biological evolution, and the fittest to sur- 
 vive are not the strongest. The struggle is 
 one between social institutions, between or- 
 ganized phases of the social mind; and the 
 best institutions, that is, those best adapted 
 to serve human needs, survive. For ex- 
 ample, the Christian church has become dif- 
 ferentiated into many branches, each with 
 its particular creed and forms of worship. 
 These differing creeds and forms of wor- 
 ship contend for the mastery. Those best 
 adapted to human needs are selected out by 
 the sifting years. They propagate them- 
 selves for longer or shorter time. They 
 are constantly face to face with the prob- 
 lem of adaptation to the needs of men. 
 Those that adjust themselves to human 
 needs survive; those that fail to adjust 
 themselves perish. 
 
 The same facts are true of all social in- 
 stitutions. England, in the treatment of 
 her colonies, is an outstanding example of 
 governmental adjustment to growing po- 
 litical, economic, and social needs. Spain, 
 in the treatment of her colonies, is an ex- 
 ample of precisely the opposite sort. En- 
 
 [86] 
 
revolution 
 
 gland, therefore, has been growing strong 
 while Spain has been growing weak. 
 
 The Germans in the world war chal- 
 lenged the fundamental fact of social evo- 
 lution — that it is the upward progress of 
 mankind and not simply the survival of 
 brute force. The struggle was between 
 autocracy and democracy as political insti- 
 tutions, between force and right as princi- 
 ples of government, and between material- 
 ism and idealism as philosophies of life. 
 The fittest survived. For two thousand 
 years the social mind has been growing 
 toward democracy, and autocracy was 
 doomed. Even had the Allies been beaten, 
 it was doomed in time, doomed as those 
 who crucified Christ were doomed, and as 
 those who threw the Christians to the lions 
 were doomed. Not the strongest, but the 
 best, whether strong or weak, survive. The 
 nation that does not adjust itself to this 
 principle of social growth will perish. This 
 dictum is written in history. It is the fiat 
 of the social life process. 
 
 Not only is there no conflict between the 
 scientific theory of evolution and modern 
 Christian thought, but the theory has helped 
 to amplify and broaden Christian thought, 
 
 [8 7 ] 
 
Gbe JSssenttals ot Cbrtstianitg 
 
 and to bring the thinking of Christians 
 nearer to the teachings of Christ. As all 
 are aware, each field of knowledge in- 
 fluences every other field. Science in- 
 fluences philosophy, and philosophy science ; 
 religion influences government, and govern- 
 ment religion, and so on. A clear illustra- 
 tion, for example, of the influence of gov- 
 ernment on religion lies in the historic fact 
 that governmental forms have been power- 
 ful in molding men's ideas of God. In the 
 Old Testament ages, when war was the 
 business of nations, God was thought of 
 as a god of war, as approving the spoils of 
 war, and as sanctioning cruelties against 
 heathen nations. Calvin developed his 
 stern doctrine of God's sovereignty in days 
 of kingly rule. In our democratic era, 
 when there is a goodly infusion of broth- 
 erly love in social relations, and class dis- 
 tinctions are breaking down, and there is 
 more of the " square deal " in business, 
 we are able to understand and appreciate 
 the teachings of Christ, that God is a 
 Father. In strong contrast with the idea 
 of God developed under democracy was the 
 German idea of God developed under an 
 overbearing and dominating autocracy — a 
 
 r 88 1 
 
Evolution 
 
 god who cared for Germans as he did not 
 care for others, who looked with favor upon 
 the rule of physical might, who led on in 
 ruthless warfare — the " German Gott." 
 Thus governmental ideas greatly affect re- 
 ligious ideas. 
 
 In like manner the theory of evolution 
 has greatly influenced religious thinking. 
 Its special contribution is the emphasis it 
 places on the element of time in God's 
 working. The theory allows eons of time 
 for physical evolution before life appears on 
 the planet; and eons of time for biological 
 evolution before man appears; and un- 
 counted centuries — from man's first appear- 
 ance to the present — for social evolution. 
 God is not in a hurry. With him " a thou- 
 sand years are as one day and one day as 
 a thousand years." Thus the long-time em- 
 phasis enables us to enlarge and extend our 
 conception of the whole process of God's 
 working and bring it into conformity with 
 the teachings of Christ. The following par- 
 ticulars may be noted: 
 
 I. Early Christians expected Christ to 
 come again suddenly, bring all mundane af- 
 fairs to an end, and take them home to 
 glory. Christ, on the contrary, taught that 
 
 [8 9 ] 
 
Zbc ^essentials of Cbrifltianits 
 
 Gods processes were those of the mustard- 
 seed and the pervading leaven — gradual 
 processes. The theory of evolution has so 
 familiarized our thought with the element 
 of time in God's working that we can now 
 understand and apply Christ's teachings. 
 We see God working in the star-dust and 
 in the first cell. He lifts life up species by 
 species, unfolding new powers at every step, 
 and opening the way to larger possibilities. 
 He leads man forth from the rest of his 
 creatures, new, different, higher. At every 
 step of social development God energizes. 
 His Spirit is in man, and works through 
 man, increasingly conforming man's 
 thought, desires, and endeavors to his will. 
 The unfolding of life is a long, gradual, 
 upward process; it is still going forward; 
 and men, as Paul taught, are workers to- 
 gether with God in the task. 
 
 2. Familiarity with the time element in 
 God's working, has filled us with hope for 
 society and courage for sacrificial work. 
 Men no longer despair of saving society 
 and abandon social tasks, as once they did, 
 for hermit cells. They realize that social 
 tasks are long, hard tasks, requiring pa- 
 tience, faith, and continuous work. The 
 
 [90] 
 
Evolution 
 
 time element has taught us that great evils 
 are to be banished from the social order one 
 by one. It has given new confidence in the 
 certainty of the upward trend of civilization 
 under the vitalizing power of Christ. It 
 has led us to appreciation of the far-reach- 
 ing influence of every forceful personality 
 and every human endeavor as we work 
 with Christ in redeeming the world. 
 
 3. Familiarity with the time element has 
 brought the " kingdom of God " down out 
 of heaven, where the early Christians placed 
 it, to be upon the earth, where Christ placed 
 it. As before indicated, the early Christians 
 looked for a sudden ending of the world, 
 and the establishment of the kingdom of 
 God in heaven. This conception obtained 
 for long centuries, and is not yet extinct, 
 although increasing numbers of Christians 
 are emphasizing the kingdom of God on 
 earth, where Christ came to set it up. Men 
 are now busy working and fighting and 
 legislating to get men here on earth to do 
 God's will, the doing of which is God's 
 kingdom. We call ours a social century, 
 for we have gripped the social task in ear- 
 nest. The emphasis of governments today 
 is upon right social relationships, and the 
 
 [91] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Gbristianitg 
 
 emphasis of religion is upon Christian ethics 
 and service. This means, not simply salva- 
 tion hereafter, but righteous living here. It 
 means righteous fathers and mothers, right- 
 eous homes, righteous teachers, righteous 
 pupils, righteous business men, righteous 
 politicians, righteous governments, right- 
 eous international relations, righteous work, 
 and righteous pleasures. It means that ulti- 
 mately prophetic visions are to be realized, 
 when " holiness to the Lord " will be en- 
 graved on the bridles of our horses, 
 blazoned in large signs over our homes and 
 stores, and set as mottoes in our factories 
 and government buildings. Or, if we 
 change the prophetic pictures to Christ's 
 teaching, the leaven of righteousness is to 
 pervade the whole lump of human relation- 
 ships. 
 
 Not until the theory of evolution sug- 
 gested the time element and called atten- 
 tion to the long, gradual process of social 
 uplift, did men in large numbers abandon 
 the ideas of a sudden cataclasmic ending of 
 all mundane things, as suggested by the 
 literal interpretation of the pictorial lan- 
 guage of Scripture, and adequately devote 
 themselves to the making of a better world. 
 
 [92] 
 
Evolution 
 
 The social process, then, as conceived 
 under the theory of evolution, is not only in 
 harmony with Christ's teachings, but throws 
 a flood of light upon them. Christ is not 
 apart from, but a constituent factor in, that 
 continuous working of God which operates 
 from the first dawn of life, and before it; 
 which unfolds life from lower to higher 
 stages until the fulness of his thought, pur- 
 pose, and love are realized in his creation. 
 Now it is clear that the kingdom of God be- 
 gins in the small — the mustard-seed — and, 
 by a process of growth, fills the world ; that, 
 in the process, the wheat and tares grow 
 together; that those who work for right- 
 eousness are not to fear or waver when the 
 forces of evil seem triumphant ; that Christ, 
 when lifted up, will draw all men to him- 
 self; that the kingdoms of this world will 
 become the " kingdom of our Lord and of 
 his Christ." In a word, the theory of evo- 
 lution, by emphasizing the time element, has 
 greatly enlarged what men formerly con- 
 ceived to be Christ's work, and has enabled 
 men in fuller measure to grasp Christ's real 
 program of redeeming the world. There 
 is no halting ; there can be no turning back ; 
 defeat is impossible. 
 
 [93] 
 
ID 
 Gbe Bible 
 
THE BIBLE 
 
 THE Old Testament was produced dur- 
 ing about one thousand five hundred 
 years, roughly speaking, from about 2000 
 B. C. to about 500 B. C, or from Abraham 
 to Nehemiah. For perhaps half of this 
 period the early materials were passed down 
 from generation to generation in the form 
 of traditions or separately written narra- 
 tives. Sometimes there were different ver- 
 sions of these narratives, which varied some- 
 what in style and contents. In the later 
 years of the period these different versions 
 were woven together into about the form 
 which they now bear. The fathers of Is- 
 rael were commanded to narrate to their 
 children the stones of God's dealings with 
 them, and thus to pass them on from gen- 
 eration to generation. (See Exod. 10 : 2; 
 Josh. 4 : 5-7.) 
 
 From about the ninth century B. C. 
 the Bible narratives began to be wrought 
 over by the prophetic spirits of Israel. The 
 
 G [ 97 ] 
 
vibe Essentials o( Chnettanitv: 
 
 materials chosen, and the form into which 
 they were put, depended on the situation of 
 the people and the needs of the hour, just 
 as the materials chosen for a sermon depend 
 upon the character and needs of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 During the later centuries of the period 
 named the situation of the Hebrews varied 
 greatly ; their spiritual needs differed at dif- 
 ferent times ; and consequently the Bible 
 writings vary greatly in nature and con- 
 tent. Through them we learn of Israel's 
 shepherd life, her enslavement in Egypt, 
 her wanderings in the wilderness, her con- 
 quest of Canaan, her successes and defeats 
 in war, her faithfulness and unfaithfulness 
 to Jehovah, her national prosperity and ad- 
 versity, her captivity in Assyria and Bab- 
 ylonia, and finally the return of a faithful 
 few to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple 
 and to reestablish the national life of the 
 people. 
 
 The contents of the Old Testament were 
 produced out of these varying conditions, 
 and by men of various types and accom- 
 plishments — by prophets, poets, biog- 
 raphers, historians, law-givers, priests, 
 philosophers, dramatists, and others. 
 
 [98] 
 
Zbe JBtbie 
 
 Needless to say, then, the Old Testament 
 is not a book, but a library of many books, 
 which vary greatly in character and con- 
 tents. Noah and the Flood, is a good ex- 
 ample of tradition; Jonah and the Whale, 
 is evidently a great story; the accounts of 
 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are bio- 
 graphic sketches; the books of Kings and 
 Chronicles are brief, selected history; 
 Nathan's rebuke of David for taking 
 Uriah's wife, is in the form of parable 
 (2 Sam. 12 : 1-14), which was Christ's 
 favorite method of teaching ; the Psalms, of 
 course, are poetry, and other portions are 
 in poetic form; Jotham's rebuke of his 
 brethren is in the form of allegory, in 
 which trees speak (Judg. 9 : 7-15) ; much 
 of the ethical teaching of the Bible is in the 
 form of prophecy, such, for example, as 
 the books of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jere- 
 miah; Job is a drama dealing with one of 
 the profoundest problems of life; Leviticus 
 and Deuteronomy are made up largely of 
 laws ; and Proverbs is a collection of 
 maxims, called by modern scholars " wis- 
 dom literature." 
 
 It is of utmost importance to note care- 
 fully that the Old Testament is composed 
 
 [99] 
 
Zbe Essentials of Cbrtstianlts 
 
 of these different kinds of literature — 
 tradition, story, history, biography, para- 
 ble, poetry, allegory, prophecy, drama, 
 maxims, etc. — for it is not always clear 
 which of these kinds of literature certain 
 portions of the Bible contain. For exam- 
 ple, men differ widely in their ideas of the 
 literature which narrates the accounts of 
 the Creation, the Temptation of Adam and 
 Eve, the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, the 
 Flood, and other portions, some holding that 
 they are literal history, others that they are 
 traditions, and still others that they are 
 poetical writings. 
 
 The Bible Stands Secure 
 
 These differing kinds of literature, and 
 these differing views, should not disturb us 
 in the least, for they in no way invalidate 
 our Bible. God makes his will known by 
 different means. He inspires men to utter 
 truth through poetry and story as well as 
 through history and prophecy. His revela- 
 tion is found in parable as well as in biog- 
 raphy. 
 
 The one question of importance is : What 
 docs the Bible teach? Any part of the 
 
 [ ioo] 
 
Gbe JSlblc 
 
 Bible that does not hold a spiritual mes- 
 sage, or is not necessary to make clear some 
 part that does hold a spiritual message, may 
 well be discarded. It has no spiritual value 
 and does not belong in the Bible. For pur- 
 poses of illustration we may note the fol- 
 lowing examples : 
 
 i. Does not the Creation Story teach that 
 one God, not idols, created the world and 
 all that is in it? Does it not teach that one 
 God created man and breathed into him 
 the divine life? These truths are basal for 
 all religious thinking. It does not matter 
 in the least whether they are uttered 
 through history, parable, story, drama, pic- 
 torial narrative, or any other kind of litera- 
 ture. The whole point is to get the truth 
 uttered clearly, briefly, interestingly, and 
 powerfully. It is an evident abuse of the 
 Bible, and an utter misconception of its 
 fundamental purpose, to bring questions of 
 science into the Creation Story. The Bible 
 does not teach science, evidently has no in- 
 tention of doing so, and in that fact the 
 wisdom of the Scriptures is manifest. The 
 Bible is a revelation of spiritual truth. 
 
 2. Does the account of the Temptation 
 of Adam and Eve need to be history in 
 
 [ ioi ] 
 
Gbe ^Essentials of Cbdattanits 
 
 order to teach spiritual truth ? The account 
 sets forth (i) that man lives in a garden, 
 in which some trees are forbidden and 
 others are not, (2) that man by free choice 
 may take the way of life or the way of 
 death, (3) that man is beset on one side 
 by the voice of God calling him in the way 
 of life, and on the other by a voice which 
 strives, by deception, and by casting dis- 
 credit on God, to lead him in the way of 
 death, (4) that the ways of disobedience 
 are often pleasant to the eyes and enticing 
 to the imagination, (5) that we do not sin 
 alone but are tempted by each other, (6) 
 that, notwithstanding all excuses, there is 
 no good reason for disobeying God, (7) that 
 God does not take excuses, but punishes 
 sinners, (8) that the disobedient are shut 
 out of life's real garden, (9) that, notwith- 
 standing man's disobedience, God still loves 
 him (he clothes Adam and Eve with skins), 
 (10) that, though man has fallen into sin, 
 there is still hope of attaining righteousness 
 (the seed of the woman is to bruise the 
 serpent's head). 
 
 Every one of these ten truths is funda- 
 mental for spiritual life. The marvel is 
 that they could be so simply, tersely told. 
 
 [102] 
 
Cbe JBtble 
 
 3. The short Story of Cain and Abel 
 makes clear the great truths (1) that God 
 is not placated by sacrifices offered by sin- 
 ful men, and (2) that righteousness must 
 be conjoined with worship. It must be re- 
 membered that these truths were uttered 
 when heathen cults did not connect right- 
 eousness with worship. 
 
 4. The Story of the Flood indicates 
 God's attitude to righteous and wicked and 
 shows the respective ends to which each 
 comes : the righteous are saved ; the wicked 
 are lost. 
 
 5. The Story of the Tower of Babel 
 shows 'the folly of men presuming to go 
 on their own ways in life without consult- 
 ing God. 
 
 This series of stories evidently constitutes 
 a brief introduction to the Bible, and the 
 writer holds in mind the problems and na- 
 tional sins that are met with in Israel's 
 history. The great truths uttered consti- 
 tute the foundation of all right religious 
 thinking. It is significant of the charac- 
 ter of the Bible that they are uttered so 
 concisely and clearly in its first chapters. 1 
 
 1 For a fuller discussion of these narratives see the 
 author's " Bible Message for Modern Manhood," Chap. 
 MV. 
 
 f IO3] 
 
3be Essentials of GbttsttanttE 
 
 Difficulties with the Bible 
 
 I. One difficulty that we encounter with 
 the Bible is that heretofore certain parts 
 have been regarded as literal history which 
 we find difficult to accept as literal. The 
 early Genesis stories just reviewed, are a 
 good example. 
 
 It has already been sufficiently shown 
 that the spiritual value of such parts of the 
 Bible does not depend upon their being lit- 
 eral history any more than does the spiritual 
 value of the Psalms or of the parables of 
 our Lord. Indeed, history is not so direct 
 and effective a medium of teaching as para- 
 ble and story. In the latter everything is 
 freely shaped for the teaching purpose, 
 while in the former the trammels of his- 
 toric fact are ever upon the teacher. It 
 is well known by all scholars that the his- 
 tory contained in the Bible is selected, sifted, 
 and somewhat idealized for teaching pur- 
 poses. 
 
 The author once heard an able sermon 
 from the text, " The bush was not con- 
 sumed," the incident being that of Moses 
 before the burning bush in the wilderness 
 of Sinai. The emphasis of the sermon was 
 
 [ io4] 
 
Gbe Mblc 
 
 upon the reality of the supernatural. Some 
 young men of the author's acquaintance who 
 heard the sermon, were not persuaded of 
 the supernaturalness of the event, and con- 
 sequently received little or no help from the 
 sermon. 
 
 With the supernaturalness of the burning 
 bush the author had never experienced any 
 difficulty; but the fact that the young men 
 were unpersuaded, led him to inquire: 
 Could this incident of the burning bush be 
 a pictorial scene, a strong setting of the 
 soul conflict of Moses? If so, What is the 
 prophet teaching through it? Analysis of 
 the situation shows : 
 
 ( i ) That Moses was confronting the call 
 of God to go and deliver Israel from Egyp- 
 tian bondage, just as every Christian young 
 man sooner or later confronts the call of 
 God — sometimes a great and crucial call — 
 to a life-work. 
 
 (2) The surprise of the situation was 
 that " the bush was not consumed." Moses 
 expected it to be consumed, just as he ex- 
 pected his life to be consumed, worn out, 
 spent for naught, if he followed God's call 
 to deliver Israel; and just as every young 
 man expects his life to be consumed — riches 
 
 [105] 
 
Zbe Essentials of Cbriatianitg 
 
 given up, worldly success relinquished, place 
 and power and honorable position all thrown 
 overboard — if he follows God's call, it may 
 be into the ministry or to the foreign field. 
 
 But in Moses' life, as in the bush, there 
 was not a consuming, but an increasing. 
 He came to power, honor, and fame by fol- 
 lowing God's call, whereas he expected to 
 be robbed of all these. If he followed the 
 call he expected the heart to go out of life, 
 whereas, on the contrary, a service was 
 rendered which put heart into life. Had 
 Moses refused the call, his life would have 
 been consumed in the wilderness without 
 the world hearing of him. Because he fol- 
 lowed the call, he is above all others the 
 law-giver of the race. The bush of his life 
 was not consumed. Neither will the bush 
 of any man's life be consumed who follows 
 God's call. 
 
 (3) On the other hand, out of the bush 
 came the revelation of God — the voice say- 
 ing, " I am the God of thy father, the God 
 of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
 of Jacob." Out of the bush came the great 
 challenge to Moses' faith : " Come now 
 therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 
 that thou mayest bring forth my people the 
 
 [ 106 1 
 
Gbe JBible 
 
 children of Israel out of Egypt. . . Cer- 
 tainly I will be with thee; and ... ye shall 
 serve God upon this mountain." (See Exod. 
 
 3-) 
 
 Moses believed God, he accepted the 
 challenge, and the revelation of the bush 
 was reproduced in his life and work. By 
 following God's call and doing God's work, 
 he became increasingly sure that the God 
 of his fathers had spoken to him, was lead- 
 ing him and working through him. A like 
 assurance of the certainty of God, of the 
 verity of his call, and of his cooperation in 
 work, comes to every one who obeys him 
 and runs the risk of his life being consumed. 
 The bush was not consumed ; neither will 
 the life be consumed. The bush was a 
 revelation ; so will be the life. 
 
 (4) As Moses stands before the burn- 
 ing bush, he is commanded, " Put off thy 
 shoes from off thy feet, for the place where- 
 on thou standest is holy ground" (Exod. 
 3 : 5 ) . No place is holier to any man than 
 the place where God meets him face to 
 face, and challenges him to meet, by accep- 
 tance or refusal, his definite call to a life- 
 work. 
 
 Surely these four great truths are clearly 
 
 [ 107 1 
 
Cbe Essentials of Christianity 
 
 taught in the narrative as it stands, what- 
 ever be its character as literature. What 
 more could it teach? These were the per- 
 tinent and vital truths for Moses as he 
 faced God's call. They are the vital truths 
 for every one under like circumstances. 
 
 Other portions of Scripture, such for 
 example, as the book of Jonah, might be 
 dealt with in similar fashion ; but enough 
 has already been said to make clear the 
 importance of placing the spiritual teach- 
 ings of the Bible first, and regarding all 
 other questions of secondary importance. 
 
 2. Young people often think that some- 
 thing is wrong with their religious lives be- 
 cause they do not find all portions of the 
 Bible equally interesting. All parts of the 
 Bible are neither of equal interest nor of 
 equal spiritual value. This fact should be 
 clearly understood and definitely stated. 
 For example, laws of tabernacle, temple, and 
 sacrifices, belong to forms and customs in 
 which we now have little interest. The 
 records of the wars of Israel neither inter- 
 est nor profit us much. Many of the 
 prophecies refer to situations long past and 
 little known, so that many references in 
 them are obscure. This is not to say that 
 
 [ 108I 
 
Cbc Mbic 
 
 such portions of Scripture are not of inter- 
 est to scholars. They are of great interest, 
 and also of great profit, for they throw 
 light upon past social institutions and cus- 
 toms, and also upon the development of 
 religion. 
 
 3. Perhaps the young person's greatest 
 difficulty with the Old Testament is found 
 in the ethics which it sanctions, and which 
 are so contrary to the ethics of Christ and 
 of the present day. 
 
 The Old Testament sanctions polygamy, 
 concubinage, slavery, and the savage slaugh- 
 ter of men, women, children, and animals 
 in war. It sanctions religious persecution, 
 as when Elijah kills the four hundred 
 prophets of Baal. The problem is to re- 
 gard a book which sanctions such ethics as 
 the revelation of God ; but the difficulty will 
 disappear when a few things are under- 
 stood : 
 
 (1) Christ plainly teaches that the Old 
 Testament is partial and imperfect. No 
 one could claim that it is anything else. " Ye 
 have heard that it hath been said," says 
 Christ, " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for 
 a tooth; but I say unto you, that ye resist 
 not evil " (Matt. 5 : 38, 39). Christ speaks 
 
 [ 109] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Cbristianits 
 
 in similar fashion of loving neighbors and 
 hating enemies : he bids us love our ene- 
 mies. (Matt. 5 : 43, 44.) He said that 
 Moses gave certain laws of divorce on ac- 
 count of the hardness of men's hearts. 
 (Matt. 19 : 8.) It was the best that Moses 
 could do at the time, for it was the best 
 that the people could receive. Christ de- 
 clares himself to be the fulfilment of the 
 law. Not until he came do we have God's 
 perfect revelation. All that went before 
 him was partial. Even God's revelation 
 to us in Christ is progressive, for we only 
 gradually understand Christ. To his dis- 
 ciples Christ said that he had many things 
 to reveal, but that they could not receive 
 them, and that the Holy Spirit would pro- 
 gressively reveal them. (John 16 : 12.) 
 
 (2) That God's revelation to man is 
 gradual and progressive cannot be over- 
 emphasized in this connection, for it makes 
 clear the fact that the ethics of the Old 
 Testament could not be other than partial, 
 and that there is necessarily a great dis- 
 parity between Old Testament ethics and 
 our own. 
 
 The situation will be made clear by think- 
 ing of a child in the kindergarten. The 
 
 [no] 
 
Cbe mbic 
 
 teacher does not teach him college subjects, 
 not because she is unable to do so, but be- 
 cause the child is unable to understand. A 
 child of ten is not taught philosophy; its 
 mind is not sufficiently mature to receive it. 
 And just as the individual must grow up 
 to the comprehension of certain things, so 
 must a people, and so must the race. We 
 speak of reformers as being ahead of their 
 times, meaning that the people are not suf- 
 ficiently advanced to understand and appre- 
 ciate them. It is important to note that 
 there is a certain necessary order in human 
 progress. For example, it would be wholly 
 beside the mark to discuss the justice of a 
 wage scale while men were still in slavery, 
 or conditions of peace while nations were 
 hot for war, or human ethics before men 
 had formed an idea of the character of 
 God. 
 
 Christ came in the " fulness of time," that 
 is, when the race, or at least a portion of it, 
 had been brought up to the point where 
 Christ could make a beginning of his higher 
 revelation. 
 
 Let us then not seek to justify the ethics 
 of the Old Testament, but frankly admit 
 that the heroes of faith in Old Testament 
 
 [mi 
 
Cbe Essentials ot CbristianltB 
 
 times thought that many things were right 
 which Christ condemned, and which would 
 be wrong today. 
 
 (3) We come now upon what is perhaps 
 our greatest difficulty, viz., Did God ac- 
 tually tell the people to do things which to 
 us would be wrong? To illustrate this 
 point there are no better cases than those 
 already used in another connection — the 
 cases of Elijah and Samuel. Did God tell 
 Elijah to slay the four hundred prophets 
 of Baal? Did God tell Samuel to command 
 Saul to destroy the Amalekites without 
 reserve and without mercy — men, women, 
 children, and cattle? 
 
 The Old Testament heroes certainly be- 
 lieved that God wanted them to do these 
 things. In doing them they believed that 
 they were fighting God's battles. This is 
 the most that can be said. But let it be care- 
 fully noted just how much has been said. 
 
 a. The highest point of ethics that any 
 one can reach at any given time lies in 
 doing what one believes God zuants one to 
 do. The specific things we do are deter- 
 mined by the social, economic, and govern- 
 mental conceptions of our times, and by the 
 degrees of revelation that we are capable 
 
 [112] 
 
Gbe Mble 
 
 of receiving. These Old Testament heroes 
 obeyed their convictions of God's will ac- 
 cording to the clearest light of their day. 
 This is the utmost that any one can do at 
 any time. We cannot do more today. To 
 the question, then, Did God tell them to do 
 these things? the answer must be that they 
 believed God told them to do them ; and for 
 men to follow where they believe God leads, 
 is not only the highest ethics possible at the 
 time, but the condition of receiving clearer 
 light and reaching higher ethics. 
 
 b. Again, What is the highest revelation 
 one can receive from God? Simply the 
 soul's persuasion of God's will. But is 
 there not a difference between God's actual 
 will and the soul's persuasion of God's will ? 
 Certainly. The former is perfect and con- 
 sistent from the beginning; the latter 
 changes with increasing light. One's con- 
 viction of what God's will is, depends upon 
 home, school, church, associations, beliefs, 
 and interests. A people's conviction of 
 God's will depends upon current ideas, 
 habits, customs, institutions, etc. 
 
 When we say, then, that the Old Testa- 
 ment heroes did what they believed to be 
 God's will, we affirm that they reached the 
 
 h [113] 
 
Sbe Essentials of Gbrtstianits 
 
 highest ethics for their clay by acting upon 
 the highest revelation that they were capa- 
 ble of receiving. 
 
 A serious error at this point lies in fail- 
 ure to understand the inherent difficulty of 
 revelation. We usually think and speak as 
 though God could stand bodily before a 
 man and tell him things. If this were done, 
 how would God be recognized as God? 
 One must be persuaded that it is really God 
 who speaks. If God sends a personal mes- 
 senger to declare his will, the messenger 
 must bear credentials, and one must be per- 
 suaded that the credentials are genuine. 
 Satan may take the form of an " angel of 
 light." 
 
 If God simply speaks to us through our 
 consciences, the case is the same: The 
 supreme height of possible revelation at any 
 time is the soul's conviction that God is 
 speaking. Christ, as we know, came in 
 human form to reveal God and make plain 
 his will. Some were not persuaded. They 
 said : " He hath a devil, and is mad : Why 
 hear ye him" (John 10 : 20). Others 
 listened to his words and were puzzled. 
 Some said, " If thou be the Christ, tell us 
 plainly" (John 10 : 24). Christ did not 
 
 ["4] 
 
Gbe JSible 
 
 tell them, for persuasion does not come by 
 being told. At other times, when Christ 
 claimed to be from God, they accused him 
 of bearing witness of himself. As a matter 
 of fact, Christ was, and is, a revelation of 
 God only to those who believe him and 
 are persuaded that he is from God. 
 
 And so again, the highest possible point 
 of revelation is conviction that God is speak- 
 ing to the soul, and the highest point of 
 ethics for us is the doing of God's will as 
 we see it. These facts justify the Old Tes- 
 tament as a partial and progressive revela- 
 tion of God, and make plain why the Old 
 Testament ethics could not have been other 
 than they were. 
 
 How to Read the Bible 
 
 Every person should own a Bible. From 
 his own Bible he should read and study. 
 The writer, after over thirty years, still 
 cherishes the Bible presented to him by 
 his mother when he left home for college. 
 On the fly-leaf, in mother's handwriting, 
 are these words, selected from the first 
 chapter of Joshua and from other noble 
 Bible exhortations : 
 
 [us] 
 
Zbe JEssenttate of CbttettanltE 
 
 My son, be strong and of a good courage; 
 fear not, nor be afraid; for the Lord thy 
 God, he it is that doth go with thee; he 
 will not fail thee nor forsake thee. 
 
 My son, only be faithful ; be steadfast, 
 
 immovable; watch ye; stand fast in the 
 
 faith; quit you like men; be strong, that 
 
 ye may walk worthy of the high vocation 
 
 wherewith he hath called you. 
 
 Mother. 
 
 This Bible was used as long as it was 
 usable, and is now preserved as a keep- 
 sake. 
 
 One should have a system of marking the 
 passages that especially appeal to him, being 
 careful not to mark too freely, lest the 
 abundance of marks divest them of signifi- 
 cance. The portions marked one will read 
 repeatedly, and from these one will derive 
 the most benefit. The author has marked a 
 few Psalms, the whole of which were help- 
 ful, like the twenty-third, thirty-seventh, 
 and a few others, with a simple check (x) 
 beside the chapter number. In other 
 Psalms he marks a verse, a portion of a 
 verse, or a few verses, with a pencil line 
 on the side margin. He never reads the 
 Scriptures with more pleasure and profit 
 than when he glances through the pages 
 
 [1161 
 
Qbe JSible 
 
 rapidly, reading only these marked por- 
 tions. 
 
 One should read one's Bible for at least 
 three purposes, the purpose determining the 
 method of reading: 
 
 I. One should read for spiritual food. 
 Just as a mature person eats the food that 
 he likes, and finds that such food agrees 
 with him best and nourishes him most, so 
 for spiritual nourishment, he should read 
 those portions of Scripture which appeal 
 to him, find him, give him spiritual exhila- 
 ration, reenforce his will, and deepen and 
 broaden his love. All parts of Scripture are 
 not alike in their food qualities. One must, 
 therefore, select and repeatedly read some 
 portions while passing over other portions. 
 
 One weakness of our reading is a sort of 
 felt necessity of reading a specified por- 
 tion — a certain number of verses or a chap- 
 ter. We appropriate more by thinking on 
 what we read than by reading. When we 
 have read a verse, a line, or any portion 
 that stimulates thought, we should stop and 
 think, and possibly read no farther at that 
 time. Sometimes the first verse in a chap- 
 ter will shoot a ray of light into the mind 
 and reveal truth in a new way and with new 
 
 ["7i 
 
Gbe Essentials ot Cbristtantts 
 
 application. It is then well to stop and to 
 live that day with the new thought. The 
 profit is, not in the reading, but in what 
 the reading brings to us. 
 
 2. One should read the Bible for infor- 
 mation — to familiarize one's self with the 
 contents of the book. Ignorance of the. 
 actual contents of the Bible is amazing. 
 And yet, after years of study, one is con- 
 tinually surprised at the imperfectness of 
 his information. If we master the contents 
 of the Bible as we master other books, we 
 must read the Bible as we read other books, 
 reading a whole book at a sitting — the book 
 of Genesis, or Exodus, or Matthew, or 
 John, etc. 
 
 This method of reading is important, not 
 only to master the contents of the book, 
 but also to grasp the purpose and method 
 of different writers. For example, one 
 contrasts Matthew and John, Esther and 
 Jonah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Job and 
 Proverbs. In this way one is impressed 
 with the different character and varying 
 value of the separate books. 
 
 3. Certain portions of the Bible should 
 be studied intensively. Some portions can 
 be adequately understood only by such 
 
 f n8] 
 
Cbe Mble 
 
 study. For example, the full significance of 
 Amos or Hosea is not discerned without 
 knowing the social, political, and religious 
 conditions in Israel at the time. Certain 
 portions of Jeremiah have little meaning 
 for us apart from the background upon 
 which the prophecy is projected. 
 
 Such intensive study, of course, takes 
 time, and at least a few books. But with a 
 good Bible dictionary and a few modern 
 commentaries one may make a good begin- 
 ning. Suppose, for example, one is study- 
 ins: Amos. He will desire information on 
 such questions as, Who was Amos ? Where 
 did he live? What was his occupation? 
 What conditions called forth his prophecy? 
 What was the purpose of the prophecy? 
 How was the message received ? What ap- 
 plication has it to our day? To work 
 through any portion of Scripture in this 
 way gives it a grip on one which nothing 
 else can do, and so fixes it in memory as to 
 make it a lifelong possession. 
 
 It is of utmost importance to read the 
 Bible daily. Life is about nine-tenths 
 habit, and we come to neglect the things 
 that are not built into the routine of each 
 day. Daily Bible reading so fixes itself 
 
 f "9] 
 
dbe Essentials ot CbtisttanttB 
 
 upon us that we feel as though a meal had 
 been omitted if for any reason it is crowded 
 out. If one reads a small portion of the 
 Bible each day the amount read in a year 
 will be a great surprise. A friend of the 
 author's read through the whole " American 
 Statesmen Series " in a surprisingly short 
 time by reading three times a day during 
 the few moments that he waited for meals. 
 But the greatest advantage of daily reading 
 is that it gives a tone to the spirit with 
 which all wicked things are out of harmony. 
 The Bible becomes the color stone of our 
 spiritual eyes and makes us feel that all 
 other colors must be brought up to it. The 
 daily portion that we read is so much spir- 
 itual atmosphere. All baser atmospheres 
 are fetid and foul by contrast. 
 
 We should not be troubled if at times 
 the spiritual teachings of the Bible are ob- 
 scure to us. The Bible is like nature. in that 
 the understanding of it is a lifelong proc- 
 ess. We understand largely according to 
 our experiences. The mother who sorrows 
 for her child will understand what may be 
 dark to others. Whoever has made great 
 sacrifices will discern what others will miss. 
 The depth and hidden -wealth of the Bible 
 
 \ 120I 
 
Gbe JBtblc 
 
 constitute both its perennial interest and 
 its surpassing worth. 
 
 Go to the Bible with your need, and your 
 need will be met ; go with your discourage- 
 ment, and you will be cheered; go with 
 your cross, and you will be strengthened; 
 go with your doubts, and you will gain as- 
 surance; go with your sins, and you will 
 find rebuke and correction; go repentant, 
 and you will meet forgiveness. At all times 
 you will find God, who by his word will 
 nourish your spiritual life and stimulate 
 you to loving service. 
 
 [121] 
 
1D1 
 prater 
 
PRAYER 
 
 Problems of Prayer 
 
 The older we grow, the simpler we be- 
 come, and the more we realize that the best 
 living does not depend upon the solution of 
 all our problems. But young people want 
 problems settled, not realizing that where 
 one problem is settled two spring up in its 
 place. Problems furnish us means of 
 growth. When we have settled some, others 
 project us into larger fields of thought 
 where more difficulties await us. We do 
 not insist upon explanations of digestion 
 and assimilation before eating, upon under- 
 standing electricity before lighting the 
 house, or upon mastering the engine before 
 riding in the cars. We should follow the 
 same methods in religion as in the rest of 
 life. 
 
 Several definite religious problems are in- 
 volved in prayer, and it may be well to con- 
 sider them first. 
 
 I2 5] 
 
$be Essentials ot Cbrtstianits 
 
 i. Young men have sometimes said to the 
 writer, " I do not seem to get hold of any- 
 thing when I pray." 
 
 Possibly some make the same mistake 
 about prayer that others make about con- 
 version. Some form ideas of the conver- 
 sion experience beforehand by hearing the 
 experience of others, and then think that 
 they are not converted unless the other's ex- 
 perience is duplicated in their own. Some 
 likewise form ideas beforehand of the feel- 
 ings they ought to have in prayer, and then 
 think that prayer is meaningless unless they 
 have those feelings. 
 
 In conversion one must make full sur- 
 render to God and take whatever experi- 
 ences come. So also in prayer, one must 
 pour out one's desires and requests to God, 
 irrespective of the feelings one has in doing 
 so. Feelings vary according to physical, 
 mental, and environing conditions. Christ 
 teaches that prayer is based on faith; it 
 rests on confidence in God ; and his urgence 
 to prayer, and even to importunity in 
 prayer, would indicate that he has in mind 
 our rising and falling tides of feeling with 
 reference to it and seeks to make resort to 
 him independent of the flow of emotion. 
 
 [126] 
 
prater 
 
 2. " If God knows what we want before 
 we ask," some say, " why ask? " 
 
 We are ignorant of methods of knowing 
 beyond our own experiences. In human 
 experience, the nearest approach to prayer 
 is the asking of children. They ask parents 
 freely for what they want, and parents re- 
 spond according to their wisdom and love. 
 Our difficulty here is not one of life but of 
 logic. The parent's knowledge does not 
 preclude the child's asking. Life is not 
 lived by logic. We contrast God with men, 
 saying: " Man is finite, but God is infinite; 
 man is limited in knowledge, but God is 
 omniscient ; " and then we presume to es- 
 tablish life relations between ourselves and 
 God upon the logical basis of our own defi- 
 nitions. The method is absurd. Love de- 
 fies logic ; faith ignores logic ; even our ordi- 
 nary thinking processes, when checked up 
 by formal syllogisms, are found to be more 
 than half wrong. Life in a logical strait- 
 jacket would be a dwarfed and pigmy thing, 
 whereas it is intended to be free and grow- 
 ing, entering into the personal relations of 
 faith and love where logic is a stranger. 
 
 Man has been redefining God from the 
 early centuries of fetishism to the present 
 
 [ 127] 
 
Sbe Essentials of Cbnsttamtv 
 
 time. We are only gradually understand- 
 ing Christ It is, therefore, the veriest pre- 
 sumption so to define God as to exclude 
 prayer. The highest elements that we know 
 in God are those seen in Christ — love, so- 
 licitude, care, self-giving. Every one of 
 these is directly responsive to prayer, and is 
 seen to be so in Christ. He knew that peo- 
 ple wanted to be healed, but in his whole 
 ministry he relieved only two or three until 
 they asked for healing. He knew that peo- 
 ple wanted forgiveness, but he never for- 
 gave without an expression of faith. 
 
 Take all asking of children out of the 
 home, and the reciprocal relations of parents 
 and children would be destroyed; home 
 would be cold, mechanical, and unsym- 
 pathetic; children would remain undevel- 
 oped; the mutual understandings, common 
 purposes, unified motives, unrestrained love, 
 reciprocal helpfulness, and glad cooperation 
 of the family would be impossible. Our 
 natures are so constituted that intercom- 
 munication is a necessary method of growth. 
 This is true in home, school, community, 
 nation, and between nations. It is equally 
 true between ourselves and God. 
 
 We learn from psychology and sociology 
 
 [128] 
 
prater 
 
 that the mind itself is socially built, that 
 without the mental interrelations and inter- 
 actions of individuals the mind could -not 
 come to normal development. All are 
 familiar with the fact that Helen Keller's 
 mind did not develop beyond that of the 
 merest child until she was brought into com- 
 munication with the outside world and with 
 other people. If a babe were to be left 
 on an uninhabited island it could not de- 
 velop mentally into a normal person. Such 
 development comes to the babe by the in- 
 teraction of parents and child, the interrela- 
 tions of children with each other, and the 
 associations of people in all walks of life. 
 
 In like manner, and under the same laws, 
 our spiritual natures are developed by the 
 interrelations and interactions of the human 
 and divine. The higher and finer faculties 
 of the soul remain dormant and undevel- 
 oped until we enter consciously into rela- 
 tions with God. 
 
 It is a fact of common knowledge that 
 the rapid progress of modern society is due 
 very largely to improved methods of com- 
 munication. It is a fact of common knowl- 
 edge also that a non-praying Christian is 
 a non-growing Christian and a non-work- 
 
 i [ 129 ] 
 
Cbe ^Essentials of Gbrtsttantts 
 
 ing Christian, while Christians with warm 
 hearts and unflagging zeal in work for 
 others are men and women of prayer. There 
 is little accomplished of a spiritual nature, 
 either within ourselves or through our ac- 
 tivities, until we are in free, glad, and trust- 
 ful communication with God. 
 
 It must be concluded, then (i) that we 
 are not warranted, simply on the basis of 
 logic, in attributing to God methods of 
 knowing which lie wholly beyond our ex- 
 perience, and therefore wholly beyond our 
 knowledge; (2) that the nearest relations 
 to prayer that we know are found in the 
 home, between parents and children, and 
 without that which is practically prayer in 
 these relations there could be no proper de- 
 velopment either of individual or family; 
 and (3) that the best evidence of the rea- 
 sonableness of prayer is found in the spir- 
 itual vitality and power of men and women 
 who pray. Exceptions, of course, are to be 
 found, but those who are doing the spiritual 
 work of the world are those who pray. 
 
 3. Do we, by asking, change God's mind, 
 and get him to do what he had purposed 
 not to do ? 
 
 This question assumes that God has 
 
 [ 130] 
 
praset 
 
 figured out beforehand, .and decided upon, 
 everything from the beginning to the end 
 of time. For this assumption there is no 
 evidence whatever. All the analogies of life 
 contradict it. The father does not figure out 
 all the conduct of his child beforehand and 
 decide what he will do in view of the child's 
 acts. He lives responsively with his chil- 
 dren day by day, and his conduct toward 
 them is determined largely by their conduct. 
 Christ is constantly urging upon us this 
 human element in God, and insisting that 
 the heavenly Father excels the human father 
 in these reciprocal relations. " If ye then, 
 being evil," he says, " know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children, how much 
 more shall your Father who is in heaven 
 give good things to them that ask him " 
 (Matt. 7 : 9-11). If an unjust judge 
 avenge a widow of her adversary because 
 she persists in asking, and is therefore 
 troublesome, how much more, Christ in- 
 sists, will the heavenly Father — of course, 
 from higher motives — answer the prayers 
 of those who call upon him. (Luke 18 : 
 
 1-8.) 
 
 The highest elements of individuality 
 that we know are human elements. If we 
 
 [131] 
 
Gbe Essentials of GbrtsttanttB 
 
 define God at all it must be, not in terms 
 of logic, but by intensifying the highest and 
 best elements in man. These are what we 
 see in Christ — love, care, self-giving. If 
 we define the relations of God to men, it 
 must likewise be, not by logic, but by in- 
 tensifying and magnifying the highest and 
 best human relations — fellowship, respon- 
 siveness, helpfulness. It is precisely this 
 that Christ does when he points to the rela- 
 tions between parents and children and, 
 making them analogous to our relations 
 with God, says, How much more. 
 
 Even in the Old Testament it is specifi- 
 cally taught that God's actions* are contin- 
 gent on man's actions. If men sin, God will 
 punish ; but if men repent and turn from 
 their sins, God will withhold the punish- 
 ment. (Jer. 18 : 7-10.) 
 
 This contingency of God's action upon 
 man's action underlies the whole structure 
 of the New Testament. All rewards and 
 punishments are based upon it. Moreover, 
 it lies in the very constitution of man's mind, 
 and is the only open door to repentance and 
 forgiveness. 
 
 As matter of fact, children in the home 
 secure by asking what otherwise they would 
 
Prater 
 
 not secure. It is not because parents change 
 their minds. Their minds have never been 
 made up upon many things, but from the 
 very nature of the case their decisions re- 
 main contingent upon what children do. 
 Asking and receiving are simply the nor- 
 mal relations of parents and children. Elec- 
 tricity is all about us and available for our 
 use, but man's cooperation is necessary be- 
 fore God will use it in driving cars, light- 
 ing homes, or sending messages. Man does 
 not change God's mind when he harnesses 
 electricity and makes it do work that other- 
 wise it would not do. On the contrary, he 
 fulfils God's will, for God has made man 
 a coworker with himself. Likewise, prayer 
 does not change God's mind. It is the pro- 
 duction of spiritual dynamos, the laying of 
 spiritual wires, the making of spiritual con- 
 nections. It is man's part in cooperating 
 with God. It does in us, and gets done 
 through us, what else would be impossible. 
 Jesus Christ, as already stated, wrought 
 most of his miracles in answer to requests, 
 indeed, to pleading prayers. There is no 
 indication that he would have noticed the 
 ten lepers had they not cried out, " Jesus, 
 Master, have mercy on us" (Luke 17 : 
 
 [ 133 ] 
 
Sbe ^essentials of CbristlanltE 
 
 13). Christ would have passed straight 
 through Jericho, leaving the blind beggar 
 still blind and still begging, had he not 
 cried out for healing. (Mark 10 : 46-52.) 
 In no case was Christ's mind changed by 
 prayers for healing. He longed to heal 
 every one in need of healing. He simply 
 followed the normal methods for which our 
 natures are made, the method which God 
 evidently follows with us, and in which 
 prayer is a working factor. It is a method 
 which relates us to each other in the home 
 and in society, and which relates us to the 
 Father of spirits, a method which is neces- 
 sary for our spiritual development, and 
 without which we could not be normal spir- 
 itual persons. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the great- 
 est good in prayer is, not in what we get by 
 asking, but in conscious fellowship with the 
 divine Spirit which comes by asking and re- 
 ceiving; not in getting what we want from 
 God, but in conscious cooperation of life 
 and work with God. The greatest good in 
 friendship is, not what we get out of our 
 friends by asking, but in the growing proc- 
 esses of friendship-making which come 
 from giving and receiving and all the rela- 
 
 1 134 ] 
 
praget 
 
 tions incident thereto. The greatest good 
 in married life is not in what each gets from 
 the other by asking. Such are but surface 
 things, and usually material things, " which 
 perish with the using." The greatest good 
 lies in the gradual and increasing merging 
 of spirits which comes from the normal 
 processes of asking, giving, receiving, etc. 
 
 If now we repeat the question with which 
 we began, " Do we, by prayer, change God's 
 mind ? " surely it is evident how shallow 
 the question is, how irrelevant to the real 
 purposes of prayer, and how apart from 
 the normal processes of life. 
 
 Prayer is Power 
 
 The proper test of prayer is, not whether 
 we receive just what we ask for or not, but 
 the total effect of the attitude and process 
 of prayer upon our lives. The test of family 
 life is, not whether children by asking get 
 just what they want, but whether through 
 the interrelations of parents and children — 
 the asking of children, with requests some- 
 times granted and as often refused — there 
 is developed in children the best type of life. 
 As indicated above, the virile, hopeful, force- 
 
 [135] 
 
Cbe lEasentiate ot CbrtsttanttB 
 
 fill working Christian is a praying Christian. 
 To be persuaded that prayer gives spiritual 
 power, one need only contrast the spiritual 
 influence of those who pray with that of 
 those who do not pray. Prof. William 
 James, our greatest American psychologist, 
 says that prayer is power and actually does 
 spiritual work. This is not a matter of 
 theory or logic, but of actual observation in 
 the laboratory of life. 
 
 We should note carefully, however, the 
 difference between observation and experi- 
 ment. We may observe the power of 
 prayer, both in our life and in the lives of 
 others; but if we experiment with prayer, 
 and make tests to determine its power and 
 efficacy, we destroy the conditions under 
 which prayer does work. It is as though 
 we made a test of love to see if it would 
 refine character. Such test excludes the 
 natural working of love. One cannot make 
 a test of faith to see whether or not it is 
 powerful, for a test implies doubt, and 
 normal faith is not present. 
 
 Christ teaches that the prayer of faith 
 will " remove mountains." It is the condi- 
 tion of the joint working of God and man 
 in the spiritual realm ; it is the union of the 
 
 [136] 
 
prater 
 
 thought, desire, purpose, and endeavor of 
 the human and divine. 
 
 By endeavoring to explain prayer we 
 belittle it and make it a shallow thing. We 
 need to abandon all thoughts of explanation 
 and realize that it is possible for spirits to 
 unite in desire and endeavor, and by uniting 
 to reenforce each other. The heavenly 
 Father can unite his desire and endeavor 
 with those of his children and, by doing so, 
 achieve ends that otherwise could not be se- 
 cured. Prayer involves all the mysteries of 
 human and divine personalities, but it is a 
 means of fellowship and a source of power ; 
 it brings us into cooperation with God; it 
 does work. 
 
 Chrisfs Emphasis on Prayer 
 
 Christ prayed. This simple fact ought to 
 sweep away all our puerile reasonings about 
 prayer. Christ knew. He came from the 
 Father, lived in constant fellowship with 
 the Father, performed all his works in co- 
 operation with the Father, and said that 
 without the Father he could do nothing. 
 He is our example and Master. Not that 
 we would blindly follow example or Master, 
 
 [137] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Gbristtanlts 
 
 but Christ's example inspires us with con- 
 fidence in the vital significance of prayer. 
 We can safely trust and follow him. 
 
 While Christ lived in the constant atti- 
 tude of prayer, we have record of his pray- 
 ing on several crucial occasions: Before 
 choosing his disciples he spent all night in 
 prayer. (Luke 6 : 12.) Before raising 
 Lazarus he prayed, not a prayer of request, 
 but one of thankful fellowship and coop- 
 eration with the Father. (John 11 : 41, 
 42.) At the Last Supper he uttered what 
 is called " the prayer before the cross," a 
 prayer for his disciples, and for those who 
 should believe on him through their word. 
 (John 17.) In this prayer Christ expresses 
 a marvelous interrelation of spirits, really 
 an interpenetration of spirits : " That they 
 all may be one," he prays ; " even as thou, 
 Father, art in me and I in thee, that they 
 also may be in us. . . I in them, and thou in 
 me, that they may be perfected into one " 
 (John 17 : 21-23). This union of spirits 
 in purpose and work is the very soul of 
 prayer. Prayer leads to such union, both 
 with God and men. In the garden Christ 
 prayed that the cup of death on the cross 
 might pass from him ; but he instantly sub- 
 
 [138] 
 
ftraser 
 
 mitted himself to the Father's will in the 
 words, " Nevertheless, not my will, but 
 thine, be done." And, finally, on the cross 
 he prayed for those who crucified him, 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do." 
 
 Christ repeatedly urged his disciples to 
 pray. " Ask," he said, " and it shall be 
 given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; 
 knock, and it shall be opened unto you : 
 for every one that asketh receiveth ; and he 
 that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knock- 
 eth it shall be opened" (Matt. 7 : 7, 8). 
 
 The Lord's Prayer, as we have come to 
 call it, is the model prayer, and should be 
 carefully studied. (Matt. 6 : 9-13.) There 
 is not a syllable of self-seeking in it. In 
 the heart of the petition there is forgiveness 
 for all mankind — friends and enemies. In 
 the middle of the prayer is a simple request 
 for daily bread. All else implies the union 
 of human spirits with the Father of spirits, 
 and expresses supreme interest in the 
 Father's purpose and work — the hallowing 
 of the Father's name, the coming of the 
 Father's kingdom, the getting done of the 
 Father's will, the overcoming of tempta- 
 tions, and the conquering of sin. The 
 
 [139] 
 
TIbe Essentials of Gbdsttanitg 
 
 prayer is breathed through and through 
 with spiritual companionship with the 
 Father — not my Father, but " our" Father, 
 the Father of all, rich and poor, strong 
 and weak, learned and ignorant, slave 
 and free, black and white, employer and 
 employed, teacher and pupil. Not one is 
 shut out. " Forgive us our debts," for we 
 are all sinful. Here is expressed a mar- 
 velous human fellowship of confession and 
 forgiveness, as well as fellowship with the 
 compassionate Father who forgives. Into 
 such a fellowship no one can enter without 
 becoming purer, worthier, and more spirit- 
 ually powerful. 
 
 Practical Suggestions 
 
 I. Our prayers should not be an effort 
 to persuade God to do our way, but rather 
 an effort to find out God's way. To him we 
 should take all our wants, worries, and 
 fears, just as a child takes these to its 
 parents ; and then we should receive calmly 
 and thankfully what God is pleased to give. 
 To do this is simply to recognize our own 
 ignorance and limitations, and to put faith 
 in God's wisdom and love. He knows what 
 
 [140] 
 
prater 
 
 is best; we do not know. The older we 
 grow the simpler we become in our prayers 
 as in other things. The importance of pray- 
 ing to our heavenly Father in a childlike way 
 cannot be overemphasized. We should ask 
 for just what we want as children do. 
 Christ lays great emphasis on the childlike 
 spirit; and there is no sweeter human fel- 
 lowship than that in which we pour out our 
 inmost soul to the intimate friend whom we 
 can absolutely trust. A like relation of 
 fellowship, springing from intimate friend- 
 ship, should exist between us and our heav- 
 enly Father. 
 
 2. Prayer ought to be made a daily 
 habit, and cultivated as such. It must not 
 depend upon moods, " lest we forget " and 
 neglect. One often begins to pray in cold- 
 ness and ends in warmth of spirit, just as 
 one often meets a friend in indifferent mood 
 and goes away enthusiastic. Bringing our- 
 selves into the fellowship of prayer does ac- 
 tual work in us. It purines our thoughts 
 and desires ; it strengthens our resolution ; 
 it increases our courage. Just as a discour- 
 aged person feels better after a talk with a 
 strong, optimistic friend, because something 
 of the friend's buoyancy and power has 
 
 [141] 
 
Zbc Bssenttate of CbrietianitE 
 
 somehow become his, so, after a talk with 
 God, somehow some of the divine vision, de- 
 sire, and resolution has come into our 
 spirits. 
 
 3. One ought to pray any time, anywhere, 
 as immediate need requires. One of the 
 author's football friends said to him, after 
 returning from a hard-fought intercollegiate 
 game : " As our squad trotted out on to the 
 field, with the grand stand cheering us, I 
 just lifted up a prayer that God would help 
 me to play a hard, clean game ; and he did." 
 Such prayers keep one consciously in touch 
 with the Spirit of God, and bring to one 
 a constant divine companionship which 
 strengthens resolution, balks temptation, 
 and increases spiritual power. 
 
 4. There should be nothing in one's life 
 which one is not willing to take to God in 
 prayer. It may as well be concluded at once 
 that what one cannot pray about is wrong 
 for him. A very beautiful young woman, 
 with a fine contralto voice, a member of a 
 church choir, was offered flattering pay to 
 sing in the choir of a larger church. She 
 was greatly needed in her own church choir, 
 but was singing without pay. Although she 
 did not need the money, she asked her pas- 
 
 [ 142] 
 
{prater 
 
 tor what she ought to do. Her pastor, loath 
 to lose her, and yet not wanting to stand in 
 the way of her advancement, said, " Pray 
 about it, and do what you think God wants 
 you to do." 
 
 " Oh," she replied, " I know what I shall 
 have to do if I pray about it." 
 
 The incident is typical. We often try to 
 persuade ourselves of the rightness of 
 courses of conduct ; we seek to secure from 
 friends advice that will back us up in our 
 desires ; whereas, if we should honestly and 
 squarely take the matter to God in prayer, 
 resolved to do his will at whatever cost, 
 things would be settled, and settled rightly, 
 even before our prayers were uttered. 
 
 The story of Adam and Eve shows them 
 in the garden hiding from God after they 
 have disobeyed. We all do the same; and 
 it is a credit to our natures that we do so. 
 One is rather brazen when, without shrink- 
 ing, he can flaunt his sins in the face of 
 God. A friend of the writer's — a Christian 
 of noble spirit, but wont to lose control of 
 his temper — occasionally became angry at 
 his coal-miners, and swore at them. For 
 some time after these outbursts he was not 
 seen in prayer-meeting. It was a credit to 
 
 [143] 
 
3be Essentials ot CbvtsttanitB 
 
 him that he did not feel at home in prayer- 
 meeting until he was ready to confess his 
 wrong-doing. With our sin upon us we 
 always hide from God. 
 
 Healthy spiritual life is life in the open, 
 with everything freely confessed to God, 
 and with God gladly consulted about every- 
 thing. Without constant fellowship with 
 God the Christian life cannot be free, glad, 
 and growing. Like rain and sunshine to 
 the plant, so is unreserved fellowship with 
 God to the growing soul. 
 
 Sometimes, even when we are not con- 
 scious of anything wrong in our lives, in- 
 terest seems to die out of prayer. The 
 lethargy of spiritual idleness is upon us. 
 We have not " tackled " a big enough job 
 for God. Undertake to win your uncon- 
 verted chum, classmate, friend, or acquain- 
 tance to Christ, and you will be driven to 
 prayer because of the difficulty of the task. 
 No Christian has undertaken a big enough 
 task until he has undertaken a task that is 
 too big — for him alone. Undertake to clean 
 up your fraternity or college athletics, or to 
 set a higher standard of morals in your 
 school, in your company of soldiers, or in 
 your home community, and you will be 
 
 [ 144] 
 
prager 
 
 driven to your knees by the bigness and dif- 
 ficulty of the task, and you will ask kindred 
 spirits to pray with you. But one zvith God 
 is a majority, and nothing is too hard for 
 those who trust and obey him. 
 
 [145] 
 
tDHH 
 •flmmortaltt? 
 
IMMORTALITY 
 
 THE happier and busier we are today 
 the less we think of tomorrow. In the 
 early centuries of our era, when Christians 
 were persecuted by pagans, and disap- 
 pointed because Christ did not return as 
 they expected, much attention was given to 
 the next world. 
 
 Later generations of Christians, by mis- 
 interpreting Revelation, placed the New 
 Jerusalem in heaven instead of on earth, 
 and made it typical of a perfect heavenly 
 condition instead of a perfected earthly so- 
 ciety. Until recent times the cataclasmic 
 idea of the world's destiny dominated 
 human thought. For these and other rea- 
 sons the desire to be " saved in heaven " 
 was the moving purpose of the Christian 
 world for more than a thousand years. 
 
 In our day the purpose to be saved in 
 heaven is still present, and ought to be, but 
 our ideas of the relation of this world to 
 the next have been greatly modified. We 
 
 [ 149] 
 
Zbe Essentials of Cbri«tianttfi 
 
 have reinterpreted the Scriptures, and see 
 the New Jerusalem coming down instead of 
 going up. We have reread the teachings of 
 Christ and learned that he came, not only 
 to save a few in heaven, but to establish 
 a kingdom of God on earth. We have com- 
 pared the teachings of the Master with our 
 scientific knowledge and found that both 
 agree in emphasizing gradual processes. 
 Our insistence, therefore, is that Christian- 
 ity be immediately practical in building 
 God's kingdom, and this we find to coincide 
 with Christ's insistence on ministry. 
 
 As a result of these changes the hereafter 
 does not hold its former prominence in 
 Christian thought. We have come nearer to 
 Christ's balance between this world and the 
 next, and we have acquired more of his 
 faith in the heavenly Father's love, which 
 permits us to rest in the assurance that if 
 we live rightly and serve adequately here, 
 our lives hereafter will come into their own 
 as God has purposed. This changed em- 
 phasis makes many appear careless about 
 the hereafter, and some actually become in- 
 different to it. 
 
 Out of such conditions the agelong ques- 
 tion naturally and inevitably recurs, Is there 
 
 [150] 
 
fmmottalttB 
 
 a future life at all ? " If a man die, shall he 
 live again ? " 
 
 Immortality not Demonstrable 
 
 The temper of our young, scientific age 
 is to demand proof. We are, however, be- 
 ginning to outgrow this youthful absurdity, 
 since no future event can be scientifically 
 proved. Doctor Jefferson truly says : " You 
 cannot demonstrate that the sun will rise 
 tomorrow morning, nor can it be demon- 
 strated that you will reach your home at 
 the close of this service, nor can you prove 
 that your long-tried friend will be faithful 
 to you five years from now. We build all 
 our life on probabilities. We cannot demon- 
 strate anything beyond the reach of our 
 senses, or the powers of the mind. Death 
 passes beyond our reach." 
 
 The deepest and best things in life can 
 never be proved, nor the things of which we 
 are most certain. One cannot prove scien- 
 tifically that his wife or children love him. 
 Yet his whole nature craves their love, re- 
 sponds to it, rejoices in it, and finds satis- 
 faction and realization through it. No evi- 
 dence is so certain as this response of one's 
 
 [151] 
 
Gbe JEssentials of CbristtanttB 
 
 nature to some great and fundamental fact. 
 Tennyson says, " Nothing worth proving 
 can be proven, nor yet disproven." Demon- 
 stration is simply exhibiting what is experi- 
 enced. We believe that the sun will rise 
 tomorrow because we have experienced its 
 rising all our lives ; but to prove that it will 
 rise again is beyond us. We believe in the 
 law of gravitation because we have experi- 
 enced it in the past, but we cannot prove 
 that it will continue another hour. 
 
 When one seeks to prove to another he 
 simply endeavors to draw the matter within 
 that other's experience. . From the very na- 
 ture of the case immortality cannot be 
 demonstrated. Full proof must wait on ex- 
 perience. Assurance is what we seek. The 
 most certain things are not those formally 
 proved but those discerned by the inner 
 spirit. Man has a soul-sense which cannot 
 be clearly intellectualized. There are some 
 things, and immortality is one of them, so 
 necessary to purposeful existence that our 
 whole nature cries out for them. 
 
 Dr. W. N. Clarke puts human experience 
 in regard to immortality in a nutshell when 
 he says : " There are three stages in the 
 matter : the instinctive hope and conviction ; 
 
 [152] 
 
Immortality 
 
 reaction into uncertainty, whether from un- 
 spiritual living, from scientific thought, or 
 from struggling with the problems of des- 
 tiny; confidence regained through higher 
 spiritual experience, especially in Christ. 
 Many rest in the first stage, but many can- 
 not remain there ; many see no farther than 
 the second stage, but many cannot remain 
 there; many rest in the third stage, while 
 many cannot yet find it. In the end, noth- 
 ing but fulness of life will most richly cer- 
 tify endlessness of life." 
 
 Belief in Immortality Universal 
 
 So universal is belief in immortality that 
 it must be regarded as a spiritual instinct. 
 If there is reason and system in the uni- 
 verse, instincts are indicative of the world 
 without. Wings are not made where there 
 is no medium to fly in ; the body is not made 
 to be nourished with food where no food 
 is provided. Eyes are for light, ears for 
 sound, and love for objects of affection. 
 Spiritual instincts likewise indicate a world 
 and a life corresponding to them. The na- 
 ture of the soul itself is prophetic of exis- 
 tence in which it shall find fulness of life. 
 
 [153] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot Cbristianit^ 
 
 Belief in immortality is found as far back 
 as we can go in history, and few if any liv- 
 ing tribes are so low in savagery as not to 
 hold the belief in some form. The uni- 
 versal experience of death brings man face 
 to face with the problem as soon as he has 
 acquired power of abstract thought. The 
 conclusion has always been that body and 
 mind are different and separable, and that 
 mind is superior to body. 
 
 Conceptions of future life coincide with 
 the degree of civilization that conceives 
 them. The first were crude indeed ; the his- 
 toric forms have been many; but the idea 
 has persisted through all degrees of culture, 
 and has increased in worthiness as man has 
 risen in the scale of life. The course of his- 
 tory is strewn with the wrecks of human 
 error. Dreams have faded; superstitions 
 have died ; teachings have been superseded ; 
 philosophies have been forgotten; whole 
 systems of thought have been relegated to 
 the mental junk-heap; but the soul's con- 
 viction of immortality has cast off its old 
 forms for new ones ; it has persisted through 
 all degrees of civilization, all types of 
 thought, all human experiences; it has 
 grown with the growing centuries, linking 
 
 [154] 
 
flmmottaUtB 
 
 this world ever more closely with the next, 
 connecting God ever more fully with the 
 whole life, and making all life increasingly 
 one. 
 
 Objections to Immortality 
 
 Scientific materialists have sought to 
 make soul inseparable from brain, affirming 
 that the brain secretes thoughts as the liver 
 secretes bile. They have pointed to the 
 fact that the soul develops with the brain — 
 growing into consciousness as the brain 
 grows, showing youthful ideas and judg- 
 ments when the body is in adolescence, 
 reaching full mental vigor at the age of 
 physical maturity, and exhibiting waning 
 powers when the body grows feeble with 
 age. 
 
 That there is a connection between brain 
 and soul, none will dispute, but that such 
 connection is necessary to the soul's exis- 
 tence, by no means follows, and the evi- 
 dence is decidedly against it. 
 
 In the first place, we know the fact of 
 the connection of soul and body for a brief 
 period in this life, but very little about the 
 nature of that connection. Whence comes 
 
 [155] 
 
ttbe Essentials ot Cbcidtianit^ 
 
 the soul itself? Ancestors influence it, but 
 it is different from all ancestors. Whence 
 the genius or prophet? How comes the 
 man in the fulness of time, when history is 
 waxing to a crisis — a Lincoln, a Washing- 
 ton, a Paul, or the Christ ? With the single 
 exception of temporary dependence, we are 
 ignorant of the relation of spirit to flesh, 
 and do not know that the connection is a 
 necessary one. 
 
 Doctor Jefferson, like many others, makes 
 the brain the instrument of the mind. He 
 likens the brain to an organ on which the 
 musician plays. The organ is not the musi- 
 cian, and the connection between the two is 
 not necessary, except to produce music for 
 human ears. The organ does not produce 
 music, but transmits it. The music is in the 
 player. Likewise thought is of the soul, 
 and the brain transmits it and renders it 
 available for us in our present state. Just 
 as an injury to the organ impairs the music, 
 so an injury to the brain impairs thought; 
 but neither the musician nor the thinker is 
 thereby impaired. 
 
 The soul is conscious of being different 
 from and superior to the body. It exercises 
 the body, trains it, disciplines it, handles it, 
 
 [ 156 ] 
 
Immortality 
 
 molds it, compels it to undergo sacrifice and 
 punishment. It wrestles to overcome and 
 subdue the body, and is distinctly conscious 
 of victory when successful and of defeat 
 when unsuccessful. 
 
 The physiologists tells us that the sub- 
 stance of the body changes every few years, 
 including our brain substance; yet indi- 
 vidual consciousness persists through all 
 changes. It would be only a natural 
 sequence for the soul to disengage itself en- 
 tirely from the body in death, thus casting 
 off the earthly instrument which it has con- 
 stantly used and repeatedly renewed. The 
 whole life situation points to the connection 
 of soul and body in this world as tem- 
 porary, and for the purpose of developing 
 the spirit for a higher existence. When we 
 think of what the soul is — its thoughts, as- 
 pirations, resolutions, memories, sympathies, 
 loves, antipathies, strivings, and ideals — and 
 contrast it with what the body is, the sub- 
 jection of soul to body is seen to be absurd, 
 and that the soul should perish with the 
 body impossible. 
 
 A second objection to immortality is that 
 we cannot see the spirit depart at death. 
 Strange to say, this objection comes most 
 
 [157] 
 
Gbe Bssenttate ot dbttetianitE 
 
 frequently from those who have much to do 
 with death — physicians, nurses, undertak- 
 ers, and those who see much of death in all 
 its ghastliness on battlefields. 
 
 This objection is not one of modern 
 science, except when scientists are inclined 
 to materialism. It is an ancient objection 
 and has no scientific basis whatever. Jesus 
 said that the world could not receive the 
 Spirit of truth because it did not see him. 
 (John 14 : 17.) Not to believe in spiritual 
 existence because spirits are not seen with 
 physical eyes, indicates little reflection upon 
 the common facts of life. We are conscious 
 of self, but cannot see self; conscious of 
 each other, but cannot see each other's real 
 selves. Indeed, physical nature is filled with 
 mighty forces that we cannot see — electric- 
 ity, magnetism, gravity, vital force, and 
 scores of others. 
 
 Eyes are very crude material instruments, 
 as Jesus indicated when he said that men, 
 having eyes, see not. Even what our eyes 
 tell us of gross physical nature is often 
 wrong and must be corrected by reason. 
 Our eyes tell us that people grow smaller 
 as they recede from us, that streets and 
 railroads grow narrower in the distance, 
 
 [158] 
 
HmmortalttE 
 
 that a straight stick becomes crooked when 
 placed in water, that the sun moves around 
 the earth, that cities are lifted into the 
 clouds, that there is plenty of water just 
 yonder in the desert, and many other like 
 things. Physical eyes never were made to 
 see spirits. They were not even made to 
 see microbes or distant suns without aid. 
 And with all the aid we can get there are 
 yet many physical things that we cannot 
 see. The eyes are crude instruments to help 
 us over a few physical difficulties, to give us 
 a little pleasure, and to help us to necessary 
 training in a material world. To a spiritual 
 world they are no more related than are 
 tasting, smelling, or feeling. Jesus, refer- 
 ring to the perception of truth, said that 
 spiritual things were spiritually discerned. 
 Likewise the assurance of immortality must 
 come, not through physical eyes, but through 
 the sense of the soul. 
 
 Some object that none return from the 
 eternal world. This objection would seem 
 to arise out of unwarranted curiosity, while 
 also implying the demand, above referred 
 to, that we shall see spirits with physical 
 eyes. It fails to apprehend the real nature 
 of life as a whole. Does the butterfly re- 
 
 [159] 
 
Cbe Essential* ot Christianity 
 
 turn to its caterpillar state? Does seed re- 
 turn to blossom, and blossom to bud ? Does 
 the grown man return to his prenatal state, 
 or to childhood or youth ? Does civilization 
 return to savagery? The processes of life 
 are all forward. For aught we know the 
 spirits of the departed are all about us, 
 though we lack powers to discern them. 
 " No man hath seen God at any time," yet 
 " in him we live and move and have our 
 being." 
 
 Others have objected that we cannot con- 
 ceive of spirits apart from the body. This, 
 however, is no objection to immortality. 
 The human mind is not the measure of the 
 universe. There are multitudes of facts 
 which we are aware of but cannot construe 
 to thought. We become aware of electricity 
 in the lightning flash, in the shock from the 
 wire, or in the lighted house. But apart 
 from these manifestations to our physical 
 sense we cannot construe electricity to 
 thought, and we have no positive knowl- 
 edge whatever as to the nature of its sub- 
 stance, or even as to whether or not it is 
 substance. After being shown through an 
 electric plant filled with all kinds of ma- 
 chinery for using electricity, the author in- 
 
 [160] 
 
ITmmortalttg 
 
 quired, " What is electricity?" " Nobody 
 knows," was the prompt reply. The atmos- 
 phere is rilled with it; our bodies hold it; 
 we control it and make it work for us, yet 
 we cannot apprehend it or construe it to 
 thought. 
 
 The same is true of all physical forces. 
 We know them only in a few crude mani- 
 festations wherein they break through upon 
 our physical senses. How much more is it 
 impossible for us to construe to thought dis- 
 embodied spirits. We have known them in 
 the crude manifestations of the physical 
 body, and have experienced their mighty 
 power. But to know them apart from the 
 body is as yet beyond us. 
 
 Professor James aptly suggests that the 
 human nervous system is like a great win- 
 dow of colored glass which lets in only dim 
 light from the spiritual world, so that when 
 the spirit is out of its temporary fleshly 
 temple it shall see more clearly, instead of 
 being like a candle snuffed out when the 
 body perishes. Such a conception one may 
 easily and reasonably hold without demand- 
 ing that our limited minds comprehend the 
 methods of spiritual existence. Can we 
 think of our soldier boys giving themselves 
 
 l [161] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrlstianitB 
 
 in battle for life's highest spiritual values 
 only to perish in the act of thus giving 
 themselves, and to have those values perish 
 in a brief space? The fact of immortality, 
 then, we can and do construe to thought; 
 the method of existence of disembodied 
 spirits, we cannot know, need not know, 
 and have no means of knowing. 
 
 Scientific Corroboration of Immortality 
 
 While there can be no scientific demon- 
 stration of immortality, numerous scientific 
 principles and analogies lead toward it. 
 
 1. The utter difference between body and 
 spirit, and the transcendence of spirit over 
 body, indicate their different nature and 
 destiny. The fact that the body perishes 
 can be no reason for believing that the spirit 
 perishes. Man is master of his body. He 
 feeds it or starves it, develops it or neglects 
 it, conquers it or becomes slave to it, 
 chastens it or pampers it ; but in every case 
 the soul knows itself as superior, and as 
 using the body as dwelling or an instru- 
 ment. 
 
 2. Not only so, but man is master of 
 the material world in which he lives. He 
 
 [162I 
 
UmmottalltB 
 
 discovers its laws and uses its forces. He 
 makes gravity and electricity do his bidding. 
 He changes his environment and makes it 
 suit his purposes. Land, ocean, and air he 
 makes his servants. To think of such a 
 masterful creature ceasing to be when the 
 bodily instrument is worn out, is to identify 
 instrument with user in an irrational way, 
 and is inconsistent with man's place, power, 
 and prerogative in a universe where he 
 stands at the head. 
 
 3. Science knows nothing of the cessation 
 of force. One of its well-established laws 
 is that force may change form — as electric- 
 ity into heat, heat into light, etc. — but can- 
 not cease to be. Apart from God, what 
 force is greater than the human spirit, 
 which has placed the universe under its 
 feet, discovered its laws, harnessed its 
 forces, and made it obedient in service ? 
 
 4. Science knows the world of animals 
 and men as urged on in upward progress 
 by instincts. It is a long story, but a fact 
 recognized and taught by science, that the 
 instincts for food, sex, association, self-de- 
 fense, and others, have worked together, 
 all urging the animal life process upward 
 toward a distant and destined goal. 
 
 ti6 3 ] 
 
Cbe Essentials of Cbrlsttantts 
 
 5. Man is still governed largely by in- 
 stincts. Reason is his baby faculty, the 
 latest born of them all. When one gives 
 attention to the matter, one is amazed to 
 learn how little our lives are governed by 
 reason and how much by instinctive feel- 
 ings, appetites, desires, and passions. Our 
 hopes and fears are not dictated by reason, 
 but are often quite contrary to it. The 
 forces which have urged the race up to its 
 present state have been largely instinctive. 
 
 Man's highest instinct is his spiritual in- 
 stinct for immortality. Like love, desire 
 for companionship, faith, and conscience, it 
 has been an instinct of mighty power, urg- 
 ing upward toward a goal, which reason in 
 its infancy cannot make clear. 
 
 6. For the spirit to leave the body and 
 assume separate spiritual existence, is to 
 reproduce in a higher realm and different 
 way what is constantly occurring in na- 
 ture. All living creatures pass through sev- 
 eral stages, casting off the old bodies as 
 they pass. On this point Christ cites the 
 death of the seed as a precondition of new 
 grain. The egg is left behind for the 
 larger life. The world of the human em- 
 bryo is so different from that into which 
 
 [164] 
 
Immortality 
 
 the babe is born that the translation from 
 this life to the next, while sufficiently close 
 in scientific analogy, would seem to be but 
 rising another step in consistent onward 
 progress. 
 
 7. Everywhere in the scientific world im- 
 perfection prophesies perfection; and the 
 imperfection of man's powers in this life 
 prophesy another life where they shall real- 
 ize the fulness of their possibilities. How 
 immature are our reasoning powers ! How 
 little our knowledge ! How weak our faith ! 
 How deficient our insight ! How dull our 
 feelings ! How weak our wills ! Is this the 
 fulness of human realization? Is man to 
 be no more than the mere beginnings of a 
 competent personality, floundering in the 
 universe of which he is the highest product? 
 Are his feelings forever to lead him astray 
 and betray him to his weaknesses? Is he 
 forever to fail of the highest to which he 
 aspires? Is he to be forever immature, 
 and never to acquire other than a wavering 
 course in life, to be forever without ade- 
 quate goal and worthy destiny? Science 
 can produce no evidence against immortal- 
 ity, and many facts in nature point directly 
 to it. 
 
 [165] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Christianity 
 
 Personal Immortality 
 
 Some, while admitting eternal life, deny 
 continuance of personal conscious existence. 
 The conscious individual, some hold, is ab- 
 sorbed back again into God. 
 
 Of such process of absorption we know 
 absolutely nothing. One can influence an- 
 other, but cannot hand himself over, or be 
 taken over, to be absorbed by another. To 
 make such statements is to use words with- 
 out meaning. 
 
 On the contrary, our experience is that 
 the growing soul becomes ever more differ- 
 entiated from other souls, and ever more 
 firmly established in its separateness. The 
 processes of life are away from absorption, 
 and point to perpetuity of individual exis- 
 tence. 
 
 Some would make us eternal only in that 
 our influence continues forever. Doctor 
 Fosdick calls attention to the fact that scien- 
 tists have demonstrated that there are seven 
 ways in which this planet may be destroyed, 
 and that in time it must be destroyed in one 
 of these seven ways. It is, of course, need- 
 less to talk about the continuance of per- 
 sonal influence after this planet and the race 
 
 [166] 
 
UmmortalttB 
 
 of men upon it have been destroyed. This 
 pronouncement of science renders the eter- 
 nal influence theory absurd. Without per- 
 sonal immortality the universe is laboring 
 for naught; it is bringing souls to a high 
 state, snuffing them out, and destroying all 
 traces of their influence. Man, as the 
 crowning product of the universe, must find 
 consummation and goal in permanent per- 
 sonal values. It is unthinkable that the 
 highest achievement of the whole evolu- 
 tionary process should be destroyed in the 
 making. The forces of evolution push to- 
 ward the psychic, and increasingly build 
 personality. Their adequate achievement 
 can be nothing less than personal immor- 
 tality. 
 
 To personality both here and hereafter, 
 Christ gave supreme value, and his valua- 
 tion has been one of the dominant forces in 
 social development from his day to the 
 present. It has given impetus to democ- 
 racy, inspiration to social service, and war- 
 rant to our convictions' that every individual 
 has a right to worthful life. 
 
 Well does Martineau say : "I do not 
 know that there is anything in nature (un- 
 less, indeed, it be the reputed blotting out 
 
 [i6 7 ] 
 
Zbe Essentials of CbrtstianltE 
 
 of suns in the stellar heavens) which can 
 be compared in wastefulness with the ex- 
 tinction of great minds: their gathered re- 
 sources, their matured skill, their luminous 
 insight, their unfailing tact, are not like in- 
 stincts that can be handed down; they are 
 absolutely personal and inalienable; grand 
 conditions of future power, unavailable for 
 the race, and perfect for an ulterior growth 
 of the individual. If that growth is not to 
 be, the most brilliant genius bursts and 
 vanishes as a firework in the night." 
 
 The forces of the universe do not thus 
 end in negation. The long processes of 
 evolution do not reach their climax in de- 
 stroying the personality which they have 
 labored to produce. John Fiske says that 
 to deny the everlasting spiritual element in 
 man is to rob the whole process of evolu- 
 tion of its meaning, and that no one has, 
 or is likely to allege, sufficient reason for 
 such denial. 
 
 Immortality the Only Adequate Sanction 
 for Morals 
 
 Let any who doubt immortality consider 
 the alternative. It is not sufficient simply 
 
 [ 168 
 
Immortality 
 
 to object. One should replace objection 
 with constructive philosophy. When any- 
 thing can neither be proved nor disproved 
 one has a choice of beliefs, and is under 
 obligation to choose the best. One should 
 choose the optimistic, forward-looking, and 
 uplifting attitude, that attitude which fits 
 the soul at its best, which gives rationality, 
 worthfulness, and purpose to the world, 
 which makes God wise and just, and which 
 gathers up and preserves for one all that 
 is most precious in life. 
 
 If one choose to believe that he dies like 
 a beast he will live like a beast. Belief in 
 immortality is the mightiest moral leverage 
 in civilization, involving belief in laws of 
 God that must be obeyed, and a difference 
 between right and wrong that yields dif- 
 ferent deserts and brings to different ends. 
 
 The question is not that of doing right 
 for reward, or of refraining from wrong- 
 through fear of punishment, but of the 
 recognition of a difference between right 
 and wrong that is fundamental and eter- 
 nal because right and wrong build charac- 
 ters fundamentally and eternally different. 
 Without belief in such distinction, and that 
 such distinction inheres in God, and must 
 
 [169] 
 
Gbe JEgsenttate of Cbcistiantts 
 
 be recognized in life, we could not build 
 moral character at all. Let it be remem- 
 bered that belief in eternal life has been 
 central to the whole process of human de- 
 velopment. If that faith should suddenly 
 disappear, doubtless the momentum of 
 ideas, feelings, habits, and customs, would 
 carry us on for a time on much the same 
 level that we have reached. And yet even 
 this is doubtful. Dr. Harry Pratt Judson, 
 after returning from a mission to the Near 
 East, said : " I saw in Batum and parts of 
 Transcaucasia many refugees from Bolshe- 
 vism. I don't know whether we know what 
 Bolshevism means. Some people may think 
 it is not so bad. But I saw many who had 
 suffered from it. It meant robbery, it meant 
 murder, it meant treachery, it meant they 
 always murdered priests in the church when 
 they found them. It meant one time that 
 they took an archbishop and burnt him over 
 a slow fire and called on him to get his God 
 to work a miracle for him, if he could. It 
 meant that they have organized the schools 
 on the basis of atheism and have organized 
 regular courses in atheism, so the children 
 are taught there is no God. It means the 
 destruction of all our standards of morals." 
 
 [170] 
 
■ffmmortalttE 
 
 So soon do men deteriorate when they 
 relinquish belief in immortality ! What 
 would be our state of morals today if no 
 one had ever believed in life after death, but 
 instead, all had always believed that death 
 ended conscious life. In considering so mo- 
 mentous a matter the thoughtful person 
 will not be a mere objector or disbeliever. 
 He will push his objections to their logical 
 conclusion, and interpret their effects upon 
 the lives of men in case all men believed, 
 and always had believed, as he does. 
 
 Man's moral nature requires immortality 
 for its proper development. Just as the boy 
 cannot live an adequate boy's life except in 
 expectation of oncoming manhood, no more 
 can man live an adequate moral life apart 
 from expectation of life after death. Apart 
 from anticipated manhood the boy lives 
 simply in the desires and joys of youth 
 without taking upon himself those disci- 
 plines apart from which adequate manhood 
 is impossible. So also, without anticipation 
 of immortality man lives simply in the de- 
 sires and satisfactions of this life, without 
 taking upon himself those disciplines apart 
 from which moral manhood is impossible — 
 the fear and love of God, obedience to the 
 
 [171] 
 
Cbe Essentials of CbrtstianttE 
 
 will of God, loyalty to the right, and self- 
 sacrifice for principle. In a word, no part 
 of life can be lived adequately unless life in 
 its totality comes, if not within view, at 
 least within the grasp of faith, so that every 
 part of life is lived in the consciousness of 
 the whole of life — its worthfulness, its pos- 
 sibilities, its eternal nature, and its relation 
 to God. Human nature is made to a scale 
 so large that this world can neither contain 
 nor satisfy it. It demands immortality to 
 make it consistent and give it warrant. 
 
 Apart from- eternal life Emmanuel Kant 
 found no justification for our obedience to 
 conscience. The foundation of morals is 
 accountability, the conviction that we sow 
 what we reap, and that we live in a universe 
 that is just. In this world we often see the 
 wicked flourishing " like the green bay tree " ; 
 we see men " sowing the wind " without 
 " reaping the whirlwind " ; we see right on 
 the scaffold and wrong on the throne. Jus- 
 tice is out of balance. It goes without say- 
 ing that righteous men cannot be built in 
 a world constituted in seeming unrighteous- 
 ness. Reference is here, not only to the 
 injustice which men perpetrate, but to the 
 ruthlessness of natural forces — the earth- 
 
 [ 172] 
 
HmmortalitB 
 
 quake, the flood, the famine, the pestilence, 
 the cyclone, the lightning stroke, and many 
 other such calamities. This world, viewed 
 apart from an eternal world, is unjust, 
 sometimes fickle, often cruel, and is not an 
 adequate basis of, or discipline for, moral 
 character. 
 
 If this life is the whole of man's life, 
 a proper and adequate philosophy would be, 
 " Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we 
 die " ; let us get the most and give the least, 
 for there is no one to call us to account, no 
 final sifting of life's values, no building into 
 character of higher elements to be preserved 
 eternally, no assurance that this life is dis- 
 ciplinary for life beyond life. Such a world 
 could not possibly build moral men. 
 
 On the other hand, man's nature is in 
 harmony with the other view of the world — 
 the educative and disciplinary view. In sin- 
 ning there is a sense of loss of the higher 
 life; in sacrificing for righteousness there 
 is a sense of gain, achievement, and victory. 
 Christ's saying, " He that saveth his life 
 shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for 
 my sake shall find it," is not a dictum of 
 philosophy, but an expression of the soul's 
 deepest experience. This consciousness of 
 
 [173] 
 
Gbe J&£6ential6 ot Cbristianm: 
 
 the value of self -achievement through right- 
 eousness finds its warrant in eternal life. 
 
 Some object that immortality is made a 
 reward for righteousness, whereas right- 
 eousness should be sought for its own sake. 
 " Righteousness for its own sake " is words 
 without meaning. Righteousness is never 
 sought for its own sake, even by those of 
 highest aspirations, to say nothing of the 
 rank and file, but always because it is re- 
 lated to one's own life, and to the lives of 
 others, and is worthful in those relations. 
 We do not look upon life next week as a 
 reward for decent living this week. We 
 view life this week and next as one, and 
 we are decent this week because we expect 
 to live with ourselves and others next week. 
 The anticipated life of tomorrow always 
 gives the major significance to the life of 
 today, not as reward — and yet it is re- 
 ward — because life is one, continuous, and 
 because the worth of life tomorrow is al- 
 ways determined by the character of life 
 today. According as I do right or wrong 
 today I expect to look myself in the face or 
 be ashamed of myself tomorrow. And ac- 
 cording as I live worthily here I expect life 
 to be worthful hereafter. It is life here- 
 
 174 
 
1Tmmortaltt£ 
 
 after that gives moral significance to life 
 here. 
 
 " Immortality," says Doctor Denney, " is 
 a stupendous idea when we really take it in ; 
 and to grasp it as not merely an idea but 
 a reality implies spiritual strength on a cor- 
 responding scale." How shall they believe 
 in immortality who have not the quality of 
 life that is immortal? Spiritual things are 
 spiritually discerned. The artist is the 
 only one who fully appreciates the value of 
 art and is strongly moved by it. Those 
 who do not discern and appreciate spiritual 
 values are not much inclined toward im- 
 mortality; and inclination and desire are 
 three-fourths of persuasion. " The man 
 who has nothing in life he would die for 
 has nothing in life worth living for; and 
 the life that is not worth living will never 
 believe in its own immortality." 
 
 Immortality and high moral character are 
 twin parts of the same conception of life. 
 They are necessary each to the other; they 
 have come down through history together; 
 and the nobler our conceptions of immor- 
 tality become the intenser grow our aspira- 
 tions for excellence of character. Doctor 
 Snowden truly says : " The immortality of 
 
 [175] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Gbrtsttanlts 
 
 the human soul has ever been one of the 
 great hopes of the world, extending almost 
 as wide and deep as the consciousness of 
 the race, engaging the thought of the pro- 
 foundest thinkers, poets, and prophets, pro- 
 ducing some of our noblest literature, fur- 
 nishing the main ground and goal of 
 religion, building strong and fine character, 
 and comforting the human heart in its deep- 
 est and darkest sorrows ; and it has not 
 withered under the light of modern knowl- 
 edge, but is still a living problem of religion, 
 science, philosophy, and popular interest." 
 
 Death and Immortality Enrich Life 
 
 While there is not space here to discuss 
 the matter, it could easily be shown that 
 death, coupled with faith in immortality, 
 brings into life values of highest significance 
 for individual character and human relation- 
 ships. One has said : " The seriousness of 
 death is the consecration of life, the strength 
 of love, the spur to action. . . Should we 
 have religion and philosophy if there were 
 no death? Should we have a sense of seri- 
 ousness and urgency of life if there were 
 no death ? Should we have an effective ad- 
 
 [176] 
 
■ffmmortaUtg 
 
 monition to give life its highest worth, to 
 improve the time, to fill the \vorld with good 
 deeds, if there were no death? " 
 
 Let one picture to himself two worlds : 
 one filled with men who deny the Christian 
 conception of God, and believe that death 
 ends all ; the other, a world where men 
 gather in their places of worship and sing 
 " Praise God, from whom all blessings 
 flow," and pray " Create in me a clean 
 heart, O God, and renew a right spirit with- 
 in me," a world in which men plan and 
 work to build society on the principles of 
 Jesus Christ, confident that when life and 
 work here are ended, there awaits them the 
 " Well done, good and faithful servant." 
 One is picturing two very different worlds : 
 one filled with inspiration and hope, and 
 with a sense of life's worthfulness ; the 
 other, a world of gloom, doubt, fear, and 
 pessimism. Not only has faith in immor- 
 tality filled life with life's richest and best, 
 but the assurance of immortality itself is 
 life's best, the master achievement of per- 
 sonality, which gives to life its supreme 
 value and bears eloquent testimony to the 
 worth of the individual as a son of God. 
 So closely is immortality connected with 
 
 M [ 177 ] 
 
3be Essentials of Gbrietianitg 
 
 life's highest and best that, as Doctor Clarke 
 says, " All low, worldly, and unspiritual 
 life tends toward doubt of it, and all high 
 living tends to belief in it." 
 
 The Lowly Origin of Immortality 
 
 Some would discredit immortality by 
 pointing to the lowly origin of the idea, to 
 lack of agreement in conceptions of im- 
 mortality, and to the fact that present con- 
 ceptions have been molded largely by human 
 experience. 
 
 These facts, on the contrary, greatly in- 
 crease the certainty of immortality. What 
 great truth of philosophy, religion, science, 
 or government has not had a similar his- 
 tory ? Every conception of the human mind 
 was crude at its birth. Each has passed 
 through many changes, been purged of 
 many errors, and brought to worthier forms 
 by experience. This is our necessary 
 method of acquiring knowledge; and the 
 more fundamental the problem, the longer 
 and the more tedious are the processes of 
 arriving at the truth. Consider our concep- 
 tion of God, our understanding of Christ, 
 our deepening sense of human brotherhood, 
 
 [178] 
 
"ffmmottalitB 
 
 our ideals of individual and social charac- 
 ter, and our valuation of truth and right- 
 eousness — each was crude at first ; each has 
 had its battles with error; all have become 
 more worthy and adequate as the race pro- 
 gressed. 
 
 The Inadequacy of this World 
 
 When one considers the human race in 
 this world either from the standpoint of 
 self-realization or of social adequacy, men 
 are seen to be much like children at play. 
 What immaturity we reveal ! What folly 
 we perpetrate! How we injure both our- 
 selves and others ! What delusions and 
 misconceptions we entertain! How short- 
 sighted we are ! From what unworthy mo- 
 tives we act! How the satisfactions we 
 seek escape us ! How much we labor to no 
 purpose! How we fail of right develop- 
 ment and high attainment ! 
 
 Such facts stamp this world as life's kin- 
 dergarten, with but beginnings of individual 
 development, and only first attempts at so- 
 cial adjustments. The love that makes in- 
 dividual joy full, that unifies human desires 
 and aspirations, and binds us all together 
 
 [179] 
 
Zbc Essentials ot CbrtstfamtE 
 
 by binding us all to God, is in bud. Its 
 bloom and maturity are in the eternal world. 
 In this world fulness of pleasure does not 
 satisfy; wealth does not satisfy; nothing 
 simply of this world satisfies. The most 
 learned are most keenly aware of their 
 ignorance ; the most righteous are the most 
 self-accusing; those whom we hold dearest 
 are snatched away by death. When we 
 have taken from this world the most that it 
 holds for us, all is yet in process, nothing is 
 finished. We stand facing a future where 
 knowledge will be completed, righteousness 
 attained, and love made perfect. 
 
 Man's undying passion for life is the voice 
 of immortality in his soul. We tenaciously 
 cling to life in this world notwithstanding 
 its work and worry ; and we equally cling to 
 the hope of life after death in the face of all 
 its mysteries and uncertainties. Toward 
 the close of his life, notwithstanding his 
 materialistic views, Thomas Huxley con- 
 fessed his shrinking from annihilation, and 
 said that he had sooner be in hell than 
 annihilated. How could a man, conscious 
 of noble talents, high attainments, and soul- 
 power and worth, feel otherwise? Finely 
 did Victor Hugo voice the passion of noble 
 
 [180] 
 
Immortality 
 
 souls when at seventy he wrote : " Winter is 
 on my head, and eternal spring is in my 
 heart. The nearer I approach the end, the 
 plainer I hear around me the immortal sym- 
 phonies of the worlds which invite me." 
 
 When the body is worn out and feeble 
 with sufferings, we long to enter that life 
 where youth shall be renewed again in 
 higher form ; when friends and loved ones 
 have gone before us, and this world is 
 grown lonely, we long to rejoin them, that 
 love may be kindled anew and burn with 
 purer flame; when we have grown wise 
 with so much learning that the mysteries of 
 life have multiplied and deepened on every 
 hand, we yearn for that life where the veil 
 shall no longer be on our faces and we shall 
 see clearly and know fully. Here we be- 
 lieve, trust, love, and serve, but in and 
 through all is the larger hope. All life 
 processes take us by the shoulders and face 
 us toward the future, where life at length 
 shall be complete. 
 
 God's Love Guarantees Immortality 
 
 If there were no God of love we could be- 
 lieve that there is no immortality. But a 
 
 [181] 
 
Ube Basenttals of Gbdatianttg 
 
 God who would create such a world as ours 
 apart from immortality, who would develop 
 life by such a long, tedious process, and 
 who would make man to reach only imper- 
 fection while filled with instincts and aspira- 
 tions for perfection, would be a cruel or an 
 impotent God, uncaring or unable to com- 
 plete his creation and bring it to worthy 
 issue. 
 
 " It is an intolerable thought," wrote 
 Darwin, " that man and all other sentient 
 beings are doomed to complete annihilation 
 after such long-continued slow process." 
 
 Although we live in a world of great in- 
 justice and manifest wrong, we rightly re- 
 gard God as a loving Father, for Jesus 
 teaches that there is a world hereafter 
 where the eternal balances are struck. In 
 order to believe in God's goodness we must 
 view this world as disciplinary and educa- 
 tive. 
 
 With great force Jesus taught that God's 
 love was the guaranty of immortality : God 
 so loved the world that he sent Christ to 
 bring men to eternal life. (John 3 : 16.) 
 None should be able to pluck out of the 
 Father's hands those who are joined to 
 Christ in love. (John 10 : 28, 29.) 
 
 r 182 1 
 
irmmortalttE 
 
 Paul pours out his soul in eloquent 
 thanksgiving for assurance of eternal union 
 with the loving God when he exclaims, 
 " For I am persuaded that neither death, 
 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord " (Rom. 8 : 38, 39). 
 
 This experience of God's love is the- com- 
 mon experience of Christians, an experience 
 without which repentance and forgiveness 
 have no meaning. The common experience 
 of alienation from God through sin, and 
 of turning from sin to God, is an experience 
 of God's love as real, and as vivid to con- 
 sciousness, as is love of husband or wife, 
 parent or child. God's love and immor- 
 tality coincide so inevitably each with the 
 other as to make them phases of the same 
 great truth — that man is God's child, 
 created in his image, and cannot be sepa- 
 rated from him while love abides. 
 
 God's love and Christ's love bind us in 
 an eternal circle of love with family and 
 friends. "Because I live," says Christ, " ye 
 shall live also." Now, though the mother 
 
 [183] 
 
Gbe JEssentiate of CbttstianitE 
 
 lays her child in the grave, the stone is rolled 
 away; there is a resurrection morning. 
 Though children consign their parents to 
 the dust, they " are not there," they " are 
 risen." Those who have loved and feared 
 and hoped and prayed for them have not 
 ceased to be. To make this circle of love 
 only a temporary and passing thing is to 
 mock the very soul of life. God's love and 
 Christ's love are unfailing pledges of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 Christ's Attitude to Immortality 
 
 For two thousand years the determining 
 forces of social evolution have been those 
 which emanated from the life, work, and 
 teachings of Jesus Christ. The quality of 
 his life is recognized as that for which all 
 should strive; his teachings constitute a 
 philosophy of life which is a continuous 
 revelation, and toward which society is 
 steadily moving; his work has won men 
 from animalism, filled them with a new 
 dynamic, and set them to work making a 
 better world. These forces are as cosmic 
 in the world of men as are light, heat, and 
 electricity in the physical world. They have 
 
 [ 184 ] 
 
IfmmortalttE 
 
 determined the direction of civilization's 
 progress, and filled it with power for the 
 unfolding of higher life. 
 
 It is of first importance, then, in any dis- 
 cussion of immortality, to note what Jesus 
 Christ says about it. What he says is of 
 greater significance than what all others 
 say. 
 
 Every utterance of Christ's on immor- 
 tality is characterized by absolute assurance 
 of its reality and supreme worth, as the fol- 
 lowing passages amply indicate : " I came 
 out from the Father, and am come into the 
 world: again, I leave the world, and go 
 to the Father" (John 16:28). "We 
 speak that which we know, and bear witness 
 of that which we have seen " (John 3 : 11). 
 "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8 : 
 58). " If I go and prepare a place for you, 
 I come again, and will receive you unto 
 myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
 also" (John 14 : 3). These words, and 
 many others which Christ uses, point di- 
 rectly to personal immortality and spiritual 
 fellowship. Christ draws picture after pic- 
 ture of heaven : " And I say unto you," he 
 says, " That many shall come from the east 
 and west, and shall sit down with Abra- 
 
 [185] 
 
Gbe Bsaentiate ot Cbriettanit^ 
 
 ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
 of heaven" (Matt. 8 : n). He shows us 
 Lazarus comforted in Abraham's bosom 
 and Dives tormented in hell, with a great 
 gulf fixed between the two. (Luke 16 : 19- 
 31.) He pictures the righteous on his right 
 hand and the wicked on his left, with him- 
 self as judge; and from his lips we hear the 
 words, " Come, ye blessed " and " Depart 
 from me, ye cursed" (Matt. 25 : 34, 41). 
 Again and again, with sentences as authori- 
 tative as a king's proclamation, he teaches 
 life eternal, and the separation of the right- 
 eous from the wicked : " These (the wicked) 
 shall go away into everlasting punishment ; 
 but the righteous into life eternal " ( Matt. 
 25 : 46) . " For God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth on him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life " (John 3 : 
 16). "He that believeth on the Son hath 
 eternal life ; but he that obeyeth not the Son 
 shall not see life; but the wrath of God 
 abideth on him" (John 3 : 36). 
 
 When Christ does not speak of life here- 
 after in pictures, his favorite contrast is 
 between life and death : " I am the resur- 
 rection and the life: he that believeth on 
 
 [186] 
 
flmmortalttg 
 
 me, though he die, yet shall he live, and 
 whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall 
 never die" (John n : 25, 26). Crowning 
 all other assurances of immortality, are 
 Christ's clear and positive teachings. He 
 knew. 
 
 Christ's Resurrection and Immortality 
 
 It is not the fashion today to cite Christ's 
 resurrection in proof of immortality, since 
 the resurrection itself must be proved. 
 This, however, is too great a yielding to 
 shallow modern skepticism. Paul said : " If 
 Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; ye 
 are yet in your sins" (1 Cor. 15 : 17). 
 He makes Christ the first-fruits of the resur- 
 rection, and his resurrection the guaranty 
 of ours. (1 Cor. 15 : 23.) To the same 
 purpose Christ said, " Because I live, ye 
 shall live also" (John 14 : 19). 
 
 This challenge, laid down to men's faith 
 by Christ and Paul, should not be ignored 
 in our thought of immortality. All argu- 
 ments are in favor of Christ's resurrection, 
 and there is not a single argument that will 
 stand against it. 
 
 " The resurrection is contrary to experi- 
 
 [187] 
 
Gbe Eesenttate ot Gbristianitg 
 
 cnce," men say. So also in its time were 
 riding by steam-power, lighting by electric- 
 ity, flying in heavier-than-air machines, 
 governments of, by, and for the people, and 
 international leagues for the common good. 
 So is every marked advance in world prog- 
 ress. Indeed, progress means the appear- 
 ances of things contrary to experience. 
 
 Christ's resurrection is proved by ample 
 testimony, by the sudden change in his dis- 
 couraged disciples, by the spread of the 
 gospel on the basis of the resurrection, and 
 by the fact that the dynamic in Christianity 
 for two thousand years is belief that Christ 
 rose from the dead and is a living Christ. 
 Without this faith the church today would 
 lose its power; Christianity would lose its 
 passion; and missionary endeavor would 
 cease. Faith in Christ's resurrection is the 
 very soul of Christianity. Those who with 
 Paul believe that Christ was proved to be 
 the Son of God by the resurrection from 
 the dead, have done the spiritual work of 
 the Christian centuries. 
 
 Christ's resurrection is in perfect har- 
 mony with his claims, his teachings, his 
 power to renew men, his determination of 
 the world's progress, and his present posi- 
 
 f t881 
 
UmmottalttB 
 
 tion as the goal toward which the human 
 race is moving. 
 
 Men are moved by facts, live, luminous 
 facts ; and Christ alive from the dead is the 
 most precious and powerful fact in the 
 modern world to direct the social evolu- 
 tionary process forward and upward. It is 
 also, and by the same token, the best guar- 
 anty of immortality. Whoever comes into 
 vital relations with Christ becomes aware in 
 himself of a life so filled with noble aspira- 
 tion and endeavor that it is worthy to live 
 forever, and will need to live forever to 
 realize its possibilities. 
 
 The Nature of Eternal Life 
 
 Christ never argued the question of con- 
 scious personal life hereafter. He took it 
 for granted. As already stated, his favorite 
 contrast on the subject was between life 
 and death. This contrast is perhaps the 
 most informing for us today, since we think 
 in vital rather than pictorial terms. Some 
 men live simply for the physical, and give 
 no place in their lives to the spiritual, thus 
 quenching their better impulses and leaving 
 their moral faculties undeveloped. What 
 
 [1891 
 
Gbe ^essentials of Cbrlsttanits 
 
 satisfactions could there be for such persons 
 in a spiritual world without physical bodies ? 
 Physical appetites and passions, though 
 psychically conditioned, must have flesh and 
 blood through which to express themselves 
 and find enjoyment. There can be no 
 heaven for one whose spiritual faculties are 
 atrophied. 
 
 On the inside wall of the Campo Santo 
 in Pisa, Italy, is a fresco of hell dating from 
 about the fourteenth century. Around a 
 table loaded with good things to eat, stand 
 a group of pot-bellied men. They are raven- 
 ously hungry, but they cannot eat, for they 
 are in the spirit world and without physical 
 bodies. On earth they were gluttons, and 
 their greatest enjoyment, the satisfying of 
 the physical appetite. Now appetite re- 
 mains, but satisfaction is impossible. They 
 are therefore in torment, for they have 
 failed to develop spiritual faculties suited 
 to life in a spiritual world. 
 
 The fresco is certainly suggestive. In 
 this world we witness in some the over- 
 development of physical appetites and pas- 
 sions, and the withering of spiritual facul- 
 ties, until men are " dead in trespasses and 
 in sins." In others we see spiritual facul- 
 
 [ 190] 
 
•ffmmortalitg 
 
 ties gradually unfolding and making life 
 beautiful and strong. Thus the laws of the 
 soul corroborate Christ' s teachings, that 
 man's eternal state is primarily one of spir- 
 itual life or death. 
 
 From the above it is evident that eternal 
 punishment holds no element of vindictive- 
 ness, but results inevitably from the laws of 
 the soul. 
 
 Christ describes the life of the righteous 
 hereafter in terms of this world's best, for 
 there is no other language in which to con- 
 vey it. He pictures feasts for the hungry, 
 mansions for the poor, thrones for op- 
 pressed subjects, judgment-seats for the 
 wronged, and life with Christ for those who 
 love him. Such terms, of course, are the 
 language of earthly experiences and desires. 
 They give assurances in terms that we can 
 understand of abounding life and blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 Our civilization is saturated with faith in 
 and desire for eternal life. Religion is 
 rooted in it; art glorifies it; literature 
 radiates it; the graves of our dead bloom 
 with hope of it; and the morals of the 
 noblest of the race are aligned to its de- 
 mands. No conviction that men hold con- 
 
 191 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstianitB 
 
 stitutes such a mighty force in the process 
 of evolution as that of the immortality of 
 the human soul. It gives worth to every 
 individual, renders to righteousness its true 
 and full significance, makes it worth while 
 to battle for the highest character, lays upon 
 every man the responsibility of helping 
 others to worthful lives, fills with adequate 
 significance the life and work of Christ, and 
 binds us all to God and to each other in one 
 spiritual family. It gives us a God that 
 we can truly reverence and sincerely love; 
 and it places us in a rational universe where 
 human experiences are susceptible of worthy 
 and purposeful interpretation. 
 
 [ 192 
 
D1I1M 
 
 Gbe Cburcb 
 
THE CHURCH 
 
 BY the church is meant a company of 
 Christians organized for the purpose 
 of propagating the gospel. The propaga- 
 tion, of course, may take different directions 
 and have different phases of emphasis. 
 Some groups of Christians, organized as 
 churches, emphasize evangelism, others edu- 
 cation, others social work, and some still 
 other phases of religious life and activity. 
 The first Christian churches were com- 
 posed of the disciples of our Lord and those 
 who were added as the gospel was preached. 
 The mother church was at Jerusalem, and 
 for a time all smaller churches looked to 
 her for more or less guidance. To the 
 Jerusalem church Peter reported after se- 
 curing converts in the household of Corne- 
 lius. (Acts ii.) To it Paul gave account 
 of his work, bringing problems from 
 churches which he had founded, and to it 
 he carried a collection for the help of poor 
 members. (Acts 15; 1 Cor. 16 : 1-8.) Paul 
 
 [195] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot GbristianttB 
 
 established churches at Antioch in Pisidia, 
 Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Ephesus, Philippi, 
 Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, and possibly 
 other places. 
 
 As the centuries swept on, Rome, the 
 dominant city of the Mediterranean world, 
 became the chief church center, with pope, 
 bishops, priests, and other functionaries, 
 and with centralized control over practically 
 all lesser churches. Under this regime the 
 church became known as the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church. This same type of organiza- 
 tion has continued through all succeeding 
 centuries 'and continues today for all Catho- 
 lics. 
 
 From the first tendencies toward central- 
 ization, however, the Christians of the 
 Eastern Mediterranean challenged the au- 
 thority of Rome, and a second center of 
 power was finally established at Constan- 
 tinople, resulting at length in the separa- 
 tion of eastern and western Catholics, the 
 eastern branch being called Greek Catholics, 
 and the western, Roman Catholics. 
 
 From the sixteenth century onward the 
 western Christian world has been charac- 
 terized by numerous reformations and re- 
 vivals, resulting in the separation of the 
 
 [i 9 6] 
 
£be Cbutcb 
 
 Lutheran and Episcopal Churches from the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and subsequently 
 in the separation, for various reasons, of 
 other denominations, principally from the 
 Lutheran and Episcopal Churches. 
 
 The Church a Groiving Institution 
 
 From the above brief historic sketch it is 
 evident that through all the centuries the 
 church has grown. Everything alive 
 grows — governments, schools, industries, 
 churches. 
 
 Christ repeatedly likened the kingdom of 
 God to growing things — the mustard-seed; 
 the wheat and tares growing together; the 
 sower sowing on all kinds of soil, and reap- 
 ing harvests accordingly; the earth bring- 
 ing forth fruit of itself, first the blade, then 
 the ear, then the full corn in the ear; the 
 tree in need of fertilizing; and the vine 
 in need of pruning. 
 
 Churches, like all institutions organized 
 and run by human beings, are imperfect. 
 Even the disciples of our Lord were not 
 all saints. Judas betrayed Christ; Peter 
 denied him; Thomas doubted; and James 
 and John were unduly ambitious. Imper- 
 
 [197] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbrtstlanitB 
 
 fection is involved in the process of growth, 
 whether of individual character, under- 
 standing of Christ, or social organization. 
 
 There are those who stand aloof from the 
 church, insisting that it should get its doc- 
 trines and forms of worship fixed. As well 
 expect a growing boy to stay fixed physi- 
 cally, mentally, and morally ; as well expect 
 society in general to stay fixed in thought, 
 ethical ideas, and moral achievements. 
 
 Within every organization that grows 
 there are elements of instability and con- 
 flict; and if it be a human organization, 
 there are also elements of unrest and dis- 
 content. Churches are no exception. Only 
 dead things stay fixed. 
 
 If the church is what Christ expected 
 it to be, it will never cease growing, but 
 will improve its doctrines, better its forms 
 of worship, refine its ethical standards, and 
 enlarge its service. Growth is the inevitable 
 result of ampler understanding of Christ's 
 spirit and mission. 
 
 There are those who, before joining a 
 church, would have all " inconsistent Chris- 
 tians " cast out. It is, of course, to be re- 
 gretted that any church-member does not 
 live in all respects an exemplary Christian 
 
 [i 9 8] 
 
Gbe Cburcb 
 
 life; but on this point a number of things 
 need to be said. 
 
 i. Men who complain of inconsistent 
 members in the church, often fellowship 
 these same inconsistent persons in their 
 lodges, and do so under solemn oaths of 
 brotherhood. 
 
 2. One's view-point should not be that of 
 fear of personal contamination, but rather 
 of desire for helpful relationships. Christ 
 never considered how he could keep him- 
 self clean, but rather how he could do 
 others most good, set them a right example, 
 exhibit before them a humble, helpful spirit, 
 win them from their sins, and inspire them 
 to heroic righteousness. 
 
 3. Those who see the imperfections of the 
 church are those who can best help the 
 church to higher ground and enable it to 
 render more effective service ; and they can 
 help more by working constructively within 
 than by criticizing destructively from with- 
 out. 
 
 4. Between old and young there is al- 
 ways more or less of conflict, and ought to 
 be. Age is conservative while youth is pro- 
 gressive. In school work young professors 
 urge the adoption of new methods while 
 
 [ 199] 
 
Zbc Essentials of CbristianttE 
 
 aged ones cling to old ways. On the farm 
 the children want an automobile while father 
 insists that horse and buggy are good 
 enough. In business the young partner 
 overhauls the plant and installs new machin- 
 ery. So also in the church, the young never 
 think quite like the aged. They differ some- 
 what doctrinally; they also see new needs 
 and insist on new methods. 
 
 5. Young life is the hope of the church. 
 Without it the church would soon perish, 
 not only because the old die, but because 
 without the young the church is incapable 
 of adapting itself to present conditions and 
 becoming effective in service. 
 
 6. Every young Christian ought to join 
 the church — some church — and give it the 
 benefit of his vigorous young life in a con- 
 structive way. This duty was never more 
 imperative than now owing to our rapidly 
 changing times. Religious institutions are 
 the most conservative, and it is well that 
 they are so ; but our times are moving with 
 such extraordinary rapidity, and readjust- 
 ments must be made so speedily, that young 
 life in the church is indispensable. Christ's 
 call today is preeminently to the young, for 
 the hurrying century is in their hands. 
 
 [ 200 ] 
 
Gbe Cburcb 
 
 All Life Organise^ 
 
 Like all other life, Christian life organ- 
 izes. There is a difference between a plant 
 and soil-elements, sunshine, and moisture; 
 between a crowd and a nation; between a 
 mob and an army — the difference of organ- 
 isation. Plant life organizes soil, sunshine, 
 and moisture into plant structure; national 
 life organizes millions of immigrants into 
 orderly society; military life organizes a 
 mob into an army. 
 
 Our whole social and economic struc- 
 ture is a system of interrelated organiza- 
 tions — families, schools, fraternities, clubs, 
 churches, Christian associations. Even 
 boys' gangs have leaders and crude forms 
 of organization. A really live Christian 
 will either join a religious organization or 
 form one. Failure to do one or the other is 
 a practical denial of one's religion, for all 
 life organizes. One with a purpose joins 
 others of like purpose. One who takes 
 Christ as Master joins others to do Christ's 
 work. One with Christ's spirit seeks those 
 of kindred spirit. 
 
 For twenty centuries the church has done 
 a great work, and it never faced more lm- 
 
 [201] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot Cbristianitie 
 
 perative tasks than it does today. Why 
 should any one stay out of the church, 
 criticize, and shirk responsibility while 
 others do the work? 
 
 Church Union 
 
 Some complain of so many churches and 
 insist that there should be but one. For 
 this reason they hold aloof from all 
 churches. This attitude comes fundamen- 
 tally from failure to understand the nature 
 of historic organizations. 
 
 Since differences between many churches 
 are slight and relatively unimportant, it is 
 apparent that they could not originate as 
 separate denominations today. Each indi- 
 vidual church is the perpetuation of a de- 
 nomination organized hundreds of years 
 ago, and for the best of reasons. Lutherans 
 separated from Catholics in protest against 
 ritualistic salvation and corruption in the 
 mother Church. Congregationalists sepa- 
 rated from Episcopalians in protest against 
 the dominance of episcopacy and to as- 
 sert the principles of democratic govern- 
 ment. Methodism was a protest against 
 the dearth of spirituality in the State 
 
 [202] 
 
Gbe Cbutcb 
 
 Church. Baptists insisted upon regenerate 
 church-membership when the common be- 
 lief was that to be on the church-roll in- 
 sured salvation. 
 
 Likewise each denomination has taken its 
 several way historically because at the time 
 of its beginning there was needed some ef- 
 fective protest against a wrong principle or 
 insistence upon some neglected truth. What 
 such separations, with consequent diversity 
 of emphasis, insistence upon religious 
 liberty, and embodiment of many-sided 
 truth, has meant to the world will become 
 evident to thoughtful men if they seek an- 
 swers to the questions : How different is 
 the world today from what it would have 
 been if the Catholic Church had been able 
 to compel everybody within its fold? And 
 what is the difference between Catholic and 
 Protestant countries — to name typical in- 
 stances, between the United States and 
 South America or Mexico, between Spain 
 and England? 
 
 In many instances the truth championed 
 at first by one denomination has come to be 
 championed by all denominations. For ex- 
 ample, while historically Baptists have 
 championed the separation of Church and 
 
 [203] 
 
Hbe Easenttale of GbrtettanitE 
 
 State, all Protestant bodies now insist upon 
 such separation. 
 
 But if truths formerly championed by 
 single denominations have now become the 
 belief and heritage of all, why continue sepa- 
 rate denominations? Thoughtful, earnest 
 people are asking this question, and it de- 
 serves a fair and full answer. There is 
 room here for only a few considerations. 
 
 I. Doubtless there are too many denom- 
 inations; doubtless also a few denomina- 
 tions are better than only one. Politics are 
 best when there are two or three parties ; 
 brotherhood is fostered most when there 
 are many societies working in sympathy — 
 Masons, Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen, 
 and others; science and philosophy bring 
 most light to the world when several schools 
 are at work on different theories ; art of all 
 kinds — painting, sculpture, music, litera- 
 ture^ — is wonderfully helped by new schools 
 of art appearing to criticize some weakness 
 or emphasize something neglected in the 
 old schools. Christian truth is fuller orbed 
 today, and Christians are busier than other- 
 wise they would be, because churches differ 
 in convictions of truth and methods of 
 work. Moreover, different churches exer- 
 
 [204] 
 
Cbe Cburcb 
 
 cise a selective process which is beneficial 
 in securing membership. Some like formal 
 worship, others do not; some like evan- 
 gelistic services, others abhor them; some 
 are conservative, others aggressive; some 
 are dogmatic, others liberal ; some em- 
 phasize doctrine, others social service. To 
 crowd these divergent tastes, propensities, 
 and convictions into one church and expect 
 harmony and cooperation, is to ignore the 
 human element and to overlook the fact that 
 the principles of association in the church 
 are the same as those in all other social 
 groups. 
 
 2. Denominations are drawing closer to- 
 gether, and already some have organically 
 united, for example, the Free Baptists with 
 the Baptists. This drawing together is seen 
 in the cooperation of local churches for civic 
 betterment, in the dividing of missionary 
 territory to prevent overlapping, in growing 
 refusal to overchurch small towns, and in 
 the thoroughgoing cooperation of all Prot- 
 estant churches in the work of the Young 
 Men's and Young Women's Christian As- 
 sociations. 
 
 3. Those who are overeager for church 
 union are apt to consider only their local 
 
 [205] 
 
Cbe Essentials of Cbristianlts 
 
 situations. They wonder what holds 
 churches apart, seemingly unaware of the 
 mighty sweep and power of world-wide 
 denominations, of which local churches are 
 but the smallest units of organization. 
 
 One might almost say that denominations 
 are in the way of the union of local churches. 
 That is, not infrequently the churches of a 
 town could and would unite but for the fact 
 that each of them is a constituent part of a 
 great denomination. Shall a church cast off 
 the mother who bore her? Shall it forget 
 its historic traditions and its heroic 
 martyrs? Shall it renounce the fellowship 
 in which it has been nurtured? Shall it 
 bury its institutional love and pride? Shall 
 it turn away from missionary enterprises at 
 home and abroad, dedicated by the sacrifices 
 often of fathers and mothers, relatives and 
 friends, and always by the consecration of 
 heroes of the cross whom through all the 
 years it has been taught to admire and ap- 
 plaud? If local churches could be pulled 
 up by the roots, each out of its denomina- 
 tion, union would be greatly simplified. 
 But it is just this rootage which gives 
 strength to denominations as well as to local 
 churches. But for this rootage thousands 
 
 [206] 
 
Gbe Cbutcb 
 
 of small churches would cease to exist where 
 they are needed, and other thousands never 
 would be planted where the need is greatest. 
 But for this rootage also there could not be 
 great denominations carrying on home mis- 
 sion work and foreign mission work, plant- 
 ing educational institutions and establishing 
 publication houses, sending out evangelists 
 and cooperating in Christian Association 
 work, meanwhile collaborating together in 
 nation-wide and world-wide movements for 
 economic amelioration, social uplift, moral 
 improvement, and spiritual renewal. De- 
 nominational organizations reach every 
 large city, have centers in every State in 
 the Union, and literally encircle the globe. 
 They have billions invested in institutions 
 and equipment and scores of thousands of 
 men trained and at work. 
 
 What we have thus tried to bring into 
 view has required hundreds of years to pro- 
 duce. Every denomination has acquired 
 historic momentum that cannot be suddenly 
 stopped without great disaster and loss. 
 
 As indicated above, many changes have 
 already taken place which are uniting Chris- 
 tians of all denominations in common belief, 
 purpose, and endeavor. It would be a 
 
 ]2o;] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Cbttstianits 
 
 calamity for churches to unite any sooner 
 than they can come together in fundamental 
 convictions, for people without convictions 
 are without power. Without conviction 
 Christians will never win the world for 
 Christ. 
 
 The hope of churches coming closer to- 
 gether lies in their cooperation in work. 
 Those who plan, work, and sacrifice in 
 mutual tasks draw together in sympathy, 
 understanding, and point of view. There is 
 abundant opportunity for churches in all of 
 our towns to cooperate in Christian enter- 
 prises for the good of the community. 
 What are our churches doing for the boys 
 and girls of the town? What are they do- 
 ing to furnish wholesome and uplifting 
 amusements? What are they doing to 
 provide for clean and safe social life, 
 not simply for their own young people, 
 but in a civic way for those who do not 
 come to church? What are they doing to 
 organize and direct the play of the town? 
 What are they doing in night-schools for 
 those who cannot attend school by day? 
 Should the churches not unite in providing 
 and manning a community house, or some- 
 thing akin to it? Should they not unite in 
 
 [208] 
 
Gbe Gburcb 
 
 an effort to Christianize their community in 
 an outgoing way far beyond anything yet 
 attempted, Christianize it, not simply by 
 preaching and Sunday School, but through 
 all the channels by which young people are 
 reached, interested, and appealed to. Mod- 
 ern community service is many-sided. It is 
 too great a task for any one church. From 
 its very nature it is a task for the coopera- 
 tion of all churches. 
 
 One is simply waiting for death who 
 stands aside, complaining of too many 
 churches and waiting for them to unite. 
 One should join some church and work 
 from within to get all the churches busy 
 on some big, needed task. Cooperation in 
 work will unite the hearts of the churches ; 
 and when in a few score years or a few cen- 
 turies they are found organically united, the 
 organization will doubtless be different 
 from any organization of the present day. 
 
 Students and the Church 
 
 It is common for a college student not 
 to identify himself with the church in his 
 home town because it is weak, and com- 
 posed possibly of only a few aged people. 
 
 o [ 209 ] 
 
Gbe £00enttals of Gbristtantts 
 
 He plans that when he goes to college he 
 will join one of the large churches where 
 many young people are members. 
 
 In his home town the younger boys look 
 up to him as a sort of hero because he goes 
 away to school. They notice that he " has 
 no use for " the little church at home, and 
 they follow the lead of their hero, who, sad 
 to say, is failing in the very place where 
 his influence is greatest. 
 
 The one who thus neglects the church 
 is lacking, not only in vision, but also in 
 courage. He lacks vision because he fails 
 to see that those, whoever they may be, 
 who support the churches of a community, 
 are the ones who care for the moral and 
 spiritual life of the community, who are 
 striving to make conditions safe for the 
 young, who believe that the life and teach- 
 ings of Christ are of vital significance for 
 the world, and who are striving to give 
 both the community and the world the bene- 
 fit of them. He is lacking in courage be- 
 cause he is unwilling to stand with the few 
 in his home community who have the spir- 
 itual and moral interests of the community 
 at heart, because he is unwilling to put his 
 Christian life into the church where it 
 
 [210] 
 
Gbe Cburcb 
 
 would be a power to pull others toward 
 Christ, because he refuses to give the church 
 the benefit of his talents, his youthful vigor, 
 his education, and his broadened experience, 
 and because he is satisfied to bury his life 
 in a large church where the need is not so 
 great. 
 
 I am not here writing of technical church- 
 membership — of where one's church letter 
 is held, or where one's name is recorded — 
 but of the open and glad identification of 
 one's life with the life of the church that 
 is striving to do God's work in a community 
 according to its best wisdom and power. 
 Above all things, one should avoid being 
 a snob in religion. 
 
 Some hesitate to identify themselves with 
 the church because they cannot consent to 
 all its doctrines. Strange, indeed, must be 
 one's doctrines if, with so many denomina- 
 tions, one cannot find a church which he can 
 conscientiously join and support. 
 
 It is the author's conviction that no Chris- 
 tian church has ever appeared in history 
 that did not have some message that the 
 world needed. We are accustomed to say 
 that we have too many churches, and it 
 would seem so; but the important thing 
 
 [211] 
 
Gbe JEseentials ot Gbriattanits 
 
 is, not the reduction of the number of 
 churches, but the possession of full-orbed 
 truth. Most of our churches have become 
 so tolerant of differing ideas within the 
 church that no one has either to stay out 
 of some existing church, or to form a new 
 one, in order to be free to give ample ex- 
 pression to his convictions. I doubt if a 
 single evangelical church could be found to- 
 day all of whose members see eye to eye 
 in doctrine. I doubt, indeed, if one could 
 bring together twenty-five ministers of any 
 evangelical denomination, all of whom think 
 alike with reference either to doctrine or 
 practice. There is plenty of room in our 
 churches for differing ideas. Doctrines di- 
 vide; tasks unite. Today our churches are 
 emphasizing tasks ; they are confronted with 
 tremendous ones; and they need the active 
 cooperation of every person who owns 
 Christ as Master. 
 
 Tasks of the Church 
 
 One of the chief tasks of the church to- 
 day is that of readjustment to changing 
 social conditions. The modern world has 
 seen manufacturing leave the home for the 
 
 [212] 
 
tibe Cburcb 
 
 factory. Great cities have sprung up like 
 magic. Young people, leaving the farms 
 and small towns, seek work in factories and 
 offices. Rapid transportation and com- 
 munication have massed population in great 
 centers and divided them into classes. The 
 few have become wealthy, while the many 
 only earn a living. Multitudes, under the 
 stress of overspeed during six days' work, 
 claim the Sabbath for recreation. As our 
 people have grown rich and wages have in- 
 creased many have become lovers of plea- 
 sure and fall into self-indulgence instead 
 of bearing the yoke of responsibility. 
 
 The church, consequently, must get out 
 of the ruts of centuries and adjust itself to 
 the changed structure of society or lose its 
 power over men. This task of readjust- 
 ment is the task of the young. It places 
 every young Christian under special obliga- 
 tions to be loyal to the church and busy in 
 it ; and the clearest call is to the most gifted 
 and the best trained. No others can ac- 
 complish the task. Not to see the great 
 need, is to be blind to present conditions. 
 To stand apart from the church and criticize, 
 is to be untrue to Christ as his cause pre- 
 sents itself to our day. 
 
 [213] 
 
Sbe Essentials of Cbrtettanft^ 
 
 While it is well and necessary to recog- 
 nize defects, one in thinking of the church 
 should place the emphasis on appreciation 
 of excellencies. When others look at us, 
 we want them to see, not only the scar on 
 our face, but the light in our eyes. We 
 should see in the church unity of spirit 
 amidst diversified individual interests; the 
 persistent purpose and endeavor to win 
 men from sin and to make society better; 
 the amount and excellence of self-sacrific- 
 ing service — in teaching children, in preach- 
 ing the gospel, in ministering to sick and 
 needy, in caring for orphans, in establish- 
 ing hospitals, in maintaining social centers, 
 in mission work in all lands, in furnishing 
 young men and women for Christian Asso- 
 ciations the world around ; in its great work 
 through members who are philanthropists, 
 reformers, temperance workers, and uplift- 
 ers of society in a multitude of ways. Such 
 facts should press home upon every thought- 
 ful person the question of whether he will 
 continue to stand aloof from the church, 
 criticizing and doing nothing to help, or 
 " get into the game," take his rightful re- 
 sponsibility, and do with his strength the 
 utmost of his share. 
 
 [214] 
 
Gbe Cbutcb 
 
 Our Obligations to the Church 
 
 Every Christian young man has personal 
 obligations to the church which are even 
 more imperative than those already named : 
 
 1. The church is his spiritual mother. 
 He was converted by the work of the 
 church — by the love, prayers, and efforts to 
 win him to Christ, which the church made 
 possible. His home was environed and per- 
 vaded by church influences. His closest 
 friends have had the good fortune of like 
 church influences, and these friends have 
 been powerful in his life. What he is in 
 moral character and ethical ideas, he owes 
 to the church. 
 
 2. One's spiritual life must be developed 
 by the church. No phase of life develops 
 in isolation. Home love is developed by 
 home life, class spirit by class activity, 
 companionableness by companionships, lit- 
 erary taste by literary friends, books, and 
 societies. So also the church, with its mul- 
 titude of activities, must be one's means 
 of spiritual culture. 
 
 3. Every one is needed in the work of 
 the church. In all big undertakings men 
 work, not alone, but in cooperation. The 
 
 [215] 
 
Gbe Essentials of CbristfanttE 
 
 Sunday School is carried on, not by one, 
 but by a group. The church is supported, 
 both financially and in all its assemblies, 
 not by one, but by many. The influence of 
 a church in a community goes forth from a 
 group of persons who are united in sym- 
 pathy, purpose, and endeavor. Social ser- 
 vice is a task too large for one ; it requires 
 united effort. Missions, both at home and 
 abroad, is work needing an organization. 
 In a sympathetic organization which under- 
 takes great tasks there is not only room for, 
 but great need of, ability of every kind, 
 and in such an organization talents of every 
 sort most readily find place and employ- 
 ment. 
 
 Team-work is needed in the church just 
 as in the football game. The game is not 
 won by standing on the side-lines and tell- 
 ing how it ought to be done, but by getting 
 into the game, adjusting one's movements 
 to other players, and all pushing together 
 to put the ball across the goal. Even those 
 on the side-lines must cheer if their team is 
 to win. Christ's work is a team-work 
 proposition. The first thing the Master did 
 was to gather about him twelve disciples. 
 Let no one think to live his Christian life 
 
 [216] 
 
Hbe Cburcb 
 
 and do his Christian work apart from or- 
 ganization. 
 
 4. It may be safely said that no one to- 
 day can make his greatest spiritual con- 
 tribution to the world except through the 
 church, or in closest sympathy and coopera- 
 tion with it. One cannot do his best work 
 except in sympathetic surroundings. Most 
 of us have had experience of unsympathetic 
 teachers who would not be pleased no mat- 
 ter what we did. Good work under such 
 teachers is impossible. In an unsympathetic 
 company thoughts will not flow, humor is 
 dried up, fellowship is stagnant. An un- 
 sympathetic audience destroys a speaker's 
 eloquence and stifles his resources. So also, 
 only among those sympathetic with spirit- 
 ual ideals and cooperating in spiritual proj- 
 ects is any Christian put at his best; only 
 thus is the most developed within him and 
 the most got out of him for the help of his 
 fellows. Even Christ wrought few miracles, 
 and taught only in dark sayings, where 
 sympathy was lacking. On several occa- 
 sions it is said of him, in explanation of 
 the people's failure to receive his best: 
 " And he did not many mighty works there, 
 because of their unbelief" (Matt. 13 : 58). 
 
 [217] 
 
Cbe JBasenttate of CbttetlanltB 
 
 77*e Record of the Church 
 
 No other institution in history has such 
 a glorious record as the church. The hero- 
 ism of Christ, a young man, sending forth 
 a dozen young men to establish the rule of 
 God in the hearts of men, is an act of faith 
 and heroism to captivate the imagination 
 and command the admiration of every 
 young man of spirit. 
 
 In three hundred years the whole Medi- 
 terranean world was made nominally Chris- 
 tian. No difficulties, no oppositions, no per- 
 secutions daunted the lovers of Christ. 
 They were burned at the stake, thrown to 
 lions, gored by angered bulls, cast into 
 loathsome dungeons, thrust through with 
 the sword; but they forgave their perse- 
 cutors and counted it an honor to die for 
 the Saviour whom they loved; while on 
 every hand those who witnessed their un- 
 hesitating response to the challenge of love, 
 relinquished their idols and accepted Christ. 
 
 We look back in amazement at the heroic 
 folly, as we think, of the hermits and 
 Crusaders. Their folly, of course, was in- 
 cident to the ideas of their day, but their 
 heroism in answering the call of God as 
 
 [218] 
 
XLbc Cbutcb 
 
 they saw it will ever command the admira- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 We no longer believe that society is in- 
 herently evil, and that it is necessary to go 
 apart from it in order to be saved, as did 
 the hermits ; but the self-sacrificing heroism 
 that denied self-indulgence, crucified natu- 
 ral desires, gave up friends and loved ones, 
 and relinquished all worldly ambitions, 
 stands out in glowing contrast with the 
 easy-going indulgence of many in our time. 
 A like heroism and sacrifice put into the 
 tasks which constitute the challenge of our 
 day to Christian men, instantly commands 
 the admiration of every thoughtful person. 
 
 We no longer believe that it is important 
 to rescue the " holy sepulcher " from " the 
 infidel," as did the Crusaders; but when 
 business and property are relinquished, as 
 they were then, in order that one's self 
 and one's money may be devoted to the 
 cause of Christ as his cause presents itself 
 in our day, the admiration of every one who 
 seeks to uplift society is forthcoming. 
 
 Beyond all other institutions, the church 
 has been the dispenser of charity. Its 
 methods, of course, have not always been 
 wise, but this fact is of wholly secondary 
 
 [219] 
 
ttbe Essentials of Gbtistianttg 
 
 consequence. The heart to give, the dis- 
 position to uplift, the recognition of obliga- 
 tion, and the endeavor to promote brother- 
 hood are the great things. Wise methods 
 of administration are battered out of ex- 
 perience. Our day is one of organized 
 charity. In this work the church takes a 
 leading part, both by giving money and by 
 friendly visitation. All charity workers 
 recognize that the poor need friends quite 
 as much as they need material aid. 
 Throughout the centuries the charity of the 
 church has been a luminous manifestation 
 of the spirit of Christ. 
 
 The church has always championed the 
 rights of the common man. In days when 
 it was denied that women and slaves had 
 souls, the church championed the dignity 
 and worth of every individual. When 
 slavery was common among all nations, the 
 church insisted upon humane treatment, and 
 commended those who liberated their slaves. 
 Under the 'wage system the church has al- 
 ways championed a " square deal." In 
 every century it has stood, according to 
 the best light of the day, for truth, right- 
 eousness, and justice. It has refused to be 
 discouraged, however great the discourage- 
 
 [ 220 ] 
 
Cbe Cburcb 
 
 ments. In a little chapel in Wales, one Sab- 
 bath morning, the writer listened to an 
 aged minister preaching to a congregation 
 of forty people on " The Conquering King- 
 dom of Christ." The small congregation 
 did not seem to represent large conquest, 
 but the situation was typical of the unsub- 
 duable spirit of the church through all the 
 centuries. Between the dozen* men which 
 Christ sent forth and the millions in the 
 church today there have been many ups 
 and downs — dark days and bright days; 
 days when the church fell into ruts which 
 made reformation necessary; days when in 
 places it was swept into the clutch of eco- 
 nomic interest, as in our own Southland 
 during slavery; days when the power and 
 furor of the State turned it from its proper 
 mission, as in Germany; but the spirit of 
 Christ, ever latent in the hearts of at least 
 a few, prevailed in the end, and the Church 
 continues to be the source and fountain 
 of the world's spiritual life and power. 
 
 The Church at Present 
 
 At the present hour the church is hold- 
 ing up Jesus Christ to the world as the 
 
 [221] 
 
Gbe B06cntial0 ot GbrtstianttB 
 
 Saviour of men and the Redeemer of so- 
 ciety; and it is the only institution that is 
 doing so. It insists that men should be- 
 come like Christ in character, and that the 
 principles of Christ should dominate human 
 relationships. It teaches and preaches 
 righteousness. It stands squarely against 
 all immorality, both in private and public 
 life. It is the only institution which makes 
 the salvation of men and the promotion of 
 righteousness its sole business. However 
 much individual members may fall short of 
 its ideals and teachings, the church in its 
 organized capacity, and in the united ef- 
 forts of its members, exalts Jesus Christ 
 and works to promote godliness. 
 
 The church is the only organization that 
 is working to give the knowledge of Christ 
 to all peoples of the earth. Her missionaries 
 are in every land. She has many arms and 
 many busy hands — aid societies, charity or- 
 ganizations, Sunday Schools, social centers, 
 missionary societies, Young Men's and 
 Young Women's Christian Associations, be- 
 sides many others; while the great majority 
 of all leaders in every field of reform are 
 at the same time active members of the 
 church of Christ. 
 
 [ 222 ] 
 
£be Cbutcb 
 
 The Church and the World War, 
 
 Much has been said about changes that 
 would come to the church after the world 
 war, and some have intimated that the 
 church failed during the world's great crisis. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association, 
 with other like organizations, and all army 
 chaplains were the church of Christ at work 
 to supply war needs. Churches also freely 
 gave their pastors in order that they might 
 serve where the need was greatest. Every 
 church was a hive of industry, in its church 
 building or elsewhere, helping to furnish 
 what our soldier boys needed. No armies 
 in the world were ever so well cared for 
 morally and spiritually as the armies of 
 the allied nations. Never in the history of 
 war has such magnificent service been ren- 
 dered, notwithstanding the suddenness of its 
 demand and its staggering magnitude. 
 
 Now that the war is over, what readjust- 
 ments in church life are our soldiers de- 
 manding? With gratitude we observe that 
 they are returning to our churches thankful 
 for the love and prayers that followed them 
 into the jaws of death. Their letters to 
 pastors and Y. M. C. A. workers express 
 
 [223] 
 
Gbe Essentials ot Cbristiantts 
 
 deep appreciation of spiritual help and com- 
 fort. Thousands who began the Christian 
 life in response to the gospel message in 
 cantonments and on the war front, indicate 
 Christ's power now as always to win and 
 inspire strong men. 
 
 There is as yet no insistent demand for 
 change in the church by our returning sol- 
 diers. Moreover, an institution that has 
 been hundreds of years in building does not 
 change either suddenly or rapidly. Its roots 
 are too deep in the hearts of men; its 
 threads of life are too intimately woven 
 throughout the whole social fabric; it has 
 accumulated too much wisdom from experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Yet changes will take place in the church, 
 and they ought to come. The experiences 
 of our Christian soldiers will accelerate 
 changes that were already begun before 
 they went to war. 
 
 Some old methods of religious expression 
 and church activity will wear themselves out 
 and disappear. The Methodist class-meet- 
 ing is already a thing of the past. The 
 midweek prayer-meeting in many places 
 does not serve the purpose it once did and 
 is no longer supported as formerly. The 
 
 [224] 
 
Gbe Cburcb 
 
 preaching of Christ still attracts, holds, and 
 interests more hearers, and does it oftener, 
 than any other serious subject which brings 
 men together in assembly. But there is fall- 
 ing off in attendance at church, and the eve- 
 ning service suffers most. In numerous 
 places it has been discontinued. Evangel- 
 istic services are not generally in favor as 
 formerly. That is, the methods of church 
 activity which originated in other days must 
 evidently undergo readjustment to meet the 
 changed conditions of our day. This we 
 all feel. Our boys felt it before they went 
 to war. 
 
 New methods of church life and work 
 will doubtless develop in line with present 
 social emphasis, an emphasis which war 
 conditions greatly accentuated. The key- 
 note of the whole war situation was ser- 
 vice. The demand upon Christianity was 
 that it help some one, that it sacrifice, that 
 it lay down life where needed. This is the 
 social emphasis raised to the nth power. 
 In the intensity of the situation it seemed 
 to be the whole of religion. Men felt that 
 all else of religious character must help men 
 to gird themselves for sacrifice. 
 
 This emphasis on self-sacrificing social 
 
 p [ 225 ] 
 
Zbc J60dcntial0 of CbnsttanttB 
 
 service our boys have brought back from 
 the war. It is the emphasis of our cen- 
 tury intensified by war conditions, and mag- 
 nified and glorified because enshrined in 
 the hearts of the most virile and forward- 
 looking young men of the nation. 
 
 Such men do not hastily turn from the 
 church or lightly discard old forms with 
 which they are familiar. But they will 
 not remain satisfied with old forms and 
 methods. New life takes on new forms and 
 expresses itself in new ways. 
 
 One may not say beforehand what the 
 changes will be. Naturally the first at- 
 tempts at improvement will follow the lines 
 of Christian Association work, which was 
 so helpful to the soldiers in the time of their 
 need. But the new emphasis will deter- 
 mine its own forms and methods as it pro- 
 ceeds, battering them out of experiences of 
 success and failure in the endeavor to bring 
 Jesus Christ into vital relations with men. 
 
 Whatever changes may come to the 
 church, it must never be forgotten that the 
 supreme need of the world is vital union 
 with Jesus Christ. This is the condition of 
 advancing civilization. No changes in the 
 church will avail for the betterment of men 
 
 [226] 
 
Gbc Cburcb 
 
 which do not accentuate this fact, and no 
 methods of Christian work and service will 
 be an improvement on present ones unless 
 they are more effective in bringing men 
 face to face with Christ as Lord and 
 Master. 
 
 Wherein is our civilization ahead of that 
 of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, ancient Greece, 
 or Rome ? Where can you go in history to 
 find grosser savagery than was exhibited 
 in the world war, and in rebellions in Rus- 
 sia and Germany since the war — the murder 
 of non-combatants, the slaughter of chil- 
 dren, the violation of women, the abuse, 
 torture, and starvation of prisoners, the 
 ruthless pillage, the wanton destruction of 
 property, the bitterness and hate? 
 
 We have boasted of progress in science 
 and invention, and called it advancing civil- 
 ization. The war has made apparent the 
 fact that the only real advancement is prog- 
 ress in manhood, that real civilization con- 
 sists in building a finer type of the human 
 species. All else may be but the perfecting 
 of instruments of misery, destruction, and 
 death. 
 
 Science, we say, has decreased the burden 
 of work in the world. But leisure is not 
 
 [227] 
 
Cbe Besentiate ot Gbrigtianlts 
 
 an unmixed blessing unless those enjoy- 
 ing it be of such character as to use it 
 profitably; and work is a necessary condi- 
 tion of physical and moral development. 
 As great evils may come from too much 
 leisure as from too crushing toil. 
 
 Science and invention have given the 
 world increased comforts and luxuries. But 
 comforts and luxuries are often the cause 
 of moral deterioration. Children reared in 
 luxury are not better than children inured 
 to toil. Those who grow rapidly rich are 
 not made better thereby. 
 
 Science has overcome many diseases. But 
 modern industrial conditions and the inten- 
 sity of modern life are responsible for many 
 diseases. Heart-failure and nerve-fag are 
 increasing. Trade diseases, caused by dust 
 and poisons, are numerous, and industrial 
 accidents cause no end of poverty, suffer- 
 ing, and sorrow. 
 
 Real progress consists in advancing man- 
 hood, and scientific knowledge and methods 
 are of advantage in proportion as we pro- 
 duce men who make them a blessing. In 
 a word, they are of advantage in propor- 
 tion as men have the Christian view-point, 
 spirit, and purpose. 
 
 [228] 
 
3be Cburcb 
 
 Never has it been so evident that the 
 world needs Jesus Christ and that its prog- 
 ress is hopeless without him. The only per- 
 manent advancement that civilization is 
 making is progress in Christlikeness. 
 
 Whatever changes may come to the 
 church, they will fail of advantage unless 
 they reveal Christ to the apprehension of 
 the people and persuade them to accept him 
 as Saviour and Lord. 
 
 It is well to promote athletics, to furnish 
 amusements, to provide facilities for social 
 life, to conduct night-schools, to open labor 
 bureaus, and to promote many other social 
 and economic ministries; but unless they 
 are the media through which men catch 
 Christ's spirit and discern his love, so that 
 they are brought into vital relations with 
 him, all our modern methods will be but 
 futile playing at the world's great task. 
 The world needs Christ. 
 
 [229] 
 
Cooperattno wttb <Sot> 
 
COOPERATING WITH GOD 
 
 MODERN democracies must be made 
 up of spiritual men who are keyed 
 to lofty purposes. Present conditions and 
 future outlook challenge every serious- 
 minded person to rise to the divinest that 
 is in him. The times call for men with high 
 ideals, with faith in God, and who are will- 
 ing to work with God to make a better 
 world. 
 
 Constructive thought is demanded, and 
 immediacy and vigor of action are impera- 
 tive. It is not enough to criticize past and 
 present institutions, even though criticism 
 be just and needed. We must build better 
 institutions, ever looking toward an ampler 
 future in which there shall be less need to 
 criticize. Criticism of one's self, of course, 
 is a sign of growth. One lives to little 
 purpose who is not wiser today than he 
 was yesterday. Criticism of others also is 
 beneficial when given with a desire to help, 
 and especially when we have had experi- 
 
 [233] 
 
Cbe Essentials ot CbrtsttanttE 
 
 ence of the things criticized; but criticism 
 at best is a thankless task, and one of doubt- 
 ful utility unless one also shows " a more 
 excellent way." 
 
 It is good to criticize the church, for the 
 church, like all institutions run by human 
 beings, can be improved. But the reasons 
 for criticism ought to be to destroy the 
 church if it makes men worse, or to im- 
 prove the church and make it a more power- 
 ful instrument for making men better. 
 
 It is proper to criticize the Bible, but 
 surely the criticism ought to be in the spirit 
 of helpfulness. One could admire intel- 
 ligent criticism of the Bible from one who 
 sincerely thought that the Bible did harm, 
 or from one who believed that he could im- 
 prove the Bible as a religious guide, or from 
 one who had found another book which 
 would do the work better. But criticism 
 without clear ideas, definite purpose, or 
 generous motive, bespeaks thoughtlessness, 
 and indifference to the spiritual needs of 
 man. 
 
 It is always necessary and proper to tear 
 down an old building if it is really danger- 
 ous, or if it serve no good purpose, or when 
 a new and better structure is to be erected 
 
 [234] 
 
Coopcratina vvitb <Bo& 
 
 in its place. But unless the new building 
 is to be constructed, it is certainly best to 
 let the old stand. It will shelter some from 
 the cold and the dark even though it be old. 
 
 ii 
 
 Suppose that one cannot connect him- 
 self with any existing religious institution, 
 or get at his religious life problem in any of 
 the ways suggested in the foregoing chap- 
 ters: 
 
 i. One is dissatisfied with the church. 
 Let him forget the church. Call it a man- 
 made institution. It has always changed; 
 it is changing rapidly at present; it will 
 change more in the years ahead. Each of 
 us would have his life to live, his possibil- 
 ities to realize, and a worth-while work to 
 do in the world if the church had never 
 existed. 
 
 2. One has trouble with the Bible. Very 
 well. Forget the Bible if no help is found 
 in it. Call it the record of God's deal- 
 ings with men in other days, or what men 
 thought was God's dealings with them. 
 One has his life to live, his bit to do for 
 the social good, and this would be the. case 
 had the Bible never been written. 
 
 [ 235'] 
 
Zbe Essentials of Cbristtanitg 
 
 3. One fails to understand Jesus Christ. 
 Very well. Forget Christ if he furnishes 
 no strength to moral purposes and no in- 
 spiration for high endeavor. One still has 
 his life to live, his burdens to bear, his sins 
 to be forgiven, his temptations to overcome, 
 his powers to use, his fellow men to help. 
 
 4. One finds fault with people. They are 
 human like one's self, and they are doubt- 
 less more conscious of their faults and sins 
 than anybody else. 
 
 What then? Is life to be spent in quar- 
 reling with. things and people? in criticizing 
 historic beliefs and customs? and in con- 
 demning present institutions? Is one not 
 to put in his oar and have part in the row- 
 ing when the whole complicated process of 
 making one's own and everybody's life 
 more worth living is an up-stream task, re- 
 quiring every willing hand at the oars? 
 
 in 
 
 It is possible, in the face of all difficulties, 
 to secure an effective starting-point for 
 one's religious life by beginning where one 
 is and cooperating with God according to 
 one's light and opportunity. You believe 
 in God, though he may be vague to you. 
 
 [236] 
 
Cooperating wltb <3oo 
 
 You have a spiritual nature which feels a 
 kinship to God and longs to know him bet- 
 ter. Then cooperate with. God according" to 
 your best judgment, and grant the willing 
 response of your spiritual nature as far as 
 it is developed. This is reducing religion 
 to its lowest terms ; but surely the simplest 
 and most apparent fact to any man in 
 earnest is that he ought to cooperate zvith 
 God. He ought not to work against him 
 or be indifferent to his desires. To coop- 
 erate with God according to one's light is 
 the least that a true-hearted man can do, 
 and it is in fact the most that any man 
 can do. 
 
 To what tasks this cooperation will lead 
 one, depends on many things — on the in- 
 tensity of one's spiritual nature; on home, 
 school, and social training; on moral stand- 
 ards ; on social and economic ideas ; and on 
 the needs and opportunities of one's present 
 sphere of influence. But to cooperate with 
 God according to one's honest convictions 
 is the most apparent duty of every man. 
 Less than this will not satisfy either one's 
 intelligence or one's feelings, to say noth- 
 ing of one's convictions of the highest life 
 and the most helpful service. Cooperating 
 
 [237] 
 
Cbe Essentials of CbnettanttE 
 
 wftA God according to present light will 
 bring more light; it will lead to conscious 
 fellowship with God in work; it will start 
 one's spiritual nature into healthy and vigor- 
 ous growth; and it will keep one busy with 
 the things that are most worth while. 
 
 IV 
 
 The question now arises, What does God 
 want? In what tasks may one cooperate 
 with him? 
 
 i. Surely God wants men to be pure in 
 life. Here is an immediate task for every 
 man, a task sufficiently definite, and one 
 that is ever present. Its importance can- 
 not be overemphasized. It affects individual 
 life, family life, social life, and industrial 
 life; it concerns the number of children 
 born diseased, malformed, deaf, dumb, 
 blind, feeble-minded, or with tendencies to 
 epilepsy, insanity, or criminality; it affects 
 the happiness or unhappiness of homes; it 
 brings the bloom or blight to innumerable 
 lives. Here is a task calling for the imme- 
 diate activity and hardest fighting of every 
 manly man. 
 
 One's application to this great task takes 
 very definite form. It begins with one's 
 
 [238] 
 
Cooperating witb <Boo 
 
 self — the cleanness of one's own life, the 
 purity of one's own heart, the chasteness of 
 one's own thoughts. It has to do with the 
 character of the pictures on one's walls, 
 the nature of the stories one tells or hears. 
 It challenges one's respect for manhood and 
 womanhood, for motherhood and babyhood, 
 for sisterhood and brotherhood, for life at 
 its very source and in its holiest functions. 
 Response to this sacred challenge consti- 
 tutes the supreme test of many a man's 
 honor and heroism. 
 
 But the task of pure living is not simply 
 one's own. Each of us helps or hinders 
 others in their fight. During the war we 
 prayed that our soldier boys might be kept 
 pure amidst the temptations of camp life. 
 The author had a number of personal 
 friends in our training-camps. He prayed, 
 not only that they might be kept pure, but 
 that, reenforced as they were by good 
 homes, good training, good associates, the 
 confidence of friends, and the assistance of 
 God, they might be towers of strength to 
 others, and help to keep pure those less 
 gifted and less fortunate than themselves. 
 
 We help ourselves most by helping 
 others — provided always that we do not 
 
 [239] 
 
tlbe Essentials of Christianity 
 
 help others for the purpose of helping our- 
 selves. Jesus says : " He that loseth his life 
 shall save it." He gets warm quickest who 
 nelps to warm another; he fights best for 
 himself who fights another's battles; he 
 grows strong who helps the weak; he 
 strengthens his own footing who holds an- 
 other up. 
 
 2. Surely God wants men to be honest — 
 honest with themselves, with their fellows, 
 and with him. A group of men who were 
 producing a morality code for grade and 
 high-school pupils, sent a questionnaire to 
 a large number of teachers, asking what 
 ought to be put into it. " Put honesty into 
 the code," the great majority of them re- 
 plied. Children are not far advanced in 
 education before they are willing to take 
 something for nothing. It is not a far cry 
 from zvillingness to take something for 
 nothing to striving to get something for 
 nothing. The " gold-brick " element comes 
 to pervade the whole of life. People want 
 good health without paying the price ; they 
 want cultured minds without being at cost ; 
 they want spiritual life and eternal life with- 
 out sacrifice and effort. The great need in 
 work, trade, commerce, social relations, and 
 
 [240] 
 
Cooperating vvitb $ofc 
 
 spiritual life, is simply honesty — a sense of 
 honor that is unwilling to take something 
 for nothing. There is a deep sense in which 
 a man cannot possess what he has not 
 earned and paid for in terms of expendi- 
 ture of life. Social health, economic sound- 
 ness, and right individual character, cannot 
 rest on deceit, fraud, or injustice. God 
 wants honest men. 
 
 But the task of securing honesty, both in 
 ourselves and others, is so difficult, and 
 must be so long continued, that no man is 
 adequate, even to do his bit, without faith 
 that God works with him. Conscious co- 
 operation with God is imperative if one 
 would work undismayed on a task so large. 
 
 The first duty of a man who would help 
 to make a more honest world is squarely to 
 face his own soul and demand of himself 
 absolute honesty with his God. This is the 
 only possible basis of cooperation with God 
 in any task. 
 
 3. Surely God wants brotherly men. Our 
 world war was between autocracy and de- 
 mocracy, between those who would rule and 
 those who would share, between nations 
 schooled in hate and those schooled in 
 brotherhood, between those who repudiated 
 
 Q [ 241 ] 
 
Gbe Essentials of Cbttsttanitg 
 
 national morality and those who advocated 
 it, between those who disavowed Christian 
 principles and those who stood by them, 
 between those who would rule by brute 
 force and those who championed the rights 
 of the weak. 
 
 The dividing-line seen in the war runs 
 through all government, business, social, 
 and individual life. Shall the powerful in 
 government rule the people for their own 
 profit or for the advantage of those ruled, 
 as an older and abler brother might rule 
 a younger brother? Shall the strong in 
 business crush the weak or organize busi- 
 ness for the benefit and comfort of all? 
 Shall the more fortunate and gifted in so- 
 ciety look down upon the less fortunate and 
 less gifted, or value the weak as Christ 
 valued them, holding all in a spirit of human 
 fellowship, and furnishing to all the uplift 
 and inspiration of brotherly love? Shall 
 the individual go forth into life to get or to 
 give ? Shall he make his work first and his 
 pay incidental or his pay first and his work 
 incidental? Shall what he is to his friends 
 be first and what he gets from them second, 
 or shall he place first what he gets and 
 make what he gives contingent on that? 
 
 [242] 
 
Coopetattng witb <5o& 
 
 In a word, shall one's ambition and en- 
 deavor be to bless or to be blessed? Shall 
 one not give of himself, of the very best 
 that is in him, remembering that " there is 
 that giveth and yet increaseth, and there is 
 that witholdeth, but it tendeth only to pov- 
 erty." Life grows rich by spending. 
 
 To make the world " safe for democ- 
 racy," and to make spiritualized democracy 
 safe for the world, simply means to build 
 men into brotherhood. It is a tremendous 
 task ; but surely it is God's will ; and every 
 earnest, forward-looking man ought to be 
 busy with God working on the job. 
 
 4. Surely God wants redeeming men. 
 This means brotherhood raised to the high- 
 est power. It means the strong bearing the 
 burdens of the weak. As long as strength 
 simply serves itself the weak will be 
 crushed. As long as quick wits are selfish, 
 slow wits will be outclassed and exploited. 
 What is strength for? How is it to be 
 used? Until strength is used to serve — 
 to uplift the fallen, to sustain the weak, to 
 rescue those in danger, to instruct the igno- 
 rant, to guard the foolish from folly, and 
 to save the sinning, we shall have a selfish, 
 cruel, exploiting world; we shall never be 
 
 [243] 
 
Cbe Essentials of Christianity 
 
 out of hearing of the suffering and hungry ; 
 we shall look upon the poorly clad, ill- 
 housed, and diseased; we shall be in com- 
 pany with the sinning, hopeless, and despair- 
 ing. God wants redeeming men, men who 
 see needs and have hearts to help, men who 
 are aware of suffering, folly, and sin in 
 others, and who care. Is this not the mean- 
 ing of the fact that " God so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son " ? 
 Is this not the spirit of Christ as he lived 
 among men? Is this not the inner soul of 
 religion and the highest and holiest task of 
 every man ? To serve one's fellows accord- 
 ing to one's light and opportunity, to be at 
 cost for others, to suffer and rejoice with 
 them and for them, to bring to others the 
 spiritual health of a life that believes and 
 loves and cares and hopes and trusts, in 
 order that they also may take courage and 
 be braver and stronger — this is the one task 
 supremely worthy of the enlistment of all 
 the powers of a man; but it is a task so 
 high, so difficult, and yet so needed, that he 
 who undertakes it must be linked with God, 
 and consciously cooperate with him. God 
 always calls men to heroic tasks, but he 
 always works with them. 
 
 [244] 
 
Cooperating witb <3o& 
 
 One's own heart is the measure of one's 
 opportunity. The opportunity is as large 
 or as small as the heart. A group of young 
 people were gathered about a painting in- 
 tended to represent a girl coming home 
 from church. A church building was in the 
 background of the picture, and in the fore- 
 ground, the girl with her Bible walking 
 toward the beholders. The young people 
 were remarking that she had been to church, 
 when a minister of the writer's acquain- 
 tance, a man of keen artistic sense and of 
 searching spiritual discernment, who was 
 looking over the heads of the group, said: 
 " She has not been to church ; she has been 
 somewhere else." 
 
 A well-known artist who related the in- 
 cident to the author, said : " I made careful 
 inquiry into the character of the artist who 
 painted ' The Girl Coming Home from 
 Church,' and learned to my surprise that he 
 was an unmitigated villain. He could not 
 paint a girl coming home from church. 
 There was no church in his heart." Then 
 continuing, the artist said, " I made up my 
 mind when I began to paint that if I were 
 
 [245] 
 
Cbe lEssenttale of Cbrtettantts 
 
 ever to become a painter, I must begin in 
 the middle of my own heart." 
 
 " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is 
 he." " Out of the heart are the issues of 
 life." No painter can put on canvas, and no 
 man can put into life, what is not first in 
 his own heart. Here is the place for each 
 of us to begin — within our own hearts. Be- 
 fore we can cooperate with God we must 
 get right with God. We live in rushing 
 times, when men are hard pressed with 
 clamorous temptations. Men are needed 
 who are right with God, and who, because 
 right with God, are towers of strength and 
 cities of refuge to those about them. Peo- 
 ple are influenced, not by theories and the- 
 ologies and philosophies, but by men. The 
 right kind of men persuade and inspire 
 others to do right. Every one stands in the 
 center of a circle of opportunities influenc- 
 ing lives on every hand. When we are 
 right with God God works with us, our 
 circle of opportunities enlarges, and our 
 power and usefulness increase. The mea- 
 sure of a man is his work. 
 
 Speaking of the world war when the 
 food conservation campaign was on, " The 
 Continent " said : " We are all in it. For 
 
 [246] 
 
Cooperating witb (Boo 
 
 each man the general duty sharpens down 
 to a point which thrusts into his own life. 
 Nor can it be escaped by an easy sense of 
 the corporate duty. Calculating the mini- 
 mum which each person should accomplish, 
 on the supposition that every other person 
 will do that same minimum, is idle. Sav- 
 ing such a fraction of an ounce of butter 
 each week, or reducing by such a petty mea- 
 sure the use of meat or wheat, is only an 
 appeal to the latent selfishness of the na- 
 tion. It really seems to signify that the 
 war can be accomplished without any great 
 sacrifice from anybody. But if the experi- 
 ence of the other warring nations is a guide, 
 that is a grave error. Nothing but cutting 
 sacrifice will do what the world needs now. 
 Nothing but a sharpened sense of individual 
 responsibility will carry the nation safely 
 through this crisis. There is no hope from 
 men who are still seeking their slothful 
 ease, resenting intrusion of calls for aid. 
 Men who snarl when more money, or more 
 time, or more labor is called for in this 
 crisis are no help but a hindrance. . . 
 
 " ■ In peaceful times,' said a soldier in 
 General Pershing's army in France, ' the 
 soldier, like any other normal person, is 
 
 [247] 
 
Cbe Essentials of CbrtstiamtE 
 
 jealous of his " rights/' He will raise more 
 disturbance over being called on for extra 
 duty out of his turn than most any other 
 person on earth. But I have noticed lately 
 very little of that sort of thing. The atti- 
 tude of most is to do as much as one can, 
 to learn one's duties better than Jim Jones 
 and Sam Smith, and then do those duties 
 better still. It is all due to the fact that 
 they are beginning to realize a sense of per- 
 sonal responsibility in the struggles that are 
 to come. The falling short of one may 
 mean disaster to many.' . . 
 
 " A few men are actually interpreting this 
 war in terms of personal advantage, only a 
 few out of the total. But a multitude of 
 men are still thinking of it as somebody 
 else's affair. Since they are not called to 
 the actual bearing of arms, they shake off 
 all sense of duty. Meanwhile, there is a 
 growing multitude who are seeking with 
 deep earnestness to meet the crisis as a per- 
 sonal one, making financial and personal 
 sacrifices in its behalf, bearing it as a per- 
 sonal burden, expecting to give account of 
 their faithfulness to God." 
 
 Surely the case could not be better stated 
 for the religious life. The battle that is 
 
 [248] 
 
Cooperating witb <5o0 
 
 on for righteousness is unspeakably more 
 important than the world war. Indeed, 
 the war was a part of the battle for right- 
 eousness in human relations. Had the bat- 
 tle for righteousness been adequately fought 
 there would have been no war. Every man 
 is needed in the fight. Slackers do not help 
 win battles. Each one must be responsible 
 for his bit. 
 
 249 
 
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