i '4398* LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap. Copyright No. ShelfjiX.€>33^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. VOX SPEI VOX SPEI WILLIAM ANDREW PERRINS Author of " Pencil Pictures," " Problems of To-day,' 1 "Useful Studies," etc " Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, And hope without an object cannot live." — Coleridge PUBLISHED IN BEHALF OF THE BUILDING FUND OF THE BAP- TIST CHURCH, BEDFORD, OHIO • Copyright, i8q8 William Andrew Perrins 18938 B^OCOPltSBtCtlVED* C' > a fX ' Cop£* DEDICATED TO THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BEDFORD, OHIO IN TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR MANY KIND DEEDS TO THEIR PASTOR: ALSO TO MY WIFE WHO HAS BEEN THE SOURCE OF MUCH JOY TO MY LIFE Contents Page Preface 9 Christ and Politics 13 Christ and Theological Thought . 31 Christ and the Church .... 49 Christ and the World's Thought . 67 "The Imitation of Christ" ... 83 "Pilgrim's Progress" . . . . 99 "The Analogy of Religion" . . 119 "The Christian Year" . • . .137 Preface These addresses are published at the urgent and unanimous solicitation of the members of the First Baptist Church, Bedford, Ohio. Through the sale of this publication, they hope to clear the indebtedness on the new church-building. The general aim of these addresses is to state, as briefly as possible, the main features of the sub- jects under discussion, with the desire to strengthen our hope in ' ' the event- ual victory of the good and the great. ' ' The author, therefore, sends this vol- ume forth on its twofold mission, with the hope that the debt will be cleared, and that the outlook of every reader will be made brighter than ever before. W. A. P. First Baptist Church, Bedford, Ohio, October, 1898. "But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes with the twist- ing; that the State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen." — Emerson. " Man is by nature a political being. ' ' — Aris- totle. " To man the Creator has assigned the social and the political state as best adapted to develop the great capacities and faculties, intellectual and moral, with which He has endowed him." — Calhoun. " The freedom of the people, or political freedom, presumes also that the political order shall conform to the will of the political peo- ple." — Mulford. "Where political life is all-pervading, can practical politics be on a lower level than public opinion? How can a free people which toler- ates gross evils be a pure people? " — Bryce. Christ and Politics Zeck. 4 : 10 (part) The Bible is preeminently a religious book, a book that has to do with the Christian and higher character of the world. It is, nevertheless, a book that is intimately associated with, and has a tremendous hold upon, the domestic, commercial, and political life of hu- manity. The text is a bold illustra- tion of this truth. The Hebrew people had wilfully and woefully declined from the observance of heavenly and righteous laws ; they had partly disas- sociated themselves from the conscious rule and government of God. Now God, through the agency of Zerub- babel, God's politician to this people, makes His intentions clear, while in every age and among every people God has a representative in the political action of the day, a man who is unself- 14 VOX SPEI ish in his ambitions and enthusiastic- ally consecrated to the higher political purposes of the people; such men as Bismarck in Germany, and Gladstone in England, and Lincoln in the United States. The incident in which Zerubbabel figures so prominently is simple in the extreme. Zerubbabel holds a plum- met in his hand ; and the part played by the plummet in the erection of a building is analogous to the govern- ment of the political life of the nation and the world by the divine law, so wonderfully set forth in the Bible. The plummet used in the erection of a building is of stone and tin, and its fre- quent application to the building will disclose the accuracy or inaccuracy of the wall. The plummet used by Ze- rubbabel was the law and thought of the Almighty applied to the politi- cal thought and action of the people. Thus, then, we arrive at a conclusion which is usually neglected, sometimes VOX SPEI ic ignored; namely, that all life, whether domestic, or intellectual, or commer- cial, or political, has its origin in the great wisdom and unfailing beneficence of our Father and our God ! Domestic life which is the scene of perpetual discord, is domestic life without the presence of God and the controlling influences of the Christian religion; intellectual life without the " wisdom that is from above," is intellectual life devoid of the noblest and the sweetest expressions to the mind of mankind ; commercial life which is the scene of dishonesty, the center of a wilful rascality, is commercial life as openly infidel and as treacherously criminal as France in the eighteenth century and as Turkey of to-day ; and political life which does not acknowl- edge the presence of the Almighty and the supremacy of the Law of God, political life that is fostered on personal gain and personal ambition, — such politics are an injustice and a cruelty, 16 VOX SPEI and such politicians are condemned before God and are held in contempt by the people everywhere. Emer- son, in the introduction to his essay on Politics, with marvelous insight and noble conception, puts this same thought in the following way: — " Gold and iron are good To buy iron and gold; All earth's fleece and food For their like are sold. Hinted Merlin wise, Proved Napoleon great, — Nor kind nor coinage buys Aught above its rate. Fear, Craft, and Avarice Cannot rear a State. Out of dust to build What is more than dust, — Walls Amphion piled Phoebus stablish must. When the muses nine With the Virtues meet Find to their design An Atlantic seat, By green orchard boughs Fended from the heat. VOX SPEI 17 Where the statesman ploughs Furrow for the wheat; When the Church is social worth When the State-house is the hearth, Then the perfect State is come, The republican at home.' , Now, I have a few plain statements to make. The first is : Our nation is preeminently a gift, and the gift is ac- companied by limitations from the Giver. Those of you who are familiar with the early antecedent history of this country and the first and early struggles of our forefathers will read- ily see this truth. The political and religious disruptions of the old world were not devoid of a significant mean- ing and a great purpose ; the landing of the Pilgrims on the shore of this new world was not a chance of the wind or a caprice of navigation; the forthcoming of Governor Winthrop, of William Penn, and a long list of cour- ageous Christian men and women had a meaning to after-generations: it 18 VOX SPEI meant that God gave us this country, and that He had a keen interest in its larger growth and its more complete development. The second statement I have to make is this: Our statesmen, our politicians, who do not understand this divinity in our national origin and this divine rule in our development, have a wrong con- ception of their office, and their conclu- sions retard our growth in the right- eous, the right direction. This, there- fore, leads me to a statement which I have not heard made anywhere, which statement I announce with all the em- phasis of my being, and which is en- forced by the truth of the Christian Scriptures, the loud and clear voice of history, — this is the statement: Our halls of Civic and State and National Legis- lature ought to remind us of a temple, and no man ought to be a statesman or a poli- tician who is not a devout Christian, a Christian Gentleman. I am not a pessimist, I am not an VOX SPEI 19 alarmist, I am not a fanatic, when I say that politics in America are cor- rupt, and politicians, with some few exceptions, are devoid of complimental and exalted character. They are bribed in every direction; they have no spirit of probity or self-respect or manly dignity. Politicians are the servants of the city or the State or the nation, and as such they are continu- ally bribed. Hence soldiers* half- tanned shoes give way, as they did recently, on a march; their shoddy coats became faded and soon fell to rags, while their tinned provisions were found to be rotten. Money finds its way into the treasury of the politician frequently; thus the man on a small salary becomes rich in a short time. An inventor once suggested a method of registering the number of persons entering the London omnibuses, but the president was unable to entertain such a method. " It is of no use to us," the president said; " the machine 20 VOX SPEI which we want is one that will make our men honest; and that, I am afraid, we are not likely to meet with/' Yes, we want a machine in politics which will make our politicians honest, but such a machine we cannot find. What, then, will make our politicians honest? Nothing but the highest motive, a mo- tive that has its origin in the mind of God, a motive that is supreme because it is such as the Savior Himself pos- sessed. We want politicians who will refuse to be bought, and even the poorest must be inspired by a sense of duty, and refuse to sell themselves for money. It was among the North American Indians a wish for wealth was considered unworthy of a brave man, so that the chief was the poorest of the tribe. The best benefactors, the noblest politicians of the race have been poor men, — among the Hebrews, the Greeks, and among the Romans. Elijah was at the plow when called to be a statesman and a prophet, and Cin- VOX SPEI 21 einnatus was in his fields when called to lead the armies of Rome. Socrates and Epaminondas were among the poorest men of Greece; so were the Galilean fishermen, the founders of our common Christianity. Aristides was called cl The Just" from his unbend- ing integrity. His sense of justice was spotless and his self-denial unimpeach- able. He fought at Marathon, at Sala- mis, and commanded the army at the battle of Platea; and though he filled the highest office the State had to offer yet he died a poor man. Nothing could buy him ; nothing could induce him to swerve from his duty. Would to God that the mantle of Elijah would fall upon our politicians, the purpose of Cincinnatus possess them, and the spirit of Aristides control them all to-day ! Notice, then, that the politician should have a right conception of the nation. The nation is not mere mate- rial or territorial limitations, it is not merely so many mountains, so many 22 VOX SPEI rivers ; it is not so much land for rail- roads and agriculture and commerce; the nation is not to be regarded u asan artifice which man has devised, nor an expedient suggested by circumstances, to secure certain special and temporary ends." The nation is frequently de- scribed as the highest contrivance of human skill, and government as the cunning or clumsy device for the accom- plishment of certain personal and peri- odical advantages. The nation is the moral, the intellectual, and the spirit- ual life of man. " Man," says Aris- totle, " is by nature a political being/' All the elements of the nation are in his nature, and its progress is in the de- velopment of his character. Yes, the most exalted ingenuity could not have planned the American nation, and it is not to be counted among the achieve- ments of our great wisdom; yes, the nation is in the man, and every man is the wisdom, the beneficence, the prod- igality of God himself ! VOX SPEI 23 The politician, then, is to under- stand this high conception of the nation if he is to use his privileges acceptably before his Maker and his fellow-man. Is it not true that the character of the nation is very frequently outlined in the lives of its foremost citizens ? Thus we see Rome in Caesar, and Greece in Pericles ; wipe Germany from the na- tional life of Europe, and you can tell what were Germany* s commanding traits as you read them in the life of Count Bismarck; and the urbanity, the intellectual preeminence, the cour- age and devotion of England are all wrapped up in the life of England's greatest son, William Ewart Gladstone ; while the national life of America has a truthful advocacy in the character of such men as Webster, Garrison, Beech- er, and many more. The nation, then, is not a mechanical contrivance, it is not a machine : the nation is a liv- ing, a pulsating, the nation is a sacred organism ; the nation is a life through 24 VOX SPEI which God is working out His infinite purpose for the world; the nation is intellect and will and emotion and heart, and these are gifts from a propi- tious and all-powerful God; and the highest conception of the nation is divine love, the rule of society, and Christ among its citizens. Notice, still further, the politician is to ignore the demands of party. The party spirit in the politics of the United States is the paralysis of our national life. There are men to-day in the halls of our National Legislature who are devoted to party, so controlled by their leader that they fail to find any good outside their narrow limitations. James Bryce, in his American Common- wealth, devotes nearly 250 pages of his excellent book to the party system in the politics of this country. The great writer and statesman makes it clear that this is our great danger, and in the end will destroy our higher and highest national life. History fur- VOX SPEI 25 nishes examples of this truth. Greece gathered around one or two individ- uals, they adopted the system of phi- losophy or morals which these leaders had to offer ; and Rome went in haste after the military leaders, whose tac- tics were questionable to the humane and civilized of that day. Thus it was that Greece died with Pericles and Rome passed away with Caesar, "Who for the universe narrowed his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. ' ' He, then, is the noblest politician who can discern good in whatever sphere, and who will stand by the right, whatever may be the conse- quences. He, then, is the cleanest and the most courageous politician who deems his duty above party, and whose conscience is his leader. Devo- tion to party system has its illustration in the Nihilists of Germany and Rus- sia, and the Communists of France; 26 VOX SPEI devotion to duty, to what is right, has its illustration in the Huguenots, the Pilgrims, and the noble men who stood for liberty fifty years before the Civil War. Such a politician draws his wis- dom from the New Testament, and the Christ is the inspiration of his life. He is the best politician who is not a prig, but a prophet and a priest, a man who is the medium of the interpretation and application of the decalogue to the highest interests of the people. Notice, again, that the politician is to despise personal enrichment. When the secession from the Scotch Church took place, Norman Macleod said it was a great trial to the flesh to keep by the unpopular side, and to act out what conscience dictated was the line of duty. Scorn and hissing greeted him at every turn. ' l I saw a tomb to-day, ' ' he writes in one of his letters, " in the chapel of Holyrood, with this inscrip- tion: 'Here lies an honest man.' I only wish to live in such a way as to VOX SPEI 27 entitle me to the same inscription/ ' It is such a spirit we want to dominate our politicians, and such a spirit is born only in close contact with the honest Divine Man, Jesus Christ, our Lord! Phocion, the great Athenian general, a man of great bravery and foresight, was surnamed " The Good/' Alexander the Great, when overrun- ning Greece, endeavored to win him from his loyalty. He offered him riches, and the choice of four cities in Asia. The answer of Phocion bespoke the spotless character of the man. " If Alexander really esteems me," he said, 1 ' let him leave me my honesty. " And, though Phocion lived over 2,300 years ago, yet he lives to-day, and his honest political convictions are operative at the close of the nineteenth century. Macaulay, whose History of England is a great fascination to the American people, is an example of honesty and the success that attend a true political career. When earning only $1,000 a 28 VOX SPEI year by his pen, Sydney Smith wrote of him in this way : l i I believe that Macaulay is incorruptible. You might lay ribbons, stars, garters, wealth, titles before him in vain. He has an honest, genuine love for his country, and the world could not bribe him to neglect her interests. ' ' Such men love the Christ and acknowledge His great supremacy; such men consult the Bible, and not Blackstone; such men look God in the face and say, " I want to do my duty, and I will, with the help from Thee." "Creeds are good. Theologies are good. But creeds however scriptural, and theologies however sound, are not of themselves enough. 1 1 adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches ' is not a formula that will exorcise the evil spirits and make the men who hear obedient to the faith.' ' — Greer, " Revelation is not meant to satisfy mere curi- osity or the idle desire to know. It shines above us like the stars, but, unlike them, it shines to be the guide of our lives." — MacLaren, "He [Christ] taught the highest theology, but He also placed Himself at the very centre of His doctrine, and He announced Himself as sharing the very throne of that God whom He so clearly unveiled." — Liddon, " Do not ask for the solution of the difficul- ties by which theologians have been perplexed and divided \ try to know at first hand — to see for yourselves — the facts about which the Church is agreed." — Dale, "Young men, your business is to preach Christ; it is not your calling to deal with subtle distinctions, Christ is your theology." — Spur- ge on. Christ and Theological Thought / Thess. j : 21 These words introduce us to one of the most thoughtful writers of the New Testament. The manliness, the superiority, the activity of Paul's in- tellect is nowhere more manifest than in his epistles to the Church at Thessa- lonica. Paul, more than any other writer in the early Church, had given careful attention to the ' ' credentials, ' ' to the truth of revelation, to the au- thority the Church had for its existence among the people. In his letters the Apostle Paul reveals his scholarship, and it is these writings which give him a place readily among the great- est philosophers of the day. But no one to-day will dare to call the Apos- tle Paul a " critic," as " higher criti- cism" had not yet been introduced 32 VOX SPEI into the thought of the Church, and such language had not yet found its way into the vocabulary of the people. So it is possible to give the unceasing attention of the greatest intellectual powers to the examination of the thought and sacred text of the Scrip- tures, and yet not be listed with those writers that bear the unfortunate titles, ' ' Bible critics, " l ' higher critics, ' ' "constructive critics,' ' and " destruc- tive critics/ ' I say rightly " unfortu- nate titles," because it is not the purpose of a large number of this school to be harsh and unfavorable in their judg- ment. It is unfortunate that many of these Christian scholars should be termed critics, as criticism is a word around which the common people throw an undesirable and unpalatable meaning. The " Bible critic " is usu- ally thought of as carrying in his hand a knife with which he is supposed to lacerate the text of the Scriptures, and with which he cuts away that which is VOX SPEI 33 food to the higher and nobler, the re- ligious nature of mankind. I think, therefore, that it would be wiser to apply different terms to these religious scholars ; and those who are favorable to the Christian Scriptures, who are anxious to remove the debris which, during these hundreds of years, has accumulated around the precious stone, the jewel that sparkles with the lustre of the noonday sun, — such Christian scholars I would term " Christian apologists." And such scholars as tell us that the account of the creation is a great myth, that Job is but a fancy of the intellect, that the Book of Jonah is but a piece of ancient fiction ; such scholars who refer to the Old Testa- ment as ' ' rich alike in legends and myths," and who say that "we take as examples the stories of the first human pair, the Fall, Cain and Abel, the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, God's appearance to Abraham, and Jacob's wrestling," that "these stories have 34 VOX SPEI no historical foundation whatever/ ' — such scholars I would term " destruc- tive critics/ ' critics who lack the sym- pathy which comes from close fellow- ship with the Lord Jesus Christ. These destructive critics have their home in Germany, with some few fol- lowers in England and in the United States. The scholarship of Germany has never been noted for its deep spirit- uality, for its expression of devotion to the great religious interests of the Kingdom of the Lord Christ. I can- not detail all the destructive points in the so-called " scientific criticism/ ' the ' i historical criticism ," or the ' * mod- ern criticism ' of Germany. We no- tice that these German critics treat the greater, the most important, parts of the Old Testament as mere legends. They refer to the first chapter of Gene- sis as a "legend;" the account of Enoch, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, is spoken of as " invented by the writ- er himself," and " we can no longer VOX SPEI 35 accept his statement as true." Such writers refer to the Flood, in the sixth chapter of Genesis, in such language as this : ' ' We cannot give any high position to the legend itself." Speak- ing of the historical movements of the Children of Israel, these German schol- ars use the following language : ' * The Exodus, the wandering, the passage of the Jordan, the settlement in Canaan are simply impossible ; the representa- tion of all this is absurd. The repre- sentation of the Mosaic times and of the settlement in Canaan given us is, as a whole, contradicted by veritable history; genealogies are as unhistor- ical and artificial as those of the chron- icler." " The great majority of the writers of the Old Testament have no other source of information than simple tradition. ' ' Such criticism is an open blasphemy, and at the same time be- trays an unsympathetic heart and a wilful, irreligious thought. Such crit- icism is to be dreaded more than a 36 VOX SPEI bloody massacre. A physical massacre is violence only to the material, and is the destruction of bodies which one day must die; while this destructive criticism seeks to disturb the peace that has been purchased for us by the suf- fering of our fathers, and to torture and even destroy the life that has come to us through the death of the Lord Christ, the gift of the Father's love to the world. Such criticism is to be feared more than the scourge of a dreaded pestilence, it is to be shunned more than any dire disease. This destructive criticism shows itself further in its attempt to minimize the importance of truth as truth, in their crafty procedure to eliminate the seri- ousness, the great solemnity there is contained in the moral action of the Almighty in His relationship to the world. They teach the universal rela- tion of man to God without the great action of redemption by the Savior and regeneration on the part of the Holy VOX SPEI 37 Spirit ; they tell us that Christ is only the highest development of humanity, that He is a martyr for the truth, and thus an example for universal imita- tion ; they tell us that sin is a misfor- tune and a disease, and must be treated, through the aid of the latest scientific development, as any other disease ; they tell us that salvation is attainable by character, and that evolu- tion is the agent to bring about this wonderful reformation. Such thought is a clear contradiction to the thought contained in the New Testament, and he who is an advocate of such thought puts himself in direct opposition to the thought of God Himself. Such criti- cism takes out of the Bible that unseen influence which has touched and trans- formed the character of the world. But, with all this destructive criticism, this malicious intent on the Scriptures, we can say with the eminent Christian scholar, Ewald, as he held the Greek Testament before the students in his 38 VOX SPEI class-room, " This one little book has more in it than all the wisdom of the ages;" and with Johnson, the famous lexicographer, who, in answer to a young man who put to the great schol- ar this question, " What book shall I read?" said, "Young man, the Bible is the best book, read it" Salmasius was the most learned man of the seven- teenth century. He had not only read books, but whole libraries, and in his closing hours the bitter exclamation was this: " Oh, I have lost a world of time! Had I but one year longer, it should be spent in reading David's Psalms and Paul's Epistles/ ' There have been few braver spirits in the world than John Knox, and few great- er, more manly thinkers than John Foster. It is the biographer of the latter who tells us that "during the last two or three days of his life, the Scriptures were, by his own desire, ex- clusively read to him ; ' ' and when Knox was laid on his deathbed, along VOX SPEI 39 with other portions, he made his attend- ants read to him every day the fifty- third chapter of Isaiah and the seven- teenth chapter of John. A young man leaves home for the scene of bat- tle ; his mother gives him a copy of the New Testament, and requests him to carry it with him everywhere. In a most bloody engagement a ball from the ranks of the enemy pierces his coat and lodges in the cover of the Testa- ment, and thus his life is saved. Carry the Bible with you, put it next to your heart, let its truths be as a panoply to you; it will cover you completely, it will save you from the destructive, the dangerous, the death-dealing action of the enemy; the Bible is a sword, a helmet, a shield, — you are a soldier, then go into battle for victory, as God is on your side ! We have seen, then, that these de- structive critics cast a deep gloom over every bright and precious promise of the Scriptures, and cast doubt into 40 VOX SPEI every section that contains important historical and geographical informa- tion. And this these critics do in the light of the truth that Christ endorsed every part of the Scriptures which they so vigorously assail. These crit- ics tell us that Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible, while Christ said, M Did not Moses give you the Law?" And our Lord, in the struggles of the temptation in the wil- derness, quotes from one of the five books in this way: " It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." " It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God/ ' These critics tell us that the wanderings of the Children of Israel in the wilderness is but a picture of the imagination, that it is a pleas- ing tale like many other pieces of legend, while our Lord refers to this VOX SPEI 41 circumstance in language which cannot be misunderstood. In his discourse to the people at Capernaum, He said, 11 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." These critics tell us that the Flood is " im- possible " and even "absurd," they dismiss it as unworthy of any intelli- gent thought ; while the Master, in His address to the people shortly before his trial and crucifixion, made use of these words : ' ' For as in the days that were before the flood they were eat- ing and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." These critics tell us that Jonah and the monster fish is surely a monstrous fancy of the human intellect, that such a man never did live, and that such an event never could have occurred in the waters of 42 VOX SPEI the Mediterranean; while the Lord Jesus, in His reproof to the Pharisees, said the following : ' ' For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nine- veh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; be- cause they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here." Our Lord knew the Old Testament Scriptures ; the sections which the critics discuss and dispute are those sections to which Christ re- fers; those books which the critics would remove from the Old Testament are the very books with which Christ was familiar, as He, in His discourses, referred to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, Micah, Joel, Zechariah, and Malachi. VOX SPEI 43 But these critics adopt other tactics to accomplish their ends. They see that Christ's authority and judgment are against them, and now they say " Christ had His limitations." In the monstrosity of such thought these crit- ics reduce our divine Lord to the level of Plato, Mohammed, Bacon, or Shake- speare. Thus they would remove the central Figure from our religion, and give the Christ a place among the saints of the past; they would remove the Sun of our day and permit the human race to grope its way through the dark, with the hope that one day humanity will find the presence and blessedness of God. All other religions have a central personage. The Greeks told of Soter; the Romans of Hercules, who killed the dragon that watched the apple in the Garden of Hesperides ; the Persians looked to Sosiosh, who was to settle the controversy between Or- muzd the Good and Ahriman the Black, and so bring ultimate happiness to all ; 44 VOX SPEI the Hindoos looked for Vishnu, who was to plant his foot on the serpent's head; and the Egyptians looked for Osiris, who was to go down to hell to subdue the evil one. Shall not we, likewise, look to One who has power that is more than human, and a love that is deeper than that which is found to exist between the mother and her infant babe? Shall we not have One whose wisdom is not disputed, whose character is free from every fault; shall we not have One who stands mid- way between man and God, because He is the Son of Man, and He is also the Son of God? In his Epistles, John describes what he calls the Antichrist. It has great- ly bewildered and perplexed many of the destructive critics to discover its identity. John, however, declares the Antichrist to be any form of philos- ophy, any condition of thought, any system of teaching, which denies the divine personality and authority of the VOX SPEI 45 only-begotten Son of God. We ob- serve this teaching, with its influence, in what is called the Htimanitarianism which is secretly at work in some quar- ters to-day. The arrogation of pro- found regard for Christ, the insistence that all true theology shall be Christo- centric, and the sentimental claims of affection toward Him, are not sufficient evidence of Christianity, as long as there is a wicked and wilful denial of the divineness of the Lord Christ. It is true that a straw shows sometimes the way the wind is blowing. A little over twenty-five years ago, the ration- alistic wing of the Reformed Church of Germany were craftily engaged in controverting the authenticity of the miracles of the Lord Christ and the in- errancy of the Scriptures. To-day the same school, led by Harnack and his pupils, is demanding .the elimina- tion from the Apostles' Creed of every- thing that teaches the divinity of Christ. Ten years ago the Andover 4 6 VOX SPEI theologians, having already disposed of the integrity of the Scriptures, were eloquently discoursing on the ' ' Larger Hope." To-day they send forth their manifesto for a " restatement of the doctrine of Christ.' ' Finally, it is not so very long ago that one of America's brightest, most eloquent pulpit orators said, " I refuse to accept these things upon the authority of any such person as God ! ' ' The Scriptures are impreg- nable, and upon them we will stand ; Christ is the Son of God, He has power to save, and He, yes, He shall be our Friend for evermore ! u Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there. ' ' — Defoe. "The Church has a very important func- tion in regard to those who are without. It has not only to foster and educate its own members, but it has to do God's work in the world." — Hamilton. " Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame, Will never mark the marble with his Name." — Pope. "There are multitudes who go in and out, who count the Church as theirs, who gather from her thought, knowledge, the comfort of good company, the sense of safety. Life would mean nothmg to them outside the Church of Christ."— Brooks. Christ and the Church / Tim. 3 : 15 (part) This text is one of the prisms of the New Testament. We may look at it from different directions, and every look presents a new and beauteous col- or. " The Church " — the significance of this word is best understood when we remember that it suggests a con- trast with the magnificent Temple of Diana, which was built in Ephesus, and which had the distinction of being considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The beauty of the Church did not consist in material splendor, or in the costliness of its adornments, or in the grandeur of its architecture, or in the massiveness of its appearance; it was in the object of its existence, the thought it announced, the Person who dwelt forever within its walls. The royal palace is not 50 VOX SPEI necessarily a building of finer propor- tions, nor encompassed with more beautiful surroundings, filled with more costly treasures — the Sutherland House, in England, is more attractive and palatial than Buckingham Palace ; but the distinction of the royal palace lies in the fact that it is the seat and habitation of the Queen. In the same manner, the beauty and attraction of the Church lie in the fact that it is the abode of the infinite, all-loving, all-powerful God. " The Church of the living God " is a phrase which contains an additional truth, as Paul delighted to contrast the "living God " with the dead gods of heathenism: these had ears, yet they could not hear the cry of distress or the voice of adoration from a hum- ble worshiper; they had hands, yet they could not send them forth on a mission of help to those in distress and difficulty. The apostle also contrasted the " living God M with those dead ab- VOX SPEI 51 stractions of philosophy which, in that day, as at the close of the nineteenth century, would substitute a vague im- personal force for a Father who is in- terested in all His children. If the Church is sure to maintain its royal prestige and exert its tremendous power, it is because the ministry is true to its vocation, because the preachers are fearless in their proc- lamation of truth that is in opposition to every form of wickedness, whether in the domestic, the political, or the religious world. The Christian minis- try has no uncertainty to preach, no mere speculations to unfold, no God to announce who changes in character with the demand of every age. The ministry is not like the god-maker in Pompeii, whose custom it was to make all the parts of the image except the face; this he left till he knew what the purchaser would like, and then he would give him either Minerva, or Juno, or Venus, or the great Jove him- 52 VOX SPEI self. God forbid that such a process should be carried into our pulpits and into our literature; for, if this takes place, the time will surely come to the United States as it did to Athens, when men will erect their altar ' i to the unknown God." May God make every church " the pillar and ground of the truth," on which it securely rests amid the fluctuations of human thought, " the pillar " bearing it aloft that all may see it and recognize its mission of liberty, of light, and of life to the world. The Church is in existence to dis- charge a twofold function, the one internal — working effectively upon itself; the other external — having a tremendous influence upon the world. The native and original function of the Church is one of self-keeping and self- culture, taking care of its own mem- bers, teaching, training, defending, and strengthening them. In this sense, the Church is termed an asylum into VOX SPEI 53 which the sin-weary and guilt-laden retreat and find in its holy service and its congenial society the atmosphere for which their souls crave ; the Church is a nursery where the feeble faith is cherished, until the faith becomes a trust that is unconquerable in its out- look ; the Church is a sanitarium where spiritual diseases are treated, where we diagnose the several ills of human life, and make a serious and successful application of remedies to every one ; the Church is a gymnasium where the spiritual faculties are put into exercise, where they are developed and prepared for the greatest endurance and the most successful efforts for God and humanity. But, on the other hand, the Church has a very important, a very holy function in regard to those who are without its borders, and with- out the possession of its great life. The Church has not only to act for its own members, but it is a representative of the Christ in the world; it has to do, 54 VOX SPEI absolutely, the work of God in the world. The magnitude of this func- tion has not yet been realized by the Church ; the Church has not yet awak- ened to the fulness of its grand mission to the human race. Students of our medical institutions are brought very frequently face to face with the law and life of electricity. A limb of a bird, or some section of a dead frog or chicken, is placed upon the table, and upon the application of electricity the limb is made to move, and that which was dead moves with a new life. There is an energy which has its source in the great life of God Himself; and, when that energy, that life, comes into contact with the dead Church, a new action is seen and a new power is mani- fest everywhere. This is none other than Christ incarnated in the life of the Church to-day. The Church lacks spiritual power, there is a noticeable decline from the early apostolic efficiency and useful- VOX SPEI 55 ness; this is easily apparent in the present relation of the Church to the masses, and the lack of intelligent en- thusiasm in the cause of modern mis- sions. " How may we reach the masses ?" is a question that has been put again and again at the religious conventions during the last twenty-five or fifty years, and it is a question which challenges the sanctity and wisdom of the Church at the close of the nine- teenth century. In the State of Ver- mont, some years ago, — the same is true of that State to-day, — forty towns, which may be considered models in regard to church attendance, were care- fully canvassed. All were counted as attendants who professed to be such, and all children and invalids in church- going families were included as attend- ants; it was found that only 44 per cent, of the population called them- selves church-goers. Fifteen counties were canvassed in the State of Maine, and of the 133,445 families, 67,842 re- 56 VOX SPEI ported themselves as not attending any church. Five representative counties in the State of New York were care- fully canvassed, the percentage of church-goers was the same as in the State of Vermont ; while a careful and intelligent gentleman canvassed two of the large cities of New York on a very pleasant Sunday, and only 23 per cent, of the population were found in church. In an Ohio city, which has church ac- commodations for only one-half of its population, on a beautiful Sundaymorn- ing only 35 per cent, of the sittings were occupied. Our own town has an esti- mated population of about 1,500, with an average attendance at our church services of not 500 people. Yes, the words of America's most eminent and successful evangelist are fitting and very forceful indeed; this is what Moody says : ' ' The gulf between the Church and the masses is growing deeper, wider, and darker every hour. M I know there are noble and consecrated VOX SPEI 57 men and women in the Church, the very material out of which heaven is made, men and women who sincerely believe that Christ died for everyone, who see in every man, however de- graded and besotted in sin and igno- rance, the possibility of a glorious like- ness to the Christ, — men and women who are actively and intelligently en- gaged that this possible likeness may speedily become an actuality. But a large portion of the Church is absolute- ly inactive in seeking to reach the masses, on account either of their self- ishness or wilful indifference and idle- ness. This is not the spirit of the Lord Christ, and they who have not His spirit are none of His. The token of fellowship with the Son of Man, the evidence of relationship with God, is not in a church-membership, in attend- ance at the Sunday services, in sanc- tified talking and loud praying; no, he only is a child of the living God who is interested in the lost, and who puts 58 VOX SPEI forth every energy to bring men and women into the joy of a nobler, a bet- ter, a greater life, a life which is the gift of God. A glance at the modern missionary movement in its relation to the Church will further reveal the decline of the Church from the original apostolic spirit, so efficient and so successful. The amount which we spend for home work, for the evangelization of our own people, is $100,000,000 every year, and the amount which we spend on those who are unfortunate enough to be re- moved from us is the small sum of $5,200,000 annually. In the United States there is one Christian worker to every fifty persons, while in the for- eign field there is but one Christian worker to every twenty-four thousand of the population. It is related of the Duke of Wellington that, when a cer- tain chaplain asked him whether he thought it worth while to preach the gospel to the Hindoos, the man of VOX SPEI 59 discipline replied with the question, 1 ' What are your marching orders ? ' ' The chaplain replied, " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." " Then follow your orders," said the. duke; "your only duty is to obey. ' ' England is indebted to St. Augustine for her liberty, her integrity, and her learning, and St. Augustine was the first missionary to England. America is indebted to the Pilgrims for our unbending integrity, our honor, and all the good that we possess to-day, and the Pilgrims were missionaries to these shores. The law is good now; we have received and we must give ; Christ has spoken to this nation, and it is our " marching or- ders," it is our " duty," to carry that same message to the people beyond, the people everywhere. The Church is in existence to touch every condition and transform the con- duct of the world. The gospel of Christ was intended to govern every 60 VOX SPEI human relation, and capable of solving the problems that grow out of every- one. Here, then, is the momentous question that confronts us : " Will the Church enlarge her conceptions and activities to the wide measure of her mission and apply the principles of the gospel to every department of human life?" This is the great opportunity of the Church, and by it she will gain a commanding influence over millions and fashion the unfolding civilization of the future. The Church, then, is to be inspired with a new and uncon- querable courage — a courage that springs from a full assurance of final and complete victory. The Christian- ity of Christ is to conquer every peo- ple, to sweeten every relationship, to sanctify every activity for the nobler living of the world, so that the ' ' New Jerusalem " will come down from God out of heaven and will be seen in the homes and hearts of the people every- where. This is an indisputable truth ; VOX SPEI 61 and an assured truth, so great, with a hope so glorious, can never know dis- couragement. You have heard of the soldiers who, drawn up in long col- umns, awaited the assault of the ene- my ; some few were brave, but a large number of them were ready to retreat, when the voice of the commander rang out on the air: " Be brave, my men; we are sure to win the battle ! ' ' And to the brave the victory did come. There are many in the army of the Lord who hesitate and falter, who think that the work is too tremendous and that it cannot be done; while there are those who withhold their offerings to missions, and cry " Retrenchment, let us give up our posts and call some brave soldiers home." The voice of Christ is clear, and the message calls every one to duty: "Go, teach, I am with you unto the end; " and the end is a complete victory. At the siege of Cadiz by the French, in 1 8 12, men and women were killed in 62 VOX SPEI the streets, at the windows, in the re- cesses of their homes. When a shell was thrown by the enemy, a single toll of the great city bell was the signal for the inhabitants to be on their guard. One day a solemn toll was heard in signal of a shell. That very shell went into the bell and broke it into atoms. The monk whose duty it was to sound it went up bravely and calmly and tolled the other bell, so that the people might be warned and their safety as- sured. The office of the Church is to toll the bell, to warn the people; and whatever may be the danger from the ranks of the enemy, it is the duty of the Church to ring, to warn, to keep! The steamer Forfarshire was on a voy- age from Hull to Dundee. She was in bad condition; the boilers were defective and the fires were put out. When she reached St. Abb's Head the storm drove her on Hawkers Rocks, and the cry of distress came from the passengers through the mists of the VOX SPEI 63 morning. That cry was heard by Grace Darling, the boat was lowered, and she immediately set out on her mis- sion of rescue. We sing, " Rescue the perishing/' It is time for the Church to act, we must get into the boat, we must save the people ! "Let this, then, be clearly understood, that whether we look at life from the side of culture, or from that of religion, in either case we must be guided by the ideal light, which is, indeed, the only real powerful guidance." —Shairp. " If you have not a conscience, Butler cannot give you one; and if you have a conscience, Paley cannot take from you." — Maurice. "Forming our notions of the constitution and government of the world upon reasoning, without foundation for the principles which we assume, whether from the attributes of God or anything else ; is building a world upon hypoth- esis, like Des Cartes." — Butler. " The inheritance of reason and impulse and the conflict that ensues between them may serve, and is evidently meant to serve, in the evolution of moral Character." — Gordon. 1 ' Thought can never be compared with ac- tion, but when it awakens in us the image of truth." — Madame de Sta'eL Christ and the World's Thought Psalm Q4: ii (part) This is the age of extreme intellectual activity, the most active in the history of human thought. This is the age of intellectual freedom and every man is thinking for himself. This is the age that is carrying into practical opera- tion the system of the famous Descartes. " The most stupendous thought,' ' says the celebrated Ban- croft, " that ever was conceived by man, such as had never been dared by Socrates or the Academy, by Aristotle or the Stoics, took possession of Des- cartes in his meditations on a Novem- ber night by the banks of the Danube. His mind separated itself from every- thing besides, and in the consciousness of its own freedom stood over against tradition, all received opinion, all 68 VOX SPEI knowledge, all existence, except itself, thus asserting the principle of Individ- uality as the key-note of all coming philosophy and political institutions. Nothing was to be received as truth by man which did not convince his reason. A new world was opened up in which every man was thenceforth to be his own philosopher/' This, then, is the system that has a frequent and enthusiastic advocacy from our institutions of learning, the chairs of thought ; this is the burden of the best literature that proceeds from our press ; while it is the object of the teachers in the common and district schools. We seem to hear in the voice of the oldest and most competent instructor down to the young and inexperienced teacher who has just taken his certificate, — we seem to hear them every one say: ' ' Think, and think earnestly for your- self ; let no man, let no Synod, let no ecclesiastical council, let no political machine do your thinking for you, ' ' VOX SPEI 69 This is certainly the age of Protest- antism in religion, and the age of Republicanism in the political history of the world. This is the spirit that had its illustration in the apostles Peter and John who, when forbidden by the Jewish court to preach the gospel in the porch of Solomon's Temple, made this courageous and memorable reply: " Whether it be right," said they, " to harken unto you more than unto God, judge ye; for we cannot but declare the truth/' This same spirit had its illustration, further, on a certain day in December, when Luther marched out of the gate of Wittenberg followed by a company of independent thinkers, the Descartes of the sixteenth century, and burned the Pope's Bull. Then followed the cruel and unceasing per- secutions from the part of the Church and State to prevent the people from thinking for themselves on the great subjects of politics and religion. But there is intellectual freedom to-day; 70 VOX SPEI and, apart from the political intimida- tion and ecclesiastical threat, the intel- lect of man is in full enjoyment of the privileges that God first gave to the human race. Yes, the nineteenth century is a century of light, and a brilliant light in the intellectual sphere. About a hundred years ago the homes of the people were illuminated with those primitive lamps which the Scotch call " crusies," such as are taken from the Roman tombs. It was only in 1783 the flat wick was invented by Leger, of Paris. Then came the illuminating gas. And as late as 1801 the famous novelist, Sir Walter Scott, wrote from London to a friend in the highlands in this way : ' ' There is a fool here who is trying to light the city with smoke. ' ' To-day, electricity lightens the cars that cross our continent, the ships that cross the water, and even the carriages that carry the businessmen to their offices and back to their homes again. And this same law of development has a VOX SPEI 71 more striking example in the world of intellect. This is seen in science. Kepler and Galileo outgrew Coperni- cus, Newton improved on Kepler and Galileo; and, to-day, Laplace and Young and Proctor correct Newton's imperfect theory. The same advance is seen in philosophy as well as in poli- tics and religion. But this intellectual freedom, so won- derfully manifest in this age, has de- generated, in some quarters, into the idea that skepticism is an indication of thought. Blasphemous denunciations, scathing ridicule, travesties and bur- lesques in literature and art, wild rav- ings of communism, thin and vapid theosophies : all are doing their utter- most to overthrow the Christian relig- ion ; the religion of the Christ stands to-day unmarked amid the cannonade from such enemies, while the action of skepticism is working havoc in its own ranks, and soon the last enemy will linger and then pass away. 72 VOX SPEI This decline of the human intellect, this degeneracy of human thought, this skepticism of to-day is clearly shown in that department of science known as philosophy and biology. " By wide inductions of selected facts and the skillful grouping of certain principles supposed to control all activ- ity and all life, science claimed to have reasoned out a universe without a Cre- ator or a Ruler or a Judge." Con- science becomes simply a movement of the brain fibre; intuition is but the garnered experience from the early stages of the history of the world. Every man's destiny is written upon his nerve tissues, and the human soul is but a development of the ages. And they have the blasphemy to tell us that, when we look at our faces in a glass, we see no longer the image of the Creator, but, instead, there are shown in the cornea of the eye and in the rim of the ear slight traces of by- gone types of animal life. And, fight- VOX SPEI 73 ing through the struggles, looking up through the mists for an infinite, lov- ing Father, such thinkers have the audacity, the villainy to tell us that we see only the " death's head " of agnos- ticism in the vacant heavens, and that the only providence is " a stream of tendency not ourselves, which makes for righteousness. ' ' Instead of looking for the eternal kingdom, where we are to rest from this ever-increasing strug- gle, where we are to enjoy the society of the pure and the great, we are told by such thinkers that there is no eter- nal kingdom, and that our only hope of relief is in the cohesive principle in the human family, the solidarity of the human race. Such thought robs the world's poetry of its sweetest song, and literature of its noblest and truest message to the human race. Such thought saps out of humanity that grand spirit that has started and fostered all our hospitals, our institutions of learning, and has 74 VOX SPEI kept alive in the human breast that benevolence which is so pithily ex- pressed by Christ, "Love one another/ ' Such thought takes from man his best Friend, strips him of the consolation there comes from the belief that there is a God who is too wise to err, and too loving to be unkind. Such thought divests man of the garment which has covered him for these hundreds of years, and throws him out naked into a world, a world as cold as the Klon- dyke with no prospect of any gold. And against such thought God is direct- ing His forces. Such thought had its leaders in Bolingbroke and Chester- field, and against them Wesley and Whitefield went into the field and won a marvelous victory ; such thought had its leaders in Renan of France, Darwin of England, and Wallace of America, and against them God has sent into the field a noble army of consecrated men and women ; the war is now wag- ing, reports are full of encourage- VOX SPEI 75 ment, and the victory will come by and by ! There is an atheism that shows itself in the circle of intelligence, and the culture that is antagonistic to God has its leaders in the persons of Mill and Darwin and Huxley. This indirect, this wilful evasion of the acknowledg- ment of a personal and supreme God, is well illustrated in the Lay Sermons by Huxley. He writes: " All who are competent to express an opinion upon the subject are, at present, agreed that the manifold varieties of animal and vegetable form have not either come into existence by chance, nor result from capricious exertions of creative power ; but that they have taken place in a definite order, the statement of which order is what men of science term a natural law." This is an ex- hibition of thought that is the source of profound sorrow to the religious world, while it is a condition of thought that has proved a great danger and a 76 VOX SPEI stubborn detriment to a large portion of the thinking and reading public of to-day. But there is the opposite con- dition of thought, which is equally dangerous; yea, it is more dangerous because it is manifest in an infinitely larger circle of the human race. I now have reference to those people whose intellectual preparation has been very meagre, to those people who read but little and think even less. There is a great multitude of the human family whose thought of God is irreverent and ignorant, while they have no just and sensible conception of the just law of the Almighty. This class of people feeds its intellect on the sensational newspaper, the dime novel, and that class of reading which inflames the animal passions. They refer to God only in the heat of anger, and their reference to Him under such circum- stances is but open blasphemy ; while in this class there are those who refer to the Almighty in their vicious and VOX SPEI 77 vulgar moods, and their reference to Him under such circumstances is but a barbarism as awful as that which is manifest in the densest heathenism of the hour. Such a class of people seem to have gone beyond the influence of the school, the college, the university, and the intelligence of the country seems powerless to reach and touch these people, while the churches seem sadly helpless in the face of this their greatest foe. There is hope for the intelligent opponent to Christianity, there are many evidences of change among the men and women whose in- telligence draws forth the admiration of the world; but those who live in such absolute indifference, if they are not reached and interested and saved, are sinking, with their children, deeper and deeper into the miasma of intel- lectual filth and moral decay. Christ's method of reforming such thought is the safest, and His thought is being universally understood and 78 VOX SPEI accepted to-day. The greatest moral philosophers the world ever knew, Soc- rates, Plato, and Aristotle, taught in Athens. The echo of their teaching reached the city of Rome, and thence spread through all the civilized world. Their teaching certainly had a value, but only among the few thinkers of the day ; the salt of society had not yet been discovered, society was in a state of putrefaction, and there was no diag- nosis for the corruption of the hour. Then the Christ set forth a remedy, and that remedy was Himself ; so that the thought that has been above every form of thought is Christianity, and Christianity is Christ, — not a law, not a theory, not a code of morals, not a system of casuistry, not even an elab- orate theology. The thought that is mighty in its influence, the thought that is creative of the noblest char- acter, the thought that is the origin of life itself, is in the person of the Son of Man and the Son of God : — VOX SPEI 79 " There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to gleam, There's a midnight darkness changing into day; Men of thought and men of action, clear the way!" " I hear the sound of conflict yon- der/' said blind John of Bohemia at the battle of Crecy. He was old and blind and wounded unto death. His French troops were wavering and fall- ing back ; he called to them : U I hear the sound of glorious conflict yonder ! You are my vassals ; gather about me close, and lead me on so far that I may swing my sword just once more ! " He who believes in God, in the Christ, and in the logic of events, must already hear the sound of conflict and see the tokens of a future and final conflict and conquest. The thought of the Christ is already chiselled into the master- pieces of art, it is already written into the sweetest lines of poetry, it is already sung in the most enchanting 80 VOX SPEI music of to-day. We hear the tread of a mighty though silent company that proceeds from the hill of Calvary ; they are touching every land, and peo- ple everywhere are acknowledging the truth of their position, and are falling into line. We hear the bells of heaven and the bells of earth which welcome the Christ to the hearts of men : — " Ring out the old, ring in the new; Ring out the false, ring in the true; Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace ! Ring in the valiant men and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be ! ' ' " And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much afflic- tion, with joy of the Holy Ghost.' ' — Paul. Literature that Lasts THE IMITATION OF CHRIST — Thomas a Kemftis Reading is certainly more universally enjoyed to-day than in any preceding age of the world's history. This is partly on account of the great advance in common-school education, and the advantages which are within the reach of nearly all to enjoy the benefits of the college and the university ; this is also partly on account of the reason- ableness and even cheapness with which literature can come into the hands of all alike. But we must de- plore the tendency of to-day, that so many even intelligent people permit themselves to read a class of literature that is merely secondly, or even thirdly rated by the most competent and trusted reading persons of this age. There is a growing tendency on the part of the reading public to read a class of fiction 8 4 VOX SPEI that cannot possibly live many years, to the utter exclusion of the great mas- terpieces in the world's literature. To these, Richard de Bury, the Bishop of Durham, refers in the words: " These are the masters who instruct us with- out rods or ferules, without hard words and anger, without clothes or money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating you interro- gate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they cannot laugh at you." It is to that classic and historic literature, which contains our greatest instructors, our most commanding leaders, and our most trusted friends; it is to those books which linger like a sweet perfume in the history of the world's lasting literature, that Southey refers in the lines : — " My days among the dead are pass'd, Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; VOX SPEI 85 My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day. ' ' Yes, it is one of the deplorable tend- encies of to-day that so many people will read a class of fiction whose tend- ency is moral, but whose object is only to interest and entertain ; it is a dark spot on the intelligent manhood and womanhood of our country that they will read such literature and neg- lect entirely the class of reading which has been the mental food of the world's greatest people. Sir John Herschel tells a story that illustrates the apparent recklessness with which people will permit themselves to be carried off with a fiction, the food in which, if the intelligent Christian world had to subsist upon it, they would quickly be reduced to mere moral, intellectual, and spiritual pig- mies. In a village the blacksmith got hold of Richardson's novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. He gathered some of the villagers together, and as he sat 86 VOX SPEI on the anvil he read to them night after night the story. At length, when the happy turn of fortune arrived which brought the hero and heroine together and put them in happy living terms together for a long time, the villagers were so delighted that they jumped to their feet and raised a shout, and pro- curing the church keys, they actually set the parish bells ringing. This is Herschel's story, which too sadly finds a reality among the reading public in the United States. I therefore plead for a more intelligent and sympathetic interest in a more permanent, a more praiseworthy, a more powerful class of literature. Among the books in this class, to which I shall draw your atten- tion, the first is The Imitation of Christ. This book was written over four hundred years ago, in the dark, cold and unchristian age of the fifteenth century; the age when Huss and Sav- onarola were burned at the stake, and Wycliffe was silenced in death. It VOX SPEI 87 was written amid the lax and unmanly living of that age, against which it directed a strong and a most deadly blow. Religion was a form which con- tained no force, and even the leaders themselves had lost the power of great leadership. This book, The Imitation of Christ, was written to correct an error of that day, it was written to sup- ply a great deficiency at that time; this book was intended to introduce to the notice of that generation the high- est Man after whom the people could pattern, and a Leader in whose hands they could safely trust the movements and motives of their destiny. And so classic and commanding and Christian is its tone, that for more than four hun- dred years it has supplied incentives to the noblest lives in the world's biog- raphy, it has had the widest circulation of any book in the history of the world, excepting only the Bible itself. This is a book which ought to be read to- day, the message which it contains is 88 VOX SPEI one that we need at the close of the nineteenth century — Christ the ex- ample of the best thinking, the truest living, and the noblest manhood for the world. The Imitation of Christ is a book that delineates the conduct and the charac- ter of the Son of Man, and at the same time the Son of God. This book brings to the notice of mankind the command- ing characteristics of the greatest life this world has ever known, and intelligently and urgently asks our unceasing imitation of them. The characteristics which this book asks us to imitate are very many ; the first we shall notice is : i. Sincerity, or the joy of a good conscience. Here Thomas h Kempis goes to the cardinal conditions of the noblest and most effective character in the life of mankind. A good con- science is the best and most reliable companion that it is possible for us to enjoy; and he who lives in obedience VOX SPEI 89 to such an authority, his sincerity will be a blessing to himself and a benedic- tion to the world. This is what Thomas a Kempis says in his book : ' ' The ' re- joicing ' of a good man is ' the testi- mony of a good conscience/ A pure conscience is the ground of perpetual exultation; it will support us under the severest trial, and enable us to re- joice in the depths of adversity; but an evil conscience, in every state of life, is full of disquietude and fear." That life is not always the noblest life upon which men heap their high and flattering and even commendable praises. The condition of our individ- ual sincerity does not depend upon our relationship to our fellow-men; indi- vidual sincerity is an internal condition and conduct, it is loyalty to the " mas- ter that is within me." It has been truthfully said, " Loss of sincerity is loss of vital power.' ' Who are the conspicuous and commanding figures in science, or letters, or poetry, or 9 o VOX SPEI statesmanship, or the leaders of the past history of the world? They are not the scientific, the learned, the poet- ical, or the statesmanlike; but in every case they have been the sincere men. Notice, further, what Thomas h Kempis writes in his admirable book : " He only can have great tranquility whose happiness depends not on the praise or the dispraise of men. If thy conscience was pure, thou wouldst be contented in every condition and un- disturbed by the opinions and reports of men concerning thee ; for their com- mendations can add nothing to thy holiness, nor their censures take any- thing from it : what thou art, thou art ; nor can the praise of the whole world make thee greater in the sight of God. Yes, the salvation of character is its sincerity, and when sincerity controls the executive departments of our civic and national life, a brighter light will break over our hills and a new life will be found in our streets. VOX SPEI 91 " Let us, then, be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions of friendship. " Cicero was one of the sincere men of the ancient days. Some time after his assassination, Caesar found one of his grandsons with a book of Cicero in his hands. The boy tried to hide it; but Caesar took it from him, and looking over it he returned it to the boy, say- ing: " My dear child, this was an elo- quent man and a lover of his coun- try.' ' Yes, the most eloquent and the most patriotic are the sincere of the land. 2. The next message which The Im- itation of Christ bears to mankind is the knowledge of and devotion to Truth. The Bible is a truthful book, it is the medium of the truth to the intellect of the world. And an open antago- nism to the Bible is, almost in every case, a lack of the knowledge of its important information. There is cer- 92 VOX SPEI tainly a very important sentiment in these lines: — " O Truth is easy, and the light shines clear In hearts kept open, honest and sincere.' ' This is what we read in The Imitation of Christ : ' ' Blessed is the man whom eternal truth teacheth, not by obscure figures and transient sounds, but by direct and full communication! The perceptions of our senses are narrow and dull, and our reasoning on those perceptions frequently mislead us. . . . What have redeemed souls to do with the distinctions and subtleties of logical divinity? He whom the eternal Word condescendeth to teach is disengaged at once from the labyrinth of human opinions. For 'of one word are all things ; ' and all things without voice or language speak of Him alone ; He is that divine principle which speak- eth in our hearts, and without which there can be neither just apprehension nor rectitude of judgment." VOX SPEI 93 It is readily conceded that those who have a knowledge of the truth, — not a pretention of the truth, but the truth embodied in reality in their lives, — that such will be truthful in them- selves. The mind of man is his great- est endowment, and it is his intellect- ual ability that distinguishes him from the lower brute creation. It is surely vain and vitiating to read any other books than the best, the purest, the most informing ; and it is a detriment to crowd any other thoughts into the intellect than the greatest and most lasting. The truth which I recom- mend for your reception is the truth which is to be found in science, in philosophy, in poetry, and in the Bible itself. Listen to what Thomas h Kempis writes in his book: " In the Scrip- tures, and all other books, it is im- provement in holiness, not pleasure in the subtlety of thought or the accuracy of expression that must be principally 94 VOX SPEI regarded. . . . Whatever book thou readest, suffer not thy mind to be influenced by the character of the writ- er, whether his literary accomplish- ments be great or small. Let the only motive to read be the love of the truth ; and instead of inquiring who it is that writes, give all thy attention to the nature of what is written." I must now pass on to my third ob- servation. 3. The third message which The Imitation of Christ announces to man- kind is faith in and the friendship of the Lord Christ. Faith is one of the simple actions of a Christian life ; but through this action there comes to the believer the aid of the unseen and the wealth of the riches of the other world : and fact is the foundation and force of an enlightened Christian faith. It is this faith makes possible and precious the friendship of the Lord Christ. To detail all the benefits that come through such a friendship would exhaust all VOX SPEI 95 language, and more than a hundred times multiply the number of books in the world. I must ask you again to listen to the language of Thomas h, Kempis : ' ' The love of the creature is deceitful and unstable; the love of Jesus is faithful and permanent. He that adheres to any creature must fail when the creature fails; but he that adheres to Jesus will be established with Him forever. Cherish His love who, though the heavens and the earth should be dissolved, will not forsake thee nor suffer thee to perish." And Thomas h Kempis, in his mas- terly, in his marvelously simple way, thus speaks of the friendship of the Lord Jesus : ' ' It requires skill to con- verse with Jesus, and wisdom to know how to keep Him ; but not the skill of men, nor the wisdom of this world. Be humble and peaceful, and Jesus will come to thee ; be devout and meek, and he will dwell with thee. Without a friend, life is unenjoyed ; and unless 96 VOX SPEI Jesus be thy Friend, infinitely loved and preferred above all others, life will be to thee a desolation/ ' A worthy friend adds to our happi- ness, a pure and noble friend creates a greatness in our lives. Some seem to make a man a friend because he is a neighbor, because he is in the same business, or because he happens to travel on the same street-car or rail- way. A friend ought to be selected as the consequence of deliberate thought ; you ought to know the ability, the worth, the greatness of the one you select. Then turn your attention to the Christ, see if He is not worthy of your friendship, think of Him, and see if He is not worthy to be your best and most constant friend. " What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear." ' ' Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." — Paul. Literature that Lasts pilgrim's progress —John Bunyan A book is the product of the mind, and the mind of man is almost in- variably colored by the events that take place during the period of the development of that mind. The au- thor of Pilgrim's Progress, John Bun- yan, was born in the year 1628, and the seventeenth century, in England, was a period of tremendous struggle against a corrupt rule and a still more corrupt religion. The corrupt religion had its leader in such an ecclesiastical despot as Archbishop Laud, " the man who represented and embodied in his small person and unexpansive mind all those distorted views and stifling prin- ciples which the English nation has grown out of, and is almost ashamed to remember; the sworn foe of polit- ioo VOX SPEI ical and religious liberty, the cham- pion of a close and cruel intolerance, the fussy inquisitor, the ubiquitous spy, the man who lost the patriot in the priest, th.2 Christian in the eccle- siastic, the man in the machinery, the idolater of form and uniform, slave of etiquette and master of postures, who substituted gewgaws for grace, can- dles for conscience, rubrics for right- eousness, and dead works for a living God." The corrupt rule had its ad- vocates in the unscrupulous person of the Earl of Stradford, and in the wasteful and wicked movements of such kings as James the First and Charles the First. It was James the First who, in the year 1610, squan- dered $8,400 extra in wines, $120,000 in plate and jewels, appropriated to his own personal wealth the amount of $500,000; he gave away presents that equaled $250,000 more, while the queen spent over $70,000 in personal adornment. VOX SPEI 101 The age in which the Pilgrim s Prog- ress was written was the age of the struggle and ascendency of Protestant- ism, and this great army had its lead- ers in such a fearless and forceful soldier as Oliver Cromwell; such a commanding and conspicuous genius as John Milton, the greatest of our epic poets ; such a striking and straight- forward statesman as John Hampden ; and such a painstaking and practical preacher as John Bunyan. The Puri- tans believed that man was great not by virtue of his humanity, but by virtue of his kinship with God. He was nothing unless he was a temple of the divine. It was the fatherhood of God that ennobled him. It was faith and spiritual receptivity that made him strong. It was moral qualities that gave him all his worth. The Puritans knew nothing of the modern rant which claims for all men a nat- ural equality, which professes a sort of sublime indifference to moral dis- 102 VOX SPEI tinctions, which demands for the in- dolent and thriftless the rewards of the sober and the dutiful. This com- mon talk about human equality is mere bubble blowing. Starting from a religious foundation, there is some ground for it; see it in the light of God, and it may bear some examina- tion; acknowledge that we are the children of God, and alike dear to Him, and it may be brought about, — but apart from that it is a theory that explodes in laughter. No contrivances can make men equal. We may pro- claim equality by a thousand acts of legislature, we cannot render it a fact or induce the world to believe it. It is love to God that forms the founda- tion of equality among men 5 and where this principle is absent there is strife and division, superiority and inferiority; where this principle of love is absent mankind is divided into masters and slaves. It was amid such thought as this VOX SPEI 103 that the Pilgrim ' s Progress had its birth, while the personal, experimental con- ditions of his own life gave the book its lasting charm. Bunyan had the element of sensibility much keener than any of his fellow-men, while his imagination was so vivid that at times his internal struggles were very se- vere. He felt that he had sold Christ, that God had turned him off, and that he had a demon actually in his life. Sometimes a loud voice would cry to him from heaven warning him of his danger, while at other times he would feel that fiends were near and strongly induced him to extreme wickedness. His imagination was the marvel of his day, l i he sometimes saw visions of distant mountain tops, on which the sun shone brightly, but from which he was separated by a waste of snow/' He sometimes felt that the devil was behind him pulling his clothes. One day he shook like a man in the palsy. On another day he would feel a fire 104 VOX SPEI within him. Then at last light broke into his darkness, and from the depths of despair he passed into the delight- ful assurance of God's favor and joy. When Napoleon, at the age of twenty- six, became the commander of the army of Italy, he found the soldiers dissatisfied and disorganized. " Sol- diers/ ' he said, " you are badly fed, naked, and miserable among barren rocks. I will lead you down into the richest plains of the world. Great cities full of wealth, whole provinces will fall into your power ; in them you will acquire all you want — fame, treasure, repose. Soldiers of the army of Italy, with this prospect will your hearts fail? No; surely not. For- ward !" With this Napoleon led his men on to victory. When John Bun- yan became a Christian, he found Eng- land dishonored and filled with dis- may. He said: " You have a state- religion that has no life, and the spirit among the Protestants is not always VOX SPEI 105 commendable. You are depending upon the gross and material condi- tions of your own making ; it is God's grace that will accomplish, and faith in Him will do it all." And with the open Bible Bunyan led England and the world into a nobler and much greater life. John Bunyan, during the early years of his youth, may have been consid- ered a member of the Established Church of England, later he became a dissenter, and finally he united with a Baptist church. For becoming a dissenter he was put into prison for twelve years, during which weary time he had for his companions The Book of Martyrs, and the Bible. It was while in prison that he wrote the immortal Pilgrim's Progress, The Pilgrim s Prog- ress, next to the Bible, is the most wonderful book in the world, it is the admiration of the critics, while it is the unfailing joy of the common peo- ple. Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose stud- 106 VOX SPEI ies were all unsystematic and discon- nected, and who hated, as he said, to read books through, made a noble exception in favor of the Pilgrim's Prog- ress. The Pilgrim s Progress was one of the two or three works which Dr. Johnson felt ought to be much longer. In the rural district the Pilgrim s Prog- ress is the ever-increasing pleasure of the peasants ; in the shops and facto- ries and warehouses where are congre- gated the masses, the common people, the Pilgrim s Progress has the longest claim upon their reading hours, the story the book has to tell being cap- tivating in the extreme; in the cen- ters of learning, in the halls of science and philosophy and fine arts, the Pil- grim s Progress is the wonder, the wealth, the wisdom of the great. This is the third book I ask you to read, which for magnificence, for pathos, for pure, refined English, for truth that is clear and forceful like the Scriptures, " for every purpose of the VOX SPEI 107 poet, the orator, and the divine," stands high above every other. The Pilgrim s Progress has been the con- stant companion of all the greatest people in the last two hundred years, and the thought the book presents has been the food of the greatest intel- lects of the world; read, then, the Pil- grim s Progress. There are many important features, all of which ought to have an equal prominence, in the Pilgrim s Progress. The first thought that seems to pre- sent itself is that this life is distinc- tively a march ; the second thought is that this march is attended by deci- sive conflicts ; and the third thought is that this march leads to a celestial city. 1. The first thought, then, is that this life is a march. The Pilgrim s Progress represents man in the act of starting on a journey, leaving the 11 City of Destruction " for an eventful and successful march. The path of this march is represented as straight io8 VOX SPEI ahead, and so graphic is the picture that the pathway is as familiar to us as the road is along which we walk from day to day. This, therefore, pronounces the book the highest mir- acle of human genius. The natural- ness with which the march is depicted makes us easily familiar with every ascent and declivity, every resting- place and turn-stile along the road. How picturesque, how vivid; there is nothing more sublime in all the English language than the opening part of Bunyan's great book; he writes: "As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a certain place where there was a den [that is, the Bedford prison] and I laid me down in that place to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man, a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from his own home with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back." VOX SPEI 109 Here is certainly room for the advo- cacy of a great truth. Life in every department is a march, but there are only some who attempt the journey, while there are some who have started in the journey but have made little progress indeed. The acquirement of knowledge is a march, it is the march of the human intellect. Knowledge diverts and disciplines mankind. Knowledge fills mankind with varied and rational ideas, and prevents them from falling into despondency and hopeless despair. Knowledge gives to mankind determinate thoughts instead of eccentric fancies, pliable opinions for fixed convictions ; replaces impetu- ous images by calm reasonings, sud- den resolves by carefully-weighed de- cisions. Knowledge furnishes us with the wisdom and ideas of others, the best and most influential in the world's history; knowledge gives us con- science and self-command. This is a march on which we ought to enter, no VOX SPEI and in which bend every energy we have. The development of character is a march, it is the march of the human soul. " Character/ ' says Emerson, i l is higher than intellect. ... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think. ' ' The highest thing in life is character, and character is the most valuable commodity in the market to-day. Character is human nature in its best form ; it is the moral and the spiritual embodied in the in- dividual. Character is the conscience of society, while it is the motive power of every well-governed State. Even in war, Napoleon said, the moral is to the physical as ten to one. Canning very wisely wrote in 1801: " My road must be through character to power , I will try no other course ; I am sanguine enough to believe that this course, though perhaps not the quickest, is the surest." There is a great truth in what Lord John Russell VOX SPEI in once said : ' ' It is the nature, ' ' said Rus- sell, ' ' of party in England not to ask the assistance of men of genius, but to fol- low the guidance of men of character/' Yes, life is a march, and whither are we tending? In this march let the Lord Christ be our Companion, and let the name of the city to which we journey be " Knowledge and Charac- ter;" let us arise, and let the march be onward and upward with great speed. 2. The second thought which the Pilgrim s Progress contains is that this march is attended by decisive conflicts. In the Pilgrim s Progress the man who starts on his journey or his march is represented as struggling in the great Slough of Despond, and despondency is one of the subtle enemies of the hu- man race; further on in this march the man is represented as meeting Apollyon, who is right across the path- way to stop his journey; a struggle ensues, and the pilgrim overcomes the ii2 VOX SPEI enemy; while still further on in the march the man enters ' i Vanity Fair, ' ' and it is the frivolous, the fast, the fleeting in this life that form a gigan- tic enemy which must be fought and overcome. During the progress of this march, moreover, the traveler meets several persons, with nearly all of whom he has a conflict ; he meets Mr. Worldly Wiseman, and a little later on in the march Mr. Hypocrisy, and then Lord Hategood, and Mr. Talka- tive, and Mrs. Timorous, and many more. Thus the Pilgrims Progress brings us face to face with a fact that confronts every life to-day; yes, every life has its conflicts, conflicts which bring vic- tory to some, while others meet with defeat. I think it is Greasy who mentions in his Fifteen Decisive Battles that in 1815, during the famous Battle of Waterloo, a company was stationed at a very important post, and com- manded to hold it till they were re- VOX SPEI 113 lieved. The French rolled like moun- tains in every direction; the company- sent to the Duke of Wellington for assistance, and he told them to " stand firm," and they had the assurance of his help behind them. In a battle of wider dimensions, the command comes to us, " Stand fast, immovable/ ' and we have the assurance of the great Captain behind us in the conflict, and with Christ in the conflict there is victory every time ; with Christ in the conflict we defy all our enemies, even the enemy of death. 3. The third thought contained in this remarkable book is that this march leads to a " Celestial City." At last the man on his march arrives at the gate to the celestial city. The angels who conducted him to the gate tell the keeper that he came out of great tribulation for the love he had to the King ; the pilgrim presents his certifi- cate, the certificate is presented to the King, the King orders the door to be ii4 VOX SPEI opened, and as he enters one says to him : ' ' Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: enter you into the joy of your Lord/' The thought that is struggling for a solution, the questions that are put for an intelligent reply, are these: " Is heaven a reality ?" " Where is its lo- cation ?" "What is the character of its occupants, and what is its occupa- tion ?" Yes, there is a celestial city, there is a heaven. The language of Christ is clear on this important sub- ject: " In my Father's house are many mansions/ ' " I go to prepare a place for you." " And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." The con- science of the human race claims the truth of this great truth. If there is no heaven, then human life is a colos- sal enigma, and the Christian religion is a huge mistake ; if there is no heav- en then the martyrs have suffered in VOX SPEI 115 vain, and the good have received no reward for their heroic deeds. I do not know where heaven is, I cannot tell what is the occupation there ; but I do know that Christ is alive, that He is with the Father, and that heaven is where the Father and the Son dwell for evermore. " Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father's house are many mansions. Because I live ye shall live also." These are the words of Him who was dead and is alive for evermore. Heaven is open for us all, shall we enter in? " Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Prove all things \ hold fast that which is good." — Paul, Literature that Lasts THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION — Dr. Joseph Butler This is one of the important books of English literature, and in a certain department it is the most important book in the thought and theology of the Christian Church. The author, Joseph Butler, was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, England, on the 18th of May, 1692. Thus his life was born into circumstances which surrounded such praiseworthy and powerful schol- ars as Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Hare, and Dr. Doddridge; Joseph Addison, Matthew Tyndal, Lord Bolingbroke, and many more equally prominent. In early life the thoughts of young Butler were turned to philosophy and theology, and while still quite young, he entered into a controversy with Dr. Samuel Clarke, in which the English 120 VOX SPEI people were permitted to see the greatness of a mind that was to be devoted to the interests of Christianity. And if Savonarola was a God-raised man, brought to the stage of action that Italy might be cleaned of its indi- vidual and national corruption; if Luther was a God-raised man, intended by the Creator to be a leader in the overthrow of formality and oppression and lifelessness found in the Romish Church ; then Joseph Butler was a man raised of God to go into battle against the skepticism which had its advocates in such writers as Lord Herbert and David Hume ; Joseph Butler was raised of God to go into battle against, and completely overthrow, the subtle deism of Matthew Tyndal and Lord Boling- broke. The Analogy of Religion was published in 1736, and is one of the great pro- ductions of English theology, while the book itself is one of the master- pieces of English literature. Dr. VOX SPEI 121 Joseph Butler devoted seven of the ripest years of his mental and spiritual life in the preparation of this book, and these have been the seven years of labor that have told more profoundly on the thought and life of Christianity than any other seven years of any other writer in the history of letters and religion. This is certainly the sentiment of the greatest writers, while this is the place given to this book by the scholarship of the world since its production. Sir James Mackintosh, in his Progress of Ethical Philosophy, writes after this manner, speaking of the Analogy, " The most original and profound work extant in any language on the philosophy of religion." Lord Brougham, in a discourse on Natural Theology, says, speaking again of the Analogy, " The most argumentative and philosophical defense of Chris- tianity ever submitted to the world." While Thomas Chalmers, in his preface to the Bridgewater Treatise, makes this 122 VOX SPEI ■ — - • remarkable acknowledgment, " I have derived greater aid from the views and reasonings of Bishop Butler than I have been able to find besides in the whole of our extant authorship." And this is the second book, whose worth and wisdom have been tested by the greatest minds, that has been produced during the last one hundred and fifty years; this is the book that has had the highest place given it in the philoso- phy of the Christian religion ; this is the second book which I recommend to your attention, and for which I ear- nestly ask your immediate and best thought: read The Analogy of Religion , by Dr. Joseph Butler! Though this book was written more than one hundred and fifty years ago, yet the circumstances of to-day are very similar to those of the time of Butler, and the book, therefore, bears a message to the people living at the close of the nineteenth century. When the Analogy appeared, there was VOX SPEI 123 scarcely any vital Christian life in the Established Church of England, and Dr. Doddridge is the authority for the statement that the Dissenters, or the Protestants, were in a state of spiritual decay. Amid the lifelessness that seemed to prevail among all sections of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it had come ' ' to be taken for granted, ' ' says Butler, ' ' by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry ; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And ac- cordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all the people of discernment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule." And, referring to the cir- cumstances of that time, another able and trusted writer says, " I have lived to see that fatal crisis when religion hath lost its hold on the minds of the people." While Macaulay refers to the period in which Butler wrote his i2 4 VOX SPEI famous book as irreverent, loose in morals, and very lax in other respects. These circumstances were aggravated by stich writers as Woolston, Tyndal, and Collins, who > were three bitter opponents to vital Christianity. Wool- ston directed his force against the miracles of the Scriptures; Tyndal pointed his sword against the validity, or divine sanction of the Bible ; while Collins gave his attention in trying to prove that prophecy was nothing else but a huge pretension. Such were the conditions that surrounded Butler, and such are the conditions at the close of the nineteenth century. There are men and women in this day who are led captive by a skepticism that played havoc in England during the last century ; there are some who hold up the religion of the Christ as a subject for mirth and ridicule ; there are those who say that miracles are only move- ments in natural law, and that the Bible has no other claim upon the mind VOX SPEI 125 of mankind than that which any good book has, and that there is no such thing as prophecy, as there is no God, and no man can foretell the future to his brothers. The Analogy is the book that saved the English people of the last century from the mental and spir- itual death to which they were hasten- ing, and this is the book that deserves and demands our attention to-day, for, what it did a hundred and fifty years ago, it will do even now ! The book we have under considera- tion is avowedly important in the pro- found thought that it presents, — it is a book that has claimed the attention of the greatest intellects during the last one hundred and fifty years. It will be absolutely impossible for me, in this single attempt, to bring before you the wealth of the thought which this great work contains. But permit me to point out some of the truths that this book seeks to establish. 1 . The first truth which the A nalogy 126 VOX SPEI makes clear is the Personality of God. This was the truth that needed a loud and loyal advocate in the eighteenth century, and it needs just such an ad- vocate to-day. Butler establishes, in a most masterly way, the personality of God, both from the standpoint of natural and revealed religion ; he calls nature to his assistance, and makes her speak eloquently in the interest of his teaching, in the establishment of his thought. To use the words of the Analogy: "As the manifold appear- ances of design and final causes, in the constitution of the world, prove it to be the work of an intelligent Mind, so the particular final causes of pleasure and pain, distributed among his creat- ures, prove that they are under his government/ ' Butler, in the Analogy \ does not point us to the mere prin- ciple of gravitation, he does not ask us to bestow our affection on a fixed star, he does not entreat us to lay up treas- ures in the clouds, he does not com- VOX SPEI 127 mand us to look away into the mist of infinite space, and as a man in the dark grope that he might touch something or some one; Butler, in the Analogy, makes absolutely clear the individu- ality, the personality of the Creator of the universe. This position, so firmly established by Butler, has often been proved with accumulated evidence, from the argu- ment of analogy and final causes, from abstract reasonings, from the most an- cient tradition and testimony, and from the general consent of mankind. To love mere space, to put our confidence in the atmosphere, is but the evidence of barbarism ; to cherish the acquaint- ance of an abstract being, to ask the aid of an impersonal God, is but a Platon- ism at the close of the nineteenth cent- ury; and to rest our destiny in the lap of eventful and atmospheric cir- cumstances is but a wearied mysticism. We care not what pantheists and mys- tics and transcendentalists may pretend 128 VOX SPEI to the contrary, and whatever a theol- ogy tinctured by those human notions may daily teach, if we adore a God it must be the God spoken of in the Analogy. Yes, man is so constituted that he cannot place his entire confi- dence ina <( First Cause ' ' of the phi- losopher, a " Divine Essence" of the school-men, or in the far off " Abstrac- tion " of the mystic; the mind and the heart of man, the logic and the affec- tion of the world, sweep aside these superficial distinctions ; the mind and the affection of the world throw them- selves around the personality of God, — about the God, the outlines of whose individuality we see in the Analogy. Yes, the Analogy is a book for to-day, and it is a book that ought to have a place in every home, and whose thought ought to have a place in the mind of all alike. Read The Analogy of Religion, it is one of the greatest books in the reading world to-day. 2. The second truth which the VOX SPEI 113 lieved. The French rolled like moun- tains in every direction; the company sent to the Duke of Wellington for assistance, and he told them to " stand firm, ,, and they had the assurance of his help behind them. In a battle of wider dimensions, the command comes to us, " Stand fast, immovable/ ' and we have the assurance of the great Captain behind us in the conflict, and with Christ in the conflict there is victory every time ; with Christ in the conflict we defy all our enemies, even the enemy of death. 3. The third thought contained in this remarkable book is that this march leads to a " Celestial City." At last the man on his march arrives at the gate to the celestial city. The angels who conducted him to the gate tell the keeper that he came out of great tribulation for the love he had to the King ; the pilgrim presents his certifi- cate, the certificate is presented to the King, the King orders the door to be • ii4 VOX SPEI opened, and as lie enters one says to him : ' i Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: enter you into the joy of your Lord." The thought that is struggling for a solution, the questions that are put for an intelligent reply, are these: " Is heaven a reality ?" " Where is its lo- cation ?" "What is the character of its occupants, and what is its occupa- tion ?" Yes, there is a celestial city, there is a heaven. The language of Christ is clear on this important sub- ject : "In my Father's house are many mansions/ ' " I go to prepare a place for you." " And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." The con- science of the human race claims the truth of this great truth. If there is no heaven, then human life is a colos- sal enigma, and the Christian religion is a huge mistake ; if there is no heav- en then the martyrs have suffered in VOX SPEI 115 vain, and the good have received no reward for their heroic deeds. I do not know where heaven is, I cannot tell what is the occupation there ; but I do know that Christ is alive, that He is with the Father, and that heaven is where the Father and the Son dwell for evermore. " Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father's house are many mansions. Because I live ye shall live also." These are the words of Him who was dead and is alive for evermore. Heaven is open for us all, shall we enter in? 1 " Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." — Pane. Literature that Lasts THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION — Dr. Joseph Butler This is one of the important books of English literature, and in a certain department it is the most important book in the thought and theology of the Christian Church. The author, Joseph Butler, was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, England, on the 18th of May, 1692. Thus his life was born into circumstances which surrounded such praiseworthy and powerful schol- ars as Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Hare, and Dr. Doddridge; Joseph Addison, Matthew Tyndal, Lord Bolingbroke, and many more equally prominent. In early life the thoughts of young Butler were turned to philosophy and theology, and while still quite young, he entered into a controversy with Dr. Samuel Clarke, in which the English 120 VOX SPEI people were permitted to see the greatness of a mind that was to be devoted to the interests of Christianity. And if Savonarola was a God-raised man, brought to the stage of action that Italy might be cleaned of its indi- vidual and national corruption; if Luther was a God-raised man, intended by the Creator to be a leader in the overthrow of formality and oppression and lifelessness found in the Romish Church ; then Joseph Butler was a man raised of God to go into battle against the skepticism which had its advocates in such writers as Lord Herbert and David Hume ; Joseph Butler was raised of God to go into battle against, and completely overthrow, the subtle deism of Matthew Tyndal and Lord Boling- broke. The Analogy of Religion was published in 1736, and is one of the great pro- ductions of English theology, while the book itself is one of the master- pieces of English literature. Dr. VOX SPEI 121 Joseph Butler devoted seven of the ripest years of his mental and spiritual life in the preparation of this book, and these have been the seven years of labor that have told more profoundly on the thought and life of Christianity than any other seven years of any other writer in the history of letters and religion. This is certainly the sentiment of the greatest writers, while this is the place given to this book by the scholarship of the world since its production. Sir James Mackintosh, in his Progress of Ethical Philosophy ', writes after this manner, speaking of the Analogy, " The most original and profound work extant in any language on the philosophy of religion." Lord Brougham, in a discourse on Natural Theology, says, speaking again of the Analogy, " The most argumentative and philosophical defense of Chris- tianity ever submitted to the world." While Thomas Chalmers, in his preface to the Bridgewater Treatise, makes this 122 VOX SPEI remarkable acknowledgment, " I have derived greater aid from the views and reasonings of Bishop Butler than I have been able to find besides in the whole of our extant authorship. ' ' And this is the second book, whose worth and wisdom have been tested by the greatest minds, that has been produced during the last one hundred and fifty years; this is the book that has had the highest place given it in the philoso- phy of the Christian religion ; this is the second book which I recommend to your attention, and for which I ear- nestly ask your immediate and best thought: read The Analogy of Religion, by Dr. Joseph Butler! Though this book was written more than one hundred and fifty years ago, yet the circumstances of to-day are very similar to those of the time of Butler, and the book, therefore, bears a message to the people living at the close of the nineteenth century. When the Analogy appeared, there was VOX SPEI 123 scarcely any vital Christian life in the Established Church of England, and Dr. Doddridge is the authority for the statement that the Dissenters, or the Protestants, were in a state of spiritual decay. Amid the lifelessness that seemed to prevail among all sections of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it had come ' ' to be taken for granted, ' ' says Butler, "by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry ; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And ac- cordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all the people of discernment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule." And, referring to the cir- cumstances of that time, another able and trusted writer says, " I have lived to see that fatal crisis when religion hath lost its hold on the minds of the people/ ' While Macaulay refers to the period in which Butler wrote his i2 4 VOX SPEI famous book as irreverent, loose in morals, and very lax in other respects. These circumstances were aggravated by such writers as Woolston, Tyndal, and Collins, who were three bitter opponents to vital Christianity. Wool- ston directed his force against the miracles of the Scriptures; Tyndal pointed his sword against the validity, or divine sanction of the Bible ; while Collins gave his attention in trying to prove that prophecy was nothing else but a huge pretension. Such were the conditions that surrounded Butler, and such are the conditions at the close of the nineteenth century. There are men and women in this day who are led captive by a skepticism that played havoc in England during the last century ; there are some who hold up the religion of the Christ as a subject for mirth and ridicule ; there are those who say that miracles are only move- ments in natural law, and that the Bible has no other claim upon the mind VOX SPEI 125 of mankind than that which any good book has, and that there is no such thing as prophecy, as there is no God, and no man can foretell the future to his brothers. The Analogy is the book that saved the English people of the last century from the mental and spir- itual death to which they were hasten- ing, and this is the book that deserves and demands our attention to-day, for, what it did a hundred and fifty years ago, it will do even now ! The book we have under considera- tion is avowedly important in the pro- found thought that it presents, — it is a book that has claimed the attention of the greatest intellects during the last one hundred and fifty years. It will be absolutely impossible for me, in this single attempt, to bring before you the wealth of the thought which this great work contains. But permit me to point out some of the truths that this book seeks to establish. 1 . The first truth which the A nalogy 126 VOX SPEI makes clear is the Personality of God. This was the truth that needed a loud and loyal advocate in the eighteenth century, and it needs just such an ad- vocate to-day. Butler establishes, in a most masterly way, the personality of God, both from the standpoint of natural and revealed religion ; he calls nature to his assistance, and makes her speak eloquently in the interest of his teaching, in the establishment of his thought. To use the words of the Analogy: "As the manifold appear- ances of design and final causes, in the constitution of the world, prove it to be the work of an intelligent Mind, so the particular final causes of pleasure and pain, distributed among his creat- ures, prove that they are under his government/ ' Butler, in the Analogy y does not point us to the mere prin- ciple of gravitation, he does not ask us to bestow our affection on a fixed star, he does not entreat us to lay up treas- ures in the clouds, he does not com- VOX SPEI 127 mand us to look away into the mist of infinite space, and as a man in the dark grope that he might touch something or some one; Butler, in the Analogy, makes absolutely clear the individu- ality, the personality of the Creator of the universe. This position, so firmly established by Butler, has often been proved with accumulated evidence, from the argu- ment of analogy and final causes, from abstract reasonings, from the most an- cient tradition and testimony, and from the general consent of mankind. To love mere space, to put our confidence in the atmosphere, is but the evidence of barbarism ; to cherish the acquaint- ance of an abstract being, to ask the aid of an impersonal God, is but a Platon- ism at the close of the nineteenth cent- ury; and to rest our destiny in the lap of eventful and atmospheric cir- cumstances is but a wearied mysticism. We care not what pantheists and mys- tics and transcendentalists may pretend 128 VOX SPEI to the contrary, and whatever a theol- ogy tinctured by those human notions may daily teach, if we adore a God it must be the God spoken of in the Analogy, Yes, man is so constituted that he cannot place his entire confi- dence ina u First Cause ' ' of the phi- losopher, a " Divine Essence" of the school-men, or in the far off "Abstrac- tion " of the mystic; the mind and the heart of man, the logic and the affec- tion of the world, sweep aside these superficial distinctions ; the mind and the affection of the world throw them- selves around the personality of God, — about the God, the outlines of whose individuality we see in the Analogy. Yes, the Analogy is a book for to-day, and it is a book that ought to have a place in every home, and whose thought ought to have a place in the mind of all alike. Read The Analogy of Religion, it is one of the greatest books in the reading world to-day. 2. The second truth which the VOX SPEI 145 expression, shall appear? It was Sir Thomas Browne who was fond of say- ing : ■ ■ Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us. ' ' And the life of John Keble was but the reflection of a greater life within him, — " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." " Then spake the king: t Your sentence is not mine. Life is the gift of God, and is divine. ' " The Christian Year is certainly a two- fold legacy to the Christian Church; it is a compendium of devotional litera- ture, and it is a brief summary of evangelical theology. Such a devo- tional spirit as is manifest in The Chris- tian Year is not a mere acquirement, it is a sublime gift. The devotion of which John Keble was an example, and which rendered his poetical work a great teacher, was not a mere dreamy, inactive meditation ; it was a devout spirit finding its highest joy in 146 VOX SPEI doing good. Listen to what Keble says, in his Second Sunday in Advent : — " Think not of rest; though dreams be sweet, Start up, and ply your heavenward feet. Is not God's oath upon your head, Ne'er to slink back on slothful bed, Never again your loins untie, Nor let your torches waste and die, Till, when the shadows thickest fall, Ye hear your Master's midnight call.' And this devotional nature is the evidence of a pure love, a love that is solicitous of the world's greatest good, and is concerned about " joy " dwell- ing in the heart of man. In the Fourth Sunday in Lent we have these sweet lines: — " But there's a sweeter flower than e'er Blush 'd on the rosy spray — A brighter star, a richer bloom Than e'er did western heaven illume At close of summer day. " 'Tis Love, the last best gift of Heaven; Love gentle, holy, pure; VOX SPEI 147 But tenderer than a dove's soft eye, The searching sun, the open sky, She never could endure.' ' This devotional spirit is further mani- fest in an absolute trust, an unfaltering belief in the verities of the soul* s re- lation to its Lord. In St. Thomas Day, Keble has these striking lines : — " Both wonder, one believes — but while They muse on all at home, No thought can tender Love beguile From Jesus' grave to roam. Weeping she stays till He appear — Her witness first the Church must hear — All joy to souls that can rejoice With her at earliest call of His dear gracious voice. ' 7 Though this book of poems was writ- ten in the days of the so-called ' ' Ox- ford Tract Movement/' and by one who was numbered among the origi- nal four who started this movement, yet it is absolutely free from the re- ligious mist, the mental rationalism contained in so many of the Tracts 148 VOX SPEI issued at that time ; The Christian Year is the exponent of the purest evan- gelical theology. This has its illustra- tion in Keble's reference to the Person of the Christ : — " But where Thou dwellest, Lord, No other thought should be. Once duly welcomed and adored, How should I part with Thee ? Bethlehem must lose Thee soon, but Thou wilt grace The single heart to be Thy sure abiding-place." Also Christ's relation to God, as pos- sessing power to save men from their sins : — " Thus in her lonely hour Thy Church is fain to cry, As if Thy love and power Were vanish' d from her sky; Yet God is there, and at His side He triumphs, who for sinners died." And further in Christ's ability to bring us eventually to heaven with Him- self: — VOX SPEI 149 " Then on th' incarnate Saviour's breast, The fount of sweetness, they shall rest, Their spirits every hour imbued More deeply with His precious blood. But peace — still voice and closed eye Suit best with hearts beyond the sky, Hearts training in their low abode, Daily to lose themselves in hope to find their God." Butler taught that " probability is the guide of life," the danger of which teaching is to destroy the certainty possible to the true Christian believer. But The Christian Year is the opposite of such teaching, it gives the firmness of assent to every Biblical truth and Christian doctrine ; John Keble seems to say: " Faith makes us intellectu- ally certain, while love to the Lord Christ will settle every difficulty in the mental and moral sphere." Lis- ten to Keble* s own words on St. Mat- thew : — " But Love's flower that will not die For lack of leafy screen, i5o VOX SPEI And Christian hope can cheer the eye That ne'er saw vernal green; Then be ye sure that Love can bless Even in this crowded loneliness, Where ever-moving myriads seem to say, Go — thou art not to us, nor we to thee — away ! " m i9 w* r