INSPIRATION -OR DAILY LIVING Selections from the Writings of LYMAN ABBOTT. D.D. Class. Book Copyright^ CDEXffiGHT DEPOSIT. INSPIRATION FOR DAILY LIVING Read . . . for information or for inspiration; and do not forget in your reading those books which appeal directly and immediately to what we call the religious faculties — reverence, faith , hope, and love— Lyman Abbott INSPIRATION FOR DAILY LIVING Selections from the Writings of LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D. Selected and Arranged by O. E. P. S. Inspiration is not an episode; it is a universal experience. — Lyman Abbott THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON CHICAGO 3X7/17 A% COPTRIGHT 1919 Bt ALBERT W. FELL THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON ©CU5598-53 or 'o INSPIRATION FOR DAILY LIVING January First We have given our pledge of helpfulness one to another. In us still is the spirit of war and greed and selfishness and ambition and pride, and we know it full well. But we have agreed one with another that we will help one another in personal battle. Each one of us will help his neighbor; he will help you, and you will help him, and each of us will help the other to stand strong. We will be more honest in business; we will be more loyal in government; we will be truer in politics; we will be kinder in the house- hold; we will be better men and women, — because we know other people are fighting the same battle, doing the same work, running the same race, giving us their sympathy, as we are giving them ours. We have joined our hands in a common pledge to do what we can for the world. We have united for the purpose of telling others of this Leader, and of this life. We see about us men who are in discourage- ment and despair ; men who think you must fall into the currents of society and do as society does; that it is impossible to be honest, divinely honest in com- 1 merce, as it is carried on to-day; men who are under such stress and pressure that they say, It is no use, I must either join in the current or be trampled underfoot. And we have joined hands to say, It is false: God does reign; there is a good God; the sun- shine is more than the blast; God is more than the devil; goodness and righteousness are more than sin and selfishness. We can and we will conquer, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. We come to this promise : " Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." We remember it was said to the twelve, and now it is said over again to millions, that are no longer a little flock, and we take courage. ®tje Sfaro f ear January Second We begin on the new year the beginning of a new life if we will. How will you walk this coming year? Will you seek for liberty by independence or by obedience? Will you seek for success by selfishness or by service? Will you seek for happiness by self- indulgence or by sacrifice? . . . God help us more and more to hear that higher and nobler and diviner voice, that the other may grow stiller and dimmer and more distant, till we shall hear it not at all. Father, who sent Thy Son into the world to be the light of the world, lighten our darkness we be- seech Thee. We, Thy children, know neither our- selves nor the life that lies before us. Prepare us for 2 what Thou art preparing for us. Keep us from the ambition that covets great tasks. Keep us from the cowardice that evades the tasks to which Thou dost call us. Keep us from despair because of our failures. Keep us from self-conceit because of our successes. By Thy companionship equip us for the high adven- ture of life. To every call of duty may we respond, Lo! I come to do Thy will, O God. Ever forgetting what we have left behind, may we press forward in eager response to Thine upward calling in Christ Jesus. Amen. aspiration January Third We are not what we are; we are what we desire to be, what our purpose is, what our resolves make us. You can set that before you. You cannot win the race instantly, but you can begin to run it. You cannot instantly win victory, but you can arm for the conflict. You cannot perfect the scholarship, but you can enter the school. And any man is going on in sin who is not seeking to bring his life up to the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go, and sin no more, means beginning to live justly and to love mercy. It means setting yourself to repair all the evil of the past, whatever it is, in so far as the power of repair lies within your hands. It means looking within to see what there is poisonous and bitter in the fountain out of which the stream flows, and seek- ing that the fountain may be purified, and that the life may be made whole and clean and true. . . . 3 Wishing to be good, desiring to be good, purposing to be good, choosing to be good — these are not goodness. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. The wish of a dream is very different from the will of a life. Nothing serves but patient, continuous, persistent willing. The way to secure such a character is to seek in- spiration from Him who is love. forgetting tfje |Jast January Fourth If you only could erase that past, even though you could not substitute for it a worthier record, but you cannot do that. If you only could bear yourself the evils of your own wrong-doing, and lift from others all the conse- quences of your own self-indulgence, but you cannot even do that. The past can never be changed. " The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it." That is true — profoundly, terribly true. It were better we realized it while still the page of life lies open, fair and clear, before us. . . . But God can bring good out of our evil; and He certainly does. The wrong we have done we cannot undo. It is worse than idle for us to waste the present time in vain regrets over the unalterable past. We are to 4 learn its lesson; then we should turn our thoughts resolutely toward the future. The past is God's; give it to Him. The present is ours; the future we can make our own. And this is what He bids us do. Forget those things which are behind; press forward toward the prize that lies in the future; this is the message of His Gospel. JBebout iforgetting January Fifth No man ought to carry the past as a prisoner carries the ball chained to his ankle. No man ought to allow the memory of the past to prevent his peace and joy in present fellowship with God. God de- clares that he buries our sins in the depths of the sea; it is not right nor wise for us to fish them up again and take a new inventory of them. He blots them out of the book of his remembrance; it is neither right nor wise for us to engrave them with pens of steel in the book of our remembrance. To do this is to dis- believe his word, distrust his forgiveness, refuse his comradeship. We ought to learn wisdom from our mistakes; we ought to acquire virtues from our sins. Why this act of folly which we lament? Spend no time in repining; but spend all the time that is neces- sary in order to learn its lesson. Was it due to vanity? or greed? or appetite? or self-conceit? or a weak and wayward will? Find out. Then be on guard against the same enemy to your honor when 5 he attacks you at a new point and under new circum- stances. We all make mistakes; we all commit transgressions. But we ought not to repeat the same mistakes — that is to blunder; we ought not to com- mit the same transgressions — that is doubly dis- honorable. Betoout ^forgetting January Sixth Because we believe in Jesus Christ, because we believe in the forgiveness of sins, because we believe that God is able to bring good out of evil, we are saved from remorse. To go to him with the burden of our past; to cast that past on him and leave him to take care of it; to trust him to undo our own undoing; and then to turn our faces to the future with a new aspiration of hope and a new resolution of high endeavor, is to be a believer in Christ. To go to him for our under- standing of what we have to do in the world, to get our commission from him, and to set ourselves reso- lutely to the fulfilling of that commission; to make it our settled purpose to do his work in his way, is to be a follower of Christ. To come into companionship with him; to live in his presence; to imbibe his spirit; to share his experiences; to go with him alike unto his Mount of Transfiguration and into his Garden of Gethsemane, this is to receive him as a Life-giver. And this makes every day and every duty, from the least to the greatest . . . " a bubbling joy." 6 ©etoout Remembering January Seventh Forgetting and remembering are results of the same mental operation. We remember when we fix our attention upon a past incident; we forget when we turn our attention away from it. In this, as in all our experiences, we are to overcome evil with good ; we are to erase the pictures which dishearten, depress, and discourage us by substituting for them the pic- tures which hearten, encourage, and inspire; we are to forget our sorrows by remembering God's comfort; we are to forget our sins by remembering God's forgiveness. Our mind is more subject to our will than we are apt to think. The memory is a gallery whose walls are covered with many pictures; we can choose what pictures we will look at. This is what Paul means when he bids us bring " every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. " It is always easier to turn our eyes from one picture to another than to close our eyes altogether. The easiest way to forget what is best forgotten is to remember what is best worth remembering. The easiest way to forget our own follies and failures and sins is to remember God's goodnesses. Cfcristf'* 5Ptegence Unitoerfial January Eighth The Great Companion is not dead. He is not talking, nor pursuing, nor in a journey, nor sleeping and must be awakened. It is we who are talking, 7 and pursuing, and in a journey, and sleeping and must be awakened. If we will stop our talking and listen, we may hear him; if we will stop our pursuing after we know not what, we shall find him at our side; if we will return from our journey into the far country, he will come forth to meet us; if we will rouse our- selves at the voice of conscience which every now and then pierces to our consciousness and disturbs our slumbers, we shall find ourselves in his presence. For still as of old is it true: If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hana shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; Even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. ®fje Stop of g>ett=g>acrtfke January Ninth What do we mean by self-sacrifice? What we ought to mean is the sacrifice of self. Self is forgot- ten, put aside, lost sight of, as Paul says, put to death; it is as if it were not. There is no joy like that of a service of love so absorbing that one ceases to be conscious of self. General Armstrong is assigned at the close of the Civil War to the care of a camp of contrabands at Fortress Monroe. He sees that the Government may go on furnishing the negroes with rations in- 8 definitely, and so raising up a community of paupers. He sees that not help but education in self-help is what they need; not food, but the offer of choice between work or hunger. He stops the rations and opens a school. He is execrated by the idle and the vicious for compelling them to go to work. He is criticised by sentimental philanthropists who think it hard to impose hardship on these idle and incom- petent freedmen. He is laughed at as a visionary by hard-headed, practical men who think they know the negro and think they know that nothing can ever be made of the negro. But to the realization of his ideal he gives his life, spending half his time in educat- ing in the principles of industry an outcast race and the other half in the North educating in the principles of brotherhood a careless Christian constituency. He gives himself unreservedly to this work, and dies before his time, having spent his life too speedily in his devotion to it. And after his death in his diary is found written the sentence, " I have never known what self-sacrifice means." Of course not. Self was dead; there was left no self to know. W$t Crotott of &tgf)teott£(ites& January Tenth To work for God is to work with God. To follow Christ is to live with Christ — to march in the same road, engage in the same campaign, share in the same experience. To enter God's service is more than to be his servant. It is to be his child. It is more than to do his will; it is to be in purpose and spirit one 9 with him. Religion is the life of God in the soul of man. To be religious, Christianly religious, is to have God as our Companion. Then, truly, our fellow- ship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Then our will is to do God's will; then we see the world as God sees it; then we do our little to help God achieve what he is achieving; then we are cheered and sustained by the unfailing hope of Him who sees the end from the beginning. God is himself our exceeding great reward. Inspire us to follow Thee; teach us what it is to follow Thee; give to us the life that will make us follow Thee, in very truth Thy disciples, in very truth Thy followers. #pporttmttp January Eleventh, God is ready to fill with his own life and thought the largest molds we can prepare for him. God, who creates opportunities, is always able to provide assistants. If you take the work that lies next to you, and there are needs in it which you can- not supply, some one will be found when the time comes who can supply them. Muller, without a cent of money, undertakes to provide for orphan children, and the Lord sends the money. Moses, without eloquence, accepts his commission to arouse a nation of slaves to a life of liberty, and God sends a man of eloquence to plead with and for him. If the nation could have foreseen the Civil War it would 10 hardly have selected Abraham Lincoln as its Presi- dent : it would have chosen a soldier or an experienced statesman. But the Providence which called Lincoln to the Presidency called about him men to do what he could not do. ©pportunttp January Twelfth Americans are rarely lazy, but they are sometimes indolent. A lazy man does not like to do anything; an indolent man does not like to do anything he does not like to do. Indolence is sometimes self-indulgent activity. Happy the man who finds a peculiar joy in undertaking a difficult and disagreeable task, and in achieving it. I have a friend who says: " If you cannot do what you like, then like what you do." That is the secret of a truly successful life. One may be required throughout his life to do the easy things: let him do them with a contented spirit. But if Opportunity invites him to a service where success is difficult and failure not improbable, let him thank God who calls him to walk in a high place, and trust that God will enable him so to do. Have faith in yourself because you have faith in God ; take what work he gives you ; believe that you can succeed; be willing to fail if he wills to give you the discipline of failure. The balky horse is the most useless horse in the stable; a balky man is the most useless man in society. He gives up before he begins; because he has no faith in himself. Do not praise yourself; but do not belittle yourself. Just do the 11 work that comes to your hand; and let others judge of its fruitfulness. True kingship is through serving. The real kings of the earth are its servants. They rule, not by authority imposed from without, but by inspiration exerted within. They rule by influence, not by power. Power dies when the hand which exercised it lays down the scepter. Influence lives on; it is immortal. Slefjoiti, 3J Jllafee m TOntxg* Jleta January Thirteenth The great war has destroyed some of the old in- stitutions of an imperfect civilization and it has shaken others. But now the period of building has arrived. The opportunity is afforded us to reconstruct our political, our industrial, our educational, and our religious institutions more in conformity with the divine law, more in harmony with the divine spirit. This neces- sity is as imperative, if not as immediate, in the United States as in Europe. Opportunities involve obliga- tions. What we can do we ought to do. We are in the world in order to work with God in building the world aright; and in this work of rebuilding, religious reconstruction is more important than either political, industrial, or educational reconstruction. To those who believe that God is in his world, this declaration of the inspired prophet, " Behold, I make all things new," comes as a command, as a guide, and as an inspiration. 12 It is a command: God is not merely conserving: he is improving, developing, renovating, reconstruct- ing. This fact is in itself a command to his children to improve, develop, renovate, reconstruct. It is a guide : we are to understand the signs of the times and are to move toward the ideal of human brotherhood which God puts before us and along the pathway which his providence indicates to us. And it is an inspiration : there is nothing too great for us to undertake with God as our Comrade and our Leader. With Christ's teaching for our ideal and with Christ's comradeship as our strength, we need not fear to enter upon the undertaking which lies before us. Courage January Fourteenth Half the troubles in life come because men lack courage at the critical point; they believe thoroughly in doing right, but when they come to a place where the moral aspect is not the only aspect of a question, and where very grave results may follow action, they lack the courage to trust themselves entirely to principle, and endeavor to find a course which experi- ence and policy will justify. It is safe to say that whenever troubles come to a man who always does the right thing fearlessly at the right time, he is wholly spared those embarrassments and entangle- ments which beset the paths of those who try to follow principle with the aid of policy. Men hav T e 13 made footpaths through life in every direction, and he who attempts to follow them will find himself hourly and endlessly perplexed; God has struck a solid highway, more lasting than the old Roman roads, along which every man may travel, not with- out clouds and storms, but free from the danger of losing his path, and sure to reach the end of his journey in safety. There is no courage higher than the courage which takes responsibilities when the providence of God puts them on us, and takes them without flinching, and without seeking to throw the burden of them off, in whole or in part, on some one else. Pray that you may be strong to do your whole duty, not that you may be excused from it. . . . Cowardly flight from duty never leads to peace. Courageous fulfilment of duty never fails to find it. Heaberstfjip January Fifteenth For leadership . . . you must possess: sympathy with men; faith in men; a clear vision to perceive the divine laws of life, and a helpful faith in relying upon them; a living belief in their practicability, and a sound judgment in applying them to the problems of your own time; the courage of your con- victions — a courage born of your faith that God is behind his laws, making them effective . . . — a firm resolve to march with him in the direction in which he leads, and a persistent patience willing to take one 14 step at a time, so that it is a step in the right direc- tion, and to wait with assurance of hope for ultimate results of righteousness, while eagerly and bravely pressing forward, step by step, toward that kingdom of God which is righteousness, peace, and universal welfare, based on holiness of spirit. Christ put a new ambition, a new heart, a new purpose, a new hope into men. Men said: "We cannot;" he said: " You can." The very com- mand of Christ ought to be inspiration. ORbe ILilt tfjat fteallp 3to January Sixteenth A young man flings himself off the wharf and rescues a drowning man, does it again and again, and by and by the Life-Saving Service pins some emblem of honor on his breast. The value is not the thing which is pinned upon his breast. The value is the courage and the self-denial and the service which he has done. A boy goes into the army; enters as a sergeant, comes back with epaulettes on his shoul- ders. There is nothing in the epaulettes; there is everything in the courage, the heroism, the patience, the bravery that won the epaulettes. The men who believed in the life which is life in- deed, the men who took their stand on principles, the men who believed that God was behind a principle, the men who dared to suffer and to die for principle, they are the men who live forever, their life is immortal. 15 There is no greater heroism than that of the man or woman who enters life anew, determined to achieve a victory over himself and the world in spite of a life thus far wasted, and a manhood thus far weakened and impoverished. In such a campaign he is not alone; for God is with him. His purposes count with God for achievement; his faith is counted to him for righteousness. Society does not believe in him; friends do not believe in him; father does not believe in him; mother has lost hope for him; but even then, when father and mother forsake him, God takes him up. God pledges his sympathy and offers his help. Cheerfulness January Seventeenth A cheerful face is the outward and visible sign of an inward condition, and that condition may be secured by any one who is willing to pay the price of effort and steady purpose which the acquisition of any virtue exacts. It is as easy to cultivate cheer- fulness as to cultivate patience or good temper or courtesy. These qualities society demands of every man, and if nature has not bestowed them on him, society insists that he shall cultivate them. . . . Society ought to demand cheerfulness of all its members; the man who spreads depression and breeds discouragement ought to be ostracized, because he strikes at the very heart of the social life. Depres- sion and despair are preeminently unsocial vices; and in so far as they are diffused, they sap social courage and drain the fountains of social happiness. 16 If there were to be a new beatitude, it might well read, " Blessed are the cheerful; " for to them is given the gift of diffusing hope and courage and joy. It is not too much to say that they are not only light but life bringers; for courage and joy prolong life, as discouragement and despair shorten it. Cheerfulness and despondency are alike contagious. A discouraged leader can chill the bravest army ever put in the field; a serene, buoyant leader can put resolution into cowards. The roots of cheerfulness are in faith; the hope which shines on the faces of some men and women is the reflection of the light which shines in the face of God. Snijerent <©Qobrtes# January Eighteenth I believe that every faculty in man is inherently good. His appetites, his passions, his acquisitive- ness, his approbativeness, his self-esteem, are all necessary parts of a well-ordered human character. The evil lies in their maladjustment, and in the fact that they are not working harmoniously under the law of love. On the other hand, there is no faculty, however high and noble, which may not become evil if it is not rightly adjusted to the other faculties. The worst cruelties in history have been perpetrated by conscience, the worst superstitions by reverence. Love itself, unless reinforced and guided by con- science, may become a weakness. Many a mother has ruined her child by an unconscientious and un- regulated love. 17 Patience, experience, hope, love, are all developed in the school of struggle. Necessity is the mother of more than invention; it is the mother of many of the virtues — perhaps it would be safe to say, of most of the virtues. Soj> te in g>erbice January Nineteenth We want pleasures of the body, food, raiment, luxury, and our struggle with one another is to see who shall get the larger houses and the finer raiment and the more splendid equipment. We want pleas- ures of the body and we want happiness of the heart ; we want wife and children and earthly affections; we appreciate these; but the joy which comes from holiness of the spirit, how covetous are we of that? Do you remember how, in almost his last hour, just as he was facing the cross, Christ turned to his dis- ciples and said, "My joy I give to you"? That is joy of the spirit. The joy of the soldier who bares his bosom to the bullet. The joy of the nurse who gives herself with patient endurance to the service of the hospital. The joy of the physician who carries on his shoulders the burdens of a hundred families bowed by sickness; the joy of suffering for others. The joy of the mother — greatest joy that ever the world knows — sweetest song of joy that is ever sung from out this weeping world. And yet is this the joy that we are most covetous of, most eager to get? that you are most covetous of, that you are most eager to have? Come, all things are ready. If 18 you want the kingdom of God buckle on your armor and fight for it. If you want the kingdom of heaven that means peace, and joy and holiness of spirit, go where you can carry the pacific spirit and self- sacrificing love. gbabeb bv ©ope January Twentieth I have something better to do in the world than to be happy; I have something better to do in the world than to be comfortable; here are enemies worth the fighting; I want to battle them; that is the wish. Here at my side is a Strength-Giver who will enable me to master them; that is the expectation. I will fight on till sin is killed, for I have Eternity before me and God behind me; that is the hope. Not to say, I think I am well, therefore I am well; not to say, I believe I am righteous, therefore I am righteous; but to say, I have a new wish; it is the wish to bring purity where there is corruption and honor where there is shame and self-control where there is sensuality, to make cities that are pure and churches that are brave and a nation that is honorable and men everywhere who are white-winged and lus- trous of brow, and God helping me it can be done. Oh, if we really did but have the wish and behind it the expectation it would be true. To him that be- lie veth all things are possible. Forgive our narrowness, enlarge our faith, and help us that know Thee a little by our trust in Thy love to minister that love to those who know Thee not 19 at all. And grant, O most merciful Father, so to fill us with Thine own mercy that we shall never be daunted or discouraged by any obstacle, that we shall never pause nor halt until Thy work is accomplished in us, for us, through us. And to Thy name shall be the glory. Amen. January Twenty-first Oh, what man is there who is a man, or what woman, who would stand in a world of suffering and see tears flowing from others' eyes, and say: Let my eyes be dry; who would walk in a procession where other men are carrying heavy burdens and say: Let me stand erect, unburdened; who want to live where others are in pain and go unanguished from the cradle to the grave! Hope is the desire to suffer and the expectation that by that suffering something will be done for the kingdom of God and the well-being of men. It is covetousness for Christ. This hope, this expectation, this desire, kindled by God, is sustained and supported by faith in Him. From a nursery one brings a little switch a few inches long. What is that? An oak. That an oak? Well, yes, it is the beginning of an oak, but leave it lying there on the table and presently it would dry and be good only for the fire; but plant it in the ground and it will grow to the stature of an oak. Take this man up and root him in God and no man can tell to what he will grow. That is the message. " I cannot? " You and God can; there is nothing that you and 20 God cannot do together. When He enters your life, points out to you your duty, calls you to your mis- sion, lays on you your burden, crowns you with suffering, He stands at your side and says to you, Together you and I can. " I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me." God of hope, fill us with Thine own spirit of hope- fulness, that we, not knowing Thy resources, may trust in Thee and in them, desire for ourselves what Thou dost desire for us, and be sure for ourselves, as Thou art sure for us, that if we fight with Thee we shall be conquerors and more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. Amen. BGLeligfon January Twenty-second I heard the other day two butterflies, on the edge of a flower, discussing. One said, " We cannot know there is any honey in the flower; no butterfly ever found it there, no butterfly ever will." The other said, " Well, nevertheless, I think there must be some." And while they debated it, gnostic and agnostic, a humming-bird flew in and ran his long bill into the flower, and sipped the sweet, and was gone. To debate whether there is beauty and truth in this Word of God, whether there is beauty and truth in the world, whether there is beauty and truth in the Christ that came from God — this is not relig- ion. " Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good " — that is religion. 21 We are not to be religious by coming out of the world, but by living aright in the world. There is not one of us who cannot bring something of this life to our fellowmen; no matter how arid your life is, no matter how dull it is, no matter how poor it is, it is possible for you to be the giver of life to your neighbor. January Twenty4hird No man can trust to another man to get religion for him. No priest or minister can supply your lack. No mother by her prayers can make up for your prayerlessness. No wife by her purity can furnish an equivalent for your worldliness. A business man goes from his home, works all day in his store, and comes home at night thinking nothing of his meals until he sits down to that which has been prepared for him by another's thoughtfulness. You cannot thus go through life, living in the world and unto the world, and trust at last to sit down at the marriage supper and partake because another has provided for you. Religion is partnership with God. The most irreligious work in the world is the religious work that has not God in it; and there is no truer religious work than the work of the statesman or the merchant or the lawyer, if he is working for God, and God is working with him. There is no such profanation as a pulpit that has not God in it, and there is no 22 more sacred ground in all the world than the lawyer's office if God is in it. Every bush has God in it. When our eyes are opened we see that it is all aflame ; and then we take our shoes from off our feet and know that we are on holy ground ; and it is only because we were before dull of vision that we did not see. fteligion January Twenty-fourth There is no escape from calamity, disease, and death; they are a part of the inevitable order of human life, and sooner or later on every head the tempest breaks. Thank God for the peace above the floods, for the safety beyond the storms, for the silence behind the uproar of the winds, for the calm seas at the heart of the typhoon. No human hand can stay the march of the elements, but the stricken can lay hold upon the Arm that moves the winds and clouds; no breakwater of man's building can keep back the rushing tides of sorrow, but the wrecked can look up into the face of One who walked upon the sea, and through clouds and darkness have vision of Him who bore the sorrows of the world that he might make his children feel the infinite love behind the mystery of suffering. That mystery God cannot explain to us, because the mighty range of his purpose sweeps be- yond the low horizons of our thought; but he put himself under the hard conditions of our mortal life, he has touched our sick ones, he has wept over our griefs, he has called back our dead that he might make us understand that our sorrows are his sorrows, 23 and that in the blackness of our affliction his love and power are preparing the dawn of an eternal joy. ftoiines;* unto tije Uorb January Twenty-fifth The common distinction between the secular and the religious has no real existence in the Christian faith. The Christian religion is the consecration of all one's activities to the service of God by the service of his children. Wherever God is is holy ground. The market-place is as religious as the church, the merchant as the minister, the supper-table as the altar. If we understood the meaning of the Bible, we who believe in it would be as eager to write " Holiness unto the Lord " upon the bells of our horses as upon the bells of our churches. . . . If one reads without preconceptions the story of Christ's life he will find that life full of what we ordinarily call secular activities. He heals the sick, he comforts the sorrowing, he feeds the hungry, as well as rebukes the sinful, forgives the repentant, and inspires with hope the discouraged and the despairing. On one occasion his friends had been fishing all night and caught nothing. In the early dawn they see a figure standing upon the shore and a little fire started there. It is their Master. And when they come on shore they find that he has prepared a break- fast for them; and not until they have eaten their breakfast does he give them any spiritual message. On another occasion they are sitting down to the supper-table with unwashed feet because no one of 24 them is willing to do the servile office for others, and he girds himself with a towel and washes their feet, that their meal may be taken decently and in order. I wonder how, after reading those incidents, any disciple of Christ can think that any service rendered to another is a menial service. JHJjat fe a Christian? January Twenty-sixth What is necessary is to believe that what Jesus Christ has come to do in the world is worth doing; to believe that the spirit in which he has undertaken that work is worth having; and, receiving that spirit from him, to give ourselves to the work to which he calls us. It is so to carry on our business that our industrial work will be glad tidings to the poor; so to carry on our social life that our hopefulness will be comfort to the broken-hearted; so to carry on our charitable work as to furnish help to those less for- tunate than ourselves — the blind, the deaf, the sick, the ignorant; so to carry on our political work as to make for liberty and justice. This is what Jesus Christ came to do. This is what in his too short life he did. He went about doing good. We have been so busy discussing his relation to the Infinite, the nature of his power, the question whether he performed the miracles at- tributed to him, that we have too often forgotten to consider the spirit by which he was actuated. Whatever his powers were, they were used in help- 25 ful service. If men were hungry, he fed them; if they were sick, he healed them; if they were ignorant, he taught them; if they were in despair, he gave them hope; if they were burdened by the sense of sin and the fear of penalty, he told them that their sins were forgiven them, and bade them go in peace and sin no more. ®i)p Sfngbom Come on Carti) January Twenty-seventh The church has been too apt to think that Christ came to prepare men on the earth for a celestial happiness in heaven; it has been too apt to preach a religion that prepared men to die rather than a relig- ion which fitted them to live; it has too often ac- cepted dismal conditions in this life as inevitable, and tried to content men with their present lot by promis- ing them a better lot hereafter. So did not Christ. So did not his immediate disciples. He told them to pray, " Thy kingdom come on earth; " and his disciples looked for a time when the kingdoms of this world would become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. What Christ proposes to his followers is that they combine in undertaking to establish on the earth a new social order by imbuing society with a new spirit — a spirit of righteousness or square dealing, which will lead every man to treat his neighbor as he would wish to be treated; a spirit of peace or good will, which will substitute cooperation for competition, 26 brotherhood for mutual hostility, the motto, In honor preferring one another, for the motto, Every- man for himself; and a spirit of joy in that holiness or healthfulness of life which comes from fellowship with the All-Father. CJjrtet tottf) SM* Jfrtenb* January Twenty-eighth The record which we possess of the Master's parting words to his disciples was probably written down by disciples of John, as his amanuenses, more than half a century after the event. To the literalist this will seem a great misfortune. To me these incomparable words are not less sacred because they represent the imperishable memory of the one dis- ciple whose courageous devotion to his Master kept him at the cross until his Master's death — the dis- ciple whom Jesus in that hour adopted as his son and to whom he intrusted the future care of his own widowed and heart-pierced mother. It was characteristic of Jesus that he made this hour of gloom the most luminous hour of his life's teaching, that he did not seek comfort from his disciples but gave comfort to them, and strengthened the courage of his own faith by imparting courage to their perplexed and troubled hearts. For the spirit always grows by imparting : we add to our courage by encouraging the timid, inspire our hopes by minister- ing to the disheartened, and make clearer our vision by telling others what we have seen. Faith in Abraham Lincoln has inspired the Ameri- 27 can people and made them what they would not have been but for Abraham Lincoln. Faith in Jesus Christ has made the world what it never could have been without Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of Chris- tian faith: it inspires in us the desire to encounter our dangers with his courage, to bear our burdens with his patience, to meet our temptations with his unyielding resolve, and to bear the consequences of others* sins with his suffering love. Cfjtlbren of <©ot* January Twenty-ninth Whatever life you are living, whoever you are, whatever you know or do not know, whatever work you have done or are not doing, whatever sins you have committed or are committing now, you are the children of God. You may turn away from your Father and abandon Him and refuse His authority, but still you are the children of God. You can break the moral relationship, but you cannot break the other — that is indissoluble, unalterable. You are the children of God. Come! Come! court no longer the darkness when the sunlight beckons you; stay no longer in the nest when the bright air without calls you; be content no longer unfledged in the nest when you might spread your wings and fly away. Come! Come! you are God's children. Come to your home; come to your father. 28 <©ofc tje architect of tfjt* Morlti January Thirtieth Beside my home they are building an apartment- house; there are piles of brick, and of stone, and of sand, and gatherings of cement and great timbers; the street is full of dust and noise and confusion; but the architect who has gathered them there knows what he is going to make out of them; he knows where the bricks are going, and where the stone, and where the sand and the cement; and when the work is done according to the architect's foreknowledge and pre- destination, we shall have a very different aspect in our street. So I look out on life full of confusion, but in the faith that there is an architect at work who knows what he is about, though I do not. What it will be I do not know; but I know this — that some- where in that structure I shall be a grain of sand; and that is enough. I will help in some way to hold together that great temple of God in which God will dwell; for he that filled the body of Christ while Christ walked on the earth will yet fill the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ, with his own spirit. Take me, then, O God, for I am but humble clay; take me and knead me and mold me and shape me and pattern me — aye, and put me in the furnace and burn me, so that I may come out in thy image and fulfil the sovereignty of thy love. 29 January Thirty-first Know ye not that your body is a temple of a holy spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? The body is a temple; in the temple dwells a spirit; this spirit came forth from God, is in the image of God, partakes the nature of God. " We are his offspring." How to keep the temple holy, that is, clean and healthy; how to keep this spirit that dwells within the temple a worthy occupant and the spiritual master of the body, is the problem of life. To answer those two questions would be to answer all the ques- tions of religion; would be to solve all the problems of life: the problem of the mother with her child, of the teacher with her pupil, of the citizen with the State, of the man of affairs in his affairs, of the in- dividual with himself. Life is making men and women. To know how so to live as to help, not hin- der life, to make the result of its businesses, its con- flicts, its temptations, a pure soul in a pure body, is to possess all knowledge and to achieve all success that is of worth, for all knowledge is to be measured by its contribution to life, and the end of all achieve- ment is character. February First The body is more than the habitation of man : it is his organ; the instrument by which he must do all his work in this life. . . . The body is more than either a habitation or an instrument of man. It 30 is the temple of God. It is his dwelling-place. He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain dwells in his children. Shame on us if we invite him to a house which he has wonderfully equipped, but which our wilfulness, our ignorance, or our neglect has suffered to fall into decay. Into what poor, unkempt, uncared-for temples we sometimes invite him! A clear eye, a clean skin, a firm step, a sweet smile, a ringing laugh, a blushing cheek, all speak of a pure, good, true soul within. There are times when one must sacrifice his body in order to serve a higher end, as does the soldier in battle or the physician in a pestilence ; but the general law of health is this : God has put the limits of your activity upon you by the machine which he has given you to use in that activity. You have no more right to overdrive it in your ambition until it breaks down, than you would to overwork your servant or over- drive your horse. And to use a stimulant of any kind as a lash with which to overdrive it is always both a folly and a sin. Let your moderation be known unto all men. Stye J?ob|> February Second God has so connected body and spirit, house and tenant, the temple and its divine inhabitant, that if the spirit corrupts the body, the body in turn cor- rupts the spirit; the tenant in destroying the house destroys himself. 31 Health of body is not merely muscular strength. An athlete is not the perfect model. That is a truly healthy body which in all its parts is promptly, cor- dially, unquestioningly obedient to a noble tenant which dwells within. The bodily organs are like the instruments in an orchestra, the spirit like the con- ductor; when each instrument plays as the conductor directs, life is harmonious. A healthy body is an obedient body; the eye sees what the spirit bids it see; the ear hears what the spirit bids it hear; the hand does what the spirit bids it do. But a healthy man is more than a healthy body. He is a healthy body obedient to a healthy spirit — that is, to a spirit obedient to the laws of God, which are the laws of health. If the body has an errant, lawless, or vicious master, it obeys to its own undoing and the undoing of its master. The laws of health are the laws of God. Obedience to the laws of health is obedience to God. Disobedience to the laws of health is dis- obedience to God. February Third The eye receives impressions; the hand performs actions. Christ tells his disciples that to receive an evil impression may be as sinful and as dangerous as to perform an evil action. This is not generally believed. We are accus- tomed to think of sin as doing something sinful; to regard sin and wrongdoing as nearly synonymous expressions. To sin passively appears almost a con- 32 tradiction in terms. Not so to Christ. We may sin in receiving impressions no less than in doing deeds. Sin is lawlessness. And law applies to the eye as well as to the hand; to the organs which receive as well as to the organs which act. To look on a neighbor's watch and desire to transfer it to one's own pocket is to be a thief; to look on a woman to lust after her is to be an adulterer; to look on an enemy with de- sire to take vengeance on him is to be a murderer. To desire evil is to be evil; and the evil eye inspires the evil desire. February Fourth It is physiologically true that environment tends to determine character. The child brought up among vulgar associates necessarily becomes vulgar; brought up among impure associates necessarily becomes im- pure. Necessarily — unless vigorous and efficient measures are taken to counteract the environment; that is, unless an efficient counteracting environment can be produced. Unless, for example, the father and mother can erase the vicious impression by sub- stituting in its place a virtuous one, or can arouse the will of the child to abhor the vicious picture and so prevent the picture from exerting a vicious influence on the will. And even then in later life the picture will return at times to plague him. It is for this reason that modern reformers are putting great stress on a change of environment, are demanding for the poor the external symbols of in- 33 ternal cleanliness. Clean streets, pure water, bright sunlight, are not only physically hygienic, they tend to moral hygiene as well. ... It is for this reason we are putting fine pictures on the walls of our school- rooms. They are not mere ornaments; they do not merely promote a good artistic sense in the pupils. They give through the eye impressions of " sweetness and light," and so help to make the pupil pure, by cre- ating in him a habit of pure taste and pure imagination. They are literally helping to determine the convolu- tions of his brain. tEfje Car February Fifth It is well to seek literature that requires hard thinking — the literature of elevated thoughts. There are times, no doubt, when the tired brain wants rest, when a story which is a " stop-thought " is welcome; times when the overworked spirit longs for sleep, and seeks what Thackeray calls a " night-cap." But to live with light and easy literature as our constant companion is to incite a habit of feeble-mindedness. If the story . . . entertains and at the same time degrades instead of inspires, if it makes vice attractive and virtue repulsive, if its ideals are not only false but vicious, it is a powerful instrument of vice. It is often said that we are a reading people. That proves nothing. Are we a thinking people? It is sometimes said by a fond mother of her boy that he is a great reader. That is nothing. Is he a great 34 thinker? Reading is a help to thought. The read- ing that is not a help to thought is time wasted. The boy who is reading and not thinking would much better be out at play with his fellows. I have no sympathy with the Puritan hostility to fiction. But the schoolgirl who makes her luncheon off chocolate caramels is poorly nourished physically. And if she makes novels her staple mental diet, she is poorly nourished intellectually. Moreover, there are adulterated novels as there are adulterated candies. There is enough classical fiction in the world well worth reading and rereading to make resort to trash unnecessary for recreation. I may add that the wise mother will not attempt to stop her children from reading fiction. She may limit it; if she is wise she will certainly guide it. STcrornaltem February Sixth Can you not see the tendency of this vile journal- ism? I do not say we shall reach the result (God grant that we do not!), but cannot you see what it means? First, we have yellow-covered stories that tell all awful horrors. When there has been educated a constituency by that literature and the boys and girls have grown to men and women there grows up a press that elaborates with great exaggeration all suicides, murders, and horrible crimes. Now we are feeding on those. Do you know what comes next? When Rome was no longer satisfied with mimic shows 35 of horror, she made real ones. When she was no longer sufficiently satisfied with the tragic stories, she made actual tragedies, flung over men to wild beasts in spectacular shows that she might rejoice in their agonies. That is the way in which we are walking. You cannot feed children on yellow-covered stories without raising men and women that want yellow newspapers; and you cannot feed men and women on yellow newspapers without kindling a passion that will want tragedy in actual life, and will make it when it does not come itself. Sfournaltem February Seventh We only need a public sentiment which will pro- tect from the crimes of the pen as it now protects from the crimes of the poniard ; which will hold every man who incites a mob to violence as an accessory, and every man who robs his fellowman of a deserved reputation as a criminal to be classed with the pick- pocket. A newspaper has no more right to despoil one of his reputation than a thief has a right to despoil one of his property. The robber of reputation is the more despicable criminal of the two. Freedom of the press means that the newspaper may print what it will without submitting beforehand its matter to a govern- mental censor. It does not mean that it may print what it will without being responsible afterwards for its falsehoods if it prints what is not true. . . . 36 Take heed what ye read would be a good danger- signal to print in large type across the front page of every daily paper. So long as the press counts itself simply a mercantile venture, so long as it is conducted on the principle of giving men what they want, so long as it abandons its high vocation to be a leader of men and a creator of life and panders to the passions of evil men, so long as it shows enterprise without discrimination and gathers in its grouping all manner of news, good and bad, noble and worldly, and throws it out in one great waste-basket before you every morning in the week, so long as it is doing this work — what shall we do? . . . We are to discriminate, take the clean paper, leave the unclean paper alone. GHfje Congue February Eighth Words are at once most transient and most perma- nent. They are vehicles of life. The vehicle perishes, the life remains. We forget the word; we retain the influence which it has communicated. A word is but a wavelet of the air set in motion by the lips of one and impinging on the ear-drum of another. And yet a word is also a revelation of one soul to another soul. Courage and fear, hope and despair, honor and shame, purity and foulness, reverence and profanity, are carried by these " winged words." Nothing is so evanescent, nothing so enduring. . . . It is not only Jesus who can say, Heaven and earth 37 shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away; every teacher of truth, every inspirer of life, may say it. . . . Jesus Christ was a great teacher, not because he delivered great orations, but because his words were the vehicle for a great life. February Ninth The tongue has changed the destiny of innumerable immortal souls. The drunken bookbinder is stag- gering along the streets of Worcester, hopeless, home- less, on the very verge of self-destruction. A kind hand is laid on his shoulder, a kind voice calls him by name and asks, " Why not sign the pledge, Mr. Gough? " " Words, mere words; " but they change the current of a life, and the drunken bookbinder becomes the apostle of temperance, and by his own " words, mere words," turns the current of the lives of innumerable thousands from death and destruc- tion to life, and hope, and peace, and God. The tongue has put courage into faltering hearts; has been a reinforcement to a timid army; has changed rout into victory. General Sheridan galloping down the Valley of the Shenandoah, and meeting his routed soldiers fleeing from the enemy, waves his sword in air and shouts, " Go the other way, boys! go the other way! " and they go the other way, and the defeat is made a victory by the power of the tongue, with a hero using it and enforcing it by his own example. 38 tEije Jf eet February Tenth If the time comes when it seems no longer worth while to bear the burden, or do the duty, or enter into the pleasures of the past — keep steadfastly on. If the pleasure no longer pleases, you may leave it. If the conventions of society require some abstinence from life as a token of respect to the dead, the respect may be paid. But lay aside no burden, discontinue no duty, abstain from no accustomed service for others. Comfort will be found, and only found, in keeping steadily, courageously, resolutely on with life. The way to light lies through the shadow ; the way to life through death. Light and life will not come to you; by pressing forward you will come to them. When in your perplexity you are tempted, meet the tempta- tion as Christian met it: " He began to muse what he had best to do. Sometimes he had half a thought to go back; then again he thought he might be halfway through the valley; he remembered also how he had already vanquished many a danger and that the danger of going back might be much more than to go forward; so he resolved to go on. Yet the fiends seemed to come nearer and nearer; but when they were come almost at him, he cried out with a most vehement voice, ' I will walk in the strength of the Lord God! ' so they gave back and came no further. " 39 ®l)e gppettteg February Eleventh Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. How can we eat and drink to the glory of God? Paul tells us that our body is a temple in which dwells a spirit which we have from God. This temple is in need of constant repair. We eat and drink to the glory of God when we so eat and drink as to keep it in good repair. Every act, physical or mental, destroys some tissue of the body. New tissue must be imported to take its place. This is one function of food and drink. The life of the body depends upon keeping up a certain standard of heat within. Food is fuel. This is another function of food and drink. When food and drink are so used as to make the body the best possible tenement for the spirit to inhabit and the best possible instrument for the spirit to use, we eat and drink to the glory of God. The appetites are not a sin. It is not sinful to enjoy a good meal. What is sinful is to allow our enjoyment to induce us to partake of a bad meal — that is, a meal that does not repair but impairs the body. &t'sl)t jftafeea iffltg&t February Twelfth Lincoln's birthday On February 27 [1860], Abraham Lincoln made his famous Cooper Union speech. ... I succeeded in getting a ticket and hearing the address. . . . My recollection of the scene is little more than a memory 40 of a memory: the long hall with the platform at the end, not at the side, as now; the great, expectant, but not enthusiastic crowd; the tall, ungainly figure, the melancholy face, the clear carrying voice, the few, awkward gestures. Reading over that speech now, I can discern in it elements of power w r hich I was in no critical mood to discern then: its Anglo-Saxon words, its simple sentence structure, its intellectual and moral unity, its steady and irresistible progress from premise to conclusion. But even then it seemed to me the most compelling utterance I had ever heard. . . . The spirit of Abraham Lincoln's address was embodied in its closing sentence: " Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to the end to do our duty as we understand it." Our free institutions are threatened by two foes: plutocracy and mobocracy, lawless wealth and lawless passion. These are the two serpents that have always come up out of the sea to strangle liberty. They destroyed Greece; they destroyed Rome; will they destroy America? America as a self-governing com- munity is as yet only in its experimental stage. We can hand it down to our posterity purified and strength- ened, only by being true to the oath which Abraham Lincoln. . . proposed to the young men of Spring- field, Illinois: "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others." We must recognize the divine nature of law and its sacred sanctions. 41 ®be imagination February Thirteenth Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. There is a disease known as locomotor ataxia. The limbs refuse to obey the will, and the arms and legs move, so to speak, according to their own un- controlled fancy. There is a locomotor ataxia of the mind. He who is afflicted with this disease — some- times called wandering thoughts — cannot control his thinking. His mental processes act, or seem to act, independently of his will. The lack of mental self-control, when carried to an extreme, becomes a form of insanity. The possession of mental self- control in its highest degree amounts to genius. The first end of education is, or ought to be, to train the mind to habits of lawful thinking — that is, to thinking in obedience to laws recognized by the mind and enforced by the will. To many persons the imagination appears to be, by its very nature, a lawless faculty; like a bird intended to flit hither and thither as it fancies, not to be directed or controlled in its flight. To many, an obedient imagination would seem like a contra- diction in terms. . . . The imagination is like the tendrils of a vine : trained on a trellis, it lifts the vine up into the air and the sunlight ; allowed to grovel on the ground, it fastens the vine to the earth, where worms crawl, bugs devour, and feet trample upon it. 42 iJHebttatmg on <©ofc in tfte i£igf)t ©Hatches February Fourteenth Insomnia has lost its dread since I learned the meaning of the Psalmist's declaration: " My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.' ' The man who spends his sleepless hours in such remembrance makes them joyful hours. He does not He tossing to and fro, wondering whether he shall ever fall asleep again, anxious lest he shall prove unfitted for the morrow's duties, trying to put himself to sleep by endless combinations of numbers or by repeating senseless rhymes : he lies restf ully and reads in the book of his remembrance the record of his Father's love, or looks calmly at the morrow's duties or the morrow's perils because he looks at them as through his Father's eyes, or communes with his own heart and in its uninterpretable experiences hears the voice of his Father, or simply is still and knows that God is God; and he finally falls to sleep as a child in his Father's arms, and wakes in the morning more refreshed by his hour of sleeplessness than by all that the hours of sleep have brought to him. ®f)e Conscience February Fifteenth It is not enough to follow one's conscience; it is also necessary to educate it. Blessed is the child who finds the hero in his own father or mother. He first idealizes, then reveres, 43 then imitates his hero, measures himself by the object of his hero-worship, brings his conscience up to the standard of a life higher than his own. He who would make and keep his conscience a light to guide his conduct and a force to form his character must apply it to his own life, not to the lif e of his neighbor. He must act on the aphorism, " Con- science for yourself, not for another." He who habitually employs his conscience as a measuring rod upon others in time loses the power to employ it as a measuring rod upon himself. Instead of taking a nobler life than his own by which to test his own con- duct, he uses his own life by which to test the lives of others. The twin evil spirits uncharitableness and self-conceit take possession of him, and equally unfit him to judge others or himself. Whz Conscience February Sixteenth Conscience should be a prophet rather than a historian. It should stand in the bow of the vessel to pilot it, not in the stern to cast the log. There are a great many persons to whom conscience is only a police officer: it hales them before the court after the deed is done, and submits them to inquisition to determine whether the doing was right or wrong. The time to interrogate conscience is in the morning before the day begins. It is well to forecast the day; to consider beforehand the questions that are likely to arise, to demand of conscience its judgments on those questions, and so to be prepared to meet them 44 with some measure of provision. This is better than to wait till the day is over and then pass its events in review and call on conscience to pass judgments on what can no longer be changed. That also may be sometimes wise, but chiefly as a preparation for similar events that are likely to recur in ensuing days. Conscience is intended to be our guide rather than our judge; and a judge only that it may be a better guide. Qtfje Conscience February Seventeenth Most important of all the conditions for keeping conscience sensitive and luminous is prompt obedience to its directions. The most common method of making the light that is in us darkness is a refusal to follow the light we have. The process is this: We adopt a course of conduct. Conscience protests. We disregard the protest. Thus we are at odds with ourselves. But to be at odds with ourselves becomes intolerable. We have refused to reconcile our con- duct with our conscience. Presently we begin to reconcile our conscience with our conduct. First we say, Everybody does it. Then, We must do it. Then, It cannot be very wrong to do what everybody does and what we must do. Conscience is corrupted. It was accuser; it becomes first apologist, then de- fender. The process of corruption is complete. The light that was in us has become darkness. Education of conscience by a nobler standard. Employment of conscience in self -judgment, not in judgment of others. 45 Prevision of conscience as a preparation for the future, rather than revision by conscience in judg- ment of the past. Prompt and loyal obedience to conscience. These are the four methods — perhaps, rather, I should say four of the methods — for keeping con- science a receiver and a giver of light to the life. Character February Eighteenth Out of the experience of your own folly, your own failure, and your own sin, with all that past behind you, you must move forward to your future. You can. Paul never could have written the Epistle to the Galatians if he had not been a proud, haughty, persecuting Pharisee. Saint Augustine never could have written the Confessions if he had not been first the roue Augustine. Luther never could have pinned the theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, if he had not been a superstitious monk. John B. Gough never could have been the missionary to two continents in the cause of temperance, and swayed men's hearts as he did sway them, if he had not lain drunken in the gutter and fought delirium tremens. What is a man to do when he has thrown away his life, when he has poison in his veins, when all the past influences and all the companions of the present enmesh him? Three things. First, repent of the sin, turn away from it, abandon it, say, " I will have no more to do with it." Second, repair the evil 46 so far as it can be repaired. Third, take the expe- rience of the past, and make it minister to the wisdom and the grace — ay, and I dare to say the glory — of the future. Virtue, not innocence, was Christ's aim, enlarge- ment, not diminution, of life his principle, victory over temptation, not escape from it, his method. tEfje Sntutttcm February Nineteenth The soul immediately and directly perceives the Infinite. " Spirit with spirit can meet." And, meet- ing with his Father and filled with the consciousness of the Everlasting Presence, the soul cries out, " Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee." The present age is called a sceptical age. In so far as it is skeptical the reason may be easily seen. We have allowed this spirit in us which immediately and directly perceives the invisible and the eternal to be quenched. We have been for the last century looking, not at the things which are unseen and eternal, but at the things which are seen and tem- poral. We have focussed our attention on the mate- rial world and dimmed our vision of the immaterial and spiritual world. He who cannot see God lacks, not sound philosophy, but spiritual vision. So far as this is a sceptical age it is so because it is too exclusively a scientific age. 47 ®t)e Sntuitum February Twentieth There are men of outsight — careful, skilled, trained observers — under whose guidance and direc- tion we put ourselves if we desire to investigate the external world. There are men of insight, with quick, sensitive spiritual vision, under whose guidance and direction we may well put ourselves if we desire to become acquainted with the invisible world. These men also tell us what they have seen; and their testi- mony is worthy of our consideration. Nor shall we find in literature any better interpre- tation of these spiritual visions than in portions of the Bible, nor anywhere in the Bible a better inter- pretation than in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The real and radical remedy for skepticism is a sincere, continuous, and persistent endeavor to ac- quaint ourselves with these ideals, and to shape some faint image of these visions of truth and beauty in our lives. What is peculiar to Christendom is an experience of forgiveness of sin, which has changed worship from a pitiful cry for mercy into a joyful song of thanks- giving. The test of a religious faith is, Does it work well? The spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ have worked well wherever they have been tried. The failures in Christendom can all be easily traced to the imperfect acceptance of those teachings and the im- perfect realization of that spirit. 48 0ux lUafcer February Twenty-first About eighteen centuries ago, a little band of twelve, with a Leader, who had chosen them to be His companions, were traveling through one of the provinces of Rome. They believed — and in that age it was a radical belief — that there was a good God who ruled the world and was going to bring order out of chaos and righteousness out of wrong. They believed, too, in their Leader, though they did not understand Him. What He said they thought was true; what He commanded they were ready to obey; whither He led, they desired to follow. He was surely worthy of their credence; for He never said anything for effect, never anything simply because He thought it would sound well or do good; but only what He believed to be the truth, and the absolute truth. He never commanded them except by the enunciation of laws which He interpreted in His own life and character ; He never asked them to go whither He was not willing to lead; and He never laid on them burdens which He was not ready himself to carry. They loved Him, though they did not under- stand Him. It was this Leader who uttered these words to this little band of twelve: " Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 49 political 3&e£pon*i&tlitie* February Twenty-second Washington's birthday Nor let any one think the ideal of a self-governing Republic is so high, so pure, so noble as to be imprac- ticable. Nobility never makes an ideal impracticable. The realities of achievement have always surpassed the ideals of the dreamers. Stephenson in his wildest flights of imagination never conceived the railroad system of Europe and the United States; Morse never dreamed of the electric communication fur- nished by the telegraph, the telephone, and the wire- less. The mastery of the ocean surpasses the antici- pation of the most sanguine inventors; the mastery of the air already accomplished by the aeroplanes and the dirigibles promises more for the future than any poems or prophecies of the past. Washington and his contemporaries could have had no conception of a Federal Republic overspreading a Continent and exercising a moral leadership not only throughout Europe but in the Orient. Not even the inspired Prophets and Apostles of the New Testament epoch could have dreamed of a time when the cross, an emblem of degradation, would shine on the domes and steeples of unnumbered churches and the name of Christian, given to an insignificant heretical Jewish sect in derision, would be a title of honor throughout the world. The young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams, and these visions and these dreams are calls to duty and to achievement. 50 W$t pernor* of $eace February Twenty-third Sometimes the warrior is a peacemaker. " If it be possible," says Paul, " as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Sometimes it does not lie in us; sometimes it is not possible. It did not lie in Christ to live peaceably with men who were de- vouring widows' houses and for pretense made long prayers; it was not possible for such a one as Christ to live peaceably with such false pretenders. It did not lie in Washington and his compatriots to live peaceably with the oppressive Government of Great Britain; it was not possible for them to live peace- ably with the oppressors of the American colonies. . . . " First pure, then peaceable," is a fundamental truth, and it involves another, namely, that purity is the only sure foundation for permanent peace. Christians are peacemakers — but they are not to stand for peace at any price; and they must recog- nize, and in our history have recognized, that there are worse things even than war, bad as that is. Peace is always desirable; but liberty is worth more than peace obtained at the cost of liberty. 0vlx Heaber February Twenty-fourth It was a wonderful choice, this choice of these peasant men to receive the gift of the kingdom; wonderful when you consider what that kingdom 51 seemed to be to the Leader who promised it. It was interpreted afterward by one of His disciples: " The kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdoms of the earth. That was the promise. He made it clear to them. The whole world, He said, is your vineyard; go, sow everywhere; go, preach the same glad tidings, the same hope that animates you preach to every creature in every part of the world. You are but the least of seeds, it is true, but you shall grow until at last the organization of which you are the beginning has overspread the world. You are but a little leaven, it is true, hidden away in three measures of meal; men do not see you, they do not know what is coming from you; but go, and your agitating presence shall go on and on until it has per- vaded the whole world and the whole world is changed by your presence in it. 0\xx Heaber February Twenty-fifth We have a Leader; not a dead leader, either — a living leader; a leader who is as truly a leader now as He ever was to the twelve of old; a leader as loyal to us as He was to them ; a leader who knows a great deal better than we know how far we fall short of His ideal and our ideal; a leader who understands our successes and our failures; a leader who is never dis- couraged or disheartened because of them, who never gives us up when we give ourselves up; a leader who 52 still companions us and loves us, and is in the midst of us and who still leads us. The story of His life is the story, first of all, of a man; a man who shows how a man can love and serve, and how a man can die; and we hear Him in His love and in His service and in His death, saying: " Follow thou me!" and we believe there is no life He has enriched we cannot enrich, no achievement He has accomplished we can- not accomplish, nothing which He has been we cannot be. 0ux Heaber February Tvienty-sixth Jesus Christ lived and suffered and died that he might bring a new organic life upon the world. Some- times he called it the kingdom of heaven, because it was the kingdom with which he was familiar. It was a kingdom of the celestial sphere ; a kingdom of love and service, which is the law of heaven. And some- times he called it the kingdom of God, because it was a kingdom in which all men's wills would be set, as his will was set, to do the will of the Father in heaven; in which the world would not be made up of many men with many minds and many purposes and many conflicting wills contending one with another, but in which the world would be made up with all men having one will, to do the will of the Father which is in heaven. This Christ was no mere good-natured philanthropist, traveling about from place to place, doing good as it was convenient, healing here a few sick, feeding there a few hungry, teaching a few ignorant. These were the incidents of his life. He 53 came into the world to do his Father's will, and he understood that the Father's will was the establish- ment of a kingdom that might be called the kingdom of heaven. Since it centers around God as the planets center around the sun, that might be called the kingdom of God. To this end he devoted himself with absolute singleness of purpose. ibmglene&s of Purpose February Twenty-seventh Singleness of purpose settles everything. And this is what Christ did : He did not go through the world lamenting that he could not have this luxury and that comfort, and so making sacrifices day by day and hour by hour. He once for all settled this; I am here to do the Father's will, to accomplish the Father's mission, to bring about so far as in me lies the kingdom of God on the earth; everything that helps that helps me, everything that hinders that hinders me. So it was nothing to him that he was poor. On the whole, the only way he could work was in poverty. And when men came to join him, he said, Leave your fishing nets and boats and follow me; and when the young man came who was rich he said to him, Sell your goods, give to the poor, take the same conditions that we have. It was nothing to him that he was shut out from the best society. He would have liked it; he would have enjoyed the best society. But he had settled once for all that he was in the world for a mission, and the best society of his time was against 54 the mission. He was not haunted by questions of fear as to duty. The one line of duty was fixed, and along that line he marched with undeviating tread. Nothing could disturb it. When he went to Jerusalem, and Thomas said, " Let us go and die with him," he did not halt. When Peter said, God forbid that you should be crucified! he said, Get thee behind me, Satan! When he was preaching, and the people said, He is crazy, and his mother tried to get him away, he simply sent out word, My mother, my brother, my sister are those that do the will of my Father which is in heaven, and went right on. ®vlx Heabet February Twenty-eighth Christ comes with this message to men : Work — it is not from fear; it is not for food or clothing or shelter; these are the mere incidents; work means service, and service means love, and love is the highest and greatest thing in the world. He comes to be the son of a carpenter; He does the common things of life; He calls common laborers about Him; He beckons and the fishermen leave their boats, and He says, Follow me and you shall catch men; He puts a new dignity into life; He sends forth His great apostle the tent-maker. Christianity went to free- men, to slaves, to men who never had thought life was worth living; and carried His message: There is something you can do with your industry, be not eye-servants, be not men-pleasers ; remember that you have a Master in heaven; remember that it 55 matters little for you whether you are a slave or a freeman since you are working for Him and He does appreciate and does pay love's wages. Have you ever seen the dust in the country road, when suddenly the sun breaks through the clouds and shines upon it, and all the dust is luminous and turned to gold? So this message shines upon this dusty highway of ours, and all the drudgery of toil turns golden when life and love and hope illuminate it. ®ut Heaber February Twenty-ninth And so he lived a joyous life. ... " Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in spirit, they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven." That is what he said, and that is what he believed. And he carried in his life the joy of one who inherited the earth, and, therefore, did not need to struggle for it; who saw God, and therefore did not need to enter into the theological debates about him; who was happy in persecution for righteousness' sake, because persecution for righteousness' sake hastened on the kingdom of righteousness on the earth. I know what Isaiah said — " man of sorrows and acquainted with grief " — but I also know that in the very last hour of his interview with his dis- ciples, when he was about to go up to the crucifixion, almost his last word was " My joy I give to you." 56 I know it is said that he wept, but never laughed. Yes, wept, but never for himself, never over his own sorrow; wept at the grave of Lazarus, as through that grave he saw the sorrows of other weeping ones through all the ages; wept, as out of the triumphal procession he looked down upon Jerusalem and saw the doom that awaited it; wept for others; while his heart was full of the joy of self-sacrificing service for his God. ®ux Heaber March First Thus in the world, seeking to know his Father's will, seeking always to do it, seeing as his Father's will the building up of a new order and a new king- dom in the world, a kingdom of love and of right- eousness and of purity, setting himself to this with a singleness of purpose that settled all questions of sacrifice instantly and forever, living this life joyously, referring to the sports of children, to the dancing and merry-making of the harvest, to the festival occasion, always with approbation, never with contempt — this Christ lived in the kingdom about which he taught. The kingdom of heaven was not to him a kingdom in the future to which by and by he was going, nor a kingdom up above him from which he had descended and to which he would return again; he lived in the kingdom of heaven. He was in it, and therefore he had the joy that was the life of it. 57 ©uv ILzabtv March Second " I have meat to eat that you know not of," he said to his disciples, " you will scatter and leave me alone, and yet I shall not be alone, for the Father is with me." And when they saw him transfigured on the mountain top, they were not surprised; it seemed the most natural thing that this man who had walked with them as a man from another sphere should be seen for this moment as in the other sphere, trans- figured, luminous. And so he lived a double life; for while he lived in the kingdom of heaven he lived on earth. Most human was he, most thoroughly human, ministering to men, coming down to men, really coming to them, really entering into their life, really sharing it, a man among men. No simple mover here and there as opportunity chanced for him, but one who of deliberate and set purpose entered into the human life and shared it with hu- manity. Nothing, nothing, no folly, no ignorance, no sin could separate him from men. He spoke sometimes with weariness, he spoke sometimes with wonder, he spoke sometimes with indignation, but never did he speak of men with contempt. He respected men. draper March Third Father — who hast given us Thy Son to be our Comrade, sharing our joys and our sorrows, our 58 imperfect knowledge and our imperfect strength, our trials and our temptations, sharing everything except our sins, we believe in him, in his life, his love, his mission. Are we too venturesome if we dare to ask for ourselves what Thy Son has asked for us? We are Thine: have us in Thy keeping. We ask not that Thou shouldest take us out of this sinning and sorrowing world; but, Father, give us the strength to share with Thy Son the burden of the world's sins and sorrows, that with him we may conquer the evil that is in the world. Dying, he has sent us into the world to carry on the work which Thou gavest to him and to us to do. By Thy truth make us holy and undefiled, as He was holy and undefiled. Abide in us as Thou didst abide in him, that we may be made perfect in him with Thee. Is he not still in the world, redeeming the world? Suffer us, though we are not yet holy and undefiled, to be with him in his great mission, understanding his glory because we share it with him — the glory of his love, his service, and his sacrifice. And this we ask for his sake who is our Leader in the great campaign. Amen. Cfjriat March Fourth For forty years at least I have been making the life of Christ the center of my study, — the Bible the book I have studied most, the New Testament that half of the Bible which I have studied most in the Bible, the life of Christ that portion of the New Testament which I have studied most in the 59 New Testament, with such time, such patience, such interest and such enthusiasm as I could command, — and the more I have studied it the grander his life has seemed to me, the more and more trans- cendent, the more and more wonderful, until it seems to me no longer unreasonable, — once I thought it was, or, at least, wondered whether it was, — it seems to me no longer unreasonable to believe that this good God, who has created the intellectual order in the material universe, who has created the moral order of the moral universe, who has spoken in frag- mentary and broken voices and shown himself in shadowy lights, reflections from a mirror seen darkly in human experience, has shown himself to the world of men in this one central, splendid, lowly life. Mftat fa a&eltgton? March Fifth What have we learned of this Jesus of Nazareth from whose cradle sprang this whole wonderful growth that we call Christianity? and we have answered Saviour — that is what we have found. When we compare ourselves with this Jesus of Naza- reth what do we find about ourselves? and we have answered, sinner — that is what we have found. When we consider what this Saviour has done for us, when we consider what service he has rendered to us, how shall we express that? and the answer has come back, Forgiveness — that is what we have found. And these four articles embody the article of the Christian faith: Father, Saviour, Sin, For- 60 giveness. We have elaborated it; we have added def- inition on definition and definition on definition; but, after all, the four great articles of the Christian creed are just those — Father, Saviour, Sin, Forgiveness. Religion is reverence toward the Father, love toward the Saviour, hate toward the sin, acceptance of the forgiveness. It is the life of faith, not a definition of what other people have found through their faith. Cartel's £ato of Uobt March, Sixth Christ did not forget that some care of self is neces- sary for the largest, truest, and noblest self-sacrifice. When with his disciples he had come near the city, he did not hesitate to stop because he was tired, and rest himself, while he sent his disciples forward to do the lesser service, to bring back food for their common need. He hired a little fishing-boat, and used to go off and take exercise on the lake for rest. He called his disciples to go abroad with him for a trip across the lake, that he might hide himself in the wilderness; when the people followed after him, he came back across the sea, and went to Phoenicia to seek hiding in that foreign province; when he could not be hid there, he went up into the northern mountains, that he might there find rest, and in rest strength for new work. No! love is not always self -forget fulness. Repose of spirit, recurring periods of absolute rest, are as necessary for the hearts and minds of men and women as for the fields and meadows. 61 ®f)e (great Companion March Seventh The last time before his death that Peter looked on Jesus was as Jesus was being led out from the court of Caiaphas to Pilate's judgment-seat, and the oaths and curses with which Peter was denying his Lord were still trembling on his lips. The first time after his resurrection that Peter saw Jesus was by the Galilean Sea, when the Master asked the disciple, Do you love me? as many times as the disciple had denied the Master. Christ recalled the past, burnt it in upon Peter's memory, probed his heart to the uttermost, despite the hurt of the probing. But he did it only that he might add emphasis to the in- struction, " Feed my sheep. ..." The Great Companion is still our Companion, although we have sinned. That is the Gospel. He is what Jesus was, The Friend of sinners. He has taken the burden of our sins upon himself. We are to show our love and loyalty to him by allowing him to take that burden, without attempting to take it from him. Go out in Christ's spirit and take upon yourself the burden of others' sins, and let him take the burden of yours. You cannot alter the past: leave that to him; give yourself to the future. You cannot earn the remission of your sins: accept it as his free gift; then, inspired by gratitude and love to him, go forth to carry the remission of sins to others. This is the answer to the question, How shall we regain our Great Companion? 62 Cfjrtet'* Mte&ion March Eighth Christ came, he tells us himself, that he might give life, and that out of that life all things might grow that the world needs, of institutions, whether of thought or of organism. . . . He cam'e not to establish rules for the guidance of men. . . . He came to inspire them with a moral life of faith and hope and love, out of which their own moral life and conduct should blossom forth. . . . He came ... to breathe upon them and brood in them a great spiritual life, that should phrase itself in all varied forms of utterance. . . . He came that he might live among men — not merely during one short guesthood of thirty years, and then go away as though his work was done: he came that through the open door of their highest needs he might enter into human life and dwell in it evermore, transforming man by his own infinite personality. No barrier could separate him from his fellow-men. It was deemed in that time irreligious to teach pagans. He spoke to pagans as well as Jews. It was consid- ered indecorous to preach religion to women; he never hesitated to preach to women. No moral degradation was sufficient to separate man or woman from his sympathy. The woman that was a sinner, the woman that to-day scarce any man is willing to recognize as a hopeful object of redemption, to her he brought the words of hope; to her he said, Go, and sin no more; thy sins be forgiven thee. 63 Christ's jflteimt March Ninth Christ's mission was twofold, — individual and social; to make men worthy to be called the chil- dren of God, and also to make a state of society on the earth worthy to be called the Kingdom of God. . . . Jesus Christ's object was not to save some — few or many — from a wrecked and lost world ; it was to recover the world itself and make it righteous. The Lamb of God whom John the Baptist saw came, not to take away some sin from some men, but the sin of the world. Christ taught his disciples to pray that God's name might be hallowed, his kingdom might come, his will might be done, on earth as in heaven. There is no man in all this world who is not worth working for, since Christ has worked for all; no man in all this world who is not worth dying for, since Christ has died for all. All men are God's children. To live, to suffer, to serve, to die for the feeblest, the poorest, the most ignorant, the most unworthy, is to die, to live, to suffer, to serve one that has in himself the unde- veloped germs of infinite worth. Cfcrist'* JWteaion March Tenth He came to put into government an electricity that should purify it, into the family a love that 64 should make it sacred, into society a majestic force that should draw it together and save it from its own anarchy. He came, in a word, to bring God into the consciousness and life of men. And he still comes, to give wisdom for ignorance, strength for weakness, goodness for badness, love for selfishness and passion. He comes to give hope to the despairing, and health to the sick, and rest to the weary, and life to the dead. He is a physician. Christianity is medicine. The sum and substance of Christianity is salvation. The great good news of the Bible is this: men are saved from the burdens of their present life; they are saved from the darkness of their skepticism; from the bondage of their superstition; from the cruelty and the inhumanity of their selfish natures; from the weakness of a will that cannot hold them firm and strong in the midst of temptation; from sin here and now. tCfje &mgbom of April Tenth Has it never occurred to you that perhaps the reason why men do not believe there is immortality is that they are not living an immortal life? The seed in the ground — how long does it lie there wondering whether the sunlight will ever come to it? No! no! It bursts up and reaches out toward sun- light and life. Here is a long row of witnesses, by the hundreds and the millions, who bear their testimony: he has borne our sins; he has carried our iniquity; he has taken off our burden; he has taken the sorrow out of our heart; he has put a new song on our lips. 92 Run up your signal; you do not know where he is? Throw up your arm; trust the voices of men who say to you that on this great ocean of life where you are tossing and think you are alone, you are not alone. We have been where you are; we have given out our signal; the active arm has been reached out to us; we have been helped. (gob ti)e Snbtetble ij9otoer April Eleventh This power to look at the things which are unseen is the secret of all human influences which survive the grave. ... I was in active life during Abraham Lincoln's Presidency. I do not hesitate to affirm that Abraham Lincoln's influence to-day is much greater than it was during the Civil War. It was then confined to America; it is now as wide as the world. . . . Of all the influences which have come down to us from the past none is so great as the influence which comes from Jesus Christ. He is a far greater power in the twentieth century than he was in the first. His influence is confined to no Church and to no country. . . . What is the secret of this invisible world in which we five? What is the secret of this invisible power which rules in all the material world and in all human history which we must see if we are to control the material world or successfully guide the world of men? God. 93 <§ob April Twelfth As I think of God universally, continually, day by day, hour by hour, creating, so I think of him not ruling over the creation which he has made, but ruling in it, as my spirit rules in my body; omni- present in the universe, as my spirit is omnipresent in my body. He is still here, still pouring into them the treasures of his illimitable life. The question is not, What can you do? but, What can you and God together do? not, What can you do apart from him to win your way to his favor? but, What can you do as the recipient of his favor? Christ in us is the hope of our glory. God possesses a character such that he is forever going out of himself, like the shepherd after the lost sheep, that he may pour his own life-currents into every willing, wistful child. <©ob April Thirteenth He that bears with divine patience a heavy burden shows every witnessing soul how lighter burdens may be borne. The most sacred of all ordinations is the ordination of sorrow; the most glorious of all offices is the office of burden-bearer. God is laying on you what he laid on his well-beloved Son; he is honoring you as he honored his well-beloved Son. 94 The burden which Christ bore for the whole world you are bearing for your little world. The cross which Christ has laid down you have taken up. He who believes that God is in his world, that above all earthly plans and purposes there is One who gives to his children their ideals and inspires them with their courage, and that history is in very truth the working out of his plans for his children, will find despair for the world impossible. He who looks back only four years may find in those four years food for his doubts and discouragements, but he who looks back a hundred years must have a great genius for pessimism if he can doubt in what direction the unseen forces are carrying the human race.